Joy for Beginners

Joy for Beginners.  Joy.  There's something about those three little letters that just make you smile... whether you're talking to your oldest sister (my sister Joy turns 82 in February) or singing a holiday song, there's something about the word "joy" that makes you happy.  When my friend, Mimi from Seattle, introduced me to Erica Bauermeister, little did I know how much I would love Ms. Bauermeister's writing. 
     I read The School of Essential Ingredients and it blew me away!  Brilliant.  The same can be said for this book.  So rich.  Images fill your mind when you read Erica Bauermeister's words... "Sara's kitchen was a chicken farm of chaos..." or "The little girl was talking happily, the flow of her words bright and shiny, like candy falling from a pinata" or "...the ways their gazes floated over the crowd and then caught at the strangeness of her solitary situaion."  Page after page, I had to stop, think, and ponder the beauty of her writing. 
     This book focuses on Kate's survival after being ill.  At a celebratory dinner, her six friends challenge her to start anew by going river rafting... facing a fear!  She, in turn, gets to choose the challenge that each of her friends will take.  Today a friend posted the following... The phrase, "Do not be afraid" is written in the Bible 365 times.  That's a daily reminder to live everyday being, "Fearless!"  I thought it was a perfect parallel to this book.
     That's what this book is about... being fearless.  Listen to these words from the prologue, "But life is persistent, slipping into your conscious sideways, catching you with a fleeting moment of color, the unexpected and comforting smell of a neighbor's dinner cooking as you walk on a winter evening, the feeling of warm water running between your fingers as you wash the dishes at night.  There is nothing so seductive as reality."  Reality.  Fearlessness.  Two things that create an interesting juxtaposition.
     You should read this one!  Why?  Because it's brilliantly written and might just make you ask a few questions.  The whole time I was reading, I was thinking about both my personal life and my professional life.  Personally, I think there are some things I need to get done... get back to exercise, start swimming again, and learn to kayak .   Professionally, I think I need to stand up for my beliefs... get a little pissy, take some action, and challenge the status quo. And... wait for Ms. Bauermeister's next book! 

Thinking About Our Reading Goals

Last week, my 4th graders and I spent some time thinking about our reading goals for 2012.  We began by jotting some thinking in our reader's notebooks around the guiding questions, "What can I do differently as a reader?  What can I do to get better?"
     We wrote... shared our thinking with one another... talked as a group... and then thought of a one word synthesis that best captured our hopes as readers.  We had some grand conversations about the thinking that might guide our reading lives for the the next few weeks.  
     I had my students jot down their thinking, using their one-word as a heading.  They wrote a synopsis of their reading wishes for the coming weeks.  What an important way to gather thinking from my students in an authentic purposeful way.  Here are a few of their ideas:

• "Expand"  Thinking about expanding helps as a reader because it lets your thinking flow more easily onto paper as if you were pouring water.  Expanding means to try new things and to do different things... that connects to choice because sometimes you need to try or change new genres. (Brooklyn)
• "Footage"  Footage is like a giant web because it connects to a lot of circles.  If I want to picture (or create footage), I might want to read a more descriptive book.  I want to think about words when I choose books.  If I can find the right book, my footage becomes more clear in my mind. (Nolan)
• "Simplify"  I want to somehow simplify my reading life because I think I'm taking too much of a challenge for myself as a reader.  I can't just read a big fat book to get better, I have to understand to get better.  I want to work up to where I can read thick books, so I just need to start out with a simple book. (Josh)     
• "Journey and Discover"  Thinking about journey gives me a picture in my mind of a metaphor of walking into a forest and discovering new thinking for the book.  I chose these words because I hope they will help me become a better reader than I am now. (Molly) 
• "Thinking"  Thinking about my thinking and the responsibilities that come with reading is one of my goals as a reader.  If I want to truly think about my book I also need to think about the choices I am making as a reader.  I need to write more.  I need to continue writing responses, but in higher levels.  My thoughts and understanding can strengthen, but only if I make the proper choices. (Lauren)
• "Sophistication"  This is something that I need to watch myself on with the complexity of my text.  I need to use my sense for it more often, to do so I must think carefully about not just the text sophistication, but my thinking sophistication.  I will use this by not just grabbing some random book and start reading the words with no intention of thinking about "What in the world did I just read?" and actually going back to reread it. I must look through a wide variety and see what the book is about and carefully choose the one that fits best; like a puzzle.  Then I must slowly read it and take the time to slow down. (Libby)
• "Locked In"  My new reading goal as a reader this year is to get locked into richer and better texts.  Because, some of the books I was reading last year were like gloop (too easy).  I want to get "locked in" as a reader and finish more books.  I want to get "locked in" to new strategies.  (Jack)

     Nell Duke once said, "I don't think there's any goal we have for students that's greater than the goal of having them be able to make meaning from, and critically evaluate, the text that they're going to experience and encounter throughout their lives."  My two word synthesis was "Choice and Voice" because those are the two things I want my students to discover for the remainder of the year.  And, like Nell, I want my students to critically evaluate who they are becoming as readers... so that they can grow and continue thriving long after they walk out the door of our classroom in June. in Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop, I included a quote that we have hanging in our classroom, "Where choice lives, learning prospers!"  It's so true...

     Here's to a prosperous, reading-filled 2012!  Cheers!

Forgotten Bookmarks... A Treasure

I know what book I'm getting Christmas Eve.  It's Forgotten Bookmarks by Michael Popek.  Every Christmas Eve, my children open three gifts... a book, new pajamas, and an ornament.  It's a tradition we started when our oldest was born 24 years ago.  Of course, mom and dad get a book too.  And, we always get a new family book to add to our Christmas book collection.
      While we were shopping last week at the Tattered Cover, I slipped this gem into my shopping basket.  MIchael Popek is a bookstore owner in New York and this book offers a collection of tidbits he's found in the used books they sell... stories, photographs, bookmarks, etc.  
     In Forgotten Bookmarks the authors shares a collection of tidbits he's found.  Of course, the readers, who long ago tucked the bits and pieces in the books they were reading, never knew their forgotten treasures would be captured in a book as lovely as this one!
     Poems, photographs, recipes, love letters... the items that Michel Popek includes in Forgotten Bookmarks are personal, humorous, and fascinating.  It's like "pickers' for book lovers!  I can't wait until Christmas Eve so I can dig deeper into this book.  I know I'll laugh, cry, and ponder.  I love old books... and I love when I find secrets within their pages (just last week I was reading a used book to my students and we found three four-leaf clovers someone had pressed in its pages)!

By the way, Mr. Popek as a website here and it's a perfect site to keep "bookmarked" as you read this book!

A Wonderful Endeavor...

"The fledgling perched on the edge of her nest preparing for possible flight is a situation I can feel in the pit of my stomach: possible glory, possible failure. We all find ourselves there, and we make a decision. This story is about that choice, the internal debate that accompanies it, and one possible result."                                                        —Holly Meade

     Another wonderful book from our friends at Candlewick Press.  This one I found at The Tattered Cover in Denver and it was the first book that I put in my basket on that shopping trip.
     Holly Meade is an incredible artist (check out her artwork by clicking on her name... some of my favorites prints are Shaker Joy, Stand Jackson, and Holy Trinity... beautiful).  And, she's also an incredible illustrator and author.  If I Never Forever Endeavor speaks to you on so many levels... risk taker, decision maker, contemplation seeker.  It's the perfect book to nudge someone gently into a new phase of life or to overcome an obstacle.  The line, "If I hadn't endeavored and found my wings clever, I never a sky would have scaled, never a world would have seen, and never a friend would have found," blew me away, made me want to fly!  Friends of a feather, indeed!
     Do you ever run across a book at exactly the right time?  Exactly when you need a nudge yourself?  That's what happened to me when I read through this beautiful book.  And, in the classroom I can see it used in some many ways... as a book to develop endurance... as a book to read aloud and let its words soak in... as a book to serve as lyrical text... as a book that deserves a special place in your classroom library.  It has one in mine!  
     

Just Fine the Way They Are...

One of the books I picked up at NCTE is Just Fine the Way They Are by Connie Wooldridge.  It was one of the books that caught my eye... first the subtitle From Dirt Road to Rail Road to Interstates.  Then I was struck by the last page, which reads

     "And then what do we get but a pack of crazy thinkers coming up with ideas about how to make cars run on things like electricity and fuel cells and even corn.  Next thing they'll be saying is we don't even need cars or roads anymore because they've come up with something better.
     All of which is plain nonsense.  Because things are just fine they way they are..."

This book focuses on the question, "Change. Who needs it?" It begins with a tavern keeper who has a business along a rutted dirt road and it moves to the stage coach era of the mid-1800s then to the railroads... model T automobiles... and so on.  It's really a book about movement... movement through the changes in the transportation system in our country.

     And here we are today... moving briskly along super highways throughout the United States... and beyond.  The author has captured the historical perspective of transportation and its role in our history, and she's done it beautifully.  I love the illustrations by Richard Walz... whimsical, fitting, and inviting.

     This book is going in the "Endurance and Stamina" basket in my classroom!  I think students will love reading this enjoyable "history" of transportation and the role its changes have played in America!

Cousin Texts - Old and New

I love using "cousin" texts... for writing instruction, thinking strategy work, read aloud, craft study, etc.

 

Last night at The Tattered Cover, I ran across Sammy in the Sky by Barbara Walsh (another winner by our friends at Candlewick Press).  What a beautifully written book!  As I read it to my students, we were struck not only by the story line, but by the craft itself.  Afterward, I told my kids I thought we could use this book to learn a lot about the "tools" we need as writers... complex sentences, unique punctuation, etc.  Of course, it's the kind of book that you have to let "drift into your heart and mind."  The story of Sammy is touching and heartwarming... and serves as a launch for incredible notebook writing.  I had to have it when I read it in the children's section... tears streaming down my face!  By the way, it's illustrated by Jamie Wyeth, Andrew's son.

A cousin?  Another book we shared this week Saying Goodbye to Lulu.  Written in the same vain as Sammy in the Sky, it's an equally touching book written by Corinne Demas and illustrated by Ard Hoyt.  We used it as a launch for a memory write and for many of my students, it unlocked that "saying goodbye" theme.  Not all sadness by the way.  I think sometimes a text likes this leads to writing that is poignant, but based in happy memories.  This book tugs at heart strings, but influences young writers in a special way.

And another cousin?  I'll Always Love You by Hans Wilhelm is another book that I loved; it's an older book, but it's always been a favorite.  It was one of the first picture books in my collection and one I rely on often.  Do I always use a "cousin" as a writing launch... no.  This one is often a book I slip into a child's hands after he/she shares the pain of losing a pet with us.  It's a wonderful book that helps young people realize that "it will be okay."

It was my friend, Colleen Buddy, who introduced me to the idea of "cousin texts" and it's a lesson I've never forgotten.  But, what defines a cousin?  Perhaps it's a cluster of books similar themes (like in this case), perhaps it's a cluster of books that follow the same structure, perhaps it's a cluster of books that share certain punctuation techniques, perhaps it's a cluster of books that share a specific content (ala text sets)... but however you define a "cousin," you can't go wrong when you invite your students to look for and notice how texts can become the best of companions... to enhance their reading, writing, and thinking!

I've linked all these authors on this entry, be sure to check their websites out!

Stars...

What if you could have a star?

They shine like little silver eggs

you could gather in a basket.

What if you could find another brilliant book written by Mary Lyn Ray?  What if it was illustrated by Marla Frazee?  Well... Some days you feel shiny as a star.  If you've done something important, people may call you a star.  And that must be exactly how Mary Lyn Ray and Marla Frazee felt when they first say there collaboration in print.  It's definitely a star!

I found this book at The Tattered Cover and is mysteriously found its way into my shopping basket.  I felt in love with it.  When I turned to the page that says Blow a ball of dandelion and you blow a thousand stars into the sky, I was sold!  I know I say it all the time, but this could become one of my favorites!  It's beautifully illustrated and beautifully written.  


To me it speaks as a metaphor of stopping to observe, stopping to breath, stopping to take in the beauty around you... your child's smile, your dog's nudge, your wife's hand in yours.  In this case, stars.  

Put it on you list!  It's a must have...