This issue's special - 30% off

September 7, 2004

In this Issue:

Lois Ehlert's Teacher-Featured Book
"Old Coyote"
Author and Other Events
"Not Much Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers"
"The Friend" by Sarah Stewart
Pirates Ahoy!
More New Releases
Memorable Books

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Greetings from Gaylene,

Well, it is week two or three, depending upon where you teach, and I hope
that you are settling into a routine with your students. This is one fall I
am not going back to a classroom, so I will have to live that part of my
life vicariously through all of you. Now, on to our Teacher Featured Book!

Hands: Growing Up to Be an Artist by Lois Ehlert (published by Harcourt,
Inc. ISBN: 0152051074, $14.95 regular price, with discount, $10.46,
hardcover).  From Caldecott Award winning artist Lois Ehlert comes a book
for young or old that shares a child's view of developing an artistic life.
Watching her parents work with their hands, the child knows she wants to
build, paint, sew, grow things and create, as she has watched her parents in
their pursuits.  For anyone who fondly remembers the simple thrill of
getting a new watercolor paint set for school, the cover alone is enough to
make you want the book!

____


Well, this next book requires Kleenex at hand....at least for me, it did.  I
was immediately drawn to the cover  of "Old Coyote" by Nancy Wood,
illustrated by Max Grafe (Candlewick Press, ISBN 0763615447, $16.99)  To
explain what drew me to the book, a bit of background is needed.  My dad
liked to tell my brother and me stories when we were young,  and they were
always about animals, since he was an animal lover.  Old "Three Toes", the
coyote, was a recurring character in his stories, so perhaps that's why the
book caught my eye.  "Old Coyote" is a story of reflection and of saying
goodbye.  "Old Coyote was old.  He was as old as coyotes get.  He remembered a time when there was no city near his home.  He remembered a time before the noisy and dangerous highway.  He remembered a time when his howl was so loud that even the earthworms up on the mountain could hear it.  Now Old Coyote's howl was squeaky, and not so loud.  His muzzle was turning white." This  gentle story of aging, memories and farewell is enhanced by
illustrations that are beautiful.  You need this book if you love animals,
nature and a graceful story of life's circle.  Recommended for ages 6-7, but
I found it to be one of those ageless books.

____

Teachers, Librarians, and parents will have the opportunity to enjoy a
presentation by author Ben Mikaelsen on Thursday, September 23 at 7 p.m. in
the Allison Middle School Auditorium.  His presentation is titled "Working
with At-Risk Students".  Watermark will have books available for purchase,
and Mr. Mikaelsen will autograph after the presentation.

October 1-3 premiers a new event for Wichita sponsored by the Wichita Junior
League:  Holiday Galleria.  This 3 day shopping event benefits the cause of
literacy, and Watermark Books and Cafe will have a booth at the event.  Be
sure to come by and say hello! We'll be the ones in the bouncy Christmas
tree hats!

Coming to a bookstore near you...(namely, Watermark)...Tomie de Paola will
be here as part of his 70th birthday tour on Thursday, October 14 from 4:00
to 5:00 p.m.  He will be signing his new book, "Guess Who's Coming to
Santa's for Dinner?"  With the advance purchase of this book ($16.99 plus
tax) you will receive a ticket to the signing.  Books will be available
September 16, but we can take pre-orders in person or by phone with your
credit card number.  You will receive a ticket for the signing with each
book purchesed, however the line will be first come, first served.  Mr. de
Paola will be happy to sign one (but only one) book brought from your home,
library, or classroom.  If you have questions, please feel free to call or
e-mail me at Watermark.

More children's author events:  October 23, June Rae Wood will be at
Watermark at 10 a.m. and on November 4, Lee Wardlaw will be here for an
evening presentation/signing.
____

For teachers or parents of middle schoolers, "Not Much Just Chillin': The
Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers" by Linda Perlstein  (Ballantine Books,
ISBN 0345475763, $13.95) is the culmination of a prize winning education
reporter's year in classrooms and lunchrooms of suburban Maryland middle
schoolers. "Suddenly they go from striving for A's to barely passing, from
fretting about cooties to obsessing for hours about crushes.  Former
chatterboxes answer in monosyllables; freethinkers mimic everything from
clothes to opinions. Their bodies and psyches morph through the most radical
changes since infancy.  They are kids in the middle school years, the age
every adult remembers well enough to dread."  Need I say more?

____

Sarah Stewart and David Small have created another beautiful book.  "The
Friend" is a special story about Annabelle Bernadette Clementine Dodd and
her friend at home, a housekeeper named Bea, who not only takes care of
Annabelle, but saves her life.  The author has dedicated the story to "all
the people across the world who have saved the lives of children by paying
attention when others did not."  (Published by Farrar Straus Giroux, ISBN
0374324638, $16.00, ages 6-7.)

___


Just so you don't think this is all too sweetly sentimental, I have a bawdy,
fun pirate book to share, new to paperback:  "Captain Abdul's Pirate School"
by Colin McNaughton (Candlewick Press, ISBN 076362540X, $6.99, ages 6--7.)
If you like to read aloud in a pirate voice (and who doesn't?) you are in
for a treat.  The boy in the story is sent to pirate school by his father to
toughen him up a bit.  The book takes the form of the boy's diary and
accounts of his experiences at Captain Abdul's Pirate school, where faculty
members include the captain who says "Captain Abdul, that I be. An' I'm in
charge--the boss--that's me. I make the tea and sandwiches 'n' teaches
foreign languages!"  This book is outrageously fun----ARRGH!

___

We have so many good, new books in that it's hard to stop  with just a few.
You'll just have to come in and check out the Teacher Feature Display to
look at them!   It just happens to be a big time of year for new picture
books.

"Pinduli" by Janell Cannon, the creator of "Stellaluna" (published by
Harcourt, Inc., ISBN 0152046682, $16.00, ages 6-7) follows a young hyena in
East Africa who is ridiculed by the other animals for her appearance.

"Monkey Business" by Wallace Edwards is an amazing collection of idioms,
illustrated.  From "he wasn't a spring chicken anymore"  to "snug as a bug
in a rug", it's impossible to describe in words what this wonderful book
does in pictures! (Published by Kids Can Press, ISBN 1553374622, $16.95.)

"Mr. George Baker" by Amy Hest, illustrated by Jon J. Muth (published by
Candlewick Press, ISBN 0763612332, $16.99) is a sweet story about a young
boy and his 100 year old musician friend George Baker, both of whom are
learning to read for the first time.

____

To wrap things up, I want to thank those who responded with favorite
children's books.  Vicki Taylor won a free lunch for responding first with
three of her favorites, "Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon", "Mr. Lincoln's Way"
and "Tar Beach."  Sigrid Trombley's choice was "Bridge to Terabithia," which
she discovered as an adult, but has read and re-read.  A book that can
continue to touch us after many readings, even when we know what is coming
next, is my idea of an unforgettable book.  Sigrid describes "Bridge to
Terabithia" as such a book, which she has recorded for several young
friends.  "Even though I know what's coming, there's a point at which I
always have to stop recording as it's impossible to continue reading when
tears are running down your cheeks and your voice is cracking."  Thank you
for sharing, and I continue the offer of a free lunch to the first to
respond with one of their memorable books!

Until Next Time,

Gaylene

 

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