Module 3 : Snowflake Bentley

Module 3
Snowflake Bentley

Reference
Martin, J. B. (1998). Snowflake Bentley. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Summary
A Caldecott winner and true story about the discovery of snowflakes and the efforts Willie Bentley made in order to photograph snowflakes. Bentley was finally able to capture images of snowflakes, share the images with others, and discovered that no two snowflakes are the same.

What I Thought
The story and the pictures are highlighted with facts about Willie Bentley within the margins of the pages, which are illustrated with drawings of snowflakes. Facts about Bentley and his photographs add to the history of the story while the story itself tells about this remarkable man and his determination to share his images with others before the snowflakes melted and disappeared forever.

What Others Thought
Azarian's (A Farmer's Alphabet) handsome woodcuts provide a homespun backdrop to Martin's (Grandmother Bryant's Pocket) brief biography of a farmboy born in 1865 on the Vermont snowbelt who never lost his fascination with snowflakes. Wilson A. Bentley spent 50 years pioneering the scientific study of ice crystals, and developed a technique of microphotography that allowed him to capture the hexagonal shapes and prove that no two snowflakes are alike. Martin conveys Bentley's passion in lyrical language (""snow was as beautiful as butterflies, or apple blossoms""), and punctuates her text with frequent sidebars packed with intriguing tidbits of information (though readers may be confused by the two that explain Bentley's solution of how to photograph the snowflakes). Hand-tinted with watercolors and firmly anchored in the rural 19th century, Azarian's woodcuts evoke an era of sleighs and woodstoves, front porches and barn doors, and their bold black lines provide visual contrast to the delicate snowflakes that float airily in the sidebars. A trio of Bentley's ground-breaking black-and-white photographs of snowflakes, along with a picture and quote from him about his love for his work, is the icing that tops off this attractive volume. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) - Publishers Weekly (1998, September 28). Retrieved from: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-395-86162-2

Ideas
Ideas for small children include folding paper and making their own snowflakes by cutting out designs from the folded paper. For the older children, bringing a microscope to the group to observe snowflakes, water, or other small items with the microscope to discover how difficult it is to see something so small and how those images can be reproduced by a camera. http://www.vickiblackwell.com/lit/bentley.html - includes instructions for making six-sided snowflakes, like those discovered by Bentley along with a bookmark to download and instructions for making woodcuts like those used for the illustrations in Snowflake Bentley.

Module 3 : Saint George and the Dragon

Module 3
Saint George and the Dragon

Reference
Hodges, M. (1984). Saint George and the dragon. U.S.A.: Little, Brown, & Company

Summary
Saint George, the Red Cross Knight, rides with Princess Una to her land where a dragon has scared everyone into hiding. Saint George battles the dragon each day and heals each night until he is able to conquer the dragon.

What I Thought
A winner among Caldecott winners. The pictures in this book only add more magic to the story about a dragon slayer and a princess in fairy land. The colorful borders on each page either add more details from the main picture, add smaller pictures to story, or enhance the story. Each frame and corner of the book adds another layer and element of surprise to the ancient but enchanting story. The story of George and his bravery encourages anyone to keep trying since each day is a new day to start over and try again. And while George is victorious over the dragon he does not give up on his duties to protect the King and Queen of Fairy Land.

What Others Thought
Gr 1-5 –Based on Edmund Spencer’s Faerie Queene, this mellifluous retelling blends drama with descriptive language to recount the epic battle between the Red Cross Knight and a terrifying lizard with iron teeth and blazing eyes. This quintessential hero-versus-dragon tale is fittingly illustrated with formal, romanticized paintings framed by delicate borders.Fleishhacker, J. (2006, December 1). Beasts of Lore. Retrieved from: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6395092.html

Ideas
This story could be used in combination with other stories about fairies, good over evil, or begin a series about dragons. Children can dress up as knights, a princess, or even a dragon and listen to several different books about dragons throughout history. A book display of various dragon books to encourage readers of every age can be included along with this book for younger children.

Module 2 : Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Module 2
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Reference
Barrett, J. (1978). Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Summary
After fixing breakfast one morning, Grandpa tells a story to his grandchildren about a land where the food rains from the sky everyday. No one has to cook, order food, or grow any food. Everyone eats the same thing. However, one day the sky does not stop raining and too much food floods the town. The residents build rafts from leftover food and sail away to a new land.

What I Think
 This hilarious story tells the story about a far away land where the sky rains food every day. No one has to cook anything but one day the sky doesn't stop raining food. The pictures are clever with small details to entertain adults and children. For example, the local restaurant has no cover, no minimum, and it is always open (since there is no roof on the building). The story is funny but takes a dramatic twist when the sky doesn't stop running food and the town becomes flooded with leftovers like giant pancakes as big as a house. The residents use the food to sail away and find a new land where it snows (mashed potatoes?) and the sky is sunny (sunny side-up).

What Others Think

This story is a gratifying, if lightweight, dish of foolishness. Its aim is for laughs -- and it gets them, through sight gags for both kids and adults, humor presented in the deadpan tones of an old-style weather forecast ("Dinner one night consisted of lamb chops, becoming heavy at times, with occasional ketchup"), and the sheer preposterousness of events. Don't look for hidden depths here; the story lives on the surface, and as slapstick it works just fine.
The text rambles at times: Almost half of a class of 6-year-olds was looking out the window as a read-aloud neared its finish, and the librarian was delivering a bright reading at that. "Too long," groaned one child. The illustrations look like something found in a turn-of-the-century magazine, with their hectic line work and wealth of details. It has a bit of science fiction too: Those giant T-bones could easily have come from a spaceship. Lewis, P. (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs

Ideas
A cooking exercise with a small group of children would be fun while eating snacks together and talking about what it would be like everyday if their snacks rain from the sky. This book encourages the imagination to wander and imagine food as houses or sailboats. Activities could include building a gingerbread house or making a city out of gumdrops, lollipops, and other small snacks that are fun to eat and build with.

Module 2 : The Dead Bird

Module 2
The Dead Bird

Reference 
Brown, M. (1938). The dead bird. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Summary
When the neighborhood children find a dead bird they decide to bury the bird and sing it a song.

What I Thought
This simple book carefully tells the story about the neighborhood's children finding a dead bird and how they decided to pay their respects to the bird by burying it, singing it a song, and placing a stone on top of the grave. The children did not know the bird but they were sad anyway and found ways to express themselves through a song, a stone, and adding flowers to the buried bird's grave. The children returned each day to sing to the bird but the story does not give a specific amount of time.

What Others Thought
The bird was dead when the children found it. It was still warm and its eyes were closed. They wrapped the bird in grapevine leaves, dug a little grave and buried the bird. On top of his grave they placed ferns and little white violets and yellow flowers. And every day, until they forgot, they went and sang there. Remy Charlip's illustrations in mossy green and cerulean blue convey the tenderness of the little forest funeral -- gently presenting the idea of mortality. The tone is reverent and solemn rather than morbid.  Kirkus Review. (2011, October 11). Retrieved from: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/margaret-wise-brown/the-dead-bird/

Ideas
This book is a wonderful conversation started for children talking about death. They could decorate rocks as grave markers and add their own words in order to express how they feel about a loved one dying or a death they heard about on the news. The children in the story did not know the bird but they were able to bury the bird and express how they felt by singing a song to the bird and adding a grave marker to the site so they could return each day, until they forgot.

Module 1 : Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

Module 1
Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

Reference
O'Malley, K. (2005). Once upon a cool motorcycle dude. New York, NY: Walker & Company.

Summary
This story is a great example of two students telling the same story, perhaps to their class, but they can not agree upon the details of the story. The girl wishes to tell a tale about a princess and her horse, Princess. The boy prefers a story about motorcycle dudes and a giant who eats pony stew. The boy and the girl both try to end the story with their favorite version but in the end they both agree on a happy ending, almost.

What I Think
Illustrators: Kevin O'Malley, Carol Heyer, and Scott Goto
The illustrations in this book help the story along by using one artistic style for the girl's version of the story with realistic pictures using lots of pink and dramatic details, another artistic style for the boy's version using darker colors and more fantasy pictures, and then the storytellers themselves are illustrated with a cartoon artistic element so they stand out against their story's background. The story itself is light and humorous as the boy and girl take turns adding to the story and changing the plot to their own preferred version. The boy and girl characters each represent the stereotype for all boys and girls, so many children may not relate to either story but the humor displayed by each character keeps the story moving and in the end the boy and girl agree on the fate of the giant. Male or female, good wins over evil.

What Others Think
Young readers who have ever been forcibly yoked to a rival for some class project will glory in this contentious oral report. Unable to agree on a folktale to tell their classmates, a lad and lass decide to make it up as they go. She starts, with Princess Tenderheart—rendered by Heyer in flowing silk gowns and blonde tresses—pining for her beloved ponies, which are being stolen one by one by a giant. Gagging, the storyteller’s companion proceeds to add a huge dude who roars up on a chopper to provide protection, and to battle a giant that, in Goto’s testosterone-soaked oils, is green but far from jolly. Meanwhile, instead of passively sitting by spinning straw into gold, the Princess starts pumping iron . . . and on the tale seesaws, to a more or less happily-ever-after. The unusual collaboration among illustrators works seamlessly, with O’Malley supplying the storytellers, and Heyer and Goto the characters on separate pages or spreads. This disarming, funny and not agenda-driven dig at the hot-button issue of gender differences is likely to excite plenty of giggles—and perhaps some discussion, too. (Picture book. 6-9) - Kirkus Reviews. (2010, June 28). Retrieved from: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kevin-omalley/once-upon-a-cool-motorcycle-dude/

Ideas

This book gives a terrific example of everyone contributing their own details to a story. The story can be used as a back drop for children sitting in a circle and each child takes the story and adds a new element while each child takes their turn passing around a toy motorcycle or pony. This can done Ad Lib style with an adult filling in some details to help the children contribute to the details or the children can make up their own story while the adult writes down their tale and gives everyone a copy when they are finished. Each part of the story could be written on separate pages so the page has blank space left over where the children can add their own pictures to help illustrate the story further.