Missing May

Missing May
Author: Cynthia Rylant
Realistic Fiction

Summer lives with her elderly foster parents Ob and May. Ob is an artist and May enjoys working in the garden. Summer loves the small town they live in, even if they don't live the most glamorous life. When May suddenly passes away, Ob and Summer are overcome with grief the pair struggle to live life without their precious May. In addition to missing May, Summer worries that Ob is slipping away from her and tries desperately to get closer to him and make sense of what May left behind. One day, while sitting in the garden, Ob is visited by May's spirit. Summer at first does not believe him, but Ob sounds happy and hopeful, so she goes along with his story. Meanwhile a young boy from Summer's school starts hanging around their house. Cletus is quirky and does not have the best hygiene, making him even less appealing to Summer But, Ob takes a liking to Cletus and in order to make Ob happy Summer puts up with Cletus' long visits and stupid photo collections. One day, Ob tells Cletus the story about May's spirit and the two decide to visit a phychic in the next town over to arrange a conversation with May through the Medium. Summer finds the whole notion a little silly, but Ob is happy and she herself is beginning to believe that May is hanging around. At this point, the venture of talking with May again gets the best of her and Summer agrees to try the psychic. The three take a trip to the next town to meet the woman who can help them get closer to may, but upon arriving at the address the group finds that the woman passed away long ago. Deflated, the group heads back home, dashing Cletus's hopes of visiting the capital on the way home. Ob is heartbroken, and Summer is nervous. But just as they are passing the exit to the capital, Ob's mind changes and he announces that they will visit the capital anyways. In the end Ob realizes that he will see May again some day and for now he needs to stay with Summer. In May's memory Ob places his precious whirlygigs out in the garden, where the wind, "May's spirit" can reach them. In addition to finding closure, Summer gets closer to Ob and gains a new friend who turns out not to be so bad.

The Milk Makers

The Milk Makers
By: Gail Gibbons
Non-Fiction

The Milk Makers is a wonderful non-fiction book explaining the process of milk production. It sequentially explains the process of how milk is harvested from cows and the process of preparing, bottling, and shipping the product. Gibbons provides wonderful illustrations as well as informational captions of the various types of cows, and machinery involved in making milk. The text is simple and organized with young researchers in mind.

Sootface: An Ojibwa Cinderella Story

Sootface: An Ojibwa Cinderella Story
Author: Robert San Souci
Illustrator: Daniel San Souci
Folk Tale/ Traditional

Sootface is an Ojibwa spin on the traditional Cinderella story. Sootface has two mean older sisters who make her do all of the cleaning, causing her face to be dirty and burned from tending the fire. All Sootface wishes is to find a husband. One day, word spreads around the village that the village's mysterious and cunning hunter is looking for a bride. There is a catch though, he is invisible to those who are not of pure heart, and he will only marry the woman who can tell what his bow is made of. Young girls from around the village, including Sootface's sisters flock to try and win the young hunter's heart. But, time after time the women are not able to see the man and falsely describe what his bow is made of. One day, the hunter's sister approaches Sootface and asks her if she can see her brother. Sootface, is overcome by the handsome man before her and his beautiful rainbow weapon. Knowing that Sootface must truly see her brother, the hunter's sister announces their marriage. On her wedding, Sootface's burned skin and hair magically return to their former state and she glows with beauty. The couple is happy, and Sootface's sisters are then forced to do the chores for themselves.

Goodbye 382 Shin Dang Dong

Goodbye 382 Shin Dang Dong
Author: Frances Park
International/ Multicultural

Jangmi, a young Korean girl is moving to America and leaving her home at 382 Sin Dang Dong. Before leaving for the U.S friends and family throw a good-bye party for her, making it even more unbearable to leave behind those she loves. She will especially miss her best friend Kisuni. Jangmi moves into a new house in Massachusetts, where she meets friendly neighbors and a young girl named Mary. This story provides insight on what it is like to leave behind all you know, only to be immersed in a foreign culture. It takes her some time to adjust, but in the end Jangmi shows readers that despite the struggles of learning the ways of a new country, change can bring good as well.

A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus

A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus
Author: David Adler
Illustrator: John and Alexandra Wallner
Biography

This book outlines the highlights of the life of Christopher Columbus, ranging from his childhood to his later achievements as an explorer and sailor. It includes important dates and people from Columbus' life, using simple language and rich pictures to form a biography suitable for young readers.

Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky

Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky
Author: Elphinstone Dayrell
Illustrator: Blair Lent
Folk/ Traditional

This book explores an African pourquoi tale explaining why the Sun and his wife the Moon, live in the sky. The Sun is good friends with Water, who has a very large house. One day while Sun is visiting Water, Water asks the Sun why he is never invited to his home. Water asks Sun to build a larger house so that he and all of the water people can visit. The Sun and Moon quickly get to building their house. The Water people visit and the house becomes so full that the Sun and Moon have to move to the roof, and then it becomes even more crowded that the couple is forced into the sky. There they have remained ever since.

The Wanderer

The Wanderer
Author: Sharron Creech
Illustrator: David Diaz

Click this link for a flip book synopsis:
http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/education/the-wanderer-4726520

The Song of Mulan

The Song of Mulan
By: Jeanne M Lee
Multicultural/ International

The Song of Mulan, tells the classic tale of a young Chinese woman who runs away from home to fight in the war in stead of her ailing father. Buying a horse and stealing her father's armor she sets off to join the army. Mulan leads the life of a male soldier for 10 years and accomplishes many feats. When the emperor offers her a rich reward, she asks only for a camel to bring her back to her village. Once at home, she dresses in beautiful silk, and convinces her comrades that courage and fighting skills are not just limited to men. This inspiring story tells the classic ballad, and is written as the title suggests, poetic and song like.

The Talking Eggs

The Talking Eggs
Author: Robert San Souci
Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney
Traditional/ Folk

The talking eggs is an adaptation of a Creole folk tale. The story is about a young girl named Blanche who lives in a small Louisiana home with her sinister mother and older sister Rose. At home Blanche is expected to do all of the work, and is often taken advantage of and mocked by her mother and sister. One day, Blanche meets a mysterious old woman in the woods. After giving the old woman some water, Blanche is led to her home, where she is met by some strange animals. The woman tells Blanche not to laugh, and despite the funny looking animals she obeys. The woman has several other trials for her, until finally she leads her into the chicken coop and rewards her with magic eggs which lead to great fortunes for Blanche. Upon returning home, Rose and her mother become jealous of Blanche and con her into telling where she got the eggs from. The next day, Rose is sent into the woods to seek out the old lady and receive her share of the treasures. She meets the old woman, but fails to follow her directions and in the end winds up with nothing. This story is filled with wonderful illustrations, and spectacular scenes.

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace
Author: Mary Hoffman
Illustrator: Caroline Binch
Realistic Fiction

Amazing Grace is the tale of a young girl who loves to tell stories, and play the role of her favorite characters. One day, Grace finds out that her class is going to do a performance of Peter Pan. Grace wants to try out for Peter Pan, but her friends tell her she can't because she is a girl, and African American. Feeling deflated, Grace goes home to her Nana and tells her all about her horrible day. Her Nana inspires Grace by taking her to see a ballet, and tells her than she can do anything. Grace decides to try out for the play after all, giving a wonderful performance. Of course, she gets the part of Peter Pan, and all of her friends tell her how great she was at the auditions. In the end, Grace stays true to herself and shows others that she is capable of doing whatever she puts her mind to.

Classroom Application/Reflection:
I used this book with my class of 3rd grade students to teach a lesson about gender roles. After reading Amazing grace, the class discussed whether it was ok for girls to like boy things, and boys to like girl things. We also discussed some of our favorite story characters, realizing that girls sometimes liked male protagonists, and males sometimes liking females. They seemed to connect with Grace, and all agreed that people should do what they want and should not feel pressured to act a certain way because of their gender. Students then participated in a WebQuest I created specifically for this lesson, where they learned about other important people in history who broke the mold like Grace did. Afterwards, students were given paper to design a poster for school play auditions that were encouraging to people of all gender, age, race, or socio-economic status. Overall the lesson went very well. The students were really excited about not only doing a group project, but also being able to use laptops. My SBTE is more on the traditional side and does not usually have technology applications for her lessons. I was unsure of whether she would be up for the challenge of a large lesson such as this, but it worked very well. At the end of the lesson she even commented on how the students were really engaged, provided lots of feedback during discussion and produced high quality work. I would love to try this lesson again seeing how much they liked it.

Ideas for this lesson were collected from:
http://www.dcmp.org/guides/10045.pdf

See the full lesson plan that I implemented here, including a link to the WebQuest:
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AcvxAeISuG7qZGR2cnMzMmtfMzJnZjdndnpmcg&hl=en