• Children's Literature

    Here are some samples of excellent children's literature at six different reading levels. Click on the grade and you will be taken to Carol Hurst's Web Site where there will be recommendations for many other wonderful books at that grade level. At the Carol Hurst site you will also find recommended books at the 7th , 8th, and 9th grade levels.

    You might also want to check these literature site.

    Caldecot and Newberry Award Winners

     

    pic
    		 With vivid colors and simple, motion-filled illustrations, each letter of the alphabet is running to the top of the coconut tree with a repeated chorus of "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Will there be enough room?" The text is rhythmic, charming and predictable.
    pic
    		 In this classic picture book, a caterpillar hatches, eats, spins a cocoon, and emerges as a butterfly. Cut-outs in the pages make this a three dimensional picture book involving the concept of counting as well as that of metamorphosis. Although the food eaten by the caterpillar is more human than insect fare, the unfolding of the butterfly adds drama to the tale for the very young.

    Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

    by Bill Martin Jr.

     

    Pre K

     

    The Very Hungry Caterpillar

    by Eric Carle

    Nicki, begs his grandmother, Baba, to knit him a pair of white mittens. In spite of her warnings that he will lose them and that they will be hard to find in the snow, he insists and she finally does so. He drops the mitten.+A mole is the first to discover the itblying on the snow and crawls inside, followed by a snowshoe rabbit, a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox, a bear and, finally a mouse.

    pic

    When she was little, Alice told her grandfather that she wanted to do as he did: go to far away places and live in a house by the sea. He told her that she must also do something to make the world more beautiful.She accomplishes all she set out to do: traveling to tropical islands, climbing mountains before she hurts her back falling from a camel and decides to live by the sea. Her need to make the world more beautiful is a source of consternation to her.Her solution is spreading lupine seeds wherever she walks.

    pic

    First Grade

    The Mitten

    by Jan Brett

    Second Grade

    Miss Rumphius

    by Barbara Cooney

    pic

    A terrifying escape is the central plot of Kathryn Lasky's The Night Journey. Nana Sashie has a story to tell and it's her great-granddaughter, Rachel, who hears it. Rachel's assignment of keeping Nana Sashie company is, at first, a chore for the thirteen year old.. Little by little the story is told to Rachel.. Sashie's family escaped from Russia rather than serve in the Czar's army or be annihilated in one of the pogroms and the ruse they used was one devised by Sashie, a young child at the time. When, at last, Sashie's story is told, she dies knowing that her story has been passed on and understood by a future generation.

    pic
    		 This thought-provoking, delightful book has got to be one of the all time great fantasies for children. The writing is superb. The plot engrossing and the images and themes can last in the reader's mind for a very long time. When Winnie, a rather bored and overly protected child, becomes friends with the Tuck family, her life is changed forever. The Tucks, mother and father and two sons, have inadvertently drunk from a well which freezes them in time and gives them everlasting life. They will never change, never grow old, never die.

    The Night Journey

    by Catherine Lasky

    Tuck Everlasting

    by Natalie Babbitt
    Salamanca's mother has left without explanation and not returned. Now 13 year old Sal is traveling across the country with her grandparents following the route her mother took. Along the way her kind and fun-loving grandparents ask her to tell them a story. She shares a long tale about herself and her best friend whose mother has also left her family. Throughout the book the cross-country trip and the story Sal tells are interwoven. There is comedy in the grandparents' eccentricity and poignancy in the story Sal tells to her attentive grandparents.
    pic

    Many children's book authors and illustrators grappled with how and if to commemorate the tragedies of 9/11. Mordicai Gerstein chose a beautiful way to do it. His Caldecott Award winner gives us adventure, suspense, delight and, of course, sadness as he tells the story of Philippe Petit, a tightrope acrobat who did indeed walk between the World Trade Towers in 1974.


    pic

    Walking Two Moons

    by Sharon Creech

    The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

    by Gerstein, Mordicai
Last Modified on August 31, 2010