Baby You Can Drive My Car

 

I love road trips. Period. There is nothing better than packing up your car, pulling out of the driveway and heading to a destination multiple states and hundreds of miles away from your zipcode. For years, I would drive my kids from upstate New York to North Carolina for some cousin time.  We termed it "Road Camp." The first year we read about this place called Wright's Dairy-Rite off of Exit 222 on I81 in Virginia in "Diners Drive-Ins and Dives." We had to stop. Moving forward, we couldn't drive south without pulling up and ordering lunch in Staunton, VA.

Ahhh...I am so looking forward to more long car rides in the future. Until then, I will have to be happy with reading about them.

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

Dan Gemeinhart's adventure of 12 year old Coyote, her dad, Rodeo, on the ultimate road trip from Florida to Boise in their bus, Yager, was a favorite of so many of us last year.  Since we've been quarantined, Dan started sharing Coyote's story aloud.  Here is chapter 1 but you can find more chapters as part of Dan's Coyote Sunrise Book Club on YouTube.

Thanks to Henry Holt for posting this guide on how to make a memory box/treasure chest.  Not only does it pair well with Coyote Sunrise and is perfect for today's world, it is also is a great segue into the next road trip book I am loving right now.

Clean Getaway

I listened to the audio of Nic Stone's book this week and loved it.  It made me want to grab my 95 year old Super Bubby in New Jersey and drive. Somewhere.  She always talks about living in Missouri before my grandfather went oversees.  That's where she learned to drive.  Or we could stay close take a short drive to the Jersey shore.  And then make a treasure chest. And drink hot chocolate.

Scoob and his G'ma are on the ultimate road trip through the south trying to retrace her steps with his grandfather back in the 60s when it wasn't even legal for the two of them to be together.  Even now dark skinned Scoob with his white grandmother get some looks. This book will inspire you to do some research when you are finished-Medgar Evans, Loving vs. Virginia, Emmett Till, the Green Book--are just a few. Here's a full discussion guide. And finally, you may even want to watch the 2018 movie (PG-13) "Green Book."

PS-Dion Graham has many accolades for his audio books. This one is going to get him another one.

Sign Off

Seriously, you will never be able to look at a road sign the same way after reading this book.  It is so good with a great surprising ending and I promise I would say all these wonderful things about this book even if Steve and I weren't friends.  Today, as we are quarantined to walks around our own neighborhoods, go on a hunt and check out the signs. What do you notice? What stories can you make up about the figures on the signs? Is there something about a sign that you never saw before? I'll be completely honest, there is a sign I passed all the time that I never knew was there until I saw it in Sign Off. And the school sign?! We can discuss that for hours.  Well, hours is what we have now so go check it out and let me know your thoughts!

Until then, I will continue to be positive and dream of my next road trip. We're not putting many miles on our vehicles these days so an extra 1500+ this summer or fall won't hurt. xo

Relationships, Stephen Savage, and Twitter! Oh my!

A few weeks ago I attended a Binghamton University (SUNY-Binghamton when I was there) alumni event.  The school is trying to relaunch the club since 3000 alumni live here in the Albany area.  I was curious, especially since my daughter is a rising HS sophomore, and went with my cousin, class of '08.  There was a guy from the class of '77, me (class of '91), a guy from '98 and then more people from the 2000's and later.  I spent the most amount of time chatting with Rodell, '16. Rodell was there alone and had been living and working in Albany since November.  Maybe he came to make friends? Network? See old friends? Find a date?  Whatever it was, I was impressed.  An elementary school librarian may not be the person he was hoping of meeting that night and I might not be the most helpful in his engineering career but it did get me thinking about...

...relationships.  Personal connections and relationships.  I don't doubt we live in a world of high tech, instant contact, social media explosions, however, it got me thinking that when those tools are used wisely and with heart, you can move mountains. Or at least make a difference in the lives of some kids.

It's been a long time since I blogged.  June seems to have come and gone in a flash.  Now it is the end and summer has finally begun.  This summer not only am I hoping to read a #bookaday (chapter books, if possible) but to blog more (daily may be impossible), run so I can enjoy my sweets and lattes and forge more personal relationships with book creators.

My last of seven illustrator/author visits of the year was with, I think I can now confidently say, my friend, Stephen Savage. And even though we had Skyped a few months earlier, I believe that friendship became solidified with a tweet that got his school visit rolling:

From that one tweet, Rachel Person from the Northshire Bookstore, sent out an email and five months later Steve was walking my red carpet runway celebrating the book birthday of Little Plane Learns to Write. So, I will never knock social media but I will say, during that time he and I actually chatted on the phone twice, sent many emails back and forth to each other and I convinced him to have "dinner at Doe's" the night before his visit so we could form a 20th century friendship beyond social media.

Here are some snapshots from our great day with Steve. 
BTW--friend or foe, I highly recommend him for a school visit. Start knocking at his door today like I did...

Welcoming Steve the night before at Dinner at Doe's (far left)

Skywriting Like Little Plane at the Reading Ambassador Breakfast Little Plane Birthday Party

 

With the fifth grade Reading Ambassadors

Assemblies

 

More Birthday Celebrating with Dewey Duty Helpers

Flying out (and leaping) on our Runway

Until next time--Looking forward to you landing and leaping in Castleton again soon!

Thanks to Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Spring, NY and Macmillian for making this possible.  Saratoga is a great place to visit and the bookstore is a lovely spot right there on Broadway.  What a great way to end our school year!

Endnote:

I have to throw this in here while we are talking about the positive power of social media.  Here's another friendship that was forged, again, just from one tweet on August 14, 2014:

Upcoming New and Newish Books A-Z

Yes, I was nervous. I don't like getting up in front of adults. Give me a gymnasium filled with 400+ 5-10 year olds and I'm fine but a room full of colleagues and peers, I'll pass.  Then make it the day after I have 32 people squeezed in my home for a seder and I feel like toast.  Haha.  That's pretty funny.  Get it? Toast. Seder. Ok...moving on...

In any case, I was honored and pleased today to present new books for the K-5 set today at Capital Region BOCES, followed by the most amazing Alicia Abdul, who spoke about YA books. You need to check out Alicia's blog and website.  She is sugar sweet candy to me.  She recommends books that sound SOOOO good that I go out and read them when I should be completely engaged in the Middle Grade that I love so much (which I really do).

I prefaced my whole workshop with the fact that my collection, although it certainly is a reflection of my students, is definitely influenced by my likes and dislikes and the authors that I have come to love and befriend.  As long as I admit that, isn't that ok?  And as much as I can promote these authors and books, I will. No collection is perfect and mine is no exception.  I just strive to make my students (and faculty) as happy as can be.

At the bottom, I've attached the list I handed out to participants.  Some of the books I talked about aren't on there and others that are I didn't get to.  But it's a starting point for anyone.  My brain isn't thinking Newbery, Sibert, Geisel or any other award but certainly  many of these books are contenders. I also did a triple threat shout out for local author/illustrators, James Preller, Nancy Castaldo and Elizabeth Zunon.  I like to think I might have drummed up some business for them. Happy Reading and please let me know your favorites.

Sample Slides

  

 

PRESTO! It's Stephen Savage!

With fist pumps, peeks into his sketch books, a preview of his newest book due out in the spring and even a quick pause to get his wire statue built by his elementary self in the spirit of Alexander Calder, this was one amazing Skype!  Thank you, Stephen!

He made a point to say and remember every child that came up to the camera to ask a question.  Each one got a fist pump.  Jack brought in his personal copy of Where's Walrus, got it "signed" and personalized by Stephen.  Lucky!

Jack getting his book "signed"

In spite of our rough start (blame it on technology), it was a great Skype.  Not only did we get to ask questions and hear all about where Stephen's ideas come from and how he screened and almost didn't pick up his Geisel acceptance call from our friend, Miss Amanda, but he also drew Supertruck, Walrus, Penguin and even by request, a Boston Red Sox, all for us.  When that was happening, you could hear a pin drop in the library! We could have all watched him draw for hours.

Someone asked how he got the idea to do a wordless picture book.  After a little trial and error and working with his editor, it just came to be.  "Some things just happen because that's the way things go."

Another question we asked was whether he wrote the words first or drew the pictures.  As we know, every artist is different.  Stephen writes first.  "The words give me all the information I need to make the pictures."

I forget who asked this, but it was my favorite question.  "Do you always say 'presto' when you cook?"
We found out that Stephen does a lot of the cooking in his family so he usually says, "Hurry up and come to the table! It's getting cold."  I bet he's a great cook but he admitted that he's like the mixed up truck sometimes and wonders if he put the right ingredients in, such as the right cheese.  Hmmm...if he's wondering if it's the right cheese or not, then he's totally sold me on dinner at his house.  I love ALL kinds of cheese, the more unique the better.  Maybe that's a story for his next book?

I have been around a lot of writers and illustrators where the "What's your favorite book?" question has come up and Stephen's is not an unusual answer, the classic, Harold and the Purple Crayon.  Harold seems to be an inspiration for many illustrators. I distinctly remember Bryan Collier answering that because he thought he looked a little like Harold.

Steve showed gave us a peek into his new book and we even got to meet his dog!

The new book!

We could have sat with Steve for hours but alas we had work to do and I am sure he had work to do, too.  At least we hoped he did so he could keep making great books for kids.

The 2017 Geisel Committee with 2016 Geisel Honor Award winner, Stephen Savage!

And our obligatory leap!  Look at the air on some of those kids!

Thank you so much for a great Skype, Stephen!  We look forward to reading Little Plane Learns to Write in the spring and more books by you in the future!  And know that Castleton Elementary School always has an open door for you, just a 15 minute drive from the Albany Amtrak station! ;-)

"Every kid is a great artist.  Some kids just stop doing it."

-Stephen Savage, 2016