More Safekeeping

My plan was to wait for a signed copy of Karen Hesse's Safekeeping. But after seeing the familiar cover on the bookshop shelf yesterday, I had to get it then. What do I love about it, this story with such dire circumstances and a country in trauma? I keep asking myself. Is it Radley's voice, honest with both certainty and uncertainty? The photographs interspersed with the text so thoughtfully to make me pause as a reader and see more of what my mind has imagined? The many times Radley reaches into her backpack to touch the knitted bear her mom sent to the children at the Haitian orphanage (and that was stowed in that backpack by an orphan named Jethro)? The incredible way Karen's writing makes me a partner with Radley as she travels the long miles of Route 101 in New Hampshire and Route 5 in Vermont?

With wonder and tears, I have read and viewed this book again, grateful that Karen's insights as a writer and observances as a photographer have come together perfectly. For her thoughts about the selection of photographs, see this post: http://karenhesseblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/the-library-jewel-wrote-the-photography-in-safekeeping-adds-so-much-to-the-story-and-it-is-your-work-talk-about-the-process-of-gathering-and-selecting/

A Story to Tell

Even the cover of Philip Stead's new book hinted to me I would love it. A thoughtful-looking bear rests on a log, clearly engaged in discussion with a mallard. The title - Bear Has a Story to Tell - perfectly summarizes the plot: a sleepy bear wants to share a story with one of the forest creatures before a long winter's nap. The mouse is too busy gathering seeds. The duck is preparing to fly south. The frog is searching for a warm place to sleep. Bear assists each one before checking on the mole, who is already asleep. When Bear rolls in the green grasses of spring, he still has that story to tell, but not before he properly greets his friends again. The story he tells - at the suggestion of his friends - just happens to include a mouse, a duck, a frog, and a mole. Heartwarming. Perfect for reading aloud in the coming weeks as children learn about hibernation.

Family Reading Night Again

Stephen Shashkan visited  last evening for the school year's first Family Reading Night. Earlier in the day, the custodian asked if we really needed 100 chairs, and it turned out we really did! The eager audience loved his stickered guitar (and were welcome to add stickers of their own). Steve traced his journey to becoming a children's author and illustrator from the books read to him by his dad to the cartoons he watched on Saturday mornings to the comics he bought and read to his formal education at the Rhode Island School of Design. Along the way, we sang songs, shared our own favorites, participated in a squiggle drawing exercise, wrote new words for "Down By the Bay", listened to him read A Dog is a Dog, and laughed a great deal. He did a fabulous job of demonstrating how the things he did and loved as a child and young person have shaped what he does as an adult. All the children departed with dog masks and minds filled with possibilities.

Out of the Egg

In the library world, we are always a bit surprised to learn how many young readers do not know some of the basic stories and rhymes. This week we are reading aloud Out of the Egg by Tina Matthews. It is a "Little Red Hen" sort of story without the baking of bread, and only about half the children seem to know the original version. In this version, the Red Hen asks for help as she tends to a seedling, and Fat Cat, Dirty Rat, and Greedy Pig have no interest in helping. And it is not those three who want to play under the tree's shade many years later; their children do. Though Red Hen denies their request, her chick tells her it would be mean to do so, and they all play together. Red Hen sends the three little ones home with a seed each.

With woodcut illustrations and just two colors, the visual impact is striking, but the words are what engage the children. As the three lazy creatures utter, "Not I," repeatedly, one page shows them with two signs. One reads, "Not I. Not I." Another reads "Knot Eye." Discussions about homophones have been abundant, and the younger readers always seem to tie an imaginary knot with their hands as they explain that word's meaning. For some, the distinction between a rooster and a hen is eye-opening. Regardless, attention is high, and suggestions to read other versions are welcomed!

In Another World

I stood at the kitchen island this evening, eating Chocolate Therapy, an ice cream flavor I thought would never make it to the store. We first ate it three years ago on a factory tour of Ben and Jerry's; it felt like we were in another world as we witnessed enormous vats of churning ice cream. I loved it so much that I have been tempted to call the company to suggest it be sold to the public. Mmm.

While I savored each spoonful, I also savored the other-worldliness of Gary Schmidt's latest book What Came From the Stars. The book arrived yesterday, and though I struggled initially with the names and terminology of the Valorim and the Ethelim, I soon found myself understanding more and looking at the glossary less. It is the story of good and evil, and it begins on a planet far from earth where the evil O'Mondim have obliterated most of the Valorim and are bringing ruin to the Ethelim. One valiant man transfers the Art of Valorim to chains and a medallion of sorts and flings it across the universe. It lands in the lunch box of a sixth grader named Tommy Pepper in Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts and immediately changes his life.

The chapters alternate between the events in Ethelim and those in Plymouth Rock. As the stories become intertwined, Tommy Pepper find courage and understanding he never imagined. A world I could never imagine became real to me. In the hope that readers will also savor that place and Tommy's wisdom, I will write no more about the events.

I PICK

Two fourth grade teachers invited me to their classrooms this morning to share how I PICK books to read. The students have been learning the acronym I PICK, and they reiterated its message: I look at a book; Purpose; Interest; Comprehend; Know all the words. I also shared Daniel Pennac's Rights of the Reader to complement the choosing strategies. Then I began to talk about the stack of books I'd brought with me.

I started with a book recommended to me by staff at the Red Balloon and from reviews: Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms. Though I knew it had been positively reviewed, I just couldn't get interested in it. I showed them the very thick classic The Swiss Family Robinson and told how though I thought I should read it, I found myself rereading too many lines, thus indicating I probably was not comprehending it as well as I could. I showed them the eerie cover of the first Animorphs book and read the first paragraph; science fiction is my least favorite genre. Then I held up four different covers of A Wrinkle in Time, the 1963 Newbery Medal Winner. Again, I knew I should read this book, but it has never been one that keeps my interest. Finally, I read the jacket flap and beginning of Touching Stars by Erin Moulton. It has received good reviews, and the character name and summary appeal to me. That's the one I finally selected in my demonstration.

Interestingly, several readers wanted the books I did not choose!

What an Idea!

Fourth graders have been writing friendly letters to me as practice and review in MS Word. One young friend told me he spent so many hours reading this summer that he is crazy about it. He also said his friends agree with him that we should have more reading time at school. They think we should have another specialist block (in addition to PE, music, art, science, and information literacy) called "reading no teachers" in which kids could just read whatever they wanted for 55 minutes.

I would be happy to add that to the schedule. Every day and night I wish for more reading time! So many times parents and education critics see reading time during the school day as a waste of instructional time. What a wonderful thing that this idea came from some boys talking about reading!

p.s. This older photo is of the boys and me when David Small and Sarah Stewart visited the Red Balloon!