Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in Her Pocket by Barbra Park

            When I was in 8th grade and my sister was in 4^th grade, my mom, my sister, and I would all sit on the couch and read Junie B. Jones books before bed. This was a bad idea because they were so funny that we would all be laughing so hard that it was hard for us to go to sleep. Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in Her Pocket was my favorite Junie B. book growing up and after reading it again my opinion has not changed. In a classroom this book could be used as a reward for good behavior because it will be very sought after. My classroom will have all of the Junie B. books for my kids to enjoy so she will keep bring laughter to children for years to come.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

            Growing up, my mom read a few of the same books to me in a rotation before I went to bed. This was one of them. I have a personal connection to this book and sometimes when I read it it brings a tear to my eye. The boy’s relationship to the tree is one of love then selfishness but then comes back around full circle to love again. All the while the tree has nothing but love for the boy despite the things he puts her through. This is a good lesson for children to learn, if you really love someone, no matter what they do, you will always love them. 

Holes by Louis Sachar

            Stanley Yelnats finds himself in a bit of a pickle when stolen shoes worth thousands of dollars fall from the sky and bash him in the head. No one, of course, believes his story and he is sent to Camp Greenlake. Holes is a great book in the fact that the main character never loses his positive attitude or his drive to do good, even in the face of great adversity. Camp Greenlake is a detention center for troubled boys and each boy must dig a 5 foot by 5 foot hole everyday to “build character.” The book is great and so is the movie because it follows the book almost exactly to a T. Students will really enjoy this book because it’s a good read and it will make them happy and feel good.

The Messenger by Lois Lowry

            This is the third and final book in The Giver series. Its main character is Matty, or Matt as he was referred to in Gathering Blue. The Messenger is really the pinnacle of the series and it brings character from the previous two books and intertwines their lives so each individual’s story makes sense in relation to the others. Jonas returns as the leader of Village and Kira’s father, Seer, is now the father figure for Matty. Matty, just like Kira and Jonas before him, discovers that he had the ability to heal. In the end Matty brings peace and healing to Village but at great costs to himself. This book follows the theme of the series in the fact that it will make children appreciate the talents they have and realize that they need to not use them selfishly, but share them with others. 

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Simms Taback

The best thing about this children’s book is the illustrations and the hole.  The colors are vibrant and the hole is very entertaining of younger kids. Kids also like it because they catch on to the theme of “perhaps she’ll die” rather quickly and they can even say it along with the teacher. It will be put to good use in the classroom for one reason, because kids think it’s funny and enjoy reading it. It will definitely be in my classroom library.

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

            Gathering Blue is the second installment in The Giver series. It tells the story of a girl names Kira who has a talent to make dyes out of flowers. She has a crippled leg so she would have been killed had her father not taken her away early on in her life and brought her back when she was old enough to weave. Kira has a special ability, she can tell the future with her weavings. She and her best friend Matt believe that the town is corrupt and not doing things the way things should be done so all through the book they are trying to help the town move in a positive direction. Just like The Giver, Gathering Blue will help students appreciate what abilities that they have been given and also to accept their flaws.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

                The Snowy Day is about a little boy named Jack who loves snow. He loves it so much that he wants to keep some of it with him so he puts a snow ball in his pocket. When he gets home the snowball has gone missing but luckily it snows again the next day. This book is appealing due to its beautiful pictures and cute main character. It is a good multicultural book to use with younger children.

The Watson's Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis

I initially thought this text was going to be dry and boring but once I started reading I could not put it down. Curtis does a great job of making the character relatable and believable. He makes you feel like you are living their lives through the text. The Civil Rights Movement is an extremely important part of our countries history so I can see it very fitting to use this text in the classroom. The bombing of the church was a harsh reality of the time and it is important that students know the deep and painful history of racism and hate that our country has and is still overcoming today.  This text could be used in a social studies lesson on the civil rights movement and on the history of African Americans in the United States.

The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton

           The People Could Fly is a book that tells the tale of how African Americans slowly break away from their old lives of slavery and become free once more. The illustrations are done by Leo and Diane Dillon, and they depict the “flight to freedom” of the African Americans in a truly beautiful way. This book is great to use in a unit on slavery or a Social Studies unit on the abolition of slavery. As a teacher, I feel like it will be my duty to educate my students on such pressing matters such as slavery so that they know how truly truly wrong it was and still is. The People Could Fly will help me do this when I become a teacher.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems

After we read this book in class, I could not stop laughing. The pigeon’s shenanigans will make even the manliest man laugh out loud. The pigeon series has become one of my favorites over the last semester. The pictures are simple yet effective and the text is also simple but absolutely hilarious. My students will get a kick out of this book no matter if they are 2^nd or 6^th grade. It is good clean fun for all ages and will surely make a good addition to all teachers classroom library.

The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy

            The Seven Chinese Brothers is a book that is full of racial biases. The Story line is that of seven brothers that have to save each other from an evil emperor and his armies. They do so by pretending to be each other and using their powers to protect each other is different situations. This book is full of biases that are offensive. First of all, all of the Asians in the story look exactly the same. Their facial features hardly vary at all the seven brothers are literally identical to each other. Another bias is that the author completely leaves out the role of women in the story. In fact, she leaves women out of the story all together! These are just two examples of biases see in this book. The only real purpose I see for this book is to make student s aware how untrue the before mentioned biases are and to educate them about the truth.

Harry Potter and the Sorcery’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcery’s Stone is a fantastic fantasy adventure book that allows the reader to follow the life of Harry Potter, a newly found wizard. Harry lives under the stairs at 4 Privet Dr. with his terrible aunt, uncle, and cousin. One day he is swept away from his old muggle life by Hagred and begins attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Reading this book takes the reader to places of their wildest imaginations and beyond. This book is great for a series study or an author study or just reading for the fun of it because the series is so well written. Another great thing about this book I that there is a movie based on the book that student would love to watch as a wrap-up activity when the book is complete.

Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian tells the story of Junior, a Native American who is trying to find a way to accept his culture and mold it with his new white classmates. The book is written like the reader is getting to look at Junior’s diary so one really feels attached because diaries are a very personal thing. Junior’s life is biased off of real events that happened in Sherman Alexie’s life. This book will fit in most Social Studies units regarding Native Americans trying to adjust to the life style forced upon them by the white man. It also is able to help students find where they fit in as an individual in society.

When My Name was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

When My Name was Keoko is a book by Linda Sue Park that tells of the life of the Kim family, a Korean family that is mistaken for Japanese during the time of Japanese oppression during WWII.  The main characters are Sun-hee (Keoko) and her brother Tae-yul (Nobulo). The Koreans were extremely oppressed and were forced to learn to read, write, and speak Japanese instead of Korean. Keoko and her family are very much against this oppression and display their frustrations throughout the book in emotionally powerful ways.  This book is perfect for a Social Studies unit on Asian countries and the differences between their cultures.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis is a graphic novel about the author’s life during the Islamic revolution in Iran. Being a woman during this time, she was extremely oppressed. She had to wear a veil at all times and was not allowed to let her body show. Satrapi hated these rules and broke them often. She became more and more rebellious and started attending rebel rallies. This was very dangerous. If she was discovered her and her family could have been killed. Her family is also part of the rebellion and had suffered a lot because they disagreed with the Islamic rule. This book is great for children to “walk in someone else’s shoes” and see what it is like to live in a country terrorized by war and revolution. It will make the students appreciate what they have in the United States and how great of country they live in. Persepolis also has great ties in Social Studies and Global Studies.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

            The Giver is a book about a perfect utopian society where there are no emotions and no feelings. Jonas is the main character and he is given the responsibility of being the Receiver. He is like a living history book. He keeps all of the memories and feelings of the past so that his society will have a history. His teacher is the giver, the old receiver, and he guides Jonas on his journey through his new found ability. This book is useful in a classroom because it makes the students find the abilities and gifts they have been born with so that they can start to fine tune them. It is also a very good book to read because if sucks in the reader with great details.

The Well by Mildred D. Taylor

            The Well in another book by Mildred D. Taylor. She often wrote about the trials and tribulations of African Americans in the early to mid-1900’s. The Logan Family has a well on their property that the whole town shares because the Logan’s are sharing people. A skunk is thrown into the well because they live in the south and are heavily oppressed by the white in the town. The Simm’s are the ones that threw it into the well and they are white and extremely jealous of the Logan’s for having the well and they don’t like that African American families can flourish in the Deep South. This book could be used during lessons of segregation and oppression of African Americans and during lessons of values and moral choices.

Rolling Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Rolling Thunder Hear My Cry is set 1933 during the Great Depression in Missouri. Poverty plays a huge in this book due to the fact that it was such a problem during the depression. The main characters in this book are the Logan’s. They are very fortunate in the fact that they own their own land. Most blacks during this time period were sharecroppers. This book would be useful in the classroom to display the injustices African Americans faced during the depression. It would also allow the students to see the mood of the era of the great depression. Many people were hopeless and felt like they had no will to live. Perseverance is what leads the Logan’s to come out on top and that is also a great virtue for student to learn. This book ties in great with many Social Studies lessons.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

            Number the Stars is a great book to incorporate into a Holocaust unit. The first time I read it was in my fourth grade class and I loved it. It’s about the Johansen’s, a family in Denmark during the German invasion. Annemarie is the main character and her best friend is Ellen Rosen. Ellen’s family is Jewish. Throughout the whole book the Johansen’s are doing all they can to save the Danish Jews from the Nazis. Annemarie and Ellen are naive to the severity of the situation but they are doing all they can to help as well.

It is very important for all generations to be educated on the terrible realities that happened during WWII. Number the Stars makes this possible for students and it keeps them entertained. This book is also a great stepping stone to getting kids interested in history and doing more research on the 1940’s and WWII.