Booklist Project

Danielle Campbell
 DanielLe CampbeLl
Booklist Project

Age Group- Kindergarten/ 5 year olds

Author Study:JaNay Brown-Wood

+Amara’s Farm [F]
+Logan’s Greenhouse [F]
+Miguel’s Community Garden [F]
+These Are Seeds [F]
+Linh’s Rooftop Garden [F]

Favorite Read Aloud:

+The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywatt [F]
+Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin [F]
+Pete The Cat I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin [F]
+The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of anything by Linda Williams [F]
+Red: A Crayons Story by Michael HaLl [F]

Theme: Black Voices

+Don’t Touch My Hair by Sharee MiLler [F]
+Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry [F]
+I Am Whole by Shola Oz [F]
+AlL Because You Matter by Tami Charles [F]
+My Voice Is A Trumpet by Jimmie AlLen [F]
Multicultural:
+The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi [F] {cultural pride}
+Last Stop On Market Street by Matt De La Peña [F] {community}
+Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble MaiLlard [F] {tradition, folklore}
+Meeting Mimi: A Story About Different Abilities by Fracie Dolan [F] {positivity, acceptance}
+Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You by Sonia Sotomayor [F/NF] {positivity, acceptance}

Science:
+Vivi Loves Science by Kimberly Derting [F] {ocean}
+Dirt: The Scoop On Soil by Natalie M. Rosinsky [NF] {nature, natural grounds, why}
+A Drop Around The World by Barbara McKinney [F] {meteorology}
+The Reason For The Seasons by ElLie Peterson [NF] {meteorology}
+Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed The Seas by MoLly Bang [NF] {ocean, why, how}
 Bookstore Interview
I went to BAM bookstore and interviewed an employee named Logan. Considering he was not regularly stationed in that section, Logan was very
knowledgeable about the children’s section of the store. In my opinion, the children’s section could have been bigger and have a better variety of
books, the children’s section is a combined age section with literature that goes from infants to preteen aged children. There was a decent amount
of space within the children’s section that was filled with double digit copies of one book (ex: 15 copies of Dr. Seuss Green Eggs and Ham), While
I understand that the store’s goal is to sell literature I think that there could have been more variety if there was a limit to how many copies of
one book title is on the shelf.

What are some new authors or children's books that are popular with kindergarteners/ 5 year olds?
Bluey is very popular with kindergarteners, he is a character from a show that came out in 2018 and has gained an increase in popularity among
kids. The ‘Who Is/Was’ series is also gaining popularity among kids. (The ‘Who Is/Was/What Was/Where Is/What Is The Story Of/What Do We
Know About series was first published in 2002, it is a series of nonfiction books.)
What books are most popular for kindergarteners/ 5 year olds?
The ‘Who Is/Was’ series is popular with kids that come in, ‘I Survived’ is also very popular.

What authors are most popular for kindergarteners/ 5 year olds?

Dr. Seuss is still a popular author among kindergartners, there’s no specific author but National Geographic for kids is also very popular.

Is the multicultural children’s literature in the store representative of the local community population? How could this improve or change?
More than before, there is more cultural ‘where you came from, prideful’ literature than previously. There are still a lot of nuclear family books, there
could be less white washing and more single parents. (The multicultural literature is mixed in with the rest of literature, no separate sections. In
browsing the area, I did not see much multicultural that would be suited for kindergarteners but did see a lot for toddlers, I also did not find any
multilingual books within he popular books, such as Dr. Seuss or Eric Carle.

Are fiction or nonfiction books more popular for kindergarteners/ 5 year olds?
Nonfiction is more popular for kindergarteners, the parents do push for the nonfiction literature but ‘I Survived” and the ‘National Geographic for kids’
are popular.

What programs are in place at the store for kindergarteners/ 5 year olds?
There are no programs in places but the store does do grouping sales.
 Library Interview
I interviewed the library’s director of the children’s section, Mina, as well as a mix of other employees. The director stated she could not answer all of the
questions compared to the employees, who are on the floor more than she is. I conducted my interview at the Martin Library in York.

What are some new authors or children's books that are popular?
There is a ‘new’ section in the picture books section for newbooks we get in, that has a variety of new books. Maya Gabeira is new, Elizabeth Olsen is
also up-and-coming (both authors with books in the ‘new’ section of the library). (There is also a section in the library for local authors, a father
and daughter duo had just recently did a book signing and reading event at the library for a book they wrote together. The director could not recall
their names.)

What books are most popular for kindergarteners/ 5 year olds?

Pete The Cat is really popular. (There is a sheet hung in the library titled “Children’s Top 10” which lists authors, fiction titles, and nonfiction
titles. Some of the titles include: Disney Faries, Diary Of A Wimpy Kid, Pokémon Adventures, Apples, Curious About Ice Cream, and more).

What authors are most popular for kindergarteners/ 5 year olds?

Eric Carle is still popular, even though he’s passed away they are still making books with his name and writing style/theme. Mo Willems is also a
popular author. (Some authors on the “Children’s Top 10” list are: Victoria Kanin, Daisy Meadows, Jeff Kinney, James Patterson, and Mike
Berenstain).

Is the multicultural children’s literature in the library representative of the local community population? How could this improve or change?
Yes, we are working to make sure it’s recognizable and available countywide, people can look for books and place holds online and we will deliver to
their local library. We are still adding things to be more representative and are working on a new database to help analyze diversity, not just for
race but for people with disabilities and different families. York is a welcoming city, a lot of people come to York because of how welcoming it is.
(When browsing the literature I had noticed a section for books in Spanish, bilingual books, and a dvd to help kids learn French. I had asked the
director if there were more books for learning French or other languages.) We are working on getting more French literature, there has been an
increase in the Haitian/Creole population and a lot of them speak French so we are trying to get more books for that audience. (I learned that the
bilingual books were mixed in with all of the other literature compared to its own section like the literature in Spanish had, I did not see any French
though I will admit it was hard to look for the sticker- there is a ‘yes, oui, si’ sticker on the spine of bilingual books so that people know that
book has text in English an another language- and I got a little lost combing through the books but I did manage to find at least 5 of the
bilingual books. There were also some books in Spanish that were sorted outside of the Spanish literature section, not sure if that was oversight or
done on purpose. During my browse I easily saw books that were about other cultures, there were some also on display rather than on the shelves
with other books.
Are fiction or nonfiction books more popular for kindergarteners/ 5 year olds?
There is a good mix, the children who like fiction tend to like to go page by page to build the stray and the fictional animals in the stories while the
children who tend to like nonfiction like that they can jump in at any moment of the book. The girls (the other staff) have good knowledge on the
kids who come in, they can tell what kind of books the kids will want becase they see them so often an know them well.

What programs are in place at the store for kindergarteners/ 5 year olds?
We have the kindergarten display, it has books to help kids transition to and prepare for kindergarten, what to expect and things of that nature.
Schools will bring children in for story time, family place (a separate space with doors within the children’s floor of the library) is for families to
come in and do story time all together. We have some activities but mostly during the summer. Roxanne Dean is a local author who comes by and
does book readings, MJ McCluskey is a local author as well and will come by for some programs and readings. There is also a sensory garden
(outside but within the walls of the library, cannot access the street from there), parents like to take their kids out there and read to them.
What website had the most quality literature for kindergarteners/ 5 year olds
Using my booklist as a tool, I believe Barnes and noble had the best literature for kindergarteners. There was only one book on my booklist that they
did not have. Outside of my booklist, they have a nice selection of books and a good search tool to find something specific. You can find books in certain
age ranges, subjects, and different languages. YouTube would be second best because they had a good range of literature but missed three books from
my booklist. Finding literature on YouTube was easy and did not take long to find books that represented other people. Storyline online listed books in
alphabetical order which was nice in an organizational aspect but I lost the urge to browse quickly. Their collection of books was not very big, some
letters had little to no book titles listed under them. I found none of the books from my booklist. Epic did not allow me to browse without a
subscription which makes me think of how that could be inaccessible for some families.

Share the balance of fiction and nonfiction books found on the website.
I think fiction books were more easily available and you had to search a little more for nonfiction books on Barnes and nobles website. I looked under
the age group of 6-8 year olds, there are multiple sections you can use to narrow a search for specific books but there is not a nonfiction section like
there is a ‘fiction & literature’ section. However, there are some nonfiction sections such as health & medicine, history, etc where you could find
nonfiction books.

What author did you enjoy the most online?

I enjoyed the author JaNay Brown-Wood. She is an author I found while finding books for this project. I think that her garden series of books is
great, it teaches children about different ways to garden and being involved in the community and even includes a recipe that can be made in
‘Logan’s Greenhouse’. The books also feature children of different races/cultures which is beneficial to all children because it can be a way to start
introducing how sometimes people look different from us on the outside.

What are the benefits or weaknesses of using an online literature website to share literature with young children
The benefit of using online literature websites is that you have more literature that is within reach, not many stores/library’s will have something
in stock or may not carry what you’re looking for at all but you can use different literature websites to find what you’re looking for. It is also
easier to find multicultural or multilingual literature online compared to in person. Another benefit is that you can use a device to take the
literature websites with you anywhere, if a family were to take a road trip they would have access to multiple books compared to only being able
to take a few physical copies of literature. The weakness of using online literature websites is that that creates increased screen time for children,
something they should not have excess amounts of. A second weakness is that children aren’t able to learn book handling skills and the
organization and basic features of print. A third weakness is accessibility, not everyone has the internet to access literature websites and some
websites require fees and subscriptions, something that some families may not be able to afford.
 Feature Book

Summary; ‘Just Ask: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You’ is written by Sonia Sotomayor. The book starts off with Sonia, as a child, introducing herself,
telling the audience that she is planting a garden with friends, how plants in the garden grow together but everything requires something different
and she compares children to that. She says if you are curious about someone “just ask” and then tells the audience that she has diabetes and
gives a little bit of information about her diabetes, such as pricking her finger multiple times a day to check her blood sugar levels. She then asks
a question (“do you ever need to take medicine to be healthy?”) which then takes us to one of her friends, Rafael. Rafael introduces himself and
explains that he has asthma, he then asks a question which takes us to another friend. There is a cycle of the child introducing themself and
lightly explaining their exceptionality. There are a variety of exceptionalities discussed within the book; diabetes, asthma, wheelchair useage, blindness,
deafness, dyslexia, ASD, stutters, Tourette’s, ADHD, allergies, and Down syndrome. The book sends the message that it is okay to ask questions
about something you don’t understand and it sends a reminder that not everyone will want to talk about something they are experiencing. The book
ends with comparing children to the garden they are planting, they are different and that makes them better as a whole.

Ways to use the book across the curriculum;

1. Writing prompt- I ask when...
2. Comprehension- personal connection (I know someone who..I have..I have seen..etc.)
3. Vocabulary- diabetes, insulin, medicine, dyslexia, Tourette’s
4. Phonics- ask, short a, sk not ks
5. Fluency- read the colored questions together
6. Word ID- ask, our
7. Health- discuss tools that help people (medicine in different forms, wheelchairs, glasses, etc.)
8. Science- discuss how a person is diagnosed (going to the doctors, what we think happens at the doctors)
9. Social studies- discuss the history of health & its evolution
10. Phonics- asthma, silent th
 Reflection
What did I learn from creating the booklist?
I learned to look at literature in more detail, I enjoyed being able to be creative to find books that fit the categories. I was surprised to learn
that nonfiction was popular for kindergarteners in the library and bookstore. I was glad to learn that the bookstore and library were working to
have multicultural literature and that they recognized that multicultural literature wasn’t limited to just different races/ethnicities/nationalities.

What did I learn from reading aloud to the child or children?

I learned that I get really nervous when I read, I guess I see it as a form of public speaking so I get anxious. I think I appreciated this part of
the assignment though because the more I do it, the less nervous I will be once I start my career. I read to my nephews which i think was good
because they were still silly like any other kindergartener would be, they didn’t act any differently from their norm.

What successes or difficulties did I have with this project?

I had success with finding literature for the favorite read aloud, author study, theme, and multicultural sections. Choosing a content area and
finding literature for it was a little more difficult because I wasn’t sure if the literature I was selecting for the science content area was what
Dr. Davis was looking for compared to more nonfiction literature. The interviews were also a bit difficult for me. Pennsylvania is a state that still
has minimum wage set at $7.25, I don’t know if Books A Million gives their employees more than the state minimum but I felt bad to have to,
in a sense, bother an employee who already has a lot of job requirements with little compensation. I felt a little less guilty about the library
interview, I think because growing up the library, for me, was known for being a place of knowledge, librarians were always kind and ready to
help and answer questions. The read aloud was a little difficult for me because I get nervous speaking in front of people, even though they were
children and my family I was still nervous and stumbled on some words. The phonics part of “ways to use this across the board” was
challenging, I chose ‘ask’ because that’s something I still have to check myself with as an adult because I will easily say aks instead of ask. The
other content areas were not difficult for me to create uses for.

Why was this project important to me as a future teacher?

This project was important because I think people don’t consider how much goes into literacy, and as someone who struggles phonetically with some
words I think that the “ways to use this across the board” was beneficial. I think researching online literacy sources was also beneficial and
something that I can take with me when I start my career.

What changes would you make to this project?

I’m not sure there are any changes I would make to the project. As much as I didn’t enjoy the interviews, I think they were beneficial to the
project. Maybe I would add more to the “create a booklist” category, I enjoyed looking for literature and found a lot that I thought was interesting
or had read before and felt others would enjoy.