Three Cups of Tea - Youth Edition

Written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver, adapted by Sarah Thomson, and foreword written by Jane Goodall.  For more information visit threecupsoftea.com or http://www.gregmortenson.com.

Genre: Non-Fiction
Theme: Social issues/Inspirational Stories
Ages: 9-12

Summary: This is a story about a mans journey after failing to reach the summit of the K2 mountain in the Middle East, particularly in a remote and small village in Pakistan.  After seeing the conditions of education for this village, Greg Mortenson, promises to return to the village and build them a school for their children to learn in. He asks for help from celebrities to no avail, and when he finally raises the funds for this amazing task, he is stifled by the need to first build a bridge for the village in order to bring supplies and infrastructure to their remote location. Finally after many hurtles, conflicts, and much sacrifice this man is able to not only build one school but eventually begin programs to raise funding for the building of 60 schools in the Middle East.

Link to Picture

Pre-Reading Activity:  Talk about current events going on in the Middle East.  Students are likely to either not have any prior knowledge or very limited pre-conceived notions.  This book will be a good way to help our class learn more about this culture and area we are less familiar with.

Post-Reading Activity:  Have class compose letter to Greg's daughter Amira.  Students should develop questions to ask her about her experiences in the Middle East and more.  

Reflection: This story is inspirational. It is about how an insignificant person can make a big difference towards making the world a better place. This story also helps to shed light and understanding to the cultural differences the people of a remote Middle Eastern village and of Muslim faith have. It tells how Greg has had to learn and change to accommodate unknown customs of the people he meets and interacts with. There is a very good message about patience and tolerance. I like how the book has been revised and adapted to make it approachable for younger readers. This adaptation includes a glossary, a time line, list of important characters and their roles, pictures, and an interview with Greg's daughter Amira. The connection students are able to make because she is a typical pre-teen much like themselves makes the story all the more relatable.

 I'm very excited that I have found this book. I know very little about the Middle East, aside from basic history classes in high school and college, and enjoyed an inspirational story that helped shed some light on the culture as well. I like that there is an adult version, young reader edition, and even a children's picture book to help spread this story to all ages.  

Poems I Wrote When No One Was Looking

Poems written by Alan Katz with illustrations by Edward Koren. Alan Kratz is the author of the Silly Dilly series including the bestselling book, Take Me Out of the Bathtub.  He has been in the entertainment industry for 30 years, as print and television writer.  Includng Emmy nominated TV shows and writing parody songs for the Rosie O'Donnell Show and countless other children's cartoons. He is a self proclaimed child at heart who specializes in humorous and silly stories. For more information about Katz visit his site. Koren, a New York City resident is a famous illustrator and cartoonist, most notably for his work in The New Yorker.



Genre: Fiction
Theme: Poetry/Humorous Stories
Ages: 7-11

Summary: The book of poetry includes one hundred some poems with simple pen illustrations. Each single or open page spread contains one poem and drawing with 'side slitting' humor. The poems are whimsical. They clearly follow an influence of both Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. There is a prominent use of nonsense words and language to ensure rhyme scheme, such as Seuss's work would include, and the meter and simple pen illustrations are also reminiscent of Silverstein's popular work.

Link to Picture

There are so many poems I would read one or two at a time, maybe as a transition activity as students line up for lunch or on the way back into the room settling into the next subject area.

Post-Reading Activity:  Give students random pictures, collected from getting cards, magazines, and newspaper ads. Have each one come up with a small silly poem to go with their picture.

Reflection:  The poems are very cute and easily relatable to children. Topics that children can relate to and understand at great depth, such as the painfulness of homework, sibling rivalry, food, and other silly things.  The thing I enjoyed the most about these poems were that, even as an adult I was laughing at them. I could return to my childhood and relate back to the perspective of the children in the poems. I also particularly enjoyed the extremely witty plays on words that were utilized in many of the poems. Children would enjoy the poems for the themes and silliness alone. However, these poems could be utilized in higher grade levels, and enjoyed by adults, because of its clever puns.  

Esperanza Rising

Written by Pam Manoz Ryan. Ryan was born and raised in California.  One of her earliest literary memories was of looking through her grandmother's encyclopedia set to find pages with color prints. Her interest in illustrated literature stayed with her throughout her life.  She has written over 30 children's books, complete with illustrations.  This book drew on the experiences of her first real job where she was a preschool coordinator at a relocation camp for displaced Vietnamese families after the Vietnam War. Click here for more information.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Theme: Cultural diversity and adaptation
Ages: 10+

Summary: Esperanza Rising follows the story of Esperanza and her Mama.  They are forced to move from their comfortable lives in Mexico into California during the Great Depression.  Esperanza is made to learn how to do hard work in the fields and has to learn to live with an entire camp of displaced Mexican workers.

Link to Picture

 This is a story that I would do in a book club or literature circle in my classroom.  I would assign readings and then group discussion and assignments to go along with different readings. We would have whole group instruction and discussion followed by small group work.   Students would also have individual work to do, reading, writing, and completing journal responses.

Reflection:  This is such a wonderful story.  The setting and story in a historic context gives more meaning and understanding to a culture and time period that children might not other wise feel a relation or interest to.

Baseball in April and Other Stories

Written by Gary Soto. Gary Soto is an educator, author, and poet of Mexican American decent.  He uses his own childhood and experiences growing up in a Latino community in California and clearly draws on stories of young people that have also grown up in his home town of Fresno. For more information click here.

Genre: Fiction
Theme: Hispanic/Latino Culture
Ages: 9-14

Summary: This text includes 11 short stories of Mexican American youth.  The stories are perfect for young adults because they include themes which are easily relatable.  Coming of age stories, growing up, trying to make the baseball team, first loves, friendship, loyalty and family, are all big themes which students of any ethnicity can relate to. Although the characters may act tough on the outside, readers are let in on their secret vulnerability, dreams, and desires.

Link to Picture

Pre-Reading Activity: I want all of you students to close your eyes and picture this situation.  You are 11 years old, and you are nervous.  What are you nervous about?  You and your brother are going to try out for the baseball team.  This is the only fun activity that you can do with other children in your neighborhood.  Think about the emotions and hopes you would have going into that activity.

Post-Reading Activity:  Have students talk in small groups about the overall themes of which small story they have have done for assigned readings.

Reflection: Something that I really liked about this text is that there are tiny cultural slang or Spanish words integrated within a story.  They are placed appropriately enough that young reader could understand the word meanings from the context clues.  If not though the text provides a glossary at the end of the book with the definitions of phrases, expressions, and Spanish words included.  The stories are short and sweet, but you quckly get a sense for the setting, characters, and theme of each individual story.  Each vignette is a snap show into a young person's life that the reader can quickly become acquainted with and develops a sense of connection to the character's situation.

Post-it Note Diaries

20 Stories of Youthful Abandon, Embarrassing Mishaps, and Everyday Adventure
Editor/Illustrator: Author Jones
Arthur Jones had a steady desk job in an advertising office and he would frequently be bored. To help kill time he would doodle on Post-it notes. His use of drawing on Post-it notes became popular and grew into a sensation known as the Post-it Note Reading Series. People submit their stories and Jones will illustrate them on Post-it notes. After several years of holding these series with many stories and hundreds of post-it note drawings, Jones has complied a novel of some new stories, as well as his all time favorites.

Genre: Biography
Theme: Humorous Stories
Ages: 13 +

Summary: There are 20 stories in all, and each one is vastly unique from the others. There are manly stories about significant life changing or coming of age events. Some of the stories include language or material that may be a little too mature for younger audiences. Discretion should be used when choosing which of these stories to introduce to classroom students. Regardless this text should only be considered for at the very youngest, mature middle school children.
Link for Picture

Pre-Reading Activity: Have class begin discussing their prior knowledge of comics and graphic novels.  Compare different forms of comic art styles.

Post-Reading Activity: Have students create their own short story or comic using post-it notes.  This should be a small group activity with collaboration and some time, maybe a week long amount of time to work together and edit.  Each group should present their post it note comic strip to their peers.

Reflection:  What I enjoy the most is the interesting new art form of using 'doodles' on post-it notes to show one step of the story at a time. There is often only one or two short sentences used for each block of the story and one simple drawing describes the context very animatedly The language is simple and relatable and has amusing text to match, but the stories are rich and deep.  I like the idea of mixing in graphic novels with other forms of text to raise interest, promote higher levels of confidence and security in approaching text, and comparing and contrasting to learn about different forms of telling stories.  

Yasmin's Hammer

Written by Ann Malaspina and illustrated by Doug Ghayka. Malaspina writes historical nonfiction and multicultural literature for both children and young adults. She is a New Jersey native, where she lives with her family and is vocal proponent for the importance of literature. Ghayka grew up in Upstate New York, and graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with his degree in illustration. Today, he lives and works as a freelance artist in Savannah, Georgia.

Link to Picture for Yasmin's Hammer

Genre: Multicultural                                                              

Themes: Literacy/diversity 

Age: 6+

Summary: Yasmin and her sister work in the brickyards of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The stoy opens with the two riding in a rickshaw to thebrickyard and seeing th ecity on their way there. in order to make money to keep their family fed and the roof of their family's house repaired. Yasmin dreams of being able to read, and the opportunities it would open for her.        

Pre-Reading Activity:  Bring in a hammer and have the students each have a turn holding it.  Give them a chance to feel the weight.  If possible to establish a safe setting for them to swing the hammer offer them that opportunity   This should give them a small idea of the work the girl in this story has to do. 

Post-Reading Activity: Have student take on the role of Yasmin.  Do a free write journal entry or write a letter from Yasmin's perspective.  Write about what their living arrangements would be like, and how you would feel if you had to work so hard instead of going to school.  

Reflection: This is a moving story about the disparities that children have to face all around the world.  It is moving how hard a poor child and family would have to work and preserver just to purchase a book to read, and to be able to afford going to school instead of working.  This is a great story to read to children to help give them perspective on how fortunate their lives really are. 

Tan to Tamarind

Poems about the color brown
Poems written by Malathi Michelle Iyengar with Illustrations by Jamel Akib. Iyengar grew up in North Carolina. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Music, and her Master's in Education.  Today, she lives in the Los Angeles area, where she is an elementary teacher at a public school.  Akib was born in England, but raised in Malaysia. He has illustrated for many award-winning books, magazines, and advertisements. He now lives in England withhis wife and children.

Genre: Poetry
Themes: Diversity/multicultural
Ages: 6 and up

Summary: The book explores the beauty and variety of the color brown through poetry. The many shades of brown are compared and set against one another to demonstrate their brilliance. The poems encourage readers experience the reading through all the senses, from the smell of Hot Chocolate, to color of the desert of the Southwest United States.



Link to Picture of Tan to Tamarind

Pre-Reading Activity:

Post-Reading Activity: Have students compose a poem about their own perceived skin color.

Reflection: I love this book so much.  It is vibrant in its use of language to describe different tones of skin color.