And the winner is...

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Just about now, you were probably asking yourself, What books won the big awards this year? For types like me, the anticipation and announcement of the Newbery, Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Awards is more thrilling than the Superbowl, the Oscars and the Westminster Dog Show rolled into one. I read the blogs, the magazines and the hot-shot prognosticators. It is shockingly possible that money changes hands. Certainly I buy books in hopes of having the winner on hand. The envelopes, please.

For the most distinguished contribution to children's literature, the Newbery Award:

Beloved author Jack Gantos finally got the gold. I have been raving about his Joey Pigza series forever. Good for him. Did I buy it in advance? No. Was it totally under the radar on the mock vote blogs? Yes. Have I ordered it? Duh. And it sounds both hilarious and touching:
In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, 12-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.




Newbery Honor Award. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. Bought it. Read it. Loved it. Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.Her experiences with American food, religions, and school are gripping and poignant, especially when she says it might have been easier to stay in Saigon with the bombs dropping than to endure the taunts of young Alabamans.





Newbery Honor Award. Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin. Whoa! Totally missed it, despite the fact that my ears perk up when I hear of books about Russia; I fell in love with all things Russian in elementary school after reading a biography of Catherine the Great. I can't wait to read it. In the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, ten-year-old Sasha idolizes his father, a devoted Communist, but when police take his father away and leave Sasha homeless, he is forced to examine his own perceptions, values, and beliefs.




And the Caldecott, for the most distinguished illustrations:

A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka. His second gold medal. A wordless story about joy and loss. Daisy the dog is heartbroken when her favorite toy ball is destroyed while she is playing with another dog, but she realizes she has gained something, too. On order. Somehow Raschka's work doesn't strike a chord with me but I look forward to seeing his latest.





Caldecott Honor Award. Blackout by John Rocco. Stunning-- and it's already flying out the door. A summer’s power outage draws an urban family up to their building’s roof and then down to the street for an impromptu block party. Rocco illuminates details and characters with a playful use of light and shadow in his cartoon-style illustrations. He delivers a terrific camaraderie-filled adventure that continues even when the electricity returns.





Caldecott Honor Award. Grandpa Green by Lane Smith. Hooray! Bought this one in time for Grandparent's Day and loads of our kids already adore it. Elaborate topiary sculptures give visual form to memories in a wildly fanciful garden tended by a child and his beloved great-grandfather. Using an inspired palate, Lane Smith invites readers to tour a green lifetime of meaningful moments.




Caldecott Honor Award. Me, Jane by Patrick McDonnell. Hooray! Bought it & taught it. Holding her stuffed toy chimpanzee, young Jane Goodall observes nature, reads Tarzan books, and dreams of living in Africa and helping animals. I tell kids how they can become the next Jane Gooddall if they follow these instructions:
1. Keep your curiosity about nature alive.
2. Get outside for chunks of time every day.
3. Don't let electronics and media ruin your sense of wonder in the natural world.
4. Find a passion and follow it.


And the Coretta Scott King Awards...

The Author Award PLUS the Illustrator Honor Award: Kadir Nelson, for Heart & Soul: The Story of America and African-Americans. This modest and lovely artist, who once said at a conference that he was unsure of his writing! The audacity of getting this complex history into a single volume with his powerful and exquisite illustrations is mind-boggling. I'm reading it aloud to upper elementary children right now and they find it gripping. So do I.






The Illustrator Award: Shane Evans, for Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom. I've ordered it and am eager to see this new take on a subject that continues to mesmerize our students.
A family silently crawls along the ground. They run barefoot through unlit woods, sleep beneath bushes, take shelter in a kind stranger's home. Where are they heading? They are heading for Freedom by way of the Underground Railroad.




And two author honor awards given to two highly acclaimed writers and previous honorees:

Eloise Greenfield, The Great Migration. It's on the way. Looks superb.








Patricia McKissack, Never Forgotten. Bought it and am taking it home NOW. McKissack is a national treasure who makes my job easier with her sensitive portrayals of the African-American experience in its myriad unfoldings.





See the entire list of 2012 Notable Books!
And, by the way, congratulations to Roaring Brook Press for reaping so many honors yet again. Simon Boughton, husband of our beloved friend, library muralist and illustrator extraordinaire Elaine Clayton, truly knows how to spot a great children's book.

On my bulletin board this week: A photo of Michelle Obama reading aloud to children, with my ongoing tag, "What do good readers do?" This month we're talking about how good readers make inferences.

So: a heated discussion between two five/six year olds about the photo:

That's the First Lady.
No it's not.
Yes it is.
Not it's not.
Yes it is.
No, they made lots of ladies before her.

Meanwhile, my absolute favorite new book for teaching children about making inferences:

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen.

A bear (I make him speak in a monotone) asks one forest animal after another if they have seen his hat. No one has seen it, although a rabbit wearing a pointy red hat vehemently denies that he would ever steal a hat. The bear has a delayed "aha" moment several pages later and races back. Spoiler alert: The bear eats the rabbit, but we only know it by inference. Bald-faced lies are delivered without any remorse. It's all the students can do not to shout out what they have inferred. And meanwhile they laugh uproariously at the animal's flat yet strangely expressive faces. This wicked masterpiece is a possible contender for a Caldecott award, to be announced Monday morning. Award or not, I can tell it will join the handful of all-time favorites in this library.

Teaching Website Evaluation

Part of the library curriculum for the upper elementary students includes several lessons on information literacy, where I emphasize the need to think critically and skeptically about online information. So many students (and their parents) forget about the library databases and other avenues to excellent information, instead "feeling lucky" and relying solely on Google searches. As I reminded students, we all use Google all the time for quick information needs, from finding out the opening hours of Home Depot to learning more about our favorite tv character. When it comes to serious research, however, library databases are essential.

Old standby favorites for demonstration purposes include Facts About Ancient China, an authentic and useful-looking site informing us that China was responsible for countless discoveries and innovations, including fireworks, tea, a variety of interesting and pain-relieving opiates, and the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. Another useful website is Facts About the Civil War, where we learn that this bloodiest conflict in American history claimed more lives than WWI, WWII, The War Against Switzerland and the Vietnam War combined. Of course, we mustn't forget about the endangered Northwest Pacific Tree Octopus or the hidden wonders of Mankato, Minnesota including a pyramid and a submerged city. One student helpfully told us about her mother's experience in law school: the school subscribed to the database Westlaw. Apparently someone created an authentic looking version of Westlaw, free to users as opposed to the one that required a password. The free fake one, however, contained loads of slightly false information, enough so that students who used it failed their exams. Wow!

The discussion took a more serious turn, however, as I described websites designed to convince readers of false or vicious notions, including anti-Semitic and racist sites. I also mentioned the abundance of conspiracy theories online, with special attention to the horrors (and deaths) caused by the "vaccination causes autism" spiral. Recently, I ran across this rant in the Dec. 1 library journal Booklist, in which Will Manley reflects on Walter Isaacson's recent biography of Steve Jobs:

"Isaacson tells us that instead of having an operation that would probably have eradicated the cancer for good, Jobs decided that he would try any number of alternative health remedies to heal himself, including fruitarian and vegan diets, acupuncture, herbal medicines, frequent bowel cleansings, hydrotherapy, positive thinking, and psychic consultations. He spent nine futile months wandering this yellow-brick road of medical denial before he consented to surgery. Did these nine moths cost him 30 or 40 years? Quite possibly, yes. It's fascinating to me that one of the great architects of our high-tech world succumbed in the end to old-fashioned, homespun medical superstition, if not hokum. How could a man so smart be so stupid?"

So, I will reprise the absolutely favorite video of last year, Librarians Do Gaga; and this time, please note the refrain "DON'T FORGET THE DATABASES!"

What Makes a Family? Sharing My Manuscript on Marriage Equality

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Over the past two years, I have worked with my friend Tamara on a nonfiction book about gays and lesbians. When Tamara approached me, she asked if I knew any good books on the topic for children.

I pointed out the handful of picture books that I use regularly with all grades, including And Tango Makes Three, the true story of a pair of male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who successfully raise a chick. This one frequently tops the American Library Association's list of most frequently challenged books--ie., one that people try to remove from libraries. That's all well and good, said Tamara, but we need one with real people.

Over time, our focus moved to an explanation of the issues surrounding marriage equality, aka gay marriage. We gathered photos from families and teachers at school, featuring familiar faces (and a few stock online images) to make it clear that we all know someone who is homosexual. We also worked hard to develop language that would explain the national conversation in terms that children in 4th-6th grade could understand. Then, this fall, I took a deep breath and began: I read the book aloud to all our upper elementary classes, clarifying terms and inviting discussion.

Me: I'm kind of nervous presenting this. Not because it's about gays and lesbians, but because I'm one of the authors. I don't know how it will go.
A 6th grade girl: It'll go fine. You'll see. We'll love it. You can do it!

A selection of student responses:

• What is a lesbian? I've heard that word.
• I heard kids saying "fag" sometimes when I was at sleepaway camp. What is that?
• But "gay" really means "happy."
• When people say "That's so gay," they're just saying something is stupid. They don't really mean about gay people.
• You said a family lives in a single household, but my mom lives in Pennsylvania.
• Are you gay? Are you a lesbian? Then why are you teaching us about this?
• My church teaches that it is wrong and against God.
• Do you think Georgia will change its laws the way that New York did?
  
• Some of our neighbors are gay and they have the nicest house and the nicest yard and they make great cookies. There's nothing wrong with them.
• My church says it is bad, but my aunt is gay, and once when I was eating lunch with her at a restaurant, people at a nearby table said mean things about her.
• How do you know if you are gay?
• It makes me so mad that kids get picked on because they have two moms. President Obama should change the law.
  
• Thanks for telling us about gay. I never talked about it before.

In the following weeks, two parents thanked me for introducing the topic, saying they were able to discuss it with their children. Do parents have any idea how much joy they give when they let a teacher know they appreciate a lesson? I was glad that none of the parents whose children had religious concerns came in to complain. And I teared up when I found that one child had put a comment in my idea box: "Read Natalie's gay and lesbian book to every class." Now Tamara and I need to radically revise, update and get the guts to send it to publishers. Maybe we'll send it to Rick Santorum too.


photos by Mistuh Will from the collection Rainbow Pi Presents a Celebration of Families.

What's On My Bulletin Board this Month

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I like bulletin boards that share my student's voices. I remember seeing one pre-fabricated fall bulletin board in a school library with cutesy squirrels and a voice bubble saying, "We're nuts for books!" And I'm sure they purchased one for every month of the year with the same big-eyed animals and the same lame puns. Gag.

On my bulletin board this month are submissions to the Idea Box.
The dozens of ideas fell into several categories.

I had invited students to suggest names for the Library Bunnies in the animations.
Just a few, spelling intact:

John and Mery
Name the bunnys Mary and Gordon
Yoko and Sam
Bob and Amey
Pickle and May May
The names should be Freddy and Fred
SRURS (Cyrus?) and Lilly

and a compliment, "Your show shold be named FUNY!"

The second category was all about Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggy books, with some Pigeons for good measure. I am rather puzzled by these. Are they suggestions for me to buy the books? I own them all. Are they simply notes about favorites? Perhaps. But many of them actually ask someone (me? the author? the person who opens the box?) to WRITE more of them. (For two must-read, dazzling analyses of why Mo Willems is a genius, click here and here.)

mak mor pigeon books
get u more books of dont let the pigeon drive the bus




Elepht and Piggie make more thak you
brand noo elephant and piggie book
Elephant and Piggy
I will suprise my friend


Of no particular category but especially enjoyable to me:

maby you sould buy ritle books (riddles)
Let the kids hata ie cone (ice cream cone?)
you should have muffins or cupcakes on Mondays
Read Natalie's gay and lesbian book to every class
(more on this one later but I did co-author a manuscript)

And finally, a typewritten complaint about Mad magazine, claiming that it is inappropriate, not good literature, concluding,"And if a parent found out they might protest or something" and signed, "An anonymous student who cares about your reputation."

Do I have a good job or what?

Here's a 4 min. video of two emergent readers enthusiastically tackling Mo Willems' There's A Bird On Your Head. Expression? check. Enthusiasm? check. Joy and laughter? check.

Altruism, plus, Why I Hate The Giving Tree

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I see little gestures of kindness all day. A 5 year old girl pats the seat beside her, inviting a child who has just arrived to join the group. A 7 year old boy responds to a story about the death of a dog with tears, and his classmate hands him a tissue and puts an arm around his shoulder. A 10 year old boy passionately recommends a book to a friend and pulls the friend over to check it out. Children hold doors for me when my hands are full, reach down and pick up my glasses when I drop them, and ask me if my cold is better. I am often encouraged by research showing children's natural tendencies toward altruism, but I witness it on my own all the time.


When Jerry Pinkney (finally!) won The Caldecott Award, his acceptance speech for The Lion and the Mouse concluded,

"... I believe ultimately the enduring strength of this tale is in its moral: no act of kindness goes unrewarded. Even the strongest can sometimes use the help of the smallest. To me the story represents a world of neighbors helping neighbors, unity and harmony, interdependence."

The story helps us all remember that no kind act is ever wasted. Some of my favorite picture books are abundant with loving-kindness -- you know, the ones where you choke up while you're reading aloud and the kids worry about you:


A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Christian Stead
A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
Saving Strawberry Farm by Deborah Hopkinson
Zen Shorts and Zen Ties by Jon Muth
Thank You Mr. Falker, Trees of the Dancing Goats and many other by Patricia Polacco
The Talking Eggs by Robert San Souci
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
One Grain of Rice by Demi
Toads and Diamonds by Charlotte Huck
The Lady in the Box by Ann McGovern
Uncle Jed's Barbershop by Margaret Kind Mitchell
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Corduroy by Don Freeman
How To Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham
Tomas and the Library Lady by Pat Mora
Sophie's Masterpiece by Eileen Spinelli

So...Now I can be unkind because it's my blog and I can. Does anyone else hate The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein?
To refresh your memory, it opens, "Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy."
The little boy proceeds to take her apples when he needs money, chop her branches when he needs shelter, cut her trunk when he needs a boat, and finally, as an old man, comes and sits on her stump. And this makes her happy.

And this makes me incensed. This is not kindness, this is absurd self-sacrifice on the altar of selfishness. But there are many opinions on this: click here to read an analysis and hundreds of response posts. In fact, click on the comment button below and we can start our own conversation! (Or ask me and I can direct those of you over 18 to some fine parodies.)

Meanwhile, the students have been on my case to make another animation with the Library Bunnies. This one was inspired by a slip of paper in the Idea Box which said, "I Don't Know How To Check Out Books." These bunnies are always kind and supportive to one another, even if they are occasionally anxious, neurotic and perfectionistic . Sometimes they remind me of my own students. Just don't ask me who.

Don%27t+Know+How+To+Check+Out by PithyPython

Thankful

Thanksgiving stories: This year, I emphasized the idea of immigration and Thanksgiving, encouraging students to talk to their parents about this hot topic. We read Eve Bunting's How Many Days to America, in which a family escapes from Cuba in a leaky boat and lands in the U.S. on Thanksgiving Day, warmly welcomed. I also read Molly's Pilgrim, a story that shows how ugly some Americans can be about people with different customs, appearance and language. I asked children to write down things they are thankful for on the library bulletin board this month -- here are some samples (spelling intact).

my dog
gorilas!
donnuts
Tigger
my dog Josie
my bruther
hockey
The U.S. Air Force
Natiy (that's me, folks!)
my life
God
Disney World
my famule
soccer
dolphins
you
my fiend
sandwichs
my school Paideia
the librare

I am thankful for Thomas Friedman's article about school achievement, "We Need Better Parents." At last! Someone who is not an education expert cites a study, and in the New York Times at that, telling the world about the topic so dear to my heart: Reading aloud is one of the most important things you can do to help your child do well in school. I am thankful I teach in a school full of parents who enjoy reading to their children.

I am also thankful for anyone who sends me something to make me laugh. Thanks to my husband Matthew for sending me the link to this video of Jimmy Fallon channeling Jim Morrison & the Doors (sorry I can't embed it). If you need a refresher on the original, here you go: