#TeachersWrite Weekly Check-In #3 2021!

Welcome to our third Weekly Check-In! On Monday, Kate shared a video for us to try some play in our writing. I'm obsessed with play right now so this was perfect! I've been exploring ideas for play and just shared some of my exploration on Instagram. 

I decided I'd take Kate's three-column idea and try it with characters from the YA novel I'm drafting. I may have made it easy on myself and added a panadería for setting and jealousy for a mood because that's exactly the scene I needed to happen next. Actually, I didn't see the story headed this direction but it's perfect!

Here's what my notebook entry looked like for this exercise:

After I had the idea for the scene, I wrote it out in my notebook.

If you did the prompt from Monday, I'd love to hear how it went for you! What stories came up? Please share in the comments!

Teachers Write Weekly Check-In Agreements:

1. We respect each other and the type of writing we each do do.

2. We are positive and encourage each other.

3. We recognize and maintain this as a safe, inclusive environment for all.

4. We have fun!

Ideas for today in the comments section:

What character, setting, and mood/big idea did you play with this week?

What was the pit of your week? (The hardest part, the non-fun part?)

What was the peak of your week? (The best part, the most-fun part?)

My Weekly Check-In: This week I actually worked more on writing I'm doing about teaching and it was really cathartic. I looked over notes and anecdotes I collected throughout the year and saw a big theme emerge. I started to write about that and explored a couple of ways into what I'm writing about. It's neat to see how sometimes I need to write things a certain way to then see a different way to start.

I loved how the playful exercise from Kate helped me move forward in my YA novel. This is why it's so important! I'm very much practicing not taking myself so seriously. This might just mean I'm missing being around tons of kids all day. :)

I can't wait to hear how Teachers Write is going for you! If you have any questions or if I can help with anything, please let me know!

Writing with Brave in the Woods

As a teacher, I'm obsessed with two things right now. Pairing texts and digital texts. If you haven't seen Franki Sibberson's new Instagram account, @textsets I invite you to check it out. Texts sets are where it's at! 

Looking critically at the texts we choose to share with students is important. In my district, we were asked to teach a nonfiction unit from a resource that was bought without teacher input. When I looked at the list of resources, I saw that all the texts used in the unit centered white people and after doing my research, I found that they were all seemed to be written about white people. 

I brought this up to the administrators and my team right away and asked for us to have a discussion about the problem with this and how to address it. This is what happens if we do not look critically at the resources we share with students. 

Enter text sets and digital texts. We should always be making connections between texts and offering a variety of texts to our students. Because no one text will ever be everything it needs to be to every person. There is no simple black dress when it comes this work. There is no silver bullet. There is no magic diet pill. The solution is the work. And the work is gathering up lots of different texts to share with students and giving them opportunities to make connections. 

Okay, so here's this week's mentor text with a text you can pair it with to do exactly what I'm talking about and with purpose. You can pair texts for so many different reasons. This match up has to do with theme and also using repetition. 

At the beginning of Tracy Holczer's book Brave in the Woods, the main character is worried about her brother who has gone missing. 

Here's the snatch of text to look at and wonder about:

"In the thirty-two days since they'd found our Connor had gone missing, the worry had never left Juni's mind.

Not when she tried to read The One and Only Ivan for the seventh time because it was her favorite book ever. Not when she worked with Anya all day turning blackberries into jam. Not when she climbed the magical juniper tree, for which she was named, to sit in the old saddle Connor had loosely tied to the widest branch. 

Especially not then. 

She worried about being cursed. She worried about the bees in her chest. She worried that school was about to happen to her again. How was she supposed to get up every morning and think about math and English and social studies when her brother had vanished? How was she supposed to sit at a school desk five miles away when the army man could come back at an moment and tell her family they'd found Connor?" (p. 7-8)

I noticed the worry, her brain on overdrive and thought about Jason Reynold's book Look Both Ways and the story The Broom Dog. It's available with Jason himself reading it aloud with my Scholastic account so I asked students to read and listen to the story and to notice what the main character is worried about and how the author shows it on the page. 

A few weeks ago, I asked my students to write to me about things they wished their teachers knew. Worry and anxiety filled my screen. They are aware of their mental health and that they need help navigating complicated times.

Here's an opportunity to explore what it means to worry and how that manifests in our brains and our bodies. And then to try writing about it ourselves. I started thinking about what it means to worry and how that means fear is driving the bus. 

And then I thought of a time in my life when I was really worried, when my brain was on overdrive. It was in middle school when we had to go on a field trip to a teams course. You know the kind where you go with your group into the woods and a facilitator leads you in all sorts of team building activities. I hated them at first but then I grew to love them. 

I made a list in my notebook of what I was worried about and then how it went. And then I looked at the mentor text again and how repetition and listing all the things shows how worry shows up and is persistent and grows. And I wrote a poem to share with students:

What If?

We're on the bus, off to the teams course.

What are we going to do?

Why can't we be with our friends?

Will people be mean to me?

Will people say horrible things to me?

Will people judge me?

Will I be able to do the activities?
What if I can't do them?

What if I fail?

What if I mess up?

Will I survive?

We're on the bus, me and my brain.

Wondering and worrying

and wasting away the minutes 

until

We're there and we climb off the bus.

We stand with our group. 

We follow our facilitator into the woods.

We put one foot in front of the other.

We introduce ourselves.

We try the activities, one at a time.

Human knot, 

carefully passing a Koosh ball, the cure to save all humanity from a deadly virus,

 saving each other from lava on Mars.

crawling through a two-foot wide tunnel.

We survive.

What if next time we just did it?

During a time when it's so important to pay attention to our mental health and also to think about how we honor our students' by talking about our emotions and in giving them opportunities to engage with characters with a variety of lived experiences, I love pairing these two texts. I love that there's a digital option to listen to Jason read aloud the story himself. I love all the invitations to write with mentor texts. 

When Paul Met Artie: The Story of Simon & Garfunkel

Title: When Paul Met Artie: The Story of Simon & Garfunkel
Author: G. Neri 
Illustrator: David Litchfield
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Date: March 20th, 2018 
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: From childhood friendship to brief teenage stardom, from early failures to musical greatness — the incredible story of how Simon & Garfunkel became a cherished voice of their generation.

Long before they became one of the most beloved and successful duos of all time, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were just two kids growing up in Queens, New York — best friends who met in a sixth-grade production of Alice in Wonderland and bonded over girls, baseball, and rock ’n’ roll. As teens, they practiced singing into a tape recorder, building harmonies that blended their now-famous voices until they sounded just right. They wrote songs together, pursued big-time music producers, and dreamed of becoming stars, never imagining how far their music would take them. Against a backdrop of street-corner doo-wop gangs, the electrifying beginnings of rock ’n’ roll, and the rise of the counterculture folk music scene, G. Neri and David Litchfield chronicle the path that led two young boys from Queens to teenage stardom and back to obscurity, before finding their own true voices and captivating the world with their talent. Back matter includes an afterword, a discography, a bibliography, and a fascinating list of song influences. 
What I Think: G. Neri completely captured the mood of Simon and Garfunkel and their music in this wonderful non-fiction picture book biography. I could hear their acoustic guitar and folk style music in my head as I read. By the end, I had tears in my eyes after learning more about Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel and their friendship. I had no idea they had been friends since they were young. 
     I love this book because it's such a great example of how an author and illustrator have created a book that characterizes their subjects so well. This book is a great mentor text for showing what mood is. I would think about word choice here and how it contributes to the mood. I would also use this as a jumping off point to talk about writing about a historical figure and how a writer can use word choice to set the mood for their piece based on what they know about the subject. 
     As a mentor text for ideas, you could read this book and think of your own favorite singers or musicians and think about writing about them and their story. Similarly, you could dive into music and different styles of music. Once I finished reading, I went and found Simon and Garfunkel singing The Sounds of Silence on YouTube. It instantly reminded me of what I know of the time period and wanting to go and learn more. I love books as opportunities to spark curiosity and inspiration for writing. Below is the video if you want to take a trip down memory lane or maybe you've never heard the song and are curious what these two are so very well known for. 

Snatch of Text:  

"When it's over,

Paul and Artie stand there,

breathless and grinning

at each other. 

If nobody ever hears it,

at least they'll have a recording

just for themselves ---

a snapshot of their friendship,

frozen for all time."

Creepy Pair of Underwear

Title: Creepy Pair of Underwear 
Author: Aaron Reynolds 
Illustrator: Peter Brown  
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers 
Publication Date: August 15th, 2017 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book
GoodReads Summary: Jasper Rabbit is NOT a little bunny anymore. He’s not afraid of the dark, and he’s definitely not afraid of something as silly as underwear. But when the lights go out, suddenly his new big rabbit underwear glows in the dark. A ghoulish, greenish glow. If Jasper didn’t know any better he’d say his undies were a little, well, creepy. Jasper’s not scared obviously, he’s just done with creepy underwear. But after trying everything to get rid of them, they keep coming back! 
What I Think: Happy Friday the 13th! What a perfect day to celebrate Creepy Pair of Underwear! It's so fun to see Jasper again. As I was reading, I thought of Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-Tale Heart and the song The Cat Came Back. My elementary school music teacher sang The Cat Came Back With Us so it would be cool to connect the song and this book with younger students. With older students, you could definitely tie this to Tell-Tale Heart. What a perfect opportunity to compare and contrast different texts for mood and also to look closely at how illustrations work with the text to contribute to the mood of a story. 
     Speaking of looking at how the texts and illustrations work together, the snatch of text I share below is an example of how Aaron Reynolds uses dialogue to show us what the characters are thinking and feeling but at the same time, Peter Brown uses the illustrations to hit the message home. As a mentor text, this is perfect for looking at how important dialogue is but also how description of what a character is doing when speaking allows an writer to really show how a character thinks and feels. To practice this, ask students to look at the page where Jasper is begging his mom for the creepy underwear and come up with a sentence to describe what they see in the illustrations or what they visualize in their head. Then have them try it in their own writing. Show, don't tell at its finest!
Snatch of Text:  
     "'Mom! Mom! Can we get these?" Jasper pleaded.
     'I think they're a little too creepy,' said Mom.
     'They're not creepy! They're cool!' said Jasper. 'I'm not a little bunny anymore. I'm a big rabbit now!'"

     "...the underwear glowed. A ghoulish, greenish glow."
Writing Prompt: How does the author use dialogue to show what the characters are thinking and feeling?

Things That Surprise You

Thank you to Blue Slip Media

for sending me a copy of this book to review 

and for providing an awesome prize pack

for me to giveaway! (Details below!)

Title: Things That Surprise You 
Author: Jennifer Maschari  
Publisher: Balzer + Bray 
Publication Date: August 22, 2017 
Genre/Format: Realistic Fiction/Novel 
GoodReads Summary: Emily Murphy is about to enter middle school. She’s sort of excited… though not nearly as much as her best friend Hazel, who is ready for everything to be new. Emily wishes she and Hazel could just continue on as they always have, being the biggest fans ever of the Unicorn Chronicles, making up dance moves, and getting their regular order at The Slice.

But things are changing. At home, Emily and her mom are learning to move on after her parents’ divorce. Hardest of all, her beloved sister Mina has been in a treatment facility to deal with her anorexia. Emily is eager to have her back, but anxious about her sister getting sick again.

Hazel is changing too. She has new friends from the field hockey team, is starting to wear makeup, and have crushes on boys. Emily is trying to keep up, but she keeps doing and saying the wrong thing. She want to be the perfect new Emily. But who is that really?

Things That Surprise You is a beautifully layered novel about navigating the often shifting bonds of family and friendship, and learning how to put the pieces back together when things fall apart. 
What I Think: I've been excited to tell students all about Things That Surprise You because it is such a real book about having friends, keeping friends, and making friends that I imagine many middle schoolers will relate to. It's a book I would recommend to readers who like Rebecca Stead's Good Bye Stranger and Ann Brashares' The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. 
     As a mentor text, I love how Jennifer takes a moment and describes it so that we can feel what the characters are feeling. I pulled out two snatches of text that include similes that I love. They demonstrate how we have to be intentional about the similes we include. The imagery she creates with this similes definitely match the mood of the character and the scene.
     I also like how Emily, the main character, has her own character arc but her sister Mina has one as well. Too often writers focus on the main character and how he or she changes but we also have to look at how our supporting characters change and how our main characters might even impact the change our supporting characters go through. It's real life, right? But being able to do it in our writing as well is important and Things That Surprise You is a perfect mentor text for looking at how the main character isn't the only one who is going to grow as the story progresses.
Snatch of Text: 
"Walking in here is like stepping into a pair of the fuzziest socks. It feels cozy and right." (p. 11)

"All the good feelings I had built up whoosh out of me like air from a flattened bike tire." (p. 97)
Writing Prompt: Write about what you look for in a good friend. Use examples from Things That Surprise You and Emily's experiences with friends in the book and connect to your own experiences as well. 

Giveaway!

One lucky winner will receive a copy of THINGS THAT SURPRISE YOU (U.S. addresses).

PLUS!

One grand prize winner will receive a Crafty Unicorn Kit!  The prize includes a fun craft kit, a copy of THINGS THAT SURPRISE YOU, unicorn stickers, and puzzle cards! 

Enter here.

Orphan Island

Thank you to Walden Pond Press

for sending me a copy of this book to review 

and for providing a copy of the book 

for me to giveaway! (Details below!)

Title: Orphan Island  
Author: Laurel Snyder 
Publisher: Walden Pond Press 
Publication Date: May 30th, 2017 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Novel 
GoodReads Summary: From acclaimed author Laurel Snyder comes a deep, compelling, heartbreaking, and completely one-of-a-kind novel about nine children who live on a mysterious island.

On the island, everything is perfect. The sun rises in a sky filled with dancing shapes; the wind, water, and trees shelter and protect those who live there; when the nine children go to sleep in their cabins, it is with full stomachs and joy in their hearts. And only one thing ever changes: on that day, each year, when a boat appears from the mist upon the ocean carrying one young child to join them—and taking the eldest one away, never to be seen again.Today’s Changing is no different. The boat arrives, taking away Jinny’s best friend, Deen, replacing him with a new little girl named Ess, and leaving Jinny as the new Elder. Jinny knows her responsibility now—to teach Ess everything she needs to know about the island, to keep things as they’ve always been. But will she be ready for the inevitable day when the boat will come back—and take her away forever from the only home she’s known? 
What I Think: If there was ever a book to judge by its over, this would be it. The cover is absolutely gorgeous for an absolutely gorgeous book. I was completely lost in the story and entranced by Jinny and her thoughts as she works to piece together her story on the island and snippets of memories to come up with what comes next. Jinny is so brave and I loved her more and more with every page. But that made the end that much harder. Aren't all endings hard?   
     I left the book thinking about what comes next for Jinny and knowing that so much us unknown but being okay with that. Isn't that how life goes? I mostly feel like I'm playing catch with one of those water snake toys. I'm trying to have fun and go with the flow but at the same time I'm trying desperately to hang onto time that just refuses to stop wiggling or to be captured all while I'm also worried that I'm going to pop it and I'll be drenched and the game will be ruined. Laurel helped me feel like I'm not alone in feeling this way. 
     In looking at Orphan Island as a mentor text, I fell in love with Jinny as much as I fell in love with the island because of Laurel's description. Some books that came to mind as I was reading were Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, The Wild Robot, The Giver, Island of the Blue Dolphins, And Then There Were None and I even thought of the TV show Lost. In each of these, the setting plays such a large role, it's a character in and of itself. And the protagonist has to interact with and act upon the setting as part of moving the story forward. It's neat to think of how the island itself has memories and holds so much knowledge about Jinny and her story but at the same time, it can only tell her much. 
     As a mentor text, I would definitely have writers look at Laurel's description and think about how she connects the description to the setting but also to the character. Ask writers to look at how it's possible to use a description of the setting to describe what a character is feeling. This is an opportunity to look at mood and how a writer can elicit an emotion from a reader using show don't tell. Have writers think about how the setting impacts the mood and spend time describing the setting in order to show how the character is feeling without ever directly telling the reader what emotion is at play. 
Snatch of Text: 
     "Jinny watched the boat disappear. Until all she could see was water and distance. It happened so fast. She found herself standing, reaching out both arms, in the direction the boat had gone. Both hands were outstretched fingers, grasping. As if there was something in the air she might be able to clutch."

     "They sat together. Two sad shapes in the sand. Watching the day sink behind the cloudy sea. The oranges and pinks of the bleeding sunset made their usual swirling patterns above the mist, looping and arching. Tonight the shapes looked like dolphins. Or maybe just waves, calm soft waves. The new girl stared up, her mouth open slightly, saying nothing as she watched the sky shift and dance, a wash of shapes and colors."
Writing Prompt: Write about a time when you took a risk. How did you feel about the unknown-ness of taking a risk? And how can you compare your experience with Jinny's experiences on the island?
Additional Resources: Visit the Harper Collins page for a Teacher's Guide and Reading Guide.

Be sure to visit other stops on the Orphan Island blog tour!

May 15 - Laura Given

May 16 - Pernille Ripp

Writers Rumpus

May 17 - Teach Mentor Texts

May 18 - Novel Novice

Bluestocking Thinking

May 19 - The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

May 20 - Book Monsters

May 21 - Maria's Melange

May 22 - Read, Write Reflect

Walden Media Tumblr

May 23 - Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

May 24 - Nerdy Book Club

May 25 - A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust

May 26 - Kirby Larson

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They All Saw a Cat

Title: They All Saw A Cat 
Author: Brendan Wenzel 
Illustrator: Brendan Wenzel 
Publisher: Chronicle 
Publication Date: August 30th, 2016 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: The cat walked through the world, with its whiskers, ears, and paws . . .

In this glorious celebration of observation, curiosity, and imagination, Brendan Wenzel shows us the many lives of one cat, and how perspective shapes what we see. When you see a cat, what do you see? 
What I Think: Eep! It's so hard to write about this book as a mentor text without giving away the story. If you are looking for an example of how the text and the illustrations in a picture book work with each other to tell a story, this is it! Brendan shows us how a cat might be seen differently from different perspectives with his illustrations. Readers have to use all the visual cues and connect them to each of the different beings that see the cat. My six-year-old was entranced by the story. I could see the little gears cranking around in his head as he made sense of the illustrations and how they connected to different perspectives.
     My snatch of text is simple but profound at the same time. The more I read picture books and listen to authors and illustrators talk about all the intention that goes into their work, the more fascinated I am. When I write, I think about the state of my character and where he or she is when the story starts in relation to where I want that character to go. It's an art to give a teeny, tiny hint at what's to come or what's at play here and to clue the reader in to what to pay attention to. Honestly, it took me a few times through to think about how this story starts, and the specific focus that is put on the cat as we start off thinking about his whiskers, ears, and paws. In a way, it sets the mood, we're stalking along with the cat with his whiskers, ear, and paws but also, we have to pay attention to those whiskers, ears, and paws, right? As a mentor text, I would read the story and then go back and pay close attention to this line and have students think about how Brendan sneaks in this specificity right here and sets the stage for the reader. And then see if students can think about a starting sentence that might show the mood of the story while also pulling readers into the story.
     I've included the book trailer here as well as it's another example of the mood of the story.
Snatch of Text:  
"The cat walked through the world, with its whiskers, ears, and paws..."
Writing Prompt: Think about where you will take your readers from start to end. Think about your main character and the state he or she is in at the start of the story and at the end. Write a first line or first paragraph that gives some subtle hint at the change we might see as we read.
Book Trailer:

Hoot and Peep

Title: Hoot and Peep 
Author: Lita Judge 
Illustrator: Lita Judge
Publisher: Dial Books 
Publication Date: March 1st, 2016 
Genre/Format:  
GoodReads Summary: In the night skies above Paris, an adorable young owl teaches her older brother about the power of imagination—and the unconditional love between siblings 

Hoot the owl is very excited for his little sister, Peep, to join him on the cathedral rooftops. She's finally old enough to learn all his big brother owly wisdom: First, owls say hooo. Second, they always say hooo. Lastly, they ONLY say hooo! But why would Peep say hooo when she could say schweeepty peep or dingity dong? Why would she speak when she could sing? As she explores the breathtaking Parisian cityscape, Peep discovers so many inspiring sights and sounds—the ring of cathedral bells, the slap of waves on stone—that she can’t help but be swept up in the magic of it all. Hoot doesn’t understand Peep’s awe, until he takes a pause to listen . . . and realizes that you're never too old to learn a little something new.

From the beloved author/illustrator of the classic picture bookRed Sled , this gorgeous read aloud celebrates the wonder found in little things—and in the hearts of dreamers, young and old. 
What I Think: Sometimes people disagree. Lot of times siblings disagree. Lita Judge does a wonderfully sweet job of capturing what a disagreement might look like...but also how we can learn from people who have different ideas and how a disagreement can turn into a mutual understanding - whether two people come to an agreement or still disagree but at least appreciate the others' perspective. I'm thinking this book would be great to read at the beginning of the year when students are learning more about each other....or mid-year when they need that reminder that we are all different but can get along. Or maybe you save it for when students really need to hear the message.
     As a mentor text I love this book as an opportunity to generate ideas. I'm sure students can think of a time in their life when they felt misunderstood. We're all just trying to find our way in the world but sometimes another person's expectations get in our way - intentionally or unintentionally. Use Hoot and Peep as a way to brainstorm some ideas.
    In terms of literary devices, Lita uses alliteration and onomatopoeia throughout. Students can look for alliteration and onomatopoeia and think about when either or both add to writing and in what way. I think writing sounds so much more lyrical with both of these. They both add to the ambience of a book and help to bring the imagery to life. Descriptive writing can seem mysterious to students so looking closely at a mentor text like this one that encompasses so much charm is a great way to see how alliteration and onomatopeoia help the story sing.
Read Together: Grades Pre-K - 5 
Read Alone: Grades Pre-K - 5 
Read With: Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel, Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee
Snatch of Text:  

"Peep thought it was

the perfect night to 

sing about the magic

of the moonbeams.

'Schweep,'

she peeped."

Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you had a disagreement with someone. How did it make you feel? And how did you resolve it? 
Topics Covered: Siblings, Individuality, Courage 

I *heart* It:

Twenty Yawns

Title: Twenty Yawns
Author: Jane Smiley 
Illustrator: Lauren Castillo 
Publisher: Two Lions 
Publication Date: April 1st, 2016
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book
GoodReads Summary: Featuring lyrical text and beautiful illustrations, this bedtime tale from Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley and Caldecott Honor recipient Lauren Castillo evokes the splashy fun of the beach and the quietude of a moonlit night, with twenty yawns sprinkled in for children to discover and count.

As her mom reads a bedtime story, Lucy drifts off. But later, she awakens in a dark, still room, and everything looks mysterious. How will she ever get back to sleep?  
What I Think: I've had days and nights just like Lucy in Twenty Yarns and I imagine lots of readers have too! Sometimes even after a wonderful long day, it's still hard to fall asleep. The text and the illustrations in Twenty Yawns come together perfectly to make this a quiet adventure. As a mentor text, this is a great book for thinking about tone and mood. Ask students to pay attention to the words and how they make them feel. Then look at how the words help bring about those feelings. So much of building the world around us with words helps us to feel without just saying how we feel. Show don't tell at its finest!
     I also really love this text for making connections. There are so many connections to make with this text. I imagine many kids will have memories of being at the beach with their family but even if some kids don't, I'm guessing they all will have a memory of being in bed when the whole house is asleep but you are wide awake. I try to read before I go to bed and usually get a more restful night of sleep if I do instead of watching TV before I go to bed. This is an opportunity to talk to kids about healthy habits and to maybe help them brainstorm what they might do as their bedtime routine. 
     Readers are going to love yawning along with Lucy in Twenty Yawns and waiting to see what happens as she tries to get to sleep!
Read Together: Grades Pre-K - 2 
Read Alone: Grades Pre-K - 2 
Read With: Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein, Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman, Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue, Orion And The Dark by Emma Yarlett
Snatch of Text:  

"Outside Lucy's bedroom, the sun

was sinking below the horizon.

Strips of clouds were pink and red.

Lucy put her pajamas on inside out,

climbed into bed, and yawned a big

YAWN."

Writing Prompts: Write about a time when you were awake at night and you had to help yourself get back to sleep. 

Topics Covered: Family, Imagination, Determination 

Additional Resources: Check out the Twenty Yawns Activity Kit!

I *heart* It:

Follow the tour!

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*Thanks to Blue Slip Media for 

a copy of Twenty Yawns in exchange for an honest review 

and the opportunity to offer the giveaway above!

Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova

Title: Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova 
Author: Laurel Snyder  
Illustrator: Julie Morstad 
Publisher: Chronicle Books 
Publication Date: August 18th, 2015 
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction Biography/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: The world is big.
Anna is small.
The snow is
everywhere
and all around.
But one night . . .
One night, her mother takes her to the ballet, and everything is changed. Anna finds a beauty inside herself that she cannot contain.So begins the journey of a girl who will one day grow up to be the most famous prima ballerina of all time, inspiring legions of dancers after her: the brave, the generous, the transcendently gifted Anna Pavlova.  
What I Think: Words, words, words. I love words. But I especially love words that are strung together in such a way that they feel like art. Don't get me wrong, all words are art, but sometimes, words just envelope me and pull me into a sort of dream-like fairy tale just from how they are put together. Laurel Snyder's words do just that. As they tell Anna Pavlova's story, it feels like being sweetly tugged into a dance. Julie Morstad's art adds to the story, gently ushering the reader into the story woven by the text. It all just works together to make for an amazing book.
     Teaching tone and mood isn't easy. It's a little easier to recognize it as a reader than it is to write. But it all starts with reading and recognizing what authors have done differently. By looking at at least two different texts, readers can see the difference. Once they can see the difference, then you can invite them to zone in and notice what the author has done differently. And from there, you can invite them to try what the author has done in their own writing. Maybe they add some figurative language. Maybe they break up words or phrases or add figurative language in a very purposeful way. It's fun to play with words and to see what happens and using books like Swan as a mentor text really help writers see what is possible and find ways to write like that too.
Read Together: Grades 2 - 6  
Read Alone: Grades 2 - 4 
Read With: Enormous Smallness: A Story of e.e. cummings by Matthew Burgess and illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo, The Cosmo Biography of Sun Ra by Chris Raschka, The Sky Painter: Louis Fuertes, Bird Artist by Margarita Engle and illustrated by Aliona Bereghici, The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant and illustratd by Melissa Sweet, Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix by Gary Golio and illustrated by Javaka Steptoe
Snatch of Text: 

"Something is happening...

There's a swell of strings,

a scurry of skirts.

A hiss and a hum and...

HUSH!

It's

all

beginning!"  

Writing Prompts: Write about something you feel strongly about sharing with others. What might you do to help share your passion with others?
Topics Covered: Family, Dreams, Determination, Courage 

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Enormous Smallness

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Aly at Kid Lit Frenzy. 
Every Wednesday, bloggers link up their non-fiction picture book reviews. Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what great non-fiction books are shared this week!

Title: Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings
Author: Matthew Burgess 
Illustrator: Kris Di Giacomo 
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books 
Publication Date: April 7th, 2015 
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction Biography/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: Enormous Smallness is a nonfiction picture book about the poet E.E. cummings. Here E.E.'s life is presented in a way that will make children curious about him and will lead them to play with words and ask plenty of questions as well. Lively and informative, the book also presents some of Cummings's most wonderful poems, integrating them seamlessly into the story to give the reader the music of his voice and a spirited, sensitive introduction to his poetry.
     In keeping with the epigraph of the book -- "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are," Matthew Burgess's narrative emphasizes the bravery it takes to follow one's own vision and the encouragement E.E. received to do just that. 
What I Think: ee cummings is such a well-known poet and deservedly so. He played with words and structure in poetry in such a creative way and I love reading his poems. Last summer while I was in Boston, I visited Forest Hill Cemetery and tracked down his grave. I blogged about how awesome it was to stand there and read aloud one of his poems. As I read Enormous Smallness, I felt the magic of being in the cemetery in Boston all over again. Burgess plays with words and incorporates cummings' own poetry into the text in such a way that it feels woven into his own words. At the same time, Di Giacomo does an excellent job of representing words visually, helping bring meaning to life. 
     I love everything about this book. The writing is descriptive and powerful. Matched with the illustrations, it certainly brings a certain tone and mood to the text that matches both ee cummings himself but also the time period. 
     As a mentor text, I would definitely use this book to discuss how and author's word choice impacts tone and mood. In general, this book is a discussion on descriptive writing and author's craft waiting to happen. In the snatch of text I've pulled here, you can easily talk about metaphor and onomatopoeia but also rhythm and how sentence structure impacts that...but this is just one piece of text from one page in the book. It's definitely a book to be reread over and over just to soak in and savor all the textual and visual mastery here.
Read Together:  Grades 2 - 12 
Read Alone: Grades 2 - 12 
Read With: Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown, Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow by Gary Golio, The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra: The Sound of Joy Is Enlightening by Chris Raschka, The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant
Snatch of Text:

"As Estlin grew, he drew many pictures

from the great circus of his imagination.

But even more than drawing

elephants, trees, and birds,

Estlin LOVED WORDS.

What words say and how they sound and look.

He loved the way they hum, buzz, POP, and swish."

Writing Prompts: In the book, Estlin made up his first poem after seeing a bird outside of his bedroom window. The author writes, "From his bedroom window, Estlin could see enormous apple and cherry trees." Write about what you see outside your bedroom window or maybe use you imagination and write about what you wish you could see outside of your bedroom window.
Topics Covered: Family, Inspiration, Imagination, Creativity 

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