Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty is a traditional literature book retold and illustrated by Margaret Early. This book hasn't won any awards and a good grade range for this book would be 1st-4th. This book is about a young princess who is given many gifts at birth, but one evil fairy curses her and says on her 16th birthday the princess will prick her finger on a spindle and fall into a deep sleep that will last 100 years, and at the end the son of a king will come and awaken her. The king got nervous hearing this and banned all spindles and had them burned in destroyed. Many years passed, and one day as the princess was roaming the castle, she came across an old lady in the attic who hadn't heard of the spindle rule. The young princess wanted to try spinning on the spindle, but as soon as she touched it, she fell into a deep sleep. The old woman was terrified and called for help from the servants, who carried the princess to the king and queen. The king called for one of the good fairies and had her put them all in a deep slumber until the princess was to wake. The news spread around to a young prince, who came to the princess's side and was able to awake the princess along with everyone else in the castle.

I really enjoyed this book and would definitely have it in my classroom. This book does have some large vocabulary in it, and definitely has more words than pictures. It would be good to read aloud to younger children, but older children in about 4th grade could definitely read it to themselves. It would be a good idea to do this book as a read-aloud then allow the children to create their own fairy tale or maybe create a different ending to the book just to allow them to use their creativity.

Puss In Boots

Puss In Boots is a traditional literature book originally written in French by Charles Perrault but was translated and illustrated by Marcia Brown. This book has not won any awards and is geared towards children in about 2nd-4th grade. This book is about a miller who died and left his three sons with a mill, a donkey, and a cat. The youngest got the "short end" of the stick and ended up getting the cat. The cat told him not to worry, and to grab him a sack and a pair of boots. The cat then decided he would help his master by catching things and bringing them to the king. The cat did this for several months, and the king eventually started rewarding him for his generosity, which the cat then gave to his master. The sly cat learned that the king's daughter would be visiting, and planned(in an extremely creative way) for his master and the princess to meet. After a lot of planning from the cat, his master, and the princess eventually got married.

I would use this book in my classroom because I think it's a cute children's book for the children to hear and read. Some of the words may be complicated for the younger children so I would say an appropriate grade level for the book would be 4th grade. This book could easily be a read aloud for younger children, but for older children,
it would be a good book to have them read and do a mini "book report" on.

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel is a traditional literature book written by Lucy Kincaid and illustrated by Eric Kincaid. The book didn't win any major awards, but I personally enjoyed the illustration throughout the book. This book is definitely geared towards younger children, probably in Kindergarten-1st grade. This book is about two children who live with their father and stepmother, and one day they hear the stepmother telling the father that they can't afford to feed the children, so she plans to take them out in the forest and leave them there. Hansel and Gretel hear this, and Hansel makes a plan to leave a trail of pebbles from their garden to find their way back home. The next day, the father and stepmother take them out into the woods and leave them there, but the children find their way back home. Hansel and Gretel hear the stepmother talking that she wants to take them deeper into the forest this time, and Hansel tries to collect more pebbles but the stepmother had locked the garden. The next day, Hansel leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to try and find their way back, but when night fell, they weren't able to find them. After a few days, Hansel and Gretel stumble across a house made of candy, but there is an evil witch who takes them and is trying to fatten Hansel up to eat him. One day, Gretel tricks the witch and pushes her into the oven, and Gretel is able to free her brother Hansel and as they're leaving they filled their pockets with treasure. When they returned, the father told the children their stepmother and passed and they were able to live together happily.

I usually wouldn't read this book in my classroom, because to me it is pretty creepy and makes me a bit uncomfortable thinking about a witch wanting to eat children. Especially if I had younger children that might get scared easily, I wouldn't want to scare them in my class. This book is definitely geared towards younger children because it has a very large font and pictures so younger children can understand. Because of the large font and simple words, I think in the class it would be great to allow children to practice their reading with a story
they might be familiar with.

Jack and the Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk is a traditional literature book retold and illustrated by Steven Kellogg. This book hasn't won any awards, and this book is geared towards children in the 1st-2nd grade. This book is about a poor young boy Jack, and his mother who is running out of money. Jack goes into town to sell their cow, and on the way, he runs into an old man selling magical beans. Jack trades his cow for these magical beans because the old man says that overnight they'll grow into gigantic beanstalks that reach the sky. When Jack got back, his mother was furious and threw the beans out the window. That next morning, Jack awoke to huge beanstalks in his yard. He climbed them and came across a giant ogre. She decided to let him in her home but hid him from her ogre husband when he came into the room. Jack waited until the husband fell asleep, grabbed a bag of gold, and left. Jack went up and down the beanstalk 3 times in total, and each time he stole something to help his mom. The last time, he almost got caught by the ogre but cut down the beanstalk before the ogre was able to catch him.

I probably wouldn't use this book in my classroom because I personally don't like the story behind it for younger children. I feel as if it gives children the wrong impression since Jack stole from the Ogre's three different times. I think an appropriate grade level for this book would be the 2nd grade, and if I were to use it for my class, I would probably put it in the classroom library and allow children to explore the book on their own, rather than me reading it aloud to the class.

Cinderella

Cinderella is a traditional literature book translated and illustrated by Marcia Brown. The book is translated from the French version written by Charles Perrault. This book won the Caldecott medal all the way back in 1955. This book would be great for students in about 2nd-3rd grade because there are still pictures in it and the font is a bit bigger than it would normally be so they would be able to read it with ease. This book is about a young girl named Cinderella, whose father married a very evil woman, with just as evil stepdaughters. The stepmother made Cinderella do all of the chores around the house because she didn't like how the goodness in Cinderella made her own two daughters seem even worse. In this version of Cinderella, she meets her fairy godmother and attends two balls, where she goes unrecognized and everyone enjoys her company, especially the prince. At the end of the second ball, she loses track of time and must leave in a hurry, causing her to leave a glass slipper behind. The prince then searches high and low, having every woman trying on the glass slipper until he finally finds Cinderella, and the glass slipper does fit her. After the slipper is put on, Cinderella's fairy godmother reappears and transforms her, and everyone realizes she was the beautiful princess at the balls.

As a teacher, I would definitely use this book in my classroom. I think it teaches the children a great lesson about staying humble and being kind. I also think 3rd grade is a great level for the book because the children are able to read it themselves. It's a good read-aloud for younger children, but there is some challenging vocabulary in it. If I was to have this book in my classroom, I would probably introduce it during a read aloud and then put it in the classroom library so children could go back and read it if they chose to. I'm not sure if this book would fit into the curriculum, but it's good for children to receive a valuable lesson from the book.