Listen, Slowly (Thanhha Lai)

Title: Listen, Slowly

Author: Thanhha Lai

Target Age: 8 and up

Awards: New York Times Book Review Notable Book and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

Publisher Summary:  “A California girl born and raised, Mai can’t wait to spend her vacation at the beach. Instead, she has to travel to Vietnam with her grandmother, who is going back to find out what really happened to her husband during the Vietnam War. Mai’s parents think this trip will be a great opportunity for their out-of-touch daughter to learn more about her culture. But to Mai, those are their roots, not her own. Vietnam is hot, smelly, and the last place she wants to be. Besides barely speaking the language, she doesn’t know the geography, the local customs, or even her distant relatives. To survive her trip, Mai must find a balance between her two completely different worlds.”

Evaluation: Listen, Slowly is a profound story celebrating family, cultural diversity, and friendship. I listened to it via audio book on Hoopla, a free service through my public library.

Listening to multi-cultural audio books adds an extra layer to the storytelling.  For instance, most of the story takes place in Viet Nam. There are many words and sentences in Vietnamese. If I were reading the text, I would have glossed over them. Hearing the language being spoken though made it much more immersive. The storyteller does an excellent job changing her voice for the various characters, adding to an already engaging story.

Lai has created a memorable cast of characters.  Unlike many middle grade stories, adults—both family and friends—have a vital role. The Viet Nam setting provides an excellent contrast to the Western world.  I enjoyed learning about life there. 

There are several motifs to consider and to discuss.

• Family:  The heart of the novel is family—immediate, extended, and cultural.  They are so much part of Mai’s life that at times she is longing for her own personal space. 
• Teen Crushes:  Mai has a huge crush on “him,” a boy she has barely spoken to.  At first, she is so consumed with spending the summer at the beach—hopefully, getting to know “him”—that she has a negative attitude about going to Viet Nam for 6 weeks.
• Love:  Ba, Mai’s grandmother, is the reason for the trip.  Her husband went missing in action during the war.  She goes back to her homeland in search of answers. Ba shares stories of their courtship and love.
• War: Growing up, Mai always heard the stories of her parents fleeing during the war, but they did not have any real meaning to her life. Spending time in Viet Nam with Ba and the people in her home village allows her to begin to understand the significance and impact of the war on her family. Some details about the war are relayed, but it is all age-appropriate.
• Life/Death:  Ba comes to terms with her husband’s death and learns to let go.  She teaches Mai to cherish life and all the moments people tend to take for granted.
• Identity:  Mai has always identified with her American culture.  During her stay, she gains a connection with her Vietnamese heritage, even learning the language and appreciating the customs. 
• Friendship:  There is a sharp contrast between her best friend, Montana, in America and the friendships she begins to develop in Viet Nam. 
• Cross-Cultural: Riding mopeds through Saigon, washing each others hair monthly to protect from lice, gathering as a community of women to learn how to stitch, taking long naps in the afternoon, learning a new language, and eating big feasts with the entire village are just a few events Mai experiences.  

Through all of these areas, Mai goes through transformations of varying degrees.  Ultimately, she learns to appreciate her bi-cultural heritage and her family. 

Activities and Extension Ideas for Lesson Plans:

• Compare and contrast suburban America with modern-day Viet Nam.
• Have a Vietnamese feast.
• Create a PowerPoint of pictures from modern-day Viet Nam.
• Bring in a speaker who lived in Viet Nam to share his/her experiences.
• Research the Viet Nam War.
• Practice some greetings or basic words in Vietnamese.
• Visit LibrisNotes for an excellent discussion of the novel.

Visit Ramblings of a Wanna Be Scribe for more Marvelous Middle Grade Monday novels. 

Nature Recycles: How About You? (Michelle Lord)

Title:  Nature Recycles:  How About You?

Author:  Michelle Lord

Illustrator:  Cathy Morrison

Target Ages:  4-8

First Lines: “The decorator sea urchin lives in the Atlantic Ocean.  The water is warm, but he covers up. Urchin wears colorful algae, rocks, and coral.  He wears ocean refuse like old oyster shells.”

Publisher Summary: “From sea urchins in the Atlantic Ocean to bandicoots on the Australian savanna, animals all over the world recycle. Explore how different animals in different habitats use recycled material to build homes, protect themselves and get food. This fascinating collection of animal facts will teach readers about the importance of recycling and inspire them to take part in protecting and conserving the environment by recycling in their own way.”

Evaluation: Nature Recycles:  How About You? presents the idea of recycling in a fresh and natural approach.  I never thought about the normal activities of the animals highlighted, like the woodpecker finch, octopus, caddisfly larva, and poison dart frog, as recycling.  In interesting ways, they recycle and reuse items left behind by plants and creatures, often in highly creative ways. Readers get the sense of the circle of life as one living thing’s trash becomes a treasure for another. 

The author keeps the idea of recycling at the forefront.  After a description of each creatures’ activities, she states:

(The creatures) recycle.

How about you?

This question opens up an opportunity to discuss ways people can improve their recycling and reusing practices.  An outstanding supplement book that provides extra information is Where Do Garbage Trucks Go? And Other Questions about Trash and Recycling (Benjamin Richmond). Thirteen common questions are answered about areas, such as why trash smells, what makes some garbage dangerous, and what is a recycling plant. 

Cathy Morrison does a beautiful job on the illustrations in Nature Recycles:  How About You?  Different habitats are shown, such as the ocean, desert, river, savannah, and forest. Each habitat is depicted in vivid detail, providing an opportunity to discuss the subject further. 

Emerging readers will easily understand this straight forward text as it is being read aloud. There are several examples of onomatopoeia related to animals sounds that children can mimic. Beginning readers can decode it with minimal adult help or independently.

The book finishes off with 4-pages of extension ideas and activities.  However, there is much, much more provided FREE at the Arbordale website for each of their titles. 

For years, I have been a huge fan of Arbordale’s materials. If I were home educating small children, I would not even buy a science curriculum. Arbordale (Sylvan Dell) has everything you need to teach science in a more engaging way than most science curriculums. You do not have to buy a bunch of books because their titles are common in public libraries and their educational materials are online. For parents, their books are ideal for fostering a love for animals, the environment, and other science topics. Teachers can use them to supplement or to reinforce grade objectives.  

I highly recommend Nature Recycles:  How About You? It is both fascinating and educational.  

Activities and Extension Ideas for Lesson Plans:

Additional Conservation Posts from Books4Learning

Teaching Guide for the Nature Recycles:  How About You?

Reading Quiz

For Creative Minds Quiz

Math Quiz
Related Websites

For more Non-Fiction Monday recommendations, visit HERE.

Guess Who, Haiku (Deanna Caswell)

Title: Guess Who, Haiku

Author: Deanna Caswell

Illustrator: Bob Shea

Publisher Summary: “Guess Who, Haiku is a unique poetic guessing game illustrated by bestselling and beloved artist Bob Shea. Author Deanna Caswell’s playful take on the inventive Japanese form of poetry offers clues about the creatures hiding on every page in this creative and clever picture book of charmingly illustrated poems for the very young.

As readers meet a cow, a bee, a horse, a bird, a frog, a fish, a mouse, a cat, and a dog, they will be delighted to learn that they are the subject of the final poem. Parents [and educators] will appreciate the simple guide to understanding the haiku.”

Evaluation: Guess Who, Haiku is the perfect way to introduce this form of poetry to young children—whether more formally in a classroom setting or informally at home cuddled up on the couch. 

There are clues for each animal. The main one is the haiku. Here are a few haiku examples from the book:

sitting for a treat

an eager tail smacks the ground

over and over

a soft noise in oats

after an afternoon ride

back at the stable

two hands hold a book

guessing animals’ puzzles

written in haiku

There is also a visual clue under each haiku. For instance, there is a dog bowl & bone for the dog and horseshoe & hay for the horse.  Bob Shea’s illustrations are endearing and adorable.

Guess Who, Haiku combines opportunities for adult-child interaction with predicting skills along with learning a form of poetry.  This book is one stepping-stone toward fostering a love of poetry and words. 

Activities and Extension Ideas for Lesson Plans:

• Predicting Skills: Using the context clues—visual and verbal, guess the animal being described.
• Writing Haikus: Practice writing haikus together and allow the child(ren) to illustrate them. Older children can write their own haikus. Visit Kids Zone for additional handouts and information on haikus.
• Poetry: Introduce one or more other poetry forms such as a limerick.  Compare and contrast the forms. Practice reading and writing the new form as well.
• Memory Game: After reading the book, play a memory game with animal pictures. Here are some cards you can make at home if you do not already have a game on hand.
• Syllables: Teach the concept of a syllable.  Practice identifying how many syllables are in a word or line of poetry.  It always helped me to clap them out. 

It’s Poetry Friday.  Visit Check It Out’s Blog for other shared poems and poetry books around the web. 

Whose Hat Is That? (Anita Bijsterbosch)

Title: Whose Hat Is That?

Author: Anita Bijsterbosch

Illustrator: Anita Bijsterbosch

Target Ages: 1-6

First Lines: “Look! The wind blows a hat up in the air.  WHOOSH!  WHOOSH!”

Publisher Summary:  “Whoosh! The wind blows a hat up into the air. Does the hat belong to the cat? Or the rooster? Maybe it belongs to the snake or the cow? Or the peacock, the horse or the polar bear?

All the animals look good wearing the hat. But whose hat is it really?”

Evaluation:  Whose Hat Is That? has all the essential ingredients for a first-rate reading and learning experience for preschoolers. 

To start, the story follows a predictable pattern.  It begins with the following:

There goes the hat.

Who hat is that?

There is an opportunity to identify rhyming words and practice others. After a few times reading it out loud, children can begin to follow along and “read” with you. The vocabulary is simple enough that beginning readers can decode it. 

The pattern continues with the sound the animal makes and then it says:

This hat is mine.

It looks good on me. 

Again, it is an ideal opportunity for children to join in the reading. To get even more creative, give each animal character a unique attitude or vocal tone as you recite those lines. 

Children can, also, practice predicting skills.  After a couple pages (once they understand the pattern), ask what animal they think will be next.  You might even look ahead and give a hint or two.  On successive readings, you can continue to ask periodically. 

Next, there is lots of fun onomatopoeia.  Of course, children can learn and join in on the animal sounds.  Most the pages begin with a fun “WHOOSH!”  that children can say to begin each sequence.

Finally, the illustrations are fantastic!  Each two-page spread begins with a small version of the animal that previously wore the hat and a dotted lined showing the movement of the hat in the wind to the next animal. Young children can follow the movement of the hat with their fingers. Bijsterbosch uses bright colors and clean lines. Solid colored backgrounds make the animals pop off the page.

If my children were still young, I would buy this book for our home library.  I love books that provide opportunities for preschoolers to get involved in the reading process. Whose Hat Is That? is the perfect read-out-loud for ages 1-6. 

Activities and Extension Ideas for Lesson Plans:

As noted in the Evaluation (Above)

• Rhyming Words
• Animal Sounds
• Choral Reading
• Predicting Skills

Additional Ideas

• Art:  Find a basic hat pattern (or make one).  Decorate it together with art supplies.
• Math:  Count the number of animals for wore the hat.  For classes or small groups, take a survey as to who looks the best in the hat.  Make a chart to show your results. 
• Writing:  Write a sentence about the book (together or independently).  Illustrate it.  A couple prompt ideas:  My favorite animal is...  The hat looks best on…
• Science: Go outside on a windy day.  Talk about what you feel, see, and hear. Read other books about the wind.  Here are a few to begin with:

Asch, Frank. Like aWindy Day.
Cobb, Vicki.  I Face the Wind.
Dorros, Arthur. Feel the Wind.
Hutchins, Pat.  The Wind Blew.

Sherman, Josepha. Gusts and Gales: A Book about Wind.

Visit Susanna Hill’s blog for the weekly round up of Perfect Picture Books.