Lowry, L. (1989). Number the stars. Laurel Leaf.
Genre: Children's Historical Fiction
Summary: This book takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1943 and is the fictional tale of two best friends Ellen Rosen and Annemarie Johansen navigating life in World War II. The Nazis are stationed everywhere and food is scarce. When word gets out to the synagogues that the Nazis are going to start rounding up all of the Jews, The Johansen's take in Annemarie and Peter (Lise Rosen's former betrothed fiancé before her untimely death) takes her parents somewhere to evade the roundup. Mrs. Rosen takes the girls to visit her brother Henrik. Eventually Ellen and her parents are reunited before Henrik takes the Rosen's to safety. This is not before Annemarie has to carry out a dangerous task that will ensure the safety of their voyage.
Comments: First, I must say that I am jaded by historical fiction of World War II. I kept waiting for the book to take a turn and be laden with the all to familiar gory details of the Holocaust and Nazi occupation. Then I remembered that this book was meant for children and could breathe a little bit better. I appreciated the truth in emotions in the story. I imagine the emotional pull would be effective on the intended readers and send home an important lesson in history.
Idea for Library Programming: An idea for programming would be to host a book club. It is mentioned multiple times how every afternoon Mrs. Rosen and Mrs. Johansen share tea to talk. During the book club, members would be served tea and cookies with (maybe?) candles to discuss the text.
Telgemeier, R. (2019). Guts. Scholastic, Inc.
Genre: Children's Graphic Novel
Summary: In this semi-autobiographical graphic novel, Raina gets a stomach bug which she soon recovers from and returns to school. "Typical" fourth grade highs and lows await. Unfortunately for Raina, however, her stomach trouble doesn't subside for long. In fact, it seems to act up any time she is met with a particular low moment - changing friendships, changing body, changing feelings toward food. It isn't until she works with a therapist and ultimately faces her fears that Raina is able to take control of her overruling feelings and stomach troubles.
Comments: I truly enjoyed this graphic novel. Telgemeier did a wonderful job illustrating all that was happening in the text. There are quite a few sequential panels that truly meet the criteria for a quality graphic novel especially the passing of time when Raina cannot stop ruminating over the source of her stomach pain. Four panels come together to form her person but in each panel she is in a different time and place showing effectively the passing of time as well as the perpetuity of her thought. There is so much more to discuss and break down in Guts. It would be a lovely addition to a curriculum, book talk, or library program.
Idea for Library Programming: Together with a tech teacher or volunteer, children would create an avatar and work to recreate in their own way the following center panel...
Klutz. (2017). Lego: Make your own movie activity kit. Korea: Scholastic.
Genre: Children's Information Text and Activity Kit
Summary: No doubt inspired by the popularity of the lego movies, this informational book and activity kit walks young inspired learns through the steps of making their first lego movie.
Comments: This book has everything a young kid could want to jump into the world of animation. First, it comes with a base plate, six heads, five torsos, and three pants along with a variety of accessories. Some of the highlights are: "How Animation Works", "Test Your Animation App", and 68 other pages for getting a child well on their way to making their first stop motion animated movie.
Idea for Programming: Our local library, pre-pandemic, hosted lego programs with a company called
Snapology. A certified instructor worked with the kids to create a masterpiece based on whatever the theme was for program. For this particular program, I think it would have to be either a few hours long or a couple hours long over the course of a few weeks held after school. Kids could work with friends or solo depending on both their preference and their experience and all aspects of animation would be covered from storyboarding to how it works to creating a final piece. A screen in the library could play them with the dialogue as closed captions so patrons could follow along.
Melanie, G. & Huliska-Beith, L. (2013). Ten little ladybugs.
Franklin, TN: Dalmatian Press.
Genre: Children's Concept Book
Summary: This concept book has visual, tactile, and auditory components to teach children the concept of counting 1-10. Children need not worry for even though it seems the ladybugs are disappearing for good, we meet them all again at the end for a happy reunion once our task of counting down from 10 is done.
Comments: Totally biased with this one as it was one of my daughter's favorite books as a toddler. She loved counting each of the lady bugs before I read the corresponding text on the second page of the spread. Not only was it a wonderful sensory experience for her, but I certainly attribute it to teaching her how to count.
Idea for Programming: I think this book would make a wonderful read aloud followed by sensory bins filled with the quantities of ladybugs that are portrayed in the book. Kids and their caregivers could retell the story using the fine motor skill of grabbing with a pincher the critters while also practicing counting. The combination of tactile, auditory, and visual components, can really help to reinforce a concept that is important for life.
Carnovsky & Davies, K. (2017). Illumanatomy.
New York, NY: Wide Eyed Editions.
Genre: Children's Nonfiction
Summary: This book takes children readers into the human body. Included with a three color lens, each color shows a different aspect: muscles, skeleton, and heart. First, the reader examines each part of the body. Next, they visit the X-ray room to see the skeleton, muscles, and organs (depending on which color lens they are looking for), the next page in the series is the anatomy room where the reader learns about how this part of the body works.
Comments: Illumanatomy is an anatomy lesson like no other. All of the colors and use of visuals are incredible and allow for real learning of the different parts of the body. My husband and I bought it for our kids when we visited
The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia (highly recommend). And they still love to take it out and explore while learning. They are so curious about the human body and it makes so much sense. It is so fascinating.
Idea for Programming: I think this book would go well as part of a station after reading a better book for a read aloud about the human body. In this station children would be able to explore the different parts using the glasses. Another station could pertain a felt human body where they have to manipulate the different body parts. There are many different hands on experiences that children would love to engage in to learn the body.
Ruurs, M. & Badr, N. A. (2016). Stepping stones: A refugee family's journey. United States: Orca Book Publishers.
Genre: Children's Historical Fiction
Summary: This dual language book (Arabic and English) chronicles the emotional tribulations of trying to keep your family safe while leaving everything you've ever known to flee to the safety of an entirely different country. Told alongside stunning images created from rocks, this story draws the reader in.
Comments: It is incredible that the most inanimate object that comes to mind can portray such intensity of human emotions ranging from the mundane and peaceful (like when Rama's grandfather is shown fishing) to the raw image of people behind bars who "weren't really free" because they could not sing their songs or dance their dances. On the next page, is two people shown running from a bomb. This story is captivating and uses a medium that is so accessible ( in so much as it is literally every where).
Idea for Programming: I found some incredible ideas
here.
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