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“Goblin Secrets” a fantasy book written by William Alexander

Zombay is a mysterious place divided into two parts -- the Northside and the Southside.  A boy named Rownie lives in a shack on the Southside with his “grandmother” who takes in children.  Rownie wants nothing more than to find his actual brother, Rowan, who disappeared after acting in a secret play.  Rownie leaves without his grandmother’s permission and joins forces with a group of goblins during his journey.  In the end, Rownie finds Rowan but they still decide to go their separate ways and Rownie remains with the goblins.  

This book won the National Book Award in 2012 for Young People’s Literature.  

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“The Pigeon Wants a Puppy” a children’s picture book written and illustrated by Mo Willems

This picture book begins with a sweet introduction from a Pigeon.  After asking us how we are today, the pigeon asks “...do you know what I want?”.  The pigeon quickly responds with “A PUPPY!” and promises to take care of it.  This pigeon plans to do so by watering it once a month and providing it with plenty of sunshine!  After realizing that it is harder to take care of a puppy than that, the pigeon tries to make the reader feel sorry for it.  After getting angry and receiving a puppy, the pigeon is scared and decides that it wants a walrus instead!

This book is the 2009 Children’s Book Council Children’s Book Choice Winner.  This award is the only national award where the winners are chosen by kids and teens of all ages!  

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“The Land” a historical fiction novel written by Mildred D. Taylor

Paul-Edward Logan is the son of a biracial woman and white man.  His mother is black and native American, and as a young boy, Paul is bullied by a boy named Mitchell for being multiracial.  Later in life, Paul and Mitchell become good friends, even so much as when Mitchell was about to pass away, he asks Paul to marry his wife and take care of his child.  Paul marries Mitchell’s wife, Caroline, and they live a happy life together.  At the end of the story, Paul-Edward returns home to see his father before he passes away and purchases some land that he was promised earlier in the story.  

This book won the Coretta Scott King Author Award in 2002.  This award is given to African-American authors for books written for a younger audience and about the “African-American experience”.

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“Hey, Al” a children’s picture book written by Arthur Yorkins and illustrated by Richard Egielski

Al is a janitor and this book follows the story of him and his dog, Eddie.  While Al and Eddie have hard lives, but one day a bird offers to fly them to a paradise in the sky.  Once they were at this “paradise”, Al and Eddie find that it isn’t everything they thought to be.  They start to resemble birds and decide to use their wings to fly home.  However, Eddie crashes into the sea on their journey back.  In the end, Eddie is able to meet Al on land and they live together happily at home.  

This book was the recepient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1987.  

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“Bud, Not Buddy” a historical drama book written by Christopher Paul Curtis

This book follows the journey that a young boy named Bud takes during the Great Depression to find his father.  Bud is in a home for orphaned children located in Flint, Michigan waiting to be placed in his third foster home.  At this foster home, Bud does not get along with his foster brother Todd.  After running away with his friend “Bugs”, Bud goes to Grand Rapids, Michigan to try and find his father -- who Bud believes is a famous Jazz musician named  Herman E. Calloway.  However, the story ends after Bud finds out that Herman is his grandfather and receives a trumpet from the band.  

This book won the Newbery Award in 2000.  This award was for excellence in American children’s Literature.  

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“The Hunterman and the Crocodile” a multicultural book written by Baba Wagué Diakité

This book is a West African Folktale that teaches the importance of living in harmony with nature.  A hunterman encounters a family of crocodiles trying to make their way home from a pilgrimage, but they had become too tired.  The crocodiles plead with him and the hunterman eventually takes them back to the river they came from.  When the crocodile and hunterman begin to argue, the hunterman asks other animals for help in escaping the crocodile.  However, all of the animals he asks refuse to help because of how they had been treated by humans.  In the end, the hunterman is not only free from the crocodiles, but they also helped to save his gravely ill wife.  

This book can be aligned with this standard: Grade 3: Geography Strand: Places and Regions: Daily life is influenced by the agriculture, industry and natural resources in different communities.

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“Everybody Cooks Rice” a multicultural picture book written by Norah Dooley and illustrated by Peter J. Thornton

This story is narrated by a young girl, named Carrie, who is ready to eat dinner but is forced to go find her younger brother and bring him home first.  Carrie knows that if her brother is not playing outside, he is over at one of the neighbor’s house eating their food.  Her search takes her to many different homes with many different cultural dishes, but every dish contained rice!  Finally, Carrie and her brother return home, but they have brought a baby kitten with them (just borrowing!).  The recipes for all of the different rice dishes are mentioned at the end of the book.

This book can be aligned with this standard: Grade 1: Economic Strand: Production and Concumption: People produce and consume goods and services in the community.

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“African Princess” a multicultural, informational, and picture book written by Joyce Hansen and illustrated by Laurie McGaw

This is not only a multicultural book, but also a informational book.  “African Princess” introduces readers to six royal women from Africa.  These women are from different time periods.  Each woman is shown in a drawing, as well as how they made important contributions to their individual cultures.  The stories of these women’s lives are told briefly in each chapter of this book.

This book can be aligned with this standard: Grade 6: History Strand: Early Civilizations: Early civilizations with unique governments, economic systems, social structures, religions, technologies and agricultural practices and products flourished as a result of favorable geographic characteristics. The cultural practices and products of these early civilizations can be used to help understand the Eastern Hemisphere today.

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“Rainbow Stew” a multicultural children’s book written by Cathryn Falwell

This children’s book focuses on three children who are visiting their grandfather.  The children wake up and have pancakes, but afterwards see that it might be too rainy to go play outside.  However, the grandfather suggests that the children and him go to find “colors” for his rainbow stew.  After picking ingredients for the stew in the rain, the children and their grandfather return inside to make lunch!  At the end of the book there is a recipe for “Rainbow Stew”.  

This book can be aligned with this standard: Kindergarten: History Strand: Heritage: Heritage is reflected through the arts, customs, traditions, family celebrations and language.

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“The House on Mango Street” a multicultural book written by Sandra Cisneros

Esperanza and her family used to move around a lot before they moved into their house on Mango Street.  At the beginning of the book, it can be determined that Esperanza is probably around 13 years old, as she later goes through puberty.  Some of her first friends were Lucy and Rachel who lived across the street.  Esperanza later befriends this girl named Sally, who uses boys as an “escape” from her abusive stepfather.  After going through many traumatic experiences with men in her later teen years, Esperanza decides that she wants to leave Mango Street, but she ultimately returns to help those she left behind.  

This book can be aligned with this standard:  High School: Contemporary World Issues: Human Rights: Nations and international organizations pursue their own interests on issues related to civil and human rights, resulting in both conflict and cooperation particularly as it relates to injustices against minority groups.

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“Heather Has Two Mommies” a controversial children’s book written by Lesléa Newman and illustrated by Laura Cornell

This book was first published in the 1990s after the author met a lesbian couple who was concerned about finding books that represent their family type to read to their daughter.  Heather is a young girl being raised by her biological mother and her biological mother’s same-sex partner.  In the book, Heather’s family situation is discussed with a positive attitude and feedback at her playgroup.  There are other different types of families discussed at this playgroup as well.  This is just one book among many that address and introduce homosexuality at a young age.

This book introduces controversial topics, such as homosexuality, and can be used when discussing different types of families.  This topic and book might be addressed during the blended area of english and social studies, called humanities, along with “and Tango Makes Three” (mentioned in previous blog post).  Also, I do not see anything wrong with using this book in the english content area as a read-aloud book.  However, I might send a letter home to parents prior to reading this in class as well as talking to coworkers about their opinions.  

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“Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” a controversial children’s book written by Bill Martin Jr

There is no real plot to this book that needs to be summarized.  This book consists of asking animals what they see and their response generally is another animal.  This process is repeated throughout the entire book and some of the animals that are introduced include a blue horse, and purple cat, and a goldfish.  The reason this book is so controversial is because the author was confused with a philosopher named Bill Martin.  This Bill Martin had been the author of a book about Marxism.

In older grades when students are learning about Karl Marx and Marxism in history, this book could be introduced as a “fun fact” since the author had be confused with another who had written a book about the Marxist theory.  This book could also be used in science.  Teachers could use it to introduce the fact that while there are many different kinds of the same animal, there aren’t always purple cats and blue horses...but goldfish and black sheep do exist!

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“In the Night Kitchen” a controversial children’s book written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak

This controversial children’s book begins when a young boy named Mickey hears a noise and begins to float.  As Mickey is floating, he loses all of his clothes and drifts into another world called the “Night Kitchen”.  From this point, Mickey begins to be mixed into the batter for the “morning cake”.  Once he escapes, he continues his journey and at dawn he slips through the opening of a milk bottle back into his bed.  This book is so controversial because there are parts of the story in which Mickey is completely naked.  

I think that the content areas in which these books should be used are visual arts and humanities, which is a blend of social studies and english.  In my opinion, these areas make the most sense to use this book because of the artwork and surrealism within it.  

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“Smoky Night” a controversial children’s book written by Eve Bunting and illustrated by David Diaz

This book tells the story of a young boy and his mother who are forced to leave their home in Los Angeles, CA due to riots.  This boy, named Daniel, his mother, and their neighbor had previously not gotten along.  However, after they are confronted with more neighborhood violence, looting, and even fires, everyone comes together to help find their missing cats.  This concern brings them all together regardless of their differences.  The cats even learn that it is important to bridge their differences.

The two content areas where this book can be utilized are english and social studies.  The book can be used to help teach about the Los Angeles riots in social studies, but also be a book that students can use during silent reading for english.

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“Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs!” and informational picture book written by Kathleen V. Kudlinski and illustrated by S. D. Schindler

According to the information found within this book, when dinosaur fossils were first discovered by the Chinese, they had thought that they belonged to magical dragons.  Scientists have made many wrong predictions about dinosaurs, and no one really knows exactly what the dinosaurs looked like.  This book talks about some of the mistakes made by scientists that have since been “figured out”.  For example, scientists used to think that dinosaurs would leave their eggs before seeing their babies hatch, but that is not true.  The end of the book makes known that new facts and clues are being found everyday, some disproving what we thought to be true yesterday!

“Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.2).  Students should be able to identify that the main idea of this text is that what was believed to be true about dinosaurs might not be true now.  There are many examples in the text to help support this main idea.

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“Crocodile Safari” an informational picture book written by Jim Arnosky

This informational picture book starts off by talking about how many crocodiles there are in the United States and how this is known.  After discussing that, the difference between alligators and crocodiles is introduced.  Once readers know the difference between the two, facts about their discovery, where they live, when they eat, and how they hunt is discussed.  More facts about the habitats they live in, size they are, and other small creatures around crocodiles is introduced after that.  At the end of the book there is a song composed by Jim Arnosky and another page full of facts about crocodiles.  

“Know and use various text features to locate key facts or information in a text” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.5).  This standard is addressed through this book because there are multiple headings that students should be able to use in order to help find information in the text.  The headings clearly state what is talked aboutin the paragraphs below, making it easier for students to locate what is needed.

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“You Can’t Take a Balloon Into The National Gallery” an informational picture book written by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and Robin Preiss Glasser

This is not only an informational picture book, but also a wordless picture book.  It appears to be that there is a little girl with a balloon, but she is unable to take this balloon with her into the National Gallery of Art located in Washington D.C..  Instead of taking her balloon inside, she asks a photographer to hold the balloon.  However, after the balloon is accidentally untied from her sign, the photographer has to go chasing after the balloon.  This causes a series of mishaps to occur at multiple different tourist attractions before the balloon is returned to the little girl.  

“ Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas” (CSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.7).  While there is no defined text in this book, the illustrations provide information about historic sights and locations in Washington D.C..  The information gained from these pictures should help students to describe some of these locations, and with the help of a teacher or other reading source, identify what these locations are.