Showing posts with label Fairy Tales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fairy Tales. Show all posts

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Welcome, Liesl Shurtliff!


Liesl Shurtliff is a favorite author here at A Year of Reading. Franki has reviewed Rump, Jack, and Grump. Liesl has a new series, Time Castaways, and the second book has its book birthday on Tuesday!


by Liesl Shurtliff
Katherine Tegen Books, September 17, 2019


by Liesl Shurtliff
Katherine Tegen Books, October 15, 2019

Liesl has graciously shared her thoughts on The Importance of Reading Wisely. We couldn't agree more!

The Importance of Reading Widely
By Liesl Shurtliff

“You are what you read.” It’s a sentiment many people have tossed around over the years, right along with “You are what you eat.” And if both of these things are true then I challenge anyone to define who I am. I read too widely, and I eat absolutely everything. I’m a person with many tastes and interests. I think we all should be.

I see many initiatives to get people to read more, and I like them, but what I’d liked to see a little more of is encouragement for people to read more widely, move outside their comfort zones, pick up a book you wouldn’t normally choose. Here are my suggestions:

Read both fiction and non-fiction

Statistics show that women tend to read more fiction, and men gravitate toward non-fiction. This is fascinating to me, and I could delve into all kind of psychoanalytic theories about why this is and what it means, but that would be (mostly) beside the point of the post. Suffice it to say, I think we should tip the scales in both cases. Men should read more fiction. Women should read more non-fiction. Both are good for you.

I personally used to think non-fiction was code for BORING. I’ve since learned that non-fiction can be some of the most engrossing books out there. It’s one thing to get lost in a good story. It’s another to get lost in a good story that is completely REAL. Malcolm Gladwell, Erik Larson, and Elizabeth Gilbert have been a few of my favorites.


Read outside your usual genre.

Whenever someone asks what genre is my favorite I say “Good writing.” Perhaps the definition of what makes a good book is subjective, but I’ve found my own tastes have become more refined the more widely I read. Yes, I read a lot of fantasy as that is what I write, but I’ve read plenty of poorly written fantasy, and I’ve found that it helps my own writing to read a wide variety of genres and styles. I feel like I’m in a rut when I read too much of one genre. It can start to feel stale and boring, sort of like eating only one kind of food. No matter how good those tacos are, eventually I’m going to want some salad. Mix up your reading diet with a mixture of genres.

Read books and authors outside your own race, culture, religion, country, experience and world view.

Reading has been touted as an activity that develops empathy, but for whom are we developing empathy? People like us? People whose experience and world view is not so different from our own? That will not develop empathy, only self-assurance. Challenge yourself and your world view. Pick up a book that makes you a little uncomfortable. Or a lot. And please, read books written by authors who are intimately acquainted with the experience being written about (aka #OwnVoices.) It matters.

Read children’s books!

Okay, I am slightly biased here, seeing as I’m a children’s book author, but please believe me when I say there is some incredibly good literature being produced in the children’s book world. Don’t stick your nose up at it. Pick up a picture book, a middle-grade or young adult novel, or a graphic novel, and remember what it was like to be a kid. Or pick up a book you remember reading and loving as a kid and see what you think of it now. I’ve done this and usually find I love it just as much, even though I’m reading it with a completely different perspective. It’s a nostalgic experience.

Reading is good. Reading a lot is better. Reading widely is best, just like eating a varied diet. Take stock of your reading choices. See if you can mix things up every now and then.   Get recommendations for friends or co-workers. If there’s one thing I know it’s that people love to talk about what they’re reading. And if they don’t read, well then, we should all be ready to share our own reading recommendations and feed the famished. Best to have a variety on hand.


Liesl Shurtliff is the New York Times bestselling author of the (Fairly) True Tales series and the Time Castaways trilogy. The second book is available October 15th! Her books have been named to over two dozen state award lists and have won many awards including a Children’s Book Award from the International Literacy Association. Liesl lives in Chicago with her husband and four children. Lieslshurtliff.com @lieslshurtliff



Thanks for visiting, Liesl! We can't wait to read your new series!



Wednesday, August 23, 2017

It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk

I received a review copy of Josh Funk's new book, It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk, in the mail last week. I laughed out loud as I read it at the table and I can't wait to share this one with my class.

I am a huge fan of books that mess around with classic fairy tales. I am always intrigued by the way authors take a tale that we know well and play a little bit. This version of Jack and the Beanstalk is very well done and VERY VERY fun!

There is a narrator that begins the story with the usual "Once upon a time...". But Jack is sleeping so the narrator has to wake him up.  Early on in the story, Jack is not too happy with the narrator's story or the things the narrator has Jack do.  So he starts arguing with the narrator a bit. And he continues through the story.

Jack is a funny character and the narrator is a pretty tough narrator.  I think it is often confusing for readers when a character talks back to the narrator but Josh Funk does this whole thing BRILLIANTLY.  The conversation between Jack and the narrator is embedded in the story in such a way that you can follow it all,

This will no doubt be a fun read aloud but I think it will also make a great mentor text for kids who want to try playing around with classic fairy tales. Students can easily try some of Josh Funk's techniques in their own writing to see what happens. And they would have a great time playing.

I love so much about this book and I am so happy to have an early copy. I am pretty sure once I take this one into the classroom I won't see it for a while as the kids will pass it along to read over and over again.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Still Learning to Read: Getting Ready for Our Next Read Aloud-Rump



This is one of a series of blog posts that continue the conversation around Still Learning to Read--teaching reading to students in grades 3-6.  This series will run on the blog on Tuesdays starting in August 2016 and continue through the school year.




We have been doing lots of reading across several texts--thinking about similarities and differences, adding onto what we understand and more. Last week I shared some work we did with books about Wangari Maathai.  This week, we read several versions of the classic tale Rumpelstiltskin. I want kids to understand connections between books in a much deeper way than they have in the past so I am varying the ways kids might connect one book to another in order to build understanding.


For this read aloud, I wanted kids to have access to all of the preview pages and I wanted to be able to look at all of their annotations for the book so we all created read aloud notebooks out of construction paper and blank pages for this book. As we previewed kids added cover, back cover, table of contents and the first page of text into their booklets.



I had stapled the books together beforehand and had included the photo of the Rumpelstiltskin books we'd read on the first page. After looking at the cover and the title (Rump, The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin), I asked kids to think about what they knew from the 4 books we read and what they would EXPECT in this book. They were very thoughtful and very thorough. 





This is similar to what I shared in the new edition of Still Learning to Read but every year is different and the goals for this read aloud are a bit different this year as it is a different set of kids, different time of year, etc.  This is a perfect example of why I can't plan to hit the same things that I did last year. For example, last year when we talked about traits after reading 4 versions of Rumpelstiltskin, 3rd graders had very different (and not such kind) things to say about the character. But this year, my readers seem to have seen some good deep down in Rumpelstiltskin. When we talked about all that we knew, someone mentioned that he was helpful as he came in to help the queen. One said he was lonely because he sang by himself and wanted that baby to keep him company. They thought he was kind because even though the queen promised her baby, he gave her a second change.  Last year, we were able to talk about how our thinking about Rumpelstiltskin changes as we heard his perspective and the traits we saw in him were different. We'll still have that conversation but we are at a different starting point so that will be different learning.



This is a challenging book for this time in 3rd grade but it pulls together so many skills we've been working on. The talk and thinking we are doing around this read aloud builds on all that we've done all year.  Reading across text, using what we know, previewing, thinking about the character, and point of view will all be part of our conversation. This group has picked upon the importance of the word "destiny" already so that may be more of our conversation than it has been other years.


I am looking forward to our conversations around this book!





Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Snow White: A Graphic Novel by Matt Phelan


Matt Phelan is an amazing graphic novelist. He does so much with so little: gestures, facial expressions, cinematic pacing and effects (zoom in, zoom out, film noir).

His version of Snow White is set just after WWI in New York City. If you want to analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text, or compare and contrast different versions of a story, or even study the impact of the setting (both time and place) or the telling of a story, this is the book for you. If you always wished for the witch to get what she deserves, Matt Phelan delivers. And the way he handles the seven dwarfs? You'll love it.



























by Matt Phelan
Candlewick Press, due out September 13, 2016
review ARC provided by the publisher


Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Books for Fairy Tale Lovers

I have several 3rd graders who are hooked on fairy tale novels. I think most of them were hooked with the Whatever After series early in the year, and they've moved on from there (even though they devour the new ones as they are released). Many books I have in the classroom. Others, they've discovered on their own and shared with other readers who have similar tastes.  There are so many series out there that fit exactly what these kids are looking for---fairy tales or something connected in some way to the fairy tales they know and love.  These are some of the favorites in the classroom right now.  They are all great for grades 3-5ish.




The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer.  You can visit the Land of Stories webpage here.


The Fairy Dust Trilogy by Gail Carson Levine





The Grace Lin trilogy (3rd one due out this year) is a great series for kids who enjoy other fantasy/fairy tales.  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is the first in this trilogy. 



We are currently reading aloud Rump by Liesl Shurtliff. My kids love this one and are anxious to read the other two in this series,  Jack: The True Story of Jack and the Beanstalk and Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood.

 


The Kingdom Keepers series isn't quite a fairy tale but there are lots of familiar characters and storylines as it takes place in Disney World!  There is a Kingdom Keepers website that you can visit here.


The Sisters Grimm( Fairy Detectives is the first in the series) is another great fairy tale series by Michael Buckley.

A new favorite is the Hamster Princess series by Ursula Vernon (author of the Dragonbreath series).  I read this one last summer and could not believe how much I loved this princess and the humor in these stories. There are only 2 out in the series but we hope there are lots more coming soon!



And we love the Tuesdays at the Castle series at our school. Last year we were lucky enough to host Jessica Day George for an author visit and it's been fun to see kids continue to be excited about the new books in the series too!  


This is one of my favorite kinds of books so it has been fun to watch a group of 3rd graders discover the fun in these this year!




Monday, September 09, 2013

Fairy Tale Comics


Fairy Tale Comics: Classic Tales Told by Extraordinary Cartoonists
Edited by Chris Duffy
First Second, on shelves September 24, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

From the same editor who brought us Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists, we now have this fabulous collection of Fairy Tale Comics!

17 different artists, 17 different stories from the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Bre'r Rabbit, 1001 Nights, and Japanese, English and Russian Folktales.

Readers in my classroom will recognize the work of Raina Telgemeier (Drama and Smile) and Charise Mericle Harper (Fashion Kitty versus the Fashion Queen). Probably 6 of the 17 stories will be familiar.

So, it's safe to say that this book will introduce readers (in a fun way) to many new graphic artists and many new fairy tales! Win-Win!

Monday, March 11, 2013

Poetry Plus

Poetry Plus...Fairy Tales


Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist
by Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich
illustrations by Matt Mahurin
WordSong, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher


Poetry Plus...History


Brick by Brick
by Charles R. Smith, Jr.
illustrated by Floyd Cooper
HarperCollins, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher



Poetry Plus...A Different Way of Life


Cowboy Up!: Ride the Navajo Rodeo
by Nancy Bo Flood
photography by Jan Sonnenmair
WordSong, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher



Wednesday, December 28, 2011

It Happens All the Time in Books

I love kids' books that incorporate kid-sized literary references! Here are two fairy tales that require the reader to remember other stories they've read in order to get the most out of the story at hand:
























The Princess and the Pig
by Jonathan Emmett
illustrated by Poly Bernatene
Walker & Company, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

A poor farmer's tiny pig and a baby princess switch places (if by "switch places" you mean one gets dropped from a balcony into a cart of hay and the other gets sproinged from the cart of hay into the cradle on the balcony). "The king thought he knew what had happened. 'A bad fairy has done this,' he explained. 'The fairy wasn't invited to the princess's christening, so she's turned the baby into a piglet to get her revenge. It's the sort of thing that happens all the time in books.' " (He's holding a copy of Sleeping Beauty in the illustration just in case you don't get it...)

That refrain, "It's the sort of thing that happens all the time in books," occurs throughout the story as the pig grows up a princess and the princess grows up a farmer's daughter. There's a funny twist in the end that I won't spoil for you here!

Other reviews: Jen Robinson's Book Page, Fuse #8
























Dog in Boots
by Greg Gormley
illustrated by Roberta Angaramo
Holiday House, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

Dog gets the idea that he'd like some boots from the storybook in his lap, "...a brilliant book, all about a cat who wore a pair of truly magnificent boots." You know the book, but in case you forgot, there it is in his lap.

Dog tries boots like Puss's, but they're not quite the right thing for digging in mud, so he takes them back to the shoe store. The accommodating shopkeeper trades the muddy boots for a pair of rain boots, and although those work fine for digging, they don't work too well when Dog goes for a swim. Over and over, Dog tries different footwear, only to discover in the end that his built-in footwear (his PAWS) are the best in every situation.

Tired and happy, Dog plops down in his big chair with another brilliant book. "This time it was about a girl who didn't wear any silly boots, but did wear... (text deliberately excluded...can you guess what she wore!?!?) 'Hmmm...,' thought Dog."

Other reviews: BooksForKidsBlog, A Random Hodgepodge of Bookishness

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Clever Jack Takes the Cake

Clever Jack Takes The Cake
by Candace Fleming
illustrated by G. Brian Karas
Random House (Schwartz & Wade), 2010
Review copy provided by the publisher

I'm guilty and I'll freely admit it: I judged this book by the cover when it arrived. "Another folk tale. Meh." And I set it aside for later.

Then, at NCTE, as I browsed the books in the Random House booth, I noticed all the stars adorning it. Hmm. Maybe I better take another look.

Was I ever wrong about this book! It does lean on all the other "clever Jack" tales for the basic "succeed by using your wits, even if everything possible goes wrong" story line, but it is fresh and original and...I'm sorry...clever! There's no way around it, it DOES...take the cake!

Jack is invited to the princess's 10th birthday, but he has nothing to take for a present. Read to find out how he manages to bake her a cake and how he manages to show up at the throne with nothing but the story of making and losing the cake. Read to find out what the princess thinks of her gift. (Study the end papers to see what happens before and after the story in the text.) Read to be delighted. Reread to take a closer look at the illustrations. Clever Jack, Clever Candace, Clever Brian. Lucky us.


Other Reviews:
100 Scope Notes
7 Imp
Heavy Medal

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Fairy Tale Mash-Ups

My fourth graders were having a hard time getting their heads around the idea of writing original fairy tales, but once I introduced the idea that they could borrow from familiar stories to create an original, they began having a blast reinventing the old stories by remixing characters, settings, and problems.

Vivian Vande Velde obviously had the same kind of fun writing Cloaked in Red.

Cloaked in Red
by Vivian Vande Velde
Marshall Cavendish, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

Here's how the introduction begins:

"Everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the girl with the unfortunate name and the inability to tell the difference between her grandmother and a member of a different species."

After a thorough exploration of the bizarreness of the various versions of this story, Velde suggests that a story as preposterous as this would never get past a self-respecting creative writing teacher, since it doesn't have memorable characters, a vivid setting, or an exciting plot. Besides all that, there is no discernible theme in this story.

"However you look at it, "Little Red Riding Hood" is a strange and disturbing story that should probably not be shared with children.

That is why I've gone ahead and written eight new versions of it."

Versions that begin, "Once upon a time, after fashion was discovered but before people had makeovers on TV, there was a young girl named Meg." Or, "Once upon a time, long after people had found out that their families could sometimes be an embarrassment, but before there were advice columnists you could complain to, there was a girl named Roselle." (In this story--spoiler alert--Granny is a werewolf, which accounts perfectly for her big teeth and hairy arms.) One of my favorite stories is "Deems the Wood Gatherer," in which a seriously myopic woodcutter bumbles through one fairy tale after another, not realizing that his good intentions are sealing the demise of characters right and left.

I'll share selected stories from Cloaked in Red with my fourth graders. Older readers will enjoy the book in its entirety.

In Front of My House
by Marianne Dubuc
Kids Can Press, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

I can't wait to share this book with my students. It's a circular story that wanders from the narrator's house on the hill, to outer space, the inside of a whale, the zoo, and back home again. At one point, the story takes a detour into fairy tales and back out again. It's so surprising to find these familiar characters in story that's not itself a fairy tale! The story goes like this (each page has a simple illustration, and after each ... is a page break):

"On a little hill, behind a brown fence, under a big oak tree, is...
my house. In front of my house...
a rosebush. On the rosebush...
a little bird. Above the little bird...
a window. Behind the window...
my room. In my room..."

Very fun for predicting (although you're wrong nearly every time, like you are in Apples and Oranges: Going Bananas With Pairs by Sara Pinto) and I can't wait to see the kinds of writing my students will do with this book as a model.