Erin Dealey is a teacher, a presenter, and an author who loves to play with words. I do not recall a time when she was not a member of my personal learning network. I'm pretty sure she was one of the first authors I followed.
Erin dropped by Watch. Connect. Read. to finish my sentences. I wrote the words in red, and she wrote the words in black. Thank you, Erin!
Little Bo Peep Can’t Get to Sleep and Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox changed my life.I'm thankful every day that once upon a slush pile, editor Caitlyn Dlouhy, now VP and Editorial Director at Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, noticed Goldie. These books have introduced me to readers (and writers) all over the world, at school visits as far south as Brazil and as far north as Tok, Alaska.
The Writer’s Rap isn't my first rap. When I was teaching high school, I wrote "The Christmas Wrap Rap" for my theater students to perform at a winter assembly. On a whim, I submitted it to Plays Magazine and it becamemy first official publication. A few years ago, a group of 5th-6th graders helped me demo it at a school visit and one boy challenged me to write another rap. The result: The Writer's Rap, currently the grand finale of my upper grades assembly about hooking the reader--wherein I channel Mr. Schu and book-talk many shared favorites. And thanks to a suggestion from the fabulous aforementioned librarian, The Writer's Rap is available on TeacherTube & Youtube, so classes can have a mini author visit any time they want. : )
I think creative drama and theater can be the bridge to literacy. Theater is often overlooked in the classroom--or used only as a celebration of a unit--if and when teachers have time--(Time? Who has time?) The cool thing is theater doesn't have to be a huge production. Even the simplest theater games can helpbuild fluency for all types of learners. (For example, try Dr. Know-It-All the next time you need a class to review any topic.
School visits combine my theater and teaching backgrounds with my love of words, in a packed multi-purpose room brimming with smiles. What a win-win-win!
Words have always been fun for me--puns, jokes, notes to friends, song lyrics-- but I never thought I'd grow up to write children's books. Neither did my teachers!
Picture books are theater. My upcoming book, DECK THE WALLS /Sleeping Bear Press/ Sept. 2013, also began as a skit for my high school students to perform. (I'm sensing a theme here!) Picture books need to be auditorily pleasing, hook the audience so they don't leave at intermission, and (hopefully) sustain multiple readings/performances: "Again, again!"
Reading is power. I repeat: Reading is POWER.
Mr. Schu, you should have asked me about...skyping with Brook Forest. : ) No really-- #TaTues , Thank a Teacher (or Librarian) Tuesday, a project I started several years ago. Who inspired you? Who nurtured your dreams and interests--or gave you the skills to pursue them yourself? Each Tuesday in May (and November) send a message--via Twitter, FB, snail mail, email, telephone, carrier pigeon, owl-- to a teacher or librarian who has made a difference in YOUR life.
And since we're on the subject, THANK YOU MR. SCHU for all you do for kids and book lovers everywhere! You definitely make a difference in our world.
(Thank you! :) )
I am giving away a copy of Little Bo Peep Can't Get to Sleep and a copy of Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox.
Happy 50th birthday, Amelia Bedelia! Thanks for making us laugh! Here's to fifty more!
"Well, Amelia turns fifty this year and has been given a wonderful fiftieth anniversary edition that contains a good deal of archival material. Peggy Parish drew from her experience as a third grade teacher and the ways in which her students mixed up words." -Anita Silvey
The Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader announced the winners of the sixth annual Children’s Choice Book Awards (CCBAs) at a charity gala benefitting Every Child a Reader in New York City this evening. The announcement is an annual highlight of Children’s Book Week (May 13-19, 2013)as the CCBAs is the only national book awards program where the winning titles are selected by kids and teens. Young readers across the country voted in record numbers for their favorite books, author, and illustrator at bookstores, school libraries, and at bookweekonline.com, casting more than 1,000,000 votes. (Information courtesy of The Children's Book Council.)
Kindergarten to Second Grade Book of the Year
Nighttime Ninja by Barbara DaCosta; illustrated by Ed Young.
Third Grade to Fourth Grade Book of the Year
Bad Kitty for President by Nick Bruel
Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year
Dork Diaries 4: Tales from a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess by Rachel Renee Russell
Teen Book of the Year
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Author of the Year
Jeff Kinney for Diary of a Wimpy KId 7: The Third Wheel
Illustrator of the Year
Robin Preiss Glasser for Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet
I hope this blog post finds you having a perfect Children's Book Week. My students and I are busy discussing and celebrating children's literature with schools around the country. Two classes are going to to tell their virtual friends about Dan Krall's The Great Lollipop Caper. In honor of its recent book birthday and Children's Book Week, I invited Dan on Watch. Connect. Read. to answer a handful of questions. Thanks, Dan, for answering my questions.
Mr. Schu: I played the book trailer for The Great Lollipop Caper for all of my students. Many classes asked me to play it a second time. Were you involved in the planning and production of the book trailer? If yes, please share the process of creating an effective book trailer.
Dan Krall: That’s great! Yes I was very involved in the making of the trailer and it was great fun. I got to draw out the storyboard, help build some of the puppets, watch the building of the sets and setting up the lights, and edit it to music and sound effects. I have a detailed account with lots of photos of the “behind the scenes” posted on my blog at dankrall.blogspot.com.
I’m happy to hear your students wanted to watch it twice because one of my theories of making an effective trailer is that it’s better to make something short that people will want to watch twice than to make something too long that people will get bored with. (I learned that from Evan Spiridellis who is the co-owner of the Jib Jab Animation Company who specializes in short and funny webcartoons.) My other theories on making an effective trailer is to try to make something unique and to try not to make it an exact reiteration of what’s in the book, but to use it as an opportunity to deliver some new material and expand on the world of the book.
Mr. Schu: I totally agree with Caldecott Medalist Jon Klassen’s blurb on the The Great Lollipop Caper’s dust jacket: “Any book that takes a pun as far as this book does is absolutely essential.” What planted the seed for this “punny” picture book?
Dan Krall: Like most stories I work on it started by joking around with friends. We were trying to think up an idea for a TV cartoon about a little girl detective who solves silly childhood crimes, so I came up with a crime for her to solve called “The Case of the Great Lollipop Caper” there was no story at the time, just the title. We ended up not making the TV show but I always liked the idea of the title and wrote the story later based on that. I love Jay Ward cartoons (“Rocky & Bullwinkle”, “George of the Jungle” and my favorite “Super Chicken”) because he has a formula for funny stories: a silly villain, perpetrating a silly crime, solved by a silly hero in a silly way. Writing this story was my homage to Jay Ward, I like to think it would have made a good Super Chicken episode.
Mr. Schu: I found the most interesting package waiting for me on my front porch.
Dan Krall: I wanted to come up with a goody to give away at book readings and I thought it would be funny to be able to taste the awful concoction that Mr. Caper invents in the book, the infamous “caper flavored lollipop”. I found someone on Etsy named Erin who has a company called Twinkebean, she makes custom flavored lollipops, although I think ordinarily she tries to make lollipops that taste good and that people enjoy. When I ran the idea by her she was very enthusiastic and up for anything so she made a couple of test batches and mailed them to me. We worked together a bit until the recipe was perfected, in the end she made them by grinding up whole jars of capers and adding the puree to the lollipop batter so I think it tastes exactly like it would in the book. She said it made her kitchen and whole house reek of capers. Caper flavored lollipops are known for inducing appalling behavior so I thought if I give them out to children it would only be socially responsible of me to hand out regular lollipops as an antidote.
Mr. Schu: If you invited us to tour your studio, what would we see?
Dan Krall: If you came at 4:00 in the morning you would see me working there, making books surrounded by mugs of coffee. I have a day job making cartoons and a 3 year old daughter who gets up at 7:00 so if I want to get anything done I have to start early before she wakes up. Once she’s awake it’s no more working and play time. My home studio is actually really tiny, it’s a corner of a desk that has stacks of unfiled paperwork on it just about the size of a computer keyboard and a Cintiq with a little room nudged next to it for mugs of coffee, my office at work is the same way. Some people have big rambling offices with views of the mountains or a city, and big walls to post their artwork or inspirations on, not me. Even if I had that I would probably just use a tiny corner of it.
I feel like when I’m working my entire attention span lives within the a little box of a tv or movie panel or the page of a book, I have no idea what’s going on outside around me when I’m working.
Please complete these sentence starters:
Picture books are something you never forget and that you take into your adulthood, which is kind of crazy considering that your childhood is the blink of an eye in the span of your life.
I still remember all of my favorite books when I was a kid, a lot of them developed my taste and sense of humor and made me who I am today. That’s why I think they’re so special and love making them.
Reading is a really cool kind of collaboration between the author and the reader with almost infinite possibilities. No two people will read the same book and picture the characters or settings or hear the dialog in their minds in exactly the same way, that’s not really true of movies or other forms of visual entertainment. It makes for a really engaging and stimulating experience and feels like it actually grows your brain instead of just keeping in entertained for a while.
Mr. Schu, you should have asked me about...
Since I work on animated TV cartoons and Movies a lot of people ask me what it’s like to work on those, how they’re different from books and what I like better. Although it’s definitely fun working on TV shows and Movies and you can do big amazing things in them, there’s a lot of money involved in those and companies need to make a big returns on their investment so they aren’t always the most experimental places to try to tell stories. I really love publishing because it operates on a much smaller scale and people are a lot more willing to takes risks with the kinds of stories they tell, it’s really the playground for ideas.
I am giving away a copy of Dan Krall's The Great Lollipop Caper.
That's not a typo in the title. What you're about to watch are videos from the 2012 National Book Festival. (I've been waiting pretty impatiently for the Library of Congress to upload them. Better late than never, eh?)
Last year's presentations will get you excited for the 2013 National Book Festival (September 21-22, 2013 on the National Mall). If I am lucky enough to attend the festival (I really want to), you'll find me listening to Katherine Applegate, Brian Floca, Jennifer and Matthew Holm, Matthew Kirby, Jon Klassen, Kirby Larson, Grace Lin, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Patrick Ness, Matt de la Pena, Andrea Pinkney, and Mark Teague. Wow! Go pop some popcorn, grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and get ready to learn from some of the best authors and illustrators.
I know what all of my K-5 classes are talking about this week: the Kids' Comics Revolution 2013 Awards. Many of the most popular books in my school library are on the ballot. I'm very excited to find out all the winners, especially which character HAS THE BEST HAIR. Thank you, Dave Roman, Jerzy Drozd, and Chris Duffy, for honoring comics.
The Kids’ Comics Revolution podcast is holding its own awards, and we’re asking kids everywhere to vote for the winners!
KCR hosts Dave Roman and Jerzy Drozd have teamed up with Chris Duffy (Nickelodeon Magazine) and the Ann Arbor District Library to honor some of the best kids’ comics to come out in 2012. You can vote by picking up a ballot in the Novella Room (2nd floor, Toronto Reference Library) at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival and Kids Read Comics, or use the online ballot below. Winners will be announced June 23rd at a special ceremony at the conclusion of Kids Read Comics in Ann Arbor, Michigan!
Please click here to view this year's nominees. I hope you'll encourage your students to vote.
