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My Pony Jack: Great Read for Word Work Study (EA long e) and (CK) Sounds

Meister, Carl. My Pony Jack. New York City: Viking, 2005. N. pag. Print.

My Pony Jack is a wonderful read for children that are in the beginning stages of reading. I am currently using this book for a group of 1st grade students as part of a guided reading unit. Inside this book, there are many uses of the "CK" ending as well as the "EA" (long e) sound. I have incorporated the reading of this book with a word sort using the vocabulary mentioned inside this book.

The main flow of the story is about a girl named Lacy who has a Pony named Jack. Jack is special to her. She takes care of Jack. Taking care of Jack means brushing him, picking out his hooves, and feeding him hay and oats. There are many other unique vocabulary words related to equestrianism.

I would recommend this book for any teacher working with a  beginning level guided reading group. The story is very interesting and the pictures are bright and attractive. There isn't a lot of cultural diversity as Lacy is the only character in the book, however, she is a female which is a plus. I would recommend this book for an individual/guided reading study book, not for group discussion.

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Thank you

Dear Reader,

Thank you for joining me on this reading review adventure. Our fun has ended as all of our different genre specifications have been addressed. 

This blog will be currently on hold, but may be updated in the future with children's literature as time progresses; however; there may not be updates for a while as my other studies will take precedence.

Please enjoy your New Year- and read with you soon.

Thank you.

Courtney

Cover Unavailable 

(2015). Dance and Sing in English [Online video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRP_viB3Xjk

Dance and sing in English is a bilingual Japanese/English children’s book. This book is primarily for Japanese reading children who need an outlet to learn to read English. The book is unique in that it goes through some basic English, however, it includes music words. The book talks about numbers, the English alphabet, and some random songs like thread is spinning- and rock, scissors, paper- what shall we make?.

This book just does not cut it for quality children's literature. The book is cute and has a lot of fun songs in it, but the purpose of it to learn English isn't very applicable to everyday English words. For example, children learning English probably won’t need to learn needle and thread and gravel as primary English words. Also, if the book's purpose is to learn a principle, there isn't any principles in the songs or stories. The book is more about a mix of two cultures. The book has very white illustrations in the book and does include any other racial identities.

Don’t get me wrong, this book is adorable, however, for the purpose of learning English or learning principles, it’s very difficult to access the quality from that point of view. It just really isn't there. Singing about soap bubbles and such. Also, stereotypes of English speakers are clearly listed as white cutie pies. What’s interesting about the book is that I found it through an online YouTube review of the book. The Japanese girl giving the book review seemed to like it, however, in the classroom it really isn’t an applicable source to use. I would say, this book may have more use as an English speaker trying to learn Japanese with the Japanese hiragana subtitles. 

Literary Elements:

Tone: Happy, Cheerful

Characters: Imaginary, Dreamy

Setting: Rainbows, grassy fields, and musical pleasures

Lexile: n/a

Ivan and His Little Horse

Cover unavailable because of online resource only 

(Will not allow to Copy from Source)

Ivan and His Little Horse. (2007). (J. Urangoo, Trans.). N.p.: Soyombo Printing Co. Retrieved from http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/BookPreview?bookid=uraivan_00900175&route=simple_0_0_0_English_11&lang=English&msg=&ilang=English

Ivan and His Little Horse is a Mongolian/English bilingual text about a story of a boy named Ivan and a horse that comes and eats out of his produce. The horse then apologizes for eating his produce and allows the boy to keep him as his master. One day, a king asked Ivan to be his horseman because his horses wouldn't behave. Ivan takes the job, but he continually gets tricked by another evil horseman. The horseman keeps telling the king things about Ivan, and Ivan is forced to continually get things for the King (in risk of his life). The last thing the king asks for is the Moon Princess, so Ivan travels seven seas to get her- the moon princess tells the King he must swim in boiling water, milk, and cold water and then she'll marry him. He tells Ivan to do it first- and Ivan turns into a pretty prince. The King then does it, and dies- so Ivan marries the Moon Princess instead.

Wow. So, this book was definitely a confusing shocker. I didn't realize that this book was a fairy tale until about half way through the story. The characters used in the book are all white, with mostly brown or white hair- except for the moon princess who of course has that stereotypical blonde hair. The character's in the book, however, are represented with Mongolian style clothing and art. This could definitely be used in a culture unit as part of a fairy-tale unit. You could discuss how fairy tales are different and similar in cultures, and the things that differentiate them from other cultures (for example, foods, backgrounds, clothing, people, etc;).

The book is suitable for children, but even with such, there are a few kind of harsher themes. For example, the King threatens the young boy of the death penalty if he does not bring back everything he wants. Also, the moral of the story is very unrealistic. Personally, I would not choose to read this book in the classroom except for the purpose of looking at the Mongolian style pictures- or during a fairy tale unit. I would use this for third grade and up.

Lexile: n/a

Literary Elements:
Setting- Fairytale land of Mongolia, blue skies, king's courts, hay stables
Character: Daring, exciting, tough, respectable, honest
Mood: Appealing, Questioning, Interesting, Unique

ANG ITIM NA KUTING- THE BLACK KITTEN

Vizcarra, N. (1996). Ang itim na kuting. N.p.: Adarna House, Inc.

The black kitten is a bilingual Tagalog/English book about a black kitten who is trying to find a home. No one wants the black kitten because they think he is like charcoal or bad luck. Finally, the black kitten runs into a girl that wants to accommodate the kitten. The kitten talks to the girl verbally and tells her of all the great things he can do and do for her. The girl in the story tells the kitten she has no mother or father. In the end, the kitten and the girl are friends, and the girl becomes the kitten's mother.

The black kitten is an odd yet fun read. The book teaches children that appearances don't make up the reality of who or what something or someone is. The illustrations are somewhat distorted looking but they do a good job at helping the reader understand the story. Unlike some books however, one definitely needs the words to be able to distinguish the entire story line. Without the words, the story would be somewhat confusing. Therefore, you could see that the story is not only a complex idea, but it is more abstract as the reader cannot just "see" the story, they need to also read the words.

The author doesn't include any other nationalities in the book besides Filipino, which makes sense since the book is written in Tagalog, however, the book could have been more aware of including other ethnic characters besides the main character along in the book.

Literary Elements:
Mood: Interesting, Questioning
Character: Rejected, wanderer, lonely, somewhat happy
Setting: Somewhere in the Philippines, small village setting

Lexile: n/a

Bird & Squirrel ON ICE

Burks, J. (2014). Bird & Squirrel ON ICE. New York City, NY: GRAPHIX.

Bird & Squirrel on ice is a graphic novel about a bird and a squirrel's adventure through an ice-centered journey. Along the way, they meet a great whale, their newest enemy, and they use their great wit to escape the whale.

The illustrations in this book doesn't contain any blunt stereotypes- it does not contain people related characters, but rather uses animals. The animals are not realistic to real life, except the whale. There are different genders in the book. The female is a strong female character in the book, and not scared of the situation.

The book does contain some voudou type spirit worship of fire. Obviously, if you don't agree with this type of thing, it would not be suitable for your children. The rest of the book follows a storyline- the storyline is not very strong- however the characters do use a bit of problem-solving to solve their problems. Overall, I would say that the book is a 4 out of 10 stars.

Literary Elements:
Setting: Ice climate, caves, some open water
Characters: Curious, slightly dumb, scaredy-cats, curious, adventurous
Tone: Excited, Fun, Happy, Thrill-seeking

Lexile Level: GN290L

Go, Shapes Go!

Fleming, D. (2014). Go Shapes Go. N.p.: Beach Lane Books.

Go Shapes Go is a book about shapes sliding, and bouncing, and jumping all around! The book builds a picture of a monkey with all the shapes at the end.

This book is an amazing shape book! It's a lot of fun too! You could use this as an interactive class in a classroom. For example, one of the pages says, "Slide, SQUARE, and start the show!" and then you can have all the student's slide across the room like the square. This is such an incredible text. The shapes are all listed on both sides of the pages (including the shapes that aren't the center of attention).

The way that the illustrations are made looks like they are out of real materials. So, the circle kind of looks like a corkboard, the rectangular legs of the monkey look like they are made out of paper, the circle of the bottom of the monkey's face looks like a type of marble. It's a real awesome thing when they are connecting the shapes with real-life materials because it allows the reader to see that shapes are useful as everyday objects.

The book is obviously free of stereotypes and provides a great learning space for everyone!

Literary Elements:
Tone: Excited, Wonder
Mood: Curious
Setting: Spaces of different colors and shapes

Lexile: not listed [new book]

COLORS AND SHAPES

Rosa-Mendoza, G. (2000). Colors and Shapes. Wheaton, IL: me+mi publishing.

Colors and Shapes is a small bilingual book that goes through the different shapes and colors in both English and Spanish. Some of the shapes include circle, diamond, triangle.

I used this book with a kindergarten class and it went over pretty well. I would say that it would still be considered high quality literature even though the book is very simplistic. The reason why is because the illustrations of the different children in the book come from many different racial groups and the facial expressions are all different on the children. The book definitely favors English however since the English language is written on the top, however, the Spanish is still listed.

Even on the back of the page, it asks children to find the colors and shapes. This is a great last page of the book as it's basically recapping everything that the book just talked about.

Literary Elements:
Tone: Happy, Educational
Characters: Excited
Setting: Traditional US looking Classroom

Lexile: not listed

HOPE SPRINGS

Walters, E. (2014). Hope Springs. Toronto, Canada: Tundra Books.

Hope Springs is about a boy named Boniface living in an orphanage. One day, he goes out to get water and two village ladies tell him he can't have any water because he doesn't live here. Boniface tries to tell the ladies he does live there, but they refused because they were just from the orphanage. One day, Boniface had his own well because they had finished working on it. Boniface's houseparents tells Boniface that the women turned him away because of fear of drought, not because of meanness. When Boniface remembered that, he decided to build them their own well.

This book is so beautifully written. I could read it over and over again. The illustrations are very life-like and relevant. The portraits are drawn just as little girls and boys in Kenya would look like. The boys are wearing nice dress slacks and the girls are wearing skirts. The facial expressions and bodily features of the children look so very realistic.  Everything is perfect about this book.

The moral of the story is so wonderful. Here you have a young boy, an orphan boy, with no water- and yet he learns to give freely of what was given to him- by helping others in his village that were orginally mean to him. Could we use more of this attitude in schools? Oh yes, yes, we could. Think about how school could change if student's could see past the originally meanness or fear of their classmates and were able to do something great and kind for them instead. This is what the book promotes. Problem-solving, love, kindness, and caring. [AND SO MUCH MORE!].
This book is a MUST have in any classroom. It's so imperative, so wonderful, please read it.

So, you get to end of the book and WALA! Here you find "THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY". Guess what!? This is a real, true story. The book contains pictures of Boniface and his twin brother and his friend Mueni. It also shows other pictures and information about building the well and how people fetch and wait for water. This is such a wonderful book, you can't ask twice if it's high quality literature because it is. When I was first reading this book, I didn't realize it was a true story, but you can almost tell because of all the passion in the writing, only something true could be this wonderful.

Literary Elements:
Tone: Hopeful, Happy, Hard-Working
Character: Pro-active, knowledgable, honest, friendly, willing-to-work, kind, caring to others
Setting: Kenya near the Rolling Hills Residence (orphanage)

Lexile: Not yet rated [new book]

Animoto

Animoto is a wonderful site for making short videos. There is a free version available which is the one mine is formatted with. The difference is that the time of video is shorter and you get an annoying animoto in the background of your video- but hey it's free.

Animoto is a great resource for getting student's involved with their literacy works.
The one here is about a character from The Birchbark House-
The character I chose to highlight on the video is Deydey which is the Father in the story.

Enjoy.

The Day I Became A Canadian

Bannatyne-Cugnet, J. (2008). THE DAY I BECAME A CANADIAN. N.p.: Tundra Books of Northern New York.

The Day I Became A Canadian is a book about a family's day of citizenship. The family is originally from China, and then passes the citizenship test and celebrates their big day. 

I struggle with the fact that this book is high quality literature. Sure, it says a great deal of what someone's day might be like when they pass a citizenship test, but most of the book seemed to be just a big party; I suppose it would be, however it really just shows one example of someone's life becoming a Canadian, so I feel that it is very stereotypical in that manner. Also, I know that a Chinese person wrote this book, however, the cover shows a Chinese girl with a white face- in reality Chinese people do not have white faces, they only paint their faces white, and not all the time. The painting could be symbolic of a celebration, however, it's not specified and is confusing.

The book's illustrations of the other cultural groups in the book are actually very accurate. The facial features and qualities all seem to fit the different racial backgrounds well. The overall story gives out a lot of information about Canada including their songs and the oath you have to say when you are a citizen. This book would be good for someone who wants to become a citizen of Canada. 

In the classroom, I would have student's talk about their heritage- where their grandparents came from and have them collect or draw pictures related to that.

Literary Elements:

Tone: Glad, Joyful, Happy

Setting: Canada, at a school

Character: Happy, Proud, Excited

Lexile: n/a

Shin-chi's Canoe

Campbell, N. (2012). Shin-chi's Canoe. N.p.: GroundWood Books.

Shin-chi's canoe is a story about a Native American family whose children are forced to be sent to residential school's. The European's there treat the Native American children as uncivil and cut their braids and put kerosene in their hair for punishment [fire danger anyone?]. The children are forced to sit apart by gender from each other are forced to go to mass and pray. In the end, the children get to go back home via cattle truck.

This story is a very sad reality of the beginning's of the European's settlement here in North America. The story portrays the character's very realistically. The story is pretty void of stereotypes as the character's are represented for what they are. The overall story is high quality literature. There are many educational topics you can discuss regarding the situations in this book, such as Native American home lives, beginning's of America, different character points of view (Europeans/Native American's).

I would be careful when recommending this book, to small children it may be hard for them to grapple with why the children were treated so poorly. The actually reading lexile is most likely lower, however I think this book definitely needs to be appropriately discussed with an adult guide.
The story definitely helps student's have empathy for one another.

lexile: AD810L

Literary Elements:

Tone: Sad, Hopeful
Character: Weak, Susceptible to others, Letting out Frustration in positive manners, sad
Setting: America, when European's first came and tried to "humanize" Native American's.

Too Many TAMALES

Soto, G. (1993). Too Many TAMALES. N.p.: The Putnam & Grosset Group.

This book is about a girl and her family who makes tamales. While they are making tamales, Maria wears her mother's ring that she places on the table. Later on that evening when Maria's relatives come, Maria realizes the ring is missing. All the children eat all the tamales in hopes to find the ring, but they could not. Maria admits to her mom, but then realizes the mom is wearing the ring. So, all of the relatives make a new batch of Tamales together since they had eaten them all!

This book is a wonderful read. The book is free from stereotypes and gives a good representation of Mexican-American as related to the topic of tamales. For example, the book even tells you a little about how the tamales are made which could make children very interested in creating some themselves. The book's illustrations represent the Mexican culture very well- and the wording the author chooses to describe is an accurate representation.

The book is high-quality literature for many reasons. The books gives a glimpse about Mexican culture, accurately portraying a day in their lives- and the book allows us to learn several different principles.

If I were to use this in class, I would use it as a read-aloud and then have students create pictures of a time they might have had similar to Maria when she lost her mother's ring and then write about how they felt in a few sentences on their picture.

Literary Elements:

Setting: Mexican's Family House, Togetherness, Christmas Time
Character: Mischievous, Loving, Admirable, Honest, Problem-Solving
Tone: Troublesome

Lexile: 670L

NAPPY HAIR

Herron, C. (1999). Nappy Hair. N.p.: Dragonfly Books.

Nappy Hair is a story about an African-American girl who was born with nappy hair. The story told in the book is about how throughout her whole life she had the nappiest hair and that before she was born the angels in heaven were trying to tell God not to give her such nappy hair but He wanted her to have the nappiest hair because He thought it was beautiful.

I think the book's premise is to encourage children that no matter what kind of hair they got, no matter how crazy it is that they are special and that God designed them perfectly and special. The book is not stereotypical in the fact that it tells the reality about African-American hair and offers many different contrasting opinions about the same issue, while still being truthful.

The illustrations are free from stereotypes as well and match up well with the story line. The font size changes to keep reader's engaged and the other uses bold prints to emphasize certain things in the story. The story can be used to help children overcome what other people use against them.

As a classroom, this book could be used to discuss similarities and differences and how they make us all special. I would use this in a first grade classroom.

Ages- 6+

Lexile Level: AD200L

Literary Elements:

Mood: Happy, joyful, adventrous
Character: Strong, Bold, Excited, Beautiful
Setting: Old grandpa's doorstep