Happy Birthday...

...to Kate DiCamillo!

Thank you Writer's Almanac for letting us know.

Non-Kid-Lit Blogs

MotherReader tagged us in a meme that originated at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy.

Our mission: Name five non-kid-lit blogs we read.

First, from Mary Lee:

Indexed A blog where the daily post is a picture (or more specifically, a chart, graph, Venn diagram...) that is worth a thousand words.

Tech_Space Daily notes on science and silicon from USA Today blogger Angela Dunn. Fun little tidbits of this and that.

Blog Du Jour From Visual Thesaurus. Collections of blogs on a variety of themes. And I LOVE Visual Thesaurus.

Pragmatic Chaos A peek into the life of a smart and funny nanny. Plus, I like her blog title.

LibraryThing Blog I'm going to buy a barcode reader and get my classroom books into my LibraryThing. Or maybe I should realistically say I'm going to ATTEMPT to get that done. Reading this blog reminds me that I paid for a lifetime membership and I should really be doing more with it!

From Franki:

Pundit Mom
A blog for moms with a lot of politics included. She also writes a bit about adoption.

Suburban Turmoil
A laugh-out-loud blog by Lindsay Ferrier of the Nashville Scene. Great posts about being a mom. My favorite posts are her posts of photos and captions.

Mentor Texts
I love reading about the classroom things happening on this blog.

NCTE Elementary Blog
NCTE has a new blog and the Elementary Section just started one of its own. There are only a few posts so far but people like Shelley Harwayne and Curt Dudley-Marling are writing for this blog. This one is not funny but it does bring up some great issues regarding education.

Brotherhood 2.0
Okay, so this one is connected to Children's Lit, but the two brothers' video blog is one of my favorites. The topics cover everything and they always make me laugh.

We tag HipWriterMama, Liz in Ink, The Blue Rose Girls, and Jen Robinson.

Literature Circle Update (or...This Must Be Why I Have No Time For My Own Reading)

Back in January, I wrote about my preparations for all of my students to be involved in literature circles. It's interesting how the groups have evolved and the directions they are going now that they have found a rhythm in the balancing act of reading at a pace for the literature circle: making sure you meet your deadlines to be respectful of the other group members AND to be prepared for discussion PLUS to avoid the withering look Ms. Hahn might give you (along with the patient lecture about meeting deadlines, respect for other members of the group and being prepared for discussions).

The group that has been meeting continuously all through fourth and fifth grade is now reading their "hardest" book yet -- The Secret Garden. They've been pleasantly surprised to find that although (or because?) it is their hardest book, we are having our best conversations. We're focusing on language (lots of Yorkshire-isms and old-fashioned words to puzzle out, along with some flowery similes and metaphors...no pun intended) and on how the author uses language to convey a mood.

I wanted to push the group of capable readers who read Mary Pope Osborne's Revolutionary War on Wednesday and The American Revolution: A Nonfiction Companion to Revolutionary War on Wednesday, so I offered The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop. The were wary when they held it for the first time. It was "long." Maybe "too long." So I did something I rarely do: I pretty much outlined the whole story for them as we looked at the cover picture, the blurb on the back, and the map of the castle inside. They thought it sounded like it might be good, and they decided they could probably read 25 pages in the week before we met again. The next day, the most reluctant member, who had never read a book that long and was pretty sure he couldn't, asked to reconvene the group so he could try to convince them to read more -- he had finished 25 pages in one day, he was hooked, and he knew the rule about not reading past the stopping point. If I haven't done anything else of value this year, I have shown that one student what it's like to get sucked into a story so great you don't want to put it down!

Even before we had finished The Travels of Thelonious, I knew what book I wanted that group to move to -- The City of Ember by Jeanne du Prau. I think the comparisons and contrasts of these two books of speculative fiction about a future where humans have almost, but not quite completely destroyed the planet (and who survives and how and why) will be fascinating. I read Thelonious for the first time with the group...great book! Review to follow soon!





The Friday Group has finished all five books in the Akiko Pocket-Size graphic novel series. An unlikely, formerly invisible-by-choice boy has emerged as a leader in the group. He is lobbying strongly for Time Cat as the book they read next. I think it would be a perfect pick for them -- just the right mix of fantasy and history.


The A-Z Detective Camp group continues to slog along at a chapter a week. They want to read something harder next time...maybe Castle in the Attic will work for them, too. Just at a slower pace than the Tuesday Group.








Those are the five groups from my classroom. Then, as if I didn't have enough reading to juggle, I agreed to organize a free author visit for our fourth and fifth graders. Angie Sage will be coming to our school in mid-April, compliments of HarperCollins Publishers and Cover to Cover Children's Books. We didn't have enough time to try to get every 4th and 5th grade student through one (or hopefully more) of Angie Sage's thick-ish fantasy books, so I am doing literature circles with a few fourth graders from each class and another with a few fifth graders from each class. I am listening to Magyk on cassettes in the car. It's a fun story that really moves along with lots of characters, plenty of action, a bunch of unanswered questions, and short chapters that have provocative titles. I often find myself sitting in the school parking lot or my driveway, listening for just a bit more...just until there's a good stopping spot!

Finally, in every other waking moment, I am reading The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson for my adult book club. Bryson writes about growing up in the 1950's with his characteristic dry humor. My growing up started exactly ten years after the 1950's, so this sometimes reads like history for me, but much of it rings quite true. As of today, I am halfway through. Jury's still out on whether I'll be finished by Tuesday.

NOW do you understand why I have that huge pile of professional journals and NYTimes Book Reviews that lie untouched?!? Why I still haven't finished The Higher Power of Lucky, or Clementine, or Hugo Cabret?!? And sadly, not only are there books to read, there are papers to grade. Sigh.

"Schools Are Right to Limit Parents' Say on Book Lists"

Ann Fisher, one of my favorite columnists for the Columbus Dispatch, has a great article about the role parents should play in school book selection. There was a controversy in a local district about parents' rights to sit on the selection committees. This started with parents demanding books (THE LOVELY BONES and THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT) be taken off the high school reading list. Ann argues that parents have the right to decide what their own children read, but have no right to decide what other children read. It is a great piece.

Poetry Friday! 2 New Poetry Books

TODAY AT THE BLUEBIRD CAFE: A BRANCHFUL OF BIRDS

I love when a author publishes his/her first book for children and it is brilliant. Deborah Ruddell, author of THE BLUEBIRD CAFE has written a brilliant one. You can tell by the title how clever it is, can't you?


Today at the Bluebird Cafe

It's all-you-can-eat at the Bluebird Cafe,
a grasshopper-katydid-cricket buffet,
with berries and snails and a bluebottle fly,
a sip of the lake and a bite of the sky.


Isn't it the best?
The book is filled with lots of poems about different birds. The Cardinal, The Woodpecker, and more. The language is amazing ("She rides the sky like she owns the sun"). The humor is the best. Somehow the illustrator has managed to create soft,watercolors with a touch of whimsy.

The endpages are an added treat!



COMETS, STARS, THE MOON, and MARS: SPACE POEMS AND PAINTINGS BY DOUGLAS FLORIAN

This is a great nonfiction poetry book about space. The book is full of a variety of poems about the planets and other space topics (black hole, comet...) Some poems rhyme, some don't. But they all give interesting information about space. A fun way to learn new things and an interesting look at nonfiction poetry.

Here is the beginning of the poem called "the solar system:

Each planet orbits around the sun
(A somewhat circular path).
To calculate the time it takes
Requires lots of math.

The last pages of the book include "A Galactic Glossary" and a bibliography for further reading. This books is packed with information.

No Dentist Left Behind

My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never hurts me, and I've got all my teeth.

When I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he'd heard about the new state program. I knew he'd think it was great.

"Did you hear about the new state program to measure effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?" I said.

"No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?"

"It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as excellent, good, average, below average, and unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. The plan will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better," I said. "Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice."

"That's terrible," he said.

"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we should try to improve children's dental health in this state?"

"Sure I do," he said, "but that's not a fair way to determine who is practicing good dentistry."

"Why not?" I said. "It makes perfect sense to me."

"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't all work with the same clientele, and that much depends on things we can't control? For example, I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper middle-class neighborhoods. Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem, and I don't get to do much preventive work.

Also, many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much candy from an early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship between sugar and decay. To top it all off, so many of my clients have well water which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?"

"It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. "I can't believe that you, my dentist, would be so defensive. After all, you do a great job, and you needn't fear a little accountability."

"I am not being defensive!" he said. "My best patients are as good as any one's, my work is as good as any one's, but my average cavity count is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists because I chose to work where I am needed most."

"Don't get touchy," I said.

"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red, and from the way he was clenching and unclenching his jaws, I was afraid he was going to damage his teeth. "Try furious! In a system like this, I will end up being rated average, below average, or worse. The few educated patients I have who see these ratings may believe this so-called rating is an actual measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist.

They may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy patients. And my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of that, how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists to my practice if it is labeled below average?"

"I think you are overreacting," I said. "'Complaining, excuse-making and stonewalling won't improve dental health'... I am quoting from a leading member of the DOC," I noted.

"What's the DOC?" he asked.

"It's the Dental Oversight Committee," I said, "a group made up of mostly lay persons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved."

"Spare me," he said, "I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't buy it," he said hopefully.

The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would you measure good dentistry?"

"Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."

"That's too complicated, expensive and time-consuming," I said. "Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom line. It's an absolute measure."

"That's what I'm afraid my parents and prospective patients will think. This can't be happening," he said despairingly.

"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The state will help you some."

"How?" he asked.

"If you receive a poor rating, they'll send a dentist who is rated excellent to help straighten you out," I said brightly.

"You mean," he said, "they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with which I have probably had much more experience? BIG HELP!"

"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at all."

"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading schools and teachers on an average score made on a test of children's progress with no regard to influences outside the school, the home, the community served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools."

I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened. "I'm going to write my representatives and senators," he said. "I'll use the school analogy. Surely they will see the point."




(Note: This is not an original piece of writing. This periodically shows up in the inbox of my school email. Teachers forward it on to other teachers, but I didn't know if anyone outside the profession ever saw it, so that's why I decided to share it here. If you want to know what it's like to be a teacher under NCLB, this conveys the ludicrousness and frustration of the whole mess. Apply the ideas to YOUR profession and imagine the outrage YOU'D feel!)

Nonfiction For Older Readers

Thanks again to Chronicle for these nonfiction books that will become fast favorites once I share them in my classroom.

I have been looking for longer nonfiction that students can read over several days. These books are great examples of books that fit that need. Too often, I am finding that my third and fourth graders are finding books with so much on a page, they can't really navigate it independently. So, they end up skimming, looking at photos, and flipping pages. But, with books like BABY WHALE'S JOURNEY and THE TRUTH ABOUT GREAT WHITE SHARKS, intermediate students can gain information from the pictures and the text.

BABY WHALE'S JOURNEY is more of a narrative text--sharing lots of information about the life of a baby whale. The illustrations are lifelike and will engage readers. There are not many words on the page so it is a great choice for children new to nonfiction. Following the narrative, is an afterword giving more information on the sperm whale.


THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GREAT WHITE SHARKS is packed with information and photographs about great white sharks. There is a great deal of text on each page. The diagrams, sidebars, and photographs add more information. The text is set up with bold words and good spacing so that it won't be an overwhelming read for students in the middle elementary grades. The author gives us many "truths" about the great white shark. She shares information on the work of biologists who study sharks.

The Truth is...Great White Sharks Aren't White.
One of the things that spooks people who are diving with great whites is that the animals seem to appear suddenly, out of nowhere. One minute the ocean is empty in every direction, and the next thing you know, a great white shark is nibbling at the bars of your shark cage. Camouflage may be key to the shark's ability to sneak up on divers....

This is just one of the "truths" that the author shares about great white sharks. I learned a lot from reading this book. I am excited to share it with my students!

A Seed Is Sleepy

So, those of you who know me know that I am not so into nature or the outdoors. But, this book, A SEED IS SLEEPY by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long makes me want to spend more time outside. With answers to questions like "Who would guess that a seed as small as a freckle would grow into the world's tallest tree?", even I want to learn about seeds. This book is just as amazing as their previous book, AN EGG IS QUIET. The writer and illustrator team has a very effective way of making the topic of seeds so interesting to readers. The text takes on several formats--labels, poetry, etc.

The page layout is very unique and works well. Information is spread across the page but the font and illustrations make it feel more inviting that your typical nonfiction text. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the subheadings that the author uses. Headings such as "A Seed is Adventurous" and "A Seed is Generous" say so much and the information on the page builds on that thought. Words that you don't usually associate with seeds. I can't wait to share this book with my students as part of Writing Workshop and discuss the way the author uses words in interesting ways.

There is so much information in this book that you can read and reread it, noticing more on each page.

This seems like a must-have classroom book no matter which grade or subjects I teach. It is a great model for nonfiction writing and every page is brilliantly written. The author has a way of writing about seeds so that we understand them by helping us understand how and why seeds do what they do.

Another Great Nonfiction Book from Chronicle

Have you seen the new ABC book, C IS FOR CABOOSE: RIDING THE RAILS FROM A-Z? It is a pretty unique nonfiction alphabet book about the history of trains. Each letter of the alphabet introduces one or two words that relate to trains and the history of trains (Handcar, Hospital Train, Ticket) with a sentence about that word. The power is in the illustrations and photos. Several letters are accompanied by photos from history. There are also artifacts such as maps, tickets, etc. that accompany the text. This book seems great for lots of ages. Young children who love trains, will love to look through the pictures. For older children, the photos, illustrations and artifacts are engaging and educational. The final page of image credits helps readers see where each image originated. The combination of black and white photos and bright-colored illustrations works well. I can see this as another book that is one that children can grow with.

New Nonfiction

A great box of new nonfiction books arrived from Chronicle the other day. Every one is great and I have been dying to share them with you. I'll try to share one a day this week.

PENGUINS, PENGUINS, EVERYWHERE by Bob Barner is a fun nonfiction picture book for young readers. The book is small--perfect for tiny hands. The text is rhyming and is written in a way that almost dances across each page. The illustrations are bright colored and very inviting. Each page tells the reader something interesting about penguins. There are two great spreads at the end of the book that add to the reasons why I love it. There is a "Penguin Puzzler" with illustrated questions and answers about penguin. The last page is the "Penguin Parade" which shows illustrations of 17 different penguins along with their names, place where they live and size. Good nonfiction books for young readers are sometimes hard to find. Because of the last 2 spreads, this book can grow with young children.