Dear Carol Diggory Shields,

Congratulations on winning The Tinkerbell Award for Excellence in Children's Poetry. Although this is not a nationally recognized award, this is a very important award in my Language and Literacy Education class. My name is Katie Boal and I am a student at a Penn State Altoona. For my class, we had to create an award on any topic of our choice and then our classmates nominated books for us to read that were relevant to our award topic. From these books, we had to select one which we thought represented our award the best. One of my classmates nominated Almost Late to School for my award, which you have received. The criterion for my award is as follows:

"The Tinkerbell Award for Excellence in Children's Poetry is about books that contain stories written through the use of poems. Poetry is not commonly used in classrooms and maintains a negative connotation among children of all ages because it requires the reader to think outside of the box and acquire an interpretation of their own. Children should not think of poetry as boring, but as an exploration into a world of emotions and feelings that bring sounds of rain or laughter flooding onto a page of words. This award acknowledges books which include poetry that entice children's interest and allows the reader to make their own interpretation of the text furthering their growth as a reader. Books nominated for this award should be creative picture books of any genre, but allow the reader to understand poetry and the emotions it represents. The selection should be geared towards children age seven until twelve and as previously recognized, be picture books only."

I chose this book because I feet it allows children to look at poetry as entertaining and not boring. As a future educator, there are numerous ways to use this book as a learning tool to engage the readers in the lesson being taught. Children will look at this book and enjoy the humor within the poems. I think it is important for them to understand that it is okay to make fun of school and will give the students ideas for their own poems to create. There are also numerous kinds of poems within the book, which show children that poems can be what they want them to be. Thank you for creating such a wonderful book and congratulations once again!

Sincerely,

Katie Boal

This is a great book about a young girl who lives on a farm with her family, but is blind.  Each child has a chore that they attend to on a daily basis, but on her day off she goes off to be with her horse.  The author doesn't say that Mandy is blind, but gives hints that she has a disability.  I like this book because with her disability not mentioned, the reader can form a relationship with the character without any judgement.  It teaches children a really great lesson about not judging people and that all people are the same with or without a disability.  The pictures are great and the author's use of the different senses gives a real insight to what Mandy's life is like.  This book could be used for a lesson on the five senses or giving children insight to different disabilities.

This is a compassionate story about a young boy who is put in an orphanage after his father dies and is then thrown into a walled off part of Warsaw when the Nazi's invaded.  He is eventually thrown into a death camp where he survives, but many were not as lucky.  The pictures really bring the events in the story to life and the story describes how difficult the Nazi invasion was in terms that young children can understand; however, I think that it is too much for younger children to grasp.  This is a great book to introduce struggles that people endure and  as a tool in group discussions.

The story is about a little girl who has difficulty reading and dreads reading aloud on Parent Day with the other students.  As the story progresses, her mother helps her and gives her tips for reading to ease her undeniable pain.  The story line is excellent, but the wording throughout the story lacks the urge to continue reading and the pictures could be better, but it is definitely an excellent book for students struggling with dyslexia and reading in general.  It would be great as an introduction to dyslexia or as a way of helping children cope with it.

This is a great book that vividly illustrates a child's adventure to the laundromat.  While at the laundromat, Trixie leaves her beloved Knuffle Bunny in the washer, but is unable to communicate this to her dad and so the story continues.  What is great about this book is that it turns a simple task into the greatest adventure for this little child and the humor is immense  through the dialoge.  The illustrations are also really great because the backgrounds are photographs with cartoons in the fore ground which add a unique idea to the book.  This a great book that could be used to help children with the concept of dialogue and creating their own stories with dialogue.

This is a great book about a baby elephant and its mother in the wild.  The baby narrates the story while telling of the times it shares with its mother throughout the day and a close bond is obvious throughout.  Kavanagh uses every page to describe the relationship between the mother and baby and really depicts how the story line flows from the baby's language.  Because of the story being from the baby's point of view, the text seemed watered down and not as colorful as it could be.  This would be a great book to introduce the theme of togetherness.

In this book, Monsieur Monmouton and his farm animals take a trip to Paris which is a big change from the farm.  While on their trip, they visit the Louvre, a three star restaraunt, and many more places that are reminiscent of life in Paris.  This is a really great book for introducing students to Paris and a new language; however, there are quite a few French words that are difficult to say and it doesn't give the meaning of them either.  The pictures are excellent and dramatize the Paris life perfectly so students will be able to feel something while reading it.  One teacher says that this book's water color illustrations bring the adventure alive and to a new level.

The Tinkerbell Award for Excellence in Children's Poetry is about books that contain stories written through the use of poems. Poetry is not commonly used in classrooms and maintains a negative connotation among children of all ages because it requires the reader to think outside of the box and acquire an interpretation of their own. Children should not think of poetry as boring, but as an exploration into a world of emotions and feelings that bring sounds of rain or laughter flooding onto a page of words. On page seventy-four of Interpreting Literature with Children, Shelby Wolf states that poetry is "known for rhythm, rhyme, structured sound patterns, figurative language, and even shapes that deliver evocative images and emotional intensity in a highly compact form." This award acknowledges books which include poetry that entices children's interest in poetry and allows the reader to make their own interpretation of the text furthering their growth as a reader. Books nominated for this award should be creative picture books of any genre, but allow the reader to understand poetry and the emotions it represents. The selection should be geared towards children age seven until twelve and as previously recognized, be picture books only. Please submit nominations by February 19th, 2008. Thank you.