author profile 7

Over the weekend, I received an email from Amazon, and it was Top 10 New York Times Bestsellers in Children's Picture Books. I thought I would post them up, since we just finished talking about Picture Books.

1. Where the Wild Things Are: The Movie Storybook by Barb Bersche

2. LEGO Star Wars by Simon Beecroft

3. Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies by Julie Andrews

4. Skippyjon Jones, Lost in Spice by Judy Schachner

5. Pigs Make Me Sneeze! by Mo Willems

6. Waddle by Rufus Butler Seder

7. Listen to the Wind by Greg Mortenson

8. Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library! by Vicki Myron

9. Runaway Mummy by Michael Rex

10. Otis by Loren Long

chapter 7

I love picture books. The picture books such a joy to kids and adults alike. I like how in the book on page 147 it says that "Picture books are the marriage of literature and fine arts into a unique literary form." It has a story and pictures that are painted, or hand drawn. Picture books are great and most used for read alouds. It's a good thing that Ms. Pickett showed us a video of what not to do for read alouds. Read alouds should be entertaining, and fun, not boring and no interaction with the kids. As I was reading the chapter, I didn't know that picture books only had 32 pages. Space is so limited but authors can make the book have a lot of meaning. Kids of all ages can enjoy picture books, even kids in middle school and high school. They may seem to old for pictures books, but they enjoy them. It's a great break from the other books they have to read. The teacher just needs to know how to use picture books in lessons for the older kids.

author profile 6

You may have heard of Jon Scieszka, he wrote The True Story of The 3 Little Pigs. Mr. Scieszka has written a lot of books that are all so good. Another book he wrote that you can see the other side of the story is: The Frog Prince Continued. In this book it shows what happened after the "They lived happily ever after." He also wrote The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Fairy Tales. Scieszka changes some of the fairy tales. Jon Scieszka also has a series of book called the Time Warp Trio. It's about three boys that goes through a time warp. I have read of the books and it's really good. Boys can get into the book. He keeps it fun for them.

http://www.jsworldwide.com/

chapter 6 & Path of Needles or Pins

Traditional Literature is such a comfort zone for me. It's always comforting when the story begins, "Once upon a time..." and it ends, "And they lived happily ever after." Stories like that is what they teach in schools to children. So a few parents would think that it's the original version that their children are learning. It's fun to see twists or the other side of a story to knownstories. My favorite would be The True Story of the 3 Pigs. It allows the readers to see what the wolf has to say to what happened. I really enjoyed the ideas the book shared about sharing and discussing traditional literature with students. You could allow them to do storytelling, story maps, literary element charts, a Venn Diagram, use puppets, or write a newspaper. I think kids will enjoy writing a newspaper a lot. That will be the time they can write whatever they choose to based on the story. With Traditional Literature, it can be entertaining and also have a moral, like Aseop's Fables.

After reading Path of Needles or Pins, I would have never thought that fairy tales would be so bloody and horrifying. After reading the story, it had me thinking about other stories. Did Goldilocks and The Three Bears end the way it did? What about Snow White? There are so many questions now. I'm going to need to look up all this stuff. It's crazy to think that fairy tales started off as being horrifying. Clearly these stories were meant for adults. Authors had to clean them up a lot for kids, but I don't think they should have used adult stories to make them into kids stories. When the kids grow up and find out the real versions, they are going to be so shocked and surprised.

author profile 5

One of my favorite poets would have to be Jack Prelutsky. He has written many books. All of his poems are meant to be funny. His poems makes you laugh constantly. Having the kids read a funny poem is always a good way to introduce poetry. A couple of his books are: The New Kid on the Block, For Lauging Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funny Bones, Something Big Has Been Here, A Pizza the Size of the Sun, and It's Raining Pigs and Noodles. Kids will have a blast with poems by Jack Prelutsky.

I checked his website, and even the site is fun. His website contains activities with the poems, music, pictures of his family, and sports cards that have a poem on them. http://www.jackprelutsky.com/

chapter 5/14

My memories of poetry are very slim and boring. I don't remember doing much poetry in elementary school. But I really do remember poetry in high school. The poems we had in high school were boring and extremely confusing. We always had to interpret what we thing the poet was trying to get across, but when we would do that, the teacher would mark it wrong. After reading the chapter, poetry looks fun for elementary school children. Also if the teacher is really, really good, then he/she can make poetry for the older kids. Most of the books that are mentioned in the chapter, I have never heard of. So it's good to have a list of good poerty books for future references. Last semester in my EDRD 3344 with Barker, we talked about poetry. She even allowed us to create out own poem in any form we wanted. Allowing the kids make up thier own poem would be fun. You will be able to get an insight of the child thoughts, and check if they understand the concept. Since you're allowing the kids to write a poem, don't critize what they wrote, or then they may never want to write ever again. A teacher should not only make the children feel comfortable in reading, but also in writing. We should encourage them to write whatever comes to their mind.

Maya Angelou

The interview of Ms. Maya Angelou was both uplifting and motivating. I became a fan of hers during my senior year of high school, but watching the interview, I've became a bigger fan. I liked how she said that teachers must relate to their students. There is not a way that teachers and students cannot be able to relate. We both have emotions, feelings, and are human beings. I loved how she started to recite some poems. When she is reciting the poems, she really gets into them, and speaks from the heart. All poems should be read like that. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is such an excellent poem. I never thought about looking at this poem from a teacher's point of view. But Ms. Pickett is right, kids want to learn and we should let them learn.