George Washington Carver: The Peanut Wizard

This biography was written by Laura Driscoll and illustrated by Jill Weber.  As a child George Washington Carver and his brother Jim were owned by the Carvers as slaves.  George helped Susan Carver with her garden and discovered his desire to learn more about plants, so he decided to go to a school that accepted blacks.  When George was about 30 years old he went to college and learned all that he could about plants.  He was asked by Booker T. Washington, head of Tuskegee Institute, to teach everything he knew about plants to students and farmers.  He had farmer's plant things like sweet potatoes and peanuts to put nitrogen back into the soil.  George introduced the many, many things that can be made from peanuts, such as hand lotion, glue, coffee, and tons more!  This is how he became known as the "the Peanut Wizard".  

I think that this book was such a fun and interesting way to introduce a historical figure.  I did not know much about George Washington Carver and this book told me, not only about his life struggles and accomplishments, but how he became famous.  Often, biographies are dull and hard for children to get interested in, but the fabulous illustrations and unique way that this book is put together pulls the reader in, wanting to learn more.  

There are endless teaching possibilities with this biography.  History: Slavery.  Science: Farming, George Washington Carver (Scientist).  Math:  Measurements included with recipe in the book.  Language Arts-  Includes "dirty words" and their definitions: soil, mulch, fertilizer, manure, and compost.  

Skin Again

Skin Again is written by Bell Hooks, illustrations by Chris Raschka.  This is a deep and meaningful picture book that shows the importance of seeing someone from the inside, and not what their skin looks like on the outside.  A persons story is what makes up their past, present, and future, but these things can only be known from looking to the inside of a person.  

Although this book does not include many words and seem age appropriate for older readers, I think there are few books that have such meaning as does this book.  All children should read this book to understand from a young age that a persons true beauty is seen from the inside only.

I feel that this would be a great book to introduce to a class during the first few days of a new school year.  Teachers can read this book to students so that they can start off meeting students with a fresh mindset, understanding that they will not be able to know a person's true story without getting to know them from the inside, so listen and be willing to get to know others.  

Sideways Stories from Wayside School

This entertaining book was written by Louis Sachar and illustrated by Adam McCauley.  It is about a school called Wayside School that was accidently built sideways.  Instead of being one story with 30 classrooms it was built with 30 stories, one classroom on each story.  The builder of the school not only made the mistake of building the school wrong, but he also forgot to add a 19th floor so the building skips from story 18 to 20!!  Throughout the book, each chapter focuses on a different teacher, student, or staff member from Wayside School and they all happen to be very strange people!  I think this book is hilarious because it just continues to get weirder and weirder as the chapters go on.  As the reader I became so interested in the book because I could not even imagine what weird things would happen next.  I KNOW that all children will love this silly book and enjoy it as much as did.  I feel that it is a perfect book to bring into the classroom to serve the sole purpose of pure enjoyment for the children and teacher.  : )

Mister Seahorse

Mister Seahorse is an excellent nonfiction picture book by Eric Carle. I am really glad that I came across this book because it is educationally informative for nearly any age child, it even taught me some things that I did not know.
Mister Seahorse is about the several fish families in which the eggs are cared for by the father instead of the mother, like ordinary births. Some of the fish families include Seahorse, Tilapia, and Pipe fish. Each of the males from the different fish families care for the eggs in different ways, some include making nests or carrying the eggs in their mouths.
The illustrations in this book are great. Children can read and learn about the various types of fish families that are cared for by the male, and then connect the illustrations with the reading to get a good visual understanding of the appearance of the diverse fish and the way that the eggs are cared for.
This book could be used when learning about animals and reproductive systems. It could also be used to introduce new words of things found in sea water such as coral reef, seaweed, and reeds.