Willow Springs

Title: Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!

Author: Dr. Seuss

Topic: The students at Diffendoofer School celebrate their unusual school and teachers.

Grades: All

Comments: We wanted to recognize Dr. Seuss’ birthday the first week of March, and selected this particular book because it was different from all of the other Seuss’ books. He died before the book was completed, and the publisher selected Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith to help finish what Seuss had begun. The children seemed to enjoy the background of the story and the story itself.

Title: The Watson’s Go to Birmingham, 1963

Author: Christopher Curtis

Topic: Novel about an African American family

Grades: 4-6

Comments: We gave a short introduction to the book and then read part of one of numerous funny things that happen to the “weird Watson” family. A lot of students were interested in checking out the novel. We had a wait list.