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Watermark Teacher Feature – June 20, 2007
In this issue:
BOOK NEWS
Books on the horizon
Fresh Titles: Great new picture books, chapter books, and teen titles
UPCOMING EVENTS
Mark Levine reading & signing this Saturday.
Khaled Hosseini event cancelled.
Judy Nichols: “Story-time for Two Year Olds” next Saturday.
KMUW Literary Feast. Friday, July 6.
BOOK REVIEWS
* “Houdini: The Handcuff King” by Jason Lutes & Nick Bertozzi.
* “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire” by Rafe Esquith.
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Greetings and salutations,
I hope everyone is enjoying the summer. We gave Teacher Feature a bit of a break
and a chance to recharge its battery, and now, it’s back and raring to go.
During the downtime, I attended Book Expo of America, a huge conference for
booksellers held this year in New York City. It was a great opportunity to
preview upcoming book releases, meet some favorite authors and publishers in the
flesh, and gain solid ideas for new ways to make teachers’ and librarians’ lives
a bit more bookalicious. (My favorite find at BEA: author-illustrator Mo Willems
has a new Knuffle Bunny picture book due out in the fall and new
Elephant & Piggie
readers on the way. Stay tuned as their release dates get closer.)
In other news, I’m currently reading an advance copy of Linda Perlstein’s
upcoming book “Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade.” She was
the Washington Post’s education reporter for several years, and her book is a
thoughtful, in-depth look at the changes being felt in one school as new “No
Child Left Behind” policies take effect. It’s good stuff so far; I’ll keep you
posted. In the meantime, enjoy the (very occasional) sunshine.
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FRESH TITLES
A picture book for ages 2 to 5
“I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean” by Kevin Sherry (Dial,
9780803731929, $16.99) This simply-worded book uses a funny story and brilliant
illustrations to convey a big idea for young children: things come in all
different sizes, and “big” and “little” are relative terms. The star is a giant
squid who thinks he’s the biggest thing in the ocean--until he gets swallowed up
by an even bigger whale! Read a review here:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/review0507-013.html
Chapter books for ages 7 to 10
“The Talented Clementine” by Sara Pennypacker, pictures by Marla Frazee
(Hyperion, 9780786838707, $14.99) Clementine is the 3rd-grade hero of a new
series of chapter books, and she's awesome! She's full of smart, oddball
observations and good-hearted worries, and her talent-show woes are
laugh-out-loud funny. (I even like her better than Ramona. Don’t tell!)
Clementine is the answer to the boring-chapter-book blues! Read a review here:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/review0607-004.html
“Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little” by Peggy Gifford, pictures by
Valorie Fisher (Schwartz & Wade, 9780375839153, $12.99) This
photo-illustrated book for young readers is a riotous look at one
fourth-grader's struggle with her summer reading assignment: all 144 pages of E.
B. White's classic “Stuart Little.” Moxy is a stellar character full of
cleverness and distractions, and her story is a gem. You will laugh out loud at
her scheme for funding her college education with a bowl of late-summer peaches.
Read a review here:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/review0607-008.html
An artful graphic novel for ages 13 and older
“The P.L.A.I.N. Janes” by Cecil Castellucci & Jim Rugg (DC Comics/Minx,
ISBN
9781401211158, $9.99) I love this teen graphic novel's focus on making art as an
act of hope and survival; its school setting is convincing, but it's the theme
of a young girl’s resilience in the face of violence and injury that really
makes it something special. Castellucci writes quirky characters who feel like
old friends, and Rugg's illustrations make the whole thing swing. Read a review
here: http://www.watermarkbooks.com/review0607-003.html
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UPCOMING WATERMARK EVENTS
Mark Levine Reading & Signing. Saturday, June 23. 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Poet and magazine writer Mark Levine will read from and sign his new non-fiction
book “F-5: Tornado Outbreak of the Century,” which chronicles a rash of nearly
one hundred and fifty twisters that struck the American heartland in the spring
of 1974. Mr. Levine teaches poetry in the Writer's Workshop at the University of
Iowa. The event will be a fund-raiser for the rebuilding of the public library
in Greensburg, Kansas.
CANCELLED: Khaled Hosseini reading and signing. Wednesday, June 27.
Due to a serious family illness, Khaled Hosseini and his publisher, the Penguin
Group, have been forced to cancel the remainder of the book tour for “A Thousand
Splendid Suns,” including the Watermark/Wichita Public Library event intended
for Wednesday, June 27. At this time, they have no plans to reschedule.
Watermark offers full refund for books and purchased tickets (a sales receipt
will help expedite the process). We apologize for and sympathize with your
disappointment.
Judy Nichols: Story-time for Two Year Olds. Saturday, June 30. 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Bring your youngsters to story-time with Judy Nichols, author of the book
“Storytimes for Two Year-Olds,” published by the American Library Association.
KMUW Literary Feast. Friday, July 6. 7:00 p.m.
The July book will be “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life” by
Barbara Kingsolver: It’s an engrossing journal of one mindful family eating
locally (and heartily) for a year. Literary Feast participants will enjoy dinner
together, with a menu specially created by our Watermark chef, then take part in
a book discussion over dessert. Discussion is led by Jill Dizmang, KMUW
operations manager.
Tickets are available at the Watermark book counter or by calling (316)
682-1181. Places are limited, and we recommend purchasing your ticket well in
advance. Read more about the book, author, and menu on the KMUW Web site:
http://www.kmuw.org/LiteraryFeasts.html
For a full listing of Watermark events, including book clubs and art openings,
visit the Events page of our Web site at:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/events.html
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REVIEWS
“Houdini: The Handcuff King” by Jason Lutes & Nick Bertozzi (Hyperion,
9780786839025, $16.99)
“Houdini: The Handcuff King” is the first in a new line of graphic-novel
biographies for young readers jointly created by Hyperion Books and the Center
for Cartoon Studies. In ninety pages of crisp black-and-white art, the book
tells a thrilling fictionalized story from the life of Harry Houdini, the famous
Jewish Hungarian-American escape artist and stage magician.
The book begins with an engaging introduction by novelist Glen David Gold,
author of the rollicking escape-artist novel “Carter Beats the Devil.” Gold
unlocks the unique nature of Houdini’s enduring fame by likening him to
basketball player Michael Jordan: just as Jordan’s stardom brought intense new
attention to his sport, Houdini’s immense renown gained worldwide acclaim for
stage magic. “He was the first man in history,” Gold says, “to be famous because
what he did was cool.”
Like Gold’s introduction, the book’s main story is deftly aimed to interest
young readers. Rather than offer a stale overview of Houdini’s life, Lutes and
Bertozzi instead choose a single telling incident that captures much of what
made the man a sensation. They take readers through a single day in 1908, the
day the Great Houdini, wrapped in chains and clasped in handcuffs, leapt from
the Harvard Bridge into the freezing waters of the Charles River.
From 5:00 a.m. on, we get to see Houdini practice and prepare, rehearsing his
skills as a lock-pick, tracing his route to the bridge, and imagining his
death-defying leap. Along the way, our storytellers show us how Houdini wins the
complete trust of his assistants (absolutely necessary to keep his tricks
secret), how he confronts the unthinking anti-Jewish bias shown by the police,
and how much he relies on the partnership and cleverness of his steady wife
Bess.
Lutes and Bertozzi prove that a graphic novel is the perfect form to showcase
Houdini’s spectacle-rich life. In each panel, with his every word and
expression, their Harry Houdini exudes showmanship and panache. And in the last
tense seconds before the big moment, the authors ratchet the tension up with an
excellent sequence of excellently-paced images: Bess’s arrival at the bridge is
delayed, Harry has to posture and stall; Bess barrels through the police line to
give her husband his good-luck kiss (and to slip him a secret lock-pick); Harry
then plunges down into the river’s black embrace and sets about working his
magic.
This well-told story benefits from clear, beautiful drawings and first-rate
design. The book is a solidly made hardcover that features a short bibliography
and genuinely interesting endnotes that comment on elements of the main story:
series editor James Sturm explains incidental details like the workings of
turn-of-the-century advertising and telecommunications and the college rivalry
between Yale and Harvard. It all adds up to a great package that’s sure to catch
young readers’ imaginations. “Houdini: The Handcuff King” is a treat that should
find a place on library shelves and in the hands of youthful, wondering readers.
(For ages 9 and older)
Hook a young person with this well-done graphic novel, then introduce them to
the recent young-reader biography “Escape! The True Story of the Great Houdini”
reviewed here:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/review1106-007.html
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“Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56” by
Rafe Esquith (Viking Adult, 9780670038152, $24.95)
I spend a lot of my time seeking out great books--for customers, parents,
teachers, and for young folks with words in their eyes, but I don’t catch all
good ones. This book, for instance, I passed by and passed by with no initial
interest (the idea of doing *anything* when my hair’s on fire is pretty
upsetting; as many of you know, I have next to no hair, so any fire would be
right on my scalp). I eventually read it only because several of you, my
favorite educators, expressly told me I must. And boy, you were right.
The author, Rafe Esquith, has taught fifth grade for twenty-five years in a
public school in central Los Angeles, and he has become a bit of a teaching
celebrity of late, mainly for annually leading groups of fifth graders to stage
elaborate rock-musical productions of Shakespeare’s plays. What first struck me
about “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire” is that Esquith is a really humble guy:
despite his awards and accolades, he doesn’t claim to have all the answers.
Instead, he admits that he’s still searching and that writing his book (and I
have no idea how he found the time) is a part of his search.
The book’s second impressive feature is that Esquith isn’t selling a system or a
bag of tricks, and he steers well clear of buzzwords and goofy jargon. His
approach to teaching is refreshingly, even inspiringly, classic: he’s out to
build character in his students and to light the fires of their curiosity. To
lay the groundwork for this, he works hard to make his classroom an oasis of
trust in a school day largely ruled by fear. When he doles out discipline, he
makes sure it’s logical and that the punishment suits the infraction. He also
tries to model, through his words and actions, ways for his students to interact
and collaborate with civility. It’s a beautiful thing to read.
But “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire” isn’t a guided tour of Candy Land; Esquith
also confronts the new, time-sapping, sometimes mind-numbing, regime of testing,
test-prep, and scripted instruction--and he suggests creative ways to work
around it all and to still give students rich educational experiences. His
results--not just in test scores, but also in his student’s college acceptances
and achievements--speak for themselves, and are even more remarkable considering
that most of his students are children from immigrant families who encounter
English as a second language.
This book isn’t a cure-all for American education woes, but it does administer a
fortifying dose of optimism, along with booster shots of clever teaching
techniques, tips on useful and inexpensive classroom materials, and referrals to
handy educational Web sites. Rather than rehashing stale talk of performance
goals or approved curricula, it gets to the heart of why so many brave,
excellent individuals choose to become teachers in the first place: they want to
make a real difference in the lives of young people. Esquith gets it, and that’s
what his book is all about.
Educators looking for an invigorating, inspiring summer read should come to
Watermark, invoke their teacher discounts, and spend some time this season with
“Teach Like You Hair’s on Fire.” And if anyone would like to get together with
their colleagues to discuss the book, we’d be happy to provide a room. I’ll even
bring the Aloe vera.
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Past reviews and archived issues of Teacher Feature can be read on-line on the
Watermark Web site at:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/teach.html
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Later educators,
Mark David Bradshaw
Click here for the Teacher Feature Archives
Peruse
back issues of teacher feature since its inception in April
2003.
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