Blog Introduction

Welcome to my Children's Literature Review Blog. My name is Gina Kowalchuk and I am currently a junior at the University of Great Falls. I am originally from Canada and got a golf scholarship to attend this school. Golf has always been a big part of my life and I am really excited to change that focus onto teaching. I am majoring in Elementary Education and am wanting to teach students from grades 3-6. I loved to read as a kid and I think that is an important quality for a teacher to have because in order to make students love to read, you need to desire reading as well. My favorite books growing up were the "Berenstain Bears" books because they were easy for me to relate to. There were real world problems for kids in these books that makes them excited to read because they think its cool to be like these characters.


Going into teaching, my goals are to get students to "want" to read rather than feeling like they need to read. By instilling this core motivation into them, it will help them succeed in and out of the classroom. I also plan to help students in any way that I can to gain confidence and a love for reading.

My Children's Literature Blog is going to be set up two different ways. I am going to be using grade levels to determine the reading levels of the books that are going to be reviewed. This is going to be kept consistent in order to compare the different books that will be found on here. It will also help to get a diverse amount of books from different grade levels. The rating system of this blog is based on a heart rating system. Each topic that will be discussed will be judged based on three hearts. If it meets the requirements provided, then it will get three; however, if there are things missing, then the review will be based on the elements shown. Here is the rating system rubric that I will be going off of each week:

                                       <3 <3 <3                   <3 <3                          <3                     No <3

Rating System
Theme	If the theme is well developed and the message is portrayed very clearly.	The theme makes sense; however, it could be more developed.	The message is hard to find in the story and there isn’t much of a theme to go off of.	There isn’t a theme at all.
Plot	The plot is very well developed and everything flows smoothly.	The plot has a few gaps, but the story still is capable of moving along.	The plot has gaps that makes it hard to move the story along.	There is no plot in this book.
Characters	All the characters are developed well in the story.	There is more detail that could be added to the characters.	Characters are very poorly developed.	Characters aren’t developed at all.
Setting	The setting is described in detail and is necessary for the story to make sense.	The setting is described alright and still is needed to help the story make sense.	The setting is described alright, but it isn’t needed to help the story move along.	The setting provided is not necessary for the story to occur.
Illustrations	The illustrations are very detailed and help move the story along.	The illustrations are good, but don’t help the story move along.	The illustrations aren’t the best.	There are no meaningful illustrations at all.