James and the Giant Peach

I read this book a while back when I was in elementary. I thought it was a great book to read. The story starts off a little bizzare. So James is sent to live with his aunts because his parents get eaten by a rhino. If that isn't funny I don't know what is. Personally I feel like this book was a little dark to read for a child. James is wishing to escape his aunts who he does not like and who later get crushed by the peach.

While James is out in the garden he meets a man that gives him an envelope containing a "magic potion" that will bring James the best in life. James anxious to hide the sack runs home an trips on the way there spilling all the potion on the ground.

Later the peach tree starts sprouting a peach that is so BIG. So James' aunts take this as an oppurtunity to make money by charging the public to view the peach. One night James is outside and crawls inside the peach and finds the creepiest of creatures in there. Suddenly the peach breaks loose from the tree and rolls over both James' aunts and wreaks havoc through the town.

The peach floats on into the ocean and they make it to New York City. They are accepted into society and the peach is seen later as a monument.

The story involves alot of imagination and is a little creepy and dark. I loved it now that I was older because it was not as scary as it was when I read it when I was younger.

The Little Red Hen

This book is a tad confusing. I know it may sound dumb considering that it is a children's book. I've read more than one version of this story and the ending is always different. In this particular edition, the Little Red Hen ends up sharing her loaf of bread at the end. I've read another version in which the Little Red Hen ends up eating the bread all by herself.

This book really teaches kids that being helpful will always pay off in the end. At the beginning of the book the Little Red Hen finds the seeds and asks if anyone would help her plant it. As the times go by they still refuse to help her pick the grain and to ground it as well, but when it comes time for them to eat the bread they all wish to help her at that time.

The pictures are self explanatory considering that they just show the Little Red Hen doing the activities that the Hen is going through.

Velveteen Rabbit and Pinocchio

I was realizing earlier today that we had talked about the similarities in Peter Rabbit and in Where the Wild Things are. It brought to mind how the Velveteen Rabbit and Pinocchio also have one big similarity; the fact that both of these toys become real.

Pinocchio is made by a craftsman. Though Pinocchio longs to be a real boy he knows that he can't because of a simple fact; he is made of wood. Through longing and wishing Pinocchios dream of becoming a boy comes true.

The Velveteen Rabbit on the other hand realizes that through love of the owner one can become real. He is loyal to a young boy and when the boy falls ill the rabbit is put aside to be burned because of all the germs that he has. At that point the rabbit cries a real tear and realizes that all along he has been real and is later returned to the wild with the other rabbits.

These two stories just like the ones mentioned today in class are very similar. Maybe next year these can both be apart of the ciriculum.

Amelia Bedelia

I remember being younger and this book being one of the very first "long books" I read. The illustrations are limited and I knew thats how I knew I was growing up as funny as that may sound.

I'll start off by explaining Amelia to you. She is queit a character. She has a job as a maid, and she works for this family named the Rogers. The reason why these books are so entertaining is because of one sole reason; Amelia takes everything to be a literal concept. When playing a game of baseball and told to run home, as in home base, she literally runs all the way back home to the Rogers' house. When told to make a sponge cake she uses an actual cake to mix the cake batter.

These books are for a wide variety of upper level readers. The double meaning of the words are what put all the humor into the series. Peggy Parish, the author of Amelia Bedelia, has a many more books that are somewhat of a continuation to the first Amelia Bedelia book in conjunction with her brother Herman Parish.

Dr. Seuss

So in Fridays class I know that we were talking about Dr. Seuss. I walked in 5 minutes late so I missed a little bit of the introduction to his story. What I was wondering was whether or not we covered why his name is "Dr. Seuss." I didn't bother asking but is he really a Dr. or is that a self proclaimed name that he gave himself. If it is a name given to him by himself, why did he pick "Dr." as his title.

Another question I had that I didn't bother to raise during our class discussion was why he chose to focus on social issue like equal treatment (Horton Hears a Who), and enviormental issues (The Lorax.) Was this his way of trying to teach the children in a manner that they would understand or did he unwillingly do it without knowing that he was.

The Very Hungry Catepillar

This book was wonderful! The book is basically chronologically following the life of this little catepillar. In the beginning of the book he is small but he has a big appetitie. He goes on throughout the week eating more than the day before and continues this throughout the week. When he finally gets to Sunday he is so big and he has a stomach ache. He thinks that by eating through some leaves will make him feel better. When he does he sees that his stomach ache continues.

He later starts to grow a cacoon because he is in the proccess of becoming a butterfly. Finally at the end of the book he becomes a very beautiful butterfly. The way the book is set up is very fun. The illustrations are basically the book. It tells the story even if the words had not been there.

Eat Your Peas, Louise!

This afternoon while at Host, the children in the classroom in which I am assigned to asked me to read them an English book. It was a very new thing for me considering that it is an ESL class and they primarly read in Spanish. Eat Your Peas, Louise was a great book for them to listen to because they really like it.

The book focuses on how a young girl named Louise is being asked by her mother to eat her peas. She refuses everytime and her mother continues to try to convince her. Finally her mother ask her and says please. Louise finally caves in and eats the peas happily.

The book is a great example of a child. She just wants to be treated like a little adult with respect and her mother finally figures that after trying to bribe her and a lot of begging. The kids said that this book was really funny and that the pictures in the book were the best part; I would agree though I think the message that the book is sending is an even better one.

The Giver

I know we are done reading The Giver but I got to thinking a couple days ago. Isn't Jonas a name in the Bible? The significance of his name goes way beyond just a name in general. It gets you to thinking that though they did not have religion in their community Lowry made it a point to have various aspect of religion or at least and organized belief within the community. Not to mention Gabriel. His name is also mentioned in the Bible as the arch angel. Through the names that are given to the characters and the memories that she has the Giver give to Jonas, Lowry really exemplfys her secret want for religion within the book.

To add to the fact that I think that they stayed alive...I think that they lived because maybe Jonas actually had been hearing the music and it was not a memory given to him by the Giver, but one that he had made for himself.

The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

I didn't even know that there was a sequel to the Cat in the Hat until one of the kids at work mentioned it to me (I work at the Boys&Girls club). It is funny that exact same thing that happend the first happend the second time around, except for the fact that the Cat decides that he will leave Thing 1 & 2 at home. Instead the Cat brings every little cat from A to Z. Today in class while we were talking about picture books it came to mind that everything that we talked about was finally making sense. As I looked back through the book I knew that if the pictures hadn't been there much of the book would have not made sense. You would not have been able to see Little Cat A-Z and you would have not even been able to see the mischeviou that the Cat had caused.

The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street is a book I highly recommended (which is why I focused my paper on it.) This book is great! I read it while in middle school, and recently again, and it just made me see life outside my small world. The book itself talks about a little girl who has moved to a new neighborhood. Esperanza, the main character and her family moved to a house on Mango St. in Chicago. The area of town is racially segregated and is not "a space all her own." Though this book is not a book persay, it is more like many stories all compiled together, that all connect somehow to make the story whole. All the things that Esperanza experiences while living at that house only give her more reason to want to leave (when she is older.) Though she understands that the possibility of her leaving is very slim, she still holds that thought in the back of her mind.

After reading Sandra Cinersos' biography I can't help but think that this book might have a reflection from the area in which she grew up in (also being from Chicago.) I felt like I could relate so much to this story being Latina and all. Although this story does focus significantly on the Hispanic culture I would recommend it to everyone especially to young girls.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe!

Since this weekend was parents weekend my family decided to come and visit! I was so excited. Along with her luggage my little sister brought the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (the movie) with her. I hadn't seen the movie since it came out...so I was pretty excited! I absolutely LOVED the movie! It made me want to read the remaining books so that I could continue watching the movies that will come out. The movie filled in many voids that I had in my head after reading the book. I loved how closely it resembled the book!

The way they portrayed everything from Lucy and Edmund first discovering Narnia, to the lively looking animals, was great. Now the only that I am looking foward to is finishing reading the second book so that I can watch Prince Caspian (the second installment to the series in movies.)

Curious George

I had been absent from blogger for a while. A while back (in March) while I was at HOST, the child that I mentor decided that he wanted me to read him a book. I thought I would kill to birds with one stone and read him a book while taking one book of my reading list.

Curious George was the perfect book to read! It was a great book and it was both funny and it taught us a lesson. George was just to curious for his own good. The majority of the time he found himself in trouble was because he decided to wander off on his own. When he does find himself in a pickle the man in the big yellow hat finds a way to help him out. This book is just an overall great book to read to kids!

We read more than just this one Curious George book. We also read Curious George gets a job.