Mice and Beans - Pam Munoz Ryan

In doing research for my final paper on Esperanza Rising (which, in case you couldn't tell, was my favorite book I read this month), I started looking into other books that Pam Muñoz Ryan had written and realized she'd written many children's books. Those books range from Mice and Beans to When Marian Sang. Although I also read When Marian Sang, I chose to blog about Mice and Beans because it was much different than many of the picturebooks I had read throughout these 5 weeks of classes.

Mice and Beans tells the story of a grandmother named Rosa María who is preparing her tiny house and tiny yard for the seventh birthday of her youngest grandchild named Catalina. She is paranoid of mice and in order to keep them away, constantly sets mouse traps and cleans fervently. Because she is so busy in the days leading up to Catalina's birthday, she forgets if she has set mouse traps or not and ends up re-setting them every day. Suspicious things also begin to happen - like missing napkins, candywrappers on the floor, vanishing mousetraps, and vanishing spoons. She continues to re-set the traps, and finally, after Catalina's birthday, she realizes that her motto of "When there's room in the heart, there's room in the house...except for a mouse" has been memorized incorrectly. It's actually "When there's room in the heart, there's room in the house...even for a mouse." She realizes that there's nothing to worry over if a few mice are in her house, especially if they are helpful ones.

I didn't like Pam Muñoz Ryan's writing style in this book nearly as much as I did in Esperanza Rising, and I think it's because I thought that this book had substantially less substance to it. I liked the book, but didn't love it. I liked the integration of Mexican culture, the glossary of Spanish words at the back, and the silly illustrations, but I didn't feel as if I necessarily gained much out of reading the book. However, I could see how children might find the story silly and how it could even be helpful in teaching them how to predict future events or infer information from page to page. I almost felt a little as if because my inference skills and prediction skills are at an adult level that I couldn't appreciate this book as much as a child because I found it relatively pointless. I knew, the entire book, that there were mice in the house. I knew that they were the ones stealing the spoon and eating the candy and stealing the traps. Honestly, it frustrated me that it took her Rosa María so long to determine this on her own! I think that Pam Muñoz Ryan's style of writing is much more effective in a historical fiction setting, because it doesn't limit her to a specific amount of pages in which she has to cram all of her information.
Despite not being a big fan of this book, I don't think it would be a bad thing to have in a classroom library. The illustrations are sweet, the writing is solid, and there is cultural authenticity, particularly enhanced by the glossary at the end of the book. I just have to come realize that not all books are my cup of tea and that simply because I don't like a book doesn't mean I should keep it from my children in the classroom.

I enjoyed seeing these lesson application of the book which made me more open to integrating it into an actual lesson (see those here).

The Wild Christmas Reindeer - Jan Brett

When you type in the search "Children's Christmas Books" on Amazon.com, more than 31,000 results come up, ranging from books about Santa Claus to traditional religious stories about Baby Jesus. My favorite Christmas book was easily The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett. The beautiful illustrations and intricacies of each and every page drew me in every Christmas and even during the year as well.

Jan Brett (well-known author and illustrator of books like The Mitten) takes us through a beautiful story of a girl named Teeka, who is one of Santa's elves. She is put in charge of getting all of the reindeer ready to fly on Christmas Eve, despite the fact that she's never worked with reindeer before. She ventures out into the tundra to go find them, and herds them together (not without making her work for it), and takes Bramble, Heather, Windswept, Lichen, Snowball, Crag, Twilight, and Tundra back to the barn, which she refers to as Winterfarm. The book chronicles her journey with the reindeer and the struggles that she goes through in trying to get them ready for Christmas Eve with Santa. She learns that she cannot yell at them and demand them, but rather, has to be calm and patient with them, which works much more effectively. In the end, Teeka watches the reindeer fly away with Santa and carry the sleigh into the dark night.

My favorite part of this entire book is the side illustrations. If you notice, each page counts from December 1st all the way until December 24th. The illustration for December 24th is pictured to the right. Jan Brett really shows her strengths here as an illustrator, which I definitely think is her ability to pay attention to minute details. In each picture to the side of a page (and in the frames of the pages themselves), there are extremely detailed and ornate dolls, stained glass, toys, elves, blocks, and so much more. We get to feel like we're peering in Santa's workshop and are seeing how work is progressing day by day. Certain Christmases I remember my parents only allowing us to read a page of this story a day, the page that correlated with the day that it currently was. That made us incredibly excited and nervous about the plot of the book.
Even though the illustrations are beautiful, I've always thought it interesting that Jan Brett didn't choose to use stereotypical Santa Christmas things, and seemed to be a little more inspired by Scandinavian sorts of traditions than the specific names of reindeer that we have popularized in America. The reindeer aren't named Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. They're named more earthy names, like Lichen and Twilight and Bramble. She is known in her work to have different cultures represented, ranging from Africa to Scandinavia. I loved that she was able to integrate this culture into a well-known tradition of Christmas that tends to be extremely "Americanized" in its exposure in the world.
I thought about ways to integrate this into a classroom and found this extremely interesting variety of lesson plans on how to integrate The Wild Christmas Reindeer in the classroom and to almost turn it into an entire unit for first and/or second graders. There are tons of great ideas in here that range from math to reading units, which is awesome! I will definitely consider adding this to my classroom in Holiday time, but also making sure I include various holiday traditions and not simply Christmas to expose students to a variety of cultural knowledge.

The Quilt Story - Tony Johnston and Tomie dePaola

So her mother rocked her as mothers do. 

Then tucked her in. 

And she felt at home again under the quilt.

I know I've said, time and time again, "I remember this book because it was so integral in my childhood" or "because my mom and dad read it to me before bed" or another reason. But this book really and truly defined my bedtime (and naptime, too!) during childhood. My mom would come, book in hand, to my room, wrap me up in my quilt (that was pink and red and embroidered with all of my birth information - weight, date, name, parents, etc. - a special gift from a family friend at birth), and read The Quilt Story to me. I desperately wanted my name to be Abigail, and although I didn't want to ever move from my house in Franklin, I wanted to find a magical quilt in my attic and wrap it around me. The book has an inscription on the front of it from our best family friends that reads -

To - Kylee

Happy Valentine's Day 1991!

Love - Russ, Sheila, Edward + Logan

This book clearly has many memories for me. 

Tony Johnston and Tomie dePaola tell readers the story of a little girl named Abigail, who receives a quilt from her mother with her named stitched in it. She plays with her quilt, cuddles in her quilt, wears her quilt as a gown, sleeps under her quilt when she's sick, and much more. Her family moves far across the country (in what seems to be a conestoga wagon) and she uses the quilt to wrap her up and remind her of her home. One day, she puts the quilt in her attic and left it there. Then, a new girl moves into the house (much later on - in modern times). She stumbles in the attic to chase her cat, sees the quilt, and wraps herself up in it. Johnston and dePaola show the parallels between Abigail and the little girl in modern times and then close this beautiful and beloved story with the line at the beginning of the blog, which I adore.
Although the text is beautiful in this book, like many other picturebooks, its real strength is the illustrations of Tomie dePaola. Tomie dePaola has written many infamous children's picturebooks (over 200 picturebooks in total), including the Caldecott book Streganona and the Newbery Honor book 26 Fairmount Avenue. His illustration style is easily recognizable, and often works well with his choice to write fairytales or folktales (see his list of books in his Wikipedia biography here). His illustrations work extremely well with The Quilt Story because it almost seems as if the illustrations are pieces of quilts themselves. The framing used makes the illustrations seem like individual quilt squares (or rectangles!).
My mother often came and did Terrific Tuesdays (enrichment afternoon days twice a year for the entire school) to my elementary school and talked about quilting. She often brought this book as well as The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flourny and read them to students, while bringing many of my family's quilts and collected quilts with her. We even sat together when I was home on Saturday night, thumbing through the book, and reminiscing about all of the memories that we had surrounding this book together. I tried to think of a more applicable way to integrate this into the classroom, and found a sample teaching plan with multiple lesson ideas for the book. Be sure to check that out here. I definitely think that the suggested ideas would be applicable to a variety of classroom ages, but best suited for early elementary grades.
This book will always hold a special place in my heart, and as cheesy as it sounds, I hope that I can sit with my daughter one day, wrap her in her special quilt, and share this story with her just as my mom shared it with me. 

time to SLEEP - Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

Sleep tight...

Where will you fall asleep tonight?

Who knew that gorillas like to snuggle? Or that long-horned bees hang on a twig throughout the night and it is unknown whether they're simply resting or actually sleeping? Or that bottlenose dolphins sleep with one-half of their brain at a time? The other half has to remember to breathe, remember? This precious and beautiful book tells the stories of various animals and how they go to sleep, whether it is at night or during the day. Readers can learn more about these animals in the very back of the book, where each one gets a small blurb and paragraph on one of the final pages. 

I loved the introductory paragraph to this book that took place on the inside of the book flap. It reads:

It's time to sleep! You can doze off standing on one leg, settle down for a nap on the sea floor, or crawl into a hole and snooze until spring. Or perhaps you'd rather slip into a slimy sleeping bag? In this bedtime book, Steve Jenkins and Robin Page take a look at some of the unusual ways animals get their rest. Try them yourself, or - just maybe - your own bed sounds more comfortable?

What a perfect way to introduce a book that does just what it describes. I can definitely imagine reading this to my own children before bedtime, before a kindergarten class and their naptime (if kindergarteners have that anymore - that was my favorite time of the day!), or even as an integrated portion of a science lesson. 

Students aren't simply learning about typical animals that they've heard of. They're learning about new animals, too. Before reading this book, I didn't know that there was actually an animal named a basilisk (that name only referred to this for me), that wood frogs existed, or that dolphins use one half of their brains at a time so they can sleep, but still swim and breathe! The cover (shown to the left) make students interested and want to read because of the sweet and gentle giraffe. I think that the book balances the sweet and adorable with the gross and slimy, appealing (albeit stereotypically) to both genders at the same time. We don't just learn about the cute and cuddly koala bear or the snuggling gorillas. We also learn that the parrotfish sleeps in a bubble of its own mucus. GROSS. We then learn that a hairy armadillo sleeps for nearly 20 hours a day. WEIRD. 

The only thing that frustrated me about this book was the lack of a clear bibliography. I think that often, we assume that because this is a children's picturebook, bibliographies aren't needed. However, that isn't true. I appreciated the individualized paragraphs at the end that went into more detail, but I wanted to know where that detail came from. Although that decreased the authenticity for me, I still would potentially read this to a class, but only after conducting research on my own and seeing if the facts were right! 

The Elephant Scientist - Caitlin O'Connell and Donna M. Jackson

Not many people know where Namibia is. Even less people have a personal connection to it. But Cailtin O'Connell has a personal connection to it - the elephants that she loves live in Etosha National Park. And I have a personal connection to it - my big sister spent a year there, in Swakopmund, teaching with Harvard's WorldTeach. You can see in the map below the purple line drawn between Swakopmund (my sister's homebase for a year) and Etosha National Park (Caitlin's research site). 

That's the reason I really connected with this book when I picked it up out of the pile of books that Dr. Johnson spread on the table in class for us today. And once I picked it up and opened the page, I was amazed at every piece of it - the insane quality of the photographs, the detail in the writing, the changes in page layouts that kept me interested, and personal touches and stories that Caitlin includes. Even though this story is told in the third person (assumedly by Donna M. Jackson), Caitlin's voice shines through in the love that is woven through the words, regardless of whether they include her dialogue or not. 

The biggest strength of The Elephant Scientist for me was the photography and how clear it was. All of the pictures made me as a reader (and I'm sure would make children reading it as well) feel as if I was in Etosha National Park with Caitlin, picking up dung samples, studying family networks and herds, and setting up camp with other researchers. The table of contents lays out for us as readers the type of information that will be covered in each section, whether it will be different descriptions of species of elephants ("Living Large"), breakdowns of families ("The Herds of Etosha"), or explaining the potential of what could happen to elephants if we aren't educated about them ("Elephants in Peril"). Each section/chapter has powerful photos, each described by a detailed caption that can be easily understood by children.  

In the back of the book, there are many different resources that confirm The Elephant Scientist's place as a quality information book - including an "Adopt an Elephant" section, information for more references for children (and adults, too!), pachyderm terms, selected source notes, and an index. I had to look up what the word "pachyderm" even meant, proving that even adults can learn from an information book like this. In case you were wondering, the word "pachyderm" refers to an order of animals that includes elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotami. The references available for this book were incredibly extensive, however, I wouldn't expect any less from someone like Caitlin O'Connell. She has been a lead researcher and even written for the New York Times, discussing the different "Rules of Engagement in the Elephant World" (check it out, here!). 

I'll end with a picture of my sister sandboarding in Namibia - kind of crazy to think that one country can have it all - grasslands, desert, ocean, and a jungle. 

Rebecca sand-boarding in 2006 in the Red Dunes

We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball - Kadir Nelson

We are the Ship: The story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson (words and paintings) is a wonderful informational book diagramming the evolution of the Negro League of Baseball and including a powerful foreword by Hank Aaron (one of the greatest and most well-known baseball players of all time). Each "chapter" is written as an inning, so the book is divided into the first inning, second inning, and so on, up until the ninth inning and then "extra innings" added at the end of the book. Each inning (or chapter) begins with a quote from a well-known baseball player or owner of a team. Each of them is a powerful quote, and I wanted to include them - 

First Inning - "I ain't ever had a job. I just always played baseball." - Satchel Paige

Second Inning - "We played tricky baseball." - Cool Papa Bell

Third Inning - "It was a rough life - ride, ride, ride, and ride." - HIlton Smith

Fourth Inning - "Baseball really is an expensive thing to operate." - Ella Manley

Fifth Inning - "The greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of our game is the black race." - Branch Rickey

Sixth Inning - "The crowds were big and the fans red-hot." - "Schoolboy" Johnny Taylor

Seventh Inning - "When we played head-to-head it was nip-and-tuck. They won some and we won some." - Gene Benson

Eighth Inning - "If you were anybody, you were at the East-West Game." - Buck O'Neil

Ninth Inning - "There was never a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker and with better judgment than [Jackie Robinson]." - Branch Rickey 

Extra Innings - "If we get you boys, we're going to get the best ones. It's going to break up your league." - Clark Griffith

The most beautiful part of this book is the paintings that dot nearly every page. I was incredibly impressed by Kadir Nelson and his illustration skills. His painting are all beautifully realistic while not being photographs. I had to do multiple doubletakes throughout reading to fully examine each and every picture to make sure that it wasn't an actual detailed photograph, just like the picture to the left. From far away, it looks like an actual photograph of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. 

The detail in the bibliography and research done for this book was also extensive and impressive, but I guess with a foreword from Hank Aaron, what can you expect? There is not only an author's note, but a bibliography with 13 sources, a filmography with 2 sources, and extensive endnotes broken down inning-by-inning. This book made me realize that I may have improperly categorized You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer! as an informational book because of a lack of citations. Books like this deserve to win the awards they win, to be highly recommended, and to serve as both sources of reference and enjoyment for our students. 

A Light in the Attic - Shel Silverstein

That scoundrel you see

Is not really me - 

He's the coo-coo

Who's wearing my skin.

- Skin Stealer, page 147

I remember sitting with my mom and reading this collection of poems, giggling at how silly they were, and also confused at the subjects of the poems. They weren't happy-go-lucky fairytales. They weren't cutesy or about princesses. They were strange poems - some rhymed, some didn't, some had silly pictures to the side, some had strange pictures to the side, some had happy endings, and some didn't. I was always confused also by the picture on the cover of the book (seen to the left), but now, as an adult, I realize that the light in the attic refers to the light in your mind. How clever are you, Shel Silverstein...

With each poem in A Light in the Attic, there's an interesting illustration, and it is clear that illustrations play a large role in the work of Shel Silverstein. He has a very noticeable style of illustration, just as distinct (if not more) than Ludwig Bemelmans (who I wrote about with Madeline). His illustrations are black and white, done in thin (almost pen-like) ink and strange. It was hard for me to come up with a word to describe his illustrations, other than quirky. I still don't think that that captures the essence of the illustrations of Shel Silverstein and how wonderfully different they are. 

There have been controversies over the content of Shel Silverstein's poems, mainly because some think that they don't advocate proper behavior for children all of the time. For example, the poem "How not to have to dry the dishes" (on page 12) includes suggestions for children so that they won't have to dry the dishes again. These suggestions include dropping dishes on the floor. "Maybe they won't let you dry the dishes anymore," Silverstein suggests. However, Shel also has poems like "Hug o War," which is in his poetry anthology Where the Sidewalk Ends. That poem is shown below - 

How sweet is that poem? Then, there are also of course other poems that have been controversial, like "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony" on pages 120-121 of A Light in the Attic, in which Abigail wants a pony that her parents won't buy her. Because her parents won't buy her the pony, Abigail dies. And Shel Silverstein includes a tagline of sorts that reads, "This is a good story to read your folks when they won't buy you something you want." Oh, Shel. 

When looking into Shel Silverstein a little bit more, I found out that he wrote "A Boy Named Sue," the infamous Johnny Cash song. How fantastic is he in this clip? 

Hattie Big Sky - Kirby Larson

Why all this fuss about where someone was born? 

Wasn't it where he lived - rather, how he lived - that counted? 

- page 61

Continuing with my love of historical fiction, I chose Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson as my third historical fiction required read. Although I didn't love this book quite as much as I loved Esperanza Rising, it's definitely a close second. Hattie Big Sky tells readers the story of Hattie Brooks, an orphan living with her ornery (yes, ornery is the proper word for this woman) Aunt Ivy and her sweet Uncle Holt. Despite Hattie's age of 16 and the fact that she hasn't completed school, her Aunt Ivy wants to send her to live in a boarding house to serve as a maid. Magically, Hattie receives her own version of a Hogwarts letter - a letter from her deceased uncle (Uncle Chester) in Vida, Montana, leaving a 320-acre claim of his homestead. Hattie jumps at the chance to move out of her relatives' house and sets off to move to the homestead. What follows is her brief journey from Iowa to Montana and the struggles and heartwarming stories of her life 3 miles outside of Vida. 

Hattie meets a variety of people who impact her life in Vida: Mr. Ebgard - the lawyer in charge of carrying out her uncle's estate; Perilee and Karl Mueller and their children Chase, Mattie, Fern (and later on Lottie) - her neighbors; Traft Martin - the 20-year old son of the richest family in town; Rooster Jim - her chess-playing, bicycle-riding, chicken-raising neighbor; and Leafie - a hardcore woman who can hang with the best of them. All of these people have an impact on Hattie, whether it is one that will last long after she leaves Vida (like Perilee) or someone who terrorizes her existence in his place in the community (like Traft's mother - Mrs. Martin, and often sometimes Traft himself). This book reminded me a little bit of the TV show (that was a family favorite) called Christy (for a clip of it, see here!). Hattie has the same spunk and perseverance that Christy had in the tv show and they're set in the same time period in rural areas. 

Hattie Big Sky was named a Newbery Honor Book in 2007 and I completely understand why. Both Kirby Larson's writing and the characters that she creates throughout the novel had me on the edge of my seat throughout all of the pages. I even cried, which I rarely do while reading books (although the fact that the last two I've read I've cried during doesn't help me - at least they were Hattie Big Sky and Esperanza Rising). This book would be a fantastic read-aloud book or a book club book. I think it would also be a fantastic opportunity to children to journal in a book journal about their reactions, because many of the chapters leave you hanging on the edge of activity. I would definitely recommend Hattie Big Sky for an elementary school classroom! 

You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer - Shana Corey

"Thank goodness," they said. 

"Now everyone will forget this nonsense

and things can return to normal." 

But did people really forget about Amelia bloomer

and her improper ideas? 

This information book by Shana Corey (and illustrated by Chelsey McLaren) tells the story of the career of Amelia Jenks Bloomer, a women's rights activist and newspaper editor in the 1800's. I'll admit - I chose it mostly for the bright colors, the frilly dresses, and the subtitle, which was "You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer! - A Very Improper Story!" However, I was proven wrong. Although there are many frilly dresses in this book, the true reason for introducing those frilly dresses is to show how big of a deal it is when Amelia Bloomer chooses to give up wearing frilly dresses. 

Amelia Bloomer uses the phrase "What was proper about that?" throughout the first half of the book to emphasize how improper the actions that Amelia Bloomer performs are. She is the editor of a newspaper, which she names The Lily. How inappropriate for a woman to be the editor of a newspaper! She hated the dresses that women had to wear. She thought the dresses were inappropriate, and often uses the phrase "What was proper about that?" to describe the dresses themselves. Amelia's entire legacy rested on the fact that everyday, she asked the question, "What's proper about that?" whether it was about her clothes, about the rights that women didn't have at the time, or about the practicality of things. 

The REAL Amelia Bloomer

I think that this book also teachers children to question things and to embrace change, just like previous books (like The Giver and Among the Hidden), but not to the same extent. It's a book that has the potential to let children do these things at an earlier age, and I'm assuming that the target age audience of this book is early elementary. It would also serve as a fantastic resource in introducing historical figures in an interdisciplinary unit, as Amelia Bloomer was a women's rights activist, even if she ended up also being the woman responsible for introducing pants as a suitable bottom for women! (Hence the name bloomers, get it?). I thought this book was wonderful, and the author's note at the end is a history of Amelia Bloomer - from her birth in New York to her move to Iowa. One of my favorite quotes from the Author's Note is the very last sentence, which says: 

Today, women and girls can wear whatever they want. 

Perhaps it wouldn't be that way, though, 

if all those years ago Amelia Bloomer hadn't had the courage

to be "improper" and to take a stand

for something she believed in. 

Many books I don't consider worthy of reading the author's note, but this author's note not only adds to authenticity, but has the potential to spark even more interest in class-wide or individual research on women's rights. I think that that's research worth doing, and would love for all of the children in my class to enjoy and take interest in it. 

Among the Hidden - Margaret Peterson Haddix

No one had ever told him exactly what would happen if anyone saw him. 

Death? Death was what happened to the runt pigs 

who got stepped on by their stronger brothers and sisters. 

Death was a fly that stopped buzzing when the swatter hit it. 

- pages 3 & 4

I never was much of a fantasy/science-fiction reader growing up, but reading a few fantasy and/or science-fiction books for this class has made me have a new found appreciation for the genre. This book is no exception. I love when I am able to have a concrete setting of the book in my mind, which means Margaret Peterson Haddix did an incredible job in her descriptions of what life in the woods was like. In my mind, the houses inhabited by Luke and Jen looked like this...

What I imagined Luke's house to look like

What I imagined Jen's house to look like

The book is set in a society that seems to be a possible one in the future, and it begins describing the everyday life of Luke, a 3rd child in a society that forbids parents from having more than 2 children. He is required to hide at all times. He cannot go out in public, cannot go to school, or do any of the things that his brothers do. This is all before the woods are taken down to make room for the "Barons" to move in - rich and wealthy families. When they move in, Luke is more confined, in an effort from his parents to make sure they aren't caught by the Population Police. Then, one day, Luke sees a suspicious light and movement in a house outside of his window when he knows all of the family members (4) are gone. He then realizes that there is another 3rd child. One day, he sneaks over and discovers Jen, a rambunctious, courageous, fearless "shadow child." She is in the midst of helping facilitate a rally against the government, which she encourages Luke to come to. She introduces him to the world, to history, to junk food, to "freedom." When she leaves for the rally, she encourages Luke to come, but he is too scared. He doesn't hear from her for 3 weeks and fearing the worst, heads to her house. Her father comes home, discovers Luke, and tells him that Jen has been killed. However, her father, despite a break-in from the Population Police, vows to keep Luke safe and help him get false identification. Him receiving his fake ID and heading off to boarding school as someone else is where we leave him at the end of the book, which is a series. 

Once I have time again, I'm definitely planning on reading the rest of the series, as I found this book incredibly interesting. There are six other novels in the series, which is named, appropriately, "The Shadow Children" series. I'm interested to see the other places that Margaret Peterson Haddix takes Luke and what other kinds of people he will interact with in the rest of the series. I'm also interested to see if characters like his mother, father, and brothers will return later on, or if his mother will complete her dream of having four boys named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John by having another shadow child.
This book has the potential to bring up a lot of interesting issues in classrooms, and I think would be an ideal way to discuss different types of government in upper elementary grades. It's also simply a great thought-provoking book that has potential to make children question the norm and be more curious about the world. It brings up many of the same issues that books like The Giver does, but in a less overt way. The suspense in this book would also make it a great read-aloud, and I know that children would anxiously await the time of the day when the book was read. Isn't that what we want as teachers? 

Clever Beatrice - Margaret Willey

Her mother would say that Beatrice was the

most clever girl in the whole north woods. 

Beatrice could not wait to hear it. 

I've had the book Clever Beatrice by Margaret Willey (and beautifully illustrated by Heather Solomon) sitting in my apartment since the start of class. It caught my eye in Swem Library in my original trek there to retrieve books and I finally got around to reading it. Clever Beatrice is categorized as a Canadian conte, which the author describes as follows - 

The upper peninsula of Michigan is rich and varied in the tradition of Native American and European folktales, including the Canadian conte. Like the Finns, Swedes, and Irish, French-Canadians were lured to northern Michigan by the lumber boom of the late 1800s. Canadian contes were told originally in lumber camps and iron mines and were known for wild exaggerations, comic detail, and rhythmic dialect. 

I had never heard of a conte before, but this tale seemed to be similar to what we've categorized in class as a tall tale. Regardless, the book was a pleasant one - short, sweet, funny, and a little fantastical. Willey starts the story with Beatrice, who is described as "sharp as a tack" and by people saying whenever she walked by - "She's a clever one, that Beatrice." Beatrice and her mother ran out of money and porridge, so they needed more money, but the only way in their community to get money was to be a lumberjack or to go bet against the giant. Beatrice decided to take her chances, and by outsmarting the giant and scaring him with her wit, she brought home a bag of coins for her mother. Then, the story ends. 

Clever Beatrice won the Charlotte Zolotow Award, which is awarded annually for a children's picturebook that contains excellent writing (age birth through age 7 is the typical age categorization for the picturebook). I found that interesting, because although I did enjoy this book, I didn't think it was anything spectacular. I think it could serve as a fantastic way to introduce tall tales or introduce different regional traditions in the United States, but I didn't find it nearly as interesting or beautiful as the writing in other picturebooks that we've read throughout the semester. If anything, I thought the illustrations of Heather Solomon deserved a Caldecott Medal. She seamlessly blended watercolor, collage, acrylic, and oils into a beautiful book. Her illustrations added significantly to both the relationship between Beatrice and the giant and to the overall folksy "feel" of the story. 

I think that this book is worth having in the classroom, but I don't know if I would go out of my way to read it aloud or to introduce it to children. With so much great literature out there that is inspiring, this fell a little bit short for me. 

Me...Jane - Patrick McDonnell

It was a magical world

full of joy and wonder, 

and Jane felt very much

a part of it. 

When you open up the pages of the book Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell, you're transported into the childhood of primatologist Jane Goodall. Patrick McDonnell almost channels Cynthia Rylant a little bit in this biographical children's picture book - his language, the illustrations (the feeling they convey, not the illustrations themselves), the run-on sentences, and the short phrases on pages. The page that I most felt this similarity on was this one - 

I think that the repetition of "beating, beating, beating" is what truly made me compare it to Cynthia Rylant. Regardless, I loved this picturebook. It took me back to the days of movies like Gorillas in the Mist, Mighty Joe Young, I Dreamed of Africa, and Born Free. 
The true strength of this book was the illustration. It was simplistic, sweet, innocent, and beautiful. Jane and her stuffed chimpanzee are in every single illustration (minus the double spread of Jane's doodles and drawings of puzzles and societies), and this did two things for me as a reader: 1.) It made me realize how much Jane loved her stuffed chimpanzee, Jubilee; 2.) It made me realize how passionate Jane was and how determined she was to reach her goal of going to Africa and working with animals. 

I really loved the ending of this book, where it shows an illustrated Jane in a tent waking up for the day followed by the words "...to awake one day..." and met with a real-life picture of Dr. Goodall on the next page with the words "...to her dream come true." I think that this book would be fantastic for children in learning about animals, in learning about Jane Goodall, and even simply in learning about not giving up and continuing chasing their dreams. In the end of the book, there were two additional sections - an "About Jane Goodall" section and a "A Message from Jane" section. I loved the "A Message from Jane" section so much I just had to put some of it here. She writes, 
Each one of us makes a difference. 
We cannot live through a single day 
without making an impact on the world around us - 
and we have a choice as to what sort of difference we make. 
The life of each one of us matters in the scheme of things, 
and I encourage everyone, especially young people, 
to make the world a better place for people, animals, and the environment. 
Children are motivated when they can see 
the positive results their hard work can have. 
As I travel, I meet hundreds of Roots & Shoots groups. 
They are always eager to tell "Dr. Jane" what they've been doing 
and how they are making a difference in their communities. 
Whether they've done something simple, like recycling or collecting trash, 
or something that requires a great deal of effort, 
like restoring a wetland or raising money for street children 
or a local dog shelter, 
they are a continual source of inspiration for me 
and for other children around the world. 
I invite you to get involved!
What a cool way for Jane Goodall to make her voice heard to children who want to get involved. If you want to learn more about her organization, Roots & Shoots, check it out here. And I'll leave you with one of the pictures I took almost exactly 6 years ago early morning at Kruger National Park in South Africa - one of the sweet elephants I saw. It's not hard to think about why Dr. Jane is where she is.

Salt in His Shoes: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream - Deloris Jordan with Roslyn Jordan

After that day, Mama stopped putting salt in Michael's shoes, 

but Michael did not stop being patient and working hard and praying.

Salt in his Shoes is the biographical account of Michael Jordan's childhood and how he learned to be dedicated, to work hard, to be patient, and to love the sport of basketball. It's hard to think of Michael Jordan as a scrawny little boy living in Wilmington, North Carolina and struggling to keep up with the bigger kids on the basketball court. The book includes a lot of dialogue, particularly between Michael and his mother, who is the co-author of this book (along with his sister!). Michael's mom and sister tell the story of him playing basketball with his older brother and never being tall enough and praying every night to be taller. His mom told him that if he put salt in his shoes and prayed every night, he would hopefully become taller. And although he didn't become taller until the summer before his junior year of high school, he realized that if he worked hard, he could get where he wanted. 

I think that this book gives children a perspective into the life of Michael Jordan, and although he's retired from the NBA, he still is infamous for his incredible basketball skills, his dedication, and his magical story. It also lets children know that not everything happens simply because we wish for it. We have to work hard, be patient, and have faith that things will work out in the end. We have to work for it. Teaching children that lesson at an early age is incredibly important. While I was cooking dinner one night, I had a friend over to my apartment, and he picked up this book. Even at the age of 21, he sat and read the entire thing and then said, "Well, looks like I'm ordering this when I go home." He talked about how he wished he'd had that book in his classroom as a child. Because this book features such a prominent NBA figure who so many children know, I think it would be a fantastic book to get boys who are frustrated with reading in elementary school to read. 

The illustrations in the book are somewhat "old school" and really make the reader feel that they've been transported back in time to Michael Jordan's childhood, which I liked. I do think that they could have been a little less "cartoon-ish", however. Because Michael Jordan is such a well-known star, I knew what I expected the illustrations of his childhood to be like. And this wasn't what I pictured. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't what I imagined it to be. The illustrator did do a fantastic job, however, of making sure that her version of Michael looked like Michael as a child, which I liked. 

This book provided a different feel to the biographies that I'm used to, and I liked it. I don't think it's the best book in the world, but I do think it's a great for helping incite reading in children who wouldn't normally care. 

And now, for a little MJ inspiration...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH8nTfxwByY

Esperanza Rising - Pam Munoz Ryan

"Look at the zig-zag of the blanket. Mountains and valleys. 

Right now you are in the bottom of the valley and your problems

loom big around you. But soon, you will be at the top of the mountain again. 

After you have lived many mountains and valleys, we will be together."

- Abuelita speaking to Esperanza, page 51

Very few times am I incredibly and utterly touched and impacted by a book. I fall in love with books easily. I read them like magazines, from cover to cover. Sometimes over and over again. But Esperanza Rising was one of those books that I will not hesitate to put in my classroom library. It is a book that I think could be incredibly powerful to read-aloud to 5th and 6th graders. And finally, it is a book that struck a chord with me. I'm sitting here, on my couch, after finishing the book, and am stunned by the beauty of the words of Pam Muñoz Ryan, smiling because I am happy for Esperanza, amazed that this is based on the story of Ryan's grandmother, and unabashedly touched by the overwhelming perfection of this book. 

When we talked about historical fiction in class yesterday, I didn't realize it, but it is by far my favorite genre of literature. Many of my favorite books growing up and as an adult have been historical fiction books - Number the Stars, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Gone with the Wind, Roots, The Kite Runner, O Pioneers!, and My Antonia. Now, I can without a doubt add Esperanza Rising to that list of favorites. Pam Muñoz Ryan tells readers the story of a girl named Esperanza Ortega who lives in Mexico in the 1930s and tells of her incredible journey of coming to America and coming to terms with the sad reality of her life. Esperanza is extremely close with her Papa, a big, burly man who spoils her rotten. 

Although the Ortega family is living in Mexico, they are extremely wealthy and Papa gives Esperanza everything she could ever want. When bandits kill Papa the night before Esperanza's birthday, her world begins to crumble, and we see many other things become difficult. Her trickster uncles (one - the mayor, the other - the head banker) will not give Mama and Esperanza the money they have in the bank and unless Mama gets married to one of them, they promise to make the Ortega's family life difficult. They do this by setting fire to the house in the middle of the night. This leads Esperanza and her Mama to realize that they must move to California with their servant's family - Hortensia, Alfonso, and Miguel. This only begins the journey that Esperanza goes on from being the queen of the universe to being a peasant. 

Bits and pieces of this book reminded me of The Little Princess, because it takes a girl who is extremely close with her father, strips the father away, and then puts her in servitude. However, with Esperanza, there is no coming back for Papa, whereas Sarah is reunited with her father in the end. The transformation that Esperanza goes through during this book is incredible, and as the reader, we are taken on a conflicting journey. We adore her and the life she has in the beginning. We become frustrated with her when she acts like a stuck-up princess on the train and insults Miguel. We feel embarrassed for her when Marta picks on her and shames her because she doesn't know how to sweep. We feel happiness for her when she becomes independent. We feel sadness for her when Mama becomes sick and must go to the hospital. But most of all, we feel hope for Esperanza, which is ironic - because in Spanish, Esperanza means "hope." I think that was purposeful - what a beautiful and literal representation of the possibilities that a life holds. 

The "Author's Note" in the back of Esperanza Rising is a documentation of the personal life of Pam Muñoz Ryan's grandmother and a description of how the book came to be. This represents and adds to the accuracy and authenticity of the text, something extremely important for historical fiction. It also introduces Pam Muñoz Ryan as a cultural insider because these are the tales of her grandmother, and is also a winner of the Pura Belpre medal, a medal given to "a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth" (found on the website here). There are also various websites with ways to effectively integrate this book into the classroom, including different activities that Scholastic has suggested here. 

I'm planning on ordering this book to have it in my personal collection because of how wonderful it is. Because of how culturally accurate it is. Because of how much I connected with Esperanza. and Because of the hope that it can give children. I'll end with a quote from Abuelita - the most prophetic character in the book. 

"We are like the phoenix," said Abuelita. 

"Rising again, with a new life ahead of us."

Let us always have that esperanza. 

The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963 - Christopher Paul Curtis

What do you think now that you've gone and done it? 

Does it make you look any better? Is this straight" 

-- Momma flicked some more of Byron's hair back up porcupine-style -- 

"is this straight mess more attractive than your own hair? 

Did those chemicals give you better-looking hair than me and your daddy and God gave you? 

My silly daddy and I, giggling just like Kenny & his dad

This was one of my favorite lines in this book. So powerful and encouraging of Momma to tell her children that they should be happy and content with themselves, just as they are. The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963 was completely different than I thought it would be. It made me feel as if I was a member of the Watson family. I hurt when Kenny hurt. I laughed when Byron did stupid things. I got annoyed when Joetta tattled on everything and everyone. I felt like Dad was a literary representation of my own father, who, when he doesn't have enough sleep turns into the giggly and silly man that Kenny's dad became at the end of the book on their family road trip to Alabama. 

The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963

This book had so many ups and downs and had two extremely dynamic characters in Kenny and Byron. The reader watches their relationship go from hatred and brotherly competition while they are in Flint to compassion and understanding when they are in Birmingham, and particularly when they head back to Flint near the end of the book. The most emotional portion of the book for me, and I assume, for other readers was the last third of the book that took place in Birmingham. The historical context for this book was extremely important, because without that context, we wouldn't be able to know the importance and gravity of the events that happen at the end of the book. The church bombing wouldn't be as painstakingly horrific (although it would still be horrific). We wouldn't feel as compassionate towards Kenny and his struggles when he moves in to the Watson Animal Hospital. We wouldn't be so touched by Byron's transformation and stepping up to the true role of a good big brother. 

In a "Kid's Book Club Pick" article on NPR, they say - 

"Teachers, librarians, and parents immediately embraced the book in part because Curtis so thoroughly captured the voice of a smarty-pants, pre-teen boy. But the book also found a passionate following because it provides a way for adults to guide children through difficult terrain, such as the violence of the Civil Rights Era and the racial hatred that claimed the lives of four little girls who died in the bombing." (Read the review here.)

I don't know if I necessarily expected the light-hearted beginning of the book to take such an emotional turn, but I enjoyed it regardless. And I completely agree with NPR in the fact that it takes some of the hard work out of figuring out a way as teachers to be comfortable with discussing the hard issues, like the Birmingham Church Bombing. Using this book as a scaffold to build up and talk about the gradual successes of the Civil Rights Movement and the difficult events that occurred, in my opinion, can help children have a person to identify with, even if Kenny is fictional. 

And that is the power of historical fiction, just like Richard Peck discussed in his 2006 National Book Festival speech. What a wonderful power it is. 

The Castle in the Attic - Elizabeth Winthrop

Let each of us remember the lesson William has taught us. 

The weapons that you need to fight the battle are 

inside your own heart. 

I read reviews and reviews to try and determine the books that I would choose to read for Fantasy/Science-Fiction, and found Among The Hidden. I still have to blog about that one, but I also chose one that I remembered being a class read-aloud in my fourth grade gifted class - The Castle in the Attic. I remembered the basic plotline - there was a boy, there was a castle, he transported into the castle, he fought the evil guy, and he came out loving his family more than before. However, that's about all I could remember to save my life. I didn't remember the little boy's name, how he got the castle, or any of the remote details of what happened in the land.
Reading this book again allowed me to have fresh perspective on it and realize something crazy - there are so many similarities to The Chronicles of Narnia series, particularly to the first book ("The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe"). So here's a list of the similarities that I could identify - although I'm sure I missed some. Let me know if you've read this book and noticed any that I left out.

• The dark wizard Alastor (assumes a role similar to that of the White Witch) turns people to lead when he is not pleased with them or when they do not follow his instructions; the little boy has the power to turn them back with his touch (similar to Lucy's ability)
• Time is frozen when William is in the castle, just as time is frozen when Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are in Narnia
• There is a character that leads them through their difficult journey who ends up being turned to stone/lead. In The Castle in the Attic, it is Sir Simon. In Narnia, it is Mr. Tumnus. 
• When the dark wizard takes over the kingdom, all of the plants and vegetation stop growing and the crops are not bountiful. This is extremely similar to the disappearance of seasons in Narnia. Once Alastor is defeated, the crops immediately grow again. 
• There is a legend in the kingdom that a small boy would accompany Sir Simon to the kingdom to defeat Alastor. There was a legend in Narnia that two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve would defeat the White Witch. 

Those are the ones that I could think of and that I noted. Pretty crazy, right? This book was written in 1985, nearly 35 years after The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe was published. I couldn't find any articles or blogs that represented this realization that I had, but I still stand by it! 

The Castle in the Attic provides a story that revolves around much of what we discussed with fantasy literature. Children tend to want to escape into fantasy to get rid of the problems they're having in their real lives. William was avoiding the reality that Mrs. Phillips was leaving him, avoiding the reality that his parents were too busy to care about him, and because of that, used the Castle as a way to escape that reality while simultaneously dealing with those issues. Mrs. Phillips was the sort of Aslan character of The Castle in the Attic and served as a person who helped give William the guidance he needed to deal with all of his issues, and overall, grow up and become a better person. 

I would definitely have this book in an upper elementary classroom library, and think it would be fascinating as a read-aloud in classes. It is no comparison to The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe, but it modernizes and makes a little less confusing a common store of love, fantasy, and family. 

Madeline - Ludwig Bemelmans

In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines

lived twelve girls in two straight lines. 

The iconic phrase above starts one of the most iconic children's books in history. With the announcement of those recognizable 17 words, readers are transmitted to Paris, France to that house with those 12 girls. We watch them break their bread, brush their teeth, and go to bed. It is almost as if we as readers have the opportunity to live alongside Madeline and Miss Clavel for a period of time and to be one of the girls.
The opportunity that I had to write my picturebook presentation and paper on this classic was an eye-opening one. I was able to read so much more into the illustrations and truly appreciate the artist that Ludwig Bemelmans was. I'm also now having daily inner battles debating over whether I should now get vintage prints of Madeline for my future residence, like these. Ludwig Bemelmans was not just a children's book writer and illustrator, but also an artist who has works displayed in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City and in museums in Paris as well. It was interesting for me to see how distinctive his illustrative style is. If he painted or illustrated something and you see it (without knowing he was responsible for it), you know that he painted it.  No artist signature needs to be present. You can tell, just like in this landscape below.

Beyond the beauty of all of Ludwig Bemelmans' artwork and illustrations, the rhyme of Madeline is part of what (I think) draws in children to this magical Parisian world. The rhymes suck you in and then the humor of the story and the spunk of Madeline keep you coming back for more. I was interested to see how Bemelmans came up with the character of Madeline, and there is actually a relatively detailed account of it on his website and on other literary blogs throughout the Internet. I never thought anything about Madeline's signature red hair, but Bemelmans did. All of the other little girls looking identical was purposeful. Her spunk and courage was also meant to serve as an inspiration for little girls everywhere. The website's section on the "History of Madeline" says,

"No doubt about it. Madeline is a gutsy little girl, and that's what makes her such a unique role model in a time when storybook princesses defined femininity for girls. Madeline gave young girls a reason to explore who they were as individuals, even if that meant being a tad disobedient. She gave girls the courage to speak their mind and showed them that there was nothing unfeminine about being smart and strong." (see the rest of the history here) 

I think that this is part of the reason why I loved Madeline growing up. She was never afraid, and I wanted to be more brave, more courageous, more spunky in my childhood and she helped serve as an inspiration.
The plot line of Madeline involves these 12 girls and their journeys through the city of Paris and the familial relationship that they all have with Miss Clavel. Madeline wakes up in the middle of one night with appendicitis, and is rushed to the hospital to have an emergency appendectomy. The little girls come to visit, see Madeline's impressive scar, go home, and all cry out to Miss Clavel that they want their appendixes removed as well. Miss Clavel laughs and reminds them that they should be happy they are all well.
Bemelmans wrote many sequels to Madeline, including Madeline's Rescue and Madeline Lost in Paris, and even after his death, his son has continued to write for him posthumously. There have been movies (the 1998 one that I went to see on the release date - I'm still confused at why she is British) and was a tv show that I adored as a child (here's the first episode - here). Clearly, even over 70 years after the initial publication of this book by Simon & Schuster, Madeline is still incredibly popular and beloved. What a testament to the quality of Ludwig Bemelmans.

And that's all there is. There isn't any more...

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night - Joyce Sidman

I've never been a huge poetry aficionado. I read Shel Silverstein's "A Light in the Attic" as a child and remember the rhythm and rhyme of my mom and dad trying to introduce me to poetry. I remember thinking that I could write poems like Shel Silverstein. I remember with vivid memories completing my sixth grade daunting "Poetry Project," which I entitled "Modern Day Emily Dickinson," even though I'm sure I had no idea who she was at the time. After reading the chapter, particularly the portion that speaks to the dislike of poetry that many children and adults have today, I tried to read Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night with new eyes, eyes that really appreciated poetry. For the most part, I very much enjoyed the book. I wouldn't say I was absolutely enthralled by it or moved by every poem, but I particularly enjoyed the vivid illustrations, the glossary, and the sidebar descriptions on each page that described what the poem was "scientifically" about.

Joyce Sidman has used Dark Emperor as a book to introduce readers (who I imagine include both children and adults) to various creatures of both day and night, including spiders, porcupettes, bats, and the primrose moth. A poem appears on the left page of each pair of pages, and on the right, there is a detailed description of the creature or the actions of the creature. Although I strongly disliked the poem about mushrooms (I think that stems from my own personal hate of mushrooms), I absolutely loved the first introductory poem in the book, entitled "Welcome to the Night." It includes several onomatopoetic words (buzz, chirp, hoot, peep, etc.) and I can imagine an elementary school class being absolutely enthralled if this poem were a read aloud in their classroom. I found this video of some of the illustrations from Dark Emperor and accompanying sounds that I think would be the perfect background music to reading the book in class to students.

My favorite illustration in the book is depicted to the left, and it happens to be found on the last illustrated page of the book. It shows the sun rising in the distance, and put a smile on the face of this reader as I realized that night was finally over and the animals were back to their daily routines. I looked at the illustration technique used, and noticed that it was a technique I was surprisingly familiar with - that of relief printing. We did this in my high school art class, with linoleum blocks, and it was an absolutely fascinating process - sitting patiently carving out our desired image on a block of linoleum, then rolling ink on that, and pressing the relief of that carving onto paper. Both of these videos show the kind of detail that was needed in the illustrations in depth (here and here). I think that these illustrations only further emphasize the beautiful but almost eerie feeling that the book emits, and I thought it was wonderful.
I think that it is important to expose your class to a variety of poetry, not just Shel Silverstein, not just Emily Dickinson - but many styles and authors so that they are able to decided individually what they like and do not like. This will definitely be in my classroom library and be a staple that I include on a daily basis in both science units (interdisciplinary instruction!) and poetry.

After Tupac and D Foster - Jacqueline Woodson

"That evening, the three of us - me, Neeka, and D - 

sat on my stairs, until we were too cold to shiver anymore. 

This numbness came over us, and we didn't even have to

talk or curse or cry. Me and Neeka and D knew what we felt - 

way deep past all the cold. Past the coming darkness." 

When I was searching for books to read that focused on more multicultural topics, this one popped up in my Google search. It was a Newbery Honor book. One of my favorite rappers was even listed in the title. It was available in Swem. So, I went for it and checked the book out of the library, and figured it would be a stark contrast to Because of Winn-Dixie, the required book for realistic fiction. Something about reading this book was so much more realistic to me than Because of Winn-Dixie was. Part of me wondered where that sense of realism came from and if my hometown had anything to do with that. I realized that I knew people like the characters in this book, knew the setting, knew the topic matter. That came from going through a public school system where approximately 75% of students were on free/reduced lunch, where the teen pregnancy rate per capita was one of the highest in the state of Virginia (see chart below), and where school friends of mine were locked up for possession or gang violence by age 17. 

In my high school, gang violence and teenage pregnancy and single-parents and hunger were all issues. REAL issues. 

After Tupac and D Foster gives the reader three distinct lead characters - the narrator, Neeka, and D. I didn't realize this until I went to write this blogpost, but the narrator is never given a name. She relays all of the information to us in the first person throughout the book, but we never hear her mother or Neeka or D refer to her by a name. This is a somewhat coming of age story and portrays the life occurrences of Neeka, the narrator, and D from the time that they are 11 to the time that they are 13. It tells various stories - stories of low SES, stories about homosexuality, stories about black culture, stories of hardship, and stories of overcoming struggle. Although family plays a large role in this book, it is not the family of the narrator - the families of Neeka and D are woven into every page. Neeka is almost more a part of Neeka's family than she is of her own, and she acknowledges this by spending as much time at Neeka's house as possible. We as readers see Neeka's family blossom and learn so much about them - the passion that Jayjones has for basketball, the inner fight that Tash has (even as a gay man in prison), the love that Miss Irene has for all of her children, and more. I was extremely interested to see that the storyline of Tash was developed as much as it was, a storyline that directly tackles violence against homosexuals. Rather than having the story be extremely sad, the author Jacqueline Woodson let Tash come out of jail stronger than ever before. Normally, it would seem that books that target hip-hop culture would not also tackle issues of violence and homosexuality, but this book does. 

The friendship that the narrator, D Foster, and Neeka have with one another is reminiscent of many friendships at that age, but somehow seems stronger than most because it is cemented by their common struggle with poverty, family issues, and their love of everything Tupac. The way that Jacqueline Woodson has these girls converse about Tupac made me wonder if Tupac was the name of another character in the story that they were friends with and not the infamous late rap artist. They talk about Tupac with a love and familiarity that can only mean that they are true fans. They talk about Tupac's song "Dear Mama" and relate it to their mothers. They talk about Tupac's song "Brenda's Got a Baby" and analyze it just like college students analyzing a work of literature in a 300-level English class. The entire novel's dialogue is written in African American Vernacular English, and that makes it extremely authentic to me - all of the words said and thoughts had seemed truly real. Jacqueline Woodson provides the three main characters, I think, to give each reader one to relate to. I related to the narrator, but I know that other friends of mine would have identified more with Neeka or with D Foster or even with Jayjones or Tash. 

This book would not be appropriate for children in age classroom I'm planning on teaching to read, but would be a fantastic YA book for children in 6th/7th grade and older to read, as those are the types of students who would best be able to understand the experiences that occur and the mild bad language that is used. 

The Giver - Lois Lowry

"It didn't worry him. How could someone not fit in?"

The question of "How could someone not fit in?", asked by Jonas in Chapter Six of The Giver, to me, represents a vast majority of the book and how the theme of challenging homogeneity and sameness flows throughout the pages. In reading The Giver many times growing up, I never realized that it was considered as fantasy/science-fiction, and I think that that gives due credit to the author Lois Lowry and the depth of description she used in creating the world of Sameness. When I was watching an interview with Lois Lowry (available here), I was interested to learn that she never considered The Giver as science-fiction either, much more of realistic fiction and that she crafted it in the same way she crafts all of her books - she chooses a place, she writes the characters, and she puts them in situations. I also loved hearing Lois Lowry describe the path that she purposely took us as readers on throughout the book, stating that she made the first third of the book purposely seductive and wanted me as a reader to think, even just for a little while, that Sameness was an okay place to live. And I fell victim to that. And then, just as every time that I read this book, I am heartbroken with Jonas as he learns the reality of Sameness. And again, I am overwhelmed with warmth and  anxiety as he and Gabriel approach the twinkling lights and ride down the hill in the sled. 

When I was thumbing through chapters after I was done reading, I was surprised to see that Lois Lowry leaves us with a very short statement at the end of every chapter, whether it is dialogue between Lily and her father or a description of how Jonas is feeling. I drew a connection between this and the writing style of Cynthia Rylant, who we saw do this in multiple picturebooks throughout her career. But just as I love Cynthia Rylant, I love Lois Lowry. For a single author to contain to of my most beloved childhood novels (The Giver and Number the Stars) is impressive. And even more admirable is that both of these books made me think critically about the wrongdoings going on in the world, embrace my imagination, and created vivid worlds in my head (in both Sameness and Copenhagen with Annemarie and Ellen). I definitely believe that both of these novels and the issues that Lois Lowry raises in her books shaped me to be the person I am today - someone who questions to herself a lot and someone who cares very strongly about the wellbeing of people all across the world. Interestingly enough, these books were both class reads during my "gifted" classes and I wish I could go back and investigate if my peers who were not in gifted instruction were able to experience these books with the same curiosity and interest that I did. 

Although I love this book with all of my heart, I have always wished that The Giver had been more a part of Jonas's final journey. I'm sure that Lois Lowry purposefully chose to have him suddenly disappear than waste pages describing the goodbye between Jonas and The Giver. However, every time I read this book, I find myself turning pages trying to make sure I didn't miss the final scene between Jonas and The Giver. But time and time again, that is my only critique. I do recognize that I have a hard time in being objective in critiquing this book because of my strong personal connection to it and the association that both the book and Lois Lowry have with my childhood. 

When looking at buying books for this class, there was no question in my mind of whether I wanted to purchase The Giver or not for my classroom library. After talking extensively about censorship and its issues as well as reading up on a case of banning The Giver, I feel adequately prepared to talk to my students about any issues they see with the book and break them down for them. Now, I simply have to purchase Number The Stars...