Realistic or Historical Fiction

Now on to the books:


Kenya's Family Reunion by: Juwanda G. Ford [realistic]


This book is about a young girl named Kenya.  Her entire family travels out to her Grandfather's house each year to their family reunion.  The books tells of some of the traditions that the family has each year. The grandfather bulit his farmhouse himself 50 years before. The children came together to give their Grandfather a special present.  After asking one of their aunts for help the adults of the family decided to join in.  To find out what the amazing gift is have to read the book! :) I think that the book shows that working together you can get things accomplished.  This book is good to read before creating rules for group work.  It shows how you must have a positive attitude.  You can use this book for grandparents day or when the children first come to your grade to lead into the students telling stories about their summer.  This book is great for predicting as well.  This is a great book to do a Me Too! on because the children can make predictions and then agree with others in the class. 




Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia by: Peggy Parish [realistic]

This book is one book in a series of books about Amelia Bedelia.  Amelia takes things very literal.  In this book she walks past a good of boys on the baseball field and they seem upset.  She stops to see what the matter was and they expressed to her how they were going to forfiet a baseball game.  Amelia steps in to help and be the last player that they need but she knows absolutely nothing about baseball.  She makes quite a bit of mistakes like stealing a base by picking it up and run home instead of running to home plate.  At the end of the day Amelia helped the guys win the game and their patience with her was worth while.  This book would make the children laugh and giggle because of Amelia's silly mistakes.  I think it would be a good postive atmosphere book.  Just like the boys in the book had to be patient with Amelia students have to patient with each other and this book is a great way to show that it works out being better in the end.  The students could use this as a writing activity to make an alternate ending to the baseball game.


Everybody Cooks Rice by: Nora Dooley [realistic]

Everybody Cooks Rice is about a little girl looking for her brother for dinner. Her mother sends her to look for him in the nieghborhood.  She knows that her brother likes to go to their neighbors' houses to play.  As she travels from house to house asking if any have seen him while at each house she tastes their dinner.  Each house represents a different nationality or culture.  The families are all eating rice but in different recipies and dishes.  By the end of the story she finds out her brother is at home and she went on a wild goose chase and she is too full it eat the dinner that her mother has prepared.  The book also has little fun facts in the back about different places.  This book is a great diversity book.  It is great for classrooms with different cultures in it.  It shows how we are connected.  Students could ask their parents for a recipe or dish from their house. You could have them look for recipies with one ingredient or you could let them bring back one of their favorite and see what they have in common.  This is a great classroom community building activity. If students are doing a project about Japan this book might help them because it has some interesting fact included.


If You Lived In The Time Of Matin Luther King by: Ellen Levine [historical]

This book is based on various events that happened when some Americans fought for their civil rights.  The book has vivid imagery answers all kinds of questions concerning this time period.  This book is good for Black History Month. The schools children have to opportunity learn about Martin Luther King Jr. but they do not always understand why he chose to live that way.  This book would be a great way to start out any lesson in Black History.  I think that students could think of a question similar to ones that are in the book and do research to find the answer.


A Book about Benjamin Franklin by: Ruth Belov Gross [historical]

This book is about the life of Benjamin Franklin.  The author retold many of the stories adding some parts into it.  The author added dialouge to these events to make his life more like a story. The book starts in his childhood and different things that he does.  The author includes major events like the kite and the key and him making the almanac.  If you were to use this book in your classroom you could use it to make a timeline.  You could have the students try to invent something.  You could tie this book into science curriculm.  The students could get together in groups and talk about their favorite part of the story.