Take Me With You by Tara Altebrando

 Take Me With You by Tara Altebrando

Thanks to @kidlitexchange, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Tara Altebrando for sharing an ARC of this book! It released 6/23/2020, and I know I've been in quarantine for too long when I see that date and think "Oh good, I'll be able to review it before it's released!" ... It's mid-August, people. I need to look at a calendar.

This book is a page-turner! Four students who hardly know each other are summoned to an empty classroom after school, and no one knows why. Until they see a strange device on the teacher's desk. It's almost like an Alexa, except... it's not. When the students try to leave the room, the device says that they must take it with them. Then more rules are revealed, often after one of the teens does something wrong. The consequences seem steep, and they're scared into doing what the device asks. Meanwhile, the device is also trying to figure out its purpose, and it needs help from the four teens it has under its control.

The suspense in this book had me flying through the first 200 pages, but as soon as an explanation about the device started to come to light, it lost me. I know I'm an adult reading a YA book, but even for teen readers, I don't think the surface-level resolution will be enough. There was potential to really explore this resolution and push it to the limit, while also wrapping things up nicely, but it fell flat and still feels unresolved to me.

STEAM Sunday: Monsters Love Colors

When I was a joint MakerSpace teacher + librarian, I loved using books as my jumping off points for MakerSpace lessons. Books are my comfort zone, and reading a book aloud to start a lesson is a great way to introduce a concept and get everyone on topic. These "lessons" don't have to be done for an entire classroom, and don't even have to be done the way I outline them here, but I thought it would be something fun to share.

Piggybacking off the last STEAM Sunday: Mix It Up! is another color mixing lesson with Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin. I used this with Early Childhood students, ages 3-6, because it's a bit sillier and younger than Mix It Up! I'm sure it could be adapted to be used with older students, but since Mix It Up! worked so well with older kids, I didn't worry about aging this title up.

Monsters Love Colors is a fun, silly way to incorporate a little movement ("Mix, dance, and wiggle!") into a read-aloud before you get your lesson started. Since we had done the Mix It Up! lesson with colored water the week before, students already knew color mixing basics. That's just one reason I loved that this title was more fun - they had a good time wiggling and sharing their knowledge, and it was also an engaging refresher course.

For this hands on activity, there was a plate of paint at each work station: red, blue, and yellow. I originally did this lesson in Fall, so the challenge was to take those three colors and paint "Five Little Pumpkins" (which we read in library that week - tying it all together!). This meant they had to make orange and green. It was a lot of fun to see students draw their own pumpkins and then color them in. 

There are a lot of challenges you can do with color mixing that don't depend on a season, so have fun thinking up things students can draw that require purple, orange, and green paint.

STEAM Sunday: Mix It Up!

When I was a joint MakerSpace teacher + librarian, I loved using books as my jumping off points for MakerSpace lessons. Books are my comfort zone, and reading a book aloud to start a lesson is a great way to introduce a concept and get everyone on topic. These "lessons" don't have to be done for an entire classroom, and don't even have to be done the way I outline them here, but I thought it would be something fun to share.

Herve Tullet makes amazing interactive books that I love reading aloud in storytimes and library classes, and I really enjoyed using Mix It Up! in MakerSpace last year. Color mixing is a great way to kick off art lessons, and if your supplies are limited, it's also a great way to show students they can make their "limited" colors go a lot further!

After experiencing the book together, I got out colored ice cubes. In clear cups, I had students tell me which colors to mix together, and guess which color they would melt together to make. You can also quiz them by asking "What cubes do I need to pick to make orange?"

For individual work, we had three cups of water at each work station, and three empty cups. I put drops of food coloring in each water cup - red, blue, and yellow. Students used eyedroppers to pull colored water and mix it into the empty cups. They had sturdy watercolor paper they could drip water on to make beautiful abstract works of art.

The idea, of course, was for them to make their own hues of orange, purple, and green, but the younger students really enjoyed making their own brand new colors. A way to keep this as a creative learning experience is to have them name their new colors and explain how they made it, as best they could. For example: "I made orablue, by mixing a little bit of red, a little bit of yellow, and even more blue."

I used this lesson for Early Childhood, Lower Elementary, and Upper Elementary students. There was a bit of a mess with all age groups, but I think there's a good way to use this with younger children and not worry about the mess. For Toddlers, you can put paint in ziploc bags and let them literally mix it up! Put red paint in the right side of the bag, blue paint on the left side, place the bag flat on a table, and let the kids smush the color together! Same with blue and yellow, and red and yellow.

STEAM Sunday: The Great Santa Stakeout

When I was a joint MakerSpace teacher + librarian, I loved using books as my jumping off points for MakerSpace lessons. Books are my comfort zone, and reading a book aloud to start a lesson is a great way to introduce a concept and get everyone on topic. These "lessons" don't have to be done for an entire classroom, and don't even have to be done the way I outline them here, but I thought it would be something fun to share.

To start it all off, considering this time of year, I knew I should use The Great Santa Stakeout by Betsy Bird, illustrated by Dan Santat. I read it with my son and reviewed it recently, and it inspired a lot of STEM-y thoughts for me.

First off, the front endpapers are blueprints of Freddy's plans to take a selfie with Santa. Looking over the blueprints is a great way to get a hint of what's going to happen in the story, but also a way to start a conversation about ideas. Lots of ideas can come to you and then float away if you don't do anything about them. But writing them down and drawing them out can help make them a reality.

The story itself breaks Freddy's plot down into steps. After looking at the front endpapers and reading the story, kids will have a plan for how they can make their idea seem more manageable by breaking it into bite-sized pieces. The back endpapers have [SPOILER ALERT!] more blueprints of Freddy's next idea, so kids can see how, if something doesn't work the first time, they can go back to it, tweak a few things, and try again.

This is, of course, the way scientists do experiments, but since it's demonstrated in such a fun way, with an entertaining story to go along with it, it might seem more inviting than a full-scale science project. Also, I think introducing the concept via a picture book will help younger readers with this skill.

With this foundation, there are so many ways to continue this on into STEM lessons. For example:

• students could pick their favorite celebrity/public figure and try to plot how they'd get a selfie. (I can see this being a great choice for my 4th-7th graders.)
• students can plot how they would sneak a peek at Santa. (This might be best for home lessons, unless your school or library allows Christmas/Santa books and programs. Or, if this is for older kids who don't believe anymore, it could possibly be allowed.)
• students can map out a building concept. My students always loved building challenges involving marshmallows and toothpicks. You could ask them to draw a blueprint of a building using # of marshmallows and # of toothpicks (limits always make it more challenging!). Have them pitch their drawings, then let them build what they planned. Set an additional challenge, like the structure has to stand on its own for 10 seconds. If they do it, hurrah! If not, have them go back to the drawing board and draft another set of blueprints. This could also be done as partners or small groups. NOTE: While the marshmallows and toothpicks are fun and look snowy to go along with the book's theme, you could always use blocks, Legos, paper, or any building material!

I also think that blueprints and diabolical plots automatically lend themselves to Rube Goldberg machines. Have students draw a blueprint of their own custom Rube Goldberg design, even if it's not something they can actually build with materials you have (or even materials that actually exist!). Start brainstorming with the end goal - for example, I want slime to land on the head of the next person who comes into the room. How do I accomplish this? Maybe by putting a bucket of slime on the door, but how would it balance without plopping down? How else could I get slime onto someone's head? Start with the end goal and work backwards. If you're using this for a lesson, give students a certain number of steps or actions they need to use. For example, if I need to have 5 actions in my machine, I can't just prop a bucket of slime on top of the door - I need four more actions to make this happen. That's a great way to get imaginations going.

CLOUD901 – A Digital Learning Lab Exclusively for Teens

CLOUD901 is a digital learning lab that opened September 16, 2015 in the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library in Memphis, Tennessee. At 8,300 square feet over two floors, it is one of the largest learning labs in the country—and it’s all for teens. To enter the lab, you must be a library card holder between the ages of 13-18 (or be an adult on a scheduled tour). The space is amazing—I never thought I’d willingly be in high school again… but CLOUD901 would make it worth it.

Read the full post on YALSAblog and share your thoughts!

It's a Book

Plot Summary
The monkey is reading a book when the jackass (no, really!) comes up and starts asking endless questions about what the monkey’s doing and what the book can do. The jackass seems to only have experience with electronics and technology - will he understand what a book can do, and will he be interested enough to read one?

Critical Analysis
This book is a book. A book about how books are just… books. There’s no power button, no need to charge it up, nothing to press or swipe or tweet. The jackass seems clueless about books, but the monkey very patiently explains what a book is and how it can entertain you. This is a great lesson for kids - both for those who need to know what a book is and how to enjoy it, as well as a lesson in patience for all kids. The monkey shows them how they can be kind and patient and help those around them become interested in new and different things.

Personal Response
Be still my somewhat-anti-technology heart! I’ve gone from being something of a computer nerd to not really wanting to be on the computer at all. I held out on getting a smartphone until just over a year ago, and now I try to not be on it all the time. I wrote an article about keeping kids from technology when they’re really young, and am trying to keep it that way. I want my son to love physical books (and thankfully, at 8 months, he already does!) and use his hands and imagination to play with things, instead of sitting on his butt playing games on a screen. This book is so matter-of-fact, with the sly character of the jackass making me smile. It’s simple and silly enough to appeal to kids, and there’s a smirk shared with the parents reading it.

Reviews & Awards
Booklist says “Although it is adults, not children, who will best appreciate the subject and satire here, the basic drama created by the characters’ arguments may help this find an audience among kids, especially tech-savvy ones.” USA Today’s “Pop Candy” blog sums it up best, saying “Although it is adults, not children, who will best appreciate the subject and satire here, the basic drama created by the characters’ arguments may help this find an audience among kids, especially tech-savvy ones.”

Connections & Activities
You can’t go wrong with Lane Smith! He has been writing and illustrating books since 1987 on a variety of subjects - fiction and nonfiction both! Check them out on his webpage, or better yet - go find them on your local library’s shelf!

Read it for yourself!
Smith, Lane. 2010. It’s a Book. New York: Roaring Brook Press. ISBN 9781596436060

Exploring Popplet

Besides LS5603 Literature for Children and Young Adults, this semester at TWU I am also taking LS5043 Information and Communication Technology. The class has been really interesting - I'm learning about copyright law, how libraries can take advantage of social media, and all about a variety of Web 2.0 tools. In fact, this is the first time I've heard the term Web 2.0 tools. Whether you're a librarian or civilian, a digital native or one trying to resist - have you heard the term before?

Each of my classmates evaluated a different Web 2.0 tool, and I'm eager to explore them all. For now, I'd like to share the Popplet I made. It's just a start - a way to list what books would be best for storytimes in October. This tool has so much potential, and I'm really glad we had this project for class. There are so many ways to share and collaborate with Popplet!


October Storytime Ideas