Wednesday, February 15, 2012

CHOPSTICKS X 2!

What are the chances that I buy two books titled CHOPSTICKS on the same day?

CHOPSTICKS is a new book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Last year, when Amy visited our school, SPOON was a big favorite. Kids loved it!  Amy mentioned this companion book when she visited and it has been a long wait. (but well worth it!)  I picked up CHOPSTICKS at Cover to Cover this week.  It is a book full of fun. The story is about a pair of chopsticks who do everything together.  But then something happens and they have to separate a bit and explore the world on their own.  As with all of Rosenthal's book, there is lots of fun and subtle word play. For example, on the top corner of the cover, Spoon says, "Not exactly a sequel to SPOON. More like a change in place setting." Lots of other fun words spread throughout. Scott Magoon has done the illustrations for this one too so it is a great companion to SPOON. (And Spoon does make a few guest appearances:-)

This is a great story with a good message about friendship and life:-)

The other CHOPSTICKS I bought was a young adult novel. It is by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral.   I've read it once but need to reread it.  It is fascinating to me.  It not only looks like an amazing story, but the format is new and different. The story is told through photos and news articles and text messages and letters and more. It is different from any book I've ever seen and I am anxious for both the story and the experience of reading something in such a unique format.  There is also an app that is available which is another way to experience the books. The Youtube videos, etc. are embedded in the app. This was one of those books I have to reread.  I read reviews and saw some new insights and once I revisited a bit, I can see some new things. I am all about reading books with new formats so we understand what it is our kids are reading and what is possible, and that's why I picked this one up. But I loved the story and I loved Glory, the piano prodigy--the main character in the book.




You can see the trailer here:


2 comments:

  1. The wordplay in the picture book might make Chopsticks a perfect fit for my speech room - especially for my students on the Autism spectrum. I’m always looking for resources to help them stretch their literal-minded thinking. Thanks for the recommendation!

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  2. Loved the book-shared it with the staff. A great way to model talk worthy questions for students. They love to watch adults question each other about experiences with books. I loved the format too-very powerful.

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