Picture Books

The Snowy Day

The book tells the story of a boy who wakes up one morning to go out into the snow and gives sounds effects of walking through the snow. It tells how the boy walked in the snow to make tracks and finds a stick to smack the snow. He saw other boys playing a snow ball fight and having fun but, he knew that he wasn't old enough to play along. He decided he was going to make a snowman and make snow angels instead. He then started to climb a big heap of snow and slide down. Before leaving, he packed a snow ball in his pocket to save for the next day and changed to get ready for bed when he got home. When he went to check to see if the snow was still there, he noticed it was gone and was very sad. He was so sad that he had a dream that the sun melted all the snow but, when he woke up, the snow was still there was happy again. I thought this book had a great story line and the pictures were very bright and appealing. As I was reading the book, I was able to connect the words with the pictures which was great. I would rate this book with an overall 5 out of 5 stars.

Title: The Snowy Day
Author and Illustrator: Ezra Jack Keats
Publisher: Puffin Books
Publishing Date: October 28th, 1976
ISBN:0140501827

Picture Books

No David!

As you all know, this book has shown up in library's, school's, and bookstores all over the world. It tells the story of a little boy who gets into things that he shouldn't be doing. His mother in the book says, "No David!" all the time. For example, some of the actions that he does is playing games in the house, playing in the mud, taking a bath and splashing the water all over, playing with his food, etc. His mother finally got upset and sent him to his room but, that didn't stop him from fooling around and doing things he wasn't supposed too. At the end, David ends up breaking something of his mothers and he realizes what he did was wrong. The mother comforts him in the end by saying, "I Love You". I would rate this book with a 5 out of 5 stars because there were less words than a normal book and focused more on the photos. Another reason why I gave it a high rating is, because the teacher can use the moral of the story to have the students make real-life connections and reflect on what David could have done differently.

Title: No David!
Author and Illustrator: David Shannon
Publisher: Blue Sky Press
Publishing Date: September 1st, 1998
ISBN:0590930028

Picture Books

Bear Snores On

This picture book tells the story of a bear who sleeps through a long winter while snoring very loud. The story goes on to tell about how the other animals who are his friends take shelter in his cave during a winter storm. The bear remains in a deep sleep as a mouse and hare make tea and pop corn. The bear doesn’t awake even when they are joined by the gopher, mole, wren, and raven. The friends start a fire, sing, dance, and cook. The bear is still sleep as this goes on in his cave. Finally, the bear starts to wake after sneezing over the pepper that they had in the cave and he realizes that he is surrounded by uninvited guests. The bear starts to get very angry by growling at the other animals because he was sleeping and not able to have any fun. The animals help him to cheer up and tell him that they can make more food. As they are making more, the other animals start to fall asleep and the bear is now left with his friends sleeping. The book showed many great pictures of the animals and the background pictures as well. They are very eye appealing for the reader and focuses more on them rather than the words. I would rate the book 5 out of 5 stars for its overall detail in pictures and few words.

Title: Bear Snores On
Author: Karma Wilson
Illistrator: Jane Chapman
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publishing Date: January 1st, 2002
ISBN: 0689831870

Decodable Text

I Can Read: Big Pig

The Big Pig book is part of the I Can Read decodable text bundles. The story is about a big pig that does many actions. For example, "Big pig is taking a bath, Big pig is eating food, and Big pig is in the farm". The decodable book is for the readers to find the rhyming words and understand what ones they are. The book is very simple and short for students to specifically see the words that are rhyming. I like how the authors chose to have shorter sentences because it seems like it is less over-whelming to see the rhyming words when it is broken down. I would give the book a 5 out of 5 rating because the decodable part correctly used the rhyming words and in a format that is easy for beginning readers.

Title:Big Pig
Author: Dr. Julie M. Wood
Illistrator: Sabastien Brown
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Publishing Date: 2014 in New York, New York
ISBN: 978-0-06-226689-7

Decodable Text

The Berenstain Bears: Batter Up!

All of the decodable books based on The Berenstain Bears are very child friendly and catches the readers attention. The Batter Up book that I chose is showing how short a is being used. It tells the story of the bears playing baseball, but in the end it does not turn out to be the real baseball rules and was not planned. Throughout the book they used many words that had short a like, after, at, bad, ball, bat, fast, had, and hat. Overall I would give the book a 5 out of 5 rating because they showed all of the words in the book and the story was very friendly for the children to be drawn too. At the end of the book they also had the list of words there for the parents to check and examples of other words too, which I think is very helpful.

Title: The Berenstain Bears: Batter Up!
Author: Jan and Mike Berenstain
Illustrator: N/A
Publisher: Berenstain Publishing
Publishing Date: 2013 in New York, New York
ISBN: N/A

Decodable Text

Floppy Mop

The Floppy Mop is a decodable text that is from the Set 3 Word Families Bob Books. The Story of the book goes through and talks about a mop dog that interacts with a cat, rat, and his owner doing silly things. Throughout the book there are short sentences on each page that use the word families,
-op and -at. It also has words that rhyme with some of the other main words in the book as well. Lastly, the book guides the beginning reader to make words with the new beginnings for those word families. Overall, I would rate the book with a 5 out of 5 rating because it was shown as a decodable text should be and showed the word families throughout the whole book. The topic was fun and enjoyable for children to be engaged!

Title: The Floppy Mop
Author: Bobby Lynn Maslen
Illustrator: Sue Hendra
Publisher: Scholastic
Publishing Date:1996 in New York City, New York
ISBN:0-439-17563-1

Wordless Picture Books

Flashlight




There are always so many books out there that are about night and incorporate different stories. This wordless picture book setting is night inside a tent. There's some questions that the book makes the reader pose to make it more interesting. For example, some of the questions I had were What is going on outside of the tent? Is it dark? Is it scary? Who is out there? If you have your trusty flashlight with you, then it seems like you are golden in this story of the book. Through the images the artist seems to have created a great exploration of night and nature in the element of art. The book really portrays the reader to see what can be part of  the night and what you can truly see using your flashlight. Overall I would give this book a rating of 4 out of 5 because there are many imaginations that children can create when they are reading the book. It naturally guides children to make predictions. 

Title: Flashlight
Author: Lizi Boyd
Publisher:Chronicle Books
Publish Date: August 12th 2014
ISBN:1452118949

Wordless Picture Book

The Lion and the Mouse


This wordless picture book shows how you can see the fable tell its story with a lion and a mouse. The lion has plans to eat the mouse who was very trembled by the lion. Later on in the story, the mouse comes his rescue, freeing him from a poacher's trap. There are many pictures of the landscape of the Africa and fantastically drawn characters. The pictures of the characters and what they go through in the book show how children can fully tell their own story and make their own predictions. The illustrations are very perfect for the children to experience the life of African Serengeti and I feel that the children can use their own prior knowledge through this story that they might have learned in other books about animals. Overall, I would give this book a rating of 5 out of 5 because of the fantastic illustrations and the way the other created the book for children to have a story of their own imagination.

Title: The Lion and the Mouse
Author: Jerry Pinkney
Publisher: Brown Books for Young Learners
Publishing Date: September 1st 2009
ISBN:0316013560

Wordless Picture Book

Carl's Afternoon in the Park


After finding this wordless picture book, it stood out to me because I feel as if these were classics when I was younger. There are children still today reading these books as well. It has the story of Carol the dog, the puppy, and the younger baby that go around the park exploring for the day. It shows pictures of them having fun doing different things in the park. The illustrations of the book are also very clear and eye appealing. As I went through the book I was able to create my own story looking at the pictures. There are other pictures besides the characters which makes the book more interesting for you to use your imagination. I would give the book an overall 4 out of 5 rating because the pictures are able to guide the children into telling their own story. The only downfall that I would say about the book is that there should be a little more excitement. For example, some of the pictures do not have much of a plot, which I feel should have one. Overall the book is still able to show how the children can make predictions and tell their own story.

Title: Carl's Afternoon in the Park
Author: Alexandra Day
Publisher: HarperCollinsCanadaLtd
Publishing Date:1991
ISBN:0-374-31109-9