Focus Question

How can we use literary elements to “bring into existence” the story of Lucky?

Lucky is an amazing novel containing many literary elements that make the story exciting and eventful. There are a variety of characters that had different backgrounds and characteristics. Which allow many different types of people to relate in their own unique ways. You have Lucky, Brigitte, Miles, HMS Beagle, and Lincoln. You always have "secondary" characters like the people in the AA meetings and Lucky's mother and father.  These characters were dynamic, they grew and changed as they coped with events that happened throughout the book. Lucky coped with her mother's death which changed her, her father leaving, Brigitte coming into her life, Brigitte possibly leaving her life and so on. These characters bring the story to life. Language is a strong literary element that is present in this book. The descriptions of the setting, events and characters create vivid mental images in the readers mind. It feels as though you are actually in the story. You can picture yourself sitting in Lucky's rusty chair listening through a hole in the wall to the stories being told. The hot sun beating down on you and the sounds the chair and people in the scene make. Most of the book is from Lucky's point of view. The setting of this story is unique as well. Not many people know what it is like to live in the middle of the desert in a town with a population of 43. The author does an amazing job explaining the setting and the events that happen in the novel that allows readers who do not have the schema of a small town to understand what it is like. Another literary element featured frequently in this book is the theme of conflict. Lucky's whole life has been about horrible things happening to her and her trying to find that higher power to solve all of her problems in life. 

Caldecott Winners

This wordless picture book, Tuesday, is written and illustrated by David Wiesner. This book's target audience is Elementary students. The great thing about wordless picture books is that they can be read by children in kindergarten and they can also be read by adults. 


Summary: This story takes place on a Tuesday night. Frogs have the power to fly around town on their lilly pads. They fly past a man in his kitchen eating his sandwhich and fly through clothes on a clothesline. The frogs then fly through the window of a sleeping women's house and begin to watch the TV she left on. At 4:38 in the morning, the frogs have a scary encounter with a dog. On one page, the frog seems frightened by the single flying frog coming towards him and the next page is the dog running scared with an army of flying frogs following close behind. Then the sun begins to rise, and the frogs begin to fall from their lilly pads. They have to hop back to the pond where they live and while sitting on their floating lilly pads the frogs appear bored. The police and the search dogs in the town are puzzled by the lilly pads scattered around the neighborhoods. At the conclusion of the book, it is a week later and frogs begin to fly, which could mean the possibility of a sequel. 

Rating: I would give this book 5 ***** out of 5 stars. 


I absolutely love wordless picture books. They can be used for any grade level and can be read by students with different reading abilities. I will definitely use these books in my classroom. They allow children to use their imagination and put their own words to the pages. These books are great tools for children who are hesitant readers and writers.

This wordless picture book entitled The Lion and The Mouse is written and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. This book also has an extremely large target audience. Children of all ages and abilities as well as adults. 


Summary: The book starts with a mouse scurrying across and open field, almost getting eaten by an owl. The mouse unknowingly resting on the lion, the lion wakes up and grabs the mouse in his claws. Instead of eating the mouse the lion decides to let the mouse go. The mouse runs back to its home where it greets it's babies. Then a group of hunters enters. They are setting up traps to catch lions. The lion stumbles into their trap and is hoisted into the air by a rope net. He lets out a gigantic RRROAAARRR! that the mouse hears. The mouse runs to the lion's aide. The mouse chewed through the rope freeing the lion. 

Rating: I would give this book 5 ***** out of 5 stars. 


This book is also great to use for children who are hesitant readers and writers. I also love this book because it teaches children that anyone can be your friend and that if you do something nice for someone they may do something nice for you in return when you truly need it. I love wordless picture books and as a future teacher I will use them as often as possible. 

This fiction picture book titled The Three Pigs is written and illustrated by David Wiesner. This book's target audience is children between 1st and 4th grade. 


Summary: This is the story of The Three Pigs,  but not the conventional fairytale we are all used to hearing. The book begins as the fairytale does, the first pig builds a house out of straw and the wolf comes threatening to blow his house down if he is not let in. The wolf huffs and he buffs and he blows the house down, and along with blowing the house down he blows the first little pig right out of the story! The wolf is confused and moves onto the next pigs house which is made out of sticks. After he threatens to huff and puff and blow their house down the first pig comes from outside of the story and tells the second pig to join him. The two pigs find the third pig and discover that they can mess up the pages of the story they were in. The pigs proceed to fold the pages into a paper airplane and fly around. After a crash landing, one of the pigs discovers a page from the fairytale Hey Diddle Diddle. They jump into that story and decide to invite the cat to come with them! After that, the pigs and the cat jump into another story and save a dragon. All of the animals return to the brick house to defeat the wolf. They all become friends and live happily ever after. 

Rating: I would give this book 5 ***** out of 5 stars. 

This is a great book for children who enjoy reading fairy tales. This would be a useful book for an opening or mini lesson, after reading this book children could take their favorite fairy tale and create an alternate ending. This is by far one of my favorite picture books that I will utilize and recommend to students. 

This fiction picture book is entitled Smokey Night.  It is written by Even Bunting and illustrated by David Diaz. This book's target audience is students between 2nd and 5th grade. 

Summary: This book is about the race riots that occurred in the past. It is the story of a young boy and his mother looking out the window of their apartment. They are witnessing these riots occur and the young boy is confused as to why these horrible things are happening. His mother explains the situation to him and they witness various shops being vandalized. After a while they decide to go to bed. In the middle of the night the mother wakes up her son. Their apartment building is on fire, they flee the apartment leaving Jasmine (the cat) behind. The boy is very concerned about his cat's whereabouts. Firefighters arrive at their apartment and once again the boy asks about his cat. A women approaches the crowd informing them about a nearby shelter. The streets are destroyed. At the church shelter, the adults are talking about the horrific events while the young boy again asks about his cat. His mother shouts and his attention turns to a firefighter carrying his cat. Mrs Kim's cat is found as well. The cats are different colors and the firefighter tells the story of how the cats banded together to survive the flames. The cats then share a bowl of milk and the adults chat about how they thought the cats did not like one another and come to the conclusion that the two simply didn't know each other before this. 

Rating: I would give this book 4 **** out of 5 stars. 

I love this book for the history. It is a good book to incorporate into a history lesson about segregation and the times of the riots. It also teaches children that it doesn't matter what the color of your skin is, people can be friends and get along with one another. Maybe even help each other in times of need. This book also has very interesting illustrations, along with what is happening in the story whatever is talked about on that page is represented in the background. For example, one page talks about Mrs. Kim's grocery shop and the background is cereal. I really enjoyed this book and find it useful for history lessons in classrooms. 

This children's fiction book titled Where The Wild Things Are is written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. This book's target audience would be students 1st-6th grade.                                          

Summary: The story begins with a little boy who is dressed up in his wolf suit making mischief, and his mother sends him to bed without any dinner. Max's room begins to turn into a forest and an ocean came by with a private boat for him where he sailed for a long time. He stumbled upon an island where the wild things were roaring and showing their claws. Max tells them to be still and tames them with a magic trick. The wild things were very scared and called him the most wild thing of all. They made him king of the wild things and the whole night they dance around the island. Max then demanded the wild things stop and go to bed. He was very lonely and hungry. He smelled something delicious in the distance and decided to relinquish his title as king. The wild things beg him not to leave but Max hopped in his boat and sailed away. He sailed into his own room and found his supper waiting for him. 

Rating: I would give this book 3 *** out of 5 stars. 

This illustrations in this book are amazing. This book could also be used to teach children about using your imagination and while you are using your imagination anything is possible. This could also be used to teach children about the unusual and amazing friendships that can be made everyday. After the book was made into a movie, I believe children will like to read this book and it will definitely be a part of my classroom. 

Melissa Sweet Picture Books

5 Picture Books 

The children's fiction picture book Charlotte in New York is written by Joan MacPhail Knight and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. This book's target audience would be 4-5th grade students.

Summary: This book is set in 1894, a young girl named Charlotte writes in a journal as she travels with her family. She records her impressions of the journey her family takes from France to New York City. Her father is an artist and this is the reason her family is taking this wonderful journey. His paintings will be displayed in an exhibition. Each page consists of the exact date the journal entry was made, the location and pictures of what occurred that day. She details her feelings, the people she meets and the events that take place.

Rating: I would give this book 3 *** out of 5 stars

This book would be a great opportunity to teach students about the different forms of writing and the benefits of journal entry writing. This could also express to children the idea that writing can be something they can enjoy and something that can be extremely personal to them. This would always be a good way to introduce how writing and art can go hand in hand. This would be a great book to read over a long period of time because it is rather long compared to Melissa Sweet's other illustrated books. This would also be a good way to teach about some historic events that have occurred and specific attractions in New York City. You can also use this book in your classroom to teach some French vocabulary. Charlotte is from France and in her journal entries beside the pictures is the word in French. This is a fun book to read and offers many teachable opportunities.





This children's fiction picture book, Carmine, is written and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. This book's target audience would be 1-2nd graders.




-Summary: Carmine has a very special bond with her Grandmother and her dog Rufus. Her Granny taught her how to read using the letters in alphabet soup and whenever she visits her Granny they always make soup for lunch. Carmine plans to visit her Granny, grabs her art supplies and heads out the door with her Granny's thoughts playing in her mind "Beware of dangers along the way!". Carmine likes to take her time while riding her bike and look at the beautiful scenery. On the way to Granny's house, Carmine stopped to paint a picture while Rufus gets himself into some trouble. Rufus meets a wolf and the wolf finds his way to Granny's house. From a distance, Carmine could hear the screams of her Granny rushed to Granny's house to find her house a mess. Carmine followed Granny and the Wolf's footprints. She found Granny in her closet hiding and the wolf no where to be seen. Granny and Carmine ate their alphabet soup, hung artwork on the wall, and promised to never dilly-dally again.

-Rating: I would give this book 4 **** out of 5 stars.

I really enjoyed this book. The story is similar to Little Red Riding Hood. This would be a good story to read during free time or in reading groups. This book includes bits of poetry and introduces new and difficult vocabulary. This would also be a great book to base spelling activities or tests off of. It introduces words such as clutter, lurking, mimic, nincompoop, omen and quiver. These are just a few of the words this book introduces and these words are also accompanied by pictures and use in sentences.



This children's picture fiction picture book, Giggle-Wiggle Wake-Up, is written by Nancy White Carlstrom and Illustrated by Melissa Sweet.

Summary: This book is about a boy named Sammy who is on his way to his first day of school. It portrays his morning routine of his cat waking him up, his mother making him breakfast. trying to get dressed and out of the door. The book follows Sammy through his first day at school, all the people he meets and all the fun and exciting activities they do.

Rating: I would give this book 4 **** out of 5 stars.

This book would be used with younger students. Kindergarten or first grade students in particular. This book uses repetition and rhyme which would could lead into an activity about making your own story for your morning using these elements. This book could also be used to teach routine. Activities could be done asking students what their routine is in the morning and what they do to get ready for school.

This fiction children's book, Good for You, is written by Stephanie Calmenson and Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. This is a book that would be used at a Kindergarten level.

Summary: This is a rather long children's picture book. It consists of over 60 pages. There are rhymes for different occasions. Such as; My Room, My Potty, At the Playground and Things We Do. These books teach valuable lessons to young children.

Rating: I would give this book 5 ***** out of 5 stars.

This would be a great book to use over a long period of time as well. If you are teaching a lesson on colors the first rhyme is an amazing way to start a lesson. This book is a great tool because it offers many different lesson options, accompanied by funny pictures. I believe young children will really enjoy this book.

Melissa Sweet-Illustrator