The Lion the Witch and thd Wardrobe (novel 2 choice book)

I read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe as on of my choice novels. This book is really a wonderful story. Its so full of mystery, adventure, fantasy, and great character development. In this story four siblings discover the magical world of Narnia and learn they are destined to save it. Aslan the magical talking lion acts as their guide (and almost as a metaphor for God.) In the story the four main characters seem to have grown apart and have to come back together and work as one to overcome the evil witch trying to take over Narnia. The story follows them as they are split up and the multiple story lines that take place for them to ultimately end up back together to fulfill their destiny. The story teaches lessons of friendship, loyalty, trust, resilience, and bravery. I think these great lessons paired with a deep and interesting story make this a great book for anyone. The story contains plenty of drama adventure and action to keep it very entertaining and keep the reader interested. The book contains lots of action and battle "scenes" without ever getting to graphic and is overall in my opinion appropriate for most children. I think something else that's great about this book is that so many things in it can be taken as a metaphor. I think that for older readers this is really great and adds a new level to the story of the book. The story can be seen as sort of a pilgrimage for the four characters with Aslan as their righteous guide. There are also many biblical allusions in the book that add yet another layer to the story where Aslan can be seen as a representation of Jesus when he sacrifices himself for Edmund (one of the 4 siblings) who betrayed him. Overall this is a wonderful book with tons of layers and elements, a compelling story, and great character development. I would definitely recommend it.

This is Not My Hat

I read This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen as my second Caldecott winning book. This was great one. I thought the illustrations were well done and really liked the style. They look like cutouts and are very simple and aesthetically pleasing. The book uses irony to make it very funny and amusing for young kids. In the book a small fish steals a hat from a big sleeping fish and runs away bragging about how he'll never know and it will be easy for him to get away. Meanwhile the big fish is onto him and following him the whole time. Each page kind of switches back and forth between the small fish saying something and then the big fish contradicting that and pursuing him. It was really cute and I think it would be very entertaining for young kids. I definitely think this would be a great book for the elementary classroom.

The Lion and the Mouse (Caldecott)

I read the Lion and the Mouse as one of my Caldecott award winning books. The book is illustrated by Jerry Pinkney and is wordless. The book teaches that what goes around comes around. In the beginning a lion spares a mouse's life instead of eating him and later in the book the mouse comes to his rescue to save him from a poachers trap. The illustrations in this book are really amazing and expressive and I think the visuals are really great. This is a great book for younger kids and teaches a really great lesson about the way you should treat others. It isn't hard to see why its an award winner. I would definitely suggest this book for younger kids.

The Ranger's Apprentice (novel 1)

The first novel that I read, not counting Harry Potter, was The Ranger's Apprentice a book that has won several awards including "Books of the Year for Older Children, Aurealis Awards, and  Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book  . This book follows the story of a teenager in a medieval fantasy world and is written by John Flanagan. In the story the main character Will is caught climbing a tower, breaking in, and stealing a cake by a master "ranger" named Halt. Instead of being angry he is impressed with the skills Will displayed and takes him as his apprentice to become a ranger. The rangers are highly skilled stealthy warriors who take on extremely high risk and difficult covert operations for the king. This first book in the series follows Wills training and is full of adventure. I think this is a great read for kids around middle school age. It has a ton of action to keep them interested without being too graphic. The protagonist being a teenager I think also would make the book much more relatable for kids around this age. In the beginning of the story Will and his friends are preparing to meet the masters of different trades to pick their professions. Out of all of his friends Will seems to be the only one who hasn't figured out what he wants to do and doesn't know who will accept him as an apprentice. After being rejected by everyone he attempted to have take him he meets Halt. I think this situation is one that a lot of kids can really relate to. Not knowing where you fit in or who will accept you is something that I think a lot of kids around this age are faced with and I think this book does a great job of showing that even if things don't seem to be working out how you planned, everyone has a place and can achieve something great. This was one of my all time favorite series as a kid and I'm glad that I got to reread it. I highily recommend this book for middle-schoolers and older kids.

The Amory Wars (Graphic Novel)

For my graphic Novel I read the Amory Wars: Second Stage Turbine Blade. This is a graphic novel that's labelled as young adult literature. It is written by Claudio Sanchez who plays guitar and sings in the band Coheed and Cambria. The bands music narrates the graphic novels that Sanchez writes which is very interesting. Although I really enjoyed the novel I would definitely not consider it young adult literature. Its extremely dark, extremely violent, and full of foul language. I personally really liked it but as a teacher I don't think its necessarily something that would be appropriate in a school setting. Looking past the inappropriate content, however, the story is really great. The book follows a man and his wife in a futuristic scifi setting who learn that they have super human abilities and are captured by the lead antagonist so he can manipulate these powers to take over the known universe. As you can imagine there is a lot of action that really keeps the book exciting and there are also very interesting  character interactions. Overall I highly recommend this graphic novel to people in high school or older but would definitely not recommend it for anyone much younger than that as it does contain very mature content.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (movie adaptation book)

I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone as my book that has been made into a movie. I love this book and I think it's great for kids of many ages. The book is filled with crazy wild magic and adventure that I think makes kids imaginations run wild. I know it did when I read it the first time in fourth grade. I think the book is written in a way that is fairly easy for younger kids (4th-5th grade) to be able to read. I think this story is really any kids dream, to be taken away to live in a magical world full of brand new crazy things to explore. As crazy and full of fantasy as the book is I think that it is also quite relatable for kids in a way. Harry goes to a new school and isn't sure of himself, how he fits in, or how to make friends. I think a lot of kids have faced similar situations maybe moving to a new school, joining a new club, or something along those lines so I definitely feel that kids could identify with that. On top of all of this the book is full of excitement and rarely has a dull moment. Even when there isn't much happening J.K. Rowling has a way of still making it interesting. The great amount of action really keeps the reader interested. This whole series is great and I think are great books for kids of a wide range of ages.