News from the Curriculum Resource Center

Feldman, Eve B..  Billy and Milly Short and Silly. 2009. Illustrated by Tuesday Mourning.  G. P. Putnam’s Sons. ISBN 9780399246517.

Can a story take place in just three or four words?  Eve Feldman found a way, and all in rhyme.  Teaming up with illustrator Tuesday Mourning,  Billy & Milly Short & Silly, presents 13 very short stories that delight in their simplicity.   Wide-set eyed Billy and Milly find themselves surprised by basketballs, crocodiles, bees, and broomsticks to the rhythm of the bold text.  Great fun for younger children, this lovely little … Continue Reading

Barnhill, Kelly.  Do You Know Where Your Water Has Been?  Mankato, Minnesota:  Capstone Press.  ISBN:  978-1-4296-1995-0.

Who knew that water could be so funny?  Kelly Barnhill presents the water cycle to middle readers as a disgusting journey that will have kids reading fascinating facts aloud to each other.  The scrapbook style pages feature definitions, charts, photos and push-pin facts reminding students that they are drinking the same water once used by dinosaurs.  Do You Know Where Your Water Has Been?  The Disgusting Story Behind What You’re Drinking is part of the Sanitation Investigation series that … Continue Reading

Truss, Lynne.  Twenty-Odd Ducks.  Illustrated by Bonnie Timmons.  New York: Putnam’s Sons. 2008.  ISBN: 9780399250583.

Lynne Truss delights junior grammarians with another companion book to Eats, Shoots & Leaves and The Girl’s Like Spaghetti.  Twenty-Odd Ducks:  Why, Every Punctuation Mark Counts! demonstrates on each two page spread how the same words, when punctuated differently can have vastly different meanings.  For example, Truss, with comic images by Bonnie Timmons, points out that William brought an extra large pizza  and William brought an extra-large pizza involve differing amounts of the cheesy, gooey pie.  With the … Continue Reading

Ellis, Deborah.  Off to War:  Voices of Soldiers’ Children. 2008.  Groundwood Books.  ISBN:  978-0-88899-894-1.

Ellis, who gained acclaim with her Breadwinner trilogy set in Afghanistan, has taken on the topic of the children of soldiers.  Interviewing children from the United States and Canada who have a parent or parents involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, she writes poignantly of the joys and struggles of these children.  The kids share how they cope with stress, how their parents are different when they come home, fighting with the remaining parent, and keeping their mind off of sadness.  Many find solace in sharing their … Continue Reading

Waring, Geoff.  Oscar and the Cricket:  A Book About Moving and Rolling. (2008). Cambridge, MA:  Candlewick Press. ISBN:  978-0-763-64029-3.

This book is perfect for the kindergarten science classroom.  The Ohio Academic Standards in physical science/forces and motion indicators asks students to investigate ways to change how something is moving, and that is exactly what Oscar, the gray and white kitten in Geoff Waring’s book does.    Along with his friend cricket, Oscar discovers how to get objects going, how to keep them going, and just what stops an object.  Add your own red rubber ball and the lesson is … Continue Reading

White, Ruth.  Little Audrey.  New York:  Farrar Straus Giroux.  2008.  ISBN:  9780374345808.

     Ruth White shares a tender autobiographical story of growing up in Appalachia in the 1940’s.  Told from the point of view of her sister, Audrey, 11 about a pivotal spring in the lives of her family.  Audrey is a lovable, skinny big sister to the “three little pigs” Yvonne, Eleanor, and Ruth Carol.  Life in a coal mining camp is tough as Mama is sad and distant and Daddy drinks away his paycheck before his family can be fed for the week.  White (Tadpole, Way Down Deep ) reveals … Continue Reading

Coleman, Evelyn.  Freedom Train. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books.  2008.  ISBN:  978-0-689-84716-5. Grades 4-7.

     Set in the 1940’s South, Clyde Thomason looks forward to a visit from his older brother who is serving in the Marines as a guard on the Freedom Train.  The Freedom Train is a train carrying important United States documents touring all 48 states so that Americans can have the opportunity to view them.  The Freedom Train is not without controversy, as the train will not stop in towns that refuse to segregate the line for those who want to see it.  Clyde is … Continue Reading