July Recommendations

David Wiesner
Art and Max
A picture book about an artist and someone who wants to be an artist! David Wiesner lets the art drive the story in this joyous colorful display. The characters, two lizards, come to life and explode across the pages with feelings and colors.
The ultimate story of building a new vision and gaining inspiration from a friend.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Max-David-

Video of David Wiesner talking about the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Max-David-Wiesner/dp/0618756639/ref=pd_sim_b_3

William Carlos Williams is a favorite poet of mine. Sour Grapes, one of his early collections of poems has beautiful language. His poem, Queen Anne's Lace, is exceptional. It is free on Amazon for Kindle!
Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems
Published before 1923, publishers have renewed it because of its cultural significance.

http://www.amazon.com/Sour-Grapes-Book-Poems-ebook/dp/B004TS7XWM/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Receive a free PDF of the book here.
http://www.archive.org/details/sourgrapesbookof00willrich

Enjoy!

Giant Steps to Change the World

This book is an interesting text not only for the message but also the text structure. It is written by Spike Lee and Tanya Lewis Lee.
The URL to see this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Giant-Steps-Change-World-Spike/dp/0689868154/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307896009&sr=8-1

I highly recommend this book for its key message: "Everyone has it in them to be a hero."

Hidden Gems Book Study

Yesterday I had an opportunity to work with teachers in a book study with Katherine Bomer's book, Hidden Gems http://www.heinemann.com/products/E02965.aspx. We used Katherine's text to look at literature as a resource for teaching writing, studied student work, and learned about the use of "long language" for describing the "hidden gems" we find in students' writing.

During this study group, I offered two books, Naomi Nye's book, Honeybees; Poems and Short Prose http://www.amazon.com/Honeybee-Poems-Naomi-Shihab-Nye/dp/B001KZI7UE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305932730&sr=8-1 and When the Bees Fly Home by Andrea Cheng http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884482383

These books are both ripe with teaching opportunities for adults as well as children.Cheng's text is about "hard times" an appropriate book for building conversation about our current economic situation. It has an interesting text structure of nonfiction blurbs about bees woven into the fictional account of a brave little boy.

Welcome

I have created this Blog, Books for Literacy Teachers, as a resource for Cornerstone teachers. I hope to add many more great books to the world of teachers as we serve children. Showing our passion for books is a way to develop our readers. Enjoy!