“Annemarie felt a surge of sadness; the bond of their friendship had not yet broken, but it was as if Ellen had moved now into a different world, the world of her own family and whatever lay ahead for them.”

This book would be valuable to use within the older grades. For the older grades, this would be great to use as a read aloud or small reading groups. This book creates a plot that is easy for children to follow along with, while also informing them about the importance of our history. This book also has many valuable lessons intertwined, such as the value of friendship and helping one another. Overall this book is a great use for a future class.

Number the Stars was published in 1989. Historical fiction novel takes place in Denmark during World War 2. The novel is focused around a lot of character development due to the value of Annemarie helping Ellen and her family. This book explores the dangers of the WW2, and how dangerous the environment and world was at that time. The spirit of the times were very low, and uncharacteristic, but the but the book highlights it with friendship.

I think that this book would be wonderful to use for the younger grades. It does a great job telling a hart warming, beautiful, fun story. It also has many valuable lessons tied into the book. It also does a really god job highlighting the importance of illustrations. The beautiful drawing allow for students to see the beautiful pictures along with the beautiful message that is being portrayed.

“It's such a good feeling... a very good feeling.. the feeling you know that we're friends.“

Hello, Neighbor! Inspired by Mister Rogers was published in 2018. Won the Caldecott, Boston-Globe award, Kirk‘s award, and New York Times best illustrations award. This book captures the warming and loving nature that Fred Rogers left. Follows along the wonderful legacy that he left, embodying how love and kindness can transform lives. This book also does a great job embodying the lessons that he taught through his television show.

I think that this book would be wonderful for the older grades. I think that this book provides a lot of insight on how children can follow their dreams, and take opportunities that people may not have been given before them. It is important that we inspire children to be great. With the adaption of this book within our classrooms, we will be able to allow students to understand that.

“It began with a page, bright and beckoning.”

It Began with a Page by Kyo Maclear was published in 2019. There are no current awards won for this book. This story is based in the 20th century. It is based around the ideas of Gyo, and how she learned from her family members that women and Japanese people lacked the same opportunities as everyone else. But, they believed in her, so she set out to get what her relatives never got the chance to achieve.

“These things disguise the insect from predators and protect it from harm. Are we done? No, not quite.. Let‘s give out insect a place to live and a snack.”

I think that this book would be wonderful for young children. I think that it follows an interesting journey that structures how insects body work. This would be a great non-fiction book to adapt within the classroom for students of all ages. I also enjoyed how this book includes an activity of its own that you can complete with your students. It would be great to create an insect model!

How to Build an Insect by Roberta Gibson was published in 2021. There are no current awards for these books. This book follows an interesting story about how insects are adapted into their habitat and made just like humans. The book is structured in a fun way following how building an insect, while also learning about the individual parts that contribute.

“I‘m a flamingo!”

I really enjoyed reading this book! I think that this book does a great job at providing children with a framework on what makes up an animal. This book would be very engaging for children because it includes many in depth pictures to describe each animal. I think that this book would be great to use for young children, because it allows them to guess throughout the book and to make connections.

Who Am I? Was published in 2017. This book provides a thrilling and fun outline highlighting important facts on animals. Each page starts with facts on what features the animal has, before defining what animal it really is. The book provides multiple different animals, no matter the species or the habitat they live in.

“The scents of huckleberries, pine, and cedar imprint on the cubs. While their eyes come to know the mountains, their noses explore miles beyond what they can see.”

This book would be useful for the older grades. This book does a great job with its illustrations that allow children to stay focused and attentive throughout. This book also does a great job at vocabulary. Throughout the book there are blurbs explaining the word, so it would allow for a great vocabulary lesson.

The Grizzly Mother was published in 2019. Won the award for animal behavior society‘s children‘s book award. Also won an award for design and illustration. Highlights the importance of the Gitxsan people of British Columbia. Focuses on how together they share the land and the forest and how the grizzly bear is an important aspect of their landscape. Focuses on how the bear teachers their cubs to live on their own.

“What do you hope to accomplish?”

This would be a great book for the older kids, such as third through fifth grade. This would be a great book to use to introduce the civil right movement. It can highlight separate ideas that might not always be talked about in the history books. I think that the images used were really empowering and would be beneficial for children to see.

Published in 2020. Has won many awards. Biography about Ella Baker. Ella Baker was an activist fighting for freedom for black people. Throughout the storyline, it talks about the way she grew up hearing the inequality she was faced to live with. She fought with major known people, like Martin Luther King. She worked from the bottom to the top to find people to support and join her in fighting for freedom.

“Eventually Frida decided to show everyone her work. Her pictures caused a great stir in New York City.”

This book would be great for the older grades. When the books start to become more informational and in depth, I think that it would be beneficial for the older grades. This would be a great book to highlight the importance of women. It can be entertaining, but also seen as controversial, so take caution while reading through it with children. It is an easy book for children to identify the characters.

This story is an amazing one to use with older grades, 3rd-5th. The Holocaust is a heavy topic to discuss, but this breaks down some of those who lived through it, and also has an ending that is so touching. The pictures are wonderful and they draw the reader in to get to know both Nicky and Vera, and all that they experienced during those years.

“Nicky was the guest on a television show. He didn‘t know it, but the old friends he had been invited to meet were some of the children. Vera was one of them. She sat next to Nicky. When the host told her story, she stood up.”

Published in 2021. At the end of 1938, when the Germans invaded the border region of Czechoslovakia, a young Englishman named Nicky arranged for the transport of 669 children from there to England. The author weaves Nicky‘s story with Vera‘s, a Czech child who was one of those Nicky saved. This is a story told with a powerful combination of words and pictures to engage both those who know some history of the Holocaust and those new to the topic.

Frida Kahlo by Isabel Sanchez Vegara. Published in 2015. Biography of Frida Kahlo. This book follows the life of Frida Kahlo from her as a child to the impacts she made through her paintings as an adult. It doesn‘t stray away from the hardships she went through and how she overcame them. The illustrations are vibrant like her paintings a tell a beautiful story.

“Unique from the start, an unusual girl, she loved spinning in circles and watching things twirl.”

This book is very child friendly and covers topics that may be hard to talk in the classroom about like disabilities. I think this book can be used to start that conversation in the classroom.

The Girl Who Thought in Pictures about Temple Grandin by Julia Finley Mosca was published in 2017. This biography was also turned into a movie. This book is about Temple Grandin, a girl who had autism, and how she conquered the world! This book has a riming flow and the illustrations are drawn in a childlike way.

“Temple has made a lasting impact to the way that livestock are treated.”

This book does a great job with its illustrations. It provides an easy journey for children to learn about Temple‘s life. The way that the text is spread out makes it easy for children to read. This would be great for any grade level as a read aloud. This would be a great book to do a flip chart activity with.

Women In Science Temple Grandin was written by Ruby Cardona. Published in 2019. There are currently no awards. Based On Temple Grandin who was involved in progressing science and technology. She invented farm technology that has changed the way live stock was treated all over the world. Along side of changing the way live stock is treated, Temple also has autism. She supports autism awareness, she has impacted that community immensely.

“Just imagine, if you could, a creepy crawler crunching wood.”

This book would be great for younger grades learning about insects. A fun activity could be picking a bug to draw and write a fact about it. You could also take students outside to observe live bugs.

Cricket in the Thicket by Carol Murray. Published in 2017. Won the notable poetry and verse novels. This is a playful book with many poems about all different kind of bugs. The author also incorporates facts about each bug on each page. The illustrations are beautiful and give accurate representations of insects. They also incorporate collages of newspaper clippings and pictures that add a lot of texture.

“Mix a pancake,
Stir a pancake,
Pop it in the pan;
Fry the pancake,
Toss the pancake-
Catch it if you can.”

The book starts with a poem about how to write a poem which would be a great introduction into learning how to write poems. Great for upper grades to use during a poetry unit or even for lower grade levels to learn about rhyming words and during units about animals. You can tie this into a lot of different units and grade levels!

The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How- to Poems by Paul B. Janeckzo. Published in 2019. The book has 33 different poems by a variety of different poets. Each poem covers a different subject including animals, food, and life. There are beautiful illustrations that help bring the poems to life. The poems are aimed or about children!

“The seeds of thoughts were planted. I had set my story free! That poem in my pocket turned into a.. POETREE!”

I Loved this book. I think that it did a wonderful job highlighting poetry. The journey that the child follows makes a great journey for children to follow along with. I think the ending is very fun and brings the whole story together. This would be a wonderful read aloud for all grades!

Poem in My Pocket by Chris Tougas was published in 2021. A child carefully written book falls out of his pocket. As the words from the poem begin to slip out of his pocket, they begin to write the town with words. As he begins to collect the words again, they are swopped back falling into the mud. But soon they form into a beautiful tree painting a wonderful POETREE!

“Sunlight and shadows danced through the leaves above them as they silently searched for the most marvelous words to describe it all.”

Great story for all grades! Can deep dive into nature and use this book to dive into any topic on weather/science. Would be a great introduction into Earth Day and the beauty around us and how nature can help fill a void you might be feeling.

Poetree by Shauna LaVoy Reynolds. Published in 2019. Sylvia celebrates spring by writing a poem, she decides to share it with the birch tree in the park, tying it around the trunk. The boom is about finding beauty in the world around you and finding new friends in unlikely places. Many people can find comfort in the natural world and embracing nature.

“Additional symptoms, you ask? I dunno
I guess otherwise I feel fine
But if I showed up at school like this
My teacher will loose her mind.”

These are fun and have to do with things that children face in their daily lives- sports, bath time, homework, bedtime and more. They take these mundane tasks and turn it into a fun poem to read and relate to.

This poetry book by Rhett Miller illustrated by Dan Santat has awesome poems that I know students of many different grades would find hilarious to hear/read. these poems are all about children and defy the rules of writing. There are some about tech devices and random events or things the children enjoy. The illustrations are amazing and elevate each poem and the feelings they convey.

“She carried more than
twelve hundred men
on deck, or working down below.
We didn‘t look up. We didn‘t know.”

I think that this was a great book, highlighting the importance that heroes can make in disastrous situations. One of the poems that resonated with me was “Aloha”. It talked about how a grandmother became a hero. This book highlights a tragedy, but it turns it into a way that we can make a difference. No matter how big or small. This would be a great book for older kids, not the younger kids.