2 Great New Early Chapter Books

Finding chapter books that are appropriate and engaging for younger readers is often a challenge.  For primary teachers who are looking for a chapter book length book for read aloud or for primary grade readers who are reading far above grade level expectations, appropriate chapter books are often few and far between.  I have been keeping my eye out for chapter books whose content is both accessible and engaging for young readers.  I was happy to find two new ones this week.

 I was soooo happy to recieve a review copy of Nana Takes the Reins from Chronicle Books this week. If you loved NANA CRACKS THE CASE (my blog review here)  when it was released, you'll be thrilled to see that Nana is back! And she is on another adventure with her grandchildren.  This time, they are off to a rodeo.  But they get sidetracked along the way when Nana's car breaks down.  This new book features the same characters we came to know in the first book (Nana, her two grandchildren, their very nervous mother) and we also meet some new characters.  I love the humor in this book and the way the author talks to the reader throughout the book.  At one point in the book, when Nana is very winded from climbing a very high hill, the text reads, "In fact, for your reading ease, all puffing and panting has been removed from the following sentence."  This book is due out in April and I couldn't be happier about this.

I picked up THE TROUBLE WITH CHICKENS by Doreen Cronin at Cover to Cover. This is a fun story about a retired search-and-rescue dog and his friends, the chickens. Even though J.J. merely wants to relax during his retirement, the chicken family on his farm need his help. They are missing two of the baby chicks and they won't leave J. J. alone until he finds them. From the information on the book, this is the first in a series and it sets the stage for a fun set of books. Kids will love the humor and the spy-like voice of J.J.  There is also another character (the villain dog) who made me laugh too.  You can hear more about the book in the trailer below.

Poem #3 -- Metaphor Poem (plus a Simile Book Review)

Mosaic Metaphors 

Moments, memories, mementos

Organized optic chaos, gridlocked visual clutter

Soundless soundtrack of days

Artistic arrangement of scraps: quilt of time

Incidents. Incidental. Incremental.

Catalog with pages missing

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2011

It took me three tries to make this acrostic do what I wanted it to do. It started out as an acrostic about the images, even though I titled it "Metaphor Acrostic" in my writer's notebook. Not a single metaphor. It was a fairly adequate acrostic, but it didn't do what I wanted it to do. I wanted metaphors that described a mosaic. The second try got closer, but it still tried to do what I require my students' acrostics to do (at least initially) -- SAY SOMETHING. I tried to give it narrative flow, so that it could be read aloud without the listener realizing (or needing to know) it was an acrostic. I like the third try, the one above, best. It is a just a series of phrases, but I worked really hard on my word choice, and I like the way alliteration decided to join the fun. 

This is a metaphor poem, even though I never say outright, "A mosaic is...", which I think makes it a more interesting poem. I imply the "A mosaic is...", trusting that the title will alert my reader to infer the meaning in my lines as they relate to the vertical word, "MOSAIC." Hopefully my March mosaic helps the reader visualize to construct meaning, too.

Speaking of the mosaic, don't you love how it starts out all blue and blooming and ends all white and frozen? "In Like a Lamb, Out Like a Lion."

Now for the simile book review.

My Heart is Like a Zoo

by Michael Hall (his website is here)

Greenwillow Books, 2010

review copy provided by the publisher

A metaphor is a way of comparing that says this thing IS that other thing. ("A mosaic IS a catalog with pages missing.") Similes compare by saying this thing IS AS _____ AS that other thing, or this thing IS LIKE that other thing.

My Heart is Like a Zoo is a simile poem that compares the speaker's heart to different animals in the zoo.

"My heart is like a zoo--

eager as a beaver,

steady as a yak,

hopeful as a hungry heron

fishing for a snack..."

Not only is this a delightful simile poem that compares the heart to twenty animals, all of the illustrations are composed of hearts!

Also reviewed by Katie at Creative Literacy
Betsy Bird reviews Michael Hall's new book, The Perfect Square, at A Fuse #8 Production

Poem #2 -- Out Like a Lion

OUT LIKE A LION

I thought it was
going to be
spring outside.
Things were beginning
to grow.
When I looked out the window
expecting the sun,
all I could see was
SNOW!

It snowed left to right
and covered the ground.
My lone daffodil hung its head.
I want shorts! Not more coat...
I want sun! Not more scarf...

I want to
say goodbye
to
SNOW!

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2011

Poetry Friday -- NaPoMo and JPL

Huzzah!

Hooray!

He's on his way!

A poet is coming to school!

We've been reading 

And rhyming,

Our voices are chiming:

A poet is coming to school!

...Wait a second...

Look at the walls!

Check the displays!

I think it's fair to say:

500 poets come to our school

Every single day!

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2011

Today is our school's author visit. Local poet, and the 16th winner of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, J. Patrick Lewis will be our guest. Our students have written amazing poetry in preparation for his visit. The halls of our school are alive with rhythm, rhyme, acrostics, haiku, free verse, and more.

What a great way to begin NaPoMo -- by spending the day with a poet! I am going to attempt to I am GOING TO write a poem a day again this year.

Yesterday, I also launched a NaPoMo game I'm calling PoetQRy QResponse. Details are here, and you can find some helpful information about QR codes here.

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is at The Poem Farm, hosted by the AMAZING Amy LV, who started out writing a poem a day last NaPoMo, and wound up writing a poem a day ALL YEAR LONG!

Happy National Poetry Month, everyone!

A Little QR Code Help So You Can Join in the POETRY FUN!

For those of you who asked for more info on QR codes, here are two links from our blog that might help so that you can participate in PoetQRy QResponse:

Do You Know What This Is?

QR CODE Book Previews in the Library

National Poetry Month Plans

Again this year, I'll be writing a poem a day during the month of April.

I'm also inviting you to play a game I'm calling...

PoetQRy QResponse

Favorite Series: Tugg and Teeny

Tugg and Teeny: Book One (I Am a Reader)
by J. Patrick Lewis
illustrated by Christopher Denise
Sleeping Bear Press, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

Yes, it's probably cheating to love a series when there's only one book out so far. But I'm willing to stick my neck out for Tugg and Teeny.

There are three short stories in this book, and they are all art-themed. In the first story, Teeny wants to become a musician. Tugg didn't buy her expensive lessons, he made sure she discovered a stick with holes in it, encouraged her to blow in it to see what happened, and then waited patiently as "her squeaks turned into peeps, and the peeps turned into tweets and toodles." Tugg is just as patient when Teeny wants to become an artist (Violet the Warthog helps out with this venture), and when Teeny wants to be a poet.

Why I love this series:
1. Tugg and Teeny are a great pair of characters. Elephant and Piggie great. Frog and Toad great. Henry and Mudge great.
2. They call each other "Monkeyface" and "Tuggboat."
3. The illustrations.


This post is the first in a SERIES of Wednesday posts about new/recent books in some of my favorite series.

Why I love series books:
1. I fall in love with characters when I read, and with a series, I get to revisit them in book after book.
2. I appreciate the way an author can keep enough things the same and at the same time, change just enough in each successive book in a series to keep me reading.
3. Other people collect baseball cards or beanie babies. I read all the books in a series as a readerly way of collecting.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING? A Book About Reading

We haven't added a book to our BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS AND READING booklist in a while. I just found a new one at Cover to Cover called WHAT ARE YOU DOING by Elisa Amado.   This book is a simple story with gorgeous illustrations by Manuel Monroy. (From the jacket flap, I learned that he is one of Mexico's most celebrated illustrators and from this book, I can see why!)

It is Chepito's first day of school, but before the day begins, he walks around town and finds lots of people reading. To each one he asks, "What are you doing?".  He then follows up with the questions, "Why?". Each reader is reading something different--from a newspaper, to the comics, to a manual, to a fashion magazine. And each reader has a different reason for reading.  The story ends with Chepito going to school and discovering the joy of books.  This simple story will start lots of great conversations around books and the reasons we read.  The repeated phrases and predictable storyline make it perfect for young readers.  An added bonus for our family was to discover that the author, Elisa Amado is a Guatemalan-born author and translator.

3:15 APP LISTEN-READ-WATCH

If you have not made time to read Patrick Carman's multimedia books, I would highly suggest doing so. Patrick Carman is committed to creating multimedia books that hook readers and keep them reading. He has really done some amazing work and he has created some great stories that use so many types of media. The first book I read was SKELETON CREEK. I reviewed it on the blog right away and was excited to see how seamlessly Carman had integrated the various forms of media.  This series has been hugely popular in the library since its publication.  The newer series that Carman created is the TRACKERS series. This one was more of a spy novel and I reviewed the first book in the series on the blog last year.

Patrick Carman's new project is very exciting.  He has created a series of short stories called 3:15. These stories require that you LISTEN, READ AND WATCH.  This 3:15 series is published as an APP.    The first episode, "Buried Treasure" has been released.  There is a new episode due to be released every 2 weeks through summer.  Then Season 2 Begins with more episodes.  If you enjoyed Jon Scieszka's EXQUISITE CORPSE ADVENTURE creation, where you wait for a new online episode to be released, this follows  a similar idea.  One big difference in this and The Exquisite Corpse is that each episode in 3:15 is a stand alone story. The first episode is free and the second episode of 3:15 is due out tomorrow--March 29. It is called, "Reflecting Pool".  It sounds like all of the stories will be published in a book this coming fall from Scholastic.  Lots of ways for kids to discover these stories. I love that about Carman-he seems to be committed to giving kids many ways into reading.

A 20+ page text tells most of the story and
leads the reader to the video ending.

I spent some time with the first episode, "Buried Treasure" and really enjoyed it. I also handed it to my 11 year old daughter when I was finished it and she thoroughly enjoyed it and wondered when the next episode was due out.  Here is how it works.  When you get to the app on the ipod/iphone, you have 3 things to do. First, you LISTEN to the set up of the story told by a narrator.  Then you READ for about 10 minutes. The text is about 22 ipod size pages and this part tells the bulk of the story. When you are finished with the text, you go to WATCH and view the video that tells the ending to the story.  I love this.

When I first read SKELETON CREEK, the only part that bothered me was moving from book to computer.  I hated putting my book down to get to the computer. But Patrick Carman has perfected all of this and has figured out how to put all parts of the book into an app so you can experience each on the ipod or ipad.

These stories are a bit scary. Ghost stories.  I have had difficulty lately finding enough "Scary Stories" for kids in the library who love them. These will definitely appeal to kids who love the SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK series and authors like Mary Downing Hahn.

I think there are so many more possibilities for reading today and I am so glad that Patrick Carman has committed to this work with Multimedia. He has a great video on his website that better explains all of this called, How a Multimedia Book Works. He also has a great clip on his thinking about Books and Tech.

Patrick Carman really seems to have discovered new possibilities for storytelling.  Whether you are already a fan of his work or not (I am, can you tell?), check out his new series of apps, 3:15. I am already looking forward to Episode 2 which is available on March 29.

CAN WE SAVE THE TIGER? by Martin Jenkins

I have been using Goodreads since January pretty regularly. I use it to log my own reading and to pay attention to what friends are reading.  I am finding that this is a huge resource for finding great new books.  When I get an update, I check for books my friends have added and I keep my eyes open for those books that people give a 4 or 5 rating too. I add all of those to my list.  Last week, this was exactly how I discovered the book CAN WE SAVE THE TIGER? by Martin Jenkins.  Donalyn Miller had read it and given it a high rating.  Since I am always looking for good nonfiction for children, I knew this was one I had to read.  I should have noticed that it was written by the author of another of my favorite nonfiction books, THE EMPEROR'S EGG but I didn't right away.

WOW! This book is amazing.  There are so many reasons I like it. First of all, it is a great nonfiction narrative--one that is meant to be read cover to cover. One of the things that has me concerned lately, about kids' nonfiction reading, is the fact that so much skimming and scanning, without ever reading whole texts, is happening. So, finding books that are meant to be read from cover to cover has been a goal for me. Also, I am always looking for great nonfiction read alouds. This one BEGS to be read aloud. As a matter of fact, I made my family listen to much of it once I realized how amazing it was.  And, yes, they loved it too.  And, this is a great mentor text for kids who are writing nonfiction.  The writing is powerful and every line is crafted well. A great model for nonfiction writers.

But most importantly, this book taught me so much about endangered animals. The author pulled me in from the first page and told me stories about animals. He helped me understand the complexity of the many reasons animals become extinct.  And he shared ways people have helped and are now trying to help the animals who are in danger. No matter how much you know about a topic like this, there is so much complexity to the issues and Jenkins does a great job at sharing many of those.

This book is accessible to kids and I am confident they will love it.  It is packed with information embedded in stories that help you care deeply about each animal discussed.  The illustrations are mostly sketches that add powerful images to the text. The illustrations show the beauty of the animals as well as the dangers they face.  At the end of the book are web resources to go to for more information.

This is my favorite book of the moment-one of the best nonfiction books I've read in a while.  I want everyone I know to buy it and to read it.  It really seems like the perfect nonfiction book to me. I am so happy to have discovered it! Thanks, Donalyn:-)