My Special Day at Third Street School by Eve Bunting
Bunting, Eve. 2004. MY SPECIAL DAY AT THIRD STREET SCHOOL. Illustrated by Eve Bloom. Pennsylvania: Boyds Mills Press. ISBN: 1590780752.
In the fiction book My Special Day at Third Street School, author Eve Bunting captures the excitement of an author's visit to a classroom at the Third Street School. The rhyming story begins by showing the preparations that are going on as students look forward to meeting their special guest Miss Amanda Drake. The illustrations in the story are colorful and vivid. They leave the reader eagerly anticipating the next turn of the page to find out what will happen next. The students busily prepare for Miss Amanda Drake's arrival by reading her books, decorating the classroom, making refreshments and listing questions to ask the author.
There is no deflation of the excitement level of the students when Miss Drake finally arrives. She mesmerizes the students with descriptions of her job and thoughtful advice on the importance of loving one's job. Miss Drake takes a keen interest in the students and their classroom, thus building their enthusiasm for her and writing. A young boy in the class suggests that Miss Drake write a book about her visit to their classroom. She responds with great interest and enthusiasm about the possibility of a book about her experience with the students. The impression that Miss Drake made on the students doesn't end with her departure from their school. Her visit inspired them to work hard to become excellent writers and added to their self esteem. At the conclusion of the story, the students are notified by Miss Amanda Drake that she did indeed write a book about her visit to their school and that it had been published.
The story is an engaging look at the classroom of today, sure to interest both children and adults alike. Readers become caught up in the excitement of the illustrations and text of the story. The book would be an excellent learning aid to use in conjunction with an author study unit or even as a read aloud prior to an author visit. The illustrations actually made me miss the busy activity of an elementary classroom during my summer vacation. Eve Bunting has written a realistic story that is a must have for school and classroom libraries.
A Caldecott Celebration: Six Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal by Leonard S. Marcus
Marcus, Leonard S. 1998. A CALDECOTT CELEBRATION: SIX ARTISITS AND THEIR PATHS TO THE CALDECOTT MEDAL. New York: Walker & Company. ISBN: 0802786588.
A Caldecott Celebration: Six Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal written by Leonard S. Marcus enlightens readers about the lives and work of six celebrated Caldecott Medal winning artists. Marcus chose a winner from each decade that the award was given and focused on the lives and work of each artist. Artists featured in the book include Robert McCloskey, Marcia Brown, Maurice Sendak, William Steig, Chis Van Allsburg and Davis Wiesner. Readers will delight in learning interesting facts about the winners and the stories they created. It is interesting to learn background information about books, which for many people, are/were childhood favorites.
The introduction of the book gives readers background information about the Caldecott Medal and the importance of winning the prestigious award. Each chapter of the book features a different Caldecott Medal winner and the book that they received the award for.
The book contains the right mix of background information, photographs of the artists and rough sketches made by the artists to keep readers engaged for hours. It is fascinating to be afforded the opportunity to view rough draft illustrations of such classic books as Make Way for Ducklings and Where the Wild Things Are. Children, Adults, Teachers and Librarians should all take the opportunity to read the book and peruse the illustrations. It is like looking into a very special time capsule. Readers will ponder questions such as: Would Maurice Sendak's book, and he himself, have been as successful if he had chosen his original idea and title of the picture book dummy Where the Wild Horses Are (which later became Where the Wild Things Are)? Many questions and thoughts such as these will arise as readers closely examine the book. This is a book which can be referred to time and time again to gain insights into the lives and artistry of these six famous artists and the treasured stories they created.
This book would be an excellent classroom and library companion to use when reading the stories written about in the book. Children would be very interested to see some of the original sketches of favorite books and characters. In fact, I plan to purchase the book to use in my classroom.
My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann
Rohmann, Eric. 2002. MY FRIEND RABBIT. Connecticut: Roaring Brook Press. ISBN: 0761315357.
My Friend Rabbit written by author Eric Rohmann is a delightful tale of a rabbit who "means well", but who always gets himself in trouble. In this 2003 Caldecott Medal winning book, the narrator takes readers on journey that looks at all of the problems that his friend rabbit gets himself into. The bold illustrations take on the major role of storytelling in the book, as many of the pages do not contain text. This will engage readers as they anxiously await the next misadventure of the rabbit.
In the beginning of the story Rabbit and Mouse are playing with a toy airplane. Rabbit attempts to launch Mouse into the air, but poor Mouse falls out and the plane gets stuck in a tree. Of course, Rabbit thinks he has the perfect solution for retrieving the airplane and he goes to work and inevitably finds trouble. Rabbit decides that the plane can be saved if he stacks other animals, such as an elephant, rhinoceros, hippo, deer, crocodile, bear, goose, and a squirrel on top of each other to reach the plane. Needless to say, the other animals are not amused with his plan. Of course, as is the norm with Rabbit, things don't go as he planned. Readers will enjoy the outcome of Rabbit's grand plan as they delight in the illustrations on each page. Rohmann cleverly depicts the large size of the other animals in comparison with Rabbit. Readers will enjoy using their imagination to come up with text to go along with the wonderful illustrations of the story.
The book is truly deserving of the Caldecott Medal, because it places such a strong emphasis on the illustrations to tell the story. Despite the small amount of text, even the youngest of children could understand and appreciate the plot of the story. The story is easy to identify with, because many readers probably have a friend who often gets into sticky situations. True friends appreciate all of the special differences in one another. That is a good lesson to learn early in life. I actually already have this book in my classroom library and recently used it when I taught a unit on friendship and diversity. Even though my second grade students read much more advanced books, they had a great appreciation for the theme of the book and the illustrations in it.
Just A Dream by Chris Van Allsburg
Van Allsburg, Chris. 1990. JUST A DREAM. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 0395533082.
The fiction book Just A Dream tells the story of a young litter bug named Walter. Walter could care less about the current state of the environment or taking care of it, he is too busy fantasizing about the perfect world that lay ahead in the future. His dream future world would include personal airplanes, trash toting robots, and doughnut making machines.
At the beginning of the story, Walter privately ridicules a neighbor's excitement over a tree she received for her birthday. That was not a present that he would ever want. One evening Walter fell asleep and traveled to the future. The future was not what he expected. Everywhere he traveled was full of catastrophes and destruction. The future was a world of massive flooding, a land where all of the trees had been cut down, a world of giant smokestacks, seas ruined for fishermen, smog filled canyons, etc. Walter kept telling himself that it was just a dream, but I'm sure even in a deep slumber he began to wonder the truth to his statement. When Walter woke up the memory of the night before haunted him. He changed his attitude about the environment and taking care of it. His nightmarish journey taught him that there wouldn't be a happy future if people don't take care of the environment now.
The illustrations in the book set the mood of the story. Readers are transported to another time by the dark tones of the illustrations of the future. When Walter wakes up and starts taking care of the environment the illustrations become brighter and more visually soothing. Van Allsburg teaches readers that each individual plays a part in the earth's future today. The content of the book is one that will most likely fascinate many readers as they consider the environment and the possible negative future that lies ahead for it. This book would make an interesting learning aid to use when teaching students about caring for the environment. Although, some of the outcomes in the story might be thought of as outlandish and too extreme by some children and adults. Still, it would provide them with several cause/effect scenarios. I would recommend this book to others for the quality of its illustrations alone. The author's artistry never fails to impress me.