Hoai's Book Island

  About Book Title: Stay Author: Bobbie Pyron Genre: Realistic Fiction, Multicultural Major Book Awards: 2020 Texas Bluebonnet Awards Recommended Age Range: 8 to 12 Appropriate Grade Levels: 3rd to 7th grade Summary This book talks about a girl named Piper and her family, who suddenly finds themselves homeless, due to unfortunate events that has occurred. The family decides to move to Idaho and into a homeless shelter [Hope House], hoping this city would turn their life around. Piper had to learn how to adapt into this new and unexpected life. During her stay, Piper was able to meet a group of  g irls at the shelter who faces similar circumstances. She later on  sees a woman [Jewel] she saw inside the shelter earlier, with her little dog [Baby] at a park. One day Jewel got sick and ends up in a hospital, leaving Baby behind. Jewel's friend was able to locate her and brought her Baby, but eventually Baby was picked up by animal control. When Piper found out, she knew ...

  About Book Title: If I Built a School Author & Illustrator: Chris Van Dusen Genre: Science Fiction Major Book Awards: 2020 Texas Blue Bonnet Awards Recommended Age Range: 5 to 7 Appropriate Grade Levels: Kindergarten to 3rd grade Summary This story is about a boy named Jack, who takes a teacher through an imaginary tour of how he would build his dream school, involving many fantasy and futuristic ideas. He first takes her on the inside layout of the school. The first thing there'll be, are cute puppies and giant zoo animals at the entrance. To go to class, there would be a pod-like glass for transportation. Classrooms would be open roof and have floating desks. At the library, the books would come to life and pop-out every time it gets opened. Art, music, and science classes would be fun as well. They'll get to use paint sprayers, play music really loud, and build their own creatures in science labs. Instead of tests, there would be lots of fieldtrips on special bus that...

  About Book Title: We'll Paint the Octopus Red Author: Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen Illustrator: Pam Devito Genre: Realistic Fiction, Special needs Major Book Awards: No major book awards Recommended Age Range: 5 to 8 Appropriate Grade Levels: Kinder to 3rd grade Summary This book talks about a little girl named Emma who initially did not want to have a sibling, but later on finds out that she was having a baby brother named Isaac. Before his arrival, she imagined all the things that they'd do together such as, playing  kickball, feeding the calves at grandpa's farm, make funny faces at cars that passes by, go to an art festival and paint a rubber octopus red, and visit animals in a safari. Emma was now super excited to welcome Isaac. Until, one morning she was informed that Isaac had been born with down syndrome.  She was shocked and thought to herself that Isaac won't be able to do all of the things she'd mentioned anymore. Her dad reassured her that Isaac could do the...

  About Book Title: A Different Pond Author: Bao Phi Illustrator: Thi Bui Genre: Realistic Fiction, Multicultural Major Book Awards: 2018 Caldecott Medal Recommended Age Range: 8 to 11 Appropriate Grade Levels: 3rd to 6th grade Summary This story is about a young boy named Bao who is woken up really early to go fishing with his dad one morning. They head out hours before his dad has to leave for work at his second job. Unlike others, they go fishing for food and not for pleasure. This made Bao question his dad as to why they keep doing this when he has two jobs. His dad then explains that everything in America can be expensive. While fishing, Bao's dad reminisces his life as a little boy in Vietnam. He shares that he used to fish in a similar pond like this with his brother and talks a bit about the war they both fought together in as soldiers. Then suddenly a few fishes plopped up and they've successfully caught them.  This made Bao's dad smile widely, because it means the...

  About Book Title: Thank You, Omu! Author & Illustrator: Oge Mora Genre: Fiction, Multicultural Major Book Awards: 2019 Caldecott Honor for Illustrations, 2019 Coretta Scott King Steptoe for best new illustrator Recommended Age Range: 4 to 8 Appropriate Grade Levels: Pre-k to 3rd grade Summary This book written by Oge Mora talks about a woman named Omu making her delicious red stew for an evening meal. Her stew smelled so good that it got almost everybody in her neighborhood come knocking at her door asking what it was. She couldn't help but share some of her tasty stew to them, thinking she'd have more than enough for herself later on. One knock after another coming to her door. To name a few, Omu has fed an officer, cab driver, doctor, singer, and even the mayor! When night came, Omu was ready to finally eat her dinner. Unfortunately, when she opened up her big pot of stew, it was empty. The best dinner she could've had was all gone. As she sits sniffling with her em...

  About Book Title: Thread of Love Authors: Kabir & Surishtha Sehgal Illustrator: Zara Gonzalez Hoang Genre: Nonfiction, Multicultural Major Book Awards: No major book awards Recommended Age Range: 3-6 Appropriate Grade Levels: Pre-k to 1st Grade Summary This book written by Kabir and Surishtha Sehgal talks about the celebration of sibling hood on Raksha Bandhan, an Indian holiday. It's a day where sisters create traditional thread bracelets [rakhi] for their brothers and in return the brothers promise to treat them well. Inspired by t he classic tune of Frere Jacques's Are You Sleeping as a sing-song text, the two sisters in this book makes their brother a rakhi and in exchange he gifts them presents and delicious sweets. At the end of the book, this tradition is seen to be celebrated globally on every continent, not only between siblings, but family and friends too. Because the thread of love is what connects us all. Teacher Evaluation I had a fun time reading this book b...

  About Book Title: Dear Primo: A Letter to my Cousin  Author & Illustrator: Duncan Tonatiuh Genre: Realistic Fiction, Multicultural Major Book Awards: 2011   Pura Belpre award  Recommended Age Range: 5 to 7 Appropriate Grade Levels: Kinder to 2nd grade Summary This book talks about Charlie and Carlitos, cousins living in two different countries writing letters to one another. Charlie lives in America, while Carltio lives in Mexico. Within their letters, they both tell each other about their days, the foods they eat, the sports they play, and the traditions celebrated in both countries. Although what they write are about different things, they both had the same idea at the same time. And that was to visit each other.  Teacher Evaluation This was a pretty interesting book to read. I love the letter format, where it flows from Charlie to Carlitos and vice versa. The illustrations were nice and the colors blends in well together. It was also great to see the in...

  About Book Title: The Proudest Blue Authors: Ibtihaj Muhammed with S.K. Ali Illustrator: Hatem Aly Genre: Realistic Fiction, Multicultural Major Book Awards: No major book awards Recommended Age Range: 4-8 Appropriate Grade Levels: Pre-k to 3rd grade Summary This book talks about a little girl named Faizah and her older sister Asiya on their first day of school. On the first day, Faizah had her new light up shoes and Asiya had on her blue hijab. Faizah was in awe of how beautiful her sister's hijab was, until she saw people whispering, laughing, pointing, and questioning it. Faizah couldn't understand why they were doing that when in her eyes the hijab was like the ocean and the sky, it was normal, beautiful, and were always there. She got really upset, but was reminded by her mother's words to ignore the things people say, since what they say belongs to them and only them. At the end of the day, both sisters walk home together and Faizah was really excited to show her mo...

  About Book Title: The Day You Begin Author: Jacqueline Woodson Illustrator: Rafael Lopez Genre: Realistic Fiction, Multicultural Major Book Awards: No major book awards Recommended Age Range: 5 to 8 Appropriate Grade Levels: Kinder to 3rd grade Summary This book talks about how one may feel different based on how they look, where they're from, and the foods they eat. This can be seen through the perspective of a girl named Angelina, as this book centers around her. She begins to feel different from her classmates as they share all the fun things they've did over the summer, since her summer experience wasn’t anything like theirs. This made her wonder that there will be times where you would  feel like an outsider when people don't know what you're eating or you're not able to understand how to play certain games like everyone else. But once you start opening up to people and share your story, then maybe their will be those who can relate to you. And so she did, sh...

  About Book Title: Dear Zoo Author & Illustrator: Rod Campbell Genre: Fiction, Papered Engineered Major Book Awards: No major book awards Recommended Age Range: 3 to 6  Appropriate Grade Levels: Pre-k to 1st grade Summary This story takes readers on an adventure of all the mostly seen animals in a zoo. It started off with an anonymous child writing a letter to the zoo asking them to send the perfect pet.  The zoo then sends the kid an animal, but each time that an animal was sent out via a crate, it was either too big,  too small, too tall, or too wild to be considered a pet.  After a few unpleasant deliveries, the zoo finally sent out the perfect pet and this time it was a puppy! The child has then decided to keep the puppy. Evaluation - Would I Incorporate this book in the classroom? This was honestly a fun lift-the-flap book. I don't remember my last time reading one, so it was pretty fun having little interactions with the book. I would definitely use t...