Teachers, librarians, and cowpokes alike! Pony up and access this CCSS Annotated Educational Activity Guide for Cowboy Up!, then let ’em ride! Right out of the chute, let the vivid richness of Nancy Bo Flood’s poetry and Jan Sonnenmair’s provocative photographs inspire your young ‘uns to connect with the rodeo experience on a lively literary level. Along with a crossword puzzle and a pictorial match-up game, there are a number of form poetry activities raring to bring out the creative best in any young champion.
Thank you for even thinking about reading COWBOY UP, Ride the Navajo Rodeo. Maybe you wish you could have your own horse, ride like the wind, twirl a lasso and catch a run-away calf. Or maybe you are curious about what it would be like to be a cowboy or a rodeo rider.
One great thing about this book, you don’t even have to read it, you can just look at the pictures. They tell a mighty fine story.
I wrote this book to share what it’s like to be inside a rodeo arena, getting ready to race out of a chute. We’ve all experienced the nervous “can’t sleep and can’t eat” jitters before a big event. Maybe yours was getting ready for a recital or performance, or try-outs for a team. Cowboys and cowgirls getting ready to rodeo feel the same way. It’s scary.
When I was a kid I liked reading, for two reasons. It was one way to get away from seven brothers and sisters and chores. I would climb a tree, hide in the branches and read. The other reason is that books had pictures, especially National Geographic magazines. I’d read the descriptions under the pictures and read some of the article if I wanted to learn more.
Read anything. You learn interesting stuff, meet interesting people – real and made-up – and go places you have never been. Read every day. I kept a stack of comic books under my bed. And a flashlight. Now I keep a stack of books next to my bed. You never know when you need a good book.
Good to meet you! Imagine being anything you want, and thanks for reading my letter. It’s like making a new friend.
This month, ReaderKidZ is proud to welcome, Nancy Bo Flood. She’s the author of many books including Sand to Stone, The Navajo Year, Warriors in the Crossfire, No-Name Baby, and most recently, COWBOY UP! Ride the Navajo Rodeo, (WordSong 2013).
This exciting collection of vivid, energy-packed poems about one day in the lives of Navajo children saddling up to ride the rodeo, accompanied by beautiful photographs by Jan Sonnenmair and short descriptions of how the rodeo works, also includes facts about the various competitions, and a list of resources for further exploration. Ready to rodeo? Cowboy up!
Nancy writes:
I was the oldest girl of eight kids – two sisters and five brothers. Sometimes my challenge was surviving. For example, when I was little I wanted to be a mermaid. I tried lots of spells and magic tricks but nothing worked. One day when I was with my five brothers at the lake, I decided that if I stayed under water long enough I’d learn how to breathe like a fish. How hard could it be? Two of my brothers offered to help. They would hold me under until I started breathing, which would be evident when they saw bubbles breaking the surface.
After that near-drowning experience I gave up my dream of turning into a mermaid and focused on my next most important wish – to have a horse. A beautiful white horse. My parents said no. Absolutely not. One night I actually dreamed I did find a beautiful white horse outside our back door and I walked clear across our small town to my grandparent’s to tell them. All of this really did happen, only I was sleep-walking, and unfortunately, there was no horse. But the power of imagining was something I’ve never forgotten.
I could be anything if I could imagine it – a mermaid swimming in the city’s public pool or a wild horse with my cousin, galloping across fields and racing through ditches as big an any wild river. I imagined and then I wrote about it, making it into a story. I was there right in that story without any danger of drowning. Or usually no danger of drowning. I was writing the book, Warriors in the Crossfire, which takes place on an island in the Pacific Ocean. In one scene two boys canoe across the reef to hunt turtle. I wanted readers to feel they were in that deep ocean and were about to be attacked by a shark….well, to write it, I had to do it. So I paddled my kayak over the reef, slipped into the cold dark ocean, and felt absolute terror. Fine. Now how to get back into my kayak? Just like my main character, Joseph, it wasn’t easy. Not until I looked below me and saw a reef shark – a real one – circling. I was so scaredI nearly walked on water! I flipped myself right back in my kayak!
When I moved to the Navajo Reservation, I was surprised to see horses everywhere and learned the people loved their horses. I watched as kids practiced all the skills important to being a top-notch cowboy or cowgirl. I wanted to be one too. For me that was as impossible as breathing under water but I could watch, imagine and then write as if I were that girl racing her horse around the barrels – even be that kid getting ready to ride a wild steer. The feeling of being in an arena, racing after a break-away calf, being on that bucking sheep or steer, bronco or bull – that’s what I wanted to share with readers.
I will admit I had a few close calls. I couldn’t figure out how to describe those BIG Brahma Bulls – how powerful and ornery-looking they are. So I walked over to the rodeo corral where bulls were circling, snorting and pawing. I climbed the corral fence to get closer. One of those bulls glared at me, kicked up a cloud of dust and charged at the fence. I had a new respect for anyone who had the courage to ride one!
Did I like school? Depending on my teacher, I loved school. Unless it was boring. Doing math sheets was boring. Fridays meant taking a spelling test and if you didn’t get at least 90%, you had to write each spelling word one hundred times. I pretended I was a mermaid – everyone knows that mermaids do not need to spell.
Did I have a best friend? Marti Watson Garlett and I were best friends. She could sing and I could tap dance. We both invented stories and had bicycles and took imagined adventures everywhere. Every summer we spent a week at my grandmother’s house in the country. We did a lot of things we weren’t allowed to do at home, such as stay up late, watch TV, eat a whole watermelon – the center part. One night we dared each other to run all the way around the house, yard and barn. Alone. There was no moon, no street lights, it was pitch dark. Being outside in the dark was as scary as being alone in the deep dark ocean.
What would I be if I wasn’t a writer? I am a teacher, hopefully not a boring one. When students write, I don’t pay any attention to spelling. But what I really would want to be is a rodeo rider. Me and my horse would race across the arena, around every barrel with the fastest time. Champions! And if I couldn’t be a rodeo rider then I would be a mermaid, the kind who can breathe under water.
Join Team ReaderKidZ for a month of hard-hitting, competitive fun reading great sports stories. Whether it’s rodeo, baseball, or badminton; football, field hockey, or track – nothing reveals the inner character of an individual more than participation in athletics. Important life lessons are learned on the court, as well as the sideline. Winning is easy. Losing with grace and a sense of true sportsmanship? Well…not always. What of the tenacious courage required to climb on the back of a horse and ride? Or the discipline required to become the best in the game? These questions, and many others, are answered in a good sports story, and this month we’ll be featuring a winning line up!
In March, ReaderKidZ is delighted to feature one of our own – Nancy Bo Flood – with her newest book, COWBOY UP! Ride the Navajo Rodeo, stunningly illustrated with photographs by Jan Sonnenmair. Be sure to check back next week for a closer look at this beautiful book, an interview with Nancy, a “Letter to Readers,” and much more!
PENELOPE CRUMB, written by Shawn Stout, is a funny story with a heart – an example of humor at it’s best. In the novel, protagonist Penelope Crumb is plagued with the ever-prominent “Crumb Nose.” At first, her pronounced schnoz is an embarrassment to Penelope, one that she desires to erase from existence. Later it becomes a strength of character, leading to a special understanding of a unique family legacy. Penelope delightfully noses though a hilarious, yet emotional, trail in search of facts surrounding her father’s passing and eventually locating her estranged grandfather.
This light-hearted, cleverly crafted novel is underpinned by tender, heart-wrenching truths about family, loss, and forgiveness – a “must read” indeed.
This charming story of the complexity of family life, written and illustrated by Leslie Helakoski, celebrates the notion that there’s always room for one more. The funny thing about this book is that it is told from under the kitchen table from a dog’s point of view. Doggone Feet! begins with a stray who follows a lanky set of legs belonging to a young man carrying a tambourine. The young man takes the dog in. The two become a family. Eventually, the young man marries and has a family of his own – with all of the crazy chaos that goes along with it. Each new set of feet presents problems, opportunities for cooperation, acceptance, and fun!
Speaking of fun, Leslie is offering an activity-rich CCSS annotated teacher guide as a downloadable companion to her book. Enjoy creating poetry, skip-counting, story-sequencing, and simply having a good time with each new addition to the amusing hound dog’s family.
OH, NO! Who will fall into the deep dark hole next?
OH, NO! (Schwartz & Wade, 2012) a picture book by Candace Fleming delightfully engages a young reader or listener. With each turn of the page, another animal tumbles into the jungle pit… Oh, no!… with hungry TIGERS lurking oh so close…Oh, no! The wood-block style illustrations by Eric Rohmann are a delight as usual. Children will have fun joining in with the playful Oh, no! chorus as tension rises and animals, one by one, continue falling into the pit until — a very fitting end. Oh, no!
NOCTURNE: DREAM RECIPES (Groundwood Books, 2012) by Isol and translated by Elisa Amado is a unique book that encourages a reader’s imagination and sense of play.
This unusual bedtime book hints at the magic inherent in dreaming. The child chooses a dream from the pictures in the book. Then turns off the light. Surprise!
Twelve glow-in-the-dark pictures present possibilities as the hidden world becomes visible. Choose a dream. Imagine what will happen next. Included are dreams such as the dream of the cat who smelled a tuna casserole!
Isol’s extraordinary creativity and humor have produced a truly wonderful, very fun, very original book.
Excerpt (from the back cover):
A boring dream is a waste of a night!
In this book you will find adventurous dreams, silly dreams, funny dreams, even slightly scary dreams. All you have to do is follow these instructions:
Choose one of the dreams in the book after reading the titles and looking at the pictures.
Before you go to sleep, open the book to the dream you’ve chosen, and place it on your night table under a bright light. Make sure you can see the picture when you are lying down.
Turn out the light!
You will see the luminous traces that the dream left behind on the page. Look for as long as you like, then close your eyes and follow the dream to its hiding place.
This glow-in-the-dark book will make sure that no night is wasted. Sweet dreams!
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.
