Picture Book: The Little Moon Raven

Title: The Little Moon Raven

Author: Marcus Pfister, translated by Kathyrn Bishop 

Illustrator: Marcus Pfister 

Publisher: Minedition Neugebaur Publishing, 2010

ISBN: 978-988-8240-81-4

Summary: This book is a story about a little raven that is told by an older raven. There was a little raven who was the last one to hatch, and he was also the smallest raven with no feathers. As he grew up, he always wanted to play with the other ravens, but they did not let him. Instead, the bullied him and made fun of him. Then one day, the little raven asked to play again. An older raven told him that he can play with them only if he flies all the way to the moon. That night, the little raven took off for the moon. The raven who told him to fly to the moon watched him do so, and saw the little raven get silver wings when he got close to the moon. However, the silver wings were too heavy for the little raven, and so he crashed to the ground. In the morning, the group of ravens see him lying lifeless in a bush near their home. Eventually, the little raven wakes up, and tells everyone that he could not make it to the moon. The older raven told him that he had just made that up, and that he was welcome to play with them now. As they began to play together, the other ravens noticed a single silver feather poking out of the little raven's wing. 

Evaluation: I really enjoyed this picture book. I think that the book had a good message to children about overcoming bullies and being true to yourself., and I think this is something that a lot of children deal with today. The text was well written and flowed nicely, which was something I was concerned with considering that the book had been translated. The text was easy to find on each page. The illustrations were also good. There was less details, as the pictures were mostly just black raven's and trees. However, there was silver, shiny parts of the illustrations to show readers the raven's silver wings. The moon was also done in this silver, shiny color, which I enjoyed. It made the illustrations a little more interesting and fun to look at. 

Rating: I would give this picture book 5/5 stars. 

Picture Book: Three Bears in a Boat

Title: Three Bears in a Boat 

Author: David Soman

Illustrator: David Soman

Publisher: The Penguin Group, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-8037-3993-2

Summary:  Three Bears in a Boat is the story of Theo, Charlie, and Dash, three bear children who live on an island. The three are playing in their house, when they accidentally break their mother's favorite blue shell.  Not knowing what else to do, the three bears set sail in their sailboat to look for a new blue shell for their mother to replace the one they broke before she got home. They asked a bunch of other sailing bears if they knew where to get a blue shell, and none of them did. Then, the met an old, wise bear sailor who told them they had to go a long way to an islands shaped like a lumpy hat. He said that they would know where to look to find the blue shell The three bears set sail for the island, traveling quite far from home. Once the found the island, they explored all of it, but did not find the blue shell. On the way home, the three sibling bears began to argue, and as this happened, a storm came rolling over the sea. The bears got scared, apologized to one another, and gave each other big hugs. Then, the storm passed and the sea was calm. When the reached their home island, sitting on the edge was a nice blue shell.

Evaluation: I really enjoyed this picture book. It had a lot of good elements in it. Fist of all, the illustrations were awesome. They were colorful and detailed and kept my attention. The storyline also kept me interested. The story was a bit suspenseful, which would keep children engaged. There was not too much text on each page, and the text was easy to read. I think that this book is something that children with siblings can easily relate to. The bears go through arguing with one another, and then come back together in order to get home safely. They learn about working as a team and that telling the truth is important. 

Rating: I would give this picture book 5/5 stars. 

Picture Books: Found

Title: Found

Author: Salina Yoon

Illustrator: Salina Yoon

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-8027-3559-1

Summary: Found is a picture book about a bear child who finds a lost toy bunny in the forest. Bear tries to find the bunny's owner all day, but he was not successful. The next day, still not having found the bunny's owner, Bear and the bunny do all sorts of things together. At the end of the day, Moose yells "Floppy, my bunny". The owner was found. Bear handed Floppy over to Moose, and was sad. Then, Moose tells Bear that special toys that we love are meant to be shared. In the end, Bear gets to keep Floppy. 

Evaluation: I thought that this picture book was very cute. The illustrations were awesome, with bright colors and details. There were not too many words on each page, and the words were easy to find and easy to read. I liked the message that the book was trying to teach children, as well. It shows children that it is not always easy to do the right thing, but that it is important to do so. In the end, things may end up working out in your favor. 

Rating: I would give this picture book 4/5 stars. 

Decodable Text: Fox and Frog

Title: Fox and Frog
Author: Joe Slade

Illustrator: Nora Voutas

Publisher: Clearning Page, Inc., 2002

ISBN: https://www.readinga-z.com/

Summary: This is a decodable text book that has a focus on words that begin with the letter "F". 

Evaluation: This decodable text also had somewhat of a story line, unlike some of the books in this genre, which I enjoyed.  However, the book is definitely not an easy one to read aloud to children.  There are too many same syllable words going on to make the book an easy read. At the same time, though, the book gets across words that begin with "F" very well and gives children lots of easy, short examples of things that begin with "F" that they have probably seen in their own typical environments. The illustrations were nice, however they were all in black and white (I am not sure if this is because I was viewing the book online, or if that is how the book is really printed). Overall, the story was cute for children and I think it would really help them with the letter "F", as there are a lot of different examples in this 10 page book.

Rating: I would give this decodable text 4/5 stars. 

Decodable Text: Nat's Cat

Title: Nat's Cat

Author: Wayne Miller 

Illustrator: Angela Kamstra-Jacobson

Publisher: CLearning Page, Inc., 2005

ISBN: https://www.readinga-z.com/

Summary:  This is a decodable text book that focuses on possessives, -ed endings, and the phonograms -ap and -at. 

Evaluation:  I thought this decodable text was a better one than some.  It had more of a story line than others tend to. The emphasis of the -at and -ap words was done really well through a story of a fat cat and a rat. While the story like wasn't anything spectacular, there was still more there than just words that don't make much sense together.

Rating: I would give this decodable text 4/5 stars. 

Decodable Text: A Tower of Giraffes

Title: A Tower of Giraffes

Author: Anna Wright 

Illustrator: Anna Wright 

Publisher: Charlesbridge, 2015

ISBN: 978-1580897075

Summary: This book is a way of teaching children new vocabulary words through common animals they would know.  It goes through a bunch of different animals, such as a drove of pigs and a tower of giraffes, and has a goal of teaching children these new words. It introduces young readers to some of the words we use to refer to animals in a group, and also tells a bit about the characteristics of each different group of animals. 

Evaluation: I really like the idea of this book.  It isn' just  book about animals and the sounds they make, which is what we usually see for this age group.  It teaches children a whole different aspect of animals, that being what we would call a group of a certain animal.  It also teaches children about what these different animals do as a group. I think this is a neat book because it isn't the typical "dogs go woof" children's book that many are probably used to.  The title text on each page is written in a font that could be hard for children to read; it's almost  a cursive-like font.  However, the text talking about each group of animals uses plain text, which I think is nice. The illustrations are very nice and colorful, and they are set away from the words. 

Rating: I would give this book 5/5 stars. 

Wordless Picture Books: Good Dog, Carl

Title: Good Dog, Carl

Author: Alexandra Day

Illustrator: Alexandra Day

Publisher: Little Simon, 1996

ISBN: 9780689807480

Summary: This wordless picture book starts off with a mother telling Carl, the dog, to look after her baby boy, who is lying in a crib behind her, while she goes out and runs some errands.  The book then takes us on the adventures that Carl and the baby boy have. They participate in all types of mischievous activities.  However, near the end, Carl cleans the baby from their adventurous day and gets him back into his crib just in time for the Mom’s return home.

Evaluation: Overall, I would rate this wordless picture book as high quality. I loved all of the illustrations and the adventures that the baby and dog took together.  I felt like it really amplified the relationship between a boy and his childhood dog.  The illustrations were detailed enough to take readers through their adventures without needing words, which was a high point for the book.  However, I feel like the overall story line may be a little misleading. Hopefully, no mom of a young baby would leave her child at home in the care of just their dog, but I understand that the point of this aspect of the plot was for the dog and boy to be adventurous together.

Rating: I would give this book 4/5 stars.  

Wordless Picture Book: Open this Little Book

Title: Open this Little Book

Author: Jesse Klausmeier

Illustrator: Suzy Lee

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2013

ISBN: 9780811867838

Summary: This wordless picture book brings its readers many things. There is a fun story inside, fun pictures, and interesting characters all inside of this one book. However, by opening this little book, readers are introduced too much, much more.

Evaluation: This wordless picture book was definitely unique.  The illustrations in it are certainly a grand addition to the book itself. This book teaches the youngest readers about colors through pictures. It is definitely eye catching, and it is a neat and different way to educate young readers.

Rating: I would give this wordless picture book 4/5 stars.