November Mosaic

There are lots of doubles in this month's mosaic. There are two Epcot balls, two friends riding into a possible Jetson-like future, two big stuffed Disney characters, two tropical flowers, two shots of a rainbow, and two kinds of popcorn. Two flowers were blooming in our house at the same time: the hibiscus had one last fling while the Christmas cactus was ramping up. There are two yummy dishes -- grilled cheese and red beans and rice -- from Skillet, our new favorite restaurant (thank you, Meredith!), and there were two crab cakes and two spears of asparagus on my plate at a dinner "Off Property" (ie: NOT Disney) at NCTE. The two people are Julie Johnson, who received the Donald Graves Excellence in Teaching of Writing Award and Steph Harvey, who was thrilled with her flight of Margaritas at Maya Grill. (There was an advertisement for the Maya Grill in the elevator of Coronado Springs Casita 2 proclaiming that if you ate there, you would be "besieged by enchantment." If that isn't a Disney mission statement, I don't know what is.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARY LEE!

Mary Lee is celebrating a "landmark" birthday (in her words) this weekend. Sing along and wish her a happy day!   Happy Birthday, Mary Lee!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

On The Eve of a Landmark Birthday

The Woodcutter Changes His Mind
by David Budbill


When I was young, I cut the bigger, older trees for firewood, the ones
with heart rot, dead and broken branches, the crippled and deformed

ones, because, I reasoned, they were going to fall soon anyway, and
therefore, I should give the younger trees more light and room to grow.

Now I'm older and I cut the younger, strong and sturdy, solid
and beautiful trees, and I let the older ones have a few more years

of light and water and leaf in the forest they have known so long.
Soon enough they will be prostrate on the ground.

"The Woodcutter Changes His Mind" by David Budbill, from While We've Still Got Feet: New Poems. © Copper Canyon Press, 2005. Found on The Writer's Almanac. Reprinted with permission of the author.  Thanks, David! This is the perfect poem for how I'm feeling today.

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Thank you, Tricia, for rounding up our PF posts!

Clever Jack Takes the Cake

Clever Jack Takes The Cake
by Candace Fleming
illustrated by G. Brian Karas
Random House (Schwartz & Wade), 2010
Review copy provided by the publisher

I'm guilty and I'll freely admit it: I judged this book by the cover when it arrived. "Another folk tale. Meh." And I set it aside for later.

Then, at NCTE, as I browsed the books in the Random House booth, I noticed all the stars adorning it. Hmm. Maybe I better take another look.

Was I ever wrong about this book! It does lean on all the other "clever Jack" tales for the basic "succeed by using your wits, even if everything possible goes wrong" story line, but it is fresh and original and...I'm sorry...clever! There's no way around it, it DOES...take the cake!

Jack is invited to the princess's 10th birthday, but he has nothing to take for a present. Read to find out how he manages to bake her a cake and how he manages to show up at the throne with nothing but the story of making and losing the cake. Read to find out what the princess thinks of her gift. (Study the end papers to see what happens before and after the story in the text.) Read to be delighted. Reread to take a closer look at the illustrations. Clever Jack, Clever Candace, Clever Brian. Lucky us.


Other Reviews:
100 Scope Notes
7 Imp
Heavy Medal

Books I Could Read A Million Times--Chalk

A funny thing happened at school this week. One of my kids saw me in the hallway and yelled  "Mrs. Sibberson, when I come to library today, will you have any of those empty books?"  Empty books? What could she have possibly meant?  "You know, the books with no words?" So I decided to read CHALK by Bill Thomson aloud this week, since she had asked so cleverly for wordless books.

CHALK is a great new wordless book--one that I would love to see win the Caldecott Award.  Mary Lee reviewed it a few months ago but it wasn't a book that I took the time to fall in love with right away. You see, I am a text girl and I have very little patience for taking the time to enjoy a wordless book on my own.  I do not always take the time to really take in the visuals. But this week, I discovered what a treat sharing CHALK with children is!  I love watching the kids' faces each time I turned the page.  The amazement, excitement, surprise, fear, and discovery were all so clear on their faces.  Their conversations around the book have been amazing and this is definitely a book I could read a million times.

So, today, I am adding CHALK  to my list of BOOKS I COULD READ A MILLION TIMES.  I think this is the first wordless picture book to make the list but it is definitely one that deserves to be there.

Foodspotting

I love taking pictures.

I love eating out.

I love taking pictures of my food when I eat out.

Foodspotting was made for me: social networking around the pictures you take of food. What could be better? Meredith shared this iPhone app with me on the way home from NCTE. She also told me about a new (to me) restaurant. The day after I got home, I was eating at that restaurant and taking pictures of my food for Foodspotting.

Nom!

NCTE Reflections

It's hard to believe that a week ago I was in Orlando attending NCTE's Annual Convention. It seems like yesterday, and it seems like it's been months, all rolled into one.

There was time Wednesday evening after we got in for my one Disney Experience. I chose Epcot. We rode a few rides, took a brief walking tour of the world, hugged Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, too, and saw the amazing fireworks.

Thursday was my Vacation in Florida Experience. I swam laps in an outdoor pool, made some vitamin D the old fashioned way, and caught my breath from the whirlwind week of teaching, grading, and sub plans.

Thursday evening at the Elementary Section Get-Together, Stenhouse Editorial Director Philippa Stratton received the NCTE Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts Award, and our blogging pal from Hilliard, Julie Johnson, received the Donald Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing. At dinner, I sat next to Louise Borden and across from/next to Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis. (mandatory name-dropping)

Friday morning, I was due at the Yacht Club for a 7am Children's Literature Assembly board meeting. Disney Magic got me there on time with a magic carpet ride my very own van ride as the sun rose. After the board meeting, and upon my return to Coronado Springs, I snuck into the end of the Poets and Bloggers session, did some hard thinking in a session about how to teach 21st Century Literacies in spite of the "reforms" that would make sure our students can pass a test but not ensure that they would grow up THINKING, and got another dose of poetry at the Poetry for Children Notables session. Friday evening was all about the communities of writers I am privileged and honored and proud to belong to: the Stenhouse reception was followed by the Choice Literacy dinner. (Too many names to drop without forgetting some, but I would be remiss if I didn't thank Stenhouse for continuing to include me as one of their own, and Brenda Power for her incredible generosity, creative vision, and passion for teaching and leading.)

Saturday sessions/thinking: using conferences in writing workshop as a kind of formative assessment; smart ways to use picture books; three hours of talking about books and winnowing our list of Notables (fabulous committee, must drop names: Mary Napoli, April Bedford, Nancy Roser, Donalyn Miller, Yoo Kyung Sung, Tracy Smiles), and then a dinner sponsored by Macmillan. The authors at the dinner were fun, but it was also great to spend a little time with Elaine Magliaro, Trisha Stohr-Hunt, Karen Terlecky, and Barbara O'Connor. (drop, drop)

On Sunday, those who attended the Children's Literature Assembly breakfast were treated to an amazing talk by David Wiesner about his newest book, ART AND MAX. (There was much bantering later on Twitter between certain pairs of friends -- @donalynbooks / @PaulWHankins, and @maryleehahn / @frankisibberson -- about who is Art and who is Max.)



More about ART AND MAX here and here.

After the breakfast, I presented on reading workshop with Franki, Aimee Buckner and Donalyn Miller, then raced to Coronado Ballroom H and presented about the 2010 Notables (2009 books). After we talked briefly about the 30 books, there were 8-minute roundtable sessions with some of the authors. I got to hear Rebecca Stead (WHEN YOU REACH ME), Alexis Frederick-Frost (ADVENTURES IN CARTOONING), Ching Yeung Russell (TOFU QUILT), and Linda Barrett Osborne (TRAVELING THE FREEDOM ROAD). (drop, drop)

Two of my favorite people to run into in the hallways or in sessions were Amy Ludwig VanDerwater and Heidi Mordhorst. We know each other mostly on our blogs, but it's amazing how well we know each other. Heidi picked right up on my penchant for purple, and I gave her an idea for her next book. Amy and I sat on a bench in the hallway and chatted like sorority sisters.

(This post is getting way too long and I'm 1/2 hour over budget time-wise, but we're almost to the end, so let's just finish it up...)

Monday was the Children's Literature Assembly workshop. Now, I know there are some die-hard ALAN fans out there, but CLA puts on a classy workshop for those of us who work with younger readers. The CLA workshop is not about speed and huge boxes of books. There were 5 author/illustrators and we left with a stack of 7 picture books. We heard Doreen Rappaport talk about her  recent series of biographies, especially Martin's Big Words and John's Secret Dreams, which were both illustrated by Bryan Collier. Then we got to hear Bryan Collier. After a break, Andrea Davis Pinkney sang to us, and talked about Sit In. After lunch, David Diaz taught us to draw and told us about his process for Me, Frida.

We ended the day with a trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, led by Hester Bass (she ALSO sang to us!), who wrote about the artist Walter Anderson in Orbis Pictus winner, The Secret Life of Walter Anderson. Her slide show gave us a peek into the process that E.B. Lewis used to create the amazing illustrations from extensive research and photographs taken on a site visit with Hester.

Next year when you are planning your NCTE experience, consider staying on Monday for the CLA Workshop! It is a fabulous, intimate day with children's authors and illustrators.

And now it's time for me to get back to my current reality: lesson plans, grading, and an attempt to make my days at NCTE a part of my life in the classroom.

A Thanksgiving to God, For His House

Our "cell/wherin to dwell," after the Blizzard of '08

A THANKSGIVING TO GOD, FOR HIS HOUSE

by Robert Herrick
(1591-1674)

Lord, Thou hast given me a cell
Wherein to dwell,
A little house, whose humble roof
Is weather-proof:
Under the spars of which I lie
Both soft, and dry;
Where Thou my chamber for to ward
Hast set a guard
Of harmless thoughts, to watch and keep
Me, while I sleep.
Low is my porch, as is my fate,
Both void of state;
And yet the threshold of my door
Is worn by th' poor,
Who thither come and freely get
Good words, or meat.
Like as my parlour, so my hall
And kitchen's small;
A little buttery, and therein
A little bin,
Which keeps my little loaf of bread
Unchipp'd, unflead;
Some brittle sticks of thorn or briar
Make me a fire,
Close by whose living coal I sit,
And glow like it.
Lord, I confess too, when I dine,
The pulse is Thine,
And all those other bits, that be
There plac'd by Thee;
The worts, the purslain, and the mess
Of water-cress,
Which of Thy kindness Thou hast sent;
And my content
Makes those, and my beloved beet,
To be more sweet.
'Tis Thou that crown'st my glittering hearth
With guiltless mirth;
And giv'st me wassail-bowls to drink,
Spic'd to the brink.
Lord, 'tis Thy plenty-dropping hand
That soils my land;
And giv'st me, for my bushel sown,
Twice ten for one;
Thou mak'st my teeming hen to lay
Her egg each day;
Besides my healthful ewes to bear
Me twins each year;
The while the conduits of my kine
Run cream, for wine.
All these, and better, Thou dost send
Me, to this end,
That I should render, for my part,
A thankful heart,
Which, fir'd with incense, I resign,
As wholly Thine;
But the acceptance, that must be,
My Christ, by Thee.

I'm reading and listening to ALCHEMY AND MEGGY SWANN by Karen Cushman. (If you follow the link and listen to the sample, you'll hear a description of the house in London where Meggy Swann finds herself delivered, but, unfortunately, you won't get to hear her say,"Ye toads and vipers!") Cushman's newest book is set in London in 1573 "Under the accession of Elizabeth I to the throne of England but afore London's first theater and Shakespeare." All of this is to tell you why, when I began my search for today's poem -- after realizing with a gasp that it is FRIDAY (an aside here about how mixed up I am about what day it is: I keep calling the third day of NCTE Wednesday, even though it was Sunday, just because Monday means "the start of it all" and therefore two days after the start must be Wednesday) ... where was I? Oh. Looking for a poem. So my search turned up the poem by  Robert Herrick and it felt like it had been GIVEN to me to share. Maybe even given to me by Meggy Swann herself.

Happy Thanksgiving, from my house to yours, and Happy Poetry Friday! Let's meet at Jone's "house" -- Check It Out -- for a feast of poetry!

Giving Thanks for Some of the People Who Have Changed and Are Changing My Life

WRITING

photo from Flickr Creative Commons by tomswift46

I wouldn't be who I am today as a writer if Philippa Stratton and Bill Varner at Stenhouse hadn't believed in my ability to turn the sketchiest of proposals into a book.

I am grateful to Brenda Power for valuing my article-length thinking and writing for Choice Literacy. Thanks to her recent generosity, I now have ideas brewing for several articles about using new technologies in my classroom.

THINKING

photo from Flickr Creative Commons by karola riegler photography

Who pushes my thinking? With out a doubt, Franki does, both on the blog and off: about reading and writing and education and baking and the value of Disney in the world (just to mention a few recent topics). Time spent with Meredith always results in new thinking and learning around technology and the arts. And then there are my smart colleagues in Dublin and Central Ohio, my blogging friends from far and near, and Tweet Peeps whose 140 character thinking prods, provokes and amuses.

GROWING

photo from Flickr Creative Commons by BONGURI

For giving me a leg up and an invitation into the inner workings of NCTE via the suggestion that I apply to be on the NCTE Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts Committee, I am forever thankful to Monica. My life as a professional outside the walls of my building and the boundaries of my district has been forever broadened because of this opportunity. Presenting is pretty awesome, but having the opportunity to lead is even more amazing. Thanks for believing in me, Monica.

My life as a professional within the walls of my building has forever been changed by the opportunity to work with the amazing principal, Jeff Reinhard. He leads by example with an attitude of gratitude and an unwavering belief in the teachers and children at our building. He was a gift to us from the universe at the time we most needed him, and we are thankful for every day we work together to find the path to the success we all know we can achieve.

ALAN 2010

The room for ALAN was huge! I think I overheard someone say that 500 people attended.

I have been hearing about the ALAN workshop at NCTE for years. It has always sounded like a great day, but I've never been able to attend. This year, listening in on Twitter conversations of @donalynbooks, @ProfessorNana and @PaulWHankins and all of the great YA books they were reading, I realized how behind I was on my YA Reading.  So, this year, I attended ALAN for the first time and I think I am addicted. I was excited to see so many authors who write YA as well as middle grade fiction. I knew more of them than I had expected.  I have always loved YA literature and today reminded me of that.

ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents) is an assembly of NCTE. Each year, they sponsor a 2-day post-conference workshop featuring YA authors. The day was incredible.  I am finally a member of ALAN too and will begin to receive The ALAN Review.  James Blasingame, ALAN's president, received several rounds of applause today for all of the work in putting this together.  I cannot thank the planning group and the publishers enough for such an amazing day.

My 35 pound box of books!

My friend told me to arrive early in order to "organize my books".  I understood what she meant when I arrived.  At 7:30 am, I arrived to a giant (and quite heavy) box of books. At first, I thought about leaving it taped up and opening it when I got home. That thought lasted about 1/10 of a second. I cannot leave books untouched so I opened the box and dug in.  Inside were about 40 books of all kinds.  Some were books I had heard of. Others were new to me. I looked around to see what others were doing. People had quite a system for organizing their books in front of them.  500 people X 40 books. That is a lot of books thanks to so many generous publishers.  I spent about $38 to ship the books home (all but the 4 I couldn't part with).  What a great bargain day!

I tried to keep count.  By mid afternoon, we had heard about 30 authors speak. Authors spoke for 10-15 minutes each and I was amazed at the power of what each said in that amount of time.  Each was brilliant and gave such insight into their writing.

Following each speaker, a huge line formed at the back of the room for autographing. Anyone that wanted a book autographed could stand in line and quietly wait. From the line, they listened to other authors speak.

This day felt like a party.  It was full of energy, fun and important work.  From the day, I wanted to decide to dedicate a year to YA reading. I know that is impossible. I can't give up the other reading I love. But I did put lots of new books on list of books to read soon. Most are from authors we heard. Some are from the books I saw. We all got different books in our boxes so I spent lots of time looking at other people's piles to see what they were excited about.  Here are the ones that I added to my To Be Read Pile from the day (in no particular order):

Multitasking at its best: Waiting for an autograph
from one author while listening to another!

GIMME A CALL by Sarah Miynowski

HOW I, NICKY FLYNN, FINALLY GET A LIFE (AND A DOG) by Art Corriveau

THE INDIGO NOTEBOOK by Laura Resau

NINTH WARD by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Teri Lesesne, The Goddess of YA Lit, tweeted that everyone should read this book and that means we should all read it!)

VIRUS ON ORBIS by PJ Haarsman  (This one has a great additional online piece that the author shared that sounds like something I want to check out.)

PAPER DAUGHTER by Jeanette Ingold

MARTY MCGUIRE by Kate Messner-Due out May 2011 --(This one is not YA, but I saw Teri Lesesne with it today and took a peak.  Looks great for middle grade readers!

DANGEROUS NEIGHBORS by Beth Kephart

ATHENA:GREY-EYED GODDESS by George O'Connor (a graphic novel)

HEREVILLE: HOW MIRKA GOT HER SWORD by Barry Deutsch

SHINE by Lauren Myracle

IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY by Ned Vizzini

WARP SPEED by Lisa Yee

BLACK HOLE SUN by David Macinnis Gill