Book Gardens

Guest Post by Rashin Kheiriyeh

“Nestled in the branches of a tree,

Arlo opened his book and breathed in.

“Beginnings were always the best part.

They smelled as if anything were possible.”

I illustrated The Book Tree, written by Paul Czajak – a wonderful story about a boy who sits on the branches of a tree to read. When one of his books falls on the Mayor’s head, the Mayor decides to tear up every book in town – with disastrous consequences for teachers and their students, chefs and their restaurants, actors and their theatres and of course, libraries.

But then there was a miracle: “a sprout springing from where the page had been buried. It began to open its leaves. It reached for Arlo’s words, begging for more.” Pretty soon, Arlo was imagining and writing stories about giants and swans and fire-breathing beasts.

“People grew hungry for reading again. Some wrote their own stories and became book gardeners themselves.”

Even the Mayor finally shared the wonder of books.

My illustrations feature oil paint, ink and collages. I used natural materials to bring  depth and contrast to my drawings, like using real feathers, pieces of wood, fabrics and metals to make the collages more tangible.

People of the town have different skin tones with blue hair or mustaches. They look funny and whimsical.  The book tree itself is been printed with golden ink to give it a magical shine. The books that actually grow on the tree branches are in different languages.

The Book Tree can inspire student writing and even turn a whole school into book gardeners – limited only by your imagination.

Here are a few ideas to get started:

1 –  Have students draw a book tree full of their favorite books.

2 –  The teacher can draw a tree and each student draw or attach his/her favorite book to it.

3 – Draw the Mayor and Arlo as friends, reading a book together – or have students write a paragraph about what books the Mayor and Arlo enjoyed reading together. Perhaps they could even write a story together.

4 – Look at the illustrations in the book and find places where materials other than paint and paper have been used.  Make your own collage with lots of different materials.

The motto of publisher Barefoot Books is to “step inside a story.”  What stories would your students like to step inside?  The Book Tree celebrates the themes Barefoot Books seeks to highlight: “encourage independence of spirit, enthusiasm for learning and respect for the world’s diversity.”

 www.rashinart.com

Writing Connections with Erica Perl

by Mary Quattlebaum

I’m delighted to welcome Erica Perl to Pencil Tips!  Erica is the award-winning author of many picture books and middle-grade and YA novels and, through her work with the nonprofit First Book an enthusiastic advocate for literacy.  Below Erica shares a classroom prompt that helps promote a rich pre-literacy environment and gets kids interacting with her latest picture book King of the Zoo (Orchard, 2013, $16.99), with lively illustrations by Jackie Urbanovic. (Visit www.ericaperl.com for information on other titles.)

Erica, I’m a big fan of your Ninety-three in My Family, with its deft rhymes and cast of funny critters.  King of the Zoo also has kid-pleasing rhyme and animals.  What are some of the challenges you faced with this picture book?

This picture book started out as a story called “Zootube” (a title that ultimately proved to be a non-starter because the word has, er, inappropriate connotations online… trust me on this!).  It was about a zoo chameleon named Carlos who desperately wanted a webcam for his enclosure so he could be a star like the other animals.  My biggest challenge was that the webcam plot point distracted from the character’s main existential crisis: being noticed and appreciated for who he was.  So I revised the book substantially and developed a new idea: that Carlos felt snubbed because he was no longer the one and only “king of the zoo.”  I was thrilled when Jackie Urbanovic, my fabulous illustrator, tipped her hat to the book’s origins: look closely and you’ll see that the little girl who helps Carlos feel validated takes a digital photo of him and shares it with her grandma.  Carlos got his wish to be on camera after all!

Thanks for sharing your process.  You remind us that often a first attempt (or even a second or third) needs some finessing and fine-tuning before it’s “book-worthy.”  I so enjoy the playful energy of King of the Zoo. Do you have a writing prompt that connects with it? 

King of the Zoo is a book for preschoolers, so the ways I get them excited about books and writing involve actual exercise!  When I read the book aloud, I invite students to play the parts of the animals in the book – hopping like kangaroos, stomping like elephants, scratching like monkeys, and so on – as well as chiming in for the book’s rhyming refrain (“Not again, the [name of animal] too?  The king of the zoo is ME, that’s who!”).  I then invite the students to make their own crowns, draw their favorite zoo animals, and write or tell reasons why each animal should be the king of the zoo.

Well, that sounds like a hopping-stomping-scratching good time!  And you have another book coming out soon—right?  Is it as rollicking?

My next picture book is called Goatilocks and the Three Bears, illustrated by Arthur Howard (June 2014).  It is the story of a (goat) kid named Goatilocks who visits the house of a family of bears and, well, makes herself at home… (burp!).  I hope lots of (human) kids will devour it, too!

What fun!  Your young readers and I look forward to meeting Goatilocks.  Thanks for joining us at Pencil Tips!

www.maryquattlebaum.com

LIBRARIES OF LOVE

by Joan Waites

I must admit, I have a love-hate relationship with social media.  While Facebook and Twitter can be entertaining and a great way to connect with friends and colleagues, it can also be a huge source of distraction.  A five minute “check-in” can easily slip away into a half hour of wasted surfing. But once in a while, something wonderful pops up on your screen which makes that surfing time worthwhile.

Last week, a photo appeared on my Facebook “wall”, posted by a publisher I have worked for.  A group of boys from Uganda, proudly displayed books they were reading. One of the boys held a title I illustrated a few years ago.  The photo was taken by an organization I had not heard about before-Libraries of Love.  From the Libraries of Lovewebsite:

“Libraries of Love collects books, prepares them for

checkout with pockets and cards, and ships them to

Uganda. A team of volunteers then travels to Uganda,

where it takes an empty room in a school and builds

bookshelves, arranges thousands of books in library

order and teaches teachers and students how to use the

library. The partnership continues for a lifetime.”

There are several ways to help out this worthy organization. Along with donating funds, information about organizing book drives can be found on their website: http://www.librariesoflove.org/

If you are searching for a new service project to do with your students, Scouts, clubs  or homeschoolers next  year, this would be a terrific opportunity to give the gift of reading to children in need.

www.joanwaites.com

READER'S THEATER (Part 1)

by Mary Quattlebaum

These last weeks of school are tough for student and teacher alike.  The kids are dreaming of summer plans, but teachers are still hopeful of imparting a few lessons before break.  Enter: Reader’s Theater.

Basically, Reader’s Theater is a group of people giving a dramatic reading of a script or book.  Lines are not memorized.  And there’s no need for props, costumes, special lighting, numerous rehearsals, or an audience (though they can all add to the fun).  An added bonus:  students in classrooms that regularly do Reader’s Theater often report an increased interest in reading and demonstrate enhanced reading and speaking skills.  It’s a great way for shy children to participate without feeling on the spot and for class “hams” or “clowns” to get positive attention while working toward a common class goal.

I first became acquainted with the power of Reader’s Theater many years ago while teaching creative writing in a summer camp for remedial students (ages 9-11).  They did not want to read and write, which they experienced as “boring” and “stupid” activities.  But they did like connecting (flirting, chatting, arguing) with the other kids there.  So, how to harness all this great verbal and potentially collaborative and creative energy?

I wasn’t familiar with the concept of Reader’s Theater, alas, but in desperation began having the kids work in small groups to write and perform dialogue poems (see my January 30, 2012 post on Dialogue and Two-Person Poems).  The kids loved the performance aspect and were soon writing and revising more carefully in order to perform their best work.  From there, they wanted to read-perform or essentially do Reader’s Theater with longer works and even wrote their own scripts (more on how to develop writing activities out of Reader’s Theater in Part 2, my next post in July).

If you’re looking for helpful books, scripts and resources, check the website of author/storyteller Aaron Shepherd. http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/  It includes more than 20 scripts, ranging in suitability from grades 1 to 10, that can be printed and used for free in the classroom.

www.maryquattlebaum.com