Holly's Book Share

Books I Love:

Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems

Mo Willems is one of my favorite authors for children. He is most famous for his Pigeon books, but has also written several other silly books. My favorite is Leonardo the Terrible Monster. It is about a monster that feels unhappy because he can't seem to scare anyone. He searches for a child to scare, but ends up finding much more. My kindergarten students love this book so much and asked me to read it over and over. I would recommend this and any of his other books.

His website is: http://www.mowillems.com/.

Hooway for Wodney Wat by Helen Lester

I love to use this book in my classroom at the beginning of the year. It introduces the idea of differences among students and shows that each person contributes something to the class. In this story, Rodney has a speech impairment and the other students laugh at him until he shows what he can do. This is a really special story and a great way to bring social issues into the classroom.

The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf

Along similar lines as Hooway..., this book also is a great way to start conversations with your students about differences among members of the class. The crayons do not get along because they do not all look alike, but they soon discover what happens when they work together. This story uses objects young readers are familiar with to teach a valuable lesson.

The Gift of Nothing by Patrick McDonnell

Another of my favorite authors, McDonnell's The Gift... is a touching story of one animals quest to find the perfect gift for his friend. He finally decides the perfect gift is nothing but spending time together. My students enjoyed the simple illustrations in this story and even though they were young, they understood the message of friendship.

Helpful Resources:

www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/index.php

This website is wonderful for teachers to find reading lists about multiple topic areas such as farms, bullying, or poetry. It also offers lists of links of other resources and lesson plans for teachers to use in various classrooms.

http://www.readwritethink.org/

This website offers great lesson plans for use in all different grade levels from k-12. Many of the lesson plans focus on writing, but they include lists of books to use to accompany the writing assignments. There is also a link to a website with a list of the 100 Best Books for Kids which I found very interesting.