Allison Wonderland

The One and Only Ivan Author: Katherine Applegate Illustrator: Patricia Castelao Genre: Fiction Award: Texas Bluebonnet Award, John Newbery Medal Grade: 3rd grade and up Ivan is a gorilla who lives in a stationary circus. He is so used to his life in the circus that he does not care anymore when humans watch him. He does not miss his life in the jungle anymore because he grows accustomed of the life in the mall. Most of the time, Ivan thinks of art, such as the banana peel, the leaves color and etc. Ivan is closed friends with bob the stray dog and an elephant name Stella. One day he meets a baby elephant name Ruby. Ruby was taken from her family and she showed her art works to Ivan. When Stella passed away due to infection, Ivan promised to her that he will take care of Ruby and he will not let Ruby live in that captivity. One day, Ivan got a hold of paint given by Julia and painted a drawing of Ruby and it went famous and in the billboards. The claw-stick appea...

Inside Out and Back Again Author: Thanhha Lai Genre: Historical Fiction Award: Newbery Honor Grade: 4 th grade and up The story is set during the Vietnam war and it is written in short poems. A 10-year-old girl named Ha moves from Saigon to Alabama due to the war. She moved with her mother and brothers and they traveled by boat to America. Ha struggles as she tries to settle to the country she moved in, which is the United States. She struggles on moving on from the country she has known growing up to settling in a new country. At the end of the book, they finally settled and they have courage that life will get better for them. This book is unique because it is written in a series of short poems. The writing is smooth and clear. I would recommend this to students 4 th grade and up because it is a book of poems and it is a thick book. I like Ha’s story because it tells the story of people who moved to other countries and they are cu...

The War That Saved My Life Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Genre: Historical Fiction Book dealing with special needs Award: Newbery Honor Grade: 4 th grade and up The story is set in World War II. Ada Smith is a 10-year-old girl who is born with a club foot. She only stays indoors and does not get out because her mother is humiliated because of her foot. An order came from the government so the children have to evacuate London. She saw this as an opportunity to leave the house and escape from her very mean mother. Miss Smith does not want any children but she ended up taking them anyways. Miss Smith took care of them, bathe them, took Ada to the doctor for her foot and even helped her with her crutches. She started making friends and her depression eased. Ada’s mother came back for her and his brother and they went back to their apartment. Ada’s mother does not want her to walk or even want to take care of them either so Ada and his brother left early morning to g...