The Levitical Readings and Reactions

  Title- Owl moon Author/Retold- Jane Yolan Illustrator- John Schoenherr Genre- Caldecott Medal  Grade level- Kindergarten through 3rd Grade The story begins with the main character and his father outside in the middle of the night. They are about to go owling. On their walk there heard the sounds of dogs barking a the train and the crunching of the snow beneath their feet. They didn’t talk because Pa said to never make any noise because you have to be quiet while owling. Then the father stopped and cupped his hands around his mouth and started whooing like a great horned owl. He called out many times but now answer. The main character remembered that his brothers told him that there are sometimes owls and sometimes not. They continued to walk in the cold and the son starts to remember to be brave even thought it was dark. The son heard a rustle and made a gasp/sigh and his father listened intently and he started to whooooo again. Before Pa started another round of Whoo’s they...

Title- The Snowy Day Author/Retold- Ezra Jack Keats  Illustrator- Ezra Jack Keats Genre- Caldecott Medal  Grade level- Prekindergarten through 2nd Grade The story begins with Peter as he wakes up and sees that snow has fallen in his neighborhood. Peter puts on his orange snow suit and starts to play in the snow. He makes tracks in the snow with his feet, builds a snow man, makes snow angels, and pretends he’s a mountain climber as he climbs up a snow mound. Before he goes inside he puts a snow ball in to his pocket for tomorrow. Before he went to be, he checked his pocket and his snow ball wasn’t there. He was very sad and dreamed that night that the sun would melt all the snow away. He woke up the next day and saw that the snow was still there and new snow fell on top of it. He got his friend from across the hall and they began there adventure in the new snow fall. This a great book for talking to students about the weather, especially when it’s starting to become winter time...

Title- The Funny Little Woman  Author/Retold- Arlene Mosel Illustrated by Blair Lent Grade level- 3rd Grade-5th Grade Awards- Caldecott Medal The story begins with a lady who has a funny laugh and she is making dumplings. One day, one of her dumplings fell in a hole in her house and she tried to get it. A hole 8n her house opened and she and the dumpling fell through the hole. She landed in a big room with many statues. She went to one of the statues and asked where her dumpling went. The statue said it passed by a couple of minutes ago. The statue also warned her not to go down the road cause the wicked oni is down there. She laughed and she said that she’s not scared of any oni. Other statues along the path have the same warning and again she laughed and wasn’t scared. Oni smelled the human and grabbed the lady and brought her back to his tribe of other oni. They said they won’t hurt her if she cooked for them. The oni had a magical ladle that made multiple bowls of rice from one...

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...