The Alphabet Never Tasted So Good

Recently browsing through one of my favorite local bookstores, a book resting on the shelves beckoned to me.  Scottish author/illustrator, Alison Murray, has fashioned an alphabet book, Apple Pie ABC (Hyperion, May 31, 2011), that is good enough to eat.  Her take on the classic nursery rhyme is fresh, vibrant, unique and just plain delectable.

Georgie, a lovable mutt, is on a quest for the apparently unattainable.  His forever friend, Grace, has made an apple pie.  Nothing will deter her canine companion from acquiring that apple pie.

Every letter of the alphabet follows Georgie in his persistent efforts.  A apple pie, B bake it, C cool it, ...N not giving up, O ogle it, P pine for it, ...U underneath it, V very nearly, and W whoops!  Despite Grace's attempts to protect her perfect pastry Georgie's goal is met.  Love for Georgie shines through in Grace's final peek at her best buddy.

It was color that first brought my eye to Apple Pie ABC.  Rich reds radiate throughout the book beginning and continuing with vibrant text. Large blocks of red surround each creamy alphabet letter or they are shown entirely in red. 

Murray's endpapers are a collage of squares highlighting A, B, and C with Grace and Georgie silhouetted in opposite corners as ingredients and cooking utensils fill the others.  The title and publication information is laid out across double pages picturing Grace at a table reading a recipe book with Georgie smiling looking up.  Letters A, I and Z are illustrated using two pages while the remaining letters may have a single page or share space with letters; pleasing in its effect but also creating tension as Georgie nears his objective.

Use of orange, blue, golden yellow, spots of pale green and black coupled with the illustrative design bring a warm nostalgic feel to the title. Apple pie is definitely comfort food.  Murray's interpretation of two friends sharing while the one is the creator and the other the consumer is lovable in every aspect; word choices are the kind that roll around on your tongue in joyful anticipation.

In an email request as to her techniques employed in illustrating this book she generously responded as follows:

I mainly work on computer.  First I draw the characters and some of the background objects in Adobe Illustrator.  Then by hand, I create different textures using pastels, paint strokes and various print techniques.  I scan these into my computer and then combine the two in Photoshop.  I think the blotches and happy accidents that you can make by hand humanise the line work drawn on computer.  I built up the image in layers a bit like the process of screen printing but on the computer. You can keep changing the colours till you (are) completely happy with the final illustration.

I see that another book, One Two That's My Shoe, featuring at least Georgie, will be released in 2012; lucky readers one and all.  Sharing Apple Pie ABC with others as a group or one on one is something to be relished repeatedly.  I can visualize a group acting out Georgie's antics as we weave our way through the alphabet toward a taste of that perfect pie. 

Alison Murry has a picturesque web site devoted to Apple Pie ABC.   Please see it by clicking on the link at the top.  Offering interesting information and fun activities it is a plus for viewers.

Let's Go Exploring

Using Exploratorium, the museum of science, art and human perception, is an experience that could consume hours.  Where else can you discover how to make a battery using your hands, explore how to make a virtual skull, how to tie the six best knots to use on a voyaging canoe, listen to different frog sounds and make a frog chorus, or learn how to make a light painting.  It's one stop shopping for coolness.

Exploratorium was selected in 2011 by the AASL to appear on their Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning.  It falls under the Content Resources:  Lesson Plans and More, Standards for 21st Century Learners, 2.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information, 2.4.4 Develop directions for future investigations, and 3.1.2 Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of learners.

At the site's home page users are invited by a selection of tabs at the top to peruse the pages according to their status, Who Are You?; educators, parents, artists, teens, museum professionals, scientist, geeks or just plain curious.

When the Explore tab is chosen the following categories appear:  astronomy and space, culture, Earth, everyday science, human body, listening, living things, material world, mind and seeing.  Within each category are thumbnail visuals when moused over give a brief description of what is offered. 

Location and directions, hours and administration, plan your visit, calendar, Tactile Dome, school field trips and groups and parties are options available under the Visit tab.

Under the Membership tab users learn about levels and benefits, how to join on the spot, birthday parties, events, programs, day camps, the homeschool program and frequently asked questions.

By clicking on the About tab readers can better understand the museum's mission which is partial stated below:

The Exploratorium is a museum of science, art, and human perception located in San Francisco, California. We believe that following your curiosity and asking questions can lead to amazing moments of discovery, learning, and awareness, and can increase confidence in your ability to understand how the world works. We also believe that being playful and having fun is an important part of the process for people of all ages.


We create tools and experiences that help you to become an active explorer: hundreds of explore-for-yourself exhibits; a Web site with over 25,000 pages of content; film screenings; workshops for lifelong learners ...

Each year I do a unit with our third grade students building on the Caldecott award winning book, Snowflake Bentley written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian.  Using the site search box typing in snowflakes, I was rewarded with a plethora of resources; 1,040 to be exact.  To narrow your search on the right hand side are other keyword phrases to use. 
Exploratorium is an outstanding resource for professional and personal discovery.  It's a way of bringing the museum right into your own room.

Racing For Your Life

Authors hook their readers at different points in their storytelling, on the first page, within the first chapter or easing into it gradually over several chapters, using a variety of techniques, an explanatory word, a startling sentence or a defining paragraph.

Maggie Stiefvater author of The Scorpio Races chooses to reach out and grab her readers immediately.

It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.

Without a doubt that chain of words is going to find a place on a top twenty-five best first sentences' list.  After reading that all you want are answers; who is going to die, why are they going to die, how are they going to die and where is this death going to happen.  And you can not turn the pages fast enough as events unfold, unforgettable characters are set forth fully alive, and fantastical creatures emerge from the sea.

Two people living separate lives share two loves; the land upon which they live and horses.  Fate decrees that a third love will find a place in each of their hearts, a love for one another.  These two were both made orphans by the capaill uisce, water horses.

Awesome in their savage beauty, frightening in their capabilities, these water horses come from the sea each November to roam the land.  If captured, while they remain wild beasts drawn to the salt water, they are superb mounts in every respect.  True danger lies in their need for meat; no distinction is made as to what kind.

The land surrounded by the sea that releases these mythological beings is the island of Thisby, a craggy, rocky wind-swept place replete with cliffs and sandy beaches that stretch to the water.  Hours from the mainland, Skarmouth is the largest town. Heart of the island and center of the celebrations that accompany the annual Scorpio Races, Skarmouth at night becomes a scene of rites and magic as old as time.

No race compares to this race; the horses need to feed...on the riders dragging them back to the sea that they crave.  People flock to the island like migrating birds each year for the races; some drawn to the animals themselves as buyers or lovers of these exquisite creatures, others not wanting to miss the excitement of the race,the need to see who will finish, who will win, who will live.

Nineteen year old Sean Kendrick has had an unearthly connection to the water horses since he was a child; an understanding of their souls.  A four time champion of the races he rides Corr, a breathtaking animal colored in shades of red.  It was riding Corr that Sean's father lost his life.  Honoring Sean's whispered request prior to the race,  Corr returned to the sea without eating his father. Even though it was he who recaptured the water horse, it belongs to Benjamin Malvern where Sean lives and works as head of the stables. Sean has to win the race this year to save everything that he values most in life.

At sixteen Puck (Kate) Connolly has never known anything but life on the island of Thisby and that is enough for her.  But this year she is entering the races as the first woman to do so.  Her oldest brother, Gabe, has recently announced that he is leaving the island.  Puck and her younger brother, Gill are living day to day in disbelief.  She is shocked to learn that Malvern holds a mortgage on their home and that Gabe knew it.  Dove, an island horse, will be her ride.  Puck has to win the race this year to save everything that she values most in life.

Told in alternating chapters by the voices of Sean and Puck readers are held captive by vividly descriptive words causing the air they breath to hold the scent of the sea, the feel of wind on their skin and the motion of the horses hooves striking sand beneath their bodies and them to marvel at the courage and conviction of these two characters.  Sense of family is held high as a range of emotions ebb and flow between Puck and her brothers as events escalate.  Secondary characters, essential to the tale, in the town's people, Malvern's son, Mutt, and an American, George Holly, are colorful and realistic.

Here are just a couple sentences that show the connection Puck and Sean have to their horses,

I get a currycomb and a brush and I knock the dust out of Dove's dun hide until my fingers warm up.  By the time I saddle her up, she's clean and I'm grubby.  She is my mare and my best friend, and I keep waiting for something bad to happen to her, because I love her too much.

Corr can hold a thousand things in his heart and reveal only one of them on his face, like he did earlier today.  He is so very like me.

This is just a portion of one of many, many wonderful passages in this book.

The Scorpio drums pound a ragged heartbeat as I wind my way through the crowds that fill the streets of Skarmouth.  The cold air smarts as I breathe it in; the wind carries all sorts of foreign scents. ...Everything the race makes me feel on the inside is bleeding up through the seams in the street tonight.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater is an extraordinary achievement stunning and spellbinding until the final sentence; readers are richly rewarded.  It, like the capaill uisce, is a breed all its own.

 My autographed copy has been ordered.  Not surprisingly, within ten days of the book's release Warner Bros announced that it had grabbed the movie rights.  It is my recommendation that this title is for eight grade students on up.  Appeal for both guys and gals is a given; heart-pounding pure adventure, characters you come to love or to hate and a landscape populated with mystical, mythical creatures says it all.

This is a book trailer that Maggie Stiefvator created.  Be sure to follow the link with her name at the beginning of this post to a top notch web site and a blog.

Twitterville Talk #21

Catch up on all the newest happenings in the world of children's and young adult's literature as well as cool web 2.0 tools to use in the classroom.  Tweets abound this week, but then when do they not?

Many thanks to Children's Bookshelf of Publishers Weekly for the following tweets this week.

View beautiful illustrations here Maurice Sendak's Rare Velveteen Rabbit Illustrations circa 1960 by Maria Popova.

In A Horse (Barn) of a Different Color by Sue Corbett paper engineer and king of pop-up art, Robert Sabuda, has high goals for a community art center.

Sonia Jaffe Robbins tells all in It's A Wrap, for Wimpy Kid 6.  Bank Street Bookstore is ready for the November 15 release.

Read the latest post at Publishers Weekly by John A. Sellers leading up to the complete list to be revealed on Monday, November 7, 2011; Publishers Weekly Best Books 2011:  I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen.

Get further information in a post by Sally Lodge at Publishers Weekly; Mac Barnett Spearheads "A Picture Book Manifesto'.

Yikes!  JK Rowling reveals she nearly killed off Ron Weasley in an interview with Alison Flood of The Guardian.


The New York Times releases The 2011 Best Illustrated Children's Books in an article by Pamela Paul.

The Horn Book has a spectacular list of new holiday books that was posted November 1, 2011; Holiday High Notes.

Fans of I Am Number Four will enjoy this interview by Gretchen Kolderup of the author, Pittacus Lore, via The Hub at YALSA.

Booklist's Michael Cart talks with Ed Young and Allen Say---What Does Memory Look Like.

Julie Danielson interviews, Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Laura Ljungkvist, author/illustrator whose work, Follow The Line To School, I reviewed on August 25, 2011.  Those interviews at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast just get better and better.


Debra Lau Whelan of School Library Journal talks with the author, Sarah Wu:  Fed Up With Lunch .

Read how one teacher has made a difference.

Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers posts about a new web 2.0 tool, Searcheeze: Collaboratively Curate the Web.

The Rewards of Trying Are High

Every decision made generates endless possibilities; some may elevate us to unexpected heights, others may plunge us into the lowest pit.  It is that teeter-totter, back and forth, should I or shouldn't I mind meandering about which Holly Meade writes and illustrates unerringly in If I Never Forever Endeavor.

A young bird peers over the edge of a nest tucked among the branches of a pine tree wondering:

If in all of forever,
I never endeavor
to fly, I won't know if I can.

In trying to fly foolish failure or floating freely are thoughts that are entertained.  One might see the world by the light of day or loose their way in the dark of night.

Then, too, there is the comfort and security offered by the nest, so why leave what is known to venture into the unknown.  But the temptation offered by seeing other birds perform their ballet in the sky with one another is strong.  Readers see the fledgling leaning thinking, maybe I'll just try it a little.

Fluttering, thwacking, thudding, thumping, and flapping send our feathered friend (of course we're friends after  all these life changing choices shared together) soaring--FLY!  Oh, the unrestrained joy of trying and succeeding; trying that leads to flying, seeing and finding.  Success leads to confidence, confidence leads to encouraging others...to...try...to...fly.

If I Never Forever Endeavor is a lilting poetic journey of thought with rhyme and alliteration generously urging readers to follow illustrations done combining watercolor painting with linoleum block printing through collage.  Each series of thoughts is visualized across two pages in a lush array of colors straight from Nature's garden.  Meade's selection of airy hues in blue and white are the quintessential backdrop for the bolder greens and browns of her trees, pine boughs, and the nest done in block printing.  Using shades of sunny, bright yellow for the young bird clearly holds him up as the center of our attention.

Holly Meade's creation of this title blends her command of language and significant skill as an artist of varied mediums.  At each reading the pleasure of words that roll off your tongue and caress your mind prompting participation and anticipation is enhanced.  May we always be so fortunate to have messages so beautifully portrayed.

Julie Danielson of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast conducts a wonderful interview with Holly Meade on August 20, 2009.

Get Tagged

In an earlier post, Mind Your Ps and QRs..., I delved into the use of QR (quick response) codes as links to virtual data.  The American Library Association branch, American Association of School Librarians, Best Websites for Teaching and Learning, Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning, 2011 selected Microsoft Tag.  The use of Microsoft Tag falls under the Social Networking and Communication standard, Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.  


According to an explanation at their web site the bar code has evolved from the 1D or linear bar code used on nearly everything that is produced and purchased today.  A 1D bar code is placed on our library materials and scanned for circulating those items.  Using lines that are not just straight but that create a mosaic enables more information to be embedded; QR codes.
This old-style 2D barcode contains the entire message in the code, so online access isn’t needed to decode it, but the barcode size will vary depending on the amount of encoded data. QR codes can be black-and-white or basic colors.

Continuing in their description the site states that the Microsoft Tag has more options in design and in the information contained within each tag. 

Because Tags are linked to data stored on a server, you can deliver a more robust online experience – including entire mobile sites – and update the content any time without having to change the Tag. 

Microsoft Tag offers three possibilities with their service:  a tag creator, an application for reading the tag on a smartphone and a means of keeping track of usage.

To begin click on the green Start Tagging Now button located in the upper right hand corner on the home page.  From the next page you are directed to go to Tag Manager.  You will need to sign in using a Windows Live ID.  If you do not have one it is easy to sign up; an email address, password, birth date, gender, industry, occupation, country, state and zip code.

Once a user reaches the Tag Manager click on Create A Tag.  Select a category, tag title, tag type (URL, App Download, Free Text, vCard and Dialer), tag notes (up to 200 characters for user's own reference), upload a thumbnail, a start date, an end date and then the information needed to create the tag.  When done save the tag.  The screen to the right appears.

Click on the image beneath the words render.  Select a file format from the following choices:  pdf, jpeg, png, gif, tiff, or tag.  Depending on the file type enter in a tag size.  Designs can be custom, full frame, with helper and download instruction or plain.  When completed click the render button.

All that's left is to display your tag.

The main difference between Microsoft Tag and QR codes is that all Microsoft Tags can be read by the Microsoft Tag app; all QR codes can not be read by all QR code readers.  Unlike other 2D codes a Microsoft Tag is dynamic.  When changes are made in the content connected to the tag, the tag does not need to be changed.

Microsoft Tags are more advanced than QR codes.  Creating them is simple but the results are more sophisticated.  Tags can be placed on brochures, sent in emails or posted outside classrooms sending students and parents to a Facebook page or blog.

I still think one of the best uses in the library media center is to place tags inside books sending users to an author, illustrator or book web site.  For that purpose the QR codes would work just as well.

In all honesty, when I went to load the app to my phone, red flags popped up concerning what the app could and could not do to phone settings and personal information so much, that I did not load it.  It seems that many applications want access to too much personal statistics for my comfort level.  This is just my opinion.



Librarian's Quest



Wonderstruck

November Is Picture Book Month

About a month ago I wrote a post about the fantastic Literacyhead site.  If you only have one site to go to for your literacy needs this should be the site.  I have also mentioned in later posts that Literacyhead provides additional resources via Twitter and Facebook that enhance what can be done in our classrooms.

I could not wait until my weekly wrap-up of tweets on Twitter to share about a site they mentioned on November 1, Picture Book Month.

Picture Book Month is an international initiative to designate November as Picture Book Month, encouraging everyone to celebrate literacy with picture books.


Founders of this initiative further state:


We are doing this because in this digital age where people are predicting the coming death of print books, picture books (the print kind) need love.  And the world needs picture books.  There's nothing like the physical page turn of a beautifully crafted picture book.


Every day this month the site will feature a post from a person championing the relevance and importance of pictures books; authors, illustrators and picture book lovers alike.  A media release on site further explains what prompted the creation of this endeavor.  A list of author/illustrator sites hosting activity tie-ins is a great additional resource.

I will be designating a special spot in the Charlevoix Elementary School Library Media Center that highlights a book each day per the suggestions on this calendar to Read! Share! Celebrate!