Endless possibilities

Teaching Pre K-8, Nov/Dec 1999 by Hurst, Carol Otis

Change and discovery come about differently in each of these five books.

Let's start with an intriguing and mysterious fantasy for kids from fourth grade up - Skellig by David Almond (Delacorte, 1999, ISBN 0385-32653-X). I'm not sure if the fact that "Skellig" is the name of a rocky, barren island off the coast of Ireland bearing a monastery called "St. Michael's" has anything to do with this book or not. The author makes no connection. Michael is, however, the name of the main character in Skellig. That's only one of the mysteries about this novel.

Strange creature.

Michael worries about his new baby sister. She's ill and his parents are deeply concerned. Then there's Skellig. Michael discovers him (or it) in a broken-down garage on the property of his new home. Skellig lies in the dirt on the floor, eating flies. He can hardly move due to arthritis. He demands aspirin and "27 and 53".

Unsure that he has actually seen Skellig, Michael brings his new friend, Mina, to find out if she can see Skellig. Indeed, she can. Relieved that he isn't crazy, Michael gets the aspirin but is stumped on "27 and 53."

By accident, he discovers that those numbers stand for Skellig's favorite Chinese food and manages to get him some. Skellig is singularly unhelpful, but Mina decides he must be moved into a house her family is renovating. Although they leave him on the ground floor there, when they return they find Skellig in the attic, being fed by a mother and father owl.

When Michael's new sister becomes more and more ill, Skellig's intercession reinforces the idea that he might be an angel. Much is left unexplained. This isn't a book for children who like everything nice and tidy in their reading, but it may be a perfect choice for kids who like to expand their notion of possibility.

Sam learns to read. In this month's Teaching in the Library column, we've put together some books about reading. One of the first listed there is Lois Lowry's new book about Sam, Anastasia Krupnik's little brother.

Like Lowry's other books about Sam, Zooman Sam (Houghton Mifflin, 1999, ISBN 0-395-97393-7) manages to get us inside the thought processes of a very young child.

At Sam's preschool, each child is supposed to bring a costume and information about a job he or she would like to have some day.

Sam decides on "Zooman" as his chosen career and, with the help of his mother and Anastasia, he puts together a terrific Zooman costume. The hat is a baseball cap with the word "Tigers" on it. Anastasia, in fact, has given Sam a whole collection of baseball caps from various teams. Sam realizes how many of those teams (and hats) bear animal names.

In a moment of madness, Sam's teacher allows him to wear and explain a different cap each day. In the process of figuring out which hat is which, Sam begins to realize that he has learned something much more important than which animals and which baseball teams go together. Sam has taught himself to read.

There's much to make you grin in this book, but if you don't tear up when sam puts it all together and reads to his parents, you're not the teacher I thought you were.

It's never too late. Another book on the "reading list" in Teaching in the Library this month is the picture book Jeremiah Learns to Read (Orchard, 1999, ISBN 0-531-30190-7) by Jo Ellen Bogart, with illustrations by Laura Fernandez.

Jeremiah is an old man whose life is rich but, although he can do many things, he can't read. Although the story doesn't say so immediately, we get the idea that Jeremiah's wife and brother also lack that skill.

With cheerfulness and good will, Jeremiah joins the children heading to school. At school, the children help him match letters and sounds while he teaches the kids and the teacher about whittling, making applesauce and whistling through your teeth.

When Jeremiah thinks the time is right, he takes from under his pillow a book of poems which he reads to his wife. Read this one to kids who are learning to read and kids who are helping someone else to learn.

Quacky math. Math, not reading, is the subject of Quack and Count by Keith Baker (Harcourt Brace, 1999, ISBN 0-15-292858-8). Using collages backed by varying textures, Baker creates a wonderful concept book.

Unlike many of the more self-conscious math/picture books in existence today, Quack and Count is exuberant without being inane and informative without being tedious.

Seven lively ducklings cavort around their pond environment while a rhyming text provides the words and the numbers. There are always seven ducklings, although it's not always easy to-spot all seven. As an added gift, Baker gives us the various combinations of numbers adding up to seven.

Put this book out on the math table, Give the kids paper and scissors for creating their own concept books - maybe "Roar and Count" or "Moo and Count"?

A poetic memoir. In case you missed it in hardbound, Lee Bennett Hopkins' masterful Been to Yesterdays: Poems of a Life (Boyds Mills Press, 1999, ISBN 1-56397-808-3) is newly available in paperback.