This is all about perception. This is a stone (or a rock) which is surrounded by water, dirt, and grass and it is, what it is. To all different animals, through all the different scenarios, this stone sits where its at and it becomes whatever it needs to be for its habitat. It could be daylight, the stone could be large for some animals or tiny for others, it didn't matter the time of the year or the weather condition, the stone was there. This stone, this hard, solid piece of matter was predictable, and all the the animals were using it.

The illustrations were fantastic and I loved how they showed exactly the different scenarios how the stone was used. It's a great book to get you to start thinking. What a terrific book.

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

"Little Red Writing" surpassed all of my expectations. I expected it to be a simple story about little red riding hood except the girl is now a pencil. I was very wrong. This book teaches while entertaining! It goes through the writing process, details many different parts of speech, and talks about punctuation. I would use this in an upper grade classroom by reading it aloud to the class before the students have to write a story or paper. It would remind them of grammar rules and sentence structure while letting their minds think about what they want to write. Just like in the book, I would give students 15 categorized words to use in their story. After reading the book aloud to the class, I would have the students come up with a 2 page story using those 15 words. 

Lexile: AD 740L

Guided Reading: O

Grade Level Equivalent: 3.5

"Bridge to Terabithia" is a very sad book that confronts the realities of life in a way that really connects with kids. The book is about Jess and Leslie, two friends who create an imaginary land called Terabithia which they visit often. After Leslie dies in a tragic accident, Jess reflects back on his memories and is transformed in the rest of the book. Though this novel has much to offer in terms of literary devices- character development, vocabulary, symbolism, etc. But it also opens an array of other opportunities. Nature is a large part of the book as well as imagination and friendship. Because I am a big believer in STEM, I think this book would be a great opportunity to work on some STEM activities. There are many STEM lessons that involve designing bridges, building them, and testing their strength. Doing this activity would also focus on teamwork and cooperation. Overall, this book has many possibilities and I highly recommend it for any older classroom. 

Guided Reading Level: T

Lexile: 810L

Grade Level Equivalent: 4.6