Reading Portfolio 2

It's not what you look at, it's what you see! Take a journey through New York City as it might be seen by a child through a camera lens. Shapes, colors, patterns, and people are everywhere, and things look different depending on how you look at them—and who is doing the looking. In this playful ode to photography and point of view, a poetic story posits how one young girl might capture moments of insight, community, and art in her beloved hometown, New York City. With the popularity of camera phones, photo-journaling, and photo-posting sites, this fictional exploration of photography as one young girl's form of self-expression is guaranteed to appeal to budding photographers.

In a small Chinese village a stone-carved lion sits and watches as a guardian spirit and holder of the villagers' collective memory. Older people stop, stroking his head to remember the past and children walk by knowing he watches over them to keep them safe. Whimsical illustrations and inventive visual perspectives depict the lion's expressions as he recounts his memories of the villagers over the years in daylight and evening and in the changing of the seasons.

Each kindness makes the world a little better Chloe doesn't really know why she turns away from the new girl, Maya, when Maya tries to befriend her. And every time Maya asks if she can play with Chloe and the other girls, the answer is always no. So Maya ends up playing alone. And then one day she's gone. When Chloe's teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the opportunity that's been lost. How much better could it have been if she'd just shown Maya a little kindness and opened her heart to friendship? Newbery Honor-winning author Jacqueline Woodson and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator E. B. Lewis have created a beautiful, poignant picture book with a powerful message that will stay with readers long after they've put it down.