Pocket Full of Colors: The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire

Pocket Full of Colors: The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire | Written by Amy Guglielmo and Jacqueline Tourville & Illustrated by Brigette Barrager | Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers 2017

Follow Mary Blair's life filled with colors—lemon yellow, azure, celadon, tangerine, steel gray, and more! Students will learn how initially Mary's artwork was rejected by her supervisors at Disney. She quit after a year. Later, Walt Disney himself saw potential in her colorful style and rehired her as an art director. But her art career wasn't just with Disney. She was a picture book illustrator, commercial artist, and set designer.

An inspiring story matched perfectly with lively illustrations!

Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando

Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando | Written by Andrea Wang & Illustrated by Kana Urbanowicz | Published by Little Bee Books 2019

In addition to teaching the history of ramen, this book can be used to show examples of descriptive words when writing about food. The author uses words like brittle, crumbly, soggy, chewy, lumpy, tender, and sticky to describe the texture of noodles. Students can also practice using context clues to figure out the meaning of words used like meager, scarce, outrageous, scrounged, fostered, cranked, and seeped. It's a book that can be enjoyed as a whole class read aloud or with a small reading group!