At Ellis Island: A History in Many Voices by Louise Peacock, illustrated by Walter Lyon Krudop

At Ellis Island: A History in Many Voices by Louise Peacock follows   the young girl in the present who is exploring the Ellis Island Museum in the Great Hall and learning about her family's history. Her great-great-grandmother arrived in America through Ellis Island. Another point of view in the story is Sera, who is from the early 1900's from Armenia looking for freedom in America. Finally, the story combines the story of real immigrants, their own suffering and their journey to America.  

Within my classroom, I would combine this nonfiction book into a history lesson about Ellis Island while studying the history behind the immigrations. It could occur during a study of the difference between immigration and emigration in science. Also, I could also utilize the book in a book pass about Ellis Island. 

On Board the Titanic by Shelley Tanaka, paintings by Ken Marschall (Nonfiction Literature)

http://prezi.com/r13qwpzlj_p3/on-board-the-titanic-by-shelley/

Shelley Tanaka's biography, On Board the Titanic, focuses on the story of Jack Thayer, a teenage boy, and Harold Bride, the man who runs the telegraphs to support communication between ships, on the Titanic's first and last voyage. The author also outlines aspects of the Titanic such as the gym, the swimming pool, and the Cafe Parisien. After Captain Smith hit an iceberg, the Titanic began to sink and over half of the people on board were not able to receive a life boat. Eventually the Carpathia, another cruise ship, came to rescue the remaining survivors from the life boats. 

In my classroom, I would use On Board the Titanic to incorporate history and literature. The students could create their own timeline of the events of the Titanic and compare it to the timeline in the story. Also, I could incorporate science with literature by having the students conduct experiments to discover why items float or sink and to explain why the Titanic sank.

Jumanji written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg (Modern Fantasy/Science Fiction)

When their parents leave them to go to the opera, Judy and Peter are left alone at their home to entertain themselves. Later that afternoon, Judy and Peter grew bored and wandered to the park to play. Underneath a tree in the park, they found a board game named Jumanji and decided to play. After reading the instructions, Peter and Judy quickly realized that each roll in the game made brought another piece of the game to life and they could not quit the game until they reached Jumanji. During the game, Judy and Peter encountered lions, monkeys, monsoons, forest guides, rhinoceros, and pythons. Once Judy rolled Jumanji, all of the elements from the game disappeared. When their parents returned home, they tried to explain what happened but neither of their parents believed them. 

I would have my students read Jumanji when we were studying modern fantasy or science fiction. Also, I would read the book for pure enjoyment for the kids or study the art design in the illustrations. 

Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman, illustrated by Caroline Birch (Multicultural/International Literature)

Mary Hoffman's story, Amazing Grace, focuses on Grace, an imaginative African American girl who loves theatrics. She would pretend to be characters, such as Joan of Arc, Anansi the Spider, wooden gates of Troy, pirates, Hiawatha (Big-Sea-Water), Aladdin, and Mowgli. When Grace wants to try out for the play Peter Pan, her classmates tell her she cannot audition because she's a girl and African American. After she tells her mother and grandmother about the students' remarks, Grace's grandmother shows her a young African American woman who is from her grandmother's neighborhood and who is staring in Romeo and Juliet. With her mother and grandmother's help to practice, Grace lands the role in the play and makes a fabulous performance. 

In my classroom, I would use Amazing Grace with my students to help promote equity within my classroom community.  In regards to Natalie's comment about Grace being black, I would discuss with the students why her comment was inappropriate and inaccurate. Also, I would talk with the students about how we should treat each other in the classroom. 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, retold by Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir, illustrated by Kevin Cornell (Modern Fantasy/Science Fiction)

Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir adapted F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button into a graphic novel. Fitzgerald depicted Benjamin Button, a man who ages in reverse, born as a seventy year old man and then becomes younger as the years pass. Reluctantly, his father and mother decided to raise Benjamin and tried to make him age like a normal child. He even tried to attend Yale University but they would not allow him to become a student because he looked old. As he and his father became closer in age, they became closer in bonds of friendship. When Benjamin was fifty, he met and married Hildegarde Moncrief. After a fifteen years of marriage, he began to grow bored in his marriage and chose to join the army and fight in the Spanish-American War. When he appeared to be twenty years old, Benjamin attended Harvard University and became a star football player. After he returned home from school, Benjamin had to stay with his son Roscoe because his wife Hildegarde lived in Italy. Embarrassed by his father, Roscoe asked Benjamin to pretend he was his uncle instead of his son. As he began to grow younger, his nurse Nana began to take care of him until he died.

Within my own classroom, I would use The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel to peak interest in the students for graphic novels in my students. Also, if the students were studying life cycles in science, I would have the analyze why Benjamin Button's case was so rare. In addition, I could read the book as a read aloud.

The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean (Multicultural Literature)

During the Song Dynasty, when his sailor father dies after being forced to be a wind tester, a young Chinese boy named Gou Haoyou, who is left to care for his mother, Qing’an, and his little sister, Wawa. Traditionally, when a ship is due to set sail, a man is volunteered to test the wind to see whether or not the conditions were fair for travel. After making a demeaning comment about his captain’s ship, Haoyou’s father is forced to be the wind tester and died. Following his father’s death, Haoyou had to fend off Di Chou’s (another sailor) advances to marry his mother and volunteers to be a wind tester that would take Di Chou away from his mother. Miao Jie, a circus leader for the Jade Circus, asked Haoyou to join his circus act and become a kite rider. After his great-uncle Bo's blessing, Haoyou travels with his cousin Mipeng through various towns until they found the Kublai Khan, a Mongol who overthrew the Song family to become the new ruler of Cathay. Unbeknownst to Haoyou, the Great Miao (or Miao Jie) was the grandson from the Song dynasty and whose mission it was to assassinate Khan. When Kublai Khan discovers the Great Miao's plan, he attempts to kill Miao but decides to exchange his life for Haoyou as a weapon for his army. However, when the Khan forced Haoyou to attack a rebellious town, a typhoon destroyed some of the town and the majority of the Khan's battle ships were decimated thus causing the Khan to leave Haoyou alone. At the end of the novel, Mipeng marries the Great Miao and they, along with Haoyou, Qing'an, Wawa, and Aunt Mo (Haoyou's great-aunt), leave their Great-Uncle Bo who had stolen money from their family to gamble. To help support his family, Haoyou made and sold kites to the people in Cathay. 

In regards to The Kite Rider, I would use this book in my classroom as a read aloud. Based on my reading of the book, I think the book is suspenseful enough to where I could read part of the book every day and the students would maintain interest. Also, I would ask the students to keep a journal every day after we read the book about what they would do if they were Haoyou.

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, illustrated by Garth Williams (Modern Fantasy)

E.B. White's story begins will a little girl named Fern Arable who saves the life of a runt of a litter of pigs. She takes care of the pig and names him Wilbur. However, when Wilbur turns five weeks old, Mr. Arable forces his daughter to sell the pig to her uncle, Mr. Zuckerman. Although Fern tries to visit Wilbur everyday, he becomes lonely at his new home until he meets an unlikely friend, a spider named Charlotte. However, Wilbur's life changes forever when one of the old sheep on the farm tells him that Mr. Arable and Mr. Zuckerman plan to kill and eat him at Christmas. Desperate to help her friend live, Charlotte devises a plan to spin the words 'Some Pig' into her web to make Mr. Zuckerman realize he cannot kill Wilbur. Over the course of a few months, Charlotte spins the words 'terrific', 'radiant', and 'humble' to describe Wilbur and attract people from everywhere to come see this extraordinary pig. In the end, the Zuckerman's take Wilbur to a fair where he is awarded a prize for attracting so many people to the fair. Even though Charlotte saves Wilbur's life and spins an egg sac of five hundred and fourteen of her own eggs, she ends up dying alone at the fair. By the next spring, Charlotte's eggs hatch but her most of her baby spiders leave the barn except for three of them: Joy, Aranea, and Nellie. They stay with Wilbur until they have their own children and the cycle continues of new spiders who live in the barn until the end of Wilbur's own life. 


In my own classroom, I would use Charlotte's Web as one of the books we would study in my modern fantasy and/or science fiction unit or as a read aloud to the class. The students would have to identify elements of the novel that classify it as modern fantasy (i.e. talking animals). Also, I could have the students study the various types of spiders, such as aeronauts.