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Personalize your connection to the books you’re reading with these exclusive resources made by TeachingBooks.net. Use these materials in classrooms, libraries, and/or for your own professional development to discover exciting ways to share insights with children and teens.
Click here to see all of this week’s highlighted resources
In this audio clip about his book (Ashley Bryan’s ABC of African American Poetry, S&S, 1997) Ashley Bryan presents the alphabet to introduce the contributions of Black American poets, including Henry Dumas and Langston Hughes. He hopes you will include these poets in your studies.
What an excellent back-to-school audio clip and book to enjoy with students. You may even consider tying in an art project using tempera and gouache like Ashley Bryan does for the colorful illustrations in this book.
Illustration ©1997 Ashley Bryan. Published by S&S. All rights reserved.
Poetry Friday is hosted at Book Aunt this week.
Posted by Danika Brubaker, MLS, Author and Publisher Liaison Librarian
Personalize your connection to the books you’re reading with these exclusive resources made by TeachingBooks.net. Use these materials in classrooms, libraries, and/or for your own professional development to discover exciting ways to share insights with children and teens.
Click here to see all of this week’s highlighted resources
We recently created original multimedia resources with author Ann Bausum for customers in Texas. In these original Book Readings you’ll hear Ann share her personal connection to writing Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement (National Geographic, 2006) and With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote (National Geographic, 2004).
These audio Book Readings are excellent to share with students before, during, and/or after they read these books. These resources can also help start discussions about two very intense times of change and struggle in United States history.
It’s our great pleasure to announce these brand new original resources, made upon request.
If there’s an author or book that is relevant to your curricula, and you would like us to find and/or create relevant resources, please let us know.
Posted by Danika Brubaker, MLS, Author and Publisher Liaison Librarian
Personalize your connection to the books you’re reading with these exclusive resources made by TeachingBooks.net. Use these materials in classrooms, libraries, and/or for your own professional development to discover exciting ways to share insights with children and teens.
Click here to see all of this week’s highlighted resources
Customers in Indiana recently asked us to create original multimedia resources with author April Pulley Sayre. In these original Book Readings you’ll hear April explain her personal inspiration for writing some of her books and then read a short excerpt from each one.
These audio Book Readings are excellent to share with students before, during, and/or after they read April’s books as a way for them to “meet” her virtually. These resources are also wonderful for students who are interested in science and the natural world like April is.
It’s our great pleasure to announce these brand new original resources, made upon request.
If there’s an author or book that is relevant to your curricula, and you would like us to find and/or create relevant resources, please let us know.
Posted by Danika Brubaker, MLS, Author and Publisher Liaison Librarian
Personalize your connection to the books you’re reading with these exclusive resources made by TeachingBooks.net. Use these materials in classrooms, libraries, and/or for your own professional development to discover exciting ways to share insights with children and teens.
Click here to see all of this week’s highlighted resources
This post was originally published in Nick Glass’ monthly column for Curriculum Connections, an e-newsletter published by School Library Journal in partnership with TeachingBooks.net. Subscribe to this free newsletter here.
Graphic fiction and nonfiction books are increasingly being used in schools to hook reluctant readers or to present topics in a different format. The multimedia materials recommended in this month’s column provide you with instructional support to integrate these graphic books into your lesson plans.
Insights from award-winning publisher Françoise Mouly
Watch a two-minute overview on using comics to support early literacy activities or read an interview with Mouly on “Comics in the Educational Sphere.”
Use Graphic Fiction and Nonfiction to:
Explore lesson plans, audio recordings, and more for the best-selling “Babymouse” series (Random) by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm.
Introduce the Greek Gods …
Listen as George O’Connor talks about the creation of Zeus: King of the Gods (First Second, 2010), and shares images from the book in this short video or read an interview with the author/illustrator published earlier this year.
Explore an Author’s Purpose …
In this audio clip author Liam O’Donnell discusses his graphic adventure illustrated by Mike Deas, Media Meltdown (Orca, 2009), which incorporates a message about social networks and information delivery.
Integrate Comics into History Lessons …
Utilize these ready-to-use resources when reading Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus I (1986) and Maus II (1991, both Pantheon) in conjunction with on units on World War II or the Holocaust.
Watch this TeachingBooks.net original movie about the creation of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation (Hill & Wang, 2006) with Ernie Colón, the veteran comic book artist who wrote and illustrated this adaptation with Sid Jacobson.
Introduce Comic Guides and Activities to William Shakespeare’s Plays …
Try these classroom activities along with the “Classical Comics” series devoted to the Bard’s plays includingRomeo and Juliet: Graphic Novel (Classical Comics, 2009), adapted by John McDonald.
Posted by Nick Glass, Founder & Executive Director of TeachingBooks.net
TeachingBooks.net is delighted to welcome award-winning author Mariko Tamaki as our featured guest blogger.
Each month, we ask one distinguished author or illustrator to write an original post that reveals insights about their process and craft. Enjoy!
by Mariko Tamaki
Photo provided by Mariko Tamaki, 2010
The incredible thing about comics, to me, is the medium’s diversity. Some people hear the word “comics” and are reminded of newsprint pages filled with superheroes. Others see shelves of manga stacked tight, while some readers are more familiar with hardbound graphic novels and nonfiction volumes. All of these formats and types of books rightly describe comics.
When we talk about comics or comic art, we’re not talking about a single style, story, or format—we’re talking about a medium that encompasses everything from Archie and Jughead to X-Men and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis to Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes series. Comics are a way to tell a story and a medium that offers amazing variety: action stories, horror stories, personal stories, and love stories.
Writing for comics is a very specific kind of writing. Of the actual writing only about 20 percent ends up in print. A large portion of the work is in the communication that takes place between the author and the artist. For the writer, this means focusing on and communicating about the few lines of text that will appear in the narration and dialogue.
Dialogue—more specifically, voice—is something that fascinates me. I am a consummate eavesdropper; on the subway, at work, and in shopping malls, I’m often found scribbling down little bits of what I overhear.
Voice has always been a key element of my storytelling. It’s a writer’s tool for constructing a story that is more show than tell. How a character says something is as important as what they say—sometimes it’s even more important.
A character’s voice is a complex instrument, textured and distinct, affected both by what a person wants others to hear and by the voices that they’ve grown up around. Voice is cultural, generational, and situational, but it’s not restricted to any of those things.
Working in comics, I often find a character’s voice develops as the character takes shape both in my head (in the writing and research process) and on the page in the illustrations. I love seeing the initial sketches. Often the illustrator will pose a character in a way that will trigger in me a sense of what it would be like to have a conversation with that person. Additionally, the illustrator’s drawings add to the dialogue, creating spaces within and between conversations—moments where saying nothing suggests as much as saying everything.
- An original article by author Mariko Tamaki.
This material may not be used without the express written consent of Mariko Tamaki.
More online resources about Mariko Tamaki:
Hear Mariko Tamaki pronounce and speak about her rare name. Listen Now
Access all of TeachingBooks.net’s online resources about Mariko Tamaki and her books.
Personalize your connection to the books you’re reading with these exclusive resources made by TeachingBooks.net. Use these materials in classrooms, libraries, and/or for your own professional development to discover exciting ways to share insights with children and teens.
Click here to see all of this week’s highlighted resources
