The Bunyan's by Audrey Wood

This story begins with an author’s note explaining the background behind the story of Paul Bunyan. Audrey continues by saying that this is the true story and that Paul was married with two children. Carrie, his wife, and he were both giants decided to get married and share Paul’s wishbone after Carrie had lost hers. This story is great for learning American geography because of the analogies using American landscape. It also gives a unrealistic way of how certain landscapes came to be, but could spark interest in children for how they really did come to be! This is one book not illustrated by Don Wood, but instead by David Shannon. His illustrations work well with the story Audrey has written. Many of the images show how large the characters are by showing them in relation to wagons and houses that are very small. One illustration also shows bears crawling in “Teeny's” hair after a silo of syrup has spilled in it preceding an illustration of her showering in Niagara Falls!

King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood

This is another book that is illustrated Don Wood. This book is great for showing children what a King’s palace would look like and how they would dress. The illustrations are very detailed and make the pages come alive. The king will not get out of the bathtub so each of the characters in the book try to get him out by telling him there are important things going on in the community which he needs to attend to. He tells them that their problems will have to come to him because he is not getting out of the bathtub today. They battle, eat, fish, and dance in the tub while none of them are able to get him out of the tub. Finally the page shows he knows how to get the King out of the tub by pulling the plug. If you re-read this book you notice that the page has been in all the illustrations and has shown his annoyance that the king will not get out of the tub! The illustrations could spark conversation with children that would last for a long time!

The Napping House By Audrey Wood

This book is illustrated by Audrey's husband, Don Wood. The story begins with the exterior of this “Napping House” and we see that it is raining. Right away the reader gets the motivation for taking a nap on such a dreary day! We see that everyone in this house is napping in their cozy beds. This is a book that begins to repeat the last sentence as the story moves along. For example, “and on that granny there is a child, a dreaming child, on a snoring granny, on a cozy bed, in a napping house, where everyone is sleeping.” This is a great book to use with children who are just beginning to read. They begin to pick up on the repetition and it makes them feel confident about their reading! The story moves along and we see a cat, dog and a flea appear on the bed until the flea bites the cat and alarms everyone until they get off of the bed. As each disappears we see the sun coming out in the window behind the bed. On the last page we see the exterior of the house with a rainbow behind it with the sunshine!

Audrey Wood

Audrey Wood is one author that I read a lot when I was younger. She is my mom's favorite author so we owned almost all of her books growing up, but when I have talked to other classmates about Audrey Wood they have been unfamiliar with most of her books. I chose to do my author study on her because I think she has a lot of great books that may not be familiar to many people. Even the books that are "older" still look appealing to children! There are many lessons that can be taught with some of Wood's books.

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Reflection

I have really enjoyed this class so far. I haven't been given the a reason to go to the library and search for children's books in a long time, probably since I was in elementary school. It has brought back many childhood memories going going back and re-reading books I read as a child. I have also used a lot of the books I have read for this class with my child study student for Block A. Class always seems to fly by and I enjoy the discussions we have each week. Also, the required books you have chosen to read have been enjoyable. I had already read The Giver, but the Misfits was one that I never read as a child! Overall I really enjoy this class!

Whitewash by Gail Dawson

This book would be great for teaching children about race and discrimination. It shows what effect these topics have on children and how they should deal with these feelings. After Helene-Angel's face is painted white she still feels the paint that had been on her face. The gang that had done this to her and beat up her brother were showing horrible signs of discrimination that no child should go through. When Helene-Angel finally comes out of her room after a week of not eating or coming out of her room, she decides that she has the "right to be there too." This is a good attitude to have after she had been bullied so badly.

Rose Blanche by Christopher Gallaz and Roberto Innocenti

This was also a great book to use to bring up conversations about the war. It was a hard book to read as are many books about the Hollocaust. Questions about how the girl is holding a Nazi flag in parts of the book but also shown giving the children at the concentration camps food is hard to comprehend. I didn't learn about the Hollocaust until I was in eighth grade and I remember when I learned about it being shocked that this had happened in our history. I think that this book is a good one to use to tell some of the history of World War II but not so overwhelming for children at young ages. I am not against teaching children about the Hollocaust in younger grades, but some of the books and movies I read and watched throughout high school and college may be too much for children in elementary schools.

Hiroshima, No Pika by Toshi Maruki

This book would be great to use with a literature study on war. This book which explained the bombing of Hiroshima by the United States in the point of view of a family living in Hiroshima was rough to read. The book showed many images of people losing their lives and getting injuries that would stay with them for the rest of their lives. As I read this book it was hard to read as an American. Our country did this to the characters in this book but I sympathsized with the characters telling their story. This would be a great book to relate to the war going on today in Iraq and would bring up many conversations about the subject of war.

My Dad Has HIV by Earl Alexander, Sheila Rudin, & Pam Sejkora

This book was educational about the HIV disease for Lindsey who is telling the story, but also for the parents who are unaware that she is so concerned about her father having the disease. This book was great for letting the reader know the information about the disease. Some people may believe that children shouldn't be learning about this subject between the ages of four and eight which this book is recommended for, but they may be overlooking the needs of some children. Lindsey was afraid that no one would want to be friends with her anymore so it was important to educate Lindsey's friends as well.

Nappy Hair by Carolivia Herron

This book could cause controversy for many reasons. When the brother tells Brenda that she should be ashamed of her nappy hair. She corrects him and tells him that she is proud of her nappy hair. The book continues with a conversation with God explaining that he is going to give the "brown little girl" the nappiest hair in the world. Slavery is brought up in the book telling how her parents were sold for only a nickle and a dime. Later in the book they are explaining how Brenda looked when she was born with many adjetives and one of the ones they used to describe her hair was "screwed up." This suprised me because the book is mostly about how Brenda loves her hair, but her family admits that her hair is 'screwed up.'
This book had great illistrations, and would be good for teaching children to accept themselves for who they are. The girl in this story admits that she is happy with her appearance even when her family acts as if she isn't perfect.