Children's Literature Collection

       Tigger Comes to the Forest by A.A. Milne is part of the Winnie the Pooh book series, written by the author for his children. In this book, the character of Tigger is introduced into the Hundred Acre Wood. Tigger shows up outside Pooh's house in the middle of the night and ends up staying for breakfast. The next day, Pooh introduces him to everyone else in the Wood (Eeyore, Piglet, Rabbit, etc.).      This book is classic children's fantasy, in more ways than one. The plot and characters are animals in a fanciful setting, doing things animals cannot typically do in real life (Galda, 2016). There is not much of a clearly defined world, other than stuffed animals are alive and carry on lives in the Hundred Acre Wood. The drawings in the book are smaller and look hand-drawn by the illustrator, Ernest H. Shepard. I would say they are representational, as they depict realistic creatures in fantasy settings (Galda, 2016).      This book ...

     " Florence Nightingale " by Sam Wellman details the life of Florence Nightingale, a woman who broke barriers and revolutionized what a hospital looked like. The book opens when she's around 7 and ends with her death, and covers all the amazing things she did in between. Florence Nightingale saw the way military hospitals, and hospitals in general, were and brought revolutionary change to the way the patients were cared for.      This book is considered a biography. It's non-fiction, details the true life of a real person, and offers a vivid representation of what her life was like (Galda, 2016). This book is for older elementary students, probably 4-6 grade. There are no illustrations except the cover art, but the book is written in clear, easy-to-understand phrasing and has a larger print, perfect for elementary students.      One way to start before reading this book is to ask the students what they know about hospitals in the time of ...

     The "Who Was" series are some of my favorite children's biographies. This one covers the life of the famous French naval officer and oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau. The book opens with his childhood, describes his life, and ends with his death.      This book offers vivid, yet child-friendly descriptions of his life and illustrations to support the text. This book is only 103 pages and is best suited for elementary school readers. In true biography fashion, this book is based entirely on the known facts of Cousteau's life, and even includes a bibliography page for the book itself in the back on the last pages. The illustrations are realistic and representational, depicting real people in real scenerios. The illustrations all add context to the text and provide a good mental picture of what is happening.      Some motivational activities that could go along with reading this book could be watching Cousteau's TV show to show the children ...

     The Callahan Cousins by Elizabeth Doyle Carrey follows a group of older elementary-age cousins spending the summer with their grandmother on Gull Island. This book is from the perspective of 12-year-old Hilar, whose parents are getting divorced. Through her desire to stir up an old family feud to prove her worth to her father, she leads her group of cousins on a variety of misadventures, including a sinking sailboat.      This book falls under the category of contemporary realistic fiction for older elementary-age to early middle-school-age girls (Galda, 2016). Despite the girls being left alone quite a bit and being very wealthy, which is largely unrealistic for this age, most of their adventures are highly plausible for girls their age. The main conflict is between the group of Callahan girls and the Bicket family, a feud dating back to when their parents were children. There are very few illustrations in this book, but the cover is reminiscent of co...

       Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine recently came through my library at work. This work follows the story of Henry Brown, a character based on a real-life man. Young Henry was born a slave and dreams of freedom for himself and his family. He eventually is sent to work in a factory and marries, but his dreams are once again crushed when his family is sold. One day, Henry has an idea while moving crates in the warehouse factory where he works. He is going to mail himself to freedom.      The time period is incredibly important to this story. Without the time period and setting, the plot itself would make no sense. Since this is loosely based on a true story, the characters and plots are very realistic to the time period and the story is full of time period accurate details. The illustrations are representational, as they are all of realistic-looking people in realistic places/situations (Galda, 2016).      One very important part of...

       The story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is fairly well-known among both children and adults alike. There have been numerous movies and retellings made, but nothing beats the original story. Snow White's mother dies soon after she's born, and her father remarries a beautiful, but very vain woman. This woman slowly grows to hate Snow White for her beauty and kindness, to the point of trying to have her murdered. Snow White escapes and finds herself in the home of the seven dwarves, who take her on in exchange for becoming their housekeeper. The queen eventually finds her and tricks her three times in an attempt to kill Snow White herself. These tricks include tight-lacing her dress, a poisoned comb, and eventually the classic poisoned apple. After building her a glass coffin, a prince happens by and sees how beautiful Snow White is. He immediately falls in love with her and asks to take her back to his kingdom with him, and the dwarves consent. As his serv...