Welcome Back to School

If you have never visited Bruce Lansky's poetry site, it is a great one to bookmark in the classroom. So many fun poems for both kids and adults. There are lots of great things to read and to try. A favorite poetry site!

I thought this one by Kenn Nesbitt worked for this week.

Welcome Back to School by Kenn Nesbitt

“Dear students, the summer has ended.
The school year at last has begun.
But this year is totally different.
I promise we’ll only have fun.

“We won’t study any mathematics,
and recess will last all day long.
Instead of the Pledge of Allegiance,
we’ll belt out a rock ’n’ roll song.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Why I'm Like This

Praise for Why I'm Like This by Cynthia Kaplan:
"Striking a note somewhere between David Sedaris and Anna Quindlen, Kaplan spins traumas personal and professional for maximum laughs..." --People

A blend of David Sedaris and Anna Quindlen? Two of my favorites...SOLD! (You want to know what a blend of Sedaris and Quindlen sounds like, and by proxy what Kaplan sounds like? Mother Reader. Check out her Tinkerbell post and her tooth fairy post and then read Kaplan and tell me if I'm not right.)

Kaplan's new book, Leave the Building Quickly was the one that originally caught my eye in the new nonfiction display at the Tattered Cover in Denver, but you might know how I am about reading books in order. I had to buy and read Why I'm Like This first. I will be buying Leave The Building Quickly as soon as I'm in a bookstore again.

I'm only about halfway through Why I'm Like This, but it gave me the first cosmic reading event of the summer. I was reading it on the plane on the way home from a "Care For An Elderly Parent" trip. Only recently have I begun to be able to consistently act like an adult when I'm back home with my mom. I've finally figured out how not to revert automatically back to a surly 13 year-old. In the nick of time, I might add. So I've just had a stressful, but successful week, and I read this:

"One of the hardest things about growing up is how one day it suddenly dawns on you that your parents are human. It hadn't occurred to you before. Why should it have? But then something happens, some thing happens, and the veil drops...These are just moments, really, blips on the parental screen, during which they reveal their humanity, and that they are in the world, flailing about as helplessly as everyone else, everyone who is not your parents. Blowing it. Surviving. Hanging on by their nails. That they are at once more spectacularly resourceful and more deeply flawed than you might have ever imagined inspires both scorn and admiration, two emotions you'd always reserved for nonrelatives. But, happily, between the blips, they are just the same as they have always been...and you breathe a sigh of relief. It is too painful for them to be human."

(I know, that's not a particularly Sedaris/Quindlen/MR-sounding quote, but it was my cosmic reading event. Go get the book, either one, and read some whole essays. See if you can read them without snorting, smirking, guffawing, or having one of your own cosmic reading events.)

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko

I was excited to see a new book by Gennifer Choldenko--If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period. Her book, Al Capone Does My Shirts caused amazing conversation in my 5th grade class a few years ago. Her topic in that book had depth and was quite surprising. The same is true for this new book.

IF A TREE FALLS AT LUNCH PERIOD is told in two voices--kind of. There are alternating chapters. Every other chapter is told by Kirsten--a 7th grader who is not fitting in with friends the way she used to. Her parents are having some marital problems and she is having a hard time. The alternating chapters focus on Walk. Walk is new to this mostly white school and is very well liked by classmates. As an African-American, he is dealing with fitting in in different ways.

Kirsten and Walk develop a great friendship.

But that is just the beginning. Gennifer Choldenko throws the reader with a huge surprise midbook. At first, I thought it was unrealistic, but now that I've finished the book, it makes more sense to me.

This book had depth. The title alone and the tree metaphor throughout is well done. I would say this book is for early middle school readers--maybe 5th grade mature kids. It is full of some big life issues as her other book is.

I read for character, not plot. I liked this book because I believed in the characters. They were real and very likable. I wanted them to be okay. I think they are characters who will stay with me.

Here is a link to a great interview with the author about the book.

Choose Your Own Adventure for Grown-Ups

A new fun book for adults (thanks to Today I Like for the recommendation).

Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel by Heather Mcelhatton is a fun read and one that you can read for a few minutes each day--although it is a bit addicting and you can find yourself spending lots of time reading and rereading it-creating a new adventure each time.

I have only spent a bit of time with this book but it is quite fun! A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure for grown ups. It does have a bit of a different feel when you are all grown up, reading a book like this. You know that choices are big once you've been through a bit of life. When I read some, I found myself wanting more information before I made decisions!? Overanalyzing the choices. But the fun is that you can go back to the beginning and make new choices and change your life's course.

You Read To Me, I'll Read To You: Scary Stories

I was so happy to see a new book in the You Read to Me, I'll Read to You series. This one is on very short scary tales to read together. How fun is that for a theme?

These books have been favorites every year during our weekly Poetry Friday celebration in our classroom. (We read poetry together while enjoying a morning treat--often donuts--with friends during the first 15-20 minutes of class each Friday.) My kids will be VERY excited to see this new book in our classroom library. I think it will quickly be a class favorite.

The book follows the same format as the others--poems for two voices. These poems are a tiny bit scary (tiny being the key word). Topics of ghosts, monsters, and other scary things will be fun for kids to read without having to worry about any nightmares. They are all in good fun.

This looks like a Halloween book and it will be fun to read then. But it will be one that is fun to read all year round.

If you haven't checked out the others, there is the first one of Short Stories, one of Fairy Tales, and Mother Goose Tales.

Summer Book Party Reflection

In June, I told you about our first Summer Book Party. My good friend Maureen, had this great idea to have "book parties" every few weeks during the summer--a fun way to keep the girls reading and to get them together.

Well, we had 5 book parties--once every few weeks. Since people are busy during the summer, we had anywhere between 2 and 7 girls at each party. They were all quite fun! And very easy to pull off. We set up books all over the house and made (or bought) some type of snack. The parties lasted one hour which was perfect to read a few books.


Today was our last book party. We asked the girls what they thought. They wanted to have them again next summer. They liked reading with friends. Even if they read quietly by themselves, they liked "having people around when I read". They loved reading in different places (on the patio, on the tent, the couch, comfy chairs, and lounge chairs. And, of course, they LOVED the snacks (making ice cream sundaes was a favorite). As Colleen said, "When you read a good book, it kind of makes you hungry, especially if it is a book about food!"


Hosting a few of the book parties was part of the fun. Deciding which books to put out for friends to read, what to have for snack, where we could read....



Maureen and I were laughing today as she left-- Just like us, the girls liked the fact that they could be with friends and eat good food. Good friends--Good Books--Good Food--What more could you want at any age?

The Gorgon's Gaze

The Gorgon's Gaze
Book Two in The Companions Quartet
by Julia Golding
US publication date: October 2007
review copy courtesy of Marshall Cavendish Children's Books

Connie Lionheart is no ordinary member of the Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures. She is the only universal companion -- she is able to bond with all of the mythical creatures (dragons, pegasi, wood sprites, sirens, etc.) that live secretly in our world. To protect the mythical creatures, Society members protect the last wild spots on earth in which the creatures can survive. In the Gorgon's Gaze, that wild spot is an ancient wood (including a huge oak rumored to be the tree where Merlin was imprisoned by Nimue) threatened by a road to the new oil refinery from Book One, Secret of the Sirens.

The story is a rollercoaster of YAYs and UH-OHs that keeps the pages turning:

YAY! Connie's new companion will be a rare golden baby dragon.
UH-OH! Connie's great aunt is going to isolate Connie from nature and from the society members to "cure" her of her "sickness."
YAY! Two unknown-to-her-aunt members of the Society manage to get Connie out of the house and to Society Headquarters.
UH-OH! Mr. Codderington at the Society Headquarters is surely a bad guy. Watch out, Connie!
YAY! Argand, the baby dragon, comes to visit Connie.
UH-OH! Col's (Connie's friend and fellow society member, companion to pegusi) mother is companion to a gorgon.
YAY! Uncle Hugh unknowingly gives Connie information on how a Universal can protect herself from hostile mythical creatures. (One of Connie's ancestors was a Universal, and Uncle Hugh gives Connie some of her papers from a trunk of family heirlooms.)
UH-OH! Aunt Godiva is really mad when she finds out what Uncle Hugh gave Connie and she cracks down on Connie like never before. At the same time, Col is taken by Kullervo, the ultimate evil. (Kullervo is Connie's Voldemort -- her true companion. Her good and his evil are intimately intertwined. "He was part of her -- and she was part of him.")
YAY! With the help of Skylark, Col's pegasus, Connie goes to the rescue of Col.
UH-OH! It's a trap! Connie is taken by Kullervo!

You'll have to read the book to find out how it all turns out. I predict that the new character, a boy nicknamed "Rat," will feature prominently in the next book.

Here's my review of the first book in the series, Secret of the Sirens.

Violet Bing and The Grand House

Yes, there is another great character to love in this early chapter book by Jennifer Paros. There is lots to love about Violet Bing and The Grand House:

1. The size totally matches the character and the story. It is small book-- a small size and about 100 pages.

2. Violet Bing is VERY lovable. Violet Bing does not like to do much. She "does not have time" or so she says. She does not like surprises or things that are new or unplanned.

3. The plot is simple, yet fun. When Violet decides that she is not going on vacation with her family, she spends the time with her aunt in the Grand House instead. Because Violet says no to so many things, she is on her own a lot (with her aunt watching close-by). A little girl in a big, old, colorful house makes for a great story.

4. The illustrations throughout the book are fun. Violet has a triangular body and string-like hair. The illustrations are spread throughout the book to give the reader a better sense of what is happening. (And often the author refers to the illustrations by saying something like "Look at all of the things she has on the floor.")

5. Some surprises are in store for Violet--a lost dog, a sun room, and a secret passage.

All of this makes for a very fun book! A little girl who is a bit like all of us.

I have heard that this is going to be a series but I can't find any information on this. The end is written in a way that Violet Bing can easily visit The Grand House again soon.
I certainly hope so.

SO..HOW DID THOSE SUMMER GOALS GO? (MEME FOLLOW-UP)

In June, we participated in a Summer Goals meme and set goals for the summer. The 2nd day of summer--so much seemed possible. I thought I could accomplish so much. So today, with just a few days left of summer vacation, I thought I'd go back and see how I did.
1. Get back to exercising 5-6 days a week
I exercised 2-3 times all summer.
Not so good.
2. Read Lots
I read lots of kids books--more than ever-- but did not read the two adult books I was hoping to read.
3. See family and friends often.
I saw many old friends and caught up with people so I'll consider that the best so far....
4. Get organized for the fall
I am feeling okay about the fall. Not as organized as I'd like to be but in okay shape. I am going to work on organizing the house this weekend so I am kind of caught up.
5. Learn how to make and decorate a few really good kinds of cupcakes.
I found a great mix at Williams-Sonoma and a page from a magazine that shows me how to make sunflower cupcakes. Not exactly the gourmet cupcakes I had planned but I will make them for our next book party this weekend so I can maybe meet this goal before school begins...
6. Writer's notebook
Hmmmm...I bought a new one and only have one small entry..not good.
7. Clean every drawer, cupboard and closet in the house
What exactly was I thinking? I did a few but most of the ones I did at the beginning of summer need to be cleaned again. We are in better shape than in June so I am okay on this one.
8. Nap often.
I ACCOMPLISHED THIS GOAL!
9. Weight Watchers--
nope

Okay, so, I did TERRIBLE in accomplishing my goals. But, overall the summer was good. We had good family time, got good work done, feel semi-organized and refreshed to start the year, got together with some old friends.

TAGGING ANYONE WHO SET SUMMER GOALS WITH THIS MEME TO REFLECT--I am confident that you all did better than I did!

Poetry Friday -- Back to School Song

You can hum along with today's Poetry Friday. I've been singing this song to myself in late August for...um...lots of years now. This one goes out today to any first year teachers, and especially my former fourth grader, Courtney, who begins her career as an art teacher this fall.

From "I Have Confidence" (The Sound of Music)

Oh, I must stop these doubts, all these worries
If I don't I just know I'll turn back
I must dream of the things I am seeking
I am seeking the courage I lack

The courage to serve them with reliance
Face my mistakes without defiance
Show them I'm worthy
And while I show them
I'll show me

So, let them bring on all their problems
I'll do better than my best
I have confidence they'll put me to the test
But I'll make them see I have confidence in me

Somehow I will impress them
I will be firm but kind
And all those children (Heaven bless them!)
They will look up to me

And mind me with each step I am more certain
Everything will turn out fine
I have confidence the world can all be mine
They'll have to agree I have confidence in me

All of the lyrics are here.