One Dark and Dreadful Night by Randy Cecil

This book is so interesting. The narrator, Maestro Von Haughty, is putting on three plays and the reader is the audience. He tries to recreate famous fairy tales but his actors keep messing up. He gets frustrated and stops the plays, which ends the books. This book is really funny because while the Maestro is narrating the play, the actors have a lot of side-talk. For example, the Maestro is telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood and he talks about her red coat. The actress playing Little Red Riding Hood says "Do you think we can talk wardrobe into doing something about this outfit?" This side-talk continues throughout the story and it makes the book funny because it frustrates the Maestro. In the play, Jack and the Beanstalk, instead of the giant coming down, a giant bunny comes down and this makes the Maestro mad because this isn't how he had envisioned his play.

The illustrations in this book are good but I wouldn't say that they are the best. They go along well with the text but it is really the storyline that makes this such a good and funny book. This would be a great book to show students the different styles and purposes of writing. This would be a great book to use in mini-lessons. You could also have students write their own play after reading this book. I would recommend this book for all ages.

Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin

This book is too cute! The book is written as if a spider is writing a diary. Some of the entries go together and some of the entries are random. This book has a lot of humor and a lot of spider puns. The book has the entries to read, conversation bubbles, and you can also read postcards or signs that are in the drawings.

The illustrator, Harry Bliss, does a great job of adding humor in the pictures and making the text go along with the pictures. The pictures are very kid friendly. I also like that the book has pictures that the spider took in the front and back of the book. Each picture has a caption to explain what the picture is. I think kids really enjoy this book because it is funny and it is different; there aren't many books written in this format.

This would be a great book to use for mini-lessons. I used it to show how to make the text and illustrations match. It would also be good to use to show kids different styles and purposes for writing. You can use it as an example of how kids can write in their writer's notebook. I recommend this book for all ages.

Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi

This book is about a young girl (Sookan) and her family who live in North Korea during WWII when her country was occupied by Japan. After suffering abuse from the Japanese, the war is over and they are free.....until the Russians occupy North Korea. Sookan must try to flee to South Korea with her mother and younger brother where it is safe to meet up with her father and three older brothers.

I like this book because of the emotions that it evoked. I couldn't imagine going through what this family has gone through. The books I remember reading in elementary school are the ones that evoked emotion such as Mick Harte was Here, Number the Stars, and Bridge to Terabithia. Kids don't always want to read about the perfect family living the perfect life. They want something that they can relate to and having books like this is very helpful to students and can help them grow as readers.

I felt this book took a little long to get going. It started out slow and I thought I was going to have a hard time finishing it. But before I knew it, the book picked up and I couldn't put it down. I had to see if they made it to South Korea safely. This book left me with questions but I think this is what good books do. For example, I was curious about the "farmer" that was paid to take Sookan, her brother, and mother across the border. The kids got separated from their mother and was informed by a lady working at a hotel that their guide was actually a double agent and was paid by the police to turn in the traitors. Because of this information, the kids left before the guide could return. I am wondering if this was necessarily true. It could be that the guide was a double agent but he was also paid well to bring them across the border so maybe he would have done that. I am curious as to whether or not the guide would have actually turned them in. Either way, whether he turned them in or not, the story would have been different. This is an amazing book of courage and I would recommend it for readers ages 10 and up.

Mr. Mumble by Peter Catalanotto

This book is about Mr. Mumble who has a cough. While he is running his errands, he is misunderstood and doesn't get what he asks for. For example, at a diner he asks for two scrambled eggs and a corn muffin but because of his cough he gets two scarecrow legs and a car muffler. At the bakery he asks for a dozen bagels but instead receives a dozing beagle. This continues throughout his day. At the end of the story, he goes to the doctor and when he opens his mouth, a bird flies out. Throughout the story the reader sees (cough) which shows the reader when to add a coughing noise in the story. I can picture kids really getting carried away with the coughing noise and having fun with it because it is something that they don't see often in books. It can also give kids ideas if they want to incorporate a sound in a story that they are writing.

When I first read the book, I wasn't sure where the bird came from at the end of the story. I was rather confused. When I looked at the book again, I noticed that the cover and cover page have a picture of Mr. Mumble sleeping and a bird (the same bird at the end of the story) flying around the room. I liked how the author/illustrator used the entire book to tell the story.

Catalanotto also does the paintings for the story and I like that they are realistic and detailed. I would recommend this book for kids ages 2-8 and I think that all the kids would enjoy the humor.

The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg

This book is about a farmer who hits a stranger in the road and brings him back to the house to take care of him. He has seemed to lost his memory. The stranger seems a little weird; he doesn't talk, he is not sure how to eat or use a pitchfork, and animals are attracted to him. At the end of the book, he realizes that the leaves on the trees around the farm are green while the other leaves are red and orange. The stranger finally regains his memory and suddenly leaves the farm. After he leaves, the leaves turn red and orange. Every fall, the leaves on the farm turn colors a week later than the other trees. And etched in frost on the farmhouse windows are words that say "See you next fall."

This is a great book because there are so many things you can do with it. This would be a great book for students to practice making predictions. Since the answer is never given, you are left to wonder who the stranger is. I like this because it leaves so much up to the imagination and I think it is good for kids to use their imagination and not always get the correct answer. This is a popular book among teachers and there are many lesson plans devoted to this book.

Chris Van Allsburg also does his own illustrations. I love his drawings; especially in his book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, which is a book with pictures and each picture has a corresponding sentence but the pictures don't go together as a story. This book also leaves the reader to make predictions about what is going on. I have come to the point where I am able to identify Chris Van Allsburg's drawings/paintings. I would recommend this book for all ages; younger children may not understand what is going on in the story but I think they would still enjoy it.

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart

This book is about a young girl named Lydia Grace Finch who leaves her Grandmother, Father, and Mother to live with her Uncle Jim while her Father finds another job. Uncle Jim lives in a city and while there, Lydia plants a garden on the roof of the building. On the Fourth of July, she surprises her Uncle by showing him her garden. Lydia then learns that her Father has found a job and she will be moving back home.

The entire book is written in letter format. In the beginning, Lydia writes to Uncle Jim and throughout the rest of the book, she is writing to her Grandmother, Father, and Mother. I like this book because it is different. There aren't many books written in this kind of format and I think kids enjoy reading something that is different. This book would be great to use during a lesson. It shows the many purposes for writing, such as writing letters. It also gives ideas how kids can write in their writer's notebook or ideas for a story. I also like how this book centers around one topic: gardening. It can inspire kids to write a story about a certain topic that they enjoy.

The pictures in this book are by David Small and they are amazing. He adds so much detail in every picture which helps make them realistic. This book is good for all ages. Younger children would enjoy this book and older children can use this book as an example for ideas or writing purposes.

The House of Boo by J. Patrick Lewis

This story is about 3 kids dressed as ghosts who go to the haunted house on Humpback Hill to try to see Boo Scoggins. The children encounter frightful things on there way there and they are unsuccessful in their attempt to try and spot Boo. This is a great Halloween book. This book is written in poem form and at the end of the book, there is an author's note explaining what kind of poem it is. It is called a Rubaiyat poem which means that the poem links the stanzas; the third line's end word is the major rhyme. This book would be a great model if you were trying to get your students to write a certain way. For example, if you are doing a unit on poetry you can introduce all the different types of poems and they can choose what kind they like and write a poem of their own.

The illustrations in this book are by Katya Krenina. I like them because she does a great job of making the pictures look only a little scary. They aren't too scary where they wouldn't be appropriate for younger kids. I also like how some of the text is on signs or on gravestones. Also, all the text is in orange except for the word "blood" which is in red. I would recommend this book for kids ages 4 and up.