5 Picture Books and One SPOOKY novel

Caution!!!  This Book is Spooky!!

Ghost in the Machine

By Patrick Carman

Grades 6-10

5 Stars

This is the second book of three that tell of the adventures of two teenagers, Ryan and Sarah, who are on a quest to discover the secrets of their small town.  This is a suspenseful mystery which directs readers to a website that shows video clips that help tell the story.

This book was awesome!  I learned about these books because the teacher of a seventh grade Language Arts class that I volunteer in was reading the first book, Skeleton Creek, aloud to her students.  The kids were captivated by the story and so was I.  The video element of these books added a lot to the experience.  The kids were excited to read far enough in the story to view a video clip, and I felt that experiencing the story through two different mediums was a completely new way to read a book. 

            As a major chicken when it comes to scary stories AND movies, I do have to say that this book would have scared the socks off of me when I was in middle school.  The very first video clip of this book is pretty intense.  This book deals with a secret society, murder, ghosts, and involves one of the main characters discovering a corpse.  The faint of heart should read something else, but I can imagine that this book would appeal to many kids who are relatively difficult to interest in a typical book.

            I couldn’t stop reading this book, and having to log onto the Internet to access the videos actually slowed me down a few times.  However, waiting to log onto to view was videos was usually worth it.  They have a kind of Blair Witch Project/video journal feel to them that compliment the book, which is designed to look like Ryan’s journal, complete with “photographs”, taped in clippings, and font that looks like handwriting.  All of this made me feel like I was solving the mysteries right alongside Ryan and Sarah.  An all around great read!

            I would use this book to inspire reluctant readers with an interest in scary stories.  This would also be a good book to get students interested in journaling, both in written and video format.  As I witnessed in the classroom that I tutor in, this would also be a great read-aloud book.

Guess What?

By Mem Fox

Illustrated by Vivienne Goodman

 Grades K-12

5 Stars

This is a really fun book, with simple, but engaging text, detailed and playful pictures, and a small surprise at the end.  The book asks the reader to make guesses about “a crazy old lady called Daisy O’Grady”.

The illustrations of this book really make the story come alive.  They are realistically painted and are filled with peculiar little details that combine everyday items like a sunbeam mixer and a bottle of Tabasco sauce with the strange and slightly disgusting, like a box of Lifeless Lizards Scale Powder and a rat with a bloodied, bandaged tail skittering around Daisy O’Grady’s mixing bowl.  These little details had me squinting at the pictures to read every little word and to catch every little joke.  One page shows Daisy O’Grady’s outhouse, which is surrounded by frogs, owls, and oppossums and has a batman sticker on the door, as well as graffiti that reads, “Broonhilda was here.  Hansel and Gretel too!”  Daisy O’Grady’s bureau has a skeleton inside with a toe tag that reads, “Mr. O’Grady”.  An armadillo is resting on top of a newspaper, a hat with wings is flying across the room, there is a Paddington bear sticker as well as a Doors sticker on the door, and a tennis racket is leaned up against the corner.  This book made me wish that I could snoop around in Daisy’s house, but I sure wouldn’t want to stay the night!

Fox’s text is just as playful, but relatively sparse and simple.  She asks a series of questions, like, “Is she tall?”, “Does she mix rats’ tails, toenails, and dead lizards’ scales?”,  “Is she a cursing, cackling, cranky old witch?”  Each of these questions are followed with an invitation to “Guess!”, and of course, the answer is always, “Yes!”  The last page tells us that although some people think she’s mean, she’s really not, and the illustration shows Daisy showing a girl how to fly on a broomstick.

The theme of the book seems to be, that even though Daisy is clearly a witch, and an extremely odd one at that, that she is still a likeable, friendly woman.  With all of her creepy habits and interests, she would be a really interesting person to know.

I would use this book in the classroom to talk about differences, and how it is not only okay to be different, but that this is what makes us each interesting and unique.  I also think that kids all the way up to high school could look at the illustrations and be inspired to add interesting details to either their artwork or writing.

 

Dear Tooth Fairy

By Alan Durant

Illustrated by Vanessa Cabban

Grades 1-3

4 Stars

Holly loses her tooth and before she decides to give it to the tooth fairy, writes a series of letters back and forth with her to find out about fairies, why they want her tooth, and what they will do with it. 

This was a really fun book.  I chose it because I knew that a student who I work with would love it.  Throughout the story, the tooth fairy writes letters to the main character, Holly.  The letters are written on tiny, fairy stationary that can be removed from envelopes attached to the pages of the book.  Also included in the envelopes was a leaflet that tells about the different types of fairies, a map of fairyland, a fairy riddle game, and a coin in exchange for Holly’s tooth.  The student who I was reading the book with loved looking in all of the envelopes and wanted to read every single word on all of the papers.  When we were finished she told me, “I wish this was my book!”  Can’t get a better endorsement than that.

This wasn’t perhaps literature of the highest quality, but it engaged the student.  The characters, setting, and storyline were all fairly surface level, but I’m fairly confident that the student could tell you all about the different kinds of fairies and the layout of fairyland.

Holly and the Tooth Fairy communicate through letters throughout the course of the book.  I would use this book to introduce letter writing in my classroom. 

Letter writing teaching ideas!

 

The Crocodile Blues

By Coleman Pohlemus

Grades K-4

5 Stars

This is a wordless picture book that tells the story of a man who buys an egg from a vending machine.  The egg hatches in the middle of the night and the man discovers a crocodile in his refrigerator.  The man moves out of the house, only to receive an invitation back to his old home, which the crocodile has turned into a nightclub called the Blue Crocodile.  The crocodile presents the man with a new egg, and the story ends.

This book is beautifully, but simply illustrated.  The digitally produced pictures use only black, white, blue, and yellow and are primarily silhouettes.  The pages fold out to reveal the upper floors of a building and extra details of the story.  The story line is relatively simple, but forms a circular pattern that leaves the main character right back in the same position he was in at the beginning of the story, and leaves the reader wondering what he will decide to do this time.

I would use this book in the classroom as a way to encourage reluctant writers to write words for this wordless picture book.

More books illustrated by Polhemus!

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Book?

By Lauren Child

Grades K-4

5 Stars

A boy falls asleep and inadvertently falls inside his book of fairy tales, which he had drawn in and cut sections out of when he was younger.  He gets into trouble with some of the characters in the book and has to find a way to escape out of the book, back to his bedroom.  When he gets out, he fixes almost everything in the book.

This is a really playful book, complete with flaps, upside down text and illustrations, and “cut out” sections of the book.  I found myself turning the book upside down and laughing out loud.  The main character, Herb, interacts with various characters from different fairy tales, some friendly, and some not so friendly.  He discovers that he has cut some characters out of the book, (like Prince Charming, which he had used to decorate his mother’s birthday card), scribbled a mustache on a queen, and added telephones to all of the rooms in the book.  Herb escapes from one fairy tale to another by cutting holes in the pages to escape, tries to make up for defacing his book by trying to erase the queen’s mustache and drawing her a new throne, and tries to teach Goldilocks some manners.  Childs brought new life to some favorite characters.

I would use this book in the classroom as a way to have a quick, lighthearted conversation about treating our classroom books with care and respect.  I would also use this book to talk about different versions of fairy tales and favorite old stories.  This book could spark some interesting creative writing projects based on traditional fairy tales.

Visit Lauren Child's website!

Pumpkin Pumpkin

By Jeanne Titherington

Grades K-2

4 Stars

A boy plants a pumpkin seed and watches it grow into a pumpkin.  At the end he carves the pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern and saves some seeds for the next year.

This is a very simple book with realistic pictures that show the life cycle of a pumpkin.  Different parts of the pumpkin plant are identified and we get to see the pumpkin progress from a tiny seed to a large pumpkin.  The cycle continues because the main character, Jamie, saves some of the seeds for the next year.

I would use this book in the classroom to talk about the life cycle of a plant, to talk about the different parts of plants, and to read before growing plants from seeds in the classroom.

Lesson ideas for a pumpkin unit