Counting The Stars - 2nd Article in a 9 Part Series

 ***Skip the intro if you have already read the 1st blog in this series of 9.  Go straight to the Title and Author information.

***This blog entry is for teachers’ (and parents’) eyes only! It is intended to help teachers learn about the books on the William Allen White nominee list for this year, and then make decisions about how they might want to use some of these books during the upcoming school year.  There are 9 books on the list. This is the 2nd blog in a series of 9.

The William Allen White Book Award is for kids in the state of Kansas to vote each year for their favorite from a list of nominated books. If you are a 3rd - 5th grade teacher in Kansas, this blog will hopefully be very useful. But even if you teach a grade level adjacent to these grades or teach somewhere other than Kansas, I think you will find some useful information regarding some books that have made it to the 2021-22 WAW nominated list. 

Title:  Counting The Stars: The Story of Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician

Author:  Lesa Cline-Ransome

Illustrator: Raúl Colón

Format:  Picture Book, 32 pages

This is a nice picture book and the only one on the WAW list this year.  Picture book biographies is a quickly growing genre.  In the last 5 years, there has been a surge of this type of book, especially in representing people of diversity.  My favorite part is the illustrations done by the renowned Raúl Colón.  They are done with watercolor and colored pencil.  I’d like to show them to the art teacher at my elementary school.  I bet she could do a neat lesson on illustrating a starry night sky.   

I found the book itself was a bit dry and boring.  It didn't pull me in.  However, that could be because I had already seen the movie Hidden Figures and had read quite a few articles about Katherine Johnson since then.  I have some ideas, though, of how to use this book as a read-aloud and make it more appealing for middle grade students.  

I’ve spent some time gathering some movie clips and a video montage put together by National Geographic.  I’ve found the best spots in the book to pause and share the clips.  I gathered all of these via YouTube. If your school does not allow you to share YouTube videos, this may not work for you.  On the other hand, I have watched all these clips and know that they are appropriate for 3rd-5th graders to watch.  On a side note, my favorite scene from this movie is the one about the segregated bathrooms.  But I couldn’t include that clip.  It was full of cuss words!!!  

So here is what I would do for the read-aloud.  Start reading and sharing the illustrations just like you normally would. Show  the following clip after reading:

 “…and by the time Katherine was ten, she started her first year of high school in Institute.” (Approx. p. 5)

 

Hidden Figures - solving polynomials in factored form

Then, continue the read aloud.  Show this next clip after reading:

 “…Katherine continued to ask to attend until she got the answer she wanted: Yes.”  (Approx. p. 18)

Hidden Figures | 'You Are The Boss'

Once again, keep reading. Show this clip after reading:

“Tell me where you want the man to land, and I’ll tell you where to send him up.”  (Approx. p. 26)

Hidden Figures | "Give or Take" Clip 

And finally, immediately after you have finished the book, but before you do any discussions, show this National Geographic video.

NASA Trailblazer: Katherine Johnson | National Geographic

Lety Out Loud - 1st Article in a 9 Part Series

 ***This blog entry is for teachers’ (and parents’) eyes only! I will be creating some book recommendations for kids in the near future, so keep an eye out for those, but this is intended to help teachers learn about the books on the William Allen White nominee list for this year, and then make decisions about how they might want to use some of these books during the upcoming school year.  There are 9 books on the list so this is the 1st blog in a series of 9.

The William Allen White Book Award is for kids in the state of Kansas to vote each year for their favorite from a list of nominated books. If you are a 3rd - 5th grade teacher in Kansas, this blog will hopefully be very useful. But even if you teach a grade level adjacent to these grades or teach somewhere other than Kansas, I think you will find some useful information regarding some books that have made it to the 2021-22 WAW nominated list. 

Title:  Lety Out Loud

Author: Angela Cervantes

Format:  Chapter Book, 208 pages (available in paperback)

This book was named a Pura Belpre Honor Book in 2020! The Pura Belpre award is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience. 

Lety Munoz volunteers at an animal shelter over the summer while also trying to improve her English speaking and writing skills.  She reluctantly gets drawn into a competition with a boy named Hunter to be the shelter’s “scribe” -- writing blurbs about the cats and dogs to hopefully get them adopted. In the meantime, she meets Spike, a shelter dog who has had trouble finding a forever family.

Issues of discrimination towards English Language Learners is addressed. There is a scene where Lety and a friend are with the friend’s mother at a pharmacy.  A man approaches and starts yelling at them to “Speak English or get out of the country!”.  The man is also very rude to the store clerk because she is speaking Spanish to the friend’s mother. 

 

The story takes place in Kansas City, KS.  The author is local.  She currently lives in KC, KS and grew up in Topeka, KS.  She has an author website that is very good.

Angela Cervantes Author Website

The website has a section for Teacher Resources that include worksheets, discussion questions and reader’s scripts.  I especially like the writing prompt that goes along with Lety Out Loud.

In past years, I’ve found it difficult to recommend read-alouds for the 3rd grade teachers. The WAW nominee lists tend to skew towards 4th and 5th grades in my opinion. Sometimes it’s hard to find books that a 3rd grade teacher can read-aloud and have it appeal to the entire class. This year, there are 2 books on the list that I can confidently recommend to 3rd grade teachers, and Lety Out Loud is one of them!

Of course, I will recommend this book to any kid who loves animals, especially cats and dogs! This book can stand alone but is a “companion” book to Gaby, Lost and Found also by Angela Cervantes. Both stories take place at the same animal shelter.

And finally, this book is great for teaching about perseverance.  One of the ways that all the characters in the book describe Lety is that “she never gives up...no matter what”!