The Family Under The Bridge By Natalie Savage Carlson

Reading Level: 4-5
Genre: Multicultural
Awards: Newberry Honor Book

This book is about a group of homeless children that live under a bridge and the man that they end up latching themselves to and creating a family with.  The children's mother is less than thrilled about this arrangement or the adventures they get up to but she has no choice in the matter.  The story is set in Paris, France and the children and the man that they befriend, Armand have many adventures around the city.  One time they meet a band of gypsies and Suzy thinks she is going to teach Tinka, one of the gypsies how to read, but in the end she and the other children end up learning something from the gypsies and Tinka in particular teaches Suzy the "gypsies alphabet" which is a set of symbols that the gypsies read to know where to beg.

I think that this story is a great story about seeing more in people than just their status in life would make them out to be.  It is also about forming a family with whoever is there for you when you need them.  With this book I would have the student's talk about what makes a family and how they classify what a family is.  Then I would have them write a paper about who their "family" consists of and have them give reasoning for their choices.  This could be turned into a project with the students creating a scrapbook or family album or even a family tree with their non-biological family being put on the tree as well.

Each Little Bird That Sings By Deborah Wiles

Reading Level: 4
Genre: Realistic
Awards: E.B. White Read Aloud Award, Finalist at 2005 National Book Awards

Comfort Snowberger is surrounded by death living in a funeral home and she is used to it being in her family because as her Uncle Edisto says "Everybody's kind, Comfort."  But never before has death hit the Snowberger family like when Uncle Edisto dies and then Great-great aunt Florentine die within a few months of each other.  Comfort writes the "Life Notices" both Uncle Edisto and Great-great aunt Florentine.  Then during all the craziness preparing for the biggest funeral the Snowberger's funeral home has ever seen Comfort's best friend Declaration begins acting funny.  At a time when Comfort doesn't want to have to put on the smiles that she normally does as a part of a family that owns a funeral home Comfort also has to deal with too many things to count.

I think that this story is a great coming of age story and could facilitate a great discussion on dealing with death and hard situations in your life.  I also really like the ideas of the "Life Notices" that Comfort writes.  I would have my students write "Life Notices" on famous people that we have been talking about in class.  This could be scientists that pertain to the content we are studying in science or historical figures that we are talking about in social studies.  This writing exercise would introduce students to writing in the style of a newspaper article.

Grow: A Novel in Verse By Juanita Havill

Reading Level: 3-5
Genre: Poetry/Novel

This novel is written only in poems and is about two people, Kate and Berneetha who decide to create a garden in the abandon lot in their neighborhood.  Kate and Berneetha couldn't be more opposite.  Kate is a twelve year old girl and Berneetha is a former teacher that Kate discribes as older than her mom.  Both get so wrapped up in the project but then a developer says that they are going to turn the garden into a parking lot.  Now the whole neighborhood has to whether or not to come together and fight to keep the garden.

I would use this book as an example of poetry.  With this poetry becasue it is also a novel I could talk about how some poetry can be used to tell stories and then talk about the different types of poetry and which ones would be useful for writing a novel like this and which ones wouldn't.  I would then have my students take a story that they had already written and turn it into poetry to get the same story across.

Abracadabra to Zombies: More than 300 Wacky Word Origins By Don and Pam Wulffson

Reading Level: 3-5
Genre: Nonfiction

This book is a modern dictionary of sorts with the origins and definitions of words that are a part of pop culture.  It gives the origin of the words and how they came to be used in the context they are used in today.  It also explains the origin and meaning behind the names of brand names like Nike and the Harlem Globe Trotters.

I would use this book as a kid friendly way to explain how to use reference works like dictionaries and encyclopedias.  I could also use the information in the book as interesting facts that I could put on the board in the morning as trivia.  I could frame the facts as questions and have the students answer the questions as morning work.

Edward's Eyes By Patricia MacLachlan

Reading Level: 3
Genre: Realistic
Awards: North Carolina Children's Book Award Master List, Bank Street Best Books of the Year

Jake is Edward's older brother.  Jake has been taking care of Edward since Edward was born just like Jake's sister Wren took care of him when he was born but the bond between Jake and Edward is something more special than anything their other siblings have.  Jake is constantly fascinated by Edward and his fearlessness and determined spirit. Jake knows that Edward doesn't see everything the way other people do and that is just a part of what makes Edward special and it is Edward's eyes that end up changing a stranger's life not to mention Jake's.

An activity that I would do with this book is that I would that I would attach the baseball aspect of this book with some math activities.  There are many things to calculate in baseball and could be a great way to create an interest in the math problems that I have to give out.  I could use the actual calculations that they do in baseball like RBIs but I could also use baseball statistics.

Wonderland By Tommy Kovac

Reading Level: 4-6

Genre: Fantasy

This is a graphic novel addition to the Alice in Wonderland family.  This version follows the story of Mary Ann, the White Rabbit's personal maid after Alice has left Wonderland.  Mary Ann is thrust into this crazier than normal Wonderland as the heir apparent to Alice's rebel throne, although Mary Ann missed the whole Alice uprising against the Queen of Hearts.

This book is a graphic novel but it is also a fresh take on a classic fairytale which I think open up this story to many activity ideas.  I think that a great activity to do with this book would be to have my students choose a fairytale and have rewrite it. They could write it from a different perspective, they could change the ending, they could do whatever they wanted as long as when they were finished the reader was still able to tell from which fairytale the story was based and it keeps the characteristics of a fairytale.  Then they would have to illustrate their rewritten stories in the style of a graphic novel.  If the stories were long then they might only have to illustrate one section but if the stories were short enough they could illustrate the whole thing.

My Name is Maria Isabel By Alma Flor Ada

Reading Level: 3-5
Genre: Multicultural

Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez loves her name and the story of all the relatives she is named after but when her family must move because her father gets a new job there are already two Marias in her new class, this leaves Maria Isabel with the name Mary Lopez.  Maria doesn't understand why she isn't allowed to go by her name and her school work even begins to suffer as Maria struggles to identify herself with this new label of Mary Lopez.  Maria's class puts on a cultural display of the various winter holidays and Maria would love to sing one of the songs but Mary Lopez never participates in class so Maria is left out of the festivities even though her parents have promised to get off work to see Maria perform.

This story is a great lesson on the importance of allowing people to identify who they want to be themselves and being sensitive to each individual student.  As a project to go along with this book I would have my students research the origins of their names.  They could search online, interview their parents or any other method and then create a project based on their findings.  This could connect to social studies because the research could turn into a family tree project and discuss the immigration of different people to the US which would really connect well to the time period from the 1920's to now.