In case you were wondering...

...this is John F. Kennedy:

Poetry Friday -- Sensing the Solstice

This is the poem I wrote for Diane Mayr for the Winter Poem Swap that Tabatha organized. (click to enlarge)  Tabatha prompted us to

Write a twelve-line poem in which the first word of each line starts with the same letter (e.g. all of your lines start with "A") and the last word of each line starts with the same letter (e.g. all lines end with words that begin with "B").

As you can see, I didn't manage to hit the prompt right on the nose!

Tonight I will celebrate the Solstice with close friends. We will eat Navajo stew and sage bread, and the Kachinas, who left at the Summer Solstice and took light and life with them, will come back bearing gifts and the promise of spring.

Our Solstice Poetry Friday Roundup Hostess is Heidi, at My Juicy Little Universe.

Speaking of Summer Solstice, we need to line up Poetry Friday roundup hosts for the first half of 2013! Leave your choice of Fridays in the comments -- I'll update the calendar on Saturday.

January
4    Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme
11  Renee at No Water River
18  Violet at Violet Nesdoly / Poems
25  Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference

February
1    April at Teaching Authors
8    Tara at A Teaching Life
15  Linda at TeacherDance
22  Sheri at Sheri Doyle

March 
1    Julie at The Drift Record
8    Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe
15  Jone at Check it Out
22  Greg at Gotta Book
29  Mary Lee at A Year of Reading

April
5    Robyn at Read, Write, Howl
12  Diane at Random Noodling
19  Irene at Live Your Poem...
26  Laura at Writing the World for Kids

May
3    Liz at Growing Wild
10  Anastasia at Booktalking
17  Ed at Think Kid, Think!
24  Jama at Jama's Alphabet Soup
31  Betsy at Teaching Young Writers

June
7    Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
14  Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
21  Carol at Carol's Corner
28  Amy at The Poem Farm

#bookgapchallenge

So, in a conversation on Twitter the other day (started by the Nerdy Book Club post that Katherine Sokolowski and I wrote to help Colby find great YA books-EVEN if there is some kissing...), we all started to share our "book gaps" -those books we kind of avoid reading.  Donalyn Miller challenges us all to think about our book gaps and to make a goal to read more of those. She gave a hashtag to the idea--#bookgapchallenge. I tend to avoid lots of historical fiction.  I am not a fan of the lives of women before recent times--not only because their rights were limited, but because they seem to wear pretty uncomfortable clothes. Oh, I love fairy tales and Philippa Gregory's historical fiction where women are wearing puffy fancy dresses, but the thought of itchy high-collared dresses makes me gag. And I don't like the cold--so those books set in "Little House on the Prairie" times are not my faves (even though I did love Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was younger.)  Anyway, I tend to avoid historical fiction.  BUT, I do read some historical fiction and if the characters are good, I can get past the itchy clothing and the cold weather.

As our #bookgapchallenge conversation continued, I realized that I have several book gaps--not just one. Lots of conversations with Tony Keefer (who agrees with Colby about the kissing books) over the years have reminded me of this. I often go to Tony when looking for adventures and books with action. It isn't that I don't like adventure, but I tend to read books that are character-based.  Plot is secondary to me. Setting means almost nothing.  This need for characters I love, means I don't read many plot-based books. I tend to skip over the action-packed adventures that many of my kids have fallen in love with.

So, Tony Keefer, Katherine Sokolowski and I made a pact.  Katherine and I will read H.I.V.E. by Mark Walden, an action-packed book that Tony chose for us. And Tony will read Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, a YA romance that Katherine recommended. (I will read this one too as Katherine highly recommends it and we have very similar tastes in books.)

H.I.V.E. arrived today.  I have been thinking about this book.  I have read other action/adventure books but I usually read them because I feel like I have to. I read them because I know I have kids who will like them and I don't do much beyond getting through them. But I am going to try to approach this one differently--to see if I am missing something in these books that will help me enjoy them more. I have faith in Tony's decision on book title and I am going in with an open mind. I am excited to try something new.

I love this idea of the #bookgapchallenge and I plan to talk to my kids about it. I think to make it work, you need to connect with other readers. I am not the best person to choose an adventure, so I needed to find a reader friend who could recommend one for me.  I want this for my kids--find some books that are different from what you usually read, stretch yourself a bit and see what happens. A great challenge for 2013, I think. What are your book gaps?

Karen Cushman Blog Tour

Will Sparrow's Road
by Karen Cushman
Houghton Mifflin, 2012

Karen Cushman has a gift for bringing the past to life. In her newest book, we travel to Elizabethan England and meet Will Sparrow, self-proclaimed liar and thief, who, in the first chapter of the story, runs away from the innkeeper to whom his father sold him to pay a bartab.

Throughout his journey, Will tries hard not to trust people or become too attached to them, but it is just not in his nature. He falls in with a sort of Elizabethan freak show that travel from fair to fair. The man who "owns" the a midget, the cat-faced girl, and a variety of real and conjured oddities in bottles that fair-goers pay to see, turns out to be the right person to mistrust. But by the end of the book (after the "owner" has been dispatched),

"...Will walked right up to them as if he belonged there. Which, he supposed, he did. Oddities, all of them -- a liar and a thief, a disagreeable little man, and a girl with the face of a cat -- belonging nowhere but with each other."

One of my fifth graders (I'll call her Suzy) read Will Sparrow's Road and shared her thoughts and questions with me.

The character Suzy was most taken with was Grace Wyse, the cat-faced girl. Suzy imagined her as "pretty and brave, but she didn't really trust sometimes." I had wondered as I read whether a modern young reader would be able to visualize from Cushman's descriptions of Grace, a child with the condition (Cushman explains it a bit in the author's notes) hypertrichosis.

Suzy found that visualizing the story was difficult. Everything is so different -- "strange language, weird foods, and no electronics!" This seems to me to be the challenge of historical fiction for young readers. It's a conundrum. They don't have the background knowledge for historical periods that helps to make historical fiction come alive, and yet, historical fiction is often the best way to get a feel for a historical period that helps it to come alive! When my two language arts classes totalled up the number of books they'd read in the first trimester, the genre of historical fiction was a weakness in both classes. We'll be launching a fiction unit after break -- the perfect opportunity to dig into historical fiction!

Suzy and I had these questions for Ms. Cushman:

How do you make another time period come to life for a reader? What kinds of specific details do you look for in your research? 

I like to metaphorically look around a place and see the things my character would notice: clothing, music, houses, food, herbs and trees and birds. I deliberately try to include all five senses—not just what a setting looks like. How does it smell? What sounds might one hear? And how does the character know? Where does he feel it in his body? What does that sound do to his ears? His heart? Does it remind him of something? Somebody? How does that make him feel?

Equally important are attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions of the past. These are harder to identify but critical. People of the past are not just us in different clothing. There are very real differences in what we believe, value, and think true.


Was there a journey story that inspired you as a young reader? 
No, not as a young reader but as a 22-year old, in a children’s literature class, I discovered Dawn Wind by the British historical novelist Rosemary Sutcliff. This journey story is set from the last stand of the Romans in Britain through invasion and settlement of the Saxons. It was a very different time and place from my own but drew me in with its gorgeous prose and characters I could relate to. I saw how good historical fiction transcends the difficulties of language, place, and time.


What messages or learnings do you hope a modern child takes away from Will Sparrow's Road?

I would like modern children to see the importance of looking beyond appearance and to try to treat everyone as we would like to be treated. I’d also hope they draw encouragement from seeing a boy overcome his bad beginning with pluck and determination. If Will Sparrow can succeed with all his problems, I think we all can.

See our Christmas Eve post for information Karen Cushman sent about Christmas in Elizabethan England.

The publisher was kind enough to provide a copy of Will Sparrow's Road for us to give away. Leave a comment that includes one (or more!) of your favorite books of historical fiction (picture book, chapter book, graphic novel, poetry...you name it) and I will put your name in a hat for a drawing. DEADLINE: Midnight, December 31. Be sure that your comment includes a way for me to find you, in the event that you win! And thanks, in advance, for helping me to plan a fabulous historical fiction unit!

BLOG TOUR THURSDAY:
Tomorrow, check out Random Musings of a Bibliophile for Karen Cushman's next stop.

BLOG TOUR: TUESDAY
If you are interested in why Karen Cushman chose a boy main character for the first time, she has a guest post at GreenBean TeenQueen.

BLOG TOUR: MONDAY
For a fabulously complete author-to-author interview, check out Kirby Larson's Kirby's Lane.

Books I Still Want to Read Before 2013

So, it is time for the annual holiday #bookaday. I am always so excited because early in December I believe that I can get rid of my TBR stack. Then I begin my pile and I realize I'd need to do #bookanhour if I really wanted to make a dent.  And I start to feel overwhelmed about all of the books I will miss.  No question I won't get finished with the books on my stack before some great 2013 books start coming out.  I asked on Twitter to send me titles of great books form the year. I got tons of great titles. I had to cut lots of great ones from my list if  I am serious about TRYING to get to the books on my list.  These are the books that sound like fabulous, not to miss book. I guess I know deep down that I won't get to the whole list, but this is my starting point for my next several weeks of reading.   I narrowed it down to 20 books from 2012 I just don't want to miss.

Young Adult
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle) by Maggie Stiefvater
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
 Endangered by Eliot Schrefer
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Middle Grade
The False Prince: Book 1 of the Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer Nielsen
Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
After Eli by Rebecca Rupp
Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Bryan Obed
The Dogs of Winter by Bobbie Pyron
Kepler's Dream by Juliet Bell
The Peculiars by Maureen McQuerry
Keeping Safe the Stars by Sheila O'Connor
The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis
Chained by Lynne Kelly
The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver
Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill

Professional
Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers by Penny Kittle
Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst

Wise Words for Today

From Kylene Beers:  On Monday

From Angela Maiers: There is No Lesson Plan for Tragedy -- Teachers YOU Know What to Do

A Day (or two) of Silence

Poetry Friday: Self-Esteem Week

This past week, I did a series of reviews called "Self-Esteem Week." This poem by Kipling is a classic "Believe In Yourself / Be Yourself" poem, and as I read it, it seemed that each of my posts this week fit with one of the stanzas. Pop over and check out the reviews, if you're so inclined, or just read the poem loud and proud as you sit up straight and tall and remind yourself to be 100% YOU! (...and I hope you don't mind the way I tweaked the ending of the poem...)

Jama has the roundup today at Jama's Alphabet Soup.

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

(related self-esteem post here)

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

(related self-esteem post here)

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

(related self-esteem post here)

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---child, you'll be a great Human!

(Kipling's ending: "--you'll be a Man, my son!")
(related self-esteem post here)

Rudyard Kipling

Nerdy Book Club Post

If you are looking for some great YA books to read over the holidays, Katherine Sokolowski and I have a list up at Nerdy Book Club today called Top Ten YA Books That Are Worth Reading EVEN If You Are Uncomfortable with Kissing in Books. Enjoy!

Self-Esteem Week: Be Who You Must Be

Otter and Odder: A Love Story
by James Howe
illustrated by Chris Raschka
Candlewick Press, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

What happens when you fall in love with someone you're not supposed to fall in love with...say, your food source, for instance, if you're an otter and you fall in love with a fish? All the rest of the pond-dwellers will gossip about you, and your families will pressure you to make a more natural choice. But hopefully, there will be a wise beaver in your life, who suggests you try eating apples and bark, instead of fish. And suddenly, with that one shift in perspective, your true love is no longer your food source, and you can live happily ever after, and 100% true to yourself.

Big Mean Mike
by Michelle Knudsen
illustrated by Scott Magoon
Candlewick Press, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

What happens if you're the biggest, meanest dog on the block, and these cute fluffy bunnies start showing up, no matter what you do to discourage them? At some point, you need to admit to yourself that you love your fluffy bunnies and you need to stand up to any of the other dogs on the street who want to make fun of you because of your friends. Being true to yourself also means being true to your friends.

Zephyr Takes Flight
by Steve Light
Candlewick Press, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

What if your passion gets you in trouble when you fly it into the china cabinet, and you're sent to your room? Don't stop dreaming there, because your story might turn out to be a bit like Max's and you can go to place where pigs DO fly, and YOU fly, and your passion comes to life, and when you get back home, your dad is calling you to come eat your pancakes. Be true to your dreams for as long as it takes to make them come true.

Oliver
by Birgitta Sif
Candlewick Press, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

What if you feel a bit different from everyone else? What if you like to play alone, and create new worlds for you and your toy friends? If you are happy alone, be happy alone. But if, when you're playing tennis alone and your ball bounces to another person who is playing tennis alone, be open to a new beginning and a new friend. Be who you must be, but don't be afraid to change.