THE KICKBALL KIDS

 Title: The Kickball Kids
Author: Cori Meister

Photographer: Julie Olson

Genre: Fiction
Age Level: 8-10

Theme: Sports, team work, and determination.
Synopsis: The book is about a boy who always met with his friends every Saturday at the park playing kickball.  They also practiced running, catching, and kicking.  They formed a team called,The Kickball Kids. As a youngster team, the kicking kids always beat team after team and they took home the trophy. 

About the author: Cari Meister is the author of many books for children, including the My Pony Jack series and Luther's Halloween.  she lives on a small farm in Minnesota with her husband, four sons, three horses, one dog, and one cat.  The Kickball Kids was her first graphic novel.  She started making up stories as a young girl.  One of her favorite places to make up stories was on her grandpa and grandma's farm in southern Minnesota. Her imagination wanders where she finds quiet little spot in the corn field or on a swing. Cari has lived in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. She now lives in Evergreen, Colorado, with her husband, John and their four boys.  Besides writing and reading, Cari loves to ride horses, play pirates, and make dinosaur noises.  She also enjoys running, snowshoeing, and yoga. 

About the Photographer: Julie Olson grew up in the middle of six brothers and tow sisters, so she learned to play kickball well.  Julie found her individuality at home through art.  Since them, Julie earned a BFA in illustration and ha illustrated numerous books for many markets, and started creating her own kickball team with a husband, two sons, and a daughter.
 Pre-Reading: As a teacher, I will encourage children to put efforts in whatever they are interested in doing.  I will ask students to work together and learn to persevere. 
Post-Reading: Students will be given a group project of their choices and demonstrate how they will  collaborate with one another in to complete their project.
Reflection:  This is a good book for children to read because it has a lot to do with self esteem and determination.
Works cited:  

http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/aifolder/aipages/ai_m/meister1.html

http://books.google.com/books/about/Lily_s_Lucky_Leotard.html?id=P4FJH_DD7EMC

Fancy Nancy My Family History

Title: Fancy Nancy

My Family History

Author: Jane O’Connor

Photographer: Robin Preiss Glasser

Publisher: HarperCollins

Genre: Fiction

Age Level: 6-9

Theme: Ancestral Report

 Synopsis: The book is about a girl who wrote a report about her great-grandfather who was ninety years old.  She knew her great-grandfather was a war hero but did not have much information about him to complete her report.  The grandfather visited her family and she was able to gather more facts from him in order to complete her ancestral report. 

 About the Author: O’Connor was born, and bred in New York City.  She still lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her family and their canine companion.  Her book, Fancy Nancy, remained on the New York Times picture book list for ninety-eight weeks.  O’Connor finds writing for adult much harder, but she had fund and novel experience of finally writing some sex scenes.  She is married and considers her husband, Jim, a relative newcomer to NYC even after thirty-five years of marriage.  Her book, the Fancy Nancy- The 100^th Day of School was published in 2009. 

About the photographer: Robin Preiss Glasser is an illustrator.  She is a wife, and she has sold more than 1 million copies of the book. “I then had the opportunity to illustrate beloved radio star Garrison Keillor’s Dady’s Girl and award-winning poet Elizabeth Garton Scanlon’s A Sock Is a Pocket for Your Toe, before being paired, in 2005, with author Jane O’Connor for the life-changing (for me!), first in the Fancy Nancy series..”  O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser are the author and illustrator of the #1 New York Times bestselling Fancy Nancy series.  Jane lives with her family in New York City, but Robin lives with her family in southern California

Pre-reading activities: The children will be asked to collect information about someone in their family they would like to know about.  They will be asked to write a brief poem about the person based on the information they get. 

Post-reading: They will share the information with the class and each child will learn from one another

Reflection: This book is good for children because it helps them to know about their family roots.  Reading this book will help children to cherish and appreciate the worth of every family member.  It will help them to be family and community oriented as they grow.

Works cited: 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/children-s-book-Fancy-Nancy-My-Family-History?keyword=children%27s+book+Fancy+Nancy+My+Family+History&store=kids

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/O-Connor-and-Robin-Preiss-Glasser?store=kids&keyword=O%E2%80%99Connor+and+Robin+Preiss+Glasser

Henry's 100 Days of Kindergarten

Title: Henry's 100 Days of Kindergarten

Author:Nancy Carlson

Photographer:

Publisher: Penguin Group

Genre: Fiction

Age Level: 4-5

Theme:Social Life/Celebration

Synopsis: This book is about a boy called Henry and his classmates in kindergarten class.  On the first day of class, the teacher asked every child to bring in 100 things to share for show and tell.   On the 100 Days of kindergarten, the teacher put the 100th jelly bean in the jar, which she  started saving from the first day of class with the children.  Other children brought in 100 things. Henry wanted to bring a pet spider for show and tell but one spider is only 1 thing and could get lost in class so that did not work out.  However, he later thought of another thing, no one knew about it.  When it was Henry's turn, he introduced to the class his great-grandma Millie who was 100 years old.  It was fun having a 100 year old person in the midst of kindergarten children.  Throughout the 100 days, the children were taught how to celebrate occasions on monthly basis.

  About the Author: Nancy L. Carlson is a published author and an illustrator of children's books. Some of the published credits of Nancy L. Carlson include Snowden, Henry's Amazing Imagination, Get Up and Go!, and Halloween (Yo Solo Festividades/on My Own Holidays). She is known as classroom favorite Nancy Carlson who encourages young readers to use creativity and empathy to tackle one of school's toughest challenges.  

Pre-reading activities: The children will be asked to ask questions about an elderly person.   Have each child  think of one occasion that she/he knows such as Halloween and let them all dress up in their appropriate costumes for a Halloween parade.  Ask them to show pictures of what they are thankful for in November.

Post-reading: The children will share how to use different materials for different occasions. The children will sit in form of a circle telling about  their pictures in class having much fun with it.

Reflection: I think this is the best book to read to children because it will help to enhance their social life styles. It will also help them to relate well with young, adult, and elderly people.  They will be familiar with different cultures celebrated in each month.

Works cited: 

http://www.nancycarlson.com/

http://www.jacketflap.com/nancy-l-carlson/115593