ROCK STAR RECESS

Jessica Hinrichs
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Interview with Patrick Baggatta & Emily Mullock, ROCK STAR RECESS

Join us as we talk writing, music, illustration, teaching, teamwork and more!  I had a great conversation with Patrick Baggatta (author) and Emily Mullock (illustrator) of the book ROCK STAR recess, published by Union Street Kids. Join three precocious kids and their friends as they explore their rock star dreams over recess!  There's something in this conversation -- and this book, for everyone.  Keep reading below for writing tips and prompts, teaching ideas for regular classrooms and music classrooms, and even a perfect concert snack below!  Rock on!

PB (Picture Book Tasting)
​ROCK STAR RECESS

This book is a wide-open, colorful, rollicking story of  three precocious characters and a host of friends and how they tried to rock their dreams -- all at recess!  When the main character decides she's had enough "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", she freestyles an idea to make things a bit more colorful and energetic, but with all the distractions and things screaming for their attention, they might have forgotten the most important part of their dreams. Will they pull off their rock star status or will the lights fade to a twinkle?

​A Little Jam. . .(The Music Kind)

This is a fun little rockin' version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  There are more great music and videos in the YouTube playlist linked below in the Links section where you can choose your own favorite, share them with your favorite kids, integrate them into music lessons and more!

​Teacher Tips/Curriculum Tie-ins

There are quite a few ELA objectives that you could use this book to target:

• Onomatopoeia
• Dialogue
• Drawing conclusions/inferences
  • "The Sensitive One"
  • "The Sensible One"

There are also some wider concepts that would be beautiful  to teach in a classroom setting:

• The Power of Teamwork
• Following Your Dreams
• The importance of preparation

Tips and Topics for Music Teachers

Since the book focuses on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", pairing lots of activities for Twinkle Twinkle is a great idea!  Check out the YouTube playlist and the Pinterest board for lots of specific ideas to enhance the book experience using Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, including:

• singing
• dancing
• playing
  
  • Boomwhackers
    
  • recorders
    
  • piano
• variations
• rewriting lyrics
• note-reading
• history of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (very fascinating, BTW)

Also, as you can tell from the title, the book focuses on an elementary school "rock band", so this would also be a great time to introduce Rock as a musical genre.  There are lots of ways you could do this:

• Create lessons based on individual rock stars: guitarists, vocalists, percussionists, etc.
• Focus on specific rock bands
• Trace the history of rock to its roots
• Discuss and share examples of rock as a genre and its coordinating characteristics
• Listen to rock  versions of kid songs (including Twinkle. . .)

It would be a good time to do a unit (or a lesson or two, depending on the age range) of creating variations.  There are lots of great variations on the melody of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!  You could listen to a lot of different variations, talking about which musical elements were changed in each.  Did they change the tempo?  The rhythms?  The instrumentation? The pitches?  How can you recognize a "theme" amidst the variations?  Allow students to change something to create their own variation on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Writing Prompts/Author Tips

Writing Prompts from Tonnye:

1. "How to Form a Rock Band"
2. New lyrics for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
3. In ROCK STAR RECESS, what was the most important thing they SHOULD have done first?
4. Why was teamwork important in this story?
5. "If I were a rock star. . . ."
6. If I had a nickname, I would be known as "The ______One" because. . . 
7. Write a list of qualities you think would be important for a rock star.  
8. If you were in a rock band, what would the band's name be, and why?
9. What is your favorite thing to do at recess? Why?
10. If you were to follow your dream, what would you want to do?
11. Write a story about playing your favorite kind of music at recess.

Tips from Emily and Patrick for writing and illustrating:
Author/Illustrator Tips:

• Author Tip (Patrick): When no one else is around, read your story out loud. It will change your impression of it. Strive for rhythm, especially in a picture book.
• Author Tip (Patrick): Introduce a clear mission very early on so you can devote your second act to your hero getting it mostly wrong (despite their best efforts). This is your character learning, and they will be better and more likeable for it.
• Illustrator Tip (Emily): Character design is an amazing tool to show, rather than tell, about a character. Think about what traits (personality, profession, age, species etc.) you want to emphasize. Do multiple versions of a character to move past your most obvious ideas! 
• Illustrator Tip (Emily): Coming from an animation background, I really appreciate some of the best practices used in that medium to ensure that character acting is strong. Stuff like making sure a character's silhouette is clear, and that there's a strong line of action in their posing are all great tools that can apply to picture book illustration as well.

Links, More Fun, Extensions for Families and Everyone!

YouTube Playlist full of amazing varied versions of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, classical music connections, and fun activities for young aspiring "rock stars"!

Pinterest board full of tons of rock star fun, teaching tips, music activities and so much more!  Check it out here!

The History of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:​ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkle,_Twinkle,_Little_Star

​I'm including this link here because it is FULL of great resources for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but please realize there is some misinformation, particularly  in her explanation of the meaning and alliteration.  (Alliteration is actually using the same beginning sounds in close proximity [Think of tongue twisters]. What I think the author was trying to refer to was similes -- figures of speech that compare unlike things using like or as. "like a diamond in the sky" is comparing the star with a diamond.). But she did amazing work putting together the resources, so do please go check this one out! 

A great summer project:
Go to a concert as a family.  Talk about the prep it must take and all of the people involved to make the concert happen.  *Can be any genre of music.  :-)

PBJamz Snack -- PBJ Popcorn

What better snack for a rock star concert than a yummy popcorn?  Well, I found the perfect PBJamz version of this snack -- PBJ popcorn!  You can try out the  recipe here from Something Swanky!  Enjoy it at a concert, with a movie, or just for an afternoon or evening snack.  Let me know in the comments if you try it out! :-)

Guest Links and Giveaways

Emily and Patrick have graciously and generously offered two prizes!  Comment below for a chance to win:
a signed copy of ROCK STAR RECESS -or-
a Zoom session (classroom visit for a teacher or a publishing conversation with author or illustrator)

Social Media Info: 

• Twitter: @EmilyMullock @pbaggatta77
• Instagram: @rockstarrecess 
• Website: www.friendsonthemoon.com

To purchase your very own copy of ROCK STAR RECESS

​Patrick began his writing career as an editor for popular magazines and websites such as Game Players, Next Generation, CNet, and PC Gamer. From there, he went on to write, edit, and contribute to multiple videogame narratives for Disney and other renowned publishers. Currently, Patrick and his creative partner are developing and writing scripts for original kids’ animation projects with major production studios. Rock Star Recess is his first children’s book, which is also in development as an animated special.
 
Emily has published two original children’s books called Go Away, Unicorn! and the sequel, Go Away, Unicorn! Doggone Magic, both of which are published by McKellar Martin and picked-up by Scholastic. Go Away, Unicorn! went on to become a TV series for Disney Channel. Emily also illustrated the children’s book Dude, published by Benjamin Brown Books. Emily has recently co-developed the story for Rock Star Recess. She is currently developing pitch bibles and co-writing scripts for original animated series in development with eOne, Nelvana, Wonderstorm, Toon2Tango, and Boat Rocker.