Utopia: Newbery

Title: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Illustrator: none
Genre: Utopia
Publisher:Douglas & McIntyre Ltd. 1998
Age: 4th- 9th grade
Summary: The main character, Stanley gets sent to a correctional camp. At the camp the people who run the camp are searching for treasure. So, for their punishment at the camp they have to dig holes. They are only told that they are digging in order to "build character". Stanley makes friends while he digs the holes and comes to realize that they are searching for something when they are told to dig. The digging continues and so does the sneakiness of Stanley. His family curse is broken in the end.


Response: Holes has always been one of my favorite books to read. The story sucks you in at the beginning and you want to know more and more about what is going to happen. It is a humorous story and because of that it has always seemed realistic. I enjoy the movie as well and I think the movie brings out a lot of the good that is in the book.

Fantasy: Multicultural

Title: The Legend of Food Mountain
Adapted by: Rohmer, Harriet
Illustrator: Carrillo, Graciela
Genre: Multicultural Fantasy
Publisher: Children's Book Press 1982
Age: Pre-K- 6th
Summary: The Gods did not know what to feed the people. One of the Gods turned into an ant and went to Food Mountain. He brought back corn and gave it to the people. He then tried to carry the entire Food Mountain to the people.


Response: The images are very colorful. The pages have spanish and english versions of the story right on them. That is a very interesting and different way to tell a story. This book was not my favorite but it does portray the culture well. It definitely is an exaggerated tale and a fantasy type for some.

Science Fiction

Title: Man on the Moon

Author: Bartman, Simon

Illustrator: n/a

Publisher: Templar Publishing 2002

Genre: Science Fiction

Age Range: K-3

Summary: Bob works on the moon and gets to the moon each day by 9 in the morning. His job is to keep the moon clean. His two best friends work on Mars and Saturn. Bob gives tours of the moon to people who stop by in their spaceships. Each night when Bob goes home, aliens get in the spaceship with him, but he never notices.

Response: The illustrations are a lot different than other children's books. They are very large and vibrant. The story is very funny and the images are meant for children. It is attention grabbing and would be a very fun book to learn how to read with.

Fractured Fairytale

Title: The Wolf who Cried Boy

Author: Hartman, Bob

Illustrator: Raglin, Tim

Publisher: GP Putnam's Sons 2002

Genre: Fractured Fairytale

Age: K-3

Summary: The little wolf complains about dinner and asks why they don't eat boy anymore.  He tells his parents he found a boy and they search all over.  While they are gone, Little Wolf ruins dinner so they would just have to eat snacks.  His parents caught on to what he was doing and decided to ignore him.  Then a boy came into their cave and the parents did not notice because they thought the wolf was lying still.

Response: This fairytale was different than all the other ones that I've read.  Everything seemed reversed.  These were not very popular when I was younger.  It was very funny and I think kids would definitely enjoy reading this book.  It is very unusual but grabs attention.

Traditional Literature: Multicultural/Caldecott

Title: The Village of Round and Square Houses

Author: Grifalconi, Ann

Illustrator: Grifalconi

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company 1986

Genre: Multicultural Traditional Literature

Age range: K-4

Summary: The book explains what the village is like and how it came about. The grandmother tells a tale about the "mother Naka" who came. All of the homes were covered in ashes. Only one square home and one round home was left. That was the reason that the men and women lived in two different homes.

Response: This book had really awesome illustrations! It made me get a feel for African villages. I thought this was an interesting tale. I think I would have really enjoyed reading it when I was younger, too. This book would be thought provoking for young kids who are learning or who want to learn about Africa.

Traditional Literature:Multicultural/Caldecott

Title: Anansi the Spider

Author: McDermott, Gerald

Illustrator: McDermott

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart 1972

Genre: Multicultural traditional literature

Age:K-3

Summary: This picture book is folklore from Ghana in Africa. It is about a spider named Anansi who gets eaten by a fish. He has six sons. One of them senses trouble and they all head out to save their father.

Response: I think this is a good old story. It has been passed down in Ghana for a very long period of time. I have heard this story before and always enjoy it. The pictures are not up to date, but I do think that the pictures stay true to the story and to the idea of the story being around for a long time.

Historical Fiction: Multicultural

Title: The Firekeeper's Son

Author: Park, Linda Sue

Illustrator: Downing, Julie

Publisher: Clarion Books, New York 2004

Genre: Historical Fiction

Age Range: grades 2-5

Summary: Sang-hee grew up in Korea in the early 1800s. His father was in charge of lighting a fire on top of the mountain to let the king know that everything was okay. One day his father broke his ankle when he was climbing and his son was in charge of lighting the fire until it healed.

Response: I thought it was interesting that the firekeeper would light a fire on one mountain and then other firekeepers would light their fires so that the king knew everything was okay on the land. I enjoyed reading this book and liked one of the quotes that was in it. "It is good to live in a time of peace." I also felt this book offered good family values. The little boy was worried about his father and ran to help him. In this book the boy and his family were fictional but the actual fires really happened. I would read this book to my class.

Challenged Book

Title: The Giving Tree

Author: Silverstein, Shel

Illustrator: Silverstein

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers

Genre: Challenged Picture Book

Age Range: grades 2-5

Summary: This book is about a tree who loved a little boy.  The boy would go to the tree to eat her apples and play on the branches.  It always made the tree happy.  The boy got older and the tree went through changes, but it still gave to the boy.  

Response: I'm sure that I have read this book in the past.  I chose to read it because I remembered Shel Silverstein but I did not remember his stories.  I feel as though, you would have to be a very extreme feminist to challenge this book for sexist views.  I did not find anything wrong with the book while I was reading it and did not understand why exactly it is a challenged book.  It seemed to me like it was just about two unusual friends (the boy and the tree) and how the tree kept helping the boy by giving him apples.  The tree always was happy in return, when the boy would play on her branches.  I actually had to look up the reason this book is challenged.  Until I looked up the reason, I didn't understand why anyone would challenge it.  I think it is a good but silly book for children.