Book Annotations Traditional Literature Annotation The Persian Cinderella By Shirley Climo Art by Robert Florczak 1999 Harper

Collins Publishers Traditional Literature 32 pages

Lindsey Vande Wall

Summary: This story is a retelling of Cinderella from Persia. The story follows Settareh, who is abused and ignored by her stepmother and stepsisters. All of the sudden she finds her life changed by a little blue jug that grants her wishes. The occasion for the royal festival takes place during No Ruz or the New Year where she is dressed in fine clothes and jewelry from the jar. She loses an important part of her outfit fleeing from the ball to beat her stepmother and stepsisters home. This story has a different twist and elements than the Cinderella story we are used to. The Persian Cinderella is based on The Anklet, a retelling of Cinderella by Naomi Lewis in the Stories from the Arabian Nights. Personal Response: All throughout the book I felt bad for Settareh. I couldnt imagine having to live like that and being constantly picked on and looked down upon by my family it would be miserable. I felt bad especially when it talked about her having to eat melon rinds for supper because that is all she could find from the leftovers. Her father gave Settareh and all the other women in the house money to go to the market to buy fabric for the No Ruz. Settareh used it to buy almonds because she was hungry and gave money to a poor woman. I wasnt sure how she would use what little money she had left to make it to the ball. When she bought the clay pot I was thinking that this is when the fairy comes in and saves the day like in the Cinderella that I know. Even though this story is very different from the version of Cinderella that I know, I still found myself comparing a lot of the parts of this story to the story that I am more familiar with because they do have a lot of similarities.

Book Annotations Strengths/Weaknesses:

Lindsey Vande Wall

S: This book is a very good but different retelling version of the story of Cinderella. It does a good job of showing and telling a little bit about the Persian culture. The illustrations in the book really helped me understand the story and culture better too. They do a good job of showing the clothing, the culture of the people, landscape around the country, and activities that people from Persia do for entertainment. This book is well written and has many similarities, but many differences from the version of Cinderella that many kids in the United States know of. There is some helpful information for readers at the back of the book under the Authors Note that helped me understand some of the events and background knowledge of the book. W: There are some elements in this book that young readers probably will not understand and will need explained to them about some things in the Persian culture. Things like the arranged marriage, the womens headdresses, what a pari is, and why Settareh cant face the prince when she meets him again to help them understand the story better. How this book might be used: This book would work well for a read aloud or small group reading. I would use it to work on comparing and contrasting along with the version of Cinderella that we are more familiar with. I think that it could be used to get a good discussion going and force students to critically think about how the two stories are similar and different based on what they read. I think that this would really help them understand what comparing and contrasting is. It would help them better comprehend the books and future books they read by working on this strategy. I think this book could be used with upper elementary grades because it is a longer book and there are elements that are unfamiliar to them from a different culture that could impact their understanding of the story. By this age they should be able to use what comprehension strategies they know to understand the story and be able to compare and contrast.

Book Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

Historical Fiction Annotation Thank You, Mr. Falker By Patricia Polacco 1998 Philomel Books Historical Fiction 35 pages Summary: This book is about Trisha and when she turns 5, her grandpa gives her a book and recites an old family tradition. Trisha cant wait for school so she can learn to finally read too. She loves school at first, but quickly realizes learning is difficult for her. Trisha is a great artist and relies on drawing to make it through the school day. Others around her become aware that she has trouble reading, and start to make fun of her. It all changes in 5 th grade when Mr. Falker, a new teacher at school, stands up for her against all the bullies. He finds out she cant read, and calls her smart for tricking everyone all this time. In the end he spends extra time with her and changes her life forever, he taught her to finally read. Personal Response: I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a really good story and it is very touching. As a future teacher it shows me that I can make an impact on my students lives and maybe change them forever. I felt bad for Trisha when her grandparents died, she had to move, on top of that she couldnt learn to read, and everyone seemed to notice and picked on her constantly. I wanted to cheer when Mr. Falker came along and stood up for her. Finally someone realized she needed some extra help reading and along with the reading teacher helped Trisha to read in the end. I was surprised to find out in the end that Trisha was actually the author.

Book Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

Strengths/Weaknesses: S: This book is well written and it deals with some good themes throughout the book. It talks about bullying and how hurtful it can be, talks about how some people all struggle with different things Trishas being reading, and it shows that teachers can really help out. I really enjoyed reading the book and I think students would too. It also shows a little about history. You can see how kids were dressed, what some family traditions were like honey on the book cover, what cars looked like, and what schools looked like many years ago. It is also relevant to today because a story like this is very possible in schools today too. W: Before reading the book, I might talk about how people struggle with different things just like I struggle to draw or something like that. There will be kids in the class who struggle to read like Trisha and it might be good to talk about it before reading to say it is okay. How this book might be used: I would use this book as a read aloud to the class. It deals with the topics of bullying and how hurtful it can be, struggling with reading, and teachers. I think it is overall a very good story that will get kids engaged and focused on. It is a good way to talk about these topics, especially bullying. I would use it with 3rd-5th graders because I think they could fully understand the book and what is taking place.

Book Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

Fiction/Science Fiction Annotation Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp By Syd Hoff 1996 Harper Collins Fiction/Science Fiction Annotation 32 pages Summary: This book is about a boy named Danny who went to summer camp and took along his friend the dinosaur. The book goes through and tells the adventures of Danny and the dinosaur at camp. They went on hikes, played football, wrote letters home, had races, went on boat rides, and sat around campfires. Personal Response: I liked this book and think that young students would like it too. It is a level one book so it is very easy to read. I connected to it because it was a book that I read when I was younger and I think I read many from the Danny and the Dinosaur series. I liked how Danny used the dinosaur for everything he did and it made all of his work th at much easier for him. Its not realistic for a dinosaur to go to camp at all so it made the book kind of funny, especially how Danny and the campers used and interacted with the dinosaur. Strengths/Weaknesses S: This story is funny and enjoyable to read. It is a fiction book that could never happen, but I think it does a good job of making the reader feel like they are at the camp. Before reading the book I would let students know that it isnt real. The book is well written and at a level that

Book Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

would be good for young elementary students to read. It uses a lot of quotation marks and simple sentences that are good for beginning readers. W: I think that the teacher should introduce what fiction is before reading the book and I think that will help students understand the book better and find humor in it.

How this book might be used: I would use this book for lower elementary students probably around kindergarten or 1 st grade because it is a level one book. I would use it in a small group reading session or give it to kids to read individually. It would give them good practice on using quotation marks when reading. I could also use it as part of a fiction unit or something to introduce what fiction is.

Book Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

Realistic Fiction Annotation Knuffle Bunny Too By Mo Willems 2007 Hyperion Books for Children Realistic Fiction 40 pages Summary: This book is about Trixie and her stuffed animal Knuffle Bunny. It is the sequel to Knuffle Bunny where Trixie is a little bit older. She cant wait for her first day of school to show off Knuffle Bunny to everyone in the class because he is so unique and special. Until she gets to class and sees the Sonja has the same bunny. They fight over which one is better and how to say the name. The teacher takes the bunnies away and gives them back at the end of the day, only the girls get the wrong bunny back. They both realize it in the middle of the night and their dads make arrangements to meet and switch them back right away that night. After that the girls become best friends. Personal Response: I really like this book. I think it is a good story about going to school and friendship. The pictures and illustrations in the book are awesome. I think that they add that much more to the story, so the reader or listener can really grasp what is going on in the book since there arent a ton of words to describe the events because it is geared to a younger audience. I can relate to the book too because I remember having a stuffed animal when I was little that I had to take everywhere with me too. Strengths/Weaknesses:

Book Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

S: This story is funny and enjoyable to read. It talks about how exciting going to school is for the first time and seeing people you know. It is also about making friends and having something special that you want to share with people. A big strength is the photographs and the illustrations because they are a big part of the story and the book itself. The book is well written and it is something that could actually happen to younger students. It is the recipient of many awards including: Caldecott Honor Book ALA Notable Book Kirkus Review Best Book of the Year Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year W: In the book there are a lot of different frames of pictures and illustrations on each page. So before reading or during reading, I would help students by showing or telling them the order of the pictures and where to look. How this book might be used: I would use this book as a read aloud for younger elementary students probably in kindergarten or first grade. I would use their background knowledge to get them engaged and do a read aloud then ask them questions at the end. I think that students would really like this book, think it is funny, really like the pictures, and benefit from a read aloud of a book they probably couldnt read on their own yet.

Book Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

Poetry Annotation Rolling in the Aisles: A Collection of Laugh-Out-Loud Poems Edited by Bruce Lansky Illustrated by Stephen Carpenter 2004 Meadowbrook Press Poetry 106 pages Summary: This book is a collection of humorous poems written by several authors. The poems are included in this book were tested by a big panel of almost six thousand elementary and middle school teachers and students. The ones they chose are in the book. Rolling in the Aisles contains many sections on specific topics including Home on the Range, Everythings Relative, Brothers and Sisters, Friends, Pets, School, Sick, Sick, Sick, Out and About, Critters, Mother Goose, Silly Stuff, and Holidays. It includes over 80 funny poems so there is bound to be several in there that kids would like or possibly even relate to. Personal Response: There are so many topics covered in this book. I was able to connect to a lot of the poems. They all give a lot of descriptions and I could make a picture in my head of what that particular poem was describing. A few I could connect to real life were in the Brothers and Sisters section because I can remember when I thought that way a few times about my younger siblings and those were things they did. Most of the poems I just enjoyed reading and a lot of them made me smile. The poems are very goofy and it is a pretty easy read because of all the word choice and rhyming words.

Book Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

Strengths/Weaknesses: Strengths: This collection of poems is both funny and enjoyable to read. It covers many topics that you can read poems about. I think that students would love to read this book because it is very humorous and it deals with topics that they deal with everyday by putting a funny spin on all of it. The poems are well written and in the poetic format that we usually teach when first introducing poems. This book has been named to the Childrens Choice book list. Weaknesses: Most of the poems are easy to read and students would understand them, but there are a few that require some more background knowledge and the reader has to think about them a little bit to understand them. So most of the poems would work well for elementary students, but there are a few that are directed to an older audience. How this book might be used: This book would work well to show students that poems can be fun, funny, and enjoyable to read. Not all poems are serious. It would be a good tool to just get them reading because it is an enjoyable book with humor and the teacher could read them aloud to students too. It is a good way to help students become familiar with the format of poems and encourage them to maybe write poems of their own. From a literacy/reading stand point it could be a way to do some word work with rhyming words. I think this book would be most appropriate for elementary students about 3rd grade and up. Some of the poems are easier and would work well for 3rd graders, while some of them are more difficult and would work best for 5 th graders to read depending on the reading level of your students.

Book Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

Biography Annotation Rosa By Nikki Giovanni Illustrated by Bryan Collier 2006 Scholastic Inc Biography 28 pages Summary: This book tells the story of what Rosa Parks did for the civil rights movement. It tells a little bit about her life, what she did for a living, her husband, and her mother. Through illustrations and text readers learn what the buses in Montgomery were like during the civil rights movement, a little about the story of Emmet Till, the Womens Political Council, Brown v the Board of Education, colored sections in society, and other events/ laws that were in the United States during that time. The book also tells what happened the day Rosa said, no and started the Montgomery bus boycott that would last over a year. Later the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court who ruled that the segregation on the buses was illegal and it was wrong. Personal Response: While reading this book I did learn some things about Rosa Parks. I knew that she stood up for what she believed in on the bus and was arrested for it. I knew she started the Montgomery bus boycott and that that there was nothing equal about the South at that time. I didnt know what she did for a living, why she all of the sudden said no, and I had forgotten that the boycott lasted for so long until the Supreme Court ruled it was illegal. I really liked the

Book Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

book and thought it did a good job of giving facts because it told a good story, if I didnt know it was a biography I wouldnt have realized that it was actually giving me a lot of facts.

Strengths/Weaknesses: S: This book does a really good job of mixing in facts while telling a story. Readers can learn a lot while reading and get into a story that is enjoyable to read. It took a lot of bravery and courage for Rosa to do what she did and she made a change. It can show kids that they can make a change too. The book shares about the bus boycott, the Wom ens Political Council, the murder of Emmett Till, the civil rights movement, what life was like in the South, and Brown v the Board of Education. The pictures in the book are very good too. They add a lot to the book and allow readers to really see what was going on and what everything mentioned in the book looked like. Rosa is well written, easy to follow, and it is the recipient of the Caldecott Honor Book. W: There is a lot of background knowledge that kids might need to know before reading this book. They would need to know what segregation means, what was going on in Montgomery at that time, the different events that the book mentions, and a little bit about what the Civil Rights Movement was. For them to completely understand everything in the book they might need to be filled in on some of the information that the book includes. How this book might be used: I would use this book to help kids learn about Rosa Parks life, what she did, how important it was, and about the Civil Rights Movement in general. It does give a lot of facts and would allow my students to learn a lot. It would be a good book to read aloud to the class and I think that students about 2nd grade and up could understand and learn a lot from this book.

Book Annotations Nonfiction Annotations

Lindsey Vande Wall

Social Studies Text

Title: Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley Author and Illustrator By Sally M. Walker Publisher, Year Published and pages Carolrhoda Books, Inc. 2005 112 pages Summary: This book tells about the first submarine to sink an enemy ship and that was used in the Civil War. It tells what the submarine looked like, how the men operated it, what its mission was, and how it was missing for 131 years. No one could find it and no one had any idea why it sunk. In 1995 the Hunley was discovered at the bottom of the murky water buried under a lot of mud. They found the ship intact, the bones of the crew that seemed to be in battle position, many layers of sediment filling the ship, and more. The workers had to spend hours planning how to just get the sub out of the water let alone excavating and exploring the inside of the ship to find out more about it and how it might have sunk. Text Features / Patterns of Note: The text includes many helpful pictures with captions that go along with what the text is describing. It really helped me understand what some of the text was talking about. It also includes a prologue to give readers a little background information on the Hunley before reading the actual book. The book also includes a table of contents, a note from the author telling about her research, source notes along with a selected bibliography and websites in case you want more information on the Hunley or facts from the book, a glossary containing words that might be difficult, and an index all of which can be very helpful to readers. Age/ Grade Level and How It Would Be Used: th I would use this book for 5 graders and up because it is so long and contains some difficult words. The book is on a little known subject but it is very interesting. I would use it as a source for students who might want to learn more about the Civil War, submarines, want an interesting book to read, or who are doing a research project.

Book Annotations Science Text

Title: The Magic School Bus: Weathers the Storm

Lindsey Vande Wall

Author and Illustrator Written by Kristin Earhart Illustrated by Carolyn Bracken Publisher, Year Published and pages Scholastic Inc 2008 32 pages Summary: This book is about Ms. Frizzles class and their adventure to learn how rain and storms are formed. They are learning about weather in class like the different kinds of rain, storms, and the air around them. In their adventure they go up into the sky into a cloud and swirl around as the wind creates a storm. They get to see lightning, hear thunder, and eventually fall back to the earth as raindrops. There is a lot of information in the book from different students pap ers, the back ground posters, the illustrations, and the text.

Text Features / Patterns of Note: Some text features that were helpful were the last page that gives fun weather facts, the drawings of posters in the background that gave weather information, the students papers that had weather facts written in them, and the pictures really helped show what was going on and what the students were experiencing in the storm.

Age/ Grade Level and How It Would Be Used: nd I would use this book for older 2 graders and up. I think that they could handle reading the words in this book and be able to understand the information. I would use this book for them to read independently so they can see all of the pictures and read all of the little parts of texts that are in the background.

Book Annotations Math Text

Title: Fraction Action Author and Illustrator By Loreen Leedy

Lindsey Vande Wall

Publisher, Year Published and pages Holiday House Inc. Trumpet 1994 32 pages Summary: This book teaches readers about fractions. Miss Prime goes through different fractions with the class and they all come up with examples of that fraction like a half of a sandwich, three parts to a cookie, a four leaf clover, and so on. Miss Prime gives her class different situations and problems to solve using fractions such as dividing up marbles and splitting food for lunch equally. The book also gives problems for readers to think about too, with the answers in the back of the book.

Text Features / Patterns of Note: The book had many useful diagrams and pictures to help readers understand different fractions. It also gave many examples for readers to see so they could understand that fraction better. The book also had different problems for readers to solve to keep them engaged with the answers on the last page of the book for readers to check to see if they are correct. The book also has a table of contents that labels different sections of the book directing readers where to go if they need help or want to look up their answers.

Age/ Grade Level and How It Would Be Used: nd th I would use this book with 2 -4 graders learning about fractions. It is a very good book and has a lot of examples that would really help them understand fractions what they are, how they work, and how they look. I think that this book can be used to read to the class and project over an Elmo so the class could see the pictures clearly or it could be used for the students to read independently.