**spoiler alert** This is a story about a neighbor rivalry during Christmas. Mr. Merriweather puts a small amount of lights on his house which creates**spoiler alert** This is a story about a neighbor rivalry during Christmas. Mr. Merriweather puts a small amount of lights on his house which creates his neighbor to mock him. Merriweather decides not to back down and plant even more Christmas decorations on his house and yard which makes his neighbor so mad he and some friends decide to destroy his decorations. However, calmer heads prevail and the situation is remedied. This is a great book to read to your students during Christmas time. Asking your students to grab a box of crafts and to draw their own house with all the Christmas lights they can fit on the page provides for a lot of fun and interesting pictures.
Shannon, D. (1995). The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc. ...more
**spoiler alert** Make Way for Ducklings is a wonderful story about two ducks that are trying to find a new home to hatch their eggs. They fly to Bost**spoiler alert** Make Way for Ducklings is a wonderful story about two ducks that are trying to find a new home to hatch their eggs. They fly to Boston in search for the perfect spot but have a hard time finding one until they reach a park with a very nice security officer that becomes their friend. The wife duck lays her eggs and the ducks raise their ducklings when they hatch but now they are in search of a new home. The Dad duck travels first while the mom duck raises the ducklings until they are old enough to travel. Once the mother duck and ducklings begin the adventure they brave traffic and other risks until they make it to the father duck. The illustrations in this book are also very wonderful and basic with not much color but very clear. The author does a great job showing the buildings in Boston since most of the young readers would have no idea where these locations are, the need for great pictures is a must. I think the great attribute of this book is that illustrations do not need to be incredibly detailed in order to show a lot of detail.
McCloskey, R. (1941). Make Way for Ducklings. New York, NY: Penguin Group Inc. ...more
**spoiler alert** The Lion and The Mouse is another picture book without text that relies entirely on illustrations to tell a story. However, the pict**spoiler alert** The Lion and The Mouse is another picture book without text that relies entirely on illustrations to tell a story. However, the pictures are so well done that it is easy to understand what is happening through the plot of the story. A lion catches a little mouse and is about to eat him until the mouse declares that he will repay his debt and help the lion out some day if he spares his life. The lion agrees and sets the mouse free. As luck would have it, the lion gets stuck in a net trap shortly after and the mouse saves the day by chewing the rope until it breaks which releases the lion and the mouse’s debt is repaid. Really well illustrated book with a wonderful familiar story line. If I was to read this book to my class, I would ask my students to think of other odd couples that they think could become friends. Like a lion and a mouse.
Pinkney, J. (2009). The Lion and the Mouse. New York, NY: Brown Books for Young Readers....more
**spoiler alert** The Three Pigs is a great story by David Wiesner in which he puts a new twist on the old story of The three Little Pigs. The story s**spoiler alert** The Three Pigs is a great story by David Wiesner in which he puts a new twist on the old story of The three Little Pigs. The story starts as normal with the big bad wolf trying to blow the pigs house down, but this time the pigs escape off the pages of the book. The three pigs travel to other books and make new friends such as diddle diddle and the dragon. The new friends come back to the pig’s story and help them defend their house from the wolf. The illustrations are wonderful and the author uses a mixture of text and textless pages to tell the story. He also uses other techniques such as changing the text font of words to further describe the scene. The Three Pigs is a wonderful book. After reading this book, I would ask my students to think of other stories that would work well together if they were combined. I bet there would be some pretty interesting creations.
Wiesner, D. (2001). The Three Pigs. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt....more
**spoiler alert** Hey, Al is about a man named Al and his dog. Al lives in a small apartment with a job that he does not like and is not sure what to **spoiler alert** Hey, Al is about a man named Al and his dog. Al lives in a small apartment with a job that he does not like and is not sure what to do. One day a giant bird comes in through his bathroom window and tells the two of them to follow him to a live of relaxation. They both go to an island in the sky and relax until they start turning into birds themselves! The story ends with Al and his dog flying back home to enjoy life how it was. The illustrations in this book a very detailed and point out very small things that the text does not talk about in great length. Like most of the other books, the relationship between pictures and text are wonderful in this read. What a wonderful book that can spark a readers imagination like this one does.
Yorinks, A. (1989). Hey, Al. New York, NY: Square Fish....more
**spoiler alert** Golem is about a rabbi who is so desperate to protect his Jewish people that he creates a giant protector out of clay and names him **spoiler alert** Golem is about a rabbi who is so desperate to protect his Jewish people that he creates a giant protector out of clay and names him Golem. The golem’s only purpose is to stand watch and protect the Jews from all invaders until there is no longer a threat, which will then be the end of Golem. Golem protects the Rabbi and the Jews from all the invaders and is broken apart to rest until there is a need for him once more. The pictures in this book are very detailed and tell the story just as good as the text. However, the book might be meant for older readers because of the types of wording that is used during the story that might be beyond a younger child.
Wisniewski, D. (2007). Golem. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt....more
**spoiler alert** Owl Moon is a story about a child and her father who go “owling” on a snowy night. The two walk on and on through the night in order**spoiler alert** Owl Moon is a story about a child and her father who go “owling” on a snowy night. The two walk on and on through the night in order to find the perfect spot to view an owl in the woods. During the story the child describes every stage from the crunchy snow to the thick woods so dark they cast shadows on the snow. The text in this book is very descriptive and so are the illustrations. Each page of the book shows a large single picture with the text embedded into the picture to create a large feeling of how mysterious this adventure is for the young child. Perhaps a good classroom lesson would be to ask students to think of other animals that they think of as having other attributes similar to how owls might be thought of as "mysterious".
Yolen, J. (1987). Owl Moon. New York, NY: Penguin Group Inc....more
**spoiler alert** Flotsam is a wonderful wordless picture book. The story begins with a picture of a boy digging for shells on a beach and stumbles ac**spoiler alert** Flotsam is a wonderful wordless picture book. The story begins with a picture of a boy digging for shells on a beach and stumbles across some sort of crab. The author begins to reveal the curiosity of this boy by how much he studies the crab with all of this science instruments. Soon after, when looking for more crabs, the boy finds a washed-up camera that shows picture of magical things that happen within the ocean that have all been captured in pictures by other children just like him. The boy finally decides to take his own picture and cast the camera back into the sea so that someday another child will find the camera. The pictures in this book are incredibly well illustrated and are able to portray the entire story without any text. This book can lead to very interesting class projects by asking your students to create their own wordless picture book....more
**spoiler alert** This is a story about a baseball player who finds himself in such a bad slump that he decides to end his career and encourage people**spoiler alert** This is a story about a baseball player who finds himself in such a bad slump that he decides to end his career and encourage people to never play baseball. The ex-player builds factories where ballparks use to be and the public decides not to play baseball until Georgie Radbourn saves the day and defeats the anti-baseball player. This is a wonderful story about good defeating evil. I really enjoyed the illustrations within this book and the creativity used to describe good and bad through the use of a sport, great book.
Shannon, D. (2012). How Georgie Radburn Saved Baseball. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc. ...more
**spoiler alert** Jangles is a talking fish and described as the biggest fish anyone has ever seen. He is constantly being hunted but all the attempts**spoiler alert** Jangles is a talking fish and described as the biggest fish anyone has ever seen. He is constantly being hunted but all the attempts fail until a little boy finds him. The little boy gets dragged down into the water but Jangles tells him stories. Once they are done with the stories Jangles brings the boy back up to the surface and the boy tried to capture him. However, the boy’s betrayal might be too much for him. This book gives children the experience of conquering greed and substituting it for loyalty. A really great read with wonderful illustrations, which seems to be the norm for David Shannon.
Shannon, D. (2012). Jangles: A Big Fish Story. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.
**spoiler alert** This book is about Shannon’s real dog named Fergus. In this book Fergus the dog exhibits all the normal traits of a hyper-active dog**spoiler alert** This book is about Shannon’s real dog named Fergus. In this book Fergus the dog exhibits all the normal traits of a hyper-active dog that just wants to have fun and get his belly scratched. After a long day of trying to keep up with Fergus and stopping him from chasing the neighbors, Fergus goes to sleep in hopes of sweet dreams. The artwork is done in acrylic paint and are wonderfully done as usual. A wonderful classroom lesson would be to ask your students to make a book about their own pets. Include all of the funny things they do and do your own illustrations in the way you see them, just like Shannon does in this book.
Shannon, D. (2006). Good Boy, Fergus!. New York: The Blue Sky Press. ...more
**spoiler alert** This is a fun story about a fairy-in-training named Alice. She has a wand and all the fairy devices but she finds herself in trouble**spoiler alert** This is a fun story about a fairy-in-training named Alice. She has a wand and all the fairy devices but she finds herself in trouble more than a fairy should be. She has a wonderful imagination and even though she gets into too much trouble, she is getting better. This book is very similar to the No, David! Series, however it is more girl friendly. However, like some of David Shannon's other books, the illustrations in these books might show kids as scary with pointy teeth and sneaky smiles. But after seeing some drawings inside classrooms, I think Shannon was just making these kids look like kids drew them. Another good book by David Shannon.
Shannon, D. (2004). Alice the Fairy. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc. ...more
**spoiler alert** This book was about a curious duck who stumbled across a bike and decided to ride it. He rode the bike past all of the other farm an**spoiler alert** This book was about a curious duck who stumbled across a bike and decided to ride it. He rode the bike past all of the other farm animals who each made their comments about seeing a duck on a bike. Near the end of the book a pack of kids ride their bikes past duck and the other animals then park the bikes before heading into the house. When this happens, all of the other animals grab a bike and ride around with duck until they sense the kids returning. The animals put the bikes back and return to their normal adventures. Perhaps some could say this book references being sneaky and stealing, but I don't think that is valid.
Shannon, D. (2002). Duck on a Bike. New York: Blue Sky Press. ...more
**spoiler alert** This is a story about a girl named Camilla who is always worried that she doesn’t fit in with her friends. The main example is that **spoiler alert** This is a story about a girl named Camilla who is always worried that she doesn’t fit in with her friends. The main example is that she loves to eat lima beans but her friends detest them, in order to fit in she decided not to eat them also. After she comes down with a bad case of the stripes, and later dots, she is given advice that lima beans can cure her sickness. Which works and proves she should stick to being herself. Within the classroom, I think this book provides a good time to ask your students to reflect on what types of things they like and to not think that people who like different things are wrong.
Shannon, D. (1998). A Bad Case of Stripes. New York: Blue Sky Press. ...more
**spoiler alert** Similar book to No, David! And David Gets in Trouble, this time David takes his act to the classroom. After some mischief, David fin**spoiler alert** Similar book to No, David! And David Gets in Trouble, this time David takes his act to the classroom. After some mischief, David finds himself staying after school to help clean desks, but he does such a good job the teacher pats him on the head and sends him home. The artwork in this book is similar to the other two books, however, Shannon writes the text on elementary lined paper which makes the theme shine. One concern that I have seen while looking at other reviews is that the characters in these books look a little to scary than a normal child, but that is up to the reader.
Shannon, D. (1999). David Goes to School. New York: Blue Sky Press. ...more
**spoiler alert** This book is another extension of Shannon’s book No, David! However, in this book David has had more time to grow up and learn more **spoiler alert** This book is another extension of Shannon’s book No, David! However, in this book David has had more time to grow up and learn more words. This time, David does most of the talking when he is making up excuses about why he shouldn’t get in trouble, but just like in No, David! The book ends with the phrase, “I love you mom.” I think this book gives children a wonderful experience that even though they may get in as much trouble as possible, there are still people who love them unconditionally. What a great book to read.
Shannon, D. (2002). David Gets in Trouble. New York. Blue Sky Press. ...more
**spoiler alert** David Shannon’s Caldecott Honor Book, No David! Is about a boy named David who is constantly being corrected by his parents. David d**spoiler alert** David Shannon’s Caldecott Honor Book, No David! Is about a boy named David who is constantly being corrected by his parents. David does everything from jumping on his bed to playing baseball in the house in which every action is scolded by some form of no, David! However, after all of the trouble David gets into, the final page is shown as, “Yes, David… I love you! The artwork in this book is wonderfully done with acrylic paints and done in a style as if a young child was drawing the characters. Perhaps a good in-class exercise after reading this book would be to have your students create their own book with their own name.
Shannon, D. (1998). No, David!. New York: Blue Sky Press.
**spoiler alert** Frog went A-Courtin began as a ballad born in Scotland and meant to be sung to children instead of just read. This book uses a diffe**spoiler alert** Frog went A-Courtin began as a ballad born in Scotland and meant to be sung to children instead of just read. This book uses a different technique than the others because of the musical feel that the author intended to create. The story starts with a frog who wants to marry a mouse but needs to wait for her uncle’s consent. Once consent is given, the story lists all of the friends that the frog will invite in musical and rhyming fashion. The story comes to an end when the “old tom cat” tries to put an end to this wedding, but the frog and mouse escape happily ever after. The illustrations are vital to this book because of the detail the author describes. Phrases such as, “his boots they shone as black as jet” really make sense once the reader is able to see how black the books actually look. A really fun exercise with this book could be to have your kids or students create their own ballad type story.
Rojankovsky, F. (1955). Frog Went A-Courtin. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing....more
**spoiler alert** Many Moons is a wonderful book that is full of humor and great pictures. The book starts when a princess becomes ill and asks her da**spoiler alert** Many Moons is a wonderful book that is full of humor and great pictures. The book starts when a princess becomes ill and asks her dad (the king) for the Moon, which she thinks will make her feel better. The king calls for all his wise men to figure out how to get the moon for his daughter, but they all say it is impossible. However, when the jester comes to play a song for the king he devises a plan to ask the princess what she thinks the moon is made of and how far away. The jester is able to outsmart the wise men and eventually finish the task for the king. The pictures in this book are not as detailed as other books, but they still work wonderfully with the text to tell the story.
Thurber, J. (1943). Many Moons. New York, NY: Harcourt, Inc....more
Fables is an awesome book that is very different from the normal picture book. This book is actually not one story but 20 short stories that take onlyFables is an awesome book that is very different from the normal picture book. This book is actually not one story but 20 short stories that take only 1 page to tell. In addition, all of the stories have a moral of the story phrase at the end of each page to make each individual story more and more interesting. The illustrations for each story are wonderfully created and play a huge part in telling the story since each one is only a page long in text. One example was the Hen who was talking to a mysterious apple tree. The apple tree was actually a wolf that wanted to eat the hen, and the picture that went along side of the page was so wonderful you could have discovered the exact moral of the story without even reading the page. A good way to incorporate this book into a classroom activity would be to ask your students to create their own stories with illustrations that create more meaning than what is noticeably read from the text.
Lobel, A. (1980). Fables. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers....more
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