Call in Sick

I chose to read the girls Philip Stead's A Sick Day for Amos McGee, illustrated by Erin Stead, because they were, well, sick. They loved it but I think I loved it even more.  The illustrations are best described as pencil sketches with an occasional pop and they are simply charming.  I immediately feel in love with every character portrayed in these illustrations and I felt like I knew a little something about them and their personality just based on the way they were sketched.

Not only are the pictures delightful but the story itself has firmly implanted itself into my heart-it's that lovable.  Amos McGee works at the zoo but he always makes time to do something special with each of the animals before the day begins.  But one day Amos is sick and can't go to work.  You have to check out this book to see how all of the animals respond.

Eva was delighted with the story.  We finished the book and chatted about it for a bit before she says, "yeah, it was good but it wasn't real. There's no way that could happen." She then points out all of the impossible things that happen in the book.  When she finishes that she sighs and says, "I wish it could though, I wish that happened when I was sick."  The only response I could come up with was, "me too."  I think we all wish these fantastical things could happen.  It's why kids play pretend so much, because we wish for a world filled with wonder.

My experience with this book didn't stop with the read aloud.  I have several large-scale writing projects this semester (which explains the sporadic posting) and I am working this book into each one.  From this book I could easily create vocabulary lessons, discussions, writing projects, the list goes on and on. The teacher in me loves books like this.  Even if you're not a teacher you should still read this book because it is guaranteed to make you smile.

Making the most of your sick days...that's kids stuff.


PS The author illustrator team for this book are a husband and wife.  They dedicated the book to each other-how cute is that.

Sweet Pain

Charles J Finger's Tales From Silver Lands is a collection of South American Indian stories.  The characters range from giants to witches, undersea people to fairy folk and the tales are a delight to read.  They have all of the wonder of the fairy tales I grew up with but with all of the wonderments of a different culture.  I am familiar with may Greek and Roman myths, and European Fairy Tales but I have never read anything quite like these.  What's great about this book is that it is a colelction of short tales so even if you don't have a lot of time, which is me most of these days, you can still get your story fix (trust me that's a thing, sometimes you just need a good story).

What I love about most tales/legands/whatever you want to call them is that they often contain little nuggets of wisdom.  Just a quick line that may not have a whole lot to do with the story but it makes you stop nonetheless. Tales From Silver Lands  is no exception.

"The truth is what the heart hungers for, the tongue talks of."  What a great way of saying, if you really want something you're going to talk about it-a lot. 

"The joy in their hearts was more like a sweet pain."  We've all had that feeling, but I never knew quite how to describe it until now.

Finding the wisdom in stories...that's kids stuff 

More Than Meets the Eye

Claire Vanderpool's Moon Over Manifest is a tale of discovery. It is the story of Abilene Tucker, a young girl who spends a summer in her father's hometown of Manifest.  Abilene is given the assignment of writing a story, due at the beginning of the next school year.  As she searches for a story to write she finds the story of the town, it's citizens and maybe even a bit of her own story. 

Vanderpool masterfully weaves togher Abilene's present activities, past newspaper articles, and a diviner's stories to create a tale that showcases both the past and the peresent for one unique story.  Everything in this tale is more than meets the eye.  Abilene has spent the first 12 years of her life riding the rails with her father.  Her time in different towns has fostered her belief that there are "universals."  Manifest challenged this notion but this thought remains, "If there is such a thing as a universal-and I wasn't ready to throw all of mine out the window-it's that there is power in a story." 

In fact this whole text is about stories, "the Lord himself knew the power of a good story.  How it can reach out and wrap around a person like a warm blanket."  And that's how it is with a good story.  A good story is one you keep coming back to, one you ponder and mull over for days, one that envelops you and makes you feel something inside.  Moon Over Manifest is most definitely a good story. 

Abeline spends much of her summer working for Mrs. Sadie, the diviner.  One of the best pockets of wisdom Mrs. Sadie gives to Abeline is this, "the person you encounter is often more than the person you see."  Abeline's careful examination of Manifet's past and present proves this to be true.  I don't care how much you've traveled, you will be hard pressed to find a town with more stories than Manifest. 

Taking time to encounter, seeing more than meets the eye...that's kids stuff

Simply Stunning

Those are the only two words that can describe Jerry Pinkney's The Lion and the Mouse.  This is a wordless adaptation of the classic Aesop fable and the illustrations are beyond description.  There is so much detail, emotion, heart, and humor on each page.  It's as if this is what the fable really is supposed to portray when it isn't limited by words.

Eva didn't quite believe that there could be a story with no words but she ended up loving it.  She loves to do art projects so I am hoping this book will be an inspiration for her to start making stories out of her pictures.  Each page in this book is completely captivating, it's almost as if an entire story is portrayed on each page.  And it is easy to get the story through the pictures, Eva gasped at all the right places and made predictions and clearly showed that she was tracking the story even though there weren't any words.

At the end of the book she said, "I think that those were the best pictures."  I might have to agree with Eva. Pinkney used colored pencil, watercolor and pencil to craft these illustrations and I think that is what makes it so stunning. I have all of those materials.  I have drawn and painted with all of those things but I was never able to create anything close to what Pinkney has created here.  These illustrations are works of art fit to be framed and displayed.

Reading the pictures...that's kids stuff. 

So Many Connections

There were so many things I loved about this book-this book being Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me. First, the mom is competing on the $20,000 pyramid.  My mom and I loved this show so much that we would play along to the TV land reruns.  We would mute the t.v. and then the person receiving the clues would face the other direction and guess the answers based on the clues the other person was giving.  I was much better at guessing than giving while my mom was pretty good at both. When a new version of the show came on, Pyramid hosted by Donny Osmond, we talked about entering but you always have to be paired with a celebrity partner so we couldn't actually work together.

Second, Miranda's, the main character's, favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time and there are references to it woven throughout the book.  If you are curious as to my feelings on A Wrinkle in Time read my post about it here. Spoiler alert-I love it.  The way that Stead weaves L'engles book into this text is simply brilliant.

Third, this book is full of connections.  I hesitate to say what these connections are because I am afraid of giving too much away.  I have to admit that some of the connections were easy to guess but the book was a delightful read regardless.  It's more than just a neat book that weaves in a lot of cool elements, it's the story of a girl growing up, navigating changing friendships and the tricky middle school relationships.

Miranda's copy of A Wrinkle in Time is quite well-worn but she still tries to convince others to read it.  This is what one of her friends asked, 'What's the first line?  I never judge a book by the cover,' she said, 'I judge by the first line."  I have to admit I often judge books by their cover but I reserve my final judgement for when I complete the book. How do you judge books?

Finding the connections...that's kids stuff. 

What's Your Journey?

I pre-read all of the books I sahre with Eva and Leah, just to be sure they don't raise any questions that are better discussed with mom and dad (get your minds out of the gutter-not those kinds of questions, mom and dad talk about more than just that!!).  Today's book was Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey.I have to admit that I did not thinik this book would go over well.  Don't get me wrong, the pictures are beautiful but they are paintings done in the style of 1920's portrait photography.  For those of you unfamilar with that style the best description I can give you is that it is very stiff. 

I was plesantly surprised to find that my initial prediction was dead wrong. Eva and Leah actively interacted with the story, a tale of a man from Japan who makes his home in California for a time and then returns to Japan-in both countries he struggles with homesickness, asking questions and nodding along.  They were also completly captivated by the pictures!  Eva, who in the past has been very hard to please, firmly declared that the pictures were, "good" and even flipped back to her favorite, a young girl posing with her doll. Leah pointed to each person asking, "who is that?"  

Perhaps the simplicity of the pictures allowed more room for them to fill in the story.  Maybe it was a nice change of pace, or maybe the similarity to pictures they have already seen from their own family history made it more familiar and accessible.  Whatever the case may be it was clear that both girls were captivated by this book. This book captivated me as well but for different reasons.  I am currently taking an ELL (English-Language-Learner) class and I wondered if the grandfather's feelings of homesickness are echoed by the students I will one day teach.  I wondered if these feelings can be shared by those who moved from one end of the country to another, or to a different state, or even a different town less than an hour away.  In a way I think this book is so captivating because all of us can resonate with grandfather's journey.

So, that begs the question, What's your journey?

Leting yourself wonder..that's kids stuff.

High Expectations

Little Women is perhaps my all time favorite book.  I have multiple copies and read it at least once every year, typically around Christmas.  Every time I read it I fall completely in love with all of the characters and I find I relate to each on a little differently each time I read it.  I worked in my college library as the assistant to one of the reference librarians for all four years of undergrad.  We developed a wonderful relationship and for my graduation present she got me an illustrated version, the same one she remembers from growing up, of Little Women complete with a note describing what parts of each March girl (if you don't understand this reference you have to read the book-no excuses!) she sees in me.  I have never been more touched by a gift.

We are sharing cultural artifacts in one of my classes, each person brings in three artifacts that help describe who they are as a person.  One of my classmates brought in a book and said it was, "required reading for everyone who played a major role in my life, every friend, every girlfriend, everyone."  If they did not have a copy he would buy one for them.  Little Women is that type of book in my life.  Don't get your hopes up, I'm in grad school-I can't afford to give all of you free copies.

So why do I spend so much time gushing over Little Women? Well first, because it's one of the greatest books ever written; but, perhaps more practically, because today's Newbery winner is called Invincible Lousia: The Story of the Author of Little Women.  How could I not be excited to learn all about the author of my favorite book.

And learn all about the author you do.  Cornelia Meigs provides a very thorough biography of Louisa. Perhaps it was my unrealistically high expectations or perhaps my lack of exposure to biography that made this book fall slightly flat.  The text is factual and told much more like an recounting of facts than the story of a persons life.  Despite that it was fascinating.  Alcott lived an incredible life and I am so happy I learned more about it.  I feel like I can now bring an even greater appreciation to my favorite book.

Learning more about what you love...that's kids stuff. 


PS Little Women is also a movie and it is actually a delightful adaptation of the book.  I might also watch the movie about once a year, which should show you it doesn't ruin the book at all-it's one of the best movie adaptations I've seen.

Poetry...

I have admitted before on this blog that I am a big fan of fantasy, but I have also loved lots of books in other genres (as you should be able to tell from all of my previous posts).  There is one genre that I am not fond of...poetry.  In fact the only poems I do like are the more light-hearted children's poems such as Love that Dog and Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech or any of the many Shel Silverstein books.  I say all this to make it clear that my anti-poetry bias was in full force when I began Nancy Willard's A Visit to William Blakes Inn Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers.

In this book all kinds of fanciful characters make their way through the inn and have all sorts of adventures.  Author Nancy Willard loves the poet William Blake and this book is inspired by his poetry.  This may be my anti-poetry bias coming through but I did not care for this book.  I just find poetry hard to relate to and it was difficult for me to get any sense of story in this book.  Poetry is a much beloved genre by many people, and if you are one of those people than you should definitely read this book.

That being said the illustrations, done by husband and wife team Alice and Martin Provensen, are simply delightful.   They are perfectly crafted and really create the feel of an old English inn.  This book won the Newbery but it is also a Caldecott honor book. It didn't quite win the medal, that years award went to Jumanji. 

Though I couldn't relate to the poems the illustrations really brought the poems to life.  There is wit and charm in the poems which my...tenuous...relationship with poetry made difficult to see, but the illustrations made me want to look deeper.  The text and illustrations go together perfectly each complimenting and enhancing the other.

I don't like poetry but the reading specialist part of me is thrilled that poetry was included among the Newbery winners. It encourages kids to try something new, and it is so important for students to be exposed to a broad variety of genres. It helps to counteract the biases of people like me.

Trying something new...that's kids stuff. 

Act it Out

Kevin Henkes Kitten's First Full Moon is a sweet tale of a little kitten who is convinced that the full moon is actually a huge bowl of milk.  The illustrations are simple black and white sketches with thick outlining. What is great about the illustrations is that they filled with details but not cluttered.  I easily tell what the kitten is thinking and feeling without even looking at the words.

One of the hidden gems of this book is that it has a repeating line.  Picture books are meant to be read aloud and repeating lines are a great way to involve kids who cannot yet read.  I read this to Eva and she quickly picked up on the pattern and could "read" that repeating line along with me each time.  But she got even more involved than that.  When I read aloud I try to ask a couple of questions here and there to help the children relate to the book (in fancy reading specialist speech we call this 'encouraging text to self connections').

I asked Eva if she thought the moon looked like a bowl of milk.  Immediately she spat out, "No."  But then as she continued talking this is what came out, "it looks like you poured milk into a really big glass, or like a bowl...oohhh."  Eva then let herself really connect with the book and she tried to lick the milk out of the moon. She acted out every move the kitten made and just delighted in the story.  In spite of this the pictures were still, "too black and white."  Oh well, you can't win everything.

Delighting in story...that's kids stuff.