'Twas the Night Before YMA 2021 version

I still have all the feels of the night before the Youth Media Awards and so many other ones, too.  

Newbery

The closest I came to my typical quarter long Newbery project was my after school Newbery Navigators club.  A handful of dedicated readers read a bunch of books.  One loves Echo Mountain.  Another Mananaland. Every single one of them When Stars Are Scattered.  We read Clean Getaway aloud so of course we'd be thrilled to see Scoob and G'ma get some love. Over the summer, 4th grade teacher Mr. C swore that he didn't have to read another 2021 book because he already read the winner, We Dream of Space. Maybe this is the year for nonfiction and we'll be placing a sticker on All Thirteen or The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh (too old?). 

Caldecott

My 2nd and 3rd graders were on the "Caldecott Committee." What a year for picture books!  We read and scored as many as we could but I'm afraid that I still missed a bunch.  The third graders LOVED A New Green Day and the second graders couldn't get enough of Lift.

I force the kids to make one choice, but not me. This is a good thing. There's no way I could pick my favorite. I love We are Water Protectors, Outside In, Hike, In a Jar, The Old Truck....honestly, I love them all.

  

And because this year I have a fixed schedule, I'll be celebrating all week long.  I bought gelt (gold coins) and gold Hershey's kisses (without almonds) as my treat and hope that is festive enough for our "party day." I also found a gold backdrop for photo ops and some gold balloons.  Happy Youth Media Day.

Sibert

I was fortunate enough to run into 4th grade ELA teacher, Mrs. Roe, in the stairwell in November.  We chatted for about five minutes and came up with a Sibert Smackdown plan.  She would read books aloud and I would read others over Flipgrid.  4th graders read over a dozen Sibert Smackdown contenders. Considering that I didn't think they would read any, this is amazing!

With all but one class voting, the top two winners are Crossings and Your Place in the Universe.

If you can't sleep tonight or woke up early and want to watch a little preview before the announcements, feel free to check out their flipgrids: https://flipgrid.com/ff7c379e

Geisel

Ugh. I love Geisel.  I've met some amazing people through the Geisel project including Stephen Savage, Anna Kang and Chris Weyant, Jonathan Fenske (who always makes me lol).  Even though I have only read a few of the Geisel contenders, Egg or Eyeball is my favorite with Baloney and Friends and Mo and his squished jelly doughnut as close seconds.

And that's my wrap.  Tomorrow will be nothing like any other year but I'm hopeful it will still be exciting. I'll be celebrating all week and really putting my acting skills to test.  Find me on Friday afternoon to see if I'm as surprised at the announcements as I am tomorrow.  But now it's time for me to hit my pillow.  See you on the other side.

Global Read Aloud 2020: Swashby Edition

We've started to put our heat on.  They are predicting significant snow on Friday.  We "fall back" on Saturday night.  Covid numbers are rising.  I could really use a pick me up. And I got one.

Thank you Global Read Aloud 2020 and the uber amazing Pernille Ripp for showcasing my friend and talented, Caldecott Honor winning illustrator, Juana Martinez-Neal.  By doing so, this week I get to visit the sea twice a day by sharing Beth Ferry's Swashby and the Sea with the gorgeous illustrations by Juana. Ahhh...short of actually having the waves fiddle with my toes and hearing them crash, this is really the next best thing.

I love the story of Swashby, el recluso. As much as he wants to resist the energetic, fun, oatmeal cookie giving neighbor, with a little help from the sea, he just can't.  

Today, day one for this book, felt like the old days when I did a "Book of the Week" with the entire third grade.  One story. One crazy activity for 75 kids ( ie, author Skype, oreo moons, literally potato pants...) Except this time around, I planned it all on my own (well, not without running it by Mrs. Pryde to get the ok that it wasn't too wild an idea) and lead it on my own. I miss the collaboration but forgot about it for a second when I heard all the oohs and ahhhs. I was pleasantly surprised that it all worked. "This is really fun," exclaimed several kids. Yay! 

Rather than mimicking the sea altogether, we just "painted" kind words in the sand with glue and whole wheat flour.  Not too messy. Fortunately, with my second class we actually went outside so clean up was a breeze.  Ahhhh....all puns intended of course.

In a few weeks we hope to connect with friends in Manitoba as part of the GRA.  So far we have seen their names written out creatively, read about their favorite family foods and shared our "La Princesa and the Pea" mattresses piled high on a pea (lentil) through our joint padlet. We can't wait to meet them IRL, sort of.

I love the idea of the Global Read Aloud so much and even though this is its final year, I hope we can continue to connect with folks all over the world in our own ways next year and beyond.

Pre-quel

Just a few other photos from our projects with Fry Bread and La Princesa and the Pea.

Whole World in Our Hands

"Wake up, Rafael!" the alarm whispered. "It's 5:30 AM and you are about to dazzle 80+ third graders in a little town in upstate New York." And dazzle he did.  The kids loved him (you know because they listened and were attentive).  The teachers adored him ("He was great!" "That was amazing!" "When is he coming?") and all I could think of was the chant we will recite when he does visit. (I'll give you a hint: It's very similar to the one we sang for Matt Cordell.)

Prior to dialing, we read the book together.  Wait, back up a minute.  Way prior to his visit, like the night before prior, I baked 90 cupcakes.  C'mon.  What's a party without cake? And what's a party about the beautiful diverse children in this world working together to take care of our planet without CONFETTI cupcakes?  Not one flavor but all of them sprinkled throughout the batter.  We talked about author's purpose.  We were informed of illustrator's purpose. And now I'm sharing that even a librarian has purpose.

Rafael was energetic, inspiring and didn't give us a single hint that he'd rather still be in bed.  I had mailed him a package earlier in the week with coffee, chocolate covered espresso beans, some upstate apples and biscotti.  I felt terrible about scheduling a before sunrise Skype, but Rafael kept insisting that it was ok.

He showed us some of the early sketches from the book, talked about the process and even gave us a tour of his studio.  We asked a few questions including, "What's your favorite color?"  Purple and orange but he also likes black since black has all the colors.  He had us hunting for the Eric Carle book, What's Your Favorite Color? because of course, we wanted to see immediately how he creatively included color in his gray octopus.

Even though we were celebrating We've Got the Whole World in Our Hands, my students still had questions about The Day You Begin.  "Why did you feature the ruler throughout the book?"

Every time you open my books I want you to discover something new. [I like to include] symbols that mean something or send a message. The ruler sends a message to kids to think “How am I measuring up to other kids?”

Wow.  That's deep.  The teachers were all nodding in amazement.   Of course.  I shared with Rafael and the students that we are always thinking of "author purpose" but consider this--the illustrator has purpose, too.  You can bet I'll be asking that now!

"What inspired you to make this book?"

I wanted to make this book with the message about coming together, diversity, being kind to each other and acceptance. It’s not about me or you but about us. My inspiration is that the future is in your hands. Take care of the planet.

Finally we sang "Happy Book Birthday" took our leaps and then said farewell.

I promise you that if I have it my way our salutation was a very weak goodbye paired with a strong "see you soon." Don't you want to hear 500 voices chant RA-FA-EL-EL? I thought so. Hasta la vista!

Who could resist not seeing these kids in person? 😉

It's like it was practice picture day!

Ms. Martin and Mrs. Hannah's class

Mrs. Pryde's class

Mrs. Yager's class

Mrs. DeMassio's class

Thank you for dazzling us my friend.

PS-Rafael has illustrated many books since he began in 2004 (a fun fact we learned today).  I don't have as many as I wish I did in the library. Don't worry, when he comes, I will have all of them!  But I did pull out the ones I have and Mrs. DeMassio's kids were thrilled to be able to check them out. 

BRAVO!  BRAVO! 

What Do You Do with a Voice Like That?

By the time you read this it will probably be the book birthday of Chris Barton's latest, What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan.  An extraordinary woman deserves an extraordinary book, and she got it.  Chris's poetic text paired with Ekua Holmes's profound illustrations make this one a book you will want to read over and over again. And every time you do, you will find a new detail in an illustration or a new idea emerge from the text.

Chris knows that not only am I a big fan of his, but of Texas and Barbara Jordan, so when the F&Gs arrived at his home in Austin, he direct messaged me asking where I would like him to send me a copy.  I gave him the address of wherever I knew it would arrive the quickest. And I've been drooling over it ever since.

Virtual Chris Barton on the screen with me IRL with his book

I decided to share Barbara Jordan with my third graders during our "Book of the Week" time this morning.  I reached out to Chris, requesting a book birthday Skype shout out.  Busy with school visits all week, he offered to record himself on a personal video to Castleton Elementary School.  It was perfect. Then I got nervous.  I was just a little unsure of how eight year olds would take it all in but when I used my confident voice and shared Barbara's story, they got it.  They embraced the message and took it way farther than I would have ever imagined.  They had wonderful ideas that give me so much hope for our future.  When we were sharing at the end, all hands were raised.  I was sorry we ran out of time because one kept getting better than the next, if that was even possible.  I plan to hang the finished papers outside the library for parents to see later this week during our Parent Night, so they, too can be hopeful and get those good little feelings inside.

And then of course, we had to sing Happy Book Birthday.  I'll try and find a piece of cake to celebrate tomorrow.  Or at least channel Barbara Jordan and use my voice.