One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

I knew ONE FOR THE MURPHYS would be my kind of book. I am all about people being changed and growing because of others.  I knew right away that this book might be a tiny bit like PICTURES OF HOLLIS WOODS by Patricia Reilly Giff, THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS by Katherine Paterson and BABY by Patricia Maclachlan--books that have lived with me for years.

This is the story of Carley Connors, a middle school girl who is placed in foster care after being hurt by her step-father.  Carley's mother is in the hospital recovering from her own injuries from her new husband.  Carley is tough and sarcastic.  She has a hard shell but is easy to get to know and love.  She is placed in foster care with the Murphys--a family who has never had a foster child and a family very different from the one she grew up in.  The Murphys take her in and help her to heal.

I don't want to give too much away but this book is about the power of love and the lasting impact of those who love us. How love can change a person.  It is a perfect middle grade novel in terms of the amount of depth and emotion that are a part of it.  The book deals with serious issues around families, abuse and love but does so in a way that is very appropriate for middle grade children. I felt like it was honest and hopeful at the same time.

I absolutely loved this book--through all of the laughing and the tears.  Carley Connors and Mrs. Murphy are two characters who will stay with me for a very, very long time. Probably forever.

(And if you love the Broadway musical WICKED, there is a even more to love about this book as there is a thread of mentions of this story throughout the story of Carley.)

Poetry Friday -- O Me! O Life!

O Me! O Life! By Walt Whitman O Me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; Of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities fill'd with the           foolish; Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish           than I, and who more faithless?) Of eyes that vainly crave the light--of the objects mean--           of the struggle ever renew'd; Of the poor results of all--of the plodding and sordid crowds           I see around me; Of the empty and useless years of the rest--with the rest           me intertwined; The question, O me! so sad, recurring--What good amid these,           O me, O life?                                   Answer. That you are here--that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute           a verse. *    *    * Yes, that powerful play is going on, and we are careening hurtling rushing through these last days, through this last act, through this last verse of the song we've been singing since last August. Almost time for the curtains to close, for the conductor's baton to lower. What tracks will we leave in these children's lives? On these children's hearts? Irene has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Live Your Poem...

Happy Birthday TEACH MENTOR TEXTS!

 

I am thrilled to be part of the 2 year blogiversary celebration of one of my favorite blogs--TEACH MENTOR TEXTS.  I have learned so much from Jen and Kellee over the last two years (and have spent lots of money on great new books!)  As part of the celebration, they are asking bloggers to share their favorite mentor texts.

I decided to write about an older book--one that I love when it comes to helping kids see what is possible when it comes to writing, HEY WORLD, HERE I AM by Jean Little. I think I learned about this book in 1991 when I attended the Teachers' College Summer Writing Project at Columbia. (I know that this was long ago because I remember recording every keynote on a very high-tech portable cassette recorder!) And when Jen and Kellee asked me to share a favorite mentor text, this one came to mind. It came to mind because it is one that impacts kids' writing every single year.

HEY WORLD, HERE I AM is a poetry book, a journal and more.  It was published in 1989 and had many great reviews and awards that year.  And even though it is a 1989 publication, so much of it still rings true for children today.  This book is a collection of entries by Kate Bloomfield. She writes about siblings, friends, loss and school.  She writes with passion and joy and with the insights of of a tween girl.

Each and every entry in this "notebook" is one that children can learn from. I have used this book when launching writers' notebooks as students begin to see all the ways they can make sense of their lives on paper. I've use pieces separately for specific minilessons.  "Not Enough Emilys" is one of my favorite pieces in this book.  In this piece, the author talks about her friend Emily--but instead of telling us about her by describing her, we learn about her through her actions. It is a powerful piece for both readers and writers learning about character.

I've used this book as a mentor for readers learning to think deeply around text. A poem in the book called "Five Dollars" is about a time when Kate stole $5 from her mother's wallet. The poem is about guilt and is an honest reflection that gets readers thinking in a way that helps them understand the character more deeply.

Another poem I like is poems in this collection is Louisa, Louisa. This  is a great poem about a new baby.  Welcoming her into the world and celebrating her new life.

I don't think there is a piece in this book I haven't used with students.  It is a book I really couldn't live without in my teaching of reading and writing. Kate is a character I love and I love coming to know her through her writing.

You can take a peek into this book at the Harper Collins site. And it is in paperback so it is doable to buy several copies of this one for your classroom.

Who Will Save My Planet by Maria Cristina Urrutia

I picked up WHO WILL SAVE MY PLANET by Maria Cristina Urrutia at Cover to Cover. It is a wordless book and the story it tells is a serious one. This is a small book filled with photos of our world.   The photographer uses two page spreads to show us the depth of the problems--how the Earth has become ruined. In each two page spread, Urrutia shows two intense photos. One shows the problem--a forest of trees chopped down, an animal in a cage, etc. The other side of each spread shows a connected picture--showing how things should be if we take care of things.  There is not one word in this book but the photographs tell a powerful story of where we are in taking care of our world.

I picked this up for many reasons--I am always looking for wordless books because I think they are great to begin talk around ideas.  I also thought this would be a great conversation starter around visual literacy, how to read images, etc.  This book has lots of possibilities.

EGGS 1-2-3 by Janet Halfmann

I love when I find a great new nonfiction picture book that is perfect for young children. EGGS 1-2-3: WHO WILL THE BABIES BE? is my new favorite find in this category.  This lift-the-flap book is by Janet Halfmann.

This book is not only a nonfiction book--it has great, poetic language and it is also a counting book!  Each two-page spread gives readers a little question about eggs in the illustration. For example "Four eggs, of sky blue, in a nest of grass and mud on a branch in a backyard.  Who will the babies be?" When you lift the flap, you read, "4 robin chicks, with beaks open wide, begging for juicy worms.

The book goes from 1-10 with a fun last page of more counting. I like this book because it weaves in just the right amount of information about the eggs and the babies that hatch from them.  I love it for young readers and I also love it as a mentor for writing--a great format for nonfiction writers with information shared using great language.

POETRY MADNESS

April was a month of POETRY MADNESS in the Riverside Library.  We started out by looking at 64 poetry books from the library.  Rotating from one table to the next, students chose a poetry book they loved. The top 16 books made it to our Poetry Bracket.  

Then, each week, we looked at the challenges on the board--reading poems, sharing thoughts and voting on which book we liked best in each challenge. Each week, a few books moved to the next level of the bracket while others were knocked out.  Until we were down to just two books. The two books in our final challenge were LOOSE LEASHES by Ron Schmidt and Amy Schmidt and SCARUM FAIR.  LOOSE LEASHES came out the winner and the kids were thrilled. This has definitely become the new favorite poetry book in the library this year.

I definitely learned (again) that kids LOVE funny poems.  They like the others if we introduce them but left on their own, they are drawn to poems that are mostly fun.  I was amazed though by how many kids stuck by their less popular choices.  It as fun to see individual students find poetry books and poems that struck them for some reason--not understanding why everyone didn't see what they saw in the poem.

The process was a good one and the talk around poetry was different because of Poetry Madness. Every week, kids would come into the library, eager to see which books had won, which were left. There was informal talk about the books--they knew titles and poems.  

My favorite moment of the whole month of Poetry Madness happened on Friday when the last group of 2nd graders was examining the chart.  Many were cheering about Loose Leashes. Others were looking back at the books that didn't make it, talking about the ones they wished had gone farther in the bracket. One second grade boy said, "I don't know why, but I really wanted STEP GENTLY OUT to win." I said,"Oh, I loved that one too. Why did you like it?" He said, "I don't know. I guess when I read it, I felt peace."  Everyone nodded and agreed.  What an insightful comment. It was then that I realized that the small conversations around Poetry Madness had made a difference to lots of kids. 

In the midst of Poetry Madness, we also celebrated POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY. Since we had spent so much time looking at 64 great poetry books, it was fun to see the variety of poems that kids chose to carry around that day.  It has been nice to see them talking about poems and poetry books so naturally and happily.

Poetry Friday -- Tiger, Tiger

THE TYGER
by William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

We can never touch them, 

so we love them from afar; 

they are wild and distant -- 

the Tiger and the star. 

We can never know them; 

they are not what we are: 

fire, fire, burning bright -- 

the tiger and the star. 

by David Elliott

Have I mentioned recently how much I love teaching fourth grade, especially from February on? Well, I am and I do.

Earlier in the year, I shared Blake's "The Tyger" with my students, along with the way-cool video interpretation I first saw at Tabatha's blog, The Opposite of Indifference.

Our focus right now in Reading Workshop is "Reading to Learn." I decided to take a break from conferring and read alongside my students yesterday. I'm reading poetry to learn to be a better poet. I was sitting at a table with some students, reading David Elliott's IN THE WILD, and taking notes in my notebook when I came to his poem, "Tiger." I'm not sure why I never noticed it before, but I was struck by the way his poem made me think again about Blake's. (And I vowed that someday I, too, will write a poem that makes the reader think of a famous poem.)

S., whose favorite animal is the tiger, overheard me talking about the poem with N. (who tried a few dictionary poems with me in early April). He came over and told me about getting chills when he heard Blake's poem for the first time -- the part (and he quoted) "about 'Tyger, Tyger burning bright/in the forests of the night' " and also when he thought about the answer to the question of who made the tiger. 

Well, of course it was then MY turn to get chills. I had no idea that "The Tyger" had made such an impression on S. Even after only one exposure, he could quote parts of it. And he, too, loved how Elliott had made a slantwise reference to Blake in his poem.

Fourth grade at the end of the year -- it doesn't get much better than that.

Elaine has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Wild Rose Reader.

How Technology Really Works by Clive Gifford

Cover to Cover sold books at the Literacy Connection event on Saturday. I always love to buy books at this event because there are always a few new books that I haven't seen. One of my new favorites from my purchases on that day was HOW TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY REALLY WORKS by Clive Gifford.  There are so many fascinating topics covered in this book. Topics include information on game controllers, camcorders, and spy tech.

 This is part of a new Scholastic Discover More series that I think I am going to love!




I like the fact that there are books for various age groups. I love the idea of digital companions. I love the topics and the layouts. I am always looking for books with 2 page spreads, especially nonfiction--to use with kids in minilessons. I think this series will be great for independent reading as well as minilesson work.  Can't wait to see the others in the series!

On My TBR List

When I found out I was going to be teaching 4th grade next year, I immediately emailed Tony Keefer (@tonykeefer) to recommend some great books that beginning 4th graders (especially boys) might read--books that I would not normally pick up on my own.  I love having Tony as one of my reading friends--we enjoy some of the same books but overall, our tastes are different. So I can always count on Tony to recommend good books I may not have discovered on my own.  Here are three of the books he recommended that I picked up today. They are series that I have dabbled in but I really need to commit to so I'm ready for lots of different 4th grade readers in the fall.

THE RIOT BROTHERS by Mary Amato

A CHET GECKO MYSTERY by Bruce Hale

FRANKIE PICKLE by Eric Wight

Any other suggestions for great books for early 4th graders?

April Mosaics

APRIL MOSAIC

The sky above

a yellow glove

Two observe

mushrooms curve

Long spikey

slow slippery

25 spot

3 cake pops

Bee in the window is dead

Cat in the window turns head

Tree in bloom

Vast amounts of room

River has meanders

Table has treasures

Cake plate view

(coins from 1892)

Sugar bowl twinkles

Cut glass crinkles

Flow Blue plate

Butter dish weight

Carnival glass shimmers

Tools made many dinners

Shot glass -- small

Pitcher -- tall

Pike's Peaking

Hawk's eating

Stack of three

Plate of cheese

Powell winery

Spring's green finery

Birdhouse gourds hang 

April's gone...dang!

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012

Poem #30, National Poetry Month, 2012

All 30 poems for this month make a mosaic of their own, a different sort of glimpse into my world -- the poetic version of what I was seeing and doing and thinking about. Here is a link to my 2012 NPM Poems. (My April photo mosaic is on Flickr here.)

In March, the Poetry Tournament at Think Kid, Think! was a watershed moment for me as a writer. I changed my identity from "person who sometimes writes poetry" to Poet. I'm excited to see where this new direction in my writing will lead. I have a brand new PINK writer's notebook to start filling...beginning tomorrow!

Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?