Cinderella- Fairy Tale by: Barbara mcClintock

Cinderella by: Barbara McClintock

Fairy Tale

This book was mostly like the other Cinderella books, with the exceptions of some parts. I really like the illustration in the book, because the illustration went along with the text; and with children’s books that is an important part of the book, because you do not want the text and illustration to contradict each other. The illustrations where very colorful and the pictures gave all of the characters distinct features. The story was about a little girl name Cinderella who was having a wonderful life until her mother died and her father remarried another woman. Her stepmother started off being really nice, and then she began to be very mean to Cinderella. Her stepmother had three daughters and all four of them would not treat Cinderella like a human. Cinderella was never allowed to go anywhere or do anything because they made her clean up all the time. One day Cinderella went to the ball, without her stepmother or sisters knowing about it. She had to leave the ball before 12am, because all of her clothes would turn back into the dirty rags that she wore before her fairy godmother changed them. The Prince fell in love with Cinderella; however, Cinderella ran off at 12am and lost one slipper. All the girls in the town were fitted for the shoe because the Prince was going to marry the girl who could fit the glass slipper. Cinderella could fit the shoe, so she and the Prince got married. The part in the story that always makes me laugh is when Cinderella gets fitted for the slipper and she can wear it. After that happen her stepsisters are shocked, and then they start being nice to her, because before they were really mean to her and they just used her to cook and clean for them. You can use this in the classroom when you are teaching students about morals and values. Students can learn from this book, teach others how you would like to be treated.

The Story of Jackie Robinson, Bravest Man in Baseball- Biography (Chapter Book)

The Story of Jackie Robinson Bravest Man in Baseball

Biography

This chapter book was a really good book. I have heard a lot about Jackie Robinson’s life story but I didn’t know as much stuff about him as I do now. I didn’t know that he was an all around good athlete. Jackie Robinson played football, basketball, baseball, and he ran track. When I read this in the book I was really surprised because you rarely find anyone who can play all of these sports and they are good at all of them.

The book talked about Jackie Robinson’s life and all the different struggles he had to overcome as an African American athlete. Jackie Robinson played baseball when American was still really segregated so people would always talk bad (especially fans) about him because of the color of his skin. When Jackie first started playing baseball he could not just go straight to an “white” baseball team because people was not having that, so Jackie had to start off playing for “black” teams such as the Kansas City Monarchs so people could see how good of a player he was. So Branch Rickey knew all about Jackie and he wanted to sign him to the Royals, but he needed Jackie to agree first to play for the Monarchs. After playing a short season with Kansas City Jackie was signed to the Montreal Royals. The fans and players did not like an African American playing on their team, so they would make racist comments to Jackie to try to make him quiet. However, that just made Jackie much stronger. After the fans and players on the team seem that Jackie was not backing down and that he was a really good player, they started to accept Jackie. Jackie leads the teams to many wins and World Series championships. Jackie got married to Rachel in 1946 and they had three children together. In 1947 Jackie was named the Rookie of the Year and at age 36 he retired from baseball. But not only was Jackie an athlete he also served in the U.S. Army during World War II. And after he retired from baseball he became heavily involved in the NAACP and other humanitarian activities he always felt like he needed to help the African American race as a whole. Jackie died at age 53.

The book had some illustrations but they really were not good illustrations. Maybe because this is a really old book, but the illustrations didn’t tell you anything about the words that were on that page, so the text and the pictures didn’t match. The illustrations were all in black and white so I really didn’t get any feeling from the pictures, and many times I just looked right over them. However, overall this was a really good book. It is a really easy read and I am sure students who are very interested in sports would enjoy reading this book.

The Watson's Go to Birmingham- 1963 (Chapter Book)- Historical Fiction

The Watson’s Go to Birmingham- 1963- Historical Fiction

This book was a really awesome book! I got this book on Jan. 21 and I was finish on Jan.23. Once I started reading this book I just could not stop. I was up really late reading this book, and I finally told myself that I needed to go to sleep and that I could read more tomorrow. At first I didn’t know if I wanted to read this book because it was the longest out of the four books, and I felt like I was not going to be able to read it within a week (I think I read a little slow). However, when the author Christopher Curtis writes in this book he actually make you feel like you are there or at least you can visualize it in your mind, so I didn’t want to put the book down. He uses really descriptive words to get his point across and I really like that. When reading this book in some spots I found myself laughing and smiling and in others spots I found myself feeling sad. Curtis really knows how to make his readers feel how the characters are feeling. I really like the way the Curtis named the chapters, because I found myself reading and trying to find out where the name of the chapter was in the text. I became really curious to know what that particular chapter was going to be about, because sometimes the names of the chapters were very funny. It is really hard for me to decide on a favorite part in the book because I liked the whole book, but if I have to choose one part it would have to be chapter 5. This chapter was when Byron got caught playing with matches again and momma was going to burn him. I was really laughing when I read this chapter. Joey the little sister was always trying to keep Bryon out of trouble but he always seemed to find trouble somewhere.

I can relate to Kenny a little bit, but not a whole lot because I was not the middle child. However, I am the youngest child of five children and my sister that is right over me used to bully me all the time. She never wanted me to hang out with her and her friends because I was younger than her, and I guess she did not think I was cool enough for her and her friends. So my mom would make me go where ever she went and my sister hated that. My sister would try to pick fights with me, so I would tell my mom that I would rather stay at home. But now my sister and I relationship is totally different. It is like we did a complete 360 because now my sister wants to hang out with me all the time, which is funny because she is 24 and I am 20. However, just like Bryon and Kenny at the end of the book became closer to each other that is exactly how my sister and I are. I really enjoyed this book, and I am glad I chose this book to read. After reading this book by this author it makes me want to read Curtis other book “Bud, Not Buddy”.