Monica Edinger's Blog, page 43

Some of My Right Words Celebrating Bryan and Sweet’s The Right Word

This is so cool. Thank you, Erdmans!

We thought we should mixMonica Edinger‘s great quote with an image

proving her point that:

“All in all,The Right Word is a

spectacular

brilliant

marvelous

superb

magnificent

dazzling

work of art.”

(Thanks for the love, Monica!)

Thoughts on Newbery: Flaws, Fatal or Not?

Heavy Medal has started up again and some fascinating conversations are well underway. One aspect of the conversation that has struck me is the idea of flawness (my made-up word). That is, are all books perfect? And if not, how do we grapple with perceived flaws? Can we reach consensus on the degree of their significance?

This came to mind when in her Heavy Medal post on Deborah Wiles’ Revolution, Nina noted that “There is a fatal flaw that I find in REVOLUTION, and that is that Raymond is not...

Books for Incarcerated Teens

Many years ago I first heard Walter Dean Myers speak of his involvement with incarcerated teens. Later, when I found myself with an abundance of YA ARCs, I was pleased to hear that they were much needed for incarcerated teens and looked for a way to get them to them. After some struggles figuring this out (living in NYC I’m carless so getting lots of books places isn’t so easy) I discovered thatKarlan Sick, who lives around the corner from me, is now chair of the board forLiteracy for Incarce...

Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet’s The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus

I love words and I love art that plays with words. ABC books, abecedarian novels, lipograms,everything and anything that plays with the art of words is art right up my alley. And so having adoredJen Bryant and Melissa Sweet’s glorious Caldecott Honor A River of Words,I was agog with anticipation waiting for their latest,The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus. And now that I’ve seen it, let me tell you — it was worth the wait. Bryant again captures the essence of a complicated individual in s...

In the Classroom: No Homework No Scieszka?

On the first day of school, my son and I made a deal. In three days, one of his favorite authors — Jon Scieszka, editor of the “Guys Read” short story collections — was coming to Nashville for a reading and signing downtown. If my son showed me that he could keep track of his early school assignments and bring home everything he needed for each of those first few nights of homework, he could go.

From Mary Laura Philpott’s Homework and Consequences.

I’m sorry, but as a teacher this is NOT a cons...

In the Classroom: Thoughts on Ice (Buckets)

I have been very appreciative of the occasional attention given to introversion in the classroom for students and teachers of late. It helps me to clarify what I know already — I’m very introverted. I need quiet, recovery time, and all those other things that are so often typical of introversion. And as I consider how I can be a good teacher given this and how I can also support my students, introverted or not, I have been considering something else. This is the pleasure so many get when a te...

Toon Graphics for Middle Grade Readers

I was really excited to learn of Toon Books‘ new offerings for middle grade readers, Toon Graphicsand then to meetrecently with founder,Françoise Mouly. Herenthusiasm for thepower of comics for school-aged readers is contagious. What I have always liked about Toon Books is theirdistinctively European sensibility, understandable as there is a proud and venerable comic tradition on that continent. This same feeling comes through in the first offerings of their middle grade imprint:

Cast Away on...

Christopher Paul Curtis’s The Madman of Piney Woods

I was on the 2008 Newbery Committee that honored Christopher Paul Curtis’sElijah of Buxton so I was both eager and nervous to read its companion, The Madman of Piney Woods. Eager because I so admired thefirst book, and nervous because you just never know. Happily, Iwas delighted with the book and those at the Horn Book Magazine where I reviewed it agreed with me, starring it. I concluded my review (which you can read here) thus: “Woven throughout this profoundly moving yet also at times very...

Disney’s Aladdin on Stage and Screen

While Disney is not my preferred choice for a Broadway show, the enthusiastic New York Times review and what I saw on the Tonys, peaked myinterest in seeing the Broadway production of Aladdin, the Musical. And so yesterday, as a reward for completing a big writing project before school starts, I went to see itand was not disappointed; it wasloads of fun. And nowrereading the Times review, I’m not surprised tosee that the director was also responsible for The Book of Mormon musical. Both have...

Barry Jonsberg’s The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee

Barry Jonsberg’s The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee,an Australian import, is one fabulous book. I’d had the ARC for quite a while, but it tookBetsy Bird’s rave reviewto finallyget me to read it and I’m so glad I did. Twelve-year-old Candice is one of those delightful singular narrators — she is definitely different, but not in a way that can be nicely and conveniently categorized. Classmates term her SN for special needs, but there is no sense that she is being provided any special supp...