Five on Friday

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Enter to win a copy of this book by leaving a comment on this post.

Enter to win a copy of this book by leaving a comment on this post.

1)  Mother’s Day is approaching. The only gift I need that day is to spend it with my family.  However, children are usually in search of the perfect item to give.  One way to help kids understand it doesn’t take something grand to satisfy their mom is by sharing a story.  Enter A Gift for Mama, a new book written by Linda Ravin Lodding and illustrated by Allison Jay.  

A Gift for Mama is one of my daughter’s favorite titles.  The illustrations are exquisite and unique.  They draw you into the world of the story, which is set in the Vienna in the late 1800’s, and make you want to stay. 

Click on the image to enlarge. Interior illustration copyright (C) 2014 by Alison Jay.

Click on the image to enlarge. Interior illustration copyright (C) 2014 by Alison Jay.

But it’s not just the illustrations that draw you into this tale, it’s also the writing. “Economy of words” is a phrase I heard over and over again at SCBWI. This means every word is working to tell the story succinctly.  The words describe precisely. Nothing in the text is superfluous. This is the case with A Gift for Mama. While it’s not a short picture book, every word does its job to envelop the reader in young Oskar’s world as he goes on a quest in search of the perfect birthday gift for his mother.

2)  Tracy Mercier’s “The Hot Seat” is an article about an an idea she adapted from Jeffrey Wilhelm. In essence, one student plays the role of a character from a book or a time period the class is studying.  The rest of the students ask the person in the hot seat questions, which encourages them to think critically about whatever they’re learning. It’s an interactive way to deepen content area learning and a way to engage students with characters from read aloud books.  Click here to learn more about it.

Mapping-out the climax of a story.

Mapping-out the climax of a story.

3)  I’m a left-brained person who is constantly trying to make the right side of my brain work a bit harder. Recently, my husband caught me mapping out the manuscript I’m revising in Grids & Guides: A Notebook for Visual Thinkers.  “Are you drawing?” he asked (perplexed). Kinda. I told him I was pushing myself to story board the climax of my picture book manuscript as a way to help me think it through in another way.  I’m finding Grids & Guides is an effective way to push me as a writer since it helps me envision my writing away from the computer screen.

4)  It’s graduation season, which means the advice is going to start flowing.  Flavorwire has advice for graduating seniors from 30 different writers.  Read through it, find some wisdom, then share it with the graduate in your life!
5)  The New York Times celebrated the last week of National Poetry Month with a multimedia Blackout Poetry feature.  Essentially readers were given the opportunity to blackout all but 15 words from a recent NYT article for the purpose of creating a poem.  I had a go with one the other night.  (It was a so-so attempt!)
I tinkered and tinkered and this is all I could come up with. It's about the process, right? ;)

I tinkered and tinkered and this is all I could come up with. It’s about the process, right? 😉

Click here to give The New York Times’ Blackout Poetry feature a try.
On a related note, check out Dana’s Erasure Poetry post, which is quite similar.
THE GOOD LIFE BLOG

My posting day in May and June is on Fridays so I’ll be taking using a few of my Fridays to participate in the “Five on Friday” Challenge.

 

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION:

  • This giveaway is for a copy of A Gift for Mama. Many thanks to Random House Kids for sponsoring this giveaway.
  • For a chance to win this copy of A Gift for Mama please leave a comment about this post by Sunday, May 11th at 11:59 p.m. EDT. The following day I’ll use a random number generator to pick the winner whose name I will announce at the bottom of this post by Monday, May 12th.
  • Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment, so I can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win.  From there, my contact at Random House Kids will ship the book out to you.  (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field.)

Comments are now closed. Thanks to everyone who left a comment.  Jen B.’s commenter number was selected so she’ll win a copy of A Gift for Mama.  Here’s what she said:

It sounds so sweet! I would love to have a copy of this one!! And I LOVE the Five on Friday idea — might have to try that out!

Category : giveaway, graphic organizer, responsive classroom, writer's notebook, writing
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