Doughnuts and Bunheads

Today's post is dedicated to two amazing artists: Laurie Keller and Misty Copeland. Hmmm....competitive me wonders, could I have been the first one to put those two talented women in the same sentence? 🤞

Hello, Arnie!: An Arnie the Doughnut Story by Laurie Keller

It was almost like it was MY birthday last week when this mysterious package arrived.  It was Laurie's new book AND a current leaping doughnut of me! Current because I'm in braids. (so yeah, when I rode my bike to Windy Hill Orchards on Sunday to pick up some apple cider doughnuts I made sure to get out my hair tiess. A bunch of my former students work there and I don't think any of them recognized me behind my mask and braids.)

After greeting all his sweet friends, "Hi, Plain!", "Top of the morning, Jelly!" Arnie is confused because there is a new pastry in the bakery.  This would be a good time to note, that I have to give Laurie Keller all the credit for naming my morning book club, "Pastries and Prose."  What could be this new big pastry, who doesn't even know which try to sit on? Not to worry, though! Our dearly beloved, every-single-if-I-remember-correctly-36-sprinkled chocolate frosted doughnut to the rescue! 

I can't wait to share with my students this week! We're going to have fun with it! How long will it take them to figure out who this new delicacy is? Message me later with your guesses! The closest one wins a doughnut!

Meanwhile, I still love this reading of the original Arnie: 

Bunheads by Misty Copeland and illustrated by Setor Fiadzigbey

I never imagined I would miss driving to dance every day. But boy do I.  The time in the car to catch up, laugh, listen to music. Inevitably, with only a few minutes to spare would my daughter take out her bobby pins to start her bun. Why didn't she ever start it sooner? Sigh.  Maybe I don't miss that part?

The upside is I'm still a dance mom.  Yes! Our daughter is a dance major and happy! We look forward to post-Covid times when we can watch her perform again.  Missing her last recital was just as hard for me as it was for her.

But I digress. I'm excited for the book birthday of Bunheads today! It's already received two starred reviews. Woohoo! A beautiful, inspiring story of a young Misty auditioning for the ballet Coppelia.  I'm not usually a picture book audio book listener, but Misty Copeland is the narrator of this one and I was already hooked from the 30 second clip I heard.

Will you join me at Politics and Prose Friday night for this event with Misty? The tickets are free with an option to add on a book.  Of course, I got one.  Do you think my bunhead would like it for her 18th birthday?  Maybe if it came with ticket to Coppelia.

DOUGHNUTS and ILLUSTRATORS and DRAWING oh my!

Greetings from the CES Library and TOP of the morning to you on this St. Patrick's Day!
Don your green clothes, play in the "green" grass (although, it's not quite green yet here in upstate New York) and eat some green food (How many green things can you eat today?).

I bet somewhere someone is baking GREEN doughnuts today.  I cannot resist doughnuts and Laurie Keller, creator of ARNIE the DOUGHNUT among many other fabulous books (i.e., Scrambled States of America, Do Unto Otters), is a fave of mine. Could it be the doughnut connection? In 2018, she and I sat next to each other at the Caldecott-Newbery banquet and have been buds ever since.  I am determined to get her to Castleton one day 🤞.

There's a great coloring sheet on Laurie's website here.

Can you imagine what it felt to find out you were demoted from planet status? Find out in Adam Rex and Laurie Keller's book, Pluto Gets the Call.  Put it on hold through Sora/Overdrive.

Here is a read aloud of ARNIE for you to enjoy today:




Baking is a great activity we can all do together and think of the curriculum connections!  Math, ELA, Science! The Doughnut Fix by Jessie Janowitz is one of my favorite doughnut chapter books.  On her website she has a recipe for "Life-Changing Chocolate Cream Doughnuts." OOOH!  Please share pictures if you do leap into this activity!

I found this DOUGHNUT Tic-Tac-Toe game on our database, Kids InfoBits.

Kids InfoBits - Document - Tic-Tac-Doughnut: A Game for 2 Players

SPEAKING of ILLUSTRATORS (We were, right?)

Maybe you heard, maybe you didn't, but some authors and illustrators are posting daily live (or to watch later) videos.  This is so wonderful and generous of them.

Who doesn't LOVE Mo Willems?  He is hosting a Lunch Doodle hangout every day at 1PM.  You can also find things to do on Mo's website.  Here is his introduction video:




ALSO, you can watch Jarrett Krosoczka, author and illustrator of one of our favorite graphic novel series, The Lunch Lady (and other books!).  Subscribe to his channel and you can get a reminder to watch him live EVERY DAY at 2PM.  You can even set a reminder to yourself.  Here is the first episode from yesterday:



Did you know that Jarrett visited CES about seven years ago?  I think it's time for him to return, don't you? 😍

Stay healthy, happy and positive! xo Ms. Rattner

POTATO PANTS

She said I was the best dressed there.  A bit of an exaggeration but I still shared that with my friend who was with me when I bought the dress. Because of that, I stared at my wardrobe for a long time.  "How would the 'best dressed' dress to school?"  In the end, I chose a new dress that said friend from above picked out, leggings, a scarf and denim jacket.  Oh yeah, and my signature red high top chucks.

Today was our Skype visit with Laurie Keller.  LAURIE KELLER! She's HUGE! I was nervous and excited!

Every third grader was asked to bring in a potato to draw some pants on it. FUN!

We've been talking so much about author purpose, it was refreshing to ask that question and have them all say in unison, "make us laugh." Exactly.  And laugh we all did.

First I read the book aloud and then we called Laurie.

Some fun facts we learned about Laurie:

• Laurie loves drawing with markers.  In fact, on her favorite page of the book she used markers to draw all the potatoes running into the store.  I think she's the first illustrator we've met who uses markers.  

• French fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes...She loves them all but fries are her favorite way, hands down.  Steak or shoestring? We forgot to ask!
• Red has always been Laurie's favorite color but now she is entering an orange phase. What could that mean?
• I had read in Book Page that Laurie did not know how to fold a fitted sheet.  Mrs. Warland to the rescue! This morning, she gave Laurie (and all of us) a step by step lesson at the conclusion of our Skype.
  
• There is no plan for a sequel but Mrs. Warland had a great idea if there is one--Potato needs glasses because he has EYES! That Mrs. Warland is a clever one! 

Last night I pulled out our Scrambled States of America game to bring to school.  I love that game!  And right there in the small print, "based on the book by Laurie Keller."  How cool is that? 

Well, I'd say we are well on our way to gathering some good information about Laurie for when she visits Castleton ;-)We even have a head start on our meal for "dinner at Doe's."

Thanks, Laurie, for a great Skype.  We laughed. We drew pants on potatoes and we even threw in some home economics skills.  I just hope I didn't disappoint in the fashion area,

PS-Thank you Lucy and the crew at Macmillan for seating me in between Laurie and her editor, Christy Ottaviano, at the Caldecott-Newbery banquet.  If that had never happened, today wouldn't have happened.

Laurie showing us her favorite page

Our Leap!