Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons uses humorous examples to show the reader what a huge difference the use of comma makes when writing a sentence. In the beginning of the book a panda bear is explaining how he is now expected to eat, then shoot someone with an arrow then leave because of a grammatical error someone made with a comma. Instead the panda should be eating shoots and leaves, but since the comma was in the wrong place, his actions changed drastically. The book was incredibly comical, yet taught a very important lesson. The end of the book contains pictures of each page and reasons why the insertion of commas changes the meaning. This is a great book that could be used to teach grammar and comma usage to children in a fun way. I would definitely recommend this book for children ages 5-8, and I would use this book in my classroom!

The Library Mouse

The Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk. Library Mouse is a heartwarming story about a small mouse that lives inside the library of a school. He enjoys reading, and one day decides to write stories of his own to add to the library. He writes stories about himself and everyone in the library is anxious to meet this mysterious writer because everyone that reads his stories finds them to be amazing. The librarian decides to have a meet the author day so that the author of the books can be revealed to the children. Library Mouse does not want anyone to learn of his true identity, so on meet the author day he sets up a shoe box with a sign that tells the children to look inside the box to see who the author is. When the children look in the box they see a reflection of themselves. After this, all of the children are excited to write stories of their own because the mysterious author has changed the way that they feel about reading and writing. I highly recommend this book for early readers because it really gets them excited about reading, and makes them want to read and write.

The Magic Tree House: Civil War on Sunday

The book that I read is called Civil War on Sunday and it is a part of the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. I do not remember reading any Magic Tree House books when I was younger, but now I wish I did. In this story two siblings, Jack and Annie visit their magical tree house that provides them with books that send them to various places. In this adventure, they travel back to the Civil War and learn all about the soldiers and the purpose for the war. Jack learns a little bit about his family history when he meets a drummer that looks identical to him. The two siblings also meet other famous characters, like Clara Barton, who shares her story about caring for the wounded soldiers.
This book is really exciting for young readers because you cannot wait to see what will happen next! I would recommend this book for children ages 6-8. I like how within the story Jack takes notes about what he learns, then at the end of the book his notes are summarized. This gives the reader an opportunity to learn factual information about what is going on in the story.

It's Okay to Be Different

The book that I read is called "It's Okay to Be Different" by Todd Parr. This is a picture book that is excellent for a kindergarten level reader. The book is filled with bright colors and cheerful pictures, and sends an exceptional message.
This book describes a variety of ways in which a person can be different from someone else. There are not very many words on each page for the child to read, however the text is very beneficial to the reader because it provides an important message. On the last page of the book it says "It's okay to be different. You are special and important just because of being who you are." I think this is a very significant message to portray to children starting at a young age because they will realize that it is okay if they are not exactly the same as their friends, and they should be unique. I really really recommend this book becuase it sends such a great message to children about being different and diverse!!

Ms. Coco Is Loco by Dan Gutman

After reading Ms. Coco Is Loco by Dan Gutman, illustrated by Jim Paillot, I was very amused. I enjoyed reading this book, and it reminded me a little bit of the Junie B. Jones series with its humor and language usage for young readers. This book is part of the series, "My Weird School", which contains a variety of books with rhyming titles about child in different school scenarios.
In this story, a boy named AJ is ashamed to be in the gifted and talented program, and even more ashamed to be participating in a poetry contest with his classmates. This story reflects the feelings of a young student who turns out to be an excellent poet, but is embarrassed of his talents. Once his friends realize that his work is getting recognized by the teacher, his friends are eager to buy his poems to hand in for homework, in exchange for their lunch money. Once all of the students realize that poetry is not something for "nerds", they are proud of their talents, especially AJ.
This story is a fun and easy read. It is an excellent story for children ages 7-10.
I would definitely recommend this book!