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WOW! I was in complete shock when i put down the picture book "What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?" This was a great shock. this book was not ever talked about in class or setup so i was not sure what to expect. I kind of just thought it would be an easy read and that would be that. Was i completely wrong. This was so informative and inventive. Every time that i turned the page my smile would get bigger. I loved how i was able to guess what animal the nose or foot belong to. I did not get all of them right some i actually had no clue. Then when i turned the page i got to learn about the animal and what that animal does with that particular body part. It was so much fun. Basically the text and the plot of the book impressed me very much. Along with the text the pictures made the book come alive for me. I constantly felt the pages because i thought the animals were coming out of the book. I do not know if i was suppose to feel this way but i did. The time and attention the illustrator gave paid off because this book was real and informative and fun. All of this rolled into one must have been extremely hard. I loved this book and can't wait to read it to my class and see their reactions.

I was so amazed while reading the picture books. The illustrations in these picture books were amazing. Particularly in "What do you do with a tail like this?" I thought that the bright colors evoke one's senses and stimulates imaginations. I also felt that the creativity of the storyline and animals was very catchy for young children. The white background in the book made the pictures more vivid and eye catching to children as well as adults. The isolated text with the animals was a great way to draw attention to each individual animal. I also loved the fact that science was integrated so heavily in this book. The descriptions in the back of the book were also a nice addition I thought.
"Moses, When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom" was also a fantastic book. I loved the fact that you could follow the storyline and the changes in mood with the color scheme used by Kadir Nelson. The colors used in this book were also very stimulating for the reader. I believe that the author's purpose in writing this book was for the reader to experience a smalll portion of the pain and the struggle that was experienced by African Americans during the time of slavery. The images presented along with the diction used by author Carole Boston Weatherford was amazing. While reading the book it was almost as if you could feel the pain that Harriet was experiencing. I also liked the print that was used for the text in the book. I loved the fact that when God was taking to Harriet the text was very bold and in all capital letters. To mean that exemplified the power of the God, and the importance of his instruction and direction.
I have to say I have never looked so closely into pictures books, but the are overflowing with imagery, symbols, characterization, and perspectives. I loved this unit on picture books!

It was so exciting for me to read Ashley and Mandy's comments. Their enthusiasm for the books is contagious. Both pointed this out, but I want to emphasize the importance of reading the author's note in the back of the book. This additional information provides so many important insights.
There is such a contrast in the illustrations between the books; I look forward to reading additional comments.
Happy Reading. Dr. Frye

I took some different books to the Afterschool program where I work and read them to my children. They LOVED it! I took a book from our author study, Mrs. Mack by Patricia Polacco. It was a higher level picture book and it took about 2 days to read it. It was about a girl spending her summer at a horse ranch and learning to ride horses. My boys were all acting like it was the most boring book ever because they would have rather been playing with their Pokemon cards, but they never took their eyes away while I was reading the story. While I was reading the story, one of my boys kept saying, "There's that old man in the background!", in every picture. He caught before even I did this man who turned out to have a big role in the plot line. I was surprised at how perceptive they all were. I asked them what their favorite parts were and one boy was like, "I don't have a favorite part." (That worried me a little.) Then he said, "My favorite part was the whole thing." I was glad to hear that!

Then I took in The Wildest Brother and Pirate Girl by Cornelia Funke and Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney. I think Llama Llama Red Pajama should be about a late Kindergarte n reading level, and they loved that too! My boys were especally glad to read The Wildest Brother, since it was more for their type of people. It was a fun experience reading them all of these stories, just to see how much they enjoyed it themselves! I plan to take in a couple of picture books for them each week!

I mean what I said, I MISS picture books. I'm an art nerd so i love being about to have amazing pictures to look at while I'm reading a great book. After reading three completely different picture books this past week I've remembered the good old days when my mom used to read them to me. I used to love listening to her read me stories and having parents come into my classrooms and read to us. I have been so impressed with not only the stories from the picture books I've read, but how unique the illustrations are. My favorite illustrations so far have been from What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? I've just never seen such realistic collages in a picture book. My third book that I chose to read besides the two required this week from class was Princess Pigsty. It was one of the other books by Cornelia Funke, the author of The Thief Lord. This book definitely shows the diversity of Funke's writing abilities. Princess Pigsty is so cute! I loved it! If you liked to get dirty or messy or just hated wearing dresses when you were little, you need to read this book. The main character, Isabella, will remind you of yourself when you were younger!

I chose to write about the additional picture book that we had to read for this week. I read Peppe the Lamplighter. It is a "feel good" multicultural book about a young Italian immigrant living in Little Italy before electricity. Peppe got a job lighting the street lamps to help support his 7 sisters and his sick father. He is so full of hope and just wants the best for his sisters even lighting a lamp in their honor as well as one for his father and his deceased mother. It is a great example of the American Dream and holding on to hope for the future. It also teaches Peppe and his father that all jobs are important and that he should appreciate what Peppe is doing because lighting the lamps helps the people of the community move around after dark as well as helping guide his family members home. In the end Peppe gets the respect of his hard to please father and Peppe once again is able to take pride in lighting the lamps of Little Italy.

I just love picture books! The first one I decided to read was Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom because the cover was attractive to me and the subject interested me. I thought it was so neat to see how the author took a historical story and compiled it into a childrens book. The illustrations are so beautiful that I would find myself staring at the pages for a long time. I love how they took up the entire page, really capturing every detail of the story. This is such a great book to use when talking to students about slavery. The cover flap on the front gives a great background to what is actually taking place. This is informational for students being that not everyone is going to already know the story of Harriet and by just reading the book they still may miss. The foreword is also informational in describing slavery and the procedure. I am so glad this book was one we had to buy because I want to keep it on my living room bookcase. I really enjoyed it! What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? was such a fun book. What a great wait to integrate animals and their functions into a not so boring approach. My favorite part was that the words were spread on the pages around the animals. The end of the book that had further information on the animals was so helpful for students to take further interest or to learn why exactly an animal using that function for a specific purpose. I personally liked to try to guess what the animal was before turning the page and seeing the full animal. Children would love this! Such a good read!

I mean what I said, I MISS picture books. After reading three
completely different picture books this past week I've remembered the
good old days when my mom used to read to me. I used to Love listening
to her read me stories and having parents come in to classrooms and
read to us. I have been so impressed with not only the stories from
the picture books I've read, but how unique the illustrations are. My
favorite illustrations so far have been from What Do You Do With a Tail
Like This? I've just never seen such realistic collages in a picture
book. My third book that I chose to read besides the two required this
week from class was Princess Pigsty. It was one of the other books by
Cornelia Funke, the author of The Thief Lord. This book definitely
shows how diverse of a writer Funke is. Princess Pigsty is so cute! I
loved it! If you liked to get dirty or messy or just hated wearing
dresses when you were little, you need to read this book. The main
character, Isabella, will remind you of yourself when you were younger!

I absolutely loved these two picture books! What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? was so informative and fun. The illustrations were cute also. I really liked how the book was set up so that students can guess which part belongs to what animal. Children can learn so much about different animals from this book. I also really like the extra information in the back of the book. Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom was beautiful. The illustrations were amazing and so detailed. What a great way to introduce the topic of slavery to your classroom. I liked how the foreward at the beginning explained what slavery is. This is really beneficial for younger grades who have never heard of slavery. I also thought the author's note in the back contained great and useful information about Harriet Tubman. I also liked the different text throughout the book. This made it easy to tell the difference between Harriet and God's dialogue. These were by far some of the best picture books I've ever read.

After reading What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom I realized there are many different kinds of picture books. I always remembered picture books being fun stories about make believe characters but after these books my opinion certainly changed.

I was completely shocked when I began reading What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? I went into the book expecting it to be about some animal that had a really big tail or something like that what they did with their tail. I didn't expect it to be an informative book about different animals and what they actually did with their noses, ears, tails, eyes, mouths, and feet. I liked how the book only showed you a part of the animal where you had to guess what animal it was and what they did with it. I had no idea what some of the animals where or what they did with that body part. This would be a great book to get kids interacted and guessing what animal they thought it was and what that animal did with each part. I also liked how the back of the book had more information on the animals. This is a great book to integrate with other areas of the curriculum. The children could each pick an animal in the book and do a project on that animal.

I loved reading Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. At first I wanted to go through the book and look at all the pictures without reading. They were beautiful pictures that caught the reader's attention. The different fonts also caught my attention. I liked how the narration, what Harriet was saying, and what God was saying were all in different fonts. I thought it made it a lot easier to read. I also liked how the author provided information on slavery before reading the book and more information on Harriet Tubman after the book. The information on slavery helps the reader to have a better understanding of what was happening with slavery. The information on Harriet Tubman helps the reader know more about her life. The children have just read a book with a little about what she did but this provides a lot more information.

Overall I thought these were great books to use in the classroom.

When I was reading Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led her People to Freedom I thought that it was amazing how the illustrator, Kadir Nelson, interpreted Carole Boston Weatherford's wording into such beautiful pictures. While I was reading the text I got a feeling of being alongside Harriet when she was lost in the woods and the only hope she had of making it came from her spirituality. My favorite part of the book besides the illustrations was the historical description located in the back of the book. I love history and even though I have heard many of that information before, I had never known that Harriet threatened some of her "passengers" with a gun to keep them from turning back. In the picture book What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? I really thought it was neat how every animal was conveyed in their own natural habitats. This would make it easier for children to get a sense of why the animals have certain behaviors due to their various ecosystems. I also loved how there was such a thorough description of each animal in the back along with what makes them unique. I had never heard about the horned lizard before and so after reading the book I immediately looked it up in an encyclopedia. Although both books were very different I believe the illustrations along with accurate descriptions is what makes them worthy of their awards.

This week, the 2 picture books I read were really good. While "What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?" is a good, informative book, I enjoyed "Moses" much more. This book was so inspirational, and it really taught me the importance of having faith and relying on God when I'm worried about things. Throughout this whole book, Tubman found God in nature and she had faith that He really was leading her on her journey. The illustrations were amazing and this is a book I want to take good care of, just because of the quality illustrations, and the meaningful story in the book. I love love LOVED this book!

Moses and What Do You Do With a Tail Like This were both amazingly informative picture books that break the mold of the normal picture books that you may see in stores today. I think that many people fail to see that picture books are not just for young children. They can be beneficial to older children too because they capture their audiences with riveting artwork and interesting facts. When I read What Do You Do With a Tail Like This I was expecting it to be much more juvenile than it actually was. The book was packed full of important facts about a wide variety of animals. As I was reading the book my mind was just overflowing with ideas about how I could relate the book to the classroom! Moses also had a similar affect on me. I was captivated by the artwork because it really served to show the determination of Harriet Tubman, and what she had to go through in order to be a free woman. I believe that this book can help students relate to Harriet because the beautiful artwork will immediately draw them into the story. After reading these books I will never let anyone say that picture books are only suitable for young children. Kids of all ages can learn from them, and they can be helpful supplements in the classroom!

When we were first assigned to read What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, I expected them to be like the picture books I remember. I remember picture books having a few words and lots of pictures. I don’t even remember the pictures being very detailed, kind of like cartoon pictures. I was very shocked after reading both of these books. The illustrations were amazing. Kadir Nelson and Steve Jenkins are very talented. Both illustrators brought the pictures to life with their use of their artistic medium. In Moses, the way Kadir Nelson drew and painted Harriet Tubman’s face really portrayed how she was feeling at the time. Carole Boston Weatherford did a great job in bringing in an important woman in history through a story. Robin Page did a great job with informing the reader about the different animals and their body parts and how they use them. I thought it was great how both books had extra information in the back. I learned a lot more about what certain animals were and where they are from. It was good to have a recap of who Harriet Tubman was and how courageous she was. Her story really made realized that everyone needs to have a little more faith in God and trust that he’ll lead us in the right direction and protect us. Harriet Tubman sure knew he would.

The complete title of this book is "I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting off a Little Self-Esteem" by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell. I must say that this book was absolutely wonderful. I loved the concept and the illustrations. The main idea of this book is to show kids that it is okay to make mistakes and that you should love yourself no matter what. To quote from the book: "I'm gonna like me when I don't run so fast. Then they pick teams and I'm chosen last." The illustration for this line shows the little girl prancing around happily even though she was chosen last for a team. I think it is so important for kids to understand that not being the best is okay and acceptable. This book really shows kids how to be themselves and love themselves for who they are as an individual. This will definitely be a book I have in my classroom. The concept is great and the illustrations are ones in which children would find humorous.

This week I read two picture books that were cute and informational. The first book titled Moses was wonderful. The illustrations were detailed and beautiful, and the storyline was told perfectly. Everyone should be knowledgeable about the story of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. I liked how it portrayed a sense of hope and life to the reader and at the same time presented historical reference to the past. What Do You Do With A Tail Like This? was the other picture book. I liked how you learned something from each page, and how the book was set up so you were always looking to see what would be on the next page. Both books were great and I could see them being excellent books to share with kids.

These picture books were just wonderful!! I can honestly say that I have never read such informative, picture books than What Do You Do WIth A Tail Like This and Moses. First, I read What Do You Do WIth A Tail Like This, and before I cracked the cover I thought it was a lower level elementary book but I was wrong. This book was very informative and had wonderful illustraions. I feel that this book would be a great to intorduce animals and their different lifestyles and habitats. It creates curousity in the children when only the pictures of the tail or eyes are shown. A picture book such as this would be so appropriate for upper elementary kids. Moses was also a wonderful picture book. I found myself just flipping through the book looking at the illustrations. This book was illustrated so wonderfully. I could see and feel the emotion that Harriet was feeling. Slavery is something that everyone learns about and this book is perfect to read during that time. I cannot say enough about the illustrations because to me, they tell a story within themselves!! Great picture books!!

The book that I read this week was Animalia written by Graeme Base. All I have to say is that he is absolutely brilliant and very talented. The book is so neat, it goes through the alphabet and on every page he uses alliteration for each letter. For example: "Great Green Gorillas Growing Grapes in a Gorgeous Glass Greenhouse." Then in his illustrations he has hidden pictures of things that start with the letter G. The illustrations are beautiful and he is so clever to have thought of the hidden pictures. You can definitely incorporate this in the classroom in several ways. First, it can help children identify the letters of the alphabet. Secondly you can help children identify what pictures are hidden and why they are included on the page with the specific letter. I have read several of Greame Base's books and they are all incredible and beautifully illustrated. He is the author that I chose for my author study and I am excited to learn more about him.

The extra book I chose to read this week was The Water Hole, by Graeme Base. I chose this book because my partner and I chose him for our author study. I thought that this picture book was wonderful, and the illustrations were absolutely beautiful! This picture book is a counting book. The story counts from 1-10 and with each number the water hole gets smaller and smaller. Eventually, the water hole disappears altogether. What I found so fascinating about this picture book is that with each number the setting takes place in a different country. The picture explains it all. In each background there is an illustration of what that country would look like. Another thing I find so interesting about Graeme Base's work is that in all his illustrations you can find animals everywhere, but you have to look very closely. I think this book is a great way to integrate math into the classroom and at the same time the children would really enjoy looking at his illustrations because they are so detailed and beautiful. I definitely look forward to doing further research on Graeme Base because I think his work is wonderful!