Kansas City Star — Children don’t need adult help to tell fiction from fact is a heart-felt defense of The Giver by Lois Lowry and all children’s literature that leads readers to question and learn. If you are as dismayed as I am by the recent rash of book bannings in schools, then you too need to read this.
Month: March 2005
Themes
Theme Curriculum is a nice site filled with seasonal themes. Each theme has recommended books, fingerplays, recipes, related links, and crafts. This is the a great resource for folks looking for story time ideas.
Hungry Hen
Hungry Hen by Richard Waring, illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church, is another of my favorite preschool/Kindergarten read alouds. I usually read a more conventional chicken and fox story right before it, like Hattie and the Fox. Then I say that there are other ways for a book like that to end.
Hungry Hen is the story of a fox that waits and waits for the hen to get bigger and bigger. As he waits, he gets skinnier and skinnier and the hen becomes enormous. Finally, he can wait no longer, so he runs to the henhouse and… Well, you just have to read it. And the stunned silence that the kids give you after the end is so great. And then the laughter. I usually have problems taking the book away with me afterwards because they want to read it again and again.
Bolinda
Bolinda Publishing is a publisher of audio books for teens. Their prices are amazing, under $30 for unabridged Books on CD. And best of all, both YALSA and Booklist have included Bolinda titles on their best of 2004 lists.
Best Starting Comics
Sequential Tart’s “What’s the Best Comic Starting Point is a very helpful article for libraries building comic or graphic novel collections. The focus on what books will stimulate people to read more of the genre is a perfect match for us. Best of all, Sequential Tart asked some of the top names in comics what ones they would recommend. Beware, some of the graphic novels have adult content, but all of them are great reads.
Girls and Gaming
Teacher Librarian Magazine has a great article about girls and gaming. The article covers six issues: the computer gaming gender rift, negative representations of females in computer games, gaming and academic achievement, the negative effects of violent games, girls’ preferences in computer game content, and girls’ preferences in computer game design. For each issue, there are three sections: what the research says, implications, and practical suggestions. This structure makes the article very readable and useful for librarians.
Guji Guji
Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen is a newish book that I used for the first time with a story time this week. It is the tale of a crocodile, named Guji Guji, who is raised by a family of ducks. He is surprised to be told by three other crocodiles that he should be eating ducks, not living with them. The crocodiles tell him to bring his duck family to the bridge and have them dive into the crocodiles’ mouths. But Guji Guji comes up with a plan to save the ducks.
I shared this book with two classes of kids: four year olds and Kindergarteners. Both classes adored it. Often at this young age, books with complete stories in them are too wordy, but Guji Guji moves along at a brisk rate that is just perfect for kids this age. My own toddler son shared it with his grandma and couldn’t wait to tell me all about the wonderful story.
This one is highly recommended and goes on my list of great read alouds for this age group.
No Flying, No Tights Update
no flying, no tights is a great site for graphic novel reviews. I have mentioned them before here. Now they have just completed a major update with new reviews, new sections, and lots to look at.
BBYA Nominees
YALSA has the list of the first batch of Titles Nominated for the 2006 Best Books for Young Adults list.
Waking Brain Cells 