Kim Ford’s Book Blog

For a long time now, I’ve been a big fan of Sharon Creech’s book Love that Dog.    I loved Jack and Miss Stretchberry so much that I bought a classroom set to share with the English teachers in my building.  You could teach your entire poetry unit with that book.  At least that’s what I thought.  But now, I’m convinced that you need another book… Hate that Cat.  Jack and Miss Stretchberry are back for another round of reading and writing poetry.  This time, they explore the sounds of poetry, and it looks like I’m going to have to buy another classroom set. 

As a cat lover, I was initially put off by the title – but it all comes right in the end.  One of Jack’s final poems in the book is titled “Love that Cat”, again with apologies to Mr. Walter Dean Myers who makes another appearance.   As with all good sequels, we learn more about Jack in this book, and we learn why the sound of poetry is so important to him.   If there’s a third book in the series, maybe Jack can help us learn more about Miss Stretchberry.     

It’s award time!  Last Monday, at the midwinter ALA convention, the book awards were announced.  I’m always especially interested in the Siebert Award for nonfiction and curious to see how it compares to the Orbis Pictus Award sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English.  (I chair the Orbis Pictus Award these days, and more about that later.)  This year one book made both lists:  Kadir Nelson’s We Are the Ship: the story of Negro League Baseball.  It won the Siebert Award, and was an Orbis Pictus Honor Book.  It also was the Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner and Illustrator Honor Book.  Wow!  If you haven’t seen it, you are in for a treat.  The text is engaging, and the illustrations are beautiful.  Better yet, every kid in my library who has walked past the book has stopped and opened it.  It just invites you to come in and turn pages.   It has to be today’s BOOK OF THE DAY.

I’ve just come back from my annual trip to Shrine School.  For the past ten years, maybe more, I’ve gone there at Christmas time to read to Terrie Atkinson’s class.  The kids there seem like old friends, and it wouldn’t be the holidays for me if I didn’t visit.  There are always some old favorites that I read: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Polar Express, and a book only I seem to have – Harvey Slumfenburger’s Christmas Present.  We’ve read these so many times that the kids join in with me and it becomes almost like choral reading. 

Each year I try out a new book.  Two years ago it was Robert Sabuda’s wonderful pop-up The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Kids and adults alike are thrilled when the last page is turned and the tree lights up!  Last year I found Alan Katz and Pete Fornatale’s Elfis – this year, I perfected it by singing the songs in my very best Memphis Elvis voice….don’t know why the kids laughed so much at my singing.  This year, my new offering was Kate DiCamillo’s Great Joy.  It’s a beautifully illustrated story about including the least of us in our holiday celebrations.  I’m pretty sure it will become one of my old favorites from now on.    Happy Reading!

Where did the last month and a half go?  Between conferences, school holidays, and special events, the time has flown by – but boy have I read some great books!  On the way down to the annual NCTE convention in San Antonio, I read Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. My plan was to start the book on the plane going down and finish it on the way home.  The reality was that I couldn’t put it down – I read it at the gate, on the tarmac, by the luggage carousel.  I tried to read it pulling my bag to the taxi stand, but that didn’t work out well – I kept running into people who were not understanding even though I kept apologizing.  Folks had told me that it was a combination of The Lottery and Lord of the Flies, but that doesn’t do it justice.  It’s adventure, science fiction, romance, and more.  Set in a future where every year two young people from each district must report to the capitol city for a reality survival competition…to the death, the book caught me up from the very first.  I finished it on the way to San Antonio, which meant I had to find another book to read on the way back.  More about that later.  Suffice it to say that The Hunger Games is now the BOOK OF THE DAY!

We had all the boys in the library today.  It was time for our annual ‘Sexual Harassment Training’ with the guidance counselor.  The eighth graders did fine – they were trying very hard to look and act mature, so there was only the occasional snicker.  The seventh graders did the best they could – there was a certain amount of snorting and elbowing, but they were very respectful.  And then in came the sixth graders.  As soon as they realized that the words SEX and ASS were in the title, they lost it!  They just turned into a tangle of silliness.  I had to use the word ‘knucklehead’ more than once – not that it did any good.  I think the cards were stacked against us from the get go. 

Which leads us to today’s BOOK OF THE DAY …  Jon Scieszka’s recently released Knucklehead.  This is one of those laugh-out-loud true tales of childhood.  Jon and his five, yes-five, brothers were classic knuckleheads – as were the Sudderth kids.  That’s my brothers and yours truly.  (When you are the only girl, you take on some of the knucklehead qualities – it goes with the territory.)  His family had “Stop breathing my air,” while in my family it was “Make him stop breathing on me.”  They drove from Michigan to Florida jammed together in the back of the family car; we drove from Arkansas to California.  This book is just too funny.  You will love it, your kids will love it.  I’m buying copies for my brothers for Christmas. 

The first batch of RIF (Reading is Fundamental) books arrived today.  If you don’t know about RIF, it’s just the best thing on the planet…almost.  Because of RIF, my students get three FREE books each year.  Not schoolbooks, not library books, but books that can actually belong to them.  I spent a big chunk of last week ordering the books, and they got here quicker than I had  planned.  Our first book distribution isn’t until the first week in December, so now I’ve got to find a place to store all the boxes.  It’s a problem I welcome.  The big question is….can I store the books without ripping open the boxes just to admire all those shiny covers?  Hmmm.

(10 minutes later…) Well, just in case you wondered, I opened the boxes.  Smooth, shiny covers – unbroken spines - and that indefinable, fresh smell right in the middle of the book.  Go ahead, get a new book, open it up to the middle, stick your nose way in, and just sniff.  There’s nothing like the smell of new books.  To me, it’s the aroma of possibilities. 

One of the books in the box was Shelley Pearsall’s All of the Above.  I loved this book, and I think my kids are going to love it too.  It takes place in a school a lot like ours, and it’s full of hope and determination…and a lot of humor.  Plus, it’s got math connections, and it’s sometimes hard to find novels that connect to math.  This would be a great book for a class project.

That’s why All of the Above is today’s BOOK OF THE DAY.

Why is it that anytime I’m away from school, no matter how long, I come back feeling like I’ve been away for weeks?  Nothing’s ever the same on my first day back. I have to figure out all over again what my job is, and there’s a disconnect to my world that I don’t enjoy.  I think one of the reasons it feels like that is because things happen so fast in a middle school that if you’re not there every day, you miss something. 

I spent most of today giving make-up tests for our district practice writing assessment.  Well, that and keeping some in-school suspension kids all day because the ISS monitor was out today.  How to keep them occupied all day without assignments?  A book on tape with a text copy to read along.  Get the right book, and it works every time.  My all time favorite book to use with guys in that situation has to be…..

Gordon Korman’s Son of the Mob.  ( Okay, so I don’t know how to get the whole picture in yet…I’m working on it.)   But I sure know how to keep an eighth grade guy focused for almost an entire day.  Just give him the book on tape, a print copy, and some headphones and he’s set.  This funny story of ‘Romeo and Juliet meets The Sopranos‘ is a sure-fire hit.  That’s why it’s today’s BOOK OF THE DAY!

Yesterday evening I attended an event sponsored by the Shelby-Memphis Council of Teachers of English.  In addition to good food, good friends, and good conversation, I was able to hear author Carla McClafferty talk about her biographies for middle school students.  Her book, Something Out of Nothing, is a wonderful biography of Marie Curie.  It was a 2007 Orbis Pictus Honor Book, and is perfect for middle school students.  The opening just grabs you; it’s one of the best openings ever in a non-fiction book.  It’s today’s BOOK OF THE DAY! 

Okay, I’ll admit it.  A few years ago I would have sworn that I never needed, never wanted a blog.  I may be late coming to technology, but when I decide to jump in – I jump in over my head.  So, here I am in a blog class at the Teaching and Learning Academy, playing like I know enough to ask non-stupid questions.  Jason Parrish is teaching the class, and he’s funny and smart and very helpful.  Wish me luck.