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.

Authoritative bibliographies of children’s and young adult books, such as those regularly featured in Curriculum Connections, assist busy educators searching for quality fiction and nonfiction titles across disciplines.

In this month’s post, we highlight some useful thematic booklists from a variety of professional sources. Please note that the TeachingBooks.net display of the instructional materials and websites has changed. We’ve added cover images; information on each title can be tapped by rolling over the pictures. We hope you’ll agree that our snazzy new design is reminiscent of library displays, and that it’s easier to find materials that meet your needs.

Let us know if you rely on a particular bibliography (including those developed for your class, school, or district). In return, we will send you a link to all the online materials in our database about the listed titles and authors.

“The Era of Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil War”
(Grades 4 to 12, from AdLit.org)

“Thick-skinned, Thin-skinned, The Skin I’m In: Books about Bullying, Teasing, Relational Aggression and School Violence”
(Pre-K to Grade 12, from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center)

“Holocaust Books”
(Pre-K to Grade 8, from the Anti-Defamation League)

“Unpacking a Standard: Poetry and the Common Core State Standards”
(Pre-K to Grade 8, from Booklist‘s Quick Tips)

“‘I’ is Not for Indian: Breaking the Stereotypes of Native Americans in Books for Children”

(Pre-K to Grade 12, from LibrarySparks)

“Celebrate Reading in Two Languages”
(Pre-K to Grade 12, from ¡Colorín Colorado!)

Posted by Nick Glass, Founder & Executive Director of TeachingBooks.net

TeachingBooks.net is delighted to welcome award-winning author and illustrator Brian Lies 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!

Brian Lies designed the “Dream Big–Read” 2012 Collaborative Summer Library Program’s (CSLP) posters. Please enjoy seeing how he does his work in his post below.

A new book or project always starts with an idea. My participation in I.C. Springman’s More (Houghton, 2012) actually began in 1995 with an idea I had for a story about a crow that collects too much stuff, builds multiple nests in a tree, and ultimately feels worn down by the sheer number of objects he has to curate. But the tale was way too long and hopelessly preachy. I don’t like message-forward books, and although I had a suite of sketches I was eager to turn into finished paintings, I never got around to submitting them. Over the years I went back, searching for a better way to tell the story, but I couldn’t find a way in.

First 1995 sketch.

Multi-nest sketch from 2003.

2004 jacket comp. sketch.

Then, in 2010, I was offered Springman’s wonderfully spare text to illustrate, a collection of quantitative words and phrases—“nothing,” “something,” “a few,” “several,” “more and more”—that boiled away my idea’s didacticism. Springman had imagined a book about “mice who rescue their friend from collecting,” and it dawned on me that I could merge my tale of an acquisitive crow—now transformed into a magpie—with the author’s mouse group.

I began with sketches—some pulled from those early sketchbooks, and some from later years—and began to fill out the visuals. As rough compositions and images began to take shape, and I contemplated drawing dozens—if not hundreds—of the magpie’s treasures, the job suddenly felt exhausting. The whole point of the story was to not care too much about objects, and yet if I didn’t—if it was just any pocket watch or any earring I drew—the images wouldn’t convey the energy or caring on the part of this insatiable accumulator. So I decided to gather items from which to draw, literally.

Found objects.

Childhood treasures.

I scoured boxes of childhood memorabilia in the attic and basement and poked through various drawers and corners where life’s stuff accumulates. I scouted hardware stores and toy aisles in grocery and drugstores for cheap, shiny things. Eventually, I had several plastic bins filled with items: my great-great grandfather’s pocket watch, my first cell phone, old apartment keys, a harmonica, my Cub Scout troop patches, Monopoly and Mousetrap game pieces, an old Austrian schilling, dice, a ceramic crow whistle brought to me from the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, and a baby pacifier that appeared on my front lawn. The objects piled up, and I began to draw them into the story.

Paper samples.

At last I had my drawings, and was ready to paint—almost. The first and final pages in the book are simple and background-less; I intended them to be spare. But as I started visualizing the finished illustrations, the white pages I had imagined seemed terribly stark. I wanted bare, not blank. Then it hit me: Why not paint on handmade papers that would provide texture and visual interest? I turned to the Internet and ordered more than 57 samples of beautiful sheets embedded with bits of mango leaves, threads, newsprint, denim, hay, and grass. From these, I pulled eight or nine pages that offered a progression echoing the bird’s collecting frenzy—from plain, light pages to darker sheets, and back again to the original, unembellished papers.

My studio overflowed with handmade paper, boxes of objects, sketches pinned to walls, and illustration notes.

Chaos in my studio.

Each item in the artwork, jumbled together with lots of other objects, had to look real, and color and light bouncing and reflecting off of it. As I painted, I felt I was echoing the magpie’s experience—the simple pieces were joyful to render, but the more complicated the scenes became, the heavier I felt working on them, just as I’d imagined the psychic weight borne by the avian hoarder.

Finished spread from More.

When I sent the completed illustrations to Houghton, I felt like the magpie at the end of More. Pulling the sketches from my studio walls, clearing surfaces that had become heaped with paper, and putting away the objects I’d assembled, made me feel lighter and freer than I had felt in a long time. Less is more.

The book arrives.

- An original article by Brian Lies

This material may not be used without the express written consent of Brian Lies. Images courtesy of Brian Lies.

More online resources about Brian Lies:

Hear Brian Lies share how to pronounce his name.  Listen Now

Hear Brian Lies introduce and read from, More (Houghton, 2012). Listen now

See all online resources for Brian Lies.

We occasionally learn of special, free, and enjoyable opportunities for you that we feel support the mission of TeachingBooks. This month, we hope you enjoy learning about the following opportunities (in order of deadline):

WIN FREE SIGNED COPIES OF A Little Book About Feelings and My Feelings Activity Book (Pre-K & Early Elementary)

A Little Book About Feelings (The Mother Company, 2011) is an engaging look at the origins and variety of feelings that helps young children boost their social and emotional skills.

Enter to win one of ten signed sets (one of each book) by emailing hello@themotherco.com with the subject line “Ruby’s Studio’s books for kids” and include your mailing address.

More information on these books here.
Watch the trailer for Ruby’s Studio: A Feelings Show here.

Deadline: May 1, 2012

WIN A COPY OF Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World (Elementary)

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring with a picture book biography of the pioneering environmentalist, Rachel Carson! One lucky winner will receive a hardcover copy of Rachel Carson and Her Book that Changed the World (Holiday House, 2012) by Laurie Lawlor.

Enter to win by becoming a fan of Holiday House on Facebook and posting a comment mentioning your favorite springtime tradition—and make sure to include “RACHEL CARSON” in your post!

Deadline: May 1, 2012

WIN A FREE COPY OF How Many Jelly Beans? (Elementary)

This giant picture book offers kids a fun and easy way to understand large numbers. Starting with 10, each page shows more and more colorful candies, leading up to a giant fold-out surprise—ONE MILLION JELLY BEANS! With bright illustrations and an irresistible extra-large format, How Many Jelly Beans? (Chronicle, 2012) makes learning about big numbers absolutely scrumptious!

Enter to win by emailing danika@teachingbooks.net with the subject line “How Many Jelly Beans” and please include your mailing address.

Go here to download activities.

Deadline: May 3, 2012

WIN A FREE COPY OF Guacamole (Elementary)

Enter for a chance to win a free copy of Jorge Arugeta and Margarita Sada’s Guacamole (Groundwood Books, 2012).

To enter to win, send an email to contests@houseofanansi.com with the subject line “TeachingBooks GUACAMOLE Giveaway” and please include your mailing address.

Watch the Guacamole book trailer here.

Deadline: May 10, 2012

WIN A FREE COPY OF The Surrender Tree (High School)

Add Margarita Engle’s Newbery Honor Book and winner of the 2009 Pura Belpre Medal, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom (Henry Holt, 2008), to your book collection.

To enter to win, listen to this TeachingBooks.net Meet-the-Author Book Reading with author Margarita Engle and post a comment below about how you could use this audio clip (or other online resources) to help teach/share the book.

Deadline: May 10, 2012

Today, TeachingBooks.net welcomes author Dom Testa as he stops by on his blog tour to discuss his new book The Galahad Legacy (Tor, 2012).

Authors are used to pretty standard questions during interviews, but I thought this one was fascinating: What did you struggle with during the writing of The Galahad Legacy?

This is a great question on a couple of levels. First, for those interested in pursuing a career in writing, it points out that it’s not always smooth sailing. Even when you find yourself with a great idea, great characters, and a gift for language, you still stumble along the way. This isn’t meant to scare you off; it merely prepares you for the inevitable difficult stretches.

Second, this question was particularly interesting to me because The Galahad Legacy is the final volume in a six-book series. I was challenged to not only tell a unique, stand-alone story in about 70,000 words, but I also had to tie up a story arc that had stretched over five previous books, starting way back with the first volume, The Comet’s Curse.

The most difficult aspect for me was deciding how much I really wanted to tell. As a reader, you probably understand when I say that sometimes I don’t want an author to tell me everything. There are times when I want to use my own imagination, and to be left to wonder how certain things turn out. If the ending is too neat and tidy, then I’m not allowed to stretch my own mental muscle.

In the Galahad series, the characters—all of them teenagers—have been sent away to colonize a new world, and there are no adults aboard the ship. That means they must grow up quickly and take on a staggering amount of responsibility at a young age. Part of the beauty of writing this series was watching the main characters grow and change during the course of their journey. I didn’t want them to have all the answers at the end because, if I’d been in their shoes, I don’t think I would have had all the answers myself.

The Galahad Legacy was by far the most fun book in this series to write, but it was tough to figure out just where to draw the finish line. In fact, some readers have suggested—with a wink—that I didn’t quite stretch out across that line. And you know what? They’re right … and I’m glad.

Hear Dom Testa pronounce and speak about his name. Listen now

Today, TeachingBooks.net welcomes author Julie Lawson as she stops by on her blog tour to discuss her new book Ghosts of the Titanic (Holiday House, 2012).

April 15, 2012 marks the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic! The circumstances are well known. But what happened after the ship went down? I didn’t know—until I discovered that Canadian cable ships were chartered to go out to the disaster site, recover victims’ bodies and take them to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for identification and/or burial. I thought this was so interesting that I set to work on researching and writing Ghosts of the Titanic.

My research for this book was quite extensive as you’ll see in the image below. I researched the cable ship Mackay-Bennett, read first-hand accounts, studied the improvised system set up to identify bodies, pored over the meticulous details regarding the personal effects and appearance of the 330 bodies recovered, and spent days on the pages of encyclopedia-titanica and similar websites. I studied the ship’s plans deck by deck, noting cabins, passages and stairways.

Shiploads of research!

A real challenge—but if my characters were going to be on board, they had to find a historically accurate way of getting off! I even visited the site in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the Titanic was constructed and launched.

Deck plan of Titanic. How would I get my characters out of here in time?

As I was compiling the research and organizing my notes, I was also thinking about characters and roughing out a story. How would such a gruesome, heart-wrenching task affect the crew? This question gave rise to my character Angus Seaton, the youngest sailor on board. It also led to some intriguing what if … possibilities. What if, during Angus’ recovery of a body, something goes wrong? What if the consequences are so far reaching they affect someone in the present? Enter modern-day Kevin Messenger, whose chance discovery embroils him in a century-old mystery, pits him against a very demanding ghost and lands him on the Titanic.

A replica of a Boarding Card, from the artifact exhibition.

For me, the idea for a story never comes from one source alone. It comes in bits and pieces—an experience from here, a remembered detail from there, an unusual fact, a character that invades my mind and won’t go away. The story comes about during the process of researching and writing when, unexpectedly, the mind somehow links these unconnected bits together. The tradition of sailors carving “wreck wood,” for instance, was something I’d once scribbled in a notebook and forgotten. I hadn’t planned to use it in the book, but there it was. And when I was in the Fairview Lawn Cemetery of Halifax to research a different book, I happened to visit the Titanic section. Several years later, the impressions I noted that morning formed the basis of the last chapter in Ghosts of the Titanic.

Hear Julie Lawson pronounce and speak about her name. Listen now.

To see the Book Guide, click here.

Win a free copy of Ghosts of the Titanic! Enter to win one of five copies by “liking” Holiday House on Facebook and posting a comment with the most FASCINATING fact you know or have learned involving the Titanic.

Below, please enjoy a sample of the brand new audio recordings TeachingBooks.net has made with a selection of authors whose books have been nominated for the 2012-2013 Bluebonnet Award. In these recordings the authors share the genesis for their book and then read an excerpt. We hope these resources will enrich your conversations with students about these books!

Jim Arnosky shares how he was inspired to write and illustrate Thunder Birds: Nature’s Flying Predators (Sterling, 2011) and reads an excerpt.  Listen now

Carmen Agra Deedy shares how she came to write The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale (Peachtree, 2011) and reads an excerpt.  Listen now

Julia Durango shares how she came to write Under the Mambo Moon (Charlesbridge, 2011) and reads an excerpt.  Listen now

Candace Fleming shares the inspiration behind Clever Jack Takes the Cake (Schwartz & Wade, 2010) and reads an excerpt.  Listen now

Julie Sternberg shares the inspiration behind Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie (Abrams, 2011) and reads an excerpt.  Listen now

See all resources for the entire list of 2012-2013 Bluebonnet books here.

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.

In this month’s post, TeachingBooks.net highlights a variety of strategies and resources to encourage the infusion of multimedia into drama studies in secondary schools. These online audio, video, and written materials will enhance classroom readings and conversations about great plays and playwrights.

Use professionally narrated audio performances to give students an opportunity to hear the spoken word.

Pique students’ interest in William Shakespeare with an excerpt from the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet (from Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 1, produced by Full Cast Audio, 2004).

Hear an excerpt from Laura Amy Schlitz’s Newbery award winner, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village (Candlewick Press, 2007, audio produced by Recorded Books, 2008).

Use recordings of playwrights to explore writers’ inspirations.

Listen to William Gibson in this 2004 National Public Radio interview as he reveals the origins of his play The Miracle Worker (1957).

Consider these British Broadcasting Company recordings in which Agatha Christie talks about writing and reflects on the 10th anniversary of the 1952 premiere of The Mousetrap.

Share playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s thoughts on art as she introduces To Be Young, Gifted and Black (1969), followed by an audio performance of the play by James Earl Jones and others.

Use online lesson plans to expand conversations and insights into a classic American drama.

Peruse Michael J. Cummings’s thorough overview of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949), which also offers a list of study questions.

Study August Wilson’s Fences (1983) using a comprehensive lesson plan from Shmoop.

Use videos to enliven classroom discussions.

Incorporate this CBS video from a website devoted to Thornton Wilder into your lessons to highlight the relevance of Our Town (1938) for contemporary audiences.

Posted by Nick Glass, Founder & Executive Director of TeachingBooks.net

Customers in New York recently asked us to create original multimedia resources with author Tim Green. In these original Meet-the-Author Book Readings you’ll hear Tim explaining his personal inspiration for writing some of his books and reading a short excerpt from each one.

These Book Readings are excellent to share with students before, during, or after they read Tim’s books as a way for them to meet him virtually. These resources are also wonderful for readers who are interested in adventure and sports-themed books.

It’s our great pleasure to announce these brand new original resources, made upon request.

• Hear Tim Green introduce and read from Football Genius (HarperCollins, 2008)

• Hear Tim Green introduce and read from Pinch Hit (HarperCollins, 2012)

• Listen to Tim pronounce and speak about his name.

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

TeachingBooks.net is delighted to welcome award-winning author and Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis 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!

“Wordplay”

By J. Patrick Lewis

 
Photo courtesy of the author

First: If anyone tells you that writing is easy, you have my permission to remind him or her that if writing were that easy, everyone would be doing it.

What I do (almost) every day is play with words. I love it, couldn’t live without it. But the “playing” part is a bit of a misnomer. Wordplay demands a comfortable chair, lots of coffee, and seven carts of patience pulled by tireless oxen.

By wordplay I mean anagrams, shape poems, riddles, spoonerisms, rebuses, and the list goes on. Let me describe one poem in particular that was difficult to write.

Wordplay, a many-splintered thing, can be boiled down to this: What’s in a word? I was working on a collection of poems about weird holidays. October 16th just happens to be Dictionary Day, so I thought the obvious approach would be to address this holiday by emphasizing the nature of a dictionary. Hence, I chose to write a poem with embedded words.

Warning: Don’t try this at home, unless you are ready to have your brain pretzelized (I just made that up):

In a Word

Inside their walls,

some words include

the perfect mate—

ungrateful dude

(or laboratory)

and evil eye,

meringue, entwined,

believe, far cry

treat, puppet, grunt,

and shallowness,

but best (or worst)

is loneliness.

It looks easy, doesn’t it? That’s how good writing is supposed to look. If it doesn’t look effortless, then you’re not working hard enough. That poem took me almost a week to write—and went through 20 revisions. Not complaining. Just saying. All of us are first, last, and always, rewriters.

At my writing desk.

Let me leave you with a challenge. Try to write a poem that depends on a single punctuation mark. Extra credit if you do it with a semi-colon. Here’s an example:

Who knew an apostrophe could carry so much meaning in combination with another word? Remember: Nothing succeeds like failure. Make failure your friend. Embrace it. It’s the only road to success.

- An original article by J. Patrick Lewis

This material may not be used without the express written consent of J. Patrick Lewis. Photos courtesy of J. Patrick Lewis.

More online resources about J. Patrick Lewis:

Hear J. Patrick Lewis share about his name.  Listen Now

Hear J. Patrick Lewis introduce and read from his book, Please Bury Me in the Library (HMH, 2005). Listen now

See all online resources for J. Patrick Lewis.

WIN A FREE COPY OF VODNÍK (High School)

WIN A FREE SET OF KOKESHI BOOKS (All ages)

Kokeshi are little dolls in a bright, big world! Meet the Kokeshi in Kimonos, then spend the day with Aoki and Yumi as they show you’re their school, friends, family, adorable wardrobes and get ready for fun and adventure. Along the way you’ll learn about Japanese culture and even learn a little Japanese.

Enter to win one of 3 sets by emailing danika@teachingbooks.net with the subject line “Kokeshi Books” and include your mailing address.

See the book trailer, download activities, and more.

Deadline: April 6, 2012