Some Great New Middle Grade Novels

I have read quite a few amazing middle grade novels this summer.  I am thrilled with a trend I am seeing with authors expanding the notion of what it means to be a family.  I am also excited about the way children are being portrayed in some of the books I've read. I am also thrilled that many of the books deal with looking beyond a child's disability or life circumstance.  These things do not define the child. So often, a book about a child with a difficult life circumstance focuses on the challenge or issue the child faces.   Since I am late on reviewing these, I will connect you to lots of others who have reviewed these books. They are all definitely worth reading if you are a teacher of middle grade/middle school kids.

OUT OF MY MIND by Sharon Draper

This story is told by Melody, a child who is in a wheelchair and cannot talk.  The story deals with her struggles and accomplishments and the frustrations she often feels at not always being able to communicate.  The book definitely looks beyond Melody's disability to all that she is. 

(Reviews at Kidslit, Becky's Book Reviews, and Literate Lives.)

TOUCH BLUE by Cynthia Lord takes place on a small island in Maine. Because the island school may close due to the small number of children on the island, several families decide to take in foster children to keep it open.  This is the story of Tess's family and their foster child, Aaron. A powerful story of wat it means to belong. (Great reviews of this book at Carol's Corner and Sarah Laurence Blog.)

KEEPER by Kathi Appelt is the story of a little girl named Keeper. Keeper's mother left when she was three and Keeper believes that she is a mermaid. Keeper goes looking for her mother when things go wrong, hoping she can fix things.  She learns that the people who love her are the ones who are right there.  

(Reviews at Reading Nook and A Fuse #8 Production.)

In MOCKINGBIRD by Kathryn Erskine, Caitlin's is dealing with the loss of her older brother in this story. Caitlin is a child with Asperger's Syndrome and her brother was the person who helped her make sense of the world.  As Caitlin and her father work through their grief, they also learn to understand each other better.

AS SIMPLE AS IT SEEMS by Sarah Weeks takes on a different issue. Verbena discovers that she was exposed to alcohol before birth and begins to wonder about the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome.  Although it explains her small size and learning difficulty, she worries about what else it means about who she is.
(Reviews at Literate Lives and Library Voice.)

A Great Day at Princeton Day School

Bev and Rebecca enjoying some lemonade before dinner!

A few weeks ago, I spent a day working with teachers at Princeton Day School in New Jersey. It was a great day put together by 3rd grade teacher, Bev Gallagher. If you don't know Bev, she is an amazing 3rd grade teacher who is also committed to quality professional development. I had met Bev several times and had heard about the work of the Princeton Day School from others who had visited. As I expected, Bev organized an amazing day for teachers. We met in a great room and had energizing learning and conversations all day. It was such a brilliant group of teachers. So much powerful discussion on so many topics connected to literacy.

One of the highs of the day was hearing Rebecca Kai Dotlich read from Bella and Bean. Bella and Bean is one of my all-time favorites. Love those girls! So, imagine how thrilled I was when I found out that I'd get to meet Rebecca during my day at PDS. Well, not only did I get to meet her, but I got to hear her presentation and we had lots of time to chat on the way to/from the airport, etc. What a thrill! To hear an author you love read a book you love, what could be better!? I am waiting patiently for the next Bella and Bean book to be published. I have hoped that these girls become their own series since the first time I read the book. Still crossing my fingers!

Rebecca reading from BELLA AND BEAN!

I was also thrilled to discover that IN THE SPIN OF THINGS: POETRY IN MOTION has been released in paperback. Rebecca was kind enough to share a copy of the book with me. I have a copy from long ago but its availability in paperback opens so many doors. Having several copies of this book in a room would be great for poetry reading and writing. This poetry book, if you don't know it, is a book filled with poems about ordinary things. Rebecca brings a joy to these things that only her poetry can. The rhythm and surprising word choice makes these fun for kids of all ages. If you know WHEN RIDDLES COME RUMBLING by Dotlich, this book has a similar feel to it. I am excited to know that it is out in paperback.

I feel so lucky to have spent the day at Princeton Day School with such amazing teachers. I learned so much from Bev and Rebecca. But I also learned from all of the participants of the workshop. I was lucky this summer to be part of some amazing professional development sessions across the country. To end the summer at Princeton Day School was quite a treat!

Justin Fisher Declares War by James Preller

JUSTIN FISHER DECLARES WAR was my last read of the summer. I am a huge James Preller fan but this may be my favorite from his list. Most of my teaching life has been in grades 3, 4, and 5. I feel very at home in 4th and 5th grade classrooms. I love the age and James Preller must also love this age. He really understands them and the struggles they deal with. Over the years, I have learned what a huge transition this age is for kids. They go from being little kids, to being big kids and it is sometimes a little confusing.

In this book, we learn that since 3rd grade, Justin Fisher has been the class clown. He is always up to something. He has good friends but in 5th grade, that seems to be changing. His friends and classmates have had enough and are starting to keep their distance. For me, this book is about figuring things out. Things that are cute and funny when you are 8, are no longer cute and funny when you are 11. This is a hard lesson for kids and finding their place in the world gets trickier. But Justin finds his way, thanks to an amazing young teacher (one that clearly deserves a spot on 100 Cool Teachers in Children's Lit!).

If I were in the classroom this year, this would probably be my first read aloud. The first read aloud has always been key and the choice is always a hard one but there are so many reasons that JUSTIN FISHER DECLARES WAR would make a great first read aloud. First of all, it will appeal to both boys and girls. Justin is a character that you cheer for and also one that does some crazy things that make you laugh. For me, laughter is always important in that first read aloud. It helps the community grow and helps everyone feel comfortable. The message "we will laugh here" is one I want kids to know right away. Secondly, the conversation that would happen around a book like this would be powerful. And this book will only provide the beginning of these conversations. James Preller understands this age level and kids will see themselves and their classmates in this book. Finally, the book's length would give lots of time for discussion--135 pages makes it short enough to set the stage for great books and great conversation. I am so hoping someone reads this book aloud early in the year and blogs about the conversations!

(Bill at Literate Lives also reviewed this book and created a great mosaic to go along with his review!)

More Cool Teachers

We're up to 135 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature on the list we started in 2006.

Here are the most recent additions:

Ms. Mirabel in Word After Word After Word (how have we not reviewed this?!?!)
Madame Lucille in Brontorina by James Howe (reviewed here by Franki)
Miss Palma in After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick (to be reviewed soon by Mary Lee)
Ms. Raymond in Dotty by Erica S. Perl (to be reviewed soon by Mary Lee)

Have you met any cool teachers in the books you've read recently? Let us know!

Poetry Friday -- First Day

In memory of my
fourth grade teacher
Faye Bryner
1916-2010

For the 32 First Days in your career,
and especially for the one we shared.











FIRST DAY 
author unknown

and what are the important questions anyway
on this first day of school after a night of no sleep
wondering even fearing how this day will go and all the rest
hoping it unfolds neatly as lesson plans promise
probably not and in that thought works a hint of unreadiness
and a quiet panic that hovers through the black coffee
yet later when we gather in first morning expectancy
we do manage to breathe though not deeply
my years are useless I am as new here
when the bell rings as all those now looking at me
but what is this day and all the rest about
not of course rules and study habits or even
a bag full of knowledge somehow packed
in all those books tidy on each desk
rather an urge to know that pushes us into wondering
about clouds becoming raindrops
from another side of the world or why the flower
outside the window blooms at this precise moment
where the songs in my heart come from
and where they are going all those questions
not in my curriculum guide
but that I now see in a new girl who can't stay
in her seat and dances an interruption around the room
negotiates attention midsentence and at the end of my wits
tells me a story during lunch that is dazzling and profound
and in one brief moment I see her soul in love with imagination
that must move and wave and try to fly
and this is what I must relearn on this first day
that in our remembered self is an urge to create
I can look for it or not but my choice had better
be made with love and reverence for what we all want is to express
our unique genius no matter what
because that is who we are
and after all the only question worth pursuing anyway
no wonder the night is full of sleeplessness
this is a question of life nothing else comes close
I remember now why I'm here and frightened
and so in awe of this moment
and these children



To all the teachers who already have or who will welcome a new class of students in the next days or weeks, and to the family members sending us their beloved ones to care for and nurture and teach, and to our students, "alive with imagination" -- LET'S MAKE IT A GREAT SCHOOL YEAR!

Laura has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Teach Poetry K-12.

Chocolate

I took a chocolate tasting class a couple of months ago (planned and taught by Reference Librarian extraordinaire Bill Meltzer at Old Worthington Library). I decided then and there that I wanted my students' experience in our classroom to feel like, if not taste like, the chocolate tasting classroom that night.

Here's what I learned about my fourth grade classroom at the chocolate tasting class:

•WE WANTED TO BE THERE.
I understand that not every child loves school the way I did (and still do), but I hope to make my classroom so safe and inviting that my students look forward to our time together.

•WE GOT TO USE FUN MATERIALS.
Although we can't work with chocolate in our classroom every day, I will do my best to build hands-on activities into every day, if not every lesson. With a new SmartBoard, and Franki's brilliant thinking about learning to use it WITH the students, I think I've got a pretty good head start on this one.

•WE STARTED WITH WHAT WE KNEW AND THE TEACHER BUILT ON THAT.
Scaffolding. I want stay focused on scaffolding, not on rescuing. (see also Risk-taking below)

•WE DIDN'T GET IN TROUBLE IF WE DIDN'T FOLLOW DIRECTIONS EXACTLY.
I don't want to be the kind of teacher who must have absolute control over every moment of every day. First of all, I'd go crazy, and second of all, how would the children learn to control themselves? Since I won't have absolute control, I'll have to lighten up and not sweat it when the students...improvise, shall we call it.

•WE GOT TO WORK WITH OUR FRIENDS.
Learning is social. I will honor that. Nuff said.

•WE HAD FUN!
No matter how hard we work every day to learn and grow and achieve and improve and succeed...we also need to have FUN.
Every. Single. Day.

•THE TEACHER WAS VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE, BUT HE NEVER MADE US FEEL IGNORANT OR LACKING.
I will work hard to be a valuable resource to my students in their learning, and to make sure that they see me learning right alongside them.

•THE CLASS WAS WELL-PLANNED AND RAN SMOOTHLY.
I will remember the importance of detailed planning. I WILL remember the importance of detailed planning. Every Sunday night, I will REMEMBER the importance of detailed planning.

•THERE WERE BOOKS ABOUT CHOCOLATE ALL AROUND THE ROOM FOR US TO CHECK OUT AND TO EXTEND OUR LEARNING.
Some teaching is about instruction, but a goodly amount of it is simply about invitation. Rather than finishing units or even lessons, I'll do my best to point to the resources that students can us to continue their learning and exploring.

•THE TEACHER ENCOURAGED RISK-TAKING, BUT MADE IT FEEL SAFE.
We started by eating a half of a piece of Dove dark chocolate. Then we went on to taste chocolates of increasing amounts of cocoa. Each time we moved to the next level, we learned how to identify and name the new flavors and "notes" we were tasting. The next-to-last piece we tasted was 100% cocoa. I wouldn't care to sit down and eat a whole bar of it, but I had learned, step by step, to appreciate it for what it was. We ended by eating the other half of the Dove. It just tasted sweet. There were none of the nuances of flavor and texture that we had learned, in one short hour, to appreciate.

•I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK FOR THE NEXT CLASS:  CHEESE TASTING!!
And so we circle back to my first point -- I want my students to WANT to come to school because of the fun and fascinating learning we'll be doing. I want them to be willing to take risks. Cheese tasting is very risky for me, especially since I know how much Bill knows about cheese. I'm a little leery of tasting some of the cheeses he thinks are luscious...but I'll take the risk and try to learn what I need to know to enjoy them.

Here's to a delicious new school year!

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen From the Future

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung Fu Cavemen From the Future
The second graphic novel by George Beard and Harold Hutchins,
the creators of CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS (aka Dav Pilkey)
Scholastic (Blue Sky Press), 2010
Review copy purchased with my very own money.

I'm sorry to have to tell the Newbery Committee this, but I'm afraid that while this book will never even be considered for the Newbery Medal, it is likely to be the most popular book in my fourth grade classroom in the first weeks of school.

As a public service to all nervous teachers, parents, librarians and grandparents, I have read this book cover to cover and I pronounce it to be hysterically funny.  Laugh out loud funny. I also would like to assure the above audiences that I do not believe that the spelling mistakes that George and Harold make in their comics will in any way cause children's brains to rot and impair their ability to learn to spell correctly or write coherently. If the children who read this book don't know that there are misspelled words, they'll still be able to understand and enjoy the story. If the children who read this book DO know that there are misspelled words, well, hooray that they can recognize the misspellings. They'll still be able to understand and enjoy the story.

And while we're on the subject of spelling, phonics, and understanding a story, Pilkey totally rewards his readers for sounding out long (but not hard) words. One character is named Chief Goppernopper.  He is variously referred to as Chief Grasshopper, Gobstopper, and Gumwrapper (to name a few).  Pilkey goes off on extended riffs of rhyming with Gluk's name (rhymes with duck, stuck, truck...) and Ook's name (rhymes with duke, spook, kook...).

There are kid-level allusions to popular culture: the whole section where they learn Kung Fu in the future hearkens back to Karate Kid, and there are chapter title pages that are Star Wars and Jurassic Park take-offs.  There are puns, like on Flip-o-rama #8:  "Mechasaurus Wrecks!" (Tyrannosaurus Rex?) where the robot dinosaurs destroy a tower. There are, as in the Captain Underpants books, billboards that get their meaning changed, in this case when they are zapped by futuristic ray guns in a chase scene. For example, "I went to BOB'S POOLS to buy my pool! Now I dive in my pool, swim under the waves, and wear a BIG smile!!!" becomes "I went POO poo in my underwear".  Besides the potty humor, there is a decent amount of barf humor. Kid humor. Spot-on kid humor.

Find out more at Dav Pilkey's website, and at the Scholastic website. But most of all, don't be afraid of this book.

BRONTORINA by James Howe: A Great Book (with a great message to teachers)

If you have been reading the blog over the summer, you know that I believe strongly that design and environment are critical to children's growth as learners.  I believe wholeheartedly that if a child isn't successful in school, there is something in the environment that can be changed to better meet the child's needs.  So, I was THRILLED when I found the book BRONTORINA by James Howe.

Brontorina, a very large dinosaur, had a dream. She wanted to dance.  Even though she did not have the right shoes (they don't make them in her size after all), she knew that in her heart she was a ballerina.  So, Madame Lucille lets Brontorina join her dance class. But, Brontorina's head hits the ceiling, her tail hits things it isn't supposed to, and she almost falls on a piano.  Madame Lucille realizes that she can no longer help Brontorina learn to dance--she is just too big.  But then a Clara's mother surprises Brontorina with a pair of specially made shoes.  And Madame Lucille realizes that the problem is not that Brontorina is too big--rather her studio is too small!  So, they find a place where everyone can be a successful dancer.

This is a great fun story, one that reminds me of others written on the topic of believing in your dream. Kids will love the hopeful story, the fun illustrations and the clever talking bubbles throughout the book.

For me and for teachers, this book reminds us of the importance of creating a space that helps every child be successful. Just as it was very easy for Madame Lucille to begin by putting the blame on Brontorina for being too big,  we often put the blame on students who are not successful. This is a great reminder that if we create the right environment, all learners can be successful.  Madame Lucille definitely belongs on our "100+ Cool Teachers in Children's Literature" list. Rather than blaming the student, she takes responsibility for creating an environment in which every student can be successful

I watched a great video that would work nicely to begin conversations with colleagues about our role in not blaming the children. "It's Never the Kids' Fault" by Greg Whitby is a short, powerful clip that reminds us that theory-based practice works with all students.

Two From the Columbus Zoo

Frenemies for Life
by John E. Becker, Ph.D.
School Street Media (for the Columbus Zoological Park Assn.), 2010

The Columbus Zoo is famous for its cheetah conservation program. Anatolian Shepherd Dogs have begun to be used in cheetah conservation, and this book explains how these natural enemies have become so important to each other. The dogs are bred and trained to protect herds of livestock (goats or sheep). When a cheetah approaches, the dog scares it away. No livestock are killed and the livestock owners do not feel the need to kill any cheetahs. The Columbus Zoo has raised two Anatolian shepherd pups and two cheetah kittens together to use to educate the public about this unique cheetah conservation effort.

This is a great little book with one- or two-page chapters and fabulous photography. It's the kind of nonfiction book a 3rd-5th grader could read cover to cover. We are always on the look-out for nonfiction our students can READ and not just BROWSE.

Beco's Big Year
by Linda Stanek
School Street Media (for the Columbus Zoological Park Assn.), 2010

If you live in Central Ohio and didn't know that there was a new baby elephant at the Zoo last year, you must have been living in a cave!

This book by local author Linda Stanek documents Beco the baby elephant's first year. I just dare you to read this book without saying, "Awww..."! The book is organized like a diary or journal, by date, and the entries are short and illustrated with lots of pictures. There are information boxes throughout that give general elephant information to go along with the milestones of Beco's first year.

Exploring Science

The Big Idea Science Book
DK Publishing, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

I think this encyclopedia of science has a lot of potential for discussion and browsing in the upper elementary and middle school classroom. The basic premise is that there are 24 key concepts or "Big Ideas" in science ("Based on a revolutionary new approach to learning by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe..." -- of Understanding By Design fame.) There are 8 Big Ideas each for Life, Earth, and Physical Science. Each two-page spread (very DK-ish with eye-catching photography, short article in the top left corner, lots of graphics and smaller pictures with captions) tells which of the Big Ideas relate to that topic.  Cell Division relates to three Big Ideas; Coral Reefs relate to eight Big Ideas. The book has a website with related content -- movies, interactive illustrations, some worksheet-ish kinds of things -- that seems to still be under construction. There are some movies that have "part one" but no "part two."  I really wish these resources were complete because I'd use them in my classroom. I do think I'll post the 24 Big Ideas for our reference as we go through our year of science.

I'm a Scientist: Kitchen
DK Publishing, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

Here's one that would be great at a science center. The materials for each experiment are common items, and the instructions are easy enough for older elementary kids to read themselves, and illustrated with clear enough pictures for younger kids to figure out.  There is a cool fold-out flap on each right-hand page that gives the scientific reasons behind the experiment, as well as some follow-up activities. Some of the experiments need a grown-up, but lots don't. There are experiments for density, static electricity, physics/structures, chemical reactions, magnets, states of matter, and light.

Nature Explorer
DK Publishing, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

This activity-filled book is divided into the categories Birdwatcher, Bug Hunter, Star Gazer, Rock & Fossil Hunter, Nature Ranger, and Weather Watcher. Each category gives background information, tells what equipment you might need, and gives lots of activities that demonstrate many concepts in each category. This is a book for upper elementary and middle school classrooms. It's a good book for browsing, and for activities teachers might want to add to their weather or plant units. (um...that'd be me!)