Book Tour and Netflix Show! Who Was Pablo Picasso and Who Were the Wright Brothers

What do you get when you cross The Electric Company, Zoom, and Schoolhouse Rock? Oh that’s easy, you get Netflix’s new show “The Who Was? Show.  First, I’ll start with a little background.  Random House Penguin has a fantastic series of biographies on famous people called Who Was…  My student’s love them.  The books are filled with interesting facts and illustrations.  They are age appropriate, but they don’t shy away from serious details. 

Luckily for us Netflix decided to highlight these books with a hilarious show. Two famous (actually three this time) people are show cased in each episode. I got to spend a little time with Pablo Picasso and The Wright Brothers.  The difference between the books and the Netflix show is enough that a student can’t watch the show and learn everything in the book.  The show is almost a teaser for the book.  “Hey kids wanna learn about a famous person?  Here is a bit of information.”  Hey kids want to learn more? Great! Here is a book that will teach you so much more!”

Thank you Penguin for the Books! 

In the episode I watched one of the Wright brothers is annoyed that they each didn’t get the same amount of time as Picasso.  I, also, don’t think it is true that the Wright brothers tried to invent clothes for cats.  But, you never know!   

Earlier, I commented that the books don’t shy away from serious details.  For example, in the Who Was Pablo Picasso

book it talks about the death of his sister and best friend and how this loss dramatically impacted his art.

Combining the humor and seriousness of life is what makes for an interesting watch and read.  I look forward to continuing to share the books with my students, and now I can share this wonderfully delightful show.

Baby Monkey, Private Eye

Thank you Scholastic for the copies

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In walks an opera diva, a pizza chef, a clown, and an astronaut.  It sounds like a beginning of a joke, but it is anything but a joke.  These are new clients for a very special private eye.  No, the detective is not Cormoran Strike, but Baby Monkey.  Brian Selznick and David Serlin’s newest character. 

A couple weekends ago, was a literacy filled.  Thursday and Friday was the CCIRA annual conference.  The conference was wonderful, and just what I needed to rejuvenate me. It continued to get better because Denver was host city to the ALA Midwinter Conference.  On Saturday I attended the exhibit hall where I was able to pick up an advance reader copy of Baby Monkey Private Eye by Brian Selznick and David Serlin. (I’ll be honest I picked up two copies.) I was so excited to get my hands on this joyful book.  Back up a little bit.  It is not longer in my possession.  The students in my class got a hold of it and created a wait list to be fair.  The amount of laughter is amazing!

I love this book.  As usual Brian Selznick illustrations are breathtaking. The text the two created is engagingly funny to high third grade readers.  Looking at the changing details during each new chapter is fun.  I mean really Maria Callas and the first footstep on the money.  The creativity to come up with this is just…WOW!

Finally, anyone that has watched a toddler try to put on pants will love watching Baby Monkey try to put on his pants.  Again, the laughter of third graders reading this part is priceless.  This book reminds us that if we only allow kids to read books at “their level” most kids will miss out on the joy of a masterpiece.