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What a whirlwind November has been! From national events like Native American Heritage Month, The Polar Express 30th Anniversary Edition Book Review & Giveaway and my week+ adventure doing author appearances at the Frances Hodgson Burnett Sesquicentennial Event, November has been an exciting and “book-filled” month! Here’s a quick recap of the highlights of November.

Native American Heritage Month links and booklists:

November is Native American Heritage Month, or as it is commonly referred to, American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.

The month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. Heritage Month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes, to raise a general awareness about the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges.

As always, the amazing authors and bloggers have gone above-and-beyond in sharing the best-of-the best in quality Native American booklists, activities and reviews.Go HERE to view some of my top picks along with some great posts from the JIAB archives.

The Polar Express 30th Anniversary Edition Book Review & Giveaway

Has it really been 30 years since that magical Christmas tale of a train pulling up into a young boys front yard and hurling him over hill and dale until he reaches the North Pole? To my astonishment, it’s true. Thirty years later, The Polar Express has become a holiday Caldecott Medal-winning classic leaving children all over the world laying quietly in their beds on Christmas Eve, hoping to catch a ride on that magical train. For 30 years author/illustrator Chris Van Allsburg has inspired us to “believe.”

In honor of this event, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has released a 30th anniversary edition complete with a new jacket design, expanded interior layout meaning we get to see and experience more goodness, a letter from Chris Van Allsburg, a downloadable recording of the story read by none other than renowned actor Liam Neeson and a gorgeous golden keepsake ornament. AND….I get to give one copy away to one lucky winner thanks to this The Polar Express 30th Anniversary Edition Book Review & Giveaway!! Go HERE for details and to enter-to-win.

Author Appearances at Frances HodgsonBurnett Sesquicentennial Event:

You may remember my mention of the upcoming Frances Hodgson Burnett Sesquicentennial Event Celebration. If you read that post you know how excited I was to celebrate an author who has touched my life in so many ways, and also one who is from my home state of Tennessee.

This year the New Market/Knoxville areas are celebrating 150 years since Frances Hodgson Burnett’s moved to the United States in 1865. On hand will be her great grand-daughter Penny Deupree, as well as her great great grandchildren. Penny Deupree, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s great-grand daughter, is coming from her home in Texas to give three free public presentations and display some of Burnett’s personal belongings. You can see all the places I made author appearances here.

As you can imagine, this event was absolutely spectacular and it was such an honor to be invited by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s family! Here are some pictures and highlights from this memorable event:

I was fortunate enough to meet, and spend time with, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s great granddaughter, Penny.

The young readers at the New Market School were some of the many groups that enjoy book extension activities from my book A Year in the Secret Garden.

What were some of your November highlights?

Attention K-8th Teachers! Get a FREE Diversity Book for Your Class!

2016 Multicultural Children’s Book Day Classroom Reading Challenge begins November 1, 2015!

Multicultural Children’s Book Day Classroom Reading Challenge is a special project connected to Multicultural Children’s Book Day (1/27/16) that gives classrooms the opportunity to earn a FREE Diversity Book for their class!
Teachers: We want to help you build your classroom library with diverse, inclusive and multicultural books! Here’s how to get a free book through Multicultural Children’s Book Day during the month of January. Teachers and classrooms can also win a Skype author visit with a children’s book author and the drawing will be made from the pool of teachers who signed up before 1/27/16. {author to be announced} This special project is free of charge to all teachers and schools and helps MCCBD achieve their mission of getting multicultural books into the hands of young readers and teachers.

What is it:

The Classroom Reading Challenge is a new project for us but it is a way for teachers to sign up, read up to four multicultural books in their classroom and earn a free multicultural book from us.

All Books are pre-screened and approved by the Junior Library Guild: Having Junior Library Guild on board assures that the free book that classrooms earn from MCCBD is a pre-screened, library-quality book that maps to Common Core. This is a HUGE and exciting benefit for this project.

The MCCBD team would like to take a moment to say a huge “Thank You!” to Junior Library Guild, for allowing us to tap into their collection of library-quality books for kids. Their development and book review service relied upon by thousands of schools and public libraries and we are grateful they are sponsoring Multicultural Children’s Book Day Classroom Reading Challenge by donating the books for the classrooms!
The Junior Library Guild editorial team reviews more than 3,000 new titles each year, in manuscript or prepublication stage. They have a keen sense for finding the best of the best. Over 95 percent of their selections go on to receive awards and/or favorable reviews.

Go HERE to view some of the books that teachers can earn and win as part of our Multicultural Children’s Book Day Classroom Reading Challenge and sign your classroom up to earn a few book!!!!

The post Weekend Links: The Highlights of November appeared first on Jump Into A Book.

My calendar on the wall is telling me it’s time to ramp up the planning for our third annual Multicultural Children’s Book Day! As you may all know, this yearly event is designed to not only spotlight all of the amazing multicultrual children’s literature, but also the authors of these books. My desk and Evernote is filled with wonderful and diverse books that I plan to highlight in honor of this upcoming January 27th event, and The Thunder Egg by is one.

The Thunder Egg by Tim J. Myers is an endearing tale that inspires the imagination while tugging at the heart strings.

Stand-By-Herself lived with her grandmother amongst her people in the tall grasses and endless skies of the Plains.

She was very shy an liked to go off alone. Often times the other children would make fun of her.

Stand-By Herself was good at finding thing. She could find sage-grouse chicks in the tall waving grass. She found autumn by watching the ducks flying South. One day she found a odd gray stone. She was sure she had found a thunder egg.

The thunderbird is the creator’s giant eagle who brought rain, thunder and lightening. Carefully taking the thunder egg back to her family’s tipi, she cradle wrapped the thunder egg and sang lovely songs to it.

That summer a horrible drought fell on her people. For days and days the rains did not fall. The holy-man said they must offer sacrifices to make the world new again.

Stands-By Herself knew what she had to do. I don’t want to spoil the story but I promise you that there is a powerful and rich conclusion.

The Thunder Egg is a beautiful teaching story which shares the importance of putting others before ones self.

Beautifully illustrated in watercolors, Winfield Coleman’s art is an inspiration and invites us into the unfolding of this captivating story.

Something To Do

Geodes

The egg of the thunder bird in The Thunder Egg was actually inspired by geodes. Geodes are the tootsie pop of geology. Plain on the outside, actually very dull on the outside, and have beautiful crystals on the inside. There really is a type of geode called a thunder egg. Read on to find out what this is.

The word geode comes from the greek language and means “shape of the earth”.

They come in a variety of sizes spanning in diameter from 1 inch to 4 inches or larger.

How Geodes are formed

Geodes are created in many types of areas. They can be formed in the bubbles of volcanic rocks. They also form in hollow spaces such as rabbit, mouse, gopher, and mole holes. Tree roots also make a great home for geode formation.

Here’s how it works:

Over time, minerals collect in the holes and hollow areas and harden into a ball. This becomes the outside of the geode. What’s happening inside is really fantastic. As the outside layer of the geode hardens, the inside layer continues to from crystals becoming the center of the geode. Every type of mineral can be found inside a geode. The more popular types are quartz and amethyst.

I hope you’re not in a hurry because the insides of geodes are not filled in very quickly. It takes hundreds of millions of years for the space inside a geode to be filled with crystals.

So what’s a Thunder Egg ?

When a geode is completely filled with crystals it’s called a nodule. A geode/nodule which is filled with agate is called a thunder egg.

Breaking a Geode

This next part is beyond fun. We had so much fun doing this. Would you like to get your own geodes and break them?

If you’re near the state of Arkansas you can find lots of rocks and crystals shops to buy geodes in. If however you’re like us and don’t live near or in Arkansas you can buy geodes online. Here’s a great collection to purchase from. We were really happy with the insides of our geodes.

There are a variety of ways to crack open a geode. There are instructions inside the box of geodes we purchased and then there is this wonderful blog post from Gator Girl Rocks that helped immensely.

A Look Inside

Here’s what are geode looks like on the inside. It was such a surprise !!!

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The post Native American Kidlit-The Thunder Egg by Tim J. Myers appeared first on Jump Into A Book.

November was officially recognized as National Native American Heritage Month and Alaska Native Heritage Month in 1990 when President George H.W. Bush signed it into Public Law. There are some amazing and breathtaking books for children that share the beliefs, journey, histories and struggles of Native Americans and also Alaskan Natives. As always, I round up the best-of-the-best of the books, activities and crafts that I have found over the course of the week and share them with my readers. ENJOY!

Mia at PragmaticMom has and awesome booklist on Top 10: Native American Children’s Books (ages 2-16)

DARIA Music has some excellent Native American musical instrument crafts on her site. Families can enjoy making a Drum Beater
For Pow-wow Drum or for the Lenape Hoop Game and a Turtle Shell Rattle.

We’ve had several wonderful Native American bookreviews and activities here on Jump Into a Book and Children of the Tipi Series-Tipi: Home of the Nomadic Buffalo Hunters is one of my favorites.

MN Tree: Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Free Resources and Free Activities

20+ Native American Folktale Picture Books for Kids from What Do We Do All Day.

The NEA.org has great tools and resources for American Indian Heritage Month as well.

See these sites for more information.

• Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month
• American Indian Heritage Resources
• Native American Heritage Month website
• National Museum of the American Indian – Classroom Lessons
• Celebrating American Indian Heritage Boosts Achievement
• Native American Book List

Do you remember the first time you read Charlie and
The Chocolate Factory as a child?

A world with geese that laid golden eggs, squirrels that could sort nuts, and colorful little people called Oompa Loompas? Would you like to re-live that experience with one of the greatest children’s books of all time like never before?

Want to know more and get your copy?

The post Weekend Links: Celebrating Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month (NOV) appeared first on Jump Into A Book.

Horse Raid: The Making of a Warrior by Paul Goble shared great insight into the every day lives of Lakota Indians.

This book is not only beautiful to look at but is well researched, giving a lot of information on a topic I had no knowledge. Giving us a front row seat of a horse raid from the view point of the main character Lone Bull, we learn of his first horse raid when he was fourteen years old. Horse Raiding was a time honored tradition and a right of passage for every young boy. Lone Bull’s father was the chief of the Lakota tribe. Calling on 9 other great hunters, the chief holds a meeting in their teepee to make plans to raid the crow horses. This is where Lone Bull hears of the horse raid plan and then comes up with one of his own to join his father and the other brave men. Lone Bull and his friend decided that they would follow the men quietly. When it was too late to send them home, they would unveil themselves and join the horse raiding party. Lone Bull’s grandfather knew about the plan and prepared the supplies and horses for the soon to be horse raiders.

More than this I cannot tell you. You’ll have to read it for yourself. Told with vivid words and exciting moments of the raid , Paul Goble brings to life the story of Lone Bull through his magnificent painting and his ledger book style. Lovely browns, blacks, blues, and reds. walk us through the plains of a pre-reservation life where horse raiding was a chance for men to show their courage and bravery in battle.  No one can become brave by sitting at home. As Lone Bull’s grandfather reminds us , ” No man can help another to be brave, but through brave deeds you many become a leader one day. ”

This newly revised edition features digitally enhanced artwork for vivid colors, a completely revised text, a brand new layout which makes for incredible story telling, and an interesting foreword from one of the world’s more famous storytellers Joseph Bruchac.

This book lends itself nicely to a look at the buffalo days and life on the plains. Beautifully written.

This book was given for review by the publisher Wisdom Tales Press.

Something to Do

A Song for the Horse Nation

This site shares the history and relationship between the Native American people and the horse. On this site they have a couple of examples of “horse charms” used in actual horse raids.

Draw a Horse Raid

Story teller and artist Paul Goble uses a style of art known as ledger book art. During the 1800′s Native American’s used what they could find. Oftentimes the paper they would find to draw on would be found in ledger books. Here’s a couple of ideas to get you started. Also be sure to use some examples from Paul Goble’s book Horse Raid as well.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
(The Ultimate Guide)

Do you remember the first time you read Charlie and
The Chocolate Factory as a child?

A world with geese that laid golden eggs, squirrels that could sort nuts, and colorful little people called Oompa Loompas? Would you like to re-live that experience with one of the greatest children’s books of all time like never before?

Want to know more and get your copy?

The post Would You Like You Like a Look into the Every Day Lives of Lakota Indians? appeared first on Jump Into A Book.