Room on the Broom

When I pulled this book out of the Halloween bin, my Kinders and Firsties went crazy!

Them: "I love that story!" "I watch that movie all the time!"
Me: "Oh, well if you've already read it, let's choose another one."
Them: "NO! No! Please read it!"

And so we did, and we enjoyed every minute. We talked about how cool it is that Emily has beautiful ginger hair, just like the witch, that Isaac has a cat but it doesn't look like the witch's cat, and Nina's family just got a new broom, too, but it doesn't have seats or a nest or a pool. And by the way, did you know that Julia's bow is almost the same color as the witch's, and Kaden's brother had a wart on his foot once?

Life with the littles :)

Be sure to add this one to your Halloween repertoire.



Julia Donaldson website

Axel Scheffler website

SchoolKidzTV animated version

Miss Smith and the Haunted Library

If you love the Miss Smith series, be sure to pick up this title - perfect for the days leading up to Halloween.

Miss Smith takes her class to the community library, just a block away from school, and, naturally, they take her Incredible Storybook with them.

When they arrive at the library, they are greeted by the librarian, Ms. Creeper. When she hears that they are on the hunt for spooky stories, she borrows the Incredible Storybook and begins to read bits from each of her favorites.

Soon, as any Miss Smith fan knows, the characters begin to come out of the storybook and fill the room. The children are simultaneously enthralled and worried, but Ms. Creeper doesn't seem to notice Frankenstein, Count Dracula, the Hound of the Baskervilles, or the frightened students clinging to their teacher.

When Ms. Creeper suddenly stops reading aloud and begins passing out cider and cookies, they realize she is not only aware, but has just started a party in the library.

Everyone is having a great time, and the characters don't seem so scary anymore as they tell jokes, play fetch with the Hound, and go on horsey rides with the Headless Horseman.

Until...the senior citizens' book club arrives at the library, and we all know what Miss Smith has to do

Pick up this Miss Smith sequel and enjoy seeing all your favorite spooky characters brought to life in Michael Garland's inimitable style, and, as a bonus Ms. Creeper has included a list of each of the spooky creatures and the book that features them.



Other Halloween books:
Halloween Rhythm and Rhyme (8 books in one post!)

National Geographic Kids: Halloween

Halloween Night: Twenty-One Spooktacular Poems

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Miss Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pies

This is the most adorable Halloween book I've ever read!

Author Mark Kimball Moulton introduces Miss Fiona through the eyes of a neighborhood child. The child describes her dilapidated home and property and then Miss Fiona's appearance, from her stringy hair, pointed hat, pale green skin, wart, and long black dress, to her age - Fiona is rumored to be 403, but "...she never looked much older than 200 years to me!"

Miss Fiona has a large pumpkin patch and she grows hundreds of pumpkins in order to make homemade pumpkin pie for the community every Halloween.

She spends Halloween day prepping the pumpkins and making the pies while the trick-or-treaters peer into her windows, anxiously awaiting the finished product.

When trick-or-treating is done, the children gather outside Miss Fiona's house and she chooses one lucky child to be her helper. Everyone waits outside while Miss Fiona and her helper prepare the pies for serving.

When the church bell tolls at midnight, Miss Fiona calls them in and feeds them her delicious pie and while they eat, she reads spooky stories to them, then sends them on their way with an extra slice of pie to share with their families.

Karen Hillard Good's illustrations take this book above and beyond the normal Halloween book. Her folk art style, with muted colors and rusted tintype look, keep it warm and friendly. Every page is a treasure trove of detail - spiraling stars, sunflowers, black cats, jack-o-lanterns, and pumpkins spilling out of every possible nook and cranny.

One of my favorite moments is when the child narrator observes, "...who cares how kooky someone looks, when there's goodness deep within." The other is when Miss Fiona finally reveals the secret to her scrumptious pumpkin pie.

Mark Kimball Moulton Blog

Karen Hillard Good website

Other Halloween books:
Halloween Rhythm and Rhyme (8 books in 1 post!)

National Geographic Kids: Halloween

Halloween Night: Twenty-One Spooktacular Poems

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Bone Soup

According to the book jacket, author Cambria Evans had an experience with eyeball stew in Peru that inspired her to write this story.

An innovation on Stone Soup, this Halloween version features Finnigan, a  skeleton known for his voracious appetite. Finnigan is always hungry, in fact, every where he goes, he brings along his eating stool, his eating spoon, and his big eating mouth.

On Halloween, Finnigan approaches a town hoping for a Halloween feast. But his reputation has preceded him and the towns"people" have hidden all their food. The witch hides her jars of imported eyeballs, the beast locks up his bat wings, the zombies put away their frog legs, and no one will share with Finnigan the Eater.

So, in true Stone Soup form, Finnegan lights a fire under a humongous cauldron in the middle of the town square and drops in an old, dry, crusty bone. Soon, the town creatures join him in the square to see what he is doing, and one by one, they add their contributions to create a "delicious" Halloween feast.

Evans' illustrations are just spooky enough to give this story Halloween flavor and while Finnigan doesn't look anything like a skeleton to me, I do love the little black-eyed zombies.

Cambria Evans' website is supposedly coming soon, though it appears that it has been in the making for almost a decade. In the meantime, here's a link to an interview with her.

Other Halloween books:
Halloween Rhythm and Rhyme (8 books in 1 post)

National Geographic Kids: Halloween

Halloween Night: Twenty-One Spooktacular Poems

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin

I haven't blogged much since school started. I've got a new assignment and between moving into a new classroom and pulling together materials for math intervention and ELA support for our Spanish Immersion students, I've been...busy.

But when I pulled out my Halloween books and saw this, I knew I had to share. Whenever I read this to children, I always ask if they have read Goodnight, Moon or Runaway Bunny. Most of the time, the answer is yes and we talk about what they like about those stories before I tell them that this book is written by the same author. That always gets them ready to hear something wonderful. The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin follows a tiny, green pumpkin as he grows into a big, orange pumpkin in a field he shares with a one-eyed scarecrow whose ferociousness he wishes to emulate.

As the field mice scamper around him in the big field, the little pumpkin watches the scarecrow chase away the blackbirds and he vows that someday he will scare the field mice away. His wish comes true when a trio of children choose him to be their jack-o-lantern, carve him up, set him out on the porch, light a candle inside him, and...the mice run away.

Margaret Wise Brown turns a typical tale about a pumpkin becoming a jack-o-lantern into an absorbing adventure filled with both rich and childlike language - zigzag, gallop, dreadful, ferocious, inky black, droopy.

Caldecot medalist Richard Egielski uses warm colors and shadows to evoke the mood of Brown's writing. The light on the children's faces as they gaze at their jack-o-lantern took me back to the years of carving pumpkins in our home.

Smithsonian Magazine article about Margaret Wise Brown

Richard Egielski website

Other Halloween books:
Halloween Rhythm and Rhyme (8 books  in 1 post)

National Geographic Kids: Halloween

Halloween Night: Twenty-One Spooktacular Poems

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

 

Over in the Hollow

This adaptation of the song "Over in the Meadow" is a fun Halloween romp/counting book.

Sing it or read it, either way, your child will love it. Dickinson uses well-known Halloween creatures such as werewolves, vampires, Frankenstein, and skeletons to take us biting, boogieing, stomping, and howling through the hollow in 13 (what other number suits a Halloween song?) verses.

Rebecca Dickinson obviously loves Halloween since this is her 5th Halloween-themed book for children. Be sure to check out her other work when you visit Amazon to purchase this one ;)

Stephan Britt illustrated this one and the pictures are adorable, a word we don't often associate with Halloween, but he makes every page of this book FUN! Be sure to spend time carefully examining each picture with your child, looking for Britt's humorous touches.

This book is a great addition to a family or classroom Halloween collection.

Other Halloween books you might enjoy:
Halloween Rhythm and Rhyme (8 books in 1 post)
National Geographic Kids: Halloween
Halloween Night: Twenty-One Spooktacular Poems
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Todd's TV

This story makes me laugh! Todd loves his parents, but they are busy and he is often told to go watch TV while they take care of their adult stuff. So Todd and his TV become close. So close, that the TV offers to attend Todd's parent-teacher conference in place of his parents. Then the TV starts making breakfast and driving Todd to school, taking Todd on vacation, playing catch with Todd, giving Todd advice.

At first, Todd's parents are relieved, but when the TV announces that it wants to adopt Todd. His parents are jolted into action and begin the long process of trying to win back their son.

First, they try talking to the TV, but it uses commercials to distract them. Then they try competing with the TV - performing tricks and dressing up like a TV, but all their efforts flop.

Finally, Todd points out the switch and they turn off the TV and that is the beginning of a good life for their family. Until...

James Proibos wrote and illustrated this entertaining story. Kids and adults will enjoy the ridiculous antics of the cheeky, invasive TV, and hopefully, the timely message will resonate and and extend to all the other devices that distract us so easily.

Amazon Links

Well Said, and High Time Someone Said It!

This principal has implemented wonderful practices to boost student reading and build classroom libraries. He exemplifies what it means to “do the right thing.”

Read the article, then take a moment to ponder what our schools would be like if every principal followed his example.

Article link

Back to School Scavenger Hunt

If you’re looking for a simple, fun, low-prep BTS activity for grades 2-6, you can’t go wrong with this.

The Tiger Rising

Kate diCamillo is one of today's most popular junior fiction writers - great plots, engaging characters, challenging vocabulary, and abundant opportunities for inference and text connections.

Her best-known book is likely Because of Winn-Dixie, but she's also authored Flora and Ulysses, The Magician's Elephant, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Raymie Nightengale, The Tale of Despereaux, as well as her Mercy Watson and Bink & Gollie series'.

I had the opportunity to hear her speak when she was touring to promote Flora and Ulysses, and she is thoroughly delightful. The audience was filled with all ages and she was engaging to every age and interest level. I've included link to interviews below and this article by her about why children's book SHOULD be a little bit sad is well worth your time.

Tiger Rising has a lot of sad, and it's ok. Rob's mother passed away a year ago. His dad is so grief-stricken that he won't talk about her and doesn't want anyone else to mention her either, including Rob. But their hometown full of people who love them and his mother insists on wrapping their arms around them, so his father decides they have to move.

Rob has an image in his mind of a suitcase, and he puts all of his feelings, thoughts, and memories of his mother into that suitcase and keeps the lid shut tight. He refers back to the suitcase anytime he is tempted to cry or even talk to anyone about his mother.

They end up living in a hotel where his father works as a handyman. Rob is bullied at school, on the bus, everywhere he goes, and adults turn a blind eye. He has a rash on his legs, that to any adult would signal emotional distress, but to other children represents another opportunity to mock and tease him. He adds his feelings about being treated this way to his suitcase.

And then Sistine moves to town. Sistine's parents recently divorced and she is sure her father is coming any day to take her to live with him, so she has no intention of making friends or caring about this place. Rob is drawn to her immediately.

Sistine immediately becomes a target for the other children, but she, unlike Rob, fights back, leaving school each day with dirty, torn clothes, as well as scrapes and bruises. Before she and Rob can get to know each other very well, his principal sends him home until the rash on his legs clears up because some of the other parents are afraid it is contagious. Rob is thrilled!

Sistine brings him the schoolwork he has missed each day and they develop an uneasy friendship that is cemented when he shares that he has found a tiger in a cage in the woods, a tiger that sits squarely on top of his suitcase, holding it closed.

As the mystery of the tiger unfolds, Rob and Sistine come to terms with the truths in their lives - Sistine's father is not coming to get her and Rob must learn to talk about his feelings if he is going to be healthy.

This is a great read-aloud with older children. I recommend reading to together because of some of the intense topics and feelings that are woven into this wonderful story. It opens the door to opportunities to talk about divorce, death, compassion, kindness, mental health, friendship, decision-making, etc...

The ending is satisfying, but leaves enough room for the reader to imagine what the future holds for Rob and his friend Sistine.

Tiger Rising and Kate diCamillo's other works are available on Amazon.



Reading Rockets interview with diCamillo
Candlewick Press interview with diCamillo

Sweet Tooth

Margie Palatini writes witty books, the kind of books adults can enjoy as much as children and Sweet Tooth is one of my favorites to read with my classes.

Stewart has a sweet tooth - a demanding molar that hounds him day and night for goodies. In the middle of movies, class, everywhere he goes, the Sweet Tooth yells for jelly beans, chocolate, licorice, lollipops, cookies, anything and everything containing sugar. Even when Stewart is moaning in pain, saying he's had enough, the Sweet Tooth yells for more, "What are you waiting for, kid? Come on. Cookie. Cookie. Cookie. COOKIE."

But Stewart has a plan - he's going to put the Sweet Tooth on a healthy diet. He feeds his Sweet Tooth peas and broccoli, and no matter how loudly the Sweet Tooth yells, Stewart stays strong.

He brushes the Sweet Tooth and pushes it with his tongue, and the Sweet Tooth realizes Stewart is trying to get rid of him, so he increases the pressure. Stewart responds by grabbing a big old carrot and...crunch. The Sweet Tooth is now the Tooth Fairy's problem.

The illustrations are so fun - vivid and zany, sweets flying everywhere, the bug-eyed kids, and I especially love the way Jack E. Davis has drawn the Sweet Tooth - he looks like a white enamel version of Oscar Madison.

Pick up Sweet Tooth and a few of Margie Palatini's books and enjoy some giggles with your young ones.

Mrs. Serio's Mommy reading aloud Sweet Tooth