Realistic Fiction 1/28/09

Realistic Fiction

Author: Robert McCloskey
Title: Make Way For Ducklings
Publisher: The Viking Press
Date: 1969

Age Level: Primary (K-2)

Summary:
A father and mother duck decide to start a family in the middle of a big city. They make friends with a policeman, and when the eight eggs hatch into ducklings, the duck family is able to walk across town and through the streets. The policemen stop traffic, causing everyone to make way for the ducklings, as they walk across town to their new home.

Strengths:
· The names of the ducklings all rhyme (Jack, Kack, Lack, etc), which helps promote phonemic awareness.
· This is a fun book that students can have fun listening to or reading on their own.
· The pictures in this book, although they are all brown and white, are fun to look at and very expressive.
· This book promotes family life, even in the form of ducks, which is important for students of this age to see.

Concerns:
· I wonder how students would react to the ducks’ talking in this book. I wonder if they would get confused and begin thinking ducks were capable of speech.
Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book could be read to the students, or could be a book students could read to themselves when a little older and practicing their individual reading skills.


Author: Bernard Waber
Title: Ira Sleeps Over
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Date: 1972

Age Level: Primary (K-2)

Summary:
This is a book about a young boy named Ira, who is about to go on his first sleepover. He is deciding whether or not to take his teddy bear with him, with whom he has never slept before. His sister convinces him that he should not, because his friend Reggie will make fun of him. When it is time for bed, however, Ira discovers Reggie sleeps with a teddy bear as well. Ira then goes home to get his teddy bear, realizing there is no need to be embarrassed.

Strengths:
· This book teaches children that it is okay to have a teddy bear or a blanket to sleep with, and that they should not be embarrassed by it.
· This book goes through the process of a first sleepover, so children who have not been on a sleepover before, may learn what it is like.

Concerns:
· Some parents may not want their children to be encouraged to sleep with stuffed animals, and thus may not like their children to hear this book.
· This book demonstrates sibling rivalry. I wonder if the children might consider sibling rivalry to be acceptable after reading about it in this book.

Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book can be read to the class for fun, or can be read by students on their own. Perhaps if students begin discussing sleepovers, this would be a fun book to recommend or to read to them.


Author: Ellen Raskin
Title: The Westing Game
Publisher: Dutton Children’s Books
Date: 1978

Age Level: Upper (5-6)
Summary:
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.

Strengths:
· This book forces students to use reasoning skills to try to figure out who the murderer is.
· This book has a brilliant plot that all comes together at the end. It really enforces the idea of paying close attention while reading, so that you don’t miss anything important.
· The plot of this book is exciting enough to pull students through reading it. There are so many cliffhangers throughout the book, that even students who generally don’t like to read will get caught up in the plot and want to keep reading in order to find out what happens.

Concerns:
· Some parts of this book are a little bit hard to follow. It jumps quickly through the weeks and months, and if you aren’t paying close attention, it would be easy to get confused.
· This book shows some stereotyping, especially of Asians. I feel that it would be necessary to discuss with the students the importance of accepting everyone as individuals.

Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book could be used as a mystery. Students could be told to read only certain sections at a time, then make predictions about what they think will happen or who they think the murderer is. When they have finished the book, they can go back through all of their predictions, and see how accurate they were.



Author: Eleanor Estes
Title: The Hundred Dresses
Publisher: Harcourt Brace & Company
Date: 1972

Age Level: Elementary (3-4)

Summary:
In winning a medal she is no longer there to receive, a little Polish girl teaches her classmates a lesson.

Strengths:
· This book shows students how painful it can be to be teased, and how important it is to do the right thing and not be a bully.
· This book, though it is a chapter book, has sketches alongside some of the pages that help demonstrate what is happening in the book.
· Students can see from this book what the consequences of their mean actions may be, and hopefully will learn to be nice to their fellow students.
· This book shows how important it is to have an imagination, and that using your imagination can help you get through the toughest of times.

Concerns:
· Some students may be able to relate to Wanda, the Polish girl who gets made fun of, better than others. They may feel singled out, or embarrassed to hear a story that relates so much to their own life.
Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book could easily be read aloud to students, or could be read by students themselves. Though it is a chapter book, it has small pages with large print, and some of the pages are broken up by sketches.
· This book could be used in the classroom if they are having problems with bullies and the teacher wants to demonstrate how painful being the one who is being bullied can be.


Author: Andrew Clements
Title: No Talking
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Date: 2007

Age Level: Upper (5-6)

Summary:
The noisy fifth-grade boys of Laketon Elementary School challenge the equally loud fifth-grade girls to a “no talking” contest.

Strengths:
· This book demonstrates to students how important it can be to think before speaking.
· This book shows students how important it is for everyone to get along, and not divide boys versus girls.
· This book is written in a way that is easy to follow for elementary students. It is somewhat simplistic, but perfect for fifth and sixth graders.
· The challenge given in this book of no talking seems like an unlikely one, but the author goes through each of the steps well enough that it is clear to see how it was able to work.
· The students show a great deal of maturation from the beginning to the end of the book.

Concerns:
· This book shows that the principal has no control over this particular group of fifth-graders. I wonder if students would get into their minds that if they could be as unruly as the bunch in the book, the teachers wouldn’t be able to control them either.

Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book could be used in a literature class, and could even be used to challenge the students themselves to spend a certain period of time not speaking, just seeing what it is like to observe the world around them.