Annotated Bibliography

“Holy Enchiladas” is about a boy named Hank with a learning disability of dyslexia. His
class is doing a multi-cultural week and decided to cook different kinds of foods all over the
world. In between the week, the class gets a foreign exchange student, named Yoshi, that will be
staying with one of the classmates for a couple of days. The classmate is Hank. During multi-
cultural week, as Hank gets to have Yoshi experience how an American home is, and Hank is so
excited! Hank makes enchiladas as his dish for multicultural week, but he can’t read well! Hank
mixes the amount of spices he is supposed to put in and leaves the teacher sick. Hank tends to
freak out and fights with his inside voice when he felt he has done something wrong. Hank feels
by him making that mistake, that he did a horrible job on this task, until Yoshi’s father tells him
that he is an awesome chef despite the mistake he did. Hank soon realizes that his disability does
not define him at the end. This book is good level for a middle school classroom.

“Thank you, Mr. Falker” is a good elementary grade level book about a student named
Trisha. Trisha had a hard time in class with letters and numbers. She could never understand why
everyone in the class understood and she was the only one falling behind. Kids bullied her for
not understanding, and even her teacher would not help her. She felt useless. When a new
teacher comes in, named Mr. Falker, he changes Trisha’s perspective on things. He right away
compliments her on her work and defends her when the class tends to bully her. Mr. Falker
understood Trisha. He knew that she felt dumb, and unmotivated, but still pushed her to keep
trying. Trishia at the end of the book, reads a whole paragraph by herself and understands it!
This book teaches kids to be motivated and to continue to try those hard obstacles in life.

“The Pout-Pout Fish Goes to School” is an elementary level book that teaches about
acceptance even when not feeling like you belong. Pout-Pout fish is a fish that feels frustrated
when he cannot understand how to learn like his other classmates. Pout-Pout fish starts to believe
that he can’t be smart, or he will never understand tasks. Then, a nice teacher fish comes saves
the day and brings him through a door that says, “brand new fish” and Pout-Pout fish was just so
curious what it was, so he entered. The teacher fish right away accepted him and everyone in the
classroom was so vibrant, and happy! The teacher gave them facts that they belong, and they are
able to complete difficult tasks! Pout-Pout fish soon believes the affirmations of the teacher, and
graduates from his kinder garden class!

“The Bad Seed” is an elementary level book about perspectives. When a student with a
learning disability is having trouble or just not understand, it can be difficult. Sometimes it can
lead how the way they may perceive themselves. That they want to give up, or they aren’t good
enough. This book shows how the bad seed was once happy until he went through this hard time
in his life of being separated from his family and into a sunflower seed bag. The bad seed
perceived life as such a bad thing, and soon saw himself as someone bad as well. Later in the
story, the bad seed didn’t want to be a bad seed anymore and wanted to enjoy life. So he did. The
bad seed became a good one and made life a good thing instead of a bad one.
 “If You’re So Smart, How Come You Can’t Spell Mississippi?” is a high school level
book about encouraging students with disabilities that even though they have a disability, there
are still so many possibilities of being successful. In this book a girl named Katie discovers that
her dad can’t spell the word “Mississippi” and she thought he was smart all this time. Her dad
informs her that just because he may have trouble spelling or pronouncing words, does not mean
he isn’t smart. He mentions successful people that have had a disability and been successful in
their life. Katie then goes to do research of all these people that have done great things and is so
fascinated by what she finds. She convinces herself that you can be smart even with a disability
and she can’t wait to spread the wonderful news!

Holy Enchilada!: Hank Zipzer, Writtem by Wrinkler, Henry, and Lin OliverBook 6. Grosset &
Dunlap, 2004.

Thank You, Mr. Falker. Written by Polacco, PatriciaPhilomel Books, 1998.

The Pout-Pout Fish Goes to School. Written by Diesen, Deborah, and Dan Hanna Farrar Straus
Giroux, 2018.

The Bad Seed. Written by John, Jory, and Pete Oswald. Scholastic Inc., 2019.

If You're So Smart, How Come You Can't Spell Mississippi. Written by Esham, Barbara and
illustrated by Mike and Carl Gorgon Little Pickle Press, 2018.