The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

Fractured fairy tales are always fun, and I especially like this one. The author reverses the roles of the pigs and the wolves, and uses some pretty extreme building materials for the houses. No matter what, the pig always seems to break through. Great for comparing to the original when building a story arc and a good model for fracturing your own "The Littles and the Big Bad" story.

Haiku Hike

This would be a dream of mine - writing a picture book that is perfect for the classroom and co-written by students.

Haiku Hike is a series of poems embedded in a story of a class going on a hike. They forget their camera and decide to record the mental pictures into haiku. The poems and illustrations were created by 4th graders.

The Tale of Despereaux

Lovvvveee this book! I have loved it since my son was in third grade and I read it for the first time. I have reread it at least seven times now and never bore with it.

Kate DiCamillo wrote many of my favorites of all time. In this one, we meet Despereaux. He is an unmouselike mouse who falls in love with a princess and gets banished to the castle dungeon all while a conniving rat from the dungeon sneaks upstairs to check out the "greener grass" of the real world. The stories intertwine with one about Miggery Sow, a servant girl, and are told from a backwards direction. I enjoy how the author addresses the reader thoughgout the pages.

The original novel is quite different than the movie. I have read the junior novelization version and felt as if it was a completely second story. In the movie version, Roscuro arrives to the Kingdom of Dor on a ship. This is the strangest part to me since the whole point of the Roscuro storyline was how he was drawn to the light. In the past, students have had fun with the many comparisons between the original Newbery winner and the novelization.

Dying to Meet You

What a clever book! Rather than your typical chapter book, the author writes this story through dozens of letters between the characters, newspaper clippings, and IMing. The strangest part, is one of the people doing all this communicating is a ghost!

What a mystery writer experiences writers block, he decides to move into a summer rental to inspire him. In rushing through the paperwork, he comes to find that the house comes with a boy who he must take care of. Through a series of letters aback and forth, the boy mentions a ghost lives with them as well.

This story can be used in a writing project since it has models for letter writing (staying focused on the business at hand), as well as good tips for developing a character in a story.

Thunder Cake

A storm is brewing and a young granddaughter is scared. Her babushka decides it is time to bake Thunder Cake so she will get over her fear. Using the method of counting the seconds between thunder and lightning, the pair gather the many ingredients from the farm. As the storm hits the cake is baking in the oven as the grandmother compliments the granddaughter on her new found bravery.

Greyling

No picture to add for this one. I searched everywhere on the web! :-(

A fisherman and his wife long for a child. One day, while at sea, the fisherman rescues a baby seal from a sandbar, wraps it in his clothing, and brings it home to care for it. The wife rushes to help and unwraps the cloth to find the seal pup is now a baby boy with grey eyes and hair.

They learn he is a legendary selchie, and decide to raise him, but ask that he never go in the sea. This works out until the fisherman is caught in a terrible storm and only one person can rescue him, but at what expense?