Publishing: Bantam, Reprint Edition. June 1st, 1993.
Synopsis: The diary of Anne Frank begins when a little girl named Anne received a diary from her parents on her 13th birthday. She names her diary Kitty and at first writes things that normal 13 year old girls would write about even today: daily events, thoughts school grades, and boys. But within a months time all of that changes. Anne Frank lived during Hitler's rule, a time when when living in Germany-occupied Holland as a Jew meant living in constant fear. When Anne's older sister Margo got called before authorities, meaning almost certainly that she would be sent to a concentration camp, Anne's family decided to go into hiding in a small hidden section of Anne's father's workplace they called the secret annex. This secret annex was hidden by a movable staircase, and would be the Frank family's home for the next two years, as well as home to another family called the van Daans and their son Peter as well as an old dentist by the name of Mr. Dussell. They are forced to live in a cramped space being silent almost all the time, and being shocked by the gun fire at night. While in the annex, Anne continues her education by reading and listening to the radio. Her one friend proves to be her trusted diary. Throughout her diary entries, Anne discusses the things she is learning as well as a budding friendship between herself and Peter van Daan. Eventually her tone changes to excitement when she hears that the war is almost over. She then loses this sense of optimism as the war rolls on. Anne Frank begins to feel more and more lonely in the annex and she feels as though no one likes her in the annex. She begins to feel angry toward her family and the other members of the annex only to feel guilty about her angry feelings. This is where the diary ends, shortly after which Anne's family is discovered by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps.
This book is very interesting in that it is an autobiography in the form of a diary. The author Anne writes in a way in which her tone always comes out clear. It is interesting to see her tone progression throughout the diary starting from a happy content tone, to a fearful nervous tone, to an optimistic tone and finally to a sad and angry tone. The rollercoaster of emotion that comes through in Anne's writing makes this story unique and interesting to read.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I am interested in history in general but particularly interested in the holocaust. I think its amazing in the most terrible way possible that the murder of six million people could be allowed to go on for the amount of time that it did. Reading Anne Frank's diary gives amazingly invaluable insight into what life was like as a jewish person during the holocaust and Anne's writing is so eloquent and revealing that it makes for an insightful and riveting read.
In using this book to teach, I would definitely use this book along with a unit on the holocaust and what it meant to be a Jewish person during this time. I would also definitely do a novel study with this book and I found a sample one on another teacher's blog that can be found here: http://annefranknovelstudy.blogspot.com
I also found a well done book trailer for Anne Frank's diary that can be viewed below:
Synopsis: Shorty and his family, along with thousands of Japanese Americans, are sent to an internment
camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fighting the heat and dust of the desert, Shorty and his
father decide to build a baseball diamond and form a league in order to boost the spirits of the
internees. Shorty quickly learns that he is playing not only to win, but to gain dignity and
self-respect as well.
The illustrations done in Baseball Saved Us are done in dark colors that make the reader get the idea that the pictures are from a long time ago. This is probably a good strategy used by the illustrator because this is a historically based book. The distinct colors make the book stand out from others.
I thought this book was an excellent book in that it incorporated history in a way that would keep students interested and engaged, which can sometimes be difficult to do. I also really enjoyed this book because the topic is very unique from any other I have heard before.
I would definitely use this book as an introduction into a lesson on life for Japanese Americans during World War II as well as a discussion on internment camps. I also found a website with a lesson plan complete with various creative writing prompts, vocabulary activities, as well as interdisciplinary connections with social studies and math. This website is awesome and I would definitely use it when creating a lesson using this book. The website can be accessed here: https://www.leeandlow.com/images/pdfs/baseball.pdf
To learn more about the author, you can look at his website located here: http://kenmochizuki.com
Publishing: Amistad, Reprint Edition. December 27th, 2011.
Synopsis: The story of One Crazy Summer begins when one summer, three sisters from New York travel to Oakland, California to live with their mother who abandoned them as babies. Delphine is the oldest sister who acts as the mother to her younger sisters Vonetta and Fern. They arrive in California only to realize their mother is nothing like they could have ever imagined. Instead of doing fun mother daughter activities all summer their mother sends them to a day camp run by a radical group called the Black Panthers. The girls learn from a woman names Sister Mukumbu about all of the positive things that The Black Panthers do for the community such as feeding hungry children. After one of The Black Panther members gets shot by the police, the girls are told that they will be participating in a rally to get the founder Huey Newton out of prison. After returning from a day trip to San Francisco, the girls come home to find their mother being arrested. Cecile says she has no daughters to the police officer so the girls pretend to be neighbors. The time comes for the rally and the sisters read one of their mothers poems that they found in the kitchen. The sisters see their mother has been released from jail at the rally and they go home with her. Their mother reveals to them that she lost her mother at age 11 and that she has had a rough life ever since, trying to explain why she left them as babies. The next day the girls return home to New York after finally getting a hug from their mother.
The author Rita Williams-Garcia writes in a way that is clear, concise and direct in a way that is easy to follow. The author also has a way of writing that is subtle yet impactful and therefore sets her apart from other authors from whose works I have read.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because I love any sort of story about discovery. Over the course of this One Crazy Summer, the girls learn so much not only about who their mom is, but also about whats going on in the world as well as who they are as people. I find books like this to be extremely interesting because I love to watch the transformation from the characters in the beginning to the characters at the end of the book.
While reading this book, I thought a lot about using this story to introduce a lesson on African American's fight for civil rights during the 1960s. I would definitely use this book to start a conversation and then a lesson on this topic and what was going on during this time. I would then have my students work in groups to present on different popular names that played a major role during this time period, such as The Black Panthers or Rosa Parks. I would then have them create a power point presentation to share with the class. Another activity to go along with this story that I thought of was using poetry like Cecile did in the book to share knowledge gained on the African American Civil Rights movement. I would then have my students create a "poetry café" in which each student would present their poem and the class would snap their approval afterwards.
Synopsis: This story revolves around the life of a Mexican girl names Esperanza. Esperanza lives a charmed life on her family's beautiful ranch home with servants and anything Esperanza could ever want or need. But suddenly, when tragedy strikes, Esperanza is forced to flee from her wonderful home and everything she's ever known for a new life in California during the Great Depression whereto will live in a camp for Mexican farm workers. This of course is a far cry from her wonderful life back home in Mexico, and Esperanza does not feel prepared in the slightest for the physical labor she must do, financial situation she is in as well as the new discrimination she now faces. To make matters worse, Esperanza's mother becomes ill and she must now work to pay for her mother's care as well as both of their survival.
The author Pam Munoz Ryan does an excellent job of creating an element of suspense in her writing that kept me hanging on until the very end. Ryan's writing also contains so much emotion that sets her writing apart from the works of others.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book because of the message of the importance of rising to the occasion and the many teachable moments throughout the story. Not only did I enjoy the many lessons folded into Esperanza Rising, but I enjoyed the drama and suspense that made me feel very involved in the plot. I enjoy books that can pull at my emotions and make me feel truly invested in the main character and this book did just that.
While reading this book, some very obvious lesson ideas popped into my head, such as using this book to discuss life as immigrants and immigration, discussing labor rights and working conditions during the great depression, and also just in general using this book during a unit on the Great Depression. I found a lesson plan to go along with an Esperanza Rising unit that included many of these ideas and the website can be found here: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/esperanza-rising-learning-not-be-afraid-start-over#sect-objectives
I also stumbled upon a few fun activities to incorporate after reading this book including making posters with some of the Mexican Proverbs written in the book before chapter one and students draw pictures to make the posters pop. I could also have my students create acrostic poems with the name of a character and a word to describe them for each word. That way they could analyze the characters in this book in a fun way. These activities were found on a website that can be found here: http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/esperanza-rising/funactivities.html#gsc.tab=0
I also found a well done book trailer that ban be found here:
If you would like to read more information about the author, you can visit her website by clicking on the link here: http://www.pammunozryan.com
Publishing: Puffin Books, Reprint Edition. August 3rd, 2004.
Synopsis: In the story of Adelita, there lived a merchant names Francisco and he was married to a lovely woman named Adela. Adela announced one day that she was going to have a baby and Francisco was so happy. Sadly, Adela died shortly after the baby was born and this caused much grief on Francisco and a family friend Esperanza. Adela's daughter Adelita grew up to be a beautiful woman and Francisco loved her so. One day, Francisco announced that he was getting married to a woman named Señora Micaela. This seemed to be good news, until Francisco suddenly died and Adelita was left with Doña Micaela and her daughters Valentina and Dulce who were all very cruel to her. One day, Doña Micaela received an invitation from Señor and Señora Gordillo to attend a party for the purpose of finding their son Javier a wife. Adelita was not allowed to go to the party and had to stay home. Suddenly, the family friend Esperanza takes on the role of the fairy godmother. With her help, Adelita had something beautiful to wear and was disguised in her mother's beautiful shawl. Adelita arrives at the party and Javier falls madly in love with her. At midnight, Adelita vanishes into the night with only the memory for Javier of the beautiful shawl. The next day, Javier spies the beautiful shawl in Adelita's window and the two live happily ever after.
This books is unique and special in that although the book is mostly written in english, there are a few words throughout the story written in Spanish including character names. The illustrations in the story are very distinct of Tomie dePaola with many colors and geometric shapes found everywhere that make the book distinct.
I think this book is a wonderful retelling of the classic Cinderella with a twist to include Mexican heritage. I thoroughly enjoy stories that take a twist on a classic and this book would be a great one to use in the classroom when you want to include some multicultural literature.
While reading this book the most obvious activity I thought of to do with my students would be to use a compare and contrast Venn Diagram with my students to compare the traditional Cinderella with Adelita. I feel that this would be a good activity because it would not only help to improve children's comprehension and reasoning skills, but it would also help them to recall details of the story. I would also teach a mini lesson on the different Spanish words used in the story and have my students create Spanish word flash cards with the word from the story printed on one side and the english translation and a picture of the word on the other. That way the students can practice their new vocabulary that they learned from the book.
Online I found a video of an actual reading of Adelita that students could access to hear the story again at home. The YouTube link can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn0oELfvIYs
I would also like to do a mini lesson on the creative process of Tomie de Paola's unique illustrations. Luckily on his website, he goes into detail on his creative process from which I would have my students create works of art in the same process as a fun activity. There is a link to Tomie dipole's website here: http://www.tomie.com
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:
Synopsis: This story revolves around the life of a little Korean girl named Unhei. Unhei has just moved from her native Korea to America where she finds herself in a completely different environment in an American school. Unhei is really nervous that her fellow classmates will not like her, so instead of telling her fellow classmates her name, she decides to let her classmates choose her name for her, by putting the names that they would like to call her in a jar. Her new classmates are fascinated by this new no name girl, and help by filling the jar with name suggestions. While Unhei practices getting accustomed to an American name, one of her fellow classmates discovers her real name and the meaning behind it. On the day of Unhei's name choosing, she is surprised that the name jar is gone and she is encouraged by her fellow classmates to keep her native name and she teaches her fellow classmates how to pronounce it.
The language in this book makes the words flow so well and keeps the reader engaged. There is also excellent word choice as well as very good descriptive writing to help paint the picture of the story.
I really enjoyed this book and I feel that it addresses an important topic. People come from different backgrounds from all over the world and at times some names you come across may be difficult to say because the originate from a different language. However, everyone has the right to their name and the right to have people respect it. By putting forth effort to understand everyone's names and how to pronounce it, we show respect not only for them as people, but also for their culture. This book does a wonderful job of translating this message for school age children and therefore I think this is an important book for young children to read.
While reading this book, I thought of a number of different activities that would go along with it. I thought it would be nice to teach about Korean culture and Korean names. I could have students pick a Korean name out of a hat, research what it means and how to pronounce it, and then have them present it to the class. That way, children can become accustomed to a variety of different names from a different culture. We could also do a lesson about the importance of names and I could have them research their own names and present on their meaning. I found a lesson plan on the internet that pertains to names that can be found here: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/investigating-names-explore-personal-878.html In addition, I would definitely do a mini lesson on being inclusive of everyone and talk about how that includes knowing how to pronounce everyone's names, not just those you already know.
Synopsis: This book is a colorful collection of poems that revolve around the culture and natural beauty of the Southwestern region of North America. There are a collection of free verse poems written from the perspective of a young Mexican American girl, and imbedded in each poem there are Spanish words. In carrying out the theme of the title, there is a piece of confetti on each page, making reading the book into a celebration. The book covers many topics that are interesting to children such as sun rises, the desert, dancing and many more.
The illustrations in this book are bright and colorful and embody the spirit and culture of the SouthWest, which really adds meaning and complements the poems nicely. This book is also written in free verse and uses two different languages throughout, which makes it unique from other books.
I really enjoyed this book and thought it was perfect for adding a multicultural aspect to learning. This book gives the unique perspective of a Mexican American girl who has different views then a lot of the children I will be having in my future class room. Due to the fact that there will undoubtedly be Mexican American students in my classroom, it is important to address and make these children feel included in lessons and in the classroom. This book does a great job of showing a different perspective which is important for young students and also shows a different culture. For that reason, this is an excellent book and an important one to use in the classroom.
This book could be used for multiple multicultural purposes in the classroom. This book could be used as an introduction to a unit on the South West portion of the United States and the influence having a border with Mexico has made. I can use this book to open up a lesson on what it is like to be a Mexican immigrant in the United States. I could also use this book to simply introduce a unit on Mexico and teach some new spanish words to my students.
In creating a lesson plan, I would use this book as an introduction to a unit on Mexico. I would then introduce a research project in which I would assign a different aspect of Mexico (food, clothing, religion, geography) to different groups and then have those groups each present their findings to the class. This lesson would help children to learn about a different culture from their own and the book Confetti would be an excellent introduction.
In addition, the author also has a wonderful website with a section entitled "kid fun" in which kids can play games and take quizzes related to Mora's works. Her website can be found here: http://www.patmora.com
Synopsis: This book starts out by discussing how all over the world we dress for many situations such as playing, studying and celebrating and how are clothes are an important part of who we are. The book then shows pictures of children from all over the world dressed for a number of purposes such as the activities listed above. (playing, celebrating) The book then concludes by saying how although we all may dress differently, we are united by the fact that they are all unique and beautiful in their own ways.
This book takes a different approach to telling the story using pictures more than words. The book is organized by prompting a type of situation common to everyone, and showing mere pictures with captions of how children from around the world dress for them. The actual glossy photographs really help to understand the reality of how this is the way people dress.
I found this book to be a wonderful way to discuss different cultures in a way that children can relate to. All children are familiar with the different outfits that they wear for different occasions and hearing about how other people dress would really captivate their attention and get them thinking about different cultures. In this way the book is an excellent means of opening up a conversation about different cultures.
In the classroom, I could see my self using this book in a multitude of ways. I could use this book to test comprehension by having the students write down the various countries depicted in the story. I could also incorporate the creative arts by having my students draw from memory their favorite outfit from the story, therefore working on visualizing and comprehension. I could also use this story as geography activity where we identify the various countries discussed in the story.
I also thought of various more interactive activities we could do as a class. We could have a class fashion show of the various outfits that we wear for various occasions. We could also have a clothes around the world day in which i have groups of two or four pick a country (different from those from the book) out of a hat. They then have to research the different ways people dress in that country and present them to the class on clothes from around the world day.
In looking up the author, I found that she has a website. If you wish to learn more about the author, click on the link: http://www.mayaajmera.com
