Wanted: The Perfect Pet is a touching and emotional story written by a young chap named Fiona Robertson. It is about a boy who wants a dog, but his poorly mother shut him down, by reminding him that his twenty-seven frogs would grow sad and eventually die of loneliness. BUT! The boy shoved and pushed and yelled in his mother’s face until his throat simply withered away. So, he decided to put up posters that showed pics of dank doges until someone found one. And then the story randomly shifts to a duck’s story, who somehow lives the life of a normal human, but without any friends. One day, he saw the boy’s advertisement and realized all he needed to do to gain a friend was to somehow turn into a dog, but since that wasn’t possible, he tossed up a nice little dog outfit and sauntered down the street, waiting amidst the midnight moonlight. When the boy found the duck, he was extremely, very, extra-ordinarily happy, but the duck couldn’t do any tricks or sticks or little kicks. So the duck’s costume thingy fell off, and the boy be like “WOT?!” and then he be like “Okay, fine. I take you home.” So the duck sauntered and strolled all the way back down 17th street straight into the boy’s young, flimsy house. The boy/duck duo then started testing their skills, and the boy started testing the duck to see its good points. The boy then be like “YOU ARE THE ABSOLUTE PERFECTIO PETIO!!!!!” and the duck quacked happily in the soft summer breeze. Connections: text to self: I can not relate, because I have never had a pet before because my parents be like “NO PET FOR YOU, BUILDING BANS IT!!!!!”. Text to text: I have read stories about ducks, dogs, and people. Text to world: Dogs and ducks are found all over the world. Text to media: Puppies in dresses are SO in on Instagram right now. I would recommend this lovely little book to lovely little children who want a pet but know they’ll never get one.

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind is a true story written by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon. It is about a boy who lives in a small village in Africa, and the food supply is running out, and there is no electricity there. The boy is worried about this problem, but then goes to the library and reads about electric wind. So he decides to build a wind turbine with the help of his friends. Once the turbine is complete, he plugs in a light bulb that immediately glows very bright. After that, a few years later, he uses electric wind to water his parents’ gardens and fields. I think this book is an amazing example of children who do stuff to help their community. I would recommend it to ages 6-9. Text to self: I have seen wind electricity before. Text to text: I have read about wind electricity before. Text to media: the boy was invited online to TED talk. Text to world: since this is a true story, it obviously happened in the world.

After The Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again is a story written and illustrated by Dan Santat about an egg who falls off a wall and wants go get back up the wall but it’s afraid of heights. So the egg decides to watch the birds from the bottom of the wall, but that isn’t very exciting. So it then tries to make a paper bird, but it flies over the wall, never to be seen again. So finally, the egg tries to climb the wall. It is scared at first, but as it goes higher, it is not so scared anymore. When it reaches the top, it explodes into a bird and flies into nothingness. Some connections: text to text: the original story features the falling and stuff. Text to media: There are stories on the internet about people overcoming fears and falling. Text to world: Same as media. Text to self: I have fallen off a wall before. It hurt. I would recommend this book for ages 6-9.

The Noisy Paint Box: The Colours and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art is a book about a boy who did normal everyday stuff until his grandmother gave him a paintbrush. The boy used the brush to paint stuff and then heard a hiss. He said his paintbox was making sounds but the people didn’t believe him. He went on painting and the colours kept on making sounds until he stopped painting. His parents didn’t understand his abstract art, so they sent the boy to art school. But he couldn’t ignore the sounds of the colours calling to him every day. One day, he attended opera. The colours made sounds in his mind again, and singing, and dancing, and the boy was no longer normal. He was now insane. He quit his job and moved to a different city to paint his abstract art, but the teachers did not like it. His friends wanted to paint abstract, but they did not know how, so the boy showed them and showed his paintings to the world. The boy had created abstract art, but still people did not understand, but later they did, and everyone was happy. Text to media: abstract art is being sold online on many websites around the world. Text to world: abstract art is being sold around the world in real life. Text to text: I have read books before with abstract art. Text to self: I have seen abstract art before. I would recommend this book to ages 6-9.

There is a book by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick about some kid who wants to get “there” and starts imagining stuff that will happen when it gets there. It thinks about many things, like what things will be there and how it will change and also what it’ll now know. It also imagines what creatures and stuff will be hiding in the stuff. And also other random stuff that doesn’t really matter to it. Then it wonders if other people are going there and then it wants to go to “elsewhere” instead. Then it decides it will stay in the same place and not go to “there”. Connections: text to world; lots of people are travelling different places around the world and some trips are being postponed due to airline delays and stuff like that. Text to text; I have read lots of books where people travel to different places. Text to media; in many video games and TV shows, people travel to different countries or worlds or whatever. Text to self; I have gone to different places before. I would recommend this book for ages 6-9.

Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa is a true story retold and illustrated by Jeanette Winter about a small girl who lived in Africa who was very smart and she won a scholarship to study in America. Then, she returned to Africa and saw there were no more trees or crops or birds left there. The forests were chopped down to make room for buildings, but no other trees were planted. So the girl decides to plant her own trees in her backyard. And more, and more. Then she tells the townspeople to plant seeds as well since it is good for the environment. The people planted trees everywhere then. The men say the women can’t do it, but the women go ahead. They are paid by the girl a small amount of money every time they plant a tree. Soon, everyone is planting trees everywhere. Then more men were chopping trees but the girl jumped in front of the men and tried to protect the trees, but she was sent to jail. Then more women plant even more trees until there are a lot of trees. Then the women could collect firewood closer to home. The land is no longer barren, thanks to the girl and all the women who helped plant trees. Some connections I can make are text to world, that lots of trees are being chopped down but people are standing up for it. Then text to media, the same stuff is happening in media like newspapers and the internet. Text to text is I have read a book like this before. I would recommend this book to ages 6-9.

The Fantastic Undersea Life Of Jacques Cousteau is a true story retold and illustrated by Dan Yaccarina about a young man who loved the water, and after breaking his arms in a car accident, he swam in the sea every day. He then got a pair of goggles that changed his life forever. He and a friend created the AquaLung, a device that would let divers stay underwater for longer. He then found ways to take pictures underwater, and light up areas of interest. He then bought a boat and turned it into a research lab. He discovered many treasures in the ocean and created the first underwater film. Many people liked it, so his team created more videos. He invented stuff that could go very deep into the ocean. Then he went to Antarctica where he saw lots of animals. His team built some underwater labs for people to live in, but since there was no sun, he failed. He was very famous and well known. His team explored the world, but then the ocean was being polluted, which made him sad. So then he created an organization which focused on protection of ocean animals. I would recommend this book to ages 6-9. 🌊

Bat’s Big Game is a book by Margaret Read MacDonald. It is about some creatures playing some kind of sport and then this egotistic bat shows up and ruins the entire game. The bat keeps on switching teams, which annoys the other teams, and then they kick the bat out because he was ruining the game too much. The text to text connection is there are animals in the book, and I have read other books with animals in them. Text to world is that animals were playing sports. In real life, scientists are actually creating ways for animals to play sports. Text to media is the animals playing sports; there are many pictures of that too. Text to self is the animals were playing sports, and I have played sports before.

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Sir Cumference + The Dragon of Pi is a children’s book written by Cindy Neuschwander and illustrated by Wayne Geehan. It is about a guy who gets sick and sends his son to cure him, but the son accidentally turns him into a dragon. So everyone is alerted, and the son has to find a way to turn the father back before it is too late. The son finds a magic spellbook with a riddle inside and tries to figure it out. The son goes to the wheelmakers first, then to the piemaker. He figures out that you need about 3 strips of pie to make the around of it. He found out that he needed about 3 strips to make a full circle. He found he needed then 3 and 1/7 of a strip to make the number. Then he made the potion and put all the ingredients to make it. But then he fell asleep and woke up late. They found the dragon, but they tried to measure the circumference around him but it was hard. They gave the dragon the potion and he turned back into a person. THE END π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π π

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Today my mom was feeling down so I decided to play her favourite piece on the piano to cheer her up. This was kind because the music lifted her mood greatly.