Big Fat Hen: One-Poem Book

The poem book big fat hen by Keith Baker is a spin-off of an old nursery rhyme that incorporates counting and illustrations of big colorful hens, baby chicks, and bugs. The words and numbers are in a big bold text but it is the illustrations by Baker that really grab the attention of the reader. On the first page, the only text is "1, 2. . ." and the rest of both pages is taken up by a by a big hen chasing a dragon fly and two eggs. The coloring is very bright and holds the readers eye. The second page reads "buckle my shoe" and is accompanied by a big teal shoe and two baby chicks buckling it up. The rest of the book follows the nursery rhyme
"1.2.....
buckle my shoe
3, 4.....
shut the door
5, 6...
pick up sticks
7, 8...
lay them straight
9, 10...
a big fat hen
and her friends
1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6,
all their eggs...
and all their chicks!"

All of the pictures also have bugs in them that the hens and chicks are eating. The illustrations are my favorite part of this book, I also think they are a very important part of the book. The rhyme is good to use for rhyming and counting. Students can read the book or sing it. The fact that the numbers are not written in word format but at 1, 2, 3 and so forth is very beneficial for young students. This book can be used for poetry, math, counting, and literacy. It has won the New York Times Best Illustrated Book award and it is obvious why when looking at the illustrations.

Baker, Keith (1994). big fat hen. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace & Company.

Busy Farm : Engineered Book

The Busy Farm Book by Fisher Price for Little People provides coordinating animal sounds to go along with the text. The main character is Farmer Jed and the book follows is day on the farm. On the right hand side of the book is a menu with buttons with animal pictures on them. While going through the story, the reader is suppose to hit the buttons for the different animals Jed encounters to hear the sounds they make. The reader is asked what sound that animal makes before the hit the button. It is slightly amusing to hit the buttons and have the animal sounds produced, but it does nothing beneficial for the book.

The illustrations of this book are very plain and unattractive when in comparison to other forms of children's books illustrations I have reviewed. The text is of poor quality as well. While this is a book for very young children, The only two things I see this book being beneficial for is working on left to right progression by turn the pages and fine motor development by pushing the buttons and turning the pages. This would be a good introduction of literacy for infants and toddlers, but even in those circumstances, I would not consider this a good book. Even though it does work on animal sounds and recognition, there are many other activities that can be done to teach the same thing and that are more interactive that this book.

Fisher Price Busy Farm (2000).

Rain Forests: Informational Book

The book Rain Forests by Nancy Smiler Levinson and illustrated by Diane Dawson Hearn, is full of fact based information over the animals, bugs, tress, and even the people of the rain forest. The illustrations in the book all of the names of the animals, insects, and even the plants next to them. This is beneficial because the students can see the names of the different wildlife and have an image to connect it with right away. The text on the pages is large and very simple. The book begins with a basic description of rain forests in general and a map of all of the rain forests in the world. The book then breaks the over all topic of rain forests down to specific ones. The first one is the tropical rain forest and the pictures on each page are from different location and the locations are given. The first pictures of wild life are from the Peruvian Amazon, the second is the Brazilian Amazon, and the third is Costa Rica. The book even shows the different animals that live in the different levels of the rain forest from the ground floor to the tops of the tress. One page is of the animals that come out at night in the tropical rain forest. The other type of rain forest is the temperate rain forest which are found in the pacific northwest. There are only two pages on the temperate rain forest before the book moves to the indigenous people that live in the different areas of the rain forest. It also briefly touches on the fact that the rain forests are slowly disappearing and how there are many people working to try and save the rain forests. The last two pages compare and contrast the tropical and temperate rain forests.

This book has many different educational values. It can be read and explored during circle time and be a resource during different activities. The compare and contrast pages can be used to work on a venn diagram with the class; the students are given the information and they can work together to figure out where it belongs in a venn diagram. The students can work on geopraphy with this book and work with maps to locate the different places rain forests exist. The animals given can be reasurched and the class can come up with a list of indangered animals that live in the rain forests. Recycling can be introduced and the class can learn about what they can do to help the rain forest and the enviornment. There are many more things that can be done in a classroom based and supported by this book. A whole theme can be created about rain forests that they class can focus on for a week or so. I did not find any awards for this book but there are lesson plan ideas online based off of this book. I liked this book becuase there are so many different ways it can be used in a classroom. It provides good images for the students to enjoy and the information prvided is really good. I have trouble finding informational books that children will enjoy reading and working with, but I think this book is something that provides interesting information in an enjoyable manner.
At http://vodpod.com/watch/2258927-rain-forests-by-nancy-smiler-levinson there is a video that a class can watch to make the book a bit more interactive.

Levinson, Nancy (2008). Rain Forests. New Your, NY: Holiday House.

Witch Poems: Themed Poetry Book

This book is a collection of witch poems that have been put together by Daisy Wallace. Some of them do not even have an author. There are 18 poems total in the book and they range in length and level of vocabulary. There is a poem by William Shakespeare, The making of a Charm and even a few from e.e. cummings. While the poems are all about witches, they differ in topics that range from playful to scary. One of the funny poems is by Myra Cohn Livingston, Lazy Witch
Lazy Witch
What's Wrong with you?
Get up and sir your magic brew.
Here's candlelight to chase the gloom.
Jump up and mount your flying broom
And muster up your charms and spells
And wicked grins and piercing yells.
It's Halloween! There's work to do!
Lazy Witch,
What's wrong with you?

The poems make children laugh and put witches in a different light for them; such as the poem Witch Goes Shopping by Liliam Moore. It is a goofy poem about a witch that goes to a regular grocery store looking for "six bats' wings, worm in brine, ear of toads eight or nine, slugs and bugs, snake skins dried, buzzard innards pickled, fried" and becomes frustrated because she can not find any of those things. This would be silly to children because they know that such things would not be found in a grocery store.

This would be a great seasonal book to bring out to work on poetry with the class. The poems are fun, depending on the age group, a few maybe considered on the scary side but those can be skipped. Many different activities can be done in the classroom with poems and if they can be intertwined into the current theme or a relevant holiday such as Halloween in this case, the students will find the poems more engaging. Especially if the poems are fun and goofy. It is hard to get young children interested in serious poems that they can not really relate too. Poems in this book can be read aloud and discussed, the students can draw pictures of what they see while you read them the pictures, some of them can be used to explore rhyme and different aspects of poetry. I could not find any awards this book has won but some of the different authors have been acknowledged for their works, just not the ones in this book. I liked the poems in this book because they are goofy and even so the vocabulary in some of them is too advanced for early childhood education, they can still get the gist of the poems.

Wallace, D. & Schart Hyman, T. (1976). Witch Poems. New York, NY: Holiday House.

The Miracle of the Myrrh: Controversial Book

The story of the birth of Jesus is well known through out the world. This book "The Miracle of the Myrrh" by Marci Alborghetti is an extended version of what happened to the three gifts that the Wise Men had given to Jesus on the night of his birth. In the beginning of this story, a grandpa is telling the children the story to his grandchildren. After Jesus had been born, Mary and Jesus could tell that the little drummer boy would be a great big brother for Jesus so they made him apart of their family and named him Simon. Jesus and Simon grew up together and one day Simon married a woman named Salome and they had a son whom they named Mendel. Mendel was born crippled and unable to use his legs. Jesus even made him a little cart that he could wheel himself around in as well as others. Mendel was very close with Jesus's mother Mary and would often go to her home to help with chores and anything else she might need. One day during a visit, Mary told Simon and Mendel that she would be leaving soon and that she had a gift for Mendel. She gave him three sakes, one green, one blue, and one red; the three gifts from the Wise Men. Mary told Mendel that is was God's will that he take the gifts and use them. When they arrived back home, Mendel's mother wanted to use the gold for her own selfish needs and Mendel denied her. She became upset and called him an ungrateful son. The next day Mary was gone and while many different rumors went around about what happened, Mendel knew where she really was. They also heard the news that a neighbor Matthius had lost his heard of sheep to the gaurds and needed money. So Mendel and his father Simon took the gift of gold from the three gifts of the Wise Men and gave it to Matthius. The next day the high priest kicked Ana, a good friend of Mary's out of the temple. Without Mary, there was no one left to care of Ana and so Mendel took another one of the gifts to her, the gift of the frankincense. Upon receiving the gift, Ana's eyes filled with hope and she rose to praise God once more. Mendel had a problem, he did not know what to do with the last gift of Myrrh and so he went to Mary's old hut to pray. Before he left her hut that evening, Mendel accidentally dropped the Myrrh and some of it got on to his legs. Suddenly he felt tingling in his legs, he felt his legs. Mendel jumped up and ran home singing praise to God and even his mother cried praise for the miracle of the Myrrh.
This is them first time I have ever heard a book that talks about the three gifts of the Wise Men and what happened to them. While it is a nice story, I do not think it will be really accepted by the Catholic community or any other religion simple because there is no support for it in the Bible or any other scripture. Many might not see this as an acceptable book to read to children because they might take it as fact and not just as a fictional book. I do think it would be something interesting to bring into the classroom to start a discussion and maybe open up young children to different beliefs around Christmas time.
Alborghetti, Marci (2000). The Miracle of the Myrrh. Delray Beach, Fl: Winslow Press.

The Yellow Star: Historical Fiction

The book "The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark" is written by Carmen Agra Deedy and takes place during World War Two. The book begins by telling the reader that in the year of 1940, there were only Danes in Denmark. All different kinds of Danes that shared the same love for their King Christian. Every single morning King Christian would ride through the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark's capital alone and without a bodyguard. He did not need a bodyguard for he was loved by every woman, man, and child in his country and they would be his defense. Soon the Nazi's come into the story and placed the Nazi flag on top of the palace. They also brought food shortages, curfews, and fear. So King Christian sent a Danish soldier to remove the flag and when questioned about the missing flag by a Nazi officer, King Christian told him that he had a soldier remove it. In response to the Nazi officer saying there would be another flag flying the next morning, King Christian said he would send another soldier, when the Nazi officer told him that that soldier would be shoot, King Christian informed the officer that the soldier would be him; the Nazi flag stayed off the place. The next test that came to King Christian was the news that all Jews would have to wear a yellow star. Everyone knew about the bad things happening to all of the Jews and were fearful of what would happen and curious to see how their king would react.So King Christian had his tailor come in and sew something on his outfits and waited till the morning to give his people his response to the demand. The next morning, all the people of Copenhagen watched as their king rode through their streets without a bodyguard and a yellow star sewn onto his chest.
I think this book is a great way to introduce the idea of resistance for knowing what is right as well as starting a discussion on World War II. The idea of what happened during a war and relating it to the lives and experiences can be very difficult. While this book is fiction, there was a beloved king of Denmark that did ride through the streets of Copenhagen without any escorts, the king did support the Jewish resistance, and no Jew in Denmark had to wear a yellow star. This book inspires hope and that is one thing I really like about it. It gives a nice twist to a very dark past that many young students would not be able to grasp. What they can relate to is standing up to someone even if it was really scary. I think this is a great book for opening discussion and to show students the difference between historical fiction and historical books. At the end of the story, all of the facts that are really known about the king of Denmark are listed and it is stated that no one knows if this actually occurred or not.

Deedy, Carmen Agra (2000). The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Publishers, Ltd.

Brown Bear Brown Bear : Participation Book

Written by Bill Martin Jr. "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" is a great book to use for participation in a classroom. The repetitive clauses are easily picked up by students and can be repeated while reading the book. It starts off with a big brown bear that is asked what he sees, the brown bear sees a red bird looking at him. The red bird is asked what he sees, "Red Bird, Red Bird, What do you see? I see a Yellow Duck looking at me." Next is a Blue Horse that sees a green frog looking at him. Every time a new animal is seen by a previous one, the same question is asked and responded to in the same manner. After the Green Frog is a Purple Cat, the Purple Cat sees a White Dog looking at him. The white dog sees a black sheep looking at him. The black sheep sees a goldfish looking at him and the goldfish sees a teacher looking at him. The teacher sees children looking at her. The children see a brown bear, a red bird, a yellow duck, a blue horse, a green frog, a purple cat, a white dog, a black sheep, a goldfish, and a teacher looking at them. After reading the book once or twice depending on the age group, the students and pick up the repetition quickly and they can begin predicting what animal will come next depending on their memory of the order and at the end of the book the students can list all the animals that have been in the book.
I like this simple book because it helps with recognition of some animals and it is fun with the different colors. I am not sure where a blue horse or a purple cat can been seen. The students enjoy being able to go along with the reader once they have the repetition down. There are other books by Bill Martin Jr. with the same repetition and different animals that the teacher can move on two after "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" that the student's can read along with. There is a lot of activities that can be done with this book. You can have color sheets of all the animals for the class to color to help with color recognition and identification of the different animals. The students can even learn the animal sounds make the noises while reading the book.

Martin, Bill Jr. (1983). Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? Livonia, MI:Henry Holt & Company.

Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs: Biography

Tomie dePaola uses life experiences for the stories in a lot of his books and a prime example is "Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs." This book is about his grandmother and his great-grandmother and his visits to them and how he dealt with his great-grandmothers death. Every Sunday his family would go visit both his grandmothers, his great-grandmother lived up stairs in his grandmother's house. His grandmother was always at the kitchen while his great-grandmother was always upstairs in bed for she was 94 years old. That is how he came up with the their names of Nana Downstairs and Nana Upstairs. Every Sunday, he would say hi to his grandmother and grandfather and then run upstairs to see his great-grandmother. He would always get candy mints upstairs while seeing his great-grandmother. One day, Nana Upstairs came down and had to be tied into her chair to ensure that she would not fall out, Tomie insisted that he be tied to the chair as well, this became a routine for them. Once they were untied from their chairs, it was time for everyone to take a nap and after their naps, Nana Downstairs would brush out the hair of Nana Upstairs and then brush her own. One day, hos older brother came upstairs and say her hair down and said that she looked like a witch and Tomie insisted that she was beautiful. They would also go for ice cream with his grandfather and dad, and sometimes their Uncle Charles. There was a day that they even took a picture of Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs with Tomie in the middle. Then one day, Tomie's mother told him that Nana Upstairs died and that meant she would not be there anymore. Tomie was very upset and did not like seeing the empty bed upstairs. One night Tomie say a falling stair and his mother told him that it was a kiss from Nana Upstairs. Years later when Tomie was grown up and Nana Downstairs passed away, he say another shooting stair and knew that they were both Nana Upstairs now.
While it is kind of a sad story, it could help a child deal with a death in their family and help them relate to how sad Tomie was when he Great-Grandmother passed away. Death can be very difficult for young children to understand and accept. This book could help them remember good times with those who have passed and make their own way of remembering them and saying goodbye like Tomie's shooting star. I do not think that this could really be a book to read to the whole class but maybe something sent home for parents to read to their children or just a free time choice. Like always, Tomie dePaola's illustrations are colorful and detailed perfectly so that the reader can read the emotion on the character's faces.
dePaola, Tomie (1973). Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam's Sons.