Florida Swamp photo by Peter Long www.flickr.com

*Middle-grade to tween (there’s some language in here–FYI ) contemporary fiction novel
*Middle-grade students Nick and Marta as main characters
*Rating: A good eco-mystery for kids with a quirky cast of characters, similar to Hoot and Flush by Carl Hiaasen.

Short, short summary: Scat has a main plot and a pretty important sub-plot that is timely and will appeal to many kids. First the main plot: Bunny Starch, a feared biology teacher, goes missing after a field trip to Black Vine Swamp. Many people are pointing their finger at Duane Scrod, also known as Smoke. But Nick and Marta, two kids in Mrs. Starch’s class, aren’t sure what’s going on in Black Vine Swamp because there seems to be a lot. Nick took some video the day of the field trip, and he and Marta aren’t sure what they see moving among the vegetation–is it the rare, endangered Florida Panther, a man, or even Smoke? Nick and Marta’s curiosity gets the better of them, and they get mixed up in the Black Vine Swamp events after a visit to Mrs. Starch’s house to try to find out what is actually going on. The sub-plot of Scat by Carl Hiaasen is about Nick and his father. Nick’s father is in the National Guard and had to serve in the War in Iraq. He is injured, and Nick has to deal with his father’s injuries and the fear that comes with having a parent in the war.

So, what do I do with this book?

1. One of the most obvious activities to do with this book and the other Carl Hiaasen books in this series is to talk about the “green” issues that the author brings up. Scat is a great book to go along with a science unit on habitats or to read around Earth Day. Without giving away too much of the plot on this post, you can discuss with students endangered species such as the Florida panther, saving swamp land and why it’s important to food chains/webs, and animals and plants in Florida/warm climate habitats. Children and students can write down facts they learn about these topics while reading Scat, or they can use the Internet or other resources to learn more.

2. Nick’s father in the war may be an issue that some of the children in your class or your family are also dealing with at this point in their lives. If not a parent in the war, then they may know someone else in the war or who has been injured or killed. Before reading this book with these children, you may want to discuss the issues that will be surfacing to make sure children are okay with reading about this topic. Books like Scat by Carl Hiaasen can open up discussions about topics that are bothering children, but some children may still not want to openly discuss upsetting issues in class. You can always give students the option of writing in their reading response journals instead or providing two or three writing or discussion prompts with one being a “safe” topic.

3. Carl Hiaasen tells this story from several different viewpoints. There are many important characters in this book that he develops. As children meet a new character in the text, ask them to write the character’s name in their reading response journals and then some details about him. This will help students keep track of the characters and use their names during discussions and writing assignments. At the end of the novel, ask students to pick their favorite and least favorite characters from this list and write about them and their importance to the plot.

Have you read any of Carl Hiaasen’s eco-novels? What did you think?

photo by cr9245 www.flickr.com

So, today’s my birthday, and I decided to remember a Timeless Thursday book that I had and loved as a child. I still remember my copy with a gold cover and how I wished Winnie, Piglet, and Eeyore would come alive out of my pages like they did on the Disney show. I had an old-fashioned Winnie-the-Pooh doll–maybe even a rip-off come to think of it because his colors were just not quite as bright as the ones in the photo here.

Why do we love Winnie-the-Pooh? Why has he stuck with us for years and years? Why do toddlers today know and love the face in the photo? I mean look at Winnie-the-Pooh–he’s a bear whose obsessed with honey, “a Bear of Very Little Brain” getting confused all the time, and a bear with some dysfunctional friends except for maybe Piglet and Kanga (heavy emphasis on MAYBE Piglet).

Could it be that Winnie-the-Pooh is also a bear who is a TRUE friend to all and has amazing adventures and is just plain cute as a button (inside and out)? Even though Eeyore is the most depressed animal I’ve ever seen (and who wouldn’t be with a tail held on with a nail), you have to love him–I mean, he’s sweet, right? And Tigger is that person in the morning who doesn’t even need coffee to be chipper, but don’t you always appreciate her when she’s there and smiling on even the dingiest winter days?

If you haven’t read Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne and have only seen cartoons or recent picture books, check out the original. Check it out with your children or your students. You’ll find information in this book to answer many of your questions about Christopher Robin and his friends with chapter titles such as: “In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets Into a Tight Place,” or “In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle,” or even “In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump.”

What can children learn from Winnie-the-Pooh? I think the biggest lesson to share or discussion you can have with children is friendship. The book is full of examples of what it means to be a true friend and how “real friends” interact with one another. Winnie-the-Pooh is an example of a community working together. Children won’t even realize these life lessons they’re learning because they’ll be having too much fun with Pooh. This is a great read-aloud book for primary grades.

Do you have fond memories of Pooh?

February is Black History Month, and I wanted to tell you about a really cool website, Black Heritage Toys. They have economical toys, featuring prominent black figures in history as well as resources for teachers. I’m just going to tell you about the things that you can find on this site to use in your classroom or at home with your children.

For under $20, you can buy one of six games from Black Heritage Toys. These games are: a black heritage trivia game for adults or kids, “I Can Do Anything” game about careers, Mancala for kids, a matching game, and the Underground Railroad game you see featured here.

This company also sells puzzles from 24 to 1000 pieces, featuring Harriet Tubman, Barack Obama, and Matthew Henson. These puzzles are all under $10–very economical!

Finally, the resources section of the website are two PDFs you can download for either students ages 3 to 6 or 8 to 11. The 3 to 6 guide is a lesson plan called “Escape to Freedom” about the Underground Railroad. The 8 to 11 guide is a lesson plan about the Ewe people from Ghana and their wonderful art of weaving.

Use this website and its economical resources to teach your students and/or children during Black History Month!

My Basset Hound, Hush Puppy, under the Christmas tree

*Picture book for preschoolers through 2nd graders
*Young girl and cute dog as main characters
*Rating: Anyone, child or adult, who has ever been searching for the perfect pet will love You? by Vladimir Radunsky.

Short, short summary: In the park, a poor, little lonely dog is searching for someone to love him. A poor, little lonely girl is searching for a friend in the same park but in a different place (like over the fence). Many funny, cute, and peculiar dogs and their owners pass by, and the lonely dog and the lonely girl wish to be with them all. Finally in the end, they spot each other and say, “Woof?” and “You?” One of the cutest things about You? is that the dog speaks in “dog language” with woofs, arfs, and bow-wows, and this is translated into English by Vladimir Radunsky’s dog, Tsetsa. (Brilliant dog!)

Speaking of brilliant dogs, here’s our Boxer, Chester, when he was 7 1/2 months old.

So, what do I do with this book?

1. Children will have such fun with this book. They will love the dog speak and translations! Students can get creative, pick an animal, do a couple illustrations, and write in cat speak or tiger speak or bird speak what the animal is saying and the English translation!

2. You? is a good book to discuss children’s emotions. How is the little girl feeling at the beginning? Sad and lonely. Ask students to tell you, write about, or draw a time when they felt the same way. In the end, the girl feels differently. How does she feel? Why? Students can also make a personal connection with this feeling at the end, too.

3. Children will want to talk all about their pets after you finish reading this book. You might want to save You? for a pet day or a show and tell day. Students could bring in pictures of their pets (or their favorite animals if they don’t have a pet) and share their pets with the class. If you home school, children could make a book about their pets, almost like a baby book–when the pet was born, when he came to your house, what he likes to eat, and activities he likes to do.

photo by Tetsumo www.flickr.com

On today’s Maniac Monday post, I am writing from a prompt I received from JuiceBoxJungle. First I’m going to answer the question as a parent and then as a teacher. Then I’m going to talk about how you could use this same writing journal prompt with your students and/or children to teach money sense and paragraph writing. So, here we go. . .

Kodak and JuiceBoxJungle sponsored me to write this fun post about what I’d do with a surprise extra $100 if someone handed it to me next month.

As a parent: So, next month, March, is parent teacher conferences for my stepson. My husband and I will travel to Missouri for his conference and then spend time with him. I could really use the EXTRA $100 for this trip. My stepson’s grades are improving and improving and improving, which means he is working really hard, and so I would ask him, “Where do you want to go out to eat?” (Of course, he will probably choose McDonald’s, so we’ll have plenty of money to do something else, too.) We could also take him roller skating or bowling–two activities he likes very much that can actually be rather pricey for two adults and one child–depending on how many games you bowl or if you need to rent skates and so on. The extra $100 would also help with the gas for a 5 1/2 hour trip there and back. (Not to mention, the snacks that we just can’t seem to leave at the gas station!)

photo by stacy michelle www.flickr.com

As a teacher: this might be a hard question to answer as a teacher because you never know what you might need any given month (especially with some of the state budget problems in Illinois). But in my experience, you can never have enough books, and I always wanted to buy more and more books. I wanted to buy book sets, 5 or 6 copies of the same book. I also wanted to buy books that went with my units in social studies and science because books are such a great way to open a lesson or provide more information to students in an entertaining way. I also tried to purchase books that fit my students’ interests that year. More than likely, there would be a student interested in the same thing the next year, so the book would get plenty of use.

You can use this writing journal prompt with your students or your children if you home school to meet two different objectives. The first is money sense. Unfortunately as we all realize, one hundred dollars doesn’t buy as much as it used to! So, if you gave this prompt to your students, what would they want to buy with an extra $100? If they write “two Nintendo DS games,” then they understand how much $100 is. If they write down a weekend trip to NYC and you live in California, then you know you need to backtrack and talk to them about how much things cost and how much $100 is. (Of course, this is depending on the age of the child. If you teach preschool, it might be fun to see what those children think $100 can buy. You can also talk about paragraph structure with this prompt. Students have their topic sentence provided for them, and then they need to add detail sentences that support their topic sentence and create a cohesive paragraph on one topic–buying things with $100.

Here’s a book about money sense for upper elementary or junior high students:

So, I have to ask, what would you do if you had an extra $100?

photo by mdxdt www.flickr.com

*Picture book for preschoolers (However, this can be used with elementary students during a poetry unit.)
*Young boy as main character
*Rating: Red Sled is a clever book about a night time sled ride for a boy and his dad. Not to mention, there’s wonderfully bright illustrations!

Short, short summary: A sad lad and a sad dad take a red sled down a hill of freshly fallen snow one night. They have a ton of fun until–oops, crash! But falling in the snow is not so bad. When they go home to warm up, they are no longer sad, and now they are glad lad and glad dad. This book may sound simple, but it really is not! Patricia Thomas wrote Red Sled in the form of a chiasmus (ky-AZ-mus). This is a type of ancient writing. Here’s what she says in the back of her book: “This format creates a kind of mirror image, with thoughts, words, or even word sounds flowing toward a center point, then reversing to reflect that order as it reaches the end.” She, then, shows the reader in the author’s note the form of a chiasmus, using her Red Sled book. Very cool!

So, what do I do with this book?

1. The most obvious thing is to write a chiasmus, either as a whole class in a shared writing lesson or individually for older students. This will NOT be easy for anyone, so take your time, have fun, and play around with rhyme and the English language. Pick an easy, well-known, action-filled subject such as Patricia Thomas did.

2. Ask students to write or draw about a time when they went on a sled ride. If you live somewhere with no snow or sledding, then you can ask children to make up a story about sled riding, based on the book Red Sled.

3. This is a great book for oral reading, listening to rhymes, text patterns, and noticing the rhythm to language. Students could actually read this book with teachers because the text is large, or they could repeat after the teacher or parent. A really fun part to read with children is when the dad and boy are on the sled, and the text says, “Go! Go! No! No! Whoa! Whoa! Flip-flop stop.” Have fun with this book!

Quick post this morning because I’m off to preschool land to sub for a friend whose infant is in the hospital with RSV. Prayers and well-wishes are appreciated. But before I leave, I wanted to reveal the winner of Watersmeet. Thank you again to everyone who left comments and to Ellen Jensen Abbott for her awesome interview on Wednesday about writing fantasy for teens.

**And the winner is. . .Donna V.! Congrats, Donna, you’ll love this book (and your granddaughter might, too!).

Today’s book is Red Sled by Patricia Thomas. I won this book on Clara Gillow Clark’s blog, and I absolutely love it. It is PERFECT for the youngest child; and for older children, it is a form of poetry called chiamus. So, teachers and parents can use this book as an example and then children can write their own. I am including the Amazon link if you want to check out more, but I plan to write a special post tonight (after I go to the movies with my hubby-date night!) or over the weekend to let you know the plot and some activities to do with the book!

Have a great Friday!

photo from www.peterrabbit.com

Over holiday break, I finally watched the movie Miss Potter, starring Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter. It was a sensational movie, and I watched it with awe and amazement. Mostly because it was fascinating to see how Beatrix Potter created her books and fought for her books and didn’t even know how much money she had made from her books! If you are a writer of children’s books, I highly recommend watching this movie (especially if you’re an author/illustrator).

Your children may have a treasury of Beatrix Potter books on their bedroom shelves. These are popular gifts to give when children are born or at their first birthdays. Some of the other volumes besides Peter Rabbit (1902) are:
#The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (1903)
# The Tailor of Gloucester (1903)
# The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904)
# The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904)
# The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (1905)
# The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan (1905)
# The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher (1906)
and many, many, many more!

Why do people still love the cautionary tale of Peter and his siblings: Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, over 100 years after Beatrix Potter wrote and illustrated it? In my opinion, her drawings are wonderful, timeless, and bring her characters to life. Everyone can relate to really wanting to do something naughty like Peter, and sometimes not being able to resist an adventure even when your parents warn you not to do it. Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail provide the “good” example, which children often find themselves also following–thank goodness for their parents. Let’s face it: Peter Rabbit is fun. Beatrix Potter is a wonderful illustrator and storyteller. Those kinds of things are just not going to die.

Parents and teachers have been using Peter and his friends Jeremy Fisher, Benjamin Bunny, and Squirrel Nutkin to discuss right and wrong actions, childhood dilemmas, story elements, and illustration techniques for a century. Let’s hope that this trend continues for another century, at least, Beatrix sticks around! Make sure to check out this great website, The World of Beatrix Potter for more information with a special section for parents and teachers.

BTW, there’s still time to win a copy of Ellen Jensen Abbott’s book, Watersmeet, by leaving a comment on Tuesday or Wednesday’s post until 8:00 p.m. CST.

Yesterday, several people commented on the post about Ellen’s YA fantasy book, Watersmeet. There’s a discussion going on about the book cover and how Ellen talked to the publisher about the look of her main character on the cover–a conversation that’s been had a lot lately. Check it out here, and leave your own comment for a chance to win a copy of Ellen’s book. (You can also leave a comment or question on today’s interview.) Today, Ellen talks with us about Watersmeet, writing YA fantasy, and about a sequel.

Margo: Hi, Ellen! Welcome to Read These Books and Use Them! What gave you the idea for Watersmeet?

Ellen: The main character, Abisina, came to me first—and this was so long ago, it gets a bit fuzzy. I knew she was an outsider. I also knew what she looked like—brown skin and long dark hair (actually modeled after a Latina student I taught years ago). When I asked myself what made her an outsider, the outlines of Vranian society came to me, and then it’s antithesis—a society where she would be at home. Watersmeet. It grew from there, as fantasy has to, into a place with a geography, climate, belief system, economy, legends, culture, and plot.

Margo: That’s so true what you’re saying about fantasy and all its elements, and that’s why fantasy writers fascinate me. (I’m jealous!) Your ability to create a believable world that I want to visit is amazing. What are a couple challenges of writing fantasy for teens?

Ellen: In the case of fantasy, I don’t think the challenges are different whether you are writing for teens or adults. I alluded already to the central challenge: world building. A fantasy has to have a three-dimensional, believable and fantastic world. It has to hang together with a logic that comes not from any society that actually exists but from your own imagination. It is really, really exciting to build this kind of world—and very challenging.

In a similar way, fantasy—and maybe especially teen fantasy—has to be believable and recognizable, even if your characters are dwarves, fairies, and centaurs. Although we don’t know any of these creatures, they have to feel authentic and relatable. Like the worlds they live in, each creature needs to have a personality that hangs together and is consistent. At the same time, they can’t feel hackneyed—and this is tough because virtually all of the creatures used to populate Watersmeet have been around for as long as human beings have been telling tales!

Finally, you have to keep the adventure and excitement up. This is fantasy after all! There needs to be some magic or mystery or weaponry. A monster or two never hurts, either!

Margo: So true! But some of your monsters are down right scary! I won’t give away anything here; but let’s just say between you and me, I’m glad that I don’t have to worry about my toes! Egads! Are you currently working on a sequel? Can you tell us a little about it?

Ellen: I am working on a sequel which is scheduled for a Fall ’11 release. Hmmm. What can I say about it? I get asked two questions frequently about the sequel: 1) Is there romance for Abisina? 2) Does Abisina become a shape-shifter like her father? I will say that both of these questions are answered in the sequel—but I won’t say how!

I can also say that I am having a great time writing it. Today, for instance I have a reunion between two characters—Abisina and her best friend, the dwarf Haret. I started to write about Abisina hugging Haret; and suddenly, he was swaying on his feet, barely able to stand. I had no idea why! What happened to Haret since the last time he appeared? I usually go with these moments—if a character does something unexpected, I try to find out why by writing a rough back story. More often than not, it leads to something good.

That’s also why it can be dangerous to talk too much about the book you’re writing. Nothing is sacred in my early drafts. Suddenly, I’ll decide to cut out an entire character or a scene that I just blogged about. And that’s before my editor gets involved!

Margo: I love gruff-ol’ Haret! Glad to see he’ll be back. You have extensive guides on your website to go with Watersmeet. Please post the links here and who would benefit from reading/using them.

Ellen: I have two central guides–one that is written primarily for teachers, or homeschooling parents, and one that is written for book clubs. The teachers’ guide offers lots of discussion questions and a long list of related activities and projects with cross-curricular tie-ins. I have also labeled how each of the projects addresses each of Howard Gardener’s eight multiple intelligences. For example, a project investigating herbal remedies that the dwarves and healers in Watersmeet use targets the Naturalist intelligence in Gardner’s theory.

The book club guide is written for teens to use as they hold a book club. It will also be useful for mother/daughter book clubs, or parent/child. I even have a recipe from one of the dwarves in Watersmeet included in my book group guide: Hoysta’s root-flour brownies with badger cream topping! Some of the ingredients are hard to get: badger butter, quail eggs, and particularly tasty kinds of soil. But if you don’t milk your badgers at home, I’ve provided substitutions. It would be fun to munch on these brownies while having a book discussion.

Links are below:

Teacher’s Guide: http://ellenjensenabbott.wordpress.com/teachers-guides/

Book group guide: http://ellenjensenabbott.wordpress.com/book-group-guides/

Margo: Thanks, Ellen, for sharing all of those insights with us. I love the book group guide idea. In April, I am going to have an author on here, talking about mother/daughter book clubs. That seems to be a big trend right now! Good luck to you; and readers, don’t forget to leave a comment or question for a chance to win a copy of Watersmeet!