Kiki by: Hilda Perera

This is a story for upper elementary students about a Cuban boy named Kiki and his "adventures in America." It is a great story because it tells all about Kiki's experiences in America and has a lot of cultural relevance according with diversity. It tells stories about his struggles and hopes and dreams and everything else and how difficult it is for him as a Cuban in America. This would be a great book for children to read because it deals with cultural identity and America's notion of the "melting pot" and how that can affect people's lives. I really enjoyed reading it and think it could be very beneficial to teach to children about diversity. I also think it is great because a lot of times we talk about African-Americans and Mexicans in America but we tend to overlook children from other minority groups. I think this book would be a good way to introduce a lot of other cultural groups into the classroom discussions of diversity as well because no one really thinks of Cuban-Americans when discussing race and culture in the U.S.

The Naked Lady by: Ian Wallace

I chose this book because of the title, I thought to myself why in the world would a children's book be called "The Naked Lady" because obviously at first glance you'd think that would be inappropriate. But the story ends up being about an old man who is a sculpture and an artist who teaches a young boy about his artwork. The old man and the boy become very close and eventually spend a lot of time together working on art. The end of the book is directly from the author who tells this story because the old man, Pieter is who he considers his first art teacher and sparked a life long love of art in him. I think this book is great because of the touching story it tells and also because it could get children to think that maybe they would like to become artists. I think in elementary school art is seen now as something we shouldn't put as much emphasis on as math, science, and reading but it is still very important in education. I think art is an important part of being an individual and this book may help a few kids realize how much they enjoy and appreciate art and what it can do for their lives.

If I Built a Car by: Chris Van Dusen

This was a very entertaining read and I really enjoyed it. The first thing you'll notice when reading this one is that it rhymes. I think this makes it very fun for children to read and also teaches them about rhyming and flow and syllable counts. The book is about a child's fantasy of building his own car and how outrageous it would be. I think it would spark imagination in children and would make a good bridge to an activity of designing their own car. This type of book can really give a child lots of ideas and things they would want to create themselves. The pictures in the book are absolutely awesome, very close attention to detail and imaginative. It really makes a good portrait of what the child is seeing as he is talking about building his own car. This too could lead to an activity of having the children write about a car and then draw a picture of it. A great read and I would definitely recommend it, especially if you were going to start a unit on poetry or just emphasize rhyme and the effect it can have on a story.

Max's Starry Night by: Ken Wilson-Max

Max's Starry Night caught my attention because the picture of the boy on the front of the book is black. I thought this was great because the majority of children's books feature white children and do not show much diversity. This story was about Max and his friends and how when one of them was scared the other made fun of him, but he shouldn't. It has a good moral value in that sense that it is trying to teach young children that everyone is different and being scared of something isn't a bad thing because most people are scared of something. It says in the book ages 2-6 so it is likely meant to be a read aloud but I think that children up to third grade could probably read this book and get something out of it. I noticed two other Max books on the shelf and it is good to see that a black child is the main character in these books because of the importance of exploring diversity at a young age.

Good Morning China by: Hu Yong Yi

This was a pretty neat book about activities done by people in China at seven o'clock in the morning. It goes through and tells you that some people are stretching, others dancing, others playing cards, and so on. Then at the end of the book it has a page that folds out into a much bigger page and says everyone is at the park, it shows all of the people it has already discussed doing those activities next to each other in the park. The illustrations are really interesting because they are soft, water color like, and very plain. Which I don't think would bode very well to young readers but I guess it might because it is probably so much different than they are used to seeing. I found the book interesting and glad it threw in the page at the end that expanded because it made the book a little more fun.

A New House for Mole and Mouse by: Harriet Siefert

A New House for Mole and Mouse was a very basic and simple picture book about a house that these two creatures lived in. The book was very repetitive and repeated "Everything works just fine" very often, as they went through the house and tested different things out they emphasized that they worked just fine. It was an ok read, definitely intended for a young audience most likely kindergarten through second grade maybe. The illustrations were pretty good and the repetitiveness probably would help young readers follow along. The end of the story is something that would make children laugh as the mouse gets carried aways by balloons and the mole has to pop them to get him down. It was a decent read and kind of entertaining. Not one to get too excited about.

The Giver by: Lois Lowry

The Giver was a great book, absolutely awesome. The story of the boy who lives in a seemingly perfect world but then is seemingly flipped upside down when he is given his assignment which consists of receiving all the communities memory from the man they call the Giver. The book does an incredible job making the reader think deep about life in general and all of the things we believe in. It is interesting that the book was so entertaining for me as a college student and really made me think, and that it can have the same effect on a younger student. The book gives an interesting outlook on things like love, pain, and relationships. The real moral of the story you would think would be more directed at older students perhaps in high school, students ready to take on the real world and need to think about the things discussed in the book. But I think that this would be a great book to read aloud or have young children read because of it's great moral value. I do not think the book would be seen as controversial unless people saw it as too advanced for young children to read and try to comprehend. The great task of Johna and the Giver to reveal these great emotions and truths to actual existence is a daunting one, but it does show children readers that they can do anything they want in life and I think would give inspiration to young children to do things with their lives because of what they want and not to conform to society's wants. The deep meaning of the lessons talked about in The Giver would be fantastic things to talk about as a class or have students write about their own ideas and get them thinking about their future. I loved this book and everything it has to offer educationally, teachable moments is a big part of this book and I think it is very useful to talk about the things discussed in the book with young children.