Sunshine State Reading Book

 Title: Lawn Boy

Author: Gary Paulsen

Grade Level: Grades 4 to 7

-This book is for more advanced, higher level elementary students as it is a chapter book filled with more advanced topics and ideas of stocks, investments and money. The book is broken down into fairly small, easy to read chapters  with large print that will make it easy for the students to follow along and comprehend the storyline.

Summary: The summer that the narrator's life drastically changed was when his grandmother gave him an old riding lawnmower to try and make a couple dollars cutting grass with. Low and behold, the boys business skyrocketed and the young boy was left with more than he could quite possibly handle. A booming business and more money than he can handle, he invested his money into different markets with the help of Robert, his stock market accountant and lawn mowing customer.

Classroom Strategies: This book would be a great addition to a higher elementary grade classroom. The book could be used to discuss jobs or working as well as making money and making smart decisions in handling your money. This is definitely a fun, comical story. I would probably have this book assigned to the students individually to read on their own during Center/Reading time or at home. The students could then write a book report or create a time line of events that happened.

ESOL Strategies: Since this book is an upper level chapter book, it may not be appropriate for all ESOL students and may be very difficult for them to read depending on their level of proficiency. I would have the student pair up to read the book together, most likely pairing an ESOL student with a higher level reading student so they can help the student comprehend and follow the story. I would also instruct any ESOL students to utilize summarizing  their ideas as well as drawing illustrations to help them remember and comprehend the story. strategies to help them stop throughout their reading to summarize what they have read so far, making sure to take detail notes on the sections or reading as well as drawing

Read Aloud: If I chose to read aloud from the book, I would choose chapters or excerpts that the students may have trouble understanding. These would include the chapters that begin to talk about the stock market and investing. These would be key topics to discuss with the students and by utilizing specific sections of the book, the students will be able to understand these ideas and concepts a lot better.

Personal Opinion: I enjoyed reading this book, it was an easy read that was comical and kept my interest. Although it dealt with the stock market and more business topics, the way the story was written and the fact that it was about a young boy making extreme money by mowing lawns, it kept me very interested and made me want to continue to read to see what was going to be happening next!

Coretta Scott King Award Book

Title: We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Author and Illustrator: Kadir Nelson

Age Level: Grade 3 and Up

-This book is appropriate for grade 3 and up because it is a illustrated chapter book that is more appropriate for a student in the third grade or above. It is very text based with chapters that are multiple pages long. A student any younger than third grade would most likely not have the patience to sit through a book that long nor would they be able to comprehend all of the written text in it.

Summary: This historically accurate book recalls the Negro Baseball Leagues and all of the original players. Through this book, the reader is able to really understand the social and political struggles back then that most of us really have no true understanding of. The book chronicles around the baseball players that never were quite as popular or well know as the greats Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. This book is set up into nine chapters that begin with the start of the first Negro League in 1920 and wrap-up with the break through of Jackie Robinson as the first African American to break into the white major league baseball circuit. Throughout the remaining parts of the book, the reader learns about the important and fascinating events that took place during this time as well as the men who made these events now important and valuable pieces of America's history. With the use of extremely detailed and eye catching illustrations, the reader begins to understand the events that took place close to 100 years ago and how these events have shaped how America and the world is today.  

Classroom Strategies: This historical chapter book would be a great asset to a history lesson because it provides concrete, factual information on the men of the first negro baseball teams and the events and obstacles they faced. Since the book is broken down into chapters following the negro baseball players progress in baseball, the upper level elementary grades could work at compiling a time line to represent the main points of this time as well as to help them understand and retain all of the information they read in the book. This story could also be read chapter by chapter and the class can fill out a Compare/Contrast chart once the entire book has been read to compare the ways back in the 1920's to how things are done today. If desired, this could also be done individually and then the class can discuss their answers and compile it into one class Compare/Contrast poster.

ESOL Strategies: Since this book is a pretty large chapter book with very vocabulary based pages, the text may not be appropriate for students at the lower grades, especially ESOL students. To help ESOL students comprehend and read the book, the outline would also be very beneficial for ESOL students and allow them to keep track of what is occurring in the story. The amazing illustrations also help the students to be able to visualize what is occurring and hopefully help them more fully understand what the story is about.

Read Aloud: For this book, I would make sure to read aloud the first and last chapters of the book. These two chapters really depict two of the most important times during this whole sequence of events. The first chapter introduces and explains when the first negro baseball teams were developed and the hurdles and successes these individuals witnessed during that time. The other chapter that I would read aloud is the last chapter as this was once again another turning point in history for the African American race as they broke through the walls of segregation and began playing on the white baseball teams. Both of these chapters are crucial parts of this great story and both help explain the events that occurred. 

Personal Opinion: I thought it was pretty interesting to learn about the first negro baseball teams to come into existence back in the 20's. I have always enjoyed baseball so reading about a time when the look of baseball was drastically changed was something very interesting and eye-opening to learn about. I liked the set-up of the chapter book with the nine different chapters following the progress of the African Americans in baseball, as well as the beautifully illustrated pictures that helped tell this great story.

Pura Belpre Award Book

Title: Book Fiesta! Celebrate Children's Day/Book Day

Author: Pat Mora

Illustrator: Rafael Lopez

Grade Level: Preschool to Grade 3

-This book is better suited for the lower grade levels as the content is focused for younger students. It is written very simplistic with simple sentences and vocabulary. It is also a picture book which focuses a lot on the illustrations to tell the story as well.

Summary: This picture book focuses on the celebration of Children's Day/Book Day. In the book, the characters are celebrating the day by reading in all different possible ways and places. The storyline is mainly focusing on the importance of reading and how fun and exciting it can be. In the book, its shows children reading all over the place as well as listening to different stories. This book uses amazing illustrations to capture the excitement of this celebration as well as to encourage students to drop what they are doing and pick up a book to read.

Classroom Strategies: This book would be a perfect addition to the classroom especially during the time when the celebration is occurring. The book can be introduced while the teacher is talking about the celebration and explaining to the students what takes place during this time. In the classroom, this book would be a great item to focus a lesson on about reading literacy and how exciting and fun it could be. You could read this story to the class, have them write their own description of celebrating the holiday, and then have them draw illustrations to go along. This book is also extremely helpful in the classroom if you have students who speak Spanish and English because it would be a great learning tool for them to compare the different ways to read and enjoy books in both cultures. 

ESOL Strategies: This picture book is such an amazing option for teaching ESOL students about reading. The story focuses on the Children's Day/Book day which would be a holiday they could relate to. The use of English and Spanish language throughout the book allows Spanish speaking ESOL students to be able to follow along with the text as well as be able to then look at the writing written in English where they can practice the pronunciation of the words in English as well as see them written. This side by side comparison of the two languages allows the students to see and practice reading. The amazing illustrations also lend to the students ability to understand the topic. With the extremely detailed illustration, the student is able to form pictures in their head to remember the topic of the book or to remember the English language if they are still working on it.

Read Aloud: I would read aloud this entire book due to the small size of it. There is minimal text throughout the book but the use of the astounding visuals helps to explain the celebration and really lends to the overall comprehension of the book.

Personal Opinion: I really enjoyed reading this picture book because it was a celebration that I was unfamiliar with but really excited to learn about. I loved how the written portions of the book were first presented in English and then in Spanish. I thought this is a great way for Spanish speaking students to learn English and vice versa.

Newberry Honor Book

Title: Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night

Author: Joyce Sidman

Illustrator: Rick Allen

Grade Level: Ages 4 to 8

-This book is perfect for these ages because if the students are younger, they can have the book read to them and still be able to comprehend the text and language while using the great illustrations to help them understand. If the students are older, they should be able to read the story to themselves or aloud to the class. This book uses simplistic text so the students wouldn't get stuck while reading. There is also an informative section per poem that informs the students about factual information for each subject throughout the book.

Summary: In this book, the reader is taken on a journey through different poems as the author explains her exploration of nature at night. Each page displays a different poem focusing on the animals of the night, what they do at night, and what other things you might find if you are out at that time. With each set of pages, the book is set to provide the reader with an enjoyable poem, a beautifully illustrated image of the night, and a paragraph of factual information about the featured subject. In this book of poems, the illustrations are bold and extremely detailed that lend to the explanation of the subject.

Strategies for the Classroom: This book would be perfect in the classroom during a Science lesson or Literature lesson. For a Science lesson, the book could be used as a supplement to teaching students about the animals of the night. Having the students read the poems about the different animals and adventures of the night could help to reinforce what they have learned about nocturnal animals while providing a fun alternative to reading mundane, textbook information. The additional factual information provided is also of great help in explaining key ideas while the illustrations help the students visualize what they are learning about. For a Literature lesson, this book could be perfect for teaching students how to read because the layout of the poems allows for the students to chunk words together and begin to understand the text and read fluently which would lead to overall comprehension. The book could be used as a class with the teacher reading aloud to the students and possibly having them choral read as well. Or students could pair up together and read the book to one another or together. This book allows for so many different options and can be used multiple ways in the classroom and with different subjects.

ESOL Strategies: Depending on the students level of proficiency, this book could be extremely useful or not be appropriate for an ESOL student. If the ESOL student is still at a lower level of proficiency, they will most likely not be able to read this story or comprehend the subject matter if a teacher or classmate were to read it to them. To help with this, the use of illustrations could be used to help the students understand the text. This could either come in the form of providing visuals as your read the poems or allowing the students to draw pictures to help them understand the vocabulary and subject matter. It could also be beneficial To help ESOL students, you could also focus on repetition by having the poems read repeatedly or have the students read them repeatedly if possible. This repetition benefits the students by providing them with consistent practice in reading or listening and understanding the text. Repetition also helps with fluency which would be beneficial in helping the students practice and improve their English.

Read Aloud: For this book, I would focus on reading aloud poems that pertain to maybe a subject that is being taught that day or week, especially if you are incorporating the poems with other subjects like science. In introducing the book to the students, I would read aloud the very first poem to give the students an idea of what each poem is going to be set-up as as well as to give the students an idea of the use of the illustrations throughout the book and the provided factual information that help explain the story.

Personal Opinion: I really enjoyed reading this poem book because the poems were simple enough to be able to understand and comprehend the information they were focused on. I loved the use of the visuals to help tell the story as well as the provided factual information that supported what was read as well as to provide more information for the reader.