I Call Dibs!

by Laura Gehl

Dibs, written by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Marcin Piwowarski, is the story of two brothers. Julian calls “dibs” so frequently that his baby brother Clancy ends up saying “dibs” as his very first word. Things get out of control when Clancy starts calling dibs on a bakery, an airplane, and even the White House! But when Clancy gets trapped in space, it is Julian who needs to harness the power of dibs to rescue his little brother.

 After reading Dibs out loud, try these writing activities with your students:

1. If you could call dibs on ANYTHING, the way Clancy does, what would you call dibs on? Why?

2. Julian gets frustrated when Clancy doesn’t follow the “rules” of Dibs. Even though these rules are not written down, most kids know you can call dibs on the biggest cookie but not on a whole bakery. You can call dibs on sitting in the window seat in an airplane, but you can’t call dibs on a whole airplane. Think about rules in your life. What rules at home or school do you wish you could break? What rules do you wish other people followed? Do you have a sibling, cousin, or friend who breaks rules? How do you feel about that when it happens?

3. Some kids who read the book Dibs already know the expression “calling dibs,” and some kids have never heard the expression before. Make a list of expressions that you know. Which of these expressions do you actually use when you talk to your friends?

4. Look at your list of expressions that you know from #3. Can you imagine how a kid could take one of those expressions too far, the way Clancy takes dibs too far in the book Dibs? How could you turn that into a story? For example, think about the expression “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” What if a kid decided that she would eat ten apples—or a hundred apples—or a thousand apples—every day so that she would never, ever get sick? And then she ate so many apples that it actually made her sick! Or maybe she turned into an apple and then her grandma wanted to turn her into apple pie! Take one of the expressions from your list and write a story in which a kid takes the expression too far.

  

Bio: Laura Gehl is the author of picture books including One Big Pair of Underwear (Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Title, International Literacy Association Honor Book, Booklist Books for Youth Editors’ Choice); Hare and Tortoise Race Across Israel, And Then Another Sheep Turned Up, and Koala Challah (all PJ Library selections); the Peep and Egg series (Parents’ Choice Recommendation, Amazon Editors’ Pick, Children’s Choice Book Award Finalist); My Pillow Keeps Moving (Junior Library Guild selection, NYPL Best Books of 2018 selection); and I Got a Chicken for my Birthday (Kirkus Best Picture Books of 2018 selection). 2019 releases include Except When They Don’t (Little Bee), Dibs! (Lerner), Juniper Kai: Super Spy (Two Lions); Judge Juliette (Sterling); Always Looking Up: A Story of Astronomer Nancy Grace Roman (Whitman); and the Baby Scientist series (HarperCollins). Laura lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband and four children.  Visit her online at www.lauragehl.com.

Do You Want to be President?

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

A friend and fellow member of the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C. , Katherine Marsh  was urging her son Sasha to stop teasing his five-year-old sister Natalia.

“She could be president someday,” said Katherine.

“But I don’t want to be president,” responded Natalia.

“Why not?”

“Because I want to be a duck.”

Pamela Ehrenberg, another author friend, helpfully pointed out that Natalia could be both, recalling Duck for President by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin.

Indeed, Duck for President is a perfect starting point to help students write about our own presidential election without sinking into the quicksand of the current campaign. Even the youngest children will appreciate Duck’s constant search for a job that isn’t such hard work. 

Youngsters can write a sentence, a paragraph, a poem or a page –

·       Would you like to be president?  Why or why not?

·       Write a list of fair rules for voters. This could be a class list. In Duck for President, Duck’s first list of voter registration rules said voters must live on the farm, show a valid ID and be at least as tall as Duck. The “mice got together and protested the height requirement. So Duck crossed it off.”  (And there you have the beginnings of a discussion about how to change rules you don’t like.)

·       What do you think is the hardest part of the president’s job?

·       What would be the most fun?

For older students, there is a wealth of election and writing resources in the current issue of “Teaching Tolerance,” from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

from teachingtolerance.org

Students may end up agreeing with Duck that “running a country is no fun at all,” but at least they will appreciate the importance of carefully choosing the person who will. 

A YouTube Read Aloud version of Duck for President is available. 

Happy Writing!

http://childrensbookguild.org/karen-leggett-abouraya

HOW TO BEHAVE AT SCHOOL

Guest Post by Madelyn Rosenberg

When I wrote my how-to-behave books, I wanted to invoke the idea of a vintage manners book, the kind whose cover stars included a young lady in pin-curls and a young gentleman nearly choked by his skinny, black tie. And, because those books are ridiculously hard to adhere to – So many pages! So many rules! -- I wanted everything to blow up. To make that happen, prim and proper Julia needed a foil (or two or four). And she needed to learn that when it came to fun, other people’s rules were important, too.

The books work to stimulate a discussion with students as you work together to set classroom rules and expectations in September -- or as you revisit those rules at the start of the new year.  They also lead into a fun exercise of do’s and don’ts for starting a school day on the right foot.

Here are some examples from my books:

From How to Behave at a Tea Party: We DO send out invitations, sip quietly, and hold our tea cups just so.

We DO NOT burp like Uncle Victor or make towers out of the tea cups. We do not invite frogs or the Mckagan Brothers.

From How to Behave at a Dog Show: We fill out the form, and use a firm but quiet voice.

We do not eat the judge’s shoes. Or pants.

In class: Read a How-to-Behave book and have the students discuss what the classroom rules should be. Do we exclude our friends, or is everyone allowed to play? How do we speak to others? How do we make sure everyone gets a chance to share their ideas for classroom fun?

Next, have your students write their own wacky version of a how-to guide for your class. You could start with getting ready for the school day or from the moment the kids arrive in the classroom.

Brainstorm two lists: Things you must do and things you mustn’t. For the mustn’t list, the more outrageous and specific the better. Here are some examples, though of course your results will have your own, unique classroom flare.

Musts:

Get on the school bus.

Talk quietly with your friends.

Walk into the school building.

Greet your classmates and teacher with kindness.

Share.

Feed the fish

Mustn’ts.

Bring Shanice’s ball python in your backpack.

Yell like Tarzan and tell the bus driver to turn left and drive to England.

Knock over the principal.

Konk your classmates over the head with a giant pickle.

Put every single block and lego and crayon and piece of paper and dress-up thing in a super high castle so that no one can have them but you.

Go swimming in the fish tank.

Now put your list together in your best how-to style. You may want to keep it simple, by using must and mustn’t. You may want to mix it up a little more, to sound exasperated like Julia does.

YOU CAN’T ORDER CHINESE TAKEOUT FOR SNACK TIME!

YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO EAT GOLD FISH CRACKERS, NOT ACTUAL GOLD FISH!

Let the students decide which should come first in their story and which thing should come last. Having an end point in mind – a time of day, for example – also helps, so work together on a destination. Do you want your story to end at recess, with everyone playing together? Or the end of the school day, with everyone saying they’ll be back again tomorrow, ready to learn? Ask your students to think about the things that will make their own school day end happily ever after.

As a journalist, Madelyn Rosenberg spent many years writing about colorful, real-life characters. Now she makes up characters of her own. The author of eight books for young people, she lives with her family in Arlington, Va. For more information, visit her web site @ madelynrosenberg.com or follow her on twitter at @madrosenberg. And if you try this exercise in your classroom, she’d love to see the results!