Chapter Book #1 -- Penny from Heaven -- Newberry Winner

TITLE: Penny From Heaven

  AUTHOR: Jennifer Holm

  GENRE: General Fiction

   THEME: Cultural Diversity and family.

  AWARDS: This book won a Newberry award.

CHARACTERS: The main characters are Penny, her cousin, uncles, mother, Nonny, Aunts, and grandparents.

PUBLISHING DATE AND COMPANY: This book was published in 2006 by the Random House publishing company.

 SUMMARY: The book Penny from Heaven is set in the time shortly after the second World War, and deals with the issues that faced many mixed race families, and those that weren't born in the United States of America (And some that were mixed race that were born here). The book is about a little girl who goes by the name of Penny (taken from the Bing Crosby song her father loved so much) even though her name was Barbra. Her father died when she was younger, and now she lives with her mother and her grandparents (Mother's parents). She still goes and visits with her father's family, but doesn't get to have time with both families at the same time, because they have a feud. Many times in the book Penny is with her cousin, and best friend, who is quite mischievous, and helps her get into lots of trouble. Penny and her cousin get jobs at her uncles butcher/grocery shop. They help deliver groceries to those who place orders but that don't come into the shop. While overhearing their uncles one day they learn that it is possible their grandfather (who died before Penny's dad) may have hidden money in the house. Penny thinks this may be true because of the fact that she knows her Nonny(Grandmother) hides money in the house. While on the search for money, Penny is helping do laundry, but her trouble maker cousin is pulling bricks out of the wall. They think they have found the money, and thats when Penny realizes a terrible accident is in the process of happening. She is in a lot of pain and her uncle Dominque rushes her to the hospital. While there Penny realizes just how deep the feud between her two families are, her mother and her Uncle Dom have an argument while in her room, and she realizes maybe her father didn't die from cancer, or pnuemonia. She over hears nurses talking about her father in a cruel way, when she confronts her mother about it, she finds out exactly what she has wanted to know for years. What happened to her father?

Picture Book #3 -- Officer Buckle and Gloria -- Caldecott Medal

  TITLE:Officer Buckle and Gloria

  AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR: Peggy Rathmann

  GENRE: Comedy

   THEME: Safety, teamwork

  AWARDS: Caldecott Medal (1996)

CHARACTERS:Officer Buckle and Gloria are the main characters. The students and staff at the schools are the background characters. 

PUBLISHING DATE AND COMPANY: This book was published in 1995 by the Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.

 SUMMARY: This is a good book that in a way teaches some safety tips to young readers, but also teaches teamwork, and that without your partner you may not do as well when your by yourself. This book starts out with Officer Buckle going to the schools and telling kids different safety tips. Then the police department he is with buys a police dog named Gloria. When Officer Buckle first takes Gloria with him to the school, he thinks that she sits quietly and still behind him while he reads, and he thinks the kids are learning to enjoy the safety tips. Then, after he becomes so popular and is on the news he realizes that Gloria is acting out what could happen if the safety tips aren't followed. At first Officer Buckle is upset that the kids pay more attention to Gloria than they do him. So the next day, he sends just Gloria to the school, with out him. The students (and Gloria!) fall asleep while Gloria is on stage. Then after the assembly the school has the biggest accident ever, students and teachers falling and slipping. When Officer Buckle gets letters the next day about the accident, he realizes that he and Gloria are a team, and they need to work together. 

I would use this book in my classroom to help teach team work, because this book shows that you cannot always do something on your own. Sometimes it takes two (or more) to make it work.

Picture Book #2 -- The Man Who Walked Between The Towers --Caldecott Medal Winner

TITLE: The Man Who Walked Between The Towers
AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR: Mordicai Gerstein
GENRE: This book falls into the biography genre.
THEME: There are many different themes in this book, one is determination, and another is city life.
AWARDS: The book The Man Who Walked Between The Towers is a Caldecott Medal winner in 2004.
CHARACTERS:The main character is Philippe Petit, with supporting characters whose names aren't given of his friends that help him get to the roof.
PUBLISHING DATE AND COMPANY: This book was published in 2003, by the Roaring Brook Press.
SUMMARY: This book starts out talking about the Twin Towers in New York City, how tall and majestic they are. Then we meet the main character, Philippe, who is a performer and can do many things, like juggle, ride a unicycle, and walk on a rope he tied to trees. It is said that Philippe dance on a wire between the Notre Dame Cathedral's steeples, and upset many people in Paris. He decided that the space between the towers would be perfect to dance between, but he knew he would have to be careful, because no one would let a man between two towers that are a quarter of a mile off the ground. So, since the towers were still under construction at the time, he decided him and a friend could dress up as construction workers to get his wire to the top. It took them most of the night to get the wire across the space between the two buildings, with many obstacles in the way. However, by morning him and his friends were able to get the wire strung, and he walked across the wire. When people started noticing Philippe, is when the police took notice and went to the top of the towers and told him he would be arrested. As punishment, Philippe had to perform in the park for the children so that they could enjoy his talents. The end of the book ***SPOILER ALERT*** is about how now that the Twin Towers are gone that there is still the memory of the man who walked between the towers.

I could use this in my class to show determination. This would be a good book for third grade, because they would be old enough to understand when to follow rules and your determination, and when to just go for it.

Picture Book # 1 -- Mrs. Katz and Tush

1.    TITLE: Mrs. Katz and Tush

2.     AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR: Patricia Polacco is the author, as well as the illustrator.

3.     GENRE:Animal Stories, General Fiction are two of the genres that the book Mrs. Katz and Tush falls into.

4.    THEME: One of the themes for the book Mrs. Katz and Tush is diversity, another is friendship.

5.    AWARDS:Mrs. Katz and Tush has not won any awards, but it has been on the Reading Rainbow.

6.   CHARACTERS: Mrs. Katz, Larnel, and Tush are all main characters in the book, and Larnel’s parents are secondary characters.

7.    PUBLISHING DATE AND COMPANY:The Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group published the book in 1992.

8.     SUMMARY:The book Mrs. Katz and Tush is one about diversity, acceptance, and friendship. The book starts out with Larnel and his mother visiting Mrs. Katz, as they do every other day. Mrs. Katz husband had died some time before the book, and she was lonely. It is noted on the very first page that Mrs. Katz is Jewish, when she references Hanukah. When Larnel first goes to visit Mrs. Katz by himself he brings a kitten that no one else seems to want, and asks Mrs. Katz if she wants the baby kitten. Mrs. Katz compares the kitten to her husband, and says that she will need help with the kitten, which Larnel agrees too. This is when we first learn the kitten’s name is Tush. Tush is a very playful kitten, she is also very spoiled by Mrs. Katz. Mrs. Katz talks to Larnel about how back in the older days her people (The Jewish) weren’t able to go certain places, and she had to vacation in certain spots as to not be discriminated against. Larnel realizes that his family also has had to go through discrimination in the past. Throughout the book Larnel and Mrs. Katz form a close bond, and at one point Tush gets out into the cold and they search for her. When they find her and some time passes they find out something special happened to Tush. In the end of the book we find out that Larnel and Mrs. Katz stay close all the way through Larnel’s adult hood.

If I were going to use this book in a classroom I would use it in an upper elementary grade level, like fourth or fifth grade, maybe in a gifted third grade classroom. While this book is a picture book, it has a lot of words to accompany the pictures. It also has a deeper thought process involved, and a deep back story. Talking with the students would include topics such as widowing, the discrimination between two different groups of people, and lastly death.