Holiday Reading List...

I always look forward to cozying up to some good books over the Winter Break! Here are a few that are on my reading list:


Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell


Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech


Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
I know, I know...I should have read this one a long time ago, but better late than never, right?

I'll be reviewing them over on my Librarything website, so be sure to check it out! Be sure to spend some time by the fireplace with a good book during your break, too! I'd love to hear about what you're reading in the comments section!

New Newbery

I just cracked open one of the newest Newbery books, Savvy by Ingrid Law. The cover art alone is enough to grab your attention and I love the size and rough cut edges of the pages. It's a beautiful book.

I'm enjoying Law's writing style as well. From the very first page, she draws readers in with phrases like "push-pulling waves" and "...moving had been hard, hard like the pavement the first time I fell off my pink two-wheeler and my palms burned like fire from all of the hurt just under the skin."

I'm only on page 83 and I'm thinking of a million ways this book could be used in writer's workshop and how the characters are so rich and unique...what a great character study they would make. And what about the careful word choice and assonance in this sentence (p. 13), "I had to poke and prod broody Samson up the long, soggy boggy road toward our mailbox..."

Anyway...it's a hit so far! Check out the official book website for some more fun and I'll be back to tell you more about the rest of the book soon!

Franklin Roosevelt

I was ecstatic to win an advance review copy of Remember Me: Tomah Joseph's Gift to Franklin Roosevelt. The book tells the tale of a little known slice of Roosevelt's childhood and his friendship with a Passamaquody tribal elder. Children will learn about birchbark canoes and baskets, wildlife, and several Passamaquody words. This is a nice addition to any Native American collection.

Souvenir Books

Children's books make great souvenirs! In the case of these two books, they helped me to share my own travels with my girls (who stayed home from these two trips).

While on a trip to a conference in Seattle, I found this book:



Salt & Pepper at the Pike Place Market includes many of the sights from the market and manages to capture the bustling, busy feel.

While on a trip with my husband to Banff, Canada, we kept stumbling upon these fantastic little stacks of rocks along hikes and in public gardens:





We even made one ourselves at the top of Tunnel Mountain:



We discovered that these rock structures were traditionally built by the Inuit people to serve as messengers. I finally found this children's book that contains information on the origin and purpose of inuksuit (plural form of inuksut) and instructions on how to create your own inuksut. This is a great souvenir from our trip that we could share with our daughters:



The next time you go on a trip, search out some uniquely regional children's literature to bring home!

A few BERRY good books...

As our blueberry bushes are blooming in the backyard, I'm pulling out a few books that I consider classics.


Blueberries for Sal is the sweet story of a boy and his mother going out to pick blueberries, carrying simple tin pails along. The illustrations are fun and retro.


The second story is Peter in Blueberry Land by Elsa Beskow. This book was first published in Sweden in 1901 by the author of the classic tale Children of the Forest. In this fantasy, Peter magically shrinks and discovers a whole world of tiny people ruled by the King of Blueberry Land. His adventures of the day culminate in his basket being full of blueberries and him being back to his normal size. Peter then presents his mother with the basket of berries for her birthday.

Elsa Beskow's books are amazing and invoke a simpler time. I'd recommend that everyone check them out!

Literature Circles Continued...

Today we used adding machine tape to create timelines. My students had to choose important events from the book to represent using illustrations, dates, and/or quotes from the book. This activity really gets readers digging through the book to locate facts.

We also brainstormed other ideas for literature circles. Here's our list of possible responses to literature:
*Creating a play to act out a scene from the story.
*Woven story mats: Each group creates a strip of adding machine tape that represents the story then they are all woven together to create one comprehensive piece of artwork.
*Discuss the favorite part of the book then come up and act it out like charades.
*Predict what might happen next (rewrite the ending of the story or write a continuation of the story).
*Chart advantages and disadvantages of living forever. (Specific to Tuck)
*Put together a Venn Diagram to show the similarities and differences of main characters.
*Draw what you imagine the characters looking like.
*Discuss the metaphors included in the book.

Literature Circles

In class, we've been working with Tuck Everlasting in literature circles. I want my students to experience literature circles as a reader so they can more effectively utilize this method in their own classrooms. Here's a list of activities I've presented to them so far:

Open-ended question cards - to stimulate depth of conversations in beginning literature circle groups

Poster missions - including these circle tasks
*Create a wanted poster for one of the main characters in the book. Be sure to include lots of character descriptions and traits to help people identify the person.
*Pretend that this book is being made into a movie. Create a movie poster to advertise the new film.
*Choose a minimum of five powerful quotes from the book and create an aesthetically pleasing poster to display the quotes.
*Compare and contrast two of the main characters from the book. Display your ideas on a poster.

Illustrate a scene from the book then incorporate the words (from the book) that helped your form that image into your illustration.

The purpose...

This blog is a place to reflect, react, and record all things children's lit! I teach a children's literature course and would like to share my thoughts with my students and encourage the development of an online community of learners. I'll chronicle some of the activities in our class and hopefully my students will respond and continue our discussions.