Traditional Tales

Title: Little Red Riding Hood
Author/Illustrator:  Trina Schart Hyman
Publisher: Rotkappachen
Publication Date: 1983
ISBN: 9780823404704
Rating: 5 out of 5 wolves 
Summary: The classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood was one of my favorites as a child. Little Red Riding Hood, Elisabeth, was on her way to her grandmothers house with a basket of food and drinks. She was told to go right to her grandmothers house without stopping anywhere. On her way there, she met a wolf in the woods who ended up following her all the way to her grandmothers house. Read the rest of the book to find out what happened between the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood!


Title: Charlotte's Web
Author/Illustrator:  E.B. White
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Publication Date: 1952
ISBN: 9780064410939
Rating: 5 out of 5 webs
Summary: This award winning book is a a favorite among young children! Wilber is a pig who lives on a farm who is lonley. One day he meets a spider, Charlotte, and becomes best friends. because of their friendship, Wilber's life turns around for the better and great things begin to happen. Pick up a copy to find out these wonderful things that happen between Wilber and Charlotte!







Title: The Rough-Face Girl
Author/Illustrator: Rafe Martin 
Publisher: Puffin Books
Publication Date: 1998
ISBN: 9780698116269
Rating: 5 out of 5 faces
Summary: This tale is a version of the well known Cinderella. A young Algonquin girl is seen as being invisible to her family ends up proving to a mysterious man that she is the right one for him. Although her body is covered in scars, cuts, and bruises, the young man chooses her over her two beautiful sisters. Read the book to find out more, as it will bring back memories of when you may have read about Cinderella as a child. 

Beginning Readers

Title: Rotten Ralph's Rotten Family
Author/Illustrator:  Jack Gantos and Nicole Rubel
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Children
Publication Date: 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-36353-6
Rating: 5 out of 5 cats
Summary: This beginning reader book introduces short chapters to students who are learning to read on their own. Rotten Ralph is a cat who loves to get into trouble with his owner, Sarah. Ralph does not understand why he is so rotten. By the end of the story, Ralph finally understands that Sarah gave him a great life and why he was so rotten. 












Title: A Day in the Life of a Builder
Author:  Linda Hayward
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley
Publication Date: 2001
ISBN: 0-7894-7363-1
Rating: 5 out of 5 hammers 
Summary: This is an amazing beginning reader book, including learning how to read time on a clock and analogue, as well as reading sentence structures. Jack is a builder who also has a family at home. He goes through his day building houses, going to meetings, and spending time with his family, which shows the reality of the life of a builder, at work and at home. There are specific words, related to building that are hi-lighted through the text with pictures to correspond to help readers learn how to read them with a relation to a picture.  





Title: Hattie, Tom, and the Chicken Witch
Author: Dick Gackenbach
Publisher: Weekly Reader Books
Publication Date: 1980
ISBN: 0-06-021958-0
Rating: 4 out of 5 Easter eggs
Summary: Hattie Rabbit and Linda Chicken are two friends who love Easter, which is coming very soon. When they are together one day, they see a sign on a tree advertising for specific animals to be in an Easter play. The sign said that chickens were wanted, not rabbits, which allowed Linda to be in the play, but not Hattie, which made her so upset. Read the rest of the book to find out what happened in the Easter play!

Picture Books

Title: David Goes to School
Author/Illustrator: David Shannon 
Publisher: The Blue Shy Press
Publication Date: August 1999
ISBN: 978-0-590-48087-1
Rating: 2 out of 5 timeouts 
Summary: David Goes to School does not have a lot of text to read. It is easy reading for students, but much of it is negative language and yelling at David for what his actions in the classroom are. The text is written in a child's handwriting to make it seem like David is the one who is writing it. 









Title: Blue on Blue
Author: Dianne White
Illustrator: Beth KrommesPublisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division 
Publication Date: 2014
ISBN: 9781442412675
Rating: 4 out of 5 raindrops 
Summary: This book has a lot of repetition, imagery, and rhyming. The text is very simple which is good for beginning readers. The illustrations through the book are very detailed and help the reader connect to what is being read through the descriptive words.







Title: Madeline
Author/Illustrator: Ludwig Bemelmans
Publisher: Penguin Putnam
Publication Date: 1939
ISBN: 9780606184267
Rating: 5 out of 5 hats 
Summary: Madeline is one of my favorite books from childhood, with such a great story line and pictures to accompany it. The text is easy for beginning readers, but is also long enough for parents or teachers to read to their children. Madeline is always curious and getting herself in trouble, compared to the rest of the girls in her home, suddenly then, she gets appendicitis and her crazy actions are soon settled down, for a short amount of time. 

Decodable Texts

Title: Mat
Author: Bobby Lynn Maslen
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: May 2006
ISBN: 978-0-439-17545-6
Rating: 4 out of 5 friends
Summary: This book introduces beginning sounds m,a,t, and s. There was also some rhyming through the book, ex. Mat sat. The only part of this book that I did not think was appropriate for young children was that Mat sat on Sam and Sam sat on Mat, which may show children that it is okay to sit on their friends. 


Title: Muff and Ruff
Author: Bobby Lynn Maslen
Publisher: Scholastic 
Publication Date: May 2006
ISBN: 978-0-439-17552-4
Rating: 4 out of 5 tugs
Summary: This book introduces the u and f sounds in words. There were some pages with sounds that may have tricked beginning readers and have confused them what sounds they were supposed to be saying. It was about a cat, Muff, and a dog, Ruff, who are tugging on a rug together. 


Title: Lad and the Fat Cat
Author: Bobby Lyn Maslen
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: May 2006
ISBN: 978-0-439-17555-5
Rating: 4 out of 5 cats
Summary: This book introduces the sounds of l, k, and x. There were focuses on the l and k sounds a lot more than there were for the x sounds that beginning readers would have noticed. It was about a boy named Lad who napped a lot and had a cat names Kit who sat in a box and had six kittens. 

Wordless Picture Books

Title: Free Fall
Author: David Wiesner
Publisher: Lothrop, Lee, & Shepard Books
Publication Date: 1988
ISBN: 0-688-05583-4
Rating: 5 out of 5 dreams
Summary: A young boy falls asleep in his bed while reading a book about traveling around the world. During his dreams, he is floating through time, from place to place, relating to what was in the book he was reading. This book shows children that you can go anywhere in life if you dream big and believe in yourself. 




Title: Sidewalk Circus 

Author: Kevin Hawkes
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Date: 2004
ISBN: 0-7636-1107-7
Rating: 3 out of 5 clowns
Summary: A new circus is coming to town and the streets are starting to become decorated with flyers, pictures, ticket sales, and so much more! Everyone in town is so excited to see the circus on opening day because of how amazing the publicity has been. If you want to know what to expect at the circus, you will have to wait until opening day to see all of the surprises!

Title: Rainstorm
Author: Barbra Lehman
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Publication Date: 2007
ISBN: 978-0618-75639-1
Rating: 5 out of 5 rain drops
Summary: On a rainy day, a little boy wants to go out and play with friends. He comes across a chest that he climbs into which leads him to another land. Where this new land takes him is wonderful and makes him so happy, but you will have to read it to see it! Jump in the chest with the boy to find out!