Issuu

w w w. libr a r ys p a r k s .com • Vol. 11, No. 1

Engaging Activities to Reach Every Reader

August/September 2013

It’s a Mystery! Match wits with some of your favorite mystery characters.

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NEW! Grow with STEM • Page 20 Meet the Author: Caldecott Winners • Page 30 NEW! Tips from the Trenches • Page 6

LibrarySparks Aug/Sept 2013 Volume 11, Number 1 ISSN 1544-9092 Publisher • Matt Mulder Editor • Liz Bowie CONTRIBUTING Editor • Pat Miller Art Director • Heidi Green Design • Jane Munden Brown Special thanks to

A u g u s t / S e p t m e b e r 2013

Rob Reid, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire; Carol Surges, McKinley Elementary School, Wauwatosa, WI Copyright © 2013 by Demco, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. The purchase of this magazine entitles the individual librarian or teacher to reproduce copies for use in the library or classroom. The reproduction of any part for an entire school system or for commercial use is strictly prohibited. No form of this work may be reproduced or transmitted or recorded without written permission from the publisher. Permission for reprints should be directed to LibrarySparks Magazine, 4810 Forest Run Road, Madison, WI 53704. LibrarySparks Magazine is published nine times a year in January, February, March, April, May/June, August/September, October, November, and December. Subscription rate

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Celebrat ing 10 Years ! Librar ySpark s

Curriculum Connections It’s a Mystery! by Diane Findlay From classic “whodunits” to stories filled with ghosts and magic, mysteries captivate readers and keep them guessing to the very end. PK–6

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SEND US YOUR IDEAS! Do you have a helpful hint to share? We’d love to hear it! Send us your helpful hints, and we’ll send you a gift for any idea published in the magazine. Send your ideas to: LibrarySparks, Attn: Submissions 4810 Forest Run Road Madison, WI 53704 E-mail: librarysparks@highsmith.com Be sure to include your name, school or library name, city, state, home mailing address, home phone, and e-mail address.

Inquiring Minds by Megan Schliesman • K–5

An Anniversary Celebration of Caldecott Winners through the Years 1938–2013 by Phyllis J. Perry • K–5

So Many Books . . . So Little Time

Freebies, Doodads, & Helpful Hints K–6

NEW: Tips from the Trenches by Pat Miller • PK–6

Keep ’em Reading Teaching Nonfiction Tool Chest by Lynne Farrell Stover • K–5

Author Extensions

Library Lessons Tom Angleberger’s Origami Yoda Series by Lynne Farrell Stover • 3–5

Character Ed Resourcefulness: Super-Sleuths Clue Readers In by Judy Bradbury • 3–5

Storytime Who Ha-Ha by Rob Reid • PK–2

NEW: Grow with STEM

Solve the Mystery: What Makes Black Holes? by Anastasia Suen & Shirley Duke 3–5

Webquest: Writing Mysteries by Diane Findlay • 5–6

Reader’s Theater The Library Ghost by Toni Buzzeo • K–2

Technology

Curiosities, Wonders, and Unsolved Mysteries by Judith Snyder • 2–5

September Activity Calendar

Meet the Authors Caldecott Winners PK–6

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About the Cover

Fiction/Nonfiction Adventures in the Library by Pat Miller • K–5

Keep ’em Reading

contents

Departments

Web Resources Meet the Author Carole Boston Weatherford by Toni Buzzeo • K–2

Bibliography Booklists for this month’s articles

Standards Common Core correlations for this issue’s lessons and activities

Look for this icon throughout the magazine to find out more about this issue’s online resources at www.librarysparks.com.

Mystery at the Club Sandwich by Doug Cushman. Clarion Books, 2004. In this black-andwhite spoof of gritty detective mysteries, elephant sleuth Nick Trunk investigates a theft. Nightclub singer Lola Gale’s lucky marbles are missing! Clues narrow the suspect list, but how will Nick identify the thief? An entertaining picture book that illustrates most of the characteristics of the mystery genre. Illustration from MYSTERY AT THE CLUB SANDWICH by Doug Cushman. Copyright © 2004 by Doug Cushman. Adapted and reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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So Many Books … So Little Time by | Megan Schliesman

Inquiring Minds

ac Barnett’s picture book Extra Yarn is an original tale about a little girl named Annabelle who finds a box full of yarn that never empties. She knits sweaters for everyone she knows, and then she knits “sweaters for things that didn’t even wear sweaters.” Soon everything in her once drab, dismal town, from bare winter trees to houses and cars, wears a nubby coat of color. Word spreads, and it isn’t long before an archduke arrives, wanting to buy the box of yarn. When Annabelle declines his offer, the archduke steals it. But when he gets back home, the box is empty. “You will never be happy again!” he curses, thinking of Annabelle as he throws the box out his castle window. The box, however, knows exactly to whom it belongs, and it isn’t long before Annabelle is in possession of it once more. But why? That’s the mystery of this whimsical, wonderfully paced story that knits its own kind of magic. Even better, Barnett doesn’t offer an explanation, instead leaving room for children to discuss, deliberate, and decide for themselves how and why the yarn ends up back with Annabelle. Extra Yarn invites the same kind of speculation and critical thinking that real-life mysteries and problem solving demand, and inspires the same kind of wonder as do the mysteries all around us in life. Sure, it’s on the fantastic side, but everyone can find questions and mysteries in the real world that are just as intriguing to contemplate. Maira Kalman’s Looking at Lincoln is an unusual, spirited picture-book look at the life of Abraham Lincoln. It offers facts about the most famous president in the voice of a child who is reading about Lincoln at the library. There’s a loose chronological order to the somewhat

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stream-of-consciousness narrative, as in, “One day he was kicked in the head by a mule. He slept for two days. Then he woke up and grew up and decided to be a lawyer. (He did like to argue.)” The girl also conjectures about things that aren’t known for certain: “On the day he was elected, I bet Mary made his favorite vanilla cake.” Short paragraphs comprise the end notes that expand on details mentioned in the text (e.g., “Mary Todd first baked a vanilla-almond cake for Abraham Lincoln when they were courting”). Kalman’s book, a love letter of sorts to Abraham Lincoln, always remains grounded in the voice of a curious child whose inquiring mind leads her to read and wonder. Children are active participants in ongoing scientific research projects in Loree Griffin Burns’s photo documentary Citizen Scientists. Burns’s enthusiasm is infectious as she describes four different projects involving “citizen scientists”—everyday people who play an important role in each effort. The four projects are butterfly tagging in fall, bird counting in winter, frog-call monitoring in spring, and ladybug counting in summer. Each project is covered in three parts: a second-person narrative with photos that places readers in the field; a profile of one or more kids involved in the project; and a “When You Go” section offering practical tips for heading into the backyard...or the wild.” If there had been a “citizen scientist” project involving fossils in the mid-nineteenth century, chances are young Barnum Brown would have participated. In the lively picture book Barnum’s Bones, Tracey E. Fern introduces one

SoSo Many Many Books Books…So … So Little LittleTime Time of the best dinosaur hunters of all time. Born in 1873, Barnum Brown loved fossils from the time he could toddle, when he would follow his father’s plow on their Kansas fields and pick up “ancient corals and clams and snails and scallops.” Barnum developed a reputation from early adulthood as someone who had a knack for finding bones, and Professor Henry Osborn of the American Museum of Natural History hired him. Barnum was a snappy dresser, even on fieldwork, but he was also a great bone hunter. It was more than passion that led to Barnum’s success, however. Like any good detective, he did his research, poring over books and maps to determine the places for digging in the field. His greatest discovery was T. Rex—a new species of dinosaur!—but he also helped the museum amass the largest collection of dinosaur bones in the world. Some readers may be intrigued by realworld “detectives,” like Barnum Brown and the citizen scientists or speculative glimpses of real lives. Others like nothing better than getting lost inside a fiction writer’s imagination. When that imagination is full of mystery and intrigue, it’s all the better. There are multiple mysteries in W. H. Beck’s novel Malcolm at Midnight, a fresh, original animal fantasy set in a human elementary school. Malcolm the rat is the new pet of Room 11, and the newest pledge of the Midnight Academy, a group of classroom pets that works to keep the school safe. When Aggy the Iguana, head of the academy, disappears, Malcolm is determined to find her. As he searches, the mysteries of a missing ring belonging to the Room 11 teacher, Mr. Binney, but intended for the school custodian, Ms. Brumble, and the story behind a bitter stray cat on the fourth floor of the school also are revealed. (The fact that adults in the school have lives and interests beyond classroom and corridor is a mystery and revelation in and of itself!) Everything’s connected in this irresistible offering that would make a terrific classroom read-aloud. Blue Balliett’s most recent mystery story, Hold Fast, has a cryptic opening chapter that sets

the stage for a mystery with serious undertones. Early’s father, Dash, has disappeared on his way home from work at the Chicago Public Library. It soon becomes clear that Dash’s disappearance is linked to the extra work he was doing helping process donated books. Dash thought all was aboveboard, but the police are quick to assume the missing man was involved in a crime. The more Early tries to discover what happened, the clearer it becomes that, although Dash may be innocent, something criminal was going on. The mystery element of this novel is classic Blue Balliett: Smart, observant Early must figure out a way to understand numerical patterns and wordplay in hopes of solving her dad’s disappearance. But at its heart, this story is an affecting look at the plight of homelessness and the power of dreams. Early, her little brother, and their mother end up in a shelter without Dash’s income, and the reality and emotional impact of life without a permanent home are poignantly portrayed through vivid, child-centered details. At the same time, Early has been raised in a family of dreamers who believe in aiming high and then working hard to achieve what they envision. The Langston Hughes poem “Dreams” is their touchstone, and its message proves transformative for Early. Like Balliett’s other stories, Hold Fast has a feel-good ending full of optimism. It’s not the most realistic dimension of the novel, but it’s one to embrace. Because sometimes, the clear-seeing, unjaded eyes of a child can look at old problems in new ways—seeing possibilities rather than barriers, offering hope rather than hopelessness. As to whether our hearts respond—that’s a mystery always worth exploring. ❖❖❖

Megan Schliesman is a librarian at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She can be reached at schliesman@education.wisc.edu. (Check out the CCBC bibliography “It’s a Mystery!” for other nonfiction and fiction mystery ideas. Go to www. education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ and click on Site Index.)

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Freebies, Doodads, & Helpful Hints National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15–October 15) Feature Peru this month as you celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Create a bulletin board with photographs of contemporary Peru and Peruvians. Visit http://challmaschool.drupalgardens.com/content/ photographs-ch%E2%80%99allmachimpana-children for photographs of contemporary village life. Books to share: Love and Roast Chicken: A Trickster Tale from the Andes Mountains, by Barbara Knutson. Carolrhoda Books, 2004. (Teacher’s guide at www.barbaraknutson.com/pdfs/TG_ LoveAndRoastChicken.pdf) Moon Rope/Un lazo a la luna: A Peruvian Folktale, by Lois Ehlert. Sandpiper, 2003. (Lesson plan at www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/moon-ropelesson-plan) International Day of Peace (September 21) International Day of Peace was established by the United Nations in 1981 and provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations, and nations to demonstrate practical acts of peace on a shared date. Although it falls on a Saturday this year, you can promote Day of Peace during the week leading up to it and sponsor a few activities. Visit www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ books/detailListBooks.asp?idBookLists=77 for the Cooperative Children’s Book Center bibliography, “50 Books about Peace and Social Justice.” The International Day of Peace website at www.internationaldayofpeace.org/ suggests many activities to celebrate, including the following: • Show the brief video at http://peaceoneday.org/ featuring Peace Day founder Jeremy Gilley talking about 2013’s theme, “Who Will You Make Peace With?” and talk about peace. • Write an acrostic poem for or about peace. • Have a book discussion based on books about peace. 4 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Banned Books Week (September 22–28) Looking for some ideas to promote Banned Books Week? • Search “banned books” at Pinterest for display ideas to honor Banned Books Week. http:// pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=banned+books • Visit ALA’s website at www.ala.org/advocacy/ banned/bannedbooksweek and www.bannedbooksweek.org/ for a wealth of information and resources on Banned Books Week. • Visit the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin at www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/freedom/ default.asp for intellectual freedom resources. Ruth Chew Books Return to Print Random House Books for Young Readers has acquired the rights to Ruth Chew’s twenty-nine-book collection of middlegrade fantasy novels. Many of the books are no longer in print, but a new generation of readers will be delighted by them beginning in fall 2013, when No Such Thing as a Witch and What the Witch Left will be released in simultaneous hardcover and paperback

Freebies

editions. The author’s work will also be available digitally for the first time when Random House will release Ruth Chew’s Big Witch Book, an e-book omnibus containing The Witch’s Buttons, The Witch’s Garden, and Witch’s Cat. Each subsequent publishing season, the company will issue two new Chew titles and one e-book omnibus. See You Later, Gladiator Read Jon Scieszka’s wacky chapter book aloud this month to students, and be sure to display other books in the Time Warp Trio series. For a complementary activity, talk about the familiar rhyme Scieszka’s title is based on—many families are familiar with it:

“See you later, alligator.” “After a while, crocodile.” Create an interactive display in which students hone their rhyming skills, and think of other rhymes to add to “After a while, crocodile,” such as “See you soon, raccoon,” or “Mañana, iguana.”

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Johnny Appleseed Johnny Appleseed was born September 26, 1774, in Massachusetts. Print and distribute the apple word search from www.librarysparks.com.

Books to share: Johnny Appleseed, by Steven Kellogg. HarperCollins, 1988. Johnny Appleseed, by Reeve Lindbergh. Little, Brown, 1993. The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree, by Gail Gibbons. Sandpiper, 1988. The One and Only Ivan Discussion Guide Download and print HarperCollins’s discussion guide for Katherine Applegate’s Newbery Medal book, The One and Only Ivan. The guide includes twelve questions and six extension activities. It’s a Mystery Bulletin Board Cover the board with black paper. Choose book characters from either popular mystery and detective books or from any popular books you want to highlight (Nate the Great, Scooby Doo, Mr. and Mrs. Bunny, etc.). Make white paper silhouettes of each character and post them on the board with a question mark beneath each one. Make sure you have the books on hand for children to check out and lots of other mysteries on display.

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Grades PK−6

Does Your Library Need a New Look? http://pinterest.com/pin2tla/cool-stuff-in-libraries/ Are you looking to redecorate or get some fresh ideas for your library? Or do you just enjoy “visiting” libraries? Check out the Texas Library Association’s new “Cool Stuff in Libraries” on Pinterest. The hollow reading tree in the Laura Bush Community Library is very appealing!

Orientation and Book Care It’s important that new students know your library’s policies and procedures and that former students review them. Build your primary orientation lessons around a fun book from Upstart. Each one comes with a teaching guide. Here are some suggestions: Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians, by Jackie Mims Hopkins. Goldie Socks learns the fivefinger rule for selecting a “just right” book and a good place to read it. Library Monkeys, by Pat Miller. These oversized story cards have illustrations on one side and the humorous story of five monkey siblings with bookcare issues on the other. Never Let a Ghost Borrow Your Library Book: Book Care Guidelines from the Library Secret Service, by Karen Casale. Humor abounds as two Library Secret Service agents explain the sixteen V.I.G. (Very Important Guidelines). There’s even a quiz to reinforce the learning between the lines. Penelope Popper, Book Doctor, by Toni Buzzeo. Penelope is eager to be a doctor. Ms. Brisco, the librarian, puts Penelope’s skills to work to save library patients and reviews book care as Penelope works. We’re Going on a Book Hunt, by Pat Miller. A bouncy refrain gives students something to chant as a class of bear cubs is reminded of the procedures for finding, choosing, and checking out their books.

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Share Student Writing Do parents or teachers ask you for places where students can publish their work? Here are three free online sites where they can: StoryJumper, www.storyjumper.com StoryJumper shows students how to tell a story in seven steps. They can use the site’s art or add their own drawings and photos and then publish their stories online. Parents or teachers can even pay for hardback copies if desired. The site includes stories written by children that can be read online. Little Bird Tales, www.littlebirdtales.com Available as a website and app, Little Bird Tales includes a short demo video to show how to use the site: First, create or upload artwork to each page; then record your voice and add text to each page; and finally, e-mail the finished book to friends and family. Comic Master, www.comicmaster.org.uk British organization Reading for Life has created Comic Master to help students create their own short graphic novel. Student writers can select backgrounds, characters, and props; add dialogue and captions, and even choose special effects. When they’re finished, they can save and print their graphic novel.

Free MARC Records Prospector (http://prospector.coalliance.org/ search~SO) is a database of MARC records from the Colorado Alliance, a group of forty-one university, specialty, and public libraries in Colorado. You can search and copy their records of 30 million books, journals, DVDs, CDs, and other materials. Enter the title, author, ISBN, keyword, or other access point. Then select from the records that most closely match the material you are cataloging. Check the box that says “save,” and your records will be stored in a cart until you download them to your cataloging program where you can customize the MARC fields to suit your library.

by | Pat Miller

#tlelem “I wanted to share a new hashtag that is being started on Twitter for elementary teacherlibrarians, #tlelem. This hashtag allows elementary librarians to connect to one another using Twitter. “Follow #tlelem to see a lot of great resources and ideas that are being shared and discussions that are started. If you have resources or ideas you want to share, add #tlelem to your tweets. “More information about #tlelem and its archive of live chats can be found at http://tlelem.wikispaces.com. “Twitter has great PLN opportunities. Come join us at #tlelem and #tlchat.” Caitlin Kordek, teacher-librarian, F. A. March Elementary, Easton, PA

Common Core Classrooms The site at www.commoncoreclassrooms.com/p/ common-core-standards.html includes easily searchable Common Core State Standards. It also has bloggers who post their lesson plans and activities that support the standards. For grades K–2, twenty-two generous teachers have posted their lessons. There is a wealth of photos, reproducibles, plans, activities, and “how I did it” information. For grades 3–6, at this writing, there were twelve blogs. There is also a Common Core app widget for your site or blog. If that’s not enough, there are Common Core videos that show teachers using the new CCSS in the classroom. Book sets and Common Core exemplars are also sold on the site.

International Collaboration Opportunity Katy Manck is treasurer of the International Association of School Librarianship. She sends word about an IASL initiative that connects student writers across the globe with the GiggleIT Project. This year’s theme, “Wishes, Luck, and Family Stories,” includes the Lucky 13 writing projects for students at www.iasl-online.org/sla/giggleIT/index.htm. The GiggleIT Project invites teacher-librarians and their students to explore family stories as they write poems and alternating tales. GiggleIT offers free lesson plans on many writing genres and visual literacy, free posting of student work for a global reading audience, GiggleCritter mascots, and a free class web page on the International Association of School Librarians’ website. The GiggleIT Project is ideal for students ages ten to fourteen and is easily adapted for use with younger gifted students, English-language learners, and special needs students. Katy extends this invitation: “Position your school library as the creative center of the school as you GiggleIT—and read other students’ work from around the world!”

Just for You If you could know how long you’ll live, would you want to know? Northwestern Mutual has developed a Longevity Calculator that predicts a person’s average lifespan (http://media.nmfn.com/ tnetwork/lifespan) by asking thirteen questions. Type in your age, gender, height, and weight. All the other variables give you four choices—no detailed medical history needed. You may be surprised to see your age fluctuate as you answer each question. Perhaps you’ll notice some lifestyle adjustments that can increase your longevity. Here’s to a long and healthy life for each of you!

Pat Miller, MEd, LMS, was a school librarian for twenty-two years. Her newest projects for Upstart include Library Brain and two instructional big books, A Pet for Every Person and B-FARM: Animal Classes. She is also a children’s author who makes school visits with her numerous books, including Substitute Groundhog and Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution (both Albert Whitman). Visit www.patmillerbooks.com or e-mail Pat at gpatmiller@patmillerbooks.com. August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 7

• Curriculum Connections •

by | Diane Findlay Grades PK–6

hat’s more tantalizing than a good mystery? Just the word tickles our imaginations. But what, exactly, is a mystery? If you consult a dictionary, you’ll find something like this: 1) Something that is hard to understand or explain 2) Someone or something that is secret or unknown 3) A story about a puzzling event, search for treasure, or unsolved crime You can explore further by looking up “mysterious” and “mystify.” What’s always implied is something puzzling, something just out of reach that invites discovery—something you might figure out if you try. Mysteries (and the authors who write them) challenge our brainpower. Who can resist? Mysteries lend themselves perfectly to pursuing skills and standards across the curriculum. There is the literary genre and its subgenres (detective or crime mysteries, ecological mysteries, “hidden treasure” novels, logic puzzles or riddles, horror or gothic mysteries, etc.) to explore. There are historical mysteries, science mysteries, math puzzles, paranormal experiences, spying tactics, codes and ciphers, optical illusions, forensics, magic tricks, and more. So indulge your students in some serious play that stimulates and motivates, exercises critical thinking skills, and covers curriculum content from language arts to technology, creative arts to math, science to history. There are dozens of “kid detective” series. You probably have favorites! There are also many nonfiction series about forensic sciences, mini-mysteries and logic puzzles, mysterious landmarks or happenings, spy tactics and technology, legendary monsters, and more. Here is a selection. • A to Z Mysteries, by Ron Roy. Random House. 2–4. • Dr. Quicksolve Mini-Mysteries, by Jim Sukach. Sterling Publishing. 4–7. • Encyclopedia Brown, by Donald J. Sobol. Dutton Children’s Books. 3–5. • Making and Breaking Codes, by Jillian Gregory. Edge Books. 3–5. • Mysteries in Our National Parks, by Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson. National Geographic. 3–6. • Nate the Great, by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Mitchell Sharmat. Delacorte Press. 2–4. • Sly the Sleuth, by Donna Jo Napoli, Robert Furrow, and Heather Maione. Dial Books for Young Readers. 2–4. • The Unexplained. Edge Books. 3–5. • Unsolved Mystery from History, by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. 3–5.

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Mystery Resources 1. 65 Short Mysteries You Solve with Math! (One Minute Mysteries), by Eric Yoder and Natalie Yoder. Science, Naturally! 2010. 4+. This father-daughter team built on their approach to Natalie’s homework to create this collection of brief puzzle stories that use math and reasoning skills to find solutions. Real-life scenarios appear on the right-hand page, letting readers figure them out before turning to the solution on the next page. See also companion titles about solving mysteries with science. 2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Classic Starts), retold from the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle original by Chris Sasaki. Sterling, 2005. 4–6. Seven of the ultimate sleuth’s stories are effectively edited, without loss of the action or the puzzle-solving process. Holmes’s cool logic shines through the tales narrated by his devoted sidekick, Dr. Watson. 3. Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator, by Shelley Tanaka. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2008. 3–6. Tanaka’s flowing prose draws readers into the story of this remarkable woman who refused to believe that “women shouldn’t” or “women can’t.” Photos, sidebars, and large paintings enrich the advanced picture book and heighten curiosity about Earhart’s disappearance.

4. Babe & Me (A Baseball Card Adventure), by Dan Gutman. HarperCollins, 2002. 4–7. Joe Stoshak and his father travel back in time to investigate Babe Ruth’s home run in the 1932 World Series. Did the baseball great really “call the shot”? This sports mystery entertains with lots of baseball action and follows a prickly relationship between father and son. 5. The Case of the Lost Boy (The Buddy Files), by Dori Hillestad Butler. Albert Whitman, 2010. 1–4. King, a likable pup with sleuthing skills, has a tough case. His family has disappeared, and he’s landed in the pound! When he’s adopted by a family that lives in his old neighborhood, the canine detective, now called Buddy, determines to find his first family, just when his new boy goes missing! Buddy’s reasoning, combined with his efforts to communicate with people around him, create a tone of earnestness and humor. 6. Crime Scene: How Investigators Use Science to Track Down the Bad Guys, by Vivien Bowers. Owlkids Books, 2006. 3–6. Lively prose and colorful illustrations engage readers in exploring forensic science. Chapters consisting August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 9

• Curriculum Connections •

of two-page spreads cover topics such as “Counterfeits and Forgeries” and “Computers and Crime.” Sprinkled throughout are reallife case details and hands-on activities. 7. Detective LaRue: Letters from the Investigation, by Mark Teague. Scholastic, 2004. 2–5. When Mrs. LaRue’s dog Ike is suspected in the disappearance of the neighbor’s cats, he’s thrown in the clink. He writes his vacationing owner hilarious letters protesting his innocence, in a splitpage format that shows his “woe is me” version in gray tones alongside a color picture of the much cushier reality. Ike sets out to solve the case and exonerate himself, with amusing results. 8. Grandpa’s Teeth, by Rod Clement. HarperCollins, 1999. K–3. Grandpa’s false teeth have been stolen! He’s beside himself. The efforts of police and, eventually, the whole town fail to turn up the missing choppers. Slightly creepy cartoon-style pictures help tell the funny story, made funnier by Grandpa’s lisping speech throughout. The solution comes in a sight gag on the final page. This great read-aloud could be even better in reader’s theater mode, supported by the illustrations. 9. Houdini: World’s Greatest Mystery Man and Escape King, by Kathleen Krull. Walker Children’s, 2005. 2–5. Krull’s chatty narrative and eyewitness-style reports bring immediacy to this spirited, if abbreviated, account of Houdini’s life. Expressive illustrations by Eric Velasquez support the tone. 10. The House of Dies Drear, by Virginia Hamilton. Aladdin, 2006. 5+. Thomas Small’s family moves into an old house in Ohio, riddled with secret passageways and hidden rooms, that was once a station on the Underground Railroad. While Thomas’s parents don’t believe in the ghosts said to haunt it, both a frightening old caretaker and a series of malicious pranks scare the family. What truths lie behind the unsettling disturbances? This 1960s story’s suspense and drama are still effective today.

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11. The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick. Scholastic, 2007. 4–6. Selznick’s uniquely designed story of 1930s Paris centers on the mysterious origins of a marvelous automaton that, in the mind of poor orphan Hugo, holds a message that will save him from his hardscrabble life. Compelling character drama blends with rich setting details in a tribute to the inventiveness and resilience of the human spirit. A Caldecott Medal winner; magical. 12. The Master Spy Handbook: Help Our Intrepid Hero Use Gadgets, Codes and Top-Secret Tactics to Save the World from Evildoers, by Rain Newcomb. Lark Books, 2008. 4–7. Help top-secret Agent O fight a master criminal and save the world by creating disguises, cracking codes, building spy gear, and more. The story is clever, the illustrations are colorful and funny, and the activities are interesting. 13. The Missing ’Gator of Gumbo Limbo (An Eco Mystery), by Jean Craighead George. HarperCollins, 1993. 4–6. Liza K. and the “woods people,” who live in a remote area of the Florida Everglades, panic when a hunter comes to kill the alligator that keeps outsiders away. The homeless nature lovers try to find and save the gator, accomplishing surprising victories for themselves and their beloved ecosystem along the way. 14. More Stories to Solve: Fifteen Folktales From Around the World, by George Shannon. Greenwillow Books, 2000. 3–6. These delightful story puzzles, grounded in folklore from many cultures, celebrate our universal appreciation for resourcefulness and wisdom in the face of challenges. Short tales, amusingly illustrated by Peter Sis, invite us to solve the puzzle before the “how it was done” conclusion reveals the answer. 15. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, by Chris Van Allsburg. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 1996. K–6. Reader becomes writer in this unusual picture book. Van Allsburg presents fourteen evocative black and white illustrations, attributed to an elusive author/ illustrator who purportedly vanished after leaving his work with a publisher. Each is captioned with a title and one enticing sentence. Irresistible!

17. The Ring of Rocamadour (The Red Blazer Girls), by Michael D. Beil. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2009. 4–6. An appealingly diverse mix of seventh-grade girls, in business as amateur detectives, sets out to help a woman solve an elaborate puzzle. It involves a valuable ring that just might reunite the woman with her estranged daughter. But they’re not the only ones hunting the treasure… 18. Science Detectives: How Scientists Solved Six Real-Life Mysteries, by the editors of YES Mag. Kids Can Press, 2006. 3–6. Who was Typhoid Mary? How does heredity work? Scientists using detective skills explore and explain these and other mysteries in this intriguing oversized volume. Sleuthing scientists are introduced, and whimsical cartoon drawings contrast with dramatic photos to tell the stories of puzzles cleverly solved. 19. The Secret Ghost: A Mystery with Distance and Measurement (Manga Math Mysteries), by Melinda Thielbar. Graphic Universe, 2010. 1–3. When Sam and Michelle move into an old house with their father, scary noises convince Michelle there’s a ghost in her room. With help from friends, they solve the mystery using math concepts of measurement, distance, and area. The graphic novel format keeps interest high. 20. Secrets in the Hills: A Josefina Mystery (American Girl History Mystery), by Kathleen Ernst. American Girl, 2006. 4–7. Josefina lives in the hills of New Mexico, where rumors of ghosts and hidden treasures abound. Could the old legends be true? A rash of disturbing experiences and the arrival of a mysterious, injured stranger challenge Josefina’s growing skills as a healer and her instinct for searching out answers.

21. Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphics, by James Rumford. Sandpiper, 2003. 2–5. This lovely picture book biography follows JeanFrançois Champollion from his boyhood fascination with ancient Egypt through his eventual success solving the mystery of the Rosetta Stone and unlocking the secrets of Egypt’s distant past. 22. Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures that May or May Not Exist, by Kelly Milner Halls, Rick Spears, and Roxyanne Young. Millbrook Press, 2006. 4+. This detailed exploration of fact, legend, and hoax surrounding an array of mysterious creatures features engaging maps, photos, and drawings; sightings and speculation; and evidence and lack thereof. An illustrated “Cryptidictionary” at the end introduces more than fifty cryptids sure to stir imaginations and inspire further research.

• Curriculum Connections •

16. Mystery at the Club Sandwich, by Doug Cushman. Clarion Books, 2004. 1–4. In this black-and-white spoof of gritty detective mysteries, elephant sleuth Nick Trunk investigates a theft. Nightclub singer Lola Gale’s lucky marbles are missing! Clues narrow the suspect list, but how will Nick identify the thief? An entertaining picture book that illustrates most of the characteristics of the mystery genre.

23. Walter Wick’s Optical Tricks, by Walter Wick. Cartwheel Books, 2008. 2–6. Wick presents twelve full-page optical puzzles in this advanced picture book, with tantalizing narrative on the facing pages and answers and explanations at the end. An amazing taste of the mysterious ways our eyes and brains can fool us. 24. The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin. Puffin, 2004. 4+. In this classic puzzle-style novel, a select group of reluctant sleuths are tasked in a will to find a murderer and a rightful heir. The one who succeeds will inherit $200 million. The catch: one of them may be the murderer! A masterpiece of plot, characterization, and style. Newbery Medal winner. 25. What in the Wild? Mysteries of Nature Concealed . . . and Revealed, by David M. Schwartz and Yael Schy. Tricycle Press, 2010. 2–4. Young readers become nature detectives as they try to solve picture puzzles accompanied by poems full of clues, written in the voices of the mystery creatures. The two-page spreads fold out to reveal the answer and explain the natural wonder.

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 11

• Curriculum Connections •

26. When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. Yearling, 2010. 4–7. In this layered story set in New York City in the 1970s, sixth-grader Miranda faces troubling changes in her friendships as she struggles to understand a series of mysterious notes that suggest danger for someone she loves. Stead’s masterful combination of mystery, time travel, and coming-of-age novel won the 2010 Newbery Medal. 27. Where Fish Go in Winter and Other Great Mysteries, by Amy Goldman Koss. Puffin, 2002. K–3. Lighthearted poems and cheerful illustrations explore and explain everyday mysteries, like why popcorn pops and how birds can fly. 28. Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty? And Other Notorious Nursery Tale Mysteries, by David Levinthal. Schwartz & Wade, 2012. K–4. There’s mischief afoot in the dark forest, and tough-as-nails Officer Binky, a toad in a suit and fedora, is determined to catch the criminals in this witty adaptation of five classic fairy tales. Levinthal’s tongue stays firmly in cheek, while John Nickle’s hip, detailed acrylics perfectly support the “nursery noir” tone. 29. Write Your Own Mystery Story, by Tish Farrell. Compass Point Books, 2006. 4+. Farrell packs a lot into sixty-four pages as she coaches aspiring authors through the mysterywriting process, from getting ideas to seeking a publisher. She includes photos, sample excerpts, exercises, tips, and short intros to popular children’s mystery writers. Extensive end matter rounds out the package. 30. Young Cam Jansen and the Substitute Mystery (Young Cam Jansen), by David A. Adler. Viking, 2005. K–2. Quick-witted Cam, nicknamed for her photographic memory, helps a flustered substitute teacher through a day of mishaps. Cam’s talents combine with relatable kid behavior in this easy reader series.

12 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Mysteries on the Web • The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis’s “Geo Mysteries” site, www.childrensmuseum .org/geomysteries/mysteries.html, features mysteries about rocks, fossils, and minerals. • “Encryption for Kids,” a site from Purdue University, www.cerias.purdue.edu/ education/k-12/teaching_resources/lessons_ presentations/cryptology.html, lets kids explore cryptology and practice a variety of codes. • MysteryNet.com’s “Kids Mysteries,” http://kids. mysterynet.com, offers mysteries to solve, magic tricks, and mystery stories written by kids. • MysteryNet.com’s “Learning with Mysteries” page, www.mysterynet.com/learn/ lessonplans, has lesson plans for teaching the mystery genre to grades 3+. • Scholastic’s “History Mystery” site, http:// teacher.scholastic.com/histmyst/index.asp, lets advanced students follow clues to identify people and events in history. • Thinkquest’s “Mysteries of the Unexplained,” http://library.thinkquest. org/04oct/01038/bermuda%20triangle.htm, is a student-generated site about abiding mysteries like crop circles, the Bermuda Triangle, and historic hauntings.

Mystery Activities Read-Aloud Stories Enjoy these titles aloud: Detective LaRue: Letters from the Investigation, Grandpa’s Teeth, Mystery at the Club Sandwich, and Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty?

Discussion Mysteries! People have different ideas about what’s mysterious. We all see the mysteries in crop circles or the Loch Ness Monster. But for each of us, things we personally don’t understand seem mysterious to us. Share dictionary definitions of “mystery,” “mysterious,” and “mystify.” Ask students what they find mysterious.

Drama/Visual Art

Language Arts

Language Arts/Visual Arts

Mystery Genre Elements. Have students read a classic whodunit mystery and complete the twosided “Recipe for a Mystery” worksheet at www. librarysparks.com.

Magnified Mystery Word. Feature a mystery-related vocabulary word each day, displayed in the center of a magnifying glass cutout. See the “Magnifying Glass” pattern at www.librarysparks.com. Assign tasks such as these:

Mysterious Stories. Introduce The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by sharing Van Allsburg’s explanation from the flyleaf and introduction. Explain that the class will work together to create a story based on one of Harry Burdick’s pictures. Show a picture; read the title and caption. Have a student begin the story with a sentence or two. Other students will add sentences that move the story through a middle and to an end. Have students choose other pictures and captions from the book to use as individual writing prompts.

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• Write a standard dictionary entry, including part of speech, syllable breakdown, and meaning. • Find at least one synonym and one antonym. • Write the word in a sentence with context clues that suggest its meaning. Writing Prompts. Have students create original mini mysteries from writing prompts. See examples at http://voices.yahoo.com/7-mysterywriting-projects-kids-16074.html.

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Disguised! Sometimes, to solve a mystery or avoid detection, characters change their appearance. Invite students to cast themselves as sleuths or villains in mysteries they’ve read and come to class wearing a disguise that might be effective for that character in that story.

• Curriculum Connections •

What puzzles them about the world around them? What would they like someone to explain to them? Make a list. From it, identify mysteries that might be better understood through research. Are there others that we’d rather leave as mysteries instead of trying to solve them? Forget right or wrong answers; encourage creative thinking.

What Else in the Wild? Introduce What in the Wild? and show the format of the book. Have students choose an animal, plant, or item in nature to present as a mystery, through an original poem and illustration as in the book. Have older grades also show their mysterious objects in context and write a few factual paragraphs about them.

Foreign Language

Writing Prompt for Two. After students read detective mysteries of their choosing, randomly assign partners to discuss their books, focusing on “detective” characters. Then have each pair work together to write a one-page summary of an original story in which their two detective characters cooperate to solve a mystery. The pairings may lend themselves to different subgenres, like humor, fantasy, sports, historical, animal, or science mysteries. Encourage creativity!

“Secret” Messages. Any message is secret if you don’t know the language! Practice translating from your target language into English (or English to a student’s primary language) by giving assignments or instructions in the target language, or having students write simple messages for classmates to “decode.”

Compare and Contrast. Have students read two mysteries from the same subgenre and complete the “Recipe for a Mystery” worksheet at www .librarysparks.com for each. Using the organizers, they’ll write one- to two-page essays comparing and contrasting their elements.

Real or Imaginary? Booktalk Tales of the Cryptids. Have students choose mysterious animals from the “Cryptidictionary” in the end matter. They’ll study evidence for and against the existence of the creatures and write reports expressing and supporting their opinions. Reports will include a picture of the creature and a bibliography listing two print and two online sources used in their

Science/Research/Visual Art/ Life Skills

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 13

• Curriculum Connections •

research. Choose pairs of reports, one for and one against the existence of the same creature, for students to share aloud, and let the class vote based on the effectiveness of the presentations. Alternatively, research opinions about landmark mysteries like Stonehenge or Easter Island’s Moai, or phenomena like UFOs or disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.

onto paper. Give each pair a magnifying glass to study the fingerprints. Are their patterns loops, whorls, or arches? (The “Fingerprints” spread in the same book shows them.) What could you do to avoid being identified by fingerprints?

Technology/Life Skills

Chromatography. Demonstrate forensic chromatography, as described in “The Right Stuff” spread in Crime Scene. After creating ink profiles from each pen, secretly choose one of the pens to test on a fresh strip of coffee filter. Do the test and have students identify which pen you used.

Gear and Gadgets. Have students read a detective or spy book. Their task is to think up something—such as a code, gadget, or disguise— that would be useful as the main character tries to solve the mystery. They will name their invention, make a drawing or model, and write an explanation of what it does and how it works. Encourage imagination! It doesn’t have to really work, but it should sound plausible.

Science/Behavioral Studies

Music

Optical Illusions. Share Walter Wick’s Optical Tricks. Use it to discuss how our eyes and brains can trick us. Challenge students to bring examples of optical illusions they find in print or online to show and explain.

Mysterious Music. Have students imagine that they’re making a movie based on a mystery book they’ve read. They will do one of the following:

Science

Science/Language Arts Codes and Ciphers. Introduce The Master Spy Handbook and place it at a learning center with index cards and pencils. Post this sentence: “Protect your secret message with a code or cipher.” Have students choose a code described in the book. They’ll write their initials on an index card and translate your posted sentence into that kind of code. Then they’ll use the same code to write a mystery message and leave the card at the center. As students visit the center, they’ll also choose a classmate’s card to study and try to decode the message on the back. Invisible Messages. Demonstrate ways of writing invisible messages, as described in The Master Spy Handbook. Find more options at http://cocopreme.hubpages.com/hub/how-to-makeinvisible-ink. Discuss the chemistry that makes these methods work.

Science/Technology Fingerprints. Pair students and have them use instructions in the “Fingerprinting the Culprit” spread in Crime Scene to transfer their fingerprints

14 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

• Find recorded instrumental music that supports the tone of a scene in the story. Have them play it and explain why they chose it and what scene it complements. • Make up words to a familiar tune as a theme song for the movie. Have them explain how the song expresses the story’s tone.

History Mysteries of the Underground Railroad. Read or booktalk The House of Dies Drear. Have students research mysteries of the Underground Railroad—how it got its name, how conductors communicated with fugitive slaves to guide them, how stations hid the fugitives, stories of haunted station houses, and so on. Students will share their discoveries in one- to three-page reports, to be compiled into a classroom publication.

History/Visual Art Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Read Seeker of Knowledge. Place the book at a computer station with paper, markers, and crayons. Bookmark DLTK’s “Egyptian Hieroglyphics” page, www.kidzone.ws/ cultures/egypt/hieroglyph.htm. Have students use the website to write their names in hieroglyphs.

Math/Life Skills Solve It! Introduce 65 Short Mysteries You Solve with Math! During the day, as you need breaks, read a mystery scenario from the book. See who can solve the mystery the fastest. Measure It! Introduce or assign The Secret Ghost. Review how the characters use concepts of distance and measurement to solve the mystery. Have students measure lengths and distances around the classroom and calculate its perimeter and area. Brain Teasers and Logic Puzzles. Share examples and have students write original brain teasers or logic puzzles. Collect, edit, and share some for the class to work out. There are examples in 65 Short Mysteries You Solve with Math! and More Stories to Solve. You’ll find more at www.coolmath4kids.com/ math_puzzles/index.html and http://teacher.scholastic. com/maven.

Geography/Science/Research Wonders and Mysteries. Bookmark http://kids. nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/history/tencool-sites on a computer. Each archaeological site involves a mystery. Have students choose a site, identify the mystery, research it, show its location on a globe, and summarize the mystery and current thinking about it.

• Draw a detailed version of the part of the map that shows those two locations. • Trace the route they usually take between them in red. • Work out a different, less direct, route they could take to avoid being spotted. Trace it in blue.

Physical Education Mystery Workout. Work with a PE teacher to get students moving while they identify mystery sports. Form teams of five or six students. Choose a different sport for each team to guess. For each sport, write four or five numbered clues, from general to specific, on index cards. On the flip side of each card, write an activity the team must complete to earn the clue. For example, one team’s mystery sport could be basketball. Give them the first card. It says, “Do twenty-five jumping jacks to earn clue #1,” which is, “This sport is played with a ball.” The team receives the second card, which says, “Jog around the gym once to earn clue #2,” which is, “This sport is played on a court,” and so on. Teams may guess their sport after earning any clue, but if they’re wrong, they must do ten pushups before moving to the next clue.

• Curriculum Connections •

Mystery People. Introduce Houdini, Amelia Earhart, and Seeker of Knowledge. Discuss the mysteries associated with these people’s lives. Have students choose a biography about someone whose life involved mystery. They will make posters to introduce their “mystery people” to the class, featuring words and images that convey biographical basics (dates of birth and death, etc.), as well as associated mysteries.

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Diane Findlay has worked with children’s and young adult literature for more than twenty years and was the director of the Waukee (Iowa) Public Library for six years. She is the author of the Exploring Children’s Literature series and Digging Into Dewey from UpstartBooks. Contact Diane at wordsmith418@q.com.

Alternate Routes. Detectives or criminals might need to get around without being seen. One strategy is to take a different route from place to place than you usually do. Provide copies of a city map (or use a website such as www.mapquest.com). Students will: • Identify their home on the map. • Choose a nearby location they visit often, like the school, library, or a restaurant.

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 15

Teaching Nonfiction Tool Chest Keep ’em Reading Grades K−5

Introduction: Learning to read is paramount to a young student’s education. After this skill is mastered, the exciting part follows—reading to learn. Library media specialists are on the front line of this aspect of a child’s learning. It is their goal to support teachers by providing meaningful connections between the classroom curriculum and the students’ interests. Promoting the nonfiction books in the library’s collection is a proven method of accomplishing this goal.

The ideas and activities in this nonfiction tool CHEST are: Creative—Encourage imagination and stimulate divergent thinking Helpful—Come to the rescue in times of need Easy—Involve uncomplicated tasks that can be adjusted to various skill levels Supportive—Reinforce the curriculum and Common Core State Standards Thrifty—Economical in the expenditure of both time and resources

First Things First The school library’s nonfiction collection should contain books and materials that support the curriculum, promote higher-level thinking skills, and are of interest to the students. Weeding the nonfiction collection regularly is important, because factual information becomes dated quickly. Books claiming that Pluto is the ninth planet may still look great, but they contain dated and inaccurate information. It is to be noted that informational texts have a strong impact on a student’s vocabulary, inspire questions as well as answer questions, and encourage students’ interests in the natural and social worlds. Students who read nonfiction 16 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

• by | Lynne Farrell Stover

books have greater opportunities to become visually literate as they encounter the maps, graphs, diagrams, and photographs that are often found in these books. Most standardized tests (including the Common Core State Standards) place a greater emphasis on nonfiction.

Showcasing Nonfiction Books in the Library • Content Connections: Preparing the library’s environment so that there is a visual balance between the displays and promotions featuring literature books and informational texts will support the philosophy that both types of text are valued. Showcase a wellknown picture book such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett (Aladdin, 1982). Surround it with nonfiction books that connect with the story’s content. In this case, cookbooks, weather books, and books about natural disasters would be appropriate. • First Readers: Encourage students to be the first to read a newly acquired nonfiction book. Display “First Reader” posters that feature the book’s title, a brief review and recommendation. Along with the first reader’s name, a photograph would be great if possible. (An example of a “First Reader” form can be found on page 19.) Encourage teachers, administrators, and staff members to be first readers also. • Displays and Exhibits: The Common Core Standards for English Language Arts in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects includes “directions, forms and information displayed in graphs, charts, or maps” in its list of text types for grades K–5. Display posters, diagrams, and maps

Keep ’em Reading

on the bulletin board near the library’s entrance. Ask students questions about these documents as they wait in line to be picked up by their teacher.

Quick and Easy Activities • Bonus Book: If the students have a limit of how many books they may check out, offer them a bonus book. Tell them they may check out one book over their limit as long as that book is in a specific category. For example, one week’s bonus book might be a biography, while the next week it might be a science or history book. • Book Jacket Inspection: Keep several wellillustrated nonfiction books on hand or just go to the shelf and arbitrarily select a book. Show the students the cover and ask them if they can make an “educated guess” concerning what the book is about. Ask them to share five facts about this book that they can tell from the cover. Allow them to share the obvious, such as title and author, and the more subjective, such as the book’s age appropriateness and reading level. • Nonfiction/Fiction Book Sorts: Once students have been introduced to the differences between fiction and nonfiction, reinforce what they have learned with an active show of understanding. When the students return their books, require that they stack them in two groups: one fiction, the other nonfiction. You can also instruct the students, once they have checked out their books, to form two lines as they wait for their classroom teacher to pick them up: one line for the students who have checked out mostly fiction books, and the other one for those who have checked out mostly nonfiction books. If time allows, discuss how the two lines are different and what they have in common.

Activities Requiring Preparation • Book Jacket Creation: Read an easy nonfiction book to the students without showing them the cover or divulging the title. Upon completion, encourage students to draw a cover that includes a title they think would be appropriate for the book they just heard. (This makes a great bulletin board with the real cover in the center surrounded by the students’ creative interpretations.) • Nonfiction Categories: Introduce this activity to students by instructing them to write down a list of eight words that apply to a specific topic. For example, you may tell the students that the category is SPORTS. When the students have completed their lists, read aloud a list that you have created. Mix obscure replies with more common ones. For example, list a sport that is currently being played at the high school. (It’s fun to throw in something unexpected, like rugby or curling once in a while.) The students are to circle each sport that is called out and appears on their list. The first student to circle all eight wins. Other possible categories include things in outer space, African animals, and U.S. presidents. Upon completion of this activity, show the students where books on these topics are located in the library.

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 17

Keep ’em Reading

• Nonfiction Text Terms: Students require instruction that familiarizes them with the organization and structure of informational texts. A “Parts of a Book Roundtable” found at the link below can provide a library activity to meet this need. www.upstartpromotions. com/pdf/librarysparks/2011/lsp_ mar11_ll_stover.pdf

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• Nonfiction Activity Sheets: It’s beneficial to have several generic library lessons ready should a classroom teacher or administrator request instructional support for the instruction of informational texts. These activities work especially well as either introduction or review before standardized testing. The following worksheets can be found at www. librarysparks.com. A Nonfiction Visit to the Library Mad Lib™—This can be completed in small groups or as a class activity.

Nonfiction Bookworm Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge—The student is required to put some time and effort into this activity. Once completed, a strong understanding of nonfiction is assured.

Free Web Resources Upstart Promotions offers some amazingly creative (and free) library-themed activity guides on its website. The entire menu can be found here: www.upstartpromotions.com/upstart/pages/ activity-guide/?ICID=HB4_Activity_Guides Three of these guides feature engaging activities that would work well in creating a nonfiction book unit. They include: Book Builders www.upstartpromotions.com/pdf/Book_Builders_ activityguide.pdf Go on a Readabout www.upstartpromotions.com/pdf/Go_On_ Readabout_activityguide.pdf

18 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Reading Road Trip www.upstartpromotions. com/pdf/Reading_Road_Trip_ activityguide.pdf Mary Pope Osborne’s wildly popular Magic Tree House series does an excellent job combining fantasy with factual information. Many of the titles in the series feature a “Fact Tracker” nonfiction companion book. The “Facts Behind the Fiction Educator’s Guide” found on the series website is beneficial and informative. www. magictreehouse.com/teachersclub/resource_center/ pdfs/0-the-facts-behind-the-fiction.pdf DK’S (Dorling Kindersley’s) illustrated nonfiction, especially the Eyewitness series, is as popular as it is visual. A mass of lessons and activities based on these books can be found at this website: www.kiddk.com/static/html/parentteacher/ parentsteachers_lessonplans.html ❖❖❖

Lynne Farrell Stover has been an educator for more than forty years, serving as an elementary classroom teacher, a gifted educational specialist, and a middle school librarian. She is currently a teacher consultant at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She is the author of the Magical Library Lessons series and From Snicket to Shakespeare from UpstartBooks.

Keep ’em Reading

“First Reader” Book title:___________________________________________ Author:_____________________________________________ What this book is about: _______________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Who would like this book:______________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Reviewer:____________________________________________

Place photo of reviewer here.

Book Rating

Color in the number of “Star” recommendations

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 19

Solve the Mystery: What Makes Black Holes? Grow with STEM Grades 3–5

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• by | Anastasia Suen & Shirley Duke

elcome to “Grow with STEM,” a new LibrarySparks column. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Each month we’ll share ways for you to grow the STEM leaders that our society will so desperately need in future years. This STEM lesson will help you meet the new Common Core State Standards in the library, as well as the new Next Generation Science Standards. You can see all of the standards for this lesson at www.librarysparks.com. You can become a resource for STEM and Common Core for the teachers at your school by teaching what you know best: information literacy. Use the STEM books in your collection to teach the text features of nonfiction. Help students and teachers find resources to read across the curriculum. As you teach information literacy skills with STEM, you’ll also be teaching analytical and critical thinking skills, much like the scientific method that we use in this column. The scientific method is just another way to solve a problem, and you’re an information science specialist, so it’s a perfect match. Let’s begin by solving a mystery! A Black Hole Is Not a Hole, by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano. Charlesbridge, 2012. Dewey: 523.8 Lexile: 900 ATOS: 6.1

The Science: Background on Black Holes While a black hole isn’t a living thing, people sometimes refer to it as a thing that “lurks, eats, or belches.” It’s not a typical hole with an opening you can fall through, but rather a place in outer space with an extraordinary gravitational pull. At the end of the life cycle of a star with a great deal of mass, the star’s matter collapses to a 20 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

The Six Genres of Nonfiction Nonfiction has genres just like fiction does. There are different books for different purposes. Which nonfiction genres does this book have? • Informational text: Shares information. *Solve this mystery with a close reading of the facts. • Procedural text: Explains how to do something step-by-step. • Biography: Tells the story of a person’s life. • Nonfiction narrative: Tells a story of real-life events. *See the big story in Discovering Black Holes Time Line. • Reference: Explains or describes information concisely. • Persuasive Text: Seeks to persuade the reader. single, dense, tiny point called a singularity, with a gravitational pull that nothing can escape—a black hole. Not even light can escape. Scientists know about black holes from clues that indicate their existence, and they can pick up patterns they produce using X-ray-catching telescopes. Black holes vary in size and have three sections: the event horizon, the extreme gravity zone, and the singularity.

Use the Scientific Method to Solve a Mystery Purpose: Students will (1) conduct research about the life cycle of stars and how black hole formation relates to that cycle, (2) summarize that information, and (3) explain the cycle in writing or by creating a diagram to answer the question of how black holes originate.

S cie nc

Tec hn

gin n E , olog y

a n d M at h e m at ic s g n i eer

Materials: A Black Hole Is Not a Hole, print research materials, computers, list of URLs, writing materials, paper or poster board for diagrams

Spark Their Interest with a Booktalk If a black hole isn’t a hole, then what is it? Black holes are invisible and far, far away. How do scientists study black holes and learn enough about them to describe them? You’ll have to read the entire book yourself to solve these mysteries. Today we’ll look at how black holes are formed. It has to do with gravity, stars, and their life cycles. Listen to the chapters, and then you’ll explore how black holes develop. Ask the Question: What Makes Black Holes? Tell students they are going to answer the question by using the scientific method and practicing their research and analytical skills. Research 1. Tell the class you’ll give them some preliminary information so they can form a hypothesis. Remind them that a hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a problem or event. To learn more, they’ll also conduct research about the life cycle of stars. 2. Read chapters 1 and 2 of the book to the class. 3. Introduce stars and the electromagnetic spectrum to the class by showing a threeminute NOVA video, http://video.pbs.org/ video/2219781967/. Form a Hypothesis Have the students write a statement explaining how they think black holes form. Discuss their answers, but remind them they won’t know if their predictions are accurate until more of the evidence is in. Test the Hypothesis 1. Tell the students that once a scientist has formed a hypothesis, he or she would design an experiment to test the prediction. However, since the students are in the library, they will act like scientists and play a mental game called “thought experiment.” (Read the definition of thought experiment from the book’s glossary.) They will then use available resources to learn

Grow with STEM

how scientists have investigated the complicated science question of where black holes come from. 2. The students will collect data about what the scientists and astronomers learned from their tests and use that information to analyze it to understand the way black holes form. 3. Have students research the life cycle of a star, individually or in small groups. Decide whether you want each student to take notes and keep a vocabulary list or have them do it as a group. 4. Read chapter 5, “Mission Impossible? Seeking the Invisible,” to show the different ways scientists have studied and identified black holes. Here is a summary: a. People can’t see black holes, so they study them in other ways. b. Scientists use clues to track black holes. c. Black holes give off X-ray energy, and X-raycatching telescopes make pictures of this invisible energy. d. Scientists search for X-ray patterns that seem to surround nothing. e. Scientists also seek patterns about the intensity of the X-rays. f. Signs of strong gravity can indicate a black hole. Strong gravity creates a smudged picture from light that bends around it. g. Star motion can indicate a black hole because the star may be revolving around one. h. Scientists remind us these clues indicate black holes, but other matter can make the images as well. They must sort through all the evidence before identifying a black hole. Collect Data 1. Remind the students their job is to solve the mystery about what makes black holes. As they collect data, they will identify which stars can form black holes and under what conditions. 2. The students will look up information and make notes on the stages of stars. You can use the following URLs as a starting point: • The Electromagnetic Spectrum (PBS Video), http://video.pbs.org/video/2219781967/

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 21

Grow with STEM • The Life Cycle of Stars (Enchanted Learning), www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/ stars/lifecycle/ • The Life Cycle of Stars: How Supernovae Are Formed (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center), http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/lessons/ xray_spectra/background-lifecycles.html • Life Cycle of a Star (American Museum of Natural History Educator’s Guide), www.amnh. org/education/resources/rfl/web/starsguide/life-cycle. html • Education World: Best Instructional Videos: Black Holes, www.educationworld.com/a_tech/ video-roundup-black-holes.shtml 3. Instruct the students to keep a list of words that relate to space science. They must have at least five words on their list, and the words must be related to black holes and the star cycle. Students will put the definitions with their notes and should be able to explain their chosen words. The glossary found on pages 66–69 of the book includes relevant vocabulary, so you can easily identify the words that students will find. 4. Remind the students to keep a list of their sources and be able to connect them to the information they collected. Analyze Your Data 1. For grade 3, have the students create a diagram illustrating the cycle of stars and show the steps in the formation of a black hole. For grades 4 and 5, include the diagram but also have them write a summary that explains how black holes are formed and which stars form them. The diagram and paragraphs should include: a dense cloud of gas and dust, red or yellow supergiant, stellar ejection (may be combined with supernova), supernova, and either black hole or neutron star. 2. Ask students to use the vocabulary words they found in their writing. 3. Return to the hypothesis statement. Ask the students to decide whether or not their hypothesis was correct. Discuss their answers. 4. Remind them this is the point where scientists would move forward with a correct hypothesis. Or, if they were incorrect, they would revise their testing ideas and repeat the test with a new hypothesis. 22 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Draw a Conclusion Have each student write a one- to three-sentence explanation that answers the mystery question: What makes black holes? Communicate the Results Discuss the findings or have the groups present their findings. Follow up the lesson by reading chapter 3. Think It Over Have the students tell a partner what impressed them most about their black hole exploration. What did they find most difficult about the research process? What did they find most interesting? Ask them to tell something else they’d like to know about black holes. Dig Deeper 1. Explore black holes using the interactive Hubble telescope site at http://hubblesite.org/explore_ astronomy/black_holes 2. Read chapter 8 aloud to answer the question prompted by the book’s title—If a black hole is not a hole, then what is it?

For Further Reading The Mysterious Universe: Supernovae, Dark Energy, and Black Holes, by Ellen Jackson. Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Pioneers in Astronomy and Space Exploration, by Michael Anderson. Britannica, 2012. Super Stars: The Biggest, Hottest, Brightest, Most Explosive Stars in the Milky Way, edited by David A. Aguilar. National Geographic, 2010. ❖❖❖

Anastasia Suen has taught classes from kindergarten to college. The prolific author of more than 160 books and the founder of STEM Friday, she writes about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for children, teens, and adults. Visit her website at www. asuen.com. Shirley Duke taught science for twenty-five years at the elementary and secondary levels. She’s written numerous science books for children, including the Biomes through the Seasons series (Rourke, 2014). See more about her at www.shirleysmithduke.com.

The Library Ghost Reader’s Theater • Grades K–2

by | Toni Buzzeo

ead the book aloud to children first so that they can enjoy the illustrations and become familiar with the story. Then hand out a set of photocopied scripts to seven students. Ask any remaining children to be the audience. (Note: The role of the Guard has a single line and may work well for a challenged reader.) If you have plenty of time set aside, allow students to practice their parts individually or as a group until they are reading fluently. If time is limited, have performers face the audience and simply read their parts on the first run-through. Once all readers are comfortable with their parts, have a second reading.

Roles Ms. Mims Library Ghost Guard Narrator One Narrator Two Narrator Three Narrator Four

After Reading Visit www.librarysparks.com for an interview with Carole Boston Weatherford about The Library Ghost.

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Toni Buzzeo, MA, MLIS, is both an author and a career library media specialist. Her credits include the 2013 Caldecott Honor Book One Cool Friend (Dial, 2012) among nineteen picture books, which also include But I Read It on the Internet! (UpstartBooks, 2013) and Just Like My Papa (Hyperion, 2013). She has also authored many professional books and articles. Visit www.tonibuzzeo.com or e-mail tonibuzzeo@ tonibuzzeo.com.

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 23

Reader’s Theater

The Library Ghost Narrator One: The library by day was busy and bright.

Narrator Two: She quizzed the Mad Hatter of old Wonderland.

Narrator Two: But after the doors were closed for the night—

Library Ghost: I pestered the Frog Prince and badgered Br’er Bear.

Guard: And I had dozed off after checking the locks—

Narrator Three: She picked on Rapunzel by tugging her hair.

Narrator Three: The halls were abuzz with bumps, thuds, and knocks.

Library Ghost: I begged the Good Witch and the Wizard of Oz.

Ms. Mims: Each morning I found an incredible mess.

Narrator Four: She shook the brass lamp where the wise genie was.

Narrator Four: Books helter-skelter were piled up on desks.

Library Ghost: I spooked Rumplestiltskin and Billy Goats Gruff.

Narrator One: Ms. Mims was stumped as she went shelf by shelf.

Narrator One: She bugged the Bad Wolf, who stormed off in a huff.

Ms. Mims: I knew I must work a night shift myself.

Library Ghost: I poked Rip Van Winkle, woke him up from a dream.

Narrator Two: When the last reader left, she set several traps.

Narrator Two: She frightened Miss Muffet, who let out a scream.

Ms. Mims: I stayed on the lookout between my catnaps.

Ms. Mims: I heard the ruckus and leapt from my chair.

Narrator Three: But the library ghost had just one task in mind.

Narrator Three: She rushed down the hall and up a dark stair.

Library Ghost: I’d search every book until I could find . . . The one thing I lacked to at last rest in peace.

Narrator Four: Face to face with the ghost, she shook off her fear.

Narrator Four: So she flipped through the atlases—north, south, west, and east. Library Ghost: I looked inside fairy tales, fables, and novels. Narrator One: She grilled ogres and giants until they all groveled. Library Ghost: I cornered Jack Horner and pinned down Peter Pan. 24 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Ms. Mims: That’s enough! Shhhhh! What are you doing here? Library Ghost: I’m ridden with guilt. I just cannot rest. Narrator One: Ms. Mims stared her down and made a wild guess. Ms. Mims: You wrote in a book or tore out page nine? You brought books back late and still owe a fine?

Reader’s Theater

Narrator Two: The ghost hung her head. She couldn’t just lurk.

Narrator Two: Then a freight train appeared in the blink of an eye.

Library Ghost: I let someone down needing help with homework.

Library Ghost: No longer in limbo, I picked up a book.

Narrator Three: She was stumped by a riddle, a hard-to-find fact.

Narrator Three: She perched in the middle of the storytime nook.

Library Ghost: What gallops for miles but leaves not a track?

Library Ghost: Amid pillows and plush toys, I sit to this day.

Narrator Four: Then it came to Ms. Mims the ghost was Miss Hall!

Narrator Four: She reads book after book and there plans to stay.

Library Ghost: I’m the woman whose portrait hangs on the wall.

Ms. Mims: Whenever I share ghost lore, kids know it is true.

Narrator One: Miss Hall had manned the old reference desk.

Library Ghost: Because I end every tale with a very loud “Boo!”

Library Ghost: I tackled each question like some kind of test. Ms. Mims: Let’s search the Web, dear. We’ll give it a try.

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 25

Curiosities, Wonders, and Unsolved Mysteries Keep ’em Reading Grades 2–5

oes Bigfoot hide in the Cascade Mountains? Does the Loch Ness Monster swim in a Scottish lake? Are designs in crop fields created by aliens? These unanswered mysteries have prompted research and speculation for generations. Stories abound—but are they based on fact or fabrication? Let unsolved mysteries fuel excitement in a mini research project, fire up examination of nonfiction book features, and energize the practice of critical reading. Mix and match the activities below to fit your schedule. Current books on the market contain a wide range of reading levels to provide adequate sources for differentiated learning.

Introduction to Unsolved Mysteries (Grades 2–3) Most books about unsolved mysteries reside in the zero hundreds section. Choose appropriate sources and supplement your collection from other libraries if you have that capability, so that students have multiple books for browsing. Mysterious legend books offer a great way to attract reluctant readers to the nonfiction realm. These books tend to grab the attention of boys, so many may have already discovered the books on the shelves. However, a new series from Capstone Press that includes The Girl’s Guide to Mermaids entices girls to explore this subject matter as well. A number of publishers of nonfiction books have entire series on these topics. Display books at the appropriate reading level for your students, and allow time for browsing. For a longer, more directed approach, first model how to browse through a nonfiction book. 1. Read the title and look at the cover to develop questions. 2. Examine the table of contents to locate chapters that might answer the questions.

26 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

•

by | Judith Snyder

3. Point out the nonfiction features in the chapter and show how using them can help you find answers faster than reading the entire chapter. 4. Consider the reading level. Is it too hard? 5. Decide if the book might be of interest to you. Explain why or why not. For individual student practice, duplicate the “Curiosities, Wonders, and Unsolved Mysteries” worksheet from www.librarysparks.com, which asks o W e nlin students to write responses using the process listed above. If time permits, students continue this process using additional books with or without written answers. End by showing where unsolved mystery books are located on the shelves. Then watch them disappear during checkout times.

Mini Research of Unsolved Mysteries (Grades 3–4) Extend the possibilities of independent research by highlighting the resources found at the end of many books, such as lists of kid-safe websites for further exploration. Bookmark several of these sites on your computers for students to use in the library during free time. Investigating books about unsolved mysteries at the beginning of the year is a great vehicle for introducing nonfiction book formatting, a necessary skill for any researcher. By providing guided practice with these features now, they won’t get overlooked during later, more comprehensive research projects. Choose topics, taking into consideration the number and size of your groups. Launch the lessons with the slide show, “Unsolved Mysteries: Fact or Fabrication?” at www.librarysparks.com, W showing book covers on topics ranging from onl ne i Bigfoot to the Bermuda Triangle. Accompany the pictures with a reading of Top 10 Unsolved

Keep ’em Reading Possible unsolved mystery topics: Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, Bermuda Triangle, Stonehenge, crop circles, UFOs/aliens, and ghosts. Mysteries, by Kathryn Clay (Capstone, 2012). If the book is unavailable, narrate slides using book summaries on each topic. (Find summaries on publisher websites or in library catalogs.) Or, just show book covers while explaining the topic. Using Nonfiction Text Features For demonstration, choose an unsolved mystery or a mythical creature that will not be used by the class, such as mermaids. Using a document camera, introduce nonfiction text features. Distribute books and give students time to find examples of each of the features. Students may need to look at several books to find examples. Also identify and discuss the uses of the table of contents, glossary, index, and kid-safe Internet sites in the newer books. Assign specific mysteries to investigate, or allow students to choose. Challenge student groups

Nonfiction text features: • Sidebars • Footnotes • Headings • Pictures • Subheadings • Boldface type • Captions to use nonfiction features to locate three facts that lead people to believe the mystery is true and three that argue against it. Groups must use more than one book and at least one Internet source. Give students time to locate the necessary information for their topic. List the information on simple slide templates you create prior to the lesson. Include a slide for bibliography information. If time permits, students can include a picture from the Internet or scanned from a book that pertains to the group topic. Present the final projects orally, accompanied by the slide show presentation or other visual format. At the conclusion, each student in the group should also express personal beliefs about the reality of the unsolved mystery. Then let the entire class share opinions by voting. Ask students, either individually or as a class, to reflect on how using nonfiction text features

helped to locate information. Student responses should also explain how these features can be applied to reading Internet sites or other print material. Post reflections on the school website or in a newsletter to highlight what is happening in the library.

Divide and Conquer Unsolved Mysteries (Grades 4–5) For intermediate students, introduce unsolved mystery books by reading aloud the first two pages of the introduction to Tales of the Cryptids (Millbrook, 2006), which explains the study of searching for legendary animals. Gather multiple copies of several books written at higher reading levels. Suggested resources include the Unsolved Mystery series by Sue Hamilton (ABDO, 2007), Unsolved!, a series by Kathryn Walker (Crabtree, 2008), and the Mystery Hunters series by John Hawkins (Rosen PowerKids, 2012), among others. (See “Resources for Curiosities, Wonders, and Unsolved Mysteries” at www.librarysparks.com for a list of additional resources.) Choose several chapters from within the books and assign one or two students to research each chapter. For these older students the topics can be expanded to include the mysteries of Atlantis, the Easter Islands, and the ancient pyramids. Determine as a class what big question(s) to answer about the topics. Review nonfiction text features if necessary. Spend one or two days researching and taking notes and another few days creating a page for a class book, Web page, or poster, explaining the chapter’s unsolved mystery topic. The student page should include answers to the big question(s) and use at least five of the text features. Share the information orally so content is available to all.

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Judith Snyder is a seasoned teacher/librarian in Colorado as well as a professional storyteller and freelance writer. Judith is the author of the Jumpstart Your Library series, three books featuring hands-on library lessons from UpstartBooks (2008) and a picture book, What Do You See? (2009), from Odyssey Books.

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 27

september • Calendar •

Library Card Sign-up Month | National Piano Month | National Hispanic

September Means:

S chool, E ffort and P lay. T rying your best E ach hour of the day, M aking new friends, B eing good as you can, E xciting discoveries, R eading books with a friend. – Author unknown

SUNDAY

MONDAY

Get your library card here!

Promote Library Card Sign-Up Month during September. Visit www.ala.org for more information.

It’s Jack Prelutsky’s birthday.

It’s International Literacy Day.

Get advice from Jack Prelutsky on “How to Write a Funny Poem” at www.jackprelutsky.com/ flash/pdf_docs/ HowToWriteAFunnyPoem.pdf.

Check out this long list of downloadable Reader’s Theater scripts from a second-grade teacher at www.thebestclass.org/ rtscripts.html.

Labor Day

Word of the month: Enigma—a mystery What are some other synonyms for mystery?

It’s National Grandparents Day

Chrysanthemum Day in Japan. Invite grandparents to read to students in the library today.

16 It’s H.A. Rey’s birthday Why not dress up as “the man in the yellow hat” today?

Autumn begins Hobbit Day Visit www.wikihow.com/ Celebrate-Hobbit-Day for suggestions on celebrating Hobbit Day.

Visit Lee and Low’s Activity page at www. leeandlow.com/p/activities. mhtml.

28 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Neptune discovered! On this day in 1846, a German astronomer discovered the eighth planet.

TUESDAY

3 Survive anything! Check out Lonely Planet’s Not-for-Parents: How to Be a World Explorer.

Check out Everyday Mysteries: Fun Science Facts From the Library of Congress at www.loc.gov/rr/ scitech/mysteries/.

Constitution Day Share We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, by David Catrow.

It’s National Punctuation Day Share Exclamation Mark, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, about the most exuberant punctuation mark around.

Did you know? The first printed book, Gutenberg’s Bible, was published on this day in 1452.

Illustrations by Cathy Bennett

by | Patti Sinclair

2013

Heritage Month September 15–October 15 | Children’s Good Manners Month™

WEDNESDAY

Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset.

What did you learn in school today? How to write.

What did you write? I don’t know. They haven’t taught us how to read yet!

Patriot Day

Try this fall read-aloud for middle graders: Roland Smith’s pageturning Storm Runners, the first in a series.

Sukkot begins at sunset. Share The Vanishing Gourds: A Sukkot Mystery, by Susan Axe-Bronk, to introduce children to this Jewish holiday.

It’s Shel Silverstein’s birthday. “I made an airplane out of stone ... I always did like staying home.” —Shel Silverstein

FRIDAY

THURSDAY

It’s Paul Fleischman’s birthday. Share Fleischman’s new book, The Matchbox Diary.

Can your students solve three mysteries at Geo Mysteries with Rex the Dino Detective at www.childrensmuseum.org/ geomysteries/mysteries.html?

Full Moon

It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day! Share Pirate Pete’s Talk Like a Pirate, by Kim Kennedy, a great readaloud to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day.

It’s Johnny Appleseed’s (John Chapman) birthday. Display Johnny Appleseed books. Print an apple recipe and glue it to an apple cutout. Send home with students.

SATURDAY

It’s Jane Addams’s birthday. Did you know? Social reformer Jane Addams was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yom Kippur begins at sunset. It’s Roald Dahl’s birthday.

Back in print! Frances Hamerstrom’s Walk When the Moon Is Full describes the nighttime walks the author took with her children during full-moon nights.

Opening in a theater near you: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.

Share Newberywinning mystery The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin with students. Take a quiz at www. quibblo.com/quiz/gKiyqZX/ The-Westing-Game-Quiz.

Mystery book display. Wrap some books in newspaper or wrapping paper and invite children to check them out.

21 International Day of Peace Share Peace, by Wendy Halperin Anderson.

28 Learn about the FBI through games, tips, and interactive features at www.fbi.gov/fun-games.

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 29

• Meet the Authors • Grades PK–6

Caldecott Winners Nonny Hogrogian on her 1966 Caldecott-winning book, Always Room for One More (Holt)

As we celebrate seventy-five years of the Caldecott Medal (1938–2013), this article offers a compilation of TeachingBooks .net original interviews with a few Caldecott medalists, so that as you read, teach, and share these distinguished books, you can have personal insights directly into the illustration process. The commemorative logo, designed by 2008 Caldecott medalist Brian Selznick, pays homage to ten previous Caldecott Medal-winning books. You can learn more, as well as access a Caldecott scrapbook, archives of webinars with Caldecott experts, and much more, on the official Caldecott Medal 75th Anniversary web page at http://ala.org/alsc/ Caldecott75. Hundreds of interviews, lesson plans, and even recordings of Caldecott recipients pronouncing their names are freely available as part of this celebration at http:// TeachingBooks.net/Caldecott.

30 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Always Room for One More, written by Sorche Nic Leodhas, is about a poor man who lives in a little house with his wife and ten children in Scotland. In the days when I illustrated this book, we weren’t allowed to use full color in a single illustration. We had to separate all our colors out. So I did the pen and ink work first, which included the little house that Lachie MacLachlan lives in, some of the lines that show heat coming out of the chimney, the few little birds, and the man with the little wagon who’s coming by his house and who he will eventually invite in. Then I did a wash, which is very watery paint, of grays with a paintbrush. Then, in pastels, on another overlay, I added some lavender and purple, and a little bit of olive green at the bottom to show there was grass growing, and so on. I also created cloudiness up in the sky with a wash. I tried to give this book a feeling of pure joy and simplicity. I always do a lot of research when I’m doing artwork because children notice if you’re not accurate. So I do look things up; for this book, for instance, I wanted a reference for the wagon and the little cottage, and

what the gores look like. Once I research, I just take off from there—I try to be accurate in every picture, but I also try to do it loosely and in my own way.

Uri Shulevitz on his 1969 Caldecott-winning book, The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship is a Russian tale retold by Arthur Ransome. During World War II, I spent six years in Russia, from ages four to ten. I spoke and read Russian, so I had a feeling for Russian tales. When my editor suggested I do a Russian tale, I read the Afanasyev collection of folktales, and there were over 300 stories in it. And when I came upon this particular story, I fell in love with it and wanted very much to illustrate it. The black line that you see was done in pen and ink and drawn on a separate piece of paper from the rest of the colors. It was drawn at half the size you see. That is because when it was blown up to full size, the magnification would give me a coarse line, which I wanted. The rest of the colors were done with watercolor and colored inks, and the colored inks were hatched with a pen. The Caldecott Medal is administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The 75th Anniversary illustration and logo copyright © 2012 by Brian Selznick. Used with permission of ALSC/ALA.

Meet the Authors Gail E. Haley on her 1971 Caldecott-winning book, A Story, A Story: An African Tale (Atheneum) I first heard about Anansi in the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, where I lived for two years. People selling goods

along the waterfront would talk about Anansi as if they were there in his stories, and I began collecting tales about him. When I returned to New York, I decided to create a book about him, but I soon realized there were no kings, queens, leopards, or monkeys in the Caribbean—so the stories must have come from Africa. I traced them back to Ghana on the West Coast. One of my favorite tales was about how Anansi, the Spiderman, bought stories from Nyame, the sky god, who kept them in a golden box next to his royal stool. I spent a year researching this story, during which I studied African dance, music, and culture. I even had a lady from Sierra Leone live with my family and me in New York City. She taught me everything I wanted to know about her life. I spent another year carving the pictures for A Story, A Story out of wood—one wood block for each color, red, yellow, blue, and black. Some pictures required many, many small blocks to get all the colors I needed.

Leo and Diane Dillon on their 1976 and 1977 Caldecott-winning books, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears and Ashanti to Zulu (both Dial) LD: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears was one of the first picture books we ever illustrated, and we had in our minds huge graphic images, massive pictures that would seem like fabric. They would be simple to look at, but that simplicity would convey what the words were saying. We looked for an artistic style with the white, linear qualities of African batik. We were going for color and form. We were also thinking in terms of movie editing—creating certain close-up views that would concentrate on the feeling of the characters. DD: And Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears is very different because there’s no border to hold in the art. It just flows from page to page. In order to not make it boring and to keep everything from the same viewpoint, we came in close and then moved back to show the distance, hoping to make it more interesting from page to page. LD: In Ashanti to Zulu, we wanted to portray Africa as not one big place, but a place that, like the rest of the world, is made up of many, many diverse cultures. DD: Also, Margaret Musgrove, the author of Ashanti to Zulu, provided one point about a group of people in the story. We thought, you can’t sum up a whole people with two sentences. So we caused ourselves a lot of trouble with that book by deciding that in each one of those pictures, we’d include a dwelling, a man, a

woman, a child and artifact, an animal, some landscape, and a bird. It got to be a massive research problem. LD: But we pretty much found the things we were looking for! DD: One of the greatest compliments we received was that a young African man said to us that in Ashanti to Zulu “You’ve shown my country. Thank you.” We hadn’t been there, because we do most of our research through books, so we were very relieved and happy when he reacted that way. When we start a book we think, “This one’s going to be easy.” But it never is, no matter how simple or how graphic it looks. For instance, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears looks much simpler than Ashanti to Zulu, but it took twice as long to do each spread in Mosquitoes as it did in Ashanti. Every time we start a new job, we use a medium that we haven’t used for maybe two years. So we have to get used to it all over again. We always have the feeling of discovery, but we may get partway through the book before we really get the feel of the medium that we’re using and then we have to go back and redo the beginning again. LD: Yeah. And then when the book is over, we forget that style, that medium, that process and start a new one. And it begins all over again.

Chris Van Allsburg on his 1982 and 1986 Caldecott-winning books, The Polar Express and Jumanji (both Houghton Mifflin) I think one of the things that gives my art a recognizable August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 31

Meet the Authors quality is that it blends a kind of rationality with fantasy. My art, though it’s fantastical, is really quite rational. Probably the most obvious example is a fantasy like Jumanji, which proposes that a game board can come to life. The rationality comes from the illustrations where I attempt to show that even though this is a bizarre idea, it could happen—and this is exactly what it would look like. I’m not trying to make my illustrations photographic. I’m simply trying to make them persuasive. There’s an aesthetic rationale that gives the books a compelling quality. If Jumanji had been illustrated in antic, cartoonish images, it would not have resonated and seemed like a real, probable thing. The same goes for The Polar Express. I believe as a fantasist that once you latch onto a single, slightly bizarre premise, whether it’s a game board that can come to life or a train that can miraculously power itself northward, you still get just one bizarre idea per story. When I write a fantasy, I give myself only one wild card to pull out, and the rest has to be recognizable reality.

The drawing I particularly like is about a fourth of the way through the book, when the grandpa and the little boy go up the stairs into the attic, and they move things around a little so he can do his song and dance routine. I like the attic scene because when I was growing up, I used to go up in the attic and play with my grandpa. There is a lot of color in this book; the whole book is illustrated in colored pencil. I did a lot of colored pencil books during that time, but this is the one that people seem to really like.

Ed Young on his 1990 Caldecott-winning book, Lon Po Po (Philomel) Lon Po Po is a story that I heard when I was small, and I didn’t know then that it was a rare version of the Red Riding Hood story. It wasn’t until I came to the United States and became a children’s book author that it occurred to me that it was only one version of the widely known story. In the Western or European version, Red Riding Hood needed the hunter to come and save her. The three

Stephen Gammell on his 1989 Caldecott-winning book, Song and Dance Man (Knopf) The story of Song and Dance Man reminded me of growing up with my grandpa. I had a lot of fond memories of him. When I was older and started doing books and this manuscript came to me, I thought, this is reminiscent of the fun I used to have when I was four or five years old.

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girls in Lon Po Po actually handle the wolf themselves. This approach not only gives a boost to children that they can handle problems on their own, but it also tells them that

they don’t really need an adult around to do the job. In Lon Po Po, I used panels to help illustrate the story. Often, panels are useful for me. One reason is because books have a gutter that bridges across two pages, and you don’t want important art to be caught in the gutter. When you use two panels, one on each side of the gutter, it’s almost like looking through a window without looking at the divider. You just look through the window, ignoring what is interrupting your view. Also, having a panel or two in a page lends itself to showing more than one moment at the same time. When illustrating, I like to compare media to food ingredients. It is the job of the artist to get to know the media so that when he has a dish that he wants to produce, he will know what kind of ingredients to serve. But before he can serve it, he has to pay respect to them and to learn how they would like to be treated. Art education helps the artist get to know each medium as much as he can.

David Wiesner on his 1992 Caldecott-winning book, Tuesday (Clarion) Tuesday grew out of a cover that I did for Cricket magazine, when I was asked to do something with frogs—that simple. This particular issue was March, so they had some St. Patrick’s Day things and they had other stories about frogs. I didn’t really want to do something with St. Patrick’s Day, but when I began to think about frogs, I

Meet the Authors thought, well, that’s neat; they’re really cool-looking. They’re soft and round and squishy and lumpy and bumpy and funny colors, and just really weirdlooking. The image that I came up with, the frogs flying on the lily pads and rising out of the swamp, immediately suggested there was a book here. That ultimately is the underlying thing for a lot of my books—what is fun to draw. In the case of Tuesday, I started to get pictures of frogs and made a little model of a frog, and just started to draw. A fun thing to draw will usually lead to something interesting.

Emily Arnold McCully on her 1993 Caldecottwinning book, Mirette on the High Wire (Putnam) I had just returned from a trip to Paris when I began writing Mirette on the High Wire. I had recently decided that there still weren’t enough courageous, curious, interesting girls in children’s books, so I vowed that my next book should have a spunky girl as its heroine. Mirette is about taking risks to succeed. I believe very much in the value of risk and of failing and then getting up and trying again. The pictures in this book are all made with watercolor on watercolor paper. I originally created the sketches for the book the same way I had done all my books up to this time: by making drawings in pen and ink and then coloring them in. But the art director at my publishing house said, “Well, this is a book about Paris at a time when there were great painters there, and it will look more like the period that you’ve

set it in if you paint the pictures and don’t draw them.” So I had to teach myself to create in this manner, and the way I did that was to make about thirty-five versions of one scene in the book until I felt comfortable just making a picture with brushes and color.

Allen Say on his 1994 Caldecott-winning book, Grandfather’s Journey (Houghton Mifflin) Grandfather’s Journey is supposed to be my grandfather’s story. But actually, it’s my own story, and I borrowed my grandfather’s history to tell of my experience in this country. The pictures in it are not actually of my grandfather, but of my most easily available model, whom I found by looking at myself in the mirror, or pulling out photographs of myself. The page that I’m most fond of is page eighteen. The illustration shows me looking out the window, thinking about my past in Japan, and I’m surrounded by birdcages. This comes from the fact that my grandfather loved birds, and he always kept birds around him. The text says, “He remembered the mountains and rivers of his home. He surrounded himself with songbirds, but he could not forget.” And I think this is the feeling that both my grandfather and I shared all our lives. We are one and the same person in a sense, spiritually. And probably this is the whole point of this book. At the end, I say, “I think I know my grandfather now. I miss him very much.”

Mary Azarian on her 1999 Caldecott-winning book, Snowflake Bentley (Houghton Mifflin) My process for creating the illustrations for Snowflake Bentley has two important parts. The basic illustration is done with a woodcut. I draw the picture on a piece of wood and then use cutting knives, called gouges, to carve the image. I remove all of the wood with the gouges, leaving only the lines that I’ve drawn. It is important to remember that the image will be reversed when it is printed.

The woodblock is printed in black ink, and after the ink dries—which takes a day or so—I add the colors with a water-based paint. One of the advantages of a woodcut is that once the block is carved, many prints can be made of the same picture. That way, I can vary the color until I get an effect that I think is right for the illustration. Snowflake Bentley thought that snowflakes in the individual crystals were so incredibly beautiful that it was worth spending almost seventy years of his life photographing them every winter. As I worked on these illustrations, I thought about how wonderful it is to find something you love to do and enjoy working on or learning about for your whole August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 33

Meet the Authors life. Snowflake Bentley left us thousands of beautiful snowflakes that continue to delight and educate people over a hundred years after he lived.

Kevin Henkes on his 2005 Caldecott-winning book, Kitten’s First Full Moon (Greenwillow) Kitten’s First Full Moon began as part of a failed attempt at creating a young concept book about circles. There was one line from the manuscript I liked: “The cat thought the moon was a bowl of milk.” This line stuck in the back of my mind. I expanded on it to write Kitten’s First Full Moon. All along I saw it as a black-and-white book. I’d long wanted to do a book with limited or no color, and for the first time, I’d written a story that seemed just right for this approach. The text is simple and young, and so I wanted the art to be simple, too. I liked the idea of having a white cat, a white moon, and a white bowl of milk surrounded by the black night. I experimented; initially I didn’t know if I wanted white on black, or if I wanted to use paper that had a gray tone to it. I did know I wanted it to have a really rich, velvety look. And I wanted it to be square. There’s something about the perfection of the shape. One of the great joys and big differences about doing the art for Kitten’s First Full Moon is that I used a brush, because I could just lay down a nice, thick line.

Chris Raschka on his 2006 Caldecott-winning book, The Hello, Goodbye Window (Hyperion) 34 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster is a story about a little girl who visits her grandparents. I wanted to make the pictures have the feeling of how that little girl might draw. As an illustrator and writer, I often get letters from young people. One letter I’ve had for many years was written by a little girl named Elizabeth. It’s very scribbly and abstract. I loved that so much that I made my own pictures in this book a little bit like hers. If you look on the page that says, “When I get tired, I come in and take my nap, and nothing happens until I get up,” I can explain what I did. The crayons that I used, pastels, give the illustration a kind of flat feeling. You don’t really feel like you’re going deep down inside the page. I wanted to get scribbly with the picture but still make it look like a real room. To give the picture a bit more space and depth, I added some paint underneath the scribbles. If you look closely, you’ll see some green watercolor paint that kind of glows up through the pastel drawings. Finally, I added just a little bit of black line in the girl’s face and on the dresser, and I scratched out some of the crayon with the end of a pair of scissors. And that’s how I gave the illustrations in this book the feeling of the artwork of a little girl.

Beth Krommes on her 2009 Caldecott-winning book, The House in the Night (Houghton Mifflin) The House in the Night is a simple good-night story. I like to say it is a book about art, music, books, imagination,

family, home, and love. I had always wanted to illustrate a book in black and white, and as soon as I read the manuscript for The House in the Night,

I knew that this story was perfect. My editor suggested that I add bright gold in certain spots to make the book even more eye-catching. I work in scratchboard for my children’s book illustrations. Scratchboard is a piece of cardboard or panel with a thick coating of white, topped with a coating of black. My scratchboard drawings start completely black. I draw white lines by scratching through the black with a sharp scratchboard tool. The more lines I draw, the brighter the picture becomes. My scratchboard pictures are so detailed that I have to look through a magnifying light as I am working. To add color, I photocopy my finished scratchboard pictures and paint with watercolor on the copies. This becomes the final art I present to my publisher.

Jerry Pinkney on his 2010 Caldecott-winning book, The Lion and the Mouse (Little, Brown) I grew up on Aesop’s fables. My parents shared those

Meet the Authors stories, hoping that the heavy morals would guide us in the decisions we made. I don’t remember when I first heard “The Lion and the Mouse,” but it seems like it’s always been part of my path. I have never fractured my adaptations of folktales because I want to share those stories that I cared about when I was a child. I’m trying to revisit them and speak to the reader about why those stories were important to me. I’ve worked in coarse pencil and watercolor on paper for the last thirty years or so. Before that, like all young artists, I explored a lot of different mediums. I like to bring a certain sense of humanity and detail to my work, and watercolor allows me to do that. I have fascination and wonder about the line and transparent quality in watercolor. I use watercolor to give voice to what I would like to talk about.

Erin E. Stead on her 2011 Caldecott-winning book, A Sick Day for Amos McGee (Roaring Brook) In A Sick Day for Amos McGee, written by Philip Stead, Amos McGee is a zookeeper with a lot of good friends: an elephant, a penguin, a tortoise, a rhino, and an owl. Before I began working on the book’s art, I tried to think about each animal and their different personalities. The penguin, for instance, is very shy. I thought and I thought about how to draw a shy penguin. I even went to the zoo to watch how penguins interacted with one another. Some formed groups and ate

fish together, and some liked to swim by themselves. I thought about what the penguin in my story would do. In the end, I tried to draw a picture that showed that even though the other penguins seemed very friendly, our penguin loved spending quiet time with his best friend, Amos McGee. I made the pictures for this book by creating woodblock prints and then drawing on top of the prints. All of the color you see in the book is stamped onto the page by a piece of wood that I carve the animal shape into. Then after the block is carved, I spread color onto the block and press paper onto it, almost the way you would use an inkpad and a rubber stamp. After the color is dried, I draw on top of the color with pencil.

Jon Klassen on his 2013 Caldecott-winning book, This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick) This Is Not My Hat is a story about a little fish who’s stolen a hat. He tells us throughout the book how he’s hoping to get away with it, while the pictures show his whole plan kind of falling apart behind him.

Eventually the true owner of the hat, who is a much, much bigger fish, catches up with him at the end. Near the beginning of the book, when the little fish tells us that he’s stolen this hat,

we see the big fish he stole it from still asleep. The little fish tells us the big fish “probably won’t wake up for a long time.” But the picture shows the big fish’s eye popping open. This is where the story really begins, because now we know that what the little fish is telling us and what’s really going on aren’t quite the same thing, and we can guess where this whole thing is headed. The artwork was done in pieces. For instance, for this “he probably won’t wake up” spread I painted the different parts of the big fish and the plants and bubbles all separately, then I did a whole bunch of bubbles and a whole bunch of plants, and I circled the ones I liked best. I scanned my favorites into the computer and put them together like puzzle pieces. It’s really fun to work on black because everything you do that isn’t black shows up really nicely, and it all has kind of a scary atmosphere to it right away. ❖❖❖❖ ❖ TeachingBooks.net is an easy-to-use website that adds a multimedia dimension to the reading experiences of children’s and young adult books, including lesson plans, video book trailers, and original movies and audio recordings with exceptional authors revealing their writing, illustration, and research craft. For more information, contact Nick Glass, Founder & Executive Director, at nick@TeachingBooks.net.

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 35

An Anniversary Celebration of Caldecott Winners Over the Years 1938–2013 Author Extensions •

Grades K–5

by | Phyllis J. Perry

he Caldecott Medal is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary this year. It was named for an English illustrator, Randolph Caldecott, who lived from 1846 to 1886. The medal, designed by Renee Paul Chambellan in 1937, shows on one side a scene of a runaway horse that was pictured on one of Randolph Caldecott’s book covers, and on the other a Randolph Caldecott illustration of the nursery rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence.” The Caldecott Medal is awarded to “the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children” published in the United States. The Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, selects the winner each year. The award was first presented in 1938 to Dorothy P. Lathrop for her illustrations in Animals of the Bible, A Picture Book. The 2013 Caldecott Medal winner is This Is Not My Hat, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen. One or more books may be named as runners-up, or Honor Books, each year. In 2013, five Honor Books were named, including Extra Yarn, written by Mac Barnett, which was also illustrated by Jon Klassen.

Chris Raschka: Grades K–1 A Ball for Daisy, written and illustrated by Chris Raschka (Random House, 2011) is a wordless picture book about a dog and her ball. Raschka also won the Caldecott Medal in 2006 for The Hello, Goodbye Window, written by Norton Juster. Gather students close as you share with them A Ball for Daisy. Help them follow the story as Daisy romps with her red ball, plays with another dog, is sad when her ball breaks, and is happy again when she plays with a new blue ball. Create a Text Have students create one line of text for each page or double-page spread of the book. For example,

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the first page might read, “Daisy loves her red ball.” As students suggest words for the text, write them on a chart. After the text is complete, show the picture book again, with students taking turns reading a page of text to go with the pictures.

Erin E. Stead: Grades K–3 In 2011, the Caldecott Medal went to Erin E. Stead for her illustrations in A Sick Day for Amos McGee, written by Philip C. Stead (Roaring Brook Press, 2010), These remarkable illustrations were created by hand using woodblock printing techniques and pencil drawings. Amos works at the zoo, and he visits his favorite animals each morning. When Amos fails to appear for work because he has a cold, the animals come to visit and help him. Additions to a Story Invite each student to draw a zoo animal not shown in this book and write two lines of text telling what Amos might do with that animal each morning when he visited it in the zoo. Allow time for volunteers to share their new story pages with the class.

Author Extensions

Leo and Diane Dillon: Grades 2–5 Leo and Diane Dillon have the distinction of winning back-to-back Caldecott Medals. Their 1976 retelling of Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema (Dial Books for Young Readers) won the Caldecott Medal, and they won again in 1977 for Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions, by Margaret Musgrove (Dial Books for Young Readers.)

Beth Krommes: Grades K–2 Beth Krommes was the Caldecott Medal winner in 2009 for her drawings in The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson (Houghton Mifflin, 2008). Krommes has won many awards for her work, including the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award for her illustrations in Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadows by Joyce Sidman (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Critical Thinking Skills Gather students close so they can enjoy the illustrations as you read to them The House in the Night. The book is illustrated with scratchboard drawings, entirely in black and white except for touches of gold on each page. After reading the story, ask students to comment on the colors of the illustrations. Why was it appropriate for most of the pictures in the book to be done in black and white? What effect is created by the touches of gold? Ask them to comment on the cumulative pattern of the text. What holds it together, connecting one section with the next? Night Poems Susan Marie Swanson, who wrote the text for The House in the Night, has also written a book of poetry called Getting Used to the Dark: 26 Night Poems (DK Children, 1997). Read a few poems from this book to the students. Then ask each student to write an original poem about the dark. It could involve noises in the night, shadows, or dreams. Ask them to illustrate their poems. Collect these pages and create a class book.

Reader’s Theater Gather students close as you read to them Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears. Discuss the story and the part each character plays: mosquito, iguana, python, rabbit, crow, monkey, owl, and lion. Assign these eight parts to volunteers. Also assign several students, one per page, to serve as narrators, reading the lines on each page that are not dialogue. Read the story again, with the narrators and characters reading the various parts. When students are familiar and comfortable with their roles, present the reading to another class in the school, or share it at a parents’ night.

Music (Ewe Drumming) Gather students near to share with them Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions, by Margaret Musgrove, with pictures by Leo and Diane Dillon (Puffin Books, 1976). In it, there is a page devoted to Ewe drumming. August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 37

Author Extensions

Ask the music educator’s help in gathering, sharing, and discussing with students pictures of instruments and musicians involved in Ewe drumming. Many examples can be found online; enter “Ewe drumming” as search-engine words. Students will be able to see pictures of the drums and can hear them being played.

Allen Say: Grades 2–4 Grandfather’s Journey, by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin, 1993), was the 1994 winner of the Caldecott Medal. It is a book that bridges two countries: the United States and Japan. When the grandfather or his grandson is in one country, he is homesick for the other. The book has minimal text with full-page, remarkably delicate paintings. Postcards This book begins with an exciting story of a young man who leaves Japan and travels across the ocean by steamship to America. Ask students to reflect on a trip they have taken for a vacation or to visit friends or relatives. Ask them to think about their trip and create and write a postcard to send to a friend, depicting a scene and relating an experience from the trip. Take time for those who wish to do so to share their postcards with the class before placing them on a classroom or library bulletin board.

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David Wiesner: Grades 1–3 Tuesday, written and illustrated by David Wiesner (Clarion Books, 1991), won the Caldecott Medal in 1992. Wiesner was also the Caldecott Medal winner in 2007 for Flotsam and in 2002 for The Three Pigs. The only words used in this book record the times and dates when these unusual events took place. Tuesday relies entirely on the illustrations to carry the story. Gather children close as you share this book with them so they can see the fantastic illustrations. A Group Story Using chart paper, ask the class to help compose words for this wordless picture book. Ask for suggestions for one or two lines of the story to go on the first page. Consider all the alternatives offered and allow students to select their favorite wording and record it. Continue this process with all the pages of the book. Then read the story a third time, this time reading the words the students wrote as you show the illustrations.

Uri Shulevitz: Grades 2–5 Uri Shulevitz won the Caldecott Medal in 1969 for his illustrations in The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, a Russian tale retold by Arthur Ransome (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968). It tells the story of a peasant who, aided by a wise man and seven supernaturally talented companions, is able to win the hand of the daughter of the powerful czar.

Author Extensions

Forecasting and Predicting As you read this Russian tale to the students, point out that the peasant is being joined by men with unusual talents. On chart paper or a marker board, list the travelers that join the group and note their special abilities. For instance, the man lying in the road with his ear to the ground has exceptional hearing. Another man is a great shot with a rifle.

When the czar begins to set tasks for the peasant to complete, before reading what actually happens in the story, ask students to refer to the chart and determine which of the peasant’s companions might be able to complete the task. Then read on to see if the student prediction was right. Continue doing this throughout the story as the czar sets one task after another.

Jerry Pinkney: Grades K–5 In 2010, Jerry Pinkney was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for The Lion and the Mouse (Little, Brown, 2009). The only words in the book represent animal sounds such as “grrr” and “squeak.” The book is a visual feast, presenting one of Aesop’s fables. This is a book you can use with all levels of students, K–5, choosing appropriate activities. Gather students close to enjoy the pictures. Be sure to open the book to show the front and back covers at the same time, giving equal weight to both the lion and the mouse.

Drama (K–2) Have volunteer students act out the story of “The Lion and the Mouse.” They can make up appropriate dialogue, such as the mouse pleading for its life in the paws of the lion, and of the lion thanking the mouse for his rescue. When the group is ready, have them present their play to the class. Drama (3–5) Bring in a number of copies of Aesop’s fables. Possibilities include “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” “The Fox and the Grapes,” “The North Wind and the Sun,” and “The Tortoise and the Hare.” Divide the class into small groups, and let each group choose one of the fables. They should practice on their own and present their fable to their own class or to another class at school. (They may choose whether to use simple props and costumes.) Writing Original Fables (3–5) Discuss with the groups what they have learned about Aesop’s fables. (They are fiction; animals speak and are personified; there are just a few characters; they teach a lesson or a moral.) Have each small group write a short fable. When they are ready, have each group read and share their original fables with the class. ❖❖❖

Phyllis J. Perry is the author of seventy-seven books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for children and adults, including the award-winning It Happened in Rocky Mountain National Park. In spring 2012, Bold Women in Colorado History was released by Mountain Press. Custom Books published Hidden Away in 2012 and Wonder World in spring 2013. She has seven e-books on the Kindle shelf at Amazon .com, including titles from the Fribble Mouse and WHAM Agency Library Mystery series, such as The Secrets of the Rock, The Secrets of the Sea Chest, The Case of the Three-Legged Buffalo, and The Case of the Hidden Masterpiece. Also on the Kindle bookshelf is her book Found It! Introducing Geocaching to Kids and Families. Visit her at www.phyllisjperry.com/.

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 39

Tom Angleberger’s Origami Yoda Series Library Lessons •

Grades 3–5

Series Synopsis: The Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger is a series of “case files” compiled by young Tommy Lomax and his classmates. In each book the students’ goals are to gather evidence to help solve a mystery. Is the wise Origami Yoda finger puppet real or an elaborate deception perpetrated by the socially inept Dwight Tharp? Is it possible to save a student from being punished when the school has adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward bullying? Can a fortune-telling hand puppet really know more about girls than the boys do? As a relatable group of classmates try to figure out the answers to these questions, they compile a document full of handwritten comments, creative drawings, and interesting pieces of evidence. Fans of the Captain Underpants, Wimpy Kid, Wayside School, and Dork Diaries series will find Angleberger’s wordplay, subtle social commentary, and sense of humor to their liking. Note: It is not necessary for students to be familiar with the featured titles to successfully participate in these activities.

Lesson I The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Mystery Research Ranking Activity Introduction: One day, Dwight Tharp shows up at school with Origami Yoda attached to his hand. This finger puppet seems much wiser than the weird Dwight and is soon sought after to give valuable advice to those in need. Is this folded piece of paper real? How can Tommy and his friends find out? Where should they go to do their research? Can anyone answer their questions? Time Allocation: 20–40 minutes Objective: • Students will demonstrate knowledge of the attributes and limitations of various reference tools. • Students will discuss the merits of some reference tools over others. 40 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

by | Lynne Farrell Stover

Materials: • “Looking for an Answer” Ranking Cards (available at www.librarysparks.com), printed on cardstock • Copy of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda for student reference Procedure: 1. Print the “Looking for an Answer” Ranking Cards prior to class. 2. Introduce the lesson by explaining to the students that they will be ranking reference sources based on the needs of fictional characters looking for answers to a mystery. Tell them that it is not necessary to have read the book to participate in the activity. 3. Hold up a copy of the book and say to the students: “Dwight Tharp, a character in this book, is shy and introverted. Most people consider him weird. Then one day he shows up with a finger puppet based on the Yoda character in the Star Wars movies. This puppet speaks to the students and gives them advice. The puppet appears wise and all-knowing. This situation gets the students wondering if the Origami Yoda is real and a different entity than Dwight. These students start asking questions and looking for answers. They have choices of where to go to look for their answers.”

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Library Lessons 4. Hold up the “Looking for an Answer” Ranking Cards, and read what is printed on them one at a time, explaining the characteristics of each reference source. You may wish to review that an encyclopedia is a set of books containing information on many subjects, an atlas is a book of maps, and a dictionary is a book containing words and their meanings. 5. Distribute the “Looking for an Answer” Ranking Cards to eight students, one card per student. 6. Instruct the students with the cards to line up facing the class, holding the cards in front of them for the other students to see. 7. Then state one of the situations listed below and ask the students to rank the tools in order, from right to left, placing the reference tool that would be the most beneficial for finding the needed information the farthest on the right, and the one that is least beneficial the farthest on the left. Encourage discussion between the students holding the cards and the other students in the class. Tell the students that there is not always a right or wrong answer. 8. Have a new group of eight students hold the cards, and introduce a new situation. Instruct the students with the cards to rearrange the ranking order and explain their reasoning. Again, encourage discussion Continue to introduce possible situations as time allows. 9. Discuss the changes that occurred in the rankings. For example, ask the students why, in certain situations, asking someone a question might be the best method of finding an answer, but in others it may be inappropriate, and finding the information in a reference book may be a better choice. Possible Situations: A. Tommy is worried that Dwight says “purple” often and at strange times. He would like to know if the world “purple” has multiple meanings. (He wonders if Dwight might be giving him a secret message.) B. Rhondella wants to find out when the first Star Wars movie was released. (She would like to check out a statement that Origami Yoda made.)

C. Dwight would like to learn sign language so that he can communicate with Caroline. (Caroline wears hearing aids and reads lips, but Origami Yoda has no lips for Caroline to read.) D. Harvey wants to know when the next guest speaker will be giving a presentation at the school. (He wants to trick Dwight into asking a silly question.) E. Sara would like to know how far away California is so that she can save up money to visit there one day. (She is a big Star Wars fan and wants to learn all there is to know about science fiction movies.) F. Jennifer wonders if Dwight reads a lot of fantasy, mystery, and puzzle books. (She thinks that the books he reads may cause him to have a good imagination.) G. Principal Rabbski would like to know if origami finger puppets are popular in other schools. (She feels that the finger puppets are disruptive to a learning environment.) H. Kellen would like to know what origami actually is. (He has a feeling that this is just something that Dwight made up.)

Lesson II Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book

Primary and Secondary Sources Introduction: Things are not going well for Dwight and his wise finger puppet, Yoda. Thanks to Harvey and his counterpart Darth Paper, Dwight is in jeopardy of getting suspended from school. As Dwight’s friends create a case file in his defense, things go from bad to worse. Will their well-researched commentaries and heartfelt testimonies be able to save this misunderstood “weird” kid? Time Allocation: 15–20 minutes Objectives: • Students will be introduced to the concepts of primary and secondary sources. • Students will complete an activity dealing with primary and secondary sources. August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 41

Library Lessons Materials: • Book—Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book

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• Primary and Secondary Sources visual and activity sheet (www.librarysparks.com) • Writing tools Procedure: 1. Introduce the lesson by showing the students a copy of Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book by Tom Angleberger. Explain that this book is a collection of comments and materials a group of students assembled to use as proof that their friend, Dwight Tharp, may be weird but not dangerous. In fact, he is very helpful.

7. Extension activity: Encourage students who have completed their activity sheets to turn their papers over and list as many primary and secondary sources as they can see in the library from their seats. Examples could include pictures, posters, maps, lists, rules, periodicals, and books. Students may be interested to know that the library keeps a circulation record of the books each student checks out. This record is a primary source document.

2. Show the students examples of the support material the students used to state their case. Examples include the principal’s referral form (page 19), the school fund-raiser poster (page 70), and Harvey’s letter to the school board (pages 108–109). Explain that these are examples of primary source documents. 3. Define primary sources as firsthand accounts written or created by someone about his or her own experiences or observations. Define secondary sources as materials written after the event or time period has passed. People who did not actually witness an event create this kind of source. 4. Display the visual, and read and discuss the types of sources listed, explaining how they qualify as a primary or secondary source. (Note: Information found on the Internet can be viewed as either primary or secondary sources. It’s complicated, and concrete rules have not yet been established.) 5. Distribute the activity sheet and read the directions to the students. Allow students to work independently or in pairs. 6. Check the activity sheet as a group for understanding. Be prepared for some discussion.

Lesson III The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee: An Origami Yoda Book

Plot-Character-Setting Accordion Book Introduction: With Dwight attending Tipplett Academy, the students are without the sage advice of Origami Yoda. Not to worry. The plot thickens as Fortune Wookiee, with the help of Sara, is more than willing to serve as a replacement. Time Allocation: 30–40 minutes Objective: • Students will become familiar with the literary terms plot, character, and setting. • Students will create a foldable book displaying an understanding of plot, character, and setting.

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Library Lessons Materials: • Book—The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee: An Origami Yoda Book by Tom Angleberger

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• Visuals—Literary Terms Defined: Plot, Character, Setting; How to Make an Accordion Book (available at www.librarysparks.com) • Three pieces of square paper for each student • Glue sticks • Markers or crayons • Optional—scrap paper, stickers, and old magazines for cutting out pictures Procedure: 1. Prepare and collect materials prior to class. It is advisable to make a sample accordion book to share with the students using the information on the visual concerning the plot, characters, and setting of The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee. 2. Introduce the lesson by showing the students a copy The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee. Explain that this book will be used for demonstration purposes, but it is not necessary to be familiar with the story to complete the lesson. 3. Display the Literary Terms Defined visual, and review the contents with the students.

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photo by

Joy Blaser

at w w w.a

nartfamily .com

4. Ask the students to think of a favorite book or fairy tale. Tell them that they are going to create a foldable book that will display their understanding of these terms. 5. Show the students the sample accordion book. Tell them that the folding procedure to make this book is similar to the one Sara used to make the Fortune Wookiee. 6. Display the visual, “How to Make an Accordion Book.” This visual needs to be available for the rest of the class period for student reference. 7. Distribute the materials. 8. Instruct students to create their own accordion book based on one of their favorite books or stories. 9. Students who are unable to complete this activity may work on it at home, in the classroom, or at a center in the library.

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Resourcefulness: Super-Sleuths Clue Readers In Character Ed Grades 3–5

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by | Judy Bradbury

iddle graders are drawn to mysteries like magnets to refrigerator artwork. When I was a middle grader, I spent one memorable summer tooling around the residential island on which we lived on the bicycle my father built for me, imagining myself to be Nancy Drew while my cousin Paula was my trusted George. We pedaled up and down the seven narrow gravel alleyways lacing the island, doggedly hunting for anything that might be mysterious—from a frayed leather lanyard to a propped-open garbage can lid. Did that shiny penny on the window ledge mark the destination of a clandestine meeting? Did the torn manila envelope lying in the gutter signal a hasty getaway? Paula and I and her happygo-lucky beagle, Tippy (our Togo), sought clues to evidence of a mystery—any mystery. We contentedly pieced together clues offering the slimmest of possibilities for alleyway suspense. Though we never found an indication that anything remotely resembling a crime had truly taken place, we exercised our imaginations and mined our resourcefulness throughout that terrific summer—just as our super-sleuth heroes had taught us. Featured here is a trio of timely, taut, and memorable spellbinders for mystery-loving middle graders.

Mystifying History Most often at the mention of mysteries we think fiction, yet some of the most compelling mysteries written today are informational books that lay out intriguing facts and trace perilous paths to the solutions of some of history’s most dramatic moments. The reader of these mysteries witnesses real-life problem solving and vicariously experiences resourcefulness, stamina, and common sense as the characters solve a puzzle step by step, often with a timer ticking mercilessly in the background. 44 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook Press, 2012) swept the 2013 children’s literature awards, snagging the Robert F. Sibert Medal, a Newbery Honor, a National Book Award Finalist distinction, and the YALSA-ALA Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award, to name just a few. This tightly written, thoroughly researched account reads like a top-notch spy novel as it details the stunning brainpower and unstinting spirit, resolve, and tenacity the brightest physicists from the United States, Russia, and Germany brought to the race to be the first to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. From meek and unassuming minions to shrewd spies who infiltrated the secret laboratories of classified scientists to fearless Norwegians who parachuted by moonlight, scaled treacherous gorges, and skied across borders to sabotage enemy efforts, this book catapults the reader through a chilling era in history. Sheinkin, who calls himself a “story detective,” chronicles a series of events loaded with edge-of-your-seat suspense. Greed

Character Ed versus need, power versus brains, and the grim repercussions of war are stunningly presented. Sheinkin skillfully leads his audience through the thought processes, triumphs, disappointments, and ego wars of the men and women who played out the gripping saga of a perilous arms race. Sheinkin’s powerful narrative leads the reader to ponder the ramifications of conceiving and building a weapon so potent that it threatens humankind’s existence and forever changes the political landscape of the world. As Sheinkin soberly reflects in his epilogue, “The making of the atomic bomb is one of history’s most amazing examples of teamwork and genius and poise under pressure. But it’s also the story of how humans created a weapon capable of wiping our species off the planet. It’s a story with no end in sight. And, like it or not, you’re in it.” • Key players in the World War II atomic bomb race demonstrate both laudable and flawed personal traits. Assign teams of students the task of tracing the pivotal events in which specific wartime heroes, scientists, and spies engaged. Discuss the ethics, the outcomes, and the “what-ifs” associated with their actions, their choices, and their politics. Based on his thorough research of primary sources, including declassified top-secret files, firsthand accounts, secret recordings, interviews, and testimony, Sheinkin considers why certain decisions were made. Debate the logic and the long-range effects of the choices made by the game changers in this astonishing period of history. • Robert Oppenheimer, after pioneering the research and development of the atomic bomb for the United States, was stripped of his government clearance because he expressed grave concern about using atomic weaponry. Have students research Oppenheimer’s work, politics, and philosophy as if they are members of an investigative committee. Form teams to take sides either supporting or criticizing Oppenheimer’s mission before and after the atomic bomb was perfected. Ask students to cite evidence to support their opinions. • Discuss the assumptions made by U.S. government operatives in determining the loyalty, motivation, and truthfulness of those involved in designing the atomic bomb on all sides of the race.

• Compare and contrast the character traits of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his successor, President Harry Truman, as described by Sheinkin and as it relates to the period in history in which they led the United States. Expand research to include Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. • After reading the epilogue, discuss Sheinkin’s conclusion (see the quotation in bold italics in the previous column).

Clues to Memorable Middle-Grade Mysteries A Limit on Graphic Violence Nonviolent crimes preferred; murders often occur “offstage” Believable Plot Line and Setting Could a middle grader solve this mystery by his or her own resolve without an adult’s assistance? Is this a plausible setting for a middle-grade sleuth? Taut Tension Throughout Tough situations, intriguing clues, plenty of roadblocks, unforeseen developments Gripping, Page-Turner Scenes A parade of captivating and worthwhile hints spice up a fast-moving plot; plenty of dialogue keeps reader interest high and reveals characters’ thoughts, logic, and powers of deduction; cliff-hangers close each chapter.

Crafty Characters Mystery novels have captured and sustained the interest of middle-grade readers as long as there has been a shelf dedicated to intermediate-grade fiction. Classics such as Nancy Drew, the Box Car Children mysteries, Encyclopedia Brown, and the Hardy Boys series remain unwaveringly popular as updated, ghostwritten installments stand beside repackaged original titles penned decades ago. And each year, new, marvelously talented authors introduce likable, resourceful, smart, and determined junior detectives. The Mysterious Talent Show Mystery, written by Tony Abbott and illustrated by Colleen Madden (Egmont, 2013), is the fourth installment in the Goofballs series aimed at grade 3. This light, humorous tale follows sleuths, Jeff, Mara, Kelly, and Brian, as they prepare for the production of August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 45

Character Ed a play at Badger Point Elementary School. And a production it is, in all senses of the word. As Abbott notes, “Mysterious and hilarious things happen whenever a group of young people comes together to ‘put on a show.’ Besides the comedy of backstage shenanigans, there are the thousand things that go wrong, the excitement of being onstage, the hugeness of the auditorium, and the smallness of the kids.” • The novel consists of two acts: the talent show and the play. After reading the novel, have students act out the play. Abbott quips, “It’s a very short play, and it’s very silly—but then most kids are short and silly, so that should work out pretty well.” • Arrange for students to plan and produce a talent show of their own to present before parents and caregivers.

A Handful of Middle-Grade Mystery Authors Worth Reading Blue Balliett Mary Downing Hahn Joan Lowery Nixon Rebecca Stead Wendelin Van Draanen Barbara Brooks Wallace

• Have students prepare a character sketch for each of the junior detectives in the Goofballs series. List their strengths and weaknesses. Discuss why they make a good team and what qualities they each possess that aid the group in solving mysteries. Ask students to create a fifth character who might enhance the Goofball sleuths. What specific strengths and weaknesses would this character possess? What would make readers laugh?

Down-Write Doable

Hunting Down Spectacular Middle-Grade Mysteries The Edgar (www.theedgars.com/edgarsDB/index.php) is the prestigious award bestowed each spring by Mystery Writers of America. Winners are acknowledged as the top writers in their genre, and the awards include a Best Juvenile category. The 2013 winner is Jack D. Ferraiolo for The Quick Fix (Amulet). Tony Abbott, author of the Goofball series, won in 2009 for The Postcard. 46 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Not only are mysteries captivating to read, they’re intriguing to create, at least according to most mystery writers—and especially to Pseudonymous Bosch. This mysterious author demystifies the process for middle graders in the creative and hilarious Write This Book: A Do-ItYourself Mystery, the sixth title in the author’s The Secret series (Little, Brown, 2013). With zany wit, Bosch (whose nom de plume may—or may not— have been inspired by the writer’s dishwasher) glibly guides the unwitting reader through the elements that sustain a novel, demonstrating with tongue in cheek how suspense is built, maintained, and heightened; how characters are introduced and developed; how to get rid of the parents so they’re not in the characters’ way; and even what the foreword, backstory, and footnotes are. The author’s humor delights as he speaks directly to the reader, and the illustrations by Gilbert Ford, which feature a wiry rabbit that sporadically peeks around the corners of the pages to editorialize, are perfectly silly. And let us not forget the blank pages for the reader to complete—the underlying purpose of the book. Despite the madcap fun, this book is chock-full of authentic writing tips, or “pseudo-intelligence,” as the author modestly labels it. This book is “learning without trying” at its very best. • Get a copy of this book for each member of your mystery writers’ group. Follow Bosch’s

Character Ed mise-en-scène advice and meaty clues and let your detectives loose to develop their own middle-grade mysteries. As Bosch explains, “I can’t tell you how many letters I get from readers asking for advice about writing … How do I get published? Well, here it is—a book written by you that’s already published.” • As a group, have students summarize Bosch’s tips and guidelines. Use the list to critically review mystery books and evaluate their key elements. Whether fantasy-rich time-travel adventures, contemporary urban fiction, or narrative nonfiction, mysteries beckon middle graders with their ambiguity and their casts of characters exercising resourcefulness. Whether it’s fiction

or nonfiction, the young reader shadows the characters as they puzzle out problems, decipher clues, and journey through a maze of decisions. The reader gleans how resourcefulness triumphs in critical situations. ❖❖❖

Judy Bradbury is a literacy specialist, author, and workshop consultant. She has written children’s books and several professional resources for teachers and librarians, including The Read-Aloud Scaffold: Best Books to Enhance Content Area Curriculum, Grades PreK–3 (Libraries Unlimited, 2011). Visit www.judybradbury.com or email Judy at workshop@judybradbury.com.

“From the art world to the zoo, from underwater to outer space, from current problems to future solutions . . . ” Delve Into Real-Life Mysteries with Smithsonian Quests The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies recently launched a project-based online learning program to encourage research, discovery, and creative collaboration. Known as Smithsonian Quests (http://smithsonianquests. org/), the projects connect learners of different ages and in different regions and can be completed by individuals or as part of classroom content-area units of study. “From the art world to the zoo, from underwater to outer space, from current problems to future solutions,” this innovative program aims to inspire students to investigate their interests more fully and boost knowledge

acquisition skills through the activities incorporated in the interdisciplinary quests and integrated with content from online education conferences. Although mainly targeting middle school classrooms, Quests attract learners from kindergarten to college and beyond. Grade level is taken into account as students are coached to complete their quests, which always include an “artifact,” such as a piece of creative writing, a photograph, other artwork, or a graph. Projects are reviewed and badges awarded by a team of Smithsonian experts. August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 47

Who Ha-Ha Grades PK–2

or many years, I’ve done a “Boo Ha-Ha” story theme featuring funny ghost and monster stories for preschool and primary grade students. For this mystery and whodunit issue, I’ve altered the theme name to reflect the fun of solving little mysteries during the course of the storytime. The program also contains stories and activities that reflect the fun aspect of saying “Who? What? When? Where?”

Opening Chant “Where Are the Children in Storytime?” Traditional, adapted by Rob Reid The style and rhythm of this opening activity are inspired by the traditional call-and-response chant “Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?” In most traditional versions, everyone slaps their legs and says: Leader: Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar? Group: (Rob) stole the cookies from the cookie jar. Rob:

Who, me?

Group: Yes, you! Rob:

Couldn’t be!

Group: Then who? Rob:

(Jayne) stole the cookies from the cookie jar!

Jayne: Who, me? And so on… I’ve trimmed down the number of lines from the traditional version. It takes some demonstration and practice time with the children so they can learn their lines. It also works best if other adults are present. Demonstrate your lines as the leader and then demonstrate their responses. Practice a few times. 48 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Storytime •

by | Rob Reid

Leader: Where are the children in storytime? (Look around as if you can’t see the kids.) Kids: Here are the children in storytime! (Have them point to themselves.) Leader: Who, you? (Look surprised.) Kids: Yes, sir/m’am! We are the children in storytime! Leader: Where are the big folks in storytime? Adults: Here are the big folks in storytime! Leader: Who, you? Adults: Yes, sir! We are the big folks in storytime! Leader: Who’s ready for fun in storytime? All:

We’re ready for fun in storytime!

Leader: Who, you? All:

Yes, sir! We’re ready for fun in storytime!

Picture Book Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty? And Other Notorious Nursery Tale Mysteries, by David Levinthal. Schwartz & Wade, 2012. A frog named Binky solves a variety of mysteries in the forest. Three bears discover that someone has eaten their porridge. A witch who owns a cottage made of candy has gone missing. A 911 call reports that Snow White has fallen into a coma. There is an explosion and a deep hole beneath a giant beanstalk. Because of time constraints, read only the title story. Binky learns that Humpty has fallen and “gone to pieces.” All the king’s horses and all the king’s men are unable to put him together again. Binky feels bad for Humpty: “He was a good egg.” Binky spots a nearby pig cooking at an omelet stand. The pig

Storytime confesses to the crime. He had shoved the egg off the wall after Humpty said “pigs couldn’t sing, only oink.”

Musical Activity/ Guessing Game

Storytelling Tip: Read Binky’s lines in a monotone film-noir style. Think Humphrey Bogart or Joe Friday from the 1960s television show Dragnet.

“There Was Who in the Bed?” Traditional, adapted by Rob Reid Here are new words to the traditional children’s backward-counting song “Ten in the Bed.” The original tune and words can be found on the music recordings Great Big Hits 2 by Sharon, Lois, and Bram and Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! Vol. 3 by Peter and Ellen Allard. After singing the initial lines, pause after the spoken lines and allow the children to solve the mysteries of who was in the bed. For younger audiences, the mystery animals also appeared in the previous picture book Who Am I? For older audiences, feel free to add your own animals and clues.

Picture Book Who Am I? by Gervase Phinn. Andersen Press, 2012. A small green animal emerges from an egg and asks the title question. He sets off to explore and encounters “a creature with a very long neck.” Our protagonist asks, “Excuse me. Could you tell me who I am and where I come from?” The tall creature replies, “I know that I am a giraffe and I am the tallest animal in the whole wide world, but I do not know what sort of creature you are.” The small creature moves on and asks the same questions to an elephant, a cheetah, a rhinoceros, a chimpanzee, and a crocodile. The crocodile tells our little hero to come closer. When the crocodile opens its jaws wide to eat the strange little creature, the little guy sees “a creature just like him but much, much bigger.” It is his mother, a chameleon, who saves him from the crocodile in the nick of time. Storytelling Tip: As the strange little creature meets each new animal, point to that animal and ask the children, “Who is that?” Allow the children to state what that animal is before the animal reveals its name in the text. Also point out that the strange little creature changes colors to resemble each animal it meets. Astute kids might know ahead of the final reveal that this is a characteristic of chameleons. If they say what the little creature is ahead of time, simply state, “We’ll see if you’re right pretty soon,” and continue the story.

There were five in the bed and the little one said (Hold up five fingers.) “Who is it? Who is it?” (Spoken) “I have a long neck and I eat leaves from the top of trees.” (Answer: Giraffe) So they all rolled over and Giraffe fell out. (Twirl the hands over each other.) There were four in the bed and the little one said, (Hold up four fingers.) “Who is it? Who is it?” (Spoken) “I have a long nose that is also called a trunk.” (Answer: Elephant) So they all rolled over and Elephant fell out. (Twirl the hands over each other.) There were three in the bed and the little one said, (Hold up three fingers.) ‘Who is it? Who is it?’” (Spoken) “I look like a big kitty cat and I’m very, very fast.” (Answer: Cheetah) So they all rolled over and Cheetah fell out. (Twirl the hands over each other.) There were two in the bed and the little one said, (Hold up two fingers.)

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 49

Storytime

“Who is it? Who is it?” (Spoken) “I am big and gray and I have a sharp horn.” (Answer: Rhinoceros) “So they all rolled over and Rhinoceros fell out. (Twirl the hands over each other.) There was one in the bed and the little one said (Hold up one finger.) “Who is it? Who is it?” (Spoken) “I’m green and have a big mouth that goes snap!” (Answer: Crocodile) So they all rolled over and Crocodile fell out. (Twirl the hands over each other.) There were none in the bed and the little one said (Hold up fist.) (Spoken) “Now I can finally get some sleep!”

Picture Book Who Has This Tail? by Laura Hulbert. Holt, 2012. We see the end of a particular animal’s tail with the question “Who has this tail?” Turn the page to see the animal and also learn about a useful function of the tail. The first tail belongs to a spider monkey. It uses its tail to hang on branches. Some tails will be easily identified by many in your audience, such as the rattlesnake’s and peacock’s tails. Some tails will be trickier to identify, like those belonging to the Arctic fox (which curls up in its tail to keep warm) and the gerbil (which uses its tail for balance). Storytelling Tip: Hold up the illustrations of the various tails for several long seconds to allow children time to guess. At the end of the book, ask the kids which animal’s tail they would like to have if they had one. For a little stretch, ask them to stand up and wiggle their “tails” for a few moments before sitting down for the next activity. 50 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Musical Activity/Felt Activity “Mary Had a Little Who?” Traditional, adapted by Rob Reid Ask the kids to sing the first stanza of the traditional nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with you. For those unfamiliar with the traditional version, it can be found on the music recordings Wee Sing Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies by Pamela Beall and Susan Nipp as well as Mainly Mother Goose by Sharon, Lois, and Bram. After everyone is done singing the song, ask them if bringing a lamb to school was silly. Tell them that this new version of the song has Mary bringing other pets to school and they have to guess what they are. “Mary had a little who, little who, little who, Mary had a little who, she brought this who to school. Who is it?” (Place felt turtle on the felt board.) Repeat the song over and over, each time placing a new felt animal on the board. Patterns for the following pets are available at www.librarysparks. com: turtle, guinea pig, goldfish, iguana, mouse, bunny, and hedgehog.

Picture Book Who’s Who? by Ken Geist. Feiwel and Friends, 2012. Two calves moo and chew, two bunnies hop and flop, two monkeys swing and cling, two fish swim and splash, two bats flap and squeak, and, finally, two owls say “Who?” and giggle “in the moonlight” to the chagrin of other animals trying to sleep. Storytelling Tip: The text can be sung to the tune of the traditional song “Over in the Meadow,” or it can be read in a normal voice. For those interested in singing, the tune can be found on the music recordings Wee Sing Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies by Pamela Beall and Susan Nipp as well as Baby Beluga by Raffi. Encourage the children to make appropriate motions as they come up in

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Storytime

the story: hopping, moving their arms overhead as if swinging on vines, swimming and flapping motions with their arms, and, finally, holding their hands over their mouths as if they are covering up their giggles.

Scavenger Hunt For the closing activity, lead the children on a scavenger hunt to locate a mysterious treat. Have written clues posted around the children’s library area ahead of time. Each clue is designed to lead the children to another clue. The final destination can be whatever treat you feel is appropriate: a container full of snack items and stickers has been popular in our town. Here is a sample progression: First clue reads, “He wrote books about the Cat in the Hat and Sam-I-Am.” (Head over to the Dr. Seuss books to find the next clue. Have a stuffed Cat in the Hat or poster to help the kids easily locate this section.)

the pigeon from Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus), and Fish. Cat is stumped when she encounters a monster but recovers and calls it “a new friend.” Secret Agent Splat! by Rob Scotton. HarperCollins, 2012. Splat the Cat is back, this time trying to unravel the mystery of the missing toy ducks. He puts together a spy kit and swings into action. ❖❖❖

Rob Reid wonders who has more fun in storytime— he or the kids. He is the author of several library resource books, including Welcome to Storytime! (UpstartBooks, 2012) and Silly Books to Read Aloud (Huron Street Press, 2013). Visit Rob’s blog, “Heart of a Child,” through his website, www.rapnrob.com.

Second clue reads, “Feeling thirsty for something cold and wet?” (Head over to the nearest drinking fountain to find the next clue.) Third clue reads, “The librarian sits here while waiting to help kids find good books to read.” (Head over to the librarian’s chair to find the next clue.) Fourth clue reads, “Let’s watch a movie about Amelia Bedelia and Curious George.” (Head over to the DVD/video collection to find the next clue.) Fifth clue reads, “The Earth is a treasure!” (Head over to a globe to find the “treasure.”) Tailor your own scavenger hunt based on the features of your library or classroom. Write as many clues as your time allows.

Backup Picture Books Cat the Cat, Who Is That? by Mo Willems. Balzer + Bray, 2010. Cat asks a series of questions, asking over and over, “Who is that?” The kids can guess before Cat knows that the answers are Mouse, Duck (holding

August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 51

Technology

Grades 5–6

So Many Books … So Little Time

by | Diane Findlay

Webquest: Writing Mysteries

ysteries have special appeal for kids, who love the challenge of following clues and solving puzzles. Mysteries can overlap with almost any other genre—we have sports mysteries, history mysteries, fantasy mysteries, ghost mysteries… It’s hard to find a kid who doesn’t like some type of mystery! For that reason, and because mystery stories follow a formula of sorts, it’s the perfect genre to motivate readers to try their hands at being writers. This webquest challenges upper elementary students to enjoy, explore, and discuss the nuts and bolts of mystery literature and to develop ideas for original mysteries in one of four subgenres based on work by four popular authors: kid detective stories with Wendelin Van Draanen, puzzle-based mysteries with Eric Berlin, “furry sleuth” stories with Dori Hillestad Butler, and ecological mysteries with Carl Hiaasen. While the quest ends with summaries and plot outlines, some students may want to finish the process. Scholastic’s “Writing with Writers” Mystery page, at http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/ mystery/publish.asp, invites kids to submit original mysteries for possible online publication.

Good peer editing points out possible problems, offers constructive ideas, and encourages originality and effort. You’ll need to provide a photo or chart of a phone keypad to students working with Wendelin Van Draanen’s Sammy Keyes books. Note: Students will turn in the peer editing sheet their partner completed about their work; they will be evaluated on the peer editing sheet they completed about their partner’s work. Plan on four class periods, plus homework and a short in-class wrap-up, to complete this quest. In the first period, introduce the quest and watch the online video of Esai Morales reading Private I. Guana: The Case of the Missing Chameleon, by Nina Laden. Have students choose their author and subgenre and begin their online research (process steps 1–4). During the second period, they will finish part 1 of their research guide and meet in author/subgenre groups to brainstorm story ideas (steps 4–5). Use the third period for individual work on part 2 of the research guide (step 6). Outlines and summaries can be finished as homework. Author/subgenre groups will meet for sharing and peer editing in the fourth class (step 7). After revising outlines and summaries as homework, students will submit all paperwork to you (steps 8–9). In the wrap-up, share the conclusion and reading list, hand out evaluations, and invite students to finish writing their stories to share in class. W Go to www.librarysparks.com for the other onl ne i components of this webquest—the introduction, task, process, evaluation rubrics, and conclusion, including research guides with live web links. ❖❖❖

Webquest Teacher Notes Fifth and sixth graders will combine individual online research with group brainstorming and peer editing while exercising creativity, developing computer and research skills, and learning about mystery as a genre. Coach students on peer editing, stressing courtesy, respect, and kindness. 52 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Fiction|Nonfiction by | Pat Miller Grades K−5

omewhere on your to-do list for the opening weeks of school you may have “plan orientation.” How can you make your explanation of rules and procedures interesting, especially for students who have been using the library for years? Perhaps this year you could weave some books about libraries and their patrons into your orientation activities.

The Library Experience Irreparable harm is being done at the Boston Public Library in The Deadlies: Spiders on the Case. In this chapter book for middle grades, the only witness is Buster, a brown walnut spider. When the Deadlies, a family of venomous brown recluse spiders, move into the shelves, Buster enlists their help. Together they foil the silverfish and glue bugs that are destroying priceless history books. Kathryn Lasky injects humor along with the venom. For a short read-aloud, read from the top of page 56 through page 59. Buster and Jo Bell manage to save a valuable picture of Crispus Attucks before the silverfish completely chew it up. Buddy is a therapy dog who listens to children read at Four Lakes Elementary. In The Case of the

Library Monster, he investigates a ghost who is making noises under the floor and pushing books from the shelves. Careful dog-tective work leads to clues that it is not a ghost but a monster with a blue tongue that is causing the mayhem. Share pages 39–43 with students. Buddy consults with Mouse and Cat with No Name to try to figure out what kind of monster this is. Humor has made the Buddy Files series a favorite. In Poindexter Makes a Friend, Poindexter is a shy pig who loves the library. He is allowed to help sort books and shelve them. When an even shyer turtle needs help looking for a book, Poindexter helps him. They find the book How to Make a Friend and read it aloud together. Before the end of the book, in the friendly atmosphere of the library, they have indeed become friends. The conclusion shows them at Poindexter’s house, having storytime for their stuffed animals. Ron’s Big Mission is based on a childhood experience of space shuttle astronaut Ron McNair. On a summer day in 1959, Ron McNair’s mission August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 53

Fiction|Nonfiction

was to check out library books about aviation. He was one of the library’s best customers, eliciting a smile from the librarian as he entered the Lake City, South Carolina, public library. Ron’s mission was nearly aborted when the librarian said, “You can read them here. That’s the rule. Only white people can check out books from the library.” An elderly patron offered to check out Ron’s books on her card. He politely refused. The police and Ron’s mother were called. His mother reminded him that it was unfair, but he had to follow the rule. No one could answer when he asked why. The librarian wrote up a library card for Ron, and he continued to visit the library. After his death on the Challenger, the Lake City Library was renovated and renamed for Dr. Ronald McNair, renowned physicist, astronaut, and reader. Dirk Yeller is not the best customer of the town library. He is an ornery troublemaker who has the town terrified in The Day Dirk Yeller Came to Town. Seeking a cure for his twitchin’, Dirk goes from shopkeeper to frightened shopkeeper, getting no help but lots of suggestions. Finally, a curious boy named Sam leads the enraged cowboy to the library. Sweet Miss Jenny, the librarian, finds just the right book to calm him. Trouble is, Dirk Yeller can barely read. The illustration of the huge cowboy seated on the floor next to small Sam while they read together is touching as well as humorous. Dirk settles down under the story’s spell. When the book comes to an end, Dirk glares at everyone. “I’ll be back . . . back to check out more books!” The last page shows Dirk and Sam cracking up over a shared book, Big Jokes.

54 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

Historical Libraries The History of the Library is a thirty-two-page history book that makes history accessible, with double-spaced text, a time line, sidebars, and illustrations. The history begins in 3000 BC with the Sumerians, who stored the clay tablets on which they wrote their cuneiform records, history, and poems. It extends through the invention of the first American lending library by Benjamin Franklin, the formation of the Library of Congress, Melvil Dewey’s involvement, and on to virtual libraries. The Library of Alexandria tells the story of one of the wonders of the ancient world. In every major civilized country, libraries were formed to store precious history and writings. The Library of Alexandria in Egypt contained more than 500,000 carefully organized scrolls and books of records and literature. The material was gathered from the known world by Ptolemy, a general of Alexander the Great. He commanded his men to search every ship that entered the port to find books. The books were “borrowed” and copied by hand. Because the copies inevitably contained errors, the originals were kept and the copies returned. Brilliant men studied at the Alexandria library and added their work to it—men such as Eratosthenes, the librarian and a genius of geography; Archimedes, the mathematician; Aristarchus, the astronomer; and many others. When Julius Caesar burned the Egyptian fleet at Alexandria, the fire leaped from harbor to city. Much of Alexandria burned, including its thousands of priceless books. In 2002, Egyptians built a beautiful, modern library near the site of the ancient one. Its eleven floors contain more than a million books and is topped by a planetarium, just like Ptolemy’s library. Four thousand granite blocks on the exterior of the library contain letters from 500 alphabets. In January 2011, the protest to oust president Mubarak turned violent, killing more than 800 people. Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books tells how Egyptians, including children, preserved the library from vandals and extremists who threatened to damage it during the riots.

Fiction|Nonfiction

Few librarians work in a building as beautiful as the Alexandria library. In fact, some librarians don’t work in buildings at all. My Librarian Is a Camel: How Books Are Brought to Children Around the World features unusual libraries from thirteen countries. In Australia, there are seventy-two libraries on wheels, including a solar-powered high-tech library in Queensland that runs on ten wheels. Librarians meet amazing geographical challenges across the globe, delivering books by boat to Finnish islands, by bicycle in East Java, by wheelbarrow on an English beach, by camel in Kenya, and by elephant in remote northern Thailand.

Library Personalities Two fiction stories are based on librarian Luis Soriano’s real-life donkey deliveries to remote mountain villages in Colombia. Waiting for the Biblioburro is told from Ana’s point of view. She has a single book, which she’s reread so many times that she now makes up her own cuentos. One day, a man with two burros burdened with books arrives in her village. Pair Ana’s version with Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia. This one is told from Bohórquez’s viewpoint. An inspiring five-minute video of Luis delivering books on his burros, Alfa and Beto, is at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eQMh8_TD2dI. English subtitles are also provided. Ben Franklin solved the problem of few books being available in Philadelphia (The Amazing Mr. Franklin: Or the Boy Who Read Everything). In 1732, he sold memberships in the Library Company of Philadelphia. Its fifty members contributed forty shillings each the first year. Franklin asked the

best scholar in Pennsylvania to suggest a book list. Forty-five books arrived from England after a fourmonth wait. Nine years later, the Library Company had 400 books. The Library Company still exists in Philadelphia today, with a collection of millions of important books published up to 1900. Andrew Carnegie tells the story of how a steel magnate used his amassed wealth to build libraries, schools, and universities. When he was a working boy, Andrew Carnegie was allowed to borrow books from Colonel James Anderson’s personal library, which Carnegie used to gain an education. Carnegie went to work at age twelve in a cotton factory for $1.20 a week. By age sixtyfive, his fortune amounted to $300 million. After retiring, Carnegie spent the rest of his life giving away his fortune. When he died at eighty-four, Andrew Carnegie had funded 2,811 libraries across America, in Canada, and in Australia. Melvil Dewey was insistent on economy and efficiency. Melvil Dewey: Library Genius tells how young Dewey was so intent on reforming errors and abuses that he had his cuff links engraved with an R to remind him daily of his mission. As assistant librarian at Amherst College, Dewey was appalled by the nonsensical arrangement of the books. In 1876, he published his decimal classification system to make access to the library logical and easy. Dewey founded the Spelling Reform Association (and legally changed the spelling of his name from Melville), the Metric Bureau, and the American Library Association. He also founded the first library school and the Library Bureau to sell standardized library furniture and supplies. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore tells the story of how books changed the title character’s life, leading him from the wreckage of his town to a lovely building filled with books. “And so Morris’s life among the books began.” He loved the books, cared for them, and loaned them to others. He aged in this wonderful house of books, writing his own life story in their company. When he wrote the last page, he gave a “bittersweet sigh, ‘I guess it’s time for me to move on.’ ” A flock of tethered books carried him heavenward. This book is a tribute by William Joyce to Bill Morris, director of library promotion for August/September 2013 • LibrarySparks • 55

Fiction|Nonfiction

HarperCollins Children’s Book for forty-eight years. Morris earned the first Distinguished Service Award of ALA’s Association for Library Service to Children. Hurricane Katrina interrupted Joyce’s work but inspired a new focus after he witnessed the power of books to bring hope and a bit of normalcy to children in shelters. The story was first an animated short film, winning an Academy Award in 2012. The trailer and iTunes download for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore are at www.MorrisLessmore. com. Next, it became Moonbot Studios’ first interactive storybook, adding interactivity, music, and games to the reading experience. Lastly, it became a beautifully painted book. The pioneering Bill Morris likely would be delighted to see the new technologies that bring this story to animated life. Anne Carroll Moore was more independent than society deemed appropriate in the late 1800s. She flashed down hills on a toboggan. She was a voracious reader. And she stubbornly got her way. Miss Moore Thought Otherwise: How Anne Carroll Moore Created Libraries for Children is a picture book account of how Moore became a librarian and established services for children at New York City’s Central Library in 1906. Five years later, she created the innovative design for its Central Children’s Room. Her opinions about services for children were counter to those of the

56 • LibrarySparks • August/September 2013

day. But when Moore thought otherwise, things were done her way! When others saw children as destructive and irresponsible, Moore trusted them to sign a promise to care for library books and readily checked them out to children. An illustration showing Moore removing a SILENCE sign epitomizes her respect for young, ebullient readers. It’s fitting that this appealing biography places Moore on the shelves of children’s rooms in public and school libraries across the country that are based on her model. Sometimes a lesson wholly about rules and procedures can blunt the pleasure of taking books home. Rules and procedures are important but need not be delivered all on the first day. Perhaps some of these titles will refocus everyone on the privilege and joy of using a free library. Responsibility? Of course. Privilege? Certainly. Ron McNair, Anne Carroll Moore, and Ben Franklin all have something to say about that. Even dogs and spiders become library advocates. Take care, but do take the books! ❖ ❖ ❖

Pat Miller is a career school librarian who now devotes her time to writing and school visits. Library Brain is her latest from Upstart, along with The Library Monkeys and the month-by-month Stretchy Library Lesson Plans series. Her children’s books include Substitute Groundhog, Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution (both from Albert Whitman), and We’re Going on a Book Hunt (UpstartBooks). Visit her at www.patmillerbooks.com or gpatmiller@patmillerbooks.com.

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Additional Resources on the Web! Visit www.librarysparks.com for exclusive articles, as well as reproducible visuals, patterns, and activities from many of our magazine articles, including: •

Meet Carole Boston Weatherford, author of The Library Ghost

• Keep

’em Reading: A Nonfiction Mad Lib™ and Tic Tac Toe Challenge

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Freebies, Doodads, & Helpful Hints: Apples Word Search

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Curriculum Connections: “Ingredients for a Mystery” visual and activity

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Library Lessons: Looking for an Answer Ranking Cards, primary and secondary sources visuals and activity sheets, directions for making an accordion book

PLUS: •

A complete bibliography

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A webliography with live links to the websites listed in the issue

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An updated index

Sneak Peek O c t o b e r 2 013

Bullying in schools has, unfortunately, become a very prevalent topic. Explore effective ways to help students deal with bullies and strengthen friendships with a variety of books and activities. Look for Curriculum Connections that focus on buddies and bullies, a Character Ed column featuring books that encourage compassionate behavior, tips on how to avoid and overcome cyberbullying, and much more on how to stand up to bullies and nurture friendships.