It’s a Parody Party!

guest post by Sue Fliess

Okay, so maybe I get overly giddy about writing parodies, but for me they are just so much fun! I’m not sure what inspired me to write my first parody song, but once I did, I was hooked. Essentially, I like to take popular songs and change up the lyrics to make it about writing or poke fun at part of the writing journey. I think it’s cathartic to me to be able to express some of the less appealing parts of being in book publishing or being a writer. Humor gets me through the rough patches, and I figured others in the same boat might need a laugh. I’ve done parodies on finishing a book, revising, wanting more books, and even dipped my toe into the political spectrum. But I had not thought of doing a parody for a book, which seems hard to believe! So when an editor, who’d seen my parodies, asked me to try my hand at a parody for a children’s book, I said yes! And We Wish For A Monster Christmas was born!

Try it with your class!

Depending on the age of your students, you can have them do simple or more complex parodies. For the younger set, maybe just take the title of songs they know, and have them change the titles, or just the main chorus. For older groups they can choose a song and rewrite all the lyrics. What I do is print out a page with 2 columns. The left column I have the actual song lyrics and on the right, I create my own to match the beats or syllables. But since it’s a parody, it doesn’t have to be exact. Also, my parodies surround a central theme, but for younger students, it may be a challenge to rewrite a whole song around one topic.

Literary parody

Not in the mood for music? Have your class write a parody of a nursery rhyme or poem they know from a collection. For instance, Mary Had a Little Lamb or Humpty Dumpty might be good starters. Again, they can just create a new title, or rework the whole piece.

No matter which direction you choose, it’s sure to be a fun activity that lets kids be silly and use their imaginations. 

Sue Fliess ("fleece") is the author of numerous children's books including A Fairy Friend, Calling All Cars, Robots, Robots Everywhere!, The Hug Book, Tons of Trucks and Shoes for Me!  Sue lives with her family and a Labrador named Charlie in Northern Virginia. For more information about Sue and to check out her books and song parodies, go to http://www.suefliess.com/

RISK AND REWARD

Guest Post by Debbie Levy

            Visitors to this blog who are in the teaching and reading professions know—better than I—of the movement among literacy experts to give children more so-called “risky” texts to read, listen to, and discuss. By definition, risky texts raise difficult issues, and these educators say that kids can handle them, when the books are age-appropriate.

            Risky texts might raise feelings of sadness, guilt, or anger, even among young readers. That’s the risky part.

            But in my view, and the view of many others, the benefits can far outweigh the drawbacks. Quoting an academic paper I read recently: risky texts “can help students learn about . . . injustices, make connections to their own lives and broader social contexts, and consider potential actions to redress these injustices.” They also promote empathy and a moral sensibility to the sufferings of others.

            I didn’t set out to write a “risky book” when I wrote We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song, a picture book about how voices upon voices over years upon years built up this famous song like a collage. The book describes how this song came to be and how it helped the people who sang it while they fought against injustice—and how it still helps people today.

            The book starts like this:

Back in slavery times—

when enslaved people worked long days

with no pay and no say,

no freedom, no fairness,

no choice and no chance—

the people sang.

They suffered, yet they sang—

to soothe the hurt,

to fight the cruelty,

to declare that—yes!—they were human beings.

            Each spread has lyrics from the song, or precursor of the song. The book travels through different historical events and times in which the song evolved and played a part.

            I didn’t think of it as a risky book.

            But this past August I received a letter about the book—about this page:

            The text, if you can’t read it in the image, reads as follows:

It took a war—the Civil War—to end slavery.

But even after,

white people treated black people

as less than fully human,

excluding them, ignoring them,

blaming them,

even attacking them,

all because of the color of their skin.

Black people were no longer slaves,

it was true.

But they were not truly free.

Still they believed things would get better.

Still they sang.

           

            As I said, I received a letter.

            “Hello,” the letter began, “at work we had a book fair, and I purchased your book We Shall Overcome. My mouth dropped on page 7, and I had to put the book down! . . . Why didn’t it just say, after the civil war, ‘people’ still had a hard time getting along or understanding. Why did you have to be so . . . I don’t have words. . . . I thought the book would be shocking to read to my grandson.”

            Now, I wouldn’t want to take the approach this letter-writer wanted: to suggest that the problem after the Civil War was that people had a hard time getting along. The problem was racism, and although this book doesn’t use –ism words, I wanted readers to know that white-on-black prejudice was the problem. It wasn’t a matter of simply not getting along.

            Reasonable minds can certainly differ on what a particular child should read. And, of course, a grandmother should choose what she’s comfortable reading to her grandchild. But I do want children to know and to face truths, even uncomfortable ones. I think they are capable. And I think that facing truths is something that goes on, and should go on, in our schools. Which brings me to using this book in the classroom—both as part of social justice education and to get kids writing about how to respond to injustice.

            In my own interactions with young students around this book, I’ve found that they don’t necessarily grasp the notion of racial bigotry at first. (Not a bad form of ignorance!) But we do need to introduce them to this part of our history, which, as we adults know, isn’t really a thing of the past.

            So, with the younger students, I like to begin by talking about unfairness, with some “what if?” questions. What if you couldn’t go to your favorite park because of your hair color? Had to sit apart in school or on bus or in movies because you go to a different church—or don’t go to church? Couldn’t go to the place where they serve the best ice cream in town because only blue people can and you are orange?

            They giggle, but they get it. And then I talk about how, not so long ago, restaurants could refuse to serve you a meal if you were African American. I explain that, in those days, if you were African American, if you were Mexican American—you could not drink out of the same water fountains as white people in some parts of the country. (I share photographs of these and other segregationist practices. They are easy to find on the Internet.)

            So, I ask the kids, what’s unfair about all this? Write a letter to persuade the people in charge—the owner of a restaurant or theater or ice cream parlor, the superintendent of a county park, the president of the bus company—to allow equal access to these places.

            And I ask: if you were being treated so unfairly, or if someone you loved were, how would you feel? Write a diary entry about this.

            We can agree that being treating this unfairly could make you so angry and frustrated that you might want to fight. But fighting with your fists could create even more problems for you and it probably wouldn’t get you what you wanted.

            So, I ask the students, how can you fight with your brain? This is a good question to discuss in a group. And it’s a good question to lead into reading my book, because the story of the song “We Shall Overcome” is in part the story of the ways people in the civil rights movement thoughtfully fought against race discrimination.

            After reading the book and after singing the song, I ask: why was singing part of the fight against unfairness? (I have my answers. Singing shows the people who are treating you unfairly that you are strong, that you are a human being, and that you will be heard. And singing can give you courage and can lift your spirits—especially if you’re singing with others. But I want to know what the students think.)

            Two more writing activities after reading the book:

            Write a journal entry from the point of view of a person who lived through one of the time periods in the story and timeline. It can be someone who participated in the struggle. It can be someone on the sidelines. Someone black, someone white.

            Finally:

            Write your own new verses for the song, verses that respond to problems you see in your or community today. (Bullying comes to mind. Social shaming, too. But let’s see what’s on the students’ minds!)

            This last activity is my favorite. The song’s structure is simplicity itself, so everyone can succeed at this. I like encouraging the idea that everyone can author his or own lyrics about fighting injustice. And the lyrics can lead to a discussion of these difficult issues. The new verses, like “We will stand with you,” or “We are on your side,” are among the rewards for taking on a “risky” subject.

Debbie Levy is the author of more than twenty books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for young people, including the Jane Addams Award Honor book, We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song, and the Sydney Taylor Notable book, The Year of Goodbyes. Visit http://debbielevybooks.com/

             

SOLSTICE LULLABIES

by Laura Krauss Melmed

As I write this exactly one week after the horrific Newtown shootings, in the midst of the frenetic holiday season, and during the darkest day of the year, it occurred to me that this is a time in which we might all be in need of some soothing.  What better to fit the bill than a lullaby?  Lullabies are meant to put children to sleep and for that reason, both words and music must have a calming effect.  Lullaby songs have appeared across cultures and languages and have been sung down the ages.  Lullabies are also a popular theme for bedtime books.

In my first published book, The First Song Ever Sung, illustrated by Ed Young (and sadly out of print but available from third party sellers on Amazon) a little boy questions all the members of his family as well as the fish in the brook, the birds in the sky, and his pet dog to find out the answer to his question, “What was the first song ever sung?”  Each human or animal provides an answer in terms of something very important to him or her.  In the last verse, the boy’s mother tells him that the first song ever sung was, “a mother’s song, a hush song, a sleep song, a love song”… in other words, a lullaby.  In writing this text, I utilized repetition, which has a lulling effect, and slant rhymes, or words that almost rhyme, to keep it from getting too sing-song-y.  (As a side note, I actually wrote this first as a lullaby to my own son Jonathan.)

In another of my titles, I Love You As Much, illustrated by Henri Sorensen, various mother animals express their love for their little ones, again each one in her unique way:

Said the mother horse to her child,

I love you as much as a warm summer breeze

Said the mother bear to her child,

I love you as much as the forest had trees.

Here the text is in simple couplets, again using repetition and rhyme for a lulling effect.  The last spread pairs a human mother and child with a couplet that reads,

Now sleep child of mine as the stars shine above

I love you as much as a mother can love.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti has created a unique lullaby book called Naamah And The Ark At Night, with fabulous collage illustrations by Holly Meade.  Bartoletti show us Naamah, the wife of Noah, singing gently throughout the night to soothe the human and animal pairs that inhabit the ark.  The form of the book was inspired by an old Arabic poetic structure galled a ghazal. It requires each couplet to end in the same word, preceded by a rhyming word. In Bartoletti’s hands this form creates a tender, hypnotic bedtime song.

For a collection of more traditional lullabies, see Kay Chorao’s The Baby’s Bedtime Book. It contains songs in the folk tradition, such as "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" and "All the Pretty Horses," as well lullabies written by poets such as William Blake, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Alfred Lord Tennyson.

For a writing exercise, try identifying the elements of a lullaby and then writing one from the point of view of a human parent, an animal, a fairy tale character, or even an alien on another planet. After all, everyone needs a little soothing now and then.

www.laurakraussmelmed.com

THANKSGIVING FOOD FIGHT!

by Jacqueline Jules

At Thanksgiving time, many classrooms enjoy persuasive writing. A very popular writing prompt is the DON’T EAT ME letter where students take on the persona of a turkey trying to convince the farmer to spare him from the chopping block. Students have a blast explaining why they are too scrawny or tasteless to eat. Since these pleas are written in letter form to a fictional Farmer Brown, there is an opportunity to review proper letter form in the process.   

A variation on this theme would be to ask students to write dialogues between foods sitting on a Thanksgiving table. Each food could explain why it is important to the holiday meal and/or the favorite of the family sitting down to eat. Descriptions of foods always provide great opportunities to incorporate the five senses. Does the food crunch in your mouth? Does it have a particular texture or taste on your tongue? What does it smell like?

The conversations between the foods could be playful or serious. The cranberry sauce could argue with the green beans over who is the most colorful or nutritious. The turkey could be a big bully who makes the other foods cry until the crescent rolls decide to take a stand. Maybe the pumpkin pie has an argument with the pecan pie and all the foods pick sides. The possibilities for creative dialogue are endless and students may have great fun performing their finished pieces as Reader’s Theater. For tips on giving each character in a conversation a distinctive voice, check out Mary Quattlebaum’s post on Two-Person Dialogue poems.  

  

And of course, don’t miss this opportunity to review grammar rules for writing dialogue. Many students neglect to begin a new indented line for each speaker or put punctuation inside the quotation marks.

Finally, please note that I said students should write dialogues between foods on the Thanksgiving table, rather than traditional Thanksgiving foods. Many first generation immigrant families, like the character of Tuyet, in my Thanksgiving picture book, Duck for Turkey Day, serve a holiday meal native to their birth country rather than turkey and stuffing. Writing about holiday foods from other countries and sharing their descriptions could become a lesson on diversity in your classroom. We need to remember that not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving in the same way and too much emphasis on turkeys can be uncomfortable for some children. On this theme, I wrote a song about foods on the Thanksgiving table that you are welcome to share with your students. This song, “A Holiday for All,” is set to the tune of Shortin’ Bread. Maybe your students will want to create their own lyrics to a familiar tune in honor of Thanksgiving, too.

 www.jacquelinejules.com

WRITE A SING-ALONG

by Laura Krauss Melmed

In previous Pencil Tips entries, Mary Quattlebaum blogged about crafting lessons based on fairy tales and nursery rhymes.  Traditional folk songs are another fun medium that can be used for sculpting a workshop.  As a child I was fascinated by an aunt’s big book of American folksongs.  I would pore over the lyrics, especially the sad love ballads like “Barb’ry Allen,” although, since no one in my family played an musical instrument, I could not hear the tunes.

For the purposes of this workshop, however, the songs should be as light and silly as possible.  Amazon.com lists many children’s songbooks of old American favorites, including The American Song Treasury, 100 favorites by Theodore Raph and I Hear America Singing: Folk Songs for American Families by Kathleen Krull, which comes with a 23-song CD.  In addition, individual songs are readily available for downloading from I Tunes and on YouTube.  For teachers who play guitar, this is a perfect opportunity to showcase your talent.

A lesson should start with listening to some tunes while encouraging a sing-along.  Then guide the children in figuring out what elements, such as rhyme, repetition, choice of silly words and absurd situations, have made these songs appealing to successive generations.  Have the students speculate, as I did when writing my picture book, The First Song Ever Sung, when and why people might have first come up with these songs:  to allay boredom or set a rhythm while working in the fields, to banish loneliness while herding cattle, to put a child to sleep, to provide entertainment while sitting around a campfire in the days before a click of the mouse or the remote could bring instant entertainment, etc.  

Then have the group sing “The Eensy Weensy Spider,” followed by reading The Eensy Weensy Spider adapted by Mary Ann Hoberman, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott.  In this zany adaptation, Hoberman comes up with all sorts of continuing adventures for the spider, including hugging a baby bug, going swimming, and shoe-shopping (now, that’s my kind of spider!).  Tell the children that they are going to take part in a similar effort, as a group, using another song.  

For the writing exercise, pick a song having many variations on a single theme.  It should be one in which only the chorus has end-rhymes, since requiring every line to rhyme would narrow the children’s choice of words as they devise their own verses.  For example, for “She’ll Be Comin’ Around the Mountain,”  the students could select a protagonist of choice, such as a sports player, a super hero, or for the sake of this example, a dragon.  The chorus could still be “She’ll (or he’ll) be comin’ around the mountain.”

The verses might go,

“He’ll be breathing smoke and fire when he comes,

He’ll be breathing smoke and fire when he comes,

He’ll be breathing smoke and fire, he’ll be breathing smoke and fire, he’ll be breathing smoke and fire when he comes.

He’ll be roarin’ and a snortin’ when he comes, etc.

He’ll be stompin’ and a thumpin’ when he comes, etc.

For the “The Wheels on the Bus,” you could describe a venue other than the bus, such as your school itself or a vehicle like a firetruck or train.  For “We’re Going to the Zoo” by Tom Paxton, select a different destination, such as the forest or ocean.  For “I Had a Cat,” instead of barnyard animals, use jungle animals, woodland animals, animals found in your backyard.  These songs present many opportunities to make up sounds and devise creative descriptions of actions.  (Some research on your part or your own memory will no doubt reveal other songs that work well.)

Have the children create as many new verses for your chosen song as possible.  When your group’s new version is complete, join together in a rousing group rendition.  After this activity, older students may be given the assignment of choosing another traditional song and creating a variation all their own.  

http://www.laurakraussmelmed.com/