Manatee Rescue by Nicola Davies

Manatee Rescue
by Nicola Davies
Candlewick, January 2016

I read aloud The Lion Who Stole My Arm by Nicola Davies earlier this year (see post here). In that book, an African boy who is maimed by a lion attack wants to get revenge on the lion that hurt him...until he learns about lion conservation and how much tourist money lions bring to his country.

I was thrilled to see that Nicola Davies is writing a series -- Heroes of the Wild. The newest in the series is Manatee Rescue. The manatees in this book live in the Amazon River, and the characters are indigenous people.

These are quick reads -- only about 95 pages, with an epilogue that gets them to 100. The books are illustrated with pen and ink drawings by Annabel Wright.

I can't wait for a kid reader to pick this up and give me their insights into the story!

Poetry Friday -- Simile-Metaphor-Vocabulary Poem

Photo by Mike Ratcliffe

Advice

There's pride --
(nothing wrong with pride)
a warm sense of self-worth
sitting quietly inside you
like a steaming cup of cocoa on a winter morning.

But then there's hubris --
a venti double mocha latte with whip and extra sprinkles
standing there beside your computer in the cafe
while you pose with your earbuds
open notebook
fancy pen
empty page.

The trick is knowing the difference.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016




This poem was written for Laura Shovan's Found Object Poem Project.

When I started writing, I had no idea how this poem would go with the skull and antlers. I had the phrase "There's ___, but then there's ____" in my mind and I started writing from that. Somehow my brain gave me pride and hubris. We've been noticing similes and metaphors in my 5th grade class, so I had fun making a simile-metaphor-vocabulary poem that will hopefully teach my students a new word. When I was finished, I looked back at the skull and wondered what HE knows about pride vs. hubris, sitting there on the sidewalk for all to see...

Donna Smith, reigning Queen of rhyme and wit, has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Mainley Write.

NF 10 for 10 -- Towards a More Diverse Classroom Library

Thanks in large part to the ALA Youth Media Awards, I've collected up a bunch of new books with inspiring characters and/or stories.

And this spunky girl reinforces the importance of children being able to see themselves in the books we have in our classrooms and libraries -- take time to click through and watch the video!  (via CBS ThisMorning)

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement pairs nicely with The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial. Fannie Lou Hamer deserves to be more well-known for a lifetime of participation in marches, sit-ins and voter education and registration efforts. Similarly, readers should know the story of a well to do black girl from Boston, who, with her parents, fought against segregated schools in 1847 -- 100 years before the more famous Brown v Board of Education.

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music pairs along a musical theme with Trombone Shorty. Drum Dream Girl is inspired by a Chinese-African-Cuban girl who broke Cuba's taboo against female drummers, while Trombone Shorty tells the story of a New Orleans trombone player who not only made his dream of becoming a musician come true through a lifetime of hard work, but also has begun the Trombone Shorty Foundation to preserve the musical history of New Orleans.

The Case For Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage and Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah both tell stories of holding fast to a dream.

Growing up Pedro: How the Martinez Brothers Made It from the Dominican Republic All the Way to the Major Leagues and (the 2009 title) You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?! would make a nice baseball pairing that feature players from the Dominican Republic alongside a Jewish player from Brooklyn.

The last two honor a couple of the dominant cultures in my school -- Muslim and Hispanic. 1001 Inventions and Awesome Facts from Muslim Civilization is an inviting book for browsing and learning, and Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras tells the story of Mexican artist José Guadalupe (Lupe) Posada and how he created an iconic Day of the Dead art form.

Poetry Friday -- Found Object Poem Project

Photo by Jone MacCulloch

"A pipe gives a wise man time to think 
and a fool something to stick in his mouth." 
- C.S. Lewis.


Packing the tobacco correctly is as
Important as the
Proper breaking in of the pipe.
Each pipe
Smokes differently, and a good smoker can
Make one last up to 45 minutes.
One must tap the dottle from the bowl,
Know how to ream the pipe, and
Embrace the subtleties of the experience --
Rather like shooting or fly fishing or drinking
Scotch.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016


This is my favorite of the poems I wrote this week for Laura Shovan's month-long Found Object Poem Project. I got the object wrong -- it's not a pipe-reamer, it's a blood-letter -- but I had fun with the poem, so we'll claim success! 

I interviewed the former pipe-smoker who lives in my house and took these notes:

In case you're curious, to break in a pipe, you have to char the bowl gradually by smoking just a little tobacco, then a little more, then a little more. (Who knew?!?!)

I originally thought the word in my acrostic would be tobacco, but for more variety of letters, I went with pipe smokers. 

Kimberley has today's Poetry Friday roundup at Written Reflections. Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

World Read Aloud Day -- 7 Strengths Countdown

I blogged about Belonging Week, Curiosity Week, and Friendship Week, and then I dropped the ball! Now I'm going to attempt to combine Kindness Week, Confidence Week and Courage Week all into one post!

Last week (on 2/2, the day the book was released), I started Pax, by Sara Pennypacker, as our next read aloud. It's another book with hard issues that we can feel in our hearts; another book that will make us gasp with fear and cry with relief; another book that will put us in the shoes of a character who is dealing with hard problems; another book with a character on a physical journey and a journey of the heart.

This remarkable story is told in alternating chapters from the points of view of Peter (the boy) and Pax (the fox). Both Peter and Pax encounter other characters who show them unexpected kindness and who help them build their confidence and grow into a place of courage. In fact, the parallels between the boy's and the fox's stories are something I hope my students will notice on their own. Who am I kidding? They are already making amazing comparisons between this book and Dan Geminhart's The Honest Truth and Some Kind of Courage.

If you haven't read this amazing book, move it to the top of your TBR stack!

Some of My Favorite Online Reading from the Week

I've not had time to dig into many books this week. But I've been reading lots online and found these things worth sharing! 

From John Green:

Why the World Millennial Makes Me Cringe

A thoughtful piece by Pernille Ripp: When We Harm Rather than Help--Some Thoughts on Reading Interventions.

My husband and I watched "The Martian" on Netflix last week.  I later found this fascinating story about the author of the book and how he wrote the story online. Love that people corrected the science as he went. The online possibilities for writing int his story fascinated me.

I revisited an article by Peter Johnston from a 2012 Stenhouse Blogstitute called "Reducing Instruction, Increasing Engagement". Peter Johnston is someone whose work I reread often as it is so important. So much to learn from him.

I loved this short reminder called "Why You Should Care About LEGO and Creativity"

And this important article (thanks to Katharine Hale for sharing) about Smart Tech Use for Equity.

And the brilliant Kristin Ziemke wrote "Beyond Text: reThinking Literacy" which is a must-read.

I was student teaching 3rd grade when the Challenger exploded. I remember the day vividly.  I was interested in this article about one of the engineers that still blames himself for the disaster.

And I always learn a lot from education writer Valerie Strauss. Her recent piece "The Testing Opt-Out Movement is Growing" is an informative one.

And I've always been fascinated to read about Barbie so I was interested in all things Barbie this week as Mattel launched Barbie's three new body types.

Cry, Heart, But Never Break

Cry, Heart, But Never Break
by Glenn Ringtved
illustrated by Charlotte Pardi
translated from the Danish by Robert Moulthrop
Enchanted Lion Press, March 2016
review copy provided by the publisher

When Death comes for the children's beloved grandmother, they try to keep him from his task by serving him enough coffee to distract him until dawn, when he would have to leave without their grandmother.

It doesn't work.

Though "Some people say Death's heart is as dead and black as a piece of coal...that is not true. Beneath his inky cloak, Death's heart is as red as the most beautiful sunset and beats with a great love of life."

So Death tells the children a story about two brothers, Sorrow and Grief, who wind up marrying two sisters, Joy and Delight. After a long life together, all four died on the very same day, because they couldn't live without each other. Death uses this fable to show children that life needs both light and darkness. And his last advice, after the Grandmother dies, is the title of the book: "Cry, heart, but never break. Let your tears of grief and sadness help begin new life."

It's never easy to have conversations about death in our classrooms, but I think this gentle and sweet book would reassure students.

Depending on the group, I might pair it with

Grandy Thaxter's Helper
by Douglas Rees
illustrated by S.D. Schindler
Atheneum Books, 2004

This book gives readers a more irreverent version of Death, but also a strong character who resists him. Grandy Thaxter enlists Death's help with her work on successive days -- the cleaning (including the windows), the laundry (including the making of lye soap), making dinner (including grinding the corn for mush), the dishes after dinner, and, the straw that breaks Death's back, the making of linen (of the piles of bundles of wet reeds, he learns "We're going to brake it and swingle the reeds to get the flax"... "We're going to hackle it and spin it"... "So I can weave it into cloth."). Death can't take any more, saying, "I will come back some time when you are not so busy."

Gotta love a woman who is just too busy to die!

Pink is for Blobfish by Jess Keating

When I preordered Jess Keating's new book, Pink is for Blobfish, I accidentally ordered 2 copies. Lucky thing because the book became immediately popular in the classroom!  Take a look at the book trailer:

I shared the book with my 3rd graders this week.  We have been learning about informational writing and this one invited great conversation about the way Jess Keating chose the animals for the book, titled the book and organized the information. The book is packed with information about pink animals and the photos and layout make the book perfect for middle grade readers. From the cover, it looks like this might be part of a new series--if so, I am extra excited!  This is a fabulous informational book and will hook so many young readers.  You'll definitely want this book for your classroom or library. Not only is it a great book for kids' independent reading, there is so much to share with kids about good informational writing.

I love that Jess Keating is a zoologist turned author.  If you know her fiction series (My Life is a Zoo) you know what a fun writer she is.  Her middle grade series is engaging and accessible for middle grade and early middle school readers.  In both her fiction and nonfiction books, Jess Keating packs in lots of things to think about while giving us a humor break and some new ways to think about things throughout.

Jess Keating recently introduced a Youtube channel called "Animals for Smart People".  It is a great series of informational videos. I am going to share the channel with my students this week and we are going to study this particular video as we think about the choices Jess Keating made about the visuals she included.  These are great sources of information for everyone. And they are perfect mentor texts for our middle grade kids as they learn to write informational text and create informational movies.

On a sidenote, Jess Keating and I are both original members of the #nerdrun team, #TeamSaunter.  I am thinking that Pink is for Blobfish might inspire some great costumes for the 2016 #nerdrun.....

The 2014 #TeamSaunter at #nerdrun! (Jess Keating dressed as Beetle:-)

You can (and should) follow Jess Keating on Twitter (@Jess_Keating) and make sure to visit her website. It is packed with lots of great stuff!

Poetry Friday -- Found Object Poem Project

Yes, it feels a little nutso to be writing a poem a day again after only a month off since a haiku a day in December, but in the same way I've learned that if I don't go out and walk in the early morning I will never meet the deer and hear the owls ("Must Be Present to Win"), I know that for every day I don't write, those poems are lost forever.

Laura Shovan cooked up this Found Object Poem project. Here's a description, along with other February poetry projects she's done. Here is a post with links to all the poems the whole crew has written so far, and here's a link to all of my poems.

My favorite poem I've written so far is for this picture of moth eggs on a car window. Laura didn't reveal that's what they were until after we submitted our poems, but I was pretty sure I knew. Not sure enough to write a moth egg poem...although I alluded to a butterfly wing as a nod to my guess! I just left them as a mystery.

photo by Laura Shovan

Mysteries


The mysteries of the world are myriad.
Sometimes they look like little balls of butter.
Sometimes they clump together in the shape of South America.

The mysteries of the world puzzle us.
They make us take our glasses off and look so close
we dust our noses with them.

The mysteries of the world hold hidden ripeness.
Each might contain a new life,
or the possibility to change the weather patterns of the entire world.

The mysteries of the world cast shadows.
Hovering above, they block the sun
and send a chill through us as they pass over.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016

Tricia has today's Poetry Friday roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Pig in a Wig

What This Story Needs is a Hush and a Shush
by Emma J. Virján
Harper, 2016
review copy provided by the publisher

My wish came true! Another Pig in a Wig book! (My review of the first book here.)

This time, Pig in a Wig is trying to get ready for bed and fall asleep, but all of the farm animals pile noisily into bed with her (making their entrance through the window to cue young readers with a visual for the animal's sound). And the farm animals can not settle down, so Pig delivers the signatuer (title) line, and all the animals take their animal noises and go snuggle in a pile in the barn.

That's not quite the end of it, but this book is as perfect as the first in adding a twist.

Fun times for the youngest readers!

Next up later in 2016 -- What This Book Needs is a Munch and a Crunch. YAY! A picnic lunch!