My "Best of" Christmas Book Awards

While still feeling too full from Thanksgiving I dug out all the Christmas stuff, including our Christmas books. Every year we get out a big basket and put all our Christmas books in it by the tree. Ahhh...Christmas stories by the tree lights. While going through the books I thought about what I like about each story. I decided to give some of them a "Best of" award. So here are my winners.

Best party planners: Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner

Best way to entertain a hyper critter: If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff

Best non-materialistic Christmas: Christmas in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Best use of holographic foils: The Christmas Star by Marcus Pfister

Best athlete: The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

Best change of heart: How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Best place to visit by train: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

Best performance by juvenile delinquents: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

Best wood carver: The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski

Best secret life by a relative: Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera

Best angel tree top: The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston

Best visit to the museum: The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas by Anne Muecke

Try and give your own books some awards. Perhaps yours would even be different than mine for the same book. This would be a fun activity for students as well. 

I could have gone on and on with giving my books awards, but I had to stop myself. (Time to switch the wash and feed my family.)

Louder, Lili by Gennifer Choldenko

This picture book is about a very shy girl, Lili, who doesn't say much at all. When she does, she is hardly ever heard. She never speaks up for herself at school, so she misses out on a lot. She is partnered up with a very aggressive girl, Cassidy. Finally, something Cassidy does makes Lili finally speak up. In fact, she yells and everyone hears her. "Even the glue in the bottle stood still."

Lili's opportunity to speak out came when the teacher was absent and a sub was there. I found the sub amusing. (She was out in the hall on her cell phone instead of watching the students.)

I love that in this book you can see that kids, like adults, sometimes get to their breaking point, that final straw when it's time to let loose what you've been holding back. I think that can be very healthy-to stand up for yourself-as long as it's not something violent or naughty (illegal) that you do.

This would be a great book for any shy child.

And the Winner is...

Congrats to Sheri!
Please e-mail me at hennypenny1@live.com with your address information.

Enjoy the book and CD!

New Christmas Picture Book Giveaway

I'm giving away a brand new hard back copy of The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas. The book is written by Anne Muecke and illustrated by Nathan Hale. It includes a CD with dinosaur Christmas music and the story read by Al Roker. 

"Twas the night before Christmas, when all thorough the hall 

Not a creature was stirring, there was no sound at all.

The fossils were standing where they always stood

Looking out o'er a now fast asleep neighborhood."

Every Christmas Eve, the dinosaur fossils in the museum come to life to sing, dance, eat gingerbread, and be merry. And this year, a young boy who lives across the street gets to join in the magical festivities. 

The last four pages of the book have the words to the songs on the CD.  They go along with traditional Christmas songs. For example: 

Deck the Halls with Stegosaurus, 

Hark! The Pterodactyls Sing

All you need to do is comment on this post about something you are thankful for (since we are entering the week of Thanksgiving) and your name will be entered into a drawing. You have through Thanksgiving to leave a comment. I will draw and post the winner's name on the day after Thanksgiving. (Black Friday, November 28) 

Good Luck and Have a Happy Turkey Day!

Fluency - a sometimes neglected skill

Fluency is an essential part of effectively teaching reading. The NAEP reported that 45 percent of all fourth graders tested in the U.S. are not fluent readers. "Without that fluency, the world of imagination, humor, and drama contained in the finest books is no more a tangle of words." Lisa Blau.

The National Reading Panel (2000) defines fluency as "the ability to read a text quickly, accurately, and with proper expression." Fluency feeds into comprehension, so comprehension is being added to that definition. With fluency, one should be able to read the text quickly, correctly, with expression, and be able to comprehend what they are reading.

That makes fluency quite involved. The good news is that fluency can be taught.

"Massive reading does increase fluency, and thus there is something to be said for having students read a great deal in order to increase comprehension." Pressley 2002

"Effective teachers have their students spend enormous amounts of time reading easy texts that they can successfully read with fluency, accuracy, and comprehension." Richard Allington

Timothy Rasinski, a professor of literacy education at Kent State University believes that reading slowly interferes with comprehension. He sites that 90% of comprehension problems are due to fluency. "Fluent readers focus their attention on making connections among the ideas in a text. Between these ideas and their background knowledge, they are able to focus on comprehension."

A few other ways to teach and increase fluency are:

Repeated oral readings

Reading just right books

Reader's theater

Poetry

Song Lyrics

Nursery rhymes

Timing readings and checking for comprehension

Scholastic has an article of strategies to help second through fifth graders improve in fluency.

Even very young children who are just learning to read can practice fluency. When they have sounded and blended their way though even a simple phonics book, they can get faster at reading it, use correct expression and be able to answer questions that test their understanding of the text. 

There really is a lot of information out there on the importance of fluency. Although sometimes not tended to as well as needed, it is really a very important aspect of reading.

Look Behind! by Lola M. Schaefer and Heather Lynn Miller

This picture book is about animal bottoms from A to Z. It tells (and shows) what kind of "butt" each animal has. Then it includes a paragraph about that animal and how it functions. I must include some text from the book for you to get an idea of what it's all about.

"F Fancy Butt" (a peacock)
"H Hairy Butt...Although the polar bear's fur looks white, each hair is actually clear."
"J Juicy Butt...The salamander's bottom looks extra juicy, but the poison tastes bad..."
"N Noisy Butt...Every time a cow breaks wind, it releases methane gas into the air."

Okay, you get the idea. The book does have colorful and fun illustrations and does give information about each animal. You might chuckle at one part and then say, "Ew, sick!" at another part. At our house, between the laughs and the gross-outs, there were some gasps because we really don't use the b-u-t-t word.

So I'm asking, if you have read this book, what do you think about it?
If you have not read it, are you interested?

I hope you don't think this review was a BUMMER!

A Poem a Day

The Library of Congress has a program called Poetry 180. It offers a poem a day for every school day. (Typical school year of 180 days.)

Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States explains the purposes for the program.

"...Making poetry an active part of the daily experience of American high school students... The idea behind it is to have a poem read each day to the students of American high schools across the country."

Not only will high school students benefit from this program, but I believe anyone who loves to read poetry will enjoy it. 

The site suggests how to read a poem out loud, as well as other information, including a poetry and literature center. You will find a list of all 180 poems. One of my favorite ones is #56 Fat is Not a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen.

Enjoy!

City by Numbers by Stephen T. Johnson

 This is the companion volume to Alphabet City. Although City by Numbers was published in 2003, I accidently became familiar with it just the other night. I ran over to my neighbor's house to watch her sleeping kids for a minute while she picked up the babysitter. I found this book on the floor and enjoyed looking at it very much. 

The book is full of paintings that show the numbers from 1 to 21 in city details. I loved trying to hunt for the numbers. The number 2 is made by flakes of peeling paint, and the number 4 is found in the lines of the Manhattan Bridge at sunset. If you look at the cover of the book, what number do you see? I better not give any more hints because if you haven't yet enjoyed this picture book then you need to and you will need to discover the numbers on your own. The numbers are not very hard to find, but they are very interesting when you see them.

When my neighbor returned home, I was still looking at the book and said that she'd have to wait for me to leave until I was finished. (Thanks Christine, for having a great book lying around the house.)

Thankful for Thanksgiving Books

Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey

Poem about how children on a school field trip try to save the turkeys 

from the ax of Farmer Mack Nuggett.

Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' by Eileen Spinelli

This book has been reissued with new art by Megan Lloyd, 

with wolves instead of people.

 Fun story about the disasters that happen with all the food.

 Thank You for Thanksgiving by Dandi Daley Mackall

Rhyming story about a family working together to get

 ready for Thanksgiving, and then giving 

thanks to God for their blessings.

Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes

A story about appreciating big and small things 

that occur in a young child's life.

The Perfect Thanksgiving by Eileen Spinelli

A young girl compares her own family's chaotic holiday celebration 

with that of another "picture perfect" family. 

One is a Feast for Mouse: A Thanksgiving Tale by Judy Cox

A repetitious story about giving thanks for the little things,

like the leftovers that mouse gets.

Mary's First Thanksgiving:An Inspirational Story of Gratefulness 

by Kathy-jo Wargin

Mary is a modern pilgrim girl who recognizes her blessings from 

the story of the first Thanksgiving. 

A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting

Mr. and Mrs. Moose invite their animal friends

 over for Thanksgiving dinner. They try to get scared turkey 

to come, but he thinks they want to have him for dinner,

 not come to dinner as a guest.

America's 10 Coolest Public Libraries

I found this article about the coolest libraries in the United States.

I thought, "Hey, my city library is cool! It's a pretty good size and good looking too. I wonder if it made the list."

Then I went to the article and clicked on the slide show of the ten libraries and right away I knew why my city library was not going to make their list. These libraries are amazing! Check them out.

Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Cecilia knows that she is not just another peasant girl; she is actually the true princess, in hiding until the evil forces that killed her parents are vanquished. A commoner named Desmia is on the throne as a decoy.

As she gets older, Cecilia finds it harder to study statesmanship and palace protocol secretly at night and then pretend that she has nothing on her mind other than scrubbing the gruel stains out of her best apron by day.

Cecilia knows that it is time to take charge. Along with her best friend, Harper, she flees to the capital city, determined to reclaim her throne and face the danger head on.

When Harper and Cecilia reach the famed Palace of Mirrors, they discover complications: Princess Desmia believes an entirely different version of the story.

I enjoyed reading Palace of Mirrors, but it wasn't my favorite by the author. It does bring back the character Ella Brown from Just Ella. However, she's not a main character in the book. I felt it was more of a fast moving, simplistic story with some predictability. Of course, there was some adventure and a touch of romance. Always a great combination for a good story.

My very favorite book by Margaret Peterson Haddix is Running Out of Time. I also really enjoyed her historical fiction book, Uprising, about the Triangle Shirt Factory fire. I did get very attached to her Shadow Children Series. I loved the first book, Among the Hidden. It was nice to see boys really get into those books as well as girls. 

Lessons from Enemy Pie

Enemy Pie by Derek Munson is not a new book. Most of you have probably read it. After reading it, you might have closed the book and thought, "That was a great story with a wonderful message." But are we living it?

For those of you not familiar with the story, here are some things that were written about it.

"It was a perfect summer. That is, until Jeremy Ross moved into the house down the street and became Enemy Number One. Luckily, Dad has a surefire way to get rid of enemies--Enemy Pie. But one of the secret ingredients is spending an entire day with the enemy!"

"In this funny yet endearing story, one little boy learns an effective recipe for turning a best enemy into a best friend."

Richard Irwin writes, "A morsel of hatred is turned into a dessert of love."

Enemy Pie shows how to handle relationships and resolve conflict through its clever message.

How appropriate is this for any aged person in today's society? I would love to see John and Barack make each other an enemy pie. 

On Derek Munson's website, he explains what the Enemy Pie Experiment is. When he does school visits, he does a reading of the book, then a discussion and then the kids use all kinds of things to create two enemy pies-one good and one bad. They then decide which one would be best to get rid of an enemy. (Sounds like fun.)

Wouldn't this wonderful lesson of spending time with our enemies, getting to know them, and perhaps eventually fostering a relationship with them be beneficial to all of us? 

So you don't have any enemies? 

Well, here is one definition of an enemy.

One who feels hatred toward, intends injury to, or opposes the interest of another; a foe.

Maybe that person who offends me and hurts my feelings could be one. Couldn't I apply the message from this wonderful picture book to those around me whom I feel this way about? Couldn't the teenager who thinks their english teacher hates them apply this? What about that neighbor that gives you dirty looks all the time for no reason at all. Why not bake him a pie?

I'm not saying we all have to end up like the boys in the book, but isn't it worth a try, no matter how uncomfortable, to reach out and attain even a peaceful understanding of those who fit our own definition of an enemy? 

We don't have to add a new best friend, maybe we could just get rid of an old enemy.