Kitten's First Full Moon

This story is very sweet and innocent. The kitten mistakes a reflection of the moon for a bowl of milk. The kitten tries to drink the milk but never can. When the kitten arrives home she finds a bowl of milk so her hard work pays off. I love the pictures and of course Kevin Henkes is an amazing author.

Kids love stories about animals and this one is no different. Children will love the large black and white pictures and the simple story. Everyone can identify with getting what you are working for.

Henkes, Kevin, Schwedt, Rachel, & DeLong, Janice. (2008). Core collection for children and young adults. Scarecrow Pr.

Flotsam

This is an amazing story about a boy at the beach looking for Flotsam - things that wash up on the shore. He finds a camera and he develops the pictures. He finds many pictures of children who have taken a picture of themselves with the camera. It is a wordless book and many different stories can be told by looking through the beautiful pictures. This story has a great concept - very creative.

Kids love wordless books because they can create their own story. The pictures are absolutely amazing in this book and kids will want to look at them over and over again. Sea creatures come to life.

Wiesner, David, Schwedt, Rachel, & DeLong, Janice. (2008). Flotsam. Scarecrow Pr.

Duck for President

This book is another one in the Click, Clack, Moo series. The animals on the farm know how to read and write and give Farmer Brown a run for his money. Duck didn't like to do chores so he held an election to run the farm, then to be governor, then to be president. There are parts in the story which are very predictable and kids will love it. I love the illustrations and the lessons learned by the farm animals.

Kids absolutely love this series. They will listen to it over and over and over again. The pictures add to the text and it even teaches a bit about the electoral process.

Cronin, Doreen, & Lewin, Betsy. (2004). Duck for president. Simon & Schuster Children.

Hondo & Fabian

Hondo is a dog asleep on the floor in his home and Fabian is a cat asleep on the windowsill. When they wake up, Hondo goes on a drive to play at the beach with another dog named Fred. Fabian stays at home to play and escape from the baby. Hondo arrives home at eats his meal with and next to Fabian. The two pets go back to sleep on the floor and in the windowsill after a hard day of playing.

This story does not follow a traditional plot line. It is more of a circular story that allows the read to believe the characters will begin and end their adventures the same way each time.

The pictures in this story are quite beautiful and help to add to the text because there are very few words in the story. Illustrations fill one page while a few words in bold black fill the opposite page. Illustrations are very soft and realistic with muted colors.

McCarty, Peter. (2002). Hondo and fabian. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR).

The Wall

This story is about the author, his birth during the cold war, and his love for drawing. He drew what he wanted at home but was not allowed to draw what he wanted at school. He found out there were things he wasn't told and he believed he was being brainwashed so he started to question. He played music and started to believe anything was possible until Russian tanks invaded and he didn't want to get in trouble for his dreams about America so he quit drawing. Eventually he continued to draw his dreams until he got his freedom when the wall fall and so did the Communist system.

The pictures tell a detailed story of the fall of communism. Actual photographs of the author's childhood are mixed with asides - drawings and paintings explain details of the Soviet system. The drawings are mostly realistic and use texture and hatching with a splash of color. The dream sequence pictures are very bright and colorful to differentiate between living under the Soviet system (black and white) and being free in the author's dream.

Sís, Peter. (2007). The Wall. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Knuffle Bunny Too

Trixie was excited to walk to school with her dad because she was going to share her favorite stuffed animal Knuffle Bunny. When she arrived at school she learned that another student, Sonja, had the same stuffed animal so Knuffle Bunny wasn't as special as Trixie thought. All day at school the girls argued about the bunnies until the teacher took them up and put them away until the end of the day. The girls were given the bunnies back, they went home, then spent the evening with their families as usual. In the middle of the night Trixie realized she did not have her Knuffle Bunny, she had Sonja's! She woke up her parents and demanded her dad call Sonja's family to get her back when they received a phone call to meet to exchange bunnies. Both families travel through the neighborhood to exchange bunnies and the next day the girls were best friends.

This story is illustrated through black and white photographs on every page. Within the black and white photograph are cartoon drawings of Trixie and her story. The pictures definitely extend the plot because the words in the story are very few and very simple.

Willems, Mo. (2007). Knuffle bunny too. New York, NY: Hyperion.

Sylvestor and the Magic Pebble

Sylvester Duncan is a donkey who loved collecting pebbles of unusual shape and color and on vacation he found an extraordinary flaming red one that looked like a marble. Sylvester discovers that the pebble grants wishes but when he comes across a hungry lion, instead of wishing to be somewhere safe he wishes that he was a rock. Sylvester could no longer hold the magic pebble so he has to wait many seasons when his parents finally came to picnic by the large rock. Duncan's parents find the beautiful pebble and place the pebble on top of the rock. Duncan is able to wish himself back to normal and they have a lovely family reunion. The family places the pebble in a safe in case of the chance that they might need to use it.

I think the story is well illustrated. The drawings are simple and brightly colored. Most pictures span both pages and the pictures help to explain the story to the reader, they add to the text.

Steig, William. (2009). Sylvester and the magic pebble. Atheneum.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Hugo is a young boy in France living with his father. Hugo's father finds a broken robot in a museum attic but dies during the museum fire while trying to fix the robot. Hugo must go live with his uncle in the walls of the train station to maintain the station clocks but his uncle mysteriously disappears so Hugo must continue his uncle's job so he is not sent to an orphanage. Hugo must steal food in the train station as well as toy parts from the toymaker to try to fix the robot, but one day toymaker catches him. The toymaker takes Hugo's notebook of drawings and makes Hugo work in the shop to pay back his debt and Hugo begins to discover the mystery of the toymaker - Georges Melies. Hugo and Georges goddaughter Isabel learn that Georges was a very famous filmmaker and the two help bring him out of hiding to be honored by the film industry and Hugo is adopted by the Melies family.
This book is part picture book -many beautiful black and white drawings fill multiple pages to tell part of the story without words.
Inner dialogue is very important in this story to tell the story through Hugo's eyes.

View the following site for more info on Georges Melies.
http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/about_georges.htm

Selznick, Brian. (2007). The Invention of hugo cabret. Scholastic.