Keepin' Kosher

Our school library serves a diverse population of students, and I do my best to find books that speak to our students. I think I have found just that in Baxter, The Pig Who Wanted to be Kosher by Laurel Snyder. After earning a spot in Ms. Snyder's 100 Schools in 100 Days Skype project, I'm doing my best to devour everything she has written to prepapre myself and was delighted to find Baxter in this way. Many of our students enjoy celebrating Shabbat each Friday evening with their families and I'm sure those that don't will be delighted to think that, like Baxter, they might be invited as well. I invite you to check out Baxter and Laurel Snyder's other great books. I'll be posting about others in the weeks to come.

An Honust-ly Valuable Book (and Baseball card)

I debated over which title to write about from the completed side of my summer reading stack and settled upon another favorite first of a series.  Dan Gutman's "Honus and Me" is the first in his Baseball Card Adventure series.  I read "Jackie and Me" last summer as it was included in our local Reading Olympics list and caught my eye.  Then I enjoyed "Roberto and Me" shortly after it was published this past winter.  I resolved that this summer, I would read the other books, and do so in order.  

I love this series and how it combines different genre (sports fiction and science fiction) for the ultimate combination for reluctant readers.  Now, I don't consider myself a reluctant reader, but I could not put this book down.  I finished it in two days.  I enjoy baseball, but I had very little background knowledge of Honus Wagner.  I appreciate that Dan Gutman's didn't expect me to, as a reader.  He incorporates so many facts seamlessly, even down to the correct pronunciation of Wagner's first name, Honus as it would sound in honest without the t and is short for Johannes.  I even ended the night as I finished reading in a lively debate about the specific name of the company that produced the card.  We were both right, as Wikipedia (bad librarian) proved.  So, our marriage is still in tact over the great Piedmont/Sovereign debate.  See the brands that produced the T-206:

I was contacted to tutor a student as I was starting this book and decided it would be the perfect match.  As a result, I've linked to several resources to aid in comprehension for Honus and Me on Diigo

I am looking forward to reading and blogging about Dan Gutman's other Baseball Card Adventure books.  

Double Trouble

After recently finishing Andrew Clement's The Landry News, I thought I had figured out where the title of his book, Lost and Found had come from. It was the same as the title of the controversial short story featured in the challenged issue of the Landry News. The short story was about a boy having a hard time dealing with his parents' divorce. The book by the same title was not, as I had guessed, a continuation of the short story.

Instead, it was an incredibly imaginative (I hope) starting with the first day of school for Jay Gleason, twin brother of Ray Gleason. But on this first day at a new school, he is on his own (with his brother sick at home) and makes the surreal discovery that his brother's file has been lost, or rather, combined with his. For the first time in his life, he was an individual, not part of a pair. And he liked it. And he saw an opportunity. The brothers decide the risk is worth the experience of an individual identity. They realize it can't last forever, and quickly realize the complications involved in leading a double, or rather, single life. But every other day, one of the two brothers stays home from school. But they begin to realize that the real fun is...at school.

In reading the back cover jacket flap, I learned something new about a favorite author. Andrew Clements has 20 years of field observation experience of twins as the father of two of them himself. Frindle is his most well known title, but the more I read of Andrew Clements books, the more interested I become. As an author, his writing invites you in. As an educator, he helps you to question the way things are in a healthy and constructive way. And as a student, he may just give you a few ideas...and you can decide what to do with them.

Books Beat Boredom

Said Amanda (of Amanda and Her Alligator) wisely. Amanda is Mo Willems' newest character, along with her alligator...and penguin. Willems is one of my favorite children's picture book author/illustrators. First graders did an author study of Mo Willems, learning to draw the pigeon and create mixed media illustrations in a Knuffle Bunny-esque style. Amanda and Her Alligator with its mini chapters was an interesting deviation. I felt like I got to read 6 1/2 books instead of one, and I enjoyed the alligators surprise, post thinking cap. The illustrations are simple, and yet convey a great deal of emotion. I enjoy that Amanda spends time at both the library and the zoo. The book titles were very clever. For example, my husband (a rock climbing instructor) would appreciate "Climbing Things for Fun and Profit," and as a reader, I appreciated Amanda's reading stance (upside down, with one leg kicked in the air). I have always enjoyed Willems' books, but as a librarian, reading them repeatedly to different classes, helped me to notice new details, so I know that upon multiple readings of this book, I will find new details as well. Don't forget to look for the pigeon.

Lunch Money and Elementary Comic Con

How could I forget to post about Lunch Money?!? A parent recently commented on my day at the beach post via Facebook and mentioned that her son enjoys the authors I had read: Dan Gutman and Andrew Clements. So I replied with a bunch of other titles by those authors that I have read this summer. But I forgot to mention Lunch Money. Lunch Money is a story about creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and a friendly (well, not exactly) neighborhood rivalry between the two main characters Greg Kenton and Maura Shaw. And, as it seems in all or most of Clement's books, there is also an element of students bucking the conformist school system, in this case the students are selling mini comic books of their own design and creation at school and they are banned from doing so. In working together, they come up with a way to continue. The book included a diagram for creating your own mini comic book and I'm interested to try it out. Without giving too much away, I'm interested in seeing if students in the school would want to learn to create their own mini comics, similar to Greg and Maura's in the book. Either as a project option or as a free choice activity in the library, I think this idea has a lot of possibilities.

Lunch Money also addresses an important point about "appropriate" comics for school. As graphic novels pick up speed and young readers, I think it is incredibly important that we embrace this form of reading and look at all of its artistic merits. Graphic Novels offer a beautiful art form, one that many reluctant readers embrace. And not so reluctant readers, for that matter. And they're not always "easy" reading. So, a few of my favorite graphic novels for school libraries (in no particular order, since they are all pretty awesome):
1) Lunch Lady
2) Baby Mouse
3) Squish
4) The Knights of the Lunch Table
5) Frankie Pickle

In the spring, our book club skyped with Jennifer Holm, co-author of Babymouse. We talked to her primarily about her books Penny from Heaven and Turtle in Paradise, but she shared with us about Babymouse and Squish as well.

This past Friday, at Doylestown Book Shop's Children's Book Festival, I had the opportunity to meet and hear a bunch of great children's authors and illustrators from around the Philadelphia area. The books I wanted to check out most were from the Frankie Pickle series. I was able to listen to author and illustrator, Eric Wight, talk about the character and his use of traditional chapter book formatting for "real world" mixed with a comic/graphic novel layout to show events that are happening in Frankie's imagination. I was floored by this combination! The best of both world! And (don't tell the kids) the content is educational and/or has lessons embedded. Score!

Like the principal in Lunch Money, don't discount the positive power of a great graphic novel!

What Was Your First Clue?

I recently completed the first book of the 39 Clues series. Previously, I hadn't started the series as I'm literally trying to read everything in our school library as well as everything that is coming out and everything that might not be new but that we should have. And they're already incredibly popular, so I didn't have to do much book talking to keep the, circulating. But I was curious. Why are they so popular? Now I know! Filled with drama, adventure, AND history, Grace Cahill challenges her family members to make a real mark on mankind by finding a great treasure as a part of her will reading. The end really threw me for a loop but I should really get back to the middle. The first clue was to follow Franklin, so my "marketing" plan for the fall is to feature a 39 Clues book paired up with non-fiction that will serve the reader with information too. So, for the first book, I would pair books about Ben Franklin (being an elementary school library in Pennsylvania, close to Philadelphia, we have a few {note the sarcastic understatement}of those lying around the biography shelves), Philadelphia, Boston, and Paris. I'm also trying to brainstorm my own 39 clues for the library as a scavenger hunt to start the year. This may be ambitious. Maybe. If it happens, I will share so that others may be able to solve a mystery in their school too. I'm excited to read the rest of the series, but my nightstand is already a bit crowded with my to-read list growing longer everyday. I listened to the first book on audiobook and may do the same for the next. I love listening to books as I drive. Multi-tasking at its best.

Reading Vacation Day or Happy Birthday to Me

For my birthday, my husband gave me the best gift ever! A day at the beach, all to myself, to do whatever I wanted. I love the beach. And I love to read and nap and take long walks and swim. And I do love doing those things with other people too. But I don't mind doing them on my own either. So, on this day I got to the beach early and left very late. I packed three books thinking this might be overkill, but I was wrong. I read each, cover to cover without too much effort.

First up was Andrew Clements' The Landry News. I enjoyed this story, much as I enjoy all of Andrew Clements books, but the concept that a teacher could actually sit and do nothing with no repercussions was a bit disturbing, especially in these teacher bashing times that we live in. The principal re-iterated the misconception that teachers with tenure can't lose their jobs and that simply isn't true. But I'll get off my political soapbox. I thought the concept of first amendment rights challenges was a strong one for students to understand with real context.

The second book I read was the third in Dan Gutman's Baseball Card Adventure series with Joe Stoshack: Babe and Me. I enjoy these books and liked the story that Dan incorporated of Babe taking the drive to visit a sick boy on the day of one of the World Series games. Oe's mission was to see if Babe really called the shot. Whether he called it or pointed at the pitcher is still debatable, but he pointed at something.

The third book I read was Andrew Clements' A Week in the Woods. Are you seeing a pattern? I've been reading my way through our existing collection, or trying to anyway. This book and the experience the students have reminded me very much of a trip our sixth graders take each year to the Pocono Environmental Education Center. I'm excited to share it with those teachers and also my fifth grade students as they look forward to the trip the following year.

Overall, I had a great reading vacation and can't wait to do it again, but for now I'll read them one at a time and love every minute of it!