The Giver

The Giver

By Lois Lowry
Science Fiction

Jonas, a twelve year old boy, lives in a utopia where everyone has a place in the world by which talents and interests. Any "flawed" people who are in this society are exiled. Jonas's job is the Receiver of Memory. He gets all the memories of the community, past and present, good or bad, which makes him realize how boring and bland his community really is so he decides he wants to change her. The Giver and Jonas plan for Jonas to escape enter Elsewhere. Once he escapes, his larger supply of memories will disperse, and the Giver will help the community accept the new feelings and thoughts, changing their society forever.

This book can be used to talk about diversity and how boring the world would be if everyone was the same. It will help the students to embrace and celebrate diversity instead of frown upon it. I can also use it to discuss mood. Each memory provokes a different mood and being able to determine what type of mood it is is required for the EOGs.

Dear Mr. Henshaw

Dear Mr. Henshaw

By: Beverly Cleary
Realistic Fiction

This book is about a little boy who is struggling with his life at home and at school. His teacher requires each student to write to their favorite author and Leigh Botts writes to Mr. Henshaw but then becomes pen pals with him. It comforts Leigh to have someone to talk to and vent.

I used technology to record a book talk with a few students who really enjoyed this book.

Beegu

Beegu
By: Alexis Deacon
Free choice

Beegu is from another planet but her spaceship crashes on Earth. The lost alien starts to look for some friends but all the adults turn her away. Then she finds a park and starts to play with the little children who become her friends. Her parents finally arrive to rescue her and she tells them all about the small creatures who were friendly and full of hope.

This would be a good book to talk about friendship and acceptance. It is also another good book to use with creative writing. The students could write about what they think they would experience if they landed on a foreign planet and how the other creatures on that planet would treat them.

Dancing with Manatees

Dancing With Manatees

By Faith McNulty
Nonfiction

This is a true story about Faith, the author, and her dive to go see the endangered manatees along the coast of Florida. She talks to a biologist, Woody, about the manatees' life and how they mature. She also talks to him about why they are endangered and the problems the manatees' face due to humans.

This book would be a good one to use to talk about animal life cycles since it talks about manatees from birth to when they mate. It would also be a good book to use to talk about endangered animals and what us as humans can do to help prevent the population of endangered species to continually decline.

A Mother's Journey

A Mother's Journey

by Sandra Markle
Nonfiction

This story follows a mother penguin as she lays her egg and then leaves her mate to tend it while she joins the other females as they travel for five days in search of food. She swims for days collecting fish and watching for out for dangers such as seals and hunters. The mother penguin returns home to her mate just in time for the egg's hatching.

When talking about penguins, this would be a good book to use because it shows the different roles in the community of the penguins. It also talks about the dangers that the penguins have to face such as humans and seals so you could talk about a food chain since seals eat penguins.

Everyone Has a Bellybutton

Everyone Has a Bellybutton
by Laurence Pringle
Nonfiction

Everyone has a bellybutton, but how come? This book explains how everyone starts off as a cell in their mothers womb and develops into a baby. It describes each different stage of development and uses the proper scientific terms. Then the scientific terms are described so the students are able to understand them. It all comes back to why we each have a bellybutton and the beautiful gift our mother and father gave us: life.

In 5th grade, students learn all about the reproductive system. This book will not help explain exactly where babies come from, but it does explain the development after the baby is born. It explains what happens through each stage of development and how you are born, which then explains why everyone has a bellybutton.

The Talented Clementine

The Talented Clementine
by Sara Pennypacker
Realistic Fiction

Clementine is a third grader who is not all together. The teacher announces that the third and fourth graders will be putting on a talent show. Clementine panices because she doesn't have a talent. She can't sing or dance or play an instrument, so she opts not to participate in the show. But on the day of the show, the teacher running it suddenly has to leave to attend to her daughter who is having a baby. So what will they do? Clementine steps in to be the assistant of the show, which becomes her talent for the night.

I would use this to teach that everybody has a talent, some just have to try a little harder to find it. It also teaches diversity and celebrating the different talents of all students. It can also be used in a Literature Circle setting for some of the higher readers in a class of third graders or a lower level of readers in fifth grade. It is a good book to generate discussion and practice comprehension.