Except When They Don't

by Laura Gehl

Except When They Don’t is written by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Joshua Heinsz. The book is about how girls always love pink and princesses, and boys always love blue and robots…except when they don’t! In other words, it is a book that encourages kids not to worry about gender stereotypes and to just be themselves.

After reading Except When They Don’t out loud, try these writing activities with your students:

1. Make a list of “boy” stereotypes and “girl” stereotypes. Then write a story with a main character who does not fit with these gender stereotypes. Maybe you will write a story about a girl who is a football star, or a boy who has the lead role in a ballet. Maybe you will write about a boy who loves wearing necklaces to school, or a girl whose favorite toys are cars.  Remember: your character should have lots of sides to his or her personality, just like every real person does! A girl who loves football might also love pink and be great at math and have five pet cats. A boy who loves wearing necklaces might also be the president of the school student government and play soccer at recess and play the drums in the school band.

2. Can you think of a time in your own life when you felt like you couldn’t do something because of your gender? Maybe you couldn’t get the sparkly red shoes at the shoe store because they were “girl shoes.” Or maybe you couldn’t sign up for wrestling because “that’s for boys.”  Or if you can’t think of a memory like that, imagine that you have a friend coming to you with a secret. Your friend wants to paint his nails, but he is embarrassed to ask his mom to borrow her nail polish, because nail polish is just for girls. Or maybe your friend wants to cut her hair really short, but she is worried everyone will say she has a “boy” haircut. What advice would you give your friend? How could you help?

3. Imagine that you are the owner of a toy store. There are dolls, tea sets, trucks, trains, markers, robots…every toy you can imagine. What if a customer came up to you and said, “I want to buy presents for a little girl and a little boy. Can you give me some advice?” What questions would you ask the customer? How would you decide which toys to recommend?

4. Starting in elementary school, sports teams are usually separated by gender. There are girls soccer teams and boys soccer teams, girls basketball teams and boys basketball teams. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea? Why?

5. Imagine 100 kids (50 boys, 50 girls) growing up with human parents and 100 kids (50 boys, 50 girls) growing up with alien parents. The alien parents just arrived on earth and don’t know about our human gender stereotypes. Do you think the kids raised by aliens would grow up wearing different types of clothes and liking different activities than the kids raised by human parents? Why or why not?

 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

DELIVERY BEAR, COOKIES, AND CAREERS

by Laura Gehl

Delivery Bear, written by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Paco Sordo, is the story of a large bear named Zogby whose lifelong dream is to deliver cookies for the Fluffy Tail Cookies Company—a company staffed entirely by bunnies.

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

1. Imagine you are in charge of the Fluffy Tail Cookies Company. You get to decide all of the different types of cookies that customers can order. Will you sell classics like chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin? Or creative new recipes like Peanut Butter Potato Chip Delight? Or a mix? Write or draw a list of the cookies you will sell.

2. Even when he is a small cub, Zogby knows what he wants to do when he grows up. What do YOU want to do when you grow up? What is your dream job? Why?

3. When all of the customers are scared of Zogby, he is tempted to give up on his dream. But in the end he thinks of a new way to approach the deliveries and succeeds in his own way. Think of a time in your own life when you were tempted to give up. What happened? How did you manage to overcome your frustration? Was there someone who helped you?

4. When Mrs. Rabbit hears the Fluffy Tail Cookies delivery song and opens the door, she expects to see a small bunny. Instead, she sees a large bear and screams “AAAAAAHHHH!” In this case, Mrs. Rabbit is judging Zogby based on his appearance. Have you ever judged someone based on her/his appearance? Has anyone judged you by your appearance? Do you think Mrs. Rabbit’s reaction is reasonable or unreasonable? If you were a rabbit and opened the door to a bear, what do you think your reaction would be?

 http://www.lauragehl.com/

7 ATE 9: THE UNTOLD STORY

by Laura Gehl

7 Ate 9: The Untold Story, written by Tara Lazar and illustrated by Ross MacDonald, is a clever mystery and a great book to read aloud in your classroom.

After you read 7 Ate 9 to your students, you can use it as a fun writing prompt for the classroom. Here are a few writing suggestions:

1) The author, Tara Lazar, took an old joke (“Why is 6 afraid of 7?” “Because 7 ate/8 9!”) and turned it into the plot of a book. Can you take a joke and turn it into a story? Use one of these jokes, or any other joke you like:

-“Why did the chicken cross the road?” “To get to the other side!”

-“How do you catch a fish without a fishing rod?” “You use your BEAR hands!”

-“What is it called when a cat wins a dog show?” “A CAT-astrophe!”

2) This book is positively FILLED with puns and plays on words.

Here are just a few:

-Private “I”

-I orders a slice of “pi”

-7 is described as “odd”

How many other puns and plays on words can you find in this book? Check the illustrations too! Make a list as a class.

3) 7 Ate 9 is a mystery story. Try writing your own mystery story. Before you start writing, organize your thoughts. How does the mystery begin? Is there a missing person or item? Who will solve the mystery in your story? What clues can you sprinkle into your story so that the mystery can be solved?

4) Ross MacDonald managed to draw numbers in a way that gives each one lots of personality. You try! Draw a number and give it hands, feet, and a face, like in the book. You can add clothes or any other touches you like. Now write a few sentences describing the personality of your number. What foods and activities does your number like? Dislike? Who are your number’s friends? Does your number have a pet?

5) Write your own ending to 7 Ate 9. Instead of 9 turning out to be 6, and 6 trying to frame 7…what else could happen? You decide! Think of a different solution to the mystery and write it down.

www.lauragehl.com

I'M NOT--Writing About Fears with Peep and Egg

by Laura Gehl

In Peep and Egg: I’m Not Hatching, Egg is scared of everything—from the too-high roof of the hen house to the too-dark sky at night.  Egg wants to stay inside of her nice, cozy, SAFE shell. 

When I present Peep and Egg to school groups, I ask kids to think about their own fears.  What would make them want to stay inside their eggs? 

When Egg finally hatches, it is because she wants to be with Peep, and because she wants to read a story.  I ask students, “What would make you hatch out of your egg?  What do you love enough that you would come out of your safe, cozy egg for it?” 

In your classroom, you may want to have each student make a chart—one half of the paper for What Would Make Me Stay in My Egg and one half of the paper for What Would Make Me Hatch.  Ask students to write a list, or draw pictures, on each side. 

(So far, I’ve found sharks to be the most popular answer for What Would Make Me Stay in My Egg and ice cream to be the most popular answer for What Would Make Me Hatch.)

Peep and Egg: I’m Not Hatching is the first in a series of books that will include Peep and Egg: I’m Not Trick or Treating, Peep and Egg: I’m Not Taking a Bath, and Peep and Egg: I’m Not Eating That.

Ask your students to think about an I’m Not title that reflects their own fears.  Ask, “What would YOU be scared to do?”  I often tell school groups that my title would be I’m Not Skydiving.

Next, ask students to write or tell an I’m Not story, with the story primarily written in dialogue like Peep and Egg. A student could use the characters Peep and Egg, she could use herself and a parent (“I’m Not Trying Out for the School Play!”) or she might use a scared penguin and a comforting polar bear (“I’m Not Ice Skating!”).  Anything goes! 

Writing I’m Not stories can help students think about their own fears in a humorous way.  I’m Not stories can also help kids remember that we can overcome our fears, although we may need a special someone like Peep to help us break out of our shells!

Laura Gehl is NOT skydiving!  But she IS the author of One Big Pair Of Underwear, a Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Title, International Literacy Association Honor Book, and Booklist Books for Youth Editors’ Choice for 2014; Hare And Tortoise Race Across Israel and And Then Another Sheep Turned Up (both PJ library selections for 2015 and 2016); and Peep And Egg: I’m Not Hatching, an Amazon Best Book of the Month for February 2016. A former science and reading teacher, Laura also writes about science for children and adults.  She lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her husband and four children.  Visit Laura online at www.lauragehl.com. 

THE WHOLE BOOK APPROACH

by Joan Waites

In the newly released book, Reading Picture Books With Children, by Megan Dowd Lambert, (Charlesbridge 2015), Lambert introduces The Whole Book Approach-an alternative to traditional story time.

Instead of reading books TO children, she emphasizes using the picture book as a visual art form, engaging children to participate in what they see and hear.

The chapters are broken down into the different parts of a picture book that make up the whole. The author gives examples of questions to ask students that engage them into looking beyond the surface of what they see. Some of the chapters include information on trim size and orientation, jackets and covers, endpapers, front matter, typography, page design, as well as other artistic and design choices that were made to compliment the story. These design elements might not be seen or realized at first glance, and coaxes the reader to explore them further.

The whole book approach can be used by parents, caregivers, teachers, librarians and even authors and illustrators when doing school presentations.

As the book cover says, “shake up story time and get kids talking about what they see.”

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all!

 www.joanwaites.com

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOX!

guest post by Timothy Young

Boxes are incredibly useful and somewhat mystical things. Without boxes, birthdays would be less exciting, we’d have a heck of a time on moving day and Schrodinger would have no problem knowing if his cat were dead or alive. Thankfully, we have boxes and my new picture book, Do Not Open The Box!, is a story about one boy and a box. Benny comes across a very large box with a sign on it that says “Do Not Open.” Benny is curious and thinks of all kinds of things that could be in the box, both good and bad, and has to decide whether to give in to temptation and open it.

There are many books about boxes and their plots are as different as the number of things you could find in a box. For example, Too Many Toys by David Shannon, Not A Box by Antoinette Portis or The Birthday Box by Leslie Patricelli tell very unique stories about what kids do with boxes.

Writing Exercise:

Put a box on a table. Ask students to write two lists of what they think could be in the box. One list will be things that would realistically be in the box. The other will be a fantasy list of what they’d like to be in the box. Examine the differences between the possible and the impossible.

Art Exercise:

The students can pick an item from each list and draw a picture of a dragon eating cupcakes or monsters reading textbooks.

Timothy Young has been an animator, puppet maker, toy designer, sculptor, art director and graphic designer. He’s designed for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, the Muppets, The Simpsons, Disney, and Universal Studios. Tim is the author/illustrator of 6 picture books including Shadows On My Wall, The Angry Little Puffin and the highly acclaimed I Hate Picture Books!. His latest, Do Not Open The Box, will be released on January 23rd, 2016. He lives with his family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Find out more about him and his books at www.creaturesandcharacters.com

A COOL CONCEPT & COLORFUL WRITING

guest post by Hena Khan

I never realized that writing a concept book would feel like solving a puzzle. When I sat down to write Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colors, I first brainstormed objects to represent each of the colors I wanted to include. Some were obvious choices, like brown dates or orange henna designs, but most of the others were not. Next I had to come up with something to say about each object using the formula I had created:

“Gold is the dome of the mosque, big and grand,

Beside it two towering minarets stand”

I continued with “Blue is…”, “Red is…”, “Green is…”, and so on, writing rhyming couplets. After arranging them into an order that made sense, I concluded with a summary page that tied everything together.

I’m going through the process again these days, this time working on a shape concept book. I’ve asked my own children to help me with the process of selecting objects and coming up with rhymes, and they have great ideas even as it often turns into silliness. I’ve realized that working on a concept book of poetry can make for both a fun group and individual writing exercise.

I picked Islam to introduce the topic to young kids, but your students can pick any theme that is special to them, like basketball, the backyard, the music room, or dance. They can choose to focus on colors, shapes, or numbers and use the same formula I do, starting each section with either “Red is . . .” “Square is . . .” or  “One is . . .”

For younger children, it might be enough of an activity to have them write a line about each object and illustrate their books. But it would be fun to challenge older kids to come up with rhyming couplets of their own and see what kind of puzzles they can piece together. At the end of the activity, there should be an opportunity to share a variety of creative concepts.  

Hena Khan is a picture book and middle grade author from Rockville, MD. Her most recent picture book, Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns (Chronicle Books, 2012) is a 2013 ALA Notable Book and a 2013 Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year. Night Of The Moon (Chronicle, 2008) was a Booklist 2009 Top 10 Religion Book for Youth. Hena has written two middle grade choose-your-own-adventure style novels, Worst Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure: Mars (Chronicle, 2011) and Amazon (Chronicle, 2012); Mars received the 2012 Eleanor Cameron Golden Duck Award for Middle Grade Science Fiction. www.henakhan.com

Writing Up a Tantrum!

Guest Post by Artie Bennett

I’m probably better known for my rhyming nonfiction picture books (The Butt Book, Poopendous!, and Belches, Burps, and Farts—Oh My!), for better or, ahem, verse, but today I’d like to shine a spotlight on my storybook, Peter Panda Melts Down!, and its protagonist, the most meltdownable panda we know. Peter is only three and he’s filled with frustration. In the story, we spend the day with Peter and his mama—and oh, what a day! We witness Peter blow a gasket in the car, in the supermarket, in the park, in the library, in the . . . everywhere! As Peter’s fits of fury flow forth, indelibly captured by the terrific illustrator John Nez, we observe Mama Panda’s growing exasperation and we wonder: Will Mama Panda melt down, too? I’m afraid you’ll need to read Peter Panda Melts Down! to find out. No spoilers here.

      Now, I love to write in verse, though the challenges can sometimes be great. Because I’m burdened with a perfectionist streak, I agonize over every single syllable. I tweak and revise endlessly until I get things just right. And then I tweak and revise some more. I’m blessed to be writing in English, which has far more words than any other language (well over a million in total!). This gives me a world of possibilities for rhyming. And it really is a world because English has absorbed words from across the globe and adopted them as its own.

     Peter Panda Melts Down! has a fun, catchy refrain running through it:

“Uh-oh. Here it comes. Here comes that frown.

Peter Panda melts dowwwnnn!”

And there a few twists on the refrain for added enjoyment and surprise. It also has a large dollop of my trademark wordplay and humor.

     Ask your students to write about a time when they, or someone they know, experienced monumental anger, like a volcano about to blow its top. They can work in small groups or individually. Young writers can address how the situation was calmed down (if, in fact, it was), and what role they themselves may have played. Was there an adult involved—and if so, how did the adult react? Did it take place in a public or private setting?

     People have a variety of strategies for quelling their anger. Some count to ten. Some concentrate on slowing down their breath. Some may meditate. Some listen to their favorite music. How do you calm yourself when you find yourself getting angry? Write a few sentences about this.

     Make a list of the things that make you angry. Are there any items on your list that you think may be unique to you? Write a bit about why these things upset you.

     Tots will regularly toss tantrums. Students can write about what they feel is the most effective approach for dealing with such outbursts.

     To add a fun wrinkle, students can even attempt to write a few lines of the exercise in verse if they wish. And if they enjoy that challenge, who knows: They could be the next . . . Artie Bennett!

BIO: Artie Bennett is the executive copy editor for a children’s book publisher and he writes a little on the side (but not the backside!). He would be hailed as “the Dr. Seuss of your caboose” for his much-acclaimed The Butt Book, his first “mature” work, which published in 2010. His “number two” picture book, fittingly, was entitled Poopendous! followed by Peter Panda Melts Down! and Belches, Burps, and Farts—Oh My! in 2014. Artie lives deep in the bowels of Brooklyn, New York, where he spends his spare time moving his car to satisfy the rigorous demands of alternate-side-of-the-street parking and shaking his fist at his neighbors. He loves sharing his books with a wider audience at school visits. Visit ArtieBennett.com . . . before someone else does!

Teaching the Elements of Art with Picture Books

by Joan Waites

In my last blog post, I wrote about using picture books in the classroom as a supplemental way to teach art history. Using this same approach, young students can also be introduced to the seven elements of art using the illustrations in a picture book. Each illustrator brings their own unique style and uses these elements in different ways to convey the story in pictures. The seven elements of art are:

Illustration by Joan Waites
www.joanwaites.com

Line

Shape

Color

Value

Form

Texture

Space

Looking at the illustrations in a picture book, ask students to comment on the art using these seven elements, asking the following questions:

Line: Is the line used to draw the objects or setting thin? Thick? Angular or curvy?

Shape: Are the basic shapes large or small? Organic or geometric?

Color: Are the colors used warm or cool? Monochromatic?

Value: Are the colors used darker or lighter in shade?

Form: Are the figures and setting flat or more 3-D looking?

Texture: Do the objects in the picture appear rough? Smooth? Shiny?

Space: Do the objects in the illustrations look like they are closer to the reader? Farther away?

Have students study two picture books and compare and contrast how the illustrator incorporated these seven elements. Next, have students draw an illustration based on their favorite picture book or story. Using the seven elements as a guide, encourage students to incorporate as many of them into their work as possible. Bonus points for those students who incorporate all seven!

www.joanwaites.com

Teaching Art History with Picture Books

by Joan Waites

When teaching a lesson revolving around a famous artist in history, I begin by showing examples of the artist’s work, talk about their choice of media and subject matter, then read a short biography. In addition (and what really seems to capture the attention of the students) is reading a picture book that captures the art and personality of the artist in story.

Some wonderful books I’ve used and recommend are:

When Pigasso Met Mootisse 

by Nina Laden

A fictionalized story about the friendship between Picasso and Matisse.

Look! Look! Look!  

by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Three mice learn to look at art using shapes, colors, composition and more--a great introduction for students on what to look for in any painting.

My Name Is Georgia 

by Jeanette Winter

A biography of the artist Georgia O'Keefe.

Linnea In Monet's Garden 

by Cristina Bjork

A young girl visits Monet's Garden.

Seurat and La Grande Jatte: Connecting the Dot 

by Robert Burleigh 

Focuses on a single painting introducing the artist's life and work.

As a writing exercise, have children study one work of art by the artist featured in your lesson. Have children imagine themselves inside the painting, living in that world and write a short story about it. What do they see, smell and hear? Who or what is in the painting with them? What is happening around them or what is about to happen?  

Wishing everyone a wonderful start to the new school year!

www.joanwaites.com

CROSS-COUNTRY TRAVEL IN POSTCARDS

by Jacqueline Jules

Throughout the summer, Pencil Tips bloggers have been suggesting ways to inspire young writers to document their travels. Joan Waites suggested a map collage. Alison Formento provided ideas for listing facts and sharing the information in different ways. I’d like to suggest postcards enhanced by research.

Vera B. William’s classic picture book, Stringbean’s Trip to the Shining Sea, is an illustrated group of postcards written by a boy named Stringbean Coe on a trip from Kansas to California. In each postcard, Stringbean describes his travel experiences in vivid words and pictures. Share this delightful book with your students and ask them to write their own cross-country adventure  in postcards. This is a great opportunity to combine description with geographical research. Students will need to look up important facts about National Parks and other major tourist attractions so they can be accurately portrayed in their writing. Words and pictures can be created on large blank index cards (8 inches by 5 inches) and fastened together with string or a brad on the left hand side. The end result is a postcard book, just like Stringbean’s Trip to the Shining Sea.   

Another fun travel book to use for inspiration is Darcy Pattison’s The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman. In this picture book, a life-sized wooden toy hitchhikes across country while his progress is reported back to his owner through letters and postcards.

Both books depict strong characters and are great models of how a story can be interwoven in a travel narrative. Better yet, they are so much fun to read, your students may suggest writing their own travel letters before you give the class assignment.

www.jacquelinejules.com

BLACKOUT: Personal Narratives in the Dark

by Jacqueline Jules

With thunderstorm season approaching and subsequent power failures, your students should enjoy an award-winning picture book by John Rocco called Blackout. In this brief story, a city family is too busy for a board game until the lights suddenly go out. Mom’s computer and sister’s telephone don’t work anymore. Dad can’t finish cooking dinner. The family huddles around a candle, making shadow puppets. They go onto the roof of their apartment building to watch the stars.

Blackout delightfully captures how a normal evening can be pleasantly interrupted by a power failure. And it could be a great writing prompt in your classroom. Read this story and have a class discussion about a time when the lights went out. Was it hot or cold? Did your family do something special together like play a board game or go outside for an evening walk? Students might remember eating melting ice cream from the freezer or going to the pool to cool off. Others might complain about having to use a flashlight to go to the bathroom or flipping on the light switch without results.

Ask students to describe the many things in their homes that no longer worked without electricity. Were they frustrated? Or did it become a time for storytelling and pretend games? If the power failure occurred at night, ask your students to describe the glow of the flashlight, the flicker of candles. Did they use their five senses more in the dark?

Since almost all children have experienced it at least once, the story of a power failure can inspire a fun personal narrative with lots of descriptive details. John Rocco’s Blackout is just short enough for a mini-lesson to leave plenty of time for student writing. I hope your classes enjoy this activity as much as mine did.

www.jacquelinejules.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

An Interview with Editor Donna German, Sylvan Dell Publishing

by Joan Waites

With August quickly drawing to a close, teachers, students, and parents are preparing for back to school. Like most teachers, I’m cleaning, reorganizing, and gathering new resources for lessons, projects, and new ways of presenting material in the classroom.

A publisher I have had the privilege of working with, Sylvan Dell Publishing, publishes picture books that also provide resources for expanded learning opportunities in science, math, geography, character, and Spanish. Donna German, Editor-in-Chief and co-publisher at Sylvan Dell was gracious enough to answer a few questions about this unique publisher of picture books and the added teaching resources they offer with each title.

1. What was the motivation behind taking on the huge task of starting a new publishing company from the ground up?

Do you mean other than stupidity in starting a business right before one of the biggest economic downturns in recent history? Lee (my husband and co-owner in the business) had retired from the US Navy and wanted to buy a small manufacturing business. My passion was always with children’s books so we decided to manufacture children’s books.

2. What did you hope to bring to the picture book market that was not already available from other publishers?

Our books are, in fact, very unique. We had taken our three then-young girls on a cross-country camping trip to see as many National Parks as we could. While exploring the parks, the girls did the Junior Ranger programs at each park. Those Junior Ranger programs were the seed that grew into the “For Creative Minds” (FCM) section in the back of each book. These sections are usually 4 pages but may be as low as 2 or as many as 6. That is what makes our books truly unique.

Our mission is to get young children excited about science, math, and now geography through reading at a very early age. Our goal is to provide fun-to-read fictional (some non-fiction) picture book stories that parents will read to young children (cuddle factor) but that have non-fiction facts woven throughout the story. While some publishers add a page of “Fun Facts” to the back of some books, our FCM section in each book is designed to engage children through activities. These activities are the non-fiction component of each book that builds on the underlying science or math in the picture book story. Our hope is that when a child asks “why,” that the parent can work through the FCM with the child to answer the question—even if the parent didn’t know the answer. Older children can work through the activities on their own, but the reading level of the FCM sections is usually higher than the picture book reading level.

Either way, we believe that the more a young child is exposed to science and math in a fun way at a very young age, the more they will become interested and remember as they get older. Even if they don’t remember the specifics, they’ve been exposed to the concepts and that provides early building blocks for better understanding and retention later in life. And, I need to add that because our mission is to get young children excited about science and math through reading, we take that mission seriously. We are not experts in the subjects so we turn to the experts to review each title before going to print. We have worked with educators and scientists from NASA and JPL, NOAA, USGS, US National Parks, Nature Centers, Zoos, Aquariums, etc. to verify the information in the books. In many cases, the experts are aware of the areas that are most confusing to children (and even adults) and help us to present the information in an easily understood fashion.

What makes our books especially useful in the classroom is that it allows teachers to “kill two birds with one stone.” They can use the books during language arts to introduce or supplement a science or math lesson. We even know about high school teachers using some of our picture books in their classes!

3. Your books offer so much for the teacher to incorporate into classroom instruction-the "For Creative Minds" (FCM) section for each book, the additional content for each book on the website, the site license that is available to use on smart boards-can you tell us a little about those extras and how teachers can take advantage of them?

You mention the site license so let me describe that a little because eBooks are really confusing! Like most publishers, we make our books available in a wide variety of formats including ePubs and downloadable PDFS. But those are very different eBooks than what we offer in our “site license” or “personal eLibrary.” The interactive eBooks that we offer (through our website and some distributors but not all) stream on the web or can stream or be downloaded on an iPad (Fun eReader free app). 

The interactive eBooks feature: 1)  Dual language: readers can go back and forth on any page between English and Spanish 2)  Auto or manual: readers can turn the pages themselves or put the book in “play” so they can just read and watch 3)  Audio or no audio: readers can listen to the book being read to them (in either language) or not. 4)  Different Languages: This is available on the web but not on the iPad app. When in manual mode, a reader can read the text in one language but listen to the audio in the other. This is great for learning either English or Spanish!

In addition to the FCM section, we provide all kinds of support for each title, all of which can be found FREE on our website   from either the book’s homepage or from the Teacher and Librarian page:

For Creative Minds: The FCM sections of each book are available on the website in English or Spanish for download.

      Teaching Activities: Each book has 25 to 80 (depending on the book) pages of cross-curricular teaching activities that can be taken up or down in interest level and can be done at home or in the classroom. For example, if teaching the parts of speech, why not do it with science-based sentences?

Quizzes: We provide three on-line interactive quizzes for each title. Again, these can be done at home for parents to ensure comprehension (or just for fun), as individuals in the classroom, or on a white board as a group: 1) on the story itself  2) on the FCM section 3) a math-related quiz

 Related Websites: for more online learning on each subject

Alignment to Standards: While this is more for teachers than parents, each of our titles is aligned to Core Math and Language arts as well as each state’s Science and Social Studies standards. If a state does not participate in the Core standards, we align to that state’s math standards. We align each of our books to the upcoming Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) that will be adopted by 27 states in the next few years.

Reading Levels: Again, mostly for teachers, we provide the information AR, Lexile, Reading Counts, and Fountas and Pinnell.

Trailers: depending on the author or illustrator, some titles have trailers to peak children’s interest

4. With eight books published each season, you certainly have a lot on your plate. What's next on the horizon for Sylvan Dell?

Our English books are already available in hardcover, paperback and a wide variety of eBook formats. At the specific request of the Department of Education in Puerto Rico, we started printing some of our titles in Spanish as well.

We are building to ten titles a season (twenty for the year). As part of that expansion, we are expanding into folklore and myth retellings (preferably from North America) that were used to explain scientific occurrences. That seems to be a good blending of language arts, science, and social studies (culture and geography). Our first release of that grouping will be next spring (2014) with Nancy Kelly Allen’s First Fire: A Cherokee Folktale.

We released our Fun eReader iPad app a little over a year ago. While the interactive eBooks work on all other tablets through the web, we are currently developing apps for droid tablets.

As funding permits, we would like to add other languages to our interactive eBooks. We have received specific requests for French, Mandarin, and Arabic.

From a teacher support perspective, we plan to develop teaching activities using multiple books to teach science concepts (life cycles, habitat interaction, solar system, natural disasters, etc.). And now that the NGSS standards are about to be implemented along with the Core standards, we can develop teaching activities for different grade levels.

Many thanks to Donna for taking time out of her extremely busy schedule to tell us more about Sylvan Dell books and their mission. If you haven’t had the chance to read one of their titles yet, I think you will be pleasantly surprised how much each book can enhance classroom learning.

www.joanwaites.com

ANALYZING PICTURE BOOKS 101

by Joan Waites

When I visit schools or teach an illustration class, I’ll often start by asking the question, “What is a picture book?”  The most common answer given is “it’s a story with pictures.”  While this is a correct answer, we can also take a closer look at the story and art that make up the book as a whole, and the choices the author and illustrator made to make the book unique. 

Using one picture book as a guide, talk about each of the following and ask students to comment:

The Idea

How do you think the author came up with the idea for this story?

Is it from personal experience?

Is it something they imagined?

Is it based on scientific facts or a historical event?

Genre

How is the book classified?

Fiction/ Non-fiction

Fairy tale or myth

Mystery

Poetry

Humorous

Other

Character and setting

Are the characters and setting real or imagined?

Did the author have to do research to make the story authentic?

Size and Shape

How is the book formatted?

Horizontal/Vertical

Pop-up

Special shape

Length

 8, 16, 24, 32, or 48 pages

The layout

Are the illustrations on a full page, half page, double page spread or spot art?

How did the illustrator choose to place the text on each page?

Style

Is the art realistic, cartoon, stylized or a combination of these?

What medium did the artist use to create the work?

What viewpoint did the artist choose to create each page? (Close-up, overhead, looking up, eye level, or far away from the viewer?)

Type choice

Is the type small, medium, large or hand lettered? 

Now ask students to choose 5 favorite picture books from home or the library. Ask them to answer the above questions about each book. How are the books they chose similar? How are they different in the choices the author and artist made? When we take a closer look, picture books are much more than just a story with pictures!

Wishing all the teachers, parents and students that read our blog a wonderful new school year full of exciting learning and creating!

www.joanwaites.com