A Bushel of Books for the Apple Season
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October 6, 2009

Harvest themes and Halloween come immediately to mind when October arrives, and this month we bring you books fitting for both. Share Joy Fleishhacker's picks for apple-themed titles with slices of the fruit, or dim the lights and read a few pages from one of the spine-chilling novels recommended by Joyce Adams Burner.

Along with these terrific lists, we offer suggestions for nonfiction for beginning readers, cross-curricular resources on water, an interview with Leonard Marcus, and a peek into the late Coleen Salley's Eppossumandas Plays Possum. Also included is our new "Behind the Books" column, which features an essay by a guest author or illustrator each month. By clicking on the "Behind the Books" link below you'll land on the TeachingBooks.net blog where you can read Pat Mora's thoughts on "Harvesting Ideas."

And while it's preaching to the converted to tell teachers that placing the right book in a child's hands can make a huge impact, after a long day or week in the classroom, it can be reassuring to hear. As the contributors to Anita Silvey's Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book remind us, these books, and the many others you share with your students, can have a profound influence on their lives.

Sincerely,
Daryl Grabarek,
Editor, Curriculum Connections
dgrabarek@reedbusiness.com

Make These Curriculum Connections

  • A Bushel of Books for the Apple Season
    Autumn brings brisk blue-sky mornings, leafscapes infused with fiery hues, and bushels brimming with just-picked apples in an assortment of sun-warmed colors and mouthwatering flavors. As diverse and appealing as the array of apple varieties displayed in the produce section, the books highlighted here blend dynamic text with luscious artwork to explore this familiar fruit from seed to skin.

    In addition to providing a closer look at how apples are grown, harvested, and consumed, these titles also dish up apples as the main ingredient in an enticing menu of palate-pleasing stories. Serve these books—along with apple slices—as part of an apple-themed unit, or incorporate these curriculum-crossing offerings into studies of the changing seasons, nature appreciation, agriculture and farming, cooking and food preparation, family traditions, folklore, and American history. more » » » 

Nick's Picks

  • Nick's Picks: Selected Resources fromTeachingBooks.net
    Walter Wick set up a complex device to snap a picture of a single drop of it. Barbara Kerley's crystal-clear color photographs reveal how people worldwide are dependent on it, and connected by it. Langston Hughes, Karen Hesse, Jon Muth, and Herbert Shoveller celebrate its arrival in different forms. Water: ubiquitous, yet often scarce, and endlessly fascinating.

    It's also a perfect example of a subject that permeates many areas of study, in kindergarten through high school. In this month's column look for materials—print, online, and multimedia—on the literature that supports cross-curricular discussions about this important resource. more » » » 

What's New

  • Spine-Chilling Stories to Give Teens the Creeps
    Fleeting shadows flitting past the corner of your eye? Startled by eerie sounds in the dark? Turn the calendar page to October and uncanny occurrences lurk around every corner. Teen readers clamor for imaginatively weird tales, and the authors of these hot-off-the-press young adult titles deliver with hair-raisingly good storytelling. It's no trick to shake up fall reading—just treat students to frighteningly great reads! more » » » 

Interview

  • Leonard S. Marcus on Humor
    Few writers have chronicled the field of children's books for adults and young readers as thoroughly and with as much passion as Leonard S. Marcus. His books for children include The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy (Candlewick, 2006) and A Caldecott Celebration: Seven Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal (Walker, 2008). In his latest title for children, Funny Business: Conversations with Writers of Comedy (Candlewick, October 2009; Gr 5 Up), the author presents 13 interviews with beloved authors Beverly Cleary, Christopher Paul Curtis, Louis Sachar, Sharon Creech, and Judy Blume, among others. Here Marcus shares insights gleaned from these conversations on how humor may be used to explore difficult subjects, to avert conflict, and to puzzle out life's contradictions. more » » » 

Just-Right Reads

  • Encouraging Beginning Readers with Nonfiction
    One of the pleasures of working with young children is participating in their first reading experiences. Some seem to learn as if through osmosis, absorbing words and meaning easily. Others struggle, needing extra guidance and attention. But whatever the path, each discovers the joy and wonder of deciphering those alphabetic squiggles and symbols. Here are some easy-to-read nonfiction titles that will encourage beginning readers and keep them coming back. more » » » 

Take Note

  • The Possum Plays Possum 
    A year ago September, the children's literature community mourned the loss of the remarkable Coleen Salley. A native Louisianan, Ms. Salley was known for her spirited storytelling, in front of an audience and on the page. Her folksy signature tales concerned the little possum "patootie," who had trouble making heads or tails of his mama's requests. This month Harcourt is publishing Salley's Eppossumandas Plays Possum, illustrated with mixed-media art by Janet Stevens. Take a look inside... more » » » 

Behind the Books

  • Pat Mora on…Harvesting Ideas
    Fall is in the air, which, after a hot Santa Fe summer, feels welcome. I've planted a few pansies and am slowly moving some potted plants inside into what I call my winter garden. When the cold northern New Mexico winter arrives, the clerestory windows above our entry atrium will bring welcome sun to my plants—and me. Along with mulling over which green companions to nurture during the coming months, I'm thinking about what writing projects to begin. » » » Read more at TeachingBooks.net

Professional Shelf

  • Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book
    Place a book in a child's hands and you never know what will happen. In Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book (Roaring Brook, 2009), Anita Silvey gathers the reminiscences of adults about the works that influenced them as children and the lessons that still resonate. Writers, inventors and scientists, politicians and activists, artists, and media figures are represented with stories that offer glimpses into their lives then and now. more » » » 



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