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Trade books resource library

Madison Martin

Mrs. Wargo

EDU 415

1. Grammar

a. The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear

Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes by Jane Straus

Summary: The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation is filled with easy-to-

understand rules, real-world examples, dozens of reproducible exercises, and pre-

and post-tests. This handy workbook is ideal for teachers, students in middle

school through college, ESL students, homeschoolers, and professionals. Valuable

for anyone who takes tests or writes reports, letters, Web pages, e-mails, or blogs,

The Blue Book offers instant answers to everyday English usage questions.

(goodreads.com)

Citation: Straus, Jane. The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation : The

Mysteries of Grammar and Punctuation Revealed. Mill Valley, Calif., Jane Straus,

2006.

b. The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the

Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed by Karen Elizabeth Gordon

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Summary: Playful, practical, this is the style book you can't wait to use, a guide

that addresses classic questions of English usage with wit & black humor. Black-

&-white illustrations throughout. (goodreads.com)

Citation: Karen Elizabeth Gordon. The Deluxe Transitive Vampire : The Ultimate

Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed. New York,

Pantheon Books, 1993.

c. A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What Is a Noun? (Words are CATegorical) by

Brian P. Cleary

Summary: It's easier to show than explain--and this book is brimming with

examples. Author Brian Cleary and illustrator Jenya Prosmitsky creatively clarify

the concept of nouns for young readers. Nouns are printed in color for easy

identification, and the playful rhymes and illustrations combine to highlight key

words. (goodreads.com) Great for struggling readers.

Citation: Cleary, Brian P, and Jenya Prosmitsky. A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink :

What Is a Noun? Minneapolis, Millbrook Press, 2006.

d. Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely: What Is an Adverb? (Words are CATegorical) by

Brian P. Cleary, Brian Gable

Summary: Bursting with adverbs, this addition to the Words Are CATegorical(R)

series creatively clarifies the concept of adverbs for young readers with

delightfully playful rhymes and extremely humorous illustrations. For easy

identification, adverbs are printed in color and key words are illustrated on each

page. (goodreads.com)
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Citation: Cleary, Brian P, and Brian Gable. Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely : What Is

an Adverb? Minneapolis, Millbrook Press, 2006.

i. Website for teacher: https://eslspeaking.org/how-to-teach-grammar/

ii. Website for students: Grammarly.com

iii. Media source 1: https://quizlet.com/subject/grammar/

iv. Media source 2 :

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/parts-of-speech-the-

noun/welcome-to-grammar-subject/v/introduction-to-grammar

2. American Literature

a. “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Summary: “The Great Gatsby" tells the story of a millionaire named Jay Gatsby.

Gatsby is in love with Daisy, who is already married, and they begin an affair.

While driving Gatsby's car, Daisy hits and kills a woman. Gatsby takes the blame,

only to be shot by the woman's husband. (sparknotes.com)

Citation: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Harmondsworth, Penguin Books,

10 Apr. 1925.

b. “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer

Summary: Oskar Schell is a super-smart nine-year old grieving the loss of his

father, Thomas, who was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on September

11, 2001. He's feeling depressed and anxious, and feels angry and distant towards

his mother. (shmoop.com)

Citation: Jonathan Safran Foer. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Boston,

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.

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c. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

Summary: To Kill a Mockingbird is primarily a novel about growing up under

extraordinary circumstances in the 1930s in the Southern United States. The story

covers a span of three years, during which the main characters undergo significant

changes. Scout Finch lives with her brother Jem and their father Atticus in the

fictitious town of Maycomb, Alabama. (cliffsnotes.com)

Citation: Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Harlow, Longman, 2010.

d. “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy

Summary: The Road takes place after some unknown apocalyptic event has

nearly wiped out the earth. In this landscape everything is dead and burnt, the sun

is blotted out by ash, all plants and animals are extinct, and most humans are

either lone travelers or members of cannibalistic communes. (litcharts.com)

Citation: McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. 1st ed., Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

i. Website for teacher: https://writeonwithmissg.com/2018/07/21/teaching-

american-literature/

ii. Website for student: https://understandingamericanlit.blogspot.com/

iii. Media source 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2614Yv9S98g

iv. Media source 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfsFeMRF7CU

3. Shakespeare

a. Macbeth by Shakespeare

Summary: Macbeth (1606), by William Shakespeare is an Elizabethan play

exploring the tragic demise of a Scottish Thane, Macbeth. The tragedy explains

ambition and greed’s infiltration on one’s morals, exploring Macbeths self-

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absorption and failure to accept the consequences of his immoral and unthinkable

acts. Who started out as a noble warrior and indeed a hero in his king's eyes,

becomes the epitome of evil in the face of an environment where "fair is foul and

foul is fair. (gradesaver.com)

Citation: Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Don Mills, On, Rock’s

Mills Press, 2017.

b. Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

Summary: An age-old vendetta between two powerful families erupts into

bloodshed. A group of masked Montagues risk further conflict by gatecrashing a

Capulet party. A young lovesick Romeo Montague falls instantly in love with

Juliet Capulet, who is due to marry her father’s choice, the County Paris.

(shakespare.org)

Citation: Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. 1597. Tustin, Xist Publishing,

2015.

c. Julius Caesar by Shakespeare

Summary: Jealous conspirators convince Caesar's friend Brutus to join their

assassination plot against Caesar. To stop Caesar from gaining too much power,

Brutus and the conspirators kill him on the Ides of March. Mark Antony drives

the conspirators out of Rome and fights them in a battle.

Citation: Shakespeare, William, et al. Julius Caesar. Cambridge New York, Ny

Port Melbourne Cambridge University Press, 2017.

d. Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson

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Summary: Shakespeare: The World As Stage is a biography of William

Shakespeare by author Bill Bryson. The 199-page book is part of Harper Collins'

series of biographies, "Eminent Lives". The focus of the book is to state what

little is known conclusively about Shakespeare, and how this information is

known, with some discussion of disproved theories, myths, and that which is

believed by the public but not provable. It also explores the political, social,

cultural and economic background to Shakespeare's work. (Wikipedia)

Citation: Bryson, Bill. Shakespeare : The World as Stage. New York, Atlas

Books, 2016.

i. Website for teacher: https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/education/

ii. Website for student: https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/

iii. Media source 1: https://quizlet.com/subject/Macbeth/

iv. Media source 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qao2xINsE

4. Diverse voices

a. If You Come Softly by Jaqueline Woodson

Summary: After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old

Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white

and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with

peoples' reactions. (worldcat.org)

Citation: Woodson, Jacqueline. If You Come Softly. New York, Ny, Nancy

Paulsen Book, 1998.

b. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

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Summary: Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane

Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other

Indian is the school mascot. (McCartney Library catalog)

Citation: Alexie, Sherman, and Ellen Forney. The Absolutely True Diary of a

Part-Time Indian. 1st ed., Little, Brown, 2007.

c. Slam! by Walter Dean Myer

Summary: “Slam!” is a young adult novel by Walter Dean Myers. The story

revolves around the efforts of seventeen year-old Greg “Slam” Harris to play

basketball, while maintaining his academics and his personal life. Slam lives in

Harlem and attends the prestigious magnet school Latimer in the South Bronx.

The school is predominantly white. It has a failing basketball program. Slam is

attending Latimer as part of a policy that enables schools to become more diverse.

(bookrags.com)

Citation: Myers, Walter Dean. Slam! Paw Prints, 2009.

d. The Freedom Summer Murders by Don Mitchell

Summary: In June of 1964, three idealistic young men (one black and two white)

were lynched by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. They were trying to register

African Americans to vote as part of the Freedom Summer effort to bring

democracy to the South. Their disappearance and murder caused a national uproar

and was one of the most significant incidents of the Civil Rights Movement, and

contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (scholastic.com)

Citation: Mitchell, Don. The Freedom Summer Murders. New York, Ny,

Scholastic Inc, 2016.

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i. Website for teacher: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/preparing-cultural-

diversity-resources-teachers

ii. Website for student:

https://talk.economistfoundation.org/headlines/racism/resources/

iii. Media source 1: Tiffany Jewel reading an excerpt from her book This

Book is Anti-Racist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uJQNaQ-IQk

iv. Media source 2: Jaqueline Woodson C-SPAN interview about If You

Come Softly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPMfa78Rgr4

5. Science fiction

a. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Summary: Robert Walton, an English adventurer, undertakes an expedition to the

North Pole. While on this expedition (which has been a lifelong dream of his),

Walton corresponds with his sister by letter. Amid the ice floes, Walton and his

crew find an extremely weary man traveling by dogsled. (gradesaver.com)

Citation: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Beverly, Ma Rockport Publishers,

2018.

b. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Summary: "Brave New World" takes place in a futuristic society in which people

are grown as nearly identical embryos in bottles and conditioned to remove strong

desires, the need for human relationships and strong emotions. Members of

society take a drug called soma to help keep them docile. (reference.com)

Citation: Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. 1932. New York, Harper & Row,

1995.
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c. 1984 by George Orwell

Summary: It is the year 1984, and Winston lives in Airstrip One, which used to be

known as Great Britain. Winston is a member of the Party, which rules Oceania

under the principles of Ingsoc (English Socialism). Oceania is an oligarchy, under

hierarchical rule. (gradesaver.com)

Citation: Orwell, George. 1984. Harlow, Pearson Education, 8 June 1949.

d. The Giver by Lois Lowry

Summary: The giver is written from the point of view of Jonas, an eleven-year-

old boy living in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, fear, war, and

hatred. There is no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same,

and there is very little competition. Everyone is unfailingly polite. The society has

also eliminated choice: at age twelve every member of the community is assigned

a job based on his or her abilities and interests. (sparknotes.com)

Citation: Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio,

1993.

i. Website for teacher:

https://www.elacommoncorelessonplans.com/science-fiction-short-stories-

for-middle-school-and-high-school.html

ii. Website for students: https://raindance.org/101-guide-on-writing-science-

fiction/

iii. Media source 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmkQHV8e4Rk

iv. Media source 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raqVySPrDUE

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