Each year, Inly’s 3rd grade students mark the end of their Lower Elementary years by completing a project based on their combined work in the Library and the DaVinci Studio. The project has varied, but it’s typically something connected with Caldecott Award winners. We begin by introducing how picture books work, looking at illustration styles and learning some basic picture book vocabulary: spine, gutter, border. They especially enjoy learning the definition of “bleed” which is an illustration that runs off of the page’s edges. Next, we move to applying what they have learned in a creative way. In the past, the kids have used Stop Motion and Ozobots, but this year we went total “maker space,” and they were limited to designing their small diorama with scissors, felt, hot glue, paper, popsicle sticks, and glitter. The results are awesome.
This year’s 3rd grade class was particularly special because it was my last class of 3rd graders. I’m leaving my position at Inly after 23 wonderful years. Erika Hoddinott will be the new Inly Librarian, and working with Mary, the school library is in professional and caring hands. Earlier this week, Makena, an Inly graduate who is now a senior in high school, stopped by the library and began looking at the shelves to find her favorite books from elementary school.
She has no idea how well timed her visit was. As Makena shared her love of Ivy and Bean and Stella Bats books with some students, it was another reminder of the responsibility and privilege of this work. I thought back to all of the students like Makena, the hundreds of kids whose worlds were made a little bigger by visiting the Inly Library.
This is the final Sommer Reading post. It’s truly been a joy to share my adventures in reading and sharing books with you.
Inly’s summer reading list is almost finished – a few more books to add, and it will be ready for kids (and parents) to look at before they head to the library or bookstore. Each year, I begin the process by cycling out a few titles that have been on the list for awhile and deciding which ones are too good to ever be “deleted.” Charlotte’s Web has been on the list for 22 years. After that, the fun begins when I review notable new releases of the past year and add them to the list. I also gather recommendations from teachers and friends in the book world. For example, Kimi at Buttonwood Books and Toys introduced me to Once There Was by Kiyash Monsef.
Below are some new titles from each category of the list:
Toddler:
Children’s House:
Kindergarten:
Lower Elementary:
and
Lower Elementary students (who are a bit older):
and
Upper Elementary
and
and
Upper Elementary Students (who are a bit older):
and
Middle School
and
Two more notes:
An Inly 5th grader made a stack of her favorite books from the library. Here it is:
And finally, I opened the library white board up to “contributions” from kids. Here’s what happened:
It’s spring book fair week, and as always, we “unveiled” our summer reading selections for each level. This is the book the students read to initiate discussion when they return to school in September – a common read for their new communities.
The summer books are:
Children’s House
Very Good Hats by Emma Straub
As soon as I read this new picture book, with its fabulous illustrations by Blanca Gomez, I thought – here’s the Children’s House summer book. I could picture kids making inventive hats or doing hat-related artwork. I’m not creative enough to come up with the actual projects, but the Children’s House teachers are!
Lower Elementary
Mama Shamsi at the Bazaar by By Mojdeh Hassani and Samira Iravani
Next year is a “World Cultures” year at Inly so this book jumped out as a possible summer book right away. It centers on Samira, a young girl, and her grandmother who are on their way to a busy market in Tehran. Based on Hassani’s memories of growing up in Iran, the child in the novel hides under her grandmother’s chador when the bazaar feels overwhelming. “You’ll use your eyes and your ears, even your nose too, to explore this world and learn what’s around you,” Mama Shamsi tells Samira.
Upper Elementary
Fibbed by Elizabeth Agyemang
A new graphic novel about a young girl who goes to the Ghanian village where her mother grew up and learns Ghanian folktales. Kirkus describes Fibbed as “thoughtful metafiction with an unshakeable cultural richness.”
Middle School
A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
Santat’s graphic memoir perfectly captures that time in our lives when there are so many”firsts.” During his class trip to Europe, Dan experiences new foods, new friends – a first kiss. I remember my gateway food: Brie. The first time I tasted it, a whole new world opened up to me. I decided to try artichokes, travel, move to a big city! Santat’s memoir conveys the awkwardness and excitement of adolescence when everything seems to be changing at the same time.
I’m currently reading two books:
I’m reading Turtles of the Midnight Moon by Maria Jose Fitzgerald with two fifth grade students. And at home, I’m reading a book about Paris in the 1920s that’s been sitting on my shelf for an embarrassing number of years: Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vail. Our March trip to Paris inspired me to pick it up, and I love it!
I’m overdue on this post, but the good part is that my delay means there’s lots of news to report. We had a two week spring break and are now beginning the busiest months of the school year. The spring dash includes school plays, overnight trips, parent/teacher conferences, Capstone presentations – all culminating in a celebration of our 8th grade graduates in early June.
The third grade students continue their combined library and technology class. The kids are enjoying learning about the Caldecott Awards, especially when they chose past winners to re-award with a new medal. The highlight for them, though, is the day when they will receive their official Inly email addresses. Joining the Inly email network is a rite of passage, a visible sign that they are moving to the upper school. They don’t have them yet, but it will be very soon. In the meantime, here are a few of the redesigned Caldecott Medals:
In the middle school, students sometimes design “one pagers” a response to reading that includes visual images and words to demonstrate understanding of the text. As part of their study of World War II, they are currently reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli.
The Lower Elementary students are enjoying their library visits. Last week we read a brilliant new picture book called, Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf by Davide Cali. It’s a super funny fractured fairy tale – and kind of a math book!
We have blocked off the graphic novel section this week. By blocking, I mean we place chairs in front of the graphic novels so they can’t be accessed (very easily). It is no criticism of our collection to say that we sporadically give Hilo and the Bad Guys a rest.
As I explain to the kids, there are lots of books in the library that are often overlooked because everyone is in the same section. It’s been fun to watch them check out The Good Dog series, The Secret Explorers, Frank and Bean, and many others.
A few weeks ago, an Upper Elementary student spotted this picture in a graphic novel:
It’s in this book:
We all agreed that it looks like the Inly Library:
Over Inly’s spring break, my husband and I were in Paris for a few days, and of course, we went to several wonderful English bookstores. The first one we visited was Galignani, the oldest English bookshop in Europe. It’s been in its present location since 1856.
We also found a wonderful shop near our hotel:
Of course, I purchased books in both stores. I bought this book at Galignani:
And this one at The Red Wheelbarrow:
In this case, I was guilty of purchasing a book we already own, but that cover! And the introduction by Amor Towles is wonderful. I found myself referring back to it several times while re-reading the novel.
With one week to go before spring break, there is heightened energy among both students and teachers. The most buzzed about event is Beauty and the Beast, this year’s Inly Players production. There are four sold-out performances, a cast of 80, and an incredible set with oversized books around the theater and on the stage. It’s the perfect backdrop to see Belle escape Gaston, rescue her father, and save the Beast, a clock, a teapot, a feather duster, and a candelabras!
Of course, there are several editions of Beauty and the Beast on display, but we’ve also been recommending books for spring break reading. InvestiGators, Pizza and Taco, and Max Meow continue to fly out the door with younger readers. Even Jack and Annie, the stars of the Magic Tree House series, continue to be read and even celebrated in classroom art projects:
The top middle grade check-outs are Odder by Katherine Applegate, Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone by Tae Keller, and anything by Rick Riordan.
The third graders have started their multi-month transition to Upper Elementary in weekly Library/Technology classes. We began by looking at how picture books work. The kids especially enjoyed learning the word “bleed” to describe illustrations without borders. After looking at lots of books, focusing on how perspective is achieved, the kids created their own versions of Hansel and Gretel’s journey through the forest:
Recently, some of Inly’s 6th graders expressed interest in reading aloud to the Lower Elementary classes. Addy Oliver joined us earlier today to read Sal Boat by Thyra Heder. The younger kids love having a “big kid” read to them.
It’s also been fun to have groups of middle school students working in the library:
Four new books arrived today:
All Rise: The Story of Ketanji Brown Jackson by Carole Boston Weatherford is an inspiring picture book about the new Supreme Court Justice. Using the refrain, “she rose” in an echo of the Maya Angelou poem, “And Still I Rise,”Weatherford provides the highlights of Jackson’s life and career: “She rose above a guidance counselor’s doubts that she could get into Harvard, whose campus she had first visited for a speech competition. Instead of lowering her goals, Ketanji vowed, ‘I’ll show them.'” All Rise would be a perfect gift for a young person with big dreams.
Dan Santat’s graphic memoir, A First Time For Everything. The reviews are glowing so I’ll check this one out to read over the weekend.
Two other new books are new installments in popular series. The books will be scooped up by enthusiastic readers next week – right in time for the March break reading!
Whale Done by Stuart Gibbs
City Spies: City of the Dead (Book 4) by James Ponti
In other news…
If the recent leaden skies have made you long for more color, I recommend a trip to Duxbury’s Art Complex Museum where a small but beautiful exhibit of mosaics by Lisa Houck will brighten your day. The mosaics are on display until May 14 – and admission to the museum is free.
My own reading is France-based for a few weeks. We are going to Paris during the school break and planning to visit a different museum every day!
Maybe it’s all of the grey days we’ve had this winter, but over the weekend I found myself looking at (and comparing) the gingerbread cottages in several editions of Hansel and Gretel. I was considering which would be the best one to visit, and then remembered the gingerbread comes with a witch inside so maybe visiting is a bad idea. Not surprisingly, there are many gingerbread house styles, from the relatively simple to over-the-top candy extravaganzas.
If you prefer a traditional gingerbread house, James Marshall has you covered:
Susan Jeffers’ house looks like something emerging from the mist – a place where a magical fairy, rather than a witch, lives:
I like this one too. It’s from Cynthia Rylant’s re-telling of the fairy tale with illustrations by Jen Corace:
Folk artist Will Moses (the great-grandson of Grandma Moses) has his own interpretation of the cottage. This is a scene that makes me look forward to warm days ahead:
Eloise Wilkin is best known for her many illustrations of Little Golden Books. This is her cottage:
And from a kind of eery version of Hansel and Gretel, this is Anthony Browne’s version. As a side note, Browne’s version has the scariest witch, mostly because she seems kind of “real.”
This is one I’d never seen until beginning my internet research into gingerbread cottages. It’s by a Russian illustrator, Anastassija Archipova:
Bethan Woolvin is an English author and illustrator of fractured fairy tales. Her book, Little Red, a retelling of Red Riding Hood was one of the New York Times Best Illustrated Books in 2016. Here’s her take on the gingerbread cottage:
Rachel Isadora’s gingerbread cottage is a pink dream – but light on the candy:
Here’s a classic illustration by Kay Nielson, the Danish artist who worked in the Art Nouveau style:
This one, by Caldecott-medalist Paul O. Zelinsky, looks delicious – and Hansel and Gretel seem ready to try a few things:
There are many other versions of Hansel and Gretel, but I had to stop somewhere! In other library news, an eagle-eyed student spotted this typo on the spine of a fact book. The facts on the inside pages may be accurate, but don’t trust the cover. (Do you see it? It took me a minute!)
What I’m reading:
I’m reading this new book to begin preparing for a mid-March trip that will include visits to many museums. The author spent ten years working as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I’m learning lots of fun facts, like: Met guards get an $80.00 allowance to replace worn-out socks.
The days are getting brighter. Driving home at around 5:00 last night, it was still light – dimly, but still. Red Sox pitchers and catchers report to spring training on February 15. There are hopeful signs.
And new books! My spring school shopping list is getting long with highly anticipated releases coming out over the next few months. Here are four I’m particularly looking forward to:
Caldecott-winning illustrator Dan Santat’s graphic memoir (February 28)
Leeva at Last by Sara Pennypacker. A novel with pictures by Matthew Cordell (March 7)
Nic Blake and the Remarkables by Angie Thomas, the author of the YA novel The Hate U Give – her first middle grade novel (April 4)
The Book of Turtles by naturalist Sy Montgomery – and one of the best book covers of the spring (May 2)
In the meantime, there are so many other books to read! I’m thrilled that Freewater by Amina Luquman-Dawson won both the 2023 Newbery and Coretta Scott King Awards.
Coretta Scott King Book Awards Chair Jason Driver, said “Freewater is a beautifully written and captivating historical novel. Ms. Luqman-Dawson explores the complexities of the slave plantation and living in a secret maroon community.” Freewater was published in January 2022, and I read it over the summer. Once I began reading about Homer and his little sister, Ada, escaping a plantation where they are enslaved, I could not put it down, and I recommended it for our 5th and 6th graders learning about the Civil War. This is the best kind of historical fiction: adventurous, compelling, and well researched. Before reading Freewater, I had never heard about the Southern swamps (maroon communities) where escaped slaves lived in hiding. It is a fascinating piece of American history.
Christina Soontornvat’s fantasy novel, The Last Mapmaker, was named a Newbery Honor Book. Erin, an Inly student and avid reader, agrees with the award committee’s decision. She loved the novel, but reports that it’s a good book to read “without a lot of distractions around.”
Caroline, an Upper Elementary student, recommends Louisa June and the Nazis in the Waves by L.M. Elliott. “Reading this book is a good way to learn about WWII,” she told me.
Finally, a word about Hot Dog by Doug Salati – the winner of this year’s Caldecott Award, the “most distinguished American picture book for children.”
When Mary and I first read Hot Dog, we knew it was a special book. The Horn Book described it as “a breath of fresh air from start to finish.” At the story’s center is a little dog who is literally hot – and the noise and crowds of the city are overwhelming. Recognizing (and sharing) her pet’s exhaustion, his owner gets them both to the beach for some fresh air. The contrast between the busy city streets and the sand and waves is dramatic. Even readers experiencing the shift on paper rather than in “real” life, can feel the rejuvenating effect of the relative quiet and the space to run. It’s one of my favorite picture books of the past ten years – I even bought a copy for myself.
I’ve always enjoyed the Upper Elementary classes. The kids are at a great age for absorbing lots of new information, and their questions reflect their curiosity and willingness to grapple with hard questions. Typically, there is a theme to our library classes, a topic that connects our weekly lesson. For example, last year’s UE library curriculum focused on a “Weekly Wonder.” Each class started with an introduction to a painting, a landmark, a piece of music, or a notable person. We watch a short video, look at pictures, talk about the importance of whatever the topic is. For example, the Beatles were one of our Weekly Wonders last year. So was American Gothic. And so was the architecture of Frank Gehry.
This year is an American history year, and our library classes celebrate “American Achievements” in many fields. So far, we have focused on science, sports, and visual art. Next month: music. The fun (but frustrating) part of planning the UE classes is that we could focus on a different American Achievement each day of the school year and still only scratch the surface. Weekly classes make this a particular challenge, but Mary and I jump in – hoping that a story will spark a new interest or make a connection.
Our sports topics included: Jim Thorpe, Bill Russell, and Serena Williams. After that, we moved on to science and talked about: Rachel Carson, Sylvia Earle, Mae Jemison, Sally Ride, and Carl Sagan. The students were especially intrigued by Carl Sagan’s Golden Record, a recording of music and messages that might be heard by extraterrestrials – like E.T.
We watched a video of Bill Nye (the Science Guy) explaining the Golden Record which resulted in lively conversations about what would be put on a similar device today.
January has been about visual art. We’ve looked at sculptures by Sarah Sze (who has a big exhibit at the Guggenheim opening this spring), Alma Thomas, Katherine Bradford, and Alex Katz.
Alma Thomas was an African-American artist noted for her colorful vibrant paintings – one of which (Resurrection) is the first artwork by an African-American woman to enter the White House’s permanent collection.
I think everyone enjoyed looking at Thomas’s brightly colored paintings during a very grey January. One of the best parts of our “art month” is the chance to collaborate with Annemarie, Inly’s art teacher. During the Alma Thomas week, she worked with the Lower Elementary students to create beautiful mosaics that are now hanging around the library and in the hallways.
Last week, we introduced Katherine Bradford to the Upper Elementary students. Bradford is a New York and Maine-based artist, and she is one of Annemarie’s favorites. Her large paintings of figures, many of them faceless, can be seen in several contemporary art museums, but also at the L Train/First Avenue Station of the New York City Subway. Here are two of Bradford’s public pieces:
In class, Annemarie showed the UE students half a dozen of Katherine Bradford’s artworks and asked them what was “unique.” According to Annemarie, they all said “no faces!” Next, they discussed how she still managed to have her people express a mood – via body language and color choice. Their assignment was to work in groups: one chose a pose that the others would trace (for example: confidence, joy, anger) And then, working collaboratively, they chose a color scheme that they felt matched the mood.Â
Here are some pics of the work in progress:
And two of the finished projects!
Next week, the last in our art series, we will turn our attention to Alex Katz, the 95-year-old painter of large scale landscapes and portraits. Like Sarah Sze, Katz was the subject of a recent exhibition at the Guggenheim, and like Bradford, Alex Katz also lives in New York and Maine. Katz is one of my favorite artists, and so I’m looking forward to sharing some of his work with the kids next week. Maybe we will begin by looking at these paintings, two of my favorites:
My current reading is:
It was one of those situations where I was putting a book away and saw this on the shelf. I loved Patti Smith’s first book Just Kids which chronicles her early years in New York City and her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe. And then I bought M Train when it was published eight years ago! My embarrassment that it had been sitting on my shelf untouched in all that time inspired me to pick it up, and I’m happy I did. Much of the book was written in Smith’s favorite cafe, and her reflections about travel, art, and the origins of the continental drift theory are perfectly suited to grey January days.
Random note on a book cover:
Another shelving situation, but this one in the school library. I started to put it away, but instead put it aside to enjoy looking at this week and reading to a class next week. The cover is beautiful – it’s the pastel palette. I want to hang it on the wall.
Although January is not technically the half-way point in the school year, it always has that feeling of being Part Two. A re-set. And last week in the library certainly felt like that. Kids returned books they borrowed over the break and teachers were choosing books for new reading groups and new projects. We gathered books about land forms, the Civil War, the moon, and biomimicry among other interesting topics.
In the spirit of a new year, I thought it would be fun to take a look around the school and see what kids are reading. Here’s what I found:
Upper Elementary literature circles are reading:
The Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus
Poached by Stuart Gibbs
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
Before break, the Upper Elementary students read novels by Joseph Bruchac:
There are also kids who are thinking about making a cake:
The Lower Elementary kids are reading too:
And, of course, Children’s House:
My own markers of the new year include:
A new calendar –
A new book of essays by one of my favorite writers, Colm Toibin –
In this last post of 2022, I’m looking at the list of 55 books I read this year and reflecting on my year in reading – while looking at a the books I plan to read during the holiday break. Here are the ten titles that stand out. Maybe there’s a good recommendation for you – or a gift idea for a friend who likes to read:
Still Life by Sarah Winman(Still Life was my immersion experience last winter. This novel takes place WWII-era Italy and centers on a young English man and an older art historian. I read it with my phone nearby so I could look at the paintings Winman references. The true sign of how much I loved this book is that I have not yet put it back on the shelf. First, the cover is so beautiful, but most of all, I want the characters to be a part of my daily thoughts.)
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad (Definitely not a book for your gift list – but it stands out to me for its beauty and candor. As a young woman, Jaouad received a diagnosis of leukemia and all of her post-college plans disappeared overnight. After years of painful treatments and long hospital stays, she took her beloved dog on an extended road trip to meet some of the people she had corresponded with during her long recovery. I’ve read and loved many memoirs about navigating the loss of a loved one, but Jaouad’s book is about survival and how to keep going when everything you planned disappears.)
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka (For days after reading Otsuka’s new novel, I could not get it out of my mind. It centers on a group of people who swim at the same community pool every day. When a crack appears in the pool, it leads to multiple theories, but it also shakes their reliable routine. It made me appreciate the importance of routine – how much we rely on it. But it also made me think about “cracks” in our world, for example climate change. It’s also about memories and memory loss. A parable? A cautionary tale? A reminder to appreciate the fragility of our relationships. I want to read The Swimmers again in 2023.)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (This one was special because my husband and I read it at the same time and then had our own book club discussion. It was also fun to read it because the last time I read Smith’s classic novel I was in my early 20s. It’s a very different experience to read it decades later, mostly because after taking many trips to – and reading novels about – New York City, I could picture the streets where Francie lived and understand more fully how challenging daily life was for people struggling to get food on the table in the early 1900s.)
Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson (This one was a surprise to me. I didn’t know what to expect, but had read several reviews that sparked my curiosity. Months after reading it, the puzzle at the center of the story still pops into my mind every so often. It takes place in the first-class lounge at JFK Airport and centers on a man telling the narrator his life story. But the reader is left with questions about the storyteller’s reliability. The best description of this thought provoking and thrilling story comes from a review in Vulture. Maris Kreizman described it as “a sleek train crash of a novel.” That’s perfect.)
Lucy By the Sea by Elizabeth Strout (I read all of Strout’s Lucy Barton novels this year, but put this one on the list since it was published in 2022. What I appreciate about Strout is that her books read like someone is telling you a secret. I forget that I’m reading sometimes and imagine we are in Starbucks on a rainy day. I have my mocha and Elizabeth Strout is using everyday speech to say something about life and love that I needed to hear.)
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (This book is on most of the end-of-year lists for good reason. I initially resisted reading it (bad decision) because I read that the main characters are game designers, and I know nothing about the gaming world. But, of course, it’s a book about people – that’s what matters. Its subjects are life and art and beauty and friendship. It also includes the best passages I’ve read about the joy of entering other worlds which some people do through screens and others through the pages of a book.)
Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (A complex and honest book about the lives of undocumented people living in the United States. What most stands out about this award-winning book is the resilience of the people Villavcencio writes about.)
Foster by Claire Keegan (Small Things Like These is a masterpiece – and was one of my favorites of 2021. This one is equally moving. The NPR review sums it up perfectly: “Keegan’s output is scarce and her stories are as spare as they are heartrending, whittled down to the essential. If she has published anything that isn’t perfect, I haven’t seen it… More than most books four times its size, Foster does several of the things we ask of great literature: It expands our world, diverting our attention outward, and it opens up our hearts and minds. This is a small book with a miraculously outsized impact.”)
Stay True by Hua Hsu (Inspired by it being named of this year’s NYT 10 Best Books of 2022, this is the most recent book I’ve read. Hsu’s memoir centers on his college friend, Ken, someone whom Hsu initially thinks is too mainstream for them to be friends. Their growing friendship is chronicled primarily through their tastes in music, and Hsu beautifully captures that time in our lives when we are trying to define ourselves largely by what we are not. When Ken dies in a tragic carjacking incident, Hsu is adrift, trying to understand his friend – and himself – more clearly. There is a passage that made me stop reading and go find a pen and paper so I could write it down. It was not surprising to see this same passage included in the New York Times announcement of the ten best books of the year:
“You make a world out of the things you buy. Everything you pick up is a potential gateway, a tiny cosmetic change that might blossom into an entirely new you. A bold shirt around which you piece together a new personality, an angular coffee table that might reboot your whole environment, that one enormous novel that all of the fashionable English majors carry around. You buy things to communicate affiliation in a small tribe, hopeful you’ll encounter the only other person in line buying the same obscure thing as you.”
This is my last post of the calendar year. But I plan to read three books over the break so I’ll have a report in early January. One of them, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, is a book I’m embarrassed not to have read yet. Robinson’s novel haunts me – primarily with guilt at not having read it – but also because I see references to it almost every week. I will fix that before the end of the year.
Sommer Reading 