Tag: Amy Krouse Rosenthal

SOL 17: Life Lessons

Catherine Flynn9 Comments

Last weekend, like many of you, I was heartbroken to read Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s devastating essay in the New York Times, “You May Want to Marry My Husband.” Amy is dying of ovarian cancer, and this essay is a love letter to her husband and her wish for his future.

I am a longtime fan of Rosenthal’s wildly creative and imaginative picture books, including Duck, Rabbit and Exclamation Mark (!). Amy’s wisdom and humor are on full display in her TED talks and short videos. I love them all, but I think “Book-Filled House” and “Kindness Thought Bubble” are my favorites.

In “Thought Bubble: Kindness,” Amy asks viewers, “What have you filled the world with?” She reminds us that “more positive human interactions is central to a meaningful life.” It’s a reminder worth repeating and sharing.

With these words in my mind, I went searching for my copy of the completely charming Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons (HarperCollins, 2006). These lessons arise out of the steps of making and sharing a batch of cookies. Every negative impulse is balanced by a positive response, and in the end readers are filled up with love and wisdom.

And so it was that this book was sitting on my desk this morning when a first grade student arrived in my room with a very long face. He has struggled and made slow progress since the beginning of the year. “What’s wrong?” I asked. He explained that he’d had a run in with another student during P.E, and had gotten in trouble. I knew my lesson would be wasted if I just went ahead. So I pulled out Cookies and began reading. By the time we got to this page, he was smiling and agreed it would be better to be optimistic than pessimistic.

We finished the book and he was ready to learn. He worked hard and had fun reading the poem and book I had chosen for the day. A serving of kindness was just what he needed.

Thank you, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, for this and all your lovely book, and thank you for filling the world with your love and light.

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

Slice 25 of 31: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Catherine Flynn10 Comments

ImageMon Reading Button PB to YA

Like many of my fellow participants in the month-long Slice of Life Challenge going on over at Two Writing Teachers, I spent much of my free time this weekend reading other slices. The caliber of the writing is incredible, and there’s such variety! I read many heart-felt remembrances of friends and family that moved me to tears. Observations about the trials and tribulations of daily life, both in and out of the classroom, had me laughing until I cried again. As the month is almost over (how is that possible?), many Slicers reflected on the lessons learned from writing every day and what they had learned about themselves as a writer. In addition, my sister was visiting from Rhode Island, so I spent lots of time with her. Needless to say, I didn’t make much of a dent in my TBR pile.

The one book I did get to, however, is priceless. Exclamation Mark (Scholastic Press, 2013), by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld, is the clever tale of a punctuation mark who knows he’s different from all the periods surrounding him. He tries to fit in, but nothing feels right. Then he meets a question mark, and he “discover[s] a world of endless possibilities.”

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The possibilities for using this book in the classroom also seem endless. Reading it for the fun of it is where I’d begin. I love the fact that the pages look like the lined paper familiar to Kindergarteners and first graders everywhere, and the word play is a riot.

With deceptively simple language, Exclamation Mark, is the perfect mentor text for asking questions and using “end punctuation in sentences.” (CCSS L.1.2.b) Exclamation Mark’s facial expressions perfectly match every word, and the word choice itself lends this book to addressing CCSS Language standard 5.d for first grade, “Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings.” You can get a glimpse of all the fun by watching the book trailer:

Whatever else you do this week, get this book!

Thank you to Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers for hosting this Slice of Life Challenge!