Ms. Tointigh's Book Blog

Title:   Green Eggs and Ham Genre:  Poetry Author /  Illustrator:  Dr. Suess Age group : PreK-2nd Summary This is a classic Dr. Suess story of Sam I am trying to give the Speaker Green eggs and ham.  The speaker is not having it at all either he will not eat them on a bus or plane not even a car or a train.  He will not have them here or there, he will not have them anywhere. Evaluation I believe that Dr. Suess is timeless and his stories are many of the first ones that new readers tend to pick up.  I think this story in particles provides a value of determining things like opposites.  A teacher could have her student act out in like a whole brain teaching scenario using gestures what the difference are between here and there or over and under.  Personally because of the younger reading level this is targeted for I probably will not use this story in my high school classroom.

  Title:   The New Kid on the Block Genre:  Poetry Author : Jack Prelutsky Illustrator:  James Stevenson Age group : 1st-5th Summary This book is another collection of poems all written by Jack Prelutsky.  The unique things about these poems is the perspective they are written in.  They are all written from the perspective of a school kid! Evaluation Again I get up on my poetry soapbox, I loved these books growing up and there are so many activities teachers can utilize poems for.  These activities include; teaching rhyme scheme, poem analysis, quick writes, brain dumps, showing form differences.  I think a good place to start for younger children are collections of poems like this one.

Title:   A light in the Attic Genre:  Poetry  Author /  Illustrator:  Shel Silverstein Age group : 2nd-6th Summary This is a collection of short poems by Shel Silverstein.  These poems themes are to help students remember to be creative and innovative. Evaluation One of my favorite things about English has always been and will always be poetry.  This was one of the first poetry collections that I read cover to cover when I was in Elementary school.  I think I might utilize these in my classroom as quick write topics for bell ringers or exit tickets.

  Title:   The Youngest Marcher Genre: Nonfiction Author : Cynthia Levinson Illustrator: Vanessa Brantley-Newton Age group :2nd-5th Summary This story is about nine year old Audrey Fay Hicks.  Audrey goes to school and listens, she goes home and listens, and she most definitely goes to church and listens.  One morning at church Aubrey hears her Pastor talking about picketing in white stores or marching in the streets and even filling up the jails.  Upon hearing this Audrey knew that that is exactly what she wanted to do and so she did that.  She picketed and marched and when it came to it she was the youngest protestor to get arrested for protesting civil rights in Birmingham, Alabama. Evaluation I think this story is very inspirational and would be a valuable tool in the classroom.  I think teachers should utilize the meaning and the message that Audrey stands for which is in two parts.  One stand up for what you believe in and to the injustices ...

Title:   Guinness Book of World Records 2011 Genre:  Non-Fiction Author : Guinness World Records Age group : 4th-8th Summary This book is a collection of all the Guinness world records that were set in the year 2013.  The records can be sport based, music based, science based, architecture based, technology based, the list goes on and on. Evaluation I felt like I had to include this in my blog because I owned every single one of these book from 2011 to 2017.  I remember randomly grabbing one in the library one day in 4th grade and I never wanted to put it down.  There was so much variety in a singular book and records that I would not have even thought to exist.  So during this assignment pulling out my first book in this series I owned and reading through it again made me feel so nostalgic.  I think this would be good for children to just look at and see how the possibilities are endless, I would say more likely to be an independent type read.  I...

  Title:   The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body Genre: Nonfiction Author : Joanna Cole Illustrator:  Bruce Degen Age group : 1st-3rd Summary Ms. Frizzle and the gang are back on their quirky adventures once again.  This time they take the magic school for a ride around Arnie's body! Miss Frizzle boards up the students onto the bus except for Arnold of course and shrinks the bus down to microscopic level.  The bus then sits on top of Arnies lunch and once he takes a bite the class is in.  They travel around Arnold's body going through all the different systems of the body.  They start in the bloodstream, then head for the nerves, and then go through the digestive track, but before the digestion completely finishes Ms. Frizzle drives the bus up to the nasal cavity which causes Arnie to sneeze and out pops the microscopic bus in the parking lot which grows back to normal size in the blink of an eye. Evaluation The magic school bus series was always ...