STATE OF WONDER by Ann Patchett

This week, I realized how much I have missed good adult novels.  Ann Patchett is one of my favorite authors of all time. I read BEL CANTO years ago, when it first came out.  I fell in love with it and then went on to read all of Patchett's book. I've loved all of them but none has really compared to Bel Canto for me. Until I read her newest, STATE OF WONDER.  Many reviewers are saying the same thing.  I finished this book Thursday and was so sad to close the last page and leave the characters and the story behind.

I can't quite put my finger on why I loved this book so much but I am pretty sure it is for all of the same reasons that I loved Bel Canto.  I am a character reader and I must love the characters to love a book. I remember reading Bel Canto and thinking so hard about the characters as I got to know them over the course of the book. Patchett is amazing at helping us get to know characters over time and I find myself slowly falling in love with the characters and understanding them so well by the end of her books.

STATE OF WONDER takes place in the Amazon Rainforest. It is such a different setting for me and the setting is so critical to the book. The story is about a woman, Marina, who journeys to the Amazon to find her mentor and past teacher, Dr. Swenson, who is conducting research there.  Marina's job is to find out what happened to her friend and colleague--her company is sending her to discover the truth about his recent death and to get an update on the research that Dr. Swenson is doing.  The plot was interesting--Patchett is a master at pulling in issues and throwing in circumstances that make readers rethink their views on certain things.

The plot matters in this book, but it is the characters and how they grow that made me love the book.  I read in a review that Patchett is brilliant at putting characters in unique situations to see how they do. I loved that about Bel Canto--the way she brought a variety of people to one location and we learned about them through their interactions.  Patchett does the same thing with State of Wonder--she pulls a group of people out of their normal circumstances and we come to learn so much about who they are, what they care about, how they see themselves in the world.

I know I am not saying much about this book. I loved it so much that I know I can't do it justice.  What I do know is that I have to commit a bit more time reading adult fiction. I love children's lit and YA lit but I realized with STATE OF WONDER, just how much I missed adult fiction.  If you are only making time for one adult fiction book this summer, I would say this is the one to read.

Ann Patchett talks about State of Wonder here.

Poetry Friday--Fireflies

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by davedehetre

Hundreds of Fireflies

BY BRAD LEITHAUSER

Sky yet violet,
shadows collecting
under the trees

and first stars wan
as night birches, the fireflies
begin: from the first,

the night belongs
to them.
Darkness brightens
them: from our screened porch

we watch their blinkings
sharpen: three, four of them
lighten nightfall of all

solemnity; ten or twelve
and the eyes are led
endlessly astray;

and in deeper night
it’s twenty, fifty, more—a number
beyond simple reckoning—

and still they keep
coming.

(the rest of the poem is at the Poetry Foundation)

I didn't experience fireflies until I grew up and moved to Ohio. It's too dry for them back home. I would have loved to have met them as a child. 

It's magical the way the light goes out of the summer sky and becomes condensed in those small green flashing lights that lift up out of the grass. They keep us grounded in the mystery that exists before our very eyes. Everyday magic. Everyday mystery. All we have to do is pay attention; it's there all the time.

Carol has the round up this week at Carol's Corner, and she's also got a poem about paying attention to the ordinary beauty of the world.

The Poetry Friday Roundup Schedule for July-December is complete! Kidlitosphere Yahoo group members, I added a file with the html code for the schedule so you can put it in your sidebar if you so choose. If you aren't a member and would like the code, email me through our blog email and I'll send it to you! Thanks, everyone!!

Poetry Friday Round Up Schedule Post

All Write!!! Consortium Summer Institute-Reflection #1: The Power of Twitter

The thought of reflecting on such an amazing 3 days of learning and friends is overwhelming. So, I decided to do a series of posts on the All Write Summer Institute over the next few days. Who knew that a little idea like this could become such a great experience for so many of us? Mindy Hoffar, of All Write Consortium, runs an amazing event and even though we felt like we were crashing a REALLY good party, Mindy and her group welcomed us and made us feel right at home immediately. I think that happens when you are with like-minded people who are passionate about children and literacy.

Last year, I spoke at the 2010 All Write Summer Institute.  It was an amazing institute and I realized that Indiana was not so far away from Ohio and that I should pay attention to all of the events they sponsored so that I could attend.  This year, I got to attend the 2011 All Write Summer Institute as a participant.  But here is the incredible thing--I attended with a huge group of friends,  many of them were Twitter friends.  A group of us on Twitter decided that this year's conference looked like an amazing line-up of speakers and that we would all meet there to learn together.  The more a few of us talked, the more others joined in.  Our tweeps came from all over. Donalyn Miller (@donalynbooks) came from Texas. Teresa Bunner  (@RdngTeach) flew in from North Carolina.  Mindi Rench (@mindi_r) came from Chicago.  Katherine Sokolowski (@katsok) and Paul Hankins (@PaulWHankins) drove in.  Our Dublin crew included Mary Lee Hahn (@maryleehahn), Katie DiCesare (@Katiedicesare), Tony Keefer (@tonykeefer), Deb Tyo (@ChocolateAir), Meredith Young (@mereou), and two friends who are not yet on Twitter (but who hopefully will be soon.) We also met a new Ohio Twitter friend, Stephanie Shouldis (@WizardOzTeacher). Ruth Ayers (@ruth_ayres) is part of the All Write Consortium and it was so fun to have a chance to see her and to be part of her community.   If you are on Twitter, I would follow every one of these amazing people.  If you are not on Twitter, you are missing out on some great learning from so many smart educators.

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to be with this group of people in person.  I have learned so much from each of them through Twitter and online but to be sitting at a table, eating lunch together, talking books, family and stuff was amazing.  Such smart, thoughtful people. At one point, I was looking at the rows of my Twitter friends in a keynote and was struck by how incredible this was.  The fact that we somehow all connected on Twitter and then somehow came to learn and hang out together at All Write.  Without social media, I would never have had the opportunity to learn from this group. WOW!!!

More reflections to come!

Cris Tovani on Rigor/Hard

One of my favorite sessions at the All Write Summer Institute was Cris Tovani's talk "Rigor and Hard are not the Same: Redefining Terms to Engage More Students."

Cris started by challenging us to think about whether we believed that our time should be spent covering vast amounts of content, or engaging students in purposeful work. It's kind of a no-brainer to choose between those two based on our personal philosophy of teaching -- of course we want the engagement and the purposeful work, but the pressures we are under because of testing push us to act in ways that don't always match our philosophy.

To help us to redefine what a rigorous curriculum might look like, and the kind of rigorous work our students might embrace with engagement rather than compliance, Cris led us in an activity where compared and contrasted reading that's hard, and reading that's rigorous. We started by listing things that make reading hard. Most people's list included

• no background knowledge
• unknown vocabulary words
• not invested in the work
• too many words or too much data
• no choice

Next we thought of a hobby in our own lives that is at times rigorous and at times just plain hard. I thought about baking. When I've planned well and have all the ingredients and tools I need, when I get to share the outcome, when I have the choice of what I make, and when I have the support of more experienced bakers, the work is rigorous. When the work is rigorous, I have internal motivation to do it, it energizes me, and I linger with it. When baking is hard, I don't have a choice, my time is crunched, things go wrong in a domino-effect way, and I drop or avoid the project. Can you hear how similar that is to when reading is rigorous vs. hard? The important factors to hold onto  are

• good planning 
• the social nature of reading/learning
• choice
• support

In the same way that reading levels change based on background knowledge, interest/motivation, and purpose, rigorous reading varies from child to child and from moment to moment. My work is no small feat: I need to help each student learn to tell the difference between hard reading and rigorous reading. I need to teach them to embrace rigor. I need to know books well so that I can help each child find the right book at the right time.

It's a big job, but the work, for me, is RIGOROUS, not hard!

Poetry Friday -- Happy Birthday, Mom!

The Summer Day

by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean—

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

My mom has had a long and wild and precious life. Yesterday we celebrated her 84th year. For the past two weeks I've been home, and we've been celebrating (in no particular order) a life of 

sewing, 

needlework, 

child-rearing, 

being the clerk of the course for swim meets, 

teaching, 

leading local women's clubs, and brownies, and cub scouts,

failing at scrap-booking (oh, well!), 

gardening, 

collecting dolls and figurines and miniatures and iris (even raising some from seed), 

cooking, 

bridge-playing,

reading,

editing,

being a cat fancier,

Colorado I-70 driving (Burlington to Denver and back again countless times),

iPad gaming,

and always and forever being curious and willing to learn and try new things.

Happy Birthday, Mom! 

Thanks for making me who I am today!

Jone has the round up today at Check It Out, and there are still a few slots left in the July-December round up host schedule I started last week.

THE GREAT WALL OF LUCY WU

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu
by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Scholastic Press, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

An ancient Chinese commentary states that “Harmony is like making congee. One uses water, fire, vinegar, sauce, salt and plum to cook fish and meat, and burns firewood and stalks as fuel for the cooking process. The cook blends these ingredients harmoniously to achieve the appropriate flavor.” In this enthralling book, we get to watch Lucy Wu take the disparate ingredients that have come her way at the beginning of 6th grade and, with some guidance from idioms that she learns in Chinese school, blend them together to make it her best year ever.

When we meet Lucy, she is focused on her love of basketball and the prospect of having a room to herself after her sister, Regina, goes off to college. But then her much-loved recently-deceased grandmother’s previously-unknown sister comes to visit from China for several months, and shares her room. Her parents insist that she go to a new Chinese school that is at the same time as her beloved basketball league’s practice. And an underhanded arch-nemesis at school works hard to find ways to make her give up on her dream of being the 6th grade basketball team captain.

Lucy’s relationship with her great aunt is central to the story. They get off to a rocky start, with a “great wall” of furniture between them down the middle of Lucy’s room, and it is heartwarming to watch their relationship become warm and loving through shared experiences.

Noodle soup also has a key role in the story, and Lucy’s feelings about Chinese food and American food reflect her struggles to integrate her Chinese heritage into her American life. At the start of the book, her sister Regina, who founded a Chinese Culture and Language Society in the high school, calls her a “banana … yellow on the outside and white on the inside.” But we see her gradually embrace this side of herself as she improves her Mandarin skills, learns more about Chinese and Chinese-American history, and gets to know her great aunt better.

Parts of the story brought back strong memories for me. Unplanned dumpling making at Lucy’s birthday party perfectly evoked Chinese New Year in Harbin with my partner’s mother. Lucy’s older brother is heavily steered by his parents towards math and engineering, since he has shown some talents, even though he is more interested in history. And I could really relate to the class outcast, Talent, who (unlike me in 6th grade) is eventually brought into the fold by Lucy and her friends.

In summary, the author has blended her ingredients harmoniously to achieve a wonderful book. I loved it, and recommend that everyone read it!

*********

A note from the guest reviewer, Dave Hahn: I'm Mary Lee's brother and I loved this book. But why should you pay attention to me? Unlike Mary Lee, I don't teach elementary school, I don't have a master's in children's literature, I'm not the outgoing president of the Notables committee, I'm not the coauthor of a long-running children's literature blog, and this list could go on for quite a while. But I have always loved reading, it is hard for authors to impress me, and I have had a lot of experiences that parallel Lucy's. In particular, I am learning Mandarin, and love all kinds of Chinese food.

THE CARDTURNER by Louis Sachar

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar
Delacorte Press, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

My mom is a bridge player. When I received this review copy, I immediately sent it to her to get her opinion. I told her she could share it with her book-loving bridge-playing friends as long as she always knew where it was and could send it back to me if I needed it. She loved it. 8-10 other ladies in my hometown area (not all bridge players) have read it, too. They didn't all love it (one had a problem with the profanity, but the best anyone can tell, and I think my mom reread the whole book to try to find all the profanity, Alton says "Jesus Christ" once in the book -- and I just found a hell; and one didn't think it was well-written) but one lady who is on the library board is going to recommend it for purchase for the public library, and one of Mom's best friends is going to read it one more time before she gives it to her bridge-loving middle school-aged grandson.

It seemed perfect to finally read this book while I was home visiting Mom. Even though I've grown up around bridge playing, I still nodded knowingly when Alton's friend Cliff describes bridge as "a card game little old ladies played while eating chocolate-covered raisins." I remember those raisins well. And that's about how deep my knowledge of bridge goes.

Here's the surprising thing -- as much as Mom and her bridge-playing friends loved this book as insiders with a deep knowledge of bridge, I loved it as an outsider with a shallow, chocolate-covered raisin knowledge of bridge.

How did Louis Sachar do this? How did he write a book about bridge that is accessible to all? He had two aces up his sleeve (and I AM aware that that's the wrong card game metaphor, but at least it's a card game metaphor):

1. Great characters.

Although the plot of the book is driven by the game of bridge, Alton is a funny, likable main character who speaks directly to the reader. He starts the book with zero knowledge of bridge, so readers like me do not feel alienated from the very first page. Alton's great-uncle Trapp, the blind bridge player for whom Alton turns cards, is a complicated man -- cranky and particular, philosophical and funny, miserly with compliments but generous with the wealth he's accumulated...generous in cranky, particular, philosophical and funny ways. Alton's parents are complete creeps -- money-hungry, greedy creeps. Think Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. Alton's 11 year-old sister needs her own book so she can really shine, and there's a love-triangle sub-plot featuring Alton, his friend Cliff, and schizophrenic Toni. (I know that sounded flip, "schizophrenic Toni," so I should say that even though Sachar needs a character who hears voices in her head to drive the bridge plot at the end of the story, his treatment of a schizophrenic character is very respectful -- think Schneider Honor Book good.)

2. Permission to skip the complicated explanations of bridge.

I love it that Louis Sachar gives us permission to do what good readers already do -- skip the parts that don't make sense to us as long as we hold onto the main story line. He gives the reader a whale symbol (it's a reference to using this reading strategy with Moby Dick) when he's going to tell the details behind the bridge plays in the story. I mostly took him up on skipping -- or at least skimming -- those parts, but the writing was so entertaining that I didn't want to miss anything by skipping them entirely. That's good writing. Sachar also got me hook, line, and sinker (I know, I know...it's a fishing metaphor, not a card-playing metaphor) with his imaginary bridge expert, Syd Fox, who does a running commentary on the story in the appendix. I thought he was a real expert! This makes the appendix even funnier, and gives me another character to love!

Here's the most amazing thing -- this book makes me maybe...someday...don't get your hopes up, Mom...a little bit interested in learning to play bridge.

Graphic Novel Reading-Thanks to Book-A-Day

I had no idea how I would manage Donalyn Miller's Book-A-Day Challenge. I knew that summer would provide some days that I would have lots of time to read, and some days that I would have almost no time to read. When I asked Donalyn about this, she said, "Pick short books. Think picture books and graphic novels." So, while I've done lots of novel reading, I've also plugged in lots of graphic novels and picture books. The things about Book-A-Day for me so far, is that it has changed my mindset about reading. So far, in the two weeks of summer, I have read a book every day. But I have been careful with my selections when the day is already packed.  This has actually given me the chance to catch up on some reading that may never have made it to the top of my pile. I have caught up on some picture book and graphic novel reading on those days when I don't have hours to commit to reading. An added bonus about the Book-A-Day challenge.

This week, I read several graphic novels.

Bambinowas the first graphic novel I read this week.  It is a short biography from the Capstone Graphic Library collection. I was impressed with this biography of Babe Ruth for many reasons. First of all, it is a thin book-pretty accessible for lots of kids. Secondly, the book only focuses on the one season in Babe Ruth's career when he beat his own home-run record. I like the focus on the one season, rather than a book about his whole life.  The book packs a lot of information and I find myself more interested in Babe Ruth than I had been.  I am going to look into more of the books in this series.


I then read Zebrafish by Peter Reynolds and Fablevision.  I think kids will like this one a lot.  First of all, it is about kids who form a band.  So many kids will love the whole idea.  The kids want to make a difference in the world and plan a benefit concert. The book deals with issues of growing up, illness, making a difference, and friendship.  A quick read that I think will give middle graders lots to talk about.

I also read Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge. This is more of a young adult novel. I see it as more middle school/high school.  The story is about a girl named Paige who moves to New York City. It is a growing up story in which Paige learns to be herself, explore her feelings through her art, make friends, fall in love and more.  There are a few edgy parts to the book--one that makes it perfect for middle school/high school.  A great story about a character I came to love early in the book.  I thought this was a well-done book trailer on the book.



Finally, I read SMILE by Raina Telgemeier.  This is one that's been on my stack for a while. This is a great middle grade/middle school novel. It is pretty autobiographical from what I read from the author. Raina is in sixth grade when she falls and knocks out her two front teeth. For years, she has to undergo orthodontic work to put her mouth back in order--a hard age to be going through this.  This book chronicles lots of the experiences and weaves the story of being a middle schooler, dealing with friends etc. with the dental treatment that is a constant part of Raina's life. This is definitely one of my favorite middle grade graphic novels.

So, I thank Donalyn Miller for this Book-A-Day Challenge. It is not turning out as I expected but my mindset to read a book-a-day is allowing me to get to books that may have remained on my pile for years.

Poetry Friday -- You Are There

You Are There

by Erica Jong


You are there.
You have always been
there.
Even when you thought
you were climbing
you had already arrived.
Even when you were
breathing hard,
you were at rest.
Even then it was clear
you were there.

Not in our nature
to know what
is journey and what
arrival.

(the rest of the poem is at The Writer's Almanac)

What is it about being back home, in the place where you are simultaneously a fully capable adult and also a helpless child called "Dolly" or "Sugar Plum"? This strange state of being causes me to ponder my journeys and my arrivals.

Even though "to live is to be uncertain," as Erica Jong would have it, let's rail against the uncertainty by scheduling Poetry Friday round up hosts for the next six months!

The Poetry Friday Roundup Schedule for July-December is complete! Kidlitosphere Yahoo group members, I added a file with the html code for the schedule so you can put it in your sidebar if you so choose. If you aren't a member and would like the code, email me through our blog email and I'll send it to you! Thanks, everyone!!

July 

1 Andromeda at a wrung sponge

8 Elaine at Wild Rose Reader

15 Mary Lee at  A Year of Reading

22 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference

29 Kate at Book Aunt

August 

5 Libby at A Year of Literacy Coaching!

12 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading

19 Dori at Dori Reads

26 Irene at Live. Love. Explore!

September 

2 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect

9 Katie at Secrets and Sharing Soda

16 Amy at The Poem Farm

23 Anastasia at Picture Book of the Day

30 Sara at Read Write Believe

October 

7 Mary Ann at Great Kid Books

14 david elzey at FOMAGRAMS

21 Jama at alphabet soup

28 Diane at Random Noodling

November 

4 Laura Salas at Writing the World for Kids

11 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors

18 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference

25 Heidi at my juicy little universe

December 

2 Carol at Carol's Corner

9 Robyn at Read, Write, Howl

16 Kate at Book Aunt

23 Dori at Dori Reads

30 Julie at The Drift Record

Anastasia has the round up today, at Picture Book of the Day. 

Class Photos...

My 2nd grade class photo. I am the 3rd from the right in the front row.

My 4th grade class picture. I am on the far left side in the 2nd row from the bottom--
the one with the Holly Hobbie dress.....