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Refugee

An awesome book to include in your classroom!

Informational/Nonfiction

This Is How We Do It

Author and Illustrator: Matt LaMothe 

Publisher: Chronicle Books in 2017

Pages: 52

Genre: Informational/Nonfiction

Summary

This Is How We Do It is an incredible book to show students in the United States how other children's lives look around the world. In the beginning of the book, the reader meets seven children who are each from a different country. Each child goes into grand detail about what their day to day life looks like. They talk about everything from going to school to what their plate at dinner looks like and how it differs from ours!

Illustrations

Matt LaMothe is the author as well as the illustrator. He has a degree in animation and loves illustrating. His illustrations are very lively and colorful to make the reader feel invited into the different lifestyles they get to learn about throughout the book.

Content Area

This book could really be used for any elementary grade to introduce different cultures. Depending on the grade level it is being used for, it could used to focus on dialogue in Language Arts. This book is a great way to show how people all different in their own ways and not everyone has the same lifestyles. This book could also be used to teach geography and to point out the different countries that the book discusses on a map. There are several different activities that could be incorporated in when reading this awesome book.

Historical Fiction

The Yellow Star 

Author: Carmen Agra Deedy 

Illustrator: Henri Sorensen 

Publisher: Peachtree Publishers in 2000

Pages: 32

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary

The Yellow Star is about King Christian who is in Denmark at the time of World War II. In the book, the Nazis force the Jews to wear a yellow star. Even though this book is fictional it gives children an insight on what times were like in these days and a little piece of history that children need to be exposed to. This is a great book to incorporate in the classroom because so many upcoming generations of students do not have a clue what World War II even means and who the Nazis were.

Illustrations

Henri Sorensen is really a naturalistic artistic who makes all of his illustrations very life-like. His illustrations are not what readers are used to seeing in most picture books. He uses watercolor, oil, and pastels to create the naturalistic look in all of his books. His pictures tend to draw the reader in and make them feel as if they are in the story as they are reading it.

Content Area

This book could be used in third or fourth grade classrooms. It could be used to talk about real events that happened in history concerning World War II and the Nazis. The students could identify the theme of the story and what the overall main goal of the Nazis was in this point in history. It could also be used to involve the students in a writing assignment. The teacher could ask them to write how they would handle this point in time if they were a character in the book. This is a great book for elementary classrooms and could be used in several ways.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Wonder

Author: R.J. Palacio

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf published in 2012

Pages: 316

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Summary 

Wonder is about a fifth-grader who has something called Treacher Collins Syndrome which is disfiguration of the left side of the face. He has been homeschooled up until this point in his life. His mother decides he needs to experience the world, so she enrolls him in a private school.  He faces many struggles from bullying to many prejudices. This book leaves readers young and old to wonder about friendship, compassion, empathy, acceptance and most importantly kindness in our society today.

Illustrations

The illustrations were illustrated by Palacio who is also the author. There are not illustrations throughout the book because it is a chapter book, but the author did create the book cover using art technology.

Content Area

This book would be used in the upper elementary grades; I would suggest using it in fifth grade. It could be used to teach several beneficial topics. Of course it can be used in Language Arts. The students could fulfill standards in fifth grade by making inferences and quoting text and identifying the theme and summarizing the text. This book can also be used to teach kindness and how kindness should be shown to everyone no matter what they look like. This would allow for a very positive class discussion of compassion, empathy, and friendship.

Science Fiction

Found

Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2009

Pages: 336

Genre: Science Fiction

Summary

Found is the first book of a series titled "The Missing". This book is about two adopted teenagers meet each other and realize they are both adopted. They each start receiving messages and discover they were found on a plane with numerous other babies but no adults. The adventure begins and they start investigating more and more about where they came from. The FBI gets involved and the two friends discover that they are in a battle with two opposing forces they want different things for their lives. They must decide if they are going to go their separate ways or try to oppose the force.

Illustrations

There are no illustrations throughout the book, the cover is very captivating. The cover was illustrated using different technology to make it look very futuristic and invite the reader in to the world they are about to enter when reading this book.

Content Area

This book could be used in grades 3-5. This could be used to talk about prediction and how to predict what might happen in the story. The teacher could also use it to talk about collaboration with peers and how the two main characters are working together to find an answer as to where they came from.  Collaboration strategies could be analyzed in the book and the teacher could talk about how they are coming together and helping each other find a solution to the problem. In the book the parents can not find the teenagers. For language arts the teacher could have the students to write a letter to the parents of the teenagers and to give many details about where the teenagers are to help the parents find them.

Modern Fantasy

The Imaginary

Author: A.F. Harrold

Illustrated by: Emily Gravett

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books

Publication Date: 2015

Pages: 224

Genre: Modern Fantasy

Plot Summary

The Imaginary is about an imaginary friend a little girl has. Although an imaginary friend is only a fantasy; this book portrays what real, true friendship looks like. The book takes the reader on an adventure in the world and paints vivid pictures for young readers to imagine. This book is easily relatable to young readers because numerous children have imaginary friends and also need to see what friendship really entails.

Illustrations

Emily Gravett illustrates captivating pictures throughout the novel to bring the reader deeper into the story. She starts by using a pencil to draw the characters then she does the finishing touches electronically. Most of her drawings are black and white and she uses transparency and opacity.

Content Area

This book could be used from ages 8-12. This could be used in the classroom at the beginning of the year to discuss friendship and how friendship can be hard, but having friends is always positive. This could be used in English to identify the protagonist in the story. This story is told in third person, so the teacher could teach what third person means and how to identify that when reading a novel. For older graders, the teacher could ask the students to write a short narrative from a different characters point of view and notice how the story might change from a different point of view.