Survival at 40 Below. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

            I should start this blog off by telling you that I hate the cold.  I used to feel sorry for myself as an undergraduate when I had to walk from my car to the Wren building for class during winter.  There is something about being cold that bothers me deeply.  I feel that if it is cold, it should at least be snowing.  Yet here in Virginia, I am normally forced to deal with freezing temperatures and no snow.  Why am I ranting about the cold when I am supposed to be blogging about a nonfiction book?  Well, I read Survival at 40 Below by Debbie S. Miller (not to be confused with Debbie Miller!) and I found the book less than thrilling, perhaps because of my own prejudices against the cold.

            This book looks at the ways animals adapt to living in temperatures that are as low as forty degrees below zero in Alaska.  My favorite animal discussed is the wood frog.  When a wood frog gets really cold, its liver produces a lot of glucose that a frog then pumps through its body to protect its cells from ice crystals.  As Debbie S. Miller says, “when more than three-quarters of its body freezes, the frog stops breathing and its heart stops beating.”  Oh no, poor frog!  It must be dead, right?  Nope!  The author calls this frozen frog a “frogsicle” that will eventually unthaw in the spring to hop again.

            I feel like the structure of this book is very complex.  It seems simple, that the author is just talking about a frozen winter in Alaska and ends with the spring arriving.  Yet the author talks about so many different animals that I often get confused.  On one page alone, chickadees, gray jays, red squirrels, weasels, and brown lemmings are discussed.  I feel like this book could be a much better read-aloud for students and a much more interesting text if the author talked about fewer animals.   Despite my reservations about this book, the last line is nothing short of brilliant.  The book says “For more than two months the days will be endless, as the top of the world tilts toward the sun and the magical Land of the Midnight Sun explodes with life.”  I just love this line, and it leaves me thinking of a magical land where night never comes and a world where everything lives forever.

            The illustrations in this book remind me of the pictures that I see hanging in my dentist’s office.  They are wonderful illustrations, but that may add to my reservations with this book, since dentist’s offices only conjure up feelings of discomfort and pain.  There is very low support from the illustrations, as far as helping students decoding the text.  On the pages that speak of the wood frog, the frog blends into the picture so that the reader has to search for it.  The rest of the illustrations are landscape pictures of Alaska.  For some, these pictures may seem thoughtful and beautiful, to me they just made me feel cold somehow.

            This book has some good features that would be helpful for students reading this book on the own.  Like in many non-fiction books, a glossary is provided that tells students terms such as “carrion” and “duff.”  Debbie S. Miller also offers an author’s note that shows her love for animals and her hopes that students will read this book to learn to “understand, appreciate, and protect” the animals that she mentions.  I also like that a map of Alaska is included.  It shows where the arctic circle crosses into Alaska, something that I never actually knew.

            I know that I have had my reservations about this book, but it has been received well enough that Debbie is about to start researching her sequel, which will be called Surviving at 140 Above.  Who knows, perhaps I will like a book about the extreme heat better than the extreme cold?  Debbie S. Miller is a prolific writer about Alaska, where she has lived for the past 35 years.  Her books can be jumping off points for many science lessons, like her book Are Trees Alive?  If you want to learn more about her life in Alaska or any of her books (she also writes books for adults), then visit her website here

The Gathering

This is another random blog.  Sci-fi/fantasy blog is below this one.

Kelley Armstrong is coming out with a new book in the "Darkest Powers" series.  I absolutely loved this trilogy.  I was so disappointed, though, because there are so many loose ends left.  So, how excited was I when I found out that there is going to be a book four in the Darkest Powers series?!?!?! Very, very, exciting.  Even though this is considered part of the same series, it apparently has none of the same characters.  :( :(  No Chloe, no Derek, no Liz, no Simon!  What am I going to do?  I have to know what happens to my characters!

Here is what Kelley Armstrong's website says about "The Gathering."  I'm sure it will be awesome, I just wish I hadn't gotten my hopes up!

"Maya lives in a small medical-research town on Vancouver Island. How small? You can’t find it on the map. It has less than two-hundred people, and her school has only sixty-eight students—for every grade from kindergarten to twelve.
Now, strange things are happening in this claustrophobic town, and Maya’s determined to get to the bottom of them. First, the captain of the swim team drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. A year later, mountain lions start appearing around Maya’s home, and they won’t go away. Her best friend, Daniel, starts experiencing “bad vibes” about certain people and things. It doesn’t help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret—and he’s interested in one special part of Maya’s anatomy: Her paw-print birthmark."

The Chocolate Touch

            Lately, I have been reading and blogging about books that are probably too difficult for my students to read.  I wanted to read a text that I thought my students could handle as an independent read.  I chose Patrick Skene Catling’s The Chocolate Touch because it was a book that I had seen in my classroom’s library.   First published in 1952, I think the fact that this book has been reprinted for the past five decades is still included in Scholastic book orders is really a testament to its greatness.

            John Midas loves chocolate.  He spends all of his money on candy, and he never shares with anyone else.  Mr. and Mrs. Midas are concerned about the fact that John eats so much chocolate that he never wants to eat his dinner.  If he could have it his way, thought, John would eat nothing but candy.  One day, on the way to his best friend Susan’s house, he finds a coin.  This is not a quarter or a dime or a penny, but instead is a coin with a picture of a fat boy on one side, and the initials J.M. on the other side.  John keeps walking to Susan’s house, but finds himself going in the wrong direction, where he finds a candy store.  He walks inside, longing for the chocolate that he sees.  Lucky for him, the store owner tells him that he only takes the kind of coin that John has!  He gives John a box of chocolate and any thoughts of going to Susan’s house were forgotten.

            Before going to sleep that night, John eats the chocolate, which tastes nothing like he’s even had before.  In the morning, when he goes to brush his teeth, his toothpaste turns into delicious chocolate! He goes to eat his breakfast, and his bacons, eggs, and orange juice all turn into chocolate!  Interestingly enough, his bacon is still crisp and greasy, it is just now chocolate.  His juice is still juice, yet it is chocolate juice.  At first, John is excited.  This was his wish come true!  He could have chocolate all the time.  He soon realizes, however, that having everything you eat and drink turn into chocolate is not everything he ever wanted.  When he turns his mother into a lifeless chocolate sculpture when he kisses her, John knows that he must do something, or else!

            I think this is a great book to have in your classroom library.  I could definitely see this book being read aloud to a group of third graders, or perhaps in the book box of a fourth grader.  I do not know if students will understand the connection between John Midas and King Midas, but perhaps that could be something that the teacher introduces to the story.   This story is great for predicting.  When John Midas is about to go play his trumpet, the kids will say “no no no it’ll turn to chocolate!”  When John bites into Susan’s silver dollar to see if it is real, the reader will know what is coming next.

            One of the reasons I love this book so much is because I just know I would have loved it so much as a kid.  It is one of those books that, when you are a kid, makes you think anything is possible.  I’ve lived in an apartment for the past fifteen years, and I used to always want to have a house so that I could go searching for a wardrobe to take me to Narnia or for an attic so that I could have an Indian in the cupboard—I’m not kidding.  It reminds me a bit of Roald Dahl books, and I think any fan of his books will not be disappointed.  I am glad that I read this book because now I can recommend it to my students.

            The Chocolate Touch is more popular than I originally thought.  When I first read it, I had no idea that it had been around for half a century.  This story is simply timeless, however.  There are literally zero anachronistic parts of this book that an elementary student will not understand.  I searched this book on the internet, and I found this site that has 23 different units about and this book and different activities.  There are other stories about John Midas, called John Midas and the Vampires, John Midas and the Radio Touch, and John Midas and the Rock Star.  Interestingly, however, although these books were written decades are The Chocolate Touch, none of these books are still in print.  I may have to scour the local library and see what other adventures John Midas gets himself into.

Lily's Crossing, or The Lies Lily Let Loose

            Lily’s not your typical heroine.  Lily’s Crossing is about a girl, named Lily, who is living with her father and grandmother in 1944.  Lily lies, a lot.  She lies to her friend (yes, she only has one), she lies to her Gram, she lies to anyone who will listen.  She is aware of the fact that she lies and she lists this as her number one problem.  She also isn’t quite a thief, but she has been sneaking into movie theaters since she was six years old.  She is also very, very nosy.  Somehow, though, I can accept all that because this story is told through the eyes of a child.  She’s not malicious in her lies or when she sneaks into a movie.  Her friend Margaret has a brother, Eddie, who is fighting in the war, and Lily and Margaret eat the candy that Margaret’s mother had been intending to send to him.  This is not the action of a heroine, but it is what one would expect of a child who really has no idea about the levity of the situation around her.

            Lily soon begins to understand, however, that things in the world are serious.  Each year, Lily goes to Rockaway with her Gram and Poppy, where Lily spends the summer swimming and having a good time with her friend Margaret.  This summer, the summer of 1944, everything changes.  Margaret and her family move to Detroit, where Margaret’s father is helping to build bombers.  Then, Lily’s father is sent away to war.  Lily is so angry with her father that she doesn’t even say goodbye to him before he leaves.   Lily soon meets Albert, who is the nephew of her neighbors, the Orbans.  He comes from Hungary and wants nothing more than to go get his sister, who is still in France. 

            At first, there seems to be nothing in common between Lilly and Albert, but they soon form a deep friendship.  Lily tells Albert a lie, one so big that it could hurt both Lily and Albert.  Albert tells Lily that his parents were killed for writing a newspaper that spoke out against the Nazis.  Lily tells Albert a secret she had told no one.  Before her mother died when she was still very young, she pasted stars on the wall of their home in St. Alban.  Every year, Lily would take one of those stars off the wall in St. Alban and paste it to her bed in Rockaway so that it felt like her mother was with her.  Lily and Albert spend that summer swimming, going to movies, and trying to figure out a way to make their lives right again.

            The picture on the front has to be one of the most perfect covers I have ever seen for a book.  I look at this little girl and I see Lily.  Behind her I see the spot where she would row her boat and try to teach Albert to swim.  I wonder when this picture was taken, and where, because it is a cover that really fits with the image I had of the book in my mind.  I think that the stamp at the bottom is also a very nice touch.

            I think that this is a very good book for students in middle school.  It is not only a good story, but also very informative.  I can just imagine students asking “Why couldn’t people get any butter?” and “Why did Mr. Orban have to save the last of his gas?”  I really appreciate the fact that Albert is from Hungary, because it is a country that students probably do not know much about.  Of course students know France and Germany, but did they know that World War II affected so many countries in the world?  The setting of this book is so far removed from the actual fighting of the war, but it shows the reader that it still hit home.  Everything is affected by the war, and Lily’s Crossing gives readers a glimpse into what it must have been to live during that time.

            One of the most interesting things about this book is that Patricia Reilly Giff, the author, is writing the story about her childhood.  This story is fiction, but she says she remembers being a small girl during World War II and wanted to bring a story to her readers about what life was like.  She writes in her author’s note at the end of the story that “I remember the fears of that time, and how personal it all was.  I was surprised that other people, sometimes even adults, thought about the same things I did and had much the same worries.”  I feel that this adds to the value of the book because it is not just an historical fiction novel written by someone who did research about the time period.  Instead, this book is written by someone who lived through the experience.

            I am writing a positive review about this book, but honestly, it was not a book that really made me sit and think afterwards, or one that made me cry at the horrors of life and the cruelty of the world.  I can’t precisely explain why, but to me this book was just okay.  I was expecting to experience the pull on my heart that I had gotten when I read Pictures of Hollis Woods, a book written by the same author.  But in reality, I felt nothing.  I felt like this story was extremely predictable, and somehow Lily’s story reminded me of Molly from the American Girl series.   In order to really connect to a book, you have to feel happy or sad or angry or depressed.  After I read this book, I just thought “Well that was nice.”  I am not saying this is a bad book, because it is not.  It was a Newberry Honor book and tons of people have read it and loved it.  I think that many of my students will read this book and think it is wonderful and really learn a lot from it.  A great book may not be so great for certain people and I think I will take away from my reading of this book that that is okay.

            One extra note.   This book had a quote in it that I thought was utterly fantastic.  It is about saying goodbye to someone.  This was on a very literal level, because Lily was so angry at her father that she did not say goodbye to him before he left for the war.  I think, though, that this can be extended to think about people that we have lost in our lives.  Lily’s father says “’I told her that saying goodbye didn’t matter, not a bit.  What mattered were all the days you were together before that, all the things you remembered.”

            Now I pose a question to you.  Have you ever read a book that you knew was wonderful, and that everyone in the world had told you was wonderful, but then you read it and decided you didn’t like it?  I can only think of one book where I really just hated it (I didn’t hate this book, it just didn’t really resonate with me), even though everyone said it was great and it was a #1 New York Times’ Bestseller, and that is Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian.  After I read this book I was upset that I had spent so much of my time reading it!

Pictures of Hollis Woods

            I think I should begin this blog by telling Colleen how horribly sorry I am—this is another one of those books.  I know Fig Pudding made you cry, and there is no way in the world that you could escape from Patricia Reilly Giff’s Pictures of Hollis Woods without tears.  For that, I am sorry.  For being able to share this book with everyone, I am not.

            Hollis Woods is alone, and has been since she was born.  The story begins with an anecdote about a picture the six year old Hollis had put together from magazine cut-outs.  Her teacher had told the students to find pictures of words that begin with “W.”  Hollis had put together a picture of a father, a mother, a brother, and a sister.  Her teacher wrote a gigantic “X” across the picture because none of them began with a “w.”  Little did the teacher know that it did—Hollis’ picture of a family was a wish, a want, a “wouldn’t it be loverly?”  So begins the story of Hollis Woods, a girl who was left on the side of a street an hour after her birth without even a blanket.  Hollis asks to herself, “Didn’t a baby deserve a blanket?”  Hollis has never felt loved and has never felt wanted, except for the time she spent with the Regan family.  She runs away from them and social services places her with an artist named Josie Cahill.  Josie is a retired art teacher, and Hollis’ is an artist with a natural gift.  Hollis doesn’t know if she can stay, but she eventually decides that she will not run away this time.

            There is trouble in Hollis’ new home—Josie forgets things.  Josie forgets to send Hollis to school, forgets when to eat, and forgets that people do not dance around in the middle of the street.  Hollis’ social worker, the lady she calls the “mustard woman,” has found her a new home, a home where mother does not forget things.  Hollis didn’t know if she could stay with Josie, now she doesn’t know how she can ever leave her.  Hollis attempts to save her newfound home by escaping again, this time with Josie.  While she attempts to find a new home for Josie and herself, Hollis cannot shake off the memories of the times she spent with the Regan family.

            While I was reading this book, there was a weight upon my heart that I still have not been able to shake off.  No child should have to bear the weight of abandonment and loneliness.  Hollis has no friends and no family and she feels like she will never belong anywhere.  The two times she has found any semblance of a home, with the Regans and then with Josie, Hollis’ dream of a family falls apart.  When Hollis tried to finish Josie’s sentences to help her remember, my heart broke apart.  Hollis, who has never had any real family nor had any real parents, is now attempting to take care of the woman who should be taking care of her.  Josie wants to take care of Hollis, but her memory is slipping.  Hollis has to take on the added burden of helping Josie and keeping it a secret from the “mustard woman.”  How much hurt should a child have to bear?  When can Hollis ever just be a 12-year-old girl?

            I am not sure how I could use this in a classroom. Amazon recommends that this book is for children ages 9-12 but I would be very cautious about handing this book to most students. I am not sure this book could even be used in an elementary-school classroom, unless it was used with a very advanced group of fifth graders.  The language is not too difficult, but there are very heavy themes.  Also, the book switches from Hollis’ “time with Josie,” to different paintings she drew that tell of her past, mainly her times with the Regans.  It may be difficult for children reading the book to understand the constant switching from past to present.  Patricia Reilly Giff does have a teacher’s resource site for this book.  It includes different prompts for themes such as abandonment, hope, truth, friendship, and family.  It also has interdisciplinary links.  The teacher’s resource page can be found here.  As always, make sure you know you readers before beginning this book.  If you have a student in your class who is in foster care, this story may cause the student to feel isolated or picked on.  Also, make sure your students have the maturity and the level of thinking to understand such deep topics.

            I have always wanted to adopt children when I am older, and the resolve is still there.  Hollis Woods is not even a real girl and I still want to sweep her away and make her know that she is loved and that people do care about her. After reading this book, I looked at Virginia's Department of Social Services' website.  Now I have been staring at the faces of all these children, just like Hollis, who just want a home.  One kid said that he is ready to have a “forever family.”  Pictures of Hollis Woods takes on some serious issues, and it helps to remind me of how present they still are in our community.  I know this book is fiction, but it is realistic fiction.  There are hundreds of thousands of children just like Hollis living in the world.  I know that we’re still really young and perhaps not ready to have children, but I also know that everyone reading this blog right now loves children.  If you want to learn more about adoption and foster care in Virginia, please go to their website. 

            As I wrote this blog, I was listening to music.  Flyleaf’s “So I Thought” came on and some of the lyrics felt like they are very relevant for Hollis, so I decided to post them too:

“On my knees,
Dim lighted room
Thoughts free flow try to consume myself in this.
I'm not faithless,
Just paranoid of getting lost or that I might lose.
Ignorance is bliss cherish it.
Pretty neighborhoods you learn too much to hold
Believe it not
And fight the tears
With pretty smiles and lies about the times.
A year goes by
And I can't talk about it
The times weren't right
And I couldn't talk about it.”

I love to adore The Adoration of Jenna Fox

This is NOT A BOOK CLUB BOOK.  COLLEEN AND KERRY YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ THIS.  I know that there is a solid chance no one will read this blog, and I am okay with that.  I finished a book yesterday that I loved so much I just HAD to talk to someone about it.  My mom’s in Chicago, my sister’s been sick, and so my computer seems to be the only one left to listen. 

“There is something curious about where we live.  Something curious about Lily.  Something curious about Father and his nightly phone calls with Mother. And certainly something curious about me.  Why can I remember the details of the French Revolution but I can’t remember if I ever had a best friend?”

            I marked this paragraph in The Adoration of Jenna Fox.  This is the point in the book, on page 12, where I decided I knew exactly what was going to happen in the book.  I read lots of books, even if I don’t like them (I actually own all of the House of Night books.  Please save yourself and don’t ever read them.)  I did not have high hopes for The Adoration of Jenna Fox, and I’m not sure why.  Amazon had been recommending it for ages, and there was just something about the title and the cover that threw me off (I think the alternate cover with the butterfly is better than the one I have with the puzzle pieces).  I thought this book was going to be a standard science fiction novel with a predictable plot and surprise ending.  I am so glad that I was wrong.  This book has shocked me, amazed me, and managed to make its way onto my top science fiction books ever.

            Jenna Fox has just woken up from being in a coma for a year.  She can’t remember anything before “the accident,” and she can’t even bring herself to say those two words.  She has been moved to California after living on the east coast her whole life.  While her father, the creator of Biogel, a medical miracle that preserves organs, stays in New England, Jenna is forced to live with her emotionally unstable mother and her grandmother who seems to hate her.  Jenna’s mother wants Jenna to spend her time watching movies of her life growing up to spark some memories—through watching the movies, it because apparent that whoever Jenna Fox was, she was adored.  Her mother is so fearful that something may happen to Jenna that she barely wants her to leave the house, but she eventually allows her to go to a school with only five students. 

            Jenna goes to the village charter school, where something seems to be wrong with all of the students.  There’s Gabriel, who plays no real role in the story.  Allys, one of my favorite characters, has lost both her arms and legs due to an antibiotic-resistant sickness.  She now volunteers for the Federal Science Ethics Board, the FSEB, which regulates things like the amount of organ transplants a person can have (In this futuristic society, everyone gets 1000 points.  Each transplant or prosthetic has a point value.  Once your points are up, you cannot receive any more transplants, no matter what.)  Ethan refuses to reveal what has happened in his life, but it is clear that it haunts him.  Dane seems normal enough, but Jenna can’t shake off a feeling she has every time she looks at him.  These students become Jenna’s first friends in her new life while at the same time she is trying to piece together the memories of her old one.

            What makes us human?  This one question is the reason why the story is so amazing.  Pearson forces us to come to terms with this question while Jenna tries to understand it herself.  There were times while I was reading this book that I had to put it down and think about this question.  What part of us makes us human?  Is it our brains?  Our hearts?  Some intangible part of us that is a soul?  I can’t answer the question, but I think it is a fascinating one to ponder.  Another question that permeates this book is what would you do to save someone you loved?  Would I make the decisions that were made in this book, if I were given the option?  I think about my little sister, who is about Jenna’s age, and I don’t know if I could turn away if given the choice.  This question takes on a very real aspect when one looks at the very reason why the story of Jenna Fox came into existence.

            Mary E. Pearson’s daughter was diagnosed with cancer.  She began to ponder what she would do to save her daughter.  Luckily, her daughter survived her bout with cancer, but this idea lead to Jenna.  Six years after her first daughter beat cancer, her second daughter was diagnosed with the same cancer.  She says that “this second diagnosis was almost my undoing, but I believe that it deepened the story and my understanding of the characters, and also deepened my resolve that you never know what you might do in an impossible situation.”  This one quote deepened my love for this book.  It took this book from a fantasy book to a woman’s heart bleeding on the pages.  Once you read this book, and before you judge Jenna, Lily, or Jenna’s mother or father, ask yourself:  what would you do if you were in the same situation?

            I hope that maybe one day Mary E. Pearson will write a companion novel from the perspective of Allys. I would love a story to start with her crippling disease and see her develop her resolve and love for the FSEB.  In the end, decisions were made without Allys consent, and I think it would be fascinating to see how this plays out in another book.

            I recommend this book to anyone.  It is a book that will remind readers of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.  I think that The Adoration of Jenna Fox is more lively and more emotional—it took me two months to get through Never Let Me Go and only a few days to finish Jenna.  If you pick up this book, I promise that you too will become a part of The Adoration of Jenna Fox.

Mirror Mirror is the fairest of them all.

            Fairy tales have been told and retold, rehashed, re-imagined, redrawn, and every other re possible.  Or have they?  Marilyn Singer makes a bold move when she retells classic fairy tales through poems in Mirror Mirror.  What is so bold about telling a fairy tale through a poem, you ask?  Well, Marilyn Singer literally reverses the poems to create a new side to the story.  Marilyn Singer hits all the big fairy tales, including Cinderella, Princess and the Frog, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and almost every other classical fairy tale story imaginable.  It is difficult to explain the genius of these poems, which are called reversos, so I will give you one example from the book.  (I don’t feel like I’m giving anything away since the author has an excerpt on her website.) 

            “Cinderella’s Double Life”

Isn’t life unfair?                         Till the clock strikes midnight

Stuck in a corner,                                 these shoes!

while they’re waiting for a chance          I’ll be shining

with the prince,                         at the ball,

dancing waltz after waltz                       dancing waltz after waltz

at the ball                                              with the prince

I’ll be shining                                        while they’re waiting for a chance

These shoes                                          stuck in a corner.

Till the clock strikes midnight.    Isn’t life unfair?

As you can see, the author reverses the poem and it completely reverses the perspective of the story.  Some of the poems do not flow very well, but this no longer bothers me.  After I read this book and thought about how oddly some of the poems read, I decided to make a reversos of my own.  Is it horrible?  Yes, but I have decided to humiliate myself in order to show that these poems have to be well-planned in order for them to work at all.  Since Mairlyn Singer took all of the major fairy tales, I have decided to write a reversos about my favorite Disney character, Mulan:

Honor                                                              Honor

is key to my                                                      To keep my family

family,                                                              is won at a cost

my father.                                                         A battle, a war

I took the sword                                               You can do this

in the bedroom.                                                I said.

I cut off my hair                                                From the mirror

in the family temple.                                          Staring at me

I left home                                                        I saw a boy

in the middle of the night                                    To save my honor

to save my honor.                                             In the middle of the night

I saw a boy                                                      I left home.

Staring at me                                                    In the family temple

From the mirror.                                               I cut of my hair.

I said                                                                In the bedroom

You can do this.                                               I took the sword.

A battle, a war                                                  My father

is won at a cost.                                                Family

To keep my family                                            Is key to my

Honor.                                                             Honor.

            Josee Masse’s illustrations are wonderful and reveal something different each time you look at one.  The pictures are not mute colors or classically drawn lines, but instead bright colors and drawing that take timeless classics and give them a modern feel.  The illustrations show both perspectives, but are somehow still able to work as one picture.  Very few, if any, of the pictures can work without the other perspective.  Each line flows from its half beautifully into the other.  The illustration for “Do you know my name?” is my favorite because you cannot just look at it; you have to stare and ask yourself questions about what it all means.

            I think this book opens up wonderful opportunities for classroom teachers.  Even the most reluctant poet can appreciate Singer’s wonderful reversos.  A teacher could read the poem to the class, and then model their own poem (as I did with my horrible one above).  Then, the teacher could ask the students to write a simple, four line poem: I feel that anything longer than five or six lines might cause students to become frustrated.  This poem should be fun and engaging, not an arduous task.  I think that this book is a fresh take on classical fairy tales and poetry and is a must-have for any elementary school teacher.