Cleopatra By: Janeen R. Adil- Biography

Cleopatra By: Janeen R. Adil- Biography

This book was about the life of Cleopatra and how she became the queen of Egypt; however, most of her life still remains a mystery. Once Cleopatra father died Cleopatra and her younger brother ruled Egypt; however Cleopatra brother wanted all of the power so Cleopatra left Egypt fearing for her life and went to Syria. In Syria Cleopatra gathered an army to fight against her brother for the throne of Egypt. Cleopatra met Roman emperor Caesar when he came to Egypt to stop the war between Cleopatra and her brother. Rome wanted Egypt’s riches and Cleopatra needed Caesar’s help. War broke out between Caesar and Cleopatra’s brother and her brother died, so Cleopatra gained total controlled Egypt. Cleopatra had a son and many say it was by Caesar, and then Caesar dies. Cleopatra then meets Mark Anthony and they fall in love with each other and had three children. Octavian wanted Anthony’s power so he turned people against Cleopatra. Octavian declared war on Egypt and Cleopatra and Anthony fled to Alexandria. Octavian captured Alexandria and Cleopatra did not want to go back to Egypt as a prisoner so she killed her self.

A way that this book could be used in the classroom is as a read aloud. It is important to do read alouds no matter what grade the students are in, and the students might find this to be an interesting story to listen to because her life is still a mystery. This book could also be used in literacy centers for students, or this book could be a part of the classroom library.

The Man Who Tricked a Ghost By: Laurence Yep Pictures by: Isadore Seltzer- Multicultural

The Man Who tricked a Ghost by: Laurence Yep
Pictures by: Isadore Seltzer- Multicultural

This was a really funny book. The book was about a man name Sung who was not scared of anything. He would have picnics in graveyards and take naps in haunted houses. One day he went to visit his friend and stayed for a very long time. It was dark when Sung decided to leave and his friend told him that he should stay the night because many people have vanished traveling on the road Sung needed to travel in order to get home late at night; however, Sung was not scared. When Sung was traveling on the road a ghost jumped out at him. The ghost asked Sung who he was and Sung flipped the question on the ghost and asked the ghost the same question. The ghost told Sung that he was a ghost and Sung told the ghost that he (Sung) was also a ghost. Sung told the ghost they must be cousins. The ghost followed Sung all the way back to his town and on the way there Sung asked the ghost different things about being a ghost. The ghost told Sung never let anyone spit on you because you can not change your form once someone spits on you. When Sung and the ghost arrived in Sung’s town that is when Sung tricked the ghost. Sung tricked the ghost into turning into a ram and when he did Sung spat on the ghost, so the ghost could not change his form. Sung sold the ram for 1,500 copper coins.

This book could be read to students to teach them not to be scared of things. Also, you could use this book to teach students about the Chinese culture. This book was one of the first ghost stories to appear in print in China.

Birmingham, 1963 By: Carole Boston Weatherford- Historical

Birmingham, 1963 by: Carole Boston Weatherford-
Historical
This book was about when the main character (a little girl) turned 10 years old. She talked about all the things that happened in her life when she turned 10 such as: missing school to march with other children, she listened to Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, and most importantly the day the church in Birmingham was bombed and claimed the lives of 4 young girls. The main character talks about how many people where hurt doing that bombing and how the church looked afterwards. The main characters family was outraged and she just wished she was 9 again. When she turned 10 there was no birthday cake with candles, just cinders and ash. The ending on the book had a picture of the 4 girls that died in the bombing and a little excerpt about each girl.

I really enjoyed reading this book because the pictures were amazing. The pictures were not drawn that look like they were actual portraits from that time. The pictures gave you a real life feeling and it made you feel like you were there a part of the action. The pictures seem to be pictures that were taken by someone and collected.

The way you could use this book in the classroom is when you are doing a lesson on equal rights and what happen doing the time period of segregation. This book can give the students incite on the things African American children went through doing this time period, because the main character was only 10 years old. Also, this book could be a part of a book flood. You can add this book to the classroom library and allow students to read it on their own time.

Emma And The Silk Train: Historial Literature Written By:Julie Lawson Illustration by: Paul Mombourquette

Emma

Who is brave, determined.

Who is sister of Charlie.

Who loves silk.

Who feels happy.

Who needs silk.

Who fears being alone.

Who would like to see silk trains.

Who is a resident of New York.

By: PJ- student at Aversboro Elem. 5th grade

Anansi a tale from the Ashanti The Spider- Multicultural By: Gerald McDermott

Anansi a tale from the Ashanti The Spider
By: Gerald McDermott- Multicultural Literature

This book was a really great book on how families work together and also one could relate this book to team work. Anansi was a spider who had six sons and all of his sons had special powers. Anansi left home one day and he went really, really far away. Anansi got lost and his son See Trouble seen his father was in trouble so he told his others brothers. All of Anansi sons went out looking for him. The spiders found Anansi because Anansi son Road Builder built a road to reach their father and when they found Anansi a fish had eaten him, so his son River Drinker drank all of the water out of the river. Anansi son Game Skinner split the fish in half and once he did a Falcon came through and took Anansi into the sky. So Anansi son Stone Thrower threw a stone and hit the Falcon and Anansi fell through the sky. Anansi son Cushion seen him falling and ran to help his father. Anansi came down on Cushion, and the spider family was very happy. Anansi felt like his sons deserved a gift, so he asked Nyame to help him decide on which son to give a gift. Nyame and Anansi could not decide which son to give the gift to, so Nyame put the moon in the sky for everyone to use. I think this would be a good book to talk about family roles with students. Everyone has a role in their family however; some student’s roles are different from others. You could also teach the students how to work as a team, all of the spiders in the book worked together to accomplish one goal and that was to save their father. I really enjoyed reading this book.

Jack, Skinny Bones, and the Golden Pancakes: Folk Literature Written by: M.C. Helldorfer Illstrations by: Elise Primavera

Jack, Skinny Bones, and the Golden Pancakes: Folk Literature
Written by: M.C. Helldorfer Illustrations by: Elise Primavera

This book was about a child that was left in the desert and a dog found him and carried him home. The dog was owned by an old lady named Granny Trick who was mean, and when the dog found the little boy he was really trying to run away; however, he found the boy so he decided to go back home. Granny Trick was mean to the dog and the boy but the dog would not leave the little boy and once the little boy got older the dog was too old to run away, so the little boy would not leave the dog. Although Granny Trick was mean to them she would not let them leave. The devil came one day and tried to offer her a deal, the deal was she would have to give the devil the little boy and the dog. Granny Trick said no, however the little boy had a plan of his own. The next day the devil came the little boy gave the devil pancakes that were made with hot mustard and when the devil said “WATER, WATER” a flood came and swept Granny Trick and the devil out of the house. So in the end the little boy and the dog never saw Granny Trick or the devil again.
When I first read this book, I had no clue what was going on; so I had to read the book again. After reading the book again I noticed that it was not as bad as I thought it was in the beginning. The book was actually funny. So a way I would use this book in my class is as a read aloud. In my opinion this book really did not have a strong message, and if any thing I would say the message was treat others how you want to be treated. I would spark a conversation with the students about how they would feel if the things that happened in the book to the little boy happened to them. I would just talk to the students about treating everyone nicely so people will like you as a person.

Martin Bridge In High Gear- Science Fiction Written by: Jessica Scott Kerrin Illustrated by: Joseph Kelly (Chapter Book)

Martin Bridge In High Gear- Science Fiction Written by: Jessica Scott Kerrin Illustrated by: Joseph Kelly (Chapter Book)

When I read this book I thought it would be a good book to incorporate into the classroom. This was a chapter book but the two chapters that were in the book were topics that pertained to students in elementary school.
The first chapter was about a yearly science fair that is held at Martin’s (main character) school. The teacher put the students into groups and the students had to decide on a theme for their project. All of the students in the group except one was helping out with the project and doing their fair share. The student that did not help the other student’s name was Gibson, he would come late to every meeting and he didn’t help the students clean the beach; which was what their whole project was about. So the other students were really mad, and they decided they would let the teacher know what was going on in the group. The teachers told the students they should talk to Gibson about the situation and see if he starts to carry his own weight. So the students did but that did not seem to help. At the end of the project the students had 20 tickets to share among all of the group members. The students decided on who they thought did the most work and that student got the most tickets. The students put their names on the tickets and the teacher gathered the tickets and placed them in a hat. The group gave Gibson one ticket because he did not work as hard as the other students. When the teacher pulled the name for the prize for the most hard work Gibson received the prize. Gibson’s group was really upset because they knew he did not deserve to win the prize, however they gave him a ticket so he had just as much of a chance at winning as the other students did. This chapter could be used to teach students responsibility. I never liked working in groups because I always felt like I did all the work.
The second chapter was about how Martin got a new bike and he rode it once and someone stole it from him. After his bike was stolen he was upset, however, he found a place where they take old recycle bicycles and rebuild them. So Martin decided he would help out in the shop every Saturday so he could rebuild his own bicycle. He helped make his own bike so it was more special to him. While working in the shop Martin learned some new things about bikes and he felt his bike was important to him because he helped make it. So a lesson that could be learned from this is sometimes it is good to work for things you want instead of your parents buying you things all the time; you never know the things you can learn from working to buy something you want really bad.