Author: Susan Kennedy

If You Come to Earth by Sophie Blackall From the first page, Sophie Blackall's If You Come to Earth draws you in. Written as a travelogue for celestial visitors, this book is not my usual recommendation, but is indeed a treasure in my conferring bag. You may know Sophie Blackall as a picture book illustrator.… Continue reading If You Come to Earth by Sophie Blackall

No Buddy Like A Book by Allan Wolf, illustrated by Brianne Farley No Buddy Like A Book is a freshly minted book extolling the myriad of things we can learn in a book. So when we launched our Writing a Teaching Book unit for first grade, this seemed like a delicious kick-off mentor text. This… Continue reading No Buddy Like A Book by Allan Wolf

Most Days and Most People by Michael Leannah Truth be told when I thought of writing about this book and it's Companion, Most People, I considered the social emotional toil this year has taken on all of us, educators and students alike. I consider the hopeful yet believable message of both of these delightfully crafted… Continue reading Most Days and Most People by Michael Leannah

One of the bright spots of our current hybrid model is teaching a 'Changing the World' persuasive writing unit at first grade. This unit typically taught in the last quarter of kindergarten focuses on change-making. Initially student think of problems in their every day work and make posters and songs to encourage change. The young… Continue reading Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea by Meena Harris

Fans of A Different Pond, will be thrilled to see a new offering by Bao Phi. Reading this book with Jennifer Serravallo's book club this summer, I was excited by what it offers to readers and especially to young writers. I tucked this book away, hoping to use it when the weather and the study… Continue reading My Footprints written by Bao Phi, Illustrated by Basia Tran

Our Friend Hedgehog The Story of Us by Lauren Castillo is just the type of short novel that you hope will be a series. As each of the characters are introduced and the storyline is revealed, you say to yourself, this is a wonderful read aloud chocked full of all the things we hope for… Continue reading Our Friend Hedgehog: The Story of Us

Always on the hunt for elementary writing mentors, this fall I was introduced to two texts, The Hike by Alison Farrell and The Camping Trip by Jennifer K. Mann. I've been thinking about small moments and narrative writing mentors even more since a colleagues said, we should move on from narrative, it's not like the… Continue reading Narrative Mentors to Stretch our Writers

Squirrels plus Donuts = a perfectly delicious story I don't know about you, but I'm in the mood for a good laugh right about now. Mika Song delivers those laughs in this hilarious entry level graphic novel, Donut Feed the Squirrels. Two best squirrel buds smell pancakes (read maple syrup) one morning and it's all… Continue reading Donut Feed the Squirrels by Mika Song

Our Favorite Day of the Year written by A.E. Ali and illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell by Susan Kennedy A great way to make new friends is by sharing things we like.  For me, meeting new students is my favorite thing to do!  That's why the first day of school is my favorite day of… Continue reading Our Favorite Day of the Year

My Summer Reading List My summer reading list was disrupted at the beginning of this month. Along with my usual search for student book selections and my focus in the last years of  'own voice' text,  I had learning to do.  I have to learn to be an antiracist, not just a non-racist.  I have… Continue reading My Summer Reading List

Carter Reads the Newspaper by Deborah Hopkinson It's difficult to narrow my comments about Carter Reads the Newspaper to a short blog.  If you asked me  the title of my #1 coaching book,  this is it.  This book has a lot: picture book biography, amazing book for black history month, narrative arc, and author's craft. … Continue reading Carter Reads the Newspaper by Deborah Hopkinson