Madeline Series

Madeline  Picture Books
Madeline's Rescue
Madeline In London
Madeline's Christmas
By Ludwig Bemelmans

     The Madeline Series Books remain dear and true to my heart.  The tan book in the picture is from my original book collection when I was three.  My mom would read these books to me.  Before I even knew it was the thing to do, I was painting pictures and making predictions about the characters.  The books are about the character of Madeline.  She goes to a boarding school in Paris.  She has eleven friends and she is the smallest in her class.  Madeline is always wondering off somewhere and getting herself in trouble.  Miss Clavel is the head mistress of the school and in charge of all the girls.  No matter what happens to Madeline, or what kind of predicaments she gets herself into, the books always have a happy ending!

The Book Models!

The Snowman Storybook

The Snowman Storybook   Genre:  Fantasy
Words by Raymond Briggs


     This story is about a little boy who wakes up one morning to snow.  He decides to go outside and build himself a snowman.  When he goes to bed that night, he looks at the snowman.  He wakes in the middle of the night to find the snowman can move!  He invites the snowman inside to play.  Then, the snowman takes the boy flying around the world during the night. When they return, the boy says goodbye and goes back to bed.  When he awakes in the morning, the snowman has melted.  There is also a wordless movie to this book.

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book  Genre Fantasy
By Neil Gaiman
Illustrations by Dave McKean
     This is a story about the childhood of a boy named Nobody Owens.  Nobody, Bod for short, lives in a very unique neighborhood, a graveyard!  His dad, mom, and sister were killed when he was just a small baby.  He managed to get away from this evil man by just learning how to climb out of his crib.  He crawls into a graveyard, by accident, and the ghosts of the people who were buried, take him in and raise him until adulthood.  Since the graveyard will be his new home, he gets honored the same skills of the ghosts.  On one condition, he does not leave the graveyard because the man who killed his family are still out looking for him, everywhere!
     This story is very well written and will draw readers to the book.  Bod gets himself in trouble by wanting to go out in the real world, exploring and learning.  He meets tons of ghosts and hears history lessons from them.  There is a bully lesson that can be expanded and life lessons on the value of having good friends.  Neil Gaiman even adds a little England twist in his writings for the watchful reader!

What I Know Now

What I Know Now
Letters to My Younger Self  Genre:  Informational
Edited By Ellyn Spragins
Letters By 41 Wise and Famous Women


     This book is all about earthly advice and individual letters of hard lessons learned in the 41 lives gathered in this book.  Ellyn Spragins organized the famous women to write a letter of the best information, that they have learned through the years to share with others.  The women are from age from 18 to 75.  The letters vary in people and their careers.  There are fashion designers, actresses, authors, poets, singers, olympians, newscasters, inspirational speakers, and business women.  (I would have liked Ellyn to have utilized a vivacious teacher in that list!)  One of my favorites is the letter from Maya Angelou.  Her famous quote from the book is, "Don't let anybody raise you.  You've been raised."  She also shares that when the world had knocked her down, she was able to go home and have her mother pamper her, giving her courage to go back again.  This reminded me of going to visit my daughter at college this school year.  On my arrival, I was able to "scoop her up," take her places, and share with her some tantalizing food.  Our college time visits were endless adventures from dawn until dusk.  
     I enjoyed reading this book.  Some of the women sharing are better writers than others.  Ellyn Spragins writes an introduction and acknowledgment at the beginning of the book.  I really like her style of writing and am going to be looking for more!

Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart Legendary Aviator

1.  Eleanor Roosevelt  By Wendy Conklin
2.  Amelia Earhart Legendary Aviator/Graphic Library
by Jameson Anderson 
Pictures by Rod Whigham and Charles Barnett III
Genre:  Biography
     Eleanor Roosevelt is the story of her life with words and real pictures.  The book contains a table of contents, glossary, and index in the back of the book.  This 32 page book shares the highlights and struggles of her life and how she handled these situations.  This book would make a great resource for students in  2nd through 6th grades doing a report on her!


     The Amelia Earhart Graphic Biography shares the life of Amelia from age seven to her disappearance on July 2, 1937.  This book offers a table of contents, facts in a timeline form, glossary, internet site suggestions, additional book suggestions, and an index.  This would be suggested for students 3rd through 6th grades who enjoy getting information from a graphic book.

The Last Exit to Normal A Novel

The Last Exit to Normal   A Novel   Genre:  Controversial Books
Written by Michael Harmon

     This book was very easy to read.  The characters fit together in the small town of Rough Butte, Montana.  The main character, Ben, a high school boy, even though he was not in the best situation, meets a girl, Kimberly Johan, that really liked him.  Ben has the dysfunctional family thing and the normal thing with the girlfriend, that he is trying to figure out.  Ben's mom left him when he was young so he lives with his dad, Paul, and his dad's boyfriend, Edward.   The controversial issue in the novel would be gay men, his father and the boyfriend.  Ben deals with bullying at school, conflict in the community, and trying to stay out of serious trouble during his high school years.  That was the reason why Paul and Edward came to Edward's small hometown, Rough Butte, Montana.  Ben's dad wants to keep Ben from staying out of big city problems thinking, "The Beverly Hillbillies" is the place for the three of them to settle down.

The Latehomecomer

The Latehomecomer   Genre:  Multicultural Book/Biography
A Hmong Family Memoir
By Kao Kalia Yang
     This book is about the Yang family and how they started out in the jungles of Thailand, and trained in the refugee camps so they could better adjust to life in America.  Kao and her family moved to Minnesota when she was only six years old.  America was so different than Thailand like the language, food, jobs, schools, marriage, money, and the ways Americans thought about life.  This book teaches about the Hmong culture and the adaptions the Hmong had to make when coming to America.  It can give teachers a better understanding and insight of the Hmong culture, when they have students in their classrooms.  Kao Kalia Yang was in Appleton, Wisconsin in August of 2010, to share the book and story of her memoir.