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This book is about a boy named Alex who suffers from dyslexia. He doesn't like to go to school because his peers make fun of him for not being able to read. He says that the letters jump around and he is unable to put them back together. He visits the school's psychologist who suggests that he visit Mrs. Baxter's room for kids with learning differences. In Mrs. Baxter's room, Alex finds his own way to learn how to read. He finally decides he likes reading and is determined to eventually read a full book on his own. This book shows children that there are other children out there that struggle with reading too. It also shows them that they can get better at reading as long as they have the help they need. Finally, it conveys the message to kids that they shouldn't give up. If you see a student struggling with reading, this would be a good book to recommend to the parents of that student. 

Marvin One Too Many is a really good book for children who are struggling to learn. This book is about a boy named Marvin and the struggles he has with reading. When Marvin first arrives at school, he does not have a desk and is one too many; it only gets worse from here. Marvin is the only one in his class who can not read. He often feels left out because of this. The children in his class laugh at Marvin and make fun of him because he can not read. A lot of children who have trouble reading can probably relate to Marvin. Finally with the help of his family, Marvin learns to read and begins to enjoy it! Since this is an "I Can Read Book," many children will be able to read this independently. This book can be found in the Penn State libraries.

"Least of All" is a heart touching story about a girl who is the youngest in her family. She is too young to help out with the rest of the chores on the farm, but she is able to help by churning the butter. During this time when she is all alone churning butter, she sits with the family Bible on her lap, and tries to teach herself how to read. This book is very strong in the importance of reading. It shows that reading is more of a luxarie in some households than it is a neccesity. The book also portrays a strong sense of family and tradition. "Least of All" is an excellent story for children to read. Through the determination of the little girl to learn to read, author Carol Purdy shows the importance of reading, and how lucky most children today have the opportunity of learning to read and having proper instruction. This is the kind of book that definitely would inspire kids to learn to read.

This book is part of a series called, Hank Zipzer, The World's Greatest Underachiever. The author Henry Winkler wrote this book based on his own experiences in school. He was diagnosed as having a learning disability known as dyslexia. Hank Zipzer is smart, creative and funny. He tries to do really well in school but for some reason always seems to get into trouble. This is a great book that children with learning disabilities can relate to. The age range it is aimed for can be a difficult age for children to deal with their differences. This is a book that all kids will enjoy.

Thank you Mr. Falker is an autobiography by Patricia Polacco. For those who know and love the books of Patricia Polacco, you might be surprised to read this book and find out how difficult it was for her to learn to read as a child. Because of her wonderful teacher, Mr. Falker, who never gave up on her, she began to feel smart and capable as she learned to read.

This book is a wonderful book to address a major issue in growing up, self-esteem. Curtis shows kids that feeling good means liking yourself the way you are. I'm Gonna Like Me celebrates kids differences such as, body type, missing teeth and personal style choices. This book teaches children to love themselves even if they make a mistake, don't know the right answer or get picked last in gym class. It encourages a healthy view of ones self, establishes a sense self worth and a positive outlook on life.  This book is an all around perfect book to teach self esteem, and the pictures make it even better.

Dear Jamie Lee Curtis,      Congratulations! My name is Brittney Ward, and I am pleased to inform you that your book, I'm Gonna Like Me, has been chosen as the recipient of the Kira Elizabeth Award for excellence in children's literature about growing up.      This award was created as part of an assignment in the Elementary Education block courses at Penn State University - Altoona Campus. Each student's task was to create an award for some unique aspect of children's literature and then create the criteria for the award. Our fellow students then nominated books for our award following the specific criteria. After looking closely at several nominations, we were to pick a winner and notify the author of our winning book.      The Kira Elizabeth Award was to be presented to a book that provided guidance to a child going through the trials and tribulations of growing up. In today's society, children are "growing up" much faster than in the past. Because growing up is a part of life, I wanted the book to be one a child could turn to when they wanted to learn about or take shelter in knowing the social and emotional obstacles that come along with growing up. Nominations had to include appropriate facts, reassurances, or guidance on how to deal with the social, emotional, and/or personal changes children age's 5-9 experience growing up, such as how to make friends, getting along with classmates, understanding their feelings, etc.      This award is in honor of a little girl named Kira Elizabeth Angello. She is three years old and, in my opinion, is growing up entirely too fast. I watch her from time to time and she loves books. Her mother always wants to make sure that she has high self-esteem and that she loves who she is. Therefore, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to 'shop around' for books that deal with that issue. In the wo

Courtney Sherkel 113 North 14th Avenue                       Altoona, PA 16601 <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>CREATEDATE<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  </span>\@ "MMMM d, yyyy"<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  </span>\* MERGEFORMAT <span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]-->March 6, 2008<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->           Mary Hoffman c/o Pat White  Rogers, Coleridge and White
20 Powis Mews
London
W11 1JN     Dear Ms. Mary Hoffman: Congratulations! I am pleased to announce that your book, Amazing Grace, has been chosen as the recipient of The Break-A-Leg Award for Excellence in Children's Literature about Theater, Acting, Singing, and/or Dancing. This award was created in my children's literature education class at <st1:PlaceName w:st=

This book is about a girl named Susan. Susan is being described as doing activities such as laughing, swimming, running, etc...Then the last page of the book has Susan sitting in a wheelchair. This book describes the messge that special needs children can do the same activities as the normal children.   Ashley Cribbs 124 Indiana Avenue Vandergrift, Pa 15690 aac5024@psu.edu March 4, 2008 Attention: Mrs. Jeanne Willis Books for Young Readers
Henry Holt and Company
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010   Dear Mrs. Willis: My name is Ashley Cribbs and I am a student at Penn State Altoona majoring in elementary education.  I am writing to inform you that your book, "Susan Laughs," has won the Special Kids Award for Children Literature. It is a book about children who have special needs or exceptionalities. This award was created in my Language and Literacy Education block. I was to create an award for any topic in children literature. Then, the class had to nominate books for each of the awards that each student created. Once completed, the nominee of the award had to choose only one book that the student felt met the requirements of the award. That is how I chose your book for my Special Kids Award.  I have dedicated my award to you because I felt that "Susan Laughs" is an excellent way to portray the message that even though children may have special

You have to Write by Janet S. Wong is a book about girls and boys struggling to write. The book is composed of short poems on teaching children on how to write. It starts by stating that the students do not like to write. The reason is due to the children not knowing what to write about. They have so many things going on in shcool and in their lives that they miss many opportunities to write. The students can write about anything that is happening in their lives. The book describes the writing process that children can understand. Overall, the book is very good and educational to help the struggling students learn to write. This is a wonderful book for children grades K-4 who are struggling to write. This book is available through Penn State libraries.

"The Growing Story" is a touching story about a little boy who sees everything around him growing larger and wonders if he is going to grow at all as well. This book has beautiful illustrations that support the text on every page. It's use of the boy's questioning throughout the story promotes the idea of curiosity and the want to learn being a good thing. The book also shows that being patient, and not rushing and getting upset over things that you do not see or do not understand, is the best way to go. "The Growing Story" is the type of book you would choose to read to a group of children who are just beginning to realize or understand that they are going to get bigger and that they are going to change...only it is going to take a little bit of time. A story like this could promote patience and understanding within the classroom setting very easily.

Bread and Roses, Too by Katherine Paterson is an excellent book. This book is about a families struggle through a workers strike. Rosa, one of the main characters, lives at home with her mother, sister, baby brother and another immigrant family.  Bread and Roses,Too portrays her emotions about the strike and her families involvement.  It also tells the story of a homeless boy who works in the mill where the workers are striking.  Both these children leave to go to Vermont until the strike is over. There they learn alot about life and family.  This book well suites the award becase both of the main characters are from single-parent homes and this issue is addressed many times.  A weakness of the book is that children may not relate to that specific issue becasue there iare so many other issues being addressed. Overall, this is a great book for the Aiden Jacob Lewis award because it portrays many single-parent families and all the families are not the sterotypical perfect family.

This book is a picture book for children about dealing with the absence of a father whether it's due to a death, not knowing, or absent fathers. The story is about a boy who gets picked on about not having a father and the mother explains the many reasons why a dad might not be present. The book also includes a section for teenage parents that consists of quotes, ideas, and how other single-parents dealt with this situation. This book would be a good book to send home to a single-parent family to help the child understand their family situation.

Dear Ms. Lindsay,             My name is Tania Lewis, and I am an Elementary Education major at Penn State- Altoona in Pennsylvania, and I am writing to you today to inform you that you have won the Aiden Jacob Lewis Award for excellence in Children's Literature about children who grow up in a single parent home for your story, "Do I Have a Daddy?" The criteria for this award is that the book should display excellence in the fact that it helps children understand that growing up in a single parent home isn't always as been as it may sometimes seem, and that they are not alone and are not the only child who lives in homes just like they do.This award was created in my LLED 402 class. This class is solely based on analyzing, reading, and working with all types of children's literature. Every student in the class was asked to create an award about something that means a lot to them and also name it after someone special. This award that I created is named after my three month old son, Aiden, and the reason for the category is because I am a single mother and I worry sometimes about questions my son will ask me when he gets older, so I thought if I had books to help him understand, that it wouldn't be as hard. Each student, after creating an award, had to nominate books for their classmate's awards. Once done, we got to pick the winning book, and had an award ceremony for the nominators of the books. I chose your book for many different reasons. I chose it because when Erik's mother is faced with the question, "Do I have a Daddy?" she is very positive and honest with him, thinking about his feelings and saying that not all children liv

Adam, who has dyslexia, is not alone when he looks for escape from the terrible task of learning to read. His difficulties cause change in behavior, frustration and a number of other problems. Parents and other adults sometimes do not know what to do, which can make the situation worse. It is not a matter of trying harder, but of having opportunities to participate in good activities. This book explains how children with dyslexia can get help once their disability is diagnosed. It is written in an easy to read format but is much like a what-to-do handbook. It is a good selection for children to read or have read to them. This book is available at Barnes&Noble. Enjoy (;

This novel's collection of fifteen short stories relates, in reverse chronological order, the experiences of the de la Torre-Garcia family: patriarch Carlos (Papi), mother Laura (Mami), and their four daughters- Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofia. The stories begin in 1989 with Yolanda's visit to her native country, the Dominican Republic, and work backward to 1956, before the family immigrated to New York City. The years in between are filled with the difficult process of acculturation for all members of the family. This stories strength is that it really gives you an idea of what it is like to move to a foriegn place and how hard it is to learn something that is complete opposite from what you are used to in your own country. From a teacher's perspective, I think this book would be great to do with a class because it introduces diversity to students. This book is available at Barnes&Nobles. Enjoy (;

"Once Upon a Time" is a heartwarming story about a girl who struggles with reading and gets teased at school. Sarie's old friend Auntie Anna is the one person who understands the difficulty she has with reading. Sarie learns to read when she finds a book that she likes and Auntie Anna supports her and gets her imagination going. Once Sarie accomplishes this, she is able to read in school and no longer gets teased. I would recommend this book to those children who are struggling with reading. Sometimes they just have to find something that interests them and that they enjoy to help them in the reading process. I would read this in a classroom of my own because many children can relate to what Sarie is going through.

A great portrayal of a mouse child learning to grow up and leave his childhood friend, his blankey. His mother helps him grow up and make his blankey into a big boy hankey! This book portrays a great picture of how and what it takes for children to grown up. This is one of the books strengths. From a teachers viewpoint I think this would be great to read with little children because they can relate to having to deal with something like growing apart from your childhood friend such as a blankey. I do have this book, it is my own, so if you would like to check it out, you can get it from me, Enjoy (;

March 5, 2008 Carrie Frederick 376 Harrieta Lane Bedford, Pa 15522 Dear Mrs. Charlotte Zolotow, I am sending you this letter to inform you that you are the winner of The Coco award. I am a student attending Pennsylvania State University, Altoona. I am majoring in elementary education and preparing to become a school teacher. This semester I am learning about and discussing children's literature the other future teachers in the Language and Literacy Education block of our major. We were assigned a project that involved inventing our own award for outstanding children's literature. We made a name for our award, described the criteria needed for nominations, and we all had to nominate a book for each person's award. My award is called The Coco award, and it is given for excellence in children's literature featuring non-stereotypical gender roles. Criteria for Coco award nominations were books with characters playing roles not associated with their gender or books confronting gender stereotypes that exist in our culture. There were ten nominations for the Coco award and William's Doll was chosen by me as the winner. I had ten books nominated for my award and I was only allowed to choose one winner. Of the ten books I had to choose from, I have decided that the most deserving of my award is William's Doll. This book has everything that my Coco award stands for. William and his father are equally important in the story. Even though William expresses that he wants a doll, his father, who cares more about gender stereotypes, gets him a train set and a basketball set. At the end, William's father eventually reveals that he did want William to have a doll because dolls are for girls. Sadly, this is how many parents, not just fathers, would react if their son wanted a doll. Adults who react like this way are the reason there are "boy toys" and "girl toys." If a doll was not labeled a girls toy, boys would not feel wrong for wanting to play with o

This story is about an elephant who is told by a hippo that she has a big nose. She becomes self conscious and ties her nose in a knot to make it smaller. She decides that looks silly. She finally gets the knot out, and she is happy with her nose. When she goes back to school and they tease her, she points out that she may have the biggest nose but the hippo has the biggest mouth, the alligator has the biggest tail, and the rabbit has the biggest feet. I think this is a great story of how life is tough. She isn't making fun of the others, she is just pointing out that no one is perfect. It is a good lesson for children to learn. It would make them see that they shouldn't make fun of others,

This story is about a boy and his family who immigrated from Holland to America. Once he is in America, it doesn't feel like home to him and it's crowded and busy. Not until his furniture from Holland shows up that he feel like there is still room for Holland in his life. This book is perfect for students who are moving or are getting ready to move. Or it's perfect to learn about what it's like for a child to move to another country.

Barbara M. Joosse c/o Scott Treimel, STNY 434 Lafayette St. New York, NY 10003 March 6, 2008 Dear Ms. Joosse: My name is Heidi Held and I am currently an elementary education major at Penn State University. I am pleased to announce that your book, The Morning Chair, has been chosen as the winner of The Sonny Award for Excellence in Children's Literature on the Immigration of Children to the United States! This award was created in one of my language and literacy classes at Penn State. Each member of my class was to create a fictional award and then nominate books for everyone else's awards. You can read more about our class and the nominations at http://kirstinlled.blogspot.com/. My award, The Sonny Award for Excellence in Children's Literature on the Immigration of Children to the United States, was created to find books that deal with the topic of a child's immigration and the struggles and joys of their journey. With the ever-increasing number of immigrants to the United States, I think that there needs to be attention given to books about this very topic. I received many nominations for my award; however, when I read The Morning Chair, I knew this was the perfect book for my award! I really like how The Morning Chair gives the perspective of a child before, during, and after his immigration. It also shows that just because someone moves to a new country, it does not mean that they will forget their old life and traditions. Congratulations on winning this award and thank you very much for writing this wonderful book! Sincerely, Heidi Held 315 Jackson Avenue Vandergrift, PA 15690 hmh5012@psu.edu Enc: Award Certificate

Amazing Grace is a wonderful picture book about an African American girl who wants to perform in the school play. The problem is that her classmates do not believe that Grace should play the part of Peter Pan because she is neither a boy, like Peter Pan, nor white, as they imagine Peter Pan to be. Well, with strength and determination, Grace not only gets the part, but shines. This book is particularly good for children because of its strong female character. Most children, no matter their ethnicity and gender, can relate to Grace's disappointment. All children can learn from Grace how to use disappointment to fuel their determination to succeed. The book might also bring confidence to children who are shy or lack confidence. This would be an excellent book to share with children who are about to begin a performance project.