This book goes through the events of the protagonist finding "little bit scary people" but then stating "but I bet..." and then saying something positive about them. It teaches not to judge a book by its cover. I would honestly read this book to any grade- even high schoolers. There are so many different activities you could do with this book, most of them teaching students soft skills and manners. But I believe you can take this book to a whole other level. You can incorporate this into a science lesson by having students predict what is going to happen and then recording what actually happens. Another idea would be to read this book as an introduction to a new lesson or study in E/LA. I have seen on pinterest where teachers will wrap a book in paper so that students can't see the title. That is then the book they have to read for that particular study. It would also be a great way to split students up into book club books. Or, if you want to teach critical thinking, students can be given those mathematical optical illusions where something appears one way but is actually another. This would help segue into a geometry lesson. I would probably use this book as a fun introduction to another lesson, but you could do a writing prompt if you wanted to focus solely on this book. 

A.R. Reading Level: 3.8

When my children's lit professor assigned this book, I was not thrilled. I don't want to read a book about a boy who was raised by ghosts. That sort of story doesn't appeal to me at all, but I found myself staying up until 1am trying to finish it. This is a well written story about a boy whose parents are killed when he is a baby and then he ends up getting raised by ghosts, a vampire, and a werewolf. Despite the spooky theme of the book, it actually teaches extremely good lessons. Bod, the protagonist, grows up and becomes his own throughout the story. He learns how to read and write by tracing/rubbing letters on gravestones, he learns about history by the dead people who lived through it, but most importantly, he yearns to learn more. What Bod really wants to do is read and learn as much as he can. This book shows how important education is in a totally different way than most people imagine. I would use The Graveyard Book with upper elementary- no younger than 5th grade- for many reasons. When teaching this book in the classroom, there are obvious lessons you can teach such as figurative language, references, writing styles, etc. But there is so much content that can go beyond that. You could use this to teach about European history (or any history for that matter), early American history, the human body (science), geography, and many others.

If I were teaching this, one of the activities I would do would be to have the students pick out a prefabricated name and birth/death date out of separate piles. I would then have the students do heavy research on that time period (I could give a location if necessary such as the US). They would then write a fictional story about their character and give the character an inscription on a headstone that they would draw. 

Lexile: 820L

Grade Equivalent: 5.4

Wonderful website I found full of The Graveyard Book resources:

https://sites.google.com/site/theghoulgate/home

This lovely book is about a kid who doesn't like the new boy in town. He wants to make that kid's life miserable, so his dad tells him to make enemy pie. But in order for the enemy pie to work, the two boys have to "pretend" to be friends for an entire day. Of course the two boys end up being friends. This is a great book for the classroom for multiple reasons. I would use it to teach tolerance and bullying awareness. For an activity, I would use this as a fraction activity. Pie is a main theme of the book, so I would use slices of pie (fake pie) to teach fractions or even pie charts.  http://youvegotthismath.com/2016/10/31/addingfractionspuzzles/

Age Range- 5-8 years

Lexile: 330L 

This lovely Kevin Henkes book has been one of my favorites since I was a kid. I really connected to Chrysanthemum- even though I wasn't bullied because of my name, I did hate my own, wanted to be called "Lily", and mac & cheese was/is my favorite food just like the main character of the book. "Chrysanthemum" is a great book to use in the classroom because it talks about feelings, bullying, and being nice to people. Because this book is very well known, there are many resources available for it.

An activity that I have done in the past is this: I printed out large versions of positive (happy face, heart eyes, etc) and negative (crying, frowny face, etc) emojis and glued one of each to a popsicle stick- enough for each person in class. While the book is being read aloud to them, the students react using their emojis. This is great for younger grades, but can be adapted to older grades by having students fill out an anchor chart of positive/negative emotions that go further than the usual "happy" and "sad". The anchor chart can then be used during writing so that the students have a mini thesaurus to look at. 

Guided Reading: L

Lexile: 460L

Scholastic Discussion Guide:

http://www.scholastic.com/browse/collateral.jsp?id=32395

This well known book is a favorite of many- and I know why. Roald Dahl is an amazing author and his work really shows through this book. It tells the story of a young orphan named Sophie who meets the BFG- Big Friendly Giant. He is the only giant that isn't nasty or a children eater. Instead, he and Sophie come up with a plan to save future children from being eaten- by telling the Queen of England and having her lock the other mean giants up. This book is perfect for all sorts of activities in the classroom. A quick search of "BFG" on pinterest pulls up many fun activities that engage the children while allowing them to learn new things. One of the best ideas I saw was incorporating "The BFG" into STEM activities (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-BFG-by-Roald-Dahl-STEM-Challenge-2538071). Students are asked to dream up then construct a fork that the BFG could use to eat his food. This can be taken to the next level, though. Students could fictitiously design tools, utensils, and other important items for people with disabilities. Not only would this put their STEM minds to use, but would also get students to think about other people who don't necessarily have that easy of a life and that "simple" tasks can be hard for other people. 

Guided Reading: U

Grade Level Equivalent: 5.8

Lexile: 720L

Another Cute Idea:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/138345019782627706/