HOW TO SWALLOW A PIG-a new book by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

I love Steve Jenkins and Robin Page so I didn't really even have to open this new book (How to Swallow A Pig: Step By Step Advice from the Animal Kingdom) by this pair before I decided we needed it for our classroom.  I don't have one book by Jenkins that I don't find fascinating (and I think I have them all!).  He is not only brilliant in the way that he shares information so that kids understand it but his organization and design for each book is amazing to me. I remember reading his book Down, Down, Down: A Story to the Bottom of the Sea and being intrigued by how he got the idea to focus and organize a book by going further and further below sea level to see what was there.

I am just as intrigued with this book. It's actually a How-To book which I find rather amusing.  Each two-page spread teaches the reader how to do something that animals can do.  The introduction to the book is great. Jenkins says, "So, you want to learn how to swallow a pig. You've come to the right place. Follow these step-by-step instructions, and soon you'll acquire the dining skills of a large snake..."  He goes on to tell readers that there are other great skills to learn too.

Each 2 page spread focuses on a skill that readers can learn-For example, "Crack a Nut Like a Crow" and "Spin a Web Like a Spider" are two of my favorites.  Jenkins takes a step by step look at how these things are accomplished and breaks them down into a set of how-to directions.  Such a creative way to share this information.

I learned a great deal reading this book I think kids will enjoy the format (and as always, the art too!).  It is a book that can be read from cover to cover. But it is also one that can be used in pieces--each two-page spread stands alone so each can be studied and discussed separately too. A good one for nonfiction book talks I think!

Adventures in Cartooning: Characters in Action!

Adventures in Cartooning: Characters in Action
by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost (from The Center for Cartoon Studies)
First Second, on shelves October 8, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

They're back! The same crew of cartoonists whose first book, Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles Into Comics (one of the NCTE 2010 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts) taught readers how to make a cartoon are now moving into the realm of "how to draw simple characters, pose them, and put an expression on their faces that communicate emotions to the reader." And all of this gets wrapped into a story about an evil movie director, a missing king, and our heroes, the Knight (there's a surprise about her in the first book...oops...I just gave it away...), the knight's steed, Edward, and the Magic Cartooning Elf.

For all those buddying graphic novelists in your classroom, this book is a must-read!

(See also last year's Adventures in Cartooning: Christmas Special)

How-To Writing

Our 4th graders are working on a project that integrates several pieces of the curriculum. One of the things they will be doing is making objects to sell for a charity of their choice.  To go along with the items, they will pass out How-To sheets to let buyers know how they can make the items at home.

To get started with this part of the project, we began looking at How-To books as mentor texts. I like How-To writing because I think it is a genre that can teach a great deal. I find it to be a good genre for teaching sequencing, reading like a writer, using clear sentences, and determining what is/is not necessary information.  Because this is a quick piece of writing, I feel like some good revision strategies can also be practiced. I find with shorter text, kids are much more willing to go in and reread and play with things. When they have written long, it is usually not so fun to go back and revise.

We started to study How-To writing this week. I used several of my favorite How-To Books from the library.   They included:


Better Homes and Gardens Snack Attack 
This Book Made Me Do It See How It's Made
365 Things to Do and Make (Usborne) 
Show Off
The Cookbook for Girls   

These books are all a little bit different in terms of their layout and the things they include in each set of directions. But they all have effective how-to pieces. Kids have looked at these books before--as readers and as they were looking for ideas of things to make for this project. Today, we looked at them as writers. My first thought was to give them the actual books to look at but they are so full that I knew that would get distracting. I knew that if I really wanted them to focus on both craft of the writing and the craft of the layout, I would need to choose some great examples.  So, I chose an example or two from each of the books and copied/laminated them. I gave each table a set of 8 of the same set of directions to explore and read-like-a-writer.

Then, together we came up with what made good how-to writing.   We then moved to talk about what made a good layout for how-to writing.  The conversation was interesting and I think we all learned a lot. Although this is only one piece of the writing for this project, it will be a fun one. I am excited to take their learning to the next level once they begin writing.