Children's Literature Blog

  The Ugly Duckling Summary: One day an ugly cygnet decides to leave home as he is always being bullied. But in the end after all he had been through, when he grows up he turned into a beautiful swan.  Genre: Folklore        Age: 3+ This story opens the children's imagination, where each can imagine how ugly the cygnet was. Through the realistic illustrations they can make a connection with themselves. This story helps give ideas on how to handle the mean and rude comments tolds, they can brush them off and become something beautiful like the swan did in the end.  Suggested Activities: *Before/After reading Ask children if they have experience anything like the cygnet. Create a chart or list to compare review after reading the book. *After reading Create blank templates of a cygnet and sawn and allow the children to illustrate what the believe represents them.  Personal Comment: This story is great as it shows the children ho...

El Chupacabras by Adam Rubin Summary: A young girl and her day lived in a goat farm and daily they would be missing one goat. Until on day they got help from a neighbor; with the help of her magic powders they believed to defeat the Chupacabras. But shortly realized they could not help their animals without the help of El Chupacabras.  Genre: Multicultural Folklore         Age: 4-8 years old Throughout the book you can see very bright colors mixed with realistic illustrations. In this case the goats, as they are the main characters along with El Chupacabras. For this specific version of this tale El Chupacabras was small and not scary looking, for he helped solve the problem instead of making it worse.  Suggested Activities:  *Before reading Look at the cover illustrations, afterwards make predictions about the book.  *During reading  Ask questions throughout the reading.  *After reading Create a review game like trivia or j...

   Pete the Cat: Robo-Pete   Summary: Pete was trying to play with his friends but they were all busy, so he came up with the idea to build a robot. But Pete learned a great lesson through this, and the true meaning behind friendship. Pete realizes that no matter what he is doing it will always be fun, as long as he is with his friends.  Genre: Science Fiction             Age: 2 - 7 years old This specific book ties fiction and science together as, Pete the Cat make a robot friend. This after attempting to play with all his real friends, but they were all busy doing something else. Throughout the story we can see the different bright colors. This combined with all the dark outlines of the illustrations make it stand out.  Suggested Activities:  *During/After Reading You can use this book to review sight words. As it has very few words and keeps the sentences short. As. you find words you can create a charts to keep track o...

The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions Summary:   The color monster discovers his different emotions through the help of colors and a little girl that guides him through the the way. Each color represents a different emotion; as they review each emotion they place each in a jar.  Genre: Fiction          Ages: 3-7 years old  Throughout the story we can see the primary colors. As each emotion is being discussed they use a color to represent it. The book has a white background all throughout the story, this help draw the readers eyes only to the bright colors. For each emotion the monsters color changes to show how "you would look," showing different expressions.  Suggested Activities: * During Reading As you read the story and stop to ask questions you could create a booklet to keep track of all the emotions and colors. This will help the children remember and have something physical they can turn to if needed.  *After Reading (Y...

*This poem is in the book Follow the Recipe by Marilyn Singer*  Poetry - Follow the Recipe by Marilyn Singer Summary:  Through the comparison of different kitchen items Singer, shows that we can have everything around us to make us comfortable. But this is not what one should do, we should always be changing as everything around us is constantly changing. It encourages the children to use their imagination and compare the items to real life.  Concrete Poetry: This poem is a concrete poem as it includes bright vibrant colors and includes childrens pictures and cartoons. Through this the author is able to grasp the reader's attention and receive the message. In this case by comparing different kitchen items to real life events. While in the process cooking one needs different items, as time changes these items could become easier to use.  Suggested Activities:  * Reading out loud/ Music By reading the poem out loud and breaking it down multiple times would help un...

Paletero Man (Read Aloud) Summary: On a hot summer day in LA a boy runs through his neighborhood chasing down Paletero Jose. But along the ways he drops his money and the community helps collect it for him. They did this for him as he was  always polite to them. In the end Paletero Jose gave everyone free ice cream for what they all had done.  Genre: Fiction     Age: 4+ This story used bright colors and its illustrations to tell the story. This helps the children use their imagination and have a live picture as they read the book. As we know a child can not run down multiple streets in their neighborhood by himself and safely catch up to Paletero Jose.  Suggested Activities:  Before reading * Show book cover and make predictions of what the story while be about Look at the illustrations throughout the book and make predictions (not reading any parts only the tile). With information gathered they can make a t-chart listing clues used and predictions made Du...