Sister Basil won't make our list

I have finished three of the four books that were on the top of my pile: VICTORY, THE LOUD SILENCE OF FRANCINE GREEN, and WEEDFLOWER.

No cool teachers in any of them, least of all in FRANCINE GREEN (Sister Basil borders on evil)...although Sister Pete might be nominated for a list of cool librarians, even though her library itself seems woefully limited.

I'm intrigued by the similarities in these three books. In each, there are two perspectives or two stories that sometimes balance each other (Francine and Sophie), sometimes serve as a contrast to the other (Sumiko and Frank), and sometimes merge and blend and become one (Molly and Sam).

They are all three historical fiction, which is often a hard-sell to young readers. I think kids would be most likely to read FRANCINE GREEN (1950's California, a world at least vaguely familiar from TV and movies), not at all interested in VICTORY (1800's naval history, Admiral Lord Nelson, Battle of Trafalgar) in spite of the parallel story of the modern girl homesick for England and learning to adjust to her mother's remarriage, and unwilling to even open WEEDFLOWER because of the uninspired title and the cover that doesn't match the book in any way, shape, or form (except maybe the blurry barbed wire).

All three could, should, and hopefully will cause some discomfort and questioning by readers. Of the kidnapping of men and boys by the press gangs who "recruited" for the Royal British Navy in VICTORY, I hope there will be at least a, "Did they really DO that?" or a, "Isn't that a bit like the involuntary draft in the U.S.?" In FRANCINE GREEN, (so many...where to start...), "Did the nuns really DO that?", "Did the government really DO that (Red Scare)?", "Isn't that (fear of communism) a bit like today's fear of 'terrorists'?" And in WEEDFLOWER, of the interment of the Japanese during WWII and of the Native Americans on reservations, "Did our government really DO that?", and "Why was that allowed to happen...and could it happen again?"

Along with the discomfort and questioning, all three have strong main characters who find a way to take a stand, whether by completing a circle, crossing a line, or breaking a silence.

All in all, three books I liked a lot, both jointly and separately. Not sure any will make it to the top of the Newbery pile. Still looking...

Poetry Friday--Confessions of A Reader

This is one of my favorite poems. It was written by a teacher. I found it years ago in a professional book. Enjoy!

Confessions of a Reader

Almost spring.
A spider
Stakes a claim
On a corner
Of the eight-foot window
In our living room.

Each morning
I admire
Taut guidelines,
Carefully placed spokes,
Dancing gown threads,
Architecture unrivalled.

My mother
Would not tolerate
Such slovenly housekeeping.
She would get a broom
And knock down
This errant squatter's palace.

I do not.

I am waiting for Charlotte
To leave a message.



By
Carol Wilcox
From All That Matters: What We Value in School and Beyond edited by Linda Rief and Maureen Barbieri
Heinemann, 1995

What all this heat is good for

I finished A FINE BALANCE. A fine balance between hope and despair, between humor and gut-wrenching violence and sadness, between the Beggarmaster and the beggars, between casual and deliberate choices, between debit and credit. "Let me tell you a secret: there is no such thing as an uninteresting life." (p.593)

After I pulled my head out of the book, I looked around the house. This led to Swiffering up the drifts of dog and cat hair instead of vacuuming (too hot), which left enough time for the luxury of exercising in an airconditioned health club.

Working out on the machines instead of swimming laps allowed me to begin to get caught up on NPR podcasts that have piled up, namely the Radio Expeditions series.

And THAT led to a story about Ecuadoran tree hoppers who remind me greatly of bloggers: creatures whose conversations cannot be detected without the proper equipment, who are evolving a system of social communication that is going on almost all the time.

I'm not going to quit trying

OK, Shannon, here is my case study.

Case study #1

Situation: Young girl lives in a home devoid of books, but full to the brim of movies and flat screen TVs. The shelves in her room are filled with VHS tapes by the time she's ready to start school. She has this aunt who can't stand the thought of a child growing up without trips to the library, and books to fill her imagination. So the niece gets books every birthday and Christmas, and sometimes in between. The niece and her aunt go to the library together often, and the niece learns the joys of the look-up computer, the nice librarians, exploring her passions, and checking out the same books over and over. Then the young girl hits fourth grade, and her school uses Accelerated Reader. Reading is for tests and points, nothing is read that doesn't "count," library visits fall off. The birthday books this year were CHASING VERMEER and THE FAIRY TALE DETECTIVES. On a recent road trip, niece and aunt listened to the audio version of CHASING VERMEER for about 10 minutes, and then the niece was fast asleep.

Result: Final outcome for niece: unknown. Current status of the aunt: I'm not going to quit trying.

(And just FYI, no link will be provided for Accelerated Reader. If you want to go there and find out what they think they are and what they think they do, you can type it in your browser yourself.)

(OOOoooh. I think we hit a nerve!)

My July Reading

We were having so much fun trying to think of 100 Cool Teachers in Children's Lit that we almost forgot that we were supposed to be reading! So, I am going to review my month's reading. All in one post. I have read lots that I like. My favorite new book this month is THE THE PRICE OF PRIVILEGE: HOW PARENTAL PRESSURE AND MATERIAL ADVANTAGE ARE CREATING A GENERATION OF DISCONNECTED AN UNHAPPY KIDS by Madeline Levine. I picked it up on the new nonfiction table. It is a fascinating read about raising children in affluent communities. It was written by a mother in one of these communities so it is very respectful of the kids and the parents who are raising them. I didn't realize how at risk our kids are. This book gathers the research. Definitely a worthwhile read and one I would recommend to help understand our kids today. It helped me see the pressures they are under and ways to be more supportive as an adult in the community. Definitely one of the best books I've read in a while.

I already talked about STUDY DRIVEN by Katie Wood Ray. My current favorite professional book for teachers. Loved it! I have recommended it to lots of friends. It will hopefully get us back to a true writing workshop in schools.

I also read THE YEAR OF THE DOG by Grace Lin. Actually, this may be my number one pick for the Newbery as of today. I thought it was a great story. Her writing reminded me lots of Sharon Creech who is one of my all-time favorite authors. Lin creates a great character and has life stories from her parents sprinkled throughout the text. One of my current favorites by far. The characters have stayed with me and the writing was great. This is on several Mock Newbery lists now so hopefully, it has a shot at the prize! (By the way, I have heard that she is an incredible author visit in elementary schools for anyone looking for a good author!)

PHINEAS L. MACGUIRE...ERUPTS!: THE FIRST EXPERIMENT (FROM THE HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC NOTEBOOKS OF PHINEAS L. MACGUIRE) by Frances O'Roark Dowell is a fun book--light, but with great characters. I am looking for something like this for my first read aloud. I love this author so I usually try to read anything that she writes. This isn't my favorite of hers but it is meant for a different audience. It is a lighter read than others she has written. But, she is able to create great characters and a plot that will appeal to middle-elementary kids. It looks like it might be the first book in a series. This would be a great new series!

Speaking of new series books, I also read IVY AND BEAN by Annie Barrows. I am always on the lookout for new series books for my transitional readers. This is a fun new series that I'll keep in my classroom. I am looking forward to the second in the series which is due out this fall.

I am not having great luck finding a great adult read. Any suggestions out there? I am anxiously awaiting Anna Quindlen's new novel but would love to read something great before that one is available. I have started a few that I picked up but none of them have hooked me.

Back to the original mission

Time to talk about all the new kids' books we're reading that might be potential Newbery winners. Only problem is that my current read, for my adult book club, is A FINE BALANCE (600 pages), and even pushing for 100 pages a day, it will still be three days before I finish. Great book, though. I'm learning more about India (1947-1975) than I could have imagined. And the narrative style of Rohinton Mistry is amazing -- I love the way he loops off on side tangents or back into a character's past to give the story its depth and breadth.

So that leaves us with my to-read pile. Before starting A FINE BALANCE, I finished AT THE SIGN OF THE STAR (Katherine Sturtevant) so that I could decide if I want to read A TRUE AND FAITHFUL NARRATIVE. I do. What fun to find such a passionate reader and writer who lives in 1677.

I'm also looking forward to THE LOUD SILENCE OF FRANCINE GREEN. Fuse #8 and Bookshelves of Doom have already reviewed it, but I will wait to read their reviews until I've read it. It's by Karen Cushman. Gotta be good!

VICTORY, by Susan Cooper is next on the pile. Once again, Fuse #8 is ahead of the pack with her review. And once again, I'll wait.

I really didn't like KIRA-KIRA, so Cynthia Kadohata's WEEDFLOWER is down lower in the pile. Couple of reviews to read after I get around to reading the book: Fuse #8, and MotherReader.

Besides these possible Newberys (Newberies?) I'm looking forward to ADVENTUROUS WOMEN: EIGHT TRUE STORIES ABOUT WOMEN WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE, by Penny Colman. Can't ever have too many strong women role models. And THE CONCH BEARER, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Can't find enough good books with India-Indian main characters so that my classroom library will have books in which every reader can find "someone like me." And POND SCUM, by Alan Silberberg. Can't decide on a first read-aloud. This might be it.

Don't worry...

Lois Lowry has a new puppy.




I have a crazy dog.

Even though a whole pack springs to mind (Winn Dixie, Shiloh, the RED FERN duo, the great one in EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS, the Rottweiler in I AM THE DOG, I AM THE CAT, Old Yeller, Martha, and Clifford), never fear, we won't start another list of Cool________in (or peripheral to) Children's Literature.

Who would have thought?

So, I found this blog that has a Poetry Friday Haiku Contest on a theme/topic. Very fun. Maybe I would have liked Haiku in school had we had this much fun doing it. I am wondering how we can incorporate these little blog activities in the classroom. Kids would write Haiku if it was in a fun, playful way like this. I would love to have conversations with kids about which 100 Cool Girls, Boys and Teachers, in Books they would choose. If they are great conversations for those of us who love to read as adults, kids might have a ball with them too!

Poetry Friday--Moving Day

I just received a copy of MOVING DAY by Ralph Fletcher. It is a great book for elementary age students on anticipating a move to a new place. Ralph Fletcher does a great job of really hitting those feelings that you get when you don't want to leave a home and friends that you love. What I love about this book is the way that each poem stands alone but that it is also sequential so that it reads like a story. You go through the process of moving and accepting the move. There's a great variety of poems and moods to the poems. I think we'd have lots of students who could relate. It will also serve as a great model in Writing Workshop--for students trying to write poetry anthologies on a single topic, to look closely at a poem or at Fletcher as a poet. I think the book is due out in November. Definitely worth the wait!

Eats, Shoots and Leaves for Kids!

Have you seen the new EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES: WHY, COMMAS REALLY DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE by Lynne Truss? Beth at Cover to Cover recommended it to me. It is a kid version of the adult book on punctuation. It is great! Pretty funny too. Kids will clearly see the need for commas and what they do to the meaning of words. Amusing illustrations show the difference between two sentences like, "Becky walked on, her head a little higher than usual." and "Becky walked on her head, a little higher than usual." It is quite clever! Definitely a must-have for my classroom!