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Rosie Revere’s Big Project Book for Bold Engineers

jillrbennett 1 Comment

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Rosie Revere’s Big Project Book for Bold Engineers
Andrea Beaty and David Roberts
Abrams Books for Young Readers
From the same Beaty/Roberts team and using art from the original Rosie Revere, Engineer story, this splendid project book will surely motivate primary age children to involve themselves in all manner of exciting and creative science and engineering projects. There are opportunities to make a simple catapult (and analyse it); to design a ‘1000 Egg Picker-Upper’ to help Rosie and Uncle Fred in the zoo (there’s a related egg identification challenge too). I’m sure the marble run making will prove popular – lots of cylinders needed here; and there are projects to design a better bicycle

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Engineers make things better: design a bicycle for the future …

and make a solar oven. I love the improving Great, Great Aunt Rose’s walking stick challenge where her walking aid needs to be adapted as a tool carrier: superb stuff and perfect for developing those vital STEM problem-solving/creative skills,

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as are the reminders about the importance of failing and learning from it. There is even a word search and a story writing project, showing that the book’s creators clearly understand the importance of the development of the imagination.
Famous scientists are introduced too: for instance, Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison – with his team of ‘Muckers’ (I’m pleased to see the whole question of teamwork discussed); and there’s Rube Goldberg (a famous cartoonist and engineer).
Empowering and inspiring at the same time. Brilliant stuff.

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Also an Octopus

jillrbennett 1 Comment

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Also an Octopus
Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Benji Davies
Walker Books
This collaboration between debut author, Maggie Tokuda-Hall and award-winning illustrator, Benji Davies (The Storm Whale, The Storm Whale in Winter and Grandad’s Island) is essentially a witty metanarrative about how to write a story. It’s littered with wonderfully whimsical characters – obviously characters are one of the must haves for a successful storyteller: herein we have a main character in the form of a ukulele-playing octopus.
But lets go right back to the author’s opening line, ‘every story starts the same way … with nothing.‘ Now anybody who writes or indeed works on the writing process with children, knows the truth of that. Back to our octopus.; ‘… in order for it to be a story and not just an octopus, that octopus needs to want something.’ What about a ‘totally awesome shining purple spaceship capable of intergalactic travel’? Now that does sound exciting. But of course such things cannot be easily got hold of, they have to be earned; or, put another way, built from drinks cans, string, glitter, glue, umbrellas and err, waffles.

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No easy task: enter another character in the form of a truly adorable bunny – certainly no rocket scientist, so maybe that rocket isn’t about to become airborne any time soon. Did I hear the word “DESPONDENT” – surely not.

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Time for a spot of music perhaps …
It might prove just the thing to start a resolution (note that ‘r’ word, would-be story writers) forming in the mind …

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Tokuda-Hall’s deadpan humour, wherein she demonstrates the ups and downs of the writing process with the interplay between her cast of characters and the narrator), is superbly orchestrated by Davies’ fantastic images that appear to simply pop onto the pages as if at the author’s behest. Illustrators know that simply isn’t true, which makes Benji Davies’ seemingly effortless digital visuals all the more brilliant. And I love the circularity of the whole thing.
A must have for anyone working on developing the process of writing with children. It will surely get their imaginative juices flowing.

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Little Red Writing

jillrbennett 1 Comment

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Little Red Writing
Joan Holub and Melissa Sweet
Chronicle Books
It’s Write On! Day at Pencilvania School, and all the little pencils, encouraged by their teacher, Ms. 2, are about to take the story path. There’s a buzz of excitement in the classroom as the pencils start thinking about their story ideas.

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Little Red decides her story should be about bravery and Ms 2 hands her a basket of red (noun) words telling her not to stray too far from the path and off goes the heroine on her writerly way. Before long though she decides that walking isn’t exciting enough for her narrative so she goes into the gym where a host of verbs help liven things up.

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But then she cartwheels clean off the page and into ‘a deep, dark, descriptive forest thick with adjectives.

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Feeling entangled by the adjectival foliage, she cuts her way out (thank you basket word) only to become stuck in a seemingly endless sentence.
Just in time though a truckload of adverbial assistance appears on the scene; assistance that quickly turns overwhelmingly exciting, causing our heroine to lose the plot and start scattering the contents of her basket all over the page, completely filling it.
Now what’s this tail doing on the next page? Surely a tail should be tailed, decides Little Red and off she goes on its trail all the way to …

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But that growly voice belongs not to Principal Granny but this lupine character,

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so it’s just as well that there’s one red noun left in Little Red’s basket and she puts it to use very effectively indeed…

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and just in time to save Principal Granny from complete oblivion …

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With its plethora of word play, Joan Holub’s text bubbles over with humour and Melissa Sweet’s collage, pencil and watercolour illustrations – an amalgam of classroom ephemera, calligraphy, and images of Little Red engaging in her storying adventure, are whimsical wonders.
An ingenious play on the Little Red Riding Hood tale, the whole thing is full to the brim with helpful advice for young (and not so young) writers. What better way to demonstrate ‘read before you write’. Every primary classroom should have a copy.

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