Jump Into A Book

Happy Roald Dahl Day

 

Roald Dahl Day takes place every September 13th, the celebrated birthday of one of the world's favorite storytellers. There are celebrations happening all over the world and Jump into a Book is no different. To get started go have a look at some of these very fun activities to not only prepare for your party but have fun jumping into some of the most well known books of all time.

 

Next on our list of Roald Dahl Day celebrations is the Reading Relay. How many Roald Dahl books have you read so far in your life? Though he has written many fantastic stories, our favorites are Matilda, The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits,Fantastic Mr. Fox, and of course James and the Giant Peach. If you should choose to take part in this very fun reading relay, and you are one of the first 5000 people to read 3 Roald Dahl books, you have the chance of owning your very own "I'm a Revolting Reader Badge."  Good-luck, I know you can do it.

 

Last on our list of incredible Roald Dahl Day celebrations is the fact that James and the Giant Peach is 50 years old.

Yes, who can believe that its been half a century since James Trotter walked up to a giant peach, stepped inside and shared a magnificent adventure with a grasshopper, spider, ladybug,centipede and an earth worm. Together they weathered many a storm and changed their fortune by working together.

Since we discovered that its a big birthday for James and the Giant Peach, we're taking part in a global peach of a party. It's our goal to roll a giant peach all around the world so why don't you join us and Follow that Peach! Here are the links to sending either a virtual or an actual paper peach a gram around the world.

And for those of you who love to jump into books as much as we do, the Roald Dahl Day celebration committee as put together a wonderful not to be missed book adventure called Teach the Peach. Have a really wonderful time and Happy Happy Roald Dahl Day !!!!! Oh and thank you Mr. Dahl for some wonderful years inside your books.

Today's illustrations are all by the incredible Quentin Blake.

 

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

While I was in N.Y.C. I made my usual pilgrimage to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This time, however, I took one of my favorite books along, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.

I had always wanted to read this book while inside the museum and this was my chance. As I would wander through each section of the museum I would find quaint little corners to sit and read in, such as the Egyptian section

and the roof top garden.

It was truly the perfect way to mix two of my favorite activities, reading and art, together.

If you haven’t read the book and are wondering why I would be reading a book while I was inside a museum, here’s why:

12 year old Caludia Kincaid is sick of the monotony of her life, the unfair amount of chores, her limited T.V. time, and her low allowance.

Claudia decides to run away from her home to some place beautiful, comforatble, and indoors. Being the organizer that she is, she crafts together a masterplan to escape to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while convincing her little brother Jamie to come with her.

The story unfolds and tells of their big adventure, of how they lived undetected for a whloe week inside the museum. while there, they took the opportunity to learn new things. While discovering each section of the museum, they run across a new exhibit housing a marble angel thought to be from the hands of Michelangelo, the famous italian painter and sculptor.

Caludia and Jaime decide to figure out the mystery of the statue before retuning home, that is if their money will hold out. Using the last of their finances they locate the previous owner of the statue Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, who also happens to be the narrator of this classic tale as well. After much negotiation between Mrs. Frankweiler and the children, a deal is reached and the true craftsman of the statue is uncovered.

This book won the Newbery Medal in 1968 and its no wonder why. Each time I would wander into a new section of the museum I would wonder where I would hide if I decided to live in the museum. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end as did my time with this favorite read and looking at some of the greatest art in the world.

If you were going to live in a museum, where would you make your home?

To find out more about what inspired this book have a look at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts “From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler brochure.

Something To Do:

 We’ve decided to go through the Metropolitan Museum Map section by section to study the art and it’s masters, as well as, create our own. First up, we have a small fascination with stained glass. For this project we made our own stain glass windows using a fantastic child friendly stain-glass kit. There are many time periods and styles of kits from this company and it is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Constructing real stain glass uses some very dangerous elements such as glass, and hot irons. There are many ways to make child friendly stained-glass and the fun we had in researching the project was fantastic as well. Next we’ll be moving onto sculpting but before we do I just have to say that this book is a such a great of incorporating art into our every day lives. It was so fun to re-visit this book from inside the museum and then to share that experience with the kids. Enjoy and Happy Reading. Oh and remember, there’s just a couple more days left in our Kate Di Camillo Giveaway. Be sure to join us.

 

The Danger Book

Just a quick reminder of a couple things before we dive into this great book. First don't forget to put our new url in your reader www.jumpintoabook.com. Second, don't forget the great giveaway we have going on right now, 5 Kate di Camillo books. If you use the twitter entry, each person who tweets about the giveaway gives you an extra chance to win and be sure to enter on our facebook fan page as well. If you shouldn't have either facebook or twitter, just leave me a comment and I'll enter you into the contest. 

Now let's getting going into the Danger Book........

 

 

“The Danger Box” by Blue Balliett is a wonderfully fun and quirky mystery by the author of “Chasing Vermeer” and ” The Wright 3″. The Danger Box is her fourth novel where she leaves the art scene of her previous three books behind and plants us firmly in the rural town of Three Oaks Michigan. There we find Zoomy, a sweet, legally blind 12 year old boy, living with his grandparents. Zoomy is a boy who notices everything. When his head gets too full of things it makes him nervous and he starts tapping and twitching to relieve his brain.  His grandmother after noticing this tendancy, bought him some notebooks and encouraged him to write his thoughts down. Now every time he observes something it gets placed on a list, written with a purple pen inside his notebooks.

Everything is fine in Zoomy’s world until the day that his no-good father Buckeye rolls into town in a stolen truck and a box to hide.

Buckeye’s secret box changes life for Zoomy but maybe not in the way you might think. Inside the box is a notebook filled with clues that leads Zoomy to the library for further investigation. There he meets the first friend of his life Lorrol ,pronounced Laurel. Both Lorrol and Zoomy love problem solving and together they work on solving a bunch of mysteries that have surfaced since the box with the notebook has come to town. Linking  history, science, and mysterious secrets that could change the world, The Danger Box is a real gem of a read.

Inside the pages of this great read are messages about fmilies coming in all shapes and sizes, kids doing amazing things, misfits finding their place, and the charm of a small town community. Blue Balliett weaves together a fast paced mystery using real facts, ( the object Zoomy finds is actually still missing in real life today), and places such as Three Oaks, Michigan.

Using codes, cryptic newspaper stories, and guessing games this story had us playing along with Zoomy and Lorrol as they uncovered the secrets of “the Danger Box”.

Won’t You Play Too?

Something to Do Book Review:

There are so many fun adventures to take with this book. First let’s make our own Danger Box.

Danger Box: Click on the link to find instructions to make a danger box and notebooks.

The Danger Box

Writing  in  Code

On page 38 of The Danger Box, the second Gas’s Gazette posts asks if we can write our names in code. Pulling out our crayons and markers we had a very fun time writing not only our names but messages as well in cryptic code. Can you figure out what I wrote in this message? Use the code breaker in the Second Gas’s Gazette to figure it out.

Can you make up your own secret code. Try it and share it with your family and friends. Send messages back and forth, it’s so much fun. My eldest daughter made up her own symbol based language called Felfish.

Publish Your Own Cryptic Gazette

The quotes used in Gas’s Gazette actually come from Darwin’s notebooks and letters. Using these to write Gazette posts in a “guess who” fashion is such a fun idea. Make your own gazette using a biography and or journal you’ve read about a person you admire. Using quotes create “guess who” Gazette posts and see if your readers can guess who you’re talking about. This is actually a very fun way to get to know about a lot of different people from different walks of life and fields of study.

~Spoiler Alert~

If you haven’t read the book yet, this will clue you in as to who created the still missing journal. Who could it be?

photo by stella magazine

Though Charles Darwin is known for his controversies, to me he is known for his incredible contributions to the biological sciences. In dealing with this book and it’s topic matter I focused on this perspective with my children. There are a lot of skills that can be gleaned from his observations, research, and sample studies. I was very surprised to find out in my research about Charles Darwin that he was actually conducting research all over the world and corresponded constantly with his research teams. 2000 people corresponded details to him about their findings on plant and animal life in the region they lived in. Along with his letters there were also many boxes through out the years sent to England to make a global biological composite of the plant and animal life of Earth. For Darwin’s personal research team he included many of his own family members. He was a very animated and personal man and I was really surprised to discover that. By reading through some of his letters I could gather a clear personality about him. TheDarwin Correspondence Project has all of his correspondence and is available online.

Here is a short excerpt from one of his field journals.

When Sedgwick returns we will look over your specimens & I will send you our joint report—^f4 they seem quite large enough!— I myself caught an Octopus at Weymouth this summer & observed the change of color whenever I opened the tin box in which I put it, but not in such great perfection as you seem to have done— The fact is not new, but any fresh observations will be highly important— Quere if a serpentine rock be not the produce of volcanic baking of a chloritic slate? The rock of S^t Paul may not be an exception to the usual character of the Isl^ds. of the Atlantic.^f5 I have got the description of the plates to the Dict. Classique & will send it where you direct. Your account of the Tropical forest is delightful, I can’t help envying you— So far from being disappointed with the Box—I think you have done wonders—as I know you do not confine yourself to collecting, but are careful to describe— Most of the plants are very desirable to me. Avoid sending scraps. Make the specimens as perfect as you can, root, flowers &leaves & you can’t do wrong. In large ferns & leaves fold them back upon themselves on one side of the specimen & they will get into a proper sized paper. Don’t trouble yourself to stitch them—for the really travel better without it— and a single label per month to

[DIAGRAM HERE] this side is folded back at the edges

those of the same place is enough except you have plenty of spare time or spare hands to write more. L. Jenyns does not know what to make of your land Planariæ. Do you mistake for such the curious Genus, “Oncidium” allied to y^e slug, of which a fig. is given in Lin. Transact.^f6 & are not the marine species also mollusca, perhaps Doris & other genera— Specimens & observations upon these w^d. be highly interesting. If you could get hold of Cuvier’s Anatomie des Mollusques,^f7 you w^d. find it very useful but I fear it is out of print— I will tell your Brother to enquire at Truttels.^f8 Watkins has received your letter— And now for the Box— Lowe underpacks Darwinoverpacks — The latter is in fault on the right side. You need not make quite so great a parade of tow & paper for the geolog^c. specimens, as they travel very well provided they be each wrapped up German fashion & closely stowed—but above all things don’t put tow round any thing before you have first wrapped it up in a piece of thin paper— It is impossible to clear away the fibres of the tow from some of your specimens without injuring them— An excellent crab has lost all its legs, & an Echinus 1⁄2 its spines by this error. I don’t think however than any other specimens besides these 2 have been at all injured. Another caution I w^d give is to place the number on the specimen always inside & never outside the cover. The moisture & friction have rubbed off one or two—& I can’t replace them. I shall thoroughly dry the different perishable commodities & then put them in pasteboard boxes with camphor & paste over the edges, & place them in my study or some very dry place. The heavy material I shall send to my lecture room, so soon as it is again habitable—for at present we are all in confusion—building a large Museum & lecture room & private rooms adjoining mine,^f9 for Clark & Cumming— I must now leave off for the Senate house & put this bye till I can find a few more minutes to conclude it.— Excerpt taken from the Darwin Correspondence Project

As you can see they had some problems transporting their specimens all the way back to England. Pretend you are a scientist and answer the following questions:

• If you were all the way down in South America in the 19th century, how would you send specimens back to England?
• What part of the plant would you send?
• What packing materials would you use?
• Is it better to send live animal specimens or dead animal specimens?
• If you wanted to know about something happening in another place on the planet how would go about finding the answers?
• How would you go about finding helpers to research for you?
• If you could investigate and explore any place on earth, where would you go and who would you take with you?
• What things would you bring along on the trip?
• Now look around you, right where you live? Write about the plants you find and discover, the birds that live in your yard, the types of bodies of water that exist around you. There is so much to discover.

This is a photo of Darwin’s actual library and study back in England.

 

When Jessie Came Across the Sea

When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest and Illustrated by P.J. Lynch

This beautifully illustrated story about a young Eastern European girl who travels across the sea to a new life in America, is one of those tried and true family treasures. Though my children enjoyed the story when they were younger, the real meaning kicked in starting at about 7 yrs old.

Jessie is 13 years old and the opportunity is given to her by the village rabbi to have his ticket to go to America. Jessie's decision is fraught with uncertainty as she will have to leave the grandmother she loves very much and who has raised her.

Once in America, Jessie takes up her grandmother's profession as a seamstress/dressmaker. Jessie works for 3 years to save enough money for her grandmother to come and be with her. The story and the illustrations are extremely panoramic and beautiful. It is such a pleasure to hold a picture book made for middle grade readers.  I recommend this book for read a loud or read together at age 6 or 7. 

• Reading level: Ages 6-12
• Paperback: 40 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick (September 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076361274X
• ISBN-13: 978-0763612740
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 11 x 0.2 inches

Somethings To Do:

This book lends itself nicely to opening up the discovery and exploration into one's heritage. We have jumped into this book as our own little family and we've done it within the confines of our bookclub. We welcome this book by opening conversations within our own families, about heritage, names, languages, and favorite foods.

Taking A Look:

What is your heritage and where to the various members of your family come from? When looking at geneaeology we always start with ourselves and work our way back. Here's a place to find a variety of family trees to print out. It's really so much fun to sit and help the children fill this out. We have very fun conversations about each person. Some of the people on our chart we didn't even know but we just like the sound of their name, such as my Great-grand mother's sister Lina-Stina-Petterson. This is also a great occasion to interview grandparents about their childhood. Have everyone in the family fill out a tree from different generations and you'll come up with even more relatives, names, and stories.

When we've done this in a party setting, we always send a copy of the familytree to each family with the party invitation. That way they can bring it all filled out to the party. 

Finding Your Family:

photo from the Ellis Island Archives

Unless you're Native American, your family came from a different country at some point. It might have been recently or several generations ago. One of the largest gateways into the United States was Ellis Island. People entering the United States from the 1850's through the 1920's probably came through Ellis Island. Look at your family tree and see if anyone on your tree lived during this time period. Were they born in the United States or did they come across the sea? 

Have a look at the Ellis Island Website, put in a name on your tree and see if you can find your relative.

Immigration Pot-Luck

One of our favorite things to do with this book, especially with our bookclub, is to invite everyone to bring two dishes from their ethnic heritage. Along with the great food, everyone is to dress up as one of their ancestors and be prepared to tell everyone who you are and what sort of life you lived or are living. It's really funny when one of the kids decided to be one of their grandparents and would reinact and talk about "The Olden Days" as if they were prehistoric times. 

Heritage Crafts

Flags: Creating flags either  using wax-crayons, paints or construction paper make a nice activity.

Culture Collages: Research the countries of your heritage. Taking images from those countries create a collage to place as a screen saver, movie, or print them out and actually collage them to poster board. It If you've happened to have visited the countries of your heritage, use your family photos. Including photos of fun family moments,childhood photos of grandparents and parents, make for a nice heritage family memory board.

The Heritage Game

Another request that is made of our Immigrant Potluck Supper guests or family dinner participants is to pack a small suitcase,trunk, or backpack. One is to reflect on what is important to them and what they would want to bring to the "New World". The rule was one trunk per person. Most people travelled with a sack of some kind. People who left their countries never or rarely went back to their place of birth. What they would take with them would be all they had to remember their family, country and friends. People did write letters back and forth but it would take weeks to get news from someone and many times the letters didn't make the crossing of the Atlantic ocean. 

Here are a few ways to bring this book to life. I hope you enjoy this lovely book and the celebration of heritage and culture. 

The Friendship Doll

From the author of Hattie Big Sky, Kirby Larson weaves a brilliant tale about a beautifully created Japanese doll, Miss Kanagawa.

Crafted by Master dollmaker Tatsuhiko, Miss Kanagawa was commissioned to be an ambassador of friendship between Japan and the United States. This part of the story is actually based on fact. 58 dolls in all were sent from Japan in 1927 to tour the United States with a doll to be left in each city of the tour. Tatsuhiko put a little something extra in the design of his special doll, she is able to "speak" to the children offering them advice, guidance, and reassurance along the way.

 photo of Miss Mie by University of Nebraska

There are five special young people whose lives are greatly touched by the beautiful friendship doll.

Bunny:

The story begins in 1927 with Miss Kanagawa arriving in New York City. Bunny wanted to be the one to give the welcoming speech at the reception but Belle Roosevelt was chosen instead. Planning to undermine and ruin Belle's speech, Bunny arrives early where she encounters Miss Kanagawa. I won't spoil what happens next.

Lois:

 Lois is invited by her Great-Aunt to the Chicago's Worlds Fair. Set in 1933 in the middle of the great depression, Lois's best friend is Mabel who is getting skinnier by the day due to lack of food. Upon hearing that Lois is going to the fair, Mabel is equally excited for her friend. The night before going to the fair, Lois's father, gives her a quarter to do something extra special with while at the fair. Lois's greatest wish is to ride on the "Sky-Ride". Taking a detour, she finds herself with her aunt at the doll exhibit where she meets Miss Kanagawa. What will Lois do with her quarter?

Willie-Mae

The next story takes us to the hills of Kentucky, where Willie Mae lives in a holler with her family. though Willie Mae and her family are very poor, Willie Mae loves to read and waits excitedly for the librarian to bring her books. One day the librarian comes not only with books but with a paying job reading for an old wealthy woman named Mrs. Weldon. Mrs. Weldon is viewed as a self-centered eccentric but Willie Mae sees her differently and enjoys their reading time together, as well as, organizing Mrs. Weldon's rock collection. This story especially grabbed out heart-strings as tragedy struck leaving Miss Kanagawa to give comfort to all.

Lucy:

Lucy Turner loves to write letters and along with the letters she is writing to her best firend Gloria Jean, Lucy writes to Eleanor Roosevelt asking for assistance. As Lucy and her father make their way from Oklahoma to Klamath Oregon, Lucy always has hope that a secure furture is around the corner. Finally they enter a FSA camp in Oregon where Lucy goes to school. One saturday her class went to visit Dr. Evans new museum. There, she discovers the "Land of the Sun", a room about Japan. As Lucy spies Miss Kanagawa, she is completely captivated with her beauty and all of her accessories. As WWII begins, anything Japanese was considered unpatriotic and Dr. Evans was forced to put the lovely doll away.

Mason:

Jumping to the present day, Mason doesn't want to visit his grandmother Seal. Seal is suffering from Alzheimers but all Mason wants is the grandmother that he knows and loves. No longer recognizing Mason or his sister Emma, the children leave Seal in their mother's care and head up to the attic for a little exploring. They come across Miss Kanagawa in her little trunk. They bring the doll down to Seal who becomes very animated upon seeing her once cherished treasure. Holding Miss Kanagawas, Seal shares moments from her past for the first time in months. What secrets does she disclose? 

We absolutely loved this book and couldn't put it down. I think we read it out loud in two days. We read it everywhere we went. The historical details are well researched and woven seamlessly into the story. Kirby Larson is a creative storyteller who weaves the power of friendship into every page of this wonderful story.

Recommended for read a-loud starting at age 5 or 6 and solo reading for age 9.

Something To Do: An Origami Friendship Doll

To bring the heart of this story home, we created our own version of an origami friendship doll. Often times origami can be very difficult to teach without sitting right next to the teacher. We worked on this pattern until we came up with a version that even the very smallest hands can do. Please click on the link below to download the tutorial. Enjoy!

Download Origami Friendship Dolls Tutorial

 

Grandfather Tang's Story: A blog post told in Tanagrams

Told in tanagrams, the story of Grandfather Tang's story by AnnTompert, is about two fairy foxes.

Fairy foxes are ancient animals indeed, just like all fairies. Fairy foxes can change shape into anything. The two fairy foxes in our story constantly challenge each other into changing from one animal shape to another. 

First a rabbit and then a squirrel.

After a couple of easy animal changes they changed into a hawk to fly high in the sky.

All was well as they continued to change from animals from land, sea, and sky. It was at the goose where problems arose.

Come read this tanagram tale and find out how they work together to have a happy ending. This story is good for any age. Even my 12 yr old loved it and we all had an absolute blast playing our tanagram game. Read below to find out how.

Something To Do:

This story lends itself nicely to a moment of tanagram play. Tanagrams is a very ancient chinese game using 7 shapes.

• 2 large right triangles.
• 1 medium right triangle.
• 2 small right triangles.
• 1 square
• 1 parallelogram.

We first read the story of Grandfather Tang's Story and then the second time through we made the tanagrams as we read along. 

What is the legend behind tanagrams?

Legend of the Tangram

  A legend says: "Thousands and thousands of years ago, Yu(玉龍), the Great Dragon, lived among humans, who venerated him because he was 'yang', good, and was always ready to help them. One day, the God of Thunder, jealous of the offerings the men had brought to Yu, in a burst of anger, crushed the sky with his hatchet. So, the sky fell on Earth in seven pieces black like coal. Light disappeared taking with it all existing things.
  At first Yu felt sad for the world, and then felt nostalgic. So he decided to collect the seven black pieces of the sky and, in memory of the former world, began to reassemble several kinds of shapes: animals, plants and human beings that had disappeared. But after finishing each shape, its shadow left it and wandered the deserted world crying about its misfortune.
  These complaints reached the ears of the God of Thunder who was touched and, to remedy the harm he had caused, he pulled from each shadow the body of a living being to repopulate the Earth. From that time on, our shadow faithfully follows every move we make and with the seven pieces of the sky, called Qi Qiao Ban (literally 'seven boards of cunning'), everything on Earth can still be shaped".

Source: Almanacco del Matematico, © G. Sarcone, 2001

The Tanagram Game

We went to the library and checked out a tanagram book. Making many of the animals and figures, we photographed them, made a photo-collage,and printed them onto card stock. Cutting them apart, we now have many tanagram cards.

• Make one set of tanagram shapes for each person.
• Mix the cards up and turn them face down. 
• Each person on their turn draws a card and constructs the tanagram. 
• See how fast you can do play the game. 

Enjoy !!!!!

Wee Gillis

The two gentlemen who wrote and illustrated one of our all time faovrite books "Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, have also penned one of our new faovrites "Wee Gillis".

Back in print after 20 years, I picked this up in N.Y.C. while I was at Book Expo America. The green cover caught my eye and as I quickly thumbed through the book, the pen and ink sketches brought to life the lovely landscape of Scotland in a very lovely and simple way.

I was not prepared for what would happen when the book arrived home. This little gem of a story captured our hearts and won us over.

Wee Gillis is an orphan who lives in Scotland.

Half of the year he spends with his mother's family in the lowlands, and the other half he spends with his father's family in the highlands. While in the lowlands he herds the cows by calling to them. In the highlands he stalks stags from outcrop to outcrop holding his breath and walking as quietly as possible, not making a sound.

The day comes as he nears adulthood that he should pick if he will live with his mother's family in the lowlands, or his father's family in the highlands. As everyone is pulling dear Wee Gillis in opposite directions, he stays completely calm and resolute in the fact that he loves both sides of his family no matter where they live.

In the end it is music which solves the problem. After calling in the cows, and holding his breath as he was stalking stags, Wee Gillis ended up playing the largest bagpipes in all of Scotland. I won't tell you who he ended up living with but I will tell you that this is a story about being who you are out in the world, excepting people for who they are, and learning that the tasks one does today may lend themselves to teaching important skills for the future.

Have you read Wee Gillis? What did you think?

Somethings To Do

 The very first thing we did was use one of our cookie molds to make ourselves some scottish shortbread. 

Scottish Shortbread Recipe

Would you like to learn a little bit more about Scotland. Have a look at the following links:

http://www.scotland.org/culture/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland

 

Would you like to learn more about Scottish Tartan? Have a look at the tartan finder to see if you can find your family tartan and have a go at weaving your own.

http://www.house-of-tartan.scotland.net/

Would you like to learn how to play the bagpipes? Have a listen and then go learn how.

 

http://www.hotpipes.com/practice.html

Have a look at some long-haired cows or some stags.

Would you like to do a little weaving of your very own?

http://www.firstpalette.com/Craft_themes/Colors/Paper_Weaving/Paper_Weaving.html

 

Here's a look at our own Highland Games . Hope you've enjoyed this look into Scotland.

Project Mulberry

I was walking in the yard the other day and discovered that some how we have a volunteer mulberry tree. Well it's just huge and it's growing mulberries. 

For someone who walks their yard everyday I don't really know how I missed this but I did. As the family began picking Mulberries, we were reminded of the most incredible story about a mulberry leaf, silkworm project written by Linda Sue Park (author of The Single Shard) called, Project Mulberry. 

Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park

240 pages for Grades 4-7

Julia, a 7th grader who has just moved to Plainfield Illinois with her family is coming to terms with her new home and school environments. From the moment they meet, Julia and Patrick become best friends. Needing a project to enter in the State Fair, they ask Julia's mom , who suggests raising silkworms. Julia refuses this idea at first because she is wanting something a little more American. Julia's parents are Korean and she feels very self conscious about her asian heritage. Julia doesn't want to be identified or labeled by her culture.

Finally, Julia accepts the project and reluctantly takes on the responsibilities which are needed to complete the project. Each unfolding step into the world of silkworms helps Julia to embrace her heritage and value her friendship with Patrick even more.

Woven into the story are the themes of racism, nature's cycles, life and death, folk art, family relations, self-acceptance and sustainable farming. At the end of each chapter Julia, the main character, has a discussion with the author Linda Sue Park about the direction the story should take. It opens the door to the inside world of the writer's process.

Something To Do

As we stood under our mulberry tree remembering this great story, we decided right then and there that we had to grow our own silkworms. I must admit to you that we are at the beginning of this process and are waiting for our little silkworm eggs to arrive. We promise to keep you updated on our progress. 

Would you like to join us in growing silk worms? Just leave a comment below and let us know if you will share this experience with us.

Here's where you can order the silkworms:

The Carolina Company has a silkworm farm kit.

They also offer silkworm eggs and food.

A few weeks ago I saw the most interesting TED talk about what they are now using silk for. It's amazing and is being used in ways one could not even imagine. It is taking science and technology to a new level. This is a great video for kids probably age 8 and older.

 

Olivia's Birds: Saving the Gulf

“ I am willing to help, and I want to make a

difference for those birds. I want to be their voice.”

Olivia Bouler

 

These are the words of 11 year old Olivia Bouler. This is an incredible book about one eleven- year- old girl who is making a difference. 

Olivia’s Birds: Saving the Gulf

By Olivia Bouler

Ages 9-12

Audubon Publishing

32 pages

ISBN 978-1-4027-8665-5

Written in her own words and illustrated with her own palette of colors, Olivia has written a book about what she loves most, .....birds. A wonderful and informative field guide featuring 50 beautifully hand-drawn birds. This picture/book, field guide is different from anything you've ever read. It's a celebration of her brave efforts to save those birds horribly affected by the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

(author provided photo)

Though Olivia lives on Long Island with her parents and brother Jackson, she spends most summers of her life down on the gulf with her cousins and grandparents. When she saw the devastation of the oil spill, she "just sat down and sobbed", and then she picked herself up and knew she could make a difference.

She ran right upstairs and wrote a letter to the Audubon Society. She told them that she was willing to help and wanted to make a difference for those birds. Audubon said,"They'd be happy to accept her help."  Olivia was happy that she had taken that very first step in helping the birds of the Gulf Coast.

So how does one 11 year old girl single handedly raise 200,000 dollars to save an entire region?

She organized a fundraiser called "Save The Gulf". For her fundraiser, Olivia created and donated 500 original watercolor illustrations, many of which are showcased in her book, Olivia's Birds: Saving the Gulf. Knowing that her passion is a love of birds and that she drew them often, she decided that for each person who would give a donation to her fund, she would in return paint them a bird. To date she has made over 500 paintings of 120 different birds. To help her get the word out, AOL distributed her paintings all over the web and all over the world. 

"My whole life has been connected to nature, and this is the only Earth we've got. We can't move to another planet, so we have to try to fix Earth. We only have one chance to do it."

Olivia is also aware that just one person can't change the current state of our planet. One person can make a difference but it takes many of us to make a permanent change. 

Somethings We Can Do:

Here are a few things Olivia asks us to do:

• Build a bird feeder.
• Put out unprocessed birdseed or sunflower seeds in your yard to feed the birds.
• Set- up a recycling group in your school or house.
• Cut down on paper consumption.
• Recycle EVERY DAY.
• Compost egg shells, banana peels, orange peels, and other food garbage. It will tu rn into dirt that you can use to plant trees.

Make sure that  you're always telling your family and friends what you're doing to save the planet and encourage them to do the same. Everyone's efforts are important. 

How are you inspired to safe the planet? What things are you doing to make the world a better place?

Here are some links to some important earth protection organizations:

• National Aududon Society 
• National Wildlife Federation
• The Nature Conservancy
• Sierra Club
• Olivia's Paintings

Olivia's Facebook Fan Page.

Olivia on Twitter

 In her own words:

Here There Be Dragons

The Imaginarium Geographica

“What is it?” John asked.

The little man blinked and arched an eyebrow.

 

“It is the world, my boy,” he said. “All the world, in ink and blood, vellum and parchment, leather and hide. It is the world, and it is yours to save or lose.”

From the Publisher:

An unusual murder brings together three strangers, John, Jack, and Charles, on a rainy night in London during the first World War. An eccentric little man called Bert tells them that they are now the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica — an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale. These lands, Bert claims, can be traveled to in his ship the Indigo Dragon, one of only seven vessels that is able to cross the Frontier between worlds into the Archipelago of Dreams.

Pursued by strange and terrifying creatures, the companions flee London aboard the Dragonship. Traveling to the very realm of the imagination itself, they must learn to overcome their fears and trust in one another if they are to defeat the dark forces that threaten the destiny of two worlds. And in the process, they will share a great adventure filled with clues that lead readers to the surprise revelation of the legendary storytellers these men will one day become.

An extraordinary journey of myth, magic, and mystery, Here, There Be Dragons.

This book had us dreaming of boarding a Dragon Ship or at the very least a Tall Ship to take us to the lands of imagination and myth.

Once we started this book we found ourselves staying up very late at night to find out "what happens next".  Oh and what happened next can only be found in our imaginations and in the pages of this book.

The three young travelers meet Bert, who helps them flee from the minions of the Winter King, Mordred. They journey on Bert's ship, the Indigo Dragon (captained by Bert's daughter Aven, to whom Jack is attracted), to Avalon, and then to Paralon, the capital of the Archipelago. There was no king, as the lineage of Arthur had supposedly been ended when the Winter King killed the last king and all of his relatives. The party discovers also that the Winter King is searching for the High King's Ring, which they have.

Around this time, the partners realize how dangerous the Imaginarium Geographica could be in the wrong hands, and decide to destroy it. As it can only be destroyed by he who made it, the Cartographer of Lost Places, the companions journey to his refuge, the Keep of Time. They lose the book, however, before reaching the Keep, but after they leave the keep they find that their potboy, Artus, is a descendant of King Arthur. However, the ring is then stolen.

The companions also discover that Mordred is using Pandora's Box to create shadow minions, and decide to meet him in a battle on the island at the end of the world. During the battle, Charles is charged with closing Pandora's Box, which he does, eliminating Mordred's shadow minions. Jack is charged to fight on the battlefield, where he was responsible for the death of another man, Captain Nemo. John was charged with leading Artus to the bluffs of the island, where a descendant of Arthur could, with the incantation in the Geographica and the Ring of Power, summon dragons.

They summon the dragons, discovering that the Ring of Power is not jewelry but a ring of standing stones remarkably like Stonehenge located on the cliffs of the island. After the dragons rout the enemy troops, the companions again encounter Mordred, who is thrown off the edge of the world by a dragon.

The companions then return to their own world, where their true identities are revealed but you'll have to read the book to discover that.

I found this book to be very well balanced in combining well known author figures and characters, as well as events from myths and a great combination of male and female heros working collaboratively. 

This book is recommended for YA or age 13 and above. This has to do with the murder of the professor in the beginning of the book and subsequent battles between creatures both mythical and human. The last scene in the book is a full fledge war but described from a point of strategy and not gory detail. Each child is different and you have to make the decision which best suites your family. My 11 year old never felt frightened with this book or overwhelmed. 

Something to Do Book Review:

All of our activites had to do with ship building and wishing for a magical ship to come and take us to imagined lands.

A Dragon Ship is assigned a dragon to it and this is what makes it move at lightening speed. It got us thinking, what sort of ship would one want? We had a ship building afternoon before we headed out to sea.

"O" loved the idea of recycle, reuse, re-purpose.

Mimi embraced a flying ship made of a cereal box and paper. Photo to follow. It's still drying!

and I.....well I went with a basic look of a simple folded paper boat. Go with what you know! and.....it floats on water.

For your own afternoon fun, here's how to make a paper boat and a fleet of your very own.

Download How to make a Paper Boat

We do have a very large secondary project happening throughout the five book series. We will show you a glimpse of this very soon.

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