Wesley The Owl

I "met" Stacey O'Brien in the chat room of The Owl Box on Ustream, watching Molly & McGee, the beloved barn owls of San Marcos, CA. After hearing the story of how she rescued a four-day-old baby barn owl and lived with him for 19 years, I had to go out and buy her book.

I'm reading Wesley The Owl s-l-o-w-l-y because I don't want it to end.

I'm writing about it now because I know my eyes will be flooded with tears and I'll be unable to form coherent sentences when I finish reading it.

Update: As my April school vacation came to a close, I finished reading Wesley The Owl. As predicted, I was weeping uncontrollably—sobbing, sniveling and gasping for breath, mascara streaking my face. I'm not sure why observing barn owls has had such an emotional impact on me. They certainly are beautiful creatures, but I think there's more—something about their expressiveness and intelligence that touches my soul.

Hate That Cat

LEXILE rating for Love That Dog is 1010. Hate That Cat was given the NP (Non-Prose) code.

A few years ago I read Love That Dog By Sharon Creech. Loved it!

This year we read aloud Hate That Cat during our fifth grade poetry unit. Loved it, too.

These books make poetry accessible to elementary students who couldn't be any further removed from the work of the poets that they are forced to read and analyze on standardized state tests. It makes sense to help them to connect with poetry in a way that they can relate to.