A Boy Called Bat Blog Tour and Giveaway

I'm thrilled to be a stop on the blog tour for A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold! You can read my review of A Boy Called Bat where I share a snatch of text and my thoughts on how you might use A Boy Called Bat as a mentor text. You can also find an Educator's Resource here that gives more information and shares ideas for you can use with students.

Today, as part of the blog tour, I'd like to reiterate that Bat completely stole my heart. As I think about him now, I smile because he's such a complete character to me and I can imagine him even after having read the book over a month ago. I connected with Bat and how he feels about his skunk kit Thor in the story. Reading Bat's story helped me reflect on how special it is to have a pet in my life. 

At the beginning of last school year, a friend shared a picture of a sweet little adorable puppy who was adoptable from one of our local rescue shelters. I fell in love immediately. Luckily, I had been trying to convince my husband we needed a dog for the last ten years or so. I mean, I would show him pictures of puppies and every time I wrote a persuasive essay with students, I would write mine all about why we really needed a dog. Finally, our youngest son was five and in kindergarten and this sweet little pup was in my Facebook feed and my husband didn't really have much of a choice, he had to say it was okay for me to go and meet her. 

So I did. One Thursday night in November, I went and met our sweet little pup. She was so little and so cute. I fell in love right away and then the rest of the family came to meet her. After that it all went really fast! We told them we wanted to take her home, we signed lots of papers, and then we went to pick her up that weekend. Suddenly, we were a family with a little puppy in the backseat and we were taking her home. 

 

It's not easy taking care of a puppy! We had a lot to learn and she had a lot to learn. It wasn't easy but we got her into puppy classes right away and we took her to puppy play time so she could socialize and then we started taking her to the dog park too. 

Now Perdi is about 1 1/2 and she still needs a lot of attention but we have fun playing with her, practicing her tricks, and going on long walks. 

You know those bumper stickers that ask, "Who saved who?" We adopted Perdi but she has brought so much love into our lives and I can't imagine her not being part of our family. I'm especially happy that my kids get to grow up with a dog. 

I kind of think Bat and his love of his little skunk kit Thor helped him out as much as he helped to take care of Thor. 

I hope readers either get to live through Bat's story and know what it's like to take care of a pet and/or that they get to have a pet of their own connect with Bat's experience. Either way, readers will enjoy reading about Bat and his love for Thor. 

Do you have a special pet in your life?

I'd love to hear about him or her!

Also, be sure to enter the giveaway courtesy of Walden Pond Press!

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Also, be sure to visit all the other blogs on the tour!

March 1 Read, Write Reflect 

March 2 A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust - Beth Shaum

March 3 Bluestocking Thinking

March 6 The Official Tumblr of Walden Media

March 7 For Those About to Mock 

March 8 Maria’s Melange

March 9 Novel Novice 

March 10 Unleashing Readers 

March 13 The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

March 14 All the Wonders 

March 15 Teach Mentor Texts

March 19 Nerdy Book Club

March 20 LibLaura5

March 22 Book Monsters

March 27 Librarian’s Quest

March 29 Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 03/13/2017

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

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. 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...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

Announcement:

Winner of Mapping My Day

courtesy of Blue Slip Media:

Linda Baie!

Last Week's Book Adventures:

I'm so excited to share that I finally finished Brené Brown's book Rising Strong. Her work is brilliant. I also started Here We Are: Feminism For The Real World and Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina.

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

This week I'll be reading Here We Are: Feminism For The Real World and Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. 

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to read these reviews/posts. 

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 comment on at least three other blogs before you. 

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

READ: Malcom X's Thoughts on Taking Action

I find power in others telling their stories and I hope you do too!

Check out It's Monday! What Are You Reading? at Book Date.

For the kidlit version, visit Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

March means the Slice of Life challenge from Two Writing Teachers. It's a month-long blogging challenge. I've participated twice before and both times I learned about myself as a writer. It's powerful to write and publish something every single day. 

In 2015, I blogged about myself and how I started on this journey towards really and truly needing to tell my stories and recognizing that my voice is important. This post shares this conviction and also lists all of my posts from March 2015. 

I'm not participating this year but I've been thinking (still) about telling my stories and inviting others to share their stories with me. Just last week I stopped a friend in the hallway at school and said, "Can we sit down and have coffee sometime and chat?"

When I explained more, she warned me she's going to tell it like it is and I smiled. That's exactly what I want. This year, I'm passionate about having conversations. I want to hear what others are thinking, experiencing, feeling. It's too easy to walk around shaking my head and keeping my thoughts to myself but if I continue to do just that, I'll never impact change.  My friend Shawna Coppola shared this piece from Malcom X on Twitter recently and it's been reverberating around and through me ever since. 

I invite you to read Malcolm X's words below and to share your thoughts with me. 

Some things take hold like this did because they ring true. I want to help people all over the world...but the more I think about this, the more I realize my biggest impact is with people close to me. People I see often, people who know me, people who trust me. Engaging in conversations about race right now is as important as ever. 

We all have circles of influence. 

We need to elevate that influence, amplify our voices, cause a stir.

We need to be thoughtful, be cautious, be safe.

But also, be brave, be open, be a safe place.

Be a friend.

Would you like to sit down and have coffee sometime and chat? 

Send me an email at jen {at} teachmentortexts {dot} com.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 03/05/2017

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

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. 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...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

Last Week's Book Adventures:

Woo hoo! This week I finished Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder. What a beautiful book. I'm still working on Rising Strong by Brené Brown. We also read more of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Little Bean and I started reading Dan Gutman's Miss Daisy is Crazy. 

Reviewed Last Week:

I celebrated World Read Aloud Day 2017 here at Teach Mentor Texts.

I celebrated conversations during catch at Story Exploratory.

Click on any picture above to go read my review/post.

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

I'm looking forwarding to finishing up Rising Strong and then starting the stories in We Are Here.

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to read these reviews/posts. 

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 comment on at least three other blogs before you. 

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

JOIN: Celebrating Conversations During Catch

Every Saturday, join me as I CELEBRATE This Week 

with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.

Two weeks ago I attended a day of professional development. We did an icebreaker where we walked around with a paper full of bingo-type squares. In each square was a fact about one person in the room. Our task was to walk around and try to guess which fact belonged to each person. 

One of the squares said, "I have been to 48 states." The fact belonged to the instructor and she explained, "I had been to 48 states before I was 18." She still hasn't visited Alaska or Hawaii. 

It made me think this might be a fun challenge for our family. Later that afternoon, I played catch with my six-year-old in our front yard. I didn't want to play catch. I was tired and all I wanted to do was sit down. But he so so so wanted me to play with him. He loves playing catch. I groaned as I slipped out the front door and told him we had to do short catches because I can't throw as far as dad.

But then as we threw the football back and forth and I asked him what he thought of the idea of trying to get to all 50 states. We had a big discussion about what states we have been to and what's the difference between and a city and a state and is Guatemala a state and on and on. It was such a sweet discussion, just me and him, outside on a rare warm day in February. 

Even though I didn't really want to play catch, I did. 

I'm so glad I did. That sweet little conversation was just so perfect. 

 And then he went to school and typed up this note using the Seesaw app. 

And I was really glad I went out to play catch with him. 

Sometimes it's the small little moments we shouldn't let pass us by. 

Sometimes it's the small little moments we shouldn't overlook. 

Sometimes it's the small little moments we should cherish when we can. 

Mapping My Day Review and Giveaway

Title: Mapping My Day
Author: Julie Dillemuth 
Illustrator: Laura Wood  
Publisher: Magination Press 
Publication Date: March, 2017 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book
Summary: Follow Flora and her family as she takes us through her day with maps — from breakfast, to school, and even through a dog agility course!

Kids love maps! Learning to read and draw maps is a fun and natural way to develop spatial thinking skills — how we think about and understand the world around us and use concepts of space for problem solving.
What I Think: I remember digging up a plastic bag with shells in it in the woods near my house and thinking I had found buried treasure. I also remember waking up with the sun streaming into my window because my bedroom was on the east side of of our house. I loved reading Mapping My Day and remembering these little bits of memories from my childhood. I anticipate young readers will make lots of of connections to Flora in this story just as I did. But if not, I'm guessing they'll be captivated by her world and will get a little more curious about their own. Map creation and map reading skills are important even though we live in the day and age of technology and GPS. As a mentor text, I would read the book with students and ask them to create their own maps about their day. Just like Flora tells about her maps, I would invite students to write and explain about their maps. 
     I also love this book as a mentor text to get students started thinking about a topic for a personal narrative. They can think of a time when they were given directions and how useful they were in helping them navigate to their destination.  
Snatch of Text: 
"To find my treasure you need to know exactly how far to go from the biggest tree in the yard. Starting there, you walk seven steps east, then three steps southeast. 'X' marks the spot!"  
Writing Prompt: Write about a time in your life when you had to follow directions to get somewhere. Who gave you the directions? What do you remember about the directions? Were they easy to follow? Did they get you to your destination?
Additional Resources: The author, Julie Dillemuth, was mystified by maps until she figured out how to read them and make them, and it was a particularly difficult map that inspired her to become a spatial cognition geographer. She lives with her family and writes children's books in Santa Barbara, California, where the west coast faces south. Visit her at her website and check out the fun activity pages there.

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Let's Celebrate World Read Aloud Day 2017!

It's time to CELEBRATE This Week with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.  Every week Ruth invites us to share our celebrations from the week and link up at her blog. What a fun way to reflect on everything there is to be thankful for. 

*                  *                   *

This week I'm celebrating World Read Aloud Day 2017!

*throws confetti*

This year we celebrated World Read Aloud Day at school and at home. I'm so proud to say that my entire district participated in WRAD this year. Every student from kindergarten through eighth grade in my district Skyped with an author and/or illustrator. Our middle school did a school-wide celebration where teachers read to every class and did silent reading at the end of the day. It was super fun to see how our celebration grew from last year to this year. 

At home, we used to have book parties with neighbors. This year, we went over to my cousin's house for a little book celebration. Little Bean wanted to read Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle so we made dessert dirt cups and I read to them. 

World Read Aloud Day is one of my favorite reading celebrations. 

Did you join in on the fun?

What are you celebrating this week?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 02/27/2017

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

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. 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...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

Last Week's Book Adventures:

I love books. I mean, I know you know that but still, I love books. This week I really zoned in on Rising Strong and Orphan Island and I'm enjoying both...but still working on both.  We also made it about halfway through Where Children Sleep by James Mollison. I'll be reviewing this one soon, it's so powerful and really started some conversations with my boys.

Reviewed Last Week:

Click on any picture above to go read my review/post.

Upcoming Book Adventures: 

This week I'm keeping on with Rising Strong and Orphan Island and we'll keep reading Where Children Sleep. I'm hoping to be able to get back to March and to start Matylda, Bright and Tender too.

This Week's Reviews:

Check back throughout the week to read these reviews/posts. 

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 comment on at least three other blogs before you. 

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

The Memory Box Cover Reveal!

A few years ago I was honored to share the cover of Joanna Rowland's book Always Mom, Forever Dad. And now she has a new book coming out that I'm excited to tell you about!

It's another picture book and it's titled The Memory Box: A Book About Grief. Here's a summary of the book for you to get an idea of what it's about:

"I'm scared I'll forget you…"

From the perspective of a young child, Joanna Rowland artfully describes what it is like to remember and grieve a loved one who has died. The child in the story creates a memory box to keep mementos and written memories of the loved one, to help in the grieving process. Heartfelt and comforting, The Memory Box will help children and adults talk about this very difficult topic together. The unique point of view allows the reader to imagine the loss of any they have loved - a friend, family member, or even a pet.

Despite being about a difficult topic, doesn't it sound lovely?

And now, I'm happy to share the cover.

Here it comes....

The Memory Box: A Book About Grief 

will be out this fall on September 26th, 2017

 from Sparkhouse Family. 

Until then, be sure to follow Joanna on social media. 
Visit Joanna's website and follow her on Twitter.