TEACHERNINJA

Crunch and the Science Alliance

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Mon, 28 May 2012 19:14:00 +0000

I'm going to read at least most of the Georgia Book Award nominees this year. I'm done with our district "Reader's Rally" and am going to have just a book club instead. I thought about us reading the Reader's Rally books without doing the competition (they have a good list of books this year) but decided on the book award nominees because I think the kids will get more out of defending, arguing for and voting for their favorites.

The only one I've already read is Turtle In Paradise by Jennifer Holm. Which was great fun and is on the Reader's Rally list as well.

Crunch is about an actual oil crisis and the impact on one family in particular. The Marriss family lives on a farm and our narrater is fourteen year old Dewey. He has a brother around his age, Vince; and older sister, eighteen year old Lil the artist; and two younger siblings they're caring for. Mom and Dad have gone off in his tractor trailer on a deliver-cum-couples vacation up north when some vague political mess leads to a massive gasoline crunch. No fuel to be had anywhere. It just so happens Dewey and his brother have been put in charge of Dad's little side job of repairing bikes while the folks are on their trip. Suddenly, the crunch begins to hit them too as the bike jobs start piling up and things seem like they may get out of hand.

I like this one because I can see many discussion possibilities. It's all about cooperation and teamwork and problem-solving without being overly didactic. There are many other little roadblocks thrown up in our family's path: an obnoxious neighbor, some troubling thefts, the whole five siblings trying to work things out without Mom and Dad thing and various other minor setbacks. But Dewey and the other Marriss kids do well on their own and figure out it's important to get help when you need it.

The characterization and the pace of this book were superb. Never too much backstory and never too much dwelling on any single issue. Dewey and his clan make a few mis-steps and tensions run high at times, but they all take their responsibilities seriously and do their best to keep things going.

I love that it's obviously set in modern day (there cellphones and internet connections) but there's too much real world stuff outside for these kids to do to let that stuff take up their time. I also like how real the conflicts seem. When Dewey has to deal with a particularly pushy customer on his own with no recourse to and adult he steps up and handles this very intense interaction in a realistic way. I've dealt with people like that. It's hard to stay diplomatic when you know you need to and this is a great example of that without hitting you over the head with it.

They also learn that helping people out is just good standard practice because it all comes back to you in the end.

The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis is a hoot of a yarn. Super nerdy inventor Julian Calendar is delighted when he finds out the family is relocating and he'll be going to a new middle school. He can act like a normal, dumb kid and make friends! He is intimidated by a crazy, tough bicycle-helmet wearing girl named Greta and sits near a big dumb-but-cool jock named Ben. It later turns out they are smart inventors too and invite him to their secret and of course, amazing inventor lab/hideout. They revel in their inventive nerdiness until an adult inventor steals their notebook and begins selling their inventions! Then there is the small matter of a criminal mastermind breaking into the museum Greta's dad runs. Can they and their gadgets save the day?

There are few surprises in the plot but everything works perfectly. The characters are a wonderful mix of differing degrees of smart and confident. Julian learns to embrace the geek; Ben is smart, good looking, athletic and a genius inventor but has trouble with spelling and chokes on tests. Greta is the most fun. She's all sassy confidence and bravado. Love her.

The illustrations are fantastically, nerdily detailed. Some are like schematics of the plot. Maps with arrows pointing out little details. Tons of in jokes and fun references thrown in as well. This can be picked up many times and something new will reveal itself.

But the best part is the secret hideout, the hilarious inventions and, of course, the fact that science is shown to be awesome!

Rising Tide

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Sat, 26 May 2012 12:58:00 +0000

I cannot think of one think John M. Barry could possibly do to improve Rising Tide. It's probably the best straight history book I've read.

This was a book club pick and this is why book clubs can be so great. I would have never read this of my own accord but I'm so glad I have now. It has amazing scope, but never feels bogged down with anything unnecessary. It also weaves in enough detail and personal stories that the wide scope never feels too distanced.

This is yet another in a long line of books that has "...and how it changed America" in the subtitle, but in this case Barry backs up the claim. This country before this flood and the same country after this flood are very different places. Before this flood whites controlled a large, hard-working black population in the south with vast sugar and cotton plantations. After the flood the great migration took place with a vast exodus of black labor. Before this flood Herbert Hoover was a relatively unknown Secretary of Commerce in the Coolidge administration. After the flood he won the presidency by a landslide. Before the flood, New Orleans was a crown jewel of a city with the strongest banking industry in the country. After the flood, even tough the city was spared, it became a shadow of it's former self. Though a horse-drawn carriage driver told me on a tour through the city last winter holiday that "faded glory is better than no glory, I suppose."

I once saw a documentary about Mark Twain and in an interview with Russell Banks he said that Mark Twain was our first major writer because he grasped two concepts about this country better than anyone else at the time: race and space. The troubling friction between blacks and whites and the ways we were coming to grips with this wide open land. This book nails the importance of both these themes coming to a head in a most dramatic way.

Don't go into this expecting a disaster book, though there's plenty in here about the flood itself. This starts just after the Civil War and describes two engineers who battle each other for control of the best way to control the river, which has far-reaching impact on the events of 1927. Then there are other biographical portraits of men whose influence helps or hurts the situation (sometimes at the same time) and how all of these decisions have far-reaching impact on the future of the country from race relations to disaster management.

While nowhere nearly as informative as this book, the Wikipedia page devoted to this disaster has links to actual footage of the flood and it's aftermath at the bottom!

Oblique Children's Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:11:00 +0000

I was skeptical of our most recent read-aloud in the first place. My daughter brought it home from a school book fair and we kept passing over it, but after our last read-aloud she wanted to go buy another book and I was like, "Hold on there. Check out this stack of 5 or 6 books we haven't even read yet!" Of course she picked this one.

We started reading it and while it didn't grab me, it seemed pleasant enough. Then I checked out the reviews on Goodreads. Mostly positive, which was nice for a first-time novelist, I believe. So we continued reading and man, it never grabbed me. At all. It wasn't so horrible that we gave up on it, but my lovely bride and I both did not savor it at all. I hated the multiple exclamation points and question marks. I know it's from a child's point of view, but it's not an epistolary novel so that was just obnoxious.

The other thing was the magic. Yes, it has characters with magical abilities in it but it's this child's play kind of magic that just presents itself whenever needed and just come off like kids playing pretend. "Well, then, I 'll do a forgetting spell and you'll forget!"

Worst of all, for me, was the voice. It's from a child's point of view (I can't remember how old, between nine and eleven somewhere). This kid keeps learning Meaningful Lessons every few chapters that just sounded like they were written by an after school special scriptwriter and not an actual child.

Way too much telling and not enough showing in this book. ugh.

So anyway, not my favorite. Luckily we have a couple of much better choices coming up and I should be finishing some other books soon to write up.

School: Reality-Free Zone

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:57:00 +0000

It's perfectly legal for women to breastfeed their children in public, but according to some middle and high school librarians that carry this periodical, apparently it's not always okay for a breastfeeding woman to appear on the cover of a magazine.

Weird country we live in.

I din't know my local library had a blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:23:00 +0000

It's called "Further Reading." Here's a link and I'll add it to the link tab up top.

They just announced Thomas Mullen winning a Georgia literary prize. I remember him! He came to our book club when we read The Last Town on Earth. I hear his two more recent ones are even better.

So yea local authors and yea local libraries!

Peter and the Starcatchers

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:06:00 +0000

Finally got around to starting this series. I probably would have started it sooner had I known the audio version was read by Jim Dale!

So Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson take us back to the beginning, before Barrie's original Peter Pan and let us in on how Peter became able to fly, doesn't age, the history of Neverland island, the mermaids, the native inhabitants, the fairies, and of course the pirate captain. In this book he is not yet Captain Hook, but an evil pirate known as Black Stache.

It's great fun, full of action, adventure and some potent scares. These pirates are good and mean. Stache thinks nothing of making men jump off his boat to lighten the load. The book also takes a great angle with the native islanders, redeeming the story from that horribly racist Disney cartoon, without falling into the equally nauseating Pocahontas trap.

One thing I wondered about was the choices the authors made to riff on. This is clearly more of a riff on the Disnyfied version than the original Barrie. In the book Peter's hair is described as "light." in the movie and this book it's more of an orangish red. Smee is described more like the cartoon version. Same with Tink. I don't know if the authors did this because the movie is more well-known or because the publisher is Disney.

I have yet to see the stage play, but I hear it's even better than the book! I enjoyed this very much and hope to get more students at school to give it a try. It's a think book and seems to intimidate. I'll find a few snatches to read aloud that will hook them, so to speak.

Speaking of read-alouds, we've been cranking at home. We read the second Familiars book, Secrets of the Crown, and that was almost better than the first one. The evil bunny, though, still cracks me up and makes me think of Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Then we finished off the Sister's Grimm series with The Council of Mirrors. Tears were shed, but plenty of laughs as well. Then we just finished breezing through The White Giraffe, one of Annette's favorites.

And I had one of those perfect librarian moments last week! I've been reading from a different genre each week. The week before had been biography; last week was informational. I finished reading aloud to a class and was preparing them for checking out when a boy raised his hand and said, "Wait, can you read another story from that book about the brothers?" (He's referring to Knucklehead, which is hilarious and awsome.) I asked the class if they wanted me to and, yes, they did. This was the first time I know of they didn't just rush off to check out books. Afterwards, I told the kid that he should get his third grade teacher to do it as a read aloud and he quickly said no. Why not, I wondered. Because, he said, they wouldn't be able to read it in such a funny way!

Ka-ching!

Adolescent Tales

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:45:00 +0000

So here are two very different books. They probably couldn't be more different. If you were to draw a Venn diagram there would be a very large circle around all the names of the people who read Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids; her years with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe. There would be a somewhat smaller circle around E. D. Baker's middle grade fractured fairy tale in which it turns out Sleeping Beauty has a younger sister who has all kinds of adventures trying to save the entire sleeping kingdom from a curse. I'm imaging the place where these two circles intersect, where there are people have read both books, is but a sliver.

I also imagine a similar Venn diagram which displays people who have blogged about both books. I have no evidence for this, but I imagine I'm alone in the intersection of these two circles, especially as I have decided to write about both books in one post.

But what is life without a challenge, I say.

Neither book was of my choosing, other than agreeing to read them. Smith's book was chosen by the resident music expert in our book club. We get into so many musical conversations about the people like Leonard Cohen, Richard Thompson, Tom Waits, Aretha Franklin et cetera, that it was inevitable we read something more directly music related. Might as well be something that won the National Book Award.

Baker's book was chosen by my daughter for our most recent read-aloud. She's on a big fantasy kick and especially loves these new meta versions of fairly tales like the Sister's Grimm and the movie Tangled. I think she picked it up at the most recent school book fair.

These books, believe it or not, are not entirely unrelated. They both concern adolescents on a quest and helped by a male companion who knows and relates to them in ways no other can, inspiring and pushing them on through their journeys.

Patti has Robert Mapplethorpe. She meets him in New York in 1967 and they spend a very intense next seven years together figuring out who they are as people, as artists, as lovers, as everything. Now I realize that she was 21 when she met him--not everyone's idea of adolescent--but they are both definitely immature and learning to grow up into the people and artists they will later become.

Princess Annie has Liam, one of her father's guards who happened to be one of those few outside the castle grounds when the sleeping spell hits. Together they go on a quest to round up as many princes as they can in an attempt to break the spell. First up is Digby, the official betrothed, but with him being such an ass, it can't hurt to get as many royals as possible just in case.

Liam and Robert are both resourceful and focused men who are incredibly devoted to their quests and their partners. They both also happen to have a few secrets up their sleeves.

Patti and Annie are both smart, funny and interesting young ladies who can spot a phony a mile away and are equally focused and devoted to their respective Prince Charmings. Also, neither one is beautiful in any conventional sense. Patti because she has other priorities (though she does have a vivid memory for everything she's ever worn), and Annie because while most other royals have fairy magic sprinkled on them during their christenings that make them unnaturally good looking and talented, Annie is different. A fairy gave her the gift/curse of being impervious to magic. She can't be hurt or helped by it in any way. She's her own woman. Liam is similarly "natural" and they find themselves enjoying each other's company more because of this.

Patti and Annie do seem to have one magic power however. They both seem unable to avoid any famous person in their vicinity. Patti interacts with Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol's entire retinue, Sam Sheppard, Jim Carroll, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen and many more. Annie meets the inspirations for the frog prince, Hansel & Gretel, the princess and the pea, Rapunzel and more.

Now I'm not saying anyone who enjoys one of these books will enjoy the other. They are very different. Smith's is of a specific time and place and if you don't care about these things, then no amount of her poetical writing will make you care. Baker's is meant for kids aged 8-12 who like to laugh at clever twists on familiar tales.

For some reason, though, they came into my reading life at the same time and I couldn't help that they were both bouncing around in my noggin at the same time when I sat down to write about them. That ever happen to you?

Beatrice and Louise

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:54:00 +0000

I am such a sucker. A teacher at my daughter's school has mice for their class pets in her classroom. One of them had babies and she's been looking for homes for them. Of course my daughter asked and of course my wife didn't say no and of course I got ambushed last week with her sitting on the couch when I got home using her big eyes on me with a carefully written persuasive note in her hand on why I should let her take in a mouse. "Mama said it's up to you."

I folded like a lawn chair.

Yesterday she came home with two cute little furry brown mice. When it was time to name them she thought of Secrets at Sea, our most recent read aloud. Lousie and Beatrice are two of the mouse sisters in the story. The two mice we've adopted look exactly alike except one of them has a pink tail and one has a brown tail. So since Beatrice like to dress up in the story, she is the pink-tailed mouse and the other is now Louise.

Recent Read-Alouds

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:34:00 +0000

I grabbed a stack of new children's chapter books from the library a couple weeks ago to let my daughter and her Mama pick out our nex couple of read alouds. All realistic fiction was rejected and two fantasies rose to the top. So here are some brief remarks on these two newish books. Now before I start, let me just say that I am usually prejudiced against talking animal books, but I found these rather enjoyable.

First up was The Familiars by Epstein and Jacobson. This one will be the more popular of the two, I think. It has all the elements of a completely cheesy and off-putting children's fantasy series, but these guys make it all work. I mean it's about a cat and a blue jay and a frog for crying out loud. But it really does work well. It's always on the move and covers quite a bit of ground in it's 300 or so pages. It begins with Aldwyn, an alley cat who has teed off one too many shopkeepers in a kingdom town and is on the run for his life from a bounty hunter hired to rid the village of his kind of vermin. He ends up in a place he's never been and hides in a pet store for "familiars," the magical companions for young wizards in training. A young wizard named Jack chooses Aldwyn and they form a strong bond. Aldwyn is a smart cookie, but wonders how he can hide his non-magical pedigree. It doesn't take long for the plot to kick into high gear when the evil Queen of Vastia kidnaps Jack and two other wizards-in-training, leaving Aldwyn the cat, a bossy blue jay named Skylar, and a companionable little tree frog named Gilbert on an adventure to find and free their "loyals."

It's a romp, full of great humor and plenty of action. It's perfect for pretty much any kid.

Next up was Richard Peck's newest, Secrets at Sea. This concerns a family of mice trying to keep up with their human family on the move. Mice families are tied to the fortunes of their unknowing human families. The human, or Upstairs, Cranstons have decided to go off to England during the time of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee to find a suitable husband for their eldest daughter. The mouse, or Downstairs, Cranstons decide to stow away on the ship despite their serious trepidation of water. Our main character is Helena, the oldest of four mouse siblings. There are some very fun moments of culture clash between the American and British humans and mice and some fun little adventures on board. There's even a nicely creepy cat of course. It has nothing of the stakes of The Familiars but Peck is such a sure-handed storyteller with such good prose and wordplay that this is just as much fun to read aloud.

Unfortunately it does lend itself more to girls than to boys. The main characters are female and the plot concerns the human and mice girls finding suitable husbands.

So, to sum up, here we have two great read-alouds with two great stories. The Familiars edges out Secrets at Sea simply because of it's wider appeal but I'll be recommending them both to students soon.

The Best Picture of the Obamas

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:32:00 +0000

I know this has made the rounds, but I just wanted to put it here to crack myself up. You go, Wild Things.

More on HP Party and GCBAC

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:55:00 +0000

I just want to make sure it's clear that I had very little to do with that awesome HP party. I just followed orders. It was my lovely bride that came up with everything and let that become her hobby for about three months. My main contribution was the labels for all the "potions" and running the Potions Class. I was Socrates Slinkhard, the new Potions Professor. Here's one of my labels:

I just used a few fancy fonts and some clip art. Annette got the scroll-like paper at an office supply shop and collected interesting bottles for months. The secret is to use spray adhesive for the bottle labels.

And there was another thing I wanted to share about the GA Children's Book Award Conference. On the first day there wasn't any 3:00 breakout sessions I was interested in, so I decided to check out the less crowded vendor area. On my way through the autographing area I noticed that all of the authors and illustrators were there! Just sitting there chatting. I scurried to the temporary book shop and stocked up, then made my way to get some stuff signed. It was great not having to worry about a line, that's for sure. Then I thought I'd take some pictures with my new fancy phone but an idea hit me. I could do videos with this thing! So I asked each one if they'd mind saying a few words to the students in my school as a greeting for my morning show. They were more than happy to do it! The results were a bit shaky and the sound isn't that good but I played a different one each morning for the next week and the teachers who paid attention loved it.

I think I'll try to contact one of the conference organizers and tell them about this. They could set up a camera and mic on a tripod in a corner, drape a background and have each participant say a short morning message to the students of Georgia. Then a link to these video files could be available to any media specialist who wanted them. Wouldn't that be cool?

If you want to see the results, here's some of the links:

Carole Boston Weatherford busted out with a poem!

Jody Feldman

Mike Wimmer

Barbara O'Connor calls me awesome, so that's my favorite.

Meghan McCarthy did one but it didn't come out that well.

If you steal this idea, you might want to have some kind of a tripod and an external mike. And don't try it if there's a line! Have fun.

Hermione's Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:34:00 +0000

Welcome to Harper's 9th birthday party! Pick up your cauldron, class schedule scrolls, homemade ink, quill, and satchel of wizard coins and gather for the sorting.

What's your first class? Potions?

Next? Divinations with Madame Trelwany (after wand decorating)...

Now for Transfigurations! Turn a clay cup into any animal.

Now on to Harper's Sweet Shop & Companion Emporium! Time to spend those sickles and knuts...

With a full cauldron, say goodbye to Harper and go off into the magical evening wondering what she will come up with next year...

Happy Birthday Hermione!

"It was awesome!"

And I didn't even mention the food! The home made cauldron cakes, cockroach clusters, chocolate frogs, chocolate-covered wands, pumpkin pasties and so much more. Mmmmm...

43rd GA Book Award Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:09:00 +0000

The Georgia Children's Book Awards and Conference took place last beautiful spring weekend in Athens, GA. It's my favorite conference because it's more about the books and the kids and the reading, writing and art that goes into the amazing and ever-expanding world of children's literature.

Meghan McCarthy accepted the Picture Book Award for her completely unique and wonderful Aliens Are Coming: The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast. She was the last full-conference speaker and it was a wide-ranging, hilarious and touching talk about the influences of her parents, her difficulties with school, her interests and obsessions and some ideas she has for upcoming books. But I won't give those away here. She also shared why she mostly works at night giving us some video glimpses of some of the nutty things that go on outside her Brooklyn apartment window during the day. There might be a children's book in that!

Carole Boston Weatherford came late to the first luncheon and sat at our table! It was an honor to chat with her about her work, the amazing illustrators she's worked with, and her college teaching career. The on-site bookstore didn't have all of her books available, so she tailored her talk to the ones that were there. She ended with a moving tribute to Tayvon Martin.

Mike Wimmer shared his beautiful photo-realistic art. The guy is amazing. He used to play football and be a body builder, and just exudes this manly confidence. He's funny and he sang "Summertime" quite well while sharing the art from this book with us. If he wasn't so nice I'd have to hate him a little.

Barbara O'Connor was hilarious. She riffed on Mike's talk by pretending to have been a body builder as well. She also shared slides of her earliest creations and comments from teachers letting her know her faults. I love that many of these authors and artists had some trouble in school. It make me see my students in a different way. We got to hear about her newest upcoming book: On the Road to Mr. Mineo's.

Jody Feldman had to speak first thing on Saturday morning and was nervous about that. Apparently she is a morning person, often starting her days before the sun comes up, but does not think of herself as a very coherent morning person until a few cups of coffee. She did fine. She wanted us to know that her novel The Seventh Level is for the same age range as The Gollywhopper Games (for which she was accepting the GA Book Award). They had the much cooler paperback available but she had the impression that some people were assuming it was more of a YA book because of a VOYA blurb on the back of the book and because it's about a "secret society." She assures us that it's not that secret of a society since it's sanctioned by the character's school and all. She also revealed some exciting new by telling us that she's apparently been lying to everyone when she told them there would not be sequels to The Gollywhopper Games. She has some ideas and now says there will not only be one, but two more Gollywhopper books!

So go poke around their websites and share their books with the kiddos. State award winning books are the best since they're picked by, you know, the actual people they're created for!

TBR Double Dare Final Results

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:47:00 +0000

I'm finished! Technically, the Dare ends on April first (very fitting indeed), but I know my limitations. I know I will not read another book in the next three or four days. I probably could if I had something I had to finish, but I don't and with the Harry Potter birthday party preparations in full on crazy mode, there's not a chance.

So let's see how I did. First, let me mention my one exception. Winterdance by Gary Paulsen was a book club book. I didn't own it before the Dare began, even though I own and have read quite a number of his books. I even met him when he was signing for Brian's Winter. But I allowed myself permission for book club books. But since I'd bought the one for January before January 1 and already owned the March choice, I let those count towards my TBR total.

I only broke the no-purchasing rule once. I subscribe to the Amazon Kindle Daily Deal on Twitter and they had an absurdly good deal one day on a collection I will love at some point. I only read the introduction, C.B., I swear!

Sometime in the middle of the Dare I wrote about a new system for dealing with the stuff I want to read. I have the books I own on there in red and the ones I want to read but don't own yet in black. I'm down to around 20 in red out of over 80 titles. Of course some are series, so there you go. And I actually have many more books in my house that I own and have not read, but until they make me, they're not on the list at the moment.

Okay, here's the final count. Lucky 13!

This Book Is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
The Burglar in the Rye by Lawrence Block
The Foundling by D. M. Cornish
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
Brain Cuttings by Carl Zimmer

I've added the links to all my write ups if you care. I obviously wasn't using my system. to read these. It's an interesting mix of older and newer titles.

I quite enjoyed this Dare. I'm not one to go in for reading challenges, but this one let me read what I wanted to read and made me stick with only things I own. It was something I'd been meaning to do, so it feels great to have actually stuck with it for so long. I'm actually going to continue giving precedent to the books on my list in red as I continue to work through it (and add to it, of course).

I'm looking forward to going back to the Double Dare sign up list over the break and seeing how others did with their reading.

What's next for me? I just started the April and May Book Club picks. After that I plan on sticking to my system, slowly getting rid of the red ink and trying to add in more children's literature. I'm a school librarian after all!

Thanks C.B.!

Brain Cuttings

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:10:00 +0000

Well, looks like this is my last book for the TBR Double Dare. I may write up a final reflection on the books I read and the process of going through this dare, but I'd call it a big success for me. Got a lot of stuff I'd bought but never got around to reading. I even came up with a new system to tackle all the books on my list, the ones I own and the ones I'm just interested in reading at some point and plan on giving priority to the ones I own to keep whittling away at this TBR pile (physical and electronic).

I'm a big fan of Carl Zimmer's writing. He's a popular science writer and writes both books and articles for publications such as Discover, New York Times, Smithsonian and National Geographic. Here's a list of some of his books. But for some reason this title isn't currently available at that online retailer. Here's one that still has it.

He tells the story that while on vacation a couple years ago his wife finished reading whatever she'd brought along, so used her iPhone to download another book to read. And another. And another. She flew through half a dozen books and he thought: "Maybe there's something to these ebooks after all." Now not only has he published this and other titles only in the ebook format, he's one of the founding editors of Download the Universe, a new website which reviews only science ebooks and apps!

This book, Brain Cuttings, is a collection of some of his magazine pieces just on neuroscience. There's another one out now called More Brain Cuttings. He decided to self-publish the title but to get a good graphic design house to create the cover and layout rather that just sell a Word document. The extra effort shows in a well-designed and nicely formatted book. It still has the occasional typo, tough.

It's just what it's advertised to be, so don't expect more. It's a collection of fifteen interesting articles on the brain and current brain science. It has a great section of references at the end. It's a light, breezy book, as you would expect from a collection of magazine articles. I'd call it brain candy, but that might be gross, considering the cover.

Now to start on my April and May book club selections!

Lies My Teacher Told Me

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:50:00 +0000

As we wind down the TBR Double Dare, I just have a couple more books to blog about. I finished this a week or so ago and I have a short one I'm more than half way finished with but getting to time to blog is nearly impossible these days. It's been a crazy schedule for the MLB and I and I've had a Book Fair last week which is just now coming down and I went the the GA Book Awards/Children's Lit. Conference (more about that coming up!) and it's crunch time for our little one's Harry Potter-themed party and my time is being filled with requests to make labels for bottles of dragon's blood and the like. It's all a bit crazy.

But I do find the occasional time to read and this was one I started years ago but never finished, so I welcomed the opportunity of the TBR Dare to knock it out.

It's a perfect history book for me. I love reading about history, but I don't necessarily feel like I'm back in school. It had to have stories or arguments that grab me to keep me going. The first ten or so chapters take common events covered in a dozen high school american History text books of the time (this was written in 1995 but I understand there is an updated edition since 2007 or so) and tell how they either get factual information wrong, present it badly, omit important information and the like. The rest of it is an argument about how badly american History is typically taught in high schools and some better options we could try rather than continue to use these bland and hardly rigorous text books.

Most of the things he covers are things you may have already read about (Christopher Columbus knew the world was round, was intending to collect slaves all along, etc.) and some of it may be new to you (Woodrow Wilson segregated an already unified Washington D.C. and helped promote Birth of a Nation and the resurgence of the KKK), but it's all things that are badly handled by our text books if at all.

Loewen advocated a more inquiry-based approach in which less topics are raised more in depth with more primary readings and questions designed to promote discussion, thought and further reading. In fact, I was kind of blown away at how closely this goes with most of the same things I 've been talking about wen it comes to teaching science and critical thinking. This is just as good of a critical thinking book as Sagan's brilliant Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.

The most upsetting thing is just how plain wrong most of the stuff is. It's the on;y subject we teach where when you go on to college, the professors routinely tell you to forget everything you've learned and start over. We might be weak on teaching science, but it's not like it's all wrong.

This has got me thinking and it's hard to decide what to do about it. I was in a Kindergarten class the other day and saw a nonfiction book about Betsy Ross on display. You know what Betsy Ross did? Nothing. Well, I mean she lived her life, got married and did whatever she did, but she certainly didn't make the first American flag. She may have had input on the design of the shape of the stars, but that's about it. It's a complete myth made up most likely by her grandson. It's no big deal but why do we waste time in elementary school teaching something that's not true when there are so many true and much more important and relevant things to teach?

We really need to cut the history standards by about two-thirds and teach the remaining third much more in depth and spend more time teaching how and why to think about and study history than cramming a bunch of meaningless facts and dates into student's heads.

If you've ever taken American History and you're curious at all you would do well to check this book out for yourself.

Some of the Best Forty Bucks I Ever Spent

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:03:00 +0000

I was just going over another teacher observation review with my principal and it was concerning an end-of-nine-weeks reference review lesson with a group of fifth grade students.

She mentioned that while it was just a slide show review multiple-choice thing, she was impressed that I kept circulating and getting answers from more than the same few students raising their hands. It seemed to keep the lesson light and fun while keeping talking and off-task behaviors to a minimum.

It's because I got myself one of these babies a couple of years ago. I'm proud that I don't do many slide show presentation-type lessons but when it's needed, this is the best thing to have. Makes you feel like you're giving a TED talk. Actually, it's better than a TED talk that because, like she said, you can circulate around the room and not be tied to your keyboard (or worse, have someone else do it for you and have to spend half your time telling them to "go back," or "go on.)"

I'm not endorsing a specific product here. Any of these type of pointer doohickeys will do the job. (Click the image in this post to see some options.) But it's one of those things that some teachers or school librarians might be hesitant to spend on for themselves yet I think if you do indeed use any type of presentation format more than a couple times of year, then you'll be more than happy you have this in your desk drawer.

Breakfast of Champions

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:36:00 +0000

Where have I been? I don't know why I haven't been blogging. Just not much to say I suppose.

But hey, I finished another book for the TBR Double Dare! At some point Amazon had a daily deal on this book for the Kindle so I picked it up cheap a while back but hadn't gotten around to it. I'm glad I did because I was totally in the mood for it's dark, absurdist wackiness.

It's not one of his top tier books, like Slaughterhouse Five or Cat's Cradle but it's a little lighter and funnier than those, so it works well. It's about a failed science fiction author, Kilgore Trout, making his way to an arts festival in the Midwest while a local car dealer and business owner of the town slowly comes unhinged. When they meet in the climax, Trout is horrified to find that one of his works of fiction becomes the thing that causes the car dealer to finally lose it and go on a violent rampage.

Okay, so it doesn't sound that funny but trust me, Vonnegut uses a light touch and part of what makes it funny is that he tell you up front everything that will eventually happen so you're not wondering about that but instead enjoying the ride he takes you on in a weird Virgil-like trip through 70s America with comments on it's culture, racism, sexism, consumerism, etc. He is not above poking you and letting you know he thinks of these characters as versions of himself and if you don't get that, then he goes on to stick himself right there in the ending of the book as a sunglasses-wearing observer of the climax of the so-called plot.

He fills the book with silly little pen and ink drawing of random things. Probably one of the unintentionally funniest is the fact that, to me at least, his drawing of an asshole (don't ask why he draws this) kept reminding me of the new Wal-Mart icon:

And so on.

Linkification

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:49:00 +0000

Someone asked about a blogroll recently. I lost mine in a template move and just now brought it back as a tab at the top of the page called "Links." Use it to find far more fascinating reading than whatever you found by accidentally clicking onto this blog.

I wasn't sure how many people actually used my previous blogrolls and links with so much traffic coming from feed readers, but you never know. I also figured the "Members" thing on the sidebar is a good place to click on to find other blogs. Also, of course, the comments usually lead to wonderful bloggers. But it's nice to give props to some of my favorite hangouts on the web. I'll do my best to go through and keep it updated from time to time.

Let me know if you've linked to me and I've neglected to link to you. Or if there's any blogs or whatever you think I should check out just because.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:03:00 +0000

I don't give a flying fig about the Oscars, but it was nice to hear that this bit of book love won some recognition.

The Innocents Abroad

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:14:00 +0000

The Innocents Abroad is early Twain. In fact, other than "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," he was more well known as a young, satirical travel writer. This is a photograph taken in 1867, around the time of the travels written of in the book.

Being a collection of writings gathered together that had been published serially, it's a bit rough around the edges and lags in parts, but even at 32, he had a wise, sardonic eye and a talent for skewering his subjects, himself and his readers all at the same time. It was also apparently his bestselling book during his lifetime and one of the bestselling travel books ever written. It certainly gave P. J. O'Rourke and other wise-cracking, travelling journalists something to emulate.

It's the report of a cruise aboard a repurposed Civil War vessel with a bunch of other Americans around Europe, North Africa and the Holy Land. Just as Jon Stewart makes fun of a lot of things but the roasting of the television news media itself seems to be the heart of The Daily Show, Twain makes fun of many things but always goes back to the contrast between what he's seeing and experiencing and what he's been led to expect to see and experience by the overinflated travel writers before him. Of course, he also has at his fellow travelers, himself, the countries he's visiting, and everyone he meets as well.

A particular favorite target of he and his fellow travelers is "Ferguson." He (it's always a he) is the name they give to every tour guide in every country they visit whether they like the name or not. Usually not. Poor Ferguson is teased mercilessly no matter the context. In Italy, he's repeatedly asked if the artist of whatever great work they're currently appreciating is dead when it's clear that he would have to be. Or he's asked if the great work is by Michelangelo when it's clear that it's not. So he's torturing "Ferguson" for being a know-it-all who tells them more than they wish to know and has fun with the idea of the "Ugly American" traveller at the same time.

He employs both skepticism and appreciation when they finally get to the Holy Land. He obviously has reverence for the place and knows the stories well, but can't help but trash the folly of man and his religions who constantly war and do violence to one another for slim theological differences. He also enjoys pointing out the sheer absurdity of the so-called religious relics that are enshrined at nearly every church or holy place they visit throughout Europe and the Middle East.

I'll leave you with some of the many quotes I underlined:

"The information the ancients didn't have was very voluminous. Even the prophets wrote book after book and epistle after epistle, yet never once hinted at the existence of a great continent on our side of the water; yet they must have known it was there, I should think."

"I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week to make it up."

"The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become, unless he goes abroad."

"A thistle grows about here which has needles on it that would pierce through leather, I think; if one touches you, you can find relief in nothing but profanity."

"All sects of Christians (except Protestants,) have chapels under the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchure, and each must keep to itself and not venture upon another's ground. It has been proven conclusively that they can not worship together around the grave of the Saviour of the World in peace."

The Dreaded TBR Pile: One Approach

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:03:00 +0000

I'm not some OCD guy or anything (just look at my office in the library, ugh) but I do have a few little systems in place that help me get some things done. Some of them help me make decisions, some of them help me from having to make decisions. The most obvious example is the tickler file I keep in my office.

Donalyn Miller (@donalynbooks) tweeted recently that her pile of To Be Read books was so big she might start choosing them by color. That got me thinking that I should share my new approach to my reading list.

Now I must take a moment to define my terms. I consider my TBR (To Be Read) pile the books I actually own or have been given that I mean to read. But I also like to keep lists of books I may want to read someday. Well that has gotten completely out of hand. I have lists of books I'd like to read on my Goodreads site and on my public library site and on my Amazon wish list and scribbled on notecards. Now those lists are even better than my actual TBR books because they cause less guilt. I may get to them, I may not, but I haven't actually paid for them (yet) so I'm free to scratch them off the list(s) whenever I feel like.

In his recent book, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, Alan Jacobs talks about the oppressive influence of people who write books of lists of books you "should" read at some point. He espouses the much freer idea of reading on Whim. Yes, I meant to capitalize that. "Whim" differs from "whim," in that it's somewhat more purposeful. It's not complete randomness. But you look at the things you want to read and you pick based on what you want then. Not what everyone else is reading. Not because it won an award. It may have, but that's not why. You're reading it because it brings you pleasure. Whether it's a light teen comedy or a deep examination of the tax code, it doesn't matter as long as it interests you.

My problem is I like lists. I guess that's one reason for the whole librarian thing. I hear about an interesting book and I need to write it down. But then how do you go about tackling this huge list of books. If you read them chronologically you'll never get to that cool new sequel of that book you read last year. If you read only the newest stuff, you'll never go back to that book you meant to read after college. If you read alphabetically you'll never get to that cool Carl Zimmer science book.

Nah, straight adherence to any list will drive me crazy. It kills the spontaneity. No, I need the structure of a list but the freedom to pick on a whim. So here's what I'm trying now. I made a spreadsheet [I know, I know, but please don't make fun of me yet] and I put all the books from all those lists on there. It was a good exercise because some of the books didn't make it onto this list. When things get unwieldy, it's okay to start separating the wheat from the chaff. Then I sorted it alphabetically by author. I highlighted the books I actually own in red. Those take precedence for the TBR Double Dare. Since we pick our book club books a few months out, I added those and put the due dates next to them. Also, since I'm not a format snob, I added a note about how the book is available. Is it available at the library? In book or audio? Or will I get it on the Kindle? Or will I have to actually buy the physical book in a book store. (It happens. The Paulsen book for tonight's book club meeting wasn't at the library in any format and not available as an ebook.)

Now what I do is work the list alphabetically, but not strictly so. For example, let's say I just finished a Phillip Pullman book. I look at my list, see there are no Qs on the list, but many Rs. Rick Riordan, Bertrand Russell and Mary Roach. Each with more than one title. So I'm limiting my huge list to just these few authors and titles and picking within them. I can choose an older Russell or the newest Riordan. It's up to me. Then I'd look at the Ss. I have Michael Shermer, John Sandford, Neal Stephenson (always), and some others on there. The Patty Smith Just Kids jumps out because it's an up coming book club book. Then I look at the Ts and so on. I would obviously make adjustments for book club books or anything I had to read for school or whatever. And it's not set in stone. I'm free to do whatever I want. If I feel like I must read all three Riordan's in a row, well then I'll knock myself out. If I decide to skip the Ts altogether for now and jump to the Vs, that's fine. Nobody gets hurt. It's just a skeleton of a structure to give me a little guidance and to keep books on the list from never getting read. If I get to the Es and all that's on there is one book there and I've passed it up twice before, that might be a hint that I'm just never going to read it. That's okay. There are so many books and so little time!

I tend to have one book I'm listening to on audio and one I'm reading in either print or electronic form. I also read various blogs, magazines, etc. But my point is I might have two books highlighted in different portions of the list, one on audio and one book. That's just me. And things are a bit messed up because of the TBR Dare and the need to finish a couple things I stared before the last book I finished. So I'm in the middle of two collections and an audio book from the library which came in that's not strictly part of the order. No biggie. I'll go with the flow and then pick up either where I left off or after that author's name.

I like it because if there's an author you love, it keeps them in the loop without draining you. If you want to read the last four Stephen King books but you have other things to get to, you know you'll be reading a King every time you get to the Ks for a while. It's not even every 26th book since I don't have any Is or Ns or Us or whatever right now.

Until the TBR dare is over (and maybe for a while after) I'm looking at books in red first. Then I'll open the list up a bit more, making sure to fit in the next book club book (if I feel like it, of course). Does that all make sense? Or am I just crazy? Okay, now you can make fun of me.

Let me know what you think or how you handle your TBR pile and the other books you want to get to someday. And especially let me know if you don't do any such thing and read without any plan whatsoever. That would be interesting...

The Hobbit

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:24:00 +0000

Two birds with one stone with this one. This book satisfies the requirements of both the TBR Double Dare and my book club. Of course, the meeting for this one isn't until next month, but there you go.

If you hadn't heard, Mr. Tolkien made up this story for his children however many years ago and it has been a popular and classic addition to our culture ever since. Of course I've always meant to read it but it wasn't until C.B. poked me with his Double Dare stick that I finally got around to it. I give no credit to my cronies in the book club; I had it on my TBR list before they added it to this year's slate of books. Obviously many others want to catch up before the new movie versions make their way to theaters.

Briefly, long ago there were in fact elves and magical dwarfs and dragons and wizards and a little people called hobbits. One of their number, a Mr. Bilbo Baggins, is gently tricked by the wizard Gandalf to accompany a crew of Dwarfs through the Misty Mountains and help them defeat a greedy dragon named Smaug so they can reclaim their rightful home. How is this quiet little hobbit supposed to do this? By burglaring of course. It seems incidental that he has no actual experience as a burglar. Lucky for him (but unlucky for his cousin Frodo in later tales) he happens upon a magic ring that allows him to become invisible. This is clearly an advantage in his pursuits as a burglar.

So we have fantasy elements along with the time-honored tradition of basic greed. What set this far above other, similar tales, is the beautiful and rich way it is told and the warm and striking figure of Bilbo. I liked it even more than expected. I thought it would pale in comparison to the Lord of the Rings, but in some ways it is actually better. It's obviously a tighter story but the character of Bilbo is even more compelling than that of Frodo in the later tales.

For the record, I listened to the Rob Inglis audiobook version and I can't recommend it enough. I'm sure the ensemble recordings available now are good as well, but this guy was amazing. He apparently did the whole Lord of the Rings as well which I may have to get to someday. It was an brilliant performance.

An Abundance of Katherines

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:27:00 +0000

I'm so glad for this year's TBR Double Dare. I'm definitely getting books off of my pile that I don't know when I'd have gotten to otherwise. I actually started another book before this one. It was a well-recommended mystery novel from one of those respected mystery novelists who write many books in a series about an interesting detective in an interesting place. I tried. I really did. But I was nearly a fourth of the way into it and I just did not care. I may go back to it someday, but it really wasn't doing it for me. So in desperation, I went looking for something I knew would be lighter and more fun.

Nerdfighter John Green to the rescue! This is definitely light. It tries a little too hard at times and there are things that got a bit annoying, but overall it was a welcome relief from the ponderous abandoned murder mystery.

I first came across John Green through the Vlogbrothers Youtube channel he does with his brother Hank. Hank wrote a song about Harry Potter back when the last book was coming out and it went viral on Youtube. Then many of us who love books, nerds, and brothers went back and watched these videos. At some point in the recent past they had both gotten video cameras as a Christmas present and had started sending these videos back and forth. But since they are so smart and funny it became more of a thing and it's popularity exploded. It was also around the time I was deciding to switch from straight teaching to becoming a school librarian. Since I was open to becoming a librarian at any school K-12, I thought I should catch up on some YA books and got the first three John Green novels but up to now had only read his first, Waiting for Alaska.

In this one we realize that John Green's main characters are going to be very similar people with different various obsessions looking for excuses to show of their random stores of knowledge. Much like John Green himself. We also realize that the main characters are always going to be obsessed with girls. Especially beautiful unattainable girls. And if the girls are in any way attained, it will usually not be in any believable way. But there will be lots of humor and some thoughtful insight and interesting situations along the way. So they're basically Woody Allen movies for the YA crowd. Except they are books rather than movies, of course; at least for the moment.

I have one more John Green on my TBR pile and he just had a new one come out that is getting rave reviews. So it'll be nice to read those and watch a writer mature before our eyes. And if that doesn't appeal to you, then you can just follow he and his brother on Youtube where he does things like talk really fast about The Great Gatsby.

Kitchen Confidential

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Randolph) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:13:00 +0000

I finished this book early in the TBR Double Dare because I was waiting for the book club discussion. Then the book club, toward the end of January, was so wonderful that I didn't think I could do it justice. I am also afraid of getting any publicity for the book group or raising interest to a level that it becomes unmanageable. (That won't be a problem this month since the actual meeting date and the one printed on the book store flyers don't match up for some reason.)

There's not much to say about the book. It's been out a while, made Bourdain's reputation as the bad boy, rock and roll food lover he's known as today and catapulted him into various cable travel/food loving shows. You either like him or you don't. I don't know anything in particular about good food and I especially dont' know much about fine restaurants, so I learned a lot and didn't know who he was dishing about when he discusses different well-known restaurant owners, chefs, etc.

First thing is, it's very funny and very profane. Second thing is, he loves the food. Curt Cobain might have been a messed up individual but he obviously loved the music. Bourdain can be messed up but doesn't claim to be anything he's not. He even goes on at length about how exactly to run a kitchen and the absolute do's and don't you must follow as a chef. Then, in my favorite section, shadows another chef near the end of the book whose work he adores and proceeds to see all of his rules not being followed. This by a chef and kitchen he considers leagues better than anything he could do. So while he's a loudmouth, he's a self-aware and, believe it or not, a sometimes humble loudmouth.

Some of the guys in the book club like food quite a bit and so this book was chosen to coincide with our first meeting in a members home. We all signed up to bring some food and/or beverages and let me tell you, it was one of the best meals of my life. Bourdain either inspired them to new heights or we secretly have some chefs in the group.

There was one ringer. The homeowner brought a friend who had done the brisket. It was divine. I might cry a little to myself now just thinking about it. I also brought a friend who had thrown four punds of pork shoulder into a pot and brewed up a Brunswick stew that had been bubbling away for 14 hours. It was like honey, I tell you. The homeowner has one of those big green egg-like ceramic oval cooker things (like this) on a specially built teak table on his deck that had been stuffed with pork. It melted in our fingers. We were pulling it off in chunks as he was carving it.

I know; a meat-induced coma, right? There was plenty of food for the vegetarians as well. Delightful appetizers. A gorgeous and simple fresh salad. A perfectly cooked potato side. More veggies. Home made desserts that were delicious and not overwhelming.

And the wine! My goodness, this guy had racks of it all over the place. I asked him how he could possibly have this much of a backlog? I'd have drunk it as it came in. He smiled and said simply, "I like to entertain." No kidding. He even has a dartboard up in the living room!

I'm no cook, so I made sure to bring good beer. There was also some after-dinner whiskey. All of it was perfection. Especially the company.

Since Bourdain makes frequent references to music in his book, so will I. It was the day Etta James died so we played some of her music during the time we were gathering, noshing and preparing. Then the musicologist of the group stuck in his especially-prepared mix of food-related music. Great stuff indeed, but after we could bring ourselves to push our chairs back I felt it important to play some punk rock, in honor of Mr. Bourdain's preferences. With that fun "Genius" feature on Apple products now, I simply picked a Stooges tune and clicked on the "Genius" magic list maker thingy and soon we had Iggy and the boys, the Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, the Clash, etc going while we cleaned up. Then, after dinner was a time for more thoughtful discussion with a backdrop of (only slightly) more mellow fare from the likes of The Black Keys and The John Spencer Blues Explosion.

Books, travel, art, music, good food, good drink, good friends, good conversation and darts. A night to remember.

Cheers!