August 2015 – Booktalking #kidlit

Fab Four Friends: The Boys Who Became the Beatles

Fab Four Friends: The Boys Who Became the Beatles
by Susanna Reich (Author) and Adam Gustavson (Illustrator)

Booktalk: In 1957 in Liverpool, England, a young lad named John Lennon and his band played music at a local church fair. In the audience was Paul McCartney, who liked what he heard and soon joined the group. Paul’s friend George Harrison kept showing up at rehearsals until the older boys finally let him in. Eventually they found the perfect drummer, Ringo Starr, and the perfect name: The Beatles. Four ordinary boys growing up amid the rubble of postwar England found music to be a powerful, even life-saving, force and became the bestselling band in history.

Snippet: John attacked the guitar, strumming as fast as he could. He didn’t give a fig about wrong notes. With some of his mates, he organized a skiffle group called the Quarrymen, pounding out souped-up folk songs and some rock and ‘n’ roll. They had no idea how to play, but they loved making noise–lots of noise! Rehearsing in Mum’s bathroom, the sound bounced off the tiles. Bam, BOOM, bam, BOOM!

Listen to the The Quarrymen sing Buddy Holly’s song, “That’ll Be The Day” on July 14th, 1958.

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Blog Tour for Fab Four Friends: The Boys Who Became the Beatles

Monday, August 17 Booktalking

Tuesday, August 18 Shelf-Employed

Wednesday, August 19 UnleashingReaders.com

Thursday, August 20 Elizabeth Dulemba

Friday, August 21 Maurice on Books

Tuesday, August 25 Kidsbiographer’s Blog

Wednesday, August 26 Gail Gauthier

Thursday, August 27 Tales from the Rushmore Kid

Friday, August 28 Alphabet Soup

Visit each blog tour stop!

Indy Cars

Indy Cars
by Kate Riggs (Author)

Booktalk: A kindergarten-level introduction to Indy cars, covering their speed, drivers, role in racing sports, and such defining features as their wings.

Snippet: Indy cars are fast cars.
They race on oval tracks. They race on roads.

Play the Hot Wheels Pit Race Off Take game online.

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Get Drawing!

Get Drawing! (Dream It, Do It!)
by Charlotte Guillain (Author)

Booktalk: Stop dreaming about becoming an artist—and take steps to make your dream come true! These helpful tips for finding inspiration, keeping a sketchbook, and always thinking creatively will help you open your own gallery in no time!

Snippet: Ideas come when you don’t expect them. Carry a sketchpad with you and keep all of your drawing and doodles. You could also cut out any pictures that you like in magazines and stick them in your sketchbook.

Use the tips at the end of the book to stage your own gallery show!

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Understanding Credit

Understanding Credit (Searchlight Books–How Do We Use Money?)
by Carla Mooney (Author)

Booktalk: It is easy to spend money when you have a credit card or a loan. But it is also easy to spend or borrow more than you can afford. How can you use credit responsibly? How can you avoid going into debt? Read this book to understand how credit works.

Snippet: A credit card lets you use debt to pay for something. When you use a credit card, you borrow money from a credit card company. You must pay back this money. Credit card companies also charge interest. Interest increases over time. The longer you take to pay back the money, the more you must pay.

It’s back to school shopping time–a teachable moment for a lesson on spending and credit! Try the Take the Spending Challenge and play a game to see how paying with cash or credit affects how much you owe.

Carla is one of my former students!

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Ed Emberley

Ed Emberley
by Todd Oldham (Author), Caleb Neelon (Author), and Ed Emberley (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Ed Emberley is a Caldecott award-winning children’s book illustrator and writer who has been creating original books since the 1960s. He has written and illustrated more than 100 books. Contemporary working artists today often cite Ed Emberley as a beloved early inspiration in their development as artists. By encouraging kids to draw using just a few simple shapes, Emberley has made drawing and creating accessible to everyone.

Snippet:
Early Work
As Ed Emberley began his children’s bookmaking career in the 1960s, he had a young family and a new home to support. He found that working in several different styles of drawing (and soon after, printmaking) would allow him the freedom to work on enough book projects to make ends meet. He quickly realized that this variety of style was a key part of who he was as an artist and not simply an approach to launching a career.

Try it yourself! Make art in these different styles…