224 minutes + 123 minutes=

347 minutes.

Just finished Jerry Spinelli's The Library Card. I take back what I said about character development. I just needed characters I could recognize. Miguel and Juanita struck me as a little generic, Tia Lola a little like a Dominican Mary Poppins. Maybe there are lots and lots of Tia Lola's out there that make other readers go: Aha! She had that effect in my life too. Me, not yet.

And then I open The Library Card and confront Mongoose and Weasel, two boys who both seem to be heading for juvenile delinquent- ism as they reach the point where adults don't have total control over them, but they seem to take this to mean that the entire world is at their mercy. Or at least Weasel does. I remember my brother at this stage, though he stuck with toilet paper and never progressed to shoplifting and graffiti.

Weasel's highest ambition is himself, name printed in huge letters on a factory wall, perpetually cruising in a red firebird. Mongoose is starting to see everything beyond himself- and is completely in awe. Mongoose tries to entice Weasel to this wonder. Weasel can only see that his friend is changing, leaving him behind.

And then: Bam!

I suppose I'm to be blamed for not reading the jacket flap. This isn't the first time it's happened to me. Publishers, perhaps you should consider a big warning on the cover of your books: "Warning. Anthology of short stories. Don't get too attached to the characters. You won't see them past page 52."

It's like when I listened to the Diary of Anne Frank, not realizing that the entire last cd was nothing but historical notes, thinking I still had another cd with her before the Nazis took her- how cheated I felt when another voice- not the narrator's- informed me at the beginning of CD twelve that Anne never wrote another entry!

Anyway...

Of course- the thread of the magical library card escalating the conflict or leading to its resolution, tended to by omniscient- seeming librarians, can't help but stroke my ego. Never mind that Mr. Spinelli seems unfamiliar with the ways of story time: has anyone had preschoolers that will sit through Madeleine and Babar in their entireties? Does anyone have volunteers doing story time?

While I definitely preferred "Mongoose" and "Sonseray," all four short stories are well-crafted and thought provoking, and I enjoyed them all thoroughly...I can't help but wonder how a middle schooler is bound to react to them...do they need a little more plot? Are they in a position to recognize the arrogance of pre-teenagerhood that sees a roof as a place from which to "check out your territory, to feel the size of yourself" rather than a prime position from which to view the stars? To recognize and even find comfort in Sonseray's lashing out, which is really a plea for a motherly slap across the face?

One dead mother, but everyone in all stories but Sonseray's still ostensibly with child's other natural parent.

127 minutes + 97 minutes=

224 minutes.

Just finished How Tia Lola came to (Visit Crossed Out) Stay. Title gives you a pretty good idea what it was about, though perhaps How Miguel came to want Tia Lola to stay would be a little more appropriate. Struggled a little bit- maybe I'm up for something more plot driven and less character driven. Use of present tense was interesting, and point of view covering everybody though mostly the older son, Miguel. I'm two for two for books about divorced parents.

two hours, seven minutes

Just finished Halfway to the Sky by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. After Dani's brother dies and her parents divorce, she runs off intending to hike the Appalachian trail on her own, only to have her mother catch up and decide to tag along. The family is convincingly dysfunctional but not unlikeable. There's a nice mix of family drama and girl finding herself in rugged, sporty endurance. Rough details (prune- y feet, sweat dripping in enumerated places on your body you never think about) not spared. And best of all- I've always dreamed of trying!!!!

Probably not a coincidence I'm starting off my marathon reading reading about a marathon-esque event. I love this stuff. Case in point- participating in breaking a record set in India for the world's longest dance party (India has since taken it back.) (and this article got it wrong: we danced 52 hours, 3 minutes. My feet confirm it. They were there.)

Best part of the book for me: Apparently it still counts as "thru-hiking" the Appalachian trail if you do the whole thing in sections. Hard to see getting sixth months off to do it before I retire...but a week or so once a year...

Won't be winning this marathon- started too late, false started, began on 4 hours sleep and I'm going to need more before it's over. But I'll give this trial run the best I've got in preparation for next year.

48 hour reading challenge

I am now beginning Mother Reader's 48 hour reading challenge.

I understand that this only leaves me about 37 hours with which to work, plus whatever I can glean from breaks, but starting at this point time effective at this point than having time for work, a commute, and the sleeping I did last night deducted.

I will be working on the sixth and seventh grade reading lists for this year, with a preference for the books that neither of my colleagues have read and for which we hold no audio books.

I'm hoping this project will simulate the circumstances in which many of our readers will undoubtedly find themselves towards the end of the summer (Snap! School starts in two days and I haven't started my summer reading!)

For that matter, maybe I should be leaning towards shorter books, too. I noticed a lot of requests for those towards the end of breaks.

6-9 year old story time: Back in the long, long ago...

In preparation for telling at the Washington Folk Festival, I needed to practice on my unsuspecting school-age story time. Hence our theme: Folk and Fairytales! (again). Fortunately, they didn't seem to mind too much.

I started off with The Hare who Married a Princess from Margaret Read MacDonald's Shake it Up Tales (originally from Benin.) I love this story. My storytelling teacher had us learn and tell it on the spot in class and I've been perfecting it ever since. Lots of room for ad-lib, audience participation, and hamming it up. The kids had fun with it, but when I asked for volunteers to help me out I got hands raised long past when I needed them. Silly me. Also, while I put in plentiful hints as to the answer to this riddle story, they seemed a little mystified at the end (though someone did come up with the answer before too long.)

I continued with The Goat from the Hills and Mountains (which I plan to tell at the festival) from Flora? Campoy and Alma Flor Ada's Tales our Abuelita's Told (and from Spain and Latin America.) I took the chance of being considered lame and out of touch with the sophistication of my audience by using a flannel board (which I will not be using at the festival.) The kids were spellbound. I can only figure that they mistake it for tv somehow. The young kids are just the same. I was hoping they'd catch onto the refrain and threaten to eat the cute little characters on the board along with me. However, as I had invited them to help out, one little girl decided to try to tell everything along with me (after all, she could identify what I was putting up on the flannel board) and the lady in charge of them was a little growly. I don't think anyone wanted to speak up after that.

I did this story previously with my 2-5 year olds and it worked just as well.

If anybody reads this and wants a copy of my drawings for the flannelboard figures, just ask in a comment...

2-5 Story Time: Here, Kitty Kitty...

I walked out of story time on Thursday and smacked my forehead. I completely forgot about the book that made me want to do Kitty Story Time. Oh well. What Will Fat Cat Sit On Next? will have to wait. (Have I mentioned yet that Jan Thomas rocks? Bold, big simple pictures and stories that make kids and grownups laugh and give you plenty of room to ham it up. Recipe for success.)

Attack of the fussy babies again. Maybe I need to provide some fun fuzzy board books. Or learn to deal with distractions better. Or use this as an opportunity to push baby story time.

Wanda Gag's Millions of Cats didn't go over as well as I'd hoped. I only used it with the 3-5s upon seeing that others had done so in their story times, even though I knew there was a lot of text on each page and the pictures were tiny and detailed. I thought about blowing up the pages and using them faux- Kamishibai style (displaying one picture at a time and reading off the back) but was thwarted by the number of two-page spreads. Perhaps I'll try memorizing and just telling it. Or practicing the "hundreds of cats" etc. with everyone a few more times.


After Millions of Cats, even Kevin Henke's Kittens First Full Moon was a stretch for some of the 3-5 year olds. It was a little bit of a stretch for some of the younger kids too (what with competing with crying babies and latecomers walking in and all), but for this one I'm willing to say "It's good for them." I could stay inside this one for a long time. The parents were enthralled too, predicting what was going to happen next as if I were reading the story just to them (and I totally missed the opportunity to complement them on this and to talk about encouraging their kids to do the same! Ugh!) Maybe I need to work on my timing.

I was really surprised to see how everyone stayed with Marilyn Janovitz's Three Little Kittens. It helps that a lot of people already know the words (and I invited them to help) and that everyone can chime in on the "meow, meow, meow, meow" bits. Even though the illustrations in this one are a little on the greeting-card side, I chose it over Galdone's version because 1) I find Galdone's illustrations garish and not particularly appealing and 2) I like how Janovitz handled the last line about "smelling a rat nearby." I'll admit I had no clue that's how the complete version ended, and was really confused. The rest of the rhyme is all about mittens and pie. Where do the rats come in? Introduce something new at the very end and don't even follow up on it? Who writes these, anyway? Where they leaving it open for a sequel? (Three Little Kittens chase a rat and get bitten?) Janovitz's endpapers show a big-bellied rat next to an empty pie plate.


Denise Fleming's Mama Cat Has Three Kittens is nice and repetitive until the pattern suddenly reverses itself- participatory and funny.

2-3 and 3-5 storytime: Pig Out

My system doesn't require us to use themes. Indeed, we're (rightly) encouraged to lean toward books we and the kids love over books that fit any particular pattern. But the parents still ask what today's stories are about (and I still get excited about finding another cool dog book!)

Last week, upon discovering Angela Johnson's Julius, I went with pigs. Animal themes are easy. The book has bright, exciting funny illustrations. Books about Alaskan pigs are rare. Furthermore I'm always on the lookout for really good storytime books starring African-American kids. Unfortunately, I don't think this one counts, at least not for the 3-5 crowd. Julius teaches Maya and her parents a lot about life that might be a little over the head of your average 3 or 4 year old. The funny details in the pictures, too, are lost beyond the first few rows. Maybe I'll try it with a (smaller) group of older kids.

If anyone out there in publishing is reading: Please publish more 2-5 age story time books with African American main characters! By story time books, I mean books:

- with pictures identifiable from about ten feet away
- with no more than a few sentences on each page,
- that make kids and librarians fall in love with them.

If they are really big, or rhyme, or have lines that repeat, or invite fun sounds, or are actually written and/or illustrated by African American people, then so much the better.

There are quite a few out there that almost seem to fit (The adventures of Sparrowboy by Brian Pinkney and the Jamela books by Niki Daly come to mind for older kids), but they have too many words, or plots that are too complicated, or they just don't quite lend themselves to reading in story time (too many little "aside" words that don't flow when you're reading them aloud.)

I'm looking forward to doing Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats and "Please, puppy, please" by Spike Lee (!) for an upcoming doggy story time. We did I can do it too! by Karen Baicker a few months ago. If anyone has any other currently existing suggestions, let me know!

end rant/plea.

McPhail's Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore! Rings of Poe's "The Raven" and Dr. Seuss ("Get out, you pigs/ You pigs, get out!") If the rhyme and rhythm and ridiculousness doesn't interest them, "Pigs from England/ Pigs from France,/ Pigs in just/ Their underpants" is sure to get a reaction. I wanted to push the kids to take it home so they had time to examine the hoards of piggies and their misdeeds. I think it would have gone over better with the 3-5 year olds if I'd read it first. Too old for the 2-3s, after all, I think.
A Birthday for Cow was not too old. The little ones loved me shouting gleefully about turnips, and the adults laughed through the whole thing (which of course spurred the kids to laugh louder without really knowing why.) Didn't get as good a reaction from the 3-5 I think, but by that point all the baby siblings were fussing and everyone was a little distracted. (While the book is not about a pig, it does feature one. And hey, I've bee looking for an excuse to use it for awhile.)

I included Antoinette Portis' Not a Stick for the younger ones in lieu of Julius. The grown ups were shouting out what the stick was now each page, the kids were entranced. Sure they'd just heard Not a Box when my esteemed colleague did Bunny story time a few weeks ago, but no one seemed to mind.

Probably the most successful in both groups was "No Butterball" from Phyllis Noe Pflomm's Chalk in Hand: The Draw and Tell Book. Summary: A little girl named Charlotte looks everywhere for her pet pig and can't find her until she returns home and- surprise!- the pig appears on the chalk board on which you've been tracing Charlotte's journey. I re-dubbed Butterball "Snowball," because 1) Snowball is not a turkey and 2) the story indicates a pet pig, and "butterball" makes me think of groceries. If you'd rather, little Charlotte could be searching for Butterball in order to serve her at a luau, and the little mud puddle surrounding her at the end could be rendered as leaping flames. But I prefer to wait until they're ready for Charlotte's Web. The smaller kids didn't shout out "There's a pig!" until the very end; the older ones only let me get halfway through, but both had fun.