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Yonderfel's Castle

This book was about a king who is generous and kind to everyone. He allows everyone to stay in his castel for free. When the mean ogre landlord demands more money from the king and the king cannot pay, all his people turn their backs on him. They leave and say this is what you get for having a potatoheadedninny for a king. They all forget his kindness. He is left alone to knit all day and night.

A great flood comes and everyone remembers the castle on a hill and the kind king who lets anyone in. He saves almost everyone from the ragging water. The last person in the flood water is the mean ogre. The king must decide whether to listen to his people and let the mean ogre die, or save him like he did everyone else. The king, being kind and generous, saves the ogre. This is a great book about kindness and how some people do not value kindness - unless it is given to them.

The only strange part is in the end the people see the value in the kings kindness, but the book doesn't really explain how or why they have a change. This whole in the plot could be used as a teaching moment by having students fill in what or why the people where changed. It is a good book - good story, great illustrations.

http://www.philnel.com/2011/05/14/teach/

Potterwatch

The Farm Elisha Cooper

The Farm 

By Elisha Cooper 

Orchard Books An Imprint of Scholastic

I love this book. The illustrations are beautifully and simply draw.  When I first saw it at the library I had to grab it. It was so enticing. The beautiful water colors were just the kind of illustrations I love. After reading the book I found that the story was as wonderful as the illustrations. In the beginning the barn is described - "Dust covers everything: shovels and buckets, swallow nests and spiderwebs, a toy tractor, a chair with three legs, the handprints of the girl and boy in the concrete floor. Even the barn cats are dusty." Such nice imagery. I felt like I was standing in the center of the barn a looking all the way around.

The illustrations continue to get better through the book. They give a wonderful feel of a real farm. Cooper said she wrote the book because children's books do not depict a realistic view of farm life. People on farms grow food. Not these cutesy pie animals. This book is a wonder real version of farm life. The book goes through the season on a farm. And every time period: "On the farm, even when it is dark, so animal is always awake." On my list of great books. Written and illustrated beautifully.