Inspired to Dream!

With Martin Luther King Jr. Day around the corner, I was looking for an appropriate story to share with my students and lucky for me, our librarian, Allison Brown, directed me to a new library book, I Have a Dream. 

This stunning picture book contains the last third of Dr. King’s famous speech with powerful illustrations by Kadir Nelson. The oil paintings captivated even my youngest students. The book begins with King’s words,

“I say to you today, my friends, that even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”

I’m sure you’re familiar with the rest of the speech but most of my young students were not. It was moving to read these words and see the kids respond. They were especially interested when we came to the illustration of Dr. King’s four children and they heard,

           

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

I read the book to several speech groups with ages ranging from five to seven. After hearing the repeated phrase, “I have a dream,” they were ready to talk of their own dreams for the future. Most had dreams you might expect from children of their age like a dream to have a real motorcycle or a dream that the world would turn into Candy Land. But some dreams surprised me.

Ariel dreams that everyone would take care of our planet and not dump garbage everywhere.

Landon dreams that there would be lots of food for lots of people.

Alex dreams that everyone would be nice to each other.

Esmeralda dreams that some day her name will be on the cover of a book (as the author) and I will go into the store and buy it and read it to other speech kids.  I must admit, I grew a little misty-eyed when she said that.

Avery picked up the cadence of the speech and was expansive. She has a dream that when she is older she will help kids and teach them to be smarter and smarter. She dreams that she’ll be able to teach them to be nice. She said, “If people were smarter and nicer, then the guy that died would be happier.”

She has a dream that some day we would keep the ocean clean and keep the earth clean and we would stop cutting down trees so animals would have enough food and a place to live.

She has a dream that people will some day read and read and read lots of books.

Avery was inspired by the speech and the illustrations. She may not grasp the issues of racism (after all she is only six) but she seems to understand that people can make a difference in the world. And words make a difference - whether they are stirring words of a famous speech, a word spoken in encouragement, or words written in a memorable book. Words can change lives.

We may not all have the personal power and charisma of Dr. King but each of us, parents, educators and writers, can use our words to build a better world.  As Avery said, that would make Martin Luther King Jr. happy. Avery has a dream, several of them actually, and her dreams give me hope for the future. 

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Beginning the Year with Balance

The New Year has arrived; the students are back in school; and I found a great book for the first school week of 2013 – Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution by Pat Miller, illustrated by Kathi Ember.

On the first day of January, while Squirrel is hanging her Nut-of-the-Month calendar, she hears the radio announcer say it’s a great day to make a resolution. She is not sure what that means and so she does what any resourceful squirrel might do, she heads to her local library and asks the librarian, Bear. “Do you know how to make a resolution? Is it like making a snack?”

Bear assures her it is more important than snacks and explains, “A resolution is a promise you make to yourself to be better or to help others.” By the end of the story, my students had a good understanding of resolutions and they decided to make a few of their own. Esmeralda wants to draw more pictures this year and share them with others. Maddie resolves to help people, like Squirrel in the story. Joden plans to teach people magic. Many of my second grade students actually chose to meet their speech goals for the year. I was all in favor of those resolutions and we wrote kid-friendly versions of their goals so they’d have their own copies.

Calob asked if I’d made any resolutions. I’m hesitant to make them since I become less resolved as the year goes on but I have made a New Year’s “Intention.” After my three-week vacation from blogging, tweeting, and reading blogs, I started thinking about finding a comfortable balance. So, my New Year’s Intention for the year is to strive for balance in my life. That’s a difficult concept for children to understand but they had no problem understanding the more concrete definition of the word when I showed them my balancing eagle.

The students were amazed to see the eagle stay firmly in place while they flew it around the room. We talked about other things that balance and Juan tried balancing on one foot. We even discussed balanced diets since that is a popular topic around our school.

One of my students raised his hand and told me he had a new resolution. He was going to have a balanced diet this year. He was going to balance a chocolate bar on his finger. I was about to explain in more detail what a “balanced diet” actually means when I noticed his mouth twitching into a smile. He understood perfectly.  He is only six, yet he is able to slip humor into conversations on a regular basis. Not a bad way to interact with the world – a dose of humor and a bar of chocolate – talk about balance! I might incorporate his example into my own goals for the year. 

With one week of school behind us, I think our New Year is off to a good start.

Happy Holidays!

What could be more delightful to children than a story about a tugboat? I found out when I introduced my students to The Christmas Tugboat. A story about a giant Christmas tree riding down the Hudson River on the back of a full-size trailer truck, sitting on an enormous barge, pulled by a diminutive (by comparison) tugboat – now that is a winning combination in the eyes of my students.

The authors, George Matteson and Adele Ursone, brought personal experience to this picture book. George was a tugboat captain who, late one November, got the assignment to bring the towering Rockefeller Center Christmas tree to New York City. His wife, Adele, and their daughter went along for the two-day adventure and the idea for this book was born. I was intrigued to learn that the Rockefeller Center tree has been a tradition since 1931 – it’s about time we have a book to commemorate the event!

James Ransome’s illustrations richly depict the changing light from the early morning hours of the book’s beginning through sunset and the beginning of a new day, when the tug continues its trip down the river to New Your City. His illustration of the quote below is as beautiful as the words.

“As the first sunlight brushes across the land, Mom points back to the tree. It sparkles all over as if covered with tiny diamonds. ‘The night and the cold have decorated it just for us,’ she says.”

My students wished they could have helped decorate the tree when it finally stood in front of the Rockefeller Center. Since that wasn’t possible, we made a large tree of our own - out of paper. It isn’t as elegant as the Rockefeller tree, but it was adorned with enthusiasm.

Our winter break has begun and I will be taking a mini vacation from blogging to spend time with family, friends and with other writing projects. I will miss the next two Saturdays but I’ll be back on January 12.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or the coming of winter; I hope you are enjoying this festive time of year. And if you happen to pass by the Rockefeller Center, please send us a picture of the tree – I know my students would love to see it!

Author Interview - Dashka Slater

Last week’s interview was so popular with the students, I decided it would only be fair to give another class an opportunity to participate in the process. Lucky for us, Dashka Slater’s book, Dangerously Ever After, beautifully illustrated by Valeria Docampo, arrived on my doorstep Monday while I was at work.

Tuesday, I brought the book to school and read it to Ms. Wardlaw’s first grade class. You may recognize a few names of interviewers - some of my speech kids are in this class. The story was a hit!

Welcome Dashka. The students were spellbound from the moment I read the title of the book. We’d all like to know, what inspired you to write this story?

I love hearing that! I was inspired by an idea that came from my son when he was the same age as your students. He came home from first grade one day telling me he had a great idea for a story about a queen who wanted to plant rose seeds but ended up planting nose seeds. I loved the idea and couldn’t wait to read the story. When he didn’t end up writing it, I asked permission to write it myself.

I’m glad he gave you permission; but perhaps we’ll be reading his version of the story one of these days. How long did it take to complete the book?

It depends on what you mean by “complete.” I started the story in March 2006. Looking at that very first attempt, I see that the princess was named Anne and she wasn’t all that different from your average princess. But by May of that year her name was Amanita and she loved dangerous things and the story was pretty similar to the one you read – just longer. But the book still went through a lot more revisions before it was accepted for publication in 2008 and a few more revisions afterwards. And then we had to find an illustrator!

What perseverance! It’s nice for the students to hear they aren’t alone in needing to revise their work. When did you first become interested in writing for children?

In some ways, I’ve never been interested in anything else. I started writing when I was 4 (or dictating, as I couldn’t really write on my own) and I never stopped. When I was a kid I wrote for children, because I was writing for myself. But I didn’t start trying to write for children professionally until after my son was born, by which time I was already making my living as a writer for adults.

What were some of your favorite books from childhood?

I loved all of E. Nesbit’s books -- Dangerously Ever After is in many ways an homage to her. Other books that I loved enough to read many, many times include Winnie the Pooh, Harriet the Spy, The Phantom Tollbooth, Swallows and Amazons, Charlotte’s Web, The Chronicles of Prydain, The Egypt Game, Half Magic, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Alice in Wonderland and many other books too numerous to mention. I was a big re-reader and still am.

Reading is one of my favorite hobbies. I’m hoping to pass along that love to my students. Do you have any new projects in the works?

I’m working on several new picture books and my first middle grade novel, called The Roving Trees Railroad, as well as a new book for adults. Too many new projects, actually!

FROM THE FABULOUS FIRST GRADERS & SPEECH STUDENTS:

Esmeralda liked the beginning, the middle and the end. She seems to understand good story structure. Would you like to comment?

I find endings are the hardest. Beginnings are the easiest. I love to write beginnings! But then sometimes I don’t know what to write next. Does that ever happen to your students?

All the time, but they usually push through and try to fill a page. Joden wanted to let you know, he likes dangerous stuff too. He likes to go up into his attic where even his Mom won’t go. (He always carries a lantern.) He wondered if you like dangerous stuff too.

Joden, you sound very brave. If I hear a bump in the night, will you come with your lantern? As for me, I like some dangerous stuff. I have a dangerous cat, for instance, and I like him. He’s sitting on my lap right now and he bites if I spend too much time typing and forget to pet him. Ouch.

Chloe asked, “Was there a wedding at the end?”

What do you think, Chloe? I think the noses want to marry the roses, but I’m not sure the roses want to marry the noses.

I will be sure to ask her on Monday. Sebastian wanted to know if the noses are going to grow fingers. He thinks then, they could pick their noses. (Perhaps he is hoping for a sequel).

This is the best idea ever. I think you should write this story, Sebastian, but if you don’t want to then maybe I will.

I think I saw Sebastian working on the story when I left his room but I can’t be sure. I’ll check in with him and get back to you soon. Felicia wondered why the flowers snored.

I think Amanita wondered that too. I wonder why my cat snores.

Allison loved the princess and the little cat. She would like to write a book some day. She asked, “Do you like thorny things?”

I like thorny things but I don’t like being pricked by thorny things.

Natalie wondered, “How did you think of all those funny flowers?”

Some of those funny flowers are based on real ones. The stink lilies were inspired by some real lilies that grow in my backyard. They are a beautiful velvet purple and smell like rotting meat. I didn’t know that at first though. I picked them and put them in a vase on my dining room table. And then I began wondering, “What’s that terrible smell?”

I love bringing lilies indoors. I’ll have to watch out for the smelly variety. Felicia asked, “Why did the princess get sent nose seeds? Was it because she wrote so messy?

That’s something I have in common with Amanita -- I have kind of messy handwriting too. Sometimes I can’t read my own notes! That’s why I’m typing this. Otherwise my answers would look like this: ncv kpinie vim5t bbriohj.

That looks just like my handwriting! Malachi loves the story and he asked, “How did you write this book?”

With a six inch cactus spine as a pen.

I’m going to have to get one of those. Zayd asked, “Do you know somebody that loves so many dangerous things?”

My cat loves dangerous things. He comes home with stickles and prickles all stuck in his fur.

Skylar wanted me to tell you, she planted roses in the grass and they are orange and puffy and they smell nice and she has nose flowers too. She also wanted you to know she made up a story about spinach. First she made Mr. Spinach with Play-dough and put spikey spikes on him like in your story. I told Skylar I like to write stories too and she suggested I get a can of Play-dough. I think I’ll try that! She’d probably love to hear about your writing rituals.

I would like to see Mr. Spinach. I don’t have Play-dough but I have a lot of toys on my desk that help me act out the ideas in my head, including a plastic palm tree, a stuffed cat, and a shoebox that I pretend is a house. Also a llama and an elephant.

I loved the drawings you sent me, and so does Princess Amanita. She says that the pictures make her look very dangerous, which is just how she wants to look. She would like to know if the flowers in Madison’s picture are poisonous and if she can have the seeds for the big thorny plants in Eli’s picture.

Thank you, Dashka Slater, for taking the time to answer our questions. We loved the story and look forward to reading more of your work in the future.

If anyone would like a personalized bookplate to put inside your own copy of Dangerously Ever After or OH NO! Little Dragon by Jim Averbeck, you’ll find the information here.

Artwork from the interview team: