back to life

okay, been out for a while. let me tell you what i's been up to. i took this class on literacy curriculum. we had two big assignments: one was a book database, where we were to read "informational books" and create a database with headings such as bibliographic info, key concepts, summaries, and illustration critiques. we were told we had to read all new books, and if we were doing mostly picture books, we were to do over 50. I did 60 books, and only 6 were chapter books. i spent at least 30 hours on this project, meticulously selecting and analyzing books. we had to turn in a copy of the database along with a typed summary of the database. the teacher graded our papers while her grad. assistants taught, and we couldn't help but notice how she never looked at our databases, just skimmed down our summary, wrote our score, and handed them back to us directly. grrrr... there is no way she could tell how good our database was based on our summary!
anyway, the assignment was worth doing, cuz i learned a lot of new books. no one else i talked to in the class read new books. they used all the books from their classroom. oh well, guess i'm a sucker. here's my list o' books: (my favorites are bolded, and the three books i had read previously have ***)

Book Title
Boy
Babe the Gallant Pig
The Suitcase Kid
Hush
Dinosaurs Divorce: A Guide for Changing Families
When Dinosaurs Die: A Guide to Understanding Death
Mississippi Morning
A House for Hermit Crab
The Big Snow
Cottontail at Clover Crescent
Wolves
Sea Turtles
How to Talk to Your Cat
Corn is Maize
The Best Book of Sharks
Spiders
The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree
Are You a Snail?
Sunken Treasure
A Snake's Body
Pigs
Are You a Spider?
I See a Kookaburra! Discovering Animal Habitats Around the World
Water Dance
Frida
Will We Miss Them? Endangered Species
Giant Pandas
The Important Book
Me and the Measure of Things
Monday on the Mississippi
W is for Wind: A Weather Alphabet Book
K is for Kick: A Soccer Alphabet
When Everybody Wore a Hat
Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman
Houdini: World's Greatest Mystery Man and Escape Artist
Snowflake Bentley **
Salt in His Shoes
The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss
Beatrice's Goat
Celia Cruz: Queen of Salsa
The Magic School Bus Sees Stars
This is Ireland
A City Through Time: The Story of a City - From Ancient Colony to Vast Metropolis
Christopher Columbus
Abraham Lincoln: The Writer. A Treasury of His Speeches and Letters
We Both Read: About the Rainforest
Saving the Liberty Bell
Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey
The Story of Ruby Bridges
The Journey of The One and Only Declaration of Independence
Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth
Take the Lead, George Washington
A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman
A Woman For President
P is for Passport: A World Alphabet
Exploring the Titanic
How a Book is Made
Crayons: Start to Finish
The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: A Story of Life for All Ages***