Penguins! National Geographic Kids

        The kids in my class love penguins and a lot of people have been telling me to check out the National Geographic Kids nonfiction series, so I decided to combine the two and read Penguins! by Anne Schriber from the National Geographic Kids series. I really, really liked this book! I think Schriber did an excellent job of using easy language to talk about penguins, while still keeping the writing interesting. Unlike many children's nonfiction picture books, that are horribly written, this one was actually fun to read. I learned a lot too! For instance, did you know that penguins usually live in colonies of millions of other penguins and the all huddle together when it gets cold? And did you know that they leap out of the water when they want to swim faster and that it is called porpoising?
       The other thing I liked about this book was that it explained any unusual terms to students. Also, although it did have text bubbles interspersed with the pictures (a trend I have noticed in children's nonfiction which often distracts me), it was only a little and was formatted in a non-distracting way.  Also the pictures matched the text and were always interesting and relevant to what the author was talking about. Another pet peeve I have with children's nonfiction is that it often seems like they choose pictures/photos at random to put in the book, but there was none of that in this book. The photography was beautiful as well.
     I will definitely have this book, and others from the series, in my class library and I will definitely use them in my instruction.  Also, if you are interested you should go to the National Geography Kids website; it is definitely worth exploring!

So You Want to Be President?

        So You Want to Be President by Judith St. George is a humorous books of random facts about past presidents. It includes trivia such as the shortest president, the tallest president, the various ways various presidents became presidents. It also has other funny facts such as the number of presidents who were born in log cabins and how many different pets there have been in the White House.
        This book is very fun to read and has extremely humorous pictures in it and it won The Caldecott Medal. One picture has the fattest president (Taft) being lifted into the bathtub with a crane! Additionally the facts in it are surprising and fun to know. 
         This book would be an excellent way to introduce the presidency to young children. It shows presidents as human beings with all their quirks and it will be sure to make all your students roll on the floor laughing! It would also be a great book for President's Day!
         I do have one reservation about this book.  It is only goes up to President Clinton, so a teacher may want to have supplemental material on President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama when using this book. Here is a great suggestion from Scholastic for adding President Obama to lesson.
There are a ton of great lesson plans online in addition to this. Here is one more.
Additionally, here is an interesting review from The New York Times if you want to learn more about the book.

Tornadoes

The book Tornadoes by Seymour Simon, really reminded me of the types of nonfiction books I hated as a child. It has facts about tornadoes, some good pictures, some useful signs to know about tornado paths, and some examples of famous tornadoes. Although the book has good information and could be used to inform students about tornadoes, it was poorly organized and it did not explain all terminology used (for example it kept referring to the "F-1, F-2 scale" but didnot explain how the two were distinguished. Although I find tornadoes interesting usually, this book could not keep my attention. The pictures were marvelous as well.   One could use it in a class as an explanation, but I would look for other options first.

The Hunger Games

I am OBSESSED with The Hunger Games! First of all, I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical, as I usually am with popular literature.  But now, I am totally hooked and I cannot wait to start the next book in the series!

                The book is set in the post-America, post-democracy country of Panem.   This new country is divided into 12 districts, and each district is forced by the government to sacrifice one boy and one girl to participate in what is called the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are meant to remind the districts that the government controls each, and every aspects of the their lives. During the Hunger Games, the contestants live are forced to fight for survival in a closed arena, where any mistake can mean certain death. Only one victor is allowed out of the arena alive.

              The book follows one participant, Kitness Everdeen, as she battles for her life, struggling against violence, death, and love.
             Science fiction almost always provides an interesting view on power and politics and this book is no different. Although, not recommended for younger students, I think this book would be great for any student sixth grade and above to use to study how sometimes power gets out of control.

Streams to the River, River to the Sea, by Scott O'Dell

       I have had this book sitting on a shelf at home for literally 10 years and I have never finished it until now. It is one of those books that hits you wrong after the first couple pages, but then, when you come back to it after putting it down for a while (or in my case, 10 years), it is actually quite a good book.
       Streams to the River; Rivers to the Sea, by Scott O'Dell, is a fictional chronicle of the life of Sacagawea, the Sheshone guide who assisted Lewis and Clark on their voyage to the Pacific. The book provides an interesting, descriptive, and accurate narrative of Sacagawea's life from the time she was kidnapped from her tribe as a young girl, to the end of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The book tells, in a personal narrative form, how Sacagawea was kidnapped, and then how she adjusted to life as a enslaved woman in a new tribe. It also describes how she was won by a French fur trader, forced to marry him, and was then beaten by him. It then tells how valued she was on the Lewis and Clark expedition, both as an interpreter and as a knowledgeable and wise member of the expedition.
     One of the things that I really liked about this book was that is showed Sacagawea as a very strong woman, who was confident in her abilities to help, to teach and to learn. In the book, she often saves the men on the expedition, and also raises their spirits and motivates them under the worst of condtions. I think it really portrays her as a leader, and a contributing member of history.
        I also liked that Native Americans were shown in an equal light as the white men in the book.  In the book there is both the good and the bad about both groups. I liked that both Native American men and Cacuasion men where shown as being equally kind and cruel to Sacagawea, and that neither group was singled out as being better.  Additionally, the book celebrates the Native American love of nature and beauty.
       This book would be excellent to use in a unit about the expedition. I did a little research of my own, and it seems that Scott O'Dell, did an excellent job accurately researching Sacagawea's life. However, one of the things to watch out for, and one of the things that initially turned me off to this book 10 years ago, was that, as in many of his other books, O'Dell does tend to take a lot of creative license when writing fictional books about real historic characters. For instance, in this book, there is strong subplot of a love story between Sacagawea and Captain Clark that I do not think added anything to the story and that may confuse young readers. Although there is evidence that Clark often kept her husband from beating her, any love story between the two is pure speculation. If you do choose to use this in a class, make sure you teach your students to distinguish what is fact, what is fiction, and what is pure speculation.
        This book won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 1987. O'Dell donated the money from the award to a charity.

Sometimes Boys and Girls Just Have Trouble Getting Along

              Fifth-grade girls and boys just can not work together, according to the students at the beginning of Andrew Clements’ No Talking.  They also can not be friends. Boys have  cooties, all the fifth-grade girls in the book know that, just as all the boys know that it s really the girls who infected by the cootie-bug.  In fact, the students, known by their teachers as The Unshushables, find that the only thing they can do around one another, is talk--very loudly, and a lot. Unfortunately a lot of this talking is aimed at insulting the opposite gender: boys against girls, and girls against boys.
             The ringleaders hurling many of these insults are enemies Dave Packer and Lynsey Burgess.  One day, Dave, inspired by a school report on Ghandi, experiments by trying to take a vow of silence for a whole day, only to have have his attempt ruined by Lynsey. Soon, the two of them, along with their friends, face off in a “no talking” competition, boys against girls, and girls against boys.  The competition goes strong until suddenly, the teachers in the school, who are frustrated with the contest, order them to stop. What are the kids to do? Stop an important contest, or join forces in order to carry on with it? What will happen when the girls and boys are forced to work together? Will they unite to gain the freedom to finish their contest or will they continue to be divided and be forced to give the whole idea up? And what about those enemies Dave and Lynsey? Find out in this thoughtful book that shows how even fifth-grade girls and boys can forgo cooties, and learn to work together.
              I  really loved the no talking contest the kids did. In the contest, the kids were allowed to speak three words to answer any adult that asked them a question. It was so cool to see all the different ways the characters found to speak in three words or less. This would be a great book to teach about the value of brevity. I would also love to have a class tryout the experiment/contest for themselves and see if they could do it. I found one teacher online who tried it with disappointing results (I lost the link, sorry!), but I think with the right amount of determination, it could work out.   Here are more activites for this book!
       Another of the things I liked best about this book is that is showed how sometimes, being a teacher control freak is not always a good thing. When the students start their no talking contest, all of the teachers get super worried because they do not feel they are in control of their students. They try and try to stop the students’ contest, and the students become more and more determined to keep up with it. Eventually, the teachers learn to lighten up and let the students continue with their experiment. This view of teachers in book, serves as a good reminder for any overbearing adult that sometimes you should trust kids to know what they are doing and let them do things their own way (within reason of course). Just because kids are kids, does not mean they can not teach themselves something, as well as teach adults something too!
   

Be Careful Who You Try to Eat, Because They Just Might Eat You First!

        Anyone who loves Roald Dahl, will not be disappointed by his fabulously funny book of poetry, Dirty Beasts.  The book is about various beasts, some who abuse humans in revenge for the abuse that humans give them, and others that abuse humans for the fun of it. For example, the poem, “The Pig” chronicles the intellectual discover of a “wonderfully clever pig” who was trying to figure out “what LIFE was really all about”. One day he realizes that the whole purpose of his life is to be eaten by Farmer Bland. Thus Piggy decides to take preventative methods, which, while they save his life, do not bode well for Farmer Bland. Another poem, discusses a scorpion who is a “most repulsive ugly thing” who likes to “sting you hard upon your rump”. My favorite is “The Ant-Eater”, not only because it is funny, but it discusses the differences between British English and American English, and how, when you are talking to an ant-eater, it makes all the difference in how you pronounce the word “aunt”!!!!!
             Like most children's poetry, fun language, like adjectives, similes, and metaphors, as well as lovely sounding rhymes, abound in Dahl’s poems. These are intensified by Dahl’s own personal magical and fanciful turns of phrases, and made up words and situations. It also deals with different pronunciations of words. I love reading Dahl’s work with children, because he is so good at getting them to think totally outside of the usual and teaches them to write very beautifully and descriptively!!!!
          Be careful that you only use these poems with children who have a sense of humor and are old enough to understand that animals do not routinely and premeditatingly eat and harm children!  It is an extremely dark humor book, which I personally LOVE, but some kids (and parents) might not appreciate it! This book is really funny, but it could really scare kids who do not understand that it is pure and utterly fanciful fiction! With that in mind, it could be a really great book to use to talk about how to treat others, and to emphasize how sometimes, once you mistreat someone, they will start to harbor ill feelings towards you and might seek revenge. For example, one poem  was about a winged cow who splattered a cow patty on the head of someone who makes fun of her. (Note, this poem has some very un-PC views on men from Afghanistan, so if you read this book to your class, especially in light of current American-Afghan relations, please figure out how to change the teaser’s country of  origin!)  The book does show the negative effects of abusing others, especially animals.The book is also delightful for showing various points of view, so it may be useful for teaching that as well. The poems come from both the points of views of humans and animals, as well as people from differing countries, and would be perfect to talk about how perceptions change depending on who you are are and where you are from! Just be aware that, in the wrong group of children, this book may prove controversial!!!