President Squid

Title: President Squid 
Author: Aaron Reynolds 
Illustrator: Sara Varon 
Publisher: Chronicle Books 
Publication Date: March 1st, 2016 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book
GoodReads Summary: Join Aaron Reynolds and Sara Varon as they explore the ideal qualities of leaders, diplomats...and giant squid. Squid knows all about being president. It means living in a big house, doing all the talking—oh, and having a tie is crucial. He's all set! In the next election, make a more informed choice. Vote for President Squid! 
What I Think: After seeing Aaron Reynolds at my son's school this year, I can hear his voice when I read this book! It's hysterical. We've read it multiple times already in our house and my kindergartener quotes it all the time. It cracks me up and I love that my kids love it.
     As a mentor text, this book is fantastic for voice. Squid is just completely over the top and exudes attitude. There are also so many discussions to be had about making connections between what we know about presidents versus what Squid thinks about presidents. You can easily compare and contrast and think through what qualities might be good in a president. And this would be a great book to think about character traits and how we can infer those based on what the character says and does. Finally, this book makes a great read aloud because the character has so much energy which also means this is a great book for kids to practice fluency in terms of reading with emotion and excitement in their voices.
Read Together: Grades K - 6 
Read Alone: Grades K - 6 
Read With: Nerdy Birdy by Aaron Reynolds, Duck For President by Doreen Cronin, Grace For President by Kelly DiPucchio
Snatch of Text:  

"I HAVE REALIZED SOMETHING 

VERY IMPORTANT.

Something that changes everything!

No giant squid has ever been president before!

Which means I will be the first.

President Squid!

Now that has a nice ring to it.

I WILL BE THE

GREATEST PRESIDENT

WHO EVER LIVED!"

Writing Prompts: Write about how you believe a president should act.  
Topics Covered: Integration - History, Determination, Perseverance 

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Worm Loves Worm

Title: Worm Loves Worm 
Author: J. J. Austrian 
Illustrator: Mike Curato 
Publisher: Balzer + Bray 
Publication Date: January 5th, 2016 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: Perfect for fans of And Tango Makes Three and The Sissy Duckling, this irresistible picture book is a celebration of love in all its splendid forms from debut author J. J. Austrian and the acclaimed author-illustrator of Little Elliot, Big City, Mike Curato.

You are cordially invited to celebrate the wedding of a worm . . . and a worm.

When a worm meets a special worm and they fall in love, you know what happens next: They get married! But their friends want to know—who will wear the dress? And who will wear the tux?

The answer is: It doesn't matter. Because Worm loves Worm. 
What I Think: This book is super cute! Worms are fascinating little creatures and the perfect main characters for this book. I'll not soon forget the wonderful feeling I felt when so many people celebrated the Supreme Court's ruling for same sex marriage across the United States. It felt like it was long overdue. Now this book celebrates what's truly important when it comes to getting married - that love is what it's all about. 
     Worm Loves Worm is an absolutely perfect way to start a conversation with students about the danger of doing something simply because it's always been done that way. I like to think that the world grows and evolves with every generation as we start to think critically about what we do and why we do it...and more and more people stand up for what makes sense versus the way it has always been. Of course, this can apply to so much more than same sex marriage and that's why I absolutely love this book. It's a sweet story and one that even young children will understand and talk about (at their level of course). And if we don't start talking to kids about really thinking about their world and the decisions they make in it, we are doing them a disservice as much as ourselves.
     As a mentor text, more than the discussion this book can foster, I would look at all the dialogue going on. Each character plays his or her own role in the story and his or her dialogue matches his or her personality. What each character says is very intentional and it's a good lesson in thinking about character development and their dialogue - what they would say, how they would say it, why they would say it. Additionally, this book would make a great reader's theater because of all the different parts and all the dialogue. I love reader's theater for practicing fluency.
Read Together: Grades K - 5  
Read Alone: Grades K - 5 
Read With: Be a Friend by Salina Yoon, Zombie In Love by Kelly DePucchio, Little Elliot, Big City by Mike Curato
Snatch of Text:    

"'Wait!' says Cricket.

'That isn't how it's

always been done.'

'Then we'll just change

how it's done,' says Worm.

'Yes,' says Worm."

Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you had to rethink or relearn something you already thought you understood.  
Topics Covered: Love, Humanity, Acceptance, Respect, Equality

I *heart* It:

Rereading For Fluency with Sarah Cynthia Silvia Stout

Today Poetry Friday is at The Poem Farm with Amy Ludwig VanderWater! Be sure to visit and check out all the great poetry posts. This month is extra special because April is National Poetry Month.

When I was in second grade, we held a poetry event. Students were partnered up and asked to draw a picture of a Shel Silverstein poem. We each had a different Shel Silverstein poem to prepare and recite. Technically, we were supposed to know it by heart but our teacher put the words on the back of our picture so we could peek at the words if we needed to. Where The Sidewalk Ends will always be one of my all-time favorite poetry collections. 

The poem I recite with one of my friends, was "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" and it is still one of my most favorite poems to read out loud. I was actually just talking to a friend about Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches and how keen Dr. Seuss was to be able address serious topics through picture books. Shel Silverstein reminds me of that. He seems to have addressed some serious topics in his poems as well. I've been thinking a lot about waste lately. I have a science teacher friend who has an indoor worm compost bin and I would love to get started...I just have to be brave enough to actually commit. I'm mostly worried about hurting the worms by over or under feeding them and about smelling up my house somehow. Maybe it'll be a summer project.

Today I'm rereading "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" and thinking about how wonderful this poem is for practicing fluency. Reading poetry is a perfect opportunity to think about timing and inflection, emotion fluidity in your voice. When we reread, we can practice fluency. The first time through, students familiarize themselves with the words, but when rereading, they can take the time to practice their fluency and to think about how to best read the words to make the biggest impact. And what an impact this poem has!

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out

By Shel Silverstein

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout 

Would not take the garbage out! 

She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans, 

Candy the yams and spice the hams, 

And though her daddy would scream and shout, 

She simply would not take the garbage out. 

And so it piled up to the ceilings: 

Coffee grounds, potato peelings, 

Brown bananas, rotten peas, 

Chunks of sour cottage cheese. 

It filled the can, it covered the floor, 

It cracked the window and blocked the door 

With bacon rinds and chicken bones, 

Drippy ends of ice cream cones, 

Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel, 

Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal, 

Pizza crusts and withered greens, 

Soggy beans and tangerines, 

Crusts of black burned buttered toast, 

Gristly bits of beefy roasts. . . 

The garbage rolled on down the hall, 

It raised the roof, it broke the wall. . . 

Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs, 

Globs of gooey bubble gum, 

Cellophane from green baloney, 

Rubbery blubbery macaroni, 

Peanut butter, caked and dry, 

Curdled milk and crusts of pie, 

Moldy melons, dried-up mustard, 

Eggshells mixed with lemon custard, 

Cold french fried and rancid meat, 

Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat. 

At last the garbage reached so high 

That it finally touched the sky. 

And all the neighbors moved away, 

And none of her friends would come to play. 

And finally Sarah Cynthia Stout said, 

"OK, I'll take the garbage out!" 

But then, of course, it was too late. . . 

The garbage reached across the state, 

From New York to the Golden Gate. 

And there, in the garbage she did hate, 

Poor Sarah met an awful fate, 

That I cannot now relate 

Because the hour is much too late. 

But children, remember Sarah Stout 

And always take the garbage out!

Hooray for Hat!

November is Picture Book Month! I'm rocking out a Bookaday celebration of picture books!

Today I'm sharing ideas for using Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won as a mentor text.

GoodReads Summary:

Elephant wakes up grumpy—until ding, dong! What’s in the surprise box at the front door? A hat! HOORAY FOR HAT! Elephant marches off to show Zebra, but Zebra is having a grumpy day, too—until Elephant shares his new hat and cheers up his friend. Off they march to show Turtle! The parade continues as every animal brightens the day of a grumpy friend. An irresistible celebration of friendship, sharing, and fabulous hats. 

I love the mix of colors in Hooray for Hat! As we were reading this book, I started to think about Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back. This is obviously a totally, completely, way different story but the animals walking up and talking to each other made me think of the bear asking each of the animals for help in I Want My Hat Back. Experiences like this with books makes me realize how reading lots of books makes it possible to make connections between books and to compare text to text. Whenever my students struggled with these skills, I knew it was because they needed to read more books. They needed more exposure to stories and someone to talk to about stories so that they could start to think more about how stories connect and are similar.

Here are some literacy ideas to go along with Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won!

1. I'm not sure how you can read this book and not immediately think Readers' Theater. I mean, this book just begs to be acted out. You can tell from our picture that we were so excited to gather up hats and pile them up on top of our heads! Here's what I would suggest to do to extend this activity. What about asking kids to practice their speaking skills before the performance? The dialogue in this book is perfect for practicing fluency and reading with intonation and expression. Students can record themselves reading their parts and listen back and do a self-assessment to decide how they did. Students can listen to each other read the different parts and even offer feedback to each other.

2. As a mentor text for inspiring students to write, this book is great because most of the characters seem to be in a bit of a funk. The story doesn't really address exactly why any of them are grumpy but it does show them how to let go of their unhappiness. I nudged Peanut as we read because he had just been cranky not long before we read this. It's totally okay to get upset sometimes but I think it's important to talk to kids about how to handle emotions and/or what we can do if we someone else who needs some cheering up. This book can be the start of a conversation about emotions and about how sometimes we feel upset or cranky but knowing that we can turn to a friend is a great way to deal with those emotions. After reading and discussing how the characters in Hooray for Hat! helped each other, kids can start to think of their own stories of feeling grumpy or cranky or down in the dumps and share what helped them feel better.

Read With: 

A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead

My Friend is Sad by Mo Willems

My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss

All three of these books are favorites when it comes to talking about feelings. We had a chapter book party last winter and the kids absolutely loved reading and acting out different Elephant and Piggie books. They are amazing for Readers' Theater!

My Many Colored Days is a book I discovered in college and I love that it's written but Dr. Seuss but that the illustrations aren't done by him. It actually wasn't published until after he died. He had hoped that the artwork would drive this book and I think the illustrators did a great job. When I think about comparing different texts, this would be a neat one for looking at colors but also for comparing with other books that are illustrated by Dr. Seuss.

Eric the Boy Who Lost His Gravity

Title: Eric the Boy Who Lost His Gravity
 Author: Jenni Desmond
 Illustrator: Jenni Desmond
 Publisher: Blue Apple Books
Publication Date: March 11th, 2014
 Genre/Format: Realistic Fiction
 GoodReads Summary: We've all seen kids who kick and scream and lose their cool. But when Eric loses his temper over his annoying little sister Alice, he floats up to the ceiling! And so we have a fresh and funny twist on temper tantrums created by star-on-the-rise Jenni Desmond. Eric, The Boy Who Lost His Gravity, with an amusing story and expressive painterly art, captures a spot-on understanding of how children feel when they get out of control and how they need help to pull themselves together - or, as in Eric's case, back to the ground. There will always be annoying brothers and sisters and things one wants, but can't have. This book gives children and parents an entertaining way to gain perspective and talk about these issues. For all of them, Eric offers a wise, witty, and uplifting tale that kids won't want to put down
What I Think: I live with a four-year-old. I live with a seven-year-old. I also live with a thirty-two-year-old. Sometimes my four-, seven-, and even my thirty-two-year-old get angry. It's hard to live together and not get cranky at some point or another. Eric in Eric the Boy Who Lost His Gravity is closest in age to my four-year-old and he has a little sister who has a tendency to make him angry, as innocent as she is. I really enjoyed this book for thinking about how we feel when we get angry and talking through some of those emotions. It seems like I do a lot of calming down of situations with my kiddos. Little Bean and I are often talking about making good choices and I have to remind him (a lot) that he can't always have his way. He identified a lot with Eric in this book.
     As a mentor text, I really like how this books can help kiddos think about their feelings and think about how to handle feelings that seem to take over. It's great to have a book where kids can explore these feelings through a character and when they (hopefully) aren't experiencing those feelings at that time. I would use this book to talk to readers about making connections because I'm guessing they have felt like Eric at some point in their lives. From here, students can write about a time when they were mad and how they handled it. Maybe they didn't manage their anger very well and now they can reflect on how they acted and what the might do differently. They might come up with a situation that could easily turn into a seed idea in their writer's notebook.
     I can also see using this book as a mentor text with older readers to look at dialogue and voice. The snatch of text I pulled shows three characters talking: Eric, his little sister Alice and his dad. You can hear Alice's sweet words telling Eric that her bunny wants to play with him, you can hear the short angry words from Eric and then you can even hear the tone in Dad's voice. Without even knowing the story, you can easily hear how each character would say these words. It would be great to ask students to read the words aloud and to add inflection in their voices so that they tell their message with their tone as much as with the words they are speaking. This is a great way to practice fluency but also voice and to look at how dialogue fits into a story. Dialogue is powerful in story. It helps the reader see how different perspectives and it does help to build a reader's understanding of different characters. Dialogue is a great way to bring characters to life. I love how the snatch of text can be used in isolation or during or after reading the whole picture book to look at how dialogue helps to capture character voice.
Read Together: Grades Pre-K - 2
Read Alone: Grades K - 2
Read With: Chloe Instead by Micah Player, Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee, My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
Snatch of Text:

"'Bunny wants to play, too,' said Alice.

'Get that bunny off my train,' said Eric.

'Eric, play nicely, please.' called his dad." 

Writing Prompts: Write about a time when someone else made you really mad and how you handled your emotions and the situation. Would you handle your anger in the same way again or might you try responding in a different way the next time you get angry?
Topics Covered: Family, Anger, Frustration, Problem-Solving, Empathy

 I *heart* It:

 

Fortunately, The Milk

Title: Fortunately, The Milk 
Author: Neil Gaiman  
Illustrator: Skottie Young 
Publisher: Harper Collins 
Publication Date: September, 2013 
Genre/Format: Science Fiction/Chapter Book 
GoodReads Summary: "I bought the milk," said my father. "I walked out of the corner shop, and heard a noise like this: T h u m m t h u m m. I looked up and saw a huge silver disc hovering in the air above Marshall Road."

"Hullo," I said to myself. "That's not something you see every day. And then something odd happened."Find out just how odd things get in this hilarious story of time travel and breakfast cereal, expertly told by Newbery Medalist and bestselling author Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Skottie Young. 
What I Think: Neil Gaiman is brilliant. That's about all I need to say but of course, I'll say more. I love the fun and lightheartedness of this book. Fortunately, The Milk is funny right from the beginning and all the way through. I read this to Peanut and it was such a blast to read together. Something surprising would happen and we would look at each other with crinkled noses, saying, "What?" And then we would laugh and examine the pictures and read it again. It just kept getting more and more unbelievable the more we read. We loved it right through to the end.
     Speaking of the end: it's great. Gaiman pulls it off with charm. It's clear that he's a dad (and probably an awesome one) because this is just the type of story a dad would write with exactly the type of ending a dad would end with. Dad's are great for joking around, making instant and ridiculous puns, and making you wonder how they pull a coin from behind your ear (grandpas are great for that, too...but don't forget, grandpas were dads before they became grandpas). I'm being purposefully vague about the ending but I think you'll enjoy it as much as I did!
     In terms of a read aloud, this book is fantastic if you have a hankering for reading in different voices. There are dinosaurs and pirates and aliens...and my favorite, wumpires. I didn't realize all the different voices I was going to have to take on. When I read this aloud again, I will definitely go through and think through how each voice is going to sound so I didn't overlap as much. Other than suggesting some preplanning, this book is a stellar read aloud. I can't wait to reread it when Little Bean is a bit older.
Read Together: Grades 1 - 4  
Read Alone: Grades 2 - 5 
Read With: Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl, Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar, Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath, Miss Daisy is Crazy (My Weird School series) and others by Dan Gutman 
Snatch of Text:  
     "'You're on a pirate ship now, my fine bucko,' said the Pirate Queen. 'And you don't get dropped off anywhere. There are only two choices - you can join my pirate crew, or refuse to join and we will slit your cowardly throat and you will go to the bottom of the sea, where you will feed the fishes.'
     'What about walking the plank?' I asked.
     'NEVER heard of it!' said the pirates.
     'Walking the plank!' I said. 'It's what proper pirates do! Look, I'll show you. Do you have a plank somewhere?'" (p. 19)
Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Visualizing, Making Inferences, Fluency  
Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative, Dialogue
Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when something outrageous happened to you but no one believed you when you told them the story.  
Topics Covered: Family, Adventure, Honesty, Imagination 

I *heart* It:

The Cat on the Mat is Flat

Title: The Cat on the Mat is Flat  
Author: Andy Griffiths
Illustrator: Terry Denton 
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends 
Publication Date: August, 2007 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Early Chapter Book 
GoodReads Summary:  Muck?! Uck! YUCK!

 
Is it just bad luck
when the truck of a duck
gets stuck in the muck?

Nine silly rhymes,
and a pig that slimes,
from a writer voted BEST
by The New York Times!

WARNING:  This book may self-destruct if used to teach a lesson.

“…The rat chased the cat.
The rat chased the cat with the baseball bat.
Around
and around
and around the mat
the rat chased the cat with the baseball bat, until…
KERSPLAT!
Never again did that cat chase the rat—
the cat was much too flat for that.”

What I Think: I'm a huge fan of The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow but only recently read The Cat on the Mat is Flat. I enjoy both but this book seems to be a bit wordier and tongue twistier and a little bit more thinkier. I noticed that I had to talk to Peanut about what was happening in the stories more than I did with The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow.
     This book is another wonderful rhyming book. It's full of silly stories and some slime and muck and swill so it's super perfect for kids who think ick is funny.
Read Together: Grades K - 3  
Read Alone: Grades K - 3 
Read With: Snake Cake and Stop Pop and others by Yukiko Kido, Green Eggs and Ham and others by Dr. Seuss, Elephant and Piggie (series) by Mo Willems, Up, Tall and High by Ethan Long
Snatch of Text:  

"There once was a frog

who lived in a bog.

The frog rode around

on a jet-rocket log.

There was no aster

frog in the bog."

Reading Strategies to Practice: Fluency, Making Connections, Making Predictions  
Writing Strategies to Practice: Rhyme, Literary Elements, Rhythm, Repetition, Alliteration, Onomatopoeia
Writing Prompts: Choose a word family and try to write a story with as many of the words in the word family as you can. Be sure to make it super silly! 
Topics Covered: Animals, Competition, Persistence, Imagination, Friendship, Sharing

I *heart* It:

Building Fluency with Character Books

I'm completely fascinated by being a parent and having the amazing opportunity to watch these two little kiddos grow up right in front of me. I have learned so much about kids and how unique they are and about myself, too. One thing I have noticed about Little Bean compared to Peanut is that Little Bean will ask for a book over and over again. Peanut doesn't really do that but Little Bean definitely does. I'm not sure why they differ in this but they do. Peanut has always asked us to read the same book night after night, just not five times in one night. 

While we read all sorts of books in my house, there are a few that my kids go back to and ask us to read again and again and again and Donald Duck and the One Bear is one of them.

It's a cute story, a flipped sort of Goldilocks tale involving Donald Duck, his nephews, Daisy and a bear named, Pizza, on the loose. Towards the end of the book one of the nephews refers to Donald as "Unca Donald" and when my husband read that to my kids they cracked up. That's their favorite part and we're convinced they ask us to read it over and over just to get to that part. 

I actually learned something from reading Donald Duck and the One Bear. I know there are people who tend to lead kids away from books about television show characters or movies but in our house we let them read whatever they want to read. Of course, we pull out books and check books out of the library to supplement that reading, but when Little Bean marches into the library, finds the basket of Thomas the Train books all by himself and starts sorting through them, it makes me all kinds of happy. They boy knows what he likes and he has already made himself independent in being able to navigate the library...at least according to his age. 

Sometime earlier this year, we bought the Wreck-It Ralph Read-Along Storybook and CD. We own the DVD and it's a movie that we have fallen in love with as a family. We've watched it lots of times and quote it all the time. When we spotted this in the store, my kids had to have it and it was actually only about $7, which I thought was a great deal considering it's an audiobook. 

All summer we listened to Wreck-It Ralph any time we went somewhere with the kids. They would hold the book in the back seat and listen for the chime so they would know to turn the page. I listened to it so many times that I can probably recite it from heart at this point. When the kids would bring the book to me to read, I was able to read and sound like the characters when it was their turn to talk in the book. It makes it a lot more fun for me and I think for the kids as well.

Little Bean is also a huge fan of Thomas. Peanut was when he was three but now it's Little Bean's thing. We have watched all sorts of Thomas shows and I find myself doing character voices when I read any of the Thomas books. Again, it's so fun to try and imitate the voices and my kids love it. Because we watched Wreck-It Ralph the movie and listened to the audiobook and because we have watched so many Thomas shows, we totally know the voices. (I have to add here that we don't watch that much television...but, like books, when the kids pick a show to watch, they like to pick the same show again and again.)

I have listened to a lot of audiobooks in my life with all of the driving I do during my commute. What I love is that when you listen to an audiobook narration, the best narrators do a good job of changing their voices when different people are talking. It really brings the book to life. There is such an art to reading a book aloud to kids and listening to audiobooks is a great way to build our fluency for reading aloud.

I love recommending audiobooks to parents to support their children with reading. We do a mix of reading with our kids and reading audiobooks but it's definitely a different and fun experience to listen to an audiobook.

What prompted this post was actually reading Donald Duck and the One Bear last week. As I read, I was reminded of how frustrated I get when I read it because I just can't do the duck voices. I can't. I desperately want to read in Donald Duck's voice and it actually sounds weird to me as I read because I don't use Donald's voice. I never really realized just how much listening to books and knowing how a character sounds has helped me to be able to read and change my voice to represent different characters. It seems I've gotten to the point that reading and not changing my voice seems strange. This was a huge revelation for me! I think it has implications for thinking about students developing fluency. For them to hear adult readers who read fluently or audiobooks where the narrators do a great job of reading aloud will truly make a difference in the fluency that they develop.

Basically, I just wanted to say hooray for audiobooks! And also, let you kids read what they want to read and over and over again. As long as you recognize that love of books growing, it's okay for them to read books based on television shows. Just try to supplement and show them other books along the way.

Who out there loves audiobooks? Do you like it when narrators change their voices to represent different characters? What do you love about audiobooks?

Clever Jack Takes the Cake

Each week Stacia and Amanda at Collaboration Cuties host a Must-Read Mentor Texts link-up. There is a different theme focus every week throughout the month and blogs can link up on Sundays. I'll be rotating through reviews of different mentor texts for language arts, math, science, and social studies. You can check out their blog for previous link-ups to connect with other mentor texts they have shared and other bloggers have reviewed, too. 

Title: Clever Jack Takes the Cake 
Author: Candace Fleming  
Illustrator: G. Brian Karas 
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade 
Publication Date: August, 2010 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: Take a bite out of this deliciously funny original fairy tale, which received four starred reviews and was named a Best Book of the Year by Booklist, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and the Bank Street College of Education. 

What would you do if you were invited to the princess’s tenth birthday party but didn’t have money for a gift? Well, clever Jack decides to bake the princess a cake.

Now he just has to get it to the castle in one piece. What could possibly go wrong?

Candace Fleming and G. Brian Karas, creators of the bestselling picture book Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!, have teamed up again to bring us a modern fairy tale starring a determined boy and a story-loving princess with a good sense of humor. While girls will fall for a story featuring a princess’s birthday party, Jack’s adventures with trolls, bears, and gypsies make this the perfect read for young boys as well—and ideal for storytime. 
What I Think: I adore this book! I wish I had been able to meet Candace Fleming while I was at ALA last weekend because I so admire her work. I had never read Clever Jack's story but it is a great modern fairy tale. I particularly love this book as a mentor text for writing in general. First of all, Clever Jack seems to stumble upon his story. Helping students realize that stories are all around us and that we just need to open our eyes to them is so important. By the end of this story we see how Jack's experiences on the way to the princess's party truly become a great story. The other message I love about this book is that weaving together a story and being able to communicate with others truly is a gift but it's also a gift that we all have. Our world seems to revolve more and more around material things, especially gadgety, technological things but I love that this book helps us slow down and realize how awesome the gift of a story can be. Hooray for writing!  
     On Monday, when I shared that I would be reviewing this book this week, one reader, Julee Murphy, shared that she uses Clever Jack as a readers' theater and I think that's a brilliant idea! It would definitely work well as a readers' theater activity as Jack encounters various characters along the way. Each of those characters has a unique voice that would encourage students to practice their fluency and reading with expression. I love readers' theater as an opportunity for students to do a self-assessment of their speaking skills. When I did readers' theater with students, I created a rubric they could use to go back and look at things like was their voice loud or soft appropriate, did they change the speed of their voice from fast to slow when appropriate, or did they change the intonation in their voice from low to high as needed. It's interesting to have students assess themselves. Taping themselves beforehand gives them an opportunity to assess themselves and then make adjustments so that when they do the final readers' theater performance they can see how they changed and if they did read it well. I also had students compare professional audiobook narrators to themselves to see how it was different and for them to have a great model of reading aloud. It's amazing how much students change in their fluency when it becomes obvious to them what great reading aloud really entails. Thanks to Julee for pointing out that this would be great for readers' theater!
Read Together: Grades K - 5 
Read Alone: Grades 2 - 5 
Read With: Goldilocks and Just One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson, Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, Phileas's Fortune by Agnes De Lestrade, A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz, It's a Book by Lane Smith, Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills, Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon
Snatch of Text:  
     "Then he set to work, curning, chopping, blending, baking.

     That same night, Jack stood back to admire his creation - two layers of golden-sweet cake covered in buttery frosting and ringed with ten tiny candles. Across the cake's top, walnuts spelled out 'Happy Birthday, Princess.' And in the very center - in the place of honor - sat the succulent strawberry.
     'What a fine, fine gift,' said Jack's mother.
     Jack grinned."
Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Inferences, Making Predictions, Readers' Theater, Fluency, Speaking
Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative, Commas (series), Word Choice, $100 Words  
Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you encountered an obstacle. What did you do to overcome that obstacle and still accomplish what you set to accomplish? What did you learn from the experience? 
Topics Covered: Determination, Perseverance, Ingenuity, Creativity, Motivation 

I *heart* It:

Ball

Title: Ball 
Author: Mary Sullivan  
Illustrator: Mary Sullivan 
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children 
Publication Date: April 2, 2013
Genre/Format: Realistic Fiction/Picture Book
GoodReads Summary: A dog with a ball is one of the most relentlessly hopeful creatures on Earth. After his best little-girl pal leaves for school, this dog hits up yoga mom, baby, and even the angry cat for a quick throw. No luck. Forced to go solo, the dog begins a hilarious one-sided game of fetch until naptime’s wild, ball-centric dream sequence. The pictures speak a thousand words in this comic book-style ode to canine monomania. Ball? Ball. 
What I Think: I'm so excited about this book! I think dogs make the best kind of pets and I love to see their fun personalities come through in picture books. We cracked up as we read this book and imagined what the dog was thinking throughout the story. As a basically wordless picture book, the story is told primarily through illustrations. The only word "spoken" throughout is ball. I immediately thought of Doug from the movie Up. That's the dog whose attention is captured any time he thinks there is a squirrel nearby. Love that movie, love that dog. Squirrel!
     Ball also reminded me of an activity I did once in high school about communication and body language. In pairs, we took turns having a conversation with only the words yes and no. The idea is that through body language and inflection, we can convey a message. This is a great activity in fluency because it becomes clear to students that how they say the words is just as important as the words that are being said. It can also be a great writing activity because a challenge in writing is to show instead of tell. Dialogue can be so important but also describing what a person is doing when he or she is talking can help give the reader a clear image of what is happening in the text.
     I'm envisioning this book in a bookstack with the other books recommended below and it makes me super excited! I love writing about pets with kids...it seems like every kid either has a pet, has had a pet (Wah!), or desperately would love to have a pet. Before I had my kids, I wrote lots of persuasive pieces with my students so they could help me try and convince my husband that we needed a dog. (We were never successful in changing his mind...although we did convince my students' parents a few times!) I adore each of the books below and how they bring pets or animals to life. And a bonus, no dogs die at the end of these books! Score! On the contrary, they are sure to bring a smile to kids' faces and make for an opportunity to compare and contrast the stories. You could look at how illustrators bring the stories to life, how the stories are told from different perspectives, how in some books the animals are personified while in others they are not. So many things to do and so many ideas for reading and writing with all of these texts.
     Stopping to imagine the world from someone else's shoes is so especially imperative in writing. This story gives kids a reason to imagine what the do might be thinking and then what the little girl might be thinking. Actually, kids could also imagine what the mom and the little baby is thinking in the story, too! After imagining what he or she might be thinking, students can try writing from different perspectives. Mary obviously chose to tell the story from the perspective of the dog, we never get to see the world outside of the house and it would be a great discussion to have with kids about why she might have decided to do that. There is just so much that can be done with this text and by matching it with other texts. So fun!
Read Together: Grades Pre-K - 12 
Read Alone: Grades Pre-K - 12 
Read With: Bird and Squirrel by James Burkes, Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt, Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires, A Ball For Daisy by Chris Raschka, Prudence Wants a Pet by Cathleen Daly, Boot and Shoe by Marla Frazee, Good Boy, Fergus! by David Shannon, Dogs Don't Do Ballet by Anna Kemp, Dog in Charge by K.L. Going
Snatch of Text:  

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Predictions, Fluency, Speaking, Making Inferences 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative, Descriptive, Perspective Taking
Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you were anticipating something exciting that was going to happen and how you felt. Choose one scene and describe the dog and what he is doing. Make sure you show, don't tell. Pretend you are the dog in the story and write what he is thinking at one point in the story, then pretend you are the owner and write what she is thinking about while she is at school.
Topics Covered: Passion, Love, Friendship, Hopes and Dreams

 I *heart* It:

 

Twelve Rounds of Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Here at Teach Mentor Texts we are always looking for more ways to support teachers! We've found that teachers seem to be constantly on the lookout for great nonfiction. We know we are! To help with this undying quest for outstanding non-fiction, we are excited to participate in Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and The Nonfiction Detectives. Every Wednesday, you'll find a non-fiction review here - although it may not always be a picture book review. Please visit Kid Lit Frenzy to see what non-fiction others have to share, too.

Title: Twelve Rounds of Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali
Author: Charles E. Smith, Jr.
Illustrator: Bryain Collier 
Publisher: Candlewick Press 
Publication Date: November, 2007 
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction/Poetry-Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: A dynamic author-illustrator team follows the three-time heavyweight champ through twelve rounds of a remarkable life.

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. . . . I’m the prettiest thing that ever lived!"
From the moment a fired-up teenager from Kentucky won 1960 Olympic gold to the day in 1996 when a retired legend, hands shaking from Parkinson’s, returned to raise the Olympic torch, the boxer known as "The Greatest" waged many a fight. Some were in the ring, against opponents like Sonny Liston and Joe Frazier; others were against societal prejudice and against a war he refused to support because of his Islamic faith. Charles R. Smith Jr.’s rap-inspired verse weaves and bobs and jabs with relentless energy, while Bryan Collier’s bold collage artwork matches every move — capturing the "Louisville loudmouth with the great gift of rhyme" who shed the name Cassius Clay to take on the world as Muhammad Ali. 
What I Think: Energy and determination fill the pages of this unique picture book. In twelve different "rounds", Smith has written a poem for different stages n Muhammad Ali's life. I discovered many things about Muhammad Ali that I didn't know before. I was especially drawn into the rhyming poems. The rhyme was used effectively to give a specific rhythym and cadence to the whole book. It is pretty amazing how the poetry seems to match who Muhammad Ali was as a person. Like I said, there is energy and also a fluid rhythm that seems to personify Muhammad Ali's personality and style in and out of boxing.
      I really enjoyed this book. I didn't know that it was going to be a collection of poems until I opened it but I love the choice to write poems. I think there is a chance that lengthy prose would not have been as effective in capturing the essence of Muhammad Ali in a picture book. I definitely recommend this book to use when talking about author's purpose. I would ask students to think about what decisions that author had to make when writing this book. Some questions I might pose would be:

*Why do you think the author chose to write this book in poems?

*What do you notice about the poems?

*How does the rhyme and rhythm in the poem help you visualize Muhammad Ali?

*What was the author's purpose in using poems that rhyme to narrative Muhammad Ali's story?

To continue this conversation, I would then read Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: a Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix by Gary Golio and talk about the decisions the author and illustrator made in writing that book. Both books seems to exude the very qualities that each man is known for. The story of Jimi Hendrix's childhood is illustrated with vivid, fluid artwork that seems to capture his personality. Likewise, the text is very descriptive and colorful and also has a certain rhythm to it that seems to bring Jimi Hendrix and his creativity to life. I think by focusing conversation on the author's purpose when reading both of these books, students would recognize how an author is very discerning and purposeful about decisions that he or she makes when writing a book. Also, at some point, I think it would be great to how a video clip of Muhammad Ali fighting or an audio of Jimi Hendrix's music to bring these people to life. This would help students see and decide for themselves if the author's work did truly personify each of this historical figures.
Read Together: Grades 5 - 12 
Read Alone: Grades 5 - 12 
Read With: Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow, a Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix by Gary Golio, other books about Muhammad Ali, other books illustrated by Bryan Collier
Snatch of Text:  

"Confident teenager already in control

of mind, body, and spirit,

on the road to your goal,

using mouth, skill, and fire

to fulfill your desire

to become a pro boxer,

you set the limits higher

by pushing opponents

with words before a fight,

launching verbal jabs

and trying to ignite 

fear in them

and interest in you,

young Cassius Clay..."

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Author's Purpose, Reading Fluency
Writing Strategies to Practice: Descriptive, Rhyme, Rhythm, Compare and Contrast, Mood, Tone, Cadence  
Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you truly felt like you were acting like yourself - maybe it was with families or friends when you felt you could really let loose and be yourself. Be conscious of the choices you make as you write the story - how does choosing to write in a paragraph form versus a poem change the story you are telling? Try to capture how you felt at that moment in your writing be using descriptive language but also with the format you use.  
Topics Covered: Determination, Audacity, Strength, Will, Hardship, Integration - History, Equality, Energy, Beliefs, Religion

I *heart* It:

Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!

Title: Squeak, Rumbple, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!    
Author: Wynston Marsalis
Illustrator: Paul Rogers 
Publisher: Candlewick 
Publication Date: October, 2012 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: The creators of Jazz ABZ are back for an encore! With infectious rhythm and rhyme, musical master Wynton Marsalis opens kids’ ears to the sounds around us.

What’s that sound? The back door squeeeaks open, sounding like a noisy mouse nearby — eeek, eeeek, eeeek! Big trucks on the highwayrrrrrrrumble, just as hunger makes a tummy grrrrumble. Ringing with exuberance and auditory delights, this second collaboration by world-renowned jazz musician and composer Wynton Marsalis and acclaimed illustrator Paul Rogers takes readers (and listeners) on a rollicking, clanging, clapping tour through the many sounds that fill a neighborhood.  
What I Think: I enjoy picture books that exude exuberance and energy. The illustrations in this book are as lively as the text. The entire book is packed with onomatopoeia for musical sounds the boy is hearing as well as everyday sounds that seem musical to him. I know I've seen commercials like this where you hear a sound and then they blend all sorts of everyday sounds together in such a way that it sounds like a true song. It's pretty cool. This book asks readers to stop and think closely about the sounds around them and how these sounds are really the soundtrack of life.
     Onomatopoeia is such a cool literary device. It can be used in a super sly way or it can be super obvious like it is in this book. It seems like kids to love songs and love turning anything into music so I can see how kids would enjoy this book. I think this would make a great mentor text for talking about how a writer's description helps a reader to visualize. And visualizing is more than being able to see what the author wants us to see...it's about truly being there in the moment. Sounds and smells and emotions that are called up are just as important in being able to visualize as what we see. Showing and not telling truly incorporates all of our senses. I love how this book and the others below truly take the readers with them to a different place and mood because of how the sounds are incorporated.
Read Together: Pre-K - 6    
Read Alone: K - 4 
Read With: This Jazz Man by Karen Erhardt, Cat's Night Out by Caroline Stutson, Skeleton Cat by Kristyn Crow, Tessa's Tip-tapping Toes by Carolyn Crimi 
Snatch of Text:  

"Chrrrick

chrrick

chrrick

chrrick

-buttering my toast.

Krrrick

krrrick

krrrick

krrrick

-quick where it itches the most.

Schuk-chuk,

schuk-chuk,

schuka,

chuk,

sschick.

Hear that washboard boast."

Reading Strategies to Practice: Fluency, Making Connections, Visualizing (with your ears?!?) 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Rhythm, Rhyme, Imagery, Descriptive, Show Don't Tell, Mood
Writing Prompts: Close your eyes and listen to sounds all around you, write a description of what you hear or how the sounds around you tell a story.  
Topics Covered: Life, Integration - Music, Jazz