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Watermark Teacher Feature – July 25, 2007
In this issue:
BOOK NEWS
Pottersaurus Rex: Harry Potter rules the word world
Fresh Titles: Including a beastie you’ll want to meet
UPCOMING EVENTS
KMUW Literary Feast. Friday, August 3. Tickets available!
Mimi Thebo Reading & Signing. Thursday, August 9.
Laura Moriarty Reading & Signing. Friday, August 24. 7:00 p.m.
Watermark's Teacher Appreciation Day. Saturday, September 15.
(Put it in your calendar now!)
FEATURED BOOK REVIEWS
* “Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade” by Linda Perlstein
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Greetings and salutations,
It’s like seeing one’s first robin of the springtime: I just came across my
first “Back-to-School” sales advertisement of the year. Now, that’s what I call
a harbinger.
And the word “harbinger,” by the way, would fit nicely inside my newly acquired
copy of “The Pottersaurus: 1,500 Words Harry Potter Readers Need to Know” by
Eric D. Randall (Pinewood Press, 9781878673350, $9.95). It’s a delightfully
useful reference book: young readers can use it to look up unfamiliar
Rowling-penned words (like “heinous” or “maladies”), and teachers can pull from
it sample sentences containing nutritious vocabulary, complete with page
references to the Harry Potter books. It’s even cross-referenced! Final novel or
not, may the Harry Potter magic never end!
This issue of Teacher Feature contains its usual complement of new youth books
and event notices; it also includes a featured review (which I forecast earlier
in the summer) of a just-released book about the brave new world of federal
standards and testing. I hope it strikes your interest. It sure gave me food for
thought.
Also, be sure to keep an eye out in the store (and in tomorrow’s “News & Notes”
newsletter) for the new memoir “Here If You Need Me” by Kate Braestrup. It’s a
beautiful collection of essays from a Maine minister who works with
search-and-rescue teams. If you’re a fan of Anne Lamott, Elizabeth Gilbert, or
Annie Dillard, you won’t want to miss it.
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FRESH TITLES
One terribly clever story alongside a great fall counting book
“Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue Beastie” by Joel Stewart (Holiday House,
9780823420681, $16.95) This picture book is an excellent choice to read aloud:
it contains scooter races, yogurt sundaes, sleuthing detectives, striped
lollipops, and a big blue beastie who can’t be counted upon not to feast on his
best pal Dexter. It was a big hit at Watermark’s weekly story-time (every
Tuesday at 10:30, FYI), and it’s sure to bring smiles to your young ones as
well: Read a review
“How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?” by Margaret McNamara & G. Brian Karas
(Schwartz & Wade, 9780375840142, $14.99) This new picture book tells how Mr.
Tiffin’s class, on one chilly fall day, set out to determine the number of seeds
in pumpkins of varying sizes: first the kids guess, and then they test as the
story gently introduces key ideas about counting and making simple science
hypotheses: Read a review
A pirate adventure for ages 7 to 10
“Cave of the Dark Wind: A Never Land Book” by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson
(Disney Editions, 9780786837908, $9.99) This tale of thud and blunder takes
young readers back to Neverland for an island adventure with Peter Pan’s best
buddies the Lost Boys as they spelunk about in deep, hidden caverns looking for
a cursed treasure that will either make them rich or strike them blind… that is,
if Captain Hook and his motley crew don’t get there first. It’s a good story for
youngsters moving into more-challenging chapter books:
Read a review
A knock-out topical novel for ages 13 and older
“Story of a Girl” by Sara Zarr (Little, Brown Young Readers,
9780316014533, $16.99) Deanna Lambert has grown up a bit too fast, and now she’s
living under the shadows of a bad reputation and her parents’ complete lack of
trust in her. Her story isn’t edgy or fanciful; instead it’s just honest and
seriously well written. Many young people will see themselves in her awkward
struggle to make it back from her past mistakes:
Read a review
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UPCOMING WATERMARK EVENTS
KMUW Literary Feast. Friday, August 3. 7:00 p.m.
The August book will be “Whistling in the Dark” by Lesley Kagen. It’s a novel of
family crisis and suspense that has found favor with many fans of Jodi Picoult’s
books. Literary Feast participants will enjoy dinner together, with a special
themed menu, then take part in a book discussion over dessert.
Tickets are available at the Watermark book counter or by calling (316)
682-1181. Places are limited, and we recommend purchasing your ticket in
advance. Read more about the book, author, and menu on the KMUW Web site:
http://www.kmuw.org/LiteraryFeasts.html
Mimi Thebo Reading & Signing. Thursday, August 9. 7:00 p.m.
Mimi Thebo will read from and sign her new paperback novel “Welcome to Eudora.”
Ms. Thebo is a native of Lawrence, Kansas, but she now lives in England on a
narrowboat on the River Avon with her husband and daughter. She has been a
copywriter, a cowgirl, and a cocktail waitress but is presently a lecturer in
creative writing at Bath Spa University College.
Her novel, “Welcome to Eudora,” is set in Eudora, Kansas, a small town located
in the midst of wheat & cattle country--and on the verge of extinction. The book
follows Lottie Dougal, a replanted Eudora girl who has returned from the big
city with streaky hair and a yen for romance. Her adventures--amid love potions,
city festivals, and a heated mayoral election--keep the town of Eudora talking.
Laura Moriarty Reading & Signing. Friday, August 24. 7:00 p.m.
Lawrence, Kansas writer Laura Moriarty, author of the staff-favorite novel “The
Center of Everything,” will return to Watermark to read and sign copies of her
new novel “The Rest of Her Life.” Visit Moriarty's Web site:
http://www.lauramoriarty.net
And looking ahead…
Watermark's Teacher Appreciation Day. Saturday, September 15.
Watermark invites local teachers to come enjoy special discounts, free give-aways,
and book-centered programming. More details to come as the date gets closer, but
be sure to mark your calendars now!
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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FEATURED REVIEW
“Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade” by Linda Perlstein
(Henry Holt and Co., 9780805080827, $25.00)
In 2005, Washington Post education journalist Linda Perlstein set out to follow
the developing story of how the standards and testing movement is changing the
lives of teachers and students in America’s schools. She chose to observe the
efforts of one plucky but impoverished elementary school in Ann Arundel County,
Maryland. Her newly released book “Tested: One American School Struggles to Make
the Grade,” tells of the sad, funny, and often inspiring things she observed
there.
Perlstein chose Tyler Heights Elementary because it is a school on the bubble: a
poor, almost entirely minority school in a well-off district, it can muster
considerable resources, and it has everything to lose if it doesn’t achieve
state test-score goals; its gung-ho principal and varied staff of teachers feel
enormous pressures to innovate and improve--and enormous anxiety whenever they
believe their efforts may not be working.
Following the educators of Tyler Heights through the 2005-2006 school year,
Perlstein watches them home in on reading and math scores with a laser-like
focus. Other subject areas are gradually discarded as test-time approaches, and
veteran and rookie teachers alike express frustrations with the rigid timelines
and heavily scripted lessons they’re required to use: “I want to make it fun,”
one young teacher says, “but there’s no time.” The danger of this, she points
out, is that students may lose interest in learning altogether.
Perlstein also gives voice to teachers’ concerns that the intensive,
stripped-down curriculum introduced at Tyler Heights over-emphasizes literal
thinking and neglects to develop students’ higher-level problem-solving and
critical thinking abilities. In the race to ensure adequate reading and math
skills, opportunities for a full, rounded education may get pushed aside.
Above all, Perlstein believes that the experiences of the educators she observes
point to serious inconsistencies in current American education policy: she sees
a disconnect between the approaches being taught to new teachers in university
education programs and the very different methods they’re told to use in their
classrooms in order to comply with federal mandates; also, she sees glaring
incompatibility in the two prime directives put forth by national policy-makers,
who insist “that all children should be taught in the way that suits them best,
and that all students should master the same material in the same amount of
time.” As Tyler Heights’s student population (which includes a large number of
English-as-a-Second-Language students) shows, following both directives can be
nearly impossible and incredibly demoralizing.
“Tested” is a testament to the will and dedication of American teachers, who
often struggle against unbelievable odds--sometimes including the education
system itself. It’s a very timely look at the changing shape of our schools, and
it’s a crash course in the pressures and predicaments facing today’s kids. A
thoughtful, well-researched book, its test will be whether it can bring the
necessary attention to the important issues it addresses.
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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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