Electronic Reading File

Electronic Reading File
By Jennifer Goble

reading

Caldecott Medal Winners

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Traditional	Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti	Gerald McDermott/ 1963	K-2	Make a bulletin board with a spider-web background. Have students illustrate something that they are talented in and attach them to the web.	Anansi’s sons, whom are good at different things, rescue Anansi from trouble. The Anansi god makes light as a result of a quarrel as to which son gets to moon as a prize for saving their father.
	Traditional	Swamp Angel	Anne Isaacs/Paul O. Zelinsky/1994	1-4	Make a chart putting the events of the story in chronological order.	Angelica Longrider (Swamp Angel) is born huge and sets out to capture a huge bear that is tormenting Tennessee. She captures the bear and feasts on him with her fellow Tennesseans.
	Fantasy	Sylvester and the Magic Pebble	William Steig/1969	K-3	Go out and find rocks to decorate and make into "magic pebbles."	Sylvester finds a magic pebble that grants him wishes, but in fear he accidentally wishes himself to be a rock. He is stuck as a rock for a while and one day while looking for him, his parents accidentally find the rock that is Sylvester and wish him back to normal.
	Traditional	Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears	Verna Aardema/Leo and Diane Dillon/1975	Pre-K - 2	Make a chain of events. Give students a card with a picture on it and have them put themselves in order based upon how it happened in the story.	A chain of events, started by a mosquito spreads throughout the jungle startling animals. The animals blame each other for the uproar and in the end we discover why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears.
	Fantasy	One Fine Day	Nonny Hogrogian/1971	K-2	Have students draw a picture of something that they think that they would do whatever it takes to get back.	A fox loses his tail after stealing a woman’s milk. Throughout the book, the fox is bargaining with people trying to get his tail back.
	Fantasy	Where The Wild Things Are	Maurice Sendak/1963	K-4	Create a "wild thing" by collaging different items from the classroom.	When Max gets sent to his room without supper, his room becomes a magical forest where the wild things are. He lives with the wild things, but realizes that he misses his Mom and he goes back home to find his hot supper in his room.
	Fantasy	The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales	Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith/1992	K-3	Have a reader's theater.	The Stinky Cheese Man goes throughout this silly book putting a funny twist on everyday fairy tales.
	Informational	So You Want to Be President?	Judith St. George/David Small	K-2	Have a hot seat event. Put a student that thinks that they want to be president in the hot seat and ask them why and what they would do.	Presidents come in a variety. They are all different. They look different, have different beliefs and personalities. Do you think you have what it takes to be president? You will find out when you read this book.

Newbery Award Winners

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Historical Fiction	The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural	Particia C. McKissask/Brian Pinkney/1992	3-5	Read during Halloween time. The stories are kind of spooky. Have students sit around teacher in a rocker, lower or turn off the lights and let the students hold flashlights or light-up lanterns during reading time.	Ten frightening but historical stories leave you wanting more. It includes such historical events as the Underground Railroad and even includes some ghost stories.
	Realistic Fiction	Hatchet (Chapter Book)	Gary Paulsen	4-5	Fill a bag with random objects. Have enough for each student to have one. After they draw an object from the bag, have them write a way that they would use it to survive in the wilderness.	A 13 year old boy is involved in a plane crash and has to learn to survive with only his hatchet in the Canadian wilderness.
	Historical Fiction	Number the Stars (Chapter Book)	Lois Lowry	4-5	Have students make a collage about what they think the atmosphere was like in Denmark during this time using magazine and newspaper clippings.	A true story is made into fiction describing the troubles of a 10 year old girl trying to rescue her best friend and her family during the time of World War II at the time of the Jews evacuation from Denmark.
	Fantasy	Holes (Chapter Book)	Louis Sachar	3-5	As we read the book as a class, we will make a time line of the events that take place in this book.	Stanley Yelnats ends up at Camp Green Lake when he gets into trouble instead of going to jail...there is no lake at Camp Green Lake. All of the kids there have to dig a hole everyday in the hot sun. Stanley realizes that there is more to their assigned digging than a little character building.
	Realistic Fiction	The View From Saturday (Chapter Book)	E.L. Konigsburg	3-5	Make an abstract painting about your favorite scene from the book.	This book focuses on a group of shy, intelligent 12-year-olds and the tea parties that they have every Saturday morning. See how the sixth grade academic bowl team becomes a real team.

Picture Books Winning Other Awards

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy Georgia Children's Book award winner.	Miss Nelson is Missing	Harry Allard/James Marshall/1977	K-2	Have a drama. Assign students to have particular parts of the characters in the stories.	When Miss Nelson's students begin to take advantage of her, she sets them straight by getting them a new teacher that will not take any slack from them. They learn their lesson!
	Non-Fiction/ Informational Kids are authors award winner.	Color for Thought	Fifth-grade students of Coast Episcopal School in Long Beach, Mississippi/2004	3-5	Read this at the beginning of the year. Pick a topic for our class and write a class book as the school year goes on.	The students of Coast Episcopal School in Long Beach Mississippi put together a fun book that has factual information about colors and where they come from. The book was put together by the students in the class!
	Fantasy Ed Press Winner	The Kissing Hand	Audrey Penn/Ruth E. Harper & Nancy M. Leak/1993	Pre-K-2	Read at the time of Mother's Day. Lead students to make something floral for their mother and tell them to give it to their mom and tell their mom why she is special to them like Chester's mom.	Chester is afraid to go to school for the first time. His mom gives him something special that he can keep with him at all times so that he doesn't feel so scared.
	Traditional Children's Book award winner.	The Rough Face Girl	Rafe Martin/David Shannon	Pre-K-2	Write a poem about what the Rough-Faced girl might have been thinking at different points throughout the story.	The Rough Faced girl has a hard time accepting the fact that she is ugly. She has scars on her face and her two sisters are more beautiful than she is. Her sisters want to marry the invisible being but you have to see him to marry him and they cannot see him. Rough Faced Girl is the one that sees him.
	Realistic Fiction Coretta Scott King Award	The Patchwork Quilt	Valerie Flournoy/Jerry Pinkney	Pre K-2	Have students bring in an old scrap article of clothing and sew them together to make a class quilt.	Tanya and her Grandmother use patches of the family's old clothing to make a beautiful quilt that tells the story of the family.

ABC/Counting/Concept Books

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Counting Book	Fish Eyes: A Book You Can Count On	Lois Ehlert/1990	Pre-K - K	Have students make a mosaic fish out of tissue paper and use them for counting with the class or put up on a bulletin board along with a picture of the student that made that particular fish.	We go on a tour of the bottom of the ocean to meet some strange fish in this simple counting book. Very colorful!
	Alphabet Book	P is for Peach	Carol Crane/Mark Braught/2002	Pre-K-5th	Make an alphabet book as a class that applies to information about the school in which you are working. Include the principal, fun facts about that particular school, etc.	This book contains the alphabet organized in a way to specially describe things about the state of Georgia. It is good for small children, but in the margins there is factual information that is interesting for even older students like fifth graders.
	Alphabet Book	Chicka Chicka Boom Boom	Bill Martin Jr. & John Archambault/Lois Ehlert/1989	Pre K-K	Make our own chicka, chikca, boom, boom tree in the class as a bulletin board. Have the students decorate the letters of the alphabet.	The Uppercase Alphabet climbs up the coconut tree and hang out in the top and they invite the lowercase alphabet to join them. There is just one question: "Will there be enough room?"

Predictable Books

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy	I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie	Alison Jackson/Judith Byron Schachner//1997	Pre K-K	Make a really large "old lady." Make a laminated copy of all of the things that the old lady eats in the story. As she eats that particular thing in the book, have a student come up and add it to the inside of her belly.	The old lady has a hard time knowing when to stop eating at Thanksgiving dinner! She eats EVERYTHING in the house...Read to find out her fate.
	Predictable	Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?	Bill Martin/Eric Carle	Pre K - K	Have a large laminated copy of the characters of the book. Have one to each student and have them put themselves in order based on the order of appearance in the book.	All the animals at the zoo are asked what they hear. Each sound that they hear leads to the next page.

Traditional Literature Books

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Traditional Literature	Johnny Appleseed	Steven Kellogg/1988	K-3	Slice an apple in half and show that it looks like a star inside. If you dip the apple halves into red, green, or yellow paint and stamp it on paper and you have a star stamp from an apple.	Kellogg shows us the story of Johnny Appleseed in his own way. We learn of Johnny’s love for nature and apples and how he spread his apple seeds all about the land.
	Traditional Literature	The Children's Aesop	Stephanie Calmenson/Robert Byrd/1988	Pre K-2	Ask children to bring in their favorite bed-time stories and read them as a class.	This compilation of traditional fables have interesting illustrations and contain the moral at the end of the stories. We can still learn from these old children's favorites.
	Traditional Literature	The Seven Chinese Brothers	Margaret Mahy/Jean and Mou-sein Tseng/1990	K-2	Have each student come up and draw on a collage a talent that they think they have.	Seven Chinese brothers have seven different talents. In the book, someone is trying to kill them and they use their talents to save each other from trouble.
	Traditional Literature	Jack and the Beanstalk	John Howe/1989	K-2	Build a "beanstalk" in our classroom. Have the students write about what they would steal from the giant and attach them up the stalk.	Jack's mother gets upset with him when she ends him to the market to get food to feed them and he spends their last little bit of money on magic beans. The beans turn out to help not hurt the family.
	Traditional Literature	Something for Nothing	Phoebe Gilman/1992	Pre K-2	Give each student a piece of scrap fabric and have them glue it to the top of their paper. Have them use their imagination and write a story about what they think that they would do with the fabric.	Adapted from a Jewish folktale, when Joseph's favorite blue blanket made by his grandpa loses a button, Joseph and his Grandfather find new uses for his blanket.

Fantasy/Science Fiction

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy	Duck for President	Doreen Cronin/Betsy Lewin/2004	K-2	Have the students make a campaign for presidency for other animals. IE: A pig. Make the campaign be based on common things that pigs do.	Duck is fed up with the way that the farm is being run. He tries his best to run for president only to find out that he really isn't ready to take on the duties of a president.
	Fantasy	George Shrinks	William Joyce/1985	Pre-K-1	Have students illustrate what they would do around their house if they shrank and their parents were not home to watch them.	One day while George's Parents are away, he wakes up to find that he has shrunken and he is tiny! He tries to complete the to-do list that his parents left him which becomes comical since he is so small.
	Fantasy	The Jolly Postman or Other People's Letaters	Janet and Allan Ahlberg/1986	K-2	Have students write a letter and address and envelope and send it in the mail to their parents or a family member of choice with an available address.	The jolly postman goes throughout the countryside and delivers letters to fairy-tale characters, such as: The Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Cinderella. The book has letters that you can actually take out and read like real letters!
	Fantasy	A Bad Case of Stripes	David Shannon/1998	Pre K-2	Paint stripes on a blown up digital image of students using the paint program.	Camilla Cream is sent home from school when her skin starts to transform to different prints as the day goes on. Can she be healed?

Realistic Fiction

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Realistic Fiction	A Boy in the Doghouse (Chapter Book)	Betsy Duffey/Leslie Morrill/1991		Have students write about what they think that their pet thinks about them.	George tries to train his new puppy in order for him to fit in with the family. We get to perspective of what is taking place from the eyes of the boy and the dog.
	Realistic Fiction	Moria's Birthday	Robert Munsch/Michael Martchenko/1987	K-3	Fractions. Bring in a real birthday cake and have students help divide it based on how many pieces that everybody wants. Let them eat it at the end	Moria wants to have a fun birthday party, but there is only one problem...She wants to invite Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6, aaaaannnnnnd Kindergarten. When her parents tell her that she can only invite six people, she feels bad for the students that got left out and ends up inviting all of the kids over to her house. They have to search all around town and find enough food to feed the whole school.
	Realistic Fiction	Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods that Make my Day	Jamie Lee Curtis/Laura Cornell/1998	Pre K-1st	Discuss different moods and have students make a mask describing how they feel on that day.	We go on an emotional roller-coaster with a young girl as she takes us through what she feels as she experiences different moods in her life.
	Realistic Fiction	Don't Forget to Write	Martina Selway/1992	Pre K - 2	Write letters to send in the mail to family member.	Rosie leaves her mother to stay with her grandparent's for the summer. She misses her mother and wants to go home and starts to write her a letter. As the letter goes on, Rosie realizes that she really does like staying with her grandparents and becomes unsure of whether or not she wants to go home.

Historical Fiction

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Historical Fiction	Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule	Harriette Gillem Robinet	4-5	Have a Hot Seat Discussion. Put students on the hot seat and see how they would feel during time time if these things were happening to them.	Pascal, 12, a slave on a plantation in South Carolina returns to get his brother, Gideon that ran away during the war. They go to Georgia in search of land. They attempt to become farmers. This takes place during the time of the Freedman's Bureau.
	Historical Fiction	You Wouldn't Want to be an American Pioneer	Jacqueline Morley/David Salariya	K-3	Have centers around the room that represent the different aspects of being an American pioneer.	This book shares some of the hard times that the first American pioneers that traveled across the country to settle in the West.
	Historical Fiction	The Memory Coat	Elvira Woodruff/Michael Dooling	K-3	Have a worn, tattered coat and wear it while I read the story to the students.	Grisha, an immigrant boy has a worn woolen coat that he wears as he migrates to America. He misses his family terribly and his coat is the only thing that helps him to get through the pain.

Poetry Anthologies

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Poetry	Where the Sidewalk Ends	Shel Silverstein/1974	K-5	Write a poem as a class in correspondence to an event or situation that is going on at that particular time.	Shel Silverstein digs deep into our imagination with this compilation of silly poems.
	Poetry	Something Big Has Been Here	Jack Prelutsky/James Stevenson/1990	K-5	Pick a poem in the book. Have a sheet of chart paper on the easel. Have students take 10 seconds each and come up and add to the picture to illustrate a picture that corresponds to a poem.	Jack Prelutsky compiles his funny poems about everyday situations and some fantasy situations.

Multicultural Books

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Multicultural	Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest	Gerald McDermott	Pre-K-2	Discuss different cultures. Build a class totem pole out of washing detergent boxes.	The Raven goes about searching for the light from the Sky Chief. He attempts to give light to his people.
	Multicultural	The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars	Jean Merrill/Floyd Cooper/1992	1-4	Use egg crates, pom-poms, and glitter to make caterpillars. Then use clothespins and tissue paper and pipe-cleaners to make butterflies and show how the worm changes into a butterfly.	Izumi is a young Japanese girl that has the odd hobby of loving caterpillars. Her parents are not happy with her hobby because it is so odd, but in the end they realize that Izumi really is intelligent in her own way.
	Multicultural	The Funny Little Woman	Arlene Mosel/Blair Lent/1972	1-3	Make rice in the classroom and let the students eat it. Can be tied into measurement.	The Funny Little Woman loses her dumpling in a hole and as she chases it down into the whole she is captured by the mighty oni. The oni give her a magic spoon and expect her to cook for the all of the time. One day she escapes and the magic spoon helps her to become rich.
	Multicultural	Coming on Home Soon	Jacqueline Woodson/E.B. Lewis/2004	K-3	Write a letter that you would write to convince your mom to come home to you.	Ada Ruth is anxiously waiting for her mom to return home. Her mom has been working in Chicago during World War II.
	Multicultural	Tar Beach	Faith Ringgold/1996	K-3	Make a quilt from student's illustrations of their favorite things to do.	Cassie, a girl during the depression imagines all of the places that she would love to fly. Places in New York City are at the top of her list of places that she wants to fly over.

Informational/Biography/Autobiography

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Informational	Dinnertime for Animals	Jane R. McCauley/1991	K-5	Make a bird feeder with a pine cone, peanut butter, and bird seed.	This National Geographic book shows many different ways that animals eat. It includes great pictures to show many animals and their eating habits.
	Informational	Towns Down Underground	Gene S. Stuart/James Wilson Harris/1991	K-5	Bring in an ant farm for children to observe. Have them make predictions about how it will look.	This book illustrates the tunnels and homes that animals live in underground. It explains how and why they live there.
	Informational	Appollo 13 (Chapter Book)	Gail Herman/1995	2-3	Have students write a paragraph and illustrate a matching picture of what they would do if they got to travel into space. Have them list what they would take with them, what they would want to leave on the moon if they could, and if they think that they would be scared or not.	This small easy-reading chapter book shows that not only is Apollo 13 a cool movie, it is also a true story. The book explains the story of the race to space and how America is trying to learn more about our universe at NASA.
	Informational	I is for Idea	Marcia Schonberg/Kandy Radzinski/2005	1-5	Have students invent a new robotic student from things such as boxes and cans, etc.	This book is full of fun inventions. It has an ABC book format, but in the margins of each page, there is oodles of factual information about how inventions came to be.