The Many Hats of a School Librarian

Matched by Ally Condie My rating: 4 of 5 stars It sucked me in!! I had to download the next one immediately. It's nice to have another dystopian trilogy without as much violence so I can recommend it to my 5th and 6th graders. View all my reviews

Crocodile's Tears by Alex Beard* My rating: 3 of 5 stars Use this book for prediction! I bet you won't predict the ending, though if you have background knowledge of crocodiles, you might predict part of it. Also a good book for introducing different endangered animals. View all my reviews

Mossy by Jan Brett My rating: 3 of 5 stars As usual, Jan Brett's illustrations are intricate and beautiful. It is a sweet story about a young turtle that has a garden growing on her shell. What happens when Mossy gets taken to a museum? I think this could be a good book for teaching students to ask questions. I recommend it to 1st or 2nd grade. View all my reviews

Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj My rating: 5 of 5 stars Adorable. I cannot wait to read this to kindergarten at the beginning of the year next year. I have to remember to either buy it or check it out from the public library so we have it at the beginning of the year. I would love to see the kindergartners do all of the actions that these cats ask the reader to do as we go along. View all my reviews

Zero the Hero by Joan Holub My rating: 5 of 5 stars So clearly I like picture books for older kids that are very clever. This book is about numbers and it would be great to use as more of as a review or introduction to place holding, zero multiplication, addition,subtraction, any of those things. But, because of the figurative language in this book, I really think that it would be best for older kids. the cute little jokes will go over the younger kids heads. View all my reviews

Chopsticks by Amy Krouse Rosenthal My rating: 5 of 5 stars I love this but I don't think second-grade and under will get it. I think that the figurative language, idioms, puns, clever illustrations and ideas in this book will fly over the heads of little kids. That being said, I think it would be great in some older classrooms to help teach some of those Language arts skills. I think it is an adorable story and I also think it can be used to teach people how to be an individual. It is about two chopsticks that are always together and I need to learn how to be apart for a while. View all my reviews

Perfect Square by Michael Hall My rating: 5 of 5 stars I love this. It's a great way to say how to make lemons into lemonade or look at the sunny side of the street or look for the silver lining in the cloud. It is about a square that gets damaged essentially and makes himself into something better each time. I would love to see how teachers could use this with older kids for art or writing or geometry even to take a piece of paper of different shapes and alter/repurpose them into some something artistic. I just love the imagination of this artist illustrator. I would recommend this for all grades depending on how you want to use it. View all my reviews

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger My rating: 3 of 5 stars I would definitely recommend this book for kindergarten for green day. But I have to say, I really liked First the Egg better. This is a beautiful book explaining the color green and different ways to look at green in the world. View all my reviews

Argus by Michelle Knudsen My rating: 3 of 5 stars This story about a young girl who has an egg and a chick that's a little different from the rest is okay. The girl learns that it is okay to be different, however it's a little too different and kind of feels obvious like why isn't this teacher doing something about this giant dragon is that really isn't a chick. I would recommend it for kindergarten and first grade. View all my reviews

Heroes of the Surf by Elisa Carbone My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was enthralled! I couldn't wait to see what happened to Anthony, Pedro, and the other people on board the Pliny ship. The drawings were exquisite and the fact that it is based on a true story in the 1800's made me even more interested. I would love to recommend this book to picture book readers since the story is suspenseful, and there are longer paragraphs on each page. Historical fiction for second third and fourth graders. View all my reviews

Spike, the Mixed-up Monster by Susan Hood My rating: 4 of 5 stars Oh what a great little book for reminding kids that just being nice is all it takes to turn something scary into something friendly. This is about a little monster who tames a big monster. I can't wait to read this colorful book to my students! View all my reviews

Abe Lincoln's Dream by Lane Smith My rating: 3 of 5 stars I liked this book, but it was really vague. It seems like it would be good to read around President's day to spark an interest about Abe Lincoln, but it doesn't really give enough history to be read without more information with kids in 3rd or 4th grade. The illustrations are fantastic. It can also be used with older kids as a jump to compare what our country was like then and now and talk about some of the social issues that we still face. View all my reviews

Boot & Shoe by Marla Frazee My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a story about 2 dogs that live together and "lose" eachother. It's a good story of friendship and what happens when you miss someone. I will read it to Kindergarten as a Read-Aloud. I think it is cute. I'm not sure what else it could teach. View all my reviews

Look... Look Again! by John O'Brien My rating: 3 of 5 stars At first, I thought it was a weird book, but then I "got it." It would be fun for kids to read that like or are learning about play on words and figurative language. It's a book that has a title for each page and 4 cartoons describing the title more literally than the figurative way the phrase is usually meant. I recommend for 4th grade and up, the little kids won't get it. View all my reviews