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Folklore Contrast

 Tall tale:  The Tale of Paul Bunyan  Lori Houran (author) Luke Flowers (Illustrator) Cryptozoology: Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures that May or mAy Not Exist.  Kelly Halls (Author) Rick C. Spears (Author, Illustrator) Roxyanne Young (Author)  While Paul Bunyan is a book that sets out to entertain with a whimsical tale of folklore, Cryptids makes an earnest attempt to educate its reader about the various far fetched animals in its pages.  While both books are based on Folklore, each book takes itself very differently. Paul Bunyans book seeks to entertain with the adventures of the literally larger than life main character. while Cryptids focuses on the more believable side of folklore. While cryptids are perhaps more legitimate a field of study to some, the creatures of its pages are indeed sometimes as far fetched as Paul Bunyan himself.  The Illustrations are an interesting contrast, Bunyans are very much typical children's affair, but Cr...

The Giving Tree, a notable book from my childhood.

      The book from my early childhood that has stuck with me the most is The Giving Tree. As an adult the books meaning has changed greatly, but as a child it was an early emotional experience that i've come to relish in my literature. As a teacher, I'll always have this book available, even if my chosen age arrange of students might be thought of as too old for it. As I've discovered, this book only improves with age, and will be a great quick read for my students that ask for something that'll make them think, and feel. 

Caldecott book: this is not my hat

 This is not my hat is a lovely whimsical story about a missing hat. Having read I want my Hat back before I was greatly amused by the continuation of Klassens hat based comedy. This book is a great choice for a library that will be frequented by small children, and newer readers. Klassens simple and lovely illustrations add a sense of comfort to the story that is simply sublime. A worthy winner of the caldecott for sure. It lives up to the awards insistence at its value as american children's literature. 

3 picture books

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 We Don’t Eat Our Classmates. Ryan T Higgens New York Times Best Seller This story scratched a very old bit of nostalgia for me, and reminded me of the picture books I had as a Child.  Where The Sidewalk Ends  Shel Silverstein I believe This qualifies, tho shels style is a bit more minimalist that I expected Giraffes Can’t Dance Giles Andreae Guy Parker Rees Giraffes can’t dance absolutely qualifies as a picture storybook

Newberry award book

 For my award winning book, I chose The Giver. The Giver is a Newberry award winner I saw many times on shelves as a Child, yet never actually read. Now having read the book, its interesting just how well it would have fit in among the other Books I read at the time. Given that I’ve always been a Dystopian fiction fan, its interesting to see a few Tropes that have permeated the genre work so well with the Givers Target audience. While it has no Harrison Ford with an origami unicorn, it does have an excellently crafted Sled ride to enjoy. 
 4/18 Bomer book Reaching into memory Is the first bomer strategy for writing to think. Memory is a strong part of every person, its very safe to ask a student to draw from memory to encourage them to think.  Thinking about a person also follows this trend, allowing a student to call upon the familiar. The separation of the journal from the negativity of school in a child's mind is very important according to what I've gathered from Bomer in Intentional strategies versus assignments. 

slice of life 4/12

 Slice of life. Today a student was trying to conceal an injury, he was dead set on playing soccer on hairline fractures in his foot, Limping in pain he quiqly ditched his bandages and forced me to confront him about it. Perhas one of the more surreal moments in teaching, and he was very upset I made him tell the truth. But as a teacher his safety was paramount to my role.