Text-to-Self Connections: getting new shoes messed up

Cause and Effect: Because Delly needed the shoes, the effect is that her dad found a way to buy them.

Because the girls scuffed her shoes, the effect is Delly found a way to paint them to be beautiful.

Because Delly’s shoes were the most beautiful and matched her box, the effect was that the bid kept going up on her box.

Drawing Conclusions: What conclusion to you come to about the kind of family that is Delly’s family?

Point of View: Delly tells the story from her point of view.

Delly, the oldest of five, does not have any shoes that are fit to wear so she goes to school barefoot. One of the more wealthy girls makes fun of her for not having shoes. The teacher assigns a project of decorating a shoe box with a box supper inside and auctioning it off to raise money for art supplies at the school’s fall festival.  After her father buys her some shoes, and the girls at school purposefully scuff them up, Delly makes them beautiful again by decorating them with paint her mother has made from the natural resources in nature. The story ends with pumpkin carving and a happy barefoot walk home to feel the sand squish in their toes for the last time until the next spring.  

Schema: honey bees

Text-to-Self Connection: standing still when a bee is near, being afraid of bees

Point of View:  Rhyming text tells two tales from a bee’s point of view and a girl’s point of view as the two go to gather pollen and berries.  Both are afraid of each other, but their mothers tell them to leave one another alone and all will be well.  The blueberry patch in the park, the walk to the park and home, and the little girl with her mother will capture the attention of young readers and especially those who fear bees. After you read the book, read it again going from the page where the illustrations show the differing points of view on the same incident to show students how the author’s purpose is to illustrate point of view and perspective.

In this story Buddy notices a strange lizard with a blue tongue under some shelves in the library, and since he doesn’t know what it is, he calls it the “library monster.”  The key to the furnace room at the school is missing, and a light fixture in the school office is on the blink. Buddy is a reading therapy dog, and one of the kids he knows, Maya,  seems upset and  Buddy can tell this  by her smell. With lots of watching, running to see, and talking with a dog who lives near the school, Buddy figures out by listening to Maya read to him that the lizard, a skink,  is what he found in the library, and later learns Maya has been hiding it at school because her mother won’t let her keep it at home. She also took the reptile man’s box of mice, and at one point in the story they were loose in the school. Buddy wishes his people would listen to him, but they never do. If they did, they would know why he was running around and who left the note explaining about the lizard, mice, furnace room mystery.

Cause and Effect: Because Buddy could smell something strange, the effect is that he sought out the skink that was loose in the school.

Drawing Conclusions: Buddy draws some conclusions based on what he knows and makes lists of them during the story.

Inference: A key is missing, and then later we see Maya with a key. We can infer that she has the furnace room key that has been missing.  We can also infer that she is hiding something in this room.

Point of View: The story is told from Buddy’s POV.

Text-to-text: The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Heavy paper for the pages, simple illustrations, and straightforward text combine to create a book young children, especially boys, will enjoy. Tim tells the truth about the unbelievable things that happen in his house and yard, but his parents do not believe him. He then lies and says it was him that did the things, but also gets punished, by having to rake leaves, even though he is innocent. Finally he thinks to write a letter and invite the culprits to his home for a party. His parents make all of them rake, then they have a party. It would be fun to compare with The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Young children will be entertained and enlightened by young Tim.

Compare and Contrast: The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Drawing Conclusions: The parents draw the conclusion that the boy is being dishonest.

Point of View: The story is told from Tim’s POV.

Schema: waiting, obeying,  favorite foods, making healthy choices,  tantrums

Text-to-text connection: Where the Wild Things Are by Sendak

Point of View: The story is told from Betty’s POV.

Thoughtful  language and detailed illustrations come together to create a book about patience and manners that does  not talk down to children. The feeling and lesson this story conveys will connect with young readers and listeners. The concept of patience is difficult to explain to young children, and the author and illustrator have done an excellent job. It’s wonderful to come across a children’s book that is as strong as this one.   Betty Bunny is determined to get her way, but she listens, tries, and learns, and  grows.   The mother in the story is a great role model and example of patience as she uses appropriate language and examples to explain patience to Betty.

Cause and Effect: Because of Betty’s behavior, the effect is that she is sent to her room without her cake.

Predicting: What do you predict will happen to the cake in Betty’s sock?

Synthesis: Ask students to share some examples of when they have had to be patient.  What is patience like?  What can we do to show that we are being patient?

Text-to-text connections: Detective LaRue books by Teague, and Help Me, Mr. Mutt! by Stevens

Emma, owned by George, and Hankie, owned by Loretta, are worried about what is happening to their owners, each thinking the other’s owner may be trying to kidnap their own owner, when in fact, they are dating.  To solve the problem they write to an advise column, Ask Queenie.  The setting for writing e-mails is at the public library. The art incorporates picture book and graphic formats with many frames of dialogue along with full page art.

Point of View:  The story is told from George’s dog, Emma’s POV.

Drawing Conclusions: George and Emma both conclude that their owners need help.  Find text evidence that supports their conclusions.

Synthesis:  Share situations that are like Emma’s such as when a parent begins dating, getting a new brother or sister, when a new pet is added to the home and how the other pets react

Predicting: Predict what Loretta will do after she gets the dogs out of the dumpster…bath time!

Author’s purpose: to entertain and inform about the depression

Inference: The family was leaving Kansas, but then when the mysterious figure runs in front of the car, it seems that the family didn’t end up leaving Kansas. We may infer that the sudden stop caused the car to break down as we see the father working on the car after that.

Cause and Effect: Because of the drought, the effect is that the economy is depressed and people are out of work.

POV: The story is told from Jack’s POV.

Text-to-text connection: The Wizard of Oz

Text-to-self connection: wanting a parent’s attention

Characterization of Jack: Describe all of Jack’s traits such as his caring for his sisters, his desire to be loved by his father, his longing to help with the farm, his courage to confront the Storm Man and capture the thunder, his manner in dealing with the bullies, and the relationship he has with the Ernie.

Historical Fiction: Times were truly hard for the lack of rain during the 1930′s in Kansas, an area called the “Dust Bowl” because of the dry dusty soil that blew away because of the drought.  In order to survive and grow what feed they could for their cattle, the farmers would have jackrabbit drives, where they would round up the jack rabbits and club them to death.  Most of the rabbits would then be fed to other animals.  The people were afraid to eat them because of jackrabbit fever. The books provides a candid view of what life was like for people during this time period.

Drawing Conclusions: What do you conclude is the reason that Ernie tells Jack the stories he shares with him?

Synthesis: Can you think of another hard time in history where some type of superhero could have changed the harshness to happiness?  What would be the hero’s super powers?

This book is on the Texas Bluebonnet 2011 nominee list, written on a 2.3 AR level, and begins with the curse word “damn.”  Following on into the story the author injected two more “hell’s” and in my personal opinion the curse words were unnecessary.

Text-to-text connection: The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

Author’s Purpose: persuade readers not to cut down the Mangrove tangles

Cause and Effect: Because the propagule falls off the mangrove tree, the effect is that a new mangrove tangle begins. 

Drawing Conclusions: The fisherman drew the conclusion that he should not cut down the mangrove tangle to make a shrimp farm because of what the other fisherman told him.  He was persuaded to leave the tangle alone.

Point of View: The story is told from the point of view of the animals that inhabit the tangle.

Synthesis: The reader will synthesize that there are certain things that keep the balance of nature.

Schema: Hansel and Gretel , step-mothers, fairy tales, science fairs

Big Idea: Good vs. evil

The publisher offers a detailed reading guide for teachers that includes vocabulary,  poetry,  and writing responses.

Text-to-Self Connections: sibling rivalry, bullying, moving to a new apartment, visiting the library

Author’s purpose: to entertain

Cause and Effect: Because an inheritance was at stake, the effect is that the children’s lives were in peril.

Because the dog, Swift, followed commands, the effect is he brought the children a knife to free themselves.

Because the children’s so called “parents” wanted to have them killed and eaten by the witch, the effect is that the children had to find a way to escape.

Because the children had access to the library and the Internet, the effect is that they were able to do some research to help themselves.

Because the pet shop owner rushed them out the back door of her shop, the effect was that they stayed one step ahead of the witch.

Drawing Conclusions: What conclusion did the children come to after seeing Swift with the bone and then reading the witch’s journal?

Inference: What do you infer happened to the children’s real father?

Point of View: The story is told mainly from Sol’s POV.

Predicting: At the end of the book as the children walk away all alone, where to you think they will go first when they get to their new town?  Based on what they did in the story, they might visit their public library.  I predict they just might be very quiet in the library and stay away from the librarians too!

Synthesis: The readers will synthesize that the author has created a modern day version of Hansel and Gretel.  Ask them to further synthesize by creating a modern day version of a different fairy tale.

Satire, making fun of certain causes or situations is also seen in the book when the author says the children’s real mother was drowned while investigating global warming when the ice she was standing on melted.

Although the topic of this book is controversial, the author uses no foul language, and good does win over evil.  Although many children that have been eaten previously, they are mentioned in the witch’s journal to set the premise.  Even in the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel, the reader infers that other children have been enticed to enter the witch’s candy house and have been eaten.

Book Talk: Bring a copy of a cookbook with the similar red and white plaid cover to compare with this one and ask,

What would you do if you thought your parents were planning to give you to a witch who wanted to eat you?  Would you be suspicious if you saw a neighborhood dog holding a very large bone in its mouth?  Have you ever wondered what you would do if you were kidnapped? Do you want to read a book that will give you nightmares?  Well, here’s that scary book you been asking for!

You know the old fairy tale Hansel and Gretel…that mean old step-mother that sends her step-children off into the woods, hungry, just looking for something to eat.  What if instead of sending you off to find fire wood, they just dropped you off at the mall and disappeared leaving you in a new neighborhood lost and confused?  The kids in this book are too smart to fall for that.  They know how to use their public library and the Internet.

Point of View: The story is told from Bear’s POV.

Cause and Effect: How can consistently being kind to another change a person?  Bear finally realized that he enjoyed company: text evidence- where Bear says no one ever told him his fire was nice and when he showed Mouse that he could stand on his head.  Mouse seemed to change when Bear described him as a friend: text evidence – mouse goes back in and seems happy to be with Bear.