This was a story about E.B white when he was a boy. It tells about how has always liked animals and the things he would do when he was young. It helps you understand where he got the idea for Charlotte's Web. I think this type of biography is great for kids, since it's a picture book the illustrations might help keep kids interested it makes it more of a story rather than just facts about a person

Mike is mixed and he has a lot of questions for his parents about being mixed. His dad is dark and his mom is light and is parents tell him that he I a perfect blend of dark and light. This is a great book for kids and has a great message. Throughout the book mike is confident in himself even though he looks different.

This was a Guatemalan folktale that was similar to the tortoise and the hare. The toads were singing which bothered deer so he went and told them to stop. They didn't stop so then deer said he was the biggest and fastest and toad challenged him to a race. Deer went as fast as he could but got tired at the end and toad who was going a steady pace passed him up and won.

The hen wanted to bake a cake but dog, cat, and mouse wouldn't help. He asked them quite a few times and they said no every time. Then when the cake was done they all wanted to help eat it but the hen said "I will share my cake with those of you who help when there is work to do". So they didn't get cake that time, but from then on when hen made a cake everyone helped and everyone ate the cake.

This book was an educational but fun math book. The pages have a lot going on, on each page and are very colorful. This book covers a lot of different math topics. This book has history on certain things and tips on how to help with math. For example it talks about how you can multiply by nine on your fingers. definitely not your typical math book.

Fun with numbers is about the history of math all over the world. It's all about how different number systems came to be from around the world. This book makes you think where would we be without numbers. Ancient Egyptians would draw pictures to represent numbers, for example a vertical line meant 1.

This book is a good book to teach kids about the scientific method, it is kind of old though and since science is always changing I would probably get a more recent book. It makes science interesting to kids because it's more like a story than a text book. There are stories in each chapter about kids asking questions about real life things. It also included errors some people make when doing the scientific method.

Sugar is a ten year old girl who lives on a plantation, slavery ended but her dad was sold before it ended and her mom got sick and died. Sugar missed her parents but nothing could break her spirit. Sugar became friends with the plantation owners son, Billy. They got into a lot of trouble together and they didn't let anyone keep them apart. Mister Wills, the plantation owner, got Chinese men to come and work for him since workers were scarce. At first the African American's didn't like the Chinese because they thought they were there to take their jobs, but Sugar helped bridge the gap between the two. Billy got really sick and sugar insisted on seeing him but his parents wouldn't let him at first, but she got past them and made her way to Billy. He begged his parents to let her stay and once Billy got better he was allowed to play with Sugar. One day Sugar played a joke on tom the overseer, and he got so mad that he tried to whip her but Beau shielded her and got whipped instead. Mister Wills fired Tom but Tom was furious and said he would be back. Tom ended up setting a fire to the sugar mill and Sugar ran in to save her cat and Billy had to save her. After the fire Mister Wills announced that he sold the plantation. Beau, Sugar and Billy ended up going their separate ways. This book was an emotional rollercoaster. It shows how innocent, caring and free spirited children are. They show that cycles can be broken. You also see how things were after slavery ended and how show more things didn't magically get better. I also didn't know that people from China came to work in Louisiana after slavery ended. One quote that stood out that shows Sugar's true character is "find a place where I can be friends with everybody" and also when Sugar tells Billy how lucky he is and when Billy looks at her with pity she tells him that she's lucky in a different way. This was a great book. show less

Joel lives in Eunice Louisiana and loves when it’s time to celebrate mardi gras. Joel is a cajun and they celebrate mardi gras in a special way. We then learn who exactly the cajuns are and where they came from. The pictures in this book are of joel and his family doing various things at their house like playing by the lake, harvesting crawfish and taking care of their animals. We then learn what exactly mardi gras is and cajun music. Joel’s dad also likes making gumbo and then they eat king cake for dessert. In Eunice people dress up in costumes and they have an activity for the kids where they let a chicken loose and the kids run around trying to catch it. This was a great book on the history and culture of south Louisiana and more specifically Eunice. I also liked how they had pronunciations of how to say cajun words for people who aren’t from here and may not know.

This is a story on the history of counting, and how people all over the world use different methods to count. For example the Peiela of Papua New Guinea use “body counting” which is where different spots on their body correlate to certain numbers, for 16 they would point to their right ear. The method most people use today is “abstract counting” . This would be a great book to read to kids because not only does it tell the history of how we count but it shows kids there are many cultures that count differently.

This book is part of a series called growing up in America, which talks about different cultures in America. This story follows a young girl named Alida and her family. They live right on a Bayou and the bayou is her favorite place to go. There's then a few pages that talk about the history of Louisiana. Then Alida's love of Cajun music is discussed. Mardi gras is also talked about. This story is interesting because it switches between the story of Alida and information about Louisiana.

This is a great book to learn about Asian art. Each page has a picture of an art piece, information about the art and a biography of the artist. There are also questions about the art to help guide teachers or parents when discussing the art on each page. It was nice seeing and learning about artwork from another culture.

Ada Byron had a great imagination which she got from her father. Her father was a creative well know poet and her mother was a woman of math and science, very rational. Her mother didn't want Ada to be like her father so she got Ada a world class scientific education. Ada was very interested in machines and she lived during the industrial revolution. Her and her mother took a trip to see the new factories and she saw the design was translated into a pattern of holes punched into heavy paper cards which was fed into the loom to give it instructions. When she got older she became friends with Charles Babbage a great mathematician and inventor and hoped one day she could help him with his work. She put her dreams on hold when she got married and had three kids, but after the kids got a little older she started working with Charles again. Ada ended up writing the first computer program ever published. I would definitely use this book in a classroom. At the end it shows many sources, a glossary, and shares a little more about Charles and Ada.

Hiromi’s parents were from Japan, her dads family was very poor. He dad decided to become a sushi chef. After years of hard work he became a Sushi chef at a restaurant. The restaurant had a location in New York that needed a head chef, so he set off for America. Once there he worked hard and saved up enough money in three years to buy his own restaurant. He then met a woman, married her and they had a beautiful daughter named Hiromi. As Hiromi grew up she learned more and more about fish. She decided she wanted to be a sushi chef and it was possible for a woman to be one since she was in America. Soon she became great at what she did and he father felt comfortable enough to leave her in charge of the restaurant while him and his wife visited Japan after 35 years. I really liked how there was a glossary at the end showing you what different words mean and how to pronounce them.

This story is a child's first alphabet book Louisiana style. It goes through each letter and names something that starts with that letter then says a cute sentence about it. For example “M is for mardi gras merriment on the mighty Mississippi River.” Kids can learn about Louisiana in this book, it’s a fun twist to the usual alphabet book.

Hana's suitcase was a heartbreaking story of a young girl named Hana and her journey during the Holocaust. Fumiko Ishioka was the director of a Holocaust museum in Tokyo, Japan in 2000 and she received a suitcase belonging to Hana. Karen Levine told the story by switching back and forth from Hana's story to present day Fumiko trying to uncover Hana's story. Hana ended up being sent to Auschwitz and was killed in the gas chamber upon arrival. On the other hand Fumiko refused to give up on Hana's story, she was determined to find out as much as she could and to keep Hana's story alive. She ended up finding out that Hana's brother George was still alive and contacted him. It turns out that he survived and moved to Canada. He started a business with another survivor, got married and had three kids. Hana always wanted to be a teacher and George said by Fumiko doing what she did and using Hana's story to teach kids in Japan about the Holocaust, in a way Hana became a teacher. So this story did have somewhat of a happy ending. There were many sources for this story so I believe the story to be very credible.

Caminar was an amazing story of a young boy named carlos during the Guatemalan war. The story was from Carlos's point of view reminding us that young innocent children have to go through war too. His mom wants him to stay young and innocent but we follow his journey on becoming a man because the war forced him to grow up. This story is made up of many different types of poems. I think the use of poems in this story worked really well. Since the story didn't continually flow it kept the suspense going and also the use of poetry helped convey exactly how Carlos was feeling. There were a few concrete poems throughout the story which made the novel a little more fun to read. I'm glad I read this story because before I didn't really know about the Guatemalan war and this helped me see what it was like for them.

Cindy yelled at Ashley on the playground and said "Don't touch me! You've got bugs- You're in the retard class!" So Cindy was taken to the principals office and he told her she should spend some time in a class for children with special needs for two weeks. Cindy didn't want to but eventually the more she learned and watched them she realized they were kids just like her they just needed help in some areas. At one part the teacher explains that one of the little boys might never really be able to speak and Cindy says that's sad but the teacher responds with but does he seem sad to you? and she says no. This shows you shouldn't feel sad for people just because they have a disability because even though their life isn't like yours doesn't mean they don't have a good life.

Willy didn't have friends, he was lonely. One day a guy named Hugh literally ran into Willy and so Hugh helped him to his feet and they got to talking. Then a bully showed up and Hugh, who was really big stood up and said "can I help you?" and the bully quickly left. After that they were friends they went to the zoo and the library together. When they were leaving they made plans to hangout the next day too.

Caitlin has Asperger's syndrome but she had her brother Devon to help her through life, they were as close as a brother and sister could be. Her mother had died of cancer when Caitlin was younger so it was just their dad looking after them. Then one day their life fell apart when some kids went into Devon's school with guns and started shooting, Devon and two others were killed. Now Caitlin has to learn how to navigate life without Devon. Since Caitlin has Asperger's she takes things that people say very literal and she's very particular about things but she's an amazing artist. It was a small town so Caitlin went to school with the teacher's, who died in the shooting, son and the cousin of one of the shooters. She became friends with the son, Michael and at first she didn't like josh but not because his cousin killed her brother it was because he was mean to other kids. Caitlin saw a counselor at her school once a day who helped her and talked with her about different things in her life. It's hard for Caitlin to understand emotions or to be able to tell what someone is feeling, she also has a hard time making friends, these are a couple of things her counselor helps her with. One night while her dad was watching the news about the shooting she heard them say something about closure. So she looked it up and decided her and her dad needed closure but didn't know how to get it. Eventually she convinced her dad to help her finish a chest that Devon had started for his eagle show more scout project because she thought that would give her and her dad closure. When they finished it a big ceremony at the school was put on for the community where they donated the chest to the school. Caitlin is happy at the end because she thinks she helped the whole community find closure and it seems she is somewhat moving on herself. I loved this story it was very emotional and sad though. I like how it was told from the point of view of Caitlin because it got inside her head and showed how some people with Asperger's think and their reasoning behind things. It shows kids that just because someone's behavior might seem unusual they probably have a good and logical reasoning for doing it. Even though it was hard for Caitlin to understand and feel some emotions at first she went on to grow as a person like learning to have empathy for others. Caitlin might be different but at the end of the day she's just like everyone else. She took the loss of her brother hard but eventually found closure. show less

Helen Keller was born being able to hear and see but when she was 18 months old she got very sick and they thought she was going to die but she lived. The sickness caused her to be blind and deaf, she got so angry and confused. She couldn't communicate and thought no one cared about her. Her parents refused to give up on her though so they hired a teacher named Anne Sullivan who taught Helen, she learned the names of all kinds of things, Anne spelled out things in Helen's hand, she also taught her how to read braille. When she was nine she wanted to learn how t speak so Anne got help from another teacher named Sarah Fuller, Helen would feel Sarah's tongue and lips when she talked. Helen didn't stop at just English she went on to learn French and German. She became the first deaf and blind person to graduate from college. She went on to fight for social change. I think this a book every kid should read, Helen Keller's story is so inspirational and the author did a great job of retelling it. This shows kids that the sky is the limit, and whether you have a disability or not you can do anything you set your mind too. I like how where she went blind and deaf the page was black and it said "this is how I see the world" to put it in perspective for kids. There was also a couple pages with braille, one page had the whole alphabet in braille. There were also a lot of sources in the back which shows the author did his research.

This story starts off by saying we're all different and special but we're also alike in may ways too. For example everyone wants to be loved. It goes on to say that it's okay to have questions about people who are different from you. Mr. Rogers also says it's okay to help someone but you should ask first because someone might not need or want help. I like this book because it shows kids that people with disabilities are just like everyone else and do many of the same things other people do. I also like how it didn't focus on one type of disability and it had pictures of kids of different races.

When he woke up he found his dad was gone, he really missed him but then his mom asked him to take a cake to his grandma which made him happy. His mom told him not to go into the forest but that was the quickest way so he did. He met a lot of strange people along the way he got scared and ran the rest of the way. When he got to grandma's house he found his dad there too. Then him and his dad returned home. Anthony Browne did not dissapoint with his unusual story telling. At first it seemed like the dad was gone for good but then it turned out to be a happy story after all. I really liked. the use of color in this book the forest was black and white and the rest was in color.

Emmanuel was born in Ghana, West Africa as a healthy baby except only one of his legs worked. His mama was a wonderful woman who told him that he could have anything he wanted but he would have to get it for himself. She taught him that even though he was different he could do anything other people did he just might have to work a little harder. Where he lived kids with disabilities couldn't go to school but that didn't stop him, his mom would carry him and then when he got too big he hopped all the way to school. He made friends by sharing his ball and then his new friends helped him learn to ride a bike. His mother got sick so he found work, not begging, to help with money. He wanted to honor his mother by showing people that just because he was disabled didn't mean he was unable. He rode all around Ghana on his bike and spoke to many people along the way. This was a great book about someone with a disability. His mom knew he was different but pushed him to do the same things as people who weren't disabled. She always told him just because he was disabled doesn't mean he's unable.

This is an awesome book! Each page is about a different influential person in history. The title of the poem is what they’re known by then underneath it has their full name and the year and place where an event happened that made them famous. Then under that is the poem and under the poem is a short explanation on why the were famous. Very informative but also fun to read. I loved the pictures also.

The poems in this book are all about animals and a lot of them are funny. Each poem is different some are long and some are short, some rhyme and some don’t. Some of the poems were informational while being funny like this line from a poem called “The Pretenders” it said “The raccoon wears a mask a robber’s mask there’s no mistaking” it’s informational because it shows that raccoons have black fur across their face and eyes.

The little boy in this story seems to love making origami animals. Each page is a poem about different origami animals he’s making and has a picture of the finished product. The poems are short and silly which helps keeps kids interested. The poems vary some are about the animals and some are about how to fold them. One of my favorite poems was “Camel What went wrong? Lean against this sand dune while I double check the directions” the picture is a origami camel that’s messed up leaning against a salt shaker.

This book is filled with poems about doing or trying things for the first time. The poems had a good rhythm and a good amount of rhymes. The poems were about things like riding a sled for the first time and a cat having kittens and also mixing blue and yellow paint together only to discover it makes green.

This is a book of poems about different mythological creatures. Things like mermaids, a thunderbird and trolls. The next page has a painting of what the creature looks like. Each poem flowed very well and had a good bit of rhyming in them. This book is awesome for kids to use their imagination and it makes reading poetry fun

This book was filled with terse verse, which is two short words that rhyme. Some examples are "bear chair", "fat bat", and "duck truck". The pictures corresponded with the words on the page like the page that said "shirt dirt" there was a picture of a little boy with dirst on his shirt. This is a great story for young kids to hear rhyming words and build vocabulary.