Illustrated & Story Picture Books

About The Genre

• Literacy genre providing a strong visual experience for students
• The content of the story is fully explained or illustrated with picutres
• They may or may not include text
• The pictures are just as important as the text
• The criteria for this genre is based on physical format so it can easily be overlapped with other genres.
• Do not even necessarily have to tell a story, they might illustrate the alphabet or numbers
• Sometimes these books are published in a small size, a size where small children can hold the book in their little hands (known as hand-books)

http://www.uleth.ca/edu/currlab/handouts/genres.html

http://www.breitlinks.com/my_libmedia/children's_genres.htm

In the Classroom

• Picture books are often associated with lower elementary grades.  However, picture books can even be beneficial to students in the upper elementary grades as well.
• Good to use in a classroom because they are short so you get to the meat of the story in one sitting.
• There are deep layers of meaning in picture books
• It is a good idea to discuss with students what they think that the main theme of the book is.
• Since there is often many themes, this results in a good discussion

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/classroom-solutions/2012/09/building-classroom-community-picture-books -- This site as a great list of picture books for the first days of school

Book List

Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet

Reference Information:

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (2011)
• ISBN-10: 0547199457

Grade Level:

• Lexile Measure: AD1000L
• ATOS Book Level: 5.4
• Interest Level: Grades 1-4
• Grade Level Equivalent: 5.4
• Text Complexity: Grades 4-5

Themes

• Ceremony and Tradition
• Visual Arts
• Thanksgiving

Qualities of Writing

• Winner of the 2012 Robert F. Sibert Award
• This book is a good combination of biography and storytelling
• It tells the history of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in a fun and exciting way
• This is also a subject that can be related to the student's own life.  It can encourage them to tune in to the Macy's Parade on Thanksgiving

Difficult Components of the Text

• There isn't much to the book that would be too difficult, but it would help to activate students' prior knowledge about the Macy's parade by showing them footage or discussing the event. 

So you Want to Be President? by Judith St. George

Reference Information

• Publisher: Philomel (2004)
• ISBN-10: 0399243178

Grade Level

• Interest Level: Grades 3-5
• Grade Level Equivalent: 4.2
• Lexile Measure: 730L
• ATOS Book Level: 4.8
• Text Complexity: Grades 2-3

Themes

• American History
• The Presidency
• Leadership

Qualities of Writing

• This book does a good job of sharing the inside facts and comical moments of what has happened in the White House
• The illustrations are hilarious
• Caldecott Honor-Winner
• Celebrates 41 Presidents
• Shows us aspects of the president that aren't included in the serious biographies, it reminds us of the humanity of these individuals

Difficulties of the Text

• This book would definitely be very beneficial in the social studies classroom, especially when paired up with an informational text on the Presidents
• This book would be a good resource for students who are writing a paper, it would give them some fun inside facts for their paper

Other Awarding-Winning, Noteworthy Texts

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

2013 Caldecott Honor Book

Grade Level:

• Interest Level: PreK-1
• Lexile Measure: 400L
• ATOS Book Level: NA

Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London

Grade Level:

• Interest Level: Grades K-2
• Grade Level Equivalent: 2.5
• Lexile Measure: 490L
• ATOS Book Level: 2.4
• Text Complexity: K-1 (ATOS), 2-3 (Lexile)

The Pirate of Kindergarten by George Ella Lyon

Grade Level:

• Interest Level: K-2
• Grade Level Equivalent: 2.3
• Lexile Measure: 580L
• ATOS Book Level: 3.2
• Text Complexity: Grades 2-3

Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett

Grade Level:

• Interest Level: Grades K-2
• Grade Level Equivalent: 3.8
• Lexile Measure: 580L
• ATOS Book Level: 3.1
• Text Complexity: Grades 2-3

Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming

Grade Level:

• Interest Level: Grades 6-8
• Grade Level Equivalent: 6.6
• Lexile Measure: 930L
• ATOS Book Level: 6.6
• Text Complexity: Grades 4-5

Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein 

Grade Level: 

• Interest Level: Grades K-2
• Grade Level Equivalent: 2
• Lexile Measure: 300L
• ATOS Book Level: 2.2
• Text Complexity: K-1

That Is Not A Good Idea by Mo Willems 

Grade Level:

• Lexile Measure: AD230L
• ATOS Book Level: 1.0
• Text Complexity: K-1

The Boy and the Airplane by Mark Pett

Grade Level:

• Lexile Measure: NA
• ATOS Book Level: NA
• *All picture book...no text

Ben Rides On by Matt Davies

Grade Level: 

• Lexile Measure: AD730L
• ATOS Book Level: 3.6
• Text Complexity: Grades 2-3

Mitchel Goes Bowling by Hallie Durand

Grade Level: 

• Lexile Measure: NA
• ATOS Book Level: 2.4

Resources

Caldecott Medal Winners -- Genre Awards

2013 Notable Children's Books -- Book List

Award Winning Kid's Books -- Book List

About Picture Books -- Genre Information

About Picture Books -- Genre Information

Teaching with Award-Winning Children's Books -- Classroom Application

Using Picture Books to Teach Characterization in Writing Workshop -- Classroom Application

Adventure

About the Genre

• Pertains to an exciting or unusual experience with an uncertain outcome
• Dominated by action
• Involve danger, risk, and excitement
• The action is fast-paced
• Adventure stories are sometimes set in exotic or distant places
• Events in an adventure story are more remarkable and extraordinary than in everyday life
• The protagonist in adventure stories has traditionally been male, but this is changing
• The best stories involve the adventures that change the hero

http://childliterature.net/childlit/adventure/

In the Classroom

• Adventure books are written in many different subject areas
• This gives teachers the opportunity to implement this genre into different content areas
• Adventure books also lead nicely into some very productive writing activities for students
• Students often have some strong emotions attached to these stories so they can write reflective writing exercises about it
• The fact that these books are often fast-paced makes them very attractive to students.
• It is important to have a handful of these books in the classroom library and to ensure that the adventure books have a wide range of topics

Book List

Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner

Reference Information

• Publisher: HarperCollins (2010)
• ISBN-10: 0064401324

Grade Level

• Interest Level: Grades 2-4
• Grade Level Equivalent: 4.0
• Lexile Measure: 550L
• ATOS Book Level: 4.0
• Text Complexity: Grades 2-3

Themes

• Courage, Bravery, Heroism
• Determination and Perseverance
• Grandparents and Grandchildren

Qualities of Writing

• The language that the author uses is very engaging yet simple and easy to read
• The book is intense and fast paced
• There are also some pictures in the text that helps the reader visualize the characters
• The themes of the book are very relate-able and thus pull the reader even deeper emotionally
• The length of the text is not too overwhelming so readers stay very engaged through the whole book

Difficult Components of the Text

• There are quite a few tier 3 words throughout the text that might need some brief instruction
• Examples: hitched and plowed
• Students may have a hard time relating to the different events that take place (like dog sledding)

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Reference Information:

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (2006)
• ISBN-10: 1416936475

Grade Level:

• Interest Level: 5-8
• Grade Level Equivalent: 5th Grade
• Lexile Measure: 1020L
• ATOS: 5.7
• Text Complexity: 4-5 (ATOS) & 6-8 (Lexile)

Themes:

• Family Life
• Courage, Bravery, Heroism
• Canadian
• Divorce, Remarriage, Blended Families
• Survival 

Qualities of Writing

• The way the author describes the necessities of survival is intriguing especially when you consider that he actually lived the details.
• The thrill at the end will keep students engaged from the first page to the last
• The author describes the sicknesses of the character and the change in the character's physical features in great detail

Difficulties in the Text

• The theme of divorce, remarriage, and blended families might be difficult for students to read if they have recently gone through those family concepts.  It is important to know what students are going through outside of school
• It is also important to make sure that the book is not too graphic for students and to think about the cultural aspects of the book.

Resources

Book Awards: Greatest Adventure Books of all Time

Adventure Book Lists
Barnes and Noble Adventure Book List
Adventure Genre Information
The Action/Adventure Genre
Using Dav Pilkey's Books in Classroom
Choose Your Own Adventure: A Hypertext Writing Experience

21st Century Literature

About The Genre

• 21st Century genres employing sequential visual storytelling through symbol, image, and/or multi media formats to convey meaning. 
• Successful comprehension depends on decoding message modalities beyond text alone.
• 21st Century literature is new literary work created in the last decade
• They are written by contemporary authors
• The book deals with current themes/issues and reflects a technological culture.
• Often breaks traditional writing rules
• Examples are: Instant Messaging, blog formats, digi-fiction, doodle fiction, and graphic novels

Use in the Classroom

• It is important to build a classroom library that contains 21st Century books
• Consider struggling readers when selecting these books
• These 21st Century texts often enhance a collection of classic books
• With this genre, it is particularly important to think outside of the box
• 21st Century novels should be accompanied by a variety of other 

http://www.slideshare.net/darinjohn2/21st-century-literary-genres-by-calle-friesen

Book List

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Reference Information:

• Publisher: Amulet Books (2011)
• ISBN-10: 9781419701535

Grade Level (The Ugly Truth book 5)

• Interest LEvel: 3-5
• Grade Level Equivalent: 5
• Lexile Measure: 1000L
• ATOS Level: 5.5
• Text Complexity

Themes

• Adolescent Issues
• Growing Up
• Friends and Friendship

Qualities of Writing

• These books are written in a very fun language (mostly tier 1 words) that children are used to using with their peers.
• The graphics add a lot of humor to the story.  They make the text easier to read and add more detail to the story than just the text.
• It is a funny text for children and it is not a chore to read.  Prior knowledge is not necessarily needed because students can use their imagination throughout
• Very relate-able to our lives.  There are a lot of school related events that Greg went through that students may personally relate to.  
• The lack of academic language makes this book a turn off for some teachers, but for struggling readers this might be the kind of text they need to spark that love of reading

Difficulties

• This book is a book that is read for pure enjoyment, with no inherent value to the reader.  This is wonderful to have in the classroom library, but it needs to me many other, more major, parts to the students reading diet

The Inventions of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Reference Information:

• Publisher: Scholastic Press; First Edition (2007)
• ISBN-10: 0439813786

Grade Level

• Interest Level: Grades 4-7
• Grade Level Equivalent: 5
• Lexile Measure: 820L
• ATOS Book Level: 5.1
• Text Complexity: 

Themes

• Challenges and Overcoming Obstabcles
• Death, Grief, Loss
• Cleverness
• Creativity and Imagination
• Movies

Qualities of Writing

• The illustrations are really good in this book.   The pictures are necessary in order to comprehend the text.  They also make the story more interesting and personal to the reader.  
• I really enjoyed the integratoin of the picture book and novel.  It was interesting to think about how the book wouldn't exit without the pictures.  

Difficult Components

• It might be difficult for students to make the connections between text and pictures.  
• Students have to know how to make inferences about what is happening in the pictures and make connections to the text.

In the Classroom...

• Good for readers who are struggling with reading, because this book isn't so daunting.
• This would be a good book for the classroom library but I, personally, wouldn't require students to read it.  
• This text is good for students who need an easier read that is still very compelling.
• If used with a read aloud, it should be done with a small group of students instead of the whole class so that all the students can see the pictures since the pictures play such a vital role in understanding the story.

Resources Related to 21st Century Texts

• Comics in the Classroom -- using text with students
• Using Diary of a Wimpy Kid in the Classroom -- using text with students
• About 21st Century Texts -- genre in general
• Digi-Novels: The New Books -- particular text
• Graphic Novels Book List -- particular texts
• Manga as a Genre -- genre in general