2018-2019 ​FLA Children's Book Award Finalists

DLA
DLA
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Red & Lulu
Author: Matt Tavares

​Red and Lulu are two cardinals that live together in a beautiful evergreen tree. Every year the people in the neighborhood string lights on the tree and sing Christmas carols. Then one year the tree is chosen to be the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. The tree is cut down and taken away while Red was away from the nest. Lulu was in the nest and stayed in the tree all the while it traveled to New York. Christmas is a time for miracles, will Red and Lulu be reunited?

​Extension Activities:
  • Make handprint cardinals: wikiHow>Make-Handprint-Cardinals
  • Matt Tavares author study
  • Read The Central Park Tales by Marcus Meesters
  • Make pinecone bird feeders: instructions on www.theoutdoorparent.com
  • Sing; O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree
  • Go on a nature walk, look for evergreen trees and cardinals
  • Have students pair up and discuss where they think the tree came from. Research where past trees have come from.
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​Charlotte the Scientist is Squished
Author: Camille Andros   &   Illustrator: Brianne Farley      

Charlotte is a serious scientist. She loves to solve important problems by following the scientific method. But Charlotte has a problem, she needs more room. She was squished at home, she needed more space, was going to space the answer? Charlotte has all the room she needs in space, but space is lonely.  Find out how Charlotte solves her problem.

Extension Activities:
  • www.sciencekids.co.nz
  • A Really Big List of Free Science Websites for Kids: www.parentingchaos.com
  • Charlotte was squished because she had so many brothers and sisters. Have students draw, write and discuss times they felt squished in their families or some other place.
  • Charlotte’s spaceship looked like a carrot. Have students create their own unique spaceship.
  • Charlotte needed her own space, open a discussion about personal space and ways to achieve personal space.
  • Make a poster of the scientific method. (Poster contest)
These are fictional books that impart factual information about the subjects the authors have written about. Children, and adults for that matter, often are inspired to learn more about a subject once they are exposed to it in an enjoyable story. The following list of books might just inspire your students to do further research.
  • Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
  • Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle Illustrated by Rafael Lopez
  • If You Were a Penguin by Florence Friedman Minor and Wendell Minor
  • Picasso and the Girl with the Ponytail: A Story about Pablo Picasso by Laurence Anholt
  • Degas and the Little Dancer by Laurence Anholt
  • Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katherine Russel-Brown Illustrated by Frank Morrison
  • The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art by Barb Rosenstock Illustrated by Mary GrandPre
  • The Dreidel That Wouldn’t Spin: A Toyshop Tale of Hanukkah by Martha Seif Simpson Illustrated by Durga Yael Bernhard
  • Mrs. Greenberg’s Messy Hanukkah by Linda Glasser
  • Animals in Winter-Hibernation, Migration and Adaptation-Science Made Simple by Richard G. Van Gelder and Henrietta Bancroft
Finalists presented by Julia Ross, CBA Chair for DLA, at the September 20th  meeting:​
 
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​ DO NOT BRING YOUR DRAGON TO THE LIBRARY  
Written by Julie Gassman and illustrated by Andy Elkerton
Genre: Fiction
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This is a rhyming book that extols the virtues of the public library.  It describes the havoc your dragon will wreak at story time, to the book shelves, and to all the wonderful resources available at the library.  The librarian offers a solution at the conclusion of the book.

​This would be a perfect book to read prior to a library field trip.


​Extension Activities:
  • Ask the students to name another animal(real or mythical) and what kind of chaos
  • that animal could cause in the library.
  • Go on a scavenger hunt in your school library (Google Beginning of Year Library Scavenger Hunt - Lessons by Sandy
  • Make a list of things found in a library (You could do a before and after list, before reading the book and after, also before a field trip to the library and after)
  • Listen to Puff the Magic Dragon
  • Make a paper bag dragon puppet   (www.createinthechaos.com/paper-bag-dragon-puppet)
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Mouseling’s Words
Written by Shutta Crum and illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke
Genre: Fiction
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Mouseling loves words! At first he doesn’t want to venture from his comfortable nest where his Aunt brings home delicious words from the Swashbuckler Restaurant, but he eventually gets brave and discovers a place where there is a treasure trove of words.
Extension Activities:
  • Make a word cloud. Have students cut out words from magazines and create a word cloud.
  • Make a list of places where you would find a plethora of words
  • Mouseling gives the cat the gift of being read to, do you think being read to is a gift? Why?
  • Have students pair up and read to each other.
  • Have students listen to The Lion and the Mouse and compare it to Mouseling’s Words
  • Have the students think of words that would be found at different types of restaurants.
A Teacher’s Guide:
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DO NOT BRING YOUR DRAGON TO THE LIBRARY and Mouselings WORDS

Books’ connection: The Library

Related book list:
If You Ever Want to Bring a Circus to the Library, Don’t by Elise Parsley
Chicken Story Time by Sandy Asher and illustrated by Mark Fearing
Bats at the Library by Brian Lies
Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
The Not So Quiet Library by Zacharia O’Hara
Wolves by Emily Gravett
Wild About Books by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Marc Brown
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce and illustrated by William Joyce and Joe Bluhm
No T. Rex in the Library by Toni Buzzeo and illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa 
Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss
The Library Dragon by Carmen Agra Deedy and illustrated by Michael P. White

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