Chocolate Fever

Title: Chocolate Fever
Author: Robert Kimmel Smith
Genre: Modern Fantasy (chapter book)

Chocolate Fever is about a bay named Henry Green who loves chocolate so much that he eats it for every meal. His parents, brother, and sister all spoiled Henry and indulged his chocolate addiction. But one day in class, Henry notices little brown spots chocolate smelling spots all over his body. Thinking that he has contracted some rare disease, Henry goes to the school nurse to be examined. The nurse is puzzled by his condition, and takes him to the hospital to be checked out further. After being examined by many doctors, it is announced that Henry has "chocolate fever". Scared by this diagnosis, Henry runs away from the hospital into the city. He eventually is picked up by a truck driver named Mac, and just before Mac convinces Henry to go back home, Mac's truck is hijacked. The hijackers take Mac and Henry to their hideout and when things start looking bad for Mac and Henry's safety, a pack of dogs bursts in from their attraction to Henry's delicious chocolate scent. The hijackers are arrested and Henry and Mac go to a local confectioner who gives Henry "vanilla pills" to cure Henry's chocolate fever. Henry returns home and is greeted by his parents, with a new found skepticism of chocolate. However, the close of the book suggests that Henry may pick up a new kind of rare illness; cinnamon fever.

Chocolate Fever would be a great book to use for making inferences. The chapters in the book are always left on "cliffhangers" where the readers are unsure of what could possibly happen next. In addition to making inferences, Chocolate Fever is also a great book to use to discuss character development. The mindsets of many of the characters change after the course of the book's events, which leaves ample opportunities to discuss why and how the characters behaviors changed.

Miss Rumphius

Title: Miss Rumphius
Author: Barbara Cooney
Genre: Realistic Fiction

Miss Rumphius is the tale of a young girl named Alice who promises her grandfather that before she dies she will do three things for him: go to faraway places, live beside the sea, and most importantly to make the world more beautiful. As Alice grows older, she moves away from her home town and becomes a librarian. The children at the library now call her Miss Rumphius. She often visits the plant conservatory and breathes in the sweet smell of tropical plants. After visiting the conservatory one day, she decides that it is time to fulfill her first wish to her grandfather, to visit faraway places. She at visits snowy mountains and tropical islands, and her final destination leads her to Egypt. In Egypt, she falls off a camel and hurts her back. She realizes that she has become old and that it is time to move on to her second wish, to live by the sea. Miss Rumphius realizes that she is getting old and due to her back injury it is difficult for her to get around like she used to. One day while lying in her bed, she looks out the window to see the beautiful blooming lupine flowers she had planted the previous spring. When she feels well enough, she goes on a small walk, and realizes that the wind and birds had scattered some of the lupine seeds she had planted. Lupines now grew all along the cliffside. Miss Rumphius now realized how to fulfill her third promise to her grandfather. She gathered lupine seeds and began to walk all around town, scattering the seeds everywhere she went. Her back no longer hurt her as she now had a purpose. When the spring came, there were lupines everywhere as far as the eye could see. Miss Rumphius was very old now, and had a granddaughter of her own. Her granddaughter promised that she would one day fulfill the same three wishes that Miss Rumphius had completed for her grandfather. The book ends on a beautiful image of the hillside covered with lupines, as Miss Rumphius's granddaughter wonders how she will make the world a more beautiful place.

This book is full of beautiful soft images of seaside cottages, beautiful flowers, and faraway places.
In addition to the general aesthetic of the book, Miss Rumphius has an underlying message that envokes children to think what they can contribute to make the world a better place. After reading this story, I think a fitting lesson for students would be to have them write and reflect on how they would choose to make the world a more beautiful place.

Don't Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies

Title: Don't Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies
Author: Shel Silverstein
Genre: Science Fiction (poetry)

Don't Bump the Glump! is a collection of poems about imaginary creatures and their characteristics. Each poem describes the imaginary characters depicted on the page in a comical and silly way for children to enjoy. There are forty four mythical creatures described in the book, oftentimes with nonsense words and other clever literary tricks.
One of my favorite poems from the book is as follows:

The Flustering Phant
"Some animals pop from cocoons,
While others spring up from the clay.
I've heard that some drop from balloons
Or arrive in some other ridiculous way.
But the Tiny-Toed Flustering Phant
(And please don't repeat that I said it)--
He grows from the stem of the Bibulous plant,
And the snob never lets you forget it. "

-Shel Silverstein

This book is not only enjoyable for children due to its comical nature, but it is also a good book to use to introduce children to poems and prose. After perusing Don't Bump the Glump! I think that a fun activity would be for children to invent and illustrate their own imaginary characters, with a corresponding poem to describe their unique characteristics.

Meet Addy: An American Girl

Title: Meet Addy; An American Girl
Author: Connie Porter
Genre: Historical Fiction

Meet Addy is a harrowing tale of a young girl's escape to freedom from slavery. The story is set in 1864 where Addy and her family serve as slaves on a southern cotton plantation. After enduring many demeaning and unbearable hardships on the plantation, things worsen when Addy's father and brother are sold to another slave owner. Addy and her mother make the difficult decision to escape under the cloak of night to Philadelphia where they will be free. Addy's mother discussed this plan with her father and brother the night before they were sold, and if all went according to plan, they would meet there together and start a new, happier life. However, they must make the heart breaking decision to leave her baby sister behind with her Aunt and Uncle. After many frightening events and close calls, Addy and her mother make it to a house that was considered northern territory. Though the story is not drawn to a close at the end of the book, it is continued in the next book as it is a series. After the story, there are a few pages with actual photographs and information that supports the historical content of the story. All of the information and pictures are age appropriate, but still convey the sense of injustice and reality of the time period.

I think this book is a fantastic story to teach children about the hardships and unfairness of slavery, as well as an important lesson in diversity. At one point in the story after Addy is forced to humiliate herself by her slave owner, she tells her mother that she hates white people. Her mother however tells her that it is wrong to hate all white people. She tells her that if she fills her heart with hate, there will be no room for love. This was a very poignant quote from the story that resonated with me even after reading it. The struggles Addy and her family endured were enough to harden their hearts and minds, but yet they maintained a positive perspective and never ending courage in order to achieve their ultimate goal of freedom. This positive outlook and tale of courage is a message that will resonate with children in the same manner. Exposing children to a text that is not only historically founded but also morally sound will benefit not only their historical knowledge, but also their views on social justice.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Title: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Author: Judi Barrett
Genre: Modern Fantasy

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is the fantastical story told by a grandfather to his two grandchildren. The story told of a small town called Chewandswallow whose weather is actually downpours of food. Though it is a welcome occurrence to begin with, the situation soon spirals out of control as large flapjacks envelope schools and unsavory foods begin to take over the skies. Fearing for the worst, the townspeople soon decide to abandon the town. They lash together boats with large pieces of stale toast and peanut butter, and sail the soupy seas to a coastal town. They build temporary houses out of the bread they used for boats, and are shocked to find that in this new place, people buy their groceries at a store rather than receiving them from the skies. The grandfather ends his tale as the children settle down for bed. As the children wake up the next morning to a beautiful snow, they cant help but think that the snow on the hill that they sledded on smelled like mashed potatoes, and the sun rising atop the hill looked strangely like a large pat of butter.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs shows how the inhabitants of Chewandswallow had to think on their feet to problem solve how to get out of town before they were engulfed by the oncoming downpours of disgusting food. After reading Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, students could discuss and reflect in writing about a situation in which they had to use ingenuity to problem solve out of a particularly tricky situation.

The Desert is my Mother/ El Desierto es mi Madre

Title: The Desert is my Mother/ El Desierto es mi Madre
Author: Pat Mora
Genre: Multicultural Literature

This book tells the story of a young girl's love for the desert. She compares the desert to her mother with the many comforts that the desert provides her, such as the food that the cactus gives her, the comfort of the warm sands, and the songs of the wind. A unique feature of this book, is that it provides text in both English and Spanish in comparison. This book received the Skipping Stones Honor Award for being an authentic multicultural literature selection and an excellent teaching resource. After reading this book, I myself felt that I was able to learn about Spanish through comparing the English and Spanish text. I was aware of the context and English translation of the story, which made comparing the Spanish text a more decipherable task. I believe that this text not only is a beautiful story about a young Spanish girl's love for the desert, but is also a valuable resource for ELL learners and children who are learning about the Spanish language in general.

The Secret Garden

Title: The Secret Garden
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett, Retold by Louise Betts
Genre: Realistic Fiction

This version of The Secret Garden is a shorter and more accessible version of the story for younger children. However, the basic plot of the story did not change from the classic. The story begins by introducing Mary Lennox, a disagreeable child who lives in India with her parents who had never planned on having a child. After a vicious virus sweeps through the town, Mary is the only one left alive and is sent to England to live with her only living relative, her Uncle Craven. Mary quickly realizes how different England is from India, from the weather to the interactions between people. When Mary arrives at Uncle Craven's luxurious home, Misselthwaite manor, she is greeted by his housekeeper Mrs. Medlock. She is a cold woman who only interacts with Mary out of necessity. Misselthwaite manor is a large and desolate place, and when Mary hears what sounds like moans and cries she becomes curious with the old place. After meeting a housemaid named Martha who tells Mary that there is an alleged "secret garden" on the grounds, Mary goes to investigate. To her surprise, she is led to the secret garden by a friendly robin. In her secretive visits to the garden she meets a gardener of the surrounding grounds and Martha's younger brother Dicken. One day upon wandering the manor, Mary finds the source of the moans and cries she has been hearing- her cousin Colin, who was so ill her could not walk. Her Uncle Craven rarely visited him because he was saddened by his sons condition. Mary befriends Colin and secretly takes him to the secret garden. There she, Dicken, and the gardener expose him to the fresh air and nurse him back to health. Colin finally began to walk, and surprised Mrs. Medlock, and his father. The secret garden was opened so that all could visit it, and Mary began to be a friendlier and happy child now that she had her garden and a happy family to live with.

When Mary moves from India to England, she experiences quite a bit of culture shock. A follow up activity for children after reading this version of the secret garden would be to research two different countries customs and cultures, and to compare and contrast their similarities and differences.