Karen's Blog

Title of the book: The Frog Princess      Author:Rosalind Allchin Genre: Fantasy Awards: N/A Age group:5-8 years old Summary:This book is about a frog who wishes to become a princess and once she gets a little taste of the life, she realizes she hates it. This book was very interesting because it takes a turn on what would be a book about a frog princess who enjoys it. The princess realizes she does not want to be a princess because it comes with so much work when she had such a simple life before. Teacher Evaluation: I really enjoyed reading this book and would definitely use it as an entertainment book during a read aloud. I loved looking at the illustrations in this book and was quite surprised that it had no awards for illustrations and the story itself. I would use this book to also teach students that sometimes the simple is okay and make a lesson of something that makes them happy but sometimes others do not feel that way. 

Title of the book: The Three Little Javelinas Author: Susan Lowell Genre: Fantasy Awards:  Arizona Young Readers Award 1994 Age group: 3-8year olds Summary: This book is a southern interpretation of The Three Little Pigs and how their story on how their houses got destroyed. Instead of a wolf blowing down their house, a coyote comes by and does this to the first two javelinas. The third javelina however built her house with adobe bricks and the first two javelinas run to safety in this home. This third javelina burns the coyotes tail and it is said that if you hear the coyote at night, it is howling and remembering the time when a javelina burnt his tail.  Teacher Evaluation: This book is an entertainment book for sure and it is something different if you are wanting to read The Three Little Pigs and feel as so the students already know the story, this would be a great substitute. 

Title of the book: Imogene's Antlers Author: David Small Genre: Fantasy Awards: Kentucky Bluegrass Master List in 1987 Age group: 5-9 Summary: This book is about a young girl name Imogene and she happened to have grown antlers overnight. This caused worry in her family but she was not worried, she used the antlers for good instead. She goes through all her normal life events that have been changed due to her having antlers and shows how she dealt with it through illustrations. The next day when she wakes up, instead of still having antlers, she has a peacock tail, so my guess is there could be a book about her life with the peacock tail.  Teacher Evaluation: I would read this story to my students as an entertainment story. I noticed how it made it to the  Kentucky Bluegrass Master List in 1987 and after looking it up, it was basically a list of books chosen for each grade by librarians and teachers for students. This book does not really have a lesson in my opin...

Title of the book: Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems Author: Marilyn Singer      Genre: Poetry Awards:ALA N otable,  winner of the Cybil Award in Poetry and the Land of Enchantment Picture Book Award Age group: 6-9 years Summary: In this book are many poems that work in reverse as they do regularly. It is basically a bunch of poems reversed that have to do with the fairy tale it is speaking about. One of the poems that I was looking at was Longing for Beauty, which is based off of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast and the poem is speaking about how the beast is looking for love in a beauty but how a beauty can also love a beast.  Teacher Evaluation: As a teacher I would use this book to teach about my students about reverse poems and how cool they could be to make and learn about. This is a good book as well because it is full of fairy tales and the students could become entertained by this.

Title of the Book: Ashley Bryan's ABC of African American Poetry Author: Ashley Bryan Genre: Poetry Awards: Coretta Scott King Award Age group:4-9 years old Summary: A quick summary of this book is basically a poem for every letter of the alphabet that has to do with the first letter of the poem being the letter of the alphabet that we are on. The book is filled with many different authors telling the poems and they're all over African American culture and people.  Teacher Evaluation: I would definitely use this book to teach my students over African American culture and also show them ABC concept books merged with poetry books. This book also won the Coretta Scott King Award which is given to African American authors and illustrators and this book definitely fits the category on top of its outstanding poems on each page. 

Title of the book: A Poke in the I Author: Paul Janezko Genre: Poetry Awards:Notable Children's Books Age group: 6-9 years old Summary: At the beginning of this book the audience realizes that the way the poems are shaped are based off of what the poems are talking about. One of the poems that stood out to me was the poem on page 11 by John Hegley, this book is in the shape of an eye exam including the way the letters are spaced out in the words and how the letters get smaller each line that goes down. This poem is talking about someone who needs contacts. Another poem I really enjoyed from this book was one called Giraffe by Maureen W Armour because it is in the shape of a giraffe and it basically is talking about the characteristics of a giraffe.  Teacher Evaluation: This book is all about concrete poems meaning that the poems are in the shape of what the poem is about. This poem even includes one to two word poems. I would definitely use this book when teaching concrete poems an...

Title of the book: The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders  Author: Jack Prelutsky Genre:Poetry Awards:N/A Age Group:4-8 years old Summary: This book is filled with different types of poems on each page and each poem is also filled with rhymes. Every one of the poems speak on different topics and I think that is pretty cool to have a book of poems. On page 36, there is a poem named "One Old Owl," talks about what an owl does and basically when its awake while also including rhyming throughout the poem. On page 50, there is a poem called "Every Morning in Fort Myers" and it is a very silly poem about penguins looking for snow in the Gulf of Mexico, something they won't find there. This poem also includes rhymes.  Teacher Evaluation: I would read this book to my students when teaching about rhyming and poetry to students. It is a very silly book while also being very useful for teaching poetry to students, I would let the students pick a couple of poems from the book so I c...