Newish Books That Have Fun With Words

During the first week of the school year, I read the book Animal Soup asking my kids if they liked words. They seemed confused. "What do you mean? Do we like words?"  I explained that I loved playing with words and the fun that writers had with words. I liked when writers did clever things with words. A few nodded while others tilted their heads not quite sure what I was getting at.

Some of the work we'll do in word study this year revolves around figurative language and using various parts of speech. The way I learned about figurative language and parts of speech was not joyful.  We learned about it in an isolated way and learned to recognize and name it but we didn't see the fun or joy in the clever ways people used words. Don't get me wrong,  I LOVED diagramming sentences (it was actually one of my biggest talents in middle and high school) BUT I never actually transferred any of that to using the language or to finding joy in the words and phrases that made up the sentences.

So I've been thinking hard about how to best move my students from not really thinking about words to finding joy in them to paying attention to the use of words in writing. So many days I find myself looking at my shelves of books, pulling collections of books based on some conversations we've had in class. These last few days I've pulled the following newish books to add to our conversations around words.

Words by Christopher Niemann

This small chunky book is mostly visual and is a great celebration of words of all kinds. This is one kids spend a lot of time with and one that they go back to again and again.

Nothing Rhymes with Orange by Adam Rex

Not only is this a fun book that explores fun fruit words but the character of Orange (who has no place in a rhyming story) is hilarious!

A Greyhound a Groundhog by Emily Jenkins

This book plays with just a few words to tell a story and is fun to read aloud.

Guess Who, Haiku by Deanna Caswell and Bob Shea

These are fun riddles written in Haiku. This one is fun to read and guess the answers to these riddles. After reading a few kids will want to try writing some of their own.

Yaks Yak: Animal Word Pairs by Linda Su Park

What a fun way to look at words that can be used as different parts of speech--lots of noun-verb combinations to create fun scenes.  

Blue Sky White Stars by Sarvinder Naberhaus and Kadir Nelson

The brilliance in the way the author uses words invites conversation. This book is powerful and gorgeous and gives readers so much to think about, even though there are so few words.

It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk by Josh Funk

Although this one does not focus on word play, kids definitely notice the fun in the author's use of words in several places.

This House Once by Deborah Freedman

The partnered language in this book may invite readers to try describing things in new ways. The author says a great deal in short, beautiful phrases.

Things I've Read Lately

In the first few weeks of school, I have much less time for my own reading than usual. I am sure that's true for many of us.  But I have read some very powerful things that I thought were worth sharing.  Hopefully you'll find something that makes you think about something in a new way:-)

Not This But That: No More Telling as Teaching-This is a great podcast with Cris Tovani connected her new book from Heinemann, No More Telling as Teaching.

NCTE Annual Convention Updates--Coming up sooner than we think!

Silence is Not Always Golden--Another great post by Lynsey Burkins on the newish Classroom Communities blog.

What Are Your Superpowers--From the same amazing blog, Andrea Smith shares some powerful thoughts on beginning of the year conversations

Learn Their Names. Learn Their Stories And one more amazing post from that same blog by Aliza Werner

7 Reflections to Quiet the Ghosts of Grading's Past by Sarah J. Donovan is an article to help you rethink grading at any level.

Proctor and Gamble's New Anti-Racism Ad is Roiling White America --I had not seen this ad until recently and I am glad I finally watched it and read the conversations around it.

My Favorite Reads of 2017 from Pernille Ripp is a great one to add books to your TBR stack (even though you don't have time to read all of these right now--it is a great list!)

Voices from the Middle Episode 22 with Donalyn Miller-Another great podcast from Voices in the Middle. There is always something new to learn from Donalyn Miller.

And School Begins by Kylene Beers gives us important things to think about as we start a new school year.

Which Childhood Experiences are "Appropriate"? and Says Who? by Christina Berchini on the NCTE blogs shares important thoughts on who decides what is appropriate for students to read.

Curriculum for White Americans to Educate  Themselves on Race and Racism--From Ferguson to Charleston--This one will take months to read through but there is so much here and much of it seems extremely important.

"I was born in poverty in Appalachia. 'Hillbilly Elegy' does not speak for me." by Betsy Rader 

And this Ted Talk by Verna Myers, How to Overcome Our Biases: Walk Boldly to Them-- although it is not new, is new to me. A must-watch.

Happy Reading!

Poetry Friday -- Bike Ride Blessings

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Nick Step

Bike Ride Blessing

I want to stop,
gather my thoughts.

A deer and her fawn
ran across the path
so close
I swerved to miss them.

An ordinary day
suddenly goes soft.
All that was wrong
is lost.

Moments like this
can't be bought.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017



Here's hoping that a blessing crosses your path and makes you stop in your tracks to give thanks!

Kat has the Poetry Friday roundup at Kathryn Apel, way over in Australia where it's coming on spring time while we slip towards fall! Thanks for hosting, Kat!!

Reading Without Walls

One Shadow on the Wall

by Leah Henderson

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2017

Outside In

Jennifer Bradbury

Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2017

This pair of books put me "in the shoes" of orphan boys in Senegal (One Shadow on the Wall) and India (Outside In).

Each of the boys must do whatever it takes to survive. In both books, bullies play a big part in making that survival difficult. The spirit of his father helps Mor (One Shadow on the Wall), while Ram (Outside In) is guided by the traditional stories of how the princes Rama (who marries Sita) and Lakshmana endure fourteen years of exile and defeat the evil Ravana (with the help of the monkey army).

Family is important in both books. Mor works to keep his together, while Ram finds one.

In both books, there is an outsider who helps the boys. In One Shadow on the Wall, Demba is mystical and thought by the villagers to be crazy. In Outside In, Nek creates art in secret.

It was quite surprising to read these back-to-back and find so many similarities. Makes me wonder how my next-reads will connect!

Mentor Texts for Launching Writers' Notebooks

Launching Writers' Workshop is one of my favorite things about the beginning of a new school year.  The possibilities are endless and giving kids time and choice for writing is (I believe) one of the best things we can do for them as learners. I've had a stack of tried and true books that I go to at the start of the year--books that serve as mentors for anyone starting a writer's notebook.

Some of my favorites include:

• Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid by Ralph Fletcher
• Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka
• A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You by Ralph Fletcher
• Hey World, Here I Am by Jean Little
• Amelia's Notebook by Marissa Moss

In our notebook writing this time of year, we are learning to live our lives as writers,  try new things, play as writers and attempt things that might make our writing better.This year, I am excited to add a few new mentor texts to my collection. I've already used several of these with my 5th graders and they seem like. perfect additions.

Comics Confidential: Thirteen Graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft and Life Outside the Box is a newish book that is filled with insights from several graphic novelists. Each interview shares insights into not only the writing lives of these authors but also tips about craft. There are samples to demonstrate these things.  I find that there isn't a lot out there for kids who are playing around with comics/graphic novels (in and out of their notebooks) so this is a great place to help them think more deeply when they are creating these,

Another new collection from writers is Our Story Begins:Your Favorite Authors and Illustrators Share Fun, Inspiring and Occasionally Ridiculous Things they Wrote and Drew as Kids. This book shares stories from several popular children's authors --stories about some of their earliest writing.  Again many include great samples,

Last week, I shared Olivia Van Ledtje (@Livbits) latest blog post-- #ForCharLove --a letter to her younger sister's Kindergarten teacher.  This was a great piece with love and voice. It was a great mentor for kids to think about ways to write about people close to them.  I paired this with Not Enough Emilys in Hey World, Here I Am,  I am so glad that Liv is blogging--I find that sharing writing from same-age peers is so powerful for both message and craft.

Amy Vanderwater's Sharing Our Notebooks site is growing and is packed with so many great ideas for notebook writing.  The section we have visited most often is the "Try This!-Notebooking Ideas" section that is packed with things for writers to try. We've used a few of these as mini lessons and they are very accessible to kids.

And I was SOOO happy to see a new edition of Lois Lowry's Looking Back: A Book of Memories earlier this month. I LOVED this book when I read it years ago and this new edition has even more insights from Lois Lowry. It is packed with short pieces and memories that can be read as part of the whole book or independently.

And even though we have to wait a few more months for Colby Sharp's upcoming The Creativity Project: No Rules, Anything Goes, Awesometastic Storybuilding, I know this is one I'll add to my stack of great mentors for young writers. (I'd suggest pre-ordering this one now:-)

We'll definitely read these books and learn from them as writers throughout the year but they are especially helpful as we launch our workshop as a new community of writers.

Poetry Friday -- For our Star

One of my brother's colleagues used a colander
to capture this stunning eclipse image.

Choose Something Like a Star
By Robert Frost

O Star (the fairest one in sight),
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud—
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.
Say something to us we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says, ‘I burn.’
But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.
And steadfast as Keats' Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height,
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid. (emphasis mine)

Was your Eclipse Day all you'd hoped it would be? Here in Central Ohio, we had, naturally, "some obscurity of cloud." Nonetheless, we experienced the dimming (similar to what comes with summer thunderstorms) and we could see the bite of the moon's shadow using the pairs of glasses we borrowed from a couple of support staff who came out while we were trying to get our pinhole viewers to work. We're looking forward to 2024, when Totality will be just north of us. (That is, if we manage to hold our planet together that long.) On one of the eclipse videos we watched, the narration ended by reminding us that rocks cast shadows on other rocks throughout the cosmos all the time. It's just that on ours, someone is here to notice it.

Jone has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Check It Out.

It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk

I received a review copy of Josh Funk's new book, It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk, in the mail last week. I laughed out loud as I read it at the table and I can't wait to share this one with my class.

I am a huge fan of books that mess around with classic fairy tales. I am always intrigued by the way authors take a tale that we know well and play a little bit. This version of Jack and the Beanstalk is very well done and VERY VERY fun!

There is a narrator that begins the story with the usual "Once upon a time...". But Jack is sleeping so the narrator has to wake him up.  Early on in the story, Jack is not too happy with the narrator's story or the things the narrator has Jack do.  So he starts arguing with the narrator a bit. And he continues through the story.

Jack is a funny character and the narrator is a pretty tough narrator.  I think it is often confusing for readers when a character talks back to the narrator but Josh Funk does this whole thing BRILLIANTLY.  The conversation between Jack and the narrator is embedded in the story in such a way that you can follow it all,

This will no doubt be a fun read aloud but I think it will also make a great mentor text for kids who want to try playing around with classic fairy tales. Students can easily try some of Josh Funk's techniques in their own writing to see what happens. And they would have a great time playing.

I love so much about this book and I am so happy to have an early copy. I am pretty sure once I take this one into the classroom I won't see it for a while as the kids will pass it along to read over and over again.