Some years I “tell” a few stories.  Somehow this school year flew by and I found myself at the final scheduled storytime for each class.  (I usually stop the weekly stories early in May because of spring bookfairs at two schools and end of the year mahem!)  So I used the last chance to tell rather than read them a story. 

“Mrs. Brandt, where is your book?” many classes asked me as I came into their room. 

“I didn’t bring a book,” was my answer, “but I brought a story.”

I told one of my very favorite stories, and old English folktale “The Three Sillies”.  Steven Kellogg did a picture book of the story, but I much prefer my own version.  The base for my version is rooted in a set of books my mother read aloud when I was young:  “The Family Treasury of Stories” is a three volume set edited by Pauline Rush Evans and published by Doubleday in 1956.  The binding was cheap but I loved those books.  I’m sure I read the stories and poems to myself, also, since I know them all so well.  Early in my library career my mother gave them to me.  (I unpacked them yesterday! – They were in with the Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books!)

But I have told “The Three Sillies” often throughout the years and it is now “my” story.  I have pattern and repetition based on the original, but phrasing and details are my own.  Since it is an old English folktale, I picture old England with cellars, cider, sweethearts, parlors, courting, thatched roofs, villages, and mill ponds.  I throw in minor explainations as I go along to bridge the culture gap, but I work them into the telling.  I also use motions a lot – turning on the tap, running the rope down the chimney, and raking out of the pond.  The universal favorite with the students, however, is the man who runs and tries to jump into his britches.  (Britches – not pants!  Explain the vocabulary if you must, but use the old words and phrases!)  The students truly giggle at the thought of how silly is a stranger who thinks he must jump into his britches.  For the motions there, I use two fingers on one hand as the legs to run and jump, but when the gentleman shows the stranger how he manages getting dressed each morning I actually pantomine putting one leg in at a time, standing up and fastening the britches.  And I end with an unusual phrase – “and if they didn’t live happily ever after, well, then that is another story.” 

I have found that students actually are more attentive to storytelling than to read alouds.  I’m sure there are studies and articles to back up that fact, but I know it to be true by experience.  One of my most enjoyable Master’s classes was Storytelling with Kate McDowell.  (I regret that I missed the opportunity to take the class with Betsy Hearne, but Kate was wonderful!)  Years ago I took a weeklong class in storytelling at Lindenwood in St. Charles, MO with Keith Polette, so I was not new to storytelling.  But I never miss an opportunity to polish the skill…and I don’t practice it nearly enough. So….

…my new school year’s resolution for the fall is less read-aloud, more storytelling!

This title is another that I distinctly remember Captain Kangaroo reading aloud on TV.  Published in 1958 (a year older than myself!), this was one of my childhood favorites.  With pictures by Maurice Sendak and words by Sesyle Joslin, this picture book still holds great appeal to kids. 

The joy in reading this book aloud is to allow the students to predict what polite response is required to the quirky situations:

You are picking dandelions and columbines
outside the castle. Suddenly a fierce dragon
appears and blows red smoke at you, but just
then a brave knight gallops up and cuts off
the dragon’s head.

What do you say, dear?

Of course… you say “Thank you very much!”  If the students responded with just “thank you” I encouraged them to think… The brave knight just saved your life!  Is a simple thank you, enough? 

It is important to find ways to validate each student’s response.  Students need to feel safe offering their guess of “What do you say, dear?”  If you simply tell them they are wrong or, worse, laugh at a response it becomes a negative experience.  I treat the answers more like brainstorming… saying something positive about their response, but guiding them all toward a better/best/correct response.  It is often necessary to remind them that we are searching for the polite response.  For many I told them their response would be a very direct approach, but we wanted a polite phrase.  How could they rephrase that very politely?

I shared this book just before Easter break.  Our school serves a fairly homogeneous cornfield community, so it was comfortable to encourage the kids to think about polite behavior at the upcoming Easter dinners most of them would attend with extended family.  Instead of “I want more potatoes” or even, “I want more potatoes, please” this book allowed me to encourage them to say “would you please pass the potatoes”.  And to ask “may I please be excused” when finished. 

This is the beauty of books and read-aloud.  A chance to talk about something with kids in a way that is both meaningful and fun.

A word of caution – a couple of the situations in the book no longer seem politically correct.  (The bad guy has a gun to your head and wants to shoot you.  What do you say, dear?  You say, “No, thank you.” of course.)  But while not politically correct in our overanxious era, the kids don’t mind.  They find the whole thing hilarious.  Adults over-think – kids enjoy.  I heartily recommend this classic book.

So… what do you say, dear?

Our school hosts a day where the third graders can invite their grandparents to school.  There are plays on the stage in the library, activities in the classroom, refreshments in the cafeteria, and I annually read a story aloud to each third grade room. 

I have done this for 22 years; realizing that in recent years the grandparents are often my contemporaries!  And, of course, working in a small community I see parents back as grandparents.  One set of former grandparents were there this year as Great-Grandparents!  And for 22 years, since the stage is part of the LMC, I have listened to countless practices for “The tale of the Unhoppy Bunny”.  My aide and I can quote lines and probably could could serve as understudy for most any part!

The opportunity to read to the grandparents is enjoyable.  It brought me a surprise this year, however.  As I sat in the hospital waiting room during my mother-in-law’s surgery, a gentleman sitting across from us didn’t say hello, but rather, “why are you playing hooky from school?”  I was startled.  I didn’t recognize him at all.  “Do I know you?” I asked.  “Well, you’ve read to me three times during grandparent’s day,” he grinned and proceeded to tell me who his grandkids were.

This year I read aloud Jon Agee’s The Retired Kid.  Before I started I asked the third graders in each room what it meant to be retired.  Their sincere answers provided greater entertainment than the book itself!  The Retired Kidwas a nice short read-aloud, giving me time to share with the grandparents about my job as School Library Media Specialist, and to encourage them in their job as storytellers for their grandchildren.  This year I encouraged them to not just “do” things with their grandkids, but to share their own personal narrative stories.  Those personal stories provide a foundation for children that is invaluable.

By the way… did you know that being retired means “you are too old to do it anymore so they fire you”!?!  I hope I never retire!

Pairing Fiction and NonFiction

Buffalo Music by Tracey E. Fern

Thunder on the Plains:  The Story of the American Buffalo by Ken Robbins

Saving the Buffalo by Albert Marrin

With both Earth Day and Arbor Day, April is the month to think about nature!  Buffalo Music is an unusual, but perfect read for a conservation theme.  A fictionalized story of early and successful efforts to preserve the American Bison from extinction, this appealing picture book is somewhat poetic as it attempts to view the influence of the wild animals as music to accompany life.  The text is full of period phrasing, such as “fixin’ to turn a profit on hides and hooves” and “they took to it like flies to a keg of molasses.”  Like That Book Woman I explained a lot to the students, particularly K-1) as we read the book together.

It worked best to show illustrations from Thunder on the Plains and discuss the buffalo with the students before reading Buffalo Music.   In each class I showed a map of the U.S. and gave them a visual on where the Great Plains, home of the buffalo, are located.  I also located the pan handle of Texas for them as the setting for the story.  Using the non-fiction Thunder on the Plains to set the stage for the near extinction of the buffalo helped the students better absorb this weighty fiction title. 

I also showed the students the more text intensive Saving the Buffalo.  Better third grade readers interested in the topic could probably tackle it successfully.

Buffalo Music is a valuable title if you wish to inspire your students that individuals really can make a difference in their worlds! 

Just like Cal did not understand his sister Lark’s fascination with books, my father did not understand how I could spend a whole day with my “nose in a book.”  A farmer, he would come in for lunch during the summer and demand that I get outside and do something.  I usually complied by taking my book outside and reading on the porch swing or on the hill in the yard under the walnut tree.  (Not exactly what he had in mind!)

I shared this story with my students after we read Henson’s That Book Woman together.  As I explained to them, my father certainly could read.  He was a college graduate.  But he didn’t LIKE to read, certainly not for entertainment.  And my (and my mother’s) love of books and reading was pure puzzlement.

My mom and I were both fans of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.  Beginning in fourth grade, I read the entire series 12 times during my school years.  A 1975 trip to South Dakota included, of course, a stop in DeSmet.  My father and brother were not as excited about the visit as mom and I, but we stopped!  In the year’s since my mother and I have visited almost all of the Little House sites together and separately.  It was during a trip to Wisconsin (and a visit to Little House in the Big Woods) that my father insisted on knowing what was the fascination with these books.  “Why don’t you read one,” my mother said.  A wise woman, my mother… she gave him “Farmer Boy” first.

Grandpa got his first tractor when Dad was nine, but Dad remembers farming with mules and horses.  Naturally he loved “Farmer Boy”.  It was a time consuming read for him, but when he finished he said, “Give me the next one.”  He eventually read all nine in the series and then told my mother to “find me something else to read.”

Now you must realize that Sunday afternoons at our house did not include sports on TV.  Oh, no!  My father watched Western movies on Sunday afternoons.  A wise woman, my mother… she filled my father’s request for something-else-to-read with Zane Grey… which of course, was followed by Louis Lamour.  At the age of 54 my father had become a reader!  He was always literate – but he wasn’t a reader until then.

Dad’s reading for pleasure fizzled for a while, but when I sent him Richard Peck’s Long Way from Chicago his reading was renewed.  Peck’s recent books have been marketed to his usual Young Adult audience, but they aren’t really appreciated by that audience.  Adults – especially his contemporaries – absolutely love all of Peck’s books since Grandma Dowdel first picked up her shotgun.  When Dad finished reading Fair Weather he called me to talk about the book.  “Best Peck book ever,” Dad declared.  Growing up I never expected to have a conversation with my Dad about literature, but here it was!

Dad was 73 on March 18th.  These pages honored him that day as I reviewed Schmidt’s First Boy. My parents are retired now and spend several months each year serving with RVICS.  As they travel they purchase books about places they visit and they both read in the evenings now.  My Dad was once a literate non-reader.  Now he reads.

I know parents are often proud of their kids.  Well, I am proud of my parents – the way they serve others rather than themselves with their retirement, the sensible way they are handling aging, and the way they have always lovingly supported my brother and I and our families.  But I can’t tell you how proud I was to share with my students that my Dad, although a late bloomer, finally became a book lover.  I didn’t share all of the details above with my students, but I turned it into a story for them.  If Cal in That Book Woman didn’t inspire them, I hope the personal narrative about my father did!

Read aloud / storytime has many purposes beyond entertainment and reading development in my professional opinion.  Among those is to sometimes inspire and stretch the minds of the students.  I chose a book this week that was a bit difficult and required some interpretation on every page, but I wanted the children to appreciate the many facets of this unique picture book.

That Book Woman by Heather Henson honors the Pack-Horse Librarians of Eastern Kentucky in the 1930s.  (If you have never read about this New Deal Era project, please read the links provided at the end!)  While this book doesn’t always flow easily as a read aloud, it is still lyrical and full of the flavor of 1930s Appalachia.  Words like a-twixt, critters, a-wander, britches, greenbacks, and poke of berries.  With K-2 I stopped after every page and we explored the words or concepts I thought they would not know.  With third grade I waited until the end and then went back to discuss pages.

This book is a stretch because of the unfamiliar vocabulary, but as we explore unknown words together I am modeling reading skills.  But this book is worth reading for more than that.  Hopefully it will inspire non readers to embrace reading as Cal, the main character, does by the end of the book.  Cal has no intentions of sitting “stoney-still” with his “nose a-twixt the pages of a book” like his younger sister Lark.  But the tenacity and dedication of the pack horse librarian eventually wins his admiration and peaks his interest.  “…all at once I yearn to know what makes that Book Woman risk catching cold or worse.”

“Teach me what it says” Cal asks his sister Lark.  This is my favorite page out of all David Small’s lovely illustrations.  The pure, steady look on Lark’s face as her older brother holds out a picture book so she can teach him to read is breathtaking.  “…she does not laugh or even tease, but makes a place and quiet-like we start to read.”  Cal learns to read that winter.

When spring comes Cal’s gift to the Book Woman is to “read me something.”  My teachers get teary eyed at this part, for after all, student success is why we do what we do.  It is the greatest gift our students can give us.

How do we make our students into lifetime readers?  I readThat Book Womanhoping to inspire my non-readers.  Cal calls them “dumb old books” at first, but by the last lovely wordless page he is sitting on the porch of that mountain cabin beside his sister, each with their noses a-twixt the pages of books.

Wednesday I’ll share the personal narrative I related to each class after we finished this lovely book.

For information on the Pack Horse Librarians of Eastern Kentucky:

http://www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/KYPackhorseLib.htm

http://newdeal.feri.org/library/j_1k_bg.htm

http://www.kykinfolk.com/knott/bookwomen_easternkentucky.htm

I love a theme.  There is something about focusing on a theme that brings out the best in me creatively.  And I’m still focused on chickens for some reason.  The last Monarch book that I read with the students was The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington.  I seem to have been on a chicken kick ever since.

My grandparents kept chickens.  They kept chickens years after they should have given them up.  They lost money feeding those chickens… but it was important to them.  So I have many years of memories stored up related to their farm (just down the road) and chickens.  My chicken experience paid off as I read Harrington’s book aloud – one second grader actually interrupted the story to tell me that I “do a good chicken”.  My “pruck, pruck, pruck” was apparently very realistic. 

Every class voted for the 2009 Monarch as soon as we were done reading Chicken-Chasing Queen so we didn’t spend much time in extended discussion.  This meant that all my good chicken stories were wasted!  The students really enjoy it when I follow a read aloud with what they refer to as one of my “true stories”.  Personal narrative is a branch of the storytelling art and my students seem to value and enjoy it.  With this in mind I picked one of my favorite books from recent years for the next read aloud, Lisa Campbell Ernst’s Zinnia and Dot. 

I LOVE to read this book aloud.   As I mentioned last week oral reading, done well, is dramatic and Lisa Campbell Ernst has built in plenty of dramatic opportunities in this narrative.  I don’t often “do” voices with books because it is difficult to do well, but Ernst gave Zinnia a drawl and I jest luv to do a drawl!  (I didn’t grow up in West Central Illinois for nothin’!)  Dot’s dialogue lends itself to a slightly snooty tone, so I can really give these two old hens some personality. 

I’ve heard good readers describe the book experience as “a movie in my head”.  Good readers know what this means, but struggling readers of every age never get the mental film rolling.  Bringing a book to life in a read aloud session is an important model.  If I can bring Zinnia and Dot to life for the students, then I am modeling good reading.  My all time favorite phrase in this book:  “It was poultry pandemonium!”

I followed this wonderful book with some of my own chicken stories.  Some of the teachers who also grew up on farms chimed in with their own memories.  Most of us shared the amazement that our grandmothers could reach right under those old hens when gathering eggs, but the old biddies would peck a kid every time.  In my childhood I solved that issue by gently harassing the hens with a stick until they got off the nest.  In retrospect this probably did not improve my relationship with those hens, but it allowed me to get the job done without getting pecked.  (Those old hens sensed my fear, I know!)

Kids not only like personal narrative storytelling, but they love knowing facts so I made sure they had their chicken vocabularies in order:  rooster, hen and chicks.  But no one was familiar with the term for young female chickens – pullets. 

Sharing that term with the students made me remember an old trick of my grandfather’s so I introduced it to the kids, telling them that I would teach them how to remember the chicken names the way my grandfather taught it to me.  I implored them to concentrate, because this was a memory game.  “Rooster” is the forehead, “pullet” is the nose, and “hen” is the chin.  You repeat this several times, then quiz their memories, leaving the nose for last.  When they answer “pullet” for the nose, of course, you pull the child’s nose.  It is a silly game.  If you distract them by convincing them it is a memory test they never see it coming!

I will turn 50 this coming November.  The fact that I am in the final third of my career is reflected in my storytelling.  The combination of experience as a reader and storyteller along with a healthy bank of memories and life experience has changed the way I relate to the students.  I’m not the “mom” librarian now, I’m the “grandma” librarian.  And I like it!  It is freeing!  I can be silly or sentimental and it only strengthens my relationship with the students.  And that is what storytime is about for me – building relationships.  Relationships with the students and myself and with good books.  And it pay great dividends – my student to hug ratio seems to go up every year!

This year’s Monarch winner, the Illinois children’s choice award for grades K-3, was just announced.  At our school the winner was Once Upon A Cool Motorcycle Dude.  But it is interesting to note, that closely behind were the books Skippyjon Jones and Precious and the Boo Hag.  As I think back through these and previous year’s winners I am noticing a pattern.  The students in my school are voting on the memory that we make together with the book as much, or more, than on the book itself. 

A couple of years ago a title which I thought fairly weak garnered many votes from our students.  But I read it with a spot-on British accent, if I do say so myself, and the students remembered that.  So I am certain that it is the read aloud memory that motivates these young voters.   

This year we read Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude together in three large group sessions in the library.  Usually I read aloud in individual classrooms weekly, but during Monarch we read at least one in large groups.  Since Motorcycle Dude actually has three voices – two characters with bubble conversations and a narrator, I had two teachers help me read in each session.  They say teaching is 90% theater, and there is no doubt when you ask teachers to help you read a book like this one!  The kids AND the teachers made a memory! 

Technical details:  I shared the photos of the book by using a digital visual presenter and a screen.  The teachers reading were up front by the screen.  I photocopied the pages of the book for the two teachers reading so I could highlight their parts for them.  It isn’t easy to recognize, otherwise, and I wanted to make this as smooth and painless for them as possible.  Obviously the copies were for the read aloud performance and were destroyed immediately after.  (I’m counting on that to fall within fair use for education.  Although I did copy the entire work, I don’t think I cheated anyone out of sales.  I think we probably promoted sales!)

With Skippyjon Jones I had the students participate.  There are several spots in the book where the text can be sung to the familiar tune of the Mexican folk song Las Chiapanecas. The book has in-text prompts for the clap-clap.  (The tune is familiar to our students, I think, because it is used at White Sox games to rev up the crowd!)  The kids love doing the clapping while I read aloud.  If they don’t do it in rhythm I make them do it again until we get it right as a group.  Kids value true success more than false self esteem! 

I was a bit worried about Skippyjon Jones as a read aloud as it has garnered criticism as racist with its mix of real Spanish and imitation Spanish words:  “el blimpo bumblebeeto bandito”  I do want to be aware of promoting stereotypes, no matter how clever and funny a book might be, so I did point out to the students that Skippyjon is using his imagination and pretending; some of his words are really Spanish and some are just silly and made up. 

We have very few Spanish speaking students in our school, but I watched them each carefully as we read.  Truly they enjoyed the book as much or more, and a student in the first group proudly translated an unfamiliar phrase for me!  Perhaps this is an example of adults over-thinking a potential problem, and kids just enjoying the moment?  Kids understand that Skippyjon is about imagination, not cultural relations.

Our school’s third place winner, Precious and the Boo Hag, was read aloud by one of the third grade teachers who is the queen of scary stories.  I don’t particularly favor scary stories, so this was perfect.  Miss Amy had the time to read to each class since she has a student teacher right now and actually must leave the room for certain time periods.  The students loved her “performance” of the book, so I’m betting it got a higher percentage of votes than at other schools.

One of Miss Amy’s students is moving, and today was her last day at our school.  She came to the library to tell us goodbye, and hugged me three times telling me how much she likes ”my stories”. 

My thanks to the Monarch committee for the work that they do that allows us a special annual focus on twenty wonderful books.  What a privilege to work with children and books.  What a privilege to serve as the extension of creative authors and illustrators as we read aloud.  What a privilege to make memories together! 

Note:  For the very first time our school winner matched the state winners, not only for first, but for second place! 

In an effort to make numbers concrete rather than just concepts, for almost the past 20 years primary teachers have been “celebrating” the 100th day of school.  Many schools have the students do projects, posters or make collections of 100 items.  Our school used to be one of those.  However for the past 15 years our 100th day celebration has become more meaningful.  Our school’s Kindergarten, First and Second Grades set a goal to collect, as a grade, at least 100 paper products which will be donated to a local women and children’s shelter called Harbor House.  The organization lets us know annually which products it is most in need of:  toilet paper, Kleenex, paper towels, diapers… they always need a lot! 

The idea for this celebration originated with one of our first grade teachers.  We all have found it very meaningful, and my aide and I are happy to give the donations a home while they are collected and to host the assembly on the 100th day of school. 

As the items are brought to school, they are placed in the library divided by grade levels.  Teachers keep a tally and often bring their class in for an update and use that opportunity to reinforce number concepts.  The director of Harbor House (or a representative) always comes to our school on day 100 to hold a brief assembly to accept the donations.  Our students and their families have always donated at least 100 items per grade level.  This year, however, may have been our largest year.  On February 3rd we presented Harbor House with over 800 items.  And they tell us that will probably get them through only three or four months, but it is a HUGE help to them.

The photo only shows a portion of this year’s donations and you may notice that we celebrate the 100th day of school in varied ways.  If a couple of the first graders look oddly dressed it is because they are attempting to look 100 years old.  (The first grade teachers usually dress as if they are 100, too… actually they end up looking just like my elementary school teachers!)  You can also spy 100 shaped glasses and a 100 dollar bill hat. 

As a math-challenged, failed-product of “New Math” I often look at the hands on approach to math that they use in primary classrooms today and wish I could start over.  These methods would work for me… but, alas, I have floundered this far and I was smart enough to marry a guy who can add numbers in his head faster than most folks can with a calculator.  I’ll continue floundering…

My point in sharing this via the blog is twofold. 

#1 – I think this is a very meaningful way to collect 100 items.  It satisfies the goal of making the number 100 concrete and it fills a need in the community.  I much prefer it over projects, posters, and collections.  It focuses our kids on others instead of themselves - always a good thing! 

#2 – We really try to be the Library Media CENTER.  100s day at our school means the library staff lives with stacks and towers of paper products for a couple of weeks.  It means we steer kids to the right stack and help them make the tally marks if their teacher isn’t with them.  It means we carry out the tables and stack the chairs to make room for the 10 minute assembly.  It means we bag and box up the paper products and help tote them to the Harbor House van after the kids and teachers have returned to class.  And then it means we carry in the tables, unstack the chairs, and roll up the Hundreds for Harbor House banner until next year.

We ARE the Library Media Center.  Our service isn’t limited to books, computers, and information.  We are home base.  We are collaborators.  We are organizers.  We are supporters.  We are key players on the team.  We are the center of our educational community… and we like it that way!  We are LIBRARY MEDIA CENTER…!  (Those who remember Helen Reddy will compulsively finish that phrase!)

Mo Willems is the king of simple, and “Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed” is simply hilarious.  What is it with Naked Mole rats?  I never heard of them and then suddenly…  Mary Amato’s Naked Mole-Rat Letters is on the 2010 Rebecca Caudill list in Illinois and Mo Willems writes this one.  Both books are fiction, but Amato’s book shares many facts on the animal, but Mo Willems’ picture book is nothing but fun. 

Willems shares that, for his story, “you only need to know three things: 

1. They are a little bit rat.
2. They are a little bit mole.
3. They are all naked.” 

Except for Wilbur.  Wilbur hears his own drummer and likes to wear clothes.  This is definitely a book the kids are going to scream for, since you have to say the word naked on almost every page.  Subtle themes in the book are peer pressure and individuality, with a very satisfactory free-to-be-you-and-me conclusion.

The Jr. Hi. kids told me today that Ron on Disney’s Kim Possible has a naked mole rat named Rufus for a pet!  Rufus apparently is nothing like the real creature.  So, again, what is it with naked mole rats?  Obviously even Disney knows kids love the word naked.