Multicultural Literature: The Sunita Experiment by Mitali Perkins (chapter book):

    This book is great story about a young girl, Sunita Sen, who is torn between her Indian heritage and her American upbringing.  She is in the eighth grade and when her grandparents come for a visit the entire dynamic of her house changes.  Her mother who is a college professor takes a break from her job to trade in for sarees and other traditional Indian attire.  When her parents decide she can no longer invite boys over she feels as if they are dramatically changing from their American way of life.  Sunita withdraws from her classmates, but her friends are patient and understanding of what she is experiencing.  This novel realistically addresses so many issues, including Sunita's temporary rejection of an African-American classmate when both girls are referred to as "colored."  This book does a great job of displaying her struggle with social acceptance, family issues, and figuring out her personal identity.  In the end she embraces the value of her culture.

    I think this book would be very beneficial for students to read because it exposes them to the problems that students who are multicultural go through.  As an activity for my classroom I would  have my students get into pairs.  They will individually list different details that they know about their heritage and if they do not know much about their heritage then I will enlist the help of their parents.  Once they have a list of about ten different facts about their heritage they will get back together with their partner and they will compare their lists.  They will make a vin-diagram that shows the similarities and differences between their two cultures.  After they have completed their vin- diagrams each of the pairs will present to the class and they will talk about the potential benefits they could have from being a member of that specific culture.  

                                                                                                        

Modern Fantasy: The Magic Bon Bons from the book Tales of Magic for kids, Edited by Peter I. Kattan:

    This is a story about a woman named Claribel and she dreams of being on the stage one day.  She wants to have some kind of talent, but she is not a talented person.  One day she decided to seek the help of a wise chemist who specializes in magic spells.  When she confides in him about wanting to be on stage he creates for her a potion in the form of candies.  Each of the five candies will make her talented in a different area. The five candies are: lavender= better dancer, pink=better singer, white=better actress, chocolate=better pianist, lemon= better high kick.  On the day that she receives them she decides to go to the store and go shopping, but accidentally leaves them there.  Another young girl in the store accidentally picks them up and takes them home with her.   That night everyone in her household ate one except for the mayor, who had come over to have dinner that night.  Everyone started freakishly breaking out into song or dance or whatever talent they had eaten the candy for.  The mayor leaves horrified by the way that family had been acting.  Later that week he is about to give a speech and finds the lavender candy in his pocket and decides to eat it.  Right as he is starting his speech he begins to break out in to gracious dance and the whole crowd is horrified.  Claribel quickly realizes that he has eaten one of her candies and so she yells out for him to be arrested.  In the end, Claribel gets the chemist to make her another batch and she goes on to be a successful dancer.

    I would use this book in the classroom because I think it is a great way to expand the student’s imaginations.  As an activity I would have the students write a creative story about if they had five magic bon bons.  They would have to describe what each of them would do and how it would affect them.  Also, I would have them write about what the consequences of these magic bon bons would bring upon them. 

Non Fiction: Cats by Seymour Simon:

    This book is a purely informational book about cats.  It starts out by talking about how all cats are hunting animals and like to prey on birds or insects.  Cats make good pets because they are not noisy like dogs, they are quiet friendly animals.  More than a hundred thousand years ago, wild cats were domesticated for the first time in Egypt.  Cats were used to protect stored grain from mice and other rodents.  They were such sacred animals that when one died, there was a period of mourning and the cat was mummified and buried in a casket in a cat cemetery.    This book then goes into detail about many different aspects about cats.  Some of these are: their eyes, how they eat, their whiskers, their memory, how they talk, their body language, how they have babies, and different varieties of cats.  This book is a really great book to read when you are thinking about getting a cat.  It can answer most of the common questions that you will have when thinking about investing in a cat.

    As an activity in the classroom I would have my students do research on an animal of their choice.  It can be a common indoor animal or any other animal they choose.  They will have to compile information, just as this book has.  Some of this would be the history or other information about the animal itself.  One thing I would definitely want the students to include in their book is questions in the back, just as the Seymour Simon book has.  These questions are questions that you need to ask before you decide to own this animal as a pet.  After the students have compiled all of their information then I would help them make it into a book.  Then after the entire class has finished we will have our own classroom library about many different animals.  


Cats Power point presentation (copy and past in new tab):
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AUpz7vrJ0AS0ZGM0Y3FmejZfMGM5Nmc1NmQy&hl=en

Traditional Literature: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig:

This story was about a young donkey that one day found a beautiful pebble and figured out that it was a magic pebble that granted your every wish as long as you were touching it.  One his way home Sylvester was frightened by a lion and out of shock he wished that he was a rock.  He instantly became a rock and the pebble fell to the ground beside him.  His family searched and search for months and months until a year had gone by.  One day his parents went for a picnic and set down on their son in rock form.  Finding the pebble next to the rock it reminded them of their son so they set it on top of the rock while they ate their food.  Realizing that this was his family having a picnic on him he longed to be with them.  Not realizing that they had placed the pebble on his back he wishes in his mind that he could be with his family again.  Instantly he turned back into a donkey and he lived happily with his mother and father. 

A good activity for this book would be to have the students write their own creative story.  They would make believe that they had found a magic pebble that granted every wish they asked for.  The students would explain what they would wish for and what happened when that wish was granted to them.  In their creative story I would be sure and tell them not to copy any of the ideas from this story because I want to know just how creative they can make their wishes and the outcomes.  Then after they have finished writing their story I would have them fill out a cause and effect chart.  They would what the effect was after they made their wish, which would be the cause.  

Nonfiction: Harriet Tubman by David A. Adler:

    Harriet was born into slavery and always hated it throughout her life.  Even at a young age she would rebel sometimes.  One day she decided that she had had enough of being a slave and she was going to be free.  Once she got to Pennsylvania and was a free woman she worked hard to save money and use that to go back to the south.  She went back and forth leading people to freedom for years.  She helped over 300 slaves find freedom before the war ended. 

    I think this book is a great way for students to see the hardships that slaves had to endure in their life time.  As an activity in the classroom I would have the students choose one person from history that they would like to research.  I would have them all write a short summary of their lives and then to get practice using technology I would have them create their own Wordle on the person that they have chosen to research, just as I have done for Harriet Tubman.    

Two ways to count to ten by Ruby Dee:

    This story is about all the animals in the animal kingdom living together in harmony.  One day the Leopard King decided that he needs to be prepared with a successor for when he steps down as king so he calls a large gathering of the animals to see who will take his place and also marry his daughter.  He decides there will be a contest and the first person who can throw a spear up into the air and count to ten before it lands on the ground will win the contest and will be the next king.  All of the animals tried their hardest and threw it as high as they could, but none of them could reach ten before it fell.  Then out of the crowd comes a skinny little antelope and he asks for his turn.  The crowd laughs because all of the animals including the mighty lion have failed so far.  As the antelope threw the spear into the air he counted, “Two, four, six, eight, ten.”  When the spear fell everyone was astonished and laughed because he had not counted by ones.  The King then pointed out that he did not say how you had to count to ten.  The antelope won the contest and he became the new King of the jungle. 

    For this book I would have all of the students choose a number of their choice but it has to be above the number 25.  After they have choose their number I would have them on poster board create a poster the shows all of the different ways they can count to their number.  This can be by ones, two’s three’s, five’s, or however they choose to count it.  After they create their poster then we will display them in the classroom for all to see the many ways to count to a number.

Fantasy: The Magic Tree house: Dingoes at Dinnertime by Mary Pope Osborne (chapter book):

    This book is a great adventure book that tells the story of Jack and Annie and their magical tree house.  Inside this tree house there are stacks and stacks of books, and when they read a book and look at a picture of the time, they can wish themselves into that picture and the tree house transports them there.  This book is the fourth of a four part series in which they are trying to collect the fourth gift necessary to lift a magical spell off of a small dog named Teddy.  The last gift they need to collect is a gift from a Kangaroo so they choose a book about Australia and travel there in the tree house.  While in Australia they run find many different animals that are native to that land.  They learn about them from the book about Australia that they found in the tree house.  While exploring the dry land they find a kangaroo and her Joey resting in a shady place.  Their talking startles the kangaroo and she wakes up.  Shortly after a pack of Dingoes appear and they scare the mother kangaroo.  The mother runs off away from the dingoes and they begin to chase her.  Jack and Annie follow because they want to make sure she is alright.  While following they find off to the side the little Joey in the bushes.  Jack uses his book about Australia to find out that sometimes mothers will abandon their joeys when being chased so that way they make sure they are safe.  If the mother gets away from the dingoes she will come back for her Joey.  The Joey jumps into Jack’s bag because it is similar to his mothers pouch. Smelling what they think is a bonfire they realize that the forest is bursting into flame in a brush fire.  They run to seek shelter in a cave with Teddy as their guide.  Inside the cave they find ancient drawings of a snake and handprints.  The drawings begin to glow, and when they put their hands on the handprints rain begins to fall outside.  Once it is safe to leave the cave, Teddy helps them find their way back to where the mother Kangaroo had dropped her Joey.  After waiting for what seems like forever, they finally hear the thud of her feet hopping towards them.  When she reaches them the Joey jumps out of Jack’s pouch and into his mothers.  The mother Kangaroo reached down and handed them a piece of bark that had the magical serpent drawn on it. This was the last gift that they needed to free Teddy from his spell. 

    I think this is a fun and exciting way for students to be engaged in learning about a country that they probably did not know that much about.  As a follow up activity to this book I would have the students do research on a country of their choice.  They would pick a country anywhere in the world that they do not know very much about but are interested in.  After finding out basic facts and details about the people, the animals, and the land, I would have them compile their findings into an informational pamphlet.  This would be an easy way for them to return to their information and also pass along to others so they can also read and find out about a country that they otherwise wouldn’t know that much about.

Non- Fiction: Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

This book is a beautifully written poem that explains the phases of the moon and where the moon is located in relation to the sun.

Faces of the Moon

This book is awesome to use in the classroom because it helps the students learn about the different phases of the moon and why the moon is shaped the way it is. The book is designed so that the very last page of the book is the full moon and each page before that has a cut out that starting at the beginning gets bigger each page. This shows how that moon grows in each phase. I think it would be awesome to have the students create a book like this for themselves. Have the full moon be the last page and starting at the beginning show how the moon changes from a new moon to a full moon. I would have them explain on each page where the moon is in relation to the earth and the sun at each stage. This would be a good tool for them to refer to in the future.

Realistic Fiction: All families are different by: Nina Pellegrini:

    This story is about a young girl named Nicola.  She begins the story by telling the readers about her sister and how they love each other a lot, but sometimes still get into fights just like all sisters do.  Then Nicola mentions that she and her sister look alike, because they were both adopted from Korea.  Nicola’s parents both have wavy hair and blue eyes because they adopted her and she grew in someone else’s belly.  At first she thought did not think anything about looking different from her parents but when she noticed that all of her friends seemed to look just like their parents it began to bother her.  After observing more closely all of the families around her she realizes that none of them are “normal” and that they are all different.  She realizes that the most important part of a family is the love that they have for each other.

    I think this would be a great book to use in the classroom.  This book does an excellent job of showing how everyone in this world is different and no two people are alike.  As an activity I would have my students do a self portrait of themselves and have them try to really put detail into.  Then after everyone had finished I would make a huge collage on the wall and title it our classroom family.  This would be a good representation of how not all families are alike, and everyone is different in their own way.  

Multicultural Literature: The Legend of the Indian paintbrush by Tomie DePaola:

    This story is about a young Indian boy called Gopher.  From a young age he made toy warriors from scrapes of leather and wood.  He never went and played with the other boys because he was smaller than them and couldn’t keep up with them riding, running, or shooting their bows.  One night Little Gopher went into the hills to think about becoming a man and the sky suddenly filled with clouds.  A dream-vision came to him and a young maiden and an old grandfather appeared in the clouds.  They told him that he would make brushes from animal hair and paint on animal skin for the people of his village.  The young maiden showed him a pure white buckskin and told him when he found one to keep it for one day he will paint the colors of the night sky.  Years later after he had been faithful to his dream-vision and painted diligently for the village, he found a pure white buckskin.  He tried and tried but he could never find the right mixture of color to be as brilliant as the night sky.  One night he had another dream-vision that told him to go up on the mountain and there he would find the tools that he needed to paint the color of the sky.  When he went up on the hill he found just that, he found paint brushes filled with all of the colors of paint that he needed.  He left those paintbrushes up on the hill and the next morning they blossomed into the flower now known as the Indian paintbrush  After that day he was known and loved by the people of the village and his new name was He-Who-Brought-The-Sunset-To-The-Earth. 

    This story is one that does a great job of depicting this Indian village.  I do not know how considerate the facts or illustrations are.  The old folktale of the Indian paintbrushes however, has been passed down for generations.  I think this book has a great purpose in the classroom as a way of showing how stories and folktales can be passed.  As an activity I would have my students create their own painting similar to the ones that Little Gopher would paint.  We would first research more paintings that the Indians would have done at this time, then I would give my students creative reign to paint a picture that they think would look authentic to this village.

The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll:

    This story is about a Village mouse and a field mouse that both fall in love with the same pumpkin.  They both water and fertilize it every day.  They both give it sugar water every day as a little family secret to make it grow bigger.  Neither of these two mice know that the other is doing this until one night they are both trying to cover the pumpkin in fear of an early frost.  Once they realize that this is the reason for their pumpkin being so big, they decided to work together until the pumpkin contest and then at Halloween they will both carve it into a jack-o-lantern.  These two field mice become friends while working together and they end up winning the first place prize in the contest and have the biggest jack-o-lantern in the entire town.

    I think story is a great depiction of how well hard work pays off.  These two mice worked diligently to help this pumpkin grow to be the largest pumpkin in the town.  I would give my students their own pumpkins made out of construction paper and then on one side of the pumpkin I would have them draw what they would do with their own pumpkin if they had one as large as this, and then on the other side I would have them write a short summary and explain why they chose to do what they did with their pumpkin

My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza:

    When a delicious looking pig knocks on Mr. Fox’s door by mistake Fox thinks it must be his lucky day.  But what he does not know is that Pig knocked on his door, not by mistake, but with great purpose.  Pig tricked Fox into bathing him, and feeding him, and giving him a massage.  He did all of these things so he would supposedly be a better roast.  But Pig knew at the end of the day that Fox would be too tired to cook the Pig and he would be able to get away without being eaten.  Pig pulled this trick on other neighbors too, and had more on his list to trick. 

    I think this is a fun book to read to the children because they would think it is funny that all of these rough and tough animals are being tricked by a little pig into pampering him.  One activity that would be good for the students to do is to have them create a story mountain for this book.  This would be good practice for them to start out at the beginning and write what happened and then write out certain points of the book until it got to the climax and then write the declining points until the end of the story.  Students in the third grade are just learning how to make story mountains in preparation of writing their own stories.  I like the idea of them starting with a story that is already written and then work backwards to create the story mountain.  

Realistic Fiction: Rules by Cynthia Lord:

    This story is about a young girl who is trying lead a normal life but she has difficulty doing this because her brother is autistic and needs a lot of attention.  She loves her brother and most of the time does not mind watching him but while trying to lead a normal pre-teenage life she begins to feel pushed to the side by her family.  She creates a list of rules for her brother to follow.  He needs these rules because, since he has autism he has a hard time remembering what is normal behavior while among other people.  She tries to be a supportive as possible for her brother and her family so she goes to occupational therapy with her brother every Tuesday and Thursday.  While sitting in the waiting room she makes an unexpected friend in a young boy named Jason who cannot speak but uses a book with picture words in it as his form of talking.  Being someone who loves to draw she began drawing him words that she thought were necessary including “That stinks a big one” and “Bummer.”  These words were ones that most kids would want to use, but because Jason cannot talk, he cannot have the attitude that a normal preteen would have when they get upset.  Being friends with Jason she is afraid that her other friends would judge her or think less of her because he is different from them.  She tries to balance her friendship with Jason and start a new friendship with the girl who just moved in next door. This proves to be difficult for her especially while trying to take care of her younger brother at the same time.

    I think this book is a great choice for the classroom because it shows what happens when you let what other people think affect the way you act and think yourself.  As an activity for the classroom I would have the students make their own list of rules.  This list would include rules that the students thought to be normal everyday behavior.  The list of rules could be rules that they have been given at home by their parents or safety rules, or rules that they know they should follow at school.  After the students have all finished their lists I would have them all present a couple of the items to the class and tell why they think that individual rule is important.  

Three Traditional Literatures

The Gospel Cinderella by Joyce Carol Thomas:

This is a story about a young girl who gets separated from her mother, Mother Rhythm, during a hurricane.  After the hurricane, Crooked Foster Mother finds her in a basket and takes her home to her two daughters and decided to name her Cinderella.  When she took her home, her intentions were to make her a kitchen hand, instead of adopting her as a daughter. Queen Mother Rhythm, who was the head of the gospel choir, decided one day that she wanted to retire, so she had to find the true daughter of Rhythm to take her place.  Holding a Gospel Convention, people came from all over the place to sing from Queen Mother Rhythm.  None of the singers had the right voice until Cinderella stood up.  Queen Mother Rhythm had finally found her long lost daughter. 

Cinderella by David Delamare:

This story is set in a Venetian setting with a young girl who is living a happy life with her parents.  Her father’s job requires him to travel around the world so she does not see him that often, but her and her mother live happily together.  One day her mother grows ill and passes away.  Because her father is unable to take care of her due to his traveling he puts her in a boarding school.  Two years pass and she gets a notice that her father has remarried and she is to return home to her new family.  Since her father is still not living with them, she quickly realizes that she has been brought home to be the maid.  One day she gets a notice about the 21^st birthday party for the Duke’s son.  The rest of this story is the traditional Cinderella story, and they live happily ever after. 

Cinderella by Paul Galdone:

This story starts off as the very traditional Cinderella story.  The first deviation that I found was after the first night of going to the King’s son’s ball, she was invited beck for a second time.  This was the instance where she left in a hurry and left behind her glass slipper.  Also, after the King’s servant has fit the glass slipper onto her foot, her step sisters fall at her feet and beg for forgiveness for treating her so poorly.  After Cinderella and the prince have married and live in the palace together, she brings her two stepsisters to live with them in the palace and soon finds them great Lords of the court to marry.

Use in classroom:

  All three of these books are so very different.  I think as a small group activity in class I would have a book pass and have the students pass these three books around and write a short list of their similarities and differences.  After each of the students has had a chance to read them I would have them as a group collaborate their ideas and create one large concept map on a poster board that compares the three books to each other.  

Multicultural Literature: The King of Egypt by Pam Rushby (chapter book)

The King of Egypt is a book about a young girl named Meret who lives in Egypt and her greatest desire is to learn how to read and write.  At this time in Egypt though, girls were not taught these things.  Meret's father worked as a scribe and one day took her to visit Hatshepsut's temple.  While they were visiting the temple the Pharaoh dropped in for a visit and no one knew she was coming. Meret was trying to stay out of site from the crowds but while admiring the carving on a wall she stated out loud that it was not fair that she could not read.  Suddenly, from behind her she heard a woman's voice who agreed with her that it was not fair.  While more people gathered around the she realized that the woman she had been talking to was the King of Egypt.   Hatshepsut, having sympathy on Meret, tells her father to be sure and help her learn how to both read and write.
    This would be a good book to use in the classroom because it shows the students how people lived in Egypt in this time period.  I would have my student's write a thank you letter from Meret to Hatshepsut thanking her for giving her permission to learn how to read and write.  I think this would be good to hypothetically show Hatshepsut the improvement that Meret has made.  It will be good for them to think about and write about this hypothetical situation.

Modern Fantasy: The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler (chapter book)

    This book was a very interesting read for a modern fantasy book.  The story revolved around a young girl who has figured out that she is a mermaid.  Wanting to find out about her life, she makes friends with another young mermaid and goes in search of her father who has been imprisoned by King Neptune for falling in love with a human.  She finds out the Mr. Beeston her neighbor has been working for Neptune all along and has been drugging her mother all along to get her to forget about Emily's father.  After Emily finally meets her father she is capture by Neptune's servants.  Emily gives a heartwarming speech in court that turns the King into a compassionate leader who sets her and her family free if they go and live on a secret island where humans and mermaids both live together.
    I thought that this would be a great book for students to read.  I would use this in my classroom as a way to explore the children's imaginations.  I would have them write their own modern fantasy story.  I would try not to give them too much instruction on it just to see how large their imagination is, but this would of course be after they have already learned about modern fantasy and what types of stories fall into that category.

Historical Fiction: Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine

    Henry, being born into slavery did not know what it was like to be free. All of his family, his wife and children were slaves,  One day his wife and children were sold to a different man and shipped away immediately. Everything that made Henry happy in life was gone.  He was determined to be free and to free his family.  One day Henry saw a big crate and realized that it was big enough for him to fit into.  He decides to get help from one of his friends who is white and against slavery.  His friend mails him in that giant box to a place where there is no slavery.  When he gets there he has a new birthday to celebrate, his first day of freedom.
    After reading this book to my students I will bring in a large box to symbolize the box that Henry traveled in.  I would have each child get inside the box one by  one so they can see what it felt like for Henry to travel to freedom.  I will then have all of the students write about what it felt like to be inside that box. I would have them imagine they were being shipped somewhere, where would they be going and what would that journey be like.