Read Alouds

I have memories of both of my parents reading aloud to me and my siblings when we were children. They are precious memories to me, and so, of course, I have some recommendations.

First: If you are a parent, make sure that you are reading aloud to your children.  This is valuable time – don’t waste it. The same is true for you grandparents out there – read to your grandchildren whenever you get the chance.

On of my favorite memories of my Father reading to us is actually an excerpt that he read from the Reader’s Digest. The book was called “Bichu the Jaguar” by Alan Caillou. The story told of a wounded jaguar whose tracks are discovered by an Indian man and his daughter.   I remember being captivated by the plight of Bichu and fearful for the pair who might stumble upon him. Would they meet?  And if they did, what would happen?

My Mom also read to us, and a favorite there is “Pet of the Met” by Don Freeman. It chronicles the story of a mouse at the Met in Paris, named Maestro Petrini. It is, again, filled with memorable characters and yes, even tense moments in a children’s book – when Petrini meets up with Mefisto the cat.

Now for the soapbox.  In a world of increasing technology -iphones, ipads, computers, playstation, xboxes etc. we must remember that it is up to us to instill that inquiry into our children’s minds.  What will happen?  To have a child hanging on the written word rather than the visual stimuli of a glowing screen is so critical to their brain development. It is my belief that instilling a life-long love of reading and literature begins with that first page and that first read aloud long ago when we were all children and forming that connection, that love of reading and learning, that we get from a well-told story by a well-loved parent or grandparent.

Siblings

I have been thinking about siblings a lot lately. These relationships are complicated and, at times frustrating. Yet there is a great deal of love built in to a good sibling relationship, and if you can get past the “mom loves me more than you”bit, it can be golden. Which brings me to today’s book, “I love you the purplest” by Barbara M. Joose. It’s the story of two brothers, and the competition for their mother’s affection. Of course, the mother is wise enough to see what they are doing, and through color and beautiful imagery, she lets both of her sons know that she loves them both equally, and that because they are each so different, she loves them in different ways. This is a great book to help siblings understand that when it comes to a parent’s love, there IS no competition.

 

 

Life in a Little House

I started this blog with the intent to write about different children’s literature that appealed to me, and that I thought people should know about.  I realized something today though:  although I am a teacher that does not necessarily translate to blogging. (0:

I am actively reading several different blogs – some about travel, some about teaching and of course, some about literature.

As a result of this practice I realize that there must be hundreds upon thousands of people out there reading and blogging about all kinds of interesting things, and therefore what kind of an impact can my little blog about children’s books have?

The answer is, naturally, who knows?  So I guess I should press on, because one never knows.

Today’s author is Laura Ingalls Wilder.  If you have lived under a rock for the last 100 years, first of all I’m impressed, and secondly I will tell you that the name of the series is “Little House”. The most famous book is entitled “The Little House on the Prairie”, and also became the basis for a very well known T.V. show in the 70’s.

I picked this series because I had an epiphany while book shopping not to long ago with a friend who suffers from dementia.  My friend loves to read; indeed I think it is at this stage a lifeline for her, as it is the only thing she actively does at this point in her life.  Keeping that in mind we frequently find ourselves shopping for books, and as her disease progresses I know that soon she will not, in fact she may not now, really understand what she reads.

When I happened upon the “Little House” series, all in one book,  my friend was enchanted.  She did not remember the story, or any reference to Laura Ingalls Wilder and I knew we had found our book.  Naturally, I too was delighted, because it reminded me that I had received the whole series from a dear friend upon the birth of my second daughter.  She had enclosed a card that said she could think of no better gift for two little girls living in the West.  My husband and I took turns reading the stories of Laura, Mary, Carrie, Pa, Ma, and of course, Jack the bulldog to our girls when they were school aged, and it has become a well-loved series of books in our house, now proudly sitting in the “children’s section” of our library.

If you are unfamiliar with this series I heartily recommend it.  There are nine books, and of these my family read:

• Little House in the Big Woods
• Little House on the Prairie
• On the Banks of Plum Creek
• By the Shores of Silver Lake
  The Long Winter   and
• Little Town on the Prairie

These all chronicle Laura and her family’s lives.  The others are :

• Farmer Boy, about Almanzo Wilder, (Laura’s future husband)
• These Happy Golden Years ( about Laura’s time away from her family) and
• The First Four Years ( about Laura’s marriage and life with Almanzo)

In short, these books appeal to a wide audience. You can read them, or have them read to you from the time you are six years old, and even when you are in your eighties, and no longer fully comprehending what is happening in a book, they can still bring joy in their simple stories of lives lived long ago.

BILINGUAL BOOKS

I am a bilingual teacher.  I have been teaching for more than 9 years, not always teaching bilingual students, but that is my passion.

I am in the midst of planning our school’s Read Across America event, and I realized 1) that I haven’t posted recently, and 2) that I suddenly knew what I wanted to share.

I love bilingual books.  I have been inspired by authors who share their gifts by having them translated.  I believe that we can learn a lot about a people by their stories.  In many Latin cultures books are not the way stories are communicated.  It is much more an oral tradition of storytelling, rather than committing these stories to print.  So for my first author crush I need to share Joe Hayes, and my favorite book  so far “The day it snowed tortillas”.   It is a collection of short stories that are poignant and often, hilarious, as in the story of ” The cricket” in which a lazy, good-for-nothing convinces his best friend that he is a seer, and can find lost items. Hilarity ensues, as “the cricket” must get himself out of the mess he got himself into.

Another author of bilingual books that I adore is Alma Flor Ada.  I have a copy of the children’s poetry book “Pio, Peep! Traditional Spanish Nursery Rhymes”.  I believe that poetry and storytelling are windows to the Latino culture, indeed to any culture, and so I will share one of my favorite Alma Flor Ada poems to close.  It’s called, appropriately “Los libros son mis amigos”

Los libros son  mis amigos:        Books are my friends:

nos dicen cosas hermosas.      they tell us beautiful things

Lapiz, papel son mis amigos     pencil, paper are friends that

con los que las cuento yo.        I count my own.

Me gusta leer,                           I like to read,

me gusta escribir,                      I like to write.

me gusta cantar,                       I like to sing,

me gusta reir.                            I like to laugh.

En cada cuento                         In every story

lo mas hermoso                         the most beautiful

es ver al bueno                          is to see the good

salir airoso.                                  end happily

Por eso me alegro                     For that reason

una y otra vez                            over and over again

cada vez que oigo:                     I am happy when I hear the words

“Habia una vez…”                       “Once upon a time…”

Que pasan el tiempo leyendo libros excelentes!

LOVE

There are many different kinds of love.  In my experience love comes up as a topic in books fairly often. One of my favorite movies starts with the quote that ” If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around…Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.”

This week’s books deal with love. The first book is an old favorite. Often it is not read until High School ( maybe that was just my experience) but for me the story of “The Little Prince” is a story about love. Originally written in French, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, it chronicles the life of a little Prince who comes from another planet, as seen through the eyes of a pilot who has crash-landed in the Sahara. The Prince has left his planet of three small volcanoes and a single rose in search of answers to his questions. His travels take him to many other planets before he finally lands on Earth and meets the hapless pilot. It is in these travels that he learns “The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words….But I was too young to know how to love her…”  This book also has one of my favorite quotes.  “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” 

Our second book is not so grand as the Little Prince, but I fell in love with it when I read it. “The Great Fuzz Frenzy” by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel is about a prairie dog colony, and the madness that ensues when a golden retriever drops a tennis ball into their hole.  This book is intended for a younger audience.  But the love shines through. We meet the Prairie Dogs – Big Bark and Pip are the two main characters, and discover that although Big Bark has some serious flaws ( just like the Prince’s flower) he is still found to be loveable by his colony. And just like the child in the Emperor’s New Clothes, Pip tells it like it is.

Recommended ages for these two books: 10 and up for The Little Prince, and 6 and up for The Great Fuzz Frenzy.

Happy Reading!

Classics

I recently had the opportunity to see the film “Saving Mr. Banks” with Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson.  I enjoyed the film and recommend it, but definitely for older children, as it has some themes that children under, say the age of 10 might not understand, and  has a sadness to it.
Which brings me to today’s theme: Classics.  “Saving Mr. Banks” is about the efforts of Walt Disney to bring the book “Mary Poppins” to the screen.  I often tell my daughters that one of the great things about movies made from books or with books inspiring them in some way is that hopefully, it creates a desire in the movie-goer to READ THE BOOK!  And so it is with “Saving Mr. Banks”.

“Why, children,” said Mrs. Banks, noticing them suddenly, “what are you doing there? This is your new nurse, Mary Poppins.  Jane, Michael, say how do you do! and these” – she waved her hand at the babies in their cots- “are the Twins.”

Oh yes, there are FOUR children. Not just Jane and Michael.  And, there is a series of Mary Poppins stories, not just the one book. In the edition of Mary Poppins that I have, interestingly enough, there is a quote from P.L. Travers ( the author) which I think  gives us a little insight into her desire to keep the book separate from the film.  She says “It is interesting to see how books undergo a sea change when transferred to another medium.  What is subtle, unexplained, but still clear to the reader must, for the film-goer, have an external manifestation.  Magic when translated to the screen inevitably becomes trick.  Mr. Disney has deployed all his technical virtuosity in making the film, and I am sure it will give pleasure to a great many people.  And for those who want to know more about the original Mary Poppins and the world she inhabits – there are, of course, the books.”

Other children’s books that have made the leap to film ( and this is a partial list, to be sure!)

Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, My friend Flicka, Harriet the Spy, The Little House series, Treasure Island, The Secret Garden,  A Little Princess, Heidi, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and for me one very notable little story, “Stuart Little” by E. B. White.  I must say that I thought the film was very sweet.  It starred Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis, and a  computer animated mouse voiced by Michael J. Fox.  I hope that it too, will inspire people to read the original book.

And to close, I want to note something I once read somewhere (of course!) – “A book  is a present you open again and again.”

Happy Reading!

Christmas Children’s Books

“Between the dark and the daylight,

When the light is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the day’s occupations

That is known as the Children’s Hour.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I love children’s books.  I guess that is why I teach elementary school children. It is my goal to expose them to great literature at a young age.  When my daughter first suggested this blog to me I was apprehensive due to my incredible lack of computer skills.  Nevertheless, here I am.  I opened this blog with a quote from “the children’s hour”, which is a lovely poem by Longfellow where he leads us into his life and we glimpse his three daughters, “Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra, and Edith with golden hair”.  I too, have three daughters, and like Longfellow have frequently had to remember to stop what I am doing and spend time with my girls.  As parents and as educators, we need to remember how important these little people are, take time to pause and spend time with them.  Reading good literature is a simple way to do this.  Which brings us to our first Christmas author.  When I thought about this topic today I knew that I wanted to share some of my favorite Christmas Children’s books by Jan Brett.  I always tell my first graders that when I look for a book to share the first thing I look at is the pictures.  If the pictures capture my imagination, I know I am on my way.  And so, my first story is  “Christmas Trolls” by Jan Brett.  Jan Brett is one of my favorite children’s authors for the simple reason that she  is an amazing illustrator, and on top of that, a great storyteller.  In the story of the Christmas Trolls, we meet Treva, our heroine, and two mischievous trolls, Tig and Mig, who want Christmas so badly that they attempt to steal it from Treva and her family.  How she gets Christmas back and teaches the trolls a lesson make this an unforgettable children’s story.

Jan Brett is also the author of “The Gingerbread Baby” and “Gingerbread Friends” which are two other beautifully illustrated and lovingly and creatively crafted stories.  The Gingerbread Baby” follows the story of the Gingerbread Man, but with a much better ending, and in “Gingerbread Friends” his story continues.  All of these stories teach the importance of love, friendship, sharing and belonging, an important theme during any time of the year, but particularly during the holidays.