Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Books

Title: EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED FROM A CHILDREN'S BOOK    
Author: Various - edicted by Anita Silvey
Publication Date: 2009  
Genre/Format: Nonfiction/Collection of Essays  
Summary: A collection of essays from over 100 leaders from the arts, sciences, politics, business, and other fields.  They each talk about the impact a children's book has had on their lives.  It includes a picture and excerpt from each book highlighted.
What I Think: I was really excited to get this book, and just a teeny tad disappointed.  There are a good deal of people I recognize in this book, but at the same time, a lot of people who I don't even know at all.  I'm glad books were influential to them, but I didn't know who they were so it was hard for me to get excited about reading about their experience with books.  There were a lot of authors I recognized and it was fun to read about a children's book that touched their lives.  There were quite a few books I didn't expect people to connect with, lots of classics.  I think I would use this with older students more than younger students.  Overall, it was interesting to see what people said.  

I took away 4 overall trends that I kept noticing as I read - 

1. Many essays discussed a memory of a person reading to them or with them.

2. Many essays talked about being immersed in books, that they grew up with books all around them.

3. Each essay identified one book that was a "home run" book to them, a book that just stands out as one that really got them into reading.

4. Many essays pointed out that their either loved the book because they could connect with it or that it was so different from their life it helped them experience something completely novel.   

Read Together: 6 - 8  

Read Alone: 7 - 8  

Read With: Choose one of the famous figures from the book and do a more intense study of him or her and use this as part of learning about him or her; Choose other memoirs and match them up with a few from this book to discuss memoirs.

Snatch of Text: Lucy Mangan, British Journalist, wrote, "Children should be encouraged to read anything and everything because you never know what they will get out of a book." p. 203

     Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook: Sixth Edition (which I loooooove), wrote, "Until The Call of the Wild, I'd always been aware I was reading a book; that is, I'd yet to be "lost" in one.  Jack London gave me my first dose of "virtual reality" decades before the phrase was coined...I discovered that the experience wasn't peculiar at all, that nearly all lifetime readers experience it with a singular book at some point.  Fadiman explained that such a book is like one's first big kiss or first home run - they're unforgettable, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to duplicate or surpass them."  p. 57

Reading Strategies to Practice: Making Connections, Just-Right Books

Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative, Memoir

Writing Prompts: Write about your favorite book of all time.  Write about a memory of reading a book from your childhood.  Write about your "home run" book.      

Topics Covered: Reading, Just-Right Books, Genres  

Translated to Spanish: No