Resources for Asian Pacific Heritage Month 2008

BOOK LISTS

From New York Public Library's On-Lion for Kids : Recommended books divided into the following categories: Folk and Fairy Tales, Non-Fiction, Poetry and Song, Stories for Older Readers, and Stories for Younger ReadersAn Annotated Bibliography of Books about South Asia and The South Asia Diaspora from Pooja Makhijani

From Scholastic’s Teacher Website: The Asian Pacific American Heritage main page includes links to author interviews with Allen Say, Ken Mochizuki, Greg Tang, and Ed Young, and to a related booklist.

At the Website of the National Education Association: In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month NEA's Read Across America has made available a bilingual reading list of books for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The NEA's Asian American Booklist includes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry titles divided by grade level categories: Grades K-4, Grades, 5-8, and Grades 9 and Up.


From the Public Libraries of Arlington, Virginia

Asian Pacific Heritage Month: Books for Young Readers

Asian Pacific Heritage Month: Books for Teens


From Cynthia Leitich Smith

Chinese and Chinese Americans in Children’s and YA Books

Korean and Korean Americans in Children’s and YA Books

Japanese and Japanese Americans in Children’s and YA Books


OTHER RESOURCES

From Smithsonian Education: Asian Pacific Heritage Month Teaching Resources

Three Articles by Grace Lin

Why Couldn’t Snow White Be Chinese: Finding Identity Through Children’s Books

Don’t Judge a Book by Its Character (even if it is Chinese): Why I Wrote “The Year of the Dog”

The Extra Adjective: How I Came to Terms with Being a Multicultural Author

Poetry and Science, Part I

I spent more than thirty years teaching in an elementary school. Elementary educators give instruction in all subjects. It’s not an easy job--at least not if you want to do it well. I was always on the lookout for quality children’s books that could be used across the curriculum. I especially loved connecting science and poetry.

Today, I have recommendations for several poetry books about animals that also include factual information about such things as animal camouflage, the life cycle of toads and monarch butterflies, insects, and different kinds of animals that inhabit meadows and ponds.

WHERE IN THE WILD?:
CAMOUFLAGED CREATURES CONCEALED…AND REVEALED
Written by David M. Schwartz
Photos by Dwight Kuhn
Tricycle Press, 2007
(Dewey Classification: 590)

Where in the Wild? is an excellent example of a combination science/poetry book. It includes poems and a few prose paragraphs with information about ten animals that can blend in with their surroundings--animals that are “hidden in plain sight.” The animals written about are the coyote, gray tree frog, fawns, weasels, moths, killdeer eggs, crab spiders, flounders, green snakes, and red-spotted newts.

The section on each animal includes a poem on the left-hand page and a photograph on the right-hand page--a photograph in which the camouflaged animal is difficult to spot. Readers can lift the photograph to find the hidden animal and read some interesting facts about it.

Here are excerpts from the poem and the informational prose taken from the section on the weasel.

From Silent and Still

I’m silent and still, till I leap out and pounce.
Even prey twice my size I can easily trounce.
To feast on a rabbit, a rat, or a mole,
I stalk it, then capture it deep in its hole.

"Some weasels have different wardrobes for summer and winter. As days grow short and brisk in northern areas, the short-tailed weasel, or ermine, trades its chocolate brown coat for white."

Where in the Wild? contains a nice variety of poems--including a haiku and two shape poems. Schwartz’s prose is clear and concise, and Kuhn’s photographs are exceptional. This book is a terrific package of poetry, prose, and photography--and would make an excellent classroom resource!

Check out Poetry in Non-fiction, a post written by David Schwartz for I.N.K.

HEY THERE, STINK BUG!
Written by Leslie Bulion
Illustrated by Leslie Evans
Charlesbridge, 2006
(Dewey Classification: 595.7)

Hey There, Stink Bug! is a nonfiction poetry book that is sure to appeal to children. The book contains nineteen poems about a variety of insects and spiders--including the stink bug, aphid, Japanese beetle, dung beetle, and fireflies. It also has information about the “little” creatures written about in the poems. Many of the book’s poems are rhythmic and rhyming. A number of the poems also include a touch of humor--as does The Hot Shot.

The Hot Shot

Bombardier bombardier bombardier beetle,
slow on the wing but thinks fast on its feetle.
Blasting poor predators into retreatle,
with boiling hot acid it aims from its seatle.

Excerpt from the prose paragraphs about the bombardier beetle: "When an enemy bothers a bombardier beetle, two chemicals mix inside the beetle and explode with a pop into acid spray."

Bulion has written her poems in a number of different poetic forms that include haiku, limerick, cinquain, kyrielle, and a Shakespearean sonnet. In addition to being a poetry book that could be used across the curriculum in science--it would also be a great resource for introducing children to different types of poetry.

The back matter of the book includes a glossary, a list of Web and book resources, and a section called Poetry Notes. In Poetry Notes, Bulion provides information about the types of poems she wrote for this book.

Here are links to my reviews of other poetry books that also include information about different kinds of animals:

The Monarch’s Progress: Poems with Wings and Butterflies Fly

Toad by the Road: A Year in the Life of These Amazing Amphibians

Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems and Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow

Just Us Two: Poems about Animal Dads

An Old Shell: Poems of the Galapagos

Marsh Music, Frogs Sing Songs, and Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs

Anastasia Suen has the Nonfiction Monday Roundup at Picture Book of the Day.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner...and Win a Prize!

The PAS North Shore Council of IRA will hold its 2008 spring dinner meeting on May 21st at the beautiful Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead, Massachusetts. The yacht club has a fantastic view of Marblehead Harbor and the open ocean. The guest speaker for our event is an award-winning children’s poet whose first poetry book was published in 1994. This poet is also the author of several popular picture books and two works of fiction. I met our guest speaker about seven years ago at a Children’s Literature Institute at Simmons College in Boston. She is a dynamic speaker! I can’t wait to see her again--and to hear her presentation in May.


Can you guess who’s coming to our council dinner?
If you think you know the answer, email me the name of the author and the title of her first published poetry collection. Send your email to: edotdrabik@yahoodotcom. The first person to name our featured speaker and to also give the title of the book is invited to be my guest at the Corinthian Yacht Club on May 21st. If the winner cannot attend the meeting, I will send her/him a children’s book signed by the author.

NOTE: Individuals who are members of the PAS North Shore Council or who are on our council mailing list are disqualified because they already know the name of our guest speaker.


2008 Spring Dinner Meeting of the PAS North Shore Council of IRA
Date: May 21, 2008
Time: Five O’clock
Place: Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead, Massachusetts
Dinner fee for non-members: $52
Dinner choices: Chicken Marsala or Baked Stuffed Haddock
Guest speaker: Can you guess?
Deadline for registration is May 9th. For further information, email me.

Why Nobody Pets the Lion at the Zoo: A Poem by John Ciardi

My elementary students enjoyed the humorous poetry of John Ciardi. One of their favorite books was Ciardi's You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You, which was first published in 1962. Fortunately, the book is still in print today. This poetry collection has two tables of contents--one printed in black and one printed in blue--that come with the following directions: All the poems printed in black, you read to me. All the poems printed in blue, I’ll read to you.

I had several copies of You Read to Me, I'll Read to You in my classroom. Sometimes my students liked to sit with each other and share the poems. Sometimes they took the book home to read with their parents.

My students also liked two other poetry books written by John Ciardi: You Know Who (1964) and The Man Who Sang the Sillies (1961). All three books were illustrated by Edward Gorey.

Here is a poem from The Reason for the Pelican, another children's poetry book written by John Ciardi:

Why Nobody Pets the Lion at the Zoo
by John Ciardi

The morning that the world began
The Lion growled a growl at Man.

And I suspect the Lion might
(If he’d been closer) have tried a bite.

I think that’s as it ought to be
And not as it was taught to me.

I think the Lion has a right
To growl a growl and bite a bite.

And if the Lion bothered Adam,
He should have growled right back at ’im.

The way to treat a Lion right
Is growl for growl and bite for bite.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

At Blue Rose Girls, I have Consolation, a poem written by Wislawa Szymborska.

Kelly has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Big A, little a.

Final Days of National Poetry Month: And the Winners Are...

National Poetry Month has come to a close. Let’s hope the sharing of poetry with children at home and in the classroom continues on throughout the year!

This morning I did the final drawing to see who won two fine children's poetry books from Wild Rose Reader.

And Today’s Winners Are…

Jone of Check It Out and Charlotte of Charlotte’s Library.

Jone won The Llama Who Had No Pajama by Mary Ann Hoberman.

Charlotte won In for Winter, Out for Spring by Arnold Adoff.

Note to Jone and Charlotte: Please email me your addresses so I can send you your poetry prizes.