It is one of those moments where you realize you’ve lost something precious. You know the moment. Shoulders shrugging. Eyes remembering. Breathless.

Enter the bear. The bear who lost something precious.

The bear who lost his hat is at once endearing.
The bear whose emotional gesture does not change.

Does not change that is until his epiphany, “I HAVE SEEN MY HAT.”

At which point he runs.
Runs to his treasured hat.

But this is not your typical illustrated story.
This tale is a tale with a twist.
A smart, thought provoking, hat-wearing twist.

The 2012 Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor book, I Want My Hat Back is a must read for children and grown ups too, but especially for wearers of hats.

And, when you are ready for the next hat book, you will want to read 2013 Caldecott Winner, This is Not My Hat, about a hat steeling fish.

And when you have completed these two enchanting hat books, you will have to wait for fall, when the trilogy is to be completed.

~Kimberly

Sent from my iPad

So here’s what Karen Hesse knew to be true:

Once upon a time, in the summer of 1768, Captain James Cook sailed from England on H.M.S Endeavour, beginning a three-year voyage around the world on a secret mission to discover an unknown continent at the bottom of the globe. What is less known is that a boy by the name of Nicholas Young was a real live stowaway on that ship. Yep, eleven year old Nicholas Young really did stow away on Captain Cook’s voyage around the world! And what did Captain Cook do when he discovered the stowaway? Well, he commissioned Nick into the Royal Navy, made him assistant to the ship’s surgeon aboard the Endeavour. And, as if this is not enough, Nick was the first person on Captain Cook’s ship to spot New Zealand and later explored Antarctica.

Karen Hesse took this little bundle of history and spun a fictional journal filled with hurricanes, warring natives, and disease, as Nick discovers new lands, incredible creatures, and lifelong friends.

Be adventurous: read Stowaway!

~Kimberly

During the summer of 1768, Captain James Cook sailed from England on H.M.S Endeavor’s first voyage to explore the little known southern hemisphere. Eleven-year-old Nicholas Young was a stowaway on this voyage. True story.

Karen Hesse invites us to delve into this pocket of history alongside the stowaway and experience the astonishing adventure alongside Nick.

After reading, encourage your students to recreate the adventure in a meaningful and lasting way. Section 5 in our Literature and Writing Discovery Guide will present opportunities to move beyond mapping out the story details to identify the impact the story had on the heart.

My youngest son, Søren, spent significant time and effort researching the ship itself and committing his personal reflections to marks burned on wood. Creativity tied to a great story helps the reader retain and apply in ways where the essay falls short.

Captain Cook reminds us sky’s the limit, “Do just once what others say you can’t do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.”

~Kimberly

Every time you finish reading a book, think tinker.

The word “tinker” comes from the middle English referring to people who engaged in the work of patching worn tin kettles. When I was young, tinkering was a crude, quick fix of any object regardless of the medium, be it tin, wood, brick, or fabric. My great-grandpa Ted was a tinker. I loved exploring the bits and bobble in his shop, creating assemblages of junk while he merrily tinkered. Back then tinkering was not considered an art form, it was something more akin to the household junk drawer. When I was young, tinkering was pretty much DIY before the acronym came to be.

Fast forward, I LOVE how the growing maker movement has brought a deeper meaning to this wonderful word. Nowadays, “to tinker” is recognized (rightfully so) as a significant step in the process of making, in the process of bringing shape to ideas.

What better way to deeply integrate and apply knowledge gleaned from great stories than to thinker an idea to shape?

So how to begin?

Think shoebox. Think wire. Buttons. Tags. Cork. Think ric rac and ribbon. Paint Glue. Hooks and chain. Clothespins and pompoms.

Think junk drawer and you are moving in the right direction for a tinker project.

So the next time your child reads a book, when it’s time for Section 5, download a planning sheet and think tinker time!

-Kim

Characters do things. They feel things. They hear things.
They say things. They think things. They go places. They can walk, run, leap,
and jump. They may sit and rock in a rocking chair. They may just lie in bed,
sleep, and dream. But the important thing is that characters act. And it is
precisely these actions that show us just what kind of imaginary people characters
are—friendly, sad, nosey, happy, confused, angry, or inventive. And we need to
know because something always happens in great stories. Character determines
the outcome.

Earlier this month, my son Søren sat on the couch chuckling
to himself, turning the pages of an old favorite. It’s Lewis Carroll
re-imagined. Christopher Myers keeps the text the same but re-imagines the
beast as a basketball-playing-Jabberwocky. And the protagonist? Well, he
becomes a small boy with basketball-shaped-stars in his eyes.

What fascinated me about the scene was what happened when
the book was closed. My son smiled, got off the couch to rummage around the art
cabinet for paper, scissors, and tape. Silently he concentrated, cutting shapes
and connecting them until the characters emerged. Then he swept up the scraps,
set his characters to hold the gesture, and walked away from the table without
a word.

I know what he was up to. This was literary analysis at its
best. Carroll’s Jabberwocky is a larger than life, but there is no doubt that the
storm of neologism and nonsense qualifies it as a very difficult read. To most,
Søren’s hive of post reading activity might be deemed at best a responsive
craft. But Søren was actually deep in thought. This post-reading activity was
uniquely contemplative, was Søren’s way of unpacking Lewis Carroll’s poem and
the consequent reimagining of Christopher Myer.

And I know where Søren’s pondering will lead. It will lead
to an idea. Sometimes we begin with a study of someone else’s idea to incubate
an original idea of our own. So it might not be this week, maybe not even next,
but I’m sure Lewis Carroll and Christopher Meyer offered fodder that has been
sufficiently tucked away in the mind of my son.

~Kimberly