Terry Fox: A Story of Hope by Maxine Trottier

Terry Fox: A Story of Hope, by Maxine Trottier, is the story of Terry Fox written especially for ages 7-10.  The text of the book is interspersed with real photos from Terry's life.  It is a good book to help children understand the history behind the annual Terry Fox Run which is scheduled for September 18, 2011.  You can read more about the annual run at www.terryfoxorg .

I was surprised by how interested Anna was in the story.  I loved it because it gave us a chance to talk about so many things.

Scholastic created a special page for the Terry Fox book for the 30th anniversary of the run.  You can still access that page and in the clubs/activities section of the scholastic website you can find a number of PDFs to go along with the book, including a Terry Fox trivia Question and Answer sheet, Discussion/Essay Prompts, and a Sneaker Activity where you draw or write about you want to be when you grow up.

This is the fourth book I've featured by Maxine Trottier, the first being Forget-Me-Not, and the second Flags and the third One is Canada.  I'm finding that her books are great social studies resources.

The Bravest Dog Ever by Natalie Standiford

The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto, written by Natalie Standiford and illustrated by Donald Cook, tells how a dog named Balto helped to get medicine to Nome, Alaska, during a snow storm in 1925.  Once again Anna enjoyed this book because it involved a dog but it also is a great history lesson.  Balto's run is part of the inspiration behind the Iditarod, an annual dog sled race in Alaska and I plan on doing a unit study around the Iditarod in the future so we will definitely be coming back to this book.

I found a pdf study guide for The Bravest Dog Ever which has some comprehension questions that could be used along with the book.

Calabash Cat and his Amazing Journey by James Rumford

Calabash Cat and his Amazing Journey, written and illustrated by James Rumford, is a great story!  Calabash cat starts out in the middle of Africa and sets out to find the end of the world.  He comes to the edge of the desert and decides it must be the end but he meets a camel that carries him through the desert to where the grassland begins.  Then he meets a horse that carries him through the grasslands, a tiger that carries him through the jungle, a whale that carries him across the ocean and an eagle that flies him high over the world and he decides that there is no end to the world.  Each animal that he meets thinks that the end of his habitat is the end of the world but Calabash Cat realizes that they all are wrong. An interesting feature to the book is that the text is written in both English and Arabic.

I loved this book and Anna enjoyed it too.  It is a great book to use to talk about how vast our world is and to talk about the different biomes of the world.

Update May 10, 2011:  As you can see below, James Rumford dropped by the blog to tell us about his new website.  Be sure to check out James Rumford's website, especially the Things to Do page which has suggestions for writers and artists inspired by Calabash Cat and his Amazing Journey.  Wonderful suggestions there!  Thanks for dropping by, James!

Captain Bob Bartlett and the Karluk Adventure by Ron Young

In Captain Bob Bartlett and the Karluk Adventure, written by Ron Young and illustrated by Mel D'Souza, rhyming couplets tell the true story of Ship captain Bob Bartlett and a time in 1913 when his ship was stuck in the ice for many months.  The crew and passengers actually had to set up camp on the ice until they could walk to an island.  It is a great adventure story for elementary age children.

This story was a little above Anna at this point in time and she struggled to stay focused on it, but at them same time she really wanted to hear the story.  I definitely see us coming back to this one in a couple of years time as part of our social studies.

To be totally honest, I am not sure if Ron Young is a Newfoundlander or not, but I am assuming he is because all the books that I can find written by him have a Newfoundland theme.

llustrator Mel D'Souza is a writer/cartoonist for Downhomer Magazine and has illustrated several children's books.  Born in East Africa, he immigrated to Canada in 1971.  He lives in Ontario but has a summer home in Newfoundland.  It sounds to me like he is an honorary Newfoundlander, even if he isn't a full fledged one.

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Winter is the Warmest Season by Lauren Stringer

Winter is the Warmest Season, written and illustrated by Lauren Stringer, is an excellent book to read on a cold winter day.  You can't help but feel a little warmer inside after reading it, and you'll probably find yourself doing some of the things that this book says actually makes winter the warmest season.

Author Lauren Stringer says she was inspired to write the book by a statement her six year old made.  Before that she had illustrated other books but this is the first one that she both wrote and illustrated.    You can read more about how she came to write and illustrate the book on the page devoted to Winter is the Warmest Season on the author's website.  You can also listen to the author read the book on that page.  To be truthful, I didn't really enjoy listening to the author's reading.  It may have been in part because I found the music in the audio to be too overpowering.  I did find another audio of the author reading Winter is the Warmest Season and the music is a little less prominent and irritating in this audio

This book can be the jump of point for all kinds of learning.  Science and social studies themes can be covered through talk about the differences in the seasons and the different activities that people do in the different seasons.  Art themes can be covered as you discuss warm and cold colours and look for them in the book's illustrations.  On Lauren Stringer's website she provides a link to an Activity Guide for Winter is the Warmest Season. The activity guide contains pre-reading and post-reading questions and suggested activities such as talking about the seasons, singing a song about winter to the tune of Mulberry Bush, and discussing warm/cold colours.

It was a long time ago that we read Winter is the Warmest Season but I'm thinking, because of how cold it's been in our area lately, it's time to revisit the book again.

Emma's Treasure by Gerald Mercer

Emma's Treasure, written by Gerald Mercer and  illustrated by Jillian Nicol, is another great book that we found at our local library.  We loved it!

One day while exploring  her grandfather's shed Emma finds an old trunk that once belonged to her great-great grandfather.  The trunk leads to all kinds of learning for Emma and her friends.

This is actually the first Emma book written by Gerald Mercer.  I featured the second one he wrote, Emma's New Game, earlier.  I love the Emma books because they are great resources to use to teach children an appreciation for their culture and heritage.  The trunk that Emma finds in Emma's Treasure is a trunk that her great-great grandfather used to take with him on a fishing boat and it contains his fishing clothes and a squeeze box, among other things.  Many children today know nothing about such things and coming across them in this book may inspire them to learn more about them and to ask their grandparents about them.  This time around we enjoyed the book for the story but we will be coming back to it again in the future for some social studies lessons.

Adele And Simon by Barbara McClintock

Love this book! Adele And Simon, by Barbara McClintock, tells about the struggles big sister Adele has trying to get her little brother Simon home without Simon losing all his things along the way. She's not too successful with that task.

Set in the early 20th century Paris, the illustrations in this book are wonderful!  It is fun to search on each page for the new thing that Simon has lost along the way but the illustrations can also be used as the jump off point for a great social studies lesson because they show different historical places in Paris.  In the back of the book the author shares the inspiration for each illustration, giving information about the places.

On Barbara McClintock's website I discovered that this book is a actually the first in what is becoming a series of books.  The second, Adele & Simon in America, is already available for purchase and the third, Adele & Simon in China, is due to be published in the fall of this year.  We will be watching for them in our library.

Anna and I both enjoyed this book.  Adele And Simon is one of those books that you don't mind reading again and again.  We'd love to hear your thoughts on the book.
 

A Second is a Hiccup: A Child's Book of Time by Hazel Hutchins

Have you ever struggled to help a child understand a concept of time?  In A Second is a Hiccup: A Child's Book of Time author Hazel Hutchins explains time in ways that children can relate to.  The illustrations, by Kady MacDonald Denton, are a great addition to the fun rhyming verse of the book.

I was thrilled to find this book in our local library because I have struggled trying to get Anna to understand concepts of time.  We enjoyed reading the book together and it led to much discussion about time.

Both the author and the illustrator of this book are Canadians and both have their own websites.  On Hazel Hutchin's website you will find links to many pages.  One page contains her bio, another a list of her books, and on another she shares that she often has to rewrite her books 50 times before she gets them right!  Kady MacDonald Denton's website is a page with a list of the books she has worked on and a link to an illustration from many of those books.

The author of Open Wide, Look Inside (a blog about using children's literature to teach math, science and social studies) wrote a post about how A Second is a Hiccup could be used to teach process skills  and in that post she provides a link to a pdf with activities for using A Second is a Hiccup to teach English, Math, and Science concepts.  In another post on the same blog the author provides a link to a Podcast about A Second is a Hiccup.

This book is another you don't want to miss, not only because it's fun, but because it is a great resource for math or science lessons about measurement of time.