Title: The Wall
ISBN:0-395-51588-2
Author: Eve Bunting, Illustrator: Ronald Himler
Date of publication:1990
Award won: Eve Bunting is a Caldecott Medal winner
Age recommendation:6-9
Group represented: Soliders in the Vietnam War, their families, the men and women of the United States

The Wall by Bunting tells of a young boy and his father who take a trip to visit The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This wall honors the soliders of the armed forces who lost their lives in battle. The memorial is located in Washington DC. There are more than 58,000 names on this wall according to Bunting's book. The father in the book brings his son to the wall to search for his father's name, his son's grandpa, who died in the war. It takes them along time to find his name and when they do it is a sad time for them. The boy and his father wish their dad and grandpa could be with them today. Many other people come to visit the wall while they are standing there, all for different reasons. When the father and son leave, the father leaves a picture of his son so his dad can see his grandson.


This would be a good book to teach students about the history of wars in the United States. It could also be used to teach students about Washington DC and how many historical momuments there are to visit and how much history there is to see. It could be used to teach about the sad things that sometimes happen during wars. Also, that not all kids have grandparents, every family is unique.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (picture book)

Title: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
ISBN:0-671-66154-x
Author and Illustrator: William Steig
Date of publication:1969
Award won: Caldecott Medal
Age recommendation: ages 4 and up
Group represented: a family of donkies with 0ther animal characters


This story is about a family of Donkies. The son, Sylvester loved to collect rocks. One day he was out in the woods and he came upon a shiney red pebble unlike any pebble he had ever seen before. He soon discovered by chance the pebble was magical and he could wish for whatever he wanted and it would happen as long as he was holding the pebble. He was on his way back home when he soon ran into a wolf and he was afraid he would be eaten. In a state of panic he wished that he was a rock so he could escape from being eaten. As soon as Sylvester became a rock he realized that he would not be able to wish himself back to a donkey. Someone would have to stumble upon the shiny red pebble and wish that Sylvester was back as a donkey. Days went by and Sylvester sank deeper into depression as the chances of someone finding him grew slimer. His parents were very sad as they looked all over for him. One day his family was having a picnic in the woods and they sat down next to Sylvester the rock. As they were eating their lunch, Sylvester's dad found the shiny red pebble and set it down on Sylvester the rock. Sylvester the rock knew his parents were next to him and longed to be back to his normal self. He wished to himself that he would turn back into a donkey and be with his family again. All of a sudden his wish was granted and he turned back into a donkey and reunited with his family. The family locked the shiney red pebble away for later use because with Sylvester home they had all they wanted at that moment.

This book could be used in a classroom if students were talking about family members who have had to go away for a while and how that makes people feel.

It could also be used with students to talk about the different things that people collect. Students could be asked to share collections that they have or be asked to start a collection of things on their own. Maybe it could go along with a unit on rocks and students could be asked to collect different rocks and identify things about them.

Tales from Grimm

Title: Tales from Grimm
ISBN:0-8166-4936-7
Translated and Illustrated by: Wanda Gag
Date of publication:1936
Award won: Caldecott Honor and Newbery Honor winner
Age recommendation: 9-12
Group represented: A variety of characters from many places. People and Animal's represented

I read five stories out of Tales from Grimm.

Hansel and Gretel:

Hansel and Gretel tells about a family of four living in a hut in the woods. The family consisted of a Dad, who was a woodchooper, a step mother, and 2 children, Hansel and Gretel. Times were hard for the family and the woodchopper was having a hard time earning enough money to feed his family. When their food supply got very low the stepmother convinced the father, although he did not want his children to go, that they should take the children out into the woods and leave them there to live on their own. The mother and father could not afford to feed them any longer. Hansel the older son overheard his father and step-mother's conversation and decided to think of a plan so he and his sister could find their way back to the house. When everyone was asleep Hansel snuck outside and filled his pockets with pebbles. The next day as Hansel was walking he made a trail of pebbles. When Hansel and Gretel were left in the woods by themselves that day, tricked by their parents, they were able to follow the pebble path back home. When the children arrived home their father was able to earn enough money for a while to keep them. When the food supply got low again the step mother convinced the father that they had to try and get rid of the kids again. Hansel also over heard this conversation, but when he went to sneak out this time to get more pebbles, the door was locked and he could not get out. This time as the family went into the foods, Hansel decided to leave a trail of bread crumbs behind because that was all he had. When Hansel and Gretel went to try and follow the path back, they realized that their trail had been eaten by the birds. The two children were lost and wondered around in the forest until they came to a house made out of candy. The children began eating the house and then an old lady appeared who turned out to be a witch. The children trusted the old lady to care for them, but shortly after they arrived in her home they realized she was out to eat Hansel. She locked him in a goose coop outside and made Gretel cook lots of food to try and fatten him up. Finally, one day, Gretel got the witch to show her how to look in the oven to see it the food was done. While the witch was demonstrating this Gretel pushed the witch into the over and killed her. Then some bird friends they had made appeared and gave the children jewels for the bread crumbs they had left before that the birds had eaten. The little white bird that had helped them home before lead the children back to their house. Upon arriving home the children found their father alone and gave him all their new jewels and the family never had to worry about food or money again. The step mother had left the father because he was so sad that his children were gone.


Cat and Mouse Keep House:

This story is about a cat and a mouse that end up living together. The cat met the mouse and did not feel like eating him on one particular day. The cat and mouse set-up a house together in a dark corner of a barn that was padded with straw. The cat and mouse decided that they were going to be able to find a lot of food while it was warm out, but they wanted to plan ahead for winter. They got a can of lard and decided to hide it in a church under the alter so they would not eat it until winter. The cat got hungry, however, and lied to the mouse and told him he had to go to christenings of new family members that were being born into his family. Each time the cat would go to the church, he would eat part of the can of lard. The mouse never found out about what the cat was doing. One day when it got cold outside the mouse wanted to go the the church and eat some of the lard. The cat and mouse went to the church only to find the empty can in the place they had hidden it. The mouse put all things together and realized that the cat had been sneaking off and eating the lard. The mouse said oh I get it now, the names of the new baby kittens, Top-off, Half-gone and All-gone, just as the mouse was about to say the last name the cat got angry and at the mouse "All-gone."


Spindle, Shuttle and Needle:

This story is about a orphan girl who lived with her godmother at the edge of a village in a small cottage. They are poor and do not have much. The godmother became older and then died leaving the girl the little cottage and a spindle, shuttle and needle. The girl lived alone in the cottage and went about her daily work to keep food on her table. One day there was word that a prince was looking for a bride. He did not care for rich girls and his father would not let him marry a poor girl so he decided to look for someone that was both poor and rich. When the prince came to town to greet the richest girl in the village he was displeased with her because she was not poor and rich. He then asked to meet the poorest girl in the village and we brought to the orphan's cottage. The girl was so taken back by the prince that she could hardly look at him out her window. She was so happy after seeing that prince that she begins to sing to her spindle, needle, and shuttle. The spindle sets off magically to catch the prince and bring him back to her cottage, the shuttle goes out the door and begins to make a red carpet for the prince outside the cottage door, and the needle begins to make curtains and table clothes and fine things to spruce up the cottage. The prince is lead back to the cottage and sees the red carpet and all the fine things around the cottage and realizes that this is the girl he has been looking to marry. She is poor, but is still rich.



Doctor Know it All:

This story tells of a poor peasant named fish, he sets out in the village to sell the wood he has chopped down and comes upon a Doctor's Office. He asks the doctor what he needs to do in order to become a doctor himself because he sees that the doctor has fine things and good food to eat. The doctor tells the peasant that he needs to sell his things and use the money to buy a book of ABC's , jars of medicines and herbs, fine clothes, and a sign that says "Doctor know it all." The peasant sells his cart and ox and does all the things that the doctor tells him to do. Time goes by and a rich lord hears of this "doctor know it all" and asks him to help find his money that was stolen from him because he is supposed to know everything. The peasant accepts and is invited to the lord's house for dinner. When the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd courses come out from the kitchen during dinner the peasant, named Fish, leans over and comments to his wife, that "this is the first one" meaning the first course, but the servant who is also the thief thinks that the peasant is on to him and must know that he has committed these crimes. This goes on for all three courses until the servants think that the Peasant knows his secret and they tell him that if he keeps the secret that they will tell him where the money is hidden. The peasant ends up proving to the lord that he knows where the money is and also what is hidden in the final course dish without looking just by pure luck and not really because he knows anything at all. Word spreads about what great work the peasant "Doctor know it all" has done for the lord and the lord and his wife lived happily and had plenty of wealth and good things to eat.



The Musicians of Bremen:

This story is about a donkey, who meets a dog, and then a cat, and then a rooster, all on his way to Bremen to become a musician. All of the animals were getting older and were no longer needed or wanted by their owners anymore. They all decided that they were going to move to Bremen and become musicians to earn their way and live out the rest of their lives. While traveling to Bremen they got very tired and hungry and wanted to stop and eat. They came upon this house and inside were a bunch of robbers eating a feast. The animals decided that if they are came into the house at one time making lots of noise it would scare the robbers out of the house and they could eat the food. There plan worked and the robbers were so scared they ran out of the house and into the woods because they thought demons were haunting the house. All the animals made themselves comfortable for the night and fell asleep. One robber was sent back into the house to see if it was clear to enter and got so startled by the animals sleeping in various places around the house that he thought for sure the whole place was haunted. The robbers never returned to the house again and all the animals lived happily ever after until the end of their lives.





These stories could be used in a classroom when studying old fairy tales. The students could be assigned to have to make-up their own fairy tales and the class could make their own book of fairy tales to put in the school library. These fairy tales don't really teach a lesson as some due, this book could be used when teaching a lesson on different types of stories and what stories are or could be used for. A lot of these stories illustrate people that are poor at the beginning, but good things happen to them and they live happily in the end. Students could be assigned to make a book of short fairy tales. Students could act out some of the Grimm tales in class.

Title: Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf
ISBN:978-0-06-443178-1
Author and Illustrator: Lois Ehlert
Date of publication:1991
Award won: The Caldecott Medal Honor winner, Reading Rainbow Book
Age recommendation: 4-8
Group represented: could represent all groups, or all people leaving in a climate where the seasons change.

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf talks about the life of a tree from a child's perspective. This book first talks about how seeds from a Maple tree, that look like helicopters to me, fall to the ground and blow around during the Fall season. The seeds that the squirrels and birds don't eat get implanted into the ground and the child's tree was born in the spring. After the tree spouts came up from the ground nursery workers came and took the child's tree from the forest and brought it to a place to monitor it's growth until it was big enough to sell. The child and his dad go to the nursery in the Fall to pick out a tree for their yard. During the winter months the child hangs up bird feeders on his tree and in the spring the child looks for new growth, leaves and the tree flowers turning into seeds. Lastly the child speaks of how pretty the tree is in the fall when the leaves are red, yellow, and orange. The child in this story loves their tree!

I think this book would be an excellent book to read in an elementary classroom when doing a science unit on things of nature or learning about different parts of trees or plants. The book shows parts of trees labeled and also has a section at the end that talks about roots, buds, bark, and seeds.

This book could also be used when talking about weather in a classroom or the changing of seasons and what happens to things in nature during the different seasons. Elementary students could have an assignment to go out in nature and collect leaves and then look in books to identify all the leaves that they find and make a poster.

Students could also be assigned to make collages out of things found outside.

This book could be used when doing a unit on cleaning up and respecting the environment.The class could go to a local park and identify types of trees, or help clean-up a park, or wrap tree trunks to protect the trees. The class could learn about different birds that live in trees and make bird feeders to put in their favorite trees in their yards. The students could start a Kids for Saving Earth club that does environmentally friendly projects around school and the community.

Lon Po Po, A Red Riding Hood Story From China (A picture book that retells a folk tale)

Title: Lon Po Po, A Red Riding Hood Story From China
ISBN:0-399-21619-7
Translated and Illustrated: Ed Young
Date of publication:1989
Award won: The Caldecott Medal
Age recommendation: 4 to 8
Group represented: Chinese



This book was about three children, Shang, Tao, and Paotze. They lived in the country with their mother in China. On their grandmother's (Po Po) birthday their mother sets out to go and visit the grandmother and leaves the children at home. She tells her three children to be good while she is away. She will not return until the next day so the children should close and lock the door tight at night. A wolf that lives near by discovers that the children's mother has gone away for the night and decides to pay the children a visit. The wolf dresses up like an old woman and pretends to be the children's grandmother. The wolf knocks on the door and the children are surprised to hear that their grandmother is at the door because their mother has just gone to visit her. The children are fooled and let the wolf into their home where he immediately blows out the candles that light their home so the children can not see him. After getting into bed for the night the eldest child realizes that their "grandmother" is in fact a wolf. She convinces the wolf that he needs to eat some Ginko nuts from the tree outside their home. All three children climb to the top of the tree because the wolf tells them that he is now too old to climb. When up in the tree the eldest child tells the others that their grandmother is really the wolf disguised as an old woman. The children devise a plan and tell the wolf to go inside and get a basket so they can pull the wolf up into the tree so he too can enjoy some Ginko nuts. After trying to pull him to the top three times and dropping him three times, on purpose, the children manage to kill the wolf. After they make sure he is dead, and that they are safe, the children climb down, go into the house, and lock the door behind them. The next day their mother returned and they told her all about the wolf that came to visit them.





This book could be read in classrooms to illustrate the importance of not answering your door to strangers and to always make sure you know who you are letting into your house. It could also be read after reading Little Red Riding Hood to illustrate how stories are told in other cultures. The book could be the first in a series of books read in the classroom to talk about story telling in other parts of the world. The class could talk about how stories are developed and how folk tales are past down from generation to generation. The children could pick one of the classic folk tales and make their own version of it like Lon Po Po did with Little Red Riding Hood.

Where The Wild Things Are

Title: Where The Wild Things Are
ISBN:978-0-06-443178-1
Author and Illustrator: Maurice Sendak
Date of publication:1963
Award won: The Caldecott Medal
Age recommendation: Read aloud age 2, read alone age 6
Group represented: Caucasians

Brief Summary:
The book takes place in the bedroom of a young boy named Max. He was sent to bed without supper because he had gotten into mischief as all little boys get into at one time or another. After Max was sent to bed a forest grew in his bedroom. He sailed away to where the wild things are. Max mesmerized the Wild Things with his weapon of staring into their eyes. The Wild Things loved Max and made him their king. Max played with the Wild Things for a long time having fun. Then he told them all to stop being so wild and sent them to be without supper just as his mom had done to him. Max became lonely and missed his loved ones. He told the Wild Things that he was leaving, they were upset, but he sailed away anyways back to his room where he found his warm dinner waiting for him.

This book could facilitate discussions with students about how parents punish their children because they love them. Parents set limits for children to teach them how to behave and for their safety. Children may get upset with their parents because of these rules, but in the end the children know their parents love them. Some children get mad and want to run away from home. It can be lonely and scary when you are away from home and not as fun as you originally thought. Children could tell stories about rules that their parent's make them follow.