Mo Willems, Mo Love!

For the last two weeks, Peanut has been coming home and talking nonstop about all the Mo Willems books he has been reading at school. It started with Pigeon books. He was super excited to tell me that they read a Pigeon book at school and then he talked about Elephant and Piggie and Knuffle Bunny and Cat the Cat. I have loved talking to him about so many books that we love at school that they have been celebrating at school. 

We love Mo Willems at our house. Seriously love him. Actually, I think if you took an inventory of the books in our house, we probably have more Mo Willems books compared to any other author. I thought I would ask Peanut to tell me about the books he has read lately and what he thinks about them and share with you today. 

Peanut: It's funny because he said, "Well, I thought he'd never leave!"

After that part, he said, "Can I drive the bus?"

Peanut: When he jumped and saw the dog, I like that part.

Peanut: I like the duckling. I like it when she said, "Would you say it tastes like chicken?" 

I also like when he said, "Can you believe this guy?" about the duckling. 

He had fun playing with little Pigeon and Duckling finger puppets that he made at school.

Peanut: I like when he tries to scare the kid because he doesn't scare him. 

Peanut: Piggie tries to dress up as a robot because Gerald likes robots. Gerald just wants Piggie to play with him. He was so scared of all the stuff. He was just so scared of everything.

Peanut: I like when the birds were on Piggie's head at the end. At the really end, when there 

was the pigeon, guess where he was? He was at the end eating a hot dog in the birds' nest.

Peanut: She was mad at Gerald because he didn't break the toy. Because it was a toy that could go together but they didn't know it so that's why she was mad at Gerald for no reason. 

Peanut: When she's crying, it's funny. She's like, "Waa!" and it's just so funny. 

And then she's like, "Aggle, flaggle, klabble" and it's just so funny.

Peanut: I like when her parents pretend they're robots and she has to fight them. 

She doesn't have to fight them like I do with dad, but she has to escape. 

Peanut: My favorite part is when we see all the places Knuffle Bunny can go.

Ever since Little Bean was a baby, I have wanted to make Mo Willems' Knuffle-Bunny-style art. I had printed pictures in black and white forever ago but never drew the pictures to go into them. When I told Peanut my idea, he was ready to go. I love that he drew the pictures of himself and his brother. They turned out really sweet and I can't wait to frame them. Hooray for book-inspired art!

Peanut: I liked it when the horse went to the bathroom. And guess what he said? Cat the Cat said, "Time to sleep." And the horse was on the potty, and he said, "I'm on it." And Cat the Cat meant that he needed to go to the sleep and he said he was on it but he really meant he was on the potty. 

It cracks me up that Peanut loved this part about the horse being on the potty. I've heard Ralph Fletcher talk about letting boys write about what they want to write about and that what interests boys is definitely different from what interests girls...and I get to live that firsthand with my two sons for sure!

Peanut's Final Thoughts: I just like Mo Willems' books because they are funny. 

I like looking for all the characters hiding in the books. It's just so funny and fun.

I loved seeing how animated Peanut became when talking about all of these wonderful books. 

We would love to hear what you love about Mo Willems and his characters and his books! 

Do you have a favorite book? A favorite character? Please share!

TMT Celebrates Girl Power!

Last fall at NCTE, we sat down with Kellie Celia from Walden Pond Press to discuss ideas for collaborating this year. Kellie was excited to tell us about Chris Healy's sequel to The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. On April 30th, the wait to see how the princes' stories continue will be over! To celebrate The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle at the end of April, we thought it would be great to do a series on Girl Power because the princesses in these books are pretty awesome role models! 

 

In the last year, we shared three girl power top ten lists at the Nerdy Book Club blog. Our great reader friend, Maria Selke, joined us in narrowing down our favorite girl power books in the categories of picture books and early readers, middle grade books, and YA/teen novels. It wasn't an easy task! You can read which books made our top ten girl power books by clicking on the links below. 

Nerdy Book Club Top Ten Girl Power Books!
by Maria, Kellee and Jen

Picture Books and Early Readers

Middle Grade

YA/Teen

For the upcoming weeks leading up to the release of The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle, we will be sharing guest posts from some wonderful authors and friends about strong female characters in books. We believe it is important that girls be represented as competent, courageous, and clever in literature as role models for both girl readers and boy readers. The week surrounding the book's release, we will be highlighting each of the princesses and what we admire about them. We are very excited to bring a focus to girls in literature! Girl Power!

Girl Power Guest Posts from:

Maria Selke from Maria's Melange

Kirby Larson, author of Hattie Ever After

Jenni Holm, author of Babmyouse and My Only May Amelia

Kristin Levine, author of Lions of Little Rock

Colby Sharp, from SharpRead

Chris Healy, author of The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle

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The Black Rabbit

Title: The Black Rabbit 
Author: Philippa Leathers  
Illustrator: Philippa Leathers 
Publisher: Candlewick Press 
Publication Date: January, 2013 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: In this clever picture book, a debut author-illustrator introduces a plucky rabbit and the new companion that he just can’t shake.
     Rabbit has a problem. There’s a large black rabbit chasing him. No matter where he runs — behind a tree, over the river — the shadowy rabbit follows. Finally in the deep, dark wood, Rabbit loses his nemesis — only to encounter a real foe! Kids who like to be in on the secret will revel in this humorous look at shadows and friendship, brought to light by a talented animator.  
What Jen Thinks: In our house we have an almost three-year-old and he is really starting to use his imagination. It's so much fun to see. He'll make me food and tell stories and guess who always makes it into these stories? The Big Bad Wolf. This boy is always talking about the Big Bad Wolf. He is convinced that the Big Bad Wolf is all over the place. Earlier this week, at bedtime, his closet was open a crack and he was sure the Big Bad Wolf was in there. We read this book and of course, he was even more adamant that the Big Bad Wolf was around every corner so we have been talking about how the Big Bad Wolf is not real. I hope he's starting to get it! I know kids will relate to this book, especially if we connect it with a conversation about what kids have been or might still be afraid of and how they have or can face those fears.
     One thing I noticed about this book was that there are a few instances when the rabbit talks to the big black rabbit. He's scared and is trying to confront the big black rabbit. This stuck out to me because it's a great opportunity to talk about why authors use dialogue. When it comes to teaching quotation marks, it should be about understanding why an author uses dialogue and therefore actually needs quotation marks. Understanding why we use quotation marks is more than recognizing that a person is talking. In order for a students to understand why and how to use quotation marks, we have to show them why an author would want to use quotation marks. The instances in this book when the rabbit talks to the big rabbit really show his emotion. If I were talking to upper elementary students about why the author decided to actually make the rabbit speak, I would compare what the story might be like if it was only told through narration. The rabbit talking in this book really makes readers recognize how scared and brave he is being. It is much stronger with the dialogue than it would be if it was all told by the narrator. 
     The more I think about this book, the more I like it. I'm recognizing so many more ways to use this book as a mentor text. There are various different good reading strategies to apply while reading depending on what you want to focus on with students as well as numerous follow up activities to do with students. I would definitely use this to talk about dialogue and how to use quotation marks and then ask students to look at their own writing and think about whether it makes sense to use dialogue or not. We have to be clear to students that it's not okay to just put in quotation marks or dialogue whenever we want and that dialogue is more than just people talking. They should be intentional about when and why a character is talking and whether is supports their purpose in writing. 
What Kellee Thinks:  I agree with Jen. When I first read the book, it seemed simple, but the more I read it and thought about it, the more I started to love The Black Rabbit. It is such a cute picture book which is beautifully illustrated and has a fiesty little protagonist. Along with the lesson about quotation marks and imagination, the little rabbit is having a problem that only a mini-science lesson will explain. This book would be a wonderful (and entertaining) addition to a lesson about sunlight and shadows.  Also, it is a great book to practice predicting. Though I figured out the secret early on in the book, students who are just learning about shadows will find the secret fun and would help make a great prediction lesson.  
Read Together: Grades Pre-K - 5 
Read Alone: Grades Pre-K - 2 
Read With: Chalk by Bill Thomson, I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen 
Snatch of Text:  
"Rabbit woke up one morning and stepped out of his burrow into the bright sunlight. It was a beautiful day."
Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Predictions, Making Inferences, Visualizing
Writing Strategies to Practice: Alliteration, Author's Purpose, Dialogue 
Writing Prompts: Write about at time in your life when you were scared. Write about a time in your life when you did something brave. 
Topics Covered: Integration - Science, Sunshine, Shadows, Courage, 

Jen and Kellee *heart* It:

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**Thank you to Candlewick Press for providing the book for review**

Each Kindness

When I read Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson for the first time, it made me not only want to share it with everyone I knew, but also make me want to do something nice for others. This pushed me to think more carefully about how everything affects those around me and I have been happy to begin sharing on here my kindness journey beginning with my "Open Thank You Letter". 

If you have not read Each Kindness, let me share the GoodReads's summary with you: Each kindness makes the world a little better.  Chloe and her friends won't play with the new girl, Maya. Maya is different--she wears hand-me-downs and plays with old-fashioned toys. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her gang, they reject her. Eventually, Maya plays alone, and then stops coming to school altogether. When Chloe's teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she'd shown a little kindness toward Maya.

Today, I wanted to share with you what I did with my classes when it came to sharing Each Kindness with them. First, I will say that it affected them as much as it affected me. After reading, we had a great conversation about how the book connected to their lives and what it meant to them. This conversation moved to how Chloe's actions affected Maya including inferences of Maya's feelings that were not shared in the book. The insight that my students had were very deep and I believe it made them look at some of the choices they make in their daily lives. 

We then moved on to talk about how Chloe could have changed things. How could she have made Maya feel welcome? 

Following this discussion, I had the students make an oath to do a kind act that day- something they normally wouldn't do and recorded them on as a poster to share.  

The next day we shared the kindness we did: 

Only through discussions and books like this, that students will think more about their choices and how it affects those around them. Since this book read aloud and discussion, my students have brought up Each Kindness often and have made connections to their lives as well as other books. Each Kindness is a book that can make the world a better place, but only if it is shared. 

What If You Had Animal Teeth!?

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: What If You Had Animal Teeth!?  
Author: Sandra Markle
Illustrator: Howard McWilliam 
Publisher: Scholastic 
Publication Date: January 2013 
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction-Expository/Picture Book
GoodReads Summary: If you could have any animal's front teeth, whose would you choose? If you chose an elephant's, you could dig holes and pull up tree roots. If you had a beaver's, you'd have orange teeth! And if you had a naked mole rat's set of teeth, you could move each one separately, like chopsticks! The animal kingdom has lots of cool teeth, but yours are pretty awesome, too!  
What I Think: We picked this book up at the Scholastic Book Fair last week. The kiddo on the front cover with animal teeth really caught our attention. All of the illustrations and pictures are very appealing. We couldn't get home fast enough to read this book. We had fun imagining what it might be like to have different teeth but also reading the facts about how each animal uses their teeth.
     Reading this book was very timely in our house because Peanut just lost his first baby tooth a little less than two weeks ago. Losing teeth is exciting but scary at the same time. It was nice for him to read a book that acknowledged what he might be feeling about losing teeth but that really focused on how we use our teeth and how animals use their teeth.
     I can see how using this text with lower elementary students would be great because it would be engaging for them. Losing teeth is something that will or has happened to them so they can relate to it. The text is short and each two-page layout is devoted to a different animal. This book could be a great starting point for talking to kids about research. They can read about the different kinds of animals and then follow their interests into doing more research and learning more about one of the animals that interests them.
Read Together: Grades K - 4  
Read Alone: Grades K - 4 
Read With: Snakes and other non-fiction by Nic Bishop, Sharks and Snakes and other non-fiction by Seymour Simon 
Snatch of Text:  
"A great white shark's front teeth are like all its others - two inches long with an edge like a steak knife. They're great for biting through superthick things, like an elephant seal's skin." (p.6)
Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Asking Questions, Using Non-Fiction Text Features 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Narrative, Compare and Contrast
Writing Prompts: Imagine that you did have animal teeth - as if they were a super power. What could you do with animal teeth that would help you in your daily life? Write a story where you show how you would put your animal teeth to use. Choose two animals from the book to compare and contrast. How do they use their teeth in similar or different ways?
Topics Covered: Integration - Science - Animals, Teeth

I *heart* It:

Those Darn Squirrels!

Title: Those Darn Squirrels! 
Author: Adam Rubin 
Illustrator: Daniel Salmieri 
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 
Publication Date: September, 2011   
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: Old Man Fookwire has a plan. He'll build some birdfeeders and fill them with yummy seeds and berries. That way, the wild birds he loves so much will stick around for the winter--instead of flying south. But there are other hungry creatures in the forest, and the have plans, too...Those darn squirrels! 
What I Think: When I was a child, my grandparents always had bird feeders at their house...and my grandfather was always so cranky with the squirrels. Reading this story reminded me so much of my grandfather, who died when I was a senior in high school. I remember how much those squirrels drove him crazy. My grandmother used to get mad at them, too. She would tap on the window and try to scare them away. Both of them would talk about the different kinds of birds that came to visit. Their kitchen table was always next to the window so they could eat breakfast and look out at the birds. I loved this book because it rang so true to what I knew about my grandparents and their annoyance at squirrels. I was always amazed at how the squirrels were still able to get to the bird feeder no matter what kind of bird feeder it was or whatever my grandfather did to try and stop them. I like how Adam Rubin's squirrels are just as clever. As annoying as my grandparents found them to be, it's hard to deny how determined and smart those squirrels are.
     I love to do voices when I read aloud and I had a blast shaking my fist in the air and reading Old Man Fookwire's parts. It cracked my kids up, too. They thought he was so funny. Kids seem to love when adults get angry and then angrier. They loved the squirrels and their antics.   
     I just saw that there are two more squirrel books by Adam Rubin that I am excited to read! I think this book would pair really well with Look Up! by Annette LeBlanc Cate that we reviewed last week. In fact, I think I'm going to take my kids to buy bird feeders that we can hang in our backyard. Maybe we can find bird feeders that the boys can decorate and then put up or maybe even those pinecone-peanut butter bird feeders that we can make ourselves and then do some bird watching of our own. In the comments last week, one of our readers, Mandy Robek, shared an idea that she uses in her classroom. She has a window that is designated as an observation window and students are able to take their writer's notebooks over to the window to take time to observe, draw, or write whatever they see in the window. I love this idea! It's simple but just calling a window an observation station makes it so much more exciting! And what a great option to give to student writers who might have trouble getting ideas.
Read Together: Grades K - 6 
Read Alone: Grades K - 6 
Read With: Look Up! by Annette LeBlanc Cate, Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt
Snatch of Text: 
     "When the air turned crisp and the leaves began to change color, the old man grew sad. He knew that soon the birds would fly south for the winter, as they did every year, and that he would be lonely.
     Then he had an idea: If he fed the birds, maybe they would stick around."
Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Predictions, Asking Questions 
Writing Strategies to Practice: AAAWWUBBIS, Personal Narrative  
Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when things didn't go your way. How did you respond? What did you learn from the situation? How will you hand things the same or differently in the future? 
Topics Covered: Hobbies, Love, Friendship, Loneliness, Integration - Science - Bird, Birdwatching, Animals 

I *heart* It:

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 3/18/13

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA! 

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

After doing the meme for a couple of weeks, we realized this would be a fun meme to start up with a kidlit focus - anyone reading and reviewing books in children's literature - it can be picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, you name it in the world of kidlit and it's in! We have loved being a part of this meme and we hope you do too!  We encourage everyone participating to go and visit the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and to comment on as many posts as you can. We love talking books and believe in sharing and discussing what we're reading. We hope you join us!

Last Week's Book Adventures:

Jen Says: I finished How Children Succeed and Ghetto Cowboy last week. I enjoyed Ghetto Cowboy but it also bothered me a little bit how everything just seemed to fall right into place a little too easily. I can definitely see how kids would be interested in the story and also how it's an interesting connection to some real-life research they might do about real urban cowboys. I also read some fun picture books this week and am excited to review a really fun non-fiction read that we found, What If You Had Animal Teeth.

Kellee Says: It's Jen again! Kellee is at the Future Problem Solvers' State Competition and her Internet isn't working so she will update us on what is going on in her reading life next week! 

Reviewed Last Week:

Just click on any picture above to go read the review

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

Jen Says: I'm looking forward to listening to more of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I started a few pages of The Willpower Instinct which is super fascinating. I have the second Archie: The Married Life comic collection that I meant to read forever ago and I plan to actually get to that this week. I'll know I'll be sucked in as soon as I start! I also have to read The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle. Always so much to read and never enough time!

Kellee Says: Yup, Jen again! Kellee is at the Future Problem Solvers' State Competition and her Internet isn't working so she will update us on what is going on in her reading life next week! 

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to hear about these books. 

So, what are you reading this week? 

Link up below and don't forget to check out other blogs to see what they are reading!

To help build our community and support other bloggers, 

we ask that you please try to comment on at least the three blogs that posted before you. 

Also, if you tweet about your Monday post, don't forget to use #IMWAYR!

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