City I Love

By Lee Bennett Hopkins

This is a book of poems that came out this year. The first time I read through this book I was wondering what city it took place in, then I realized that it goes to a new city for each poem. I then flipped to the inside front cover with dots indicating each city included in the poems, and noticed the map that continues onto the back inside cover...very cool! I liked how there was a main character ( a dog with a backpack) that was not included in any of the poems but was located somewhere on each page to make the book feel more cohesive. I think kids would love trying to find the dog on each page. I would have loved to bring this book in for a social studies unit of communities that I recently had in my practicum classroom. Overall, the poems were fun and unique and could be used for a variety of grade levels.

Vherses

By J. Patrick Lewis

I first encountered this book during a genre presentation in the Curriculum Lab. I thought that the title was very clever--seeing as it is a poetry book about inspirational women. The pictures were very powerful--for each poem there was a full page picture on the next page. I felt that the pictures were very powerful; they truly captured the greatness of each woman. I thought it was neat how there was a paragraph for each outstanding woman that gave a brief description of why they were considered outstanding and how they have affected our world. I also thought it was neat how they had a wide range of famous women, and ended with two women who are still alive, Venus and Serena Williams. It was neat that they wrote a poem and I was actually impressed that it was so good. The layout on the page makes their voices come alive because it is written as if they are reading the poem together. This would be a fun poem to present like we did with the poems from Love That Dog in class. I would love to include this book in my classroom library.

Cosmo Zooms

By Arthur Howard

I was first introduced to this book during my observation for orientation. I am a huge dog-lover and coincidentally loved this book! The fact that every dog was good at something I think sends a positive message to children that they, too are capable of being good at something. The pictures were very large and colorful, which is perfect for a read-aloud. It's also very humorous--in my orientation experience, the students loved the part about Puddles drooling. Overall, I think this is a fun book that I would love to add to my collection for my future classroom library!

How Many Feet in the Bed?

By Diane Johnston Hamm

This is an older book that I came across when trying to find literature to incorporate into a math lesson for practicum. I think that it is a fun way to get students counting by two's or even to start thinking about multiplication. The big family is not portrayed as perfect--there are books, an alarm clock, and three pairs of slippers on the floor. The illustrations show a big, messy, and happy family. I thought this was a cute short story to include in my math lesson for second graders.

Goodnight Moon

By Margaret Wise Brown

This book was once again listed under Amazon's controversial book list. Yet when I picked it up and read it, I scrutinized each page and found nothing controversial about it. Then I read the reason for being on the controversial list, and in fact the only reason is because there was a picture of the author on the back holding a cigarette. After being published, the cigarette was then digitally removed. Overall, I felt like this was a great bedtime story for young children and would like to read it to my children someday.

Once I Ate a Pie

By Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest

For this class, I did my A/P/I study on Patricia MacLachlan. I came across this poetry picture book that she made with her daughter and fell in love with it! I absolutely loved the illustrations of the dogs, especially the pug on the cover! I thought it was a cute touch to put a stamp on the cover that says "13 Dogs Tell All!" and "Dog Approved" along with a puppy print. The book is a series of poems with different types of dogs on each page. The titles of the poems are the dog's names and include a glimpse into their lives. I am going to buy this book to have in my classroom because I think it would be fun to include in a poetry unit.

Reflection Statement

So far this course has given me a new perspective on children's literature. I have come to the realization that many books are geared towards middle class society. Most books portray a so called "typical" happy family with a caring mother, father, and siblings. I think as a future teacher I need to be aware of the books I chose to and be sure to include books that do not always portray a certain stereotype. I have also come across some great authors that I will be sure to include in my classroom library in the future. I am more confident about suggesting books which will be very helpful as a future teacher.
I thought it was very interesting to have the guest speaker from the curriculum lab come in and talk about all of the details that go into bookmaking that I never noticed before; such as picture books usually include 32 pages, how sometimes the front and back cover are one big picture, and how you can always find out what the artist used to make the illustrations (watercolor, paints, etc). I now take a little more time looking through picture books!