FIVE books from either the 2008-2009 LONE STAR, TAYSHAS, BLUEBONNET or 2 X 2 lists

Bob and Otto by Robert O. Bruel
This was a nice book to teach the younger kids about differences and similarities. The book is about a worm and caterpillar that are best friends and have always done everything together and one day they decide to split up and do different things. Bob the caterpillar decides to one day climb a tree while Otto the worm wants to dig under the earth. The book shows both actions of Bob on the tree at the top of the page and Otto under the ground at the bottom of the page. Once Otto comes out of the ground, he notices that Bob has changed into a beautiful butterfly and regrets digging around in the dirt instead of climbing the tree. Bob tells Otto that without him the tree would not have been able to grow and he would have not been able to eat and turn into the butterfly leaving the reader with the impression that friends always help each other out. I really enjoyed the bright colors used in this book and the first concepts of science that the author introduces to the readers.

Just Grace by Charise Mericle Harper
This was a cute little story that felt like you were reading a young girls diary. The story is about a girl named Grace and it just so happens that there are three other Grace’s in her class so her teacher begins to call her “Just Grace” from a miscommunication. Just Grace feels that she has been through many hardships in her young life such as getting spit at and missing a talent show. She is told by a friend that she should not feel sad for herself because other people have it worse. There seem to be a lot of miscommunication in Grace’s life that lead to her getting in trouble. She is not a mischievous child, but she does want to make other people feel better once they are sad, which usually lands her in trouble. The story is about Grace trying to make her neighbor, Mrs. Luther, feel better since her cat is very scared of her following an accident. Grace’s good intentions seen to get mixed up when she tries to send Mrs. Luther postcard from her cat to make her feel that the cat still loves her and then he suddenly disappears. Mrs. Luther does not think the postcards are very nice since she interprets them as ransom cards for her cat.

First Light by Rebecca Stead
This was an interesting book about a boy named Peter Solomon that went on an expedition with his parents to Greenland. Peter’s father was a glaciologist and his mother a genetic scientist. When Peter gets to Greenland he meets a girl named Thea that is from a secluded underground community known as Graceland she is tired of living underground and wants to bring her family out of the glacier. The residents of Graceland have lived underground for over 200 years with no plans of returning to the surface since they had a genetic mutation and were persecuted for it years earlier. Peter and Thea both have unusual “powers” that end up bringing them together. The interesting thing about the book is that it talks about global warming to middle school kids and about brings in a few science facts for the kids to start thinking about

1 2 3: A Child’s First Counting Book by Allison Jay
I really enjoyed reading this to my two children, they enjoyed the illustrations that you needed in order to appreciate the text. The fact that the numbers were bolded helped identify them to my children throughout the book. The fact that Allison Jay used favorite nursery rhymes to tell the story was great since my kids were familiar with those nursery rhymes already. The story uses the numbers 1 thru 10 and back again to tell about a little girls’ dream.

My Colors, My World/Mis colores, mi mundo by Maya Christina Gonzalez
This was a great book filled with illustrations that allowed you to experience the home life of Maya in the hot desert location. Maya always wants to describe things with vibrant colors and she is able to do this through the descriptions of different things around her house such as flowers, the sunset, a cactus and her father's hair . This is a great book because some of the words are expressed in Spanish and they use many different colorful illustrations.