1. White, E. B. Charlotte’s Web

Reading Level: Ages 8-13

Brief Plot Description: This movie is based on the popular series Diary of a Wimpy Kid, written by Jeff Kinney. It stars Zachary Gordon, Devon Bostick, Robert Capron, Karan Brar and Grayson Russell. The film is about an eleven year old boy, named Greg Heffley’s, middle school life and his friendship with his best friend Rowley Jefferson. It revolves around the story of the “Cheese Touch”, Greg’s determination of becoming the winner of class favorite in the yearbook, and the changes in the friendship between Greg and Rowley.

Brief Plot Description: This film is about a boy named Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) who saves a Night Fury dragon (Toothless) after he shoots it down and trains it to be his friend and rides on it. Hiccup also persuades his father and the Viking villagers to stop fighting with other dragons.

Brief Description: This video features adorable penguins, penguin songs, and an introductions of a penguin’s life. It introduces seventeen kinds of penguins in the world, their habitats, and their differences. The penguin songs are sang by the award-winning musician, James Coffey.

Brief Plot Description: This documentary introduces the different species of dinosaurs, their fossils, their reasons of extinction, their predators and prey, the history of dinosaur research, and more. It mainly focuses on explaining how paleontologists dig up fossils in the Gobi Desert, China, and New Mexico and bring these fossils back to life through animation.

Brief Plot Description: Percy Jackson is suspected to be the thief who stole the lightning bolt of Zeus. When Percy learns that he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, he starts a quest with his friends, Grover and Annabeth, to find the stolen lightning bolt. After defeating the monsters of Medusa, Echidna, and the Chimera, they travel to the underworld to rescue Percy’s mother, who was kidnapped by Hade. Later, Percy finds out that Luke is the real lightning thief, who wants to frame Hades in order to stir up a war between the gods. Percy defeats Luke and returns the lightning bolt to Zeus.

Genre(s)/Subject(s): Fantasy Fiction, adventure, fables, folk tales and myths series, ghosts, monsters, vampires, courage, bravery, heroism, leadership and responsibility
Age Level: Ages 9 and up
Awards: the winner of the School Library Journal Best Book of 2005, ALA Notable Book 2006, New York Time Notable Book 2005, Young Reader’s Choice Award 2008, Rebecca Caudill Young Reader’s Book Award 2009
CDs Similar in Style, Content, Theme, or Characters: The Hunger Games, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, A Wrinkle in Time
Programming/Lesson Ideas: After listening to the audio book and reading the book, mythology fans can find more books about the gods in the novel, such as Athena, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon and share the stories with others.
Personal Thoughts: This story is compelling with a mixture of reality and myths. It is a wonderful book that would appeal to readers of any age. The plot is intense and the characters are well-developed. Jesse Bernstein, the narrator in this audio book, presents the story successfully using different tones to fit with each character. This audio book received a starred review from School Library Journal.
Music CD:
35. Clarkson, Kelly. (2011). Stronger. [CD]. New York. ISBN 88697568012.

Brief Description: Stronger is the fifth album from the pop singer Kelly Clarkson, and addresses the importance of self-esteem. It contains thirteen songs, including Mr. Know it All, What Doesn’t Kill Your (Stronger), Dark Side, Honestly, You Love Me, Einstein, Standing In Front of You, I Forgive You, Hello, The War is Over, Let Me Down, You Cannot Win, and Breaking Your Own Heart.

Brief Description: This compilation album collects the Beatles’ greatest hits from 1962 to 1970. It has a total of 17 songs and lasts about an hour and a half. Some classic songs include “Yesterday,” “Hey Jude,” “Let It Be,” “Ticket to Ride,” and more.

CDs Similar in Style, Content, Theme, or Characters: Eagles, The Rolling Stones

Brief Description: The poems in this book are centered on the topic of nature at night, painting a picture of wildlife as night falls. Some creatures the author describes through poems include snails, primroses, oaks, spiders, crickets, and more.

Brief Description: Written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein, this book includes a collection of children’s poems in various topics about childhood and hilarious stories such as “Jimmy Jet and His TV Set,” a boy who turns into a TV after watching too much TV.

Brief Description: Using a collection of poems, this book introduces basic poems to children that make you smile, tell stories, send messages, and include the elements of images, word music, beats that repeat, likenesses, word play in a poem and special kinds of poetry such as limericks, takeoffs, songs and show-and spell poems.

Genre(s)/Subject(s): Anthology, Poetry and Rhymes, National Poetry Month,
Reading Level: Ages 8-12
Books Similar in Style, Content, Theme, or Characters: Free to… Be You and Me by Marlo Thomas, Poetry Speaks to Children illustrated by Wendy Rasmussen.
Programming/Lesson Ideas: Children can try to compose three different poems according to the functions of poems that can make people smile, tell stories, and send messages.
Personal Thoughts: This is a great anthology filled with beautiful poems and illustrations. It introduces the basic technique of writing a poem and how to appreciate the different kinds of poems to children. This book is well organized, broken down into three parts, and each part is explained with appropriate poems.


Biography:

40. Dahl, Roald. Boy: Tales of Childhood. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1984, 160pages. Tr. $27.16 ISBN 0374373744

Brief Description: In this book, Roald Dahl writes a memoir of his childhood, family, friends, and school life. Readers will learn about his fun adventures when he was little, his horrible experience of visiting a doctor, his first drive in the Moto-car, his closed relationship with his family, and more. Childhood photographs, letters, and drawings are included throughout the whole book.

Brief Description: This is a handy and elegant scrapbook introducing the life of Anne Frank. The cover of the book is Anne Frank’s different emotional photos. This book is presented in chronological order from 1925 to 1945, and is filled with photos of Anne Frank growing up, her family, their hiding place in the secret Annex, and people in the camp.

Reading Level: Ages 8-12

Brief Description: This book describes the life of Abraham Lincoln from his childhood, his marriage, working as a lawyer, his rise to presidency, his achievements in the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation and slavery, to his assassination. Photos of Lincoln in different periods of his lifetime can be found throughout the book.