The Dot

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
2003

     This is it! My big 100th post, so excuse me if it comes so late at night...but the decision to pick a book for this day wasn't easy.  I'm so glad I rememembered this wonderful book to share with you: The Dot.
     Vashti sits in her art classroom, all alone and frustrated.  The class is over but her paper remains blank.  Her teacher leans over Vashti's paper:

"Ah! A polar bear in a snow storm," she said.
"Very funny!" said Vashti. "I just can't draw!"
Her teacher smiled.
"Just make a mark and see where it takes you."

     That's one of my favorite lines in all the picture books I've read in the last hundred days: "Just make a mark and see where it takes you."  Vashti grabs a marker and with attitude makes one dot in the middle of the page.  The teacher studies it carefully and asks Vashti to sign it.  The following week, when Vashti returns to to the art class, she finds her little dot framed and hanging above her teacher's desk.  And that's all it took...Vashti decides she can do a better dot next time, so she opens "her never-before-used set of watercolors" and begins to draw: red dots, purple dots, big dots, small dots, huge dots, she "even made a dot by not painting a dot."  Vashti becomes the star of the upcoming school art show, where she notices a little boy looking up at her. "You are a great artist, I wish I could draw," he said.  Vashti tells him that of course he can, but he insist that he can't even draw "a straight line with a ruler." She gives him a blank piece of paper and with a smile on her face asks him to show her.  After the boy hands the paper back to her with a squiggly line drawn on it, Vashti  looks at the boy and simply says "Sign it."
     I adore this story.  First, I love Vashti. She has spunk, attitude and a great heart.  Second, as a teacher and a perpetual student, I can't help but love the message of The Dot.  We, teachers and parents, have so much power in our words.  It's amazing what our students and kids can accomplish if they know we believe in them, if we have high expectations for them, and always encourage them to try.  Vashti's teacher knew exactly what to say and do to spark Vashti's creativity.  It was one of those teachable moments that we come across everyday. Finally, I love the end of the book, that moment when Vashti pays it forward by inspiring and encouraging a new artist.  I hope I can do that with my students.

Night Day: A book of Eye-Catching Opposites

Night/Day: A Book of Eye-Catching Opposites by Herve Tullet
1999

     Night/Day: A Book of Eye-Catching Opposites is a very interesting book in its composition.  It has die-cut holes in the center of every other page; you see a concept in one page, such as Day in its front cover, and then as you see through the whole and turn the page, you find its opposite, in this case Night.  The pairing get more and more creative and the illustrations are visually stunning.  There are some incredible pairings that will make you flip back and forth between the pages more than once (such as the snail for Slow that runs into the wheel of a race car for Fast).  The only issue I have with the book is that some of the opposites are not so much that but more like pairings of relating concepts (such as dad and mom).  At the same time though, it offers a great way of introducing new vocabulary and concepts and there is no doubt that the presentation of the book and its illustration will captivate any reader.

The Lion and the Mouse

The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
2009

     The Lion & the Mouse is Jerry Pinkney's Caldecott Medal Winner retelling of Aesop's classic fable.  What makes Pinkney's version so special is that he has created a perfect retelling without the use of words: it's technically a wordless book -though it does have a couple of onomatopoeias to recreate the sounds of animals in the Serengeti plains.  The illustrations are incredible, each a work of art.  The expressions on the lions face speak for the missing words.
     I can see going back to the classic fable to read it to the kids and then showing Pinkney's illustrations and having the students create their own taglines for each illustration.  This is a book to savor slowly and enjoy every page.

   

In a Blue Room

In a Blue Room by Jim Averbeck
Illustrated by Tricia Tusa
2008

     "In a blue room, Alice bounces, wide-awake past bedtime."  Her mom comes in and out of Alice's room bringing her different things to help her fall asleep: flowers to give off a gentle scent, orange tea to soothe her, an extra quilt to keep her warm and cozy, a lullaby to sing her to sleep, and yellow bells to chime softly.  But Alice loves blue, and those things aren't blue. That is until her mom turns the light of and whispers "Here it comes." Click. And the moon comes in "bathing everything in its pale blue light. Blue flowers. Blue tea. Blue quilts. Blue bells. Blue moon."
     In a Blue Room is a very poetic and tender bedtime story.  It's one of those books where you really notice the care taken in selecting the text that goes in each page to pace the story.  The illustrations are enchanting and indispensable to set the mood of the story.  I especially love the shift from the color into the blue of the night towards the final pages.  Both my kids where born under a blue moon, so this is one to keep in my bookshelf.

Raising Dragons

Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolen
Illustrated by Elise Primavera
1998

     Her Pa didn't know anything about raising dragons and neither did her Ma.  "Now me, I knew everything about dragons, and I knew that they were real."  One Sunday, during her before-supper walk, Cupcake finds a large egg inside a cave.  Although her Pa asks her to stay away, and she always minded her parents, she just couldn't resist and went to check the cave day after day, until the egg hatched with a Crack that "was louder than one hundred firecrackers on the Fourth of July", and a dragon poked through the shell. "It was love at first sight." Cupcake named the dragon Hank and soon they became inseparable.  Hank helped around the farm, plowing the fields, tending the crops and even fanning away the heat that was threatening the tomato crops.  When the corn crop seem to get too large for the family to manage, Hank turned it into popcorn using his fire breath and the family was able to sell it for a profit.  Hank earned the love and appreciation of Ma and Pa.  Soon, though, Cupcake knew it was time for Hank to go.  He had grown to be a full size dragon and the farm wasn't right for him anymore.  Cupcake found an Atlas that charted a dragon island and flew there on Hank's shoulders.  She left him there, but not before Hank gave her more dragon eggs to bring back home to raise, just like she had raised him.  "The same way Pa knew that farming was in his blood, I knew that raising dragons was in mine."
     Raising Dragons has a fabulous final sentence: "There are some things you just know."  Although her parents doubt her at first and think that she's imagining things, Cupcake knew deep inside her heart that she was meant to meet a dragon and eventually become in charge of raising dragons.  This is a beautiful tale of friendship and perseverance.  The illustrations are gorgeous, the language has a nice tone and rhythm and the story is very sweet.

There Is a Bird on Your Head!

There Is a Bird On Your Head! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems
2007

     So, if you haven't noticed by now, we're pretty big fans of Mo Willems in this house.  I don't know, we just love his illustrations and his sense of humor.  If you haven't read any of his Elephant and Piggie books, you are definitely missing out.  It's hard to pick a favorite, so I decided to go with the first one of this series I ever read: There Is a Bird On Your Head!
     Elephant and Piggie are relaxing, just hanging out, when a bird decides to stop on Elephants head.  Then another one joins him and now there are two love birds on his head.  They build a nest, lay eggs and end up having three baby chicks.  All this time Elephant is freaking out about having birds and a nest on his head.  He keeps asking what's going on to Piggie who always has a hilarious way of answering the nervous Elephant.  At the end, Piggie helps Elephant get rid of the birds, but they move to a new head, Piggie's.
    I love the format of the Elephant and Piggie books.  They are all written using cartoon speech bubbles.  The text is short, quick witted, and fast paced.  It just flows and I still haven't met a kid who doesn't love Elephant and Piggie.  With two strong characters with tons of emotion and expression, it makes for a great read aloud or partner reading. I've even used it in my classroom as a reader's theater sort of thing.  My son loves to memorize the dialogue and share the reading with me, which couldn't make me happier.  

How to Get a Job by Me, the Boss

How to Get a Job...by Me, the Boss by Sally Lloyd-Jones
Illustrated by Sue Heap
2011
Ages 4-8

     The Boss is ready to give us some well thought out advice on how to get a job.  OK, so the Boss might not even be out of first grade yet, but she definitely knows what she's talking about. She knows the definition of a job, "A Job is so you can have something to do and get money for your family. And sometimes a Job is so you can get all dressed up and wear your new shoes to work."  She knows what isn't a Job: "Sitting in you chair eating cookies (school is a sort of job because you do homework. Except they don't pay you ANY MONEY.)" She also has plenty of hilarious advice as to the jobs you could have when you grow up:  a Super-Ballerina-Soccer-Mermaid-Fairy Princess, a Cowboy or Explorer and even a Penguin "but that's just silly."  "Except you shouldn't be a Robber. It's not allowed."  The most important advice the Boss has though, is to do something that you love and "something you're GOOD at or no one will want you to do it for them."
     If I tried to describe all the parts I liked of How to Get a Job...by Me, the Boss, this will be a very long blog entry. My favorite, and I know I'm being bias here, is the Boss's description of the job of a teacher:

If you are a Teacher,

first you need to find some kids

and make them all come to your School

and Behave.

[...]

Teachers MUST know all the answers

and how to be NOT BORING.

          How to Get a Job...by Me, the Boss is delightful, clever and funny.  It's a great classroom read-aloud with great vocabulary and hilarious illustrations.  I can't wait to check out the other books in this series.