Current Book Review

Coming Soon! A Study Guide for The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

Coming soon! A study guide to go with the book about survival, adapting, finding your place in the world, and forming a family. Get the study guide when it comes out so you can immerse yourself in this wonderful story before it comes to theaters! Follow us so you don’t miss out: www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/The-Dusty-Jacket

TPT Question #1: Do I Create My Own Study Guides?

YES! With the exception of any maze games or clip art images, all of the written content, creative activities, and learning exercises are created exclusively and solely by me, a former parent educator for eight years. NO AI-generated verbiage. NO third-party content. NO outsourced materials. Just me providing these resources to educators who want to spend MORE time teaching and LESS time preparing. Save time and visit my store at www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/the-dusty-jacket

FREE Study Guide! Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik

A mini version of our full-sized study guide, this FREE guide is a great supplement to Else Holmelund Minarik’s classic book about the special bond shared between mother and child. Ideal for early readers with plenty of activities to keep your young learner engaged as they spend the day with Mother and Little Bear.

Activities include:

  • Vocabulary
  • Story questions
  • Sorting objects
  • Sequencing events
  • Match-up
  • Counting
  • Drawing
  • Writing
  • Pretend vs Real
  • Fill in the blank
  • Answer key included


A great way to teach structured learning and encourage self-guided study! Download your FREE copy today: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Study-Guide-Little-Bear-by-Else-Holmelund-Minarik-12136335

Sounder by William H. Armstrong (J Fiction)

Sounder

William H. Armstrong (J Fiction)

Sounder was well named. When he treed a coon or possum in a persimmon tree or on a wild-grape vine, his voice would roll across the flatlands.

His mother wasn’t educated, but she knew the stories of the Bible and would retell them around the stove. How the boy yearned to be able to read those exciting stories for himself, but school was far away, and his family were poor sharecroppers. What use would he ever have for reading or writing? Then, as a testament to his mother’s unwavering belief, a miracle happens when his father brings home pork sausages and a ham. And it wasn’t even Christmas yet. But a late-night knock on the door suddenly turns the boy’s world upside down and soon he’ll need to rely on his mother’s faith and his own determination to get his family through the most difficult time of their lives.

Winner of the 1970 Newbery Medal, Sounder is a classic story of faith, family, and rising above your circumstances with dignity and honor. Armstrong assigned only one character a name in this book and that was to a loyal coon dog named Sounder. He also provided scant descriptions of his main characters other than saying that the father was a “tall man”. In an interview for Writer’s Digest, Armstrong explained this choice by saying that he wanted the reader to place themselves in the story: “…without names [the characters] became universal—representing all people who suffer privation and injustice, but through love, self-respect, devotion, and desire for improvement, make it in the world.”

In the beginning of his book, Armstrong explains that Sounder was inspired by a story told by an elderly black teacher around his family’s kitchen table. The story was about Argus, the dog of Odysseus, who remained loyal to his master and even recognized him upon his return home after being away for 20 years. After the teacher told this story, he told the story of Sounder. In this day and age, where loyalty can be won or lost based on 280 characters, it’s hard to imagine that kind of faithfulness shown by a coon dog to his master. Love and dedication on that level is rare and probably why Armstrong honored this loyal companion with a name.

Sounder is much more than a book about the atrocities of slavery and the ugliness of racial injustice. It’s a story of devotion: Sounder to his master, the boy to his father, and the mother to her Lord and Savior. References from the Bible are stitched throughout this story much like the mother’s stitches used to mend a torn pocket or strengthen a ripped seam. Faith is the thread that ties and holds these characters together and makes them strong and resilient. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “If you lose faith, you lose all.” I think that sums up this extraordinary book perfectly. Thank you, Mrs. Roosevelt, for doing it with just 32 characters.

Rating: 5/5

NEW!! Want to share this book with your homeschooler or classroom? Download our study guide: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Study-Guide-Sounder-by-William-H-Armstrong-12035619

Study Guide: Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

A great ELA supplement to Richard and Florence Atwater’s Newbery Honor book about a simple painter with a dream and a colony of penguins that make his dream come true. Wonderful themes of family, loyalty, selflessness, integrity, love, and friendship.    

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Study-Guide-Mr-Poppers-Penguins-by-Richard-and-Florence-Atwater-12118927

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (J Fiction)

The Whipping Boy

Sid Fleischman (J Fiction)

If you’re an orphan, you’d think life in a castle would be a dream come true: fancy clothes, delicious food, a royal roof over your head. But Jemmy’s life is anything but because he’s the prince’s whipping boy and must endure the constant punishments committed by the naughtiest boy in the kingdom. A boy so awful that he’s known far and wide as Prince Brat. Suffering from boredom, the prince decides to run away and demands that Jemmy accompany him. Things quickly go from bad to worse when they are kidnapped by a couple of highwaymen who seek a handsome payoff for the unlucky duo. Can Jemmy’s street smarts allow them to escape or will they be defeated by none other than the prince’s own ego?  

Fleischman’s 1987 Newbery Medal winning book about loyalty, duty, and friendship offers up a great mix of action, adventure, and humor. Near escapes and unexpected encounters will keep young readers engaged and cheering for our spunky ratcatcher as he outwits the bad guys to save a boy who has little to no regard for right or wrong. The brilliance of Fleischman’s book is the character arc of Prince Brat. He’s detestable, insufferable, infuriating, and untrustworthy yet time and again Jemmy comes to his aid out of a sense of duty and honor. Who would have thought that an orphaned sewer dweller is actually more deserving of a royal title than the heir himself, but as we watch the prince slowly transform throughout the story, we witness how far a lot of patience and a little bit of faith can go.  

French-born American novelist Anais Nin wrote, “Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” Even though Jemmy was under Prince Brat’s nose the entire time, he had to leave his regal world and set out into a new one to fully appreciate and value the person who had suffered so much for his own digressions. By showing Prince Brat what powerful gifts humility, grace, and kindness were, Jemmy was able to open up a whole new world for the spoiled prince who realized that a title, a castle, or gold doesn’t truly make you wealthy, but rather it’s having someone that you can call friend.

Rating: 5/5

Share Jemmy and Prince Brat with your class with our study guide! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Study-Guide-The-Whipping-Boy-by-Sid-Fleischman-11901695

FREE Study Guide! Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel

This mini, free study guide is a great supplement to Arnold Lobel’s classic book about true friendship. Ideal for early readers with plenty of activities to keep young learners engaged as they join Frog and Toad on wonderful adventures. Activities include opposites, idioms, match-up games, word creation, sequencing, and more! Answer key included. Download: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Study-Guide-Frog-and-Toad-Are-Friends-by-Arnold-Lobel-12053815

Study Guide: Sounder by William H. Armstrong

A great ELA supplement to William H. Armstrong’s Newbery Medal book about a poor African-American sharecropping family with themes of faith, family, self-respect, loyalty, and love. Activities include analytical writing, analyzing a story, literary devices, multiplication practice, research, and writing an opinion. Download: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Study-Guide-Sounder-by-William-H-Armstrong-12035619