Jessica

This is a great book for the first day of school for little ones! Splat the Cat wakes up on his first day of school very, very anxious! He tries to come up with every excuse to give his mother to get out of school, but he ends up going anyway. Just to make sure he will be alright, Splat packs his best friend pet in his lunch box:Seymourthe mouse! He arrives at Cat school after much struggle and begins to learn about how amazing cats are. He even learns that cat's chase mice. He becomes very intrigued and begins to ask many questions. Before he knows it, it's lunch time. Splat opens up his lunch box andSeymourpops out! The whole class goes into frenzy. Cats love to chase mice! Everything changes whenSeymoursaves the day by get the milk closet door unstuck. He was able to get in it because he was so small. Their teacher later teaches them that cat's DON'T chase mice. Soon Splat's mother returns to get him and he cant' wait to tell her about all the amazing things he learned at Cat school. The next morning when Splat woke up for school, he COULD NOT WAIT! He was ready to go to Cat school with no fight at all!

This is a great book. It has a lot of Christian themes; however I think it could be read in a pubic school. In a small town there were a group of orphans. When the kings heard about them, he wanted to adopt them take care of them. When the orphans heard of this, they became very excited. Soon the king would arrive to take them away. All of the town’s people heard the news too and also became very excited and explained to the orphans they must prepare a gift for the king’s arrival to impress him, so he will still want to adopt them. They all got busy making their gifts very quickly. One widdled a wood carving, one learned to sing a beautiful song, one painted the beauty of the heavens and the other read book to fill his head with knowledge. However, the last and youngest orphan felt she had no talents or gifts offer. She went to her brothers and sisters to learn from them, so that she may also make a gift for the king and they had no time for her. So, she continued doing what she had always done: cared for people and animals at the town gates to help provide for her siblings. One day a stranger arrived. She asked him about his journey and took care of his donkey. She even allowed him to rest, while she finished her work. The man was very kind and she was intrigued by him. Soon he woke up and went to look for those he had come for. He soon returned saying that none of them had time for him. She realized who the man was! “You do not look like a king!” The girl told the king she had no gift to offer, but he disagreed. She offered him her help, time and her heart. That day she became his daughter. He said he would come back again another day, when the others may finally have time for him.

This book is a children's version of Leo Tolstoy's "The Three Questions". The author thought Tolstoy's short story had a good message and he wanted to be able to share it morals with children.A Young boy named Nikoali is out with his three friends, a Heron, a Monkey and a Dog. Nikoali struggles with acting the way others would like him to, so he is anxious to find answers to three questions he has: When is the best time to do things? Who is most important to me? What is the right thing to do? He begins by asking his three friends for advice and they don't quite give him the deep answers as he was hoping for. So, Nikoali decides to go and visit his old turtle friend who is very old and wise. Nikoali asks him the three questions and the turtle does not answer. While waiting for an answer, the boy realizes the turtle must be tired and need a little extra help digging his garden. After finishing the garden for the turtle, he still had not answered any of Nikoali's questions. Just then, a violent storm rolls in and the boy hears a cry from the woods. A mother Panda has been hurt by a fallen tree and her baby is left all alone. Nikoali rushes to help the baby and the hurt mother. Once they are safe, he asks the turtle one last time about his questions. The turtle points out to him that his questions had already been answered by his actions that day: The only important time is now, the most important one is the one whom you are with and do good for the one who is standing by your side.

This book is about a cute little baby bat, Stellaluna, who gets lost in the night when its mother is attacked by an owl. She does not know how to fly on her own yet and on her plunge down from the sky she lands in a birds nest with some baby birds in it. They quickly become friends and the mother bird even begins to care for Stellaluna. As time goes, Stellaluna begins to notice differences between her and the birds and she feels out of place. However, the birds are still very accepting of her and soon mother bird begins teaching the birds how to fly and Stellaluna realizes that she can also fly too. She is so happy to finally have something in common with her bird friends. As they are out fllying one night, she is sitting on a branch, like a bird (right side up :) and a bat comes and asks why she is not hanging like a bat. Soon the bat realizes who this odd bird-bat is and Stellaluna's long lost mother comes rushing to her side! She is reunited with her mother, but has made some really great friends along the way.

This book is about a young girl, Minna, who comes from a very poor family. Before she can go to school for the winter she needs a coat, but her family has never really been able to afford one for her. So, the “quilting mothers” offer to make her a coat of left over scraps from other sewing projects. Minna goes through all of the scraps and chooses all of the pieces that have a special story behind them. She wears the coat to school and the all of the other children make fun of her, until she shares the story of each of the patches. The other children learnt that a piece of something that was very special to them, helped Minna to have her very own coat.

This book is about a cat, Sid, who really enjoys a good meal. In fact, he has six people in his neighborhood believe that he is their very own cat. Each day he goes from house to house getting meal from each of his “owners”. Soon, the owners find out what he is doing when they each take him to the vet. They get very upset with Sid and all choose to stop feeding him. Soon, they realize that Sid is everyone’s cat, so they each give him a meal on a different day of the week.

In this book there is a cow and he does not know how to"moo". Everytime he tries out comes an "oink" and all of his cow friends make fun of him. One day, however, he meets a pig who is in a similar predicatment. This pig friend of his cannot "oink". He can only "moo". So, they each decided to help one another learn how to make their correct animal noise because they are tired of the other cows and pigs making fun of them. Each of them struggles at first but eventually learns how to make the noise they are supposed to make. They returned to their cow and pig friends who no longer made fun of them, but became jealous because not only had each of them learned how to make the proper noise, they still knew how to make the other noise. They had soemthing better then every other cow and pig around!

This book was created in help kids when their parents are going through the experience. It is filled with colorful pictures and scenarios that a child might be face during or after their parents divorce. It also breaks down many legal terms a child might hear their parents throw around as the divorces progresses. This book helped me personally a great deal when I was a second grader as my parents were going through a divorce. I would highly recommend that every teacher/counselor have this book in their collection because unfortunatley we will have students that must face divorce in their family.

I had the oppourtunity to read this book to a class of third graders and they absolutley loved it! It is a letter from a boy to his parents. He writing to them from camp about how horrible everything seems be going. From gross food to alligators in the lake and friends getting lost in the woods, the boy writing the letter really wants to go home. He makes promises to is his parents about what he will do if they save him and even admits that he misse his "little brotha". At the end of the letter the boy suddenly realized that things really aren't so bad and he ends quickly asking his parents to "disregard this letta". It was a very cute book and the class I read it to insisted on reading it again. (Hint: You can find the actual song that goes word for word with the book on youtube :).

This book is another rendition of the Gingerbread man on the loose! However, this time he is not running away. One day at school a group of students make a gingerbread man in their classroom. When they are finished, they leave him to cool as they go off to one of their specials for the day. The gingerbread man gets scared that he is being left behind. So, he begins running around the school trying to find his friends. He finally catches up with them and learns that they never really left him. He is //their// gingerbread man!

This is a story about a mail cow named Millie. Christmas is coming soon, so her and the mailman have been working hard all day trying to deliver everyones Christmas presents. At the end of the day the mail man leaves Millie with a while bunches of packages and informs her that they are presents for all of her animal friends and the farmer where she lives. So, Millie starts to head home she gets lost in the snow. She gets so lost, she begins to think that she will never get home and she has been walking in a circle. Finally Millie makes it home and delivers the presents to her friends and they love them all!

This book is all about how pumpkins are grown in a sort of story form. From the seed, to the differences in the flowers in produces and finally the harvest, not one step is missed. It even gives tips and ideas for how to carve a pumpkin. The pictures in this book offer a lot for children to look at and learn from with labels and bright colors. This book would be a great way to incorporate literature into a science unit on life cycles of plants or seasons and so on.

This book was a lot of fun to read. It was very silly and whimsical, however, great for learning about rhyming words. This book is about four dust bunnies that really enjoy rhyming. They are having a good time, but they keep having to correct one of their friends who doesn't seem to know how to rhyme his words. However, they do not realize that he is just trying to warn them of the vacuum cleaner that is quickly headed their way. Much to their dismay, they do not get the hint quite fast enough and end up rhyming from inside the vacuum cleaner.

The five little fiends live alone, each in their own statue. The only thing they ever come out for is to look at their favorite things in nature. One day, they each decide to take the thing they love best. One takes the moon, one the sky, one the sea, one the land and one the sun. After taking their favorties things away with them, they begin to realize these things just are not the same! They can't exist or work without one another! So, they come out to put their things back and decide to each enjoy them together.

Grandma is the talk of the town and the life of the party. She lives in Gooligulch and can often be seen riding a kangaroo around town. Grandmas decides to go on vacation and that is where the adventure really begins. She flies to the sea on a pelican and then spends time in the water. The tide carries grandma away and no one knows where she has gone!

This is an interactive book all about he manners. The animals go through many scenarios where they give the reader and oppourtunity to help them choose the right response. The reader must do their best to help the animals mind their manners. This book was really cute and it would be great for young kids who are learning table manners. The multiple choice answers are fun to read and the correct choices are made very clear.

This is a story about a littler girl whose family runs a boarding house. She always interested in the many different people she gets to meet, but she becomes especially interested in a performer that comes to stay. Her often practices walking on the clothesline at the board house and Mirette is amazed. She becomes determined to learn how to walk the highwire herself and later learns that her inspiration and teacher is the "Great Bellini", the best highwire walker around. Mirette is a natural and continues to practice and practice. She inspire the "Great Bellini" to get back on the wire as his is discouraged by fear from an accident. Mirettes determination gets him back on the wire and they perform together for the entire town.

The Jungle dance is coming up soon and Giraffe can't dance! He just cant seem to move like the rest of the animals. He tries and he tries and jsut can't seem to learn how to dance. He speaks to a cricket who tells him, sometimes when your different you just need to dance to a different song. All of the animals expect Giraffe to show up the the jungle dance still not knowing how to dance. They were so surprised! Giraffe listened to the crickets advice and he was the best dancer at the party!

Pinkalicious loves the color pink and everyone knows it! In fact, everything she owns is pink. One day kids begin making fun of her for likeing pink so much, so she decides not to like pink anymore. Pinkalicious begins wearing black, which only makes her sad. She meets another girl who is wearing a purple and she teaches her how to make purple out of the color pink. So, now Pinkalicious is Purplicious.

Little Teddy wakes up one morning to realize he has been left behind. His owners have moved to a new house and he doesn't know if he will ever see the again. That same day a cleaning lady finds Teddy and is sure to clean him up. After spending the afternoon in the washer, but Teddy's adventure has only begun. He becomes a dog toy and much more, only to finally find his way back to his loved ones.

This book is about a young raccoon that is very nervous about his first day of school. He does not want to go because he does not want to be away from his mother. He has never left her side. He grows more and more anxious about going to school. So, his mother shares a secret she calls “the kissing hand”. She opens her sons hand, kisses it and tells him that if he is ever afraid or lonely when he is away from home, he can just hold his hand to his cheek. This way, his mother can share her kisses and love with him even when he is gone. When the first day of school finally comes, she does this and he chooses to share a kissing hand with his mother as well.

**INTERMEDIATE **

This book is about a young girl, Samantha, who is growing up during the early 1900s. This particular book is the first of a series and takes place in 1904. Samantha lives with her grandmother who is very wealthy. Samantha therefore has lived a very privileged life. Their home is full of servants. They even have their own personal cook and seamstress! Samantha is not always as lady like as her grandmother would like her to be and often gets into trouble with an ornery young boy who lives next door. Samantha soon learns of a young girl who has come to work for her neighbors. They are about the same age and Samantha quickly makes friends with her. Through their friendship Samantha learns that not all little girls are as lucky as she is. The servant girl’s family sent her to work just so they could get by. The girl becomes sick and the family she is working for gets sent back to her parents because she is not well enough to complete her tasks. During this time Samantha has been working to earn a very special doll she had seen at the store. When she finally receives it, she gives it to her new friend who is less fortunate than herself. Samantha learns a lot of about giving to others out of her abundance.



This book is about a young girl, named Larkin, and her family. They live on a island that is swarmed with in the summer. As summer comes to a close, all the tourists begin to go home, leaving the island barren and quiet. However, cant help but notice a women that has been watching her family on the day the last ferry will leave. She brushes it off. She and her family go home to find a baby in a basket with a note saying, "This is Sophie and she is good". They are all a bit startle by it and all immediatley begin struggling with not becoming to attached to her. They know she will be gone someday, just like the infant boy they lost about six months earlier. Sophie is a sweet baby and her presence helps Larkins family to heal and they are put to the ultimate test when her mother returns to get her back,

This book was a very quick read and was really quite funny. It is about a small town who has one family of kids who drive everyone crazy and cause a lot of trouble. In fact, the book begins with them getting away with burning someones bard down to the ground and stealing the firemens doughnuts! They are always beating up on all the kids they go to school with and unfortnatley there are so many of them that no one is safe because there seems to be a Herdman in every grade. The annual church Christmas pageant is coming up and somone recently invited the Herdman kids to church. When they arrive they take immediate interest in the Pageant and take up all of the major roles. The only thing is, they have never heard the Christmas story of Jesus' birth before, so they come up with their own take of how they see the story after hearing it for the first time,

This book is about a young girl named Karen who is convinced that the next door neighbor at her fathers house is a witch. Her fathers tells her again and again not to spy on the neighbors, but she just can't help it. One day, when is secretly spying she hears the neighbor talking about guests coming and she assumes it is for a witch meeting, where they are planning to take over the neighborhood. She is especially convinced of it because she swears she saw the women fly out her second floor window on a broom stick. Karen interuppts her neighbors meeting and accusses them all of being witches. Being that her own grandmother is there, she learns that it is not a witch, but a community garden club meeting. Karen learns her lesson and says she will try her best to stop spying on her neighbors, only after having to write an apology note.

**YOUNG ADULT **

I think this is one of the best books I have read in a long time and I can't wait to read the next one in the trilogy. It is about a girl named Katniss who takes her sisters place in the annual hunger games, where her nations ruling captial forces a girl and a boy from all twelve districts to fight until the death. There can only be one victor in the battle and there are no rules. Katniss is forced to play the role of a girl who is excited and honored to be fighting in the games, however she has never agreed with the capitols cruelty. Despite that she must survive for the sake of her family because she is the person they depend on for survival. She has been hunting to put food on her families table for years and luckily all though years of practice are of great benefit to her in the games.