Tuesday

Bibliographic Information: Wiesner, D. (1991). Tuesday. Illus. David Wiesner. New York, NY: Clarion Books.

Winner of the 1992 Caldecott Medal: Criteria for award in illustration as follows:
Excellence of execution in artistic technique employed; excellence in pictorial interpretation of story, theme, or concept; appropriateness of style of illustration to the story; delineation of plot, theme, characters, setting, mood or information through the pictures; excellence in presentation in recognition of a child audience; the book must be a self-contained entity.

Brief Annotation: The story of what happens on Tuesday night, after we go to sleep.

Genre: Wordless Picturebook, Animal Fantasy

Grade Level: PreK - 6

Readers who will like this book: Anyone who has ever wondered what happens while they're sleeping.

Rating/Response: 4 out of 4. This is a wonderfully imaginative story! It opens up the possibility of many conversations with children; and shows that imagination matters.

One question I would ask before a read aloud: What do you think happens after you fall asleep? Does everything and everyone else sleep at the same time you do?

The Red Book

Lehman, B. (2004). The Red Book. Illus. Barbara Lehman. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Annotation: This is a wordless picture book that takes a young girl on a journey and she spots it sticking out of the snow and picks it up and sees tropical paradise and then an island and then this dot on an island becomes a boy. She flies to the boys island after school with some balloons and drops the book in the air and the cycle continues...

Genre: Wordless picture book

Grade Level: K-2nd

Readers who would like this: This would be a great book for a teacher to keep in her classroom and would pair well with a reading strategy because the students are having to work on inferrencing.

Rating/Response: I give this book a 2. Although the iluustrations were neat, I am not the type to like wordless picture books.

Question: Has there been a time when you couldn't find words to what you wanted to say?

Reading Strategy:
a) Tompkins, #25 (literacy center)
b) I think the collaborative book literacy center would be a good pair with this book. The studenst write pages that are added to a class book. They contribute by following the set guidelines before they write their page to add to the class book.
c) I think this would be great, because the teacher could have a copy of each of the wordless pages in this book and have each student interpret what the wordless picture means to them. They then will have a class book that turned the wordless book into a cute picture book.

A Ball for Daisy

Bibliographic Information (APA): Raschka, C. (2011). A Ball For Daisy. New York, NY: Schwartz & Wade Books.

Brief Annotation: This is a wordless picture book about a little dog named daisy and the fun she has with her ball.

Genre: Wordless PictureBook

Grade Level: Preschool-1st

Readers who will like this: Most children will enjoy this book with the beautiful illustrations. The children are able to make up their own stories to the illustrations.

Response/Rating (1-4): 3; This was a super cute book about a little dog named daisy. Children will love being able to make their own stories up. The pictures are pretty self explanatory. It's amazing but you don't really miss the words when reading this book.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: How much can you really tell from a picture?

The Lion & The Mouse

Bibliographic Information: Pinkney, J. (2009). The Lion & The Mouse. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

Brief Annotation: A story of two unlikely friends, who help each other get out of sticky situations. Presented in illustrations, with only a few sound words to intensify the story.

Genre: Wordless Picturebook, Storybook

Grade Level: K - 5

Readers who will like this book: Anyone who enjoys beautiful illustrations and loves to create their own words for a story.

Rating/Response: 4 out of 4. The illustrations are gorgeous and express the emotion of the story clearly. The few words that are used (only sound words, such as "roar") serve to heighten the emotion.

One question I would ask before a read aloud: Do you have any friends that are very different from you?

10/40: Author's Chair, from 50 Literacy Strategies, by Gail E. Tompkins.

In this strategy, students sit in a special "Author's Chair" and read their own writing aloud to the class. After the student has finished reading, the other students are invited to make comments and ask questions. After sharing Jerry Pinkney's The Lion & The Mouse with the class, I would have the students write their versions of the story to go along with the illustrations in the book. By having the students share their work with the class, we would be able to discuss the differences in everyone's versions, and the different options available in the writing of a story. It would also serve to help the students view themselves as authors.

Jack Wants a Snack

Bibliographic Information: Schories, P. (2008) Jack Wants a Snack Asheville, NC: Front Street

Annotation: This is a book about Jack that wants a snack from the tea party. A chipmunk comes along and steals popcorn, Jack tries to capture the chipmunk but ends up being trapped!

Genre: Picturebook

Grade Level: K-2

Readers who will like this book: Young children that don't know how to read yet

Response/Rating: This is a cute book, especially for children who own dogs. The story is easy to follow even without words and can help encourage children to create words and sentences on their own. 3

Classroom Question: Do you have any pets? Have you ever helped friends out? What happens when others don't share?

Rainstorm

Bibliographic Information: Lehman, B. (2007). Rainstorm. Illus. Barbara Lehman. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Annotation: A beautifully illustrated book about a little boy that is stuck inside on a rainy day. The book chronicles the boys adventure through his home and the unlikely places he goes and new friends he makes.

Genre: Picturebook

Grade Level: PK-1

Readers who will like this book: Any child with an imagination and a love of color/exciting illustrations. Parents will enjoy this book too, as it allows children to use their imagination.

Personal response: The illustrations really pull you into this book. Lehman does a wonderful job conveying a story through simple pictures and color. I would rate this as a 4 in the picture book genre.

A question you would ask before reading: How many of you have been bored out of your minds when you are stuck inside on a rainy day? What activities do you like to do when it rains?

Flotsam

Bibliographic Information: Wiesner, D. (2006). Flotsam. New York, New York: Clarion Books.

Annotation: This is a story about a boy who finds an underwater camera and is shown an incredible world under the sea.

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: P-I

Readers Who Will Like This Book: Anyone who appreciates beautiful detailed pictures. The pictures contain a lot of information and the more the reader looks, the more he or she will find.

Personal Response and Rating: I rate this book a 4. Besides the obvious beautifully detailed illustrations, this book pushes the reader's sense of reality. A strange new world found under the sea is discovered as well as the legacy of the individuals who have had the good fortune of coming in contact with the strange yet wonderful underwater camera.

Prereading Question: Pick your favorite ocean animal. What do you think that animal does under the water in the ocean?

Reading Strategy Connection:

A. Reading Strategy - KWL or Know, Want to know, learned.

B. Description of Strategy - A chart is created with three columns: know (or what they think they know), want to know and learned. In a small group or as an entire class, students brainstorm what they think they know about the topic of the book. Answers may be reworded or placed in the "want to know" column. After reading the book the third and final column is completed.

C. Rationale - Because this book challenges one's concept of reality and contains heavy portions of both reality and fantasy, I believe the KWL chart is an effective way for students to stretch their knowledge and test their perceptions. Students' ideas and beliefs will both be supported and challenged by their peers and the teacher will be able to help students develop positive ways to communicate with each other, especially when there is a disagreement.

Museum Trip

Bibliographic Information: Lehman, B. (2006). Museum Trip. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Brief Annotation: A boy gets lost at the museum while on a school fieldtrip. Trying to find his way back to his group, he enters a secret room full of mazes inside a display case. Magically, he is drawn into the mazes and finds his way through each maze. As he finishes the last maze, he is given a reward for his completion and returns to join his group as they leave the museum.

Genre: Wordless Picture Book

Grade Level:K-3

Readers who will like this: Anyone who has been to a museum with facinating artifacts.

Response/Rating (1-4): 3; The illustrations were very simple and made it very easy to tell what the story is about. However, there were two pages that left me a little confuse on how to tell the story of this book; then I turned the page and was right back on track.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: Who has been to a museum?

Frog goes to dinner

1. Frog goes to dinner

2. Mayer, M. (2005). Frog goes to dinner. New York, NY: Dial.

3. This is a wordless picture book about a frog that sneaks into his boy's coat and goes with him to dinner. Throughout dinner he causes a lot of chaos with the restaurants guests.

4. Genre: Wordless Picture Book

5. Grade level: Preschool-2

6. Who will like this book: Most children would love this book. The humor in this book should appeal to most children.

7. This is a cute book with nice illustrations. The book is easy to flip through and create your own words and stories.

8. Have you ever had a pet frog or any pet you wish you could bring to dinner with you?