Heat Wave

Heat Wave, written by Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Bestsy Lewin

Picture book for children ages 6-10

3 out of 5 stars

As the city of Lumberville moves into a heat wave, the residents of town do everything they can think of to stay cool as they dream of rain and cooler days.

            This story was just alright. Everything about the illustrations would put Heat Wave on the best-sellers list, as it is a Caldecott Honor winner. The illustrations created by Lewin were done in brush and Sumi ink and watercolors. These illustrations represent the impressionism style, and making an impression is exactly what they do as they work with the text to make the reader really feel the heat and the feelings associated with it that the residents of Lumberville are feeling. Although the illustrations are stellar, the one thing that caused me to not enjoy the rest of the story would be the immense wordiness of the text. This picture book is twenty nine pages long, and on almost every page is a small paragraph of text that does not show me what is happening in the story, but tells me.  No plot really exists to move the story along, only the obvious reality that the characters in the story are not enjoying the heat wave. Also, so many different characters were discussed in the story, without any development, it was hard to keep them straight and understand the reason for them being mentioned. Although I enjoyed learning the ways that the residents of Lumberville tried to stay cool, this story was not one that I overly enjoyed reading.

            I wish I had the opportunity to read this story to a child as I would like to know whether or not they would have the same opinion of this story as I do. I think a small child would find Heat Wave immediately boring and want to move onto another book before it is finished. Due to the wordiness of this story, I would find it more fitting for older children, around the age of eight, to read or listen to this book. Due to my unawareness of the reactions children would have to this story, I would not know if I would consider trying to implement Heat Wave into my classroom. The only possibility that I can currently think of would be to read it during the hot first few days of school when the students are dreaming of the freedom that came with the hot summer days. This way, the students could relate to the characters and then write about what they did during their hot summer days.

           

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, retold by Sally Grindley, illustrated by Thomas Taylor

Picture book for the young reader

5 out of 5 stars

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice takes the reader back into medieval times where a sorcerer living in an old stone castle hires a young boy to be his apprentice, with the promise of one day teaching the apprentice all of his magical ways. One day, the impatient apprentice decides to make some magic of his own, but when it does not go as planned, the unhappy sorcerer has to come to the rescue.

            From the incredibly detailed cartoon illustrations, to the magical language of the text on the page, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a fantasy that all children would enjoy. The opening line of the story reads, “In an old stone castle, surrounded by whispering trees and chattering crows, lives a powerful sorcerer.” If that sentence doesn’t send a shiver down your spin, the illustration definitely will. When you look at the picture, you can hear the crows chattering, the trees whispering, and fear for the little boy, the sorcerer’s apprentice, who is walking up to the dark and scary light that illuminates the old stone castle. This opening line and first two pages of illustrations are a good representation of how the rest of the story is written and illustrated. The first line is full of precise vocabulary, detailed adjectives, and emotion. Not to mention, the alliteration used with the “chattering crows”. Also, this line has music flowing out of it. The words roll right off the tongue and set the cadence pattern of the lines for the rest of the story to follow.  These attributes of music in the language, alliterations, emotion, and precise vocabulary, according to Tunnell and Jacobs, show that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a well written story. And these attributes can be found on each page of the story, in the same way. Similarly, the way that the beautifully detailed illustrations accompany the text and add extra emotion to the first page of the story, the illustrations continue to do the same throughout the rest of the book.

            As Halloween is approaching, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice fit right into the theme of this holiday season, which is of the freaky supernatural. I enjoy themes in every way, shape, and form. In my future classroom, during the month of October I could see myself reading only books that fall into the theme of Halloween. Another way that I could implement the use of this story into my classroom is by reading The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and then the next day reading Strega Nona and doing a compare and contrast activity between these two books. This activity would work wonderfully because the plot and then moral of the story are similar, but take place in different contexts. Also, these two story appeal to different types of children. For example, some students might enjoy Strega Nona more than others, but the same is true for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This way, hopefully all of the children become intrigued by one of the two books and then the whole class has learned the lesson that is drawn from both stories. The lesson of these stories is to listen to your elders, as both the sorcerer’s apprentice and Big Anthony meddle with the magic of the elders, even when they were told not to, and it turned into a disaster. As you can see, many similarities and differences occur within these two stories, so a compare and contrast activity would be perfect to go along with the reading of Strega Nona and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Literary Elements: Magic of Literature

How does knowing about literary elements impact understanding a story?

            The literary elements of a story give a well written book substance, which ties the story all together and gives it meaning. Anyone who knows how to read, can read a story. But what they take away from that story is important and represents what makes reading the magical thing that it can be. All of the different literary elements work hand in hand with one another. The elements of character and point of view run in parallel because a story can be told from different perspectives based on the characters. The point of view will often stir up the emotions of the readers about the characters based on the feelings they have when reading the story. These feelings all could be altered based on the point of view the story could be told in. Also, characters can be affected based on the place the story takes place in. The place and the characters give the story credibility and can often cause the reader and the character and/or place to relate to one another. When the reader can relate to the character, which lives or travels to a place that moves the story along, it gives the book feeling. And this feeling is what brings the book to life and will really capture the reader and bring them into the story. This is the goal of literature, in my opinion. The other elements of time, plot, mood, theme, and symbol also tie into the feeling of the story, but often this is done through the characters and through the place. As you can see, the elements work together to bring girth to the stories that people grow to love upon reading. Without these elements, a book would have no meaning, and without meaning, why would anyone want to read them?

Clay Boy

Clay Boy, by Mirra Ginsburg, pictures by Jos. A. Smith

Picture book for children of ages 5-12

3.5 out of 5 stars

Grandpa and Grandma are lonely without any children around anymore, so when Grandpa finds a piece of clay, he creates a small boy out of it. After he comes out of the fire, he comes to life and begins eating everything in sight, literally everything.

            Clay Boy, adapted from Russian folklore was surprising. The story began warm and heartfelt with hope of the clay boy created by Grandpa being a wonderful new addition to Grandpa and Grandma’s family. Instead, a twist was thrown into the story with the clay boy wanting to eat everything in sight, and when all the food was gone from Grandpa and Grandma’s house, the clay boy began to eat the rest of the town, literally. He gulped down the animals, the townspeople, and even Grandpa and Grandma. I, a twenty year old, was scared and surprised at these events. My immediate reaction was that this story should never be read to children because of the fear this story would instill in children. But as I read on, and the brave goat conquered the clay boy, releasing the contents of his stomach back to freedom, I decided that this story was okay. The illustrations of Clay Boy show more emotion than the text itself does, which makes these pictures a great accompaniment to the story. For example, when the goat took his “great, wide leap straight at the big fat belly” of the clay boy, the picture shows the goat, quite a bit smaller than the clay boy, with great determination and strength. All of this is seen by looking at the fierceness of the look in the goat’s eyes.

            The only fear that I have about reading this book to children is the possibility for the children to develop fear themselves as a result of Clay Boy. This is probably not something to worry about since many Disney movies have scarier plot lines than this story. With that being said, I wouldn’t mind incorporating this book somewhere into my curriculum. One idea is to use this story when learning about different cultures in Social Studies since this is a Russian folktale. On the subject of folklore, this story could be read and discussed during a Language Arts theme regarding folklore from different parts of the world. This story will expose them to things that Russian children read and stories that they would probably hear from their culture.

           

I Like Me

I Like Me! Written and Illustrated by Nancy Carlson

Picture book for the beginning reader, ages 4-7

4 out of 5 stars

A lovely young pig describes everything about herself and how she likes each of her characteristics, especially when nobody is around to play with her.

            This picture book is wonderful for young readers in so many ways. First, this book is simply written, which will help the young student is just learning how to read. Second, the pictures are fun and simple, but also complement the text on the page nicely, which aids the new reader in reading based on the context of the picture. Next, this story shows good habits like brushing teeth, eating healthy foods, and keeping clean. Lastly, this book teaches a great lesson on identity and how important it is to love yourself. This is an extremely important lesson for children, especially today’s generation of children, to learn. Stereotypes, the media, and even parents are pushing children to become something great, to become something that they are not. This is not okay. This book teaches children to love themselves for who they are and that they should not let anything or anyone bring them down!

            Due to the simplicity of the story and the early age level of the book, I would only use this book if I were teaching in the primary grade levels. If this does happen, then this story will be definitely something that I implement into my classroom. I would add this book to my own personal library which would be available to my students to read during free read time, or to take home and read as well. More importantly, I would take I Like Me and implement into the social studies curriculum, if appropriate, when talking about identity. As described above, this story teaches a valuable lesson about the importance of knowing who you are as a person and liking that person. The way I would implement this story would be to read the book to the class, then have my students do an activity where they describe their own characteristics and attributes and then write or draw a picture about why they like them. This activity could be taken a step further, where the students in the class would then complement each other on their attributes. Especially in these younger grades, a good lesson on identity is important.

Nancy Carlson's website is fun and interactive, check it out for more informtaion about her and her books!

The Three Pigs

The Three Pigs Written and Illustrated by David Wiesner

Picture book for children of all ages

5 out of 5 star rating

David Weisner puts his own unique spin on the popular story of the The Three Little Pigs in this picture book The Three Pigs. In Weisner’s version, the pigs take control of the story by literally walking in and out of the pages to determine their own fate instead of allowing the wolf to determine it.

            This book rocks my socks off. Everyone knows the story of the three little pigs who each build houses out of different materials. One builds his out of straw, the next out of sticks, and the smartest one builds his out of bricks. Weisner’s story, The Three Pigs, starts in this same fashion, but through the illustrations the pigs in the story decide to take control and change the plot of the story when the wolf comes to blow each pigs’ house down. The text written on the page often does not follow the illustrations. The illustrations definitely make this story come to life because without them, the story would have nowhere near the same meaning. Many different mediums of art are used in the creation of the illustrations in this book, and this is how the illustrations end up telling the story. For example, when the wolf comes to each pigs’ door and asks to come in, the pigs simply walk out of the page after refusing the wolf entrance. This illusion of the pigs walking out of a frame is shown by half of the pig’s body being drawn in the frame with a cartoon style, and then the other half of the pig’s body being drawn realistically in the white part of the pages. From this point until the end, the only text used in the story comes from the dialogue bubbles of the pigs, which is within the illustration itself. These illustrations definitely capture the reader’s attention and tell the story, which is what makes this book well written, even more so, well illustrated.

            I would definitely use this book within my classroom. The creativity shines through the pages of this story as never before have I read a book quite like it. Due to this uniqueness, I would use this story within the anticipatory set of a lesson or assignment. For example, if I am about to introduce a new project or writing assignment, I would read this story to my class first. My guess is that the students will go wild upon hearing and seeing the story. This presents me with the perfect opportunity for a teachable moment. As the kids are loving The Three Pigs, I could foster a discussion about what makes this story so great, which is the fact that Weisner stepped out of the box when creating this story. From this point, I could then inspire them to be creative and step outside of their own boxes when working on their upcoming project. Another idea for a curriculum connection could be to read this story to the class, and then have each student take a fairytale or popular children’s story and put their own spin on it and make it into a real picture book. The options are endless with The Three Pigs, winner of the Caldecott Medal, which is why I will be definitely using this story in my future classroom.

Check out other great stories by David Weisner on his website.

           



Pippi Longstocking

Pippi Longstocking written by Astrid Lindgren

Children’s Novel, for ages 9-11

5 Stars

Pippi Longstocking is an orphan girl who lives by herself in the lovely Villa Villekula with her monkey Mr. Nilsson and her horse. Pippi, her pets, and her neighbor friends, Tommy and Annika, do through what should be a normal life, but what always turns into an adventure with Pippi around.

                I loved this book. Growing up I watched all of the Pippi Longstocking movies over and over again, but never did I know that these movies were based on a book. Just like when I was watching the movies as a child, I found myself laughing out loud while reading this story because of the silly things young Pippi does, thinking that it is perfectly normal to do so. Astrid Lindgren uses precise vocabulary to paint precise pictures of the words into the reader’s head. For example,  on page 15 one line states, “She was Miss Pippi Longstocking out for her morning promenade” (Lindgren, 15). Promenade is defined to be a stroll or walk, especially in a public place, as for pleasure or display. This word describes exactly what Pippi does on a daily basis, walk around in public for pleasure, but ends up on display because of the weird things she does. Using a different word other than promenade would not have filled that sentence with as much wealth. The very next paragraph describes Pippi’s appearance using so much detail and adjectives that Lindgren is really showing the readers what Pippi looks like, painting a distinct picture in their heads, versus just telling the readers what she looks like in one simple sentence. This use of immense detail and imagery also help to define Pippi’s personality. While reading the story, although it could be satirical in nature, no sarcasm exists. This story is written from the third-person, but with the focus being on Pippi’s point of view, so all of her actions are described are being ordinary and that she is a mature and sophisticated nine year old because she lives on her own. This is how Pippi sees herself, even though none of it is true. Yes, this story is filled with humor, but it is because of how naive Pippi is in regards to society, her actions, and the norm of society and actions at the time. All of these reasons makes Pippi Longstocking a very enjoyable read as it is a very well-written story.

                I will definitely use this novel in the future with my students. The amount of great things found within the literature of this story make it perfect for a book to be read in literature circles. This makes the book appear to be read from an efferent stance because it is being assigned to students to read for educational purposes, but I think the students will quickly find that they will want to read this book for pleasure, from the aesthetic stance. Many projects, discussions, and ways to test the comprehension of my students could be made up, in a fun way, based on this book. For example, the students could draw a map or make a mobile of the different adventures that Pippi goes on in the story. This project will be fun for the students to make as well as show me, as the teacher, that they read and understood the story. Keeping a running list of new vocabulary words would also be a worthwhile assignment because of the wide range of precise vocabulary used within the story. This list could go on forever of ways to incorporate this story in a reading/language arts class. Also, this novel would make a fantastic read-aloud as it would easily keep the attention of the listeners because they will always be wondering what funny thing Pippi will do next as well as anticipate the laughter that will come once they hear it. Whether it be used in literature circles or as a read-aloud book, Pippi Longstocking will always have a place in my classroom.