Realistic Fiction - Knuffle Bunny Free

Title: Knuffle Bunny Free 

Author: Mo Willens

Illustrator: Mo Willems

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-06-192957-1

Summary: This is a story about a little girl, Trixie, who is going on her first big trip to visit her Oma and Opa in Holland. She is excited about the traveling experience, and takes readers on her entire journey through the airport. When her and her family get to Holland, Trixie realizes that she has lost her stuffed toy bunny.  Her and her family search for it and call the airline to see if anyone has found it, but the plane was already on its way to China. Oma and Opa try to make Trixie feel better by buying her a new, better version of her stuffed bunny, but it does not satisfy Trixie. When the family is ready to go home and they get back on their plane, there is a small baby who won't stop crying. At the same moment, Trixie looks and sees her stuffed toy in the back of the chair in front of her. She is so happy that she found her old friend! In the end, she gives the stuffed bunny to the crying baby to make him happy.

Evaluation: I thought that this realistic fiction book was very well done. It taught children about traveling, and also about losing something that they are very close to. The text was fun to read, and the illustrations were very different.  The illustrator actually took black and white pictures of scenes and then put his colorful cartoon characters into the pictures, which is something that is very different and is a lot of fun to look at as well. The plot took readers through Trixie's entire trip, from the airport, to spending time with her Oma and Opa, to finding her beloved stuffed bunny in the end. Overall, I thought that this book was adorable and a fun read.

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

Realistic Fiction - When I was Young in the Mountains

Title: When I was Young in the Mountains

Author: Cynthia Rylant

Illustrator: Diane Goode

Publisher: Pengiun Group, 1982

ISBN: 0-14-054875-0

Summary: This is a realistic fiction story told from a little girl's perspective.  The little girl tells readers all about her life living in the mountains.  She talks about her daily activities, things they do for fun, and chores that have to get done around the house, too.  In the end, the little girl tells readers that there is no where else she'd rather be, because the mountains are her home.

Evaluation: This was a very cute story of the life of a little girl.  The story was definitely realistic. It could easily take children into the past with its details about the kinds of foods they ate and how they got warm water to bathe. I liked the historical aspect of the book because it was still fun to read, and wasn't simply about the historical facts.  The illustrations in this book were lovely to look at. They were detailed and followed the time of the setting of the book. Overall, this book was enjoyable to read, while it still taught about a time of history that many children may not know about.

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

Traditional Literature - Anansi the Spider

Title: Anansi the Spider, a Tale from the Ashanti

Author: Gerald McDermott

Illustrator: Gerald McDermott

Publisher: Henry and Holt Company, 1972

ISBN: 0-0850-0310-25

Summary: This is a folk tale about 7 spider, a father spider and his six sons. Each of his sons has a special gift or talent. When the father spider gets into trouble and needs some help, each of the sons uses his special gift to help get their father back to safety. When they return home, the father spider sees a bright, light globe, and decides that he will give this as a gift to his son who helped save him. But which son does he give the gift to, as they all helped? The father turns to Nyame, the God of All Things. They decide that since all of the sons helped to save their father, no son was more deserving of the prize than another. In the end, the brightly lit globe stays up high in the sky for all to see, and it is still there tonight.

Evaluation: I wanted to pick a story that I did not know about for one of the blog posts on traditional literature. I definitely did not know about this story, and I really enjoyed it. The illustrations are very original, and actually has a Caldecott Award Honor medal. This book definitely followed a folk tale theme. In the beginning of the book, there is a prologue (I assume for parents) that tells readers about the culture that the folk tale is from. I thought this was a neat addition, as parents can then educate their children on it, and use it as a bonus to help tell the story. Overall, the illustrations were so much fun to look at, and the folk tale taught a nice story of siblings working together to save their family member.

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

Traditional Literature - The Tortoise and the Hare

Title: The Tortoise and the Hare

Author: Jerry Pinkney

Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-316-18356-7

Summary:  The Tortoise and the Hare is a story about competition and learning to be humble. In the story, a race is occurring between a tortoise and a hare. The tortoise is known to be a slow animal, and the hare is known to be one of the quickest. The hare obviously thinks that he is going to win the race with no problem, however, with the tortoise’s motivation, slow and steady wins the race.

Evaluation: This folk tale is actually told as a wordless picture book format. There are very few works throughout the book, yet the pictures are immaculate. Each page is filled with life-like illustrations that any reader would love to stare at all day. The illustrations tell the story themselves. However, there are some words here and there throughout the book to help guide readers through the plot of the folk tale. As the tale goes, the humble tortoise defeats the proudest, most confident hare.

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

Traditional Literature - Snow White and the Seven Drawfs

Title: Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Author: Walt Disney, Retold by Cynthia Rylant

Illustrator: Gustaf Tenggren

Publisher: Disney Press, 2009

ISBN: 978-4231-1861-9

Summary:  This traditional literature book is the story of Disney’s well-known story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, retold by Cynthia Rylant.  She tells the classic story of the evil queen who only cares about herself, and the lost Snow White. That is, until, Snow White stumbles upon seven little dwarfs who change her life. Then, when Snow White is more lost than ever, true love comes and saves the day. Of course, the story ends happily ever after.

Evaluation: I personally love

the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, though I have never actually read the fairy tale, I have only ever watched it on TV.  I really enjoyed reading this book. The illustrations were fantastic; they were semi-modern but also looked old fashioned at the same time.  The font that was used for the text just makes the story that much more fairytale-like. Each page was a different color, which added a nice, modern touch to the story. There were also artistic details around the illustrations or around the text boxes, which I thought added nice details, while also made me feel like it added to the fairytale aspect of the story.

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

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.