Adventures in Libraries

Hi all,

This week I focused on providing service to my pre-school set. As the weather is getting colder and often 3 and 4 year olds have energy to burn I decided I would get them moving. I designed a Creative Movement Class. I focused on the imaginative aspects of moving as well as the mind-body connection and some of those large motor skills.

We started with Brain Dance- a series of 8 movements that help connect the brain and body and improve core strength and balance. https://www.creativedance.org/brain-dance/.

We we stretched. Then we talked about the ways we could move and had the kids practice a little pretend, some walks, skips, and jumps.

We practiced feet positions and talked about some of the vocabulary around how we hold our feet when we dance.

Then I pulled out the ballet barre and we tried to do some bends (plies). That part was a bit of a fail. the two little boys were hanging from the barre and swinging, as of course, one does.

We played a freeze dance for marching, walking, skipping, and hopping. Then we did Jack Hartmann's Move Like the Animals Do, and Freeze. That worked really well.

We did Ring Around the Rosie and also Row Row Row your boat for partner stretching. It was so fun and so very cute. The kids were tired by the end.

The parents were happy. everyone stayed to check out books afterwards and one grandmother even renewed her library card after a very long gap not having one.

Next week we will work more on balance, use some yoga, and I will make an obstacle course and standing spots with blue painters tape.

We will review barre procedure before using it.

The other thing I will work on ahead is making sure my playlist is solid. This time something went wrong and I had to search for each song in between exercises. I want it smooth for transitions.

I am so excited for this year.

In August, I started a new job back in the public library sector. I am now about 5 months in and loving it! I am the solitary youth services librarian at a very small library in Massachusetts.

While I was studying for my masters I was a youth library assistant at another library in Massachusetts. Then, I earned my MLIS and transitioned into the school library. For a number of reasons, it wasn't a great fit for me. And. after a kerfuffle about censorship with admin I was non-renewed my second year.

Now I feel like I have returned home. All the things I love about library work, the books, the creativity, the joy, are back. I love the creativity of choosing and running programs. I love talking to patrons and figuring out what they would like to learn or do and making it happen.

We program in 3 month blocks. This is challenging because I feel like I am still learning the rhythms of my community. I have spent the last few months tweaking things to try and find the right times for programs. It can be tough striking a balance between holding something late enough that working families can make it but also offering things early enough that young children don't wig out before the program ends.

I am three weeks from a second school year, so excited and so terrified at the same time.

I loved my first year. Even though I felt like a failure throughout. Every day I ruminated on my students, the one who was impertinent, why? What did I miss? The one who got stuck? How could I help? And the ones who refused to choose a book. They don't read. They are not interested. But how? How to catch their interest? How to turn to hem into readers who read for fun?

I am so thankful my school is giving me another chance. My admins are so supportive and brilliant. And I am so grateful to enter the library again next year. I want to make it such a joyful and organized sort of place.

My first move, this last year, was to rearrange shelves. I did this in August. Thankfully, the public library I was working for had Mondays off. I dragged some volunteer librarians with me. We all worked for two Mondays, rearranging picture books and pulling doubles.

It wasn't all that was needed but would have to do till summer.

The rest of the year was spent planning curriculum, building slides, learning to garner respect from my students. It was hard work and everything I could do to keep the shelving done.

I arranged with my husband and my Rabbi to have Friday night be an unconventional Shabbat. Since Friday I didn't have to help my elementary schooler prepare for a school day or my high schooler muddle his way through Algebra 1.

So I pick them up from school, drop them off at home, make and serve dinner, and then head back to work. And shelve, and shelve, and shelve.

I panicked. then I remembered life as a summer camp cook for 350 campers. My objective is a balanced lesson complete with all the standards. I recalled summers where the oven timer was my best friend.

So far I have read 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny by Phillip Done. And I'm working my way through See Me After Class by Roxana Elden.

I got this.

I did it. I got my master's degree. After 19 years home raising my children I rocketed off the "mommy track". It took 4 years of hard work. I was extremely fortunate that my grandmother had saved me some money for an education fund. When my youngest went to kindergarten I took advantage of my good fortune and sat down to think about what I wanted to do when I grew up.

i was a weird kid. I'm a weird adult.

i'm small. I'm nerdy.

I'm socially awkward.

i scare people with my energy.

i chase them away with my enthusiasm.

But I love books! I believe literacy has the power to lift up and engage. Books were my friends as a kid, my solace, my salvation. There is power in nonfiction and safe escapism in a great story.

So, 5 years ago I embarked on a journey to get my MLIS and become a school librarian.

And now, I'm here! ? And I'm so excited.

I will be teaching about 600 elementary students once a week, alternating between tech and library.

I have a well loved older library. I may be getting a new school in about 3 years.

My admins are awesome. And I gave a professional mentor who is also awesome!

School starts in one week and I am terrified but I've got this! My university gave me a diploma. They would not have given it to me if I couldn't do this.

At least, that's what I keep telling myself. And all the new school media specialists out there:

The world of ed-tech is an ever-expanding universe. 

There are apps to teach toddlers and apps for older kids. And then there are apps to teach reading. 

I personally feel strongly that there is absolutely no substitute for reading one-on-one with a child. In scholarly terms, this hand-over-hand reading practice is referred to as direct/explicit instruction. Rupley, Blair, and Nichols (2009).  Children learning to read need guided practice so that they can receive help immediately when they struggle with a word or phoneme. According to  Rupley, Blair, and Nichols “ The key to direct/explicit instruction is the active communication and interaction between teacher and student. This style of teaching can be well structured or less structured in nature.” My gut feeling is that the positive feedback provided by the interaction and the attention the child receives creates a positive feedback loop and is a big part of creating motivated lifelong readers. 

Some of my happiest memories have been working with struggling readers and providing this type of instruction and watching the aha moments and cheering on successes. So, when I started reading about reading apps I was sad.  

However, they have their place in facilitating independent practice, one of the keystones to reading, stressed by experts like  Rupley, Blair, and Nichols. 

Raz Kids Learning A-Z won a 2018 Eddie Award for Educational Software and it is, according to the Raz Kids website it offers a  “teaching product that provides comprehensive leveled reading resources for students. With hundreds of eBooks offered at 29 different levels of reading difficulty, it's easy to put the right content in every student's hands.”

Let’s start with the price. A license for Raz Kids costs 99.00 per year for every 36 students. It is not available for parents to purchase on their own.

Raz Kids or Kids A-Z as it is called once loaded onto a device provides kids with access to a collection of leveled readers. Each book is read aloud, then can be read independently. The books are followed by short comprehension quizzes.

The benefits of this app are access to an immediate paper-free library of books written at an appropriate level for the child; the educator can track students progress working through these leveled readers, making data gathering easier; and the program provides comprehension questions so teachers can assess understanding as well as fluency. And, this app offers materials in Spanish, making it an ideal app to use in some bilingual households where children need reading help but caregivers may not yet be fluent in English. The narration for each story fits the text exactly, helping the reader associate letters with sounds.

The cons are: This app does not provide quality children’s literature! The chunks of text are just right. But when the app is reading aloud the readers are quick and the pacing of the reading is often too fast for beginning readers to follow. And, though there is a lot of importance placed on the comprehension questions, the app offers only multiple choice answers. Open-ended or fill-in-the-blank, cloze style, questions would develop writing and recall skills even more effectively. Also, the app makes it easy to game-the-system by offering the same reward if a reader redoes the module by quick clicking and remembering correct answers to earn stars.

To become truly motivated independent readers kids should be given stories that grab them, with breathtaking art and compelling characters. These stories are not quality children’s literature. 

One of the sets of fiction stories written for level G readers is the Carlos series. This series features a minority protagonist, yay! But Carlos is FLAT, FLAT, FLAT!

In one story, “Welcome Carlos!” Carlos is making a poster for his new school. He has recently moved from Mexico to the United States and has made a poster to introduce himself to the students at his new school.” Carlos has no feelings, quirks, or unique things about him except where he is from. He and his neighbor, Maria, whom he shows his poster to are completely devoid of anything to make them interesting to the reader. 

This app makes navigation easy. The Reading Room icon is a rocket at the left-hand side of the home screen. From there the reader can click on big subject icons to change topics or start a book. 

When reading or listening to the books the reader can move backward and forwards by tapping either side of the app but this is something the reader must intuit. There are no arrows to indicate this option.  

This Academic Choice Award winner is billed for ages 4-10. I was not able to get access to the material at the oldest level to see if the stories got more detailed and compelling as the app is locked by the educational institution that pays the licensing fee. This drives home the point that for most people this is strictly a teaching tool and not something a child would pick up for pleasure. 

Other apps I liked better were 

Reading Eggs an Ed Tech Cool Toy Award Winner for 2019

Mainly a phonics teaching tool, this app has is not free, At 9.95 per month for one child it promises to get kids reading in two weeks. It is available for parents, which means kids can start using it before they start a program of formalized education. The interface is playful and reminds one of Candy Land. Children progress along a phonics path, going through multiple modules to test fluency and learn letter recognition and later, phoneme patterns. Like most apps, it is easy to repeat modules for a higher score. Once a module is complete a child earns a new “pet” This creature appears as a repeating animation. Children can replay this animation for a chuckle whenever they want. 

Rivet 

This app was started by a group of engineers for Google who thought that machine learning could be used to teach reading even more effectively. It only works on Android and Fire devices right now. But, more is coming. 

This free app for android and offers access to 3,500 leveled readers. The stories vary but many use real books and some quality art pulled from the public domain. Most stories about people use photographs as illustrations so most of the art isn’t really fantastic to look at. However, the characters are approached with humor and the plots offer a few more contradictions and twists and turns. This, in turn, creates characters who are rounder and more relatable, such as in the story where Gabriel calls Papa Bee to ask about marriage. Gabriel asks what Papa Bee thinks about marriage. The pictures, mostly of Papa Bee’s world give the reader the idea that Papa Bee is the main character and the story is told from his point of view even though the language used refers equally to all characters and indicates a third-person narrator. Papa Bee says thinks about how good Mama Bee is to him and says “Marriage is great”  Then he thinks about when Mama Bee is sick and crabby. Mama Bee is shown sitting in a chair in her bathrobe with a hot water bottle, a thermometer, and an unpleased expression. He repeats his opinion that “Marriage is great!” The questions go on like this, for every positive statement, Papa Bee internally recalls a negative counterpoint but sticks to his story. In the end, when Papa Bee hangs up the phone the reader realizes that his family has been watching the whole conversation and they are pleased with his monitored responses. The situation is silly, the pictures introduce sight gags to reinforce the humor inherent in the contradictions, and the characters are real people. Readers will relate to watching family interact at less than perfect moments. And, Gabriel’s questions show a mentoring relationship that is nice to watch. The family comes across as being not quite round, but their sense of humor makes them less than flat.

The app is easy to navigate and provides stories about many different topics. Navigation within a story is done with large blue arrows to flip pages and the reader controls the pacing. There is an atomic cloud that hovers over the page and readers can drag it to a word they need clarification on. Tapping the top of the screen brings down the home and settings icons. The algorithm picks up on the reader’s choices to target selections to their taste. A child who chose a book about mermaids receives books about unicorns and rainbows in the next go but a child who chooses a non-fiction text about animals gets similar content suggestions afterward. 

The downsides to this app are that it collects data, the function to have the computer read is clunky and requires readers to click every word for a word-for-word narration of the story. Kids have a read-aloud option that records audio, which on one side is desirable because kids are encouraged to read out loud and reinforce fluency feedback as they listen to themselves, but digital privacy and footprint may be a concern. It does not quiz readers so this may not be as useful as an educational tool. But as far as providing independent reading practice for 4-10-year-olds it’s higher quality than Raz kids, in my opinion. 

Dory Fantasmagory

By Abby Hanlon 

Puffin Books

2014

Guided Reading Level: O

Lexile Score: 550 L

DRA Level: 34

Graphic novel, transitional reader, fantasy, laugh riot. Pick one, they all apply.

Dory is a little kid whom everyone calls “Rascal” for obvious reasons. In this cartoon novel, Dory is the baby in her family and the only thing Dory wants is to play with her older brother and sister. They ignore her and she is forced to entertain herself. But it isn’t hard for Dory to set aside this conflict with an imagination like hers. He flights of fantasy or “fantasmagory- dreamlike state where real life and imagination are blurred together,” as the book describes on page 11, make up the plot of this peculiar book. The whole book arcs toward a resolution of her sibling rivalry and eventually she gets closer and closer to a truly enriching relationship with Violet and Luke, her sister and brother. 

This transitional chapter books are action-packed even though the plot is a bit vague. The font is large and the pages of text are clear with effectively used of white space. The pictures provide clues to the text, setting the scene, and providing extra description so that sentences stay manageable.

One of the neatest things about this book is that other than Dory, the roundest  characters in this book are Dory’s friend Mary, a Monster that looks like she hopped out of a Sendak book, and Dory’s archenemy Mrs. Gobblle Gracker, a robber who steals little girls and is five hundred and seven years old. And the reader gets the feeling that though those characters mean a lot to Dory they might not really exist. 

The pictures offer the first clue that Dory sees things others might not notice. When Mrs. Gobbble Gracker shows up for the first time her siblings do not hear the doorbell ring. And, even though they imagined her, they can’t see her.

In fact, most of the monsters and other creatures are invisible to anyone but Dory. Only she can see the Broken Drawer Monster, the Living Room Monster, and Fairy Godmother, and Mr. Nuggy . This evokes the sense that Hanlon, whose insights into Dory’s internal world are delivered in the third person omniscient point of view, understands how children think. She describes Dory’s world from inside the mind of a young child who tends to live on the boundaries of reality and can slide play and explanations like monsters into any scenario.

Dory’s behavior, however, does not escape notice. She does everything she can to annoy and disrupt her brother and sister, trying to get them to see her. 

She turns into a puppy named Chickenbone and finally is allowed to play with Luke and Violet. But when Chickenbone goes on an outing to the pediatrician her mother is not pleased. Dory explains, “I had planned on changing back into a girl when we got to the doctor’s office But I discovered it became impossible to change out of being a dog. I was stuck as a dog and there was nothing I could do about it.”

Throughout the doctor’s visit, her other is embarrassed. She apologizes and explains that sometimes Dory “is a little too imaginative” The pictures show girl-Dory acting the part with her tongue out and captions saying “Woof” And later at home Dory is sent to time out. This is the only time we meet Dory's mom, a relatively flat character in this kid-focused book.

At one point, during the eye exam, Dory pictures herself as a dog wearing glasses. The thought bubble featuring the glasses-wearing dog-Dory gives the reader a peek into her imagination. 

There are a lot of these imaginative moments sprinkled throughout the text. This makes them well-suited to the 5-8 year old age group they are geared toward. Kids this age often live inside their own heads and Dory embraces this. Every time Hanlon draws Dory’s monster friends we are seeing inside Dory's imagination. Hanlon has drawn the monsters in darker pencil and they often appear slightly larger than Dory, an indication that they take up a lot of emotional space in Dory-land.

The drawings are sweet and simple. Dory and her siblings are drawn in muted graphite with their clothes are plain. Throughout the book, Dory wears her favorite nightgown, except when she has to leave the comforts of home and go to the doctor.  Young readers will identify with this quirky heroine and enjoy watching her wild antics and her ongoing battle against the evil Mrs. Gobble Gracker. 

Every single page has a picture and they are perfect for young readers

The pacing is quick and well-suited to ages five through eight. Dory moves from adventure to adventure. And, at the book’s end, Dory shows her brother and sister her courage and loyalty when she rescues a favorite toy from the toilet. They finally accept her as an equal and allow her to dictate the game they will play. And she does.

Read-a-likes I would choose to hand readers who love Dory are books that explore the imagination of childhood

Polly Diamond and the Magic Book: Book 1

Written by Alice Kuipers

Illustrated by:  Diana Toledano

Chronicle Books; August 2019

Ages 6-9

A magic book appears on Polly’s doorstep that turns everything she writes into reality. Magical hijinks ensue. This funny book focuses on imagination and the power of the written word and the main character Polly is a” window and a mirror,” offering much-needed diversity to the transitional chapter book universe.

Daddy, Could I Have an Elephant?

Written by: Jake Wolf

Illustrated by Marylin Hafner

 Tony wants an elephant, or maybe two. He tries to convince his father that it would be fun to own a series of creative creatures. All the while the illustrations paint a wild picture of what life would be like living in an apartment with these atypical pets. This imaginative picture book for pre-schoolers has a graphic novel feel and uses silly pictures and a lot of thought bubbles and font transitions to add even more levity to the silly story.

And I couldn’t close out a review of Dorry Fantasmagory without mentioning an old friend. Even now, this book made mischief, I had to keep correcting typos because I so badly wanted to spell Dory as Dorrie. 

Dorrie’s Magic

By Patricia Coombs originally published in 1962)

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

(re-released in 2010)

Baby Monkey Private Eye

Written by:  David Serlin 

Illustrated by: Brian Selznick

Scholastic Press, New York, NY

2018

Lexile Score: 210

Reading Level Grade: 1.5

Guided Reading Level: F

It's a picture book! It’s a graphic novel, It's a chapter book! It’s a mystery book, It’s an easy reader!

WAIT!

It’s all of the above!

This genre-smushing spectacular should be pictured in the dictionary if “sophistacute” ever becomes a word. 

It arrived in the mail, and the envelope thudded onto the table with all the heft of a novel. I opened it and withdrew a tiny hardcover. And Baby Monkey waved at me from the cover, holding a magnifying glass bigger than it is.

Baby Monkey has big wide eyes and looks as cute as most baby monkeys do. My first surprise was how head over heels I could fall for a hand-drawn creature. Selznick uses his characteristic detailed pencil drawing to carefully shade in the monkey on the cover. The tiny strokes that make up its fur render an incredible level of complexity to the creature. Red letters announce the title and contrast with the cute big-eared main character. I opened the book, intrigued. 

From the heft of the novel I expected a chapter book and found my second surprise. 

The font is enormous.

It stands in stark, easily discernable contrast, black letters on a blank white page. The words are always on their own, never obscured by the illustrations. This effective use of white space makes it easier for young eyes to track the letters and young minds to grasp the meaning of the words.

The first word is WAIT!

I held my breath.

Then the heading for the prologue appeared, 

“Who is Baby Monkey? 

The prologue asks and answers that question using only 16 words. 

In this way, the book successfully fulfills the requirement of an early reader and introduces the main character at the very beginning. Between the cover art and the introductory information, we know quickly that Baby Monkey is the heartbeat of this mighty book.

After the prologue is the table of contents. The reader can see there are five chapters, a key, an index, and a bibliography. 

The font on the table of contents subtly reminded me of the font in other easy readers, most notably, Frog and Toad. Its smaller size contrasted with the giant letters in the prologue. This makes the tiny table of contents easy to breeze through and drives more page turns  Before a young reader has time to get intimidated they flip the page, looking for our hero. And, Selznick and Serlin get down to business. 

Each chapter follows a formula. The mystery is introduced. Baby Monkey offers to help. Baby Monkey looks for clues. Baby Monkey writes notes. Baby Monkey eats a snack. Baby Monkey puts on pants (this part is difficult and pretty silly.) and Baby Monkey solves the case! Towards the end of the book, Baby Monkey gets tired and needs a nap.

The text in this easy reader is simple and repetitive. Suited to ages 4-6 the large font and fomulaic plot may be simple but the illustrations keep will keep readers entertained. It carries a predictable rhythm from one chapter to the next and children will be thrilled to fly through the 191 pages in this book. (Have I told you about how much I love chapter books that inspire confidence in readers and help transition them to longer stories? No? Well, consider this your notification.) This is in some ways a transitional chapter book because of its length even though the text is still very simple.

The final chapter has Baby Monkey searching for a baby. This high-stress scenario is different from most of the other cases Baby Monkey has worked but has a surprise ending reminiscent of other books young readers may have loved. 

This book does what Brian Selznick did best in Hugo Cabret. It transcends its genre with every stroke and shadow of the detailed and masterful illustrations. 

The illustrations provide really interesting clues to the action. A careful reader might notice that the pictures of Baby Monkey’s office change to foreshadow the client who needs private eye services. The first client is an opera star and the pictures on the wall are all opera-themed. 

The next client, a pizza chef, walks into an office festooned with pictures of the “Mona Lisa”, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a map of Italy, and a movie poster for “The Italian Job.”

Any guess as to the third client?

This device encourages analytical thinking and close “reading” of the pictures, a great skill for beginning readers to practice. The key at the end offers the titles and metadata for the paintings, sculptures, and photographs decorating the room. Also, in each office photo, right before the client enters, Baby Monkey is reading. These books are listed in the bibliography and the author’s names are a hoot. 

Now, I have heard the book described as a graphic novel. I don’t know if it completely fits because the illustrations are not in panels. But the entire story is told primarily through the drawings. So, in this case, it is an illustrated novel. Each time the thief is caught Baby Monkey identifies them through a speech bubble, a graphic novel convention, and the illustration is the only clue to their identity.

Another aspect of Baby Monkey Private Eye that was captivating was Selznick’s development of suspense to encourage the reader to keep turning pages.  He consistently used the point of view of the characters and their expressions to point the reader toward the material on the next page. Baby Monkey and the clients are often looking of leaning toward the page turn. In the middle of each chapter, before the antagonist is revealed, Selznick draws a trail, of footprints heading off the page toward the end of the book. This is just one example of the way the image can push the reader while providing key information at the same time. 

Baby Monkey is a character children can empathize with. I mean, not much is cuter than a baby monkey. In addition, Baby Monkey’s gender is generic. It is always “Baby Monkey” and never “he” or “she” so all children can secretly picture themselves in Baby Monkey’s story. 

It was hard to find read-a-likes for Baby Monkey. This book was so very unique. But I found a few tie ins: similar subjects, similar illustrations, and a genre spin-off.

An obvious pick was the Babymouse series.

Babymouse #1 Queen of the World 

Jennifer & Matthew Holm

December 2005

Random House Books for Young Readers

Ages 7-10

Lexile Level- GN (Graphic Novel)  470L

Babymouse is a fun little series for kids who like cute creatures. In this book, Babymouse wants to attend the slumber party of the super-popular queen bee, (um,, excuse me, queen mouse) Felicia Furry Paws. Babymouse must negotiate her way out of a movie marathon with her best friend, Wilson. This fast-paced little book is funny and sweet and full of literary allusions. The text is tiny so readers who are just beginning might have a little trouble. But this is a great book to read alongside a guide. And, Babymouse, with her wild imagination and even wilder whiskers, is sure to inspire a giggle in anyone who reads along.

Night of the Gargoyles

Written by Eve Bunting 

And illustrated by David Wiesner

Clarion Books, 

1999

Lexile Measure 910

This creepy book about gargoyles will satisfy older children who enjoyed the pictures in Baby Monkey but who are looking for content that is more mature. The illustrations of the highly detailed creatures who come to life have some of the qualities of Selznick’s images and do a lot with tone, shading, and contrast. So much can be done with a pencil, and the gorgeous descriptive language used in this book only adds to its complexity. This book is also a lot in common with Where the Wild Things Are by Sendak.

Taking the theme of mysteries a little farther you could point younger readers at 

Enigma- A Magical Mystery

By: Graeme Base

Abrams Books for Young Readers; 1st edition

September 2008

Grandpa Badger is a magician but his props and bunny have gone missing. Kids who liked Baby Monkey will appreciate the signature style that can belong to no one but Base. The pictures have lots of things to find and the busy pages and extensive picture puzzles will keep kids busy until the thief is caught.

And, if your kids just want to monkey around, there is always

Grumpy Monkey

By Suzanne and Max Lange

Random House Books for Young Readers

2018

The title character in this New York Times bestselling book explores why he is feeling grumpy. The other characters in the jungle try and help him cheer up by systematically working through solutions and reasons that Jim might be cross. 

Photo from Winkbooks.net

DK How Machines Work: Zoo Break 

Written and Illustrated by David Macauley

Published by Penguin Random House 

2015

Won the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Prize

American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award for Writing for Children (2016)

Meet Sloth and Sengi, two zoo animals who are bored with captivity. In this ingenious introduction to simple machines, kids can use pop up components to conduct hands-on-experiments and engage in scientific inquiry while they help the main characters escape. 

The characters in the story experiment with creating different devices to free themselves, first trying to wedge open a door, then trying to get over the fence with a lever and even later, building a flying machine! This problem and solution structure is enhanced by the hands-on attributes and allows children to extrapolate, asking questions and running their own experiments with Sengi and Sloth.

This book is directed toward children in grades 2-5. That is about right. The introduction of the manipulative elements will attract children in the younger grades who need a kinesthetic experience in order to grasp how these machines work. Here, readers can use a pop-out plank and a pop-up fulcrum to build a simple lever and pop Sengi and Sloth over the fence. 

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

And the American Institute of Physics reported that  “Readers interact with the characters and the different types of simple machines. We especially liked the pop-up and removable interactive components in this book, which can be used to introduce children to basic physics and engineering principles or to introduce inquiry science lessons involving simple machines.” 

This interactive narrative non-fiction picture book meets the criteria for non-fiction in the way only David Macauley can. The organizational structure is simple and easy to navigate. Big headings in the top corners of each page like “Inclined to Escape” on page 4 introduces scientific vocabulary children need to know.  The heading is followed by expository text and the language is sophisticated, geared toward the older readers in grades 4-6.

“An inclined plane is essentially a sloped surface. It makes climbing easier by making the climb less steep. Even though the distance is increased, the         effort needed is much less.”

A full-bleed glossary is included on pages 28-29 in case readers need clarification about these terms.

While the language and the story are a key component for the reader it is the pictures and layout that really make this book effective for a wide variety of readers. Information is delivered in small chunks across richly illustrated pages. Small circles and squares are set out from the text and contain illustrations that offer close up details for the reader to analyze such as on page 20 when the concept of a screw is explained in words and pictures. An oval inset shows how to wrap a length of hose around a stick, taking advantage of the qualities of the inclined plane to make an Archimedes Screw that moves water. The simple illustration makes the complicated concept clearer. 

The illustrations are whimsical, with lots of little lines to demonstrate detail and movement and a muted palette of colors, greens and greys and browns that keep the busy pages from becoming overwhelming.

Photo: Hadley Roberts, (2019)

The other reason I love this book is the subtle payoff kids get from lifting flaps and digging deeper into the content. On the page about the Archimedes screw, the name Archimedes is only found by lifting up a flap that looks like Sloth. Inside a fold-out explains how screw pumps have been found throughout history, designed by Archimedes but also possibly found in Babylon.

On the page before a similar flap uses tiny pictures to explain exactly how fluid functions in a hydraulic pump.

The simple text reads “Fluid is pumped from the top of the hydraulic cylinder. The piston is shortened by the fluid which moves the boom down.” Arrows guide the reader through the process, offering further visual clues, even though the language is fairly simple and the glossary exists to clear up the more complex terms.

Yet another booklet explains gears. And in this one, a subtle background of graph paper lends a feel of authority and a dash of the engineering environment to the concept.

But the characters of Sloth and Sengi lend whimsy and fun to the serious concepts. Sight gags like Sloth explaining that he’s  “not cut out for this” while he is pictured sawing a board adds age-appropriate humor to the mix.

The characters are pretty flat, They have simple personalities. Sengi is the brainy one who always innovates and Sloth is the funny, one but this is done intentionally so that the reader doesn’t get too wrapped up in the narrative and instead focuses on the machines and their own interactive role in the story.

The book culminates with Sengi masterminding a major build, a complex machine that combines all the elements discussed throughout the book. The foldout drawing of Sengi’s machine is enormous, About two feet by one and a half feet. It uses numbered arrows to direct the reader and though it lacks text this encourages the reader to think carefully about each aspect of this giant device. 

This book would be a great addition to a center in a classroom and could be further enhanced with the edition of a table full of objects, Keva planks, twine, pulleys, cardboard and pegs, sticks, and Lincoln logs that could be used to extend the play this book encourages. 

Books to pair with this include:

Gizmos and Gadgets: Creating Science Contraptions That Work (And Knowing Why)

by Jill Frankel Hauser

Williamson Books, Nashville Tennessee 

1999

  This is an older book but science never goes out of style. An activity book with instructions for 50 working contraptions to play with. I love this book because it uses simple everyday objects to explain science concepts, like on page 32 “You can learn a lot about friction by exploring the soles of footgear. Check out these shoes and think about their uses: basketball shoes, hiking shoes, cleated shoes for baseball and soccer, ballet slippers, rain boots, and skates.”

The black and white illustrations are simple and easy to follow. An index and back matter suggest more books to turn to for ideas.

Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant

By  Songju Ma Daemicke

Illustrated by  Christina Wald

Best STEM Books of 2018 for K-12 Selection by NSTA, ITEEA & CBC Outstanding Science Trade Books Selection of 2018 by NSTA & CBC Notable-Social-Studies books of 2018 selection by NCSS &CBC A Mathical Honor Books of 2018 by MSRI, NCTM & CBC< Children's Book Council "Book Power" Showcase selection

This book tells the classic Chinese tale of a child prodigy and his unique solution to a scientific problem.

The Frank Einstein Series

Author: John Scieszka

Illustrator: Brian Biggs

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Science-tinged fiction for the 7-10 set

Kid inventor Frank Einstein and his two robots, Klink and Klank mix science, adventure, and slapstick into this entertaining set of six books.

For older kids who are exploring these concepts this YA biographical fiction about Archimedes sounds like a snorer. but it is really not!The Sand Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw is worth a look! I read for two days straight and couldn’t put it down.

New Moon Girls Magazine- Girls are Beautiful as Themselves

Volume XXVI Issue #5: May/June 2019 

Editor: Helen Cordes

Winner of the  Golden Lamp Award - The Association of Educational Publishers, 2006

     As a member of the Girl Scouts of America, I spend every other Saturday morning with leading activities with a curious and energetic group of 6-year old Daisies. I got curious as to whether there were any good magazines out there to engage them as readers and empower them as people. 

In Mags, Zines, and gURLs: The Exploding World of Girls' Publications, the author  Katherine Bayerl explains that “Drawing a line between magazines that offer a healthy, smart image of girlhood and magazines that are primarily fluff is hard to do.” she posits that the best way to do this is to look to the girls themselves. And, she explains that publishers are finding that giving a voice to a diverse set of girl’s perspectives and voices is the best way to do this. Bayerl, (2000) 

I took a trip to my local Barnes and Noble and found the magazine section. My face fell. There are many options for teens and adults but very few choices for children. Most of the children’s choices are focused on crafts and STEM. But, as soon as I saw New Moon Girls, I knew I had found what I was seeking.

This magazine is written by kids. As a long-time reader and writer, I remember the moment where I realized that writing was a way to change the world. This magazine builds confidence by giving children a voice in an uplifting way and emphasizing a healthy outlook toward girlhood.

The cover is bold and simple. Splotches of red, green, and yellow bring attention to the various headings on the page and make a reader feel happy on sight. Right on the front, it says the publication is “Girl Created” The May/June Issue features circular portraits of girls against a white background. What drew me in were the words underneath each picture, “Creative, Empathetic, Kind, Helpful, Inclusive, and Strong” The cover echoes the Girl Scout Law that we recite each meeting. I love that it encourages all kinds of positive character-based traits adding another dimension to the title of the issue “Girls are “Beautiful as Themselves” focusing on the internal attributes of girlhood instead of the physical.

The pages inside are brightly colored, and the circles and bold swatches of color run throughout, a continuing visual motif that helps the readers eye travel across the pages. 

Articles in this month’s issue include “Mood Swings”, “Pizzapalooza”, “Girls are Beautiful as Themselves” and “Fairy Story Contest” The magazine is easy to navigate with large headings and easily located page numbers.

Regular sections ask and answer questions, feature a quick overview of a girl somewhere in the world who embodies the values in the issue, introduce girl produced art, poetry, and stories. There is even a coloring page. 

The girls featured in the issue are 10-14, although one New Moon intern pictured is 18. The age group represents a good swath of the demographic the publisher's target of girls aged eight and up. The article about how to cope with mood swings is a good example of this.

“Aaaaak, if you’ve ever boomeranged from one emotion to another, find out the why and how of dealing with it. “ the intro reads. 

The language is informal and straight forward, the playful “Aaaaak” balancing the gravity of the topic. 

The advice given is practical and kind. And, the author’s perspective is that of an older sister or mentor. The page features a picture of the writer and intern, an 18-year-old girl. Including the photo gives kids the clue that the material is written by someone who understands how kids think because she was recently one herself.

One of the tips included “When I find a trigger to my feelings, I then see if there’s something I can do about the situation. I ask myself: What if anything could I have done to prevent feeling this way and what can I do to stop? Is there a bigger problem going on that I need to address before I can effectively deal with my feelings?” This kind of straightforward cognitive-behavioral approach is useful and takes into account the age of the reader and the idea that socio-emotional learning should be taught. Oliver, (2018) 

The article on mood swings is serious. But the issue isn’t afraid to get silly. A page called the “Persuading Game” features short persuasive blurbs written by kids. This month’s choices picks are “Pet Rocks Are the Superior Pets”  and “Why Cats Should be Used as Dust Mops”. A spotlight on the Kindness Rocks project is included at the bottom with the corny yet effective title “Rock On!”

Another way the magazine targets its intended audience is by offering them activities to engage in. There is a coloring page, engaging younger readers. And the interviews with readers show somewhat older girls that they can be activists, artists, or sports enthusiasts, and enjoy a wide variety of hobbies. 

This mix of immediate content and activities kids can consider for later, extends the time kids can take thinking about the content. This increases comprehension and teaches kids to think deeply about what they read. Many pages have instructions included about how kids can participate in the making of the magazine itself, including hyperlinks for submitting content, like in the art gallery page. This might remind parents of the magazine Highlights, whose reader created pages were some of my favorites as a young writer.

The last thing that drew me to this magazine was its focus on diverse moments in women’s history. The calendar on page 32 includes holidays and special days, like “National Peanut Butter Cookie Day” but also includes birthdays of famous women like Grace Lee Boggs, who was a Chinese-American fighter for civil rights. And, the last page features a biography of journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells. It was written by a reader, who’s bio is included at the bottom and includes a book recommendation where kids can find more information. 

Most magazines that allow children a by-line would get my vote. But this one is particularly stellar. It focuses on character and true empowerment and gives kids lots to think about and do.

Other magazines for that empower by accepting kids submissions are:

 BAZOOF! Winner of the Parent’s Choice Award, “is a health and creativity print publication with a digital option. It is set in a bustling city in outer space that readers visit as they turn the pages. Along with much fun and adventure, educates on nutrition, personal care, fitness, healthy lifestyles, character development, eco-education—all in a creative and zany style! Filled with short stories, comics, recipes, puzzles, games, crafts, jokes, riddles, pet care, interviews, healthy snacks, sports, true stories, fun facts, prizes and more!”

Skipping Stones:

a global issues magazine for tweens and teens whose submissions policy reads “ We invite youth (ages 7 to 18 yrs.) writings on intercultural, international or multicultural understanding and/or nature & environmental theme.  Essays, letters, stories should be exactly 30 words or 30 sentences, and poems should be either 30 words or 30 lines, exactly.“

Find it at skippingstones.org

And, Stone Soup, a magazine of literature and art accepting submissions from kids ages 4-13. Stone Soup is now in its 46th year and has added a website component. 

Bayerl, Katherine. “Mags, Zines, and GURLs: The Exploding World of Girls' Publications.” Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 3/4, 2000, pp. 287–292. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40005489.

 Title: Ban This Book

Author: Alan Gratz

Publication Date: August  29th, 2017

Publisher: Starscape Books

It has been a long time since I laughed until I cried.

But, once I started Ban This Book, I had no choice. This Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award winner is a book for readers. Anyone who loves books will understand the plight of the heroine, Amy Anne. Our protagonist is allowed to take out her favorite book for two weeks. Then she has to return it to her school library and wait five days. As the book begins she is headed to the library to check out her beloved From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler. Then, a horrible thing happens! Her book is missing. It has been removed from the library by Sarah Spencer, the book’s antagonist, a misguided do-gooder from the PTA.

This guffaw-filled masterpiece of realistic fiction has everything. Humor, excitement, tons of round characters, diversity, internal conflict, interpersonal conflict, plot twists, and lots of personal growth. I love the fact that when the book begins, Amy Anne is shy and mousy. She can’t express herself, not even with her own family, a flat and static but still important cast of characters. And she dreams of running away like the children in the book so that she can find a space of her own. She keeps all her anguish inside. But, losing access to her favorite book is the catalyst for her metamorphosis, from mouse to super-hero kid librarian. 

Amy Anne turns into a dynamic character the second she opens up a secret locker library and the fun really begins.

Kids join forces to defeat the adults and the conflict evolves. In this book full of multiple strong characters nothing stays the same from minute to minute. The pacing is perfect, allowing the suspense to build as everyone uses their talents and resources in different ways to work to achieve a common goal. Everything is going well until the secret is discovered. Amy Anne, who has never been in trouble before, is suspended and the school librarian is fired.

But Amy Anne isn’t finished!

She hatches a plan to beat Mrs. Spencer at her own game and get all the books removed from the library. Because once you ban one book you can ban them all. 

It all comes to a head at a school board meeting where Amy Anne finds her voice. You can’t help but cheer at her courage during this triumphant denouement.

This novel would be a great fit for fourth through sixth graders and a fantastic springboard for a mock trial or a lesson in civil disobedience.

Books to Pair with Ban This Book- A library display for banned book week would feature this book as well as the titles listed as banned by Mrs. Spencer and the PTA.

Other great read-a-likes would be:

Hoot by Carl Hiasson- another funny-serious book, this time for 6th-8th graders, is about a boy who fights a large corporation and saves the local forest and the endangered owls who call it their habitat. This 2003 Newbery Honor Book has a movie adaptation released in 2006.

Even little kids can get in on the action with Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type-  Something is going on in the barnyard. The animals have found a typewriter and they are not afraid to use it. 

And, another important children’s picture book about fighting for the right to read is Ron’s Big Mission about the true story of NASA astronaut Ron McNair and his efforts to desegregate his hometown library when he was only nine-years-old.

And, last but not least, here is  The Interactive Constitution: Explore the Constitution with flaps, wheels, color-changing words, and more! (The Interactive Explorer)- An interactive informational picturebook for 3-5th graders that boils down the Constitution with gusto.Kids will enjoy expanding their knowledge about the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment. 

I wanted to take some time and express my gratitude for a fantastic book blog.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Bird  is the  Evanston Illinois Public Library’s Collection Development Manager. She is also perceptive, funny, and unique. She blogs on the behalf of the School Library Journal over at Fuse 8 Productions. 

She blogs multiple times a week, offering book reviews, interviews with authors, and my favorite, her booklists. For the Thanksgiving holiday, she dished up a cornucopia of choices. I love that her taste turns to the eclectic and kooky. Her “31 Lists for 31 Days” include “Translated Picture Books”, “Math Books for Kids” and the “Oddest Books of the Year.” Another plus about Bird’s blog is that her readership is wide and often the comments on each blog offer insights and even more food for thought. 

Written by Carson Ellis

Produced by Weston Woods Studios a division of Scholastic

Narrated by Carson Ellis and Eli and Sebastian D’ Amico, Burton Galen, Laura Fott, Sarah Hart, Bella Higginbotham, Evelyn Hipp, and Brian Hull.

2019 Oddessy Award

I settled on this audiobook purchase while looking at 2019 Oddessy Award Winners. We had just finished Kekla Magoon’s The Summer of Styx Malone and I figured a 7-minute book would  be the perfect way to cap off our book group.

I should have known what I was getting into, Carson Ellis was the illustrator half of the husband-and-wife creators of the Wildwood series, written by Colin Malloy, a tale where children adventure into a land of talking wolves and other wild creatures. My family both loved and hated this book series when we listened to it last year. Its fantastic strangeness and unique concept is sometimes overshadowed by a darkness that was too much for some of my listeners.

Du Iz Tak was beautifully and utterly confusing. It consists completely of soaring music, gentle sound effects, and the voices of the characters, who the Audible description said were insects.

They speak entirely in nonsense syllables.

It is easy to define the voices and you get a vague idea that these bugs have names and that they’ve found something. Changes in inflection provide subtle clues to the action.  The narrators’ voices rise in excitement at “Unc Gladdenboot,” whatever that is. We tried to pick out names, objects, questions, and statements based on the speech patterns in the recording.

The story is told primarily by the music introduced by a gorgeous assortment of instruments, a pan flute, violins, a piano, a harp, and others. The listener can hear suspense in the tremolo of violins, happiness in a harp, anger in slammed piano keys, and sadness introduced by a cello.

The children listening were confused, too. After two minutes, an eleven-year-old was ready to turn it off. At five minutes, a six-year-old asked what was happening. At seven minutes, I sat there stunned, wondering what I was missing. How had this recording won any awards?

I pulled up a video of a librarian, Miss Mel of the Canadian International School of Singapore reading aloud the hardcover version of Du Iz Tak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_GGDlNQu3I. I pressed play and our confusion vanished. The illustrations made all the difference.

Later, I pulled up the same video and turned off the sound. When I played the audiobook on my phone I could pause and play the video to sync the page turns up with the dialogue on the audiobook.

This time listeners wanted to “read it again.”  The music and well-paced dialogue offer a perfect foil to the context clues provided by the pictures. The story is told chronologically and is about a group of bug friends who find a plant growing in a field. As the plant grows and the story of its life cycle unfurls, a giant zinnia-like flower blooms. The insect children add a ladder and some bits and pieces and it becomes a tree-house wonderland. Then, the flower goes to seed and the seasons change. But at the end of the story, an entire field of green shoots stand in harmony with the bright and hopeful piano score. By adding the pictures, the audiobook made sense, even for a young child.

This audiobook, when paired with the physical book, creates a listening experience well-suited to a classroom listening corner. Upon further investigation I found that one of the narrators involved in the project, Galen Fott, had produced an animated version of the book, available on Amazon Prime Video.

The pictures in the physical book are whimsical and detailed. The book won a Caldecott in 2017. 

The concept, a group of characters navigating a situation using only nonsensical dialogue, is set in a dynamic evolving outdoor landscape that could be anywhere. The conflict in some ways is between the reader and the language itself as words and names repeat and ideas sync with syllables in the mind of the reader. This offers a bunch of different perspectives to explore with children. They could use the book as a springboard to put on their own play, written and illustrated with own nonsense words, or break down the language and sentence structures in this book to create a glossary while working in small groups. 

Using the audiobook to follow along with the picture book narrative will help steppingstone readers develop fluency and up their reading speed as nonsense words stretch the reader to recognize letters, not just whole words. (Groff, P. G., 2003)

The other theme in the book, the subtle change of seasons is also a great one to study using this audiobook. The children could dance to the rhythm of the season, slowing down in winter, dancing gaily in summer and spring, or make their own picture book using favorite familiar play spot as a setting. 

Another way to use the book would be to practice careful listening skills. The music in the book is powerful and varied. Throughout the audio book there are many different instruments for listeners to pick out. They each have different moods and attitudes and it would be an interesting activity to talk about how we can tell how the characters feel or how the seasons are changing by the tone and cadence of the music.

It would pair well with concept books about the seasons, like  Four Seasons Make a Year by Anne Rockwell and illustrated by Megan Halsey. In this book, a young farmgirl plants a sunflower seed in the spring. The book follows the life cycle of the plant and the girl’s activities through the four seasons. 

Fiction picture books about nonsense words would also pair well.  The Hungry Thing, by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler and, Froodle by written Antionette Portis are two suggestions.

The Hungry Thing is about a hungry monster who gets things a little garbled. 

Froodle is about birds who decide to get creative when they sing.

There is a metamorphosis in Du Is Tak when a creature changes into a beautiful moth, so A Luna Moth’s Life, by John Himmelman which documents the life cycle of these delicate creatures, or classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle about a caterpillar who is trying to find the perfect food to set off his transformation into a butterfly, might be good additions to seed your bookshelf with if you are using this audiobook.

The story is simple and would appeal most to younger children, probably four to 6 or 5-7. Children who were very young might have trouble keeping up with the unfamiliar language. And, older children would not be as interested in the simple nature of this story. The characters are flat and the plot is very straightforward. 

The soothing rhythm of this audiobook would also probably make a great bedtime addition, once a child knows the story. I’ll test that hypothesis later…