Unleashing Readers

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 5/7/18

May 13, 2018May 7, 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.

Last Week’s Posts

Tuesday: Teaching Tuesday: Random Thoughts (on Exercise, Technology, Change, Disney, and Science & Pop Culture) From a Teacher Circulating During Testing

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review!: Don’t Ask a Dinosaur by Deborah Bruss & Matt Forrest Esenwine

Thursday: Sticky Facts series from Workman Press

Friday: 10 Year Anniversary Celebration of The Underneath by Kathi Appelt with an Interview with the Author, Book Trailer, and Giveaway!

Sunday: Author Guest Post!: “Defeat Your Fear of Writing” by Jan Eldredge, Author of Evangeline of the Bayou

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

Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee

Thank you for all the Jim happy birthday wishes last week! 🙂 Here is my two week update:

The final book in the Nameless City series is a perfect conclusion to the story. If you haven’t read this graphic novel series yet, it is one of my favorites; you should definitely pick it up!
Good Dog by Dan Gemeinhart is such an interesting look at the after life, and be on the look out for a tie-over from The Honest Truth.
I was so happy to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Underneath last week!
I look forward to reviewing Tsu and the Outliers for you this week!
I’m working on a special project with Water in May by Ismée Williams that I will share with you when I am finished. Until then, I just want to say how happy I am to see diversity in Latinx and Hispanic representation in a book! My students are primarily from South American, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, and many talk to me about not seeing themselves in books, so I am so happy to have met Mari, a Dominican-American teen.

On the advice of Michele Knott, I decided not to listen to First Rule of Punk since it has visuals that are essential to the story, instead I got:

Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles is as beautiful as its cover. I loved Marvin, our narrator, and his story. If I can ever figure out how to put into words why this is one of my favorite YA novels I’ve read recently, I’ll write a review.
Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson was EPIC! Wow. My students have read this book for years and told me it was one of the best nonfiction books they’ve ever read, and I’m so glad I finally got to it. Booth’s assassination plot was so crazy, and th manhunt after Lincoln’s assassination was even crazier!

With Trent:

Dragons v. Dinos by Ann Bryant and Ben Redlich is an early chapter book that Trent and I read/listened to while driving to school over two days. I love the “read-to-me” options on Hoopla because it allows Trent to have the audiobook and the book. This story led Trent and I to have a great conversation about judging and acceptance which is a win-win to me!
I loved being part of the Don’t Ask a Dinosaur blog tour, and I shared Trent’s opinion in my review.
Continuing our dragon audiobook streak, Trent picked out Me and My Dragon by David Biedrzycki. While I didn’t like the narrator very much, that didn’t seem to bother Trent at all. We have listened to this over 3 mornings now.
This weekend I received a surprise F&G copy of Lost in the Library by Josh Funk in the mail (SQUEE!!!!). Now, I promise to do a formal review on this one after I get a finished copy, I just want to say I love reading Josh’s words out loud and Stevie Lewis’s illustrations are perfection.

Ricki

This week, I made progress on most of my books, but I didn’t finish many. I read The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang and loved it. Kellee recommended it to me. It’s fantastic.

Next week is finals week for us, so I am sorry I don’t have much to report. I read many students’ unit plans this week, though, and there are some incredible teachers entering the profession. 🙂

This Week’s Expeditions

Kellee

Now I’m on a James Swanson kick, and I am going to listen to Chasing King’s Killer next. I am digging learning about history!
We’ve started in -class book clubs (an alternate version of lit circles) in class, and I have a group of students who chose Somewhere in the Darkness, which I haven’t read. I plan on keeping up with them to allow me to take part in their meetings.
Our next Skype visit on the 18th is with Mitali Perkins, and I definitely need to read more of her work. I am going to start Funny Girl and hopefully You Bring the Distance Near this week (I’m also going to reread Perkins’s story from Open Mic which has the same characters as Distance when I’m finished).

Ricki

I hope to finish When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore. It is simply fantastic, and I am kicking myself for not reading it when it first came out.

Upcoming Week’s Posts

Tuesday: Teacher Appreciation Week!: Teachers Who Inspired Us #ThankATeacher

Wednesday: Tsu and the Outliers by E Eero Johnson

Thursday: Who’s Hiding by Satoru Onishi

Friday: Summer Brain Quest and Star Wars Workbooks

Sunday: Happy Mother’s Day to all who identify as a mom 🙂

So, what are you reading?

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

Author Guest Post!: “Defeating Your Fear of Writing” by Jan Eldredge, Author of Evangeline of the Bayou

May 6, 2018May 6, 2018 by Kellee

“Defeating Your Fear of Writing”

“Fear is a steal trap,” Gran advises Evangeline, the heroine of my debut middle grade novel. EVANGELINE OF THE BAYOU is the story of twelve-year-old Evangeline Clement, a haunt huntress apprentice studying the ways of folk magic and honing her monster-hunting skills. As soon as her animal familiar makes itself known, the only thing left to do is prove to the council she has heart. Then she will finally be declared a true haunt huntress. Of course, things do not go as planned for Evangeline. And when she and her grandmother are called to New Orleans to resolve an unusual case, she must summon her courage to defeat a powerful evil that’s been after her family for generations.

Gran goes on to warn Evangeline, “Fear keeps you from moving forward. It binds up your courage as well as your smarts.” These wise words of Gran’s hold true for nearly any situation we encounter, whether it be hunting monsters or writing essays.

As the leader of a local writers group for the past dozen years, and having been a member of numerous critique groups, I’ve learned that one thing we creatives all have in common is fear. And we have a lot of them, like: showing our writing to family and friends, getting our work critiqued by other writers, not knowing how to begin our stories, not knowing how to end our stories, or not being able to come up with any new ideas. But one of the most common fears I’ve seen is that of simply getting started, rallying the courage to just jump in and begin the writing of that novel, memoir, or short story. I call it “freezing on the high-dive”. Taking that initial leap can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be.

After discussing this topic with numerous fellow writers over numerous coffees and teas, I’ve come to suspect this particular fear stems from the mistaken belief that we have to get our words right the first time, that somehow a perfect stream of brilliance must flow straight from our head and onto the blank sheet of paper. This unrealistic expectation can lead to a lot of frustration and writing resistance. Fortunately, there are a few easy techniques writers of any age and any writing level can incorporate to defeat their fear of writing and get their words moving forward. These simple tips can be applied to everything from the writing of novels and essays, to the writing of thank you notes.

The first step is to think of the writing process as one that uses two distinct parts of your brain: the creative side and the editorial side. Going into a project while trying to use them simultaneously is when many of us run into trouble. The two parts do not play, or work, well together.

Once you’ve accepted the fact that you’ve essentially just carved your brain into two halves, the next step is to hush that editorial side. Reassure it that it will have its turn to make corrections and clean things up later, but for now it’s Creative’s turn to play. Allow your imagination to run wild and free. Let go of rules and logic. There are no right or wrong ideas in this phase of your project. Don’t worry about choosing the perfect word, and don’t worry about things like spelling and punctuation. That’s Editor’s job for later on.

If you’re still having trouble coming up with ideas, here’s another helpful tip: just start writing. Write anything, even if it’s simply the words, “I don’t know what to write.” There’s something almost magical about the act of putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, that gets the creative tap flowing. Taking away all those expectations of perfection will conquer that fear of not being able to think of anything to write.

Now that you’ve got some great ideas and images, and maybe even some really cool lines of dialogue, let your creative side take a rest. This is the time to set your internal editor free. Allow it to get to work picking and choosing what elements to use, what order to put them in, and making sure the grammar, spelling, and punctuation are all up to snuff.

This is the technique I used while writing EVANGELINE OF THE BAYOU, and I’m using it now as I work on the sequel. Keeping the creative half of my mind separated from the editorial half has helped me defeat my fear of just diving into the writing. It’s helped me overcome my worry that my writing is too sloppy, nonsensical, and filled with mistakes. I know that by setting my creative side free to do what it does best, it’ll provide me with fun, fresh, and unexpected ideas. Sometimes it delivers more ideas than I can use, or ideas that are in need of further research and tweaking, but that’s okay, because I know I’ll soon be unleashing my editorial side to make my words all shiny and clean.

About the Author: Jan Eldredge was born and raised in Louisiana. She now lives in Celebration, Florida with her husband, their children, and a house full of cats. When she’s not writing, she spends her time reading, going to theme parks, and exploring old cemeteries. She is particularly fascinated with monsters, magic, and all such eldritch things.

Evangeline of the Bayou
Author: Jan Eldredge
Illustrator: Joseph Kuefler
Published May 1st, 2018 by Balzer + Bay

About Evangeline of the Bayou: Evangeline Clement is not just your everyday twelve-year-old. Upon her thirteenth birthday, she will officially become a haunt huntress just as talented as her mama and Gran, descended from a long, proud line of haunt huntresses in Louisiana. That is, if her animal familiar shows up, her powers emerge, and she can prove to the Council that she has heart (whatever that means). Because she couldn’t possibly be a middling, born without any magical abilities, right? She can’t be the end of Gran’s line.

Fear is a steel trap. It keeps you from moving forward. It binds up your courage, as well as your smarts.
— Gran Holyfield, haunt huntress

Citizens have been calling for Gran’s help to send troublesome creatures like Bayou Banshees and Johnny Revenants back where they belong. As her apprentice, Evangeline has learned not just the cures to any local supernatural afflictions but also how to navigate the bayou, how to climb trees, and how to fight – all while wearing her signature silver-tipped gator-skinned boots! Now in an unusual request, Gran has been called from the swamp to New Orleans to undertake an emergency case. But after a string of undeniable signs indicating that death is near, can Evangeline protect her aging grandmother and save the city of New Orleans – whether she’s a haunt huntress or not?

EVANGELINE OF THE BAYOU will inspire young readers to trust their gut no matter how terrifying that might be.

Thank you so much to Jan for your honest and inspiring post!

10th Anniversary Celebration of The Underneath by Kathi Appelt with an Interview with the Author, Book Trailer, and Giveaway!

May 4, 2018 by Kellee

The Underneath
Author: Kathi Appelt
Illustrator: David Small
Published May 6th, 2008 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Newbery Honor (2009), National Book Award Finalist (2009)

Summary: There is nothing lonelier than a cat who has been loved, at least for a while, and then abandoned on the side of the road.

A calico cat, about to have kittens, hears the lonely howl of a chained-up hound deep in the backwaters of the bayou. She dares to find him in the forest, and the hound dares to befriend this cat, this feline, this creature he is supposed to hate. They are an unlikely pair, about to become an unlikely family. Ranger urges the cat to hide underneath the porch, to raise her kittens there because Gar-Face, the man living inside the house, will surely use them as alligator bait should he find them. But they are safe in the Underneath…as long as they stay in the Underneath.

Kittens, however, are notoriously curious creatures. And one kitten’s one moment of curiosity sets off a chain of events that is astonishing, remarkable, and enormous in its meaning. For everyone who loves Sounder, Shiloh, and The Yearling, for everyone who loves the haunting beauty of writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Flannery O’Connor, and Carson McCullers, Kathi Appelt spins a harrowing yet keenly sweet tale about the power of love, and its opposite, hate; the fragility of happiness; and the importance of making good on your promises.

Author: 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 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.

Review: Anyone who has read a Kathi Appelt book knows that she is amazing at two things: weaving a story together in a way that only she can & pulling at heart strings causing definite mood swings while reading. The Underneath is the epitome of her excellence, and I am sad it took me so long to get to this book. Once done, I was very excited to ask Kathi about this masterpiece, and my questions and her answers show more about what makes this book the award winner that it is.

Interview:

Kellee: How do you work to weave different elements into your story such as mythology, the natural world, and contemporary stories?

Kathi: It’s always interesting to me to learn what sets a story off. Some authors swear that they start with characters. And I would say that characters are definitely a good place to start. But when I reflect over my many years of writing, I feel like I mostly start with place. I ask, what is it about this place that lends itself to story? What is the history of it? The social and cultural importance of it? Who has lived here? Who was here a thousand years ago? What were they doing? How did they survive? What impact did natural forces play on this place? What is the flora and fauna? Are there ghosts? Are there particular features of it? So, it seems to me that place creates the basis for most of my stories.

In The Underneath, one of my story lines occurs a thousand years ago, which means that my mythological characters (who were interlopers), would have encountered members of the Caddo/Hasinai nation. Theirs was a sophisticated, highly organized society. But a couple of things happened. One was a massive earthquake that caused a devastating flood which wiped out an entire city, thousands of people. Another was the encroachment of European settlers who brought in disease and ultimately drove the Caddo/Hasinai out of their ancestral lands.

The Caddo were—and still are—known for their pottery, so it made sense to feature a significant jar in my story. That way, I could more clearly link the characters to each other across time periods. One thing leads to another. But in the end, it goes back to place.

Kellee: The Underneath has multiple stories that are interwoven and meet at the end. How do you plan writing a novel like this?

Kathi: Extended narrative has always been difficult for me. I started my professional writing life as a poet and picture book author. As a result, it seemed like everything I wrote tended to finish at the bottom of page three. It was why writing a novel eluded me for such a long time. I always thought that a novel meant writing long chapters, strung together chronologically, and moving from point A to a final point Z. But it wasn’t in my nature to write like that. Long chapters weren’t the way I rolled. Finally, after many failed attempts, I figured out that if I was ever going to write a novel, I would have to go with my grain as opposed to going against my grain. So, I adapted to “writing by snapshot.” In other words, I write in small, significant scenes—I call them SSS’s. I can get a lot done that way without worrying about word counts or chapter lengths, or even transitions. Plus, they’re easy to manipulate. A small scene can be moved hither and yon until it finds the right place in the story.

I think that one of the reasons that writers fail is because they haven’t found their own natural way of working. Long narrative passages aren’t my strength. I’m not saying that I can’t write them, only that they’re not where my strengths lie.

So, finding the form that fits both our natural strengths and that suits the story, is one of the keys to unlocking a book . . . and a writer. Not all of us are meant to be poets. Not all of us are meant to be soaring prose practitioners. It could be that I’m a little ADD, and the short scenes suit me.

At any rate, making this discovery was how I finally finished a novel.

I also want to say in regard to planning, I do make very loose outlines when I embark upon a new project. Those outlines tend to flex as I move through the draft. But I always try to at least have a vague idea of how the story will end. Otherwise, I’ll just write myself right off the cliff. If I can see the destination, I can get there eventually.

Kellee: Personification allows the setting to become its own character in the story. How do you plan this and implement it well when you are writing?

Kathi: I spend tons of time researching the plants and animals that populate the setting. And to me, a living organism, such as a tree, is just that—living. If you spend enough time around trees, it seems like they each have their own personalities, their own needs, and their own ideas. I’m just saying. So, unless something is inanimate—like a rock, say—I can usually find the heart of that living organism. That is always my goal.

Kellee: What about The Underneath do you think resonated with readers 10 years ago and still remains today?

My true hope with The Underneath is that my young readers can see the value of making a good choice. In my story, both the hero Ranger and the antagonist Gar Face have similar experiences, similar fates if you will. They’ve both been badly treated, both been isolated, and yet only one of them turns towards love. Grandmother too, finally, at long last—after the longest time out in history—chooses love. I think that young readers are tuned in to this. I think they’re built for love. What I hope my story does is to give them the courage to make that choice.

Kellee: What feedback have you gotten from readers over the years about The Underneath? What stands out about what the book means to them?

Gosh, it’s hard to say just one thing, but it seems to me that mostly what I hear over and over from them is how much they love the relationship between Ranger and the kittens. That small sweetness seems to be the key that opens the story up. To me, it’s proof that we don’t all have to be the same or look the same or smell the same or whatever to become best friends. And no matter how small we are, we can make a difference for those we love.

Book Trailer:

GIVEAWAY!

Fifteen lucky winners will receive an autographed paperback copy of The Underneath. In addition, one Grand Prize winner will win a classroom set of 20 copies of the book PLUS a 30-40 minute Skype visit for her/his school, classroom, or library with award-winning author Kathi Appelt. Enter here!

Recommended For:

Thank you, Kathi, for your thorough and beautiful answers to my interview questions, and thank you to Blue Slip Media for the giveaway and trailer!

Sticky Facts: What Will You Find?: A Peel-and-Discover Activity Book

May 3, 2018 by Ricki

Sticky Facts: What Will You Find?
New York, Construction, Animals
Published: December 12, 2017 by Workman

Summary: Sticky Facts is an innovative, kid-friendly approach to beloved topics for ages 6 and up, featuring a cutting-edge sticker sheet design that allows for text and color images to appear underneath the sticker.

Unlike average sticker books, each sticker page features questions with facts hidden underneath the relevant sticker. Once the sticker is peeled off, the fascinating factis revealed. Activity pages with corresponding prompts are featured next to the sticker pages for readers to use as fuel for sticker landscapes, adding hours of fun to the whole experience!

Review: While the book is marketed for ages 6 and up, my 4-year-old had a blast with these books. I had to read the facts beneath the stickers to him, but he loved peeling them off of the pages and finding their matching places within the book. As a parent, sometimes it gets to the point that I am looking for something new and different, and this clever idea was very impressive to me. The books are well-made and fun. I overheard my son sharing one of the construction facts with a friend at preschool, so it really works! These books make great gifts and add a new twist to kids’ love of stickers.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Teachers might group students by interest to allow them to learn and work together on a book of their choosing. This allows students to learn nonfiction facts on a topic that they are interested about!

Discussion Questions: Which was your favorite sticky fact?; What are some new facts that you learned? What kinds of facts are featured below the stickers?

We Flagged:

Read This If You Loved: Nonfiction; Sticker Books

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Christy at Workman for providing a copy for review**

Blog Tour with Review!: Don’t Ask a Dinosaur by Deborah Bruss & Matt Forrest Esenwine

May 2, 2018 by Kellee

Don’t Ask a Dinosaur
Author: Deborah Bruss & Matt Forrest Esenwine
Illustrator: Louie Chin
Published April 17th by POW!

Summary: Don’t Ask a Dinosaur is about a party that goes wildly awry when a pack of dinosaurs with very unique physical attributes attempt to help set up.

“Don’t ask Deinocheirus to set the forks and spoons,” because his hands were enormous, “Therizinosaurus cannot blow up balloons,” because he had very long claws. In the end they find the one thing everyone can help do is to blow out the candles on the cake…but will it create yet another mess?

Review: Don’t ask a dinosaur what he thinks about this book! Unless he says it is awesome, funny, and informative. Then ask him, and trust his answer.

I was introduced to Esenwine’s work when I read Flashlight Night, and I was immediately impressed with his work–he just had a way with words! While this picture book is quite different, it is not going to let Esenwine fans down. It for sure didn’t let Trent down; he already has had us read this multiple times with different questions each time we read. He also thinks it is hilarious, finding something silly each time he reads.

I also loved the book for a couple other specific reasons. First, I loved that the story included some pretty unknown dinosaurs to help the readers get introduced to them in a fun way. Esenwine and Bruss also did a fantastic job with their rhyming using syllable count to make it even more rhythmic than it would be without. And the addition of phonetic spellings of the dinosaur names was a nice touch to help with the pronunciation for the adult reader and for the child as they learn about the dinosaurs.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: On the surface, this text will be a way to introduce a bunch of different types of dinosaurs in a fun, rhyming text; however, this can just be a jumping off point for either a creative writing activity or a science activity (or both!). Because of Esenwine & Bruss’s specific syllables and rhyming, it would be quite challenging and fun to ask students to pick dinosaurs and try to think of other things that they may not be good at and ask them to write their own mini-dino poems. Or students can take the dinosaurs that are introduced in the book and research them to find out what they really wouldn’t be able to do in real life.

Discussion Questions:

Why did the certain dino get chosen for each activity?
What dinosaur was new to you?
If you could have one dinosaur at your birthday party, what dinosaur would you pick? What would you make sure not to have it do?
How does the phonetic spelling of the dinosaur names help with the rhythm of the text?
What is going on in the background, in the illustrations, as the narrator helps you see what dinosaurs shouldn’t do?

Flagged Passages:

Read This If You Love: Dinosaurs!, Jane Yolen & Mark Teague “How Does a Dinosaur” series, PBS’s Dinosaur Train

Recommended For:

Make sure to stop by other stops on the Dinosaur Tour!

April 6:        Michelle H. Barnes (Interview w/month-long writing prompt)
April 8:        Kate Narita (Trailer & activity sheet spotlight)
April 11:      Deborah Kalb (Interview w/Matt Forrest Esenwine & Deborah Bruss)
April 13:      Radio, Rhythm, & Rhyme (Interview w/Louie Chin)
April 16:      KidLit Exchange (Blog post re: process of illustration)
April 17:      Momma’s Bacon
April 18:      Bonnie Ferrante
April 19:      Brenda Harsham
April 25:      Bonnie Ferrante (Interview)
May 2:         Unleashing Readers

**Thank you to POW! and Matt Forrest Esenwine for making this blog tour happen!**

Teaching Tuesday: Random Thoughts From a Teacher Circulating During Testing

May 1, 2018May 1, 2018 by Kellee

Approximately 480 minutes of my life over the last couple of weeks has been circulating a room while students took their standardized tests. I not only accumulated approximately 20,000 steps, I had many random thoughts. Here are some of them:

Exercise

Does circulating a room in a regular circle or a zig-zag pattern give more steps in one lap? (Zig-zag.)
What ways could I get extra exercise while circulating and not being distracting?
- Answers: Toe raises/calf raises, squats, glut squeezes, wall sit, standing crunches, seated leg raises, standing leg curl, lunges, and I’m sure there are more!
Do I get more steps on testing days than on normal days now that we have Lanschool to monitor computers instead of having to circulate our rooms as much? (Yes.)

Technology

Since the world is so technologically embedded, is testing students on a computer the best even though some studies have found that reading paper-based texts is still more efficient?
Are these studies ignoring the future? Isn’t it counter productive to focus on how the past may have been better when the world is moving in a forward, not a backwards, direction?
Instead of saying that one-on-one or technology isn’t as good as ____, couldn’t we instead just teach students how to use new tools as well as we were taught to use the old? For example, there are many complaints about kids not knowing how to take notes; why don’t we teach them? Or kids not knowing how to research; why don’t we teach them? We were taught to do those things. Just because kids are technology natives doesn’t mean they don’t need to be taught the best ways to use the tools.

Change

So many adults say things about “kids these days,” but weren’t we “kids these days” at some point? Doesn’t every generation complain about the changes in the next generation?
Isn’t change what makes the world get better?
Just because things are done differently doesn’t mean they are bad.
For example, the SAT is now more text-based instead of random vocabulary and analogies–that is pretty awesome! And I wish it was like that when I took it.
Some change isn’t necessary though. Was our education system so bad when I went through it? The push for “rigor” is so intense now pushing kids into AP classes as early as 8th grade, but I feel like that takes away the growing up part and doesn’t give kids the foundation needed to be successful.
And what happened to kids having the chance to be kids?!

Disney

The Little Mermaid came out when I was 7 which was 29 years ago. Hundred and One Dalmations came out about 28 years before The Little Mermaid, so how old 101 Dalmations seemed to me is how old The Little Mermaid seems to them.
Frozen came out when these kids were 7. Elsa and Anna are their Ariel. These girls had princesses that were pretty kick butt to look up to their whole life while Ariel changed EVERYTHING about her for a man.
Or it could be looked at as Ariel had a dream and wouldn’t give up until she attained it and wouldn’t let others tell her she couldn’t do it.
Belle changed Disney princesses though. Except for Pocahontas, ever since Beauty and the Beast, the princesses are more than just someone looking for a man.
Was the book that Belle was reading during the song “Belle” her own story and the song writers were putting in dramatic irony for the audience?

Science and Pop Culture

If we now know that dinosaurs are more related to birds than reptiles and it is pretty common-scientific knowledge, why hasn’t the look of dinosaurs in pop culture changed? For example, a new Jurassic Park is coming out, but the dinosaurs still look like how we thought they looked before.
Though I do know that it takes a very long time for pop culture to catch up with science. For example, Curious George is still called a monkey even though in the 1940s or so the distinction between apes and monkeys were found, and scientifically I think everyone would agree that he is an ape.
Monkeys and apes are different animals and people can just not figure out the difference. We don’t get pachyderms or canines or felines or other groups of animals confused, why do we get primates confused?
But I wish big companies and movies wouldn’t help spread the ignorance. For example, Coca-Cola should be ashamed of themselves for spreading the ignorance that penguins and polar bears live in the same area. (P.S. They don’t! Not even the same hemisphere!)
This must be how Neil Degrasse Tyson feels about, well, everything.

What random thoughts do you have while monitoring testing (or any other time)?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 4/30/18

April 30, 2018April 30, 2018 by Kellee

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

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.

Last Week’s Posts

Tuesday: Grading is Complicated: Ruminations of an English Teacher Educator

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review: The Reckless Rescue (The Explorers #2) by Adrienne Kress

Thursday: It’s a Puppy’s Life from National Geographic

Friday: Teaching Guide with Discussion Questions and Activities for Polly Diamond and the Magic Book by Alice Kuipers

Sunday: Author Guest Post!: “What Kinds of Storybook Characters Teach the Best Lessons” by Patty Costello, Author of Catalina and the King’s Wall

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

Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee

Hello, everyone! Sunday, April 29th is my husband’s birthday, so even though I originally planned on getting this post written, we just got home, and it is bedtime! I will catch everyone up next week 🙂

Ricki

Apparently, it’s not a good week for us. I was falling asleep in bed and realized I didn’t write this post! Ha!

My son and I read the Sticky Facts books. There are facts below each picture, and they are delightful to read. I’ll be reviewing these later in the week.

I REREAD The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas for the fifth time. My students are broken into three groups tomorrow. Twelve students are in each group, and they are discussing this book, Dear Martin, and All American Boys. I am excited to talk within the groups and across the groups.

Llama Llama Loves to Read is a great addition to the Anna Dewdney series. Published posthumously, this book features Reed Duncan as the second author. Duncan is her longtime partner, and he seeks to honor the work she left behind in various stages. I think that Dewdney would be proud of the way this one turned out. It is beautifully done.

My son and I are loving the We Both Read series. My Day by Sindy McKay is one of several books in this series that we’ve read together. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, the left page is the parent page (with more words) and the right page is the child page (with simpler words). In this book, there is just one word on the child page. In the more advanced book that we read earlier in the week, the parent page bolds new words, and the child page includes that word (among others). I try to avoid early readers, but my son really likes this one, so we have been taking them out of the library quite often.

This Week’s Expeditions

Ricki

I am loving Alone Together by Sarah J. Donovan. She is well-known and well-loved in the blogger world, and this book shows her deep knowledge of adolescence.

Upcoming Week’s Posts

Tuesday: Teaching Tuesday: Random Thoughts From a Teacher Circulating During Testing

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review!: Don’t Ask a Dinosaur by Deborah Bruss & Matt Forrest Esenwine

Thursday: Sticky Facts series from Workman Press

Friday: 10 Year Anniversary Celebration of The Underneath by Kathi Appelt with an Interview with the Author, Book Trailer, and Giveaway!

Sunday: Author Guest Post!: “Defeat Your Fear of Writing” by Jan Eldredge, Author of Evangeline of the Bayou

So, what are you reading?

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