Annabelle Swift, Kindergartner

Title:  Annabelle Swift, Kindergartner

Author: Amy Schwartz

Illustrator: Amy Schwartz

Publisher:  Orchard Books

Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Level: Primary

Number of Pages: 28

Pub. Date: 1988

Summary:  Annabelle Swift is a character who is getting ready for her first day of kindergartener. Her sister gives her some bad advice, like the fact that ‘red’ is actually ‘Raving Scarlet’ like her mother’s lipstick color, and we find out that she loves to count. She goes off to face that exciting, terrifying first day of school. Like many kindergarteners, she feels that the whole day is going wrong. All the advice her sister gave her causes her embarrassment. It is only when she is able to use her strong counting skills that the day begins to look better. She is able to count all of the milk money on the first day of school, giving her the special job of Milk Monitor, which she completes proudly.

Critique: This work of realistic fiction fits in as a school and family story. It shows the relationship between Lucy and Annabelle, but also focuses on Annabelle’s first day of school. It’s about Annabelle finding out who she is as a Kindergarten student and showcases her struggle for peer acceptance when she’s embarrassed when all of the children except one laugh at her. The author writes so that the reader feels empathy for Annabelle and engages readers so that they care about how Annabelle’s day goes. The characters are realistic and the setting of a kindergarten classroom is something that many children either will experience or have experienced. The character of her know-it-all sister is given just the right amount of sassiness as an older sibling trying to impress everyone by making her little sister smart and Mr. Blum, the kindergarten teacher, also comes across as believable. Through realistic fiction, this story encourages children to focus on their strengths when facing the challenges of the first day of school.

Response: The author of the book tells me that Annabelle is all by herself on the beanbags with everyone else looking at her. It makes me sad that she is all by herself and makes me think that maybe her kindergarten day isn’t going to go so well. I predict that this will be a good book to read to Preschoolers who may be nervous about going into Kindergarten.

Assignment:

CROSS-CURRICULAR ACTIVITY

Math: Luscious Lollipops

Divide the class into groups of three. Give each group a bag of lollipops (with various colors). Have the children count to see how many of each color lollipop are in the bag. Next, have each group report their findings to form a class chart. Use the chart to answer various questions (Which color has the most lollipops? The Fewest? What's the difference between these two numbers? How many lollipops all together?,etc.)

Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Title:  Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Author: Suzanne Collins

Illustrator: Jacket Art by Tim O'Brian

Publisher:  Scholastic Press

Genre: Modern Fantasy

Level: Upper

Number of Pages: 391

Pub. Date: 2009

Summary: After winning the 74th Hunger Games in the previous novel, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark return home to District 12, the poorest sector in the country of Panem. On the day that Katniss and Peeta are to start a "Victory Tour" of the country, she is visited by President Snow, who explains that he is angry with her for breaking the rules at the end of the last Hunger Games, which permitted both Peeta and Katniss to win. Snow tells Katniss that when she defied the Capitol, she inspired rebellion in the districts.  They make many stops on the victory tour including District 11, the home of Katniss's deceased friend and ally in the Hunger Games, Rue. Katniss and Peeta proceed to travel to all of the twelve districts and the Capitol. During an interview, Peeta proposes to Katniss publicly, hoping to settle the dispute between Katniss and President Snow and placate the growing rebellion. Despite this, Katniss learns that their attempts of subduing revolt in the districts have failed. Shortly after returning to District 12, Katniss encounters two runaways from District 8. They explain their theory that District 13 was not wiped out by the Capitol, contrary to what the other districts have been led to believe, and that many of its residents survive in underground shelters.

Scene from the Movie

Later, it is announced that, for the 75th Hunger Games, 24 victors from previous years will be forced to compete once again. This is the third occurrence of the "Quarter Quell": an event that occurs every 25th year of the Games and allows the Capitol to introduce a twist. Knowing that she and Peeta will both be competing in the Games a second time, Katniss decides that she will devote herself to ensuring that Peeta becomes the Quarter Quell's victor. However, Peeta is devoted to protecting her. They compete in the games, making allies and figuring out how the game is set up. In the final chapters, Katniss directs the lightning at the force field that contains the arena, thereby destroying the arena and resulting in her temporary paralysis. When Katniss wakes up, she is being transported to District 13. She learns that Peeta and Johanna have been captured by the Capitol, and is informed that there had been a plan among most of the contestants to break out of the arena—Beetee had been attempting to destroy the force field in the same way that she did. The book ends when Katniss's best friend, Gale, comes to visit her and informs her that, though he got her family out in time, District 12 has been bombed and destroyed.

Critique: This book is an example of science fantasy and does a great job of convincing the readers of its believability. The development of the characters, especially Katniss, Peeta and Gale make them seem like very plausible characters that are just living in an extraordinary world. The action in the Hunger Game competition is gripping and engaging to readers and all of the details about the arena, challenges and people within it continually make the fantastic element believable. The setting is definitely original in time and place and captures readers wanting to know more about it.

Response: In comparing the first Hunger Games book, which I had read before, to this one I think I like the first one better. I think when I first got into it it was new and engaging, but the second time around it didn’t seem to grip me as much. I still wanted to know what would happen in the Quarter Quell, but I wasn’t to the point where I didn’t want to put it down like I was with the first one. I think the government involvement and sly demands had me a little put off in this book versus just the development of it in the first book.

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

Title: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

Author: Mo Willems 

Illustrator: Mo Willems

Publisher:  Hyperion Books for Children

Genre: Celdecott Award Winner

Level: Beginner

Number of Pages: 36

Pub. Date: 2003

Summary: This is an interactive book that encourages children to respond to the book as it goes. In this book, there is a Pigeon that wants to drive the bus very badly. He tries to convince  the audience to let him drive the bus by using many tactics from bribery to pleading. The audience doesn’t let him drive the bus, which he is quite upset about, but then he sees a big rig and has thoughts of driving that.  

Critique: The author, Mo Willems, uses the design element of lettering and type to make the illustrations of the pigeon really stand out. He uses a darker text on a light background in a speech bubble for the majority of the book, except in an instance where the bird is really upset and the words are sprawled out across two pages in two-colored type that looked like it was angrily and hastily written. This helped get the emotion of the pigeon across. He also uses a different color background for each page instead of using lines or borders, which gives the book a clean yet organized feel.

Response:  I honestly feel in love with this book from the minute I opened it. It has become one of my favorites and makes me laugh every time I read it. I’ve even read it to multiple other people (most being adults) who absolutely love it. Mo Williems is such a great author and really knows how to engage his readers (at any age!

 Assignment:

SMART Board Activities for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus:

http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=8bf140df-11db-419a-bc37-95ceaf5d7612

or:

Have students create a new story about what the they wouldn't let the pigeon drive! Like this:

Two-legged, Four-legged, No-legged Rhymes

Title:  Two-legged, Four-legged, No-legged Rhymes

Author: J. Patrick Lewis

Illustrator: Pamela Paparone

Publisher:  Alfred A. Knopf

Genre: Poetry

Level: Intermediate

Number of Pages: 30

Pub. Date: 1991

Summary:  A collection of humorous poems about animals and a few people. Many of them are animals that talk, dance, take care of people and more. There are such animals as the Padiddle, the Hippopot, the copycat and the porcu-pain. There is an illustration that goes along with each poem.

Critique: The author uses lots of rhyme in the poems in this collection. A great example is from a poem called “Farmer, Farmer” on page 28:

“Farmer Howe milked the cow,

Missed the bucket,

Hit the plow.

Farmer Mull milked the bull…

Wave good-bye

To Farmer Mull.”  

Another poetic element that is uses a lot in this book is rhythm, where the verses don’t always necessarily rhyme, but they have a great flow about them. Another example from the book showcases the use of rhythm. This one is called Bartholo and it’s located on page 22. It starts like this:

“ I love to see

Bartholo jump

And pull the shoestrings

From a shoe.

I love to feel

Bartholo rub

His whiskers next

To me. Do you?”

Response: The poem that made me laugh the most in this collection was the on pages 18 and 19. It’s called Mosquito and it’s about a little boy who scolds the mosquito for biting him on the butt, then the bug says that he’s sorry and he won’t do it again. Then he goes and bites three more children on their butts! It ends saying, “A mosquito’s awful sneaky, A mosquito is mighty sly, But I never never never thought a skeeter’d tell a lie!” I just found this poem really funny because I’m like a mosquito magnet when it comes to being bit, so I can totally relate and can definitely see a mosquito telling a lie!