9th January Word Nerd Day

My siblings think I'm a word nerd! The teachers at school think I'm a word nerd! So I guess I am. I prefer to say that words really interest me, their origins, purpose and power. I love picking up a picture book and reading sections to my colleague in the library. We both revel in great vocabulary and lyrical text. At the end of last year Britta Teckentrup's new book When I See Red  was being catalogued and we stopped to chat about it. I buy Britta's books because they never seem to disappoint. The illustrations are always stunning and we marvel at her output, but this book has an accompanying text which is also outstanding.

The heroine of this beautifully illustrated story feels her anger like a storm in a dark forest. It sweeps her away, and she thunders and howls. She pours down her emotions like sheets of rain; rage surges like a wind whipping angry waves. Her anger takes her on a wild ride.

The size of the font changes as her anger grows and abates. It is just so powerful. The words themselves tumble down the page, and their placement and size, as well as their meaning, effectively at generates the girl's spirit of rage and anger.

So many picture books have words that paint pictures just as much as the illustrations. I should make a bigger effort to record books that do this for me. I remember reading Ed and Rebecca Emberley's The Ant and the Grasshopper  and being astounded by the opening word image.

Somewhere on the boulevard of backyards an ant was struggling with the remnants of a picnic.

I doubt that many of my early readers would fully understand the meaning of the words 'boulevard' and 'remnants' within this context, but would I therefore not read the book to them, or worse still stop to explain what it means. Of course not. I would read the story and allow them to hear amazing vocabulary and maybe unpack it much later when we have enjoyed the story and the illustrations as a whole.

I have a box of 'word' books in the library for teachers and students to borrow for their reading and writing mentor lessons, but many of these books are more about collecting words and varying words than the beauty of them. See what is in the box here. This Pinterest page is obviously about more than just sharing picture book titles, but in amongst other things there are plenty of books to hunt out.

Among my favourites:

Phileas's Fortune  by Agnes de Lestrade and Valeria Docampo

The Word Wizard by Cathryn Falwell

The Word Collector  by Peter Reynolds 

One Word Pearl by Nicole Groeneweg and Hazel Mitchell

It is such a shame we are on holidays and I cannot do a display or plan a lesson. I would read 

One Word From Sophia  by Jim Averbeck and Yasmeen Ismail.

What is the 'one word'?

14th March Folktales and Fables Week

The third week of March is always Folktales and Fables Week, a time to enjoy a new story or an old favourite from the folktale genre, stories which have universal appeal due to their simple storylines, talking animals and magical scenarios. The tales may differ from culture to culture but they have common characters, themes and morals. They are usually short, but do all the things that good stories do so they are ideal ways to teach story grammar, problem/solution, theme, conflict resolution, good versus evil, stereotype, tension and other literary devices such as symbolism, juxtaposition, satire and foreshadowing.

Of course, I have favourites among the plethora that are available. This week at school I have given each class a wrapped surprise parcel to read sometime during the week. I gave each class a fable, and yes they may know the story, but there are so many wonderful versions where the author or illustrator has added so much texture to the story and my aim first and foremost was to ensure that the message was 'reading is fun'. There are 13 classes to provide books for in the Prep School, but I had so many books to choose from that the difficult part was narrowing the books down to that number. I chose picture books which only had one story, no anthologies or themed collections.

Among them were these favourites:

• the three by Jerry Pinkney: The Lion and the Mouse; The Grasshopper and the Ants and The Tortoise and the Hare.  These for the superb illustrations that tell the story often without words.

• two by Brian Wildsmith: The Lion and the Rat and The Hare and the Tortoise. Who can resist Wildsmith art?

• two by Ed and Rebecca Emberley:  The Ant and the Grasshopper and The Crocodile and the Scorpion. As well as the quirky collaged illustrations these have vocabulary that heightens the experience for any reader.

•  Hare and the Tortoise  by Alison Murray. This takes this story to new heights. See the character's names, labelled illustration of each of the two competitors, the maps, instructions...

• The Hare and the Tortoise by Helen Ward. This is a long retelling of this story, but the additions mean there is even more to spot in the illustrations and talk about.

• The Tortoise and the Hare by Angela McAllister. The retelling is delightful but the woodcuts by Jonathan Heale are exquisite.

• Mouse and Lion  by Randy Burkert and Nancy Ekholm Burkert. This mother and son collaboration is outstanding.

• Lion and the Mouse by Jenny Broom. The paper engineering and die-cuts add a new dimension to this version.

• The Lion and the Mouse  by A.J.Wood and Ian Andrew. This is my all time favourite and unfortunately out of print. The illustrations are rendered in lead pencil on white paper. The size of each frame differs depending upon the character's role in the story at that particular time and there is just so much here 'to soak up'.

• The Cardinal and the Crow by Michael Moniz. This thoughtful picture book, inspired by Aesop's fables, reminds us all that 'pride and foolishness often go hand in hand.' 

For a more comprehensive list of fables in the library see
here.

19th October Ed Emberley (1931) Lisa Westberg Peters (1951)

Ed Emberley is the patriarch of a very creative family. Together with his wife Barbara, a librarian, who retold the folk tale for him to illustrate, he published award winning Drummer Hoff. By himself he has produced a large number of drawing books, that children can use to make their own illustrations, and which a group of adults have used to produce large public storyboards. Together with daughter, Rebecca he has produced many lovely, brightly coloured, very distinctive picture books, many of which are about monsters. His other child Michael Emberley is a well-known illustrator, his granddaughter Adrian has published books with him and her mother and he is the father-in-law of author/ illustrator Marie -Louise Fitzpatrick. What a family! The Red Hen, his newest collaboration with daughter, Rebecca ids just about to be released. Of course it is a twist on that favourite, The Little Red Hen.

Lisa Westberg Peters is an American author who has a strong interest in science and her best books reflect this. Two books that are in the library that Year 1 make good use of during their unit of enquiry that looks at what is under the ground are Earthshake; Poems From the Ground Up and Volcano Wakes Up!