Smoky Nights

Smoky Nights

Author: Eve Bunting

Genre: Fiction

Grade Level: Grades 2-6

Year Published: 1994

Summary

This is a book about a mother and son, Daniel, who are witnessing rioting and violence on their street. They watch the rioting for a while, and then they go to bed. The boy is woken up by his mother a little later, because there is a fire in their building from all the rioting. The boy is distraught because he cannot find his cat. They go to a shelter with all their neighbors, and their other neighbor, Mrs. Kim, who they do not associate with, is also missing her cat. Eventually, a firefighter brings the two cats to their owners, and the mother and Mrs. Kim realize that they do not even know each other and that they should be friends. 

About the Author

Eve Bunting was born in Northern Ireland, and moved to the United States in 1958. She currently has three children and four grandchildren! She first dabbled into writing when she took a college course, a creative writing class. Her first published story was The Two Giants. She likes to write about just about anything, and has written picture books, novels, and a few nonfiction books. She writes about tough issues, including racial issues, death, and even war.  She currently resides in Pasadena, California with her husband, where her hobbies are reading and hitting the golf course.  

Source:http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/eve-bunting

How to Use it

The main idea of this book is to open the eyes of children to some conditions that other children have to live in, and what they have to witness every day. Another main idea is that if you do not know someone, you should not dislike them. Everyone has the possibility of being a great friend if you would only get to know them. 

Pre-Reading: Discuss the setting of the book with the students. Explain what a riot is and why some people do it. Explain that while this is not a good thing at all, it can happen anywhere, and some children in the world see it every day right outside their houses.

Post-Reading: This would be a great book for students to respond to with writing. They could write a poem based on the book, or just do an entry in a Reader's Response journal. In addition, this book could kick off a discussion of diversity.

What do I Think?

I don't know that I would use this book with my first graders, but I think that it is an excellent book! It addresses diversity and some tough issues that go along with it. It could also be used to teach vocabulary. This is an excellent book to enrich a social studies curriculum. 

Officer Buckle and Gloria

Officer Buckle and Gloria

Author: Peggy Rathman

Genre: Fiction

Grade Level: Grades K-2

Year Published: 1995

Summary

This book takes place in a place called Napville, and it centers around a policeman, Officer Buckle, who knows more about safety than anyone else in the town. No one listens to his safety tips until he brings the police dog Gloria with him. Without Officer Buckle knowing, Gloria acts out the safety tips in a way that grabs everyone’s attention, and all of a sudden Officer Buckle and Gloria are requested everywhere. When Officer Buckle discovers that everyone is watching Gloria and not him, he stops doing the safety tips. Eventually, Gloria and the children convince him to come back and help after Napville has its worst accident ever!

About the Author

Peggy Rathman was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was one of five children. She attended many different colleges with many different majors, and eventually received a B.A. in  psychology from the University of Minnesota. She then studied children's book writing and illustration at Otis Parsons School of Design in L.A. She says, "I spent the first three weeks of my writing class at Otis Parsons filching characters from my classmates' stories. Finally, the teacher convinced me that even a beginning writer can create an original character if the character is driven by the writer's most secret weirdness. Eureka! A little girl with a passion for plagiarism! I didn't want anyone to know it was me, so I made the character look like my sister." This resulted in her first book, Ruby the Copycat. Since then, she has written many more books, including Good Night, Gorilla, and Ten Minutes till Bedtime. She resides in Nicasio, California with her husband.

Source: http://www.peggyrathmann.com/peggyrathmann.html

How to Use it

The main idea of this book involves the safety tips that Officer Buckle gives. Also, it shows how two people (or, in this case, a person and an animal), can work together to get across an important message. 

Pre-Reading: Talk to the children about safety rules. How important are they? What are some examples of them? Make a list with the children about some rules that they are aware of in their school. What makes some rules more important than others? What kinds of things would happen if there was no rules? Discuss this with the class as a whole group.

Post-Reading: Each child should individually make up a rule that they think would be the most important rule in their school. On a star-shaped paper, they should write the rule and illustrate Gloria acting out the consequences if the rule isn’t followed, as she does in the book.

 

What do I Think?

This book fits in quite nicely with our first grade social studies unit of rules/laws. I will definitely use it in my classroom this year. I think that the book is entertaining, informative, and thought provoking.