Celebrating Books
By Sandy Meagher

No, it's not Halloween – it's Children's Book Week! First grade teacher Carrie Meagher and her husband Matt dressed as characters from Patricia Polacco's book My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother.

November is an exciting time for librarians. This chilly month brings Children's Book Week – the perfect time to plan author visits, literary webquests and other ways to spread a love of reading! I hope you'll find a few good Book Week ideas here.

Acting it out
Fourth grade reading specialist Dr. Janet Weeks has had great success with "readers theater" scripts. An excellent source for these scripts is www.readinglady.com. Works by many favorite authors, such as Kevin Henkes and Dav Pilkey, are available. Try some on the school announcement system to whet the students' appetites.

Literary web-crawling
I know middle grade teachers who use web-quests to explore books and authors. You'll find great webquests at eduscapes.com. Included are the Wright brothers; this December is the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' flight. A wonderful book to go along with flight is Joe-Joe's First Flight by Natasha Tarpley (Knopf, 2003, ISBN: 0-375-81053-6). The story gives insight into how segregation affected African-Americans and flight during the 1920s.

Student sleuths
Another webquest at the above site is "Hoosier Town Water Mystery," in which students solve a case about water pollution. Consider a mystery-themed Book Week that includes the popular Cam Jansen books. In Cam Jansen and the First Day of School Mystery by David Adler (Viking, 2002, ISBN: 0-670-03575-0), Cam figures out who stole her teacher's car before the police do.

Reading in-depth
Reading all of a single author's works is another way to celebrate Book Week. Patricia Polacco continues to inspire readers of all ages. Check www.patriciapolacco.com and www.teachervision.fen.com for Polacco-related projects. First grade teacher Carrie Meagher and her husband Matt dressed as the characters and performed Polacco's My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother (Aladdin, 1998, ISBN: 0-689-82036-4). The students identified with the theme of sibling rivalry combined with love.

Rhythm and rhyme
Don't forget poetry! During Book Week, our fourth graders knock on classroom doors and recite a poem they've memorized. Try Almost Late to School by Carol Shields (Dutton, 2003, ISBN: 0-525-45743-7), a book of school-related verses.

Students love to know what books the staff likes. We put our physical education teacher's photo on display, along with his favorite books, which seemed to be anything about basketball. As a result, the kids began reading every basketball book we had! Check out Hoop Queens, poems by Charles Smith, Jr. (Candlewick, 2003, ISBN: 0-763-61422-X). Each poem is about a famous female basketball player. The rhythm is great for choral reading.

Series, please
Our After-School Reading Club uses leveled readers such as the "Green Light Readers" from Harcourt. Some of the titles are Shoe Town, Animals on the Go, Why the Frog Has Big Eyes and A Bed Full of Cats.

Another outstanding series is "Let's Read Together," from Kane Press. Each book includes activities. For example, Lucky Duck by Barbara deRubertis (2002, ISBN: 1-575-65004-5), emphasizes short vowels; activities include retelling the story with puppets.

Sandy Meagher is the Library Department Chairperson and School Librarian in the Wayne Highlands School District, Honesdale, PA.

November/December, 2003, Vol.34, No.3