Have You Read? #16

It was about this time two years ago that I met Bob Raczka. He came to town to present a workshop (entitled ARTiculate) with four other authors/illustrators and me at the International Reading Association convention. Every one of his books is in our library collection, and many are in my home library. The latest is incredible!

Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word came out this year, and it has me thinking constantly. Bob's introduction tells of his love for playing with words. He discovered single-word poems and was hooked. The idea sounds simple enough. Take a single word, form words from the letters in that word, and create a poem with them. The poems in Bob's book are about lemonade, bleachers, moonlight, breakfast, friends, chocolate, and so many more interesting words. On one side of the page, the letters/words are arranged in an interesting design. On the other side, the poem is written more as we would usually read one. Take the poem "constellation" as an example.

constellation

a

silent

lion

tells

an

ancient

tale

Now, wherever I walk or run, whenever I have some free moments, I am thinking of single-word poems. Many words seems like they will work well (perhaps just because they are about something I like), but then I get stuck with the word possibilities. Blueberries. Autumn. Photograph. None worked as I had hoped. Sitting at my table tonight, I composed this:

tablecloth

clothe

the

table

to

eat

Start thinking. It is truly engaging for the mind! Kids will love this.

Bread and Jam and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last night my seven-year-old neighbor came over with her friend (who happens to go to my school). I invited them to come inside and asked if they'd like cookies. Oh, yes, they told me, giggling. Is there anything you'd like to show your friend in my house? I asked my young neighbor girl. The library, she told me. We took the plate of cookies and two napkins to the library and sat down on the rug.

Look! Two for me, and two for you, said her friend. They immediately started munching. We were sitting by the H-L shelf of picture books, and I reached for Russell Hoban's Bread and Jam for Frances, another of my all-time favorites. What are they? asked her friend about Frances and her family. Badgers, of course, I told them. Badgers can talk? she asked. Most certainly they can in books.

Chocolate chips melted on the corners of their mouths as I read (and sang, when Frances sings about her food). They were incredulous at the lunch spread laid out by Frances's friend Albert: a cream cheese-cucumber-and-tomato sandwich, a bunch of grapes, a tangerine, a pickle, a hard-boiled egg with its own cardboard salt shaker, a bottle of milk, and a custard cup with a napkin underneath to look like a tablecloth.

Each time Frances got bread and jam instead of the family's meal, the two girls giggled. Soon, they were singing with me (and somehow, we managed to sing the same tune to songs without music!), culminating with soft voices when Frances whisper-sings: "What I am/Is tired of jam." We finished the rest of the book as a three-person chorus, their voices full of perfect expression, chocolate smudges on their faces.

When we walked back to my neighbor's house, her friend excitedly told her mom, "I was at my library teacher's house!"

I Wonder

I wonder what schools would be like if all teachers guided children through the inquiry learning experience. Would they be places where students could seek answers to their questions and share it in the best ways they know? Would teachers and students learn together about topics like the wondering fourth graders at my school have have done with their teacher and me? Would teachers be amazed at students' abilities to find information and share it with their classmates?

Pride bubbled from me and their classmates this week as students shared what they learned. They gave each other high-fives after completed presentations. They displayed incredible vocal abilities when reading comic strips about black holes and World War I. They composed lyrics to familiar tunes to share information (e.g. "Eye of the Panda" to the tune of "Eye of the Tiger").

What amazed their classroom teacher and our principal the most was that we did not need to structure lessons differently for anyone in the class. Inquiry learning differentiates easily by allowing students to choose what they want to know and what sources will help them.

Approaching Summer

Amidst reading aloud Holly Keller's Farfallina and Marcel today, my teaching partner and I worked on summer reading lists. Just the other day, a fourth grader asked me if theirs was finished yet. Not quite, I told her. Why? Well, I just love to read the lists, she answered. With an older brother and younger sister, she was glad their house would have three lists.

We are nearing the end of each list. The fifth grade list had room for one more title, so I added the title I like to include every year on their: The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg (which, by the way, will have an incredible release in the fall with fourteen authors' versions of the stories, including Sherman Alexie, M.T. Anderson, Kate DiCamillo, Cory Doctorow, Jules Feiffer, Stephen King, Tabitha King, Lois Lowry, Gregory Maguire, Walter Dean Myers, Linda Sue Park, Louis Sachar, Jon Scieszka, Lemony Snicket, and Chris Van Allsburg). The fourth grade needs a few more nonfiction titles, one of which will be David Aguilar's Super Stars. Poetry and nonfiction need to be added to the third grade list. Second grade needs a few more early chapter books; we added Marion Dane Bauer's The Golden Ghost as one of those. For first graders, we need to add more nonfiction also. The kindergarten list is almost done; they love Eric Kimmel's Anansi stories, so we added Anansi and the Magic Stick.

If we complete them tomorrow, we can step away for a few days before proof-reading. And in a few weeks, we will pass them to children and post them on our website, ready for the approaching summer.

Especially for You

Jerry Pinkney signed copies of his 2010 Caldecott Medal book The Lion and the Mouse at this afternoon's Naomi C. Chase Lecture in Children's Literature.

Listening to him speak about the building blocks of his life and career gave me many things to share with students when I also share one of his books. He sketched between selling newspapers at age 12 in Philadelphia. "My private space was the size of the sketchbook," he said of growing up as one of six kids in a five-room house. He listened to stories told by his family and neighbors who migrated from the south to their neighborhood. Going to the barbershop for a haircut meant listening to men share stories, language, and Uncle Remus stories. What he needs and what feeds him are the 3,000+ books in his personal library collection. John Henry was the story he would have wanted to do if ever given a choice by his editor.

It is always a gift to spend an hour in the company of others who love children's literature as much as I do and especially nice to hear about the important things that shape the literature I love to share.

In the Middle of It

I love being in a valley, in the middle of two peaks. I really love being in the middle of a good book...where I am tonight.

Last evening my son brought home Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt from the library. Immediately, I set down My Spiritual Journey by the Dalai Lama and started to read. After five pages, I was not sure I wanted to continue. I have looked forward to reading this book for weeks. But the beginning was so harsh.

Fast forward a few hundred pages. I will most certainly stay awake until I finish tonight. It is that good.

Tomorrow I plan to be at the end of it.

New Offerings

It feels more like November 1st than May Day here, but the rhubarb leaves have not noticed, thank goodness! Seeing their leaves uncurl and the pinkish stalks soar toward the light is always a sign of spring - and a reminder of strawberry rhubarb pie and rhubarb bread.

A few new books have been relocated from my "to read" pile and shared with other readers: Katherine Hannigan's True...Sort Of (released on April 26th) and Sheila O'Connor's Sparrow Road (to be released May 12th).

In Delly (Delaware) Pattison, a tiny girl with a raspy voice who finds trouble and fun times easily, Katherine Hannigan has created a friend anyone would be glad to have. Even though Officer Verena Tibbetts knows her well (for skipping school and eating chocolate doughnuts, for instance), Delly also loves making up words (mysturiosity, surpresent, holiDelly, refreezerated) and words to represent swear words (shikes, chizzle, bawlgrammit). When her anticipated surpresent arrives in town, Delly is determined to know this new person named Ferris Boyd (along with her sometimes annoying little brother RB) even though the oddities that surround her. Meanwhile, Brud Kinney plays basketball every weekend with a phenomenal new kid, unaware that he is really she - Ferris Boyd. As their lives become intertwined, Delly learns to tell the truth (sort of) and appreciate the struggles each person has in life. The difficulties in Ferris Boyd's life come to light through Delly's persistence, and despite the sadness, there is hope for positive change for all involved. I look forward to welcoming Katherine to our school in a few weeks to talk about the book with fourth graders.

Raine O'Rourke is definitely not looking for trouble, but she finds herself one summer at Sparrow Road, an old mansion that houses artists during the summer months. Raine's mother accepted a position as the cook at Sparrow Road and suddenly, the two depart their familiar Milwaukee home for this strange place where talking is not allowed (except on Sundays) and where there is no newspaper, no TV, no radio, and no music at anytime. Why has her mother come here? Raine wonders. More importantly, how do people get through days without any speaking? On a tour from Diego, one of the friendly artists-in-residence, Raine discovers the attic and learns the place was once a home for orphans. She begins to write questions to and answers from an orphan named Lyman Chase, and their relationship in words and imaginings help her to deal with the real reason she has been relocated to this place: to meet the father she never knew. Sheila O'Connor has created a place I can see in my mind and surrounded Raine with loving people (like Diego, the vibrant Josie, sweet Lillian, and her own Grandpa Mac) who guide her to accept the person she comes to know as her dad.