The Spider Weaver: A Legend of Kente Cloth by Margaret Musgove, Illustrated by Julia Cairns (Ages 4-8)

The Spider Weaver: A Legend of Kente Cloth by Margaret Musgove, Illustrated by Julia Cairns (Ages 4-8)

Musgove, Margaret. (2001). The Spider Weaver: A Legend of Kente Cloth. New York: The Blue Sky Press.

Genre: Legend Picture

Lexile: 620

This book is about a two expert weavers who live in Ghana. The men weaved nwen-ntoma a cloth that all people wore throughout their village. One day they are travelling throughout he forest and see a beautiful web like they had never seen before. The two men decide to try and bring the web home to replicate it in clothing, but when they pick the spider’s web up it collapsed and stuck to the mans fingers. Disappointed they return to the village. Eventually they decide to go back and see if they can find this create that is making the gorgeous webs, and they do. They are able to watch the spider weave his web and are able to go back and create a similar web idea with string. They make beautiful cloth/clothing, which is still worn today in Ghana and across the world.

Illustrations- This book represents the people in the story well, making sure to identify with Ghana people, their skin color is a good representation of their people and could not be switched color and look like a white person. This is important because it is culturally giving a good representation to children. The pictures in the book are vibrant as well.

This story fits the criteria of a multicultural literature piece because it (1) respects the identities and ideals of the culture being represented – Ghana (2) shows differences to white culture (3) respects and understands universal freedom and rights (4) prepares children for responsible life (5) knowledge of cross-cultural communication and conflict management skills (Norton 73-74). This book represents the ideals of Ghana people and their past on how the Kente Cloth was made and how the legend goes. This provides students with a new understanding and cultural background for the Kente Cloth.

Person Against Nature- This book focuses on the two weavers and a spider. In the story the weaver’s take the web and it collapses in their hand, when they come back again the spider has weaved them a new web and smiles. This is showing the friendly relationship between the men and spider.

Mini Lesson- This could be used with an art project and having students create their own webs, or as well as a math project and counting the web lines. Also, a writing project where students either write about what they learned, or something it reminded them about.

Enjoyment- Students age 4-8 would enjoy learning about and reading this book.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Marin and John Archambault, Illustrated by Lois Ehlert (Ages 2-6)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Marin and John Archambault, Illustrated by Lois Ehlert (Ages 2-6)

Martin, B. Archambault, J. (1989). Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Genre: Alphabet Picture Book

This is an alphabet book where all the letters are racing to the top of the coconut tree. Throughout the book there is pictures of the letters, and great rhyming. All the letters try to fit in the coconut tree, but: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

Language growth and development in this age range are beginning to make more complex sentences with more descriptive words. This book uses words to create rhyme in the text that could help students develop a greater wealth of word knowledge and descriptors. Their vocabularies are increasing and are beginning to enjoy sound and rhyming. This book uses rhyme throughout which allows students the opportunity to listen and even say the words themselves.

Cognitively students are beginning to understand how things go together and how they can be arranged in a space. In the book there is too many letters for the tree to hold, students will begin to see a little bit about special relations, and understanding why they did not all fit in the coconut tree.

Alphabet books are useful to help students learn and identify letters and sounds of the alphabet. This book uses rhyming words to describe each letter and repeats letters throughout the book, in order of the alphabet, which is important for early development of alphabet concept.

Mini Lesson- This book could be used for development of descriptive words in lower grades as well as used in an alphabet unit. Students could then create their own coconut tree to use when reading the story to find the letters and put them in a tree while being read to, reinforcing letter-name knowledge.

Enjoyment- This book is geared towards students age 2-6.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Carle, Eric. (Year). The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Genre: Children’s Picture Book, Fiction

This book is about a small caterpillar that hatches and begins to look for food. He eats and eats until he finds the great green leaf. He then goes into his cocoon for the winter, later hatching into a beautiful butterfly.

Illustrations- Eric Carle uses colorful pieces of tissues to make his colorful collages on paper. The bright and vibrate colors interest the readers and keep their focus, the illustrations also help struggling readers identify words they may not know.

Character- The caterpillar is the only character throughout the book and Carle focuses in on the character by using an illustration of the caterpillar as well as describing its eating habits, and life cycle.

Mini Lesson- This book could be used in several situations- counting, days of the week, identity, art, nutrition and more.

Enjoyment- This book can be introduced very early and used in preprimary through 1^st grade. 

Sojourner Truth- Preacher for Freedom and Equality by Suzanne Slade and Illustrated by Natascha Alex Blanks (Ages 7+)

Sojourner Truth- Preacher for Freedom and Equality by Suzanne Slade and Illustrated by Natascha Alex Blanks (Ages 7+)

Slade, Suzanne. (2008). Sojourner Truth. Minneapolis: Picture Window Books.

Genre: Biography

This is a biography about Sojourner Truth, SJ. SJ was a brave woman who helped many during a tough and trying time in history. She worked towards equality for women and was a powerful influence on today’s world. This book goes through her history and how she moved from slave family to slave family until she decides to flee. She ends up being a motivation to many.

This book portrays social development for this age group because it is showing the influence people have on each other. It took a lot of hard work and determination for SJ to survive and become such an influential icon.

This is a biography and reflects good biographical ideas because it fairly and un-bias represents SJ. The back of the book provides students and readers with a timeline and more facts about SJ and the time period. This is a quality of biography that must be present- it shows good source and facts.

Illustrations- The illustrations in the book are representational of the characters they are portraying and representational of the cultural time period. They are colorful and trying to show readers that although it was tough she really made a difference and made others happy as well as herself.

Mini Lesson- This book could be used in an introduction to a biography unit.

Enjoyment- Readers from around age 7 and up would enjoy this book.

Eye of the Storm: Chasing Storms with Warren Faidley by Stephen Kramer, Photographs by Warren Faidley (Ages 7-12)

Eye of the Storm: Chasing Storms with Warren Faidley by Stephen Kramer, Photographs by Warren Faidley (Ages 7-12)

Kramer, Stephen. (1997). Eye of the Storm. New York: Scholastic.

Genre: Nonfiction

Lexile: 990L

This is a book about Warren and his storm chasing experiences written into informational picture book. The book talks about: storm chasing, skies, and photos of storms, tornado, lightening, hurricanes, storm safety, and things you can do. The pictures of the storms are amazing and really help keep the attention to what the book is saying. It talks about Warren’s experiences in storm chasing and why he loves it. The book also gives a great deal of information about the above-mentioned topics.

This is a great book to use for language development because the words used in this book are difficult and may need a deeper explanation and since students of this age are curious and enjoy learning new thing I think along with the pictures this would be an enjoyable read for them.

Cognitively students can handle this book because students learn to understand chronological events. This book is set in chronological time because o the way he storm chases and what he does to prepare and after the storm. Students are able to question why he chases storms and learn more about Warren’s true story.

This is an informational book, because it is a book about subjects- this one being the nature and weather and also how things work. The weather is talked about in detail and how the storm chaser deals with different types of weather. Informational books help students develop critical reading and thinking skills. The book has a glossary in the back of it helping show the credibility of the writer.

Mini Lesson- This can be used with a weather unit or as a career unit. Either way it is a different take on weather and weather chasers.

Enjoyment- This is a bit harder read and has many difficult vocabularies for younger students, it would be appropriate for ages 7-12. There is a lot of great information regarding storm chasing as well as information about the weather. 

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! As told to Jon Scieszka, Illustrated by Lane Smith (Age 4+)

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! As told to Jon Scieszka, Illustrated by Lane Smith (Age 4+)

Scieszka, Jon. (1989). The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! New York: Scholastic.

Genre: Folktale Fiction

“Everybody knows the story of the Three Little Pigs. Or at least they think they do. But I’ll let you in on a little secret. The real story is…I was framed!” This is a book about the Three Little Pigs from the Wolves point of view. This is the traditional folktale turned upside down! The Story of the Pigs is re-written in the wolves’ voice.

Personality development- This book helps children to see the other side of the ‘Big Bad Wolf’. Children at this age are ready to talk about their emotions and how they feel, this book you can see the wolf trying to explain how he feels and that he wants understanding from the others.

Illustrations- The illustrations in the book are phenomenal. The cover is the newspaper with the story of the truth about the three little pigs. Then the rest of the book uses pictures with a bit darker colors and very animated figures. There is a lot of creativity throughout the book, such as giant newspaper letters, oversized wolves and humor.

Characterization- The wolf is the main character in this story and the author does a great job showing the readers what kind of a person he is. He is a kind person deep down, it just that unfortunate things happen to him that make him out as the bad guy.  

Folktale- This book is modeled after the Three Little Pigs but the opposite story. There is still a supernatural and personified character, the wolf. There is a moral or message to the story as well as character development to a certain degree.

Mini Lesson- This would be a good compare contrast between the original Three Little Pigs and the wolves’ side.

Enjoyment- Children of all ages will enjoy this story, especially if they are familiar with the origianal. 

More Bugs in Boxes by David A. Carter (Ages 4+)

More Bugs in Boxes by David A. Carter (Ages 4+)

Carter, David A. (1990). More Bugs in Boxes. New York: Simon Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

Genre: Toy Picture/Color Book

This is a picture toy book that uses lots of colors to help students begin to understand the names of colors. On one page of the book it asks what is in the colored box to the right and then under the box (the toy part of the book) a pop up bug-type will appear and a description of that bug will be underneath the colored box.

The book not only uses color as a concept but also as well uses describing words, adjectives. One of the descriptions in the book is “a bunch of bouncing brown basketball bugs” So you can see that there is a lot of describing going on in the book as well as color.

Language Development- Students of ages 2-5 are curious about their world and how language represents the words and things around them. A good way to learn about that language is through picture and toy books that allow the students to explore and learn about their surroundings. This book can be used at a basic level but also includes words and descriptions that can be taken up many ages. The color concept is a good beginner concept but then you can move into describing words as a concept and ask students to describe different colored things throughout the classroom.

Cognitive Development- This book allows students to use the toy book aspect to construct meaning of how colors can help readers construct meaning. Students in this age range want to have the opportunity to learn and find the correct parts of a picture. Concepts are becoming more important at this age and children are increasing their ability to group and find characteristics. This book provides them with the concept of colors as well as several concepts with describing words and how you would describe each of the bugs on a page.

Concept Books- This book as basic concepts such as colors but also goes deeper and uses describing words as another concept.

Mini Lesson- This could be a introduction into an activity where students make there own bug in a box and on the inside use some detailed and descriptive words to share what is in their bug boxes.

Enjoyment- This book is geared towards beginning learners, but could also be used as high as 2^nd grade because of the detailed descriptions of the bugs. A really fun read!