Monsoon Afternoon

Monsoon Afternoon
by Kashmira Sheth
illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi
Peachtree Publishers, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

The weather is changing, and the first fat raindrops of the monsoon are beginning to fall. No one but Dadaji has time to play with his grandson. Luckily, Dadaji remembers what fun he had as a child playing in the monsoon rains -- floating paper boats in the washtub, enjoying the smell and feel of the rain after a long dry season. Dadaji remembers swinging in the banyan tree, watching peacocks strut, and picking mangoes, and he shares these memories as he spends the afternoon with his grandson. He assures the little boy that he was once as young as he is, and, yes, someday the little boy will be a Dadaji, too.

In the author's notes at the end of the story, Sheth shares some of her memories of monsoon season from her childhood on the west coast of India.

Many of our students and their families have storm-related memories. In our beginning of the year writing workshops, we often ask students to write personal narratives. This book might prompt students to gather and write a collection of storm stories.

Kashmira Sheth's blog

Erin Hunter at Cover to Cover

One of the three authors who write as Erin Hunter, author of the Warriors series, Victoria Holmes, visited Cover to Cover on Friday. I have never seen so many people at Cover to Cover. The audience was predominantly tween/teen girls and their moms, but there were some boys and dads there, too. The audience was very animated and interactive, cheering when Holmes announced that a big book about Bluestar is forthcoming, and gasping when she revealed that Firestar will die.

All of the displays and bookshelves from the middle of the store were moved to the back room.

After the talk, they called groups of 25 in for autographing. Rumor has it there was someone with autograph number 258. Luckily the rain held off.

Here's a report about the afternoon by longtime Warriors fan, occasional guest blogger (here and here), and my former student, Victoria:

I got an email from Ms.Hahn telling me that on September 5 at 4:30 PM I could meet Victoria Holmes (the main Warrior writer) and listen to her talk and that she was signing books. That alone was a miracle, just to hear I could meet her. I have read every single one of her books and I always buy the new ones the day of their releases, so this experience was going to be amazing. She was to be at a little book shop which I had never heard of called Cover to Cover.

To my first surprise Victoria (which is also my name) had a nice British accent, which just made everything else five times funnier. For many who have read her books this may also be a surprise: she doesn't own any cats and actually she doesn't like cats. She owns one dog (a bull terrier) named Missy, who is utterly spoiled.

If anyone is interested in knowing why cats die it isn't because she doesn't like them or they're bad, NO she kills cats when they get boring (LOL). Also there are no perfect relationships in the books, because she says they get too boring and therefore she kills someone.

When time came around for questions some little kid asked her, "Who is your least favorite cat?" Victoria answered, " I don't have least favorite cats and if I do they die, then become my favorite cat." Victoria is just such a funny person.

For anyone asking how devoted is she to Warriors, well, she is getting married in November and she will still be on tour so their honeymoon will be wherever they go on the last week of her tour.

Future books coming out:
Long Shadows: Power of Three: Book Five- Dec. 1
Tigerstar and Sasha: Escaping the Forest- Jan. 1

There will be another volume of six books coming out also and several more special edition books coming out on Bluestar and Skyclan.

This was just an amazing experience to be there in the hot and crowded little book shop and to meet Victoria Holmes! You can't describe it until you've met her for yourself, so I have a question: Are you a Warriors fan yet????

Victoria certainly is a fan, and has been from the beginning! Here she is with Victoria Holmes.

Maybe this is a future Warriors fan? He made good use of his time in the board books while Victoria Holmes was speaking.

Apples & Oranges: Going Bananas With Pairs

Apples & Oranges: Going Bananas With Pairs
by Sara Pinto
Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children's Books, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

This year, our staff is focusing on a few of the strategies in Marzano's CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION THAT WORKS.  One of the instructional strategies that has been proven by research to raise student achievement is identifying similarities and differences.

To launch our study of weather, we brainstormed all the weather words we could think of.  I recorded the words on the overhead, and the students at each table took turns writing the words on index cards.  Then I gave the groups this task:  sort the words into groups that you think make sense.

After this content work on similarities and differences, I shared APPLES & ORANGES: GOING BANANAS WITH PAIRS.  This book nearly put a couple of my students over the edge.  

Page 1: "How are an apple and an orange alike?"  Page 2: "They both don't wear glasses."    

"I don't get it!"  "It doesn't make sense!"  

Others, however, delighted in the playfulness and quickly were able to adapt to the BOTH DON'T format of the comparing.

Page 17:  "How are a spoon and a fork alike?"  Student Response:  "They both don't run away with the dish."  About half the class understood the literary allusion.  I was thoroughly impressed.  This is clearly a student to watch!  (Page 18:  "They both don't dance in the ballet.")

This seems like another book that would be fun to take down the grade levels to see how younger and younger students handle the BOTH DON'T format.  Or maybe a certain librarian could try it for me -- hint, hint Franki!  Or maybe you can try it in your classroom and let me know how it goes! 

10 THINGS I CAN DO TO HELP MY WORLD BY Melanie Walsh

I picked up a great new book this week at Cover to Cover. It is called 10 THINGS I CAN DO TO HELP MY WORLD by Melanie Walsh. It is written for young children and the simple text and shaped pages make it a fun read with lots of important information.

This is a type of how-to book with added facts for young children--why they should turn off the water when they brush their teeth, that we could save lots of trees by using both sides of the paper, and more. Kids can read the main text and also the added facts.

The large text, bright illustrations and fun page shapes make this a perfect nonfiction book for homes, classrooms and libraries.

I must say, I have been so impressed with Candlewick Publishers lately. So many of the books I love--books that are a bit unique--are published by Candlewick. This is one of those books!

Poetry Friday: Cicadas

Cicadas at the End of Summer
by Martin Walls
(American Life In Poetry: Column 024)

Whine as though a pine tree is bowing a broken violin,
As though a bandsaw cleaves a thousand thin sheets of
titanium;
They chime like freight wheels on a Norfolk Southern
slowing into town.

But all you ever see is the silence.
Husks, glued to the underside of maple leaves.


(the rest of the poem is here)


Happy End of Summer! Let the cool weather begin!

The round up this week is at Wild Rose Reader.

A Book to Add to My Word Play Books

I love when I find a new book to add to my collection of picture books with great word play. I am building quite a collection of these so I couldn't pass up this new one that I found today. It is called BUTTERFLIES IN MY STOMACH AND OTHER SCHOOL HAZARDS by Serge Bloch. This is the story of a boy's first day of school--from the minute he wakes up until the time the bus drops him off at home at the end of the day. Each page tells a bit about his day and each is filled with lots of word play--The illustrations share the "literal" meaning of some of the sayings. They are simple black and white illustrations with color graphics added to illustrate the point of the more literal meaning. From "being in a pickle" to being "in the same boat", this book is full of idioms and a simile or two ("I was as happy as a puppy with two tails!").

The thing that makes this book unique is that the idioms are part of a story with a bit of a plot--the word play is definitely the focus of the book but there is a sequential story going on too!

BABYMOUSE #9!

I was so happy to find BABYMOUSE: MONSTER MASH this weekend! Now that Jennifer and Matt Holm are only writing 2 new Babymouse books per year, the wait between books seems like forever!

BABYMOUSE: MONSTER MASH is set during the Halloween season. And, the fun thing about this book is that it is ORANGE INSTEAD OF PINK! A fun change that totally works for this issue. And, as always, Babymouse is quite adorable on the cover and throughout.

In this story, Babymouse is planning a Halloween party. The group of "mean girls" (Felicia Furrypaws and friends) want to be invited but they want Babymouse to play by their rules. Babymouse has to make some choices.

I love so much about this series, but this one really nails why I like it so much. Babymouse gets lots of peer pressure in this book-peer pressure to be someone who she is not. Peer pressure to do things she knows are not right. I like this because it is so real--so close to what some of our kids deal with on a daily basis. Babymouse is a character who gives us a way to think about these things. Since I've read every Babymouse book out there, I've become quite attached to Babymouse. In the first few books I think I loved her because she was adorable and unique. And I loved the size of the books and the humor. But in this book I realized, I love the character Babymouse. She is strong and real and anxious and fun-loving and so many other things.

The humor is still all over the book--the tombstones at the end of the book, the dedication page, etc. There are even paper dolls with costumes on the back page! And, thank goodness that they give us a very tiny bit of info on the next Babymouse book--Babymouse: The Musical--on the back flap. Even though it won't be out until spring, it reminds us (thankfully) that Babymouse will be back!

My 3rd grade daughter read the book before I did and loved it. Here is what she had to say (Spoilers included):
I liked the end of the book because the mean girls kept making rules like "A Girl has to be a princess for Halloween." Babymouse does things cause the mean girls say "You have to do it. It is a rule." Babymouse goes back home to get ready for her party. The mean girls say, "Can we come in?" Babymouse says "You have to be wearing a scary outfit." I liked that part because she made her own rule and she stuck up for herself. She didn't let them boss her around anymore."

The Words Don't Match the Pictures

There's No Such Thing as Ghosts!

by Emmanuelle Eeckhout

first American Edition, Kane Miller, 2008

first published in Belgium, 2008

review copy provided by Kane Miller

The unnamed little boy is not supposed to go near the strange old house on the corner in his new neighborhood because it's said to be haunted.  So...he promptly goes there because he wants to catch a ghost!

No matter where he goes in the strange old house, he finds no ghosts. However, the reader can clearly see that behind him, or above him, or below him, or hidden in the bubbles of the bubble bath, there are clearly LOTS of ghosts.

Despite what the reader knows, the little boy declares, "There's no such thing as ghosts!"

The words don't match the pictures.


Minji's Salon

by Eun-hee Choung

first American edition, Kane Miller, 2008

first published in South Korea in 2007

review copy provided by Kane Miller

Minji's mother is at the beauty salon getting a new hairdo.  On the left side of the facing pages, the reader sees Minji's mother at her salon getting cut, colored, and styled. On the right side are the words Minji's mother might hear, along with a picture of Minji acting the words out on her dog.  

"The color must be mixed carefully.  (No tasting allowed.)" reads the text.  The stylist is mixing colors from tubes for mother's hair; Minji is choosing coloring ingredients from the freezer (mmmm, ice cream!) for the dog's hair.

"You have to be patient; beauty takes time," reads the text.  In the left hand picture, we see Minji's mother with eyes closed, serenely patient as the stylist colors and rolls her hair.  In the right hand picture, we see a wild-eyed dog smeared with ice cream, tongue in the container, bits of fur rolled up in crayons and pencils.

The words don't match (both of) the pictures.  (At least not until the end, when Minji says, "Mom will be back soon.  I think she'll be surprised.")

What are some other examples of books like these (books with parallel stories, books where the pictures don't match the words) and how do you use them in your classroom or library story time? 

New Math Literature

2 years ago, I purchased the book GREAT ESTIMATIONS and LOVED IT! The kids in my 3rd/4th grade class LOVED it! It had the feel of an "I Spy" Book but had so much to teach us about math. I know that books often help kids make sense of math concepts and this is one that can help all of us think differently about estimating. So, yesterday, I was thrilled when Beth at Cover to Cover showed me GREATER ESTIMATIONS-- a second book about estimating!

Bruce Goldstone (who I was happy to learn grew up in Ohio!) is quite the genius. You don't realize it at first, but these books are teaching books. Goldstone takes us through the process of learning to make good estimates. But you are so busy having such fun looking at the amazing photos and trying to make a good estimate, that it almost takes many reads to pick up all of the great things that you can do to make better estimates.

Bruce Goldstone chooses some pretty cool things to photograph and for us to estimate. He chooses a variety because he teaches us the different ways to estimate--clump counting, estimating length, etc. Readers spend time looking at rubber ducks, honeybees, skydivers, dominoes, hairs on a cat, and blades of grass.

Lots of interesting facts as well as humorous talking bubbles fill the pages. The author also includes a note at the end of the book. He talks about the fun of estimating, but also about how helpful it is in everyday life. He shares times when estimation is critical that I hadn't really thought about.

I had just assumed that Goldstone used computers to create these images but, from his author blurb in the back of the books that Beth pointed out to me, it seems that he spends hours and hours setting real things up for photographing! Very cool.

Goldstone has a fun website that includes info about him, his books and more. It also includes a fun game called "Estimatron" that allows you to practice those estimation skills!  If you like the ducks in the book, you'll be happy to see them again (and again) on the site!

Lessons From a Beer Goddess

For those of you who loved Franki's bootcamp metaphors for teaching struggling readers, head over to Carol's Corner and check out what a teacher can learn from a tattooed Beer Goddess while pouring beers for 8 hours straight.