Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills

Rocket has mastered the reading (How Rocket Learned to Read) and is now moving on to writing his own story under the direction of his "teacher," little yellow bird.  Rocket begins by collecting words.  Once he has collected words he wants to write a story.  But Rocket does not know what to write about.  Soon Owl meets a new friend, Owl, and together the two new friends write Rocket's story.  A great story to share with student's of all ages as they learn about the writing process.  A definite purchase for any school library!

Text:  5 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations:  5 Buckeye leaves

Beautiful Bananas by Elizabeth Laird

One day Beatrice sets off to see her granddad with a present in hand, a bunch of bananas. Along the way she meets a giraffe who flicks his tail and send the bananas flying into a stream. Feeling badly about the lost bananas, giraffe picks some flowers and gives them to Beatrice. Beatrice continues on her way and soon a swarm of bees settles on the flowers. In an effort to get the bees away, Beatrice's flowers are ruined. The bees, feeling badly, wrap up a piece of honeycomb and gives it to Beatirce. The story continues on this way, Beatrice encountering numerous animals along the way, getting replacement gifts for Granddad. I really enjoyed this book, which would make a great sequencing or cause and effect lesson.

text: 4 buckeye Leaves - cute, easy to read
illustrations:5 Buckeye leaves - illustrator Liz Pichon, same as the previous post, I love her artwork!
endpages: 4 Buckeye leaves - bananas, of course!

Q is for Duck by Mary Elting & Michael Folsom

"A is for zoo. Why? Because...Animals live in the zoo. B is for Dog Why? Because a dog barks."

An abc book with a twist or as the long title suggests Q is for Duck: An Alphabet Guessing Game. The book challenges the reader to really think about how the letter could be related to the word. Older kids will enjoy trying to uncover the riddle.

And yes, it is a little "older" but still worth a read.

Text: 5 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves

Stubborn as a Mule and Other Silly Similes by Nancy Loewen

So this is not one I would necessarily read to the 3 year old, he would be really confused as we are still in the literal stage, but this is a great book for older elementary. Having struggled to find materials that were somewhat entertaining, while still teaching content, this one hits the nail on the head. I also like the sidebar information either further explaining that simile or information about its origin further to expand knowledge about language. I think this is a great book for kids in mid-to-upper elementary.

Story: 4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 3 Buckeye Leaves

Brian Cleary!

Funny! Educational! Funny! That sums up all of Brian Cleary books in three sentences. With our new standards rolling out the next few years, and trying to find more books to teach these standards. Similes to antonyms to verbs these books cover multiple areas of the curriculum. He also has a great website, interactive and fun to check out! So grateful to have a FUN author creating books to teach some of those not so fun topics!

Story: 4 Buckeye leaves (Funny but can be difficult to follow at times)
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye Leaves (Colorful & Funny!)

Octopus Opposites by Stella Blackstone

Get ready to practice opposites in this fun and colorful concept book about opposites. By incorporating fun, interesting sea animals, readers will learn new animals in addition to the opposites.

Sea urchin out, sea urchin in.
Beluga whale big, beluga whale small.
Kookaburra high, kookaburra low.

Story: 4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 5 Buckeye leaves + great end pages!!

Happy Endings: A Story About Suffixes by Robin Pulver

When Mr. Wright announces his class will "tackle" suffixes after lunch, the suffixes, previously happy to finally have their chance to shine, are distraught. "We're not the enemy!" -ing declares! "Are we being punished!" responds -ed. The suffixes decide they need to work out at the gym to prepare for the afternoon. Will the students follow the clues?

Story: 3 buckeye leaves - A fun take on a concept taught at numerous grade levels. May be hard for some students to follow.
Illustrations: 3 Buckeye leaves