Really?

You Are a Question Mark

You seek knowledge and insight in every form possible. You love learning. And while you know a lot, you don't act like a know it all. You're open to learning you're wrong. You ask a lot of questions, collect a lot of data, and always dig deep to find out more. You're naturally curious and inquisitive. You jump to ask a question when the opportunity arises. Your friends see you as interesting, insightful, and thought provoking. (But they're not always up for the intense inquisitions that you love!) You excel in: Higher education You get along best with: The Comma

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Here's a comma, a colon, an exclamation point, another colon, and another question mark. I wonder what it takes to be a period? Or maybe I don't want to know.

The Right Book at the Right Time

Rabbit & Squirrel: A Tale of War & Peas
by Kara LaReau
illustrated by Scott Magoon
Harcourt, Inc., 2008
review copy compliments of the author and illustrator


If your children are behaving perfectly at this time of the year you don't need this book. (And I don't want to talk to you.)

If your politicians are behaving perfectly in your part of the world you don't need this book. (And again, I don't want to talk to you.)

If, by chance, your children (or politicians) are jumping to conclusions, making assumptions, or seeking revenge before they ask for information, they you (and they) need this book.

Rabbit and Squirrel live on opposite sides of the garden and yet they never speak to each other or share vegetables. One morning when Rabbit awakes to find her finest lettuce and carrots picked, she jumps to a conclusion, storms over to Squirrel's house, thumps on his door and accuses him of this crime. The next morning when Squirrel wakes up, he finds that his best tomatoes and peas are gone, he jumps to a conclusion as well, he accuses Rabbit AND he throws a rotten tomato at Rabbit's house. Their war escalates until the Gardner (the one, we assume, who was harvesting lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and peas in the first place -- we can see a large human hand through the window of Rabbit's and Squirrel's houses in the illustrations) stomps into the garden in her big green boots and chases the two pests out of garden and into the deep dark woods where they continue bickering and blaming. The book ends with the hope that they will grow tired of fighting and "learn to grow something new" -- a garden they make together.

I told my students before I read this book to them that the characters remind me of "some people I know." They nodded knowingly (and sometimes guiltily) when the first assumptions and accusations were made.

After I read the book, we looked for moments in the book when, if they could intervene and change the characters' behaviors, the outcome of the story could be changed. They decided that it wasn't so bad that Rabbit had made the first assumption, but if she hadn't "thumped" on the door or shouted at Squirrel -- if she had knocked and asked if he knew what had happened -- the story might have turned out differently.

There's great power in a cautionary tale such as this one. It gives our children a way to distance themselves from their disagreements and think about the problem in terms of Rabbits and Squirrels.

Hopefully the big people who read this book -- the "gardeners" who ultimately "own" the "garden" -- will look for their message as well. Is it really necessary to chase the problems away with a pitchfork, or is there some way we can all share the garden with less war and enough peas for everyone?


*******
Another review with great pics is over at 7-Imp.

Nonfiction Monday

My new favorite nonfiction book for young children is CLOSE TO YOU: HOW ANIMALS BOND by Kimiko Kajikawa. I love great nonfiction books with predictable text. This new book is a great one for new readers. Each page follows a pattern about an animal and its baby. "Polar Bears cuddle in a den of snow." and "Ducklings line up in a single row." There are photos to accompany each animal's fact.

This is also a great book for older readers because of the huge amount of info at the end of the book. One two page spread goes on to explain each of the photos that is in the book. Another addition at the end of the book is a chart with lots of animal info (number of babies, weight at birth, weight at maturity, age of Independence).

A great book --especially for young readers!

Poetry Friday -- Original Haiku

Each week this month, in celebration of National Poetry Month, my students are trying out a different short form of poetry. Last week they wrote 15 Words or Less poems. (I added a few more now that more permissions are in. Check it out!)

This week they tried haiku. All of the poems in this week's post were written by my fourth graders.

First, a haiku about haiku:

Look at the haiku
with the 5-7-5 pattern
on the white paper.

The next few were inspired by these photos I called "Faces in the Trees:"


The hawk is hunting
The squirrel is hiding
Tree is cowering

Hawks can hide from you
Hawks can hide from you
and me
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxDay and night we'll wait

A hawk is hunting
A hawk hunts animals in
Forest and city

Magical forest
That is where a squirrel lives
Hiding in the tree

I am an old tree,
the vines tickling my nose,
in an old forest.

Your bark-made face, rough,
mysterious, nice and tough,
special and unique.




These were inspired by a set of photos I called "Buds and Blooms:"


It's spring! Let's play!
The garden has some flowers.
Let's give them to mom!

Flowers, Flowers, Hi!
Flowers, Flowers over there.
Good bye Flowers, bye!

flowers are blooming
in a garden full of plants
where they are growing

Sunny side up egg.
It's a beautiful flower.
It's yellow and white.

Look at the flowers
With the sun shining on them
And the petals bright







This week's round up is at a wrung sponge.

Pleasant Surprises, Part Two

Penny and the Punctuation Bee
by Moira Rose Donohue
illustrated by Jenny Law
Albert Whitman & Company, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher

You might pass this book up if you're not careful. The illustrations don't look very sophisticated and you might think the book will be a preachy diatribe about using correct punctuation.

Give it a chance. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Meet friends Penny the period who is on safety patrol (she's good at stopping), Connie the comma, and Quentin the question. The three sign up for the Punctuation Bee in Mr. Dash's room. Elsie, the bouncy enthusiastic cheerleader (an exclamation point) also signs up, and the three friends get busy practicing for the bee so they can beat Elsie. Each Punctuation Bee participant is given a word that he/she must use in a sentence that is correctly punctuated with his/her punctuation mark. The competition is close -- it's won on a technicality -- and you're going to have to read the book to find out who wins!

Read carefully so that you don't miss any of the puns: the hyphen that dashes by, the asterisk named Stella, and more.

Donohue is smart: she doesn't overdo the characterization of the marks by trying to be clever with them all. She focuses on the period, comma, question mark and exclamation point. That means her story doesn't get away from her (or from the reader). And the illustrations? They grow on you. Give this book a chance. I'm betting you wind up adding it to your collection.

Check It Out

The March-April issue of The Edge of the Forest is up at Big A little a. Lots of great articles and features for your perusal. Get thee over there and peruse!

Clementine's Letter: The Good News and The Bad News

I just finished CLEMENTINE'S LETTER by Sara Pennypacker. I picked it up Tuesday--on the day it came out. I must say, driving to the bookstore felt a bit like driving to the airport to pick up an old friend who was coming into town for a visit. I was thrilled that Clementine was back!

I must say that I was a little worried at first--how could I possibly love this 3rd book about Clementine as much as I had loved the first two? I figured it was really nearly impossible.
The GOOD NEWS is that I did! I just now closed the cover and must say that this may be my very favorite Clementine book. I loved, loved, loved it. Clementine is as lovable and clever as ever and the story was as good as ever.

Bill at Literate Lives listed his 10 Reasons for Loving Clementine. I agree with each and every one of them! And I think I could probably add 10 more. Maybe 100.

One of my favorite thing about Clementine is the way that she understands school and teachers. In my review of THE TALENTED CLEMENTINE, I reviewed all of the very smart things she said about teachers. Quite the insightful girl! But in this book, we see that Clementine really does have school and teachers figured out. She is an independent girl who needs things to make sense. And she has lots of strategies for doing this.

This book is a refreshing read during testing time. Sara Pennypacker understands the things that make a good school and a good classroom. Her adult characters are all respectful of children. And, school in her books, is the happy place that it should be. She somehow creates characters like Mrs. Rice (the principal) who is a bit stern, but clearly cares for Clementine. She creates characters like Mrs. Nagel who learns from Clementine. And she creates Mr. D'Matz who understands Clementine. The relationships that Clementine has with the adults in her school are so fun to read about. The teachers in the book focus on what is important--the kids.

I must say that I have not given Marla Frazee enough credit for Clementine. But, I can't imagine that this author/illustrator combo could be any more perfect in their creation of this character. The illustrations are so critical to getting to know Clementine. And, I must say, my very favorite page in the book may be the very last illustration, following the end of the text. The picture of Clementine is precious.

I don't need to talk about plot here because the plot is always secondary to the characters-even though the plot is quite good. What makes these books amazing is the characters that we have come to love in such a short time.

So, the BAD NEWS--there is no sign of a 4th Clementine book anytime soon. If anyone has news on when the next one will be out, please share! I think it is time for dolls, t-shirts, and coffee mugs.....Clementine is definitely a character that will be around forever. Write faster, Sarah!

Meme: A Blog Retrospective

Way back in March we were tagged by Two Writing Teachers for the Blog Retrospective Meme. If you want to play, you go back through your archives and find five posts you really love. Here are ours:

5 of Franki's favorite posts:

1. Tracking the word KIDLITOSPHERE -- authentic word study.
2. Mom's Overture (Teachers' Overture, too) because they make her laugh every time.
3. Interview with Peggy Gifford, author of Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little.
4. Teachers According to Clementine.
5. Our first birthday post.

5 of Mary Lee's favorite posts:

1. One of the best book reviews I've ever written. It was easy. It was a great book.
2. One of my favorite Poetry Friday posts.
3. Our Robert's Snow illustrator features, Matt Phelan and Jeff Newman.
4. My review of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Summer reading really will come back, won't it?
5. The post in which we highlight a great new blog -- Two Writing Teachers!

Edited to add:
Becky at Becky's Book Reviews is playing. Go check out her retrospective!

Nonfiction Monday -- Nonfiction Poetry

The World's Greatest: Poems
by J. Patrick Lewis
illustrated by Keith Graves
Chronicle Books, 2008
review copy purchased at my favorite independent seller of children's books, Cover to Cover



Monumental Verses
by J. Patrick Lewis
published by the National Geographic Society, 2005
review copy purchased at my favorite independent seller of children's books, Cover to Cover

Here are two of my new favorite poetry books. They are also two of my new favorite nonfiction books!

Kids love the Guinness Book of World Records. In The World's Greatest: Poems, J. Patrick Lewis has picked 25 world records as the topics of poems as widely varied as the styles of the poems: from the dumbest dinosaur to the most live scorpions eaten by a human, and from acrostics to limericks (aptly enough, the limerick is for the poem about the biggest potato). I dedicate the poem "The Most Plates Spinning" (Dave Spathaky, London, England, 108 plates, November 23, 1992) to kindergarten and first grade teachers everywhere.

Monumental Verses is a trip around the world to see (in gorgeous, full-color, National Geographic photographs) thirteen of the world's greatest human-made landmarks. They are as ancient as Stonehenge and Easter Island and Machu Picchu, and as modern as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building. Again, J. Patrick Lewis treats the reader to a variety of poetic forms including three that match the monument -- a large T-shaped slab of prose poetry for Stonehenge, a pyramid of poetry for The Great Pyramid of Cheops, and a twisting S of poetry for the Great Wall of China.

Here are some bonus extras:

The official J. Patrick Lewis website.

World's Greatest: Poems reviewed at 7-Imp.

Integrating science and social studies with J. Patrick Lewis' A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme at Miss Rumphius.

Elaine's Wild Rose Reader interview with J. Patrick Lewis.

The Nonfiction Monday Round Up is at Picture Book of the Day.

Squirrel Sightings!

Scaredy Squirrel is on tour next week! Check it out:

Monday, 4/7
Big A, Little a
Featured Topic: An Interview with Scaredy Squirrel

Tuesday, 4/8
Book Buds
Featured Topic: Scaredy Squirrel past, present and future

Wednesday, 4/9
Jen Robinson's Book Page
Featured Topic: How the Scaredy stories work at different age levels

Thursday, 4/10 [2 blogs]
Hip Librarians Book Blog
Featured Topic: Talking with Mélanie Watt about writing

Metrowest News
Featured Topic: Kids' questions for Scaredy Squirrel

Friday, 4/11
MotherReader
Featured Topic: Mélanie Watt talks about Scaredy Squirrel