Author Visit: Elly Swartz: Finding Perfect

My fortunate fifth graders were the recipients of a visit from Elly Swartz, author of Finding Perfect. It was a fantabulous visit. I know this because I watched the reaction of the students and teachers. I know this also because the fifth graders and their teachers are still talking about it a week later.

There are two specific things that made this visit remarkable. One is Elly's connection with students. Her passion and enthusiasm for writing and specifically writing characters from the heart was authentic and moving. 

The second reason is the subject matter of Finding Perfect. Elly's approach to talking about Molly, the protagonist who is struggling with undiagnosed OCD, allowed the students to hear and relate to Molly and develop empathy and understanding for her story. 

Have a look and a listen:

Just as Molly discovers that she is more than this one thing, Elly wants readers to know that about themselves. She shared Unfolding Identity Project, a project she has developed that helps readers understand themselves as complex creatures and therefore look at others the same way. When asked to share what resonated with them after the visit, the students recalled Elly's words, "you are more than one thing." Those are pretty powerful words to carry with you. 

Thank goodness Elly donated another copy to our library!

Here's an excerpt from Finding Perfect

To Molly Nathans, perfect is:
The number four
The tip of a newly sharpened number two pencil
A crisp, white pad of paper
Her neatly aligned glass animal figurines
What’s not perfect is Molly’s mother leaving the family to take a faraway job with the promise to return in one year. Molly knows that promises are sometimes broken, so she hatches a plan to bring her mother home: Win the Lakeville Middle School Slam Poetry Contest. The winner is honored at a fancy banquet with table cloths. Molly’s sure her mother would never miss that. Right…?

But as time goes on, writing and reciting slam poetry become harder. Actually, everything becomes harder as new habits appear, and counting, cleaning, and organizing are not enough to keep Molly’s world from spinning out of control.

Along with donating a book to the library, Elly brought some seriously cool book swag with her. The students are tasked with learning why these items and those portrayed on the cover are important to Molly. They are excited to find out!

Lunch Bunch Book Group Reads Wolf Hollow

My fifth grade lunch bunch and I read Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk. It was an incredible experience, as indicated by both the conversations we had and their willingness to miss recess from May into June and even during the last week of school. These twenty students would not miss a day. This review in the New York Times sums up the power and authenticity of the story. That ending? Wow. We met for an additional session just to discuss how the students were feeling about the ending and what they thought it all meant.

A bit about the book from the publisher:

"Growing up in the shadows cast by two world wars, Annabelle has lived a mostly quiet, steady life in her small Pennsylvania town. Until the day new student Betty Glengarry walks into her class. Betty quickly reveals herself to be cruel and manipulative, and while her bullying seems isolated at first, things quickly escalate, and reclusive World War I veteran Toby becomes a target of her attacks. While others have always seen Toby’s strangeness, Annabelle knows only kindness. She will soon need to find the courage to stand as a lone voice of justice as tensions mount."

During our final discussion, one of the boys shared something about Toby and his guns, their weight, and his final motion to remove them that showed maturity and understanding and ignited a moving conversation about guilt and the emotional baggage that we carry with us. This war hero carried so much guilt for what he had had to do.

Another moving conversation occurred while discussing Betty's death, with students grappling with her bad deeds but terrible death. They also wanted to talk about remorse and felt that she likely died not feeling badly about anything she had done. Wow.

The students often doodle or draw while I read. These creations allow me see what resonates with them apart from what I learn during discussions.    

There was a Friday when we could not meet, so I copied two chapters for them to read. I encouraged the students to write in the margins - to add questions and comments. This was another opportunity to hear from the students beyond our discussions.

I will not soon forget the experience of reading Wolf Hollow with these students. My new library schedule does not allow for a lunch bunch book group, so this may have been my last. In which case, what a way to go out. Thank you, Lauren Wolk, for this book, which created a bond between me and these students and for the memories I will hold onto.

PROLOGUE

The year I turned twelve, I learned how to lie.

     I don’t mean the small fibs that children tell. I mean real lies fed by real fears—things I said and did that took me out of the life I’d always known and put me down hard into a new one.

     It was the autumn of 1943 when my steady life began to spin, not only because of the war that had drawn the whole world into a screaming brawl, but also because of the dark-hearted girl who came to our hills and changed everything.

     At times, I was so confused that I felt like the stem of a pinwheel surrounded by whir and clatter, but through that whole unsettling time I knew that it simply would not do to hide in the barn with a book and an apple and let events plunge forward without me. It would not do to turn twelve without earning my keep, and by that I meant my place, my small authority, the possibility that I would amount to something.

     But there was more to it than that.

     The year I turned twelve, I learned that what I said and what I did mattered.

     So much, sometimes, that I wasn’t sure I wanted such a burden.

     But I took it anyway, and I carried it as best I could.

Read more of the excerpt here.

Children's Book Week and Celebrating Books that Expand our Horizons

Our continuing focus for Children's Book Week is reading books that help shape us as empathic people who are creative thinkers. What better way to do this than read books that expand our horizons - that help us see beyond that which we can actually see?  From our understanding of the natural world to the people in it and the things that surround us, these books are real horizon expanders.

Our first horizon expander was Over and Under the Pond, written by Kate Messner and illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal.

"In this book, readers will discover the plants and animals that make up the rich, interconnected ecosystem of a mountain pond. Over the pond, the water is a mirror, reflecting the sky. But under the pond is a hidden world of minnows darting, beavers diving, tadpoles growing. These and many other secrets are waiting to be discovered...over and under the pond."

A beautifully-illustrated companion to Over and Under the Snow and Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt. Christopher Silas Neal's illustrations pair with Kate Messner's lyrical narrative to bring readers into the pond's depths and onto the pond's shores. This was an ideal book to remind students that information can be gleaned from both narrative and art. It is also a wonderful example of a parent and child celebrating the quiet moments in a busy life, a book encouraging inquiry about the natural world that surrounds us.

Amongst other things, my students shared that they wouldn't have known that: beavers eat the roots from the bottom of the pond; dragonfly larvae eat minnows and have claws; and, something called a caddisfly exists and has a very cool larva. As with the other two books in this series, there are notes in the back explaining more about each animal, which was a great way to quickly answer many of the students' questions.

I asked my students to share what Kate and Christopher should explore next, it seems they think an autumn book is missing because they see the garden as spring, the pond as summer, and the snow as winter. Here are their ideas: Up and Down in the Trees, Over and Under the Leaves, Before and After the Frost, In and Out of the Burrow. 

What say you, Kate and Christopher?

Our next horizon expander was Curious Constructions: A Peculiar Portfolio of Fifty Fascinating Structures by Michael Hearst and illustrated by Matt Johnstone.

"Curious about constructions? Inside this book, you'll come face-to-face with 50 incredible structures, including: a fire-breathing octopus sculpture; the skateboard ramp you'd need to jump the Great Wall of China; a whole community of tree houses in Costa Rica; and a lifesize X-Wing Starfighter built of Legos." 

This book is a fabulous introduction to some incredibly cool structures. It is a book that one can sit down and pour through from cover to cover or pick and choose structures to read about. The first time I cracked the case, I read the first few pages one after another - not knowing which cool thing I would read about next. The second time, I used the table to contents to choose purposefully. Both times were extremely entertaining, informative, and inspiring. 

With my first graders, I used the Elmo to project the image of the curious construction and then read the information to them. They loved the Eiffel Tower and the Terracotta Warriors. The were amazed by the Millau Viaduct and intrigued by the Dyar Tunnels (Note: I did not read everything about Mr. Dyar.). This is a book that I would use more readily with my older students, if only because there is history tied to many of these constructions that would need to be explained. 

There are some cool things out there to see and I can't wait for my into students to discover them.

Our final horizon expander was This is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from around the World, written and illustrated by Matt Lamothe.

"Follow the real lives of seven kids from Italy, Japan, Iran, India, Peru, Uganda, and Russia for a single day! In Japan Kei plays Freeze Tag, while in Uganda Daphine likes to jump rope. But while the way they play may differ, the shared rhythm of their days—and this one world we all share—unites them. This genuine exchange provides a window into traditions that may be different from our own as well as a mirror reflecting our common experiences."

I love this book. The reader is introduced to these seven children and then brought through an average day - breakfast, getting to school, school, after school, helping out a home, dinner, and after dinner activities, and finally to bed where we all look out at the same night sky.  The layout of the information invites exploration of each child's life and allows for comparison and contrast to the lives presented and to the reader's own life. Starting with where each child lives, the reader builds an understanding of different parts of the world and finds familiar things in the unfamiliar - such as houses and apartments made of wood and stone. My students' favorite pages were the ones that showed what each child eats for breakfast and how they each get to school. These tangible parts of the day are important to them. Underlined words are defined or explained in the glossary. 

I can see that I will be buying multiple copies of these horizon expanding books.

Learning that a mistake can be a good thing during Children's Book Week

This week my second graders and I read The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken. 

We are celebrating books and reading all week because it's Children's Book Week! Our continuing focus is reading books that help shape us as empathic people who are creative thinkers.

Prior to reading the story, we opened our circle with a discussion of mistakes. I invited students to share their definition of a mistake. I heard many comments that included the phrases by accident and not on purpose. With the understanding that a mistake is not a purposeful action. We moved onto when mistakes happen. The students shared things like: 

"I forgot to follow the steps"

"I missed a step in a problem"

"I went to the wrong car in a parking lot"

"I passed the ball to the wrong person"

"I sang the wrong note"

"I sang the wrong words"

"I built my tower too crooked"

"I drew my head too big"

The students quickly shifted from identifying mistakes to acknowledging that mistakes are learning opportunities.  I talked about how mistakes, big and small, and the way we approach them, help shape us and influence who we will become.  I shared with them how I once said something hurtful to a friend not realizing that it was hurtful until I saw my friend's reaction and then apologized. I shared that that new knowledge helped me be a better friend going forward.

Moving into the next part of our conversation, I talked about loving root beer floats and wondering aloud if that had been a mistake originally and that sometimes mistakes also result in unexpectedly great things  -- that Lego set that they forgot a step turned out to make something different and pretty cool or that note that was accidentally sung turned into neat harmony. The students were quick to share how mistakes have resulted in not only new learning but also new ideas and new things. 

It was time to read The Book of Mistakes. What follows are images form the first few pages. I received an advanced copy of the book, so the images and text below are not final, but the overall message of this stunningly-illustrated and richly-detailed book is. 

So begins The Book of Mistakes. An errant line here, a misshapen figure there, a splotch of ink here, and a smudge of ink there are all seen as possibilities for the creative mind.

The students wanted to stay on the final pages a pour over all the details. Could they find the mistakes? Absolutely not because what results is a rich and beautiful whole.

There was a lot to say about this book. It sparked many conversations and questions. We'll be continuing to discuss it here.

I put out pens and paper and invited the students to draw a picture of themselves doing something they love. The caveat was that they had to incorporate any mistakes into their drawing and see where it took them.

Arms that didn't quite work out become an opportunity 

to do some dancing.

Too short legs on a dog leave space for a rock for it to sit upon.

A misplaced tree become a rock in the grass.

A broad shoulder becomes hair.

Who knows where the next mistake will lead us?