The Pineapple Pages

Author/Illustrator: Justin Parpan Awards: None Ages: 1st Grade-5th Grade Pineapple Points: 5/5 🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍 Summary: Gwango, a very lonely dinosaur, longs for a companion. He wanders the desert in search for friendship. Every time he thinks he has found a friend, things seem to so south. He finally finds himself in an unlikely place, with a new friend, and a newfound purpose. Evaluation: Kids love dinosaurs, so I think Gwango will most definitely be a hit. It would be a great read aloud to discuss friendship and loneliness. The illustrations are fun and it also teaches kids a bit about southwest culture.

Author/Illustrator: Dan Yaccarino Awards: none Ages: Kindergarden- 4th Grade Pineapple Points: 4/5 🍍🍍🍍🍍 Summary: A young robot has only ever learned by being hooked up to a computer and downloaded information into his memory. One day, Doug saw a pigeon outside his window and this enticed him to unplug and go outside. He learned so many new things through experience, that the computer could never teach him. Evaluation: A beautiful idea. Definitely one for the classroom library. It would be great for both genders in this day in age.

Author: Nancy Pulling Best Illustrator: Mathew S. Capron Awards: Ages: Pre-K-1st Grade Pineapple Points:1/5 🍍 Summary: A silly poem about a girl and her spider friend, who enjoys gum very much. The spider ends up being stepped on by the mother and the girl is left with her pal's gum. Evaluation: It is a short, sweet, and silly poem. The author explains it was written as a school assignment when she was younger, which explains a lot. It would be good for a very young reader.

Author: Jack Prelutzsky Illustrator: Brandon Dorman Awards: 2006 U.S. Children's Poet Laureate Ages: Kindergarten- 4th Grade Pineapple Points:4/5 🍍🍍🍍🍍 Summary: The wizard uses sorcery to turn a from into many objects. From flea, to rats, to a cockatoo, to chalk, the frog is transformed by this magic man. Who will he transform next? Evaluation: The illustrations look like they are created by a wizard themselves. I really enjoyed thinking of all the possible writing prompts you can create with this book.

Author/ Illustrator: Shel Silverstein Awards: Ages: Pre-K- 3rd Grade Pineapple Points: 4/5 🍍🍍🍍🍍 Summary: A young boy takes a giraffe and equips him with many outrageous zany items that fill his arms. After you think the giraffe can not handle more, the boy devises a plan to get rid of everything, all the while rhyming. Evaluation: This is a great book to read at the end of the day or even a good book to include the class in due to the repetition. This can be turned into a sequencing lesson or even an opportunity to familiarize the children with the well-renowned Shel Silverstein.

Author/Illustrator: Tony DiTerlizzi Awards: Caldecott Honor Ages: Kindergarten- 3rd Grade Pineapple Points: 3/5 🍍🍍🍍 Summary: A cunning spider lures a fly into trusting him. Once trusting, and the most vulnerable, the fly finds herself captured and eaten. Evaluation: Kind of an eerie book, but it would be beneficial to teach children about stranger danger and other deceitful dangers that they can not discern from on their own yet.

Author: Reeve Lindbergh Illustrator: Kathy Jakobsen Awards: Ages: Pre-K -4th Grade Pineapple Points: 4/5 🍍🍍🍍🍍 Summary: This poem was about the tall tale of Johnny Appleseed. His real name was John Chapman, but Johnny Appleseed was a bible toting, apple seed planting, friendly and docile pioneer. He traveled around to preach the gospel and plant his seeds until the day he died. The planter may have passed, but his impact on American settlement still grows along with his apple trees. Evaluation: This would be a great story to share on a poetry lesson especially because alot of children have prior knowledge of Johnny Appleseed. It can be turned into a history lesson, or a lesson about tall-tales. With ample opportunities, there is still artwork to admire. The beautiful painted illustrations compliment the traditional American tall tale the poem is depicting.

Author: Micheal J. Rosen Illustrator: Tom Leonard Awards: Ages: Kindergarten - 3rd Grade Pineapple Points: 3/5 🍍🍍🍍 Summary: From various perspectives we learn about the inhabitants in and near ponds. Every creature has a four line stanza, telling the reader what they see. Evaluation: This is a great rhyming book to introduce perspective in literature or even a science lesson. There are many lessons and activities that can be created based off of this book.

Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Awards: 2016 Newbery Honor Book Ages: 5th Grade- 9th Grade Pineapple Points: 5/5 🍍🍍 🍍 🍍🍍 Summary: Set during the second world war, a young girl, Ada, with a club foot is abused by her 'humiliated' mother and cut off from the world outside the family flat. Her mother is very abusive to Ada and never lets her have any interactions with anyone but her younger, more privileged but still deprived. brother, Jamie. Jamie is allowed to attend school and, at the news of a possible world war, tells Ada about the school evacuating their students to live with families away from the nearing battlefront in London. Ada secretly teaches herself to walk, after being smacked around by her mother, and one night and devises a plan to leave. Ada and Jamie are forced upon Susan Smith, a calloused woman with depression. During their stay at their surrogate home, they are well-loved and taken care of for the first time. They are now educated, healthy, un...