SPARKY: The Life and Art of Charles Schulz

Last year, I joined Junior Library Guild for our library. I had cancelled the subscription when I started the job in the library because I didn't really understand the service they could provide. After talking to people on their staff, I began to understand how purchasing books from JLG could really help me with collection development.

Junior Library Guild reviews and selects books that would be appropriate for different age groups. But I do so much of that on my own, I didn't see the need. When I read and learned more though, I realized that I could decide which types of books JLG would provide for a discounted fee. I knew that our biographies and mysteries were outdated and those are not two areas that I keep up with myself. So I joined with those two areas, knowing that I'd receive a book each month in those categories. It has been such a great thing for us--we have great books in our library that I may never have noticed since they aren't always my favorite types.

Last month, I received one of my favorite new biographies--SPARKY: THE LIFE AND ART OF CHARLES SCHULZ by Beverly Gherman. This book is a small chapter book. Although it is about 120 pages, almost half of those pages are illustrations, photos and cartoons. This is a perfect biography for mid to upper elementary kids. It was also interesting for me to read as an adult so it is pretty much good for all ages.

The book has a fun look. Colorful with the feeling of The Peanuts Gang. No white pages with black ink that I could find. Instead, there are several colors used for fonts against a variety of backdrops. A fun read. The print is not small and very accessible for students who are just starting to read longer chapter books. Even the Table of Contents is done in a unique way to stay with the Peanuts theme. The book follows Charles Schulz (or Sparky as was his nickname) throughout his life. Photos from his childhood, stories of his family, career information and more are included. You really get to know Charles Schulz in this book. Throughout the book, the author has embedded Peanuts strips that connect in some ways to the information being shared. From the first ideas for the comic strip to the process of creating the first animated TV show of the Peanuts, this book is pretty comprehensive.

I love this book for so many reasons. I loved reading it myself. It was an interesting read about a talented person who I realized I knew very little about. As a teacher and librarian, I love the way that it is written and formatted. I think that it would make a good read aloud for people looking to add more nonfiction to their read aloud time. I also think it is a biography that is better than many chapter book length biographies I've seen. Even for kids who don't remember Peanuts the way we do, with the popularity of comics and graphic novels, the evolution of this artist will be very interesting.

Thanks to Junior Library Guild for this great addition to our Biography Section!

Betsy at Fuse #8 also reviewed this book.

Mother Reader's 48 HOUR BOOK CHALLENGE and Other Summer Fun

Summer is actually right around the corner! With all the stress of the end of the year, it is pretty amazing to realize that in just a few weeks it will be summer. I am pretty busy this summer--probably more busy than I am during the school year. But, summer has always been a time for me to read, reflect and rethink things for fall.

I LOVE that Mother Reader's 5th Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge will happen on the first Saturday after our students are finished with school. Although we have never been able to dedicate the entire 48 hours to reading, and are not really competitive in this challenge, we all try to participate by starting the summer off with lots of reading during that 48 hours. We have found ways to participate in the event even though we can't totally commit. It is one of our favorite events of the year and we love Mother Reader for organizing it. One of these years, we might be able to actually compete. But for this year, we are enjoying our own version of the event.

Just as we did last year, the Central Ohio Blogger's group will be meeting for breakfast and book shopping at Cover to Cover as part of our 48 Hour Read Celebration. We imagine that on Saturday morning, Bill from Literate Lives will have granola, Julie at Raising Readers and Writers will buy too many books :-) and there will be a few tug-of-war situations when Sally shares some ARCS from Cover to Cover. We love any excuse to get together with our book-loving friends and we can't think of a better way to kick off summer. So, look for posts from all of us throughout the 48 hour read weekend.

Another things I am excited about this summer is that I think I get to meet Rebecca Kai Dotlich. Bev Gallagher, an amazing teacher, invited us both to be part of a great day at Princeton Day School called GATHERING WORDS. Our paths seem to cross once in a while but we have never been able to actually meet. As you know I am a HUGE fan of Rebecca's. Bella and Bean is one of my favorite books, and am very excited to get to meet her.

I am also looking forward to attending November Learning's BLC 10. I have never been to this conference and am looking forward to it. The keynotes look amazing and I am excited about the other speakers as well. Plus, it is in Boston and I am sure there is some good shopping!

We've also put a few dates on the calendars for our informal tech learning from each other. Last summer, a group of us from Dublin and area districts, got together at different homes to teach each other the things we had tried, to share ideas and to play with new gadgets. It was some of the best learning I've done. Put some of your favorite people together in a house with some food (Mary Lee often makes cheesecake:-) and how can it not lead to great learning and great fun?

Mary Lee and I are also doing a new workshop for Choice Literacy called "Matching Students and Books". I always learn lots when I think and plan with someone else and I always learn from the Choice Literacy participants. Looking forward to all of the Choice Literacy events.

Between all of these, our district leadership academy, and some other events, I am looking forward to a busy (in a good way) summer. When I add all that I read on twitter and blogs, I am sure my head will be filled with new thinking every day.

And people think teachers take the summer off!?

Poetry Friday -- Drowning

Not Waving But Drowning
by Stevie Smith

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

******************

Here's a poem with interesting connections to the Stevie Smith poem above:

"This is a Photograph of Me" by Margaret Atwood

(Thanks, Author Amok!)

Anyone else have poems about drowning to add to our "text set?"

******************

Fifteen more student days.

I'm not waving, I'm drowning.

Toss me a life preserver on your way over to Jama's alphabet soup for the round up. She's got a pot of hot tea and a plate of cookies ready for you. Even her teacups are poetic!

Nabeel's New Pants: An Eid Tale

Nabeel's New Pants: An Eid Tale

retold by Fawzia Gilani-Williams

illustrated by Proiti Roy

Marshall Cavendish, 2010

review copy provided by the publisher

I was so excited when I saw the title of this book. At my school, we have at least two boys named Nabeel. We also have Mariams and Yasmeens. We have kids whose mothers wear burqas and dupattas and who make biryani and sheerkorma, kids who celebrate Eid and who go to mosques.

In this folktale, Nabeel buys Eid gifts for his mother, his wife, and his daughter. The shopkeeper convinces him to buy a new pair of pants for himself, but the only pair that fits is too long. Each time Nabeel gives a gift, he asks if the recipient will hem his pants for him, but they are all too busy getting ready for Eid. Finally, Nabeel hems his own pants and sets off to visit the poor and sick and give them money for Eid. Each woman, thinking of how thoughtful Nabeel has been to them, takes a minute away from her work and hems his pants for him. When he gets back and dresses to go to the mosque for Eid, his pants only come to his knees! Everyone laughs, the pants are restored to a proper length, and off the family goes to the mosque.

I had our Arabic-speaking Community Liaison read this book and tell me what she thought of it. She loved that Muslims depicted in this book are not Middle Eastern. So often, she said, the stereotype is that only Middle Easterners are Muslim, when in fact, big chunks of Africa, India and Indonesia are also Muslim.

She also loved that the Muslims in this book are cheerful and laughing, which breaks another stereotype that Muslims are dour and serious.

I KNOW HERE by Laurel Croza

I am not sure how I found out about I KNOW HERE by Laurel Croza--somewhere online via Twitter or blogs or Amazon recommendations. It was a quick link and I immediately knew I had to have this book. I ordered it right away and I am so happy that I did! I think this is going to become one of those anchor books for so many things. First and foremost, this is a powerful story of moving and leaving a place that you love--finding ways to hold onto it after you are gone. If I were in the classroom, it would definitely be one I'd use early in the school year to invite kids to try different types of writing. A great writing mentor text. But it can also start conversations about setting or a sense of place in a story. And the illustrations are unique and stunning.

On the first page of the book, the little girl in the story finds out that she is moving away from the home that she knows to go to another place. But, "This is where I live. I don't know Toronto. I know here." She then goes on to describe all that she knows about the place she loves--the road, the forest, the trailers, the hill, the truck and more. She then asks, "Have people in Toronto seen what I've seen?" and she thinks about the things that she's seen--a moose standing still in water, a five seater airplane swooping low overhead and more.

Finding a way to keep this place that she loves with her when she moves is important to her and she finds a way to do it.

This book reminds a bit of Byrd Baylor's writing, even though the format is much different. The focus, language, and repetition in this book make it stand out as one worth having. So happy I have it. I absolutely love it!

Planning for Summer Reading

It is time to start thinking about summer reading. My pile is so high that I know I'll never get it finished. But I love the idea of more time to read.

This week in the library, we started to talk about summer reading. I know how important it is for kids to read all summer but I want them to love it. Our library offers a great Summer Reading Program with lots of incentives and Mr. George from the Dublin Branch came to Riverside to share some great books with us.

I want a way to encourage kids to read in authentic ways. I want them to see summer like I do--as a time with extra time for reading-a time to get to those books you haven't had a chance to get to yet.

So many readers have a way to keep track of their next-read books. Many people carry little notebooks, scraps of papers, notes on their phones, etc. I keep a list of books on my phone so that whenever I am in a bookstore

or library, I have some titles handy. I want my kids to begin to think ahead too.

As I was thinking about how to go about this this year, I came across these great little notebooks from Oriental Trading Company. I knew they were exactly what I was looking for--and such a bargain! I purchased these notebooks for each of our 2nd through 5th grade students and kids spent time this week decorating and personalizing them. This was nothing fancy--stickers, magazines, etc. But the kids had a great time and are very excited to start using them next week. Next week, I am planning on booktalking some great new books that kids might want to read over the summer. As I share, they'll have their notebooks in hand, ready to add to their list of must read books. I'll take time to have kids share great books and time for book browsing so kids can add to the notebooks.

I am hoping kids leave with an excitement about the books they want to read and I am hoping that this notebook starts a lifelong habit for many of them, a habit of recording those great books they hear about that they want to read sometime soon.

Magnus Maximus, A Marvelous Measurer

Magnus Maximus, A Marvelous Measurer

by Kathleen T. Pelley

illustrated by S.D. Schindler

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010

review copy provided by the publisher

This is a fable that will ring true to anyone who needs to find a little more balance in their life.

This is a fable that will ring true to educators who are tired of measuring, measuring, measuring (testing, testing, testing) and who long to get back to the true experience of joining hands with children and learning together.

Magnus Maximus measures "wetness and dryness, nearness and farness, and everything else in between." He counts "clouds in the sky, petals on a geranium, freckles on a nose, measles on a tummy, or raisins in a bun." He becomes the town's official measurer and measures "all kinds of NESSes" (like the wobbliness of a jellyfish) and "all kinds of ESTs" (like the stinkiest socks).

Then one day, he accidentally steps on his glasses and he can't see to count or measure. He goes down to the sea, where he meets a boy named Michael who invites him to play in the waves and make a sandcastle.

The next day, when his glasses are ready, Magnus Maximus begins to measure again as usual. But at 6:00 that evening, he takes his glasses off, makes a pot of tea, and sits in the garden and enjoys the end of his day...without measuring a single thing.

The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching and Learning

I have had a great week of learning. Last Friday and Saturday, I attended a Literacy Connection workshop featuring speaker Samantha Bennett. On Tuesday of last week, I was able to attend Ohio's 21st Century Skills Summit. Even though the topics of the two workshops were different (one on workshop and one on 21st Century Skills), they came together in a way that is helping me think through my own work. Both really helped me get my mind back into what matters in education. It is getting harder, as teachers, in this age of testing, to remember the big picture of our work. Both of these workshops helped me to think hard about being more intentional and prioritizing.

One of the speakers I was able to hear at the Ohio Summit was Christian Long. His talk was on Learning Environments and it was amazing. I had not heard him speak before and was incredibly inspired by his talk. One of the books that he recommended was THE THIRD TEACHER, which I ordered immediately. I spent this weekend reading the book and I LOVED it. I am so happy to have discovered it. I intend to go back to it over the next few months.

I have been struggling a bit with the environment of the library. I have quickly realized that it is a different kind of challenge to create a community for an entire school population than it is to create a classroom community. Thinking about a space that supports all members of an entire school in different ways has been on my mind this year. Much of my thinking during my last several years in the classroom was about creating an intellectual community in the classroom. So much of my thinking comes from moving beyond merely a feel-good environment for kids, but one where a community can come together as thinkers, learners and doers and how to create that sense for every member. I have been trying to figure out how to use the library resources, time and space to create a similar environment for the entire school community. It is my new big question and this book is helping me begin to think differently about these issues. It is a great book if you are thinking about environment of any kind connected to kids and education. Whether you are thinking about classroom environment, school environment, etc. this book gives you lots to think about.

I have too many sticky notes in the book to begin to tell you about, but the book is filled with so many things to think about in the ways we must change the school environment by thinking about design, if we want to meet our students' needs. Many of the case studies in the book are about schools that were started from scratch or schools that were built with a vision in mind. For me, reading this book was more about thinking through making the best of space that is already there and it gave me lots to think about.

Even though I was thinking a bit about space, this book is about so much more than space. We hear from Howard Gardner in the book, who reminds us, "The actual materials, or layout of the spaces are less important than the provision of ample opportunity to use these intelligences."--The book is about being intentional about the environments we create for children based on what we believe. We hear from experts like Raffi, Ken Robinson and others who each bring a different expertise to the conversation.

Some things in the book that have helped my current thinking:

#14 Multiply Intelligences: Allow students time and space to choose what they want to do-their choices will illuminate their individual strengths."

#15 Post learning: Posting student work, both current and past, up on the walls tracks progress in visible ways.

#23 Make classrooms agile: A learning space that can be reconfigured on a dime will engage different kinds of learners and teachers.

#62 Put the fun in fundamentals: Injecting a learning space with playfulness and humor creates a warm and welcoming atmosphere.

The book explores so many aspects of environment including school lunches, playgrounds and the role of technology in schools today. And the design of the book itself is amazing. It is designed in a way that not only invites you in but gives you so much to think about on every page. The combination of text, quotes, photos and case studies creates a unique read.

So many things that I want to learn more about--projects and people I was introduced to in the book. I want to explore THE THIRD TEACHER site and blog a bit more and I also want to go back and find the sites for many of the schools and experts that I read about in the book.

This book has just been put on my "must recommend to everyone I know" list. (And I like it so much that I don't think I am going to be able to lend it to anyone--it is one that I want to have with me for a while!) I have read so many good things lately but this one stands out a bit for anyone who wants a way to think through the ways in which the environments we create in schools impact teaching and learning.

Poetry Friday -- Eh?

photo by Ségozyme

April showers

bring separation of powers.

What's good for the goose

is the summary of the story.

A thing of beauty

is a decimal place value.

An apple a day

comes off one of the three branches of government.

Those who live in glass houses

compare and contrast the theme of another story.

A bird in the bush

is worth a three in the hundredths place.

All work and no play

makes the teacher cross-eyed when she's grading papers.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

Diane has the roundup this week at Random Noodling.

(Sorry about the comment moderation -- spammers are becoming annoyingly tenacious.)

New Nonfiction

Cover to Cover sold books at The Literacy Connection workshop this weekend. I picked up quite a few books and the ones I am most excited about are some of the new nonfiction titles.

THE HIVE DETECTIVES: CHRONICLE OF A HONEY BEE CATASTROPHE by Loree Griffin Burns
I have not had a chance to read this whole book yet but have read quite a bit of it. I intend to read it cover to cover soon. This book fascinates me. The science of the recent bee disappearance is so stunning and the way that the author makes this story accessible to kids is amazing to me. The book is a longer nonfiction book--about 65 pages. There are gorgeous photos throughout (done by Ellen Harasimowicz). And I am amazed at how much information is included in the book.

The book begins with the work of a bee keeper. Early on in the book readers learn much about the bee community in general and then quickly moves onto the 2006 event. Dave Hackenberg's story of finding hundreds of totally empty hives begins the story. The book goes on to share the dilemma faced by bee scientists in seeing something they had never seen before. Theories of what could have happened and the ways the scientists tried to discover the root of the problem is an amazing story.

Included in the book are profiles of bee scientists,the process of discovering the underlying problem of the vanishing bee colonies and the ways that the scientists solved problems together. Much bee-specific vocabulary is defined and the accompanying photos help to make things clear. Readers learn about the honey production process as well as interesting facts about honeybees. There is an extensive glossary and a great resource list at the end of the book. The resource list shares books, movies, documentaries, magazines and websites that readers can go for more information.

I love any story that shows real scientists at work solving real problems. I can see so many implications for this book in schools. I think it would make a great read aloud. Because it is a narrative, kids would enjoy hearing the amazing story, I think. I also know that so much of our science curriculum deals with ecosystems and habitats. What a great addition to readings about that for older elementary students. This is also a great model for nonfiction writing.

I think this is a good anchor book to think about when we think about our goals for our elementary readers. For me as a 5th grade teacher, this is a book that I would have wanted students to be able to read and understand by the end of their 5th grade year. Having the skills and stamina to do this can be built throughout the elementary years but this book is a great one for kids who read nonfiction for pleasure.

(A interesting article was published this week connected to the book.)

LOOKING CLOSELY AROUND THE POND by Frank Serafini is the newest in the LOOK CLOSELY series. A close-up photo begins each segment and the reader guesses what it is that he/she sees. The answer comes with the full picture as well as a few paragraphs of information about it. A great series for elementary students. For anyone who does work with outdoor labs, this series could be key. This one would also make a great read aloud and a great model for writing. Serafini's photography is stunning, as always.

FOR GOOD MEASURE: THE WAYS WE SAY HOW MUCH, HOW FAR, HOW HEAVY, HOW BIG, HOW OLD by Ken Robbins is an amazing book that focuses on the language of measurement. The book focuses on standard units of measurement of all kinds. Ken Robbins shares information about lengths and distances, area, weight, capacity and more. Within each section, Robbins shares information about the different ways we can measure each--going from smaller units of measure to larger ones. For each unit of measure, Robbins defines the unit and gives readers a great visual to help in understanding. Information about where certain vocabulary comes from and how certain units of measure came to be are included. I think this book can really hep make this work interesting for kids and help them make better sense of it. As always, Ken Robbins is brilliant in his work.

HOW TO CLEAN A HIPPOPOTAMUS: A LOOK AT UNUSUAL ANIMAL PARTNERSHIPS by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
I buy everything by Steve Jenkins. This new book is another great one. Jenkins and Page explore the relationships between animals and the authors make the concept of symbiosis clear to readers. The book explores several animal partnerships that work and explain why they do. The artwork is what we have come to expect from Jenkins and Page but this book has a bit of a different look because lots is packed onto every page and the background colors are a bit darker than other recent books. The layout is almost graphic-novel like which I am sure will appeal to kids. This allows lots of information per page. I so love the way these authors organize the information in their books. Such smart models for our students as writers but also such a brilliant way to make complex concepts accessible to kids.