Read All About It!

On our website at Open Books, there is only so much room to talk about each program and all of the amazing things we have going on each week.

McCutcheon Buddies get their read on.

However, as the newest intern, I have been appointed to give you, our delightful readers, a better look at what goes on behind the scenes, who’s helping, what is the best part of our week so far (so hard to choose!) and a few pictures documenting our awesome experiences.

So, this week, we started not one, but two new Buddies sites! One is in the Uptown area at McCutcheon Elementary, and the other is in the Roscoe Village area at Jahn Elementary. I lead at the former, and co-lead at the latter with fellow intern Jacob Wilson. Both sites were so much fun! It seemed that when we walked in everybody had a smile on his or her face. The volunteers were smiling, the kids were grinning, so we smiled even wider. The amount of reading and smiling and general nerdiness doubled by the end of Buddies on both of those days.

During this first day at new sites, we usually go through a process of helping everyone get to know each other, assign which student(s) will work with whom, make some super-cool pin-button nametags designed (colored) by the students, and of course: we read! Some favorite books this time around were The Little Mouse, The Big Red Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear, Yo Yes!, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers and of course: Olivia.

Reading the afternoon away with McCutcheon Buddies!

As for me, I’m working on my own section of our new program called Wordshops: Do you Haiku? In this workshop, I will teach students both how to read haikus as well as write an effective one. Sure, haikus can be about seasons. Yes, haikus can be three lines of five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables again. Certainly, haikus may end with each line as a phrase. But these are rules, general guidelines. Haikus themselves are a good way to teach poetry because of these rules, but exploring a little bit outside of the box could create something beautiful, which is something I look forward to heading up in the upcoming months, and perhaps seeing some of you at one of our awesome Wordshops this summer!

Remember, if you have a great idea for a Wordshop you’d like to lead, you can tell us all about it by clicking on this handy link.

Well, the countdown has begun.  A lifelong dream is about to begin. A bike ride across America! Dipping my back tire in the Pacific Ocean at Dog Beach in San Diego on March 5th and 3098 miles and 59 days later dipping my front tire in the Atlantic Ocean in St. Augustine, Florida. And hopefully while I am biking, my 100+ friends are donating $30.98 (or more!) to Open Books, The National  Kidney Foundation of Illinois or the ALS Association of Greater Chicago Chapter. Just two weeks ago I decided to commemorate this journey by helping some favorite charities and just finished sending requests to friends. We will see how it goes!

This past week, Open Books had the enormous privilege of welcoming back a wonderful group of fifth graders from O.A. Thorp Academy for an Adventures in Creative Writing Field Trip. The students had previously attended a workshop on poetry in October of 2009 and subsequently slam-jammed their poetry credentials. In February of 2010, these same tremendous students put their prose skills to the test as they wrote about a number of good, bad, funny, and other kinds of days from their own lives. The following is one story that I personally couldn’t resist holding off release until booklet publication. Enjoy the creative musings of our young author below:

A Weird Day

By Zach

One day after I got out of school I had to walk home, which I don’t do. I was walking home on Austin street. I saw a man flying up in the sky, I was looking at everything to see why that guy was flying. Maybe he had rocket shoes, I don’t know. I just kept walking. Then boom! I found myself on the ground. I looked back and forwards, then I opened my eyes and saw a football player saying “get up, get up.” I told him “if you’re looking for the ball I don’t have it.” Oh? He got off me and said “sorry.” I ran home and saw my house was made of chocolate. Then I woke up and was happy that my weird dream was over.

Comic books have often been for entertainment, and shoved aside as literary “junk food”, but more and more kids are learning literacy through graphic novels and comic books. There are several new programs dedicated to spreading literacy and arts appreciation through comic books.

There is even a movie that has been produced (which has not yet hit the shelves) that documents this movement towards literacy and makes its defense against such phrases as “waste of time” and “junk food for the brain”. Instead, Comic Book Literacy, the documentary, focuses on the fact that children are actually reading…and enjoying it, too! If one starts out with X-Men and grows into loving sci-fi and fantasy books thereafter, the work is done! Words are words, and the Comic Book Literacy movie is out to set the record straight. Find out more about them here!

In New York, the Center for Educational Pathways is taking their own stab at defending comic books, with a separate program dedicated exclusively to comics: The Comic Book Project. Most recently they did a project involving the kids making their very own comic book entitled: “I am a Super Hero.” The kids illustrated the comics and created their own dialogue for each scene. Check out the amazing creations here!

I told you there was something for everyone. This was actually published in 1994.

In recent years, graphic novels have been increasing in popularity, especially with the older set. All originally graphic novels, movie productions further increased interest in reading: The Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and 300 . However, before seeing the movies, some decided to do the reading beforehand and were greatly rewarded, even if some readers were extremely critical of the film adaptations; you can’t please everyone!

Parents: take your kids to the comic books store and help them find a new one to spark their interest in reading.
Kids: start reading comic books!
Everyone else: start reading comic books too—they’re completely worth it.

My top picks:
Blankets by Craig Thompson
Any Archie Comic I can get my hands on. (If a comic book has been around for that long, there must be something going for it!)

P.S. There are rumours of Twilight being re-done as a graphic novel; keep your eyes peeled! The regular novels were enough for me…

An excerpt from Kimberly Pauley’s Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (maybe):

So, you think your life sucks? Try being Mina Hamilton. Her parents are vampires, which would sound cool if they weren’t so boring and parent-like. And now Mina has to decide whether or not she wants to be one too…in a month. As if high school wasn’t bad enough, now she’s got to go to vampire classes with a bunch of freaks who actually want to drink blood (Gross! As if sushi wasn’t bad enough.). And she can’t even tell her best friend about any of it, not with a bunch of red-tape-loving vampire bureaucrats breathing down her neck. How’s a girl supposed to find a prom date and get through school with all this blood-sucking drama going on?

Kimberly Pauley is the author of the young adult comedic gem  Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (maybe) and the soon-to-be-released follow up Still Sucks to Be Me: More All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton Smith, Teen Vampire.

Pauley (a.k.a. YA Books Goddess) and Young Adult Books Central founder has decided to design t-shirts with her character Mina’s doodles, from cool bats to vampire squirrels.  She opened The Sucks to Be Me T-Shirt Shop and she has decided to donate proceeds from her shop to Open Books!

Thank you so much to Kimberly Pauley for writing wonderful young adult fiction and for pledging her shop’s proceeds to promote literacy.  Illiteracy sucks, but you rock!