Newbery Alert

Sharon's Newbery is picking up where Nina's Newbery (mock Newbery blog/event in Oakland) left off last year.

Poetry Friday -- An Original

The Test Scores Are In

A child is more than any one score.
And so is a teacher, too.
But when the scores surprise and please,
Loudly shout, "WOO - HOO!"

I celebrate the highest highs,
I celebrate every success.
Every score is a sign of learning;
Every score measures progress.

I know I taught, but did they learn?
The question haunts me less
Because I see the numbers there
And can measure my teaching with the tests.

A child is more than any one score.
And so is a teacher, too.
But when the scores surprise and please,
Loudly shout, "WOO - HOO!"


Round up this week is at Chicken Spaghetti.

Secret of the Sirens

Secret of the Sirens
by Julia Golding
Marshall Cavendish, 2006
review copy provided by publisher

Al Gore would love this series.

The basic premise is that mythical creatures (unicorns, pegasi, sirens, etc.) do still exist. They are protected by a group of humans who belong to the Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures. These humans each show an affinity for a certain kind of animal. For example, one of the characters, Colin, has an affinity for horses. He is companion to a pegasus. The main character, Connie, seems to have an affinity for birds, and she is companion to the sirens before she knows any more than that she gets along well with animals, before she even knows about the Society and companions.

Here's where Al Gore comes in. The work of the Society, to hide and protect the few remaining mythical creatures from other humans, has become increasingly difficult as humans have overtaken and developed most of the remaining wild places in the world. And now, along the English coast where Connie lives, an oil refinery threatens the coastal rocks where the sirens live. The sirens are fed up with being pushed out of their homes, and they are retaliating by drowning refinery workers. If they keep it up, they could cause an oil tanker to wreck and foul the coast and the coastal waters. It's up to Connie to find a way to prevent that from happening.

To complicate matters, Connie learns that she is not simply a companion to birds/sirens. She is the only living Universal Companion. She is able to be companion to all species and all mythical creatures. Good thing there is a new Universal, because the ultimate evil, Kullervo, is gaining strength. In some ways he is like Connie, but when she asks, "Is he a universal companion?" this is the answer:

"Universal he may be, but companionship is far from his mind. I think he is more like a whirlpool -- or black hole -- pulling all who venture near him inexorably into his wicked schemes. Once creatures go down his road, it is nearly impossible to pull them back. They get in too deep, falling for his lies that all humans are the enemy -- the oppressor. It's tragic that while the sirens think that they are choosing freedom to act without restraint, they are in reality choosing captivity. They may believe he's serving their cause, but once he has his hooks into them, they will end up his slaves. He is only interested in them in so far as they further his goal."
"His goal?"
"The eradication of humanity."

There are all kinds of great tensions in this book. Good vs. evil, obviously. But also wilderness vs. development, humans as destroyers vs. humans as conservationists, nature vs. technology. Like I said, Al Gore would approve.

I can't wait to read the other books in the Companions Quartet: The Gorgon's Gaze and Mines of the Minotaur. Michelle at Scholars Blog doesn't like the not-so-subtle environmental message as much as I did. That just means that you'll have to read these and see what you think! Go now! You have a week before HP!

BIG News

Ginormous made it into the new edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. I remember hearing my students (one in particular...you know who you are) use this word for the first time four years ago.

Here's my prediction for a word that will be added some time soon, based on 1. my inability to break my students of saying it, even after two years of intensive interventions, 2. the efficiency of this word compared with the "correct" version, and 3. I broke down and used it myself. The word? VERSE, vb., meaning to compete with someone in a game or sport. "I'm going to verse him in chess." The roots of this word are in the preposition VERSUS, as in Army vs. Navy. (The correct/clunky/inefficient way to say "verse?" "Go against." How does "go against" relate to versus? On the other hand, it is clear to see how "verse" relates to versus.) Other words in the dictionary around VERSUS include, as a reminder that language is a living, changing thing: versatile and version.

For other new words that made it into the dictionary, see USA Today's AP story.

Happy Birthday

Today is the birthday of E(lwyn) B(rooks) White.

I celebrated by reading Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little, which I loved as much or more than Franki said we would!

Simply Sarah

Simply Sarah: Patches and Scratches
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, illus. Marcy Ramsey
Marshall Cavendish, 2007
Review copy courtesy of the publisher

Simply Sarah: Anyone Can Eat Squid
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, illus. Marcy Ramsey
Marshall Cavendish, 2005

Simply Sarah: Cuckoo Feathers
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, illus. Marcy Ramsey
Marshall Cavendish, 2006

In a move that was quite revolutionary (for me), I read the three books in this series out of order. (I know. Amazing.) But because of that, I can say that they all stand alone quite nicely, and unlike some other early reader series books (Magic Tree House comes to mind), the way Naylor weaves in the common background information never feels formulaic.

I did have a disturbing sense of de ja vous as I started Patches and Scratches. Sarah is a spunky little girl of an unspecified age (maybe it's in there, but I can't recall it) between 2nd and 4th grade. She lives in an apartment in a big city (Chicago), her mom is an artist, and she has a little brother and a friend who lives on another floor in the apartment building. Her father is not the building manager, but Mr. Gurdy, the man who lives in a room in the basement of the building, does feature prominently in this book. In the book Cuckoo Feathers, the problem centers around pigeons. Echoes of Clementine?

Maybe Clementine-ish. There's nothing in any of the three books of the Simply Sarah series that has the flash and splash of the Clementine books, but the writing in the three books in this series is more consistent and even. (I liked the first Clementine book a WHOLE lot and the second one so-so. The same was true for my 5th graders.)

The basic premise in all three books is that Sarah wants to be anything but ordinary. She wants to be special. In all three there is a satisfying plot twist and things work out in the end...but definitely not the way Sarah or the reader thought they would work out. I think this structure of the text will support beginning readers who need to learn to pay attention to clues in the text as they read so that they can modify their predictions as they go along.

There's a lot going on with the characters in these books, but it is all woven very naturally into the story, so that it doesn't seem like the laundry list that I'm going to make it into: Sarah's father is out of the picture -- he is overseas building bridges and we only meet him through his weekly phone calls. Sarah's best friend Peter is black, and he lives with his grandmother. Sarah's two newest friends, Mercedes and Leon, live in the apartment building across the street. Mercedes is Leon's cousin. She was born in Mexico, and is now living in Chicago with her aunt, uncle and cousins. Mercedes and Leon attend Catholic school via a school bus; Sarah and Peter walk to their neighborhood public school. One of Sarah's friends at school is Tim, who is Chinese. In Anyone Can Eat Squid, Sarah comes up with the idea that saves Tim's family's Chinese restaurant from closing. Like I said, as a laundry list, it seems like a bad case of "what other element of diversity can we include?" But when you read the books, it comes off quite naturally.

I give Sarah a stamp of approval, and nominate her to be a part of the new Spunky Girl Character Club along with Clementine, Moxy, and Grace.

Children's Authors at NCTE

I know lots of bloggers are planning on attending the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Convention in November in NYC. It is always a fun time with lots of authors and great talk about reading, writing, and books. Children's authors are always a highlight. Some of the major authors who are speaking have been announced on the website--thought you might be interested. Some are children's authors, some YA, some adult, some professional:

Jonathan Kozol at the Opening Gala
Amy Tan at the Friday Kickoff
Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney at the Books for Children Luncheon
Rudine Simms Bishop at the Elementary Get Together
Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson at the Middle Level Luncheon
Esmeralda Santiago at the Secondary Luncheon
Gregory Maguire at the Secondary Section Get Together
Ishmael Beah at the College Section Luncheon
Jerry Spinelli at the ALAN breakfast
Allen Say at the Children's Literature Assembly Breakfast


There are lots of others but these are some of the sessions that are being highlighted. Check it out!

Hirschi and Mangelsen: Great Partnership

There's a Tom Mangelsen gift shop in the Denver Airport. Lucky me -- my flight (back in June) was delayed 5 hours, so I had plenty of time to shop!

I found two books, one new and one newish, written by Ron Hirschi and illustrated with Mangelsen's photographs.

Lions Tigers and Bears: Why Are Big Predators So Rare?
Boyds Mills Press, 2007
recently reviewed at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy

My nonfiction collection needs to be updated and I need to get back to a better ratio of fiction:nonfiction read alouds. This book is a good start on both goals.

This book has seven short chapters, each about a different big predator: cougar, polar bear, lion, cheetah, tiger, grizzly bear, and killer whale. In each chapter, Hirchi paints a picture with words that describes the animal in its habitat. He tells how the animal lives, and how it has come to be threatened by humans: habitat loss, over-hunting, pollution, global warming. He also tells what is being done and what can be done to protect the dwindling populations of these magnificent animals. And who better to show us (as opposed to telling us about) these gorgeous creatures than Tom Mangelsen. Along with Jim Brandenburg and cloudscome, he is my favorite nature photographer.

Searching for Grizzlies
Boyds Mills Press, 2005
with drawings by Deborah Cooper

This book is a combination of factual information about grizzlies in the main text, and the story of the grizzly "hunt" (armed with cameras, camping equipment, and fly fishing gear) told on faux journal pages. The book is also illustrated with photos, as well as "journal" sketches of wildflowers and birds and animal tracks. There's a lot to look at, and something for every reader. It's a book to go back to again and again. I can imagine lots of discussions about nonfiction reading strategies with this book. Some might read the main text first, exclusively. Some might do the same with the journal-y text. Some might "read" the pictures first. And, of course, for some, there might be a new strategy for each page, depending on what caught your attention first.

DOGKU by Andrew Clements

What a fun book this one is! I am always looking for picture books that can be read and reread--noticing different things. DOGKU by Andrew Clements is a story of a dog, told in Haiku. An absolutely adorable dog finds a home in this great picture book. Each page tells a part of the story in Haiku. To add to the fun, the blurb on the inside flap, as well as parts of the author blurbs, are told in Haiku. The author's note has a little info on the Haiku.

This is a fun story with great illustrations by Tim Bowers. It is also a great sample of writing that can be used in writing workshop minilessons--a story told in many haiku poems is a unique format that kids could have fun with. You can't help but fall in love with the dog and what a clever title!

NEA -- Final Report

The NEA Representative Assembly really was like being at the Grand Canyon -- my "snapshots" can't do it justice. The Grand Canyon gives the awe of natural beauty; the NEA RA gave me the overwhelming sense of awe that I am one of so many people who believe in public education.

Like the Grand Canyon, the NEA RA is huge. The 3.2 million members of NEA elect 8-9,000 representatives who come together in July to take care of the business and set the policies of the organization. We dealt with/debated/decided 95 new business items, and amendments to the bylaws and constitution. There were both radical conservatives and radical liberals in attendance. Everyone had the right to speak, and for the most part, the radicals balanced out the radicals and we wound up somewhere in the middle.

I encourage you to visit the NEA website to view short videos of the eight presidential candidates' speeches. In the sidebar on the same page, you can also check out NEA's day-by-day description of the action, view the amendments and new business items, and view slide shows on different topics throughout the week.