Sing a Song of Piglets

Author: Eve Bunting

Illustrator: Emily Arnold McCully

Genre: Poetry

Grade Level: PK-1

This book is a about little pigs during the months of the year. It is a calendar in verse. It talks about what the pigs do in each month and their adventures throughout each month of the year. All these things would be fun to do alone but the pigs are glad they have each other to experience all these fun things to do during these different seasons and months of the year. 

The pictures are very vibrant and fun! The color scheme depicts each month of the year and the weather during that time of the month. The pictures describe what the pigs are doing in each of the months and go well with the description to really tie in what this poetry book is about.

I could use this in the classroom to learn about the months of the year. We could read the book and then draw out their own pigs and their favorite things to do during those months of the year. 

Tad and Dad
Author/Illustrator: David Ezra Stein
Genre: Fantasy 
Grade Level: PK-1

Caldecott Honor winner David Ezra Stein wrote and illustrated this book. Tad loves to spend time with his dad. He looks up to his dad so much. Pretty soon Tad starts to grow and become more and more like his dad. He starts to have dreams that he can do all things like his dad. During the night he is being very disruptive and his dad can not sleep. His dad gets annoyed and tells Tad to go away so he can sleep. Tad goes away and his father still can't sleep anyways. Tad comes back and his dad falls fast asleep. Tad knew that his dad missed him. 

The illustrations are bright watercolors that depict day and night as well as the emotions that the frogs are feeling. Some of the illustrations take up the whole page and some only take up some of the page. The color scheme was mostly all cool colors to depict where a frog would live. 

We can use this book to discuss with students how we are constantly growing and changing but our parents will still love us anyways. We can also use this in the class to talk about who in our lives we look up to and want to be like someday.