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The Power of Routine

No one ever wants to get into a rut, but for me, for many things, I need to do them the same way over and over again everyday for them to "work."
Take writing for example.
When I first started writing, when it was a hobby, and something I didn't really believe I could do, I only wrote sporadically. I only wrote when I was inspired. Writing was mostly fun, but I didn't revise most of what I wrote, and none of it was ever really good, though some of it was promising.
When I finally was hit with a burning desire to really write, to try to write something worth having written, I decided to see what all the fuss was about writing every day, the BIC (butt-in-chair) method. It's much harder, in a way. There are many days I don't feel "inspired" and I sit at much computer feeling as though it takes a monumental effort to type each word. But lately I've noticed that these days happen more often if I'm not writing every day. Even if I write only one paragraph, it's still easier to sit down the next day to write another paragraph than if I hadn't. It's a habit.
I know I'm not the first person to make this observation, and I didn't even make it for myself. I've certainly heard others talk about it before I felt it. But some things are like that. You can hear them over and over, but then one day you live them, and it means something completely different.

Ch...ch...chapterbooks!

Thank you to everyone at ISLMA who came to hear my talk on chapterbooks, a topic so near and dear to my heart. Here is a list (definitely not exhaustive) to get you started!


Great Chapterbooks!
• Adler, David : Cam Jansen books
• Armstrong, Jennifer: Patrick Doyle is Full of Blarney
• Avi,: S.O.R. Losers
• Auch, Mary Jane: I Was a Third Grade Science Project and others
• Betancourt, Jeanne: Pony Pals series
• Blume, Judy: Freckle Juice
• Brown, Jeff: Flat Stanley books
• Catling, Patrick: The Chocolate Touch
• Chew, Ruth : The Wednesday Witch (and other books)
• Choe, Sook Nyul: The Best Older Sister
• Christopher, Matt: Soccer Cats series
• Clifford, Eth: Help! I'm A Prisoner In The Library
• Coerr, Eleanor : Sadako And The Thousand Paper Cranes
• Conford, Ellen: Jenny Archer books
• Coville, Bruce: Space Brats books and many others
• Cuyler, Margery: Weird Wolf and others
• Dadey, Debbie: Bailey School Kids series and others
• Dahl, Roald: George’s Marvelous Medicine, The Enormous Crocodile and others
• Dalgliesh, Alice: The Courage of Sarah Noble and also The Bears on Hemlock Mountain
• Danziger, Paula: Amber Brown books
• Deary, Terry: Calamity Kate
• DeClements, Barthe: Fourth Grade Wizards
• Delton, Judy: Pee Wee Scouts series
• Duffey, Betsy: Math Wiz; Gadget War; How to Be Cool in Third Grade
• Estes, Eleanor: The Hundred Dresses
• Friedman, Laurie: The Mallory Books
• Gannett, Ruth: My Father's Dragon
• Giff, Patricia Reilly: Polk Street School books
• Gifford, Peggy: Moxy Maxwell Books
• Greenburg, Dan: The Zach Files series
• Gutman, Dan: Weird School series
• Haddix, Margaret Peterson: Say What?
• Herman, Charlotte: the "Max Malone" titles
• Hesse, Karen: Sable
• Hiller, BB: Rent a Third Grader
• Howe, James: Bunnicula books
• Hughes, Ted: The Iron Giant
• Hurwitz, Johanna: Class President; Fourth Grade Fuss and others
• King-Smith, Dick : Lady Lollipop and many others
• Kline, Suzy: Herbie Jones and Horrible Harry books
• Korman, Gordon: Nose-Pickers from Outer Space
• Krulik, Nancy: Katie Kazoo books
• Kurtz, Jane: Bicycle Madness; I’m Sorry Almira Ann
• Landon, Lucinda: Meg Mackintosh series
• Levy, Elizabeth: The monster series (Dracula is a pain in the neck- Gorgonzola Zombies in the Park...etc.)
• Lowry, Lois: Gooney Bird Greene books
• Look, Lenore: Alvin Ho books
• MacLachlan, Patricia: Sarah, Plain And Tall
• Martin, Ann: Baby-Sitters Younger sister series
• Meyerhoff, Jenny: Third Grade Baby
• Mills, Claudia: 7x9=Trouble; Being Teddy Roosevelt; How Oliver Olson Changed the World
• Myers,Laurie: Earthquake in the Third Grade
• Osborne, Mary Pope: The Magic Treehouse Series
• Park, Barbara: The Junie B. Jones series
• Pennypacker, Sara: Clementine Books
• Peterson, John: The Littles series
• Pilkey, Dav: The Adventures of Captain Underpants
• Roy, Ron: A to Z Mysteries Series
• Rylant, Cynthia: Cobble Street Cousins books
• Sachar, Louis: Marvin Redpost series
• Sharmat, Marjorie: Nate the Great series
• Sobol, Donald: Encyclopedia Brown Series
• Stine, R.L.: Goosebumps
• Strasser, Todd: Help I'm trapped in... series
• Szeika, Jon: The Time Warp Trio series
• Wright, Betty Ren: The Ghost Witch

The Winners!

Congratulations to the following 20 classrooms, schools and teachers that have one the third grade box of fun!
I'll be in touch!

Mr. K. at Chandler Elementary School, Indiana
Mrs. B. at Shawswick Elementary, Indiana
Mrs. M. at Bart-Colerain Elementary, Pennsylvania
Mrs. R. at Kratz Elementary, Missouri
Mrs. B. at Mabel Elementary, North Carolina
Mrs. Y. at Lake Windward Elementary, Georgia
Mrs. J. at Washington Elementary School, Wisconsin
Ms. D. at Glover School, Massachusetts
Ms. L. at Mt. Marion Elementary School, New York
Mrs. S. at Ft. McCoy School, Florida
Mrs. C. at Braeside School, Illinois
Mrs. M. at St. Stephen's Episcopal School, Pennsylvania
Ms. G. at Orrington Elementary, Illinois
Ms. W. at Harris Elementary School, Missouri
Ms. H. at Woodland Consolidated School, Maine
Ms. S. at Franklin School, New Jersey
Ms. D. at South Allegheny Elementary, Pennsylvania
Ms. B. at South Allegheny Elementary, Pennsylvania
Mrs. H. at Walter C. Black Elementary, New Jersey
Ms. S. at J. Fred Spark School, Levittown, New York

Happy Reading!!!

Since when does autumn start in August?

This is my backyard.


All those dots?

What do children know about past lives?

Yesterday my four year old said, "One day I will be 91 and then I will die and then it will be my next life."

It was so out of the blue it was hard not to feel like he was having some sort of prophetic moment. I'm not a big past life person either. I mean, I don't really know what happens after we die, and I don't rule it out, but it's certainly not something he's ever heard me talk about. I'm not sure where the idea came from at all. Unless...

"Do you remember your last life?" I asked him.

He put his hand on his chin and thought for a moment, eyes up in his head, really trying hard to recall. "That's the one where I wore glasses," he finally announced.

Wow. I thought. Wow. He's only four. It could be possible that he really still has a connection to what his soul did in other bodies. I started to feel all mystical. I could hear ethereal music playing at the edges of my mind.

My twelve year old piped in. "Do you remember what your name was?"

"Calvin," he answered. No hesitation.

Unbelievable.

Then my four year old looked at his big sister. "You're name was Malvin." At his big brother, "You're name was Dalvin."

Calvin, Malvin and Dalvin, huh?

I think I just got punked by a four year old.

Thoughts on Tattoos

Laurie Halse Anderson has an interesting post today. She received an email from a reader who plans to tattoo the word speak somewhere on her body, possibly neck, because of the tremendous impact Laurie's book Speak had on her. Laurie then described the tattoo she has, the first word of Beowulf, a powerful statement for a storyteller.

I've known for a long time that I'm not likely ever to get a tattoo. That's partly for religious reasons, but much more for personal ones. Now that sounds judgemental, but it's not how I mean it at all. I'm actually in awe and impressed by the above two examples. Women who have such a deep certainty about some aspect of themselves that they are ready to permanantly and publicly display it on their skin.

I'm not sure that I know myself all that well yet. Everytime I've contemplated a tattoo (or even a vanity license plate for that matter, though I know they are not the same) I cannot think of anything that so captures the essense of me that I know it will always be true. Not a word, not an image.

Now maybe I'm over thinking it.

Maybe I'm not.

Ink or no ink, however, I do look forward to the day when I feel as though I know something about myself that clearly.