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Beginning Pearls
Grade Levels: 2-6
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts, Art
With age-appropriate dark humor, a cast of animal characters explore fun, fear, friendship and life. Heading the cast is Rat, a mean-spirited rodent who lives with the trusting and simple-minded Pig. Their supporting cast includes the highly intellectual Goat; the meek and defenseless Zebra; and the hungry and incompetent Crocs.
The Mutts Winter Diaries
Grade Levels: 3-5
Curriculum Connections: Science, English Language Arts
Students will read The Mutts Winter Diaries and discuss how the characters deal with winter weather. Then, students will discuss and research the ways that animals survive during winter, including hibernation, migration, and adaptation. Finally, students will use creative expression to report on what they learned about animals in winter.
The Mutts Diaries
Grade Levels: 3-5
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts
As students read The Mutts Diaries, they will select both linguistic and visual evidence from the text showing the appearance, words, and actions of the characters. Students will then analyze character traits of two chosen characters, citing evidence from the text to support their findings. Finally, students will use their character analyses to infer how each of their two chosen characters might respond to a new challenge.
Kid Beowulf: The Rise of El Cid
Grade Levels: 3-5
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts
As students read Kid Beowulf: The Rise of El Cid, they will record text evidence of a chosen character’s beliefs and decisions. Students will then analyze and write about how their chosen character’s moral code affects the character’s decisions in the story. Then they will compare and contrast different characters’ beliefs and decisions.
Kid Beowulf: The Song of Roland
Grade Levels: 3-5
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts
Students read Kid Beowulf: The Song of Roland and complete character studies. Each student then creates a timeline of his or her character’s actions and writes about the character’s motivations and choices and how they affect the story. After students share their character studies with the class, each student chooses two more characters and analyzes their interactions and motivations.
Kid Beowulf: The Blood-Bound Oath
Grade Levels: 3-5
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts
Students will read Kid Beowulf: The Blood-Bound Oath; record the characters, settings, and main events in each section; and then discuss how the text sections fit together and how each successive part builds on earlier sections. Students will then analyze several main events in the story, including the characters’ motivations and the consequences that follow.
Lio: Making Friends
Grade Levels: 3-5
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts, Art, Drama
Young scientist and inventor Lio spends his days cooking up schemes, practical jokes, and surprises with the help of his friends: robots and pet snakes, spiders, crabs, a squid, and other assorted creatures. Students can enjoy the fantasy element and explore exaggerated humor with group and individual creative exercises.
Lio: There’s a Monster in My Socks
Grade Levels: 3-5
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts, Art, Science, Social Studies
A curious young scientist, inventor, and practical joker, Lio is joined in his day-to-day exploits by his exasperated father; pet snakes, spiders, and squids; and various imaginary robots, aliens, and monsters. The imaginative realism helps readers to comprehend stories in a fun way and the dialogue-free panels can be used as a springboard for students to write their own stories.
The G-Man Super Journal
Grade Levels: 3-5
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts
As students read each section of The G-Man Super Journal: Awesome Origins, they will use the “Super Reader Responses!” bookmark page to take notes on characters, vocabulary, key moments in the story, and text connections. Students will then use their notes to write reader response journal entries in which they make personal connections to their reading.
Li’l Rip Haywire Adventures
Grade Levels: 3-5
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts
Students will read Li’l Rip Haywire Adventures and analyze the main character, noting their impressions of him. Each student will then complete a graphic organizer in which he or she names a character trait and provides text evidence to support it. Finally, each student will analyze the main character’s change in attitude over the course of the story and provide text evidence for his or her observations.
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