After reading the story “Wanted: The Perfect Pet”, I can reflect on it. At the start of the story, the young boy named Henry really wanted a dog. His mom didn’t want to get him a dog, because he already had 27 different types of frogs. The boy wanted a real pet though. One that could catch the balls he threw, and one that would chase him around the tree. When the duck also wanted someone to play ping pong with, go to the movies with, and drink tea with. So when the duck saw the “Wanted: The Perfect Pet” sign, he thought “I could be a dog”. The duck then walked down to the boy’s house in a dog costume. Both of them played until the duck’s costume fell off. The boy thought a bit and then brought the duck inside.

      After listening to the story, I have some connections. One connection that I can make is a text to self-connection. When the little boy wanted the dog, It reminded me of myself, because I really wanted a dog. Another connection that I can make is when the young boy saw the “dog” he was really happy. This reminded me of when I got a dog because I was really excited. All in all, I really liked this book “Wanted: The Perfect Pet”.

      The story “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” is written by William Kam Kwamba and Bryan Mealer and is illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon. The story is about a young boy named William, who lived in a poor town called Malawi. William’s family’s crops don’t get any rain and the food starts to go bad. William’s family then only gets one meal a day, and he has to drop out of school because his father doesn’t have any money left because of the crops. William was really bored, so he went to the library. There he was reading when he came across a book that had a windmill in it. The book said that it produced electricity, and water (both his family really needed). William started building this machine from scrap pieces, and when his friends started to help they chopped down trees to build the base of the windmill. Everyone thought William was crazy, but he kept on pushing through.  Finally, when the windmill was made, it started spinning, and everyone was amazed. Electricity was being made, and a few years later they started being able to access water.

      After reading the book”The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”, I can make some connections. One connection that I can make is a text-to-text connection, because in another story that I read (I forget the name of it) a poor child invented an object that helped bring their family back to living normally. I also can make a text-to-self connection, because when I was in Europe in Spain, there were many windmills. They were all over the fields and were really cool. Like in this story, all of the people in the town were amazed by the windmill. All in all, I really liked the story “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”.

      The story “After the Fall Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again” is written and illustrated by Dan Santat. The story is about Humpty Dumpty’s great fall, and how he recovers from it. Firstly, Humpty Dumpty went to the hospital and got fixed up after his fall, but he was still scared of heights. He wouldn’t sleep on the top bunk of his bed and was afraid to climb up the ladder at the store to get all the good cereals. Secondly, Humpty Dumpty then started making paper airplanes to fly with the birds that he loved. His plane flew perfectly with all the birds, but accidents happen. The plane that he made had landed on top of the wall. Finally, Humpty Dumpty built up all of his confidence and started climbing the wall. He went up one step at a time, and he was terrified. But when Humpty Dumpty reached the top, he was no longer afraid. He spread his wings and learned how to fly.

      After reading this book I can make some connections. Firstly, I can make a text to self-connection. I can make this connection to the point in the book where Humpty Dumpty is afraid to climb the wall. I can make this connection because sometimes I am scared of doing something, but I push myself to do it. I also had a text to text connection because in many books I have read, people have had to overcome obstacles like Humpty Dumpty did.  Overall, I really liked “After the Fall Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again”.

      The story “The Noisy Paint Box: The Colours and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art” is written by Barb Rosenstock, and illustrated by Mary Grandpré. This book is a historical fiction book, so the events happened, but not in the exact same way. The story is about a young boy named Vasya who grows up with a very wealthy family. One day when his aunt comes over she gives him a paint box. Vasya hears the paint box playing music and is interested instantly. Vasya starts to paint the sounds that he hears, but when everyone asks “is it a house, is it a flower” Vasya doesn’t know what to answer. To make everyone happy Vasya starts adding people and houses into his paintings. Vasya them studies to become a lawyer, and teaches law school. But one day when he was at the orchestra he started seeing all of the colours while he was listening to the music. After this, Vasya quit his job and moved to Munich to pursue painting. He showed many famous painters his paintings, but they all asked: “is it a house, is it a flower”. Again, he added houses and flowers to his paintings. The other artists were happy, but he was not. Finally, Vasya was brave enough to show his real paintings to the world and named them after what he heard. This time when people asked “is it a house, is it a flower” he answered, “This is my art”.

      After reading the book “The Noisy Paint Box: The Colours and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art” I can make a few connections. My first connection is the phrasing “loud colours” this connects to me because sometimes colours can become “loud” to me if used in a way. My second connection is a text to world connection because I know of a few artists with a disease that makes them feel different senses. All in all, I really liked the book “The Noisy Paint Box: The Colours and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art”.

The story “there” is a book about a kid growing up, it is written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick. The story is about a young kid that is very curious about the world around him. The kid wonders what the world will be like when he is older, and what he will be like. He wonders if there are signs to “there”, if when he gets “there” will he be tall? The young kid is very curious, and it shows in this book. He is scared of what his life will be like when he is older, and the responsibilities that come with it.

After reading this book, I can make a few connections. I can make a self to self connection because I too have wondered what my life will be like when I grow up. I can also make a self to world connection because I know that everyone wonders what their life will be like when they grow up. Overall, I liked the story “There”.

“Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa” is a true story about a girl named Wangari, it is written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter. Wangari has won the Nobel Peace Prize for her trees effort. When Wangari studies hard, she gets a scholarship to go to school in the US. After a year there, she came back home to visit her family. But when she got back, all the trees were gone. There were women carrying firewood, and all the birds were gone as well. So Wangari started planting seeds in her own yard. Soon more and more women were also doing this. Wangari paid them a little amount, but for some of them, this was the first money they ever earned. More and more women started planting trees, and in a decade or so Wangari’s home was lush again.

I can make a self to self connection when I was in Chatwin Park and all of the undergrowth had been pulled out, so now it looks like all dirt. I can also make a self to world connection, as I have heard of many groups of people that have started doing the same thing in other parts of the world. All in all, I liked “Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa”.