Heave Ho ! Heinz Janisch

A wonderful picture book - concise, clever, and - as proclaimed on the opening page "This story is told in twelve sentences. Start counting now." The text continues "In the first sentence, a cat runs into the story..." and so it goes as the cat, a dog and three mice co-operate to achieve their goal.
A quirky book which illustrates perfectly the power of picture books with a dozen simple sentences to tell a great story... and maybe a useful writing framework for students' own storytelling?

Available to borrow from National Library.

Picture books

A sad little piece from the NY Times about languishing picture book publishing and sales, and the pressure some parents feel to rush through picture books to get to the chapter book fiction and the "real reading" including this sorry tale :

"Some parents say they just want to advance their children’s skills. Amanda Gignac, a stay-at-home mother in San Antonio who writes The Zen Leaf, a book blog, said her youngest son, Laurence, started reading chapter books when he was 4. Now Laurence is 6 ½, and while he regularly tackles 80-page chapter books, he is still a “reluctant reader,” Ms. Gignac said. Sometimes, she said, he tries to go back to picture books. “He would still read picture books now if we let him, because he doesn’t want to work to read,” she said, adding that she and her husband have kept him reading chapter books."

Oh, dear.

The Shadow by Donna Diamond

There is a new wordless sophisticated picture book in the National Library collection - The Shadow by Donna Diamond, a US author /illustrator.

I haven't seen it yet but read Barbara Murison's review in the latest Around the Bookshops (November 2010 page 10) which ends "It is the most frightening picture book aimed at young readers I have seen. An adult needs to be close by or at least aware the book is being looked at."
Those are strong words from the very knowledgeable Barbara, and I checked out a couple of other reviews and found similar reservations...

School Library Journal says "...In the final spread, the little girl is asleep in bed, and seemingly all is well. That is, until readers turn to the last page, where the menacing shadow is seen, eyes aglow as in a Halloween mask, hiding under the bed. The menace remains present, and readers are left fearing for the girl's safety. The dark intensity of the art and the unresolved ending make this a book for children old enough to understand that this story is not to be taken literally. This is a great example of mood in a picture book, but it is not for storytime..."

and here is a review from The Book Aunt http://bookaunt.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-of-shadow-by-donna-diamond.html who makes a link with the trickle-down effect from Twilight et al... "I've been watching with interest the rise of the paranormal in YA and its trickle down into middle grade fiction and picture books..." I enjoy this blogger's reviews, and she has a great list of children's and YA blogs in her "Blogville" list.

I think this book sounds sinister, and could be unwittingly picked up by younger children who will follow the pictures to their unresolved and disquieting ending...

Online storytime Where the wild things are

This month's Barnes and Noble Online Storytime
is Maurice Sendak reading Where The Wild Things Are
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/storytime/index.asp  

The Fierce Little Woman and the Wicked Pirate

It was going to be hard to match the original version of this story published in 1984 by Shortland Educational Publications with delightful illustrations by Jo Davies capturing the spirit of the story so perfectly, but Gecko Press have done it, with a new edition of Joy Cowley's story illustrated by Sarah Davis. As the author herself says "I’m in love with this book! Everything about it is utterly beautiful: the design, the colours, the characters... [Illustrator Sarah Davis] has turned it into a classic that people will hug for generations."

Here is a link to Joy's website, with various resources for getting to know Joy - her books and her life, and this page has some useful tips for "Getting young authors started" http://www.joycowley.com/stories.shtml

The artist, Sarah Davis is a New Zealander, now resident in Sydney, and here is a link to her website and her blog called Pseudoarmadillo, a Links page with various connections to "internet goodness" and a few pictures from her Sketchbook.

Teach with picture books blog

Here is a blog about teaching with picture books - full of ideas, enthusiasm, links, and books books books http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/

It is one of three blogs by Keith Schoch "a veteran professional educator". He shares his thoughts and expertise with colleagues through : Teaching that Sticks, Teach with Picture Books, and How to Teach a Novel.

Here is his link to Ways to share picture books for those who are unsure, especially with older children... http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/ways-to-share-picture-books.html

He also started a wiki about focused reading skills with picture book titles added by wiki readers http://atn-reading-lists.wikispaces.com/Focused+Reading+Skills

and here is his list of publishers which "back up their titles with solid, easily accessible teaching resources. With that in mind, I've listed some publishers which I feel really "knock it out of the park" with their online resources for teachers."
Part 1 : http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/2009/12/free-teachers-resources-from-childrens.html
Part 2: http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/2009/12/more-free-resources-from-childrens.html
and more...

Mirror : Jeannie Baker's new picture book

This innovative and effective new picture book by Jeannie Baker is a work of art - clever, simple, powerful, gentle... The covers open to reveal two books, the English on the left, the Arabic on the right, which you can read simultaneously to reveal the parallel stories of two boys - one in inner city Sydney and one in a small, remote village in Morocco, North Africa, and how their lives are different, how they are the same...



Here is a link to Jeannie Baker's own website http://www.jeanniebaker.com/ which says about Mirror
"These worlds couldn’t be further apart, yet with the showing of the parallel lives of the two families, we see a simple truth. We see that in the context of strikingly different lifestyles, remotely different countries, landscapes, differences of clothing and all. The families are essentially the same. They care for each other, they need to belong, to be loved by their loved ones and be a part of their community. The simple truth is that even with all these differences we are all the same. We are the mirror of each other."

The Walker Books website has a fantastic Classroom Ideas kit for teachers about using this book : http://www.walkerbooks.com.au/statics/dyn/1278035825169/Mirror-Classroom-Ideas.pdf
This resource was put together by Jeannie Baker and the Western Sydney Young People’s Literature Project and is a treasure trove of ideas and inspiration for ways to use Mirror with students to generate thoughtful responses, discussion, activity and understanding...

And if you are lucky enough to be travelling to Sydney in the next month, there is an exhibtion of the art work at the Museum of Sydney on until 10th October.
http://www.hht.net.au/whats_on/exhibitions/exhibitions/mirror_by_jeannie_baker

Mirror - by Jeannie Baker ISBN 9781406309140 Walker Books, August 2010
A must-buy for all school libraries.

Visual thinking strategies, art and picture books

There are a couple of interesting articles on the School Library Journal website about encouraging children to look at and appreciate the art in picture books, based on workshops run at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art www.carlemuseum.org

Part 1 - If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a picture book museum worth? By Wendy Lukehart -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2010 http://tiny.cc/artinpicturebookspart1

Part 2 - How do a museum’s philosophies work in a public library setting? By Wendy Lukehart -- School Library Journal, 2/1/2010 http://tiny.cc/artinpicturebookspart2

Here are a couple of short extracts from the articles :

Thumbnail Sketch of Visual Thinking Strategies VTS - from Part 1 article

The leader invites the group to take a few moments to look closely at an image and then asks these, and only these, open-ended questions:

• What’s going on in this picture?
• What do you see that makes you say that?
• What else can you find?

The leader continually paraphrases student responses, all the while increasing the accuracy of the language without making participants feel corrected, validating individual views, connecting observations, and pointing out differences of opinion.
Participants must provide visual evidence to support their interpretations.

VTS is both the name of a curriculum and a framework for looking at a single image. For much more see: www.vtshome.org To see a short video of children engaged with VTS, click on: www.vtshome.org/pages/videos

Whole Book Approach Guide - from Part 2 article

Spend time with the book before sharing it with a group ; consider how each element contributes to meaning. Use these questions as a guide to draw attention to aspects of the design and illustration that are noteworthy.

• Jacket: Think of the jacket as a poster for the book and use VTS questions. (See Part 1 of this series)
  
• Spine: Does the jacket image wrap around the spine? Consider the lettering.
  
• Cover: Is it cloth bound? Embossed? What are the colors? Why?
  
• Format: Portrait? Landscape? Square? Shaped? Why?
  
• Endpapers: How are they the visual overture for the art in the book?
  
• Front Matter: How do these pages ease you into the book?
  
• Gutter: How does the artist accommodate or use the gutter between the verso and recto pages?
  
• Typography: How are all elements of the book proper arranged on the facing pages? Consider the absence or presence of frames, the use and pacing of double and single spreads, font choices, placement of text and pictures, etc.
  
• Medium and Style: How does the artist’s choice and use of medium(s) suit the story? How does the medium generate attention to artistic elements (color, line, shape, etc.) and principles?
  

The following link offers an edited WBA reading led by Megan Lambert at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art: www.picturebookart.org/Noggin2

Teach with picture books

I've just come across another really useful blog called Teach with Picture Books by Keith Schoch http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/

"The main purpose of this site is to help teachers and homeschooling parents in grades 3-8 use picture books to enhance their instruction. If you'd like to know the reasons why you should be using picture books in your classroom, visit the sister site called Teaching with Picture Books Across the Middle Grades."

The Tuesday 2 March 2010 post describes Ten Not-to-Be-Missed Picture Book Reference Sites Check it out - it will lead you from one wonderful resource to another.

I also liked this post with suggestions for ways to share picture books (with upper primary / intermediate age students) http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/ways-to-share-picture-books.html

This is his related wiki which includes "focused reading skills" which is being developed collaboratively... http://atn-reading-lists.wikispaces.com/Focused+Reading+Skills

"Picture book of the day" blog

I've just come across this blog which may be of interest - Anastasia Suen’s Picture Book of the Day blog at http://picturebookday.wordpress.com/

This blog recommends a picture book each day of the week (some days have a special focus eg Non-fiction Monday, Poetry Friday) with a 1 or 2 line plot summary, a short quote from the text (in italics), and a suggested writing activity for one of the six traits of writing

The six traits of writing were identified in the 1980s as a way to help young writers look at their own writing. They are

1. Ideas
2. Organization
3. Voice
4. Word Choice
5. Sentence Fluency
6. Conventions

The books featured in Anastasia Suen's blog are American, but many are available from National Library and may trigger ideas for similar books / activities.


Here is a link http://educationnorthwest.org/resource/503 to more information about the 6 Traits which has been expanded to now include a 7th - presentation...

The 6+1 Trait® Writing analytical model for assessing and teaching writing is made up of 6+1 key qualities that define strong writing. These are:

• Ideas, the main message;
• Organization, the internal structure of the piece;
• Voice, the personal tone and flavor of the author's message;
• Word Choice, the vocabulary a writer chooses to convey meaning;
• Sentence Fluency, the rhythm and flow of the language;
• Conventions, the mechanical correctness;
• and Presentation, how the writing actually looks on the page.

Michael Rosen and the Patrick Hardy Lecture

The wonderful author and poet Michael Rosen was Britain's Children's Laureate in 2008 /9. Here is the link to his website for the full text of his Patrick Hardy lecture - http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/patrickhardy.html and there are other gems there too so it is worth exploring.

His Patrick Hardy Lecture talks about the relationship between education and books, a checklist of questions and suggestions about a school's "book culture", and a paean to the picture book and all that it offers to mind and ear and eye... "This is not just a matter of how we read, it’s why we read."

Here is an extract from the Lecture (slightly edited) :

So I’ve become more and more interested in looking at how schools do or don’t help create this book-loving culture. Here’s my checklist of questions to ask of a school, to see if it really is serious about books.

1. Does the school have in place any kind of home-school liaison where someone talks with individual parents about specific books, libraries, book departments, magazines, book clubs, book shows, that might interest this specific child and his or her carers?
   
2. Does the school hold book events all year round with writers, illustrators, story-tellers, librarians, book enthusiasts coming in and talking and performing for the children and parents?
3. Does the school not only invite in a syndicated book fair but also invites in local bookshops, specialist bookshops and has books available for borrowing or buying to support the visiting writers, speakers, performers and story-tellers?
4. Is there someone in the school trained and interested in running the school library and who is on hand to give advice to every teacher to help them with their class libraries?
5. Does the school run book clubs for teachers, parents and children?
6. Does the school give every parent information – perhaps in the form of an attractive pack – on the local library, the local bookshop? Does the school take children and parents to these venues?
7. Do the school and individual classes adopt an author or illustrator for the week, or month or term and investigate, explore and do creative work around that author and illustrator?
8. Do the children make books of their own? Are these readily available for everyone in the school and parents too? Does the school encourage parents to come in and make books with the children? Does the school celebrate and cherish these books as much as it celebrates its most important activities?
9. Does the school encourage children to pass books between each other by means of book swaps, prominently displayed reviews, assembly presentation of ‘this week’s good read’, book posters and the like?
10. Does the school seize every possible moment - eg visits to museums, visits from specialists of any kind, school trips – to support these events and activities with books, eliciting from all and sundry what their favourite books are or were when they were children?
11. Are there regular whole school projects (like, say Black History Month, or ‘The Sea’) where a topic or theme can be supported by books of all kinds, all genres and all ages? Is the school on these occasions inundated with books?
12. Are assemblies and classrooms frequently a place when children are encouraged to become fascinated by something – anything! – to do with a book or what’s in a book?
13. Are the head’s study and teachers’ desks places where special, intriguing, exciting, ever-changing, odd, old, weird books lurk?
14. Does the school keep and use book reviews of children’s books from Books for Keeps, Carousel, Times Educational Supplement, Child and Junior Education, The School Librarian, the broadsheet review pages and the internet?
15. Is there at least one time every week where children will have nothing else to do with a book other than to read it, listen to it, and chat about it in an open-ended way?

This series of points should not be a utopian wish-list. It should be addressed with exactly - yes, exactly – the same urgency and attention to detail that the whole panoply of reading strategies is given. For every sounding out of ‘per’ and ‘ther’ there is an equivalent attention to detail that can be given to any of these fifteen points.

And the obvious, mind-blowingly simple fact stares us in the face: in the very area where the book-loving culture begins, nursery, reception, years 1 and 2, there is, if you like, a world class range of ‘materials’ (!). No, I’m not referring to the Oxford Reading Tree or the Jolly Phonics books or any all-in-one, solve-all literacy pack. I’m talking about - the picture book.

There it sits like some massive inflorescence, budding and flowering and reproducing in all its delightful, complex and beautiful ways, all freighted with the same impulse – how to please, intrigue, and amuse young children and their carers and teachers. When we look at who makes these books, we are talking here about some of the best people to go through art school, some of the funniest, cleverest, most thoughtful people we have and I’m talking here about the whole team – whoever it is who makes up the words, makes the pictures, designs the books, edits, publishes and prints it.

They produce what is a complex art form, that passes on its meanings, makes its suggestions in ways that call on readers to make many, many creative leaps, many, many investigations, many, many connections between parts of pages, different pages, forwards and backwards through the book.

And it does this inviting, in many different ways: visually, orally, textually and in any combinations of all three. Eye and ear are constantly challenged to look and listen here, there and everywhere. The narrative, is in truth a multi-narrative: one moment told in words, next in pictures, simultaneously in both, sometimes complementing each other, sometimes in contrast with each other, sometimes, even in contradiction with each other. There are often more and more details to be found, there are rhythms to be remembered and re-found, there are shapes, patterns, tones, visual rhythms and compositions to be made sense of.

The strategies that we all adopt as older children and as adults in order to read, stick with and unlock stories are all to be found in picture books: plot and sub-plot, goodies and baddies, mysteries to be uncovered and guessed about, heroes on quests, heroes being tested, loss, compassion, achievement, solidarity, pain, intrigue, subversion, scheming, psychologising, resolution and much more.

What’s more, these books address a complex, multi-faceted audience. Picture books are not solely for or about children. They are artistic interventions into the many different kinds of relationships between children and adults. The reading-situation itself is nearly always one shared by at least one carer and at least one child, or at least one teacher and, nearly always, several children. The books are both for and about these relationships. In the books, parents comfort their children, or get the wrong end of the stick or are indifferent. Surrogate children in the form of animals and soft toys get lost or face tremendous ordeals. These open up moments of talk between adults and children as the book is read on many disparate occasions afterwards. How many times have I been asked by parents who’ve been asked by children, is there a mummy in ‘We’re Going On A Bear Hunt’? Is that larger female figure a mummy or an older sister? Is the bear sad? Did he just want to play? These are the brilliant gaps left by Helen Oxenbury (nothing to do with me, I hasten to add), where talk between children and adults arises spontaneously. And these are serious questions from the child, and of course, about that child itself. The child who asks about the missing mummy is a child, who like all of us, wondered what life would be like without mummy. The child who asks, ‘Is the bear sad,?’ ‘Did he just want to play?’ is the child who at one time wanted to play or join in and couldn’t and was left out.

Meanwhile, adults who, as they read these books with their children, wonder about their own childhoods and wonder about their own parenting, caring and teaching. If you’ve ever been a carer of any kind, it’s impossible to read ‘Not Now Bernard’ without knowing that you’ve been a not-now-Bernard person. It does the work of a hundred guides on parenting, a hundred TV programmes on why you are an inadequate parent. ‘Peepo’ is not just a book. It’s a game and, if this doesn’t sound too dull – it’s not meant to! – it’s a social document. There are a hundred details of the way people used to lead their lives, and any number of unquantifiable feelings attached to those people and objects. This is the stuff that history books leaves out: what it felt like to look in a mirror at the moment that a family faced up to the fact that the man was going off to war. Imagine a whole school project on, let’s say, how we used to live, or World War Two. As the school gears up for visits to the local museum, visits by old people, children go home to quiz their grandparents, a host of books come into the school from Nina Bawden’s ‘Carrie’s War’, through Michael Forman’s ‘War Boy’, archives from the local library or town hall, so ‘Peepo’ can take its place amongst it all. Perhaps the year 1 children will perform it, which will be videoed and there’ll be copies of the book for them to buy so that they never need forget what it felt like to look through those holes and find the next picture. Grandparents can say how they remember their parents talking about bomb shelters and rationing...You would be hard pushed to find any other artistic form that has the power and potential to help create conversations like this.

This is something far too valuable to be let to go into decline or restricted to privileged reading situations.

All this is a what I’ll call the ‘literacy of literature’ not the ‘literacy’, per se. This is not just a matter of how we read, it’s why we read.

I suggest that the question, - why we read – should be addressed with just as much attention as schools are giving to the question of how we learn to read.

And so to point 16: I don’t think any meeting held by teachers to help parents understand what literacy is, should ever be without the presence in the room and the time to look at them, of such books as Trish Cooke’s and Helen Oxenbury’s ‘So Much’, Tony Ross’s ‘I Want My Potty’, Shirley Hughes’s ‘Dogger’, books by Anthony Browne, Penny Dunbar, Michael Foreman, Mick Inkpen, Lauren Child, Quentin Blake, Colin MacNaughton, Emma Chichester Clark and many, many more – apologies to those I’ve not mentioned.

17. There should be Beano annuals and football programmes open at the Junior Supporters pages, there should be books that tie in with TV shows and films.

18. Teachers could and should wrap up a meeting with parents with a read-aloud session, say, of a Julia Donaldson/Axel Scheffler masterpiece, with compulsory joining in!

19. Parents and grandparents should be encouraged to bring in and show off the books and magazines, no matter how humble, that they’ve kept since their childhoods.

Go to Michael's website to read the whole talk from this passionate advocate for children's books and reading. This "book culture" is what was missing from the ERO report on reading in Years 1 and 2... see earlier post in this blog...