When My Name Was Keoko - By Linda Sue Park

When My Name Was Keoko is a great book written by Linda Sue Park (Clarion Books 2002) about a Korean family during World War II. The Japanese had taken control and occupied Korea. They forced the Koreans to learn and speak only the Japanese language, took their belongings whenever they wanted, and had complete military control of the country. The Japanese forced the Koreans to change their names to Japanese names, which is what the title of the book is referencing. A girl named Sun-hee had to officially change her name to Keoko.

The story is told from the perspective of Sun-hee (Keoko) and her brother Tae-yal. It is a realistic historical fictional story of a family during this time of great upheaval. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and there was much uncertainty and fear in Korea and all over the world. Sun-hee and Tae-yal were forced to work for the military collecting materials and building structures instead of attending school. Sun-hee was a linguist and secretly learned the Korean language. Their uncle worked for a resistance group printing a newspaper out of his shop. The Japanese controlled the information getting to the Koreans and would have killed their uncle he was discovered. Uncle had to flee and they were uncertain where he was or what happened to him. Tae-yal joined the military to escape having to answer questions about his uncle and ended up almost being a kamikaze pilot.

This a young adult book (ages 10-14) and is a quality story. It puts the reader in the time and place of WWII in Korea. The characters are complex and they draw the reader into the story.

Literary Elements:
Foreshadowing - Sun-hee is listening in to her father and uncle talking about something and getting upset. She knows something is happening and so does the reader. Later we finds out that they were discussing the fact that the Japanese are forcing them to change their names.
First person - This story is told in first person, but by two different characters. This allows the reader to see what both of the characters are thinking and planning to do.
Language - Sun-hee is interested in language. She has many conversations about it and is interested in learning. She shows Tae-yal and the reader how she remembers the Japanese characters.

Mini-lesson:
This book could be tied in when learning about WWII. It is good for students to feel a connection to history and to the people that were involved. This book could create that connection by sharing the story of a family in Korea during this time. The book could provide the students with perspective and it also brings up many discussion topics: racism, bravery, linguistics, oppression, rebellion, and so on. This would be a good literary circle book. The project we did for class was to create a glogger poster. Here is my glogger poster: http://shannonhady.edu.glogster.com/when-my-name-was-keoko/. Students can create these posters with pictures and videos to give other students a feel for the time period of the book. It is a great learning tool.

From Tadpole to Frog - By Wendy Pfeffer

This is a great book written by Wendy Pfeffer and illustrated by Holy Keller (HarperCollins Publishers 1994). It is a concept picture book made for children grades k-2 with a readability lexile of ages 4-8.

The books tells the story of frog pond and the life cycle of a bullfrog. The first page introduces frog pond in the winter. It asks, "where are the frogs?" The children can see that the frogs are hiding under the bottom of the pond. They are hibernating. As the seasons change, the frogs come up, hug each other and lay eggs. We then follow along as the eggs change into tadpoles and grow. At one point, the tadpoles look a lot like leaves that have fallen and lay on top of the water. The children can try to figure out which ones are leaves and which are tadpoles. The tadpoles spend a winter in hibernation and then turn into frogs the following spring.

This book has great pictures that bring to life the story. Most children are interested in nature and animals that change and grow. This book exposes children to the life cycle of a frog and shows them how it takes place in their environment through the seasons.

Literary Elements:
Onomatopoeia - The frogs "ba ra rooom."
The story uses repetition for effect: "They do not eat. They do not move. They do not sleep."
The author asks the reader a question to involve the child, "Where are the frogs now?"

Mini-lesson:
This story teaches a great science lesson. After reading and discussing, we could do some research on frogs and maybe create an interactive way to share it. We could do something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7l1itPMWc4. We could split into groups and work on finding some interesting information about frogs. Here is a blog about frogs: http://allaboutfrogsdotorg.blogspot.com/. Each group could share an interesting fact or information about a particular type of frog with the class.

How much is a Million? - By David M. Schwartz

This concept book was written by David M. Schwartz and illustrated by Steven Kellogg (HarperCollins 1985). The idea behind the book is to give students a concept of how large the quantity of one million, one billion, and one trillion are.

The book begins by stating, "If one million kids climbed onto one another's shoulders, they would be taller than the tallest buildings, taller than than the highest mountains, and farther up than airplanes can fly." The illustrates show children standing on each others shoulders stacked up higher than an airplane. It tells us how long it would take to count to one million (23 days). It goes on to say how big a fish bowl would need to be to fit one million goldfish and how many pages of tiny stars it would take to fit one million stars in the book. It then uses these same concepts with one billion and one trillion.

The readability lexile is ages 4-8. I think it is a good way to show the abstract ideas of these extremely large numbers.

Mini-lesson:
We could practice writing these numbers and use flashcards with partners.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - By Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett (Athenem Books for Young Readers, New York 1978). It is a fictional picture book story with a readability lexile of ages 9-12. It would be an enjoyable book for grades K-5.

It is a story within a story. One morning, a grandpa accidentally flips a pancake onto his grandson's head. This reminds him of the town, Chewandswallow. He tells his grandson and granddaughter the story as they go to sleep. In Chewandswallow, instead of rain and snow falling from the sky, they had food falling from the sky. There weren't any supermarkets because there wasn't a need. The people would eat whatever fell from the sky that day. It worked out pretty well, until the weather got out of control. The town was being taken over by all the food that was falling from the sky. They had no other choice than to flee the town. They rode on stale bread over the ocean until they came to a new town where the weather was normal. The children fell asleep and when they awoke, the ground was covered with snow. They hurried through breakfast so they could go sledding. They saw a hill covered with snow and the yellow sun peeking up behind it and imagined that they saw mashed potatoes with a pad of butter.

This is a good story that sparks imagination. The illustrations are a bit like a graphic novel. The story is in black and white until it goes into the town of Chewandswallow. When grandpa starts telling the story, a little bit of yellow shades the children from the town as they go into the new world. At the end of the story, it is black and white again except for the yellow of the sun rising over the snow hill (or mashed potatoes).

Literary Elements:
Foreshadowing - When the sun shines on the children, we know they are going to be taken to an imaginary place.

Mini-lesson:
This book could tie in with a weather project or a creative writing project where we create our own story where something falls from the sky.

Home of the Brave - By Katherine Applegate

Home of the Brave is a realistic fictional story written by Katherine Applegate. It is for ages 9 to 12 and is 256 pages written as a poem. It is a beautiful story about a boy who arrives in Minnesota from Sudan. His life in Sudan was in a village with his parents and brother. They took care of and herded cattle. Wealth was determined by how many cattle the family owned. There was violence and his dad and brother were killed. Kek and his mother ran and survived but lost each other. Kek goes to Minnesota to live with his aunt and cousin while they hope to hear news of his mother.

The reader is shown the world through Kek's eyes. He arrived in the winter and had to adjust to all the snow and cold. It is a different world here. Kek befriends an older woman and gets a job taking care of her cow. It makes him feel close to home and like he is doing something good. He is very excited to learn at school and meets people from many different places. Kek finds out that the woman will sell the farm and that he won't be able to take care of the cow once it is sold. This devastates Kek and he tries to run away. He doesn't get far. He stops to see the cow and his cousin comes to talk with him. They both have the pain of watching family die and it is hard. Kek feels guilty for surviving and wonders why he was able to survive. At the end of the story, his mother arrives in Minnesota and it is their new home.

This story is heart-felt and touching. It really puts the reader in the place of being so new to a place that is so far away. Kek is a kind boy and has to adjust to the changes. I can only imagine how hard that would be. I believe this book helps us imagine. I think that children would enjoy reading it and that it would help them understand what some people have been through in order to be here. It is good for immigrants to read because they will be able to relate to it so well.

Kek grew through the story. He had to accept that he should not feel guilty for running away and for surviving. It was a gift that he survived. He learned to make Minnesota his new home. It is a very different place, but it can be home too.

Mini-lesson:
I think this would be a great book to discuss in small groups. The students could have a literacy circle in which they are given roles that facilitate discussion. They could learn a lot by thinking deeply about this book and from the thoughts of their fellow students.

Fairy Trails - By Susan Middleton Elya

Fairy Trails was written by Susan Middleton Elya and illustrated by Mercedes McDonald. It is a fictional story about two young people that travel through a few different fairy tales on their way to their aunt's house. The story is told mostly in English and also has a few Spanish words. The words rhyme and it is pretty apparent what the meaning of the Spanish words are by the context of the story.

For example, the first page states,

"Miguel and Maria, on one summer dia,
left home to go visit their auntie - their tia."

Miguel and Maria find a gingerbread house and escape the brujita (witch) only to find a big, bad wolf. Each page contains a different fairy tale character that they run into, but promptly leave because they need to go see their aunt. They see Cinderella and the 3 bears before arriving at their aunts house. They have a nice meal, comment on their auntie's neighbor, Humpty Dumpty. They get a magic carpet ride home from Aladdin and are tucked into bed.

This book was created for children grades K to 2 and the readability is for ages 4-8. The illustrations are bright and nicely done. I think that children would enjoy the fact that they might recognize the fairy tales that the characters are walking through and decoding some of the Spanish words.

Literary Elements:
Allusion - The book refers to different fairy tales that the reader picks up on.
Personification - A wolf and an egg walk and talk in the story.
Foreshadowing - Maria and Miguel walk down a trail towards what looks like a gingerbread house.

Mini-lesson:
I think a good mini-lesson to go with this book is to show how we can find the meaning of words by the words around them. We use the context of the story to figure out the meaning of words we don't know. In this case, they are Spanish words, but we can use this skill in the same way for English words. We could also discuss the Spanish words in the book and possibly learn some new words.

All in a Day - By Cynthia Ryland and Nikki McClure

All in a Day, by Chynthia Rylant and illustrated by Nikki McClure is a picture book about enjoying the gifts that a day can bring.

The book starts out, “A day is a perfect piece of time to live a life, to plant a seed.” It shows a boy gardening, a plant sprouting, and the boy being kind by sweetly feeding a chicken. One of the pages shows another boy throwing eggs, which appears to be hurtful to the boy and the chicken. But, the boy moves on and the writing says, “You can make a wish and start again. You can find your way back home.” The boy then takes a rest with his mother in a hammock. The book goes on to talk about the promise of a new day and the love it can bring, even when it rains. At the end, it states that today is the only today and it won’t come back again.

I enjoyed this book. I like that it is all about the things we can do and appreciate in the day that we have. The illustrations were simple and good. The drawings were created with black paper an exacto knife, so the outlines are in hard and black. The entire book is black and white, with blue and yellow back grounds. This book was written for K-4 and the readability is ages 4-8. I think it is nice to remind children and adults the importance of enjoying the day: planting seeds, making wishes, watching the sun go across the sky, and finding their way home.

Mini-lesson:

The students can think about the memory of a great day that they had. What types of things happened in that day? What makes that day so special? What makes any day special? They could free write about a special day in their lives.