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.

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! Written by Candace Fleming, Illustrated by G. Brian Karas

Picture Book for children ages 2-6

5 Stars!

Mr. McGreely has always wanted to grow a wonderful vegetable garden and this year he decides that he is going to do it, but he has nothing but trouble with it due to three bunnies who munch on his leafy greens every night. Mr. McGreely puts up more and more obstacles in hopes of keeping the bunnies away, but it takes Mr. McGreely building a trench, a brick wall, wire fence and many many other things for him to finally gain success in growing his vegetables.

                The diction used within this story is enough to make Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! a well written story, but so much more than the wonderful diction and language exists. First off, the text often uses rhyming words and is full of adjectives to describe every piece of information. These adjectives that are used also demonstrate the use of precise vocabulary in the text, as this really shows the reader exactly what the author wants them to see. Also, the text only gives away half of the story; the illustrations show the other half. In the story, on the first night that bunnies appear, that is all that the text says they do, is appear. The illustrations on these two pages show them creeping into the garden and gnawing on the lettuce, which gives the reader a hint of what is going to happen in the morning when Mr. McGreely comes out to check on his garden. Within each illustration are words describing the sounds being made by the rabbits, which are fun to read out loud, especially to children. As each day in the life of the bunnies and Mr. McGreely comes to a close, the line “And the sun went down. And the moon came up.” Is stated, which brings repetition into the story. This repetition makes it fun to read as gives anticipation to what the illustrations are going to show about what the bunnies are going to do during the night. As each day goes on, Mr. McGreely gets more and more angry at the bunnies and takes more and more drastic measures to keep the bunnies out of his garden. The unrealistic ideas he comes up with to do this as well as the way that the illustrations show the bunnies conquering Mr. McGreely’s feats. All of these things make reading Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! fun to read as well as make it a well written and illustrated book.

                I would definitely use this book within my classroom. I would use it during the read-aloud portion of my day because of the awesome illustrations and the music of the text. The humor in this story also brings the book to life, as a grown man is having the darndest time keeping bunnies out of his garden. The varying sizes of font and the cartoon/child-like illustrations really show the emotion of the story to the readers or in my case, to my students who are listening to me read and looking at the pages. Besides using it as a read-aloud book, I would use this as a book for my students to read during reading time, as it is written, for the most part, at an easy level and the repetitions and rhyming words make it easy for the children to catch on to. Other than these two ideas, not many other curriculum connections can be made, other than maybe an art project.

Strega Nona

Stega Nona written and illustrated by Tomie de Paola

Picture Book for ages 4-10

5 stars

Strega Nona, meaning “Grandma Witch” is a magical old woman who offers magical maladies for the townspeople when they are having troubles. When Strega Nona hires a man named Big Anthony to help her around the house, he sees Strega Nona’s magical pot that cooks pasta on his own and tries to prove it to the whole town when Strega Nona is away. This turns into a disaster in which only Strega Nona can fix with her magic.

                Strega Nona represents a fantasy book filled with magic. This story reminds me of something that would be a folk tale because of the Italian, old-time culture depicted in the illustrations as well as the magical maladies that are described, as I think town “witches” actually were believed to exist way back when. Also, the illustrations really show the emotions of the characters and provide extra details that the test does not. When Strega Nona hires Big Anthony to help her out around the house, Strega Nona tells Big Anthony that her one rule is that he may never touch the pasta pot. Big Anthony uses some Italian words in his dialogue. This in itself brings the Italian culture to the story. One night when Strega Nona was cooking dinner for Big Anthony and herself, Big Anthony saw her singing to her pasta pot and not using any utensils to cook the pasta. After her singing, the pasta pot was full of pasta! Big Anthony could not keep this secret, and based on the illustration, Big Anthony was so anxious to tell people that he was shaking. This is one of many ways that the illustrations show more than what the text says, as from the picture of Big Anthony jumping for joy about this new secret, it foreshadows that he is not going to keep this magical pasta pot a secret. As the story unfolds, Strega Nona leaves for a day, and Big Anthony takes his opportunity to show the doubtful townspeople that he wasn’t lying when he told everyone about the magical pasta pot. He remembers the song just as Strega Nona sang it and the pasta pot cooked enough pasta to feed the whole town. One thing Big Anthony failed to see Strega Nona do was blow three kisses onto the pot when she wanted it to stop. Due to this failure, pasta never stopped coming out of the pot and it started to take over the town. Once Strega Nona returned, she quickly stopped the pot from making pasta and saved the whole town. When the whole town wanted to punish Big Anthony harshly, Strega Nona proclaimed “ ‘The punishment must fit the crime’ “, so she made Big Anthony eat all of the pasta that was made.

                This story is filled with magic from the words on the page, to the pictures, and to the plot itself. This book would make a perfect read-aloud for any class of students. The story line is captivating. Humor leaks out of the text and illustrations, which make it fun to listen to as well as fun for children to look at the illustrations. One thing this book reminds me of is the story of Adam and Eve where God creates these two humans and places them in the Garden of Eden, which provides for them everything that they could possibly need and more. The one rule God had was to not eat anything from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but they could eat from any other tree in the whole place.  This rule is similar to that of Strega Nona, she said she would pay Big Anthony, feed him, and provide him shelter, with one rule which was to not touch her pasta pot. In both stories, the characters gave into the temptations and broke the rules, both resulting in punishment.

                If I were teaching in a parochial school, I would use this connection between Strega Nona and Adam and Eve and make it into a lesson. Since that is probably not an accepted lesson in the public school system, I will use this book in a different form. Most likely I would use this story as a read-aloud because the language, illustrations, humorous storyline and display of culture are so wonderful that I think my students would love this story. According to Mem Fox, reading aloud is a very important part in developing reading skills in children. The words sing out from the page, so using the techniques of being expressive, being animated, and using a variety of vocal tones as described in Fox’s book Reading Magic will even more life to this story and will hopefully make an impact on my students and their reading abilities. Also explained by Fox was the importance of making read-aloud a regular part of everyday. This is something that I plan to do in my classroom. Read-aloud will take place at least once a day, with a picture book or novel and Strega Nona is one that I will most definitely use year after year during this specified read-aloud time.

Susan Marie Swanson

Susan Marie Swanson was born in the small town near Chicago called Hinsdale, on May 9, 1955. In this wonderful little town equipped with a great library, bookstore, and coffee shop Swanson fell in love with literature and writing. Her first published work appeared in her local newspaper when she was ten years old; it was a poem about snowflakes. During her teenage years, her family moved to Minnesota, in her new hometown, she knew that her love for writing was engraved into her life and would exist forever. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English and Poetry from St. Olaf College, her Masters of Fine Arts in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and her teaching credential from Augsburg College. She is currently married with two sons and residing in St. Paul, MN where she is an instructor at the Friends School of Minnesota.

Susan Marie Swanson has written many poems and picture books. One of her poems, “Trouble, Fly” is featured in the book This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort, which was written in response to the 9/11 tragedy, but can be used in response to any tragedy as the poems discuss the many different feelings and emotions associated with tragedy. Her book Getting Used to the Dark: 26 Night Poems relates well to children and all the different emotions the come out only in the dark. She has been honored many poetry fellowships as well as countless other awards for her books and poems. Her recent picture book, The House in the Night, won the Caldecott Medal Award along with many other awards for the text and pictures within this great bedtime story. To be like the Sun won a few awards as well, like the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book Designation. Her other major works include Letter to the Lake, The First Thing My Mama Told Me¸ and Northern Lights.

While selecting the author, illustrator, or poet to study for our AIP projects, I decided to pick a poet since I did not recognize most of the poets’ names nor have I done much with poetry in the past. Little did I know that Susan Marie Swanson resides in the same state as I do, the state of Minnesota. From the happiness described of a summer spent on the lake in Letter to the Lake, to the growing of a flower garden and the effect of the four seasons depicted in To Be Like the Sun, Swanson describes what it is like to live in Minnesota. I enjoyed being able to relate to her stories, as I have lived them myself and can share the experiences that she describes within her text. Since I want to return to Minnesota after college to pursue my teaching career, I have full intentions on reading Swanson’s stories to my students, so that they too will be able to relate to the books. Also, because Swanson wrote these stories based on her experiences of living with her family in Minnesota, I think that makes her stories stronger as well because she is putting herself into the stories, instead of drawing from nothing but imagination. Anytime someone’s emotions are put into something, the results are always better than if no emotion was put into them. Lastly, I thought it was great that Swanson works for COMPAS, an organization that brings art to people who usually would never get the opportunity to make art. Working for an organization such as COMPAS makes me admire Swanson for her desire to help others and share her talent. I enjoyed getting to know Susan Marie Swanson and reading her books and want others to do the same.

The following websites will help you to learn about Susan Marie Swanson as well.

www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/aifolder/aipages/ai_s/swanson.html

www.writerinterviews.blogspot.come/2009/01/susan-marie-swanson.html

     http://www.compas.org/arts-education/waits/artist/poetry-2

Pancakes, Pancakes!

Pancakes, Pancakes! Written and illustrated by Eric Carle

Picture book for ages four and up

Three Stars

When Jack is awakened by the crow of a rooster, he decides that he wants pancakes for breakfast, but when he asks his mother for pancakes, she sends Jack on a mission to retrieve all the ingredients from the farm.

Pancakes, Pancakes! is an okay story book. The illustrations are unique with the collage style, but they depict nothing more than what the text states. I personally did not receive any pleasure from reading this story, but I did learn how to make homemade pancakes. With that being said, this book should be read from an efferent stance as it describes the natural process of obtaining the ingredients on the farm and then cooking the pancakes from scratch. For example, Jack had to cut the wheat, take it to the miller, beat the wheat to separate the grain from the chaff, grind the grain into flour, take an egg from the henhouse, milk the cow in order to be able to churn the butter, and then cut wood into firewood. Next, the book describes the cooking utensils and the steps needed to make the pancakes. In conclusion, people would read this book for information more than they would read it for pleasure because the language is nothing special or fun, it is straightforward. According the Louise Rosenblatt, the experience the reader has while reading a story depends on the past experiences the reader has had. If audiences did not know how to make pancakes and all the steps that go into just collecting the ingredients, they might find this story enjoyable and interesting, as well as informational. Other people, including me, who have made pancakes from scratch before and who already know the process of making flour from wheat and butter from the cream of milk, would find Pancakes, Pancakes! quite dry.

“In the fifth edition of Literature as Exploration, Rosenblatt (1995) describes what teachers can do to promote ‘real literary experience[s]’ for school related reading” (Swafford and Akrofi, pg. 27). Although I found Pancakes, Pancakes! to only be a mediocre book, does not mean that I wouldn’t be able to use it in my classroom. I agree with Rosenblatt’s stance on teachers promoting “real literary experiences for school related reading.” Pancakes, Pancakes! could easily provide a real life experience and connect into the social studies curriculum. Social studies is defined as the “study of human beings interacting with other humans, governments, communities, economics, and environments” (Johnson, pg.340). While discussing these interactions, Pancakes, Pancakes! would illustrate a way in which the interactions happen. For example, interactions exist between Jack and the miller to make flour from grain, as does the depiction of Jack being the farmer who provides milk, eggs, butter, jam, etc. for the community or grocery store. This story describes not only the obvious steps needed to make pancakes, but it also describes the amount of work done by many different individuals to provide ingredients and other things for the world. I would read this story to my class in a unit on human, community, economic, and environment interactions. We could together discuss the roles of the different people in the story and how they relate to and depict the roles of different people in our communities and society today. Through this discussion, we would connect the literature to real-life experiences that often go unnoticed, like the ease most people have of going to the store to buy butter without them knowing the amount of work it took someone to make it. Also, an extra credit or assignment opportunity could be to create the experience for the children at home by having them make pancakes from scratch with their families. Pancakes could even be made for a snack or lunch within the classroom. Lastly, a field trip could be taken to a farm or creamery of some kind to see the work of making ingredients in action. All of these ideas take the text of this story and turn them into a real-life experience for the reader.

References

Swafford, Jeanna. "Reading from Efferent and Aesthetic Stances." Talking Points (2005): 23-27. Print.

Johnson, Andrew P. "Glossary." Making Connections in Elementary and Middle School Social Studies. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Sage, 2010. 340. Print.

The House in the Night

The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson, Pictures by Beth Krommes

Picture book for children ages 2-6

Five Stars

This bedtime story describes a house in the nighttime by going through different rooms and objects that describe a nightly routine in a nursery rhyme form.

This book is wonderful from the soothing words to the awesome illustrations that contrast dark from light. The House in the Night comes full circle from the first page to the last. It does so by using foreshadowing to connect each page to the next. For example, page one reads “Here is the key to the house.” then page two reads “In the house burns a light.” and page three reads “In that light rests a bed.” The reader can guess that the fourth page will have something to do with what is in, on, by, etc. the bed. Then to end the book, it goes back through the objects or rooms already discussed in the beginning of the book, bringing closure to the story, as well as the day. This story probably would not fall under the category of a well written book according to Tunnell and Jacobs because the simple sentence on each page tells the reader what is going on in the story instead of showing the reader. Precise vocabulary, figurative language, and dialogue are not used. But music definitely exists within this story as the words flow from one page to the next, even though the sentence lengths are not varied. What does make this story wonderful are the pictures that fill each page. Beth Krommes used a scratchboard technique to create each picture. This technique helps to establish the mood of the story, as you feel like it is nighttime while paging through the book. The style of these illustrations represented in this book would be expressionism as the bright color yellow of only a few objects on each page really makes them stand out, but they carry no more weight than the rest of the objects and people illustrated. On each page is only one sentence of text, but a whole background filled with a picture exists, and the picture tells way more about the story than the text itself does. It is no wonder that Krommes’ illustrations made this book a Caldecott medal winner! I do not know who wouldn’t want to fall asleep after reading this story, as that’s the kind of mood it puts the reader in.

The House in the Night is a bedtime story, so its connections to curriculum are limited. The wonderment of the illustrations would make it a worthwhile read aloud to the class, especially after a rowdy lunch period. This book could be used in this way to calm children down as they listen to the story and look intently at the pictures. Another idea for implementing this book into the curriculum would be to design a lesson around the Caldecott and Newberry Award Winners, since this book is a Caldecott medal winner. Students could read and look at the different illustrations and pick a book that they like best and do a read-aloud to the class. Other than that, this book is probably one that I would not use in my class.

To Be Like The Sun

To Be Like the Sun by Susan Marie Swanson, Illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine

Picture book for the beginning reader, ages 3-6

Four Star Rating

To Be Like the Sun describes a young girl’s enjoyment in the process of growing a sunflower, from seed, in her garden. Her ambition for success in growing the sunflower as well as her love for her beautiful creation shines through the text.

This book, written in lyrical free verse, is as bright and happy as the illustrations on the pages. While reading this story, I was taken back to my childhood and the excitement that came with a new project or adventure. This excitement still resides within me today when I begin a new semester in school or embark on a new chapter in life. The story begins with the girl welcoming the seed, the new project, into her life with curiosity and anxiousness of what is to come. As the story unfolds, Susan Marie Swanson uses in-depth descriptions, imagery, and figurative language to captivate the reader. The simple illustrations do a good job of illustrating the text, but outside of the text, the illustrations to not offer any extra insight. As the different steps in the sunflower growing process are describes, the reader feel anticipation, right alongside the girl in the story, of what will happen next and when the flower will bloom. Lastly, Swanson uses precise vocabulary within her story to describe the seed, the dirt, the work, the rain, the wind, the sky, and the stars. According to Chapter Three of Tunnell and Jacobs Children’s Literature Briefly the precise vocabulary, figurative language, and imagery used within this story, make To Be Like the Sun a well-written book.

This story is quite simple on the outside but filled with hidden meanings on the inside. Since this story describes the process, anticipation, and lifecycle of a sunflower, I would use this story to introduce or conclude a lesson about plants, lifecycles, or the four seasons, as all are touched upon in To Be Like the Sun. This book could act as a great read-aloud when introducing a lesson on plants as it describes the process of growing a plant in a way that will connect with the students. I could also read this story to my class at the end of a plant unit and have them share or write about their connections to the story. For example, I could have them write about the similarities and differences between their plant-growing experience and their emotional experience compared to that of the little girl in the story. Both of these ideas represent the students reading the story from an efferent point of view, but the second idea ties in the transactional theory which suggests that the story makes a connection between the reader and the text. Having kids make a connection between the story and themselves is a great thing to do because these connections are what get kids reading and keep kids reading.