Phyllis Reynolds Naylor- Biography

 Title- How I Came to Be a Writer

Author- Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Illustrator- various sources

Publisher- Aladdin

Copyright Date- 2001

Number of Pages-  144

Awards- none -  The author has won the Newbery medal for her books.

Reading Level- Ages 9-13

Genre- Biography, Autobiography

Summary

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor writes her autobiography starting with the day she was born and continuing to present day (at the time of publishing).  She grew up in a family that loved books, in fact books were her only toys.  She was born into a poor family during the depression.   That didn’t stop her family from sharing their love of both theater and books.  Phyllis was sure she would be a teacher or an opera singer, when in fact she knew what she loved at an early age—and that was writing.  She was paid for writing at a very young age and decided maybe that would be her career.  The book follows her through multiple rejections, learning to write a story not just an event, and finding herself as a wife, mother and writer.  As you read you find out her inspiration for her Newbery award winning book Shiloh and the sequels.  You find out what haunts her when she writes and what sparks her imagination.  Her first biography is an average book, however maybe just like writing fiction books she will improve, she started out slow and became award winning.

Teaching Idea

I don’t know that I would use this book as an exemplary example of an autobiography.  I think I would use as it as an example of a fair to moderate example of an autobiography.  Much of this book concentrates on her writing, and she spends too much time sharing snippets of stories, poems and other writing she has done in the past.  Multiple pages show her book jackets, and while it is interesting it really doesn’t add much to her autobiography.   I think that students could read a good example of a biography and compare it to this book.  Then I would have them edit this book, and make suggestions to the author.  They would not necessarily be reading the entire book.  I would separate the book into three smaller chunks and have 3 groups of students.  I would have them edit independently first and turn that in.  Then I would have them come together as a group and compare and contrast their edits and make a list of the 5 most important changes for their section of the book.  Finally, the group would share their suggestions with the rest of the class.

Rating

Element of Literature	Excellent	Average	Inadequate	Not Addressed	Rating
Plot	The plot is engaging; the reader is invested in the outcome.  Contains conflict, a climax and a resolution.    The reader buys into the story line; it is believable to the reader.	The plot is average it contains some of the essential elements such as conflict, climax and resolution.  One element is either missing or poorly developed.  The reader may or may not buy into the storyline, it is just not that believable.	Multiple essential elements, conflict, climax and/or resolution are missing or poorly developed.  It is not believable and overall a bad plot.		The book is average at best.  There is some conflict and resolution depicted in her autobiography.  However, the reader just doesn’t get involved in the storyline.
Characters	Characters are unique and believable.  The characters come to life when the reader is engaged in the story.  When the book is done, the reader still connects with the characters of the book.  Characters have personalities, flaws, and feelings. There is a protagonist, possibly an antagonist and some supporting characters.	Characters are similar to other books, have little to no uniqueness.  When the reader is done with the book, they are also done with the characters, there is no lasting connection.  Characters display little in terms of personality.  There are no supporting characters, or no clear protagonist.	Characters are dull and lifeless, there is no connection to the characters.  There is no clear protagonist and no supporting characters.  The characters are too farfetched.		There is little connection to the author of the book, she starts off the book depicting her life growing up.  Then she forgets about herself and concentrates on books and pictures of books.  When the reader is done with the book they are done with the main character.
Illustrations	The illustrations share in the story telling. The pictures help to develop the characters, establish the mood, and setting.  They contain some of the following elements, hidden details, facial expressions, different viewpoints, interesting asides, action depiction, or supporting details.  The pictures themselves may be created out of different mediums in order to support the plot.  Visual elements are used effectively (line, shape, color, texture and composition).	The illustrations support the story telling.  The pictures help with some but not all of the following, establish mood and setting, and developing characters.  They contain few if any of the following elements, hidden details, facial expressions, different viewpoints, interesting asides, action depiction, or supporting details.  The pictures are basic and do not use visual elements effectively.	The illustrations are in conflict with the story.  The pictures do not develop or establish anything in relation to the book.  There are no additional elements in the illustrations.  Visual elements detract from the plot.		The illustrations do not support the story enough.  At times they are informative, but at other times they seem to be space fillers.
Word Choice	There are a more than two of the following elements used effectively, precise vocabulary, figurative language, dialogue, and music in language.	There are one or two of the following elements used effectively, precise vocabulary, figurative language, dialogue, and music in language.	There are none of the following elements or they are not used effectively, precise vocabulary, figurative language, dialogue, and music in language.		In the snippets of her writing Naylor shows great examples of effective word choice.  Her fictional writing is at a higher level than her nonfiction writing.  For this category I will put her at an average marking because the book is a mixture of examples of her fiction work and at the same time is her autobiography.

Mailing Mail -- Historical Fiction

 Title-  Mailing May     

    

Author- Michael O Tunnell

Illustrator- Ted Rand

Publisher- Harper Collins

Copyright Date- 1997

Number of Pages- 32

Awards- none

Reading Level- Ages 4-8

Genre- Historical Fiction

Summary

May wants to take a train to visit her grandmother in Lewiston, ID.  The problem is it cost $1.55, which is a full day’s work for May’s father.  Using some ingenuity and creativity May’s dad comes up with a solution.  He decides to mail May.  The postmaster marks May as a baby chick and puts her on the train on her way to her grandmother’s house.  After a humorous confrontation with the train conductor May is on her way.  You will need to read the book to find out what happens during the rest of May’s journey.

Teaching Idea

This book has some vocabulary that is specific to 1914, and students will not be familiar with all of the words.   Before reading the book I would supply the students with the words and have them listen for the words as I was reading the book.  Using clues from the story I would ask them to try to define the words.  After the story we would work together to correctly define the words.  As a follow up activity I would have the students go to Oxford Dictionary website (Archaic words) and look at their list of archaic words.  Then I would have they pick 3 words, define them, use them in a sentence, and draw a picture representing the word.  Then I would have students pick their favorite archaic word and share it with the class along with their sentence and picture. 

Rating

Element of Literature	Excellent	Average	Inadequate	Not Addressed	Rating
Plot	The plot is engaging; the reader is invested in the outcome.  Contains conflict, a climax and a resolution.    The reader buys into the story line; it is believable to the reader.	The plot is average it contains some of the essential elements such as conflict, climax and resolution.  One element is either missing or poorly developed.  The reader may or may not buy into the storyline, it is just not that believable.	Multiple essential elements, conflict, climax and/or resolution are missing or poorly developed.  It is not believable and overall a bad plot.		The plot is good and the reader wants May to reach her destination.  However, the book ends abruptly.  There is conflict, a climax and resolution.  The story is believable.
Characters	Characters are unique and believable.  The characters come to life when the reader is engaged in the story.  When the book is done, the reader still connects with the characters of the book.  Characters have personalities, flaws, and feelings. There is a protagonist, possibly an antagonist and some supporting characters.	Characters are similar to other books, have little to no uniqueness.  When the reader is done with the book, they are also done with the characters, there is no lasting connection.  Characters display little in terms of personality.  There are no supporting characters, or no clear protagonist.	Characters are dull and lifeless, there is no connection to the characters.  There is no clear protagonist and no supporting characters.  The characters are too farfetched.		The character is not unique, she could be replaced with any other child.  She is based off of a real person.  There is not lasting connection with the main character.  There is no clear antagonist.  There are supporting characters, and they have more personality than the protagonist.
Illustrations	The illustrations share in the story telling. The pictures help to develop the characters, establish the mood, and setting.  They contain some of the following elements, hidden details, facial expressions, different viewpoints, interesting asides, action depiction, or supporting details.  The pictures themselves may be created out of different mediums in order to support the plot.  Visual elements are used effectively (line, shape, color, texture and composition).	The illustrations support the story telling.  The pictures help with some but not all of the following, establish mood and setting, and developing characters.  They contain few if any of the following elements, hidden details, facial expressions, different viewpoints, interesting asides, action depiction, or supporting details.  The pictures are basic and do not use visual elements effectively.	The illustrations are in conflict with the story.  The pictures do not develop or establish anything in relation to the book.  There are no additional elements in the illustrations.  Visual elements detract from the plot.		The illustrations are amazing.  They were created using watercolors.  The pictures establish mood and setting.  They have hidden details, facial expressions, action depiction and supporting details.  The visual elements are used very effectively.  The story would be dull and lifeless without the illustrations.
Word Choice	There are a more than two of the following elements used effectively, precise vocabulary, figurative language, dialogue, and music in language.	There are one or two of the following elements used effectively, precise vocabulary, figurative language, dialogue, and music in language.	There are none of the following elements or they are not used effectively, precise vocabulary, figurative language, dialogue, and music in language.		The vocabulary is precise, there is some figurative language and dialogue.

Realistic Fiction- Junie B. Jones

Title- junie b. jones Toothless Wonder

Author- Barbara Park

Illustrator-  Denise Brunkus

Publisher- Random House

Copyright Date- 2002

Number of Pages- 80

Awards- None (The series is a New York Times Bestseller)

Reading Level- Ages 6-9

Genre- Realistic Fiction

Summary

Junie B. Jones experiences another major milestone in her life. She is losing a top front tooth, and she is the first in her first grade class.  At first she is excited, and then May makes her worry about it.  After that, her friend Herb tells her about his Uncle Lou who only has one tooth.  What if she looks weird like Uncle Lou?  She cannot let that happen.  So Junie B. decides that she will stop wiggling her tooth, and it will just tighten back up. Unfortunately for her, just like all loose teeth, it falls out, and Junie B. has to deal with it.  Junie B. faces a second dilemma- what good is the tooth fairy?  Is she really a fairy, or is she a witch?  And what does she do with all those teeth?  Join Junie B. Jones and read the book to find out.

Teaching Idea

Junie B. has some self-esteem issues in this this book. She starts off confident and excited.  However, May and Herb make her feel less confident, and really start to feel bad about herself.  She feels like she will look horrible when she loses her front tooth.  Junie B. and her friends say things like dumb, weirdo, all alone, freako, and I hate.  These are very hurtful words and children need to understand how much words really do hurt.  The lesson I would create would revolve around self-esteem and helping your classmates boost up their self-esteems, not break them down.  I would give the children 2 strips of paper, each with a name of one of their peers.  On the strip of paper, they would write down a complement.   They would then put them in the Feelings Bucket.  After checking to make sure they were all appropriate I would read them aloud to the class.  I would leave up the Feelings Bucket so that students could randomly write positive notes to their classmates, and take time each day to grab a note out of the bucket and share it with the class.

Rating

Element of Literature	Excellent	Average	Inadequate	Not Addressed	Rating
Plot	The plot is engaging; the reader is invested in the outcome.  Contains conflict, a climax and a resolution.    The reader buys into the story line; it is believable to the reader.	The plot is average it contains some of the essential elements such as conflict, climax and resolution.  One element is either missing or poorly developed.  The reader may or may not buy into the storyline, it is just not that believable.	Multiple essential elements, conflict, climax and/or resolution are missing or poorly developed.  It is not believable and overall a bad plot.		The plot is great for young readers.  The reader wants and almost needs to know what happens to Junie B. and her tooth.  There is a clear conflict, climax, and resolution.  In fact, there is more than one.
Characters	Characters are unique and believable.  The characters come to life when the reader is engaged in the story.  When the book is done, the reader still connects with the characters of the book.  Characters have personalities, flaws, and feelings. There is a protagonist, possibly an antagonist and some supporting characters.	Characters are similar to other books, have little to no uniqueness.  When the reader is done with the book, they are also done with the characters, there is no lasting connection.  Characters display little in terms of personality.  There are no supporting characters, or no clear protagonist.	Characters are dull and lifeless, there is no connection to the characters.  There is no clear protagonist and no supporting characters.  The characters are too farfetched.		Junie B. is unique to herself, yet children relate to her so much they could almost take her place in the book.  She comes to life complete with flaws.  There is a clear protagonist, antagonist and a strong supporting cast of characters.  The reader wants to know what happens to Junie B. as she continues through first grade.
Illustrations	The illustrations share in the story telling. The pictures help to develop the characters, establish the mood, and setting.  They contain some of the following elements, hidden details, facial expressions, different viewpoints, interesting asides, action depiction, or supporting details.  The pictures themselves may be created out of different mediums in order to support the plot.  Visual elements are used effectively (line, shape, color, texture and composition).	The illustrations support the story telling.  The pictures help with some but not all of the following, establish mood and setting, and developing characters.  They contain few if any of the following elements, hidden details, facial expressions, different viewpoints, interesting asides, action depiction, or supporting details.  The pictures are basic and do not use visual elements effectively.	The illustrations are in conflict with the story.  The pictures do not develop or establish anything in relation to the book.  There are no additional elements in the illustrations.  Visual elements detract from the plot.		The illustrations support the story; they are helpful but not necessary.  They do have some facial expressions and supporting details.
Word Choice	There are a more than two of the following elements used effectively, precise vocabulary, figurative language, dialogue, and music in language.	There are one or two of the following elements used effectively, precise vocabulary, figurative language, dialogue, and music in language.	There are none of the following elements or they are not used effectively, precise vocabulary, figurative language, dialogue, and music in language.		The vocabulary is precise, it mimics the voice of a first grade students, grammatical errors and all.  There is dialogue and figurative langue.