Pleasant Surprises, Part One

Naked Bunyip Dancing
by Steven Herrick
illustrated by Beth Norling
Front Street Press
April 1, 2008 release
review copy compliments of the publisher



I never would have picked this book up on my own, but it was required reading, so I gave it a go. And I was pleasantly surprised!

Now, I should give a small disclaimer here -- I hardly ever read YA, and I haven't ever read any of Steven Herrick's other books. The sole soul on Goodreads who has read and reviewed this book didn't think it was as good as his others. So keep that in mind. And a note on the title -- a bunyip is a mythological Australian animal. I Googled bunyip after I read the book, but knowing what a bunyip is hasn't helped me understand the title. Maybe it has given me permission to be okay with the fact that I don't understand the title.

This is a novel in verse about an Australian 6th grade class with a new, liberal, pony-tailed, Dylan-singing teacher named Mr. Carey. The poems, in the voices of the students, understandably give us a very childlike view of what happens in their classroom. These poems are what you'd get if you overheard kids talking about their day at school -- they talk about the parts of the day that were out of the ordinary; they talk about each other; they talk about their weird and wonderful teacher; they talk a little bit about what's going on at home. If you read between the lines, you know that Mr. Carey has a method to his "madness," he knows his students very well and works hard to play to their strengths, and there's a lot more teaching going on than the students report.

On Friday afternoons, the class does co-curricular activities. "Mr. Carey says its stuff you do/on Friday afternoons/and you don't have to do tests/or be marked on it." The class is working on a concert, and the way Mr. Carey stays out of their way and lets them make if it as much as they can reminds me of The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements.

The class takes a field trip to the Sewerage Works. (Australian spelling.) When else has that happened in children's literature? The Qwikpick Adventure Society by Sam Riddleburger, of course!

The way you can infer the influence of the teacher through the students' voices and actions is reminiscent of Mr. Fab in Ralph Fletcher's Flying Solo.

The depth of the characters revealed in the fewest number of words is all Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.

All these book "cousins" on my bookshelf are what made me pleasantly surprised by this book. I haven't tried it on a real, live child reader. I don't know if the Australianisms will throw them off. Stay tuned for that. I am going to add Mr. Carey to our list of 100 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature! (He's number 111.)

Nonfiction Monday -- Trout Are Made of Trees

Trout Are Made of Trees
by April Pulley Sayre
illustrated by Kate Endle
Charlesbridge, 2008
review copy compliments of the author


This was a fun book to read to fourth graders. They knew what it was going to be about as soon as I read the title. "This is a food chain book, isn't it?!"

That did not prevent them from listening intently as I read. The text is simple, but poetic: "They (the leaves) snag and settle soggily down."

The illustrations tell the story of the children studying the stream as well as the story of the life in the stream. And the illustrations were painstakingly researched. Although stylized, the aquatic insects are true to life, right down to the gravel cases of the caddisfly larva.

One of our Language Arts Standards talks about writing for different purposes and audiences. When I finished the book, I asked my students who they thought was the intended audience for this book. "Kids," they said. "Little kids," someone elaborated, "Because there aren't very many words on each page."

I'm betting that another audience for this book will by fly fishers. I'm going to take a copy of the book to our next fly fishing club meeting for the raffle. I'm pretty sure there are some fly fisher dads (one is an avid member of Trout Unlimited and does lots of stream restoration) who would gladly take this book home.



April Pulley Sayre on writing nonfiction at I.N.K..
An early review of Trout Are Made of Trees at Charlotte's Library.
Our interview with April last year is here.
April's website is here.
The Nonfiction Monday roundup is here.

Nonfiction Monday -- Non-Book Edition

The Day After The Blizzard of Oh-Eight

Not my back yard, but I wish it was!

Not my front yard, but I admire the craftsmanship!

Not my houses, but I wish they were! (Cute, and made cuter in the snow!)

Not my dog (our friend's black lab) made these tracks porpoising through 15 inches of snow while trailing his long lead. After the picture was taken, we measured the distance between the bounds -- SIX FEET!

The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower

I just finished reading Lisa Graff's second novel, THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF BERNETTA WALLFLOWER. The funny thing is that at the same time, I am reading aloud THE THING ABOUT GEORGIE to my class at school. (They are loving it--there is so much to talk and think about. It is an engaging story and Graff has a way of creating the perfect amount of depth for upper elementary readers--not an easy thing to do!)

I am picky about my read alouds. With 9 months of school, we only get through about 9-10 books a year. So, I have to be very picky. When I read THE THING ABOUT GEORGIE last year, I knew it would make a great read aloud. I have the same feelings after finishing THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF BERNETTA WALLFLOWER.

The book is great for lots of reasons. It is a fun read--the plot is totally different from other books for kids this age. Bernetta has been set up by her best friend Ashley. The consequence is that Bernetta won't be able to attend the private school she has attended since Kindergarten anymore. She just doesn't have the $9000 to attend. But she comes up with a scheme to make the money and the adventures begin.

This book would make a good read aloud for lots of reasons:
1. The plot is fun and will keep kids engaged.
2. There is a strong girl character, which is always good.
3. This is a book with a strong girl character that I think boys will also enjoy. The male characters and the plot will keep boys engaged. It is sometimes hard to find books with girl characters that boys will stick with, but this one will appeal to boys and girls.
4. There is lots to talk about as Bernetta makes the decisions that she does, decides about right and wrong, and learns about who she is.
5. Lisa Graff writes a great ending--ties things up in a way that works for this age group.

There are lots more reasons but these are my top 5 of the moment. I have many others because I LOVE this book!

I can't wait to see what Lisa Graff does next! (By the way, she has a very fun website and blog--well worth checking out! It would also be well worth your while to check out the Lisa Graff interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast....and the one at Mother Reader...and the one at Miss Erin.

to be like the sun by Susan Marie Swanson

I LOVE sunflowers.
I LOVE picture books about sunflowers.
I LOVE poetry about sunflowers.
And I LOVE Margaret Chodos-Irvine's illustrations.

So, my favorite new picture book of the moment is to be like the sun by Susan Marie Swanson and illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine. When I first looked at it, the title and the sunflower on the front drew me in. It wasn't until I opened it up that I recognized the illustrations and had to look back at the cover to see that they were indeed done by Chodos-Irving. The coloring is a bit different from Ella Sarah Gets Dressed but they are clearly her illustrations.

It looks like this book was first published as a poem as part of an anthology. Whoever decided to turn it into a picture book was very, very smart. It makes a PERFECT picture book. In my opinion, there can never be enough books about sunflowers or planting sunflowers.

This book takes you from the seeds in the spring to the winter when the sunflower is just a memory. The language may be what makes this book my favorite of the day. My favorite line is the one when the little girl is planting the seeds. "All the instructions are written in your heart." There are so many more lines like this.

I am always looking for books with great language. But I often find trouble finding books with great language that young children can enjoy and appreciate. Often the books are geared toward older children. This book is good for all ages and I think readers of all ages will appreciate the language that is so perfect.

As I sit here in the midst of a blizzard, it is quite nice to have this book to read and remember that spring isn't that far away.

WHY WE TEACH by Linda Alston

WHY WE TEACH: LEARNING, LAUGHTER, LOVE AND THE POWER TO TRANSFORM LIVES is a timely book for anyone who is teaching in 2008. It reminds us why we teach--through hard times, after hard days, and during these days of mandated curriculum and testing. Linda Alston shares stories of her own teaching career--short pieces that can remind us all the joys of teaching and of being in the company of children every day.

I have talked to so many teachers across the country who have told me that they aren't having fun anymore. That teaching is no longer enjoyable. Linda addresses the times and clearly holds on to what is important for the children we teach.

"At the end of the day, we are exhausted. We feel as if we cannot teach another day--that is, until tomorrow. In the morning, we find the strength to come back and teach again. Why? Because we love and believe in children. We behold the gifts in them and nurture the children to become their most magnificent selves. We hold on to hope that their futures will be bright and glorious. The day that we don't go back might well be the day we miss the miracle of a child making a connection, saying something funny or profound, creating a work of art, and giving our lives meaning and purpose." (Page 96)

I found the stories in this book to be just what I needed. The foreword by Vivian Paley and the afterword by Lester Laminack are also very powerful. The stories can be read in any order. But they all remind us how much we can learn from children and how important it is for us to do what is right for the children we teach.

Poetry Friday -- For Will and Lyra

Yesterday, I finished listening to The Amber Spyglass. Before that I listened to The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife, all by Phillip Pullman. I had read all three books, but long enough ago to have forgotten much.

Here's a poem for Will and Lyra, and for me to remember now that they are gone until I read or listen them back to life.

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.


(the rest of the poem is here...the roundup is here)

Who Knew?

Did you know?
In New York, it is against the law to throw a ball at someone's head for fun.
The Venus Flytrap grows naturally only in North and South Carolina.
In Gary, a person may not enter a movie house or theater or ride a public streetcar within four hours of eating garlic.
In Alaska, it is against the law to wake a sleeping bear in order to photograph it.
Each August, Twinsburg, Ohio holds the Twin Days Festival, the world's largest annual gathering of twins.

I learned all of this AND SO MUCH MORE in the new book GO, GO America by Dan Yaccarino.
Beth at Cover to Cover shared this book with me yesterday. I thought it was going to be like all of those other books about states--general info. But when I opened it up and started reading, I was amazed at how much fun info was packed into every page. What fun information. Every single piece of trivia is as interesting as those I shared above. It is quite a fun book. One I'd love to read Cover to Cover. In terms of curriculum, there is lots of ways to use this book in the classroom. We are currently doing a unit on government-such a hard thing for kids to understand. But if we take some of these laws and learn about how they actually came to be, it might really help them understand how democracy works. This states in this book are set up in order of how the Farley Family travels the country. The Table of Contents is quite creative and the author dedication ties into the book too. At the end of the book, more traditional information about each state is shared (capital, state flower, motto, etc.)

This will be a definite hit in my classroom (if I ever decide to share it!).

Stories That Dovetail in the Middle

All three of these books tell endless stories.

Both covers are front covers. The middle is the shared ending or the roundabout that tells you to flip the book over and read the same story told a different way.

For 20 years I had one example of such a book. All of a sudden in 2007 I found two more.

One is unique; three is a collection. Do you know of any other books that have stories that dovetail in the middle like these?


Giant Story/Mouse Tale: A Half Picture Book
by Annegert Fuchshuber
Carolrhoda Books, 1988
personal copy

The giant wants a friend, but he's afraid of everything. He runs away to escape his fears, and finds himself in a meadow. In the center of the book, he stretches out in the grass to rest, wishing for a small friend he could hold in his hand. Read from the other side and find a brave mouse who wants a friend, but no one wants to be a friend to such a brave mouse. She goes searching for a friend and winds up in a meadow, where she curls up in a warm spot to rest until she has enough strength to go looking again for a friend. The center spread? The giant stretched out sleeping with the sleeping mouse in his hand.


I Love You More
by Laura Duksta
illustrated by Karen Keesler
Sourcebooks, 2007
review copy compliments of the publisher

Read from one side and hear Mommy answer the question, "Mommy, just how much do you love me?" Read from the other side and hear a little boy answering his mother's question, "So, just how much do you love me?" In the middle, you find the ultimate answer that they each have for the other: "I love you more than anything in the whole wide world."


Dogs and Cats
by Steve Jenkins
Houghton Mifflin, 2007
personal copy

If you start on the dog side of this book, you will find double page spreads with information on one aspect of canines (size and shape, how breeds came to be, etc.) and fabulous cut and torn paper collage illustrations. Don't miss the cat shadow in the corner of each page with a single sentence of information about cats on the same topic. In the center of the book, a cat and dog are stretched out together on a rug. Flip the book over and you read detailed information about cats (with the same great illustrations), keeping watch for the shadow dog and the single sentence of related information about dogs.

Meme: Passion Quilt

Monica, from Educating Alice, tagged us for the Passion Quilt Meme.

Here are the rules:

• Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
• Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
• Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce

For us, just like for Monica and Doug, at Borderland, it's a struggle to untangle our passion from the passions of our students, and on top of that, to find a photo that represents it all.

The best we can come up with is this one. In a Choice Literacy article, Franki wrote about creating Revision Toolbags for her students -- big ziplocks filled with all the fun tools for revision that she uses when she writes: highlighters, sticky notes of all sizes, scissors and tape, gel pens with colored ink, staplers and staple removers. Knowing that our children have only been writers for a couple of years, really, and that they are still children, after all, her idea was to let children play with revision, let them experiment with revision and all the tools writers might use. I read the article and it made such good sense that I stopped at Staples after school that very day and spend a wad on revision tools. And sure enough, when I introduced the revision toolbags, revision's popularity soared. Suddenly, revision was fun.

So here's a picture that shows Franki's idea and the way one of my students put her idea into action. It's a picture that exemplifies the ways we share professionally and "borrow" each other's ideas either flat out or with a new spin. It shows how our students try on our passions (reading and writing) and make them their own.


We'll tag Karen and Bill at Literate Lives, Katie at Creative Literacy, Megan at Read, Read, Read, and Meredith at Learning Together. We know that one of you is in Chile (last we heard) and two of you are up to your ears with report cards. Do this when you get around to it. Can't wait to see what you come up with! (I did a blog search of Meme: Passion Quilt and there are hundreds of entries. It would make interesting reading, but alas, report cards are calling my name, too. Actually, I need to finish grading...sigh...NOT my passion!)