Overview of Lessons
 
Lesson 1
Students will be introduced to the poster and illustrated storybook, The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. They will investigate and compare the two through discussion and will read and discuss his Caldecott Metal acceptance speech for The Polar Express. They will also write a short review that compares the book and the poster.
 
Lesson 2
Students will be introduced to Faith Ringgold's Tar Beach as both a storybook and a reproduction. After discussion, students will then write and illustrate a personal story using a quilt block format.
 
Lesson 3
Students will be introduced to Carmen Lomas Garza's The Fair at Reynosa/La Feria en Reynosa,  both as an artwork and as an illustration in her storybook Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia. Students will compare and contrast the three images with a three-way graphic organizer and then create a work of art that communicates their own personal stories.
 
Resources and Materials for the Unit

• Allsburg, Chris Van. The Polar Express. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985,ISBN-0-395-38949-6, book
  
• Allsburg, Chris Van. The Polar Express. reproduction, 24"X18" Allwall.Com
  
• Ringgold, Faith. Tar Beach. Take 5 Study Prints Urban Environments Crystal Productions Box 2159 Glenview, IL 60025-6159. 1-800-255-8629, poster
  
• Ringgold, Faith. Tar Beach, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. 1991, ISBN 0-517-58030-6, book
  
• The Last Story Quilt, video, available Crystal Productions
  
• Garza, Carmen Lomas. The Fair at Reynosa/La Feria en Reynosa. Take 5 Study Prints Interdisciplinary Connections: Art and Social Studies. Crystal Productions Box 2159 Glenview, IL 60025-6159. 1-800-255-8629, poster
  
• Garza, Carmen Lomas, Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia, Children's Book Press, 1990
  
• Television and VCR
  
• Overhead projector and pen
  

Web Sites

• Chris Van Allsburg, Houghton Mifflin Education Place,
  http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/author/cva/authorbio.html
  
• Chris Van Allsburg, Houghton Mifflin Publishing
  http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/vanallsburg/caldecott.html
  
• Faith Ringgold, I Can Fly, http://www.artincontext.org/artist/ringgold/default.htm
  
• Carmen Lomas Garza, http://www.carmenlomasgarza.com/
   

Book Lists
 
Chris Van Allsburg

• Bad Day at Riverbend, ISBN 039567347X
• Ben's Dream, ISBN 0395320844
• The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, ISBN 039527804X
• Just a Dream, ISBN 0395533082
• The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, ISBN 0395353939
• The Polar Express, ISBN 0395389496
• The Stranger, ISBN 0395423317
• The Sweetest Fig, ISBN 0395673461
• Two Bad Ants, ISBN 0395486688
• The Widow's Broom, ISBN 0396540512
• The Wreck of the Zephyr, ISBN 0395330750
• The Wretched Stone, ISBN 0395533074
• The Z Was Zapped: A Play in Twenty-six Acts, ISBN 0395446120
   

Mark Helprin (author) and Chris Van Allsburg (illustrator)

• A City in Winter, ISBN 0670868434
• Swan Lake, ISBN 0395498589
• The Veil of Snows, ISBN 0670874914
   

Faith Ringgold

• Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky, ISBN 0517587688
• Bonjour, Lonnie, ISBN 0786820624
• Dancing at the Lourve, ISBN 0520214293
• Dinner at Aunt Connie's House, ISBN 1562824260
• If A Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks, ISBN 0689818920
• My Dream of Martin Luther King, ISBN 0517599775
• Talking to Faith Ringgold, ISBN 0517709147
• The Invisible Princess, ISBN 051780025X
• We Flew Over the Bridge: Memories of Faith Ringgold, ISBN 0821220713
   

Carmen Lomas Garza

• Family Pictures Cuadros de Familia, ISBN 0892390506
• In My Family, ISBN 0892391634
• A Piece of My Heart, ISBN 156841646