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Poetry

I came across the general anthology titled Dirt on My Shirt written by Jeff Foxworthy and illustrated by Steve Bjorkman. One word to describe this collection of poems is FUN! The poems were so light and funny, perfect for children. The illustrations really brought out the authors lines.. really brought the poems to life. I love that there is a variety of silly poems and serious poems that are still light and kid friendly. Foxworthy did a great job of making the poems relatable to things kids go through or encounter which made them that much more enjoyable. The single poem picture book I read was Me I Am by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Christine Davenier. I enjoyed the theme of this book especially for children. It embraced individuality and specialness in children. The illustration were great. They showed diversity and told a story all on their own. The illustrator did a great job depicting the differences in children from skin color to hair color and style even to th

Historical Fiction

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For my historical fiction picture book I chose Titanicat . It's a story about a cabin boy working on the Titanic named Jim who was in charge of taking care of the ship's cat. He named the cat 4-0-1 after the ship's number. 4-0-1 had four kittens before the ship took off to America and decided to save the kittens by getting them off the boat (it was believed that cats can sense when something bad is going to happen). Jim could not find the cat anywhere, when he looked overboard he saw the cat was leaving with a kitten in its mouth, Jim also noticed one cat was forgotten on the ship. He decides to get off the ship to give the cat her kitten and the ship leaves Jim, 4-0-1, and her kittens which happened to be a great decision for all of them.  The illustrations in the book were beautiful, they were detailed and realistic. It really brought the story to life. Robert Papp did an excellent job depicting Crisp's words perfectly through his illustrations. One of th

Contemporary realistic & realistic fiction

For my realistic fiction picture book I chose David Gets in Trouble. It is a book about a little boy named David who always has an excuse and maybe even a lie as to why he’s in trouble. The book would be considered realistic fiction because it takes a fictional human character and puts him in predicaments  that could really occur in real life as a kid such as, burping at the table, accidentally throwing a ball at a window, or spilling a cup of juice. Although David’s character was portrayed a bit mischievous, at the end of the book he admits to doing “bad” things and tells his mom he loves her. My contemporary realistic fiction chapter book was Because of Win-Dixie. This was a book about a little girl who finds this dog at a store in a new town she moved to. She ends up creating this close bond with the dog replacing her ill feelings about her old friends, home, and her mother. This book would be considered contemporary realistic fiction because Opal could be a real person and her st

Folklore

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So I came across three books that I personally would classify as folklore... There’s : The Knight and the Dragon Previously The Rabbit and the Turtle Aesop’s Fables First up is The Rabbit and the Turtle. Eric Carle recreated Aesop’s fables making them his own with the words and illustrations, but keeping the lesson/moral. Simple enough this type of folklore is called fables. Next we have Previously. This book by Alan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman is a story about what happened before Goldilocks went into the woods and entered the Bear’s house, ate their porridge, broke their chair, laid in their beds, got caught, and fled. This is where the part comes in about what I “personally” would classify as a folktale. I would call this a fractured fairy tale because it includes the storyline of the Goldilocks and the three bears but goes in to falling aboit what exactly Goldilocks  was doing before the story as we know it. Last is The Knight and the Dragon. I would classify this particular

Picture Story Books

I came across three picture story books.. -Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher illustrated by Kate Kiesler -Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes - The Pencil by Alan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman In my opinion, all three of my choices qualify as picture story book. They have the fusion of text and illustration made into a creative product. However, I do think the illustrations from Twilight Comes Twice could not simply tell the story just by looking at the pictures like the other two, but the illustrations do correlate with the story and strike your inner creativity and imagination. Twilight Comes Twice is about the two times in the day that the sun rises and the sun sets (twilight). It goes on to describe what types of things go on during those parts of the day. The illustrations are beautiful and realistically depict how the sky and other parts of nature look during different times of the day. Wemberly Worried is a sweet book about a girl (well she's really a mouse) named Wem

The Caldecott Medal Book

The book I read was The Luon and the Mouse. This was a Caldecott Medal winner and the book is solely illustrations. There are no words, which I didn't know when I picked it up. The story is based off of Aesop's Fables, so of course it's a popular story. The illustrations are very unique and the pictures portray the story so well that you can tell the story without having to read a word. Pinkney used great detail from the hairs of the mouse to the minuscule    ants and the tall blades of grass. To sum it up in one word the book was very creative.

Award Winning Book

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My Friend Rabbit is a Cadelcott Award wining picture book. It's a really cool book about two friends (mouse and rabbit) and the adventures they get into because of rabbit (who is kind of a trouble maker), but mouse can never be mad at him. I really like how the book has this non judgemental vibe. It just shows that love covers a multitude of sin and how your love for some people is truly unconditional.  Pretty deep for a children's book (or maybe I just interpreted it that way)!