for National Hispanic Heritage Month

Each Tiny Spark : Be brave and light up the world   by Pablo Cartana

Also author of Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora

short review

•  slow pace
•  multi layered
•  middle grade 
•  6^th grade class
• many themes
•  PTSD
•  immigration
•  ADHA
•  bilingualism 
• heritage
• and food

Emilia Rosa lives in Northern Georgia with her mother and Abuela. At beginning of the novel, Emilia Rosa’s dad is a deployed Marine; he returns by chapter six.  Her mother, an app designer has gone to San Francisco for a conference.  The family texts back and forth daily; Emilia Rosa’s mother will pop in for video chats from the West Coast.  Mom stays on top of Emilia Rosa’s progress in school because of her ADHD.  There are generational conflicts between Abuela and Emilia Rosa and Mom which could lead to fireworks in a discussion group. The themes listed above, may work well for a small group, possibly grades 4, 5 and above.

Personally, I enjoyed both books and the inclusion of Spanish dialog, which gave me a little practice in conversational Spanish

Hand Jive

High Five   Adam Rubin, author    Daniel Salimieri, illustrator

10 word review: Rhymes, vocabulary “zesty finesse”, interactive, fun, bright colors & multiple animals

• Sensi, the narrator voices instructions for high five gamesmanship.
• Hand and arm position for successful high five
• Chart with suggested high five styles

Tiny quibbles: rhyme patterns are not always consistent; male kangaroos don’t have pockets; the palms for practice high fives are all right handed.

Suggestions for read aloud

One on one:  Sit side by side and practice your high fives on the page

In classroom or group:  Use a recorded video on screen, listeners in a double circle, inside face out, outside facing in, rotating opposite directions as the video plays, practice high fiving, continue with the style chart with partners. 

Great brain break activity.

Sing a Rainbow

Red and Yellow and Pink and Green,  I love color coding ! No not building a database or app but as  a busy library teacher coloring coding your grade levels.  K-5, each gets a grade level color for  bar codes, folders,  planning. Color coding makes life easier.

And for the littles; if you have trouble remembering names, especially the youngest kindergarten and first grade when the change so much, take a photo of each and put it on the cards you use for check out.  Or on the seating chart.   You will thank yourself, later.

Sample media cards: Kindergarten is always white. Remember Kinder don;t have all the tools to read a tiny, directory style name or school number.

Never Forget

Today is the 18th Anniversary of  Nine Eleven; the attack on the Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

Here are a few books to start conversations with your children about 9/11. Picture books first.

We might call these beginning, middle and end.  The Man Who Walked Between the Towers describes how iconic the Twin Towers were, gracing the skyline of New York.  14 Cows for American a "real story"  (my students always ask this question) about an international reaction to 9/11.  Finally 7 Tons of Steel retells the 9/11 story and depicts a floating memorial.

Middle Grade level book focuses on a family and a personal legacy of 9/11.

We're NOT chicken

Love chickens?  Picture books about chickens are out there!  Today I will talk about two of my favorites, The Plot Chickens by Mary Jane Auch and Herm Auch.

Henrietta is a chicken who loves to read, and wisely uses the public library.  Henrietta checks out a Writing Rules book .  She finds a typewriter, pecks at the keyboard making several attempts to write a novel, and begins to practice the rules for great book writing: Some examples,

Rule # 2 Hatch a plot. 

Rule #4 Develop your plot by asking ‘What if?”

Rule # 7 Make your story come alive by using all 5 senses.

This book is funny, has writing rules for story craft and great illustrations done in oil and digital tech with lots of detail and visual jokes.  (Tidbit; the Auch’s live in upstate New York and do keep chickens !)

AND Chicken Big by Keith Graves.

A very large chicken is born in a tiny coop. His companions can’t figure out what this BIG chicken is, an elephant?,  a squirrel?, a umbrella?  Well no, Big Chicken is simply larger than normal, and the flock does find an identity for him.

Humongous chuckles in store, simple graphic line illustrations that engage and a lesson for the fox.

So why am I writing about chickens? Because of my young friend Ava, who knows a lot about chickens, she used to raise them and my little cousin Tom, who asked.

Here are some more chicken titles you and your family might enjoy.

                                                                         

The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County     Book! Book! Book   and  Chicken Talk

The Dragonfly Guest Reviewer: Beth Hibbard

Don't often meet up with a classroom teacher who loves to read aloud to her class, but my friend Beth does !  A frequent user of the library, Beth will request these titles year after year.

Here are two books she recommends to read aloud to students and then compare:

Roxenboxen  by Alice McLerran  Illustrated by Barbara Cooney 

Roxenboxen strikes a memory chord for me. The book reminds me of two special childhood days in my life when  neighborhood friends played a game, a building project in the mud of our family's sidewalk with stones and a 2 x 6 board. .No, I don't remember the object of the game or how we organized ourselves,  BUT I do remember the camaraderie and the fun.   I hope reading the book to a room of students will get them out in the dirt and play.

 AND Weslandia  by Paul Fleischman Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes

Meet Wesley, the proprietor of Weslandia, founded in his back yard. Wesley is a different drummer style of boy who is looking for a summer project.  He finds the project in some strange looking plants sprouting in the back garden.  As Wesley cultivates the plants, STEAM products abound as he explores uses for all parts of the "swist" , including a sunscreen/mosquito repellent he sells to his classmates.   Shout out to Wesley's parents who know "he stands out like a nose" but allow him to explore without interference.  

Extra links for you    Roxenboxen    is a real place !

                                  WeslandiaSTEAM     lesson plans for Weslandia

Where is Eddie?

Is this book a graphic novel   yes or no?   more yes than no

Takes place over one school day

The theft of Eddie the Owl, school mascot
of Tiddlywhump Elementary School and a mystery to solve 

by 4^th grade gumshoe, Moxie McCoy and her

1^st grade brother, Milton, who isn’t a useless as Moxie thinks.

Parent/ teacher alert Vocabulary introduced in the illustrations great job !

Cleaver, cute and engaging

First in a series  visit this middle grade series again !

and here's a great link The Real McCoy