This book is one of my favorite children's picture books that emphasizes being unique and being yourself. Humu didn't like being so different with his colors, unlike all his other fish friends who were one color. Humu goes to the magic whale and wishes to be the color of the sand. The whale grants his wish and says if he regretted his decision he could get his colors back in three days time. Humu went back to his fish friends and soon realized he regretted changing who he was. The intended audience for this book is 2nd graders. These students are now noticing differences between themselves and other students. It is a good idea to start promoting a healthy and accepting classroom environment more than ever. An activity I would use with this book would be to have each student write one good and nice thing about 3 students on a sticky note. The teacher would make sure every student had the same amount of sticky notes of nice things about them. The students would post their positive note under their person's name. This would promote a classroom community, and a family feeling between the students. 

Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun is a story every child (and even adult) needs! We all sometimes lose sight and get discouraged about who we are! This story would be perfect in the classroom to talk about diversity and that different is good and judgement and hateful words are bad. I would use this in my classroom to set a positive note in my classroom so every student has the opportunity to learn in a loving and safe environment. I would use this book in lower elementary grades K-3rd grade!

I just used this book for tutoring and it is one of those books that just keeps getting better and better the more you read it and the more you think about it! Normally, I don't ruin a good story, but for this I will! This book follows a little boy named Alex. Alex is very short and he HATES it. He asks different people what will make him grow. He does all these things, but nothing seems to work. He decides he will ask the tallest person he knows for advice, Uncle Danny. Uncle Danny shows him its not the greatest being tall and he tells Alex to do things that make him happy to grow on the inside and not the outside. I love this book because we all struggle with being self-conscious and wanting what we are not. I would use this book in my classroom as a way of encouraging students to love themselves and to grow on the inside! I would use this for elementary grades 4th grade and below.