Madeline By Ludwig Bemelmans Copyright 1939

Madeline is a story about group of twelve little girls in Paris, France. The girls all share the same activities and complete things altogether. One night one of the little girls, Madeline, gets a pain in her side and has to be rushed to the hospital and have her appendix taken out. This has made the group of little girls very sad and lost without Madeline. Madeline is visited by the other eleven girls and will be home soon. That evening all the eleven girls want their appendixes out as well.

This book is a very sweet and endearing book it shows the closeness of a group of girls in their daily lives and how they seem to have no individuality until one of them does. It shows how when Madeline has to go to the hospital something has change for all the girls. Madeline is different than the other eleven girls. It shows how children want to be alike, but they also want to be individuals.

On the book I checked out from the library New Your Times wrote" Mr. Bemelmans' drawings of the Opera, of Notre Dame in the rain, of the sun shinning on birds and children in the Luxembourg and Tuileries gardens have put an authentic Paris within the covers of this book. The rhymes in which the tale is told make it one that children will enjoy repeating".

One lesson that could be used is if the teacher is studying the human body this could be used to talk about appendixes and if our body needs it to survive. Another lesson could be having pride in our individuality and how if we were all the same how would our life be. A geography lesson on Paris, France could be another lesson.

Ramona the Brave

Ramona the Brave By Beverly Cleary

A charming and insightful book about a first grader. Ramona has many challenges to overcome in this story. Ramona is a very opinionated and outspoken little girl. She feels she is being singled out by her teacher and that her teacher does not like her. She is also dealing with things not being fair because a student gets praised for her art work when she copied off Ramona. Along with things being unfair she also has to deal with guilt and regreats for her actions. Another challenge Ramona faces is sleeping alone in a dark room with her imagination of a gorilla coming out of a book into her room. This book shows the scary part of growing up and not feeling you are being heard. It also shows that sibling rivalry is alive and well today just like always in many homes. Eventually Ramona sees where she can be herself and keep her spunk, but follow some rules.

I felt the book was a joy to read and it made me laugh out loud (lol). She is a deliteful character and I will try to read more adventures about Ramona in the future. Cleary shows how universal the troubles Ramona faces are experienced by every child sometime in their life.

Reviews of the book are as follows. Saturday Review said " Writing a book about a five year old that older children will enjoy is an art". Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books comment was" Ramona Quimby comes into her own in this book. The insidents and situations are completely believable and are told in a light, humorous, zesty style".

This book could be used to foster community support and help the students to see the challenges that every one faces in the classroom, home and with their friends. It could be used the first couple of weeks of school or after winter break to foster a community and discuss ways to stop problems before they happen.

Bats at the Library

Lies, Brian. 2008. Bats at the Library, Boston, Ms, Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 978-0-618-99923-1

The plot of the book starts with a colony of bats out and about in the evening. They come across an open library window and fly into the library. During the evening bats enjoy different adventures, games, and stories. While in the library the bats begin to feel apart of the stories. They start loving to read and then they have to go because the sun has come, but they carry the love of reading as they leave.

I loved the book it had great vocabulary and realy flowed poetically. This book also made me want to read it aloud to a classroom in my future library. Their were five reviews on the back of the book by New York Times, Book Sense Pick, Daniel Pinkwater with NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, Kirkus Review, School Library Journal and Newsday. They were very positive about the book.

While I was reading this book I envisioned a begining of school lesson to start with the rules of the library what my expectations are. I would read the story as an introduction and use the bat as examples of children in the library and how their eyes are open to the possibilities of reading.

Another lesson I would use this book for would be if a teacher needed vocabulary for frontloading in a lesson. I could introduce it or check it out to her/him to help introduce words.