Responses to 13 Words

So I spent the last week reading Lemony Snicket and Maira Kalman's 13 Words to the first, second, and third graders and I got some interesting reactions to the book. Before you read further, go here and read the book for yourself, better yet, share it with your kids!

I'll wait.

Okay, I trust that you've read it and will know what I'm talking about without my having to go into too much detail.

First of all, the humor of the book was mostly lost on the first graders. The prime audience were the second and thirds, though the thirds were fooled by the first page into thinking it was a too easy word book for little kids and thought it would be boring. When I asked the first graders what 'despondent' meant, looking at the bird for clues, many of them thought it meant wet due to the rain cloud above the bird. The 2's and 3's got it right away. They all understood that scarlet was a shade of red. Everyone laughed at the word 'haberdashery' and one girl asked me if it was a real word or just made up. They all thought the baby who owns the haberdashery was funny, too. I had more than one class point out how silly it was that the baby was so big in the picture and could talk. I then pointed out to them that the goat was driving the convertible, which they seemed to accept pretty readily. They all understood that a mezzo-soprano was a singer, the older kids knew that she was specifically an opera singer. Many of them, at the end, asked why the bird was still despondent, to which I replied "That's what kind of day she's having."

After reading the story to a class today, one student had misplaced her shelf marker and was starting to get a little upset about it. When she finally found it she told me about how she was starting to get a little upset about misplacing her shelf marker. I asked her if it made her feel despondent and she smiled and said "Yes!"

13 Words

Well, I just arrived home from San Francisco where my friend Donna, the library clerk at Monroe Middle School, and I spent an evening with Lemony Snicket and Maira Kalman at the Herbst Theater. We had such fun evening! We drove part of the way, then parked the car and got on a BART train to take us into the city. When we got there, we had some spicy indian food and then we walked to the theater.

They were selling books in the foyer so I bought one right away and then we found our seats. After showing us the video that I posted above, Lemony Snicket and Maira Kalman took the stage, along with Steven Winn, who interviewed them. They talked about their collaboration on the new book 13 Words. They talked a lot about Maira Kalman's illustrations and about how Lemony Snicket likes to use big words in children's books. This event was part of the City Arts and Lectures series so sometime in the near future, you'll be able to listen to it on NPR, which I recommend you do because they were very funny! Plus there was a surprise musical performance at the end.

Here are some blurry pictures of Mr. Snicket and Ms. Kalman signing their books:

I am now in possession of a signed copy of the fabulous book 13 Words, written by Lemony Snicket (The Series of Unfortunate Events, The Composer Is Dead) and illustrated by Maira Kalman (Max Makes a Million, Fireboat) which I may read aloud tomorrow. If you all aren't too despondent to listen to it.

ETA: I see the video doesn't fit right on the blog so here is a linky so you can watch it properly.