The Man Who Walked Between the Tower

Author: Mordicai Gerstein
Title: The Man Who Walked Between the Tower
Illustrator: Mordicai Gerstein
Genre: Non-Fiction
Theme:  Bravery
Primary and Secondary Characters: Phillipe Petit
Awards:None
Publishing Company: Roaring Book Press
How you would use with your students and brief summary: This is kind of a nerve-wracking story about a man who walked a tight rope between the towers in 1974. This is based on a true story and would be great just to show students the story about the brave man who decided to do something crazy between the towers and would be great to use on September 11th as a memory of what the towers used to be.

Annie and the Wild Animals

Author: Jan Brett
Title: Annie and the Wild Animals
Illustrator: Jan Brett
Genre: Children's Fiction
Theme:Animal Friendship
Primary and Secondary Characters: Annie and Taffy
Awards:None
Publishing Company: Houghton Mifflin Company
How you would use with your students and brief summary: This story is about a young girl named Annie, whose pet cat goes missing during the winter and she longs for a new friend because she's lonely. To find a new friend, Annie sets out corn cakes at the edge of the forest to see what animal she can find to tame, but it turns out all the animals that come out are too wild for her to tame. Luckily, at the end of the long winter her cat Taffy comes out of the forest and following her comes 3 baby kittens and Annie knows she'll never be lonely again.

Ahoy There, Little Polar Bear

 

Author: Hans de Beer
Title: Ahoy There, Little Polar Bear
Illustrator: Hans de Beer
Genre: Children's Fiction
Theme:Adventure
Primary and Secondary Characters: Lars, Nemo, and Johnny
Awards:None
Publishing Company:North to South Books
How you would use with your students and brief summary: This is an adorable little story about a polar bear that swims to far from home one day and gets caught in a ship's net. The cat on board the ship helps the polar bear when they get to port to find someone that can take him. It's a great story to use with children to also teach the consequences of straying too far from home.

The Velveteen Rabbit

 

Author: Margery Williams
Title: The Velveteen Rabbit
Illustrator:David Jorgensen
Genre: Children's Novel
Theme: Friendship
Primary and Secondary Characters: Boy & Velveteen Rabbit
Awards: None
Publishing Company:George H. Doran
How you would use with your students and brief summary: This is a story about a Boy who receives a velveteen rabbit for Christmas and keeps it with him wherever he goes, but then he gets sick with scarlet fever and all his old toys have to be burned and he his moved to another house while his house is quarantined. As his old rabbit is about to be burned, he cries a real tear and a magic comes out and turns him into a real rabbit saving his life. This is just a great heart warming story that I believe all children should enjoy at some point in their lifetime.

The Long Winter

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Title: The Long Winter

Illustrator: Garth Williams

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Subgenre: Junior Fiction

Theme: Survival

Primary and Secondary Characters: Laura, Pa , Ma, townspeople, Almanzo Wilder

Awards: Newberry Honor

Publishing Company: Harper & Row

How you would use with your students and brief summary: This is the sixth book in the Little House series and is about a harsh winter the Ingalls family and their townspeople have to withstand in 1880-1881, when blizzard after blizzard pounds their town. It is a great story to show children how hard it was to survive the winters back in the day and the things families had to go through to survive. 

Little Penguin's Tale

Author: Audrey Wood

Title: Little Penguin's Tale

Illustrator: Audrey Wood

Genre: Fiction

Theme: Obeying others

Primary and Secondary Characters: Little Penguin and Grand Nanny Penguin

Awards: None

Publishing Company: Scholastic

How you would use with your students and brief summary: This story is about a young penguin that doesn't listen to the warning of his Grand Nanny's stories and doesn't have a very happy ending, or does he? This story would be great to use with students to help show them that it's a good idea to always listen to your elders because they have a good reason for telling you not to do something.

Alice and Greta

 

Author: Steven J. Simmons

Title: Alice and Greta

Illustrator: Cyd Moore

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre:

Theme: Karma

Primary and Secondary Characters: Alice, Greta, nearby children

Awards: None

Publishing Company: Charlesbridge Company

How you would use with your students and brief summary: This story is about two witches, a nice witch named Alice and a mean one named Greta. Greta is always trying to spoil the fun little kids are having and Alice comes to save the day by helping restore the children's fun. This would be a great book to show children how they should always treat others how they want to be treated because if you treat others badly it could come back to you.