The Grasshopper's Song: An Aesop's Fable Revisited

The Grasshopper's Song: An Aesop's Fable Revisited

by Nikki Giovanni

illustrated by Chris Raschka

Candlewick Press, 2008

I didn't intend for this to be insect week at A Year of Reading. It just happened. 

Today's book finds Jimmy Grasshopper suing Nestor and Abigail Ant because, after a summer of providing them with entertainment, they refused to share the harvest with him. It's a question of respect, and it's a meditation on the value of art in society.

"Am I not worthy of my bread? Does not the work of my heart and soul earn respect? I am an artist. Is there no place for beauty, no solace for the ear, no hope for the heart? Must everything be in the marketplace? Doesn't the marketplace itself need and deserve beautification?"

Indeed. 

This is not a version of Aesop's tale for the youngest readers and listeners. Instead, it might make a great gift for the artists and lawyers in your life. It's a beautiful little book with an important message, especially in these times when all eyes are on the marketplace.  

Reviewed by Jules at 7-Imp in June.

BIRD LAKE MOON by Kevin Henkes

I love Kevin Henkes. I love Chrysanthemum and Lilly and Wemberly. But I am also a HUGE fan of his children's novels. When I read THE BIRTHDAY ROOM several years ago, it quickly became a favorite and it ended up being one of the most powerful books I read aloud to my 5th grade class that year. So, I picked up BIRD LAKE MOON as soon as it came out last spring. But I bought it when things were busy and I had not time to read and somehow I forgot that I had it.

Last week, one of our third grade teachers reminded me of the book. She came in telling me she had read the book and that she LOVED it! It was just the reminder I needed to get back to this book. I read it on the plane on my way to NCTE and was not disappointed.

Henkes develops amazing characters. He does it with his picture book characters and he does it with the characters in this book. He is all about good characters who we know and love.

In this story, two boys become friends and each is dealing with his own family issues. Henkes alternates back and forth between the characters and you come to like and understand both characters well. You come to understand the stresses they are dealing with and you understand the choices that they make--both good and bad. Both boys are doing a lot of growing up and learning to deal with pain.

I have a hard time finding books with enough depth for younger (3rd/4th grade) children to talk about. I often find that either books are too shallow with not enough interesting issues OR they are too much for 8, 9 and 10 year olds. This book is perfect for upper elementary students. There are enough issues with the characters and things you find yourself thinking about, that it seems perfect for a read aloud or a book for a book club.

I continue to be amazed by Henkes talent. The fact that he can write well for so many different ages is fascinating to me. I look forward to whatever it is he decides to write next!

Ask Dr. K. Fisher about Creepy-Crawlies

Ask Dr. K. Fisher about Creepy-Crawlies

by Claire Llewellyn

illustrated by Kate Sheppard

first published in Great Britain

published in the United States, coincidentally, by Kingfisher, an imprint of Henry Holt, 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

Yesterday we met a caterpillar with all kinds of personality; today we meet Dr. K. Fisher, a bird who answers all kinds of questions put to him by all kinds of creepy-crawlies. There's a scorpion who is counseled by Dr. K. Fisher not to go around wasting his venom on gratuitous stinging, an earthworm with body image problems, a bashful glowworm, and more. Interspersed between the question and answer letters are guides to creepy crawly bodies, insect wings, insect disguises, and insect colonies.  Included are a glossary and an index.

Wouldn't this make a great mentor text for a fun way to write a nonfiction piece -- as letters to and from an expert on the subject you've researched?

Also in the Ask Dr. K. Fisher series -- dinosaurs, animals, reptiles, and coming in 2009 -- weather!

Houdini the Amazing Caterpillar

Houdini the Amazing Caterpillar

by Janet Pedersen

Houghton Mifflin, 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

There has never been a caterpillar with more personality than Houdini. His mother whispers to him when he is just an egg, "You will do amazing and magical things, Houdini." Sure enough, he winds up as the star of the show in an aquarium surrounded by a classroom full of children with all kinds of curious faces and quite a few missing teeth. He loses his audience to a turtle and a spider, so he has to think up a show-stopper of an act. Sure enough, he gets his audience back when he emerges as a butterfly.

Reviewed here by Sarah, at The Reading Zone, who is the self-proclaimed "crazy butterfly lady."

Here Lies Arthur

Here Lies Arthur

by Philip Reeve

Scholastic, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

I'm always in the mood for a good retelling of the Arthurian legend, and Philip Reeve did not disappoint me.  

This story is set during the formation of Arthur's legend. Arthur is pretty much of a bully and plunderer; Merlin's magic is in the stories he spins to reinvent the truth. Sound like modern politics?Art does indeed imitate life and vice versa.

The story is told from the point of view of an orphaned servant girl who is used by Merlin to pull off the Lady of the Lake stunt, then disguised by him as his servant boy until she is too old to pass as a boy. Merlin then reintroduces her as a cousin of his servant boy, and plants her as a lady in Guenevere's court so she can spy for him. 

The whole book is a meditation on the power of story to create an enduring "truth." And maybe that's not always a bad thing. Not always.

 

The Telegraph reports that Here Lies Arthur won the 2007 Carnegie Medal. 

The Guys Lit Wire post is entitled "King Arthur, Lout."  (cross-posted at the excelsior file)

DRUMMER BOY by Loren Long

I have not been in the holiday spirit. Kind of annoyed that my favorite coffee shop started serving red paper cups already. Not ready to see all of the trees. It is only November, after all!

But tonight, I finally had a chance to sit down and read Loren Long's new picture book DRUMMER BOY and I am totally in the holiday spirit now. WHAT A BOOK! If you are looking for a great, new Christmas story that will last generations, this one is just that. A great gift book for any child (or adult) you know.

We all have our favorite holiday stories. My father read a certain version of THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS to my brother and I each Christmas Eve when we were children. My oldest daughter loved to hear THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE OF JONATHAN TOOMEY at Christmastime. There are so many holiday books published and I enjoy many of them. But very few do what this one does. I am sure that this new book by Loren Long will be added to many families' lists of holiday favorites. Definitely the makings of a classic.

I am not going to say much about the story. I drafted something but it doesn't do the story justice. Loren Long says it in a way that I can't summarize. It is a perfect story about a toy drummer boy. Its message is great and the illustrations are stunning.

This is definitely going to be a gift book from me this year. I am thinking it will be great for two preschoolers in the family. A book they can hopefully grow up with. I am pretty excited to give this book as a gift and to enjoy it in our family.

Loren Long's website is definitely worth a visit. He shares original sketches of the art in the book as well as notes explaining his inspiration for the story.

Loren Long visited our school last year when he and Jon Scieszka were touring for the new TRUCKTOWN series. He is a great author/illustrator visit. The kids loved watching him create his drawings!

SNOWFLAKES
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Out of the bosom of the Air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take
Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession,
The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels.

This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.

Snow. We haven't had any yet, have you?  I'm not sure I want the reality of snow just yet -- driving in it, shoveling it. But if I think of snow as "the poem of the air," then I'm just about overcome with anticipation.

Make your own snowflake at Make-a-Flake.

Check out all things snow at SnowCrystals.com.

Snowflake Bentley's website is here. The image I used is one he made. According to the website, "Wilson Bentley did not copyright his photographs and thus they are in the public domain and free to use for any purpose." You just can't sell them, or make them into something to sell. Thank you, Mr. Bentley.

The Poetry Friday round up is at Yat-Yee Chong.

Blog Post of the Day, Comments, Crud

BLOG POST OF THE DAY

How fun is this -- we are one of the Children's Literature Blog Posts of the Day on the Children's Writing Web Journal of the Children's Book Insider! We got noticed!

COMMENTS
But really, it didn't take being in a YouTube video to clue us in that we've been noticed. We could tell by all the comments you've been leaving!

Hasn't the 21 Day Comment Challenge been a blast? I started a day late, but I've had a few over-achieving days that have brought my average up to just over 5 comments per day. I have been using a combination of my GoogleReader, the links in our sidebar that aren't on my reader page, and random links I've picked up from your sidebars! 

CRUD

The best thing about the Comment Challenge is that I can chat away without having to use up the last scraps of my voice. 

Yes, it wouldn't be mid-November, it wouldn't be time for NCTE, if I didn't get an upper respiratory infection. I have been keeping a 10-year diary for 8 years now, and 5 out of the past 8 years I have lost my voice just about this time of year (in '01 on the 9th, in '03 on the 4th, in '05 on the 9th, in '07 on the 6th, and this year it will be the 13th, if things keep going the way they are right now.) 

In '06 at about this time, the numbness in my feet was creeping up my legs and I wound up having emergency back surgery right after NCTE. I'd rather lose my voice than have the pain and numbness and fear I had that year.

BOOKS I COULD READ A MILLION TIMES: PART 2

I started this "series" early in the school year and have since realized that a book has to be pretty darn good to make my list! Sometimes when I am reading a book I love to the 4th class in one day, I start not loving it anymore. It reminds me of when my kids were young and they wanted to hear the same book over and over and I got to the point that I couldn't stand the book anymore. But, there are a few books that I really do think I could read a million times. I just never tire of them.

I have found two more books that make my list-books I can read over and over and continue to love them.

WHO ATE ALL THE COOKIE DOUGH by Karen Beaumont is the most fun to read with young children. I love to watch their faces. They never tire of the rhyme and rhythm. And the ending is always fun--even when it isn't a surprise anymore. I first heard about this book from Katie at Creative Literacy. (I think she actually picked up a copy for me.) Who can tire of the rhyme that is almost more fun than the original? "Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe! Who ate the cookie dough". The text takes us through lots of possible suspects to find a fun surprise answer at the end.

I love THE LITTLE BIT SCARY PEOPLE by Emily Jenkins for totally different reasons. My cousin told me about this book and I wasn't sold on it at first. But now that I have read it several times, it is definitely one of my favorites. This book takes a look at people who seem scary on the outside--the teenage boy down the street, the policeman whistling at traffic, the bus driver who blows her horn--and then helps us realize that maybe they aren't scary. I love the message of this book--looking past our first impressions of people, past the outside appearances. They're really not so scary after all! And the repeated texts and colorful illustrations add to an already amazing book. One I don't think I'll get sick of because I so love what it says.

Melvin Might?

My students were THRILLED this week when they saw that I had a copy of the new Trucktown book by Jon Scieszka!  They have loved SMASH! CRASH! and were thrilled to see another one with the characters that they met in the first book.

MELVIN MIGHT? is about Melvin, a cement mixer.  Melvin is a worrier. He worries about everything! When one of his truck friends needs help, Melvin is worried that he can't do it. This book has a theme that is similar to The Little Engine That Could and also reminded me of Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes.  This is a great story with the same fun and colorful illustrations that we came to love in SMASH! CRASH!  There are also repeated lines that the kids naturally jump in on. And, just like the first one, this book has a great fold-out spread!  

Lots to love about these books.  Kids enjoy the stories and the illustrations.  Scieszka clearly understands young readers.  He gives them a story that works but also thinks about the text--giving them places where they naturally feel invited to join in.  And he uses great language--words kids love--"roars", and "soars"--and fonts that show kids how text can be read.  You know how I feel about leveled texts taking over our classrooms. Jon Scieszka's Trucktown books remind us that great authors can write great books for kids, without using controlled vocabulary and limiting text options.  Instead, these books support new readers by engaging them in a great story and giving them language that invites them to participate, notice words that are used again and again. .  Isn't this the best way to support our youngest readers?