RIP Coleen Salley

Via Read Roger and Fuse #8 I learned that Coleen Salley (author of my beloved Epossumondas) has died.

This makes for a very sad Abby.

If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and track down Salley's audio recording of Epossumondas Saves the Day.

Incidentally, I just read Epossumondas to a group of K-4th graders at an after school program last week. They loved it.

How to Make a Felt (Flannel Board) Story

So you want to make a felt story but you're not sure how to get started? I didn't know how either until I recently got a tutorial from J, the felt story expert in my department. There are probably different techniques (and you can even buy them), but I wanted to share how we make our felt stories.

Step 1: Pick a story. Think about what images you will need to tell the story. Is it a story that you can learn and tell without the book? Two books we have turned into felt stories are Bark, George (mother dog, George, cat, duck, pig, cow) and Dog's Colorful Day (dog and a bunch of colored dots).

Step 2: Photocopy pictures for your pattern. The best pictures have a clear enough shape that you can mostly tell what it is from the outline. You might have to find pictures from other books or draw something freehand if you don't find a clear picture in your book. There are also books of felt patterns. Check your local library.

Step 3: Cut out your pattern pieces and select your felt. Remember that the pictures and colors do not have to be exactly like the book. Also remember to think about what color your felt board is. You want to pick colors that will stand out against your background. As an example I've cut out a kitten-shaped pattern and I chose orange felt.

Step 4: Tape your pattern pieces to the felt you want to use. You can also trace around the pieces with a marker, but the tape will hold the piece in place, stiffen the felt for cutting, and it comes off the felt clean without leaving a mark. Cut around the pattern piece.

Step 5: If there are any pieces that need more than one color felt, you can cut out the smaller piece from your pattern, repeat step 4, and glue the smaller piece to the larger piece. (I know the cat looks a little weird, but I just wanted to demonstrate the technique. You might use it to make a yellow bill for a duck or wheels for a truck.)

Step 6: Add details to pieces. You can use a permanent marker or fabric paint. You can add google eyes, feathers, bits of cloth, yarn, sequins... keep it simple or make it elaborate.

Step 7 (optional): Write a script for your felt. It's possible that your book might not always be around. And some stories might not need all the details that are in the book. Think about what someone unfamiliar with the story would need to know to tell the story. Are there particular phrases that are important or repeated? Include instructions for how to place felt pieces so that anyone could pick up your script and tell the story.

So now you know how to make a felt story! Or maybe you already knew... so who's got some felt-story-making tips for me?? Do you make yours a different way?

ETA (9/17): Ooh, you'll also want to check out Lisa's post about making magnetic board stories!

Anderson's Mock Newbery!

Anderson's Bookshop's 2009 Mock Newbery List is up! (Thanks to coworker M and his lovely wife who sent him the link!)

And it brings to mind a question... what do we think of The Hunger Games for the Newbery? Of course, I loved the book. Loved it, loved it, loved it. And I will be very sad if it doesn't win something... but the Newbery?

Yes, I know the Newbery Committee considers books for up-to-14-year-olds... but I just think about all those elementary school kids who need to read a Newbery book for school... and I hope THG wins the Printz or the National Book Award. (And maybe a Newbery honor...)

Book Review: My Heart Glow

My Heart Glow: Alice Cogswell, Thomas Gallaudet, and the Birth of American Sign Language by Emily Arnold McCully. (Grades 2-5.)

Here's your Abby Fun Fact of the day: in college, I minored in speech & hearing science. Which means that in addition to classes on audiology and speech disorders, I took American Sign Language for my language credits. As a result, I've always been interested in books about sign language, so when I saw this book on our new book cart I had to pick it up.

My Heart Glow is the story of Alice Cogswell and her teacher, Thomas Gallaudet, a man who saw that even though she was deaf Alice longed to learn and express herself. Gallaudet started to teach Alice to read, but he knew what she really needed was a language. So he set off to Europe to find one for her. In Paris, he met a man named Laurent Clerc, a deaf teacher. Gallaudet convinced Clerc to come back to America with him and help him set up a school for the deaf (which is now the American School for the Deaf).

This is a great basic history of American Sign Language and includes an author's note and list of sources. The illustrations are delightful, too. One particular page struck me. Alice sits in the classroom and the yearning to understand, to communicate, is written plain as day on her face. Gorgeous!

Excerpts from letters that Alice wrote to Gallaudet while he was in Europe are interspersed throughout the latter half of the book. I thought that was a neat addition to the text and leant authenticity to the story. Alice uses a syntax different than English that is briefly explained in the author's note.

Happy Nonfiction Monday! Head over to Picture Book of the Day for the roundup!

Giveaway at Amanda's!

Do not delay, click on over to A Patchwork of Books where Amanda is giving away 5 SIGNED copies of Elise Broach's new book Masterpiece! You can read her review of the title here. Broach's Shakespeare's Secret was on the Rebecca Caudill list last year and I really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to reading her new one!

Preschool Educator Night: Make and Take Felt Stories

Last week I hosted a Preschool Educator Night at my library and we made felt stories that the teachers could take home with them. It was a big hit and I'd love to do another one sometime! I'm going to share with you what we did.

First of all, I have to give mad props to my colleague J because she had all the felt-making know-how and her organization was really super helpful. I was all ready to jump into this on my own, but it wouldn't have turned out half so well if she hadn't been doing it with me. I also can't take credit for the idea. I swiped it from another librarian who presented the program at one of our Preschool Partnerships meetings.

I started the program by demonstrating four felt stories - Dog's Colorful Day, Street Sounds, Five Little Pumpkins, and Bark, George! Each teacher could then pick two stories that they would like to make and take home with them. Teachers selected two patterns and the scripts that went with each. Then, while they cut out their patterns, J gave a brief tutorial on how she makes felts and different ways you can add details to make them pop. We provided all supplies (patterns, felt, tape, scissors, glue) and let the teachers select their felt and work on their stories.

It was a great program and I think everyone got something out of it, but there are a few things I would change if we did it again. I had scheduled it from 7:00-8:00, but that wasn't enough time. I'd allow at least an hour and a half (and we actually ended up continuing the program until 8:30 anyway). We provided plastic baggies for them to take their stories home with them and if they weren't done working, they took the felt and patterns home to finish.

Also, I think the program would have worked just as well (and been easier to plan) if we had just done one felt story instead of letting them pick two out of four. We could have prepped the felt more, which would have made for a more streamlined program. As it was, we didn't know which stories everyone would pick and we hesitated to cut the felt beforehand, not knowing how much would be used. We did have a bit of a crunch cutting out appropriately sized pieces when everyone came up to get their felt. Also, we probably could have fit the program into one hour if we had just done one felt story.

Something to think about with this program is the labor and cost... J spent several weeks before the program creating patterns and figuring out how much felt we would need. We also ordered more scissors because we didn't have a huge supply of adult-sized scissors (although we have plenty of kid-sized scissors!). So that's something to think about. I think it was worth the cost, but using just one felt story would have cut way down on the labor (and somewhat on the cost... we still would have needed scissors, but we would have had a better idea about what felt we would need).

Also, check with your State Department of Education to see if you can provide CPDU's for the program. We offered CPDU's for the Every Child Ready to Read program last winter, but I didn't think this would count. I still had a bunch of teachers asking, so it would have been worth it to try and register the program.

(Don't know how to make a felt story? Tune in on Tuesday when I'll be posting my tutorial!)

John Green in Naperville!

According to his tour map, John Green will be at Anderson's Bookshop on Friday, October 24!!! I am so going! Just try and stop me!! (No, don't actually try and stop me... that wouldn't be very nice...)

*squee!*

(Thanks to Leila for linking to the map... for a John Green fan, I am incredibly lax on following his whereabouts...)

Audiobook Roundup: Folktales

Based on oral traditions, folktale story books can translate really well to audio recordings and I want to talk about a couple that I think are particularly well done.

Epossumondas Saves the Day by Coleen Salley, illustrated by Janet Stevens, read by Coleen Salley. Recorded Books. (Ages 4-8.)

In this retelling of Sody Saleratus, it's Epossumondas's birthday. While preparing for his party, Mama discovers she's out of sody saleratus (baking soda) and sends Baby Gator to go get some more. Well, on the way back from the store, Baby Gator meets the great, huge, ugly Louisiana snapping turtle who swallows him up in one big gulp. When both Auntie and Mama also fail to return from the store, Epossumondas decides to take matters into his own hands.

Salley's story and narration are laugh-out-loud funny and I actually listened to it twice in a row because it was so good. This one is a great choice for family listening because I think it'll amuse kids and adults both.

Lon Po Po by Ed Young, read by B.D. Wong. Weston Woods. (Ages 6-10.)

On the other end of the spectrum, Ed Young's Lon Po Po, a Chinese Little Red Riding Hood, has a much darker tone. When mother leaves to visit grandmother, she warns her three children not to let anyone in. But when a wolf claims to be their grandmother (their Po Po), they let the wolf in and then have to outsmart him to save their lives. Music and sound effects give the story an extra sparkle and the wolf's echoey voice is especially creepy. Of course, I wouldn't expect anything less from Weston Woods!

Book Review: Nothing

Nothing by Amy Friedman. (Grades 9+)

Parker Rabinowitz has been holding it together for a long time, but as our story begins, things are starting to unravel. Parker struggles to balance 6 AP classes, track, youth group at his synagogue, and other extracurricular activities, all with the goal of getting into HYP (Harvard/Yale/Princeton). If he keeps his nose to the grindstone and gives 200%, he'll be accepted to the college of his choice... or at least that's what his college consultant tells him. Parker's determined to get into Princeton's pre-med program. It's been his dream for years. Or is it his dad's dream? Parker's not sure anymore.

Meanwhile, little sister Danielle is completely overshadowed. She looks up to her big brother but it bothers her that sometimes she doesn't seem to exist in her parents' eyes. And she wonders if people are friends with her because it's the easiest way to get to know Parker. Sometimes she wants to be him, just to see what it's like getting all the attention and basically having everything one could ever want.

But Parker's got a secret.

His only relief from the tremendous pressure is binging and purging, a cycle that gives him some measure of control over his life. Although Parker knows it's a problem, he doesn't know how to find help. He doesn't know who he can trust with his secret. And things are getting worse and worse...

The hook for me, the thing that made me want to read this book, is its unique perspective. Although I know that guys suffer from eating disorders, I haven't seen many books about eating disorders told from a guy's perspective. Friedman includes an extensive author's note about eating disorders and a Q&A with the man who inspired the character of Parker Rabinowitz.

This story is a gripping portrayal of a life spiraling out of control. Parker's frank tone is coupled with free-verse poems from Danielle's point of view, giving us a complete picture of a family falling apart. Parker doesn't know how to ask for help and Danielle, who would help him, has no idea what's going on. Mom and Dad are clueless, especially when Mr. Rabinowitz becomes ill.

A Looking-for-Alaska-esque countdown starts on the first page with "88 days before" and helps move the action forward. As the countdown crept down to zero, I found myself racing through the pages to find out what was going to happen. Robin Friedman has created characters that I really cared about and I liked that we get two different perspectives. Parker's voice is urgent and raw while Danielle watches from the sidelines, resenting her brother at times, though she doesn't know what he's hiding.

I have to confess that I stayed up until 2am because I couldn't put the book down. I really enjoyed it. I'd hand it to fans of those Issues books like Inexcuseable or Open Ice. Be sure and check out Robin's website and more reviews at Confessions of a Bibliovore, Librarilly Blonde, Bildungsroman*. Also, you don't have to take our word for it... read the first chapter online.

Many thanks to Flux for sending a review copy! I've read a couple of Flux titles recently and I will definitely be checking out more as I've really enjoyed them.

*All these blogs have such awesome names. I am in awe of their name-finding abilities. I obviously do not have that gift.

Audiobook Roundup: Biographies

When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan, illustrated by Brian Selznik, read by Gail Nelson. Live Oak Media. (Grades 2-5.)

Marian Anderson was an African-American singer. Born in Philadelphia, her family and church members recognized Marian's talent at a young age and raised money to pay for singing lessons and to send her to school. Although she faced obstacles in the segregated United States, Anderson earned acclaim abroad and eventually was able to achieve her dreams in the States.

The recording is great, complete with bits of songs sung by the narrator. They are a really nice touch, giving examples of what Marian might have sounded like. I could see this recording being really useful in a classroom setting. However, you won't want to miss Selznick's excellent illustrations, so make sure you peruse the book as well as listening to the recording. For more information about Marian Anderson, make sure you check out Russell Freedman's great biography The Voice That Challenged a Nation (also available on audio).

Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin, illustrated by Wendell Minor, read by Buzz Aldrin. Live Oak Media. (Grades 2-5.)

Buzz Aldrin reads his own story in Reaching for the Moon. He tells about his determination to become an astronaut and all the hard work that got him to the moon. Even as a boy, Aldrin was tenacious and his clear message with this book is "never give up!" Although the narration isn't as dramatic as a professional's would be, it's still really neat to hear Aldrin's own voice telling his story. We get plenty of requests for autobiographies and this one fits the bill nicely. It's interesting and inspiring with beautiful painted illustrations.

Happy Nonfiction Monday! Check out the roundup at Picture Book of the Day!