Kama EinhornBesprekingen

social emotional

00014823

An Anteater's Adventure is also the author's adventure. Although Kama Einhorn thoroughly planned before going to Belize to study anteaters, a hurricane wrecked all of those plans. Instead she stayed to help the ravaged Tamandua Refuge. While helping to clean up the debris and save the animals from high water Einhorn met Ella, the anteater rehabilitator and Abi, a rescued anteater also called tamandua. Even though Ella was restoring her property, saving wildlife, and rehabilitating Abi, she was a constant teacher for Einhorn. Einhorn wrote this adventure as if Abi was telling it. This book is a goldmine of information about anteaters, their rehab, jungle canopy habitat, and wonderful people committed to conservation! Well done!

Be warned: you might change your mind about raccoons as pests after reading this juvenile non-fiction work. Complete with photos, it follows 4 kits rescued from an attic at only two weeks old and their journey from rescue, recovery, rehabilitation to release at around 6 months. The process of recovery and rehabilitation is especially eye opening (they get to live with a well-prepared foster mom in an apartment in San Francisco!). Also, chock-full of cool raccoon behavioral facts and hints on how to NOT attract raccoons to your homes.

Please see my review on Amazon.com under C. Wong. Thank you.

This book can be read to students around holiday time.

Based on the TV series not one of the author's original books.

This book talks and explains about things that takes us places, like cars, bike , ships, motorcycle etc.

Ages- (3-6)
Source - (Pierce County Library)

Summary:
A visitor comes to a town and finds out the people who live there do not like to share. He begins making some stone soup and asks the town to contribute ingredients, hoping it may bring the town together. They enjoyed it so much that even after the visitor left, the town continued to share and make stone soup.

Personal Reaction: The story was simple but sweet and it would be perfect to read to a class that may have trouble sharing.

Classroom Extension:
1)We could have each student bring an ingredient from home and we can make our own stone soup.
2) We can talk about the importance of sharing, group children into pairs and have them share a set of paints, crayons, blocks, etc and have them both use it during an activity.

Summary: A Pretty cockroach finds a gold coins, wonders what to buy with it. Finally buys some perfume, does her hair, puts on a pretty dress and heads out to find a husband. Is approached by several different animals, doesn't want to marry them because she doesn't like the sound they make. Marries a mouse, thinks his sound is sweet music.

Personal Reaction: Weird little story, no one ever thinks of cockroaches being pretty. A book that teaches everyone looks at things differently.

Classroom Extension
1. Teach that judging by looks or smell isn't always correct
2. Get the children to make what they think is ugly things pretty
3. Can teach the different sounds of animals

Summary:
Martina the Cockroach is a traditional literature tale about a cockroach named Martina who finds a gold coin while sweeping her house one day. She decided to buy a bottle of perfume with the coin. Martina puts the perfume on, gets dressed, and fixes her hair. She looks lovely and decides she is ready to get married. Martina does not like loud noise though, so it is very important to know the sound her future husband will make. After listening to the sounds of many different potential husbands Martina listens to the mouse. Martina loves the sound the mouse makes so they get married and live happily ever after.

Personal Summary:
I do not necessarily like the tale of Martina the Cockroach. I do not like that once Martina is all dolled up she is then ready to find a husband. I do not see the significance in finding the coin and purchasing the perfume unless she can only look for a husband once she smells a certain way. I also do not like that her future husband has to sound a certain way because she does not like loud noises. There was one thing about the book I did like however, I liked that Martina ends up marrying a mouse and not another cockroach. I think this sends children the message that it is okay to marry someone much different than themselves.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. Use the coin that Martina finds in the book as an opportunity to review coins you may have already taught the class.
2. Use this book when teaching students about literature in the classroom coming from all different parts of the world. Tell students that Martina the Cockroach is a Cuban folktale. Read other traditional literature to students that originated in Cuba as well. See if there are any similarities between them.

Summary: A traveler comes to a small town where no one shares anything. He begins to make "stone soup," putting a stone in a big pot of water. He claims that vegetables would really make the soup come together. So a villager decides to add some of their vegetables. Then the traveler goes on saying "this would make it better.. This, too..." until all of the villagers come together to make the most wonderful soup they've ever tasted.

Personal Reaction: The version of Stone Soup that I read is an easy reader, so it's shorter and simple than most versions. But I like the message it gives - that when a group comes together, and every person gives something unique to a project, great things can e accomplished.

Classroom Extensions:
1. In class, we could make our own version of "stone soup." Each student can bring a small baggie of clean, chopped vegetables from home to add to a pot, which will include a thoroughly washed stone. Each student adds their vegetables to the pot and when it's done, the soup is shared.

2. Let the students look at a collection of many stones. As they use magnifying glasses and their hands to see and feel the stones, have them describe each stone, using special descriptive words (smooth, rough, sharp, etc...).

Summary:
A man wanders into a town hungry as can be. He soon finds out that no one in the town is willing to share food with him. The man then begins to make Stone Soup which then makes the people in the town come together and share. The result of this soup makes this town more willing to share with each other and a new found love for Stone Soup.

Personal Reaction:
I was very intrigued by this book. It has such a good story to it and can be very helpful in teaching children the importance of sharing. Stone Soup sounds delicious!

Classroom Extension Ideas:

1. Have everyone in your class signed up to bring in a special food and after reading the story your class can have a party in which everyone in the class shares their special food with the others.

2. Split the students up into groups and give them poster board and have them make their own stone soup amongst each other in the group. Hang the posters around the classroom to show their artwork.

Summary:
"Once upon a time there was a pretty cockroach..." is just the beginning. This is about a little cockroach who started out cleaning her house and found a gold coin. She wanted to do something special for herself and when she did, she decided that she wanted to find a husband.

Personal Reaction:
Strange. Not a typical traditional story or fairy tale, but an interesting twist. I did not like the whole money can buy you happiness style of the book and was not totally excited to see her judge her future husband by the way he sounded, a little prejudice.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. This can be used to show the prejudice happens even in fairy tale stories. Can easily be taught in what not to do. You can later explain that everyone is a little prejudice, but still does not make it right.

2. This story can be used in a culture discussion. Can show the diversity in stories compared what they are used to in their own personal culture. Just make sure that the class stays open minded and the discussion just turn into a debate.

Martina the Cockroach
A retelling by Kama Einhorn. Illustrated by Patrick Girouard

Summary:
This is a cute little story about a cockroach named Martina. Martina gets all dressed up, and goes on a search for a “quiet” husband. All different types of animals ask to marry her, but she doesn’t like their sound. In the end she finally finds that special animal with that special sound. She loves the sound; it is like music to her ears.

Personal Reaction:
This book was so funny to me! I really think it would make children laugh, mainly because the main character is a cockroach. I think this story was told in a very unique way. It has a lot of different animal sounds, which I think would be great for younger children. Another neat thing about this book was the glossary in the back.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1.Hold up pictures of different animals, and have children make the sound.
2.Have children draw a picture of their favorite animal with the sound it makes.

Very nice book, nicely detailed without being confusing. I would recommend this book because the child will learn about the five senses and how they are all associated with the brain, it describes the brain as the boss of your whole body!I also like the use of real life pictures, it buttresses the point that the book is factual.

Cute little book that is easy and fast to get through. I think it teaches that it is ok to make your own decision and not always have to settle.

summary: A visitor visits a small town, when he got there it was a town full of rude people that did not like to share.He asked around for food and no one was willing to help. He started to make soup on his own. As he was making soup everyone started to join in and bring him different items to go in his soup. In the end the visitor makes the town and town full of sharing people.

Personal Reaction: I loved this book. As a child it was one of my favorites. This is a great book for young kids that are starting to learn to share or that are having problems sharing.

classroom extention: making stone soup with the class.

Stone Soup is about a man visiting a small village and he has no food. He asks members of the village if they have any food and they will not share with him. He builds a big fire with a big pot on top of it filled with water. He starts saying that the only thing better with stone soup is cabbage, then carrots, onions ect. Each time he mentions another ingredient, someone from the villiage gladly shares with him. In the end when the soup is all made, he in return shares with everyone that shared with him.

I had not read this story in several years. I love how it ends and everyone is sharing with the visitor and they dont even realize it. I think this story shows and excellent example of sharing.

Classroom activities: I would read this story to my class and have each child bring a specific food item to share with the class. I feel this would help demonstrate sharing with each other. This would also make the story come more alive for the class. My second activity would be to have the students share with the class what they like to share with others. They could do this by getting infront of the class or decorating pictures.

Summary: A cockroach gets dressed and sprays on perfume and feels beautiful so she wants to get married. She turns down a cat, rooster, frog, and dog because they were all to loud. She married a mouse because of his beautiful sound.

Personal reaction: I thought this was a really cute book.

Classroom extensions: I think this book would be good for a head-start class because it talks about animal sounds and would be very interactive.

Summary: This story is from an African village. It is about a little boy who has a spider and the spider wants the boy to take him to the best fruit. The spider is greedy and does not share with the boy. As he eats the fruits his belly gets bigger. When he gets to the honey he climbs into the beehive and gets stuck and the boy does not help him, and the spider has to wait until his stomach gets smaller to get out.

Personal Reaction: I think this is a good book for kids to learn about sharing.

Classroom Extension:
I would use this book to talk to the class about the importance of sharing.

Summary:
A man passing through a village asks the villagers if they had any food to share. The village people does not like to share at all. The visitor starts to boil a big pot of broth in the middle of the village and starts the soup by putting stones in it. The village people become curious and when the visitor starts suggesting ingredients, the villagers start to share one by one. By the end of the night the village is happy and pleased to share with one another.

My Response:
This version of the story is very short and quick. It's not very detailed at all but gets to the main points. The illustrations are good showing the villagers expressions from no smiles and frowns beginning of the story to all smiles at the end. I really didn't care too much for this version compared to other stone soup books I have read. I would recommend sharing it to younger chidren bewteen ages 4-7.

Classroom Extension:
1)Ask students if they ever felt good about sharing.
2)Make stone soup in class or pass out ingredients to try at home.

Summary:
While cleaning her home, Martina the cockroach finds a golden coin. She's very excited and after much thought she decides to buy perfume with her coin. After buying the perfume she goes out to find a husband but she's very picky. She doesn't want a husband that will disrupt the quiet peace of her home.

Personal Reaction:
I love this book. Although it's traditional literature, I had never heard of it. This is a very cute story of marriage for children.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. In the story, Martina chooses her husband based off of the sound he makes. I think it would be cute to see what little kids would say that would look for in a future husband or wife.

2. The art work in this appears to e done with pen and watercolors. The book starts with a picture of Martina's "nice little house." I could have the students create their own little homes with pens and watercolors.

Summary: This story is about a cockroach named Martina who finds a gold coin. She decides to buy perfume to get fancied up to find a husband but she doesnt want a noisy one. She gets asked to marry by many animals but did not like the sounds they made. She decides she likes the mouses sound so she marries him.

Personal Reaction: I had never heard of this story before so this is the first version I've ever read. But i thought it was a cute story for involving a cockroach and a mouse.

Classroom Extension Ideas: Have the kids practice animal sounds. Also maybe have them pick thir favorite animal out of the story and draw him and tell why they picked him.

Olivia is back in her own Christmas story. It's the day before Christmas, when Olivia and Ian try to decide what they want from Santa. Ian wants a robot for his robot, but Olivia can't decide. Suddenly she discovers that her most treasured toy, Mathilda, is missing. They go searching, but can't find Mathilda anywhere. Along the way they discover that other things are missing as well.

Later that night Santa visits, but the items are still missing. Olivia imagines herself as Olivia Claus so she can return all the lost things to those who lost them. Will she ever find her beloved Mathilda? Read this cute Christmas tale to find out.

The Bottom Line: Olivia Claus is a cute holiday bedtime story for the little ones. I especially liked the feel of the colorful embossed pages. Recommended for kids ages 4 - 8.

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog: http://minibookbytes.blogspot.com/