Realistic Fiction

Title: Alexander and the Terrible Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day  

Author: Judith Viorst

Illustrator: Ray Cruz

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: June 16, 1972

ISBN: 978-0-689-71173-2

Summary: This book is a great book about a boy name Alexander who wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and everything goes wrong at home and at school. At the end of the day, Alexander realizes that sometimes people just have bad days.

Personal Statement:  This is hands down one of my favorite books to read because the story line is just phenomenal. Everyone has had a bad day including myself, therefore this is a very relatable book! This book definitely fits the realistic fiction genre because people do have bad days, which is what this book is trying to get at to the readers. Overall, this is a great book that I think every teacher should have in their classroom collection!

Rate: 5 out of 5

Fantasy

Title: Velveteen Rabbit (The Classic Edition)

Author: Margery Williams Bianco

Illustrator: Charles Santore

Publisher:  George H. Doran Company

Publication Date: 1922

ISBN: 978-1-60464-032-8d

Summary: This book is a great book about a boy who is given a stuffed rabbit sewn from Velveteen as a Christmas present. The boy plays with the bunny temporally until he forgets about it and goes on to play with more modern and mechanical toys. After some time, the bunny meets the boy’s uncle skin horse, who tells the bunny about the magic of becoming real due to love from children. The rabbit is awed by this idea and wants nothing more but to be loved and real. One night, the boy’s nana gives the boy the rabbit to sleep with in place of a lost toy. The rabbit eventually became the boy’s favorite toy and began to spend a lot of time with the boy. In the summer, the boy meets some real rabbits that learns that he cannot hop like them and tells him that he is not real. One day she comes down with scarlet fever and the doctor tells the boy that he must disinfect his room by burning his books, including his velveteen rabbit. The rabbit is then bundled into a sack and left out in the garden overnight, where he sadly reflects on his life with his boy. The rabbit spent the night crying and a real tear came out, as well as a flower appears from the ground. A fair steps out of the flower and tells the rabbit that she will take him away from the boy and make him real to everyone. The rabbit eventually becomes real and then returns to the boy, who recognize him and see a resemblance to his old velveteen rabbit.

Personal Statement:  This book is by far one of the lengthiest children book in my collection. Although this book is a fantasy genre, it is a great book for both children and adult to read because it has so many deep lessons. The reason why this book deserves to be in your classroom collection is because the story is very simple and relatable and the ending when the boy finds his way back to the boy just hits you. This book Is worth reading because everything about the book is so heartfelt and you will find yourself getting lost in the book.

Rate: 5 out of 5

Grocery Store Book

Title: SpongeBob Goes to the Doctor

Author: Steven Banks

Illustrator: Zina Saunders

Publisher:  Simon Spotlight/ Nickelodeon

Publication Date: 2005

ISBN: 978-1416903598

Summary: If you are a fan of SpongeBob like myself, then this is a great grocery book that can be found in many grocery book. This book is based on the first season when SpongeBob gets the suds. SpongeBob wakes up in the morning only to find out that he has the suds. He tries to cover up the fact that he is sick, so he does not have to miss a day of work. When SpongeBob gets to the Krusty Krab, he sneezes on the food until Mr. Krabs finds out and orders SpongeBob to go home and rest. At home, SpongeBob’s suds gets worse, so he calls Sandy to take him to the doctor. While SpongeBob is waiting for Sandy to pick him up, his best friend Patrick comes along and ask SpongeBob if he is going Skiing. SpongeBob tells Patrick that he is going to the doctor instead. Patrick then tells SpongeBob all the bad things that the doctor is going to do until SpongeBob pleaded to Patrick to look after him. Patrick then proceeded to try to cure for SpongeBob by putting corks in his holes, making SpongeBob bigger and fatter every time he sneezes. SpongeBob thinks he is getting better, so he has Patrick call Sandy and tell her not to come over anymore, but Sandy does not believe Patrick and tells him that he is coming over. Patrick then goes into a panic and tells SpongeBob that Sandy will take him to the doctor. After time, Sandy comes to find out that SpongeBob is not really cured and yells at Patrick to go see a real doctor. Sandy rolls SpongeBob outside until SpongeBob rolls too far and blows up the crusty Krab with a sneeze. After SpongeBob was back to his normal size, Sandy and Patrick took him to the doctor where he is then diagnosed with medicine.

Personal Statement:  As a fan of SpongeBob, I enjoyed this book because I found the book relatable. The book has great illustrations and follows an appropriate beginning, middle and end sequence. Of course, I would not keep this book in my classroom library, but this would definitely be a perfect book to read to your child as a bedtime story!

Rate: 5 out of 5

Board Book

Title: CLICK, CLACK, MOO COWS That Type 

Author: Doreen Cronin

Illustrator: Betsy Lewin
 
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 2000

ISBN: 978-1—4424-0889-0

Summary: This book is a great, funny board book about that starts with the cows finding an old type writer, practiced typing and typed Farmer Brown a request for electric blankets. When Farmer Brown refused, the cows refused to give Farmer Brown milk the next day. The day after, the chicken requested electric blankets. Farmer Brown refused, and the chickens got upset and refused to give Farmer brown eggs the next day. Farmer brown got upset and sent an ultimatum to the cows through a duck, who remained neutral. He demanded milk and eggs. The cows finally agreed to compromised and agreed that they will surrender the typewriter for the electric blanket. The cows left the typewriter outside and the ducks stole the typewriter and requested a diving board for the pond.

Personal Statement:  I personally think that this is a hilarious story for young readers. This book has been in my collection for 5 years now and is personally my favorite board book. The sequence is this book is very well written for young readers and the fact that the book has repetitive phrases like clickity clack moo, etc. makes the book so much more unique.

Rate: 5 out of 5

Wordless Picture Books

Title: Journey

Author: Aaron Becker

Illustrator: Aaron Becker

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Publication Date: August 6, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-7636-6053-6

Summary: Journey is a well-illustrated wordless picture book about a girl who is bored and unable to catch the attention of anyone in her house. Due to her boredom, she draws a magic door on her bedroom wall, which escapes into a world where wonder, adventure, and danger awaits.

Personal Statement: I personally love this book because it allows children to use their own imagination and make an inference on what is going to happen next. After reading this book, I think that it’s a great book that every child can relate to and get lost in (Isn’t that what reading is all about?). However, I do not like that the child drew on the wall because she simply was not getting any attention from her parents. I definitely recommend reading this book and getting lost in the creativity that this book offers!

Rate: 4 out of  5

Title: Frog Goes to Dinner
Author: Mercer Mayer
Illustrator: Mercer Mayer  
Publisher: Dial Books for Younger Readers  
Publication Date: 1974
ISBN: 0-8037-3386-0

 Summary: This was a sad, but relatable book about a boy and his family going out to a fancy restaurant, not realizing that the boys frog jumped into his jacket pocket seeking adventure. Once they got to the restaurant, the frog jumps out of the boy’s pocket and interrupts the orchestra, and various dinners until the frog is caught and gets kicked out along with the boy and his family. The books end with the family upset with the boy and sending him to bed, but the boy and the frog, as well as his turtle and dog continue to have a good time in the bedroom.

Personal Statement:  I thought this book was very well illustrated and humorous. This book was recommended to me by a teacher, which I did not think was going to be good because of the cover (Do not judge a book by its cover). After reading the book, I found myself chuckling at the creativity of this book. Although this book does not have any words, you will find yourself creating the story on your own, which one of the reasons why this book is so good! I recommend reading this book and I hope you have as much fun as I did!

Rate: 5 out of 5

Decodable Book

Title: HOP ON POP

Author: Dr. Sues

Illustrator: Dr. Sues

Publisher: Random House Children’s Books

Publication Date: 02/28/1963

ISBN: 0-394-80029-X

Summary: This book is a well written decodable book that introduce young children to words that rhyme, such as Hop and Pop, Up and Pup, Mouse and House, Tall and Small. The illustrations throughout the book goes along with the book to help younger kids figure out what the words mean.

Personal Statement: I personally love this book because it does not follow a story line, but instead focuses on the relationship between the sounds of the words. This book is a great book for younger kids, as well as older kids continuing their reading journey. The book does a great job at introducing short, simple, large type words on every page and then modeling the words in a sentence. For example, 'UP'    'PUP'    Pup is up.  The book also does a very good job at modeling the words in upper and lower case as well, which helps new readers get used to both forms like 'Go, Dog! Go!' the book introduces spatial concepts such as height (small, tall), color (red, brown, black), etc. The drawings are very interesting and bright and give clues to decoding the text. After reading this book, you will realize that this book Is funny, weird in a good way and fun to read. I would recommend this book for any child from age 1 and up, especially for children beginning to read at ages 4 or 5.

Rate: 4 out of 5