(1 bk)

Blumberg, R. (2004). York’s Adventures with Lewis and Clark: An African-American’s Part in the Great Expedition. New York: Harper Collins.

Book type: Partial biography, 88 pages

Awards:
2005 Orbis Pictus Award
ALA Notable Book
Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

Grades: 4th to 8th

Summary: The focus of this book is on a forgotten man who traveled with Lewis and Clark on their expedition. York was an African-American slave. He was the personal servant of Clark and he grew up with Clark from childhood. He was the only slave that was taken on the expedition. Because York was black, Indians who had never seen a black person thought that he was strong and almost magical. He helped to gain the Indian’s trust and helped make peace with them so that the expedition could continue on their journey. Although much of York’s life was not recorded, this account helps the reader to understand that had it not have been for him, the expedition would have failed.

Credibility of Author: From letters of Wiliam’s Clark letters to his brother Jonathan, James J. Holmberg edited these letters so that people could read Clark’s own words. Rhonda Blumberg draws on Clark’s journal entries to tell this story about York.

National Standards:Social Sciences Standards: Living and Working Together in Families and Communities, Now and Long Ago, The History of the United States: Democratic Principles and Values and the People from Many Cultures who Contributed to its Cultural, Economic, and Political Heritage, Era 2: Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763), Era 3: Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)

Illustrator/Illustrations: The illustrations were selected by Rhonda Blumberg and include: reproduction of paintings, photographs, prints, documents, and artifacts.

Access features: table of contents, chapter titles, introduction, endnotes, bibliography, subject index, and illustration credits

My response to the book: It is truly amazing and sad how many of African-Americans are forgotten for their contributions. It is great that Blumberg took the time to write a book that gives us the information about one of these great contributors. I had never heard of York until I read this book. The end of his life was truly upsetting because I hoped that he would have died a happy man after all that he went through. This was definitely a great to use as a literature discussion. I experienced so many emotions while reading about this great man.

How I would use this book in my classroom: I would use this book a discussion during Black History month. We have a celebration and play that discusses many African-Americans on the last Friday of February. This would be a great book for our sixth grade class to read and act out.

Related text: In Search of York: The Slave Who Went to the Pacific With Lewis and Clark by Robert B. Betts, and How We Crossed The West: The Adventures Of Lewis And Clark by Rosalyn Schanzer

Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper

(3 books)

Draper, S. (1994). Tears of a Tiger. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Book type: Chapter book, 162 pages.

Grades: 8th and up

Awards:
1995 American Library Association/Coretta Scott King Genesis Award for an outstanding new book ALA Best Book for Young Adults



Outstanding book by:
· The Children's Book Council
· The New York City Library
· Bank Street College
· National Council for Social Studies
Best of the Best by YALSA as one of the top 100 books for Young Adults

Summary: The focus of this book is on drinking and driving, racism, teenage depression, parental relations, pressure to do well in school, suicide, and losing friends. Andy Jackson and three of his other friends won a great game of basketball at Hazelwood High School. They decide to celebrate the victory with a little “cool bottle of sunshine”. While riding and enjoying their celebration, they enjoy the beer a little too much. Before they know it, a wall is in front of them and they hit it. Three of the friends get out of the car, but Robert Washington is pinned in. Before the others could help Robert out of the car, it explodes leaving Robert dead. Andy was the driver and Roberts best friend. While the other guys and friends are able to cope with the death of Robert, Andy blames himself and beginning to self-destructing. Only Andy’s girlfriend knows how he feels, while he has everyone else thinking that he is beginning to move on. While sitting on his bed, after ditching school, with his father’s shotgun he makes a decision. Feeling overwhelmed with his guilt, does he decide to move on or is this the end?

Credibility of the author: Draper has been a teacher for over twenty-five years. In her time, she has devoted time to dealing with teenage issues. Throughout her writing, she researches the issues to make sure that they are accurate of the facts being discussed. Tears of a Tiger is written for high school students--on their level, in their style, about their world. The book does not deal with drugs or gangs or sex. It does, however, deal with parents, girlfriends, and homework. It also discusses the problems of drinking and driving, racism and teen suicide.

Illustrations/Illustrator: Jacket illustration is by Kelynn Alder.

National Standards: Physical Education Standards: Responsible Behavior, Respect for Others, Understanding Challenge
Health : Using Communication Skills to Promote Health, Reducing Health Risks

Access Features: There is a dedication page and each chapter begins with the date that helps the reader to follow along when things are happening in the story. There is a book jacket that gives information about the author and a short summary about the book.

My response to the book: This is a very powerful book that draws the reader in from the very beginning. So much that happens in this book is truly what most teenagers face. Death seems to be a real subject that I think that almost everyone deals with in high school. Our school lost twelve students by the time that I graduated high school. So many of the emotions, that the characters in this book displayed, were experienced by me or my friends. This book made me think about some of the friends that I lost and have not thought of in quite a while.

How I would use this book in my classroom: This could be a book used with any student who has lost a friend and is trying to cope. There are a number of situations that this book deals with that can be addressed such as: drinking and driving, racism, and pressure to do well. I think it would be great to use this book as a way of helping students understand action and consequences.

Related text: Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

(1bk)

Leedy, L. (2002). Follow the Money. New York, NY: Holiday House.

Book type: Informational picture book, 32 pages

Grades: Kindergarten to 3rd

Awards:
2004 Nominated for the Emphasis on Reading Award

Summary: This book’s focus was on a newly minted quarter. The reader follows George Washington (a quarter) on an adventurous day from the Federal Reserve to the local bank, where he is picked up by a grocer for his store. George makes his way to different places such as a soda machine, piggy bank, toy store, candy store, washing machine, and finally back to a bank. Several math problems are introduced and the reader is to figure out how much change a lady gets from a twenty dollar bill. Of course it is only a quarter.

Credibility of the author: Loreen Leedy majored in art in college but wasn't sure what kind of artist to be. She began making polymer clay jewelry and chess sets and selling them at craft shows. At the age of twenty-five years she began turning her jewelry into book characters. Her first published title was A Number of Dragons, a counting book written in verse. She has written and illustrated over 30 picture books, and is working on one right now in her studio in central Florida. To gather information on a topic, she reads books and magazines, and searches the Internet.

Illustrator/Illustrations: Loreen Leedy is the illustrator of her own books. She uses pencil, photographs, digital collage and painting to illustrate this book.

National Standards: Math Standards: Mathematics as Problem Solving, Mathematics as Communication, Mathematics as Reasoning, and Mathematical Connections

Access Features: There is a "More About Money" section and a list of money words are appended. The large type is all over the place with dialogue and thought balloons and text compete for readers' attention.

My response to the book: This book has been well planned and thought out. I liked the way that the money talks to the reader and to each other. It is very different from many of the books that I have found. It doesn’t just give the reader the information in a very plain voice. It is energetic and keeps the reader wanting to know where George Washington will go next.

How I would use this book in my classroom: I think that this would be a great book to use when teaching the different coins. When school ended this year, I was currently teaching some of my students the different coins. I will definetly use this book when I return after the summer vacation to reinforce and teach some of my new students. Additionally, this is a great book to use when teaching how money circulates. It would be great to mark a coin with a piece of tape and see if the students can follow it through out the day.

Related text: Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money by Amy Axelrod, The Penny Pot by Stuart J. Murphy, and Once Upon a Dime: A Math Adventure by Nancy Kelly Allen

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

(4 bks)

Anderson, L. (1999). Speak. New York, NY : Farrar Straus Giroux.

Book type: Novel, 197 pages.

Grades: 8th and up




Awards:
Michael L. Pritz Honor Book
National Book Award Finalist
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
Booklist Editors’ Choice
The Horn Book’s Honor List

Summary: The focus of this book tells the story of peer pressure, a sense of needing to fit in, and rape. Melinda Sordino, a student who is just entering high school, finds herself with no friends just because of a summer party gone wrong. Her friends don’t know the whole story of why she called the cops, all they can think about is how she ruined a great time. Unable to deal with what happened at the party, Melinda finds herself unable to speak about what happened and begins self-destructing. As the school year continues, she finds the courage to speak up about what happened in fear that the same thing will happen to an ex-friend who she still cares about. She regains her courage and her voice but will it happen to her again? While cleaning out her safe room that she finds during the school year to escape to, Andy Evans is furious because she has told her ex-friend what happened. Will Andy rape her again or does he just want to talk?

Credibility of Author: Laurie Halse Anderson suffers from nightmares. One night she awoke to what she thought was a woman crying. Unable to go back to sleep, she starts writing. The development of Melinda begins. She used a lot of her high school memories to create this novel. To research, she headed to the twin touchstones of suburban adolescents: Taco Bell and The Mall. She watched, she talked, and she listened. This novel was not written about her or her daughters.

Illustrator/Illustrations: The jacket art is by Michael Morgenstern.

National Standards: Physical Education Standards: Responsible Behavior, Respect for Others, and Understanding Challenge
Health Standards: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Health Information, Products and Services, and Using Communication Skills to Promote Health

Access features: There is a book jacket that tells a short summary of the book and information about the author. There is a dedication page and topic headings that help the reader to understand what they are about to read about.

My response to the book: This book definitely captured the sense of wanting or trying to fit in. It really brought home the emotions that teenagers feel when seen as an outcast. I liked the way that the author let Melinda tell the story instead of just telling the reader how she felt. This helped the story become more powerful in understanding her thoughts, rage, and anger at the people who hurt her. This really drew me in to wanting to help Melinda to open up and speak.

How I would use this book in my classroom: This would be a great book to discuss how we can self-destruct if we don’t talk about what is bothering us. I feel that most students can relate to wanting to fit in or being seen as an outcast. There are many discussions that could come from this book such as: rape, prejudice, and prom-night.

Related text: Cut by Patricia Mccormick and It Happened to Nancy: By an Anonymous Teenager, A True Story from Her Diary by Beatrice Sparks

The Battle of Jericho by Sharon Draper

(6 bks)

Draper, S. (2003). The Battle of Jericho. New York, NY. Antheneum Books for Young Readers.

Book type: Chapter book, 297 pages

Grades: 8 and up

Awards:
2004 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner

Summary: The focus of this book tells the story of peer pressure, popularity, and hazing. Jericho was very excited when asked to help with the toy drive that The Warriors of Distinction held every year. This meant the beginning of the process to be asked to become a Warrior. Although this club has lasted for almost fifty years, it looks great when looking from the outside in. When Jericho and a few of his friends were asked to join, the initiation rituals seemed harmless and only a little humiliating, but as the week progressed, the things the initiates were asked to do bordered on hazing. Jericho struggled with whether he was doing the right thing or if he should drop out, then all the initiates would suffer. During the initiation week things turn twisted and become deadly.

Credibility of Author: Draper wrote this book at the suggestion of a ninth-grade student. She was asked by this student to write a book about what they make teens do to be accepted at her school. Draper was intrigued and started asking young people around the country what they thought about the idea. Students offered suggestions about activities, clubs, and sports teams that involved activities that could be classified as hazing, which is illegal in all states. Other students told her about dealing with the kind of peer pressure that is unspoken, but very, very powerful.

Illustrator/Illustrations: The jacket photograph is by Eric Boscoul and jacket design is by Russell Gordon.

National Standards: Physical Education Standards: Physical Activity, Physical Fitness, Responsible Behavior, Respect for Others, Understanding Challenge

Access features: There is a dedication page and each chapter begins with the date that helps the reader to follow along of when things are happening in the story. There is a book jacket that summary of the book and information about the author and a short summary about the book.

My response to the book: This book took an interesting approach to how teens feel the pressure to fit in and do what it takes to become popular. However, I wished that more emphasis would have been place on Jericho’s decision about competing in the musical contest for a scholarship to Julliard. It seemed very important to him in the beginning of the book. This initiation phase reminded me of my first week of basic training. I was like the characters who were a little scared and unsure of themselves during this time.

How I would use this book in my classroom: I would use this book to help my students understand that some things are more important than just trying to fit in. I think it would be a great book to discuss peer pressure with my students. Additionally, I would explain to them that if the person that they chose only likes them because of the club they are in, then they don’t need that person anyway.

Related text: Shattering Glass by Gail Giles and You Don't Know Me by David Klass

Dinosaur Ghosts: The Mystery of Coelophysis by J. Lynett Gillette

(1 bk)

Gillette, J. (1997). Dinosaur Ghosts: The Mystery of Ceolophysis. New York, NY. Dial Books for Young Readers.

Book type: Specialized book, 32 pages

Grades: 4th to 6th

Awards:

Summary: This specialized book discusses what may have happened to the Coelophysis (SEEL-oh-FIE-sis) dinosaur. Ned Colbert was a paleontologist that worked for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. During the summer of 1947, Ned Colbert had set out to collect fossils in Arizona but stopped to look around Ghost Ranch north of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Professor Charles Camp found some fossils there three years earlier. These bones had been from the Triassic period (245 to 280 million years ago). These bones were the size of a dog. The paleontologist studied the arrangement of the bones to determine how and why they died. Several different scenarios have been questioned by scientists who have used the fossil evidence to try to solve this mystery.

Credibility of author: J. Lynett Gillette completed a double major in anthropology and journalism and went on to two years of graduate study in anthropology at Southern Methodist University. She went to New Mexico to help create a new museum of natural history in Albuquerque. Lynette worked in the fossil preparation lab and began casting and restoring fossils at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico and the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

Illustrator/Illustrations: Douglas Henderson used full-color paintings in pastels, while art on back cover and page 14 is drawn in pen and ink. Additionally, photographs are used in the book showing pictures of the excavation at Ghost Ranch.

Access Features: Acknowledgments are found on the verso page, Colbert’s telegram to the American Museum of Natural History asking for more help is shown, headings for the different topics, and index and pronunciation guide at the back of the book.

My response to the book: I like the way this book answered many different possibilities that could have happened to these dinosaurs. It showed that the scientist do think through the possibilities before making a decision. The author let the reader know that no one is for sure what happened to them and the best that scientist can tell is from the clues that they have found. I find dinosaurs very interesting and this book creates an interest in finding out more about them.

How I would use this book in my classroom: I would use this book when discussing prehistoric times. It would also be a great book to use when discussing hypothesis and theories. This book would help young students understand the process that scientist go through in developing a theory as to what happened.

Related text: DIGGING FOR BIRD-DINOSAURS: An Expedition to Madagascar by Nic Bishop, DINOSAURS (A Magic Tree House Research Guide) by Mary Pope Osborne, and BEYOND THE DINOSAURS!: Sky Dragons, Sea Monsters, Mega-Mammals and Other Prehistoric Beasts by Howard Zimmerman

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

(5 bks)

Larson, K. (2006). Hattie Big Sky. New York. NY: Delacorte Books for Young Readers.

Book type: Chapter book (23 short chapters), 289 pages.

Grades: 8 and up. Although this book is recommended for young adults, I would recommend this book starting at fifth grade. There isn’t anything that is inappropriate that they will be exposed in this book. The language is very easy to read and understand.

Awards:
2007 Newbery Honor Book

Summary: This historical fiction book is about Hattie who had dreamed of a time when she could call a place her own instead of being trapped with Aunt Ivy. This narrative begins when Hattie was just two years old when her father died and five when her mother died. Hattie’s Aunt Seah took her in after her mother died but soon became too frail to take care of her. Hattie was shuffled from relative to relative until Aunt Ivy and Uncle Holt took her in. Hattie was thirteen at the time when she was shuffled to Aunt Ivy and Uncle Holt (they are a distant cousin) to live. Aunt Ivy felt that it was a chance to fulfill her Christian duty to take her in. Aunt Ivy was very mean and really didn’t like Hattie. Just before Hattie was about to graduate from school, now sixteen, Aunt Ivy found a job for her in a boardinghouse. For once, Aunt Ivy would finally get rid of Hattie. However, on the very day of this discussion a letter for Hattie arrived from her unknown late mother’s brother who had just died, in Montana. He had left her his 320 acres, a cow, and a horse. However, there was one thing that she must do to call this place her own; she had 10 months to meet the remaining requirements in order to keep it. Not knowing what she was up for, she headed west to stake her claim.

When she arrives at Wolf Point, Montana, she meets Perliee and Karl Mueller and their three children. They helped Hattie and taught her what to do for the winter. Even the children know more than she did about farming and living in the west. On the very first day, Chase Mueller, eight years old, had to rescue her from the frozen pump handle that she had accidentally got her hand stuck to because of the freezing weather. He shared many tricks that he had learned about surviving on the homestead.

Although life was hard farming and trying to meet the requirements, she was very determined to stick it out. While writing to her friend, Charlie who is in France fighting in the war, she finds that they are sharing a lot of the same experiences. Both Charlie and Hattie were chasing a dream that they thought would be completely different. The WWI war efforts seem to be too much for everyone in Vida, Montana and the hail storm that blew through didn’t help either. Hattie found herself broke but with more love and friendship that she could have ever asked for. She had learned about true friendship and who she was in her year on the prairie.

Credibility of the author: Through Kirby Larson interest about her great-grandmother, she stumbled onto the Montana Bureau of Land Management records. Larson found her great-grandmother’s mother with claim number. From there, she ordered diaries kept from other “honyocker”. Many of the incidents were based on actual events that she read in the diaries.

National Standards: Social Studies: Civic Life, Politics, and Government, Foundations of the American Political System, Roles of the Citizen, Scarcity, Role of Incentives, Markets -- Price and Quantity Determination, Role of Resources in Determining Income, Era 7: The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)

Illustrations/Illustrator: Jacket illustration is by Jonathan Barkat. The painting may have been done with acrylic paint. It is a full painting that stretches from the front to the back of the book.

Access Features: dedication page, acknowledgments page, each chapter starts with the date, two recipes at the end of the last chapter, author’s note, further reading page, and about the author page

My response to the book: I thought this book was great. It showed how the determination and perseverance of a young woman was very powerful. I wished that I could have learned more about the rest of Hattie’s life after she left Vida, Montana. I wonder if she met up with Charlie again. Also, I would have liked to learn more about her unknown uncle. This has been my favorite book so far.

How I would use this book in my classroom: This would be a great book to use when discussing WWI. Larson gave a page for further reading. I think it would be great to have the students to research Hattie to find out more information abut her. Additionally, I think students would be able to relate to this book more because of the war in Iraq and how people in America face prejudice because they come from the country that we are at war with.

Related text:Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins and Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata