Snowflake Bentley

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Non-Fiction/Biography

Snowflake Bentley is the biography of Wilson Bentley, the man who took the very first photograph of a snowflake. It starts in his early days as a young boy growing up on a farm in Vermont. He loved snowflakes, and would spend hours looking at them under an old microscope that his mother gave him. It made him sad that he could not show other people his snowflakes because they melted too quickly. The more he studied snowflakes the more fascinated he became, and when he read about a microscope with a camera attached he knew that this was the way he could fulfill his dream. He told his parents about the special microscope, and they eventually spent their entire savings and bought it for him. Wilson worked very hard day after day the whole winter and still could not find a way to photograph the snowflakes. He didn't give up, and the next winter he tried something new and it worked! He had figured out how to take pictures of the snowflakes! Not many people were interested, but Wilson continued to work hard, winter after winter, to take pictures of the snowflakes. Eventually he made a book from his best photos and became known as "The Snowflake Man." Shortly after his book was published, Wilson Bentley died from pneumonia after walking home in a blizzard from taking pictures of snowflakes. A monument and museum were built in his memory, and the tale of Snowflake Bentley will live on forever.

I would use this book to cover the topic of weather, specifically snow and other frozen precipitation. I also think that this book would be a great way to model inquiry science for students. Wilson Bentley has a passion for snowflakes and is continuously coming up with new ideas on how to experiment with them. He devoted his entire life to learning more about snowflakes, and I think that the fact that it is a true story will show students that they too can take an active role in science learning.

The Lemonade Club

The Lemonade Club by Patricia Polacco

Fiction

Based on a true story, The Lemonade Club is about a girl named Traci, her best friend Marilyn, and their fifth grade teacher Miss Wichelman. Traci and Marilyn love Miss Wichelman and her fifth grade class. She always makes them feel like they can do and be anything they put their mind to. Every day before class is over, she reminds them all that "if life hands you a lemon or two today- and you all know how sour lemons are- just add water and sugar what do you have? Lemonade!" One day Marilyn begins to feel sick and tired all the time and stops coming to school, which makes Traci and the rest of the class very worried. Miss Wichelman tells the class that Marilyn has leukemia, but that she is undergoing chemotherapy which will make her sick for a while but will kill all the cancer cells in her body and eventually make her better. When Marilyn comes back to class everyone is wearing funny hats, and when they take them off she sees that they have shaved their heads so that they can all be bald together- even Miss Wichelman! Traci, Marilyn, and Miss Wichelman meet every week after school, and they began to call themselves "The Lemonade Club." Eventually everyone's hair begins to grow back... except for Miss Wichelman's. "The Lemonade Club" has an emergency meeting, and Miss Wichelman tells Traci and Marilyn that she has cancer, too. Miss Wichelman is going to beat the cancer just like Marilyn did, and has applied to medical school so that she can one day help children like Marilyn fight cancer, too. Five years later, Miss Wichelman gets married- and the members of "The Lemonade Club" are in her wedding!

I would use this book to tackle the tough topic of cancer and other terminal illnesses. It would be a great book to use if one of your students has cancer. It gives a very real portrayal and doesn't hide anything (Marilyn loses her hair, she's very tired, etc.) but it presents it in a way that is not scary I also think that it would be great to use when talking about attitudes. Miss Wichelman tells her students every day- before and after they learn that Marilyn has leukemia- to "make lemonade," or, make the best out of a bad situation. The way that they treat Marilyn and get her through the chemotherapy, as well as the way that Marilyn herself handles having cancer, are very good examples of how the students "make lemonade" when life has handed them sour lemons.