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.