Read Aloud – Page 32 – Unleashing Readers

Sonny’s Bridge: Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins Finds His Groove by Barry Wittenstein

July 5, 2019 by Kellee

Sonny’s Bridge: Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins Finds His Groove
Author: Barry Wittenstein
Illustrator: Keith Mallett
Published May 21st, 2019 by Charlesbridge Publishing

Summary: This groovy, bebopping picture book biography chronicles the legendary jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins’s search for inspiration on the Williamsburg Bridge after quitting the jazz scene in 1959.

Rollins is one of the most prolific sax players in the history of jazz, but, in 1959, at the height of his career, he vanished from the jazz scene. His return to music was an interesting journey–with a long detour on the Williamsburg Bridge. Too loud to practice in his apartment, Rollins played on the New York City landmark for two years among the cacophony of traffic and the stares of bystanders, leading to the release of his album, The Bridge.

Written in rhythmic prose with a bebop edge, this picture-book biography of Sonny Rollins’s journey to get his groove back will delight young and old fans alike.

About the Author: Barry Wittenstein has worked at CBS Records, CBS News, and was a web editor and writer for Major League Baseball. He is now a New York City elementary-school substitute teacher and children’s author. He is the author of The Boo-Boos That Changed the World: The True Story About an Accidental Invention (Really!) and Waiting for Pumpsie. Barry lives in the Bronx.

About the Illustrator: Keith Mallett studied art at Hunter College in New York City. Keith’s work was commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s historic breakthrough into major league baseball, has graced the cover of Chicken Soup for the African American Soul, and has been featured in many movies and TV shows. He is the illustrator of Take a Picture of Me, James VanDerZee and How Jelly Roll Morton Invented Jazz. Keith lives in San Diego, California.

Praise: “An appropriately jazzy picture-book biography of African-American musician Sonny Rollins. It impresses from the endpapers, which mirror a vinyl LP in its paper sleeve and then playing on a turntable, to the liner notes about Rollins’ seminal album “The Bridge” in the back.” -Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“The life of jazz legend Sonny Rollins pulses with the rousing spontaneity of his music in Wittenstein’s free verse biography. Readers witness Rollins’s career as an acclaimed musician followed by his explosive success and the subsequent reincarnations of his art.” -School Library Journal, starred review

Review: The rhythm of the writing in Sonny’s Bridge automatically gets you toe tapping while reading. It captures the feeling and flow of jazz which truly sets the stage for Sonny’s story because in the end this is the story of Sonny Rollins and his path to finding his musical voice.

In addition to the rhythm in the writing, the illustrators images bring the words to life using movement, color, and line to show the power of the music.

Together, the words and music bring Sonny’s story to the readers in a way that will illuminate his struggles and his triumphs.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Because of the rhythmic writing, this will be an amazing read aloud! And then the students can listen to The Bridge.

We are lucky to be living in a time with so many wonderful biographies out there about amazing people and a lot of them happen to be musicians, so what a great opportunity for book clubs or jig saws to look at different musicians and how they became who they are/were and how they changed not only musical history but sometimes even history.

Discussion Questions:

Why does Sonny find the bridge to be the best place for him to practice?
Why did Sonny take off two years and how did it change his life?
How did Sonny’s life correspond with Black Americans’ fight for equal rights?
How did the illustrator show Sonny’s music through is artwork?
Why would some want the bridge to be renamed Sonny’s Bridge?
After listening to The Bridge, how did the author capture the feeling of jazz in his writing?

Creator Corner with Barry Wittenstein from KidLitTV:

Flagged Passages:

Read This If You Love: Music (specifically jazz), Jazz Day by Roxane Orgill, Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews, Little Melba and her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown, Ella Fitzgerald by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Duke Ellington by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Hip Hop Lollipop by Susan Montanari, The 5 O’Clock Band by Troy Andrews, Born to Swing by Mara Rockliff, Muddy by Michael James Mahin, Stand Up and Sing by Suanna Reich

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Charlesbridge Publishing for providing a copy for review**

Teachers’ Guide for Polly Diamond series updated with Polly Diamond and the Super Stunning Spectacular School Fair by Alice Kuipers

June 28, 2019 by Kellee

Polly Diamond and the Super Stunning Spectacular School Fair
Author: Alice Kuipers
Illustrator: Diana Toledano
Published: May 7th, 2019 by Chronicle Books

Summary: Polly and her magic book, Spell, have all kinds of adventures together because whatever Polly writes in Spell comes true! But when Polly and Spell join forces to make the school fair super spectacular, they quickly discover that what you write and what you mean are not always the same. Filled with the familiar details of home and school, but with a sprinkling of magic, this book is just right for fans of Ivy + Bean, Judy Moody, and Dory Fantasmagory, as well for aspiring writers, who, just like Polly, know the magic of stories.

View my post about Polly Diamond and the Magic Book to learn about book one.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation and Discussion Questions:

Please view and enjoy the teachers’ guide I created for the Polly Diamond series:

You can also access the teaching guide here.

You can learn more about Polly Diamond on Chronicle Book’s Polly Diamond Book 2 page.

Recommended For:

Is 2 A Lot? An Adventure with Numbers by Annie Watson

June 21, 2019 by Kellee

Is 2 A Lot? An Adventure with Numbers
Author: Annie Watson
Illustrator: Rebecca Evans
Published June 4th, 2019 by Tilbury House Publishers

Summary: Two is not a lot of pennies, but it is a lot of smelly skunks. Ten is not a lot of popcorn pieces, but it is a lot of chomping dinosaurs. One thousand is not a lot of grains of sand, but it is a lot of hot air balloons!

While Joey’s mom explains the context of numbers in vivid ways, Joey’s imagination transforms their ordinary car ride into a magical odyssey through a land of make-believe.

Is Two a Lot? is a wonderfully charming and authentic exchange between mother and child. Annie Watson’s story makes numbers tangible, and Rebecca Evans’s illustrations bring them to life.

About the Author: Annie Watson (Flagstaff, AZ) is proud of the meaningful work that she does as a high school English teacher, and she feels balanced whenever she can get outside and find time to write. She finds daily joy in reading bedtime stories, and she looks forward to her family’s next adventure to the bookstore, museum, or beach. She and her husband and two children enjoy the beautiful mountains, sunflowers, parks, community events, and pizza places in and around Flagstaff.

About the Illustrator: Rebecca Evans worked for nine years as an artist and designer before returning to her first love: children’s book illustration and writing. Her children’s books include Someday I’ll Fly; Friends in Fur Coats; The Good Things; The Shopkeeper’s Bear; Naughty Nana; Amhale in South Africa; Mei Ling in China; Tiffany in New York; Masterpiece Robot; and Finding the Speed of Light. She lives in Maryland with her husband and four young children, shares her love of literature and art regularly at elementary schools, teaches art at the Chesapeake Center for the Creative Arts, and works from her home studio whenever time permits. Rebecca’s own boundless imagination enjoys free reign at www.rebeccaevans.net

Praise: “A picture book that accurately depicts how children think about numbers and values in a fun and engaging way.

Readers will want to count the number of skunks, cowboys, and other imaginative creatures and objects Joey and his mother discuss throughout the book, and they will enjoy seeing various characters from the places they visit pile into the trunk of the station wagon.

Children who are learning the meaning of value and numbers will both learn from this book, with its whimsical examples of what “a lot” means, and find much to enjoy.” – Kirkus Reviews

Review: Trent loves books like I do, but he really is more of a science and math kid than I was (am!), so whenever we can combine the two in fun ways, the book is a favorite in my house. This also shows the engagement opportunities with a book in a classroom.

I love that the story is a conversation between a mom and her son. It reminds me so much of so many conversations I’ve had in my car with Trent. I really promotes the inquisitiveness of kids which is something I think we all need to keep promoting.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Trent actually had a hard time grasping the concept that is being discussed in the book, so it would be an amazing math activity to turn the conversations into manipulatives and bring the numbers to life!

Discussion Questions:

When is ___ (#) a lot? When is it not?
How many pieces of sand are on a beach?
How many bones are in your body?
Why do skunks spray?
How many types of dinosaurs were there?
How many kids fit in a bus? A double-decker bus?
How do hot air balloons work?
What questions do you have that you would like answered?
Look at the illustrations and how all of the things mentioned throughout come together, and write your own narrative telling the story about what happened.

Flagged Passages:

Read This If You Love: Math, Inquiry

Recommended For:

Blog Tour with Review: Moon! Earth’s Best Friend by Stacy McAnulty

October 6, 2019June 14, 2019 by Kellee

Moon! Earth’s Best Friend
Author: Stacy McAnulty
Illustrator: Stevie Lewis
Published June 11th, 2019

Summary: From writer Stacy McAnulty and illustrator Stevie Lewis, Moon! Earth’s Best Friend is a light-hearted nonfiction picture book about the formation and history of the moon—told from the perspective of the moon itself.

Meet Moon! She’s more than just a rock—she’s Earth’s rock, her best friend she can always count on. Moon never turns her back on her friend (literally: she’s always facing Earth with the same side!). These two will stick together forever. With characteristic humor and charm, Stacy McAnulty channels the voice of Moon in this next celestial “autobiography” in the Our Universe series. Rich with kid-friendly facts and beautifully brought to life by Stevie Lewis, this is an equally charming and irresistible companion to Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years and Sun! One in a Billion.

About the Author: Stacy McAnulty is the author of several picture books, including Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years, illustrated by David Litchfield; Sun! One in a Billion, illustrated by Stevie Lewis; Excellent Ed, illustrated by Julia Sarcone-Roach; and Beautiful, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, three children, and two dogs.

About the Illustrator: Stevie Lewis spent four years working in animation and now creates art and illustrates children’s books, including Sun! One in a Billion, written by Stacy McAnulty, and Lost in the Library, written by Josh Funk. Stevie lives on the road, furthering her passion for climbing, art, and the outdoors. She gathers inspiration from a variety of places, be it climbing in the high desert in central Oregon, hiking in the wilderness of Alaska, or sharing laughs with fellow travelers around a campfire.

Praise: “Perfect for children—and grown-ups—who have questions about the greater universe.” —Booklist on Moon! Earth’s Best Friend

A Junior Library Guild Selection

Review: I cannot rave enough about this book and the series it is a part of. And as a mom of a kid who adores space, I have read quite a few nonfiction space books, but there are no others like McAnulty and Lewis’s books. There are a few reasons why these books, including Moon!, stand above and beyond others:

Humor! You cannot help but giggle when Moon says something funny or cute.
Narration! It is awesome having the Moon (or Earth or Sun) narrate the book. It being in 1st person adds to the narrative.
Voice! It is so fascinating how McAnulty changes her voice in each of the books. If I read one aloud to Trent without saying which book it was, he would know because of how the characters talk.
Interesting! McAnulty does a great job sharing foundational knowledge as well as some unique facts.

View our reviews for the first two Universe books, Earth! and Sun!, also.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: The ideas we shared for the other Universe books would definitely book for Moon! also, so check out the other posts linked above, but now that we have three Universe books, there is now the opportunity to do activities will all three books! The options I think of are:

Like a jigsaw! Split your class into three groups, and each group reads and discusses one of the books. From the book, they create a handout to share the information that they learned. Then make new groups with 3 students: one from each book’s group. They will then share what they learned with their new group.
Split up the class into three groups (one for each group) and have the group read the book and create a readers theater of the book.
In-class book clubs! With them being picture books, you can split into three groups and rotate them through all three books. Have students create a one pager sharing what they learned (independently or as a group) or have them write discussion questions and discuss them or give questions to have them discuss.

Discussion Questions:

How did the Moon come to be?
Why is Moon capitalized but moon isn’t?
How does the author use the narrator’s voice between the three books? How do the voices differ?
What reasonings does Moon give for why she’s Earth’s BFF?
What new information did you learn about the Moon?

Our Universe Series Book Trailer:

Flagged Passages:

Read This If You Love: Universe books by Stacy McAnulty, The Sun is Kind of a Big Deal by Nick Seluk, Once Upon a Star by James Carter, Space Encyclopedia by David Aguilar, You Choose In Space by Pippa Goodhart, A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin, Star Stuff by Stephanie Roth Sisson

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Macmillan for providing a copy of the book for review!!**

Review and Giveaway!: Max Attacks by Kathi Appelt

October 6, 2019June 7, 2019 by Kellee

Max Attacks
Author: Kathi Appelt
Illustrator: Penelope Dullaghan
Publication Date: June 11th, 2019 by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

Summary: Fish and birds and lizards and socks…is there anything Max won’t attack? Watch your ankles and find out in this clever, rhyming picture book about a very naughty kitty cat.

Max is a cat. He attacks. From socks to strings to many a fish, attacking, for Max, is most de-lish. But how many of these things can he actually catch? Well, let’s just say it’s no even match.

About the Creators: Kathi Appelt is the New York Times best-selling author of more than forty books for children and young adults. Her first novel, The Underneath, was a National Book Award Finalist and a Newbery Honor Book. It also received the PEN USA Award. Her other novels include Angel Thieves, for young adults, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, a National Book Award finalist, and Maybe a Fox, one of the Bank Street Books Best Children’s Books of the Year. In addition to writing, Ms. Appelt is on the faculty in the Masters of Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in College Station, Texas. To learn more, and to find curriculum materials and activity pages, visit her website at kathiappelt.com.

Penelope Dullaghan is an award-winning artist with an attack-happy cat of her own. The main difference is that Rainy, her cat, is dark gray instead of blue. Penelope and Rainy share many favorite hobbies, including watching activity at the bird feeder, collecting interesting bugs, and outstretched snoozing in sunbeams. Max Attacks is Penelope’s debut picture book. Visit her at PenelopeDullaghan.com.

Praise: A paean to the pleasures of having a cat companion, this catalog of Max’s actions should win plenty of accolades: Max, a million; readers a million-plus. (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

Appelt writes with catlike flexibility and bounce (Publishers Weekly)

“Max is sure to be a hit.” (School Library Journal)

Review: Both the illustrator and author have to be cat owners and cat lovers because Max’s story is obviously a narrative directly from a cat’s brain. Well, a narrative directly from a very rhythmic and rhyming cat 🙂

Appelt does a wonderful job using rhythm to capture both how focused a cat gets when it has chosen whatever it has chosen as well as the ease that cats are distracted by another thing and loses all focus. As you read, you notice the rhythm changes between slow and focused and choppy and jumpy. This masterful poetry mixed with the fun illustrations that capture all of the emotions and movement of max.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Max Attacks will first and foremost be such a fun read aloud. Kids will love Max’s story and teachers will love the rhythm and rhyming in Appelt’s writing.

Discussion Questions:

Choose a different pet and use Appelt’s text structure and Dullaghan’s illustration style to create your own spread.
What are some examples in Max’s story that fit the personality of a cat?
How did rhythm effect Max’s narrative?
What are some examples of the illustrations capturing a cat’s movement? Personality? Focus?

Flagged Passages:

Read This If You Love: They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel; Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper; Kat Kong by Dav Pilkey; Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel; I Hate My Cats by Davide Cali

Recommended For:

Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Thank you to Barbara at Blue Slip Media for providing a copy for review!!**

Teachers’ Guide for Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina

June 17, 2019May 31, 2019 by Kellee

Merci Suárez Changes Gears
Author: Meg Medina
Published: September 11th, 2018 by Candlewick Press

Summary: Thoughtful, strong-willed sixth-grader Merci Suárez navigates difficult changes with friends, family, and everyone in between in a resonant new novel from Meg Medina.

Merci Suárez knew that sixth grade would be different, but she had no idea just how different. For starters, Merci has never been like the other kids at her private school in Florida, because she and her older brother, Roli, are scholarship students. They don’t have a big house or a fancy boat, and they have to do extra community service to make up for their free tuition. So when bossy Edna Santos sets her sights on the new boy who happens to be Merci’s school-assigned Sunshine Buddy, Merci becomes the target of Edna’s jealousy. Things aren’t going well at home, either: Merci’s grandfather and most trusted ally, Lolo, has been acting strangely lately — forgetting important things, falling from his bike, and getting angry over nothing. No one in her family will tell Merci what’s going on, so she’s left to her own worries, while also feeling all on her own at school. In a coming-of-age tale full of humor and wisdom, award-winning author Meg Medina gets to the heart of the confusion and constant change that defines middle school — and the steadfast connection that defines family.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation and Discussion Questions:

Please view and enjoy the teachers’ guide I created for Merci Suárez Changes Gears:

You can also access the teaching guide here.

You can learn more about Merci on Candlewick Press’s Merci Suárez Changes Gears page.

Recommended For:

Teachers’ Guide for Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo

May 30, 2019May 24, 2019 by Kellee

Louisiana’s Way Home
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Published: October 2nd, 2018 by Candlewick Press

Summary: From two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo comes a story of discovering who you are — and deciding who you want to be.

When Louisiana Elefante’s granny wakes her up in the middle of the night to tell her that the day of reckoning has arrived and they have to leave home immediately, Louisiana isn’t overly worried. After all, Granny has many middle-of-the-night ideas. But this time, things are different. This time, Granny intends for them never to return. Separated from her best friends, Raymie and Beverly, Louisiana struggles to oppose the winds of fate (and Granny) and find a way home. But as Louisiana’s life becomes entwined with the lives of the people of a small Georgia town — including a surly motel owner, a walrus-like minister, and a mysterious boy with a crow on his shoulder — she starts to worry that she is destined only for good-byes. (Which could be due to the curse on Louisiana’s and Granny’s heads. But that is a story for another time.)

Called “one of DiCamillo’s most singular and arresting creations” by The New York Times Book Review, the heartbreakingly irresistible Louisiana Elefante was introduced to readers in Raymie Nightingale — and now, with humor and tenderness, Kate DiCamillo returns to tell her story.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation and Discussion Questions:

Please view and enjoy the teachers’ guide I created for Louisiana’s Way Home:

You can also access the teaching guide here.

You can learn more about Louisianaon Candlewick Press’s Louisiana’s Way Home page.

Recommended For: