Time Lapse

      

Yesterday our fall book festival took shape, hour by hour, until everything was in place for visitors to wish, ponder, and shop today. What wonderful women help to make this possible!

Ventriloquists

Each year I read aloud at least one book by Dick King-Smith (who died in January of 2011), and this year I picked George Speaks, the humorous story of a girl named Laura and her baby brother George. Laura was not as pleased as everyone told her she would be about the arrival of the baby, but when, at four weeks old, he speaks to her in complete sentences, she is stunned and enchanted with George. The second-grade children were entranced by the story. When George furrowed his brow in a frown, brows furrowed up and down the story steps. Best of all, when George suggested that, should they ever be caught talking in front of their parents, Laura act as if she was pretending to be a ventriloquist with him, twenty-six children commenced to speaking with their mouths closed! Thus followed more information about ventriloquists and a quick peek at Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on YouTube.

Note: My little brother did not surprise me by speaking English as an infant, but I was enchanted by him.

Trusted Source

There are a few cookbooks which I use on a weekly basis. Lora Brody's Basic Baking is one I love reading for pleasure, as well as for the excellent recipes, and I used it twice yesterday. Louise Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reading (see Literature as Exploration, 1938) posits that we read both aesthetically (for pleasure) and efferently (to find out information). What one person reads in one way, another might read in the opposite mindset. While my husband would never read a cookbook aesthetically, I find the text and the recipes filled with intrigue and pleasure. He, on the other hand, might have an aesthetic experience with a book about fish or fishing, and I would need to read that efferently, taking time to understand and process the text.

Yesterday I made Cranberry Orange Bread with fresh cranberries from a Wisconsin bog near a friend's cabin. My husband was intrigued by how lovely the cranberries look on the inside with their star-shaped centers and tiny seeds. In her chapter about quick breads, tea loaves, and coffee cakes, Lora says, 

"There is something intensely satisfying about these plain-looking but fancy-tasting desserts. I don't know whether it's their heft, their dense, sweet moistness, their comforting taste and texture, or their unintimidating appearance that makes me think of snowy days, warm, toasty kitchens, woven pot holders, and freshly brewed pots of coffee served with half-and-half instead of that anemic no-fat "blue" milk. They are the quintessentially old-fashioned dessert that never went out of style. Isn't it lovely that you can serve them at all three meals?"

Thank goodness someone else thinks it is okay to have dessert for breakfast!

Fortune Wookiee

Before I wrapped one of my nephews Christmas gifts, I just had to read it: Tom Angleberger's The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee. The third book in the "Origami Yoda" series, this one features a kirigami Chewbacca and a kirigami (paper-folding + cutting + additions) Han Solo (Han Foldo in the story), supposedly given to Sara by Dwight, the original creator of Origami Yoda. Told in case files with Tommy as the compiling editor, the story takes place in the middle school where Dwight was once a student. The advice Dwight's Origami Yoda gave to his classmates was surprisingly insightful, and all were appreciative except for Harvey. In a mean-spirited gesture, Harvey created Darth Paper (in the second book Darth Paper Strikes Back) to provide the dark side to Origami Yoda's advice. The resulting conflicts forced Dwight to attend a private school.

In this latest installment, Fortune Wookiee's responses (interpreted by Han Foldo) are similar to those offered by Origami Yoda and lead the young people to greater understandings of each other's characters and personalities. Readers at school are anxious for this title to arrive on our library shelves, and I know my nephew will enter the reading zone when he sits down with the book.

Reading Zone

I spent several hours this afternoon in the reading zone, that place in which my mind is completely immersed in the text of whatever book is in my hands. For most people, getting to the reading zone requires a few important things: a quiet place to read, time set aside for reading, and a book (or books) to captivate and engage the reader. Nancie Atwell writes about the reading zone in her 2007 book of the same title. It is the subtitle I most appreciate: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers.

I never could teach from a textbook. The mind-numbing questions were so contrary to the authentic discussions with others I appreciated that involved our reasons for reading books and why we would recommend the books to others. I never believed I could "teach" a novel or a story. I could teach students about various things as we all read, but my own interpretations and reactions would most certainly not be the only ways of thinking about a text. I raised three incredible male readers without the help of strategies and explicit instruction. Instead, I read aloud to them daily, talked about my own reading (as has their father), provided books and ideas for books, and talked with them about their own reading habits and preferences.  According to Atwell, the busywork of common reading instruction is what kills the joy of reading for most readers.

I do not know an adult reader who feels satisfaction after completing a study guide in connection with a book  (nor from finishing a book report, journal entry, or other artificial response assignment). Adults talk about books with each other. They choose books based on what other readers share with them. They enter the reading zone for enjoyment. Yet the majority of teachers do not provide time for students to enter the reading zone, thinking explicit instruction and methods that detract from the reading experience are necessary for comprehension and reading growth.

My role as a librarian and a reading specialist is to read reviews of books, stock the library shelves with quality books, and talk about those books with readers to increase the chances they will enter the reading zone every day. I need to know what the readers like, what they have enjoyed in the past, and ascertain what might appeal to them now. I need to "teach reading so that readers feel the enthusiasm of a trusted adult when we communicate to them one-to-one about literature - so they get that the teacher loves books, and that our advice about reading them is trustworthy." (p.93)

2nd Grade Connection

In second grade, I had the coolest magenta-colored pants with a bright mushroom patch on the knee that covered a hole. I contracted chicken pox that year. I remember a working in a math book with a ferris wheel on the cover. And I had a cool teacher whose hair and clothes I admired.

Two weeks ago at my art class, my second grade teacher sat on the other side of the table from me, and it was the my favorite thing about the class! We chatted about the other teachers I was privileged to have at Lincoln School, the various positions she had in the district before retiring a few years ago, and of course, books we loved. She shared that her favorite picture book to use in the classroom was The Snow Party by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, first published in 1959.

Though it is out of print, I was able to get a used copy (with the 1989 illustrations by Bernice Myers) and can imagine how much the second graders at my school will love it. It is the story of a man and woman living "way out in Dakota" who talk one day about the woman's wish: to have a party attended by many folks. Her husband asks if she is daft! But when a blizzard brings unexpected visitors to their house, her wish miraculously becomes reality. Kids will certainly love the unlikely events and will laugh at all the hilarious folks who visit. I will love telling the story of how I found the book and having them make snow removal machines for a mural, just as my teacher used to do.

Licious Characters

The first grade team showed up for Halloween ready to star in a new Victoria Kann picture book. What a way to brighten a library morning! With so many colors represented, the series could go on for quite a while. Note that Emeraldalicious is expected to be released in January of 2013. When I have mentioned this to any student looking to check out one of the other Kann books (which are always checked out), they always ask, "What is Emerald?"