Short and Sweet (mostly)

Selecting early-readers, chapter books or short novels for grades 2/3 to 5 can be tricky.  Varying reading abilities makes it challenging to find interesting stories that aren't too difficult or too easy to read.  Illustrations are good, but this group is moving out of picture books so you don’t want too many.  Lots of white space on each page and large text are also helpful for the novice reader. I'm big on humour, too.

Here’s a few of my current favs for early readers (grades 2/3 to 5) with varying difficulty of texts.

Lulu and the Brontosaurus AND Lulu Walks the Dogs by Judith Viorst

I love these books.  They are short and 

snappy with fantastic illustrations by Lane Smith.  Lulu is a pretty self-centred little girl who does learn (eventually -- and with some interesting experiences along the way) that being nicer to those around her (Mr. B, the Dogs, Fleischman) gets her more than being overly bossy and tyrannical. Great narrator, too.

Bad Kitty vs Uncle Murray: theUproar at the Front Door by Nick Bruel

I'm late to discover Bad Kitty but am glad I've found her. Lots of exaggerated circumstances cause Bad Kitty to become more and more nervous and frighten of goofy, well-meaning Uncle Murray.  His inexperience around cats means he’s not aware of her ‘tender’ feelings and hair trigger reaction time. The illustrations add a lot to the visual humour.

Stuart Goes to School by Sara Pennypacker

I’m a big fan of the Clementine books by this author (check out Clementine and the Family Meeting for a great intro to this clever little girl and her family) and hope Stuart’s story would be as good.  Stuart is a worry wart plain-and-simple.  Nothing is too big or small to cause Stuart to fret.  Add a magic cape and life of this grade 3 student gets really interesting. Though I thoroughly enjoyed this very short book for it’s hyperbole I found it a bit more ‘message-y’ than the Clementine books.  The slap stick humour will appeal to this grade level easily.

Have Fun Anna Hibiscus! by Atinuke

Though I really liked this one I do have one complaint.  “Anna Hibiscus lives in Africa. Amazing Africa.”  This is great.  This is fantastic but I can’t figure out why the Nigerian-born author didn't specify which country in Africa.  We don’t get a lot of books written about African characters by African writers and African countries have a tendency to be lumped together with little acknowledgement of the wide diversity on this continent. However, that being said the narrator’s voice, the plot (Anna travels to Canada to visit her maternal grandmother in the winter), and the descriptions of her African family are well done and draw us into Anna’s adventure. 

A few other honourable mentions are Sadie and Ratz by Sonta Hartnett, Say What? by Margaret Peterson Haddix and Fat Bat and Swoop by Leo Landry.  These certainly have elements I look for in early readers, but I found them a bit more message-y.  I think kids will find the premise and humour in each enjoyable, regardless.

How does your garden grow?

With gardens starting to stir in Calgary, PotatoesOn Rooftops: Farming in the City by Hadley Dyer is really timely.

This book is a pitch to persuade young people about the value and do-ability of ‘urban farming’.

It gives a brief overview of growing food in the city, historical initiatives during times of crisis such as World Wars I and II, global issues about food production, costs and inequities, optimizing space, community development and benefits such as better tasting food and good exercise.

There are lots of examples (both Canadian and American) of creative projects that are already underway, such as rooftop gardens, gardens underground, small-scale community plots on school grounds, left over bits of land close to urban infrastructure and greenhouses in locales with very limited growing seasons.

There is basic information about how to go about starting a garden on a windowsill, balcony or backyard, composting, or buying local produce.

There’s also lots of positive encouragement:

 “As you've seen, you can accomplish so much when you have an appetite for change.  And the more you do, the more you can do! Use your positive experiences to inspire other people, whether they’re your friends, classmates, neighbors, or city council.” (p.74)

Recommended for middle grades.

Today is Nonfiction Monday a round up of blogs about nonfiction children's literature.  Today's event is being host by Instantly Interruptible.

Confession time, or Am I a bad Canadian?

I hate to state with any sense of definitiveness that I think, spring has perhaps come to Calgary at long last, maybe.

This being the somewhat tentative case, I've started setting my reading goals for the summer and accumulating piles of books that I’d like to take a gander at in the next four months.  Four months sounds like a long time and I should be able to get through masses of them - which never seems to happen.

Anyway, besides the many newer titles I'm anxious to read (Liar & Spy, Lulu Walks the Dogs, Three Times Lucky, Close to Famous, Steampunk Poe, Piper of Shadonia, Following Christopher Creed, etc.  etc.  etc.  to name a few) I've also decide to work in a few classic kids titles that I've never read.

I'm doing well with having read Good night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian already.  A World War II story about the evacuation of children from London and the connection that develops between a withdrawn, grumpy old man and an abused boy.  A little sappy but I really enjoyed this one.

Second, I'm listening to I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.  This one was recommended by Janet (guest blogger here) as we both read The Montmaray trilogy.  Janet saw lots of parallels between the books and I so enjoyed the trilogy that I decided to look this one up.

And third is Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  I know. I know.  How remiss.  Does it make me a bad Canadian not to have read this one?  I'm looking to address my oversight and try not to envision Megan Follows (actress who played Anne in the 1980s series) as Anne.

A modest goal I admit but there really is so much else to get caught up on…sigh…

The book lover's lament: too many books, not enough waking hours.

What are some of your summer reading picks or goals?  I would love to hear some of your recommendations, too.

Part 4 – Book apps written only for the iPad – Or – Is it a good book just because it is an app?

Guest blogger - Janet Hutchinson

Janet has recently taken on learning about instructional technologies for the classroom.  Part of her time has been learning about iPads, their usefulness as a classroom tool and related apps.  We've gotten into a few discussions about some of the questions that arise when looking at some of these 'educational tools.'  Do these apps add anything to the reading experience?  Are they educational, entertaining, distracting or altogether off-putting? Do they replace the physical book?  What is lost without the physical book if anything? and so on.   

It will be interesting to see how this particular area of digital-only books develops.

The 4^th type of app that I have been looking at is those books that are written only digitally and only as apps.  In other words, there is no hard cover book that can be bought to go with it. I can’t help wondering if this is the digital version of self-publishing (if such a thing would exist) and so I naturally wonder about the quality of books written as such and how they stand up to a more critical eye than mine.  I appreciate that publishers are going to create in what they perceive as the ‘go-to’ medium – and that there are authors for whom the drawing together of words and images in a digital format holds great appeal. I guess part of my struggle with this is the fact that where you can go to a bookstore and leaf through a physical book to survey and preview the content before plunking down your credit card – that’s not a choice (for the most part) with an app. You only get to see once you have paid. Granted, it is usually quite a bit less than what one would pay for a hardcopy picture book – and usually, even less than a trade paperback, but when you can’t preview, how do you know that the story is appropriate for the person you are buying it for? (And I won’t even go to the fact that you cannot lend these books, unless you lend the device.)

I have added only one of these books to our app collection so far. I say one for two reasons – the story description of the one I added intrigued me. And only one because I have yet to read a journal review or on-line review for any others that speak strongly enough to me that I want to purchase them sight unseen.

The one that I added is by Slap Happy Larry, a company that makes apps for touch screen Apple devices. This appears to be the first book app that they have released and it is called The Artifacts. Their press release identifies the book as one intended for “middle-grade” readers – their expressed point is that there is no need to abandon picture books, once a child has moved to chapter book reading. Picture books enhance and develop visual literacy and one could argue that this skill is one that will be heavily used as the digital medium grows and changes.

The Artifacts tells the story of a young boy who collects things – all sorts of things, from treasured antiques to stuff that others throw away. His family “does not appreciate his passions.” One day, while he is out, his parents get rid of his treasures. They move to a new house, where he is instructed not to have any more collections. So Asaf becomes a collector of thoughts, sounds smells and ideas, until, one day, he leaves home, with “two small suitcases and one large mind”.

This is a beautifully enriched app in very many ways. The drawings are well done, the add-ins are really neat and the transition from page to page is intuitive. It feels like the message is intended for older children, and parts of the book are dark and just a little creepy (not that little kids don’t like that) – but the format feels more child-like. It is a strong message to absorb, however, and I would be interested in seeing it in use with a class of students (both early grades and older) to more thoroughly understand its appeal.  It also took me several read-throughs to realize that as you touched the walls, floors, sidewalks etc. on each page, objects relevant to the story and the message appeared.  And maybe this is one of the differences between being a digital immigrant and a digital native. If this was the medium that I used to read all the time, then perhaps the appearance of the objects and the movement throughout the story would be a natural expectation for any book and I would know enough to explore the entire app more thoroughly. 

I am interested in looking at Slap Happy’s next production Midnight Feast – in part, to see how the story unfolds digitally, but to also see what age group they direct it to. In the meantime, I would be interested in hearing about other picture books translated into the iPad medium or written expressly for the iPad. If this is truly the way books are going, then I need to immerse myself in the medium and figure out what works – and what is better left in a physical format.

Hip Hip Hooray! I'm away...

Hello All.

Yup.  You know the University's academic school year is pretty well done when I take a little R'N'R in April.

I'll be away for a couple of weeks to warm, green Hawaii where there is no snow except on Mauna Kea which not on this year's itinerary.

Down time means reading time and I've downloaded a multitude of mysteries and a bunch of  middle grade and YA titles onto my e-reader.

Here are a few of the titles I'm most looking forward to:

Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz
The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman
Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead
The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y.S. Lee

I've got Son by Lois Lowry and I Captured the Castle by Dodie Smith download onto my MP3 player to keep me occupied on the plane trip, as well.

I'm all set.  See you in May.
Tammy

Non-fiction. Where apps really shine -- Part 3.

Guest blogger - Janet Hutchinson

Janet has recently taken on learning about instructional technologies for the classroom.  Part of her time has been learning about iPads, their usefulness as a classroom tool and related apps.  We've gotten into a few discussions about some of the questions that arise when looking at some of these 'educational tools.'  Do these apps add anything to the reading experience?  Are they educational, entertaining, distracting or altogether off-putting? Do they replace the physical book?  What is lost without the physical book if anything? and so on.   

The two nonfiction books that are recommended below have a lot of classroom potential in my opinion and I will be including them in future workshops.

My third foray into book apps was in the non-fiction area. This is an area where it is just as easy to find apps that shine, as it is ones that flop. I am going to talk about two excellent examples of books made into apps.

I bought the app Fragile Earth, in part because we had the hard copy in the Doucette and in part because I saw it reviewed positively (don’t ask me where – I have 29 sites book marked for app reviews). The book presents Before and After pictures – generally highlighting environmental degradation, mostly as a result of human intrusion and climate changes, but also the impact that Mother Nature has on the world. As well, each picture is accompanied by a description of what is being seen in the before and after pictures.

The app itself does not exactly mirror the book – where the book presents 9 themes, the app presents 6 - Man’s Impact, Deserts and Droughts, Natural Phenomena, Warming World, Water’s Power and Wild Weather. However, each picture comes with a unique slider feature. The information about each picture is contained in a “pop-up” at the bottom. Once you make that disappear, then there is a slider, which can be moved across the picture to present before and after pictures – some with a great range of years (1900 – 2008, Rhone Glacier in the Theme Warming World Views), some just a few years apart (2008, 2009 Tidal problems, Venice, Italy) and the before and after in Natural Phenomena (Christchurch New Zealand, 2011 – before and after the earthquake). This app sends a very clear message about the impact of humans and nature on our earth. The part I really like about this app is that as new pictures become available, so too does the app update. Since I bought the app, it has updated to include (for example) two new pictures in Man’s Impact – the chemical spill in Devercser, Hungary and Air pollution at the National Stadium in Beijing, China (where the 2008 Olympics were held). The app then stays a current tool, rather than having to buy a revised copy of the book.

The only criticism that I have with the app is that in the book, each chapter opens with a general explanation of each theme. So for example, in the Theme in the book “Rising sea level” the reader gets a general explanation of why the levels are rising, and graphs that show the trends and where the major threats are, world-wide. This background information is support for the pictures themselves and it would have been nice to have had that general overview before each theme in the app.

The second book app that I bought came about as a result of a Tedtalk featuring Mike Matas from Push Pop Press showing the digital book Our choice by Al Gore. This book is a beautifully interactive book that incorporates all the features of a hardcopy book, but with options that turn it into a beautiful and truly interactive book. Would you believe one of the diagrams shows wind energy storage and use when you blow into the microphone on the iPad? The text pops out to full screen size, but can shrink again to the bottom of the screen so that you can scroll through to another part of the chapter or book. Individual graphs can be moved to full size and then other graphs can be viewed from that graph. Clicking on a globe embedded in each picture will show you where in the world the picture was taken. Many of the pictures link to videos and background narration on the content of each picture, so that you have additional information to incorporate. Unfortunately, this may be the only book that appears using this software. Push Pop Press has been acquired by Facebook – so look for the same level of interactivity on your Facebook page….coming soon.

Part 4  - Book apps written only for the iPad. Or is it a good book just because it is an app?

What if …

I love books that show me alternative perspectives, whether they come from history, from non-North American, or European viewpoints, alternate or parallel histories, are stories told from multiple perspectives, or stories with a twist.

So, OK, I've got a good one for you. 

What if Superman had landed in the USSR and not the good old USA, raised by good people from the Soviet farmlands and came into his powers at the height of the cold war?

Mind boggling, isn't it?

This is exactly the premise of Superman:Red Son by Mark Millar (and gang), a student recommendation that I'm glad I followed up on.

Superman is still portrayed as looking out for vulnerable humans, but eventually, after reluctantly taking on the mantle of President following Stalin’s death, he also has the capacity to enact laws that restrict humans so that they stay ‘safe’.  This raises some interesting questions. How far do we go to keep people safe?  What is the role of government with this question in mind?  How do political philosophies play out in reality?  Does power corrupt?

Other characters from the Man of Steel storyline also get alternative stories.  Lois Lane is a journalist, but is married to Lex Luther, a ‘concerned’ genius who thinks Superman is the corrupt force.  The United States is a ‘hold-out’ country on the verge collapse as it tries to resist Superman’s ‘the best way of living is the safest way which is my way.’  Batman is brought into the storyline too, as a rebel agent looking to take on the Communist regime, the political force that was responsible for the death of his parents.  Wonder Woman is Superman’s ally and unrequited love interest.

The production of the book is fantastic as are most DC Comics. Glossy pages and terrific illustrations with lots of iconic Soviet propaganda-like art work, are a treat to read.

I'd recommend this for grades 9/10 and up.