Highlights: High Five

If you are familiar with Highlights magazines for kids ages 6-12, you will be thrilled to find one specifically for early childhood age children.

Publisher:  Highlights for Children, Inc.  www.Highlights.com

Age or Interest Level:  Ages 2-6

Summary:  Highlights High Five magazine, published by Highlights for Children, Inc. is a publication specifically for boys and girls ages 2-6.  It helps kindergarteners and pre-schoolers build literacy skills.  There are easy to read articles for emergent readers, puzzles, and activities that include crafts and recipes.  Children can sit and enjoy the magazine on their own or with an adult as they solve the puzzles that reinforce reading, math, and other skills that help boost their thinking power.  It also includes a pull-out activity, such as a board or card game, that offers additional skill reinforcement.  Highlights High Five is also available in a bilingual Spanish edition.

Qualitative Analysis:  Highlights High Five magazine is published monthly and features forty pages of age appropriate text and illustrations that the reader will find attractive.  The front inside cover features a letter from the editor summarizing the contents of the current month’s magazine.  The next page includes the copyright and publisher information as well as a table of contents.  The magazine includes four main features: reading, puzzles, activities, and bonus pages.  Each section has several entries on different pages throughout the magazine.  The text includes a large black font that is mostly on a white background, making it easy to see by the reader.  At the top of each article or new item, there is a heading in the upper corner informing the reader if it is reading, a puzzle, activity, or bonus page.  Most of the illustrations are drawings featuring animals and people.  The only photographs in the magazine are found in the activity areas where photos of children are used when the activity is being demonstrated.

Advertisers:  None

Awards:  High Five has been awarded the Learning Magazine 2010 Teachers’ Choice(SM) Award for the Family and the National Association of Parenting Publications Gold Award, and was named the 2010 Preschool Periodical of the Year. It has also received awards from the Association of Educational Publishers, Parents’ Choice and the National Parenting Center.

Personal thoughts:   Highlights has been around for more than 65 years.  It is a trusted company that features a magazine format for children.  From personal experience when I was a classroom teacher, children love reading the articles and playing the games.  I was not aware of the High Five magazine before now.

 

The One And Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Summary:  Have you ever been passionate about helping a friend?  After many years of living a pretty content life, Ivan, a gorilla, finds a cause that will change his life forever!  Ivan has lived most of his life at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade with his friends Stella, an older elephant and Bob, a homeless dog.  His days are filled with watching television, drawing, and watching people.  He doesn’t think much about where he came from until a baby elephant joins them at the mall.  He begins to remember living in the African jungle before coming to America as Stella shares the story about where she came from.  They realize this is not the best place for the baby elephant, Ruby.  In a heartfelt moment, Ivan promises Stella that he will find a way for Ruby to escape the mall life.  Through the help of Julia, the maintenance man’s daughter, and Ivan’s artistic abilities, there just might be a way to fulfil that promise.

Qualitative Reading Analysis:  According to the Qualitative Measures of Text Complexity Rubric, overall, this book can be categorized as a text that is comfortable or builds background, fluency, and skills.  Density and complexity is the first area of evaluation in the levels of meaning and purpose.  The meaning is explicitly stated and there is a limited use of figurative language.  The purpose of the text is easily identified based on the context of the book.

The structure is comfortable for the reader. The text is consistent with the rules of the genre, fiction.    It is organized in chronological order and is easy to follow.  The narration is told in the first-person perspective of the gorilla, Ivan.  He tells of his life in the jungle, the mall, and the zoo.  There are several text features including a glossary at the beginning of the book.  There are not traditional chapters, but rather italicized headings indicating the feelings or activity Ivan is going to talk about.  There are italicized words in the text that indicate emphasis of a word.  This book includes a lot of white space, which will be attractive to reluctant readers.  There are also black and white drawings scattered throughout the book that supports the text.

When looking at the language conventionality and clarity of the text, there were no variations in the standard English and would closely adhere to the reader’s linguistic base. The register was casual and familiar.

The knowledge demands are also comfortable to the reader.  Although the reader will not know what it is like to be a caged animal, there are sufficient explanation to bridge any gaps.  Prior knowledge of the text is not needed nor is cultural knowledge needed.  The vocabulary is controlled and uses the most commonly held meaning.

Genre and/or Subject Area: Fiction, Reading

Reading Level/Interest Level:  Lexile RL: 570L , Accelerated Reader RL: 3.6 , Reading Counts RL: 3.3 / Grades 3-5

CCSS Reading Standards for Literature K-5:

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

Recommendations/Curriculum Suggestions:  The teacher could discuss the treatment of animals and trapping and the themes of friendship.  There are free teaching resources available from Follett Titlewave

Links Supporting Digital Content:  Animal Rescue and Rehab http://seaworld.org, Wildlife Rescue, Inc. http://www.austinwildliferescue.org, African Elephant http://kids.nationalgeographic.com, African Elephants http://www.sheppardsoftware.com, Gorilla http://www.sheppardsoftware.com, Amy Vedder: The Gorilla’s Best Friend

Awards: Newbery Medal Winner

Bibliographic Information:  Applegate, K. (2012), The One And Only Ivan, New York: Harper

WELCOME!

Welcome to mkennedyreads!  I’m Marjorie Kennedy and I like to read!

I’m the librarian at an American international school in Singapore.  Students and parents are always asking me for suggestions on what to read.  I have created this blog about the books I have recently read.  Maybe you can find some suggestions here for your next book!  Feel free to make suggestions of books you have read and maybe I’ll read that one next!