Title: Frog on His Own  (link to amazon.com)
Author: Mercer Mayer
Illustrator: Mercer Mayer
Publisher: Dial Books
Copyright: 1973
Pages:#31

Summary:
Frog goes on a trip with his owner and goes off on his own.  He ends up having lots of experiences so for example he tries eating a fly but after realizes it’s a bee and spits it back out.

Ideas for Activities:
Have children create their own story books without words.  It is a challenge and will provoke children to pay attention to the pictures and how the plot unfolds through them.

Recommendations:
This book was cute and simple. It would be a great book to start off the introduction to word less books to children.

Title: Can You Count Ten Toes (link to amazon.com)
Author: Lezlie Evans
Illustrator: Denis Roche
Publisher: Houghton Miffin Company
Copyright: 1999
Pages: #22

Summary~
This book asks the reader if they can count to ten in different languages and then they show them how to write and pronunciate each number.  It has a total of ten languages all together.

Ideas for activities:
Have students pick their favorite language or one they want to practice and have them practice saying it to a partner and then ask for volunteers to share their new language in front of the class.

Recommendation:
This was a fun book to explore different cultures and languages by teaching the students to count from one to ten in languages other than their own.  Great for the classroom!

Title: Milk- From Cow to Carton (link to amazon.com)
Author: Aliki
Illustrator: Aliki
Publisher: Harper Collins
Copyright: 1974
#32

Summary~
This book explains the process that farmers go through in order for us to drink the milk that comes from cows. It gives lots of information about the cow and what it eats etc. The better the cow eats the better milk the cow will give and a healthy cow can give up to thirty quarts a day. They are milked two times a day and milking never hurts them. It talks about the dairy and the inspections that the milk must go through in order to be sold at the store. It also talks about the different types of milk both from cows and from other animals.

Ideas for Activities~
Plan a field trip to a local dairy.

Recommendation:
This would be a good book to use if the students are going on a field trip to a dairy. This book is good to show the children that the milk they drink everyday has to go through a process to get to their refrigerator. You would need to read it if it is pertinent to something you have or will talk about in the future.

Title: Floating and Sinking
Author: Franklyn M. Branley
Illustrator: Robert Balster
Publisher: Thomas Y Crowell Co.
Copyright: 1967
Pages: 34

Summary:
In this picture book it informs the reader of what things can float and also what things will sink.  It goes on to explain why certain objects sink and why certain objects float such as the air.  It gives examples of bottles being used with air and sand.  Throughout the book it gives bigger and real life examples such as a floating boat on the water or a submarine floating below the water.

Activity:
Have students experiment with floating and sinking objects.  Have students fill one bottle with sand and the other with the air.  Students will then place bottles in the water and watch as one bottle will sink and the other will float.

Recommendation:
This is a great concept book for students to listen to and also experiment with.  Have students read this book either aloud or silently, and then have them actually perform an experiment using the information the have already just read.

Title: The Day of the Dinosaur (link to amazon.com)
Author: Stan and Jan Berenstain
Illustrator: Michael Berenstain
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 1987
Pages: #29

Summary:

This picture book explains what the earth was like before humans lived. The land was surrounded with many different kinds of dinosaurs. It goes through explaining the different dinosaurs and the different characteristics each animal has. There are many interesting facts about the different creatures.

Activity:
Have students share about their favorite dinosaur and explain why. Have them include the characteristics that make them fascinating and interesting.

Recommendation:
This picture book included detailed information about the different characteristics of the different dinosaurs that lived in prehistoric time. This book could be read while entering a unit on dinosaurs and students could grasp a better understanding of the differences each dinosaur has from one another.

Title: The Daddy Book (link to amazon.com)
Author: Todd Parr
Illustrator: Todd Parr
Publisher: Megan Tingley Books
Copyright: 2002
Pages: #29

Summary:
This picture book explained how different daddies act. It explains how dad’s treat their children in different ways such as building a tree house with you or have a tea party with you. But the most important part is that all daddies want their children to know they love being with them for who they are when they are with them.

Activity:
Draw a picture of a favorite activity they do with their dad or father figure.

Recommendation:
This picture book is bright and colorful, full of wonderful things a father would like to do with his children. Every child would love to sit down and read this with their own daddy or special person. Very good book for younger readers learning the basic words and sounds.

Title: The Beetle Alphabet Book (link to amazon.com)
Author: Jerry Pallotta
Illustrator: David Bledrzycki
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Copyright: 2004
Pages: #28

Summary~
This book goes through every letter in the alphabet and has a beetle assigned to each one. It shows unique, fun beetles that most people have never heard of before.

Professional Feedback~
This book was one of our favorite alphabet books, but should be used after the children know the alphabet because it focuses more on beetles than it does on the alphabet. It’s fun because it is very unique and tells us a lot of information about beetles that we would never have know. It’s a fun way to get information.

Title: Word Play ABC (link to amazon.com)
Author: Heather Cahoon
Illustrator: Heather Cahoon
Publisher: Walker Publishing Company
Copyright: 1999
# of Pages: 28

Summary~
This book goes through the alphabet and has a random thing assigned to each letter.

Professional Feedback~
The pictures are cute and simple.  The objects in this book are unique and not often found in other alphabet books and that makes this book fun, but not my favorite.