134. Presidential Pets by Laura Driscoll

Retell: A history of presidents and their beloved pets.

Topics: pets, presidents, fun, friendship, dogs, Obama, Bo, family

Units of Study: Nonfiction, Content Area

Reading Skills: synthesis, making connections, interpretation

Writing Skills: developing voice in nonfiction

My Thoughts: I picked this book up a few days ago at our school’s book fair.  I have a lot of animal lovers in my class who only read nonfiction about animals.  This book combines an interest in animals with an interest in presidential history and current events.  It’s a nice book for demonstrating how readers can often get distracted by seductive details but must work constantly to think about what the author is trying to say about the topic.

133. Between Earth and Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places by Joseph Bruchac

Retell: On the way to a pow-wow Old Bear teaches his nephew Little Turtle about the legends connected to the sacred places of other Native American tribes.

Topics: legends, Native Americans, sacred places, Wampanoag, Seneca, Niagara Falls, Navajo, Cherokee, Papago, Hopewell, Cheyenne, Hopi, Abenaki, Walapai, Grand Canyon

Units of Study: Content-Area, Nonfiction, Talking and Writing About Texts

Tribes: mutual respect

Reading Skills: envisionment, interpretation

My Thoughts: This is a great read aloud for integrating map skills.  Using the clues in each legend, students could try and figure out which place is being described.  A copy of the map in the back of the book could be distributed to students during the read aloud and partners could work together to locate each sacred place on the map.

132. The Well by Mildred D. Taylor

Retell: During a drought, the Logan family shares water from their well with anyone who needs it, be they white or black.  Hammer, the narrator’s brother, finds it difficult to share with the Simms family who have tormented the Logans for being black.  After Hammer defends his brother David and beats up Charlie Simms, he and David are forced to work on the Simms’ farm to avoid jail.  Hammer, however, never quite manages to swallow his pride and gets involved in another altercation that causes Charlie to take revenge.

Topics: drought, racism, segregation, bullying, fighting, family

Units of Study: Historical Fiction, Talking and Writing About Texts, Social Issues

Tribes: mutual respect, right to pass, appreciations/no put-downs

Habits of Mind: managing impulsivity

Reading Strategies: inference, synthesis, interpretation, envisionment

My Thoughts: I’ve been trying to locate shorter chapter books to read aloud.  I’m finding that some of my favorite chapter books are too long to complete before the end of a unit. The Well is short, only 92 pages and can be completed within a month-long unit.  I think this could be a great book to read if a class is struggling with the issue of revenge.  In this story, Hammer cannot control his temper.  The situation is extremely unfair, and you empathize with Hammer for fighting with Charlie.  But on the other hand, his decision to take revenge led to his family’s well getting poisoned.  It raises the question whether or not it’s better to fight back with violence or fight back in other ways.

131. The First Thanksgiving by Jean Craighead George

Retell: The story of the first Thanksgiving which addresses some former misconceptions.

Topics: Thanksgiving, Cape Cod, Plymouth Rock, Pawtuxets, slavery, Squanto, Puritans, Mayflower, survival, death, cooperation, farming

Units of Study: Nonfiction, Content-Area, Social Issues

Tribes: personal best, mutual respect

Reading Skills: monitoring for sense, envisionment, determining importance, synthesis

My Thoughts: When I was a kid, I learned about how the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock.  They toiled through the winter and many people died.  I learned how Squanto helped the Pilgrims plant corn, beans and squash and as a gesture of peace, the Native Americans and the Pilgrims sat together to celebrate the harvest.  What I didn’t learn until I read Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen is how Squanto came to learn English–he had been a slave in London.  Several years before the Pilgrims arrival, Squanto had been tricked onto a boat headed for Spain.  He was purchased by a merchant ship owner from London.  Squanto eventually sailed back to the village that he had been stolen from only to find that his entire village had died from smallpox!

This book attempts to tell the story of the first Thanksgiving without glossing over the contributions of the Wampanoag and of Squanto.  I plan on reading this during the few days leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday.  I also think I want to reread it during our Social Issues unit.

131. Apple Country by Denise Willi

Retell: A look into the history of apple-growing in the United States.

Topics: apples, orchards, colonists, Johnny Appleseed, farmers, packing plants, processing plants

Units of Study: Nonfiction, Content-Area, Journalism

Reading Skills: determining importance, synthesis, monitoring for sense

My Thoughts: This is a great book for teaching students how to effectively read and synthesize text features.  There are many text features within the book:  a flowchart, an interview, a table, a map, illustrations with captions, etc.  It’s a particularly nice read aloud for New York 4th graders because it ties in natural resources of New York State and Colonial history.

130. Planet Earth/Inside Out by Gail Gibbons

Retell: Gail Gibbons imagines what we would see if we looked inside the earth.

Topics: earth, gravity, ocean, Pangaea, equator, continents, earth model, fossils, plates, earthquakes, volcanoes, islands

Units of Study: Nonfiction, Content-Area

Reading Skills: monitoring for sense, envisionment, determining importance, synthesis

My Thoughts: We are wrapping up our Science unit on Earth Movements this Friday and I was looking for a text to end with.  This book ties in a lot of subjects within this unit:  the earth model, Pangaea, plate tectonics, faults, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.  The illustrations, which contain clear and useful diagrams, help readers comprehend the text.  However, in some parts, readers most add to the illustrations with details from their own mental picture and think about what is not in the illustrations.

129. Amos & Boris by William Steig

Retell: A mouse named Amos and a whale named Boris become friends after Boris saves Amos from drowning.  When he is returned to land Amos vows to help Boris if he’s ever in need.  Many years later Boris finds himself washed up on the very beach where Amos lives.  Though he is but a tiny mouse, Amos makes good on his promise.

Topics: ocean, adventures, survival, help, mammals, friendship, goodbyes, relationships

Units of Study: Character, Talking and Writing About Texts

Tribes: mutual respect, personal best

Reading Skills: interpretation, prediction, monitoring for sense, envisionment

My Thoughts: This story is so heartwarming that you may have to have a box of tissues ready for the end of the read aloud.  Steig’s illustrations are so simple, yet he has a great way of expressing emotion.  Often there is a lot more going on in the text than in the illustrations.  When reading this book aloud, it’s important to show how readers must envision even when illustrations are present.

 

128. Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp

Retell: An English and pictorial translation of a Mohawk message of thanksgiving.

Topics: Mother Earth, appreciation, peace, Iroquois, nature, thanksgiving

Tribes: appreciations/no put-downs

Reading Skills: monitoring for sense, interpretation

My Thoughts: This book is a wonderful November read aloud.  I like reading this book before students head off for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Since this message comes from the Mohawk, it compliments the 4th grade unit on Native Americans of New York State.  Before reading this you may want to ask students to jot down what they are thankful for.  While reading the book they can pay attention to what the Mohawks are thankful for as shown in the address.  After reading, students can add to their lists and discuss what they learned about the Mohawk people.

127. The War Between the Vowels and the Consonants by Priscilla Turner

Retell: The snooty vowels and the rough and tumble consonants have never gotten along with each other.  After a few letters begin to fight with each other, war breaks out between the vowels and the consonants.  When chaos, in the form of squiggly lines, rolls into town the vowels and consonants must work together to defeat it.

Topics: letters, vowels, consonants, war, cooperation, fighting, cliques, power

Units of Study: Talking and Writing About Texts

Tribes: appreciations/no put-downs

Habits of Mind: thinking interdependently

Reading Skills: interpretation

My Thoughts: When I previewed this text I assumed I was going to learn about how vowel sounds are really strong and influence other vowel sounds.  In reality this book is not really about letters at all–it’s about class and cooperation between the classes.  The vowels represent the upper class–there are few of them and they are snooty.  The consonants represent the lower-middle class– the undignified commoners.  They distrust each other, go to war and then eventually must learn how to work together.  I can see reading this in my class in order to have a discussion about cliques within the class and within the grade.  It could be read again when we study industrialization and analyze the struggles between the rich and the poor.

126. Strong to the Hoop by John Coy

Retell: James has always wanted to play basketball on the main court.  Knowing that he’s too young and too small, he practices on the side court.  One day a player gets injured and he volunteers to play.  Though he misses shots and fouls other players, he gains his courage and ends up winning the game.

Topics: basketball, courage, playground, body image, boys

Units of Study: Realistic Fiction, Personal Narrative

Tribes: personal best, appreciations/no put-downs

Reading Skills: envisionment, inference

Writing Skills: incorporating similes, alliteration, using commas to list action, balancing internal thinking, action and dialogue

My Thoughts: This book was hiding on my read aloud shelf in my classroom.  I forgot all about it and now I’m kicking myself for not reading it to my class during our recent Realistic Fiction unit.  This is a fantastic small moment mentor text.  The events of the story are few:  a boy practices, enters a game, struggles, and wins.  However through a balance of internal thinking, small action and dialogue, the author creates a suspenseful, meaningful story.