I love Halloween. For me it's family, creativity, and scary, but not too scary times.
Susanna Hill has brought back many fun memories and pushed my creativity. Thank you for putting on this fun writing contest and thank you to all the people who have donated incredible prizes.
I met Matilda at Michael's and she came home to live, well not live, but hang out, at my house. While she looks like a bunch of bones, she lives on in this story.
Halloweensie Rules: Halloween Story, 100 words or less, must include the words, potion, trick, and cobweb, for ages 12 and under.
I have always loved mysteries all the way back to the kittens who lost their mittens. I loved Encyclopedia Brown and The Bobbsey Twins. Scoobey Doo was my favorite cartoon. So Tara Lazar's Private I books are right up my dark and dangerous alley.
Her first book in the series got me with the title:
A couple of years ago, I was assisting a class of second graders as they were starting a math lesson. That day's assignment was on page 789. I let out a kind of snorty laugh and one of the kids looked at me like I was an alien. She had never heard the joke. Jokes are hard to explain to second graders. The humor gets lost when you are trying to explain a Homonym and how it makes for a funny joke. But, when the joke is laid out in front of you in a story, kids can get it all on their own.
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago and the second grade class I was subbing for were getting a little squirrely with their math and language studies. I pulled out my special copy of 7 Ate 9 and we had a math and language lesson all in one. Don't worry, I just read the book and didn't tell them they were putting their lessons to work. They already knew the story, but were happy to read the book again. They love being in on the jokes and the mystery. Thank you Tara for signing the book. It is now in the school library and the kids can read it again and again.
On to Perfect Picture Book Friday:
Title: THE UPPER CASE: TROUBLE IN CAPITAL CITY
Author: Tara Lazar
Illustrator: Ross McDonald
Publisher: Disney Hyperion, 2019
Now, before we get started, put on your best Humphrey Bogart voice and read this out loud . . .
Opening lines:
I was dozing in my chair when Question Mark barged into my office. He looked bent out of shape.
"What's the matter, Mark?" I asked.
The problem, you ask. All the uppercase letters are missing! But Private I is on the case and he's taking you along to talk to Little b, and all the punctuation to solve this mystery.
Why I love this book:
A mystery as noted at the beginning of this post.
Tara has a wonderful ability to bring language and number humor alive.
Throughout the story readers learn about punctuation in a fun way.
You get to use your Humphrey Bogart voice and create many more voices for all the characters.
I love how Ross McDonald brings all the letters and punctuation to life. Those little legs and big shoes . . . adorable.
Activities and Resources:
Practice your best Humphrey Bogart voice. Here's a little video to get you started.
I was going to add some "Fun ways to teach capitalization and punctuation." But so far I haven't found any that are as fun as this book. If you have fun ways to play with these lessons, please share them in the comments.
Title: Give Me Back My Bones!
Author: Kim Norman
Illustrator: Bob Kolar
Publisher: Candlewick Press, 2019
Themes: Bone Structure, Pirates, Poetry, Halloween, Skeletons
First Lines:
A stormy Night has passed here
and toppled every mast here.
The ocean, flowing fast here,
has scattered all my bones!
Why I love this book:
A fun way to teach a child the names of the bones in our bodies.
A Pirate story!
Poetry
Kim uses Anadiplosis (not a dinosaur) but the repetition of the last word in each of the lines of poetry.
In the first three lines of each page/poem, her meter matches and ends of the lines use the same word. Then as she is showing us which bone the skeleton is seeking, the meter and last word change. The first three lines skip along at a fast fun beat. The fourth line is shorter yet takes longer to say making the name of the bone sticky and memorable.
Beautiful under water illustrations.
I am always curious to figure out how illustrations are made. It was a challenge for this book. I was pretty sure it was digital art, but that was a guess and I wanted to be sure. I found a sentence on a Pinterest post that says his work is created with Adobe Illustrator. Bob Kolar has a way of making the images cartoony yet realistic.
I guess what I mean by that is there is a playfulness to the illustrations and yet, you can tell there was research and an understanding of the subject. The fish are recognizable as real fish you could see in the ocean. The bones are simplified, yet you know what they are.
I love the way he uses texture to create depth and dimensionality.
The color scheme with the dark background and bright foreground is engaging.
Activities and Resources:
Don't wait until Talk Like A Pirate Day to share this book. It would be fun now around Halloween. If you are talking about the human body and want to teach the names of the skeletal bones, share the book. Share it in a poetry unit to teach the meter and anadiplosis style of poetry.
This past summer I met Daria Peoples-Riley at Highlights Foundation Summer Camp. On our last night, we all headed over to the Executive Director's family farm for a cookout. Daria, Matthew Winner, and I were in the same van for the trip. Daria pulled out her copy of her about to be released picture book, I Got Next. It's the sequel to her book This is It.
Title: I Got Next
Author and Illustrator: Daria People-Riley
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2019
When I got home, I ordered both books. There are so many kids I would love to share these books with. They are inspiring, encouraging, and filled with rhythm, poetry, and joy.
In the van, Daria mentioned that she wished there was a way to teach people how to read the books with the rhythm, poetry, and joy that is infused throughout. You see there are some videos of people reading the book. The readers do a beautiful job of enunciating and reading each page slowly for someone looking will be able to linger over the images. The problem with that is these books are more like music and when you read the story without the music, you leave part of that story in the book. (my thoughts.)
To give you a sense of the rhythm, here is the flap cover text:
It's Game day!
Time to put
your game face on.
Shake shake 'em.
Playground play, 'em.
Work hard.
Don't quit.
And leave your heart
on the court
because
YOU
GOT
NEXT!
I emailed Daria and asked if I could interview her for this post. She graciously agreed and a I sent her a few questions.
What would you tell readers to help them get the rhythm?
I think in order for readers to understand the rhythm and rhyming in THIS IS IT and I GOT NEXT they should research the rhetorical devices deeply rooted in African traditions. One of the stylistic devices I use in my books, through voice and structure, both in text and visually is call and response. Call and response is the foundation for many African American oral traditions. It is a dialogue between the speaker and the audience, the author and the reader.
Some stories have an obvious tune based on a song that we know. Others are like these two books where the text size, the punctuation, the images provide clues to the voice of the story. This is a part of why we fall in love with a story and want to share it with the world. As librarians, parents, and teachers, we should have the courage to give each story we read the energy it deserves. It helps children become engaged with the story, and encourages them to want to read even more stories.
The end pages in I Got Next are beautiful and filled with symbols and portraits. Why did you choose this for the end pages? There is so much there to look at and wonder about.
I’m happy to hear this. I think this is exactly the purpose of public art, to make us pause, reflect and wonder, and maybe even wander into our own imagination. I chose to create a mural for the end pages because I imagined it would exist in the neighborhood where my hero lives, a reminder to him of the heroes and heroines whose lives he should use as mentor texts. Their stories of resilience and contribution should inspire him to put his game face on and use his gifts and abilities to work hard and to be a leader on the court, and in extension, in his community.
Would you share a little bit about your illustration style and process?
My illustration style is a result of me learning to work with the materials and knowledge I gain as I grow as an artist through my life experiences and through trial and error.
When I began, I enjoyed painting, but lacked the education of traditional art school training. I didn’t know things like how to prepare paper for a painting or the elements of composition or really the “right” way to do anything. Pretty much everything I learned about illustration was more or less a result of playing and experimenting with mediums and various processes.
My introduction to art was photography, so I learned Photoshop as a result and used it as apart of my process. Because of Photoshop, I think about the composition of an illustration in layers which is the way Photoshop is structured.
I begin by painting individual layers, scan, or photograph the layers, and then composite them in Photoshop, from the background to foreground. If I mess up, it’s no big deal because I can just paint the layer over again until it can be added to the composition in Photoshop.
I used this process for both THIS IS IT and I GOT NEXT. I paint in watercolor, gouache, and ink. For the portraits in I GOT NEXT, I drew those using charcoal.
Many people ask me if I call my style collage. I guess it is in a non-traditional way, but as I grow as an artist, I find myself moving away from Photoshop, primarily because I don’t really like using the computer as much these days. I do, however, like the idea of collage, so I’m experimenting with ways to retain my style while using a new process that doesn’t always include Photoshop or drastically limits my use of it.
How did these stories come to you; through words or images first?
All of my stories (up to this point) come through the inspiration of a protagonist who wants me to tell his or her story. When I sit down to tell it, some spreads come as words, others as images and after it’s gone through the revision process, both words and images tell the whole story.
More Questions?
I could have asked her many more questions, but a book, once released into the world, is a partnership of the author, illustrator, and reader. We as the readers get to make our own interpretations and bring our individuality into each story we read.
Why I love these books:
For their poetry, their encouragement, and because I can easily see myself sharing them with loads of kids.
I love that the characters in these picture books are older. I love reading picture books to school aged children. They have the ability to see the layers within the stories and use their own imaginations to create art and stories of their own.
Daria uses a shadow person as the other character in the book. I have thought a lot about that. The shadow looks like the character, but it could also be the shadow of an important person in the child's life. Our shadows can be uplifting and our shadows have the potential of trying to tear us down. I believe this comes from who we have in our lives and how they talk to us each day. As adults and parents who connect with children, it is our opportunity to help each child we encounter develop their positive uplifting shadow.
Activities and Resources:
Check out the trailer for this is it. A celebration of individuality, self-expression and dance.
I had to laugh when I opened my email for the latest episode of The Children's Book Podcast and saw that it is an interview with Daria Peoples-Riley on the same week that I was working on my Perfect Picture Book Friday post of her books. I guess connections made at Highlights Foundation are really strong.
Be sure to check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book, title, and by themes. And you can check out her weekly #PPBF post along with links to many more wonderful posts here.
I have to start by saying I love these writing contests. They help me stay creative, help me focus on best word choices to make a complete story in a limited number of words, and I get to read loads of stories written by many writers.
Having said that, this time, I had a hard time getting started. I have been participating in Inktober and my creative brain was drawing focused. I almost gave up. I figured I would promote the contest and read other people's stories and be satisfied. But that didn't feeling right. It felt like giving up on a tiny bit of my writing dream.
I sat down looked at the images again (I had limited my choices to two photos)
Image 11
I really thought the story would come from the crows. We have three crows who hang out in our Cottonwood tree from fall to spring and I have been waiting for their story to emerge. I must continue wait. Sitting on my table by the window was a little acorn that I had picked up one day while walking the dogs. The story didn't come from here, though a couple lines appeared:
"I told him not to eat the acorn. Who eats anything that glows?"
"You know if you hadn't said anything, he probably wouldn't have eaten it."
"So it's my fault he turned into a . . .?"
Then, I drew this:
Still not a story.
Image 6
But Acorn Man came to mind and then the Spider Man song from the sixties started playing in my head and this is what came out: Dun, dun, dunnnnnnnn!
Superhero Halloween
By Sarah Tobias, 159 words
“Aidan, Halloween is coming. Do you want to make a costume?”
“Oh, Yeah!”
“What would you like to be this year?”
“Acorn Man!”
“Tell me about this Acorn Man.”
Aidan began to sing:
“Acorn Man, Acorn Man! Enchanted by Squirrel Man.
Wears an Acorn hat and leaf.
Gathering acorns, he’s no thief.
Oh Yeah! He’s the Acorn Man.
Acorn Man, Acorn Man, Plants the seeds as fast as he can.
He’s strong as a tree
and floats like a leaf.
Make Way! For flying Acorn Man.
Acorn Man, Acorn Man! Nurtures seeds with a plan.
He cleans the air that we breathe
with his forest of Oak trees.
Oh Yeah! He’s the Acorn Man.”
“Well, all right then. Let’s get started making your
costume.”
They planned and they drew.
They cut and they sewed.
By Halloween, the costume was ready.
Aidan wore his pouch filled with acorns and,
for every treat he received . . .
he planted an Oak tree seed.
Be sure to check out more stories on the official entry page.
There are poems and stories; humorous and scary, sweet and dreary. They all show how creative people can be when they spend time and allow themselves to play, be inspired, and put pen to paper.
If you want to try your hand at writing a story, check out Susanna Hill's Halloweensie Contest. Get your butt in a chair and start writing. Your creative brain will thank you.
It's National Hispanic Heritage Month! What a wonderful opportunity to highlight Pura Belpre!
Title: Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre
Author: Anika Aldamuy Denise
Illustrator: Paola Escobar
Publisher: Harper. 2019
Themes: Librarians, Biography, stories, Diversity, Puerto Rico
First Lines: It is 1921. Pura Teresa Belpre leaves her home in San Juan for a visit to Nueva York. Words travel with her: stories her abuela taught her. Cuentos folkloricos Pura retold in the shade of a tamarind tree., in Puerto Rico.
Why I love this book:
It's about a librarian! Even better a librarian from Puerto Rico. She loved children, told stories and wrote stories which were published.
As I read her story, I think about storytimes in the library and the sense of simple pleasure they provided. "In the children's room, she lights the story hour candle . . . and begins:
To me there is still nothing as lovely as sharing stories with a group of children.
Pura crafted her own puppets to bring her stories to life. Folktales were shared en ingles y espanol. taking us back in time to a special place that lives on to this day.
There is a joyful gentleness in the illustrations. Many colors, but they are all a little bit muted, soft and feel like we are being taken back in time to the world of Pura Belpre.
Write a story and act it out with your new puppet.
Be sure to check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book, title, and by themes. And you can check out her weekly #PPBF post along with links to many more wonderful posts here.
I would love to hear your thoughts about the books I share. Have you read them? Were they available at your library? Did you ask the library to purchase them? How did you use them in your classroom or library? Feel free to share the posts with family and friends. Reading is wonderful and sharing about books you love, helps authors, illustrators and publishers.
My apologies for missing accents on words. I have looked up how to get them to work on my laptop, but my laptop doesn't want to play the way other laptops do. I will get it figured out and will edit this post once I do. If only it were as easy as it is on my phone and tablet. (That might be the solution, but I would like one that allows me to do all the work in one place.)
