If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. ~ Charlie Parker
books
Book Review: I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar
Jan 15th
This is one of those stocking stuffer books that gets passed around the family for laughs. For us, with two English teacher parents who have traveled to other countries and poked fun at English translations, I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar is a riot of misspellings, errors in punctuation and odd meanings and word choices that will have you scratching your head. The book evolved from a Facebook group in which users sent in photographs of signs using bad grammar and spelling, and the editor — Sharon Eliza Nichols — uses sarcasm to showcase the very-public errors.
In here, you will see signs for things like “no pakring” and “personnel watermelons” and there is even an entire section on how learning institutions, on their own signs, have more than their share of errors. Talk about publishing to the world! Most of the errors are due to that old friend, the apostrophe, which seems to float all over the place, making mischief with phrases (“Put Trash In It’s Place” and “Please Tuck You’re Laces In!”.
Listen, I made plenty of my own errors in my writing, so I understand the signmaker’s dilemma well enough. But it reminds us that proofreader’s work is never done.
Peace (in the grammar),
Kevin
Book Review: Summerland
Jan 14th
It’s not quite baseball season, but a few months from now, our home will be all about the ballfields as all three boys play baseball. My youngest son and I just finished up Summerland by Michael Chabon. I’ve read this long book about baseball and magic and mythology with all three boys now, and while there are times when I think Chabon has set off on a direction he never resolves, I love the ideas and the writing and the way baseball’s wondrous qualities form the center of this story.
“A baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day” (p.332)
The plot is complicated: a boy, Ethan Feld, must set off on a journey into parallel worlds not only to save his father from Coyote, that trickster who seems to pop in all sorts of forms in all cultural mythologies, and to save the entire Worlds (there are four, each of them attached to the other through thin bonds of connections that some beings can “scamper” into from one world to the next) from Coyote’s plan to destroy everything, and start all over again. Baseball is the underpinning narrative device, as Ethan and his friends (some human, most not) must travel through the Summerlands, playing ball against teams of odd creatures (including giants, ferishers and more), and trying to make their way to the Murmury Well, where the tree of life is found and on the verge of destruction.
Chabon skillfully captures the lazy magic of baseball, with all of its slow-moving plays and the sense that anything can happen at any moment when you are standing at bat or in the field. The characters are rich (even Coyote seems likeable at times), and the settings are so oddly created by Chabon, that it does make for a nice read-aloud, particularly to an audience that enjoys baseball (ie, my sons). And one of the underlying themes of loss, and the unexplainable pain that comes with living a life (Ethan’s mother has died and he hopes the magic of the journey will bring her back. It doesn’t.)
Since this is my third time reading this book out loud at home (plus another time I read it to my class), you might think I would be bored with the story and the characters and the many varied looks at the game of baseball as a metaphor for life. But I wasn’t. Chabon has created a rich story, although its complicated elements might make it difficult reading for some readers not versed in baseball and mythology and Tall Tales (oh yeah, Paul Bunyan and Annie Christmas and others play an important role in the story). This is not a book you can put into just anyone’s hands, and sometimes Chabon goes off a little far into his narrative tangents.
Still, consider this passage, which sums up so much about the book:
“Mr. Feld was right: life was like baseball, filled with loss and error, with bad hops and wild pitches, a game in which champions lost almost as much as they won, and even the best hitters were put out seventy percent of the time.” (p. 444)
I feel a bit sad now that Summerland is done. Luckily, the boys’ baseball season is coming around the bend. Our own version of Summerlands — that place of beautiful skies, green grass and endless possibilities just before the first pitch and the swing of the first bat — is something we should never give up. There’s something in that moment of pause that Chabon captures here that is worth considering, no matter the season.
Peace (in the summer),
Kevin
Book Review: A Nest for Celeste
Jan 13th
What a beautiful little book. A Nest for Celeste: A Story about Art, Inspiration and the Meaning of Home by Henry Cole reminds me in some ways of The Rats of NIHM for its main mousy main character whose survival instincts and sheer luck and pluck shine through and of The Invention of Hugo Cabret for the lovely illustrations by Cole that become part of the story (although not quite in the same fashion as Brian Selznick, whose pictures are the story itself, not just a companion piece).
Most of all, A Nest for Celeste stands tall as its own story about a little mouse who survives, just barely, through the help of friends. The outside narrative arc of naturalist James John Audubon, and his work to document birds of America in illustrations, provides the reader with a little window into the world of the animals that Audubon and his assistant, Joseph, find and capture in order to draw them.
Celeste, a timid little thing, is drawn so perfectly by Cole, whose own illustration work peppers a lot of other books, that you can’t help but lose your heart to her, and wish her well on her journey of survival. Her encounters with other animals, including a pair of mean rats who get tehir due and some daring birds, provides just enough action and momentum that the story flows nicely forward. Her friendship with the boy, Joseph, is quite touching, as he finally finds a small friend he can confide in and Celeste finds a human protector she can rely upon and care for.
This is a wonderful little book that is certainly worth a read. Slip it into the hands of one of your more thoughtful readers. They won’t be disappointed.
Peace (in the quest for home),
Kevin
Book Review: Building the English Classroom
Jan 3rd
I won’t even try to be unbiased here. Bruce Penniman, the author of Building the English Classroom: Foundations, Support, Success, is not only a colleague (and past director) in the Western Massachusetts Writing Project but he is also a former college instructor of mine, a writing partner for a National Writing Project resource, and a friend. But those connections won’t stop me from saying that Bruce’s book (which I notice is currently sold out on Amazon, which says something about the book’s appeal) about constructing a rich, diverse and challenging English classroom is a wonderful resource worth reading.
Early on in the book, Bruce, a former Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, among other accolades, explains the rationale for the book:
“Teaching English is challenging in part because it is many subjects in one — traditionally, writing, literature, public speaking, and grammar, but now all of those plus media literacy, computer technology, social justice, and much more … The job of organizing those demands can be overwhelming, especially to a teacher still developing a repertoire of management strategies.” (p. x1)
In engaging prose peppered with personal anecdotes from the classroom, Bruce distills his 40 years in the classroom into practice advice around curriculum development and assessment in the era of standardized testing while keeping his focus on for main themes that all of us teachers would do well to heed as a sort of professional motto:
- Collaborate
- Plan
- Reflect
- Believe
Building the English Classroom is structured around how to plan, teach and assess a wide range of writing and reading activities, using the Backwards Design model, and he puts a strong push later on in the book around opening the door to multicultural voices and authentic writing for students. Along with the traditional essay, Bruce has always been ready to provide a range of writing assignments that can demonstrate student knowledge beyond the five-paragraph model. While Bruce’s experience is in the high school (and now at the university level), the book can be of use to middle school teachers, too.
Of great value in here for anyone, however, are the many charts and graphs and samples that Bruce provides to the reader.
When I was a first year teacher, I took a graduate course through the Western Massachusetts Writing Project with Bruce as one of the co-instructors, and to this day, I keep his concept of “stakes writing” handy in my mind, and in my desk. Bruce thoughtfully lays out the ways that some writing is personal for the student (low stakes), some of the teacher and the classroom community (mid stakes), and some for the world itself (high stakes). In each of those tiers, there are a variety of expectations of the writer. This kind of thinking opened a lot of possibilities for me, which I continue to use to this day.
Peace (in the classroom),
Kevin
PS — You can sample some of the book at the NCTE book website.
Book Review: At Home
Jan 2nd
Leave it to Bill Bryson to shift his view from expansive (A Short History of Nearly Everything) to contained (At Home: A Short History of Private Life) and still draw the reader in with the rich storytelling has come to mark Bryson’s work for the past few years. At Home begins, aptly enough, in Bryson’s own home, as he begins to weave a rich tapestry of history behind each of the rooms, the furniture, the architecture and more that we mostly ignore in our day-to-day lives. At Home makes us look closer at what it is that makes our home our home. We spend some time in each chapter inside his home as Bryson focuses his gaze on his own English place, even providing us with the original architectural plans (and the revised ones that actually got built). All you need is a cup of tea, and maybe a cracker or two, and it is like spending time with an old friend who can talk your ear off for hours in a way that rarely gets boring.
The book is as much a history of England (with some early America thrown into the mix) as it is about why we have bathrooms, why the best bed in the house was often the one not slept in, how the nursery came to evolve in a time of high child mortality, and more stories of disease and illness than you really want to know, and yet, Bryson keeps you hooked amid all that pestilence and grief. Don’t even ask about the rats, lice and other critters …
I find it fascinating how Bryson is able to cobble together such rich prose out of some mundane ideas, or so I often thought, and yet, I could barely put At Home down, and I even know in whose hands I am going to pass this book to. That is the mark of a good read — you know who would love it next. At Home is a sure winner for those looking for an unexpected non-fiction treasure right inside your own four walls.
Peace (in our homes),
Kevin
Collecting Books and Considering Stats
Dec 31st
According to Goodreads, where I have been faithfully documenting just about every book I read this year, I have consumed more than 50 books (and counting). I had set a goal for myself of reading 40 books over the course of the year of 2011, and exceeded that by just more than 10 books. I started using Goodreads a few years ago but this last year, I was sort of obsessive with it. It’s one of those spaces that is both a source of book ideas and also a place to add what you know to the general cloud of data.
So, what does the year say about my reading habits?
- I did a lot of read-alouds with my youngest son. We’re now in that prime age of 7 years old when he is getting to love more complex stories, so Harry Potter, the Throne of Fire series, and more were a hit with him. Another year or so, and the read-aloud moments might be more difficult to sustain. For now, I am enjoying the time together, with a book between us.
- I read less graphic novels this year than any other year in recent times. I can’t quite say why, but I did.
- The longest book I read was Reamde by Neil Stephenson, and I still think he could have cut about 300 pages and still had a good book.
- I had 14 books with the top rating and just one book with the lowest rating. I think I am a generous reviewer.
- I can’t help but notice a few books on my “current reading” have been there for some time. These are mostly collections but still … get ‘em read!
- I created my own category of “abandoned” books this year. I am at the point where I don’t want to waste my precious reading time with a bad book. I feel guilt when I abandoned a story, but I can live it with (as long as the next book is good)
- There is a solid mix of fiction and non-fiction in my book pile. I like to mix it up.
- I have 24 books on my “to read” list, and a pile of books by my bedside table.
So, what is my goal for 2012? Bump it up to 45 books! I think I can do it.
Peace (on the shelves),
Kevin
Book Review: Learn Me Gooder
Dec 29th
I’d love to be able to say that I hear no echoes of my own classroom experiences in John Pearson’s Learn Me Gooder stories, which follows a fictional teacher throughout the year in a series of email correspondences with his friends and relates all of the odd things that go on inside of a high-energy third grade elementary classroom. But I do, darn it. I hear those echoes and I can clearly see the students as if they were standing right in front of me, with off-kilter insights, emotional baggage and wide smiles at the fun of being part of a classroom where anything goes. (Note of disclosure: Pearson provided me with a free ebook version of Learn Me Gooder in hopes that I would do a review, but we had not arrangement regarding positive or negative review).
Luckily, my own experience in the classroom is not quite as odd as that of the teacher in Learn Me Gooder. Educator Jack Woodson, whose teaching tales formed the narrative of the first Learn Me Good novel by Pearson, survives the turmoil of teaching in a Texas school beset by standardized testing, immigrant families arriving and departing with little notice, language barriers and more by using humor to lighten the load. Pearson entertains, but also educates, as he explores the daily life of a teacher through the wide-eyed lens of humor.
So, yes, I laughed at much of what goes on with Jack Woodson. I laughed hard and loud.(Plus, Woodson finally gets a girlfriend in this second book. See? Even teachers have lives!)
The use of the email correspondence with friends from Woodson’s past job is a smart narrative touch by Pearson, as we see the back-and-forth emerge with playfulness, and some wistfulness of Woodson sometimes regretting leaving there for teaching but never enough to leave his kids behind. And in the end, it is Woodson’s nurturing nature and understanding of his wacky students that anchors this book firmly into the ground, and those very qualities of Woodson the teacher make Learn Me Gooder a recommended read for any teacher or any parent or anyone who has ever been in a classroom that made you just want to shake your head and smile.
Peace (in the learning),
Kevin
PS — You can also follow John Pearson’s blog for Learn Me Good, and see where some of the stories come from.
Book Review: Chronicles of the Red King (The Secret Kingdom)
Dec 29th
Two of my three sons loved the Charlie Bone series. One read all of the books; the other listened to most of them on audio. Me? I found the writing too slow-paced and too much like Harry Potter to really get into the Charlie Bone narrative (the story tells of a boy who goes to a school to develop his magical abilities to enter into photographs, and he comes to realize he is one of a line of descendents of the powerful Red King.)
Now writer Jenny Nimmo returns with The Chronicles of the Red King, which tells the historical tale of the original ancestor. I’m happy to say that I found the writing more lively than Charlie Bone, and the characters of Timiken (the king in search of a kingdom that he can call home) and his sister, Zebaydah, and their camel, Gabar, (yep, a camel with attitude) are nicely done. I did enjoy most of all the story of where the magic comes from — in the guise of the last web spun by the last Moon Spider, woven with tears and rain and more, and given to Timoken by a small magical creature who gets destroyed by an army of evil creatures who want the moon cloak.
I read this novel as a read-aloud with my youngest son who loved the story. It was a quick read, just right for the holiday season.Clearly, Nimmo has further plans for the series (this is book one) and while I don’t think it is the best book I read this year, it was decent, and I can see my son and I following the series in between larger books (we’re reading Summerland right now by Michael Chabon … it’s wonderful).
Peace (with the moon cloak),
Kevin
PS — the book video
Happy to be Part of the Nerdy Book Club
Dec 27th
I had the honor of having some writing posted at the Nerdy Book Club this morning. I wrote about those students who read furtively under the table as the teacher tries to teach. If you get a moment, give it a read, or you can listen to the podcast version, too. In either case, make sure you pop the Nerdy Book Club blog into your RSS and capture some interesting insights into why we love reading so much.
Read “Just Let Them Read” at the Nerdy Book Club
or
Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin
Other Than Peace and Love, Books are Holiday Treasures
Dec 26th
One one hand, I am difficult to shop for in the holiday season. I don’t need much. I have a beautiful family and more stuff than I need. On the other hand, I do love books. So I found a few paper treasures with my name on it yesterday (and gave out my fair share, too). The problem with receiving so many cool books at once is not just where to begin, but how to finish the book already underway (I am reading At Home by Bill Bryson) so that I can get to the pile of books that await me.
Here is what is in the personal book queue (aka, the pile of books on my bedside table):
The Best Non-Required Reading of 2011. This series remains my stalwart favorite, and I just read the introduction by Dave Eggers (loved it) and Guillermo del Toro, who not only makes interest films but also keeps an entire house just for his books. That’s right. He has a house as a personal library. His intro really captures the love of reading and why books matter. And I love that this collection is culled by high school students, and that the writing comes from traditional and non-traditional sources.
The Best American Short Stories of 2011. Another great collection, and one which I look forward to reading each year. It turns out I have a bunch of these “best of …” that I read throughout the year (the technology stories one is always a keeper, too). I’m a sucker for the collections, I guess.
Steve Jobs, the biography by Walter Isaacson. I guess this has become required reading, and my two older sons said they might read it, too. I’ve read biographies of Jobs before and found them interesting. I’ll see how this one holds up too, given all the praise it seems to be getting (or is that because Jobs is dead?). I’m all for what Apple has done for design and ease, but I am a little leery of the Cult of Steve that seems to have been built around him.
I walked With Giants, an autobiography of Jimmy Heath, is a nice surprise. My dad gave it to me. Heath, the famous jazz saxophonist, had a celebrated life in the world of jazz, and I know his life story is interesting, beginning with his role as the “Little Bird,” in the shadows of Charlie Parker. Life stories of musicians always fascinate me.
And my own purchase for myself: Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan. I know his writing a bit, but not much, but the rave reviews of his essays has me ready to jump in.
What are you reading?
Peace (in the pages),
Kevin
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