kiddieliter

This book by Judi Barrett describes the town of Chewandswallow, where the weather comes three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and is always food and beverages. The rain is juice and soup, the snow is mashed potatoes, and the wind brings hamburgers. However, when floods and storms of food comes, the town must do something to survive.

I believe that this book is a great example of enchanted fantasy.  The family begins in their normal home having pancakes, and are transported to another land of “Chewandswallow” where the adventures begin.  In the end the story returns to its original plot.

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The Dark Is Rising is actually the second book in a series entitled The Dark Is Rising. This particular book is about a young boy named Will who receives a mysterious pendant from an equally mysterious man, who also leaves the message, “Enjoy today. Tomorrow, on your birthday, all will be incredibly different.” Sure enough, Will awakes the next day in another time period where he meets the Old Ones. They tell Will that he is the one who is meant to have the power to send away the Dark with his phenomenal powers of the Light. Together, the warriors of the Light teach Will the skills of a mage and they are able to conquer over the battle with the Dark. This book is a great read for those who like stories about magic and timetravel.

Cook~a~doodle~doo! written by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel is about a rooster who is tired of eating chicken feed all the time so he decides he is going to cook something else to eat. He gets the turtle, iguana and the pig to help him make a strawberry shortcake. The animals take everything literally and when asked to add flour the iguana goes and picks a petunia. The turtle gets a bat to beat the eggs. But the rooster knows how to cook so he straightens everything out. The eventually get a cake made but it is ruined. So they go through the process again.

This is a great multicultural book about a low-riding cat that tries to trick his new mice neighbors into being his supper for the night. The Chato makes tortillas, beans and salsa, fajitas, enchiladas, carne asada, chiles rellenos, flan, and a large pitcher of tamarindo. When the little mice show up with their friend, Chorizo, which is a dog, the Chato forgets his plans of mice for dinner. This book will bring a smile to the whole classroom.

Mr. Brown is a very interesting fellow. He can make all kinds of sounds. My favorite sound he makes is a hippopotamus chewing gum. He sounds like this, Grum Grum Grum Grum Grum Grum Grum! This book would be great for small children.

  This is a neat story about Ma Brindle’s famous sweet dream pie.  The town is a direct reflection of the pie. When the dough is rolled out, people roll out of bed.  When the pie is in the oven, the town is sweltering hot.  If you eat a little, you will have sweet dreams, but if you eat alot, you won’t sleep good at all. Pa Brindle and the rest of the town eat 4 and more slices and when they fall asleep, their bad dreams roam the streets. The only way peaceful sleep reaches everyone is when Ma Brindle sweeps their dreams up off the street.

Hey Little Ant by the Hookes was a cute book about a young boy who meets an ant at the park one day.  When the boys sees the any with some leftover picnic food, the boy wants to step on the ant.  The ants pleads with the boy to not step on him and proceeds to explain to the boy how similar they are and that he is taking the food to his family.  The ant convinces the boy to not step on him and they become friends.  This book is also unique because at the end there is a song that corresponds with the book.  This would be a great way to integrate a music lesson along with this book or even just make a fun sing a long out of it.

This story is about a little turtle who just cannot be still. Soon people begin to see Shelley as bad, and he feels all alone. Then one day Shelley goes to the doctor and something amazing happens. He find out he is not a bad little turtle, just hyperactive, and that there are many little turtles just like him. i really like the Moss books because she puts disabilities into perspective for young children. She also uses her books to show the children that they are not alone and that they can overcome any obstacle.

Stephen Huneck did a great job when creating this book to really draw in the attention of children. Sally goes to the beach is a story of a dog named Sally taking a trip to the beach. She exhibits all of the characteristics of a human in many ways like driving a car and even as far as riding in a taxi cab. Sally sees many things on her trip to the beach as would any child taking a trip to the beach. This is a great book for children because they can actually see dogs doing things they would never imagine like riding in a cab, who would’ve thought. This would be a great book for an animal lover, particularly a dog lover.

Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type is a delightful childrens story about cows who can type.  The cows find a typewriter in the barn.  They play with the typewriter all day long, and Farmer Brown does not like this one bit because they do not want to do anything but type all day long.  They decide to write Farmer Brown a note one day about how they and the hens as well  would like some electric blankets because it can get so very cold in the barn at night.  As the story progresses the cows use the typewriter as sort of a bargaining tool.  They said that they would give the typewriter back in return for some electric blankets.  Farmer Brown finally gives in and gives the cows and hens the electric blankets for the barn.  It is a very adorable childrens story, with fabulous picutres.  This book even won the Caldecott Honor Book for the illustrations in it.  I would highly reccomend this book to use in any classroom because I know that I will be.

Jennie Clendenin