Unleashing Readers

Blog Tour with Reviews and Teaching Tools: Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse by Marcy Campbell & Corinna Luyken

August 17, 2018 by Kellee

Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse
Author: Marcy Campbell
Illustrator: Corinna Luyken
Published August 14th, 2018 by Dial Books

Summary: A classic in the making, this heartwarming story about empathy and imagination is one that families will treasure for years to come.

Adrian Simcox tells anyone who will listen that he has a horse–the best and most beautiful horse anywhere.

But Chloe does NOT believe him. Adrian Simcox lives in a tiny house. Where would he keep a horse? He has holes in his shoes. How would he pay for a horse?

The more Adrian talks about his horse, the angrier Chloe gets. But when she calls him out at school and even complains about him to her mom, Chloe doesn’t get the vindication she craves. She gets something far more important.

Written with tenderness and poignancy and gorgeously illustrated, this book will show readers that kindness is always rewarding, understanding is sweeter than judgment, and friendship is the best gift one can give.

About the Creators:

Marcy Campbell lives in Ohio with her family and menagerie of rescued pets. Her writing for adults has been published widely in journals and magazines, including Salon. She grew up on a farm filled with cows, chickens, cats, and dogs, but she never had a horse. Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse is her debut picture book. You can visit her at www.marcycampbell.com.

Corinna Luyken grew up in different cities along the West Coast, and after studying at Middlebury College, she settled in Washington State, where she draws inspiration from nature, her family, and the human form. Her debut picture book, The Book of Mistakes, received four starred reviews and has been praised by Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, Nerdy Book Club, and more.

Kellee’s Review: 43.1 million Americans (as of 2016) live below the poverty line. Adrian Simcox represents one of those kids while Chloe represents too many peers. But what made this book for me was Chloe’s transformation. It wasn’t Adrian who needed to change! Adrian is a wonderful kid that too many people judge based on his circumstances when really it is all about who he is, and I am so thankful for Chloe finding the truth out in the end. This book will make kids rethink how they judge others and really does emote empathy and kindness. And I couldn’t review this book without giving a shout out to the beautiful illustrations. They are ART.

Ricki’s Review: I loved this book so much that I bought a copy for my son’s preschool teacher. I love that it can be read from a multitude of angles, and it provides so much fodder for classroom conversations. The illustrations are magical, the story is magical—everything about this book is magical. My son’s preschool teacher told me that the kids asked her to read it four times in a row. Although I am not sure if they spent time discussing poverty, I do know that those children (at the very least) received implicit messages about the truth of poverty and the power of imagination. I suspect this book will receive some major awards. It is one of my favorites of the year.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Read this book aloud and talk about it with kids. Period. The illustrations can also definitely be visually analyzed. First, if you didn’t notice, there is a horse hiding in many of the illustrations. Second, so much of the story is told in the illustrations–don’t forget to analyze them!

Discussion Questions:

Why did Chloe judge Adrian without knowing him?
Why do you think Chloe cares so much about Adrian’s horse?
How did Chloe’s mom help her realize that she is not being compassionate?
How did the illustrator tell more of a story in the artwork?
Why do you believe the author wrote Adrian’s story?

Flagged Passages:

Read This If You Love: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, I Walk with Vanessa by Kerascoët

Recommended For:

Don’t miss other stops on the blog tour:

August 6 – Lost in Storyland
August 7 – The Readathon
August 8 – Happily Ever Elephants
August 9 – Read. Learn. Repeat
August 10 – Kid Lit Frenzy
August 13 – Here Wee Read
August 14 – DoodleMom
August 15 – Eastern Sunset Reads
August 16 – Critter Lit
August 17 – Unleashing Readers

and

**Thank you to Friya at Penguin Young Readers for setting up the blog tour!**

It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus! by Jody Jensen Shaffer

August 16, 2018 by Ricki

It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus!
Author: Jody Jensen Shaffer; Illustrator: Claire Messer
Published: July 3, 2018 by Beach Lane Books

Goodreads Summary: It’s the first day of school! But is Busy Bus ready? Find out in this darling picture book that showcases the excitement and worries little ones experience as they prepare for their first day.

Today is the very first day of school! Busy Bus is excited, but he also has some first-day jitters. Will the children like him? Will he be homesick? What if he gets lost?! Luckily, bus driver Ben knows just what to do to make sure that the school year gets off to a great start.

My Review: We have had so much fun with this book in our household. I read the book aloud, and my two sons act out the pages. Parents can substitute their children’s names for the bus driver to add a layer of fun! Almost all of the bus books that exist feature busses with children already on them. I loved the concept of this book—the bus is preparing for the first day of school and is very nervous the children won’t like him. This book is a must-have for bus-loving children, and it would make for a great first day of kindergarten read-aloud.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Children would have great fun re-envisioning this book with other vehicles and inanimate objects. For example, what might the classroom be feeling before the first day of school? Children could create their own books of their imaginations.

Discussion Questions:

How does the bus prepare for the children?
What is he worried about?
How does the bus driver help him with his jitters?
What other things might be nervous for the first day of school?

Flagged Passage:

Read This If You Loved: Dump Truck Duck by Megan E. Bryant, Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker, Demolition by Sally Sutton, Little Blue Truck by Alice Shertle, Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night? by Brianna Caplan Sayres

Recommended For:

Don’t miss out on other stops on the tour!

**Thank you to Jody for providing a copy for review!**

Book Tour with Review and Giveaway!: It’s Show and Tell, Dexter! by Lindsay Ward

August 15, 2018 by Kellee

It’s Show and Tell, Dexter!
Author: Lindsay Ward
Published July 17th, 2018 by Two Lions

Summary: Dexter T. Rexter is going to school. But will anyone like him?

Tomorrow is the biggest event ever in Dexter’s life: his best friend, Jack, is taking him to school for Show and Tell Day! Dexter has been getting ready for weeks. But now he’s a little nervous. What if the other kids don’t like him? So Dexter decides to come up with a plan. He’ll wear a costume. Dinosaurs in bunny ears look good, right? He’ll recite state capitals starting with…uh…ah…er. Then he realizes something. He can’t dance. He can’t recite things. He doesn’t have ANY skills. What’s a dino to do?

This comical, interactive tale of belonging, friendship, anticipation, and first-day-at-school jitters lets readers experience the excitement and nervousness along with Dexter—and even offer him a little advice along the way.

About the Author:

Lindsay Ward is the author of the Dexter T. Rexter book Don’t Forget Dexter! Though she never got to bring an orange dinosaur to Show and Tell Day, she did once take all four albums of her sticker collection. She is also the author and illustrator of Brobarians, Henry Finds His Word, and When Blue Met Egg. Her book Please Bring Balloons was also made into a play.

Most days you can find Lindsay with her family, writing and sketching at her home in Peninsula, Ohio. Learn more about her at www.LindsayMWard.com.

Praise: “Ward’s gentle art features cut-paper forms with residual pencil outlines, providing an ad hoc quality to the spreads. Readers prone to anxiety over big events should be tickled by the idea that a toy has concerns too.” —Publishers Weekly

“Ward’s illustrations, made with printmaking ink, colored pencil, and cut paper, wonderfully capture Dexter’s every emotion and over-the-top ideas.” —Kirkus Reviews

Review: Dexter is going to school, and he is feeling many things that so many kids feel about themselves when they are going to school, either for show and tell or on the first day of school. How is he going to make everyone at school like him? What he needs to realize is that he should be proud of who he is and not question himself.

What I love about Dexter’s books is that he really does deal with some tough issues that many kids deal with throughout their childhood, but it is done in a super hilarious way with Dexter’s voice which is one of a kind. This makes for really fun read alouds with some great follow up discussions.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: What a fun book to read when you are introducing show and tell in elementary school! It will help kids realize that it doesn’t matter what they bring as long as it has a story and means something to you. Students will also love rereading this, so it definitely needs to be in libraries, both public, school, and classroom, also.

And check out the fun coloring sheet here!

Discussion Questions:

Why is Dexter so nervous about Show and Tell?
What lesson does Dexter’s story teach us about impressions and/or show and tell?
What tune do you think Dexter’s song is set to?
Why would Dexter feel like he needs to wear a costume? Or look different?
How does it end up in the end?
What toy would you bring to show and tell?

Flagged Passages:

Book Trailer:

Read This If You Love: Don’t Forget Dexter by Lindsay Ward, Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes, A Squiggly Story by Andrew Larsen, Not Norman by Kelly Bennett, Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

Recommended For:

Giveaway!

One lucky winner will receive a copy of both Dexter T. Rexter books–Don’t Forget Dexter! and It’s Show and Tell, Dexter!, courtesy of Two Lions (U.S. addresses).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Thank you to Barbara at Blue Slip Media for setting up the blog tour!**

Teaching Tuesday: Small Things to Build Community and Rapport in Your Classrooms

August 14, 2018 by Kellee

For any seasoned teacher, they will tell you that building a community within your classroom will help not only with discipline but also with achievement since students who feel comfortable and engaged in a classroom will be more successful. Here are some tips for helping build rapport and community within your classroom:

Spend Time

Spend some time at the beginning of the year getting to know your students. I know this seems like a no brainer, but you know that your curriculum map always yells at you to get started. However, students are going to do better in your classroom if they feel like it is a place they want to be and learning about them will help you make the classroom that place.

Inventory

Have students fill out interest and book inventories sharing about themselves and read them! After receiving them and reading them, write each student back a letter. The letter can be quick, but make it personal. Take it to another level by recommending books based on their interests!

Allow Input

For rules, for procedures, for texts, for lessons… let students have input! What is the easiest way to get buy in? Allow students to feel ownership of what is going on in the classroom.

Share

Don’t forget to also talk about yourself! Show them you are human.

Collaboration

Part of making community is students trusting and respecting each other. The only way to do this is to allow students to get to know each other through group work.

Greet

Greet every student, every day. Show them from the minute they walk in that you care and are happy they are there. It is such a small thing that will make a huge difference.

Listen

Remember, these are kids we are teaching. Don’t jump to conclusions. Listen to them; they have a story to tell. This will show them that you respect their stories, and giving respect leads to receiving it.

What do you do to help build community in your classroom?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 8/13/18

August 13, 2018 by Kellee

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme started by Sheila at Book Journeys and now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It’s also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…you just might discover the next “must-read” book!

Kellee and Jen, of Teach Mentor Texts, decided to give It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit – join us! We love this meme and think you will, too.

We encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting at least three of the other book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

Tuesday: Student Voices: Visual Reflections on School Shootings by Two of Kellee’s 2017-18 Middle School Students

Wednesday: Hazardous Tales: Raid of No Return by Nathan Hale with an Educator Guest Post

Thursday: Review and Giveaway!: Who Eats Orange? by Dianne White
Giveaway open until Wednesday!

Friday: Picture Book 10 for 10: Our 4-Year-Olds Share Their Current Ten Favorite Books

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

Kellee

Whoa! Last week was our planning week before students start today, and it was REAL! Which means, that other than over the weekend, not a lot of reading was done. Back to the school year!

I checked out every Vet Volunteers e-book that my library has, and I really love them. They’re like that healthy food that is your comfort food–they are great books that make me so happy when I read them.

The Duck, Duck, Porcupine! books by Salina Yoon are HILARIOUS! I’m so glad that these are Trent’s book of choice this week!

Ricki

My son and I are running out of Sara Varon books that we haven’t read! This one is called Bake Sale and is from 2011. It was delightful. We love reading Varon’s books. They are funny, and the characters make us smile.

The sixteen hours of this audiobook were purely magical. Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone is worth the hype. It is a stunning story on its own, but it also connects to the stories of our contemporary world. This one offers much to discuss in the classroom.

My toddler loved Who Eats Orange? by Dianne White. The illustrations pop off of the page, and it integrates the learning of colors and animals beautifully. I particularly like how the author didn’t use the typical animals that we see in picture books. This made the reading very exciting.

Kellee

I’m so sad! I have 2 of 8 parts left in my Dumplin’ audiobook, but it is going to return tomorrow, and I don’t think I’ll be done. I’ve requested it again, but I am #3 on 2 copies… I guess I’ll listen to a short audiobook while I wait to get it back. I am also continuing the two series I’ve been reading: Heroes of Olympus and Vet Volunteers.

Ricki

My older son and I are still reading The Super Life of Ben Braver. We are having so much fun reading it. We read three chapters per night, and occasionally, we check out a chapter in the morning.

I am reading The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani. So far, it is excellent.

Tuesday: Teaching Tuesday: Small Things to Build Community and Rapport in Your Classrooms

Wednesday: Book Tour with Review and Giveaway!: It’s Show and Tell, Dexter! by Lindsay Ward

Thursday: It’s Your First Day of School, Busy Bus! by Jody Jensen Shaffer

Friday: Blog Tour with Reviews and Teaching Tools: Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse by Marcy Campbell & Corinna Luyken

Sunday: Author Guest Post!: “How a love of language and travel influenced The Magic of Melwick Orchard” by Rebecca Caprara

Link up below and go check out what everyone else is reading. Please support other bloggers by viewing and commenting on at least 3 other blogs. If you tweet about your Monday post, tag the tweet with #IMWAYR!

and

Picture Book 10 for 10: Our 4-Year-Olds Share Their Current Ten Favorite Books #PB10for10

August 10, 2018 by Kellee

On August 10th each year, the 10 for 10 community celebrates picture books! Check out #pb10for10 on Twitter to see other posts.

Our 4-Year-Olds Share Their Current Ten Favorite Books

These are the five books each that our sons chose when we asked them for their favorite books. We also asked them to say why they love the book.

Trent

Peter & Ernesto: A Tale of Two Sloths by Graham Annable

Peter didn’t want to go because he was scared. He was scared because he would have to go to the ocean to get Ernesto. Peter wanted to go on an adventure and see the whole sky, but that would take a long time.

Baby Monkey, Private Eye by Brian Selznick and David Serlin

Baby Monkey saves the day and finds stuff for everyone. And he eats snacks, and I like snacks, too, like Baby Monkey Private Eye. He tries to put his pants on but he does it upside down on his head and that is funny!

Pete the Cat and the Bad Banana by James Dean

Pete the Cat is so silly, and he wins the race. The banana race. There are bad, bad, bad, yucky, mushy, black bananas, but not all bananas are bad. All bananas are not bad, but some are. He ate a bad banana, so he tried other food. Like hot dogs that he had for dinner. For breakfast he couldn’t have a hot dog since he just had one, so he wanted a banana.

Kellee’s note: Trent actually wanted to put multiple Pete the Cat books on the list, and I had him pick his favorite. He loves Pete!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

I love that he turns into a cool butterfly. I like rainbow butterflies. And I like caterpillars, and very hungry caterpillar is a caterpillar.

Race Car Count by Rebecca Kai Dotlich

We count race cars. I like to count just like race car count does. It also says GO and STOP. I like how the cars look. I like the green one because green means GO!

Henry

The Super Life of Ben Braver by Marcus Emerson

I love it so, so much because he has the powers! He is super with his powers. I like it also because Ben Braver has the same name as my brother.

The 78-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths

I love the tree. I really like how there is a cow on every page. The book is so funny.

You Choose by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart

I like to choose all the things that I like. I really like to choose really good things. I like reading it with my mom and dad and Benny because I like choosing with them.

New Shoes by Sara Varon

All of the books by Sara Varon are really cool. The characters are so, so fun.

Harbor Freight Catalogs

I really like them because I like doing some picking. A lot of good things in these. And how did you get that picture? Can I read that one, too?

What books did (do) your 4-year-olds love?

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Review and Giveaway!: Who Eats Orange? by Dianne White

August 9, 2018 by Ricki

Who Eats Orange?
Author: Dianne White; Illustrator: Robin Page
Published August 14, 2018 by Beach Lane Books

Goodreads Summary: Who eats orange—a chicken? A bunny? A bear? Find out in this unique exploration of colors and animals’ favorite foods.

Animals eat a rainbow of different foods. Gorillas in the mountains eat green, octopi in the ocean eat red, and toucans in the canopy eat purple. Young animal enthusiasts will love digging into this lively journey around the world to explore the colorful diets of many animals, from the familiar to the exotic.

Review and Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: These is a clever book! It teaches about animals, colors, and foods simultaneously. Each page offers a lead into the next page which makes it a great read-aloud. When I read this with my son, I loved pausing on each page and asking him to make predictions. There are also great opportunities for teaching complex vocabulary through this text. The animals the author selected aren’t the typical animals we see in picture books and board books, which caused my son to ask a lot of questions. It made reading the book all the more interesting. We spent some time, for example, looking up quetzals on the internet and exploring the food and habitats of this interesting bird. I found this book to be very inspiring. It made me want to write, write, write! It would be a great resource for teachers to have in their classrooms.

On a more personal note, this book is a great resource for me as a mom. It offered space for my kids and me to discuss the different colors of the foods that he enjoys and how he might try to eat more colors. Who Eats Orange? offers so much for caregivers seeking to diversify their children’s diets.

Also, isn’t the cover amazing? My toddler giggled when I pulled it out of my bag.

Check out fun activities for the book here.

Discussion Questions: Which color foods are your favorite to eat? How might you incorporate more colors into your diet?; Which animals were missing from the book? Can you think of one more animal for each color?; How do the illustrations add to your appreciation of the text? What did you learn from the backmatter?

Check Out a Few Spreads from the book!:

Read This If You Loved: Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin; Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Giveaway!:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Recommended For:

About the Author and Illustrator:

Dianne White has written several picture books, including the celebrated Blue on Blue, illustrated by Beth Krommes. This summer she also released Goodbye Brings Hello: A Book of Firsts, illustrated by Daniel Wiseman. She lives in Gilbert, Arizona, with her family. For more information, and to download a free activity kit, visit diannewrites.com.

Twitter @diannewrites

Robin Page has written and illustrated several picture books, including the 2003 Caldecott Honor recipient What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?, which she created with her husband Steve Jenkins, and A Chicken Followed Me Home! and Seeds Move!, which she both wrote and illustrated. Robin and Steve live in Boulder, Colorado.

*Thank you for Barbara from Blue Slip Media for sending along this wonderful book!*