Reading Without Walls

Forever, or a Long, Long Time
by Caela Carter
HarperCollins, 2017
review copy provided by the publisher

This was a Gene Yang "Reading Without Walls" book for me. Gene Luen Yang, the National Ambassador of Young People's Literature, has chosen as his platform/project to encourage readers to

1. Read a book about a character who doesn’t look like you or live like you.
2. Read a book about a topic you don’t know much about.
3. Read a book in a format that you don’t normally read for fun. This might be a chapter book, a graphic novel, a book in verse, a picture book, or a hybrid book.

Forever, or a Long, Long Time fits the first two categories for me. The foster care system is filled with characters who aren't like me -- I've never been on either the giving or receiving end of foster care. And foster care is a topic about which I know little.

Both fourth grader Flora and her younger brother Julian have been traumatized by the foster care system, but the trauma manifests itself differently in each child. To balance the pain of seeing how these two children have been damaged, the author gives them a loving "forever family" that does everything possible to help the children adapt, learn to trust, and heal. She gives Flora an amazing teacher, who has a realistically nearly boundless supply of patience and differentiation to help Flora succeed. And because the main character is 4th -- going into 5th grade, the book is very sensitively written.

More than anything, this book is a deeply insightful look at what FAMILY means. Flora and Julian's new mom has married a divorced man with a daughter,  plus she's pregnant. When she takes Flora and Julian on a quest to discover their birth family roots, every possible variant of what foster care might look like is in their past, from loving to chaotic to brutally regimented.

This is a book about what IDENTITY means. Flora and Julian doubt the very existence of their birth because they have no baby pictures.

This is a book about TRUST, and what it takes to build trust where none has ever existed.

This is a book about HOPE. Everything doesn't get tied up in tidy bows, but by the end of the book you can see that all the parents' (and teacher's) hard work is paying off and although there will be challenges in the future when the baby comes, progress has been made. Flora and Julian are going to be okay.

This book is NOT The Great Gilly Hopkins (but they might make an interesting pairing). It's been a long time (very long time) since I read Gilly Hopkins, but I don't remember the characters seeming real -- they were more like caricatures. The characters in Forever, or a Long, Long Time are multi-faceted people you get to know from the inside. They are very real. They aren't perfect; they make mistakes.

There is one way that this book might be like Gilly Hopkins. There might be a shiny sticker in its cover's future...

Broadening Horizons, Part Three & Poetry Friday Edition

Let's Clap, Jump, Sing & Shout; Dance, Spin & Turn It Out!: Games, Songs, and Stories from an African American Childhood

by Patricia McKissack

illustrated by Brian Pinkney

Schwartz & Wade, 2017

review copy purchased for my classroom collection

First of all, Patricia McKissack. Second of all, Brian Pinkney. Third of all, two girls in my classroom last year who struggled to define themselves (and others) in terms of race. I was often the enemy because I am white, so I did my best to fuel their passion to understand on their own terms what race means and doesn't mean with my choices for read aloud and #classroombookaday. They gravitated toward My People and Ashley Bryan's ABC of African American Poetry for Poetry Friday. I fed them a steady diet of Kwame Alexander, Rita Garcia Williams, Sharon Draper, and gave them the copies of Maniac Magee they hadn't finished at the end of the year.

This book came too late for them to discover, but I'll make sure it's among the first I feature next school year. There are songs and chants in this that I remember (or know some version of), but the message of a culture passed down through games, songs, and chants...the celebration of a culture through the window of childhood (rather than the Civil Rights Movement, as is so often the case)...the joy that exudes from every page of this book...this one's for you, girls. May you find a way to be comfortable in your own skin, and recognize that the world is not always against you...some of us want to dance right along with you, if only you'll teach us the moves!

If you're interested, the other two parts of this Broadening Horizons series are here and here.


Buffy has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Buffy's Blog.

Check out this post to grab a Poetry Friday Roundup slot on the July-December calendar.

Poetry Friday -- Call For Roundup Hosts

It's that time again. Six months have passed since last we queued up to host the Poetry Friday roundups.

If you'd like to host a roundup between June and December 2017, leave your choice(s) of date(s) in the comments. I'll update regularly to make it easier to see which dates have been claimed.

What is the Poetry Friday roundup? A gathering of links to posts featuring original or shared poems, or reviews of poetry books. A carnival of poetry posts. Here is an explanation that Rene LaTulippe shared on her blog, No Water River, and here is an article Susan Thomsen wrote for the Poetry Foundation.

Who can do the Poetry Friday roundup? Anyone who is willing to gather the links in some way, shape or form (Mr. Linky, "old school" in the comments-->annotated in the post, or ???) on the Friday of your choice. If you are new to the Poetry Friday community, jump right in, but perhaps choose a date later on so that we can spend some time getting to know each other.

How do you do a Poetry Friday roundup? If you're not sure, stick around for a couple of weeks and watch...and learn! One thing we're finding out is that folks who schedule their posts, or who live in a different time zone than you, appreciate it when the roundup post goes live sometime on Thursday.

How do I get the code for the PF Roundup Schedule for the sidebar of my blog? You can grab the list from the sidebar here at A Year of Reading, or I'd be happy to send it to you if you leave me your email address. You can always find the schedule on the Kidlitosphere Central webpage.

Why would I do a Poetry Friday Roundup? Community, community, community. It's like hosting a poetry party on your blog!

And now for the where and when:

July
7  Carol at Beyond Literacy Link
14 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
21 Katie at The Logonauts
28 Linda at A Word Edgewise

August
4  Donna at Mainely Write
11 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
18 Kay at A Journey Through the Pages
25 Jone at Check it Out

September
1  Kat at Kathryn Apel
8  Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme
15 Michelle at Today's Little Ditty
22 Amy at The Poem Farm
29 Laura at Writing the World for Kids

October
6  Violet at Violet Nesdoly | Poems
13 Irene at Live Your Poem
20 Leigh Ann at A Day in the Life
27 Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales

November
3  Linda at TeacherDance
10 Jama at Jama's Alphabet Soup
17 Jane at Raincity Librarian
24 Carol at Carol's Corner

December
1 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
8 Lisa at Steps and Staircases
15 Diane at Random Noodling
22 Buffy at Buffy's Blog
29 Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe

Broadening Horizons With Play, Part Two

The Banana-Leaf Ball
by Katie Smith Milway
illustrated by Shane W. Evans
CitizenKid, 2017
review copy from the public library, on order for my classroom library

Another great CitizenKid book. The story of Deo is based on the true story of Benjamin Nzobonankira, who, at the age of 10, was a child refugee from Burundi. While in the refugee camp featured in the book, Lukole, Benjamin's life was impacted by a Right to Play volunteer and he went on to also become involved with Right to Play.

This is one of those rare books where the back matter is just as engaging as the story. I plan to incorporate the games (and information about the international organizations) listed in the back as team-builders and ice-breakers at the beginning of the year next fall!

Broadening Horizons, Part One

This is How We Do It
by Matt Lamothe
Chronicle Books, 2017
review copy from the public library, on order for my classroom library

First of all, props to Columbus Metropolitan Library for not pasting down the flaps on the cover so that the reader can study and appreciate the endpapers!

Readers of all ages will want to pore over every inch of this book! By showing how families from seven countries around the world in such common ways as where they live, how they get to school, how they play, and how they eat dinner, we can find the things that connect us to others, and the things that make us unique. In the back of the book, the photographs of the actual families the book is based on add to its authenticity. Wouldn't it be fun to have your students share photos of their meals, their families, their bedrooms...discovering the ways they are the same along with all the ways they are unique?

I briefly previewed this book in my 5th grade classroom, and it was positively magnetic the next time students had a chance to get their hands on it.

Science Comics: Get to Know Your Universe!

How will your students know that graphic novels are a format and not a genre, unless you have titles that are history, memoir, and now...science?

Bats: Learning to Fly
written and illustrated by Falynn Koch
Science Comics Series
First Second, 2017
review copy from the public library

Thank goodness for Goodreads and for the public library. This title came up on my Goodreads feed and I clicked straight over to the Columbus Metropolitan Library and reserved the entire series.

I was not disappointed. The Science Comics (Get to Know Your Universe) series includes books about Dinosaurs, Volcanoes, Coral Reefs, Flying Machines, and coming up is Plagues. Although it's a series, because every book is not written/illustrated by the same teams, each book is unique. No cookie-cutter here!

I'll be ordering this entire series for my classroom!

Poetry Friday -- Peony Poem

Peony Poem

an idea
sudden, surprising
like red peony shoots
the first color in a spring garden

a draft
leafy, bushy
too much green, but with buds
sweet enough to attract ants

a poem
lopsided, fragrant
overly showy, flamboyant, glorious
cut for a vase or for a grave


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017


This poem was written for Melissa Manlove's challenge at Today's Little Ditty: "Write me a poem that explores how writing (or a book) is like something else. Convince me!"

Margaret has today's Poetry Friday Roundup at Reflections on the Teche.

My Stack for #cyberPD 2017

Dynamic Teaching for Deeper Reading
by Vicki Vinton

MUST read.

Disrupting Thinking
by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst

MUST read.

No More Telling as Teaching
by Cris Tovani

Probably more secondary and probably preaching to the choir, but MUST read because we get so caught up in galloping toward the test that sometimes we forget. (We...meaning I.)

The Teacher You Want to Be
edited by Matt Glover and Ellin Oliver Keene

Yes, next year I'll be entering my 32nd year of teaching and I'm down to less than one hand before retirement, but I'm STILL trying to be the teacher I want to be. Why stop now, right?

Poetry Friday -- Student Blackout Poems

I Wanna Be Mature
by A. E.

ten
nine
eight
seven
six
five
four
three
two
one

some days
each year
even months
I wish
I was one hundred



Irene Latham was wondering if students could be successful with found poetry/blackout poetry. We had some time this week to give it a try, and I was pleasantly surprised by my students' poems. This is one of the best so far.

I gave them this first page of Sandra Cisneros' "Eleven" in a page protector, and they used wipe-off markers to find their first drafts.

Happy Friday! Happy Poetry! Happy 4 more days of school!

Kiesha has this week's Poetry Friday Roundup at Whispers from the Ridge.

Music and History, Part Two

Soldier Song: A True Story of the Civil War
by Debbie Levy
illustrated by Gilbert Ford
Disney Hyperion, 2017
review copy provided by the publisher

"That's amazing!" Zak said, after reading Soldier Song yesterday. "All that happened because of a single song!"

My 5th graders recently completed work on a standard that asked them to describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described. We talked about first- and secondhand accounts. Then in writing workshop, they crafted a piece of narrative nonfiction, blending researched facts (secondhand information) with invented firsthand points of view. I shared this book with them to show that the thinking they'd developed via the reading standard and their own writing are not just standards to study or hoops to jump in school, they are alive in books being published out in the "real world."

In Soldier Song, Debby Levy focuses small, on one standoff of the Civil War -- the battle at Fredricksburg and what happened within both sides and between the two sides via a musical volley across the Rappahannock River. Woven throughout the facts are snippets of actual soldiers' letters and journal entries. The woodcut illustrations perfectly invoke the mood/tone of the story.