Carolyn OttoRecensioni

Raccoon ventures to a creek to find dinner, but the swollen springtime waters sweep her to the opposite bank -- far from her babies. Now Raccoon must find her way back to protect her kits.

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Raccoon ventures into a creek to find dinner. Suddenly she is swept to the opposite side, far from her babies. Now she must find her way back to protect her young.

One of the things that the book made me think was about introducing the way light makes shadows. The first pages it talks about the sun and how it creates the shadow depending on what way the sun is reflecting off of us. If it behind us out shadow will be infront of us etc. Not only does it talk about shadows but also the different forms of light. I thought would be usedto start a lesson and ask students for anything that it made them think of or wonder.

Discusses what causes shadows and how they make their shape
1 book

My personal response to the book: Appropriate book highlighting the religion.
Curricular connections: The curricular connections include religion and culture. A TL could have this book available in December to highlight different religions.

This was an amusing realistic non-fiction book. This book showcases how a child can know the objects in their world by the way that they feel. I can use this book as a way to work on my kindergarteners sensorimotor skills.

That Sky, That Rain By: Carolyn Otto & Illustrated By: Megan Lloyd
This is an informative book on rain and how a grandpa and grandma describe it to their grand child. They also show her how to bring some animal in out of the rain.

Before the rainstorm comes the little girl participates in helping her grandma get all the animals situated in the barn.

In my opinion this is a great book. I liked this book for a few different reasons. One being that the author incorporated smaller simple sentences in bold colorful text, while the detailed paragraphs were in smaller font. Such as when the author wrote, “we celebrate music and dance” in bold colorful letters, but wrote the more detailed text in a smaller font. I also liked this book because it provided recipes, glossary, and simple fact in the back of the book. I liked that the author provided a recipe for a burrito, because it shows apart of the Mexican culture. I also like that the author used real images from celebrations of Cinco de Mayo, because it made the reading more interesting.
The main purpose of this book is it to inform the reader on the history and traditions of Cinco de Mayo.

This is an excellent book to read to children about how shadows appear, when, and why. The illustrations are actual pictures of shadows which helps the kids identify it in the real world. I would read this book to children grades k-third because the words are simple, but not complicated enough for older kids.

A girl and her grandfather work together to get all the animals into the barn before the rain comes.

Ages - 3 to 5
Sources - Pierce College Library

A serviceable nonfiction on the topic. Used as part of a K unit on shadows.

This is a very simple book about ducks and where they might go during the day. Some ducks go to town, some stay in the pond. Some go wherever their mothers go. There isn't a whole lot to this book except for the bright pictures and learning about different places in the city.
This book is informative and would also interest children that are under the ages of four. It's a very simple book but yet has the concept of ducks and where they might go during the day.

This is a non-fiction book about the Chinese New Year, Within this book there are facts about how the Chinese culture. During the Chinese New Year, the Chinese celebrate this holiday by having a lot of lights and a parade with a dragon! Families celebrate together with food and give money as a sign of good luck and good fortune. This book is not only filled with fun facts about this holiday but also filled with fun photographs and bright colors that come through this holiday! This is a great book for children to read and look through to see how diverse the world is! Especially for children to see how similar some celebrations are!

There was a family who had a farm. They was expecting for the weather to change. They wanted to make sure all there farm animals was safe and taking care of before the storm comes.
Age:3-5
Source: Pierce College

This is a story about a little girl who is visiting her grandparents farm when a giant rain storm comes in. The little girl races around the farm helping grandpa bring in all the animals before the rain starts.
Source: Pierce County Library
Ages:3-6

Young children are naturally curious about the world around them. Learning about and understanding shadows tends to a hot topic in my kindergarten class. In the Scholastic Science Readers series, the book SHADOWS does an excellent job of helping students understand what makes shadows and why we have them. This book is a level 1 reader for children from ages 5 to 6. The text in the book is a little challenging for a level 1 beginning reader. Personally, I feel this book is more of a level 3 book. That being said, unlike most readers, this book would make for a good read aloud in a classroom. The author includes some very interesting information about shadows and uses some new vocabulary words to help students enhance their speaking skills. Additionally, the author includes some experiments that students can do with flashlights to learn more about shadows. Students will enjoy looking at the pictures to see if they can create shadows like the ones in the book. Overall, this book would be beneficial to have in a classroom library. It might be a little difficult for the students to read independently, but the pictures are interesting to look at.

This is a picture book about a young girl whose dogs has a litter of puppies. The story about the puppies and how they go about growing up.

A book about the history and traditions of Cinco de Mayo. It gives a overview of various activities that take place both in Mexico and the United States. It gives a brief history lesson on the origins of Cinco de Mayo and what it means to in both Mexico, the United States and to the Mexican people.
I found it to be an informative book that would easily introduce young children to this part of Mexican culture. I thought it did a good job of show not only the different ways it was celebrated and how many places it is celebrated, but the meaning and pride behind the celebration.
You could have a Cinco de Mayo celebration in your classroom. You can have students make piñatas out of brown paper bags decorated with red, white, and green crepe paper and filled with Mexican flavored candies to take home and share with their families. You can have a piñata that the class can break open at your party as well. You can have snacks such as chips and salsa, or if you have children in the class with parents or grandparents of Mexican descent who like to help they could bring traditional dishes for the students to enjoy. You could teach the students La Raspa, a tradition Mexican folk dance, often performed on Cinco de Mayo.

The concept of camouflage in the animal kingdom is effectively introduced to emerging readers. The cover shows what looks like baby leopards but inside the scope is limited to animals we'd find in our own North American backyards.

Summary: This book is about shadows, it explains tha we all have shadows on a sunny day. When the sun shines from different directions, our shadows will show up in different positions, some times in front of us, sometimes behind us. This book shows many things with shadows, dogs, bikes, toys, etc. The book goes on to tell how to create shadows with a flashlight.

Personal Reaction: This book would be a good book to discuss shadows. Students can learn how shadows are created. Students can even use flashlights to make their own shadows.

Classroom Extensions: 1. This book can be used when explaining to younger students what shadows are. 2. This book can be used for older students. Have them discuss what shadows are and have them create their own shadows.

Clever introduction of a concept book on camouflage, nothing special but not a disappointing book. The book introduces readers to the world of animal camouflage and animal disguises. It is fun to try to find the camouflage animals throughout every page. The illustrations are well done, precise, clean, and very detailed. I did like the text in the aspect that there are many interesting, odd, unique animals that are in the book. I can see this book as a useful tool, students would enjoy looking through the illustrations to discover the hiding animals, while learning from the text along the way. The book has a grown-up, education feel to it, a bit different from other concept books that I have come across. I have noticed that many of the concept books are very childish and drawn to a young audience. The book belongs to the LET'S-READ-AND-FIND-OUT SCIENCE.

This is a quick story about the activities of a mother racoon at night while she takes care of her kits and tries to find some food for herself in suburbia. Since the book was written by the Smithsonian it is more accurate concerning the habitate and behaviors of the racoon. The illustrations are lovely and it provides a littel sense of natures suspense. Short time frame covered of just one evening of the racoon.

The book has illlustrations using photographs. It depicts the life of the Chinese culture. It tells about the origins of the Chinese New Year, the Chinese Calendar. Great pictures showing the types of foods the Chinese culture might eat, types of games, what parades look light and what is in them.