The National Book Festival

Every year the National Book Festival falls on the weekend of my birthday.  I’ve spent several birthdays on the National Mall listening to authors talk about their craft and buying books.  The Maryland Renaissance Festival also coincides with my birthday, but I seem to have out grown wearing puffy shirts and ogling carnies in period dress.  This year three of my favorite children’s authors were featured guests, so I’m dedicating this week to Lois Lowry, Jerry Spinelli and Avi.  

All three of them have new books coming out this fall, and have written some of the all time best.  Of the three, I’ve known Lowry the longest.  Her Anastasia series was one of my favorites in fourth grade, and I still treasure my signed copy of Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst.  Unfortunately, I’ve found that today’s kids aren’t as enamored of the slightly nerdy, imaginative heroine to whom I related.  She’s better known for her Newberry Award winners, Number the Stars a beautifully written book about the Holocaust and The Giver, which started the dystopian society craze that seems to be the genre of choice for most tweens.  The fourth and final book in The Giver series, Son, is being released this fall. 

Spinelli is a very different writer, and I first discovered him in my student teaching when I read his classic, Maniac Magee.  Maniac is an orphan, who somehow manages to bring together the black and white sides of a segregated community.  There are so many layers to the book that it quickly became one of my favorite literature studies.  The Library Card is one of his more obscure books, but I love it.  It’s a collection of four short stories, each about a different kid who is saved by a library card.  Loser and Stargirl came out within a year of each other and deal with the same themes of bullying and fitting in.  Loser is geared towards upper elementary kids and Stargirl for middle and high-schoolers.  I read Loser to my class every year, because they needed to hear the message that it’s okay to be yourself.  His new book is called Jake and Lily.  I’m still on the library waiting list for it, but I’ve read the reviews and excerpts.  I’m sure it will be as good as his others.  It’s about twins with a strong and mysterious mental connection.  

Through most of middle school, Avi’s book The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle was my absolute favorite book.  It still ranks pretty high on the list, and the copy I keep in my classroom is much loved.  It’s about Charlotte, who is traveling across the Atlantic in 1832 to join her family in Rhode Island when she gets caught up drama of a mutinous crew.  Adventure and a strong female lead, what 13 year old wouldn’t love it?  Many of Avi’s books are historical adventure stories, like Crispin, Cross of Lead and The Fighting Ground.  The first is about a peasant boy in medieval England trying to escape death for a crime he didn’t commit, and the latter is about a young boy in Revolutionary America, who sneaks off to join the fight.  The entire book takes place over the course of 24 hours.  However, Avi is a varied and prolific writer.  He’s also written the Poppy series about some field mice, forever trying to avoid their predators.  It’s an adventure tale and discourse on the food web rolled together in one.  He’s written over 50 books, and I’ve yet to read one I haven’t liked. 

 

Books by Lois Lowry

Anastasia Krupnik

Number the Stars (Newberry Award Winner)

The Giver (Newberry Award Winner)

Gathering Blue

Gossamer

Messenger

Son (Comes out in October)

Books by Jerry Spinelli

Maniac Magee (Newberry Award Winner)

Loser

Stargirl

Fourth Grade Rats

The Library Card

Eggs

Jake and Lilly

Books by Avi

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Newberry Honor)

Crispin, Cross of Lead (Newberry Award Winner)

The Fighting Ground

Poppy

The Secret School

Midnight Magic

Iron Thunder

Sophia’s War (Comes out this month)

A is Not for Aardvark

On the second day of school, I met a kindergartener who didn’t know his name.  It wasn’t that he couldn’t spell his name; he didn’t know his first or last name.  When I asked, he said, “Tito,” but Tito is a term of endearment.  It wouldn’t be the name he was registered under.  Eventually, we determined that his name was Alejandro and got him to the correct classroom.  (We do this by asking the older children on the bus if they know this kid.  Believe it or not, this happens often enough that there is procedure in place to fix it.)  I’ve been teaching in Title 1 schools for 13 years, and I still can’t get used to the fact that our kindergartners come to school so ill prepared.  Alejandro probably doesn’t know the alphabet and has minimal experience with books.  School is going to be much harder for him, than for my friend’s son.  When I told Peyton that the best part of kindergarten was learning to read, he responded, “I already know how to read.”  I checked back in on Alejandro last week, and it turns out he’s a bright kid and is learning like a sponge.  Unfortunately, statistics show that Peyton and Alejandro’s different experiences in their first 5 years will likely follow them for life.  That’s scary fact, and one that could have been remedied with a couple of books, particularly ABC books.

ABC books are the prefect educational tool.  Besides teaching the alphabet, they teach phonics, vocabulary, and concepts about print; and the best ones are entertaining too.  Some of my favorites are Click Clack, Quackity Quack by Doreen Cronin, B is for Bear by Roger Priddy and Eric Carle’s ABC.  Truly any ABC book is good, but some are better than others.  Look for lower case letters and words with clear beginning letter sounds, not blends.  D should be for dog, not drum, s for sun, not snake.  For kids who are just learning their letter sounds, blends are confusing.  I also like short vowels sounds, but I’m happy as long as the vowels sounds aren’t complex.  Look for a is for apple, not aardvark, and o is for octopus, not owl.  With c and g, we want hard sounds; c is for cat, not circle and g is for golf, not giraffe.  I’ve never found a perfect alphabet book, but these rules guide me towards the better ones.  Andrew Zuckerman’s Creature ABC has great photos of animals and both the uppercase and lowercase letters.  It does use elephant for e.  It’s not my favorite example, because elephant sounds like it starts with l.  Black and White Rabbit’s ABC by Alan Baker is also an excellent choice.  Along with being an alphabet book, it also tells the story as Rabbit paints a picture. 

ABC books are not just for little kids either.  There are some clever ones that big kids will enjoy as well.  Most elementary kids need to continue practicing alphabetical order even after kindergarten.  I love Q is for Duck by Mary Elting (because ducks quack).  My fourth graders devoured the riddles in the book.  Jerry Pallotta has a series of animal ABC books that focus on ocean animals, mammals, insects, etc.  They tend to be difficult reads, but they are full of interesting animal facts.  Some alphabet books have beautiful pictures, and can be enjoyed by kids of any age.  The Handmade Alphabet by Laura Rankin, teaches the American Sign Language alphabet.  Alphabet City by Stephen Johnson finds the letters of the alphabet in common city sights, and Chris VanAllsburg created a dramatic story for each letter in his detailed illustrations of The Z was Zapped.  When it comes down to it, no matter what words the author chooses for a letter, an ABC book is always a good choice.  

 

Click Clack, Quackity Quack by Doreen Cronin

B is for Bear by Roger Priddy

Eric Carle’s ABC by Eric Carle

Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman

Black and White Rabbit’s ABC by Alan Baker

Q is for Duck by Mary Elting

The Underwater Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta

The Icky Bug Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta

The Bird Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta

The Handmade Alphabet by Laura Rankin

Alphabet City by Stephen Johnson

The Z was Zapped by Chris VanAllsburg

The Crazy Alphabet by Lynn Cox

The Cow is Mooing Anyhow by Laura Geringer

Dr. Suess’s ABC by Dr. Suess
Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham

Chapter Books is Not a Genre

There are two things kids say that make me crazy.  When discussing who will be racing whom on the playground, “I’ll verse you at recess;” and when asked what kind of books they like to read, “Chapter books.”  I have been waging a long and futile war to convince elementary students that verse is a preposition, not a verb, and chapter books is not a genre.  When kids tell me chapter books are their favorites, it’s usually a sign of limited reading experiences.  Sophisticated readers answer with actual genres, authors or series.  I’ve learned that a kid who asks for chapter books, feels like the books she is reading are either too easy or look too easy.  They want to look like a more sophisticated reader, and we have books to help them.

I have friend whose five year old daughter is a strong reader, but she’s still little.  She’s obviously not ready for novels, but she wants to read books like the big kids.  There are a couple of publishers that specialize in this level.  Look for I Can Read, Kids Can Read, and Ready to Read.  The classic choices for these kids are Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel and Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant.  They’re everyone’s first chapter books.  The lessons about friendship are simple, but relevant for young kids.  Then there’s Fox and His Friends by Edward Marshall.  Fox is a goofy troublemaker, but some of the language is old fashioned and unfamiliar to kids.  Several more difficult series have junior versions, like the Young Cam Jansen and A is for Amber, the easy Amber Browns.  These are nice, because they look harder on the outside, but are easy on the inside.  The books retain the humor and plot of the originals, just at an easier reading level.  Also some of our favorite characters from picture books have graduated to chapter books.  Look for the series about Arthur, the aardvark, and Amelia Bedelia.  For mystery lovers, there’s Nate the Great, another great boy detective.  I’m a fan of Fancy Nancy, a glamorous, young protagonist, and Robert books, but then I always did like the naughty ones. 

 

For older kids who struggle in reading, easy chapter books like this can be a saving grace.  They look respectable on the outside, but they have strong picture clues and the reading level is accessible.  Kids who are reading on this level are usually just starting to become independent readers.  When these kids get stuck on a difficult word, we need to prompt them to think about the story first.  We want them thinking about what would make sense in the sentence.  Suggest they try rereading the sentence; it’s the most powerful strategy a reader can use when she gets stuck.  If that doesn’t work, we want them looking for familiar chunks of words.  We want them to see the “and” in “grand” or the “ing” and “ed” at the end of a verb.  These kids are moving beyond “sounding it out.”  Instead we ask them to “chunk it,” “take the word apart,” or “look for the little word inside the big word.”  But most importantly, we want them to enjoy the “chapter books!”

 

Easy Chapter Books

Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel

Fox and His Friends by Edward Marshall

The Young Cam Jansen by David A. Adler

Second Grade Rules, Amber Brown by Paula Danzinger

Arthur Chapter Books by Marc Brown

Amelia Bedelia Chapter Books by Herman Parish

Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant

Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

Clifford Big Red Chapter Books by Gail Herman

Mouse Tales by Arnold Lobel

Robert and the Sneaker Snobs by Barbara Seuling

Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth by Jane O’Connor

Just Grace by Charise Mericle Harper