Firework-Maker’s Daughter

Author:  Philip Pullman

Genre:  Multicultural and International Literature, Chapter Book

This story is about a young girl and her father who is a firework-maker.  The setting seems to be in Asia, possibly Thailand.  The culture is that the country is ruled by a king.  The white elephant is valued as something sacred so it is owned by the king.  The ancient belief is that it costs a lot of money to keep a white elephant so when the king needs to punish someone in his kingdom, he makes them care for the white elephant and feed it and pay for things for the elephant like it is royalty.  The young girl wants to be a firework-maker like her father, but he thinks that is nonsense and she should find a husband and that a firework-maker is not for a girl.  The girl, Lila, finds out that she must go to Mount Merapi and get Royal Sulphur to become a firework-maker.  She goes on this dangerous adventure alone.  Her friend, Hamlet, who can talk to the white elephant and is its personal keeper saves her with magic water she should have taken with her if she had talked to her father.  While on this adventure, her father has been put in prison by the king because he helped the white elephant and Hamlet leave to find Lila.  She goes back and the king says she and her father have to create a firework display in a competition that makes the crowd yell loudest for them to save her father’s life.  They work together and they do win the competition.  Her father apologizes for not helping her be a firework-maker and tells her about the three gifts to be a firework-maker which she did possess.

This book would be a book to have students read a chapter each day.  We would discuss what was important to the Asian culture in each chapter each day.  For example, why her father didn’t want her to be a firework-maker?  What was the holiday they celebrated with fireworks?  For each chapter we would use the computer to look up something about the Asian culture.  We would keep a class chart till we finished the book.  Then I would have the students imagine that they were a firework-maker and draw a picture of a firework display they would like to create to share with the class.  The back of the book has a section on the white elephant and why they are sacred.  It also has a section on how fireworks are made and how they differ in other countries.  Also, this book could be related to units in science and the study of reactions using different chemicals.

Marianthe's Story: Painted Words and Spoken Memories

Author:  Aliki

Genre:  Multicultural and International Literature

This book has 2 stories in one.  The book tells the story of a child who was brought to a new country.  She has to deal with a new school, new culture, and a new language.  The girls name was Marianthe.  She dreaded the day starting a new school and not knowing anyone or how to speak to them.  Her mother supports her and tells her to use her body and art to talk versus speaking.  The first story talks about how Marianthe eventually starts to learn English and that it is becoming familiar to her, but she is able to tell her story through art.  The second story is about the same girl.  She tells a story in class to her classmates about where she is from and what she went through.  She talks about the famine and how her younger brother died.  It was a very sad story and when she was finished the teacher, Mr. Petrie, said “Welcome to your new life.”  The book doesn’t really say where she is from but just emphasizes the struggles someone from another country, culture and language go through.

This book was so touching to me that I teared up reading the second story.  I would definitely have my students read this book.  We would then use Wordle to describe how the book made us feel.  I then would have a discussion about how people come from different places and we should never judge someone or make fun of them because they look different or may not understand us.  I would use the term that Marianthe’s mother used in the first story and ask my class how can you “talk with your hands?”  I would do an activity where the class broke up into small groups and each student told a story ONLY using their hands.  And then I would ask the class as a whole to voice how hard it was to talk with only using your hands?  A person that can’t speak our language is going through that battle each day.  This lesson would relate to most classrooms today due to the fact that there is a growing number of students in the classrooms today that may not know English or know very little.

Link: Example Wordle description

The Drinking Gourd: A Story of the Underground Railroad

Link: The Drinking Gourd using Presi!

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly – The Diary of Patsy, A Freed Girl

Author:  Joyce Hansen
Genre:  Realistic or Historical Fiction; Chapter Book

This book was a diary of Patsy who was a young black slave girl that lived on Davis Plantation in Mars Bluff, South Carolina.  The diary began in April 1865.  She had been brought to the plantation with a group of slaves that had been purchased but none of the slaves in that group seemed to have been her parents.  Most slaves worked in the fields and were assigned to the field.  Only a few were assigned to The House.  Patsy was in The House but did not think she was special because she had to take care of Annie and Charles who were her Master’s brother’s children and she also was a helper that carried water or helped the Cook, laundress and cleaner.  Patsy walked with a limp so she was slow at chores.  She also stuttered when she spoke so she was very quiet most of the time and everyone thought she was slow or dimwitted.  Annie and Charles would play school with Patsy and pretend to teach but they called Patsy the dunce and said that she couldn’t learn.  But, in fact, Patsy was learning.  When Annie and Charles’ teacher came to teach them to read, Patsy would sit in the room pretending to dust or act like she didn’t understand, but she did and Patsy learned to read this way but kept it a secret.  When the North won the Civil War, the slaves were freed.  But the slaves didn’t feel free because there were rules about not having work or a place to stay so most slaves were forced to stay with their owners for minimum pay.  With the changes from slavery to freedom, Patsy was able to let the other former slaves on the plantation know she could read and she began to feel important as she read the newspapers to the other slaves and began to teach the others to read.  As the former slaves were leaving the plantation, she wrote about how she felt when each family that left.  By January 1866, she was able to get the education she wanted and she returned to Mars Bluff to teach and married one of the other former slaves she had mentioned in her diary entries.  When the slaves were freed, they had to find a last name and most slaves had taken their Master’s last name.  Patsy decided to replace her name with Phyllis Frederick because each name was a former slave that wanted to read and became writers.

I would use this book as an assigned book to read over a few weeks.  I would have the class read the Epilogue first, and go over this information first.  I would have the class draw a timeline or fact chart outlining what was happening at this time from the Epilogue and refer to it while reading the days in the diary.  I think this would make it easier for the class to understand what Patsy was thinking and help students understand what was happening at the end of the Civil War.  This book would be a great book to read while in the Civil War unit during social studies/history.



Solo Girl

Author:  Andrew Davis Pinkney

Genre:  Realistic or Historical Fiction, Chapter Book

This book was about a girl named Cass that just moved into a new area with her foster mother (Ma Lettie) and her twin brothers Jackson and Bud.  She had the "gift of numbers.”  That is what Ma Lettie called it.  She knew the multiplication tables like the back of her hand.  She had a whistle that she carried around all the time that she won during a math bee at her old school.  She would go to Haskins Row to watch the Fast Feet Four do the double dutch jump with two ropes and she wished she could do the double dutch jump with one rope, thinking her feet could never be fast enough for two ropes.  Her brothers came up with a rhythm for her to whistle to so it would help her get her jumping rhythm.  Her brothers came up with the name "solo girl" because she only used one rope to jump to and it stuck with her till the end.  She then ran into the leader of the "Fast Feet Four" named Pearl and noticed that she was “slowmo” at math. “Slowmo” was Pearls word for not getting something quickly.  So Pearl and Cass made a deal.  If Pearl taught her how to double dutch jump, Cass would teach her the times tables.  It took Cass a while to learn to double dutch jump but at the end of the book Cass jumps in the double dutch jump whistling to her tune and everyone was stunned at how good the new girl was.  Pearl asked her to be part of the Fast Feet Four and she accepted and they became the Fast Feet Five.

After reading this book aloud, I would discuss with the class how this shows that everyone has something special they are good at doing.  I will have the students talk about how they can use each other’s strengths to work together the way Cass was needed to help Pearl with her times tables.  I would also use this as an example that anyone can do something if they truly set their mind to it and work hard for it.  I will ask the students to draw a picture of something that they are best at to share with the class.

Your Mother Was a Neanderthal – The Time Warp Trio

Author:  Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith

Genre:  Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction, Chapter Book

This is a great fantasy and modern science book with a lot of humor and some math.  The Time Warp Trio (Fred, Sam and Joe) travel forward and backwards in time using a book that Joe’s uncle had given him.  The trio decided to travel back to 40,000 B.C. to the caveman days.  They thought that modern tools and communications would make them look like they were magical and they would be kings in this time.  But what they didn’t plan for was that when they time traveled none of the things they wanted to use to be magical, including the book to get them back, did not go with them.  They landed in 40,000 B.C. with no clothes, only a hat and straw.  In their adventure they ran from what they thought was a dinosaur but turned out to be amazon women in disguise and a saber tooth tiger.  They also came across some cavemen as well.  The cavemen and women did not work together.  They ended up getting the men and women together by showing them how to use a fulcrum to move a heavy rock.  The leader of the cave women looked a lot like Joe’s mother.  The cave woman leader led them deep into a cave with drawings on the wall that helped them get back to their modern time.  Back in their own time, Joe’s mother let them know she was the one who gave the time travel book to her brother who gave it to Joe and that she knew all about the travels and that she was the cave women they had run into.

After reading aloud, I would use this book in connection to introducing multiplication and how it can be used in life.  All through the book, the trio made calculations and referred to math and Archimedes (the Greek mathematician).  They also calculated how many miles someone walks in 4 hours if they walk 2.5 miles per hour.  The trio were actually doing math homework when they decided to time travel.  I would have the class write a story about what era they would time travel to and how things would look to them there.  They would need to list how the clothes, food, tools, communication and transportation are in the period that traveled to.  They would draw a picture to share with the class about what time in the future or past they traveled to.

Tron Legacy

Author:  Adapted by Alice Alfonsi

Genre:  Moden Fantasy and science Fiction, Chapter Book

Tron is about a guy whose father, Kevin Flynn, disappeared when he was a little boy, Sam Flynn, around age 7.  His father worked for a company that makes computer games and was a very successful computer programmer.  Sam remembers his father would tell him computer stories of the digital world of computer games and then go off to work.  One day he just disappeared and did not return after he left for work.  For the next 20 years Sam was filled with resentment towards his father’s company, with which his father had left him as the major shareholder of so he had plenty of money to live on.  On the anniversary of his father’s disappearance, Sam would play some type of prank on the company.  One of Kevin’s companions who helped raise Sam after Kevin disappeared received a page number on his pager.  The number was an arcade his father owned which had been out of business for 20 years.  Sam thought this might be a sign that his father was alive so he went to the abandoned arcade to look for clues.  Sam found a secret lab under the old digital game “Tron.”  There he was whisked into the digital world.  There were programs (which are what digital people are called) trying to kill him there and take over the world outside of the digital world.  He found his father and they stopped the evil program, Clu, who was trying to take over the world and end the human race.

This book may take a little while to read.  I would read one chapter and ask the students to read the next chapter for homework and discussion the next day.  We would discuss what has happened at the end of each chapter to make sure students were on track.  At the end of the book, I would have the class write a story finishing this prompt.  “One day I was at the computer playing my favorite computer game when I fell in the computer, then… “  They would draw a picture to share with the class about what the digital world they fell into looked like.  This story could relate to computer classes when studying modern technology.

Star Wars Adventures in Hyperspace: Fire Ring Race

Author:  Ryder Windham

Genre:  Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction

Hans Solo and Chewbacca made their living transporting things in space for money or credits as they called it.  After Hans and Chewbacca sell Jabba some worms that they said were extremely hard to get (actually they had gotten them for free), he hires them to pick up some type of silk from the planet Fornax and bring it back to him.  The story humorously describes a princess that they run into who is there for her wedding.  Then they wittingly get the silk from the storage unit but before they can leave the Fornax station, the chief of security stops them and accuses them of smuggling.  The security searches their ship and comes out with the bag they had taken Jabba’s silk back to the ship in filled with the princess’ wedding gown.  He was holding them for stealing her dress which was valuable.  The chief also wanted whatever they had come there for because he thought they did take something else but couldn’t figure it out.  They made their way to their ship by automatically having the ship fire on the security droids.  They had an adventurous escape with the security chasing them.  They had to maneuver through the fire rings that surrounded the planet Fornax, which was very dangerous, to finally win the battle.  They tricked the chief of security into saying that they hadn’t stolen the wedding dress and he had planted it on them over the intercom so the Fornax authority could hear.  They returned the dress and left with their cargo for Jabba and completed their job for Jabba.

Before reading the story I would ask how many students had seen the Star Wars movies.  I would explain that this story was before Hans Solo had joined the group against the Empire in the movies.  I would the read story aloud over a few days.  At the end of each day I would have the students write what they thought would happen next when we read more of the story the next day.  We would share what they thought would happen next in class before reading more each day.  This story can relate to science lessons about space and galaxies and can be a read aloud when in that unit.

Follow the Butterfly Stream



Author:  Lorenz Boyd

Genre:  Nonfiction

This nonfiction book is about a stream called “the butterfly stream.”  The narrator talks about how the stream looks right after winter and how pure and beautiful the water is.  The narrator explains how the stream flows through the mountains and through the forest and how other little streams feed into it and make it stronger.  The narrator tells the reader to stop and imagine the Cherokee children playing in the water and chasing around yellow-winger tiger swallowtails and says you can almost hear the children yelling “KAMama,” which means butterfly in Cherokee.  There is a description of what a yellow-winged tiger swallowtail butterfly looks like, how it mates, what happens after they mate, and how it lays eggs.  The book gives information on different parts of nature by the stream such as a big boulder by saying that everything has its place and this boulder was from the Ice Age.  Rivers from the ice glaciers carried the boulder down to the stream.  Different plants like to sprout on the boulder because they like high moist soil and require less soil to grow.  Then the book goes back to talk about butterflies and describes how a butterfly is born.  Eggs hatch to caterpillar and from a caterpillar they form a cocoon and after the cocoon the shell cracks and out comes a wet butterfly.  It will dry before it can take flight.  The narrator goes over other insects that live in the butterfly stream, such as dragonflies and damselflies.  The book describes dragon flies rest with their wings spread and damselflies rest with their wings closed.  Some butterflies migrate south for the winter and others have other ways of managing the cold.

I would have the class read this book in class.  After reading, I would have my students talk to a friend about what they learned about the butterfly stream.  I would give them a minute or two.  I would then have my students “talk back” to the book by writing questions down that they have for the author about what they are curious about.  The book covered a lot of information about butterflies but I will lead discussion about other curiosities in conjunctions with a stream and nature.  I would persuade my students to notice how diverse such a small community (the stream) can be.  This book can be read in conjunction with an insect unit in science.

Food From the Sun: How Plants Live and Grow

Author:  Harriet Brown

Genre:  Nonfiction, Chapter Book

This book is about the process in which plants go through to grow fully.  The book talks about each specific part of the plant and what it does.  It goes through what photosynthesis is and how it helps plants grow.  Each plant had its own specific way of growing and the book does a good job of noting that and having great pictures to support it.  The book also talks about how important soil is to plants and how it contributes to a plant’s growth.  This book has chapters in it that talk about each aspect of a plant’s life.  This book reminds me of a mini textbook because of the chapters it has and a glossary in the back and the content. 

I would tie this book in with science in my classroom when studying living organisms.   After reading aloud, I would use one of the experiments in the book with flowers.  I will get some white flowers for the class and have a couple flowers for 3 or 4 groups in the class.  I would have them put the flower in a cup of water with blue or various food coloring in it.  When the white pedals turn the color of the water, this will show that the water is moving up the stem.  After doing this experiment, I would have my student reflect in an academic notebook and talk about why the flower pedals changed colors and at least one other fact they learned from the book about plants that they didn’t know before.  Each student would share what they learned new.

Look Closer -- Bugs A Close-Up Look at Insects and Their Relatives

Author:  Sue Malyan

Genre:  Nonfiction

The book goes from going over different types of bugs to how some bugs may look innocent but are really poisonous.  Some bugs have spikes on them to protect them.  An interesting fact I learned about caterpillars is that they only use their first 6 legs for walking and the rest are used for suction cups to hold on.  In this book it also explains how grasshoppers chirp using their long legs.  It also explained that a scorpion’s stinger is strong enough to kill a human, so I will stay out of its way!  A dragon fly’s wing beats about 20 times every second.  This book explained flying bugs to ground bugs.  Other facts include that some bugs lay their eggs and leave their young to fend for themselves but some bugs stick around and defend their young till they can fend for themselves.  Look Closer covers a lot a good and interesting facts about bugs.

I would use this book to begin a science unit on insects.  I would capture a grasshopper or caterpillar to have in class for the students to look at when we came to their section in the book.  After reading aloud, I would then go outside to try to find some of the other bugs mentioned.  This would be a great learning experience and keep the students engaged.  If we couldn’t find any of the other bugs mentioned, we can still set the few bugs we had in class free.  Also, I would use this to build on information.  I will have each student pick a bug from the book and look up more information about it on the computer.  Each student would make a poster of facts about their bug and draw a picture of the bug.  We would post those in the room.

There’s A Wolf at the Door

Author:  Retold by Zoe B. Alley and pictures by R.W. Alley

Genre:  Graphic Novel

This comic panel story is retold in a little bit of different perspective.  This book combines five traditional stories which are The Three Little Pigs, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and The Wolf and the Seven Little Goslings.  The comic reveals the names of the three little pigs (Alan, Gordon and Blake).  This story connects all the stories together by the wolf giving up on the three little pigs and suddenly sees sheep so he wants to try to eat one of them.  Then it jumps to the story about The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf.  The shepherd, Barry, was so bored and wanted companionship so he cried wolf.  The whole town came to kill the wolf but Barry admitted that there wasn’t a wolf, but little did he know the big bad wolf was waiting in the forest planning his attack.  He then wanted attention again and cries that there is a wolf again when he hadn’t seen the wolf yet.  The town comes and finds out again there was not a wolf and angrily they walk away.  Then the wolf attacks.  Barry screams but no one comes.  The clever sheep threw a huge boulder at the wolf and it chased him away.  He then runs into the forest and the story switches to Little Red Riding Hood.  Rhonda (red riding hood) was obsessed with the color red and was very selfish and her life revolved around red clothes.  Her parents sent her on a job to give her grandmother cookies in hopes to make Rhonda feel good about doing something considerate.  When she got in the dark forest the wolf jumped out and he complimented her on her outfit and they walked together to granny’s house.  Rhonda stopped to pick flowers for her hair and the wolf ran ahead and scared the grandma out of her house.  The wolf dressed as her granny and hid in the bed.  Rhonda figured out it was the wolf and threw her red heels at the wolf and ripped his clothes off as he ran away.  Then the story jumps to The Wolf in the Sheep’s Clothing.  The wolf has on a rug that looks like sheep’s wool and runs into peasants.  He tries to eat them but they insult him and walk away.  He then uses the wool disguise and tries to go back and eat one of the sheep of the little boy that cried wolf was watching.  The sheep knew it was the wolf right away and beat him up.  He then runs into the gosling house.  He tried to pretend to be their mother but the goslings were too smart for that and tricked him into thinking that he had caught them all, but he didn’t.  The wolf eventually gave up and said he would become a vegetarian.

I loved this book.  It was comical and had a little twist to each story as it is told traditionally.  After reading aloud, I would talk to my students about how they thought the stories all connected to each other.  I would have my students break up into reading groups and talk about the stories and chart in their group which parts changed from the original stories for all five stories.  I would have them chart why the wolf finally gives up in each story and what moral or lesson they learn from each story.  Each group will share with the class.

Cinderella

Link:   Glogster page on Cinderella

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach - A Cuban folktale

Author:  Retold by Carmen Agra Deedy

Genre:  Traditional or Folk Literature

Martina had turned 21 and was ready to be wedded.  Her grandmother told her to do the ultimate test to see if you can marry the prospects.  That was to spill coffee on their shoe.  Her grandmother said it would make the men mad and is a true test of their temper showing how they will speak to you when you are married.  Martina would meet her suites at the balcony for her family to see from above.  First came Don Gallo (a rooster).  After she did the coffee test on him, he told her that she would learn manners when they got married and she turned him down.  Next who came to see her was Don Cerdo (a pig).  After she did the coffee test on him he was furious and he walked away saying that she would be cleaning after him all the time when they were married.  Next was Don Largarto (a lizard).  From the picture, it looked like he was a little too close for comfort.  She spilled the coffee on him and he became mad and accidently let it slip that he was going to eat her!  She said he was too cold-blooded for her to marry.  She then approached Tikitin, the mouse, and he seemed very nice to her.  She didn’t want to do the coffee test on him but he beat her to it.  He spilled it on her.  She was too delighted to be mad.  She asked how did you know about the coffee test?  He said mi amor I too have a Cuban grandmother.

I would use this book as a read aloud to my class and discuss after how she was treated.  I also would extend the lesson and ask the students to tell me how they reacted when something had been accidentally done to them or tell everyone a story about when they have accidentally spilled something and what was the person’s reaction.  I would ask how they felt about that reaction from the other person.  I would hope that this would reinforce how we speak to people and never lose our temper over an accident because it could be a test of the type of person we are.  This book would relate to life lessons in how to treat others and have patience.

Petite Rouge a Cajun Red Riding Hood

Author:  Mike Artell

Genre:  Traditional or Folk Literature

This story is the Cajun version of red riding hood.  The dialect is really different in this story.  It’s in a Cajun dialect.  In the beginning of the book there is a glossary of what certain words mean in the book.  A lot of the words used are French words.  The book sticks with the traditional story line but the characters are different.  A duck is red riding hood and instead of a wolf, a gator is being the antagonist.  The mother duck sent a cat along with the duck to take food to his grand’ mere.  They take a boat through the swamp.  The food was different.  It was Cajun food but mainly seafood.  At the end of the book, to get rid of the gator the cat threw hot sauce to the duck and the duck poured it on sausage and threw it in the gators mouth.  The sausage was so hot the gator had to jump in the water to cool off.  After that, he stayed away from the duck and cat.  The grand’ mere, the duck and cat ate their food and were happy.

I would use this story as a read aloud and to show how different parts of the country have different variations of traditional stories.  Then I would have my students compare and contrast the original story with this story and how they different and are the same.  We would make a chart on the board of the differences.  This read aloud could be an introduction for learning about the Cajun culture and where it comes from and how it is today.  I would take a vote to see which version of the little red riding hood the students like best.

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain – A Nandi Tale

Author:  Verna Aardema

Genre:  Traditional or Folk Literature

This story talks about the Kapiti plain in Africa.  The story is about how one time the rains never came and all the big animals migrated away from the plain.  This story is about how Ki-pat helped end the terrible drought.  Throughout this book each page describes a certain aspect of the plain.  For example, the big rain cloud that droops over the plain… and the brown grass that’s dead from no rain.  It talked about the different animals that were hungry and dry.  It talked about the eagle that flew by and dropped a feather and helped change the weather.  The Ki-pat shepherd that watched his cows made an arrow out of the feather and shot it into the rain cloud and out came the rain.  Everything was prosperous again and the drought was over.

I would read alound the book.  Then I would use this to talk about how rain is so important in the world and I would have the students to research “drought.”  The illustration in the book is amazing and will help students understand.  This book can be read in conjunction with a science lesson about rain clouds.  From this I would have students draw an  illustration about how rain is formed in the sky.

Where the Buffaloes Begin

Author:  Olaf Baker

Genre:  Traditional or Folk Literature

This book is about a young boy, Little Wolf, in an Indian tribe.  One of the older Indian’s in the tribe talks about where the buffaloes begin.  It is a legend that the buffalo herd rise from a lake far away from where the tribe has settled.  The story talks about how they sound and look as they come from the water.  The boy sets out one day to find this lake and see the buffalo begin.  He doesn’t realize that the tribe’s arch enemy is headed to their village to kill them.  He finds the lake and the buffalo rise from the water and the herd and Little Wolf who feels he is being led by spirits go as fast as they can back to his village.  They stop the other tribe from killing his people by the buffalo trampling them.  The book ends with this being added to the legend as how Little Wolf saved his tribe.

I would read this book to the class.  Then I would have the students imagine they were a young child in an Indian village.  I would have them write how they would live everyday describing food and how it was prepared, clothing and how it was made and transportation.  Would they go to school?  The students would then draw a picture to represent their story to share with the class.  This could be done in conjunction with social studies lessons on the history of North Carolina or the United States.

Fairytale News

Author:  Colin and Jacqui Hawkins

Genre:  Traditional or Folk Literature

This book combines several Mother Goose rhymes and stories as if all the characters of those stories are in one community.  The combination is humorous.  The book uses Jack in Jack and the Bean Stalk as the main character and plot to combine the other folktales.  Jack goes out to look for a job because Mother Hubbard needs money.  He stops at the home of the three bears, Little Red Riding Hood’s home until he finally finds a job delivering Fairy Tale News to the fairy tale community.  He delivers the paper to the three little pig’s home, the old woman in the shoe’s home and others until he reaches home to find out that he must go sell the cow to get money.  This is when the story follow the Jack and the Bean Stalk story.  After taking the goose from the giant, as in the traditional story, he drops a copy of the Fairytale News and the giant loves it so that he lets him keep the goose as long as he brings the Fairytale News every day.  The best part of this book is the actual Fairytale News newspaper in the back of the book.  This is a comical part of the story after reading the book.

I would use this book as a read aloud.  After reading the book, I would have each student read the Fairytale News newspaper in the back of the book.  I would have the class break up into groups and each group would take a couple fairy tales or Mother Goose rhymes and write down the differences and similarities to the traditional story.  Then I would have them find in the newspaper which articles referred to the characters in their assigned stories.  We would examine the newspaper as a class and talk about the different sections in the newspaper to extend this lesson.

Discover the Life of An Inventor -- Albert Einstein

Link: Albert Einstein Power Point Presentation

Below is what the actual presentation looks like in Powerpoint.  When I moved to google docs to be able to post link on Blog, google presentations changed the format and would not allow the slide show version.

The Lotus Seed

Author:  Sherry Garland

Genre:  Multicultural and International Literature

This story is about a girl from Vietnam who had to leave her country and go to the United States.  She took a lotus pod seed to remember the Emperor.  She would always take out the seed when she felt sad and lonely and thought about the brave young Emperor.  When she married the man her parents picked for her, she carried the seed with her.  Throughout this story she is going through a lot of changes in her life and she always carries the seed with her.  She has children and grandchildren.  One of her grandsons steals the seed and plants it in their yard.  The grandmother is so upset and cries until the day the lotus plant grows.  She gives the seeds to all her grandchildren and keeps one.  The granddaughter who is narrating the story puts her seed in a special hiding place.  She said she would plant it someday and give the seeds to her children and tell them the story of her grandmother.

I would read aloud the book.  This book can be used to learn about the Vietnamese culture and compare it to it the United States.  I would have the students chart the differences and similarities including traditional Vietnamese dress; transportation, holidays and food.  We would talk about dragons and what those stand for in Asian countries.  I would bring in chop sticks and peanuts and have the students use the chop sticks to try to pick up the peanut to eat so they could experience that way of eating their food.  I would also use this book to describe what symbolism is.  The lotus seed, for instance, and go over what my class thinks it stands for.  Freedom?  Pride?  Courage?  Strength?   I would have the students draw their symbolism of what the lotus seed stands for and display those on the wall.