Picture Book 26 --- Buster Goes to Cowboy Camp

Title: Buster goes to Cowboy Camp
Author: Deniese Fleming
Illustrator: Deniese Fleming
Genre: Fiction
Subgenre: Picture Book
Characters: Buster, Brown Shoes, Betty, Mrs. Pink Slippers
Themes: Friendship, lonely,
Awards: N/A
Publishing Date: 2008
Publishing Company: Henry Holt and Co.
Summary: This book is so cute. The book is told from the dogs perspective. His owner brown shoes is going away on a weekend trip and he doesn't get to come along. He knows he is going to have to go somewhere because Ms. Pink slippers doesn't like dogs. He gets sent to Cowboy Camp. He is nervous about having to go to the kennel but he is excited when he gets there and sees all the new friends he can make and all the fun things there is to do at the kennel. He then becomes one of them and is a little cowboy dog by the end. I would use this book as circle time reading or for independent reading in the reading corner of my classroom. The book is funny and cute and will appeal to all different types of readers.

Picture Book 25 --- Good Night, Good Knight

Title: Good Night, Good Knight
Author: Shelley Moore Thomas
Illustrator: Jennifer Plecas
Genre: Fiction
Subgenre: Picture Book
Characters:
Themes: protection, friendship, bravery
Awards: N/A
Publishing Date: 2002
Publishing Company: Penguin Readers
Summary: The book is about a young knight who stands watch and one night he hears a mighty roar. He just knows its going to be something big and scary. He rides his horse to the scary sound and its at the mouth of a cave. He goes in and finds three little dragons that are all sleepy and ready for bed. The little dragons have nobody to read them a story and put them to bed. Then they find out that they have a good friend in the good knight. He will hopefully help the little dragons out. The book could be used in my kindergarten classroom to read to them will they lay down to take a nap or during quite time. It is so calming and relaxing and it will be enjoyable for them to read.

Picture Book 24 --- Baseball Hour

Title: Baseball Hour
Author: Carol Nevius
Illustrator: Bill Thomson
Genre: Fiction
Subgenre: Picture book
Characters:Classmates and coach
Themes: teamwork, baseball, sports, friends
Awards: N/A
Publishing Date: 2008
Publishing Company: Amazon Publishing Company
Summary: The book talks about a class that goes outside and begins to warm up for a baseball game. The kids perform all of the activities that take place during a baseball game. They do the exercises together and some of the separate. Then after the class has warmed up the game begins.The team has little spatters about how the game is going but have to work together to win the game. In the end of the game the team realizes that teamwork is important and that it is what makes all of them better players. I would use this book to again interest boys in reading. Boys are always harder to interest in independent reading. Most boys love sports and this will really appeal to them.Boys need to understand how important reading is too, and this may just do the trick.

Chapter Book 14 --- Holes

Title: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Illustrator:N/A
Genre: Fiction
Subgenre: Chapter Book
Characters: Stanley, Armpit, Zero, The Warden, Zig Zag, Mr. Sir, Elya, X-Ray
Themes: Hard work, Truthfulness, Friendship
Awards: 1999 Newberry Medal
Publishing Date: 1998
Publishing Company: Farrar, Stratus, and Giroux
Summary: The book is about a boy named Stanley and how he is wrongly accused of stealing a pair of shoes because of a family curse. Stanley is convicted and sent to a juvenile detention center known as Green Lake. There is actually no lake there and Stanley is made to dig big deep holes out in the hot weather with horrible conditions. Stanley makes many new friend s there that help him to uncover what has really happened with his family and how he can escape the curse and punishment, but will this work out in Stanley's favor? I would use this book as a class read and then once we have finished reading the book a s a class the class will get into groups and perform book talks and then present what they learned and got out of the book to the class.

Chapter Book 13 --- We are the Ship: Story of Negro Baseball League

Title:  We are the Ship: The story of Negro League Baseball
Author: Kadir Nelson
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Genre: Historical
Subgenre: Chapter Book
Characters: Players of the Negro Baseball League
Themes: baseball, discrimination, determination, social change
Awards: 2009 Coretta Scott King Award, and 2009 Robert F. Sibert Award
Publishing Date:
Publishing Company:
Summary: The book is about the history of the Negro Baseball League. It starts at the beginning in the 1920s and continues all the way up until 1947 when the famous Jackie Robinson swapped over to the major Leagues. The story is told from a baseball player. The book tells about all of the hardships that the negro ball players had to go through just to play baseball like other people were doing but it was because they were African American. It tells about how they were discriminated against by others like they were not good enough to play baseball. The story is really touching and it really makes you feel for them and like you were really there to witness these events that have now made history. I would use this book when discussing things in history class that pertain to this time period and I would use this because it will fit into Black History Month and it discusses multiple players during that time and they were all hero's.

Chapter Book 12 --- Are you there God, its Me Margaret?

Title: Are you there God?, It's me Margaret.
Author: Judy Blume
Illustrator: N/A
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Subgenre: Chapter Book
Characters: Margaret,Herbert, Moose, Sylvia, Barbara, Evan, Janie, and Phillip
Themes: Friendship, puberty, growing up, love
Awards: N/A
Publishing Date: 1991
Publishing Company: Laurel Leaf
Summary: The book is about a girl named Margaret who has grown up in an awkward household of one parent being Christian and the other being Jewish. The book also addresses many other female related issues of growing up and being in the sixth grade. It addresses all the facts of puberty for girls and then there is the whole other issue of getting boyfriends. Margaret gets all crazy and confused about how to be a teenage girl and what religion to go with. She just has to find her way in the boy crazy world of sixth grade. I would use this book as an independent reading assignment for my class if they were in fifth or sixth grade. It may help them to discover whats happening top them or whats coming up.

Picture Book 23 --- Roberto the Insect Architect

Title:  Roberto the Insect Architect
Author:Nina Laden
Illustrator:Nina Laden
Genre: Fiction
Subgenre: Picture Book
Characters: Roberto
Themes: Dedication, dreams, friends, success
Awards: N/A
Publishing Date: 2000
Publishing Company: Chronicle Books
Summary: The book is about a small termite named Roberto. He has always had this dream of becoming an architect. He never thought he would get to become an architect because he was a termite and all him and his family did was est through wood. Roberto decided to be different and move to the big city and chase his dream. He meets several different bugs while in the city and they help Roberto to achieve his dream and build a city for all of them to live in. This makes Roberto so excited to go after his dream but can he accomplish this big task. I would use this book in the classroom to help get boys excited about reading and maybe spark their interest by reading about bugs and building things.