Elena's Serenade by Campbell Geeslin; illustrated by Ana Juan

Love, love, love, love this book!!  Not only are Ana Juan's illustrations amazing, as always, but Campbell Geeslin's narrative that accompanies them is equally pleasing.  The story follows a young girl, Elena, as she journeys to Monterrey to learn to be a glassblower like her father.  In order to be taken seriously in her quest, Elena must dress as a boy because, as her father tells her, "who ever heard of a girl glassblower?"  Along the way, she meets several characters that she aids with the songs she plays on her pipe.  Her beautiful songs translate into fantastic glass creations which are beloved by the people of Monterrey and earn her the respect of her father.  I read this book to my daughter, and she loved it so much that we had to read it three times in a row!

Some ideas for the ESL classroom:

• Make a chart of the Spanish words that appear in the story.  Add columns for students to write the English translations, as well as translations from any other languages they know.
• Problem/Solution and Cause/Effect: Make flip cards that show the problem/cause on the top.  Lift the flap and write the solution/effect.  This would work well in the section that details Elena's journey and the friends she meets and helps.
• Similes and metaphors abound in the story, so this would also be a great skill to teach using the book.
• Some vocabulary that might be tricky for ELL's: glassblower, trousers, furnace, fades, factory, steady, gliding, chiming, politely, squinting

For responding to the story, students could complete a writing activity in which they write about what they would make if they were a glassblower and which song they would play in their pipes in order to make it.  Emerging writers could write a word or phrase, while more experienced writers could write several paragraphs.

A website with cute ideas for the classroom: https://sites.google.com/a/plymouth.k12.in.us/webster-third-grade/home/reading/elena-s-serenade

Happy reading!
Jacquie