Melissa'sReading File

Electronic Reading File
By Malissa Kay

Caldecott Medal Winners

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Caldecott	Snow	Uri Schulevitz	Ages 4-8	Make a snowman out of construction paper.	Snow slowly comes down in a city, but it was not for casted so no one wants to believe it is snowing. Soon they have to though because the whole city is covered in snow.
	Caldecott	Tuesday	David Wiesher	Ages 4-8	Draw a picture of an animal flying. When everyone is done, have each student show their picture to the class and tell why they chose that animal to fly.	Shows pictures of flying frogs on lily pads at night. In the day the frogs are not able to fly. The time is the only thing written on each page.
	Caldecott	In the Small, Small Pond	Denise Fleming	Ages 4-8	Think of a different environment then mentioned in the book (the pond). Draw, color, and label the animals that would live there.	A rhyming book that describes what animals live and do in a pond.
	Caldecott	A Chair for my Mother	Vera B. Williams	Ages 4-8	Have the children practice talking in front of the class by describing a personal hardship that they have gone through. This will help their public speaking in the future.	A single mother's house burns down, and she doesn't have much money so the neighbors help her daughter and her fill their new home. They were missing a comfortable chair though. They saved their coins every day and then in the end they were able to buy the chair they always wanted.
	Caldecott	Where the Wild Things Are	Maurice Sendak	Ages 4-8	Have the children use tableau and tapping in to elaborate on Max's imagination.	Max's imagination went wild and soon his room became a forest with wild animals. Max was the king, but he missed his home so he came back to reality.
	Caldecott	My Friend Rabbit	Eric Rohmann	Ages 4-8	Draw your best friend and write one sentence that describes them.	Rabbit always gets into trouble but Rabbit and Mouse are still best friends no matter what. Rabbit crashes their toy plane and makes a mess out of it.
	Caldecott	When I was Young in the Mountains	Cynthia Rylant/ Diane Goode	Ages 4-8	Paint a picture with watercolors of your favorite place (must be somewhere you have actually been).	About a little girl that lived in the mountains with her family. She was happy there and there was nowhere else she would rather be.
	Caldecott	Inch by Inch	Leo Lionni	Ages 4-8	Find a partner and using your ruler measure in inches what ever they tell you to. Record what you measured and how long it was in inches on a peace of paper.	Inch worm got out of being eaten by other animals by measuring in inches what ever they wanted.

Newbery Award Winners

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Newbery	The Whipping Boy	Sid Fleischman/ Peter Sis	Ages 9-12	Use hot seating. Ask for two volunteers, one to be the Prince Brat and the other be orphan Jemmy. Then have the class ask them questions.	Orphan Jemmy must take the whippings for the royal heir, Prince Brat. Jemmy plans to flee this arrangement until Prince Brat beats him to it, and takes Jemmy along. Jemmy then hears he's charged with the Prince's abduction and their adventures continue.
	Newbery	Joyful Noise	Paul Fleischman/ Eric Beddows	Ages 9-12	Divide the classroom up into groups and give each group an insect that was not mentioned in the book. Have the groups try to create a poem of their own about the insect assigned. Select a group member to share the poem after it is written.	Is a book of poetry about insects.
	Newbery	The Bears On Hemlock Mountain	Alice Dalgliesh/Helen Sewell	Ages 7-10	Write down an animal that you are scared of and draw a picture of it using markers and/or crayons.	Jonathan, a young boy, lived on Hemlock Mountain. When his relatives came over his mother told him to get a big cooking pot from his Aunt's house. On the way there and back he showed his fear of running into bears on Hemlock Mountain.
	Newbery	Like Jake and Me	Mavis Julces/ Lloyd Bloom	Ages 4-8	Ask the children to think about a relative that they have not gotten along with (or could get along better with) and have them draw a picture of how they might get to know that relative better. Have them describe the picture to the class or a small group.	A young boy, Alex, and his stepfather, Jake, are trying to find a wolf spider that got into Jake's cloths. They take all his cloths off and in the end they form a special father son bond from this unusual scenario.
	Newbery	A Visit to William Blake's Inn	Nancy Willard/ Alice and Martin Provensen	Ages 9-12	Students will form groups of 5 or 6 people and they will form a tableau relating to the page in the book assigned by the teacher. They will show it to the whole class and then the other students will have the opportunity to tap into the tableau.	This book is full of poems in an imaginary inn belonging to William Blake, where remarkable guests are attended by an even more remarkable staff.

Picture Books-(that have won other awards)

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Picutre Book- A Marilyn Burns Brainy Day Book Award	The Kings Commissioners	Aileen Friedman/ Susan Guevara	Ages 4-8	Have the students count the number of children in the classroom by 2's, 5's, and 10's just as they did the king's commissioners in the book.	They king was trying to figure out how many commissioners he had. Three people counted: one by 2's, one by 5's, and the other by 10's and they all added the extras. They all got 47 (book demonstrates there are different ways to count).
No Image Available	Picture Book-GA Children's Picture Storybook Award 94-95	Hurricane City	Sarah Weeks/ James Warhola	Ages 4-8	Draw a picture what you think a hurricane would look like and the destruction it would do.	Names hurricanes,the destruction that they did, and other crazy things that happened because of them. (follows alphabet A-Z)
	Picture Book-New York Times Best Illustrated Books Award	When Everybody Wore a Hat	William Steig	Ages 4-8	Create a hat out of an assortment of construction paper and craft materials provided.	Told from a child's perspective, it is an autobiography of Steig's childhood memories. Everything was cheep in those times and everyone wore a hat.
	Picture Book-New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book Award	Granpa	John Burningham	Ages 4-8	Draw a picture of something that you and a family member do together.	Describes a special relationship between a little girl and her grandfather. They share some memorable moments through make-believe adventures.
	Picture Book-Coretta Scott King Award	The Patchwork Quilt	Valerie Flournoy/ Jerry Pinkney	Ages 4-8	Have each child decorate a square of paper, which will be a peace of the class quilt. Punch holes into the sides of the squares and link the squares together with colorful yarn. Display the class quilt in on the wall.	Tanya loves listening to her grandmother talk about the quilt she is making from pieces of colorful fabric from family clothes. When Grandma becomes ill, Tanya decides to finish Grandma's masterpiece with the help of her family.

ABC/Counting/Concept books

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Concept-Colors	Seven Blind Mice	Ed Young	Ages 4-8	Use paper that already has puzzle pieces outlined on it and have the students draw their favorite animal, cut out the pieces, and see if they can put the puzzle back together.	Seven mice (all different colors) see something different by the pond that turns the color of them in the book. Turns out in the end they were only seeing parts of a whole elephant.
	Concept-Counting and Rhyme	Too Many Monkeys!	Jackie French Koller/ Lynn Munsinger	Ages 4-8	Have the students role play the whole story while the teacher reads the book.	One monkey is added every new opening of the book. It is a rhyming book and the monkeys are always out of control!
No Image Available	Concept-ABC's	Tuffy'n Teddy: Learn ABC	Charles Reasoner	Baby-Preschool	Assign a letter of the alphabet to each student and tell them to draw a picture of something that starts with that letter.	Two bears Tuffy and Teddy go through the alphabet and do an example for a word that starts with each letter of the alphabet.

Predictable Books

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Predictable	Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?	Bill Martin Jr./ Eric Carle	Baby-Preschool	Have the students draw a picture of an animal with one color crayon. Then go around the class room and have them say their animal/color (like in the book) and the animal of the student in front of them. Then the student in front of them will take over. It will keep going like this until the whole class has had a chance to go.	Goes from animal to animal asking them what they see (which is another animal and the color of that animal). Finally, last animal sees a mother and the mother sees kids and kids see everyone mentioned in book.
	Predictable	There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly	Pam Adams	Baby-Preschool	Make several copies of a script for the students selected to read. Assign parts that repeat in the story and have them read their part every time it comes up.	A die-cut hole allows readers to see inside the old lady's belly, first the critters already devoured and, with the turn of the page, the new animal that will join the crowd in her ever-expanding stomach. The last thing she swallowed was a horse.

Traditional

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Traditional	Stone Soup	Ann McGovern/ Winslow Pinney Pels	Ages 4-8	Write a sentence or two about how you might think the soup would have tasted in the end of the story.	A young traveling boy tricked an old lady into making him soup from a stone by saying it would taste better if she added things. "Soup from a stone, fancy that!" she would say.
	Traditional	Rumpelstiltskin	Edith H. Tarcov/ Edward Gorey	Ages 4-8	Draw a picture of something that is made out of gold. Once that is done, cover it with glue and sprinkle gold glitter on it.	A little man spun straw into gold for the miller's daughter. She gave him her necklace, ring, and promised her first born when she became queen. The little man said if she guessed his name within three days she could keep her baby and she did. He vanished never to return.
	Traditional	Rapunzel	Paul O. Zelinsky	Ages 4-8	Draw a picture of Rupunzel and glue long strands of yarn to represent her hair.	Rapunzel's reddish-blond mane is thick with waves and braids down the walls of her isolation tower. A prince climbed up her hair to he could see her.
	Traditional	Johnny Appleseed	Reeve Lindbergh/ Kathy Jakobsen Hallquist	Ages 4-8	Use an apple stencil provided by the teacher. Trace, color, and cut out the apple. Staple it on a tree that will be posted on a bulletin board.	Tells the story of one man's crusade to spread apple seeds from Massachusetts to the Midwest.
	Traditional	Jack and the Beanstalk	Carol Ottolenghi	Ages 4-8	After reading this book have the students plant a bean themselves and over the next few weeks have them take note of how it grows.	Jack decides to sell the family cow for a handful of magic beans. They turn into a beanstalk and later he faces giants who live above the clouds.

Fantasy/Science fiction

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Science Fiction	A Bad Case of Stripes	David Shannon	Ages 4-8	Use watercolors to paint something in real life that has stripes on it (not make believe like in the story).	Camilla Cream loves lima beans, but she never eats them. She is worried about what other people would think of her and that causes her to break out into a bad case of the stripes.
	Fantasy	And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon	Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel/Janet Stevens	Ages 4-8	Make a drawing of a dish and spoon, cut them out, and mount them on construction paper.	When Dish and Spoon run away, their nursery rhyme friends Cat, Cow, and Dog set out to rescue them in time for the next evening's reading of their rhyme.
	Fantasy	We're Back!	Hudson Talbott	Ages 4-8	Have some of the students create a tableau of a scene in the story and let the others tap in and ask them questions.	Rex the dinosaur tells his story about how this alien named Vorb feed him Brain Grain (him and other dinosaurs) and taught him school subjects. For their reward they got to visit Dr. Miriam Bleeb in the 20th century museum of Natural History.
No Image Available	Fantasy	The Animal's Christmas	Catharine Gardam/ Garin Rowe	Ages 4-8	Ask the students to draw a picture of something they have lost. Have them write a sentence about how they were feeling when they lost it.	Animals escape the farm on Christmas Eve and the farmer finds them singing with angels on Christmas and everyone else sings with them.

Realistic fiction

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Realistic Fiction	Seven Kisses in a Row	Patricia MacLachlan/ Maria Pia Marrella	Ages 4-8	Ask the children to draw seven kisses (or lips) on a peace of paper and label them 1-7.	Emma's Aunt and Uncle are watching her and they have a bunch of rules that she doesn't like. Emma taught them how to be a little more lenient, they would have to be because soon they would have a child of their own. Emma's parents always gave her seven kisses in a row.
	Realistic Fiction	Amber Brown Goes Fourth	Tony Ross/ Jacqueline Rogers	Ages 9-12	Read this book at the end of the school year and explain to them that moving up a grade in school can be stressful, but it is in the long run more fun because you are constantly learning new things. Answer any questions they may have about the grade that they are moving to.	Amber's best friend, Justin, just moved away and her single mom has a boyfriend whom she doesn't like. She has to find a way to get a new best friend before her whole life falls apart.
	Realistic Fiction	Fame and Glory	Barbara O'Connor	Ages 9-12	Draw and color a picture of you doing something you love (it could be a sport, craft, hobby ...)	All her life, all Bird has ever wanted is to be noticed in her small town Harlem (a friend to be) agrees to be her partner in the spelling bee, and if they study hard enough, the two might just win everything Bird s always wanted.
	Realistic Fiction	The Pain and The Great One	Judy Blume/ Irene Trivas	Ages 4-8	Pick two students to be in the hot seats to be "The Great One" and "The Pain" and let the class ask them questions about why they feel they way they do about one another.	An eight-year-old girl, "The Great One," and her six-year-old brother, "The Pain," state their cases about each other and who is best loved by their parents.

Historical fiction

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Historical Fiction	Pink and Say	Patricia Paloacco	Ages 4-8	Students can form and evaluate class tableau formed from the book.	This is a Civil War story about two soldiers.
	Historical Fiction	Train to Somewhere	Eve Bunting, Ronald Himler	Baby-Preschool	Let the teacher be in the hot seat and say how she thinks Marianne is feeling. Then take turns switching out people in the hot seat.	Marianne, heading west with fourteen other children on an Orphan Train, is sure her mother will show up at one of the stations along the way. No one shows any interest in adopting shy, plain Marianne and her mother never shows up. But that's all right: She has to be free for her mother to claim her.
	Historical Fiction	Bigmama's	Donald Crews	Ages 4-8	Class will form a train by linking arms with each other and they will travel around the room making train noises.	African Americans who take a three day train ride to his mama's house.

Poetry anthologies

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Poetry Anthologies	Leaf by Leaf Autumn Poems	Barbara Rogasky/Marc Tauss	Ages 8-12	Have the students get a few leaves from outside. Take one leaf and put it under a peace of paper. Then, take a crayon and color on the paper where the leaf is underneath. (you should get a leaf print) Keep repeating this until the paper is covered and they will have created a collage of autumn.	Book displays real life pictures and every poem in it is about things that are in autumn.
	Poetry Anthologies	Lives Poems About Famous Americans	Lee Bennett Hopkins/Leslie Staub	Ages 9-12	Refer back to the book on the holidays of those people mentioned in the book.	A book of poems of famous people.

Multicultural

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Multicultural	Abuela's Weave	Omar S. Castaneda/ Enrique O. Sanchez	Ages 4-8	Use bright markers and draw some other things that they might have weaved and taken to the Fiesta de Pueblos.	In Guatemala Esperanza and her grandmother weaved things to be sold at the Fiesta de Pueblos. In the end everyone loved all of their things created with bright colors.
	Multicultural	The Seven Chinese Brothers	Margaret Mahy/Jean and Mou-sien Tseng	Ages 4-8	Which one of their powers would you want and why? Write 3-4 sentences and draw a picture of you with the power.	Seven Chinese brothers all have special powers that get them out of being executed by the Emperor (because they are a threat to him). They switch places when they need another brothers power.
	Multicultural	Too Many Tamales	Gary Soto/ Ed Martinez	Ages 4-8	Create a picture of you and your mom cooking something. Explain what kind of food you are making in the drawing to the class.	Maria was helping her mother make tamales and tried on and lost her mother's ring in the dough. She made all her siblings and cousins eat all the tamales to find the ring, but her mother had already found it before they were cooked. So they just had to make some more tamales!
	Multicultural	Liliana's Grandmothers	Leyla Torres	Ages 4-8	Describe your grandmother(pick one) by writing down characteristics that describe her. Put them in list form.	Leliana talks about her two grandmothers, one lives on her street and the other is Spanish and lives out of the country. She talks about how things are different at each one's house.
	Multicultural	An Amish Christmas	Richard Ammon/ Pamela Patrick	Ages 4-8	Ask, "Would you like an Amish Christmas? Why or why not?" Let 3 or 4 students share with the rest of the class.	Tells about Amish Christmas traditions. The Amish exchange presents in the spirit of the wise men. The chores still have to be done just like any other morning.

Informational/biography/autobiography

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Biography	Joan of Arc: The Lily Maid	Margaret Hodges/ Robert Rayevsky	Ages 4-8	Use red, yellow, and orange tissue paper to create a picture of the fire that Joan was placed in before she died.	Joan d'Arc saw visions of saints and angels they told her to be good and how to save France. She dressed as a male soldier and lead the French into battle and they started to win. They called her a witch. She was captured on May 30, 1431 and burned to death. She is not known now as a witch but a saint.
	Biography	Good Queen Bess: They Story of Elizabeth I of England	Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema/ Diane Stanley	Ages 4-8	Have the students create a crown, so they can pretend to be Queen Elizabeth outside of class.	After many family members deaths Elizabeth was finally made queen. She kept England out of war for 27 years. The Duke of Alencon became her husband (he was not a looker). she did not like blood shed. She lived to a greater age than any English ruler before her. At age 70 March 24, 1603 she died. She did many great things and most importantly loved the people.
	Informational	The Story of the White House	Kate Waters	Ages 4-8	Have the students create a tableau of what people would be doing in the White House and discuss it.	Tells what goes in the White House, who runs it, and the history of it. Gives some famous rooms there and their names.
	Biography	A Voice of Her Own	Kathryn Lasky/ Paul Lee	Ages 9-12	Have the students write a short paragraph about Phillis Wheatley and the achievements she made (that were mentioned in the book).	Not yet eight years old when she was brought to America from Africa in 1761, Wheatley was educated by her mistress, and her first poem was published in a Rhode Island newspaper when she was only fourteen.

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