Tag: nonfiction

Spi-ku: A clutter of Short Verse on Eight Legs

Leslie Bulion does it again with her newest poetry book about creepy crawly spiders, Spi-ku! It’s filled with amazing facts and information about the different types of spiders, how and what they eat, how they catch their prey and so much more! We loved reading the informational parts of the text along with her creative poems. My three boys especially love the back and forth poems about the trickster spiders! The way illustrator, Robert Meganck, integrates the spiders and their webs is beautiful and engaging! We loved picking out the different spiders and searching for them on the pages. This book is wonderful to learn about nonfiction text and poetry, looking at different types of poetry, learning about spiders, inspiring a spider nature walk; there are just so many ways to learn while reading Spi-ku!

Looking at an artificial spider while reading about the different kinds of spiders and how they move.

I was familiar with Leslie’s work because she writes such wonderful and informative poems. Last year my third graders and I did an author visit with her on World Read Aloud Day about her book, Superlative Birds. It was so wonderful to hear about how she comes up with poems that are interesting, factual and yet fun to read! We loved speaking with her and hearing about her process! We were just getting ready to write nonfiction pieces ourselves and it was a wonderful segue to show how information text can be gathered and written; not just in paragraph format but also in other ways like the beauty that is poetry! See below for some bonus insider information from our interview with Leslie! Thank you Leslie for taking the time to answer our questions and being a part of our celebration of poetry this month!

Taking a look at the big and hairy Goliath Bird-Eating Spider while we were watching for birds!

Thank you Peachtree Publishing for a copy to review. All opinions are our own.

Interview with Leslie

About her books:
  1. What are your memories about learning poetry?

When introducing poetry to our class, my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Brownworth, asked us to memorize and recite a poem. I memorized “Sneezles” by A.A. Milne from his collection NOW WE ARE SIX. I loved the rhyme, the rollicking rhythm, the made-up words, the sly silliness, and the last line, a loving and gentle zinger. Those are still favorite elements I use in my own poetry. We wrote lots of poems that year, and my first was “The Grass is Green.” It’s about…leaf litter critters! How’s that for story circularity?

  1. What advice would you give to a child who sees poetry as “boring”? 

Let’s share poetry love with readers the same way we help readers who may not have found their spark book/genre…yet:

Explore together! Maybe funny poetry, like A HATFUL OF DRAGONS, will open the door for one reader. Verse novels may grab another. They’re written at all levels and genres from LOVE THAT DOG and INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN to THE CROSSOVER and THE POET X. Try a poetry collection about a particular interest (spiders, anyone??), or a particular poetic form such as the concrete poems in A POKE IN THE I. Spoken word poetry is having an amazing moment thanks to the remarkable work of Amanda Gorman, and spoken word events are exciting! By the way, reading all poetry aloud—hearing the rhythms and speaking the words—brings its music to life. Explore lyrics to a reader’s favorite song—that’s poetry, too! 

  1. How do you know so much about spiders? 

I chose the topic because I wanted to learn! I read (and reread) widely, then more specifically. I visit museums, contact scientists, and follow their science communications online. I always do my own hands-on, boots-on explorations. For SPI-KU (and still!) I don my headlamp for nighttime spider hunts. I take photos and post some on insect enthusiast groups for help since spiders are tricky to identify!

About Leslie:
  1. If you weren’t a writer, what would you want to do and why?

I love taking field ecology classes, going on nature adventures, and sharing what I learn with others. I’ve had wonderful adventures visiting our national parks—they are such treasures—so  I think I should be a US National Park ranger in my next life.

  1. What is one book that has stuck with you since you’ve read it? 

There are so many books I carry with me that I can’t possibly pick one, or even ten! So I’ll reach back to the cusp of my own coming of age for an answer. I was a voracious independent reader from third grade on, and mostly chose books with an element of fantasy or magic. THE PIGMAN, an assigned book for our sixth grade English class, broke my heart open with its portrayal of realistic teens, questionable choices, and consequences.

  1. What is one item in your fridge that tells us about you?

Pickles! Especially salty, garlicky, spicy, surprising ones—so fun! I can still taste the long-gone “ginger hots” I found at a farmer’s market while traveling two years ago…let me know if you find any!

Hungry? Read Our Inside Scoop about Pancakes to Parathas

Thank you to author Alice B. McGinty and Little Bee Books  for sending us this delicious book to read and review. All opinions are our own!

Pancakes to Parathas – Breakfast Around the World takes readers on a trip around the world learning all about typical breakfast faire found in different countries. Each page is filled with an introduction to the popular breakfast food, bright and detailed illustrations by Tomoko Suzuki and a closer look at the country’s traditional dish.

This book taught me so much about foods I need to try! Many of foods Alice includes I have not gotten a chance to eat and I’m excited to have learned about them. Some I hadn’t even heard of, while others I knew the name, but didn’t know a lot about the ingredients or history. I love how each page also gives you the proper pronunciation of each word. It also provides a map at the end to show us where each country is locate on the map.

This book can add so much to any library collection. While reading it with young kids it helps them have a deeper understanding and appreciation for other cultures. In a classroom I see this as a great resource for studying countries, cultures or traditions. Wherever you choose to share this book, you are sure to come away hungry! (See link below for an awesome Israeli Salad recipe).

Alice was kind enough to stop by our blog and tell us the inside scoop of the book, information you wouldn’t know from reading the book. Here’s what she had to say:

The idea for this book began I saw a photographic article from the New Yorker showing pictures of children from around the world eating breakfast. “Could this be a picture book?” I wondered.

I decided after some thought that it could make a great picture book. But breakfast is complicated. Foods in one country can be very unfamiliar to people from other countries. As I looked at the photos and read the descriptions of the foods, I wondered how I could make breakfasts around the world accessible and understandable to young readers.

After a few weeks, I had an idea. I decided to focus on the things that we had in common. I chose one familiar element from each of the breakfasts, such as “breakfast in Australia is salty” and “breakfast in Israel is a homegrown feast” and I worked the text around that. That’s how the book began!

Although I’d visited several of the countries in the book (I had a great time chasing down cornmeal porridge in Jamaica and can give you a recipe if you like!), I wanted to find people who were actually from each country, in order to get the breakfast time details needed to make the book truly authentic. I loved the process of finding and communicating with people from each place, and asking them about their memories of breakfasts as a child. This involved reaching out to friends who grew up in, or still lived in, each country. It also gave me the chance to meet new friends. I had a lovely time at an Indian restaurant in my hometown, talking with the owner about his memories of breakfasts in India. Then, as an extra special surprise, he brought me back to the kitchen and had the chef give a demonstration of how to make parathas – with delicious samples to taste.

I think everyone enjoyed sharing their experiences, and the unique details they gave me helped each country in the book come to life!

If you’d like to try and make your own Israeli salad, click on the link below for a yummy recipe from Miri Leshem-Pelly.

Israeli Salad Recipe