Rules

Lord, Cynthia. (2006). Rules. New York, NY: Scholastic Press. 

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Lexile Measure: 780L

DRA: 40

AR: 3.9

Awards: Newberry Honor Book

Summary: Catherine is always busy writing rules for her autistic brother, David. If she is not writing rules, she's babysitting him or defending him from the bullies at school. At times she wishes she had a "normal" brother, so she can have a "normal" life. Her parents' world revolve around her brother, which upset her because she feels she deserves as much as attention as him. She wants to be friends with Kristi, her new neighbor, but she finds it difficult to explain David's embarrassing behaviors. Catherine meets, Jason, a boy her age with multiple disabilities, their friendship makes her see a different kind of normal.

Reader Response: This is a great book to help students gain knowledge about autism. The first-person narrative also gives us the opportunity to look through the eyes of a family with an autistic family member and their very realistic daily challenges. The book encourages readers to see past a person's disability and take the time to get to know them. After reading the book, it made me reflect about my own family's blessings and challenges.  

Author's Blog

Cynthia Lord Website

Book Discussion Guide

What is autism?

If you liked Rules read Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. The fish in the cover of Rules represent one of the rules Catherine wrote for David, "No toys in the fish tank!". The fish on the cover of  Out of My Mind represent the despair Melody, who's paralyzed, feels when she's unable to communicate with others, like a fish out of the water.

The Three Pigs

Wiesner, David. (2001). The Three Pigs. New York, NY: Clarion Books a Houghton Mifflin Company.

Awards: Caldecott Medal Award
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tales
AR: 2.8

Summary: This picture book begins in the traditional way with each pig collecting materials to build their home. The wolf comes and tries to puff and huff to blow their house away, but instead of bringing the house down he blows the pigs out of the story. The pigs go in to the pages of other other stories and bring a dragon, the cat in the fiddle, and the cow that jump over the moon back to their story.


Reader's response: What I like most about this fantasy book is the way that is written. It includes non-linear narrative form, it uses dialogue balloons and text experts, very different from a traditional story. I also like how the illustrations play a prominent role in the story, they overlap, branch out, and overlap one another giving the reader multiple perspectives of the story.

Other award winning books by David Wiesner include Tuesday and Sector 7 which include some of the characters from The Three Pigs.

Mirror Mirror

Singer, Marilyn. (2010). Mirror Mirror. New York, NY: Penguin Group.

Genre: Fantasy/Fairytales
DRA: 38
AR: 3.2

Summary:  Mirror Mirror is a fairy tale book written in poetry form. Each traditional fairy tale contains two poems and colorful illustrations that illustrates both poems. The first poems is written forward and tells one side of the fairytale, but the second poems is written in backwards and it changes the entire meaning of the poem. 

Reader Response: What I like about this book is that it can be use in many different lessons. It can be use to teach the elements of poetry, characteristics of fantasy stories, and characters' point of view. One of my favorite poems in the book is titled "Bears in the News". The poem written forward is the traditional Goldilocks being scared of the three bears, but if read in reverse, the bears are terrified of Goldilocks.

Marylin Singer is the author of more than 100 books for children and winner of the National Council Teachers of English Award for Poetry of Children. Her second book of fairy tales reverso is titled Follow Follow and her third reverso poetry book is Echo Echo, based on Greek myths.

Poetry Foundation.org is a great resource to search for poetry for students.

Balloons Over Broadway

Sweet, Melissa. (211). Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade.

Genre: Illustrated Biography
Awards: Golden Kite Award
Lexile Measure: AD1000L
DRA: 30
AR: 4.0

Summary: Melissa Sweet brings to life one of New York City's most anticipated yearly events, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Her picture book biography of Tony Sarg,  tells the story a boy that collected toys and loved to figured out how they worked. Tony read a book about the decay of marionettes and wanted to be the artist to revive them. With his curiosity and problem-solving techniques he invented and engineered the first massive helium balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and is now considered by many the Father of American Puppetry.

Reader Response:This books will get kids interested in art, history, and get them to problem-solve. What makes this biography interesting is the mixed media illustrations. Melissa Sweet also provides instructive diagrams, portions of Sarg's own sketches and samples of his original creations. Another interesting feature of this book is the side commentary from a wooden puppet explaining extra information and asking relevant questions. In her website, Melissa Sweet provides many teaching ideas that include a full research of Tony Sarg, puppets and storytelling, puppetry across cultures, and much more.

Other website that will be helpful to make connections with the book:
Official Macy's Thanksgiving Parade
Balloons Over Broadway Activity Kit

Other books by Melissa Sweet:

Where the Wild Things Are

Sendak, Maurice. (1963). New York, NY: Harper Collins Children's Books.

Genre: Fantasy
Awards: Caldecott Medal
Lexile Measure: AD740L
DRA: 16
AR: 3.4


Summary: Max gets grounded by his mother for acting too wild. "Wild thing!", she shouts at him and sends him to his room without dinner. Max now a prisoner in his room, turns to his imagination to escape being isolated from everyone and everything else. He starts imagining his room turned in to a magical forest where the wild things live. He tames them and is named the King of All Wild Things. They all jump, run, fall, and bash one another, just what Max wants to do at home, but is not allowed. He finally has enough and sails back home because he misses being loved and a good supper.

Reader Response: This is a classic book that has inspire a movie, an opera, many plays, and most importantly the imaginations of young and old. Who hasn't been grounded and sent to their room without dinner? The book contains three hundred and thirty eight words and some of the illustrated pages are wordless, perfect for young readers. The story can be classified in to many themes that can be a topic of conversation with older readers. Interesting fact, the monster's in the story represent the author's aunts and uncles who he was scared of as a child.

I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll and There's a Nighmare in My Closet by Mercer Mayer are other books that talk about monsters in a funny kind of way.