If You Give a Pig a Pancake: By Laura Numeroff

 This is a story about a girl and her pig.  It starts off with the girl giving her pig a pancake.  It follows through as every time the pig gets something new, it needs to have or do something else. The pig ends up with a pancake, some syrup, a bath, a rubber duck, tap shoes, music, a photoshoot, a bunch of letters to mail, a treehouse, and in the end, more pancakes!

I think I probably would use this book in my class.  It has a lot of different events so I could do an activity with that.  It also has a lot of events that students would relate to.  I think this book would be best for first or second grade.  

Corduroy: By Don Freeman

 This story is about a little stuffed bear who wears green overalls.  His name is Corduroy.  In this story, Corduroy lives in the toy store and a girl named Lisa sees Corduroy in the store. Lisa wants to buy Corduroy but her mother says no because he is too expensive and he is missing a button. That night Corduroy goes on an adventure to find his missing button but he can not find it. The next day Lisa comes back with her piggy bank and buys Corduroy.  She takes him home and sews on a new button.  In the end, Lisa and Corduroy talk about being friends and how they have always wanted a friend.

I think I would use this book in my classroom because it is just a fun read-aloud.  It seems perfect for lower elementary students, around kindergarten through 3rd grade. I am not sure how I would tie it into other parts of the lesson, possibly talk about the sequence of events.  

The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds: By Joanna Cole

In this book, Ms. Frizzle's class goes on a field trip to examine flowers.  They all get on their magic school bus and it magically grows wings and shrinks to take them inside of a flower.  They see bees and ladybugs that are the same size as their bus and then make their way into the flower.  The class stepped in sticky nectar inside of the flower.  They examed the anther, which is the part of the flower that makes pollen.  They visited the stigma which is the center part of the flower. They also saw the seeds flying in the wind.  After visiting each part of the flower, the students get back on the bus where they return to normal size and return to their classroom.  

I think I would use this book in my classroom while doing a science unit on flowers.  I think this book would be good for students in 2nd or 3rd grade.  I think it could be used for a science lesson as maybe an opening to a unit on flowers and the different parts of them.  

Dolphins at Daybreak: By Mary Pope Osborne

 This book is book number nine in the Magic Tree House series.  It begins with Jack and Annie going to their magic tree house and finding a quest that has been left for them.  They must visit the ocean to solve a riddle, and they get to the ocean by picking up a book about dolphins and wishing they could go there.  They are then magically transported in their treehouse to a coral reef.  They get in a submarine and look for the answer to the riddle they have been given.  The sub begins to crack and they worry it will sink.  They get out and start swimming to shore, but it is too far.  They end up riding on the back of dolphins back to the shore. Right as they are about to give up on the riddle, they finally solve it.  Jack steps on an oyster which is the answer to the riddle.  They then get back in the treehouse and wish to go home.  Once they arrive home, it is like no time has passed.  

I really like this book and I would really like to use it in my classroom.  I think it sparks a lot of imagination of where would you go if you could wish it in a magic treehouse.  I think that it would be really fun to have the students try to solve the riddle as they read.  I also think it would be really cool to read when studying the ocean in science class.  I think this book would be good for 2-4th grade.  

Charlotte's Web: By E.B. White

 Charlotte's Web begins with a hook.  Fern speaks first with the attention-grabbing line “'Where's Papa going with that axe?". This immediately grabs the reader's attention as the story unfolds.  The story focuses on a spider named Charlotte and a pig named Wilber.  Fern's father plans to kill Wilber because he is a runt but Fern stops him and Wilber is instead sold. This story has a central theme of seasons and life passing/the circle of life.  Wilber and Charlotte become friends and Fern continues to come to visit Wilber and insists that she hears the animals talk.  Charlotte begins to spin words in her web to play tricks on Wilber's owner, Mr. Zuckerman.  Mr. Zuckerman brings Wilber to the fair and Charlotte and Templeton, the rat, hide in the crate with him.  While at the fair, Charlotte announces that she will not return home since she will die soon, but Wilber and Templeton bring her egg sack back home with them so that Charlotte's descendants can continue to live on with them.  Wilber cares for the eggs and eventually they hatch and Wilber's new friends are born.  

I am not sure if I would use this book in my classroom. I remember reading it in second grade, but going back and rereading it, I am not sure about it.  I think that it does portray an interesting view on the circle of life and different seasons, but I feel like there are much better books now that portray that same message.  I think that the idea of Wilber and Charlotte talking does bring a spark of imagination to the reader which I really like, but I do know that some people are very bothered by some of the portrayals of death in this book.  I think it would change a lot based on where I was teaching and what the background of my students is.  

It's Snowing! It's Snowing! by Jack Prelutsky

 The book contains 16 short poems about winter and snow.  Individually these poems talk about how December days are short, how the ground looks when it snows, and what changes lead up to snow.  This book has lots of rhyming in it and there are also a lot of similes and metaphors. This book really helps the reader picture what it is like when it snows, even if the reader has not seen snow before.  

I think I would use this book in my classroom.  It would go very well with a unit about the different seasons and I think it also gets the reader excited for winter, or at least the idea of winter if they do not experience many winters where they live.  I think it is an appropriate reading level for first or second-grade students and I also feel as though it would be a fun read-aloud just reading one or two poems a day as a transition into a seasons unit.  

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed: By Eileen Christelow

 This book is about 5 monkeys who are jumping on the bed despite being told not to by their mother and their doctor.  This book does not have a very complicated plot as the whole book is very repetitive.  It has a distinct beat it should be read to and it also includes rhymes.  At the end of the book, once all five monkeys have fallen off the bed, gotten hurt, and gone to sleep, the last page shows the mother monkey jumping on her bed.  

I am not sure if I would use this book in my classroom.  This book seems better suited for preschool-age children as it is fun and repetitive, but there is not very much content within it to teach from.  I think it would make a fun read-aloud for preschool or maybe kindergarten though. 

Forget Me Nots, Poems to Learn By Heart: Selected By Mary Ann Hoberman

 This book has 136 poems written by many different authors.  They are put into the categories; The Short of It, One and All, Beautiful Beasts, Delicious Dishes, It's About Time, Happiness Is, Weather and Seasons, Sad and Sorrowful, Poems from Storybooks, and The Long of It.  The poems start out very short and get longer as the book goes on.  When reading through it, the poem that stuck out to me the most was titled San Fransisco.  This stuck out to me because it was not at all what I expected when I read the name.  The poem is written in both English and Spanish, and it is about a boy named Fransisco.  He talks about how he is so happy the city is named San Fransisco because that name is important to him and has been passed down through his family and now everyone knows how to say it and spell it.  

I am not sure if I would use this book for my classroom.  I think the poems inside of it are good for lower elementary students however the book itself is very larger and I feel it would be intimidating for younger students.  If I did use it,  I think I would use it for a read-aloud and read maybe a poem a day to the large group.  There are so many poems in this book on so many topics it would be very easy to tie them into different lessons.  

Little Miss Muffet: Told by Iza Trapani

 This story tells of a girl who runs away to escape a spider that frightened her.  In her escape from the spider, she runs into many other animals that frighten her even more.  She sees a mouse, a frog, a crow, a fish, and a moose.  Finally, she returns home to finish eating and while she sees no critters, there is a spider next to her in the illustration.  This book has a lot of rhyme in it and it also has a very specific beat it is naturally read to.  

I think I would use this book in my classroom.  I plan on teaching early elementary so this book would be good to teach rhyming words and also to work on reading comprehension and memory of what critters she encountered.  This book also has a simple plot that would be good for a beginner to work on retelling a story or writing a summary once they have heard the story.  

You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Mother Goose Tales to Read Together: By Mary Ann Hoberman

 This book contains 13 short nursery rhymes, each of them is about two pages.  This book has the text written in different colors, and it is meant to be read by two people or two groups of people alternating turns.  The story in this book are retellings of Humpty Dumpty, Jack Be Nimble, Jack and Jill, Jack Sprat, Little Jack Horner and Little Tommy Tucker, Little Boy Blue and Little Bo Peep, Little Miss Muffet, Old King Cole, and the Cat and the FIddle, Old Mother Hubbard, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater, Pussycat Pussycat Where Have You Been, Simple Simon, and Baa Baa Black Sheep.  

If I am teaching a lower grade like I would like to, I definitely think I would use this book.  This book would be good to work on reading in smaller groups especially.  If I were having the students do quiet reading, I also think I would use this book and maybe pair a student who is struggling in reading with a more confident reader and have them each read a color.  I think this book is perfect for maybe late in the year for kindergarten or for first grade or struggling second graders.  

The War that Saved my Life: By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

 This book was very surprising.  The story begins with a girl named Ada and her brother Jamie.  They live with their mom right before World War II.  Their mother treats Ada horriblily all because she has a club foot and can not walk very well.  Because of the approaching war, Jamie is to be sent to live out in the county with the other school children where he will be safer.  Mam does not permit Ada to go but she sneaks away and goes anyway.  Ada and Jamie end up staying with a woman named Suzan Smith, who is very kind to them despite not wanting children when they first arrive.  Under the care of Suzan, Ada gets much better.  She gets crutches so she can walk and she learns to ride a horse.  Jamie goes to school and continues to learn and Suzan teaches Ada at home how to read and write.  All the time they are preparing for the war, digging a shelter, beginning to ration food, and help at the WVS group.  Ada and Jamie grow to love living with Suzan but then their Mam comes to get them and take them back to London with her.  She does not approve of how proper her children have become and how nice they now look.  Once back in London she returns to treating Ada terribly and locking her up to avoid the "shame of having a crippled".  After Ada and Jamie have been back a few days, the Germans bomb London.  They barely make it to the shelter and when they come out they do not know what happened to Mam.  When they are looking around after they find Suzan who has come to take them back.  When Suzan and the children arrive back at Suzan's home, they find that it has been bombed.  The only reason Suzan is ok is that she came to get the children.  The whole time when reading the book, I assumed the only life that was saved in this was Ada as she was finally allowed to experience life but in the end, I realized Suzan's life had also been saved by the children.  

This is an amazing book but I do not think I would use it in my classroom.  This book is definitely more appropriate for upper elementary students or maybe even junior high and I plan on teaching lower elementary.  If I ever taught a higher grade I would definitely use it.  This book is so interesting and there were a lot of hidden lessons in it.  This book could also be paired with a history unit on World War II and talking about the experience of children during this time.