Two Great National Geographic Kids Books

Edible Science: Experiments You Can Eat
by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen with Carol Tennant
National Geographic, 2015
review copy provided by the publisher

This book is going to be in high demand for Genius Hour projects! How much fun will it be to do science that you can eat?!?

This will also be a great mentor text for Technical Text.

The chapters include Mixing and Unmixing (with projects like Ice Cream in a Bag and Ricotta Cheese); Solids, Liquids, and Yum! (with projects like Baked Alaska and Maple Candy); It's a Gas (with projects like the ever-popular Egg in a Bottle); Actions and Reactions (Jiggling Gelatin and Banana Bread); and Biology in Your Kitchen (Mock Apple Pie and Mealworm Brownies).

All of the instructions are clearly laid out, with the things you need, the things to watch for, the steps to take, and the science behind what happens.

Brain Games: The Mind-Blowing Science of Your Amazing Brain
by Jennifer Swanson
National Geographic, 2015
review copy provided by the publisher

This is a great book for browsing. It is organized with challenges for your brain, an explanation of what is happening in your brain during the challenge, and lots of extra information on the topic in the sidebars.

I was fascinated by the sections on long and short term memory, and what happens inside your brain when you try to multi-task. Hmm...wonder why those sections popped out at me?  :-)

2 Books to Help Children Think About Changing the World

I am exited to share these two books with my 3rd graders as we learn about our own community and ways we can help make our communities and our world better.

31 Ways to Change the World  is based on the idea that "Small Actions X Lots of People = Big Change".  The book is filled with ideas of things kids can do to make things better. They are small things such as "Make Someone Smile" and "Don't Charge Your Phone Overnight".  Each idea gives an explanation of how this helps.  The layout for each idea is different so kids can read the pages in any order they wish. This is not a book that needs to be read cover-to-cover.

Can We Help: Kids Volunteering to Help Their Communities by George Ancona shares many ways kids help in their communities.  The book is filled with the ways kids of all ages can help in their communities and the photos show them in action.  There is a good variety of volunteer opportunities that I can see readers being inspired by one or more of the ideas shared. The book also gives the  message that volunteering and doing things for your community is a fun way to spend your time. 

November Mosaic

November is always such a gallop, what with mammo/onco appointments, parent conferences, report cards, 5th grade concert...but lookie there...I took time for a coloring page at The James, a concert at Natalie's, a bonfire,  and a bike ride before NCTE, plus a lovely afternoon at the Audubon Metropark as our Black Friday #OptOutside after NCTE. And of course, NCTE was all kinds of loveliness in the middle of all that other craziness!

You can see the images in this mosaic on Flickr here.

A Fine Dessert....What Does This Mean for Teachers?

Last month, there was an online conversation around the picture book, A Fine Dessert by Emily Jenkins and Sophie Blackall that expanded my thinking about the idea of teacher-as-reader/teacher-as-decision-maker.

A Fine Dessert was published earlier this year and has received several starred reviews by major reviewers such as School Library Journal and Booklist. It is a book that is loved by children and teachers everywhere. It has been talked about as a possible Caldecott contender on the blog Calling Caldecott (here and here).

Then issues were brought up about the book and its depiction of slavery (A Fine Dessert: Sweet Intentions, Sour Aftertaste).  Sophie Blackall responded, explaining her process and the thoughtful choices she made as illustrator.  Honestly, it was something I completely missed and overlooked and like the author of Reading While White, I am a bit disappointed with myself for missing it.

(To catch up on the entire conversation, you can find many of the posts and a timeline of many events on Debbie Reese's blog.)

The conversation last month was a long, intense conversation that happened mainly through blogs and Twitter.  I listened in to the conversation daily and tried to keep up with all that everyone was saying about this book and the issues surrounding it. Social media is a tricky way to have conversations like this because lots of people jump in and out of conversations and sometimes 140 characters isn't enough to dig into a topic this big.

So, what does this mean for teachers?  As teachers we need to be readers. But we also need to be readers of discussions like this one so that we understand as much as we can about the books we put in our classrooms and in the hands of children.  Here are the big take-aways I had after thinking about this for a few weeks.  These are the things I've learned from the conversation:

1. This is one reason many of us are on social media--to hear different perspectives, to learn from people we did not always have the opportunities to learn from, to grow in our thinking.  I've always believed strongly that teachers need to be readers, but this online controversy reminded me of the reasons I spend so much time reading book reviews, blogs, etc. Not only do I need to be a reader of books, but I need to be a reader of all that surrounds a book if I am going to make good decisions about the books to share with my students.  Whether you agree with the opinions of others or not, being aware of perspectives of others is important in our work.

2. This is not about one book--it is much bigger than that.  Even though the conversation felt focused on a book and individual people, this is really a bigger issue than that.  And it has been an issue for a very long time.  If you aren't aware of the campaign, We Need Diverse Books or the NCTE Resolution on The Need for Diverse Children's and Young Adult Books, they are important to know about. I also think Roger Sutton's piece, We're Not Rainbow Sprinkles, in last month's Horn Book is worth a read on this issue.

3. There was very little teacher voice in the conversation. And I believe that our voice needs to be part of this conversation.  We need to respect the teacher-as-decision-maker in these and all conversations and I didn't see that happening in this conversation. Ultimately, we are the ones who make decisions about which books are in our classroom libraries.  I remember years ago, reading the issue surrounding an Alvin Ho book. I realized then how many things we need to think about as teachers when we choose books for our classrooms.

4. Change happens because of the conversations. It doesn't  happen overnight but it does happen. Betsy Bird recently shared a post about the new edition of Ladybug Girl and Debbie Reese shared many books whose stereotypic depictions have been changed in recent years. This is all good news for children.

5. Social media is a tricky place to have hard conversations. Conversations without judging is key--we can have heated conversations that help us all grow and understand our own biases. It seemed that early on, as people were making sense of the issue, some people were unintentionally shut down a bit when they didn't agree immediately. And this was a conversation between a group of people who ultimately spend their lives working to get diverse, quality books into the hands of children.  This was a group of people working toward the same goals. I learned that there will be missteps in language as we each make sense of our own biases and make sense of some of these issues.  It seems we have to be a bit more careful when we are having conversations on social media--careful so that we broaden the conversation--so that we invite more people in instead of unintentionally shutting people out.

Poetry Friday

periodically

the carousel slows and stops

blur refocuses

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015 

I've been away from Poetry Friday for too long. It's good to be back, to have time to visit the roundup, which is hosted this week by Carol at Carol's Corner. Hard to believe that the year is winding down -- next week we'll start building the roundup schedule for January-June 2016!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! Happy Poetry! Happy Friday!

My NCTE Top Ten(s)

Top 10 Famous People I Heard Speak 
or With Whom I Ate Dinner

Peter Sis

Vicki Vinton

Allison Bechdel

Kate Messner

Laurel Snyder

LeUyen Pham

Marilyn Singer

Kadir Nelson

Laura Amy Schlitz

Dave Eggers

Top 10 Books I Can't Wait to Read (or re-read) Because of NCTE

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (see photo below for why)

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar

The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson

Long Road to Freedom (Ranger in Time #3) by Kate Messner

Currents by Jane Smolik

A Whole New Ballgame by Phil Bildner
Are You My Mother? by Allison Bechdel

Writers ARE Readers: Flipping Reading Instruction into Writing Opportunities by Lester Laminack

Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies by Kylene Beers
The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching edited by Matt Glover and Ellin Oliver Keene

Top 10 Quotes from NCTE Speakers

"I write to figure out stuff that's bothering me." --Allison Bechdel

"Fear motivates me to take on something that seems daunting and impossible...why would you bother with anything less?" --Allison Bechdel

"If kids can find the answers faster [using Google], maybe we need to ask different questions." --Jen Vincent

"It was a big deal to me that I got it right." --LeUyen Pham (The Boy Who Loved Math)

"Writing is not always fun. It is always more fun to have written." --Dave Eggers

"I think of America as a large family. Every family's stories are a part of the American story." --Kadir Nelson

"We have to be careful that we don't jargonize joy like we did rigor and grit." --Kathy Collins

"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." --John Dewey (quoted by Vicki Vinton)

Our students don't need more content and vocabulary (as the Common Core states), they need a reading identity and agency. They need to be "...deep thinkers with a knack for problem solving." --Vicki Vinton

"Use a problem-solving approach to reading (the way we do in math workshop). Words aren't the problem...what does it MEAN?" --Vicki Vinton

Two Amazing Moments That Happened at NCTE, 

But Don't Really Have Anything to do with the Conference Itself

I had the opportunity to go to the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection, and among other artifacts of children's literature, we saw (and touched) the first three drafts of Because of Winn Dixie. 

These native dancers. I happened on them by accident one evening when I was walking through the convention center back to my hotel after a reception. My fifth graders are currently studying the "ancient people of Latin America," and here those people were, alive and well and wearing spandex shorts and glasses, honoring their Aztec ancestors by keeping their traditions alive, all the way north in Minneapolis, MN.

NCTE Book Awards!

This year, NCTE Children's Book Awards were announced at the children's luncheon at convention. It was great fun to have them announced at the luncheon. It was also fabulous to hear the award winners speak at the luncheon. The luncheon has always been one of my favorite events at convention and now it's an even better event!  

Each year at the lunch, not only do you get to hear great speakers (and now be there for the live announcement of the award winners each year) but everyone gets to sit at a table with a children's author. This year, I was lucky enough to sit with Deborah Wiles!! What a treat!

I was lucky enough to serve on the Charlotte Huck Award Committee and have loved the conversations with others committee members about the books. I love everything about this award. If the award is new to you, here is what the NCTE website has to say about it.

The NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children was established in 2014 to promote and recognize excellence in the writing of fiction for children. This award recognizes fiction that has the potential to transform children’s lives by inviting compassion, imagination, and wonder.

This is such a great lens to read with and there have been so many 2015 books that definitely have the potential to transform children's lives.  I so love our list this year! 

You can find the list on the NCTE website.

The other award that was announced at Saturday's luncheon was the Orbis Pictus Award. This has always been one of my favorite lists because it is the place where I find so much great nonfiction. This year, I didn't have the time to read nonfiction that I usually do, because I spent so much time reading fiction for the Huck award. So I am anxious to check out many of the books on this list. The award is described as:

The NCTE Orbis Pictus Award  was established in 1989 for promoting and recognizing excellence in the writing of nonfiction for children. The name Orbis Pictus, commemorates the work of Johannes Amos Comenius, Orbis Pictus—The World in Pictures(1657), considered to be the first book actually planned for children.

You can find the Orbis Pictus list on the NCTE website too!

If you want to read more about NCTE book awards, there was a recent post on the NCTE blog.

I love award season and the season has begun! If you did not attend the Saturday luncheon on Saturday, you may want to put it on your list of convention to-dos for next year. It is great fun!

A Working Blog Vacation

We're taking a week off for professional learning. Hopefully, we'll see many of you in Minneapolis at NCTE's Annual Convention! We might do some live blogging, and we'll certainly have some follow-up posts next week.

WILD...in honor of Irene Latham's Blogiversary

When in doubt, use your

Imagination to discover what it is you

Love with a passion that cannot be

Defined...or denied.

Happy 10 Year Blogiversary to Irene Latham at Live Your Poem!

Irene's One Little Word for 2015 is WILD, 

which is the theme of her celebration.

Visit her blog to check out other WILD posts

that celebrate Irene, her blog, and her OLW.

The Ripple Effect of Award Lists on the NCTE Blog

Stacey Ross and I wrote a recent post for the NCTE Blog.  It is about the NCTE Book Awards. You can find it here.

Looking forward to hearing many of the award-winning authors at this year's convention!