Stone Soup

Stone Soup

By: Ann McGovern

Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks

Copyright date: 1968

Pages: 32

Genre: Folklore

Grade Level: K-3rd

Summary: A poor young man tricks an old lady into making him soup. When he asks her for food she claims to have none. He then asks for a stone and the woman is confused. Why would he want a stone? He tells her that you can make an incredible stone soup with the stone. He has her add more and more ingredients to the pot of boiling water with the stone until it just right. 

Classroom use: This book could be used to practice reading comprehension and sequencing. After reading the book you can have students cut out a big pot and all of the ingredients that were put into the soup. They can then number them and paste the ingredients on their pot in the order they were used in the story. 

Rating: 

	***	**	*	-	Comments
Plot	Plot is well developed with a sequence of events. The events are in good logical order. There is a clear conflict and resolution.	Plot contains a sequence of events. The events are in order but the conflict is not clear or does not contain a clear resolution.	There are events but they are not in good chronological order. The climax and resolution are lacking or not present.	Not addressed	*** The plot is well developed. There is a clear sequence of events which are in good logical order.
Characters	Characters are well developed with clear roles and contribute to the story. Reader is able to personally connect with the character(s).	Characters have clear roles within the story. Reader is not able to connect with the character(s).	Character(s) are present but do not have clear roles. Reader is not able to connect with character(s).	No characters developed	*** The characters are well developed. Each is different giving the reader two options of characters to connect with.
Style and Language	Book contains precise vocabulary, figurative language, and or dialogue. When dialogue is used it is effective and not distracting.	Book contains precise vocabulary and/or figurative language. When dialogue is used it is distracting.	Book contains very little precise vocabulary and no figurative language or dialogue.	Book contains no precise vocabulary or figurative language. No dialogue is used.	*** Language used in the book is effective. Dialogue contributes to the story and makes it more interesting.
Theme	There is a clear theme and it is easily identifiable by the story.	There is a theme but it is a little more difficult to identify.	The theme is almost impossible to identify.	There is no theme.	*** There is a clear theme that can be taken from this book.

Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed 

By: Reeve Lindbergh

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Copyright Date: 1990

Pages: 32

Genre: Folklore

Grade Level: 1st-4th

Summary: This is a story of John Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed, a man who planted apple seeds to grow apple trees all across the land. In this story he leaves seeds with a family, of a town he is passing through, and they plant them. The seeds grow into apple trees and when John makes his way back through the town the family thanks him for the abundance of apples that the trees have given them.

Classroom use: This book would be a great addition to a social studies lesson/ geography lesson. You could read the book together as a class and track his movements across the country marking every state off on a map that he went to and planted apple seeds. The kids could see his path and relate it to the story and also learn the location of different states.  

Rating:

	***	**	*	-	Comments
Plot	Plot is well developed with a sequence of events. The events are in good logical order. There is a clear conflict and resolution.	Plot contains a sequence of events. The events are in order but the conflict is not clear or does not contain a clear resolution.	There are events but they are not in good chronological order. The climax and resolution are lacking or not present.	Not addressed	*** There is a well developed plot which contains a sequence of events that are in good logical order.
Characters	Characters are well developed with clear roles and contribute to the story. Reader is able to personally connect with the character(s).	Characters have clear roles within the story. Reader is not able to connect with the character(s).	Character(s) are present but do not have clear roles. Reader is not able to connect with character(s).	No characters developed	*** The main character is well developed and readers are able to connect.
Style and Language	Book contains precise vocabulary, figurative language, and or dialogue. When dialogue is used it is effective and not distracting.	Book contains precise vocabulary and/or figurative language. When dialogue is used it is distracting.	Book contains very little precise vocabulary and no figurative language or dialogue.	Book contains no precise vocabulary or figurative language. No dialogue is used.	*** Language used in the book is effective with a great use of imagery. It contains poetic text which flows nicely.
Theme	There is a clear theme and it is easily identifiable by the story.	There is a theme but it is a little more difficult to identify.	The theme is almost impossible to identify.	There is no theme.	** There are a few themes that can be taken from this book rather than one clear theme.

Poems for the Very Young 

Selected by: Michael Rosen

Publisher: Kingfisher Books

Copyright date: 1993

Pages: 77

Genre: Poetry

Grade level: 1-4th

Awards: 1993 National Parenting Publications Award

Summary: This book is a varied collection of simple poems written by many different authors. The theme of most of the poems in this book is childhood adventures and everyday experiences that children have. These are fun poems with easy rhymes for young children to read, understand and relate to. The illustrations work well with the poems and help bring them more to life. 

Classroom use: I would use this book when introducing poetry to very young students. It contains sing-song rhyme and the poem lengths include very short and also long. I would have students draw a picture and from that picture write a short simple poem.  

Rating: 

	***	**	*	-	Comments
Plot	Plot is well developed with a sequence of events. The events are in good logical order. There is a clear conflict and resolution.	Plot contains a sequence of events. The events are in order but the conflict is not clear or does not contain a clear resolution.	There are events but they are not in good chronological order. The climax and resolution are lacking or not present.	Not addressed	*There is not really a plot as this book is a collection of poems.
Characters	Characters are well developed with clear roles and contribute to the story. Reader is able to personally connect with the character(s).	Characters have clear roles within the story. Reader is not able to connect with the character(s).	Character(s) are present but do not have clear roles. Reader is not able to connect with character(s).	No characters developed	***The characters in each poem are well portrayed by the poem itself and the illustrations.
Style and Language	Book contains precise vocabulary, figurative language, and or dialogue. When dialogue is used it is effective and not distracting.	Book contains precise vocabulary and/or figurative language. When dialogue is used it is distracting.	Book contains very little precise vocabulary and no figurative language or dialogue.	Book contains no precise vocabulary or figurative language. No dialogue is used.	**These poems contain figurative language and some precise vocabulary.
Theme	There is a clear theme and it is easily identifiable by the story.	There is a theme but it is a little more difficult to identify.	The theme is almost impossible to identify.	There is no theme.	***Each poem has an easily identifiable theme.

Poetry for Young People 

Written by: Emily Dickinson

Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company

Copyright date: 1994

Pages: 48

Genre: Poetry

Grade Level: 5-8th grade

Summary: This book is a collection of poems written by Emily Dickinson for young people. The illustrations are beautiful and are perfectly matched with the poems written. Most of the poems are written about nature and the beauty of it. One thing I thought was neat about this book is that it includes definitions of the more difficult vocabulary used in the poems. The definitions are found at the bottom of the page in which they are used on. 

Classroom use: With the use of difficult vocab words, this book would be a great one to have students read to learn new vocabulary. More specifically it can be used when teaching older students about poetry because the rhyming isn't as obvious. It is a good example to transition from the sing song rhyme to more advanced rhyme schemes. 

Rating: 

	***	**	*	-	Comments
Plot	Plot is well developed with a sequence of events. The events are in good logical order. There is a clear conflict and resolution.	Plot contains a sequence of events. The events are in order but the conflict is not clear or does not contain a clear resolution.	There are events but they are not in good chronological order. The climax and resolution are lacking or not present.	Not addressed	*The poems tell about specific objects or animals and describe them so there isn’t really a plot with events or a conflict and resolution.
Characters	Characters are well developed with clear roles and contribute to the story. Reader is able to personally connect with the character(s).	Characters have clear roles within the story. Reader is not able to connect with the character(s).	Character(s) are present but do not have clear roles. Reader is not able to connect with character(s).	No characters developed	** Sometimes it is hard to figure out what a poem is about but the illustrations help alleviate that confusion.
Style and Language	Book contains precise vocabulary, figurative language, and or dialogue. When dialogue is used it is effective and not distracting.	Book contains precise vocabulary and/or figurative language. When dialogue is used it is distracting.	Book contains very little precise vocabulary and no figurative language or dialogue.	Book contains no precise vocabulary or figurative language. No dialogue is used.	*** This collection of poems contains a lot of precise vocabulary and includes definitions of the difficult words at the bottom of the pages.
Theme	There is a clear theme and it is easily identifiable by the story.	There is a theme but it is a little more difficult to identify.	The theme is almost impossible to identify.	There is no theme.	*** There is a clear theme to each of the poems contained in this book.