reflection

When getting this assignment at the beginning of the year I was not very excited to plaster my thoughts on books out there for the whole world to see. I was really nervous about making people angry. But as the year went on I felt much more comfortable with expressing my true thoughts and feelings about the books that I read. Also, by having to do this it made me actually sit down and read and think about all sorts of books. It has taught me about different genres of books that I now love and can't wait to put into my classroom.

It is true that sometimes I found it hard to sit down and really get into some books. Some I just did not want to write about at all because I really just did not have anything to say about them. I never realized all of the different kinds of books that there were out there and the different things that sparked my interest. It was also cool to read some of the other posts that people wrote and how their thoughts compared to mine. I liked how blogging is so easy and laid back (unlike writing it out on paper). I even got my niece and nephew interested and they started their own blogs (one on pokemon and the other on horses). If anyone out there is interested I will give you more information...ha.

I thought that it was so funny how excited I got when I had a new follower. At the beginning of all of this I was scared to death that I would say something bad about and book and the author would invite me and then hate me but I wasn't too worried about that by the end. I realized that everyone likes different kind of books. It is based on your personality and all else.

I didn't mind that all of my friends made fun of me for having my own blog because I think secretly they wished that they could do something like this in there own class and have there own.

So I haven't decided yet if I will continue on with this blog. I think that it would be a great resource for my students and myself to have to look back on when I do become a teacher. I also think that I will have my students (if old enough) create their own blogs. I think that overall it is fun to do and interesting to be able to go out and look at different things that people are saying. I never realized how many people blogged. A thing that I used to think just geeks did, I realized wasn't SO bad. So, I am glad that I took this class. It made me work a lot and do a lot of reading, but that will only help me from the future. It made me think about the books that I read and myself in the books and how others could connect as well which I think is AWESOME!

Rain by Robert Kalan

I thought that this was a great book because it was very simple and got right to the point with what it wanted you to learn. The pictures were also very simple yet when there was rain in them it was really cool.The rain would be made out of little "rain" words, like you see in the picture. The words would be as simple as "rain on the red car" and then in the picture it would show it raining on the red car.

This book wasn't like a normal book that I enjoy so I don't know why it caught my eye so much while reading it. I thought that the concept was really well done and that the pictures were amazing (even though they were not complex). I think that it would be a good book for preschool to second graders. They could look at the pictures and learn a little bit about outside and the weather.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

So Emily was helping me look for books for my text set. I was thinking about doing it on rain when we came across this book. She told me it was her all time favorite book and I just had to read it. She also said that it had to do with rain...kind of, so it would work.

I picked it up and was amazed by how many words were on each page...tons!!! It was even more crazy to me that it was recommended for preschool to third grade (well I guess if you read it to the younger ones). I told her this and she said just suck it up and to keep reading. Well, it was about a town where it rained their breakfast, lunch and dinner. They never had to buy anything because it all came in through some type of weather. After some time, things went bad. Everything started messing up...too much food would come or just weird things together.

I did like how they answered a lot of questions in the book that I even had. I was wondering how nothing ever got dirty but they did have a sanitation team to clean everything up. I didn't think a book like this would be so clever, but it was!

I ended up enjoying the book but probably not as much as Emily does. I thought that it was a really good book to get a child's imagination going. It is a new look at the weather. So I guess...what would you do if food fell from the sky cause I know that I would be in heaven!!

Ramona Quimby Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

I never really remembered why I loved Ramona Quimby books when I was younger until I picked this one up again to try it out. The funny thing was that I still could not put the book down when reading it. I loved Ramona's emotions during it.

It reminded me of things that really could have happened in elementary or middle school. The feeling that your teacher does not like you and that you are not cool enough is a big thing for a lot of students. So I think that this book would be great. My reading buddy, who is in 2nd grade, was also reading this book while I was and she talked about it every time we got together. She would do many encounters of text to self which was great and really helped her to learn and enjoy the book.

Ramona Quimby books also have great voice. You feel like this little girl is really telling about her problems. I love how she gets so annoyed with the kid at the babysitters because this happens to so many people. Overall I just thought that this was a really good book and I would recommend it to any age group above first or second grade. Like I said I even enjoyed it and I am 21!

The Guild Geniuses by Dan Santat

A book about 4 geniuses who say that they can solve anything and if they don't then they will give you a present is what ends up happening in this book.

This book is kind of crazy. It is about a monkey who is best friends with an actor. It is almost the human's birthday and Mr. Pip the monkey got him a present. On the day of his birthday he woke up early to find the human but realized that there were tons of presents from many people sitting there. Mr. Pip got sad and did not want to give his friend the present. Fredrick, the human, didn't know what was wrong with him so he took him to tons of vets but all of them said he was fine. So then he saw a sign for 4 geniuses that could solve anything. The geniuses tried many things to help Mr. Pip feel better, like sending him to the moon, but none of them worked.

When Fredrick came back to pick Mr. Pip up he still was not better so he got a tie as a present. After that though Mr. Pip decided to throw Fredrick a great party and gave him a moon rock and his card that he had made him. Fredrick loved it.

I think that this book could be good for classrooms. I know that there have been times when I felt bad about something that I got my friends because I felt like other things were better. But I didn't realize that they would love it because they loved me. This book can teach a lot of lessons and has some wonderful pictures. I think that it would be good for Kindergarten to second graders.

Rain Makes Applesauce by Julian Scheer

All I can say about this book is great pictures with a not so great, confusing story. If you are just looking at the pictures, they are amazing as you can tell from the Caldecott Honor on the front cover of the book. As for the story there is another story. I just didn't get the story. I don't necessarily think that you are supposed to but it just seemed pointless to me there.

A couple things that I did notice though was that on every other page it had a predictable sentence at the end and it was written in the poem form. One more thing that I did not like about the book was that it was super hard to read some of the words, or even find them. Some were really small and some were in really weird colors.

So I liked the pictures but I would recommend this book for my classroom unless I just wanted to confuse them.

Shadows by April Pulley Sayre

I picked up this book because of the amazing illustrations on the front cover. I have always really enjoyed art that was made with acrylics and this one was just so colorful and beautiful.

The story was about a very simple subject: shadows. It talked about all of the different ways that shadows come alive and come about. And it is even in poem form! I think that kids would enjoy this book because of the great pictures and they could connect with everything that is said in the book. Tracing shadows on the ground with chalk and then a few hours later seeing that they have moved, shadows under trees to make a cool spot, and even making shadows with parts of your body are just some of the things that they talk about.

My favorite part of this whole book was the page that read, "My friend catches my shadow's hand. Hand in shadow we walk the sand." It is just a great book and I think it would be great for Preschoolers to second grade.

Mom and Dad are Palindromes by Mark Shulman

If you are teaching your class about palindromes, then this is a GREAT BOOK! While reading it, I couldn't even believe how many there were. A toyota, racecar, deep speed, level and many more. This book is kind of set up in a way where Bob, the little boy, is just learning about palindromes in class. When the teacher points out that his name is a palindrome then that is all he can think about. All things around him are then palindromes (mom, dad, nan, anna, and so many more). He decides in the end that if he says everyone's full names that he can fix this problem of his.

I enjoyed this book because there were palindromes everywhere in the book. Even the books that were on the shelves in the book had titles that were palindromes. It is a book that could be read by any age group and a great lesson starter for learning about palindromes.

Rotten Teeth by Laura Simms

A book with crazy and outrageous pictures is what you will get if you read Rotten Teeth by Laura Simms. I first pulled this off of the Curriculum Shelf because of the name, I knew that a story about rotten teeth had to be good. And I was right, I really did enjoy it.

The story is about a little girl who doesn't think there is anything special in her house (which she is very wrong about) to take to show and tell at school. She is the only one in her class that hasn't done a show and tell yet. Finally after asking her older brother what she should take, she decides to take a bottle of rotten teeth in to show everyone. The teacher gets very upset but the class loved the idea and praises her for being such a great story teller. She goes through many different emotions in the story but in the end realizes that she is a great story teller.

The pictures in this book were very cool. There was so much detail in them and it was just interesting to see the aspect that the illustrator was drawing them from. I think that it can really show kids that they can do anything if they just try. I think that this book could be for younger grade school but there are a lot of words on each page.

Mr. Ouchy's First Day by BG Hennessy

I, as an adult, really enjoyed this book. It talks about Mr. Ouchy's first day of teaching and how nervous he is before. This could also be a really good lesson for kids in showing them that even adults get nervous about things and that it is a normal thing. I also thought that some of the things that the students said were very true and I could actually see them saying it. It was interesting how Mr. O talked about each.

It is always a good thing for a teacher to be open to new ideas and I loved that in the end of the book he really was listening to what the kids wanted to learn how to do throughout the year. Even though some were not normal things that you would teach in school, he still considered them. I always enjoyed when the mom called him to ask how everything went. This could also show the kids that everyone is a person, even though some are at different ages. Everyone has to deal with people who are older than them and people that are younger.

I know that when it is the night before my first day of teaching, that I will feel the same way that Mr. Ouchy did. Even though I know that everyone gets nervous, it calmed me down and realized that everyone has some type of fear but everyone has to do it and just hope for the best. I think that this story would be best for first grade and above. Like I said, I even enjoyed it for myself!

The Worrywarts by Pamela Duncan Edwards

So unless you are learning about W words, I found this book to be really annoying. Every word of the sentence trying to start with a W just is not a good book for me. The book was about three friends who want to explore the world but don't know exactly what that is. They talk about what they are going to take with them and what could happen to them while on their journey.

I don't even know what to say about his book, I wanted to stop reading it several times throughout but I just kept pressing on to the end to finish. I pulled it off the shelf in the first place because I thought that the picture on the front was hilarious because it was the three critters with the deer in the head lights look. But to me, this book was not very funny. I don't know, maybe it was because I am kind of tired right now but I think that reading a whole book that is based on one letter is kind of boring overall. It might help some kids with reading, but for me it did nothing.

Chowder by Peter Brown

If you have a great imagination then Chowder is for you. It is about a dog who pretty much acts like a person. All of the dogs and people in the community think that he is weird and belongs in a petting zoo because of this.

Chowder sees a billboard one day when looking through his telescope. He sees that the grocery store that they always visit now has a petting zoo and he really wants to go because everyone tells him he should be in one. He feels like maybe he can finally have some friends. He ends up loosing their kick ball in a tree and then finally figuring out how to get it down. Once he does they become friends for life.

I though that this was a cute story but really one that. I thought that you could get some lessons from it like, even if you may be a little different from the people around you that their is always somewhere that you fit in. And that it's okay to be different. But I also felt like the book was a little too far fetched. Having a dog who is the boss of the house and acts like he is a real human is adorable but not real in the way that Chowder is written about.

I probably would not have this book in my classroom unless I was having a problem with students fitting in. I think the book would work well for first to third graders but there are a lot of words on some of the pages.

Prudy's Problem and How She Solved It by Carey Armstrong-Ellis

This story starts out with a little girl who loves to collect things, EVERYTHING that is! She has so much stuff that her parents start to get irritated because they cannot move around throughout their house. This whole time though, Prudy does not think that she has any type of problem. Finally one day when bringing a gum wrapper home for her shiny things collection, she noticed that she could not get it into her room. Right when she did, BOOM, her room bursted and things flew everywhere. Finally after this she realized she had to do something. She researched and visited many places and finally realized that she should make a museum with all of her different collections. They built one and it was very popular.



I thought that this was a good book because it showed that there are always solutions to problems, even if some of them may not be plausible. I really enjoyed the pictures throughout the book. She had a two pet mice and a dog and they were in just about every picture and doing funny things in each. Also, in many of the pictures, each of the different things like the door handle, had faces drawn on them to show their expression of what was going on.

I think that many children can connect to the story because they may either have collections of their own otherwise they may have problems that they have had to solve. I would definately consider having this book in my room for that reason. It would be best for first to third graders I think.

Doctor Ted by Andrea Beaty

While reading Doctor Ted I kind of felt bad for the little kid. He was just trying to do something nice for everyone and be imaginative and all of the grown ups kept yelling at him. Not until the end did they finally realize that it was okay that he was pretending to be a doctor, even though they already had one. If you just read the first few pages of the book, it could be very depressing for a little kid. It kind of sends the message not to play pretend.

I think the book talked well about how some kids imaginations can work though. It started with Ted waking up and bumping his knee. He needed to find a doctor but could not so he decided to become one. His mother, teacher, and principal did not like this and just told him to eat his lunch or get back to work which I thought was unfair. It wasn't until the end where the teacher got hurt and needed a doctor and Ted came to the rescue.

I thought overall it was an iffy book for me. I thought the ending plot was okay and that the pictures were nothing very special. I would maybe consider having it my classroom for free read for kids from Kindergarten to 2nd grade.

So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkin

So Far From the Bamboo Grove was my second book read out of this and Year of Impossible Goodbyes. I think that because of this I did not take to this book as much. After reading about the war from the Koreans point of view, I didn't feel very sorry for the Japanese in this book. I know that this was rude of me but it was true.

I also felt like when I was reading Year of Impossible Goodbyes, that except for the beginning, I felt like the rest went through my head like a movie. But this book I found myself not really wondering or caring what happened next. So I don't know if it was a good or a bad thing that I read these two books together.

The book was about a little girl and her family and were trying to escape from Korea and go back to Japan to try to escape from hardships. Before they left they left a note for their brother so that he would know where they went to because he was off at the factory making things for the war. Throughout the story they were spotted by a couple of soldiers but something always happened that ended up saving (one example is that a bomb dropped right when a couple walked up to them with guns.) The mom and two daughters made it to Seoul, where they were headed and did not see their honorable brother there. The went on to Japan then after standing in line and putting up signs for the brother that they were going there. Right when they got to Japan, the mother decided to send the children to school. I couldn't believe this. I know that education is important but geesh I think that she should realize what they just went through.

The Little One hated school because all of the kids made fun of her. The mother left to search for the grandparents and soon died after she returned. This turned the two sisters' lives upside down even more. They dug through trash cans for food, sold things they made door to door, and shined shoes for some extra money. Throughout the journey many kind people came into their lives to help them and finally in the end the brother found them from the signs they had put up (how predictable).

So I'm sorry that my summary of this story was so bland. It just felt like to me that it was almost too hard to believe. There were a few good parts throughtout the story but over all I just really couldn't get into what I was written. After reading the Year of Goodbyes it just made me not believe this story as much and therefore I didn't want to read it as badly (I know that sounds horrible but it's how I felt).

A Picture Book of Lewis and Clark by David Adler

So again, this was a book that I used for social studies when talking about the exploration that Lewis and Clark went on through the Louisiana Purchase. This book worked really well for my activity because of the fact that it gave tons of facts but it wasn't all that interesting to me.

It mainly told about Meriwether Lewis and William Clark before they went on this journey for the most part. It told about what they were like and that didn't really interest me. I would have to say that unless I plan on doing a unit with my students on Lewis and Clark, I will probably not ever pick up this book again.

So if you want about book with a lot of facts on Lewis and Clark, this is the book for you, but if you are looking for a good book to just sit and read, I wouldn't recommend it.

You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer by Shana Corey

So, I am not going to lie. The main reason that I even picked up this book was for a social studies project that I had to do. I thought that it looked really interesting though and we were talking about women's rights. I am not that into non-fiction books but this book was not totally that.

It was about a girl who did not having to wear tight dresses all of the time and she thought that they made her look really silly. She decided that she wanted to be different, which many people did not think was a good idea. She met a girl one day though that looked very comfortable in a bloomer outfit (dress like top with pant like bottoms in this case) and she decided that she wanted to be comfortable too and wear something like that. So, she got to work on her sewing machine. No one could believe what she was wearing when it was finally done but many women from other cities had seen it and wanted to know exactly how to make them. She received tons of mail! Soon after that everyone was making their own bloomer outfits and everyone was comfortable.

The reason that I didn't mind this book so much was that it wasn't straight facts. It actually put some plot and story line along with the facts. It made it easy to learn something about history but not be bored to death while doing it and I liked that a lot. I think that it worked really well for the social studies activities because it showed what some women did to change history.

Soap! Soap! Don't Forget the Soap! by Tom Birdseye

Have you ever known one of those really forgetful kids or maybe been one yourself? Well if so, this is the book for you! Once again, by looking at the front cover of this book, your first impression may be hick but that doesn't make the book bad.

This book starts out with the narrator explaining to you that Plug Honeycutt is so forgetful that he sometimes forgets his own name. The only person that really believes in him is his own mother. One day they are out of soap at home so Plug's mother sends him to the store to get some. And along with some money she gives him a song to recite, "Soap! Soap! Don't forget the soap!" Well obviously the book just doesn't end there. Plug goes through many different adventures throughout where he forgets and then is reminded by people yelling at him about what he has to get. Finally he makes it to the store and buys the soap and then runs straight home to get it to his mother.

I thought that this was an interesting book but it really gives a good lesson to people who can be a bit careless. At the end of this story, after getting yelled at several times, Plug knows that he will never forget anything that his mother says again. I think that I enjoyed this book because I have had times like Plug where I can be really forgetful and I think that many kids can make some kind of a connection to the story. It also has so good pictures and I think that kids would enjoy reading about all of the adventures Plug goes through. (Also, isn't Plug a sweet name? haha)

Oh Yeah! by Tom Birdseye

I read a bunch of Tom Birdseye books for an author study that I did on him and this was another that I had read. Unlike Air Mail to the Moon though, this one did not really spark anything with me. It actually kind of annoyed me. I can't really pinpoint a reason why but I think that it was because it was SOOO repetitive. I know that with younger grades a repetitive book is great because the kids can get into it more. But with this book, for me, it just went too far.

The book was about two little boys who are friends and they are camping out in a tent with their two stuffed animals. The two boys keep telling each other than they aren't afraid to do different things and then the other boy would say, "Oh Yeah!" (Doesn't surprise ya, right, since it is the name of the story.) Well that part is fine. But then they get into this like war and they keep repeating everything that the other one says.

A lot of different things do happen to them. They think they see a big, hair, child eating monster (which happens to just be the dog) and they end up leaving their two stuffed animals outside and then having to go back out and look for them to save them.

I don't know? The first time that I read the book I didn't mind it but as I have read it a few times it just isn't a book that I would enjoy reading again. Like I said though, it would be a good book for younger grades because it is so repetitive and you could even do some sort of order game with it.

Air Mail to the Moon by Tom Birdseye

If you're looking for a good book with some old fashioned names, talk about the tooth fairy, and a little girl who thinks her tooth gets stolen, then Air Mail to the Moon by Tom Birdseye would be a great book for you. When first looking at the front cover to this book, I couldn't help but laugh. A little girl with a big grin and a big hole in her mouth just didn't look all that normal to me for a book. As I began reading through it though I realized that it was a hilarious book.

It starts out with a little girl who has a loose tooth. Her parents tell her not to go around and tell everyone that she is going to lose it though, just in case it takes a long time. She does good at this for a while but then she just has to come out and say it. Later on her tooth finally falls out and when it does her family tells her to put it underneath her pillow so the tooth fairy can come and give her money. So she goes to bed and the next morning she wakes up and neither her tooth or any money is under her pillow. Someone stole her tooth!! She goes and confronts all of her family for stealing her tooth and then they get talking about wacky things that the tooth fairy does with the teeth.

At the end of the story the little girl gets really mad after telling everyone, “I’m gonna open up a can of gotcha and send ‘em airmail to the moon,” and she digs her hands down into her pockets....and what could she find??

So this book really showed me not to judge a book by its cover. The pictures were really good, even though a little hickish, and they showed the story perfectly. It's a great book and I would really recommend it if you want a book that will make you laugh.