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 Sooey - This is my "call" to share books, authors, ideas, lessons and stories gained from my experiences working with children. The "call" is also to ask others to share books, favorite authors, ideas, lessons and stories gained from your experiences with children. =CALLING ALL BOOK HOGS!!=

A little bit about me back in Ohio-

My brother Bob used to call me "Sooey" to bring me to the dinner table."Sooey" is what farmers would say to call the hogs. We lived in Oxford, Ohio where you could ride your bike on farm roads and end up out in Indiana before you knew it. There were farms with hogs to call, horses to ride, and lots of corn, soybeans and grains. My real name is Susan or Susie. I wasn't particularly happy with my nickname at the time Bob gave it to me. I was too sensitive then. Now I like it. My father liked to remind me that pigs and hogs were really smart. They got into the dirt to cool off, not to get dirty.

Thanks to my family of readers I became a lover of books. We had the huge Merriam Webster's Dictionary in the family room, always ready for reference. It had a little light over it attached to a wooden box that I had made in Industrial Arts Class in eighth grade. My father, a physician for Miami U., "read the dictionary" when he was confined to a TB sanitarium for a year.

I went to the William McGuffey Laboratory School of Miami University, from first grade to eighth grade. You may recall the early readers long before "Dick and Jane" called The McGuffey Readers. William McGuffey's statue still stands outside of McGuffey Hall on the Miami University campus. In the summer I would ride my three speed, "Robin Hood," english bike to a library and fill up my bicycle baskets, one on either side of the back tire, with books. I would bring home books to read during the time when I wasn't swimming or horseback riding.

I would like to start writing about the books, authors, storytellers, lessons and other connections that I use with students at school. I learn from reading other librarians blogs and hope that others will learn from me. I would like this wiki to be a place where others will share too.

= **__Scaredy Squirrel makes a friend__** by Melanie Watt= This is one of Melanie Watt's newer Scaredy Squirrel books. I highly recommend getting the series for any younger elementary school or public library.The KG's enjoyed Scaredy Squirrel today. It is fun to laugh at the way Scaredy Squirrel makes elaborate plans to combat fears that he doesn't need to have. He is a squirrel who lives in an oak tree. Two of his biggest fears are walruses and piranhas. We laughed when we could visualize that a walrus or piranha would not be able to harm Scaredy. Our school counselor uses the adjoining room to the library. She too enjoyed the humor and reassurance that results with Melanie Watt's Scaredy Squirrel books. One kindergartener today listened to the story from underneath a table. He is having a very hard time coping with the separating of his mother and father. One of our 2nd grade teachers uses the organization in the Scaredy Squirrel books with her students as a stepping off point for developing their writing. Scaredy uses details, that's for sure!

=Cynthia Rylant wrote a book called __Gooseberry Park__ in 1998.= =I hadn't heard of it or read it until a second grade teacher in my school read it to her class a few years ago. She asked me if we had a copy of it in the library. She told me how much the children loved it, so naturally I had to search for a copy. __Gooseberry Park__ is a terrific animal fantasy! I think that this book would become a great movie! Thank you, Kathy, for sharing. Now I am sharing. I've shared it with another 2nd grade teacher and can't wait to hear from her students.= I've been thinking about what makes a great book for children. A great book for children leaves pictures in my brain. I see and hear the characters and want my students to as well when I read aloud. A good measure of a book is that you don't want it to end. I'd like to hear more from those characters. I don't think that we will here more from the characters in __Gooseberry Park__ because I have never heard of an author going back to a book written over 10 years ago and then writing a sequel. But, you never know. Thankfully, Cynthia Rylant is prolific. I just read __Every Living Thing__ Stories by Cynthia Rylant. These stories are varied and powerful. The two stories that stayed with me are Slower Than the Rest and A Bad Road for Cats. __The Van Gogh Cafe__ created a different kind of fantasy. The pattern or device used in __The Van Gogh Cafe__ is interesting but not as satisfying for me as __Gooseberry Park__ or her the picture book, __The Old Woman Who Named Things__. I am going to reread T__he Van Gogh Cafe__. The audience for that book is older than that of __Gooseberry Park.__



= = Today I read William Steig's **Doctor DeSoto** __to Kindergartners.

They listened intently and felt satisfied at the ingeniously planned, funny conclusion. I love to talk like I imagine the outfoxed fox would talk "Thank you very much" said with your lips sealed. Everyone starts trying it out afterwards!! I heard a student named James say, "That was a really good book!"__ = =

= =

=Betty Birney - World, Friendship,Trouble and Surprises According to Humphrey= Last year one of the students in my school won the Betty Birney art contest grand prize!!!!! That meant that Betty Birney came to our school and our school library. Read her books aloud! http://www.bettybirney.com Humphrey, the golden hamster, will win you over in a hurry. The Humphrey books go out with 3rd graders all the time. Betty's editor sent me an advanced copy of Adventure According to Humphrey. I will be buying the new Humphrey for our collection. I am easily pleased. Last Sunday I saw my first green frog at the stream behind my house. I work on that stream to give animals a source of water and to give me a source of satisfaction and wonder. This Sunday I heard my first green frog "song." When I see or hear the green frogs, I think of the Betty Birney's Humphrey,the hamster and his friend, the green frog, named Og. This morning I followed the frog sounds and found the green frog, with bulging, yellow ringed eyes, stared at me from across the stream.
 * Green frog**


 * GREEN FROG TADPOLES - MY STREAM IS TEEMING WITH TADPOLES AND I CAN SEE THE FLORESCENT GREEN MOUTH DEVELOPING ON SOME OF THE LARGER ONES. (July 28, 2009)**

=Priscilla Howe= I feel like I talked to Priscilla Howe yesterday. Instead it was an e mail in return from mine. If you come across this wiki and you haven't become familiar with Storyteller Priscilla Howe yet, it is time you do. I got to know Priscilla because of my cousin Molly Rardin Tee who designs houses. Molly designed a house out in Kansas for Priscilla's sister. Molly sent me Priscilla's CD's, __The Ghost With One Black Eye__ and __Chickens__. After I heard the CD's I talked to Priscilla over the phone and I knew that I had to have her come to my school library. I used book money to bring her. Teachers and students did not want to get up and leave when her grade level presentations were over. I'm very lucky to be able to call Priscilla my friend. Go to Priscilla's website to hear her tell a sampling of stories. She is definitely not just for kids!!! http://www.priscillahowe.com //The// Ghost With One Black Eye told by Priscilla might get published in book form soon. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

=**Daniel Kirk visited the Cliffwood Library.** **__Dogs Rule__** **and** **__Cat Power__ are never in the library!**= Daniel is an excellent author/illustrator/musician/poet to have come to your school. He reaches all age groups too. I have some great pictures of his visit that I can share. Daniel took with him an acorn hat that all of the students who had won the __Library Mouse__ writing contest wore at the author visit luncheon. Thanks to our art teacher and one of our math teachers the acorn hats materialized. If you don't know Daniel Kirk's work it is well worth the effort to become acquainted. KG's groaned when I read the title of Daniel Kirk's __Humpty Dumpty__. It was the beginning of spring and KG's are thinking that Mother Goose is babyish. It's not when Daniel Kirk handles the subject. By the time I had finished reading it they were applauding. I am eager to read the first in a trilogy Daniel is writing for older children called __Elf Realm__. http://www.danielkirk.com

May 20, 2009 **Read aloud practice**

I got to read a chapter from __Gooseberry Park t__o the 2nd grade class hearing the story on my recommendation to their teacher. I asked the class if they had gotten to the part where a character enters who flies and uses echolocation.. Oh yes, they had and the bat's name is Murray. His name fits his character. Each student was eager to hear more and seemed to ponder every word. I hated to put the book down but the Dare officer had arrived. //I think that a major movie studio could make a fabulous movie out of Gooseberry Park.//

I've been having fun with a new book **Help Me, Mr. Mutt!** by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel. Mr. Mutt is a canine counselor for dogs who have people problems. Mr. Mutt can't keep himself from making disparaging remarks about cats when answering his letters to distressed dogs. That brings on a pink page with a retort from "The Queen," a gray and white cat wearing a tiara. This is a book that is especially good for older elementary students to hear examples of writing from a specific point of view. Some 1st graders were getting the plays on words and the wacky reasoning in character for a dog or a cat.


 * __DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE?__

A LOT OF LIBRARIAN BLOGS ABOUT BOOKS CONCENTRATE ON NEW BOOKS. I'D LIKE TO MAKE THIS SPOT A PLACE FOR NEW AND** **OLD.**


 * Susan**

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