Lester Laminack Visit

Lester Laminack visited Dublin this week. On Thursday, he was the author visit at our school. If you are looking for a good author for an author visit, he is one of the best I've heard. He is a teacher, author, writer and quite the entertainer. He talked about his writing process and shared lots of insights about his books. He has written 5 children's books (THE SUNSETS OF MISS OLIVIA WIGGINS, SATURDAYS AND TEACAKES, TREVOR'S WIGGLY-WOBBLY TOOTH, JAKE'S 100TH DAY OF SCHOOL, and SNOW DAY) with more on the way.

On Friday, Lester was part of the Literacy's Connection's yearlong workshop. The Literacy Connection puts on a workshop each year. In the fall, we all get together and get copies of the book we will be studying throughout the year. Then in the spring (this weekend), the author of the book visits and spends Friday teaching demonstration lessons in classrooms for us to watch and discuss. On Saturday there is a follow-up with a full day workshop. This year we read one of Lester's newer professional books, READING ALOUD ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. This is a companion book to LIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

Quite a variety of things and Lester was amazing at all of them. His rapport with the kids during the author visit was instant. Kids had trouble leaving the room because they wanted to stay to hear more. Teachers felt the same way--many of us were laughing so hard, we were crying! And he was just as amazing with the teacher groups on Friday and Saturday. He reminded us about so much that we seem to have lost in the last 5 years of teaching. He reminded us of the power of books in the classroom and our need to get back to using our own common sense when teaching.

If you are looking for an author visit or a teacher visit, Lester was a huge hit!

Better Than Leveled Books

I definitely understand the place of leveled books in primary classrooms. Kids need books they can read to move forward as readers. But, I think that as a nation, we have forgotten that there are so many great books--quality children's literature--that supports new readers in the same way that leveled books do. So, I have been adding to my collection of books that are perfect for new readers--books to have in the classroom that serve the same purpose as leveled books; books that young readers can read on their own because the supports are there for them.

I've picked up 3 new books in the last few weeks that fit this category.

WHAT WILL FAT CAT SIT ON? by Jan Thomas is definitely one o my new favorites. The text is very predictable as readers watch as the cat decides where to sit (Will Fat Cat sit on...the CHICKEN?) The illustrations are perfect. The facial expressions on all of the animals add to the story and the colors are quite fun. This is one of those books that I can't keep close to me--everyone I show it to keeps it or passes it along to someone else. Every class that has heard it has quickly determined it is a class favorite. A definite must for Pre-K-1 classrooms. I must say that reading it aloud to kids has that same feel that DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS! has. It is fun for kids and fun for the adult reader too!

Today, I picked up Emily Gravett's new book MONKEY AND ME. I am becoming a huge Gravett fan so this was an easy decision. She is brilliant. This book consists of very simple texts that repeats, great picture support and great possibilities for predictions.

NEVER TAKE A SHARK TO THE DENTIST ( AND OTHER THINGS NOT TO DO) by Judi Barrett. You know Judi Barret from CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS and ANIMALS SHOULD DEFINITELY NOT WEAR CLOTHING. This book is just as fun! There is only one line of text per page and each one tells the reader about something they should never do. For example, one page tells you to "Never hold hands with a lobster." The thing I like best about this book for new readers is that the illustration next to the text provides the "why" for the statement. If the reader is not sure why the statement would cause problems, the illustration explains the reasons. (For example, in the picture accompanying the lobster statement, you see many animals who HAVE done this and now have hands wrapped in bandages, swollen paws, etc. The simple predictable text and picture support is perfect for young readers.

I think that it is CRITICAL that we get over this leveled book craze that has gone too far and get real books back into the hands of our children. These are three that fit this mission!

New Contest at Two Writing Teachers!

Ruth and Stacey at Two Writing Teachers have announced a great new March contest--"The Slice of Life" Challenge. They are challenging bloggers to post and link Slice of Life Stories. On March 31, they will have a drawing for the winner. They suggest having your students write Slice of Life stories. They have great ideas, forms, etc. posted on their blog if you are interested in challenging your students. But I found it to be the perfect excuse to write our own Slice of Life Stories--those things we never take the time to write about. I already have a few ideas. I am pretty sure I won't win the contest but I am so excited to join in by adding a few of my own personal pieces. Stay tuned and join in the fun!

Poetry Friday -- Riveted

RIVETED
by Robyn Sarah from A Day's Grace: Poems 1997-2002.

It is possible that things will not get better
than they are now, or have been known to be.
*
*
*
...But it is probable
that we will stay seated in our narrow seats
all through the tedious dénouement
to the unsurprising end — riveted, as it were;
spellbound by our own imperfect lives
because they are lives,
and because they are ours.


Read the whole poem here.


It's been awhile since one of Garrison Keillor's poems on The Writer's Almanac spoke directly to my heart. It happened yesterday. I read those first two lines and they said so much:

• Age happens.
  
• Bodies fall apart.
• Public education.
• Global warming.

The middle of the poem made me slump down in my chair. But then the ending. The truth of the ending. The glory that makes us cling to life even when our bodies betray us. Even when current events seem to be going somewhere in a hand basket.

I'm listening to The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman right now. Lyra and Will are in the Land of the Dead. I dedicate this poem to them, to the force of life, to all of the amazing things we each will do with our lives.



Kelly Fineman has the roundup today.

Snow

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.