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Almost Late to School is a collection of poems about school. The book starts off with a poem about the first day of school. Then, the topics range from getting along with classmates to detention to what happens after school. These poems will probably make any student laugh! The illustrations in this book are very cute and colorful. Almost Late to School would be a fantastic book to read in a classroom after a very long and stressful day. What I really like about this book is that it does a great job at introducing poetry to children in a very humorous way that they can understand. When you want to look at this book, let me know.

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. 

  This book is about a famous sculpture in an art museum of a little ballerina girl.  The book is told from the museum guard's perspective. He tells the people that visit the museum that the statue is a girl named Maria.  Maria was a little girl who dreamed of being a ballerina at the Paris Opera House.  Her poor parents saved all their money to send her to ballet school.  At ballet school she encountered a famous artist named Degas. Maria got an opportunity to dance in the Paris Opera House but only if she took lessons everyday. Her father became very ill and since he could not work they couldn't afford it.  Then Degas offered to pay Maria to pose for him, but she only made enough to pay for her father's doctor and not dance lessons. The artist reveals that he is going blind and must sculpt her because he can no longer paint.  She never got to perform at the Paris Opera House but two years later the sculpture became very famous. This is a brilliant tale of an actual sculpture of a ballerina by sculpture/painter Edgar Degas. It displays all types of art; dance, performance, sculpture and painting.  This is an excellent book that incorporates fact and fiction of the arts all in one.

The Recess Queen is a book about a bully on the playground at recess. Her name is Mean Jean and she has total control of the playground. Nobody can do anything before she does; if they do, she gets mad and lets everyone know it. Then, one day a new girl comes to school and changes everything. Katie Sue, the new girl, lets every kid at school know that she does not care what Mean Jean does. She will play whenever she wants and with whatever she wants. The Recess Queen is a great book that lets kids know how to make friends; it seems to say that you should not let people intimidate you. Also, the illustrations in this book are very colorful. A lot of kids are bullied and pushed around by the "Mean Jean's" of the world; after reading The Recess Queen, hopefully many kids can become "Katie Sue's."

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.

"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.

This is a story about a little girl who likes to be unique. She wears a pony tail in her hair even though the rest of the girls at school wear their hair different. The girls in her class make fun of her, but she does not care. The next day they will come into school wearing their hair the exact same way that Stephanie does. She feels very angry that the girls are copying her, so she changes her hair style. No matter what silly way she does it , they always copy. In the end it doesn't end up so good for the "copy cats".

Katherine Imler 1399 Lafayette Road New Enterprise, PA 16664 March 7, 2008 Robert Munsch 15 Sharon Place Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1H 7V2 Dear Mr. Munsch, I am pleased to announce that you have won the Susan B. Anthony Award for Celebrating Strong Female Characters for your book Stephanie's Ponytail. The award was created for a class project in my children's literature class. I am a junior at Penn State Altoona who is majoring in elementary and kindergarten education. I am in my language and literacy education block. Every student in my class created an award that dealt with an aspect of children's literature. Each student nominated books for the other students' awards. Each award had specific criteria that the nominated book had to meet. My award was to be given to a picture book that featured strong and empowered female characters. Many children's books show girls who are passive and dependent. Also, children's books usually show males as the problem solvers. This is disturbing considering the day and age we live in. Shirley B. Ernst author of the article "Gender Issues in Books for Children and Young Adults" said, "I would like to see more books with strong female characters who are active, inventive, and in charge of their own destinies." Nominations for this award had to show independent and non-stereotypical female characters. The book also had to be a picture book for children in kindergarten through second grade. I chose Stephanie's Ponytail for my award because the book features a strong female character that stands up to group conformity. She does not want to look like everyone else, but instead be her own individual person. Your book teaches children the importance of liking who they are. Another reason I picked your book is that its message is universal. The theme could be the same regardless of what time period or location the book was written about. Many children can relate to this book. Chi

The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo by Judy Blume is a good book. This book is about a kid, Freddy Dissel, who is the middle child in the family. He never gets to be the center of attention. However, one day he heard about a play being held in this school. They were looking for fifth and sixth graders, but Freddy tried out and got the part of the green kangaroo. The day of the performance came and his family went to watch him. He performed his heart out and played the best green kangaroo ever, He never worried about being in the middle anymore. This book is for great for children ages K-4. This book can be found in Penn State Libraries.

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.

This book is about a girl named Maria Isabel, a Hispanic child growing up in the United States. When she starts school, her teacher changes her name to Mary because there are already two other girls with the name Maria in her classroom. Maria Isabel has trouble answering to Mary because it is not her name. Maria Isabel is proud of her name because of the fact that she is named after relatives whom she loves. Because Maria Isabel finds it impossible to answer to Mary, she is excluded from the school's Winter Pageant. This book shows a Hispanic child's pride in her heritage and how difficult it is to fit into a new environment that doesn't understand your culture. With a growing multi-cultural population, this book is great to recommend to older students of all ethnicities to help them understand and accept different cultures.

In this story, Miss Nelson's class has trouble following rules and listening to Miss Nelson. Fed up with the misbehavior, Miss Nelson comes up with a plan and "disappears". Since Miss Nelson can't be found, the school call in Viola Swamp. With Viola Swamp in charge, the children find themselves doing twice the amount of homework and losing their storytime. The kids set out to find Miss Nelson to bring her back. Finally, when Miss Nelson comes back, her students are well behaved and appreciate the teacher they have. This book could bring a smile to anyone's face when the students are coming up with ideas of what happened to Miss Nelson. From a teacher's perspective, this could be a good story to read to a class that is having behavior problems.

When Sophie Gets Angry-- Really, Really Angry.. is written by Molly bang. The book demonstrates a young girl becoming very upset and being able to control her temper. The words are simple to read for the younger school age children and the illustrations are very bright and colorful. The book has a wonderful dynamic character named Sophie who will allow the students to see an example of how young children with a temper can be able to control their temper. This book does not lack anything. I would greatly encourage teachers to use this book in their classroom. This book can be found at your local Altoona Library.

Chrysanthemum loves her name, but when she goes to school, the other children giggle. "'Her name is so long, said Jo. 'It scarcely fits on her name tag,' said Rita, pointing." Poor Chrysanthemum; even though her father says her name is "precious and priceless and fascinating and winsome," how will she persuade the other children in her class? Perhaps Mrs. Twinkle can come to the rescue! From a teachers perspective, I think this would be a great story to read in the classroom because it shows children how to deal with their feelings and emotions appropriatly. I do have this book, so if you would like to look at it, let me know. Enjoy (;

"Accidents of Nature" is a very touching story about a girl with Cerebral Palsy. This book is more suitable for young adults because of its language and references to sex and communism. Jean has gone to a Normal school all her life and one summer goes to a cripple camp when she is seventeen. Jean meets many other people with disabilites and experiences life like she never has before. She befriends a very outspoken girl named Sara, who envisions equality for people with disabilities and introduces her own human rights movement. Jean spends ten days coming to terms with her disability and leaves with a new outlook on life. Through Jean's eyes you are truly able to see what it is like to have a disability and feel the rollercoaster of emotions that she experiences.