Cowboy:
Tornado Slim and the Magic Cowboy Hat
By Bryan Langdo
Vocabulary: Sarsparilla, five-alarm chili, sheriff, coyote, fiancé
Magic, humor, fun illustrations. This book easily kept all the kids attention.
Pirate:
Pirates Love Underpants
by Claire Freedman
Vocabulary: Long Johns, knickers, bloomers
This book is widely read, most of my kids had heard it before. Most of the kids needed help to understand the strategy of cutting underwear elastic. I had to stop and explain what was going on a lot, but the illustrations were cute and as always the kids were amused by the underpants theme.
Underwater Monster:
The Pirate Cruncher
by Jonny Duddle
Forshadowing: I introduced this book talking about the consequences for stealing, I tried to prepare the kids for the tragic ending and that worked really well. We talked about the story of King Midas and the dangers of greed.
I didn't want to read this book once I saw the ending, but out of the eleven books on this list, this was the favorite of the kids. They especially enjoyed flipping back to the beginning and seeing the tentacles on the first page and the puppet strings on the fiddler revealed.
Dragons & Knights:
Dough Knights and Dragons
by Dee Leone
Teaches Win-Win behavior
I had 5 dragon books to choose from and although there were two others I preferred as an adult, my children ALL chose this one. The author really gets the kids attention with the donut element added into this book. This was a great read aloud, the kids hadn't heard it before and they were all glued to the story.
Obstacle Course/American Ninja Warrior
Ninja at the Pet Shop
by Luke Flowers
Great ninjas aren't always great Pet Store employees. This is in the style of Amelia Bedelia.
Not many obstacle course theme books out there, but I read this because of the page that showed the ninja training course and it looked like the American Ninja Warrior course, so I went with it. Lots of kids had read this already because it is Scholastic. This book was fine, not as clever as some of the other books on the list, but it worked.
Robots and Friends:
Boy and Bot
by Ame Dyckman
My Friend is Sad
by Mo Willems
Wheels:
Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Monsters:
I Need My Monster
Ninjas:
the 3 Ninja Pigs
Mad Scientist:
Hazel Nutt the Mad Scientist
Vocabulary: Opera Singer, Vampire, Mummy, Steinway Piano, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Boogy Man, etc.
Prepare by teaching "What if you cross?" jokes. I didn't read all the the dry humor in the text bubbles, the dry humor took a lot of explaining, so I just chose a few. I also didn't get to point out all the cleverness, but once the kids understood the book was about mixed up monsters, they were more engaged and appreciative of basic story. It worked well with our mad scientist theme.
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