Erin's Reading Blog

  Title: Journey Through Japan Author: Richard Tames Genre: Informational nonfiction Ages:2 and up Teacher evaluation: I love this book for classrooms when we are studying Geography and get to Japan it would be a great book to use for any grade level to find out little information about the country that is very informative.  Summary: This book begins by giving the facts about Japan the size, population capital, cities, and landmasses or water parts. We begin to learn about Japan and how different it is from all other countries. They have a special language, food, art and clothing. Tokyo the capital of Japan is densely populated and it is very modern. The Sumida River is a river that you can take a double decker boat up to visit all different monuments and pieces of Japanese culture. Mount Fuji is the most famous mountain in Japan we learn all different facts about it. They also have 5 different lakes that experience freezing and warm temperatures. They have a bullet train that...

  Title: Ultimate Field Trip 3- Wading into Marine Biology Author: Susan E. Goodman Photos by: Michael J. Doolittle Genre: Informational Nonfiction Grades 3 and up Teacher Evaluation: I chose 3 and up for grade levels of this book because it could be read in higher grades. picture books are not only for elementary school. we should still read to children in higher level classes. I would use this book when learning about different ecosystems. Science classes would learn a lot when learning about ecosystems from this book.   Summary: This book begins speaking about how the ocean changes every 6 hours. The temperature changes and the calmness of the water changes often. Marine Biologists are people who study life in and around the sea, so they are studying why these things happen in the sea. There are tides that often get smaller and they make animals appear in tide pools. Tide Pools are like a city with all different animals. Tides work because of gravity. While studying at...

Title: The Heart Our Circulatory System Author: Seymour Simon Genre: Informational Nonfiction Grade level: 3-7 Teacher evaluation: This is a great book to be used in a science classroom. It is very informative with a lot of images to help explain what is happening. It really helps that the information is very detailed with easy words that can be used for any grade level.  Summary: The beginning of the book tells us how hard a heart works and how it pumps our blood around our body. Your heart has all different parts of it that do different things to help keep you alive. there is a valve, different atriums, ventricles and arteries that do all different things. Your blood is made up of blood cells white and red. you also have plasma that has proteins minerals and sugars that we need. It tells us all about red blood cells and how common they are. The muscles in the heart squeeze to pump the blood. blood flows at all different speeds to all different places in the body. The red blood ce...

 Title: Today's World Energy and Light Author: Peter Lafferty Genre: Informational Non fiction Age level: 2-4 grade Teacher evaluation: this is a great informational non fiction book you could read a different page everyday when speaking about a different area in science. There are a lot of fun activities that can go along with the different scientific experiments as well.  Summary: The book is all about energy and light it begins talking about how everything is built out of matter explaining what matter is, and then it moves on to mass and weight and how the center of gravity effects everything. It then speaks about force and momentum. Force is the push or pull, speed is how fast something is moving, and momentum is what is needed to stop a moving car. We learn what kinetic and potential energy is, and how things heat and how it travels, it tells us how sound travels. It speaks about electrons, magnets and currents. It talks about colors and how they mix. It ends with speakin...

 Wonder Title: Wonder Author: R.J Palacio Genre: Realistic fiction, Book dealing with Special Needs topics, - based off of a true story Ages: 10-14 year olds Teacher evaluation: This book is a very good read that teachers can read to their students, or that students can read if they are old enough. Since I want to teach younger grades I would not be able to read this book to them, because it is too complex. But if I were to teach older grades such as 4-6 I would read this book to my students. It is a longer chapter book, so I would allow my 6th grade students to read it, but elementary students would probably not be able to fully comprehend it. It also has a movie that is based off the same story, so I would allow my students to watch the movie as a fun day once we are finished comprehending the book. I would also have this book relate to science lessons, or I would relate it to equality or inclusivity.  Summary: Auggie a ten year old boy who was born with a facial deformity. ...

 Dreamers Title: Dreamers Author: Yuyi Morales Illustrator: Yuyi Morales Genre: Historical fiction Ages: 4-10 Teacher Evaluation: This was an AMAZING story. It is another great book to read when you have students who may have just immigrated to America. It really went into depth about the struggles, and how they overcame them. It may give people hope of a better future. The author based the book off of herself, with a fictional storyline. She illustrated the book, and she added photos that reflected what happened to her when she moved her.  Summary: In the beginning of the book it begins showing the mom welcoming her baby. One day they packed up all their things, and they crossed a bridge to another place. They became immigrants. It looked unfamiliar. They were scared. They did not understand the language. They went all around the land until they found a library, and they were amazed. They got a library card, and they loved books. they learned to read and speak english through...

 A Packet of Seeds Title:  A Packet of Seeds Author: Deborah Hopkinson Genre: Historical fiction Grades 1-4  Teacher Evaluation: This is a great book to read when you have a new student, or a student just moved from far away. It makes it seem like it is not as hard as it should be, and would possibly give them comfort. you could also have all the students make a bag with seeds, and tie it with a lavender ribbon just like in the story.  Summary: Annie can tell her mom does not like where she lives, but she knows her mom would not as her dad to move back home. She misses home so much that she does not even name her own baby, but the older daughter knows what will cheer her up. Annie and her brother get an area read, and their mom notices the land, so she gets the seeds that her sister gave to her before they moved west. They plant the seeds and they become ready to start their new life.