A Handful of Stars

A Handful of Stars
By Cynthia Lord
Bluebonnet Award

This is the story about Tigerlily, or Lily as she prefers to be called.  She is a girl who lives in Maine and sees migrant workers every year who move up to Maine during the blueberry harvest.  Towards the beginning of the story Lily is chasing her dog Lucky who is blind and running through the blueberry fields.  She does everything she can to stop him but nothing works and when a migrant worker girl sees what is going on, decides to run and pull her sandwhich and chips out of her backpack.  Lucky automatically stops running away and insted runs towards her.  The girl's name is Salma Santiago.  Meeting Salma becomes a life-changing experience for Lily who is going through some difficult situation in her life.  When Lily's grandmother finds out that Lucky ate Sama's food decides to send Lily with some food for Salma to repay for what she did.  Littel byy little Lily an Salma become friends.  Lily tells Salma that Lucky is blind and she is trying ot raise money by painting bee houses to get him surgery.  Salma tells Lily that she had a dog but it ran away and she still hopes to find it.  Salma decides that she wants to help Lily paint bee houses and they both start working together at it. Little by litte Salma teaches Lily that life doesn't have to be full of sorrow or negativity.  She tells her that if you use your imagination, you can make the world be the way you think it should, a happy place rather than a sad or unfair place.  As the story goes on Slama decides to enter a blueberry pageant and a friend of Lily lets her borrow a dress so she can use  since she doesn't have one with her because Salma's family's home is in Florida and everytime they travel they only take the clothes and tools that they will need for raking blueberries.  Salma enters the pageant and wins second place.  Throughout the theth story, Lily deals with what seems like abandonment from her mother but as the story goes on she takes Slama to where her mom is burried at the cementery and that is where we find out that her mom died in a car accident.  The reason why Lily wants to get Lucky's eyes fixed is because he is the only thing that she has left from her mom since it was her mom who bought Lucky.  The day after the blueberry pageant, during the blueberry fair, Salma suggests that lily get a companion dog for Lucky to help him move around.  At first Lily gets mad and refuses to but when her grandad talks to her she ends up doing it, after her garndmother approves of course.

I think this is a great book for a read aloud.  I would definitely have it in me class and read it to the students because it is a well developed story and I believe that they would enjoy it. This book would be appropriate for a second trhough fifth grade class and would be helpful in teaching about being a good friend or making good things out unpleasant situations.

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel
By James Marshall
Traditional Literature

In this story, a boy named Hansel and a girl named Gretel live with their dad and their step mother.  Their dad works hard but they still do not have enough to buy food for all so their stepmother convinces their dad to get rid of them.  Hansell overheard when the stepmother said that her and their dad would take them to the deep woods and leave them there.  Hansel told Greel not to worry and he went outside during the night to pick up stones that shone at night.  When their dad and stepmother took Hansel and Gretel to the deep woods, Hansel left a trail of stones on the ground as they walked out into the woods.  After Hansel and Gretel were left in the woods by their dad and stepmother, they waited until night and found their way back home.  After a little while the stepmother convinced their dad to do it again but this time she had locked the door of the house and Hansel could not get shiny stones. When they lef, Hansel left pieces of bread but the birds ate them.  This time the dad and stepmother took them further I to the woods and left them there.  Hansel and Gretel could not find their way home this time.  They wandered until they found a house  made of candy.  Inside was a witch who locked Hansel in a cage to fatten him up and eat him.  He gained weight but hoodwinked the witch into thinking he was still skinny since the witch could not see.  She finally told Gretel to see if the oven was hot enough to cook Hansel even if he was not yet fat.  Gretel said she could not reach and when the witch tried to show her, Gretel pushed her in the oven and the witch died.  After that Hansel and Gretel found the witches treasure and took all they could with them.  They found their way home and their dad was so, so happy.  Their stepmother had already died and they had enough of the treasure to live happy for the rest of their lives.

I would use this book in many classroom because it is a very good story and the children would enjoy it.  I would read this to the children as a read aloud book.  After the read aloud I would have them do an activity like building a gingerbread house to represent the house in the story.  This book is good for Kindergarten- 2nd grade.

The War That Saved My Life

The War That Saved My Life
By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Newbery Honor

What a terrible way to grow from a baby to an eleven year old.  This is the story of Ada who was born in London during the time when World War II is the present in what we now know as history.  Poor Ada, she thinks she at fault for the way she has been born.  She thinks she must have done something wrong and that is why her mom treats he in such a horrible way.  As the story begins Ada, Jamie her brother and her mom live in a flat in London.  Her mom treats very bad and every time that she says something that her mom doesn't like she slaps her.  Whenever her mom feels that Ada has been very bad she puts her in the cabinet below the sink.  Ada is not allowed to leave the room at all because her mom calls her a cripple and says she is too embarrassed that people will see Ada the way she is.  Ada has a club foot by the way.   Her little brother Jaime is about to start school and Ada is worried about what she is going to do so she is determined to learn how to walk.  As the story develops Jaime hears that all the children will be going somewhere away from London because it is possible that it will be bombed by the Hitler and his troops.  Ada decides that Jaime and she will go and join the rest of the kids and they do.  One morning while their mom is sleeping they leave their flat and go to the school where everyone will be to leave London.  Ada and Jaime get there very early in the morning and wait there.  Eventually everyone gets the and the trip happens.  When they got to the place Ada and Jaime were left at the train station after all the children had been picked by people who would take care of them.  Nobody picked Ada and James, but the iron faced woman who was in charge of the operation decided she would take them somewhere, and she knew just where to take them.  She took them to the house of Mrs. Smith who was reluctant to take them but ended up doing it.  She was not sure what to do so she did what she could.  Mrs. Smith fed them, made them clothes, and took them to the doctor.  That is where Ada found out that she could get an operation to fix a lot of the problem with her club foot.  Ada became very fond of  Butter, the horse that Mrs. Smith owned but is mostly reluctant to trust or to love, and who can blame her after all she has gone through with her mom.  Mrs. Smith wants Ada to get the operation but has to get permission from Ada's mom.  She writes her over and over but there is never a response.  As things happen they have to get a shelter placed in their yard for when they hear the sirens and one day they have to go help because a lot of wounded soldier end up in Kent, which is where they are.  Later the children get evacuated from Kent but Mrs. Smith decides she will not let Ada and Jamie go because she wants to protect her from any harm by other people that would take care of her.  They stay and at one point Ada discovers a spy that tries to sneak into Kent to send transmissions back to Germany in an effort to invade Kent.  The Spy is capture and Ada becomes a heroin for a little while.  Suddenly the unexpected happens.  Ada's mom arrives at Kent and takes back Ada and Jaime because she does not want to pay for Mrs. Smith to take care of them.  She is mean to Ada as always.  When they get back to London Ada's mom admits that she never wanted them. It is a huge heart break for Ada and Jaime.  By this time they already consider Mrs. Smith's place their home.  Ada tells her mom to let them go and she will not have to pay at all.  She seems to like the idea.  That night the sirens go off and London gets bombed by the Germans.  Ada and Jamie barely make it to the shelter.  The next morning to their surprise, Mrs. Smith is there in London looking for them and she finds them.  They go back to Kent to find out that Mrs. Smith's house was flattened by a bomb while she went looking for them.  Mrs. Smith tells Ada that her and Jaime saved her life and Ada responds to her telling her that now they are even.  Nothing else is said about Ada's mom, but justice eventually comes and I personally assume that it came during the London bombing.

I would use this book in my class because it is really good in many ways.  I would read aloud to the students for ELA.  This book is a great literary work that I think many students would enjoy.  This book is provably appropriate for Third through Fifth grade.

A Fine Dessert

A Fine Dessert
By Emily Jenkins
Illustrated by Sophisticated Black all
Bluebonnet Award

This book is about a blackberry fool recipe and how it has been enjoyed throughout four centuries by different people.  First, in 1710 the recipe is prepare by a mother and her daughter.  They pick the blueberries and skim the cream from the milk.  They prepare the recipe and they an joy it.  Later, in 1810 a slave woman and her daughter prepare the same recipe for their masters the method is a little different but the outcome was the same.  In 1910 in Boston, Massachusetts, a mother and her daughter buy the ingredients to make the same recipe from a recipe book.  Once again  the method is a little different but the delicious outcome of satisfaction is the same.  And finally in 2010, in San Diego, California, a man and his son go to the grocery store and buy all the ingredients to make blackberry fool.  In this case the dad looks up the recipe in the Internet and he cooks it together with his son.  Four hundred years apart, with many variations in customs and society, people made the same recipe.

I would use this book in in many class because it shows the way in which culture has changed throughout the centuries.  I would use this book in  a social studies lesson. This book is appropriate for First through Third grade.

If I Ran The Zoo

If I Ran The Zoo
By Dr. Zeus
Laura Ingalls Wilder Award

This is the book about Geraldine McGrew who thinks the zoo is fine but say that if he ran the zoo he would do it a little different.  He thinks that the animals that they have in the zoo now are an old thing and that the zoo needs new animals.  The first thing he would do is to let all the animals loose.  He says that he would start all over again and that instead of having a four legged lion he would have one with ten legs.  He says that he would make the people talk and be surprised when they saw the animals that he had I  his zoo.  After that he talks about all sorts of different animals that he would bring to his zoo to make it a lot more exiting for the visitors.  He talks boutique the kind of meals he would prepare for his new collection of animals and what the people would say about him in astonishment for all the animals in his collection. He will only story until he gets the Fizza-Ma-Wizza-Ma-Fill.

I would use this book in my class because I think it would be a good book to have the students read.  I would add this book to my reading corner so the children could practice on their reading.  This book is good from Kindergarten to 2nd grade.

Wagon Wheels

Wagon Wheels
By Barbara Brenner
Pictures by Don Bolognese
Audio Book

This is the story about the Muldie boys who came to the town of Nicodemus, Kansas.  They had a long trip and their mother died on the way.  They reached the town and were surprised there were no houses.  There were only holes in the ground or dugouts so they could live in them.  Ed Muldie said he could build wood house but Mr. Hickman told him there was no time for that because winter was too close.  Ed Muldie and his kids got their shovels and made a dugout.  Winter came and they ran out of food and thankfully for them the Osage Indians helped them out by dropping food and wood for their fires.  When winter was over Ed decided to go look for land with trees and left Johnny, Willie, and little brother by themselves in Nicodemus.  When he found some land he sent them a map and a letter telling them to go find him at Solomon City.  They got all their things and did exactly what their daddy told them.  They traveled for several days until they reached the deer trail he had told them to follow and there they found their daddy. 

I would use this in my class because I could play the audio and have them listen to it.
I would use this book for a socials studies lesson.  This book can provably be used from 1st to 3rd grade.

Tiny Terrors

Tiny Terrors
By Katherine Kenah
Nonfiction


This book is about the little terrors that we can find when we may not even think about it.  there is the blue poison dart frog and blue- ringed octopus which are extremely dangerous.  There are also the flea, the flies, hornets, killer bees, the mantis shrimp and mosquitoes.  Some of these we see on a daily basis and we don't even stop to thin about how bad they can be.  The flies carry bacteria that can be passed on to our food. There are also, tarantulas, scorpions, termites and ticks.  Any of these can be annoying and make you sick.

I would use this book in my class because it is good to learn about which little terrors we have to watch out for.  I would allow the students to read this book in groups.  This book is adequate for Kindergarten-2nd grade.