The Green Book by Jill Patton Walsh

Imagine taking a trip that is four years long, one way, and has the potential to change your life forever. If all the essentials were already decided and you were given the choice of one book and one book only. What book would it be and why?

In the story, "The Green Book," this is how the main family is introduced. Earth is now a dying planet and a select few of the population are to be transported in an aircraft that allows very few personal items that is traveling to an unexplored region of space. Once they arrive on their new planet, the story begins with the exploration of thier uncharted planet and learning how to adapt.

This would be a great chapter book for fourth and fifth graders for many reasons. One reason being that you can link this book to studies on the immigrants and their journey to the Americas. The trips from their homeland were full of extreme hardships for they the vessels they were transported in had very little extra storage so everyone was allowed very few personal things. Many immigrants also had one set of expectations for the new country, but experienced something completely different.

The book also broaches the topic of data collection for in the beginning several members of the new colony go in search of signs of life by using their observation skills. You could take your students on a field trip to somewhere that they have never visited and have them do the same by using their sense.

This book is also a circular book, which means that the book wraps back around on itself. To tie this into language arts you could have the students write a very short story where their first sentence is the very same as the last sentence.