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?

When I was young, so was television.  The were only two or three channels and there weren’t many shows for children.  I remember Romper Room and Corky the Clown (St. Louis TV!), but mostly I remember Captain Kangaroo and his Treasure House.  Mr. Moose and ping pong balls, Bunny Rabbit and bunches of carrots out of the Captain’s pocket, Dancing Bear, Grandfather Clock, the Magic Drawing Board, and Mr. Green Jeans were there for me every weekday morning.  I remember many things about the show, but mostly I remember the Captain reading to me.  There was no animation,  just the Captain’s voice bringing the book to life as the camera focused on the pages of the book.  Many of my childhood favorite books I connect to the Captain.  Apparently I’m not alone in connecting books to the Captain;  there is an Amazon Listmania for books Captain Kangaroo read in the 50s.

A tornado barely missed our house one night when I was four.  It knocked down huge old trees in the yard and with them, the TV antenna.  I remember sobbing, for in my four year old wisdom, the greatest tragedy that morning was no Captain Kangaroo!  Not many weeks later I recall watching the adults around me sob but not for the Captain; Captain Kangaroo was off the air for the three days of funeral coverage for President Kennedy.

I had outgrown the Captain by the time they began filming in color in 1969.  And the Captain was off the air by the time my children were born.   But I swear I am a lover of books thanks to my mother (of course) and the Captain. 

A successful two months of Monarch read alouds needed to be followed with another strong series of books. It had been a number of years since I focused on my favorite books so I thought it was time to explore them again. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey remains number one on my personal list of childhood favorites. Certain titles retain echos of Captain Kangaroo’s voice and this is chief among them.

Make Way for Ducklings was the 1942 winner of the Caldecott Medal. (A number of Caldecott winners are on my top ten list of childhood favorites, however I do not recall focusing on that award as a child.) With its charcoal line drawings this book was timely for our school. Mark Kistler had just presented a wonderful assembly on drawing so my students immediately recognized elements he taught them such as shading and shadow in McCloskey’s wonderful drawings. (Kistler refers to elements of drawing as Renaissance Words and I was impressed with how much the students retained.)

The reading of Ducklings was followed with a short PowerPoint created from personal vacation pictures and photos from the Internet. (Google Image search is quick and easy!) So much in the book is real: Boston’s Public Garden, the Swan Boats, the Charles River and the Longfellow Bridge, and the State House to name a few. The PowerPoint included a map of this part of Boston. With the help of animated arrows we traced the ducklings’ trip from the Charles River across highway 28 (with Michael’s assistance), down Mt. Vernon street, right on Charles Street, across Beacon Street (with the help sent by Clancy) and into the Public Garden gate. Since 1987 visitors to the Public Garden are greeted just inside the very same gate by a statue of Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings. McCloskey’s drawings are so accurate and richly detailed! The students and teachers both enjoyed comparing the pictures in the book with the real places. (Later I discovered a wonderful resource on Google Earth – Google Lit trips - that I wish I had used.)

By connecting the book with the real world of Boston I hope to subtly introduce Information Literacy skills – higher order thinking, map reading, verifying what is real and what is not through the use of additional resources, etc.Although the humans depicted in the book are wearing 40s clothing, the book is not otherwise dated and my students responded to the book with the same enjoyment I have felt for all these years. They may be ducks, but it is still a warm story about family that leaves the reader satisfied.

Resources:

Map activities

Google Lit Trip! using Google Earth

Radio Interview with McCloskey - Enjoy yourself, but don’t bore the kids with it!