YA Lit Frenzy Visits San Francisco

I (Carolyn) was up in San Francisco for the ALA Annual Conference this past weekend in San Francisco, but I only attended the conference Saturday and Sunday. Earlier in the week I had a wonderful couple of days exploring the city with my former babysitter-now-turned-awesome-friend-and-mentor Kate. Here are some great places I've visited over the past week.

Bookstores:

Booksmith

On Wednesday night, we went to a Longreads event at Booksmith, where a select group of writers each read aloud one of their longform journalism pieces from Longreads. Booksmith is a great bookstore, right in the middle of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood (location of the famous 1967 Summer of Love). The store stocks lots of different genres of books, as well as book-related items, and while the seating for book events is limited (I'm sitting on the floor in the picture on the right), the store has a great atmosphere. 

Chronicle book store

Chronicle is one of my favorite publishers, and since I already going had some business with awesome Chronicle publicity people, I stopped by their store on Second Street.  While there was a plethora of books, there also was a wealth of awesome gifts and items available as well. If you can't make it to one of their retail locations, all of their merchandise is also available online, but it's definitely worth the trip to see all of their offerings in person.

Green Apple Bookstore

Green Apple is a fantastic bookstore that sells a wide variety of new and used books. We went to the Green Apple in the Sunset neighborhood, and we each grabbed about six different books in the span of twenty minutes. I made off with the six books pictured for less than $65 (the bottom four are all used). I love supporting independent bookstores, especially when I can buy used books and paperbacks from them.

Coffee shops/restaurants:

Elite Audio Systems and Coffee Bar

Elite Coffee Bar is an interesting coffee shop. As you can probably tell from the name, the retail space is split into a coffee shop in the front and an audio store in the back room. The coffee is pretty good, and they have a few pastries (donuts from Dynamo on the day I was there). There's bar seating in addition to a couple of tables, although the space is pretty small. While there is free wifi, there are only two outlets, each by table. Be forewarned, though: despite 60-degree weather, the table seating is all in the area behind massively thick glass windows that will focus the sunlight on you until you melt into a blob of unproductiveness. 

Galvanize

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what Galvanize is. Is it an office? Is it a cafe? Is it a school? I have no clue. Their cafe is pretty good; they offer some fantastic pressed juices (pictured above with a Dynamo Bacon Donut I picked up elsewhere), as well as a selection of pastries, coffee drinks, and granola bars (I picked up a KIND bar there as well). They have free wifi, and there are some outlets available, though not all of them work. There's this cute little area tucked away by the elevator that has three black chairs and a table and the outlet there definitely works; the long bar/counter area along the front window has an outlet that definitely doesn't work.

Picnic on Third

Picnic on Third is a cute little cafe in SoMa. They have a pretty limited breakfast menu, and they only accept credit cards, and they don't have wifi or outlets. That being said, their pain au chocolat is pretty fantastic, and their giant sea salt chocolate chip cookies are heavenly. If you want just a pastry and a quiet spot to read, this is a great place to chill.

The Ferry Building

The Ferry Building, in addition to being a classic area for tourists to visit, has some pretty amazing food. For lunch, we went to several different places. Boccalone Salumeria has all sorts of delicious cured meats, and I opted for a meat cone - you can pick three kinds of meat you want (I got the Orange and Wild Fennel Salume, the Brown Sugar and Fennel Salume, and the Prosciutto Cotto). Cowgirl Creamery has a wonderful selection of cheese in their store in addition to selling all sorts of delicious sandwiches, and since I wanted something small, I chose to get their cheese platter - the three cheeses of the day with some fruit and nuts (asian pear and almonds, in my case). We then went over to Acme Bread Company, where I picked up a small torpedo roll. Later, I got some pretty amazing Vietnamese coffee ice cream from Humphry Slocombe, and Kate got boba from Out the Door (the to-go counter for the restaurant Slanted Door).

American Grilled Cheese Kitchen

Probably most famous for its mac-and-cheese stuffed grilled cheese, American Grilled Cheese Kitchen is a cute little restaurant specializing in - you guessed it - grilled cheese. The Piglet sandwich (cheddar, Vande Rose Duroc ham, apple mustard, and rosemary butter on Pinkie's levain) is phenomenal; the mustard mixed with apple butter adds a slight mustard note without the spiciness detracting from the other flavors. The delightfully eclectic decor gives this restaurant a perfectly quirky ambiance.

Creperie Saint Germain

I love crêpes, so I jumped at the chance to order some from this cute little crêpe stand on the corner of  2nd and Howard. I ordered a savory crêpe (ham, cheddar, and caramelized onions) and a sweet crêpe (Nutella with strawberries and banana), both of which were fantastic. They use buckwheat in their crêpes, so in addition to tasting delicious, they also are all gluten free.

Bonus category: Cat cafe!

KitTea

KitTea is a cat cafe that just opened up this past Wednesday. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a cat cafe is a small restaurant where you can get something to eat or drink and then consume said sustenance in an area with cats. KitTea offers an hour of cats and unlimited tea for a flat rate, and also offers little snacks that can be ordered à la carte. The cats were pretty cute, although the combination of warm weather and the timing (we went from 3-4 PM) meant that the cats were a little sleepy. There were about 6 or so cats in the room with us, although one was chilling on a wall installation and another was hiding in a cat bed for most of the time. Most of them didn't want to play, they just sort of vaguely appreciated being loved and petted. One of the cats (pictured on the right) was super adorable; she curled up on a cushion and dozed while people petted her, occasionally stirring to snuggle her face into her belly. The cats are all adoptable, and some of the fee you pay goes towards helping cats find forever homes. 

Falling in Love with Nonfiction

Often, I am confronted with teachers who are tasked with teaching children to read but who do not read children's books. However, more often, I see teachers who may have some understanding of fictional texts but limited to no real understanding of nonfiction books. I was that teacher at one point, I did not understand children's nonfiction and didn't really see a need to grow in that area. 

My reading life started when I was in third grade. I loved historical fiction, mysteries, and fantasy. As a child, I read very little nonfiction. It seemed boring and uninteresting. In my teens, I started reading biographies and some fact books on things I was curious about. In college, when I wasn't reading textbooks for classes, I returned to mysteries, and historical fiction, and fantasies. After college, I started reading more nonfiction, but it was driven by things I was interested in. Books on leadership, or cooking manuals, or photography, or other interests and hobbies. Nonfiction was a means to an end and not something I read for relaxation and enjoyment.

In 2010, I discovered some wonderful children's nonfiction and I began flirting with it. A little here and a little there. Mostly picture books, and mostly the books that read like fiction, which meant mostly biographies and books about historical events. 

In 2012, I started the nonfiction picture book challenge to try and fill in an obvious book gap that I had. As I look through my GoodReads Shelf for that challenge, I still read a lot of biographies, and historical events, but now there were books about animals and poetry that had a very evident nonfiction focus. 

In 2013, it was pretty much the same as the previous year. However, in 2014, through conversations with other teachers and nonfiction authors on Twitter, I truly stretched myself and started reading more widely to fill in my book gaps within nonfiction. It was also at that time that I was trying to tackle a few challenges with reading comprehension and the classrooms that I was working with.  Could I combine my love for nonfiction books that I was reading with lessons that I was doing? Could I use these books to help support learning for students who were English Language Learners? More about that later in this post.

What started out as a curiosity has turned into a full blown love affair over the past five years. It didn't start because of some Federal legislation said that children needed to read more nonfiction or complex texts. Instead, I simply found that I was enjoying what I was reading. Sure, it was also nice that nonfiction was enjoying it's own little renaissance as a result of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This only meant that there would be more books published and in turn the quality of children's nonfiction seems to be evolving as well. Certainly, not a bad thing for readers or writers. 

Additionally, as I grew in my love for nonfiction, it spilled out. My excitement propelled me to share what I was reading with other teachers and with students. Isn't that what we do with books? Share what we love?

Another discovery, as I shared my love for nonfiction books with students, they loved them as well. These books naturally encourage discussion, thinking, and collaboration. As students learn some new fact, they want to tell someone else. The illustrations or photographs elicit responses and draw in others. Before you know small clusters of students are discussing what they are reading and seeing in a book and comparing with other students what they have learned from their book. Isn't this what we want children to do? 

Nonfiction exposes children to new vocabulary and concepts that they may not have heard at home or in class or even in a novel. For English Language Learners, this opportunity to increase vocabulary and do it in a meaningful and fun way is another definite plus of nonfiction.

I am still working to understand nonfiction. I am learning more and more about writing styles and how author's purpose influence writing style. How might I help students read nonfiction in a way that will provide them with greater understanding of the book that they are reading so that they can enjoy it even more? How can I help them engage with the text and apply it to other areas of learning? 

Though I still am a big fan of novels, I have learned to make room in my reading life for nonfiction for both enjoyment and knowledge. Hopefully, as I continue on my reading journey others will continue to come along and we can learn from each other.  I want to thank Carrie Gelson for teaching me more and more about how to best use nonfiction in the classroom as she shares what she does with her students, and to Melissa Stewart for the many times that she has gone back and forth with questions and thoughts that I have about nonfiction text as I work out new understandings and how to apply them to teaching. Without the two of them, I know I would not have grown as much as I have this year.  I also want to thank everyone who participates weekly in the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge (#nfpb2015). I learn from each of you as I look at your book selections and hear how you are using these books with your students.