Courtney Wenstrom

Choldenko, G. (2006). How to Make Friends with a Giant. New York: G.P. Putnam’s
Sons (a division of Penguin Young Readers Group).

Summary:

A boy named Jacob makes friends with a friend named Jacomo that is the complete
opposite of himself. They go through many hardships throughout the school day in
order for them to realize that having each other as friends makes them that much
better themselves.

Devices Used:

Simple dialogue, Repetition, Irony

Art Style:

Pen/pencil cartoons with a lot of detail that allow the reader to see exactly what it
going on throughout the storyline.

Curriculum Tie-In:

Social Science (fitting in)

Courtney Wenstrom

Helakoski, L. (2010). Fair Cow. New York: Marshall Cavendish Children.

Summary:

A cow named Effie dreams of being a “Fair Cow,” and winning a blue ribbon for it.
Her friend tries to fix everything that she claims is wrong with Effie, and once Effie
reaches the actual competition, she goes against all the rules and has fun. She ends
up winning the blue ribbon with just being herself, rather than doing everything
everyone else wanted her to do.

Devices Used:

Foreshadowing, Context Clues, Personification

Art Style:

Acrylic paints with words in many different shapes to add an overall affect to the
book and storyline.

Curriculum Tie-In:

Social Science (learning to fit in and be yourself)

Courtney Wenstrom

Choldenko, G. (2007). Louder, Lili. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons (a division of
Penguin Young Readers Readers Group).

Summary:

Lili is a girl that has an issue with being too quiet when she speaks. She is constantly
overlooked when it comes to picking partners in class, or when the teacher is taking
attendance. She becomes very attached to the class guinea pig, Lois, because Lili
feels as though she is the only friend she is. Once students in the class try and mess
with Lois when the teacher is absent, Lili’s voice becomes heard and she screams at
the top of her lungs. From then on, Lili always has a partner in class, and her
classmates/teacher respect her more.

Devices Used:

Hyperbole

Art Style:

Colored pencils were used to represent the storyline.

Curriculum Tie-In:

Social Science (learning to stand up with you believe in)

Courtney Wenstrom

Graves, K. (2010). Chicken Big. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

Summary:

This story is about a chicken that was born abnormally large. All the other chicks
felt that because of his size, he could not be a chicken. They all guessed different
things the chicken could be, like an elephant, an umbrella, a sweater etc. Once the
fox came and stole all the chickens’ eggs, the big chicken was the one to get them
back. That is the point where the other chicks realized that he is actually a chicken
after-all.

Devices Used:

Personification

Art Style:

Art markers or pencils draw cartoons.

Curriculum Tie-In:

Social Science (being yourself & accepting others for their differences)
Courtney Wenstrom

Johnson, B. (2006). The Hello, Goodbye Window. San Francisco: Scholastic Press.

Summary:

This is about an Italian business that wants to make the best meatballs around, but
keeps being faced with challenges. Once the “perfect meatball” was created,
someone sneezed and it flew away, finally landing on the grass, growing a meatball
tree. Then they did not have to worry about tasting that delicious meatball, because
it grew the best meatballs and sauce in that part of town.

Devices Used:

Personification, Foreshadowing, Onomatopoeia,

Art Style:

Brightly colored acrylic paints to create the cartoons in the book.

Curriculum Tie-In:

Social Science (Everything happens for a reason)

Courtney Wenstrom

Juster, N. and Raschka, C. (2005). The Hello, Goodbye Window. MDC Books.

Summary:

This book is about a child who idolizes their grandparents, and loves everything
about their house and what they do. The reference of the window in the book is for
the window in his grandparents house, where he can see everything that is
happening outside from. The window poses as a way to keep close connection to his
grandparents no matter what.

Art Style:

Water colors, with no distinct shapes in the pictures.

Courtney Wenstrom

Gleick, B. (2008). Time is When. Canada: Tundra Books.

Summary:

This is a great children’s book discussing the subject of time. It goes through
different elements of time, such as minutes and seconds, and tries to explain to
children what you would be able to do in each of those. For example, it says that you
could turn a page in a book in one second, which allows them to gain the
understanding of just how long a second is.

Art Style:

Collage-style pictures, with different types of things added throughout the book.

Teaching Strategies:

In second grade, they are now beginning to tell time and be able to recognize it on a
clock right away. With the usage of this book, I would be able to explain to them in a
fun, but educational fashion, how important time is to us. They would be able to
relate to the different examples given, and understand the basic concepts of telling
time even better.
Courtney Wenstrom

Murphy, S. (1998). Lemonade for Sale. New York: Harper Collins.

Summary:

A group of kids need money to rebuild their clubhouse, but are not sure on how to
go about that. They decide that having a lemonade stand would allow them to make
the money that they need, and hopefully in a short amount of time. With each child
having a job, the lemonade stand is a success, and they reach their overall goal in the
end.

Art Style:

The usage of watercolors and art pencils allow the illustrator to draw the
appropriate cartoons for the storyline.

Teaching Strategies:

Making bar graphs is a tough concept for second graders. In this book, the children
are selling their lemonade, and assigning jobs along the way. One girl gets the job of
keeping track of how many cups of lemonade they are selling, and she organizes this
by making a bar graph. As she is going about the organization of her data, the book
explains the different labels and things that should be included within the graph.
This would allow the students to see making graphs as something that could be fun,
and something that would definitely be useful for many different situations in life.
Courtney Wenstrom

Lorenz, A. (2010). The Exceptionally Extraordinarily Ordinary First Day of School.

New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Summary:

This book takes a child through the average first day of school. It has one page per
different aspect of the first day, running through everything from subjects, to
teachers, to lunch, to special periods. It is a very informative selection, that can ease
the worries about going to school.

Art Style:

It has a very detailed, penciled out cartoons. There is also many definitions listed on
the sides of the pages, to define different words that relate to the topic of that page.

Teaching Strategies:

This book is a very educational piece of work. It allows a child, around the age of
second or third grade, to see everything that goes on in school on a different level.
For the confusing or difficult words, there are definitions and descriptions on the
sides of the pages. I would use this is the setting of somewhere in the beginning of
the year, to ease the worries of the first day of school. This could pose as a good
resource for students to become more comfortable in their classroom environment.
Courtney Wenstrom

James, S. (1991). Dear Mr. Blueberry. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

Summary:

This book is about a boy that is writing letters to his teacher about his whale. He
explains to Mr. Blueberry that he has a whale in his pond, and asking advice on how
to take care of him. Mr. Blueberry claims that it cannot be a whale, because whales
live in oceans and not ponds. The boy says that he has given him salt and food to
live in his pond. Mr. Blueberry tells him that he cannot keep the whale in his pond,
and the whale leaves. The boy goes to the beach and sees the whale once again, and
realizes that he is better off in the big ocean, rather than the little pond he was
originally in.

Art Style:

Simple pen drawings of cartoons.

Teaching Strategies:

Although this book may seem to be for a younger crowd, there are a lot of hidden
facts about whales throughout it. I would use this book before the introductory
lesson of life science comes into play, especially if we would be covering ocean life.
A teacher could tell the students to find two facts about whales in the book that they
learned, which could introduce the lesson that they are about to get into. This
would be a fun way for students to get interested in the subject, and it would be very
interesting to see the responses.