3 in 3 (and tea) Episode #4

It's time for another episode of 3 in 3 (and tea) with Debbie Ridpath Ohi and me!  We feature 3 children’s books by Canadian authors and/or illustrators and share a few tips and resources for using them in the classroom. 

In Episode 4, we explore a picture book and a middle grade novel about girls taking on new challenges, and a bonus middle grade novel with a touch of bling! (If you want to catch up on other episodes, you can find them on Debbie's 3 in 3 playlist -- or click here: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3). After you watch the video, click on the titles or book covers below to find out more about the books and a few teaching ideas. 

Picture Book:

Lucy Tries Hockey

Summary:   Lucy learns a new sport and a little about being brave and the importance of practice. With lots of hockey vocabulary, this story will inspire kids to talk about their own adventures with one of Canada's traditional sports. 

Learn about the book creators:

Author: Lisa Bowes 🍁

Illustrator: James Hearne🍁

Visit the publisher:

Orca Books🍁

Activities & resources HERE.

Middle Grade:

Alice Fleck's Recipes for Disaster

 

 Summary: Alice tries a new experience when she enters a Victorian cooking show with her dad. She soon finds out someone is sabotaging the contest and has a mystery to solve with her new friends. A fun and tasty read with lots of learning about friends and family relationships.

Visit the author online:

Rachelle Delaney 🍁  

Visit the illustrator:

Morgan Goble 🍁

Visit the publisher:

Tundra Books/Puffin Canada 🍁

    

Activities & resources HERE.

 

Bonus Middle Grade Novel:

Nikki Tesla and the Fellowship of the Bling

Summary:  Nikki Tesla and her friends have a mystery to solve and it involves a mysterious ring. I love the way this story blends science with action and a cast of characters that all have their own special skills.

Visit the author:

Jess Keating🍁 

Check out the illustrator:

Lissy Marlin

Visit the Publisher:

Scholastic

Activities & resources HERE.

 

**Want to know more about Canadian author/illustrator Debbie Ohi? Visit her website where you'll find lots of great downloads for teachers!

**We're very grateful to The Faithful Sidekicks for writing and performing our theme song! You can learn more about them at their website. 

SCRIBBLE by Ruth Ohi -- a picture book about shapes, friendship and imagination

I'm happy to share this wonderful story about friends, imagination and making marks! I read this book every year in my kindergarten class, because it has so many possibilities to connect to learning. 

Why this book?

I love this gentle story about three friends whose play is changed by a newcomer. The expressions on the shapes have on the cover intrigued me! This book is a great one for inspiring art as well as discussions about friendship.

My thoughts as a creator:

This is another example of a picture book with many layers. It's so clever to use shapes (there's math) in this story about friends (social emotional learning) and imagination (art). What happens when the scribble comes along, anyway? 

My thoughts as an educator:

This is a wonderful story for talking about characters and how they have different personalities. How are the three shapes different? How are they the same? It's also another story we can read to encourage discussion about friendship and feelings. I especially like to use this one before art activities with shapes. My students enjoy using this story and their own creations as inspiration for creating their own stories. 

Ages: 3 - 6

Grades: Pre K - 1

Connections: 2-D shapes, friendship, imagination, identity 

Activities:

Social Emotional Learning/Drama:  Use simple puppets with shapes to act out friendship scenarios, such as making new friends, sharing toys or hurt feelings. Have children suggest ideas for social problem solving and act them out using the shape puppets.  

Literacy/Art: Provide students with shape cut outs and have them use lines and their imagination to create a shape-inspired art project. Another great art activity is to talk about how the faces on the shapes are created with simple lines and dots, and encourage children to choose a feeling to show on their own shape drawing.

Literacy/Writing: Prompt students to create a new story about one or more of these characters through drawing! Begin by drawing one of the shapes and showing how they are feeling. By asking "why" questions students can build their own story.

More resources:

Canadian author-illustrator Ruth Ohi tells us about the story and demonstrates how she starts drawing her characters:

Visit Ruth Ohi's website (click here) for activities based on the book and examples of student art work. 

Description from the publisher:

"Do you want to play?" said Scribble.

Circle loves to roll — around and around. Solid Square likes to sit still and strong. Triangle can celebrate all her good points, and always knows which direction to go. But when Scribble suddenly dashes through their ordered world — all messy lines and energy — Circle, Square and Triangle don’t know what to think.

But turns out just a zig zag here and a wavy line there are all that’s needed to stir imaginations, and soon the shapes find themselves working as a team, on a course for adventure!

Award-winning author and illustrator Ruth Ohi’s energetic art shows young readers that anything is possible with a splash of colour and the most basic shapes. This wonderful picture book will spark creativity, and encourage young minds to identify and draw the Circle-Square-Triangle-Scribbles in their worlds too!

Scribble was written and illustrated by Ruth Ohi and published by Scholastic Canada in 2016.

Visit the creators (click names for links):

Ruth Ohi

Scholastic Canada

 For more wonderful picture books, visit Perfect Picture Book Friday!

Don’t Hug Doug (He Doesn’t Like It), written by Carrie Finison and illustrated by Daniel Wiseman

I'm so excited to share this story with you! This is a great book to read at the beginning of the school year -- it's humorous and also gets across an important concept related to social emotional learning.

Why this book?

I'm always looking for entertaining stories to get across important concepts for early learners. I'd heard about this book before from my 12 x 12 writing group, and I was delighted to find it in my library. The simple cover design with the big title grabbed my attention right away.

My thoughts as a creator:

I love how Carrie Finison took a potentially serious topic and made it into a fun story! This is a wonderful example of how to include different layers in a picture book—including social emotional learning and rhyme! I also like the use of repetition which encouraged my students to read along. Illustrator Daniel Wiseman used a bright, cartoon style that is both attention-getting and suits the humorous tone of the story. 

My thoughts as an educator:

Early years educators and teachers will love this book for a lead-in to helping young children understand that they have a say in who can give them a hug. It’s also great for discussing individual differences and preferences. I also loved the spread with different ways to give a high five. Other elements to discuss include rhyming words, collections and different ways to show you care about someone. 

Ages: 4 - 7

Grades: K - 2

Connections: bodily autonomy, consent, individual differences, friendship

Activities:

Social Emotional Learning:  Make a list of different ways you could show you care about a friend. Revisit the page with different types of high fives. Turn to a partner and try five different ways to high five. Can you think of another way?

Math: Doug has a striped shirt. How many other children in the book are wearing stripes? How many are wearing dots? How many kids in your class are wearing stripes? How many are wearing dots? You can use these questions to model how to record data in charts or graphs.

Literacy/Phonics: Talk about the short "u" sound. Try this game from Fantastic and Fun learning to practice reading short "u" CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.

Short U CVC game

 

More resources:

Visit author Carrie Finison's website for book related colouring pages and activities such as "Invent Your Own High Five."

Description from the publisher:

Doug doesn't like hugs. He thinks hugs are too squeezy, too squashy, too squooshy, too smooshy. He doesn't like hello hugs or goodbye hugs, game-winning home run hugs or dropped ice cream cone hugs, and he definitely doesn't like birthday hugs. He'd much rather give a high five--or a low five, a side five, a double five, or a spinny five. Yup, some people love hugs; other people don't. So how can you tell if someone likes hugs or not? There's only one way to find out: Ask! Because everybody gets to decide for themselves whether they want a hug or not.

Don’t Hug Doug (He Doesn’t Like It), written by Carrie Finison and illustrated by Daniel Wiseman, was published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in 2021.

Visit the creators (click for link):

Carrie Finison

Daniel Wiseman

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Random House

 For more wonderful picture books, visit Perfect Picture Book Friday!

NO HORSES IN THE HOUSE by Mirielle Messier & Anna Bron

 During my summer reading, I discovered this wonderful book which is too good not to share! I love stories about strong girls but this is a great book for anyone who wants to follow their own dreams.

Why this book?

I found this story in my library's online collection when doing some research for one of my own writing projects. Was I intrigued! I’d never heard of this artist before but I was captured by her story. I loved learning about her life and the perseverance she showed in working towards her dream of becoming an artist. A great story for all ages!

My thoughts as a creator:

Even though I don’t write biography, it was interesting to see how Rosa’s life experiences were selected to create an attention-getting story. I love how the colour palette the artist chose makes me think of history and the past. The characters have such great facial expressions and there are lots of interesting details and movement in the illustrations that bring a playful feel to the story.

My thoughts as an educator:

What a great book for discussing the idea of breaking down barriers and considering different perspectives! This is a good story to read anytime in the classroom, with opportunities for discussion about following your own dreams, not giving up when you face something challenging, or times when girls weren’t allowed to do things. Also a nice book for showcasing a little art history.

Ages: 5 - 9

Grades: Gr 1 - 4

Connections: gender roles, animal painting, perseverance, artist biography

Activities:

Art Discussion:  Show several examples of Rosa Bonheur’s art work to students. Discuss questions such as: What do you notice about her artwork? What subjects did she like to paint or sculpt? How does the art work make you feel? Prompt: If you could ask the artist a question, what would you ask?

Art Activity:  Trying out texture, From Suzanne Tiedemann on Artsonia.com

https://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=380844

Watch this video about visual texture:  https://vimeo.com/9284044  Talk about textures in the classroom.  Provide black paper and oil pastels for students to create their own textured lion face drawing.

Literacy/Persuasive Writing: This book could be a springboard for persuasive writing activities. For example, have students generate a list of things they aren’t allowed to do. Create a speech to persuade an adult with three reasons why they should be allowed to do it. Or, pretend you are Rosa Bonheur and design a poster to explain to others why you should be allowed to have a horse in the house.

Literacy/Alphabet: Create a class alphabet book! Encourage students to choose a letter of the alphabet and draw an animal to represent the letter. Or, make a list of the letters of the alphabet and encourage students to think of an animal to go with each letter.

STEM: Provide opportunities for students to research horses. Question/Prompt: If a horse can’t live in a house, where could it live? Design an ideal home for a horse using found materials such as straws, popsicle sticks, cardboard, and tape.

 

More resources:

• Links for background information:

http://linesandcolors.com/2014/03/16/rosa-bonheur/

https://smarthistory.org/rosa-bonheur-plowing-in-the-nivernais-the-first-dressing/

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/bonheur-rosa/

https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/news/who-is-rosa-bonheur-1234643325/ploughing-in-the-nivernais-1849/

• Hands On Art Activity ideas:

https://craftwhack.com/19-animal-art-projects/

• Other reviews (click title for link):

Canadian Review of Materials, reviewed by Julia Pitre

Description from the publisher:

Based on the incredible life of the pioneering, feminist and queer artist Rosa Bonheur, this charming story depicts Rosa's early years and her drive to fight for her dreams.

Rosa Bonheur loved to draw animals. She was good at it too! Unfortunately, in nineteenth-century France, girls were not allowed to be artists. But Rosa didn't let that stop her. In this fictionalized account of her early life in Paris, Rosa studies art at home, bringing a menagerie of animals into the apartment to study up close. When she is kicked out of the horse market for sneaking in wearing boys clothing, Rosa must think creatively to challenge the rules in pursuit of her dream of becoming a world-class realist painter and artist.

No Horses in the House! The Audacious Life of Artist Rosa Bonheur, written by Mirielle Messier and illustrated by Anna Bron, was published by Orca Books in 2023.

Visit the creators (click for link):

Mirielle Messier

Anna Bron

Orca Books

 For more wonderful picture books, visit Perfect Picture Book Friday!

ICEBERG by Jennifer A. Nielsen -- an exciting adventure with a 12-year-old aspiring journalist

 

Why this book?

The story of the Titantic is always intriguing. I was drawn to the idea of a stowaway aboard the ship--and what an interesting character she turned out to be! Hazel’s dream of being a journalist was a great way to bring in bits of the history of what happened to the Titantic. There was also a storyline of Hazel collecting information to solve a mystery about some swindlers she came across on board. The friends Hazel makes give us different perspectives on life at the time of the Titantic. From a writer’s perspective, I think this would be a great read for anyone writing historical fiction. It’s a wonderful example of how to incorporate history into a compelling story!  

Connections: mysteries, the Titantic, journalism, adventure, icebergs

Activity Ideas:

Literacy: What are some of the clues Hazel collected about what was going to happen to the Titantic?

Discussion: Consider Mrs. Abelman’s statement: “We must live the best we can until we gracefully accept our fate.” Do you think Hazel had any regrets about any of her actions on the Titantic? Was there something she could have done differently?

STEM: Look up Morse Code and try to write a coded message to a friend. Tap it out and see if your friend can decode your message.

STEAM: Create a piece of art using a collage technique that contains a coded message.

STEM: Make a list of the things Hazel learned about icebergs. Write three question you have about icebergs. Do some research to see if you can find out the answers. Or research the question: What are some ways ships can avoid or be protected from colliding with icebergs?

Additional Resources: 

Also by Jennifer A. Nielsen and still one of my favourites is The False Prince (click here for my thoughts)

 Description from the publisher:   

Hazel Rothbury is traveling all alone from her home in England aboard the celebrated ship Titanic. Following the untimely death of her father, Hazel's mother is sending her to the US to work in a factory, so that she might send money back home to help her family make ends meet.

But Hazel harbors a secret dream: She wants to be a journalist, and she just knows that if she can write and sell a story about the Titanic's maiden voyage, she could earn enough money to support her family and not have to go to a sweatshop. When Hazel discovers that mother didn't send her with enough money for a ticket, she decides she must stow away onboard the storied ship.

With the help of a porter named Charlie and a sweet first-class passenger named Sylvia, Hazel explores the opulent ship in secret, but a haunting mystery quickly finds her. The danger only intensifies when calamity strikes, and readers will be caught up in the terror and suspense alongside Hazel as she fights to save her friends and herself.

 

Iceberg, written by Jennifer A. Nielsen was published by Scholastic Press in 2023.

 

 

To find more middle grade books to read, check out Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, organized by Greg Pattridge over at his blog.

 

THE BIG STING by Rachelle Delaney

Why this book?

Since I love books about nature and all its creatures, I was intrigued to read a story involving bees. I also know that Rachelle Delaney’s books usually have some kind of mystery to solve—and missing beehives is certainly a unique premise.

 I was having so much fun I read this story in one day, and actually laughed out loud a few times. The characters are believable and I loved the idea that Grandpa was leading his more cautious grandson on adventures.

This story also referred to some interesting professions (such as auditor) and included some fun names for computer games, like Applewood Acres. The games sounded so fun I wished they were real! I really enjoyed this book! From a writer’s perspective, I think it would be a good mentor text for anyone writing a contemporary middle grade novel.

Connections: mysteries, neighborhood adventures, bees

Activity Ideas:

Social Emotional Learning: The story mentions several personality types related to an online personality quiz: Auditor, Adventurer, Problem-Solver and Counselor. List the characteristics of each personality. Which ones do you most relate to? What kind of career interests you? Does it fit with your personality type?

Literacy: What are some of the obstacles that Leo faced as they worked to find the missing beehives? How did his character change by the end of the story?

STEAM: Research bees and design a model of a beehive using materials of your choice. Or build a real bee habitat to install outdoors.

MEDIA: Design your own computer game idea by making up a name and rules for how to play. Create an ad for your game in a format of your choice (poster, video).

 

Additional Resources:

25 Bee Activities for Middle Schoolers - Link here.

For my thoughts on some other books by Rachelle Delaney, click on the titles:

The Metro Dogs of Moscow  

Alice Fleck’s Recipes for Disaster

Book description from the publisher (to visit the publisher click here):   

A visit to Leo's grandfather's farm turns upside down when his grandmother's bee hives are stolen. A light-hearted and funny middle-grade novel for fans of Rebecca Stead and Lynda Mullaly Hunt.

Eleven-year-old Leo is an "armchair adventurer." This, according to Dad, means he'd choose adventures in books or video games over real-life experiences. And while Leo hates the label, he can’t argue with it. Unlike his little sister Lizzie, Leo is not a risk-taker.  

So when he, Lizzie, Mom and Dad leave the city to visit Grandpa on Heron Island, Leo finds all kinds of dangers to avoid — from the deep, dark ocean to an old barn on the verge of collapse. But nothing on the island is more fearsome than Grandpa himself — Leo has never met anyone so grumpy! According to Mom, Grandpa is still grieving the recent death of his wife, a beekeeper beloved by everyone on the island.

Despite Leo's best efforts to avoid it, adventure finds him anyway when Grandma’s beehives go missing in the dead of night. Infuriated, Grandpa vows to track down the sticky-fingered thieves himself . . .  with risk-averse Leo and danger-loving Lizzie (plus a kitten named Mayhem) in tow.

The Big Sting, written by Rachelle Delaney was published by Tundra Books in 2023.

 Other reviews of this book (click on title):

Kirkus 

CM

 To find more middle grade books to read, check out Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, organized by Greg Pattridge over at his blog.