Books About Perception: The Barnacle is Bored

Barnicle is Bored by Jonathan Fenske is a perfect illustration of the concepts of both empathy and "the grass is always greener". In this book, part of a series it seems, we have Barnicle who is fastened to a dock on the shore as many barnacles are.

We learn that he does not necessarily find his life exciting enough and complains about how much better he imagines the life of a neighbor, a fish, is. With no actual knowledge of the fish's daily life or life in general for that matter,  Barnacle passes judgment and grouses about how easy the fish has it.

He soon finds out that his life might not be as bad as it seems.

While some may argue that this could teach children to settle for what they have and thus lower any drive to better themselves or to be blind to perceived privilege, I disagree. What this shows, in a cute and funny way, is that you can't pass judgment on anyone's behavior, life, attitudes, etc. without knowing them and what they are or have been going through.

It's a great message wrapped up in a cute story.

I've read this book to a 1st-grade class. Their reactions were wonderful and slightly unexpected. They laughed at the beginning,  saw the big moment coming, were anxious, were shocked by the turning point, and laughed by the end.  Well worth it.

Content: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5
Concept: 5/5
Quality: 5/5
Price: 5/5


Author/Illustrator: Jonathan Fenske
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 40
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0545865042
ISBN-13: 978-0545865043
Date: 2016
Publisher: Scholastic Inc. (May 10, 2016)
Price: $11.49 (at the time of this post)

Where to buy: Amazon 

Books About Creativity: Not a Box

There are many books about creativity and the act or practice of being creative out there. Many are amazing, like basically anything Peter Reynolds touches, and some are...meh.  This one is definitely not "meh" but one you might be inclined to pass over because of its bland cover with black and white line art.

Don't do that.

Author Antoinette Portis cuts to the chase in her Theodore Seuss Geissel Honor Award-winning book, "Not a Box". She isn't terribly wordy and her pictures aren't particularly ornate or colorful. What she is is, brilliant. In simple text and pictures, she captures exactly what it's like to let your mind race and imagine wonderful things and adventures with an ordinary box.

As a child who was not able to get the latest gizmos and gadgets, and one that spent an inordinate amount of time outside in the woods and streams and mud and dirt, My siblings and I made stuff using sticks and discarded lumber and whatever else we could find. I can identify.

When the library media specialist at the school where I work read this to the class I was with, I was immediately taken back to my childhood. The best part though was watching the students lean forward a little more, big smiles on their faces and sparkles in their eyes, and cheer about the many different things that a box can be.

This is definitely a keeper. For more fun with being creative get her other book, Not a Stick, and let your child's mind roam free.

Content: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5
Concept: 5/5
Quality: 5/5
Price: 5/5


Author/Illustrator: Antoinette Portis
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 32
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061123226
ISBN-13: 978-0061123221
Date: 2006
Publisher: HarperCollins; Illustrated edition (December 12, 2006)
Price: $15.49 (at the time of this post)


Where to buy: Amazon

You can buy "Not a Stick" at Amazon too. It's just as great a book except for this time it's, well. a stick.

Books About Resilience: Penguin Problems

We are learning about the growth mindset in our school. A great way to teach younger students about anything is with a cute book with a funny story that doesn't smack the lesson across their little heads with a blunt instrument. This is one of those books.

Classrooms and schools are full of "I'm gonna teach you something" books. Those books, created for purveyors of some new behavior, citizenship, friendship, etc. program, are usually less fun to listen to and could be more creative.

Penguin Problems is a great way to illustrate the resilience part of the growth mindset but different from the way you think. Without giving anything away here, well maybe a little bit, sometimes you can illustrate a positive by showing someone not fully embracing it. 

This is one of those books. My kindergarten class laughed and giggled all the way to 100% getting the message. It's fun, funny, and cute. A great read for any young student, or family member reading it to them.

Content: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5
Concept: 5/5
Quality: 5/5
Price: 5/5

Author: Jory John

Illustrator: Lane Smith
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 32
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553513370
ISBN-13: 978-0553513370
Date: 2018
Publisher: Randon House Books for Young Readers; Illustrated Edition (September 27th, 2016)
Price: $13.79 (at the time of this post)

Where to buy: Amazon 

Books About Empathy: We Don't Eat Our Classmates

Ryan T. Higgins' book, "We Don't Eat Our Classmates", is a delightfully absurd lesson for children of all ages on the golden rule.

For those who might not remember what the golden rule is, "Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You". It's simply the notion that you do to others what you'd like those people to do to you. It's simple and straightforward yet, in this day and age we need to be reminded of it once in a while.

This is being taught in some schools now as "Empathy". The concept of feeling what another person is feeling in their heart, in yours. This is the perfect book to teach this lesson in humanity. My school, like many others I would venture to guess, is choked full of purpose-written books to teach social lessons. These are usually pretty boring and mundane. Books like "We Don't Eat Our Classmates" teaches the same ideals in a far more engaging manner. Don't buy the lesson kits, search and find real books by real authors and real illustrators that teach the lessons you want to teach in a much better, funner, way.

I don't want to say too much about this book, plot wise, as you should experience it yourself.

Suffice it to say that we have a T-rex named Penelope who is facing her first day at school. She's excited to go to school but life throws a wrench into the works as she discovers that her class is populated entirely by children and, as every young T-rex knows, "children are delicious". She can not understand why she can't eat them after all she's a T-rex.

Fortunately, with the help of the class pet, she learns a valuable lesson in empathy.

It's a must-read I think for children and parents alike. It's funny and entertaining all the way through. I've read it to a first-grade class and they loved it. More importantly, they got the message.

Content: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5
Concept: 5/5
Quality: 5/5
Price: 5/5

Author: Ryan Higgins
Illustrator: the author
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 48
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1368003559
ISBN-13: 978-1368003551
Date: 2018
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion; First Edition edition (June 19, 2018)
Price: $9.75 (at the time of this post)
Where to buy: Amazon

Books About Point of View: They All Saw a Cat

This is the third of what may turn out to be a longer than initially planned series of reviews. The thing is, that while I do enjoy a good pointless children's book once and awhile, that books that delight, inspire and teach are far more...well...important I think.

This is another of these types of books for children.

They All Saw a Cat is by Bendan Wenzel who is a Brooklyn New York based author illustrator who, with several amazing books under his belt, seems destined for colorful literary greatness.

Like Do You Believe in Unicorns and  A Tale of Two Beasts, They All Saw a Cat looks at an object, you can probably guess what it is, from different perspectives. The twist here is that those perspectives are radically different from an illustration point based on who's perspective it is.

This is another book where the discussion, facilitated by one of our library media specialists, was a full on full class discussion. Students were explaining the perspectives shown in the illustrations from their own perspectives. It was a truly joyous event to witness.

This is a 2017 Caldecott Honor Book so you know that the judges saw something special in the illustrations and they were 100% correct. The illustrations here are so smart, so well thought out and so wonderful that the book just sort of swirls around you when you read it. It pulls you in and you enjoy being there.

Author: Brendan Wenzel
Illustrator: the author
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 44
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1452150133
ISBN-13: 978-1452150130
Date: 2016
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Price: $9.75 (at the time of this post)
Where to buy: Amazon

Books About Point of View: A Tale of Two Beasts

Like Do You Believe in Unicorns, Fiona Roberton's book, A Tale of Two Beasts, is a book about point of view. Unlike ...Unicorns, and this is in no way a criticism of Murgula's fabulous book, A Tale of Two Beasts is not subtle about the message at all.

This is going to be difficult but again I am going to tip toe through this as not to spoil anything for you...but buy this book.

The story is basically about a little girl who finds and an animal in the forest in distress. She jumps to the rescue and cares for this poor unfortunate creature as anyone would. You'd expect the adorable little creature to be grateful. I mean, wouldn't you?

The book is written in a way that throws a white hot light on how two folks can see the same event in totally different ways. The fact that it deals specifically in ones physical well being is a perfect since people's points of view can get very concrete and emotional when their physical well being is at the center of the debate.

It is a lesson that every child should be exposed to (and most politicians and policy makers these days as well).

The pictures are wonderful and help tell the story perfectly (and that's all I can say without ruining it for you).

Buy this book too.

Author: Fiona Roberton
Illustrator: by the author
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 32
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1444916726
ISBN-13: 978-1444916720
Date: 2015
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Price: $13.87 (as of the time of this post)
Where to buy: Amazon

Books About Point of View: Do You Believe in Unicorns

There is a lot of educating going on in the my school district and, one would hope, the rest of the country as well, around "point of view". 

This is the first of two books that I've had the opportunity to hear read to first and second graders in the past seven days on the topic. Both are wonderful but offer two different approaches to the subject.

Buy this book and buy it right now.

This first is this brilliantly written and illustrated  Do You Believe in Unicorns by Bethanie Deeney Murgula and I'm going to be very careful here because I don't want  to spoil a single thing for you. 

The book is written in a very creative way that both asks the reader if they believe in unicorns and offers explanations for what the spot-on perfect illustrations are showing (or not showing) the reader. I watched a second grade class of 21 students go full on debate club discussing the book from their individual points of view.  Boys and girls alike were completely engaged in the debate. They were actively making predictions, offering alternate or additional explanations and thinking deeply about what they were seeing/hearing. There were a lot of, "but it could also be this..." moments in the room. Time was spent on each page as additional information, predictions and explanations were offered by a fully engaged class of seven and eight year olds attacking this book, its pictures and text.

In a world were we are moving rapidly towards an "if I'm right you have to be wrong" state of affairs what better than to teach students how wrong that can be.

I'm not sure if I said it before but....BUY THIS BOOK!

Author: Bethanie Deeney Murgula
Illustrator: by the author
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 32
Language: English

ISBN-10: 0763694681
ISBN-13: 978-0763694685
Date: 2018
Publisher: Candlewick
Price: $8.79 (as of the time of this post)
Where to buy: Amazon

Bad Seed

Bad Seed

Author: Jory John

Illustrator: Pete Oswald

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 40

Language: English

ISBN-10: 006246776X
ISBN-13: 978-0062467768

Date: 2017

Publisher: Harper Collins

Price: $11.73 (as of the time of this post)

Where to buy: Amazon

I believe in redemption. 

I think that it's too easy to judge people harshly over a long period of time based on a bad choice or two in the past. 

People can change, so can seeds evidently.

After a recent issue in my own offline life, where a chance at redemption was offered to a student that I work with, I walked into the library at my school this afternoon and see this book on the shelf...staring at me.

This is a wonderful book with a message that every child needs to hear.

You can do "bad" things but can still turn it around and become a better, if only slightly less "bad", person. If you can do that, who knows what you can become if you put in some effort.

We have the story of a sunflower seed gone "bad". It used to be good but outside forces and circumstances caused a shift of some kind, and like Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader,  he/she turns to the dark side.

Is there redemption for this unfortunate little seed? 

Yes, perhaps not total redemption, but a glimmer of hope for the future.

It is a message that every child should hear and the words by Mr. John and illustrations by Mr. Oswald make it a story that every child can access and connect with I think if given the chance. 

Hey, it moved me enough to write a post about it, my first in a long time.

Content: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5
Concept: 5/5
Quality: 5/5
Price: 5/5