Cowboy Camp [Week 9]

Cowboy Camp

By: Tammi Sauer, Illustrated by: Mike Reed

I thought this was a very cute book. It's about a little boy Avery who is at cowboy camp. He doesn't fit in because his belt is too big and his hat is too small and his name is all wrong. He first gets fed grits and beans and he doesn't like them. Then they ride horses but he is allergic to horses. Then they twirl and twist their lassos and he gets bad rope burn. Who ever heard of a cowboy who: doesn't like beans, is allergic to horses, and gets rope burn?

That night he is sitting by the camp fire when a scary looking guy comes out of the shadows and wants to put an end to Cowboy Dan's career because he is making it too hard for bad guys to succeed anymore. 

However Avery gets scared and lies and says that it is a space camp and then Black Bart gets mad and says he is lying and then tests him with all the stuff that cowboys should be able to do, and Avery of course fails all of them.

Black Bart then leaves right before Cowboy Dan and all the other campers come out and tell Avery that he is the best cowboy they have ever seen.

I just thought that this was a very cute book that really teaches kids that whatever they are good and bad at is good for some reason. Avery reminds me of a lot of kids I know that just think they are so different and it's a bad thing when it's really a good thing.

Merlin And The Dragons [Week 8]

Merlin and The Dragons

by Jane Yolen, Illustrated by Li Ming

I picked this book for my book talk because it had dragons in the title and on the cover and it was fantasy day. Once I started reading it though I loved it. The story is really hard to explain, but basically a little boy is having nightmares and so he goes to get advice from Merlin, and Merlin tells the little boy a story to explain to him that dreams are important.

The story goes like this:

A little boy is the son of a local princess, but he doesn't know who his father is and is teased because of that. And he becomes known as "devil boy" because he "predicts" the weather, when really he finds a book about the seasons and moon cycle. An evil king comes to the town and wants to build a tower but it keeps crashing down every night and he thinks it's the locals doing. The little boy has been having dreams about dragons and tells him to dig up the ground and that there will be 2 dragon eggs, to kill the dragons, and the ground will be fine. He does just that and there are 2 dragons- one white and one red.

The white one gets away. After that another army comes to destroy the king and his army and defeats him. The evil army's symbol is a red dragon and the good army's symbol is a white dragon.

The hero in the end of this story is a soldier who charged up the tower first to kill the evil king, and he only had 1 son.

I bet you can guess who the 1 son is... 

The boy who this story is being told to. Turns out he is King.

I suggest you read the book, because it is much better than how I described it. I think this is a great book because it would capture boys and girls attention. It is all about the outcast coming and being very important, good triumphing over evil, and about believing in yourself. All things that I think need to be presented to children.

And the pictures are very colorful and descriptive. It is very text heavy, so I would suggest keeping this for the older grades to read to themselves or for you to read to them, but the younger kids will lose focus.

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/book-report-alternative-creating-a-958.html

Above is a link to a lesson plan using this book for older kids (middle school).

World Team [Week 6]

World Team

By Tim Vyner

I googled best multicultural children's books to find a book I should use as my book talk and I really liked this one because it isn't just about one cultural, it shows a common thread that all cultures have in common: soccer. Soccer is not as popular in the USA but because it is such a famous sport every where else, I think the author was smart to use it. It also culminates in a big world wide sporting event: The World Cup. In this book each page is a different child in a different country and setting all playing soccer, and most thinking about The World Cup. The illustrations were really what set this book apart, they told a story of their own, and the book could have almost done without the words because the illustrations held everything you needed to know.

I really liked how on each page on the side it had the country's name and the time at which it was, which could tie into time zones if you wanted to use this to teach multiple lessons.

I really loved this book because it doesn't just show one other culture, it shows snippets of lots and it shows how every country is very different in setting and how things are done. But that at the same time we all have a common interest and love: soccer.

I think this is a great book to start an "Around The World" unit about different places, or it could be used with older kids as a discussion about why some things happen in the world if we are all pretty similar. 

Below is a link to a website that is called "World Peace Through Sports" and is really about empowering kids through sports to let them know they can change the world.

http://www.gowpts.com/

"Be the change you wish to see in the world"~ Ghandi