Laurie Halse Anderson posted on her blog a link to a YouTube clip of Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech in August 1963.
I try to revisit this remarkable speech every year on this day (in TWENTIETH-CENTURY SPEECHES, edited by Brian MacArthur and published by Penguin in 1992), but that can hardly compare to seeing King speak the words out loud. Many thanks to Laurie for the link.
The latest expedition to the North Pacific Gyre—home of the Garbage Patch—kicks off later today when the Ocean Research Vessel (ORV) Alguita sets sail from Hilo, Hawaii. Captain Charles Moore, who I wrote about in TRACKING TRASH, will lead his crew to the furthest edges of the gyre in search of plastic debris.
Based on the information provided by air-based trash-tracking scientists (you can read about Tim Veenstra and his colleagues in TRACKING TRASH, too), Charles and his crew are headed for the western edge of the gyre. “It may be that the areas of the North Pacific Gyre with the highest concentrations of marine debris have yet to be seen or studied.”
More information can be found on the ship’s blog.
Science teachers interested in following the mission with their classes and hearing results “hot off the gyre” should contact Holly Gray, ORV Alguita Vessel Support Coordinator, who can tell you more about the Ship-2-Shore Education Program. Reach Holly by email at vesselsupport(at)algalita(dot)org.
GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES
Voices From a Medieval Village
By Laura Amy Schlitz
Illustrated by Robert Byrd
Candlewick, 2007
Category: Middle Grade Nonfiction
I almost titled this post Saturday Morning Bliss, because my husband and the kids went out for the morning and left me in a quiet house with a hot cup of tea, a cozy blanket and a copy of GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! Bliss.
Let me say—now that I am done lounging—that if the kids had been here, draping my blanket over the couch to make a fort and, in the effort, spilling my tea and, in their dismay, squabbling and bickering, I would still have experienced bliss. Because this book, this slim and gorgeous book, has left me breathless. GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! is magnificent! Hooray for the Newbery committee that labeled it this year’s “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” It was an incredible choice.
I don’t have a theatrical bone in my body, and yet I am longing to gather together a group of players to perform these monologues and dialogues. I am especially keen to hear the dialogues. The voices are woven masterfully and I can’t help but want to hear them spoken by actors. Schlitz blends period language, interpretive comments, and brief contextual summaries equally well, and she knows just how to draw her readers deeper into history. (What in Heaven’s name could have happened to Saint Erasmus? What could be “too disgusting” to share?)
Congratulations to Laura Amy Schlitz and her lovely Newbery-winning book. If you haven’t read it yet, you are in for a whole lotta bliss.
Many, many thanks to the American Library Association for including TRACKING TRASH on their list of 2008 Notable Children’s Books. I am thrilled to be included.
And congratulations—CONGRATULATIONS!—to everyone who has written, illustrated, edited, published, promoted, and celebrated a book this year. (There are a lot of us!) May we each continue to write and illustrate and edit and design with wild abandon, with joy and with passion, sure of ourselves and our work.
THE GOLDEN COMPASS
By Philip Pullman
Knopf, 2002
Category: Young adult fiction/fantasy
A few months ago, before the film version of THE GOLDEN COMPASS was released, I received an email—received the same email several times, actually—warning me not to let my kids see the movie or read the book. The email included links to several websites that further admonished parents to keep their kids away from THE GOLDEN COMPASS. Nothing, NOTHING, ticks me off more than other people telling me what I can and cannot read. Except perhaps when other people tell me what I can and cannot let my children read … and especially when those people have clearly not read the book in question themselves.
Anyway.
These emails inspired me to read THE GOLDEN COMPASS, and I enjoyed it tremendously. Not because enjoying the book would annoy detractors (although I do like knowing the slanderous e-campaign backfired when it reached me), but because THE GOLDEN COMPASS is a great book. It is an adventure fantasy with a feisty female protagonist and a compelling good versus evil plot. Nothing to be afraid of, lots to think about. I am looking forward to THE SUBTLE KNIFE and THE AMBER SPYGLASS.
If you are interested, there is an absolutely fascinating interview with Philip Pullman at the Filmchat blog of journalist Peter Chattaway.
POLLINATION
By Mary Hoff
(Creative Education, 2004)
Category: Elementary Nonfiction
When you study honeybees, you study pollination. There is just no way around it. And so when I came across a book on the subject for elementary readers, I had to check it out.
POLLINATION is one of twelve titles in Creative Education’s ‘World of Wonder’ series, and although it is the only one I have seen, I liked it enough to want to see the others. Straightforward text and breathtaking images combine to make a lovely whole, and the final (beautiful!) product has got the goods: readers learn what pollination is, why it is important, and how it happens.
Open Wide, Look Inside, brainchild of University of Richmond professor Tricia Stohr-Hunt, is the newest blog on my radar. Tricia has created a great resource for parents and teachers looking to use children’s literature in their teaching. For the scientifically bent (like me!) there are already posts about Science Awards and BookLists and Outstanding Science Books Published in 2007.*
Add this one to your BlogReader, folks.
*Many thanks, Tricia, for including TRACKING TRASH on your Outstanding Science Books list!
This week I started teaching ‘Citizen Science’ at my local elementary school. The idea is pretty simple: each week I introduce the kids to a new citizen science project and at the end of the four-week course, if the kids are into it, we’ll choose one to work on together.
Yesterday we talked about the Great Backyard Bird Count. This nationwide project, administered by National Audubon Society, encourages birders of all ages and abilities to get outside and count birds. It is simple (click the link to see how simple) and a great way to pump interest into a long and cold winter.
The fifteen third-through- fifth-graders in class yesterday were really into bird identification. I had giant photo flashcards of common Eastern US species, and they had a ball trying to figure out which was which. Once we could recognize the common species by sight, we tried to identify a few by sound. Not so easy! But by the time we left, my charges were excited about their homework: to identify ten different species of birds by our next session.
As three of the children in the class live with me, I get to do the homework too. Last night, just before dark, we braved the freezing temperatures and knee-deep (for some of us) snow to spy five mourning doves. We didn’t have a camera, but my littlest drew this picture for you. (Please note the artist has taken some liberties with the size, shape, color, and apparel of the mourning doves.)
This year’s Great Backyard Bird Count takes place between February 15 and 18, 2008. All you need is fifteen minutes and some basic bird identification skills. Give it a try!
The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal winner was announced this morning. This annual award for “the most distinguished informational book published in English during the preceding year” has been given to THE WALL, by Peter Sis (Farrar/Frances Foster).
Two honor books were also named:
LIGHTSHIP, written and illustrated by Brian Floca (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
SPIDERS, written and illustrated by Nic Bishop (Scholastic)
You can read a bit more about the Sibert medalists here, and you’ll find a handy rundown of all today’s book award announcements here.
Bravo to the the all the authors and illustrators on these lists!
Magnificent conference, but I am happy to be back in my own hive.
© 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
(I am speaking metaphorically, of course, because I don’t have any hives. Yet. These lovelies belong to Mary Duane, who keeps bees here in central Massachusetts. Mary, President of the Worcester County Beekeepers Association, is always generous with both hives and knowledge.)
