Tandem Insights

Sometimes You Just Need a Vacation

      

Everyone needs a break from the routine once in a while. But sometimes you’re so busy, all you can do is read about it. 

Take a good, old-fashioned cross country road trip with a family in Pictures From Our Vacation by Lynne Rae Perkins, author of the Newbery award-winning Criss Cross. Mom gives the kids instant cameras and notebooks, and off they go to document their travels. Some of it is typical road trip stuff and lots of things don’t go exactly the way they’d like on the vacation, but it all comes together at the end in this charming story. 

A great picture book from 2007 has a whole house going on vacation. The door, windows, chimney, and other parts of the house get together to decide where to go when their family leaves in House Takes a Vacation by Jacqueline Davies. 

Another new picture book featuring a summer vaction is A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, by Marla Frazee. Inspired by her son's trip to "nature camp" with his best friend, this is a tongue-in-cheek look at how adults and kids sometimes have different definitions for the nature of "fun."

Whether you're planning an actual vacation or just yearning for a break, these picture books will transport you and leave you feeling refreshed!

Wild West Round Up

Cowboys come in all shapes and sizes. There’s the lady-sheriff and the rest of the townspeople of Fiasco in Tales From Gizzard’s Grill by Jeanne Steig who have all sorts of adventures in this tall-tale-esque story. Ridin’ Dinos With Buck Bronco is another tall tale featuring a rancher who gets more than he bargained for with some strange eggs that turn out to be dinosaur eggs.

Catch a case of the cowboy sillies with The Toughest Cowboy by John Frank or the Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake. The visual humor and nuance of these books will have kids wanting to read these books again and again.

  Cowboys aren't always boys, either. Erica Silverman has published four early chapter book so far about Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa, her horse. The newest title in the series is out this month: Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Rain or Shine.

Then there’s Cowboy Slim by Julie Danneberg. Slim wants to be a cowboy, but he writes poetry. What kind of cowboy writes poetry? At least, that’s what the other cowboys say, but little do they know the power of words. 

Pair these titles with some great nonfiction to tie it all together. Try classics like Cowboys of the Wild West by Russell Freedman or Cowboy Country by Ann Herbert Scott for a look at life in the wild west that will fascinate your primary grades audience.

Classroom Connections: The Power of Words

History hot off the presses! 

Muckrakers by Ann Bausum takes us into the story of investigative journalism—sometimes called the “unofficial fourth branch of government”—and the reporters who used their medium to change America. History teachers covering the early twentieth century will want to use this book in their classrooms particularly for the more than 50 archival photos it contains.  Pair this with War, Women, and the News by Catherine Gourley and Journalists at Risk by George Sullivan for a history lesson with a focus on journalism.

English teachers reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair or The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck with their classes may want to use Muckrakers to give students some historical context to these works of fiction that began with investigative journalism and ended with some big changes.  Bring it all together by showing your students how words are still making a difference in the way we live our lives today with books like Fast Food Nation (or the adaptation aimed at young people, Chew on This) or An Inconvenient Truth.

Promoting Peace

“Singking in the sea
Of forgetfulness
I reach for the raft
of remembering.”

Wars might end, but they do not go away.  Many try to forget what they have experienced and move on from there, but others, like Ibtisam Barakat in the poem above, have chosen to remember.  To tell their stories.  To inspire a solution for the conflicts that have touched their lives so painfully.

On that note, you might want to pair Barakat’s memoir with more books about the Middle East. 

Or perhaps you can direct readers to other stories of war and conflict that may inspire them to come together for peace.

Book of the Week: Tasting the Sky

“The small girl
I once was
Sings out this story.”

To three-year-olds fear is darkness or strangers or thunderstorms.  For three-year-old Ibtisam Barakat, fear was felt in every inch of her small body as her family had to suddenly evacuate as war broke out.  She ran barefoot with her family, friends, and neighbors to safety, but in a time of such upheaval, she never really felt safe.

Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood tells of the fear of living in Palestine in the 1960’s from the perspective of a very young child who, at the time, had little knowledge of why her life was suddenly so different.  The politics stay in the background of this memoir.  Instead we focus on life—childhood, culture, language—in spare and moving prose that sheds new light on what it means to grow up surrounded by war.  What it means to remember when everyone keeps telling her to forget.

View this book in the Tandem Library Books online bookstore.

Polar Bear Day Round Up

On February 27th, Polar Bear Day celebrates the world's largest carnivore.  It may be a big, meat eater, but somehow it often looks a bit cuddlier in children’s books than it might in real life.  Just look at how cute the little polar bear is in Lonesome Polar Bear by Jane Cabrera.  All the little cub wants is a friend to play with, but it’s hard to find a friend when all the other animals think of you as a big, scary predator as described in Sandra Markle’s Polar Bears in her Animal Predators series from Carolrhoda, which features a photo of a mother and cub feasting on a bloody carcass on the very first page.    Two very different depictions of the same animal.  One will appeal to storytime audiences and the other will be perfect for your reluctant readers looking for something a bit graphic.

Polar Star by Sally Grindley is an accurate yet gentle look at the polar bear as a hunter that blends fact and fiction as it follows a mama bear searching for food with her cubs.  Polar Bears are Hungry by Carol Carrick has a similar story, but a slightly different focus.  In spare text, the point is put forth that our warming temperatures are making it difficult for polar bears (and other animals) to find food.  This is a good choice for talking about the environment, global warming, and endangered species possibly paired with Polar Bears in Danger by Helen Orme and Face to Face with Polar Bears by Norbert Rosing for the latest facts on the polar bear population.

Make friends with real polar bears in Pair of Polar Bears by Joanne Ryder and Knut: How One Little Polar Bear Captivated the World by Carig Hatkoff.  Both are filled with vivid photographs of baby bears that will capture your heart.

Happy Polar Bear Day!

Words and Wordplay for Kids

I’ve been told I have the sense of humor of a five-year-old.  All the better to do my job, I reply.  And I must admit that I really do laugh at the silly stuff in all the picture books I see.  I still love the word play in Douglas Florian’s books of poetry.  My particular favorite line is from a poem about penguins in Zoo’s Who, which talks about “penguinter vacation.”  It never fails to get a chuckle from me.

Fans of silly poetry like Douglas Florian will not want to miss Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant by Jack Prelutsky in which animals are put with regular objects with unusual outcomes, much like in Scranimals.  I love the collage art by Carin Berger in this fun book poems.

Get to know words backwards and forwards in Mom and Dad are Palindromes by Mark Shulman.  This zany story has Bob freaking out after he learns about palindromes because it seems that palindromes are everywhere.  He can’t get away from them.  It’s fun to look for the hidden palindromes in the illustrations—there are over 100 to find in the book!

Whether you’re talking about homonyms and parts of speech or reading silly poems, these books will be sure to convince your students that language is fun.

Book of the Week: House Takes a Vacation

Ever wonder what’s going on at home while you’re sunning yourself at the beach?  Would you believe that your house is having an adventure of its own?  Hey, who says you get to have all the fun? 

When the Peterson family leaves for their vacation, their house decides that this might be a good time for it to get away from it all.  There is a bit of discussion about this.  Trying to get all the parts of a house to agree on a vacation destination is like getting all the members of a family to agree on where to go.  But eventually, they come to a consensus and take off.  All except the basement, who refuses to rise to the occasion.

The adventure ensues from there, full of puns and silly scenes with a house among oblivious vacationers.  Kids will love the silliness, especially if they are old enough to get the plays on words.  House Takes a Vacation by Jacqueline Davies is sure to be a hit at storytimes.

Books About Books (and Libraries)

We all have at least one thing in common on the Tandem Library Books Collection Development Team:  we love books. We couldn’t help but be charmed by some of these books about books (and libraries!).

Library Lion is an office favorite. The soft illustrations make the lion look like a gentle cat. And strange as the sight of a lion in a library might be, as long as he doesn’t break the rules, he can stay and enjoy the books and the storytimes to his heart’s content. Only he finds that sometimes breaking the rules is necessary. But will our Library Lion be banned from the library? 

We all love the zany librarian who went to the zoo in Judy Sierra’s Wild About Books, but do you know Library Lil, who becomes a hero when the power goes out in Chesterville? Or Ms. Chinca, the really nice librarian who helps out Carlo in Carlo and the Really Nice Librarian? Or the three librarians who help Melvin explore his world in The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians? Now those are some librarians worth knowing!

Being the book lovers that we are, we know that books are for reading. Not for eating. Henry learns that lesson in The Incredible Book-Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers. Another book eater finds that books are better when “eaten” with your eyes in Winston the Book Wolf by Marni McGee.

I think we’ll keep eating the books with our eyes as it makes it so much easier to write reviews of them later….

Getting Teens' Attention With Displays

Library displays are a great way to do silent reader’s advisory.  But they won’t do any good if they don’t get attention.  Here are some quick tips for creating attention getting displays for your teens:

• Get teens involved.  Have them create the display or display reviews they’ve written.
• Don’t get cluttered.  Keep it neat and organized while using your space effectively.  Too many (or too few) books for a space will look messy.
• Notice traffic patterns.  Watch the way teens use your library and put displays where the traffic is.
• Use props.  Add objects to your display that relate to the theme or make it interactive with a puzzle or game.
• Think about the covers.  Use your book covers to really get attention.  Group books by color or other common element for a dramatic display.

                    

• Variety is good.  Mix fiction, nonfiction, audiovisual, magazines, etc.
• Refresh your display regularly.  A picked-over display will likely be passed by. 
• Keep your eyes open for great themes.  Turn the Insightful Lists or the Book Round-Ups into great attention-getting displays for your library or media center.