Cultivating Literacy

Hat tip: MindShift

Happy Halloween

Praise & Prompts

Because Schools of Hope starts this week, I am reposting this helpful guide for young readers.

Expository Non-Fiction Picture Books

What is expository non-fiction? The simple answer is in the words of Joe Friday, "Just the facts". Some kids really want to learn about a subject; they are not interested in a story about their favored topic, but facts. Years ago, I had a second grade student who knew more about black holes that 99% of adults who were not astronomers. All he wanted was more pieces of data to build his understanding of what a black hole is and how it is formed. He was willing to learn to read anything that would further his understanding. In a guest post from author Melissa Stewart, in a School Library Journal blog, there is a much clearer explanation and some interesting research about how many students are interested in expository non-fiction.

Let's take a look at some recent books in this category, the first by Melissa Stewart Can an Aardvark Bark?, illustrated by Steve Jenkins. The simple answer to the title question is no, but it does grunt. What other animals grunt? River otters, Hamadryas Baboons, white tailed deer and oyster toadfish, each species grunts mean something different. Can a seal squeal? No but it can bark and so can capybara, barking tree frog, common barking geckos and woodchucks. To the caybara, it is a warning, to the tree frog it is a mating call, the gecko uses a bark to let other geckos know where he is and woodchucks bark when they are fighting with one another. Other sounds explored that animals use to communicate include squeal, whine, growl, bellow and laugh.

The Sonoma County Library has three copies.


Jess Keating is another author who known for her expository fiction. Pink Is For Blobfish is an exploration of pink animals. Each two page spread introduces a pink toned animal with a picture, facts such as species name, size, diet, habitat, predators and threats. Plus an interesting fact in cartoon form about each animal. Seventeen perfectly pink animals are featured. A map showing where you can find them, a glossary and where to find out more is included at the end of the book. The illustrator is David DeGrand.

The Sonoma County Library has one copy. 

Jess Keating and David DeGrand have paired up for another book What Makes A Monster? The unifying idea this time is exploring animals who look like monsters or act like monsters. The Aye-Aye's witch like claws are only dangerous to bugs. A legend in Madagascar says a sighting of one of these lemurs is a prediction of death. Laid out like the blobfish book, this book features fifteen animals and one fungus. The last animal can be found in every house. The end of the book pairs famous monsters with animals in the book like Dracula and the vampire bat and a glossary of useful words.

Building Your Child's Brain

The Gift of Reading

Hat tip: Imagination Soup

Reading Aloud

Hat tip: Imagination Soup

The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors

Drew Daywalt, author of The Day The Crayons Quit and The Day The Crayons Came Home has teamed up with Adam Rex to create The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors. It is such a genius idea, I am surprised it hasn't been done before.

This is the story of three great warriors, Rock who lives in the Kingdom of the Backyard, Paper who lives in the Empire of Mom's Home Office and Scissors who lives in the tiny village of Junk Drawer. Each warrior has beaten all who have challenged them in their realms and leaves their homes to find greater challenges. Rock and Scissors meet in the great cavern of the Two-Car Garage. Scissors asks Rock if he is wearing his battle pants, Rock agrees to fight her. An epic battle ensues, Rock wins. Scissors is grateful to be beaten. Rock is less happy because there is no one to challenge him. Enter stage right is Paper. Rock challenges him to a duel. Paper wins. Rock thanks Paper for beating him. This time it is Paper who bemoans the lack of a worthy opponent. Enter Scissors. A great battle begins with Scissors victorious. The three warriors dance for joy and become great friends. Then begins round after round of  three-way battles. Battles so epic that children today still honor the warriors by playing...Rock, Paper, Scissors.

The Sonoma County Library has seven copies. Several second graders have read this book to me and had very little problem with the vocabulary. It does not have an AR level yet as it was just published on May 2. I am looking for someone to explain to me why it is inevitable that Paper beats Half Eaten Bag of Trail Mix.

The Value of Fairy Tales

Fairy Tale and Folk Tale recommendations at A Mighty Girl from picture books to chapter books including books with diverse characters. One of my favorites is Uni the Unicorn by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munch is one of my go to books for baby showers. 

The Sonoma County Library has eighteen copies. The AR is 3.8.

The Princess in Black series by Shannon and Dean Hale is a favorite of my youngest granddaughter.

The Sonoma County Library has eighteen copies. Thr AR is 3.2.

The Whisper by Pamela Zagerenski 

Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee

The Sonoma County Library has thirteen copies. The AR is 4.9.

This just a sample of the almost 200 books with mighty girls as heroines at A Mighty Girl. There are literally hundreds of articles and topics all with book recommendations, check it out.

2017 Children's Book Week

Find out more about the 98th celebration of children's literature at http://everychildareader.net.

We're All Wonders

In 2012, R.J. Palacio wrote a book about a boy named Auggie Pullman who was born with severe facial deformities called Wonder. Auggie is finally going to a regular school in the fifth grade.He wants to be treated like everyone else but that is easier said than done. Over 5 million copies of the book have been sold. It inspired the Choose Kind movement. For years, teachers and librarians have wanted a picture book about Auggie. We're All Wonders is the result. 

Auggie narrates his story. He is an ordinary kid inside, he likes the same things kids his age like. But he doesn't look like other kids. His mom says he is a wonder but some others just see how different he looks. Kids staring, pointing and laughing at him hurt his feelings. When that happens, he and his dog Daisy put on their helmets and blast off to Pluto to see old friends. From there he looks back at the earth, it looks so small but he knows that billions of people live there. People who look different and speak other languages. The world is big enough for all kinds of people. Auggie can't change the way he looks but maybe people can change the way they see because everyone is a wonder.

The Sonoma County Library has fifteen copies. The AR is 1.5. There are thirty copies of Wonder.

The AR is 4.8 with 11 points. 

Research Tested Way to Improve Reading Test Scores

Standardized testing begins soon. A reminder of what improves a child's test scores:

Sick Days

When I was three, I had a very serious illness that lasted a few weeks. My mother read to me several times a day even though I had a baby brother that kept her busy, too. She didn't remember much about that time, but I sure do. Decades later those memories are still very vivid.

Hat tip: Imagination Soup

Reading Ideas

I came across a couple of interesting articles this morning. The first is from the  October 3, 2016  The New Yorker, What Makes A Children's Book Good? by Adam Gidwitz. He is the author of The Inquisitor's Tale Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog. If you have middle-grade age readers, this is a rollicking, medieval and timely story. Gidwitz looks at the criteria that has been used to make judgments about the worth of children's books. Should the judgment be about content or results?

The Sonoma County Library has thirteen copies. The AR is 4.5 and is worth 11 points.

The second article is from Brightly by Jean Reagan, the author of How To Babysit A Grandma and How To Babysit A Grandpa: How to Make Reading Fun: 25 Ideas Kids Will Love. One idea I particularly love is to give kids Calvin and Hobbes books. Bill Watterson channeled  kid's  imagination and emotions perfectly. Another great idea that worked with my oldest grandson is to read aloud a book just to the exciting part. More often than not, even a reluctant reader will want to finish the book. Another great idea is using audiobooks. The same grandson as above just needed the audiobook of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to hook him on the whole series (Jim Dale is a magnificent narrator. He had over 100 distinct voices for the many characters over the seven books. Even if your kids read the books, listening to them is a real treat).

The Sonoma County Library has seven  copies of How to Babysit a Grandma and six copies of How to Babysit a Grandpa. The AR for the Grandma book is 3.0 and the Grandpa book is 2.4.

I Am (Not) Scared

My first ride on a roller coaster was when I was dating my husband. We rode the Cyclone at Excelsior Park towards the end of its almost fifty year life. To say it was rickety would be an understatement. I was pretty sure the whole thing would come down before the end of the ride but it didn't. It took a good fifteen years before I got on another one and that was because I didn't know Space Mountain was a roller coaster. Roller coasters are even more terrifying in the dark. I am sure this is a brain issue because my favorite ride is a log flume ride. I have been on them in parks all over the United States; they are scary but I have fun. Other than the addition of water, what is the difference between a log flume ride and a roller coaster?

Anna Kang and Christopher Weyant are back with another book about two bear friends from the Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal book You Are (Not) Small. Our friends want to ride the Loop of Doom but one is brave and one is a little scared. The brave one lists many things that are much scarier: snakes, a tub of hairy spiders, a hot lava pit, a pan of fried ants and a space alien with pink eyes and furry teeth. Suddenly, the roller coaster seems less scary. Their car comes forward with a snake in the back seat. They decide to be scared together. Up they go, around a loop-de-loop, down with their arms in the air and back to safety. Smiling, they agree that the ride was scary but off they go, with the snake, to ride again.

With about fifty unique words, Anna Kang creates a funny story about having fun while being scared. Christopher Weyant's ink and watercolor pictures fill in the details. The font is large, bold and well-spaced which makes it perfect for beginning readers.

The Sonoma County Library has four copies. 

Lois Lowry on the Power of Books

Hat tip: Reading Is Fundamental

Just Read

A new poster from artist and author Calef Brown:

Reading and Libraries

 I am on a rant today about the importance of libraries.

Hat-tip: Imagination Soup
Artwork by Chris Riddell

Go, Otto, Go!

David Milgrim won a Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor this year for the fifth book in his Adventures of Otto series, Go, Otto, Go! Otto misses his family, so he decides to build a spaceship to go visit. His friends are sad to see him leave. They watch as his ship goes "up, up, up" and then "down, down, down" right back to where he started: "home, sweet, home".

Most of the story is told by the illustrations. The text is simple and minimal.The font is large and easy to read and there is plenty of white space. Go, Otto, Go! and the other books in the series are perfect for brand new readers.

The Sonoma County Library has twelve copies. 

Scholastic Book Fair February 27-March 3

This week is Yulupa's annual Scholastic Book Fair held in the Library/Media Center from 8-9 AM and 1-4 PM. On Wednesday it will stay open from 1-7:30 PM. This is a great opportunity to get your kids some books, both for read alouds and for reading on their own. And maybe even pick up a book for your child's classroom; teachers fill out slips of paper with the names of books they would like to add to their classrooms. Check out the Scholastic Book Fair Flyer. This is just a small sample of the books available.

One of the books I plan to purchase is Dog Man Unleashed by Dav Pilkey of Captain Underpants fame. This is the second book in the Dog Man series. In this short clip, Dav Pilkey talks about why graphic novels should be in every classroom. You can here more from him in this January, 2013 interview on NPR.

Another book that interests me is Pig the Pug because it is 1) a dog book and 2) it is about a pug, albeit a rather naughty one. This book is part of a picture book series.

One of my granddaughters loves the Upside Down Magic books. The flyer features Showing Off, the third book in the series.

To help you and your child find the just right book to read here is the Five Finger Rule again: