Jane Parker Resnick

I had mixed feelings about the book “Sharks”. One reason that I liked the book is that it is jam packed with helpful information and real photographs. The book divides the information into text boxes with arrows that point to the respective photograph. This is very helpful because then, the reader knows exactly what shark the fact is about, and what the shark looks like. However, I think that using this format takes away from the organization of the book. Having information all around show more the page in no particular order could cause confusion for the reader. In addition, the book does not include many of the extra textual features generally found in nonfiction books such as a table of contents, index, or glossary. With none of these features, and the jumbled format, it would be very difficult to navigate and find information in this book. It seems to me that this would be a good book for a child who was interested in learning about sharks, but not good for something such as a research project. The main idea of the book is to teach about features and habits of different species of sharks. show less

This brief (31 page) book offers for the general public abundant of information about the biology and natural history of snakes. Coverage includes diversity, habitats, styles of locomotion, sense organs, food and feeding, venom, means of defense, reproduction (including egg-laying and live-bearing), highly unusual snakes, and human interactions with snakes. Pages are filled with multiple photograph- based illustrations, each of which is attractive and informative. I noticed no substantial show more errors, and judge the work to be largely (if not entirely) accurate. A pedantic point: biologists distinguish between animals that are "poisonous" (e.g., toxic to eat) vs "venomous" (able to produce venom for feeding or defense), under which distinction relevant snakes would be classified as venomous. show less

This is a fascinating informational book that contains hundreds of interesting facts about all sorts of creepy creatures ranging from bats and spiders to snakes and lizards.

The Three Little Pigs is a traditional fairy tale about three brother pigs Pinky, Perky and Percival. The brothers had decided it was time to build their own houses. Percival warned his two brothers that a big bad wolf lived near by so they needed to be careful and build good, strong houses. Pinky and Perky were not as hardworking or as serious as Percival. Pinky and Perky were rather lazy and foolish and chose to build houses that were neither strong nor safe. It was not long before the show more three little pigs met the big bad wolf and the two lazy brothers found out that it does not pay to be lazy. The wolf was ready to eat the pigs for dinner but Percival, the smart pig, built a safe, strong house that protected the pigs. I believe this was a didactic story ~ the moral here is, hard work pays off!

I enjoy reading the old classics. This story I believe was written with the intension to teach that hard work has its rewards. One thing that recently gave me an appreciation for this story was its ability to capture the attention of a room full of preschool children. I was having trouble keeping their attention during reading time, but when I read this story they sat quietly and listened to every word I read.

For classroom extension ideas to use with this story, I would do the following: I would use this book for “Readers Theater” time. I think the children could have fun acting out this book with scripts. We could make it interesting and exciting. In the classroom, I would also have students use the main idea of this book to begin a story but ask them to write an alternate ending (who knows maybe one day the wolf does get dinner.) show less