NaPiBoWriWee – Picture Book Challenge

Ever thought you’d like to try your hand at writing picture books for children? You can be sure you aren’t alone. Well, in May you can test the waters during NaPiBoWriWee. For those of you who look at all those letters in total bafflement, NaPiBoWriWee stands for National Picture Book Writing Week. Sponsored by Paula Yoo, NaPiBoWriWee is a challenge to write a picture book a day for 7 days. While you are sweating away at the keyboard, or using the time honored pencil and paper, you will find the camaraderie and support of others taking the same journey. Starting April 1st, Paula Yoo is posting daily words of encouragement, inspirational and informational writings on her blog. So far I’ve found these daily postings to be little gems which I feel I’ll need to go back to again and again to reap their full value. Guest writers offer words of experience and encouragement. Trained as a journalist, Paula Yoo includes many resources for the would-be writer. Even if you don’t participate in this year’s NaPiBoWriWee, I highly recommend that you read her blog posts.

If you are wondering why an already overbooked, overextended school librarian would get herself involved with these sorts of challenges, I’ve made a list of reasons why doing this is a good idea. So here goes:

What school librarians and classroom teachers might get out of trying NaPiBoWriWee:

1. The act of writing a picture book is likely to help one gain insight into the nature of picture books. This may help us think of new ways to introduce picture books to our students.

2. As people who are constantly asking our young charges to write and write meaningfully using correct sentence structure, taking this challenge will put us in the positions our students find themselves day after day. We may be more sympathetic to our students when they are writing.

3. After feeling the pressure of writing on demand and to a schedule, we might find that our writing prompts change in nature. We might find that we become better coaches for our students.

4. Our students will see that we, too, write.

5. Writing 7 books in one week should make us really appreciate the books we have and what went into to their creation.

6. Writing picture books may make us more aware of how the illustrations add to the book.

7. We might find ourselves delighted, transported, inspired and full of joy.

8. We might find that the process is much more difficult than we imagined. This is also good to know.

9. We might bond with each other as we tease out stories we didn’t know were lurking in the recesses of our minds.

10. Some of us harbor dreams of writing a picture book, but never take pen to paper. The doing of it challenges what we thought it would be like. We find out how it is for us.

Hope you will join me. Happy writing!

Can’t turn that librarian brain off

The other day I had a medical appointment. The doctor suggested that I have some blood drawn. So as I put out my arm, I started chatting with the wonderful professional who was taking my blood. Before I knew it we were discussing Captain Underpants and Geronimo Stilton. In the short time we talked, I participated in reader’s advisory, online access instruction and an overall plug for using resources available through the local public library.

Believe it or not, my family thinks it’s funny that I cannot go out in the world without thinking and acting like a librarian.

Just when I thought I was riding the wave

This morning's article on NPR about using mobile phones like cash cards made me realise that I am far from riding the wave. I'm struggling to finding my surf board! The article Bump for Cash: Phones as Virtual Wallets indicates that there are already places doing this. As smart phones become able to perform various functions for us there will be a need to carry less stuff with us. That gives me two thoughts. 1. How much more devastating it will be if misplaced. 2. If they can only pack a lipstick into it....

I recently received an email about the New Mercedes-Benz SCL600 which purportedly has no steering wheel or foot pedals. It is operated by joystick. The idea of driving this car would be quite a jump in thinking for me. Frankly, a car like this would change the driving experience more than bucket seats did in the 70s.  Looking on Snopes this morning I found that this car was actually made as a prototype. There is little danger of having to make the switch in the short term as this car was made 10 years ago. Still, once a technology takes off it isn't long before it is everywhere. The addition of a port to connect mobile music players was a breakthrough a few years ago and now it's a standard feature in cars.

My Phone - the iPhone

After much thinking, researching and drooling, I finally purchased an iPhone. That was about 3 weeks ago. It’s funny. The day I bought it, I really didn’t have time to explore it. In fact, I couldn’t even make a phone call. Each day I’ve learned something new and discovered a new way to make this piece of equipment work for me.


The other day I went to the doctor and had to wait for a lengthy amount of time. Now I can enjoy doing nothing as much as anyone, but I had a great deal of work to do for school, including developing lesson plans. So I sat in the waiting room with my plan book and pencil. I got to the point when I needed to know the state standards to go with the plans. So I whipped out my iPhone, pulled up the DESE page and found the standards I wanted to use. I know that I could have taken notes on the computer, but I’ll freely admit that I wrote them in pencil on the paper. Not a remarkable use of technology, perhaps. However, what was significant was that I was able to use that time to move forward with the tasks I needed to accomplish despite the rearrangement of my schedule. Some people will tell me that it would have been better if I had just relaxed. Getting my work done while waiting gave me the opportunity to relax at home with people I want to relax with. More to the point, I was able to use the time wisely and avoid getting nervous, fidgety or mad.

I'm starting to understand more of what David Weinberger was talking about in Everything is Miscellaneous. (see my post Book Which Changed Everything) The opportunities for interconnectivity and immediacy are exponential.

Newbery Course with KT Horning

I haven't been blogging in the past six weeks. I just finished an online course through ALSC. The course, The Newbery Medal: Past, Present and Future, is led by the indomitable KT Horning. So instead of posting to my blog, I've been reading like crazy and posting to the course discussions.

I have wanted to take this class since I first heard about it. Several times I saw it listed and wanted to sign up so badly I could taste it. Each time the timing was unthinkable. This time I was not feeling much time on my hands. By all reckoning I was as busy as I ever have been. This time when I saw the course offering I thought “If not now, when?” So I signed up and had my mind expanded.

The cast of characters taking the course was rich and varied. The course is well planned out, the content is thoughtful and the experience has been really enlightening for me. Some of my long held beliefs have been shattered and new understanding is awakening in me. I am much richer for the experience. I would recommend this course to anyone with an interest in the Newbery Medal. I understand that the course will be offered again in the summer.

Between reading David Weinberger’s book in January and taking this course this month, my intellect has been stretched in new ways. It will take the rest of the year to digest and implement what I have learned. Meanwhile, I have a stack of books which have been waiting for me to get to them while I've been reading Newberys.

Teens Discuss Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk with two middle school students who had just seen Percy Jackson and the Olympians – The Lightning Thief. Both of these students were enthusiasts of the books. They have both read all the books in the series and the supplementary books. Multiple times. I have heard their fervor in looking forward to the movie. The level of anticipation for this event was extreme. Their attitude after watching it was… how do I say it nicely? Not so enthusiastic.


For a period of time which lasted for longer than the duration of the movie in question, these two intelligent teens deconstructed the film. They quoted specific parts of the book and how the movie reinterpreted the scenes. Well, they did not use those words. They did not always use words I can put in print. The changes in plot, age, hair color, scenery, character, personality and technological advances were all roundly abused. They were especially disparaging of Grover’s lack of Rasta hat and that there was no mention of enchiladas. I played the devil’s advocate and asked why they thought the film makers made the decisions they made. I posed questions of audience, economic considerations, and time factors. They rallied with their own opinions about why certain decisions were made, made assessments about whether the decision could be tolerated or not and ventured to suggest alternative solutions to the problem.

It was bound to happen. When you love a series of books as much as they do you are bound to have issues with any interpretation.

What struck me was how well they were able to perform the tasks outlined in our state standards for ELA (English Language Arts) particularly General Strand 26 – Analysis of Media. (see page 95 of the frameworks) They were doing a thorough job of analyzing media, plot, characterization, visual literacy and numerous other things I haven’t thought of. Too bad their teachers couldn’t hear them in action covering standards which they sometimes fail to come up to on standardized tests.

We are preparing our students with 21st Century Skills to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Standards for the 21st Century Learner were designed to address this. So many of the very things we want our students to accomplish were played out in front of me. I found myself feeling confident that our youth can navigate these waters. In many cases they can do it better than we can, if we will only step out of their way and let them achieve. On their own terms. Which is what we are preparing them for anyway. Let’s face it. We are openly acknowledging that we are preparing today’s students for a world which is changing so rapidly that it does not exist yet. We are preparing them for careers which have not have been thought of yet. That’s what P21 is all about. So they need that independence of mind and the ability to make connections. The challenge is to guide in ways which encourage this type of conversation. I have not mastered this. Not yet. But I have taken up the quest.

When I asked them whether they want to see the next movie in the series, as they assured me there would be one, they both gave an emphatic “Yes”. They are eager to begin the act of analysis and curious to see how the film makers will tackle the challenges they have presented themselves by messing with the story as outlined in the books. Do I have confidence in these youth? A resounding yes and I am just as interested in seeing how they navigate the challenges of their story which will be messed with by the advances in technology which will surely come.

Book Which Changed Everything - Everything is Miscellaneous

I finished reading Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger last week and am still reeling from the paradigm shift it caused in me. Weinberger suggests that many of the ways which we have learned to organize information are imposed upon on by the material nature of physical objects. When letting information loose in a digital atmosphere it is freed of the limitations unleashing an entirely new set of organizational possibilities. To say this book was transformative does not even begin to touch the way in which it challenged my long held, strongly defended, stubbornly clung to beliefs. The possibilities are exhilarating.