Getting Ready for School

Thinking about what to use for your first read-alouds? Here are some of my favorite picture book read-alouds for the beginning of the year.

Not sure where to even start with your back-to-school thinking? Katie, at Creative Literacy, has a dynamite shortlist.

Need a new analogy for your resistance of high-stakes testing? Look no further than Abby's thinking at Authentic Learner.

Two New Titles From Graphic Universe

Graphic Universe, a division of Lerner Publishing Group, is publishing graphic myths and legends faster than I can keep up. They currently have 27 titles, including Atalanta, Hercules, and Theseus, but also including Yu the Great, Amaterasu, and Sunjata, plus King Arthur, Robinhood, and William Tell. Here is a complete list of all the titles in the series so far.

I started to say that they are "churning out" graphic myths and legends faster than I can keep up, but then you might think these books don't deserve your attention. Far from it. As the website proudly points out, these books have useful text structures: map, table of contents, glossary, index, websites and books for further reading, and information about the research that was done to ensure the authenticity of each story.

One of the two newest is PIGLING: A CINDERELLA STORY. Add this Korean version of Cinderella to your collection and your fairytale unit!









MARWE: INTO THE LAND OF THE DEAD is an East African Legend about a girl who, with her brother, fails to keep watch over the family's bean fields, allowing the monkeys to eat the beans. She does not want to return to face her father's wrath, so when the strange circle appears before her, she goes through, only to find herself in the Land of the Dead. She is careful to eat nothing while she is there, so that when she has learned to be a caring and thoughtful person, she can return home. A classic coming-of-age story.

Debbie Miller's New Book Available ONLINE

Debbie Miller's upcoming book TEACHING WITH INTENTION is due out later this month. While you are anxiously awaiting the release of the book, Stenhouse has posted the entire book online for readers. If you'd like to take a peek or read the whole book online, you can do that here.
It is a perfect book for this time of year--really thinking through our beliefs and practices with teachers.

And, you might find that it will inspire you to participate in our "Trading (OUR FAVORITE) Spaces" event:-).

TRADING (Our Favorite) SPACES

I loved when Stella at My World-Mi Mundo shared her new new work space in her apartment. She said, "I need is a place where I can feel inspired and an organized mess where I can function." And she shared photos of the new space she created.

Bill at Literate Lives shares picks for the space in his library that he has named "The Pit". It is fun to see photos and hear the books that he chooses to share there.

It is that time of year when we are all getting ready for the school year, creating spaces at school and at home that allow for great thinking. We thought it would be fun if we collected and shared our favorite spaces this month. You might have a favorite space that you create in your classroom. Or you may have a spot you'd like to share from your office. If you work in a library, there may be a favorite space there.

We are inviting all bloggers to think about that favorite space and to capture it on a photo. We will post some of our favorite spaces at home and at school over the next few weeks as we get ready for a new school year. Post yours with a caption or description and then let us know that you've posted it. Then we'll do a big round up of all of the posts on September 1.

It will be fun to see the spaces we all create and I am sure we'll all get so many great new ideas from each other.

Alan Silberberg Makes Kids Giggle

Alan Silberberg, author of Pond Scum, and the Thurber House Children's Writer In Residence, spoke at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore yesterday.

Here he is, telling about how the voices inside his head, aka his imagination, were responsible for his first creative responses to school writing assignments. The praise he got in elementary and middle school for his creative writing helped him to become the writer he is today. A career in TV and movie cartoon writing helped him to become a very visual writer, as evidenced in Pond Scum.

And his cartooning (you can get a taste of it at his blog and on his website) will get to shine in his next book, Milo, an illustrated novel (small nod of thanks from Alan to Jeff Kinney for opening that door) about "a 13 year-old kid who has to start over." Alan read a couple of the first chapters to us, and showed the accompanying cartoons. This was when he made the kids (especially the 3rd grade boy) giggle. (The adults laughed too.) Alan has found/created a great character in Milo, a character that kids are going to love and relate to. (I say, MOVE OVER, Jeff Kinney!)

Into the Volcano by Don Wood

Into the Volcano

by Don Wood (Yes, that Don Wood, of Don and Audrey Wood fame.)

Blue Sky Press (a Scholastic Imprint)

October, 2008

appropriate for grade 3 and up

review copy compliments of Sally at Cover to Cover

This week I've reviewed some books that made me say, "WOW!" mostly (only?) because I know they will reach some of the readers in my classroom. And I've reviewed some very simple graphic novels that will give beginning readers an appropriate early experience with the graphic novel format.

Now it's time for a book (a graphic novel) that makes me say an unconditional, "WOW!"

A WOW in every way, shape and form.

A chin-drop, I'm-gaga sort of WOW.

Don Wood's Into the Volcano is visually stunning and has a story that is packed with action, adventure, mystery, and surprises.

Quick plot summary to set the stage: Two brothers are suddenly taken out of school by their father and told they must travel to a volcanic island to help an aunt they've never met. Once they get there, they are taken on an expedition that involves a boat ride into an erupting volcano and a journey through underground lava-tube tunnels. All the while, the volcano is shaking the entire island and rivers of lava are blocking the exits.

Background on how this book came to be (excerpted from the editorial director's "Dear Reader" letter in the front of the ARC, and Don Wood's bio in the back):

"Don and Audrey Wood left California seven years ago and moved to the jungle side of a Hawaiian Island...Don and Audrey introduced us [editor and her son] to the wonders of their jungle life: late-night hikes to see Madame Pele splash her molten lava into the sea; an awesome hike through a lava tube that was formed in the 1400s and was 60 feet below the surface of the land..."

"Don Wood...lives surrounded by tropical jungle, not far from one of the longest lava tubes in the world. As the nearby active volcano pours rivers of lava into the ocean, Don and his wife, bestselling writer Audrey Wood, frequently hike at night across newly formed terrain to watch molten lava enter the sea. Don and Audrey hand-cleared a space int eh jungle themselves to build and off-grid house overlooking the ocean. A surfer and sailor, Wood also dives and kayaks around the island, and enjoys hiking through ancient lava tubes."

I had to tell you all of that so you would know why the art in this book is so stunning -- Wood didn't imagine it, he's lived it. And best of all, he takes us places and shows us sights we would never in all of our lives be able to see in person: waves (small gentle, huge crashing, gigantic washing-over-the-boat, and perfect-for-surfing waves), beaches of green sand, lava flowing, lava hitting water, a pod of whales blowing under a moonbow, untamed jungle. And we get to experience it through the characters the way he has: boating, climbing, spelunking, and surfing.

As important as the setting is in this book, Wood does not neglect character. The main characters are complex, and they change in satisfying ways. The supporting cast is a bunch of characters. Literally.

This story is perfectly suited to the format of graphic novel. There is no way it would have worked as a text-only novel and the story is too mature for a picture book. This book is not to be missed.

Early glowing review at Educating Alice is what caught my attention.

Poetry Friday: Living in America

(Available for purchase at www.platesusa.com)

This week's poem came to me via A Writer's Almanac. You can read the whole poem there.  

Californians and New Englanders, be advised: the geographic center of the Lower 48 is near Lebanon, KS.   Nearby offbeat places include World's Largest Ball of Twine (Cawker City, KS - 23 mi.), World's Largest Collection of World's Smallest Versions of World's Largest... (Lucas, KS - 53 mi.), and the Birthplace of Kool-Aid (Hastings, NE - 53 mi.).

Living in America
by Anne Stevenson

'Living in America,'
the intelligent people at Harvard say,
'is the price you pay for living in New England.'

Californians think
living in America is a reward
for managing not to live anywhere else.

The rest of the country?
Could it be sagging between two poles,
tastelessly decorated, dangerously overweight?




The roundup today is at A Well-Read Child.

Graphic Novels for the Youngest Readers

Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Maus and the editor of the Little Lit anthologies of graphic stories (scary, strange, folklore and fairy tales), has now teamed up with editorial director Francoise Mouly (who is also his wife, and a New Yorker art editor) to bring us Toon Books, "a groundbreaking collection of early readers in comics form." (Review copies compliments of the publisher.)









by Geoffrey Hayes (April, 2008)

by Agnes Rosenstiehl (April, 2008)

by Jay Lynch and Frank Cammuso (April, 2008)

by Eleanor Davis (August, 2008)

by Jay Lynch and Dean Haspiel (September, 2008)

by Art Spiegelman, October, 2008)

I'm still thinking about all of the filters we use when we read. My "teacher filter" is a bit weak when it comes to books for the very youngest readers. I handed these to Franki and she had no problem with the predictable text, the limited vocabulary (in Benny and Penny, Silly Lilly, and Jack and the Box), and the simplistic story lines (Silly Lilly and Jack and the Box). She talked about all the support a beginning or struggling reader would get from the pictures. She pointed out how important it would be for young readers to find an appropriate entry point into the world of graphic novels, and for the struggling older reader to be able to read socially accepted books (graphic novels) at his/her level.

There is an interesting (extensive) conversation (with some occasional brick-throwing and foul language -- makes me glad to inhabit this more polite corner of the blogosphere) about what makes a comic appropriate for young readers at Comics Should Be Good. Toon Books aren't reviewed, but are mentioned in the discussion in the comments. Joe Rice, author of the blog, also filters comics/graphic novels with Teacher Eyes. He wants them to be appropriate for kids, real kids, not "some mythical ideal child from some golden age; the child some parents want to believe they’ll have, an innocent, spritely thing filled with sweetness and wonder." He looks for appropriate "page density," and good design. One of his cardinal rules is "Don’t talk down to the kids. And don’t pretend you were ever this simplistic either." I don't think he would like Toon Books.

Have you seen them? What do you think? Here are some reviews I found (let me know if I missed yours or one you know about):

The first three reviewed at Comics Worth Reading.
All six reviewed at Book Addiction.
Otto's Orange Day received a mixed review at Good Comics for Kids.
David Elzey at Excelsior File was disappointed in them.

Books That Make Us Say, "WOW!"

Robert Gould's Time Soldiers ® series
Published by Big Guy Books
Kathleen Duey, the co-author of the series with Robert Gould (Duey's blog here), was a National Book Award Finalist and a had a Cybils Short List book in 2007.
The books, created and photographed by Robert Gould, are digitally illustrated by Eugene Epstein.
Review copies (Book #1 Rex, Book #2 Rex2, and Book #3 Patch, all copyright 2005) were freebies from Sally at Cover to Cover. Looking at Powell's and Amazon, it would appear that there are 7 or 8 in the series now.

Every book you read, you read through a series of filters: your knowledge of the topic, your experience with the author, your mood that day, your purpose for reading, your age, your reading preferences and/or ability.

One filter we use every time we read a children's book is the Teacher Filter. We imagine every book we read in the hands of a child, or in the hands of an adult reading with a child (or group of children).

So when I tell you that these Time Soldiers books made me say, "WOW!" when I first opened them (and consequently had the same effect on teachers of both older and younger students than I teach, as well as on a Literacy Principal), please understand that this WOW is not the same kind of WOW that The Underneath has elicited from both of us.

Every page of these books is illustrated with photographs that make you feel like you're watching a movie or TV show of the book. In Book #1, Mikey and his big brother Rob discover a funny-looking spot in the woods through which they can see a dinosaur. Their father doesn't believe them, so they gather their four friends and the video camera and they walk through the funny-looking spot and into a prehistoric dinosauric adventure. They film what they see so they can take the evidence home to Mikey and Rob's father. Lots of the illustrations appear to be the view through the video camera's viewfinder. (Readers who love to spot details in the illustrations will keep track of the duration of the adventure in the viewfinder's time stamp, as well as the shrinking battery power of the camera.) By page 52, the kids have decided that they have come through a Time Portal. When they get back home, they agree to wait until the next day to show the video tape to their parents. Then, at the end of the book, "In the silence of the night..." a man in a black suit and black sunglasses steals the tape from the video recorder. (cue the "uh-oh" music -- duhn-dhun duhn...)

These books are not Great Literature. They will never be considered for either the Newbery or the Caldecott. Here's what they WILL do:

• I'm predicting that they will be wildly popular with my students.
• They will hook reluctant readers.
• They will support developing readers.
• They will lead readers to other books in the Time Travel genre.
• They will inspire writers to tell stories with digital media.

Wow.

ARABELLA MILLER'S TINY CATERPILLAR

ARABELLA MILLER'S TINY CATERPILLAR is quite the darling new picture book. Beth at Cover to Cover had it on a stack of new books she thought I'd like.

This story is about Little Arabella Miller and her tiny caterpillar. There seem to be lots of stories about caterpillars changing into butterflies, but this one is a bit more than that. Arabella loves this caterpillar as only a true friend can. She takes great care of him until he becomes a special butterfly. When the story is finished, there is a two page spread with nonfiction information about the stages of a butterfly's life. I like the combination of fiction and nonfiction in this book. This would be a good companion book to DON'T WORRY BEAR by Greg Foley.

There is lots to like about this one. First of all, the size is fun. It is a teeny tiny bit bigger than most picture books. The illustrations are quite fun. Arabella takes up most of the entire cover of the book. She is happy and colorful--with a fashionable hat! The colors throughout the book are bold against white which makes for a fun read. There is rhyme and rhythm and repetition to the story. A great choice for reading aloud to young children.