Busy, busy, busy!!

Sorry it's been a while.  Lots of school work!  But that means lots of reading.  Since you probably don't want to hear about Newton's Three Laws of Motion...  I'll just mention a few of the books I have read over the past couple of weeks.

 I just finished "The Kite Fighters"  by Linda Sue Park.  It's about 15th century Korea and two young brothers from a very traditional family that discover they have a knack for building and flying kites.  Their kite flying abilities draw the attention of the young King, who befriends them and commands them to build him a kite.  The older brother, Kee-sup Lee, creates a beautiful dragon kite for him.  And the young brother, Young-sup Lee, flies the kite in the annual kite flying (and fighting) contest.  This was written in 2000.  Highly recommended - boys in particular should enjoy it.  4th - 8th.  But be prepared to fly kites when you are done!

Also, "Birds on a Wire: a Renga 'Round Town" by 

J. Patrick Lewis and Paul B. Jancezko

What’s a Renga?  It is poetry, similar to Haiku (in fact, Haiku sprang from Renga) and it’s over 800 years old! It is collaborative poetry where one poet writes the first stanza, which is three lines long and then the next poet adds the second stanza, a couplet.  Renga literally means “linked poem”.  Each verse links in some way with the one preceding it but not necessarily with the others which means it can take the story in a completely new direction.  Rengas can be hundreds of stanzas long.  Fortunately, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Jacezko managed to keep their Renga under thirty stanzas.  They also altered things a bit - they each wrote five lines and then broke them into three-line and two-line stanzas.  Their Renga centers around one day in the life of a small town.

 birds on a wire

in failing light

turn home to oak and elm

park trees become noisemakers

until the flock of screeches stills

I think this would be a wonderful book for both middle school and high school.  English teachers, art teachers, or librarians could let their students work together to create Renga based on their own art or photographs.  

I also have read a dozen picture books - but I will post those tomorrow.  Happy reading!