Creech, S. (2001). A fine, fine school. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

I like this book, because it would give the students the opportunity to talk about hypothetical situations. Students could have discussions about what they would do if this realistic event happened. In this story, Mr. Keene, the principal, is very enthusiastic about school and loves his students. He decides they should go to school more often. First weekends, followed by holidays and even summer vacation. The children in the story dont have any time to play and they are always encouraged to be studying. One student speaks up to Mr. Keene, telling him all the opportunities she has missed just being a kid because they are in school all the time. She is able to show Mr. Keene why it is so important for kids to have time away from school to relax and play. This story has a scenario kids can really relate to, and you can have a discussion in your own class about why having time to relax is important. I would love to read this to my students and then take them outside for some extra recess that day just as a fun reminder that they are still kids who should have fun. Gravett, E. (2008). The odd egg. London, England: Macmillan Childrens Books. This would be a great book to read with a science lesson. There are many bird characters in this story who lay eggs. You could teach a great lesson on what kind of animals lay eggs and how they are different. This story includes a great visual popup of the different eggs and the differences between them. As the birds become larger, their eggs are going to be larger. So the chicken egg is much smaller than an ostrich egg. The duck in the story didnt lay an egg but found a very large egg to take care of. When it hatched, there was an alligator inside! You could go into a deeper discussion that birds are not the only animals to lay eggs. You could go into a lesson, allowing the students to make their own egg chart and match them to different animals that lay eggs. There is not a huge amount of content in this book, but paired with a teachers research, this book could spark the students interest into a great lesson. Hall, M. (2011). Perfect square. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books. I would love to use this book to introduce an art lesson. This book explore a square with four perfect sides, but it can be shredded and torn apart to make other shapes as well. The square becomes a character in this book, and young students are able to learn some new vocabulary while also learning some properties of the shapes. The children could also experiment with their own squares, making them into a new shape. This manipulation of the shape will allow students to begin to think outside the box. This book is more geared towards younger children, so I would probably use this book in a pre-school setting. Henkes, K. (1990). Julius: the baby of the world. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books. This book would be a really fun read aloud, as well as one to have in your classroom for children to read. I would love to pull out this book and read it when I know one of my students is going to have a new baby in their family. These students are going to become big brothers or big sisters, which is so exciting! The story starts when Lilys mom is still pregnant, so students can see how they can begin to form a relationship with their new sibling before they are even born. This book also shows some real struggles young children face. A new baby in the family means they themselves will get less attention and have more responsibilities that they will have to learn. By living through these struggles in the story with Lily and Julius, a student can begin to think about how their live will really change

once their sibling is born. Even through these small frustrations, Lily was able to see that Julius was the best baby in the world. Students can see that even though their lives will change with a new sibling, their lives are going to change for the better because they are gaining a friend they can teach, play with and love. Henkes, K. (2000). Wemberly worried. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books. This book would be a very good book to read to new students or to recommend to parents to read to students before they come to school for the first time. Wemberly is a young girl who is always worrying about everything, and the story gives very cute illustrations to go along with all her little worries. Starting school was something really scary to Wemberly, and it might also be scary to the students reading the book. There are many concerns addressed in this book, but it shows how in the end Wemberly was able to really enjoy school. She found a friend that carried around a stuffed animal just like her! This book is just really good reassurance to children, that even Wemberly who worried about everything was able to come to school, relax and enjoy it. Hill, T. (2010). How Rocket learned to read. New York, NY: Random House Inc. This story would be great as a read aloud. Rocket is a puppy who is just doing what puppies do, when he comes upon a little yellow bird who wants to teach him how to read. At first uninterested, the little yellow bird is able to spark his interest by reading a story but not finishing it. Rocket is overcome with curiosity and wants to know what happens at the end of the book, so he comes to class the next day. For students just beginning to learn to read, it can seem frustrating at first, but this reminds them again how magical reading can be. It opens so many doors to fascinating stories and characters. When the little yellow bird went South for the winter, all Rocket wanted to do was keep learning and he was so excited when class began again. This story will just ease apprehension of reading, and start reading off on a fun note. Jeffers, O. (2011). Stuck. New York, NY: Philomel and Penguin Books This story starts out with Floyd flying a kite that ends up getting stuck in a tree in his yard. Floyd is determined to free his kite, but he doesnt always have the right tactics. This book has a repetitive nature to it, as Floyd continues to throw something more and more ridiculous up into the tree with every page turn. Floyd starts out logical, throwing his shoe to try and hit the kite, but when that gets stuck too it doesnt take too long before there is a ladder, orangutan and a fire truck up in the tree! This could be a cute read aloud, allowing children to make predications on what Floyd will throw up into the tree next, but also a great book to have in the classroom for children to read on their own. Jenkins, S. (2009). Never smile at a monkey. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Books. This book explores different animals, and strange facts about them. I would use this book during a science content lesson. The book is set up so that you could just read one page about one animal, and save the rest of the animals for another time. The book is set up with never statements, introducing each animal with something you should never do. For example, never pet a platypus. Platypuses have poison spurs in their back legs if they kick you. There is an array of more exotic animals in this book that children may not know much about at all, so they will really be able to learn a lot of information. This book makes

learning about the different animals very interesting, and students will be able to learn a lot of fun facts. A great project to go along with this book would be to have students do research on an animal they are interested in and write a never statement page for that animal. If your school ever went on a field trip to the zoo, this would be a great book to be working with in the time leading up to your trip. The students will be excited to go and find these animals and learn even more. Kasza, K. (2003). My lucky day. New York, NY: Penguin Young Readers Group. This would be a great read aloud with students. This book has a lot of great vocabulary to enrich young readers, but it also has a great story that will draw in their imagination. The piglet in the story is very clever. At the beginning, it looks like the fox has the upper hand, and will cook piglet for dinner. In the end however, we learn that everything that happened was all part of the piglets plan. This would be a great book for students to practice predicting. There are several stages to the book, where you could choose stopping points to ask students to predict what would happen next. Students could have great discussion on the cleverness of the characters and how they would have reacted if these things happened to them and not the pig. Pinkney, J. (2009). The lion and the mouse. New York, NY: Little Brown and Company Books for Young Readers. This beautiful retelling of a classic story only uses illustrations. Focusing on the illustrations really focuses on the moral components in the story as well as the wonder it is that a lion and a little mouse are able to help each other. Their kindness to each other really saved them from destruction. In the fable, the lion first caught the mouse, but lets him go and doesnt eat him. Later, the lion gets caught in a trap, and the mouse chews him out of the ropes. This story would not be used as a read aloud, but it would be such a good story to talk about with your students. They can really contemplate the morals in the story and how important kindness is. Since this is a retelling of a fable, your students could also try and write their own retelling of this famous fable. Rosenthal, A.K. (2013). Exclamation mark. New York, NY: Scholastic Press. Punctuation is brought to life in this story. For children who are learning to write, punctuation is a vital element to being able to fully express themselves. This book is able to focus on punctuation but in a fun way that kids will be able to connect with and remember. Each character is named and illustrated for their punctuation, and acts accordingly. Question mark is very curious and asks question after question. Exclamation mark feel very lost, and tries to act like the other punctuation but he cant. Finally he discovered what his real purpose is! To show excitement! There are also some great vocabulary words, like flummoxed and deflated. I would love to read this book to First graders or even Kindergarten. The illustrations in the book with give them that visual, and along with the story, the different functions of our punctuation marks will be so much easier to remember and use correctly. Selsam, M. (1998). Big tracks, little tracks: following animal prints. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Imagine yourself as a detective. You need to put together the clues to figure out what happened just by looking at the tracks in the snow. This book explores different animal tracks left in the snow. Students reading this book get to use the context clues on the page, and learn about the animals lives. The author teaches a lot in this book just from exploring tracks. A bunnys tracks suddenly disappear, but really it just jumped into a hole. You can tell the tracks belong to a bunny because of how far apart they are, because bunnies jump. This would be a good book to use as a read-aloud in a smaller group as a science lesson. For children to fully get the benefits of this book, they need to be able to see the illustrations, so it may be difficult to do with the whole class. Weisner, D. (2013). Mr. Wuffles! London, England: Clarion Books. Mr. Wuffles is a wordless book about a cat that is very interested about this small spaceship toy that ends up being full of aliens. Starting out in what seems to be a normal home, the aliens bring an unexpected element that turns the book into magic. This book is great for younger students because they can follow along through the book, and really get that literary experience before they are able to read words. They will also be able to read this book to someone else bringing their own words into the story. This book is also awesome for older students as well because it encourages creativity. Many of the pages are set up more like a comic strip, and it would be a great project for students to draw out their own stories to share with the class. Willems, M. (2007). Today I will fly. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children. This book is great for children who are beginning to read on their own. It is set up as a dialogue, so students can practice reading with a partner. Setting it up as a dialogue also encourages students to have fun with the story, becoming the character. This would make the reading more fun, but also have a low stress reading environment, while giving the students support. The characters of Elephant and Piggie are very fun characters for children to be able to relate to. In this story in particular, Piggie has decided she want to fly, but Elephant tells her she cant because shes a piggy. Children can explore what it really means to fly, as well as what animals can fly. Willems, M. (2006) Edwina: the dinosaur who didnt know she was extinct. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children. This story would be a fun book to read with students. Just from the title, this book introduces the topic of being extinct. This would be a really fun book to read with students as you begin to talk about endangered and extinct animals. Dinosaurs are usually a good starting point when thinking of extinct animals, because students know they dont exist any longer. This can also be the beginning to exploring other animals that have become extinct and why. In this story, Reginald tries to convince everyone that Edwina shouldnt really be here because she is extinct. He uses many different tactics that are cute and funny but could lead to a great discussion with students about how to get an important point across, or what tactics were most effective.