The Flyaway Kite by Steve Bjorkman

I read this book as a child, but never really understood it until now. It has a religious message to it. I know this through the story, but also the passage from Psalm in the back of the book. I think the message of this book is that with God we, as humans, are able to do anything and fulfill the purpose he has for us, but if we are disconnected from him our lives will be out of control. I think that the pictures in this book are very well done. I really like how almost every page is completely covered by the picture. I think that this ads to the story because it makes the chaos of the story more intense and realistic. I also liked how the kite was talked about as though it were a person. The narrator talked about his feelings and thoughts as though it had them. I think that this was a good way to tell the story. Without that, we would have no idea what was going on because the boy was away from the kite for so long. I also thought it was interesting that the boy's thoughts were not talked about as much as the kites. I wonder if this has something to do with the idea that the boy is God, and if it reflects a characteristic of God's.

Magic Tree House: Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne

The idea of these books is a very good one because it teaching some history, while being interesting to a young audience. I liked that this book started out with some information about why the pilgrim came over to the new world and what they found when they got here. Along with the history lesson, the children in the story also interact with history and the people in it. This definitely adds to the book because stories tend to help people remember information instead of simply hearing facts. I believe that that is one of the purposes of this book, to teach kids about history in a way that is easier for them to grasp. There was one part in this book that I especially liked. During the Thanksgiving meal, the captain said that he was very glad that three worlds could come together to eat and be thankful. I like that because it implies diversity and the importance of it. I believe that is another message that is being shown through this book. Another part that supports this is when the indian chief says "now you must always be kind to those who feel different and afraid". This was a good part of the book because it says that even if someone isn't the same as you or is from somewhere else, it is still important to be nice to them. This is an important message for adults as well as children. At the end of the feast it said that everyone wiped their faces with there napkins, I wonder what they used as napkins. I found that some things in this book were a little bit unrealistic, but that is probably so that it is accessible to younger children.

Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore

The unique thing about this book is the pictures. The illustrations are both vertically oriented, and made of paper and cloth collages. There is so much going on in each picture and it makes it very interesting to look at. I really enjoyed that they were different from most books in both ways. The length of each picture made it feel sometimes as though the reader is in the image. That was a very interesting feature. I did not like the amount of explanation in this book. It was interesting to learn about the history of Puerto Rico and of the parrots from there, but I found it difficult to focus on what I was reading.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

This book is very similar to many others that I have read of the same genre. It is science fiction, and the main character is a strong female. One thing that I really liked about this book is the writing style. When describing something, the author uses descriptive words and phrases to not only tell the reader about it, but to show them. An example of this is when the author was describing the stairs as Sam and Grace walked on them. Instead of talking about the silence of it, the author wrote, "The stairs swallowed our footsteps and keep them". I thought that that was a beautiful illustration and there are a countless amount of these throughout the book. Another thing that I liked and thought was unique was that there were times in which the author would use a big word, and then incorporate the definition into the sentence some how. I like this a lot because it both taught the reader a word, and showed how that word could be used in context. I have not noticed this being done in many other books. I am wondering why almost all of the parents in this book are not good. Sam's, Graces and Shelby's were all horrible, and the other ones were not even mentioned. I am not sure that it added to the story or not, but it seamed that all the adults were mean, or twisted in some way, even Beck, and I am curious as to why that was. I thought it was interesting also that Grace didn't transform, she just possessed some of the qualities of a wolf. I thought that was an interesting addition to the story.

A Bargain for Frances by Russell Hoban

This book is for younger readers, its a beginners book. I think it is great that the author put in some songs that Frances sings because her songs have rhymes in them. I think that this is great for children to see how rhyming can be used in just part of a book. The message of this book, in my opinion, is that it is hard to see how you are making other people feel until you have it done to you, or at least try to see things from someone else's perspective. There was one line at the end that says "Do you want to be careful, or do you want to be friends?". I think that this is a great line because it is saying that we can be friends and kind to each other, or we can keep tricking each other into doing things, and always need to be careful when we play together. I think that that is a good lesson for everyone, not only kids; that it's important to be kind and thoughtful with your friends and everyone else.

For You are a Kenyan Child by Kelly Cannane

The first thing that I noticed about this book is that it teaches some Swahili to the readers. On the first page it said "'Hodi?' Is anyone home?" and then it used that phrase throughout the book. This helped us learn what that word meant and then see it used in more contexts. There were other phrases used as well. I think that this was a very good idea, because most people in America assumedly do not know any Swahili, nor what it looks like. Along with this, it also explained a day in the life of a child in Kenya using a story line. Not only do we learn about a day in Kenya, but also about animals seen there, foods they eat, and the culture as well. This book is very informational, but it is done in a way that is interesting and has a plot. I am very impressed by how it was written; I really liked this book. The book ends with the quote, "Like you, Like us". I think that that was a great way to end the book because it shows that even though there are many differences, we all end up sleeping at night.

The Red Book by Barbara Lehman

This was a very interesting book. there were no words but the pictures were descriptive enough. It was a little hard for me to keep track of the story because the two boys looked a little bit similar and it switched between the them fairly quickly. I liked that the images drew the reader in to the story. There were many pages in which the characters looked out of the page. That made it feel as though the readers were a part of the story. I also really enjoyed that at times I would see the story through the red book. I would see the story of the other boy, through the pages of the boy that was looking at the book at that time. I am interested in why one of the boy's stories was set in the winter, while the other's was on a warm sunny island. I am wondering if there was a reason for all of that.

Before We Eat by Pat Brisson

This book was a very informative one. There weren't a lot of words on each page, but it sufficiently described all the people that it took to produce the food we buy in grocery stores. The images were very realistic and did a good job of showing what the different stages of the food process are. I really liked that it began by saying that we should be thankful to all of the people that gave us our food. It takes many people to do it and they allow us to eat all that we do. I had never thought about how many different steps there were to creating the food in the grocery stores, but I think that it is a good thing for children, and everyone, to learn about and appreciate. Another things that I noticed was that the people in this book, both the workers and the consumers, were of all different races. I thought that that portrayed the culture of America very well; there are many different types of people, who do all different kinds of things. Overall this book was simple, but informative.

The Girl From the Tar Paper School by Teri Kanefield

This is a very fascinating book. It is not an average picture book, and it has a lot of words. I had never heard this story before, and I enjoyed it a lot. It surprised me that a high school student could plan and go through with a strike to get a new school building. It is very unfair to require students to go to school in a building that has bad conditions simply because they are black. I was very impressed that the young girl of this story, Barbara, had the courage to fight against the injustice. I was also very impressed by the planning that she did. It was a very well thought out and cleverly organized strike. This book emphasized that it only takes one person with the strength to stand up and say something to start change. I really liked that because people think, I'm one person, what can I do to help? In this situation all it took was one person to begin the process.

The Blue Lawn By William Taylor

The title of this book is The Blue Lawn, I found it interesting that the title of the book would be something that played such a minor roll in the story. I wonder if there is a connection between the blue lawn and the boys relationship. I think that maybe the lawn in the grandmothers back yard signifies the boys relationship in that both are different from "the norm". This book was written in 1994, and in that time gay relationships were not as accepted as they are today. The author could be making a connection between the grandmother and her grandson, and implying that she is accepting of his homosexuality. But I am not sure that is just an idea. Overall, I thought that this was a very interesting book and liked that it narrated the boys thoughts, confusions, and struggles with what they were feeling. It brought to my attention some of the things that I would not understand unless I was experiencing the same thing. Something that was different and that I did not like very much was the style of the narration. It was hard for me to follow sometimes who was talking because it was written completely in third person and dialog was intermixed with the narration. I had not read many books written like that and I think I prefer other styles more. A big part of the story was the grandmother's history. I think that the fact that she had been through the Holocaust may have given her understanding of what her grandson was struggling with. Again, at this time being gay was not widely accepted. Having the grandmother live through severe discrimination created a character, the only one in the book, that could relate to her grandson and Davids struggles. I also think that it may have given her some credibility in sending Theo away to live with his mother. If she had not gone through what she did, it might have seamed as though she was simply angry at the fact that her son was in love with another boy. One question I had about the story was why Davids parents did not play major rolls. They were very one dimensional characters, and the story would have been almost the same had they not been in it. Overall this was a good book, but I had not read a book like this, and it was very interesting to read.

Bake Shop Ghost by Jaqueline K. Ogburn

Bake Shop Ghost was a sweet story. I really enjoyed the end of the story and that the new owner kept the name of the previous owner in the name of the shop. While reading it, I did not even think that the ghost might be sad instead of just mean. It wasn't until the new owner baked her the birthday cake that I realized why she had been so angry and people had been scared of her, and not liked her. The descriptions of the cakes was another thing that I really enjoyed. For a person that doesn't bake exciting things, It was very interesting to read about all of the different kinds of cakes a person could make. I also thought the illustrations were very well done. I really liked how they were not perfectly drawn, but instead, looked like sketches. This added to the plot and mimicked the chaos of owning a bakery as seen through the story.

The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria

This book was one of my favorite books to read. I did not know that a book like this was made and I was very happy to have found one. I really liked the words used to describe color. I hadn't thought about how I would describe color before. I enjoyed the description of the color green, that it looks like new cut grass. That is a smell that is very easy for me to think of, and I thought that it was a fantastic way to tell someone that can't see what green is like. I also liked that it wasn't just black pages, but instead there were some pictures of the page that you could feel. It brought the descriptions to life and made them more understandable and realistic. Definitely a book I would recommend to anyone, it helped me understand how a person might think about the world around them when they rely on senses other than sight.

Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead

This book was a very cute feel good book. I did not see much of a lesson, and I think that it is just a book for entertainment. I thought that it was funny when Bear forgot his story after all of the waiting he did to tell it. I also liked how he then began to tell the story of how he forgot his original story. I thought that was also humorous. The medium seams to be watercolor which I think created the perfect feeling for the book; it matched the energy of the story quite well. One part that I was confused about was when Bear tucked Frog in for the winter. I did not know that frogs sleep in the winter, and if they don't I wonder what Frog was doing in a hole in the ground. The page where Bear is talking to Mole while Mole is underground is an interesting page because the reader needs to turn the book sideways to be able to read the words and see what is going on. This is different from the rest of the pages and I liked it, but I wonder why the author did that?

A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza

A Mother for Choco is amazing in many ways. First of all it talks about different things that Choco has, like wings and striped feet, big cheeks, and yellow feathers. I liked this because it pointed things out to me about Choco that I probably would not have noticed other wise. Another thing that I really liked is that it emphasized that being a mother is not about what one looks like its about what one does. In my mind this related to adoption, which is an fantastic thing to elude to in a children's book, in my opinion. On the second to last page, there is a miniature giraffe in a train, I wonder if that has any connection to the giraffe at the beginning of the book. It brings the story back full circle which I think was very clever, but maybe there was another reason that that giraffe was put there.

Draw by Raul Colon

This book has no words in it, but it the illustrations are absolutely beautiful! Every page is a full illustration, with many different colors in them. The colors in this book are very neutral and natural, but they are intensified and look almost artificial. I really like this effect, it is what interests me most about this book. This book reminds me of Where the Wild Things Are when the boy goes from drawing in his room to being in Africa. With this transition, the illustrator also changes the medium from light water colors to the darker, more pigmented, brighter, neutral colors I explained before. I liked this because it created an excitement in the adventures he has that are contradictory to what we, the readers, know he is actually doing. My favorite part in the story is when the monkey starts to draw a picture of the boy. It is very humorous to me and adds a lot to the story.

Locomotive by Brian Floca

To be honest this was not one of my favorite books that I have read so far. I was not very interested in the topic and it was a lot of description about trains. The pictures however, I thought were very cool. The ones that took up most of the page were the ones that I liked the most. They were very descriptive and colorful. There was also a lot of repetition when the sound of a train was being described. For example it would say "chug-chug chug-chug". There were a lot of pages with these sound words on it. I liked this because it brought the book to life a little bit. It made all of the descriptions a little bit easier to read. I could not figure out if we were following one family on their journey across America, or if it was the train we were following without a story of any people. That I couldn't figure out, but the rest of it was pretty straight forward and informative.

Hope was Here by Joan

The story was a very good one. Throughout this book they made a play on the word “hope”. It was used both as the characters name and as the noun. I thought it was very clever the way the author did that and it definitely added to the story for me. I always enjoy when books make me laugh and this one did at times. There were a few scenes that were very humorous which I think is very important in a book. Hope was Here addressed many different things all in one book as well. It illustrated pain and loneliness, love, determination, hate, failure, success, death, and many other things that are aspects of every ones life at some point or another. I really appreciated how the author was able to create a fun to read story that talked about all of these different things and was able to show it in a way that was understandable and personal, but also entertaining. One thing that was a little bit strange to me was that Hope, age 15, was dating a boy that was 18 or 19. It was not weird in the book, but when I think about it, that is a very big age difference. That really was the only thing in the book that seamed out of place however. One thing about the writing that I thought was unique but that I enjoyed was that when Hope was thinking, the author would write parts of her thoughts in fragmented sentences. He would write a short passing thought, but only use a few words to say it, as one would actually think something like that. To me it made Hope much more personal and helped me to see her as a person instead of a character in a book. 

Azzi in between by Sarah Garland

I found it especially interesting that the narration was third person, but it was as though Azzi was speaking in first person. The narrator would say “father” as though its Azzi talking, but then it says “they” when referring to Azzi’s parents. I am not sure how to classify that but I found it interesting. The color of the pictures tends to react well with what the words say. One place in particular that I noticed was when Sabeen was telling Azzi about how she came to America and the pictured are black white and green. I wonder why the illustrator chose to use green in those panels. I really like that, it helps make the story come to life. I like that the book explains what it would be like to be in the head of a child coming to a new country and not understanding what her classmates are saying. I think its explained in way that is easy to understand.

My Name is Celia by Monica Brown

This book starts out with "Sugar!" and then goes on to talk about someone or something in the first person. That part confused me a lot. I'm not sure if sugar is being described or if Celia the main character is. But if thats the case, why would they put "sugar" in bold letters at the beginning of the paragraph. The illustrations are very interesting and bold. On some pages they take up all of both pages, but on some, they fill one page, and the one next to it is white with words. I wonder if there is a reason it differs for each page? Another thing that I cannot figure out the reasoning to is that the book doesn't start to tell us about Celia until the third page. So who is being described in the first 2 pages? The illustrations also are not proportional at all and make little sense. But they do enough to support the words. There was an overarching point that music can make people feel at home and feel comfortable which I really liked. It also addressed race in a subtle and tasteful way. Over all I really enjoyed this book.

Bananas in my Ears by Michael Rosen

This is a book of nonsensical poems. I really like this collection because it's silly and in my opinion for pure entertainment. There were four different sections or topics, and in each section there were some of the same kinds of poems; the same characters in each poem, and the same title maybe, but just the topic was changed. I thought that that was a great technique because I was able then to get an idea of what kind of character each one was and it made the poems even funnier to me. Even the titles of the sections though had names that didn't make sense. My favorite section was "Hard Boiled Legs". I liked it because it had the most ridiculous poems in it. Most of these poems end in a way that leaves the reader confused. Many of them have very abrupt endings that don't make much sense, but I guess thats the point of the poems.

Before John was a Jazz Giant by Carole Boston Weatherford Illustrated by Sean Qualls

I really enjoyed this book. As I read it it was almost as though I could hear the music in all of the things that were talked about. On the last page he said that before he was a jazz giant he was all ears. I thought that that was a great ending to the book because it gave me the idea that it is important to not only be able to do something but to take the time and listen and watch and take things in. The illustrations were very interesting as well. They were detailed but at the same time a little obscure in that some pictures were overlapping others and not in any particular order. I enjoyed that because it took a little while for me to look at the picture and see what was happening. I also liked that the pictures were showing the different aspects of the texts. It caused me to really think about what the words were saying and seeing them in drawing helped with the picturing of how they could make music. 

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Because of Winn-Dixie had many things in it that caught my attention. One was the sweetness of Opal. She is a ten year old girl and thinks about the world very honestly; many things she says are very matter of fact. The innocents of how she sees the world and how her father treats her at times shows the Romantic Model of childhood. An example of this is when her father was reluctant to tell her anything about her mother who left them when Opal was a baby. Her father is trying to protect her from being hurt buy the fact that her mother decided to not stay around; he doesn't want her to feel the pain of hearing good things about someone that had hurt you. However, once he does finally did tell her ten things, instead of being sad about them and mad at her mother, instead she held tight to them as pieces of a person she may never meet and pieces of herself. This lack of realization of the reality of what happened shows the Romantic Model in her. One of the things that Opals father told her about her mother was that she drank a lot, and sometimes she couldn’t stop. This is an example of the developmental model of childhood. The preacher thought that it was a good idea to be honest about who Opal’s mother was even if it was hard for her to hear because some day she will learn about those things. Another example is when Otis told her about him being in jail. Also when Gloria showed Opal the bottles hanging from her tree and she said that she drank all of those and they are keeping the ghosts of her past away. This taught Opal about the world and some of the harder things in it which is what the developmental model means. How Opal responded to all of those situations though goes back to the Romantic Model of childhood. Instead of allowing those facts to change how she saw her friends, she accepted them as their past and focused more on who she knew them to be. Most adults who have experienced the world would probably have let those things change their view of the person, but Opal did not. Maybe this was because of her age and maybe it was just because of who she was; but it was something that I found very endearing and interesting and one of the things that I liked most about Opal. One final thing I noticed about the book was how often Opal was without her father and how often he seamed to have no idea where she was. I don’t know why this happened or what it had to do with the story, but it was interesting to me.

The Snow Day by Ezra Jack Keats

This book's illustrations were absolutely beautiful. They were very plain with a lot of white but I thought it was brilliant. It was about snow so that makes sense why there was so much white, but the illustrators use of color was intriguing. First of all he did use a lot of white, but the boy character (Peter I think) was black and he wore a bright red coat the whole time he was outside. This contrast was very cool looking and something that I have not seen a lot. I liked how Peter was able to experience different things about snow that are different from other objects. One of my favorite parts was when he put the snowball in his pocket to keep but later that night it was gone. It didn't say much about that it just mentioned it which I thought was interesting. However, then he knew that the warmth might melt the snow man he made, so I'm not sure why he knew one but not the other. Over all though, I really did enjoy this book.

One by Kathryn Otoshi

I thought that the way that author used circles and numbers instead of characters was a very good idea. I also was impressed by how well the "characters" were able to have such distinct personalities only based on color and the shape of the images. The illustrator was able to show whether or not a color was mean or shy and when they were sad or angry just by how she drew a circle. The message of this story was about emotion and differences. It also talked about the hardships of life in a very subtle and tasteful way. The kindness that blue showed red after how mean red was was a great touch to the book. It was a nice way to end it. Also I loved the last page when it said everyone counts. I thought it was funny because they were talking about how everyone matters and is important, but also about how they are all numbers and you can count them. I thought that was cute.

A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka

This book is a picture book, but it has no words. I thought that it was very interesting how the author was able to portray so many feelings of the dog through fairly simple drawings and no words. One particular place that I thought was very artistically clever was right after Daisy’s ball got popped and she was sleeping on the couch. The illustrator drew four pictures on the same page and in each picture the only difference really was that Daisy was sinking lower and lower into the couch. This seamed to portay that the longer Daisy didn’t have her ball, the sadder and sadder she got. Another thing that was artistically very interesting was how the subtle background changed based on what Daisy was feeling. When she had her ball and was happy, the colors were purple and yellow. However, once her ball got popped, the color scheme changed to brown and other darker colors. I believe the moral of this story is that if you do something even on accident to hurt someone, it is always nice to do what you can to apologize and fix it if you can.