Monday, July 24, 2006
#3 Cool Teacher in Kid Lit--Miss Malarkey
Okay, so I was thinking, the Giver in THE GIVER is not really a teacher although he certainly serves as one. So, I am taking him off of the list and adding Miss Malarkey from MISS MALARKEY LEAVES NO READER BEHIND by Judy Finchler. I had to think hard about this one. I never like when kids are rewarded for reading. So, the principal dying his hair purple and sleeping on the roof was not my favorite. But.... then when I read the book, I decided Miss Malarkey totally makes our list. I never get the impression that Miss Malarkey really likes the purple hair reward. Instead it is clear that her goal is to hook each child into books by really knowing them as readers. She doesn't care how many books the kids read. She is all about turning kids into readers by finding books that they will love! So, Miss Malarkey becomes the third COOL TEACHER IN CHILDREN'S LIT.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
100 Cool Teachers in Children's Lit
Okay so I am totally loving the lists from Jen Robinson's Book Page blog--Cool Boys from Kid Lit and Cool Girls From Children's Literature. I loved reading over these lists and thinking about these great characters we love.
I soo loved the idea that I started thinking. Could we come up with 100 Cool Teachers from Children's Lit? What do you think? So many teachers in books are these stereotypic, mean, dumpy people who are worn out. So, let's start putting together a list of 100 Cool Teacher's in Children's Lit. I am going to start with Great Aunt Arizona from MY GREAT AUNT ARIZONA by Gloria Houston. I also think The Giver in THE GIVER is a cool teacher. I would also like to add Mrs. Granger from FRINDLE by Andrew Clements. She is cool in disguise. We're looking for thoughtful teachers who understand kids and learning and are active, intelligent people who love their work. Do you think we can find 100? We are taking suggestions from readers!
Check the list in the sidebar to see if your favorite is already there! As of today (12/31/10), we have ALMOST 150 cool teachers! Keep 'em coming!
I soo loved the idea that I started thinking. Could we come up with 100 Cool Teachers from Children's Lit? What do you think? So many teachers in books are these stereotypic, mean, dumpy people who are worn out. So, let's start putting together a list of 100 Cool Teacher's in Children's Lit. I am going to start with Great Aunt Arizona from MY GREAT AUNT ARIZONA by Gloria Houston. I also think The Giver in THE GIVER is a cool teacher. I would also like to add Mrs. Granger from FRINDLE by Andrew Clements. She is cool in disguise. We're looking for thoughtful teachers who understand kids and learning and are active, intelligent people who love their work. Do you think we can find 100? We are taking suggestions from readers!
Check the list in the sidebar to see if your favorite is already there! As of today (12/31/10), we have ALMOST 150 cool teachers! Keep 'em coming!
One more reason why she's currently my favorite children's author
Shannon Hale is sharing chapter one of her newest book, RIVER SECRETS!
YAY!
****
Two minutes faster than last year, thanks for asking! Next year I hope to break the 30 minute mark.
YAY!
****
Two minutes faster than last year, thanks for asking! Next year I hope to break the 30 minute mark.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Bone
The fourth Bone book, THE DRAGONSLAYER (Jeff Smith), is out. Phoney Bone has just about gone too far this time, tricking the villagers into fearing a non-existent danger, imposing strict security measures that are followed to the letter even though they don't make sense, ordering plowshares beaten into swords, taxing the villagers to cover the "crisis" situation he has created, blaming everything on the moral decay of the people, and almost killing the villagers' greatest ally when his scam doesn't quite play out the way he'd planned.
No, wait. Was that Bone I was reading, or today's newspaper?
No, wait. Was that Bone I was reading, or today's newspaper?
Friday, July 21, 2006
Poetry Friday
This poem came to mind yesterday when I was doing a training swim at Alum Creek Reservoir. Tomorrow is my second-ever 1.5K time trial open water swim. It will certainly not be too cold, I don't plan to die, and I'm only occasionally too far out (in my life or otherwise).
Not Waving But Drowning
by Stevie Smith
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
Not Waving But Drowning
by Stevie Smith
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
On a lighter note...
Franki, you don't have to read the whole Series of Unfortunate Events. Here's a perfectly good ultracondensed version by Andrea M., age 13, one of the winners of a Muse Magazine contest:
Mr. Poe: Your parents died.
Orphans: Woe is us.
Count Olaf: I want your money.
Orphans: You can't have it.
(Count Olaf does mean things.)
Orphans: Things can't get much worse.
(They do.)
THE END
For more of this silliness, check out the website that inspired the contest, the Book-a-Minute site. You'll find ultracondensed versions of science fiction, fantasy (don't miss the two versions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), classics, bedtime stories (don't miss The Mitten), and movies. For the rest of the winners of the Muse contest, you'll either have to check out the July/August issue (Heather D., age 17, did such a good job with the Harry Potter books that I've been inspired to slog through #6 even though I'm a year late), or go to the Muse website.
It strikes me that these are only funny if you know the book or movie. And to get them right, you have to REALLY know the book or movie. Are there classroom applications here? Whaddaya think?
Mr. Poe: Your parents died.
Orphans: Woe is us.
Count Olaf: I want your money.
Orphans: You can't have it.
(Count Olaf does mean things.)
Orphans: Things can't get much worse.
(They do.)
THE END
For more of this silliness, check out the website that inspired the contest, the Book-a-Minute site. You'll find ultracondensed versions of science fiction, fantasy (don't miss the two versions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), classics, bedtime stories (don't miss The Mitten), and movies. For the rest of the winners of the Muse contest, you'll either have to check out the July/August issue (Heather D., age 17, did such a good job with the Harry Potter books that I've been inspired to slog through #6 even though I'm a year late), or go to the Muse website.
It strikes me that these are only funny if you know the book or movie. And to get them right, you have to REALLY know the book or movie. Are there classroom applications here? Whaddaya think?
Monday, July 17, 2006
Events, current or otherwise
Newsphoto: Basra,
Collateral Damage
Our armies do not come into your cities and lands
as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.
—General F.S. Maude, commander of the British colonial forces in Iraq, 1914
Apparently the little girl is dead.
In Basra, bombed to rubble by the Yanks,
her stricken father cradles her small head.
Her right foot dangles, ghastly, by a thread.
Cluster bombs & F-16s & tanks.
That is to say the little girl is dead
whose fingers curl (small hand brushed with blood)
as if to clutch his larger hand. He drinks
her—sobbing—in, & cradles her small head,
& rocks her in his arms, the final bed
but one in which she'll lie. The father clings,
as if his broken daughter were not dead,
her face, as if in sleep, becalmed, but red,
bloodied, bruised. At bottom left, the ranks
of those still dying die beneath her head.
Legions of the Lords of Plunder: the dread
angel of empire offers you thanks!
Look, if you dare! See? The child is dead.
Her stricken father cradles her small head.
by Steve Kowit
Collateral Damage
Our armies do not come into your cities and lands
as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.
—General F.S. Maude, commander of the British colonial forces in Iraq, 1914
Apparently the little girl is dead.
In Basra, bombed to rubble by the Yanks,
her stricken father cradles her small head.
Her right foot dangles, ghastly, by a thread.
Cluster bombs & F-16s & tanks.
That is to say the little girl is dead
whose fingers curl (small hand brushed with blood)
as if to clutch his larger hand. He drinks
her—sobbing—in, & cradles her small head,
& rocks her in his arms, the final bed
but one in which she'll lie. The father clings,
as if his broken daughter were not dead,
her face, as if in sleep, becalmed, but red,
bloodied, bruised. At bottom left, the ranks
of those still dying die beneath her head.
Legions of the Lords of Plunder: the dread
angel of empire offers you thanks!
Look, if you dare! See? The child is dead.
Her stricken father cradles her small head.
by Steve Kowit
Quote for the day
Wole Soyinka said, "A book if necessary should be a hammer [or] a hand grenade which you detonate under a stagnant way of looking at the world."
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Cosmic Again
Last book was TWICE TOLD, short stories inspired by original art. I just finished Elizabeth Winthrop's new book, COUNTING ON GRACE, which is historical fiction about a twelve-year-old girl in the early 18th century who doffs bobbins in a cotton mill in Vermont. And what was Elizabeth Winthrop's inspiration for this book? A Lewis Hine photograph in his collection which documented child labor in the early 1900's!! (There's also a one room school in this one. This is just getting too weird.)
I'm probably going to have to twist the arms of my literature circle group to read this -- they are avid NON-readers of historical fiction -- but they read both CASTLE IN THE ATTIC and BATTLE FOR THE CASTLE last year and vowed that they wanted Elizabeth Winthrop to write a new book. Well, this isn't quite what they had in mind, but I think they'll fall in love. Grace is a likeable character, contrary down to her stubborn left-handedness and her inability to sit still or concentrate. It seems that she'll fall into the trap of a lifetime of work at the mill, but because of the influences of Grace's teacher, a visit from Mr. Hine, her best friend Arthur's deliberate mangling of his hand to escape mill work, and her mother (as much of a sharp-edged, contrary character as Grace is), Grace winds up, at age 12, the substitute teacher in the mill school when her teacher is fired for her work with Mr. Hine against child labor. GREAT characters. SUPERB writing. EXCELLENT end notes about Louis Hine and the photograph that inspired Elizabeth Winthrop.
I'm probably going to have to twist the arms of my literature circle group to read this -- they are avid NON-readers of historical fiction -- but they read both CASTLE IN THE ATTIC and BATTLE FOR THE CASTLE last year and vowed that they wanted Elizabeth Winthrop to write a new book. Well, this isn't quite what they had in mind, but I think they'll fall in love. Grace is a likeable character, contrary down to her stubborn left-handedness and her inability to sit still or concentrate. It seems that she'll fall into the trap of a lifetime of work at the mill, but because of the influences of Grace's teacher, a visit from Mr. Hine, her best friend Arthur's deliberate mangling of his hand to escape mill work, and her mother (as much of a sharp-edged, contrary character as Grace is), Grace winds up, at age 12, the substitute teacher in the mill school when her teacher is fired for her work with Mr. Hine against child labor. GREAT characters. SUPERB writing. EXCELLENT end notes about Louis Hine and the photograph that inspired Elizabeth Winthrop.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Twice Told
It's an interesting concept. Scott Hunt sent some original drawings out to authors, and two authors per picture wrote stories inspired by the pictures. It's definitely NOT a book for a 4th/5th grade classroom: the picture with a cake and an ax on the kitchen table inspired a tale of a semi-abusive father forcing a coming-of-age ceremony on his son, and in the other, the son kills his father with the ax. There's also homosexuality in one, and sexual abuse in another.
That said, I loved both of the stories that go with the picture on the cover -- an older woman in her robe and scuffs giving a bear what-for; shaking her finger at him so hard it's blurred. In one story, the bear is a stuffed animal come to life, and in the other, nature's tables are turned in quite a clever way.
There are some other good stories, and the notes from the authors in the back shed light on what it was about the picture that spoke to each of them, and how they went about writing their story for the collection.
That said, I loved both of the stories that go with the picture on the cover -- an older woman in her robe and scuffs giving a bear what-for; shaking her finger at him so hard it's blurred. In one story, the bear is a stuffed animal come to life, and in the other, nature's tables are turned in quite a clever way.
There are some other good stories, and the notes from the authors in the back shed light on what it was about the picture that spoke to each of them, and how they went about writing their story for the collection.
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