1. Who Said Coo? Author- Ruddell, Illustrator- Luebs, Robin , Poetry, Published by Beach Lane Books, 2010, ISBN-978-1-4169-8510-5, Reading Level-1.5.
This book starts out with a little pig all tucked in bed trying to go to sleep. Everything is just perfect until she hears something say coo. She goes outside and asks the pigeon if it was he that said coo, but he didn’t answer her. She went back in and was all settled in once more when something said whoo. Lulu the pig went out again and this time she asked the owl if he had made this sound, but he didn’t answer her either. This continues on with the two birds making sounds and Lulu confronting them until she eventually just says shoo. By saying this Lulu hurt the birds felling so they begin to say boo-hoo. Lulu apologies and invites the birds in to stay the night with her. Everything is wonderful until they hear cock-a-doddle-do as the morning approaches. However, this time when Lulu went out she was very nice to the rooster and just asked him to come back later. He kindly agreed so that all the animals in the house could sleep a little longer.
This is a very cute poetry book. I think that the use of animal sounds out of context might be a little confusing to very small children, however bigger kids know which animals say what so it would not be a problem for them to understand that this book is just using rhyming to create a poetic story. In my classroom I could use this book to talk about rhyming words and how they can be put together to make a poem. This is a very simple book that would be good to start out with. This would help my students to form a basic knowledge of what poetry is all about before they start reading more complicated works.
2. A Pirate’s Night Before Christmas, Author- Yates, Philip, Illustrator- Serra, Sebastia, Poetry, Published by Sterling Publishing Co., 2008, ISBN:978-1-4027-4257-6, Reading level- 3.9.
This book puts a pirate’s twist on the original The Night Before Christmas. In this book a young buccaneer and his fellow pirates have all prepared for Christmas by hanging out their stockings and getting ready for Sir Peggedy. Blimey is on look out when all of a sudden he hears a huge commotion. When he comes down off the mast he sees that it is Sir Peg and his eight little seahorses. Even though he looks awful mean Sir Peg leaves gifts for everyone but he seems to have forgotten Blimey. He loads back up onto his sled and starts to descend into the sea once more. As he does he lets a treasure map float down to Blimey. This is the best present he could have asked for. All of the pirates are overjoyed and celebrate Christmas with the gifts they have received from Sir Peggedy.
This defiantly puts a twist on any night before Christmas story that I have ever heard. I think this book is very entertaining though. It is interesting how by changing the culture of people in the story you can greatly contrast the same storyline that has been told for many many years. I have read the North Carolina Night before Christmas story as well as the original one. I know that there are many other books that put their own twist on the story and I find this concept very amusing.
I think that my students would find this book to be hilarious and would really enjoy reading this. In my classroom I could read many different versions of the night before Christmas to my students and then compare the similarities and differences that are present in the different books.
3. Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888, Author- Tharyer, Ernest Lawrence, Illustrator- Bing, Christopher, Caldecott Honor, Poetry, Published by Handprint Books, 2000, ISBN:1-929766-00-9, Reading level- 3.1, Interest Level- K-2.
This book is about a baseball team called the Mudville nine. One day is 1888 they were playing a close game and the only hope of winning lied in the hands of their best player, Casey. Two men on the team had already struck out and there were two more up to bat before Casey. The fans just knew that he wouldn’t get a chance to bat. However, both Jimmy and Flynn his teammates that batted before him did a great job and allowed Casey a turn at the plate. He struck out once and the crowd booed the umpire. But, Casey waved at them and the noise ceased. The next pitch was a strike also only leaving Casey one more shot. When the third ball crossed home plate he swung and missed the ball. After all the hope that the fans but in Casey he was the one to strike out that day in June of 1888.
I really like this book and how it incorporates a story about baseball into poetry. The illustrations in this book are fantastic. It looks like old news paper articles that could have really come from the 1800s. Some of the pages look like they have been made into a collage by adding other important pictures such as tickets to the game and other newspaper clippings. This is a great story that shows how important teamwork is. One person might be good at a sport but the whole team is necessary to win.
I could use this book in my classroom to teach about team work the fact that all of my students need to work together as a team to accomplish the things that we need to complete in the classroom. I could also incorporate other sports in with the lesson so that it would be interesting to all of my students.
