Duck for President 
Author: Doreen Cronin
Illustrator: Betsy lewin
Genre: Fantasy
Grade level: K-2

Farmer brown always has a lot of work to do. The animals have chores that they have to do. Duck didn't like to do chores and made a sign to hold an election for the farm. Farmer brown ran to the barn and saw that they were registering to vote. On election day duck won and farmer brown demanded a recount and the voters still voted Duck. Duck was eventually the owner of the farm but he did not like it at all. They started to work on ducks campaign for governor. Duck won governor. He didn't like being governor so he decided to campaign for president. Duck wins president. Being president wasn't fun. He saw that a duck was needed at the farm. He decided to go back to the farm and duck worked on his autobiography.

I could use this book in numerous different ways in the classroom. We could use this book for a math lesson because there is a lot of counting and big numbers involved. I could also use this book when we learn about the justice system and how to vote. It can highlight the importance of registering to vote and voting for the future of our country.

The illustrations are very fun and colorful. Their is some white space in between the words but that adds interest to the pages and really makes the illustrations pop out. The drawings are cartoon style and very cute! 

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? 
Author: Jane Yolen
Illustrator: Mark Teague
Genre: Fantasy
Grade Level: K-3

How does the dinosaur say goodnight when papa comes in to turn off the light. This book goes on to tell different situations like does he pout, throw his teddy bear, stomp, shout, roar, demand a piggy back ride, mope, moan, sulk, sigh, and cry. This book is a rhyming book that then describes that the dinosaurs don't do those horrible things. They give big kisses, turn out the light, tuck in their tails, whisper goodnight, give a big hug, and one kiss more!

This book can be used for a rhyming lesson. The rhyming schemes are perfect to develop a rhyming lesson or a rhyming interactive read aloud lesson where you ask the students to come up with words that rhyme with the words in the story as well as identify what the rhyming words are in the book.


The illustrations are amazing! They are very colorful and fun. They are realistic looking drawings and are super fun. They take up the entire page and the words overlap the illustrations.

The Very Busy Spider

Author/Illustrator: Eric Carle

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: PreK-2

Early one morning the spider began to spin a web on a fence. A horse came by and asked the spider if she wanted to go for a ride. The spider didn't answer because she was very busy spinning her web. A cow came by to ask if she wanted to eat some grass. She didn't answer once again. A sheep, a goat, a pig, a dog, a cat, and a duck came by to ask if she wanted to hang out with them and each time she didn't answer because she was busy spinning her web. A rooster came by and asked her if she wanted to catch a fly and she caught the fly. An owl came by at night and asked who built the beautiful web and she didn't answer because she had fallen asleep since it was such a busy day. 

I would use this story to talk about the sounds that the animals were making. It could be used to teach about different animals as well. It also shows what each animal likes to do.

The illustrations are amazing collages and very colorful. The different animals have such character since they are a little bit more abstract since they are made from collage paper cutting and pasting. 

The Grouchy Ladybug

Author/Illustrator: Eric Carl

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: K-3

There were two ladybugs that flew onto a leaf. One was a nice ladybug and one was a grouchy ladybug. They both wanted to eat the same thing for breakfast. The nice ladybug suggested that they could share but the grouchy one did not want to share. He said he could fight him for them. The grouchy ladybug said that the friendly one was not big enough for him to fight and the friendly ladybug suggests that he finds someone bigger. He finds a yellow jacket and challenges him to a fight. The yellow jacket shows his stinger and the grouchy ladybug says he's not big enough. He runs into a beetle, praying mantis, sparrow, lobster, skunk, snake, hyena, gorilla, rhino, elephant, whale, and then eventually the whale smacks the ladybug back to where he began and the friendly ladybug shared the food with him.

This book includes time in it. This would be perfect to use on a lesson learning about time. It also teaches children valuable lessons about being prideful and rude. We could make paper clocks and draw each animal the ladybug encounters on each of the time stamps that it says.

The illustrations are just marvelous. It is the famous Eric Carle and his famous collage illustrations. The white space is ever so apparent making the colorful illustrations stand out. The different animals are on different sized flaps of pages as they get bigger. 

The Whale Who Ate Everything

Author/Illustrator: Dan Devoe

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: K-2

The book starts off with a small sized blue whale that was very hungry. He decided to look for something to eat. He ate a pail and got a little bit bigger. He ate A, B, C in braille. He ate his own mail and got bigger. He tried to eat his own tail but couldn't and he remained the same size. He then ate many other things and just continually got bigger and bigger. He became the biggest whale ever and could not even swim. An anchor was near by and he tried to eat the anchor but the anchor got stuck in his mouth. The anchor hooked onto everything that the whale had eaten and pulled it all out and he was back to being a small whale. 

This book would definitely be used for a rhyming lesson. Even within the book there is small prompts asking students what else rhymes with certain words. 

The illustrations in this book are colorful and bold. There is a lot of white space to really make the colorful illustrations stand out. The left page is where the story is being told and is where most of the white space is. 

I Took the Moon for a Walk
Author: Carolyn Curtis
Illustrator: Alison Jay
Genre: Fantasy
Grade Level: PreK-3

A young boy tells the story of how he took the moon for a walk. There wasn't any strings or leash the moon just followed behind him. He brought his own light and the moon hid its face but peeked through the clouds of lace. He warned the moon to go higher so he wouldn't run into the church's spire. They swung together and dances together. It followed him home and stayed there all night. And thanked the boy by sharing his light.

This book can be used in the classroom to learn about rhyming words. A guided reading can be done asking the class which rhyming words they see on the page or what would come next.

The illustrations of this book are very colorful and fun. They boy and the moon are bigger than the scenery for the most part giving the illusion that both are flying high over it. Not the whole pages of the book are filled with illustration. Lots of white space is used to create a cool and interesting design throughout the book.

The Rainbow Fish

Author/Illustrator: Marcus Pfister

Translated by: J. Alison James

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: PreK-3

Rainbow fish is a very beautiful fish. He has a lot of sparkly scales that the other fish do not have and as a result he does not play with the other fish. A little blue fish asks him if he can have one of his scales and the rainbow fish says no. The little fish becomes sad and tells the other fish and the other fish start to shun the rainbow fish. Rainbow fish asks an octopus how to be happy in which the octopus replies that she can't give rainbow fish the secret to happiness. The little blue fish comes back and makes the same request for a scale and this time rainbow fish gives him one. Then they all become happy and like rainbow fish again. 

This could be used in the classroom to teach a story of sharing. The underlying message of this book isn't very good though and I would most likely not use this in my classroom. 

The illustrations are awesome! I really like that the sparkles are different material and you can really feel the sparkles. The color scheme is obviously very cool since the setting is in the ocean. 

A Bad Case of Stripes

Author/Illustrator: David Shannon

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: PreK-3

This story starts out with a girl named Camilla Cream and how she doesn't like lima beans just because the other kids in school don't like them and made fun of her. She cares about what everyone thinks about her a little too much. Camilla eventually breaks out in colorful stripes. The doctors can't seem to find anything wrong with her so her mother still makes her go to the first day of school. Her classmates soon discover that whenever they yell out a color or design, she will turn into that color or design. She soon finds out that the only cure for this is for her to eat lima beans, and when she does she turns back into old Camilla. 

This book can be used in the classroom to talk about the effects of peer pressure. It can help students to be themselves and to not do things according to what others want. It also can be used as an anti-bullying tool and teaching kids to stand up for themselves and to not be afraid to be who they are no matter what. 

The illustrations in this book are amazing! They are bright and colorful and show the emotions perfectly. We know exactly what the character is feeling based on the illustrations.

If You Give a Pig a Pancake

Author: Laura Numeroff

Illustrator: Felicia Bond

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: K-2

This is story about a little girl who tries to satisfy the desires of a little pig. It starts out with the girl giving the little pig one of her pancakes. The pig wants syrup and when the pig gets syrup he gets all sticky and will need a bath and new clothes. The pig even wants to learn how to tap dance, send a letter, wear a costume, take a picture, and eventually wants a pancake once more. 

This story can be used in the classroom to teach young children how to appreciate things. You could also take a turn and use this book to teach an economics lesson. Students would need to research how much money the girl would need in order to fulfill all the needs of the pig. 

The illustrations are adorable! The color scheme is warm but very lightly colored. The colors are not bold. The expressions of the drawings portray exactly the emotions of the book and tie in well with the story. 

Giggle, Giggle, Quack

Author: Doreen Cronin

Illustrator: Betsy Lewin

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: K-1

Farmer Brown is going on vacation and so he asks his brother Bob to take care of his farm. He warns him to watch out for the duck. Bob follows all the instructions that his brother gave him all the while not realizing that the Duck is changing all of the notes to accommodate to him and his friends needs. The farmer calls Bob and hears the chuckling and comes racing back to the farm because he knows that the Duck is up to.

The illustrations are very colorful and fun. The watercolor pictures demonstrates the emotions of the animals and gives the book a very fun personality. They take up the entire page.

I could use this in the classroom to learn new vocabulary words. It can also demonstrate different animals and just to entertain the children. 

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.