24: Mentors...

I began today's professional development session on mentor texts

with this quote and after reading it aloud inquired

"How do Cynthia Rylant's words strike you?"

There was a buzz that hushed only when I pulled out this excerpt

from "The Book Thief"

letting its words swirl and swing

hang and dance

fall heavy

and then rise up again

Getting to know Hans Hubermann in Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief," page 36.

Those five months were definitely the hardest.

Every night, Leisel would nightmare.

Her brother's face.

Staring at the floor.

She would wake up swimming in her bed...

drowning in the flood of sheets...

the bed that was meant for her brother floated boatlike in the darkness...

it sank, seemingly into the floor...

He came in every night...

a stranger to kill the aloneness...

Trust accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength

of the man's gentleness, his thereness.

Teachers' eyes, 

their hearts

connected

with this text

its song

and basked in the brilliance of Markus Zusak's construction

I said, "When I read this book, my writing made sense:

the sentence fragments

the long sentences

the way I may 'break the rules'

the way I try to fashion word pictures"

I said, "When I write every day on my blog, it's his writing I hear"

And he's my mentor

He shows me what good writing sounds like

He helps me envision what's possible

He empowers me to take risks

He invites me to use my voice to tell these tales

Some of them

I could see it in their eyes

immediately felt the text that had changed their writing landscape

they saw it and remembered it and connected with it 

all over again

I said, "I could teach craft moves with so many books 

but what is special is that this book has my heart; it is mine

I get it; I love it"

And now they love it too

because of our common experience

because of my excitement

because of its lyrical qualities

because of its blessing

because of its possibility for writers

Write on,

b