A book about light

My students and I were talking about the noises we hear at night when we're trying to go to sleep... creaks and cracks inside the walls, scritchs and scratchs on the windowpanes, pops and pounds on the rooftops... talking about the "normal" things that happen in ordinary events often help students plant writing seeds in their reader's/writer's notebooks.

      This week, I ran across Night Lights by Susan Gal.  It's about all the light that is present in a child's night--the glow of the porch light, the fireflies, the fire during a backyard cookout.  This is a book that helps bring to "light" the simple things that surround us that deserve to be written about... including the light caused by lightning!  The perfect to chase away childhood fears.  This is a book that just might encourage young writers to write about the ordinary things in their lives.  And, Susan Gal's illustrations are delightfully abstract (you can check out her artwork at http://www.galgirlstudio.com).

     I was thinking about writing about the annoying glow of the green light on my clock at night... sometimes I wake up at night and it's illuminating the whole room!