What We Need

What We Need 

by David Budbill

The Emperor,

his bullies

and henchmen

terrorize the world

every day,

which is why

every day

we need

a little poem

of kindness,

a small song

of peace

a brief moment

of joy.

...and a box of donuts wouldn't hurt, either.

Amy has the round up this week at The Poem Farm.

Superhero Joe

Superhero Joe

written by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman

drawn by Ron Barrett

Simon & Schuster, 2011

review copy provided by the publisher

I could use a superhero in my life about now. Someone who could tame the piles of books and papers on (and around) my desks at school and home, someone who would organize the junk drawer in the kitchen. Someone who could pull hard enough on the spin of the earth to slow it down and make more hours in the day.

I need Superhero Joe.

Superhero Joe learned from comic book heroes how to face his fears. That's why he has a cape of confidence, a shield of invincibility, a torch of radiance, a helmet of invisibility and super gravity-defying boots.

Joe's parents are in peril, but when they plead for his help, he is able to don his superhero apparel and brave the darkness and monsters of the basement to fetch the Staff of Power (aka mop).

This picture book with graphic novel formatting/structures might inspire young comic artists to give Superhero Joe some new adventures and rescues.

BOOKS I COULD READ A MILLION TIMES: THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN THE SCHOOL by Laura Murray

I am picky about new versions of THE GINGERBREAD MAN and I LOVE this new one, THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN THE SCHOOL by Laura Murray.  I heard about this book from Shannon Miller (@shannonmmiller) on Twitter and ordered it right away when I heard how much her students were enjoying it.  And after reading it lots of times, it is my first BOOK I CAN READ A MILLION TIMES for 2011-2012. (And I am thinking Bill at Literate Lives may want to add it to his PICKS FROM THE PIT.)

First of all, the Gingerbread Man on the cover is quite lovable from the start.  He is standing quite happily with his hands on his hips.  The story starts out in a classroom where students are making the Gingerbread Man. But the fun is that it is told from the Gingerbread Man's perspective.  The first line reads, "I began in a bowl. I was not yet myself-"  How can you not love him already?

But, right after the Gingerbread Man comes out of the oven, the teacher lets the kids know it is time for recess and they all run out of the room. The Gingerbread Man panics and decides to run and find them. So, off he goes. He runs into lots of nice people who help him (the school nurse, the coach, the art teacher, etc.) To each one, he says, "I'm the Gingerbread Man and I'm trying to find the children who made me, but left me behind."  A few repeated phrases will invite student participation. There is a cute happy ending when he finally finds his class.

I can't end the review without mentioning the brilliant illustrations by Mike Lowery.  The Gingerbread boy is lovable and the colors the illustrator uses make this gingerbread story unique. There is a graphic novel feel to the book with boxes for various scenes. The illustrations add a great deal to the story.

This is a great one for any time of the year. I am sharing it with students this week and I like it more and more each time I read it.  The kids love the story and discovering the similarities and differences in this one and other versions they've read. They love joining in while I read and they are all so happy when it is finished.  Some kids have gone off during library time to write their own school versions of the Gingerbread man story.   I am pretty sure this will be a book I will never see again once it is available for check out! I can see it being quite popular!

2 New Nonfiction Picture Book Read Alouds

One of my goals this year is to read more nonfiction aloud to students. I love nonfiction but rarely make time to read it aloud to students.  So, I am on the lookout for nonfiction books that would make great read alouds.  I am excited about both of them.

Kate Messner's upcoming book OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW is fascinating.  This is the story of a father and daughter who are skiing across the snow. But as the ski over the snow, they are aware of all the things going on under the snow.  Honestly, I had no idea about this "subnivean zone" until I read about it in this book. But Kate does a great job of making the idea accessible to children by showing us what happens over the snow at the same time so much is happening under the snow. The author's notes at the end provide a great deal more information on the subnivean zone as well as the many animals in the story.  The art is gorgeous and almost makes me wish for winter!   I can't wait to share this one with students--closer to winter time, I think!

The other book that will make a great nonfiction read aloud is ANIMAL BATHS by Bob Barner. This one is written with younger readers in mind and it is quite fun! Each 2 page spread is gives us rhyming text with information about how various animals stay clean.  The bright illustrations and happy animals make this a happy read and children will learn lots about all the different ways animals keep themselves clean. There is lots of information packed into this quick read!

*Both of these books were review copies sent by Chronicle Books.

2 Events Hosted by The Literacy Connection

You may have already received information about this year's Literacy Connection events.  If not, we will be hosting 2 events this year and I am thrilled about both of them!

The Literacy Connection is partnering with the Columbus Area Writing Project this fall to host a Saturday conference on October 22. It will be held at the Quest Conference Center in Columbus, Ohio.  The day includes three keynote speakers:  Sonia Nieto, Asma Mobin-Uddin and Troy Hicks. Concurrent sessions will fill the day and participants will be able to learn about many topics of interest.  (Karen Szymusiak and I will be doing a session on "Mentor Texts in the Digital Writing Workshop" -something we've both been thinking about for a while.)  Lots of other great sessions are on the agenda.  We hope you'll think about joining us. I sent in my registration a few weeks ago and am already excited about the day.

As for our annual study group and spring event, The Literacy Connection will be hosting Cris Tovani. For those of you interested in the yearlong event, we will be reading and discussing Cris's new book SO WHAT DO THEY REALLY KNOW?  The book is written from Cris's experiences as a high school teacher but the implications span grades K-12.  We think teachers at all levels will be able to explore universal issues around assessment through the study of this book. (My review of the book is on the blog.)  The first meeting for the yearlong study will be on October 19.  As a culmination to the study, Cris will be doing demonstration teaching at Wickliffe Elementary School on Friday, April 27 followed by a full-day workshop on Saturday, April 28 at Wickliffe. Participants can attend individual sessions or the entire year of events around her book.  (Credit is available for those attending all parts of this event.)  More information, along with registration information can be found at The Literacy Connection website.

Poetry Friday -- Listening

Listening

by Jean Valentine

My whole life I was swimming listening

beside the daylight world like a dolphin beside a boat

—no, swallowed up, young, like Jonah,

sitting like Jonah in the red room

behind that curving smile from the other side

but kept, not spat out,

kept, for love,

not for anything I did, or had,

I had nothing but our inside-

outside smile-skin ...

my paper and pen ...

but I was made for this: listening:

“Lightness wouldn't last if it wasn't used up on the lyre.”

*      *      *      *      *

Listen to the poem, or print the poem here, on Jean Valentine's website.

Katie has this week's Poetry Friday round up at Secrets & Sharing Soda. 

*      *      *      *      *

I'm working hard this year to listen well to my students. I want to be the dolphin beside their boat; I want to be like Jonah, listening from inside.


It takes focus and concentration to listen. It's one of the most important things I can do: really listen to them and really hear them.


As you can see from the photos above, I've captured some of the phrases my students have said so that we can come back to their wise words over and over again throughout the year. This year, the word wall includes their words along with the vocabulary words we're learning throughout the day. We have related their words to some of the read alouds we've shared so far this year -- "Let's just try it!" goes with the spirit of approximation in ISH by Peter Reynolds; "I think we should..." goes with with the team work found in LITTLE BLUE TRUCK by Alice Schertle; the whole idea of listening carefully before acting goes with RABBIT AND SQUIRREL: A TALE OF WAR AND PEAS by Kara LaReau; and I'm sure you know who the children echoed when they said "It's all good" -- Pete the Cat!

It takes focus and concentration to listen. Everyday life conspires to move me on to the next thing I will say, rather than letting me linger on the things my students say to me and to each other.

Last Friday, we listened in awe to our classmate from China. She and her Poetry Friday reading partners found a poem about the Great Wall of China (in J. Patrick Lewis' MONUMENTAL VERSES). She told us about the Great Wall, which she has seen firsthand, first in fluent Chinese, and then in broken, but passionate English. Her partners read the poem to us. We listened.


It takes focus and concentration to listen. It's one of the most important things we can do.

Graphic Novel Week: The Last Council (Amulet, Book 4)

The Last Council (Amulet, Book 4)
by Kazu Kibuishi
Scholastic, 2011
review copy purchased for my classroom library

I'm just about ready to take the Bone series out of my classroom library. First of all, the books are all falling apart, but mostly, now that graphic novels for kids have started to increase in number and quality, Bone stands out as a series that is n-o-t not for younger readers. The Amulet series is.

First of all, the main characters in Amulet are kids. Like Harry Potter, Emily has special powers. She is a Stonekeeper. She's not sure quite what that means for herself or the world -- as the books progress, she learns more. The story revolves around good vs. evil. Sometimes the evil turns out to be good and sometimes the good turns out to be evil.

This fourth book in the series had echoes of the Chaos Walking trilogy and the Hunger Games trilogy (although obviously, I wouldn't expect my fourth grade readers to make those connections -- it's just interesting to see echoes of big themes showing up in new places) : a new world, something's not quite right, working together for survival, betrayal in the name of power, seeming failure, trusted elder.

This is a great series. It's hard to wait a year between books! These books need to be read sequentially, in order to follow the story line.

My review of Book 1: The Stonekeeper.
Why didn't I review Book 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse?
My review of Book 3: The Cloud Searchers.

Very cool Amulet site over at Scholastic.

Recommended for readers in grades 4-6.

Graphic Novel Week: Big City Otto

Big City Otto

by Bill Slavin
Kids Can Press, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

Otto, the elephant, can't forget his childhood friend, Georgie, the chimp, who was stolen from the jungle by The Man With the Wooden Nose. Crackers, the parrot, and Otto set out to find Georgie. They manage to get on a plane as excess baggage, get to A Big City in America, and begin to search for Georgie. They wind up involved with some shady 'gators in the underground (literally) of the big city. They bust up the mob, get some clues about Georgie, and set off for the Bayou to find him.

There are a lot of sight gags and puns in this story that are likely to go right over younger readers' heads, but young readers are also more likely to accept the impossibility of...well, of the entire storyline. The talking animals, an elephant who can disguise himself in a jacket and hat and go undetected in a crowd...it's all crazy enough to be on Saturday morning TV. Which is why it might work better for kids than logic-minded adults.

This is the second graphic novel this summer (see my review of Sidekicks) that has featured a character with a peanut allergy! Otto is allergic to peanuts, and the mobster 'gators use his explosive sneezes to their advantage.

This is book one of a series that might need to be read sequentially. It's interesting that the story line is the same basic story line as the THREE THIEVES series that I reviewed yesterday: the are chased, separated, helped, reunited, swindled, separated again, helped again, reunited, and the book ends as they set off on in a new direction to find the missing character.

Recommended for readers in 4th-6th grades.

Graphic Novel Week: Three Thieves series

Tower of Treasure
by Scott Chandler
Kids Can Press, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

Three circus characters -- an orphan girl who's an acrobat, a blue elf-like creature who juggles (and can pick locks), and a giant purple creature who has enormous strength -- conspire to rob the queen's Tower of Treasure. Flashbacks in black and white show us that the girl, Dessa, has a twin brother who has met an uncertain fate by saving her. The trio finds the treasure room, is caught, escapes, are separated, and are reunited. In the process, Dessa gathers some clues about what might have happened to her brother, and in the end, the three set out together to find him.

The Sign of the Black Rock
by Scott Chandler
Kids Can Press, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

In book two, the three characters from TOWER OF TREASURE wind up at the same inn as the Queen's men who are chasing them. They are helped, discovered, and locked up. They escape, but are rediscovered, separated, locked up again, and escape and are reunited again with more help and more clues about how to find Dessa's brother.

I'm thinking of previewing this series by reading aloud Act One of the first book using the document camera and the SmartBoard.

We can continue to develop our habit of thoroughly previewing a book (and starting our reading thinking) before we ever open a book. The front cover image of THE TOWER OF TREASURE is great for prediction and wondering. The blurb on the back will introduce us to the characters before we meet them and set up the basic outline of the story.

When we open the book, we will see that it is divided into Acts, rather than chapters. We can look at the conventions of graphic novels: panels -- and the direction to read the panels, speech bubbles -- and the direction to read the speech bubbles, size of print, information that is in the illustration rather than the text, and the black and white flashbacks.

We will see that, just like in non-graphic novels, it takes awhile (in this case, about 30 pages) to set up the story for the reader. We will learn about the characters, the setting (place AND time), and the problems/conflicts/what the characters want.

Hmm...that sounds like about three different mini-lessons, not to mention the time it would take to read the first 30 pages under the document camera. Maybe I'll hijack read aloud for a MAXI-lesson...or it could be a week-long series of mini-lessons with one hijacked read aloud.

This is a graphic novel series that needs to be read sequentially. Recommended for readers in 4th-6th grade.

If you're looking for graphic novels for younger readers, browse through our Graphic Novel tag. For even younger readers, wordless books often work in some of the same ways. We haven't been as thorough about tagging wordless books, but a search of our blog with the term "wordless" does an okay job of finding lots of titles.

Gorging on Graphic Novels

The hottest books in my classroom in the first six days of 4th grade?

Graphic novels.

Maybe it's because my students have never had access to such a wide variety.

Maybe it's because my students have never so obviously been "given permission" to read graphic novels.

Maybe it's because lots of my students didn't read over the summer, or aren't fluent in English, and they need the support of the pictures in a not-babyish book.

Or all of the above.

Did you see Terry Thompson's (author of Adventures in Graphica, tweeting @terrytreads) guest post on The Book Whisperer Blog last week? He very concisely talks about how graphic novels are perfect for motivation, scaffolding, and versatility.

Each day this week, I'll be reviewing one or more new graphic novels that will be going into (or are in) my classroom library.


Luz Sees the Lightby Claudia Dávila
Kids Can Press, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

Luz is a spunky chica who learns the hard way that she needs to make better choices for the Earth. There are blackouts in her city that cause her to realize how dependent she is on electricity. She really wants a pair of expensive imported sneakers, but she has to abandon that dream along with frequent car rides to the mall. As she becomes more enlightened (as she "sees the light") she becomes a neighborhood activist, working with her friends to turn the vacant lot in their neighborhood into a beautiful garden.

Maybe it's a bit didactic, but how many spunky chica main characters do YOU have in your classroom library??? (Me, neither. Now I have one.)

Recommended for readers in 3rd-6th grade, and a perfect tie-in for a science unit on energy.