Han, Jenny. (2009). The Summer I Turned Pretty. New York: Simon and Schuster.

The Summer I Turned Pretty is the first book in a trilogy that follows Belly as she deals with growing up. First of all, her parents are divorced, which a lot of middle school girls can relate to. Belly is also caught in the middle of a love triangle and must decide between two brothers by the end of the trilogy, which every girl wants to experience since Twilight came out. Belly struggles with the fact that as she gets older- and prettier- she must deal with tougher situations like an old family friend passing away.

Many middle school aged girls live with situations and circumstances very similar to Belly’s and could be very relatable to a large portion of the target audience. Jenny Han has written many different series involving middle and high school girls that are realistic fiction and appeal to all types of girls. Because Belly seems like a very real person, a lot of girls can relate to her. The cover of the book is an older girl with two older boys in the background that would appeal to a high school girl’s mindset, but the content and easy reading appeals more to the middle school audience.

In a classroom, I would use the first book of this trilogy as a literature circle book for the girls in the class while having the boys read a book like My Side of the Mountain or Wild Man Island to bond and share interests. I think a lot of students lose their connection with classmates over the summer and need a couple of weeks to get it back together.

Geronimo Stilton: The Haunted Castle by Edzioni Piemme

Piemme, Edzioni. (2007). Geronimo Stilton: The Haunted Castle. Illustrated by Claudio Cernushi and Valentina Grassini. New York: Scholastic.

A comedic graphic novel, Geronimo Stilton: The Haunted Castle,  is one of a series of many books that follow a mouse journalist as he uncovers mysteries throughout his country, mostly by merely stumbling upon them. In my last internship, I saw one of the fifth grade students reading several different Geronimo Stilton books throughout the semester. Near the end of the semester, I asked her what she liked about them. She told me that they were easy AR points, they were funny, the pictures were great, they always had a good message, and you did not have to read the books in order. Having not even heard of the Geronimo Stilton books before spending time with this fifth grade class, I decided to read one myself for this blog. Everything she told me about the books was true!

Piemme takes the reader on a journey to a supposedly haunted castle for a secret ceremony for an unheard of relative that all turns out to be a fake scheme for one of the oldest relative to take possession of the castle and scare everyone so much that they don’t look into the situation too much. The story goes on to a giant two-mouse-family gathering where two mice- one from each family- fall in love with each other and get married, all told through Geronimo Stilton’s hilarious perspective. The reader can get a feel for the other characters’ personalities and habits because of Piemme’s easy wording and the graphic illustrations.

The illustrations on every page help guide the reader in understanding the mood of the story at any given point and the comedy of the moment. Claudio Cernushi was responsible for the pencil and ink portion of the illustrations and Valentina Grassini provided the color that really brought the pictures to life for the reader.

I think graphic novels like these Geronimo Stilton books are especially good for students who are struggling to read on grade level. I thought it would take me some time to read the 102 page chapter book, but it actually only took me an hour. The illustrations on every page make the reader, especially a struggling reader, think that they are reading a lot more than they actually are. This can be a great confidence booster in any classroom.

How to Get a Girlfriend by students of the American International School of Zagreb, Croatia

Senior Kindergarten Students of the American International School of Zagreb, Croatia- Leo Dzuver, Alexander Hald, Matej Crnogorac. (2015). How to Get a Girlfriend. New York: Scholastic.

In 1986, the Kids Are Authors competition was established to help encourage children to read and write stories of their own. Every year, parents and teachers submit completed boos written and illustrated by children to participate in this competition. Several books are chosen as winners and are published by Scholastic, who sells the published books at book fairs across the country. How to Get a Girlfriend was written and illustrated by several kindergarteners at the American International School of Zagreb, Croatia to let “grownups and kids [know that] if [they] want a girlfriend, then [they’ll] need to read this book.”

This book is so genuine because it was written and illustrated by children. The fact that is was produced by kindergarteners shows that children from a very early age appreciate the written word and take pride in their own work as well.

The children who illustrated How to Get a Girlfriend used pencil for the outlines and hair of their drawings and crayons and markers to color them in. It seems that even the text was written in crayon. If I did not know otherwise, it would be like holding the original copy of the story in my hands, which invites in a lot of readers, especially young readers.

If I were to use this book in my future classroom- which I seriously would!- I would use it as an example for other students to use. In one of my recent classes, Dr. Ryan- the professor of that and this course- asked us to write and illustrate a story of our own, which we all published in the classroom. I think this is a great project for students of any age and grade because everyone has a story to tell and it teaches them about the writing process as well as appreciation of others’ work and of their own.

How to Speak Dolphin by Ginny Rorby

Rorby, Ginny. (2015). How to Speak Dolphin. New York: Scholastic.

When I was looking for books to read for my blog, I was asking people for recommendations and one of my previous internship teachers was raving about this book she had found at the book fair the school had just had. How to Speak Dolphin  is a touching story of how a twelve year old girl, Lily, deals with her challenging four year old autistic brother Adam while her stepfather struggles with accepting Adam’s condition. Meanwhile, a baby dolphin is found sick and is sent to a rehabilitation center. When Don, Lily’s stepfather, finally rolls around to finding treatment for Adam, he is asked to help the baby dolphin, Nori, get better. Don finds that Adam is the happiest he has ever been around Nori and Don tries to keep Nori from returning home for Adam’s sake. The story continues to follow Lily and her family as they find more ways to help Adam and as Lily struggles with the hope that Nori will be returned to her family in the ocean.

This book serves many purposes; not only does Ginny Rorby shed light on how autism can affect people and their families, but it also shows younger kids how animals-especially dolphins- are kept in captivity. People do not think much about what happens behind the scenes at centers that provide swim-with dolphin session and dolphin shows, but How to Speak Dolphin brings it out into the open and really makes the reader think twice about it. Rorby really put passion into informing the masses.

Seeing the world through Lily’s eyes also makes the reader think about the problems they have to deal with every day and how they find solutions to those problems. Lily has her brother’s future practically on her shoulders and must conquer her fears to make his life better.  Each chapter brings a new way to empathize with Lily. Rorby did an excellent job of bringing this fictional girl’s mind to life. Rorby’s language and writing style allows the fourth to fifth grade target audience to easily to easily follow the storyline and empathize with all of the characters. The front cover depicts a young boy and girl sitting in a boat and reaching out to a dolphin, which invites potential readers in.

I really enjoyed this book and would use it in a fourth or fifth grade classroom. As I take more classes in learning how to be a good teacher, I think of the kinds of assignments I would give my future students. I would use How to Speak Dolphin for a writing assignment/ project that asked students to find a fiction book that was fun to read (the life of a twelve year old girl) and also had a real underlying issue (treatment of animals in captivity). Then I would have them write about it: did they learn anything about the real world issue? How do they feel about that issue? Etc.

The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle

Carle, Eric. (1990). The Very Quiet Cricket. Illustrated by Eric Carle. New York: Philomel Books

The Very Quiet Cricket begins with a baby cricket hatching out of its shell. The first creature he meets is another cricket who communicates with him by rubbing his wings together. The baby cricket tries to communicate back, but nothing happens when he rubs his wings together. As the story progresses, the baby cricket meets more bugs who say kind things to him, but he is still not able to say anything back to them. With each passing page, the reader can see that the cricket is growing bigger and bigger until the very last pages. Finally, after seeming to meet the entire bug community, the cricket happens upon another cricket that also seems to be very quiet. He starts rubbing his wings together and they make sound! This specific book is wired to make cricket noises when the last page is turned to reveal the cricket talking to the new cricket he meets.

Eric Carle is an amazing illustrator and I love his books! He uses a collage style with painted tissue paper and finger painting to create a believable look into a bug’s life as he meets the other bugs around him. Each bug is multicolored and has different textures to really make the reader look at the details of the picture. Eric Carle also uses predictable text to help younger readers along with the story and facilitate the reading process. I saw this book being used in action with a class of three-year-olds and they were reading along with the teacher because the same words were being said over and over again. The kids absolutely love the pictures and are always interrupting the reading to point out something they like or notice in the picture, like how the suns and moons almost always have faces or how long the antennae are on the bugs.

Because I love Eric Carle books so much, I would definitely do an Eric Carle unit in a younger classroom like kindergarten or first grade. It may be a little childish for me to read any and every Eric Carle book I see, but I know kids really respond to his work. So much could be done with Eric Carle pieces like collage artwork, creative writing assignments, and so much more!

The Story of My Feelings by Laurie Berkner

Berkner, Laurie. (1999). The Story of My Feelings. Illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church. New York: Orchard Books

The Story of My Feelings is just that, a story of my feelings. Not just my feelings, but everyone’s feelings! Every person feels emotions and people need to be aware that the world is not just about them; one person is not the only one with feelings. The Story of My Feelings gives the reader insight to how one little girl is feeling, what happens when she feels that way, and what happens when she is finished feeling that way. For example, when the little girl is sad, she cries. The little girl then feels better after she cries and then she goes on to laugh and be happy and feels even better.

Caroline Jayne Church uses a variety of media to illustrate this book. She uses a collage format with different textures and outlined in ink to separate items and/ or colors. The illustrations really bring to life the emotions that the little girl is talking about. When she is happy or feels better, there is a sunny day with flowers and the little girl playing with her puppy. When the little girl is yelling, an explosion is shown that the little girl is standing far away from, showing that she does not like to yell and that she knows that yelling is loud and can sometimes hurt things or people who are too close to the explosion. The illustrations can even help the reader guess what emotion is being pictured without reading the words, especially if a child is learning how to read. The illustrations really make the reader think about what their own emotions would look like if they were drawn and colored.

Laurie Berkner uses repetitive text to help younger children learn how to read. It can also help students learn how to express themselves. Oftentimes, children who like to read are inspired to write their own stories. This story of feelings ay inspire younger children to write or draw their feelings, especially if they cannot express their feelings in a social way. It may even teach children about how to deal with their feelings. The little girl feels better after she cries, laughs, yells, and sighs, so other children may feel that way too and recognize it.

A lot of young children have no problem expressing their feelings, but children who are starting to grow up may close in on themselves and start to believe that only they feel a certain way because they fight to express it. This book would be a great wordless book activity for children to participate in. Wordless books are “wordless” and are only made up of pictures, leaving the reader to sort of make up their own story based on what they see in the illustrations. Children could draw their feelings and put the drawings together in a book. They can show what they see or how they think they look when they feel certain emotions.

It's Not Easy Being a Bunny by Marilyn Sadler

Sadler, Marilyn. (1983). It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny. Illustrated by Roger Bollen. New York: Random House, Inc. 39 p.

Many children struggle with the idea of being who they are. P.J. Funnybunny is no different! It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny follows a young bunny, P.J., as he tries to become something that he is not, something that is not a bunny. P.J. is tired of being a bunny because he thinks he has way too many siblings, his ears are too long, and he does not enjoy eating carrots every day so he leaves his home in search of a better animal to be. He tries to be a bear, but he does not like it because bears sleep in the winter and he cannot sleep. As the story goes on, P.J. tries to be a bird, a beaver, a pig, a moose, a possum, and a skunk, but he finds that nothing is as great as being who he really is- a bunny! P.J. discovers what it means to be yourself and that nothing is as good as that!

Roger Bollen uses a creative mix of ink drawings and watercolor to bring P.J. and his adventures to life. Each page gets funnier and funnier as P.J. attempts to be a different animal. P.J. is welcomed into each different animal family, but then something in the animals’ nature send him away like pigs loving mud and skunks being stinky. It is nice to see how happy P.J. is when he starts living with the new animals, but then figures out that there is something just not right about it. Bollen really brings out the comedy of the story!

Marilyn Sadler does an amazing job of showing children through text how unhappy someone can be by pretending they are someone they are not. It is so obvious to see the P.J. does not really belong with the bears or possums, but Sadler voices that thoughts in P.J.’s head that the audience can read about. Here easy-to-read text allows students to really grasp what it means to go on a self-defining journey that helps them to understand that who they are is the best person they can be. She also uses predictable text and rhyming words that can help students who are learning to read.

This is a great story to read to children from a very early age so they can grasp the message and then read over and over again to reinforce it. In a second or third grade classroom, I would use this book to introduce a creative writing project: students would write a short story about what or who they would be if they could be anything but themselves. At the end of the story they would write all of the great things about being who they are and why they wouldn’t really want to be any of the previously mentioned things; it is a project that they could get totally crazy with, but would still get a point across. It would also be a great illustration opportunity (I love, love, love when students illustrate their own work!). 

Bluebird's Nest by Dorothea DePrisco

DePrisco, Dorothea. (2005). Bluebird’s Nest. Illustrated by Jo Parry. Inglewood: Piggy Toes Press. 16 p.

This charming story of a bluebird building her nest throughout the year with the help of her friends will stick with readers as they think about what it takes to build not only a home, but a community as well. The story begins with a bluebird thinking about her next “project” and moves on to show her friends giving her the different components of a nest to build for her eggs. It shows the community among the other animals in the story that they are all willing to help build a home for Bluebird. The phrase “it takes a village to raise a child” comes to mind as I think “it takes a forest to build a nest.” It is a classic story of how accepting help from others can help to guide you along your way.

Jo Parry uses a variety of mediums in this book. The primary medium is the background on the pages, which is created using what looks like paint of a canvas. These pictures a really beautiful because there is so much more to look at than just Bluebird and the nest, like the wind blowing the leaves off of the tree in autumn and the meadow that contains Bluebird’s tree. Other mediums include the yarn sewn into the pages to show the nest growing with everything added and pop ups attached to the pages to show how big Bluebird’s nest becomes and the family she was able to hatch in it. On the pages with yarn, the reader can move the yarn to see her eggs and the other items put into the nest by Bluebird’s friends.

DePrisco’s easy text allows students to listen and examine to beautiful illustrations at the same time. This is a great story to use in a younger classroom, from pre-kindergarten to first grade, to teach the valuable lessons of cooperation and hard work. Students will enjoy watching Bluebird’s nest grow. The story also allows children to guess what she is building at the beginning of the story, since it starts out as Bluebird’s project. Then we see the Bluebird’s friends bringing her nest items and watch as her nest takes shape. This story would also be great for buddy reading in a first grade classroom or if older students come in and read to the younger students.

I have seen this story used in a 3 year old classroom and the students absolutely loved it! For their art project that day, they built their own little nests on a big piece of paper to take home. They wanted to use the yarn like the book did, but we didn’t quite have time for that!