We Will Rock Our Classmates (Ryan T Higgins)

 

More surprises from Penelope! Great story for contrasts and contradictions! There are plenty of surprises along the way:

• Feeling different than everyone else (everyone ALWAYS wants Penelope to be a dinosaur when they play....she never gets to pretend she's something else)
• When they're playing dentists they scold Penelope for not flossing AND they find someone's backpack stuck in her teeth
• Is nervous about performing (you would think a bring strong dinosaur would never feel nervous!)
• Daddy Rex teaches Penelope about great things people in her family have accomplished and this helps buoy her up

Goodreads says:

Readers will twist and shout for this headbanging companion to the #1 New York Times best-selling We Don't Eat Our Classmates.

Penelope is a T. rex, and she's very good at it. She also likes to rock out on guitar! With the school talent show coming up, Penelope can't wait to perform for her classmates. But sharing who you are can be show-stoppingly scary, especially when it's not what people expect. Will Penelope get by with a little help from her friends?

Little Red (Bethan Woollvin)

 

Don't mess with the girl in this version of Little Red Riding Hood. 

Good storybook for contrasts and contradictions because we are so familiar with the regular story of Little Red Riding Hood that this one takes us by surprise!

Goodreads says:

Little Red Riding Hood meets a wolf on her way through the woods to visit her sick grandmother. The wolf is hungry, and Red Riding Hood looks tasty, so he hatches a dastardly plan, gobbles up Grandma and lies in wait. So far, so familiar. But this Little Red Riding Hood is not easily fooled, and this big bad wolf better watch his back. In this defiant interpretation of the traditional tale, the cheeky, brave little girl seizes control of her own story (and the wolf gets rather more than he bargained for).

That Is Not A Good Idea (Mo Willems)

 

You all know how foxes are...tricky...and this one tries to lure a goose to his home to put her in the soup. When she turned the tables on him, my class all gave a huge and enormously loud gasp! 

Goodreads says:

One day a very hungry fox meets a very plump goose. A dinner invitation is offered.

Will dinner go as planned? Or do the dinner plans involve a secret ingredient...?

(Don't forget to listen to the baby geese!)

This is a Moose!

Sometimes people just won't play the role we expect them to!

Goodreads says:

Lights! Camera! Moose!

MOOSE? Yes, Moose! When a movie director tries to capture the life of a moose on film, he's in for a big surprise. It turns out the moose has a dream bigger then just being a moose—he wants to be an astronaut and go to the moon.

His forest friends step in to help him, and action ensues. Lots of action. Like a lacrosse-playing grandma, a gigantic slingshot into space, and a flying, superhero chipmunk.

In this hilarious romp, Richard T. Morris and bestselling illustrator Tom Lichtenheld remind us to dream big and, when we do, to aim for the moon.
 

North Woods Girl (Aimee Bissonette)

 

I started off the discussion prior to this book with "What are Grandmas like?" Ha! That got some interesting answers. 

Cranky

Strict

And then one person said, "Well, mine is usually pretty kind."

I asked if they were usually sporty...that got a big No! 

They didn't say that mostly they were soft or round....which I kind of expected. 

Apparently there is a good variety of grandmas out there! 

Luckily, when we were finished, one of the comments was, "Well, that wasn't what I expected." This led perfectly into a Notice and Note contrasts and contradictions discussion.





Goodreads says:

“When Grandma tucks her pants into her oversized boots and grabs her walking stick, I run to catch up,” reports a young girl charmed by her visits to Grandma’s north woods home. Their walks take them through the seasons, to a pond with a downed tree just right for sitting, to a garden lush with tomatoes ready for canning, through a snowy nighttime woods where the only sounds are the squeak of boots on snow and the hooting of a distant owl. Whatever the month, there are plenty of woodland critters to observe: squirrels or rabbits or deer, geese or goldeneyes or mergansers. The forest of North Woods Girl is an active, populated place, brought to life by Claudia McGehee’s colorful scratchboard artistry. Time with Grandma teaches about quiet observation, generous sharing of resources, the beauty of the forest and pond at any hour. Grandma is the quintessential north woods girl, breathing deep the piney scents, relishing the chirping activity of her animal neighbors. Small wonder that her admiring granddaughter is inspired to follow in her footsteps. With a tale as understated as Grandma herself, Aimée Bissonette shares a message of appreciating the treasures of our natural surroundings.

Aimée Bissonette is a writer, teacher, and lawyer living in the Twin Cities. This is her first children’s book. Writer-illustrator Claudia McGehee lives in Iowa City. Her previous works include A Tallgrass Prairie Alphabet and A Woodland Counting Book. 

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas (Lynn Cox)

This is a lovely story of a determined elephant seal named Elizabeth. We loved the story! There were lots of gasps and worried looks when she'd crawl out on to the road to sun herself. We especially loved the picture of her when she returned back to the city again.

We had a great discussion about genre. This is based on a real story and so it has elements of non-fiction (facts) and elements of fiction (beginning, middle, end, parts are from someone's imagination, characters, setting and plot). We discussed what a book would be like if it was a non-fiction story about Elizabeth. It might have real pictures and you could probably start anywhere in the book and understand the information.

Signposts:
Again and again: She returns to her home despite numerous attempts to re-home her

Tough Questions:
Should someone really do this to an animal? Do we really know what is best?

Contrasts and Contradictions:
Elizabeth surprised everyone by not staying with other elephant seals they tried to re-home her with and instead, returning to the city to sun herself on the road.

Goodreads says:

World-renowned swimmer and bestselling author Lynne Cox and Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Brian Floca team up to bring us this inspiring story of an elephant seal who knew exactly where she belonged.

Here is the incredible story of Elizabeth, a real-life elephant seal who made her home in the Avon River in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. When Elizabeth decides to stretch out across a two-lane road, the citizens worry she might get hurt or cause traffic accidents, so a group of volunteers tows her out to sea. But Elizabeth swims all the way back to Christchurch. The volunteers catch her again and again—each time towing her farther, even hundreds of miles away—but, still, Elizabeth finds her way back home.

Includes back matter with information about elephant seals.

We Don't Eat Our Classmates (Ryan T Higgins)

*Contrasts and contradictions: We don’t expect a dinosaur to be in school! We also don’t expect a teacher to let her stay when she has a problem with EATING classmates!!
*What might the author be trying to teach us?

•  everyone has their own challenges
• We need to watch for people who are left out and help them
• Dinosaur learned what it was like when he got bit (empathy)
• Everyone has expectations about school. What are some things we expect about school? What if someone expects something totally different than you?
• We should never never ever eat our classmates! LOL

Goodreads says:

Penelope the dinosaur starts school, but it’s hard to make friends when her classmates are so delicious!

It’s the first day of school for Penelope Rex, and she can’t wait to meet her classmates. But it’s hard to make human friends when they’re so darn delicious! That is, until Penelope gets a taste of her own medicine and finds she may not be at the top of the food chain after all. . . . Readers will gobble up this hilarious new story from award-winning author-illustrator Ryan T. Higgins.
--books.disney.com 

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild (Peter Brown)

Some of my students are reading Wild Robot and so they recognized Peter Brown's name right away. I think he's brilliant!

I introduced this book by telling them it has a "play on words". We talked about what it means to go wild and the commonly understood definition is that it is someone acting crazy. As we read the book, the ah ha moments happened right away for students. Mr. Tiger actually decides he's tired of being prim and proper and starts to walk on all fours. Then he goes off into the wilderness (eeek!).

We also noticed that all the animals that were acting prim and proper were in dull colors of grey and brown. As the animals noticed Mr. Tiger being "wild" they started to follow suit and they started being more colorful. The color comes into his life when he actually starts doing what he was meant to do.

A great picture book example of contrasts and contradictions. We do not expect this from a tiger!

Goodreads says:

Are you bored with being so proper?
Do you want to have more fun?
Mr Tiger knows exactly how you feel. So he decides to go wild.
But does he go too far?
There is a time and place for everything...even going wild.

The Bad Seed (Jory John)

Jory John is hilarious. This bad seed was probably friends with Dragon.

I have to teach a lesson on Sunday about why it's important to obey. This will be a hilarious addition to the lesson.

The bad seed is a sunflower seed. He doesn't mean to be bad. Things just happen.

Another angle on the story could also be about bullying. Sometimes kids perceive other kids that don't do what we expect as bullies or mean kids. This is a good example of how sometimes people do things and act in ways we don't expect because of the experiences they have had.

Good book for the Notice and Note Signpost of contrasts and contradictions. Just when we think we have this bad seed figured out, he decides to turn over a new leaf. 

Goodreads says:

A humorous picture book about a bad guy who makes an important and life-changing realization.

My Teacher is a Monster (Peter Brown)

This is a great book to start off our friendship unit. It reminds students that once you get to know someone they're not quite so scary. Depicting the teacher as a monster makes them laugh. I'm amazed at how every time I read this book to a group of kids they notice as soon as the teacher starts losing her monster-ish green hue.

Good picture book example of Notice and Note Signposts of contrasts and contradictions. We do not expect this teacher to be friendly!

Goodreads summary:

Bobby has a problem.

You see, his teacher is a monster.

But when Bobby runs into his teacher outside of school, he learns there is more to her than meets the eye.

The Skunk (Mac Barnett)

Mac Barnett is becoming one of my favorites! The books I have read of his are: Extra Yarn, Battle Bunny, Telephone,  Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, The Terrible Two, and now this one. They are all brilliant!

My students were able to make a connection with one of the Open Court stories we read: Stevie. It is about a boy who gets tired of a little boy his mom babysits - until he ends up not coming over anymore. We talked about how you should appreciate things when they're here because you will miss them later.

It's funny how much the man and the skunk look alike. Hmmmm.....

This is one book I'd be interested in hearing the author's perspective on why he wrote it.

Good signpost picture book for contrasts and contradictions. The man surprises us by deciding to follow the skunk because he ends up missing him!

Goodreads summary:

When a skunk first appears in the tuxedoed man's doorway, it's a strange but possibly harmless occurrence. But then the man finds the skunk following him, and the unlikely pair embark on an increasingly frantic chase through the city, from the streets to the opera house to the fairground. What does the skunk want? It's not clear--but soon the man has bought a new house in a new neighborhood to escape the little creature's attention, only to find himself missing something. . .
This slyly hilarious tale brings together picture book talents Mac Barnett and Patrick McDonnell for the first time.

There are lots of good questions that come out of this book. Is the skunk symbolic? Is the man trying to hide something stinky in his life? Why does he go looking for the skunk? Why is the skunk following him? Is this about anxiety?