Too funny to open my latest LM_NET Digest and see
my own name staring at me from the contents list!
For Mary Kate Cullinen and anyone else who enjoys
telling a thoroughly fun and silly story, "I Can't Pay the
Rent" is a little skit from many of our childhoods that
you can do as a Reader's Theater or as an improvised
drama piece. Those crummy lunchroom napkins work
great--just fold one in half, twist the middle, and voila,
a perfect little prop. Kleenex and paper towels work
fine, too.
For the Damsel, hold the bow to the side of your head;
for the Villain, it's a mustache; and for the Hero, a bowtie.
You'll want to use three different voices, of course.
(Think of Snidely Whiplash, Nell, and Dudley Do-Right
from my old favorite, The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show.)
Kids can extend the script, writing more dialogue and
acting it out.
It goes like this:
I CAN'T PAY THE RENT
DAMSEL: I CAN'T pay the rent!
VILLAIN: You MUST pay the rent!
DAMSEL: But I CAN'T pay the rent!
VILLAIN: But you MUST pay the rent!
DAMSEL: But I CAN'T pay the rent!
VILLAIN: But you MUST pay the rent!
HERO: I'll pay the rent!
DAMSEL: My hero!
VILLAIN: Curses! Foiled again!
You'll find the little script and some info about it
on pages 228-229 in the Reader's Theater portion
of my book, Once Upon a Time: Using Storytelling,
Creative Drama, and Reader's Theater with Children
in Grades K-6 (Libraries Unlimited, 2007), which is
one of this year's winners of the Anne Izard
Storytellers' Choice Awards from the Westchester,
NY public library system. I get to go to the Ossining
Public Library on June 16 for a reception with some
of the other winners (there are 13 books, but mine's
the only professional book), which I'm very excited
about, not having won such a prize before. I'll be
in extraordinary company, as I know that Carol Birch,
Penina Schram, and Andrea Pinkney will also be there,
and we've been asked if we want to speak or tell stories.
I'm thinking I'll tell a drawing story from the book,
one of my favorites that I've been doing with kids for,
yikes, 30+ years, T for Tommy. If you want to see the
annotated list of winners, go to
<http://www.westchesterlibraries.org/node/106>.
On that note, I'm floored to say that I've actually won
FOUR (count 'em, 4) awards in the past 2 months,
with the other 3 for the website I'm writing for, author
James Patterson's ReadKiddoRead.com. It's been very
exciting. You can see all of the info online now. First, we won
an A+ designation from Education World, which you can
see on the home page at:
<www.educationworld.com/awards/2009/r0509-11.shtml>.
Next, from ALA/ALSC, we received a Great Web Sites for Kids
designation at <www.ala.org/greatsites>. Thanks to the
committee for recognizing us as a worthy site for kids, too,
and not just parents, librarians and teachers.
And, as if those two weren't great enough, we won the
first annual Innovations in Reading prize from the
National Book Foundation, which comes with a $2,500
prize! (OK, the prize money goes to James who will do
something worthy and philanthropic with it, I'm sure.)
Go to <www.nationalbook.org/>, scroll down the homepage,
and you'll find the article. Too cool!
By the way, my two new annotated summer reading lists,
grades PreK-4 and grades 5-8, are up on the site now for
you to download and use. You could run them off for all
your kids if you like. There are 100+ books on each list!
Go to <www.ReadKiddoRead.com>, scroll down the
home page, click on New Arrivals and you'll find them.
Some of you don't realize that the booklists (and we've
reviewed more than 200 books so far, ages birth-teen)
are only PART of the site, Then there's the Ning site--
like Facebook--with more booklists, articles, great interviews
(James did a terrific one with Carl Hiaasen this month),
blogs, discussions, contests with good free stuff, and more.
You can link your school to the site so your parents and
kids and teachers can find it easily. Click on COMMUNITY
at the top of the RKR Home Page, and you won't believe
how extensive it is. Add your voice to it, and join as a
member (free, of course).
I even got to meet James Patterson at BEA
(Book Expo America) in NYC last week, where he was
on a panel with Sherman Alexie. I shook his hand and
thanked him for the opportunity to write for the site,
and tried not to sound like a dope. He was very gracious.
What a star-studded (if you think children's book
authors and illustrators are stars, as I do) weekend
it was! I had breakfast with 14 other librarians and
booksellers and Julie Andrews (who told me I have a
"good voice" after I sang a line from a poem, which was
the single most exciting thing that has ever happened
to me in my entire life, and I am still on a cloud about it)
and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton (whose new book,
Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and
Empowerment is a goodie for parents ), and illustrator,
Jim McMullan (I Stink; I'm Bad), where they showed off their
beautiful new poetry anthology, Julie Andrews' Collection of
Poems, Songs and Lullabies.
Then there were lunches with Karen Romano Young
(whose Science Fair Winners: Bug Science is out this Fall
with National Geographic) and Katie Davis (The Curse
of Addy McMahon) and Connie Rockman, whose brand new and
beautiful Tenth Junior Book of Authors and Illustrators
is now out from H. W. Wilson, and she's recovering from
working on it these past 3 years; and a reception in an
art gallery with authors and editors from the new
publisher, Egmont, including Mary Amato (author of one
of my all-time faves, The Word Eater), Walter Dean Myers,
Christopher Myers, and Leonard Marcus. Whew!
And, as if those weren't enough, most amazing of all
was the Not-a-Dinner dinner and silent auction
of 150 children's illustrators' works at the Brooklyn
Marriott. There I saw our own star, Lisa Von Drasek,
(who is going to be bewitching the Pratt Institute grad
students in my storytelling class on Monday, lucky us),
plus Brian Selznick, Jon Scieszka, Mo Willems, Jeff
Kinney, Rosemary Wells, and Roxie Munro, to name
just a couple. Shannon Hale was the evening's
emcee, and was unbelievably hilarious--like a standup
comic--and introduced Katherine Paterson and Mike Lupica,
both of whom spoke. I was getting whiplash, gasping over
all of these children's literature icons.
And then they announced the E. B. White Awards,
given by the Independent Booksellers Assoc. to the best
read-alouds of the year, and they picked, well,
two of my very favorite read-alouds of the year!
For picture books, it was A Visitor for Bear by Bonnie Becker,
and for fiction, Masterpiece by Elise Broach, who was
in the audience and spoke, too. I'm so thrilled with this year's
winners! I even wrote a Reader's Theater script for A
Visitor for Bear, which is in my newest all-new edition
of The Winners Handbook (Libraries Unlimited, 2009).
After the speeches and the awards, I got to
participate in the silent auction--150 original pieces of
art! Be still my heart!--and got outbid both for a great
painting from Dog and Bear by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
and a painting of the dinosaur from I'm Bad by Jim Murphy,
doggone it. But, wonder of wonders, I got a Rosemary Wells
watercolor of Max at the beach, which my niece will be
getting for her wedding present next month. Wow.
As it says in Kitten's First Full Moon, "What a night!"
Not to worry--I'm back in the attic now, as usual,
working on another neverending deadline, no good
deeds (or good times) going unpunished.
(ME: I can't write the words.
CONSCIENCE: But you must write the words . . .)
>
> Judy
Judy Freeman
Children's Literature Consultant
Reviewer for www.READKIDDOREAD.com
Author of Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3
(Libraries Unlimited, 2006; www.LU.com)
and Once Upon a Time:
Using Storytelling, Creative Drama, and
Reader's Theater with Children in Grades K-6 (2007)
65 North Sixth Avenue
Highland Park, NJ 08904
732-572-5634 / BKWSSF@aol.com
www.JudyReadsBooks.com
**************
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