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Welcome to the second week of Book Jumper Summer Reading Series! This is my way of inspiring parents who are looking for creative ways to keep their kids reading this summer!
Our summer reading program will be a combination of some really neat things. All of our protagonists are girls or women and most of our showcased authors are women as well. I will be offering up a combination of themed weeks, great novels, booklist giveaways, and blog post recaps so be sure and stop by to discover more wonderful ways have A Bookjumper Summer while Exploring Our World and Beyond!
This week I want to focus on the wonderful works of author Linda Sue Park. Earlier this week I shared some history about Linda Sue herself and reviewed her wonderful book A Long Walk to Water. We also have have a giveaway going on where one lucky winner will win FIVE Linda Sue Park books! More details HERE.
This week on Book-jumper Summer we’re celebrating the great works of one of my favorite authors Linda Sue Park. Project Mulberry is one of our favorite books. Anyone interested in growing silk worms? Have a look below to find out more about both the book Project Mulberry and the actual project. Enjoy !!
I was walking in the yard the other day and discovered that some how we have a volunteer mulberry tree. Well it’s just huge and it’s growing mulberries.
For someone who walks their yard everyday I don’t really know how I missed this but I did. As the family began picking Mulberries, we were reminded of the most incredible story about a mulberry leaf, silkworm project written by Linda Sue Park (author of The Single Shard) called, Project Mulberry.
Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park
240 pages for Grades 4-7
Julia, a 7th grader who has just moved to Plainfield Illinois with her family is coming to terms with her new home and school environments. From the moment they meet, Julia and Patrick become best friends. Needing a project to enter in the State Fair, they ask Julia’s mom , who suggests raising silkworms. Julia refuses this idea at first because she is wanting something a little more American. Julia’s parents are Korean and she feels very self conscious about her asian heritage. Julia doesn’t want to be identified or labeled by her culture.
Finally, Julia accepts the project and reluctantly takes on the responsibilities which are needed to complete the project. Each unfolding step into the world of silkworms helps Julia to embrace her heritage and value her friendship with Patrick even more.
Woven into the story are the themes of racism, nature’s cycles, life and death, folk art, family relations, self-acceptance and sustainable farming. At the end of each chapter Julia, the main character, has a discussion with the author Linda Sue Park about the direction the story should take. It opens the door to the inside world of the writer’s process.
Something To Do
As we stood under our mulberry tree remembering this great story, we decided right then and there that we had to grow our own silkworms. I must admit to you that we are at the beginning of this process and are waiting for our little silkworm eggs to arrive. We promise to keep you updated on our progress.
Would you like to join us in growing silk worms? Just leave a comment below and let us know if you will share this experience with us.
A few weeks ago I saw the most interesting TED talk about what they are now using silk for. It’s amazing and is being used in ways one could not even imagine. It is taking science and technology to a new level. This is a great video for kids probably age 8 and older.
Looking for more ways to not only get your youngsters reading, but get them OUTSIDE as well? Enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden! A Year in the Secret Garden is a delightful children’s book with over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. AND, it’s on sale for a limited time! Grab your copy ASAP and “meet me in the garden!” More details HERE.
Small eggs so black and fine Unbend and crawl and dine But not on everything Even if it's green One treat alone will please Leaves! Mulberry leaves! Soft and fine and new But shake off all the dew A connoiseur can drown While chomping through and down We may die anyway If leaves are hard as hay And leave you wondering Why did I start this thing?
It's true. The silkworms are no more. We tried everything. I even steamed mulberry leaves - like steaming veggies for older people with wonky digestive systems. No go. They died. The silkworms, that is. Every last one. Fortunately, the company I ordered them from is sending us a fresh batch and artificial silkworm food. Hopefully this will work.
Oh, the things fiction doesn't tell you about real life! But we press on.
Despite our bad luck with silkworms, we adopted a new family member. We had two dogs for about ten years. Then, about two years ago, our beagle died. Just got old. After getting over missing him, we decided a new dog might be good for us and for our surviving, lonely dog. On Saturday, we finally found the perfect match. We tried the SPCA, but the dog we picked out didn't get along with our Mulligan. The one that did, wasn't terribly interested in us. So, we went to the city animal shelter. There, it is less a question of whether a person will find a dog to take home and more, can I limit myself to just one?
It was hard, mostly because they all wanted to come home with us, but we cannot adopt 65 dogs, as much as we would like to. Seriously.
After much deliberation, we decided on one.
She's pretty sweet and chill. The perfect writing partner. Lays on the carpet in front of my desk and keeps me company along the lonely path of writing. If only she could get the potty-training thing down...before the next batch of silkworms arrives.
If this were fiction, I would so make that happen!
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I've been let out on good behavior for a few days having turned in my revised critical thesis. This basically means that I have time to take care of those fires that have been burning so evenly around my house. One is the Dr. Doolittle room, which goes straight to the heart of this blog: You might be a writer if...you try to make books come to life.
I don't mean the books you write because, of course, you try really hard to make those come to life.
I don't mean the books you read when you were a kid. Raise you hand (mentally) if you're one of those kids who tried to levitate rocks like Luke Skywalker or wondered if you really could tesser if you just thought about it hard enough.
No, I mean that you're still doing that today.
Guilty secret: I am.
Only, it isn't so secret anymore. You see, the summer residency at Vermont College assigned Linda Sue Park's Project Mulberry. Three other books were assigned with hers. We only had to read two. Being the good student I am, I only read two. But then, being the guilt student I am, after residency was over, I got the other two and read them (and I did not just write that in case any faculty members are reading my blog. Really).
Project Mulberry was assigned because of its format. Instead of Park remaining an unseen, unheard, unexperienced author, she steps in and has conversations with her main protagonist. The question posed was whether this got in the way of the actual story, if it pulled us readers out and whether that ultimately worked or was a hindrance.
Granted, all of that was interesting, but what really hooked me was the actual story. Two children raise silkworms, make thread and then embroider a project from the thread they've made to enter at the state fair.
In the words of ten year olds everywhere...Awesome!
So when my kids came home from their Montessori school needing a creative project for the year (they are in 4th and 6th grades in the same classroom), BANG! I had the perfect idea for them.
And they liked it. Yippee! Super Mom gets to secretly do good and make her favorite read come to life. Could life get any better?
It could get a whole lot more real, but I'm skipping ahead.
We ordered the worms. The girls quickly pointed out (after having read Project Mulberry, too) that the worms were more expensive in real life than in Park's story. I tried to explain that a few years had gone by, inflation, that kind of thing. I think they were still upset that reality did not exactly mirror fiction (as was my pocket book).
We pressed on, setting up shop in the garage since it's got the perfect incubating temperature at the moment, a balmy 85. Teh eggs arrive. We carefully placed them in the habitat, sprayed them with water...waited...sprayed...waited. In only six days, they began to hatch (faster than in Park's story, but no one complained this time).
Then the trouble started. We have a mulberry tree on our property, so food shouldn't have been a problem. We picked some leaves.
The worms wouldn't eat them.
Uh-oh. Silkworms eat mulberry leaves and mulbe
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