It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 5/30/16

It's Monday! What are you reading? was started by Sheila at Book Journey and was adapted for children's books from picture books through YA by Jen of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee of Unleashing Readers. You can visit either site for a round up of blogs sharing their weekly readings and thoughts or search Twitter for #IMWAYR.

Last Weeks' Posts

• Welcome to Diverse Children's Book Linkup! There's an all-new #diversekidlit up, featuring books for children that showcase the diversity of our world. My latest link up post features a review of the newest Family Fletcher book!

• Featured Illustrator: Demi, part 2: traditional tales. This post features the incredible (mainly Chinese) traditional tales retold and illustrated by Demi.

• #3rdfor3rd: Spiderwick. Third grader Elsa shares why she loves this series.

• May Kid Lit Blog Hop. Join this month's Kid Lit Blog Hop to share and discover great posts about all kinds of children's literature.

Picture Books

 

 

Diego Rivera His World and Ours (2011) by Duncan Tonatiuh, Frida (2002) by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Ana Juan, and Viva Frida! (2014) by Yuyi Morales. This past week our librarian and I shared several books about Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo with my third graders.

Diego Rivera His World and Ours is really a book in two parts, the first is a traditional biography, while the second asks kids to consider what kinds of topics and subjects Diego Rivera might paint today. (Another good book we had available but did not read aloud was Diego by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Jeanette Winter.)

Frida is a more typical biography with imaginative illustrations, while Viva Frida! is more a statement about the artist and her beliefs. It worked much better with the second group when we read Frida first, followed by Viva Frida!

Middle Grade / Young Adult

It's Ain't So Awful, Falafel (2016) by Firoozeh Dumas. The weaknesses of this book made a little more sense to me after I got to the author's note in the back where she revealed that the main character, Zomorod ("Cindy"), is based on the author's own experiences growing up as an Iranian-American teenager during the Iran Hostage Crisis. For me, the characters were flat, the pacing was sporadic, and the story never quite hooked me. (While Cindy is in sixth through eighth grade in this book, there wasn't any particularly YA content.) It wasn't a bad book, but I had just hoped for more.

Happy Reading!

Featured Illustrator: Demi, part 2: traditional tales

This month's featured illustrator is Demi, who often both writes and illustrates her own works. This post highlights her wonderful traditional tales and folktales, some of which were based on the childhood stories her Chinese husband heard growing up. The previous Demi post featured her picture book biographies.

Folktales and Traditional Tales by Demi

Liang and the Magic Paintbrush (1980) by Demi. In this popular Chinese folktale, young Liang has a magical paintbrush that makes his paintings come to life! The greedy emperor wants to capture the boy and his brush, so he must rely on his own creativity to save the day.

One Grain of Rice: a mathematical folktale (1996) by Demi. This book is a favorite read aloud of my third graders. A young girl, Rani, returns spilled rice to the Raja, even though he is hoarding the rice and not sharing with the villagers in this time of famine. When the Raja grants Rani a wish, she asks simply for a single grain of rice ... that will double each day until the end of the month. This math parable will excite even the math critics among you as they realize the powers of exponential growth!

The Greatest Treasure (1998) by Demi. This Chinese traditional tale contrasts the lives of two men: a rich, miserly man and a poor farmer who delights in his family. When the poor man is tested, he reaffirms the importance of love and family - and helps teach the rich man the lesson too.

Kites: magical wishes that fly up to the sky (1999) by Demi. This fanciful story imagines the origins of kite flying in ancient China, as a mother wishes to send a wish for her son up to the gods themselves. The middle section features many different designs for kites (and their meanings), while the end shares about the modern kite festival of Ch'ing Yang. Directions are included for making your own kite.

The Hungry Coat: a tale from Turkey by Demi. This sumptuous retelling of a single Nasrettin story teaches about the danger of caring too much. After Nasrettin is treated poorly by his friends for his smelly attire, he returns well-dressed to teach them a lesson in humility. (You can read other versions of this tale in my collection on "Foolish" Wise Men of the Middle East and India.)

The Empty Pot (2001) by Demi. This retelling of a Chinese folktale is also available in a multilingual printing that includes two versions of the Hmong language. Young Ping is overjoyed when the emperor puts forth a challenge - the child who can grow the most beautiful plant will become his heir. This story highlights the importance of honesty and good character, and kids will be surprised by the twist at the end! (This is another popular read aloud with my students, and it often leads to some thoughtful discussions.)

The Dragon's Tale and Other Animal Fables of the Chinese Zodiac (1996) retold and illustrated by Demi. Finally, this book presents a different take on the zodiac tales. Rather than explaining how the animals were chosen, this book includes twelve separate fables featuring each of the animals. Each fable ends with a short epigraph that restates the moral lesson. This could be a great addition to a lesson on fable or Aesop or for studying aphorisms. (An aside, this book contains the most fascinating note on the illustrations I have ever read. I am still not sure if it is factual or sarcastic.)

The Girl Who Drew Phoenix (2008) is written in the style of a folktale about a girl who longs to be able to properly draw a phoenix. Despite the teasing of others, she pushes on, following the instruction of the various phoenix and learning moral lessons along the way. (This one uses a very repetitive text structure, and the story itself was not as interesting to me as many of the others. The fold-out gold and red phoenix, however, are incredible.)

When the Animals Saved Earth: an eco-fable (2015) retold by Alexis York Lumbard and illustrated by Demi. The origins of this story go back more than 1,000 years and links through several major world religions. It tells a creation story from the perspective of the animals, who have a unique take on the "arrival" of humans. This is a great book for getting kids to think about other points of view, as well as to talk about environmental issues.

Do you have other favorite folktales written or illustrated by Demi? Click here for part 1, all about her incredible picture book biographies of famous historical and religious figures or click the "Featured Illustrator" tag for more books by talented illustrators!

Shared with #DiverseKidLit

#3rdfor3rd: The Spiderwick Chronicles

Welcome to #3rdfor3rd where I share books that my third graders recommend for other third graders. (Please note that my third graders read a wide variety of books across a wide variety of genres, levels, and topics. Do not think that these books are "only" for third graders.) Read more about this book recommendation series and format here.

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Book recommendation by Elsa: The Spiderwick Chronicles

Join the Grace children as they discover a secret world of magic and mystery. It all starts when Jared Grace finds a hidden library. Once they've figured out about the world the faries a determained to stop them.

The author is Tony Diztelleri and the world is yours to discover but beware the world may be closer than it seems.

A quote from the 3rd book is " I suppose you're on her side too."

It is a secret world so discover it!

Click here or the #3rdfor3rd tag for more great book recommendations!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 5/23/16

It's Monday! What are you reading? was started by Sheila at Book Journey and was adapted for children's books from picture books through YA by Jen of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee of Unleashing Readers. You can visit either site for a round up of blogs sharing their weekly readings and thoughts or search Twitter for #IMWAYR.

Last Weeks' Posts

• Welcome to Diverse Children's Book Linkup! There's an all-new #diversekidlit up, featuring books for children that showcase the diversity of our world. My latest link up post features a review of the newest Family Fletcher book!

• Poetry Mentor Text: The Desert is My Mother. This beautiful bilingual poem of a picture book would make a great mentor text for teaching students to write descriptive poetry about a favorite place.

• #3rdfor3rd: Trouble Magnet. The George Brown, Class Clown series is popular with my third graders. Read this review to find out why!

• May Kid Lit Blog Hop. Join this month's Kid Lit Blog Hop to share and discover great posts about all kinds of children's literature.

Picture Books

Violet and Victor Write the Most Fabulous Fairy Tale (2016) by Alice Kuipers and illustrated by Bethanie Murguia. In this follow-up story about story-writing, Violet is trying to write a fabulous fairy tale, while pragmatic Victor keeps interjecting his own changes. These are fun books to use with students to talk about the writing process as well as how group writing projects might work.

I read a lot more this week but will catch up next time. Home ownership + beautiful weather = entire weekend of backbreaking garden labor!

Young Adult

Thank you so much to all of you who expressed support and ideas for my move up to seventh grade. I look forward to following up with you once the madness of the last days of school winds down, and I can properly start thinking ahead about the fall!

Happy Reading!

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Most Clicked Post from Last Time

The most clicked post from our previous #diversekidlit is I Am J - Diversity Book Recommendation by Joanna at Miss Marple's Musings. The post provides a detailed review of this Young Adult novel about a boy born as a girl who is wrestling with his identity and place in the world. The post also includes a link to additional genderqueer/non-binary resources.

My #DiverseKidLit Shout-Out

Earlier this month the highly-anticipated (at least in my classroom) sequel to The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher arrived! We had read the first book as a class read aloud in preparation for our Skype visit with Dana Alison Levy on World Read Aloud Day. The series features a family of four boys (Sam, Jax, Eli, and Frog) adopted by their two fathers (Dad and Papa). Sam and Eli are Caucasian, Jax is African-American, and Frog is Indian-American. Papa is Jewish, and Dad is Caucasian and Episcopalian.

The Family Fletcher Takes Rock Island picks up shortly where the first book left off: summer vacation. As the family begins their annual trip to Rock Island, "The place where time stands still," they find disconcerting changes are afoot. This is a great, humorous summer and family adventure series in the style of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing or The Penderwicks. This book will make a great addition to any home or classroom library!

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Poetry Mentor Text: The Desert is My Mother

The Desert is My Mother / El Desierto Es Mi Madre (1994) by Pat Mora and illustrated by Daniel Lechon. This poem-in-a-picture book would be a wonderful choice as a mentor text for writing poetry about places. Each two-page spread follows the same repeating pattern:

I say ...

She ...

For example, the opening line is "I say feed me. / She serves red prickly pear on a spiked cactus." (In Spanish, "Le digo, dame de comer. / Me sirve rojas tunas en nopal espinoso.")

This simple structure would be easily adaptable for a wide range of ages and purposes. Students could write about a favorite place or a researched region, for starters.

I also appreciate that the author chose to include the full text of the poem one a single page at the back of the book (in both English and Spanish).

Do you have favorite mentor texts for teaching poetry?

Margaret has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Reflections on the Teche.

#3rdfor3rd: Trouble Magnet

Welcome to #3rdfor3rd where I share books that my third graders recommend for other third graders. (Please note that my third graders read a wide variety of books across a wide variety of genres, levels, and topics. Do not think that these books are "only" for third graders.) Read more about this book recommendation series and format here.

Trouble Magnet

Book recommendation by Davi

Trouble Magnet is a good book by Nancy Krulik. It is the second book in the George Brown, Class Clown series. It's about George Brown, who has this super-burp that makes him go crazy. He joins a band called the runny noses.

But in the middle of the band concert in the Edith B. Sugarman school talent show, he gets a super-burp. George goes crazy and plays on his toes. He even dive-bombs into the principal. Uh Oh, how will he get out of this one . . .

Other good books in the George Brown, Class Clown Series are:

Super Burb! (Book 1)

What's Black and White and Stinks All Over? (Book 4)

Attack of the Tighty Whities (Book 7)

And many more.

Goodbye!

Click here or the #3rdfor3rd tag for more great book recommendations!

May's Kid Lit Blog Hop!

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Simply make a post and add it to the linky. (Please make sure to add your direct post only.) If you are an author, feel free just to link to your blog.

Once you are done, then hop around to visit others. Please follow the co-hosts and visit at least the two people above your link. Please leave a comment when you do visit; we all like those. Also, it would be appreciated if you grab the Kid Lit Blog Hop Badge and display it on your blog and/or your post.

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Our next hop will be June 15, 2016. The hostess will be around to see you soon.

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Happy Hopping!

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 05/16/16

It's Monday! What are you reading? was started by Sheila at Book Journey and was adapted for children's books from picture books through YA by Jen of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee of Unleashing Readers. You can visit either site for a round up of blogs sharing their weekly readings and thoughts or search Twitter for #IMWAYR.

Last Weeks' Posts

• Featured Illustrator: Demi, part 1: biographies. Our featured illustrator for May is Demi! Her artwork is simply stunning, and she has written an incredible series of books about the lives of famous historical and religious figures, which are highlighted in this first post.

• #3rdfor3rd: Dragon Masters series. One of my students wrote a series of book reviews about several of the first books in the Dragon Masters series. His cliffhanger questions will leave you wanting to read them all!

• Join the Diverse Children's Book Linkup! There's an all-new #diversekidlit up, featuring books for children that showcase the diversity of our world.

Picture Books

Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation (2015) written by Edwidge Danticat and illustrated by Leslie Staub [A Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Book]. I posted about this book last month, but this week I read it aloud and discussed it with students. It was clear that they were deeply impacted by the story of this girl whose Haitian mother was in immigration prison for not having "the right papers." We also read the author's note and discussed the fact that many children and many families do not experience a happy ending like the one in the book.

Young Adult

The word is out now at my school that I will be moving on from third grade to sixth and seventh next year. It will be fun to catch up with some of my students from years past, but I also feel like I have a lot of catching up to do, book-wise! This age of kids seems to fall in a pretty steep book gap between older Middle Grade and younger Young Adult fiction. I would appreciate any and all suggestions for good books and resources to help bridge this gap!

Booked (2016) by Kwame Alexander. I had been eagerly anticipating Booked after finished The Crossover, a recent Newbery winner, and it did not disappoint. Booked is another novel-in-verse, this time told from the perspective of twelve-year old Nick Hall, an up-and-coming soccer star, plagued by his wordsmith father's book, Weird and Wonderful Words. The story touches many important issues and difficulties in tween/teenage life but without getting too heavy into more grownup content. I am excited to add both of these to my middle school classroom library!

All American Boys: a novel (2015) by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely [the winner of the first-ever Walter Award (formally, the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature) and a Coretta Scott King Honor book]. This is a hugely important book about the real pressures and fears of today's high school students, particularly students of color. The alternating perspectives in the two narrators allow both authors to explore complex issues from these two points of view. There are some more "adult" themes raised (underage drinking, unsupervised house parties) that some parents might object to, but at the same time others of these issues (racism, profiling, police brutality) are forced upon kids - even middle schoolers.

Enchanted Air: two cultures, two wings: a memoir (2015) by Margarita Engle [winner of the Pura Belpré Award and a finalist for the YALSA-ALA award for excellence in Young Adult nonfiction]. I got to hear Margarita Engle speak at last month's Charlotte Zolotow Awards when she received her medal for Drum Dream Girl.

The Social Studies curriculum for seventh grade focuses on Latin American history for the first semester, so I was eager to dive into this memoir-in-verse of growing up in Cuba during the 1950s and 60s. I enjoyed the book but even though it is told through her eyes as a child, I felt like much of the story was overly simplistic and lacked the depth of information and reference of Brown Girl Dreaming. I may use it as part of a memoir-focused book club where students have a range of books to choose from and discuss.

Happy Reading!

Featured Illustrator: Demi, part 1: biographies

Demi is an incredibly talented author and illustrator! This post will focus on her biographies of famous and often religious figures, while the next post will share her versions of traditional tales. (Presented in order of publication.) Click here for more posts on featured illustrators.

You can read a great interview with Demi from a few years back at Paper Tigers. Thanks, Marjorie, for sharing this link!

Biographies by Demi

Buddha (1996). A practicing Buddhist, it makes sense that Demi began her exploration into the biographies of famous religious figures by starting with Buddha/Siddhartha. Divided into a few chapters (The Young Prince, The Seeker of Truth, The Buddha) and two parables (The Blind Men and the Elephant and The Burning House), this book tells the story of Siddhartha's life, his revelations, and the basic tenets of Buddhism, including the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. This is a great overview of both his life and the beginnings of the religion itself.

Muhammad (2003). Out of respect for Muslim restrictions on depictions of the Prophet, Demi utilizes a full-body golden silhouette for his biography, as well as the honorific symbol, denoting the phrase "Peace Be Upon Him." The biography about his life and the rise of Islam is a great introduction, and this is one book that I include in my classroom library when we are studying Asia and Asian-based religions.

Jesus, based on the King James Version of the Holy Bible (2005). Rather than her own text, Demi structures her biography of Jesus solely around illustrations of passages from the Bible. The book ends with an apostolic blessing granted to the book from Pope John Paul II (including the full name of the author, Charlotte Demi Hunt).

Mother Teresa (2005). This biography of Mother Teresa focuses on her sense of calling and the many, many people and ministries that she served (and created). The book ends with a listing of her awards and accomplishments, as well as an explanation of the process (still underway) to canonize Mother Teresa and make her a saint. This book also includes the blessing from the Pope.

The Legend of Lao Tzu and the Tao Te Ching (2007). The first, briefer, section of the book is the biography of Lao Tzu, explained in terms of the legends and unknowns that surround him and his life. The second section includes 20 of the 81 verses that comprise the Tao Te Ching, the foundational book of Taoism (or Daoism in some spellings). The book concludes with the end of the legend and an explanation of Taoism symbolism.

Rumi Whirling Dervish (2009). The book opens with a note from an author and translator of Rumi's works who provides a bit of an introduction as well as mention about 2007 having been the 800th anniversary of Rumi's birth. The biography itself details Rumi's birth, life, and inspiration and intersperses many recitations of his poetry within the narrative. A note at the end explains a little bit more about the whirling dervishes and their dance.

Marco Polo (2008). This lengthy biography draws on the work of many researchers as well as various translations of Marco Polo's own book. There is plenty of information provided here for a student looking to find out about the life and adventures of this well-traveled man. Each page is laid out as a two-page spread with a rectangular picture in the center, framed by texts. There is exquisite detail paid even to the borders of each individual rectangle!

The Great Voyages of Zheng-He (2012). What series about great explorers would be complete without Zheng-He? Nearly 100 years before Columbus, he journeyed around the Pacific and Indian Oceans, establish trade routes and partnerships around the region. Demi details his various voyages and their impact on the world. (One nitpick, this book does not contain a bibliography or details for further reading.)

The Fantastic Adventures of Krishna (2013) (A SABA Highly Commended Book). This book shares the childhood adventures of Krishna, the Hindu Lord Vishnu reborn on earth to defeat the evil demon kings. The wide variety of spectacular and menacing demons are rendered in dramatic fashion through Demi's brightly colored artwork. A truly fantastic way to share these stories with kids.

Below are several additional biographies of Demi that I have not yet read:

     

Stay tuned for next week's feature on traditional tales written and/or illustrated by Demi!

Shared with #DiverseKidLit