Wild Fibonacci-- Perfect Picture Book Friday

Happy Fibonacci Day!

11/23 is Fibonacci Day! A great day to celebrate the Fibonacci sequence and spiral. Pull out your cornucopia and get it ready for Thanksgiving.

My pick for this week is:

Title: Wild Fibonacci: Nature's Secret Code Revealed

Author: Joy N. Hulme

Illustrator: Carol Schwartz 

Publisher: Tricycle Press, 2005

For ages 6 and up

Wild Fibonacci opens with front matter explaining the Fibonacci sequence and the spiral. It also offers ways to discover the sequence through exploration in nature.

Themes: Fibonacci, Mathematics, poetry, Nature, STEM

Opening Page:

In the Fibonacci sequence 

each new number comes

from adding up the two before

and figuring the sum.

This number set is used to plot

a graceful curving line

that's often found in nature

as part of its design. 

The book continues showing the sequence through counting wild animals and each animal depicted shows the curve of the spiral on a part of the animal's body.

Why I like this book:

The sequence and the spiral are fascinating and appear in so many places. Introducing children to this concept will open the door to them seeing the word in new and exciting ways.

This book mainly focuses on the Fibonacci sequence, but uses animals and obvious body parts that fit the curve of the Fibonacci spiral.

The art work is engaging and realistic.

Activities and Resources:

Learn more about Leonardo Fibonacci.

• Lean about Fibonacci's hypothetical rabbit question and see how this sequence became popularized.
• Take a walk and search for objects, and animals that have spiral features. 
• Start a journal of your discoveries adding drawings and/text to help you understand what you have found.
• Use the spiral as a compositional style.
• Learn more to understand more.
• Write a Fibonacci Poem

Here's one I wrote:

Nautilus Shell

Once
live.
Chambered
Nautilus
thread-like siphuncle                       (sigh-funk-el)
jet propulsing, moving backward
through the ocean. Rising, lowering, traveling the sea.
Hungry octopus spies a meal.
Soft delicious treat.
Empty shell
rides waves
to
shore.

Sarah Tobias (C) 2019

Definition of siphuncle.

Boo and Baa Have Company-- Perfect Picture Book Friday

I was at the library last week picking up a few books. This book caught my eye. Read on to find out why.

Title: Boo and Baa Have Company

Authors/Illustrators: Lena and Olof Landstrom 

Translated by: Joan Sandin

Publisher: R & S Books, 2006

Themes: Humor, Fall, Cats, Animals, 

First Lines: It's autumn. The tree has dropped its leaves. 

Boo and Baa are a couple of sheep out raking their yard. The wheelbarrow squeaks so they oil it and then it meows.

Why I love this book:

I grew up on the Scandanavian-American Ole and Lena jokes. Here's one I found online:

Ole, Lena, and Sven were lost in the northwoods and were becoming desperate, having run out of food several days ago. It was winter, the snow was deep, their situation was looking very bleak. 

When Ole dug down into the snow to look for something to eat , he found an old lamp and upon rubbing it to get the snow off, a genie came out.

The genie says, "I am the great genie of the North and I can grant each of you one wish."

Ole says, "I vish I vas back on my farm." Poof, Ole was gone.

Lena quickly says, "I vish I vas back on da farm wit Ole." Poof, Lena was gone.

Sven was sitting there looking sad and the genie finally says, "What is your wish?" and Sven says, "Gee, I'm really lonely. I vish Ole and Lena vas back here with me".

OK, so now you know a little something about my sense of humor and a little bit of why I love stories.

This is the long way of saying, when I saw the authors names on the book cover, I had to bring it home and read it. As it began, I thought, hmm, I don't know about this book, then I turned to . . .

She greases the axle. "Now it meows when I push it," says Boo.

It cracked me up. I stopped and made my husband read it with me. The illustrations and text really create the whole story. Kids will be in on the joke before Boo and Baa. Boo and Baa are adorable and timeless.

While the story has a fall setting, it would be cute to read any time of year.

Activities: 

• Go outside and play in the leaves. Or if you are in the Midwest, make a leafy snowman. (Our seasons got jumbled and the leaves fell after the snow.)

• Check out a joke book and tell each other silly jokes and see who laughs first.

• There are loads of sheep crafts on Pinterest. I chose this one because it looks like a scene and kids can create their own Boo and Baa stories.

• Make a leaf craft.

Be sure to keep up on all of the Perfect Picture Book Friday posts at Susanna Hill's blog. You can find lots of fun books by theme at this page.

Fry Bread -- Perfect Picture Book Friday

Native American Heritage Month

Title: Fry Bread: a Native American Family Tradition

Author: Kevin Noble Maillard 

Illustrator: Juana Martinez-Neal

Publisher: Roaring Book Press, 2019

Opening pages:

Fry Bread is Food

Flour, salt, water

Cornmeal, baking powder

Perhaps milk, maybe sugar

All mixed together in a bowl

This book! 

How do I describe it? It is poetry. It is history. It is truth. It is sadness and happiness. It is simple and complex. It is beautiful and powerful. It is a book for reading together and for discussing. It is for young and old.

"Fry Bread is Everything
Round, flat, large, small
North, South, East, West
Familiar and foreign, old and new
We come together"

It is a doorway to understanding, loving, making amends, opening our eyes, and creating a better future.

At the end of the book there are 8 pages of author's notes and another page of references and footnotes. So much information in a beautiful picture book.

Juana Martinez-Neal's illustrations are joyful, lively, thoughtful, sad, true and engaging. They were created in acrylics, colored pencil, and graphite on hand-textured paper.


Activities and Resources:

At the end of the book there is a recipe for Kevin's Fry Bread. This would be a wonderful family activity.

I found a recipe that is gluten free.

Activities for Native American Heritage Month

Dr. Debbie Reese's blog post

Juana Martinez Neal

Publishers Weekly Interview

Mr. Schu Reads

Matthew Winner's Podcast

As always you can read about more perfect Picture Books at Susanna Hill's blog. Her last Perfect Picture Book was this same book. It is one worth sharing over and over again. Be sure to check out the wonderful list by themes on this page.

Moldilocks and the Three Scares -- Perfect Picture Book Friday

Our snowy Halloween has come to an end, my skeletons are cold and ready to hibernate until next year, but there's always time for a fun zombie story.

It is the Day of the Dead a time for remembrance and love so this book makes for a Perfect Picture Book today and well, any day.

Title: Moldilocks and the Three Scares: A Zombie Tale

Author: Lynne Marie

Illustrator: David Rodriguez Lorenzo

Publisher: Sterling Children's Books, 2019

Opening Page: IN A HUGE HAUNTED HOUSE -- with room enough for four, there lived three Scares: Papa Scare, Mama Scare, and Baby Scare. 

Themes: Adoption, Halloween, Zombies, Classic Remakes

This remix of the classic Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a a little creepy, a little gruesome, and full of heart.

Why I love this book: 

There are not many books out there that include adoption as a topic.  This one sets you up from the beginning that this family has room for one more. Something every adopted child wants to feel is that there is room for them and they are wanted.

I love Halloween and our local schools no longer celebrate the holiday. This book isn't a Halloween story, so it makes for a great book to read this time of year. You don't have to break any rules, but you get to have some spooky creepy fun.

Illustrations: 

One of the things that I love about the end papers is that there is the black space at the bottom right corner. At first glance it seems like there was an odd choice in layout, but when you know the story, you realize it's black because it is waiting to be filled.

Activities and Resources:

You could pair this book with Sterling, Best Dog Ever by Aidan Cassie to talk about adoption and  finding a home.

Or

You could pair this book with Zombies Don't Eat Veggies by Jorge and Megan Lacera and have a non-Halloween at Halloweenie storytime. You could even add in Zombies in Love by Kate DiPuccio for a Zombie Trifecta.

You can read more about her journey in making this book here.

Check out David's Website

He posted a sketch on Instagram that you can color.

Check out Lynne Marie's website.

Halloweensie Time!: Matilda's Treat

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.

Matilda's Treat

Matilda died long ago.

Her skin is gone, but not her dream.

The full moon’s bright, and she has risen.

Time to mix her favorite potion.

The cauldron bubbles, steams, and boils.

She tosses in

Eye of newt and bat wing leather,

A vulture’s head and just one feather.

She stirs and stirs.

It’s almost ready.

One last touch, gently folded in;

shimmery, glistening spider webs.

Light and fluffy . . .

the perfect batch of cobweb candy.

Matilda waits for her guests.

Children come singing, “Trick-or-Treat.”

She raises her hand and makes her offer.

Would you try it?

Would you dare?

The Upper Case: Solving the Mystery of a Perfect Picture Book Friday

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.

Check out Tara's website. 

Check our Ross's website.

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.

Here's a book to pair with The Upper Case. https://jilannehoffmann.com/2019/10/25/a-bunch-of-punctuation-perfect-picture-book-friday-ppbf/

As always, be sure to check out Susanna Hill's blog for more perfect picture books. 

Give Me Back My Bones -- Perfect Picture Book Fridays!

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.

Make a skeleton:
This one is 3 dimensional
This one is more Halloweenie
One more with lots to cut out.

Pick up a guide to ocean fish and see if you can identify the fish and other creatures in the illustrations.

Check Out Bob Kolar's Website. You can follow him on Instagram too.
Check out Kim's Website. You can follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Be sure to check out more #PPBF posts at Susanna Hill's Blog. So many wonderful books. So little time.