Finding Lost Things and Learning a Name

My favorite part about learning is when a subject I did not know was missing from my cabinet of knowledge in my brain becomes a subject of wonder that I wish to remember.

I continue to reiterate that I love nonfiction picture books! In my library, last year, picture books were in the Everybody section. While there are leveled picture books for readers at various beginning reading levels, picture books that are not specifically leveled, can work for all age levels. In fact, the general reading level in many picture books is higher than that of a beginning reader. This doesn't mean young children and early readers cannot comprehend the language, it only means that reading may be more challenging for newer readers. Picture books, in my mind, are meant to be read aloud and shared. If the illustrations are done well, comprehension lost on the words, can be found via seeing the pictures. Plus, pictures tell the reader or viewer details beyond the words.

Unfortunately, people, kids included, assume picture books are only for little kids. NOT TRUE! Nonfiction picture books, as well as fiction picture books that tell stories based on true events are excellent stepping-stones for learning about something new and getting started on further research.

My two recent finds include a MN Star of the North 2018/2019 nominee that I had not seen when it was published in 2017, and a title by my first advisor (aka Jackie) and mentor when I started working toward my MFA at Hamline and realized how little I knew.

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Maya Lin: Artist-Artchitect of Light and Lines: Written by Jeanne Walker Harvey; Illustrated by Dow Phumiruk; (c)2017 Henry Holt and Company (Publisher) 

This story is about Maya Lin, the woman who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. I will be honest, this is a historical fact I did not know. I don't remember if, when I visited the wall many years ago, I noted any information about who designed it. The visit was all about the wall, even though I knew of no names on it.

Maya grew up in a home with a brother and parents who allowed her to think her own thoughts and be her own person. Maya found a passion for creating art with her hands. She loved nature and the shapes of things. She decided to one day become an architect.

During her final year of college, Maya learned about the design competition for a Vietnam War memorial. Using clear and simple language, Harvey details Maya's process, and reasoning while she considered and planned her design. Competing against accomplished architects and artists, it came as a surprise to Maya, as well as many others, that the chosen design belonged to a student. Maya held strong as people held hearings to announce opposition or wishes for changes to her work. Despite challenges, her design eventually became reality, with Maya involved in the construction.

The book pages contain white space, spare colors, and text segments having no more than five lines each. This simplicity reflects the style of work that Maya continues to create. Little detail, thus leaving room for people to engage with the art and ponder what they feel. I find the book calm, and lovely.

The stepping stone created by Maya Lin: Artist-Architect of Light and Lines, for me, will lead me to learn more about Maya Lin's work, and help Little Sapling* see the potential of her art (as her goal is to become an artist one day).

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Creekfinding: Written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin; Illustrated by Claudia McGehee; (c)2017 University of  Minnesota Press (Publisher) 

When things go lost, unless someone remembers, a treasure may not be rediscovered. In Creekfinding, though, someone remembers.

The story begins by sharing what a creek is, and how it can get lost. It continues when a man named Mike buys the land, intending to grow a prairie of flowers and tall grasses. One day, a neighbor informs Mike that he once caught a brook trout where Mike stood. This changes Mike's goal. Now, he sets his mind on finding the creek that once flowed. While ignoring those who scoff at his idea, he works with friends who own bulldozers, excavators, and other machines. He works with plants, rocks, and gravel. He works with time. Working with everything together, Mike finds the lost creek and restores it to life. 

My daughter and I enjoyed this book. Neither one of us had familiarity with the concept of creekfinding prior to reading. I love any idea that involves discovery and growth. We also admired Claudia McGehee's bold and beautiful scratchboard illustrations showing the process, development, and increasing natural beauty of Mike's efforts. I am a fan of scratchboard art and love the use of black outlines and watercolors in the illustrations. McGehee's art truly complement Martin's storytelling.

In addition to the illustrations, Martin's word choices added an auditory element. Water "burbled" and "tumbled". Insects "whirred" and "buzzed". An "outdoor orchestra", comprised of herons, bluebirds, frogs, insects and more, can be heard. I "heard" all of this in my mind. 

Mike, who the reader learns via the end notes, is epidemiologist Michael Osterholm. Osterholm shares that despite the naysayers who laughed at his plan of finding the creek, "the science part of my brain said if the stream flowed once it could flow again." He reminds readers, as does Martin by telling the story, that it is possible to restore natural resources. Osterholm also adds, "I hope kids will remember from this story that we can change the world by acting on our dreams."

The stepping-stone created by Creekfinding, for me, will lead me to learn more about what Little Sapling and I can do to grow flowers and other plants to attract birds and insects we're not seeing as much as we would like near our home.
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What is a recent stepping-stone you've encountered in your reading? I  would love if you would share in the comments sections. (Comments won't appear immediately, but I'll approve them once I see them).

To continued learning and reading,

today and tomorrow,

~Tamara



*Little Sapling - online name I use to refer to my seven-year-old daughter.

New Perspectives and Appreciation

I am a fair-weather sports fan, particularly when it comes to team sports. I joke sometimes that I might have been adopted as I seem to lack the sport fan gene that my parents have when activities, both in and out of the home, must revolve around the times of the broadcast of a Vikings football game, or Minnesota (MN) Gopher basketball or football game, or MN Twins game. If the games are inaccessible via television, the radio voices will follow my parents from room to room on their handheld radios.

During high school, the only reason I attended football or basketball games was to perform as a flag twirler with the marching and pep bands. I loved performing with my silent (nonspeaking) activity of swirls and twirls, tosses and flows of color to the band music or piped in songs. The main reason I started watching baseball for a relatively short period of life was because it was impossible to not get sucked into the excitement of the MN Twins playing toward and in the 1987 and 1991 World Series games. Twins Fever was contagious throughout the state, affecting me for awhile. And then, it left.

When I look for books to read, generally, if a book has a sports theme, I reflexively feel disinterest. I don’t mean to close myself off automatically, but it happens. It also happens that sometimes when I take a chance on a story, the author presents the perspective that connects with me.

Here in MN, we have the Maud Hart Lovelace Award. According to the MN Youth Reading Awards website,

 “The Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award is a children's read and vote book award.  Its purpose is to encourage recreational reading among school age children.

Nominated titles are works of fiction of recognized quality selected by independent regional reading groups.”

There are two divisions. Division I for grades 3-5, and Division II for grades 6-8. Some books cross both divisions.Today's book is a crossover.

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Soar Written by Joan Bauer (c) 2016 Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC (Publisher)

I knew from the cover image and the synopsis on the back cover that the book had to do with baseball and a male protagonist. The baseball-thing led me to feel iffy; however, even though I’m not working in a media center this year, I set a goal to still try and read as many of the nominees as I can before the spring voting. My last post featured “A Night Divided”, a Division II book.

Soar, for me, is a true example of a “don’t judge a book by its cover” story. The main character, Jeremiah (approximately 12 years old--but you need to read the book to learn about the approximation factor) eats, drinks, sleeps, and breathes baseball. Unfortunately, he cannot play the sport. Being a heart transplant recipient limits one's physical activities, but for Jeremiah it places no restrictions on his desire to coach and manage a team. It places no restrictions on his ability to exude positivity and a sense of humor. And, when his father receives a consulting gig offer, Jeremiah pleads to join him for the two months in the town of Hillcrest, where baseball is life.

After receiving approval from his doctors, Jeremiah and his father move to Hillcrest. The people there live and breathe baseball thanks to the multi-year successes of the local high school team. But, when a tragedy strikes the team's star pitcher and then a scandal hits the team, many in the town wish to shun baseball for good. 

Enter Jeremiah. He may not be able to play baseball, and there may not be a current team at the middle school level, but through perseverance, a belief in the sport, a belief in the leadership and words of legendary coaches, and a belief in the kids who still have a desire to play the game, Jeremiah is determined to build a middle school team and bring baseball back to the people of Hillcrest for reasons that go beyond winning alone. 

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I loved this book! Joan Bauer developed well-rounded characters possessing distinct individual qualities involving their personalities, motivations, quirkiness (I love quirkiness), and heart. While reading, I recognized an emotional connection I had to the environment and characters central to the story. They touched me, from Jeremiah himself, to the local rabbi, to the robot who resides in Jeremiah's home, to Franny who lives next door with her mother, brother, and her grandfather known as El Grande, to Benny, the boy who has a cognitive disability and a full heart for baseball regardless of any scandal. Being a part of Jeremiah's community is definitely a world I could live in. The iffiness I felt toward the book initially, because of the baseball component, faded within the first few pages as I fell in love with Jeremiah's character. Told via present tense, first person point-of-view, Jeremiah's words, throughout, evoked laughter and sadness within me. More than anything, though, they evoked hope. Jeremiah even enriched my fair-weather love for baseball. There is something I admire about people who not only play the game for the love of the sport first, but also demonstrate their passion as they play.

Getting a new perspective,

today and tomorrow,

~Tamara

Walls, Clouds, and Silver Linings

Life continually takes unplanned turns.
Then, I think.
I think too much. And my thinking sometimes surrounds me with a wall, a barrier that tries to separate me from rational and irrational perils.

When I started my job as a Library Media Specialist (LMS) last year, I knew that a pink slip would come my way in the spring. It was the nature of being a new specialist in a new district (regardless of my previous years of teaching experience elsewhere), along with other new specialists including the PE teacher, the Art teacher, and several of the reading teachers. Despite doing our roles and parts as directed, sometimes leaders choose new directions. Sometimes we then have to reach and dig to find the positives again when clouds hover above.

My silver lining was comprised of mentors who helped me learn more with library and technology skills than I would have gained had I been required to figure things out on my own, supportive colleagues (some who continue to be friends), and the overall combined experiences that blessed me with confidence to believe that I truly can be a LMS.

In spite of my 16 years of experience teaching, and one year of being an LMS, I apparently am "too new" for a similar role and lack the "right" kind of experience. So, while I use this time to reconsider what I really wish to be doing in my life, I have returned to where I started in 2001. I work as a substitute teacher. The difference today is that now I can hold hands with 17 years of teaching and learning experiences, and the light I see is that I continue to learn while observing and listening in different classrooms and schools. I personally urge all teachers to consider substitute teaching at some point in their careers to gather new ideas and strategies, as well as evaluate or re-evaluate what they like and dislike about teaching. Refreshment can exist here.

After a month plus of subbing, I reconnected to my reading. And, little has changed with my preferred interests--middle grade, young adult, and picture books.

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Paying attention to the greater world around me, in society today, my overactive mind often travels to dread of an impending dystopic society. I desire to believe this could never happen, but I fear that would be naive. 

Welcome to my latest read:

A Night Divided Written by Jennifer A. Nielsen (c) 2015 Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. (Publisher)

Historical fiction has become one of my favorite genres as it contributes to my love of continual learning. In  A Night Divided, the main character, Gerta, lives with her mother and one brother. The family is larger, but when a fence, and then the Berlin wall rise, Gerta's father and another brother become residents of less restrictive West Berlin, while Gerta and her other family members remain trapped in East Berlin where armed soldiers patrol and guard the wall and streets. Those who dare to publicly resist the teachings in East Berlin face possible imprisonment or worse. Those who try to escape to the west side, face imprisonment, torture, or death. Regardless, for many, including Gerta, living in East Berlin is already a prison.

One day while walking to school, Gerta spots her father and brother on a viewing platform in the west side. She believes her father "sends" her a message. Through her own thinking, exploration of parts of East Berlin, and discovery, Gerta conceives that she must dig a tunnel under the wall. Can she do this on her own? Can she trust anyone to work with her? Would her father ask her to risk her life if escape was an impossibility?

As the story progresses, the tension within me when Gerta's way of life becomes flooded by distrust, and the need to lie and play the "game" of compliance, knotted my stomach. Gerta learns, along with her brother, that anyone can be a spy for the police or Stasi--a neighbor, a teacher, a doctor, even a dear friend. If the Stasi believes a person has any connection to someone who resists the government teachings or attempts to escape to the west, that person becomes a target to watch. Even talking in one's own home provides no guarantee of privacy from the ears and eyes of spies. If a reader does not know about the Berlin Wall, I have no doubt that A Night Divided could be seen as another addition to the titles falling under the genre of Dystopian Literature.

Even after visiting Berlin many years ago and learning about the history in person, it was not until I read A Night Divided that I truly started to comprehend what had happened not very long ago. I realized how little I knew and understood about the Berlin Wall and its effect on the people it divided. Reading stories that make history real and personal, to me, is a better way to learn from history.
I recommend A Night Divided; however, if you are like me in that a high level of sensitivity touches you, and viewing or reading about suspenseful, frightening, and/or seemingly hopeless situations, affects your nightly dreams, then, do not read this book before you sleep. If you do, have a followup plan to create calm, head-clearing moments. I had several dreams involving being trapped with others, with futile and scary attempts to escape. Not exactly a contributor to restful sleep.

Despite A Night Divided  being fiction, I felt compelled, as I continued reading Gerta's first person narrative, to research articles and true stories about people who lived in Berlin (on either side of the wall) to learn more. It doesn't matter to me that this occurred in Europe. Much of it was during my lifetime, in a place that I have since visited. This makes it real. 

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While the Berlin Wall was a physical wall, walls do not have to be visible to exist. These past few years have provided abundant material for building walls around ourselves as self-protection against both real and perceived threats. Walls take time to build, and can be difficult to break down. There is not a place in our world for more divisions, for the sake of ourselves, and for the sake of our children.

Just one girl's thoughts.

Today and tomorrow,

~Tamara

P.S. It feels good to be back!