1. Mossy Published By: The Penguin Group 2012- I feel Mossy is extremely creative. As you look from page to page, you are not only reading one story, but along the edges of the pages you are looking at another story. While this story has a main character of Mossy, along the sides of each page you get to see what the other characters of the story are doing. Mossy is a very interesting story. The story line was very easy to follow. You meet a turtle named Mossy who has a beautiful garden growing on her back. She goes to the pond to look at her garden and meets a boy turtle who is intrigued by her garden. Unfortunately, as they slowly make their way towards each other, a museum director finds Mossy and brings her to the museum so everyone will be able to see her wonderful garden. As time goes on Mossy starts to miss Scoot, the boy turtle, and becomes sad. The doctors’ niece, Tory, notices and tells her aunt that Mossy is sad and maybe misses her turtle friends. So, together they come up with a solution that will make everyone happy. Dr. Carolina hires painters to paint a picture of Mossy so everyone can enjoy the garden, while letting Mossy go back home to Lilypad Pond. Of course Scoot was waiting for Mossy and everyone lived happily ever after.
I chose this book because it was my first experience with Jan Brett. I bought the book for my daughter because I love turtles and wanted her to share in that experience. I then loaned it to the teacher in the class I was in to read to the children. They loved it and really enjoyed looking at the pictures. They were all really intrigued by the story going on in the pictures bordering the pages to see what Scoot was doing while Mossy was away. A teaching idea for this book is to find compound words. It is a great way to teach what compound words. I could make a chart with the words and the children could guess the meaning of the words before we read and then while we read and get to the word we can fill in the correct meaning.
2. Happy Birthday, Dear Duck Published By: Clarion Books (1988) - Happy Birthday, Dear Duck is written in a pretty simple language. It is about a group of animal friends that live in the desert. It happens to be Duck’s birthday. Each one of Duck’s friends buys him a gift. While reading the story, the reader may wonder why Duck is getting the gifts that he is. How can a Duck use a swimming suit in the desert? What is the point of a big yellow chair that floats? Like the readers, Duck is confused by the gifts as well. He thanks his friends, but admits he does not know when or how he will get to use all the lovely gifts. Until, his last friend, Tortoise, arrives and everything comes into focus.
I chose Happy Birthday, Dear Duck because I wanted my students to be able to see the difference between books Jan Brett writes and illustrates and books she just illustrates. This book would be one I would use towards the middle or end of my unit study. This way we can discuss the similarities and difference between the two styles of books. This book also uses rhyming techniques. The main focus of the lesson with the book would be based around the rhyming words.
3. Honey…Honey…LION! Published By: G.P Putnam’s Sons (2005) - Honey…Honey… LION! is based on a folktale from Africa. It tells of how a honeyguide and honey badger have a symbiotic relationship when it comes to honey. The honeyguide bird will follow a bee to the hive to find out where it is. Then, it will go find the honey badger and lead it to the bee hive. The honey badger will then break the hive open with its strong claws. The two animals then share the sweet honey together. However, in this particular tale, the honey badger gets greedy. Once Honeyguide leads Badger to the honey, Badger will not share. Honeyguide gets very upset and starts yelling so all the animals around can hear. However, once Badger falls asleep Honeyguide gets a brilliant idea. The next day she tells Badger she found some honey and Badger is all excited to taste the sweetness again. Honeyguide leads Badger over roots, through a river, over a mound, on a log, into tall grass, through a field, until finally they come to an acacia tree. There Badger gets an unwelcome surprise. The moral of the story is to always be nice to your friends and do not take them for granted.
I chose this book because I liked the lesson behind it. You need to treat people with respect, or they might lead you to a lion! I think this book shows how important it is to work together, and share something in return when someone shares with you. That in itself can be the lesson with the book. However, I also like how it uses onomatopoeia. Through each journey with Honeyguide and Badger, the sounds they make are spelled out. This can give your students an introduction into what onomatopoeia is and how to use them in their writing.
4. Beauty and the Beast Published By: G.P. Putnam's Sons (1989) - Beauty and the Beast is a classic tale that Jan Brett has retold and put her own twists on it. In the beginning of the book we meet Beauty, a beautiful merchant’s daughter. She lives with her father and two sisters. One day, her father’s ships vanish at sea and they are penniless. The family gets word that one of the fathers' ships had been sighted and he goes out to look for it. The girls all put in requests for presents while he is out. Beauty simply asks for a single rose. When reaching the ship, the merchants see's that nothing can be saved and heads back home disappointed. It starts to snow and he gets lost in the forest. Suddenly, he sees a break in the forest and notices a huge palace. He rides to it and the great doors open up. He is greeted with food, tea, and a nice place to sleep. When he awakes, he starts to head out, but sees a beautiful rose garden and remembers his promise to Beauty. He plucks a rose and sets in motion terrible events. The Beast appears and tells him he owes his life. The merchant tells the Beast he will be back after he bids his daughters good-bye. When he gets home and Beauty hears the news she refuses to let her father go back to the palace. She goes in his place. The Beast see's them in and tells the father to go away. Beauty is then left to explore and make friends with the animal servants. In the evening the Beast and her would eat and share conversation. At the end of the meals, Beast would ask Beauty to marry him. She would always decline. As time goes on, Beast lets Beauty go home to say good-bye to her family. He gives her a ring to twist three times and say a phrase to come back to him. Weeks go by, and Beauty is enjoying her life with her family, she has forgotten about the Beast. Until, one night she has a dream and he is lying there almost dead. She jumps awake and twists the ring to return to the Beast. Once she arrives at the palace she gets a big surprise.
I loved reading this book. It still had the taste of the classic tale, yet you can see where Jan put personal touches in. When I teach this book I will have a copy of the classic Beauty and the Beast to read as well. The students can then create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two stories. This will let them see how stories can change over time and how they can retell a story yet make it their own at the same time.
5. Comet’s Nine Lives Published By: G. P. Putnam’s Sons (1996) - Comet’s Nine Lives is set in the real town of Nantucket Island. It is an animal fantasy book, with dogs playing all the main characters. The story starts with Comet the cat eating foxglove flowers. Comet then falls into a deep sleep, and when he awakes he decides that that must had been the loss of one of his nine lives and now is down to eight. As the story progresses Comet just keeps having strokes of bad luck and losing his remaining lives one by one. Finally, he sees a lighthouse in the distance and decides to go there with his two remaining lives. As he is traveling there a hurricane comes through the island and Comet is swept up in a big wave. Luckily, the wave takes him the lighthouse where he is greeted by an unexpected friend.
When looking for books to use for this project, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to choose this book or not. I had never read it, and the summary did not seem all that interesting. After getting the book, I’m glad I chose it. It was a cute and funny story about an unlucky cat. While reading this book, I instantly thought of sequencing. I think the perfect activity to go along with Comet, is to have children sequence what happens to him. They need to know what events happened first, so they can figure out what leads to the events that happen next.
6. Hedgie Blasts Off! Published By: G.P. Putnam's Sons (2006) - In this story, we meet Hedgie, a hedgehog that works at Star Lab in the clean-up crew. When there is a problem with a Sparkler on the planet Mikkop, Hedgie is called to get the scientists together. The scientists get together and decide to build a rocket to go to the planet Mikkop to see why the Big Sprinkler isn't working anymore. Before sending the rocket to space the scientists demonstrate how it is suppose to work. Hedgie watches everything in amazement. When there is a problem with the robot that is suppose to ride in the rocket, the scientists do not know what to do. They have the idea to send Hedgie, since he is the only one small enough to fit in the rocket. Hedgie is more than willing to help and goes into space to fix Big Sprinkler. Once Hedgie gets to Mikkop, he see’s Big Sprinkler. As he is walking towards it, he notices the passengers on the ships going past the planet throwing things into the sprinkler. Hedgie goes to investigate. He sees the crater full of coins! No wonder it is not working! Hedgie does not know how he can fix this big problem. He then remembers how the Sprinkler was supposed to work. He uses himself as a cork to build pressure in the crater. Then Ka BOOM! The sprinkler starts to work again. Hedgie goes to Star Lab and is a hero.
This was a very cute story on how even one little person can make a big difference. My lesson to go with this book would be a lesson on how my students could do something for the Earth. They would then write a couple paragraphs on what they could go to help Earth, or the community. After they have written their paper they would then draw a picture of them doing their action. After the lesson they could share their ideas with the class if they wish. As a class we could decide if anyone’s idea could be possible for us as a class to actually do.
7. Gingerbread Baby Published By: G.P. Putnam’s Son’s (1999) - Gingerbread Baby is based on the old tale of the Gingerbread Man. This story takes place in a Swiss village during winter. Matti and his mother decide it is a good day to bake gingerbread. Matti helps his mother measure, mix, and roll the dough into a gingerbread boy. They read that he has to cook for eight minutes, no more, no less and no peeking! Well after minute five, Matti can’t wait and decides to peek. Out of the oven jumps a Gingerbread Baby! He says a little rhyme and tells them catch me if you can! So around the cabin they run trying to catch him. Matti’s father comes home, and the gingerbread baby runs through the open door outside. Matti’s mother and father run after him and the gingerbread baby runs into the cat and dog. While the gingerbread baby is giving the village a run around, we see Matti on the edges of the pages making something back at home. After terrorizing the whole village Matti left a present for the gingerbread baby in the woods. Will gingerbread baby fall for the trick? Or will the town be left in shambles forever?
This is silly wintertime tale. It is good story to tell around Christmas time. It does not mention any religious symbols or anything about giving gifts. So, it would be a good book that the whole class could enjoy without getting into anyone’s personal beliefs. Since this is a fun tale, I would read it in preparation of making gingerbread houses. The children could each decorate their own gingerbread house. We could even leave them around the classroom for the night to see if we could catch a gingerbread man.
8. Cinders a Chicken Cinderella Published By: G.P. Putnam’s Sons (2013) - Cinders a Chicken Cinderella is set in Russia during the winter time. The characters are chicken’s living in a little girls’ chicken coop. Cinders is a chicken that has an old hen, Largessa, for a mother and two sisters, Pecky and Bossy, who push her around. One evening an invitation comes from Prince Cockerel stating that there will be a ball and everyone is invited. Immediately Largessa and the sisters begin shouting orders to Cinders. Cinders was busy for hours getting everyone ready, she knew then that she would not be able to attend the ball. Once all the other chickens left for the Ice Palace, Cinders started to cry. A beautiful hen was suddenly there and told Cinders she was there to get her ready for the ball. She used her magic to transform Cinders into a beautiful princess. She gave her a carriage to ride in too. As Cinders rode away, the hen gave one warning, at midnight the magic will end. Cinders went to the ball and danced with the prince all night. As the clock stuck twelve, Cinders ran away, leaving a glass slipper behind. The magic ended and Cinders walked back into the coop. The next morning all the chickens were talking about the ball and the princess. Just then the prince comes in looking for his lost princess. All the chickens try on the glass slipper. However, it does not fit anyone. Just as he was about to leave, he notices Cinders. He slips the slipper on her foot and it is a perfect fit.
The illustrations in this book are very well done. There is so much detail in every page. That is why I picked this book. I think the pictures really show what Jan can do. My activity for this book will have the students create a Story Map. They will have to fill out a sheet with the characters, setting, and tell what happens in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. This will help them detail the story.
9. The Hat Published By: Scholastic Inc. (1997) - In the beginning of this book we meet a little girl named Lisa. Lisa is getting ready for winter. She decides to wash her winter clothes and hang them out to dry. As she hangs up her clothes a strong wind comes and knocks one of her socks off the line. A curious hedgehog comes by to investigate the sock. The stocking them gets stuck on his head! As Hedgie walks around trying to get the stocking off his head, he runs into other animals on the farm. Each one looks at him curiously, and runs off. When each animal runs off and we turn the page, the clothes on the line at the top of the page start to disappear. Where could they be going? Finally, Lisa notices Hedgie and runs after him to help. She tells him how silly he is, and animals don’t wear clothes. At the end of the end of the story, we learn where all the missing clothes have gone.
This was the second book by Jan that I had the pleasure of reading. It was a silly story and the children loved guessing where the clothes were going. Some had the right idea; others were coming up with some pretty interesting ideas. For this lesson I will use an activity from Jan’s page, http://janbrett.com/the_hat_play.htm . In this activity the story is turned into a play. So as not to ruin the story, we will read the story once and then act out the play after. This can be used as a reader’s theatre as well if time does not permit a full run of the play.
10. Town Mouse, Country Mouse Published By: Puffin Books (2013) - This book is Jan Brett’s own rendition of a classic fable. Two sets of mice meet while on a picnic. One set is from the country, the other from the city. Each is sick of their surroundings and wants a change, so they decide to swap lives. However, as we know the grass is not always greener on the other side. While in their respected surroundings, the mice couples meet unexpected predators, a cat, and an owl. While the predators are on the hunt for their next meal, they meet each other and end up switching their own surroundings. This book teaches a good lesson on how to be thankful for what you have.
I like this book because of the lesson. You always want what another person has. Jan does a great job teaching lesson’s like this with a bit of humor so the children stay interested. As with her other books, the illustrations are very detailed, and colorful. The activity I would like to do to go along with this book is a writing one. I would have the students write a short paragraph on which mouse they would rather be, the town mouse or the country mouse. They would then use details from the story to support their decision. After writing, they could then draw a picture of their chosen mouse.