The Green Eyed Reader

The Day the Crayons Quit Written by Drew Daywalt & Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers Overview: One day in class, a little boy named Duncan took out his crayons and found a stack of letters with his name on them. Each letter was written by one of his crayons. The red crayon, the pink crayon, the green crayon, and so on. Each crayon had written Duncan about he felt in regards to their overuse or underuse in his drawings or other issues that they felt needed to be addressed. When Duncan was finished reading all of the letters he tired to think of a way to appease all of his crayons and decided to draw and incredibly creative picture with all of his crayons. Duncan got an A+ on his drawing! This book takes a comical look at creativity from a crayon's perspective. This entertaining book can be read by 2nd graders and would make such fun read aloud for children.  Awards: 2014-2015 Bluebonnet Award To order your own copy:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-day...

Zoom! Written by Robert Munsch & Illustrated by Michael Martchenko Overview: Lauretta is a girl who uses a wheelchair to get around and she decides that she needs a new one. Her and her mother go to the wheelchair store and look at lots of different motorized wheelchairs, but they are all too slow of the young girl. That is, until she sees the 92-speed wheelchair. She takes it home and tries it out for the day. Because it is so fast, she is able to rescue her little brother and take him to the hospital in her wheelchair when her family's car would not start. Her parents tell her that she can keep the wheelchair because of how useful it proved even though it is very expensive. She tells them that she actually wants a different wheelchair: one that's even faster! This is an exciting and easy to read story that would be great for 1st-2nd graders. This would also be a fun read aloud book in the classroom and the students could all act out the zooming sounds. The pictu...

The Cat In The Hat By Dr. Seuss Overview: This is the classic rhyming story where a brother and sister are sitting at home doing nothing and then a cat dressed in a hat walked in their door. Despite the protests of their pet fish, the cat comes into the house and causes a ruckus. He even brings Thing 1 and Thing 2 along with him. They make a gigantic mess, but the cat ends up cleaning it all of before the children's mother returns home. This is such fun book to read because of the catchy rhymes and exciting story. You cannot wait to see what  the characters will do next! 1st-2nd graders should be able to read this book on their own and, of course, this book makes an incredible read aloud experience. Awards: The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for author Dr. Suess. To order your own copy:  https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Hat-Dr-Seuss/dp/039480001X -The Green Eyed Reader

Rapunzel Retold & Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky Overview: In this retelling of the story of Rapunzel, a man and his wife became pregnant with a child. The woman often sat by a small window in their house that overlooked a garden owned by a sorceress. One day the man snuck into the garden to steal some of the rapunzel that grew there because his wife was craving it. After his wife ate it, she wanted some more. So the next day, the man went back to steal some more, but he was caught by the sorceress! When she threatened his life, the man explained his situation and the sorceress said that she would forgive him if the couple gave them their baby once she was born. Out of fright and uncertainty, the man agreed. And so it was that a baby girl was born and the old woman named her "Rapunzel" and cared for her as her own and then eventually kept her in a tower.  When Rapunzel became older, a Prince discovered that she lived in the tower and climbed up to her by the use...

My Rows and Piles of Coins Written by Tololwa M. Mollel & Illustrated by E.B. Lewis Overview: This is a story about a young boy named Saruni who wanted a bicycle of his very own. His father owned one and taught him how to ride it after much trial and error. Every Saturday, the young boy would help his mother sell their crops in the market and she would give him a few coins as a job well done. He saved for months and months and when he finally felt like he had enough, he went to the shop that sold bicycles in the marketplace and asked to buy one with the money he had saved up. But the owner just laugh at hi and told him that he did not have enough money. Saruni became so sad and told his mother about what had happened. The next day, his father came home with a new moter bike and gave his old bike to Saruni. The boy was so excited and began to keep saving his money in order to buy a cart to help his mom carry the crops to the marketplace.  The illustrations of this boo...

My Chinatown: One Year in Poems Written and Illustrated by Kam Mak Overview:  This is a poem about a little boy who left his hometown of Hong Kong and is now in America living in a Chinatown. This poem is separated into four sections, one for each season: winter, spring, summer, and fall. In each section, the little boy describes what he is doing during that time and how it is similar, but different from his life back in Hong Kong. From pickling kumquats to lighting paper lanterns, the little boy learns to love his new Chinatown when New Year's Day comes around. This book uses a mixture of photographs and realistic drawings for the pictures. They take up full pages and display beautiful aspects of Chinese culture and celebrations. This is a longer book, but is helpful to gain insight into the spirit of Chinatown. I would recommend this to 4th-5th graders. To order your own copy:  https://www.amazon.com/My-Chinatown-One-Year-Poems/dp/0064437329/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&i...