Bibliography
DuPrau, Jeanne. 2003. THE CITY OF EMBER (SOUND RECORDING). Listening Library, C/O Random House. Westminster, MD. ISBN 0739331675.
Plot
In the city of Ember, every twelve year old child awaits the suspenseful Assignment day. The day when you receive your work assignment for the next three years, the day your heart will either sink or soar. We follow Lina through the streets of Ember, Doon through the pipeworks of Ember, and both of them on their quest to read a mysterious note left to them by the Builders almost two hundred and fifty years earlier. However, this note, full of holes thanks to Lina’s two year old sister, might contain the most important information the Builders left for the inhabitants of Ember. More important than the storage rooms, the generator, and the electricity they need to light up the continually dark sky in the city. However, even if they decode this note, and it leads to a new city, will anyone believe them?
Critical Analysis
This audio book not only uses the amazing vocal talents of Wendy Dillon, but the sound effects help create the desolate world where Lina and Doon live. We are able to hear background noises in the meeting hall, the sound of the pipeworks dripping, and even the roar of the great river below the city. The vocal characterization Dillon offers only assist us mentally painting the pictures DuPrau so beautifully wrote. The city of Ember has its own customs, traditions, superstitions, and workings, just as our own world possesses. The theme, hope, is a continual presence found in Doon’s anger, in Lina’s drawings of her special city, in the clusters of Believers Lina passes on her message deliveries, and in the moth Doon is watching transform from a crawling thing, to a flying thing. The plot of this book is consistent with the laws that govern Ember. DuPrau’s style of describing a crumbling city, worn out clothing, recycling everything, and crammed houses are inviting as well as interesting. Despite a few character flaws, such as fully establishing a reason for Doon’s anger or the seemingly “instant” acceptance of Granny’s death on Lina’s part, the variety and uniqueness of minor characters more than make up for the wanting in the major characters. All in all, the visit to Ember is well worth the dangerous, exciting, and unexpected trip.
Review Excerpts
Kirkus Reviews-This promising debut is set in a dying underground city. Ember, which was founded and stocked with supplies centuries ago by "The Builders," is now desperately short of food, clothes, and electricity to keep the town illuminated. Lina and Doon find long-hidden, undecipherable instructions that send them on a perilous mission to find what they believe must exist: an exit door from their disintegrating town. In the process, they uncover secret governmental corruption and a route to the world above. Well-paced, this contains a satisfying mystery, a breathtaking escape over rooftops in darkness, a harrowing journey into the unknown and cryptic messages for readers to decipher. The setting is well-realized with the constraints of life in the city intriguingly detailed.
School Library Journal-DuPrau debuts with a promisingly competent variation on the tried-and-true "isolated city" theme. More than 200 years after an unspecified holocaust, the residents of Ember have lost all knowledge of anything beyond the area illuminated by the floodlamps on their buildings. The anxiety level is high and rising, for despite relentless recycling, food and other supplies are running low, and the power failures that plunge the town into impenetrable darkness are becoming longer and more frequent. Then Lina, a young foot messenger, discovers a damaged document from the mysterious Builders that hints at a way out. She and Doon, a classmate, piece together enough of the fragmentary directions to find a cave filled with boats near the river that runs beneath Ember, but their rush to announce their discovery almost ends in disaster when the two fall afoul of the corrupt Mayor and his cronies. Lina and Doon escape in a boat, and after a scary journey emerge into an Edenlike wilderness to witness their first sunrise–for Ember, as it turns out, has been built in an immense cavern. Still intent on saving their people, the two find their way back underground at the end, opening the door for sequels. The setting may not be so ingeniously envisioned as those of, say, Joan Aiken's Is Underground (Turtleback, 1995) and Lois Lowry's The Giver (Houghton, 1993), but the quick pace and the uncomplicated characters and situations will keep voracious fans of the genre engaged
BookList -Ember, a 241-year-old, ruined domed city surrounded by a dark unknown, was built to ensure that humans would continue to exist on Earth, and the instructions for getting out have been lost and forgotten. On Assignment Day, 12-year-olds leave school and receive their lifetime job assignments. Lina Mayfleet becomes a messenger, and her friend Doon Harrow ends up in the Pipeworks beneath the city, where the failing electric generator has been ineffectually patched together. Both Lina and Doon are convinced that their survival means finding a way out of the city, and after Lina discovers pieces of the instructions, she and Doon work together to interpret the fragmented document. Life in this postholocaust city is well limned--the frequent blackouts, the food shortage, the public panic, the search for answers, and the actions of the powerful, who are taking selfish advantage of the situation. Readers will relate to Lina and Doon's resourcefulness and courage in the face of ominous odds.
Publishers Weekly-In her electric debut, DuPrau imagines a post-apocalyptic underground world where resources are running out. The city of Ember, "the only light in the dark world," began as a survival experiment created by the "Builders" who wanted their children to "grow up with no knowledge of a world outside, so that they feel no sorrow for what they have lost." An opening prologue describes the Builders' intentions—that Ember's citizens leave the city after 220 years. They tuck "The Instructions" to a way out within a locked box programmed to open at the right time. But the box has gone astray. The story opens on Assignment Day in the year 241, when 12-year-olds Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow draw lots for their jobs from the mayor's bag. Lina gets "pipeworks laborer," a job that Doon wants, while Doon draws "messenger," the job that Lina covets, and they trade. Through their perspectives, DuPrau reveals the fascinating details of this subterranean community: as Doon repairs leaks deep down among the Pipeworks, he also learns just how dire the situation is with their malfunctioning generator. Meanwhile, the messages Lina carries point to other sorts of subterfuge. Together, the pair become detectives in search of the truth—part of which may be buried in some strange words that were hidden in Lina's grandmother's closet. Thanks to full-blooded characters every bit as compelling as the plot, Lina and Doon's search parallels the universal adolescent quest for answers. Readers will sit on the edge of their seats as each new truth comes to light.
Connections
Fact from Fiction
On a chart, label one side fact and one side fiction. Have students think of examples they can each label from this book. Examples could include:
Fact
Electricity, generator, river, stone, messenger, pipe repair, moth, vitamins
Fiction
Black sky, bough and hogwash are nonsense words, a door to escape (it is really a cave and a river), History of Ember book, and general customs of the city
Be sure to explain that although this book contains many real elements, the context they are placed in is the ultimate “fantasy.”
A Letter to the Inhabitants of Ember
Pretend you are a Builder. What three pieces of information could you offer to the citizens of Ember to help make their life easier? Write it in a letter form. For realism, students could type it up.
Examples could include: an explanation of how electricity works, a drawing of a hog, a bird, or even a dog, directions for making candles, or instructions for making a terrarium to grow their own food.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Princess Academy
Bibliography
Hale, Shannon. 2005. PRINCESS ACADEMY. Bloomsbury Publishing. New York, NY. ISBN 1582349932.
Plot
Miri, an unusually small, and intelligent girl, longs to be able to work in the quarry of linder with her father and sister. She feels useless and outcast, as if she does not belong because she is not allowed to step foot into the quarry. When the news that an academy for princesses will be built at the old mansion ruins, she scoffs at the idea of leaving her home and her family. Who would want to be a princess? As she learns from the harsh Tutor Olana, she realizes she will show the old bat a thing or two. Making friends with the shy and isolated Britta, Miri studies and eventually stands up to Tutor Olana, only adding to the hatred the other girls feel for Miri. As Miri learns about the rest of the kingdom, she begins to wonder about life outside of the mountains, and begins studying extra hard so she can be the top ranking student in the academy. She discovers, by accident, how to use quarry-speech when she is trapped in a closet and deals with a rat burrowing in her hair. During her studies, she discovers the lowlanders have been taking advantage of the trusting mountain people, and she urges her father to tell everyone of the true expense of linder. The community unites and their prices are met, and simultaneously Miri begins perfecting the use of quarry-speech. As the prince is expected for the ball, all the girls are on edge, especially Katar who is determined to leave the mountain as soon as possible, no matter how she does it. The day of the ball arrives, the prince shows up, he shares a special talk with Miri, and leaves suddenly the next day. That evening, the academy is overtaken by robbers who want the princess for a ransom. Using quarry-speech, she is able to bring help to the academy, and through a daring escape, manages to save the town, the academy, and the future princess.
Critical Analysis
The theme of this book is the feeling of an unfulfilled destiny. This theme is presented again and again through Miri’s longing to be of use in the quarry, the precious hidden linder in the mountains and the power in uncovering it, and is finally realized when Miri is able to get the city it’s financial prosperity. Miri is a believable teen—full of spirit, haste, dreams, pride in her home, and self-doubts. The simple mountain people presented in this tale are full of a quiet pride, and the beauty of their mountains adds to the richness of the story. Quarry-speech, entirely conceivable within Miri’s world, becomes the voice that helps Miri rescue her town. Hale’s imagery, play on words, and ingenuity create a beautifully stylized story that is fun to read and has a poignant grain of truth that you intuitively feel. All though geared for female readers, males will enjoy the snobbery of Poise class, silly conversations Miri has using the rules of conversation, and the heart-racing kidnapping that determines the outcome of the entire town.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal-The thought of being a princess never occurred to the girls living on Mount Eskel. Most plan to work in the quarry like the generations before them. When it is announced that the prince will choose a bride from their village, 14-year-old Miri, who thinks she is being kept from working in the quarry because of her small stature, believes that this is her opportunity to prove her worth to her father. All eligible females are sent off to attend a special academy where they face many challenges and hardships as they are forced to adapt to the cultured life of a lowlander. First, strict Tutor Olana denies a visit home. Then, they are cut off from their village by heavy winter snowstorms. As their isolation increases, competition builds among them. The story is much like the mountains, with plenty of suspenseful moments that peak and fall, building into the next intense event. Miri discovers much about herself, including a special talent called quarry speak, a silent way to communicate. She uses this ability in many ways, most importantly to save herself and the other girls from harm. Each girl's story is brought to a satisfying conclusion, but this is not a fluffy, predictable fairy tale, even though it has wonderful moments of humor. Instead, Hale weaves an intricate, multilayered story about families, relationships, education, and the place we call home.
Publishers Weekly-Readers enchanted by Hale's Goose Girl are in for an experience that's a bit more earthbound in this latest fantasy-cum-tribute to girl-power. Cheerful and witty 14-year-old Miri loves her life on Mount Eskel, home to the quarries filled with the most precious linder stone in the land, though she longs to be big and strong enough to do quarry work like her sister and father. But Miri experiences big changes when the king announces that the prince will choose a potential wife from among the village's eligible girls—and that said girls must attend a new Princess Academy in preparation. Princess training is not all it's cracked up to be for spunky Miri in the isolated school overseen by cruel Tutor Olana. But through education—and the realization that she has the common mountain power to communicate wordlessly via magical "quarry-speech"—Miri and the girls eventually gain confidence and knowledge that helps transform their village. Unfortunately, Hale's lighthearted premise and underlying romantic plot bog down in overlong passages about commerce and class, a surprise hostage situation and the specifics of "quarry-speech." The prince's final princess selection hastily and patly wraps things up.
Kirkus Reviews-There are many pleasures to this satisfying tale: a precise lyricism to the language ("The world was as dark as eyes closed" or "Miri's laugh is a tune you love to whistle") and a rhythm to the story that takes its tropes from many places, but its heart from ours. Miri is very small; her father has never let her work in the linder stone quarries where her village makes its living and she fears that it's because she lacks something. However, she's rounded up, with the other handful of girls ages 12 to 17, to be taught and trained when it's foreseen that the prince's bride will come from their own Mount Eskel. Olana, their teacher, is pinched and cruel, but Miri and the others take to their studies, for it opens the world beyond the linder quarries to them. Miri seeks other learning as well, including the mindspeech that ties her to her people, and seems to work through the linder stone itself. There's a lot about girls in groups, both kind and cutting; a sweet boy; the warmth of friends, fathers and sisters; and the possibility of being chosen by a prince one barely knows. The climax involving evil brigands is a bit forced, but everything else is an unalloyed joy.
BookList-- Miri would love to join her father and older sister as a miner in Mount Eskel's quarry. Not a glamorous aspiration for a 14-year-old, perhaps, but the miners produce the humble village's prize stone, linder, and mining is a respected occupation that drives the local economy. When the local girls are rounded up to compete for the hand of the kingdom's prince, Miri, the prize student in the Princess Academy, gets her chance to shine. In addition to her natural intelligence and spunk, she discovers an intuitive, and at times unspoken, language that grew out of work songs in the mines and uses linder as a medium. With this "quarry-speech" giving a boost to her courage and intelligence, Miri leads her classmates in the fight against being treated as social inferiors in the academy, at the same time educating herself in ways that will better the village. Hale nicely interweaves feminist sensibilities in this quest-for-a-prince-charming, historical-fantasy tale. Strong suspense and plot drive the action as the girls outwit would-be kidnappers and explore the boundaries of leadership, competition, and friendship.
Connections
Performance
Announce to the students that a producer is looking to purchase the script of the play Princess Academy. Tell the students they will each be writing a script for a portion of the book. A break down might look like this:
Beginning: Miri’s history, family life, friendship with Peder, longing to work in the mines
Rising Action: Announcement of the Princess Academy, going to live there, meeting Tutor Olana, and entering the Academy, Miri’s defiance with Tutor Olana, wishing to run away, discovery of quarry speak
Climax 1: boycott and walk out, visit home, realization of Miri’s feelings toward Peder, return to Academy, preparing for ball, Britta’s sickness
Climax 2: Meeting the prince, Steffan’s abrupt departure, Argument with Peder, capture at the Academy
Falling Action: Negotiations with robbers, escape
Ending: Peder and Miri finally talk, Miri learns about why she has been kept from the quarry, and Katar’s new position in court
Show examples of writing a script. Each group will present their part, using name tags for their characters (so the audience will be able to follow along). Present scripts by inviting other classes to watch.
Hale, Shannon. 2005. PRINCESS ACADEMY. Bloomsbury Publishing. New York, NY. ISBN 1582349932.
Plot
Miri, an unusually small, and intelligent girl, longs to be able to work in the quarry of linder with her father and sister. She feels useless and outcast, as if she does not belong because she is not allowed to step foot into the quarry. When the news that an academy for princesses will be built at the old mansion ruins, she scoffs at the idea of leaving her home and her family. Who would want to be a princess? As she learns from the harsh Tutor Olana, she realizes she will show the old bat a thing or two. Making friends with the shy and isolated Britta, Miri studies and eventually stands up to Tutor Olana, only adding to the hatred the other girls feel for Miri. As Miri learns about the rest of the kingdom, she begins to wonder about life outside of the mountains, and begins studying extra hard so she can be the top ranking student in the academy. She discovers, by accident, how to use quarry-speech when she is trapped in a closet and deals with a rat burrowing in her hair. During her studies, she discovers the lowlanders have been taking advantage of the trusting mountain people, and she urges her father to tell everyone of the true expense of linder. The community unites and their prices are met, and simultaneously Miri begins perfecting the use of quarry-speech. As the prince is expected for the ball, all the girls are on edge, especially Katar who is determined to leave the mountain as soon as possible, no matter how she does it. The day of the ball arrives, the prince shows up, he shares a special talk with Miri, and leaves suddenly the next day. That evening, the academy is overtaken by robbers who want the princess for a ransom. Using quarry-speech, she is able to bring help to the academy, and through a daring escape, manages to save the town, the academy, and the future princess.
Critical Analysis
The theme of this book is the feeling of an unfulfilled destiny. This theme is presented again and again through Miri’s longing to be of use in the quarry, the precious hidden linder in the mountains and the power in uncovering it, and is finally realized when Miri is able to get the city it’s financial prosperity. Miri is a believable teen—full of spirit, haste, dreams, pride in her home, and self-doubts. The simple mountain people presented in this tale are full of a quiet pride, and the beauty of their mountains adds to the richness of the story. Quarry-speech, entirely conceivable within Miri’s world, becomes the voice that helps Miri rescue her town. Hale’s imagery, play on words, and ingenuity create a beautifully stylized story that is fun to read and has a poignant grain of truth that you intuitively feel. All though geared for female readers, males will enjoy the snobbery of Poise class, silly conversations Miri has using the rules of conversation, and the heart-racing kidnapping that determines the outcome of the entire town.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal-The thought of being a princess never occurred to the girls living on Mount Eskel. Most plan to work in the quarry like the generations before them. When it is announced that the prince will choose a bride from their village, 14-year-old Miri, who thinks she is being kept from working in the quarry because of her small stature, believes that this is her opportunity to prove her worth to her father. All eligible females are sent off to attend a special academy where they face many challenges and hardships as they are forced to adapt to the cultured life of a lowlander. First, strict Tutor Olana denies a visit home. Then, they are cut off from their village by heavy winter snowstorms. As their isolation increases, competition builds among them. The story is much like the mountains, with plenty of suspenseful moments that peak and fall, building into the next intense event. Miri discovers much about herself, including a special talent called quarry speak, a silent way to communicate. She uses this ability in many ways, most importantly to save herself and the other girls from harm. Each girl's story is brought to a satisfying conclusion, but this is not a fluffy, predictable fairy tale, even though it has wonderful moments of humor. Instead, Hale weaves an intricate, multilayered story about families, relationships, education, and the place we call home.
Publishers Weekly-Readers enchanted by Hale's Goose Girl are in for an experience that's a bit more earthbound in this latest fantasy-cum-tribute to girl-power. Cheerful and witty 14-year-old Miri loves her life on Mount Eskel, home to the quarries filled with the most precious linder stone in the land, though she longs to be big and strong enough to do quarry work like her sister and father. But Miri experiences big changes when the king announces that the prince will choose a potential wife from among the village's eligible girls—and that said girls must attend a new Princess Academy in preparation. Princess training is not all it's cracked up to be for spunky Miri in the isolated school overseen by cruel Tutor Olana. But through education—and the realization that she has the common mountain power to communicate wordlessly via magical "quarry-speech"—Miri and the girls eventually gain confidence and knowledge that helps transform their village. Unfortunately, Hale's lighthearted premise and underlying romantic plot bog down in overlong passages about commerce and class, a surprise hostage situation and the specifics of "quarry-speech." The prince's final princess selection hastily and patly wraps things up.
Kirkus Reviews-There are many pleasures to this satisfying tale: a precise lyricism to the language ("The world was as dark as eyes closed" or "Miri's laugh is a tune you love to whistle") and a rhythm to the story that takes its tropes from many places, but its heart from ours. Miri is very small; her father has never let her work in the linder stone quarries where her village makes its living and she fears that it's because she lacks something. However, she's rounded up, with the other handful of girls ages 12 to 17, to be taught and trained when it's foreseen that the prince's bride will come from their own Mount Eskel. Olana, their teacher, is pinched and cruel, but Miri and the others take to their studies, for it opens the world beyond the linder quarries to them. Miri seeks other learning as well, including the mindspeech that ties her to her people, and seems to work through the linder stone itself. There's a lot about girls in groups, both kind and cutting; a sweet boy; the warmth of friends, fathers and sisters; and the possibility of being chosen by a prince one barely knows. The climax involving evil brigands is a bit forced, but everything else is an unalloyed joy.
BookList-- Miri would love to join her father and older sister as a miner in Mount Eskel's quarry. Not a glamorous aspiration for a 14-year-old, perhaps, but the miners produce the humble village's prize stone, linder, and mining is a respected occupation that drives the local economy. When the local girls are rounded up to compete for the hand of the kingdom's prince, Miri, the prize student in the Princess Academy, gets her chance to shine. In addition to her natural intelligence and spunk, she discovers an intuitive, and at times unspoken, language that grew out of work songs in the mines and uses linder as a medium. With this "quarry-speech" giving a boost to her courage and intelligence, Miri leads her classmates in the fight against being treated as social inferiors in the academy, at the same time educating herself in ways that will better the village. Hale nicely interweaves feminist sensibilities in this quest-for-a-prince-charming, historical-fantasy tale. Strong suspense and plot drive the action as the girls outwit would-be kidnappers and explore the boundaries of leadership, competition, and friendship.
Connections
Performance
Announce to the students that a producer is looking to purchase the script of the play Princess Academy. Tell the students they will each be writing a script for a portion of the book. A break down might look like this:
Beginning: Miri’s history, family life, friendship with Peder, longing to work in the mines
Rising Action: Announcement of the Princess Academy, going to live there, meeting Tutor Olana, and entering the Academy, Miri’s defiance with Tutor Olana, wishing to run away, discovery of quarry speak
Climax 1: boycott and walk out, visit home, realization of Miri’s feelings toward Peder, return to Academy, preparing for ball, Britta’s sickness
Climax 2: Meeting the prince, Steffan’s abrupt departure, Argument with Peder, capture at the Academy
Falling Action: Negotiations with robbers, escape
Ending: Peder and Miri finally talk, Miri learns about why she has been kept from the quarry, and Katar’s new position in court
Show examples of writing a script. Each group will present their part, using name tags for their characters (so the audience will be able to follow along). Present scripts by inviting other classes to watch.
The First Part Last
Bibliography
Johnson, Angela. 2004. THE FIRST PART LAST (SOUND RECORDING). Listening Library. Riverside, NJ. ISBN 1400090655.
Plot
Bobby and Nia, sixteen year old African Americans, find out that they are having a baby. At first, they agree to keep it. Then, they realize, giving the baby up for adoption would be best for everyone concerned. The baby will grow up to lead a fulfilling life, and Nia and Bobby can focus on school and start thinking about college. Until Nia has an accident and is left in a “permanent vegetative state.” No one expects Bobby to keep the little girl. But can he handle losing Nia and what all is left of her through her child?
Critical Analysis
This short work of realistic fiction starts out on the path of teenage pregnancy, and takes you rapidly to a whole other dimension of human choices. Structured in a series of flashbacks, each chapter is titled simply ‘then’ or ‘now.’ Through these transitions, we see Bobby struggling as the sole caretaker of Nia, and dealing with the accompanying sleep deprivation, planning, and lowering of grades that are a result of suddenly becoming a father. Bobby and Nia are two normal teenagers. Bobby enjoys hanging out with friends while Nia is studious. However, two come from very different backgrounds and their histories are as different as night and day. Slowly, like a picture coming into focus, Johnson reveals the events that lead Bobby down this unexpected path. It is no surprise that Nia wants to find the baby a home. And all goes according to plan. Until Johnson hits us with a completely unexpected whammy. Nia is brain dead. Despite society’s taboos, despite the reluctance of Nia’s family and Bobby’s own family to help him, Bobby makes a decision about the baby that no one can alter.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal –Angela Johnson's Printz Award-winning novel (S & S, 2003) is perfectly suited to the audiobook medium, and Khalipa Oldjohn narrates this first person tale with poignant authenticity of tone and pacing. At 16, Bobby struggles to be a father to his newborn daughter while keeping up with school, maintaining his boyhood friendships, and trying to live up to his parents' expectations. Told in alternating passages of "Now" and "Then," the back-story that has brought Bobby to this point falls steadily but deliberately into place, with the revelation of why Bobby is a single father arriving only near the very end. In spite of its brevity, the story is complex and satisfying. Bobby is both boy and man, responsible and overwhelmed, near panic and able to plan an intelligent and loving future for Feather, the daughter he adores and nurtures. In audio format, this story can readily be shared in just a class period or two and will grab listeners immediately, making it an ideal subject for class discussion. It will also be instantly popular for leisure reading outside of school.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA School Library Journal, A Reed Business Information Publication
BookList-Bobby, the teenage artist and single-parent dad in Johnson's Coretta Scott King Award winner, Heaven (1998), tells his story here. At 16, he's scared to be raising his baby, Feather, but he's totally devoted to caring for her, even as she keeps him up all night, and he knows that his college plans are on hold. In short chapters alternating between "now" and "then," he talks about the baby that now fills his life, and he remembers the pregnancy of his beloved girlfriend, Nia. Yes, the teens' parents were right. The couple should have used birth control; adoption could have meant freedom. But when Nia suffers irreversible postpartum brain damage, Bobby takes their newborn baby home. There's no romanticizing. The exhaustion is real, and Bobby gets in trouble with the police and nearly messes up everything. But from the first page, readers feel the physical reality of Bobby's new world: what it's like to hold Feather on his stomach, smell her skin, touch her clenched fists, feel her shiver, and kiss the top of her curly head. Johnson makes poetry with the simplest words in short, spare sentences that teens will read again and again. The great cover photo shows the strong African American teen holding his tiny baby in his arms.
Publishers Weekly-In this companion novel, Johnson's fans learn just how Bobby, the single father for whom Marley baby-sits in Heaven, landed in that small town in Ohio. Beginning his story when his daughter, Feather, is just 11 days old, 16-year-old Bobby tells his story in chapters that alternate between the present and the bittersweet past that has brought him to the point of single parenthood. Each nuanced chapter feels like a poem in its economy and imagery; yet the characters—Bobby and the mother of his child, Nia, particularly, but also their parents and friends, and even newborn Feather—emerge fully formed. Bobby tells his parents about the baby ("Not moving and still quiet, my pops just starts to cry") and contrasts his father's reaction with that of Nia's father ("He looks straight ahead like he's watching a movie outside the loft windows"). The way he describes Nia and stands by her throughout the pregnancy conveys to readers what a loving and trustworthy father he promises to be. The only misstep is a chapter from Nia's point of view, which takes readers out of Bobby's capable hands. But as the past and present threads join in the final chapter, readers will only clamor for more about this memorable father-daughter duo—and an author who so skillfully relates the hope in the midst of pain.
Kirkus Reviews-"The rules: If she hollers, she is mine. If she needs to be changed, she is always mine. In the dictionary next to 'sitter,' there is not a picture of Grandma. It's time to grow up. Too late, you're out of time. Be a grown-up." Sixteen-year-old Bobby has met the love of his life: his daughter. Told in alternating chapters that take place "then" and "now," Bobby relates the hour-by-hour tribulations and joys of caring for a newborn, and the circumstances that got him there. Managing to cope with support, but little help, from his single mother (who wants to make sure he does this on his own), Bobby struggles to maintain friendships and a school career while giving his daughter the love and care she craves from him at every moment. By narrating from a realistic first-person voice, Johnson manages to convey a story that is always complex, never preachy. The somewhat pat ending doesn't diminish the impact of this short, involving story. It's the tale of one young man and his choices, which many young readers will appreciate and enjoy.
School Library Journal-Brief, poetic, and absolutely riveting, this gem of a novel tells the story of a young father struggling to raise an infant. Bobby, 16, is a sensitive and intelligent narrator. His parents are supportive but refuse to take over the child-care duties, so he struggles to balance parenting, school, and friends who don't comprehend his new role. Alternate chapters go back to the story of Bobby's relationship with his girlfriend Nia and how parents and friends reacted to the news of her pregnancy. Bobby's parents are well-developed characters, Nia's upper-class family somewhat less so. Flashbacks lead to the revelation in the final chapters that Nia is in an irreversible coma caused by eclampsia. This twist, which explains why Bobby is raising Feather on his own against the advice of both families, seems melodramatic. So does a chapter in which Bobby snaps from the pressure and spends an entire day spray painting a picture on a brick wall, only to be arrested for vandalism. However, any flaws in the plot are overshadowed by the beautiful writing. Scenes in which Bobby expresses his love for his daughter are breathtaking. Teens who enjoyed Margaret Bechard's Hanging on to Max (Millbrook, 2002) will love this book, too, despite very different conclusions. The attractive cover photo of a young black man cradling an infant will attract readers.
Connections
Family Interview
Ask students to briefly tell this story to a family member. Ask a family member if they have experienced a situation where they experienced a problem, big or small, thought they knew how to take care of it, and then it ended up being solved in a life-changing way. Students can write a short story about the interview from their family. Those who wish to read them can share.
Vote
Pretend all the students in your class are now Bobby. They have just learned of Nia’s permanent condition. Have students say what they would do and to give at least three reasons for it. Be sure to state there is no right or wrong answer. Depending on your group of students, this might be done as an individual, written assignment.
Mistake Research Project
Discuss with students how Nia and Bobby felt that the pregnancy was a mistake. Explain to students mistakes happen to everyone and it is how we go forward that shows our character. Have students research and find at least 5 influential people in the history of the world who made mistakes but came through their mistakes. Suggestion: Insist that the person must be known from the 1980’s or previously. This will force students to look beyond Britney Spear’s marriage to Kevin Federline and Paris Hilton’s sex tape. Students can make a brief power point presentation to include all five ‘mistakers.’ If possible, present these for a few weeks during morning announcements to share them with the entire school.
Johnson, Angela. 2004. THE FIRST PART LAST (SOUND RECORDING). Listening Library. Riverside, NJ. ISBN 1400090655.
Plot
Bobby and Nia, sixteen year old African Americans, find out that they are having a baby. At first, they agree to keep it. Then, they realize, giving the baby up for adoption would be best for everyone concerned. The baby will grow up to lead a fulfilling life, and Nia and Bobby can focus on school and start thinking about college. Until Nia has an accident and is left in a “permanent vegetative state.” No one expects Bobby to keep the little girl. But can he handle losing Nia and what all is left of her through her child?
Critical Analysis
This short work of realistic fiction starts out on the path of teenage pregnancy, and takes you rapidly to a whole other dimension of human choices. Structured in a series of flashbacks, each chapter is titled simply ‘then’ or ‘now.’ Through these transitions, we see Bobby struggling as the sole caretaker of Nia, and dealing with the accompanying sleep deprivation, planning, and lowering of grades that are a result of suddenly becoming a father. Bobby and Nia are two normal teenagers. Bobby enjoys hanging out with friends while Nia is studious. However, two come from very different backgrounds and their histories are as different as night and day. Slowly, like a picture coming into focus, Johnson reveals the events that lead Bobby down this unexpected path. It is no surprise that Nia wants to find the baby a home. And all goes according to plan. Until Johnson hits us with a completely unexpected whammy. Nia is brain dead. Despite society’s taboos, despite the reluctance of Nia’s family and Bobby’s own family to help him, Bobby makes a decision about the baby that no one can alter.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal –Angela Johnson's Printz Award-winning novel (S & S, 2003) is perfectly suited to the audiobook medium, and Khalipa Oldjohn narrates this first person tale with poignant authenticity of tone and pacing. At 16, Bobby struggles to be a father to his newborn daughter while keeping up with school, maintaining his boyhood friendships, and trying to live up to his parents' expectations. Told in alternating passages of "Now" and "Then," the back-story that has brought Bobby to this point falls steadily but deliberately into place, with the revelation of why Bobby is a single father arriving only near the very end. In spite of its brevity, the story is complex and satisfying. Bobby is both boy and man, responsible and overwhelmed, near panic and able to plan an intelligent and loving future for Feather, the daughter he adores and nurtures. In audio format, this story can readily be shared in just a class period or two and will grab listeners immediately, making it an ideal subject for class discussion. It will also be instantly popular for leisure reading outside of school.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA School Library Journal, A Reed Business Information Publication
BookList-Bobby, the teenage artist and single-parent dad in Johnson's Coretta Scott King Award winner, Heaven (1998), tells his story here. At 16, he's scared to be raising his baby, Feather, but he's totally devoted to caring for her, even as she keeps him up all night, and he knows that his college plans are on hold. In short chapters alternating between "now" and "then," he talks about the baby that now fills his life, and he remembers the pregnancy of his beloved girlfriend, Nia. Yes, the teens' parents were right. The couple should have used birth control; adoption could have meant freedom. But when Nia suffers irreversible postpartum brain damage, Bobby takes their newborn baby home. There's no romanticizing. The exhaustion is real, and Bobby gets in trouble with the police and nearly messes up everything. But from the first page, readers feel the physical reality of Bobby's new world: what it's like to hold Feather on his stomach, smell her skin, touch her clenched fists, feel her shiver, and kiss the top of her curly head. Johnson makes poetry with the simplest words in short, spare sentences that teens will read again and again. The great cover photo shows the strong African American teen holding his tiny baby in his arms.
Publishers Weekly-In this companion novel, Johnson's fans learn just how Bobby, the single father for whom Marley baby-sits in Heaven, landed in that small town in Ohio. Beginning his story when his daughter, Feather, is just 11 days old, 16-year-old Bobby tells his story in chapters that alternate between the present and the bittersweet past that has brought him to the point of single parenthood. Each nuanced chapter feels like a poem in its economy and imagery; yet the characters—Bobby and the mother of his child, Nia, particularly, but also their parents and friends, and even newborn Feather—emerge fully formed. Bobby tells his parents about the baby ("Not moving and still quiet, my pops just starts to cry") and contrasts his father's reaction with that of Nia's father ("He looks straight ahead like he's watching a movie outside the loft windows"). The way he describes Nia and stands by her throughout the pregnancy conveys to readers what a loving and trustworthy father he promises to be. The only misstep is a chapter from Nia's point of view, which takes readers out of Bobby's capable hands. But as the past and present threads join in the final chapter, readers will only clamor for more about this memorable father-daughter duo—and an author who so skillfully relates the hope in the midst of pain.
Kirkus Reviews-"The rules: If she hollers, she is mine. If she needs to be changed, she is always mine. In the dictionary next to 'sitter,' there is not a picture of Grandma. It's time to grow up. Too late, you're out of time. Be a grown-up." Sixteen-year-old Bobby has met the love of his life: his daughter. Told in alternating chapters that take place "then" and "now," Bobby relates the hour-by-hour tribulations and joys of caring for a newborn, and the circumstances that got him there. Managing to cope with support, but little help, from his single mother (who wants to make sure he does this on his own), Bobby struggles to maintain friendships and a school career while giving his daughter the love and care she craves from him at every moment. By narrating from a realistic first-person voice, Johnson manages to convey a story that is always complex, never preachy. The somewhat pat ending doesn't diminish the impact of this short, involving story. It's the tale of one young man and his choices, which many young readers will appreciate and enjoy.
School Library Journal-Brief, poetic, and absolutely riveting, this gem of a novel tells the story of a young father struggling to raise an infant. Bobby, 16, is a sensitive and intelligent narrator. His parents are supportive but refuse to take over the child-care duties, so he struggles to balance parenting, school, and friends who don't comprehend his new role. Alternate chapters go back to the story of Bobby's relationship with his girlfriend Nia and how parents and friends reacted to the news of her pregnancy. Bobby's parents are well-developed characters, Nia's upper-class family somewhat less so. Flashbacks lead to the revelation in the final chapters that Nia is in an irreversible coma caused by eclampsia. This twist, which explains why Bobby is raising Feather on his own against the advice of both families, seems melodramatic. So does a chapter in which Bobby snaps from the pressure and spends an entire day spray painting a picture on a brick wall, only to be arrested for vandalism. However, any flaws in the plot are overshadowed by the beautiful writing. Scenes in which Bobby expresses his love for his daughter are breathtaking. Teens who enjoyed Margaret Bechard's Hanging on to Max (Millbrook, 2002) will love this book, too, despite very different conclusions. The attractive cover photo of a young black man cradling an infant will attract readers.
Connections
Family Interview
Ask students to briefly tell this story to a family member. Ask a family member if they have experienced a situation where they experienced a problem, big or small, thought they knew how to take care of it, and then it ended up being solved in a life-changing way. Students can write a short story about the interview from their family. Those who wish to read them can share.
Vote
Pretend all the students in your class are now Bobby. They have just learned of Nia’s permanent condition. Have students say what they would do and to give at least three reasons for it. Be sure to state there is no right or wrong answer. Depending on your group of students, this might be done as an individual, written assignment.
Mistake Research Project
Discuss with students how Nia and Bobby felt that the pregnancy was a mistake. Explain to students mistakes happen to everyone and it is how we go forward that shows our character. Have students research and find at least 5 influential people in the history of the world who made mistakes but came through their mistakes. Suggestion: Insist that the person must be known from the 1980’s or previously. This will force students to look beyond Britney Spear’s marriage to Kevin Federline and Paris Hilton’s sex tape. Students can make a brief power point presentation to include all five ‘mistakers.’ If possible, present these for a few weeks during morning announcements to share them with the entire school.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Bibliography
Speare, Elizabeth George. 1958. THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND. Bantam Doubleday. New York, NY. ISBN 0440995779
Plot
Kit Tyler, an orphan, sails from the Barbados Island to Wethersfield, Connecticut. Not raised in the church, she has escaped her Caribbean home because a man almost triple her age wants to marry her. However, she finds the Puritan lifestyle of her aunt and uncle to be rigid, stifling, and unbearable. She is comforted by an old Quaker woman, who the town accuses of being a witch, and secretly teaches a little girl how to read and write. Life with her family does get easier, however, as she learns to perform chores reserved for her former slaves. In fact, she makes quite an impression upon the most handsome bachelor in town, to the dismay of her cousin Judith. As time goes by, the rumor mill is quickly set into motion, and when Kit helps her Quaker friend escape town with the help of Nat, a sailor on the boat who brought her to America, she then is imprisoned and brought to trial as the witch’s replacement. Abandoned by everyone except her uncle, the little girl, and Nat, she escapes death. She also escapes an impulsive marriage to William Ashby. The ending of the story sets Kit on the beginning adventure of marriage to Nat, and their future excursions on his new boat, The Witch.
Critical Analysis
Though Kit and Wethersfield are fictional in nature, this story contains many references to real people who played an important role in shaping our country. Such people are Sir Edmond Dros(the new Governor that Uncle is worried about being in power), Captain Samuel Talcott (who leads the witch trial), and the setting of the story where the Quaker woman lives, the Great Meadows, is still around today. This is an excellent story showcasing the abuse of gossip and stereotyping that was generated out of fear in Puritan times. Not only is Kit a modern teenager having a hard time controlling her temper and viewing things in New England as not being fair, this also paints a very detailed picture of the rough life Puritans led. From the endless amount of chores such as all the sewing, the carding, the spinning, the cooking, the making of candles, soap, and food, to the relentless pursuit of serving a God who is painted as cold and unjust, the Wood family had no modern day conveniences. From the heat of summer, to the brutal winter, Puritans relied on their community for survival, and often were bullied into following the crowd so they were not ostracized as the new outcast. Most relevant in today’s time, this book is a stunning example of how words can forever injure.
Review
School Library Journal: The setting is the Colony of Connecticut in 1687 amid the political and religious conflicts of that day. Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler unexpectedly arrives at her aunt and uncle's doorstep and is unprepared for the new world which awaits her. Having been raised by her grandfather in Barbados, she doesn't understand the conflict between those loyal to the king and those who defend the Connecticut Charter. Unprepared for the religious intolerance and rigidity of the Puritan community, she is constantly astounding her aunt, uncle, and cousins with her dress, behavior, and ideas. She takes comfort in her secret friendship with the widow, Hannah Tupper, who has been expelled from Massachusetts because she is a Quaker and suspected of being a witch. When a deathly sickness strikes the village, first Hannah and then Kit are accused of being witches. Through these conflicts and experiences, Kit comes to know and accept herself. She learns not to make hasty judgments about people, and that there are always two sides to every conflict. There are several minor plots as well, including three romances, which help to bring this time and place to life.
Connections
Gossip Game—Explain that you will be sending a message around the room and people can only whisper it once to the person to their right. Once it’s gone around the room, hold up the paper containing the original message. Discuss how things get distorted as people retell it. Ask them if they have ever been the victim of a nasty rumor. Ask them how it felt knowing that people were saying untrue things about you. Brainstorm ways they can avoid adding to the ‘rumor mill’ that is common in every school and office in our country.
Chore Day--Set up a house that might be like the house Kit’s moved into with her aunt and uncle. A tent outside would be a great way to do this. Instruct the kids they will be doing all the chores the way Kit, Judith and Mercy did. If possible, use as many ideas as follows. Parent help will be necessary.
A. Set up a wash tub, washing board, a bar of soap and dirty shirts. You will also need a clothes line and pins to hang up the shirts to dry. Explain to the kids how they will have to wash the shirt and hang it up to dry.
B. Have students cook eggs on a griddle over a fire.
C. Have students make a fire. If you can get an old-fashioned stove, all better. You might need to supplement this with pictures or a small model stove that is common in antique shops.
D. Have students sweep a small area of a patch of dirt with an old-fashioned broom.
E. Have a sewing center set up where students would learn how to do a few stitches of sewing, crocheting, using a loom or even carding wool and/or spinning yarn.
F. If possible bring a cow or goat in and have students take turns milk it.
G. Have a butter churn set up and challenge the class to see if they can finish it by the end of the day.
H. Have students plant a garden to keep permanently at the school.
Speare, Elizabeth George. 1958. THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND. Bantam Doubleday. New York, NY. ISBN 0440995779
Plot
Kit Tyler, an orphan, sails from the Barbados Island to Wethersfield, Connecticut. Not raised in the church, she has escaped her Caribbean home because a man almost triple her age wants to marry her. However, she finds the Puritan lifestyle of her aunt and uncle to be rigid, stifling, and unbearable. She is comforted by an old Quaker woman, who the town accuses of being a witch, and secretly teaches a little girl how to read and write. Life with her family does get easier, however, as she learns to perform chores reserved for her former slaves. In fact, she makes quite an impression upon the most handsome bachelor in town, to the dismay of her cousin Judith. As time goes by, the rumor mill is quickly set into motion, and when Kit helps her Quaker friend escape town with the help of Nat, a sailor on the boat who brought her to America, she then is imprisoned and brought to trial as the witch’s replacement. Abandoned by everyone except her uncle, the little girl, and Nat, she escapes death. She also escapes an impulsive marriage to William Ashby. The ending of the story sets Kit on the beginning adventure of marriage to Nat, and their future excursions on his new boat, The Witch.
Critical Analysis
Though Kit and Wethersfield are fictional in nature, this story contains many references to real people who played an important role in shaping our country. Such people are Sir Edmond Dros(the new Governor that Uncle is worried about being in power), Captain Samuel Talcott (who leads the witch trial), and the setting of the story where the Quaker woman lives, the Great Meadows, is still around today. This is an excellent story showcasing the abuse of gossip and stereotyping that was generated out of fear in Puritan times. Not only is Kit a modern teenager having a hard time controlling her temper and viewing things in New England as not being fair, this also paints a very detailed picture of the rough life Puritans led. From the endless amount of chores such as all the sewing, the carding, the spinning, the cooking, the making of candles, soap, and food, to the relentless pursuit of serving a God who is painted as cold and unjust, the Wood family had no modern day conveniences. From the heat of summer, to the brutal winter, Puritans relied on their community for survival, and often were bullied into following the crowd so they were not ostracized as the new outcast. Most relevant in today’s time, this book is a stunning example of how words can forever injure.
Review
School Library Journal: The setting is the Colony of Connecticut in 1687 amid the political and religious conflicts of that day. Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler unexpectedly arrives at her aunt and uncle's doorstep and is unprepared for the new world which awaits her. Having been raised by her grandfather in Barbados, she doesn't understand the conflict between those loyal to the king and those who defend the Connecticut Charter. Unprepared for the religious intolerance and rigidity of the Puritan community, she is constantly astounding her aunt, uncle, and cousins with her dress, behavior, and ideas. She takes comfort in her secret friendship with the widow, Hannah Tupper, who has been expelled from Massachusetts because she is a Quaker and suspected of being a witch. When a deathly sickness strikes the village, first Hannah and then Kit are accused of being witches. Through these conflicts and experiences, Kit comes to know and accept herself. She learns not to make hasty judgments about people, and that there are always two sides to every conflict. There are several minor plots as well, including three romances, which help to bring this time and place to life.
Connections
Gossip Game—Explain that you will be sending a message around the room and people can only whisper it once to the person to their right. Once it’s gone around the room, hold up the paper containing the original message. Discuss how things get distorted as people retell it. Ask them if they have ever been the victim of a nasty rumor. Ask them how it felt knowing that people were saying untrue things about you. Brainstorm ways they can avoid adding to the ‘rumor mill’ that is common in every school and office in our country.
Chore Day--Set up a house that might be like the house Kit’s moved into with her aunt and uncle. A tent outside would be a great way to do this. Instruct the kids they will be doing all the chores the way Kit, Judith and Mercy did. If possible, use as many ideas as follows. Parent help will be necessary.
A. Set up a wash tub, washing board, a bar of soap and dirty shirts. You will also need a clothes line and pins to hang up the shirts to dry. Explain to the kids how they will have to wash the shirt and hang it up to dry.
B. Have students cook eggs on a griddle over a fire.
C. Have students make a fire. If you can get an old-fashioned stove, all better. You might need to supplement this with pictures or a small model stove that is common in antique shops.
D. Have students sweep a small area of a patch of dirt with an old-fashioned broom.
E. Have a sewing center set up where students would learn how to do a few stitches of sewing, crocheting, using a loom or even carding wool and/or spinning yarn.
F. If possible bring a cow or goat in and have students take turns milk it.
G. Have a butter churn set up and challenge the class to see if they can finish it by the end of the day.
H. Have students plant a garden to keep permanently at the school.
Elijah of Buxton
Bibliography
Curtis, Christopher Paul. 2007. ELIJAH OF BUXTON. Scholastic Press. New York, NY. ISBN 9780439023443
Plot
In the authentic style of “story prettying-up,” Elijah of Buxton creates a true picture of an eleven-year-old boy who was the first free African American to be born in the freedom Settlement of Buxton, Canada. Living his carefree life, Elijah is afraid of snakes and tired of being labeled “fra-gile.” He is annoyed with Emma who is resentful of his being the first free-born, but in the end realizes they are a lot alike, especially when he sees her going to the woods to help an escaped family and welcome them into town. However, his life full of tall tales and rock fishing is interrupted when Mr. Leroy’s money is stolen by Preacher Zachariah—the money he was given to purchase his family out of slavery. Forced to accompany Mr. Leroy to Detroit to track the Preacher down, he faces the unexpected danger of being left alone, and actually seeing slaves held bound in chains in a barn. Despite his fear, he is able to do what he can, and helps a baby to escape with him back to Buxton.
Critical Analysis
This book, full of humor and horror, eases children into the atrocities of slavery that encourages children to question the actions of their ancestors, and to look with pride at those who risked their lives for freedom. Written in a compassionate way, this book actually is based on a settlement in Canada and gives account of how the free helped the newly escaped. Using lively language and puns, Elijah is ‘terrorfied’ of rope cookies, and takes off running when easily spooked. Children can related to the common experience of fear, and can see the potential within them as they witness the actions of Eljiah returning to Mrs. Chole to understand her strange “grown-up” speak. Although this book is written in dialect, it is an expression of the time, and enhances the story experience. An excellent book to use when discussing the Bill of Rights, Black History Month, or the Underground Railroad, this book will help children to understand what was, and how fantastic our country is.
Reviews
School Library Journal:Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman has two claims to fame: he was the first free black to have been born in Buxton, an actual settlement in Canada established in 1849 by the abolitionist Reverend William King; and, during his infancy, he threw up all over the visiting Frederick Douglass. Elijah is an engaging protagonist, and whether he is completing his chores or lamenting his Latin studies or experiencing his first traveling carnival, his descriptions are full of charm and wonder. Although his colloquial language may prove challenging for some readers, it brings an authenticity and richness to the story that is well worth the extra effort that it might require. While some of the neighbors believe Elijah to be rather simple, and even his mother tends to overprotect her "fra-gile" boy, his true character shines out when a disaster occurs in the close community. Elijah's neighbor, Mr. Leroy, has been saving money for years to buy freedom for his wife and children who are still in the U.S. When this money is stolen, Elijah blames himself for inadvertently helping the thief and, risking capture by slave catchers, crosses the border into Detroit to get it back. His guileless recounting of the people he meets and the horrors he sees will allow readers to understand the dangers of the Underground Railroad without being overwhelmed by them. Elijah's decisions along the way are not easy ones, but ultimately lead to a satisfying conclusion. Curtis's talent for dealing with painful periods of history with grace and sensitivity is as strong as ever.—Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA School Library Journal, A Reed Business Information Publication
Publishers Weekly:Elijah Freeman, 11, has two claims to fame. He was the first child “born free” to former slaves in Buxton, a (real) haven established in 1849 in Canada by an American abolitionist. The rest of his celebrity, Elijah reports in his folksy vernacular, stems from a “tragical” event. When Frederick Douglass, the “famousest, smartest man who ever escaped from slavery,” visited Buxton, he held baby Elijah aloft, declaring him a “shining bacon of light and hope,” tossing him up and down until the jostled baby threw up—on Douglass. The arresting historical setting and physical comedy signal classic Curtis (Bud, Not Buddy ), but while Elijah's boyish voice represents the Newbery Medalist at his finest, the story unspools at so leisurely a pace that kids might easily lose interest. Readers meet Buxton's citizens, people who have known great cruelty and yet are uncommonly polite and welcoming to strangers. Humor abounds: Elijah's best friend puzzles over the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt” and decides it's about sexual reproduction. There's a rapscallion of a villain in the Right Reverend Deacon Doctor Zephariah Connerly the Third, a smart-talking preacher no one trusts, and, after 200 pages, a riveting plot: Zephariah makes off with a fortune meant to buy a family of slaves their freedom. Curtis brings the story full-circle, demonstrating how Elijah the “fra-gile” child has become sturdy, capable of stealing across the border in pursuit of the crooked preacher, and strong enough to withstand a confrontation with the horrors of slavery. The powerful ending is violent and unsettling, yet also manages to be uplifting.
BookList:After his mother rebukes him for screaming that hoop snakes have invaded Buxton, gullible 11-year-old Elijah confesses to readers that “there ain’t nothing in the world she wants more than for me to quit being so doggone fra-gile.” Inexperienced and prone to mistakes, yet kind, courageous, and understanding, Elijah has the distinction of being the first child born in the Buxton Settlement, which was founded in Ontario in 1849 as a haven for former slaves. Narrator Elijah tells an episodic story that builds a broad picture of Buxton’s residents before plunging into the dramatic events that take him out of Buxton and, quite possibly, out of his depth. In the author’s note, Curtis relates the difficulty of tackling the subject of slavery realistically through a child’s first-person perspective. Here, readers learn about conditions in slavery at a distance, though the horrors become increasingly apparent. Among the more memorable scenes are those in which Elijah meets escaped slaves—first, those who have made it to Canada and, later, those who have been retaken by slave catchers. Central to the story, these scenes show an emotional range and a subtlety unusual in children’s fiction. Many readers drawn to the book by humor will find themselves at times on the edges of their seats in suspense and, at other moments, moved to tears. A fine, original novel from a gifted storyteller.
Kirkus Reviews:Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman is known for two things: being the first child born free in Buxton, Canada, and throwing up on the great Frederick Douglass. It's 1859, in Buxton, a settlement for slaves making it to freedom in Canada, a setting so thoroughly evoked, with characters so real, that readers will live the story, not just read it. This is not a zip-ahead-and-see-what-happens-next novel. It's for settling into and savoring the rich, masterful storytelling, for getting to know Elijah, Cooter and the Preacher, for laughing at stories of hoop snakes, toady-frogs and fish-head chunking and crying when Leroy finally gets money to buy back his wife and children, but has the money stolen. Then Elijah journeys to America and risks his life to do what's right. This is Curtis's best novel yet, and no doubt many readers, young and old, will finish and say, "This is one of the best books I have ever read."
Connections
Free Writing
Have children journal their feelings they experienced when Elijah finds the slaves in the barn. Assure children that their feelings of shame, discomfort, and pain are normal and that we must approach these emotions within ourselves in order to understand them. Allow students the option of turning the paper into your, or to keep their thoughts private. Lead a class discussion by asking questions such as, “Where any of you sad? Why?” or “How would you have felt if you were chained up?”
Research Project on Quilts
Construct a research project on the use of quilts and how many slaves constructed them to account their family’s history, what they knew of it, into a quilt. Quilts also were often secret maps that guided escaped slaves throughout the Underground Railroad. Encourage children to brainstorm ways the maps could be hidden within the pattern, and allow children to make their own map of the classroom on construction paper.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. 2007. ELIJAH OF BUXTON. Scholastic Press. New York, NY. ISBN 9780439023443
Plot
In the authentic style of “story prettying-up,” Elijah of Buxton creates a true picture of an eleven-year-old boy who was the first free African American to be born in the freedom Settlement of Buxton, Canada. Living his carefree life, Elijah is afraid of snakes and tired of being labeled “fra-gile.” He is annoyed with Emma who is resentful of his being the first free-born, but in the end realizes they are a lot alike, especially when he sees her going to the woods to help an escaped family and welcome them into town. However, his life full of tall tales and rock fishing is interrupted when Mr. Leroy’s money is stolen by Preacher Zachariah—the money he was given to purchase his family out of slavery. Forced to accompany Mr. Leroy to Detroit to track the Preacher down, he faces the unexpected danger of being left alone, and actually seeing slaves held bound in chains in a barn. Despite his fear, he is able to do what he can, and helps a baby to escape with him back to Buxton.
Critical Analysis
This book, full of humor and horror, eases children into the atrocities of slavery that encourages children to question the actions of their ancestors, and to look with pride at those who risked their lives for freedom. Written in a compassionate way, this book actually is based on a settlement in Canada and gives account of how the free helped the newly escaped. Using lively language and puns, Elijah is ‘terrorfied’ of rope cookies, and takes off running when easily spooked. Children can related to the common experience of fear, and can see the potential within them as they witness the actions of Eljiah returning to Mrs. Chole to understand her strange “grown-up” speak. Although this book is written in dialect, it is an expression of the time, and enhances the story experience. An excellent book to use when discussing the Bill of Rights, Black History Month, or the Underground Railroad, this book will help children to understand what was, and how fantastic our country is.
Reviews
School Library Journal:Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman has two claims to fame: he was the first free black to have been born in Buxton, an actual settlement in Canada established in 1849 by the abolitionist Reverend William King; and, during his infancy, he threw up all over the visiting Frederick Douglass. Elijah is an engaging protagonist, and whether he is completing his chores or lamenting his Latin studies or experiencing his first traveling carnival, his descriptions are full of charm and wonder. Although his colloquial language may prove challenging for some readers, it brings an authenticity and richness to the story that is well worth the extra effort that it might require. While some of the neighbors believe Elijah to be rather simple, and even his mother tends to overprotect her "fra-gile" boy, his true character shines out when a disaster occurs in the close community. Elijah's neighbor, Mr. Leroy, has been saving money for years to buy freedom for his wife and children who are still in the U.S. When this money is stolen, Elijah blames himself for inadvertently helping the thief and, risking capture by slave catchers, crosses the border into Detroit to get it back. His guileless recounting of the people he meets and the horrors he sees will allow readers to understand the dangers of the Underground Railroad without being overwhelmed by them. Elijah's decisions along the way are not easy ones, but ultimately lead to a satisfying conclusion. Curtis's talent for dealing with painful periods of history with grace and sensitivity is as strong as ever.—Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA School Library Journal, A Reed Business Information Publication
Publishers Weekly:Elijah Freeman, 11, has two claims to fame. He was the first child “born free” to former slaves in Buxton, a (real) haven established in 1849 in Canada by an American abolitionist. The rest of his celebrity, Elijah reports in his folksy vernacular, stems from a “tragical” event. When Frederick Douglass, the “famousest, smartest man who ever escaped from slavery,” visited Buxton, he held baby Elijah aloft, declaring him a “shining bacon of light and hope,” tossing him up and down until the jostled baby threw up—on Douglass. The arresting historical setting and physical comedy signal classic Curtis (Bud, Not Buddy ), but while Elijah's boyish voice represents the Newbery Medalist at his finest, the story unspools at so leisurely a pace that kids might easily lose interest. Readers meet Buxton's citizens, people who have known great cruelty and yet are uncommonly polite and welcoming to strangers. Humor abounds: Elijah's best friend puzzles over the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt” and decides it's about sexual reproduction. There's a rapscallion of a villain in the Right Reverend Deacon Doctor Zephariah Connerly the Third, a smart-talking preacher no one trusts, and, after 200 pages, a riveting plot: Zephariah makes off with a fortune meant to buy a family of slaves their freedom. Curtis brings the story full-circle, demonstrating how Elijah the “fra-gile” child has become sturdy, capable of stealing across the border in pursuit of the crooked preacher, and strong enough to withstand a confrontation with the horrors of slavery. The powerful ending is violent and unsettling, yet also manages to be uplifting.
BookList:After his mother rebukes him for screaming that hoop snakes have invaded Buxton, gullible 11-year-old Elijah confesses to readers that “there ain’t nothing in the world she wants more than for me to quit being so doggone fra-gile.” Inexperienced and prone to mistakes, yet kind, courageous, and understanding, Elijah has the distinction of being the first child born in the Buxton Settlement, which was founded in Ontario in 1849 as a haven for former slaves. Narrator Elijah tells an episodic story that builds a broad picture of Buxton’s residents before plunging into the dramatic events that take him out of Buxton and, quite possibly, out of his depth. In the author’s note, Curtis relates the difficulty of tackling the subject of slavery realistically through a child’s first-person perspective. Here, readers learn about conditions in slavery at a distance, though the horrors become increasingly apparent. Among the more memorable scenes are those in which Elijah meets escaped slaves—first, those who have made it to Canada and, later, those who have been retaken by slave catchers. Central to the story, these scenes show an emotional range and a subtlety unusual in children’s fiction. Many readers drawn to the book by humor will find themselves at times on the edges of their seats in suspense and, at other moments, moved to tears. A fine, original novel from a gifted storyteller.
Kirkus Reviews:Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman is known for two things: being the first child born free in Buxton, Canada, and throwing up on the great Frederick Douglass. It's 1859, in Buxton, a settlement for slaves making it to freedom in Canada, a setting so thoroughly evoked, with characters so real, that readers will live the story, not just read it. This is not a zip-ahead-and-see-what-happens-next novel. It's for settling into and savoring the rich, masterful storytelling, for getting to know Elijah, Cooter and the Preacher, for laughing at stories of hoop snakes, toady-frogs and fish-head chunking and crying when Leroy finally gets money to buy back his wife and children, but has the money stolen. Then Elijah journeys to America and risks his life to do what's right. This is Curtis's best novel yet, and no doubt many readers, young and old, will finish and say, "This is one of the best books I have ever read."
Connections
Free Writing
Have children journal their feelings they experienced when Elijah finds the slaves in the barn. Assure children that their feelings of shame, discomfort, and pain are normal and that we must approach these emotions within ourselves in order to understand them. Allow students the option of turning the paper into your, or to keep their thoughts private. Lead a class discussion by asking questions such as, “Where any of you sad? Why?” or “How would you have felt if you were chained up?”
Research Project on Quilts
Construct a research project on the use of quilts and how many slaves constructed them to account their family’s history, what they knew of it, into a quilt. Quilts also were often secret maps that guided escaped slaves throughout the Underground Railroad. Encourage children to brainstorm ways the maps could be hidden within the pattern, and allow children to make their own map of the classroom on construction paper.
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!
Bibliography
Schlitz, Laura Amy. 2007. GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! VOICES FROM A MEDIEVAL VILLAGE. Illus. by Robert Byrd. Candlewick Press. Cambridge, MA. ISBN 9780763615789
Plot
In this ingeniously woven collection of monologues and duets, Schlitz takes readers through a tour of being a teenager in the Medieval ages. From Lowdy’s plague of fleas, to Jacob Ben Salomon’s fear of getting stoned by Petronella because he is a Jew, this book is as enchanting as entertaining. Byrd’s illustrations in watercolor give the book a fitting ‘illuminated text’ look that is not only authentic to the time but mesmerizing in detail. Although some monologues are constructed for humor, as Taggot’s experience with a first love, many are touching as we learn how hard life is for the homeless Pask who is given kindness by Lowdy. The monologues are interspersed with sections called A Little Background, that gives more information for better understanding. This slim volume is not only illustrated, but also contains pictures of primary source materials that add to the flavor of the period.
Critical Analysis
This is a magically entertaining book for youth and adults alike. Complete with side notes, primary source pictures, and delightfully charming water color drawings, this book looks at the day to day activities of teens growing up Medieval. Surprisingly, the plights of teens have not necessarily changed much over the years. Constance, Pask, and Jacob Ben Soloman face the same prejudice as youth who are disfigured, homeless or poor, or who are a minority that students deal with today. Full of lively facts such as Lords could give their villein’s any choice of land, good or bad as they saw fit. Thus, villeins truly were depended upon the whims of their masters. Jews were not allowed to own land, could not have an official rank because they were forced to swear the truth under the name Jesus Christ, and were often forced into lending money which they were seldom repaid. I learned that Jews were forced to wear yellow stars of David then, hundreds of years before the Holocaust, where I thought the segregation originated. The use of figurative language makes life come to life for students in such phrases as “There’s a red seam down his faced where the eye melted shut,” as the description from Peirs the glassblower’s apprentice is describing his master. Giles the beggar is a modern day con artist who, with the help of his father, sells amazing cures because he limps into town on crutches and is magically healed by his father’s remedy. In summary, this is a fascinating study on the time period where the author has achieved a perfect balance of fact strung together with the creativity of fiction.
Reviews
Publishers Weekly:Schlitz (The Hero Schliemann ) wrote these 22 brief monologues to be performed by students at the school where she is a librarian; here, bolstered by lively asides and unobtrusive notes, and illuminated by Byrd's (Leonard, Beautiful Dreamer) stunningly atmospheric watercolors, they bring to life a prototypical English village in 1255. Adopting both prose and verse, the speakers, all young, range from the half-wit to the lord's daughter, who explains her privileged status as the will of God. The doctor's son shows off his skills (“Ordinary sores/ Will heal with comfrey, or the white of an egg,/ An eel skin takes the cramping from a leg”); a runaway villein (whose life belongs to the lord of his manor) hopes for freedom after a year and a day in the village, if only he can calculate the passage of time; an eel-catcher describes her rough infancy: her “starving poor [father] took me up to drown in a bucket of water.” (He relents at the sight of her “wee fingers” grasping at the sides of the bucket.) Byrd, basing his work on a 13th-century German manuscript, supplies the first page of each speaker's text with a tone-on-tone patterned border overset with a square miniature. Larger watercolors, some with more intricate borders, accompany explanatory text for added verve. The artist does not channel a medieval style; rather, he mutes his palette and angles some lines to hint at the period, but his use of cross-hatching and his mostly realistic renderings specifically welcome a contemporary readership.
BookList:The author of A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama (2006), Schlitz turns to a completely different kind of storytelling here. Using a series of interconnected monologues and dialogues featuring young people living in and around an English manor in 1255, she offers first-person character sketches that build upon each other to create a finer understanding of medieval life. The book was inspired by the necessity of creating a play suitable for a classroom where “no one wanted a small part.” Each of the 23 characters (between 10 and 15 years old) has a distinct personality and a societal role revealed not by recitation of facts but by revelation of memories, intentions, and attitudes. Sometimes in prose and more often in one of several verse forms, the writing varies nicely from one entry to the next. Historical notes appear in the vertical margins, and some double-page spreads carry short essays on topics related to individual narratives, such as falconry, the Crusades, and Jews in medieval society. Although often the characters’ specific concerns are very much of their time, their outlooks and emotional states will be familiar to young people today. Reminiscent of medieval art, Byrd’s lively ink drawings, tinted with watercolors, are a handsome addition to this well-designed book. This unusually fine collection of related monologues and dialogues promises to be a rewarding choice for performance or for reading aloud in the classroom.
School Library Journal:Gr 4–8— Schlitz helps students step directly into the shoes—and lives—of medieval children in this outstanding collection of interrelated monologues. Designed for performance and excellent for use in interdisciplinary history classrooms, the book offers students an incredibly approachable format for learning about the Middle Ages that makes the period both realistic and relevant. The text, varying from dramatic to poetic, depending on the point of view, is accompanied by historical notes that shed light on societal roles, religion, and town life. Byrd's illustrations evoke the era and give dramatists ideas for appropriate costuming and props. Browsers interested in medieval life will gravitate toward this title, while history buffs will be thrilled by the chance to make history come alive through their own voices.—Alana Abbott, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT School Library Journal, A Reed Business Information Publication
Kirkus Reviews: Schlitz takes the breath away with unabashed excellence in every direction. This wonderfully designed and produced volume contains 17 monologues for readers ten to 15, each in the voice of a character from an English town in 1255. Some are in verse; some in prose; all are interconnected. The language is rich, sinewy, romantic and plainspoken. Readers will immediately cotton to Taggot, the blacksmith's daughter, who is big and strong and plain, and is undone by the sprig of hawthorn a lord's nephew leaves on her anvil. Isobel the lord's daughter doesn't understand why the peasants throw mud at her silks, but readers will: Barbary, exhausted from caring for the baby twins with her stepmother who is pregnant again, flings the muck in frustration. Two sisters speak in tandem, as do a Jew and a Christian, who marvel in parallel at their joy in skipping stones on water. Double-page spreads called "A little background" offer lively information about falconry, The Crusades, pilgrimages and the like. Byrd's watercolor-and-ink pictures add lovely texture and evoke medieval illustration without aping it. Brilliant in every way.
Connections
Renaissance Faire- After reading the book and having children perform the monologues from memory, allow the students the pleasure of taking them to a local Renaissance faire. One local to Texas is Scarbrough Renaissance Faire and even has days of the school calendar that are specifically set up for school visits. Students get to see a live jousting tournament, get to interact with actors pretending to be people from the day, get to see authentic period costumes, and the antics people would often do in order to earn money.
If attending one as a school field trip is not possible, you could have a fair at the school instead. Invite a group of dedicated parents to help with set up, costumes, activities, and performances. A play ground would be an excellent site for the fair and tents could be set up to act as ‘booths’ for the different vendors. If possible, invite high school or college drama students to demonstrate talents such as juggling, sword fighting, or performing skits. Invite parents to set up centers for soap making, cooking, yarn spinning and/or carding, or smithing.
Schlitz, Laura Amy. 2007. GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! VOICES FROM A MEDIEVAL VILLAGE. Illus. by Robert Byrd. Candlewick Press. Cambridge, MA. ISBN 9780763615789
Plot
In this ingeniously woven collection of monologues and duets, Schlitz takes readers through a tour of being a teenager in the Medieval ages. From Lowdy’s plague of fleas, to Jacob Ben Salomon’s fear of getting stoned by Petronella because he is a Jew, this book is as enchanting as entertaining. Byrd’s illustrations in watercolor give the book a fitting ‘illuminated text’ look that is not only authentic to the time but mesmerizing in detail. Although some monologues are constructed for humor, as Taggot’s experience with a first love, many are touching as we learn how hard life is for the homeless Pask who is given kindness by Lowdy. The monologues are interspersed with sections called A Little Background, that gives more information for better understanding. This slim volume is not only illustrated, but also contains pictures of primary source materials that add to the flavor of the period.
Critical Analysis
This is a magically entertaining book for youth and adults alike. Complete with side notes, primary source pictures, and delightfully charming water color drawings, this book looks at the day to day activities of teens growing up Medieval. Surprisingly, the plights of teens have not necessarily changed much over the years. Constance, Pask, and Jacob Ben Soloman face the same prejudice as youth who are disfigured, homeless or poor, or who are a minority that students deal with today. Full of lively facts such as Lords could give their villein’s any choice of land, good or bad as they saw fit. Thus, villeins truly were depended upon the whims of their masters. Jews were not allowed to own land, could not have an official rank because they were forced to swear the truth under the name Jesus Christ, and were often forced into lending money which they were seldom repaid. I learned that Jews were forced to wear yellow stars of David then, hundreds of years before the Holocaust, where I thought the segregation originated. The use of figurative language makes life come to life for students in such phrases as “There’s a red seam down his faced where the eye melted shut,” as the description from Peirs the glassblower’s apprentice is describing his master. Giles the beggar is a modern day con artist who, with the help of his father, sells amazing cures because he limps into town on crutches and is magically healed by his father’s remedy. In summary, this is a fascinating study on the time period where the author has achieved a perfect balance of fact strung together with the creativity of fiction.
Reviews
Publishers Weekly:Schlitz (The Hero Schliemann ) wrote these 22 brief monologues to be performed by students at the school where she is a librarian; here, bolstered by lively asides and unobtrusive notes, and illuminated by Byrd's (Leonard, Beautiful Dreamer) stunningly atmospheric watercolors, they bring to life a prototypical English village in 1255. Adopting both prose and verse, the speakers, all young, range from the half-wit to the lord's daughter, who explains her privileged status as the will of God. The doctor's son shows off his skills (“Ordinary sores/ Will heal with comfrey, or the white of an egg,/ An eel skin takes the cramping from a leg”); a runaway villein (whose life belongs to the lord of his manor) hopes for freedom after a year and a day in the village, if only he can calculate the passage of time; an eel-catcher describes her rough infancy: her “starving poor [father] took me up to drown in a bucket of water.” (He relents at the sight of her “wee fingers” grasping at the sides of the bucket.) Byrd, basing his work on a 13th-century German manuscript, supplies the first page of each speaker's text with a tone-on-tone patterned border overset with a square miniature. Larger watercolors, some with more intricate borders, accompany explanatory text for added verve. The artist does not channel a medieval style; rather, he mutes his palette and angles some lines to hint at the period, but his use of cross-hatching and his mostly realistic renderings specifically welcome a contemporary readership.
BookList:The author of A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama (2006), Schlitz turns to a completely different kind of storytelling here. Using a series of interconnected monologues and dialogues featuring young people living in and around an English manor in 1255, she offers first-person character sketches that build upon each other to create a finer understanding of medieval life. The book was inspired by the necessity of creating a play suitable for a classroom where “no one wanted a small part.” Each of the 23 characters (between 10 and 15 years old) has a distinct personality and a societal role revealed not by recitation of facts but by revelation of memories, intentions, and attitudes. Sometimes in prose and more often in one of several verse forms, the writing varies nicely from one entry to the next. Historical notes appear in the vertical margins, and some double-page spreads carry short essays on topics related to individual narratives, such as falconry, the Crusades, and Jews in medieval society. Although often the characters’ specific concerns are very much of their time, their outlooks and emotional states will be familiar to young people today. Reminiscent of medieval art, Byrd’s lively ink drawings, tinted with watercolors, are a handsome addition to this well-designed book. This unusually fine collection of related monologues and dialogues promises to be a rewarding choice for performance or for reading aloud in the classroom.
School Library Journal:Gr 4–8— Schlitz helps students step directly into the shoes—and lives—of medieval children in this outstanding collection of interrelated monologues. Designed for performance and excellent for use in interdisciplinary history classrooms, the book offers students an incredibly approachable format for learning about the Middle Ages that makes the period both realistic and relevant. The text, varying from dramatic to poetic, depending on the point of view, is accompanied by historical notes that shed light on societal roles, religion, and town life. Byrd's illustrations evoke the era and give dramatists ideas for appropriate costuming and props. Browsers interested in medieval life will gravitate toward this title, while history buffs will be thrilled by the chance to make history come alive through their own voices.—Alana Abbott, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT School Library Journal, A Reed Business Information Publication
Kirkus Reviews: Schlitz takes the breath away with unabashed excellence in every direction. This wonderfully designed and produced volume contains 17 monologues for readers ten to 15, each in the voice of a character from an English town in 1255. Some are in verse; some in prose; all are interconnected. The language is rich, sinewy, romantic and plainspoken. Readers will immediately cotton to Taggot, the blacksmith's daughter, who is big and strong and plain, and is undone by the sprig of hawthorn a lord's nephew leaves on her anvil. Isobel the lord's daughter doesn't understand why the peasants throw mud at her silks, but readers will: Barbary, exhausted from caring for the baby twins with her stepmother who is pregnant again, flings the muck in frustration. Two sisters speak in tandem, as do a Jew and a Christian, who marvel in parallel at their joy in skipping stones on water. Double-page spreads called "A little background" offer lively information about falconry, The Crusades, pilgrimages and the like. Byrd's watercolor-and-ink pictures add lovely texture and evoke medieval illustration without aping it. Brilliant in every way.
Connections
Renaissance Faire- After reading the book and having children perform the monologues from memory, allow the students the pleasure of taking them to a local Renaissance faire. One local to Texas is Scarbrough Renaissance Faire and even has days of the school calendar that are specifically set up for school visits. Students get to see a live jousting tournament, get to interact with actors pretending to be people from the day, get to see authentic period costumes, and the antics people would often do in order to earn money.
If attending one as a school field trip is not possible, you could have a fair at the school instead. Invite a group of dedicated parents to help with set up, costumes, activities, and performances. A play ground would be an excellent site for the fair and tents could be set up to act as ‘booths’ for the different vendors. If possible, invite high school or college drama students to demonstrate talents such as juggling, sword fighting, or performing skits. Invite parents to set up centers for soap making, cooking, yarn spinning and/or carding, or smithing.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The Forbidden Schoolhouse
Bibliographic Information
Jurmain, Suzanne. 2005. THE FORBIDDEN SCHOOLHOUSE: THE TRUE AND DRAMATIC STORY OF PRUDENCE CRANDALL AND HER STUDENTS. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, MA. ISBN 0618473025
Plot
This is the story of how Prudence Crandall closed her school for white females and opened an all colored girls boarding school in 1833. Although history paints abolitionists as zealous liberty fighters not afraid to back away from liberty for all, Ms. Crandall’s tale is even more amazing considering her background. Born as a Quaker in a small Connecticut town, Ms. Prudence received an education despite her parents being simple farmers. She had dreams of opening a boarding house for girls, which she did, and was extremely successful as a teacher, principal and business woman. However, an interesting newspaper owned by her African American maid convicted her heart about the true injustices the African American community was facing. Ms. Crandall decided then and there she would help the freed slaves as it was the right thing to do. However, she had a school to run and the notion of opening her doors to a Negro girl never entered her mind until her maid’s friend asked if she could be accepted into the school. With the decision to accept Sarah, her future first black pupil, Ms. Crandall faced a whirlwind of opposition, especially from people she considered to be her friend. She soon realized she would have to close her doors to white students and would try to accept only black girls. During a time span of nearly two years, she educated a total of nine girls, spent a night in jail, was brought to trial twice, got married, and was granted an appeal to the Supreme Court of Errors. However, due to an increase of violent acts, Mrs. Philleo decided to close the school. The rest of her life was filled with additional turmoil as her husband was mentally ill. She tried to move away from him, but the desire to do the right thing always brought her back to his side. At the end of her eighty-sixth year of life, she died, but though she is gone, her influenced on educational equality in America is seen daily in schools across the country.
Critical Analysis
This telling of a remarkable young woman during the 1830’s is much more than a ‘just the facts’ book.
In a chronological containing the injustices and the emotions Ms. Crandall had to endure—from being asked by the nineteen year old girl Sarah to join her school, to looking at the vandalism that eventually forced Ms. Crandall to close her school—this book paints a realistic picture of pre-civil war days in Connecticut. Although modern children probably think nothing of sharing a classroom with students of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, this exposure to ignorance in our history is integral to the shaping of a character worthy to be called a United States citizen. Not only does this tale give an excellent example of how to act under fire, it also shows modern children the value of doing what is right, despite setbacks and hardships. The text is peppered with quotes from letters, accounts from trial journals, and snippets from newspapers. Color pictures depict how Ms. Crandall’s school probably looked while she operated it. And most importantly, Diane Stanley creates an exquisite glimpse into the heart of a courageous young woman. This book contains a lesson that people continue to learn close to two hundred years later. Acceptance.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal: Jurmain describes the difficulties Crandall faced when she decided to open a school for African-American females in Canterbury, CT. Although she had the support of William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the antislavery publication the Liberator; Reverend Samuel May, a Unitarian minister; and others, her hard work met resistance in the form of riots, arson, and a jail sentence. …This book offers a fresh look at the climate of education for African Americans and women in the early 1800s. Report writers and recreational readers alike will find it informative.
Booklist: Crandall's obscurity may limit the appeal of this book, though readers looking for the individual who bravely fights for the rights of others will be inspired by her dedication, strength, and moral compass. Less compelling are the details of Crandall's difficult marriage and the tidy epilogue about educational inequality and the civil rights movement. Fascinating photographs and images from period newspapers accompany many of the pages, and endnotes provide insight into the later lives of the students, Crandall, and her supporters.
Connections
Additional topics of study:
William Lloyd Garrison
The Civil War
Booker T. Washington
Underground Rail Road
President Abraham Lincoln
Frederick Douglass
Write these and other topics about the issue of equality for African Americans on cards. Students will then draw a card and conduct research about their topic. Depending on the grade, you could have them research a variety of facts about their topic such as a short biography about them, their most influential experience, and their lasting legacy on humanity. You could present this in a variety of ways from poster boards, to comic books, or go the technology route such as podcasts, powerpoints or webpages.
Jurmain, Suzanne. 2005. THE FORBIDDEN SCHOOLHOUSE: THE TRUE AND DRAMATIC STORY OF PRUDENCE CRANDALL AND HER STUDENTS. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, MA. ISBN 0618473025
Plot
This is the story of how Prudence Crandall closed her school for white females and opened an all colored girls boarding school in 1833. Although history paints abolitionists as zealous liberty fighters not afraid to back away from liberty for all, Ms. Crandall’s tale is even more amazing considering her background. Born as a Quaker in a small Connecticut town, Ms. Prudence received an education despite her parents being simple farmers. She had dreams of opening a boarding house for girls, which she did, and was extremely successful as a teacher, principal and business woman. However, an interesting newspaper owned by her African American maid convicted her heart about the true injustices the African American community was facing. Ms. Crandall decided then and there she would help the freed slaves as it was the right thing to do. However, she had a school to run and the notion of opening her doors to a Negro girl never entered her mind until her maid’s friend asked if she could be accepted into the school. With the decision to accept Sarah, her future first black pupil, Ms. Crandall faced a whirlwind of opposition, especially from people she considered to be her friend. She soon realized she would have to close her doors to white students and would try to accept only black girls. During a time span of nearly two years, she educated a total of nine girls, spent a night in jail, was brought to trial twice, got married, and was granted an appeal to the Supreme Court of Errors. However, due to an increase of violent acts, Mrs. Philleo decided to close the school. The rest of her life was filled with additional turmoil as her husband was mentally ill. She tried to move away from him, but the desire to do the right thing always brought her back to his side. At the end of her eighty-sixth year of life, she died, but though she is gone, her influenced on educational equality in America is seen daily in schools across the country.
Critical Analysis
This telling of a remarkable young woman during the 1830’s is much more than a ‘just the facts’ book.
In a chronological containing the injustices and the emotions Ms. Crandall had to endure—from being asked by the nineteen year old girl Sarah to join her school, to looking at the vandalism that eventually forced Ms. Crandall to close her school—this book paints a realistic picture of pre-civil war days in Connecticut. Although modern children probably think nothing of sharing a classroom with students of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, this exposure to ignorance in our history is integral to the shaping of a character worthy to be called a United States citizen. Not only does this tale give an excellent example of how to act under fire, it also shows modern children the value of doing what is right, despite setbacks and hardships. The text is peppered with quotes from letters, accounts from trial journals, and snippets from newspapers. Color pictures depict how Ms. Crandall’s school probably looked while she operated it. And most importantly, Diane Stanley creates an exquisite glimpse into the heart of a courageous young woman. This book contains a lesson that people continue to learn close to two hundred years later. Acceptance.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal: Jurmain describes the difficulties Crandall faced when she decided to open a school for African-American females in Canterbury, CT. Although she had the support of William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the antislavery publication the Liberator; Reverend Samuel May, a Unitarian minister; and others, her hard work met resistance in the form of riots, arson, and a jail sentence. …This book offers a fresh look at the climate of education for African Americans and women in the early 1800s. Report writers and recreational readers alike will find it informative.
Booklist: Crandall's obscurity may limit the appeal of this book, though readers looking for the individual who bravely fights for the rights of others will be inspired by her dedication, strength, and moral compass. Less compelling are the details of Crandall's difficult marriage and the tidy epilogue about educational inequality and the civil rights movement. Fascinating photographs and images from period newspapers accompany many of the pages, and endnotes provide insight into the later lives of the students, Crandall, and her supporters.
Connections
Additional topics of study:
William Lloyd Garrison
The Civil War
Booker T. Washington
Underground Rail Road
President Abraham Lincoln
Frederick Douglass
Write these and other topics about the issue of equality for African Americans on cards. Students will then draw a card and conduct research about their topic. Depending on the grade, you could have them research a variety of facts about their topic such as a short biography about them, their most influential experience, and their lasting legacy on humanity. You could present this in a variety of ways from poster boards, to comic books, or go the technology route such as podcasts, powerpoints or webpages.
Michelangelo
Bibliographic Information
Stanley, Diane. 2000. MICHELANGELO. HarperCollins Publishers. Hong Kong, China. ISBN 0688150861
Plot
This story introduces us to the talented young Michelangelo. As a boy, he lived around stone cutters and found peace within a hammer and a chisel. Although he was a gentleman, and his family wanted him to pursue a profitable career, Michelangelo was able to convince his father to become an artist. He studied fresco painting, sculpture, and even performed dissections on cadavers to more intimately understand the workings of the human body. This knowledge was evident in his work, and he soon grew in notoriety with the pope and began receiving more commissions for art than he could complete within one life time. This particular account details not only Michelangelo’s experiences, but the emotional ramifications he felt for being ugly, hot-tempered, and a loner. Despite many setbacks to his individual works of art, he flourished during the Renaissance, and has left an imprint upon the world that is still visible today.
Critical Analysis
The most unique aspect of this book is that it mixes illustration, pictures of Michelangelo’s art, and photographs in a unified and logical presentation. The text, full of interesting notes from letters, explains the driving passion of Michelangelo’s while the pictures of his creations reflect that same passion hundreds of years after their creation. Not only do we learn that Michelangelo drew pictures and small clay figures of his sculptures before he drew them, we get to witness the final result. Not only to we feel how forlorn he must have been to take care of his family, and himself, we see it in Christ’s face in his Pietà statue. We are able to view the Sistine Chapel in it’s entirety and understand why it took four years for him to complete it. We are also transported through time to Michelangelo’s world, to understand the social complexities and its effect on this great artist. An amazing book that will whet children’s appetites for aesthetic beauty, this volume provides a sound history in the humanity that we call Michelangelo.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal: As Michelangelo breathed life into stone, Stanley chisels three-dimensionality out of documents. Her bibliography lists original material as well as respected scholarship; from these sources she has crafted a picture-book biography that is as readable as it is useful. She approaches her subject chronologically, from the artist's early childhood with a wet nurse in a household of stonecutters through his long history of papal commissions to his deathbed musings. In addition to the direct (although uncited) quotes and delineation of his life's journey and major works, she provides an unobtrusive explanation of the style, technique, and meaning of Michelangelo's sculptures, architecture, and paintings. She includes an iconography of the Sistine Chapel, shown in all its restored glory. An author's note and map provide historical context, the former explaining the impact of the classical excavations on the Renaissance sensibilities. Integrating Michelangelo's art with Stanley's watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil figures and settings has the desired effect: readers will be dazzled with the master's ability, while at the same time pulled into his daily life and struggles. Stanley has manipulated his art on the computer, particularly the sculpture, to tone down the marble's gloss and definition. As a result, the images are more convincing as "works in progress." Her careful use of scale and color contribute to the success of the scenes.
Horn Book: "Biographical information is presented in an engaging manner with details selected not only to reveal the subject's character but also to whet the reader's interest. . . . Each significant phase of {the artist's} life is also depicted in illustrations reminiscent of the period and incorporating computer-manipulated images of Michelangelo's work. . . . Stanley has indeed captured in both words and pictures the essence of Michelangelo, man of the Renaissance."
Connections
Explain that Michelangelo liked stone sculpture the best out of it, painting, and architecture and that today they will be creating their own sculpture.
Items you will need:
Small toys- MCDonald’s happy meal figures, plastic animals, etc. You might want ten more than the number of students you will have to allow for picking and choosing
Plastic knifes—one for each child plus extra because they break
Bars of soap—one for each child
Explain to the children by slowly cutting away the soap, they, too, will get to discover the magic shape within their block, just like Michelangelo did with stone. Instruct children to cut away from their hands. Doing this outside or on plastic garbage bags makes clean up much easier.
Stanley, Diane. 2000. MICHELANGELO. HarperCollins Publishers. Hong Kong, China. ISBN 0688150861
Plot
This story introduces us to the talented young Michelangelo. As a boy, he lived around stone cutters and found peace within a hammer and a chisel. Although he was a gentleman, and his family wanted him to pursue a profitable career, Michelangelo was able to convince his father to become an artist. He studied fresco painting, sculpture, and even performed dissections on cadavers to more intimately understand the workings of the human body. This knowledge was evident in his work, and he soon grew in notoriety with the pope and began receiving more commissions for art than he could complete within one life time. This particular account details not only Michelangelo’s experiences, but the emotional ramifications he felt for being ugly, hot-tempered, and a loner. Despite many setbacks to his individual works of art, he flourished during the Renaissance, and has left an imprint upon the world that is still visible today.
Critical Analysis
The most unique aspect of this book is that it mixes illustration, pictures of Michelangelo’s art, and photographs in a unified and logical presentation. The text, full of interesting notes from letters, explains the driving passion of Michelangelo’s while the pictures of his creations reflect that same passion hundreds of years after their creation. Not only do we learn that Michelangelo drew pictures and small clay figures of his sculptures before he drew them, we get to witness the final result. Not only to we feel how forlorn he must have been to take care of his family, and himself, we see it in Christ’s face in his Pietà statue. We are able to view the Sistine Chapel in it’s entirety and understand why it took four years for him to complete it. We are also transported through time to Michelangelo’s world, to understand the social complexities and its effect on this great artist. An amazing book that will whet children’s appetites for aesthetic beauty, this volume provides a sound history in the humanity that we call Michelangelo.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal: As Michelangelo breathed life into stone, Stanley chisels three-dimensionality out of documents. Her bibliography lists original material as well as respected scholarship; from these sources she has crafted a picture-book biography that is as readable as it is useful. She approaches her subject chronologically, from the artist's early childhood with a wet nurse in a household of stonecutters through his long history of papal commissions to his deathbed musings. In addition to the direct (although uncited) quotes and delineation of his life's journey and major works, she provides an unobtrusive explanation of the style, technique, and meaning of Michelangelo's sculptures, architecture, and paintings. She includes an iconography of the Sistine Chapel, shown in all its restored glory. An author's note and map provide historical context, the former explaining the impact of the classical excavations on the Renaissance sensibilities. Integrating Michelangelo's art with Stanley's watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil figures and settings has the desired effect: readers will be dazzled with the master's ability, while at the same time pulled into his daily life and struggles. Stanley has manipulated his art on the computer, particularly the sculpture, to tone down the marble's gloss and definition. As a result, the images are more convincing as "works in progress." Her careful use of scale and color contribute to the success of the scenes.
Horn Book: "Biographical information is presented in an engaging manner with details selected not only to reveal the subject's character but also to whet the reader's interest. . . . Each significant phase of {the artist's} life is also depicted in illustrations reminiscent of the period and incorporating computer-manipulated images of Michelangelo's work. . . . Stanley has indeed captured in both words and pictures the essence of Michelangelo, man of the Renaissance."
Connections
Explain that Michelangelo liked stone sculpture the best out of it, painting, and architecture and that today they will be creating their own sculpture.
Items you will need:
Small toys- MCDonald’s happy meal figures, plastic animals, etc. You might want ten more than the number of students you will have to allow for picking and choosing
Plastic knifes—one for each child plus extra because they break
Bars of soap—one for each child
Explain to the children by slowly cutting away the soap, they, too, will get to discover the magic shape within their block, just like Michelangelo did with stone. Instruct children to cut away from their hands. Doing this outside or on plastic garbage bags makes clean up much easier.
Lightning
Bibliographic Information
Simon, Seymour. 1997. LIGHTNING. HarperCollin’s Children’s Books. New York, NY. ISBN 006088438X
Plot
This is a simple, hands-on book about lightning—how it is made, what it is, and the different types of lightning that exist. This book introduces the topic of lighting in an interesting way. It gives astounding statistics about the number of lightning strikes per second, the scientific reason behind how lightning is created, and offers a visual buffet of photographs of different types of lightning. Whether a reader of seven or seventy reads this book, the ease of prose and vivid way of explaining the phenomenon of lightning will certainly be an illuminating experience.
Critical Analysis
This deceptively simple picture book lures you into quickly turning pages with tantalizing facts such as the opening line, “Every second of every day more than a hundred lightning bolts strike the earth.” The sheer mental strength it takes to comprehend the amazing statistics are tempered with dazzling photographs that show the ferocity, beauty, and untamed power within a bolt of lightning. Not only does this book present new terms in italics and explain the terms in easily understood language, it offers practical advice on how to avoid being struck by lightning and what to do if you find yourself stuck outside during a storm. It also explains that thunder is the result of lighting and gives specific instructions to discover how close, or far away, the lighting is from you. In short, this book provides lively facts that seem to almost trick the reader into thinking they are reading for pleasure instead of for information.
Review Excerpts
Booklist: "Simon's simple yet dramatic description of lightning as a 'river of electricity rushing through an ocean of air' sets the tone for this excellent photo-essay. The subject is exciting, the information is amazing, and the full-color photographs are riveting, each spectacular picture more exciting than the last. Simon's explanations are concise but thorough. He includes plenty of information for student researchers--incredible statistics about lightning strikes and storms, explanations of different types of lightning (including some recently discovered ones), and information on how lightning occurs and is studied by scientists. There are also some intriguing anecdotes to add texture to the facts. The book will be a valuable addition to science classrooms and library collections serving a variety of age levels."
School Library Journal: "The stunning, vibrantly colored photographs help to explain the text, illustrating points such as the differences between the three kinds of lightning. Short, simple sentences make this topic accessible to younger readers but do not talk down to older report writers. Simon emphasizes precautions about lightning (for example, 'If you are in water, get out as soon as possible'). He also lists safe places to be if you are caught out in the open during a lightning storm.”
Connections
Making Your Own Lightning
Ask students to shuffle the bottoms of their feet on the carpet. Explain that you are becoming the cloud, and preparing your electrons to become lightning. Once the children have done this, allow them to touch a doorknob. Explain the electrons “jumped” to the metal knob because of their charge.
Types of Lightning Treasure Hunt
Print several different pictures of each of the following types of lightning. Be sure to include:
Heat lightning
Summer lightning
Sheet lightning
Ribbon lightning
Colored lightning
Ball lightning
Attach tape to the back of each picture and stick them on one side of your wall. Under the types of lightning, ask each student to take their picture and put it under the correct picture. Maybe allow the class 2 guesses and inform them that they are not all correct. Get the children to help each other and voice their opinions for why the lightning should be in one category and not the other.
Simon, Seymour. 1997. LIGHTNING. HarperCollin’s Children’s Books. New York, NY. ISBN 006088438X
Plot
This is a simple, hands-on book about lightning—how it is made, what it is, and the different types of lightning that exist. This book introduces the topic of lighting in an interesting way. It gives astounding statistics about the number of lightning strikes per second, the scientific reason behind how lightning is created, and offers a visual buffet of photographs of different types of lightning. Whether a reader of seven or seventy reads this book, the ease of prose and vivid way of explaining the phenomenon of lightning will certainly be an illuminating experience.
Critical Analysis
This deceptively simple picture book lures you into quickly turning pages with tantalizing facts such as the opening line, “Every second of every day more than a hundred lightning bolts strike the earth.” The sheer mental strength it takes to comprehend the amazing statistics are tempered with dazzling photographs that show the ferocity, beauty, and untamed power within a bolt of lightning. Not only does this book present new terms in italics and explain the terms in easily understood language, it offers practical advice on how to avoid being struck by lightning and what to do if you find yourself stuck outside during a storm. It also explains that thunder is the result of lighting and gives specific instructions to discover how close, or far away, the lighting is from you. In short, this book provides lively facts that seem to almost trick the reader into thinking they are reading for pleasure instead of for information.
Review Excerpts
Booklist: "Simon's simple yet dramatic description of lightning as a 'river of electricity rushing through an ocean of air' sets the tone for this excellent photo-essay. The subject is exciting, the information is amazing, and the full-color photographs are riveting, each spectacular picture more exciting than the last. Simon's explanations are concise but thorough. He includes plenty of information for student researchers--incredible statistics about lightning strikes and storms, explanations of different types of lightning (including some recently discovered ones), and information on how lightning occurs and is studied by scientists. There are also some intriguing anecdotes to add texture to the facts. The book will be a valuable addition to science classrooms and library collections serving a variety of age levels."
School Library Journal: "The stunning, vibrantly colored photographs help to explain the text, illustrating points such as the differences between the three kinds of lightning. Short, simple sentences make this topic accessible to younger readers but do not talk down to older report writers. Simon emphasizes precautions about lightning (for example, 'If you are in water, get out as soon as possible'). He also lists safe places to be if you are caught out in the open during a lightning storm.”
Connections
Making Your Own Lightning
Ask students to shuffle the bottoms of their feet on the carpet. Explain that you are becoming the cloud, and preparing your electrons to become lightning. Once the children have done this, allow them to touch a doorknob. Explain the electrons “jumped” to the metal knob because of their charge.
Types of Lightning Treasure Hunt
Print several different pictures of each of the following types of lightning. Be sure to include:
Heat lightning
Summer lightning
Sheet lightning
Ribbon lightning
Colored lightning
Ball lightning
Attach tape to the back of each picture and stick them on one side of your wall. Under the types of lightning, ask each student to take their picture and put it under the correct picture. Maybe allow the class 2 guesses and inform them that they are not all correct. Get the children to help each other and voice their opinions for why the lightning should be in one category and not the other.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Stop Pretending
Bibliographic Information
Sones, Sonya. 1999. STOP PRETENDING. HarperCollins Publishers. New York, NY. ISBN 0060283866
Plot
This collection of free verse poems is the life experience of a thirteen year old girl who has watched her nineteen year old sister be committed to a psychiatric ward. Through free verse poems, Sones describes the loss of her sister, the breakup of her family, and the powerlessness she feels during the entire event. This collection explores the experiences of the girl’s mother who grows severely depressed, her father’s way of handling things with alcohol, and her fears of also going crazy. In a moment of weakness, she tells her friends about her situation, and instead of supporting her, they end up snubbing her and help circulate the rumor about her sister’s crazy condition. Sones even discusses her situation when she was lost in the hospital and was accosted by another patient, describes the wonderful outing with her new friend that abruptly ends with her getting ‘felt-up’ by her friends’ brother, and the sweet bliss of a first love. This specific book ends with an explanation of her sister’s condition and resources to get help for mental illness.
Critical Analysis
For any child who has gone through severe trauma, the emotions that are left behind are confusing, frightening, and, unfortunately, ignored. Sones, however, has shed light to her innermost experiences in fresh and figurative language that keeps the reader hooked to the end of the book. Her free verse poems offer various rhythms, beats, and cadences in a gentle and understanding way on a subject that can be otherwise uncomfortable to discuss. The amazing thing about this collection of poems is written as if she is a close friend, whispering her thoughts and feelings to you through the telephone late one night when everyone else has gone to sleep. She openly shares her fears, her insecurities, and a few memorable moments that make the tough times seem not so bad in an elegant and friendly style . The most interesting fact about Sones’ poems is how she will often play on words to make her point. In the poem “Instead of Studying During Study Hall,” she makes her point: “She’s not my real sister./ I don’t have/ any/of the same genes as her,/ not one single same gene,/not one/single/insane/gene.” This same type of emphasis is made in the poem “First Date.” “Our eyes/are glued to the/ screen, but our thoughts are glued/ to the spot where are elbows are/touching.” In a thin little volume, this book of poetry helps one deal with the uncertainty of any unsettling family event, and sheds light into the stereotyping of mental illness.
Review Excerpts
Kirkus: In a story based on real events, and told in poems, Sones explores what happened and how she reacted when her adored older sister suddenly began screaming and hearing voices in her head, and was ultimately hospitalized. Individually, the poems appear simple and unremarkable, snapshot portraits of two sisters, a family, unfaithful friends, and a sweet first love. Collected, they take on life and movement, the individual frames of a movie that in the unspooling become animated, telling a compelling tale and presenting a painful passage through young adolescence. The form, a story-in-poems, fits the story remarkably well, spotlighting the musings of the 13-year-old narrator, and pinpointing the emotions powerfully. She copes with friends who snub her, worries that she, too, will go mad, and watches her sister's slow recovery. To a budding genre…this book is a welcome addition.
School Library Journal: An unpretentious, accessible book that could provide entry points for a discussion about mental illness-its stigma, its realities, and its affect on family members. Based on the journals Sones wrote at the age of 13 when her 19-year-old sister was hospitalized due to manic depression, the simply crafted but deeply felt poems reflect her thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams during that troubling time. In one poem, the narrator fears that "If I stay/any longer/than an hour,/ I'll see that my eyes/have turned into her eyes,/my lips/have turned into her lips, ." She dreads having her friends learn of her sister's illness. "If I told them that my sister's nuts,/they might act sympathetic,/but behind my back/would everyone laugh?" and wonders what she could have done to prevent the breakdown. All of the emotions and feelings are here, the tightness in the teen's chest when thinking about her sibling in the hospital, her grocery list of adjectives for mental illness, and the honest truth in the collection's smallest poem, "I don't want to see you./I dread it./There./I've said it." An insightful author's note and brief list of organizations are included.
Connections
Try to invite someone from the community who lives successfully with a mental disorder to speak to students about it. In fact the more people to form a panel, the better. Discuss many of the issues brought up in the book:
Family reaction
Stereotypes against mental illness
Jokes
How friends/family reacted to it
Treatment
Ways to get help
Follow up with showing several clips of the new movie LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, a gentle and heart warming movie about a town that embraces a doll a man insists is a real girl. Discuss how easy it would be for people to laugh at their situation and ignore it. Instead, focus on the positive choices his family makes, people in the church make, and his co-workers make to eventually deal with the doll’s death, and his interest in a real human woman.
Sones, Sonya. 1999. STOP PRETENDING. HarperCollins Publishers. New York, NY. ISBN 0060283866
Plot
This collection of free verse poems is the life experience of a thirteen year old girl who has watched her nineteen year old sister be committed to a psychiatric ward. Through free verse poems, Sones describes the loss of her sister, the breakup of her family, and the powerlessness she feels during the entire event. This collection explores the experiences of the girl’s mother who grows severely depressed, her father’s way of handling things with alcohol, and her fears of also going crazy. In a moment of weakness, she tells her friends about her situation, and instead of supporting her, they end up snubbing her and help circulate the rumor about her sister’s crazy condition. Sones even discusses her situation when she was lost in the hospital and was accosted by another patient, describes the wonderful outing with her new friend that abruptly ends with her getting ‘felt-up’ by her friends’ brother, and the sweet bliss of a first love. This specific book ends with an explanation of her sister’s condition and resources to get help for mental illness.
Critical Analysis
For any child who has gone through severe trauma, the emotions that are left behind are confusing, frightening, and, unfortunately, ignored. Sones, however, has shed light to her innermost experiences in fresh and figurative language that keeps the reader hooked to the end of the book. Her free verse poems offer various rhythms, beats, and cadences in a gentle and understanding way on a subject that can be otherwise uncomfortable to discuss. The amazing thing about this collection of poems is written as if she is a close friend, whispering her thoughts and feelings to you through the telephone late one night when everyone else has gone to sleep. She openly shares her fears, her insecurities, and a few memorable moments that make the tough times seem not so bad in an elegant and friendly style . The most interesting fact about Sones’ poems is how she will often play on words to make her point. In the poem “Instead of Studying During Study Hall,” she makes her point: “She’s not my real sister./ I don’t have/ any/of the same genes as her,/ not one single same gene,/not one/single/insane/gene.” This same type of emphasis is made in the poem “First Date.” “Our eyes/are glued to the/ screen, but our thoughts are glued/ to the spot where are elbows are/touching.” In a thin little volume, this book of poetry helps one deal with the uncertainty of any unsettling family event, and sheds light into the stereotyping of mental illness.
Review Excerpts
Kirkus: In a story based on real events, and told in poems, Sones explores what happened and how she reacted when her adored older sister suddenly began screaming and hearing voices in her head, and was ultimately hospitalized. Individually, the poems appear simple and unremarkable, snapshot portraits of two sisters, a family, unfaithful friends, and a sweet first love. Collected, they take on life and movement, the individual frames of a movie that in the unspooling become animated, telling a compelling tale and presenting a painful passage through young adolescence. The form, a story-in-poems, fits the story remarkably well, spotlighting the musings of the 13-year-old narrator, and pinpointing the emotions powerfully. She copes with friends who snub her, worries that she, too, will go mad, and watches her sister's slow recovery. To a budding genre…this book is a welcome addition.
School Library Journal: An unpretentious, accessible book that could provide entry points for a discussion about mental illness-its stigma, its realities, and its affect on family members. Based on the journals Sones wrote at the age of 13 when her 19-year-old sister was hospitalized due to manic depression, the simply crafted but deeply felt poems reflect her thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams during that troubling time. In one poem, the narrator fears that "If I stay/any longer/than an hour,/ I'll see that my eyes/have turned into her eyes,/my lips/have turned into her lips, ." She dreads having her friends learn of her sister's illness. "If I told them that my sister's nuts,/they might act sympathetic,/but behind my back/would everyone laugh?" and wonders what she could have done to prevent the breakdown. All of the emotions and feelings are here, the tightness in the teen's chest when thinking about her sibling in the hospital, her grocery list of adjectives for mental illness, and the honest truth in the collection's smallest poem, "I don't want to see you./I dread it./There./I've said it." An insightful author's note and brief list of organizations are included.
Connections
Try to invite someone from the community who lives successfully with a mental disorder to speak to students about it. In fact the more people to form a panel, the better. Discuss many of the issues brought up in the book:
Family reaction
Stereotypes against mental illness
Jokes
How friends/family reacted to it
Treatment
Ways to get help
Follow up with showing several clips of the new movie LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, a gentle and heart warming movie about a town that embraces a doll a man insists is a real girl. Discuss how easy it would be for people to laugh at their situation and ignore it. Instead, focus on the positive choices his family makes, people in the church make, and his co-workers make to eventually deal with the doll’s death, and his interest in a real human woman.
A Suitcase of Seaweed and Other Poems
Bibliographic Information
Wong, Janet S. 1996. A SUITCASE OF SEAWEED AND OTHER POEMS. Simon & Shuster Children’s Publishing Division. New York, NY. ISBN 0689807880
Plot
Janet S. Wong has created an amazing view into the personal world of a Chinese Korean American. Based on her own life with a Korean mother, a Chinese father, and living in America, these thirty-six poems are ‘classified’ according to the ethnic heritage she remembers having for the inspiration of the poem. Her poems vary greatly in length, style, and subject matter. They are all similar in all the free-verse poems humorously look at life with charm, nostalgia, and tenderness. No subject is taboo to her. From “Love at First Sight” where she discusses her mother and father’s courtship, to her eating soup in “Beef Bone Soup,” to the marked difference she feels at being different in “Other,” Wong shares the essence of growing up in a nation grown for nationalizing all types of foreign nationals.
Critical Analysis
The sheer emotion in these poems allows you to become Wong when she was a little girl. In the heartfelt “Quilt,” we see that although Wong’s life growing up seems as if it were made of many tiny, unrelated pieces, it fits together to keep her spirit and soul “warm” despite the “bitter cold” she might face outside of her home. The rhythm and the lack of rhyme in the majority of her poems paint a metaphor for her own life—a life that all children from two separate cultures must learn to view as the American experience. In a seemingly senseless pattern to her life, she slowly realizes her life makes sense, and is deftly able to express these thoughts and feelings through her careful choice of language, imagery, and wit. This tiny volume smattered with a few drawings by the poet herself would bring comfort, joy, with a twinkling grin to students who might be experiencing the loneliness and confusion in growing up in our country today. In summary, this poetry collection holds the power to help young adults make sense of their world and who they are in it.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal: "Wong was born in America of Chinese and Korean heritage,but the basic subjects she addresses in neat stanzas of free verseaim at the heart of any family, any race."
Kirkus Reviews: "Neat, well-turned poems, monologues, and aphorisms . . . The imagery is choice, the thoughts pointed and careful, the vocabulary attractive: In many of the pieces comedy and delicacy mingle in a single line."
Connections
After reading a few poems about being different, such as
When I Grow Up
After a Dinner of Fish
Sisters
Marathon
Manners
Face It
Other
Straight A’s invite students to write a poem that shows ways in which they feel different from other people. Assure students they do not have to share them, but if they wish, have any and all volunteers present their poems. Perhaps discuss how you felt different as a child to assure children their feelings are normal.
Wong, Janet S. 1996. A SUITCASE OF SEAWEED AND OTHER POEMS. Simon & Shuster Children’s Publishing Division. New York, NY. ISBN 0689807880
Plot
Janet S. Wong has created an amazing view into the personal world of a Chinese Korean American. Based on her own life with a Korean mother, a Chinese father, and living in America, these thirty-six poems are ‘classified’ according to the ethnic heritage she remembers having for the inspiration of the poem. Her poems vary greatly in length, style, and subject matter. They are all similar in all the free-verse poems humorously look at life with charm, nostalgia, and tenderness. No subject is taboo to her. From “Love at First Sight” where she discusses her mother and father’s courtship, to her eating soup in “Beef Bone Soup,” to the marked difference she feels at being different in “Other,” Wong shares the essence of growing up in a nation grown for nationalizing all types of foreign nationals.
Critical Analysis
The sheer emotion in these poems allows you to become Wong when she was a little girl. In the heartfelt “Quilt,” we see that although Wong’s life growing up seems as if it were made of many tiny, unrelated pieces, it fits together to keep her spirit and soul “warm” despite the “bitter cold” she might face outside of her home. The rhythm and the lack of rhyme in the majority of her poems paint a metaphor for her own life—a life that all children from two separate cultures must learn to view as the American experience. In a seemingly senseless pattern to her life, she slowly realizes her life makes sense, and is deftly able to express these thoughts and feelings through her careful choice of language, imagery, and wit. This tiny volume smattered with a few drawings by the poet herself would bring comfort, joy, with a twinkling grin to students who might be experiencing the loneliness and confusion in growing up in our country today. In summary, this poetry collection holds the power to help young adults make sense of their world and who they are in it.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal: "Wong was born in America of Chinese and Korean heritage,but the basic subjects she addresses in neat stanzas of free verseaim at the heart of any family, any race."
Kirkus Reviews: "Neat, well-turned poems, monologues, and aphorisms . . . The imagery is choice, the thoughts pointed and careful, the vocabulary attractive: In many of the pieces comedy and delicacy mingle in a single line."
Connections
After reading a few poems about being different, such as
When I Grow Up
After a Dinner of Fish
Sisters
Marathon
Manners
Face It
Other
Straight A’s invite students to write a poem that shows ways in which they feel different from other people. Assure students they do not have to share them, but if they wish, have any and all volunteers present their poems. Perhaps discuss how you felt different as a child to assure children their feelings are normal.
My Parents Think I'm Sleeping
Bibliographic Information
Prelutsky, Jack. 1985. MY PARENTS THINK I’M SLEEPING. Illus. by Yossi Abolafia. Greenwillow Books. New York, NY. ISBN 0688040187.
Plot
This collection of fourteen poems is a wonderful array of musings about night time from a child’s perspective. Yossi Abolafia’s drawings capture the wit, the wisdom, and the timelessness of such situations as reading under the covers with a flashlight, wondering where the color from things goes at night, and reassuring oneself that a monster can go away if you turn on the light. Prelutsky’s style of verse lends itself charmingly to the fears that night can bring into the overactive mind of a child, and Abolafia’s pencil drawings add an extra layer of humor that children will find especially satisfying. To see this, read the poems Chocolate Cake, Tonight is Impossibly Noisy, and Rain to see how both artists compliment one another’s work. Offering a variety of poems about monsters, shadows, stars, and not falling asleep, this would be a wonderful tool for parents, librarians, and early child care providers about human response to the change of day into night.
Critical Analysis
After doing a bit of research because I was curious as to why Prelutsky stuck with his specific stanza style of rhyming poetry, I learned he actually studied to be an opera singer. Hence the reason for the rhythmic style in his poems. The language Prelutsky uses is simply perfect for young readers—it is as if he was able to transport himself back to his own year as age seven to write these poems. Such phrases as ‘model rocket kit,’ ‘out of tune elephant orchestra,’ and ‘I’d fill the air with roars’ delight imaginations and stir the imagination to bring these images to life. Naturally, the majority of emotion many children face is in regards to fearing a monster at night. However, Prelutsky also ponders the quiet dream land and peace also associated with evening. This is a fantastic book of poetry because it validates fears and possible questions a child may face in a light-hearted way. It is satisfying to adults, too, who once in a while still ponder about spooky shadows and neighborhood noises, and makes one realize these are universal experiences to human beings of all cultures, religions, and ages.
Review Excerpts
Kirkus-First published as a Greenwillow stand-alone in 1985, this welcome I Can Read entry features Abolafia's updated, full-color illustrations for Prelutsky's 14 poetic explorations of the not-too-scary night. Prelutsky engages the reader conspiratorially by leading with the title poem, for which the artist supplies the resourceful brown-haired narrator with flash-lit books and model rocket parts, substituting an electronic game gadget for the earlier transistor radio. The pictures provide some amusing extensions. The lad dreamily plans his nighttime snack attack in "Chocolate Cake:" "I will slip into the kitchen/ without any noise or light, / and if I'm really careful, / I will have that cake tonight." In the facing picture, he catches his like-minded dad with cake in hand, cheeks bulging. The poems focus on gentle, philosophical musings about day, night, sun and sky, and the boy's mastery of his own nighttime fears is a developmentally appropriate touch. A nicely repackaged addition to a genre much needed within the easy-reader realm: poetry.
School Library Journal
Prelutsky turns his rollicking poetry talents to the problems and thoughts of bedtime. Unlike his Nightmares (Greenwillow, 1976), the night visions in these 14 poems are lighthearted rather than scary. “A Spooky Sort of Shadow” is really just a brush and a comb; the monster in “When I’m Very Nearly Sleeping” can be frightened away by a bedside light. Abolafia’s drawings, accompanying each poem, reinforce the book’s domestic, comfortable tone. A literary dessert for collections that, like the narrator of the poem “Chocolate Cake” have “got an empty space.”
Connections
Instead of reading this entire book at once use specific poems to tie-in with other picture books.
Read the poem “When I’m Very Nearly Sleeping” and introduce the picture book WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE ISBN 0060254920
Read the poem “I’m Awake! I’m Awake!” and introduce the picture book GOOD NIGHT, MOON ISBN 0060775858
Read the poem “A Million Candles” and introduce the picture book MANY MOONS ISBN 015251872X
Read the poem “Tonight is Impossibly Noisy” and introduce the picture book JUMANJI ISBN 0395304482
Prelutsky, Jack. 1985. MY PARENTS THINK I’M SLEEPING. Illus. by Yossi Abolafia. Greenwillow Books. New York, NY. ISBN 0688040187.
Plot
This collection of fourteen poems is a wonderful array of musings about night time from a child’s perspective. Yossi Abolafia’s drawings capture the wit, the wisdom, and the timelessness of such situations as reading under the covers with a flashlight, wondering where the color from things goes at night, and reassuring oneself that a monster can go away if you turn on the light. Prelutsky’s style of verse lends itself charmingly to the fears that night can bring into the overactive mind of a child, and Abolafia’s pencil drawings add an extra layer of humor that children will find especially satisfying. To see this, read the poems Chocolate Cake, Tonight is Impossibly Noisy, and Rain to see how both artists compliment one another’s work. Offering a variety of poems about monsters, shadows, stars, and not falling asleep, this would be a wonderful tool for parents, librarians, and early child care providers about human response to the change of day into night.
Critical Analysis
After doing a bit of research because I was curious as to why Prelutsky stuck with his specific stanza style of rhyming poetry, I learned he actually studied to be an opera singer. Hence the reason for the rhythmic style in his poems. The language Prelutsky uses is simply perfect for young readers—it is as if he was able to transport himself back to his own year as age seven to write these poems. Such phrases as ‘model rocket kit,’ ‘out of tune elephant orchestra,’ and ‘I’d fill the air with roars’ delight imaginations and stir the imagination to bring these images to life. Naturally, the majority of emotion many children face is in regards to fearing a monster at night. However, Prelutsky also ponders the quiet dream land and peace also associated with evening. This is a fantastic book of poetry because it validates fears and possible questions a child may face in a light-hearted way. It is satisfying to adults, too, who once in a while still ponder about spooky shadows and neighborhood noises, and makes one realize these are universal experiences to human beings of all cultures, religions, and ages.
Review Excerpts
Kirkus-First published as a Greenwillow stand-alone in 1985, this welcome I Can Read entry features Abolafia's updated, full-color illustrations for Prelutsky's 14 poetic explorations of the not-too-scary night. Prelutsky engages the reader conspiratorially by leading with the title poem, for which the artist supplies the resourceful brown-haired narrator with flash-lit books and model rocket parts, substituting an electronic game gadget for the earlier transistor radio. The pictures provide some amusing extensions. The lad dreamily plans his nighttime snack attack in "Chocolate Cake:" "I will slip into the kitchen/ without any noise or light, / and if I'm really careful, / I will have that cake tonight." In the facing picture, he catches his like-minded dad with cake in hand, cheeks bulging. The poems focus on gentle, philosophical musings about day, night, sun and sky, and the boy's mastery of his own nighttime fears is a developmentally appropriate touch. A nicely repackaged addition to a genre much needed within the easy-reader realm: poetry.
School Library Journal
Prelutsky turns his rollicking poetry talents to the problems and thoughts of bedtime. Unlike his Nightmares (Greenwillow, 1976), the night visions in these 14 poems are lighthearted rather than scary. “A Spooky Sort of Shadow” is really just a brush and a comb; the monster in “When I’m Very Nearly Sleeping” can be frightened away by a bedside light. Abolafia’s drawings, accompanying each poem, reinforce the book’s domestic, comfortable tone. A literary dessert for collections that, like the narrator of the poem “Chocolate Cake” have “got an empty space.”
Connections
Instead of reading this entire book at once use specific poems to tie-in with other picture books.
Read the poem “When I’m Very Nearly Sleeping” and introduce the picture book WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE ISBN 0060254920
Read the poem “I’m Awake! I’m Awake!” and introduce the picture book GOOD NIGHT, MOON ISBN 0060775858
Read the poem “A Million Candles” and introduce the picture book MANY MOONS ISBN 015251872X
Read the poem “Tonight is Impossibly Noisy” and introduce the picture book JUMANJI ISBN 0395304482
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters
Bibliographic Information
McKissack, Patricia C. 2006. PORCH LIES: TALES OF SLICKESTERS, TRICKSTERS AND OTHER WILY CHARACTERS. Illus. by André Carrilho. Schwartz & Wade Books. New York, NY. ISBN 037593619X
Plot Summary
Ten tales that a woman heard when she was a little girl sitting on the porch of her grandparents house in Tennessee is the basis for this collection of tall tales. Except for the nonsense tale The Earth Bone and the King of Ghosts, every other story offers a life lesson hidden in the extraordinary folds of a well-developed tale. In the mood for a ghost story? A Grave Situation will offer just the right blend of doubt and faith to stir your heart strings and make you rethink every promise you make. Prefer a slide-splitting yarn? The Greatest Lie Ever Told and The Earth Bone and the King of Ghosts will deliver plenty of smiles. Want to root for the underdog and have a happy ending? Change and the remaining stories in this collection will deliver a whopping good time.
Critical Analysis
The black and white that is often used to judge good and bad, and race, is exposed in these masterfully crafted pictures of the misguided heroes of these tales. The shading in each of these pictures provides a parallel to each hero in the story: while most of the background is in white, the degree of detail shows us a visual balance of black and white in each portrait. This visual symbolism is of the theme is eloquently stated in the tale Cake Norris Lives On: “He aine good enough or bad enough to live in either place [heaven or hell].” All people have good qualities and qualities that they are trying to improve. Each story sheds light on various facets of this fact in these masterfully crafted African-American tales. The tale Change, for example, exposes the concept of truth, and how although a person tries to believe the good in people, their own misguided opinions can overshadow reality. Aunt Gran and the Outlaws is a perfect example of giving each person the benefit of the doubt. Although Aunt Gran is repeated warned that the two business men of Tom and John Howard are the notorious thieves Frank and Jesse James, she insists on allowing her to form her opinion of them based on how they act to her. This lesson alone is worth it’s weight in gold, especially for young children who are taught the message that different is bad so terrifyingly early in their lives. The picture of Dooly Hunter at the microphone telling the best lie ever told, from the story of the same name, is a seamless blend of cartoon, real-life-picture, and air spray paint. Isn’t that the definition of human nature? Fantasy, reality and a bit of coloring; either rose red tinting of an optimistic nature or dreary grey of the sky-is-falling-in persuasion. Written with charm, wit, and truth, the only disappointing thing about this book is that it lacks a second volume.
Review Excerpts
*School Library Journal: “These 10 literate stories make for great leisure listening and knowing chuckles. …They contain the ‘essence of truth but are fiction from beginning to end,’ an amalgam of old stories, characters, jokes, setups, and motifs. As such, they have no provenance. Still, it would have helped readers unfamiliar with African-American history to have an author's note helping separate the "truth" of these lies that allude to Depression-era African-American and Southern traditions. That aside, they're great fun to read aloud and the tricksters, sharpies, slicksters, and outlaws wink knowingly at the child narrators, and at us foolish humans.”
*Kirkus Reviews: “These tales all lend themselves to telling or reading aloud, and carry the common theme that even the worst rascals have saving graces.”
*Hornbook: “It’s a clever idea: McKissack presents ten original trickster stories tailored for children with a child narrator in each one, for immediate and lasting identification. McKissack contextualizes the stories, too, more fully and circumstantially than she did in The Dark-Thirty. “The Best Lie Ever Told” (“I aine never told no lie before”) scores on its crafty staging; and the concluding two-part story about rascally Cake Norris, on the ascent into Heaven and the descent into Hell, is a humdinger. Grandly melodramatic black-and-white illustrations capture the mood of the stories and the flavor of the period.”
Connections
In a series of three lessons, present a selection or two from PORCH LIES to students.
Lesson 1
Decorate the area as if you are a cavewoman living in the time of prehistoric man. Set up a campfire and perhaps tie fake animal fabric over your clothes toga style. Silently greet your students by leading them to sit in a circle around the campfire. Using only grunts and body language, explain to the students the story of a simple hunt. Be sure to exaggerate your facial expressions and gestures and if possible use prop animals to explain how you waited in the bush and were able to spear and antelope. Once you have finished, you now begin to speak and allow the children to know you are back to yourself again. Ask what the students saw in the story. Explain this is how stories were shared hundreds of years ago. If time permits, have students act out simple pantomime situations such as the following:
Lost a tooth
Got a surprise present
Lost the ‘big’ game
Tripped and got an injury
Won a game of checkers
Lesson 2
Now decorate your area as if you are in an Indian tipi. It will help if you have such artifacts present as a peace pipe, sage, or authentic deerskin clothing. Present a book on Native American lore or tell one story from a collection (see previous blog posting). After you have shared this tale, make a venn diagram showing the differences and similarities of both the tale in the cave and the tale in the tipi. If time permits, take a few moments to display some of the items you have brought with you. Remember that some children are tactile learners and love to touch and handle objects for better understanding! Then, allow at least 15 minutes for a discussion on what types of objects have special importance in their home. Invite children to share their objects, their meanings, and why it is so important within their culture. If you are comfortable talking about a diverse group of cultures, you are helping children to become better ease with it as well.
Lesson 3
Invite a storyteller to share one or two of the stories from PORCH LIES. Once the tale(s) is(are) finished, either you or the storyteller should emphasize what character traits are considered to be valued and appreciated within this little girl’s porch time. If you share the story Change, be sure to discuss honesty with students. Next, follow up with questions such as how this can be an important trait today. Ask students to share a time when they were honest. Did they feel good about themselves? Explain this is being proud of your choices and assure them when they are proud of themselves, their parents, friends, and teachers are proud of them, too.
McKissack, Patricia C. 2006. PORCH LIES: TALES OF SLICKESTERS, TRICKSTERS AND OTHER WILY CHARACTERS. Illus. by André Carrilho. Schwartz & Wade Books. New York, NY. ISBN 037593619X
Plot Summary
Ten tales that a woman heard when she was a little girl sitting on the porch of her grandparents house in Tennessee is the basis for this collection of tall tales. Except for the nonsense tale The Earth Bone and the King of Ghosts, every other story offers a life lesson hidden in the extraordinary folds of a well-developed tale. In the mood for a ghost story? A Grave Situation will offer just the right blend of doubt and faith to stir your heart strings and make you rethink every promise you make. Prefer a slide-splitting yarn? The Greatest Lie Ever Told and The Earth Bone and the King of Ghosts will deliver plenty of smiles. Want to root for the underdog and have a happy ending? Change and the remaining stories in this collection will deliver a whopping good time.
Critical Analysis
The black and white that is often used to judge good and bad, and race, is exposed in these masterfully crafted pictures of the misguided heroes of these tales. The shading in each of these pictures provides a parallel to each hero in the story: while most of the background is in white, the degree of detail shows us a visual balance of black and white in each portrait. This visual symbolism is of the theme is eloquently stated in the tale Cake Norris Lives On: “He aine good enough or bad enough to live in either place [heaven or hell].” All people have good qualities and qualities that they are trying to improve. Each story sheds light on various facets of this fact in these masterfully crafted African-American tales. The tale Change, for example, exposes the concept of truth, and how although a person tries to believe the good in people, their own misguided opinions can overshadow reality. Aunt Gran and the Outlaws is a perfect example of giving each person the benefit of the doubt. Although Aunt Gran is repeated warned that the two business men of Tom and John Howard are the notorious thieves Frank and Jesse James, she insists on allowing her to form her opinion of them based on how they act to her. This lesson alone is worth it’s weight in gold, especially for young children who are taught the message that different is bad so terrifyingly early in their lives. The picture of Dooly Hunter at the microphone telling the best lie ever told, from the story of the same name, is a seamless blend of cartoon, real-life-picture, and air spray paint. Isn’t that the definition of human nature? Fantasy, reality and a bit of coloring; either rose red tinting of an optimistic nature or dreary grey of the sky-is-falling-in persuasion. Written with charm, wit, and truth, the only disappointing thing about this book is that it lacks a second volume.
Review Excerpts
*School Library Journal: “These 10 literate stories make for great leisure listening and knowing chuckles. …They contain the ‘essence of truth but are fiction from beginning to end,’ an amalgam of old stories, characters, jokes, setups, and motifs. As such, they have no provenance. Still, it would have helped readers unfamiliar with African-American history to have an author's note helping separate the "truth" of these lies that allude to Depression-era African-American and Southern traditions. That aside, they're great fun to read aloud and the tricksters, sharpies, slicksters, and outlaws wink knowingly at the child narrators, and at us foolish humans.”
*Kirkus Reviews: “These tales all lend themselves to telling or reading aloud, and carry the common theme that even the worst rascals have saving graces.”
*Hornbook: “It’s a clever idea: McKissack presents ten original trickster stories tailored for children with a child narrator in each one, for immediate and lasting identification. McKissack contextualizes the stories, too, more fully and circumstantially than she did in The Dark-Thirty. “The Best Lie Ever Told” (“I aine never told no lie before”) scores on its crafty staging; and the concluding two-part story about rascally Cake Norris, on the ascent into Heaven and the descent into Hell, is a humdinger. Grandly melodramatic black-and-white illustrations capture the mood of the stories and the flavor of the period.”
Connections
In a series of three lessons, present a selection or two from PORCH LIES to students.
Lesson 1
Decorate the area as if you are a cavewoman living in the time of prehistoric man. Set up a campfire and perhaps tie fake animal fabric over your clothes toga style. Silently greet your students by leading them to sit in a circle around the campfire. Using only grunts and body language, explain to the students the story of a simple hunt. Be sure to exaggerate your facial expressions and gestures and if possible use prop animals to explain how you waited in the bush and were able to spear and antelope. Once you have finished, you now begin to speak and allow the children to know you are back to yourself again. Ask what the students saw in the story. Explain this is how stories were shared hundreds of years ago. If time permits, have students act out simple pantomime situations such as the following:
Lost a tooth
Got a surprise present
Lost the ‘big’ game
Tripped and got an injury
Won a game of checkers
Lesson 2
Now decorate your area as if you are in an Indian tipi. It will help if you have such artifacts present as a peace pipe, sage, or authentic deerskin clothing. Present a book on Native American lore or tell one story from a collection (see previous blog posting). After you have shared this tale, make a venn diagram showing the differences and similarities of both the tale in the cave and the tale in the tipi. If time permits, take a few moments to display some of the items you have brought with you. Remember that some children are tactile learners and love to touch and handle objects for better understanding! Then, allow at least 15 minutes for a discussion on what types of objects have special importance in their home. Invite children to share their objects, their meanings, and why it is so important within their culture. If you are comfortable talking about a diverse group of cultures, you are helping children to become better ease with it as well.
Lesson 3
Invite a storyteller to share one or two of the stories from PORCH LIES. Once the tale(s) is(are) finished, either you or the storyteller should emphasize what character traits are considered to be valued and appreciated within this little girl’s porch time. If you share the story Change, be sure to discuss honesty with students. Next, follow up with questions such as how this can be an important trait today. Ask students to share a time when they were honest. Did they feel good about themselves? Explain this is being proud of your choices and assure them when they are proud of themselves, their parents, friends, and teachers are proud of them, too.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Return of the Buffaloes
Biblographic Information
Goble, Paul. 1996. THE RETURN OF THE BUFFALOES. National Geographic Society. Washington, D.C. ISBN 079222714X
Plot Summary
A tribe has been many moons without food. The buffalo, the deer and all other game are gone. Children are crying out in hunger. The tribe must do something to find food. Two young warriors are sent out to look for the buffalo. The young men wander and wander. Just as they agree they would rather die than return to the camp without food, they meet a mysterious woman who ushers them into her cave. Actually, it is a tipi, and thousands of buffalo are painted on the walls. She asks them why it took them so long to find her and she promises them she will send the buffalo soon. The young men race back to the camp. Immediately, all the members of the tribe pack up gifts to take back to the woman. Though they all wait outside her tipi…rather, a cave now…she does not come out. The gifts are left and the tribe returns to camp. In the middle of the night a great storm begins crashing all around the campsite. Only, instead of thunder and lightening, it is the buffaloes who have returned.
Critical Analysis
The language of this story is so beautifully woven that it is hard to separate the tale from the geometric shapes and designs from the pictures of this literary tapestry. The details in the India ink and watercolor pictures from the plains sage brushes to individual leaves create realism in a surreal pictorial style. The composition in the beginning pictures emphasizes the vast emptiness of the sky in relation to the extreme hunger of the tribe. The carefully sculptured text shows compassion, caring, and a deep rooted trust in the mystery of life and is conveyed through simple language that is appropriate for all age levels. Although one might be tempted to brush the tale away because of the tribe being ‘rescued’ by an outside sage, this tale eloquently describes the quiet pride and unwavering honor of the Native Americans.
Review Excerpts
Hornbook: “Goble's illustrated retelling of this Lakota myth is respectful and dignified, and he has included story sources and an extensive note on the role of this myth in the lives of the nomadic peoples of the High Plains. Parfleche designs painted from 1875 to 1930 by Plains Indian women embellish Goble's handsome, authentic, highly stylized illustrations. The result is a blend of story and information, of illustration and decoration, of myth and meaning.”
Kirkus review: “Goble is customarily generous with supporting information on the Plains Indians: Children can discover the Lakota design elements he incorporates into the art, learn how to make parfleche (an intricately decorated rawhide container for dried meat) and appreciate the use these native people made of every part of the buffalo. Attractive, absorbing fare.”
School Library Journal: “The strong symbiotic relationship between Native Americans and the natural world is apparent in both the myth and the accompanying information. Goble’s signature style is evident in his hues of vivid colors, stylized images, and traditional motifs. The large India-ink and watercolor illustrations effectively contrast the natural world with Indian decoration. ...in a book that is entertaining, informative, and inspirational.”
Connections
Follow up the reading of this story with additional Native American tales.
THE SOUND OF FLUTES AND OTHER INDIAN LEGENDS ISBN 0394831810
PAUL GOBLE GALLERY: THREE NATIVE AMERICAN STORIES ISBN 0689822197
Goble, Paul. 1996. THE RETURN OF THE BUFFALOES. National Geographic Society. Washington, D.C. ISBN 079222714X
Plot Summary
A tribe has been many moons without food. The buffalo, the deer and all other game are gone. Children are crying out in hunger. The tribe must do something to find food. Two young warriors are sent out to look for the buffalo. The young men wander and wander. Just as they agree they would rather die than return to the camp without food, they meet a mysterious woman who ushers them into her cave. Actually, it is a tipi, and thousands of buffalo are painted on the walls. She asks them why it took them so long to find her and she promises them she will send the buffalo soon. The young men race back to the camp. Immediately, all the members of the tribe pack up gifts to take back to the woman. Though they all wait outside her tipi…rather, a cave now…she does not come out. The gifts are left and the tribe returns to camp. In the middle of the night a great storm begins crashing all around the campsite. Only, instead of thunder and lightening, it is the buffaloes who have returned.
Critical Analysis
The language of this story is so beautifully woven that it is hard to separate the tale from the geometric shapes and designs from the pictures of this literary tapestry. The details in the India ink and watercolor pictures from the plains sage brushes to individual leaves create realism in a surreal pictorial style. The composition in the beginning pictures emphasizes the vast emptiness of the sky in relation to the extreme hunger of the tribe. The carefully sculptured text shows compassion, caring, and a deep rooted trust in the mystery of life and is conveyed through simple language that is appropriate for all age levels. Although one might be tempted to brush the tale away because of the tribe being ‘rescued’ by an outside sage, this tale eloquently describes the quiet pride and unwavering honor of the Native Americans.
Review Excerpts
Hornbook: “Goble's illustrated retelling of this Lakota myth is respectful and dignified, and he has included story sources and an extensive note on the role of this myth in the lives of the nomadic peoples of the High Plains. Parfleche designs painted from 1875 to 1930 by Plains Indian women embellish Goble's handsome, authentic, highly stylized illustrations. The result is a blend of story and information, of illustration and decoration, of myth and meaning.”
Kirkus review: “Goble is customarily generous with supporting information on the Plains Indians: Children can discover the Lakota design elements he incorporates into the art, learn how to make parfleche (an intricately decorated rawhide container for dried meat) and appreciate the use these native people made of every part of the buffalo. Attractive, absorbing fare.”
School Library Journal: “The strong symbiotic relationship between Native Americans and the natural world is apparent in both the myth and the accompanying information. Goble’s signature style is evident in his hues of vivid colors, stylized images, and traditional motifs. The large India-ink and watercolor illustrations effectively contrast the natural world with Indian decoration. ...in a book that is entertaining, informative, and inspirational.”
Connections
Follow up the reading of this story with additional Native American tales.
THE SOUND OF FLUTES AND OTHER INDIAN LEGENDS ISBN 0394831810
PAUL GOBLE GALLERY: THREE NATIVE AMERICAN STORIES ISBN 0689822197
Friday, June 20, 2008
The Egyptian Cinderella
Bibliographic Information
Climo, Shirley. 1989. THE EGYPTIAN CINDERELLA. Illus. by Ruth Heller. Thomas Y. Crowell Junior Books. New York, NY. ISBN 0-690-04822-X
Plot Summary
In this ancient tale dating back to the Amasis Dynasty (570-526 B.C.), a young girl named Rhodopis was stolen by Pirates from Greece and sold as a slave in Egypt. Taunted and teased by the servant girls, she is ostracicized by her blond hair, green eyes, and light skin. One day, her master sees her dancing with the animals and he decides to give her a present of slippers. The beautiful golden slippers delight Rhodopis and enrage the servant girls. One day there is the news that the Pharaoh will be holding court and although Rhodopis hopes she can attend, she is left. A falcon comes to her and steals one of her shoes. Rhodopis is saddened but unknown to her, the shoe is brought to the Pharaoh who decides that whoever can fit the shoe is meant to be his wife. After a long search, the Pharaoh finds her and she becomes his queen.
Critical Analysis
This is an excellent retelling of a traditional folk tale. It characterizes all of the traditional plot with the 'Cinderlla' story in it, yet the setting makes such a powerful impact on this story that this story might appeal more to children than the original tale! It paints a more realistic background for us to identify with the characterization of Cinderella. It appeals to the underdog factor with Rhodopis being taunted because she is different. This is a fact of life that every child can identify with. Either because of appearance, religion, culture, voice, or behavior, all children know what it is like to feel different and to be constantly reminded of that difference.
Ancient Egypt comes alive in Ruth Heller’s stylized watercolor paintings. The personality differences between Rhodopis and the servant girls are seen in their manner of stature, their dress, and their haughty expressions. The beauty of the Nile river is painted with bright, vibrant colors, and the details from the falcon’s wings to Rhodopis’s golden hair bring the picturesque setting to life. This is not only a true tale, as the author’s note explains, but it would be a wonderful tool to base a multi-disciplinary unit around understanding life in Ancient Egypt.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal: "A stunning combination of fluent prose and exquisitely wrought illustrations. Climo has woven this ancient tale … with clarity and eloquence."
Book Links: Pharaoh Amasis did marry a slave girl named Rhodopis between 570 and 526 B.C., so the tale is based on fact. The double-spread, full-bleed watercolors contrast Cleopatra-like Egyptian maidens with the blond Rhodopis, who is not only beautiful and kind, but talented and resourceful. Dramatic details in this version of a familiar story will fascinate young readers.
Connections
*Compare and contrast the differences between this tale and the version most students have heard.
*Share Moss Gown by William H. Hooks ISBN 0899194605 Again, compare and contrast the differences.
*Character Traits: List all of the personality traits Cinderella exhibits in all the versions of this story. Ask students to explain why these are good traits to have and why the traits are generally admired by humans of all cultures.
Climo, Shirley. 1989. THE EGYPTIAN CINDERELLA. Illus. by Ruth Heller. Thomas Y. Crowell Junior Books. New York, NY. ISBN 0-690-04822-X
Plot Summary
In this ancient tale dating back to the Amasis Dynasty (570-526 B.C.), a young girl named Rhodopis was stolen by Pirates from Greece and sold as a slave in Egypt. Taunted and teased by the servant girls, she is ostracicized by her blond hair, green eyes, and light skin. One day, her master sees her dancing with the animals and he decides to give her a present of slippers. The beautiful golden slippers delight Rhodopis and enrage the servant girls. One day there is the news that the Pharaoh will be holding court and although Rhodopis hopes she can attend, she is left. A falcon comes to her and steals one of her shoes. Rhodopis is saddened but unknown to her, the shoe is brought to the Pharaoh who decides that whoever can fit the shoe is meant to be his wife. After a long search, the Pharaoh finds her and she becomes his queen.
Critical Analysis
This is an excellent retelling of a traditional folk tale. It characterizes all of the traditional plot with the 'Cinderlla' story in it, yet the setting makes such a powerful impact on this story that this story might appeal more to children than the original tale! It paints a more realistic background for us to identify with the characterization of Cinderella. It appeals to the underdog factor with Rhodopis being taunted because she is different. This is a fact of life that every child can identify with. Either because of appearance, religion, culture, voice, or behavior, all children know what it is like to feel different and to be constantly reminded of that difference.
Ancient Egypt comes alive in Ruth Heller’s stylized watercolor paintings. The personality differences between Rhodopis and the servant girls are seen in their manner of stature, their dress, and their haughty expressions. The beauty of the Nile river is painted with bright, vibrant colors, and the details from the falcon’s wings to Rhodopis’s golden hair bring the picturesque setting to life. This is not only a true tale, as the author’s note explains, but it would be a wonderful tool to base a multi-disciplinary unit around understanding life in Ancient Egypt.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal: "A stunning combination of fluent prose and exquisitely wrought illustrations. Climo has woven this ancient tale … with clarity and eloquence."
Book Links: Pharaoh Amasis did marry a slave girl named Rhodopis between 570 and 526 B.C., so the tale is based on fact. The double-spread, full-bleed watercolors contrast Cleopatra-like Egyptian maidens with the blond Rhodopis, who is not only beautiful and kind, but talented and resourceful. Dramatic details in this version of a familiar story will fascinate young readers.
Connections
*Compare and contrast the differences between this tale and the version most students have heard.
*Share Moss Gown by William H. Hooks ISBN 0899194605 Again, compare and contrast the differences.
*Character Traits: List all of the personality traits Cinderella exhibits in all the versions of this story. Ask students to explain why these are good traits to have and why the traits are generally admired by humans of all cultures.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Talking with Artists
Bibliographic Information
Cummings, Pat.1992. TALKING WITH ARTISTS. Bradbury Press. New York, New York. ISBN 0027242455.
Plot Summary
This is actually a non-fiction book about the lives of illustrators (and some authors) of picture books. Compiled by illustrator Pat Cummings, each author gives a biref autobiography about their life and answers some of the more popular questions children of all ages have about the process of making a picture book.
Critical Analysis
Although the concept of learning about illustrators is a fantastic idea, this realization has much to be desired. The sheer repetion found in this book in both the lifes of illustrators and the questions that are asked about their work makes for dry reading by the third illustrator. Out of the fourteen featured illustrators, all claimed they grew up drawing. The commentaries offered little variety except for Lane Smith, who enhanced his autobiography with wit and zany doodlings. The majority of illustrators were encouraged to continue to draw at a young age by either family, a teacher or a mentor. Although children might like the predictability of the book, fears of a child reading about only one illustrator and shelving the rest of the book could be more common than reading the book from cover to cover. This book does inspire young artisits with words. The sample pictures the illustrators chose to include are more impressive than suggesting..."this is how I drew then, so you will be able to learn, too."
Review Excerpt
School Library Journal: “Young artists will learn a lot; teachers and other children will also love it. Well designed and well conceived, this book will be welcomed in all those classrooms in which children's literature has become central to the curriculum.”
Connections
Building Visual Literacy: Have students do an illustrator study from one of the authors such as David Wiesner. Read several of his books such as:
Honest Andrew ISBN 015235672X
Sector 7 ISBN 0395746566
Floatsam ISBN 0618194576
Cloze Procedure
After reading several of an artists books, you could perform the cloze procedure with unknown words. For example, in studying David Weisner, you could choose to cover any of the following words and have students try to figure out the meaning of the missing word.
pg. 84 fascinated
appealing
interchangable
captivating
exotic
pg. 85 frustration
murals
conventional
agricultural
obvious
chuckles
pg. 86 discouraging
uninspiring
oceanography
Cummings, Pat.1992. TALKING WITH ARTISTS. Bradbury Press. New York, New York. ISBN 0027242455.
Plot Summary
This is actually a non-fiction book about the lives of illustrators (and some authors) of picture books. Compiled by illustrator Pat Cummings, each author gives a biref autobiography about their life and answers some of the more popular questions children of all ages have about the process of making a picture book.
Critical Analysis
Although the concept of learning about illustrators is a fantastic idea, this realization has much to be desired. The sheer repetion found in this book in both the lifes of illustrators and the questions that are asked about their work makes for dry reading by the third illustrator. Out of the fourteen featured illustrators, all claimed they grew up drawing. The commentaries offered little variety except for Lane Smith, who enhanced his autobiography with wit and zany doodlings. The majority of illustrators were encouraged to continue to draw at a young age by either family, a teacher or a mentor. Although children might like the predictability of the book, fears of a child reading about only one illustrator and shelving the rest of the book could be more common than reading the book from cover to cover. This book does inspire young artisits with words. The sample pictures the illustrators chose to include are more impressive than suggesting..."this is how I drew then, so you will be able to learn, too."
Review Excerpt
School Library Journal: “Young artists will learn a lot; teachers and other children will also love it. Well designed and well conceived, this book will be welcomed in all those classrooms in which children's literature has become central to the curriculum.”
Connections
Building Visual Literacy: Have students do an illustrator study from one of the authors such as David Wiesner. Read several of his books such as:
Honest Andrew ISBN 015235672X
Sector 7 ISBN 0395746566
Floatsam ISBN 0618194576
Cloze Procedure
After reading several of an artists books, you could perform the cloze procedure with unknown words. For example, in studying David Weisner, you could choose to cover any of the following words and have students try to figure out the meaning of the missing word.
pg. 84 fascinated
appealing
interchangable
captivating
exotic
pg. 85 frustration
murals
conventional
agricultural
obvious
chuckles
pg. 86 discouraging
uninspiring
oceanography
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