What Do You Do With an IDEA?

Author:  Kobi Yamada
Illustrator: Mae Besom
Published: 2013

I was visiting a school for training.  As I sat there listening to the speaker, I took the moment to look around at the classroom.  I love seeing what other teachers are doing and trying to find new things I can use too.   I was excited when I realized that she had a large display of award-winning books and that I had read many of them because of my class at William & Mary.  The cover of one of her books caught my eye and I had to get up to look at it.  I hadn't seen this book before and I don't recall anyone in class talking about it, but I was drawn, as I usually am, to the cover.  The cover is very simple, white, and it has a very soft look to it.  It looks like it was drawn with a pencil in a sketch book.  The words seem to be pencil drawn and there is a yellow egg (watercolor?) with a golden crown and bird legs. 

As I read the book I thought of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore because of the bit of color on the pages with mostly black and white drawings that transition to a world of complete color.  I can actually easily imagine an app that would bring this book to life, like the app for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

The endpapers are completely black and white with little birds that look like fish flying through the air over branches, leaves, and clouds.  The endpapers in the front and back are exactly the same except that they are flipped.  I wish that the endpapers at the end of the book had been in color to show the growth in the story.

The story is about a child speaking to the reader about an idea he has.  (I say he, but the character could also be a girl.  I could not identify the child's gender.)  So this child gets an idea, but does not know what to do with it.  It seems like a strange little idea because it is shaped like an egg and has bird legs along with a crown.  Since it has a crown though, I think that it has to be a good idea!  The child doesn't know what to do with the idea so he doesn't pay attention to it, but the idea follows him.  The child worries what others will think of his idea, but he realizes that he is happier when his idea is around.  The idea seems to be growing the more the child accepts that he has this idea.  (I took a picture of this page myself and my pictures really do not capture the beauty of the art, but I wanted you to see the idea frolicking in a stream.)

As the child accepts the idea not only does the idea seem to grow, but the child's life becomes more and more colorful.  He doubts his idea though because of others, but realizes that this is his own idea and he is the only one who really understands it.  It is up to him to care for it and help it grow.  Once he comes to this realization, it is not only the child's life becoming more colorful, he becomes more colorful.  Then one day the child's whole world changes because he took the time to grow his idea.


I know my students will love to analyze the pictures in this book.  The story begins with the child and his idea on the left of the page.  The idea is small, the world is black and white, but the child is keeping the idea small and to himself, he is safe.  We see the child moving away from his idea and the picture shows movement with the diagonal lines taking the boy away from his idea.  He leaves to the right side of the page where there is uncertainty.  What will the boy do with this idea?  The idea and it's little patch of green grass under its feet follow the boy and its diagonal lines across the page.  Once I turn the page, the boy and the idea are on the left again, but the boy is trying to bury his idea in all of the diagonal branches and leaves.  The idea then is frolicking in a stream with frogs, but the boy has a smile.  He is realizing the worth of his ideas.  I know that my students will understand this better than I do and I cannot wait to see what they tell me.  I want to know why the branches that direct the boy away from his idea are at the end of the book above the ground since they've been along the lower half of the page all along.  Why is there a hibernating bear in the picture?  What does the clock symbolize?  I'll ask my kiddos and let you know!

This will be a great book to start the school year to show that we need to support each other no matter what our ideas are and how different they might be.  I will also use this book to teach about reading a book and reading the pictures.  (Of course I'll use The Fantastic Flying Books too!)  I read some reviews by readers on Amazon and found that one teacher was giving her students a wooden egg with the word IDEA written on it.  I love that.  I'll probably do it too.  I know that will definitely impact many of my students and hopefully they will always have that memory tucked in somewhere and will do big things in their futures!

Find this book at your library.  (I checked on WorldCat and there aren't any local libraries with this book, so you might just have to buy it!  You won't regret it!)

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Author:  William Joyce
Illustrator:  William Joyce and Joe Bluhm
Published:  2012

Inspired an Academy Award-winning short film

UPDATED*************************
 3/10/2014
Watch the video of my class.  I am reading the book and the children are interacting with the story.
Class Video
 **********************************
I just watched the Monuments Men and it made me think of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.  There is a quotation that stuck with me from the movie.

"You can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground and somehow they'll still find their way back. But if you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it's as if they never existed. That's what Hitler wants and that's exactly what we are fighting for."

The reason this quotation reminded me of this book is because the main character in the book, Morris Lessmore, loves books and records his joys and sorrows in a book until one day everything Morris knows is "scattered - even the words of his book."  Initially, the pictures in the book were in full color, but when Morris has his words scattered by a storm, reminiscent of the tornado in Kansas in the Wizard of Oz, Morris's life becomes black

and white.  Morris is lost and has lost his color.  He has lost everything he knew and "it's as if [he] never existed."

Fortunately, he decides to look up into the sky at one point and sees a lovely woman being pulled through the sky by a flock of books.  The woman is in full color and she sends Morris her favorite book.  There seems to be life around Morris, as his surroundings now have color, but Morris himself is still black and white.  His new book leads Morris to a room filled with thousands of different stories.  The books opened themselves up to him for him to read.  "The room rustled to life.  And so Morris's life among the books began."

Morris cares for the books and he is once again full of life as he cares for and organizes the books.  He shared his books with others because "Everyone's story matters."  As in the movie, Monuments Men, soldiers risk their lives to save the artwork taken by Hitler for the Fuhrer Museum because art, including books, belong to everyone.  Books have a way of bringing color, joy, sadness to our lives and so many people forget to read.  Just like Morris Lessmore, I enjoy getting lost in books and this book was a gift.

The pictures are mostly full-bleed.  The reader definitely gets pulled into the story.  To make the reader even more a part of this story, there is a companion app that can be used to read the book.  The app was only $0.99 and worth every penny!  I've never seen anything like it.  As Morris is blown from his home by the storm, the app helps the reader see and hear the storm.  Books flutter around your head and words tumble off the pages.  As Morris finds himself again, you transition with him from black and white to full color.  And when you enter the beautiful building with the books, you are transported to the building yourself and you can hear the books talk to you.

This book and app were an amazing experience unlike anything I've seen before!  It is like a trip to Disney World right in your hands.  The experience of reading a book has completely changed!

I can't wait to share this book with my students.  This is a book that will inspire the children to find more like this and to read and discover more books.  I want my students to learn that we bring life to books by writing them, but sometimes, books can bring us to life!

Check this book out from your library!
Learn more about the author, William Joyce and watch a video about this book!
Check out the app!
The character, Morris Lessmore is based on a real person, William C. Morris.  Learn about him.

The Cat or, How I Lost Eternity

Author:  Jutta Richter
Illustrator: Rotraut Susanne Berner
Published: 2006
Batchelder Honor Book

I don't understand this book.  I'm sure there is more to it.  It reminds me of books I had to read in college and analyze and I just made things up hoping that I would get it right.  I have no idea what this book is really about!  I've read it twice to myself and once aloud to my husband. I hate this book.

So, here is what is in the book.  There is a 3rd grade girl, Christine, who talks to a cat.  The cat is not nice.  He calls her stupid and makes fun of people who are different.  Christine is late to school on account of the cat.  He stops and talks to her each day.  They discuss eternity.  Not sure about the eternity bit.  Eternity ends for her one day.  I'm not sure why.

Eventually, Christine realizes that the cat is mean and she does not want to be like the cat.  The end.

I don't get it.  There has to be more to it!?!  This book just makes me feel dumb!

This is not a children's book.  I'm sure there is some deep philosophical meaning or understanding that is beyond my grasp.  If you get it, let me know.

***UPDATE***3/4/2014   4:25 PM
I can't get this book out of my head.  What am I missing?  I went back again and noticed something new after chatting with my husband.  It seems that in this book there are two types of people - cat people and dog people.  The cat people are the ones that are not nice.  We make a decision to not be nice.  Christine's principal is a cat person.  He sits behind a huge desk with "claw feet [that] seemed threatening...but then they remind [Christine] of something I know well:  cat's feet."  The principal also hisses at Christine, just as the cat had previously hissed at her. 

Christine knows a boy in her class.  Interestingly enough, his nickname is Pug.  Pug, like a dog.  Pug is short, shuffles when he walks, has cracked knuckles, and reminds the cat and Christine of a pug.  As Christine describes Pug, it's as if she has a good angel and a bad devil sitting on her shoulders.  Her mean half thinks he is disgusting and that his hands are like claws.  Her nice side tells her to stop being mean, he can't help it that he has problems. 

The story actually has a real dog in it too.  The cat says the dog is stupid because the dog, Alf, whines and
"licks the hand that beats him instead of biting it."  The cat then explains that Alf is a victim, but "he wasn't born a victim.  No one is born like that.  Every animal is free and strong in the beginning."

So, again, the good and bad.  I think that there is something to the description of Alf and how he wasn't born a victim, but I'm not sure what I need to understand about that yet.  I do know that I  do not agree with the cat.  We are not either cats or dogs, good or bad, victims or not.  There is gray. 

Check this book out from your library and then explain it to me, please.

The Song of El Coqui and other tales of Puerto Rico

Author and Illustrator: 
Nocholasa Mohr and Antonio Martorell
Published: 1995

The title of this book appealed to me right away.  I cannot think of Puerto Rico without thinking about the sounds of Puerto Rico, the coqui that sings me to sleep at night and the rooster that wakes me each morning. I know that when I hear the coqui, I am in my most favorite place on the planet.

My parents had read the tales of Juan Bobo to me as a child, but I had not heard the stories in this book before.  This was not an easy book to find, but I'm glad I found it. The first page has a picture of the island with the beautiful clear, blue waters surrounding it.  I felt like I was flying in to paradise.

This book has 3 folktales with 3 different creatures that represent 3 different cultures in Puerto Rico.  There is the coqui, that represents that Taino Indians, the guinea, that represents Africans, and the mula, that represents slaves.

My favorite of the three stories was the story of the coqui.  The Taino Indians believed in a god, Huracan, (Hurricane in English) who was sad by the silence on the island.  He created a huge storm that lasted a million years.  After the storm, the island was still quiet, but Huracan was so tired from making the storm that he fell asleep.  He awoke to "a sound...at first like a raindrop."  Huracan finally discovered that the song, "coqui, coqui" was coming from the little frog.  We still hear the coqui's song along with all of the other animals on the island, but "none echoes as loud and as sweet as the song of the tiny coqui."

I read this and felt that it was so true!  I will not go to sleep until I have heard the song of the coqui.  I know

that my students will love to hear this story because I felt such a close tie to the story and we enjoy sharing stories about ourselves.  They'll be surprised at how such a small creature is able to make such a loud sound.  I will share the story of the guinea hens and bring in feathers from the hens on my grandfather's farm and show them a vejigante mask like the ones made by the guinea hen's owner.

This is a topic that will be easy for me to teach because I am passionate about Puerto Rico.  I've really enjoyed using folktales and fairy tales to teach my students about different cultures.  This is one more story to add to my collection.

Check this book out from your library!
Listen to the coqui.