To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers

To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers

by Wendie C. Old

illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker

This week, I've been lucky enough to look at TWO nonfiction picture books about famous pioneers of flight! This book, about the Wright brothers, is much different than the one about Amelia Earhart because its content spans a much longer period of time (the Earhart book only described one night in her life, the night of her trans-Atlantic flight), and contains much more text. This book would be much too wordy for primary elementary students, but it would certainly fascinate 4th and 5th graders. Even intermediate elementary students might have to read it over a few sittings, not just in one. It even has a table of contents that make the aspects of the Wright brothers' journey, in chronological order, more manageable and organized.

The watercolor illustrations were very interesting because the illustrator also clearly outlined in black pen, and made features on faces and bodies very scraggly and unclear. This technique reminded me very much of a Christmas picture book about mice that I used to read, but I can't remember it's title for the life of me. It was exciting to me that I was reminded of this book immediately when I turned to the first page, even if I can't remember it's name! The illustrator paints in mostly light, but bright colors that remind me of dawn and morning, while his characters are darker and more shadowy.

The author clearly did expansive research on this topic. He packed every page with detail about the Wright brothers and has clearly become an expert on them. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about their personal lives, like that their parents challenged all their children to think for themselves, and that they did not have a typical brother relationship. They challenged each other, bounced ideas off of one another, and loved arguing, not maliciously, but for the sport of it. I was surprised to hear that "The Wright brothers did not dress in the work clothes of the islanders. They always wore business suits. And they never flew on Sundays." They wore work clothes in the bicycle shop but wouldn't on the beach in the sand and dirt while experimenting?! How odd! The author exhibits a great combination of research and style when he adds vivid details like "once a package arrived [to their nieces and nephews] with a dried horseshoe crab, bottles of salty seawater, and fine seashore sand," and "Wilbur kept crashing into the ground. Sand got in his mouth and eyes and hair."

The epilogue at the end of the story highlights how, out of all the inventors at the time searching for a solution to making man fly, Orville and Wilbur Wright were the ones to do it. The author emphasizes the power of two: it was the combination of Wilbur's social skills and innovativeness and Orville's optimism that led them to victory.

The back pages include a "Flight Timeline" and book suggestions to read further, both of which would be useful and interesting to young readers.

http://www.wright-house.com/wright-brothers/Wrights.html

Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers

Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers

written and illustrated by Karen Winnick

This was a very different non-fiction picture book indeed. Though it contained some interesting factual information that I was not previously aware of, I did not really enjoy its language, the author's craft, or the illustrations. I felt that the oil paint illustrations were too dark and gloomy, and the characters were very crude and unappealing to me, in my opinion. I know that if I were a child picking up this book and doing a picture walk, I would probably be bored in just a few seconds and start searching for another book because the pictures did not put me in awe and make me want to find out the text that goes along with them.

However, this book did spike my curiosity to know more about Grace Bedell and her family. With siblings' names like Levant and Una, I am wondering if her family is of foreign decent or if those are old names common during the Civil War Era? I also admired Grace's devotion to Abraham Lincoln and rallying votes for him, even if she could not vote for him due to her age and gender at the time. She seemed so young--just a child--yet so passionate about ending slavery and supporting him! The author doesn't really use any significant craft or style, and I felt that the text itself was pretty boring; this makes me wonder if this was an intentional decision, and if it wasn't, is the author an expert on this subject? How do I know she did the best possible research on the topic? Maybe this could warrant more historical investigation, though I doubt a publisher in 1995 could let this go to press without accurate information.

Consequently, this picture book did increase my admiration of Abraham Lincoln, if that's possible. In the afterword, the author displays a copy of the letters that Grace and Lincoln exchanged in 1860, and it just warms my heart that he would respond to the letter of a little girl in New York, when he was so busy running for election from Springfield, Illinois. He seems to be a man who really cared about all of his constituents, and his devotion to this country stands evident still today.

The Grace Bedell Foundation:

http://www.gracebedellfoundation.org/

Boy: Tales of Childhood

Boy: Tales of Childhood

by Roald Dahl

When I first picked up this book, which I remember reading in 3rd or 4th grade, it was so interesting how very different it is than The BFG, which our book club read for the fantasy discussion. Even though Roald Dahl lived in a completely different time than today's children, without common vaccines and treatments for diseases like pneumonia and measles, and with names foreign for American children, like Astri, Else, and Roald, he does such a wonderful job of making his life seem just like any of his readers'.

He begins the book with a dedication to his siblings and this great lead-in sentence: "An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details. This is not an autobiography." Dahl just sets us up for an adventure in the beginning, and has an amazing way of telling his life story while being completely modest and entertaining. The end of his introduction is powerful also: "Some are funny. Some are painful. Some are unpleasant. I suppose that is why I have always remembered them so vividly. All are true."

I soon learned that this statement is completely ratified throughout his book. I laughed out loud at some moments, yet was very saddened by others. One of the memories that impacted me the most and made me admire Dahl even more was his description of a terrible event that happened to his family when he was very young. The eldest daughter Astri, died suddenly of appendicitis in 1920 at seven years old. Dahl's father loved Astri best of all his children and was so depressed by her death that he too fell ill, with pneumonia. As his fever worsened and his pulse increased, he didn't put up a fight due to his grief over Astri, so he too passed away at age 57. Dahl's mother, having lost a husband and a daughter, was forced to be incredibly strong in the face of tragedy, and raise the five other children alone. What stung even more about this situation was that 42 years after, Roald's daughter Olivia died of measles, the same age that Astri was at her death, and today, all of this would be completely prevented by penicillin and vaccinations. Very depressing indeed.

I liked finding out how Dahl's imagination would run wild and some of the irrational thoughts he had as a child. I know that I certainly had some, and when I look back on them I wonder, wow, HOW could I think that something like that would happen? Or why would I ever worry about that? It's certainly nice to know that other people, including famous authors, had a similar experience as me in that regard.

Probably my favorite memory that made me laugh was "The Great Mouse Plot," in which Roald and his gang of 9 year-old friends from Llandaff Cathedral School find a dead mouse that they put in the jar of Gobstoppers at the sweet-shop so that the horrible Mrs. Pratchett, who runs the place, would touch it with her dirty hands next time she reached for one. However, it was extremely difficult to get through the scene afterward, "Mrs. Pratchett's Revenge," when the headmaster beats with a cane the boys involved in the prank: "At first I heard only the crack and felt absolutely nothing at all, but a fraction of a second later the burning sting that flooded across my buttocks was so terrific that all I could do was gasp."

It amazes me that Dahl can recall such vivid memories, fifty and sixty years later! I wonder if the dialogue that he includes truly happened word-for-word, or if he is improvising dialogue to fit with the events? I also love that he includes pictures from his childhood, most with captions in his handwriting, such as "the house at Radyr," "a picnic with Mama." There are some illustrations included as well, such as a (joking) "WANTED FOR MURDER!" poster with Roald's picture on it, the cane-beating scene, and the candy from the sweet-shop.

I think that if children (or adults) have hesitations about non-fiction, this book could definitely be used to break those down. It's practically written like a fiction story, complete with humor and sad parts, just in a string of memories rather than a beginning, build-up, climax, and resolution.

Roald Dahl's site:

http://www.roalddahl.com/

Very sad account of tragedy in Dahl's life:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/biographyandmemoirreviews/7930233/Roald-Dahls-darkest-hour.html

Anne Frank

Anne Frank

by Josephine Poole

illustrated by Angela Barrett

As one might suspect given its content, this is probably one of the more depressing picture books out there. This narrative biography tells the well-researched story of Anne as a young girl, both before and during her hiding in the secretive annex in Amsterdam.

It opens with a paragraph from Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl, which was extremely confusing for me out of context because I have not read the book, but makes much more sense after finishing the picture book. Regardless of background knowledge, it prepares the reader for the rest of the picture book, with a tone of desperation, helplessness, and fear. The lead-in paragraph of the story is also very intriguing. The author starts, "The story of Anne Frank begins with an ordinary little girl, someone you might sit next to in class," which immediately relates the story back to the personal lives of the readers, making them imagine that Anne is one of their friends, that this event could have happen to anyone. Poole continues very straightforwardly, hiding nothing: "Mostly Anne felt on top of the world. But sometimes she was afraid. There was a good reason for this: Adolf Hitler ruled Germany then, and he had vowed to get rid of the Jews. Anne Frank was a German Jew." Thus a very serious and somber tone is set from the start.

I thought it was very interesting that the author then spoke about the poverty of the German citizens in general leading up to Hitler's reign, how their country was in debt paying for damages of World War I, people were out of jobs and food, and they were searching desperately for a solution and someone to blame. Turn the page, and we see a stark quarter-page vertical spread of a LARGE mural of Hitler with a shocking red background, two little children like ants in comparison. The author describes how Hitler became the solution for many German citizens, and he pointed fingers at the Jews. Poole uses a metaphor that moved me: "It was no threat to begin with--no more than a spark. But the spark was to turn into a flame, and the flame into a blaze that would consume the whole of Europe before it was put out." 70 years later, I feel that this wildfire metaphor describes the Holocaust perfectly.

Poole also made me contemplate aspects of this horrible discrimination that I had not considered before. Often, differences in race and religion are overlooked by young children; however, the author makes it clear that Hitler's nonsense trickled down to very young children, which amazed me. "At school, children began to notice who was Jewish. Some of them mocked and even bullied their classmates. It was very bitter for the Jewish children, to be pushed around and called dirty names by boys and girls who had been their friends."

Several of Barrett's watercolor images impacted me. One passage that describes "the grown-up world" and that Germans were smashing the windows of Jewish shops contains a three-quarter spread where you can follow the flying broken glass from the text top right diagonally down left to the shopkeepers ducking behind their counter for protection. This action image frozen in time of millions of tiny shards of glass, as thin as paper, is incredible. Another painting that touched me was a half-page spread next to a passage that described the horror stories told by the Franks' new neighbors just moving to Amsterdam. Anne is in the dark hallway, overhearing her parents talk in the kitchen. The only light in the painting is coming from the slightly-open door to the kitchen, and it shows Mr. and Mrs. Frank in a worried, tight embrace. Little Anne, in her pajamas, looks so frail and wispy, and the dark hallway has a blue hue that just evokes such extreme sadness and helplessness.

The language that the author uses is incredibly specific and well-researched. For instance, "Early next morning, she struggled into several sets of underwear, two pairs of stockings, a dress, skirt, jacket, raincoat, stout shoes, a cap and scarf. It was the only way to carry her clothes--any Jew with a suitcase looked suspicious." How detailed she is! And the whole book is like this! Poole includes the detail that Anne had to leave behind her cat Moortje when her family moved into the annex to hide: this fact is easily relatable to children and helps readers empathize further with Anne if they haven't already.

The book continues to describe Anne's struggles with her family in the annex for two years and how she records it in her diary to release her frustrations, her relationship that she develops with another boy who hides in the annex Peter, and the day her family is captured and separated. We learn that Mr. Frank is the only one to survive the trauma, and Anne died of typhus in a concentration camp. The ending to the story was very abrupt and unexpected: "Anne Frank was no more than a girl, and her short life had come to an end. But her story was just beginning."

There is an afterword describing the publishing of her diary, and also a detailed chronology of German history and the Franks' story 1918-1980--definitely useful for readers!

Anne Frank House Museum:

http://www.annefrank.org/

The Boy Who Bit Picasso

The Boy Who Bit Picasso

by Antony Penrose

photographs by Lee Miller

artwork by Picasso

"I couldn't speak French or Spanish, but it didn't matter at all because we didn't need a language for our games. Picasso was great fun to play with. He liked to romp around on the floor and have pretend bullfights. His tweed jacket was nice and scratchy. He smelled good, too. He smelled of cologne and French tobacco" (17).

Before I read this book, I had no idea who Antony Penrose was. A child, friends with Picasso?! Wasn't he kind of an eccentric man who wasn't friends with many people? Turns out that, while "he got very upset with adults if they touched anything" that he was working on in his home in southern France, he loved letting children tinker with his artwork and items in his house (37). Turns out that Antony Penrose, son of famous model and photographer Lee Miller and surrealist painter Roland Penrose, who were friends of Picasso, is now a writer who has spent a lot of time publishing his mother's photographs, developing the Lee Miller Archive, and crafting this book and The Lives of Lee Miller, and upholding his parents' legacies .

This book is different from the other picture books I've examined because it contains a combination of photographs by Tony's mother, creative maps, and inserts of Picasso's art. The text is set on bright colors that contrast with Miller's black-and-white photographs, and the author varies the font styles to emphasize certain words. For example, in the sentence "He was always experimenting, always inventing, always making things," the word "experimenting" is larger and in a squiggly shape, which reminded me of the motion of a roller coaster, which invokes excitement and risk-taking. On the next page, he messes with the fonts of "junk" and "art," in the sentence "He made them from junk, which he transformed into art," emphasizing the relationship between the two. This concept that art can result from junk is intriguing for children, pushes their imagination and creativity, and shows them how easily they too can be artists: they don't have to have the best and most expensive materials to do so.

As a French major, I was personally delighted with this book as it described Picasso's various homes and movement around southern France. I laughed out loud when I read the scene after which the book is titled: "I don't remember this, but Mom told everyone that one day, when we were playing, I got overexcited and I naughtily bit Picasso. Picasso turned around and bit me right back--hard! Just before I started to yell, Mom heard Picasso say, in French, "Gosh! that's the first Englishman I've ever bitten!" (19). Penrose sets this scene apart by putting it in larger font than the rest of the book, with a bright orange two-page spread background, accentuated with drawings created by children, rather than Miller's photographs or Picasso's artwork.

I loved how the author discussed Picasso's creative process in this book and feel that it would be especially interesting to young readers, who may be aspiring artists at their age. For example, "Picasso did not often use precious materials like gold or silver. Instead he used the things he found around him--things you might see in your garden or kitchen at home. He made this baby out of bits of broken pots" (30). And, "I did see the sculpture Picasso made of a monkey mother with a baby. Take a look at the mother's face. Can you see what Picasso used to make it? He used Claude [his son]'s toy car" (33).

Finally, I loved the concluding paragraph of Penrose's book because he connects to the lives of young readers by suggesting that artists really are ordinary people and more accessible than you may think: "Today he is one of the most famous artists in the world...but to me he will always be my extraordinary friend, and I hope he is now yours, too" (47).

Check Out these links!

Interview in which Antony Penrose talks about the time he bit Picasso:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/aug/22/picasso-lee-miller-tony-penrose

Video interview with Antony Penrose about life growing up on the Farley Farmhouse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PObp0I5U5fs

Night Flight:Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic

Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic

Written by Robert Burleigh

Paintings by Wendell Minor

Night Flight, written by Robert Burleigh and illustrated by Wendell Minor, is the terrifying and inspirational tale of Amelia Earhart’s transatlantic journey May 20-21,^,1932.

Overall, the combination of the author’s awesome descriptive words and the illustrator’s gorgeous paintings create a stunning picture book that captivates from the start. Every sentence is rich and exhilarating, and it feels like the words Burleigh uses could control our emotions and sweep us away at any second! For example, he invokes terror when he states, “Rivers of quicksilver darkness drown the moon. The wooden Vega wobbles on invisible hills of air. Lightning scribbles its zigzag warning across the sky: DANGER”. He also uses short sentences occasionally for emphasis, such as “It is Ireland,” when Earhart finally reaches land. It touches on deep concepts, such as death, danger, fear, loneliness, and desperation that younger audiences (K-3) may not be able to grasp very well. The author uses some complex words that would also be very difficult at an early level. Depending on students’ prior knowledge, a teacher reading aloud might have to stop and explain some hard words to the students; if the students are too young to understand a majority of these words, the comprehension and value of the story may be lost. If the teacher only has to explain a few words, the students can still appreciate the story.

But any audience will enjoy the magnificent watercolor illustrations in this book. Every painting, from the construction of the plane, to the hairs on Earhart’s head or the sparkle in her eyes, to the crashing waters of the Atlantic, is precise. The illustrator uses a variety of painting techniques to display what he wants to portray: pointillism for the gravel and grassy hills that Earhart leaves behind in Newfoundland as she soars into the great unknown, softer watercolor strokes for the wispy night clouds, small frantic strokes for the wrinkly ocean, and even some splattering for the crashing lightning storm. Minor does a wonderful job of incorporating Earhart’s emotion into his paintings. For example, when it first turns to night, the text reads, “Her mind soars. She loves what she likes to call ‘first-time things.’ She remembers roller coasters, bicycles, barebacked horses.” On this page, the artist uses watercolors to create a shimmering night in all shades of blue, laced with white specks for stars. This painting instills wonderment and mystery and is conducive to Earhart’s connection of her childhood memories to her unpredictable future ahead. If we aren’t mesmerized by the front cover, we certainly are taken by the map we see when we open the front cover. It integrates geography and history into the text by charting Earhart’s course from Newfoundland to Ireland, pointing out the distance she traveled and start and stop times. It also models the Vega plane she used and gives the statistics of the plane’s construction, which is such interesting information for kids! Although there are lots of picture books out there on Amelia Earhart, I feel like this one is different because it focuses less on her journey during which she disappeared, and more on her courage and triumphs against adversity during her successful voyage.

Official Amelia Earhart Biography site:

http://www.ameliaearhart.com/about/bio.html

Woodsong

Woodsong

by Gary Paulsen

To be honest, I wasn't quite in love with this book from the start like I thought I would be. But I think it won me over in the end. Woodsong is a memoir of Gary Paulsen's life, that features the lessons he learned as a woodsman and his experience running a team of sled dogs in the epic Iditarod race. For me, the first few chapters were very slow, and the bloody descriptions were painful. However, things started to pick up for me when I read the account of one of the dogs, Columbia, teasing another, Olaf by pushing his bone incredibly close, but just out of his reach, and how this action and focus on the humor felt by the dominant party led Paulsen to quit trapping animals. In class, we've recently been discussing author's craft and leads into stories. I loved how not just the first line of the book, but every chapter really, had an intriguing lead in this book. For example, chapter one: "I understood almost nothing about the woods until it was nearly too late. And that is strange because my ignorance was based on knowledge." And chapter four: "The adventure really begins in differences--the great differences between people and animals, between the way we live now and the way we once lived, between the Mall and the Woods." In relation to this second lead in particular, Paulsen goes on to discuss how the difference between animals and people is fire. Not technology or resources or physical ability, but fire. I also really enjoyed that his memoir was not just about his life story, but truly focused on lessons, which makes it perfect to read in an educational context. In addition, I feel that the lessons he learns don't just teach him about his life, but can be applied in other contexts as well. For example, I think the most important lesson he learns, that he learns from a 400-pound bear who could have easily killed him after Paulsen threw a stick at him but chose not to, is that "when it is all boiled down I am nothing more and nothing less than any other animal in the woods." I think this lesson applies to Paulsen's life but is also a good moral for children in general, meaning that they are no better than any of their peers and no better than the other creatures on this earth and thus should not destroy them. I will admit that some of the content in this book is very sensitive for elementary age, and I was shocked in horror and upset by some of the scenes he described. But he did also have a sense of humor in describing the animals that kept me entertained throughout.

The description of the Iditarod was kind of presented as a separate portion of the book, and its exhilarating, much more active tone, certainly separated it so. I was shocked to learn that the race takes seventeen days, and cannot imagine something more grueling and consuming, but also rewarding in the end. I think the feeling he describes of The Run being something that can't be done, but once you do it, you never want it to end, may not be a feeling that children can relate to right now, but I have full confidence that later in life it is a feeling they will experience and hopefully will be able to relate back to this moment in the book.

Paulsen answers questions submitted by children to Scholastic!

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/iditarod/top_mushers/index.asp?article=gary_paulsen

Coraline

Coraline

by Neil Gaiman

Coraline is the story of a young, adventurous girl, whose curiosity leads her to find another family that she is a part of in another world. Just when she starts to feel so comfortable in this other world with the other family that she considers staying permanently, she realizes its flaws and traps and horrible aspects. I thought the book was pretty eerie from the start, almost with a The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe feel in that she's a child who's bored and trapped in her house with nothing to do but explore. But I'm wondering if I would have still felt this eeriness from the beginning had I not known anything about the plot or the movie going into it? I'm not sure.

This book is definitely a fantasy in that it focuses on the concept of an alternate reality. This reminded me very much of the times that I have dreams that seems so real that I wake up feeling like they really did happen, especially the part when she first discovers the brick behind the door has turned into a hallway and she wanders down it and sees that it very much resembles her real house.

Obviously this is children's literature, but I wonder if there was a specific age for which the author intended? I thought it was very interesting that what is immediately creepy to me seemed to appeal to a young girl of this age, hungry for adventure. For example, when the author described Coraline's first adventure into the other world, the button eyes and white skin, the fingers that were too long, the rats to play with, and the shocking color scheme for her room, I was immediately repulsed, but it seemed that Coraline seemed to enjoy these things due to her naïveté and yearn for adventure.

I think this book sends several great messages to children, the first about bravery and doing what's right to protect those you love. Second, this book teaches children to be careful what they wish for and to be grateful for what they have, and also to not judge people too early or dismiss them for petty reasons before you get to know them. Coraline's experience also shows children that they can conquer their fears, or at least that circumstances could be a lot worse, so there's not point in wasting time worrying about the small things.

Neil Gaiman website: http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/Coraline/

The BFG

The BFG

by Roald Dahl

I was so excited when my group chose this book for our book club discussion because I distinctly remember reading it in Mrs. Froeschle's 3rd grade class and loving it. I love how the author jumps straight to the action from the start, not even allowing any time for a reader to get bored waiting for the plot to pick up. Plus, the quick action at the start of the book gets us excited knowing that there'll be a bigger climax to come.

Roald Dahl's language is indescribable and so many things at once: impeccable, breathtaking, intricate, and creative yet sloppy. I think it is one of the aspects that sets this book in a league of its own when it comes to children's literature. Some of my favorite words that he invented and used were "scotch-hopper," "humplecrump," "wraprascal," and "crumpscoddle," and of course, the infamous "snozzcumber." Just when you think there cannot possibly be any more strange words for him to come up with, he introduces more. He can't stop! And every new word stretches children's imaginations further.

The BFG himself is such a unique character too. Different and scrawnier than the other giants, and always trying to do the right thing, I've realized that he reminds me so much of one of my close friends, and I love having that personal connection to refer to whenever I please. The BFG is so lovable: as the book goes on, I think any young child would love to get abducted by him. One of my favorite quotes that he says, when he's distressed over his sloppy language, just makes me love him more: "But please understand that I cannot be helping it if I sometimes is saying things a little squiggly. I is trying my very best all the time" (50).

The BFG also sends such wonderful messages to children, as I referenced above, about choosing what's right over what's popular and showing character. He also makes a wonderful point about not having to see something to believe it: "Just because we happen not to have actually seen something with our own two little winkles, we think it is not existing" (48). I think this is such an important point for a child to learn early on and carry into their adulthood. Hooray for our favorite gangly, giant hero!

Roald Dahl's official website: http://www.roalddahl.com/

"Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry

Number the Stars

a novel by Lois Lowry

John Newbery Medal

For my second historical fiction book, I chose Number the Stars for several reasons. First, I remember reading it as a child and wanted to revisit a book that has already had some impact on my life, just as I did with Out of the Dust. Second, my class at Matoaka used this book as one of our first guided reading group books. And lastly, I thought it would fit in nicely with the other books I'm working with right now: Out of the Dust features a young girl about the same age who is forced to show courage during difficult times in her country, and The Devil's Arithmetic, my one-on-one lesson book, is also about World War II, the Holocaust, and its associated Resistance movements.

This novel is unique in that, instead of focusing on a Jewish child who attempts to survive the Holocaust, the main character is a nine year-old blonde Danish girl named Annemarie Johansen, who proves incredible courage in helping her friends and other Danish Jews resist capture by Nazis. What also makes this book special is its emphasis on loyalty. Previous to German Occupation in 1940, Denmark was ruled by King Christian X, who stepped down from his throne to let the Germans occupy rather than let his people get killed in a senseless battle of Resistance. Similarly, when the Germans were coming to take over the Danish fleet in their harbor, the Danish sailors blew up all of their own boats out of pride and loyalty so that the Germans could not control them. Throughout the Occupation, King Christian still continued his daily horseback rides through the city of Copenhagen, greeting his people, without bodyguards. One time, a German soldier saw him and asked a nearby teenager, "Who is that man who rides past here every morning on his horse?" (13). The boy told him cheekily that it was the King of Denmark; when the soldier probed as to where was his bodyguard, the boy responded, "All of Denmark is his bodyguard" (14). This story has been documented, and that record still exists today. This extreme sense of loyalty to King and country resonated throughout Denmark at this time, and as Number the Stars explains, this loyalty was immediately transferred to Danish Jews after their New Year in 1943 when Nazis began to capture them.

With these significant factors laid out, Lowry paints a phenomenal picture of suffering, bravery, emotion, and quick thinking, and relates these complex themes to young readers, both in and out of the context of the Occupation. Lowry's nuances are very in-depth and multi-faceted: she expresses the anger and blunt cruelty of the German soldiers, Annemarie's frustration with her five year-old blabber-mouth sister Kirsti, instances of the secret code used among Denmark resistance over the telephone, and the tactic of pretending to be a "silly little girl" or "playing dumb" as a child towards German soldiers so as not to reveal secret information entrusted to a child (114). One detail of the book that really stuck out to me was Lowry's multiple mentions of the food and materials rations in Copenhagen. She did a very good job making it clear that the absence of butter, coffee, cigarettes, rubber, and meat was now a way of life that the children understood, but she did so in a way that makes readers stop and think about how different and awful their lives would be without these things.

I liked how Annemarie's family never considered fending only for themselves an option: "it's what friends do" (128). The content and events in this novel definitely make readers grateful for the freedom from persecution that they hopefully experience today and achieve the vision of a "world of human decency" that Lowry hoped to create (137).

Out of the Dust

Out of the Dust

Karen Hesse

Karen Hesse's novel Out of the Dust, comprised entirely of poems, is probably the most depressing book I've ever read; it brought tears to my eyes on several occasions. And yet, I remember reading it at the beach one summer after 4th or 5th grade, but don't quite remember it having the same effect then. The novel tells the story of Billie Jo Kelby, a gangly, young, redheaded girl with a knack for piano-playing, who undergoes more suffering and loss than any child ever should. Hesse paints a picture of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl so sharply and accurately that readers are enthralled from the very first page.

Her poetry is absolutely fantastic; I honestly haven't read any other like it. She uses phenomenal sensory images: I can taste the dust on my tongue and feel it on my skin as I read the poems that make up her novel, which are all from young (but incredibly mature) Billie Jo's perspective. The first poem that really stuck out to me when I began the book was called "State Tests" on page 30. Billie Jo describes to her mother how their school scored the highest in the state on achievement tests and she scored the highest in the 8th grade class, but her Ma merely says "I knew you could." She knows her mother is proud, but she won't praise, thus Billie Jo feels like her Ma "makes me feel like she's just/taking me in like I was/so much flannel dry on the line" (30). This was the first personal connection I made with the story because I had such a polar opposite experience growing up: my parents made sure to praise me at every appropriate opportunity, and I couldn't imagine how discouraged she was feeling. However, the sentiment hit me as a reader even harder later in the book, with the poem introducing Winter 1935 called "State Tests Again." At this point, her mother has died a painful death, and Billie Jo says she "Wish I could run home and tell Ma/and see her nod/and hear her say,/ 'I knew you could.'/It would be enough" (99). When I read that poem, in light of the first one, my heart broke.

After the first state tests poem, the next page's poem is called "Fields of Flashing Lights," in which we have our first experience with dust, and the events of the book seem to all go downhill from there.

The tragic turning point was the poem "The Accident," on page 60, in which Billie Jo's father leaves a pail of kerosene near the stove that Ma thinks is water, then when a small fire starts and she runs outside, Billie Jo grabs the pail and throws it out the door to prevent the house from burning down; but instead, it splashes Ma completely, and she gets badly burned. A few pages later, "Devoured" describes her death while giving birth to a son, who also dies a few days later. As if these events weren't horrible already, the author reminds the reader throughout the rest of the book that Billie Jo's hands were also maimed by burns when she tried to save her mother from the flames, so her piano talents are crippled forever. This recurring detail is just crushing to anyone who reads this book.

The rest of the novel continues in a similar manner: at times, Billie Jo seems hopeful because rain will come, but then the reader is trapped on an emotional roller coaster once more as a dust storm worse than the last occurs. People and animals die, crops suffer, technology fails, the economy plummets; but dust prevails. After trying to run away to the West, only to come back because she felt even lonelier without her Daddy, and after her father begins to court his night class teacher Louise, Billie Jo finally starts to feel the sense of a family again; and with that comes hope. But in the end, this novel is much more a reflection on the worst economic times of our country and forces children readers to connect to a world of misery they could not even imagine existed. It made me thankful for what I have.

William's Midsummer Dreams

William's Midsummer Dreams

Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Children's Fiction Book

In Snyder's William's Midsummer Dreams, companion to William S. and the Great Escape, William and his three siblings Jancy, Trixie, and Buddy have just escaped their abusive Baggett family to their aunt Fiona's house and legally become Hardisons. In this book, William begins a new life as an 8th grader at Gold Beach High, battling with his scrawniness and awkwardness, and continuing his love of Shakespeare and acting by keeping in contact with his drama teacher at his old school, Miss Scott. With the help of Miss Scott, he is able to go to a Shakespeare Festival at Mannsville College that summer, where he successfully scores and performs the role of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and gains multiple life experiences. After the final show, William is confronted by two of his ex-siblings, who demand money from him. When he refuses, they knock him unconscious, but luckily they are scared away by Sargeant Blanding, a new friend of William's, and Blanding returns William to the safety of his new family.

When I began this book, one of the ones that I picked out from Mrs. Johnson's free collection, I was immediately surprised to see how easily it could be compared to Hollis Woods. Both feature runaway characters who are somewhat orphaned and possess an artistic skill that helps them find release in some way. For Hollis it's drawing, and for William it's acting, particularly Shakespeare. Although the emotional depth associated with this book may be difficult for most elementary--middle schoolers who have never experienced anything similar to escaping an abusive family, I think a lot of young readers will be able to relate to the battle against awkwardness and to make friends that William is struggling with at this point in his life.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder's language is very descriptive and rich: she places a lot of emphasis on the senses and often describes flashbacks that challenge the reader's ability. Snyder weaves theatrical references into everyday matters often throughout the book. For instance, when William goes to the Shakespeare Festival in Mannsville, she describes how he "fools" everyone that he encounters the first day into believing that he is confident and belongs there, when he really is overly self-conscious and it is revealed that he has major self-confidence issues. Instead of naturally becoming more comfortable at the festival with time, he has to create a character who is cool and experienced and nonchalant, and forces himself to act it out until he realizes that he actually does have every right to be there and possesses a lot of talent. As part of her incorporation of Shakespeare and acting into daily life, Snyder also changes the font for any proper nouns related to Shakespeare: from the play's title A Midsummer Night's Dream to his collection The Complete Words of William Shakespeare, to William's middle initial "S."

Something unique that I especially enjoyed and thought set this book apart was William's devotion to his siblings. I know for me, personally, growing up, I was so caught up in my school friends and dance friends and trying to fit in that the time I spent with my little brother often fell to the wayside. But the reality is that I will probably know my brother longer and keep in touch with him more often than any of my friends from growing up, and that time with him should be treasured too. I absolutely love that William puts his siblings first and would do anything for them, and how they prove that they would go out on a limb to protect him too, even if they are younger, smaller, and weaker.

Pictures of Hollis Woods

Pictures of Hollis Woods

Patricia Reilly Giff

Pictures of Hollis Woods may be one of the most intriguing and obscure children's books I have ever written. Although this is a chapter book with little to no illustrations, I believe the front cover makes a striking impression on readers and has them wondering what on earth this book could be about from the get-go. The image of the bottom half of a little girl baffled me before I opened the book: could this be a horror story, like something similar to the Blair Witch Project? Is this a fun children's book, or is it supposed to be eerie and creepy like some might interpret the front cover to be? What exactly do "pictures" and "hollis woods" refer to, anyway?

We soon learn that there are actually several interpretations of the title that arise in the book, which is a factor that I think really makes it multi-dimensional. "Pictures" here can mean actual artwork done by the little girl named "Hollis," or they can mean snapshots of her life throughout this book as a wandering foster care child trying to find the meaning of family. "Hollis Woods" is the name the little girl takes on as a young, abandoned child, but "Hollis woods" also refers to an actual forest after which she believes she was named. Just this simple analysis of the title reveals that this book contains some complex themes for an elementary schooler.

I feel that both the plot and the layout of the book itself are very unique and different. I like how the author intersperses the past with the present: Hollis's "pictures" of her life with the Regan family before the accident, and the chapters on her present day "Time with Josie." It's an interesting format that really challenges the minds and imaginations of young readers as they read. Each section is filled with rich language, especially for independent elementary readers. I especially love how she describes places, such as the houses that Josie has lived in, and people, upon first impressions. For example, when the "mustard woman" from the agency takes Hollis to live with Josie, a stark painting is set to describe our first look at Josie: "I did blink then, of course I did. Anyone getting a first look at Josie Cahill would do the same. It wasn't just that she was movie-star beautiful, or that she was wearing a blue dress made of filmy stuff that floated around her, and rings on eight fingers. It was this: She had a knife in one hand. She held it in front of her so it caught the glint of the late-afternoon sunshine and became a silvery light itself" (7). With words like these, Giff does a wonderful job of capturing the eerie seriousness of the situation, but also in a childish way through Hollis's perspective.

I really love how the author relates the child's life so much to art: I think that Hollis's pictures and Josie's wood-carving really convey the heart-wrenching themes contained in this book and help make them more relatable to children. Though I do not have a personal connection with being homeless or working through the foster care system, I do have experience with my grandfather's alzheimers, which I feel is a topic that a lot of children reading this book may not fully understand. However, I think that Giff captures the emotions beautifully, as she displays Hollis's desperation and worry versus Beatrice's light-heartedness and hope for the best attitude. Even though Hollis feels like her world is crumbling and she has been forced to take on the role of cartaker, Beatrice easily agrees to come home to live with Josie at the smallest request: "Don't worry. I'll move right in with Josie...I'm already sick of painting the desert. I need some snow in my life." I believe Giff does a perfect job of introducing children to these issues through literature in a meaningful and productive way, and not with the intention to scare them, but rather as a growing experience.

Poetry! My Dog May Be a Genius

My Dog May Be a Genius

by Jack Prelutsky

illustrated by James Stevenson

When we were given this assignment, of course my first thought of which author’s poems I wanted to read was my childhood favorite, Shel Silverstein. I grabbed A Light in the Attic off the shelf at the library, and was about to check it out, when I was distracted by this one instead: My Dog Might Be a Genius, by Jack Prelutsky. I knew that I had seen random other Prelutsky poems growing up, but I was intrigued by the fun red cover and the big gold sticker reading “Children’s Poet Laureate” on the front. I thought I would delve into something new, and I haven’t looked back since! Prelutsky claims that in school he “developed a healthy dislike for poetry due to a teacher who ‘left me with the impression that poetry was the literary equivalent of liver. I was told it was good for me, but I wasn’t convinced.’” This collection makes it very clear that Prelutsky has since turned poetry around for children and made it fun, enticing, and even addicting to the point where you can’t put down the book!

Upon opening My Dog May Be a Genius, you are captivated by the first poem (appropriately, “My Dog May Be a Genius”). The rhythm and flow of the poem is whimsical and playful, and you soon learn that all of his poems in this book are like that! They are bouncy and so much fun to read (especially out loud!). Actually, the third poem, “The Underwater Marching Band,” just naturally caused a tune to form in my head to which the entire poem could be sung! Not even a tune I’d heard before, but a completely new one that surfaced in my brain on its own.

Stevenson’s black and white illustrations seem very freehand, childlike, and carefree. Using pen and ink, he draws the figures, then inks them in without being afraid to color outside the lines a little bit, which I highly appreciate in an adult artist!

The first few poems seem pretty normal and believable content-wise, but then appears the “Zeenaleens” and a “Blue-bean-bonking bupple,” and we know there must be many fantastical elements incorporated here! I love how Prelutsky stretches the imaginations of children, but also includes relatable experiences too, all while using such succulent language: my favorite line so far is “famous frozen feud,” which has such a rich alliteration that I adore!

Also, you absolutely MUST check out his website! It’s outrageous and great for kids!

http://www.jackprelutsky.com/flash/index.html

Grandmothers' Stories

Grandmothers’ Stories: Wise Woman Tales From Many Cultures

retold by Burleigh Mutén

illustrated by Siân Bailey

As a lover of fantasy and a ballet dancer who has performed many works based on folklore, I feel like I’ve heard my fair share of fairy tales. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a trove of tales I’d never heard before in Mutén’s Grandmothers’ Stories: Wise Woman Tales From Many Cultures. What’s clearly unique about this collection is its cultural appeal and differentiation: it contains tales of Senegalese, Japanese, Russian, Swedish, and Hawaiian origin, just to name a few! All of these stories are based on the idea of the wise grandmother: “the keeper of tradition, the storyteller, the teacher, healer and leader of her people,” who is not only retelling these fairy tales to three children but who is featured in each tale as the main character, varied by culture (Mutén, 5).

Three fairy tales that I focused on were the Senegalese tale “The Midwife and the Djinn,” the Hawaiian tale “The Woman in the Moon,” and the Irish “Go Ask the Wise Woman.” The illustrator uses gouache, which is paint, like a thicker, more opaque version of watercolor. She incorporates different spreads throughout each tale: sometimes portraits, large spreads, or small paintings in margins. But the illustrations that I like the most are at the bottom of each page: for each story, she includes a different banner that runs across the bottom of the page and reflects the rural atmosphere of that country where the story takes place and the plot of the story. Even though some of the pictures are small, they are large enough for a class to see, and I think this book would make a great read-aloud, even if there is a lot of text on each page.

Each tale begins like it could be historical fiction; then, all of a sudden, an element of fantasy comes into play and sweeps up your attention and gets your heart racing. For example, in “The Midwife and the Djinn,” the night begins like any other for the midwife, but when she hears a knock on the door, “There, on her doorstep, stood a shimmering djinn who was so tall that he had to bend over to greet her. Before Old Fatu could think, the djinn reached out his long arm and grabbed her hand. Before she could resist, he pulled her right out into the dark street” (8). With the introduction of this fantastical creation, we are captivated and anxious to find out what happens to the midwife. I love the cultural vocabulary that is introduced in each story, usually just one or two words, which is perfect for a read-aloud and does not take away from the flow of the text. For instance, from “The Midwife and the Djinn,” we learn that a djinn is a type of genie of Arab creation who can be hostile on most occasions. We discover from Hawaiian tradition in “The Woman in the Moon” that a calabash is a bottle gourd used to transport liquids or small items. Irish folklore teaches us that feetwater spirits appear when one forgets to throw out their dirty water after washing his feet in “Go Ask the Wise Woman.”

Overall, I love that this book introduces children to fairy tales from across the globe and also emphasizes the role of the iconic wise old woman in multiple cultures.

Five Little Monkeys

Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car

by Eileen Christelow

2000

In Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car, Eileen Christelow captures the hearts of children all over yet again with her infamous risk-taking monkeys and their tale to sell their old family car.

Christelow uses a melodic rhyme in her text that immediately commands the attention of the reader. Once this playful rhyme is established, it becomes fun to guess what’s coming next! For instance, after the little monkeys have repainted the broken-down car in lots of bright colors, they try to move it, but “the monkey who’s steering can’t reach the brake. The car rolls downhill to the...[flip page] BROWN SWAMPY LAKE!” The ellipses before the page turn really builds the excitement for readers, and it becomes a game to predict what the author will say!

The watercolor and pencil images are vivid and bright. Though they are detailed, there’s a bit of a smudgy quality to them, which adds to the feeling of playful chaos featured in the plot. From the first page, you can tell that the monkeys will be plotting throughout the story: each one has a different facial expression on every page, and they each in turn devise grand ideas to accomplish their goals.

This book definitely features the themes of teamwork and strategizing, which are especially rare among siblings. The monkeys show that by working and brainstorming together, they can paint and sell the car, avoid the crocodile’s jaws, convince the beasts to help them move the car, and make their mother happy!

Skippyjon Jones

Skippyjon Jones Class Action

By Judy Schachner

2011

Skippyjon Jones Class Action, by Judy Schachner, tells the incredibly imaginative tale of a Siamese kitten with abnormally large ears who goes to school for a day with his dog friends and confronts a bully whom they are all afraid of.

This may be the most bizarre picture book I have ever encountered, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw that it is part of a New York Times Bestselling Series! Although I have no idea what inspired the author to create a work like this, its quirkiness is wonderful for stretching the minds of young readers. In fact, the whole book sounds like a story that a child might use his imagination to tell, so it really made me think back to the strange imagination games I used to play as a child.

Both the text and illustrations are full of details and references that make it exciting but can also be difficult for young children to understand on their own. For example, once Skippyjon boards the bus to school with the other dogs, they describe the school bully to him, “ ‘Because he is a perro mezquino,’ declared Don Diego, ‘who barrenas around the escuela in a tazalita.’ ‘He spins around the school in a tiny teacup?’ exclaimed the kitty boy in shock.” The integration of Spanish words throughout this text is a very cool aspect of the book, but we can’t get caught up trying to understand them or we’ll lose the flow of the text. This bilingual aspect (even trilingual when a little French appears later) would be very interesting to observe in a class read-aloud with ESL students; but for English-only speakers, a teacher might have to encourage them just to go with the flow of the interesting words without worrying too much about their meaning.

Schachner also includes cultural references, such as a Boston Red Sox sticker randomly posted on the wall of Skippyjon’s room, and when Poquito Tito refers to the bully as a “woolly bully” because he wears a wool sweater. Though children may not pick up on these references, they are certainly entertaining for adults. When Skippyjon and the puppies are in art class with Mrs. Houndler, we see the paintings “The Howl” and “The Mona Fleasa” in the background, knocking on the Munch and da Vinci classics.

The author adds to the quirkyness of the book by changing font and size often, including silly songs in italics, using bizarre text placement and patterns, and adding “–ito” as a suffix to English words in attempts to make them sound more Spanish.

Skippyjon and his friends encounter the bully bouncing around the school in his teacup, which crashes in the cafeteria; but they realize that he is actually a tiny pup who grumbles and growls because he is just hungry! Skippyjon offers the little pup his banana and all is well. The end of the book surprised me immensely: we realize that this whole time, Skippyjon has actually been living this entire adventure to dog school in his closet!

This book even comes with a unique bonus CD of the story, read by the author. She also offers a free “bookcast” online for anyone to access at: http://readinginaction.org/bookcasts/skippyjon-jones-class-action