Just a CLASSic

One of my assignments for my class was to choose a book to read to third graders dealing with the theme of healthy foods. After scavenging the library and finding only mediocre food books, I approached the librarian and told her my assignment.  She thought for a minute and then recommended Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, a Caldecott honor award winner.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the one I had so eagerly been looking for.   I was not at all disappointed.  This book from cover to cover is filled with everything a good book should be. "Jasper Rabbit had a passion for carrots" (Reynolds 1) as the first page states.  He eats them all the time, but one day these carrots begin to follow him.  Everywhere he turns, he sees carrots--creepy carrots.   The pictures beautifully convey the story and add so much more meaning to the text.  The only color, besides black and white, throughout the whole book is orange.  This color...

This past weekend, my mom, sister and I visited the First Ladies Exhibit at the American History Smithsonian in D.C.  The exhibit is full of the gowns that the First Ladies wore to their husbands' inaugural balls; they are truly exquisite and intricate gowns. Throughout the exhibit, placards explain the many and varying contributions of each First Lady.  If you are in the D.C area and have never seen this exhibit, I highly recommend taking time to go see this exceptional museum display. Eleanor by Barbara Cooney goes into the younger life of Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the Presidents' wives with a dress in the above exhibit.  Throughout the story, nobody really likes Eleanor. In fact, the opening line sums up much of the book, "From the beginning the baby was a disappointment to her mother" (Cooney 1).  Her parents really do not have time for their little daughter. The mother calls her "Granny" because of her old-fashioned demeanor; however, Eleanor...

For what I was expecting this book to be, it was not.   The front cover of this book gives the idea that this story will be about an African American family that decides to take a trip to visit their grandma during "The darkest moments in American history."   I immediately recognized the date as directly in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement; for this, I thought much of the book would take place in Alabama detailing the Civil Rights Movement.   However, the family does not actually travel to Alabama until roughly about the last fifty pages of the book, and even with that there is a small portion that is dedicated to the struggles of the Civil Rights movement.    There is no build up for what does happen.   I understand the power of surprise, which is how the event is presented, but there were only casual mentions of the history surrounding the South during the 1960s before this event.    If I did not have a strong rootin...

Abraham Lincoln is one of my favorite presidents; he did a lot for this country, not to mention that he was an ingenious politician for many reasons. Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln assumes that its readers already know about President Lincoln; instead of focusing on his presidency, the book takes a closer look at Lincoln's young childhood days. The reader learns Lincoln's hardships and struggles but also his inspirations from the people around him.  What is more is that there are notes and a bibliography!  Yes my historian self just came out and got really excited. Though at times the story was a bit disconnected (as is often the case with biographies because of historical gaps), the story added personality to these historical people it was portraying; the people  had emotions and desires that continued to develop throughout the entire story. I loved reading about this side of Abraham Lincoln; I have not as yet read about Lincoln's younger life (though this book made m...

Normally, if I have the choice I will not choose to pick up a poetry book.  However, to have a variety of genres, I agreed to read Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night (it was actually one of the required reading for my class, but really it will be okay). Well quite surprised, I actually enjoyed this book because the poems were simple; they did not have complex symbolism that I had to work through in order to understand the deeper meaning. Each poem is about a different nocturnal animal.  What is specifically unique about this book is that as the poem introduces the animal, a blurb on the side explains in more informationally the habits of this particular animal. For me, as I zoomed through the poetry (either because the writing was that simple and understandable or because I really am not a huge fan of poetry), I spent time contemplating the nature blurb. I learned so much about ordinary animals like the cricket or the porcupine.  The pairing of these tw...

Who knew there was so much history about salt that could fill the pages of a children's picture book? Well I certainly did not know.  I had no idea the extent of the history of salt.   The Story of Salt goes through time from when people were still nomads to modern day salt uses. As I am learning about interdisciplinary units (connecting several subjects in school into one unit) in one of my other classes, I realized that this book truly is an interdisciplinary book. This book does not just contain history facts and information, but also combines it with scientific information. For example, at the start of the book, the author first explains the chemical compound of salt.  He then explores why we humans need salt in order to survive; he writes, "Sodium chloride is needed for breathing and for digestion, and without salt, the body could not transport nourishment, oxygen, or nerve impulses" (Kurlansky 7). The author also incorporates English (exploring the root ...

When I was younger, my parents took my brother and I to Kitty Hawk to visit the very location of the Wright brothers' first flight.  In the field where they flew, the museum has set up stone tablets in the ground to commemorate the distances and the duration, the longest being 59 seconds, of the first few flights.  I remember running down this historic runway by my brother with our arms outspread as if we were the very airplane that the Wright brothers first flew.  My brother and I shared a lot of laughs that day.  Whenever I hear about the Wright brothers, I now think of that happy memory with my family.  When I came across this book about the Wright brothers in the library,  I was very excited to read it and to learn more about these two incredibly smart men. However, the entire book was a disappointment.  I do admit that the facts in the book were fascinating; I did learn more about the Wright brothers than I had known before.  Th...