A Bad Case of the Stripes

Shannon, D. (2004). A bad case of stripes. Scholastic Paperbacks.

Age Level: 5-9

Genre: Picture Book

Camilla is a girl who wants to fit in.  She gives up lima beans (which she liked) just to fit in and then she gets a ‘bad case of the stripes.’  She starts to change color and transsform into thinkgs surrounding her.  Her parents take her to the doctor but they cannot find anything wrong so she goes to school.  While at school, she’s teased because of her color.  Camilla’s journey to fit in takes her through many colorful transformations.  Will Camilla ever learn to love who she is? 

David Shannon’s illustrations are very vivid and life-like.  Shannon does a great job making the illustrations come to life.  The colors in the illustrations contribute to the character’s emotions and overall mood of the story.  The composition of the book also helps to focus your attention on the important aspects of the story.  The realistic illustrations are great as they make the text easily relatable!

I would absolutely recommend this book and already plan to use it in my classroom!  Children will find this story very easy to relate to as many of them have hoped to fit in at some point in their lives. 

Ideas for teaching/comprehension strategies that can be used with this text:  This book would be great to use when teaching theme because it clearly promotes being yourself.  It would also be a very cute book to use with cause and effect. 

Questions to pose:

Have you ever felt like Camilla?  Explain. 

What do the illustrations represent?  Why are they so important to the story?

Additional Resources:

Read this book online at www.storylineonline.net

Story Lesson Plan : http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/bad-case-stripes-lesson-plan

Yo! Yes?

Raschka, C. (1993).  Yo! Yes?.  New York:  Orchard Books.

Age Level: 3-9

Genre:  Realistic Fiction/Picture Book

When I got this out of my school’s library and opened it up to see very few words, I was already excited.  This easy-to-read book uses illustrations and very few words to tell the story of a friendship that develops over a game of basketball.  It is a very short story but the illustrations do a great job showing emotions.  I cannot wait to share this story with my class. 

The illustrations are great and it is imperative that the reader build comprehension based on the interpretations of the text.  The doublespread (see below) pages create a life-like experience and allow the reader to become a part of the story.    

I would absolutely recommend this book and already plan to use it in my classroom!  I feel that children will find this book relevant as many of them have had the same experiences shared in this book. 

Ideas for teaching/comprehension strategies that can be used with this text:  I plan to use this book next year as an introduction to inferring because in this text it is essential that children use their prior knowledge and infer what is happening.  I could also use this text to show how illustrations support the plot. 

Questions to pose:

Why do you think the author used very few words to write this book?

Explain what you think is happening on this page (could select any page of the book)? 

How do you think the two boys feel in this text?  Do their feelings change throughout the story?

Wemberly Worried

Henkes, K. (2000). Wemberly worried. Hong Kong: Greenwillow books.

 Age Level:  4-8

Genre: Picture Book,

This picture book is about a mouse who worries all the time.  She worries about big things, small things and all things in between.  It is the beginning of school and Wemberly is worrying about that.  When Wemberly goes to school she meets a friend who is much like herself.  Will Wemberly ever quit worrying and enjoy school? 

After reading this book, I am excited to use it at the beginning of school next year.  This would be a great text to use as many of us worry about the star of a new school year.    I would absolutely recommend this book, especially for the beginning of a school year!

I love the illustrations in this text because they do a great job of representing this character’s feelings and mood throughout the text.  The colors (both cool and warm) in the illustrations help contribute to the story’s meaning.     

Wemberly worries very often and I feel this this would be a book many children could find relevancy with, as many of them also worry.  I think this would be a great text for primary classrooms because many children in this age do have worries of all sorts.    

Ideas for teaching/comprehension strategies that can be used with this text:  I would love to use this text to introduce person-against-self (or person-versus-self) conflicts.  I also think this would be a great book for teaching character’s feelings in a story because Wemberly’s feelings are very evident throughout the text.  I also could use this text with problem and solution. 

Questions to pose:

Why do you think Wemberly worries so much?

Can you relate to Wemberly?  Why or why not?

How does Wemberly change throughout the story?  Use details from the text. 

Why do you think we read this text in our classroom?

 

The true story of the three little pigs

Scieszka, J. (1989). The true story of the three little pigs. New York. Penguin Books.

 
Age Level: 5-10

Genre: Picture Book, Comedy and Humor, Folktale

This story is hilarious!  I had never thought about the Wolf’s view of the happenings in The Three Little Pigs, that is, until now.  This story depicts Alexander Wolf’s view of how things really happened.  Throughout this book the Wolf tells his journey of trying to make his grandmother a cake for her birthday.  When he goes to get some sugar from a neighbor, the story gets interesting. 

Many aspects of this text remain the same as the classic story many of us know.  The setting and plot are very similar but the point of view of the story is different.  Read this story to see who you believe.              

The illustrations are great and really create an interesting mood.  They do a great job of depicting the story as A. Wolf sees it.   I would absolutely recommend this book because it is a new look into a classic tale and it would be great for perspective!  I already plan to use it (along with several colleagues) for an upcoming unit on point of view. 

Relevancy with children can be built around discussing several different points of view (perspecitve ehich the story is told) in a given experience.  I look forward to being able to discuss how in a given experience, there can be many different perspectives/points of view. 

Ideas for teaching/comprehension strategies that can be used with this text:  I would love to use the text to compare and contrast two similar texts.  I would use the class version and discuss how the perspectives are different in each test but that many aspects remain the same in both (setting and plot).  This book could also be used to discuss story elements and the illustrations would be great to discuss mood in a text.  I would also like to use this book for character development.  This story really does a great job developing the character of A. Wolf throughout the story.

Questions to pose:

Do you think A. Wolf is guilty or not guilty? Explain your thinking.

What support did A. Wolf provide that he wasn’t guilty?  Did he do a good job presenting his case?

How does this story compare to the traditional story?

Click, clack, moo: Cows that type

Cronin, D., & Lewin, B. (2000). Click, clack, moo: Cows that type. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Age Level: 4-8

Genre: Picture Book, Comedy and Humor

This picture book is wonderful for kids of all ages- even I thoroughly enjoyed this laughter filled book.  The book follows the journey of farm animals who want to get their way.  Farmer Brown’s animals use a type writer to write letters to the farmer requesting blankets for the cold weather.  When they don’t get what they want, they decide to go one strike.  Other farm animals join in with requests and also go on strike.    Do the farm animals get what they want? Read this book to see! 

The illustrations are great and capture the attention of the reader.  They are colorful and really depict the nature of a farm.  The setting is realistic, although the book is clearly fictional.  I would absolutely recommend this book because it could be used for many comprehension strategies.  I cannot wait to share it with my students!

Children will find this book relevant as many of them have written letters before.  More importantly, many students have written persuasive letters just as the animals in this text did.  After reading this text, challenge children to write a persuasive letter of their own.

Ideas for teaching/comprehension strategy that can be used with the text:  I feel that is text would be great to compare and contrast two similar texts (could use other Doreen Cronin texts).  I also think this text would be great to identify the author’s purpose.  I also feel that you could introduce children the reasons why we write through this text (see picture for anchor chart idea). 

Questions to pose:

Why do the animals write to the farmer/What is the purpose for writing?

What could the animals do to convince the farmer to give them what they want?

How does this compare to another story you’ve read?

What kind of connections can you make to this story?

Intro!

Hello......My name is Mollie and I currently teach 3rd grade.  I am ALMOST done with my classes and am thrilled about that.  I spend the majority of my time working, but enjoy shopping and traveling when I have time.  I look forward to learning about this 'blog' and am interesting in using it.