Summer Reading List Conferences

Spring conferences for me have always meant the formation of summer reading lists. Since parents usually want to see the classroom teacher, not the librarian, I fill the hours with thoughts of children reading books during the summer break.

Starting with the lists of books ordered from our superb vendor, I put a K, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 next to the titles. The choice of assigned grade level is made with a combination of things in mind: approximate reading level of the book, topics covered during the year in various curriculum areas, what the students will be studying in the coming year, and familiar authors or illustrators. The books on each grade level list should be a balance of fiction and nonfiction as well.

Then I add all those titles to the six separate lists. We sprinkle in a few older titles to round out the selections. In our free moments, my teaching partner and I add two or three sentence annotations to each book, finishing them in mid-May. Someone else proofreads, and we print them for distribution the last week of school.

It is always such a rewarding process. I remember all the titles I loved over the course of the year. I imagine ways students and families will enjoy them. It is a pleasant way to spend a winter conference evening, dreaming about summer reading.

Have You Read? #8

I have been in fictitious Bottlebay, Maine this weekend with eleven-year-old Felicity Bathburn Budwig. She is the heroine in Phoebe Stone's latest novel, The Romeo and Juliet Code. Set in 1941 when many Londoners sent their children to the countryside for safekeeping, the story begins with Felicity's Danny and Winnie (as she calls her dad and mum) dropping her off at her Uncle Gideon's house on the ocean.

Though polite and respectful, Fliss, as she is soon nicknamed by her uncle, Aunt Miami, and The Gran, observes the goings-on in the Bathburn home with trepidation. Aunt Miami is constantly spouting lines from Romeo and Juliet. Uncle Gideon (also her 6th grade teacher) covets letters from Portugal that she is certain were written by her Danny. The Gran sews, bakes, and whispers when she thinks Fliss is not hiding behind the corner or the curtains. And then there's Captain Derek whom she does not see for weeks. Expecting to see an adult in the usually locked upstairs room, Fliss is surprised to see a boy of her age who is recuperating from the polio virus. The two become fast friends as they try to decipher the codes in those mysterious letters.

Life is never what it seems to outsiders, and Fliss gradually learns the secrets of the Bathburns and her own Danny and Winnie as the war rages forward in Europe. Resolution does not come in a happy sort of way, but Fliss does learn some of those secrets and come to terms with Bathburn life. I have added her voice to my list of favorite narrators. "And so it was on that very first miserable, wet morning in Bottlebay, Maine, USA, that I took a bit of The Gran's secret almond and honey muffins. And I had to close my eyes afterwards, to keep my British balance."

From Above

A stack of books came home with me yesterday, some from the public library and some from that new book delivery. One has captivated me today: I Dreamed of Flying Like a Bird: My Adventures Photographing Wild Animals From a Helicopter by Robert B. Haas. The National Geographic photographer clearly explains his work, beginning with language used in photography, like "capture" and "shoot" as ways to describe taking photographs. He tells about the exhilaration of working as an aerial photographer and the unique equipment he must use for safety with the door of the aircraft open.

Most impressive, though, are his incredible photographs of wildlife. Buffalos and lions fighting each other are rare to observe from above. Flamingos gathered in a pink flock and then rearranged themselves into a flamingo shape. A single wildebeest somehow ran in the middle of a zebra herd. A great whale's tail rose just above the ocean surface in Greenland to be symmetrically photographed.

Today I have savored these and many other photographs and appreciated the wise observations that accompany his work. The combined effect of the images and words is powerful. The book is dedicated to dreamers. "Chasing our dreams is the thing that shows we appreciate the privilege of being alive."

New Arrivals

Giddiness presides when a shipment of new books arrives in the library. A message arrives from the book vendor, alerting us to the arrival. We upload the records from that message to our library catalog and know which books will be in the boxes. Still, there is excitement as the books are taken from the boxes and checked against the packing slip.

They are shiny in their mylar coverings, without fingerprints. We exclaim over the titles, books we have read and are eager to share with students and colleagues. We revisit a few, remembering why we selected them. We reread others, enjoying the artwork and stories again.

Usually, we save the books till we can schedule a Books and Blondies event, but some titles go right to the shelves. Today, a lucky first grade class spied brand new copies of Helen Lester's Tacky books when they got to the story steps. In minutes, they were all in children's hands!

The Sweetest Cat in the Whole World

This week's read-aloud story is Jim Aylesworth's The Fully Belly Bowl, illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin. To connect students' background knowledge to this story, I ask them about the magical object in Strega Nona, a story most know. Many willing volunteers talk about that magic pasta pot and Big Anthony's negligence in not blowing three kisses to halt the flow of pasta. I share examples of other stories with a magical bowl/pot idea and then read about the Fully Belly Bowl.

It is the story of a very old man who lives with Angelina, the sweetest cat in the whole world. He is given a mysterious and beautiful gift by a wee small man whom he has rescued from a fox's jaws. This bowl refills with whatever has been taken from it - unless it is placed upside down. The man enjoys strawberries and other things...and then discovers it will reproduce coins! He greedily takes hundreds of pennies to town and gets three gold pieces. Upon his return, however, he discovers that he neglected to place the bowl upside down in his absence, and his house is overrun with great big mice. Ugh. I hate mice. The very old man takes one glance at Angelina, folds her legs under her, and places her in the Full Belly Ball. The children gasp at this point, of course. In the end, one knocks the bowl off the table, shattering it, and the very old man is content to live with the numerous cats, all of whom he thinks are the sweetest cats in the world.

A first grader pointed out to her class that the story ends the way it began, with that sweetest cat idea. Many students have imagined what things they would place in the bowl. Some wonder if a person could be placed in it. What if a book were the object? Would it come out as the same book or another title? The threads of imagination linger.

BAD Illustrations

"David, make your drawings BAD, and they will be good." The third graders laughed at David LaRochelle. He was talking to them about his techniques for illustrating his work. Using "The Tortoise and the Hare" as a story for the demonstration, he showed the students these two illustrations first and asked them to decide which they liked better and why. They identified the larger hare and tortoise as the best because of the size; it gives the reader more to see about the actual subjects. The characters are big. The second two pieces showed a contrast in action at the finish line, and the students selected the one a sprinting hare and a waving (first place!) tortoise. The third pieces were a study detail.

So, in review, illustrations should be Big, have Action (and expression), and provide Details (though not too many). David proceeded to draw an illustration from one of his creative stories, constantly reflecting aloud and asking for input from the children. They loved watching and helping him make BAD artwork.

Quick Picks

Before my library lesson with a fifth grade class this afternoon, I grabbed three novels from the new books shelf (which should not still have been on that shelf!). Using a minute per book, I shared the basics about Crunch by Leslie Connor, Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord, and Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm.

The first is realistic fiction (with a bit of mystery) about the Marriss Bike Barn's sharp increase in business due to a national fuel shortage. With their parents stranded in Canada, Dewey and his siblings must accommodate demanding customers while defending their supplies and home life. The second is also realistic fiction and takes place on a small Maine island where the residents have decided to take in orphans in an effort to increase their school population and avoid closure by the government. Tess is an eleven-year-old who does not get the kind of "brother" she expects in introverted, trumpet-playing Aaron but sticks to the superstitions that begin each chapter.

Turtle in Paradise is set in 1935 in Key West. Turtle is sent there by her mother to live with her aunt and cousins and finds it difficult to make her way amidst the rough and tough boys in the neighborhood, especially those who run the Diaper Gang (notorious for soothing diaper rash and crying babies). My teaching partner and I had visions of Spanky and the Gang in mind with these boys! Add a treasure map, some foolishness, a lot of adventure, and some comics to this mix for a wonderful stirred-up story.

I read aloud from The Fully Belly Bowl by Jim Aylesworth, finished the lesson, and had eager readers grabbing for the books. What a great way to sell a story!