Literature Collection Blog

By Sally M. Walker Illustrated by Jonathan D. Voss This story Winnie is the true story behind the infamous children's book  and cartoon "Winnie the Pooh".  Dr. Harry Colebourn who was a vetenarian, but also a soldier in training during World War I, on his way to advance training he saw a baby bear at the train station being sold by a man for $20. Dr. Coleburn knew that he could care for it so he paid for the bear, named him Winnie which was short for Winniepeg, his company's hometown. Dr. Coleburn bought Winnie everywhere he went and before long, Winnie instantly became the company's mascot.  But because Dr. Coleburn had no one to care for Winnie during the battle, he thought the perfect place for Winnie would be the London zoo. Shortly after that,  a famous writer named A.A. Milne brought his young son, Christopher Robbin to the zoo and he was immediately drawn to Winnie. Eventually, A.A. Milne begin to write stories about Winnie, and the stories of ...

This fantasy story by  Kelly Barnhill is a about a sweet girl named Luna who had magical powers. When Luna turned 5 years old, Xan that witch that lived in the forest noticed that Luna's magic was becoming very dangerous. Xan thought Luna was too young to be taught how to control it so she cast a spell on Luna that kept her magic dormant until she was 13 years old. Once Luna reached the age of 13 she had to realize what magic really was in order to save people that she loved the most.    This story's  theme is being different, and how being different makes you specal. All of the characters within this story has a very special quality within them. For instance, Luna had a moon shaped crescent on her forehead, and every one that she was around believe that her birth mark was lucky and that she was very special.  We know that this book is fantasy because there are no such things as witches with magical powers, swamp monsters, or pocket sized dragons so t...

This award wining book written by Andrew Clements and pictures by Brian Selznick, is about a fifth grader named Nick Allen who constantly gets in trouble. His  language art  teacher Mrs.Granger is very strict. During the story she introduces Nick and his classmates on how words are created.  But because Nick has the repuatation of disrupting class and testing teachers, he decides to create his own word, and start calling his pen "fridle".  Nick then gets all of his friends to start using the word too. Nick's new words makes such cause such a frenzy until everyone in town is talking about, even journalists and this instantly makes Nick famous.  The genre of this book is realistic fiction. Realistic fiction tells a story of events that could really happen in life. I think "Fridle" fits in perfectlt because children can relate so easily to Nick Allen as well as the other characters.  The main theme is this book is "anything is possible" becau...

Through My Eyes by Ruby Brides is a detailed and inspirational memoir about her life from the beginning. Her memoir mainly focuses on her experience of being this 6 year old black little girl who entering a school in the 1960's during segregation when black and white children were not allowed to be in the same school together, and having a lot of people who were white not wanting her there.  Federal Marshalls walking Ruby Bridges out of school.  In 1960, Ruby Bridges experienced the hateful and harsh thing called racisim at the age of 6 years old. Her story is such an inspirational story, it shows how brave she was, and how much courage she had to walk into a school that she deserved to go, despite how much anger it was causing to people who did not know any better. Ruby accomplished such a great accomplishment for African American people and made history letting people now that with courage and determination you can overcome anything. Throughout this book i...

The Missing Mummy by Ron Roy and illustrated by John Steven Gurneuy is a part of the greatA to Z mysteries Scholastic book collection.  This book is such a fun read filled with mystery and entertainment.  It's Mummy Monday in the museum and the main characters Dink, Josh, and Ruth are going to see a new Egyptian Exhibit that features a child mummy and treasure in the tomb. But when they get to the exhibit, the find that the mummy has been stolen from the tomb and it is up to them to solve the mystery of who stole the mummy from the tomb.  The genre of this book is not surprising you can just look at the title and tell that it is mystery.  The illustrations by John Steven Gurney is of black ink, each picture throughout the book is colorless and its drawn with ink.  Classroom Activities: 1. Students will use a characterization chart to tell the differneces between Ruth, Dink, and Josh. 2. Since this story is about finding a missin...

Author: Yona Zeldis McDonough Illustrator: Stephen Marchesi Who Was Rosa Parks? by  Yona Zeldis McDonough and illustrated by Stephen Marchesi is the life story of Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks was one the important people in history who played a huge role in the Civil Rights Movement . In 1955, on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama she refused to give up her seat to a white person and she was then arrested .  This small act by her then started the bus boycott and civil rights protest around America.   The illustration by is Stephen Marchesi is in black and white throughout the entire book. The genre of this book is biography, it tells the story of the life of someone. Its a careful biograohy to be exact. " Careful biographies find a balance between telling everything and telling just enough to portray a person's life accurately, in an interesting manner." (Galda,Cullinan,&Sipe,2010) Some of  themes in "Who is Rosa Parks?" is fighting against human injus...

Author: Taye Diggs Illustrator: Shane Evans This book is a multi-cultural book about a little boy named Mike, and some of the kids called him "Mixed Up Mike". Mike has curly red hair, tan skin, and green eyes. The kids at his school tells him that his parents do not match, and when they are as a family people stare at them. However, Mike loves the way his parents looked. He loves his dad's brown bald-head, and his mom's cream and honey read hair. Mike thinks that his parents mix perfectly together and has the highest confidence within himself as well as his apperance.   Genre: This book is multicultural. It shows just how diverse the book is from Max's parents being of two different races, to Max himself excepting everyone and not caring about who was what color and how they were different.  The illustrations in this book is filled with  rough textured fabrics and very vibrant and colorful mixed media. Each illustration throughtou the...

Henry's Freedom Box By: Ellen Levine Illustrated by Kadir Nelson This book is about Henry Brown who was born as slave in the 1800s. When Henry Brown's master was illed, Henry was taken away from his family at a young age, he was sent to live with the master's son. As Henry grew older, he started his own family with his wife name Nancy. Henry's wife Nancy and their children was taken away from him and sold at the slave market. After that happened, Henry then took the risk by traveling on the Underground Railroad, in order for him to escape to freedom with the help of some friends he used a crate. His plan was to mail himself  to a place where there were no slaves. After a long 27 hour journey,  Henry was delivered to the home of an abolitionist William Johnson, where his dream of being free had finally become true. This book is a historical fiction, it was based on a true events that happened during that time. The themes of  Henry's Freedom Box is: sl...

Author & Ilustrator: Ben Hatk This is the first book in a series. It tells of  a story about a little girl named Zita.When her best friend is abducted by an alien doomsday cult, Zita  goes out  to rescue, but then she finds herself on a very  leaps to the rescue and finds herself on very strange planet. This planet is filled with humanoid chickens and neurotic robots, As if that wasn't surprosing enough for Zita, but what it is evem more surprising is the fact that Zita has take of the role of being the intergaltic hero. After taking on that role, nothing phases her such as; aliens in all forms, ancient prophecies, doomed planets or even a friendly con man who takes interest in her quest. The genere of the story is science fiction. Science fiction focuses on things that are futuristic and could be made a reality. Zita the Spacegirl depicted things that could be future realities. The illustrations by Ben Hatke uses the technique of continous...

In Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel and illustrated by Blair Lent, it is a folklore that tells a story of a reasoning behind short names in the Chinese culture.  The main character is  Tikki tikki tembo nosa rembo chari bari ruchi pip pen pembo, which means "the most wonderful boy in the whole world".  In China is was a custom to name the firstborn son a very long name. One day the older brother Tikki Tikki Tembo and his younger brother Chang were playing near a well that their mother warned them about, the younger brother fell in and had to be rescued.  Then sometime later both brothers were playing near the same spot and Tikki Tikki tembo fell in. So Chang runs to get help from his mother and because he was out of breath from running, and his brother's name was so long his mother could not hear him. So finally an old man helps saves Tikki Tikki Tembo, but by the end of the story, it states why the Chinese have short names.  This story is filled ...

Hey Black Child by Useni Eugene Perkins and illustrated by Bryan Collier  is a motivational and inspiratonal poem for black children, as well as other young people. Its a poem that is made to inspire children and young people to let them know that they should never give up on their dreams and to always achieve their goals.   Hey Black Child was originally written as a song,  and sometimes misattributed to Countee Cullen or Maya Angelou. The poem technique in this poem is rhymthic  a vuncular and commandingly rhetorical language, and it is lyric poetry. ( Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010 )   This poem allows young people to feel empowered, and to always remember to dream big.  Another poem technique is in Hey Black Child is repetition. ( Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010 )  The author repeats Hey Black Child in every other line in the poem. The illustrations elements by Bryan Collier are amazing he uses  representational art ...