Love of Reading

I love to read picture books to my nieces and nephew that my sons loved...Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells, Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. I love to read aloud to children on the story steps or in the reading alcove, knowing their love of books is fostered in part by the work my teaching partner and I do with them. I love to read aloud to my sons by the light of a soft lamp in our library. I love to read engaging titles on the window seat in the sun on weekend afternoons. I love to read cookbooks, planning what I want to bake and cook. I love to read recipes written in my grandmothers' and great grandmother's handwriting, a legacy from them of my past. I love to read letters from friends and family...and reread them again later.

What and where do you love to read?

Ghostly Bedtime Reading

When our phone rings close to 9 o'clock in the evening, I wonder what could be wrong. The other night I was already reading in bed when it rang. Nothing was wrong. My young neighbor girl was calling to tell me she had just finished reading Marion Dane Bauer's The Green Ghost, the signed book she received from me for Christmas. She loved it, she told me. She checked her school's library catalog, and neither of the other two books were listed. She wanted me to know how glad she was to have that book.

Last night I talked to her parents and told them how nice it was that they made her call me. No, they protested. It was not their idea. She finished reading it in her bed and said, "I have to call Julie." Given that this child is not usually an eager reader and rarely finishes chapter books independently, they readily agreed. Her straightforward enthusiasm caused me to fall asleep smiling. It caused her mom to find The Blue Ghost at our public library and me to reserve The Red Ghost for her from my library.

Have You Read? #6

I feel better when my mom is here with me. I feel better when I get more rest. I feel better when I eat more fruits and vegetables. But I do not think I would feel better if I had an actual frog in my throat. Some medieval folks, however, believed this strange practice would cure a sore throat! Oddly enough, there is some scientific support for the use of frog slime to ease pain and act as an antibiotic (now available in a convenient pill form instead of the live version).

I learned this and more interesting information from I Feel Better With a Frog in My Throat: History's Strangest Cures by Carlyn Beccia (also check out her 2009 title The Raucous Royals). The book's clever "Instructions for Use" warn readers to avoid eating lunch or operating heavy machinery while reading some of the gross and painful cures. The best instruction is to "proceed to your nearest library for more information" when "confusion or dizziness occurs." A multiple choice quiz format presents history's strangest cures for coughs, colds, sore throats, wounds, stomachaches, fevers, headaches, and "every sickness." One or more answers might be correct! The explanations that accompany each right or wrong answer are often humorous and always on the verge of unbelievable. Attention is also given to the Eye of Horus, wormy cures, bloody cures, the use of leeches (ugh! I hate leeches), holes in the head, and a letter from Ulysses S. Grant.

Her digital mixed media illustrations add the perfect amount of humor and expression to the text. She offers more information about the origins of cures and medicine in a wonderfully detailed bibliography.

I am grateful to those caregivers in my life who have treated me with less dramatic cures, especially my mom.

Rewinding the Story

His hand shot up as soon as I closed A Sick Day for Amos McGee today (note that he was polite and held his comment until I finished reading). What he had to share was urgent. It was like the author was "rewinding the story" by having the zoo animals come to Mr. McGee's house and do kind things for him, he said. It was like the first half showed him getting on the bus for work and all the nice things Amos did for the animals and then the story was rewinding when the animals got on the bus to care for him. Heads nodded around the story steps, classmates echoing the sentiment.

I like that phrase. Rewinding the story. What if we could all rewind our stories more often and give back when kindness is bestowed upon us? Children recognize those behaviors. They model them for each other in little ways in our library...sharpening a pencil for someone else, saying "thank you" and "you're welcome" appropriately, finding a book for a classmate, even parting with a book choice so another person can enjoy it instead.

Two readers in the alcove were rewinding Inkheart (by Cornelia Funke) in a way. In what has been a popular trend this school year, they chose a book with two copies so they could read together and share in an informal book discussion. They were reading and rereading lines together, sometimes chorally, sometimes taking turns.

Looking for a Round Trip Ticket

This week's K-2 book clues for I Love to Read month have proven quite challenging for readers...a surprise since all five copies of the book are usually checked out from the collection. When I used it as a read-aloud selection two years ago, we talked about book design and alternatives to the traditional picture book. Not only were our library copies in demand; the public library copies were reserved for several weeks.

Here is the clue from Monday:

"We started out as soon as it was light. Our neighborhood was quiet, the houses dark. The sun shone on the pond."

Soon after morning announcements, a student perfectly described the book to me - minus the title. He said things about flipping the book around to view the illustrations a different way and about there being a trip. Being the clue creator, I could give no hints, but I encouraged him to use some of his words to do a keyword search. A few minutes later, he located the book and confirmed his guess.

A few correct guesses have come in this week. Just a few. Today's clue was this:

"We took the tunnel under the river, and soon saw our moonlit street. Home again."

I read aloud to a fifth grade class this afternoon. They loved Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Begins" but then asked for information about the K-2 book. They listed what they knew, and again, I suggested they do some searching in the catalog. In minutes, after looking up "trip" and locating the book, they confirmed their guess. What motivation they had to find the book!

If you are still stumped, the answer is...

Round Trip by Ann Jonas

Snippets of the Library World

A reader asked me for mystery recommendations. She was not interested in a Nancy Drew book. I mentioned Trixie Belden, telling her it was a series that has been reprinted. She looked at the books briefly and then began wandering around the shelves again. I suggested Regarding the... books by the Klise sisters. Again, there was no spark. Though she seemed interested in Sammy Keyes and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, ultimately she confessed to wanting two of the same book for her book group. We found a book that interested her, and I asked about the members of the book group. With a shy smile, she revealed it was just her and her mom. My mom and I talk about books all the time now...it would have been wonderful to do it as an avid young reader as well.

Another reader asked me to find a book that had been made into a movie. He wanted to read the book first. I mentioned Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux, but he had seen both of those movies already and read the first. I suggested Babe: The Gallant Pig, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and The Capture (Book 1 of The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky). None were quite what he wanted. Then he glimpsed the cover of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Was that made into a movie? No, I told him. Probing questions led to his disclosure that he preferred fantasy to realistic fiction. That was when I spotted The Borrowers. As I described it, he kept perfect eye contact and nodded often. Was the Clock family a bit like the Littles (by John Peterson)? Yes, I answered. He took that one, looking back over his shoulder to say he would be back for the others someday.

Library days are spotted with incidents like these. Though short in exchange, the interactions shape readers' choices and trust of the adults in their world. The readers return to discuss what they have liked and disliked and why...and ask for more ideas.

Noticing the Balloon...and More

The view from the cozy reading alcove was pleasant but deceiving today. Sunshine and shadow provided many shades to the snow, and the wind whipped the tree branches (causing sub-zero wind chills). Students were stuck indoors for recess yet again. Somehow, though, whenever they come to the library, they are calm and eager to listen.

On the story steps and on the carpet of the alcove, I read aloud A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead. It won the 2011 Caldecott Medal for his wife, Erin Stead. I love this story about a many who works in a zoo but makes time for special activities with his animal friends. When he gets sick, they make an unlikely trip to visit him and do special things to make him feel better. Listeners today loved it as well. Midway through the book, there is a pause in the text for three double-page spreads. The elephant, the tortoise, the penguin, the rhinoceros, and the owl leave the zoo, line up at the bus stop, and travel on the number five bus to visit Amos McGee at home.

I read upside down so listeners can view the pages right-side up at all times. As I turned these wordless pages, I observed the height of visual literacy. Children's eyes scanned the pages. Their heads turned to see more. They nodded and smiled. Seeing the number five bus filled with animals, many laughed. One child sighed as his secret prediction about the animals' destination was confirmed. The children never questioned how the animals entered Amos's home; they just accepted their presence and expressed gladness for the things they did to care for Amos.

They gazed at the last wordless page where the human and animals are crowded together in and around the bed. Only penguin is awake, watching a red balloon float to the moon. Immediately, hands rose. One after another, they noted the presence of a balloon on the pages where the penguin was featured. Some came forward to turn the pages for me and point out when there was not a red balloon. They offered theories about how the penguin got another balloon after one rises into the air at the bus stop: it had "secret penguin pockets" with more balloons to fill; someone gave it a new one; it must have reached up with its long flipper. They turned the book all around and saw balloons on the front, back, and spine (that was the most amazing thing).

Children take in so many visual cues. I mentioned none of the balloon images to them. I did not ask about why the elephant and Amos are playing cards on the book jacket while the only played chess in the story...yet someone brought up that point. They noticed Amos's bunny slippers, the mouse that holds so many objects, and Amos's teddybear. Children possess innate visual literacy skills, and time to foster them and practice with books is essential.

My favorite line, by the way, comes when Amos and the tortoise are going to play hide-and-seek instead of running their usual race: "The tortoise hid inside his shell. Amos hid beneath the covers."

I recommend visiting Erin Stead's blog: http://blog.erinstead.com/2010_03_01_archive.html. On this particular post, she displays a photo of the wood block for the book's title. What precision!