April Pulley Sayre's Blog, page 6

Humpback Whales, Books, and Visits!

I just returned from a great weekend speaking at the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library where they are celebrating 100 years and the young authors in their community.  The educators and authors were so inspiring!  Back home I found that Here Come the Humpbacks is in the major review arenas such as Kirkus. A few blogs are popping up, such as one on Nonfiction Detectives.  Touch a Butterfly: Wildlife Gardening For Kids, which will be released April 23rd, has a very thorough review in ForeWord Reviews.   I’ll be traveling widely for school talks and young author conferences the rest of March and all of April 2013. I look forward to seeing many of you on my travels.

Eat Like a Bear

Choosing snack to munch while going over proofs for Fall 2013 book illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Yup, blueberries!

Books Coming in 2013

Here Come the Humpbacks! illustrated by Jamie Hogan should be swimming its way into stored on Feb 1st. Then, April 23rd, Touch A Butterfly: Wildlife Gardening With Kids arrives in stores. It’s an adult book and will be in the parenting section.

My long awaited next book with Steve Jenkins, Eat Like a Bear, will be released by Holt sometime next Fall. Finally, the sequel to Rah, Rah, Radishes and Go, Go, Grapes will also show up sometime late next year. It’s Let’s Go Nuts: Seeds We Eat.

Here Come the Humpbacks!

Here Come the Humpbacks! My new nonfiction picture book, illustrated by Jamie Hogan of Maine, traces the migration of a humpback whale from the Caribbean to Stellwagen Banks near New England. It will be released in hardback and paperback Feb 1, 2013 by Charlesbridge Publishing.  The main narrative text is supplemented by expository sidebars. It’s a tad older, longer read than some of my youngest picture books. It’s a good pairing with Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! because it traces some of the environmental challenges along the migrating animal’s journey.

Vulture TED Talk

There was a TED talk recently about vultures.  I think educators might be interested in seeing it for their own background research. It’s only a little over six minutes long.  You’ll want to look it over first before deciding whether it is appropriate for your elementary school students. The humor at the beginning would probably raise more sidetracking questions than it would actual vulture inquiry. So take a look and perhaps start two minutes twenty seconds in (2:20). Because the rest of it is good stuff for older elementary, middle school, and high school. There are quite a few carcasses involved and it is frank in environmental threats to vultures worldwide.

 

Pollinator Partnership!

Want to know what to plant to help native pollinators in your area? Check out the free guides on the website of  the Pollinator Partnership. Wish I’d seen this before my book Touch A Butterfly: Wildlife Gardening For Kids went to press because I would have loved to list it and these folks are doing such important work. Touch a Butterfly: Wildlife Gardening With Kids will be available in bookstores April 23, 2013 and can also be ordered from www.roostbooks.com. They’re the publishers of the I LOVE DIRT book from a few years ago. It’s geared for families, educators, and interested kids in upper elementary grades, as well. It’s my 25 years of knowledge about seeing the landscape through the eyes of animals and gardening with their needs in mind. Probably my most personal work.

Bear Resources

Eat Like a Bear, my book illustrated by Steve Jenkins comes out in late 2012. But I’m already gathering like a bear for winter. The bears in that book are brown bears (grizzlies) but perhaps your classrooms want to study black bears. Here’s a great place to start. My cousin suggested that I might learn from this fellow and it seems he might do presentations in New England so perhaps some schools/organizations might want to work with him.

Ben Kilham presentations

He’s written books and has been featured in television programs. See here.

Rah Rah Radishes…going beyond the plate

My eyes are peeled for resources that connect to children’s nutrition. Here’s what’s come across my platter recently.

First, Annette Triplett from the University of Missouri extension office shared with me a coloring book and book From The Farm to You about a tomato’s journey. Interesting! I had not recently thought about extension offices and their role in agricultural education and nutrition education. Of course! They’ve been doing it for years. Great place to start for support in sharing nutrition/agriculture…your local extension office.

While at NAEYC in Atlanta I came across a booth for www.PortionSizeMatters.com. The have portion size plates for children. Great idea, begun by a nutritionist.

On the other end of the spectrum, articles that are important and of concern related to children’s nutrition:

Interesting article regarding “The Clean Plate Club”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090306103649.htm

First Course of Veggies May Appeal to Hungry Preschoolers

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100505152451.htm

 

NAEYC, Mem Fox, Pete the Cat!

If you want to know who I am and what I do, NAEYC’s Young Children magazine November 2012 issues has what’s probably my best interview yet: www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/201211/MeetTheAuthor.pdf

I recently spoke at the national conference of NAEYC, in the Meet the Authors session, which featured Mem Fox and James Dean, creator/illustrator of Pete the Cat.  Yes, I know, MEM FOX! Wow, her voice is enthralling.

James Dean creator of Pete the Cat, Mem Fox (center) telling something funny to April Pulley Sayre

She actually read Dean’s book, Pete the Cat, out loud. The moment was somewhere between historical and hysterical. You could just feel the audience (and we other speakers) were thinking wow wow wow…so glad we were here to hear this! Afterwards I signed at The Book Vine for Children, THE place to find great books for 0-6.  Isabel Baker reads pretty much every book out there for this age and is super knowledgeable and picky about selecting the books so you can count on them. Thank you Renee Nicolo for loaning the camera so someone could jump on stage and take a photo.

 

Writing Poetry

For you aspiring poets, and teachers of poetry, I recommend the new book  Write a Poem Step By Step by JoAnn Macken. It’s incredibly useful. So clearcut and inspiring.

I love writing poetry. A few folks have even convinced me to admit I’m a poet.  (Okay, so I was late to accepting that particular moniker. Afraid…perhaps!)

I blogged about this quandry on Katie Davis’ site.   I also discussed some of the math behind my chant/poetry work on INK. 

http://jamarattigan.com/2012/04/02/going-natural-with-april-pulley-sayre/

On Jama Rattigan’s site I celebrated poetry month. See? I’m getting used to the idea…perhaps!