Spirit Walker

This is a digital trailer for "Spirit Walker" by Nancy Wood. This was my "big project" for the semester.

Hallowilloween: Nefarious Silliness from Calef Brown, by Calef Brown

Title: Hallowilloween: Nefarious Silliness from Calef Brown     Author/Illustrator: Calef Brown

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (September 6, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0547215401
ISBN-13: 978-0547215402

Synopsis: Welcome to a spooky, silly world of tongue twisters and crazy rhymes all centered around the creatures one might see in a Halloween-themed town. There's the Vumpire to ump the baseball games (but only at night), the Grim Reaper, a werewolf and even a witch or two in Hallowilloween.

Review: Calef Brown's fun, freaky verse is perfectly paired with acrylic illustrations to tickle the funny bone of anyone who loves Halloween. But the book is not only fun for kids; parents who have a broader reading base than their children will enjoy Brown's riffs on classical literature (The Portrait of Gory Rene/The Picture of Dorian Gray) and references to traditional Halloween ghouls and beasties.

Awards/Reviews:

A Junior Library Guild Selection

"A modern master of nonsense verse reaches new heights of giddiness with this Halloween-themed collection. . . . Nefariously silly indeed."-Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Brown's acrylic illustrations add to the creepy silliness: an artful mix of naive and stylized, whimsical details and vibrant color. Young readers will relish the wordplay and find themselves torn to choose a favorite among this wacky menagerie."- School Library Journal, starred review

Connections:

The teacher should connect his/her computer to the projector and go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n_b8_jN1l4. Here the teacher can show the class a video of Calef Brown reciting nonsense poetry, then reciting poems from "Hallowilloween." Ask the students how the setting the author chose complimented what he was reading/discussing.

So much of the impact of the poems in "Hallowilloween" comes from Brown's illustrations. Ask the students to pick one poem to illustrate their own way. After the students have finished, ask them to answer some questions. What elements and colors did they choose, and why? How do they think this contributed to the mood of the poetry? How would the poems seem different if Brown used bright, happy colors?

Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems, by John Grandits

Title: Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems
Author: John Grandits
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 48 pages
Publisher: Sandpiper (May 21, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618851321
ISBN-13: 978-0618851324

Synopsis: Jessie likes blue lipstick, hates her brother (most of the time), doesn't like trophy-zombie jocks or pep rallies, can get a little cranky and loves her kitty. All these things are revealed in John Grandits' funny, sarcastic splice of high school life called "Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems."

Review: Grandits uses concrete poetry, poetry in which the words have been arranged in such a way as to form images, to both tell and illustrate the story of Jessie, a high school girl who marches to the beat of her own bagpipes (or cello, as the case may be). Grandits' use of letters and words to create images reveal his sly sense of humor and make the reader want to laugh out loud (especially the way he uses the word "bOObs" to illustrate the cheerleaders' "attributes" in the poem "Pep Rally"). Grandits' use of one long line of flowing, bouncing text to illustrate the movement of a volleyball in "Volleyball Practice" is inspired. His use of unconventional text placement really helps the reader see inside the protagonists head and see what she was thinking as she "wrote" it.



Awards/Reviews:

• American Library Association Notable Books for Children
• Nominated for Beehive Children's Poetry Book Award
• Nominated for Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award
• Nominated for Garden State Teen Book Award
• Nominated for SCASL Book Award

"This irreverent, witty collection should resonate with a wide audience." -  School Library Journal review

"Grandits playfully, and quite effectively, channels a teenage girl's dreams, anxieties, and pet peeves." - The Horn Book review

Connections:

Prior to meeting with the class, the teacher should transcribe "Bad Hair Day" into a regularly formed free-verse selection. Use the projector ported to a computer to show both forms of the poem side by side. Ask students which one they feel is more powerful. Why? How does the text "illustration" help tell Jessie's story?

Have students think about writing their own concrete poetry. What types of things would they want to write about? What images could they use to correspond with their poem?During the class's next computer group time, have students go to http://www.wild-about-woods.org.uk/elearning/concretepoetry/ and create their own concrete poem to print out and turn in. (Don't forget to remind the students to write their names and class periods on the paper!)

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies, by Sonya Sones

Title: One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies
Author: Sonya Sones
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (October 25, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416907882
ISBN-13: 978-1416907886

 

Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Ruby's life has drastically changed. Her mother, the only parent she has ever known, has died of cancer. Now Ruby must leave her life in Boston behind to go live with her movie-star father in Los Angeles. Ruby documents her trials and tribulations in verse, expressing her rage, sarcasm and even humor through poetry.

 

Review: Sonya Sones mostly uses blank verse to tell the story of Ruby, who must leave behind her mother's grave, her friends, her aunt and everything she knew to go live with her famous movie star father - whom she has never met. Her mother and father divorced before Ruby was born. By using verse, Sones allows the reader to look between the linesRuby has written to visualize and feel Ruby's pain and anger. The only time Sones writes in prose is when showing the e-mails Ruby and her friends have exchanged, as well as the e-mails Ruby continues to send her dead mother. By using a free-verse style, Sones gives readers an intimate look into the life (and head) of this very true-to-life teen character.

 

Awards/Reviews:

• winner of the Tennessee Volunteer State Teen Read Award (2006)
• winner of the Iowa Golden Apple Teen Read Award (2006)
• winner of the Rhode Island Teen Book Award (2005 -2006)
• winner of the New Hampshire Isinglass Teen Read Award (2005-2006)
• winner of the South Carolina Mustang Book Award (2005)
• winner of the 2004 Cuffie Award from Publisher’s Weekly for the Best Book Title of the Year
• chosen a Popular Paperback for Young Adults by the American Library Association
• named an International Reading Association Young Adults’ Choice (2006)
• named a 2005 Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association
• named a 2005 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers by the American Library Association
• nominated by the American Library Association to be a 2004 Teens’ Top Ten Book
• named an Honor Book by the Society of School Librarians International (2004)
• chosen a Kliatt Editor’s Choice: Best of 2004 Hardcover Fiction
• chosen a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Teen Book List (2004)
• chosen a New York Pubic Library Book for the Teen Age (2005)
• chosen for the New York State Charlotte Award Suggested Reading List  2006
• chosen a Westchester’s Choice List: Best Young Adult Book (2005)
• chosen for the Texas Tayshas High School Reading List 2005-2006
• chosen a YASIG Best of the Best (Missouri)
• chosen a Kansas State Reading Circle Senior High School Titles Top Pick  2005
• chosen a Pennsylvania School Librarian Association (PSLA) "Top Ten (Or So)" Young Adult Books  2004
• chosen a PSLA Young Adult Top 40 Fiction List 2004
• chosen an Amazon.com Top Ten Editor’s Pick for Teens (2004)
• chosen a Top Ten Summer Read by Girl’s Life Magazine (2004)

          Nominated for the following state book awards:

• Arizona Young Reader's Award (2005 – 2006)
• Florida Teen Reads Award (2006-2007)
• Maine Student Book Award (2005 – 2006)
• Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award (2005 – 2006)
• Missouri Gateway Readers Award (2006-2007)
• Eliot Rosewater High School Book Award (IN) (2006 -2007)
• Garden State Teen Book Award (NJ) (2007)

"Sones’ novel is an unusual combination of over-the-top Hollywood fairy tale and sharp, honest story about overcoming grief…It’s Ruby’s first-person voice—acrimonious, raw, and very funny—that pulls everything together, whether she is writing e-mails to her deceased mother or attending Dream Analysis class at a private L.A. high school…A satisfying, moving novel that will be a winner for both eager and reluctant readers." - Booklist starred review

"Ruby’s affable personality is evident in her humorous quips and clever wordplays. Her depth of character is revealed through her honest admissions, poignant revelations, and sensitive insights. This is not just another one of those gimmicky novels written in poetry. It’s solid and well written, and Sones has a lot to say about the importance of carefully assessing people and situations and about opening the door to one’s own happiness…Ruby’s story is gripping, enjoyable, and memorable." - School Library Journal starred review

"It is true that the mother dies, but this hilarious and painfully real novel in verse and letters is anything but hideous." - VOYA review

 

Connections:

Lead a round-table discussion on the book. Ask students to speculate on why they think Sones wrote the book in verse. How might the novel have been different if it had been written in prose? Would it have been as effective?

During the class's computer group time, have students go to https://penzu.com/ and click on "try it free". Ask to students to imagine they are Ruby and write what would be the next entry in Ruby's diary. The entry must be in free verse and at least 10 lines. Ask students to image what they think happened after the book ended. Ask students to make sure they title the piece and put their names on their entries at the bottom of the page with their class period, then print out their entries.

During the class's next computer group time, have students again go to https://penzu.com/ and click on "try it free". Ask students to write their own free verse diary entry over something that happened to them recently. It can be sad, funny, scary or angry. Stipulate that it must be at least 10 lines. Tell students to make sure their entries have a title. Have students print out their free-verse diary entries with their names and class periods on them and hand them in to you.

The Three Pigs, Adapted and Illustrated by David Wiesner

Title: The Three Pigs
Adaptor/Illustrator: David Wiesner
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Clarion Books (April 23, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618007016
ISBN-13: 978-0618007011

Synopsis: Once upon a time, there were three pigs. One built a house of straw, one a house of sticks and one a house of bricks. One day, the wolf came to visit and blew the pig with the house of straw right out of the frame. So then the three little pigs wandered around and took a ride on a paper airplane, interfered with some other traditional tales, and sicced a giant dragon on the big bad wolf.... Wait, huh?

Review: In this fractured fairy tale from David Wiesner, the three pigs escape through the margins of their traditional tale and are soon living it up between the pages of some of the most well known fairy tales. Wiesner's rich illustrations, creative use of white space and sly sense of humor make this old tale new and fresh again. Young children will love the unexpected turn of events, while parents and older readers will delight in Wiesner's use of irony and humor to not only let the reader in on the joke, but make them a part of it, as well!

Awards/Reviews:

Caldecott Medal Winner, American Library Association

Prix Sorcières (the French equivalent of the Caldecott Medal)

IBBY Honour Book nomination for illustration

"In his latest flight of fancy, Wiesner uses shifting illustration styles and fonts to startle complacent readers into an imaginary world even as they ponder the conventional structure of story. His trademark crafty humor and skewed perspectives will tickle readers pink (even the nonporcine variety)!" Amazon.com

"Wiesner's brilliant use of white space and perspective evokes a feeling that the characters can navigate endless possibilities--and that the range of story itself is limitless." Publishers Weekly

Connections:

Before reading David Wiesner’s The Three Pigs, ask your students to tell the story of The Three Little Pigs as they know it. Are there variations in the stories they tell? Or, as it says on the jacket of Wiesner’s book, is it a story where, “every time someone tells it the same thing happens”?

After reading the story, ask students to come up with other stories they'd like to see "fractured". Have the students speculate on what could happen in some of those stories.

Compare with students the original version of this story, Wiesner's version and other "fractured" versions that have been published. Ask students what is different and what is the same? Which one do they think the pigs would like best? Have them draw pictures of their favorite parts as a way to connect words and the imagery they depict.

For more ideas, visit http://www.teachingbooks.net/content/Wiesner_activity_guide.pdf 

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, Adapted and Illustrated by Simms Taback

Title: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
Adaptor/Illustrator: Simms Taback
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Viking Juvenile; 1 edition (September 1, 1997)
ISBN-10: 0670869392
ISBN-13: 978-0670869398

Synopsis*:  An old lady swallows a fly. What on earth will she do? How will she get it out? She tries swallowing a cat to get rid of the spider, but then the cat was stuck. So then the old lady tried swallowing a dog... How on earth is she ever going to get them all out?

Review: Simms Taback uses brightly colored graphics using mixed media and collage on Kraft paper to help illustrate the traditional folk poem "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly". On its own, the story is very amusing; add in Taback's witty art and related extras (a recipe for Spider Soup on the page for the spider; a listing of common birds of the Americas on the birds page) and kids will be downright delighted. The old lady is depicted with kookily crossed eyes and a staggering gait. The pages are die cut with increasingly bigger holes to show all the things swimming around in the old lady's stomach as she tries in vain to get them out. The test is handwritten on brightly colored scraps of paper, making it easy for young readers to follow along with the librarian/teacher/parent/adult reading the story to the children, and it's just silly enough to keep a child's attention.

Awards/Reviews: 

  

Notable Book designation (1998), American Library Association (ALA)

Caldecott Honor Book (1998), ALA

New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book

Children’s Book of the Year selection from The American Institute of Graphic Arts.

"Children of all ages will joyfully swallow this book whole." Publishers Weekly

"The old lady... looks wacky enough to go so far as to swallow a horse." School Library Journal

"It is good fun to watch the old lady bulge and bloat, and the sheer corniness of the verse continues to be deeply gratifying." Kirkus Reviews

Connections:

Teach young students the melody of the song (if they don't already know it) and have them join you on singing the lyrics "I don't know why she swallowed the fly." The teacher will point to the words of this line as she reads it to help students learn to recognize the words on sight.

For classroom use with Kindergarteners, this is a good book to use for sequencing. Ask students to predict what will happen. As the story goes on, ask students to predict what animal the old lady will swallow next. What will happen to her? Ask students to remember the sequence in which the old lady swallows things - from little bugs to big animals. Then ask students to remember the reverse order, from big to little. This is early preparation for learning about sequences. https://home.comcast.net/~leighanne.kraemer/Lesson%20Plans/LangArts/Interactive%20Read%20Aloud%20There%20Was%20an%20Old%20Lady.doc

Have students create their own "Old Lady" using some photocopied old lady heads, arms and legs taped to a sandwich baggie. Then allow students to color and decorate photocopied outlines of horses, dogs, spiders, etc. for them to use to tell the stories themselves. This can be used to reinforce the unit listed above on sequencing.

*It is noted in the back of the book that "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" is an American folk poem first heard in the United States in the 1940's. Several different versions of the poem were collected and published in Hoosier Folklore (December 1947); the original author is unknown.

The Story of Lightning and Thunder, Written and Illustrated by Ashley Bryan

Title: The Story of Lightning & Thunder
Author/Illustrator: Ashley Bryan
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Atheneum (October 31, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0689824505
ISBN-13: 978-0689824500

Synopsis*: Thunder was a black Mama Sheep and Lightning was her white Ram son. Lightning and Thunder didn't always live up in the sky. They used to live here on Earth in a little village in Africa.  But when Lightning doesn't want to listen to what Thunder tells him to do, he causes trouble for the villagers and they are banished to the sky!

 

 

Review: Ashley Bryan uses a conversational style that reads as if Bryan were speaking directly to the reader. The text uses vernacular and onomatopoeia to mimic the sounds of lightning and thunder as they roll and crash through the sky. This is complemented by Bryan's vivid, stylized illustrations using geometric shapes and bright colors to draw young listeners' attention to page to tell the story of the consequences of being unruly and that even the best of intentions can go terribly awry. The expressions on the faces of the villagers are often quite humorous, and one can't help but feel sorry for Lightning's bumbling and fumbling that causes so much trouble for everyone.

 

 

Awards/Reviews: 

 

Although this particular work has not won any awards, Ashley Bryan has received several honors and awards in his career.

 

Bryan's books have won several awards in children's literature, including the Coretta Scott King Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award from Pennsylvania State University, and the Lupine Award from the Maine Library Association. Bryan himself also received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for achievement in children's literature and the University of Southern Mississippi Medallion from the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival.

• 1981 Coretta Scott King Award Winner for outstanding illustration in Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum
• 1983 Coretta Scott King Award Honor for outstanding illustration in I'm Going to Sing: Black American Spirituals
• 1987 Coretta Scott King Award Honor for outstanding author in Lion and the Ostrich Chicks and Other African Folk Tales
• 1987 Coretta Scott King Award Honor for outstanding illustration in Lion and the Ostrich Chicks and Other African Folk Tales
• 1988 Coretta Scott King Award Honor for outstanding illustration in What a Morning! The Christmas Story in Black Spirituals
• 1992 Coretta Scott King Award Honor for outstanding illustration in All Night, All Day: A Child's First Book of African American Spirituals
• 1998 Coretta Scott King Award Honor for outstanding illustration in Ashley Bryan's ABC of African American Poetry
• 2004 Coretta Scott King Award Winner for outstanding illustration in Beautiful Blackbird
• 2008 Coretta Scott King Award Winner for outstanding illustration in Let it Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals
• 2009  Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for substantial and lasting contributions to children's literature

 "Joyful in both word and palette... Brilliantly colored and ingeniously patterned, Bryan's illustrations are a playful take on stained glass." Publishers Weekly

 

"A delightful adaptation of a Nigerian folktale. There is one of Bryan's uniquely vibrant, swirling, light-filled paintings on every page." Kirkus Reviews

 

 Connections:

 

Read the story aloud to students. Ask the students if any of them know what really happens to cause lightning and thunder. Using a computer or laptop ported to an overhead projector, go to http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-thunderstorms.htm for a kid-based explanation of what causes lighting and thunder, as well as answers to some questions related to thunderstorms.

 

Explain to the students that this is a folktale - a way people used to explain everyday things so that they won't seem so scary. Ask students to think about the things that scare them. Then call on students to ask them what scares them. After three students have given different answers, tell the students that the class is going to write and illustrate their own folktale about something that scares them. Write the three different scary things on the board. Tell the students they are going to vote over which one they are going to write about. Explain that students will raise their hands when the teacher calls out which scary thing they want to write about. Explain that each student may only raise their hand once. Then call out the different things, and write the number of students who voted for each one below the scary thing.

 

Repeat the above steps with a main animal character, the "explanation" of the scary thing, the setting, etc. The next day, the teacher will bring in old magazines and pictures off the Internet the students will combine with their own drawings to create illustrations to match the story. At the end of the unit, each child will get their own copy of the class folktale to take home, and the classroom will have a copy prominently displayed in the room for visitors to see.

 

*It is noted on the copyright page that this is based on Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa, by Elphinstone Dayrell (London: Longmans Green, 1910), 70-71.