by E.L. Konigsburg
“A View from Saturday” is a story about a sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Olinski, who coaches a team of students in an academic competition similar to the Mind Olympiad or the College Bowl. Mrs. Olinski chose four students to be on the team and nicknamed them “The Souls”. When asked why she chose those particular students, she had no answer, but she knew they were the right choice. At one point the superintendent of schools questioned her choice of students stating that they were not diversified. Mrs. Olinski answered that, “In the interest of diversity, I chose a brunette, a redhead, a blond, and a kid with hair as black as print.” I cracked up! I coach teams for Virginia’s Great Computer Challenge each. Each year, administrators remind me to diversify, and every year we struggle to find students to compete. We take anyone who will show up, and that’s as diversified as we can manage! The superintendent reprimanded Mrs. Olinski for her answer after spending three days at a multicultural workshop for ‘ed-you-kay-tears’.
“A View from Saturday” tells the story of each of the four children who make up the team. Each child has had turmoil or sadness in his/her life and has taken a journey of discovery to learn to handle the turmoil. One child’s father was described as, “The storm in our private lives had picked him up and put him out of place.” In a way, all four team members of ‘The Souls” were ‘out of place’ and trying to find their way back to normal. Without knowing why, it is the journey each child is traveling that Mrs. Olinski chose the members of the team. She sensed their turmoil.
E.L. Koningsburg’s use of similes and metaphors are a wonder. “It seemed as exciting as watching a red light change” is an apt description for many events in life. “Dad hovered over me like the Goodyear blimp, “ reminds me of some of my own students who need their hands held every step of the way during math class. And “Dad could no more swing than a gate on rusty hinges.”
Several passages in “A View from Saturday” will make the reader laugh out loud. If the reader has ever been to Florida, the reader will recognize the truth of, “There are so many blonde widows in the state of Florida, they ought to have a kennel breed named and registered for them.” I remember my son accidentally washing his pet turtle down the drain. He cried, and I tried unsuccessfully to console him. I wish I had read this book so I could have quoted the author as saying, “Turtles are not trainable animals. Their brains are in the range of mini to micro.” This might not have helped my son, but it surely would have helped me!
“A View from Saturday” is a wonderful book choice not only for a study of similes and metaphors or for the use of vivid description, but also for humor. E.L. Konigsburg takes weaknesses and turns them into strength in a celebration of the resilience of youth.
Lesson Plans can be found at:
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/view/viewtg.html
Friday, May 4, 2007
The Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate the RIF’s 40th Anniversary
Compiled by Dutton Books
The Reading is Fundamental program celebrated its 4oth Anniversary in 2005 several ways including this book, “The Art of Reading:” Forty different illustrators chose their personal favorite childhood books to write about and to illustrate. The illustrations snare the reader immediately. The cover of a calico cat and a fuzzy gray mouse sitting on the page and reading a book together caught my eye and even though I tried to resist checking out yet another book, I had to have it.
Nonfiction text structure lessons dictated that I go through the table of contents, check the glossary and index, and preview all the names of the illustrators before actually reading the text. However, once the book is open-forget text structure and lessons! Each illustrator competed to create art that catches the eye and stirs the imagination. I had intended to read this book quickly, but that just wasn’t possible. Each picture had to be explored then each story had to be read but not in order. Just let the pages fly past you and read whatever appeals. Eventually, all the stories will be read. The artwork is that compelling.
Ahley Bryan loved spirituals and uses primitive art to illustrate his life’s work of promoting African American music. David McPhail, author of “Mole Music” wrote that he now realized that he would not live long enough to read all the books he wanted to read. But he also wrote that, “It’s a comfort to know that I’ll never run out of reading material.” McPhail’s favorite childhood book was “The Five Chinese Brothers.” Lynne Cherry drew a beautiful garden scene perfect for a small child nursery for her favorite book “How the Mole Got His Pockets.” Steven Kellogg chose “Black Beauty” as his favorite book and states that the book changed his life forever focusing his adult passion into a campaign for the humane treatment of animals. One illustrator chose a book that I now must read but had never heard of, “The Thing in Dolores’ Piano”. Peter Sis, a native of Communist Czechoslovakia had no books at all, but once saw a copy of Albrecht Durer’s ‘Rhinoceros’ in a museum. When he immigrated to America, Mr. Sis was passionate about the rhinoceros and wrote and illustrated a book about the animal. Patricia Polacco chose Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hatches the Egg” and drew a hysterically funny picture of a young girl sitting on the sofa with Horton reading his book.
Animals dominated the illustrators’ choices of favorite books with Charlotte’s Web or other stories that had pigs as major characters. I still do not understand this preoccupation with pigs!
Several illustrators chose childhood favorites from amongst books that I had never heard of which is exciting. “The Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate the RIF’s 40th Anniversary” is a wonderful book to show children. They can flip through the pages until something catches their eye. Something will, and a book will be discovered.
The Reading is Fundamental program celebrated its 4oth Anniversary in 2005 several ways including this book, “The Art of Reading:” Forty different illustrators chose their personal favorite childhood books to write about and to illustrate. The illustrations snare the reader immediately. The cover of a calico cat and a fuzzy gray mouse sitting on the page and reading a book together caught my eye and even though I tried to resist checking out yet another book, I had to have it.
Nonfiction text structure lessons dictated that I go through the table of contents, check the glossary and index, and preview all the names of the illustrators before actually reading the text. However, once the book is open-forget text structure and lessons! Each illustrator competed to create art that catches the eye and stirs the imagination. I had intended to read this book quickly, but that just wasn’t possible. Each picture had to be explored then each story had to be read but not in order. Just let the pages fly past you and read whatever appeals. Eventually, all the stories will be read. The artwork is that compelling.
Ahley Bryan loved spirituals and uses primitive art to illustrate his life’s work of promoting African American music. David McPhail, author of “Mole Music” wrote that he now realized that he would not live long enough to read all the books he wanted to read. But he also wrote that, “It’s a comfort to know that I’ll never run out of reading material.” McPhail’s favorite childhood book was “The Five Chinese Brothers.” Lynne Cherry drew a beautiful garden scene perfect for a small child nursery for her favorite book “How the Mole Got His Pockets.” Steven Kellogg chose “Black Beauty” as his favorite book and states that the book changed his life forever focusing his adult passion into a campaign for the humane treatment of animals. One illustrator chose a book that I now must read but had never heard of, “The Thing in Dolores’ Piano”. Peter Sis, a native of Communist Czechoslovakia had no books at all, but once saw a copy of Albrecht Durer’s ‘Rhinoceros’ in a museum. When he immigrated to America, Mr. Sis was passionate about the rhinoceros and wrote and illustrated a book about the animal. Patricia Polacco chose Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hatches the Egg” and drew a hysterically funny picture of a young girl sitting on the sofa with Horton reading his book.
Animals dominated the illustrators’ choices of favorite books with Charlotte’s Web or other stories that had pigs as major characters. I still do not understand this preoccupation with pigs!
Several illustrators chose childhood favorites from amongst books that I had never heard of which is exciting. “The Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate the RIF’s 40th Anniversary” is a wonderful book to show children. They can flip through the pages until something catches their eye. Something will, and a book will be discovered.
Keepers of the Night
by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac
Illustrated by David K. Fadden
“Keepers of the Night” includes eight Native North American stories with a focus on nature and the outdoors during nighttime.
The first story is called “The Birth of Light”. The Yuchi tribe uses this story to explain to children that night is another world that can only be driven back by people with fire. The fire first came from the sun when the sun answered the wind’s request for more light. The sun tried, “So hard that some of her sweat fell upon the earth. Where that sweat fell, the first people sprang up.”
After the reader reads each story, explanations of the story are given, how other tribes explain the same events, poems, and reference materials are listed. The book even shows drawing, provides lists of materials needed, and explains activities step-by-step to help the reader understand the stories. Detailed explanations are given with diagrams how to make a campfire, how to make game pieces, and game boards. Crafts compliment each story. “Keepers of the Night” even provides lesson plans with questions and answers. Teachers and scout leaders would love this book!
Dancing children and a bear become constellations. A chipmunk is tricked, and a brown squirrel is given the gift of flight for helping the sun rise into the sky, and other wonderful stories fascinate the reader.
“Keepers of the Night” is a fabulous book. Besides telling the Native American version of the stories, it includes the scientific explanation behind each natural event in the stories in easy to understand language.
I checked the book out from the library, but now I have to buy it because an idea for a book of my own came to me while I read it!
Illustrated by David K. Fadden
“Keepers of the Night” includes eight Native North American stories with a focus on nature and the outdoors during nighttime.
The first story is called “The Birth of Light”. The Yuchi tribe uses this story to explain to children that night is another world that can only be driven back by people with fire. The fire first came from the sun when the sun answered the wind’s request for more light. The sun tried, “So hard that some of her sweat fell upon the earth. Where that sweat fell, the first people sprang up.”
After the reader reads each story, explanations of the story are given, how other tribes explain the same events, poems, and reference materials are listed. The book even shows drawing, provides lists of materials needed, and explains activities step-by-step to help the reader understand the stories. Detailed explanations are given with diagrams how to make a campfire, how to make game pieces, and game boards. Crafts compliment each story. “Keepers of the Night” even provides lesson plans with questions and answers. Teachers and scout leaders would love this book!
Dancing children and a bear become constellations. A chipmunk is tricked, and a brown squirrel is given the gift of flight for helping the sun rise into the sky, and other wonderful stories fascinate the reader.
“Keepers of the Night” is a fabulous book. Besides telling the Native American version of the stories, it includes the scientific explanation behind each natural event in the stories in easy to understand language.
I checked the book out from the library, but now I have to buy it because an idea for a book of my own came to me while I read it!
I Hate Mathematics! Book
by Marilyn Burns
Illustrated by Martha Weston
“I Hate Mathematics! Book” was on sale at a local bookstore in the children’s section. The price was right, and I was looking for an informational book. This book is written in comic book format with shaded pencil drawings and dialogue balloons.
Silly phrases like, “How’s trix?’ and “Neither of them knows squat…” fill the book. Each page is a new math game activity, or riddle. For example, one riddle asks, “Some months have 30 days, some 31. How many have 28?” The answer is, “All of them!” As a teacher, I found “I Hate Mathematics! Book” to be a terrific source of math warm-ups, to fill odd moments when a lesson ends sooner than expected, or to give to a student who finishes before his/her classmates.
However wonderful I found this book, I had doubts children would want to read it voluntarily so I had students review the book without prompting or an explanation why they were reviewing the book. Eight students reviewed “I Hate Mathematics! Book”. One student wrote, “I thought that even though it taught math, it was boring.” Three students said the book was boring. One girl wrote, “Even though math is pretty hard for me, this book made it fun to learn math.” Another student wrote that, "The book is funny because it jokes on math.” A different student wrote that he liked the book because it was in comic book form. Unfortunately, one student wrote that, “It made me feel dumb because I could only understand some of the words.” The reactions were clearly mixed.
“I Hate Mathematics! Book” was shelved in the children’s section, but the intended audience and buyers are adults. This book could be recommended for short periods of time on road trips, for limited use in the classroom, but not for a child to read independently.
Illustrated by Martha Weston
“I Hate Mathematics! Book” was on sale at a local bookstore in the children’s section. The price was right, and I was looking for an informational book. This book is written in comic book format with shaded pencil drawings and dialogue balloons.
Silly phrases like, “How’s trix?’ and “Neither of them knows squat…” fill the book. Each page is a new math game activity, or riddle. For example, one riddle asks, “Some months have 30 days, some 31. How many have 28?” The answer is, “All of them!” As a teacher, I found “I Hate Mathematics! Book” to be a terrific source of math warm-ups, to fill odd moments when a lesson ends sooner than expected, or to give to a student who finishes before his/her classmates.
However wonderful I found this book, I had doubts children would want to read it voluntarily so I had students review the book without prompting or an explanation why they were reviewing the book. Eight students reviewed “I Hate Mathematics! Book”. One student wrote, “I thought that even though it taught math, it was boring.” Three students said the book was boring. One girl wrote, “Even though math is pretty hard for me, this book made it fun to learn math.” Another student wrote that, "The book is funny because it jokes on math.” A different student wrote that he liked the book because it was in comic book form. Unfortunately, one student wrote that, “It made me feel dumb because I could only understand some of the words.” The reactions were clearly mixed.
“I Hate Mathematics! Book” was shelved in the children’s section, but the intended audience and buyers are adults. This book could be recommended for short periods of time on road trips, for limited use in the classroom, but not for a child to read independently.
Told Under the Green Umbrella
A Collection of Favorite Folk Tales, Fairy Tales, and Legends
“Told Under the Green Umbrella” was complied by the Association for Childhood Education International in 1930. It has been reprinted over thirty-one times and is filled with classic stories like “The Three Little Pigs” and “Cinderella”.
“Told Under the Green Umbrella” is a perfect collection of stories to be read aloud to younger children. The Association recommends ages six to twelve. I had forgotten how violent some of these stories actually are and would hesitate to read all of them to a younger child. The original “The Three Little Pigs” has a wolf falling into a pot, being boiled alive, and eaten. In “The Travels of a Fox”, the fox is killed by a dog at the end of the story. “The Lad Who Went to the North Wind” was filled with rhymes about beating people. Other stories had robbers, thieves, liars, and similar undesirable role models. I remember these stories from my childhood, but I do not remember the violence. Perhaps, adults in my home practiced censorship freely.
Most of the stories were about animals since most children normally love animals. I was surprised at how many stories had pigs in them. Pigs are not exactly attractive animals, and I do not understand the preoccupation with them. None of the pigs in this collection has the charm of Wilbur from “Charlotte’s Web”.
The title of the book was named for Ole Lukoie, a storyteller, who told his stories under a green umbrella
“Told Under the Green Umbrella” was complied by the Association for Childhood Education International in 1930. It has been reprinted over thirty-one times and is filled with classic stories like “The Three Little Pigs” and “Cinderella”.
“Told Under the Green Umbrella” is a perfect collection of stories to be read aloud to younger children. The Association recommends ages six to twelve. I had forgotten how violent some of these stories actually are and would hesitate to read all of them to a younger child. The original “The Three Little Pigs” has a wolf falling into a pot, being boiled alive, and eaten. In “The Travels of a Fox”, the fox is killed by a dog at the end of the story. “The Lad Who Went to the North Wind” was filled with rhymes about beating people. Other stories had robbers, thieves, liars, and similar undesirable role models. I remember these stories from my childhood, but I do not remember the violence. Perhaps, adults in my home practiced censorship freely.
Most of the stories were about animals since most children normally love animals. I was surprised at how many stories had pigs in them. Pigs are not exactly attractive animals, and I do not understand the preoccupation with them. None of the pigs in this collection has the charm of Wilbur from “Charlotte’s Web”.
The title of the book was named for Ole Lukoie, a storyteller, who told his stories under a green umbrella
The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe
by C. S. Lewis
Much has been written about this first of the venerable children’s series. I’m going to focus on the use of language, specifically word choice, to both protect the young reader and to build emotional impact.
An idiom reads, “Adventure is something dangerous happening to someone else far, far away.” Lewis uses both common and uncommon techniques to insulate the child reader from the adventure by emphasizing that old idiom. The story is written in 3rd person, which insulates the reader to some extent. On page 64, the children had realized they were lost just before meeting Mr. Beaver. “Let’s go home,” said Susan. And then, though nobody said it out loud, everyone suddenly realized the same fact that Edmond had whispered to Peter at the end of the last chapter. “They were lost.” This technique clarifies to the young reader two things in rapid succession. The children are lost, and this is not real. Use of the word “chapter” helps break the emotional connection to the characters children often make when reading. It is similar to what an adult would do when informing someone that someone else is in the hospital after an injury. They may start by saying, “He is in the hospital and doing well…” as a way to introduce the news of an accident. The listener understands immediately the threat, but also that the threat is past. A very neat and concise mechanism that many children will not even notice.
On page 68, Lewis continues telling the story in emotionally charged language while continuing to insulate the reader. When they met Aslan, “Each of the children felt a jump on it’s inside.” By using IT’S instead of HE or SHE, the author almost meters the impact to the child reader. Going on at length about the awe that the children and other creatures felt in the presence of the King of the Jungle, he again uses word choice to make a very small change that should go unnoticed to the child but will still help them to step back from the characters. No child thinks of himself or herself as “IT”.
The author also pretends to be reading to the child. On page 104 one of the characters voice “sounds pale”. The reader is abruptly interrupted by the narrator “(I hope you know what I mean by a voice sounding pale.)” as a grandparent or older person would say as an aside. Again this gives the child reader a sense of an insulating body, the unknown person reading to them, who is present. Such a person would, of course, not read anything truly terrible. As a result, the child is able to empathize with the characters safely, knowing he/she is protected.
When Susan and Lucy were miserable after Aslan’s death, the most critical and emotionally packed part of the story, Lewis continues, “I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night.”, again letting the reader step back from the sorrow. Lewis allowed the emotional buildup through Aslan’s murder and through the children rushing to his side. He only allows the relief after grief has set in by having the narrator make another side comment.
Throughout the story, Lewis elevates the emotional involvement of the reader while ensuring that it peaks for only short times or levels off before the child is traumatized. This was much more important in the 1950s, when it was published, than in a culture where children are inured to violence like the present day.
Lewis also introduces some notable concepts to the child reader using dialogue. When Lucy, fearfully approaching Aslan, asks if he is safe, she is told, “SAFE! Who said anything about SAFE! But he is GOOD!” Introducing the child to the concept that capability of threat should be separate from intent.
When describing the inhuman ice queen, the children are told, “When you meet anything that is going to be human and isn’t yet, or used to be human once and isn’t now, or ought to be human but isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.” While this covers the ice queen character quite well, it also describes others. “Anything that is going to be human but isn’t yet” is clearly a child. “Used to be human once and isn’t now” could be anyone with a broken psyche or someone who believes that “human” laws do not apply to them (violent criminals or religious radicals), and “Ought to be human but isn’t” can apply to those in a position of trust (priests and guardians) as well as animals a child would instinctively trust. Comparing children to those other groups is interesting in a children’s book. But, it does encourage the reader to be wary of children as it would strangers and unknown animals.
All together, C. S. Lewis combines insightful word choice, and concise language to impart important lessons; characters that are good role models on behavior and an engaging story. Children will remember the excitement and the feel sense of protection the narrator provides.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lion/
Much has been written about this first of the venerable children’s series. I’m going to focus on the use of language, specifically word choice, to both protect the young reader and to build emotional impact.
An idiom reads, “Adventure is something dangerous happening to someone else far, far away.” Lewis uses both common and uncommon techniques to insulate the child reader from the adventure by emphasizing that old idiom. The story is written in 3rd person, which insulates the reader to some extent. On page 64, the children had realized they were lost just before meeting Mr. Beaver. “Let’s go home,” said Susan. And then, though nobody said it out loud, everyone suddenly realized the same fact that Edmond had whispered to Peter at the end of the last chapter. “They were lost.” This technique clarifies to the young reader two things in rapid succession. The children are lost, and this is not real. Use of the word “chapter” helps break the emotional connection to the characters children often make when reading. It is similar to what an adult would do when informing someone that someone else is in the hospital after an injury. They may start by saying, “He is in the hospital and doing well…” as a way to introduce the news of an accident. The listener understands immediately the threat, but also that the threat is past. A very neat and concise mechanism that many children will not even notice.
On page 68, Lewis continues telling the story in emotionally charged language while continuing to insulate the reader. When they met Aslan, “Each of the children felt a jump on it’s inside.” By using IT’S instead of HE or SHE, the author almost meters the impact to the child reader. Going on at length about the awe that the children and other creatures felt in the presence of the King of the Jungle, he again uses word choice to make a very small change that should go unnoticed to the child but will still help them to step back from the characters. No child thinks of himself or herself as “IT”.
The author also pretends to be reading to the child. On page 104 one of the characters voice “sounds pale”. The reader is abruptly interrupted by the narrator “(I hope you know what I mean by a voice sounding pale.)” as a grandparent or older person would say as an aside. Again this gives the child reader a sense of an insulating body, the unknown person reading to them, who is present. Such a person would, of course, not read anything truly terrible. As a result, the child is able to empathize with the characters safely, knowing he/she is protected.
When Susan and Lucy were miserable after Aslan’s death, the most critical and emotionally packed part of the story, Lewis continues, “I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night.”, again letting the reader step back from the sorrow. Lewis allowed the emotional buildup through Aslan’s murder and through the children rushing to his side. He only allows the relief after grief has set in by having the narrator make another side comment.
Throughout the story, Lewis elevates the emotional involvement of the reader while ensuring that it peaks for only short times or levels off before the child is traumatized. This was much more important in the 1950s, when it was published, than in a culture where children are inured to violence like the present day.
Lewis also introduces some notable concepts to the child reader using dialogue. When Lucy, fearfully approaching Aslan, asks if he is safe, she is told, “SAFE! Who said anything about SAFE! But he is GOOD!” Introducing the child to the concept that capability of threat should be separate from intent.
When describing the inhuman ice queen, the children are told, “When you meet anything that is going to be human and isn’t yet, or used to be human once and isn’t now, or ought to be human but isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.” While this covers the ice queen character quite well, it also describes others. “Anything that is going to be human but isn’t yet” is clearly a child. “Used to be human once and isn’t now” could be anyone with a broken psyche or someone who believes that “human” laws do not apply to them (violent criminals or religious radicals), and “Ought to be human but isn’t” can apply to those in a position of trust (priests and guardians) as well as animals a child would instinctively trust. Comparing children to those other groups is interesting in a children’s book. But, it does encourage the reader to be wary of children as it would strangers and unknown animals.
All together, C. S. Lewis combines insightful word choice, and concise language to impart important lessons; characters that are good role models on behavior and an engaging story. Children will remember the excitement and the feel sense of protection the narrator provides.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lion/
Island of the Blue Dolphin
by Scott O’Dell
The Newbery Award winning story of the young woman left alone on the Island for many years is written in a sparse and simple style, conveying the simple life of islanders. Before she is left alone, Karana is a junior member of the tribe. As a female, she spends her days foraging for roots and doing work in the huts. When her diminished tribe of only 15 individuals is rescued, a storm arrives and prevents the ship from remaining close ashore. It has to leave. Her younger brother, placing a higher priority on his new spear, delays, and is left on the island. Frantic at loosing her brother, the 12 year old dives over the side and swims ashore to take care of her younger brother. Unfortunately, a pack of wild dogs, her constant nemesis, kills her brother only a short time later. She is left alone.
The story is about the development of strength of character in the face of tremendous stress. She actually knew a great deal of what was required to stay alive, but she was trained to not use it. It was the job of the men to hunt and fish. It was the job of the women to stay in the huts. The effort it takes to overcome the social conditioning and become a successful hunter shows her literally breaking from tradition and expecting the gods to destroy her at any moment.
Her efforts to seek vengeance on behalf of her brother against the wild dogs shows her continuing social consciousness as she seeks to continue nurturing the tribe in the only way available. As Karana learns how to make and use spears, bows and arrows to avenge her brother, she also learns how to better fend for herself, demonstrating the relationship between social consciousness and benefit for the individual.
After she has killed a few of the dogs, she wounds but takes pity on the leader of the pack. Karana nurses the large dog back to health, and Rontu, the dog, learns to act as a friend of man. The great yellow dog becomes her companion for the duration of his life. When the wild dog pack tries to encroach on Karana and her dog’s land, Rontu kills two dogs, temporarily dominates the pack, and then returns to Karana. The wild dogs do not bother them until after Rontu dies of old age. Though Karana was determined to destroy the wild dog pack to avenge her brother, she eventually decided to adopt one of them as her own. Loneliness and isolation became a more pressing demand than her understanding of the needs of her old tribe.
Many years, and another dog later, she allows hunters to find her and leaves the island. Her story is a dramatic telling of the social nature of man. She risked her life to protect her younger brother. When she failed at that, she eventually befriended his killers, one at a time, and turned them back into friends of man.
While this seems like a copy of Robinson Caruso for young people, the reverse is true. The young female islander in Island of the Blue Dolphins actually lived off the coast of California from 1835 to 1853. St Nicholas Island is the outermost of the Channel Island chain and seldom had visitors. She was taken to the Mission at Santa Barbara. No one at the mission ever learned to talk to her except in sign language. Her language was completely unknown. The Chumash Indian tribe of Washington State have included her in their tribal history claiming the Ghalas-at were descendants of that tribe. She was buried at the mission.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/blue/bluetg.html
The Newbery Award winning story of the young woman left alone on the Island for many years is written in a sparse and simple style, conveying the simple life of islanders. Before she is left alone, Karana is a junior member of the tribe. As a female, she spends her days foraging for roots and doing work in the huts. When her diminished tribe of only 15 individuals is rescued, a storm arrives and prevents the ship from remaining close ashore. It has to leave. Her younger brother, placing a higher priority on his new spear, delays, and is left on the island. Frantic at loosing her brother, the 12 year old dives over the side and swims ashore to take care of her younger brother. Unfortunately, a pack of wild dogs, her constant nemesis, kills her brother only a short time later. She is left alone.
The story is about the development of strength of character in the face of tremendous stress. She actually knew a great deal of what was required to stay alive, but she was trained to not use it. It was the job of the men to hunt and fish. It was the job of the women to stay in the huts. The effort it takes to overcome the social conditioning and become a successful hunter shows her literally breaking from tradition and expecting the gods to destroy her at any moment.
Her efforts to seek vengeance on behalf of her brother against the wild dogs shows her continuing social consciousness as she seeks to continue nurturing the tribe in the only way available. As Karana learns how to make and use spears, bows and arrows to avenge her brother, she also learns how to better fend for herself, demonstrating the relationship between social consciousness and benefit for the individual.
After she has killed a few of the dogs, she wounds but takes pity on the leader of the pack. Karana nurses the large dog back to health, and Rontu, the dog, learns to act as a friend of man. The great yellow dog becomes her companion for the duration of his life. When the wild dog pack tries to encroach on Karana and her dog’s land, Rontu kills two dogs, temporarily dominates the pack, and then returns to Karana. The wild dogs do not bother them until after Rontu dies of old age. Though Karana was determined to destroy the wild dog pack to avenge her brother, she eventually decided to adopt one of them as her own. Loneliness and isolation became a more pressing demand than her understanding of the needs of her old tribe.
Many years, and another dog later, she allows hunters to find her and leaves the island. Her story is a dramatic telling of the social nature of man. She risked her life to protect her younger brother. When she failed at that, she eventually befriended his killers, one at a time, and turned them back into friends of man.
While this seems like a copy of Robinson Caruso for young people, the reverse is true. The young female islander in Island of the Blue Dolphins actually lived off the coast of California from 1835 to 1853. St Nicholas Island is the outermost of the Channel Island chain and seldom had visitors. She was taken to the Mission at Santa Barbara. No one at the mission ever learned to talk to her except in sign language. Her language was completely unknown. The Chumash Indian tribe of Washington State have included her in their tribal history claiming the Ghalas-at were descendants of that tribe. She was buried at the mission.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/blue/bluetg.html
Monday, April 23, 2007
But I’ll Be Back Again
by Cynthia Rylant
A very special ‘thank you’ goes to the reference librarian at the Grissom Library in Newport News for saving this book for me, and to my husband who cheerfully got lost with me for hours in Newport News searching for the Grissom Library.
“But I’ll Be Back Again” is Cynthia Rylant’s autobiography. She tells of losing her father to alcoholism and her mother to a career. Ms. Rylant speaks of tears and a sense of loss so great that only someone who has experienced such losses can understand. Fortunately, she lived with her grandparents and an extended family with young cousins who loved her and gave her a childhood her parents could not give.
“Writing stories has given me the power to change things I could not change as a child.” This line is of particular interest to me because I find there are so many things that I too would like to change from my childhood. Ms. Rylant’s grew up in the same time period that I did. Our clothing came from Montgomery Wards; the Beatle were gods, and our indiscretions were modest at best. Boys and girls had innocent crushes, and a stolen kiss was a BIG DEAL!
I smiled when I read about her first menstrual period and not knowing if she should be buried or cremated. My mother ‘forgot’ to mention this little tidbit to me, and I did call her at work to inform her that I was bleeding to death. All in all, Cynthia Rylant put much of the personal, embarrassing stuff that plagues children and teenagers right on the pages for all to read. The passage about having ticks removed by having a burning cigarette coming at you in ‘unmentionable’ places made me laugh out loud!
I appreciated the references about being confused about religion, wanting Christy Sander’s brick house, and visiting an orchestra. She reminds me of one of my younger brothers who when asked what he wanted for Christmas simply answered, “More.”
After reading “Waiting to Waltz”, I expected Cynthia Rylant’s childhood to be a story filled with crushing tragedies. Yes, she lost her father, but she had a loving home with her grandparents. Yes, her mother left to go to school, but she did come back and get Cynthia and clearly loved her. “But I’ll Be Back Again” has many stories of good times, normal childhood experiences, and love.
I agree with Ms. Rylant’s admiration of Bobby Kennedy. He spent his life in search of justice. However, even as a child, I couldn’t stand the music of the Beatles.
A very special ‘thank you’ goes to the reference librarian at the Grissom Library in Newport News for saving this book for me, and to my husband who cheerfully got lost with me for hours in Newport News searching for the Grissom Library.
“But I’ll Be Back Again” is Cynthia Rylant’s autobiography. She tells of losing her father to alcoholism and her mother to a career. Ms. Rylant speaks of tears and a sense of loss so great that only someone who has experienced such losses can understand. Fortunately, she lived with her grandparents and an extended family with young cousins who loved her and gave her a childhood her parents could not give.
“Writing stories has given me the power to change things I could not change as a child.” This line is of particular interest to me because I find there are so many things that I too would like to change from my childhood. Ms. Rylant’s grew up in the same time period that I did. Our clothing came from Montgomery Wards; the Beatle were gods, and our indiscretions were modest at best. Boys and girls had innocent crushes, and a stolen kiss was a BIG DEAL!
I smiled when I read about her first menstrual period and not knowing if she should be buried or cremated. My mother ‘forgot’ to mention this little tidbit to me, and I did call her at work to inform her that I was bleeding to death. All in all, Cynthia Rylant put much of the personal, embarrassing stuff that plagues children and teenagers right on the pages for all to read. The passage about having ticks removed by having a burning cigarette coming at you in ‘unmentionable’ places made me laugh out loud!
I appreciated the references about being confused about religion, wanting Christy Sander’s brick house, and visiting an orchestra. She reminds me of one of my younger brothers who when asked what he wanted for Christmas simply answered, “More.”
After reading “Waiting to Waltz”, I expected Cynthia Rylant’s childhood to be a story filled with crushing tragedies. Yes, she lost her father, but she had a loving home with her grandparents. Yes, her mother left to go to school, but she did come back and get Cynthia and clearly loved her. “But I’ll Be Back Again” has many stories of good times, normal childhood experiences, and love.
I agree with Ms. Rylant’s admiration of Bobby Kennedy. He spent his life in search of justice. However, even as a child, I couldn’t stand the music of the Beatles.
Long Night Moon
written by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Mark Siegel
“Long Night Moon” is a poetic telling of the Native American tradition of naming important things in nature and explaining the value of the item in nature. In this instance, each month of the year has a full moon. The full moon has been named and the significance of the name is woven into the poetry.
January - “Stormy Moon” - helps find your way home…
February - “Snow Moon” - misses its sister, the Sun
March - “Sap Moon” - promise and hope
April - “Sprouting Grass Moon” - for baby birds
May - “Flower Moon” - smiling, a song
June - “Strawberry Moon” - moonlight meal
July - “Thunder Moon” - clouds beat their drums…
August - “Harvest Moon” - blessing calm fields
September - “Coon Moon” - loves small night creatures
October - “Acorn Moon” - biggest moon says good-bye
November - “Frosty Moon” - might just sleep
December - “Long Night Moon” - waits for morning, faithful friend
I would not really call this a book of poetry. Instead, it reminds me more of lyrics to a song intended to be chanted during a nighttime pow-wow in a longhouse under a starry sky danced to by true Native Americans. I am reminded of tales of how the constellations came to be in the sky and other explanations of nature by indigenous people.
The words are written in cursive, not block print, which implies “Long Night Moon” is not for younger children to read without an older child or an adult.
The illustrations are magical. The artwork was originally done in charcoal then digitally enhanced on Arches paper. Arches paper is a specialty brand of watercolor paper with an exceptionally rough surface. The surface allows layering of color to increase depth. The colors are so intense and deep that I was reminded of Maxfield Parrish’s work with blues and purples. Bunnies, deer, other small animals, and even a woman carrying a baby are drawn in caricature, Disney-like but always shadowy and slightly out of focus. This softens the full-bleed drawings leaving the focus “dreamy and luminous”. The moon is drawn as clear but distant, hazy, impacted with craters, and extremely large reminiscent of Milo’s moon in the movie “Moonstruck.”
I looked up “Long Night Moon” on several web sites. Most of the web sites state that Cynthia Rylant named the moons not Native Americans. Several critics were rather severe in their criticism to Rylant’s reference to Native American traditions. However, I believe that trying to follow in the spirit of Native American’s deep respect for nature was Cynthia Rylant’s intent. And who knows, maybe some tribe somewhere actually did name the moons of each month, and that tale was lost.
See this web site for an example:
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2006_10_17_archive.html
“Long Night Moon” is a poetic telling of the Native American tradition of naming important things in nature and explaining the value of the item in nature. In this instance, each month of the year has a full moon. The full moon has been named and the significance of the name is woven into the poetry.
January - “Stormy Moon” - helps find your way home…
February - “Snow Moon” - misses its sister, the Sun
March - “Sap Moon” - promise and hope
April - “Sprouting Grass Moon” - for baby birds
May - “Flower Moon” - smiling, a song
June - “Strawberry Moon” - moonlight meal
July - “Thunder Moon” - clouds beat their drums…
August - “Harvest Moon” - blessing calm fields
September - “Coon Moon” - loves small night creatures
October - “Acorn Moon” - biggest moon says good-bye
November - “Frosty Moon” - might just sleep
December - “Long Night Moon” - waits for morning, faithful friend
I would not really call this a book of poetry. Instead, it reminds me more of lyrics to a song intended to be chanted during a nighttime pow-wow in a longhouse under a starry sky danced to by true Native Americans. I am reminded of tales of how the constellations came to be in the sky and other explanations of nature by indigenous people.
The words are written in cursive, not block print, which implies “Long Night Moon” is not for younger children to read without an older child or an adult.
The illustrations are magical. The artwork was originally done in charcoal then digitally enhanced on Arches paper. Arches paper is a specialty brand of watercolor paper with an exceptionally rough surface. The surface allows layering of color to increase depth. The colors are so intense and deep that I was reminded of Maxfield Parrish’s work with blues and purples. Bunnies, deer, other small animals, and even a woman carrying a baby are drawn in caricature, Disney-like but always shadowy and slightly out of focus. This softens the full-bleed drawings leaving the focus “dreamy and luminous”. The moon is drawn as clear but distant, hazy, impacted with craters, and extremely large reminiscent of Milo’s moon in the movie “Moonstruck.”
I looked up “Long Night Moon” on several web sites. Most of the web sites state that Cynthia Rylant named the moons not Native Americans. Several critics were rather severe in their criticism to Rylant’s reference to Native American traditions. However, I believe that trying to follow in the spirit of Native American’s deep respect for nature was Cynthia Rylant’s intent. And who knows, maybe some tribe somewhere actually did name the moons of each month, and that tale was lost.
See this web site for an example:
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2006_10_17_archive.html
Amelia Earhart
by Tanya Lee Stone
Amelia Earhart was an author, a record-breaking, thrill-seeking pilot, a committed social worker, feminist, wife, and a trailblazer. She epitomizes the phrase, “What a woman!”
The biography “Amelia Earhart” includes small photographs on most pages with short captions for many of the photographs. Timelines and historical sidebars are in each chapter as well. These really help to follow Ms. Earhart’s story more clearly. If you read this biography, you will find that Ms. Earhart was working as a social worker, learning to fly, and getting married all at the same time. Amelia Earhart was the type of person to be involved in quite a few activities simultaneously so the pictures, timelines, and sidebars help keep the chronologically of her story straight.
Even though I have always admired the courage of Amelia Earhart’s flying adventures, I was surprised to find that she was also the author of two books. When in the world did she have time? “20 Hours and 40 Minutes” is the name of her first book, which chronicles her flight aboard the ‘Friendship’. The ‘Friendship’ is the name of the plane in which Amelia Earhart made her first flight over the Atlantic Ocean. She was the first woman to fly over the Atlantic Ocean, but she was a passenger not the pilot. Her second book, written in 1932, was titled “The Fun of It: Random Records of my Own Flying and Women in Aviation”. This book is a collection of short stories about her and other women pilots.
Amelia Earhart was not wealthy, and she actually hard to work for a living unlike many of the other pilots. Earhart earned some money from flying in air shows doing dangerous stunts with other women pilots. She earned small amounts of money from the sale of her books and wrote articles for “Cosmopolitan” magazine. The bulk of her income came from working at Denison House, a settlement house for impoverished, immigrant families, in Boston as a social worker.
Flying has always been an expensive hobby. Amelia Earhart could not afford to purchase airplanes, flight training time, staff, and other expenses on her own. Several wealthy patrons and business people paid her expenses and bought planes for Ms. Earhart to fly, and she in turn gave public appearances for them and hawked their products. One of the photos shows the words ‘Beech-Nut’ written across the entire length of her plane.
Eventually she married G.P. Putnam. Putnan was wealthy and financed Earhart’s later record-breaking flights including the last flight. Amelia Earhart disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean about twenty hours into the flight off Lae. Lae is a small town on an island east of Australia. Looking at a map, shows that Earhart could have been very close to Hawaii at the time her plane disappeared; however, the truth of what happened isn’t known.
I read this biography in one sitting because the story is engrossing. I have always admired Amelia Earhart and dreamed of being like her when I grew up. What a woman!
Lesson Plans are found at:
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-famous/Earhart.html
Amelia Earhart was an author, a record-breaking, thrill-seeking pilot, a committed social worker, feminist, wife, and a trailblazer. She epitomizes the phrase, “What a woman!”
The biography “Amelia Earhart” includes small photographs on most pages with short captions for many of the photographs. Timelines and historical sidebars are in each chapter as well. These really help to follow Ms. Earhart’s story more clearly. If you read this biography, you will find that Ms. Earhart was working as a social worker, learning to fly, and getting married all at the same time. Amelia Earhart was the type of person to be involved in quite a few activities simultaneously so the pictures, timelines, and sidebars help keep the chronologically of her story straight.
Even though I have always admired the courage of Amelia Earhart’s flying adventures, I was surprised to find that she was also the author of two books. When in the world did she have time? “20 Hours and 40 Minutes” is the name of her first book, which chronicles her flight aboard the ‘Friendship’. The ‘Friendship’ is the name of the plane in which Amelia Earhart made her first flight over the Atlantic Ocean. She was the first woman to fly over the Atlantic Ocean, but she was a passenger not the pilot. Her second book, written in 1932, was titled “The Fun of It: Random Records of my Own Flying and Women in Aviation”. This book is a collection of short stories about her and other women pilots.
Amelia Earhart was not wealthy, and she actually hard to work for a living unlike many of the other pilots. Earhart earned some money from flying in air shows doing dangerous stunts with other women pilots. She earned small amounts of money from the sale of her books and wrote articles for “Cosmopolitan” magazine. The bulk of her income came from working at Denison House, a settlement house for impoverished, immigrant families, in Boston as a social worker.
Flying has always been an expensive hobby. Amelia Earhart could not afford to purchase airplanes, flight training time, staff, and other expenses on her own. Several wealthy patrons and business people paid her expenses and bought planes for Ms. Earhart to fly, and she in turn gave public appearances for them and hawked their products. One of the photos shows the words ‘Beech-Nut’ written across the entire length of her plane.
Eventually she married G.P. Putnam. Putnan was wealthy and financed Earhart’s later record-breaking flights including the last flight. Amelia Earhart disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean about twenty hours into the flight off Lae. Lae is a small town on an island east of Australia. Looking at a map, shows that Earhart could have been very close to Hawaii at the time her plane disappeared; however, the truth of what happened isn’t known.
I read this biography in one sitting because the story is engrossing. I have always admired Amelia Earhart and dreamed of being like her when I grew up. What a woman!
Lesson Plans are found at:
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-famous/Earhart.html
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Waiting to Waltz: A Childhood
by Cynthia Rylant
“Waiting to Waltz: A Childhood” is a collection of poems written by Cynthia Rylant to capture the flavor of her hometown, Beaver, and her childhood. The overall tone of the collection is bleak with a litany of negative images.
Clearly, Beaver is a small town as witnessed in the line from the first poem, “Beaver” that reads, “Little strip of street called Beaver.” The poems paint haunting images of a storekeeper, Mrs. Todd, “she white-faced and silent.” A drunk who sits by the river day after day is referred to as a brain surgeon (scary thought!). The author’s house has no name and no number; her mom accidentally kills a dog in “Little Short Legs”. The author is taken to a Pentecostal church and terrified by the noise; I experienced exactly the same thing in my childhood at a Pentecostal church. The author lost a spelling bee, almost drowned in a swimming pool, offered bananas by a creepy old man, walked a frightened child home in a storm only to be abandoned in the storm herself, buried a dead cat, had mad dogs, and no father.
A neighbor, Mr. Dill, left, and no one noticed for three years. The author was left alone during the summer, and no one to make lunch for her. During the school year, playground bullies monopolized the schoolyard, and being boys left the girls no place to go. Her friend’s collie, Major, was killed by a car. Her father left when she was four and died when she was thirteen. The author prayed to be rich and Catholic to fit in with the popular kids, called her boyfriend a “pet rock”, and was “yelled to the cross” by a preacher while her mother wondered how she could be duped.
There were a few exceptions to these negative images. The author had a friend in Randy, and they both enjoyed talking to Sam, the shoe shop man. Her mother was a nurse and respected by the other children when an emergency arose, and the author did get to be a majorette in band.
I found this collection of poems to be beautifully written albeit sad and depressing in tone. Goodness! I would have run as far and as fast as I could to get out of Beaver as soon as I could had I been the author.
Lesson Plans at:
http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/lessons/waltzlp.htm
“Waiting to Waltz: A Childhood” is a collection of poems written by Cynthia Rylant to capture the flavor of her hometown, Beaver, and her childhood. The overall tone of the collection is bleak with a litany of negative images.
Clearly, Beaver is a small town as witnessed in the line from the first poem, “Beaver” that reads, “Little strip of street called Beaver.” The poems paint haunting images of a storekeeper, Mrs. Todd, “she white-faced and silent.” A drunk who sits by the river day after day is referred to as a brain surgeon (scary thought!). The author’s house has no name and no number; her mom accidentally kills a dog in “Little Short Legs”. The author is taken to a Pentecostal church and terrified by the noise; I experienced exactly the same thing in my childhood at a Pentecostal church. The author lost a spelling bee, almost drowned in a swimming pool, offered bananas by a creepy old man, walked a frightened child home in a storm only to be abandoned in the storm herself, buried a dead cat, had mad dogs, and no father.
A neighbor, Mr. Dill, left, and no one noticed for three years. The author was left alone during the summer, and no one to make lunch for her. During the school year, playground bullies monopolized the schoolyard, and being boys left the girls no place to go. Her friend’s collie, Major, was killed by a car. Her father left when she was four and died when she was thirteen. The author prayed to be rich and Catholic to fit in with the popular kids, called her boyfriend a “pet rock”, and was “yelled to the cross” by a preacher while her mother wondered how she could be duped.
There were a few exceptions to these negative images. The author had a friend in Randy, and they both enjoyed talking to Sam, the shoe shop man. Her mother was a nurse and respected by the other children when an emergency arose, and the author did get to be a majorette in band.
I found this collection of poems to be beautifully written albeit sad and depressing in tone. Goodness! I would have run as far and as fast as I could to get out of Beaver as soon as I could had I been the author.
Lesson Plans at:
http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/lessons/waltzlp.htm
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
by Paul Fleischman
“Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices” will be a wonderful addition to my library. As I read the poems to myself, I could envision students reading the poems together and laughing at the words, visualizing the insects, and trying to stay in unison on the refrain.
No wonder Paula Fleischman won the Newbery Award for this collection of poems; they are perfectly in tune with children with upbeat messages.
“Joyful Noise:” begins with the dedication page as the author dedicates the poems to Seth, his porch light. Once you read the poem “The Moth’s Serenade”, the dedication makes sense and also makes the reader smile.
The poetry in this collection is intended to be read as a duet from top to bottom until the lines meet horizontally. Then the lines are to be read in unison.” Joyful Noise:” would be an excellent beginning reader’s theater for students. The poems have short lines, easy yet expansive vocabulary, touches of humor, age appropriate subject matter, and are not too lengthy.
The poems could also be used for word study or vocabulary enrichment. For example, in “Mayflies” and “Fireflies”, verbs are emphasized and used in different tenses. Students could identify the verbs and find the root words and ending markers leading to additional discussion and activities.
“Mayflies” “Fireflies”
fevered frenzied glimmering
rushed gleaming
swarming, swerving glowing
rising high flickering
then falling flashing
courting on the wing flitting
Rhyme scheme could be studied with “Book Lice” due to the use of abcb rhyme in the stanzas and abb rhyme in the refrain.
8 Later I lodged in a
9 Scott’s works - volume 50 b
10 While I passed my youth c
11 in an Agatha Christie b
12 We’re book lice a
13 attached b
14 despite contrasting pasts. B
I think my favorite poem in the collection is “Honeybees” which shows diametrically opposing points of view. The worker bee complains of his hard life while the queen bee congratulates herself upon her easy life. In the classroom, this poem could easily be used to compare and contrast the lives of the two bees, which could be a natural lead in to the study of bees or animal life.
Lesson Plans can be found at:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=69
“Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices” will be a wonderful addition to my library. As I read the poems to myself, I could envision students reading the poems together and laughing at the words, visualizing the insects, and trying to stay in unison on the refrain.
No wonder Paula Fleischman won the Newbery Award for this collection of poems; they are perfectly in tune with children with upbeat messages.
“Joyful Noise:” begins with the dedication page as the author dedicates the poems to Seth, his porch light. Once you read the poem “The Moth’s Serenade”, the dedication makes sense and also makes the reader smile.
The poetry in this collection is intended to be read as a duet from top to bottom until the lines meet horizontally. Then the lines are to be read in unison.” Joyful Noise:” would be an excellent beginning reader’s theater for students. The poems have short lines, easy yet expansive vocabulary, touches of humor, age appropriate subject matter, and are not too lengthy.
The poems could also be used for word study or vocabulary enrichment. For example, in “Mayflies” and “Fireflies”, verbs are emphasized and used in different tenses. Students could identify the verbs and find the root words and ending markers leading to additional discussion and activities.
“Mayflies” “Fireflies”
fevered frenzied glimmering
rushed gleaming
swarming, swerving glowing
rising high flickering
then falling flashing
courting on the wing flitting
Rhyme scheme could be studied with “Book Lice” due to the use of abcb rhyme in the stanzas and abb rhyme in the refrain.
8 Later I lodged in a
9 Scott’s works - volume 50 b
10 While I passed my youth c
11 in an Agatha Christie b
12 We’re book lice a
13 attached b
14 despite contrasting pasts. B
I think my favorite poem in the collection is “Honeybees” which shows diametrically opposing points of view. The worker bee complains of his hard life while the queen bee congratulates herself upon her easy life. In the classroom, this poem could easily be used to compare and contrast the lives of the two bees, which could be a natural lead in to the study of bees or animal life.
Lesson Plans can be found at:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=69
A Child’s Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson
There are four collections or Chapters contained within the book A Garden of Verses:
For Alison Cunningham
The Child Alone
Garden days
Envoys
They are generally of increasing complexity, length, and sentiment.
The first is dedicated to Alison Cunningham, his nurse from childhood, to whom he attributes a great deal of credit for his literary success. All the verses are very simple with simple themes. This is the largest of the 4 collections and is clearly to be used as Alison Cunningham used it; reading to children.
In many ways this collection of poems for children is more revealing about Stevenson than many of his more serious works.
From: Foreign Lands
I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.
The meter is consistent from line to line for simplicity, and the lines are also short.
Thematically, it also shows the isolation of the childhood Stevenson had, and mistakenly presumes upon others. How many children have so little freedom they have never seen the garden next door.
Auntie’s Skirts
Whenever Auntie moves around,
Her dresses make a curious sound,
They trail behind her up the floor,
And trundle after through the door.
Again, the meter remains consistent; the lines remain short. Also again, whether unwittingly or not, Stevenson conveys the sense of isolation by maximizing the silence of a house in which a child pays close attention to the soft swishing sounds made by his auntie’s dress as she moves.
From one of the more famous poems of the collection:
The Land of Nod
4th stanza
Try as I like to find the way,
I never can get back by day,
Nor can remember plain and clear
The curious music that I hear.
Altogether the first collection is useful for it’s simple form and lessons until you reach the last poem “The Keepsake Mill”. The first collection is however mildly solemn, and whether intended or not, reflects the childhood of RLS which was filled with illness and very poor health. The fact that the entire first collection is dedicated to the woman who tirelessly spent so many hours with the invalid and infirm child sets the tone for most of the book.
The second Collection: The Child Alone
is still simple in theme but more complex in form.
Armies in the Fire
The lamps now glitter down the street;
Faintly sound the falling feet;
And the blue even slowly falls
About the garden trees and walls.
Now in the falling of the gloom
The red fire paints the empty room:
And warmly on the roof it looks,
And flickers on the back of books.
Armies march by tower and spire
Of cities blazing, in the fire;--
Till as I gaze with staring eyes,
The armies fall, the lustre dies.
Then once again the glow returns;
Again the phantom city burns;
And down the red-hot valley, lo!
The phantom armies marching go!
Blinking embers, tell me true
Where are those armies marching to,
And what the burning city is
That crumbles in your furnaces!
In the earlier selections of the Chapter, form remains simple but word choice and theme become slightly complex. Ignoring the spelling changes from American to British English, (Luster to Lustre) the word choice of; gaze, crumbles, embers, phantom, etc certainly add to the sense of darkness in the room as the child envisions images in the fire. Oddly, when his meter becomes more complex, he becomes more joyful.
My ship and IO it's I that am the captain of a tiny little ship, Of a ship that goes a sailing on the pond;And my ship it keeps a-turning all around and all about;But when I'm a little older, I shall find the secret out How to send my vessel sailing on beyond. For I mean to grow a little as the dolly at the helm, And the dolly I intend to come alive;And with him beside to help me, it's a-sailing I shall go,It's a-sailing on the water, when the jolly breezes blow And the vessel goes a dive-dive-dive. O it's then you'll see me sailing through the rushes and the reeds, And you'll hear the water singing at the prow;For beside the dolly sailor, I'm to voyage and explore,To land upon the island where no dolly was before, And to fire the penny cannon in the bow.
The third is more complex again in both form and theme, and again for older children.
Envoys, with one exception, is a group of dedications and poems intended for specific individuals he knew.
All of the poems are clearly from a simpler time, as he remembers it. Useful for the teacher in a classroom is the sense of isolation for the privileged few that Stevenson portrays through his poems.
A glaring exception to all of this is the last poem in the first Chapter: Keepsake MillOver the borders, a sin without pardon, Breaking the branches and crawling below,Out through the breach in the wall of the garden, Down by the banks of the river we go. Here is a mill with the humming of thunder, Here is the weir with the wonder of foam,Here is the sluice with the race running under-- Marvellous places, though handy to home! Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller, Stiller the note of the birds on the hill;Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller, Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill. Years may go by, and the wheel in the river Wheel as it wheels for us, children, to-day,Wheel and keep roaring and foaming for ever Long after all of the boys are away. Home for the Indies and home from the ocean, Heroes and soldiers we all will come home;Still we shall find the old mill wheel in motion, Turning and churning that river to foam. You with the bean that I gave when we quarrelled, I with your marble of Saturday last,Honoured and old and all gaily apparelled, Here we shall meet and remember the past.
This poem is not for the children at all. It was clearly written as a gift to the adult that reads to the children, a gift of remembrance and reminiscence.
In many ways, reviewing the work of one of the renowned poets and finding any negative is disconcerting. But the skills and talents that make his work so appealing for adults, when transferred to a child’s medium, appears strange. His best work in the child’s collection are the poems intended for the reader, not the listener. As such I cannot recommend the collection as a whole, but only selected poems as they may apply.
There are four collections or Chapters contained within the book A Garden of Verses:
For Alison Cunningham
The Child Alone
Garden days
Envoys
They are generally of increasing complexity, length, and sentiment.
The first is dedicated to Alison Cunningham, his nurse from childhood, to whom he attributes a great deal of credit for his literary success. All the verses are very simple with simple themes. This is the largest of the 4 collections and is clearly to be used as Alison Cunningham used it; reading to children.
In many ways this collection of poems for children is more revealing about Stevenson than many of his more serious works.
From: Foreign Lands
I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.
The meter is consistent from line to line for simplicity, and the lines are also short.
Thematically, it also shows the isolation of the childhood Stevenson had, and mistakenly presumes upon others. How many children have so little freedom they have never seen the garden next door.
Auntie’s Skirts
Whenever Auntie moves around,
Her dresses make a curious sound,
They trail behind her up the floor,
And trundle after through the door.
Again, the meter remains consistent; the lines remain short. Also again, whether unwittingly or not, Stevenson conveys the sense of isolation by maximizing the silence of a house in which a child pays close attention to the soft swishing sounds made by his auntie’s dress as she moves.
From one of the more famous poems of the collection:
The Land of Nod
4th stanza
Try as I like to find the way,
I never can get back by day,
Nor can remember plain and clear
The curious music that I hear.
Altogether the first collection is useful for it’s simple form and lessons until you reach the last poem “The Keepsake Mill”. The first collection is however mildly solemn, and whether intended or not, reflects the childhood of RLS which was filled with illness and very poor health. The fact that the entire first collection is dedicated to the woman who tirelessly spent so many hours with the invalid and infirm child sets the tone for most of the book.
The second Collection: The Child Alone
is still simple in theme but more complex in form.
Armies in the Fire
The lamps now glitter down the street;
Faintly sound the falling feet;
And the blue even slowly falls
About the garden trees and walls.
Now in the falling of the gloom
The red fire paints the empty room:
And warmly on the roof it looks,
And flickers on the back of books.
Armies march by tower and spire
Of cities blazing, in the fire;--
Till as I gaze with staring eyes,
The armies fall, the lustre dies.
Then once again the glow returns;
Again the phantom city burns;
And down the red-hot valley, lo!
The phantom armies marching go!
Blinking embers, tell me true
Where are those armies marching to,
And what the burning city is
That crumbles in your furnaces!
In the earlier selections of the Chapter, form remains simple but word choice and theme become slightly complex. Ignoring the spelling changes from American to British English, (Luster to Lustre) the word choice of; gaze, crumbles, embers, phantom, etc certainly add to the sense of darkness in the room as the child envisions images in the fire. Oddly, when his meter becomes more complex, he becomes more joyful.
My ship and IO it's I that am the captain of a tiny little ship, Of a ship that goes a sailing on the pond;And my ship it keeps a-turning all around and all about;But when I'm a little older, I shall find the secret out How to send my vessel sailing on beyond. For I mean to grow a little as the dolly at the helm, And the dolly I intend to come alive;And with him beside to help me, it's a-sailing I shall go,It's a-sailing on the water, when the jolly breezes blow And the vessel goes a dive-dive-dive. O it's then you'll see me sailing through the rushes and the reeds, And you'll hear the water singing at the prow;For beside the dolly sailor, I'm to voyage and explore,To land upon the island where no dolly was before, And to fire the penny cannon in the bow.
The third is more complex again in both form and theme, and again for older children.
Envoys, with one exception, is a group of dedications and poems intended for specific individuals he knew.
All of the poems are clearly from a simpler time, as he remembers it. Useful for the teacher in a classroom is the sense of isolation for the privileged few that Stevenson portrays through his poems.
A glaring exception to all of this is the last poem in the first Chapter: Keepsake MillOver the borders, a sin without pardon, Breaking the branches and crawling below,Out through the breach in the wall of the garden, Down by the banks of the river we go. Here is a mill with the humming of thunder, Here is the weir with the wonder of foam,Here is the sluice with the race running under-- Marvellous places, though handy to home! Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller, Stiller the note of the birds on the hill;Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller, Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill. Years may go by, and the wheel in the river Wheel as it wheels for us, children, to-day,Wheel and keep roaring and foaming for ever Long after all of the boys are away. Home for the Indies and home from the ocean, Heroes and soldiers we all will come home;Still we shall find the old mill wheel in motion, Turning and churning that river to foam. You with the bean that I gave when we quarrelled, I with your marble of Saturday last,Honoured and old and all gaily apparelled, Here we shall meet and remember the past.
This poem is not for the children at all. It was clearly written as a gift to the adult that reads to the children, a gift of remembrance and reminiscence.
In many ways, reviewing the work of one of the renowned poets and finding any negative is disconcerting. But the skills and talents that make his work so appealing for adults, when transferred to a child’s medium, appears strange. His best work in the child’s collection are the poems intended for the reader, not the listener. As such I cannot recommend the collection as a whole, but only selected poems as they may apply.
Albert Einstein: A Photographic Story of a Life
by Frieda Wishinsky
A quiet and shy man who shook the world. In 2000 TIME magazine chose Albert Einstein as the Person of the Century (20th). The article makes a good case that his work on atomics, photo electronics, and even politics has contributed more to the information age than it did to the atomic age. His work on atomic fission is well known, but some of his most renowned work enabled laser and biochemical advances that have impacted electronics, medicine, engineering, and even the Middle East conflict.
His vocal opposition to the Nazi party in Germany resulted in his being condemned in absentia, but he continued his opposition from Princeton University where he taught. He traveled and spoke widely to audiences raising funds and consciousness for the creation of a place for Jews in Palestine. His work there was so impactful that he was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel. He refused on grounds of poor health.
The biography focuses on his humanism, his opposition to militarism, and his seeming conflicts. He helped to engender the image of the iconic scientist who can read the secrets of the cosmos but can’t comb his hair or put on matching socks. A feat he accomplished regularly. The attempts to control or contain him were many. The Chancellor of Princeton University actually set up all of Einstein’s correspondence to go through the Chancellery. All incoming and outgoing calls for Einstein were screened there. This was frustrating for the elder scientist, but he bore it until President Roosevelt called to invite Einstein to the White House, and the Chancellor refused because he didn’t like the democratic president. Einstein rushed to the office, and from that moment the Chancellery no longer screened any calls or mail.
His accomplishments as a scientist came without a laboratory. When asked what facilities he would need at Princeton he replied, “A desk, a chair, and a pen....Oh! and a large trash can to throw away my ideas.” He didn’t need equipment to determine how the universe worked. He just figured it out.
A quiet and shy man who shook the world. In 2000 TIME magazine chose Albert Einstein as the Person of the Century (20th). The article makes a good case that his work on atomics, photo electronics, and even politics has contributed more to the information age than it did to the atomic age. His work on atomic fission is well known, but some of his most renowned work enabled laser and biochemical advances that have impacted electronics, medicine, engineering, and even the Middle East conflict.
His vocal opposition to the Nazi party in Germany resulted in his being condemned in absentia, but he continued his opposition from Princeton University where he taught. He traveled and spoke widely to audiences raising funds and consciousness for the creation of a place for Jews in Palestine. His work there was so impactful that he was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel. He refused on grounds of poor health.
The biography focuses on his humanism, his opposition to militarism, and his seeming conflicts. He helped to engender the image of the iconic scientist who can read the secrets of the cosmos but can’t comb his hair or put on matching socks. A feat he accomplished regularly. The attempts to control or contain him were many. The Chancellor of Princeton University actually set up all of Einstein’s correspondence to go through the Chancellery. All incoming and outgoing calls for Einstein were screened there. This was frustrating for the elder scientist, but he bore it until President Roosevelt called to invite Einstein to the White House, and the Chancellor refused because he didn’t like the democratic president. Einstein rushed to the office, and from that moment the Chancellery no longer screened any calls or mail.
His accomplishments as a scientist came without a laboratory. When asked what facilities he would need at Princeton he replied, “A desk, a chair, and a pen....Oh! and a large trash can to throw away my ideas.” He didn’t need equipment to determine how the universe worked. He just figured it out.
The Hobbit
by JRR Tolkien
Few books have had as wide-ranging impact on society as have the works of JRR Tolkien. Before the publication of the “Lord of the Rings” and it’s prequel “The Hobbit”, dragons, elves and orcs were not popular in fiction. His works are now mimicked so widely that it has created it’s own genre. Lord of the Rings (LOTR) the movies, Dungeons & Dragons, The Dragons of Pern, The Sword of Shanarra series, etc. Just walk through the isle of the Fantasy section at your favorite bookstore and see what JRR began. And his work transcends just movies and books. Have you ever seen the t-shirt “FRODO LIVES!”? And, video game makers have taken merciless advantage of this advertising freebee. The number of “Sword and Sorcery” games is beyond count. Perhaps the best description of the impact this series of books has had came from an unlikely source. While walking into a theater to see a movie, years ago, a group of young people exited, and I overheard them. They had paid full ticket prices to go in and see just the preview of the movie Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. They didn’t bother to watch the feature movie, and they thought their money was well spent. The beginning of that phenomenon was “The Hobbit”.
More then the rest of the series, the writing style, word choice, and length of “The Hobbit” make it acceptable juvenile fiction. At half the length of the other three books, it is easier for a young reader and is much less dire. While still meeting the requirements of great adventure, many of its characters are younger....and shorter!
Thematically, “The Hobbit” is about the path to maturity. As Bilbo travels with the dwarves through adventures against trolls, goblins, and spiders, he changes from a passive lover of good food and domestic comfort to a brave, realistic, active tactician. Each time he descends into the underworld, his foes become less like reality. Golum’s cave, the King of the Wood Elves, and the cave of Smaug’s hoard represent creatures of increasing fantasy or spiritual natures. Bilbo’s adventures take him from personal survival to responsibility for all those impacted by his actions. As such Bilbo passes through his adventures becoming a more ethical and responsible person.
Much of LOTR is written in Germanic structure. The sentences are much more convoluted than “The Hobbit”. With shorter sentences and simpler word choices, the story becomes a much better fit for younger readers.
Few books have had as wide-ranging impact on society as have the works of JRR Tolkien. Before the publication of the “Lord of the Rings” and it’s prequel “The Hobbit”, dragons, elves and orcs were not popular in fiction. His works are now mimicked so widely that it has created it’s own genre. Lord of the Rings (LOTR) the movies, Dungeons & Dragons, The Dragons of Pern, The Sword of Shanarra series, etc. Just walk through the isle of the Fantasy section at your favorite bookstore and see what JRR began. And his work transcends just movies and books. Have you ever seen the t-shirt “FRODO LIVES!”? And, video game makers have taken merciless advantage of this advertising freebee. The number of “Sword and Sorcery” games is beyond count. Perhaps the best description of the impact this series of books has had came from an unlikely source. While walking into a theater to see a movie, years ago, a group of young people exited, and I overheard them. They had paid full ticket prices to go in and see just the preview of the movie Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. They didn’t bother to watch the feature movie, and they thought their money was well spent. The beginning of that phenomenon was “The Hobbit”.
More then the rest of the series, the writing style, word choice, and length of “The Hobbit” make it acceptable juvenile fiction. At half the length of the other three books, it is easier for a young reader and is much less dire. While still meeting the requirements of great adventure, many of its characters are younger....and shorter!
Thematically, “The Hobbit” is about the path to maturity. As Bilbo travels with the dwarves through adventures against trolls, goblins, and spiders, he changes from a passive lover of good food and domestic comfort to a brave, realistic, active tactician. Each time he descends into the underworld, his foes become less like reality. Golum’s cave, the King of the Wood Elves, and the cave of Smaug’s hoard represent creatures of increasing fantasy or spiritual natures. Bilbo’s adventures take him from personal survival to responsibility for all those impacted by his actions. As such Bilbo passes through his adventures becoming a more ethical and responsible person.
Much of LOTR is written in Germanic structure. The sentences are much more convoluted than “The Hobbit”. With shorter sentences and simpler word choices, the story becomes a much better fit for younger readers.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
I Had Seen Castles
by Cynthia Rylant
“I Had Seen Castles” is the story of a young man, John Dante, who optimistically goes to war with dreams of glory and righteousness and returns with reality and nightmares. His attitude is familiar. I have read a number of books that had characters who felt the same way. Each war begins with the “Rah-rah-rah” attitude reminiscent of cheerleaders at a local high school football game. Everything is black and white. We are good. They are bad. We are right. They are wrong. Etc, etc, etc…
I feel anger when I read books like this. “Bull Run”, “Gone With The Wind”, “Platoon”, and many more stories all start out the same. They touch the patriotic streak we all seem to have and crucify anyone who speaks out against war as unpatriotic. The older I get, the angrier I become at the patriotic rhetoric. The truth always seems many wounded bodies away. Cynthia Rylant’s writing ability made me experience enough anger to keep me awake for hours. She is a true master at her craft.
Fifty years after the war, John Dante wrote his story of a young boy, himself, off to World War II. The boy’s mother took a job in a factory to try to shorten the war. The boy speaks of the ten-hour days she puts in, day after day, coming home exhausted. John acknowledges that she does all this to save him from going to war, but his only concern is his embarrassment at seeing her wear pants. This is the real enemy. Young people, so self-absorbed, cannot see beyond their own wants and needs. His mother sacrifices her life to save his, and he only sees what she wears. John blindly goes off to war a haze of patriotism to return stunned and empty from the terrors he had seen.
The most regrettable thing about “I Had Seen Castles” is that once that John realizes that Ginny, his first love, was right in questioning the value of war, he never tries to find her again. He is so wrapped up in himself that he cannot or will not look for her. How very sad.
Cynthia Rylant does a tremendous job pushing all the right emotional buttons. She is right to reserve this story for older students as younger students would not understand the release of lovemaking and the fighting to save your fellow soldiers concepts.
“I Had Seen Castles” is the story of a young man, John Dante, who optimistically goes to war with dreams of glory and righteousness and returns with reality and nightmares. His attitude is familiar. I have read a number of books that had characters who felt the same way. Each war begins with the “Rah-rah-rah” attitude reminiscent of cheerleaders at a local high school football game. Everything is black and white. We are good. They are bad. We are right. They are wrong. Etc, etc, etc…
I feel anger when I read books like this. “Bull Run”, “Gone With The Wind”, “Platoon”, and many more stories all start out the same. They touch the patriotic streak we all seem to have and crucify anyone who speaks out against war as unpatriotic. The older I get, the angrier I become at the patriotic rhetoric. The truth always seems many wounded bodies away. Cynthia Rylant’s writing ability made me experience enough anger to keep me awake for hours. She is a true master at her craft.
Fifty years after the war, John Dante wrote his story of a young boy, himself, off to World War II. The boy’s mother took a job in a factory to try to shorten the war. The boy speaks of the ten-hour days she puts in, day after day, coming home exhausted. John acknowledges that she does all this to save him from going to war, but his only concern is his embarrassment at seeing her wear pants. This is the real enemy. Young people, so self-absorbed, cannot see beyond their own wants and needs. His mother sacrifices her life to save his, and he only sees what she wears. John blindly goes off to war a haze of patriotism to return stunned and empty from the terrors he had seen.
The most regrettable thing about “I Had Seen Castles” is that once that John realizes that Ginny, his first love, was right in questioning the value of war, he never tries to find her again. He is so wrapped up in himself that he cannot or will not look for her. How very sad.
Cynthia Rylant does a tremendous job pushing all the right emotional buttons. She is right to reserve this story for older students as younger students would not understand the release of lovemaking and the fighting to save your fellow soldiers concepts.
Bull Run
by Paul Fleischman
“Bull Run” reminded me of “Seedfolks,” also written by Paul Fleischman. Each chapter told the story of one person’s thoughts and actions prior to, during, and after the battle of Bull Run. The chapters were surprising short, only a page or two each. Each person’s story did not completely unfold in the chapter. The author told pieces of the story for each character moving the story along chronologically.
Slaves, women, generals, colonels, young boys, a doctor, and a stable lad all had roles to play in “Bull Run”. The characters I identified with the most were the doctor, William Rye, and the stable lad, Shem Suggs. The doctor went with the army knowing that many soldiers would be wounded and in need of medical care. He had no delusions of glory about war as the doctor already had combat experience. The stable lad joined the army so one day he could own a horse. Some folks took picnic lunches and champagne to watch the battle as if it were a play. The disconnect with reality is startling; however, history documents that people really did have picnics as they watched the battle. All the other characters were slaves looking for freedom or delusional characters dreaming of glory and fast victory.
Shem Suggs and Dr. William Rye were the most admirable people in the story. Shem buried the dead horses and cared for the live ones after the battle. The doctor tried to save lives regardless of their affiliation.
Dr. Rye referred to the rejoicing and celebrating of the Southern victory the asked, “A victory? Indeed it was, for Death upon his pale horse.” Later that very day, I watched a news report about the “victory” in Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s statute was being pulled down as people rejoiced in the streets. Four years later and thousands dead in Iraq, we can also ask, “A victory? Indeed it was, for Death upon his pale horse.” How odd to hear a four-year anniversary of the “victory” in Iraq just as I read this passage in “Bull Run,” the first battle of a bloody four-year war from our past.
Paul Fleischman’s word craft in “Bull Run” is impressive. In one simile, a slave’s smile was described as, “…the slimmest of smiles fled his lips, like a snake disappearing down a hole.” This perfectly describes the smiles that some of my “would be” rascally students give me on occasion. The reader could see the facial expressions of some of the characters as the author described them.
I admit that I had to keep going back in the book to remember who the characters were. A graphic organizer would help clarify and separate the characters if a teacher chose to have students read “Bull Run” in the classroom. “Bull Run” would be an excellent novel to read along with Virginia Studies VS7, the Civil War.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/bull/bulltg.html
“Bull Run” reminded me of “Seedfolks,” also written by Paul Fleischman. Each chapter told the story of one person’s thoughts and actions prior to, during, and after the battle of Bull Run. The chapters were surprising short, only a page or two each. Each person’s story did not completely unfold in the chapter. The author told pieces of the story for each character moving the story along chronologically.
Slaves, women, generals, colonels, young boys, a doctor, and a stable lad all had roles to play in “Bull Run”. The characters I identified with the most were the doctor, William Rye, and the stable lad, Shem Suggs. The doctor went with the army knowing that many soldiers would be wounded and in need of medical care. He had no delusions of glory about war as the doctor already had combat experience. The stable lad joined the army so one day he could own a horse. Some folks took picnic lunches and champagne to watch the battle as if it were a play. The disconnect with reality is startling; however, history documents that people really did have picnics as they watched the battle. All the other characters were slaves looking for freedom or delusional characters dreaming of glory and fast victory.
Shem Suggs and Dr. William Rye were the most admirable people in the story. Shem buried the dead horses and cared for the live ones after the battle. The doctor tried to save lives regardless of their affiliation.
Dr. Rye referred to the rejoicing and celebrating of the Southern victory the asked, “A victory? Indeed it was, for Death upon his pale horse.” Later that very day, I watched a news report about the “victory” in Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s statute was being pulled down as people rejoiced in the streets. Four years later and thousands dead in Iraq, we can also ask, “A victory? Indeed it was, for Death upon his pale horse.” How odd to hear a four-year anniversary of the “victory” in Iraq just as I read this passage in “Bull Run,” the first battle of a bloody four-year war from our past.
Paul Fleischman’s word craft in “Bull Run” is impressive. In one simile, a slave’s smile was described as, “…the slimmest of smiles fled his lips, like a snake disappearing down a hole.” This perfectly describes the smiles that some of my “would be” rascally students give me on occasion. The reader could see the facial expressions of some of the characters as the author described them.
I admit that I had to keep going back in the book to remember who the characters were. A graphic organizer would help clarify and separate the characters if a teacher chose to have students read “Bull Run” in the classroom. “Bull Run” would be an excellent novel to read along with Virginia Studies VS7, the Civil War.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/bull/bulltg.html
Monday, April 9, 2007
The Watsons Go to Birminham
by Christopher Paul Curtis
The ‘weird’ Watsons, as they call themselves, are close-knit family of African American descent who live in Michigan. This is a family who enjoy each other. Dad is a fast-talking, fun loving clown who giggles and ‘performs’ for his wife and children. The mother is more serious but lets a giggle and a smile escape once in a while. Three children bless the Watson’s home: Byron, Kenny, and Joey. The story is told from Kenny’s point of view.
Byron, the older boy, gets into too much trouble at home and at school, although the trouble consists of fairly insignificant acts of juvenile delinquency. Mother and Father Watson decided that Byron needed to spend the summer with his fierce, no nonsense grandmother in Alabama. Up to this point, Byron’s behavior has gone uncontrolled, as Byron knows his parents love him and will protect him no matter how awful he acts. His grandmother is surrounded by stories of fierceness, and she lives in Alabama, a state under siege with racial discord.
After a riotous preparation involving a record player and a fifteen-hour nonstop trip in a rickety car nicknamed the Brown Bomber, the family arrives in Birmingham, Alabama. Byron changes almost overnight stating that he ‘would not be responsible for that old woman’s death’.
The story loses it jovial nature and becomes serious when the youngest child, Joey goes to church. The church is bombed, and Kenny runs to the church, enters, and sees dead little girls on the ground. He sees a black shoe and pulls it towards him thinking his little sister is dead. Kenny and the entire family struggles with racism and death in ways they were never exposed to in Michigan. Kenny struggles with an emotional crisis that almost destroys him, but Byron pulls him through. This family’s struggle is a metaphor for the struggles all African American families faced from after Reconstruction until well after the Civil Rights Movement.
Lesson plans at:
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/curtis.html
The ‘weird’ Watsons, as they call themselves, are close-knit family of African American descent who live in Michigan. This is a family who enjoy each other. Dad is a fast-talking, fun loving clown who giggles and ‘performs’ for his wife and children. The mother is more serious but lets a giggle and a smile escape once in a while. Three children bless the Watson’s home: Byron, Kenny, and Joey. The story is told from Kenny’s point of view.
Byron, the older boy, gets into too much trouble at home and at school, although the trouble consists of fairly insignificant acts of juvenile delinquency. Mother and Father Watson decided that Byron needed to spend the summer with his fierce, no nonsense grandmother in Alabama. Up to this point, Byron’s behavior has gone uncontrolled, as Byron knows his parents love him and will protect him no matter how awful he acts. His grandmother is surrounded by stories of fierceness, and she lives in Alabama, a state under siege with racial discord.
After a riotous preparation involving a record player and a fifteen-hour nonstop trip in a rickety car nicknamed the Brown Bomber, the family arrives in Birmingham, Alabama. Byron changes almost overnight stating that he ‘would not be responsible for that old woman’s death’.
The story loses it jovial nature and becomes serious when the youngest child, Joey goes to church. The church is bombed, and Kenny runs to the church, enters, and sees dead little girls on the ground. He sees a black shoe and pulls it towards him thinking his little sister is dead. Kenny and the entire family struggles with racism and death in ways they were never exposed to in Michigan. Kenny struggles with an emotional crisis that almost destroys him, but Byron pulls him through. This family’s struggle is a metaphor for the struggles all African American families faced from after Reconstruction until well after the Civil Rights Movement.
Lesson plans at:
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/curtis.html
Mole Music
by David McPhail
Mole Music has so many levels of interest that it is difficult to know where to start. Carolyn and I did our picture book presentation on Mole Music and found new aspects of the writing craft or the illustrator’s craft every time we read the story.
The over all theme of Mole Music is that music enriches, comforts, soothes, and enlivens our lives. A simple, lonely mole learns to play the violin. With quiet tenacity, the mole practices over years to be able to play the violin beautifully. I wish that I had the persistence and drive of that little mole! Unknown to the mole, his music affects the people and animals above ground. Single handedly, the mole brings harmony to his little patch of earth, above and below ground.
The page can be divided horizontally to show two different stories taking place: one above ground and one below ground. The stories are much bleaker when viewed separately, but the illustrator blends the two stories to demonstrate growth of the mole’s musical talent, growth of a tree, and a growth of harmony amongst the people living, working, and fighting above ground.
The artwork tells much of the story without words. You can see the tree growing and the ground eroding, but this is not mentioned in words. You can see crops being harvested and people gathered under the tree to rest, but this isn’t mentioned in words, either. Most of the story is told in the art, not the words although the written words explain mole’s thoughts and actions. The mole starts, remains, and ends the story quite alone. Of all the characters, the mole is the only one isolated so words are needed to tell his feelings.
This is the first picture book that I have every analyzed in depth. I realize that I have simply not paid attention to picture books as a reading source for older students, but I have begun to correct that error in my classroom.
Lesson plan ideas at:
http://www.tlpeace.org.au/stories/molemusic.htm
Mole Music has so many levels of interest that it is difficult to know where to start. Carolyn and I did our picture book presentation on Mole Music and found new aspects of the writing craft or the illustrator’s craft every time we read the story.
The over all theme of Mole Music is that music enriches, comforts, soothes, and enlivens our lives. A simple, lonely mole learns to play the violin. With quiet tenacity, the mole practices over years to be able to play the violin beautifully. I wish that I had the persistence and drive of that little mole! Unknown to the mole, his music affects the people and animals above ground. Single handedly, the mole brings harmony to his little patch of earth, above and below ground.
The page can be divided horizontally to show two different stories taking place: one above ground and one below ground. The stories are much bleaker when viewed separately, but the illustrator blends the two stories to demonstrate growth of the mole’s musical talent, growth of a tree, and a growth of harmony amongst the people living, working, and fighting above ground.
The artwork tells much of the story without words. You can see the tree growing and the ground eroding, but this is not mentioned in words. You can see crops being harvested and people gathered under the tree to rest, but this isn’t mentioned in words, either. Most of the story is told in the art, not the words although the written words explain mole’s thoughts and actions. The mole starts, remains, and ends the story quite alone. Of all the characters, the mole is the only one isolated so words are needed to tell his feelings.
This is the first picture book that I have every analyzed in depth. I realize that I have simply not paid attention to picture books as a reading source for older students, but I have begun to correct that error in my classroom.
Lesson plan ideas at:
http://www.tlpeace.org.au/stories/molemusic.htm
Seedfolks
by Paul Fleischman
Paul Fleischman is the son of Sid Fleischman, also a Newbery winner. Having read books by both authors, I recognized similarities in style, and now I know why.
Seedfolks is a story about a community garden. The garden was started by a young Vietnamese girl to honor her deceased father who had been a gardener. The only place to plant anything was an undeveloped lot filled with junk. The girl’s efforts were noticed, and slowly people planted small plots of ground and cleared the junk away.
Each chapter focuses upon one person, and why that person decided to grow a garden. Some of the people plant to sell the crops, others to honor a loved one, court a girlfriend, to escape loneliness, and many other reasons. Each reason takes the person to the garden where interaction with other gardeners takes place. The garden becomes a meeting place and grows into a community. People who ignored or mistreated each other become friends or at least tolerant. As the garden grows, a sense of community grows, too.
The essence of Seedfolks isn’t about plants growing; it’s about people finding that they have something in common and building relationships from that commonality.
Lesson plans and questions with answers from the author are at:
http://www.harperchildrens.com/hch/parents/teachingguides/fleischman.pdf
Paul Fleischman is the son of Sid Fleischman, also a Newbery winner. Having read books by both authors, I recognized similarities in style, and now I know why.
Seedfolks is a story about a community garden. The garden was started by a young Vietnamese girl to honor her deceased father who had been a gardener. The only place to plant anything was an undeveloped lot filled with junk. The girl’s efforts were noticed, and slowly people planted small plots of ground and cleared the junk away.
Each chapter focuses upon one person, and why that person decided to grow a garden. Some of the people plant to sell the crops, others to honor a loved one, court a girlfriend, to escape loneliness, and many other reasons. Each reason takes the person to the garden where interaction with other gardeners takes place. The garden becomes a meeting place and grows into a community. People who ignored or mistreated each other become friends or at least tolerant. As the garden grows, a sense of community grows, too.
The essence of Seedfolks isn’t about plants growing; it’s about people finding that they have something in common and building relationships from that commonality.
Lesson plans and questions with answers from the author are at:
http://www.harperchildrens.com/hch/parents/teachingguides/fleischman.pdf
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Charlotte's Web
by E.B. White
How many children’s classic stories have been made into a movie, not once but three times? “Charlotte’s Web” is a fantasy written to delight animal lovers and children everywhere. Underneath the joy invoked by talking animals and escapes from being made into sausage, a difficult concept is explored.
Animals are raised, slaughtered, and eaten every day, and we think very little about it. I have watched children snarf down hamburgers and hot dogs without any concern. Yet, when an animal is given a name, attitudes change. Suddenly, the animal is more than just part of the next sandwich. I feel qualms about eating pork every morning as truck after truck loaded with pigs pass me on their way to be slaughtered at the local packing plant. I hate the way that the pigs are all loaded on top of each other, unable to move, on their way to death. The process seems incredibly cruel, but it is just a fact of life.
I reread “Charlotte’s Web” every year as an escape from reality. Wilbur, the little pig headed towards being slaughtered and eaten, is saved by a child, a rat, and a spider. The real champion was Charlotte, the spider who saved Wilbur by creating ‘miracle’ messages in her spider web.
A child’s life can be filled with wondrous things like a kind spider, Charlotte, and talking rats with attitude like Templeton. Cute little pigs can be pets like Wilbur, and mother sheep can share kindness with animals of other species. Adults can change their minds and show kindness to children and animals. “Charlotte’s Web” is a fantasy of kindness that children can read to escape from their less than kind environments.
Lesson plans at:
http://www.murrieta.k12.ca.us/alta/dfuller/charlotte/index.html
How many children’s classic stories have been made into a movie, not once but three times? “Charlotte’s Web” is a fantasy written to delight animal lovers and children everywhere. Underneath the joy invoked by talking animals and escapes from being made into sausage, a difficult concept is explored.
Animals are raised, slaughtered, and eaten every day, and we think very little about it. I have watched children snarf down hamburgers and hot dogs without any concern. Yet, when an animal is given a name, attitudes change. Suddenly, the animal is more than just part of the next sandwich. I feel qualms about eating pork every morning as truck after truck loaded with pigs pass me on their way to be slaughtered at the local packing plant. I hate the way that the pigs are all loaded on top of each other, unable to move, on their way to death. The process seems incredibly cruel, but it is just a fact of life.
I reread “Charlotte’s Web” every year as an escape from reality. Wilbur, the little pig headed towards being slaughtered and eaten, is saved by a child, a rat, and a spider. The real champion was Charlotte, the spider who saved Wilbur by creating ‘miracle’ messages in her spider web.
A child’s life can be filled with wondrous things like a kind spider, Charlotte, and talking rats with attitude like Templeton. Cute little pigs can be pets like Wilbur, and mother sheep can share kindness with animals of other species. Adults can change their minds and show kindness to children and animals. “Charlotte’s Web” is a fantasy of kindness that children can read to escape from their less than kind environments.
Lesson plans at:
http://www.murrieta.k12.ca.us/alta/dfuller/charlotte/index.html
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
The Whipping Boy
by Sid Fleischman
My students were outraged when they read that when the Prince was naughty, another boy was spanked in his place. They quickly grasped that the Prince could misbehave with impunity. Misbehaving was the Prince’s favorite past time. Finally, the Prince became bored with his game of misbehaving and watching Jemmy, his whipping boy, being beaten in his stead.
The Prince devised a plan to run away and forced Jemmy to go with him. At this point, my students were divided. One group of students felt strongly that Jemmy should abandon the Prince to his fate. A smaller group believed that Jemmy should help the Prince survive even though the Prince may not deserve help.
The Prince and Jemmy were kidnapped and ill-treated by a band of brigands. They escaped, suffered from hunger and other hardships, and the Prince received a harsh lesson in medieval life. Naturally, the Prince had a change of heart and mended his ways.
In spite of the predictability of the outcome of “The Whipping Boy”, the story is engrossing, well written, and won the Newbery Medal. The “Whipping Boy” reminds me of Mark Twains’ “The Prince and the Pauper”. Although in Twains’ story, the poor boy gets to stay behind at the castle and enjoy the Prince’s life instead of going with the Prince on his adventure.
Whipping boys were actually used during medieval times for princes and princesses. The child being whipped was rarely a commoner, though. Often the child chosen as a whipping boy or girl would be the son or daughter of minor royalty as the position was considered to be an honor.
Sid Fleischman is the father of Paul Fleischman, also a Newbery winning author.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://home.olemiss.edu/~adrobb/lesson10.htm
My students were outraged when they read that when the Prince was naughty, another boy was spanked in his place. They quickly grasped that the Prince could misbehave with impunity. Misbehaving was the Prince’s favorite past time. Finally, the Prince became bored with his game of misbehaving and watching Jemmy, his whipping boy, being beaten in his stead.
The Prince devised a plan to run away and forced Jemmy to go with him. At this point, my students were divided. One group of students felt strongly that Jemmy should abandon the Prince to his fate. A smaller group believed that Jemmy should help the Prince survive even though the Prince may not deserve help.
The Prince and Jemmy were kidnapped and ill-treated by a band of brigands. They escaped, suffered from hunger and other hardships, and the Prince received a harsh lesson in medieval life. Naturally, the Prince had a change of heart and mended his ways.
In spite of the predictability of the outcome of “The Whipping Boy”, the story is engrossing, well written, and won the Newbery Medal. The “Whipping Boy” reminds me of Mark Twains’ “The Prince and the Pauper”. Although in Twains’ story, the poor boy gets to stay behind at the castle and enjoy the Prince’s life instead of going with the Prince on his adventure.
Whipping boys were actually used during medieval times for princes and princesses. The child being whipped was rarely a commoner, though. Often the child chosen as a whipping boy or girl would be the son or daughter of minor royalty as the position was considered to be an honor.
Sid Fleischman is the father of Paul Fleischman, also a Newbery winning author.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://home.olemiss.edu/~adrobb/lesson10.htm
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Missing May
by Cynthia Rylant
This may be grossly unfair but this is the sixth Newbery Award winning book focusing on how to deal with the loss of a loved one. As a result, I started and put down the book five times.
The story of an orphan, passed from relative to relative till ending up with her Aunt May and Uncle Obe is disconcerting, reflecting the angst and uncertainty many young people feel. Losing and missing her Aunt May, and how she and Obe deal with it, seems a less than ideal recommendation. When Obe starts to hallucinate or imagine May’s presence, he is encouraged at every turn by Summer and her school friend, Cletus.
Both May and Obe were eclectic and eccentric. They collected artistic and elaborate whirlygigs and mounted them inside their mobile home, and Summer clearly assumes that, though loved, she is part of the collection. After May dies, Obe becomes erratic till Cletus, a collector of empty potato chip bags and photos, visits. While I appreciate the authors point about accepting quirkiness, I found myself becoming distanced from the characters and their plight by the sheer volume of strange until I reached the following passage:
“May would have liked (Cletus). She would have said he was “full of wonders, “same as Ob. May always liked the weird ones best, the ones you couldn’t peg right off. She must be loving it up in heaven, where I figure everybody must just let loose. That’s got to be at least one of the benefits of heaven—never having to act normal again.”
And maybe that WAS the point. Dealing with devastating loss makes everything feel strange. Even normal is disorienting. Shying away from the odd and peculiar at that point is not jut futile, but counterproductive. When Summer finally broke down and cried at her loss for May, it was only after she saw Obe go through his own catharsis. Only after he was “taken care of” could she fully grieve. What was unspoken in the book, but obvious to adult readers, was that Obe was doing the same. Both cared enough about the other to help them through this dreadful time, but put off their own needs to do it. In the end this only extended the pain.
Missing May is about the need to grieve for your loss, and to help others at the same time. Getting back to “normal” is less important than letting go of the pain.
Lesson plans can be found at:
at:http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/missing_may.pdf
This may be grossly unfair but this is the sixth Newbery Award winning book focusing on how to deal with the loss of a loved one. As a result, I started and put down the book five times.
The story of an orphan, passed from relative to relative till ending up with her Aunt May and Uncle Obe is disconcerting, reflecting the angst and uncertainty many young people feel. Losing and missing her Aunt May, and how she and Obe deal with it, seems a less than ideal recommendation. When Obe starts to hallucinate or imagine May’s presence, he is encouraged at every turn by Summer and her school friend, Cletus.
Both May and Obe were eclectic and eccentric. They collected artistic and elaborate whirlygigs and mounted them inside their mobile home, and Summer clearly assumes that, though loved, she is part of the collection. After May dies, Obe becomes erratic till Cletus, a collector of empty potato chip bags and photos, visits. While I appreciate the authors point about accepting quirkiness, I found myself becoming distanced from the characters and their plight by the sheer volume of strange until I reached the following passage:
“May would have liked (Cletus). She would have said he was “full of wonders, “same as Ob. May always liked the weird ones best, the ones you couldn’t peg right off. She must be loving it up in heaven, where I figure everybody must just let loose. That’s got to be at least one of the benefits of heaven—never having to act normal again.”
And maybe that WAS the point. Dealing with devastating loss makes everything feel strange. Even normal is disorienting. Shying away from the odd and peculiar at that point is not jut futile, but counterproductive. When Summer finally broke down and cried at her loss for May, it was only after she saw Obe go through his own catharsis. Only after he was “taken care of” could she fully grieve. What was unspoken in the book, but obvious to adult readers, was that Obe was doing the same. Both cared enough about the other to help them through this dreadful time, but put off their own needs to do it. In the end this only extended the pain.
Missing May is about the need to grieve for your loss, and to help others at the same time. Getting back to “normal” is less important than letting go of the pain.
Lesson plans can be found at:
at:http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/missing_may.pdf
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman
by Dorothy Sterling
“Freedom Train” is a biography of Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was interviewed many times by Northern journalists when she was elderly. Other, literate members of the Underground Railroad who met Ms.Tubman or worked with her, journaled the conversations they had with her. Fortunately, much of what was recorded took place in the North and survived intact after the Civil War. Dorothy Sterling, the author, was able to locate these accounts and use them in this biography.
I read this book aloud to my students. They were enthralled because the author made Ms. Tubman’s life come alive with the telling of beatings, cruelty, and violence. I admit that I dramatized the story as much as I could to keep them interested.
The story of Harriet Tubman’s struggle as a slave, her brave escape as a teenager, and her incredible courage as a rescuer and savior of hundreds of slaves would touch even the most cold-hearted reader. However, the pace of the story slows down too much after the John Brown uprising at Harper’s ferry.
My students lost interest in the latter part of Ms. Tubman’s life when she stopped rescuing slaves and became a political creature. Unfortunately, the last chapters drag.
Had I been the author, I would have ended the story with Harriet’s last rescue and added an epilogue to briefly explain Ms. Tubman’s later years.
Lesson Plan at:
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-famous/tubman.html
“Freedom Train” is a biography of Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was interviewed many times by Northern journalists when she was elderly. Other, literate members of the Underground Railroad who met Ms.Tubman or worked with her, journaled the conversations they had with her. Fortunately, much of what was recorded took place in the North and survived intact after the Civil War. Dorothy Sterling, the author, was able to locate these accounts and use them in this biography.
I read this book aloud to my students. They were enthralled because the author made Ms. Tubman’s life come alive with the telling of beatings, cruelty, and violence. I admit that I dramatized the story as much as I could to keep them interested.
The story of Harriet Tubman’s struggle as a slave, her brave escape as a teenager, and her incredible courage as a rescuer and savior of hundreds of slaves would touch even the most cold-hearted reader. However, the pace of the story slows down too much after the John Brown uprising at Harper’s ferry.
My students lost interest in the latter part of Ms. Tubman’s life when she stopped rescuing slaves and became a political creature. Unfortunately, the last chapters drag.
Had I been the author, I would have ended the story with Harriet’s last rescue and added an epilogue to briefly explain Ms. Tubman’s later years.
Lesson Plan at:
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-famous/tubman.html
The Van Gogh Cafe
by Cynthia Rylant
The Van Gogh Café is a thought provoking, well written, albeit quirky little book! Each chapter is really a separate short story independent of the other chapters. The setting remains the same: a café. Marc, the owner, and Clara, his daughter, are featured in each story but not always as the main characters.
“The Possum” is a peculiar story about a possum hanging upside down from the tree across the street from the café. Possums normally are nocturnal creatures, but this one hangs around during the day. People bring food to feed the possum but wind up feeding stray animals. A stranger in town sees all this, has an epiphany, goes home and turns his home into a shelter for stray animals.
“The Star” features a dapper, dignified elderly man who enters the café and stays all day waiting for a young man to appear. Marc, the owner, recognized the man as a silent movie star and talked to him. It turned out that the old man first performed in the Van Gogh Café when it was a theater. The old man stayed and stayed, then quietly died. The young man he had been waiting for was himself.
“The Wayward Gull” made me smile. Somehow, a directionally challenged seagull wound up in Kansas on top of the café roof. The gull drew so much attention, good and bad, that Clara told it to head to California. The next thing the reader knows is that a group of gulls and a moving van headed to California have arrived. Shortly, the van leaves for California with a rooftop full of seagulls.
My class will love the “Van Gogh Café”, and I can read as many or as few chapters as I want, and time permits.
The Van Gogh Café is a thought provoking, well written, albeit quirky little book! Each chapter is really a separate short story independent of the other chapters. The setting remains the same: a café. Marc, the owner, and Clara, his daughter, are featured in each story but not always as the main characters.
“The Possum” is a peculiar story about a possum hanging upside down from the tree across the street from the café. Possums normally are nocturnal creatures, but this one hangs around during the day. People bring food to feed the possum but wind up feeding stray animals. A stranger in town sees all this, has an epiphany, goes home and turns his home into a shelter for stray animals.
“The Star” features a dapper, dignified elderly man who enters the café and stays all day waiting for a young man to appear. Marc, the owner, recognized the man as a silent movie star and talked to him. It turned out that the old man first performed in the Van Gogh Café when it was a theater. The old man stayed and stayed, then quietly died. The young man he had been waiting for was himself.
“The Wayward Gull” made me smile. Somehow, a directionally challenged seagull wound up in Kansas on top of the café roof. The gull drew so much attention, good and bad, that Clara told it to head to California. The next thing the reader knows is that a group of gulls and a moving van headed to California have arrived. Shortly, the van leaves for California with a rooftop full of seagulls.
My class will love the “Van Gogh Café”, and I can read as many or as few chapters as I want, and time permits.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
The Turkey Girl
by Penny Pollock
“The Turkey Girl” is the most beautifully written version of Cinderella that I have read and the saddest. In this Native American tale from the Zuni tribe of Arizona, the main character does not live with anyone. In keeping with the culture of her Indian tribe, orphaned ‘Turkey Girl’ lives alone. She survives by tending the flocks of turkeys owned by members of her tribe. She has no stepmother, no stepsisters, no family, and no name of her own. She exists on the charity of her tribe members but has only the turkeys for friends. Her life is solitary and bleak.
Along came a big tribal dance, and the girl dreams of going. Instead of a fairy godmother, Turkey Girl is granted her wish by the now mystical turkeys that have powers to dress her in turquoise, gold, silver, and clothing superior to the other tribal members. The turkeys only ask that the girl return to tend them by dawn. Turkey girl is warned that if she does not return by dawn, she will be considered to have betrayed her friends.
The girl predictably goes to the dance, looks beautiful, and stays too long. When she does finally return to tend the turkeys, her only true friends, they are gone. The Turkey Girl is not forgiven; she is abandoned by the turkeys as unfaithful. No reprieve.
Ed Young illustrated this powerful story of promises made and broken in oil crayon and pastels. The drawings are hazy, mystical, and suggestive. Even the beautifully transformed Turkey Girl dressed for the big dance is hinted at rather than clearly drawn. This hazy style reinforces the mystical overtones of the text.
“The Turkey Girl” is the most beautifully written version of Cinderella that I have read and the saddest. In this Native American tale from the Zuni tribe of Arizona, the main character does not live with anyone. In keeping with the culture of her Indian tribe, orphaned ‘Turkey Girl’ lives alone. She survives by tending the flocks of turkeys owned by members of her tribe. She has no stepmother, no stepsisters, no family, and no name of her own. She exists on the charity of her tribe members but has only the turkeys for friends. Her life is solitary and bleak.
Along came a big tribal dance, and the girl dreams of going. Instead of a fairy godmother, Turkey Girl is granted her wish by the now mystical turkeys that have powers to dress her in turquoise, gold, silver, and clothing superior to the other tribal members. The turkeys only ask that the girl return to tend them by dawn. Turkey girl is warned that if she does not return by dawn, she will be considered to have betrayed her friends.
The girl predictably goes to the dance, looks beautiful, and stays too long. When she does finally return to tend the turkeys, her only true friends, they are gone. The Turkey Girl is not forgiven; she is abandoned by the turkeys as unfaithful. No reprieve.
Ed Young illustrated this powerful story of promises made and broken in oil crayon and pastels. The drawings are hazy, mystical, and suggestive. Even the beautifully transformed Turkey Girl dressed for the big dance is hinted at rather than clearly drawn. This hazy style reinforces the mystical overtones of the text.
Cinder Edna
by Ellen Jackson
“Cinder Edna” is a feminist version of Cinderella. Not being a romantic by nature, this version appeals to me. I remember my grandmother reading Cinderella to my sister and me. Grandma would tell my little sister that Cinderella was a princess just like her. Naturally, as the older sister, less attractive for sure, my sister became Cinderella in my mind. I think I was the coach. Yuck! Consequently, I have disliked Cinderella and her sappy prince for over forty-five years.
Needless to say, Cinder Edna is the flip side of Cinderella. Edna is practical, hard-working, average looking, has the evil stepmother and stepsister arrangement, and is realistic. Cinderella, Edna’s next-door neighbor, is beautiful, somewhat dim-witted, and has the same family set-up. Both girls marry princes in the end; however Edna is happy in her marriage. “Cinder Edna” suggests that Cinderella is not as happy in her marriage. This has also been true of my sister. I wish this story and my own sister’s story had been different at this point.
Kevin O’Malley illustrated “Cinder Edna”. Although the publisher does not state what medium the illustrator used, it looks like colored pencils and ink. Mr. O’Malley does an excellent job of drawing caricatures showing emotions clearly in each character’s face. The stepmothers and stepsisters are not featured in many pages as they are not as significant to Cinderella’s and Cinder Edna’s fates as the girl’s own personalities and their own ambitions are. The setting is drawn in current times and current clothing styles rather than the traditional medieval clothing styles and settings of traditional Cinderella stories.
This version of Cinderella will appeal to those of us who were not born beautiful.
“Cinder Edna” is a feminist version of Cinderella. Not being a romantic by nature, this version appeals to me. I remember my grandmother reading Cinderella to my sister and me. Grandma would tell my little sister that Cinderella was a princess just like her. Naturally, as the older sister, less attractive for sure, my sister became Cinderella in my mind. I think I was the coach. Yuck! Consequently, I have disliked Cinderella and her sappy prince for over forty-five years.
Needless to say, Cinder Edna is the flip side of Cinderella. Edna is practical, hard-working, average looking, has the evil stepmother and stepsister arrangement, and is realistic. Cinderella, Edna’s next-door neighbor, is beautiful, somewhat dim-witted, and has the same family set-up. Both girls marry princes in the end; however Edna is happy in her marriage. “Cinder Edna” suggests that Cinderella is not as happy in her marriage. This has also been true of my sister. I wish this story and my own sister’s story had been different at this point.
Kevin O’Malley illustrated “Cinder Edna”. Although the publisher does not state what medium the illustrator used, it looks like colored pencils and ink. Mr. O’Malley does an excellent job of drawing caricatures showing emotions clearly in each character’s face. The stepmothers and stepsisters are not featured in many pages as they are not as significant to Cinderella’s and Cinder Edna’s fates as the girl’s own personalities and their own ambitions are. The setting is drawn in current times and current clothing styles rather than the traditional medieval clothing styles and settings of traditional Cinderella stories.
This version of Cinderella will appeal to those of us who were not born beautiful.
Cinderella Penguin
By Janet Perlman
This version of Cinderella follows the classic fairy tale story line of the original Cinderella story. The only difference in “Cinderella Penguin” is that Cinderella is a penguin not a person, and she wears a glass flipper not a glass slipper.
Of note in this version of Cinderella is the artwork. Cinderella is portrayed wide-eyed and innocent looking while her stepmother and stepsisters have angular, wicked looking eyes. The bodies are drawn the same, like pears without any curves. However, the clothing worn by the wicked crowd is clearly of better cut and cloth than Cindy’s tattered rags. Pictures were small when Cinderella felt alone and sad, when the mice were gathered to become horses, and when Cindy danced with the prince. The pictures covered most of the page for the rest of the story. Ms. Perlman used bold colors and strong facial expressions to get her message across.
I loved “Happy Feet”, the penguin musical that came out in 2006, and this version of Cinderella reminded me of the odd, little penguin who could not sing in” Happy Feet.”
Naturally, the penguin Cinderella did not have to sing, but she did get to dance, which is what the main character in “Happy Feet” loved to do.
Younger children and penguin lovers will enjoy this version of Cinderella.
This version of Cinderella follows the classic fairy tale story line of the original Cinderella story. The only difference in “Cinderella Penguin” is that Cinderella is a penguin not a person, and she wears a glass flipper not a glass slipper.
Of note in this version of Cinderella is the artwork. Cinderella is portrayed wide-eyed and innocent looking while her stepmother and stepsisters have angular, wicked looking eyes. The bodies are drawn the same, like pears without any curves. However, the clothing worn by the wicked crowd is clearly of better cut and cloth than Cindy’s tattered rags. Pictures were small when Cinderella felt alone and sad, when the mice were gathered to become horses, and when Cindy danced with the prince. The pictures covered most of the page for the rest of the story. Ms. Perlman used bold colors and strong facial expressions to get her message across.
I loved “Happy Feet”, the penguin musical that came out in 2006, and this version of Cinderella reminded me of the odd, little penguin who could not sing in” Happy Feet.”
Naturally, the penguin Cinderella did not have to sing, but she did get to dance, which is what the main character in “Happy Feet” loved to do.
Younger children and penguin lovers will enjoy this version of Cinderella.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
The Giver
by Lois Lowry
Utopia has been used as the basis of many books, “Far Pavilions”, “Lost Horizon”, and “1984” to name just a few. “The Giver” is set in yet another version of Utopia. What makes “he Giver” unique is that the main character is a child. Children are not usually the focus of such stories. However, Jonas, the main character, is placed under significant physical and emotional duress.
Jonas lives in an ordinary family unit consisting of a mother, father, and a younger sister. He has friends with whom he plays and has fun. Life appears completely normal as Jonas attends school, volunteers in his community, and discusses his day with his family over dinner.
Several countries follow the custom of assigning careers to children starting very young as child prodigies through about age thirteen. Age thirteen is considered as entering adulthood in several religions, too. Jonas and his twelve-year-old classmates were given career assignments during a ceremony attended by the entire community. Jonas’ life becomes unusual when he is chosen for a job that he, and only he, will have. Unlike his classmates, Jonas cannot discuss his new job with anyone.
Jonas learns to his dismay and eventually anger that he is to carry the memories for his community. This leaves the other members of his community free to live unburdened with emotions, unburdened with guilt.
The Giver and Jonas realize that the community has escaped emotional burdens but also lack a conscience. They release (kill) without a qualm. A plan is hatched to force the community to reclaim their collective conscience as Jonas flees the community leaving his newly gained memories behind for the community to grapple with.
I have read “The Giver” three times, and only during the third reading did I realize that the ability to see objects transform was integral to the plot. Jonas’ ability to envision metaphysical change was the conduit through which the Giver channeled memories. The image of intravenous feeding comes to mind, as the giving of memories seems to flow from the Giver to Jonas. I do wonder why Lois Lowry had Jonas lie on his stomach to receive the memories. I would have thought that the major arteries or veins in the neck or upper torso would have been more expedient conduits.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading17/giver.htm
Utopia has been used as the basis of many books, “Far Pavilions”, “Lost Horizon”, and “1984” to name just a few. “The Giver” is set in yet another version of Utopia. What makes “he Giver” unique is that the main character is a child. Children are not usually the focus of such stories. However, Jonas, the main character, is placed under significant physical and emotional duress.
Jonas lives in an ordinary family unit consisting of a mother, father, and a younger sister. He has friends with whom he plays and has fun. Life appears completely normal as Jonas attends school, volunteers in his community, and discusses his day with his family over dinner.
Several countries follow the custom of assigning careers to children starting very young as child prodigies through about age thirteen. Age thirteen is considered as entering adulthood in several religions, too. Jonas and his twelve-year-old classmates were given career assignments during a ceremony attended by the entire community. Jonas’ life becomes unusual when he is chosen for a job that he, and only he, will have. Unlike his classmates, Jonas cannot discuss his new job with anyone.
Jonas learns to his dismay and eventually anger that he is to carry the memories for his community. This leaves the other members of his community free to live unburdened with emotions, unburdened with guilt.
The Giver and Jonas realize that the community has escaped emotional burdens but also lack a conscience. They release (kill) without a qualm. A plan is hatched to force the community to reclaim their collective conscience as Jonas flees the community leaving his newly gained memories behind for the community to grapple with.
I have read “The Giver” three times, and only during the third reading did I realize that the ability to see objects transform was integral to the plot. Jonas’ ability to envision metaphysical change was the conduit through which the Giver channeled memories. The image of intravenous feeding comes to mind, as the giving of memories seems to flow from the Giver to Jonas. I do wonder why Lois Lowry had Jonas lie on his stomach to receive the memories. I would have thought that the major arteries or veins in the neck or upper torso would have been more expedient conduits.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading17/giver.htm
The Polar Express
by Chris Van Allsburg
This celebrated, Caldecott Medal winning story was eventually made into a movie. That is almost enough recommendation right there.
The glossy color pages are 8.5” X 11” and each picture covers all but 2.5” of the two pages when opened. These long format images are excellent for panoramic images and of course trains. All the colors on the images are muted or dark to convey the nighttime story, but they are also grand vistas as seen from the train, or including the train. This helps make the story inspirational. This inspiration is critical as the end of the story is that the child, even into his old age, continued to believe in Santa.
The language is more advanced than most picture books and contains lots of dialogue. The text switches from left to right to assist group reading switch readers and conveniently places the images in a common center for viewing with the exception of the last page. The last page has 75% whites pace with the moral-of-the-story image and text centered for emphasis.
The Polar Express is a pleasant read for both adults and children, and a great book for children to group read.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/thepolarexpress/educators.shtml
This celebrated, Caldecott Medal winning story was eventually made into a movie. That is almost enough recommendation right there.
The glossy color pages are 8.5” X 11” and each picture covers all but 2.5” of the two pages when opened. These long format images are excellent for panoramic images and of course trains. All the colors on the images are muted or dark to convey the nighttime story, but they are also grand vistas as seen from the train, or including the train. This helps make the story inspirational. This inspiration is critical as the end of the story is that the child, even into his old age, continued to believe in Santa.
The language is more advanced than most picture books and contains lots of dialogue. The text switches from left to right to assist group reading switch readers and conveniently places the images in a common center for viewing with the exception of the last page. The last page has 75% whites pace with the moral-of-the-story image and text centered for emphasis.
The Polar Express is a pleasant read for both adults and children, and a great book for children to group read.
Lesson plans can be found at:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/thepolarexpress/educators.shtml
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Once a Mouse
By Marcia Brown
The Caldecott Medal winner is exceptional partly because of the woodcut illustrations. This is an uncommon medium for children’s books, which most commonly use strong color or stark black on white to attract the eye of junior readers. The two or three earth colors used to stain the woodcut illustrations and the use of reverse color are pleasing to the eye and are rather sophisticated for the art form, a pleasure for the adult reader as well as the child.
While the story is rather short, some style uses should be pointed out. The author intentionally splits sentences between pages, most often shifting the direct object to the next illustrative page to draw the reader on to the story. With only two to four lines of text per page, the reading difficulty is set low, and the word choice is set equally low, but the fable relays a sophisticated point.
The Indian hermit, contemplating what ‘big’ and ‘small’ mean, uses magic to save a mouse from a crow, a cat, a dog, etc. by making the mouse a larger creature each time it is attacked. When the mouse eventually becomes a tiger, it grows prideful and “peacocks” around the forest, “lording it over the other animals.” When the hermit chastises the tiger, the tiger plans to kill the hermit for his disrespect. The hermit knows this and turns the tiger back into a mouse and sends it to the forest, “never to be seen again.”
To the younger child, the message of humility is clear and straightforward. Circumstances change. As a result, you should have humility when things are going very well. They will not always.
To the adult, the added moral unfolds about responsibility. Each time the mouse is enlarged to avoid a threat; it does not do so because of any action on its part. All the action comes from the hermit. But once the mouse becomes a tiger, it believes itself to be royal and, as in the past, untouchable. It even plans to attack its benefactor because he will not lavish it with royal praise. The mouse does not learn until it is punished by being returned to its initial status. Since the hermit’s rescue in each case saved the life of the mouse, the inference is that the punishment was eventually fatal. By not allowing the mouse to learn from it’s mistakes, the hermit eventually forced the mouse to fail.
I take it back. This is a great book to read to your principal.
Unfortunately, I have not yet found a lesson plan to go along with this story.
The Caldecott Medal winner is exceptional partly because of the woodcut illustrations. This is an uncommon medium for children’s books, which most commonly use strong color or stark black on white to attract the eye of junior readers. The two or three earth colors used to stain the woodcut illustrations and the use of reverse color are pleasing to the eye and are rather sophisticated for the art form, a pleasure for the adult reader as well as the child.
While the story is rather short, some style uses should be pointed out. The author intentionally splits sentences between pages, most often shifting the direct object to the next illustrative page to draw the reader on to the story. With only two to four lines of text per page, the reading difficulty is set low, and the word choice is set equally low, but the fable relays a sophisticated point.
The Indian hermit, contemplating what ‘big’ and ‘small’ mean, uses magic to save a mouse from a crow, a cat, a dog, etc. by making the mouse a larger creature each time it is attacked. When the mouse eventually becomes a tiger, it grows prideful and “peacocks” around the forest, “lording it over the other animals.” When the hermit chastises the tiger, the tiger plans to kill the hermit for his disrespect. The hermit knows this and turns the tiger back into a mouse and sends it to the forest, “never to be seen again.”
To the younger child, the message of humility is clear and straightforward. Circumstances change. As a result, you should have humility when things are going very well. They will not always.
To the adult, the added moral unfolds about responsibility. Each time the mouse is enlarged to avoid a threat; it does not do so because of any action on its part. All the action comes from the hermit. But once the mouse becomes a tiger, it believes itself to be royal and, as in the past, untouchable. It even plans to attack its benefactor because he will not lavish it with royal praise. The mouse does not learn until it is punished by being returned to its initial status. Since the hermit’s rescue in each case saved the life of the mouse, the inference is that the punishment was eventually fatal. By not allowing the mouse to learn from it’s mistakes, the hermit eventually forced the mouse to fail.
I take it back. This is a great book to read to your principal.
Unfortunately, I have not yet found a lesson plan to go along with this story.
Sidewalk Circus
By Paul Fleischman and Kevin Hawkes
Fleischman and Hawkes present a unique children’s book with no dialogue and almost no text at all. A young girl, among adult citizens on a street bench, observes a man putting up circus advertising posters near shops on the street and a building under construction. The hawker puts up one sign for tightrope walkers under the building frames where workers are carrying cement and construction equipment, walking the girders. The sign for Goliath the strongman goes up next to the butcher shop as a young man lifts entire frozen meat portions, just like a strongman could. The shadow of the young man even looks like a man lifting barbells. The sign for the flying clowns is put up next to the grocery as young boys on skateboards perform inadvertent pratfalls and last minute escapes from pedestrians.
On each bright, primary-colored page, the unnamed child observes adventures and entertainments so resembling circus acts that she covers her eyes at the exciting parts and claps her hands at the skill. The “goings on” of daily life so resemble a circus that she mistakes the images for circus acts. (Represented by changing the shadows to the shadows of those same circus acts.)
The book presents the story in open-book units. Both pages of the book present one image with the story requiring both. This enables group viewing and the lack of text encourages the child readers to make up the share the story as they turn the pages.
A summary page unit is used to separate the young girl observer from a young boy observer by presenting a view of the imagined circus acts all together. This separates the two pages into 4 distinct action areas to encourage more discussion before the main characters change, and to give the impression of the old four- ring circus. As the new character takes his seat where the young girl was, the action clears (like the changing acts at a circus) and new acts begin.
I found it very clever to deliver the story without dialogue, encouraging children to see the adventure in life around them rather than pay to have entertainment brought to them. In a culture where videogames must be bought (or at least have coins inserted), the idea that entertainment can be found by only adjusting your viewpoint is an excellent one for young children.
Sadly, I also found much realism in the fact that the adults were oblivious to all this free entertainment being totally self-absorbed.
I am still looking for a lesson plan for this particular book.
Fleischman and Hawkes present a unique children’s book with no dialogue and almost no text at all. A young girl, among adult citizens on a street bench, observes a man putting up circus advertising posters near shops on the street and a building under construction. The hawker puts up one sign for tightrope walkers under the building frames where workers are carrying cement and construction equipment, walking the girders. The sign for Goliath the strongman goes up next to the butcher shop as a young man lifts entire frozen meat portions, just like a strongman could. The shadow of the young man even looks like a man lifting barbells. The sign for the flying clowns is put up next to the grocery as young boys on skateboards perform inadvertent pratfalls and last minute escapes from pedestrians.
On each bright, primary-colored page, the unnamed child observes adventures and entertainments so resembling circus acts that she covers her eyes at the exciting parts and claps her hands at the skill. The “goings on” of daily life so resemble a circus that she mistakes the images for circus acts. (Represented by changing the shadows to the shadows of those same circus acts.)
The book presents the story in open-book units. Both pages of the book present one image with the story requiring both. This enables group viewing and the lack of text encourages the child readers to make up the share the story as they turn the pages.
A summary page unit is used to separate the young girl observer from a young boy observer by presenting a view of the imagined circus acts all together. This separates the two pages into 4 distinct action areas to encourage more discussion before the main characters change, and to give the impression of the old four- ring circus. As the new character takes his seat where the young girl was, the action clears (like the changing acts at a circus) and new acts begin.
I found it very clever to deliver the story without dialogue, encouraging children to see the adventure in life around them rather than pay to have entertainment brought to them. In a culture where videogames must be bought (or at least have coins inserted), the idea that entertainment can be found by only adjusting your viewpoint is an excellent one for young children.
Sadly, I also found much realism in the fact that the adults were oblivious to all this free entertainment being totally self-absorbed.
I am still looking for a lesson plan for this particular book.
Silver Packages
By Cynthia Rylant and Chris K. Soentpiet
Each Christmas in Appalachia, Frankie waits with most of the town by the side of the railroad tracks for the Christmas Train. Long ago, a rich man had an automobile accident and was greatly assisted by the poor community. He repays their kindness each Christmas by tossing silver-wrapped Christmas packages out the back of the train.
The main character receives presents each year, but not the one he wants (a doctor’s play kit). When he became a man, he became a doctor and returned to assist the community.
The yearly hope of getting the tools needed to assist others, the repayment in kindness of the rich man, and his own eventual return to Appalachia bring the transformation of kindness to the reader, and demonstrates the power of hope.
The watercolor illustrations of trains, snow draped hills, and even of poverty against the pale blue sky background show an earthy realism and unearthly spiritual glow about the proceedings. While nowhere in the book is there a cross or religious symbol, l the sentiment of the season is clearly conveyed.
In the end, the adult Dr. Frank recalls that he never got his hoped-for toy but instead received much needed socks, mittens, hats, and scarves with his toys. And he recalls why he returned to Appalachia. He returned to repay to the community the kindnesses he received growing up, to repay the assistance he received to become successful.
Of all the picture books I have ever read or had read to me, Silver Packages is my favorite. See a lesson plan for Silver Packages at:
http://www.richlandone.org/departments/titleone/soentpiet.htm#elem
Each Christmas in Appalachia, Frankie waits with most of the town by the side of the railroad tracks for the Christmas Train. Long ago, a rich man had an automobile accident and was greatly assisted by the poor community. He repays their kindness each Christmas by tossing silver-wrapped Christmas packages out the back of the train.
The main character receives presents each year, but not the one he wants (a doctor’s play kit). When he became a man, he became a doctor and returned to assist the community.
The yearly hope of getting the tools needed to assist others, the repayment in kindness of the rich man, and his own eventual return to Appalachia bring the transformation of kindness to the reader, and demonstrates the power of hope.
The watercolor illustrations of trains, snow draped hills, and even of poverty against the pale blue sky background show an earthy realism and unearthly spiritual glow about the proceedings. While nowhere in the book is there a cross or religious symbol, l the sentiment of the season is clearly conveyed.
In the end, the adult Dr. Frank recalls that he never got his hoped-for toy but instead received much needed socks, mittens, hats, and scarves with his toys. And he recalls why he returned to Appalachia. He returned to repay to the community the kindnesses he received growing up, to repay the assistance he received to become successful.
Of all the picture books I have ever read or had read to me, Silver Packages is my favorite. See a lesson plan for Silver Packages at:
http://www.richlandone.org/departments/titleone/soentpiet.htm#elem
Kira-Kira
By Cynthia Kadohata
Kira-Kira, the main character’s first word, is Japanese for “glittering”. Katie and her older sister Lynn would look at the sky at night and admire the Kira-Kira stars in Idaho and later in Georgia. While Katie’s childlike, innocent viewpoint is often entertaining, the reader expects a bit more action by page 80.
“She tried to read the whole dictionary once, so she knew the definitions of a lot of words that started with “a”.”
The ramblings of a 1st grade student, by that time, give the reader ample cause to wonder when the author will “get to the point”. Some little suspense surrounds when Lynn will die. Almost from page ten the author telegraphs her eventual demise. Most of the story is how Katie handles her private life as Lynn slowly expires. While many children’s books focus on the theme of personal loss, this one drags the story out unnecessarily.
The other main theme of Kira-Kira is of exploitation of non-union workers in the south during the Eisenhower administration, together with general racial prejudice against the Japanese. Again, while the focus is on what is happening to Katie’s family, she notices how her family is treated poorly but at NO TIME realizes that blacks are treated poorly. Blacks happen to be her friends and neighbors. This gives the story a rather narrow viewpoint, even for a child.
I would not recommend this book, but if the story line appeals to you anyway;
see this site for a literature unit:
www.edhelper.com/books/KiraKira.htm?gclid=CIWM7Jaa3IoCFSWHPgodBHWC3g
Kira-Kira, the main character’s first word, is Japanese for “glittering”. Katie and her older sister Lynn would look at the sky at night and admire the Kira-Kira stars in Idaho and later in Georgia. While Katie’s childlike, innocent viewpoint is often entertaining, the reader expects a bit more action by page 80.
“She tried to read the whole dictionary once, so she knew the definitions of a lot of words that started with “a”.”
The ramblings of a 1st grade student, by that time, give the reader ample cause to wonder when the author will “get to the point”. Some little suspense surrounds when Lynn will die. Almost from page ten the author telegraphs her eventual demise. Most of the story is how Katie handles her private life as Lynn slowly expires. While many children’s books focus on the theme of personal loss, this one drags the story out unnecessarily.
The other main theme of Kira-Kira is of exploitation of non-union workers in the south during the Eisenhower administration, together with general racial prejudice against the Japanese. Again, while the focus is on what is happening to Katie’s family, she notices how her family is treated poorly but at NO TIME realizes that blacks are treated poorly. Blacks happen to be her friends and neighbors. This gives the story a rather narrow viewpoint, even for a child.
I would not recommend this book, but if the story line appeals to you anyway;
see this site for a literature unit:
www.edhelper.com/books/KiraKira.htm?gclid=CIWM7Jaa3IoCFSWHPgodBHWC3g
Jumanji
by Chris Van Allsburg
Elements of style and form are some of the strongest elements of Jumanji. Words are centered horizontally and vertically on the left page in large type while maintaining sentence indentation. The pages for type and for pictures are antique white with black text and a thin black border around the edge (exactly matching the size of the picture on the opposing page.) This form allows multiple readers for each book (one to read while the others look at the pictures) and also pulls the reader’s focus to the picture first and then the text. This creates visual units (1 block of text, 1 picture) that are much easier to read. With only 13 visual units to the book it enables reading challenges for short durations. The child reader is encouraged to start the story with only a Medium length page, is given a break in the middle, and is not challenged too heavily near the end. Whether intentional or not the author challenges the child reader and encourages them to continue by teasing them with a few smaller pages. This makes Jumanji an excellent choice for the classroom with a few minutes until the bell.
The picture style I find attractive as it reminds me of old style brown (antique) photos. Combine that with the fact that the drawing is done in sufficient detail to evoke a perception of black and white photographs, and the child reader is drawn into the story with the hint of reality. Having the two main characters male and female also allows readers of both genders to take part in the imagination play which few stories do.
The pictures, starting with a darker tint, also influence the shading of the heavy shadowing used in the images. Without appreciably darkening the images, the use of shadow make the pages more threatening when the action requires. While the characters in the images often have looks of astonishment, they do not wear faces of fear. Again the author/illustrator manages to convey a sense of adventure without evoking fear, even during a rhinoceros stampede.
All in all, Jumanji is a small, well-written and well-designed book for reading practice for motivated and even less than motivated students. For lesson plans see:
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/vanallsburg.html#jumanji
Elements of style and form are some of the strongest elements of Jumanji. Words are centered horizontally and vertically on the left page in large type while maintaining sentence indentation. The pages for type and for pictures are antique white with black text and a thin black border around the edge (exactly matching the size of the picture on the opposing page.) This form allows multiple readers for each book (one to read while the others look at the pictures) and also pulls the reader’s focus to the picture first and then the text. This creates visual units (1 block of text, 1 picture) that are much easier to read. With only 13 visual units to the book it enables reading challenges for short durations. The child reader is encouraged to start the story with only a Medium length page, is given a break in the middle, and is not challenged too heavily near the end. Whether intentional or not the author challenges the child reader and encourages them to continue by teasing them with a few smaller pages. This makes Jumanji an excellent choice for the classroom with a few minutes until the bell.
The picture style I find attractive as it reminds me of old style brown (antique) photos. Combine that with the fact that the drawing is done in sufficient detail to evoke a perception of black and white photographs, and the child reader is drawn into the story with the hint of reality. Having the two main characters male and female also allows readers of both genders to take part in the imagination play which few stories do.
The pictures, starting with a darker tint, also influence the shading of the heavy shadowing used in the images. Without appreciably darkening the images, the use of shadow make the pages more threatening when the action requires. While the characters in the images often have looks of astonishment, they do not wear faces of fear. Again the author/illustrator manages to convey a sense of adventure without evoking fear, even during a rhinoceros stampede.
All in all, Jumanji is a small, well-written and well-designed book for reading practice for motivated and even less than motivated students. For lesson plans see:
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/vanallsburg.html#jumanji
Monday, February 26, 2007
The Tale of Despereaux
By Kate DiCamillo
Three lives interconnect in an unusual yet seamless manner in The Tale of Despereaux. Kate DiCamillo’s plays the reader like a master at the chessboard pulling the reader in and not letting go. I picked up The Tale of Despereaux to just read a chapter or two before sleeping and found myself unable to stop reading until the book was finished.
The story meshes a mouse, a rat, and a serving girl in intrigue, revenge, and a kidnapping in which the life a princess hangs in the balance. Fear not, the princess is rescued by an incredibly brave but tiny mouse from a vengeful rat named Roscuro and a dull-witted and ill-used serving girl with a hideous name, Miggery Sow.
The mouse council condemns Despereaux, the mouse, to death because he cannot conform to the society’s codes of conduct. By a cruel twist of fate with shades of the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, Despereaux is accused by his own father and drug to his death by a red thread around his neck by his very own brother. Poor Despereaux is rescued by Gregory, the jailer, who loves to be told stories which Despereaux happens to tell quite well.
Roscuro, the rat, snuck into the castle and fell into the queen’s soup. The queen promptly fell over dead causing the princess to blame Roscuro. He escaped back into darkness and plotted his revenge against the princess.
Miggery Sow, a simple-minded serving girl, has been abused for years with repeated clouts to the ears rendering her somewhat deaf. She finds her way into employment in the castle and into the clutches of Roscuro’s plot for revenge.
From this point on, the story moves quickly to the actual kidnapping and rescue
of the princess. Despereaux is welcomed back into his family by his repentant father and lives happily ever after.
Dialogue is wonderfully written in The Tale of Despereaux. I found myself talking to some of the characters out loud, responding as if I were in the story, too. I will definitely be encouraging my students to read this story. Unfortunately, we do not have enough copies for even a small reading group, but we will! When do we have enough copies, this web site has an entire unit available for use.
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/unitplan.jsp?id=163
Three lives interconnect in an unusual yet seamless manner in The Tale of Despereaux. Kate DiCamillo’s plays the reader like a master at the chessboard pulling the reader in and not letting go. I picked up The Tale of Despereaux to just read a chapter or two before sleeping and found myself unable to stop reading until the book was finished.
The story meshes a mouse, a rat, and a serving girl in intrigue, revenge, and a kidnapping in which the life a princess hangs in the balance. Fear not, the princess is rescued by an incredibly brave but tiny mouse from a vengeful rat named Roscuro and a dull-witted and ill-used serving girl with a hideous name, Miggery Sow.
The mouse council condemns Despereaux, the mouse, to death because he cannot conform to the society’s codes of conduct. By a cruel twist of fate with shades of the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, Despereaux is accused by his own father and drug to his death by a red thread around his neck by his very own brother. Poor Despereaux is rescued by Gregory, the jailer, who loves to be told stories which Despereaux happens to tell quite well.
Roscuro, the rat, snuck into the castle and fell into the queen’s soup. The queen promptly fell over dead causing the princess to blame Roscuro. He escaped back into darkness and plotted his revenge against the princess.
Miggery Sow, a simple-minded serving girl, has been abused for years with repeated clouts to the ears rendering her somewhat deaf. She finds her way into employment in the castle and into the clutches of Roscuro’s plot for revenge.
From this point on, the story moves quickly to the actual kidnapping and rescue
of the princess. Despereaux is welcomed back into his family by his repentant father and lives happily ever after.
Dialogue is wonderfully written in The Tale of Despereaux. I found myself talking to some of the characters out loud, responding as if I were in the story, too. I will definitely be encouraging my students to read this story. Unfortunately, we do not have enough copies for even a small reading group, but we will! When do we have enough copies, this web site has an entire unit available for use.
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/unitplan.jsp?id=163
Saturday, February 24, 2007
A Single Shard
by Linda Sue Park
The story of orphaned Tree-Ear, named for the silent but ever-present tree fungus of Korea, demonstrates fortitude in the face of adversity. The reader accompanies Tree-Ear as he visits trash heaps to forage for food without loosing his self respect, and keeping his integrity by refusing to steal even when he would clearly not get caught. With the tools of integrity, fortitude, and humility he rises from being a homeless trash sifter to a renowned potter.
Tree-Ear’s most effective method of survival is to find an area of interest, find the expert in that area, and make him indispensable. In common usage; “find a niche and fill it”. He also did not expect to start at the top. He REQUESTED the 12th century equivalent of minimum wages (one meal a day) and stuck with the job until his expertise earned a better wage.
He fought to protect his employer’s property, even at personal risk, and undertook a long, hazardous journey to deliver two exquisite celadon pots. Halfway through the journey, he is set upon by bandits, and the pots are destroyed. He finds the largest remaining “Single Shard” and continues on his journey, hoping that the quality of the work visible will suffice to justify a contract for more pottery. His success is as much due to his own refusal to give up as it is to the skill of the potter he works for.
A Single Shard does an excellent job of demonstrating why the values that employers appreciate so much are the result of character rather than skill. As a result, it encourages young readers who have “given up” on a classroom subject because it seems too difficult.
Lesson plans may be found http://www.webenglishteacher.com/park.html.
This story has personal meaning, as my spouse will someday become a renowned potter, too.
The story of orphaned Tree-Ear, named for the silent but ever-present tree fungus of Korea, demonstrates fortitude in the face of adversity. The reader accompanies Tree-Ear as he visits trash heaps to forage for food without loosing his self respect, and keeping his integrity by refusing to steal even when he would clearly not get caught. With the tools of integrity, fortitude, and humility he rises from being a homeless trash sifter to a renowned potter.
Tree-Ear’s most effective method of survival is to find an area of interest, find the expert in that area, and make him indispensable. In common usage; “find a niche and fill it”. He also did not expect to start at the top. He REQUESTED the 12th century equivalent of minimum wages (one meal a day) and stuck with the job until his expertise earned a better wage.
He fought to protect his employer’s property, even at personal risk, and undertook a long, hazardous journey to deliver two exquisite celadon pots. Halfway through the journey, he is set upon by bandits, and the pots are destroyed. He finds the largest remaining “Single Shard” and continues on his journey, hoping that the quality of the work visible will suffice to justify a contract for more pottery. His success is as much due to his own refusal to give up as it is to the skill of the potter he works for.
A Single Shard does an excellent job of demonstrating why the values that employers appreciate so much are the result of character rather than skill. As a result, it encourages young readers who have “given up” on a classroom subject because it seems too difficult.
Lesson plans may be found http://www.webenglishteacher.com/park.html.
This story has personal meaning, as my spouse will someday become a renowned potter, too.
A Year Down Yonder
by Richard Peck
The 1999 Newbery Award winner is notable in that it was well received outside of the young adult category. A year Down Yonder was also a National Book Award Finalist, ALA Notable Book, etc. The story of a young girl from Chicago during the depression sent to live with Grandma Dowdel in rural Illinois contains rich characterizations and earthy, though innocent, humor.
Mary Alice, at 15 and due to family financial stress, must spend a year with her infamous grandmother. Imagine a Kate Smith sized Betty Davis with a shotgun, itchy fingers, and a wicked sense of humor. Grandma is an older woman in a small community where everyone has long standing feuds and friendships, but can’t be sure which is which.
Mary Alice stepped off the train in her traveling cloths and was immediately taken to school (dress clothes and all) to be introduced to her one-room school. The local bully immediately charges her protection of $1. When she gets home she is in debt ($1 is a week’s wages at that time) and is completely disconsolate over her first day. The grandmother’s resolution is fast, wicked, and hilarious.
Made abundantly clear by reactions from everyone in town, nobody messes with Grandma. When she walks into the school to present her granddaughter, the principal wears the expression of someone facing a badger and almost starts backing away. Even the local “bad boys”, on a spree of pranks during Halloween, only cross her once when her response to their plan of outhouse destruction is met with tripwires and pans of horse glue.
Throughout the year that Mary Alice stays in rural Illinois, she transforms from the city bred, shy, and proper young girl to a much tougher version of herself. During that transition, her resentment at being “farmed out” to relatives also changes. By the end of the story the main character, as well as the reader, has a much better appreciation for the confusion that results when people of different worlds must cohabitate. More importantly, the reader should understand that many of the cultural differences that are so confusing to outsiders have a purpose. You just need to see those purposes in action to understand yourself.
A Year Down Yonder is an exceptional book for new students changing from city to rural schools or the reverse...or for children who are going to see Grandma for the first time.
The 1999 Newbery Award winner is notable in that it was well received outside of the young adult category. A year Down Yonder was also a National Book Award Finalist, ALA Notable Book, etc. The story of a young girl from Chicago during the depression sent to live with Grandma Dowdel in rural Illinois contains rich characterizations and earthy, though innocent, humor.
Mary Alice, at 15 and due to family financial stress, must spend a year with her infamous grandmother. Imagine a Kate Smith sized Betty Davis with a shotgun, itchy fingers, and a wicked sense of humor. Grandma is an older woman in a small community where everyone has long standing feuds and friendships, but can’t be sure which is which.
Mary Alice stepped off the train in her traveling cloths and was immediately taken to school (dress clothes and all) to be introduced to her one-room school. The local bully immediately charges her protection of $1. When she gets home she is in debt ($1 is a week’s wages at that time) and is completely disconsolate over her first day. The grandmother’s resolution is fast, wicked, and hilarious.
Made abundantly clear by reactions from everyone in town, nobody messes with Grandma. When she walks into the school to present her granddaughter, the principal wears the expression of someone facing a badger and almost starts backing away. Even the local “bad boys”, on a spree of pranks during Halloween, only cross her once when her response to their plan of outhouse destruction is met with tripwires and pans of horse glue.
Throughout the year that Mary Alice stays in rural Illinois, she transforms from the city bred, shy, and proper young girl to a much tougher version of herself. During that transition, her resentment at being “farmed out” to relatives also changes. By the end of the story the main character, as well as the reader, has a much better appreciation for the confusion that results when people of different worlds must cohabitate. More importantly, the reader should understand that many of the cultural differences that are so confusing to outsiders have a purpose. You just need to see those purposes in action to understand yourself.
A Year Down Yonder is an exceptional book for new students changing from city to rural schools or the reverse...or for children who are going to see Grandma for the first time.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Movie Review - Bridge to Terabithia
Leaves rustling, twigs crackling, and boughs creaking overhead through a sun streaked canopy of leaves give the imaginary land of Terabithia atmosphere and a the viewer a quickening of the pulse. The viewers become emotionally invested in the struggles against loneliness, against bullies, and against parental self-absorption as Jess and Leslie create a safe haven from their troubles. Suspense and emotional traumas drive this story.
Special effects were added to update the movie, but the effects added nothing. Overall, the impact of the film would have been heightened had the special effects been left out all together, and the imagination been allowed to explore the unknown corners of Terabithia. In this instance, the filmmakers gave viewers too much information.
Special effects were added to update the movie, but the effects added nothing. Overall, the impact of the film would have been heightened had the special effects been left out all together, and the imagination been allowed to explore the unknown corners of Terabithia. In this instance, the filmmakers gave viewers too much information.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Response to Bridge to Terabithia
I have read several reviews about the Bridge to Terabithia , and I agree that the story is well written and easy to understand. The story is about a lonely boy named Jess from a conservative, rural family meeting and becoming friends with an outgoing, yet lonely girl named Leslie from a liberal, urban family. The two children create an imaginary world of their own in which they have adventures and act out their fantasies. Unfortunately, while Jess is enjoying a special outing with the music teacher, Leslie drowns. Plot lines involving two people meeting then one of the characters dying aren’t unusual. The same story line was used in Love Story, A Separate Peace, My Girl, and other novels.
What is unique about Bridge to Terabithia is Katherine Paterson’s command of dialogue. The dialogue in Bridge is so natural that the speakers could be any two children of eight years old at play.
To me, the most significant aspect of the Bridge to Terabithia is how the author handled the story after Leslie died. Katherine Paterson led Jess through the grieving process. She allowed him to be glad that he was alive, angry at Leslie for getting herself killed, torn with grief because he did not invite her to go along on the trip with the music teacher, through denial, and finally to acceptance. Jess was not forced to listen to trite comments like ‘chin up’ and ‘don’t cry’, or “She’s gone to a better place.”
Several sources have lesson plans for use with Bridge to Terabithia. This web site looked particularly helpful.
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/paterson.html
What is unique about Bridge to Terabithia is Katherine Paterson’s command of dialogue. The dialogue in Bridge is so natural that the speakers could be any two children of eight years old at play.
To me, the most significant aspect of the Bridge to Terabithia is how the author handled the story after Leslie died. Katherine Paterson led Jess through the grieving process. She allowed him to be glad that he was alive, angry at Leslie for getting herself killed, torn with grief because he did not invite her to go along on the trip with the music teacher, through denial, and finally to acceptance. Jess was not forced to listen to trite comments like ‘chin up’ and ‘don’t cry’, or “She’s gone to a better place.”
Several sources have lesson plans for use with Bridge to Terabithia. This web site looked particularly helpful.
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/paterson.html
Thursday, February 15, 2007
My Side of the Mountain
By Jean Craighead George
Which of us did not want to “run away from home” at least once in our childhood?
This Newbery Award winning book published in 1959 speaks to that moment in almost all children’s lives when they crave independence and an opportunity to escape the cocoon of comfortable safety. With woodcraft and herb-lore worthy of a seasoned mountain man, Sam Gribley successfully tackles a full year in the forest with only some string, a hatchet, and superior level-headedness. Along the way, he finds the independence many young people crave, but he also finds that after a year of being alone he no longer needs to prove anything to himself or to anyone else. As a teacher, I feel that I am constantly being scrutinized and asked to evaluate and compare myself to others.
By example, Sam captures and trains a hawk to hunt for food, befriends mountain animals, and avoids human contact only miles from a small town. When finally visited by his father and a friend, he serves them onion soup in a turtle shell, blackened venison steak flanks, and fluffy mashed cattail tubers, mushrooms seasoned with dogtooth violet bulbs, smothered in gravy thickened with acorn flour. I’m not sure I could cook that much less eat it.
Told in straight-forward pragmatic language, Sam tells his story while including excerpts from his journal/cookbook. While detailing the hardships he overcame to survive in the forest, the reader is subtly reminded that the child is never far from a true rescue. He knows exactly where town is and visits the library when in need of lore. The child reader is left knowing there is no critical threat to Sam’s safety but is only “on his own” as long as Sam desires.
In the end, the story is less about a child running away from home (a dubious subject for a children’s story) and more about children’s desire to succeed, and the reward for parents who allow those opportunities to grow.
After thinkng about this story overnight, I realize that I would not have had the courage to allow our son to camp out in the forest alone. No way!
Which of us did not want to “run away from home” at least once in our childhood?
This Newbery Award winning book published in 1959 speaks to that moment in almost all children’s lives when they crave independence and an opportunity to escape the cocoon of comfortable safety. With woodcraft and herb-lore worthy of a seasoned mountain man, Sam Gribley successfully tackles a full year in the forest with only some string, a hatchet, and superior level-headedness. Along the way, he finds the independence many young people crave, but he also finds that after a year of being alone he no longer needs to prove anything to himself or to anyone else. As a teacher, I feel that I am constantly being scrutinized and asked to evaluate and compare myself to others.
By example, Sam captures and trains a hawk to hunt for food, befriends mountain animals, and avoids human contact only miles from a small town. When finally visited by his father and a friend, he serves them onion soup in a turtle shell, blackened venison steak flanks, and fluffy mashed cattail tubers, mushrooms seasoned with dogtooth violet bulbs, smothered in gravy thickened with acorn flour. I’m not sure I could cook that much less eat it.
Told in straight-forward pragmatic language, Sam tells his story while including excerpts from his journal/cookbook. While detailing the hardships he overcame to survive in the forest, the reader is subtly reminded that the child is never far from a true rescue. He knows exactly where town is and visits the library when in need of lore. The child reader is left knowing there is no critical threat to Sam’s safety but is only “on his own” as long as Sam desires.
In the end, the story is less about a child running away from home (a dubious subject for a children’s story) and more about children’s desire to succeed, and the reward for parents who allow those opportunities to grow.
After thinkng about this story overnight, I realize that I would not have had the courage to allow our son to camp out in the forest alone. No way!
Picture Book Response - Weslandia
Lonely children often withdraw inward and create imaginary worlds of their own. Wesley, the main character of Weslandia, created a safe haven and a private kingdom as a summer project. Wesley is misunderstood by his parents and hassled by his classmates because he refuses to conform to their expectations.
Unlike Jess in the Bridge to Terabethia and Harry Potter from the books by J.K. Rowling, Wesley approaches his fantasy kingdom without fear. He does not empathize with his fears nor does he fear their teasing. Wesley is a true pioneer in a child’s world.
Wesley’s transformation from class nerd to a junior Bill Gates is illustrated in bold colors. After all, he is one bold kid! Wesley is innovative as he creates an entire civilization and culture.
I was pleased to find a number of web sites on the Internet that contained lesson plans for Weslandia. One web site in particular, http://web.syr.edu/~jjvizthu/weslandia.htm, is very thorough, and I plan to try it with my students. Additional ways to use Weslandia in the classroom could be vocabulary study, a unit on respecting diversity or promoting individualism, or having the courage to resist peer pressure.
Unlike Jess in the Bridge to Terabethia and Harry Potter from the books by J.K. Rowling, Wesley approaches his fantasy kingdom without fear. He does not empathize with his fears nor does he fear their teasing. Wesley is a true pioneer in a child’s world.
Wesley’s transformation from class nerd to a junior Bill Gates is illustrated in bold colors. After all, he is one bold kid! Wesley is innovative as he creates an entire civilization and culture.
I was pleased to find a number of web sites on the Internet that contained lesson plans for Weslandia. One web site in particular, http://web.syr.edu/~jjvizthu/weslandia.htm, is very thorough, and I plan to try it with my students. Additional ways to use Weslandia in the classroom could be vocabulary study, a unit on respecting diversity or promoting individualism, or having the courage to resist peer pressure.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Picture Book Response - "The Custodian From The Black Lagoon"
The Custodian from The Black Lagoon was written by Mike Thaler and illustrated by Jared Lee. This picture book was written from the point of view of a small boy who lives in terror of the frightening Fester Smudge, the school custodian.
Mr. Smudge is portrayed as a Boris Karloff-type character, dark and scary creeping about at night. Multiples references are made to other characters in literature like the Phantom of the Opera and Dr. Frankenstein. These references open the door to book discussions. To make the story even more appealing, skulls, rats, dragons, and other creepy critters fill the pages.
The author uses more sophisticated vocabulary than is often used in picture books; however, his word choice lends itself to vocabulary study with lots of examples of multisyllabic words, double consonants, and verb tenses. Literary techniques like onomatopoeia add interest. This picture book could be used by many grade levels just for the vocabulary alone.
Like many picture books, the moral of the story is not to judge other people as Mr. Smudge turns out to be a nice fellow. I laugh at this book because it reminds me very much of the school where I work. We have the nicest custodian in our dark dungeon!
Mr. Smudge is portrayed as a Boris Karloff-type character, dark and scary creeping about at night. Multiples references are made to other characters in literature like the Phantom of the Opera and Dr. Frankenstein. These references open the door to book discussions. To make the story even more appealing, skulls, rats, dragons, and other creepy critters fill the pages.
The author uses more sophisticated vocabulary than is often used in picture books; however, his word choice lends itself to vocabulary study with lots of examples of multisyllabic words, double consonants, and verb tenses. Literary techniques like onomatopoeia add interest. This picture book could be used by many grade levels just for the vocabulary alone.
Like many picture books, the moral of the story is not to judge other people as Mr. Smudge turns out to be a nice fellow. I laugh at this book because it reminds me very much of the school where I work. We have the nicest custodian in our dark dungeon!
Saturday, February 3, 2007
More Than Lending Library
I have decided to name this blog the More Than Lending Library to share a mistake that I have made in the past. My mistake was to loan my only copy of a book to a student. Good intentions aside, I have lost many a book this way. Now, when I find a great book for children, I buy an extra copy for my class library. Yes, I have a checkout process in my classroom; however, having an extra copy keeps me sane.
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