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

Much Bigger than Martin

Much Bigger Than Martin

Story and pictures by Steven Kellogg

1976

Steven Kellogg’s Much Bigger Than Martin features the story of a little brother Henry, who feels put down by his older brother Martin, and comes up with a grand plan to grow bigger than him.

As soon as we open the book to the title page, we can tell mischief is a-brewin’ in this picture book. We see a giant-sized boy on the left with a miniature version of himself standing in the foreground looking smug, as the giant tosses a basketball through a hoop on the far right side of the page, where it is about to hit another unknowing boy in the head.

When we open to the first page of text, we notice something striking: a large portion of the pages are white, and the illustrator only uses the colors light blue, yellow, gray, white, black, and a greenish hue. Even though he limits himself to this mostly pastel theme, each of his images is vivid and detailed.

The story opens with, “Sometimes it’s fun being Martin’s little brother.” This page has four different framed images, all of which display instances when it’s “fun” to be the little brother: piggy back rides across the yard, swinging on the playset, playing football together, and reading in the living room. On the next page however, the mood changes as the text reads, “But I hate it when he says, ‘Let’s form a line. The biggest is first. The smallest is last.’” This page features a large framed illustration, with a thought bubble leading up to a smaller framed illustration in the top left corner. This thought bubble explores the imagination of a young child and is featured throughout the book. It represents what Henry is imagining in his head, or, when the bubble is above Martin, what Henry imagines his brother is thinking.

We have quickly learned that this story is told from the point of view of the younger boy, Henry. The author/illustrator does a good job of making emotional connections through his pictures, so much that the text doesn’t have to: it is clear when Henry is happy and when he is upset, as supported by the illustrator’s details in facial expressions and body language of the characters. Even the family cat is featured in a majority of the pictures and sympathizes with Henry, expressing the happiness or frustration that he is feeling.

I believe Henry’s predicament of being too small to do the things that big kids can is a theme of the book that young children can relate to easily. I personally was immediately able to sympathize with Henry due to childhood experiences I had, feeling left out by my older cousins. To remedy the situation, Henry decides to do anything he can to grow bigger than his brother. The thought bubbles multiply as he envisions himself sprouting into a giant. His imagination soars as he tries stretching and watering himself, then settles on eating many apples due to his Grandpa’s advice that they would make him grow. When Henry tells Martin his plan, Martin teases him further, and we see a giant thought bubble I which Martin features Henry the giant apple in the circus. The details in this picture struck me: you can practically hear the circus audience heckling and jeering at poor Henry as he is made a spectacle on stage. Kellogg even incorporates the personality of the giant in the well-known fairytale, “Jack and the Beanstalk” : “ ‘You’ll be sorry, Martin,’ I said. ‘When I’m a giant, I’ll grind your bones to make my bread.’” To represent this image, Kellogg creates the most intricate image of the entire book; we see an incredibly detailed factory, in which Henry the giant stuffs his brother down a shoot labeled “The Bond Grinder,” which can “poach,” “mash,” and “scramble,” among other functions.

Yet the story ends well, with a great lesson for young readers. Henry learns that his brother was just his size when he was Henry’s age, and Martin and their father build a shorter basketball hoop just for Henry’s reach. But when Martin suggests an ape hunt game the next day, Henry politely replies, “ ‘That doesn’t sound like much fun. Besides, I’m making something in the garage.’” And to everyone’s surprise, we turn the next page and see no words; only a smiling Henry coming out of the garage on stilts, his brother looking up, shocked, from the foreground.

What's Special About Me, Mama?

What’s Special About Me, Mama?

Words by Kristina Evans

Pictures by Javaka Steptoe

2011

What’s Special About Me, Mama? is a simple dialogue between a boy and his mother about his exploration of identity and curiosity at a young age.

Looking at the front cover, we see a boy and his mother and a purple background of X’s and O’s, which often signify hugs and kisses. Without opening it, we can probably guess that this book will feature an interaction between them and some aspect of their relationship having to deal with affection. This X and O patterned-background is repeated on the first page of text, but the story begins with the little boy sheepishly peering out from behind his mother’s chair to ask her, “What’s special about me, Mama?” The purple patterned background looks like it could be a combination of print and watercolor, whereas the foreground details such as the chair and the clothes and the skin of the mom and boy look like they were created out of some kind of crinkled tissue paper so they have almost a 3D texture that makes you want to reach out and touch them!

His mother answers his question the first time, “your eyes, Love, and the way they tell AMAZING stories without any words,” capitalizing and bolding “amazing” and giving it a red font. But for each feature that his mom says makes him unique, the little boy finds a new rebuttal: other various family members share those features too. For each new feature she suggests, she uses another descriptive word, also emphasized with bolding, capitalization, and coloring for each word: BEAUTIFUL, PERFECT, JOY.

Finally, he cannot find a refutation when she suggests his hugs and kisses that “stay on my cheeks all day—they make me feel so BIG and STRONG.” She highlights the idea that ‘big things come in small packages,’ which is so important for little ones who sometimes feel they are incapable of doing grown-up tasks because they are so small. She reassures him that what really makes him unique is that her love for him is different than anyone else’s.

This book also touches lightly on diversity. When the little boy says that his eyes are not special because he has the same color as his mom, she offers instead, “your skin, Love, and the way the colors blend together to create the most BEAUTIFUL autumn earth.” His mother is dark, and on the next page, we learn that he and his father have the same lighter skin color, so we can deduce that he is a mixed race child. Race is a concept that not many young children understand until later in life, but this book does a good job of introducing an appreciation for racial differences. Due to the themes presented, I believe this book is geared towards a young age range, possibly 3-8 or so.

No Sleep for the Sheep!

No Sleep for the Sheep!

Written by Karen Beaumont

Illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic

2011

Karen Beaumont’s No Sleep for the Sheep!, with the aid of illustrations by Jackie Urbanovic, tells the tale of an unlucky sheep who is awoken by a variety of barnyard friends before finally achieving a peaceful sleep.

Beaumont’s language makes this text conducive for a read-aloud, as it tends to flow in a sing-songy way throughout the book. The first sentence begins, “In the big red barn on the farm, on the farm, in the big red barn on the farm,” and many sentences throughout the book maintain this same captivating repetition. The text also establishes from the very start that the sheep is the main character of the story, particularly because he is the only animal that speaks any dialogue other than the sound designated to each specific barnyard animal. Beaumont includes the same rhyming patterns throughout her text that add to its melodic quality: “...to the duck at the door. And please don’t QUACK any more!” and “ ‘Shhh! Not a peep! Go to sleep!’ ”

The illustrations and colors really give the book its character. The front cover is fascinating in itself: even before opening the book, we can predict that it will involve lots of fun animal characters, a lot of chaos, and some frustration for the poor sheep. The illustrator certainly doesn’t stop there: she uses both the title page and dedication page to set the twilight scene and show us the sheep’s thorough preparation for a good night’s sleep. On the first page of text, our attention is drawn to the top left corner first, where we see the moon and a small duck in the distance. Only then we notice the text when we look further down the page; the story begins, and then we see the sheep fast asleep in the big red barn on the far right. But we cannot forget the image of the duck as the first entity we saw, and as we read on, we realize that the illustrator uses these tiny animal images in the background to foreshadow the next animal to come wake up the sheep in the story! The author and illustrator chose to present each animal noise in a big, bolded font, different from the rest of the text. You can practically hear the animal making the noise in your head! For each animal noise that appears, the font is a different color and grows bigger, as the sheep gets visibly more and more flustered. Coincidentally, the animals get physically larger throughout the story, excluding the rooster in the end, and each makes a bigger production of their entrance into the story.

The illustrator begins the title page at a purpley-orange twilight, and by the first page of text, the sky is blue for the duck’s entrance, and a quarter moon hangs in the sky. The sky stays this blue color in the background, and the moon continues to make an appearance, until all the animals are sleeping peacefully and dawn approaches. At that point, the sky, barely visible through the barn window, turns a faint orange, and then a bright yellow when the rooster appears. Though the illustrator doesn’t necessarily differentiate background color per animal, Urbanovic does use full spreads in the moments when the sheep is most exasperated and begs the other animal to go to sleep; similarly, she reduces the image when all the animals fall asleep in a heap, to create an impression of peace and stillness.

Upon first reading, the rooster surprises us all after such a rough night of interruptions for the poor sheep. But we are happy to see that the sheep is finally able to sleep happily alone on the last page. Generally, kids at this age hate having to go to sleep, but they might be able to apply the concept of interruption and frustration to their own lives; hopefully they will remember this story later due to its fun, quirky nature and when they experience their first night of no sleep.