New York Times Best Sellers List

New York Best Seller List

Annotated Bibliography

1. De la Pena, M. (2015). Last Stop on Market Street. New York, NY: GP Putman Sons.

CJ is not too excited about having to go with his nana. He questions her on everything. Why do they have ride a bus? Why do they have to wait in the rain? Why? Why? His nana has a way of making the simplest of explanations sound wonderful and does a great job of making CJ and the reader appreciate all that is around them. Things like the sounds in nature, trees in the rain and a bus that breathes fire. The reader finds out the characters are going to a soup kitchen or homeless shelter to volunteer. Showing the family may not have a lot. They don't have a car, or can buy expensive mobile music players but they still can help others. 

I love this book for so many reasons. The message of charity for others is so important for young children. Not only is it a great book to show how to appreciate your surroundings and look for the good things in every situation, but it is also full of great writing. When and author can write a kid's picture book with awesome writing and the young children can still understand, it is a must have.  I have used this book to teach about similes, descriptive language, strong verbiage, and complex sentences. We have used it to discuss different perspectives. Even though there are only 2 main characters, there are plenty of others that the readers sees in the pages as they read. The characters are so diverse; black, white, young, old, handicapped, different socio-economic, and more.  You are presented with all of this variety without it being preached to you.  Everyone is just part of the book just like they would be part of the community.

2. Novak, B. (2014). The Book With No Pictures. New York, NY: Dial Books

A book by a comedian is bound to have something for adults to find funny. You can find it funny that a book on the New York Times Children's Picture Book best sellers list doesn't have any pictures. BJ Novak's book makes young kids laugh even though they do not have pictures to look at. It is all about the words and the image they put in the readers' head.  The words chosen to be a part of this book are funny. The reader has to say silly nonsense words and if you are reading to a class of kindergarteners they will laugh uncontrollably. 

There is not much to say about the book about why to choose it to read to kids other than they will find it funny. The sentence structure is not complex and the language doesn't serve a purpose other than to be humorous. I would read this book more as a bed time story.

3. Yamada, K. (2016). What Do You Do With a Problem? Seattle, WA: Compendium Inc.

This book explains to young readers how to solve a problem. The unique thing is, the problem is represented as a gray cloud. It follows the narrator through out the book. The readers see that worrying, hiding, and ignoring it do not make the cloud go away. Finally the young boy tackles the the cloud and opportunity comes out of it.  

As adults we understand and appreciate the author's message. It is an important message for young readers to hear. They shouldn't run from problems as they will just follow you and get bigger. However if you are 3 or 4  years old you may think of this book in the literal sense. Gray clouds will follow you until you tackle it and make it stop. This is a good book to read out loud to discuss problem solving for young classes.  You could also use it with older students to show personification and lead a lesson on how to write and give non human things human characteristics. 

4. Daywalt, D. (2013). The Day the Crayons Quit. New York, NY: Penguin Young Readers.

Duncan's crayons have had enough! They are tired of being used up and not having their feelings considered.  Red feels overused. Beige feels like he is never used to color anything worthwhile. Blue is worn down. What is a boy to do? The final page lets us see Duncan used the crayons to color an unconventional picture. The green was used for water. The pink made a dinosaur. The sky was a bright yellow.  Duncan showed that art doesn't have to follow rules.

Every time I would read this I would think the author must have been sitting around and saw a crayon just laying around and wondered what it would do if it could talk.  He came up with a great conversation for the crayons. It is a great book to read to young readers. The story is great but the pictures of the crayons as little people are bound to please too. 

5. Mattick, L. (2015). Finding Winnie. New York, NY: Little, Brown, and Company.

Harry is a homesick solider sent overseas from Canada to fight in World War I. On the way he sees a man with a bear. Being that Harry is a veterinarian, he buys the bear and takes him with him on the train on the way to Europe. He names the bear Winnie to remind him of his home Winnipeg. Winnie becomes a mascot for the troop. When he gets too big to take care of, Harry sends him to the London Zoo. A young boy name Christopher Robin befriends the bear and his father sees the friendship and records their exploits. This becomes the inspiration for the Winnie the Pooh stories.  The story outside of this story is a mother telling a story to her son. The narrator is Harry Colebourn's relative. She is telling the boy story of their family's history and how she picked his name.

This is a sweet story to give a back story on a beloved character. It is appropriate for very young audiences. They would enjoy seeing someone with a bear as a pet.

6.  Duskey, S. (2011). Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

The machinery at a construction site are tired and ready to go to sleep. One at a time the readers reads about each truck's busy day and then tucks them in with a "Goodnight". I can see how this has been on the best seller's list for so long.  It is a sweet book to read to a  young person at home.  Written in rhyme, young readers would enjoy coming up with the final word on each line as they recognize the rhyme pattern.

7. Rubin, A. (2012). Dragons Love Tacos. New York, NY: Penguin Young Reader.

Dragons love tacos.  They will eat any kind but they cannot have spicy salsa. It makes them sick and causes them to blow fire out their mouths.  One day while attending, the dragons ingest salsa accidentally and end up blowing fire in the boy's house. Then they must help him rebuild. 

This book is appropriate for a very young audience.  They may find it amusing.  The pictures are really what my kids laugh at not the story itself. It is a cute way to teach responsibility or cause and effect. 

8. Regan, J. (2014). How to Babysit Grandma. New York, NY: Random House.

A girl explains how to babysit a grandma. She list all the fun things a child and her grandma could do; things like swing, play dress up, bake cookies, and play pretend.  It is a sweet book more appropriate for young audiences. The text is very simple but the pictures are big and some fill the bleed and go over to the next page. As educators, we could use this book and How to Babysit Grandpa to begin to teach very young writes how to write a How to paper.  The formula is a good pattern for writers to follow, identify the topic provide material, and then elaborate.

9.  Krouse Rosenthal, A. (2015).  I Wish You More. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

Some books are obvious picks for best sellers. This is one of them. This book is like Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. It expresses a parent's love for their child. The narrator wants his/her child to stay little just a little bit longer and be able to enjoy all the small things children can do. What parent hasn't wished this at one time when looking at his or her child doing something great or looking especially cute?  Parents could get this for young children and read it at bedtime.  It is a quick read with appropriate word choice that young people could understand.  I really  love the pictures. Some are huge and fill out two facing pages.  They all help to paint the picture of children having fun being children. 

10. Dr. Suess. (2015). What Pet Should I Get? New York, NY: Random House Inc.

Trying to decide what pet a family should get becomes extended fun when a brother and sister go to a store to pick a pet.  From a dog and a cat to Seuss creatures like a yent, the reader goes along with the narrator as he decides what to get. The rhyming in this book is true Dr. Seuss and make if fun to read. I would also like to use it to show how a story could also be a poem. There is an obvious rhythm and beat. The illustrations are obvious Dr Seuss. The cat, dog, boy, and girl look normal but he creatures with the extra long legs, and necks look like something from Whoville.