Red Kite, Blue Kite - Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF

    This book is already on the Perfect Picture Book Friday list.
     So why am I posting about it again?? 

     Well, I don't know about the other bloggers, but I sometimes write two or three posts in advance. It all depends on when I discover great books that I think deserve notice. Some weeks at the library, I don't find anything I would rave about. Sometimes, I hit the mother lode. And although I had already written this post, another #PPBF blogger, Pat Tilton,  introduced this book December 9, 2013. (the last week we had #PPBF). Usually when this happens, I sigh, think "shoulda posted sooner" and hit the delete button. Then I thought, I'll post on December 20th, not realizing that #PPBF was cancelled until January 2014! So, it's been awhile, and maybe you all ran out to read it already. But maybe you didn't. And you should. And Red Kite. Blue Kite links to another book I wrote about. So, I hope you don't mind reading about it again! 

Title: Red Kite, Blue Kite

Author: Ji-li Jiang

Illustrator: Greg Ruth (AWESOME website BTW!)

Publisher: Disney/Hyperion, 2013
FICTION

Audience: 5-8 years of age

Themes: family, absent parent, China

Opening: I love to fly kites, But not from the ground. My city
             is crowded, and the streets are skinny. Baba and I fly
            our kites from the tippy-top of our triangle roof.

Synopsis: Tai Shan and his father enjoy the feeling of freedom they get from flying kites from their rooftop. At first when Tai Shan and his father are separated during China’s Cultural Revolution, his father is able to return for weekend visits. When those visits are curtailed, they agree that they will each fly a kite every day, high in the sky and visible over the miles, to “see each other.” Tai Shan’s mother died during childbirth so while father is gone Tai Shan has to stay with a local farmer, Granny Wang. Granny is a loving figure who lets Tai Shan ride her buffalo and comforts him, but she can't take the place of Tai Shan's father. The book includes a historical note about the Cultural Revolution in the 1960's.

Why I like this Book: After I read DanielBeaty’s Knock Knock I began looking for more books about absentee parents and came across Red Kite, Blue Kite. I feel that Knock, Knock does a fantastic job of addressing a child’s resiliency under difficult circumstances. What Red Kite, Blue Kite adds, and hits out of the park in my opinion, is to capture what the illustrator’s note describes as “the irrepressible power of love and hope in difficult times.” The author does a tremendous job showing how life gets worse and worse for this father and son pair without showing any overt abuse. Simply being away from each other is punishment enough. And finding their own special way to express love is enough to see them through the dark times.

Activities/Resources:Fly a kite! Make a kite. The My best kite website has a laundry list of styles to try. Wiki How has directions for a simple kite made from a plastic bag (note: I had trouble getting the tape to hold the sticks when we tried this :) Be sure you have duct tape!) Talk about how other ways a parent and child can stay connected when separated by miles, whether it's just for a short time like a business trip or a much longer period of time. Maybe make a picture or note to put in mom or dad's briefcase or lunchbag! The kites were a secret signal between father and son. Brainstorm different secret signals your family could use--Carol Burnett's ear tug comes to mind. Older readers may want to discuss what happened during China's cultural revolution. The publisher has a 12-page teacher's guide for Red Kite Blue Kite. 

This review is part of Perfect Picture Book Friday. On her blog, Susanna Leonard Hill keeps an ever-growing list of books that have been reviewed, with all the links. Thank you, Susanna! 

I hope you enjoyed the review. Let me know if you've read the book yet!

The Pencil - Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF

     If you're still looking for a book for the upcoming MLK holiday, check out last week's PPBF post-- then come right back here!
     I have read a lot of buzz about 2013's wordless picture book by Aaron Becker titled Journey. And rightfully so. Journey's lush illustrations take children on an imaginative trip through space and time. When the main character picks up a red marker and draws her way out of her world, my first thought was of Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon. But Becker's detailed, colorful drawings are a new beast.
     Even with all of it's beauty, I have to say that I missed some of the emotion of Johnson's classic masterpiece in Becker's book. And I began to think of another book I had read before but never reviewed. That book, Allan Ahlberg's take on the imaginative "drawn" journey, is my pick for this week's picture book review.

TITLE: The Pencil

AUTHOR: Allan Ahlberg

ILLUSTRATOR: Bruce Ingman

PUBLISHER: Candlewick Press, 2008

FICTION
THEMES: Creation, Creativity, Identity

OPENING: (Before the title page) Once there was a pencil, a lonely little pencil, and nothing else. It lay there, which was nowhere in particular, for a long, long time. Then one day that little pencil made a move, shivered slightly, quivered somewhat. . . and began to draw.

SYNOPSIS: When a pencil draws itself a world, with people and animals, the new inhabitants of its world aren't perfectly happy with how they've been rendered. And so pencil introduces eraser. But pencil has to come up with a new solution when eraser starts rubbing out everyone and everything that pencil has created.

WHY I LIKE THIS BOOK:  I'm drawn (pun!) to the quirky humor of this book. The lonely pencil's creations push boundaries, demanding names. Eeven insects and inanimate objects want "people" names (Don't you smile reading about a paintbrush named Kitty?!). The black and white illustrations are especially childlike in quality, capturing the pencil's innocent spirit perfectly. By the time the eraser turns on its creator, I felt the tension, believing anything--good or bad--could happen in this world. And quoting from the book "of course, of course!" there is a happy ending.

Pencil's first "creations"

Activities/Resources: For older readers, compare and contrast the three books I talk about in this post. Discuss which is their favorite, and why. Classroom ideas and activities covering the areas of English, Math, Art and Science for ages 3-12 are found on Walker Book's website here in a curriculum guide. Learn how pencils are made at pencils.com. This site also has a host of pencil-related lesson plans to check out including history, drawing, math and recycling/art. Someone posted a Youtube video of themselves reading The Pencil. It was a bit shrieky in places for my taste, but you can "read" The Pencil here. The book is 48 pages long so the reading takes ten minutes. The Art of Education website has posted a video describing a simple art activity to do with this book (as well as two others). There is a flash video 2 minute interview of Allan Ahlberg by the BBC that I enjoyed tremendously. I think readers of all ages can enjoy taking a pencil and seeing where it takes them--would it be words? Images? A combination? Tell the pencil's story, then your own!

Thank you for stopping by! If you know these three books, do YOU have a favorite? Is there another you would add to the compare/contrast list?
I appreciate your comments. :)

We March - Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF

This book took my breath away. Genuine goosebump time. If you're looking for a book to go with Martin Luther King Day or any time during Black History month, look no further.

Title: WE MARCH

Author/Illustrator: Shane W. Evans
(note his website doesn't appear to have been updated since 2006.
He set up a separate website for a book project called Olu's Dream
 that he completed in 2009. We March is not on either website.)
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press, 2012 (MacMillan)
Historical FICTION

Audience: 4-7
Themes: Civil Rights, African Americans

Opening: "The morning is quiet."



Why don't I give you more text? Because, except for one, each of the spreads in this 32 page book has five or fewer words on it. If I typed the first fifty words, I'd be posting the entire text!

Synopsis: An un-named African American family (father, mother, boy and girl) wake, visit their church and head by bus to Washington, D.C. and march to the Lincoln Memorial. While his name isn't mentioned in the text, Martin Luther King, Jr. is clearly recognizable and a partial quote from his "I Have a Dream" speech fills the background of the final spread. The author's note at the end of the book indicates that the book was based on the historic 1963 march but meant to represent all the organized marches when people have walked together to focus attention on a goal.

What I like about this book: The spare text and the muted tones in the illustrations are the perfect accompaniment for the subject of peaceful demonstration. As the story progresses, hints of a golden sun glow in the background until finally the sun is revealed behind Dr. King. The short sentences propel the story forward with a quiet energy that pulled me into the story. This book makes the subject of civil rights accessible to even the youngest readers. My only issue with the book is that in the illustrations the parents are always organized father/son and mother/daughter. I'm not sure why it bothered me, and perhaps this is an accurate portrayal of family life in 1963, but the separation distracted me. It doesn't take away from the powerful message, however.


 Activities and Resources: There are no activity pages specific to this book, however the Southern Poverty Law Center has a civil rights activity book available for download courtesy of the Civil Rights Memorial Center. The University of Wisconsin also has an activity guide for kids on the topic of civil rights. I did feel that many of the activities were better for slightly older children than this book is targeted toward. There is an extensive amount of material available about African American history online and this post is obviously not meant to be exhaustive in this regard! The Family Education website has some civil rights figures coloring pages available for free download. Some of the other "free" sites asked for credit card information.
         The Horn Book published a very personal profile of Mr. Evans written by his childhood friend, the author of "Chocolate Me", actor Taye Diggs. The author describes his 2009 book Olu's Dream on Youtube. The publisher, MacMillan has a slide show of 8 spreads from the book available for view. The book is a great jumping off point for any project involving kids who want to oppose the status quo. Perhaps you can make signs and organize a march on a topic important to them.

This review is part of PPBF (perfect picture book Friday) where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's site. Along with tons of writing wisdom, she keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Reading!

Another Auld Lang Syne - Goal setting

No end in sight, it's all about the journey

     I'm not sure why New Year's has such significance. After all, the calendar is an artificial construct. I'm more than a little bit jealous of the folks in the Southern Hemisphere who get to celebrate in warm summer weather instead of bone-chilling temperatures. In fact, if anyone wants to petition our government to move the calendar back six months, I'd be all over it. It's as good as an idea as many of the other ones I see floated in DC.
     Regardless of the reason, it feels right to stop and mull over my goals occasionally and this is as good a time as any. 

     So what are my goals for 2014?
     1. Do my best. (stole this one from the Cub Scouts)
     2. Try to enjoy each moment (this one is from a life with dogs)
     3. When I fail at #1 or #2---let it go. Look to the future.
   
     So, that's it. I'm not setting a number of words to be written every day. I know from experience that the stuff I grind out isn't close to as good as the words that burst forth, clamoring for my attention, refusing to let me forget them. But I know that isn't going to happen every day and I'm not going to set myself up for failure. There's enough to feel bad about in the world without adding to it.
     This doesn't mean I'm not ambitious or competitive. Just talk to my kids after board game night.
     I just recognize that my ambitions aren't fully within my control. And who wants to "lose" at something they have no control over? Not me. So I have decided to keep goals and ambitions separate. 

  I would like to thank everyone who has ever critiqued my work for me. Every criticism has helped me improve. Every word of encouragement has helped me persevere. Every comment has let me know I'm not alone. It has all been much appreciated.

     I think I might use this goal list for every year going forward. Do you have any goals to share?

Embracing Kitchen Creativity

     I would like to say that every day is an explosion of new ideas at the keyboard.
     I would like to say that, but I can't. Some days it feels like the right ideas, or the words to express those ideas, are written in an ancient language that scholars have yet to translate. I know myself, and I know that sitting BIC isn't going to help. I need to do something else that will shift my mind into a different gear.
     Today, the "something else" was making cookies. The oven kept the kitchen toasty on a dreary almost- winter day. I am ready to go back to work. And my neighbors will have yummy holiday treats! I'd say this is a winning solution for everyone.

    
Wishing you all the best as 2013 draws to a close. I hope you can follow your own creative impulses wherever they take you.
    

Susanna Leonard Hill's 350-word holiday story challenge

     Story ideas are always popping into my head. I try to write them down, but sometimes the slips of paper get lost, put through the washer, buried under the papers on the embarrassment I call my desk. You get the idea.

     Still, I was surprised to realize that I hadn't written down a single idea that would fit the requirements for Susanna Hill's holiday story contest--a story under 350 words featuring a holiday mishap.
     When I saw down to brainstorm, I ended up with multiple ideas. Way too many ideas. Maybe this is the result of the creative juices generated during the month of November in Tara Lazar's PiBoIdMo? The problem was choosing which idea to run with.
     I hope you enjoy the story below. I'll be second guessing myself (maybe it should have been the
extremely short funny one about the mixed up deliveries!) It's all good. I know it got me in the holiday spirit! If you were expecting a Perfect Picture Book Friday post, Susanna has put that on hold until the New Year. Hope to see you then!


Joe's Merry Techmas   by Wendy Greenley 

      Joe dodged the busy workers. Sweeping up scraps of paper and ribbon wasn’t very exciting, but he was just a first-year elf in Santa’s workshop. With luck, someday he might be part of Santa’s toy-making team.
     “Ho, ho, ho!” Santa strode to his new computer control center. He had posted the gift list and wanted to make sure the elves checked it twice before they wrapped and labeled each present.
     By lunchtime on Christmas Eve the sleigh was halfway packed—ahead of schedule for once!
     Then with one clap of thunder-snow—Santa’s computer screen went blank. 
     No one knew which of the remaining gifts went to which child.
     “We can guess,” one elf suggested.
     “Ho, ho, whoa!” said Santa. “They’re all great gifts. But an easel won’t do if you want a catcher’s mitt.”
     “We still have their letters,” another elf pointed to the overflowing mail bags. 
     "Ho, ho, too slow!” There’s no time to read them again,” said Santa. “We need the list.”
     Santa called repairman after repairman. No one was at work on Christmas Eve.
     The toy-making elves tried to restart the computer. The screen flickered—then went blank again.
     “Can we postpone Christmas?” one elf asked.
     “Ho, Ho, NO!” said Santa. “Help me find a solution!”
     “Maybe I can help,” Joe piped up.
     “How could a first year-elf help?” the oldest elf asked.
     Joe shrugged. “The computer system went haywire while Rudolph and I were playing Candy Cane Crunch. I fooled around with it, and got it to work again.”
     “Ho, ho, give it a go!” said Santa.
     Joe’s fingers flew over the keys. The screen flickered again, and again—and finally came back on.
     “If I was you, I’d print a copy of that list,” said Joe.
     And so they did. Then they finished all the wrapping, labeling and packing.
     Christmas was back on schedule.
     “If I teach you about the computer, would you teach me toy-making?” said Joe.
     “Deal!” everyone chorused.
     “Ho, ho, ho, three cheers for Joe! Welcome to the team!” Santa shouted as he headed skyward.

THE END (343 words!)

     Everyone's stories for the contest will be linked to Susanna's blog (or posted in the comments). I haven't read any of them yet, but I'm sure I'll find some gems to enjoy!

Thank you, Tara Lazar

     If you write picture books and you don't know about Tara Lazar's PiBoIdMo, check it out here.
 

Open source image courtesy of PippaDust

       PiBoIdMo is just one example of the amazing kindness and generosity of the writing community. Tara could be holed up at home, working on her own manuscripts and enjoying the holiday season. Instead, Tara chooses to spend the month of November bringing inspiration and craft tips to other writers. By sharing daily posts from published picture book writers and illustrators on her blog, her followers get a glimpse into a variety of working methods. And the enthusiasm for the work is palpable and infectious.
        This was my second year participating in PiBoIdMo. I think I got even more out of it the second time around. And just a disclaimer: I didn't win any of the agent/editor/critique prizes last year, and Tara hasn't announced winners this year, so I'm not feeling any love that wasn't given to the whole group. It's all that good.
     I have been fortunate to meet Tara in person and share a "real" hug. This post, while a virtual hug, is no less heartfelt.
     Kidlit writers are a wonderful, welcoming group. And Tara is a gem among them.