Ten Not-to-Be-Missed Picture Book Reference Sites

Almost daily I receive an email asking for a list of books on a certain topic, or genre, or time period, or skill. Many readers of this blog first came here from Google seeking just that.

Fortunately there are some terrific sites out there that can provide teachers with basic lists of picture books, categorized in almost any way imaginable. The ten sites I've listed below will help you locate "the good stuff." Also be sure to take advantage of the expertise available through your local librarian or media center specialist.

Know of a site that should be here? Email me and let me know!


Dr. Sue LeBeau's Links to Picture Books

This nicely categorized collection of picture books provides a comfortable starting point for any teacher looking to incorporate picture books in a purposeful way. Sue has categorized them by Math, Science, Social Studies, etc. A site worth bookmarking.

Help Readers Love Reading

Here you'll find short and fun reviews of picture books. It's hard to keep up with all the new books out there, so a resource like this is your best bet. Blogger Brian Wilhorn reviews a single book every few days, and he seems to have some passion for it.

Reading Workshop

This site features a list of picture books that you can use to teach specific reading skills and strategies (foreshadowing,, predictions, setting, etc). For those looking for ideas for incorporation, and for those seeking specific titles, this site is an excellent resource.

Writing Fix: Picture Book Prompts

This site is packed with tons of resources, although for our immediate purposes I recommend the 60+ picture book inspired writing lessons (that's what I've linked to). You'll find some of your favorites here, along with complete lesson plans and ready-to-go printables for student use. All free! No registration or membership needed. Equally cool at this site, however, is the chapter book excerpts as mentor texts section, which enables you to use just a few pages, or a chapter at most, of a novel as a writing model.

Storyline Online

Famous celebrities read aloud from popular children's books! A fine and growing collection of favorite picture books.

Picture Book Database

A really terrific online tool that allows you to search picture book titles alphabetically by theme or topic.

Trade Book Matrices

Although it says at this site that these are book for adult learners, many of the titles in these downloadable Word docs are picture books. Books are grouped by topic (Westward Expansion, Civil Rights, Grandparents, Immigrants, etc.) and some teaching ideas are included for select topics.

Book Wizard from Scholastic

At this site, Scholastic provides a really valuable tool called BookALike. This allows you to enter a book title, find the exact grade-equivalent level of that book, and then browse books of similar reading difficulty and topic. What's even more useful is that you can use a "slider" to choose books of slightly greater or lesser difficulty. So if a student loved The Magic Tree House as a second grader two years ago, you can simply enter that title and then slide up two grades to locate appropriate titles for fourth grade.

Database of Award Winning Children's Literature

This database allows you to focus a search for both picture and chapter books as narrowly or as broadly as you choose by selecting such variables as genre, historical period, grade level, and even genre of protagonist. And as the title says, the titles produced in your search are award winners, so you can be relatively sure that they're worth a look.

All Together Now

A really extensive clickable list of themes, read-alouds, values, and topics. So many ways to search similar ideas, and the results are pretty complete! What's really cool is that the list is now online as a wiki, which means you can easily add titles to the list, thereby increasing its value to teachers like you! I personally added a list called Focused Reading Skills, and I absolutely encourage you to add your recommended titles.

Dollars and Sense for Students

When most of us hear the word economics, we think of either our present precarious financial circumstances, or of world financial issues far beyond our own understanding, let alone the understanding of our students. But the fact is, a number of variables from economics (supply, demand, surplus, and profit) are important components of simple financial literacy which our students, comprising one of the largest consumer groups in the world, need to understand in order to function and succeed in society. If they can avoid even half of the mistakes adults have made, we'll be much better off!

Understanding Global Economies

A simple picture book such as One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference concisely illustrates how planning, hard work, and determination can equal success. At the story's start, young Kojo and his mother just barely survive by gathering and selling firewood. When Kojo is granted a small loan, he chooses to purchase a hen. The hen not only provides eggs to eat, but additional eggs to sell, With the profits, Kojo buys more hens. What's really wonderful, and only revealed at the book's end, is that Kojo is based upon real-life Kwabena Darko, a man who literally changed the economy of his entire village through a microloan. Katie Smith Milway's patient and informative narrative is perfectly matched to Eugenie Fernandes' bright, mural-like illustrations. Kids Can Press provides a free teaching resource for One Hen, and the Heifer Village game (see below) would be an excellent extension for this book.

Similarly, Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life: A Story of Sustainable Farming (written and illustrated with photographs by Jan Reynolds) shows how people can interact with the environment, providing for their own needs while respecting natural resources. From the water temple system to the farmers' fields, the Balinese people rely upon predictable cycles for their survival. What happens when these cycles are threatened by nature's forces or human progress? Like One Hen, this book presents just a microcosm of world economy, perfect for a class study. See the three-part video series on the sustainability of rice farming at the Lee and Low Books site.

In looking at history through the eyes of economics, both The Silk Route: 7,000 Miles of History and We're Riding on a Caravan present child-friendly views of the complex economy of the Silk Road, which not only accounted for the livelihood of thousands in the Far and Middle East, but also largely drove European exploration efforts of the 1500s. If you're reading about Columbus or any of the other explorers seeking shorter routes to the Indies, it's important that students have perspectives from both sides. (It should also be noted that the latter book provides many wonderful details of Chinese cities through maps and descriptions. Now that China has pretty soundly reestablished itself as a giant in the world of commerce, this book couldn't be more meaningful).

Exploring Everyday Economics

How do economics work in our everyday lives? That question is answered through Lerner Publishing's excellent Exploring Economics Series. Do I Need It? or Do I Want It? by Jennifer S. Larson helps students see many of the variables involved in making budget choices. With sections such as Spending Money, Making Choices, Budgets, Wants and Needs, and Saving, this title is a perfect reading and comprehension level for elementary students. While it's as colorful and narrative as a picture book, it's also as organized and informative as a textbook. Larson's liberal use of questions, text boxes, and photographs will engage students from beginning to end. One recommended web site for extension of this title (found in the Additional Resources at the book's end) is the PBS's My Life feature on Money.

Who's Buying? Who's Selling? is another title in this series which helps students understand consumers and producers. This terrific examination of supply and demand is supported with a glossary and index, which can additionally be used to help students practice reference skills. Explore the entire series list at Lerner Publishing. Highly recommended if you're seeking to put a financial literacy program into place in the lower grades.

Finally, we can't talk with students about buying and selling without also discussing advertising. One of the best titles on that topic for upper elementary through high school students is Shari Graydon's Made You Look: How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know. Cartoon illustrations by Warren Clark, fab facts, quotes from the marketers themselves, charts, graphs, lists, and Try This at Home features make this book extremely attractive for this age group. The solid facts, delivered in a fun yet informative way, make it a winner with teachers. If you're looking for a consumer awareness title for this upper group, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Know, too, that if you're teaching persuasive writing to students, this book is equally valuable for that purpose. So many tricks of the trade that are used to "create demand" for products are reliant upon persuasive writing! This book would serve as an excellent sourcebook for any Language Arts or Tech teacher looking to design creative and original assignments for persuasive writing and presenting. (Be sure to check out the free lesson plans for this title at Annick Press; they'll also give you a good idea of the book's "look." Also, check out their cool thematic list, where you can click on a theme or topic to get related books, many of which also have free lesson plans).

Making Money is Kids Play!

The following web sites present simple simulations designed to help students understand the basics of any economy (supply, demand, capital, inventory, surplus, variables). While talk of economics may sound both complicated and intimidating, these sites make it easy! From the serious Heifer Village to the primary-level Bake Shop, there's something here for every student!

Heifer Village is a somewhat serious simulation which follows a native girl's efforts to secure her own goat, and in the process, her own means of livelihood. Older students will instantly recognize and appreciate the realistic game play. This one requires a bit of time, but students will soon get the hang of it. This is a natural extension of the idea of self-sufficiency found in One Hen. Your students may also enjoy providing feedback to the game's designers, as this is a beta version for which they're seeking suggestions.

Coffee Shop is just one of several math games which can be found at Cool Math. Like the other sites here, it requires that you take a look at all the possibilities to see what best matches your students' abilities and your teaching needs

In the Coffee Shop simulation, students must use their knowledge of controlling variables to run a successful business. They use a base amount of money to purchase supplies (4 variables there), and adjust their recipe (at least 4 variables) based upon past sales and the predicted weather for the following day (2 variables). In my first attempt at the game, my coffee recipe needed more cream. Some old lady (who looked a lot like my second grade teacher) wasn't too happy and poured it out on the sidewalk.

Like coffee itself, this game is addicting! It's a great simulation involving real-world variables in a highly entertaining way.

The Bakery Shop is designed for younger students. While it has some elements of The Coffee Shop, it's not nearly as "math rigorous," uses fewer variables, and is a little less realistic (that is, brutal) than the more demanding and unforgiving Coffee Shop. (Students above third grade will likely find Bakery Shop too easy).

Online Interactive Learning

These sites contain interactive learning which is less game-like and more content explicit. (And for the record, sites for teaching financial education to students are some of the ugliest and most confusing on the Internet! It took me a while to separate the wheat from the chaff! But I think you'll dig the ones below!).

Sense and Dollars is an informative yet engaging set of games for older students. It challenges what they know about earning, spending, and saving money through three interactive games (Check It Out, DreamProm, and Charge). Charge, for example, lets students choose luxury objects and pick a payment plan. It then calculates the object's real, eye-opening cost once credit card interest is added on!

The Story of Stuff is a 20 minute-long video which pretty creatively and accurately portrays our obsession with "stuff." It's appropriate for older students, but isn't exactly "rainy day matinee" material. Check it out for yourself and decide if it's right for your purposes.

Two great books to present with this video? If America Were a Village and If the World Were a Village, both written by David J. Smith. Each book uses a the limited scope of a village to compare the larger scope of the U.S. and the World. If America Were a Village, for example, asks, "How wealthy are we?" The answer:

In our U.S village of 100:

• 5 people have more than half of all the wealth.
• The one wealthiest person (and remember, 1 person represents 3 million people in the real America) has more than 30 percent of all the wealth.
• The 60 poorest people share only about 4 percent of the wealth.

Analogies like this make both books excellent resources for helping students see world economics in a more mathematically comprehensible way. Be sure to visit Kids Can Press to get free downloadable teaching guides for If the World Were a Village and If America Were a Village.

Don't Buy It: Get Media Smart! is a PBS site that helps students "see the ads" when they're hidden in plain site. Advertising Tricks is the first of four modules, followed by Buying Smart, Your Entertainment, and What You Can Do. This site is a great extension activity for Made You Look: How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know.

Did You Get the Message? is just one of the lessons available at EconEdLink. Even if you don't incorporate these lessons into your teaching, you'll still find some awesome links offered there.

So, what did I miss? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Nurturing a Sense of Wonder with Nonfiction Books

When I picked up A Place for Wonder: Reading and Writing Nonfiction in the Primary Grades, I really intended to just skim it over. After all, I now teach only sixth grade (this book is aimed at teachers of lower elementary grades) and I teach only reading and language arts (whereas this book, at first glance, seemed to be pretty much about science). Well, I read the introduction, and about two hours later discovered that I had read the whole thing from cover to cover. Not just read it, but thoroughly enjoyed it, and couldn’t wait to pass it on to a teacher of those grade levels so that they could put its ideas into action in their classroom.

First, know this: Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough don’t write in the world of the hypotheticals. Every idea they share for helping children make nonfiction discoveries comes from their real-life experiences with kindergartners and first graders. Every lesson plan has been implemented in “real time,” and it shows through the anecdotal stories, the authentic and very funny student dialogues, and their suggestions for practitioners based upon their experiences.

This isn’t another book of themes or centers; this is an easy-to-implement series of lessons which will assist any teacher, in any school environment, in opening the eyes of curiosity. And while some will argue that children are naturally curious, I would point out that schools have a way of stifling that curiosity. Not purposely, not systemically, but simply through neglect. A Place for Wonder shows how to take that natural curiosity and channel it toward authentic and purposeful explorations of nonfiction topics. What particularly impressed me was the plans for children to write their own nonfiction books, complete with table of contents and glossary!

My wife is a kindergarten teacher so she’s already laid claim to my copy. Looks like I’ll be getting another for my daughter’s teacher. It’s that good! I recommend you check it out online at Stenhouse, and get a copy for yourself, for a colleague in the lower grades, or for your own child’s teacher.

And now a small leap. Houghton Mifflin and author Pamela S. Turner have been kind enough to share copies of The Frog Scientist and Prowling the Seas: Exploring the Hidden World of Ocean Predators, two upper elementary level nonfiction science books. Know that these are not picture books, but lavishly illustrated chapter books, filled with photos from the scientific field.

I know a number of colleagues who love to focus their energies on readability levels and "age-appropriate" texts. I find their arguments a waste of time. The practice of limiting children to certain books flies in the face of both research and the way that I personally came to love reading. As Jo Worthy points out in “A Matter of Interest: Literature that Hooks Reluctant Readers and Keeps Them Reading”:

Far more important than readability is interest. When students have strong
interest in what they read, they can frequently transcend their so-called
reading level. Indeed, many educators and researchers consider interest to be a
paramount factor in all learning.

My own breakthrough experience came at age seven when my father handed me a field guide about snakes. He knew from my daily excursions turning over rocks and logs that I had an interest in such creatures. A confident graduate of first grade, I did my best to make sense of the task of reading the detailed descriptions of each snake type; I would have been less likely, by comparison, to struggle as doggedly with a fiction novel. At one point I came across this line: “Due to their coloring, these snakes are often inconspicuous in lower hanging trees branches.” Unable to parse out the meaning, I asked my older brother what “in con spish us” meant. He asked me to spell it. He then asked to see the book. I saw him read the sentences before and after the sentence containing my troublesome word. He returned the book and said, “It means not easily seen. The color helps it to camouflage itself.” And on that day I learned not just the value of context, but also the value of collaboration.

So what’s the point? The point is, younger children can benefit in many ways from nonfiction texts that are above their reading levels. Like me, they can piece together, sort out, and through collaborative efforts. make some sense of what they’re reading, especially if they’re reading with self-determined purposes.

A book like The Frog Scientist, then, which illustrates its points with clear, objective photographs, is perfect for young readers seeking information on a topic of chosen interest. In addition to providing facts about our amphibious friends, Pamela S. Turner captures the scientific attitudes and habits required to conduct meaningful work. Such life and vocational skills are a huge part of the much-touted 21st Century Skills, which makes this book even more important.

The Frog Scientist was recently awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)/Subaru SB&F middle-grade science writing prize. The book trailer below features biologist Tyrone Hayes (aka The Frog Scientist).

Prowling the Seas: Exploring the Hidden World of Ocean Predators is another well researched yet totally accessible book for children which focuses again on not just the creatures, but the scientists who work among them. Like The Frog Scientist, this book features amazing original photographs and accompanying detailed captions. Why are captions important? Watch your average reluctant reader (especially the boys) and they’ll page through books, simply looking at the illustrations. Occasionally, however, they’ll come upon an illustration so compelling that their internal sense of wonder will fire off multiple questions. This curiosity, in turn, drives them to read the captions in order to seek more information. Then their eyes may slide into the text itself, as they wonder what else there is to know about the illustration. Turner’s books do that: they sneak up and pull the reader into another world, and a whole new schema of understanding.

(A quick congratulations to Line of Alabama, and Wendy of Michigan, the winners of the Barefoot Books giveaway A Calendar Of Festivals: Celebrations From Around The World)

The Listeners: Remembering the Past by Celebrating the Present

The Listeners
by Gloria Whelan

Universal Themes:
Conflict Resolution, Courage, Heroism, Identity, Integrity, Problem Solving

On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863. Today we encourage students to celebrate Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation with Gloria Whelan's excellent new picture book The Listeners, published by Sleeping Bear Press.

In addition to their tasks of picking cotton, taking cows to pasture, and caring for the babies, Ella May and her friends are entrusted with the most most important job of all: that of crouching beneath Master's window each evening to collect information that the slaves on the plantation otherwise wouldn't hear. Which slaves are being sent away? Who's the new overseer that Master is hiring? What's that about a new president, and why are Master Thomas's words about him coming out "as mean as rattlesnakes"?

I loved this book, so I took a big chance. This year, after teaching third grade for nine years and fourth grade for thirteen, I moved up to sixth grade Reading and Language Arts. While I've always preached about the benefits of using picture books with the upper grades, I never before had to "put my money where my mouth is." So for my first picture book experience with my new sixth graders (three sections of 65 students total), I chose The Listeners.

In short, the book delivered. Students were turned on to the picture book experience.

The beautiful artwork and language of The Listeners complement each other perfectly (so much so that one student was convinced that the author was also the illustrator, so in tune were the paintings to the words on the page). My students especially enjoyed Whelan's use of metaphor, personification, and similes, such as "we make ourselves small as cotton seeds and quiet as shadows." This book helped my students realize that picture books can truly serve as "mentor texts," providing students with models for their own writing. Students discovered that what an author chooses to leave out becomes just as important as what she chooses to leave in.

Like every Sleeping Bear Press title from the Tales of Young Americans Series, this book is well researched and age-appropriate, while not being dumbed down in either language or content. (Another Young Americans title I previously recommended on this blog was Ann E. Burg's Rebekkah's Journey , a meticulously researched historical fiction picture book which describes President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to shelter 1000 Jews in upstate New York).

Teachers and parents will be delighted to know that this title (like other Sleeping Bear titles I've mentioned in previous posts) is accompanied by a free, pdf format teaching guide. The book is recommended for ages 6-10, but many of the activities can be adapted for use with older audiences.

For more information on the author and illustrator, visit the Sleeping Bear site. While there, be sure to also check out Sleeping Bear's mind-boggling variations on the picture book. Something for everyone, at every level!

Lee & Low Books: Globally Aware Picture Books

Here in New Jersey and in many other states across the nation, educators are encouraged to focus on 21st Century Skills, and with them, global awareness.

Teachers often lament, "How can I teach students about the world when they barely know about themselves, their families, and their own community?" I think this is answered beautifully through multicultural picture books, and one of the preeminent publishers of multicultural titles is Lee and Low.

I've been a fan for a while now; Ken Mochizuki, author of Heroes, Baseball Saved Us, and Be Water, My Friend (a biography of young Bruce Lee) publishes with Lee and Low. I recommend those three titles highly, but a fourth, Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story, is especially recommended to those readers of this blog who wrote in to thank me for the Holocaust books featured in a recent post. In this little-known true tale, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara makes the difficult decision to help thousands of Jews escape the Holocaust through Japan, against his government's orders. This books truly speaks to children about doing "the right thing" for others, no matter how little we seem to share in common with them.

What I didn't realize (until visiting their website and reviewing other titles) was that Lee and Low's specialty is multicultural children's books. Once again my job as a teacher and a blogger of picture books is made easy because the site features well-written, in-depth teaching guides for their titles. For the above-mentioned Passage to Freedom, for example, you'll find an Author Talk as well as a Teacher's Guide available either on the site or as a separate pdf download. The Guide features readability scales, themes, a summary, before and after reading questions, writing activities, ESL ideas, and extension lessons across the curriculum. So even if you're not studying the Holocaust or World War II, this Guide would help you understand how to use in the book in several other meaningful ways with your class.

What else will you find at their site? Homeschoolers will find several project and fundraising ideas. Teachers and homeschoolers alike will discover ideas for teaching current events by visiting the Calendar page. And finally, unpublished writers of color can enter to win the New Voices Award, which recognizes promising new authors.

I look forward to including Lee and Low titles in my future posts, but for now, do yourself a favor and head to their site. You'll be impressed by the diversity of their titles, as well as the resources they offer teachers and parents.