The Great Trash Bash

The Great Trash Bash is about a hippo, who is the mayor of the town of Beaston. He wonders what is wrong with his town and lists things that are so great about it, such as the parks, restaurants, roads and more. Mayor realizes what needs to be done in the town of Beaston, it needs to be cleaned from all the trash that litter the sidewalks, parks, and roadsides. So the people of the town start cleaning up all the trash from town, including the waterways, parks, roads and even the dump.

The story really gives children a good look into what pollution and littering does to the environment. The characters explain what a landfill is, and what an incinerator does and how these just provide further problems for the environment. They realize that finding ways to recycle and produce less garbage is helpful to the environment, and they show what we can do to make an impact, whether it is through re-using of items, fixing old things rather than buying new or by using separate bins for all sorts of recycling.

This is a great book to use to introduce recycling with young children. They get to see what we do to our environment by using landfills, and incinerators. They see affects of trash in the parks and ponds and how it may harm animals and people. Students can learn a great lesson by seeing what items can be recycled and what they are recycled in to. They can learn to play a large part in keeping our classroom, town and environment in good shape!

A Turkey for Thanksgiving

Every year turkeys are a traditional meal at the dinner table. In A Turkey for Thanksgiving, Mr. Moose is searching for a turkey for thanksgiving dinner for Mrs. Moose and their friends that will be over for dinner. Mr. Moose begins the search for a turkey on Thanksgiving morning. While on his search for a turkey he picks up his friends who are willing to help search for a turkey that Mrs. Moose wants. His friends Mr and Mrs Goat know exactly where a turkey lives and they all head down to the river to find him. When they get to the river they find the perfect, fat turkey they were looking for and manage to catch the turkey and head back home for dinner.

This book would obviously be a great book to read near or on Thanksgiving day. It is a rather long story but his great pictures to follow along with. All the characters in the book in drawn well and the environment reminds me of what it looks like when it is Thanksgiving here. The emotions of the animals in the books are shown clearly through their facial expressions and can be a focal point to discussion of the book. I think that young to middle range audiences would enjoy this book. It keeps you wondering what is going to happen on the next page. Will they find the turkey? Do they catch the turkey? Questions that race through the audiences mind will be answered with the turn of a page. The book has a good story line and I personally enjoyed it. I found myself wondering what was going to happen next and where that turkey was too. If you haven't read this book I would recommend it as a holiday story to a class or to family. Everyone will enjoy!

Peanut Butter Rhino

Peanut Butter Rhino is a funny book that will get laughs from everyone who hears or reads it. Vincent Andriani does a great job with incorporating friendship in the book, along with humor, in bright and colorful pictures.

Rhino is the main character in the book who sets out to have a picnic with his best friend Elephant. As he leaves to go have lunch he checks his lunchbox to be sure he has everything that he wanted for lunch, including his delicious peanut butter sandwich. Rhino loses track of his sandwich as he sees what else he has in his lunchbox and just cant seem to find it. His friends help him search in various places for his sandwich but they can't find the sandwich either. What did Rhino do with his sandwich? Well, his best friend Elephant finds his sandwich in quite a silly place, but where?

Readers of all ages would enjoy this funny book. The pictures do a good job with drawing the reader in to observe more than the text has to offer. The characters in the book are all different and have their own ways of helping Rhino when he is in need. It is a fairly short and simple read for in class read a loud or a quick bedtime story! Peanut Butter Rhino is a must read book. You will enjoy it!

Pancakes for Breakfast

Pancakes for Breakfast is a very good wordless book for children to picture read. The pictures are full of color and enjoyable to look closely at. Tomie dePaola did a great job with interpreting a story without the use of words and children of all ages can understand what the old lady is looking for throughout the book.

The book, Pancakes for Breakfast, is about an old lady who wakes up in the morning hungry for, you guessed it, pancakes! So the old lady gets up and goes to the kitchen to make her pancakes with her cat and dog. She gets her flour, but is missing eggs, so she goes to the hen house to get some eggs. As she continues with her pancake recipe she notices she is missing other key ingredients to mix her special pancake batter. How does she attain these ingredients? Will she be able eat her delicious pancakes that she dreamed of?

This book is fun and can be used as a problem solving book for young students. Being able to look at a book and try to decipher what will happen on the next page is part of the fun. Wordless books are good for all ages and give the opportunity to read by pictures. I enjoy looking at this book and seeing the actions that the old lady takes with every new page to do whatever it takes to have delicious pancakes for breakfast!

The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse

The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse is a very fun book. It is about an artist who paints colors on animals that wouldn't normally be seen in the real world. He feels that he is a good artist, and why wouldn't he be?

This book can be used for grades of any age to teach about art. It lets people know that art is what you make of it. It doesn't matter what you color things, or how odd things may look, its about having fun and feeling confident in whatever you decide to create. Author Eric Carle really reaches out to others in this book through personal experiences with art.

The confidence that the artist in the book portrays can reach out and help others in feeling that their "blue horse" is good art and it doesn't matter that it isn't typical. It is a very simple read, and it is fun to see all the colors in the book that the artist uses in every new page you turn to.

Where The Wild Things Are

The book Where The Wild Things Are is an interesting and exciting book to read. When reading it you wonder what is going to happen next to a child who is facing a bunch of wild creatures. It is an adventure of a boy named Max who is a menace, and was sent to bed early without dinner. In his room a forest starts to grow and he gets on a boat for a long travel to where the wild things live. He is confronted by the wild things who show their big teeth and big claws but Max becomes master of the wild things. Max realizes however that something is missing, but what is it?

I think that this book would be helpful to read to kindergartners to help them develop their imagination. Books such as this help to spark imagination in students, and could be a good book to read before beginning an art project. I think that having so many fun and colorful pictures to look at through the reading can help children see that art can be created without guidelines. Some of the pictures in the book aren't something you would typically see so the imagination of the boy (the pictures of the book) can help students create their own silly, scary and ugly characters by using their own imagination of what a wild thing could be to them.

I personally like this book. It is full of color and the story line is very imaginative. The book makes you curious as to what is going to happen on the next page. It is short to read and is eventful.