CYBILS 2010

HEY! DID YOU KNOW IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR THE CYBILS AWARDS?

Just in case you didn't know, the CYBILS are an honor given out by Kidlitosphere bloggers- teachers, librarians, authors, booksellers, etc. Every October, people rush to the CYBILS website and nominate their favorite new books in a whole bunch of different categories, including picture books, nonfiction, poetry, middle grade fiction, fantasy, graphic novels, YA, etc. At the end of October, the nominations close, then a panel of judges review the books in each category (almost one hundred in many of the categories), and whittle the list down to five books, which are then passed to a second panel of judges, who select the winner in each category.

I'm thrilled to announce that I will once again be serving as a judge on the nonfiction picture book panel. I've helped with the nonfiction judging for the last two years (as a YA judge in 2008 and a nonfiction picture book in 2010) and it's so, so, so fun. Starting in late October, I'll be reading and reviewing tons of terrific new nonfiction picture books. And I'll be discussing those books with lots and lots of really knowledgeable, interesting, and fun people. I. can. not. wait!

OTHER FIRST ROUNDERS ON THE NONFICTION PICTURE BOOK PANEL:

• Karen Terlecky, Literate Lives
• Amanda Goldfuss, ACPL Mock Sibert
• Shirley Duke, Simply Science
• Doret Canton, Happy Nappy Bookseller
• Abby Johnson, Abby the Librarian,

Round Two

• Carol Rasco- RIF
• Franki Sibberson, A Year of Reading
• Roberta Gibson, Wrapped in Foil
• Kara Dean, Not Just for Kids
• Deb Nance, Reader Buzz

OK, so now your job is to hop over to the CYBILS website and nominate your favorite books.

Let the wild rumpus begin!

POETRY FRIDAY

School secretaries rank right up there on the top of my list of people who work incredibly hard and should be paid enormous amounts of money. Ms Patti, the secretary at my school, is one of the best secretaries, not to mention one of the very nicest people I know. She does all of the stuff that other secretaries do- support the boss, answer the phone, paperwork- but then she also helps 25 teachers and paraprofessionals, and three hundred kids and their families. She knows every child's name and life story. She deals with bands aid bloody noses and broken arms. She knows exactly when to give a child a hug and when to give him a hard time. She makes coffee every morning and caters luncheons on teacher planning days. And she does it all with kindness and smiles and patience all day every day. And she has done it for more than 22 years. And today is her birthday! Happy Birthday, Miss Patty!


SCHOOL SECRETARY
Douglas Evans

Poetry Friday is at

Seven bandaids, a bloody nose
Forgotten lunches, bright hellos,
Twisted ankles, ritalin pills,
Five calls home, two orange juice spills.
A lost jacket, a stain to soak,
An ice packet, a zipper that broke…

Read the rest of the poem here. (You have to scroll almost to the bottom of the page to find the poem).

Poetry Friday is hosted by Anastasia Suen at PICTURE BOOK OF THE DAY.

POETRY FRIDAY- FOOTBALL SEASON

My boys play football. Love football. Live for football.

I love the crisp fall afternoons. Watching them warm up. The red and white of their uniforms against the green of the grass and the blue of the sky. The camaraderie of kids who have played together for five years or more.

I love watching my younger son, the quarterback as he stands next to the coach, then trots into the game. To direct the offense. Not quite a man, but almost.

I love watching my older son, star running back, as he bursts through the defense, and flies down the field. His sweet spirit, so painfully confined in a classroom, is so free on the football field.

I don't love the heart stopping minutes when one of my guys is knocked down and lays too still for too long. Those times when the trainer is summoned onto the field. And I imagine ambulance rides and wheelchairs and traumatic brain injuries. I wish my boys were golfers or swimmers or tiddlywinks players.

But my boys love football. Live for football. So that is what we do.

This afternoon is the first game of the season. Good luck guys!

And in honor of my sweet babies, a couple of football poems…

October Saturday: 1949
H.R. Coursen

When I was seventeen,
the quarterback gave me the ball, and
the hole opened
up, right where it said it would be
on the blackboard.
And I kept on going…

********

Going Back-
H.R. Coursen

Strange. I would not have predicted it,
but as I return for my reunion—
50th—in New Jersey—the one
thing I think about is football…

Read the rest of these poems here.

Susan Writes is hosting Poetry Friday today.

IT'S A BOOK- LANE SMITH

So do you remember that I really am trying to be a totally hip and with it kind of gal? In case you forgot, I am. I totally am trying to be hip and with it. I blog. I have a facebook account. I tweet. A little bit. Although I have not quite got the hang of that tiny url thing, at least not yet. This summer, I went to the ISTE conference where I did not win an ipad, despite the fact that I wrote my name on many, many win a free ipad raffle tickets. I am, I think, becoming slightly more techno savvy.

But when it all boils down to it, there is nothing I like better than holding a good old fashioned book. I like looking at the pictures. I like turning the pages. Ijust like books.

I laughed out loud, then, today when I read Lane Smith's newest creation, IT'S A BOOK. In this book, three friends- a monkey, a mouse, and a jackass- are friends. The monkey loves to read. The jackass, a totally hip and with-it techno kind of guy has never seen a book until he encounters Monkey reading. He has lots of questions-- Can you blog? How do you scroll down? Can you make the characters fight? Monkey answers the questions for a while, but that becomes impatient and hands Jackass his copy of TREASURE ISLAND. And you can guess what happens next…

This is definitely a picture book for older kids. I'd love to use it to introduce independent reading in a middle or high school classroom. So funny!!!!

POETRY FRIDAY

A week when kids' stories, the I'm living with my auntie, My dad is in jail, My mom is mad because sister (age 15) is pregnant, I can't pay $10 for a football jersey because DCY doesn't give us money have been too much and too many for my heart to hold…

MARCUS MILLSAP: SCHOOL DAY AFTERNOON
I climb the steps of the yellow school bus,
move to a seat in back, and we're off,
bouncing along the bumpy blacktop.
What am I going to do when I get home?
I'm going to make myself a sugar sandwich
and go outdoors and look at the birds
and the gigantic blue silo
they put up across the road at Motts'.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Poetry Friday is at BOOK AUNT (and by the way, I LOVE her blog's subtitle, "because other people can give you clothes and video games for your birthday"). My sentiments exactly!

TOUCH BLUE- CYNTHIA LORD

Cynthia Lord gets it. She totally gets it.

And that could pretty much be my review for TOUCH BLUE.

But you might want a little more.

OK, here it is.

TOUCH BLUE is the story of Tess Brooks, an eleven-year-old girl who lives on Bethsaida Island in Maine. When the book opens, the Brooks family, along with several other families on Bethsaida Island, are waiting for the ferry, which is bringing five foster children to the island. The islanders are taking the foster children in a last-ditch effort to save their school, which is in danger of closing because there are not enough children.

Tess has big plans for Aaron, the thirteen-year-old boy who comes to live with them. She hopes he will like reading, building things, fishing, and riding bikes, just like she does. Aaron, however, turns out to be a musician-- a gifted trumpet and piano player, who carries a suitcase of sadness, a deep longing for his own mother and home, an emptiness and desire to belong. And that, I would say, has pretty much been my experience with the foster children I have known. No matter how loving their foster/adoptive family, or how rich their lives, or how long they have been separated, there is always a dull ache, a longing for their biological family and home…

It's not like the book is all sad. There is a lot of richness and humor and wisdom too. Tess' father (a way cool dad/foster dad), is a lobster fisherman, and there is lots of interesting information about that occupation/culture throughout the book (I worried before I read TOUCH BLUE) that my urban students might not be able to connect or understand, but Cynthia Lord explains things so beautifully, that won't be a problem at all, in fact I think they will love learning about a way of life so different from their own). Tess' father is a wise, wise man. At one point, for instance, he tells Tess that the Brooks family will have to be "stubborn" in loving Aaron, that they cannot give up on him. And in my mind, that's a perfect way to describe the love I have had to learn for my boys. Stubborn. It's a good thing I was pretty stubborn before I ever had them. And there's also the theme of superstition throughout the book. Tess is a highly superstitious young lady and each chapter opens with a superstition, which then is somehow connected to the events in the chapter, e.g. the title of the book comes from "Touch blue and your wish will come true."

I loved, loved, loved RULES. And I have had a lot of fun reading HOT ROD HAMSTER to younger kids. But TOUCH BLUE is definitely my favorite of Cynthia Lord's books. Cynthia Lord is an author who gets it.

POETRY FRIDAY

We had kids yesterday,
but my sons' first day of high school is today.
And I'm praying that somehow my two fellas
who had the perseverance
to get out of bed
four mornings a week,
all summer long,
for six a.m. football conditioning,
and studied
and took notes
and researched football film
endlessly,
and wrote
and revised
and performed songs on Garage Band
two or three hours a day
all summer long
will have somehow acquired
the school gene.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
Judith Viorst
Will they let me go when I need to go to the bathroom?
And what if I get lost on the way back to class?
And what if all of the other kids are a hundred, a thousand, a million times smarter than I am?
And what if we have a spelling test or a reading test or an anything test, and I'm the only person who doesn't pass?

Read the rest of the poem here.

Poetry Friday is at Teaching Poetry K-12.