MY COLORS, MY WORLD: MIS COLORES, MI MUNDO by Maya Christina Gonzalez - 2008 Notable Book for Children

This bilingual 2008 Notable Book for Children and 2008 Texas Library Association 2X2 book is a relaxing cruise through color in the life of a child. Maya Christina Gonzalez used her life as the inspiration for this bilingual book MY COLORS, MY WORLD: MIS COLORES, MI MUNDO.

Maya lives in the desert where the strong winds often make the desert sand create a bland world with everything the same color. But Maya opens her eyes wide and looks for the beauty of color in her world - pink/rosa (her favorite color) in the desert sunset, brown/marron and orange/anaranjadas in the mud pies made of squishy mud and marigolds, green/verde of the sharp cactus, etc. At the end of the book the author shares how her environment, particularly discovering the beauty of her world, helped her to cope with challenges in her youth.

This honored book offers opportunities to reach out to the bilingual students in our classes with a book that is beautiful to see and hear how the author finds beauty in the world around her. It is sometimes hard to find a bilingual book that is easy enough to read to both language speakers in our classes, but this book offers that opportunity. It also allows the ability to teach color words in both languages, again using cards of the words that the students can match up as we read the book.

FIRST THE EGG by Laura Vaccaro Seeger - 2008 Notable Book for Children

2008 Notable Book for Children, 2008 Caldecott Honor book, 2008 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor book - all of these awards tell you that this is a quality picture book. FIRST THE EGG by Laura Vaccaro Seeger teaches several lessons. It teaches transition words first and then. It shows the progression from a subject's beginning, middle, and end result. For example, an egg, to a chick, then a chicken OR a seed, to a seedling, then a flower. But Laura Vaccaro Seeger does not end there. She then shows the progression from a letter, to a word, to a sentence, then a story. This author/illustrator also makes this book fun because as each progression occurs, she has the first item be a cutout of the ending of the progression.

The students will love seeing the progression of the growth of each subject. The teachers will appreciate the ability to use this book to teach transition words. The art teacher will utilize the cut-outs to show the students the use of cut-outs artwork. This book's opportunities to touch students with learning moments will make it a problem to keep on the shelves! What a problem to have!!

JAZZ BABY by Lisa Wheeler - 2008 Notable Book for Children

Rhythm, repetition, and beat make this a fun read aloud picture book. In JAZZ BABY by Lisa Wheeler, the baby becomes absorbed in the rhythm and beat of jazz music playing. The baby reacts enthusiastically to all the different types of rhythm and beat that the reader can almost visualize in the wonderful illustrations. Father, mother, brother, sister, uncles, aunts, and neighbors all have a different way of responding to the beat with a repetitious response by baby of, "Go, man, go!"

This would be great to give different students cards with the different rhythms and beats to see how they respond when it comes to their turn in the book. Sadly children think math ends in math class, science ends in science (as evidenced by their performance on TAKS tests) and don't see the interrelation of these subjects. Music does always get the focus it should and carry over into other subjects, but this book allows the opportunity to bring music in another way to the library. This book is also a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor book.

KNUFFLE BUNNY TOO: A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY by Mo Willems - 2008 Notable Book for Children

Mo Willems once again has produced an award winning book. KNUFFLE BUNNY TOO: A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY carries on where the first book KNUFFLE BUNNY: A CAUTIONARY TALE ends. Trixie believes she has a one-of-a-kind knuffle bunny and can't wait to share it for show-and-tell at school. But upon arrival in the classroom, she discovers Sonja has an almost identical knuffle bunny. The children argue over how to say the bunnies' names and continue to fuss over them, so the teacher takes the bunnies away until the end of the school day. It is not until 2:30 in the morning that Trixie realizes that she has the WRONG knuffle bunny. Being loving dads, both fathers (Sonja realized about the same time that she had the wrong bunny too.) agree to meet and exchange bunnies. This event ends up making the girls become close friends.

I love the way Mo Willems uses real photographs and graphics to create this book. I especially love it because I saw several of the places in the photos or places similar to them when I was in New York last summer for the work/study class. The opportunity to hear Lisa Von Drasek read this book to us when we visited her (she had an advanced copy to review) even made this book all the more special. Students love the story plot and the way illustrations are done. This book is not just a Notable Book. It also is a Caldecott Honor book. It is a wonderful read aloud with opportunities to create discussion about accepting and sharing items in life without jealousy.

NIC BISHOP SPIDERS by Nic Bishop - 2008 Notable Book for Children

NIC BISHOP SPIDERS is not only a 2008 Notable Book for Children. It is also a Sibert Information Honor book. Nic Bishop takes the reader through a detailed explanation of: different types of spiders, explains each of the spider's two main parts in detail, how they hunt and kill their prey, how they live, how they mate, and care for their babies. The LARGE detailed photographs make the spiders "come alive" for the reader, particularly with the easy reading details about them. The is a large double overleaf in the book where Nic Bishop took laser beam photographs in succession to show the jumping spider's leap from one location to another. At the back of the book, the author explains how he became interested in spiders and how he studies and photographs them.

Since my younger students love reading nonfiction, I think this book will be great. Particularly this book will be good for students with a fear of spiders, as I must admit I had before reading this book. The details and photographs grab the readers attention, and the readability level of the book allows the students of different ages to read it. Nic Bishop puts a large font main idea sentence on each page and then smaller font (though still large) details to support that main idea. Teachers would love this book to support TAKS objective teaching.