Selection #1

 

 

 

Chester's Back! by Mélanie Watt (Illustrator)

 

Publisher: Kids Can Press, Limited Pub. Date: August 2008

 

       ISBN-13: 9781554532872

 

       Sales Rank: 329,418

 

       Age Range: 4 to 8

 

       32pp

 

 

 

Selection Criteria for Library Media Materials

 

-          Appropriate for recommended levels

 

-          Acceptable in literary style and technical quality

 

-          Cost effective in terms of use

 

-          Acceptable in literary style and technical quality

 

 

 

How the publication meets the criteria

 

A great book to show the children about realism and fatasy.

 

The book helps in all of these areas:

 

Author’s purpose

 

Cause and Effect, Compare and contrast, drawing conclusions, main idea and supporting details, realism and fantasy, sequence of events

 

Liteaary Elements

 

Character, plot and plot structure, setting, and theme

 

All of these will be correlated to the current reading series.

 

Justification of the selection using reviews:

 

Glasscock, Lisa. Columbine Public Library, Littleton, CO. Retrieved on October 5, 2008 from http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Chesters-Back/M-lanie-Watt/e/9781554532872/?tabname=custreview.

 

The big calico cat with an even bigger ego is back. Watt attempts to feature him in a fairy tale, but as readers of Chester (Kids Can, 2007) will anticipate, he is not interested. He whips out his red marker and makes the story his own-until Watt decides to replace him altogether. The author holds a casting call and tries to carry on with a replacement for Chester. Of course, the feisty feline will not let that happen, and for a moment readers may think that he has come out on top. Chester wants to be the star of the story, but as the saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for!" The little gray mouse that was featured in the original book also returns. Chester has a great range of expressions that work along with the red-marker text to develop a lovable character. The use of color and font to indicate the speakers and the mix of various illustration styles add definition to the story-within-the-story, and the pages are full of activity. Readers will discover new details with each viewing. This is an original and fun tale for sharing one-on-one and in small groups.

 

 

 

Selection #2

 

 

 

CRONIN, Doreen. Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure. illus. by Betsy Lewin. unpaged. CIP. S & S/Atheneum. Sept. 2008. RTE $16.99. ISBN 978-1-4169-1630-7. LC 2007044075.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selection Criteria for Library Media Materials

 

-          Appropriate for recommended levels

 

-          Free of bias and stereotype

 

-          Recent copyright date as appropriate to the subject

 

-          Acceptable in literary style and technical quality

 

How the publication meets the criteria

 

A great book fiction book about when groups of animal work together how they can accomplish anything. Great book to explain the difference between realism and fastasy.

 

The book helps in all of these areas:

 

Author’s purpose

 

Cause and Effect, Compare and contrast, drawing conclusions, main idea and supporting details, realism and fantasy, sequence of events

 

Liteaary Elements

 

Character, plot and plot structure, setting, and theme

 

All of these will be correlated to the current reading series.

 

 

 

Justification selections using reviews

 

Fleishhacker,  Joy.  School Library Journal. (2008) Retrieved October, 5, 2008. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6593749.html.

 

 

 

 Duck and his comical cohorts return in another zany tale. Farmer Brown plans a Statue of Liberty maze for the annual Corn Maze Festival, enlisting (by bribe and threat) the reluctant help of his animal friends to see the project through. Before long, the chickens are constructing a fence, the cows are painting the barn, and Duck-curmudgeon extraordinaire-is furiously hammering out a ticket booth. As Farmer Brown busily sketches, measures, and mows by day, Duck keeps equally busy, sneaking into the cornfield every night armed with night-vision goggles, glow-in-the-dark ruler, and hedge clippers. Although the animals' various endeavors don't turn out as expected (the disasters are humorously depicted in the artwork), an undaunted Farmer Brown eagerly boards a hot-air balloon for an aerial view of his masterpiece during the opening ceremony. Along for the ride, a smug Duck is able to witness the man's priceless reaction to the nighttime design changes, which readers can view on a two-page fold-up. Once again, Cronin and Lewin get everything right, from the perfectly paced deadpan narrative, to the amusing characterizations, to the vibrant brush and watercolor cartoons that play off and extend the text's humor. Throughout the tale, the farm mice, who are taking a meteorology correspondence course, present weather-prediction charts that reflect the mood of the plot, gradually building from partly sunny skies to stormy climax. Fans will not be disappointed.-

 

 

 

Selection # 3

 

      

 

        Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company

 

       Pub. Date: September 2008

 

       ISBN-13: 9780618999231

 

       Sales Rank: 378

 

       Age Range: 4 to 8

 

       32pp

 

 

 

Selection Criteria for Library Media Materials

 

-          Appropriate for recommended levels

 

-          Free of bias and stereotype

 

-          Recent copyright date as appropriate to the subject

 

-          Acceptable in literary style and technical quality

 

 

 

How the publication meets the criteria

 

Great to help children to practice distinguishing between realism and fantasy books and is also a great seasonal book for the month of October.

 

The book helps in all of these areas:

 

Author’s purpose

 

Cause and Effect, Compare and contrast, drawing conclusions, main idea and supporting details, realism and fantasy, sequence of events

 

Literary Elements

 

Character, plot and plot structure, setting, and theme

 

All of these will be correlated to the current reading series.

 

 

 

Justification selections using reviews:

 

Maryles, Daisy. (2008) Publishers Weekly. Retrived October 5, 2008. From http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Bats-at-the-Library/Brian-Lies/e/9780618999231/

 

Lies's (Bats at the Beach) much-lauded bats are back and the library's got them-thanks to a window left open by an unsuspecting (or perhaps sympathetic) librarian. Although the young ones initially misbehave (they make photocopies of their bodies and turn the water fountain into a splash pool), Lies cuts them a little slack: "It's hard to settle down and read/ when life flits by at dizzy speed." Story time settles everyone (upside-)down, and soon the furry creatures are "completely swallowed up" in books, giving Lies comic license to bat-tify the signature visuals from classics like Make Way For Ducklings; Pippi Longstocking; Goodnight, Moon and Peter Rabbit. As with its predecessor, this book's richly detailed chiaroscuro paintings find considerable humor at the intersection where bat and human behavior meet. But the author/artist outdoes himself: the library-after-dark setting works a magic all its own, taking Lies and his audience to a an intensely personal place. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selection #4

 

Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter

 

       Publisher: Harcourt

 

       Pub. Date: September 2008

 

       ISBN-13: 9780152065454

 

       Sales Rank: 24,365

 

       Age Range: 3 to 7

 

       32

 

Selection Criteria for Library Media Materials

 

-          Appropriate for recommended levels

 

-          Free of bias and stereotype

 

-          Recent copyright date as appropriate to the subject

 

-          Acceptable in literary style and technical quality

 

 

 

How the publication meets the criteria

 

Great to help children to practice distinguishing between realism and fantasy books and is also a great seasonal book for the month of October.

 

The book helps in all of these areas:

 

Author’s purpose

 

Cause and Effect, Compare and contrast, drawing conclusions, main idea and supporting details, realism and fantasy, sequence of events

 

Literary Elements

 

Character, plot and plot structure, setting, and theme

 

All of these will be correlated to the current reading series.

 

Justification selections using reviews:

 

Rodber,  Simon. (2008). New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2008. From http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Wangaris-Trees-of-Peace/Jeanette-Winter/e/9780152065454/

 

Wangari's Trees of Peace strikes the balance between fact and child-friendliness. With blocky illustrations and bright colors, Maathai is treated as a friendly icon rather than a subject of realism. (The boat to college in America steams directly from giraffe to Statue of Liberty.) As a child Wangari harvests sweet potatoes with her mother, and after college she gets her knees dirty with first seedlings of her own; she's a role model who makes gardening look like serious, if back-aching, fun. This is a heroine children can relate to.

 

 

 

Selection #5

 

 

Hillary Rodham Clinton: Dreams Taking Flight by Kathleen Krull, Amy June Bates (Illustrator)

 

       Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

 

       Pub. Date: August 2008

 

       ISBN-13: 9781416971290

 

       Sales Rank: 25,250

 

       Age Range: 5 to 10

 

       40pp

 

 

 

 

 

Selection Criteria for Library Media Materials

 

-          Appropriate for recommended levels

 

-          Free of bias and stereotype

 

-          Recent copyright date as appropriate to the subject

 

-          Acceptable in literary style and technical quality

 

How the publication meets the criteria

 

Great to help children to practice distinguishing between realism and fantasy books and is also a great for the upcoming election year.  

 

The book helps in all of these areas:

 

Author’s purpose

 

Cause and Effect, Compare and contrast, drawing conclusions, main idea and supporting details, realism and fantasy, sequence of events

 

Literary Elements

 

Character, plot and plot structure, setting, and theme

 

All of these will be correlated to the current reading series.

 

Justification selections using reviews:

 

Publisher’s Weekly. (2008). Retrieved October 5, 2008 from http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6585441.html?q=Hillary+Rodham+Clinton%3A+Dreams+Taking+Flight.

 

This admiring picture book biography views Hillary Rodham Clinton through one specific lens: her whole life is about breaking gender barriers in pursuit of sky-high goals. Krull begins with Clinton's childhood ambition to become an astronaut ("She wrote to the national space agency to volunteer. But it was 1961, and some paths were still closed to women") and ends with her run for the presidency: "Was the land ready? No matter-she was propelling her way into history." Even the detailed endnotes maintain this simplified focus: the failure of her attempt to reform health care as First Lady is attributed to "several reasons, one of which was that so many people found Hillary's ambitions and independence upsetting." Bill Clinton comes across as a rather shadowy 800-pound-gorilla (is he the hunk pictured presiding over the Yale Law Library?), while the text, which is plenty inspiring in its own right, is weakened by supplemental aphorisms on every spread ("You don't have time for fear" is the maxim accompanying the spread on her breakout Wellesley graduation speech). Bates (The Dog Who Belonged to No One) contributes radiant if consciously heart-tugging illustrations, imbuing her subject with both an endearing geekiness and determined idealism. Ages 5-10. (Aug.)