Smokey Night

Bibliographic Information (APA): Bunting, E. (1994). Smokey Night. Illus. David Diaz. Orlando, FL: Voyager Books.

Brief Annotation: This is a historical fiction book about the riots over integration. It is narrated in the voice of a little boy that is in the heart of the riots. His apartment catches on fire and he is forced into a shelter.

Genre: Historical Fiction PictureBook

Grade Level: 1st to 4th

Readers who will like this: Many children will enjoy this book and learning about a piece of our history. This is a great way to get the conversation started about diversity.

Response/Rating (1-4): 4; This is a wonderfully illustrated book that has a lot of substance. This book teaches about diversity, acceptance, and the history of integration. I highly recommend this book and reading it to a classroom. This could be a unit taught on diversity or different cultures. It can be a great history lesson as well.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: Have you ever gotten mad and thrown something?

Smoky Night

Bibliographic Information: Bunting, E. (1994). Smoky Night. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt, Inc.

Annotation: This is a powerful story about a child experiencing riots in the street and his apartment building being set on fire.

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Grade Level: P-I

Readers Who Will Like This Book: Someone who lives in the city or may have had a similar experience and can relate to the events in the book.

Personal Response and Rating: I rate this book a 3. It addresses a subject I had not seen before and could be a tool to help children make sense of a similar situation.

Prereading Question: Describe a time you were scared.

Smoky Night

Bibliographic information: Bunting, E. (1994) Smoky Night. Illus. David Diaz. New York, NY: Hartcourt, Inc.

Annotation: Riots are taking place in the neighborhood. A boy and his mother are forced out of their appartment when a fire breaks out. They walk down the street to a local church for shelter. The family cat is left behind, until a firefighter shows up. He is holding two cats that are thought to hate one another. The firefighter tells the boy that the cats were holding each other when he found them. The boy and the other neighbors learn a lesson about judging others before knowing them.

Genre: Picture book/fiction

Grade Level: Galda lists the book for children in Grade 3 to young adult. The publisher lists the book for ages 5 and up.

Reader who will like this book: Children who have experienced neighborhood fighting or a fire could relate to this book. Teachers trying to teach about diversity and judging would like this book.

Personal Response: The illustrations are dark and so is the beginning of the book. Books involving fighting can be hard to approach at times but I like how Eve Bunting made the story about the cats. The message is very clear at the end and I really liked that! 3

Classroom questions: Do you have a lot of close neighbors? Are you friends with your neighbors?

Smoky Night

Bibliographic Information: Bunting, E. (1994). Smoky Night. Illus. David Diaz. Orlando,Florida: Harcourt, Inc.

Annotation: This is a wonderful book about what good can come out of disaster. The message behind the book simply states that you need to get to know each other before making judgements. That is the first step towards community.

Genre: Picturebook

Grade Level: PK-3

Readers who will like this book: Visual readers and animal lovers.

Personal response and rating: This is a heartwarming book that sends an extremely important message about understanding those that may be "different" from you. I would certainly rate this book highly and use it in a classroom setting to explain differences/likeness among all cultures.

A question you would ask before reading aloud: Have you ever been scared to talk to someone because they are different than you? Why?

Smokey Night

Bunting, Eve. (1994). Smoky Night. Illus. David Diaz. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt, Inc.

Annotation: This book is about a riot that happens in Los Angeles. With all of the chaos happening outside of a young boy's and mother's apartment, in the end everyone comes together to find solace where they stand.

Genre: Children's picture book

Readers who like this: This would be a great book for a teacher and their students to introduce topics like violence and differences amongst people.

Rating: I give this book a 4. I loved the collage illustration as well as the message behind it. This would be a great book for discussion in the classroom.

Question: Have you ever experienced violence and in what way?

Reading Strategy: The reading strategy I would use would be quilts and K-W-L charts. Quilts are a way for children to illustrate the main ideas of the story. The K-W-L charts are what the student knows about the subject, wants to know, and what they learned. The K-W-L charts would be a good idea to use with the main idea of the story of conflict/hate and resolution. It is something that many of us experience and live everyday in our life. It would be an easy correlation and transition into the book and how students feel about the subject. The students can then use quilts to not only re-create the book, but to display their thoughts and ideas and maybe their experiences with conflict/hate and resolution. These are easy ice-breakers to a subject that can be very controversial and hard to discuss.

Smoky Night

Bibliographic Information: Bunting, E. (1994). Smoky Night. Illus. David Diaz. Singapore: Voyager Books.

Brief Annotation: Amidst the terrors of the Los Angeles riots, a young boy, his mother, and his cat learn to find friendship.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade Level: 2-5

Readers who will like this book: Anyone who understands that friendships can be made during difficult times.

Rating/Response: 1 out of 4. While I understand the main idea behind the story, I am simply not a fan of the writing style. Even though the story is told from the child's view, I found myself wanting more detail, though perhaps the detail I am looking for would need to come from an adult's perspective.

One question I would ask before a read aloud: What does a riot look and feel like? At what moments do we have the opportunity to make friends?