What the Wild Things are Reading: Introduction Post

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Nicole, and I am an avid reader, blogger, and book reviewer from Montana. I grew up reading a diverse assortment of children's literature. I developed an even stronger passion for reading with the Harry Potter series, which basically made me a book addict. I absolutely love anything to do with books! I generally prefer to read stories that are fantasy, and mystery. I am a senior studying elementary education with a concentration in communication arts.

The purpose of this blog

I am starting this blog for my Children's Literature Class. I am going to rate books based on plot, characters, illustration and my recommendation. I will also include the different levels in which books are intended for, along with the Lexile ratings. I look forward to presenting information about children’s books so that I can hopefully encourage or excite you about children's literature.

Book Ratings

I will have two sections for my book ratings. The first will be based on grade level and Lexile. The second section of book ratings will include plot, characters, illustrations, and my recommendations.

Levels

Pre-K (or Below): Books geared towards pre-school aged children. These books are often board books, but not always. The educational purpose of these books is visual. No Lexile available
Elementary (K-3^rd ): These books are meant for readers who are learning how to read. This will include early emergent readers, and transitional readers. Topics will often be familiar and likable to the readers. New vocabulary will begin to be introduced, and many of these books will often be picture books with little text. The educational purpose of these books is to teach individuals how to read. Lexile: first grade up 280L, second grade 230L to 580L, third grade 360L to 720L.
Elementary (4^th -6^th): These books are intended to challenge the reader and introduce more complex vocabulary words. The books will have more length and are established to challenge the reader. The books will usually be more chapter books with little illustrations. The educational purpose of these books is to build and expand their reading skills. Lexile: fourth grade 480L to 830L, fifth grade 620L to 950L, sixth grade 690L to 1020L.
Middle School (7^th-8^th): Many of these books will be chapter books with very little illustrations. The subject matters will have more complex topics, vocabulary, and text. Topics will often be more mature and intended for the young adult reader. The educational purpose of these books is to challenge and expand the readers knowledge and skill. Lexile: seventh grade 780L to 1090L, eighth grade 820L to 1140L.
High School (9^th-12^th): These books will be chapter books that will be longer length. The subject matter will be geared towards a mature audience and will possibly contain inappropriate topics or language. The vocabulary and sentence structure will be complex, and often have abstract ideas presented in the books. Lexile: ninth grade 880L to 1170L, tenth grade 920L to 1200L, eleventh grade 940L to 1210L, twelfth grade 950L to 1220L.

Second Section:

					Comments
Plot	Excellent plot that is clever and has many surprising twists.	Good plot that has some surprises.	This is an okay plot that is kinda interesting.	Loose plot with many holes, and fails to grab the readers attention.
Character	Excellent characterization. The characters are complex and provide a strong emotional impact on the reader.	The characters are believable and the reader can relate to them, and feel an emotional tie to the characters.	The characters are lacking but likable. There is some emotional attachment to the characters.	The characters are poorly described, and leave the reader feeling detached from the book.
Illustration	Excellent illustrations. Very detailed, creative, and connected to the book.	Illustrations were good and showed something important about the book.	The illustrations were okay, they were not very creative.	There was no illustrations, or they were not interesting.
Recommendation	Excellent book that I highly recommend having in your classroom or library. This book will captivate, enchant, fascinate, and basically make you obsess about it.	Good book that I recommend having in your classroom or library. The book was interesting and kept my interest and was overall very engaging.	This book was okay. I believe this would be a book to check out from the library if your feeling bored.	This book was awful and I cannot recommend it for your classroom or library. This book will leave you wishing you could rewind time so you don’t read it.

My favorite children's books.

To be completely honest I am in love with all children's books and therefore cannot choose just one. So instead I will share with you two of my favorite books.

Title: Where the Wild Things Are Title: Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone

Author: Maurice Sendak Author: J. K. Rowling