Wolf

Fanfelli, S. (1997). Wolf. New York: Dial Books.
Interest Level: K-2
Reading Level: 2-3

Wolf is very lonely. All he wants to do is find a friend. Every time he tries to talk to someone they chase him away or run away from him because they are scared.

This book has fantastic illustrations that could easily be turned into a fun art project. It is written by an Italian author, which is not something we see every day either. The book is completely multimodal and fits the trend of the new literacies. It would make a great read aloud in a fairy tale unit.

What Is Heaven Like?

Lewis, B., & Querin, P. (2006). What Is Heaven Like?. Bloomington, MN: Bethany House.
 Interest Level: Grades 2-5
Reading Level: 2.5

A young boy really misses his grandfather who recently passed away. He goes around asking every adult in his life about heaven. Everyone gives a beautiful answer. Each page also contains a Bible verse pertaining to Heaven and relating to the information on the page.

This book could obviously only be used in a Christian school, but would be great in a unit about death and dying. This could also be given to students who are dealing with a loss to help them cope.

Willoughby & The Moon

Foley, G. E. (2010). Willoughby & the Moon . New York: Balzer & Bray.
Interest Level: K-3
Reading Level: 2-3

Willoughby and The Moon is about a little boy named Willoughby who is scared of the dark. As the moon gets smaller and smaller, there is less and less light coming into his room. One night he sees a light coming from his closet. When he goes to check it out, he finds the moon in his closet and a snail searching for a ball. They go on many adventures together and help each other conquer their fears.

Willoughby & The Moon has beautiful illustrations that really add to the story. This book would be great to use as a fiction story in a unit about outer space. It would also be great to use in an aluminum art project. Also it talks about conquering fears, and that is a good conversation to have with students and could be a good writing prompt.

Shadow

 

Lee, S. (2010). Shadow. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 

Wordless Book

Interest Level: Pre-K-3

A dark attic, a lightbulb, and an imaginative little girl. This is all Suzy Lee needs to create a wonderful story with her artwork. This is a great book for struggling readers, for writing assignments, for developing descriptive skills, and for developing initial concepts of print.

Squids will be Squids

Squids will be Squids is written by the same people who wrote The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. This is a book of fables that are very silly. This is a great book to include in a unit about fables and a great way to get students to write their own fables.

For Good Measure

For Good Measure is a book about math and measurement. It focuses mainly on American units of measure, rather than on the metric system. It does talk about the metric system and make comparisons between the metric and nonmetric system. It contains pictures of what each measurement would look like and tells the history of the measurement and the etymology of the word. This is a good resource for students, but the vocabulary might be a little tough. It is worth having in the classroom.

Market!

Market! by Ted Lewin describes markets in Ecuador, Nepal, Ireland, Uganda, United States, and Morocco. The illustrations are beautiful and accurately depict the people and places in the book. The author tells about the landscape, what is bought and sold, how the people travel to the market, and what is bought and sold there. These are all places that are not talked about in the common curriculum. There are so many social studies opportunities to be connected to this story. Students can have or attend a farmers market where they live to connect to this story.