Sleepless Beauty

Information for Students

Author: Frances Minters Title: Sleepless Beauty

Book Genre: Traditional Publishing Info: Vikings pp 28

Summary: This is a different version of the story Sleeping Beauty, with a little hip-hop twist. The story takes place in an apartment. The little girls name is Little Beauty. The wicked witch cursed her on her 14th birthday when she pricks her finger all will fall asleep for 100 years, the only way to break the curse is if a rock star will awake Little Beauty. On her 14^th birthday Little Beauty finger is pricked by the needle of a record player and falls asleep but awakes the next morning. How is this possible?

Personal Rating: * * * *

Rationale: Wonderful rhyming tale, retells sleeping beauty in wonderful well written present day version, easy to read plot, enjoyable, and wonderful illustrations.

Information for Teacher

Reading Level: 2.8 Interest Level: K-2

Thematic Areas: curses; intelligence; rhyming; modern tale; witches; family

Content Area: History; math; social studies; language arts

Potential Problems or Difficulties: Takes away the originality of the original Sleeping Beauty. Harsh view of what a birthday present should consist of. Presents are to show how much you care about someone; this story portrays a birthday present given out of anger and is harmful to the child.

Possible uses in classroom: Compare and contrast the original Sleeping Beauty to Sleepless Beauty. Have the students add up how old they would be if they slept for a 100 years. Bring a cassette player, CD player, and record player to school and discuss the differences. Play a rock star music CD for 100 seconds and 100 minutes. Let the students dance to the music using 100 different movements


Angie Blair

Information for Students

Author: Jerry Spinelli Title: Maniac Magee

Book Genre: Traditional Publishing Info: Little, Brown and Company pp184

Summary: This is a story about a legend, Jeffrey Lionel Magee, also known as Maniac Magee. His life becomes a legend after his parents died and left him an orphan. After his parents died, he went to live with his aunt and uncle, but runs away because they refuse to talk to each other. He becomes a homeless kid who can run fast, great athlete, and the best knot UN tier. He touches and makes a difference in people’s lives. The best thing he is a legend for is what he did for the kids from the East side (the white side) and the West side (the black side). Maniac Magee has many elements of a tall tale the main character has a unique mission to accomplish, problems that are solved with humor, and the adventures are exaggerated.

Personal Rating: * * * *

Rationale: Well writing, great plot, adventurous, not boring, exciting, believable circumstances, funny, touching, and sad events, problem solving, and believable characters.

Information for Teacher

Reading Level: 5.4 Interest Level: 4th-8^th

Thematic Areas: friendship; homelessness; survival; values; discrimination; bullies; belonging; families; death; legends

Content Area: History; science; math; social studies; language Arts, values

Potential Problems or Difficulties: At times there is a harsh view towards life. Hatred towards black and white people is evident in the book. The story portrays that it is ok not to go to school if you read books. A sense of not belonging, no family.

Possible uses in classroom: History lesson on segregation, compare how the book portrays blacks and white to present time, discuss some solutions to help solve the problem of segregation and how Maniac Magee tried to help solve this problem in Two Mills. Study the zoo animals mentioned in Maniac Magee, research all the animals and discover which ones are friendly or not so friendly. Discuss the reason why Maniac Magee choose the Buffalo cage as a place to sleep at night and ask students to choose an animal in the zoo that they would consider a safe place to sleep. In groups have the students develop a skit that portrays a life of a homeless child. Discuss how society can prevent homelessness and how Maniac Magee survived being homeless as a kid. Discuss the difference between a homeless life style and children who are not homeless. Define the word legend and have students choose a person they consider a legend, and then compare them to Maniac Magee life.