Willow February 9, 2010

Willow by Denise Brennan-Nelson

Willow is an artist trapped in the art class of a stern, uncreative art teacher. When all the other kids draw the perfect apple tree (that all look exactly the same!), Willow creates blue apples and gets in trouble.

A sweet tale of being true and funky and artistic, Willow wins over the heart of her art teacher and gets her back in touch with her true artist self. 1st and 2nd graders just loved this book, and we had such great discussions about why Miss Hawthorn acted the way she did, as well as how on earth could there be a blue apple?!? The cherry on top was the website all about Willow found here. We drew our own apple trees and even sent the author a question via email. One more thing–perfect for any character unit, especially ones where the character changes.

Clancy with the Puck by Chris Mizzoni February 1, 2010

Clancy with the Puck by Chris Mizzoni

Canadian kids love books about ice hockey, and Clancy with the Puck is a favourite of many of my students. Mizzoni’s picture book tells the story of Clancy Cooke, a player who had been watched from a very young age, and who, ‘once he’d scored, (would) stop to flirt and brush his flowing curls’. Clancy is  traded to the Hogtown Maple Buds, a ‘sorry desperate team’. Of course, Clancy revolutionizes the Maple Buds, and scores the goal that gets them into the play-offs.  However, in their Stanley Cup final game, Clancy fails to score a vital penalty, and finds his star diminished. As the book concludes, we find Clancy still at the rink, but he is no longer the star of the team; now, he drives the Zamboni.

I like this picture book because it doesn’t have the happy ending one would expect. Students are always surprised that Clancy doesn’t score the winning goal, and that he is not the hero at the end. We often discuss whether or not Clancy is happy in his new role as the driver of the Zamboni (my students tend to think he is), and whether fame and fortune, and the associated expectations, can be difficult to deal with. I recommend this picture book for older elementary students, particularly for those who are obsessed with sports.

Other picture books focusing on ice hockey include The Farm Team by Linda Bailey, The F Team by Anne Laurel Carter, Where’s my Hockey Sweater by Gilles Tibo and, of course, the much-loved Canadian classic by Roch Carrier: The Hockey Sweater.

A Fine, Fine Book! January 24, 2010

A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech, Pictures by Harry Bliss (of Diary of a Worm fame).

I love Sharon Creech’s novels. I didn’t realize she also wrote picture books. (I’ve been a HS librarian until recently.) I read this book with grades 2 and 3 last week and every class loved it.

Mr. Keene is the principal of an elementary school. He loves the fine, fine students and fine, fine teachers at his fine, fine school so he decides to have more school! Students attend school on Saturday, but he realizes they could learn even more if they go to the school on Sunday. This continues until he discovers that some learning is done outside of school on our own time. The illustrations are perfect for the text and the kids loved to watch what the dog was up to next!

You can start numerous discussions about too much of a good thing, all things in moderation, balance in life (one of the ESLRs at my school), how we need a break to stay enthusiastic about things, how learning is done all the time, not just at school, etc.

I used this book as part of a lesson on Question-Answer Relationship to enhance reading comprehension. I found the lesson at this amazing website from FCPS Library Instruction Lessons. Check it out – it’s chock full of great lesson ideas! Thanks FCPS librarians! I’m not sure where you’re located, but I really appreciate your wiki site!

Pink! by Lynne Rickards January 22, 2010

Pink! by Lynne Rickards

I work in a girls’ school where all things pink-related are popular, and this picture book is no exception… Patrick the Penguin wakes up one morning to discover that he has turned pink overnight. Patrick is distraught – boys are not pink! Browsing through a book with his father, however, he does realize that some birds (and boys) ARE pink – flamingoes – and decides to set off to Africa. The flamingoes are very welcoming when Patrick arrives, but when they all nap standing on one leg, and later fly to the nesting ground, Patrick realizes that maybe this is not the right place for him either…

My students thoroughly enjoyed this picture book about the penguin who doesn’t quite fit in. We had a wonderful discussion about what may have turned Patrick pink, and about what we could do to make people who might feel excluded feel better. Of course, when Patrick returns to the South Pole his classmates realize how much they missed him, and that his pink feathers really make no difference at all!

Grumpy Bird January 21, 2010

Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard
Cute, cute, cute! Grumpy Bird woke up grumpy and is stomping around, all the while meeting friends along the way who ask what he is doing. He gets snarky with them (“I’ll give you a hint! I’m putting one foot in front of the other!”), and none of them are bothered by this at all. Instead, they just join him in his walk and create a big line of happy animals following the grumpy leader. Finally, he forgets about his grumpiness when everyone begins copying his movements. 

The illustrations are amazing in this book. I read it with kinders last week and it was a hit. We then made a list of what makes us feel grumpy and then read the book again, looking deeper at the illustrations.

The King has Goat Ears by Katarina Jovanovic January 20, 2010

The King has Goat Ears by Katarina Jovanovic

Every time the king has a haircut, a new barber is summoned to the palace to do the job, and is then never seen again. In fact, the barbers are then employed in the palace, because if they were to ever leave they would share the King’s secret: he has goat ears. When young barber Miro is summoned to the palace to cut the King’s hair, he compliments the king, and is allowed to go back into the town. Of course, he now has a burning desire to tell everyone his secret, and must be content to yell the secret into a hole. Unfortunately for Miro, when the shoots grow out of the ground in the spring they whisper ever so gently “the king has goat ears…the king has goat ears,” and the secret is out…

This picture book is Jovanovic’s first picture book for children, and is a retelling of an ancient Serbian folktale. The book is wonderfully illustrated by Philippe Beha; he uses collage and bold illustrations to enhance the story; the pictures of the king admiring his goat ears are lovely! The book is a great read aloud, and has been popular in my library with all grades. It works particularly well when discussing issues such as body image, secrets and loyalty with a class, and can also be enjoyed by a wide variety of readers.

The Dog Who Belonged to No One January 12, 2010

The Dog Who Belonged to No One by Amy Hest

This book is so great that I had to blog about it on both book blogs. It was a huge hit with 1st graders, but I know it would work with older grades, too.

Soft, gentle, warm, evocative: it seems everything Amy Hest writes is just oozing with all these qualities. The Dog Who Belonged to No One is a charming story of a dog who has no one and a girl who is lonely and how they find each other. But it’s not just any girl meets dog book–the language and imagery is nothing short of stunning. When I read it with first graders, we talked about what the pictures in our mind were (warm bread, soft porch light, curled up in the rain…) It is told in see-saw fashion with one page describing the dog and one page describing the girl, Lia. Lots of layers to this book and a fantastic mentor text.

Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine Frog December 11, 2009

Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine Frog by Tim Beiser

Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine Frog is a wonderfully old-fashioned picture book.  The high quality paper and lovely watercolour illustrations by Rachel Berman make this an enchanting read.  Told in rhyme, this is the story of Bradley McGogg, who lives rather happily in his hollowed-out log until one day he realizes he is getting thin, and he must go out to find some food.  He visits his neighbours, and is offered many mouth-watering delicacies, such as ‘cheddar with chives and a peppercorn dusting’, and ‘carrots covered in honey’.  Bradley is not impressed with these offerings, and makes his excuses to avoid eating the fancy foods.  When he finally arrives back home his log is filled with bugs – ‘His house was a-crawl with a pest infestation’ – which is exactly the kind of food he was looking for all along!

This book works exceptionally well as a read-aloud, and has been enjoyed by students in many different grades in my library. It would also work well as an introduction to a unit on healthy eating or ecosystems.

Poop-Eaters: Dung Beetles in the Food Chain December 10, 2009

Poop-Eaters: Dung Beetles in the Food Chain by Deirdre Prischmann

I cannot get enough of this new NF book in our collection. It’s another of the fabulous ones from Capstone Press that is super engaging and so high-interest for kids. I’ve used it as a mentor text for NF book reviews on Destiny with both 4th and 5th graders, and it has been highly successful. Picture a group of kids and the sounds that come with being so incredibly grossed out. It’s very graphic and detailed and has snippets of GROSS! facts along the way that kids are eating up.

As kids are winding up their NF unit of study, this was a nice way for them to write book reviews about NF books, which surprisingly were easier to write than fiction reviews. Here are some samples of the class model review before they went off on their own to write one:

December 8, 2009
If you like gross things, this is just the right book for you! This book is filled with poopy facts about dung beetles. For example, their favorite food is elephant poop. If you are wondering what happens to different animals’ poop, this is a MUST READ! by Ms. Hellyer’s Non-fiction Superstars!
November 30, 2009
Do really gross books amaze you? If the answer is yes, you’ll love this book! This book tells us about beetles that gorge on POOP! Careful–you might throw up after reading this book. By Ms. Terry’s Super Non Fiction Readers

Love That Dog! Love That Book! December 9, 2009

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

Sharon Creech is a terrific writer. No doubt about it. The cover of Love That Dog drew me right in, but when I opened it up and saw that the entire thing was written in free verse, I admit that I was disappointed. I know I should enjoy poetry, but sometimes I just don’t get it, so I shy away from it. But this week I made a major poetry breakthrough! We had Poem in Your Pocket day on Thursday and I loooooved reading fun poetry to classes. Then I read Love That Dog and I did love that dog! So now I’m hip on poetry.

Love That Dog is about a boy named Jack who is writing in a journal for school. He starts out saying that he doesn’t want to write poetry; poetry is for girls. Pretty quickly he writes poems and feels proud when they get put on the bulletin board. Meanwhile he’s reluctant to write about a dog he once had. He eventually writes about his dog and that part gave me actual goosebumps.

What I enjoyed most about the book is that I got an excellent story in such a quick read – I finished it in 20 minutes! Because it is written in prose, every word is valuable. The story never drags. I was pleasantly surprised that I got to know a likeable character and followed him through his school year. It was a fun, thought provoking, emotional read that I think kids will relate to.

Now I want to read Hate The Cat (more about Jack?) and Heartbeat, both my Creech, both written in poetry form.