There's A Book For That

  Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper 4+ Coretta Scott King Award Summary: This book follows the trials and tribulations of Amari, a 15 year-old African girl. After witnessing the slaughter of both the old and young in her village, including her parents and her young brother, she is chained, by feet, hands, and neck, lined up, and herded miles on foot to the ocean by pale skinned visitors with fire sticks. She watches her fellow Africans suffer incomprehensible humiliation and death at the hands of their captors as they are shipped like animal cargo across the ocean. The life that awaits her is nothing like she could have ever imagined. Amari must adapt to life as a purchased slave on a rice plantation, a life that includes atrocities committed upon her by her white owners. She meets Polly, an indentured servant who has dreams of making it to the big house and being a fine lady of standing. Instead, Polly lives in the slave quarters with Amari and finds she’s given the chore of civilizi...

  Midnight Creatures by Helen Friel K-3 Paper engineered Summary: This book features different animals and short descriptions/information about them. When the pages open, you can look for the animals within the pop-up.  Evaluation: I think this book is super cool. I would not necessarily use this book to read in class, but it would definitely be in my reading area. This book would be great for teaching about different animals. 

 The Rough-Faced Girl by Rafe Martin and David Shannon 1-4 Multicultural  Summary: In a village, there lives an Invisible Being that no one can see except his sister. All the women in the village wish to marry him. In the village there also lives a poor man, along with his three daughters. Two of his daughters are cruel and vain. The third daughter, the Rough-Faced Girl, is kind and is able to see the beauty of the earth around her. The two hard-hearted daughters treat the Rough-Face Girl horribly. They force her to sit by the fire and feed the flames. The Rough-Faced Girl gets terrible burns on her face and hands. The two cruel sisters, order their father to give them the finest clothing and jewelry, so that they may get the attention of the Invisible Being. However, the Invisible Being's sister is able to see past the sister's vanity and dismisses them. In turn, the Invisible Being's sister is able to see the beauty and kind heart that the Rough-Face Girl has. She allows ...

  Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto and Ed Martinez K-3 Multicultural Summary: This book is about a young girl, Maria, and her cousins. Maria is fascinated by her mother’s wedding ring. Maria’s mother leaves her wedding ring sitting on the kitchen table, so Maria decides to try it on. Shortly after she puts the ring on, she and her cousins begin making tamales for a holiday party. The children finish making the tamales and go upstairs to play. This is when Maria realizes that she has lost her mother’s wedding ring. It was no longer on her finger, so she concludes that she has lost it in the masa of the tamales. All of the children decide to go down and eat all of the tamales that they had prepared for the party, in order to try and find the wedding ring. By the time the children are to the last tamale, they are stuffed and have not found the ring. When Maria decides to go tell her mother that she has lost the wedding ring, she sees the ring on her mother’s finger. The story ends with t...

  Airport by Byron Barton Nonfiction/Informational PreK-1 Summary: This is a very simple book with minimal words. This book follows almost the entire process of going somewhere on a plane (except for getting off at the destination). This book also tells about the components of a plane.  Evaluation: This book is great for teaching younger students about planes and flying, because it is simple. I would use this book to introduce flying, and even to teach the parts of a plane. This would also make for a great discussion starter (have you ever been on a plane?). 

  Be A Friend to Trees by Patricia Lauber illustrated by Holly Keller Nonfiction/Informational PreK-3 Summary: This book is about everything trees, from the parts of a tree to what trees are used for. Throughout the book, the illustrations show you different trees and labels what kind of tree they are. The book even includes some more complex concepts like photosynthesis.  Evaluation: This is a great book to introduce science concepts, such as photosynthesis and recycling. This book also contains many diagrams that show different parts of trees and processes using parts of trees. This book also includes the animals that live in trees, which makes it a great book for talking about ecosystems and different animals.