The Magic Tree House Series

The Magic Tree House series is about two children who go on adventures and missions through their magical tree house.  Jack and Annie travel through time in a 28 book series.  The series is written by Mary Pope Osborne.  She has also written two other series based on the Magic Tree House series.  These series are called Magic Tree House Merlin Missions and Magic Tree House Fact Trackers.  

I think this series should be used in 2nd or 3rd grade classrooms.  The books are short chapter books.  Because of their length, they are a good transition book for students that are just beginning to read chapter books.  The content of the books is very educational.  All of the Magic Tree House books are realistic or historic fiction.  The characters travel to times through American history and and world history.  There are books about the civil war, the middle ages, ancient Egypt, and many other historical times. This series is a great way to teach history, especially for students that may not enjoy the subject of history.

Here are a few of the Magic Tree House books:

       

Censorship

In the Realistic Fiction Chapter of The Joy of Children's Literature textbook, there is a section about perspectives on censorship.  There are many challenged and banned books.  According to the text book, a challenge is "an attempt by an individual or group to remove or restrict materials from the curriculum or library based upon objectionable ideas and information."  Parents and schools can challenge books.  Books are frequently challenged due to sexual content, offensive language, suitability for the intended age group, violence, and homosexuality.  The school board can either deny the challenge or ban the material by having it removed from classrooms and schools.  Often times, banning books does not achieve its goal.  Censored books sometimes become best sellers.  This happens due to the highly publicized challenge.  Students are sometimes drawn more to books that are objected by adults and find ways around the censors.  Teachers and librarians can help to reduce censorship by being aware of issues that might cause a challenge and a ban.  It is important for teachers and librarians to evaluate and check books for challenging issues.  Below is a list of the top 15 banned/challenged books and a website to the American Library Association's web page about banned and challenged books.

Top 15 banned/challenged books:

• Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling
• Alice Series - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• The Chocolate War - Robert Cromier
• And Tango Makes Three - Justin Richardson/PeterParnell
•  Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
• Scary Stories Series - Alvin Schwartz
• His Dark Materials Series - Philip Pullman
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
• Fallen Angels - Walter Dean Meyers
• It's Perfectly Normal - Robie Harris
• Captain Underpants Series - Dav Pilkey
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
• The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
• Forever - Judy Blume

ALA Banned and Challenged Books: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned

Freak the Mighty

Freak the Mighty is about two adolescent boys.  "Freak" has the body of a small boy, but he has the mind of a genius.  Max has been called stupid and slow throughout his life, but he has a very large stature and most people are scared of him.  Together they are Freak the Mighty!  They befriend one another and learn to cope with their different problems.

I loved loved loved this book!  Freak the Mighty by Rodman Phillbrick is one of my new favorite books!  I stayed up until all hours of the night reading this book because I had to know what was going to happen next.  There were parts of the book that literally had my heart racing because I was so nervous about what was going to happen.  I think this would be a great book to read with middle or high school students.  I think it would teach students to not judge others by appearances.  It also teaches a heart warming story of friendship and hope.

Non-Fiction and Informational Texts

In The Joy of Children's Literature, Chapter 10 is about Non-Fiction texts.  I was interested in this chapter because I recently read an article about non-fiction and informational texts.  The article is titled "Fiction vs. Informational Texts: Which Will Kindergarteners Choose?", and it is written by Marlene Ponte Correia.  The article is about a study that was done among a class of Kindergarteners.  The study was to determine whether Kindergarten students will pick fiction or nonfiction texts more often. It was over a period of 19 weeks.  The study showed that Kindergarteners pick nonfiction books just as often, or even more often, than fiction books.  The teacher found that students liked to learn about things they found interesting.  The children chose nonfiction or informational texts over fiction 14 out of the 19 weeks!  I found this article interesting because I thought, just like the teacher in the article, that young students would choose fiction books. It was a very informative and interesting article to read.  Everyone should read this article to find out more about nonfiction books and why students like to read them.

http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/201111/Correia_Fiction_vs_Informational_Texts_Online%201111.pdf

Realistic Fiction

Chapter 7 of The Joy of Children's Literature is about Realistic Fiction.  This genre is fiction based on realistic events.  It is considered realistic because the books involve setting, characters, and events that are plausible.  However, these books are fiction because the realistic events or characters are not real and did not really happen.  Authors do in fact base much realistic fiction on their own lives, though.  There are seven categories of realistic fiction.  The categories are survival/adventure, mystery, humor, animals, sports, family, and growing up.  Survival and adventure realistic fiction has a fast-paced plot with a conflict between person and nature.  Mystery has suspense, action, and a logical solution that is foreshadowed through clues in the book. Humor has characters that are involved in funny situations. Animal realistic fiction is about the affect that a relationship with an animal has on a character.  Books in the sports category focus on thrills that accompany a particular sport.  Realistic fiction about family are about the strong need for family to overcome conflict.  Books about growing up are about characters growing more independent.  Here are some examples of books in these categories.

Survival/Adventure - Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Mystery - The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Humor - Ramona by Beverly Cleary
Animals - Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Sports - Free Baseball by Sue Corbett
Family - Yolanda's Genius by Carol Fenner
Growing Up - Criss Cross by Lynne Perkins

Reference: 

Johnson, Denise. The Joy of Children's Literature. Second Edition ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.

Making the Connection Across the Curriculum

In chapter 4 of The Joys of Literature, there is a section titled "Making the Connection Across the Curriculum."  This section is about how fiction and nonfiction picture books can be used to provide information that relates to content area for many grade levels.  Poetry, alphabet books, and pop-up books can also provide content area related information. 

Four common core subjects that can be seen in picture books are math, science, art, and history.  Math can be seen through picture books that present concepts such as probability, symmetry, and numbers.  Science picture books can be about philosophers, nature, animals, etc.  Art can be seen through almost all picture books by explaining illustrations.  History picture books can relate past events to present events.

I have listed a few examples of picture books related to content area below.

• G is for Googol by David Schwartz 
• A Remainder of One by Elinor J. Pinczes
• Math Curse by Jon Scieszka
• Starry Messenger by Peter Sis
• Science Verse by Jon Scieszka
• Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors by Joyce Sidman
• M is for Music by Kathryn Krull
• Lives of the Artists: Masterpieces, Messes (and What Neighbors Thought) by Kathryn Krull
• Leonardo's Studio: A Pop-Up Experience by Bob Hersey
• Van Gogh's House: A Pop-Up Experience by Bob Hersey
• A Walk in Monet's Garden: A Pop-Up Book by Francesca Crespi
• Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad by Pamela Edwards
• A Good Night for Freedom by Barbara Morrow
• Liberty Street by Candice Ransom
• Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry
• The Underground Railroad by Raymond Bial
• Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People by Carole Weatherford

Reference: 

Johnson, Denise. The Joy of Children's Literature. Second Edition ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.

Gary Paulsen Author Study

For my Author Study assignment, I chose Gary Paulsen.  Hatchet by Gary Paulsen was one of my favorite books that I read in elementary school.  From my author study, I learned that Paulsen writes fiction novels based on facts from his own life.  The Brian Saga is based on his wilderness experiences.  This series of books is based around a boy named Brian who survives through many experiences and adventures in the wild.  One of the most interesting books that I came across is called My Life in Dog Years.  Paulsen writes about nine dogs in his life and the memories that they shared together.  Every chapter is about a different dog that was special to him.  

Gary Paulsen did not live a luxurious life as a child.   His parents were neglectful and worked most of the time.  His childhood was difficult and he felt alone much of the time.  This all changed one winter day.  While walking home from school, Paulsen walked passed the public library.  He thought the library looked warm, so he walked inside.  Once inside, the librarian gave him a book to read.  For once, Paulsen felt welcome.  He found comfort and acceptance in the library.  This sparked his love of reading.  In his book Shelf Life: Stories by the Book, he states that books saved his life.  He says that he considers “every good thing that has ever happened to me since then a result of that woman handing me that book.”

I encourage everyone to read more about Gary Paulsen and some of the exciting and wonderful books that he has written.  I have provided a few links to websites about Paulsen on the right sidebar.  Enjoy!