Pssst. Wanna review a good book?

Hi everyone,

I have a Zoom meeting soon among my fellow-authors, LAURA ROBB and TIM RASINSKI of the book Promote Reading Gains with Differentiated Instruction, and our marketing team for the book at Shell Education, to explore ways to promote the title. I know we’ll talk about articles, videos, podcasts, and such, but I think the best way to promote any book is for it to get reviewed.

Reviews on Amazon so far are excellent. “…wonderful resource that aligns with the Science of Reading: visualizing, inferring, drawing conclusions, and comparing and contrasting.” “Thank you Robb, Harrison, and Rasinski for creating this valuable resource for teachers and students. Your book provides teachers with all the tools needed to teach a whole group, small group, and intervention lessons using high quality engaging activities.” “My students love the poems for two and three voices as well as the word ladders. I will be using the compare and contrast lessons as we begin preparing for state assessments. Districts need to invest in this book and get it in teachers’ hands ASAP!” “What a masterful achievement. The three authors, brought together for this extraordinary resource, share the same passion: kids must read!” “The shared wisdom and combined experience of Robb, Rasinski, and Harrison shines through on every page. They know what they are talking about. Their ideas really work.”

The problem is, we need a lot more reviews and busy teachers rarely find time to post reviews of books, even ones they are using. The marketing team says we need at least 50 good ratings to boost awareness of the book. Really? Thus the upcoming meeting.

First review is in

Hi everyone,

Library Bookwatch, Midwest Book Review calls our new book “unreservedly recommended” and goes on to say, “Promote Reading Gains” provides teachers with 36 lessons that support differentiated instruction in grades 3, 4, and 5. The lessons focus on four advanced reading skills: visualize, infer, draw conclusions, and compare/contrast. Written by literacy experts Laura Robb and Tim Rasinski and award-winning children’s author David L. Harrison, “Promote Reading Gains” offers useful lessons and reading strategies that meet students’ diverse reading needs.”

It’s always a pleasure to work with Laura and Tim. So glad to see this first review come in!

One out, one coming

Hi everyone,

Today is the official pub date for PROMOTE READING GAINS WITH DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION, Grades 3-5, LAURA ROBB, DAVID L HARRISON, and TIM RASINSKI, Shell Education, 2023.

In addition to writing twenty-eight poems for the book, there are twenty-two 500-word texts about a variety of subjects that include the first cave artist, crows, honeybees, zoos, polar bears, the first storyteller, worms, the origin of dogs, the story of Alice in Wonderland, what an eel eats for breakfast, tigers, birds, and more. Thank you in advance to telling others about the book. Tim has provided his famous word ladders for every poem and text and Laura is eloquent and insightful with her explanations and classroom activities to enforce lessons of visualizing, inferring, drawing conclusions, and comparing/contrasting. MARY JO FRESCH’s foreword sets the perfect tone to get the book off to a great start.

Yesterday my editor at Charlesbridge, KAREN BOSS, sent me a set of the painting by GILES LAROCHE for our new book that’s due out in 2024. It’s a collection of poems about animals that will compliment the previous titles, Now You See Them, Now You Don’t and A Place to Start a Family. Giles has outdone himself with this one. Karen and I are both ecstatic about what he has created and now of course I can’t wait to see this new trade book get out. Waiting can be SO hard.

Samples arrived

Hi everyone,

Yesterday my copies of PROMOTE READING GAINS WITH DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION arrived on my doorstep. It’s a handsome book of 292 pages and I’ve been walking around the house with it, reading a snatch here and there wherever I land long enough. An added bonus is the terrific foreword written by MAY JO FRESCH, Academy Professor and Professor Emeritus, College of Education and Human Ecology, The Ohio State University. Thank you, Mary Jo!

I started working on this title with LAURA ROBB and TIM RASINSKSI long before I was named Missouri’s Poet Laureate, but I count this as a legitimate addition to my goal of encouraging the love of poetry across the state. In this case, the poems and essays I wrote will be read nationwide, but hey that includes Missouri. As Mary Jo notes in her foreword, “Anchored with David’s thought-provoking poems and short texts, students are provided a variety of ways to enter “into” the text.” And the preface states, “This book features differentiated lessons that are based on original poems or short texts by David L. Harrison.”

As I’ve mentioned in the past, when I commit to writing a book for the classroom with dear friends and colleagues, it is the equivalent of anywhere from two to six normal trade book collections (about 15) of my work. Kids in classrooms where teachers have access to the book will hear the poems and 500-word texts, but the general public that goes to book stores and libraries is far less likely to know they exist. I’ve had twenty-one trade books of poems published but that probably represents less than half of my total published output. The price of this new education book is $39.99, more than most people will pay for a book to find my work for children. I understand that. But I still love this kind of challenge and the chance to work with such learned stars in their field. And those kids in the classroom will learn how to visualize a mosquito!

A Mosquito

A mosquito is a whisper behind your ear,
a slender silhouette on your leg in the dark under the table,
a vampire’s light touch assessing your cheek. 

A mosquito is a fiery itch on your elbow,
an unreachable welt in the center of your back,
a knuckle you can’t stop scratching.

A mosquito is stagnant green water,
the reason you flee indoors on a windless night,
why you can’t sleep if one’s in the house.

A mosquito is evil smelling spray,
adores your blood, detests the person’s beside you.
A mosquito is why you hate mosquitoes. 

(c) 2023 David L. Harrison, Shell Education, from Promote Reading Gains with Differentiated Instruction, all rights reserved 

A poem from the new book

Hi everyone,

My book with LAURA ROBB and TIM RASINSKI is due out 16 days from now. You can preorder it anytime on Amazon. It’s called PROMOTE READING GAINS WITH DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION, Grades 3-5. https://www.amazon.com/Promote-Reading-Gains-Ready-Use/dp/B0BYRF3DGF/?encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=XBG2q&content-id=amzn1.sym.5f7e0a27-49c0-47d3-80b2-fd9271d863ca%3Aamzn1.symc.e5c80209-769f-4ade-a325-2eaec14b8e0e&pf_rd_p=5f7e0a27-49c0-47d3-80b2-fd9271d863ca&pf_rd_r=9ASYW96YSJ91X78JRTC1&pd_rd_wg=SbqTm&pd_rd_r=24975f25-2260-4585-92be-50b641984069&ref=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m Here’s one of my poems from the book.

Your Eyes

Chimpanzee reclining in your tree,
gazing solemnly at me
through brown eyes, ancient, wise,
I wonder what you see.

We’re not so different, you and I.
I imagine, when I try,
you in clothes, me in the tree,
giving you the eye.

I wonder if your soulful gaze
is telling me you feel the days
are warmer than they used to be,
because of human ways.

Somehow things have gone awry.
I wonder if chimpanzees cry.
Your eyes, so sad, I think you know,
your world is passing by.

(c) 2023 David L. Harrison, Promote Reading Gains with Differentiated Instruction, Shell Education, all rights reserved