Bread for Words-- A Frederick Douglass Story: A Picture Book Review and Giveaway

Congratulations to Danielle Hammelef who won Galapagos Girl from last week's blog.

As the new blog coordinator for the SCBWI-Carolinas blog, I was excited to "meet" Shana Keller through email and schedule her blog on writing picture book biographies. When she told me that her newest biography, Bread for Words was being published by Sleeping Bear Press this month, I immediately requested a book to review and give away. Beautifully illustrated by Kayla Stark, this is another wonderful picture book to add to your personal collection.  Kindergarten through 4th grade teachers should add it to their classroom libraries and use it during Black History Month.

REVIEW

Written in the first person point of view, the book opens with this remarkable statement: "I know where I was born, not when."

Frederick wasn't at all happy about giving up his freedom and although he met his brothers and sisters at the Great House Farm, he was so sad to leave his grandmother that he didn't even play with them. 

He met Daniel, the young boy who lived in the great house and they hunted and fished together. "Except for the color of our skin, it was hard to know why we were different."

Frederick wanted to learn how to read and write, but he learned early on that it was illegal, unlawful, and unsafe for him to become literate.

Perhaps it was because he showed the master's family that he was just like Daniel, he was sent away from the plantation to live with the family's kin. Conditions were better for him and the master's wife began to teach him.

But, his new master disapproved and forbade her teaching.

"From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. If I learned to read, I could loosen the changes of bondage."

Frederick's jobs including escorting young Thomas to school and running errands for the family. When we met some hungry boys on the streets, he remembered how it felt to be hungry and he came up with a plan. 

Frederick copied letters he saw at the shipyard and wrote them on fences, brick walls, and the pavement. He copied letters from Thomas's discarded copybooks. 

Finally, 

This inspirational book ends with a summary of Frederick Douglass' life and why Ms. Keller chose to write the book as she did. Notice in some of the illustrations above, the words in bold are Frederick's exact words taken from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. In keeping with Ms. Keller's example, I put words in bold that I copied from Bread for Words that were Mr. Douglass' exact words. 

STORY NUGGETS

As I consider writing a picture book biography, I plan to look for the nugget in each book around which the person's life (and thus the biography) revolves. For Galapagos Girl, it was Ms. Cruz's passion for her native island and animals. What do you guess the story nugget is for Bread for Words? Hint: I think there are several "right" answers.

GIVEAWAY

For a chance to win my copy of this book (which I hate to give away--but I will for some fortunate reader's sake!) please leave me a comment along with your email address if you are new to my blog. Giveaway ends on February 1. For extra chances, share this on social medial. Just let me know what you do. Continental United States Only

Literacy Around the World -- Featuring Guest blogger, LInda Phillips

Congratulations to Dorothy Price for winning Mine. Yours. on my blog last week. 

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Today, I welcome my close friend and writing buddy, Linda Phillips. Many of you know her through SCBWI-Carolinas but others of you have read about her on my blog. Either way, I expect you will enjoy this post about facilitating literacy around the world. Take it away, Linda!

In the past four months, I have traveled 32,365 miles, spanning three continents, four countries, and eleven classrooms.  It cost me zero dollars and only on a few occasions did I incur the slight inconvenience of a predawn or late night "flight." I never had to stand in a line or pass through security, and most of the time, the "connections" were smooth.  Oh, and I had the pleasure of bringing my two books, Crazy and Behind These Hands, into classrooms and talking about them at every stop.  In fact, the books were my ticket, and that's what I'm excited to tell you about.

Two years ago, I signed on to participate in World Read Aloud Day in February, but through my own cyber-ineptness, I dropped the ball and promptly forgot about it.  Last year when I received an email again reminding me about WRAD and Literacy Month, I paid attention and grew excited as I learned:

• World Read Aloud Day is just one piece of Literacy Month (February) which is part of Skype in the Classroom, a Microsoft in Education program.

• Authors can become a guest speaker by completing a profile. This enables teachers from around the world to invite them to Skype with their students or faculty.  For more information see https://education.microsoft.com/applygs.

• Authors can set their own schedule of availability here:  https://education.microsoft.com/availability.

• Skype in the Classroom team members will help authors create a Skype Lesson if they send a request to  support@skypeintheclassroom.com.

• For a sample lesson, visit my page https://education.microsoft.com/LindaPhillips.

By the time I finally connected to this fascinating opportunity through Microsoft in Education, I had missed an offer for free training sessions in January. I muddled through the registration process on my own. After nearly two years, I finally put the whole picture together and had my first Skype in the Classroom experience in Dubai on January 31, 2019.  

I have travelled abroad extensively, but nothing matches this virtual trip to places such as Bahrain, New Delhi, Ontario, Alberta, Albania, as well as stops across America. Each visit has been unique. While I have sometimes encountered poor Skype connectivity and limited English, I most often experienced appreciation that I bothered to "drop in" from so far away. 

One visit to a small, under-developed corner of eastern Europe touched me the most. It was by far the least prosperous looking school that I visited, so much so that I interrupted my spiel to begin asking the teacher questions.  Did they have pleasure books to read?  Was there a library? Were the books she was trying to use to teach English age-appropriate and adequate?  She answered "no" to every question.  I told her I was going to see what I could do about getting some books to her. After we disconnected, the stark image of the tiny, cramped room with a rusty-looking pipe in the corner--most likely the heating system--brought tears to my eyes. 

Here's the serendipitous part. I have a friend who is a missionary in a larger town a couple hours' drive from that tiny school. When I described my Skype visit to him, he put me in touch with another missionary in that same village.  And when I contacted her, she told me she had been this teacher's walking partner for four years! Through further conversations with both missionaries, I learned that the concept of lending libraries doesn't exist in this corner of the world. In addition, the tightly controlled corrupt politics almost guarantees that a box of books would likely be held up for payment in the hundreds of dollars at the post office. 

The idea of a country where children have no access to books is driving me crazy, and I'm not going to let a little political corruption stop me. When I learned that the missionaries will both be in the United States this summer, we came up with a viable plan to load a couple of old suitcases for them to return with.  Now I'm determined to fill those suitcases, and that's where you come in.  If you have new or gently used books, preferably picture and chapbooks, that you would like to donate, please email me and I will figure out a way to obtain them.

Linda is packing her first suitcase!

Obviously, my world-wide journey through Skype in the Classroom has made a difference in my life as a writer, but more importantly, as a citizen of the global community. No one can argue the merits of getting your books around the globe at no cost without leaving your house.  And if you aren't a writer but love books, you already know the joy of sharing them with others.    

Linda Vigen Phillips has a passion for realistic fiction that offers hope and encouragement to young adults and families facing mental or physical health crises.  Her debut book, Crazy, depicts the struggles of a teenage girl in the 1960’s coming to terms with her mother’s bipolar disorder. Like Crazy, Behind These Hands is a Young Adult verse novel. In its starred review Kirkus said, “Free verse evokes the myriad emotions brought up by the story's numerous well-balanced themes. The result is a richly woven, unforgettable symphony of feelings and words.”    

Little Literacy

Congratulations to Deborah Allmand who won, Midnight Without a Moon from last week's blog.

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I'm thankful that each of my five grandchildren's parents are encouraging literacy from an early age. I was on grandma duty last week so allow me to share some pictures and videos I've accumulated over the years. 

At a few days old, Eleanor Edgar was introduced to Sandra Boynton.
Two years later, she's still a fan.

At ten months, Eleanor was "selecting" books.

Now she plays alphabet games with her Mommy,



enjoys independent reading,



and shares books with her dog.

Her cousin Libbie Kasten enjoyed reading DON'T LET THE BEDBUGS BITE by Niki Masse Schoenfeldt in the car.

She memorized favorite books,



and wrote her name in the sand.

My grandson Mason Clark discovered that literacy includes receiving HOW TO CHEER UP DAD signed to him by Fred Kohler,

as well as reading Biscuit, a first reader all by himself.



Caitlin, Libbie's big sister, was extremely proud when she began reading chapter books. She loved the Princess Posey books by Stephanie Greene.

As well as writing her own book.



Caitlin actually told her parents that she hoped to major in reading when she goes to college. Her scientific/math-minded parents raised their eyebrows about that, but she is a girl after my own heart!

My oldest granddaughter, Ebby Clark, is in fourth grade and offered these two book reviews:



I'm delighted that my grandchildren have discovered through The Cousins Club that their Grandma LOVES books!

If you're not tired of videos yet, here is one more that will entertain the favorite toddler in your life:


As a parent or grandparent, how have you encouraged literacy? I'd love to hear your stories!

Books for Babies: By Eleanor

As some of you know, my life has been pretty busy recently. I spent two weeks in Philadelphia helping out with my youngest granddaughter, Eleanor. This past week my husband and I moved into an apartment in Greenville, SC. Not much time for writing or blogging. Usually this blog is about writing tips, author interviews, or book reviews. Indulge me for a minute, for a post that is brought to you by my youngest guest blogger, 10-month-old Eleanor.

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Lisa and Adam both love books and have been reading to Eleanor from her earliest days. 

8 days old and already a Sandra Boynton fan!

They lined her board books on a shelf that is perfect for Eleanor to grab. They usually suggest she picks three, but as we all know, sometimes it's hard to limit ourselves.

Limited in her verbal abilities, Eleanor communicates her enthusiasm in other ways.

After picking her books, there is snuggle and reading time.

Of course, we did other things besides read. 

At the park, I struck up a conversation with a young mother who told me about the 1000 Books before Kindergarten program. In Lansdowne, Pa. where they live, the library rewards children with prizes for every 100 books which are read to them. She was using an App to keep track of her daughter's books. 

As a grandmother, I just shake my head. They certainly didn't have that when my young 'uns were growing up!

If you need more ideas on promoting reading in your family, here's another great blog on How to Create Readers (and Read More Yourself) by Liz Michalski on Writer Unboxed.

Food for Thought for 2009

Posting this blog on Christmas will be too late for this shopping season, but it may influence your shopping choices in 2009. My daughter Lori who is a communications major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, composed this video after reading, The Better World Shopping Guide. The book is a “comprehensive, up-to-date, reliable set of rankings on the social and environmental responsibility of businesses and corporations” (p.2).

Lori and I had an interesting discussion about her thoughts and intent in creating the video. “This is a purposeful message,” Lori said. “These are real problems and without the images, the words are just facts. Without the emotional impact that these images have, people will be less likely to take the message seriously and act on it.”

An article in the September, 2008 issue of Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, “Remix: The Art and Craft of Endless Hybridization” defines remix: “To take cultural artifacts and combine and manipulate them into new kinds of creative blends. “ Although remix originally referred to using audio-editing techniques to produce a new mix of a recorded song, recently it has been “expanded to include music and sound as well as moving and static images taken from films, television, the Internet, personal archives, and elsewhere” (p. 22).

The authors note that “we remix language every time we take an idea, artifact, or a particular stretch of language and integrate it into what we are saying and doing at the time” (p.23). The article explores several remix practices and the art and craft of remix. The implications for literacy education are enormous. As you view the video, consider not only the facts that Lori presents, but also the literacy skills she needed to create it. Food for thought for 2009.

Lori recommends that you purchase a copy of the book yourself; it is compact and travels easily. But if you don’t want to purchase it, you could e-mail me at cbaldwin6@carolina.rr.com and I will send you a spreadsheet that she and two friends created condensing the information from the book.

Images for this video were taken from Google images; the text is from The Better World Shopping Guide, music is Love Come Down by The War.

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Charlotte Mecklenburg English Teachers Make Front Page News

On February 16 The Charlotte Observer ran a feature article about GranVille Caldwell and Ryan Marshall—two high school English teachers who have recently written and self-published a book of poetry about their experiences in the classrooms. According to the Observer,"Thoughts & Lamentations of Urban Education" is a "quirky 178-page saga of a year in the inner city schools, told through poetry, news flashes and takeoffs on pop songs."

A sample poem may make you want to purchase the book yourself:

Hair pulling, weave flyin'

Chairs broken, teachers cryin'

Security called, no one comes,

Got the teacher lookin' dumb

Fists flyin'—ooh la la!

Full-fledged brouhaha

This is from the book description on the website accurately reflecting Marshall's (and unfortunately other educators') experiences:

"Student bites teacher; student spits into administrators face; students openly swear at teacher; teachers are told to raise test scores or look for employment elsewhere." More information on the book is on Harding High School's website; Caldwell's school.

So far, Caldwell's assistant principal has been supportive of the book; I hope it stays that way. I applaud Caldwell and Marshall for not only voicing their thoughts about the problems they see in the school system, but trying to make a difference in their students' lives. They are examples of teachers who care about their students and are also modeling another important precept: "Your voice, expressed through written language, matters." Kudos to them.

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Who reads for pleasure anymore?

According to International Reading Association president Linda Gambrell in a her recent column in Reading Today, the number of teens and young adults who are reading just for fun is decreasing. Citing data from a National Endowment for the Arts report released in November 2007, Gambrell recounted these unsettling statistics:

• Nearly half of all Americans ages 18-24 read no books for pleasure.
  
• From 1984-2004 the percentage of 13-year-olds who reported that they read for fun declined from 35% to 30%.
  
• For 17-year-olds the decline was from 31% to 22%.
  

I know there are a lot more media options competing for a young adult's attention than when I was in high school and college, but as a lifetime reader, I find these results disturbing. A student who doesn't escape into a world of science fiction, fantasy, or history; or doesn't seize the opportunity to read poetry, plays, or biographies; or never ventures into Aztec ruins, Scottish castles, a coral reef, or the internal mechanisms of a modern machine-- is missing out on a galaxy of worlds found in the pages of books.

But not only that, students who don't take the time to read "just for fun" will most likely perform lower in school and on the job.

Consider Gabrell's insightful observations: "Individuals who engage in reading for pleasure are better readers and writers than nonreaders. Children and teenagers who read for pleasure on a daily or weekly basis score better on reading tests than infrequent readers. Frequent readers also score better on writing tests than infrequent readers."

And as I've mentioned on this blog previously, Gabrell points out that poor reading skills are surfacing in the marketplace also. "Employers now rank reading and writing as top deficiencies in new hires. One in five U.S. workers reads at a lower skill level than his or her job requires."

Although I may be preaching to the choir on this one, consider the impact we'd have if we each recommended a book a day to a child, adolescent, or young adult. It doesn't have to be something fancy or heavy duty—just a book that would pique their interest. I suspect we'd all enjoy the effects which would boomerang back to us in the classroom and work place.

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Readinking

"Real reading is reading and thinking at the same time," Ian Carle, fourth grade elementary teacher, Kansas City, Mo.

In a recent letter to the editor in Reading Today, Mr. Carle argued that it is time to invent a new word for reading which engages the reader. "...reading is more than just saying the words correctly. With that in mind, I combined elements of the words reading and thinking and readinking was born…Readinking is the act of specifically thinking while we are reading."

Quoting David Pears, Laura Roehler, Janice Dole, and Gerald Duffy in their chapter "Developing Expertise in Reading Comprehension," which appeared in What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction (2^nd edition) in 1992, Carle lists five activities vital to reading comprehension:

• Questioning: What readers are asking before during or while they read.
  
• Synthesizing: How readers continually change their mind as they read.
  
• Schema: How a reader uses background knowledge to understand the text.
  
• Visualizing: The pictures that are formed in a reader's head while reading.
  
• Determining importance: How the reader is able to identify what is important.
  

This list compliments the presuppositions and themes of How to Read a Book, a book which I have blogged about and am still working through. (Some books require a lot of readinking!)

I like Carle's thoughts and new word for another reason. Say readinking aloud and another image comes to mind:

READING IS KING!

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A Physician who is Passionate about Literacy

Here is a novel idea. At each annual visit for thirty years, Dr. Pete Lemaster of Fayetteville, N.C. has asked his patients to read and write for him. "I start them with a drawing when they are four and continue until they're 18," he explained to me recently. By that time he's asking his high school patients to write about their life aspirations. Passionate about literacy, Dr. Lemaster also speaks to every parent about the importance of training their children as lifelong readers and writers. He sets an example to other pediatricians and physicians: take the time to not only check your patient's physical health, but take their intellectual pulse too.

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On the way to San Antonio

Not only am I addicted to writing and blogging, but apparently I have a growing hobby of talking about literacy with the person sitting next to me on an airplane. Today, as I flew to San Antonio to visit family, I met a professor who formerly taught business management and business statistics at Northeastern Oklahoma State. When she discovered my passion for writing she said that she always told her students that, "When you leave here you'll have to be a writer and a reader or else you won't succeed in business." Quizzes regularly included questions based on their reading of the Wall Street Journal. When she taught college Algebra at Texas Lutheran, she always asked her students to write a research paper on a famous mathematician-- despite their groans and complaints.

Three cheers for writing across the curriculum--on the college level no less!

On my way to Houston

One of the fun things about traveling is that you never know who you'll sit next to on the plane and what your conversation will include. On my way to Houston for the National Middle School conference yesterday, I sat next to a vice-president of a manufacturing company. After finding out the reason I was visiting Texas and my interest in literacy, he began talking about the problems his company has when it comes to hiring high school graduates. He is deeply concerned that many high school graduates lack basic reading, writing, and math skills and are therefore eliminated from the pool of applicants. At entry level positions that begin at $85,000, jobs at his company are job market plums.

When I asked my seat partner (who served on his local school board for 12 years and made academic issues his priority) why he thought so many high school graduate were under-perfomers he listed 3 reasons:

1. Parents weren't setting high enough expectations for their children.
   
2. Parents are not adequately encouraging their children and not involved enough in their lives. "Kids can quickly be sucked into an 'underworld" type environment," he said. Parents need to know what is going on with their kids and care about their academic performance.
   
3. On the state level, he felt that although he believes that "life is a test" there is too much stress on high-stakes assessment testing.
   

My new acquaintance believes that the answer to this dilemma is that all of those who have a stake in the education process-the students, parents, teachers, administrators, and the "customers" (as he termed others in the industrial sector like himself) -- need to be working together.

And that's what I'm seeing here, at the National Middle School Conference. Teachers and administrators who take seriously the challenge to educate young people. My new friend would be impressed.

Musings from Mid-South

Last weekend I was privileged to be a presenter at the 18^th Annual Mid-South Reading and Writing Institute. Over 1400 educators from Alabama, Tennessee, and other southern states came together for two days to improve their classroom reading and writing practices. Here were some of my highlights:

Peter Johnston, Professor, and International Literacy Consultant from Albany, NY opened the conference on Friday morning with a talk related to his book, "Choice Words." He spoke about how important it is to have reciprocal learning in the classroom. Students who contribute are then seen by their peers as "a teacher too." A thread woven through the classroom should be that change is possible and "errors" take on a new meaning. Similarly, teachers become learners and communicate that they're on the same page as their students, learning together. (For those of you who have taken writing workshops with me, this fits into my view of interactive writing activities in which students and the teacher come up with the best way to "jazz-up" a sentence.) Johnston encouraged teachers to make the classroom a fun place where students take responsibility for gaining knowledge.

I had so many conversations with Dr. Robert Wortman, Adjunct Associate Professor of Language Reading and Culture, College of Education, University of Arizona that I began to feel as if I was taking one of his courses. One of the themes which he kept returning to was: "Read like a writer; write like a reader." This is worth repeating to all of your students!

I attended one of the sessions given by Alan Farstrup, Executive Director of the International Reading Association. He commented that the term "reading wars" is very unfortunate. "We all have the same goal," he said, "to educate children." Teachers shouldn't be asking about phonics vs. whole language; the question should be, "What are all of the components we need to teach reading?" It is his experience that parents are concerned that too much classroom time is spent on testing.

Saturday's keynote speaker was the entertaining, passionate author and educator, Lester Laminick. Speaking on the topic of "Reading and Writing and Teaching and Learning: What Happened to Common Sense?" he challenged teachers who like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, should face their fears. For teachers, that means they must teach what they can teach and what they know students need. "We fear what we cannot see," Lester said, "which is causing us to lose our common sense." He further encouraged, "As teachers you are searching for something that is already in you. To be readers and writers - it's not in a kit or a script- it comes from the knowledge base of [being a] teacher." Lester encouraged all teachers not to "lose your common sense about education." I had the opportunity to chat with Lester while we were waiting for our flight back to Charlotte. When I admitted to being nervous before participating in my first Mid-South conference he said, "If it's not fun, then just stay home and write!" And since it is a lot of fun…I'll look forward to going back next year!

Literacy Makes Corporate Cents

On a recent vacation in Arkansas, I spent a day in Little Rock, with my sister-in-law, Barbara Baldwin. As an area manager for AT&T, Inc. she told me about AT&T's interest in promoting literacy. "If we don't take an interest in children learning to read," she commented, "we won't have skilled employees in the future." This promotion of literacy through corporate America was further reinforced during a visit to Heifer International, a non-profit organization committed to ending hunger and poverty and promoting ecological stewardship of natural resources. In addition to their extensive programs which promote self-reliance through gifts of livestock, their "Feed to Read" program has games for kids, extensive book list, an incentive reading program related back to Heifer, as well as grant information for educators.

As an educational consultant committed to helping young adults become more proficient writers, I found this support of literacy through multi-million dollar organizations encouraging. I would be interested in hearing about other companies with programs to support literacy. If you know of any, e-mail them to me and I'll list them on this blog.