Electronic Reading File by Gina Thomas

Picture of Book

Author/
Illustrator/
Copyright

Recommended Age/Grade
Level

Ideas for Classroom Use

Brief Description of the Book

Electronic Reading File
By Gina Thomas

Caldecott Medal Winners

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy Fiction	My Friend Rabbit	Eric Rohmann /2002	Pre-K and Kindergarten	Let's talk about what other ways that the rabbit may have helped his friend mouse. Can you come up with some other ways that you would have tried to reach the airplane?	My Friend Rabbit is about a rabbit and a mouse being friends. Rabbit tries to help the mouse get his airplane back but only causes more trouble. But Mouse says he is still my friend.
	Fantasy Fiction	Free Fall	David Weisner/ 1988	4th & 5th	Take a trip to the school library. Allow students to pick a place of interest to them. Have the students make a picture book of their choice using their book.	Free Fall is about a little boy who falls asleep reading a book about a land far away. He dreams that he is in this land and interacting with the people who live here. He lives and plays as they do.
	Fantasy Fiction	Officer Buckle and Gloria	Peggy Rathmann /1995	1st -3rd	Write on a piece of paper some safety tips that you have learned and would like to share with the class.	This book is about Officer Buckle and his dog, Gloria. They talk about safety tips at school with the children. All of the sudden the children start paying attention. It is because Gloria is doing tricks behind his back while he is talking.
	Realistic Fiction	Snowflake Bentley	Jacqueline Briggs Martin/ Mary Azarian/1988	4th & 5th	Provide disposable cameras for the students in the class. Allow each child to photograph one thing that interests them and provide current data and research on that topic. Present to the class.	This book is about a boy named Willie who loved to photograph snowflakes. It tells about his success at photography and becoming famous for his research on snowflakes and how he died trying to capture pictures for everyone to see.
	Realistic Fiction	Smoky Night	Eve Bunting/ David Diaz/ 1994	1st-3rd	Have the students add a chapter to the end of the story. Do a sequel type ending. This may be where the two become great friends and their pets become better friends.	Smoky Night is about a mother and child who live in a bad neighborhood. They see stealing and cheating around them. At night their apartment catches fire and they escape. They make friends with a lady who they didn't know or like before because their cats made friends.
	Fantasy Fiction	Tuesday	David Wiesner/ 1991	1st-3rd	Give the students lots of scrap magazines. Let them choose a theme for their own book. Have them cut out pictures that will tell a story using magazine clippings only.	Tuesday is a picture book that tells about how frogs ride on their lilie pads into town to peoples houses. It illustrates how a man sees the frogs and is confused. At a certain time the frogs abandon their pads and head home. Police are confused when they find lots of lily pad lying in the streets of the town. Next come the pigs...
	Realistic Fiction	So you want to be President?	Judith St. George / David Small/2000	4th & 5th	Describe yourself as you would like to be if you were President for one day. Include characteristics of yourself as the book did.	This book talks about the different characteristics of the presidents we have had in the past. Including what they ate, liked and disliked, how they dressed, how they lived. The most important job is to serve the people to the best of their ability.
	Realistic Fiction	Owl Moon	Jane Yolen / John Schoenherr/ 1987	1st - 3rd	Do a research project on owls. Let the students go to the library and find books about owls. Allow them to read and collect ideas and thoughts about them and later have a discussion on owls and types of characteristics about them.	Owl Moon is about a young boy and his father going into the woods after dark to look for owls. It is winter time and the boy is cold. He sees shadows but doesn't make a sound. He says that you have to be quiet. They call for owls and hear some call back and they finally get to see one.

Newbery Award Winners

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy Fiction	Jack and the Bean Stalk	Sindy McKay/ 1997 Lydia Halverson/ 1998	1st & 3rd	Children could make up their own pretend story about something in their own childhood that they were afraid of. As a child, what was your biggest fear and how did you overcome it? Did you feel brave after you had conquered your fears?	A boy named Jack and his mother live alone and are very poor owning only a cow. Jack trades the cow for some magic beans which magically grow a bean stalk into the sky. At the top lives a rich giant who killed his father and took his riches. Jack must climb the beanstalk to reclaim his riches for his mother and himself.

Multicultural

Picture Books with Awards

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy Fiction	A Story - A Story	Gail E Haley / 1970	1st - 3rd	Have a day planned ahead for this lesson. Let students bring anything from home that they think will relate to the subject of "African" or "Indian". The next day read the story aloud and have materials prepared to create costumes as the ones described in the story. Put on a play or skit illustrated by the book.	This book is about African stories and how they came to be. It tells of how "Spider Man" came about. He was an Indian who spun a web to the sky God. The price of a story from the Sky God was to bring him certain things and people who were unattainable by anyone. He did so all the while telling the story of how he captured these things and people. He got the stories that are retold in this book.
	Fantasy Fiction	Rapunzel	Paul O Zelinsky / 1997	1st - 3rd	Have the students rewrite the story with a happier ending. Let the children take all of the bad elements and turn them into good ones. Ex: bad witch is now good witch. Ex: instead of trading a baby for herbs, the family raises the baby and they all eat the herbs and watch baby grow up together.	Rapunzel is about a couple who are expecting a baby. A witch lives next door and owns a garden of rapunzel (herb). The wife wants some and the husband tries to get it when caught by the witch. He is told that he can have some if they give her the baby when it is born. They do so and the baby turns into a princess who the witch locks in a tower. She has long hair used for the entrance to the tower. She meets a prince who climbs up her hair.
	Fantasy Fiction	Arrow to the Sun	Gerald McDermott / 1974	1st - 3rd	Have discussion time to talk about the different people involved in the book. (Arrowman, Corn planter, Potmaker) Give information on these characters and what they do. Provide activity to the class to experiment with manipulatives from each of the characters. Ex: arrows, corn, clay	This book is about a Pablo Indian tale. A tale of a boy being born of a spark of life sent by the sun. He wants to know who his father is. He sets out looking but only the arrowmaker. He turns him into an arrow and shoots him to sun to hunt for his father. To prove that he was the child of the sun, he had to endure several tests. He did and rejoiced to have found his father. He returned to earth as an arrow and spread spirit to the earth.

ABC / Counting / Concept

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Realistic Nonfiction	Subtraction Fun	Betsy Franco/ 2002	Pre-K & K	Make a worksheet of some similar situations and let the students figure out the answers so the subtraction problems. Can use classroom objects for situations.	Subtraction Fun shows the concept of subtraction using real life experiences such as three dogs playing on the beach - one goes home, how many are left? These situations are ones that children can relate to in their environment.
	Fantasy Fiction	The Water Hole	Graeme Base	Pre-K & K	Have the students rearrange the different animals into groups with different numbers in each group. Include some drawings of their first choice animal.	This book makes counting fun and exciting by using a colorful book filled with animals seeking "The Water Hole" to find water. It counts the animals who drink from the water hole and slowly shows the water hole dcreasing in size. Afterwards it is replenished by a nice big rain and the animals all come back.
	Fantasy Fiction	ABC, I Like Me!	Nancy Carlson/ 1997	Pre-K & K	Have the children follow the example of the pig in the book. They can pretend they were an animal and describe themselves using the alphabet. Do you feel better once you have written about yourself and how great you are?	This book uses every alphabet letter to start a word that describes something about a pig and how he feels about himself. The pig feels good about himself because he describes himself using very different words and emphasizing the letters of the alphabet.

Predictable Books

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy Fiction	Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?	Bill Martin Jr/ Eric Carle 1995	Pre-K & K	Take children on a tour of the school and take pictures using a digital camera of all things and different people that they see on the way. Once finished taking pictures, print them off of the computer and put them on constructin paper for the children. Let the children compose a book with each ones pictures asking on one page "Students name, Students name, What do you see?" and include a picture of the student. On the next page they can put their answer and illustrate it with a picture.	Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? is about different animals and colors. This books is a predictable book. It asks each animal what they see looking at them and they say whatever animal is on the next page and the color of the animal. Each page has a question on the left and the answer on the right. At the end of the book the children are asked what they see and they answer the teacher. They review the different animals they saw and the colors of the animals.
	Fantasy Fiction	The Poky Little Puppy	Janette Sebring Lowrey/ Gustaf Tenggren/ 2003	Pre-K & K	Allow the children to tell about a time when their mother had warned them not to do something. Let each child share a story about what is was that they were not suppose to do and what happened to them if they did do it? Have some worksheets available for coloring about puppies.	This book is about five puppies who dig holes under the fence at their house to go outside and wander around. Their mother had warned them not to dig holes and go outside or else they would not get their deserts for supper. They continue to dig holes until one day their mother teaches them a lesson.

Traditional Literature

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy Fiction	Fables	Arnold Lobel / 1980	1st - 3rd	Give each student in the class a chance to create their own fable about an animal or character that fascinates them. Make hand puppets to go with each student's fable.	This book is about many different fables that you can read to children. Each fable has a moral behind each one. For example, the first fable is about a crocodile who stays in his bed all the time because he likes his wallpaper on neat and orderly. He visits his wifes garden and wants to leave quickly because eveything is growing wildly and in no order. She decorates his bedroom in a wallpaper of flowers to lighten up his mood. He stays in bed all the time now. Moral: There is such a thing as too much order!

Realistic Fiction

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Realistic Fiction	A Color Clown Comes to Town	Jane Belk Moncure/ Linda Hohag & Lori Jacobson/ 1988	Pre-K & K	Have the class do a painting using their knowledge on the book. Let them learn to make secondary colors by using primary colors. Let them paint objects that they learned about in the book such as firetrucks and schoolbuses (things that have set colors)	This book is about a girl named Laura who meets the color clown that comes to town. He introduces Laura to new colors and shows her how to mix primary colors to get secondary colors. This book recognizes colors and objects with what color they should be.
	Realistic Fiction	Hurricane	David Wiesner 1990	1st - 3rd	David and George made the best out of a bad situation. If you were given any bad situation, what would it be and how would you make the best of the situation like David and George did? We will then have a group discussion.	David and George are at home with their parents during a hurricane. The next day they find that a tree in their yard is now lying in the neighbor's yard. The boys decide to make the best use of the tree. They play "safari" and jungle, sailing the seas using the tree as a boat to look for pirates, and played spaceship. The next day the tree is cut and moved They are very unhappy. Their parents inform them of a coming storm. David and George hope the other tree in their yard will fall causing it to land in their yard this time.
	Realistic Fiction	"How much is that doggie in the window?"	Iza Trapani/ 1997	Pre-K & K	Let the students make a new book cover for the book using their creative imagination. Select a scene or picture from the book that you want the cover to look like and draw it.	A young boy wants to buy a dog that he has seen in the window of a store only he doesn't have enough money. He tries to earn the money by doing odd chores only something always happens to him. When someone is in need he spends his money to buy for them. He can't buy the dog because he doesn't have money. His parents buy the dog for him because he was always being nice.
	Realistic Fiction	Story Tree	Laurel Hicks/ 1996 / copyrighted at Pensacola Christian College	1st - 3rd	Behind each chapter in this book are questions that may be used for review or some type of activity. Read the stories and use the questions for a discussion group or literary circle. Children could write about what they liked best in the book or what they would do to make the story end the way they would like for it to be.	Story Tree has many different realistic stories in it that all have good lessons to each story. It has short stories, poems, and questions at the end of each story. There are even pages illustrating a word such as duck and breaking the word down into syllables and teaching how to pronounce the letters of the words. Some chapters in the book are Not in the Road, Ruff!, Pets, Pets are Fun, Pig Tale, A Fun Trip, Camp Bobcat, Catsup!, At the Pond, and many others that children will enjoy.

Fantasy/Science Fiction

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy Fiction	Morris Goes to School	Bernard Wiseman/ 1970	Pre-K & K	What would you do to help make Morris feel welcome into your classroom. You know from the reading that Morris didn't have any friends and that he didn't even know about children going to school. What are some things that you could tell Morris about your school and what you have learned since you have been in school that would help Morris learn more.	Morris Goes to School is a great "I can read" book. It's about a moose who has six pennies and wants to buy gumdrops. He goes to the wrong store and the man tells him he is at the wrong store. The store owner takes Morris to the candy store and helps him buy some gumdrops. He notices that Morris cannot count his money. He then takes Morris to the school because Morris doesn't know how to count, how to read, or even what the word school means. Morris learns a lot from his teacher and plays with the children and makes friends. Morris Goes to School deals with learning the ABC's and counting.
	Fantasy Fiction	The Itsy Bitsy Spider	Iza Trapain /1998	Pre-K & K	Provide materials to make a spider web. Black plates and yarn. Let children weave a web into knotches on each side of plate and glue a plastic spider onto the plate to illustrate the book cover.	Itsy Bitsy Spider is a well known book for children singing its song "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." The book is about a spider who tries to climb up several things but falls down in every attempt but continues to try again. In the back of the book the music notes for the song are provided as well as the different parts of the song that may also be used for singing.
	Fantasy Fiction	How Murray Saved Christmas	Mike Reiss / David Catrow / 2000	1st -3rd	Have a class discussion about how Murray saved Christmas. Would you want Murray as your friend? Did you like him in the book? If you were asked to fill in for Santa as Murray was, how would you decide who got what gift and in what order?	Murray saves Christmas when Santa is sick. He delivers the toys to all boys and girls while reciting poems the whole time. He doesn't want to do it at first but when he decides to, he has a great time and really enjoys it. He delivers toys to the good children and the bad children.
	Fantasy Fiction	My Teddy Bear at Work	Irwin Jorvik/ Anthony Fletcher/ 1996	Pre-K & K	Let's imagine that you can be anyone in the world that you want to be. Think of what kind of job that you might have being that person. Think about some things that you can tell us about that might be used on that job.	A teddybear and a clown are reading a newspaper about a firefighter. The teddybear thinks that his job looks exciting and fun. Teddybear thinks it would be a fun job to pretend to be a firefighter. Throughout the book the teddybear changes his mind and pretends to be different people and have different jobs to decide which one he likes the best. In the end, teddybear just decides to be a stay at home teddybear.

Historical Fiction

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Historical Fiction	Come Sing, Jimmy Jo	Katherine Paterson / 1985	4th - 5th	What do you think James was feeling when he had to change his name to Jimmy Jo and become someone who wasn't him? Have you ever felt this way or been afraid of trying something? Write a short story about what fears you had at that time and how you eventually overcame your fears?	Jimmy Jo has a gift. He can sing. His family is a singing group whose manager want Jimmy Jo to join them. He is scared but joins them. He likes to sing for his grandma. His mother is jealous of his gift while his father supports him. He goes through lots of changes in a short time and he is unsure about how he should feel about growing up and his family.
	Historical Fiction	Little House on the Prairie	Laura Ingalls Wilder / Garth Williams 1963/1981	4th - 5th	Have the class try making a crossword puzzle out of new terms that they have learned about life on the prairie. Pick terms that are new and exciting. Be sure that each student makes a key and on the key supplies the term with a brief definition.	A historical fiction book about the adventures of living on a prairie. Laura and her family move onto the prairie and start from nothing. Laura is interested in everything about the wilderness. She is interested in Indians that live on the prairie. Tells about how they started out and life on the prairie.
	Historical Fiction	Freedom Summer	Deborah Wiles/ Jerome Lagarrigue / 2001	4th & 5th	What are some things that we could talk about today that will make everyone feel equal and feel secure that we are all the same? Give some ideas that will allow students to see each other as equal students and have no differences in between?	Freedom Summer is about the days when white and black people were seperate in public. A young white boy is friends with a black boy. Their playing activities are limited. Black people were not allowed in some places. The little boy hears about the pool being public to all people. They make plans for the next day to go swimming. They arrive just in time to see it being filled with hot asphalt and being covered up. In the end, they go eat ice-cream together for the first time inside a restaruant store.

Poetry Anthologies

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book

Informational Books/Biography/Autobiography

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Informational Book	A Day at the Apple Orchard	Megan Faulkner / Adam Krawesky / 2005	1st - 3rd	Take the children on a field trip to a supermarket where apples are sold or take them to an apple orchard. Let them experience where apples come from and where we get them from.	This book is about some children who learn how apples are grown and how they become an apple. They learn how apples are grown and what time of the year they are picked. They learn what type of weather apples need to be fruitful and how they are sold to the market for everyone to buy.
	Informational Book	Across America, I Love You	Christine Loomis / Kate Kiesler / 2000	4th -5th	Have each child research a place that they would like to visit. Take an imaginary trip and talk about features of the place that you visit. Tell about characteristics of the land and some types of weather that may occur.	This book gives descriptions of different places in America. It talks about California's giant sequoias, Alaska's wildlands, the rugged Pacific coast, the deserts of America's Southwest, and many other features of area that covers America.
	Informational Book	Peter Brady / William Munoz	Cows	1st -3rd	Have the class make butter from the recipe in the back of the book. Bring appropriate materials needed to do the activity.	This book is about cows. It tells about different kinds of cows, where they live, what they eat, and how they act. It tells about calves and how they provide milk for us to drink along with other things we get from them. It gives a butter recipe in the back of the book to use as an activity.