Another great book about Homophones. Since I have been building my collection of word play books, I have been keeping my eye out for new titles. I thought I had plenty of them about homophones but this one is too fun to pass up. It beats the others that I have. I think I would have bought it based on the cover alone. The cover illustration is quite colorful! But the inside is just as good.
The "plotline"of the book is that Aunt Ant has moved to the zoo and is writing to her friend Deer (Dear Deer,) about some interesting animal behaviors. For example: The monkey will tell you a TALE as he hangs from his TAIL.
Kids will love this book and I think it will help them that both words are often part of the same sentence. The illustrations are colorful and inviting.
CHICAGO--Will Harry Potter triumph among critical bloggers? Will novels banned in some school districts find favor online?
With 90 volunteers poised to sift through hundreds of new books, the second annual Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards launches on Oct. 1 at http://www.cybils.com/. Known as the Cybils, it's the only literary contest that combines both the spontaneity of the Web with the thoughtful debate of a book club.
The public's invited to nominate books in eight categories, from picture books up to young adult fiction, so long as the book was first published in 2007 in English (bilingual books are okay too). Once nominations close on Nov. 21, the books go through two rounds of judging, first to select the finalists and then the winners, to be announced on Valentine's Day 2008.
Judges come from the burgeoning ranks of book bloggers in the cozy corner of the Internet called the kidlitosphere. They represent parents, homeschoolers, authors, illustrators, librarians and even teens. (AND A COUPLE OF TEACHERS, TOO!!!)
The contest began last year after blogger Kelly Herold expressed dismay that while some literary awards were too snooty--rewarding books kids would seldom read--others were too populist and didn't acknowledge the breadth and depth of what's being published today.
"It didn't have to be brussel sprouts versus gummy bears," said Anne Boles Levy, who started Cybils with Herold. "There are books that fill both needs, to be fun and profound."
Last year's awards prompted more than 480 nominations, and this year's contest will likely dwarf that. As with last year's awards, visitors to the Cybils blog can leave their nominations as comments. There is no nomination form, only the blog, to keep in the spirit of the blogosphere that started it all.
See you Oct. 1!
For further info: Anne Boles Levy anne (at) bookbuds (dot) net
Okay, I am not quite sure what I was thinking, running a contest during the first month of school! I really did mean to announce the winner much sooner than now.
Last month, I thought I needed a root canal. Following my visit to the dentist, I had a little fun with root canal poetry and offered a little contest. Since then, I have seen a specialist and ...no root canal needed. I just need to keep an eye on it! I could have hugged the root canalist:-)
Now that I finally have a minute to breathe--I am semi ready for parent conferences and semi-finished with beginning of the year assessments and semi-ready to start interim reports, I wanted to announce the winner.
Mother Reader is our Root Canal Poetry winner. She crafted a poem that was both amusing and had some depth--she surprised us and made us think. So, Mother Reader will receive a copy of Lester Laminack's book Trevor's Wiggly-Wobbly Tooth! Personalized and autographed by the author!
Thanks to everyone who entered! We had some GREAT poems-and they all made me feel so much better about my root canal issue.
We promise to be quicker next time we run such a contest. Bad timing on our part!
I don't often review YA books but I've read a few that I thought I'd share this week. I just finished The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh last night. It is a great read, one that I think middle school students will enjoy.
The story takes place in the New York "underworld". When people die in NYC, they become part of this underworld--a world of ghosts under the NY Subway system. Jack, whose mother died eight years earlier, gets into this underworld and tries desperately to find his mother. But he meets Euri instead and the two develop a close friendship. Euri wants to live again and Jack tries to help her do this. The characters are great--both believable and likable. The concept is very intriguing. And the plot has enough suspense to keep the reader hooked.
This story has clear connections to the Orpheus myth and there are many references to mythology throughout. But for readers who are not familiar with the myth, this book would still be a treat.
This book seemed to me a cross between The Wish List by EoinColfer and books by Mitch Albom. A story about two characters with lessons about life and death.
"Oh, goody! A new one by Jon Scieszka!" I thought, as I picked up a copy from the display. I thumbed through it. I wasn't amused. The illustrations looked weird, and not at all Lane Smith-ish. But then I remembered my experience with Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. I didn't fall in love with that book until I read it to children. So I bought Cowboy and Octopus, and last week I read it to my fourth graders.
It's hysterical. The illustrations are perfect. The kids were rolling on the floor laughing, and I would have been, too, but I was wearing a skirt. The chapter? story? where Cowboy hits Octopus on the head with a hammer is my favorite. I had to go back and reread it before the kids got it. Octopus says something like, "I'm going to hold all these pieces together and when I nod my head, you hit it." Bad sentence construction results in hilarious confusion over "it."
I think the kids liked the scary tooth fairy Halloween costume the best. Or maybe the page with the photographs of the beans. "Those are real beans!" someone said, and not a half a breath later came, "Beans, beans, the musical fruit..."
Scieszka should win a Pulitzer Prize for his ability to channel his pre-teen self and the accompanying sense of humor.
I also read aloud Those Shoes. (I reviewed it here.) It, too, was a hit. I held up the book, and just based on the cover, my students knew pretty much what the story was about. They'd all been there, wanting something they couldn't have, or not having what everyone else seemed to have and feeling left out. They were surprised by, but completely satisfied with the ending, and they were sure that the main character had done the right thing by giving Those Shoes that didn't fit him to his friend whose feet were smaller than his.
The next day, a student in another class came to school wearing a pair of way-cool orange sneakers. I was holding the recess door as the students came in from lunch recess, and as the end of my line passed by me, this kid was leading the next line of students. I complimented his shoes, which caused the last few kids in my line to turn around and look. I looked at my kids and they looked at me. I pointed and said, "Those Shoes!" and they nodded and replied, "Those Shoes." So in one day, this book went from story to insider lingo for a coveted article of clothing. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Tap Dancing on the Roof SIJO (Poems) by Linda Sue Park
I am TOTALLY in love with this new poetry book by Linda Sue Park. From the inside flap, I learned that sijo is a type of poem that originated in Korea. It is "kind of" like haiku, but not quite. It has a fixed number of stressed syllables and is usually 3 or 6 lines. The big fun is that there is some unexpected twist or joke at the end of each one.
In Tap Dancing on the Roof, Linda Sue Park shares sijos on many topics--October, pockets, long division and breakfast. Each poem is a short thought about something with a little surprise at the end. "The first line introces the topic. The second line develops the topic further. And the third line always contains some kind of twist--humor, irony, an unexpected image, a pun, or a play on words." Such fun! This is a semi-small square book. It is illustrated with mostly black and white drawings with splashes of color. Everything works together perfectly. (The book ends with a great author's note and some tips for writing Sijo.)
I am anxious to share this book with my class. They had SOOO much fun with Haiku once I shared DOGKU by Andrew Clements that I am pretty sure they will have fun with this one too--I am anxious to see what they do with the twist endings. I am all about finding books that help my kids really have fun with words and language. That's was why I was so excited when I found this new one!
The catalogs have started to come. The displays are starting to edge out Halloween and dwarf Thanksgiving.
And the Christmas books are rolling out, beginning with Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline review copy compliments of Candlewick Press
This is a simple story of a girl who wonders about and worries about the organ grinder and his monkey who show up on the corner of the street below her window. She questions her mother, Where do they sleep? How do they stay warm?, but her mother is too busy getting the girl's angel costume ready for the Christmas play to give her a satisfactory answer. On the way to the church for the Christmas play, the girl puts a coin in the organ grinder's box and invites him to come to her play. The story holds its breath when the little girl takes the stage to deliver her angelic lines. She surveys the crowd, but does not see the organ grinder. When he enters the church, she shouts, "Behold, I bring you tidings of Great Joy!"
Like I said, it's a simple story. It's a story that mirrors the story of the Nativity -- of the poor outcasts who are invited to be witnesses to the Great Joy. Of the angel who invites all to share in the joy.
The illustrations are what gives this book layering and depth. The setting is WWII. You can see it in the cars, the hair and clothing styles, the fact that there are no young men in the church. The girl's father is in the Navy. His picture is on the dresser. (Is his absence the reason Mother is distracted?) Every picture in this book glows, is radiant, is luminous. Every face in this book is a particular face, every person seems to be caught mid-gesture. After the story is over, you can't help yourself -- you go back and look at the pictures, again and again.
I am currently reading Kozol's new book, Letters to a Young Teacher. Like of all of his books, it is quite powerful--whether you are a new or experienced teacher.
And Mary Lee is a part of the Graphic Novels nominating committee! (She is becoming quite the expert on this genre that I still don't quite feel comfortable with as a reader.)
For those of you who weren't around for CYBILS last year, it was quite a fun thing! Bloggers choosing award winning books in several categories. The CYBILS list is still one I go back to for great titles. I would highly recommend spending some time on the site as we get ready to go! A really fun thing to be a part of!
Disclaimer: All blog posts, opinions, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes are our own.
Franki and Mary Lee are both teachers, and have been for more than 20 years.
Franki is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Beyond Leveled Books (Stenhouse), Still Learning to Read (Stenhouse), and Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop (Scholastic).
Mary Lee is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Reconsidering Read-Aloud (Stenhouse) and has poems in the Poetry Friday Anthology, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Science, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books), Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems, National Geographic Books of Nature Poems, The Best of Today's Little Ditty (2014-15 and 2016), Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Poems are Teachers, National Geographic's The Poetry of US, and IMPERFECT: Poems About Mistakes.
