Nick Bland's New Release: Monster Chef (terrific for Halloween and not so scary) with freebies

Well it's official!  I am in love with picture books and one of my favourite authors is fellow Aussie, Nick Bland.
You can hardly imagine my delight when I found his newly published picture book, Monster Chef and I began making connections straight away to Halloween and his other picture book, A Monster Wrote Me a Letter.

I love Nick Bland's writing style with his rollicking use of rhyme and imagery.  

Marcel is the Monster Chef and he has a terrible problem - he wasn't very scary!!!  But, what he did like to do was cook and he makes earthworm spaghetti, hot cactus pies, smelly-sock soup and a cockroach surprise!  Can you imagine the fun the children would have making up imaginary recipes for these gastronomical delights? 

As with all good narratives, this one has the problem of Marcel not being scary even though he is a monster and the solution is actually very clever and creative!  

This is a terrific picture book for Halloween as it isn't scary; it's actually very funny.  Now for some freebies for both books:

Free teaching notes for Monster Chef can be found here and here.  

Interestingly, in my search for goodies for both of these picture books, I stumbled across another book with the same title, "Monster Chef" (different author) so a compare and contrast could be used, however the second title is part of the Vampire School series by Peter Bentley (You can read about it here). I haven't read any titles from this series, but if you have please leave a comment below this post.

You can read about A Monster Wrote Me a Letter here, with excerpts from the book to give you a flavour of the author's engaging style and there are also free teaching notes online. These shared reading notes were freely available on the internet for A Monster Wrote Me a Letter.

Other ideas and activities for using Nick Bland's picture books have been pinned on my pinterest board here.
We don't really celebrate Halloween in schools over here in Australia, so that's why I am keen on books that aren't too scary and I love companion texts and text sets.  

Last year I reviewed Creepy Carrots and provided a freebie for that. You can read that blog post here.  It's another good picture book for Halloween which isn't too scary.  

In fact, all of these picture books could be used to discuss fears and how sometimes our fears can be imagined.  Scaredy Squirrel is also great for this, as is the Children's Book Council Award short-listed picture book Parachute.  You can read my blog post about those two picture books here and pick up another freebie here.

Teachers have told me that their students make text-to-self connections quite easily, but need extra support with making text-to-world or text-to-text connections.  That's why I love it when we can find texts to compare and contrast and explicitly model making connections and venn diagrams are an easy way to do this.

Click on the image below to pick up a venn diagram to compare Nick Bland's two titles: Monster Chef and A Monster Wrote Me a Letter:

Please follow my blog (using the links in the right hand comment) to accept this giveaway.

Please leave a comment below if you can think of any other titles that could be used in a similar way.

Itchy Itchy Scratchy Scratchy - Back to school and head lice

Well it's a new school year in Australia and today I will be reviewing picture books and free resources about head lice - stop scratching LOL...why is it that you begin scratching straight away?!!

I am linking up again with Paula's Place to share some of my favourite picture books through Paula's Storybook Sunday.  Click on the image below to visit Paula's blog and check out the other picture books that have been shared this week.

A number of years ago, we designed a unit of work on head lice that our Year 2 students studied as part of their unit of work on Mini-beasts.  They actually had a great time learning about these little pests and how they could be "head lice detectives".  Sometimes, it is good to bring these issues out in the open and study them, to reduce embarrassment, shame and ridicule.  

To begin, there is an hilarious YouTube clip you can view here.  It states in the beginning of this video that head lice prefer "clean hair".  It includes some informative information.  I laughed out loud watching this clip as it reminded me in many ways of how I felt when my child's daycare rang me to tell me I had to pick him up because he had...it!!!  I am sure that is a man dressed as a woman in that clip, but maybe you could give me a second opinion on that:)  Actually, I think he plays all the characters in this clip...what do you think?  

There is another interesting YouTube clip from the National Geographic...it's short, but has some really interesting facts and magnified images.  You can view it here.  This clip states that head lice don't generally have a preference for either clean or dirty hair.

1.  "Bugs in my Hair" David Shannon (2013).  I just love the illustration on the cover - doesn't it say it all?!  I love the blurb: "Warning: This book will make you itchy!" and inside the cover, the author writes, "Nobody talks about them, but they're everywhere.  Oh, the shame and humiliation of having bugs in your hair!"  This is such a humorous picture book that brings an uncomfortable problem out in the open.  I love the "bug" on the title page who clearly has his bags packed and is leaving town (or the "host head" LOL).  "Stop scratching!" (She says as she scratches her head!!!)  Oh, the illustration of mum shouting "Head Lice!" and running big time, is just hilarious - a typical parental reaction :)  In fact the illustrations in this book are awesome!  This picture book is bound to have readers laughing out loud and talking openly about their own experiences.  You can preview the book here.

2.  "What's Bugging Nurse Penny?"  Catherine Steir (2013).  You can view a review of this new release here and can preview the book here.  This picture book includes a narrative and facts about head lice, which makes it a lovely mix of fiction and non-fiction text features. The great feature of this text is that it debunks many myths about head lice.

3.  "Scritch Scratch We Have Nits" Miriam Moss (2001)
The illustrations in this book, by Delphine Durand are just gorgeous (Note to self: stop scratching!!!)  I love the recommendation on the back by The Bookseller, which says, "This book turns the nitty-gritty into something witty."  This is a terrific text for teaching onomatopoeia, rhyming words and alliteration.  The details in the illustrations are sure to keep the children engaged, although with the rhyming stanzas...and a love story to boot :)

4.  "Bugs in my Hair" Catherine Stier (2008).  The first thing I noticed was that this text has the same title as the first one!    It begins with a note to "Concerned Grown Ups".  What I like in this note is the comment that, "Getting lice does not reflect on the cleanliness of the child or home".  This is an important point to remember, so I am really pleased, as a reader, to see that upfront, before I even read the book.  This is the story of absolutely perfect Ellie LaFleur.  Nothing goes wrong for her.  When her head becomes itchy, she thinks someone at the Princess Luxury Shampoo company must have messed up the formula.  This is a great mentor text for vocabulary, specifically verbs, for example, "sashayed", "quivered" and "shivered".  It  would also be great for examining adjectives. This narrative also embeds facts about head lice.  The other thing I love about this text is Ellie's self-help guide for other students who may get head lice and I love the continual reassurance throughout the story, that, "These things happen!"

5.  "Lawrence has Head Lice" Jenny Leigh (2013).  This is the story of Lawrence the lion and it begins like a detective story with case notes.  Again, this picture story book raises parents' anxiety and embarrassment that their child has head lice.  This picture book touches on the bullying and teasing that can happen when someone is known to have had head lice and debunks it through the inclusion of factual information.  the back of the book includes information for parents about head lice and head lice treatments.

 
6.  "I've Got Nits" Mike Brownlow (2006).  As soon as I read that the family was called the "Fotheringtons", they had me :)  This is a rhyming text and reminds me of when I had long, straight hair and my mum used to brush my hair 100 times as well!  This is such a funny text, "We can't have them...we're clean and posh!"  I am only halfway through, but I am loving this funny rhyming narrative.  This was a great read and at the end there is a step-by-step guide about head lice and how to treat them.

7.  "Yikes-Lice!" Donna Caffey (1998).  

I love the fact that this picture book starts with "A note to concerned grown ups". Like most mothers, I freaked out when my child was sent home from daycare because of head lice!  I love this introduction, "People sometimes think that head lice are a sign of uncleanliness, but in fact anyone, no matter how clean, can get them."  I think I am going to like this book!  Wow, this is interesting, apparently girls are more affected than boys!  I didn't realise that a head louse could also be called a "cootie".  That's new learning for me!  Factual information is also included in this picture book.  Oh, this text has a narrative on one side of the page and factual information on the accompanying page!  This picture book actually embeds a lot of factual information in it, more than the narrative.  You can check out a preview here.

Many of these texts are just great for intertexuality because they weave narratives with factual information - great as mentor texts in this way!

Now, have you stopped scratching yet?  I have a couple more to share with you for older children.  The first one is a non-fiction text that I am thinking about doing an interactive notebook for, so make sure you are following me on TPT to get notice about that.

  

Here is  a free resource  for "Horrid Henry's Nits". You can preview the beginning chapter book here.   You can read a review of "Lousy Thinking" here.  I haven't read these ones yet, but I will and I am thinking about developing a head lice maybe interactive notebook pages (Stop scratching!!! I am only saying that because I just scratched again LOL).  I would love to hear from anyone who has used or read these texts.

I do believe if teachers share these stories with children, it will help reduce the stigma around head lice and the embarrassment and shame.

You can find a free PowerPoint that can be used with teaching staff here.  There are some very useful free resources here for both children and adults.  There is information about treatment here.

I hope you didn't scratch too much during this post...are there any other great resources you know about to tackle this irritating subject?

Wow! I am loving these newly published picture books and a freebie!!!

I am linking up with Em from Curious Firsties to share my Wow! for the week. Click on the image above to check out Em's blog and other Wow! moments from other bloggers.

For those of you who have been following my blog, you will know I have an addiction for picture books.  I have a couple of friends from Scholastic who feed that addiction for me, and I am very thankful for it.  A big disclaimer - I do not profit from reviewing their books and only review the ones that "speak to me"...if you get my drift :)

I am very excited to share some of these with you today and to link up with Emily at Curious Firsties for my WOW moment this week :)

1.  "Eliot Midnight Superhero" by Anne Cottringer.

This is such a cool story.  It could tie in with a unit of study on superheroes or just be enjoyed on its own.  Eliot is a quiet boy by day, who likes to read and play with his toys, but at night, Eliot is transformed into a superhero!  Read some ideas for sharing this text here.  I just love the illustrations in this book, by Alex T. Smith.  The illustration of Eliot himself, is just adorable. There are lots of hidden "extra messages" in the illustrations on each page.  

This picture book is wonderful for exploring adventure and imagination and the problem/solution top level structure.  It would also be a terrific mentor text to use for exploring creative vocabulary and as a model for the children's own writing of a narrative adventure.  I am sure all children at some stage have dreamed of being superheroes and saving the world, so this is sure to be a real hit.

2.  "Nugget and Fang: Friends forever - or snack time?"

The title of this newly released picture book reminded me of "Finding Nemo" - "fish are friends, not food" and the cover illustration has a shark with big fangs (but looking not too scary with a little fish.  The paperback version has only been released this month (January 2014). Before reading this book, I am already making a text-to-text connection with "Finding Nemo", so let's read it and find out...Actually, let's watch the book trailer first as an advanced organiser....I am noticing that Nugget is a minnow and Fang is a shark and the use of tense in the book trailer, that they "were best friends", that's making me think that they may not be best friends anymore!

Oh, this is hilarious and the book trailer gives you a sense that this will be a story about friendships, perhaps fear and the effects of learning...reminds me a bit of the adult literacy students I used to teach and how their families sometimes became threatened by their new learning and how it sometimes changed relationships...I am keen to read it now!!!  So...here goes...

My first thought...the illustrations are bright and adorable.  As I am reading, I am thinking this would be a useful text for teaching:

Time (temporal) sequencing:  On Monday...that afternoon...On Tuesday...On Wednesday...

Wit/puns:  "Have you lost your gills?"; "Oh my algae"; "Holy mackerel!"...

Ah, now I am making a connection to "Finding Nemo" again, when the net comes down and catches the minnows.  Great text for problem/solution too!  I am loving it - it is sure to be a hit!  

3.  My third share is a set of companion texts that fit together so nicely - just like a jigsaw puzzle!

You can view Oliver Jeffers reading "Stuck" on YouTube here.  What a terrific story for mapping a series of events (story mapping)...but does anyone ever stop to question how Floyd could unattach the kitchen sink or front door to throw up in the tree?  Or if he would be capable of throwing the family car, a big boat, the house across the street or a lighthouse up into the tree? And where did the orangutan, rhinoceros and whale come from?...And...what did Floyd forget? Terrific, whimsical illustrations are sure to delight readers.

A free matching activity for "Stuck" is available here.  Comprehension questions and activities can be found here.

"The Gobbling Tree" by Mark Carthew is an excellent companion text to "Stuck" and it has just been released (January 2014) in paperback form.  You can view an animated version of "The Gobbling Tree" here read by the author.  Again, a terrific text for problem/solution, sequencing events in the story (story mapping), as well as rhyming words and onomatopoeia.  An activity for "The Gobbling Tree" can be found here and free teaching notes can be found here.

"Stuck" and "The Gobbling Tree" are crying out for a compare/contrast activity - maybe a Venn Diagram?  Now there's a plan...okay...you can download a freebie by clicking on the image below...

Please follow my blog (using the links in the right hand comment) to accept this giveaway.

This reminds me of another text by David Drew, "The Cat on the Chimney" which is part of the Realization technology series.  You can preview it here.  Students need to work out how to get Jitters the cat down from the chimney using certain equipment - great for integrating technology and problem solving.  What's exciting is that all three of these authors - Oliver Jeffers, Mark Carthew and David Drew - are all Australians, so that's another thing in common with these three texts. 

"The Boy and the Airplane" by Mark Pett (2013) is a wordless picture book about a boy who loses his airplane and his inventive solution for getting his toy airplane down from the roof.  It would make another terrific companion text along with the other titles above.  Students could write their own narrative to accompany the illustrations in this wordless picture book, or they could invent their own solutions for retrieving the airplane from the roof.

This has been such a Wow! week for me discovering these newly published picture books and linking them to some of my past favourites.

You can read about some of these and other new releases (with book reviews) here.

How do I love children's books?  Let me count the ways :)

From "Rain Dance" to "Flood"

My previous post introduced the book, "Downpour".  You can read that post in my November blog post archive (right hand side of the blog - scroll down).

Our Summer storms are continuing in Queensland and there are two other picture books I am really enjoying.  The first is called, "Rain Dance" by Cathy Applegate and Dee Huxley (2000).  Set in the Australian outback, this is a beautiful picture book that brings to life the importance of rain to outback communities and the impact of drought.  You can almost smell and feel the rain as it hits the parched earth in the outback.  Dee Huxley's illustrations capture the terrain and colours of the outback so well.  The author's text provides a visual image to support the illustrations (e.g. "Beyond our desolate farm I can see the horizon where a few dark clouds cruelly taunt us with promises of rain".)  This would be a great mentor text for exploring descriptive and figurative language.

Teaching notes for teaching visual literacy using "Rain Dance" and other texts are available in the publication on the right.  A free download of the contents page that shows the picture books examined is available by clicking on that image and then the link to see sample pages.  There is a chapter in the book on the right on "In Flanders Fields" (by Norman Jorgenson and Brian Harrison-Lever) which is set in World War 1.

 A companion text for "Rain Dance" is an Australian indigenous picture book, "Big Rain Coming" by Katrina Germein and one of my favourite indigenous illustrators, Bronwyn Bancroft.  You can view a youtube reading of this title here or download teaching ideas here.  This story is set in Katherine in the Northern Territory of Australia when people were experiencing severe drought and the anticipation of rain. Other teaching notes are available here.  

 These Australian indigenous titles about the importance of rain and the anticipation of rain could be compared and contrasted to picture books from other cultures with a similar theme, for example, "Sing Down the Rain" (1977) which is a poem about the annual Tohono O'odham saguaro harvest and rain-making ceremony.  More information about this cultural ceremony can be read via the Southwest Cross-Cultural Wisdom Circle page.  A choral reading script for this text is available here. 

It would be interesting to compare and contrast the animals mentioned in "Rain Dance" and also in "Sing Down the Rain" as the latter mentions ciquadas, however in Australia we have cicadas - I am wondering if they are the same thing?  Both texts also mention events and characters specific to the different cultures and contexts.  

Another terrific picture book I have discovered recently is "The Rain Train" by Elena de Roo and Brian Lovelock (2010).  This is a fantastic picture book for exploring onomatopoeia.  You can almost hear and feel the rain as you read this picture book that tells the story of a train ride when the rain is pouring down.  You can almost feel the drizzle and chill through the illustrations.  Both the author and illustrator live in New Zealand.

 

Sometimes people live through droughts, wishing for rain and sometimes people experience too much rain and flooding.  In the past two years, people in South-East Queensland have experienced flash flooding and the devastation of flood waters. 

Two picture books that contrast representations of the experience of the Brisbane floods in January 2011 are Jackie French's "Flood" (illustrated by Bruce Whatley) and "Alex and the Watermelon Boat" by Chris McKimmie.  Both represent the events in different ways.  Figurative language could be explored using "Flood".  Caution needs to be taken, however, when sharing these picture books with students from the communities affected, as it may actually foster memories of loss and grief, so teacher judgement (as always) would need to be exercised.  Jackie French discusses "Flood" and how to handle some of these concerns here including students' positive reactions to the picture book ,which represents communities pulling together, survival and heroism.  The illustrations certainly bring back memories of the drench, the mud and the generosity of the thousands of volunteers (the "Mud Army").

From a critical literacy stance, I think it is far more powerful to compare and contrast how authors and illustrators represent the same event in different ways, through multiple texts, rather than just focusing on the study of representation of a single text.

 

Free teacher notes for "Flood" are available here through Scholastic or here through the Primary English Teaching Association Australia (which is an excellent organisation to be a member of if you aren't already - and no, they didn't pay me to say that!).   You can also view a youtube reading of "Flood" here.   

Free teaching notes for "Alex and the Watermelon Boat" are available here and teacher reviews are available here.

Please leave a comment if you know of any other texts that could be included in this text set, or if you have used any of the books mentioned in this blog post.

Now...next weekend is another huge giveaway of freebies from my friends who participated in the Super Sleuths blog hop last month...mark this in your diaries...my clip art has come and I am so excited about using it...so next weekend...don't miss "The Gift of Reading Blog Hop."

Many thanks