*picture book, contemporary realistic fiction for preschoolers through third graders
*two adolescent boys as main characters
*Rating: Books like First Come the Zebra by Lynne Barasch are why I love to blog about children’s books. This book is beautifully done with a wonderful message and sharing an interesting place and event in our world.

Short, short summary: In rural Kenya, Abaani, a Maasai boy, takes his family’s cattle to graze when he sees a new boy with a vegetable stand along the road. He learns this new boy’s name is Haki, and he is a Kikuyu boy. Abaani remembers all the things his elders have said about the way the Kikuyu ruin the land, and he tells Haki this. The boys, of course, quarrel. Then some women come along who want to trade their handmade baskets for vegetables. When one of the women is involved in her transaction, her toddler wanders into a field where some warthogs are feeding. Abaani sees this, and he knows the danger the toddler is in. He quickly figures out a plan that involves the help of Haki. Will the boys save the toddler? Will they learn to let go of their differences and get to know each other as people? Make sure to check out First Come the Zebra to learn more about this area of Kenya and how people can learn to get along with each other in spite of a history of conflict.

So, what do I do with this book?

1. The author’s note in the back of the book tells readers more about this area of Kenya and the tribes involved in the story. Lynne Barasch also lets readers know about the game the boys play–mancala. Make sure to share this information with your students or your children as well as the map of Kenya and Tanzania in the back of the book. If possible, try to find a mancala game for children to play. They have versions for sale at game stores in the United States and/or online. You can also assign students a topic to research and find out more about, depending on their age. Topics could range from: Kenya, Tanzania, Maasai, Kikuyu, The Great Migration, and animals such as zebras and warthogs.

2. The boys in this book do not get along at first because of their families. Once they get to know each other, they start to think differently. Ask your children or students if they can explain why this happens in the book. Also, ask them if they have ever had trouble getting along with someone but then worked out their differences. Use this book as a starting point for discussions on learning to know people as individuals, conflict resolution, and even prejudices.

3. First Come the Zebra doesn’t start with the two boys and their problem like most picture books do. Instead, it starts with The Great Migration. Talk about the first few pages of the book and the last page, and how they serve as a frame for the story. Discuss why the book is titled First Come the Zebra. Share other animals that come to graze during The Great Migration. Students can draw pictures of their favorite animals, and you can create a wall mural of this event in your classroom.

One of the cute Easter books for kids is The Easter Egg by Jan Brett. In my opinion, you can never go wrong with Jan Brett books!

Short, short summary: Hoppi is ready to start on his first-ever Easter egg for the Easter Rabbit. The bunny who decorates the winning egg gets to hide eggs for girls and boys with the Easter Bunny! Hoppi goes out and sees all the beautiful, and I do mean amazingly beautiful, Easter eggs his bunny friends are creating. Once again, Jan Brett’s illustrations on the border of the book tell more of the story than the text and main illustrations do. Besides all the bunnies that Hoppi talks to about decorating eggs and who offer him advice, she also shows amazing rabbits creating all sorts of cool eggs that match each of their personalities. But the most important border picture to keep track of is at the top of each page and shows the robin in her nest. This robin becomes a very important part of Hoppi’s story when squirrels cause one of her beautiful blue robin eggs to fall out of the nest. Hoppi sees this, and he agrees to keep the egg warm for the mother robin. However, this gives him no time to prepare his egg for the Easter bunny. So, what will happen when the Easter bunny comes, and who will win the prize to help hide eggs on Easter morning? The Easter Egg by Jan Brett is one of the cute Easter books for kids this 2010 holiday season.

So, what do I do with this book?

1. Ask children to design their own Easter eggs based on their activities and interests. Give each child a cut out of a large Easter egg. If a child is interested in hunting, he could make a brown and green camo egg with maybe some splashes of orange. If she’s interested in dancing and baseball, she could make an Easter egg to reflect that. When reading the book to children, pay close attention to the illustrations and the different types of eggs, so children can see how the decorated eggs are unique and exemplifying each bunny’s personality.

2. Discuss why the Easter Bunny chose Hoppi as the winner even though he didn’t design an egg himself in this super cute Easter book for kids. Ask children why what Hoppi did for the robin was so special! Ask students to compare a time in their lives when someone did something special for them–even something like a parent cooking a favorite meal. Students can discuss how this made them feel and why people who do special things are worthy of awards. You can take this discussion one step further and make “Easter Bunny Awards” with students for people in their lives who have helped them. (This is a good home school activity, too.)

3. Pick four or five Easter eggs out of the book or out of Easter pictures from the Internet and let students be the Easter Bunny. Print, cut out, and line these Easter eggs up on the chalk board at the bottom, one next to each other at the same height. Give students a post-it note. Students write their names on the post-it note and hang it above the egg that they like the best. They hang the post-it notes one on top of another, so students are creating a type of bar graph. The top of one post-it note touches the bottom of the next post-it note, and so on. When the class has finished voting, the post-it note bar graph should show the Easter egg winner. You can give the graph a title and ask questions based on the graph.

Do you know any more cute Easter books for kids you like to share with your class or your children?

*Picture book for preschoolers through second graders, contemporary fiction
*Little girl as main character
*Rating: Smile by Leigh Hodgkinson will make you smile. One of the cutest picture books I’ve seen recently–I think kids and adults will love it!

Short, short summary: Sunny is usually happy! But today, she can’t find her smile. Where could it have gone? She can’t find it under her bed or in her room, so she cleans her room to look for it better. She wonders if somebody took it, but who would do that? Her goldfish? No way! The twins? Nope! Maybe she lost it in the big, wide world somewhere. So, she continues looking for it and gets caught up in having fun with her dog along the way. And then the twins point out–she found her smile!

So, what do I do with this book?

1. Ask students to draw a picture of what makes them smile. Then ask them to bring in a photo of them smiling. Attach the photo to the illustration, and post these on a bulletin board that says: “What Makes Us Smile!”

2. You can have a great discussion with young children about this book. Why does Sunny lose her smile? How does she find it again? Have children ever lost their smile like Sunny does? You can even get into discussions such as: “What does it mean to be happy or sad?”

3. One of the cutest illustrations in Smile! by Leigh Hodgkinson is when Sunny makes a wanted poster for her smile. Ask students to make a wanted poster for something–it can be Sunny’s smile, a friend, a pet, or so on. This activity can also be a bulletin board or classroom display.

*Picture book for preschool through second grade students
*Our favorite, old-eating-everything lady as the main character
*Rating: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick is another fun book for young children in this wonderful series.

Short, short summary: “There was an old lady who swallowed a chick. I don’t know why she swallowed that chick, but she didn’t get sick.” Of course, she didn’t get sick. This lady can swallow just about anything as we’ve learned from other books about her. In this Easter book for preschool kids and elementary students, the old lady swallows a chick, straw, Easter egg, jellybeans, Easter basket, and more. What finally does her in this time? Well, nothing really, she starts to hop, and she meets the Easter bunny!

So, what do I do with this book?

1. With this fun Easter book for preschool kids and primary children, you can either order felt board pieces for a retelling of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick, or you can make your own. Children love to be a part of telling the story, and they can help you manipulate the felt board pieces and retell the story.

2. Lucille Colandro has written another great book that can help young children work on sequencing skills. After you have read the book a few times, ask students or your children what does the old lady swallow first, second, and so on. You can even ask students questions such as: “What happens first–the old lady swallows the straw or the candy?” or “What does she eat after she swallows the Easter egg?” You can extend this discussion by providing a worksheet with pictures of the different objects the old lady swallows out of order. Students would cut these objects out and glue them onto a separate sheet of paper in the correct order.

3. Students may want to write their own class version of this fun Easter book for preschoolers. As a shared writing activity, you could either stick with the Easter theme or switch to another theme such as summer or Independence Day. You will want to help students with the format, such as writing on chart paper ahead of time: “There was an old lady who swallowed a _______________. I don’t know why she swallowed a __________.” and so on. Once you have written a version as a class, you can assign different students to illustrate different parts of your class book. If you do this as a home school project, you and your children can work together to create the book.

Do you have a favorite There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed. . . book?

*Picture book for preschoolers through second graders
*Bea the sheep as the main character
*Rating: Be unique is the message in Bea Rocks the Flock, and this book’s illustration and cute sheep make it unique, too.

Short, short summary: Bea is having a hard time in the flock. She just doesn’t do the same things as all the other sheep. One day, she gets fed up and decides to leave and go to New York City. In the city, she gets several ideas of how to spend her life, but none of them seem to work out so well. She enters a dog show and dyes herself pink. She wins the most unique sheep, and this gives her a great idea. Bea goes back to the flock and convinces them that being unique is not so bad after all. Bea Rocks the Flock by Victoria Jamieson will leave each child in your classroom or your home happy to be unique!

So, what do I do with this book?

1. Bea Rocks the Flock is all about being unique and following your own interests. Ask students to name one thing that makes them unique such as: they are a yellow belt in karate or they take ballet lessons or they have a rock collection. After each student has shared one thing that makes him unique and you have written it on a piece of chart paper, then children should draw an illustration of themselves doing the activity and copy down the sentence from the chart paper.

2. In the middle of the book, Bea is trying to figure out what she should do in New York City to pass her time. After the library scene, ask students to give their ideas on what she could do each day. You can even create a class book with these ideas called, Bea Rocks New York City. Students can illustrate the ideas for Bea in the city, and teachers can type the ideas and glue them to each page. Laminate the pages, connect them together with string or plastic binding, and you have a new class book for students to read based on Bea Rocks the Flock.

3. You can actually use this book with older elementary students to talk about one of the 6+1 traits of writing–word choice. Victoria Jamieson uses several specific nouns and verbs to make her story shine. For example, at the end of the book Flossie doesn’t just say she wants to grow flowers, she says she wants to start an organic daisy farm. Choosing the words “organic daisy farm” brings a different picture into readers’ minds than if the author chose to just write “flower garden.” Find several examples of specific word choice throughout the story and discuss them with your students.

And don’t forget the new Rule of Sheepdom. . . .BEEEEEEEEEEE yourself!

So, if you’ve never read this classic Dr. Seuss tale, then here’s a quick summary: Marco’s dad always says to him, “Marco, keep your eyelids up and see what you can see.” So, Marco does, but he’s a bit frustrated because when he tells his dad the things that he has seen, his dad says, “Your eyesight’s much too keen. Stop telling outlandish tales.” So, what kind of outlandish things does Marco see on Mulberry Street? Well, there’s the zebra pulling a wagon–actually a chariot; and oh wait–it’s not a chariot with a zebra, it’s an elephant pulling a big brass band. Marco’s imagination (or keen eyesight) continues to see this wagon pulled by an animal in all sorts of ways, and he just can’t wait to tell his dad until he gets right there with him–and Marco winds up telling him that he saw “a plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street.”

Children today will love Marco’s imagination and keep turning the page to see what he comes up with next. They’ll also want to see what he reports to his father. Since teachers and parents are often complaining that children don’t spend enough time imagining any more because they are playing video games and watching movies and TV, And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street is an important book to share with children and celebrate imagination.

After reading this book to students or your children, discuss with them what they could turn the wagon and horse into in their imaginations. Ask them to draw their versions and write a sentence about them. You could even do this activity in an art class with older students–especially if you want to study Dr. Seuss’s illustration style.

And next time you and your children (or students) are outside looking at a street, what can you imagine that you see on South Street or Main Street or Green Street? Create your own version of Dr. Seuss’s celebration of imagination And to Think I Saw it On Mulberry Street!