Ocean's Child

This book has cool artwork, and it looks like it was airbrushed. The story uses rhyming and repetition to tell another bedtime story. It is interesting because it talks about different sea creatures and describes how they sleep. For example, a baby whale rests on the back of its mother and dolphins rest close to the surface of the ocean. This is something I had been interested in as a kid- how fish sleep, or if they do. This could be a cute story to read with kids during a science unit about the ocean.

            The only negative thing about this book is that I found the repetition somewhat predictable and annoying. On the other hand, kids might not feel the same. In a classroom setting, when I have heard teachers read repetitive books, the kids have enjoyed that fact that they can expect one part of the story every time and say it along with the teacher. This keeps them in the story. For me, it was just annoying, but I didn't read it aloud with a bunch of overly excited kids in the room, so that may be part of it.

Desert December

This book is a South African children's book that my mom brought back from there when she visited a family friend. It tells the story of a little boy and his amazing adventure when he travels many miles to give his mother a present. The author uses great word descriptions to weave a lovely story of this boys family and life in South Africa. It is interesting also how it feels different from the American Stories I have been reading. It reads a little differently, although it is in English, and some of the word descriptions were different from anything I've heard before. For example, the author uses the phrase hosanna blue to describe the nights sky on Christmas Eve. I've never heard this term used to describe a color, but when I looked it up, it works. Hosanna means an expression of adoration, praise or joy.

It was also interesting how much the story paralleled the Christmas story. I didn't notice this until I looked it over a second time, but the ending has an image of a baby in swaddling clothes surrounded by two parents and the little girls brother. There is also a star shining overhead and this star helped the boy find his mother and her new baby, similar to the three wise men who followed the star to baby Jesus. I think this would be a great book to read to my class around Christmas time since it brings in elements of other cultures while bringing in elements of our own.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

I really like this book. It would be a great book for talking about seeing things from other's perspectives or walking in someone else's shoes. Each page has an animal and it says that the animal is seeing the animal on the next page. The last animal sees a teacher and the teacher then sees children and the children see all the animals and their teacher. It might be fun to do a swapping of roles for this story and have all the students switch off reading a page of this story to their teacher. I also really like the big cut out animals. They are made of simple shapes yet show allot of movement and energy, which I don't think is an easy thing to pull off, considering the limited materials they used. It's a simple but fun book and I think you could do allot it with in a classroom, creatively. As an art student, it might be fun to do an art project from this book where the students "see" their classmates and do a collage of another student, who does a collage of someone else and so on. 

Good Night Moon

         I remember reading this as a kid and loving it. Reading it again, I couldn't figure out why it had been such a classic book during my childhood. The story was simple with few words and the images not as exciting as other books. I asked my mom in the car about this book to see if she would remember anything and she gave me some helpful information. She said that this book was more fun than other books because it was one of the first books that had an untold story hiding within the images that didn't come out in the text. The images have allot going on that you wouldn't notice at first and it was really fun as a kid to find all these "hidden" things. For example, the mouse that showed up in different places on every page, and the mittens moved around and had to be found. It was an interactive book with lot's of detail. This made it fun for a kid with a big imagination. And the story was so simple that you could practically memorize it by the third or fourth read. As a grown up, I completely forgot about all these things and so reading this book again, I did not pin it as a great book because it lacked a dramatic, advanced story line and amazing artwork. I think I'll need to ask kids what they think is great literature, since my idea of great children's books might be really different than what kids like. 

          I think this would be a good book to have in the classroom library for kids to browse through themselves. 

Snow White

I have read this book as a kid but never remember the ending being as gruesome as this. The evil queen comes to Snow White's wedding and is forced to dance in red hot iron slippers until she falls down dead. I find it interesting that I don't remember this part, since I read this story multiple times as a kid. Maybe my mom skipped it, or maybe it wasn't such a big deal, then. Either way, I was kind of shocked when I read it again now. Other than that, the story is beautifully written and the images are breathtaking and full of detail. I don't think I would read this to my class since it is somewhat long and is a story most people know. I also think that Snow White is a pretty bad example for kids when it comes to the wise advise that you don't talk to or take things from strangers. I was really frustrated with her when she repeatedly made the mistake of talking to the old witch, who was wearing a new disguise each time, even after she had been warned multiple times by the seven dwarves not to open the door for ANYONE. She might have been beautiful, but she didn't seem that smart to me. I think that is why I love Beauty and the Beast more than any other fairy tale. Belle is beautiful, kind AND she has brains! 

The Moon Came Too

This was probably my favorite book as a kid. The little girl in it reminds me so much of myself. She loves to dress up and when she goes to grandma's house, she has the hardest time deciding what to bring with her. I could seriously crack up for a long time when I think about all the junk I would take on family road trips. I had this thing that had about 10 pockets that had a hanger on top that you could take in the car and hang on the clothes hanger hook. I would fill it up with random stuff like bouncy balls and anything else I could find around the house, mostly stuff from this one drawer in the kitchen. I have no idea why I needed so much junk, but it seemed to keep me entertained. 

This book is about a little girl who takes just about everything she owns with her when she goes to visit her grandma. When she gets there, she looks up in the sky on her grandma's porch and realizes that the moon came too!

Going to visit my grandparents was also one of my favorite things to do in the summer so this book is pretty much about my own life. I might read it to my kids before spring break or something. We could talk about stuff we take with us on trips or stuff that is important to us. We could talk about how our stuff defines, or doesn't define, who we are.

Je Veux une maman

I want a mother...

This book is in french, and I have it from being a kid. It would only work as a book in a multi-language school or maybe as a tool to learn a foriegn language, but I could just translate it myself as I'm reading it. It is about a little boy in southern France who lived along in a little house. He had to take care of himself and do everything a mother would do. One day, he decides to go out and find a mother, he is tired of working. After many false attempts, a sweet short haired woman takes him home to be his mother. He is now a happy member of a family, with a mom and dad. I think this is really cute book since this little boy has to do all the things a parent does. He even wears grown up clothes. It is really cute. He even puts a diaper on himself. You sort of fall in love with the wise little boy. He is so wise he knows he needs a mother and so he packs his bags one day and goes on a search to find one. 

This would be a fun book to read with kids and might even spark a little thankfulness in kids when they see a boy doing all the things their mother's do. The kids might think: what if that was me? Phew, good thing I have a mom!