Last updated on December 3rd, 2024 at 05:35 pm
Let me introduce an adventurous and ornery Amish boy named Amos to you.
Amos is a fictional ten-year-old living in the Amish vacation destination of Pinecraft, Florida, and he’s cooked up a wildly thrilling scheme: Amos wants to ride his three-wheeled bike all the way from his neighborhood over the expansive Sunshine Skyway Bridge and glittering bay below.
In this picture book adventure, the reader is guided through various landmark stops in Pinecraft as Amos embarks on his journey. Though this is a work of fiction, many of the spots and relatives visited (like Amos’ grandma in her sewing circle at the quilt shop!) are mirrors of this real Amish and Mennonite community.
Amos makes many preparations and pit stops before his long journey across county lines and massive intersections– will he make it over the Skyway?
A Classroom Readaloud Combining Engaging Fiction with Cultural Information
Thanks to local libraries and generous book donations, my teaching years were always characterized by robust collections of classroom readalouds.
And now, I’ve written the readaloud I’ve always wanted in the classroom.
Inspired by many picture books that offered up a beautifully illustrated, engaging story along with factual information, I knew I wanted to put out a fun story to the world while also teaching about true places and events.
When I was teaching third grade, I remember reading a picture book like “Pop’s Bridge,” for instance, which tells a fictionalized version of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The book included a story my students were captivated by. It was chock full of rich vocabulary and insights into this historical event.
We re-read the book several times. I used “Pop’s Bridge” as a launching pad both for science and social studies topics ranging from engineering and bridge building to history in that time period (the 1930s) and even geography (San Francisco and California). There are numerous branches you can extend from this one book.
Using Fiction Readalouds as Spring Boards to Social Studies and Science Instruction
By now, you can probably guess that using classroom readalouds, accompanied by many other related texts, is my favorite way to introduce a topic and lead my students into deeper study.
How can you implement this rich method of learning in your classroom?
First, select your readaloud text. This will be the book that anchors the rest of the threads of learning. The readaloud should be:
- Enjoyable, engaging, suspenseful, funny or heartfelt
- Well-written and beautifully illustrated (look for a challenging-yet-familiar lexicon and rich vocabulary)
- Demonstrative of either a scientific or historical reality, or both
And that’s it! You’ll need to obtain the readaloud and then go in search of piles of related texts. It helps to live near public libraries with generous loaning policies. It’s also crucial, when introducing borrowed books into classroom use, to instill in your students the value of taking care of books so you can return this pile in one piece. Related books can also be found in either your school’s resource library or a book thrift store.
Once you’ve gathered together your read aloud and related texts, start planning the unit. Display the related books on a shelf, like a library display, where students can easily see each cover. As you read and learn together, go through the different texts as a class or release the students to read and use them independently. These texts can also be used in small groups.
This becomes a beautifully student-led learning experience, as scholars pursue the topics that interest them within the wider umbrella of the unit. My students have always loved this freedom to explore and learn!
What a Boy Named Amos Can Teach Us
One day while crossing over the long arch of the Skyway Bridge, the ocean wind whipping my face through the open passenger seat window, I couldn’t hold back a silly grin from forming.
My mind had started to write a story.
(A pretty insane one, at that.)
I imagined an Amish boy pedaling his three-wheeler up the miles-long concrete incline, his felt hat flying off his sweaty brow, his bike basket piled full of Amish food provisions bouncing wildly.
With this simple, silly story, I wanted to convey some truths about this area of the world and about the Amish and Mennonite community that I loved being a part of.
The story of Amos never would’ve gone to print if it weren’t for the encouragement of my mother. We’d always dreamt of writing a book together– as I composed the text, my artist mother would handle the illustrations.
A few months later, in a creative burst when our Internet disconnected in a hurricane, I scribbled out a first draft and showed it to my mom. She liked it, and she embarked on a journey of her own learning digital art to bring this story to life.
It took us nearly two years, but the result is something uniquely “us” and, we think, special to any reader.
I have to warn you: Amos is a bit troublemaking– not at all a role model. He never tells his family his plans for his dangerous all-day cycling trip.
As Amos reaches the towering Skyway Bridge, we learn of its expansiveness and beauty, of the sparkling bay beneath him as he throttles downward, and of the real-world consequences awaiting him on the other side.
After the story, we provided a couple of Informational Text pages with information about the Skyway Bridge, the Amish and the Pinecraft area. “Amos Takes the Skyway” connects the story with facts at the end to bring it all together in one learning experience that can be expanded into other areas of study, as well: bridges, St. Petersburg/Manatee/Sarasota, the Amish, etc.
Writing My First Published Book With My Mom
It has been a long-held dream of ours to write a book together.
When I saw my mom was struggling to hold a pen steady, I feared we were too late to accomplish our writer-illustrator dream.
But then I cooked up the crazy story of Amos and his adventure, and my mom was determined to find a way to draw it. She learned digital illustration on her iPad, taking courses and trying out new tools.
Steadily, she learned digital art, and she was able to create vibrantly stunning sunsets and recognizable characters and identifiable landmarks all on her new screen-based easel.
Though it took us a while to piece together the story into what it is today, it is a testament to our determination and love for the craft. It’s an example of mother-daughter ingenuity and our love of a good story. The book is an achievement for me as I navigated my first two years of motherhood, a critical hold onto my love for the craft of writing while caring for my sweet daughter.
We’ve self-published “Amos Takes the Skyway” on Amazon, if you’d like to take a look. We hope Amos and his shenanigans resonate with someone in your life. We hope you’re able to take this brief glimpse into the life of an Amish Floridian and learn about this unique and historical people group.
I hope Amos generates some laughs, some excitement, and leaves an impression.
I know he left an unforgettable mark on our lives.
