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Find out about Dan Santat, watch the book trailer.

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Mo Willems: The Joy of Creation | A Kennedy Center Digital Stage Original

"Everything that I do comes from a place of wanting to do something ridiculous."-Mo Willems

We Are All Connected | Kennedy Center Public Art Installation

A Large-Scale Public Art 2-Dimensional Playscape on the REACH Plaza

Okay, this is cool!

Have you checked out Mo's

2023 Text and Art © Mo Willems. ELEPHANT & PIGGIE is a trademark of The Mo Willems Studio, Inc.

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Mo Willems is an author, illustrator, animator, and playwright. He was the inaugural Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence (2019-2022), and he continues to collaborate in creating fun new stuff involving classical music, opera, comedy concerts, dance, painting and digital works with the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Ben Folds, Yo-Yo Ma, and others.

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Amber Ren

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The Author's Website

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My life as a writer began at age four with a song collaboration with my sister (I couldn't write, so she did the actual writing). The song was called "Ding Dong the Cherries Sing," and we forced anyone within a 12-mile radius to listen to us sing it, over and over and over.

It went like this:

"Ding-dong, the cherries sing,
Tra-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Ding-dong, the cherries sing,
Tra-la-la-la-la DING, DING!"

OK, so I wasn't exactly headed for the Grammy awards. . . .

My parents not only suffered through my songs about warbling fruit, they were generally quite tolerant of my other forays into art, music, and literature. Ear-splitting clarinet practices, countless trips to the library, and incomprehensible early drawings. My mother still has a few of those drawings on which she wrote captions like: "Cynthia says this is a goat."

I was a daydreaming, shy child, and I will always be grateful for the time and room my parents gave me to be myself.

My favorite books when I was very young included HAPPY, a story my mother bought at the grocery store about a kitten who is found under the hood of a school bus, PEPPERMINT, a story about a kitten nobody wants who is adopted by a little girl (Can you tell I wanted a pet very badly?), FANTASTIC MR. FOX by Roald Dahl, and WINNIE THE POOH by A. A. Milne.

The first pencil-and-paper writing I remember doing was on a birthday card I gave to my grandfather. I was probably five years old, and my mother handed me a pristine, white envelope and told me to write Grandpa's name on the front.

And I did. In huge, gangly letters that covered the whole envelope, I wrote "ED" in blue pen.

I was proud of it, until I saw my mother's face. She had meant me to write "Grandpa" in small, lady-like letters, but since there wasn't another envelope, she said it would have to do.

My grandfather laughed when he saw my envelope. It was the first and only time I ever heard him laugh with complete abandon, until he had tears in his eyes. When he looked at me all he said was "thank you," but he meant it, and I was proud to have written something that made him laugh.

I grew up in rural New Hampshire beside a lake. We ice skated in the winter and spent most of the summers swimming and cannonballing off the dock into the water. My sister was my first friend, and one of our favorite things to do was to turn over our rowboat and find toads, whom we treated to surfboard rides and visits to the "Toad Motel" we created using trowels and paper cups in my mother's loam pile.

But we couldn't keep the toads more than a few minutes, so my sister and I finally ("Please, please, please, Mom? We proooooomise we'll take care of it!") talked my mother into a real pet. Spotsie the turtle lived in a tank that included a little island and a plastic palm tree, and loved bites of raw hamburger and deep-sea adventures in the kitchen sink and the bathtub.

Then when I was in fourth grade, we finally begged my parents into Peanut, a dog who was part Dachshund, part Pekinese, part Pomeranian, part Beagle, and all heart. He used to sit on the stairs, watching out the window for the school bus that would bring me home every afternoon, and he listened to my stories and all my deepest, scariest, truest secrets.

At school, I wrote the typical book reports, Abraham Lincoln reports, and "What I Did On My Summer Vacation" essays, but I didn't start writing fiction until high school. One of my first attempts was a ghost story. After a few chapters, I was giving myself nightmares! I remember lying in bed, staring at the dark ceiling shadows, afraid to move, saying to myself: "This is so stupid! You wrote the story! You KNOW it's not real."

I never did finish that story, but I did finish many others. I wrote plays for my Sunday School students to perform, poetry, family newspapers, even serialized novels that I passed around to my friends while my algebra teacher checked homework. I typed these masterpieces on a manual Royal typewriter with carbon paper to make the copies. I still have a few of those smudgy manuscripts, laden with strike-overs and typos.

In college, I had some short stories published, and even won a contest with one! The prize was a whopping $25 and publication in the magazine that had sponsored the contest.

Here's my first review:

Cynthia Lord's Mercury's Fall is the most worthy of the prose pieces. Carver-esque in style, it reveals a world of gloom, despondency and futility, but strikes a chord within us all. Thomas Ford could so easily be you or I, living out a totally useless life.

YIKES! Sounds dark and dreadful, doesn't it? It was, in truth, a partly humorous story about the disenchanted owner of a sporting goods store who accidentally conjures up Dionysus, the God of Wine and Merriment, in the basketball aisle (in between "gloom" in aisle three and "despondency and futility" in aisle five).

After college, I got married and became a teacher. I taught first-grade, sixth-grade, and even in a one-room schoolhouse. In those years, I wrote curriculums for educational publishers.

When I had my own children, I returned to the world of Winnie the Pooh and Happy and Peppermint, and all the wonderful new books for children. Some books we loved to the point of the pages falling out.

As my children grew, I returned to writing fiction. Now, I get up most mornings between 3:30 and 4:00 AM. I tiptoe through my dark kitchen, flick on the coffeemaker, and sit down at my desk. That's my own time, the just-me time to open my heart and spill it across white pages. Early morning is a beautiful time, still and dark, and I can smell the ocean many mornings when I open the window next to my computer. Often, the sun comes up while I'm writing, and my dog, Milo, comes in and lies in my lap. The sound of his breathing and my fingers hitting the keys are the only sounds in the room.

I've come a long way from the girl backspacing over mistakes on the Royal typewriter, reusing the same piece of carbon paper until the letters were ghostly pale. Now I backspace on my computer, and nobody needs to know how many mistakes I make.

Some things haven't changed. I still love watching words jump onto the page, and I still love making people laugh and cry and shiver with my writing, I still love to read a great story.

I've kept HAPPY and PEPPERMINT and FANTASTIC MR. FOX and WINNIE THE POOH all these years. They're on a bookshelf behind me, to remind me of the child I used to be, the one who liked surfboarding toads, sang the cherry song, wrote ED on the envelope, and scared herself silly writing her first ghost story.

She's the one I write for.

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My life as a writer began at age four with a song collaboration with my sister (I couldn't write, so she did the actual writing). The song was called "Ding Dong the Cherries Sing," and we forced anyone within a 12-mile radius to listen to us sing it, over and over and over.

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The official site for cartoonist and illustrator Chad Sell.

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#ZoomingIntoHistory

D uring the pandemic, reading about the past helps connect us with ordinary people in other times who also faced enormous challenges.

I am launching #ZoomingIntoHistory to connect with schools, libraries, home schooling groups, and families during the pandemic.

Keep Reading and Writing!

Please stay safe.
Contact: deborahhopkinson@yahoo.com

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D uring the pandemic, reading about the past helps connect us with ordinary people in other times who also faced enormous challenges. I am launching #ZoomingIntoHistory to connect with schools, libraries, home schooling groups, and families during the pandemic. Keep Reading and Writing! Please stay safe. Contact: deborahhopkinson@yahoo.com

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Hello-thank you for visiting my website. I am the author of numerous award-winning picture book biographies, and the illustrator of more than eighty critically acclaimed trade and educational books for youth.

Some of the books I've illustrated include the forthcoming The Day Madear Voted (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2024), written by Wade Hudson; the Roto and Roy series, books one and two; Swish! The Slam-Dunking, Alley-Ooping, High-Flying Harlem Globetrotters (Little Brown, Nov. 2020); many others.

Some of the books I've written are Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton (Peachtree, 2015); It Jes' Happened: When Bill Traylor Started To Draw (Lee & Low Books, 2012), William Still and His Freedom Stories: Father of the Underground Railroad (Peachtree, Nov. 2020); others.

In addition to writing and illustrating, I enjoy presenting at elementary schools, reading and writing conferences, book and literary festivals. Please contact me for more information.

I am a founding host of the The Brown Bookshelf -a blog dedicated to promoting youth literature created by black authors.

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Don Tate: Author and Illustrator - Don Tate

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Official site for Don Tate, author/illustrator of books for children and founding host of The Brown Bookshelf.

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"We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans-because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings." MAYA ANGELOU

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words by Caron Levis, pictures by Charles Santoso

published by Abram Book for Young Readers

From the award-winning team behind Ida, Always comes a story about a friendship that grows between a blind horse and a gruff goat

All the animals at the Open Bud Ranch can see that Jack likes keeping his space to himself. But when Charlie arrives, he doesn't see Jack at all. He's still getting used to seeing out of only one of his eyes.
The two get off to a bumpy start. At first, Jack is anxious and distrustful. But one day, he summons his courage and guides Charlie to his favorite sunlit field: this way, Charlie. And so begins a powerful friendship that will be tested by life's storms-but will ultimately change each life for the better.

"This picture book has much to offer for young readers about life's challenges and how we handle them. Levis ( Ida, Always) excels at crafting emotional, but never saccharine, tales of friendship. Strongly recommend."- School Library Journal ** STARRED REVIEW**

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words by Caron Levis, pictures by Charles Santoso published by Abram Book for Young Readers From the award-winning team behind Ida, Always comes a story about a friendship that grows between a blind horse and a gruff goat All the animals at the Open Bud Ranch can see that Jack likes keeping his space to himself.

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"Rescue and Jessica: A Life Changing Friendship"

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Hello, friends! The past two weeks have been super-exciting, as The Uncanny Express is now out in the world (and available for purchase here and here and here and via my local indie where if you want a signed copy, just note the personalization in the order comments section), and since its publication, I've been riding the rails with Jaundice and Kale on our UNCANNY EXPRESS Blog Tour. You can retrace our route and learn a lot about me and the book via The Little Crooked Cottage, MG Book Village, Mrs. Knott's Book Nook, YAYOMG!, LibrariansQuest, Storymamas, and All the Wonders. Our final stop will be on Sunday, when we visit the esteemed Nerdy Book Club - hope you'll join us!

In the meantime, I thought I'd give my Bland Fans something extra special - namely, a reveal of some trivia about the book. Without further ado...

The book is dedicated to Pearl. Pearl was my beloved cat, who died the day after I handed in the manuscript.

Colonel Donald McRobb is named after one of my best friends, Rob McDonald. When The Jolly Regina came out, Rob seemed disappointed that none of the characters were inspired by him. You're welcome, Rob.

Kale is obsessed with cleaning (and even cleans the toilet with a TOOTHBRUSH); I actually haaaaaate cleaning.

I've spent a lot of time on trains; when I worked as an editor at Candlewick Press, I took the commuter rail between Providence and Somerville every day. When I worked at Scholastic, I took the train in to New York once a week.

When I create my characters, I sometimes envision specific actors. For Magique, I imagined Cate Blanchett or Tilda Swinton. I can see a bit of a resemblance in Jen Hill's illustrations!

In Chapter Eight, the great detective Hugo Fromage is served tea, though he barely takes a sip of it before pushing it away. I wanted to be sure he never drank traditional tea, as Hercule Poirot only drank tisane (herbal tea).

It's mentioned that the Bland Sisters have just started reading a series of books about two intrepid brothers: Keith and Joe, aka the Nubbins Twins. Of course, their names start with a K and J, like Kale and Jaundice, though I imagine Keith and Joe to be the very opposite of the Bland Sisters, a cross between the Hardy Boys and the Bobbsey Twins.

After Hercule Poirot would interview all the suspects of a crime, he would take some time to himself to review all the evidence; he called it using his "little gray cells" (aka his brain). Similarly, Hugo Fromage tells the Bland Sisters he needs time to allow his "brain stew" to simmer.

Like a certain murderess on The Uncanny Express, I too own a poison ring.

A lot of my own experience with failure is reflected in Magique's feelings about it - I've never had anyone throw tomatoes at me, though (not literally, anyway).

One of the clues left behind by Magique is a box of Good & Plenty. I hate Good & Plenty, and anything flavored with black licorice in general.

The Uncanny Valley Hippodrome was inspired by The Holiday Hippodrome, a kitschy circus my sister and I saw when we were kids.

At the end of the story, the Bland Sisters encounter an airplane called the Bluebird. For some time, I had a freelance editing business called Bluebird Works (named for the bluebird of happiness).

The third and final (???) Bland Sisters adventure will come out in early 2019. Among other things, it features an ancient curse, a villain with very bad teeth, and a BIG reveal of some Bland Family secrets.

Hope you enjoyed these little factoids - if you have any other questions for me, be sure to leave them in the comments. Which brings me to today's big GIVEAWAY...

If you comment here on the blog, or follow/like/RT me on Twitter or Instagram TODAY, you'll be eligible for an Uncanny giveaway! I'll announce the winner on Twitter on Monday, January 22.

P.S. Just a reminder the The Jolly Regina is now out in paperback, wherever books are sold! If you want to check out some fun trivia about the book, take a look at my Five Things About the Jolly Regina series, mateys!

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Hello, friends! The past two weeks have been super-exciting, as The Uncanny Express is now out in the world (and available for purchase here and here and here and via my local indie where if you want a signed copy, just note the personalization in the order comments section), and since its publication, I've been riding the rails with Jaundice and Kale on our UNCANNY EXPRESS Blog Tour.

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Read About this Author

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Debbi Michiko Florence, Author for Kids and Teens

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Debbi Michiko Florence is the author of Keep It Together, Keiko Carter (Scholastic/May 5, 2020) and the Jasmine Toguchi chapter book series.

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Andrea Wang is an award-winning author of children's fiction and nonfiction picture books and middle grade novels

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"Jessica Kensky, Patrick Downes, and Rescue the Dog say 'thanks' for Christopher Award."

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Washington Post News Article About Boston Marathon Couple

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Watch the book trailer

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The Author's website

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A SLOW GROWING MASS OF TANGIBLE THOUGHTS

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a slow growing mass of tangible thoughts

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This is a list of books I have worked on over the span of my career. If you are interested in purchasing any of these books and having them signed by me then please visit this link to Vroman's Bookstore to purchase a copy.

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is a children's book written by Newbery Honor Medalist Cynthia Lord (my wife!). The book includes 45 of my photographs as well as spot illustrations by artist Hazel Mitchell. Borrowing Bunnies was published in February 2019 by Farrar Straus Giroux.

The book is available in some libraries and bookstores, or you can order a copy online from: IndieBound Amazon B&N Books-A-Million

I shot 3,000 images for the project. To see some pictures not included in the book, click here for my Borrowing Bunnies gallery on Flickr.

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is a children's book written by Newbery Honor Medalist Cynthia Lord (my wife!). The book includes 45 of my photographs as well as spot illustrations by artist Hazel Mitchell. Borrowing Bunnies was published in February 2019 by Farrar Straus Giroux.

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This website is about children's author and illustrator Hazel Mitchell. See examples of her work, her books and about Hazel Mitchell.

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The Story of the Story of Because | Mo Willems and Amber Ren

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Past Present with Lesa Cline-Ransome GAME CHANGERS

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Book Trailer

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SchoolTube - Safe video sharing and management for K12

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Gus, right, and Ida, two of Central Park Zoo's polar bears, in 2002. Ida died last month. Credit... E. Kellerman/Wildlife Conservation Society

MY heart goes out to Gus, the famously neurotic polar bear in the Central Park Zoo, who used to swim endless laps around his pool. He'd dive to the bottom in a froth of bubbles, surge across and then surface like a bear obsessed. He'd backstroke to the other side, and with great paws splashing, dive down to the bottom and circle around again. Some wags called him the "bipolar bear," but most zoo-goers sensed that he felt bored, pent-up, out of his element and depressed.

A high-profile animal psychologist, called in by zoo officials, began treating Gus in 1994 with toys, games, more challenging mealtimes and a better designed habitat. Soon Gus seemed like his old self again, lounging and playing with his longtime companion, Ida.

But when Ida died recently from liver disease at the age of 25, Gus grew listless, slouching around his habitat and swimming little, obviously confused and greatly disturbed by her disappearance.

In the wild, male polar bears tend to be loners, who wander long distances through sketchy weather and over shape-shifting ice, with drifting pack ice as home. They go with the floe. But for 24 years, Ida was a pal with whom Gus cavorted and related to in countless ursine ways.

Strangers when they met, they nonetheless had much in common, including sheer tonnage. Surrounded by jabbering monkeys (us), they alone fathomed one another right down to their inner seasons, including the annual lethargy of "walking hibernation," when polar bears chill out and become less animated, but don't sleep the months away like other bears. Gus's array of highly evolved gestures, sounds, skills and moods found its match in Ida.

All the rough and tumble of wet fur and snouts, the weightiness and float, the nubby nonskid (think spa-slipper) feet, and exquisite sense of smell, provided a sensory oasis that polar bears in the wild not only respond to but pursue with a fervor we humans might call passionate longing. Small matter if "passionate" and "longing" are only an unconscious hormonal tugging in the cells. It drives polar bears and other animals with a fierce impetuosity equal to our own.

Gus probably misses Ida's familiar scent, since polar bears are wizards of smell who will march over ice ridges for 40 miles to reach prey they've whiffed, can tell which way a human went 14 hours before, and follow a breeding female simply by sniffing her tracks.

Many animals have singular personalities, preferences and idiosyncrasies. When they play together, they reveal different aspects of their temperaments, just as we do with friends and loved ones. So when Ida died, Gus not only lost his old mate, he lost those parts of himself that related to irretrievable parts of her. Could a new friend, welcome and distracting as one might be, fully replace the longtime bond he had with Ida?

We may never find out. The zoo is not likely to provide Gus with a new sidekick or mate. Wild polar bears are protected, so zoos must buy, barter or finagle bears from other zoos, where, because they're not plentiful breeders, they're prized and scarce. Also, at 25, Gus is elderly by bear standards. A lucky polar bear might live to 30 in captivity. So even if the zoo provides him with a new companion, she in turn could soon become the bereaved.

It shouldn't surprise us that zoo visitors commiserate with Gus, because humans have always admired polar bears. To the Greenlanders, they're revered as Masters of Helping Spirits; to the Lapps, they're Old Men in Fur Coats. To New Yorkers, they're a vision of the wild among us, emissaries from an Arctic realm most of us will never visit, a reminder of nature's sublime strangeness and beauty.

People speak of Gus's grief as if it were anomalous. But what if it's just part of a large suite of ancient urges and instincts we share with hordes of other animals?

A 2005 study of elephant grief, reported in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, confirmed what experts have long sworn, that elephants pay homage to their fallen, visiting the remains of even long-dead relatives, and gently turning over the bleached bones with trunk or foot. Biologists tell of gorillas banging their chests with yowls of anguish during a wake for a fallen friend, of sea lions wailing when their babies have been mutilated by killer whales, of grief-stricken monkey mothers carrying dead infants around for days, of geese singing both halves of a duet when their partners have died.

We share many of our motives, feelings and instincts with other animals - fear, curiosity, sexual desire, hunger, social contact, defensiveness, hoarding and saving behaviors, status seeking, dominance, attachment and protectiveness, appeasement and submissive behaviors, family loyalty, depression, duplicity - to name just a few.

ONE summer, with the late, wonderful entomologist Thomas Eisner, I taught a course called "Love, Truth and Beauty" at Cornell. Tom taught it from the insect perspective, I from the human, but both were essentially the same. Insects give the equivalent of engagement rings, check a suitor's bank balance, can be femme fatales, etc. What we call a "dinner date" other animals regard as "courtship feeding." One person's quest for knowledge is another animal's exploratory curiosity. We leave home longing to be footloose and free; another animal may depart in search of resources, stimuli or a mate.

I'm not suggesting other animals share our mental fantasia. Alas, evolution doesn't allow one species to travel fully into the mind of another. We see differently, hear differently, taste differently. Yet, to our credit, humans do try to understand the ways of lonely polar bears. We are deeply compassionate beasts. True, humans also wage wars and prey on one another, but most people can, and often do, feature the best of their animal nature while rising above the worst. We witness Gus's grief and taste our own memories of love, loss and loneliness. Our wild heart goes out to him.

Something deep inside us remembers being accompanied by other animals. Even indoors, we surround ourselves with pet companions who help bridge the apparent no-man's-land between us and Nature, between our ape-hood and civilization. However, a dog on a leash is not really tamed by its owner. It's a two-way tether. The owner also extends through the leash that part of his personality which is pure dog, the part which just wants to eat, sleep, bark, mate and wet the ground in joy. Feeling compassion for other animals, whether it's Fido or Gus, helps us tune in to the animal parts of ourselves that we know and love, bearish at times as we may seem.

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Opinion | The Lonely Polar Bear (Published 2011)

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MY heart goes out to Gus, the famously neurotic polar bear in the Central Park Zoo, who used to swim endless laps around his pool. He'd dive to the bottom in a froth of bubbles, surge across and then surface like a bear obsessed.

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Debbi Michiko Florence on getting her idea for Jasmine Toguchi Mochi Queen

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Read Aloud & Writing Prompt with Debbi Michiko Florence: JASMINE TOGUCHI, FLAMINGO KEEPER!

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WEDGIE & GIZMO | Evil Gizmo Meets His Superhero Enemy | Episode 2

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Find out more about this author

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Wedgie & Gizmo won the Sunshine State Award, voted by students all over the state of Florida. YAY!

Wedgie & Gizmo won the Illinois Blue Stem Award. And Wish Upon a Sleepover is on the Florida Sunshine State Award list. 2021-22 School Year.

Suzanne and her son, Walker, have written a novel and it will be released on June 23, 2020.

Braver: A Wombat's Tale is Suzanne's longest children's book yet and perfect for her readers who love animal adventure stories.

​

If you'd like to receive an announcement about the event dates for Braver, please join the mailing list below.

Join my mailing list!

Go!

Facebook Author Page

Go!

Suzanne's YouTube Channel

Watch!

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Wedgie & Gizmo won the Sunshine State Award, voted by students all over the state of Florida. YAY! Wedgie & Gizmo won the Illinois Blue Stem Award. And Wish Upon a Sleepover is on the Florida Sunshine State Award list. 2021-22 School Year.

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Barbara Fisinger Illustrator Interview | Wedgie & Gizmo

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Author's website

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Copyright 2001- Melissa Stewart. All rights reserved. All materials on this site may be copied for classroom or library use but may not be reprinted or resold for commercial purposes. This website is COPPA compliant. If you are a child under age 13 and wish to contact Melissa Stewart, please use the email address of a teacher, librarian, or parent with that adult's permission. Webhost Privacy Policy.

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Copyright 2001- Melissa Stewart. All rights reserved. All materials on this site may be copied for classroom or library use but may not be reprinted or resold for commercial purposes. This website is COPPA compliant. If you are a child under age 13 and wish to contact Melissa Stewart, please use the email address of a teacher, librarian, or parent with that adult's permission.

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Inside the Book: Barbara Perez Marquez (co-author of THE CARDBOARD KINGDOM)

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#30SecondBooktalk - We Don't Eat Our Classmates

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The Author's page

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Jeanette Winter is a celebrated picture book creator whose acclaimed works include Diego; Oil; and The Secret Project, all written by Jonah Winter, and her own Sisters: Venus & Serena Williams; The World Is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid; Nanuk the Ice Bear; Malala, a Brave Girl from Pakistan/Iqbal, a Brave Boy from Pakistan: Two Stories of Bravery; Henri's Scissors; Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia; Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan; and The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq.

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Jeanette Winter is a celebrated picture book creator whose acclaimed works include Diego; Oil; and The Secret Project, all written by Jonah Winter, and her own Sisters: Venus & Serena Williams; The World Is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid; Nanuk the Ice Bear; Malala, a Brave Girl from Pakistan/Iqbal, a Brave Boy from Pakistan: Two Stories of Bravery; Henri's Scissors; Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia; Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan; and The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq.

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12min. video

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How Zaha Hadid Changed the Way We Look at Buildings

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Adopt a rabbit at the Everybunny Counts Rabbit Rescue in Bristol

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AFTER THE FALL (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat - Children's Books Read Aloud

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Written and illustrated by Dan Santat

Published by Roaring Brook Press; 2017

ISBN # 978-1-62672-682-6

Grades PreK and up

"Life begins when you get back up" - so says the blurb on the back cover of Caldecott Medal winner Dan Santat's latest picturebook. But how does one "get back up" when the circumstances surrounding the downfall are not just physically traumatic, but emotionally as well? Take the case of one Humpty Dumpty, the titular ovate character from the well-known nursery rhyme. Santat does such in After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again, moving past a quick recap of "The Great Fall" and the physical recovery to focus on the emotional distress resulting from the event. Musing "There were some parts that couldn't be healed with bandages and glue," Humpty relates his newfound fear of heights, mourns the loss of his ability to watch birds from a spot close to them, and attempts to regain some semblance of enjoyment in his life. How he overcomes that trauma is both literally and figuratively an uplifting tale, one told not just through Santat's rhythmic text, but also with his evocative mixed-media illustrations. After the Fall is a book that will resonate on multiple levels, compelling readers to reflect not only on Humpty's remarkable accomplishment but their own capacity for hope and healing.
Teaching Ideas and Invitations
Humpty Dumpty Science - Does an egg always break when it falls? According to the nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty couldn't be repaired; however, he successfully recovers in After the Fall. Use this story to launch a scientific investigation into the properties of eggs and the circumstances in which an egg will and won't break after a fall. Help students pose some initial questions, such as the following: How far does an egg have to fall to break? Does it matter how thoroughly an egg is cooked? What happens if it falls on surfaces with different properties (e. g., density, size, texture, etc.)? Since Santat's Humpty Dumpty wears clothes, what happens if an egg is "clothed" in different kinds of materials? Have students plan and conduct experiments and record their findings, engaging them in disciplinary literacy skills that ask them to think and act like a scientist.

History of Humpty Dumpty - As a popular nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty has a long history in oral folklore. With the help of your school or local librarian to ensure your students locate reputable sources, have students research the history of the nursery rhyme. When is the earliest recording of it? What inspired the rhyme? Who passed it on throughout history, and why? Has the meaning of it changed over the centuries? Some resources to begin the this inquiry, such as this, are listed below in Further Explorations. Have students share their research findings in multimodal ways, such as via drama, art, song, essay, and video.

Static and Dynamic Characters - In the original nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty is a rather simple or static character, having no attributes or action other than falling off a wall. Santat's story reconstructs (pun intended) Humpty Dumpty into a dynamic character, one with complexity and agency. Engage students in an inquiry about static and dynamic characters in traditional tales. What makes a character dynamic and gives a character complexity and depth? Have students do the same with characters in other genres (e.g., biography, contemporary realistic fiction, fantasy, etc.). After exploring qualities and examples of dynamic characters, challenge students to reconstruct traditional tales to make the main characters more dynamic. You might have them write and illustrate a fractured version of the tale (i.e., a traditional tale that has been modified with an unexpected twist), write and perform a dramatic enactment of the tale, or create a poem or song about the character. Encourage them to employ the mode of representation in which they are strongest so that students can succeed in this activity and see a variety of ways their thinking can be represented.

After "The End" - Challenge students to continue the stories of their favorite nursery rhymes. What happens after the events that everyone knows? For example, are Jack and Jill okay after their fall? If not, how do they get back up (perhaps like Humpty Dumpty) and begin again? What does Little Miss Muffet do after she flees from the spider? Have students construct the narrative continuation in the mode of representation in which they are strongest so that students can succeed in this activity and see a variety of ways their thinking can be represented (e.g., song, poem, art, skit, etc.).

Concept of Metamorphosis - Humpty Dumpty's change at the end of the story is a remarkable one. Introduce your students to the concept of metamorphosis. How is After the Fall an example of metamorphosis? What other popular story characters, either in traditional tales or contemporary and popular ones, undergo a metamorphosis (e.g., the ugly duckling, the little mermaid, even perhaps Cinderella)? Are those changes for better or worse? Why? Have students explore these questions in a number of ways. You might design a solar system text set of books with characters who undergo metamorphoses, or you might have students write beyond the ending of some stories to show how a character has a metamorphosis (e.g., how might the hare in The Tortoise and the Hare change as a result of losing the race to the tortoise?).

Growth Mindset and Dynamic Learning Framework - Through the events that transpire, After the Fall conveys some of the key tenets of growth mindset and dynamic framework development, such as perseverance, multiple perspectives, and flexible thinking. Use After the Fall to spark discussion about what these concepts mean and how they can apply to all aspects of their lives. Push them to think beyond how those concepts apply to themselves and can help foster a more socially just and kind world, moving toward a dynamic learning frame, which is a growth mindset incorporated with civil engagement and social thinking and responsibility. Create a text set of other picture books that foster these outlooks and ways of thinking, such as , by Suzy Lee; Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle, by Chris Raschka; The Most Magnificent Thing, by Ashley Spires; Emmanuel's Dream, by Laurie Ann Thompson; Drum Dream Girl, by Margarita Engle; Trombone Shorty, by Troy Andrews; What Do You Do With a Problem?, by Kobi Yamada; and Ruby's Wish, by Shirin Yim Bridges. For more information on growth mindsets and dynamic learning frames, see the websites listed below in Further Explorations. For an example of how children's literature can foster these discussions in the classroom, see this article co-authored by Grace.

Reading Illustrations - After the Fall is illustrated by Caldecott Medal winner Dan Santat, and so the book's illustrations are particularly worth analyzing more closely. Help students develop their skills at reading and analyzing visual images. Review artistic principles, such as color, line, light and shadow, and texture with students to support their visual literacy skills. Teach about symbolism and motif, too. Teach students how to closely read an image, using these skills to construct deeper meanings. For example, how does Santat use the principles of light and shadow to enhance the meaning of the text? What about the principle of perspective? Project a variety of images for students to observe and discuss, increasing the complexity of each image to scaffold students' learning. You might also want to read aloud and share Molly Bang's book Picture This (see below) to help introduce illustration principles to your class.

Dan Santat Author Study - Gather a collection of Dan Santat's work and biographical information, including interviews and videos. As a class, read through the books he wrote, noting similarities and differences across the books' formats and styles. Pay special attention to his use of language and the ways in which he creates rhythms and emphasis through word choice, syntax, punctuation, and white space. Ask your students to identify patterns in setting, theme, character, and plot across the books. Based on students' inquiries, observations, and analyses, compile a list of lessons about writing gained from this study and invite your students to try out some of the techniques you have discussed in their own work. See the websites and titles listed below as a starting point for gathering information.

Dan Santat Illustrator Study - Gather a collection of Dan Santat's work and biographical information, including interviews and videos. Read through his books (both the ones he wrote and illustrated, as well as the ones he only illustrated) as a class, noting similarities and differences across the books' formats and styles. What styles, media, and techniques does he employ? What themes or symbols do they see across his illustrations? Based on students' inquiries, observations, and analyses, compile a list of lessons about illustrating gained from this study and invite your students to try out some of the techniques you have discussed in their own work. See the websites and titles listed below, including our Classroom Bookshelf entry on his Caldecott winning picturebook The Adventures of Beekle as a starting point for gathering information.
Online Resources
Dan Santat's Website and Social Media Pages

Dan Santat's Caldecott acceptance speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmzdZG3D_2c
The Horn Book profile of Dan Santat
http://www.hbook.com/2015/07/choosing-books/horn-book-magazine/profile-of-2015-caldecott-medal-winner-dan-santat/#_
KPCC Interview with Dan Santat
http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2015/02/04/41409/son-inspires-caldecott-winner-dan-santat-s-book-be/
Picturebooking Podcast: Dan Santat
http://picturebooking.com/020-dan-santat-the-depth-of-great-characters/
Origins of Humpty Dumpty

Dynamic Learning Frame and Growth Mindset Resources

Peter Johnston - Classroom Talk: Learning, Thinking, and Classroom Communities
http://twu.firstclassconferences.com/Johnston_Classroom%20Talk.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOFWlkE0JHE
https://www.edutopia.org/article/growth-mindset-resources

Andrews, T. (2015). Trombone Shorty. New York: Abrams.

Bang, M. (2000). Picture this: How pictures work. New York: Seastar Books.

Engle, M. (2015). Drum dream girl. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers.

Raschka, C. (2013). Everyone can learn to ride a bicycle. New York: Schwartz & Wade.

Santat, D. (2016). Are we there yet? New York: Little, Brown.

Santat, D. (2014). The adventures of Beekle: An unimaginary friend. New York: Little, Brown. See our Classroom Bookshelf entry here.

Spires, A. (2014). The most magnificent thing. Toronto, ONT: Kids Can Press.

Spires, A. (2017). The thing Lou couldn't do. Toronto, ONT: Kids Can Press.

Thompson, L. A. (2015). Emmanuel's dream: The true story of Emmanuel Osofu Yeboah. New York: Schwartz & Wade.

Yamada, K. (2014). What do you do with an idea? Compendium.

Yamada, K. (2016). What do you do with a problem? Compendium.

Filed under: Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Picture Books, Traditional Literature

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After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again

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After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again Written and illustrated by Dan Santat Published by Roaring Brook Press; 2017 ISBN # 978-1-62672-682-6 Grades PreK and up Book Review "Life begins when you get back up" - so says the blurb on the back cover of Caldecott Medal winner Dan [...]

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Central Park Zoo's beloved Ida, 'the ambassador for all polar bears', dies at 25

One of the Central Park Zoo's beloved polar bears has died.

Zoo officials in New York say Ida, 25, was put down on Friday after veterinarians determined she had liver disease brought on by cancer.

She was born in New York's Buffalo Zoo in 1985 and went to the Central Park Zoo when she was two.

She was seen by millions of guests through the years, often cuddling beside her male companion, Gus.

Polar bears normally live for 15 to 20 years in the wild and often longer in captivity.

New York City zoos director Jeff Sailer says Ida will be missed every day by staff and guests.

He says millions of visitors have been inspired to care more about the plight of polar bears in the wild because of her.

'Ida was a great ambassador for all polar bears,' said Mr Sailer. 'She was truly a wonderful animal and will be missed every day by our staff and guests.'

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Ida's zookeepers were allowed to share quiet time with her before she was euthanised.

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Central Park Zoo's beloved Ida, 'the ambassador for all polar bears', dies at the grand old age of 25

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One of the Central Park Zoo's beloved polar bears has died. Zoo officials in New York say Ida, 25, was put down on Friday after veterinarians determined she had liver disease brought on by cancer. She was born in New York's Buffalo Zoo in 1985 and went to the Central Park Zoo when she was two.

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This photo courtesy of the Central Park Zoo in New York shows Gus, the much-celebrated polar bear at the Central Park Zoo. Gus has died at 27 years old. He was euthanized while under anesthesia for a medical procedure conducted by WCS veterinarians.

Gus, the beloved and famously neurotic polar bear at the Central Park zoo in New York, has died aged 27, the Wildlife Conservation Society said Wednesday.

Some 20 million people are thought to have visited Gus during his time at the zoo, which saw him become famous for his obsessive swimming routine, and even become the star of a book based on his life.

In 2006 TV-chef Rachel Ray prepared a special meal-tilapia on a block of ice-for Gus and his partner Ida, who died in 2011.

According to the Wildlife Conservation Society Gus was euthanized on Tuesday while under anesthesia for a medical procedure after a loss of appetite and difficulty eating.

"During the procedure, veterinarians determined Gus had a large, inoperable tumor in his thyroid region," read a statement from the conservation group.

It said the average life expectancy for a male polar bear in a zoo is 20.7 years.

Gus, who was born in Toledo in 1985 and came to the Big Apple in 1988, became the face of the zoo, appearing in many newspapers and advertisements.

"Gus was an icon at the Central Park Zoo and a great source of joy for our visitors and staff," said Jim Breheny, WCS Executive Vice President of Zoos and Aquarium.

"He was an important ambassador for his species bringing attention to the problems these bears face in the wild due to a changing environment.

"Polar bears are apex predators - the kings of their domain, but vulnerable in a world affected by climate change brought on by human activity."

Gus gained fame in 1994 when his obsessive swimming in endless figure eights raised concerns.

A special "enrichment program" was designed for Gus, providing moveable items for him to manipulate, implementing positive reinforcement training sessions, and having him forage for food to keep his mind and body active and healthy.

In 1995 a book called "What's Worrying Gus?" was published.

According to its description on Amazon, the book "recounts the timeless tale of the quintessential outsider coping with the harsh reality of New York in the '90s, starring Gus, the lovable and neurotic polar bear of the Central Park Zoo."

© 2013 AFP

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Central Park's beloved polar bear Gus dies aged 27

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A popular polar bear named Gus who attracted millions of visitors to the Central Park Zoo and outlived both of his longtime female companions died on August 28. He was 27.

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