Contemporary/ Realistic Fiction Book Blog

Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream

Written by: Jenny Ham
Illustrated by: Julia Kuo
Published by: Little Brown
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction 
Reading Level: 3rd-6th Grade
Copyright: 2011
Pages: 160

Overview

This chapter book is about a young girl, Clara Lee. She has a bad dream of her grandpa dying and, at first was really disturbed by it. Clara came to find out that in the Chinese culture when you dream about a death it signifies great luck. Clara goes on to document all of the good things that happen to her. The story is also about her overcoming her doubts in herself. She believes that she cannot give a speech at the Little Miss Apple Pie contest because she is not as American as one of her classmates. This book would be great to read in an upper-grade setting to focus on owning who you are even if your culture is different from most of the people around you. It would also be great to teach about the Chinese culture that is portrayed throughout the book. 

Source: http://kotekchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/p/contemporary-realistic-fiction.html?m=1

Historical Fiction Book Blog

Henry's Freedom Box

Written by: Ellen Levine
Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson
Published by: Scholastic Press 
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reading level: Grades 3-5
Copyright: 2007
Pages: 40 

Overview

This children's story is about Henry Brown. He does not know how old he is because they do not count slaves' birthdays. Henry goes on to get married, but his family gets sold to slavery. He decides to put himself in a crate and mail himself to the North. Once Henry reaches the North, he finally has a birthday, his first day of Freedom. I would use this book to teach domain specific vocabulary. This book refers to the Underground Railroad, slaves, master, market, and conductor. This book is great to introduce those vocabulary words that were specific to this time frame. It also builds empathy for what people went through during slavery!





Sources:https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/henrys-freedom-box-storia-teaching-guide/

Nonfiction Book Blog

Hidden Figures The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Reace

Written by: Margot Lee Shetterfly 

Illustrated by: Laura Freeman 

Published by: William Morrow and Company

Genre: nonfiction 

Pages: 40

Reading level: Independent 6-9 years old

Copyright: 2018

Overview

This nonfiction picture book tells the story of four black women that helped put the first men is space. It talks about how they had to overcome racial and gender variables, but still changed the world forever. This would be a great story to teach 2nd graders how to acknowledge different points of view. We have all heard the story of the first men in space, but not so much about the wonderful women who put them there and how they felt. 

Science Fiction Book Blog

A Wrinkle in Time 

Written by: Madeleine L'engle
Illustrated by: Ellen Raskin
Published by: Farrar, Straus, Giroux
Genre: Science Fiction
Reading Level: 3rd-8th 
Copyright: 1962
Pages: 320

Overview

This attention grabbing chapter book is about a brother and sister that go on a hunt through time to find their father. Their father experienced with time travel and has been missing, so a gentleman comes to their door one day claiming to have gotten off course from a tesseract, which is a wrinkle in time. So off go Meg, Charles, and their friend Calvin to begin the search for their father. I would choose to read this book as a whole class in the 5th grade setting. We would focus on word recognition and how to decode those unfamiliar words by looking at the root word and word families. This is a wonderful text to do this with because the book was written in the 1960's and the language is different from what we use today. 

Sources: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/a-wrinkle-in-time-by-madeleine-l-engle/

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/a-wrinkle-in-time-by-madeleine-l-engle/

Modern Fantasy Book Blog

Bridge to Terabithia 

Written by: Katherine Paterson 

Illustrated by: Donna Diamond

Published by: Thomas Y. Crowell Company

Copyright: 1977

Pages: 144
Genre: Modern Fantasy 

Reading Level: 3rd-8th

Overview

This classic story is about a young boy, Jess Aarons and a young girl, Leslie Burke that meet and create a blossoming friendship. The two kids share an instant connection and immediately become friends. They go out to the woods behind their houses and create a magical kingdom. This is such a moving story about a wonderful bond between two friends. Tragedy hits and Jess must learn how to move on. This heartfelt story is great to teach children about the elements of a story. The rise, fall, climax, and resolution. There is also a movie, so the children could watch the movie after reading the book and do a compare/contrast between the two. 

Sources:

https://www.livetext.com/doc/5930974

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/bridge-to-terabithia-by-katherine-paterson/

Book Talk #1