Peter Panacci

Assignment 4: Annotated Book Search

October 4th, 2015

Title: The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Genre: Novel (with illustrations)
Subject Areas: Social studies, art, literature, language arts
Grades: 6-8
Summary: One night, a family is brutally murdered, and the only surviving member, an infant child,
finds refuge and safety in the local graveyard. The residents; ghosts, hounds of god, and solitary spirit
adopt Nobody (Bod) Owens, and take charge of his upbringing and education. Seeing the world from a
different lens, Bod grows up in the safety and community of the dead, learning about life from a unique
perspective. Still threatened by the assassin of his family, Jack, when he leaves the safety of the
graveyard, Bod learns what it means to live in our world, a world much more complicated and deadly
than that of the dead.
Significance: Neil Gaiman's creativity and style are incredible tools to bridge the gap of interest, style,
art and prose for young readers. The book is rife with stylistic devices, beautiful imagery, and
complicated and nuanced looks at issues of identity, belong and growing up. This can be adapted a
number of ways to allow students to identify with the text, and identify with growing up, and challenge
them to assess belonging, education, family and values. The book, much like the Jungle Book,
encourages social commentary, personal reflection and critical thinking. This opens students to the
ideas of major themes in a work, while also portraying it's message in a beautiful context, heightened
by the drawings and language used. Students can create their own stories with characters in unique,
fantastical situations, which allow them to portray their own experiences and lessons to a wider
audience. This novel also introduces contrary notions to students, about how to creatively break
stereotypes or conventions to increase the power of their ideas. Also myths, character archetypes and
other parts of literature can be explored and studied through this novel.
Title: The Indispensable Calving and Hobbes
Author: Bill Waterson
Illustrator: Bill Waterson
Genre: Picture Book (compilation of cartoon strips)
Subject Areas: Art, social studies, language arts, media
Grades: 4-8
Summary: A collection of comic strips depicting the life and antics of a young boy, Calvin, as he
navigates school, chores, girls and all the other pitfalls of growing up alongside his best friend and
trusty sidekick, Hobbes, an imaginary tiger. These adventures sometimes take Calvin and Hobbes
through complex multi-part pieces which grow increasingly complicated as they are layered, or
sometimes through single panel pieces that still have incredible emotional and intellectual force. Their
adventures are funny, witty, beautifully drawn and reflective of a deep, creative and wonderful mind.
Calvin, like countless boys before him, navigates the spaces between reality and fiction, and enriches
his life whenever they intersect.
Significance: The unique form, content and quality of Calvin and Hobbes presents the perfect
opportunity to teach students of all ability and interest levels. The stories and themes are natural, easily

grasped, and told in various forms (pictures, layout, colour, dialogue) which can appeal to students with
learning disabilities or low comprehension levels, while the nuances and deeper philosophical ideas
will challenge and entice stronger readers. It also allows students to connect with different stories or
pages which speak to them. Activities can be based upon choosing their favorite stories, explaining
why they enjoyed them, understanding how timing, placement, style, composition and presentation
affect humor and meaning and students creating their own comic strips. It introduces different stages of
planning, brainstorming, storyboards, editing and having concise, well packaged writing. Another
unique element is that Calvin and Hobbes deals with very real interactions for students with parents,
teachers, members of the opposite sex, education, behavioral issues and just wanting to enjoy life. This
makes them the perfect segue into different units, topics or discussions. Students can practice reading
dialogues aloud, with partners learn creative writing techniques like onomatopoeia, dramatic language
and creative use of punctuation. The variety and wealth of applications possible make this an incredible
resource in my mind.
Title: Flush! The Scoop on Poop
Author: Charise Mericle Harper
Illustrator: Charise Mericle Harper
Genre: Picture Book
Subject Areas: History, social sciences, language arts
Grades: 3-6
Summary: Through colourful imagery, unique and creative poetry and prose, and filled with historical
information and interesting facts, Flush! The Scoop on Poop teaches the history, development and
importance of toilets and sanitary habits to young readers. The book approaches this topic with a
wonderful sense of humour and wit, while also remaining very multicultural and inclusive, detailing
customs and practices from around the world throughout history.
Significance: While dealing with a humorous subject matter, Flush! allows teachers to introduce
creative writing, poetry, illustrations, layout, history, problem solving, inventions and other ideas and
themes to students. Focusing on making memorable connections and strong imagery, students will
retain historical information MUCH better while enjoying reading. Read alongs, sharing poems,
creating their own poems and introducing various different historical perspectives, cultures, countries
and times through history, Flush! can be used in a huge variety of ways. By making the material
accessible to students, the poems and rhymes are catchy, whimsical and easy to read, students can
engage with normally boring historical topics in a fun way. Students can be encouraged to take other
subjects and make them into satires, or to develop their own poems using similar couplets, rhyming
schemes or even illustrations. Because big topics like this touch on so many different subjects, history,
human development, inventions, society, poetry, art, this book can be used to tie different subjects
together in larger projects, or serve as a small path to teach specific language arts skills.