The Levitical Readings and Reactions

  Title- The Gardner Author/Retold- Sarah Stewart  Illustrated by David Small Genre- Historical Fiction Grade level- 1st - 5th Grade Award- Caldecott Medal  The book is filled with letters on page and illustrations on another. The story starts off with a letter from Lydia Grace to her Uncle telling that she will be living in the city with him. Her grandma sends seeds with Lydia Grace as she goes to the city. Lydia Grace goes to the big city and meets her uncle, he doesn’t smile much. Her uncle owns a bakery and there are garden boxes in the window for her to plant her seeds. Ed and Emma beech help her uncle in the bakery. She found out that there was a secret place and she turned that place into an amazing garden. Emma helps her to water and take care of the plants. The plants start to grow and neighbors are helping to give seeds and flowers, many people are starting to come to the bakery as well. She finally shows her uncle the secret place on July Fourth. The next week, her uncle bri

  Title- New Shoes Author/Retold- Susan Lynn Meyer  Illustrated by Eric Velasquez  Genre- Historical Fiction Grade level- 1st - 4th Grade The story begins with Ella Mae and her cousin Charlotte in front of a shoe store. They ask each other what shoes that they would get. Ella Mae goes home and she recives the shoes her brother has worn, but they don’t fit well. Her mother says they will have to buy new shoes for her. They go back to the shoe store and see a white girl and her father try on new shoes. After they leave, Ella Mae wants to try on some shoes, but they won’t let “colored people” try on shoes. She has to put her feet on paper and they have to outline her feet. She shoes Charlotte her new shoes and tells her what happened at the store. Charlotte said the same thing happened to her. Ella Mae came up with a new idea. They went to different houses and did odd jobs for a nickel and for outgrown shoes. They take the shoes and polish them and make them almost as good as new. They op

  Title- The Moon Over Star Author/Retold- Dianna Hutts Aston Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney  Genre- Historical Fiction Grade level- 3rd Grade-5th Grade Awards- Coretta Scott King It starts of with a family in church singing. They prayed for the astronauts that were heading to the moon. Mae was very intrigued by going to the moon. She and her cousins would pretend to be astronauts going to space with the spare parts they found. Their whole family saw the ship take off and the “Eagle” land on the moon. Her gramps was very disconnected from the moon landing. He asked “Why spend all that money on going to the moon, while so many people need it here.” When they were watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, Gramps became truly amazed. Later, Gramps told her the first time he saw a plane and how amazed he was by it. He encouraged her t keep on dreaming.  This is a great story to show how exciting it was when the US joined the space race. We didn’t see the true magnitude of what that meant but

Title- Grandfather’s Journey  Author/Retold- Allen Say Illustrated by Allen Say  Genre- Historical Fiction Grade level- 3rd Grade-5th Grade Awards- Caldecott Medal The story begins with a young man from Japan. He dressed in European clothes on his way to America. When they finally landed, he explored the US. He liked California the most though. He went back to Japan, got married and brought her to America. They lived in San Francisco and had a girl. The man started to miss his homeland and all the encapsulated it. He took his family back to his homeland when the daughter grew up. Instead of living in the village, she lived in the city, was married and bore a son. The boy listened to his grandfather talk about California. The grandfather left, but when he was gone, bombs destroyed his village. The grandfather returned. The last time the the grandson saw the grandfather, he longed to see the US again, but he couldn’t. The grandson left for America too. He grew up there and had a family o

  Title- Rose Blanche  Author/Retold- Christopher Gallaz and Roberto Innocenti  Illustrated by Roberto Innocenti  Genre- Historical Fiction Grade level- 4th-8th Grade The story starts of a Girl Named Rose Blanche and she lived in a small town in Germany. Many trucks of soliders ran through her town. It was like any other day but more and more trucks rumbled through. One day, a truck stopped in the middle of the road and a boy ran from the truck. The mayor of the town stopped him and gave him to the German solider. The truck left but Rose followed it. She followed it the edge of town and through the woods. She she saw saw a barbed wire fence and children in black and white uniforms stood there. They were hungry and she gave them a piece of bread. She went back everyday and brought food. She realized some of the children had stars on their shirts. One morning the whole town started to flee, but Rose Blanche was no where to be found. She was trying to find the prison but the place had cha

Title- My Little Island Author/Retold- Frané Lessac Illustrated by N/A Genre- Contemporary Realistic Fiction  Grade level- kindergarten - 3rd Grade The story begins with Lucca and the main character of the story land on an island in the Caribbean. The pair immediately see the colorful houses, boats, and plants. They got to Lucca’s aunts house and eat authentic Caribbean food. They then start to play in the fields with all the animals. The next day they go to market and see all the food for sale. The next day they go to the seashore and see the colorful fish and sellers of fish. They then go to Lucca’s old school, the volcano on the island, and they fished in a river. The next day they celebrated Lucca’s cousins wedding and they had a carnival through the streets of the town. They were about to leave, but they don’t say goodbye to their friends. They said “We’ll come back. soon!”  This is a great story to introduce student to them to island nation of the Caribbean. I would have read the

  Title- Music, Music for Everyone  Author/Retold- Vera B. Williams Illustrated by N/A Genre- Contemporary Realistic Fiction  Grade level- kindergarten - 3rd Grade The story begins with a big pink chair in a living room. A girl nicknamed “pussycat” would practice the accordion and her mom and grandma would love to listen on the chair everyday. Her grandma is now sick and her whole family takes care of her grandma. Her grandma loved her friends and they would all come over to play music for her. The music reminded her grandma of music from her village. After they played for her grandmother, all her friends squeezed in to the big chair. They said everything is different without her grandma. Even the big money jar on the shelf seemed different without her. They had to empty the jar to take care of her grandmas medical bills.”Pussy Cat” took out her accordion and began to play once her friends left. She remembered how her mother used to play the accordion in front of crowds and they would

  Title- City Scenes Author/Retold- Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson Illustrated by Floyd Cooper Genre- Contemporary Realistic Fiction  Grade level- preschool-1st grade A boy lives in a city. He sees people running, taxis passing, and fire trucks running. He sees police men glancing and children dancing. The boy loves his city.  I think this would be a great book to introduce children about parts of a city like who are the police and who are the fire fighters. This book also helps with linguistics and sounding out specific letter and words because of onomatopoeia. This book can help students to visualize what their city is like and what the love about their city. 

  Title- Hattie and the Wild Waves Author/Retold- Barbra Cooney  Illustrated by Barbara Cooney Genre- Contemporary Realistic Fiction  Grade level- 4-5th grade The story begins with Hattie at her red brick house. She is a child of immigrants from Germany. Her brother ,Vollie, and sister, Pfiffi, has dreams of being rich and being a beautiful bride. Hattie wanted to be a painter, but her father laughed and said girls don’t paint houses. Hattie didn’t want to paint houses though. Her mother’s father was an amazing painter and their most prized painting was his, called Cleopatras Barge. Hattie saw it and wanted to draw it and she did. Her mother wanted Hattie to learn how to play piano or sew. Her hands were to small for piano and she was bad at sewing. Every summer they would go to the beach hose, and Hattie loved the sounds of the waves and the sight of the sea. As her whole world changed around her to being more and more expensive and extravagant, she grew to love it more and more. Her

Title- The Magic Friend-Maker Author/Retold- Gladys Baker Bond Illustrated by Stina Nagel  Genre- Contemporary Realistic Fiction  Grade level- 1st - 3rd Grade The story begins with Beth playing with her toys alone. One day, Jean, another girl came along. Beth and Jean both introduced themselves and Jean explained they just moved in. Beth saw something in Jean’s hand and Jean told her it was a rock. Jean told Beth to touch it. They took the rock upstairs and put in a pot of water to admire the colors of the rock. The rock looked new and shiny in the water, but when they took it out, it looked old. Beth asked if it was a magic rock, but jean said no. Beth didn’t think so because a rock turned a random girl into her best friend. After that they played for days and days doing a lot of fun things. Jean came over one day and said her family was moving away today. Jean came to give her the rock. They said their goodbyes and Jean thought where will I find another friend? The very next moment,

  Title- Some Smug Slug Author/Retold- Pamela Duncan Edwards Illustrated by Henry Cole Genre- Fantasy/Science Fiction Grade level- Early Childhood - 1st Grade The story starts off with a slug that is starts sliding up this big mound. As the slug starts it’s ascension, many of the animals try to tell him to stop. Some of the animals make fun of him and some of the animals are sad for him, but the slug pays them no mind and continues his journey. As he reaches the summit, he’s in for a rude surprise. He’s eaten by a toad. This a perfect book for students who are learning the alphabet. It has many Greta illustrations of animals that start with the letter “S”. This book would be great for a read aloud and as a teacher I would ask, “what are some of the animals you saw in the story?” This book is very good for verbalizing the sounds of s. It would also be good practice for writing words 

Title- Wemberly Worried Author/Retold- Kevin Henkes  Illustrated by N/A Genre- Fantasy/Science Fiction Grade level- Early Childhood - 2nd grade The story starts off with a mouse named Wemberly and her stuffed bunny, Petal. She is always worried. She’s worried about the crack in the wall, the tree, and her bunny. She would worry at all hours. Her parents would tell her she worried to much, but she still worried. Her biggest worry of all that school was about to start. She worried all the way to her home room. Her teacher, Ms. Peachum, introduced her to Jewel. Jewel looked nervous and had a stuffed cat. They introduced each their stuffed animals to each other and there started a friendship. They never left each other’s side the whole day. Wemberly worried less that day. At the end of the day, Ms. Peachum said come back tomorrow. Wemberly said “I will, don’t worry.” This is a great story book to start off the school year. Some students are nervous coming into the school year and are worri

  Title- Chicken Little Author/Retold- Steven Kellogg Illustrated by Steven Kellogg Genre- Fantasy/Science Fiction Grade level- 1st - 4th Grade The story begins with a fox named, “Foxy Loxy” in a car. He spots a chicken and he’s getting ready to capture the chicken and eat it. An acorn hits the chicken and “Chicken Little” says the sky is falling. The chicken starts to wail and a chicken, a duck, a goose and her child, and a turkey come to help because they hear all the commotion. The fox is getting more and more excited because he sees so many things he could eat for dinner. The fox dresses up as a cop and arrives on the scene with his “police” truck and tells all the animals to get in the truck and he’ll take them to police headquarters. As they are getting in the truck, Chicken Little realizes that the fox is the infamous “Foxy Loxy” who is wanted by the police, but it was too late. The fox started to gloat at his prisoners and he tells them it wasn’t the sky that fell, but an acorn

  Title- Polar Bear Past Bedtime Author/Retold- Mary Pope Osborne Illustrated by N/A Genre- Fantasy/Science Fiction Grade level- 3rd-4th Grade The story begins with an owl waking up Jack and Annie. They go to the magical tree house and the enchantress, Morgan, gives them their last riddle to solve and a book called Adventures in the Arctic. The tree house transports them there and they meet a seal hunter who was told in a vision to help them. He gives them clothes and takes them back to his village. Annie feels sad because the hunters feeds the dogs with seal meat. He explains that the seals provide for his whole village. The hunter shows the children a polar bear mask that the tribe wears to thank the polar bear spirit. They go outside to feed the dogs and children wander off and start to play with two polar bear cubs.stran Suddenly, the ice breaks apart and they are all stranded on the sheet of ice. The mother polar bear comes and the children put on the polar bear mask to  make the

  Title- The Dark Author/Retold- Robert N. Munsch Illustrated by Sami Suomalainen Genre- Fantasy/Science Fiction Grade level- 1st - 3rd Grade The story begins with Jule Ann thudding the cookie jar on the table for breakfast. A “dark thing” fell out and ate her mother’s shadow. They realize it’s a dark and it eats shadows. Jule Ann father threw the dark out, but the dark began to eat other bigger shadows. It got as big as a hill and laid on top of Jule Ann’s house. The whole yard was so dark that the parents walked outside and couldn’t find the door back to the house in the pitch black. Jule Ann saw that the dark didn’t eat the chairs shadow, so she broke a piece of the shadow and gave it to the dark. She put the rest of the shadows in the cookie jar and the dark went in. She closed, glued, plastered, taped, roped the jar shut. They threw it in a garbage can it never came back. The illustrations in this book were different than most books. The illustrators idea for drawing the dark as a