Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

• Title: Ella Enchanted
• Author: Gail Carson Levine
• Publishing: HarperCollins, Reprint Edition. April 19th, 2011.
• Synopsis: The story of Ella Enchanted begins when at birth, the main character Ella is given the gift of obedience by her fairy godmother Lucinda. Lucinda means well but doesn't realize how terrible this gift could be for Ella. Ella's mother realizes this and tells Ella to never tell anyone about the spell. Tragically, Ella's mother dies and at her funeral Ella meets Dame Olga and her horrid daughters Hattie and Olive. Ella is sent to finishing school with Hattie and Olive and Hattie finds out about the spell cast on Olive. Ella's father runs out of money and is forced to marry Dame Olga for survival and Hattie and Olive become Ella's step sisters. Dame Olga is furious when she finds out that Ella's father has no money and forces Ella to be her servant. Ella is asked to marry Prince Charming who she loves but she says no for fear of being used as a weapon against him. Prince Charming hold a ball looking for a wife which Ella and her stepsisters attend. Ella's stepsisters rip off her mask and Ella runs losing a glass slipper on the way. Prince Charming comes to Ella's house, puts the slipper on Ella's foot and demands she marry him. Ella disobeys, breaking the spell and making her free to explain everything, marry Prince Charming, and live happily ever after. 
• The author writes the story from the perspective of a narrator, in a creative and clever style that demands the reader to be constantly engaged for fear of missing something. This clever way of keeping the reader on their toes makes the writing style of author Gail Carson Levine unique.
• I love this book because it takes the theme of the power of love and weaves it into a modern twist of Cinderella. I love the clever writing style of the author and I feel that this book is also great because it is relatable to young girls. Not of course due to the spells and prince charming, but of sometimes feeling like you must always do as your told as children often get that from their parents. I think this is an excellent book that is perfect for anyone who loves books about magic, make believe and prince charming. 
• In thinking of fun ways to incorporate Ella Enchanted into the classroom, I stumbled upon a list of three awesome activities that could go along with reading the book. The first activity was  one that had to do with writing in which the student takes a common fairytale and adds their own twist to it making it their own. I could have students submit them to me for editing and multiple drafts before creating their own fairytale book which I could laminate and put on display either in my classroom or in the hallway. Another fun activity that I found was having the students pretend to be Ella Enchanted for an hour, therefore having to do anything someone says for you to do. I love this idea in general, however I would do it different by cutting the time down to ten minutes in which all of the students would participate as Ella and only I would give demands so that i could control what demands students have to do, avoiding a lot of problems. This way the students can put themselves in the main character Ella's shoes and have to experience what she went through in the book. A full description of these activities and one more can be found in the link here: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/ella-enchanted-extension-activities
• In looking at these activities, I also found a lesson plan on comparing and contrasting Ella Enchanted with its more traditional version Cinderella. That lesson plan can be found in this link here: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/ella-enchanted-lesson-plan
• I found a book trailer for Ella Enchanted that can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_8Ad-QnlhE
• For more information on the author, click on this link to her website here: https://gailcarsonlevine.com 
  

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

• Title: Tuck Everlasting
• Author: Natalie Babbitt
• Publishing: Square Fish. September 10th, 2009.
• Synopsis: The book Tuck Everlasting is a story that revolves around the Tuck family who stumbles upon a magical spring in the a wood that has the power to give eternal life to whoever drinks from it. Unknowingly, the Tucks drink from the spring and don't realize until later on when they don't age and nothing can harm them that they are now immortal. Once realizing this, the family travels throughout the countryside, never staying in one place for too long for fear of being found out. The family continues this way until a ten year old girl in search of freedom named Winnie Foster comes along and discovers their secret. Soon Winnie falls in love with the family and will do anything to protect them from harm. This becomes important when a a man begins to try to find the spring to market the water for his own gain. 
• Natalie Babbitt uses tons of figurative language and a generally descriptive writing style that makes it unique from other books. She also tells the story using a narrator who is a completely objective outsider to the story which makes the story feel real even though it is clearly fantasy. 
• I remember reading this book in elementary school and then watching the movie and having my first experience of being disappointed by a movie because it didn't even hold a candle to the book. This book is so well written with great descriptive writing that makes you feel almost as if you are there with the characters in the story. I also love the message of sticking to your morals and the evil that is greed that play a constant theme in this book. 
• While reading this book I felt it would be a great idea to teach the concept of theme in books. The theme is so pronounced in this story that I feel having a lesson on theme using this story would be a great introduction. I would teach the concept of of theme and what the theme of a story is and then I would have my students brainstorm in groups as to what they think the major themes of Tuck Everlasting are. I would then write down their ideas on the board and then create a classroom poster listing all of the major themes of the book. I would also use this story to get the students to do some creative writing by prompting them by asking them what they would do if they came across a spring that was rumored to give them everlasting life. Would you drink from it or not? Why did you choose whichever one? This creative writing prompt would be great way to have the students think critically about a major part of the novel and put themselves into the authors shoes. 
• In going along with my theme lesson plan for Tuck Everlasting, I found a great teacher blog in which the blogger discusses strategy for teaching theme as well as a worksheet to help students reign in their ideas about the concept. The blog and the worksheet can be found here: http://teachingwithblondeambition.blogspot.com/2014/09/theme-and-main-idea.html
• I also found a book trailer for Tuck Everlasting that can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93MWCIGSl-E
• More information on the author can be found here: http://www.ipl.org/div/askauthor/babbitt.html 
  

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

• Title: James and the Giant Peach
• Author: Roald Dahl
• Publishing: Puffin Books, Reprint Edition. August 16, 2007. 
• Synopsis: The story of James and the Giant Peach begins when James' parents are tragically eaten by a rhinoceros and he is forced to live with with his terribly mean aunt Spiker and aunt Sponge. Life there is very horrible and lonely for James until one day he is given magic crystals which create a gigantic peach. James climbs inside the peach to discover a group of oversized bugs which become his friends and they sail on the sea in their peach on a whirlwind adventure. Each time the group finds themselves in trouble on their journey, James always seems to save the day. In the end, the new friends make a dramatic landing in New York City where James realizes the power of friendship and how lucky he is to have had them while on his adventure in the giant peach. 
• The author wrote this story as an epic with many different trials and tribulations while on a journey of a lifetime. The author also uses a unique style in his writing where he occasionally adds in a song written in verse like a poem said by a character that adds a nice change of pace and a unique style to his writing. The illustrations in the book are drawn in a kid like manner that adds to the fun feel of the book. 
• I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it had me excited to read on the whole way through. In this book especially I fell in love with the characters and the special bond that they had in the story. Their unique and well developed personalities all made the story that much more exciting to read. I loved how the author found a way to tell the message of the importance of friendship as an unbreakable bond through the hilarious trials of a bunch of bugs and a boy in a giant peach. James and the Giant Peach is so unique and well written that it has definitely earned a place among my favorite books. 
• Last semester in one of my education classes I wrote a unit intended for 2nd grade about this story so I have already thought in depth about how to use this book in the classroom. However, I have thought of a number of ways in which I could add to my unit  in mini lessons. While reading the book again, I realized just how much figurative language there is throughout the whole story and I thought it would be a great idea to include a mini lesson on similes. I would teach the concept of a simile and discuss a few examples of how similes were used in the book, I would then have students make groups and go on a simile scavenger hunt in which they would scour the book for atlas five different examples of similes. I would then have them pick one, write it down, and then draw a picture of it which then I would hang around our classroom during the book unit. I would also add to my unit a cause and effect mini lesson because there are various instances throughout the book where something happens and then James does something because of it. This would be a great way to test comprehension and work on our understanding of cause and effect. I found a great cause and effect worksheet from teacherpayteachers.com that can be located here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Graphic-Organizer-for-Cause-and-Effect-421589
• I found an awesome book trailer that can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4lJqM13J0k
• Roald Dahl, the author has a very well done website that I have discussed in a different blog post and his website can be located here: https://www.roalddahl.com 
  

Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Marcia McCall

• Title: Summer of the Mariposas
• Author: Guadalupe Marcia McCall
• Publishing: Lee and Low Books. October 2, 2012.
• Synopsis: This book is a chapter book intended for middle school students and beyond. The main character in this story Odilia and her four sisters discover a dead body in a swimming, which marks the beginning of a long journey to return this body back to it’s family in Mexico. This Mexican American retelling of The Odyssey seems to be rivaled by the girl’s return trip back to Texas. The girls embark on their journey of trial and tribulation to their long lost grandmother’s house in search of information on their missing father with the help of ghost La Llorona. Along the way the sisters must outsmart a witch, a warlock, half-human owls, and bloodthirsty chupacabras. However, the real challenge that faces the girls is returning to the real world where the help of the supernatural doesn’t exist.
• This book is interesting and unique in that it is a story modeled after a classic but told in modern times. In addition. this story includes some references from both mythology and Spanish literature and also contains words from both English and Spanish language.
• I found this book to be very interesting. Not only is it very well written, but also it retells an old classic while inserting a Mexican American perspective, which I found to be truly special. I thought this story flowed seamlessly and I even found myself to be enjoying it more than The Odyssey from which it is based off of. Any book that can successfully retell a classic in a modern setting with a multicultural twist is an excellent choice and Summer of the Mariposas is one of those books. 
• While reading, I thought it would be awesome to read The Odyssey and then Summer of the Mariposas with a 5th grade class and then compare and contrast the two versions of the story. Through an activity like that, I could test comprehension as well as expose my students to both a classic work of literature as well as a multicultural version. 
• I was also thinking that it would be really fun and beneficial for my class to act out some of the pages of Summer of the Mariposas in a reader's theatre day. I would allow students to practice lines together create minimal costumes and perform for their classmates. This way I could test their comprehension through how well they portray important scenes from the novel. 
• While reading the whole original Odyssey would be too much for my students, as I read it in high school, I found a site that focuses on history for kids that has an excellent retelling that is easy for children to understand that can be found here: http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/literature/odyssey.htm#!
• An excellent book trailer for Summer of the Mariposas can be found here: 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgVAmB_tvy0
• More information about the author can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Guadalupe-Garcia-McCall/e/B004OLQ9G0/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1 
  

Charlotte's Web by E.B White

• Title: Charlotte's Web
• Author: E.B. White
• Publishing: Harper Collins, English Language Version. April 10th, 2012.
• Synopsis: The story of Charlotte's Web revolves around a little runt named Wilbur who lives on Mr. Arable's farm. Since he is a runt, Mr. Arable decides to kill him, but thankfully he is saved when little Fern, Mr. Arable's daughter, saves Wilbur's life and makes him her pet. However, after a while, Wilbur gets to be too big to live with Fern, and he is sold to Fern's uncle Zuckerman. At the farm, Wilbur meets a lot of new farm animal friends and settles in nicely until he realizes that he will eventually end up on the dinner table. With the help of Wilbur's friend Charlotte the spider and her amazing web spinning skills, Wilbur hatches a plan to save the animals from slaughter. 
• E.B. White's writing style is beautiful in it's simplicity and clarity that makes it a breeze to read. While reading this novel I felt the essence of American culture which is unique to this book and writer. 
• This book has been a favorite of mine as long as I can remember. This book is a classic and it is clear why. Charlotte's Web is an amazing story about the power of love and it is written in a way that is gentle enough for children to understand. This book is perfect for anyone with a compassionate soul and a love for animals. 
• While in the process of reading this book, I had a lot of ideas for lessons incorporating this book in my future classroom. I would definitely use this book as a novel study in probably a 4th grade classroom. I would use this novel to introduce story maps and story graphic organizers. Charlotte's Web has a very distinct setting, plot, theme and very defined characters that make it easy to pull apart and fit into a story line organizer. After creating a story organizer, I would have my students use those to create comic strips summarizing Charlotte's Web. Once finished I would have my students color and draw pictures on their comic strips and then we would hang them around the room. I found specific instructions on how to create a storyline comic strip using this book on the website that can be found here: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/charlottes-web-teachers-guide
• I found an excellent book trailer for Charlotte's Web on YouTube that can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OLkY9DTx9I
• A biography on the author, E.B White can be found here: http://www.biography.com/people/eb-white-9529308