carolina's blog

Harris, R. (2002). It's So Amazing! MA: Candlewick Press. Parrot and Bee go through an adventure figuring out how a baby is made. Parrot explains the body parts of a boy and a girl, while Bee listens. Parrot explains how an egg and a sperm join to create a baby. He also explains the time it takes for a baby to form and be ready to be born. He explains what sex is and how it can mean different things. Parrot also explains how a family is formed and how it can be formed in many different ways. He also explains how it is important to teach children the right touches and the wrong touches that children need to know. Very informative book. I wish I would have known about it when my daughter was growing up.

Singer, M. (2010). Mirror, Mirror. NY: Dutton Children's Books Mirror, Mirror is a set of fairytale poems. The poems are written normal and in reverse, as a result, it gives two points of view of the characters. For example, Cinderella thinks her life is unfair because will be shining shoes tills midnight instead of dancing with the prince. The reverse of the poem states that she will be shining shoes while dancing with the prince till midnight. Sleeping beauty is sleeping instead of partying and having fun, but the prince thinks that a fairytale is unfair because he has to be the one hacking and working trying to get to the princess. The Mirror, Mirror poem states that snow white is caring for the dwarfs, while the reverse states that the wicked mother needs to take care of sleeping beauty by putting her to sleep.

Schlitz, L. (2007). Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! MA: Candlewick Press Medieval characters living in a village express their experiences and adventures through poetry. Each character affecting each other in some way. Will the plowboy experiences the actions of his father when his father kills a hare and are forced to be silent about it because it was considered against the law to kill animals in the land of their lord. Alice the shepherdess experiences the loss of her mother, but was raised by the sheep and because of this, she helps her good friend the sheep named Jilly when she is in the brink of death. Finally, the Giles the beggar helps his father deceive the town people. He acts like he is crippled and then miraculously gets healed.

Selznick, B. (2011) Wonderstruck. NY: Scholastic Press Ben Wilson didn't know that his dream would send him into a great adventure, where he would discover who he truly was. Ben was a young boy that lived with him mother in Gunflit Lake. When his mother died, he was devastated and would wonder who is father was. One stormy night he found information in his mother's house that would lead him to New York City. There he found his grandmother and uncle. His grandmother told him the story of her life in New York City and showed him her lives work on the panorama of NY city. It was then that he connected his dream of the wolves to his father. 

https://1drv.ms/w/s!Aow7M8DeqRUtgxKrCnaR2qn8PtOK

Oppel, K. (2015). The Nest. NY: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers Steven is a young boy who lives with his parents, sister and baby brother Theo. Steven knows that his parents worry about Theo, because Theo was born with a lot of physical problems. He sees the worry in his parents eyes. He starts to have nightmares that seem so real. He dreams about wasps and a dark figure. Then one day he gets stung by a wasp and learns that he is allergic to their venom. In the dream he talks to the queen wasp and she promises to fix Theo. Steven then finds out that the queen plans to replace Theo with another baby. That is when Steven takes charge and fights the queen and saves his brother Theo. I loved this book. I really enjoyed the plot and the characters.

https://1drv.ms/w/s!Aow7M8DeqRUtgw2HmF04kINVT3Hd

Paterson, K. (1977). Bridge to Terabithia. NY :HarperCollins Publishers Jesse Aarons Jr. was a young boy who lived a simple life. He didn't have many friends at school, until a young girl named Leslie Burke moved into the old Perkins place. They became very good friends and did everything together. Leslie had a lot imagination and created a place in the woods called Terabithia. They both made an imaginary castle. They called their kingdom Terabithia. To get to Terabithia they had to use a rope to swing across a stream. The stream got flooded and Jesse was afraid to cross to Terabithia, but he didn't want Leslie to know. Leslie decided to go on her own and fell into the stream and drowned. Jesse was devastated at the lose of his best friend, to honor her he build a wooden bridge, to make it save to cross over to Terabithia. I enjoyed reading this book.

https://1drv.ms/w/s!Aow7M8DeqRUtgwtVB5WdtwiNcj6M

Nelson, K. (2008). We Are The Ship. NY: Jump at the Sun Hyperion This a story about the Negro league Baseball. The Start of the Negro League Baseball began with Rube Foster. He had the money and was able to start the leagues. His team was called the Chicago American Giants. Even though he treated his players well, the players were still being discrimated against. They had to stay in the Negro hotels or cabins and some were dirty. The story describes the way the game was being played at that time and how things started changing for the Negro League. Jackie Robinson was the first Negro being drafted into the white league. While this was a good thing, it meant the end for the Negro League Baseball.

Woodson, J. (2014). Brown Girl Dreaming. NY: Penguin Random House Company Young Jacqueline Woodson dictates her life from the begin to the end. She writes about her youth and the events are occurring at that moment. She grew up knowing the discrimination of African American people. She grew up knowing about the important historical figures that made a change for her community. She writes about her feeling and the people in her family. She remembers the smells and the sights of Greenville. She remembers the changes that her family had to do because of her mother. From the beginning she knew that she would become a writer.

Landy, D. (2007). Skulduggery Pleasant. NY: HarperCollins Publishers Twelve year old Stephanie was thrown into a world of magic and unbelievable creatures, when her uncle Gordon died. He left all his fortune to Stephanie and Stephanie wondered why it was her. All of her questions where answered when she met Skulduggery Pleasant. Both of them together fought the evil Serpine and his malevolent creatures, and won. Skulduggery and Stephanie saved the world from becoming a dark and malicious place. I enjoyed reading this book.

Klassen, J. (2010). This Is Not My Hat. MA: Candlewick Press A small fish stole a hat from a big fish in the ocean. The small fish is trying to look for a place to hide in case the bigger fish decides to go after him. The bigger fish does get upset and goes to look for the little fish. The little fish is confident that he won't be found, but he is and the bigger fish took the hat back. I enjoyed reading this book. It teaches the reader not to take anything that is not yours.

Wiesner, D. (2001). The Three Pigs. NY: Clarion Books The three pigs build their own house. The first pig build his house of straw and the wolf blew it down, but the pig was blown out of the page of the book. The second pig build his house out of straw and the wolf also blew it down. The pig also went out of the book. The wolf went to the third pig's house, who had build his house out of brick. The other pigs invited him to go with them. The three pigs then where jumping in and out of the pages of other nursery rhymes. Finally, they ended up saving a dragon. The dragon and the cat with the fiddle went with the three pigs to the third pig's house and they all lived happily ever after. I enjoyed reading the book. It gave a different twist to the original story of the Three Little Pigs. I think children will enjoy this book.

Smith, L. (2010). It's a Book. NY: Roaring Book Press The donkey wonders what money is doing. He asks monkey what he is doing and monkey replied that he was reading a book. Donkey wonders if the book is like a computer and asks many questions about the book. Finally, he takes the book and reads. He find out that he enjoyed reading the book, so he did not give it back to monkey. I enjoyed reading this book. It reminds me the importance of reading books instead of being stuck to a computer.

Sendak, M. (1963). Where The Wild Things Are. USA: Harper Collins Publishers Max is a young boy with a lot of imagination. He imagines that he is a wolf and acts like it too. When his mother sends him home without dinner, he imagines that his room is a jungle and a lot of wild things appear. The wild creatures make him king of the wild things and want him to stay with them, but Max misses the people that love him, so he decides to go back. I really enjoyed this book. I think children would like to read this book and they can learn to use their imagination.

Lord, C. (2006). Rules. NY: Scholastic Press. Catherine is a young twelve year old girl, who lives with her autistic younger brother. She find it very hard to be a normal girl and do normal things, when she has to always take care of her brother. To make her life a little easier, she comes up with rules that she teaches to her brother, so she does not get embarrassed.  Especially when she find out that a new family is moving in next door and a young girl her same age will be living there. She is very excited, but afraid that she will not be accepted because of her brother. Everything changes when she decides to talk to a boy named Jason at the Occupational Therapy  office that they take her brother. Her whole perspective of how people should be treated changes when she befriends Jason. At the end, she welcomes her brother and Jason's disability and doesn't care about what other people think.