The Color of My Words

The Color of My Words
By: Lynn Joseph
Multicultural/International Literature

This book is about a girl named Ana Rosa, who lives in the Dominican Republic with her family. Although being a writer in the Dominican Republic wasn't usual for someone, Ana Rosa wants nothing more than to be a writer when she grows up. During this time only the President was able to write freely, and according to Ana Rosa; many writers who where brave enough to "hurl words at our government, have died." Knowing that she loved to write, her mother encouraged her to keep quiet with her writing until she left the island. Since her family didn't have enough money to buy her a notepad, she stole her brothers notepad that he used for work. When Ana claims to see a "sea monster" in the Samana Bay, the village asks her to write an article about it. Everyone is proud of her story her brother even agrees to buy her a notebook every month for her writing. The "sea monster" turns out just to be a humpback whale and eventually leaves the bay. Ana Rosa's father teaches her to dance by listening to the "music of the sea" and she gets excited when she tries to use this new ability to win over her crush, Angel. Angel is her brother Guario's best friend. Unfortunately, Angel is more interested in Angela at the Christmas fiesta. Ana Rosa's Papi drinks a lot, especially on Sundays, and always asks her "I'm your Papi, right?" Then one day a stranger on a mule gives her five pesos and she learns from her mother that the stranger was her real father. She is upset, but decides that her family is still her family no matter what. The government wants to buy their village's land and Guario takes the lead in standing up for his village. Since the land has already been sold, they have no choice but to try and fight back with words. Because of the strong love she has for her brother, Ana Rosa decides to write an article that is printed in three different newspapers. Even though her mother was unhappy, everyone in the village was on their side. Their work is unsuccessful and the engineers come the next day to tear down the village. Guario decides the only way to fight now is with violence. They gather bats, broken bottles and stones and head out to face the workers. Unfortunately, the day that happens to be Ana Rosa's birthday also turns out to be the day of her brother's death. He had been killed and she felt responsible. She stops writing and doesn't start back until 6 months later when they finally celebrate her birthday and give her a typewriter (which was an idea of her brothers). She decides that what she will write next will be Guario's story.


This is a good book to expose students to other cultures because it presents things about the types of celebrations/fiestas they have, the kinds of foods they eat and the dances of the Dominican Republic. It also has random Spanish words used throughout the reading that can be easily understood or translated. This book also has various pages with sections that present comprehension and thought questions for the reader to use. These sections include questions about things like "before you move on, characters motives, setting and what will happen next." At the bottom of each page there is also an interpretation for phrases in bold. For example: examined=looked at, my cheeks were hot with shame=my cheeks turned red because I was embarrassed. This book also contains various poems that Ana Rosa wrote during her experience. This could be used in the classroom as a way to present your students with an idea of what the Dominican Republic is like. This can also provide the opportunity to discuss how important it is to appreciate the country we live in because we have very few restrictions. You could have your students write poems about something they experience or see, which will be similar to the poems Ana Rosa wrote.

Leah's Pony

Leah's Pony
By: Elizabeth Friedrich
Illustrated by: Michael Garland
Historical Fiction

This story is about a young girl whose family lives on a farm. Leah's father buys her a black and white pony and teaches her how to put the saddle on just right. Her pony is beautiful and during the summer she rides it through the corn pastures and cornfields into town. Their family is faced with hard times because of the Great Depression and Leah's mother has to make her underwear out of flour sacks. After watching their neighbors moved to Oregon in hopes for a better life, Leah's father realizes that they are going to have to sell everything, including the animals, truck and tractor. Leah realizes without the tractor, her family will have to give up the farm. Leah decided she has to sell her pony to Mr. B, the grocery store owner who thinks it's the finest pony in the country. She uses the dollar she received from selling her pony to bid on the tractor for her family. This selfless act encourages others to purchase the rest of the items for a small cost and give all of the things back to the family. Leah goes into the barn later to find that Mr. B returned her pony with a note that read, "This is the finest pony in the country. But he's just a little too small for me and a little bit too bog for my grandson. He fits you much better."

This book can be used in the classroom as a way to show students that doing something good for others simply out of the goodness of your heart can sometimes cause good things to happen to them. You could have your students do a selfless act and then write about and then discuss how it made the other person or themselves feel. If they got a good feeling from doing the act, you can then ask them to write a list of other simple things they could do and encourage them to carry out these things. To use technology you could have your students use the Inspiration program to make a map of the literary elements in this book.

Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade

Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade
By: Barthe DeClements
Realistic Fiction

This book is told from the perspective of a fifth grade student named Jenifer. Jenifer and the rest of her classmates make jokes and rude comments about the new girl Elise. They call her "gross,disgusting and fat." Elise's mother tells the teacher Mrs. Hanson that Elise is not allowed to eat anything for lunch besides what is in her lunch box. Elise gets in trouble with Mrs. Hanson when she begins to eat other students lunch. Elise learns they she can no longer ask her classmates for their food because she will be in trouble with the teacher. When lunch money begins to disappear, everyone suspects Elise, especially since Jenifer saw her in the store buying candy with two quarters. While Jenny is getting D's in math, Elise gets a 100 on every assignment. After Elise is embarrassed in front of the whole class when her skirt falls down, Jenny has the idea to ask Elise to be her math tutor. Jenny's mom agrees to pay Elise 50 cents an hour so she can pay back all the kids lunch money that she took. Just when things are starting to go slightly better for Elise, Mrs. Hanson accuses her of stealing the book money envelope, which she just happened to misplace. With Elise help in math, Jenny's grades began to improve and their friendship grew as well. They began to hang out more and Jenny became Elise only friend, not even her own mother seemed to like her very much. When all of the girls decide to get a ride from a stranger to the mall, he turns the wrong way and everyone else jumps out at the light expect for Elise's younger sister. Elise becomes extremely upset because she knows her mother will for sure send her to boarding school now. Luckily, Mrs. Hanson is able to talk Elise's mother into letting her return to school in the fall by telling her she is the top student and has been helping other students do better in school. In the end, Elise loses a lot of weight and is happy because she can see her shoes for the first time in two years, not to mention she has made best friends.

I think this book could be implemented in the classroom in various ways. For one, you could discuss with your students how important it is to be healthy and the dangers of becoming obese. This can be a lesson where you stress to them the importance of eating healthy and exercising and the many ways they can do this. You can also take the opportunity to talk with your students about how people come from different types of homes. It is essential that they know that someone should never be made fun of because of their weight or any other trait. Discuss with them how they shouldn't make judgments about people without really getting to know them first. You can share personal stories of your own with them about judgments you have made that turned out to be completely wrong. Challenge your students to work with and get to know someone that they normally wouldn't. This can be a good learning experience not only for the classroom, but for the real world as well.

My Name is Maria Isabel

My Name is Maria Isabel
By: Alma Flor Ada
Illustrated by: K. Dyle Thompson
Realistic Fiction

This book is about the story of a young girl whose family moves from Puerto Rico to a new town. When they move, Maria Isabel is sad about leaving her friends and nervous about attending a new school. On her first day of school her teacher decides that because there are already two students named Maria in the class she will call her Mary Lopez. Her full name is Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez, all which are names she got from relatives. Every time her teacher calls on her or asks her a question, she becomes angry with Maria Isabel because she doesn't respond. Maria becomes embarrassed and misses out on opportunities, including the school play because she isn't used to being called Mary Lopez and therefore doesn't know when the teacher is calling on her. Maria Isabel struggles with finding someone to talk to about the issue. A couple days before the play her teacher asks the class to write a paper called "My greatest wish..." Maria Isabel takes this as the opportunity to say she wishes she could be called Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez so that she won't have to miss out on things like being in the play. After reading her paper, the teacher calls her by her real name and ask her to sing in the play.

This book would be great to show students how hard it can be to stand up for yourself. You can use this as an opportunity to talk to your students about finding someone to talk to when something is bothering them. It could be great to read this book on one of the first days of school and let your students know that if they ever have a problem they can come to you. It is also a good book for teachers, because it shows how important it is to ask your students what names they prefer to be called. Students could participate in a group discussion and share something interesting about their name or where it came from. You could even have your students make their own name tags for what they would like you to call them.

The Smallest Cow in the World

The Smallest Cow in the World
By: Katherine Paterson
Illustrator: Jane Clark Brown
Fiction

This is a great book for children who have moved to a new town or school and may feel lonely or unhappy. A young boy named Marvin lives on a dairy farm with his parents and his sister May. While the family helps take care of the animals on the farm, Marvin grows particularly found of Rosie a cow that is disliked by everyone else for being mean. When Mr. Brock, the owner of the farm, decides to sell the land, Marvin's family must move to a new home. While everyone in Marvin's family found a new life filled with happiness, Marvin thought of Rosie and became sad. His parents tried to make him happy by offering him a kitten or a toy truck, but the only thing Marvin really wanted was to see Rosie again. Frustrated he acted out drawing on walls, pulling up the flowers in his mothers garden, but he blamed it all on Rosie. She had come back, but was now the smallest cow in the world because her last owner was a witch, who made her small for being so mean. When Marvin took his imaginary cow to school with him he got picked on by his classmates. May had the idea to tell Marvin that the imaginary Rosie was having a calf and she would have to stay home from school to take care of him. Marvin agreed and made sure that if they moved again that Rosie could always go with them. His family thought that sounded like a good idea and Marvin was happy that Rosie would never have to be alone again.

I loved that this book could be used to help children adapt to moving and how they can use their imagination when they feel alone. In the classroom, you could have your students think about and even write how they would feel if they moved to a new town and what kinds of things they would do to cheer themselves up. This can be a great lesson to show children that they should be appreciative when they see someone with a vivid imagination as opposed to picking on them.

The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks

The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks

By: Nancy McArthur

Science Fiction

This book is an interesting chapter book that both 4th and 5th graders and even adults would enjoy. It talks about the life of two brothers who are extreme opposites. While Michael is a messy and leaves trash all over the floor of their bedroom, Norman is a neat freak and can't stand the way Michael is. While Michael was careless about how messy the room became, Norman struggled to keep Michael's mess from "leaking" onto his side of the room. After Michael receives two seeds in the mail...the fun begins. He and his brother then plant them and watch as they grow. While Michael feeds his plant junk food, Norman decides to feed his plant more healthy foods. Once both of the boys begin sneaking their plants fertilizer, both of the plants grow unexpectedly tall and the boys start to notice that their dirty socks are slowly disappearing. The brothers and their parents then struggle to keep their secret from their friends and community. This book was funny and kept me continuously wondering what would happen next.

An easy and fun way to implement this book in the classroom would be to let the students plant and grow their own plants throughout the school year. You could allow them to feed their plants any kind of food they want and see how it affects the growth of their plants. It can be really fun for children because they may decide to feed their plant junk food like Michael or basic plant foods. You could also discuss with students the life cycle of a plant and what kinds of things help plants grow. If students have not read the next book: "Return of the Plant That Ate Dirty Socks," you could have them write their own short story of what they think will happen next.