CYBILS: Nonfiction Picture Books

I love being part of the CYBILS! It is always so wonderful to learn about and read so many books in a single category.  This year, I am part of the Elementary and Middle Grade Nonfiction Committee. I have loved discovering new books and am excited to share some on the blog.

It's Our Garden: From Seeds to Harvest in a School Garden by George Ancona is one I am so glad to have discovered.  A few years ago, I created a list of books to go along with the idea of community garden and I have only found a few more since then.  This new book is one that kids will love because they will see themselves in the book.  The book is told in narrative and follows the chronology of one New Mexico elementary school's community garden.  The book begins with one person's dream of a garden and takes us through lots of ideas, stages, learning and work.  It is clear that George Ancona spent lots of time in this school, learning about how the community garden is integrated into the school community.  The gorgeous photos not only capture the content of the information, but they also capture the joy and energy of the project.

Pedal It!: How Bicycles are Changing the World (Footprints) by Michelle Mulder is another book I'm happy to have recently discovered.  The book is a short chapter book (46 pages) about the history and impact of bicycles in our world.  The beginning of the book shares some important history in the invention timeline of the bicycles. The photos and artifacts bring these events to life for kids.  (The short news article about a woman wearing bloomers on a bicycle being warned of arrest was quite telling:-)  The rest of the book goes on to tell how and why bicycles are so important today and how they are used for different purposes in different places. Again, photos are an important way that this book shares information with readers. This book is packed with interesting information about bicycles and there are many possibilities for it in the classroom.

And what kid wouldn't like Toilet: How It Works (My Readers. Level 4)?   (I didn't realize that David

Macaulay has a series of these including one on castles, jet plane, and eyes.) This is a simple explanation of the way a toilet works.  The book helps readers make sense of how the toilet work through the use of words, illustrations and diagrams.  The book takes us from the meal we eat to the end of the cycle when the water is cleaned in a large tank.  An interesting read and a complex idea told in a way that young readers can grasp!

Conversations About Community in 3rd Grade

A big theme in our Social Studies curriculum is Community.  I kicked off the study this week, I introduced the idea of community and the idea of learning community as an introduction to this yearlong study.  I wanted to have these conversations and this thinking started before we move into the content of local government, community resources, etc.  When we started our conversation, kids shared all they knew about community. I want them to understand the citizenship part of community--that everyone does his/her part and everyone works toward community goals while individuals still have more personal goals.  At the beginning of the conversation, kids seemed to know the content stuff of community (neighborhoods, parks, people, rules and laws) at a basic level which gave us a great start to our conversation.  Then we moved on.

I shared two pieces with the students that first day.  I wanted them to reframe their thinking a bit to think about what made a community work.  I told them I was going to share two pieces as part of our discussion about community and then we'd talk about how those tied in. I wanted them to use these as ways to add to their understanding of what makes a community.  These two pieces provided an amazing conversation about community and what it means to be part of a community.

Following this video conversation, I read the picture book The Little Hummingbird (Ann Marie) by Michael Nicoll Yahgulhanaas.  (Thanks Ann Marie Corgill for this recommendation!) This is a powerful story about a little hummingbird doing his part in the community.

These two pieces provided just the right stories for a great beginning conversation to add new thinking about their understandings of community.

The next day, we read What If Everybody Did That? by Ellen Javernick. This was a quick read that reminds us why we have rules by taking readers into different settings, thinking about not following a rule, and asking, "What if everybody did that?"  We then talked about all of the communities we are a part of and how each had their own goals, rules, etc. Kids mentioned school, sports teams, churches, neighborhoods, our city, etc.

On Day 3 of our conversation, I paired 2 other videos to share with students. I wanted to really focus on the idea of a Learning Community and how members of a community support one another.  This conversation also included goal setting.

We watched this amazing video from Pernille Ripp's 5th grade classroom: My Students' Classroom Vision. At the end of the clip, one of my students said, "I loved that video. It was the best." It was very powerful for them. We followed up with a conversation about being brave, being part of a learning community, individual goals, and community goals. I shared my own experiences--about how it was easy for me to meet a reading goal, as it was easy for me and I loved to read. But it was brave of me to set a running goal and to put myself out there when running was something I had to work hard at.  How the book I am writing is something that has been hard for me lately and it takes some brave to not just quit.  How when we know each others' goals (as in any community) it is easier to help each other meet them.   It was all very informal but thoughtful.  

I followed up with a clip of Kristin Chenoweth which I loved (I used the one with Kellee instead but like this one better.)

We talked about how Kristen Chenoweth was so good and how she celebrated this guest who was amazing. She cheered for her and was so happy that she was so amazing. How that says a lot about Kristen--she loves seeing others do well. Kids immediately talked about ways they support others and cheer them on when they are successful. They were as interested in Kristen as they were in the friends who must have been filming and wooohoooing throughout.

Finally, on Thursday I shared The Butterfly Video.  Thanks to Steve Peterson who shared this clip with me in a blog comment last week! It is brilliant and it fit in perfectly with the week's conversations.  Again, kids were glued.

Austin's Butterfly: Building Excellence in Student Work - Models, Critique, and Descriptive Feedback from Expeditionary Learning on Vimeo.

My favorite part of the follow-up conversation was the mention that, "Mrs. Christine, our art teacher would love this clip. Has she seen it?  I wonder if she has to do more than one draft? Does she get things right on the first try?"  We decided to email her the link to the video and our question right then. Of course she emailed back to let us know that, yes, she does many drafts for lots of things, even as an art teacher:-)

This week's conversations around community were really important for many reasons. I think the kids will understand the bigger communities of city, state, world, etc. because they have thought so much about their own communities. They understand that people make up a community and that our classroom is a community, a learning community.  They have a role to play in the community--for themselves and for the good of the group.

I can already tell that these videos and books have made an impact.  They keep coming up in conversation and I imagine they will continue to. Just like Caine's arcade, I imagine a few will become anchors for the year. Glad we began our conversation like this and am looking forward to the way the conversation evolves over the next eight months.

Picture Books I've Loved This Week

A great week for picture book reading! These are four MUST HAVES in my opinion:-)

Boot & Shoe by Marla Frazee

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

The Chicken Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson

Let's Go for a Drive! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems

Summer Solstice

Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere). Today, the reason for the season has nothing to do with any kind of human construct. It's all about our planet, it's 23.5 degree tilt, and its yearly trip around our amazing star, the sun.

Solstice seems like the perfect day to spotlight three books by Molly Bang about the sun.

In 2004, Molly Bang wrote My Light, a celebration of the sun and a description of how we can transform sunlight into electricity.

In 2009 (with Penny Chisholm), Bang gave us Living Sunlight, one of the clearest explanations of photosynthesis (down to the molecular level) that you'll ever read. Again, a celebration of our sun.

This year (again with Penny Chisholm), in Ocean Sunlight, Bang celebrates the sun's role in sustaining life on our planet, specifically, in the habitat of the ocean.

She begins by reminding us what we know about photosynthesis on land, and how every food chain begins with plants harnessing energy from the sun. Then she asks us to think about food chains in the ocean:

"All ocean life is part

of food chains, too.

And every ocean food

chain starts when plants

catch my light.

But where

are the ocean's plants?"

Where? In the billion billion billion phytoplankton drifting in the oceans! A microscopic pasture that feeds larger and larger organisms, all the way up to the whales.

That's interesting and mind-boggling, but then she takes it to a whole new level...to the dark dark bottom of the ocean. How do the animals there get to participate in a sunlight-driven food chain when they have no light? They recycle all the "junk" that floats down from the surface. And how do the nutrients created by the life forms on the bottom of the ocean get up to the phytoplankton on the surface? The sun. The sun causes the currents that stir the oceans.

The sun. It always comes back to the sun. Life on earth, the water cycle, food chains, photosynthesis, oxygen and carbon dioxide, consumption and production.

Happy Solstice. 

Take a minute today to appreciate our sun.

A Trip to the Ocean

I didn't get to go to the ocean for spring break, so I'm taking a virtual, book-based trip in this post!

At the Boardwalk
by Kelly Ramsdell Fineman
illustrated by Monica Armino
Tiger Tales, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

Our Kidlitosphere pal Kelly Fineman takes us on a day-long rhyming visit to the boardwalk. We start with a jog in the morning fog, we eat plenty of yummy treats, play lots of games, and ride lots of rides. Oh, to be a kid again!

Three by the Sea
by Mini Grey
Alfred A. Knopf, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

Three friends are living happily by the sea until a (sly shyster of a) Stranger shows up and sows seeds of discord. The friends ride out the storm in their friendship, and when the Stranger leaves, they plant some of the real seeds he leaves behind. In spite of the problems the Stranger caused, some of the change he brought turns out to be for the best.

Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems
by Kate Coombs
illustrated by Meilo So
Chronicle Books, 2012

I've never spent much time at the ocean, so without much experiential background, I wasn't sure I'd find a way into these poems. It was actually the gorgeous watercolor illustrations that drew me in, but the poems kept me there. Why bother with direct experience -- Kate Coombs teaches me about the ocean through her poems! And what a rich and varied collection this is! I'm not going to take it to school just yet. I'm going to keep Kate nearby as a mentor author. Not only will she be teaching me about the ocean, she'll teach me about writing poetry.

In the Sea
by David Elliott
illustrated by Holly Meade
Candlewick Press, 2012

I was thrilled to see that David Elliott and Holly Meade have another book in their IN/ON THE... series (On the Farm, In the Wild). This (my humble opinion) is the best of the three, both in poetry and illustration. David Elliott is another of my poetry mentors. He writes short, but ever so strong. I love this:

The Urchin
Spiny.

The Sardine
Tiny.

The Mackerel
Shiny.

The Shrimp
Briny.

New Books From My Shopping Spree

I picked up several new picture books on my shopping spree on Saturday. I thought I'd share a few today.


I am excited to add LOOK AT THE STARS by Buzz Aldrin to my collection. I am kind of hooked on the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11. This is a great way to celebrate the flight. Astonaut, Buzz Aldrin starts with an introduction inviting readers to look at the history of flight. On each 2 page spread of the book, Aldrin looks at one piece of the timeline that led us to space travel and looks ahead to where we might go next. He highlights important times in the history of flight and space travel and gives interesting information with each. The book is definitely one that kids can read and follow. The end of the book includes an extensive timeline of important dates including events from the year 1543 through 2010. An exciting celebration of the discoveries that led us to current missions in space. An added bonus in this book are the end papers--they are filled with great quotes about flight by those who are known for their contributions. A great book!

I loved WHAT SHOULD I MAKE by Nandini Nayar the minute I picked it up. It is a simple story of a little boy, Neerah, who is"helping' his mother make chapatis (Indian flat bread). As she is making the dough, she gives Neerah a ball of dough to play with. He makes many things and uses his imagination about what the animals he created may do. The story is a simple one--fun between a mother and child while baking. The back of the book, there are directions for Making Chapitas. I could see lots of options for this book. I initially picked it up because I am looking for good "How-To" books to add to the library collection and the pages provide some good samples of simple "how-to" writing that kids could learn from and use in their own writing.


Bill at Literate Lives suggested GONE WITH THE WAND by Margie Palatini and I so glad I listened to him and ordered it immediately. I love a good fairy tale and I love fairy godmothers. (The ones in Sleeping Beauty are my favorites.) This is the story of a fairy godmother who has lost her magic. Her friend works hard to help her find a new way to use her magic but nothing seems to be the right fit. The story is a fun one and the illustrations make the fairies in the book quite a hit. The fairies definitely have personality and the illustrations really add to the characters.

Walking to School

Walking to School: A Story from Northern Ireland

by Eve Bunting

illustrated by Michael Dooling

Clarion Books (Houghton Mifflin), 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

This is a story for today's children.  The problems in the world around them (in this book the tension and violence between the Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland) can seem too big and too long-standing ever to be solved.  And yet there's hope.  A connection is made, child to child, across the boundaries that are meant to keep them apart and at odds.  The adults may not be able to end "The Troubles," but perhaps the next generation will.

Allison is a Catholic child in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  To get to her new school, she has to walk through a Protestant section of town. Protestants line the road to harass and threaten the children and the adults who walk with them for protection.  If that's not scary enough, Allison has a secret.  She overheard her uncle planning to "teach a lesson" to a Catholic who has been seen associating with Protestants. The "lesson" involved being beaten senseless with both legs broken. What's a child to do when the adults around her perpetuate the violence rather than working to end it?  

The story turns around a button, a marble, and a connection made between Allison and a Protestant girl who has been forced by her mother to come participate in the harassment.

This is an amazing contemporary story, based on an actual event, about the power of young people to bring about social change and justice. Like I said, it is a story for today's children.

Eve Bunting has published over 250 books. She grew up in Ireland. She doesn't shy away from topics like homelessness, racism, divorce, and immigration (to name a few). This would make a great addition to an Eve Bunting author study in the upper grades and middle school.

You must visit Michael Dooling's website.  His catch phrase is History Through Picture Books, and when you browse through the list of books he's illustrated, you'll recognize many favorites. According to his bio, he often paints from life -- his family and neighborhood children dressed from the collection of vintage clothes and costumes that he and his wife have amassed.

Eve Bunting's bio on KidsReads.com.

Review and discussion at The Reading Zone.

I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean

I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean

by Kevin Sherry

Penguin, June 2008

review copy compliments of the publisher

Squid is back with a paintbrush and a new boast, "I'm the best artist in the ocean."  He can draw all kinds of ocean animals in all kinds of artistic styles, but the clown fish get grumpy when he splatters paint on them.  Squid is not deterred, he is making his masterpiece!  

Then shark comes along with a full-page, sharp-toothed, "STOP!"  He points out to Squid that he is making a mess.  In a gigantic double gatefold spread, Squid reveals the surprise canvas for his "MESS-terpiece!"  No, I'm not going to spoil it.  You'll have to see for yourself!!

Check out the very funny interview with Kevin Sherry by the very funny ladies at Three Silly Chicks.

The Robot and the Bluebird

The Robot and the Bluebird

by David Lucas

first published in Great Britain by Andersen Press Ltd., 2007

Farrar Straus Giroux, October, 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

This is a very sweet book.  It is a fable about a robot with a broken heart. Literally broken.  But as the story unfolds, the literal broken heart -- the hole in his chest where his heart used to be -- becomes a figurative broken heart as well.  A bluebird flying south that is caught in cold weather is invited to take shelter in the robot's chest where his broken heart used to be.  He can feel his heart fluttering, his heart now sings, and when the bluebird flies a little way, Robot feels like his heart is flying.

When it doesn't look like the bluebird can make it south on her own, Robot carries her in his heart, sacrificing everything to get her to the sunshine, where she lives in his heart forever.

I haven't tried this book on a kid audience, but I'm thinking they'll respond to the unlikely friendship between the geometrically-drawn yet emotive robot and the tiny soft bluebird. They'll cheer for the robot to overcome all obstacles to get the bluebird to the sunshine, and they'll feel the bittersweetness of the ending.

Even if this book flops with kids, it will make a great gift book for someone you will hold in your heart forever, someone who has made great sacrifices for you.

Snow

Snow

by Cynthia Rylant

illustrated by Lauren Stringer

Harcourt, November 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

I'm not ready for the reality of snow yet:  slogging, shoveling, slipping, sliding. But I'm more than ready to dream about snow and remember all the different kinds of snow.

That's what Cynthia Rylant's new book is good for: dreaming and remembering and snuggling up with her descriptions of fat-flaked school-closing snows, light snows that sit on even the smallest tree limbs, heavy snows that bury evidence of the world, and more.  Rylant meditates on the beauty of snow, the way it reminds us of all things impermanent, and its place in the natural cycle of life (at least in places far enough north and/or not withstanding global warming).

Lauren Stringer's illustrations do a perfect job of combining the warmth of indoors and the cold of outdoors during snow.  There is a fun subplot in the illustrations to discover after savoring Rylant's words.

The Doghouse by Jan Thomas

The Doghouse
by Jan Thomas
Harcourt Books, September 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

Jan Thomas is my new favorite picture book author based on just two books: I loveloveloved A Birthday for Cow (reviewed here in June). And now Cow, Pig, Duck and Mouse are back with a scary story just right for the season, The Doghouse. (In addition, What Will Fat Cat Sit On? made Katie's 5 Books (New Ones) Every Primary Library Should Have list and I'm pretty sure I will own it, love it, and add it to my own list by the end of this weekend. In addition, I see that Jan Thomas has a new book coming out in 2009. I'm thinking pre-order thoughts.)

The story in The Doghouse begins on the endpapers with Cow, Pig, Duck and Mouse playing with a big red ball. Cow makes a great kick that is headed right for (insert scary music as the pages turn past the title page to the first page of text) the doghouse, which suddenly has a dark sky, a bat across the full moon, thunder and lightning, and skeletal trees around it. First the animals send big, brave, strong Cow in to get the ball. Cow does not come back. (More bats across the moon, and three pairs of wide, frightened eyes left.) Next Pig goes in. Does not come back. Then Duck. Does not come back. Mouse begs Duck to come back, but the scary face of the Dog appears and tells Mouse, "I am having Duck for dinner." After a page of sheer Mouse terror...

***SPOILER ALERT***

...Dog turns back to his dinner guests seated at the table and says with regret in his eyes and voice, "Too mad Mouse couldn't come, too."

But isn't that Mouse peeking in the window? Sure enough, he joins the group for cake in the final endpapers.

Be sure you look for a cameo appearance by the big red ball in the final pages.

Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie

Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie
by Norton Juster
illustrated by Chris Raschka
Scholastic, October 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

This review goes out to the parents of all toddlers. Also, to the parents of all teenagers.

Nanna and Poppy, the grandparents who are visited by their granddaughter in the 2006 Caldecott winner, The Hello, Goodbye Window, are never sure whether it is Sourpuss or Sweetie Pie who's come to visit. She assures us that most of the time she really is Sweetie Pie, and she knows that Grandma and Grandpa don't like Sourpuss very much, but when it comes to who she'll be..."I don't know how it's going to be. It just happens."

One minute she's hugging, the next she's insisting on her way. One minute she's thinking of others, the next she's completely self-absorbed. One minute she's "YES!", and the next she's "NO!". Through it all, no matter what the mood, Grandma, Grandpa and Granddaughter listen to music, paint, play pretend, read books, and go for drives.

When Nana and Poppy put her (them?) to bed, they wonder who will be there in the morning...and for how long.

Raschka's bright and sunny Sweetie Pie illustrations contrast with the darker, stormy Sourpuss pictures, in a book that is sure to be a favorite of grownups and moody young ones alike.

Bear Hunt Alternatives

We're Going on a Lion Hunt

adapted by Margery Cuyler

illustrated by Joe Mathieu

Marshall Cavendish, available October, 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

Pirate Treasure Hunt!

by Jan Peck

illustrated by Adrian Tans

Pelican Publishing Company, available Sept. 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

Have you already taken your students or your story time participants on a bear hunt? Then it's time to go on a lion hunt! Join the teacher in the book -- put on your safari hat and use your imagination. Walk out the door of the school right into a safari. There will be all the usual things that you can't go over, can't go around, have to go through: mud, sticks, trees, water, tall grass, and finally, the obligatory cave. Hurry back through all the obstacles until you arrive safely back at school.

After the lion hunt, why not go on a pirate treasure hunt? You'll get to use your best "Talk Like a Pirate" voice. (Sorry I didn't have the book for International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19. ARRRRRRRH!) You'll get to insult your audience pirate style -- "Ye little bubble bath takers; ye little milk sippers; ye little tooth brushers..." And you'll get to go over, around and through all kinds of obstacles until you get to the obligatory cave. When you have to hurry back to the ship up, down, over, under and through all you went to get to the treasure, you open the chest and find...BOOKS! And the key to opening the treasure is "Reading, me hearties!"

Too Many Toys

Too Many Toys

by David Shannon

The Blue Sky Press (Scholastic)

available October, 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

Spencer had too many toys.  He had fleets and convoys and parades of toys.  He had zoos and armies of toys both big and small, loud and quiet, educational and not.

After Spencer's dad steps on one too many Lego pieces and Spencer's mom trips over one too many train tracks, Spencer receives the ultimatum:  "YOU HAVE TOO MANY TOYS!"  And he's going to have to get rid of some of them.

Spencer's mom doesn't know who she's up against, though.  First, Spencer is a dramatic sentimentalist complete with big sad eyes (like the ones Puss in Boots uses in the Shrek movies).  Then he's a crafty lawyer who knows when it's "in his best interest to agree."

Finally Spencer's mom has a box of toys that she can get rid of.  But while she's having a cup of tea and a short rest, Spencer discovers one toy he can't do without -- the BOX! 

If Animals Kissed Good Night

If Animals Kissed Good Night
by Ann Whitford Paul
illustrated by David Walker
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher



This is my new baby shower gift book.

Reading this book as the last read aloud of the night is bound to result in lots of snuggling and kissing. What a great way to end the day!

The book starts out, "If animals kissed like we kiss goodnight, Sloth and her cub in late afternoon's light would hang from a tree and start kissing sooo slooowwwww...the sky would turn pink and the sun sink down low." Peacocks kiss with a fan dance, snakes kiss like rope loosely wound, walrus calf and papa kiss with whiskery swishes, elephant give a kiss and then a shower, "and Sloth and her cub? Still...kissing good night." Land and water and forest and Arctic and human animals kiss their way through the rest of the book, and you can probably guess what Sloth and her cub are doing after the child is tucked in with all her stuffed animals around her!

Join Hands! The Ways We Celebrate Life

Join Hands! The Ways We Celebrate Life
by Pat Mora
with photographs by George Ancona
Charlesbridge, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher


A year ago, I had never heard of the Malaysian poetic form pantoum.

Then last year, Tricia (Miss Rumphius Effect) used the pantoum for one of her poetry stretches. She explained the form, wrote an original, and shared the pantoums her stretch participants wrote.

This August, Kelly Fineman explored the pantoum for Poetry Friday.

Jone shared an original pantoum in April, and then came back at the end of August to a poem she worked on for Elaine's (Wild Rose Reader) and Janet Wong's challenge to write a ring/blanket/drum poem and made it into a ring/blanket/drum pantoum!

And now Pat Mora and George Ancona have created a single-pantoum picture book! I declare it The Year of the Pantoum! The pantoum is the perfect form for Mora's poem. She explains, "A pantoum is a repeating form written in four-line stanzas. The second and fourth lines in one stanza become the first and third lines in the next stanza. In the last stanza, the second and fourth lines are almost the same as the frst and third lines of the first stanza. So, like a group of friends joining hands, the poem becomes a circle."

In her poem, friends sing and dance, strut and ballyhoo, plan a masquerade and a parade, take a chance and begin to dance, and join hands in a "happy hoopla way." A fun book and a great invitation to children to explore the pantoum.

Monsoon Afternoon

Monsoon Afternoon
by Kashmira Sheth
illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi
Peachtree Publishers, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

The weather is changing, and the first fat raindrops of the monsoon are beginning to fall. No one but Dadaji has time to play with his grandson. Luckily, Dadaji remembers what fun he had as a child playing in the monsoon rains -- floating paper boats in the washtub, enjoying the smell and feel of the rain after a long dry season. Dadaji remembers swinging in the banyan tree, watching peacocks strut, and picking mangoes, and he shares these memories as he spends the afternoon with his grandson. He assures the little boy that he was once as young as he is, and, yes, someday the little boy will be a Dadaji, too.

In the author's notes at the end of the story, Sheth shares some of her memories of monsoon season from her childhood on the west coast of India.

Many of our students and their families have storm-related memories. In our beginning of the year writing workshops, we often ask students to write personal narratives. This book might prompt students to gather and write a collection of storm stories.

Kashmira Sheth's blog

Apples & Oranges: Going Bananas With Pairs

Apples & Oranges: Going Bananas With Pairs
by Sara Pinto
Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children's Books, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

This year, our staff is focusing on a few of the strategies in Marzano's CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION THAT WORKS.  One of the instructional strategies that has been proven by research to raise student achievement is identifying similarities and differences.

To launch our study of weather, we brainstormed all the weather words we could think of.  I recorded the words on the overhead, and the students at each table took turns writing the words on index cards.  Then I gave the groups this task:  sort the words into groups that you think make sense.

After this content work on similarities and differences, I shared APPLES & ORANGES: GOING BANANAS WITH PAIRS.  This book nearly put a couple of my students over the edge.  

Page 1: "How are an apple and an orange alike?"  Page 2: "They both don't wear glasses."    

"I don't get it!"  "It doesn't make sense!"  

Others, however, delighted in the playfulness and quickly were able to adapt to the BOTH DON'T format of the comparing.

Page 17:  "How are a spoon and a fork alike?"  Student Response:  "They both don't run away with the dish."  About half the class understood the literary allusion.  I was thoroughly impressed.  This is clearly a student to watch!  (Page 18:  "They both don't dance in the ballet.")

This seems like another book that would be fun to take down the grade levels to see how younger and younger students handle the BOTH DON'T format.  Or maybe a certain librarian could try it for me -- hint, hint Franki!  Or maybe you can try it in your classroom and let me know how it goes! 

The Words Don't Match the Pictures

There's No Such Thing as Ghosts!

by Emmanuelle Eeckhout

first American Edition, Kane Miller, 2008

first published in Belgium, 2008

review copy provided by Kane Miller

The unnamed little boy is not supposed to go near the strange old house on the corner in his new neighborhood because it's said to be haunted.  So...he promptly goes there because he wants to catch a ghost!

No matter where he goes in the strange old house, he finds no ghosts. However, the reader can clearly see that behind him, or above him, or below him, or hidden in the bubbles of the bubble bath, there are clearly LOTS of ghosts.

Despite what the reader knows, the little boy declares, "There's no such thing as ghosts!"

The words don't match the pictures.


Minji's Salon

by Eun-hee Choung

first American edition, Kane Miller, 2008

first published in South Korea in 2007

review copy provided by Kane Miller

Minji's mother is at the beauty salon getting a new hairdo.  On the left side of the facing pages, the reader sees Minji's mother at her salon getting cut, colored, and styled. On the right side are the words Minji's mother might hear, along with a picture of Minji acting the words out on her dog.  

"The color must be mixed carefully.  (No tasting allowed.)" reads the text.  The stylist is mixing colors from tubes for mother's hair; Minji is choosing coloring ingredients from the freezer (mmmm, ice cream!) for the dog's hair.

"You have to be patient; beauty takes time," reads the text.  In the left hand picture, we see Minji's mother with eyes closed, serenely patient as the stylist colors and rolls her hair.  In the right hand picture, we see a wild-eyed dog smeared with ice cream, tongue in the container, bits of fur rolled up in crayons and pencils.

The words don't match (both of) the pictures.  (At least not until the end, when Minji says, "Mom will be back soon.  I think she'll be surprised.")

What are some other examples of books like these (books with parallel stories, books where the pictures don't match the words) and how do you use them in your classroom or library story time? 

Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears

Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears
by Emily Gravett
Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
On shelves September 9, 2008
Winner of the 2007 Nestlé Children's Book Prize Bronze Award and
the 2008 Kate Greenaway Medal
review copy provided by the publisher


What's it with book characters taking the pencil (or the red marker) and revising the author's work?!? Chester messes with Mélanie Watt's writing, and now Little Mouse is messing with Emily Gravett's -- writing and drawing on the pages, chewing on the pages, and more.

Ms. Gravett has created a perfectly good self-help book for those who have fears and phobias. It is intended to be a sort of workbook for the phobic to face his/her fears with writing, drawing and collage. And Little Mouse takes her up on this.

I know we shouldn't laugh at others' fears, but this is a really funny book. Little Mouse's fears have literary references (Three Blind Mice and Hickory Dickory Dock), have real (Acrophobia) and imaginary (Whereamiophobia) names, and are so problematic to Little Mouse that his red pencil is a mere stump by the end of the book.

There are flaps, die-cuts, "chewed" edges of pages, "folded" page corners, and a VERY funny fold-out map of The Isle of Fright to keep the reader poring over the pages of this book. Every time you read it, you'll find a detail you had missed before.

I'm not sure this would be a therapeutic book for anyone with bonafide phobias, but the rest of us who have our share of fears and worries will completely empathize with Little Mouse, and in the end, with Emily Gravett.


Shelf Elf reviewed Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears last October. She must have gotten ahold of a British copy.
Visit Emily Gravett's website, where there's an activity for making your own collage of your fears, and a couple of page shots to give you a feel for the unique illustrations.