Pup and Pokey: Seth Kantner’s newest book (by Paul Greci)

I read and totally enjoyed the first two of Alaskan author Seth Kanter’s books: Ordinary Wolves (2005 Milkweed Press), and Shopping for Porcupine (2008 Milkweed Press). So, when Seth came out with another book this year, I couldn’t resist; I bought it and read it, and loved it!

Pup and Pokey is Kantner's first book for young readers.

Cover copy:

A boisterous wolf pup and an awkward young porcupine are unlikely allies in this tale of friendship set on Alaska's tundra. The two grow up as neighbors, but only through helping each other escape from a trapper do they learn what it means truly to be friends.

Gently inspired by the fable of "The Lion and the Mouse," "Pup and Pokey” teaches young readers about living in the wilderness and the sometimes unexpected connections that arise in our lives. "Pup and Pokey" is the first children's book from acclaimed Alaska author Seth Kantner. With Kantner's storytelling and Beth Hill's original illustrations, "Pup and Pokey "is a touching outdoor adventure story.

ISBN-10: 1602232415
ISBN-13: 9781602232419
Published: University of Alaska Press, 09/01/2014
Pages: 48
Language: English

Recommended Reading Level Minimum Age: 4
Maximum Age: 8
Minimum Grade Level: P
Maximum Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Pup and Pokey would make a great read aloud book in both school and home settings as well as being good for independent reading. Even though the publisher-recommended reading- (ages 4 to 8) and grade-levels (up to 3^rd) are on the young side I think this book would hold the interest and generate lively discussion with older readers as well.

A little bit more about Seth (taken from his website):

He's worked as a fisherman, trapper, gardener, mechanic, igloo builder and adjunct professor. His writings and photographs have appeared in Outside, Alaska Geographic, the New York Times, Prairie Schooner, and in other magazines, literary journals and anthologies. He's a former columnist for the Anchorage Daily News and presently writes a bi-monthly dispatch on climate change in the Arctic for Orion magazine. He was born and raised in northern Alaska and his art reflects his love for this land and the animals who live on it, and his belief in the importance of wildness left wild.

Personally, I heard Seth speak at a conference several years ago and then afterwards spoke to him for a few minutes about writing and publishing. He’s a genuine person with a great love for wild places, which totally shines through his fiction and nonfiction. I’ll probably read every book he comes out with in the years to come.

Thanks for stopping by.

VISITING AUTHOR RICHARD HOATH on Writing for Children and Teaching ‘Writing for Children’

 Today, we welcome my colleague, Richard Hoath. Richard is an author, an artist, a naturalist, and an expert on mammals of Egypt.

Welcome, Richard. Share with us your experience teaching university students to write for children.

I teach in the Rhetoric Department of the American University in Cairo (AUC). This summer I was informed by my Chair that in fall 2014 I would be teaching an upper-level course entitled Writing Children’s Literature 3420. I was at the same time both extremely pleased and rather apprehensive. I had written for children before and had two books published one entitled Sharks and the other Elephants on, well you can guess, sharks and elephants. These were educational books and I relished the challenge of writing factually accurate scientific prose for an audience using a very different vocabulary to the journal articles I had been used to writing or indeed books for an adult audience.

            I was apprehensive because, with the exception of three plays written for a series of Fifteen Minutes of Fame theatre festivals here in Cairo, I had not tackled writing fiction for anyone let alone children. This was outside my comfort zone which was probably good and I hit the books and milked my colleagues who were familiar with the genre and for their help I am incredibly thankful.

            This was all compounded by the fact that this was a Community Based Learning (CBL) course. My students would not only be writing fiction for children but they would be going out into the wider community and be talking with these children and ultimately reading their stories back to them.

            I chose a small school in southern Cairo for the project, the Maadi Community School (MCS) where I had lectured on several occasions on my own source of interest, Egyptian wildlife.. At AUC I introduced my students to the elements of writing fiction for a young audience (6-8) and by about four weeks into the semester my students had come up with project proposals and we went down to the school so that they could get feedback on their ideas not just from a university academic but from the school children – their real audience.

            The trip went incredibly well and over the coming weeks my students revised and re-drafted and fine tuned their stories taking into account my comments but more importantly what they had learned from the MCS visit.

            Last week we went back and my students got to read their stories to their original muses. That was exciting enough but there was more. Until then this had been an academic exercise for me, a conventional classroom assignment where I would take the drafts in and grade and comment and sit with the students in conference to go over their work. The final drafts my students brought to the school last week were different because for the first time they were illustrated. The students had done an incredible job. It was no longer an assignment; it was a living, morphing entity and I had the enormous privilege of watching and listening as my students read their stories to grinning, captivated 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th graders. There was so much to absorb, to take in but if I have to pick just one image it would be of Nora reading her story to a group of eight year olds lying on their tummies legs in the air and arranged round her like the spokes of a wheel. O for an aerial camera! They were rapt.

Put simply it was the most rewarding teaching experience I have had in many, many years at AUC. And is teaching writing for children as rewarding as writing for children myself? That’s a very, very difficult call but it has to be right up there!

And now?  We’ve moved on to middle-graders, an older, perhaps even more challenging audience. As we battle through building characters, framing plots and inserting dialogue I am conscious of a more sophisticated, even savvy readership.  I will certainly not be treating this second stage as a ‘mere’ assignment. Rather I will be following the students’ projects as they morph and evolve almost like a living entity. I do not know where this will lead but I do know the journey will be wondrous...

- Richard Hoath

   Cairo, Egypt

Lesson from a Rodent

This little critter popped his head out this hole about an hour before sunset on a well-used trail in Southern Arizona.

It kept moving more of its body out of the hole and then it would pull back and do it again.

This went for two or three minutes.

In. Out. In. Out.

I stood still. Watching. Waiting. Just happy that our paths had crossed, thinking that this creature was trying to figure out if it was safe to come out yet so it could forage for food. So it could survive.

And now, a couple years later, when I look at these pictures, I think, “I kind of do that all the time. Kind of.”

When I open the front door in the morning I look for moose. In the summer, I look for mosquitoes and yellow-jackets. In the winter, I feel the air.

Sometimes I pull back.

Eventually I advance.

Starting to write a novel can be like that too.

You get an idea for a story and you start poking your head out of the ground, checking it out, and sometimes you like enough of what you see to be encouraged.

Now, your next step, if you choose to take it, is to advance.

It’s not a life or death situation like it is every day around sunset for that rodent. But still, it is a decision. If the rodent was paralyzed with fear every time it considered coming out, it would starve to death.

For the Love of Animals, by: Marissa Burt

I've been thinking about adopting a cat lately. The past decade has been a sadly pet-less existence, but as far back as I can remember I've always loved cats: their ambivalent affection, the feel of a soft weight arriving in the night to curl up at your feet (or perhaps on your face), the way their tails make a perfect question mark.

I think children are born with a kinship for animal friends. I see this in my young boys, who are just now discovering the collections of fables, Anansi stories, and old animal myths. There's something endearing about these adventures, something magical about escaping into an animal-world akin to our own but so fantastically different.

Today I thought to spotlight some of my favorite middle-grade reads with anthropomorphic animal stars.

MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH, by: Robert C. O'Brien

Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service. - Amazon summary

If a book can make a kid want to BE a rat, that is a remarkable feat. Typing up the summary of this book stirs memories of the gripping suspense of it all, the intrigue and horror I felt discovering the secret of NIMH, and the admirable courage of Mrs. Frisby. Amazing! Bonus: the movie adaptation was also a win.

WATERSHIP DOWN, by: Richard Adams

Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage, and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of brothers, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society. - Amazon summary

Rabbits! On a quest! Escaping the ravages of modernity! I read somewhere that Adams originally crafted this tale as a serial bed-time story he told his children, which makes me love the book all the more. However, the movie adaptation completely terrified me as a child - trippy leaping rabbit sequence, anyone?

SOLO'S JOURNEY, by: Joy Aiken Smith

This story of survival focuses on Solo, a special cat with wisdom and insight who, after the death of his mother struggles to survive in the tough but close-knit community of feral cats to which he belongs. When the Owners come to destroy their home, Solo realizes he must lead his Quorum away. - Amazon summary

I think this book might have been out of print when I first read it twenty-five years ago. But oh how wonderful it is! This is the book I "bought" (read: paid the lost-book fee) from the library, because I couldn't find my own copy anywhere (pre-internet days, folks - times were hard). And this was the book that made me look pityingly on my indoor-only cat, wondering if she truly longed to be free. And the one that bizarrely inspired me to clip my fingernails into little cat-like points so I could be more feline. I recommend it like crazy, hoping that it can find its way into the hands of today's cat-loving readers.

TAILCHASER'S SONG, by: Tad Williams

Fritti Tailchaser, a young ginger tom not yet a full grown hunter, is the main cat among a host of appropriately named feline peers in this extravagantly detailed fantasy. When his best friend, Hushpad, vanishes, Fritti embarks on a quest to find her, and so enters the list of jousters against the evils of the world. His many trials and adventures bring him into contact with a veritable galaxy of cats, who speak a language for which a glossary is provided. This feline epic culminates in a decisive battle with an evil cat god. - Amazon summary

Before the WARRIORS craze, there was brave, courageous Fritti Tailchaser and his quest-worthy Hushpad. While not technically middle-grade, I discovered this fabulous novel in the 7th grade and spent many lunches reading it over my Cup'O Noodles.



There are so many more books I could list: CHARLOTTE'S WEB, and STUART LITTLE, and all the friends in ALICE IN WONDERLAND, not to mention Project Mayhem's own: Hilary Wagner's wonderful NIGHTSHADE CHRONICLES.

What about you, fellow Mayhemers? What were some of your favorite animal books as kids and why? Have you stumbled across any new titles sure to become favorites?