Just out (Feb 2010) is my  brand new book based on an old favorite. Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! has new layers in the main text, new endmatter on multiple species, and new illustrations by Annie Patterson. I was able to incorporate turtle behaviors I witnessed recently. Hooray for Charlesbridge for making this book even better than the previous one. This book is featured in NSTA’s Picture Perfect Science Lessons by Ansberry and Morgan, two crackerjack presenters.

ALA librarians called on collective wisdom to assemble a list of books great for use with autistic students, in this case, 7th graders. The list included Ant, Ant, Ant: An Insect Chant (illus by Park) ; Trout, Trout, Trout: a Fish Chant (illus by Park) , and Bird, Bird, Bird: a Chirping Chant (illus by Locke).   The list is here:  http://connect.ala.org/node/93738

For 20  years United Through Reading has been bringing families together by having parents and grandparents read books on tape and DVD so their child can see/hear their parent sharing something good. This program helps incarcerated parents, military parents, and grandparents who live far away from their children. What a cool program! I found it because a google alert told me that Vulture View was on their recommended list. Hooray for all that United Through Reading does!

http://www.unitedthroughreading.org/about/greattransitionalbooks_justthefacts.php

Look through the credits for the Princess and the Frog movie (Disney) and you’ll see a big credit to our beloved Coleen Salley, New Orleans storyteller and great cheerleader for children’s books,  including nonfiction read alouds. We miss Coleen! But check out Mama Odie, a character in the movie. You’ll see some of Coleen’s spirit and way of talking, for sure!

Are your students buzzing about the movie Avatar?  Here’s how you might tie-in an extra credit biology  research project for motivated students. Ask them to research and report back on some of these real-life wonders which I noticed were echoed in the movie’s animation:

Christmas Tree Worms. One of the early scenes in the fantasy part of the movie shows the characters walking through the forest and touching some large feather duster type organisms that, when touched, disappear into the

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I received a real snail mail, carried by a snail today, November 19, 2009. Jeff sent me an email Jun 17, 2008 via a service called www.realsnailmail.net. This service is dedicated to slowness. The message took 17 months, 2 days and was carried by agent #6, named Agatha. You send them an email, then a real snail, with transmitters on its back, eventually transmits the message to another email service. You know we are snail fans, partly because of our book, One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab. So we had to try it! You can try it, too.

Hear a bit about the fun part of my work life and my new books in an interview on the September 29, 2009 entry in Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog.

Great article in New York Times about teacher allowing students to choose books for study.

Join me for a free-ranging discussion of writing and publishing children’s books.

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