FROG SONG

FROG SONG is a magical, musical, melodic, tribute to frogs.

"Frogs have a song for trees, bogs, burrows, and logs. When frogs have enough moisture to keep gooey eggs, squirmy tadpoles, and hoppity adults from drying out they can sing almost anywhere. CROAK! RIBBIT! BZZT! PLONK! BRACK! THRUM-RUM!"

After that introduction, each two page spread focuses on a different and unusual frog from all over the world.

"In Chile, the Darwin's frog sings in the beech forest. Chirp-Chweet! The male guards 30 eggs in the damp leaves for three weeks. When the tadpoles wiggle, he scoops them into his mouth. SLURP! They slither into his vocal sacs, where he keeps them safe and moist for seven weeks. Then he gives a big yawn and little froglets pop out. "

I could see kids poring over this book with an atlas or globe right beside them.

I'm not even sure where to begin to talk  about Gennady Spirin's illustrations. They are so lifelike and detailed you almost feel like you are looking at photographs. I wonder if Spiring might do illustrations for scientific journals. And I'm not at all surprised to have seen this book on more than one Mock Caldecott list. Think it's definitely a contender.

A two page spread in the back gives a photo, range, size, and a quick fact about each frog. Another page describes "Frogs in Trouble."

FROG SONG could be used in a unit on animals, or adaptation, or protecting the earth. It could be used in a nonfiction study of  text structure. Or in writing for voice.

Or it could simply be read and reread and enjoyed, because it's wonderful!

A SPLASH OF RED- THE LIFE AND ART OF HORACE PIPPIN

As a CYBILS judge, I get to read lots of terrific books. As a nonfiction judge, I learn lots of new and interesting things. By the time the CYBILS judging is over, my mind will be bursting with trivia. Did you know, for instance, that the sea otter has over one million hairs per inch, the densest hair of any animal on the planet? I didn't know that, or at least I didn't know it until this weekend.

I also get to learn about lots of fascinating people. This weekend I read A SPLASH OF RED, Jen Bryant's newest book (she also wrote RIVER OF WORDS, about William Carlos Williams). Pippin was an African American artist, born in 1888. As a child, he loved to draw; some of his first "real" art supplies came from winning a contest when he was nine or ten. Pippin's father abandoned his family  when the boy was a young teen, and Horace dropped out of school to support his family. Shot in the arm during World War I, he could no longer draw as he previously had, so he found a new way, using a charcoal and a hot poker, and old house paint he found in alleys. Later he was discovered by Andrew Wyeth.

Jen Bryant's story is paired with Melissa Sweet's art. A note in the back says that the two actually worked together on the book, which seems a fairly unusual process. Sweet embeds facts from the story, as well as quotes for the artist, into each illustration. "Pictures just come to my mind and I tell my heart to go ahead." Sweet made sure to include Pippin's trademark, "splash of red," onto each page. Her illustrations are playful and lively and lots of fun!

A fabulous collaboration by a terrific team!

SLICE OF LIFE

I'm a CYBILS judge.
And right now my life is full of books. 
I feel a little like the Arnold Lobel poem. 

Books to the ceiling, books to the sky.
My piles of books are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
Arnold Lobel

I love being Judge,
 I really do. 
But life tends to get a little crazy during this time.
There are piles of books
on every flat surface
and
every Saturday
I bring home another heaping pile of books. 
 I try to create some kind of order 
on my mantle.
Biographies in one pile.
Animals in another.
Transportation, still another.
And then a separate pile for dinosaurs. 
It's right next to the books about natural disasters
and kind of on top of the pile of electricity books 
that teeter precariously in front of the war books. 
 On Saturday afternoons
when I should be cleaning bathrooms
or mopping floors
or raking leaves   
I lose myself in nonfiction.
Piling my favorites in one corner
for rereading
the probably nots in another.  
My part of CYBILS is over on January 1st.
Thinking my bathrooms will really need cleaning by then.  

THREE BOOKS ABOUT BASEBALL

I know it's not baseball season, but  I have three baseball books at the top of my CYBILS stack today, so baseball it is. The first, BARBED WIRE BASEBALL, is about the Japanese Interment Camps during World War Two, so it kind of fits with Veteran's Day, right?

Kenichi "Zeni" Zenimura grew up in Hawaii. Although his parents wanted him to be a doctor or a lawyer, Zeni knew, from a very early age, that he wanted to play baseball. Zeni grew up, moved to California, and played baseball in the Fresno Nisei and Fresno Twilight Leagues. He even played in exhibition games against greats like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

In 1941, after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Zeni and his family were sent to an interment camp in Gila Bend, Arizona. Circumstances were bleak and it would have been easy to give up. Zeni refused to let his circumstances define him, however, instead choosing to build a baseball field and organizing 32 teams into three divisions, which played every day. 

This book would be terrific in a unit on World War Two, Japanese Americans, or perseverance. It would also be a perfect companion for one of my favorite historical picture books, BASEBALL SAVED US.  End notes include biographical information about Zeni, as well as author and illustrator's notes. 

Another book that could easily be used in a Social Studies class is Jonah Winters' and Terry Widener's YOU NEVER HEARD OF WILLIE MAYS. Mays, as most people know, was one of the first African Americans to play with the New York Giants. Winters' biography captures Mays' childhood in Birmingham, his years in the Negro League, and then his ascent to the majors, where he was Rookie of the Year, and is famous for a play known as "The Catch" in 1954. Embedded ticket-shaped insets throughout the book feature important baseball-related information. The holographic cover will grab kids' attention, but it doesn't begin to compare with Widener's gorgeous illustrations throughout the book. Endnotes include a glossary, and information about where the authors got their statistics.

BECOMING BABE RUTH is a biography by one of my favorite picture book authors and illustrators, Matt Tavares. The story begins in 1902, when George Herman Ruth's father, disgusted with his naughty and delinquent seven-year-old son, sends him to Saint Mary's Industrial School for Boys, There, Babe Ruth meets Father Matthias, a baseball playing priest, who guides and mentors young Ruth, and shapes him into a world class baseball player. This biography captures important details about Ruth's baseball career, but also includes lots of information about his lifelong relationship with Father Matthias and the Saint Mary's industrial school. Author's notes include pitching and hitting statistics.

ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY

Because I'm a CYBILS nonfiction picture book judge, right now, I'm reading, ummm, mostly nonfiction picture books. Every once in a while, I have to squeeze in a little fiction. This morning I finished MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY by Chris Grabenstein.

And I loved it!

The town of Alexandriaville, Ohio has not had a library for 12 years, then a very wealthy benefactor, Mr. Luigi Lemoncello, the owner of a famous game company,  donates millions of dollars to build a new state of the art, high tech facility in the old Goldleaf Bank Building. All of the twelve-year-olds in the town are invited to participate in an essay contest, which allows them to spend a night in the library at a Grand Opening celebration.

 Kyle Keeley, who is not a book lover, enters the contest because it is rumored that the library has video game consoles, and he is currently grounded from the consoles at home. He and his best friend, Akimi Hughes, are two of the contest's winners. When they get to the library, they discover that not only do they get to spend a night in the world's coolest library, they also have the opportunity to participate in another contest, which involves solving puzzles and piecing together clues to escape from the library. The winner will get to be a spokesperson on Lemoncello game commercials for a whole year!

ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY is a little bit of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, a little FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER, a little Scrabble/Boggle/Trivial Pursuits, and a whole lot of literary references!

Can't wait to share this one with kids!

CELEBRATE THIS WEEK!

I'm participating in Ruth Ayre's weekly "Celebrate This Week." Head over to Ruth's blog for lots more celebrations. 
 
Today I'm celebrating learning.

Not kid learning.

Adult learning.

My adult learning.

Because I'm learning something new.

Over the past couple of months I've been learning to use Google docs.

It started this summer. I was teaching an class for my district. One of the other teachers used a google doc, with links to a variety of articles and websites, for her syllabus. One afternoon we were planning for the class and she showed me how she set up her syllabus. And I decided that if I wanted to be a hip and with-it 21st century teacher, I might want to try google docs also.

And so I did. And it went kind of ok, but I didn't feel great about the experience. Sometimes my students could access the things on my document and sometimes they couldn't. After the course was over, students wrote to me, wanting to revisit certain articles, and I couldn't figure out how to maintain access (I still haven't figured out that one). I wasn't sure I really liked Google docs, or that I would use it again. It just felt like a little too much.

This year, when I went back to school, we had a new assistant principal. She had come from a district where staff members were expected to use Google Docs and she liked Google docs. A lot. She uses them all the time. And so gradually, with her support, I have been continued using Google docs.

And I'm getting better. A whole lot better. In the past week, I've used Google docs to collaborate with our leadership team to set the agenda for an upcoming Professional Development day. I've learned how to create conditional formatting on a spreadsheet. I've entered data in that same spread sheet and shared it with teachers. This morning I will be meeting with my principal and assistant principal creating a presentation. I'm sure we will be doing it on Google docs.

And I'm feeling pretty proud of myself. Pretty hip and with-it and 21st century.

My learning hasn't been totally straightforward. A few weeks ago, I had trouble accessing my district gmail account because I didn't know that I had two accounts-- one personal and one professional.  My assistant principal help me set up spreadsheets for monitoring student writing, but then when I tried to share them at grade level meetings, no one could access them. One of the second grade teachers helped me figure out conditional formatting, because I didn't know how to do that either

But with every failure, I learn something new. Become a little independent and a little more confident.

And I'm remembering. Thinking about Brian Cambourne, whose conditions for learning have been foundational to my practice.

And I'm remembering. Learning takes time. Lots of time. It takes engagement. The belief that something is worth doing. And that I am a person who might be able to do it some day.  Learning involves  risk taking. And mistake making.  It's messy. It involves approximation. And feedback. And supportive peers. And lots and lots and lots of practice.

Today I'm celebrating adult learning.

And remembering how important it is to create those same conditions for teachers and kids.

Because learning takes time.

SLICE OF LIFE

Today was a big day at my school.

We had an author visit. A real, live author visit.

Now to some people, that probably doesn't seem like a big deal. But remember, I work at a school that is 98% free lunch. The families at my school are what might best be described as "working poor." We have parents that love their kids a lot, and support us as best as they can, but we don't have a PTA.We don't have fancy teacher lunches or silent auctions. And we don't have author visits. Those things just don't happen very often in urban settings.

But today we had an author visit.

A month or so ago, we received a call from the Denver Public Library. The library was bringing Monica Brown, author of Marisol McDonald  Doesn't Match/ Marisol McDonald No Combina; Orbis Pictus Winner Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People, and most recently, Tito Puento: Mambo King/Rey de mambo to Denver. She would be visiting some schools. She wanted to talk to second graders. Our school had been selected.

We were thrilled to death. 

For the past few weeks, our second graders have been reading Monica Brown's books. They've visited her website and read her biography. They've created posters of their favorite books.

And today Monica Brown visited our school.

The second graders were beyond excited.  I do a second grade intervention group at 10:30. "Did you know today the author is coming, Dr. Carol?" they asked (more than once).

I had lunch duty. "I can't finish my lunch," apologized a toothless seven-year-old. "I can't be late. The author is coming."

I missed the beginning of the visit because I had recess duty. By the time I got there, the kids had read My Name is Celia/Me llamo Celia and were finishing Marisol. They had learned a song. They had talked about Monica's two daughters.

I got to hear the kids ask questions. "What is your other job?" asked one little guy. The kids grinned when Monica said she was a professor. They actually already knew that, but wanted to confirm, I guess, that the information on her website was accurate.  And they had several questions about Monica's sisters (not to be confused with her daughters, but probably closely related). They also wanted to know what life lesson she wanted her readers to learn from Marisol. They all nodded in agreement when the life lesson Monica suggested was similar to what they had decided in class.
 After almost an hour, Monica had to wrap up and move on. But the celebration was not quite over. The second graders lined up, and Monica handed every single kid an autographed copy of Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match/Marisol McDonald no combina.

Today was a big day for the second graders at my school.

Today we had an author visit.