How we see the world

Today’s blog features three new books in the Doucette Library.

First up is This Beautiful Day by Richard Jackson. This story in rhyme clearly demonstrates who one’s mindset impacts how we react to external forces. In this case, it’s a very dark, gloomy, stormy day. This does not prevent a group of children from enjoying themselves bopping along to some tunes on the radio, having a grand time splashing through some rain puddles until the rain starts to abate. They join up with some friends and continue the fun as the sky continues to clear and the sun breaks through. The rhyme is toe-tapping and the illustrations (by Suzy Lee – I LOVE her work) conveys the free spiritedness of the kids as they have fun with zippy, drippy watercolour drawings. Great book for accentuating living in the moment and enjoying circumstances as they unfold.

Today I Feel…: an alphabet of feelings by Madalena Moniz continues with looking at an A to Z range of emotions experienced by children (and all ages really). Here are a few examples:

 A is for Adored is illustrated with a full wall of pictures of the same child at varying ages;C is for Curious is playfully conveyed with a child looking into a large, black hole, one of many on the page;I is for Invisible where the same child wears a sweater that matches and blends into the wallpaper on the wall behind him; and so on. 

It’s a quiet book that opens up reflective thinking about emotions. This could also be used for work about the alphabet and modeling this kind of thinking. Maybe ask the question: What other emotion might represent the letter A?

My last recommendation, Super Jumbo

by Fred Koehler, is a fun look at a child elephant who sees himself as a superhero protecting and aiding those in need. This, unfortunately, isn’t always helpful for those being ‘saved’. The illustrations are perfect for this story clearly conveying the intensity our superhero has for saving others as well as the consternation and frustration of the ‘victims’. His best good deed is helping a friend repair a broken wagon and continuing the day-saving adventures as a daring duo.

I’m recommending all these books for the primary grades. Enjoy!

Okay.  So.  Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers is not your typical a is for apple, b is for ball kind of alphabet book.  It won’t be the one you’ll use with a preschooler to help them learn their ABCs.

Once Upon an Alphabet: short stories for all the letters will be much better suited to older kids.  Humorous, twisted, silly and sometimes slightly macabre, these 26 stories are an entertaining romp, playing with language and story.

A is for Astronaut Edmund who is working to overcome his fear of heights.  Check in with Z and we learn that Edmund has now reached a cruising altitude of 4 feet while flying in a Zeppelin.

F is for Ferdinand and his pet frog who throw a penny into the world’s biggest hole to see how long it will take to hit the bottom. Fast forward to the future and Old-man Ferdinand still stands with hand cupped to ear waiting for the sound of the penny hitting the bottom. His pet frog, unfortunately, is now long past his best before date.

O is for Owl and Octopus, two friends who look solve some of life’s little problems.

S is for a regular cucumber who wants to live the life of a sea cucumber. Taking ‘the plunge’, he dives into the sea but realizes too late that he doesn’t know how to swim and sinks straight to the bottom.  Owl and Octopus to the rescue.

Not all the stories connect to each other. Some rhyme, but most don’t. Many have playful alliteration that obviously focuses on whichever letter of the alphabet is mentioned.

It’s the illustrations that convey the silliness or wryness of the stories: not overly detailed, with a fairly simple colour palette with watercolour washes that capture the whimsical nature of each vignette.

I love Oliver Jeffers.  Don’t you?

Who thinks of these things?

A Zeal of Zebras: an alphabet of collective nouns by Woop Studios  is one of those books that makes me wonder.

Who decided that the collective noun for gnus is ‘implausibility’?

(Please, sir, may I have that in a sentence? Each year, from Tanzania to Kenya an implausibility of gnus (wildebeests) traverse wide rivers to reduce the risk of being caught by predators such as lions.) 

This is an alphabet book that presents a double page spread for each letter of the alphabet represented by a collective noun for a group of animals with additional information about the group behaviour of the animals.  (See above paragraph about migrating gnus.)

Some of the words provoke beautiful imagery– an aurora of polar bears, a galaxy of starfish, or a kaleidoscope of butterflies.

Some of the nouns are playful – an embarrassment of pandas, a pandemonium of parrots or an ostentation of peacocks, which, by the way, are recommended as a terrific guard pets.  Move over Fido!

Some of the language conveys a sense of danger – a quiver of cobras, a shiver of sharks or venom of spiders.

Obviously, I haven’t covered all 26 letters but you get the idea.  There is lots of creative, descriptive language to work into language arts and art classes.

Speaking of art – the illustrations are fantastic, too.  Woop Studios is composed of “four friends united by a love of graphic design, words and images.”  And, it shows. The oversized book presents bold, poster-like pages with stylized illustrations of the each animal group. Fonts, colours and uneven inking also contribute to a feeling of posters from yesteryear.

Beautiful, playful and provocative, this will work well with students in upper elementary grades (5/6) to high school. 

Today's Nonfiction Monday event is being held at Perogies and Gyoza.  Check out the list of recommended nonfiction children's titles from around the blogosphere.

Respite

My instruction load the last couple of weeks has prevented me from keeping up with my regular blog postings. Sorry about that.  But, the student teachers are out in schools doing their practicum so, life in the library  is a little calmer  -- for the moment.

You know a book is going to be good when the cataloguer in the office hands it to you and says, “This is good.”  And, I would have to agree.

Tomorrow’s Alphabet by George Shannon (411 ShT 1996 PIC BK) may be an ‘oldie’ but it’s one that I’ll be promoting in my future workshops.  I think I picked up this title from one of the blogs participating in this year’s Top 10 on the 10^th event so it's a favourite of another children literature aficionado, too. 

Here’ s why we like it.

This is an alphabet book with an interesting premise. 

“A is for seed-- tomorrow’s APPLE”  or  

“B is for eggs—tomorrow’s BIRDS” and

“C is for milk—tomorrow’s CHEESE.”

You can easily see the pattern.  The objects focussed on are pretty typical, nothing too out there.  I particularly liked “U is for stranger—tomorrow’s US.” And, problematic X and Z are “X is for bones—tomorrow’s X-RAY” and “Z is for countdown—tomorrow’s ZERO” with a rocket blasting off into space.

The illustrations are fine but pretty basic.

But it is the premise that really sold this book for me.  I love the potential for getting students to predict both ways, getting them to guess what ‘A’ word comes from seed or what do you need to have before you get your ‘B’ word, birds.  This can easily be extended into a class exercise coming up with your tomorrow alphabet.  Because this has been around for a while already some of you will know it and perhaps used it in your classrooms.  Please drop me a comment  telling us about your experiences

Mine would have to be: “B is for time—tomorrow’s BLOG.”

Today's Nonfiction Monday event is being held at Booktalking#kidlit.