Nonfiction Monday: Two Tales of Ben

Now and Ben: The Modern Inventions for Benjamin Franklin
Written and illustrated by Gene Barretta
Henry Holt, 2006





How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning
Written and illustrated by Rosalyn Schanzer
Harper Collins, 2003


Recently I wrote about another book I used in my electricity unit in fourth grade science. In Virginia, fourth graders have to know about Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Michael Faraday and their contributions to electricity. I have been using Schanzer’s book for a few years, but this year I discovered a new book about Ben Franklin.

Both of these books cover what my students really have to know: 1) that Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning was really electricity in his kite experiment, and 2) that he invented the lightning rod which protected buildings from damage and fires from lightning.

Now and Ben talks about how things we use today are things that Ben Franklin invented. So many things we use today began with Ben. Barretta sets up the book by saying “Now…” (insert one of the inventions we use today) and “Ben” (insert how Ben Franklin created this). The text is simple and short, but still goes through many of the inventions and contributions that we know Franklin for.

How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning actually covers some of the same material, but it spends a little more time on Franklin and his experiments with electricity. Schanzer goes into detail about the kite experiment, the lightning rod, but also the way that people used to perform electrifying tricks—actually shocking people.

Both books are very light in tone. They are humorous to read and are nothing like reading a textbook. They present the information in a very interesting way.

This would be another great pair of books to use with kids to do “Text-to-Text Connections.”

Nonfiction Monday roundup is over at Anastasia Suen's Picture Book of the Day.

Poetry Friday: Boshblobberbosh

Boshblobberbosh: Runcible Poems for Edward Lear
By J. Patrick Lewis
Illustrated by Gary Kelley
Harcourt, 1998

I have recently begun a fascination with Edward Lear since I was trying to teach my students about limericks. I stumbled across this picture book biography of sorts by J. Patrick Lewis. The story is told in poems as a tribute to Mr. Lear. Lewis includes an author’s notes with a few facts about Lear’s life. Then in the back of the books there are notes on each poem and how it relates to something in Lear’s life. And yes, Lewis includes a few limericks himself.

The one I will share today is “A Day in the Life”. It has a companion poem “A Night in the Life” in the book.

A Day in the Life…

Mr. Lear
Wakes at ten
Walks six miles
Paints a glen
Points his cat
Home again

Picks an olive
Plucks a flower
Takes a bath
By thundershower
Hears the cuckoo
Cluck the hour

So at four
Sips his tea
Takes a nap
Later
he
Tickles high
Society

Pats his bed
Snuggles in
Opens
mail
With a grin
Reads a book
By Tennyson

Lays it down
Wonders long
Understands
What is wrong
Hums a little
Silly
song

Hums a little
Silly song
Hums a little
Silly…

Sadly, this book is out of print, but I found it at my local library.

Poetry Friday roundup is at Big A Little a

Poetry Friday: Jesse Owens, Fastest Man Alive

Jesse Owens: Fastest Man Alive
By Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by Eric Velasquez

I recently got to meet Carole Boston Weatherford at the VSRA conference. I really enjoyed hearing the stories behind many of her books. One of my favorite genres is picture book biographies. And I really enjoy poetry. Weatherford has composed all three into one book.

Each poem in this book tells the story of Jesse Owens. It doesn’t begin with his childhood, but it does give us a glimpse into where he was from. Jesse Owens was a track and field star during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, at a time when Hitler was the dictator of Germany. Jesse Owens crushed Hitler’s expectations of the Germans sweeping the Olympic medals. Weatherford gives some historical background in her author’s note.

Here is one of Weatherford’s poems about the day Jesse Owens received his fourth gold medal.

Medal #4: The 400-Meter Relay

With three gold medals,
you could rest on your records,
but the Germans have saved
their fastest for last.
Your coaches need
a secret weapon—
you.

You run the first leg of the relay,
passing the baton and the lead
to the next runner.
By the finish line, the race
and your fourth medal are won.
Who’d have thought
that a sharecropper’s son,
the grandson of slaves,
would crush Hitler’s pride?
Who knew that you would trample
German might like a clod of dirt
in a field of glory?
Who’d have thought your star
would burn so bright?

This week's Poetry Friday roundup is at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Nonfiction Monday: Dolley Madison Saves George Washington

Dolley Madison Saves George Washington
By Don Brown
Houghton Mifflin, 2007

I love picture book biographies. I especially love picture book biographies that don’t follow the traditional biography route. In other words, they don’t tell about the person from birth to death, but rather pick one or two really interesting moments of that person’s life and share that in a picture book. Not that I have anything against the traditional biography. It is one of my favorite genres, but I think picture book biographies make kids really think. They “explode a moment” in Barry Lane’s terms.

This book is no exception. The title alone makes the reader wonder how Dolley Madison, a first lady, save our first president. Why, she saved his portrait of course! Don Brown tells about what most people think of when they hear Dolley Madison’s name: “Everybody talked about Dolley Madison. They talked about her charm and grace. They talked about her beauty, her stunning gowns, and her delightful banquets.” (1). But Don Brown shows what a strong lady Dolley Madison was.

During the War of 1812, when the British were burning Washington, Dolley Madison wasn’t the first person to leave. Instead she stayed behind and ordered that the portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart be saved. The portrait and the historical significance are pointed out in the text. So George Washington WAS saved by Mrs. Madison and returned to the White House years later, where it still hangs.

If you are a history buff, or just love a good picture book biography, you’ll love this book.

Nonfiction Monday: Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman: Words for America
by Barbara Kerley
illustrated by Brian Selznick
Scholastic Press, 2004



This picture book biography take the best of two things: Kerley's poetic prose that describes Walt Whitman and Selznick's illustrations that illuminate the time period and people.



Walt Whitman wasn't just a famous poet we know about today, but a kind, giving man who loved words and people. He worked for a newspaper and even began his own paper. He loved American, but was heartbroken when the Civil War broke out and tore apart the nation. He spend years with the dying and injured soldiers, trying to give them some last comfort. He cared less about himself and more about the boys who had given so much for their country.



But Walt also loved America, and his poetry reflected that love of his country. This book tells who Walt Whitman was as a person, not just as a poet. But the background that Kerley gives paints a picture of how Whitman's love of country so influenced his poetry.



The back of the book includes an author's note, illustrator's note, information about Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln, and reprints several of his Whitman's poems.

Hans Christian Andersen, An Introduction

Over the next few days, I'll be focusing on retellings of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Princess and the Pea". But before I begin that, I wanted to highlight a fantastic picture book biography of Hans Christian Andersen.

The Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Andersen
By Jane Yolen (her website has a new look)
Illustrated by Dennis Nolan
Dutton, 2004

I love picture book biographies. I especially love them when the read like picture books, but they still get to the heart of the person like a biography. This book, under Jane Yolen’s amazing hand, does both. Yolen gives just the right amount of information about Andersen’s life. Because so many of Andersen’s fairy tales are interwoven with autobiographical details, Yolen includes quotes from various tales throughout the story, weaving them in as they apply to the facts about his life.

Some interesting facts I learned about Andersen:
He almost got kicked out of school for writing so much. He was writing so obsessively that it got in the way of his schoolwork.

His first book was such a failure that it was used as wrapping paper for cheese.

Look how well known he became despite his failures and shortcomings!

Remembering Lady Bird

Lady Bird Johnson died today at age 94. In her memory, I recommend Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America by Kathi Appelt. This picture book biography reveals that Lady Bird is the reason we have wildflowers planted along our interstates. She gave beauty to our country through her love of flowers.

Cynsations did an interview with Kathi Appelt here.

Poetry Friday--Pablo Neruda

I first became really interested in Pablo Neruda's poetry after I attended a Nancie Atwell conference about her book Lessons that Change Writers. She used Pablo Neruda's poems to teach her students about odes to ordinary things.

I recently picked up a collection of Pablo Neruda's poetry. It's huge and it will take me months to get through it all, but that's what I love about poetry--it's okay to indulge slowly.

Several months ago I purchased a picture book biography, To Go Singing Through the World: The Childhood of Pablo Neruda written and illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray. This is a beautifully written and illustrated book that really celebrates the man who was known for his words. Ray uses the words of Neruda throughout the book. She uses his poetry and his prose to tell his life story. Neruda's words are written in italics while Ray's words are in regular type. They flow seamlessly together. Ray really celebrates where Neruda came from--a small village in Chile. Neruda was nurtured by a well-known poet, Gabriela Mistral. Even though Pablo's father wanted him to do well in math, it was the beauty of language that really helped Pablo find his voice.

I purchased this book with the hopes of using it when I teach poetry. I have been wanting to work on odes with my students, and I always like to give a human side to the writers I teach. This books will definitely fill that need. I can't wait to share Neruda's poems and his story with my students this upcoming school year.

I leave you with Neruda's own words:

Ode to the Dictionary (this is from the middle of the poem)

I

turn

its

pages:

caporal,

capote,

what a marvel

to pronounce these plosive

syllables,

and further on,

capsule,

unfilled, awaiting ambrosia or oil

and others,

capsicum, caption, capture,

comparison, capricorn,

words

as slippery as smooth grapes,

words exploding in the light

like dormant seeds waiting

in the vaults of vocabulary,

alive again, and giving life:

once again the heart distills them.

Dictionary, you are not a

tomb, sepulcher, grave

tumulus, mausoleum,

but guard and keeper,

hidden fire,

groves of rubies,

living eternity

of essence,

depository of language.

From: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Poetry Friday

This week's round up is at Chicken Spaghetti.

Henry's Freedom Box

Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story of the Underground Railroad
by Ellen Levine
Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Scholastic Press 2007
ISBN: 978-0-439-77733-9

One of my colleagues found this book at the Scholastic Book Fair. In our Virginia history textbook it mentions a person who mailed himself to freedom. Henry “Box” Brown became a famous runaway slave during the time of the Underground Railroad. My friend was thrilled when she found this book—a more in depth look at the life of this person who only garnered one line in the history book. He now gets his story read to fourth graders, courtesy of Ellen Levine’s book.

This is a fictionalized biography, but Levine creates such an emotion in this book. I read it to my fourth graders and they were taken aback, stricken with grief, and amazed at the story of this man.

Henry Brown was a slave. He was separated from his family at a young age when his master became ill. Then he married another slave who had a different owner. He was concerned that their children would be sold—and they were. His wife and his children were sold. Ellen Levine’s striking prose told it like this, “Henry couldn’t move. He couldn’t think. He could work. ‘Twist that tobacco!’ The boss poked Henry. Henry twisted the tobacco leaves. His heart twisted in his chest.”

Henry Brown found some men who disagreed with slavery who helped him devise a plan to mail him to freedom.

Levine tells the journey in the box in great detail. Kadir Nelson’s artwork really shows how squished Henry would have been. The only thing I wondered was—how did he go to the bathroom? He was only in the box for twenty-seven hours, but I still wondered.

All of my students were amazed at all that Henry went through—especially losing his family. They realized how cruel it all truly was. The book says when Henry’s family is sold, he knew he’d never see them again. And in the book he doesn’t. My students were expecting a happy ending where he meets up with his family again. The author’s note didn’t give that hope either. I think it was a horrifying awakening for them to see that many of the slaves who’s families were separated never reunited.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is studying the Underground Railroad and wants children to be drawn in to the emotions and reality of this time in history.

Gloria Houston Gives Back

I've been out of town at my mother-in-laws for the last five days, so I managed only to get one post while I was there. She has dreadful dial-up, so it took forever just to post for Poetry Friday. You don't realize how nice cable internet is until you have to deal with dial-up. Ugh!

I promised a week ago that I would talk about Gloria Houston, who presented at the Southwest Virginia Writer's Workshop. She spoke on "Introducing Creative Writing Into the Schools". She talked not only about teaching writing, but she also spoke about being a writer and her books.

One of the best things I learned from her about teaching writing is explaining to kids the difference between "narrative" and "story". Gloria Houston defines "story" as a problem with a driving force. In other words, it has a PLOT. A "narrative", on the other hand, is a recounting of events of a person's life. It's event, event, event. There isn't a problem to be solved. As a teacher I see all of kinds of stories that kids write. Most of them are narratives. It's one event after another. I often call these "bed to bed" stories because we hear everything a kid did from the time they woke up until the time they went to bed. Unfortunately, these don't make for very exciting stories. However, Gloria Houston defines them and sees value in these types of stories. Her own narrative, My Great-Aunt Arizona is, by her definition, a narrative. She says one student defined narrative using My Great-Aunt Arizona as an example, "One thing after another happens, and then she dies."

As a writer, I find that things without plot don't seem to sell. Sure, there are the famous authors who seem to get things sold because they already have made a name for themselves. But as a new writer, I doubt that my first published book will be a narrative. I'm sure it will be a story with a plot--a driving force--that propels the reader through the book. I've written many narratives and in every writing class I've ever taken encouraged me to develop the plot more. So evidently, plot sells.

Gloria Houston also gave biographies of people as examples of narrative. SOME biographies are narratives with "event, event, event, and then they die". However, I think some of the best biographies for kids are written with plot. There is some sort of driving force in that person's story to make someone want to write a biography about them. For example, I just read a great picture book biography called Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine about Henry Brown, a slave who mailed himself to freedom. That book has a plot with a problem, building tension, and solution. I think it makes it much more interesting than a traditional biography. The difference between that book and typical biography is that Levine doesn't try to do a "birth to death" story. She focuses on the thing that Henry Brown is known for and builds her story around that. (** The commentary about Henry Brown is my personal thoughts--not anything that Gloria Houston said in her talk).

Gloria Houston has written a book for writers and for teachers of writing. It goes into the Narrative vs. Story more and it also goes into teaching kids a structure for writing. I bought How Writing Works last weekend, and plan to read through it soon. It's written in textbook format though, unlike some writers (like Ralph Fletcher, Jane Yolen, etc) who give you writing advice in a narrative format, but it's full of lots of information.

Gloria Houston's most famous book is The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Gloria Houston wrote this Appalachian story set in a North Carolina town. Many of the towns in North Carolina near where this book was set began to lose their jobs and the towns were devastated. Gloria Houston gave up the marketing rights to her book to help rebuild the town of Spruce Pine, NC. That town is known as the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree. They have a store that sells products made by local artisans. This town has benefited from Houston's generosity. It employs people directly and indirectly through the tourism that has been generated because of this project. They will even send you a catalog of the crafts made by the artisans. Some of it is beautiful artwork or items that make an appearance in the story (like the angel). Kudos to Gloria! I can't wait to visit Spruce Pine, NC to support the efforts there. Items made by artisans in Spruce Pine caught the eye of Laura Bush and were featured in the White House Christmas tree decorations in 2006, and Southern Living's December 2007 issue will be featuring this effort as well.

Poetry Friday--J. Patrick Lewis

J. Patrick Lewis has written a collection of poetry about African Americans called Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs for Black Americans. Lewis wrote poems about thirteen famous African Americans who paved the way for civil rights. These biographical poems are about Arthur Ashe, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, Martin Luther King, Jr., Leroy “Satchel” Paige, Rosa Parks, Langston Hughes, Jesse Owens, Marian Anderson, Malcolm X, Wilma Rudolph, Billie Holiday.

I love books that present facts or elements of nonfiction in an unusual way. These biographical poems would be great ways to introduce kids to these heroes. In fact, they might like them even more after they’ve learned a little bit about each person.

My favorite poem in the collection is the titled, “Baby Contralto” about Marian Anderson.

“She brushed
Her voice
Across the air
In colors
Not seen
Anywhere.

In colors
Beautiful
And strong,
She brushed
The air…
And painted song.”


After reading through this collection, I had many picture book biographies come to mind. I would to like have students read the biographies and the poems and talk about writer’s craft and how two writers could share factual information in different ways. Some of the picture book biographies that I would love to use in conjunction with J. Patrick Lewis’ Freedom Like Sunlight include:


Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport
Rosa by Nikki Giovanni
When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan
Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull
Love to Langston by Tony Medina
Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth by Anne Rockwell
If I Only Had a Horn: Young Louis Armstrong by Roxanne Orgill

The back of the book has more information about each hero or heroine Lewis chose to portray through biographical poem. J. Patrick Lewis is always surprising. He writes serious, nonfiction poetry like Freedom Like Sunlight which really honors courageous people from history. He writes really funny poems like Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku which is just a romp with fun haiku, but makes kids really think in a riddle-like fashion. In contrast, his more traditional haiku book Black Swan/White Crow illustrates his ability to write the nature haiku that is more like the Japanese traditional haiku. He writes poems really stretch kids’ grasp of words like in the book Once Upon a Tomb: Gravely Humorous Verses, a collection of funny epitaphs.

J. Patrick Lewis is always amazing me with his use of words. My new find: Freedom Like Sunlight is one I really can’t wait to share with my students since they have learned so much about the African Americans he celebrates in this book.

John Lennon PB Biography

One of my favorite genres is picture book biographies. I really love authors who can take a person's life and really do it justice in a picture book--and I'm not talking about picture books for preschoolers. I'm talking about a picture book that gives the information about the person, but makes it appealing to older readers too. Sometimes picture book biographies can drag on and really they are chapter book biographies put in a picture book format.

But there are some picture book biographies that really stand out. They are visually appealing to many ages, they tell sufficient information about the individual, but make the words lyrical and appealing at the same time.

My new favorite picture book biography is John's Secret Dreams by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Bryan Collier. John's Secret Dreams tells the story of John Lennon's life from the time he was a little boy all the way to his death. The thing that I think makes this book stand out above a traditional biography or the traditional picture book biography are the quotes from his songs. Throughout the book as Rappaport tells about Lennon's life, she quotes parts of his songs. The lyrics flow with the text and really show how Lennon's songs were a reflection of his life.

My favorite part of the book, which shows how Rappaport really weaves the lyrics and his life story together is at the very end of the book:

"He dreamed about being sixty and being with Yoko.

Grow old along with me

The best is yet to be

When our time has come

We will be as one

That dream did not come true.

John Lennon was murdered when he was only forty years old."

This is a brilliantly crafted book. Bryan Collier's illustrations help bring the Rappaport's text, Lennon's lyrics, and Lennon's story to life.

The book includes author's and illustrator's notes, a timeline, selected discography (list of albums), and extensive bibliography.