Sophie's New News

Sophie had "new news" on Thursday--"I read my first chapter book!"
"Fabulous! That's sooooo exciting!!! What was it about?"
With that question, I was introduced to Bella The Bunny Fairy, one of a long list of titles
in the Rainbow Magic Book Series, written, (according to Wikipedia, I should note since I knew absolutely nothing about this phenomenon until I check it).

In celebration, we went to two independent bookstores & bought several more titles, including Penny the Pony Fairy (my, oh, my!).
As we chatted, I learned that Friday was Character Dress-up Day, which, Sophie, explained meant she was suppose to go to school dressed like a character from her favorite book.
As a nonfiction writer & lover, I was delighted when she said she was going as Knut, the real polar bear in Knut: How One Little Polar Bear Captivated the World. Today she told me she wore white clothes and pink socks. She was thrilled to report that she got to read part of book to her classmates.

On the go

Since my last post, Sophie & I spent a day at the New York Aquarium, Linda & I went peach & apple picking & my semester started at Queens College.
The school bus ride & new school seem to suit Sophie; I'm picking her up tomorrow for the weekend & am looking forward to hearing her stories.
Saturday night I'm speaking to a group of women, who are on a book getaway retreat at the Jersey Shore led by my dear friend Mollie Hoben, co-founder of the Minnesota Women's Press, which among other wonderful activities publishes my favorite literary little journal, BookWomen. You can subscribe to BookWomen, order The Great Book: because women say so (includes a list of 400 titles, selected by book groups from 1986 through 2007, plus lists of books they've used around themes at their "Reading Retreats" and for "Book Groups on the Road") at www.womenspress.com

School starts and "booktalks"

We're abuzz with school starting preparation. So when does school start for us? Tomorrow for Linda at Teachers College, Wednesday for me at Queens, next week for David at Ramapo and Sue at New York University and Sophie, in first grade at a NYC public school, The Anderson School. Dot, my long-time friend and a captivating presence on my blog and in my book Rosie the Riveter, started last week. She's a middle school librarian and here's her report:
Hi Penny,
We started last week. It was one BUSY week! Everything seemed to go well. The 6th graders seemed confused, but no one was crying.
On the second day of classes, the reading teachers brought their students to the library for 20 minutes to select books. They never want to give up much time for this, so I can’t really do indepth booktalks. I had two carts selected; one for 7/8 grades and one for 6th grade. I gave 30 second book talks for about ten books to each group and really whipped through them fast. Almost every book I “talked” went out! I’m hoping teachers get the value of doing that, rather than letting the kids just float around the library.
I enthusiastically second Dot's comments re the power of "booktalks," a terrific technique for anyone--parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, teachers, librarians and strangers--who want to share their passion for reading. Yes, strangers; several years ago a stranger--a woman whose appearance initially made me think she might be homeless--who was standing next to me in the mystery section of an independent bookstore turned to me and said,
"Do you want to read a wonderful book?"
"Sure."
With that she headed off to another section with me in tow, plucked a nonfiction book, Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time, off the shelf, and handed it to me. Intrigued I bought it, read it, and loved it.
p.s. you can also do "articletalks."

Wonderful Writing and Stone Creek Woman

It's been tooo0 hot to do much more than dust and in the process refamiliarize myself with my books which are stacked everywhere. (Even now at 9 pm sweat is dripping down my face as I write in my un-air conditioned basement!) Anyhow, today I uncovered a beautifully done book--Women in the Wilderness: Writings and Photographs, selected and edited by Susan & Ann Zwinger. On p. 92, there's a gorgeous photo of a slot canyon followed by an excerpt from Unspoken Hunger by Terry Tempest Williams, a wonderfully descriptive & evocative nonfiction writer. The piece begins with: "Few know her, but she is always there--Stone Creek Woman--watching over the Colorado River. Over the years, I have made pilgrimages to her, descending into the Grand Canyon. . . .It is always a pleasant journey downriver to Mile 132--Stone Creek, a small tributary that flows into the Colorado."
With the thrill of recognition & connection, I exclaimed, "I know that place. I've been there!" Jumping up, I retrieved a copy of my account, Grand Canyon Magic, of my long ago paddle-raft trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. On p. 28, I read this:
Day Nine, I woke up feeling more rested this morning, maybe it's because I dreamt that I was being towed down the river in my tent.
We spent the morning hiking Stone Creek Canyon. The trail wandered back and forth across the creek, over red rock and multi-colored boulders, through lush vegetation to about a thirty-foot waterfall, surrounded by a profusion of greenery.

Williams describes Stone Creek Woman as emerging "from behind a veil of water. . . with her redrock face, her maidenhair ferns, and waterfall of expression." All those many years ago, did I see Stone Creek Woman? Not according to my written record, but I do now through the connection via William's vivid writing.

Scrabble

Last night--we play Scrabble every night--I "wrote" BLOVIATE--for 101 points (we don't keep score but I couldn't resist adding up the points because the "b" was on the triple word square!)
"Do you know that word from speaking or reading?" Linda asked.
"Reading," I replied.

Dot's summer reading

Readers of my book, Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II, "know" Dot Chastney; they've seen her grade school picture and read about her experiences growing up during World War II. Shortly after I interviewed her for Rosie, Dot moved to Florida where she is a middle school librarian, a continuation of her long career as an awesome & inspiring librarian. We have great e-mail conversations about books, reading, schools, kids, etc. (you'll find Dot in other posts & comments). Recently she sent me the list of books she read this summer. When I asked her if I could post it she replied:
Sure! You can also add that by far and away my favorite of the past six months is HUNGER GAMES, Book One by Suzanne Collins. It is also futuristic, and I prefer historical fiction or non-fiction. However, this kept me flipping the pages until I finished it. Book two is coming out in September and I can’t wait to get it. Our lower school 5th graders are reading it and I would say it would appeal to any age, right through high school.
Here are the books Dot read & her comments:
Hi, Penny,
Here’s a list of the books I read this summer:
SHIFT by Jennifer Bradbury, my favorite. Two boys bicycle across the country after high school graduation. One disappears near the end of the ride.
THINGS THAT ARE by Andrew Clements. This kept me reading, although I thought it was somewhat implausible. A blind girl has a boyfriend who has the ability to fade. She learns that a man who also has the ability to fade is stalking her boyfriend. The FBI contacts her because they are hunting for this man. It seems they fear someone with this ability could use it to threaten the safety of the country.
THE SKY INSIDE by Clare B. Dunkle. I had to force myself to keep going with this one--a futuristic, perfectly ordered society where children are genetically engineered. When the young children are taken away, a boy who loses his little sister begins to question why they were taken and sets out to search for them.
THE GIRL WHO COULD FLY by Victoria Forester. Also had to force myself, although the character development here was somewhat interesting. As the story moved along, some of the characters turned out to be different than they first appeared. It’s another story of a child with a unique ability who is taken away and placed in an underground school where she will be brainwashed and forget about her ability to fly. As she realizes what is happening to her and the other kids, they begin to plot an escape.
WHISPERS FROM THE BAY by John Tkac. (He is a local author; lives in Delray Beach.) A young boy living in Florida has a unique connection to dolphins. He actually talks to them and they carry on whole conversations with him. It’s the first book in a planned trilogy. When a friend and neighbor is kidnapped, he enlists the help of the dolphins to find and free the girl. Honestly, there is no way I can picture a kid having a conversation with dolphins who say, “Hey, Mike, you should fish around here. There are big sailfish in these waters.”
That old saying, “Truth is stranger and a thousand times more thrilling than fiction” seems more TRUE than ever. My next read definitely will be non-fiction. (I added the boldface!)
Dot Emer,
Middle School Librarian
Schmitt Library
Saint Andrew's School
Boca Raton, FL 33434

Read Aloud

Linda's 9-month old granddaughter is staying with us for a few days next week while her mother and father tend to work obligations. Since our children's book collection has aged up with Sophie, I just bought Mem Fox's new book, "Hello Baby." In the process, I discovered her web site & highly recommend it, in particular, check out her pages on "How To Read Aloud" and "See and Hear Mem." I'm going to be using both in the two classes that I'm teaching this summer. Here's the link:
www.memfox.net

Summer Reading Lists

Because we subscribe to The New York Times we get part of the Sunday paper on Saturday, including The Book Review. That's why this morning, while drinking coffee and eating Silver Palate's thick and rough oatmeal with pump juicy raisins, I know that the issue dated 5/31/09 is devoted to "Summer Readings." I counted the titles and found 15 fiction books, including 2 for children and 62--yup, sixty-two--nonfiction books, including 10 about cooking, 12 about gardening, 6 about travel and 4 about music, plus there was a nonfiction essay.
That ratio of fiction to nonfiction books, however, will be flipped, on the 2009 summer reading lists that teachers and librarians compile for children & young adults; in fact, in my experience, many--if not most--of those summer reading lists will have no, or only a few nonfiction books, or list books as nonfiction that aren't like the Magic School Bus.
Let's challenge the hegemony of fiction on summer reading lists for children and young adults & compile a list of nonfiction books; please send me your recommendations! Thank you!
p.s. (For more about the importance of nonfiction, check my podcast, "The Potential of Nonfiction," on my website.)

Sophie, Birds' Nests and Books

I picked up Sophie today. Before driving, I gave her a snack. While she ate, we sat together in the backseat & I showed her the pictures I took to document what her birds' nests look like on day 2, and day 3. First I showed her the photo I took the day she made the nests (see previous post), then the day 2 photo. Quickly pointing to the empty dish, she said, "They ate the food!"
When I showed her day 3. She was silent, then said: "The birds came." "What do you think they did?' I asked. "Danced," she replied. "Made a cape," she said gesturing to her shoulders. "And a skirt," she added, dropping her hands to her hips.
I told her we had brought the towels in the house because it was going to rain. "Do you think that was a good idea?" "No, because the birds came," she replied. "Should I put them back?" "Yes, but you don't need to put the dishes back."
I took the third picture at Acorn, a wonderful independent book story. Sophie asked for a book on how to draw animals. "We have several," the bookseller said. "Come I'll show you."
As you can see--she did!!! Very cool experience!!!!!
During our time together, we were stopped at a red light, when I heard her say in a reflective voice, "The white goes well with the blue." I figured the white was a blossoming spring tree. But what was the "blue." I glanced back & saw the white tree, just as Sophie added, "the blue sky."
day 2

day 3

Reading with Sophie

I thought Sophie would be intrigued by Sylvia A. Earle's first-hand account, Dive!: My Adventures in the Deep Frontier (National Geographic Society, 1999). Earle, a legendary marine biologist and ocean explorer, starts off with a note that immediately engaged Sophie. "If you want to . . ., " Earle begins and continues with a series of possibilities. She concludes: “I know such things are possible because I have had the fun of doing them and have glimpsed how much more there is to discover.” Opposite the note is a full page color photo of Earle wearing scuba equipment & eyeballing a jellyfish, with the caption: “Jellies, such as this lacy beauty, collapse into great gobs of goo on the beach. The best way to get to know them and other sea creatures is to go where they live—underwater.” Sophie & I laughed at the descriptive phrase “great gobs of goo” (and delighted in the alliteration!) because we’ve seen them during our many walks along the beach at the Jersey Shore. There’s lots of text, but Earle’s personal style held Sophie’s attention until I read about the summer she went to “the whales’ dining room—the plankton-rich waters of Glacier Bay, Alaska." Then she interrupted me to ask:
“Grammy, why did she say ‘dining room?’”
“That’s an interesting question. I wondered about that too,” I replied. “Perhaps she thought it would be easier for readers to understand that that’s where humpback whales go to eat. Sometimes writers do things like that. What do you think? Did she need to write ‘dining room’? Was it a good idea?”
“No,” she said. “But keep reading, Grammy.”

Earlier in the book Earle reported that humpback whales make “short grunts and squeals.” At which point, I interrupted my reading to say, “That's the sound I made when I sat down on the floor to read this book with you!” She laughed; me too!

Spring, etc.

A lovely coating of snow greeted me this morning--the first day of Spring; happily my snowdrops and crocuses held their blossoms high!

This post is a potpourri: in addition to Happy Spring to all, I want to tell you about a blog I recently discovered, "Ms. Yingling Reads: One librarian's attempt to read all the Young Adult Literature in the world and shoot her mouth off about it." On March 3, she reviewed Thanksgiving: The True Story, which is why I happened to find her blog. I read more of her reviews & liked her insights and voice. Here's the link: http://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/2009/03/wednesday.html (Scroll down to the pic of Thanksgiving.

Re my last post about my daughter-in-law Sarah Jones, if you google "Michelle Obama + Sarah Jones," you'll find a cool pic and articles about MO's women's history day in Washington, DC.

Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin

Sunday morning, I was half-listening to NPR while reading the newspaper when the lead to a segment titled "Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin" snagged my full attention. Having written about Claudette Colvin in my book Girls: A History of Growing Up Female, I abandoned the paper and turned up the volume on the radio. Do check it out--it's a terrific segment with excerpts from an interview with Colvin, a 69-year-old retiree who lives in the Bronx. Phillip Hoose talks about his new biography Claudette Colvin for teenagers. (I'm going to discuss the book with my classes next week.) David Garrow, a historian of the Civil Rights movement, welcomes the visibility of Colvin's role because "the real reality of the movement was often young people and often more than 50 percent women." Here's the link to the NPR piece: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101719889

To the Library

What Darwin Saw: The Journey That Changed the World by Rosalyn Schanzer (National Geographic, 2009) In her Author's Note, Schanzer tells readers that she "loved everything about making this book." She traveled & took over 3,000 pictures and did "reading, reading, and more reading." Her decision to use "a graphic novel layout with lots of diagonals" resulted in a book replete with her illustrations--as many as 10 separate images (some realistic, many cartoonish) on a two-page spread--many quotes (some in quote bubbles) and her own minimalist text. Abridged quotes from Darwin's various writings appear in brown type, quotes from everyone else are orange, and the author's text is black (that hard-to-find information is provided on the title page in a bird's dialogue bubbles). To make sense of everything, I had to skim, read, and reread the book. Soliciting other opinions, I showed it to Linda Hickson, special education professor, Teachers College, Columbia University; Sue Kirch, science educator, New York University; and the graduate students in two of my classes (“Issues in Children’s Literature” and “Nonfiction Literature for Children” ) at Queens College; to a person they agreed that the format was overwhelming; so much so that it limited the appeal and/or usefulness of the book. If you do decide to teach with the book, here are some sequential suggestions: brief students about Darwin and his importance; underscore the fact that the book features his journey on a ship, the H.M.S. Beagle; explain why that journey is important; examine the map in the end matter; read the black text (author's narrative) all the way through (before scrutinizing the illustrations and quotes); read the information in the bird bubble on the title page. Also my graduate students noted some advanced vocabulary words; so have a dictionary handed. If you have comments, please feel free to add them.

To the Library for nonfiction books

I, 2, 3, Go (Henry Holt, 2000) written and illustrated by Huy Voun Lee, who was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and moved to the U.S. in 1975. A simple introduction to 21 characters in the written language of China. The numbers (1-10) and words (catch, stomp, hit, push, carry, pull, tiptoe, jump, kick, run, go)-- are presented on double spread pages with energetic, bold illustrations of children demonstrating the characters, e.g. "eight" and "jump" has a stop-action illustration of eight girls and boys jumping. I love Author's Notes, and Huy Voun Lee's is informative and helpfully placed at the beginning of her unpaged picture book. I'll see what Sophie thinks of this book tomorrow. Gettysbury; A Graphic Novel, caught my eye as I was leaving the library with my stack of books; so I grabbed it and returned to the checkout counter. (I've been curious about graphic nonfiction ever since the concept appeared in the last book contract I signed.) I skimmed through it with mild interest; the blue lettering and images are effective (note: there are graphic depictions of dead soldiers). His series of illustrations for Lincoln's words will delight progressive readers and are/could be a springboard for interesting discussions. I reread it with great interest after I got to the end and discovered Butzer's excellent Author's Note in which he describes each frame and gives the source for quotes and information. If you decide to check out this book, read the Author's Note first! Butzer includes women and for more check out "Women at the Battle of Gettysburg: Understanding the Civil War from a Different Perspective," an excellent presentation (there's a link to a video on YouTube with more links to interesting videos) by historian Jane Peters Estes at the Camden County Historical Society at http://historiccamdencounty.com/ccnews111.shtml

"Women Making America"

Check out Women Making America a fabulous new book by my dear friends Heidi Hemming and Julie Hemming Savage. This is a page-turning comprehensive, chocked-full of prints and photographs, clearly and compelling written book--a must have for readers of all ages. Suggestions for book groups and teachers are at www.womenmakingamerica.com

Today, Sat., Feb. 21st, The Washington Post printed a letter to the editor from Heidi and Julie critiquing the "idea that it is men who make history and women who help them." Their issue was with a caption the Post published on 2/19 for a photograph of "Thurgood Marshall and some of the Little Rock Nine on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court" in which the the woman standing beside Marshall was identified as the teenagers' "chaperone." To which Heidi and Julie responded, "It doesn't seem like too much to ask that women be recognized as co-participants in historical events. . . . Chaperone? The woman is Daisy Bates, who recruited the young people who made the stand at Little Rock Central High School . . . . According to Ernest Green, the first black graduate of Little Rock High, 'Daisy Bates was the poster child of black resistance. She was a quarterback, the coach. We were the players.'"
For some reason, I can't directly link to their letter, but you can search for it at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com

To the Library for nonfiction books

Today I wandered through the stacks of the Queens College library juvenile children section. A title caught my eye--Built to Last: Building America's Amazing Bridges, Dams, Tunnels, and Skyscrapers by George Sullivan (NY: Scholastic, 2005). It's longer--12 inches--than high--nine inches which allows for two-page vertical spreads (24 inches!) of picture e.g. the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Flatiron Building in New York. I checked it out because I wanted to read about the Hoosac Tunnel (Susan B. Anthony went sightsighting there during its construction in the 1850s), the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which I've driven over/under several times,; and the U.S. Interstate Highway System, which over which I've travelled gazillion million, etc. (And why do we pick book? 1. we connect with the topic.) Sullivan organized the book into 4 time periods: The Early Republic 1790-1850; Invention and Discovery 1850-1910; Hard Times 1920-1940; A Golden Age 1950-1965; Megaprojects 1990-Present and described 17 projects. It's amply illustrated with full color and black and white photographs. The text is clearly written and engaging. Sullivan is adept at weaving in relevant context and interesing details. NOTE: he fails at writing inclusive history 101; e.g. he completely ignore Emily Roebling's indispensable role--memorialized on a plaque attached to the Brooklyn Tower--in taking over after her husband Washington suffered two attacks of the bends and was paralyzed.
She only appears as having been "given the honor of being the first to ride over the bridge." This is an inexcusable lapse on the part of the author and editors at Scholastic in a book published in 2005.
For my taste the page design has too many elements--thin and wide vertical lines of different colors that divide this from that--looks to me as if the designer was trying to simulate/evoke architectural structures. The title of each structure appears in a multicolored oval that must--at least for me--be consciously overridden in order to focus on the texts. This is a book that I would read for my enjoyment, also talk-read with Sophie, i.e. pick and choose from the text and caption to read aloud, who is interesting in bridges. (Her apartment building is beside the George Washington Bridge--one of our pending adventures is to walk across it.)

Books by the nonfiction poet and illustrator, Ruth Heller, are stacked high in my personal library. Yes, a nonfiction poet, i.e. she doesn't make up anything. I love her writing--great use of vocabulary--clever and bold--and her vivid illustrations. Heller died a few years ago, but left a legacy of words and images about animals, colors, grammar, flowers, etc. Over the years, teachers in my classes report that students love and remember Heller's first book, Chickens Aren't the Only Ones.

To the library

This is a new feature: A huge library-fan, I'm going to write a weekly post about some or all of the books I check out on Wednesdays (the day I go to the library to get books to use in my children's literature classes at Queens College). Since the kidlitosphere and classrooms are dominated by fiction, I'll feature nonfiction books--my preference & what many teachers report kids prefer, when given a choice.

"In 1928, an artist named Wanda Gag created her first book for children. The lively tale was about an old man in search of one kitten. Except that he didn't just find one cat, he found. . . ." That's how author/illustrator Deborah Kogan Ray begins her marvelous book Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Lived to Draw (Viking, 2008). The subject--Wanda Gag, the creator of Millions of Cats--caught my attention. The lush illustrations grabbed my eyes and the engaging text had me turning the pages. There are 18 half- and 3/4-pages of brightly colored, evocative illustrations. Each text page begins with a quote in italics from Gag's writings. Ray doesn't shy away from Gag's difficult growing up years and highlights her resilience and determination. In her author's note, I wish Ray would have told readers whether or not the Gag's father really told her: "Always look at the world in your own way, Wachachen." Guess I'll need to find out myself because that matters in nonfiction! Tomorrow I'll see whether or not it grabs Sophie.

Going Back Home; An Artist Returns to the South, pictures by Michele Wood, story interpreted and written by Toyomi Igus (Children's Book Press, 1996) It's Wood's story of her search for her family history in the southern United States that Igus interprets. Her crisp and clear narrative is just the right accompaniment for Wood's richly detailed powerful paintings. I love her use of blues, the hen, her reds and brown. Igus includes explanations of details in various paintings, e.g. the square on Wood's forehead in her self portrait on the last page.

I selected Making Your Mark, Franklin Roosevelt by Judith St. George, illustrated by Britt Spencer (Philomel, 2007) to take to my "History Through Literature" class, but never did take it out of my bag. Why? Most likely because I'm ambivalent about the book. The illustrations are caricatures, even cartoonish. The text bounces from straight forward to cutesy. Although some teachers report that kids like that style, I think it trivializes history. I'll try again next week and see what everyone thinks. There's a brief author's note that does what most author do re FDR--give him all the credit for everything. As the biographer of Frances Perkins (A Woman Unafraid: The Achievements of Frances Perkins), his secretary of labor from twelve years, that's always irks me!

As for my other reading, I am, of course, still immersed in the stacks of materials by and about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony for my project Stirring Up the World. I'm also reading Adam Cohen's excellent book--he does do justice to Frances Perkins--Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America.

On reading

Update re what kids are reading from Dot Emer (i.e. Dot Chastney--her pre-marriage name--whose memories of WWII I quote in my book Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II), my dear friend and passionate, savvy children's librarian (see blog post 3/19/08). Currently she is a middle school librarian:

"I'm sure you've probably heard about the "Twilight" series of four books about a teenage girl, a senior in high school who falls in love with a boy in the class who is a vampire. The books are almost 500 pages long and have been flying off my shelves. I finally decided I had to read the first one and I can understand why teenage girls like the series, but one was enough for me. One thing about the series is that girls who always drag their feet about reading were reading!"

I haven't heard about the series, and I'm not drawn to the topic. However I am interested in the "what and why" makes books go "flying off" shelves, whether in a bookstore, library, home.
What do you think? And are you of the "at least they're reading" school or "reading THAT is not real reading"??

Sophie's Picks

This post reflects one of the "issues" I raise in my children's literature classes: that adults--not children--typically decide the definition of "kid friendly" and do the reviewing, award-bestowing, buying, "leveling," selecting, (e.g. many principals select a book-of-the-month to be read to all grades), etc.. There's a presumption that adults know what's best for kids to read (hummm, perhaps that belief turns some kids off to reading?). While there's merit to that presumption, I think it's important to let kids be the "boss" of what they read, (even, in my case, when that means having to read a Disney-produced princess book)!

Yesterday we had a special treat of "Sophie-Sitting" (i.e. "babysitting"): pick-up from kindergarten; "hanging-out," including the Columbia University bookstore that has a children's book section and big comfy leather chairs; bath, including playing "sea lion" ( I was the trainer who thought up tricks for Sophie, the sea lion, to perform after which I would "throw" her "fish, squid, etc." to "eat"!) Sophie picked books for bedtime reading: the "coolest one", she said, was Explorabook: A Kids' Science Museum in a Book, by John Cassidy The Exploratorium, www.klutz.com (a Christmas gift from Sue-the-scientist, i.e. Sue Kirch, a science educator at New York University, see posts 10/08/07; 9/19 & 29/08; 11/17); the "funniest" was The Jellybeans and the Big Dance by Laura Numeroff and Nate Evans, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger; another "cool" book was Spot the Difference. We also read The Adventure of Isabel by Ogden Nash, illustrated by Bridget Starr Taylor, with the refrain, "Isabel, Isabel didn't worry/Isabel didn't scream or scurry;" Clip-Clop by Nicola Smee (a fun book to read with a physics lesson & delightful illustrations www.boxerbooks.com); The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett; and The Beautiful Butterfly Book by Sue Unstead, illustrated by Gill Tomblin.

I was also interested to see Sophie set aside some books in her library as "baby-books." When we're not in the throes of bedtime, I'll follow up & ask her: What makes a book a 'baby-book"?

Finally we ended up with me making-up another "Sparkle & Sophie" story, which she loves. Making-up stories is not my forte. Sophie, however, doesn't seem to mind my fumbling --perhaps because she'll prompt me when need be, e.g., last night I was going on and on about Sparkle & a little bug, when Sophie asked, "Grammie, isn't it time for Sophie to come."

On Reading

Following up on my last post about the urging readers to consider the writer-the what/why/how she/he does in a piece of writing--check out Diana B. Henriques' front page article in today's The New York Times ("Madoff Scheme Kept Rippling Outward, Crossing Borders," 12/20/08). It's a skillfully crafted piece of narrative nonfiction--great example of my 3Cs of writings--Clear, Coherent, Compelling. As you read it, think about/identify--the rhetoric devices/strategies she uses, e.g. her use of repetition in the third paragraph after the subheading "The Scheme Collapses" near the end of the piece.

Another example is Eve Merriam's Independent Voices, a collection of narrative nonfiction poems about Benjamin Franklin, Elizabeth Blackwell, Frederick Douglass, Henry Thoreau, Lucretia Mott, Ida B. Wells, Fiorello H. LaGuardia. In "A Note to the Reader," Merriam writes: "The portraits are in verse, yet no instance has any 'poetic license' been taken. Every incident and description, to the best of my knowledge, is based upon true happenings and not hearsay. But if that is so, if the sketches are in no way fictionalized, then why not have represented them in factual prose? Because I felt that through the condensation and heightened speech of verse, history might come more alive and these actual independent voices might resound once again--lively, familiar, ringing clear." Readers who read her note (although many won't, I have sadly discovered from my teaching), will be in a position to have a dialogue with her about her feeling that "history might come more alive" through "the condensation and heightened speech of verse."