New Classroom Additions

I feel like I am always looking for a new book to add to my classroom library. The goal is to have a library full of all different texts that reflects our ever-changing world. This week, I had the opportunity to read three amazing children’s books. They were Red A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall, Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Peña, and Rescue & Jessica A Life Changing Friendship by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes.

Rescue & Jessica

Ever read one of those books that make you cry? I balled like a baby during this one. I think it is because of my background knowledge of having a dog and knowing how they change our lives. Rescue and Jessica, by Kensky and Downes, enriches my life in so many ways. To begin with, this is a book that most children would be able to relate with for the simple fact that Rescue is a dog. There is something about a book that one of the main characters is a dog. I loved how we not only had the point of view of Jessica, but also of Rescue and what he was going through. This book would be great to talk about point-of-view, especially since the authors incorporated two points-of-view in the text. Next, one critical literacy piece that I have been more focused on lately is illustrations. The illustrations in this text basically have a story of their own. Scott Magoon, the illustrator, tells a story through his illustrations. According to Magoon (2018), the illustrations were created digitally. On each page, we are able to glimpse the characters’ feelings. The pages that are bright let us know that they are feeling uplifted and happy. However, the darker illustrations let us glimpse into the darker days of their journey. I am especially drawn to the page with the bridge. The characters move from the darker part of the bridge (tougher days emotionally) to the brighter side of the bridge (easier/happier days). This really allows us to see the progression of the characters. Furthermore, I believe this text would be great to use the Bookmark Technique to teach critical literacy. According to DeVoogd and McLaughlin (2004), this technique helps students “monitor their comprehension and evaluate judgements about the text.” Students create four bookmarks related to something they find interesting, something they find confusing, a vocabulary word the class needs to discuss, and an illustration that helped them understand what they read. Students may find that this text was related to the Boston Marathon bombings interesting, the concept of a service dog confusing, ‘application’ as a word needing to be discussed, and the illustration of the bridge to help them understand the story. That of course was only an example. Students may have many different bookmark options to help them better understand the text.

Furthermore, there is a lot of teaching potential within this book. One theme that is present throughout the story is overcoming challenges. Students can use this them to discuss and write about a time that they had to overcome a challenge. Once students have written, they can then compare and contrast it with the challenges present in Rescue and Jessica. Furthermore, there can even be research opportunities. Students can research the authors and illustrators to better understand why they wrote the book. It is important to note that the authors had a strong connection to this book. They were running in the Boston Marathon and were injured in the bombings that took place. Students might wonder if Jessica was a child at the time of the bombings, but she was an adult. I believe she wanted the story to be more relatable to kids, so she made Jessica a child. In addition, students can also research service dogs. A great resources is www.neads.org. Students can learn about the process of becoming a service dog and how they help around the world. A great resource for teachers comes from Candlewick Press. They have created a teaching guide for this book. It is full of questions to ask students and great discussions that can be incorporated into instruction. It can be accessed at http://candlewick.com/book_files/0763696048.btg.1.pdf.

Last Stop on Market Street

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Peña incorporates so many ideas into one short text. It is important to note that it was the winner of the 2016 Newberry Medal and a 2016 Caldecott Honor book. First of all, it really allows the reader to see kindness in action. CJ is a bit negative at first, but his Nana embodies positivity in every way. She sees the good in everything and is an important role model in CJ’s life. In this book, we see an appreciation of diversity, through all types of people in all stages of life. Throughout the story Nana and CJ show an appreciation and kindness to all the people who get on the bus. Whether it was the musician or the blind man, Nana was kind to all people. I really appreciated how CJ gave up his seat to the blind man and his dog. It was a little gesture that showed respect toward another human being. The author also presented differences in social classes throughout the story. At the beginning, we see a nicer neighborhood, but by the end, the setting is in a more run-down part of town. The characters never faltered, but rather, continued to be kind and helpful to all people. In addition, I loved how the illustrations matched the text and, in a sense, told the story as well. According to Robinson (2015), the art was created with acrylic paint, collage, and some digital manipulation. This would be a great book to incorporate into the classroom to showcase diversity and kindness.

After watching the video above, it is important to note that Matt de la Peña allows a diverse culture to connect with his writing. In the video, de la Peña (2013) said that he had a hard time connecting to the stories he was reading. He wanted to give readers a connection to his writing. I believe that Last Stop on Market Street embodies everything that he was trying to do in his writing, especially since the main characters were not the typical blue-eyed, white children present in most children’s books. He also speaks to a wide variety of diversity, not only color of skin, present in our world today. It shows children that we must be kind to all people, regardless of the color of their skin, their abilities, gender, and orientation.

Red A Crayon’s Story

The final book I read this week was Red A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall. From the very beginning, one of the questions I asked was “why is the crayon called red if it is blue?” I am sure that many others reading this book will ask the same question. Little did I know, the whole story would revolve around that little question. As I was reading the story, I could not help to think of the pressure society and people around us put on each and every one of us. We are expected to behave a certain way and do certain things, just like Red. However, once the crayons realized the talents that Red had, they seemed to appreciate him and brag on his good works.

Red A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall would be a great addition to the classroom. This book would be great to show that every person is different and appreciating those differences. We need to stop looking at what is on the outside, but rather focus on the inside of a person. There is a lot of good in people, if we will take the time to get to know them. I love how this book portrayed that simple fact in a way that students could relate to. I think it would be really cool for students to recreate a poster about themselves. On it, they could include illustrations of what everyone around them thinks and expects of them, but also what they see in themselves. I believe this would be a great task to get to know students a bit better. It would also incorporate the theme of being true to oneself. Furthermore, another theme in this book is friendship. Red was having a very hard time accepting himself until Berry became his friend. Berry showed Red something positive about himself and things turned around for Red. As a class, we can discuss what it means to be a friend and how to treat our friends. There are many other ways to incorporate Red A Crayon’s Story into the classroom. A good resource is the Teachers’ Guide created by Harper Collins. It can be accessed at: http://4edd9444c072ad07aff7-11d966b2703d5a5467932b6516b2610f.r67.cf2.rackcdn.com/teaching-guides/TG-9780062371805.pdf.

When thinking critically about the book, one important aspect to note is the illustrations. Hall (2015) noted that the art was digitally combined with crayon drawings and cut paper. I thought the author did a really good job of connecting the text to the illustrations. One could almost retell the story, based on the illustrations. According to his website, Hall is an author and a graphic designer. He has received many honors and is the author/illustrator of a New York Times bestseller, My Heart is Like a Zoo.

References

Association for Library Service to Children. (2016, September 1). Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1_7_cw4MkQ.

Candlewick Press. (2018). Rescue and Jessica: A Life Changing Friendship Teachers’ Guide. Retrieved October 8, 2019, from http://candlewick.com/book_files/0763696048.btg.1.pdf.

De La Peña, M. (2019). Last Stop on Market Street. Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://mattdelapena.com/books/last-stop-on-market-street/.

Hall, M. (2015). Red: A Crayon’s Story. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.

Harper Collins. (n.d.). Red A Crayon’s Story Teachers’ Guide. Retrieved October 8, 2019, from http://4edd9444c072ad07aff7-11d966b2703d5a5467932b6516b2610f.r67.cf2.rackcdn.com/teaching-guides/TG-9780062371805.pdf.

HarperKids. (2015, January 5). Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfKu59BvgGQ.

Kensky, J., Downes, P., & Magoon, S. (2018). Rescue & Jessica: a life-changing friendship. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Last Stop on Market Street Trailer. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKWyXcA8bIU

McLaughlin, M., & DeVoogd, G.L. (2004). Critical literacy: Enhancing students’ comprehension of text. New York: Scholastic.

Hall, M. (n.d.). Michael Hall Studio. Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://www.michaelhallstudio.com/pages/about/index.html.

NEADS. (2019, September 23). World Class Service Dogs. Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://neads.org/.

Peña Matt De la. (2015). Last stop on Market Street. New York, NY: Penguin Group.

Press, C. (2018, February 6). Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju1onrlkK4w.

Random House Kids. (2013, November 15). Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6uUsUnlEmk.