Stacey's Extraordinary Words (Stacey Abram)

 

First read-aloud story of the year! I wanted to have a story that is about a love of reading and words and this was the perfect fit.

Goodreads says:

The debut picture book from iconic voting rights advocate and #1 New York Times bestselling author Stacey Abrams is an inspiring tale of determination, based on her own childhood.

Stacey is a little girl who loves words more than anything. She loves reading them, sounding them out, and finding comfort in them when things are hard.

But when her teacher chooses her to compete in the local spelling bee, she isn't as excited as she thought she'd be. What if she messes up? Or worse, if she can't bring herself to speak up, like sometimes happens when facing bullies at school?

Stacey will learn that win or lose . . . her words are powerful, and sometimes perseverance is the most important word of all.

Orris and Timble (Kate DiCamillo)

 

Great discussions that could come from this story:
What makes you feel safe and loved?
How has friendship saved you? 
Can enemies become friends?

Book 2 comes out at the end of September. I can't wait to see what other stories Orris tells Timble! 

Goodreads says:

From beloved storyteller Kate DiCamillo comes the first book in a warm and funny early-reader trilogy about a misanthropic rat and a naive owl—and the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Orris the rat lives alone in an old barn surrounded by his treasures, until the day his solitude is disrupted by a sudden flutter of wings and a loud screech. A small owl has gotten caught in a trap in the barn. Can Orris “make the good and noble choice” (as the king on his prized sardine can might recommend) and rescue the owl, despite the fact that owls and rats are natural enemies? And if he does, will he be ready for the consequences? With humor and tenderness, two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo brings us this first of three tales celebrating unlikely friendship and the power of sharing stories and doing the right thing—a soon-to-be classic brought to expressive life by the full-color illustrations of Carmen Mok.

Spoon (Amy Krouse Rosenthal)

Great story on remembering to focus on your strengths and be the best you you can be.

Goodreads says:

Meet Spoon.

He's always been a happy little utensil. But lately, he feels like life as a spoon just isn't cutting it. He thinks Fork, Knife, and The Chopsticks all have it so much better than him. But do they? And what do they think about Spoon? A book for all ages, Spoon serves as a gentle reminder to celebrate what makes us each special. 

Circus Ship (Chris Van Dusen)

 

I first got to love Chris Van Dusen's work from the Mercy Watson series. The more I read his books, the more I think I could do an author study with them! His illustrations are awesome. 

The back of the book says the idea for this story came from a real life incident when a ship sailing from St Johnson New Brunswick to Portland, Maine that had been carrying some circus animals sank. What could have happened to those animals? In this book, he presents one idea! 

Goodreads says:

With stunning artwork and a rhyming text, the illustrator of the Mercy Watson books tells a tale of human-animal connection full of humor and heart.

When a circus ship runs aground off the coast of Maine, the poor animals are left on their own to swim the chilly waters. Staggering onto a nearby island, they soon win over the wary townspeople with their kind, courageous ways. So well do the critters blend in that when the greedy circus owner returns to claim them, villagers of all species conspire to outsmart the bloated blowhard. With buoyant rhymes and brilliantly caricatured illustrations evoking the early nineteenth century, Chris Van Dusen presents a hugely entertaining tale about the bonds of community — and a rare hidden-pictures spread for eagle-eyed readers of all ages.

The Seven Silly Eaters (Mary Ann Hoberman)

 

This is a mom who caters too much to her kids. The mess in the house made me uncomfortable. The kids only remember their mom's birthday by chance.
HOWEVER, I think kids would love this story.

Goodreads says:

Peter wants only milk, Lucy won’t settle for anything but homemade lemonade, and Jack is stuck on applesauce. Each new addition to the household brings a new demand for a special meal. What’s a mother to do? “[A] highly comic rhyming romp that surprisingly (and nicely) twists into a birthday story.” —School Library Journal

Chalk (Bill Thomson)

 

I used this during summer school for writing stories. It is a wordless book, similar to the story of Harold and the Purple Crayon or Bad Day at Riverbend. Beautiful illustrations! 

Goodreads says:

Three children discover a magical bag of chalk on a rainy day

The Obstacle is the Way (Ryan Holiday)

 

I'm buying this one and putting it on my canon list...books to read at least annually. It is so good! I tire of people who tell you to just be positive. This book does that, but also has amazing examples and strategies along the way to help you with persistence. It took me a while to read it because I found myself wanting to record many of the great ideas an antidotes!

Notes:

p. 6 There is an old Zen story about a king whose people had grown soft and entitled. Dissatisfied with this state of affairs, he hoped to teach them a lesson. His plan was simple: He would place a large boulder in the middle of the main road, completely blocking entry into the city. He would then hide nearby and observe their reactions.
  How would they respond? Would they band together to remove it? Or would they get discouraged, quit and return home?
  With growing disappointment, the king watched as subject after subject came to this impediment and turned away. Or, at best, tried halfheartedly before giving up. Many openly complained or cursed the king or fortune or bemoaned the inconvenience, but none managed to do anything about it.
  After several days, a lone peasant came along on his way into town. He did not turn away. Instead he strained and strained, trying to push it out of the way. Then an idea came to him: He scrambled into a nearby woods to find something he could use for leverage. Finally, he returned with a large branch he had crafted into a lever and deployed it to dislodge the massive rock from the road. 
   Beneath the rock were a purse of gold coins and a note from the king, which said:
   "The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition."

p. 8 The things which hurt, instruct.
- Benjamin Franklin

p. 9 Three interdependent, interconnected, and the fluidly contingent disciplines: Perception, action and the will.

The Discipline of Perception

John D Rockefeller 
- bookkeeper and aspiring investor
- son of an alcoholic who'd abandoned his family
- took his first job at age 16 and earned fifty cents a day
- in financial crises he witnessed he had a sense of cool about him....he would observe how people were responding and then make his decisions
- once turned down $500,000 from investors who wanted him to find ways to invest it in oil. He had the strength to resist temptation or excitement

How to have his kind of success:
- be objective
- control emotions and keep an even keel
- choose to see the good in a situation
- keep nerves steady
- ignore what disturbs or limits others
- place things in perspective
- revert to the present moment
- focus on what CAN be controlled

Recognize Your Power

 Choose not to be harmed - and you won't feel harmed
Don't feel harmed - and you haven't been
- Marcus Aurelius

p. 23 Just because your mind tells you that something is awful or evil or unplanned or otherwise negative doesn't mean you have to agree. Just because other people say that something is hopeless or crazy or broken to pieces doesn't mean it is. We decide what story to tell ourselves. Or whether we will tell one at all. 
Welcome to the power of perception. Applicable in each adn every situation, impossible to obstruct. It can only be relinquished.
And that is your decision.

Steady Your Nerves
Things will inevitably come along to distract you from your work and your goals. Don't let it happen.
The author had two great stories:
1: Ulysses S Grant once sat for a photo shoot with the famous Civil War photographer, Mathew Brady. The studio was too dark, so Brady sent an assistant up to the roof to uncover a skylight. The assistant slipped and shattered the window. With horror, the spectators watched as shards of glass, two inches long fell from the ceiling like daggers, crashing around Grant - each of them plenty lethal.
As the last pieces hit the ground, Brady looked over and saw that Grant hadn't moved. He was unhurt. Grant glanced up at the hole in the ceiling, then back at the camera as though nothing had happened at all.

2: During the Overland Campaign, Grant was surveying the scene through field glasses when an enemy shell exploded, killing the horse immediately next to him. Grant's eyes stayed fixed on the front, never leaving the glasses.

Practice Objectivity
p. 35 Take your situation and pretend it is not happening to you. Pretend it is not important, that it doesn't matter. How much easier would it be for you to know what to do? How much more quickly and dispassionately could you size up the scenario and its options?

Alter Your Perspective
p. 37 Remember: We choose how we'll look at things. We retain the ability to inject perspective into a situation. We can't change the obstacles themselves - that part of the equation is set - but the power of perspective can change how the obstacles appear.

Is It Up To You?
Think serenity prayer. What can you really change? The author lists what is up to us: (p. 43)
Our emotions
Our judgments
Our creativity
Our attitude
Our perspective
Our desires
Our decisions
Our determination
What is not up to us? Well, you know. everything else. The weather, the economy, circumstances, other people's emotions or judgments, trends, disasters, etc.

Live in the Present Moment

p. 47 Focus on the moment, not the monsters that may or may not be up ahead.

I loved the list of companies started at inopportune times:

Fortune magazine (90 days after the market crash of 1929)
FedEx (oil crisis of 1973)
UPS (Panic of 1907)
Walt Disney Co (After 11 months of smooth operation, the 12th was the market crash of 1929)
Hewlett-Packard (Great Depression, 1935)
Charles Schwab (market crash of 1974-75)
Standard Oil (Rockefeller brought out his partners in what became Standard Oil and took over in Feb 1865, the final year of the Civil War)
Coors (Depression of 1873)
Costco (recession in the late 1970s)
Revlon (Great Depression, 1932)
General Motors (Panic of 1907)
Proctor and Gamble (Panic of 1837)
United Airlines (1929)
Microsoft (recession in 1973-75)
LinkedIn (2002, post-dot-com bubble)

Think Differently
Don't worry about what most people say. Most people say things like, Be realistic. Listen to feedback. Play well with others. Compromise.
Instead, the author suggests we should not be afraid. We can do it. Get your mind around it. Keep working! Do what most people won't do.

Finding the Opportunity
Look for the weak spot and capitalize! 
p. 55 There is good in everything, if only we look for it (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
If you mean it when you say you're at the endo f your rope and would rather quit, you actually have a unique chance to grow and improve yourself. A unique opportunity experiment with different solutions, to try different tactics, or to take on new projects to add to your skill set. You can study this bad boss and learn from him - while you fill out your resume and hit up contacts for a better job elsewhere. You can prepare yourself for that job by trying new styles of communication or standing up for yourself, all with a perfect safety net for yourself: quitting and getting out of there.
With this new attitude and fearlessness, who knows, you might be able to extract concessions and find that you like the job again. One day your boss will make a mistake, and then you'll make your move and outmaneuver them. It will feel so much better than the alternative-whining, bad-mouthing, duplicity, spinelessness.

Prepare to Act
p. 60 ...boldness is acting anyway, even though you understand the negative and the reality of your obstacle. Decide to tackle what stands in your way - not because you're a gambler defying the odds but because you've calculated them and boldly embraced the risk.

Get Moving
Sometimes the situation isn't perfect...but if you at least get started, you can straighten up the situation or perhaps look for other opportunities. He told a great story of Amelia Earhart. She worked as a social worker at first because she couldn't make a living as a pilot. One day someone asked her if she would like to be the first female pilot on a transatlantic flight. They told her their first choice had already backed out and that she wouldn't actually fly because there would be two men (stronger and smarter) who would do that. They would be paid very well but she was paid nothing. It was considered a very dangerous venture and they could all die. Doesn't sound very appealing - but she took it. After that, she was able to work herself into a position where she could be the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic. It would have never happened if she hadn't taken the less than perfect opportunity. 

Practice Persistence
Never quit!
Consider this mind-set:
- never in a hurry
- never worried
- never desperate
- never stopping short
p. 80 It's supposed to be hard. Your first attempts aren't going to work. It's going to take a lot out of you - but energy is an asset we can always find more of. It's a renewable resource. Stop looking for an epiphany, and start looking for weak points. Stop looking for angels, and start looking for angles. There are options. Settle in for the long haul and then try each and every possibility, and you'll get there.
When people ask where we are, what we're doing, how that "situation" is coming along, the answer should be clear: We're working on it. We're getting closer. When setbacks come, we respond by working twice as hard.

Iterate
Great entrepreneurs are:
- never wedded to a position
- never afraid to lose a little of their investment
- never bitter of embarrassed
- never out of the game for long

p. 86 Failure gives you feedback - precise instructions on how to improve....it's trying to teach you something, Listen

Do your job well
p. 96 Steve Jobs cared even about the inside of his products, making sure they were beautifully designed even though the users would never see them. Taught by his father - who finished even the back of his cabinets though they would be hidden against the wall - to think like a craftsman. In every design predicament, Jobs knew his marching orders: Respect the craft and make something beautiful. 
  Every situation is different, obviously. We're not inventing the next iPad or iPhone, but we are making something for someone - even if it's just our own resume. Every part - especially the work that nobody sees, the tough things we wanted to avoid or could have skated away from - we can treat the same way Jobs did: with pride and dedication.

The Discipline of the Will
p. 132 These lessons come harder but are, in the end, the most critical to wresting advantage from adversity. In every situation we can
Always prepare ourselves for more difficult times.
Always accept what we're unable to change.
Always manage our expectations.
Always persevere.
Always learn to love our fate and what happens to us.
Always protect our inner self, retreat into ourselves.
Always submit to a greater, larger cause.
Always remind ourselves of our own mortality

Anticipation (Thinking Negatively)
p. 139 Plan for what could go wrong (do a premortem). Be prepared for failure and ready for success.

Love everything that happens
p. 150 At age sixty-seven, Thomas Edison returned home early one evening from another day at the laboratory. Shortly after dinner, a man came rushing into his house with urgent news: A fire had broken out at Edison's research and production campus a few miles away.
 Fire engines from eight nearby towns rushed to the scene, but they could not contain the blaze. Fueled by the strange chemicals in various buildings, green and yellow flames shot up six and seven stories, threatening to destroy the entire empire Edison had spent his life building.
 Edison calmly but quickly made his way to the fire, through the now hundreds of onlookers and devasted employees, looking for his son. "Go get your mother and all her friends," he told his son with childlike excitement. "They'll never see a fire like this again."

p. 151 Within about three weeks, the factory was partially back up and running. Within a month, its men were working two shifts a day churning out new products the world had never seen. Despite a lof of almost $1 million dollars (more than $23 million in today's dollars), Edison would marshal enough energy to make nearly $10 million dollars in revenue that year ($200-plus million today). He not only suffered a spectacular disaster, but he recovered and replied to it spectacularly.

p. 154 The goal is:
Not: I'm okay with this.
Not: I think I feel good about this.
But: I feel great about it.
Because if it happened, then it was meant to happen, and I am glad that it did when it did. I am meant to make the best of it.

Sociopath (Patric Gagne)

 

I listened to the audiobook. At first, I felt like it was crazy to be listening to this book. What good comes from learning about a sociopath's life? The more I listened though, the more fascinated I became. This is a story of a person who struggled with our own emotions (or lack of) and people who took advantage of that. She took psychology and studied herself and learned to understand herself and find a way to be a positive contributor to the world. It's an amazing story of the importance of learning to understand yourself.

Goodreads says:

 

A fascinating, revelatory memoir revealing the author’s struggle to come to terms with her own sociopathy and shed light on the often maligned and misunderstood mental disorder.

Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing” felt.

She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.

But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.

Russell And The Lost Treasure (Rob Scotton)

 

The illustrations in these books are adorable. Love them! 

This is the second book in the series and apparently a third is coming. This is the same author that wrote Splat the Cat. I'm sure there are many more great books to come from him!

I love Brandy Lodchetta's ideas on Goodreads:

This book is so rich in vocabulary that it could be used for several different activities across every learning center in the classroom. Personally, I would print some of the vocabulary words and place them in a word ring, or on a word wall to apply later in different situations that may come up. This would also be great for discussing positional words like over, under, beside, etc. Lastly, I would use this to create a "treasure hunt" in my classroom. The children could create their own treasure finders like Russell's and follow clues to a hidden treasure.


Goodreads says:

Russell the sheep is determined to find the Lost Treasure of Frogsbottom. Equipped with his Super-Duper Treasure Seeker, Russell searches high and low, up and down, and in and out. Nothing! Finally, Russell finds an old chest! Could it be? Discover how Russell finds the most valuable treasure of all.

Harold and the Purple Crayon (Johnson Crockett)

 

This is a super cute and simple book. It's been made into a movie! I feel like there is great potential for this in our imagination unit. It could also be paired with the book Bad Day at Riverbend, by Chris Van Alsberg. Interestingly, his website says Harold and the Purple Crayon was his favorite book when he was a child! 

Bad Day at Riverbend (Chris Van Alsberg)

 

Chris VanAlsberg is brilliant.

Goodreads says:
Master artist and storyteller Chris Van Allsburg presents a surrealistic journey into the imagination. This provocative story within a story leads readers to ponder the realities of fictional worlds and the lives of the characters who populate them. Riverbend was a quiet little town, the kind of place where one day was just like all the rest and nothing ever happened. Occasionally the stagecoach rolled through, but it never stopped, because no one ever came to Riverbend and no one ever left. The day the stagecoach stood motionless in the center of town, Sheriff Ned Hardy knew something was terribly wrong. What was the mysterious substance on both coach and horses? It would not come off. Soon it was everywhere in the tidy little village. Something had to be done, and Sheriff Hardy aimed to do it. From two-time Caldecott winner Chris Van Allsburg, creator of Jumanji and The Polar Express.