Grade K-4
Genre: Fantasy
Themes: Maine Studies, acceptance,
The First Feud is about Katahdin and the Atlantic Ocean. The both believe that they are stronger and more beautiful than the other. As they feud, they destroy the land around them and then they can see each other and agree that they are both beautiful. I use this book to introduce a Maine Studies unit. It introduces landforms and boundaries of the state.

Grade: K+
Genre: Biography
Themes: Black history, biography, justice, equality
This story describes Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life in picture book form. The time frame of this book goes along with some of the novels that I have read about MLK Jr. I read this read aloud story before I read Martin's Big Words as a read aloud. It gives the kids background information and reminds them about his life and his achievements. As we read Martin's Big Words, the students and I make connections from the picture book to the novel and the have the images from the picture book to help them visualize the novel and make more connections with the real photos in the novel.

Grades: 3-5
Genre: Biography
Themes: Music, Black History, perseverance
This picture book describes Duke Ellington's music and life in vivid color through the beautiful illustrations. The language works in the story as well. There are a number of ways to use this book in the classroom. It could be used for Black history lessons. I like the figurative language and would also use this story to teach children how you can almost hear the instruments playing the songs by the words the author uses to describe them.

Grade: 4-6
Genre: Mystery
Themes: History, Travel, trust
Dan and Amy Cahil are on a quest to find the clues that will change the world. When thier aunt died, each member of the Cahill family was given a choice to go on the quest or be given a million dollars to just go away. Dan and Amy accepted the challenge. That challenge has taken them on a journey to Paris to follow in Ben Franklin's footsteps. There is a lot of history explained throughout this story. I enjoyed this book and did it as a read aloud during our study of mysteries. The student's loved this book. I was hoping that others would pick up others in the series but it has not happened yet. They wanted me to read the next one but I left that up to them individually. There was a lot of information about Ben Franklin which I did not understand. It would be really interesting to look up his life and connect it to the information in the story.

Grades: K-4
Genre: Science Fiction
Themes: Humor,
In Robot Zot. Zot sets out to conquer the earth. He battles the toaster, the T.V. and finds the Queen. The most beautiful creature (the cordless telephone). He then has to get past the dog. The illustrations are bright and bold. There are very few words in the story. I would use this book to teach the feature of Science Fiction.

Grades: K-3
Genre: Science Fiction
Themes: Silly
This is a cute story about Martians that come to earth to take a picture of a human. They go through the zoo looking at all the animals and determining that they are not humans and why. Then they come to a creature that they are sure is human. In the end they take a picture of a smiling hairy gorilla which the believe is human. The best part of a human is that they have the biggest smile ever. this story is really cute and I enjoyed it and I think that the lower elementary teachers could use this book to begin to learn what human is. Why we are different from animals. Also maybe it could be use to discuss smiling as well as other emotions.

Grade:3-5
Genre: poetry
Themes: learning, pets
Love that Dog is the story of Jack. The story is written in prose and is a dialogue between Jack and his teacher, Miss Stretchberry, over the course of the school year. She tries to get him to start writing but Jack keeps saying "I can't" or "i won't". As the teacher keeps encouraging him, Jack finds that he has a lot to say. One day Sky, Jack's dog, dies because he is hit by a truck. Jack uses poetry in writing to cope with this loss. This is a great book to teach journalling and it is a novel that can be easily read by reluctant readers. I think it will also help with students who have a dislike for writing and often say "they can't" .

Grade: 2-4
Genre: Fantasy
Themes: magic, relationships, diversity
Ruby cannot do magic like her parents and then Thomas can fly because of a wish granted. The two stories kind of play off each other as Ruby disappears into a handbag to be found by a kind old lady and Thomas becomes bigger than life by being able to fly. The illustrations are scattered throughout the book. It is a cute little story of these children. I would have this book in the library and introduce it to the children as a Maine Student Book Award that other children have liked and suggest it to some students as a good fantasy read. I do not think that I would make a lesson out of the book.

This book is one of my absolute favorite books. It is all about walls in our time and in history. It brings to light the question, "Are walls to keep people in or out?" The book starts out with The Great Wall of China and then takes the reader to many famous walls throughout history. Each wall is explained in about three paragraphs with beautiful illustrations. This book has many opportunities for discussion and could be the start of research projects. The books comes with a teacher edition that can be used in the classroom with many, many lesson ideas. If you like this there is a second book of the same name, continued.

Grade: K+
Genre: Informational
Themes: Immigration, city life
Building Manhattan comes as a welcome vehicle for teaching young children how the United States became populated. The book takes the reader on a simple explanation of how Manhattan became the city as we know it today. It is a picture book that older students can begin understanding how the city was shaped. I used this book for an introductory explanation to immigration during social studies class when we were discovering how the United States became populated. The illustrations are colorful and add great detail to the story.

Grade: 5-7
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: Diversity, poverty, coming of age, mental illness, family
Addie lives with her mom who is very unstable and often missing. The live in a small trailer in the middle of the city. Addie makes friends with people who run the mini-mart up the street. They are the closest thing that she has to a real family since her step father moves away and takes the littles with him (her stepsisters). This book is a sad tribute to too many families in today's society. Addies perserverence is uplifting throughout the book. Throughout the book, Addies comes to terms with her mother's behavior as well as realizing that she has to stop taking care of her mother and just be a kid. This book would be appropriate for 5th graders but I think middle school is where it should be in the library. You could use it in middle school to teach diversity because of so many of the different characters in this book.

Grade: 4-5
Genre: Mystery
Themes: death, thriller, bullying
Alex's uncle has been killed in a car crash. He finds out that his uncle was a spy who was working on a case when he was killed. Alex learns from his uncle's boss that they want him to continue the mission. Alex has to complete some basic training and get some cool gadgets to protect himself. Then he is off to the compound, disguised as the winner of a contest to try out a new computer built by the bad guys. I enjoyed reading this book and can see why boys would love it. I like that it is a series and hopefully it would hook some reluctant readers into reading the whole series. I would definitely use this to try to get reluctant readers going. There is not a dull moment in the whole story. I could also see some teaching being done about bullying and how it affects kids as they grow up.

Grade: 5-6
Genre: Fiction
Themes: Divorce, death, family
I have been wanting to read this book for a few years and finally I did. It was nothing like what I thought it wold be. I looked at the title and the cover and figured it was a Native American story, but it is not. It is a great story about a girl in search of her mother. Salamanca is traveling to see her mother with her grandparents. It will take six days to travel to her mom and Sal needs to get there by her mother's birthday. To pass the time Sal tells her grandparents Phoebe's story. Phoebe is a friend of Sal's and the story is about how Pheobe's mom also left and how she makes it back home. This story is full of humor, mystery, saddness and it has an ending that I never saw coming until I read it and was blown away. It is a great book. i know in my school every 5th grader reads this story. I know that we should give kids choice, but I kind of agree with this view. I truly believe that every child should have the opportunity to read a book that's ending is so unpredictable. Just reading this book, makes me want to read more books because if one story can trick me there must be others that can as well. I might use this at the beginning of the school year and then have recommend books that have surprise endings like this based on that element. Also what a great book to have discussions about grandparents, family, moving on after a family member has left.

Grade: 2-5
Genre: Fantasy
Themes: silly humor, payback
The twits and dirty, mean and nasty and throughout this story they try to outdo each other in rottenness. Each one tries to play an even nastier joke on the other. Children really like this book because it is so stupid and just plain silly. I used this book with my reluctant readers during literature groups. The kids thought it was hilarious and wanted to find out what happened to the Twits in the end.

Grade: 2-4
Genre: memoir
Themes: patience, animals
The author has in encounter with a hurt wild fox and begins to feed it. The story describes her year with the fox and how she was able to touch its nose. She knew it was a wild animal and as she began to feed it, it kept coming back. The author would sit and watch the fox eat and she then began to wait for it every day. It is a short story and I think I would use it as a read aloud to younger children who had just begun to read chapter books. Conversations could be around wild animals, patience, and safety.

Grade: 3-5
Genre: Historical fiction
Themes: Native American, family, grief
The story tells of Omakayas, an eight-year old Anishinabe girl. it takes place through the four seasons of life for her tribe. Her family becomes infected with small pox and get very sick and her youngest brother dies. Omakayas' heart is broken and she doesn't know how to mend it. Omakayas has a special connection with the animals around and befriends a crow who becomes her constant companion. This book was unable to keep my attention. I listened to it on cd and wonder if this might have been part of my inability to focus on the story. I think it might be a good read aloud to do with third grade in their Native American unit. They would have the background information to get hooked. The teacher would have to be able to say the dialect, which might prove difficult.

Grade: 3-5
Genre: Fiction
Themes: Family, Hardships, Perseverance
Dallas and Florida start out in an orphanage run by the hateful Trepids. They have been sent to live with many families throughout their short lives but have always been sent back. That is, until the meet Tiller and Sairy, an old couple who bring them to stay in Ruby Holler. Trust begins to develop between the four and in time the begin to become a family. I did not understand the connection between "Z" and the children. i want to know if he is their dad or not? The book never really develops that plot line except to leave it in the air at the end of the story. I was left wanting to know about that relationship. I do know that the children will be well cared for and have finally found a home. I would use this book as a read aloud and discuss resilience with my kids and how there are rainbows in clouds.

Grade: 4-6
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: Family life, Father and son, death
In this book, Leo lives with his 3 siblings and father and mother. Leo feels he gets lost in the bunch. Much of this book happens in Leo's mind as he replays scenes from his normal day and becomes the hero in his mind. He has a small part in a play and wonders if his dad will be as proud of him as he is of his brother, Pietro, the football player or his sister, Conttento, the soccer player. This book is filled with reading and writing strategies that kids understand because it is filled with humor. I would use this book as a read aloud and focus on writing strategies such as repetition, descriptive writing, writing from a different perspective, writing a play. The actual play is in the back of the story and I would also have students do this as a reader's theatre. There are so many teaching possibilities in this book.

Grade: 3-6
Genre: Historical Fiction
Themes: The Depression, orphan, poverty, death
Bud's mom dies and Bud is sent to an orphanage to live. He runs away from a family he is sent to live with in search of his father, who is a musician. Bud sees the hardships of life during the depression. The story has humor intertwined with the hardships. I would use this book as a possible read aloud when teaching about the depression as well as black history topics. There is a great connection to the music that african americans played at the time. It would be a great introduction to the depression to motivate student's to do research.

Grade: 4-7
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: Setting long term goals, young romance, loss, acceptance, guilt
I totally enjoyed this book. Zinnia Taylor lives in a large family and sometimes feels lost in the bunch. She discovers an old overgrown trail and decides to find out where it goes. This involves camping on the trail for a few weeks during the summer. Her aunt and uncle live next door and they had a daughter who was Zinnia's age and died as a small child. Her aunt and uncle were never the same afterward. During her time on the trail, Zinnia begins to stop blaming herself for her cousin and her aunts deaths. She discovers a cabin on the trail that answers many of Zinnia's questions. There is also this little romance throughout the book about a boy named Jake who admires Zinnia and keeps bringing her gifts that he steals. She doesn't believe that anyone would like her and both jake and Zinnia find themselves that summer. I don't think that I would use this book as a read aloud but would have it in my library and recommend it to my students. There are great discussions you can have with this book. For example: What is the proper way to show affection for someone? Do yo have family members that are just a little bit different? Do you ever just want to be alone? There would be great literature circle questions.

Grade: 2-5
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: Memories, Perspective and Imagination, Father/Son
A father set off to spend the day fishing. The story tells of how to look at things differently for example, street lamps are moons and trees are soldiers. The father also describes his childhood home to his son. The illustrations are flowing and many of them nonrepresentational which adds to the imagination. Near the end, the illustrations are a bit overwhelming for me. The illustrations are nice though when there is enough white space on the page. I would use this picture book for older elementary students because some of the imagery may be a bit sophisticated for younger children such as a slice of yellow sun and bubble of breeze. I would use this in writing class to get students to use their imagination with writing.

Grade: K-5
Genre: Fiction
Themes: Motivation, Learning all around us
Mr. Keene loves his school and teachers and students. He decides that school must happen move often and makes children go to school all year long (Sat., Sun., Holidays, & Summer). Tillie, a student tells Mr. Keene that they do have a fine, fine, school but she is not learning all that she needs to learn. She is not learning how to climb a tree or sit in it. Mr. Keene then really looks at the school and learns that not all learning takes place in a classroom and changes school hours back the way they were. The pictures are bright and colorful. Cute read aloud to the class.
I enjoyed this book because I could use it at the beginning of the year for fun. It would be good to use as a teachable moment too, when kids aren't motivated and to let them know that they learn everywhere. It also shows how siblings need each other to learn.

Grade Level: 2-6
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: War, Friendship, Empathy
A group of children decide to play war with nothing better to do on a hot summer afternoon. As they prepare for the war with pine cones, a new friend, Sameer, decides to leave. The next day, Sameer explains to the others why he left. His family had been killed in a war where he came from and that is why he moved to the U.S. to live with his uncle. The other kids were shocked and decided not to play war any more. This is a great book to read when kids get fixated on war and its glory. I would also use this book when teaching empathy. This book is published by Tilbury House Publishers in Gardiner so if is also a great connection to our community.

Grades: K-4
Genre: Traditional Literature
Themes: Big to little, Little to big, The book is all about nighttime. The nursery rhyme starts out with a key to a house and then in the house is a... and all the way to a book and then what is inside the book. It takes a large view of the world and narrows it down but then extends it large again when it gets to the book. I am not sure how I would use this book. I might use it in writing to narrow down the topic. I also really like the illustrations in the book. the illustrator only uses three colors, black, white, and yellow. I like the use of hatch marks for the black and white use.

Grades: 2-5
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: Family, conflicting emotions, memories
This story is about a little girl and a kitchen window. The little girl visits her Nanna and Poppy often. The window is the first glimpse of her visit. The window is the theme of the story. Everything takes place through the window. She sees night come through the window and says hello to the new day through the window. She sits and wonders what will come by the window that she doesn't know. Finally her parents pick her up and she is happy and sad at the same time and that is O.K. I really liked the book because it reminded me of my parents and my grandparents and what I really liked about going there. The illustrations are pretty abstract and I think that is because the story is supposed to bring up memories and so the characters could be anybody's family. I would use this picture book during narrative writing. I would like to see if my fourth grades can come up with any memories like the little girl and the window.

Grades: 2-5
Genre: memoir
Themes: war, imagination, courage

The book is from the boy's perspective. They have to leave their home because war has taken away everything. They flee to a new land and live with strangers and do not have enough to eat. One day the father brings home a map instead of bread. Both mother and son are furious with him. As the days and months pass the boy studies the map and is transported to wonderous places in his mind. He soon realized what a great gift the map was and forgave his father. This is a wonderful story. The book begins with the word WAR in capital letters and a red sky on the page so the reader can see the destruction. I would use this book to discuss current events with relationship to war and fighting. This book would give my students a glimpse into war through a child's eyes. I might also use this book in writing with ideas and possibly setting. I would definitely share the author's note with the students. That gives him so much creditability.

Tommy visits his grandmothers every Sunday. On Nana lives downstairs and the other upstairs, which is where their names come from. Tommy has to deal with the death of Upstairs Nana as a child. He does so very gracefully and then again with his other Nana as a young man. The last line is very poignant in the story which says "Now you are both Nana Upstairs, he thought." This story is wonderful. I really like how he uses upstairs to mean the house as well as heaven. I would use this book at the beginning of the school year to teach caring and empathy in 4th grade. I do a whole unit on social skills. This would fit in nicely with the empathy lesson.

Grades: K-4
Genre: Informational
Themes: growth of city and also the United States
This book is a very simple explanation to the extremely complicated building of Manhattan. There is only one sentence per page. The illustrations are colorful to keep the readers attention. I would use this book to teach the differences in informational books. This book gives basic information, but it also gives a timeline in the back of the book for further inquiry. I also think this brings research down to a basic level and then teachers can have a place to start with one aspect of building a city.

Grade: K-4
Genre: Poetry
Themes: farmyards, verse
Cute story about the animals in the barnyard. The story gives an animal and then what happens to it on the farm, for example: The Pony Whinnies in the wind. Kicks in his stall. He's as mighty as his cousin, just not as tall. Each page may or may not have a rhyming set of words. I would use this to introduce poetry to 4th graders. I like this book because it shows students that poetry does not always have to rhyme but it can with not particular form.

Grade Level: K+
Genre: Non-Fiction, Informational
Themes: The circle of life
Jean Craighead George tells what happened to the wilderness as the wolves were killed in the early 1900's. This story is written so younger students can understand it. It tells how other animals & plants were affected by the demise of the wolves. I would use this book to teach the balance of nature and the food chain. The illustrations are very good. They show how vast the wilderness is. It appears that the brush strokes are the same for the wilderness as the animals, maybe to show that they belong together.