Good afternoon, everyone!
Congratulations to the winner of last week’s giveaway and thank you to all who commented! This week, you can win three of Alma Flor Ada’s books and her narration of them on CD! The three books are The Malachite Palace, Jordi’s Star, and The Unicorn of the West.
The first of the three, The Malachite Palace, was written by Alma Flor Ada and illustrated by Leonid Gore. The book description reads “This original fairy tale celebrates the importance of freedom and the need to take responsibility for one’s own freedom. Although the queen, the governess, and the lady-in-waiting all believe that the young princess is too delicate and refined to play with the neighborhood children, the princess herself decides otherwise.” The School Library Journal recommends the book for children in pre-school up to grade three (ages four to eight years old). On the same page with the book descriptions on Alma Flor’s website, there is a coloring page that you could print out and have the students color after reading the story together.
The second book is Jordi’s Star, which was written by Alma Flor Ada and illustrated by Susan Gaber. As described on Alma Flor’s website, “Jordi lives a solitary life on a barren and rocky hillside. One day, after a terrible thunderstorm, he finds a most unusual friend, a star reflected on a pond by his house. Inspired by his love for this unexpected friend, he sets about finding ways to enhance the pond and its surroundings. Before he knows it all of the mountainside has changed.” School Library Journal also recommends this book for children aged four to eight or from pre-school to grade three reading level.
The last book is The Unicorn of the West, written by Alma Flor Ada and illustrated by Abigail Pizer. According to the description, “In this evocative tale of friendship and self-discovery, a young unicorn undertakes a magical journey in order to find his purpose. Excellent for discussing themes of identity and solidarity.” Similarly to the first two books in this package, the School Library Journal recommends this book for grades one through three.
The CD that accompanies the books in this package contains reading of the three stories. According to Alma Flor “It was a very meaningful experience for [her] to record these books, to choose the music to accompany the reading, and to share after each recording the story of the creation of each book.”
We think these books would make for a great classroom read-aloud and discussion that could help touch on respect, friendship, and self-identity.
Let us know how you can use these books at home or at school by leaving a comment below! We will contact winners at the end of the week to collect shipping information.
Until next week,
Charla
Image: Photo of The Malachite Palace. Reprinted from Alma Flor’s Website.
Image: Photo of Jordi’s Star. Reprinted from Alma Flor’s Website.
Image: Photo of The Unicorn of the West. Reprinted from Alma Flor’s Website.
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My students have just begun the process of writing their own fairy tales! These would be wonderful contributions to our bookshelf to help students understand the essential elements of narrative and of a fairy tale. Thank you as always for the wonderful posts and amazing opportunities, Charla! Educators need need need resources like these!
Maria! Hi! I apologize for my delay in responding! Thank you for stopping by the blog and commenting! You have been entered into the drawing for this week! And thank you for your support! I love to hear that your students are working with writing fairy tales, too! 🙂
Hi, Maria, I just happened to see your comment. If you still do not have the book The Malachite Palace and/or the narration of The Malachite Palace, Jordi’s Star and The Unicorn of the West, send me an email [almaflor@almaflorada.com] with your mailing information and I will be happy to send it to you as a holidays’ gift.