Review and Giveaway: Ferdinand Fox’s First Summer

by Mary Holland. Sylvan Dell, 2013. (Review copy). This charming book is packed with gorgeous close-up photographs of a fox kit in his first summer. Holland is a nature photographer and environmental educator doing a fine job of introducing children and adults to the secret lives of foxes . You may think there are no foxes living near you, but if you are in the Northern Hemisphere you might be surprised. Foxes live in farmlands, forests, prairies, deserts and cities. Last summer my son and I saw a fox running home with a groundhog in her mouth while we were standing at the local suburban ice cream place having a cone. She ran across a field, crossed a parking lot and major roadway, and disappeared behind the next housing development, bringing dinner to her kits I am sure. Foxes are nocturnal and adapt very well to human habitats. They will eat a wide variety of things including groundhogs, garbage, earthworms, mice, voles, berries and fruit or garden produce, frogs, snakes and turtles.

Holland's nonfiction picture book follows the first summer of young Ferdinand, the runt of his litter, as he emerges from the den, nurses from his mother, wrestles with his litter-mates, learns to hunt and grows into an independent young adult. The back of the book includes sections "For Creative Minds", with fun facts, life cycle events to put in order, and photographic examples of all the things foxes eat.

My sons and I also read the ebook on our iPad Mini, downloaded from iTunes. The photos are even more stunning on the iPad, although the screen is smaller than the 8.5"x10" paperback. The paperback has the photos spread between both pages with significant sections of the images lost in the center fold space. On the screen you can zoom and pan to take in small details with no loss of image (although you can see where the fold is). The story can be read to you with automatic page turning, or you can chose to read it yourself with your child. At the end of the ebook are several educational modules including some fun quizzes.

During Children's Book Week (May 13-19, 2013) you can go to the website Sylvan Dell and read the book for free under the Staff Picks section. And, this week only, all the featured ebooks are just 99 cents! Check out the Events and Author Visit page to see if there is something happening near you.

I am giving away a copy of this wonderful book from the publisher Sylvan Dell. Just leave a comment with your contact info to get put in the drawing!! (US and Canadian addresses only).

Today's Nonfiction Round up is hosted by Julie at Instantly Interruptible. Enjoy!

Poem in Your Pocket Day 2013

It is that rollicking good time day when you are encouraged to carry a poem and share it with friends, family, strangers - pass it around like a smile!


It started in NYC several years ago and now is celebrated all over. Go to poets.org for ideas of how to celebrate and poems you can print to carry or share. At my library I am postings and passing out some of my favorites by Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, and many others. Fun times!

You can follow the hashtags #poetrymonth #pocketpoems or #poemaday to follow my Twitter and Instagram haiku with photos (haiga) all month and find other poets that are posting today and all through National Poetry Month.

My eight year old son went to school with this in his pocket:

Put Something In

Draw a crazy picture,
Write a nutty poem,
Sing a mumble-grumble song,
Whistle through your comb.
Do a loony-goony dance
'Cross the kitchen floor,
Put something silly in the world
That ain't been there before.

-Shel Silverstein

We found it in the Special Edition (2009) A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein.

What are you packing today?

The Friday Poetry Round up is celebrated today  by Irene at Live Your Poem...

April Rain Haiga

I am continuing to post haiga on my Instagram account every day in April, as an exercise for National Poetry Month. The whole collection is gathered here on this post. You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram also.

I am experimenting with using Phonto and the Flickr photo editor Aviary to add text so the haiku is directly on the photo. So far I like what I am getting. I wish my iPod Touch had a better camera though! Maybe I should upgrade to this.

Haiga is a Japanese poetic form developed in the 17th century. It is a combination of haiku poetry, images, and caligraphy. In old Japan it was ink paintings suggesting a connection to the haiku word images. Nowadays many poets use photography. You can learn more about the form here and here. I have been looking at other modern English haiga on these two sites: DailyHaiga and HaigaOnline. If you have done haiga before please share where and let me know how your work procedes!

Today's Friday Poetry Round up is hosted by Diane at Random Noodling . We are in the middle of a fabulous National Poetry Month with action all over the kidlitosphere linked here at Jama's blog. Enjoy your weekend!

Winners in the Hilary McKay Blog Tour!

Last month I took part in the Hilary McKay blog tour with an interview focused on her Lulu books. It was such a fun interview - we got to have a fascinating conversation about how she worked with illustrator Patricia Lamont to portray her character Lulu. The publisher, Albert Whitman & Co sponsored the tour and promised to give away copies of the Lulu books to two lucky commentors on my blog post. Since only three people commented on that post I begged Albert Whitman & Co to spread the love a little farther, and they agreed! So now I just need to hear from you Sarah, Tanita, and Jill. Send me your snail mail and I will pass it on to the publisher!! Congratulations you lucky ducks!!

Nonfiction Monday Round Up is Here Today!

Every Monday the Kidlit blogosphere hosts a round up of posts about children's and young adult nonficiton books. Today I am hosting with links from all over. If you have a post up leave a comment and put your unique URL in Mr. Linky below. Then come back later in the day or tomorrow to visit all the blogs.

My contribution is a recommendation of the book Hand in Hand; Ten Black men Who Changed America by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney. (Jump at the Sun Books, 2012). Winner of the 2013 Coretta Scott King Author Award. This flowing, accessible story of ten great leaders in American history covers the span of Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, A. Philip Randolph, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack H. Obama II. The Pinkneys speak directly to children and young adults about the trials and tribulations faced by these outstanding Black men and show how determination, struggle, faith and grace enabled them to change the world for the better. One section that I am making a point to share with my sons is the chapter on Thurgood Marshall, who Pinkney describes as a "one of a kind kid with a way all his own. The boy wore knee-pants and hard shoes. He carried a comic book in both his back pockets, and was good at snapping gum. [...] Thurgood was  an A+ prankster, too."  Pinkney goes on to say "A true trickster, the one who makes the best mischief, is the one paying the closest attention." I need to keep that in mind in my house! Thurgood's principal sent him to the school basement to memorize passages from the Constitution as a punishment. After a while he was known as the boy who could help other students with their memory work and explain all the hard words. This boy grew up to be "Mr. Civil Rights", arguing Brown vs. Board of Education and the one who "Knocked "separate but equal" on its crooked head." Andrea Pinkney's poetic prose reads like a folktale and her husband Brian's full color portraits and illustrations are vibrant and beautiful. This book is a treasure!!

Reviews at NYT, GoodReads, and Horn Book are worth checking out too.

Now let the wild rumpus begin!!

Ms. Yingling has a fiction/nonfiction pairing on the Battle of Gettysburg.

Jeff @ NC Teacher Stuff has The World is Waiting for You, which he would "call it the nonfiction version of Oh, The Places You'll Go!."

Brenda @ proseandkahn has Self Portrait with Seven Fingers; The Life of Marc Chagil in Verse.

Lisa @ Self Employed has A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin.

Alex @ Randomly Reading has Tito Puente: Mambo King.

Ami @ A Mom's Spare Time has kid's cooking books in a series from Lerner.

Sally's Bookshelf has Miss Ladybird's Wildflowers.

Booktalking has Earth Day Every Day.

Jean Little Library has One Step a Time; A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way.

Cindy and Lynn have Style Me Vintage at Bookends.

Wrapped in Foil is singing the praises of Forest Has a Song.

Perogies and Goyza has What's for Lunch? How School Children Eat Around the World.

Mother Reader is featuring a pet care book on small mammals.

Biblio File has Blizzard of Glass; The Halifax Explosion of 1917.

Janet Squires has the ABC's of Baseball. It must be spring!

Alicia @ The LibrariYAn has Migrant Mother; How a Photograph Defined the Great Depression.

Sonder Books has Helen's Big World.

Be sure to visit these wonderful blogs this week and discover so new and fabulous nonfiction!

Haiku on Instagram for National Poetry Month 2013

Here is a collection of my Instagram photos, updated daily. You can click on the photo to go to Instagram to read the haiku. I started using Phonto, a photo editor that works on my iPod to put the haiku directly onto the image. Have you tried this? If you are using Instagram let me know!

National Poetry Month 2013

 

Happy April
Happy Spring
Happy Poetry Month!!

In years past I have used this space to post daily haiku and photos all through April. This year I am not going to use the blog to do it. I feel the need to change things up and be more mobile. I want to use my iPod touch to take photos and post haiku on Twitter. I am finding several hashtags in use today, the first day of National Poetry Month: #haiku #npm #poetrymonth #haikuaday #napowrimo. What have you seen or used?

You can follow me on Twitter @AndiSibley. I am also experimenting with having tweets sent to FB and the sidebar of this blog. I haven't used Instagram so far but I am curious about how that would work. Do you have experience with it? What do you like/don't like about it?

ETA: signed up for Instagram and will try using it all this month, sharing haiga on Twitter & FB.

You can find the whole lineup of bloggers celebrating Poetry Month here at Jama's Alphabet Soup. Find more poetry happenings and ways to celebrate at Poets.org.

In my library we will be posting poems throughout the month and doing Poem in Your Pocket day on April 18.

What are you doing?