An often encouraging, compassionate, and reasoned approach to running elementary schools.
Corley, with co-author Plaskin, shares insights from more than 40 years of experience in childhood education as a teacher and principal.
Part One of this book introduces the basics elements of a successful school. An anonymized case study discusses a troubled second grader who pushed a classmate in front of a bus; fortunately, no physical harm was done, but later, Corley found that the aggressive child’s parents seemed ambivalent about his social needs. This leads to a discussion of the “idea is that educators should meet students’ basic needs for safety and belonging before turning to challenging academic tasks.” Part Two addresses what goes into launching innovative new schools. In the mid-1990s, the author was tasked with leading the Saltonstall, a school in Salem, Massachusetts, which championed the notion of pride; teachers had latitude and funding to create meaningful classes that emphasized science and technology and grouped students into multi-age classes. Part Three is about how schools respond to “Societal Events and Trends,” including bullying, Covid-19, and school shootings; according to Corley, elementary school bullying is often imitative of negative behavior displayed by parents and older siblings. Part Four is dedicated to maintaining a positive culture with clear community values, practical steps for supporting teachers, and reaching out to families. Despite the seriousness of much of the subject matter, the overall tone of the book is often optimistic and even bubbly. Throughout the book, Corley makes clear her great enthusiasm for education, and many readers are sure to find it contagious, as when she notes that when she was at the Saltonstall, “School officials from all over New England requested appointments so that they could observe our teachers and talk with them about their craft.” That said, some may feel that some of the stories here feature a level of good fortune—in terms of funding or school policy—that feels discordant with the harsh realities faced by many other schools in the United States.
An often encouraging, compassionate, and reasoned approach to running elementary schools.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781637632246
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Forefront Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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