I was lucky to have families place orders through scholastic book club. My perk was 15 new books for free to use in my classroom. So I thought I would share the fun new books that I received with a little information about each. Enjoy!
Carpenter, S. (1998). The Three Billy Goats Gruff. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Overview: The traditional story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The illustrations are by Stephen Carpenter. He has great color and facial expressions on the characters. At the end of the story the Big Billy Goat Gruff bucks and kicks the troll off the bridge in tot he river.
Colandro, L. (2018). There was an old pirate who swallowed a map!. New York: Scholastic.
Overview: Another wonderful book by Colandro. The old lady takes on the character of a pirate. Fun story of rhyme and information about parts of a boat and maps. At the end of the book is a glossary of terms for the reader about maps and pirates. Plus a bonus search and find list of items that appear throughout the book. I am planning to read this book with my students this week. We are studying maps and our community. A fun intro into using and creating maps.
Dean, J. (2018). Pete the Cat and the cool caterpillar. New York: Harper.
Overview: Another cute Pete the Cat story this time the story is about the discovery of what happens to the caterpillar. Pete watches the life cycle of the caterpillar and it changing into a butterfly. The scientific information in the book is accurate. The only part missing is were does the caterpillar come from. So if using this book to teach the life cycle of the caterpillar the question could be posed after reading - Where does it all begin?
George, K. (2017). Duck, Duck, Dinosaur and the noise at night. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Overview: Duck, Duck and Dinosaur share a nest. Mama duck thinks the little ones are ready to get their own nest to sleep in. Duck, Duck and Dinosaur do their routine before bed. They read a story, snuggle, and then fall asleep. They are awoken by a loud noise. They get scared then relocate to a safe place. The snore happens again and again. Each time they find a new way to overcome their fear. Then they discover the loud noise is Dinosaur snoring.
Gray, K. (2014). Frog on a log? New York: Scholastic Inc.
Gray, K. (2016). Dog on a Frog? New York: Scholastic Inc.
Overview: Frog on a Log? is a cute look at rhyming word pairs and why they always go together. Frog does not want to be paired with log. The book goes through lots of rhyming pairs that are silly and fun. Then at the end Frog asks cat if the dog could sit on log. Then dog realizes he goes with dog also and gets sat on. Which is were Dog on the Frog picks up. Cat reviews the rules of rhyming pairs. Frog decides to change the rules. So Frog changes all the rhyming pairs to new silly combinations. Great books for exploring rhyming with young children.
Heim, A. (2016). Love you too. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Overview: A great book to use for interactive read aloud. Students can say the second part of the saying. The dad pig and the child pig have so many funny interactions with finishing each others sentences. A teacher could pair this book at the beginning of the year with teaching an attention signal that has students repeat a saying back at the teacher. For example the teacher would say "Bubble" and the students would call back "Gum."
Holub, J. (2017). This little trailblazer: a girl power primer. New York: Scholastic.
Overview: This little picture book displays 10 different women from history. The variety of ethnicity and accomplishments is very diverse. The text in the book is bold and enlarged and then a text box includes a historic fact about the woman. At the end of the book are 12 more women and a question posed to the child reading it. How will you change the world? A very powerful book for young readers, ideal for Prek through 3rd grade.
McCanna, T. (2017). Barnyard boogie!. New York: Scholastic.
Overview: A fun book to read with young children. The animals play instruments and then the cow says, "Moo." Each instrument makes a different sound and the words the other choose for each is fun. Children will love to read along and make the silly sounds.
McClurkan, R. (2017). Playdates rule!. New York: Scholastic.
Overview: Ezra is having a play-date with his best friend Finley. The play-date gets a little out of control at times and Ezra's parents put rules down. The two friends adjust to comply with the rule to only have another rule put on them. The book could be used to help teach rules at the beginning of the school year or if a child is about to have a play-date it would be a fun book to read to prepare. The last page of the book eludes to maybe the others next book about the first day of school. That would be an interesting story.
Meade, R. (2016). Edward gets messy. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Overview: Edward is a very particular pig. One might say he is a little OCD about not getting dirty. All the other animals in the book like to get messy and explore the world around them. Edward is so busy trying to avoid the mess, that eventually the mess finds him. Once the devastation happens he gives messy work a try. He discovers that he can get messy and explore; because one can always take a bath and get clean.
Pendergrass, D. (2018). Clifford's fairy tails: The three little pigs and the big red dog. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Overview: A nice new twist on a classic story. Emily Elizabeth's dad is reading the story of The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. The retelling of the story has Clifford being the wolf, but he is not bad he just has a cold and sneezes down the homes. Of course he is not able to blow down the brick house. The pigs bring him inside and help make him feel better. Clifford and Emily Elizabeth help the pigs gather bricks and create two more brick houses for the pigs who lost their house. Children who love Clifford will truly enjoy this tail. A great book to add to a collection of fairy tales to use for comparing and contrasting to the traditional version.
Sparrow, L. (2018). My friends. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Overview: A sweet little story about a Bear and his friends. The book talks about all the different types of situational friends we have. At the beginning and end of the book I like how the illustrator did a picture collage of Bear and all his different types of friends. A great book to read with young children about friendship, or to use as a social story for a child struggling to make friends.
Werber, Y. (2017). Spring for Sophie. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Overview: A new book about spring to add to any teacher of young children's collection of books. The book has Sophie use her senses to determine when spring is here. She uses her ears, her senses of touch, her sight and even taste. A delightful story with great illustrations that help the reader see the changes from winter to spring.
Yolen, J. (2017). How do dinosaurs choose their pets?. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Overview: A great new addition to the How Do Dinosaurs collection from Yolen and Teague. In this book the Dinosaur picks wild animals to bring home as pets. Then at the end it talks about the typical pets, cats and dogs, and how to take care of them. Great new book to add to a themed unit on pets.
