5 Picture Books

"When I Was Young in the Mountains"
by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Diane Goode

Rating: I would give this book 4 **** out of 5 stars.
This book is a Caldecott Honor winner.

Summary: This is a story about a young girl and boy who live in the mountains. She explains all of the things she and her family would do on a daily basis. For example, her grandmother making dinner and going to the local store to buy butter. She also shares the most vivid memories she holds close to her heart. At the conclusion of the book, she states that when she was young she never wanted to be anywhere else except the mountains.

I really enjoy this book. The illustrations accompany the words on the page exquisitely. This book would be great to use with children in first or second grade. You could use this book to teach students about what life is like in the mountains compared to the rural and city neighborhoods. This book could also be used to teach students about what life was like 50-100 years ago. Such as, how the children pumped the water from the well and warmed it for their baths or how the bathroom was in a special house outside of the home. This book also introduces new vocabulary to students such as Okra, johnny-house and hoe. The topic of religion and baptism is also discussed in this book. This book could be considered controversial due to this reason, but I believe it is important for students to see how different religions existed at different points in time. Therefore, I would still read this book to my class. You could also relate this book to the different landscapes of the United States, which could relate to your students home landscapes or what their favorite vacation spots look like. This would be a great addition to your students writers notebooks! You could also ask students to make this entry in their writers notebooks (if they choose): "When I Was Young in the...." have them fill in the blank and write a page to add to a class book.

"Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge"
 is written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Julie Vivas.

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

Summary: This story is about a little boy who lives next to and old persons home. He has a special and unique bond with each person who lives there, especially Miss Nancy. One night he over hears his parents say that Miss Nancy has lost her memory. He asks all of his old friends what a memory is, goes home and fills a box with his memories and shares that box with Miss Nancy which brings back her memory.

This would be a great book to read with students who are in third or fourth grade. You could discuss with children what they think a memory is and if they have one that is especially special and if they do to write about it in their notebooks. This could also give students the opportunity to create their own "memory box". They could bring things in from home that represent fond memories they have stored away in their minds and can share with the rest of the class. This book could also help teach students about the structure of stories and transition words such as next and then. You could also incorporate a lesson about how friends can be any age. It does not matter if you are six of ninety six.

"The Lotus Seed"
by Sherry Garland and illustrated by Tatsuro Kiuchi

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

Summary: The Lotus Seed is about a young girl's grandmother's story about her journey to America. Her grandmother keeps a lotus seed with her to remember he home land by. One night, her younger brother planted the seed and Ba found the flower days later. Once the seed blossomed into a pod she gave her grandchildren a seed to remember her by. The young girl put the seed in a safe place to hopefully give to her future children.

The Lotus Seed is an incredible story that would be great to use with students from first to fourth grade. This book needs a little pre-reading activity. Anything that will activate and or broaden students schema. You would need to find out what students already know about the Chinese culture. This would be a great book to use while talking about the different cultures of the world. You could use this book along with other books about various countries. You could read these books, have children research some facts on their own and have a day to celebrate all of the countries with their traditional dress and food dishes. This is also an amazing way to teach students about diversity and to incorporate diversity into your classroom. Since this topic is a little more complex then most books this is a great book to use while teaching children about asking questions. After reading the story once through, the class can make a chart with any questions that came to mind during the reading. You can also incorporate how to find answers to these questions by labeling each question with a T for text, I for inferring and OS for outside source. (Miller 2003).


"Goldilicious" by Victoria Kann

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

Summary: This book is about a young girl and her imaginary friend named Goldilicious who is a unicorn. Pinkalicious and Peter, her younger brother, go on many adventures with Goldilicious until she flies away in a hot air balloon. Thinking Goldilicous is lost, Pinkalicious is sad but finds her waiting in her bed that night.

This book is appropriate for children who are in first or second grade. I like the complexity of the language this book contains but I do not think it would be a book I would use for a mini-lesson. It does encourage students to have imaginary friends and to use their imagination during play and school. You could recommend this book to students with siblings because Pinkalicious and her brother don't get along at the beginning of the book, but through playing and imagining all of the adventures Goldilicious would take them on they become much closer. This would be a good book to suggest to students who are having trouble finding a topic to write about in their writers notebook.


"Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes

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

Summary: Chrysanthemum is a young mouse who loves her name, until she begins school. Her classmates make fun of her name and she wishes she could have a simpler name. Until one day the music teacher Mrs. Twinkle told the class she was also named after a flower and if her baby is a girl she was going to name her Chrysanthemum. Everyone wanted to be named after a flower and Chrysanthemum finally appreciates her name.

I am in love with this book. It is so beautifully written and illustrated. The summary that is written above does not do the book justice. I highly recommend this book to teachers in first to fifth grade classrooms. This is a rather long book, so if you are going to use it with younger children it is best that you read it to them a few times. The vocabulary in this book is out of this world, this book will definitely broaden children's knowledge of words. You could also use this book to learn about children's names and where they came from (again, another great entry in the writers notebook!). This book can also be used to encourage children to love everything about themselves and why it is important to not tease each other. This would be a great book to use in the beginning of the year. You can learn about your students on a personal level and also reinforce the concept of building a community in the classroom.