The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

Fiction
3rd, 4th, or 5th Grade

There once was a train that took toys and treats to the children over the mountain. One day the trip got to be too much for the train and she had to stop. The toys' hearts were broken and they knew that some other engine just had to come help them. The first engine, was a passenger engine, who refused to help. The next engine was a freight engine, he refused to help because he had just worked hard pulling machines over the mountain. The third engine to come by was a rusty engine that complained about being tired and said he needed to rest. The toys begin giving up hope until a little blue engine came by. The engine was small and was only used for switching trains in the yard. The engine felt sorry for the toys, so he agreed to help pull them. As the engine was climbing up the mountain it kept repeating to its self "I think I can," and the engine did! Because of the engine's kindness and motivation the toys and treats were able to reach all the children.


I will read this book to my students on the first day of school. I will explain to them that there are going to be things that they feel like they can't do but to remember if they believe in themselves they can do anything. I will explain to them that just like the Little Blue Engine helped the train I will be there to help them throughout the year. And throughout the entire year if a child becomes frustrated because something gets too hard I will remind them of the Little Engine That Could!

I Knew You Could! by Craig Dorfman

Fiction
3rd, 4th, or 5th Grade

This sequel to The Little Engine That Could talks about the struggles the train has gone through to get to where he is in his life. The Engine talks about first having to choose which track to take. He gives advice as to what to do when you start on the track you choose and he says to just remember that you can do anything! The Engine then talks about when you go through life's tunnels and it seems difficult to remember just like you came in, you can come out. And he proceeds to talk about how sometimes you may wish you could go off your track but make sure you stop and just enjoy the trip. The Engine says not to be afraid to give yourself praise, make new friends, and ask a friend for help. He says to always stay true to yourself. He ends his journey by saying not to rush and believe that you can do anything.


I will read this book to my students on the last day of school. I will tell them how proud I am of them for working so hard and I know that they will do great things. I feel that no child is ever too old to hear this book and receive praise for the accomplishments they have made.

We The Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States by David Catrow

Nonfiction
3rd Grade

Catrow begins the book explaining his first encounter with the Preamble to the Constitution. He explains to kids the importance of the document and what it means. The next part of the book explains what each part of the Preamble means in terms kids would understand. Then finally Catrow breaks the Preamble into different pages by each section and provides an illustration that will help students with understanding what each part means.


Before reading this book with my students I will divide them into groups and give them a copy of the Preamble. I will have them write down what they think each part means. After the students have done this they will share with the entire class. Once each group has presented we will read this book so that the students can get an understanding of what the Preamble means and see if their interpretation was correct.

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Modern Fantasy
3rd Grade

The Once-ler in this rhyming tale explains how the Lorax (he speaks for the trees) left where he once sat. The Once-ler one day discovered Truffula trees. He knew that the trees were perfect to help him make a Thneed. A Thneed can be used for a shirt, sock, glove, hat, and many other uses. The Once-ler began cutting down all the Truffula trees to make more and more Thneeds. Soon everything that lived in the Truffula trees had to leave because they had no home. The Once-ler cut all of the Truffula trees down and finally the Lorax just had to leave. The book ends with the Once-ler worrying about what he did and he decides to give away the last Truffula tree seed in hopes that the Lorax and his friends would come back.


I will use this book to talk to students about the importance of taking care of our environment. I will use it to explain what happens when we over use our resources. I think that this literature connection will help them better understand the consequences of not using our environmental resources wisely.

Amelia Rules! The Whole World's Crazy by Jimmy Gownley

Graphic Novel
3rd, 4th, or 5th Grade

Amelia is facing many challenges in her life. A new home, school, and friends and all because her parents got divorced. In this series of comic stories Amelia brings readers into her life and creates a vivid picture of her feelings. This graphic novel is divided into five stories that take place all in the first year of the Amelia moving.

The first story is "Amelia vs. the Sneeze Barf." In this story Amelia introduces her mom, aunt (which her mother and her live with), and her new friends. Amelia also introduces readers to a club her friends have called the Gathering of Awesome Super Pals. Each person in the club has their own name and role. During this story the club sets out of a mission to get the bullies of the school. They successfully succed thanks to the sneeze barf.

The next story is called "The Gym Class System." This story is about Amelia's first days at her new school. During these first days she manages to go to the principal's office several times, finds out her friends belong to the nerd group, and realizes that she hates PE.

The third story, "The Loosely in Disguise, and Frightened," takes place during Amelia and her friend's Halloween adventure. The adventure all started when Amelia's dad canceled his plans with her. Then to cheer her up, Amelia's aunt decides to invite Amelia's friends over for a scary movie. The movie turns out to frighten all of the kids and makes for an interesting Trick-or-Treating adventure where the girls end up taking care of the villain.

"Amelia McBride and the other Side of Yuletide" was the fourth story. During this story Amelia and her friends decide that they will figure out if Santa Claus is real. While on the mission Amelia worries that she will become part of Santa's naughty list. During this story Amelia discovers that one of her friends is poor and she might need to help Santa make sure her friend has a good Christmas. At the end of the story Amelia discovers that Santa does exist and he can always use a helper.

The final story "Speak Softee to Me" is about when Amelia's dad takes her and her friends on a camping trip. The fact that Amelia's dad invited her friends makes her furious; she wants to spend time with her dad alone since she never sees him anymore. But while on the camping trip she discovers that her mom and dad did not divorce because of her and that her dad does love her very much.

This graphic novel takes readers through a year in which one girl's life changes a lot but things turn out okay. There is a lot of humor but also a lot of serious moments that can help children get through the difficult times in life where they just don't understand.


Most likely I will not use this graphic novel as part of my curriculum but I do want to have it available in my classroom for my students. I want students to have a variety of comic books that they can read. I also will suggest this book to any child who may be hurting because of a divorce in their family or a new student in the classroom.

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Realistic Fiction
3rd, 4th, or 5th Grade

This is a story that teaches children the importance of being nice to people. Maddie and her friend Peggy waited for Wanda everyday so that they could pick on her because she wore the same blue dress everyday and had a weird last name. They picked on Wanda because every time they asked her how many dresses she had, she would say she had 100, and they knew this was not true. It bothered Maddie that everyone, including her, was mean to Wanda because she too did not have a lot of money. Maddie never said anything to stop anyone from picking on Wanda because she did not want everyone to start picking on her.

Wanda had been missing for a few days before anyone noticed and it was not until she won the contest that everyone realized where she was. Each year girls drew dresses for a contest and every year Peggy won the contest. On the day that the winner would be announced everyone walked into the classroom to find 100 pictures of dresses hanging around the room. All of the dresses were beautiful. The teacher announced that Wanda had drawn each of them, and the girls realized that this was the 100 dresses she was referring to.

Shortly after this announcement the class received a note saying that Wanda would not be returning to school. She and her family were leaving because of the hurtful things people said to them. This really upset Maddie because she realized she would never be able to say she was sorry. After school Maddie and Peggy went to Wanda's house to tell her she won the contest but they discovered she had already left. Maddie still wanted to tell her she was sorry, so she convinced Peggy to write a note with her to send to Wanda to see how she was doing. For a long time the girls did not hear anything back from Wanda. But then one day Wanda sent a note to her old class telling the girls that they could keep two of the dresses and the rest could be divided up between the other members of the classroom. After carefully looking at the photos Peggie and Maddie realized that Wanda had drawn those dresses for them because the person wearing the dresses had their faces. This sweet act of kindness stunned Maddie because she could not believe that someone she was so mean to forgave her.


At the beginning of each year I want to introduce students to books that will help build a classroom community. I feel that this book will be a great one to include. It will teach the kids about the importance of being nice to everyone. After reading this book as a class I will let the students come up with some rules for the classroom about how others should be treated.

Poetry Matters by Ralph Fletcher

Nonfiction
4th or 5th Grade

Poetry Matters is a book all about how to write poetry. Fletcher uses biographical, autobiographical, and nonfiction writing to help aspiring poetry writers. The book is divided into two sections. The first section is about how to decide what to write your poem about and the ways to help develop those ideas. The second section is about writing the poem, revising it, and what to do once its finished.

The first chapter of the book talks about how Fletcher became interested in poetry and what made him decide to write this book. In the next three chapters he talks about how emotion, image, and music relate to poetry. Before the first section ends there is a chapter about deciding what to write your poem about.

The beginning of the second section talks about how to write the poem and then it goes on to talk about how the use of words can impact your poem. After talking about the beginning stages of writing poetry it discusses how to edit the poem to get it the way you want it. Towards the end of the book Fletcher spends a little while discussing types of poetry (ex. haiku). The last chapter of the book gives children ideas as to how to share their poetry.

This book has many other features that would help young poetry writers. For example, the last pages of the book contain a huge list of poetry books that children might be interested in. Also, throughout the book there are interviews from poets to help students get an idea as to how they handle writing poetry.


I will use this book to help students with a poetry unit. I will design the unit based around this book. Each student will have a copy of the book, one that I hope they can keep. I will encourage students to write poems based on the advice Fletcher gives. At the end of the unit we will use one of the strategies Fletcher presents on how students can share their poetry. I will allow the students to vote on which strategy they would like to do. I want the poetry unit to each year to be based on what the students are curious about.