electronic reading file by Nancy Swords

Picture of Book

Genre

Title

Author/
Illustrator/
Copyright

Recommended Age/Grade
Level

Ideas for Classroom Use

Brief Description of the Book

Picture Book

1989 Kentucky Bluegrass Master List

1991 North Dakota Flickertail Award nominee

Owl Moon

Jane Yolen, Illustrated by John Schoenherr, 1987

Preschool to second grade

Write a short poem about owls. Draw pictures to compliment poems.

A father takes his daughter out on a winter night to find the Great Horned Owl. The moon is full, so they hope to find one. After his daughter has children of her own, the father, now the grandfather, takes the grandchildren out like he did his own daughter to see the owl.

Blueberries for Sal

Picture Book

Fiction

Blueberries for Sal

Robert McCloskey, 1978.

Preschool to second grade.

Talk about how important it is to stay with your parent/adult. Discuss what to do if someone gets lost.

A mother and child go berry picking on Blueberry Hill. A mother bear and her cub go berry eating on Blueberry Hill at the same time. While they are picking berries, their children wander off. When they turn around they find each other's children behind them! Both mothers walked quickly away to find their own child. Everyone is happy when mothers and children find each other.

Cover for the book 'Where the Wild Things Are'

Fantasy

Winner, 1964 Caldecott Medal
Notable Children's Books of 1940–1970 (ALA)
1981 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Illustration
1963, 1982 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
Best Illustrated Children's Books of 1963, 1982 (NYT)
A Reading Rainbow Selection
1964 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
Children's Books of 1981 (Library of Congress)
1981 Children's Books (NY Public Library)
100 Books for Reading and Sharing 1988 (NY Public Library

Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak, 1963

3-6 year olds, up to grades 1-2.

Paint a picture of an imaginary monster.

One night Max dresses up in his wolf suit and does all kinds of things he is not supposed to. His mother calls him a "WILD THING!" and sends him to his bedroom without any supper. Max imagines he is the wildest creature on an island, where they make him the king. When he smells dinner, he returns from his adventure.

Juvenile Fiction

Picture book

Black and White

David Macaulay

Ages 5-8. Grades Kindergarten to 3^rd grade.

Do some art activities using negative and positive images. Start by cutting a shape from a piece of construction paper and then pasting both the shape and the piece it's cut out of on another paper. Go on from this start to create your own work of art.

A robber hides out in a herd of cattle that disrupt the passage of a train. At the train station, passengers are absorbed in the papers they are reading, but as the wait gets longer, they start playing with the papers and with each other. A boy on the train sees some of the events, but not all of them.

Fairy Tale

Many Moons

James Thurber, Illustrated by Louis Slobodkin, 1942

Grade 1^st through 6^th.

Draw a picture of how big students think the moon is and what it looks like.

A sick princess named Lenore wanted the moon, so the king called on several intellectual men to get it for her. However, only the court Jester knew how to get the moon for her.

Fantasy

The Three Pigs

Daniel Wiesner

Ages 6 to 9.

Students should make "Pig Noses" to wear. Cut out sections of a pink egg carton and poke holes on each side to tie elastic string. Use Sharpies to draw on the pig nostrils.

The story begins as the classic 3 Little Pigs, but the wolf blows the pigs right off of the pages. The pigs wander through different illustrations, even on a paper airplane from one of the pages, to eventually return to what looks like their story.

My Friend Rabbit Cover

Picture book

My Friend Rabbit

Eric Rohmann, 2002

Ages 4 to 8

Plan a show and tell with the book, have students bring their favorite toy to share with the class.

Something always goes wrong when Rabbit comes around. Mouse doesn’t care, though, and lets Rabbit play with all of his toys anyway because he thinks Rabbit is such a good friend. Mouse even lets Rabbit play with his favorite toy plane.

The Polar Express

Modern Fantasy

1986 Caldecott Medal Book
New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year
ALA Notable Book for Children
Booklist Editors' Choice
Horn Book Fanfare Selection
Reading Rainbow Review Book

The Polar Express

Chris Van Allsburg, 1985

Preschool – kindergarten, up to 2^nd grade.

Ages 5 to 8

Give each child a bell. Play holiday songs to which they can ring the bells

A boy is told there is no Santa Claus. He takes a magical train ride on Christmas Eve. He arrives at the North Pole and meets Santa to receive the first special present of the season.

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy	Ella Enchanted	Gail Carson Levine, Illustrated by Al Cetta, 1997	Ages 8 & up	Use construction paper and other art supplies (glitter, feathers, etc.) to create masks like the ones worn at the ball.	Ella struggles against a childhood curse placed on her that she must obey any order given to her. She can’t tell anyone of the curse, even the prince she falls in love with. In the end, when the prince discovers something is not right, Ella breaks the spell on her own and marries the prince and lives happily ever after.
	Historical fiction	The Dark Frigate	Charles Hawes, Illustrated by Warren Chappell, 1999	Grade 7-12, ages 13-18.	Students draw and label the different parts of a ship.	Philip Marsham flees London and joins the Rose of Devon, a frigate bound for Newfoundland. When the ship is seized by pirates, Philip is forced to join them on their expeditions.
	Realistic Fiction. 1999 Newbery Medal, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award, and the 1998 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature	Holes	Louis Sachar, 1998	Grades 4^th through 6^th.	Draw pictures of the yellow spotted lizards like the ones Stanley saw in the holes.	Stanley Yelnats is sent to a correctional camp in a Texas desert. Here he finds his first real friend, treasure, and a new sense of self. The curse he finally broke blamed the bad luck on a distant relative.
	Realistic fiction Coretta Scott King Award Winner	Bud, not Buddy	Christopher Paul Curtis,	Grades 4 & up	Make a list of survival items you would need in order to make it on your own traveling from town to town.	Bud, 10 years old and motherless during the Great Depression, escapes a foster home in Flint, Michigan, in search of his father in Grand Rapids. He believes his father is the renowned band leader H.E. Calloway.
	Historical Fiction	The Door in the Wall	Marguerite de Angeli, 1949	Ages 10 to 13. Grades 4^th to 7^th.	Make a drawing of the castle, using paints, construction paper, or any other art materials.	Robin was destined to be knight of a king, but when illness overtakes him, he is left alone. Brother Luke rescues Robin, training him in woodcarving, patience, and strength. When the castle of Lindsay is attacked, it is Robin who must save everyone, finding his own “door in the wall’ and serve his family.

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Picture Book	Brown Bear Brown Bear , What Do You See?	Bill Martin Jr., Illustrated by Eric Carl,1970	Preschool to Kindergarten Ages 3 to 5	Students use construction paper to cut out shapes and glue together a picture of an animal.	This book asks questions about what different animals see. It helps students learn their colors and animals.
	Picture Book	The Lady and the Spider	Faith McNulty, Illustrated by Bob Marstall, 1986	Kindergarten through 2^nd grade	Students use cotton balls, construction paper, and pipe cleaners to make their own spiders.	A spider lived in a head of lettuce. Once the old lady found it, she put it out in the garden to live and grow.
	Picture Book	The Very Hungry Caterpillar	Eric Carle, 1969	Ages 1 to 6	Students can make caterpillars from cotton balls, paint, and pipe cleaners.	This book follows a very hungry caterpillar as he eats his way through a large quantity of food. When he is finally full, he forms a cocoon around himself and goes to sleep. When he awakes, he is a beautiful butterfly.
	Picture Book	The Little Island	Golden MacDonald/Leonard Weisgard 1993	Pre-K-2	Use magazines and cut out pictures of where students might want to visit. Glue the pictures to construction paper to make collages.	The story tells of how the seasons change on this little island. It also discusses how the plants and animals change with the different seasons.
	Picture Book	No Jumping on the Bed	Tedd Arnold/ 1987	Kindergarten to 2^nd grade.	Have students pretend what they could be and jump on a pretend bed.	Walter lives near the top of a tall apartment building. One night his habit of jumping on the bed leads to the bed falling through all of the floors.

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Counting Book	Can You Eat a Fraction?	Elizabeth D. Jaffe, 2002.	Kindergarten to 1^st grade. Ages 5 to 7	Cut foods such as apples and pizza into fractions and have students use the foods to develop fractions.	This book contains simple pictures and words to introduce fractions. It explains how to write fractions and concepts of using fractions.
	Alphabet/concept book	Dr. Seuss’s ABC	Dr. Seuss, 1963	Kindergarten to 3^rd grade. Ages 3 to 7.	Cut of pictures from magazines for each letter of the alphabet. Glue to poster board, labeling the letters.	This book has pages for each letter of the alphabet with pictures to help comprehend the letters.
	Counting Book	Blast Off! A Space Counting Book	Norma Cole, Illustrated by Marshall Peck III, 1994.	Ages 4 to 6.	Have children come up with their own space counting book, making up planets, moons, and rings. Draw and/or paint the pictures.	This book has basic counting from 0-20 and backwards from 10-0. It reinforces multiples of 10.

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Predictable	Katie Couldn't	Becky Bring McDaniel, 1985	Ages 4 to 8	Students can paint a picture of something they are good at.	Katie feels like she is unable to do anything. When father comes home, he scoops her up in his arms and makes her feel much better.
	Predictable Book	Love You Forever	Robert Munsch, Illustrated by Shelia McGaw, 1987	Ages 1 to 4	Have the students draw pictures and color them of things they learned to do when they were younger or just learned how to do.	A story about how much a mother can love a child no matter how much trouble he can cause. This book shows how love carries on from generation to generation.

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Folktale	How Chipmunk Got His Stripes	Joseph and James Bruchac, Illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey, 2001.	Ages 5 to 7. Preschool to 2^nd grade.	Create an animal using pictures from magazines and describe how that animal became the way it is now.	Bear tried to stop the sun from rising, but could not. Chipmunk made fun of him for this. Chipmunk got his stripes when Bear tried to kill him for making fun of him. Indian folktale about not making fun of other people.
	Indian Fable	Seven Blind Mice	Ed Young	Kindergarten to 3^rd grade	Place an object in a paper bag. Have each child feel what is in the bag, but can’t see. Draw what they think the object looks like.	This story is about blind mice discovering the different parts of an elephant. They argue over what each thinks the appearance is.
	Traditional Literature	The Rough Face Girl	Rafe Martin, Illustrated by David Shannon, 1992	Kindergarten to 3^rd grade. Ages 4 to 6.	Students will use construction paper to make teepees. They can paint different designs to decorate their teepee and make an Indian village.	This is about a Indian girl who is burned and her sisters treat her very bad. All the girls wanted to marry the invisible man, but only the person who could see him would get to marry him. Only the rough face girl could see him. She becomes pretty and they live happily ever after.
	Traditional Literature	Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato	Tomie DePaola,1992	Kindergarten to 3^rd grade. Ages 4 to 6.	Students will write a sentence about something they would wish for. They could also draw a picture of their wish.	The lazy farmer catches a young leprechaun, who did not have enough gold to give him. Instead of giving him gold he gives him a magic seed that grows a big potato and he never has to work again.
	Folktale	Always Room for One More	Sarche Leodhas, Illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian, 1972	Ages 7 to 10	Have students make a graphic organizer of how to help others.	The house is too small for the family. Yet, they are continually interrupted by uninvited strangers passing through their town with problems of their own, knocking on their door. Although there is no physical room in the house, the family somehow makes room for the visitor. When the house falls apart from being too small, the guests build a bigger house for them.

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Fantasy	Alice in Wonderland	Lewis Carroll, Illustrated by Gwynedd M. Hudson, 1951.	Middle grades	Have a tea party with the class. Let everyone dress up as their favorite character from the book and act out scenes.	Alice has a fantastic dream of following a rabbit down a hole, growing large and being quite tiny, attending a tea party, and meeting a Queen. She meets the Mad Hatter, a caterpillar, a pigeon, and many other characters. .She has many adventures while trying to find her way back home.
	Science Fiction	Animorphs – The First Journey	K.A. Applegate, 2000	Middle grades	Have students write a short story about what they would change to if the had to fight in the invasion.	Teenage children choose their own way of morphing to fight an alien invasion.
	Science Fiction	Virtually Perfect	Dan Gutman, 1998	Ages 8 to 12	Draw and/or paint a picture of what a person would look like that they created on the computer.	Yip, 12 years old, uses his father’s new computer software to create a program about a boy his own age. The creation breaks out of the computer into the real world and complicates Yip’s life.
	Science Fiction	The Monsters of Morley Manor	Bruce Coville	Middle Grades	Have students finger paint their own monsters.	Anthony and his younger sister find monster figures in a box at an estate sale alive. They keep them, not knowing the adventures they will have with them to other worlds to save the Earth.

Picture of Book

Genre

Title

Author/
Illustrator/
Copyright

Recommended Age/Grade
Level

Ideas for Classroom Use

Brief Description of the Book

Realistic Fiction

Ira Sleeps Over

Bernard Weber, 1972

Kindergarten to 1^st grade

Draw a picture of their favorite animal or toy they may sleep with every night. Use crayons, paints, or pastels.

Ira wants to sleep next door at Reggie’s house. It’s his first sleepover, so Ira is worried if he needs to take his teddy bear along.

Realistic Fiction

Get Out of Bed

Robert Munsch, Illustrated by
Alan and Lea Daniel,
1998

Kindergarten to 2^nd grade

Find pictures of people sleeping in magazines. Cut these out and make a collage of everyone in the class getting plenty of sleep before school.

Amy has stayed up too late watching T.V. She has trouble getting out of bed the next morning to go to school. Her family decides to send her to school in her bed to see if they can wake her up.

Picture Book

The Snowy Day

Ezra Jack Keats,1976

Preschool level

Have children make snowmen out of cotton balls glued on construction paper.

This book is about a little boy who looked out his window and saw snow covering the ground. After breakfast he put on his snow suit and went to play in the snow. He made tracks, snow angels and had a snowball fight. he dreamed that night that the sun came out and melted the snow, but it did not however new snow fell for him to play in instead

At Daddy's on Saturday

Realistic Fiction

At Daddy's On Saturday

Linda Girard, Illustrated by Judith Friedman, 1987

Grades 1^st through 3^rd.

Talk with the students about who they live with and their feelings.

Katie has a hard time accepting her parents' divorce. She comes to realize that both parents still love her, even though they are not all together.

Picture of Book

Genre

Title

Author/
Illustrator/
Copyright

Recommended Age/Grade
Level

Ideas for Classroom Use

Brief Description of the Book

Historical fiction

1959 Young Reader's Choice Award

1957 Newbery Honor Book

Old Yeller

Fred Gipson

Middle grades level. Grades 5 to 8.

Have students draw, paint, or use pastels to make a picture of their favorite pet.

This book is about an old dog that lives on a farm. He tries to help Travis protect the family when the father has to go off on a trip.

Historical fiction

My Name is America – A Journal of Jasper Jonathan Pierce

Ann Rinaldi

Ages 9 to 12

Have students write a journal of an experience they had.

This story is about a 14 year old boy who is a servant. He keeps a journal about his experiences on the Mayflower and the building of Plymouth.

Historical fiction

1984 Newbery Honor book

The Sign of the Beaver

Elizabeth George Speare, 1983

Grades 4^th to 7^th.

Ages 10 to 14.

Make a survival chart of what the students would and would not need to survive in the wilderness.

A boy is left alone to protect his family from the Indians in Maine during the 18^th century. He is desperate to survive until the Indians teach him the skills he and his family needs to survive on their own.

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Poetry anthology	The Golden Flute	Alice Hubbard and Adeline Babbitt, 1932	Grades 4^th to 6^th.	Have students create a funny poem about a concept they know – old and new – and share with the class.	Poems about ideas such as old and new, and other basic ideas that children already have some knowledge about.
	Poetry anthology	My America – A Poetry Atlas of the United States	Lee Bennett Hopkins, Illustrated by Stephen Alcorn, 2000.	Grades 3^rd to 7^th.	Have students identify the different regions of the United States. Draw pictures of the regions.	This book contains poetry about seven geographical regions of the U.S. – NE, SE, Great Lakes, Plains, Mountains, SW, and Pacific Coast states.

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Multicultural	Ten Little Rabbits	Virginia Grossman, Illustrated by Sylvia Long, 1991	Preschool to Kindergarten	Draw a picture of an Indian costume that was discussed in the book.	This book counts rabbits that are dressed up like Native American Indians. On each page, the rabbits are wearing different clothing and doing different Native American traditional activities.
	Russian Folktale	The Enormous Carrot	Vladimir Vagin, Illustrated by Kristina Iulo	Kindergarten to 3^rd grade Ages 4 to 8	Have the students use clay and make vegetables, then pretend they are enormous and what to do with them.	The group learns teamwork as animals have to work together to pull a giant carrot out of the ground.
	Multicultural	The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story	Joseph Bruchac, Illustrated by Anna Vojtech	Kindergarten to 3^rd grade. Ages 4 to 8	Bring strawberries to class and let the students write a short story how they think strawberries were first found.	A quarrel between the 1^st man and woman is solved when the Sun causes strawberries to grow from the earth.
	Multicultural	Amazing Grace	Mary Hoffman, Illustrated by Caroline Binch,1991	Grade K-2 / 3-6 Years	Students can make a self-portrait with finger paints.	A girl named Grace was told that she could not do something This made her want to do it even more and she did. She knew that if she tried, she could be anything she wanted to be.
	Multicultural	Whoever You Are	Mem Fox, Illustrated by Leslie Staub, 1999	Kindergarten to 4^th grade. Ages 3 to 8.	Have students each tell something different about themselves as compared to everyone else in the class. Then they can all discuss how they are the same.	This book tells about everyone being different. They also talk about people are also the same in some ways.

Picture of Book	Genre	Title	Author/ Illustrator/ Copyright	Recommended Age/Grade Level	Ideas for Classroom Use	Brief Description of the Book
	Autobiography	Dominique Moceanu – An American Champion	Told by Steve Woodward and Bela Karolyi, 1999.	Ages 11 to 14	Write a short autobiography about yourself.	This book talks about a girl’s passion for gymnastics, her years of training, coaches, and her family and friends. She talks about her life at the gym.
	Biography	Oh, The Places He Went	MaryAnn N. Weidt, Illustrated by Kerry Maguire	5^th grade level	Students will create their own animal character based on the characters from Dr. Seuss.	This is the story about Dr. Seuss. It talks about his passion for books and how he became know for the Cat in the Hat.
	Biography	Mark Twain	Jill C. Wheeler, 1996	Ages 9 to 12	Have students pretend they are Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn and act out a day on the river. Have them dress like they think the boys did back then.	This is a biography of the great American humorist. He was a printer, a steamboat captain, a news reporter, a gold miner, and a lecturer that always wore a white linen suit to speak.
	Autobiography	Bill Peet – An Autobiography	Bill Peet, 1989	Ages 8 to 14.	Have each student draw an animated character of themselves.	Bill Peet talks about his life and how he relates everything in his stories to his work.