I got an email this week with the subject, "Are you snowed in?"
The answer is no, we're not snowed IN, we're snowed UNDER. We'll be back just as soon as one or the other of us can get our head above the drifts.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Dublin Literacy Conference 2008
Saturday, February 23
+/- 700 teachers and librarians
8 great authors: Pam Munoz Ryan, Jenni Holm, Jennifer Roy, Melanie Watt, Sharon Taberski, Jen Allen, Aimee Buckner, and Terry Thompson
Lots of fun moments, but this was my favorite: I was doing my presentation on blogging. Approximately 1% of the conference attendees were in my session, most notably, Megan, from Read, Read, Read. Karen came in towards the end. Katie was at the conference, too, and of course, so was Franki. Small world, eh? It gets better.
My formal (if you can call it that) presentation was over and conversation had turned to tracking blog statistics. I went to SiteMeter. Just for fun, I showed them the world map view of the last hundred visitors to A Year of Reading. When our blog was new, I used to spend a lot of time poring over that map, wondering how someone in India or Australia had found our blog. It's been a long time since I looked at the map. As the cursor passed over the UK and the ID box for Glasgow popped up, I realized that I knew who that was! TadMack, you, too were at my presentation on Saturday. Now that's a small world!
+/- 700 teachers and librarians
8 great authors: Pam Munoz Ryan, Jenni Holm, Jennifer Roy, Melanie Watt, Sharon Taberski, Jen Allen, Aimee Buckner, and Terry Thompson
Lots of fun moments, but this was my favorite: I was doing my presentation on blogging. Approximately 1% of the conference attendees were in my session, most notably, Megan, from Read, Read, Read. Karen came in towards the end. Katie was at the conference, too, and of course, so was Franki. Small world, eh? It gets better.
My formal (if you can call it that) presentation was over and conversation had turned to tracking blog statistics. I went to SiteMeter. Just for fun, I showed them the world map view of the last hundred visitors to A Year of Reading. When our blog was new, I used to spend a lot of time poring over that map, wondering how someone in India or Australia had found our blog. It's been a long time since I looked at the map. As the cursor passed over the UK and the ID box for Glasgow popped up, I realized that I knew who that was! TadMack, you, too were at my presentation on Saturday. Now that's a small world!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Poetry Friday -- Chant Me Home
As I sat at my desk pondering the topic of this chant, I looked at the walls above my desk: at the thunderhead and windmill photo I've had since high school, at the 3-D map of Colorado my friend Jim gave me when I was desperately homesick my first two years of teaching in Dallas, at the meadowlark print that can take me back home in a glance. Behind me on the bookshelves I scanned an entire shelf of beloved books by western authors and books about the women's history of the westward movement.
And I had my topic.
This is a chant for the landscape of my growing up years -- the wide, flat, empty, semi-arid short grass prairie of eastern Colorado. The chant is comprised of images, authors, and, in italics, book titles.
The Solace of Open Places
or
It's Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See it From Here
High, Wide and Lonesome
unbroken sod,
O Pioneers! and
my Uncle Bob.
Great Plains: jackrabbits
antelope and Deere,
wagon ruts, meadowlarks
and tumbleweeds found here.
Kent Haruf, Hal Borland, Ian Frazier,
Gretel Ehrlich, Willa Cather, Wallace Stegner.
Eventide, Plainsong
A Sense of Place,
Wolf Willow, My Antonia
Nothing To Do But Stay.
Lark buntings, windmills
towering thunderheads,
grasshoppers, feedlots
the family homestead.
Pioneer Women,
amber waves of grain.
Close my eyes, open a book,
I can go home again.
I wrote this chant for Miss Rumphius' Monday Poetry Stretch.
The Poetry Friday roundup is at Big A little a.
And I had my topic.
This is a chant for the landscape of my growing up years -- the wide, flat, empty, semi-arid short grass prairie of eastern Colorado. The chant is comprised of images, authors, and, in italics, book titles.
The Solace of Open Places
or
It's Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See it From Here
High, Wide and Lonesome
unbroken sod,
O Pioneers! and
my Uncle Bob.
Great Plains: jackrabbits
antelope and Deere,
wagon ruts, meadowlarks
and tumbleweeds found here.
Kent Haruf, Hal Borland, Ian Frazier,
Gretel Ehrlich, Willa Cather, Wallace Stegner.
Eventide, Plainsong
A Sense of Place,
Wolf Willow, My Antonia
Nothing To Do But Stay.
Lark buntings, windmills
towering thunderheads,
grasshoppers, feedlots
the family homestead.
Pioneer Women,
amber waves of grain.
Close my eyes, open a book,
I can go home again.
I wrote this chant for Miss Rumphius' Monday Poetry Stretch.
The Poetry Friday roundup is at Big A little a.
Amulet, Book One: The Stonekeeper
Amulet, Book One: The Stonekeeper
by Kazu Kibuishi
Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic, 2008
ages 9-12
The beginning of this book is very scary. Very.
It is scary, and it hooks you immediately, and it makes the pain and grief of Emily, Navin and their mother very real.
The three have gone to live in an old ancestral home and start a new life. While they are cleaning up the wreck of a home that was left to the kids' mother by her grandfather, Emily finds a pendant and has Navin tie it on around her neck. Little does she know that the pendant (the amulet of the title) will glow, have the power to save her and her brother from a creepy tentacled creature, talk to her, make demands of her, and ultimately be needed to try to save their mother.
The kids are aided in their quest to save their mother by a pink cartoon bunny named Miskit and a variety of robots, some kindly, one sarcastic, and one an obviously rehabbed vacuum that says, "Squeet."
My favorite moment in the book is when the house gets up on its feet and climbs a mountain.
Kazu Kibuishi is the editor of the popular Flight anthologies of graphic short stories. Volume 3 was nominated for the 2006 Cybils, and Volume 4 made it to the short list of the 2007 Cybils. That is just to say that the art and the storytelling in this book are top notch. Scholastic's Graphix imprint is shaping up to be a showcase of some of the best talent in graphic novels, and not just a hurry-up-and-jump-on-the-graphic-novels-bandwagon sort of imprint. Amulet will appeal to the fans of the Bone series. Scholastic's readability range is 9-12, but I can see some 7 and 8 year-olds loving Amulet.
There's just one problem: we have to wait for book two!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Nonfiction Monday
I've got nothin' today.
Monday snuck up on me this week.
Here's someone who's with it -- go check out Karen's post at Literate Lives.
The roundup is at Picture Book of the Day.
Monday snuck up on me this week.
Here's someone who's with it -- go check out Karen's post at Literate Lives.
The roundup is at Picture Book of the Day.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Previously
Previously
by Allan Ahlberg
illustrated by Bruce Ingman
Candlewick, 2007
My students are going to love this book! We've been on a read aloud tangent recently -- books that are take-offs of folk tales ( The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Wolf Who Cried Boy, The Dog Who Cried Wolf, Wolf! Wolf!) and books that reference folk tales or fairy tales or Mother Goose rhymes in the telling (Mary Had a Little Ham, And The Dish Ran Away With the Spoon). I was tickled to see two girls sprawled out on the floor last week with Tomie dePaola's Mother Goose searching for half-forgotten or half-learned rhymes.
Previously begins as Goldilocks arrives home all bothered and hot. PREVIOUSLY she had been running through the dark woods because PREVIOUSLY she had been at the three bears' house, and PREVIOUSLY she had run into a boy who was also running through the woods but he had a hen under his arm. A boy named Jack. Who (glad to have this cleared up once and for all) has a sister named Jill.
Ahlberg PREVIOUSLYs the reader all the way back to Once Upon a Time in a very satisfying story that looks back over its shoulder to lots of well-know characters and tales.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin
I LOVED THE YEAR OF THE DOG when it came out last year so I was THRILLED to see this sequel at the bookstore last week!The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin is another story about Pacy and her friend Melody. In THE YEAR OF THE RAT, Pacy knows that this year means lots of change. Her best friend, Melody, has to move away and so many things are changing.
I love the way Grace Lin ties in so many great issues--change not being so bad, stereotypes, traditions, and more. Just as in the first book, stories from the parents' past are woven into the story to teach Pacy (and readers) about something important.
Ever since the kids in my class discovered THE YEAR OF THE DOG, I haven't seen it again. It is making its rounds. I know that when I show them this book next week, I may not see it again until June. It is a great book to fall in love with.
I love these characters and the writing is amazing. I am sooo hoping that the series continues. I am hoping to hear lots more about this family! WRITE FAST, GRACE LIN.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Poetry Friday -- Google Reader Chant
Inspired by April Pulley Sayre's three chant books Trout, Trout, Trout, Ant, Ant, Ant, and Bird, Bird, Bird, I set out to create a chant of all the blogs in my Google Reader. As you might imagine, I wound up with an even more profound appreciation for April's books. She works magic with animal names. I think I missed magic by quite a long shot.
I do okay with the chant rhythms (mostly), but my rhymes fall by the wayside fairly early. Every now and then, the chant seems to say something, but that is most likely by accident. And the ending...well, if you were jumping rope to this, you wouldn't mind so much that it.just.ends. (But it ends with a Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy so that you can snuggle up with your favorite book or computer and read! The roundup today is at hipwritermama.)
So I give you...
Blog, Blog, Blog
a Google Reader Chant
Check It Out, please!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
CYBILS WINNERS ANNOUNCED!!!
The 2007 CYBILS Winners were announced today. You can see the whole write-up on the CYBILS website. I was very excited about the list. I am especially excited that BOOK OF A THOUSAND DAYS by Shannon Hale is on the list--what an amazing read!
I was part of the Poetry judging. What a fun time we had! Thanks to Gregory K (Gotta Book), Jone (Check It Out), Sara (Read Write Believe), and Cloudscome (A Wrung Sponge) for some great discussions! Such great poetry this year. If you have not read the winner, THIS IS JUST TO SAY by Joyce Sidman, I would recommend reading. I'll try
to do a review soon but for now, check out the CYBILS site!By the way, Sara Lewis Holmes has my favorite CYBILS announcement of the day!
Stories With Echoes
The Castle Coronaby Sharon Creech
illuminated by David Diaz
HarperCollins, 2007
I'm pretty sure Sharon Creech has already written this book once before. Maybe twice. Plucky brother and sister orphans who are mistreated but wind up in the care of interesting grandparent-ly people. Wasn't that Ruby Holler? Merge the brother and sister into one girl character, throw in storytelling and a search for identity. Wasn't that Walk Two Moons?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Obviously these story bones have great resonance for Sharon Creech, and I think any child who reads by author will be delighted to discover this. Any child who reads by book has at least a one in three chance of reading some version of this story if they dip into Sharon Creech's works and promptly dip out again.
I loved the 56 short-short chapters (also a hallmark of Ruby Holler) and the illuminations by David Diaz. I loved the mood she set with the language and the mirroring of the peasant and noble worlds. I loved the hermits. I want one. I also want a tunnel of hornbeam trees. No need to wish for a wordsmith. I've got Sharon Creech and a thousand thousand others who will keep me entertained for years to come!
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