A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln

Author:	David A Adler
Title:	A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln
Illustrator:	John and Alexandra Wallner
Readability Score:	Grade Level: 3.2  Guided Reading: M   DRA:28    Lexile Measure: 630L
Genre:	Nonficton
Subgenre:	Biography
Theme:	Historic figure leadership
Primary and Secondary Characters:	Abraham Lincoln
Awards:
Publishing Company:	Holiday House Book
ISBN Number:	0-8234-0731-4
Summary and How would you use the book: This book follows Abraham Lincoln's life from childhood on the frontier to after the Civil War.
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Description of how you would use the book: To introduce Lincoln and the civil war.

Castle

 

Author:	David Macaulay
Title:	Castle
Illustrator:	David Macaulay
Readability Score:	Grade Level: 7.8  Guided Reading: X   DRA:N/A    Lexile Measure: 1180L
Genre:	Fiction
Subgenre:	N/A
Theme:	Social Studies Middle Ages
Primary and Secondary Characters:	King Edward I and Lord Kevin le Strange
Awards: Caldecott Honor Book
Publishing Company:	Houghton Mifflin Company
ISBN Number:	0-395-25784-0
Summary and How would you use the book: This book is about the middle ages and the building of a town and castle.
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Description of how you would use the book: Introduce the Middle Ages, towns, occupations, Kings and Lords.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Author:	Bill Martin and John Archambault
Title:	Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Illustrator:	Lois Ehlert
Readability Score:	Grade Level: 1.9 Guided Reading:N/A DRA:N/A    Lexile Measure: 530L
Genre:	Rhymes
Subgenre:	N/A
Theme:	Alphabet
Primary and Secondary Characters:	The Alphabet
Awards:
Publishing Company:	Little Simon
ISBN Number:	978-1-416-92718-1
Summary and How would you use the book: The alphabet take turns racing up the coconut tree.
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Description of how you would use the book: Use to teach rhyming and ABCs

The Dot

Author:	Peter H Reynolds
Title:	The Dot
Illustrator:	Peter H Reynolds
Readability Score:	Grade Level: 2.9  Guided Reading: K   DRA:24    Lexile Measure: 500L
Genre:	Realistic Fiction
Subgenre:	N/A
Theme:	Art, Self Esteem
Primary and Secondary Characters:	Vashti, teacher,
Awards:
Publishing Company:	Candlewick
ISBN Number:	978-0-763-61961-9
Summary and How would you use the book: This book is about a teacher helping a student find the creativity in themselves.
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Description of how you would use the book: To help a student see there is potiential in everything they do even a dot and a line.

Charlotte's Web

Author:	EB White
Title:	Charlotte's Web
Illustrator:	Garth Williams
Readability Score:	Grade Level: 4.9  Guided Reading: R   DRA:40    Lexile Measure: 680L
Genre:	Fiction
Subgenre:	N/A
Theme:	Friendship, Death farm life
Primary and Secondary Characters:	Wilbur, Charlotte, Fern, Templeton, Henry, Uncle.
Awards: Massachusetts Children's Book Award, Newbery Honor Book, Lewis Carroll Shelf Award,  Massachusetts Children's Book Award, ALA Notable Children’s Book, Horn Book Fanfare
Publishing Company:	Harper Collins
ISBN Number:	978-0-064-40055-8
Summary and How would you use the book: This book is about the value, a little girl thinks, all life should have. Fern wants to keep the runt pig, from being killed. Fern nurses the pig until it is too big to take care of and sells him to her uncle, who owns a farm down the road. Charlotte is a spider who helps make the people think Wilbur is special. She also helps Wilburn believe in himself.
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Description of how you would use the book: You could give the students a writing prompt for them to write an alternate ending. You could use this to show the different points of view in the story.

Hatchet

Author:	Gary Paulsen
Title:	Hatchet
Illustrator:
Readability Score:	Grade Level: 6.3  Guided Reading: R   DRA:40    Lexile Measure: 1020
Genre:	Fiction
Subgenre:	Adventure
Theme:	Family divorce survival
Primary and Secondary Characters:	Brian Robeson, Parents, Pilot
Awards: ALA Notable Book - 1987, Newberry Honor Book - 1988, Booklist Editor's Choice Citation - 1988, Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award - 1989, Georgia Children's Book Awards - 1991, Young Hoosier Book Awards - 1991
Publishing Company:	Simon and Schuster
ISBN Number:	978-1-4169-3647-3
Summary and How would you use the book: Brian Robeson, 13, is flying to visit his father when the pilot suffers a heart attack he is forced to fly the plane. He crashes and he finds himself alone in the woods with nothing but a jacket, his clothing and the hatchet his mother gave him and of course the secret of why his parents divorced. He has no time for anger or self pity, he has to concentrate on how to survive. He faces many dangers including  hunger, animal attacks, and even a tornado.
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Description of how you would use the book: To introduce science things such as trees, animals, water, mountains.

The Velveteen Rabbit

Author:	Margery Williams
Title:	The Velveteen Rabbit
Illustrator:	William Nicholson
Readability Score:	Grade Level: 4.2  Guided Reading: Q   DRA:40    Lexile Measure: 820L
Genre:	Children's Picture Book
Subgenre:
Theme:	Emotions Growing up and fitting in
Primary and Secondary Characters:	A boy and toys, rabbit
Awards: IRA/CBC Children's Choice
Publishing Company:	Harper Collins
ISBN Number:	0-380-00255-8
Summary and How would you use the book: A boy receives a Velveteen Rabbit for Christmas. One day while talking with the horse, the Rabbit learns that a toy becomes real if its owner really and truly loves it. When the boy's dog is misplaced, the Velveteen Rabbit is given replacement by his grandmother. The boy becomes too sick too play for a very long time. The doctor says all the toys the boy has played with had to be burned. When the Rabbit cries a real tear the Nursery Magic Fairy appears. She tells the Rabbit that he was only real to the boy, then kisses him and makes him real to everyone. The following spring, the boy sees the Rabbit, thinks he looks like his old Velveteen Rabbit, but he never knows that it actually was.
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Description of how you would use the book: To show friendship.

Holes

Author:	Louis Sachar
Title:	Holes
Illustrator:	none
Readability Score:	Grade Level:  5.2   Guided Reading: V    DRA:50     Lexile Measure: 660L
Genre:	Fiction
Subgenre:	Realistic
Theme:	Friendship and Compassion
Primary and Secondary Characters:	Stanley, Zero, Warden, Gaurds, Inmates
Award(s) Date of Publication: Newbery Medal, National Book Award, Boston Globe-Horn, Book Award, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, ALA Noteable Book,ALA Quick Pick, Christopher Award for Juvenile Ficiton, New York Times Book Review, Publisher  Weekly Best Book of the Year, Bulletin Blue Ribbion, School Library Journal Book of the Year.
Publishing Company:	Dell Yearling
ISBN Number:	0-440-41480-6
Summary and How would you use the book: Stanley Yelnets is convicted of a crime and given the choice of going to jail or to Camp Green Lake. He decides that since he has never been to camp before, he will go check it out. However, when he arrives he finds out this is no regular camp. He must be dig holes in a dried up lake, for building his character.... Then he realizes that the Warden is actually looking for some kind of treasure.
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Description of how you would use the book: This book could be used to show the different points of view of every character.

The Devil's Arithmetic

 

Author:	Jane Yolen
Title:	The Devil's Arithmetic
Illustrator:	N/A
Readability Score:	Grade Level: 5.1  Guided Reading: X   DRA:60    Lexile Measure: 730L
Genre:	Fiction
Subgenre:	Historical
Theme:	Holocaust WWII
Primary and Secondary Characters:	Hannah, Holocaust Survivors
Awards: Nebula Award 1988, Jewish Book Council Award & Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Book Award 1989, Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award 1997
Publishing Company:	Puffin trade paperback
ISBN Number:	0-14-034535-3
Summary and How would you use the book: The book begins with Hannah not wanting to attend another Passover meal with her family. She is tired of the same stories year after year. This year when she opens the door to symbolically greet Elijah, she is transported away to a rural village in Poland during WWII. After trying to explain who she is, she gives up and accepts that she is now Chaya, a Jewish peasant girl. As the book continues, she realizes she is in the year 1942 and about to be taken to a concentration camp. Hannah ends up offering her life to save another girl. Then, she finds herself back at home staring blankly out the door she had opened for Elijah. She now understands the heartache and pain her grandfather had experienced.
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Description of how you would use the book: Maybe use this to introduce the Holocaust to younger children and help them paint the picture of times from then without being so graphic.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Author:	Elizabeth George Speare
Title:	The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Illustrator:	Karen Cushman
Readability Score:	Grade Level: 6.9  Guided Reading: W   DRA:60    Lexile Measure: 850L
Genre:	Fiction
Subgenre:	Historical
Theme:	Prejustice and Tolerance, friendship
Primary and Secondary Characters:	Kit Tyler, Hannah Tupper, Nat Eaton, Matt and Rachel Wood, Mercy and Judith Wood, William Ashby, John Holbrook, Dr. Gershom Bulkeley, Mr. and Mrs. Cruff, Prudence Cruff, Captain and Mrs. Eaton, Governor Edmund Andros and Captain Samuel Talcott
Award(s) Date of Publication: Newbery Medal 1959
Publishing Company:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
ISBN Number:	978-0-547-55029-9
Summary and How would you use the book: 16-year-old Kit Tyler leaves her home in Barbados after her grandfather's death to move to Wethersfield, Connecticut to live with her Aunt Rachel and Uncle Matthew. They stop in Saybrook, where she meets a small girl named Prudence who drops her doll and begs her mother to get it back for her. Kit jumps in and get the doll for her.Mrs. Cruff, Prudence's mother, is the most cynical of them all, believing Kit is a witch, saying, "No respectable woman could stay afloat like that." The one thinkg Mrs. Cruff didn't know was Kit knew how to swim because she lived in the islands. Kit then meets John Holbrook, who was coming to study with Reverend Gershom Bulkeley. When she arrives in Wethersfield, Kit finds Connecticut very different from Barbados. In her previous home, she had servants but here is expected to work along with the rest of the family. No more luxuries and even the weather is very cold. She has two cousins, Mercy and Judith. She is required to attend church. She meets William Ashby who she does not care for him but Kit cousin's Judith hoped to marry William. Kit's life improves when she and Mercy begin teaching the children. Everything goes well until one day, Kit decides the children will act out the tale of the Good Samaritan from the Bible. Mr. Kimberly enters the house just as things get out of hand. He is mad at Kit and she leaves the school and runs into the meadow where she meets Hannah Tupper, who is an outcast. They begin being friends and then Kit meets Nat Eaton. They fall in love except Nat is banished from town because he sat lighted pumpkins in the window of Mr. Ashby's home. Kit also begins privately teaching Prudence to read and write when sudden the town is full of illness. A bunch of people want to kill Hannah because they think she is a witch and cursed the town.
Picture of Book Cover:
Description of how you would use the book: I would use this book to show different styles of settings, characters and plot