Abuela

Author: Arthur Dorros

Title: Abuela

Illustrator: Elisa Kleven

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Bilingual fiction

Theme: Family, immigration, love

Primary character: A little girl

Secondary character: Her grandmother

Awards: ALA Notable Children's Book, Parent's Choice Gold Award

Date of Publication: 1991

Publication Company: Puffin

Summary: While riding on a bus through Manhattan with her grandmother, a little girl imagines that they are carried up into the sky and fly over the sights of New York City, in an evocative study of the loving bond between child and grandparent.

Use with students:  Students could draw their own family trees and list family names in both English and Spanish (ex. brother -hermano, sister -hermana). They could used an online translator to look up words.  Have students imagine they are flying over their city or neighborhood and draw what they would see. They could write a paragraph to go along with it.

The Mitten

Author: Jan Brett

Title: The Mitten

Illustrator: Jan Brett

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Holidays

Theme: Lost gloves

Primary character: Nicki

Secondary character: Baba

Awards: none

Date of Publication: 1989

Publication Company: Putnam Juvenile

Summary: The main character of the story, Nicki, looses one of his white mittens in the snow. His grandmother, Baba, warned him this would happen before she made them for him. After he lost the mitten, all kinds of animals moved into the mitten to keep warm.

Use with students:  The book can be used with lessons involving winter and winter-related clothing.

No, David!

Author: David Shannon

Title: No, David!

Illustrator: David Shannon

Genre: Picture book

Subgenre: Humor

Theme: right and wrong

Primary Characters: David

Secondary characters: His mother

Awards: Caldcott Honor

Date of publication: 1998

Publishing company: Scholastic

Summary: No, David! is about a mischievous little boy named David, who is constantly getting in trouble. HIs mother tells him "no" many many times until the very end of the book. At the end, David's mother finally tells him, "Yes, David... I Love You!" 

Use with Students: Have them now make up their own story using their own name as the title. For example it may be title, "No, Jose!" or "No, Marissa!" Then have them write their own things they've been told not to do and illustrate this new book.

The Giving Tree

Author: Shel Silverstein

Title: The Giving Tree

Illustrator: Shel Silverstein

Genre: Picture book

Subgenre: poetry

Theme: selflessless

Primary Characters: The tree

Secondary characters: The boy

Awards: none

Date of publication: 1986

Publishing company: HarperCollins

Summary: The tree gives the boy branches to swing on and apples to eat, until the boy gets older he wants more and more.  The tree continues to give and give and finally the tree allows the boy to cut it down to make a boat.  The tree becomes sad that to boy is gone, but soon the boy comes back to use the stump.

Use with Students: I would use this book in order to teach selfishness/selflessness.  I think this book does a great job in teaching to be kind to nature as well.

Thanks to My Mother

Author: Schoschana Rabinovici

Title: Thanks to My Mother

Illustrator: none

Genre: Non-fiction

Subgenre: Biography

Theme: patriotic

Primary Characters: Susie Weksler

Secondary characters: Her mother

Awards: Mildred L. Batchelder Winner

Date of publication: 2000

Publishing company: Puffin

Summary: Susie Weksler was only eight in 1941 when Hitler's forces invaded her Lithuanian city of Vilnius, a great center for Jewish learning and culture. Soon her family would face hunger and fear in the Jewish ghetto - but worse was to come. When the ghetto was cleared out, some Jews were selected for forced labor camps; the rest were killed. Susie would live - because of the courage of her mother. It was her mother who carried Susie, hidden in a backpack, to the group destined for the labor camps; who disguised her as an adult in makeup and turban to fool the camp guards; who fed her body and soul through gruesome conditions in three concentration camps and a winter "death march"; who showed her the power of the human spirit to endure.

Use with Students: I would use this in a unit about the Holocaust for older students. I think students would really enjoy getting into something like this about a girl that was their age and the courage a mother had.

When Marian Sang

Author: Pam Munoz Ryan

Title: When Marian Sang

Illustrator: Brian Selznick

Genre: Non-fiction

Subgenre: biography

Theme: racial equality

Primary Characters: Marian Anderson

Secondary characters: none

Awards: Robert F. Sibert Honor Book and Orbis Pictus Winner

Date of publication: 2002

Publishing company: Scholastic

Summary: This is an introduction into the life, struggles and accomplishments of one of the world's greatest singers, Marian Anderson. She is best known for her historic concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, which drew an unprecedented integrated crowd in a pre-Civil Rights America. 

Use with Students: I would use this in a unit of reading biographies about brave individuals.

Tar Beach

Author: Faith Ringgold

Title: Tar Beach

Illustrator: Faith Ringgold

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: cultural

Theme: race, discrimination, class

Primary Characters: Cassie

Secondary characters: BeBe, her brother

Awards: Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Winner

Date of publication: 1996

Publishing company: Random House Children's Books

Summary: Main character Cassie has such a wild imagination, and she uses it to get her through the tough times in life. She tries to put that imagination to use to help her family through oppression. Cassie has big dreams of owning the building her father actually helped construct. Her favorite place is the rooftop which ironically is covered in tar.

Use with students: Compare and contrast Cassie's life on Tar Beach in the city, with your life. How does Cassie try to make her dreams come true?

A Wrinkle in Time

Author: Madeleine L’Engle

Title: A Wrinkle in Time

Illustrator: Leo and Diane Dillon

Genre: Chapter Book

Subgenre: Science Fiction

Theme: good vs. evil, conformity

Primary character: Meg Murry, Charles Wallace, Calvin O’Keefe

Secondary character: Meg’s mother, father and brothers

Awards: Newberry

Date of Publication: 2001

Publication Company: Square Fish

Summary: A Wrinkle in Time is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe.  They are in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.

Use with students:  This book would be great to use with older students.  They could read 2 chapters a week, and then sepdn one day a week discussing it.  There are also several chapters that could be used cross-curriculum, in math.

The Borrowers

Author: Mary Norton

Title: The Borrowers

Illustrator: none

Genre: Chapter Book

Subgenre: Fantasy

Theme: freedom

Primary character: Pod, Homily

Secondary character: Arrietty

Awards: none

Date of Publication: 2003

Publication Company: Odyssey Classics

Summary: A family of “borrowers” lives in a quiet country house in England. They live under the floorboards. Their one great fear is of being seen by human beings. One day Arrietty, the borrowers’ daughter, meets a human being boy who is visiting the house and a unique friendship develops.

Use with students:  This book would be great to use with older students.  They could learn vocabulary in the book, as well as, write an essay imagining himself or herself as a “borrower” in someone’s home.  What would you use as a pillow if you were only inches tall?? 

Heidi

Author: Johanna Spyri

Title: Heidi

Illustrator: none

Genre: Chapter Book

Subgenre: Family

Theme: optimisim

Primary character: Heidi, Grandfather

Secondary character: Aunt Dete, Peter

Awards: none

Date of Publication: 1998

Publication Company: Children's Classics

Summary When Heidi is five years old, her aunt Dete brings Heidi to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. Grandfather has lived by himself, angry with everyone, but he becomes fond of Heidi. Heidi becomes friends with Peter, the goatherd, and goes with him up the mountains everyday as he tends to the goats. She also becomes friends with Peter's blind grandmother. Heidi grows to love living in the mountains.