KING AND KING
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
de Haan, Linda and Stern Nijland. 2000. KING AND KING. Berkley: Tricycle Press. ISBN: 1582460612
b. PLOT SUMMARY
The queen has decided that it is time for her son, the prince, to marry. Although, he states that he has never really fancied princesses, his mother brings unmarried princesses from near and far to win his heart. Instead of the princesses winning his love, a brother of one of the princesses catches his eye, and the two princes live happily ever after.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The genre of KING AND KING is fiction. The illustrations are created by both drawings and collage. Vivid colors and quirky pictures help bring this tale to life.
CHARACTERS
The main characters in the story are the prince, the queen, and his page. Later in the story we meet the prince’s and the page’s future love interests. The queen was a robust woman that wore her gray hair pulled back in a bun or straight down her back. She did not hesitate to tell her son, the prince, exactly what she wanted. She informed him, “You’re getting married and that’s all there is to it.”
The princesses that she summoned from around the world came in all shapes and sizes. The Princess Aria from Austria was a large woman with curly red hair piled high on her head and sang powerful operas. Whereas Princess Dolly from Texas was a petite woman with long red hair that loved to perform magic acts. The princess from Greenland wore her solid green outfit and her dark brown hair in pigtails. Princess Rahjmashputtin from Mumbai stood too tall and elegant in her lovely brown dress, but did not like the prince’s comment about her long arms. The final princess with fair skin and long blond hair seemed to please the queen; however, the prince had eyes for her brother.
The men in the story: the two princes and the page had similar body shapes and height. The page seemed to be bald and the prince of the castle had very short hair. The new prince had a goatee had long locks of hair cut just below his ears. The page wore a blue and gold uniform throughout the story, and the princes wore colorful clothes.
THEMES
One main theme in the story is royalty: queens, kings, princesses, and princes. The queen was tired of ruling and felt it was the prince’s duty to marry and become the king. “The queen had ruled for many long years and she was tired of it. She had made up her mind that the prince would marry and become queen before the end of the summer.” The end of the story conveys the queen’s and the prince’s happy endings: “The two princes are known as King and King, the queen finally has some time for herself.”
Another theme in the story is homosexuality. In the beginning of the story, the reader is told that the prince does not fancy princesses. The queen lectures the prince demanding that it is his time to marry. He finally agrees, but states, “Very well, Mother, I’ll marry. I must say, though, I’ve never cared much for princesses.”
STRENGTHS
This story presents a topic that is not commonly found in children’s literature, in a light hearted way. The prince simply is not interested in princesses. Consequently, his heart stirs when he meets the prince of his dreams. I thought that the story was fairy tale like, yet the authors were safe to put a heart over the two princes’ months as they kissed. This story did not didactically preach the rights of homosexually, yet it lightheartedly introduced the theme to children.
WEAKNESSES
I liked the fact that the queen called princesses from every “castle, alcazar, and palazzo near and far.” However, I was disappointed that the skin colors of the princesses were not diverse. Four of the five princesses had fair skin. The authors could have better represented woman by making Dolly, from Texas, an African American or another race.
PERSONAL OPINION
I thought the story was a fairy tale with a unique ending. I was glad that the public library had this story. My young daughter did not question the ending. As a parent, I feel that as she is able to understand certain topics, then we will discuss them at that time.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Gillian Engberg (Booklist, Jul. 1, 2002 (Vol. 98, No. 21))
Here's a winning Dutch import for parents looking for an original tale with a gay slant. The queen, tired of ruling, decides it's time for her son to marry and assume the throne. The prince reluctantly agrees, "I must say, though, I've never cared much for princesses." The queen arranges for a parade of princesses to meet her son, but the prince doesn't feel any sparks until the final candidate shows up with her brother. The two princes fall in love, marry, and rule the kingdom together. The text is brief and lighthearted, and it presents the gay relationship with matter-of-fact ease. But it's the illustrations that really shine. Whimsical, textured collages mix beautiful papers, fabrics, and bright paint in scenes that show the bossy queen, the wildly imagined town, the eclectic princesses, the wedding, and finally, a kiss between the two starry-eyed princes. Adults will know what's coming early in the story, but many kids won't. They'll simply like the fun artwork and the final twist on conventions. For another picture book with a gay theme, see Michael Cart's Focus on Harvey Fierstein's The Sissy Duckling [BKL Je 1 & 15 02]. Category: Books for the Young--Fiction. 2002, Tricycle, $14.95. Gr. PreS-2.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2002 (Vol. 70, No. 3))
Move over, Princess Smartypants: this Dutch import arrives to take top honors in the fairytale-fracturing department. When the pushy queen of a small, unnamed country decides it's high time for her son, the prince, to settle down and marry a princess so she can retire, he exhibits some reluctance-"I've never cared much for princesses"-but she eventually wears him down. There follows a seemingly endless parade of eligible princesses, but the prince is unmoved until Princess Madeleine shows up with her brother, Prince Lee, and, "It was love at first sight. / 'What a wonderful prince!' " The prince and Prince Lee are duly wed, "And everyone lives happily ever after." The exuberant mixed-media illustrations have a distinctly European flair, employing vivid colors in bold combinations, and the line-and-color human figures have a childlike, almost primitive look. The prince himself looks rather like Mr. Gumpy with a crown; Prince Lee is a dashing chap with a goatee and an earring. Taken all together, the illustrations work wonderfully with the text to make its statement with no apologies whatsoever. After the wedding (at which the queen sheds a sentimental "tear or two"), the newlyweds gaze at each other over their monumental purple-and-pink cake, which, of course, is topped with two tiny princes. On the final, wordless page, the happy couple smooch, the actual meeting of lips chastely fig-leafed by a bright red heart. Indeed a book whose time has come, this is no pusillanimous bibliotherapy; it is, rather, a joyful celebration that at the same time firmly challenges the assumptions established and perpetuated by the entire canon of children's picture books. Hurrah to newcomers de Haan and Nijland and to the publisher for bringing them to an American audience. 2002, Tricycle, $14.95. Category: Picture book. Ages 5 to 7. Starred Review. © 2002 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2002)
In this mischievous twist on a familiar motif, a bachelor prince finds something lacking with each princess his mother draws to his attention until the last candidate brings along her cute brother. Silly but affectionate collage illustrations match the text for whimsical irreverence. Missing the political point, the young audience will probably come to the conclusion that this prince likes boys better than girls, which, of course, he does. Category: Picture Books. 2002, Tricycle, 32pp, $14.95. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
Children that enjoyed this book may want to read more about the King and King in the authors’ sequel. The story follows the two kings as they take a honeymoon to the jungle and bring home a special surprise.
de Haan, Linda and Stern Nijland. 2004. KING AND KING AND FAMILY. Berkley: Tricycle Press. ISBN: 1582461139.
Activities
Children in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch School District can use the databases Facts for Learning and World Book Kids to discover facts about royalty. They could compare the duties of a King to the duties of a president. The students could answer the writing prompt, “If you could choose to be a queen or king or a president which one would you choose and why?”
Culture Grams is another website that would provide children with accurate information about the different places where the various princesses came from.
MOSES GOES TO A CONCERT
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Millman, Isaac. 1998. MOSES GOES TO A CONCERT. New York: Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 0374350671
b. PLOT SUMMARY
Moses enjoys playing the drums. He feels the vibrations although he cannot hear the sounds. Moses goes to a concert with his class. The students use balloons to feel the vibrations of the music. Afterwards, the percussionist talks to the group and explains how she plays the instruments without being able to hear the music with her ears.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The genre of MOSES GOES TO A CONCERT is fiction. However, the author’s note at the beginning of the story includes factual information about American Sign Language (ASL). Below the author’s note, arrows and symbols explain how to read the ASL diagrams that are interspersed throughout the story.
CHARACTERS
The main characters in the story are Moses, his parents, his teacher, his classmates, and the percussionist. Moses’ teacher is dressed in a suit, the boys are dressed in T-shirts or collared shirts with shorts or pants, and the girls are wearing dresses.
The children vary in race and skin tone. They appear to be African American, Caucasian, Latino, and Asian. Their skin tones range from white to various shades of brown. The teacher, a little girl, and three boys including Harry wear eye glasses. The percussionist dressed in long black pants, pink socks, and a pink vest.
Both the little girls and little boys have short hair. However, the color and texture of their hair varies. A young African American girl wears her hair in short, stylish straight braids. Another blond haired girl wears her hair in low pigtails. The boys’ hair styles vary in texture (straight or curly) and color: black, red, brown, and blond. The percussionist wears her long red hair down around her shoulders.
THEMES
Some themes in the story are American Sign Language, deaf, music, and percussionists. As a child reads this story, she is introduced to ASL. The easy to read pictures make the reader desire to stop and try the signs. The students learn about music and vibrations that can be felt through music as they learn how Harry is able to enjoy playing his drum. Harry “can’t hear the sounds he is making because he is deaf, but he feels the vibration of the drum through his hands. He has taken off his shoes so he can feel it through his feet, too.”
Students learn that deaf children can participate in activities that involve listening such as concerts. Yet, the deaf children use their sense of touch to feel the vibrations of the music. Mr. Daniels passes out balloons to the students and instructs them to hold the balloons in their lap, for, “They’ll help you feel the music.”
STRENGTHS
Children need to see that having a disability does not have to disable a person. Even though the female percussionist could not hear the cymbals and drums in a traditional way, she became a professional percussionist because she found another way to hear the music. Even though the main character in the story is a young boy, the female percussionist is a strong role model for both girls and boys.
PERSONAL OPINION
This book is a wonderful example of a positive story about a young child that had physical disability, yet he was not stopped from leading a happy, fulfilling life. The story also introduces an adult that did not let her deafness stop her from becoming a percussionist. I would like the actress, Marlee Matlin, to write a children’s book about her childhood. She has written other books about deaf children, but I think her life story is a fascinating one. I think she is an excellent role model for the deaf or hearing impaired community.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Hazel Rochman (Booklist, April 15, 1998 (Vol. 94, No. 16))
This breakthrough picture book about a deaf child works so well that you wonder why there aren't lots more books like it. We do have nonfiction and bibliotherapy books about how to use American Sign Language (ASL), but this is a good story told in pictures and written English and also in ASL. Moses is deaf. When he plays on his drum, he can't hear the sounds, but he can feel the vibrations through his hands and through his bare feet. When he goes with his deaf classmates to a concert, they hold balloons in their laps to feel the vibrations. The percussionist in the orchestra is also deaf (she wears no shoes so that she can feel the vibrations through her stockinged feet), and after her wild, wonderful performance, she meets the deaf children, tells them her story (in ASL), and then allows them to try out all her instruments. With clear line-and-watercolor pictures, the precise hand shapes, movements, and facial expressions of ASL are a natural part of the story. Pictures at the bottom of the page show Moses signing the words, but when the percussionist tells her story, and when Moses tells his parents about his great time at the concert, the sign language is the action, and the written words are the captions. Deaf children will welcome this joyful story that talks, without condescension, about the fun they have. Hearing kids, too, will want to learn some of the sign language, and with the help of an adult, they can practice the hand alphabet shown at the back of the book. Category: For the Young. 1998, Farrar/Frances Foster, $16. Ages 5-9. Starred Review.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1998)
Millman's story, illustrated in delicate watercolors, ought to pop open a few young eyes (and perhaps some adult eyes as well). Moses and his school chums, all deaf, are off to a young people's concert. They take their seats up front, where a row of percussion instruments is arrayed between them and the orchestra. When the percussionist appears, she is in her stocking feet; she is deaf, and will feel the music through the floor, Moses's teacher hands out balloons that they will hold in their laps and that will help them feel the music. After the concert the percussionist, using sign language, gives the students a little inspirational talk, which Moses delivers to his parents later that evening. The power of Millman's book comes from the simple fact that he levels the playing field; of course deaf children go to concerts, but conveying how they enjoy music removes yet one more barrier between those who can hear and those who cannot. Moses also appears in inset boxes, signing comments aimed at readers and encouraging them to attempt signs. A few spreads are given over entirely to signed conversations, with effectively diagrammed hand movements and facial expressions. The final page illustrates the signed letters of the alphabet. 1998, Farrar Straus & Giroux, $16.00. © 1998 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
e. CONNECTIONS
Children that would like to learn more about American Sign Language can go to the website ASL for Kids: http://library.thinkquest.org/5875/. The website includes information about ASL and what it is like to be deaf. It also teaches children to sign letters, numbers, and words. After the students practice with ASL, there is a section for fun and games such as guessing the animal.
Children might want to look at these websites to learn more about the author and his works: http://us.macmillan.com/author/isaacmillman# or http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/mtai/millman.html.
RELATED BOOKS
Children that enjoyed the main character of the story, Moses, may desire to read the other books about Moses by Isaac Millman.
Millman, Isaac. 2000. MOSES GOES TO A SCHOOL. New York: Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 0374350698.
Millman, Isaac. 2003. MOSES GOES TO THE CIRCUS. New York: Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 0374350647.
Millman, Isaac. 2004. MOSES SEES A PLAY. New York: Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 0374350663.
Children may enjoying reading a nonfiction story about a deaf boy that attends public school and communicates using American Sign Language, hearing aids, his other senses, his friends, and an interpreter.
Simmonds, Nicola. 2002. CAN YOU HEAR A RAINBOW?: THE STORY OF A DEAF BOY NAMED CHRIS. By Jamee Riggio Heelan. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers. ISBN: 1561452688.
ACTIVITIES
Children could use the websites and books from the library to practice ASL. The teacher could ask a person that knows ASL to come and teach the children different signs. Older students could record themselves signing using a flip camera, edit the video in Windows Media, and then import it into MS Photo Story. The students could write a story to go along with the video. The final, polished story could be added to the school’s library homepage for other students to read, watch, and enjoy.
HABIBI
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Nye, Naomi Shihab.1997. HABIBI. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN: 0689801491
b. PLOT SUMMARY
Liyana’s father moves their family from St. Louis to Jerusalem. She must adjust to her new life and new identity in Jerusalem. She struggles with getting to know her new relatives, understanding new languages, and learning different the customs of various citizens of Jerusalem.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The genre of HABIBI is fiction. The illustration on the front cover depicts Liyana, her brother, and her Arabic grandmother, Sitti. Rafik, her brother, has short hair, and is wearing a plaid shirt over a T-shirt and jeans. Liyana is wearing a sweater over a white collared shirt and slacks. Grandmother Sitti is wearing a patterned skirt, a long shirt, cardigan, and had scarf. Jerusalem is shown in the background.
CHARACTERS
The main characters in the story are Liyana, her brother- Rafik, mother-Susan, and father- Dr. Kamal Abboud, “whom they called Poppy.” Once the family moved to Jerusalem, they spent time with their grandmother, Sitti. Liyana and Rafik made friends with Khaled and Nadine whom lived in a refugee camp all of their lives. Liyana also formed a friendship with a young Jewish boy named Omer. Omer, like Liyana, loved to roam the streets or as he stated, “Wander. Both inside and outside of my head.”
THEMES
A major theme of this book is the Jewish-Arab relations. The author gives us some history of the fighting between the Jews and Palestinians. When Liyana learns that Omer is Jewish, she shares with him some of the suffering of the Palestinians, and then she adds that she knows the Jewish people suffered too. Omer added, “It’s a bad history without a doubt…Nothing to be proud of.”
Cultural markers such as food and language were sprinkled throughout the book. Liyana ate falafels in warm pita bread. Liyana’s mother learned to make “lebne” by “straining yogurt through cheesecloth.” Liyana also learned to say Arabic phrases such as “Ana tyyib (I’m fine); Shway (a little bit); and Ana asif (I’m sorry).
Traditions were another prevalent theme in the story. In the beginning of the story, the family had a big feast in honor of Liyana’s family. Traditionally everyone eats off one platter, yet Poppy requested individual plates for his family since they were not accustomed to eating communally. Their relatives ate “hunks of baked lamb surrounded by rice and pine nuts” off a large tray, while they ate off mismatched chipped plates.
Omer explained the Jewish tradition of sitting “shiva” to Liyana. Shiva is “that time when the family doesn’t wear shoes or leave the house, when they cover all their mirrors.” Poppy disliked the outdated tradition about the visitor from the United States having to buy every woman in his family fabric to make a new dress. He also disapproved when everyone asked to borrow money. On their first visit to Sitti’s house, after they ate dinner with their relatives, everyone started asking Poppy for money. He stood up and declared, “When the talk gets to money, we get to rolling.” Toward the end of the story, as the family and friends were leaving Sitti’s house, Poppy exclaimed, “Today was quite an experience. Nineteen people asked me if they could borrow money.”
STRENGTHS
This story portrayed the struggles of both the Palestinians and the Jewish people through the eyes of Liyana’s family and friends. As the story unfolds, the reader learns about different foods that are eaten in Jerusalem such as olives, purple marinated turnips, baba ghanouj, hummus, hot flat breads, and baklava. Without reading a history book, the reader learns about the tension in Jerusalem. “In Jerusalem, so much anger floated around, echoed from fading graffiti, seeped out of cracks.”
PERSONAL OPINION
I enjoyed reading this book. I thought it was interesting that Liyana’s mother used to take her and Rafik to different Sunday schools: “Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Unity, and Unitarian.” To her parents, God was one “Big God.” He could not fit into the hearts of one particular group.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Hazel Rochman (Booklist, September 15, 1997 (Vol. 94, No. 2))
What is it like to be young in Palestine today? That is the focus of this stirring docunovel, which breaks new ground in YA fiction. Liyana Abboud, 14, moves with her family from St. Louis to Jerusalem. For her physician father, it is going home to where he was born and educated. To Liyana, her younger brother, and her American mother, it is a huge upheaval. At first Liyana misses the U.S., can't speak the languages, and feels uncertain at school, "tipped between" the cultures. She is awkward with her bossy grandmother ("Sitti") and overwhelmed by her huge extended family when she visits their village on the West Bank. The military occupation is always there and the simmering conflict between Jew and Arab. In one horrifying scene, Israeli soldiers tear into Sitti's house and smash her bathroom. In a climactic episode, after a Palestinian bomb has injured civilians, the Israelis shoot an innocent boy in the leg, and Liyana's father is held in prison overnight. Yet it doesn't have to be that way. Liyana meets and loves a Jewish boy, and together they join the Jews and Arabs trying to make peace. Nye is an Arab American author and anthologist, and, as in her fine essay collection, Never in a Hurry (1996), she writes from a unique perspective, as the American newcomer/observer and as the displaced Palestinian in occupied territory. The story is steeped in detail about the place and cultures: food, geography, history, shopping, schools, languages, religions, etc. Just when you think it is obtrusive to have essays and journal entries thrust into the story, you get caught up in the ideas and the direct simplicity with which Nye speaks. She does try to cover too much--no book can tell the whole story of the Middle East--but this is a story that makes us "look both ways." Category: Older Readers. 1997, Simon & Schuster, $16. Gr. 6-10.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1997)
Liyana Abboud, 14, and her family make a tremendous adjustment when they move to Jerusalem from St. Louis. All she and her younger brother, Rafik, know of their Palestinian father's culture come from his reminiscences of growing up and the fighting they see on television. In Jerusalem, she is the only "outsider" at an Armenian school; her easygoing father, Poppy, finds himself having to remind her--often against his own common sense--of rules for "appropriate" behavior; and snug shops replace supermarket shopping--the malls of her upbringing are unheard of. Worst of all, Poppy is jailed for getting in the middle of a dispute between Israeli soldiers and a teenage refugee. In her first novel, Nye (with Paul Janeczko, I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You, 1996, etc.) shows all of the charms and flaws of the old city through unique, short-story-like chapters and poetic language. The sights, sounds, and smells of Jerusalem drift through the pages and readers glean a sense of current Palestinian-Israeli relations and the region's troubled history. In the process, some of the passages become quite ponderous while the human story--Liyana's emotional adjustments in the later chapters and her American mother's reactions overall--fall away from the plot. However, Liyana's romance with an Israeli boy develops warmly, and readers are left with hope for change and peace as Liyana makes the city her very own. 1997, Simon & Schuster, $16.00. © 1997 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1997)
When Liyana Abboud is fourteen, her father decides that the time is right to move the family from St. Louis to his native Jerusalem. Inevitably, Arab-Israeli tensions enter into the story, but the message isn't preachy and remains almost secondary to the story of Liyana's search for her identity. The leisurely paced text contains poetic turns of phrase that accurately reflect Liyana's passion for words and language. Category: Fiction. 1997, Simon, 259pp.. Ages 14 to 18. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
HABIBI won the following awards: Jane Addams Children's Book Award Winner 1998 Longer Book United States; Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature Winner 1998 United States; and Middle East Book Awards Winner 2000 Older Readers United States.
Young adults can read more about Jewish-Arab relations in the following book.
Clinton, Cathryn. 2002. A STONE IN MY HAND. Cambridge: Candlewick Press. ISBN: 0763613886.
Levine, Anna. 1999. RUNNING ON EGGS. Chicago: Front Street/Cricket Books. ISBN: 0812628756
Children might want to look at this website to learn more about the author: http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Kids/AuthorsAndIllustrators/ContributorDetail.aspx?CId=15255.
Activities
Students may read some of the Naomi Shihab Nye’s poetry on the following website: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/174. Culture Grams is another website that would provide children with accurate information about Israel. Students could look for Jewish and Palestinian recipes online and try to cooks some of the food with their parents. They could bring their food to school and taste each others’ dishes.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Module 5 Book Reviews
THE STAR FISHER
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Yep, Laurence. 1991. THE STAR FISHER. New York: Murrow Junior Books. ISBN: 0-688-09365-5
b. PLOT SUMMARY
Joan Lee moves from Ohio to West Virginia with her family in the 1920s. Her family struggles to start a laundry business and build their home in an old schoolhouse. Her brother and sister easily get along with their classmates at their new grammar school, but Joan struggles to make friends at her new high school.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
CHARACTERS
The characters in the story are Joan Lee’s mother, father, little brother, and little sister. Joan Lee called her mother, “mama,” and her father, “papa,” throughout the story. The three children have easy to pronounce American names: Joan Lee, Bobby, and Emily. The cover of the book shows Joan Lee wearing a blue dress that looks like it has Chinese patterns down the front of the dress. Papa wore an athletic shirt and pants in the beginning of the story. Bobby tucks in his shirt tails in order to avoid eating his mother’s apple pie.
THEMES
One theme in the story is the search for acceptance of an Asian American identity. Joan Lee, a Chinese American, struggles to please her Chinese mother while trying to make friends. Joan Lee tells her mother that she’s strict, but Mama thinks it’s good to be stern.
Another theme is responsibility and family honor. Joan Lee is the oldest child so she must help her parents the most. After Mama said that nothing would go to waste including the bad pies, Joan Lee said, “I made a mental note to boil a lot of water so we could make enough of Papa’s medicinal tea-the kind that was good for indigestion. She watches over her younger brother and sister. She helps dress her sister and calm her down when she is afraid. Joan Lee tells Emily the story of the Star Fisher in order to calm her nerves down and help put her to sleep. Emily told Joan Lee one time, “You might be bossy, but you always make things okay.”
In order to keep the family honor intact, The children must eat their lettuce sandwiches away from the other students in order to avoid embarrassing their family. The mother does not want the other children to know that they do not have money. Joan Lee shuns her new friend, Bernice, at lunch in order to eat her lettuce sandwich alone with her brother and sister. The mother and father have difficulty accepting help from Miss Lucy since they do not want charity. Only when Joan Lee explains to her mother that Miss Lucy does not have any family and her mother would be helping her, does the mother allow Miss Lucy to teach her to bake pies.
Joan Lee's family had to deal with the prejudices that people in the small town of West Virgina had of minorities. After Joan Lee’s family walks off of the train, an ignorant man yells, “Go home monkeys.” Joan Lee has trouble understanding this racial slur since she was born in the United States. America was her home. Hateful men paint racial slurs on the fence of their laundry mat. “She’s a chink lover,” Sidney complains to the Sheriff about Miss Lucy.
TRENDS
The American townspeople thought that the job defines the person while Joan Lee’s family thought education defines the person. Joan Lee stated to Mrs. Blake that, “My father is a scholar.” Mrs. Blake’s response was to ask if her father was going to open a school. When Joan Lee declared that he was had a laundry business, she stressed, “Then, he’s not really a scholar.”
STRENGTHS
The author shows the use of Chinese language in the story, but putting English dialogue in italics and when the characters speak Chinese the dialogue is in regular print. This story indicates that it’s possible for Chinese Americans to live in a new city and maintain their own cultural values. Joan Lee’s mother understood the importance of entering a pie in the church assembly.
She was able to bond with the townspeople simply because they enjoyed the taste of her pie. The mother tried to be a role model to her daughter. She did not give up on making a good pie even though cooking was difficult for her. “Mama’s failures set upon the windowsill, six of the now, but Mama ignored them as she leaned forward, rolling the dough hard and vigorously as if it were all of our troubles she was trying to flatten.”
PERSONAL OPINION
I was not ready for the story to end. I wanted to keep reading how Joan Lee’s family assimilated into the tight community. This story reminded me of the quote by Aoki, “the Japanese narrative is about conforming, renewing, and continuing.” Joan Lee’s friendship with Havana, Florie, Henrietta, and Bernice will continue to grow long after the last page of the book.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1991)
The author of Dragonwings (Newbery Honor, 1976) draws on his mother's childhood to depict a Chinese family's experiences when they arrive from Ohio to open a West Virginia laundry in 1927. Eldest child Joan Lee is 15; unlike their parents, she and her siblings were born in the US and speak English. Their first two encounters set up the difficulties they will face and how they will be countered: when they step off the train in Clarksburg, ne'er-do-well bigots greet them with cruel taunts; but their landlady, a retired schoolmistress, warmly welcomes and befriends them. Still, "The Star Fisher," a Chinese folk tale Joan shares with her little sister, symbolizes Joan's position even after she gains acceptance: like the child of the selkie-like bird-wife in the story, she sees through two sets of eyes. Yep has shaped his family's stories into a rather old-fashioned novel of small-town prejudice bowing to good will and some humorously applied ingenuity. Joan is provided with another spunky outcast as a friend; pungent family interaction and abundant period details help to complete a vivid picture. While learning to cook, Mrs. Lee bakes a series of inedible apple pies that strain credulity, but they do serve the plot well when she finally bakes a good one and makes a hit at a church social. A likable, thoughtful story about a young woman learning to value her own differences. 1991, Morrow, $12.95. © 1991 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1991)
The lovely Chinese legend of the star fisher serves as an analogy to the plight of the Lee family, who in 1927 move from Ohio to West Virginia in search of a better life. A pleasure to read, entertaining its audience even as it educates their hearts. Category: Fiction. 1991, Morrow, 150pp.. Ages 14 to 18. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
The students may want to learn about other minorities that lived in West Virginia in the 1920s.
The students can discover what historical events were occurring during the 1920s and if any of these events influenced peoples’ behavior towards minority groups.
Students may also enjoy reading the following books about Chinese Americans:
Yep, Laurence. 2001. ANGELFISH. New York: Putman’s. ISBN: 0399230416.
Yep, Laurence. 1997. THE CASE OF THE GOBLIN PEARLS. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN: 0060244461
Activities
Students could do a graph of how many minorities were living in West Virginia. They could research which states had the greatest population of minorities.
MUSIC FOR ALICE
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Say, Alice. 2004. MUSIC FOR ALICE. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 0-618-31118-1.
b. PLOT SUMMARY
After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Alice and her husband, Mark, must leave their home in Seattle, Washington and move an assembly center in Oregon. They choose to work on a beat farm rather than move on to an internment camp. After gaining the permission of the federal government, Alice and Mark start their own journey as farmers. The story tells their determination and farming failures and successes.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
CHARACTERS
The faces of the Japanese-Americans at the assembly center were difficult to see since shadows from their hats fell over their eyes. The people were varying heights and work different clothes. Men wore suits, casual pants, jackets, coats, and ties. Since each person was allowed only one bag at the camp, the men’s luggage tended to match their economical status.
The illustrations in the story portray a hard working husband and wife and illustrate the process that they made turning dry, dusty desert land into two hundred acres of beautiful gladioli. The illustration showed Mark and Alice standing in rows of multicolored sword lilies. People came from around the world to visit their farm and buy the gladioli bulbs. “… a famous movie actress traveled all the way from Tokyo to look at our flowers; a Buddhist abbot came from Kyoto to bless us.”
THEMES
The genre of this story is historical fiction. The Asian Pacific American theme that begins the story is the cross cultural conflict. The American government feared that Japanese-Americans might be biased towards Japan during World War II, so they relocated them to internment camps.
Alice’s and Mark’s decision to work at a farm instead of moving to the relocation center shapes the rest of their lives. When the war ended, Alice remarked, “…I was worried we might still be thought of as enemies. And we didn't have a home to go back to. The farm was our home now.”
STRENGTHS
The story shows Japanese-Americans staying strong under adversity. Even when times were tough on the farm, Alice and Mark tried to maintain a positive attitude. When Mark was lamenting their choice to work at the beet farm, Alice said, “We’ll be all right.” When Mark wanted to improve the farm, he read books. Alice remarked, “While I fretted, Mark read books.”
Mark demonstrated the power of one individual. When he had a problem, he tried to solve it himself. “It was slow work sorting the bulbs by hand, even with forty people working in two shifts.” Instead of fall behind on their orders, “Mark read more books. He designed a sorting machine.”
I think this story measures up to the standards of cultural authenticity. The story was historical accurate, set in the United States, and portrayed unique characters. Even through the trials and tribulations of her life, Alice never lost or forgot about her passion for dancing.
WEAKNESSES
The pictures were beautiful, but they did not show varying degrees of skin tones.
PERSONAL OPINION
I liked this story. I wanted to know more specific details about Alice's life. I was curious if she had children and was dancing at a wedding with her son at the end of the story. I was a little confused how dancing tied into the whole story.
However, if I think of dancing as a symbol for Alice's spirit, then it makes sense to me. Even though Alice worked tirelessly on her farm, she never lost her appreciation for what she truly enjoyed doing: dancing. When she was contemplating giving up her farm, she stated, "I was happy, but I kept thinking. What good is success if we can't enjoy ourselves."
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Hazel Rochman (Booklist, Feb. 1, 2004 (Vol. 100, No. 11))
From the close-up jacket portrait of an elderly Japanese American woman to the final view of her ballroom dancing before a black-tie audience, this picture book, based on a true-life story, will appeal more to adults than kids, though some young readers will respond to the history and the understated, first-person account of trouble and courage. The first painting, repeated on the back cover, is a sepia-tone view of Alice as a Japanese American child, dreaming of music and dance on a California farm. She marries, and the World War II roundups follow, with a haunting view of her and her husband in the crowd, labeled like luggage. Instead of being sent to internment camp, they are allowed to grow food for the war effort. Their first harvest is "a harvest of stones," but they go on to make the desert bloom and eventually become the largest gladiola bulb growers in the country. One glorious picture shows them in a huge field of flowers. The drama is quiet. As always with Say, the exquisite watercolors tell an American story. Category: Books for Middle Readers--Fiction. 2004, Houghton/Walter Lorraine, $17. Gr. 4-7.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 5))
Understated full-page water-color paintings and a spare text tell the life story of Alice Sumida, who "loved dancing more than anything else." As a child, Alice wished that "Daddy's tractor would turn into a coach and take me dancing." After college she married Mark, who sold seeds. Like thousands of other Americans of Japanese descent, the couple was forced to evacuate during WWII. In the sandy desert of eastern Oregon, they leased land to start a farm of their own, and after years of hard work became "the largest gladiola bulb growers in the country." Eventually, they sold the business. "What good is success," Alice thought, "if we can't enjoy ourselves?" After her husband's death, Alice visits the farm, now in ruins. In a poignant moment, Alice realizes that now she can dance: "And dance I do-all that I can." Each of Say's exquisite paintings tells a story; together they create a moving testament to a life of hard work and dreams-dreams that find fulfillment in unanticipated ways. 2004, Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin, 32p, $17.00. Category: Picture book. Ages all. © 2004 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2004)
The fortitude of Japanese Americans uprooted during World War II takes an unusual form in this story of Alice Sumida, who becomes the largest gladiola bulb grower in the country. In this book, there is more variety of pictorial expression than is usual in Say's work, and a telling conjunction of his feeling for character and for the landscape of the American West. Category: Picture Books. 2004, Houghton/Lorraine, 32pp, $17.00. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
Students could use World Book Kids to look up information on Japanese Internment Camps during World War II.
Related books
Students could read about other stories of Japanese-Americans living in internment camps.
Middle school students may enjoy the book:
Kadohata, Cynthia. 2006. WEEDFLOWER. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0689865740
High School Students may enjoy the book:
Guterson, David. 1995. SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN: 9780679764021.
Activities
Students could compare and contrast the lives of Japanese-Americans before and after living in the Internment camps.
Children’s responses
Before I even began reading the story, a small group of third graders predicted that Alice was Chinese because of her eyes. Since my group of students where either born in or have parents that were born in Latin American countries, I asked them to step into Alice’s shoes. I asked them to think about how they would feel if the United States had a conflict with Mexico and made all the Mexican Americans relocate to one area (All of my students were either born in Mexico or have at least one parent from Mexico). The students immediately understood and felt the injustice Alice suffered.
Later in the story, one boy could not understand why Alice and Mark should their gladioli farm after they worked so hard to make it wonderful. The students were shocked when Mark died, and they were sad that Alice never danced with Mark. The students wanted to know if Alice and Mark ever had any children.
FATHER’S RUBBER SHOES
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Heo, Yumi. 1995. FATHER’S RUBBER SHOES. Orchard Books. ISBN: 0-531-06873-0
b. PLOT SUMMARY
Yungsu missed his friends from Korea and wished his father had more time to spend with him. The next day, his mother made his favorite food: Bulgogi. On his way to take his father some Bulgogi at the market, Yungsu meet a boy his age. He shared some Bulgogi with his new friend and invited him to lunch.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The genre of FATHER’S RUBBER SHOES is fiction. The illustrations are created in oil paint, pencil, and collage. Vivid yellows, oranges, and blues dominate the background colors in this story.
CHARACTERS
The main characters in the story are Yungsu, his mother, and his father. The other characters are the customers in his father’s store, the children in the neighborhood, his Korean friends, and little sister. Most of the characters in the story have apple and pear shaped bodies. The characters’ facial expressions are not well defined. Talking characters have oval mouths. All characters seem to have straight lines for their eyes.
The woman, men, and children wear their hair in different hairstyles. The children on the playground in America have different hair colors while the Korean children in Yungsu’s dream all have black hair, yet styled differently. The people in Yungsu’s American neighborhood and playground wear multicolored clothes, yet the Korean children wear blue and black clothes.
THEMES
Some themes in the story are friendship, homesickness, and Korean Americans. Yungsu feels isolated and alone as he walks down the street in his neighborhood. “He put his hands in his pockets and kicked an empty can.” His expression is sad and pensive as he peers into his father’s store and swings by himself at the playground.
As a child, my mother would bake cookies for my brother and I if we had a hard day. Yungsu’s mother prepared his favorite dish for lunch: bulgogi. “Just thinking about it made his month water.” Some children will be able to relate to their mother cooking them a special meal or food when they feel depressed.
STRENGTHS
Children can relate to the universal themes of loneliness and longing for friends. Many children must contend with busy parents that have little time to spend with them. Children from other countries and cultures have the added difficulty of breaking cultural barriers to make new friends.
WEAKNESSES
I liked the simple story; however, I did not like the shape of the characters. They seemed like blobs with varying degrees of thickness instead of real people. The adults waiting in line at the store and talking to each other on the street all seemed to be the same height. I think the story would be more authentic if the characters had varying body types and skin tones.
PERSONAL OPINION
The illustrations did not keep my almost three year old entertained enough to pay attention. I finished reading the book to her; however, she was reading a book to herself at the same time. I liked the message of parental sacrifice in the story, yet I think only insightful fourth or fifth grade students would understand the true metaphorical meaning. I think younger students would be confused by the mention of the rubber shoes in the story.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Booklist, Sept. 15, 1995 (Vol. 92, No. 2)
No one Yungsu knew was at the playground." Lonely and miserable in America, Yungsu dreams of his friends in Korea. Passing by his father's grocery store, he sees his father's hands busy serving customers. That night, the boy feels those hands lovingly holding his, as Father tells a story about himself as a child in Korea, how he carried his first precious pair of rubber shoes so as not to wear them out. He wanted his children to have an easier time, he says. The next day, Yungsu's mother makes his favorite Korean food, and he shares it with an American friend and begins to feel at home. The understated story may be too elusive for young children, but the brightly colored new wave-style illustrations in oil, pencil, and collage play with perspective--some with an aerial view, some with close-ups of detail. They convey the sense of the boy who feels dislocated and outside and then at the center of his world. Category: For the Young. 1995, Orchard, $14.95 and $14.99. Ages 4-8. By Hazel Rochman
Kirkus Reviews, 1995
The ache of homesickness is shot through Heo's story of the travails that wait upon the emigrant's experience. Yungsu has just moved to America from Korea. The neighborhood is new, he hasn't any friends, and his father works the long hours of a grocer. Yungsu wants to go home--to Korea. Late one night his father comes to see him in bed. He tells Yungsu the story of a pair of rubber shoes--considered the best shoes to own--Yungsu's grandmother bought his father when he was young. He wanted to keep those shoes forever. "I want to give you something," the father says, "--like my rubber shoes, but something you can have all the time. That's why we're here. I hope you understand." It's a quietly epiphanal moment for Yungsu, and his life takes a modest turn for the better. This story has an unpretentious grace about it: The pain is there but so is the peaceful, hopeful presence of Yungsu's mother and father. Heo's illustrations are elegantly, fiercely two-dimensional--primitive, colorful, with all sorts of odd, surprising perspectives and colors: pumpkin orange, grape, olive green, khaki, dusty rose, and maroon on mustard backgrounds. Hope and promise join with longing in a heartfelt book. 1995, Orchard, $14.95; PLB $14.99. Starred Review. © 1995 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1995)
Yungsu is homesick for his native Korea, so his father tells a story from his own childhood to explain why they have come to America. The next day, proud of his father and his heritage, Yungsu shares some Korean food with a classmate, opening the door for a friendship between them. Heo's innovative compositions reflect Yungsu's blossoming feelings of security in his place in his family and, finally, in the world. Category: Fiction. 1995, Watts, 32pp.. Ages 5 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
The following book looks at the life of another little Korean boy living in the United States.
Hartung, Susan Kathleen. 1999. DEAR JUNO. Pak, Soyung. New York: Viking.
This book portrays a young Somalian boy feeling homesick for his country.
Littlewood, Karin. 2002. THE COLOR OF HOME. by Mary Hoffman. New York: P. Fogelman Books.
Children might want to look at this website to learn more about the author: http://bccb.lis.uiuc.edu/1197feat.html.
Activities
Children could compare and contrast games that Korean children like to play with American children’s games. Children could also investigate Korean foods and determine other favorite foods of children. Students in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch School District can use the databases Facts for Learning and World Book Kids to look up information about Korean children’s games and foods. Culture Grams is another website that would provide children with accurate information about the Korean culture.
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Yep, Laurence. 1991. THE STAR FISHER. New York: Murrow Junior Books. ISBN: 0-688-09365-5
b. PLOT SUMMARY
Joan Lee moves from Ohio to West Virginia with her family in the 1920s. Her family struggles to start a laundry business and build their home in an old schoolhouse. Her brother and sister easily get along with their classmates at their new grammar school, but Joan struggles to make friends at her new high school.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
CHARACTERS
The characters in the story are Joan Lee’s mother, father, little brother, and little sister. Joan Lee called her mother, “mama,” and her father, “papa,” throughout the story. The three children have easy to pronounce American names: Joan Lee, Bobby, and Emily. The cover of the book shows Joan Lee wearing a blue dress that looks like it has Chinese patterns down the front of the dress. Papa wore an athletic shirt and pants in the beginning of the story. Bobby tucks in his shirt tails in order to avoid eating his mother’s apple pie.
THEMES
One theme in the story is the search for acceptance of an Asian American identity. Joan Lee, a Chinese American, struggles to please her Chinese mother while trying to make friends. Joan Lee tells her mother that she’s strict, but Mama thinks it’s good to be stern.
Another theme is responsibility and family honor. Joan Lee is the oldest child so she must help her parents the most. After Mama said that nothing would go to waste including the bad pies, Joan Lee said, “I made a mental note to boil a lot of water so we could make enough of Papa’s medicinal tea-the kind that was good for indigestion. She watches over her younger brother and sister. She helps dress her sister and calm her down when she is afraid. Joan Lee tells Emily the story of the Star Fisher in order to calm her nerves down and help put her to sleep. Emily told Joan Lee one time, “You might be bossy, but you always make things okay.”
In order to keep the family honor intact, The children must eat their lettuce sandwiches away from the other students in order to avoid embarrassing their family. The mother does not want the other children to know that they do not have money. Joan Lee shuns her new friend, Bernice, at lunch in order to eat her lettuce sandwich alone with her brother and sister. The mother and father have difficulty accepting help from Miss Lucy since they do not want charity. Only when Joan Lee explains to her mother that Miss Lucy does not have any family and her mother would be helping her, does the mother allow Miss Lucy to teach her to bake pies.
Joan Lee's family had to deal with the prejudices that people in the small town of West Virgina had of minorities. After Joan Lee’s family walks off of the train, an ignorant man yells, “Go home monkeys.” Joan Lee has trouble understanding this racial slur since she was born in the United States. America was her home. Hateful men paint racial slurs on the fence of their laundry mat. “She’s a chink lover,” Sidney complains to the Sheriff about Miss Lucy.
TRENDS
The American townspeople thought that the job defines the person while Joan Lee’s family thought education defines the person. Joan Lee stated to Mrs. Blake that, “My father is a scholar.” Mrs. Blake’s response was to ask if her father was going to open a school. When Joan Lee declared that he was had a laundry business, she stressed, “Then, he’s not really a scholar.”
STRENGTHS
The author shows the use of Chinese language in the story, but putting English dialogue in italics and when the characters speak Chinese the dialogue is in regular print. This story indicates that it’s possible for Chinese Americans to live in a new city and maintain their own cultural values. Joan Lee’s mother understood the importance of entering a pie in the church assembly.
She was able to bond with the townspeople simply because they enjoyed the taste of her pie. The mother tried to be a role model to her daughter. She did not give up on making a good pie even though cooking was difficult for her. “Mama’s failures set upon the windowsill, six of the now, but Mama ignored them as she leaned forward, rolling the dough hard and vigorously as if it were all of our troubles she was trying to flatten.”
PERSONAL OPINION
I was not ready for the story to end. I wanted to keep reading how Joan Lee’s family assimilated into the tight community. This story reminded me of the quote by Aoki, “the Japanese narrative is about conforming, renewing, and continuing.” Joan Lee’s friendship with Havana, Florie, Henrietta, and Bernice will continue to grow long after the last page of the book.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1991)
The author of Dragonwings (Newbery Honor, 1976) draws on his mother's childhood to depict a Chinese family's experiences when they arrive from Ohio to open a West Virginia laundry in 1927. Eldest child Joan Lee is 15; unlike their parents, she and her siblings were born in the US and speak English. Their first two encounters set up the difficulties they will face and how they will be countered: when they step off the train in Clarksburg, ne'er-do-well bigots greet them with cruel taunts; but their landlady, a retired schoolmistress, warmly welcomes and befriends them. Still, "The Star Fisher," a Chinese folk tale Joan shares with her little sister, symbolizes Joan's position even after she gains acceptance: like the child of the selkie-like bird-wife in the story, she sees through two sets of eyes. Yep has shaped his family's stories into a rather old-fashioned novel of small-town prejudice bowing to good will and some humorously applied ingenuity. Joan is provided with another spunky outcast as a friend; pungent family interaction and abundant period details help to complete a vivid picture. While learning to cook, Mrs. Lee bakes a series of inedible apple pies that strain credulity, but they do serve the plot well when she finally bakes a good one and makes a hit at a church social. A likable, thoughtful story about a young woman learning to value her own differences. 1991, Morrow, $12.95. © 1991 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1991)
The lovely Chinese legend of the star fisher serves as an analogy to the plight of the Lee family, who in 1927 move from Ohio to West Virginia in search of a better life. A pleasure to read, entertaining its audience even as it educates their hearts. Category: Fiction. 1991, Morrow, 150pp.. Ages 14 to 18. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
The students may want to learn about other minorities that lived in West Virginia in the 1920s.
The students can discover what historical events were occurring during the 1920s and if any of these events influenced peoples’ behavior towards minority groups.
Students may also enjoy reading the following books about Chinese Americans:
Yep, Laurence. 2001. ANGELFISH. New York: Putman’s. ISBN: 0399230416.
Yep, Laurence. 1997. THE CASE OF THE GOBLIN PEARLS. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN: 0060244461
Activities
Students could do a graph of how many minorities were living in West Virginia. They could research which states had the greatest population of minorities.
MUSIC FOR ALICE
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Say, Alice. 2004. MUSIC FOR ALICE. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 0-618-31118-1.
b. PLOT SUMMARY
After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Alice and her husband, Mark, must leave their home in Seattle, Washington and move an assembly center in Oregon. They choose to work on a beat farm rather than move on to an internment camp. After gaining the permission of the federal government, Alice and Mark start their own journey as farmers. The story tells their determination and farming failures and successes.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
CHARACTERS
The faces of the Japanese-Americans at the assembly center were difficult to see since shadows from their hats fell over their eyes. The people were varying heights and work different clothes. Men wore suits, casual pants, jackets, coats, and ties. Since each person was allowed only one bag at the camp, the men’s luggage tended to match their economical status.
The illustrations in the story portray a hard working husband and wife and illustrate the process that they made turning dry, dusty desert land into two hundred acres of beautiful gladioli. The illustration showed Mark and Alice standing in rows of multicolored sword lilies. People came from around the world to visit their farm and buy the gladioli bulbs. “… a famous movie actress traveled all the way from Tokyo to look at our flowers; a Buddhist abbot came from Kyoto to bless us.”
THEMES
The genre of this story is historical fiction. The Asian Pacific American theme that begins the story is the cross cultural conflict. The American government feared that Japanese-Americans might be biased towards Japan during World War II, so they relocated them to internment camps.
Alice’s and Mark’s decision to work at a farm instead of moving to the relocation center shapes the rest of their lives. When the war ended, Alice remarked, “…I was worried we might still be thought of as enemies. And we didn't have a home to go back to. The farm was our home now.”
STRENGTHS
The story shows Japanese-Americans staying strong under adversity. Even when times were tough on the farm, Alice and Mark tried to maintain a positive attitude. When Mark was lamenting their choice to work at the beet farm, Alice said, “We’ll be all right.” When Mark wanted to improve the farm, he read books. Alice remarked, “While I fretted, Mark read books.”
Mark demonstrated the power of one individual. When he had a problem, he tried to solve it himself. “It was slow work sorting the bulbs by hand, even with forty people working in two shifts.” Instead of fall behind on their orders, “Mark read more books. He designed a sorting machine.”
I think this story measures up to the standards of cultural authenticity. The story was historical accurate, set in the United States, and portrayed unique characters. Even through the trials and tribulations of her life, Alice never lost or forgot about her passion for dancing.
WEAKNESSES
The pictures were beautiful, but they did not show varying degrees of skin tones.
PERSONAL OPINION
I liked this story. I wanted to know more specific details about Alice's life. I was curious if she had children and was dancing at a wedding with her son at the end of the story. I was a little confused how dancing tied into the whole story.
However, if I think of dancing as a symbol for Alice's spirit, then it makes sense to me. Even though Alice worked tirelessly on her farm, she never lost her appreciation for what she truly enjoyed doing: dancing. When she was contemplating giving up her farm, she stated, "I was happy, but I kept thinking. What good is success if we can't enjoy ourselves."
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Hazel Rochman (Booklist, Feb. 1, 2004 (Vol. 100, No. 11))
From the close-up jacket portrait of an elderly Japanese American woman to the final view of her ballroom dancing before a black-tie audience, this picture book, based on a true-life story, will appeal more to adults than kids, though some young readers will respond to the history and the understated, first-person account of trouble and courage. The first painting, repeated on the back cover, is a sepia-tone view of Alice as a Japanese American child, dreaming of music and dance on a California farm. She marries, and the World War II roundups follow, with a haunting view of her and her husband in the crowd, labeled like luggage. Instead of being sent to internment camp, they are allowed to grow food for the war effort. Their first harvest is "a harvest of stones," but they go on to make the desert bloom and eventually become the largest gladiola bulb growers in the country. One glorious picture shows them in a huge field of flowers. The drama is quiet. As always with Say, the exquisite watercolors tell an American story. Category: Books for Middle Readers--Fiction. 2004, Houghton/Walter Lorraine, $17. Gr. 4-7.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 5))
Understated full-page water-color paintings and a spare text tell the life story of Alice Sumida, who "loved dancing more than anything else." As a child, Alice wished that "Daddy's tractor would turn into a coach and take me dancing." After college she married Mark, who sold seeds. Like thousands of other Americans of Japanese descent, the couple was forced to evacuate during WWII. In the sandy desert of eastern Oregon, they leased land to start a farm of their own, and after years of hard work became "the largest gladiola bulb growers in the country." Eventually, they sold the business. "What good is success," Alice thought, "if we can't enjoy ourselves?" After her husband's death, Alice visits the farm, now in ruins. In a poignant moment, Alice realizes that now she can dance: "And dance I do-all that I can." Each of Say's exquisite paintings tells a story; together they create a moving testament to a life of hard work and dreams-dreams that find fulfillment in unanticipated ways. 2004, Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin, 32p, $17.00. Category: Picture book. Ages all. © 2004 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2004)
The fortitude of Japanese Americans uprooted during World War II takes an unusual form in this story of Alice Sumida, who becomes the largest gladiola bulb grower in the country. In this book, there is more variety of pictorial expression than is usual in Say's work, and a telling conjunction of his feeling for character and for the landscape of the American West. Category: Picture Books. 2004, Houghton/Lorraine, 32pp, $17.00. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
Students could use World Book Kids to look up information on Japanese Internment Camps during World War II.
Related books
Students could read about other stories of Japanese-Americans living in internment camps.
Middle school students may enjoy the book:
Kadohata, Cynthia. 2006. WEEDFLOWER. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0689865740
High School Students may enjoy the book:
Guterson, David. 1995. SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN: 9780679764021.
Activities
Students could compare and contrast the lives of Japanese-Americans before and after living in the Internment camps.
Children’s responses
Before I even began reading the story, a small group of third graders predicted that Alice was Chinese because of her eyes. Since my group of students where either born in or have parents that were born in Latin American countries, I asked them to step into Alice’s shoes. I asked them to think about how they would feel if the United States had a conflict with Mexico and made all the Mexican Americans relocate to one area (All of my students were either born in Mexico or have at least one parent from Mexico). The students immediately understood and felt the injustice Alice suffered.
Later in the story, one boy could not understand why Alice and Mark should their gladioli farm after they worked so hard to make it wonderful. The students were shocked when Mark died, and they were sad that Alice never danced with Mark. The students wanted to know if Alice and Mark ever had any children.
FATHER’S RUBBER SHOES
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Heo, Yumi. 1995. FATHER’S RUBBER SHOES. Orchard Books. ISBN: 0-531-06873-0
b. PLOT SUMMARY
Yungsu missed his friends from Korea and wished his father had more time to spend with him. The next day, his mother made his favorite food: Bulgogi. On his way to take his father some Bulgogi at the market, Yungsu meet a boy his age. He shared some Bulgogi with his new friend and invited him to lunch.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The genre of FATHER’S RUBBER SHOES is fiction. The illustrations are created in oil paint, pencil, and collage. Vivid yellows, oranges, and blues dominate the background colors in this story.
CHARACTERS
The main characters in the story are Yungsu, his mother, and his father. The other characters are the customers in his father’s store, the children in the neighborhood, his Korean friends, and little sister. Most of the characters in the story have apple and pear shaped bodies. The characters’ facial expressions are not well defined. Talking characters have oval mouths. All characters seem to have straight lines for their eyes.
The woman, men, and children wear their hair in different hairstyles. The children on the playground in America have different hair colors while the Korean children in Yungsu’s dream all have black hair, yet styled differently. The people in Yungsu’s American neighborhood and playground wear multicolored clothes, yet the Korean children wear blue and black clothes.
THEMES
Some themes in the story are friendship, homesickness, and Korean Americans. Yungsu feels isolated and alone as he walks down the street in his neighborhood. “He put his hands in his pockets and kicked an empty can.” His expression is sad and pensive as he peers into his father’s store and swings by himself at the playground.
As a child, my mother would bake cookies for my brother and I if we had a hard day. Yungsu’s mother prepared his favorite dish for lunch: bulgogi. “Just thinking about it made his month water.” Some children will be able to relate to their mother cooking them a special meal or food when they feel depressed.
STRENGTHS
Children can relate to the universal themes of loneliness and longing for friends. Many children must contend with busy parents that have little time to spend with them. Children from other countries and cultures have the added difficulty of breaking cultural barriers to make new friends.
WEAKNESSES
I liked the simple story; however, I did not like the shape of the characters. They seemed like blobs with varying degrees of thickness instead of real people. The adults waiting in line at the store and talking to each other on the street all seemed to be the same height. I think the story would be more authentic if the characters had varying body types and skin tones.
PERSONAL OPINION
The illustrations did not keep my almost three year old entertained enough to pay attention. I finished reading the book to her; however, she was reading a book to herself at the same time. I liked the message of parental sacrifice in the story, yet I think only insightful fourth or fifth grade students would understand the true metaphorical meaning. I think younger students would be confused by the mention of the rubber shoes in the story.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Booklist, Sept. 15, 1995 (Vol. 92, No. 2)
No one Yungsu knew was at the playground." Lonely and miserable in America, Yungsu dreams of his friends in Korea. Passing by his father's grocery store, he sees his father's hands busy serving customers. That night, the boy feels those hands lovingly holding his, as Father tells a story about himself as a child in Korea, how he carried his first precious pair of rubber shoes so as not to wear them out. He wanted his children to have an easier time, he says. The next day, Yungsu's mother makes his favorite Korean food, and he shares it with an American friend and begins to feel at home. The understated story may be too elusive for young children, but the brightly colored new wave-style illustrations in oil, pencil, and collage play with perspective--some with an aerial view, some with close-ups of detail. They convey the sense of the boy who feels dislocated and outside and then at the center of his world. Category: For the Young. 1995, Orchard, $14.95 and $14.99. Ages 4-8. By Hazel Rochman
Kirkus Reviews, 1995
The ache of homesickness is shot through Heo's story of the travails that wait upon the emigrant's experience. Yungsu has just moved to America from Korea. The neighborhood is new, he hasn't any friends, and his father works the long hours of a grocer. Yungsu wants to go home--to Korea. Late one night his father comes to see him in bed. He tells Yungsu the story of a pair of rubber shoes--considered the best shoes to own--Yungsu's grandmother bought his father when he was young. He wanted to keep those shoes forever. "I want to give you something," the father says, "--like my rubber shoes, but something you can have all the time. That's why we're here. I hope you understand." It's a quietly epiphanal moment for Yungsu, and his life takes a modest turn for the better. This story has an unpretentious grace about it: The pain is there but so is the peaceful, hopeful presence of Yungsu's mother and father. Heo's illustrations are elegantly, fiercely two-dimensional--primitive, colorful, with all sorts of odd, surprising perspectives and colors: pumpkin orange, grape, olive green, khaki, dusty rose, and maroon on mustard backgrounds. Hope and promise join with longing in a heartfelt book. 1995, Orchard, $14.95; PLB $14.99. Starred Review. © 1995 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1995)
Yungsu is homesick for his native Korea, so his father tells a story from his own childhood to explain why they have come to America. The next day, proud of his father and his heritage, Yungsu shares some Korean food with a classmate, opening the door for a friendship between them. Heo's innovative compositions reflect Yungsu's blossoming feelings of security in his place in his family and, finally, in the world. Category: Fiction. 1995, Watts, 32pp.. Ages 5 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
The following book looks at the life of another little Korean boy living in the United States.
Hartung, Susan Kathleen. 1999. DEAR JUNO. Pak, Soyung. New York: Viking.
This book portrays a young Somalian boy feeling homesick for his country.
Littlewood, Karin. 2002. THE COLOR OF HOME. by Mary Hoffman. New York: P. Fogelman Books.
Children might want to look at this website to learn more about the author: http://bccb.lis.uiuc.edu/1197feat.html.
Activities
Children could compare and contrast games that Korean children like to play with American children’s games. Children could also investigate Korean foods and determine other favorite foods of children. Students in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch School District can use the databases Facts for Learning and World Book Kids to look up information about Korean children’s games and foods. Culture Grams is another website that would provide children with accurate information about the Korean culture.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Module 4 Book Review (replaces mistake: FATHER’S RUBBER SHOES)
HOW TURTLE’S BACK WAS CRACKED.
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Jacob, Murv. 1995. HOW TURTLE’S BACK WAS CRACKED. Retold by Gayle Ross. Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0-8037-1728-8
b. PLOT SUMMARY
Turtle and possum were best friends that liked to eat persimmons together. Possum would climb up a tree, eat a persimmon, and throw one down into the mouth of turtle. One day, when the turtle opened his eyes, he saw the wolf on the ground and reprimanded him for stealing his persimmons. When the wolf did not move, turtle thought he killed him. He took the wolves ears and made spoons out of them and traveled around the village to collect his corn soup award. The wolves became angry with turtle, threw him into the river, and broke his back on a rock.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The genre of HOW TURTLE’S BACK WAS CRACKED is a folktale retold by a Cherokee storyteller, Gayle Ross. Just as the title states, the folktale explains the story how the turtles smooth back became cracked. The illustrations are created in with acrylics on watercolor paper. Since the setting is outdoors in the wild, natural colors are used depicting the time of day based on the sunlight or moonlight.
CHARACTERS
The main characters in the story are turtle, possum, and wolf. The other characters are the Native Americans in the village. The animals are sketched like animals that could be found in the wild. However, these animals are also wearing necklaces, bracelets, and belts. The wolves also wear loin cloths.
The Native Americans in the story have lean, muscular bodies. The first time the turtle visits a Native American family, the characters’ facial expressions seem pleased to welcome him and give him the bowl of corn soup. However, after the turtle began visiting people he did not even know, the Native Americans have serious expressions with unsmiling mouths as they watch him eat corn soup. A young father and daughter appear to frown at the turtle.
The men wear their hair in different hairstyles. Some have the sides of their hair shaved and a patch of hair on top of their head. An elder has long, gray hair. The women and girls have long, straight hair. One woman has her hair pulled back in a bun on top of her head.
The Native Americans wear leather shoes and clothing. The females wear dresses, and the males wear loincloths. Belts, necklaces, and bracelets are worn by both females and males.
THEMES
Some themes in this story are friendship, loyalty, respect, and arrogance. The day the wolf came along, stood behind turtle, and caught and ate the persimmons possum threw down to turtle. Possum stated, “Now, if you have a best friend and you’re trying to make a present for him, and someone comes along and steals it, it makes you angry.” Possum showed his loyalty to turtle when in order to stop the wolf from stealing from turtle, he threw down a large persimmon that became stuck in wolf’s throat and killed him.
The Cherokee people showed respect for visitors by providing them with a gift of food. “And there was a special dish that was usually kept cooking at all times just to offer to a guest. This was a kind of thick corn soup.” In order to be rewarded for what turtle assumed was his hunting prowess, he took advantage of this gesture and demonstrated his arrogance by visiting people he did not even know. “And then he began to visit people he had not been introduced to just so they would offer him a bowl of corn shop, and he could pull out his wolf-ear spoons and eat with them.”
When the wolves heard about the turtle eating corn soup with wolf-ear spoons, the wolves showed their loyalty to their species when they decided turtle must be killed. “This was a terrible insult, for such an insignificant creature as Turtle to be eating corn soup with wolf-ear spoons.”
STRENGTHS
This story identifies a specific Native culture: the Cherokee. The author is a Cherokee storyteller, “a direct descendant of John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation during the Trail of Tears.” Her heritage adds to the story’s cultural authenticity. The author’s note at the back of the book provides essential details about the Cherokee Nation. For example, “Over four thousand Cherokee people lost their lives on the forced march to the west in the winter of 1838-39. The long walk came to be known as the Trail of Tears.”
WEAKNESSES
Even though the animals look natural, they walk on two feet and wear articles of clothing that the Native Americans wear such as beads, necklaces, belts, pouches, and loincloths. Also, the Native Americans are depicted in a traditional instead of a contemporary image. Since this story is supposed to be from long ago, “when the people and animals still spoke the same language,” I understand why the story did not use a modern image of Cherokee American Indians.
PERSONAL OPINION
The beautiful illustrations show all the different colorful patterns that are found in nature. I thought it was interesting that both Turtle and Possum were capitalized but the wolf and wolves were written in lower case. I liked when the author incorporated some Cherokee language into the story. At the end of the story, the turtle sang, “Gu’daye’wu, Gu’daye’wu, I have sewn myself together. I have sewn myself together.”
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Carolyn Phelan (Booklist, January 15, 1995 (Vol. 91, No. 10))
Gathering persimmons together, friends Possum and Turtle are joined by a thieving wolf who chokes to death on their fruit. Turtle, foolishly believing that he has killed the wolf, shows off the deed by making wolf-ear spoons and eating with them publicly. When the other wolves catch Turtle, they vow to kill him by roasting, boiling, or drowning him. He responds with, "Oh, no, not the river! Anything but the river." When they throw him in, he lands upside down on a rock, cracking his shell. He survives, but that's why the Turtle has cracks on his back today. Despite its echoes of the more familiar Brer Rabbit story ("born and bred in the briar patch"), this Cherokee pourquoi tale has a flavor all its own. Ross notes that she remembers the tale from her childhood, found a written source, and developed it through storytelling to its present form. Jacob's distinctive acrylic paintings illustrate the story's dramatic moments in scenes rich in colors and patterns. An entertaining picture book to read aloud. Category: For the Young. 1995, Dial, $14.99 and $14.89. Ages 5-8.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1995)
Turtle suffers a delusionary episode, believing he is a great hunter after finding dead at his feet a greedy wolf. Readers will know that Possum did the beast in, but regardless, Turtle can hardly contain himself and gloats at every opportunity. The wolves are not about to take this false press; a braggart, especially a fake, deserves a comeuppance. The result is an explanation of how the turtles' shells became cracked. It also demonstrates why Ross (How Rabbit Tricked Otter, 1994, etc.) is fast gaining a reputation as a fluid, entertaining storyteller. Turtle as mighty hunter -- who'd have believed it? This old Cherokee tale has humor with a kick; Jacob's densely detailed, stylized acrylic paintings add a bit of the surreal. 1995, Dial, $14.99; PLB $14.89. © 1995 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1995)
Wolves capture Turtle, planning to punish him for bragging. He convinces the indecisive wolves that the worst punishment would be to throw him in the river; thus turtle escapes, but not without permanent damage to his beautiful shell, which cracks on a rock. The earth-toned palette complements the Cherokee 'pourquoi' tale. Source documentation and a note about the Cherokee Nation are included. Category: Nonfiction. 1995, Dial, 32pp.. Ages 5 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
Students may enjoy reading other Cherokee folktales.
Bernardin, James. 1995. GRANDMOTHER SPIDER BRINGS THE SUN: A CHEROKEE STORY. by Geri Keams. Flagstaff: Northland Pub. ISBN: 0873585976
Jacob, Murv. 1994. HOW RABBIT TRICKED OTTER AND OTHER CHEROKEE TRICKSTER STORIES. by Gayle Ross. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN: 0060212853.
Students might want to learn more about the Cherokee Nation by visiting their official website: http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/Default.aspx.
Activities
Children could also investigate Cherokee foods and determine other foods that are used in for special occasions. The students could compare the foods they eat verse the foods the Cherokee people eat for special occasions. At home with their parents help, student could prepare a Cherokee dish or a special food form their culture and bring the dish to school for everyone to taste.
Students can also read other Cherokee legends on the official Cherokee Nation homepage: http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/Stories/Cat/Default.aspx. Then students could compare and contrast a legend from the website to the story, HOW TURTLE’S BACK WAS CRACKED.
Students could also discuss the theme friendship. They could explain what they think happened to Turtle’s and Possum’s friendship after Turtle repaired his cracked back.
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Jacob, Murv. 1995. HOW TURTLE’S BACK WAS CRACKED. Retold by Gayle Ross. Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0-8037-1728-8
b. PLOT SUMMARY
Turtle and possum were best friends that liked to eat persimmons together. Possum would climb up a tree, eat a persimmon, and throw one down into the mouth of turtle. One day, when the turtle opened his eyes, he saw the wolf on the ground and reprimanded him for stealing his persimmons. When the wolf did not move, turtle thought he killed him. He took the wolves ears and made spoons out of them and traveled around the village to collect his corn soup award. The wolves became angry with turtle, threw him into the river, and broke his back on a rock.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The genre of HOW TURTLE’S BACK WAS CRACKED is a folktale retold by a Cherokee storyteller, Gayle Ross. Just as the title states, the folktale explains the story how the turtles smooth back became cracked. The illustrations are created in with acrylics on watercolor paper. Since the setting is outdoors in the wild, natural colors are used depicting the time of day based on the sunlight or moonlight.
CHARACTERS
The main characters in the story are turtle, possum, and wolf. The other characters are the Native Americans in the village. The animals are sketched like animals that could be found in the wild. However, these animals are also wearing necklaces, bracelets, and belts. The wolves also wear loin cloths.
The Native Americans in the story have lean, muscular bodies. The first time the turtle visits a Native American family, the characters’ facial expressions seem pleased to welcome him and give him the bowl of corn soup. However, after the turtle began visiting people he did not even know, the Native Americans have serious expressions with unsmiling mouths as they watch him eat corn soup. A young father and daughter appear to frown at the turtle.
The men wear their hair in different hairstyles. Some have the sides of their hair shaved and a patch of hair on top of their head. An elder has long, gray hair. The women and girls have long, straight hair. One woman has her hair pulled back in a bun on top of her head.
The Native Americans wear leather shoes and clothing. The females wear dresses, and the males wear loincloths. Belts, necklaces, and bracelets are worn by both females and males.
THEMES
Some themes in this story are friendship, loyalty, respect, and arrogance. The day the wolf came along, stood behind turtle, and caught and ate the persimmons possum threw down to turtle. Possum stated, “Now, if you have a best friend and you’re trying to make a present for him, and someone comes along and steals it, it makes you angry.” Possum showed his loyalty to turtle when in order to stop the wolf from stealing from turtle, he threw down a large persimmon that became stuck in wolf’s throat and killed him.
The Cherokee people showed respect for visitors by providing them with a gift of food. “And there was a special dish that was usually kept cooking at all times just to offer to a guest. This was a kind of thick corn soup.” In order to be rewarded for what turtle assumed was his hunting prowess, he took advantage of this gesture and demonstrated his arrogance by visiting people he did not even know. “And then he began to visit people he had not been introduced to just so they would offer him a bowl of corn shop, and he could pull out his wolf-ear spoons and eat with them.”
When the wolves heard about the turtle eating corn soup with wolf-ear spoons, the wolves showed their loyalty to their species when they decided turtle must be killed. “This was a terrible insult, for such an insignificant creature as Turtle to be eating corn soup with wolf-ear spoons.”
STRENGTHS
This story identifies a specific Native culture: the Cherokee. The author is a Cherokee storyteller, “a direct descendant of John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation during the Trail of Tears.” Her heritage adds to the story’s cultural authenticity. The author’s note at the back of the book provides essential details about the Cherokee Nation. For example, “Over four thousand Cherokee people lost their lives on the forced march to the west in the winter of 1838-39. The long walk came to be known as the Trail of Tears.”
WEAKNESSES
Even though the animals look natural, they walk on two feet and wear articles of clothing that the Native Americans wear such as beads, necklaces, belts, pouches, and loincloths. Also, the Native Americans are depicted in a traditional instead of a contemporary image. Since this story is supposed to be from long ago, “when the people and animals still spoke the same language,” I understand why the story did not use a modern image of Cherokee American Indians.
PERSONAL OPINION
The beautiful illustrations show all the different colorful patterns that are found in nature. I thought it was interesting that both Turtle and Possum were capitalized but the wolf and wolves were written in lower case. I liked when the author incorporated some Cherokee language into the story. At the end of the story, the turtle sang, “Gu’daye’wu, Gu’daye’wu, I have sewn myself together. I have sewn myself together.”
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Carolyn Phelan (Booklist, January 15, 1995 (Vol. 91, No. 10))
Gathering persimmons together, friends Possum and Turtle are joined by a thieving wolf who chokes to death on their fruit. Turtle, foolishly believing that he has killed the wolf, shows off the deed by making wolf-ear spoons and eating with them publicly. When the other wolves catch Turtle, they vow to kill him by roasting, boiling, or drowning him. He responds with, "Oh, no, not the river! Anything but the river." When they throw him in, he lands upside down on a rock, cracking his shell. He survives, but that's why the Turtle has cracks on his back today. Despite its echoes of the more familiar Brer Rabbit story ("born and bred in the briar patch"), this Cherokee pourquoi tale has a flavor all its own. Ross notes that she remembers the tale from her childhood, found a written source, and developed it through storytelling to its present form. Jacob's distinctive acrylic paintings illustrate the story's dramatic moments in scenes rich in colors and patterns. An entertaining picture book to read aloud. Category: For the Young. 1995, Dial, $14.99 and $14.89. Ages 5-8.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1995)
Turtle suffers a delusionary episode, believing he is a great hunter after finding dead at his feet a greedy wolf. Readers will know that Possum did the beast in, but regardless, Turtle can hardly contain himself and gloats at every opportunity. The wolves are not about to take this false press; a braggart, especially a fake, deserves a comeuppance. The result is an explanation of how the turtles' shells became cracked. It also demonstrates why Ross (How Rabbit Tricked Otter, 1994, etc.) is fast gaining a reputation as a fluid, entertaining storyteller. Turtle as mighty hunter -- who'd have believed it? This old Cherokee tale has humor with a kick; Jacob's densely detailed, stylized acrylic paintings add a bit of the surreal. 1995, Dial, $14.99; PLB $14.89. © 1995 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1995)
Wolves capture Turtle, planning to punish him for bragging. He convinces the indecisive wolves that the worst punishment would be to throw him in the river; thus turtle escapes, but not without permanent damage to his beautiful shell, which cracks on a rock. The earth-toned palette complements the Cherokee 'pourquoi' tale. Source documentation and a note about the Cherokee Nation are included. Category: Nonfiction. 1995, Dial, 32pp.. Ages 5 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
Students may enjoy reading other Cherokee folktales.
Bernardin, James. 1995. GRANDMOTHER SPIDER BRINGS THE SUN: A CHEROKEE STORY. by Geri Keams. Flagstaff: Northland Pub. ISBN: 0873585976
Jacob, Murv. 1994. HOW RABBIT TRICKED OTTER AND OTHER CHEROKEE TRICKSTER STORIES. by Gayle Ross. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN: 0060212853.
Students might want to learn more about the Cherokee Nation by visiting their official website: http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/Default.aspx.
Activities
Children could also investigate Cherokee foods and determine other foods that are used in for special occasions. The students could compare the foods they eat verse the foods the Cherokee people eat for special occasions. At home with their parents help, student could prepare a Cherokee dish or a special food form their culture and bring the dish to school for everyone to taste.
Students can also read other Cherokee legends on the official Cherokee Nation homepage: http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/Stories/Cat/Default.aspx. Then students could compare and contrast a legend from the website to the story, HOW TURTLE’S BACK WAS CRACKED.
Students could also discuss the theme friendship. They could explain what they think happened to Turtle’s and Possum’s friendship after Turtle repaired his cracked back.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Module 4 Book Reviews
Module 4 Book Reviews
THE GREAT BALL GAME: A MUSKOGEE STORY
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Roth, Susan L. 1994. THE GREAT BALL GAME: A MUSKOGEE STORY. By Joseph Bruchac. New York: Dial Books For Young Readers. ISBN: 0-8037-1539-0
b. PLOT SUMMARY
The birds and the animals were fighting over which group was better than the other. The birds thought they were better than the animals due to their wings while the animals thought they were better than the birds since they had teeth. The leaders of each group decided to settle the argument with a sports game. The bat played a pivotal role in determining the outcome of the game.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This fictional story contains a Muskogee legend. The illustrator used paper from around the world to create the animal characters, scenery, and stick ball game items. The illustrator uses textured, solid, and multicolored paper to create different layers. Some pictures look two dimensional; however, other pictures have many layers such as the scene that shows the birds flying south for the winter.
The animal characters in the story contain close to their natural shades of color that they would have in the wild. Fortunately, the animals are not dressed in buckskin clothes or wearing feathers in a headband on top of their heads since this would have been a negative Native Indian stereotype.
TRENDS
The language patterns vary in this story. Most of the time, the animals speak in simple, choppy sentences to one another. The Bear, the leader of the animals, and the Crane, the leader of the birds, used longer complex sentences as they discussed the rules and consequences of the stickball game. The Bear also had longer conversations with the Bat. “You are not very big, but sometimes even the same ones can help.”
Theme of cultural conflict and exclusion are included in this story. The animals with teeth and the animals with wings each feel superior over the other group. The birds told the animals, “We who have wings are better than you.” Of course the animals rebuffed their statement and declared their superiority. Bear agrees to accept the Bat on his team with the following conditions: “We will accept you as an Animal, but you must hold back and let the bigger Animals play first.” I think that many times outsiders must work twice as hard to prove themselves in order to become accepted by the majority group.
STRENGTHS
The animals in the illustrations are not dressed as Native Americans. Therefore, they are not perpetuating a stereotype. The author includes a note at the beginning of the book before the story and explains that various versions of this story exist. He shares where this particular version of the story originated. An “Oklahoma Muskogee elder” shared the tale with the author, yet it was the author’s choice to make the game a stickball game.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Carolyn Phelan (Booklist, September 15, 1994 (Vol. 91, No. 2))
In this Muskogee Indian tale, the birds argue with the beasts about which are better--those with teeth or those with wings. When the quarrel escalates to the brink of war, both sides agree to settle their disagreement on the playing field. The first side to score a point will set the other's punishment. The bat, who has wings as well as teeth, is initially spurned by both sides, then permitted to join the beasts. He scores the goal and banishes the birds for half the year. "So it is that the Birds fly south each winter. . . . And every day at dusk Bat still comes flying to see if the Animals need him to play ball." Roth's dynamic collages combine cut papers of varied textures and hues to create a series of effective illustrations. Short and well told, this appealing pourquoi tale lends itself to reading aloud.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1994)
How the bat found its niche in the animal kingdom and why birds fly south in winter are explained in this Muskogee tale, one of a dozen similar stories on the topic found in Native American lore. In this version, a disagreement has arisen between the birds and the animals. They take to the stickball field (stickball here is a Native American game similar to lacrosse) to resolve the affair. The bat is spurned by the birds as too small, but the animals take him in, if only as an alternate. As twilight settles over the playing field, the bat comes into his element and scores the winning goal. He then levies a penalty on the birds: They must leave that land for six months every year, while the bats stay home and rest. As an explanation for migration, this story has it all over the stellar-geo-electromagnetic theory currently in vogue. Roth's distinctive collages have a Red Grooms busyness ranging from bright and appealing to appropriately subtle, rendered from elegant handmade papers gathered in Tibet, Italy, Japan, and Thailand. There is one problem, though. Many bats don't stay home and rest. They migrate, too. Oops. 1994, Dial, $14.99; PLB $14.89. © 1994 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1994)
The Birds and the Animals decide to settle a disagreement with a stickball game, and the first side to score sets the losers' penalty. Bat, originally excluded from both teams, flies at dusk to help the Animals win. The Birds' penalty? They must leave for half of each year, which explains why birds fly south each winter. Artful cut- and torn-paper collages feature creatures juxtaposed against brilliantly colored or patterned backgrounds. Category: Nonfiction. 1994, Dial, 32pp.. Ages 5 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
In order to learn more about the author and his published books, children may view his homepage: http://www.josephbruchac.com/.
Related books
Students could read the following book that includes another Muskogee tale.
Annesley,Robert. 1997. SPIDER SPINS A STORY: FOURTEEN LEGENDS FROM NATIVE AMERICA. edited by Jill Max. Flagstaff: Rising Moon. ISBN: 0873586115.
The next book provides another folktale that explains how the chipmunk came to have stripes.
Aruego, Jose and Ariane Dewey. 2001. HOW CHIPMUNK GOT HIS STRIPES: A TALE OF BRAGGING AND TEASING. as told by Joseph Bruchac & James Bruchac. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0803724047.
Activities
Children could read about other folktales and legends that relate to specific Native American tribes. Children could try to write their own legend to explain an idea such as why is the sky blue.
Children’s responses
Since I had a book fair at school this week, I did not have a chance to read this story to students. My almost three year old liked the fact that the main characters were animals; however, she did not understand why the animals were fighting. She has not read a story that contained a plot with animals fighting. She thought the illustrations with the bear and bat with white ziz-zag teeth made the animals look scary.
JINGLE DANCER
Book Review
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Hu, Ying-Hwa and Wright, Cornelius Van. 2000. JINGLE DANCER. by Cynthia L. Smith. New York : Morrow Junior Books. ISBN: 0688162428.
b. PLOT SUMMARY
As Jenna ate honey on fry bread, she dreamed about wearing a jingle dress and dancing in the powwow. The story shows how Jenna learned how to perform the jingle dance and how she obtained jingles for her jingle dress. Throughout the story, Jenna’s family supports and encourages her to complete her goal of creating a jingle dress and dancing the jingle dance in the powwow.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
THEMES
The positive message of perseverance was shown through the theme of family closeness. Jenna practiced her jingle dancing even when she did not have a jingle dress to wear. “When Grandma bounce-stepped on TV, Jenna bounce-stepped on family room carpet.” Jenna’s family members shared some of their own jingles with Jenna so she would be able to perform in the powwow.
CULTURAL MARKERS
Fry bread and Indian taco are two foods that are mentioned in the story. The music of the jingles is described throughout the story. “Clattering tinks,” “jingles clanked,” and “jingles sang, tink, tink, tink, tink” are some of the sounds the jingles made. The characters have similar brown skin tones. Many of the women and young girls wear their long hair pulled back in a low pony tail or in a clip on top of their head. Jenna’s Grandma and Great Aunt Sis appear to have short hair. Some of the girls at the powwow wear two braids in their hair.
The facial expressions of the women in Jenna’s family are happy and kind. Both Jenna and her family members embrace frequently. The women wear different clothing such as suits, casual clothes, solid shirts and pants, jeans and printed blouses. In many of the rooms in their houses, a symbol of their culture can be found. Fry bread on Jenna’s plate, a basket on a table, a jingle dress hanging up on a door, moccasins, or a blanket with a Native American pattern can be seen in some of the rooms. The homes of Jenna’s family members are neat and uncluttered.
STRENGTHS
The author’s note in the back of the book provides additional knowledge about the heritage of the main character, Jenna. One paragraph provides a detailed explanation of the design of the jingle dress. The author does include a short glossary on the last page that defines the following words: fry bread, Indian taco, powwow, and regalia.
WEAKNESSES
I thought that the text was awkward when the story switched between narrating the time of day, “as Moon kissed Sun good night” and the main story of the little girl’s desire to perform the jingle dance at the powwow, “I want to dance the jingle dance too.” The modern day language, “every night that week,” clashes with the traditional language, “as moon glowed pale.” I felt as that the two stories were accidently mixed together.
PERSONAL OPINION
I was fascinated by the story of the jingle dressed, but the text irritated me as I mentioned in the previous section. The illustrations are beautiful: soft, warm, and inviting. After reading THE GREAT BALL GAME and understanding the story of the animals verse the birds, I do not think that having Great-aunt Sis briefly mention the tale added to the story of JINGLE DANCER. The first time I read this book was before I read THE GREAT BALL GAME. I did not really understand what the Great-aunt Sis was referring to with her tale about the bat. I do not think that the author’s note on the last page clarified the tale either.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Connie Fletcher (Booklist, May 15, 2000 (Vol. 96, No. 18))
This contemporary Native American tale highlights the importance of family and community through a young girl's dream of joining the dancers at the next powwow. Jenna is a girl of Muscogee (Creek) and Ojibway (Chippewa/Anishinabe) descent. She has practiced the steps for the jingle dance by following her grandmother's moves on a video. Now she must get enough jingles (traditionally made of tin, aluminum, or gold canning lids rolled into cones) to sew on her dress to make a satisfying "tink, tink" as she dances. The way Jenna gathers her jingles (borrowing enough to make a row, but not so many that the lender's dress will "lose its voice"), and her promise to dance for the women who cannot dance for themselves illustrate the importance of family and community ties. The colorful, well-executed watercolor illustrations lend warmth to the story. A note explaining Jenna's heritage and a brief glossary are appended. Category: For the Young. 2000, Morrow, $15.95 and $15.89. Ages 4-7.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2000 (Vol. 68, No. 8))
A contemporary Native American girl follows in her grandmother's footsteps (literally and figuratively), dancing the traditional jingle dance at the powwow. Jenna, a member of the Creek Nation in Oklahoma, dreams of dancing the jingle dance with the women of her tribe and is delighted when her grandmother tells her that she can dance with the other girls at the next powwow. But there is one problem-there won't be enough time to order the materials to make the four rows of jingles that are attached to the dress. If Jenna wants to hear the tink, tink, tink sound that the tin jingles make, she'll have to figure out a way to get the jingles on her own. Fortunately, Jenna is resourceful and knows just what to do. She visits great-aunt Sis, her friend Mrs. Scott, and cousin Elizabeth and borrows a row of jingles from each of them. (Jenna can only borrow one row of jingles apiece-otherwise each dress will lose its "voice.") While the problem of finding the jingles on her own doesn't seem challenging enough for the approbation Jenna receives at the end of the story for her resourcefulness, children will enjoy watching her figure out the solution to her problem. The watercolor illustrations clearly and realistically depict what is happening in the story. The layout of the book is straightforward-mostly double-page spreads that extend all the way to the edges of the paper. Jenna lives in what looks like a nice suburban house, the others seem solidly middle-class, and cousin Elizabeth is a lawyer. The author is deliberately showing us, it would seem, that all Native Americans are not poor or live on rundown reservations. A useful portrayal of an important cultural event in a Creek girl's year. (author's note, glossary) 2000, Harcourt Brace, $15.95. Category: Picture book. Ages 5 to 9. © 2000 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2000)
Jenna, who lives in a suburban Oklahoma neighborhood, is of Muscogee and Ojibway descent. She borrows jingles--metal cones--from four important women in her life, so that her jingle dress will have its own voice for her first powwow dance. Dance regalia and modern-day life are ably depicted in fluid watercolors. The text's folkloric style is sometimes at odds with the contemporary story. Glos. Category: Picture Books. 2000, Morrow, 32pp, $15.95, $15.89. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 4: Recommended, with minor flaws.
e. CONNECTIONS
Students may enjoy reading other books that incorporates a dance performed at a powwow.
Raczek, Linda Theresa. 1999. RAINY’S POWWOW. Flagstaff: Rising Moon/Books for Young Readers from Northland Publishing. ISBN: 0873586867.
Doney, Todd L.W. 1996. RED BIRD. By Barbara Mitchell. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books. ISBN: 0688108601.
Activities
Students could investigate the Muscogee Nation and Ojibway. Student could also learn about other foods that members of these two different tribes eat. Students could compare the foods that Jenna’s tribe eats to food that they traditionally eat.
In order to learn more about the author and his published books, children may view her homepage: http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/.
THE GREAT BALL GAME: A MUSKOGEE STORY
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Roth, Susan L. 1994. THE GREAT BALL GAME: A MUSKOGEE STORY. By Joseph Bruchac. New York: Dial Books For Young Readers. ISBN: 0-8037-1539-0
b. PLOT SUMMARY
The birds and the animals were fighting over which group was better than the other. The birds thought they were better than the animals due to their wings while the animals thought they were better than the birds since they had teeth. The leaders of each group decided to settle the argument with a sports game. The bat played a pivotal role in determining the outcome of the game.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This fictional story contains a Muskogee legend. The illustrator used paper from around the world to create the animal characters, scenery, and stick ball game items. The illustrator uses textured, solid, and multicolored paper to create different layers. Some pictures look two dimensional; however, other pictures have many layers such as the scene that shows the birds flying south for the winter.
The animal characters in the story contain close to their natural shades of color that they would have in the wild. Fortunately, the animals are not dressed in buckskin clothes or wearing feathers in a headband on top of their heads since this would have been a negative Native Indian stereotype.
TRENDS
The language patterns vary in this story. Most of the time, the animals speak in simple, choppy sentences to one another. The Bear, the leader of the animals, and the Crane, the leader of the birds, used longer complex sentences as they discussed the rules and consequences of the stickball game. The Bear also had longer conversations with the Bat. “You are not very big, but sometimes even the same ones can help.”
Theme of cultural conflict and exclusion are included in this story. The animals with teeth and the animals with wings each feel superior over the other group. The birds told the animals, “We who have wings are better than you.” Of course the animals rebuffed their statement and declared their superiority. Bear agrees to accept the Bat on his team with the following conditions: “We will accept you as an Animal, but you must hold back and let the bigger Animals play first.” I think that many times outsiders must work twice as hard to prove themselves in order to become accepted by the majority group.
STRENGTHS
The animals in the illustrations are not dressed as Native Americans. Therefore, they are not perpetuating a stereotype. The author includes a note at the beginning of the book before the story and explains that various versions of this story exist. He shares where this particular version of the story originated. An “Oklahoma Muskogee elder” shared the tale with the author, yet it was the author’s choice to make the game a stickball game.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Carolyn Phelan (Booklist, September 15, 1994 (Vol. 91, No. 2))
In this Muskogee Indian tale, the birds argue with the beasts about which are better--those with teeth or those with wings. When the quarrel escalates to the brink of war, both sides agree to settle their disagreement on the playing field. The first side to score a point will set the other's punishment. The bat, who has wings as well as teeth, is initially spurned by both sides, then permitted to join the beasts. He scores the goal and banishes the birds for half the year. "So it is that the Birds fly south each winter. . . . And every day at dusk Bat still comes flying to see if the Animals need him to play ball." Roth's dynamic collages combine cut papers of varied textures and hues to create a series of effective illustrations. Short and well told, this appealing pourquoi tale lends itself to reading aloud.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1994)
How the bat found its niche in the animal kingdom and why birds fly south in winter are explained in this Muskogee tale, one of a dozen similar stories on the topic found in Native American lore. In this version, a disagreement has arisen between the birds and the animals. They take to the stickball field (stickball here is a Native American game similar to lacrosse) to resolve the affair. The bat is spurned by the birds as too small, but the animals take him in, if only as an alternate. As twilight settles over the playing field, the bat comes into his element and scores the winning goal. He then levies a penalty on the birds: They must leave that land for six months every year, while the bats stay home and rest. As an explanation for migration, this story has it all over the stellar-geo-electromagnetic theory currently in vogue. Roth's distinctive collages have a Red Grooms busyness ranging from bright and appealing to appropriately subtle, rendered from elegant handmade papers gathered in Tibet, Italy, Japan, and Thailand. There is one problem, though. Many bats don't stay home and rest. They migrate, too. Oops. 1994, Dial, $14.99; PLB $14.89. © 1994 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1994)
The Birds and the Animals decide to settle a disagreement with a stickball game, and the first side to score sets the losers' penalty. Bat, originally excluded from both teams, flies at dusk to help the Animals win. The Birds' penalty? They must leave for half of each year, which explains why birds fly south each winter. Artful cut- and torn-paper collages feature creatures juxtaposed against brilliantly colored or patterned backgrounds. Category: Nonfiction. 1994, Dial, 32pp.. Ages 5 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. CONNECTIONS
In order to learn more about the author and his published books, children may view his homepage: http://www.josephbruchac.com/.
Related books
Students could read the following book that includes another Muskogee tale.
Annesley,Robert. 1997. SPIDER SPINS A STORY: FOURTEEN LEGENDS FROM NATIVE AMERICA. edited by Jill Max. Flagstaff: Rising Moon. ISBN: 0873586115.
The next book provides another folktale that explains how the chipmunk came to have stripes.
Aruego, Jose and Ariane Dewey. 2001. HOW CHIPMUNK GOT HIS STRIPES: A TALE OF BRAGGING AND TEASING. as told by Joseph Bruchac & James Bruchac. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0803724047.
Activities
Children could read about other folktales and legends that relate to specific Native American tribes. Children could try to write their own legend to explain an idea such as why is the sky blue.
Children’s responses
Since I had a book fair at school this week, I did not have a chance to read this story to students. My almost three year old liked the fact that the main characters were animals; however, she did not understand why the animals were fighting. She has not read a story that contained a plot with animals fighting. She thought the illustrations with the bear and bat with white ziz-zag teeth made the animals look scary.
JINGLE DANCER
Book Review
a. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Hu, Ying-Hwa and Wright, Cornelius Van. 2000. JINGLE DANCER. by Cynthia L. Smith. New York : Morrow Junior Books. ISBN: 0688162428.
b. PLOT SUMMARY
As Jenna ate honey on fry bread, she dreamed about wearing a jingle dress and dancing in the powwow. The story shows how Jenna learned how to perform the jingle dance and how she obtained jingles for her jingle dress. Throughout the story, Jenna’s family supports and encourages her to complete her goal of creating a jingle dress and dancing the jingle dance in the powwow.
c. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
THEMES
The positive message of perseverance was shown through the theme of family closeness. Jenna practiced her jingle dancing even when she did not have a jingle dress to wear. “When Grandma bounce-stepped on TV, Jenna bounce-stepped on family room carpet.” Jenna’s family members shared some of their own jingles with Jenna so she would be able to perform in the powwow.
CULTURAL MARKERS
Fry bread and Indian taco are two foods that are mentioned in the story. The music of the jingles is described throughout the story. “Clattering tinks,” “jingles clanked,” and “jingles sang, tink, tink, tink, tink” are some of the sounds the jingles made. The characters have similar brown skin tones. Many of the women and young girls wear their long hair pulled back in a low pony tail or in a clip on top of their head. Jenna’s Grandma and Great Aunt Sis appear to have short hair. Some of the girls at the powwow wear two braids in their hair.
The facial expressions of the women in Jenna’s family are happy and kind. Both Jenna and her family members embrace frequently. The women wear different clothing such as suits, casual clothes, solid shirts and pants, jeans and printed blouses. In many of the rooms in their houses, a symbol of their culture can be found. Fry bread on Jenna’s plate, a basket on a table, a jingle dress hanging up on a door, moccasins, or a blanket with a Native American pattern can be seen in some of the rooms. The homes of Jenna’s family members are neat and uncluttered.
STRENGTHS
The author’s note in the back of the book provides additional knowledge about the heritage of the main character, Jenna. One paragraph provides a detailed explanation of the design of the jingle dress. The author does include a short glossary on the last page that defines the following words: fry bread, Indian taco, powwow, and regalia.
WEAKNESSES
I thought that the text was awkward when the story switched between narrating the time of day, “as Moon kissed Sun good night” and the main story of the little girl’s desire to perform the jingle dance at the powwow, “I want to dance the jingle dance too.” The modern day language, “every night that week,” clashes with the traditional language, “as moon glowed pale.” I felt as that the two stories were accidently mixed together.
PERSONAL OPINION
I was fascinated by the story of the jingle dressed, but the text irritated me as I mentioned in the previous section. The illustrations are beautiful: soft, warm, and inviting. After reading THE GREAT BALL GAME and understanding the story of the animals verse the birds, I do not think that having Great-aunt Sis briefly mention the tale added to the story of JINGLE DANCER. The first time I read this book was before I read THE GREAT BALL GAME. I did not really understand what the Great-aunt Sis was referring to with her tale about the bat. I do not think that the author’s note on the last page clarified the tale either.
d. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Connie Fletcher (Booklist, May 15, 2000 (Vol. 96, No. 18))
This contemporary Native American tale highlights the importance of family and community through a young girl's dream of joining the dancers at the next powwow. Jenna is a girl of Muscogee (Creek) and Ojibway (Chippewa/Anishinabe) descent. She has practiced the steps for the jingle dance by following her grandmother's moves on a video. Now she must get enough jingles (traditionally made of tin, aluminum, or gold canning lids rolled into cones) to sew on her dress to make a satisfying "tink, tink" as she dances. The way Jenna gathers her jingles (borrowing enough to make a row, but not so many that the lender's dress will "lose its voice"), and her promise to dance for the women who cannot dance for themselves illustrate the importance of family and community ties. The colorful, well-executed watercolor illustrations lend warmth to the story. A note explaining Jenna's heritage and a brief glossary are appended. Category: For the Young. 2000, Morrow, $15.95 and $15.89. Ages 4-7.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2000 (Vol. 68, No. 8))
A contemporary Native American girl follows in her grandmother's footsteps (literally and figuratively), dancing the traditional jingle dance at the powwow. Jenna, a member of the Creek Nation in Oklahoma, dreams of dancing the jingle dance with the women of her tribe and is delighted when her grandmother tells her that she can dance with the other girls at the next powwow. But there is one problem-there won't be enough time to order the materials to make the four rows of jingles that are attached to the dress. If Jenna wants to hear the tink, tink, tink sound that the tin jingles make, she'll have to figure out a way to get the jingles on her own. Fortunately, Jenna is resourceful and knows just what to do. She visits great-aunt Sis, her friend Mrs. Scott, and cousin Elizabeth and borrows a row of jingles from each of them. (Jenna can only borrow one row of jingles apiece-otherwise each dress will lose its "voice.") While the problem of finding the jingles on her own doesn't seem challenging enough for the approbation Jenna receives at the end of the story for her resourcefulness, children will enjoy watching her figure out the solution to her problem. The watercolor illustrations clearly and realistically depict what is happening in the story. The layout of the book is straightforward-mostly double-page spreads that extend all the way to the edges of the paper. Jenna lives in what looks like a nice suburban house, the others seem solidly middle-class, and cousin Elizabeth is a lawyer. The author is deliberately showing us, it would seem, that all Native Americans are not poor or live on rundown reservations. A useful portrayal of an important cultural event in a Creek girl's year. (author's note, glossary) 2000, Harcourt Brace, $15.95. Category: Picture book. Ages 5 to 9. © 2000 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2000)
Jenna, who lives in a suburban Oklahoma neighborhood, is of Muscogee and Ojibway descent. She borrows jingles--metal cones--from four important women in her life, so that her jingle dress will have its own voice for her first powwow dance. Dance regalia and modern-day life are ably depicted in fluid watercolors. The text's folkloric style is sometimes at odds with the contemporary story. Glos. Category: Picture Books. 2000, Morrow, 32pp, $15.95, $15.89. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 4: Recommended, with minor flaws.
e. CONNECTIONS
Students may enjoy reading other books that incorporates a dance performed at a powwow.
Raczek, Linda Theresa. 1999. RAINY’S POWWOW. Flagstaff: Rising Moon/Books for Young Readers from Northland Publishing. ISBN: 0873586867.
Doney, Todd L.W. 1996. RED BIRD. By Barbara Mitchell. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books. ISBN: 0688108601.
Activities
Students could investigate the Muscogee Nation and Ojibway. Student could also learn about other foods that members of these two different tribes eat. Students could compare the foods that Jenna’s tribe eats to food that they traditionally eat.
In order to learn more about the author and his published books, children may view her homepage: http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Module 3 Book Reviews
CANTO FAMILIAR
a. Bibliographic data
Nelson, Annika. 1995. CANTO FAMILIAR. by Gary Soto. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company. ISBN: 0152000674
b. Plot summary
CANTO FAMILIAR is a collection of twenty-five poems which the author refers to as songs. The poems are written in first person and address the normal everyday life and thoughts of a young Latino or Latina child. Illustrations accompany some, but not all of the poems. The descriptive poems contain both visual and auditory descriptions that allow the reader to easily visual and vicariously enter the life of the Hispanic child in each poem.
c. Critical analysis
The characters’ skin tones are varying shades brown. The characters have oval eyes and different styles of hair. Young girls wear their hair long in pigtails and braids. The mothers and teacher depicted in the poems wear their straight hair cut at varying lengths above the shoulders or pulled back in a bun. The boys’ hair styles are similar: short, wavy, and parted to the side. Their hair colors are varying shades of brown.
The facial features of most of the people are content with exception of the boy washing dishes in the poem, “Doing Dishes.” The characters in the story are slim and dressed in colorful clothes. The characters’ dresses, jumpers, shirts, pants, and skirts contain solid, deep colors such as purples, pinks, reds, blues, and yellows. The settings of many of the illustrations are inside a family’s kitchen. Other places include inside the living room or outside at a picnic.
The pictures add to the poems since many themes have to do with family, food, and celebrations. Food is an important part of a Hispanic family’s life. Papi’s Menudo is about a father enjoying a nice bowl of “menudo.” Many Hispanics savor their meals as portrayed in this poem. Papi, “dips sprinkles his menudo with onion,” “tears a piece of tortilla and dips it into his menudo,” and “slurps.”
The poems, “Christmas Angel” and “Tortilla’s Like Africa” illustrate a bond between siblings. An older sister breaks off a small part of a Christmas cookie and puts it in the mouth of her six-month-old little brother in order to share a Christmas tradition with him. In “Tortilla’s Like Africa” two brothers laughed as they made imperfect tortilla’s that were tasty, but not exactly like the tortillas their mom made. A young girl eats a large, slice of watermelon in the poem, “Sandia.”
The names of the characters are Spanish kinship terms: mami, papi, bebe, abuelito are used in the poems. The terms were not overused or translated, so they added to the Hispanic authenticity of the text. Also, characters have Hispanic names such as Enrique, Senor Cisneros, and Maria. Gary Soto successfully intersperses Spanish sentences and phrases in his poems without redundancy. In the poem, “Que hora es?” the poet mixes Spanish terms within the English text, but the reader can gather their meaning based on the context clues. The question, “What time is it?” is asked in Spanish in the second and fourth stanza and in English in the fifth stanza. In this collection of poems, the Spanish language adds to the authenticity of the poems.
I enjoyed these poems. Even though I did not grow up in a Hispanic family, I could relate to some of the common childhood concerns: pets, chores, siblings, teachers and family. I remember my childhood cat, Mittens, and his kitten antics, or the iron that spit and sputtered water on my clothes. Since some of the poems do not contain any illustrations, Spanish words, or Latino character names, the narrator could be of any race.
d. Review excerpts
From School Library Journal
Grade 3 Up? Who could imagine that such joyous rhythm could be found in the familiar moments of life, such as washing dishes or spotting a teacher in the market? In this companion volume to Neighborhood Odes (Harcourt, 1992), Soto not only imagines the musical beat, but also captures the energy and tranposes it into poetic songs. Imagery abounds, as in the hot iron that "snorts like a bull." Nelson's distinctive block prints bounce off white pages with vibrant magentas and bold blues outlined with thick black lines. The result is a harmony of words and pictures to be anticipated and savored. Although the landscape may be unfamiliar, readers are guided to this Mexican-American neighborhood, welcomed inside this home, and invited to share a child's thoughts about these universal experiences. Even with Spanish words woven throughout, the messages need no special interpretation to be understood. Pair this title with Soto's picture book Too Many Tamales (Putnam, 1993) or use it as an introduction to his novels for older readers. Read it, sing it, share it.
Sarabeth Kalajian, Venice Public Library, FL
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. A companion to Soto's Neighborhood Odes (1992), this collection of simple free verse captures common childhood moments at home, at school, and in the street. Many of the experiences are Mexican American ("Spanish is seeing double" ), and occasional Spanish words are part of the easy, colloquial, short lines. The first-person voices are immediate, physical, and joyful, celebrating music, dancing, cats, friends, family. For example, it's weird and embarrassing to bump into your teacher at the supermarket. It's boring doing dishes. It's fun to eat while reading. The occasional full-page, richly colored woodcuts by Annika Nelson capture the child's imaginative take on ordinary things. This is a collection to read aloud and get kids writing about themselves. Hazel Rochman
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1995)
This humorous, tender collection of 25 poems and full-color linocuts about the daily life of Mexican-American children is a companion book to Soto's Neighborhood Odes (1992). Invoking ordinary domestic and community incidents, it's a fine introduction not only to poetry but to Chicano culture. In "Papi's Menudo," a father enjoys a favorite dish; the narrator of "Music for Fun and Profit" gets paid not to play an instrument; and "My Teacher in the Market" explores the amazement of a child upon seeing a teacher outside of class. The poems are generally descriptive rather than abstract, more concerned with communicating feelings than with literary style, and most are free verse, without regular cadence or rhyme scheme. Nelson debuts with scenes--homey, comfortable, bright--that make the book even more accessible. 1995, Harcourt Brace, $17.00. Starred Review. © 1995 Kirkus Reviews
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1995)
In this companion volume to the widely acclaimed 'Neighborhood Odes' (Harcourt), Soto continues his reveries in poems that illuminate the minutiae of everyday childhood experience. Some refer specifically to his own Mexican-American boyhood, while most describe moments that will spark recognition in any child. Accompanied by colorful illustrations, the poems are marked by short, point-blank phrasing and unrhymed vernacular. Category: Nonfiction. 1995, Harcourt, 79pp.. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. Connections
I read the poem, “My Teacher in the Market” to a class of fourth graders. They could relate to seeing their teachers at Walmart, Kohls, and Big Lots and feeling embarrassed. Some of the students admitted that they were playing in the store when they saw their classroom teacher. Two girls actually admitted hiding from their teacher when they saw her at the public library. They told me that they did not know what to say to her, so they just hide and watched her. The girls’ teacher eventually spotted them from across the room and waved.
Students may want to read more books written by Gary Soto. They could visit her author website: http://www.garysoto.com/.
I would challenge students to write their own poem about a common activity, person, or event in their daily lives. The teacher could work on a poem together with the class to model the writing process and build the students’ confidence in writing poetry. After the students publish their poems, then they should illustrate their poems.
Students may also enjoy reading another books of poetry such as CONFETTI: POEMS FOR CHILDREN by Pat Mora and illustrated by Enrique O. Sanchez.
Carlson, Lori M., ed. Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the United States. Introduction by Oscar Hijuelos. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1994. ISBN: o-805-03135-9.
Soto, Gary. A Fire in My Hands: A Book of Poems. Illustrated by James M. Cardillo. New York: Scholastic, 1990. ISBN: 0-590-45021-2.
Neighborhood Odes. Illustrated by David Diaz. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1992.ISBN: 0-15-256879-4.
TOMAS AND THE LIBRARY LADY
a. Bibliographic data
Colon, Raul. 1997. TOMAS AND THE LIBRARY LADY. by Pat Mora. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN: 0-679-90401-8.
b. Brief plot summary
Tomás comes from a family of migrant workers. His grandfather told Tomas and his brother stories for years. However, one day when Tomas finished the end of the story for his grandfather, his grandfather told him it was time for him to learn some new stories to share with the family. Tomas went to the cool, comfortable library where the librarian helped him select interesting books. Tomas spent the hot days in the library drinking cool water, reading fascinating books, and letting his imagination wander.
c. Critical analysis with specific consideration of cultural markers for each book.
The scratch board illustrations show the family has the same brown skin tone. The “library lady” has a light cream color of skin in a muted tone. The boys have the same straight, brown hair that is combed and parted on the side. The grandpa has white hair and a white mustache. The mother’s hair is tied back in a bun at the nape of her neck.
The family looks happy throughout the story. Only Tomás expressions are pensive and sad as he leaves Texas in the beginning of the story and once again as he says good-bye to his friend, the Library Lady, in preparation to leave Iowa. The family’s love of storytelling and Papa Grade’s urging convinced Tomás to explore the public library and fill his mind with new stories that he could share with the family.The brothers wear shirts with collars, pants, and dressy casual shoes even when playing soccer. The story was a traditional story that portrayed a common theme in Hispanic literature: migrant workers. However, this family was not downtrodden. Even though Tomás and his family sleep on cots, drive a “tired, old car,” and look for iron and books at the city dump, his family has dignity. Those elements of the story are simply facts.
Tomás’s family values storytelling and reading. They entertain each other with stories and make the best of their situation. Tomás’s mother sews her sons a soccer ball from an old teddy bear. The teddy bear soccer ball helps make the story authentic to me. Many Latino boys love soccer and will play with any material of soccer ball as long as it rolls. As a child, my Argentine husband used to play with soccer balls made of old T-shirts held together with duct tape or taped balls of paper.
The setting takes place in both an urban and rural contexts. The family lived and worked on the farmland and drove on both country dirt roads and city roads as they traveled between Texas and Iowa. Tomás also went to the plain library and to the city dump with his family to look for books. The family’s mode of transportation was a “rusty car.” After looking at some old cars on the Internet, the car in the story looked like it was from the 1940s.
Spanish is mixed into the text. Terms of kinship such as the names of characters: Papa, mama, papa grande add a Hispanic flavor to the text. Both of the boys have Hispanic names: Tomas and Enrique. Tomás taught the Library Lady words in Spanish: libro, pájaro, and adios, and he would teach her words in English.
I thought it was usual that the librarian did not have a name. Since Tomás spent so much time in the library, I am sure he would have learned her name. Perhaps, the author wanted to downplay the importance of the librarian in order to avoid the “Anglo-savior” stereotypical theme. The librarian was simply called the “library lady.” When it was time to say good-bye, Tomás gave the library lady a gift of pan dulce.
After looking at different cars from that decade. I would place this store around the 1940s. Therefore I thought it was strange that the children only brought water to their parents working in the field. In the 1940s, the children from farms or low socioeconomic positions usually helped their parents by working alongside them in the field.
I thought this story was culturally authentic. The Spanish words, food, and actions of the characters (teddy bear soccer ball) prevent an illustrator from simply changing the race of the characters. Even though the theme of migrant workers is a common one, this story portrayed a strong, happy family of humble, honorable migrant workers. I liked that the family valued literacy and made the best of their situation. They did not have much money, but being poor did not define this family.
d. Review excerpts
From School Library JournalGrade 2-4? Tomas Rivera, who at his death in 1984 was the Chancellor of the University of California at Riverside, grew up in a migrant family. Here, Mora tells the fictionalized story of one summer in his childhood during which his love of books and reading is fostered by a librarian in Iowa, who takes him under her wing while his family works the harvest. She introduces him to stories about dinosaurs, horses, and American Indians and allows him to take books home where he shares them with his parents, grandfather, and brother. When it is time for the family to return to Texas, she gives Tomas the greatest gift of all?a book of his own to keep. Colon's earthy, sun-warmed colors, textured with swirling lines, add life to this biographical fragment and help portray Tomas's reading adventures in appealing ways. Stack this up with Sarah Stewart and David Small's The Library (Farrar, 1995) and Suzanne Williams and Steven Kellogg's Library Lil (Dial, 1997) to demonstrate the impact librarians can have on youngsters.?Barbara Elleman, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WICopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
e. Connections
Both the classroom teachers and I have encouraged the third, fourth, and fifth graders to visual the story as the read. Consequently, some students in a third grade class were eager to point out that Tomas was visualizing the stories as he read them since the illustrations showed Tomas seeing tigers and Native Americans.
Students may want to read more books written by Pat Mora. They could visit her author website: http://www.patmora.com/.
Students can read about a young African American boy’s struggle to borrow books from the library at a time it was illegal for him to check out books.
RICHARD WRIGHT AND THE LIBRARY CARD
by William Miller.
If students want to read a humorous book about a town that would rather watch TV instead of check out library books, then students can read LIBRARY LIL by Suzanne Williams.
Students may want to read more books about migrant workers.
FIRST DAY IN GRAPES / by L. King Perez ; illustrated by Robert Casilla.
LIGHTS ON A RIVER / Jane Resh Thomas ; illustrated by Michael Dooling.
Durbin, William. THE JOURNAL OF C.J. JACKSON : A DUST BOWL MIGRANT
Holyfield, John. THE HARD TIMES JAR. by Ethel Footman Smothers
Diaz, David. GOING HOME. by Eve Bunting.
Altman, Linda Jacobs. MIGRANT FARM WORKERS:THE TEMPORARY PEOPLE / Linda Jacobs
Diaz, David. CESAR: SI, SE PUEDE! = YES, WE CAN! by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand.
Altman, Linda Jacobs. Amelia's Road. Illustrated by Enrique Sanchez. New York: Lee and Low Books, 1993. ISBN: 1-880000-04-0. 29 p. Grade K-2.
de Ruiz, Dana Catharine, and Richard Larios. La Causa: The Migrant Farmworkers' Story. Illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez. Stories of America, Alex Haley, general editor. Austin: Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 1993. ISBN: 0-8114-7231-0. 92 p. Grade 3-5.
Students can use the Britannica Online School Edition database to research Migrant Workers.
http://school.eb.com/elementary/article?articleId=353253&query=migrant%20workers&ct=
BEFORE WE WERE FREE
a. Bibliographic data
Alvarez, Julia. 2002. BEFORE WE WERE FREE. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN: 0375915443.
b. Brief plot summary
Anita’s extended family members leave the family compound in the Dominican Republic to move to the United States. Anita later learns that her relatives left for their own safety. The Trujillo's dictatorship suppresses the freedoms of her family until an American embassy employee and his family comes to live with Anita’s family at the compound. Anita and her mother are the last members of her family to leave their country after her father and uncle’s failed attempt to overthrow the dictatorship.
c. Critical analysis
The only illustrations are the black and white cover of the book and two maps at the front of the book. The photograph of the front cover shows a young girl with long, straight hair looking out the screen of an open window of a simple cement house. The young girl has a sad, frustrated expression on her face and is resting her head in one hand. The girl had light colored skin in contrast with the blackness inside the house, but it is impossible to know the color of her skin since the photograph was taken in black and white.
One map at the being of the story show Anita’s family compound with a description of which family members lived in each house. Another map shows the Mancinis’s house with a description of each room. The reader is able to see the closet Anita and her mom lived in and the bathroom window from which they used to spy on their friends.
Even though Anita’s family lives on a large family compound, they are not wealthy. Her parents do not have money to send her sister, Lucinda, to the doctor when she has a bad rash on her neck. Anita wears Lucinda’s clothes to her quinceañera. The family does use a car to drive around town.
From the beginning of the story Spanish kinship terms such as tia, tio, papi, and mami are used. Spanish words are mixed throughout the novel. The dictator is referred to as El Jefe and the SIM are the “policía secreta.” The native Dominicans have Spanish names while the American children in the school have American names. Anita’s first crush, Sam, and his family from the United States also have American names.
Anita shows her limited understanding of English, when she’s confused at Sam’s remark of “something fishy” is going on after they discovered someone living in Tio Toni’s casita. Even though, Sam explained that the meaning of the expression is that “something strange is going on” Anita explains that there are a lot of fish on the compound. English idioms and expressions are difficult for second language learners; therefore, this mistake adds authenticity to the story.
Some themes in the story are strong family bonds, food, celebrations, and immigration. During the quinceañera, the young children listen to rock-and-roll and the older adults listen to cha-cha. The family supports each other in the Dominican Republic during the attempt to overthrow the dictator. Tio Toni hides out on the compound while Anita’s family keeps it a secret from the Washburn family. When Anita and her mother move to the America, they have the choice of living with her grandparents or moving in with the Garcias.
Since I’ve read novels and nonfiction books on the dictatorships in Argentina and Chile, I enjoyed reading this book. However, I did not like when the book changed styles, and I had to read the story from her diary. I realize that the author wanted to convey the chaos and uncertainty in Anita’s life; therefore, Anita’s choppy diary entries help portray her and her mother’s dire situation. This story depicts how children are not immune to the harsh conditions and cannot escape the stresses of dictatorships.
d. Review excerpts
From Publishers Weekly
In her first YA novel, Alvarez (How the Garc¡a Girls Lost Their Accents) proves as gifted at writing for adolescents as she is for adults. Here she brings her warmth, sensitivity and eye for detail to a volatile setting the Dominican Republic of her childhood, during the 1960-1961 attempt to overthrow Trujillo's dictatorship. The story opens as 12-year-old narrator Anita watches her cousins, the Garc¡a girls, abruptly leave for the U.S. with their parents; Anita's own immediate family are now the only ones occupying the extended family's compound. Alvarez relays the terrors of the Trujillo regime in a muted but unmistakable tone; for a while, Anita's parents protect her (and, by extension, readers), both from the ruler's criminal and even murderous ways and also from knowledge of their involvement in the planned coup d'‚tat. The perspective remains securely Anita's, and Alvarez's pitch-perfect narration will immerse readers in Anita's world. Her crush on the American boy next door is at first as important as knowing that the maid is almost certainly working for the secret police and spying on them; later, as Anita understands the implications of the adult remarks she overhears, her voice becomes anxious and the tension mounts. When the revolution fails, Anita's father and uncle are immediately arrested, and she and her mother go underground, living in secret in their friends' bedroom closet a sequence the author renders with palpable suspense. Alvarez conveys the hopeful ending with as much passion as suffuses the tragedies that precede it. A stirring work of art. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2002 (Vol. 70, No. 12))
A 12-year-old girl bears witness to the Dominican Revolution of 1961 in a powerful first-person narrative. The story opens as Anita's cousins (the Garcia girls of Alvarez's 1991 adult debut, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents), hurriedly pack to leave the country. This signals the end of childhood innocence for Anita. In short succession, her family finds the secret police parked in their driveway; the American consul moves in next door; and her older sister Lucinda is packed off to join her cousins in New York after she attracts the unwelcome attention of El Jefe Trujillo, the country's dictator. Anita's family, it seems, is intimately involved with the political resistance to Trujillo, and she, perforce, is drawn into the emotional maelstrom. The present-tense narrative lends the story a gripping immediacy, as Anita moves from the healthy, self-absorbed naïveté of early adolescence to a prematurely aged understanding of the world's brutality. Her entree into puberty goes hand in hand with her entree into this adult world of terror: "I don't want to be a se-orita now that I know what El Jefe does to se-oritas." According to an author's note, Alvarez (How T'a Lola Came to Visit Stay, 2001, etc.) drew upon the experiences of family members who stayed behind in the Dominican Republic during this period of political upheaval, crafting a story that, in its matter-of-fact detailing of the increasingly surreal world surrounding Anita, feels almost realer than life. The power of the narrative is weakened somewhat by the insertion of Anita's diary entries as she and her mother take shelter in the Italian Embassy after her father's arrest. The first-person, present-tense construction of the diary entries are not different enough from the main narrative to make them come alive as such; instead, the artifice draws attention to itself, creating a distraction. This is a minor quibble with a story that imagines so clearly for American readers the travails of all-too-many Latin nations then and now. 2002, Knopf, $15.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 10 to 14. © 2002 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Hazel Rochman (Booklist, Aug. 1, 2002 (Vol. 98, No. 22))What is it like for a 12-year-old girl living under a ruthless dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960? Alvarez draws on her own cousins' and friends' experiences to tell the political story through the eyes of Anita, whose father is involved in a plot to assassinate the dictator and bring democracy to the island. This doesn't have the passionate lyricism of Alvarez's great adult novels. The pace, at least for the first half of the book, is very slow, perhaps because the first-person, present-tense narrative stays true to Anita's bewildered viewpoint and is weighed down with daily detail and explanation of the political issues ("I feel just awful that my father has to kill someone for us to be free"). Yet it is Anita's innocence, her focus on the ordinary, that young readers will recognize. She's busy with school, friends, getting her period, falling in love, even as the secrets and spies come closer and, finally, the terror destroys her home. Her father is arrested; she and her mother are in hiding. There's no sensationalism, but Anita knows the horrific facts of how prisoners are tortured and killed. Trying to block out the truth, she loses her voice, even forgets the words for things, until she starts to write in a secret diary. Readers interested in the history will grab this. Like Lyll Becerra de Jenkins' The Honorable Prison (1988), about a young girl whose father resists a Latin American dictatorship, and Beverley Naidoo's The Other Side of Truth (Booklist's 2001 Top of the List winner for youth fiction), Alvarez's story will also spark intense discussion about politics and family. Category: Books for Older Readers--Fiction. 2002, Knopf, $15.95, $17.99. Gr. 7-10.
e. Connections
Students may want to read more books written by Julia Alvarez. They could visit her author website: http://www.juliaalvarez.com/books/.
If students want to read another book about a young girl that must leave her country without her father due to tragic circumstances and assimilate to the American culture, then they could read ESPERANZA RISING by Pam Munoz Ryan.
Students in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD could use the CultureGrams (www.online.culturegrams.com) website to learn more about the history and people of the Dominican Republic and The Trujillo Dictatorship.
Students could be asked to discuss if Anita was old enough to understand the political situation of her country. Students could be asked how a dictator differs from a president and could this story have taken place in another country.
a. Bibliographic data
Nelson, Annika. 1995. CANTO FAMILIAR. by Gary Soto. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company. ISBN: 0152000674
b. Plot summary
CANTO FAMILIAR is a collection of twenty-five poems which the author refers to as songs. The poems are written in first person and address the normal everyday life and thoughts of a young Latino or Latina child. Illustrations accompany some, but not all of the poems. The descriptive poems contain both visual and auditory descriptions that allow the reader to easily visual and vicariously enter the life of the Hispanic child in each poem.
c. Critical analysis
The characters’ skin tones are varying shades brown. The characters have oval eyes and different styles of hair. Young girls wear their hair long in pigtails and braids. The mothers and teacher depicted in the poems wear their straight hair cut at varying lengths above the shoulders or pulled back in a bun. The boys’ hair styles are similar: short, wavy, and parted to the side. Their hair colors are varying shades of brown.
The facial features of most of the people are content with exception of the boy washing dishes in the poem, “Doing Dishes.” The characters in the story are slim and dressed in colorful clothes. The characters’ dresses, jumpers, shirts, pants, and skirts contain solid, deep colors such as purples, pinks, reds, blues, and yellows. The settings of many of the illustrations are inside a family’s kitchen. Other places include inside the living room or outside at a picnic.
The pictures add to the poems since many themes have to do with family, food, and celebrations. Food is an important part of a Hispanic family’s life. Papi’s Menudo is about a father enjoying a nice bowl of “menudo.” Many Hispanics savor their meals as portrayed in this poem. Papi, “dips sprinkles his menudo with onion,” “tears a piece of tortilla and dips it into his menudo,” and “slurps.”
The poems, “Christmas Angel” and “Tortilla’s Like Africa” illustrate a bond between siblings. An older sister breaks off a small part of a Christmas cookie and puts it in the mouth of her six-month-old little brother in order to share a Christmas tradition with him. In “Tortilla’s Like Africa” two brothers laughed as they made imperfect tortilla’s that were tasty, but not exactly like the tortillas their mom made. A young girl eats a large, slice of watermelon in the poem, “Sandia.”
The names of the characters are Spanish kinship terms: mami, papi, bebe, abuelito are used in the poems. The terms were not overused or translated, so they added to the Hispanic authenticity of the text. Also, characters have Hispanic names such as Enrique, Senor Cisneros, and Maria. Gary Soto successfully intersperses Spanish sentences and phrases in his poems without redundancy. In the poem, “Que hora es?” the poet mixes Spanish terms within the English text, but the reader can gather their meaning based on the context clues. The question, “What time is it?” is asked in Spanish in the second and fourth stanza and in English in the fifth stanza. In this collection of poems, the Spanish language adds to the authenticity of the poems.
I enjoyed these poems. Even though I did not grow up in a Hispanic family, I could relate to some of the common childhood concerns: pets, chores, siblings, teachers and family. I remember my childhood cat, Mittens, and his kitten antics, or the iron that spit and sputtered water on my clothes. Since some of the poems do not contain any illustrations, Spanish words, or Latino character names, the narrator could be of any race.
d. Review excerpts
From School Library Journal
Grade 3 Up? Who could imagine that such joyous rhythm could be found in the familiar moments of life, such as washing dishes or spotting a teacher in the market? In this companion volume to Neighborhood Odes (Harcourt, 1992), Soto not only imagines the musical beat, but also captures the energy and tranposes it into poetic songs. Imagery abounds, as in the hot iron that "snorts like a bull." Nelson's distinctive block prints bounce off white pages with vibrant magentas and bold blues outlined with thick black lines. The result is a harmony of words and pictures to be anticipated and savored. Although the landscape may be unfamiliar, readers are guided to this Mexican-American neighborhood, welcomed inside this home, and invited to share a child's thoughts about these universal experiences. Even with Spanish words woven throughout, the messages need no special interpretation to be understood. Pair this title with Soto's picture book Too Many Tamales (Putnam, 1993) or use it as an introduction to his novels for older readers. Read it, sing it, share it.
Sarabeth Kalajian, Venice Public Library, FL
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. A companion to Soto's Neighborhood Odes (1992), this collection of simple free verse captures common childhood moments at home, at school, and in the street. Many of the experiences are Mexican American ("Spanish is seeing double" ), and occasional Spanish words are part of the easy, colloquial, short lines. The first-person voices are immediate, physical, and joyful, celebrating music, dancing, cats, friends, family. For example, it's weird and embarrassing to bump into your teacher at the supermarket. It's boring doing dishes. It's fun to eat while reading. The occasional full-page, richly colored woodcuts by Annika Nelson capture the child's imaginative take on ordinary things. This is a collection to read aloud and get kids writing about themselves. Hazel Rochman
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1995)
This humorous, tender collection of 25 poems and full-color linocuts about the daily life of Mexican-American children is a companion book to Soto's Neighborhood Odes (1992). Invoking ordinary domestic and community incidents, it's a fine introduction not only to poetry but to Chicano culture. In "Papi's Menudo," a father enjoys a favorite dish; the narrator of "Music for Fun and Profit" gets paid not to play an instrument; and "My Teacher in the Market" explores the amazement of a child upon seeing a teacher outside of class. The poems are generally descriptive rather than abstract, more concerned with communicating feelings than with literary style, and most are free verse, without regular cadence or rhyme scheme. Nelson debuts with scenes--homey, comfortable, bright--that make the book even more accessible. 1995, Harcourt Brace, $17.00. Starred Review. © 1995 Kirkus Reviews
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1995)
In this companion volume to the widely acclaimed 'Neighborhood Odes' (Harcourt), Soto continues his reveries in poems that illuminate the minutiae of everyday childhood experience. Some refer specifically to his own Mexican-American boyhood, while most describe moments that will spark recognition in any child. Accompanied by colorful illustrations, the poems are marked by short, point-blank phrasing and unrhymed vernacular. Category: Nonfiction. 1995, Harcourt, 79pp.. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.
e. Connections
I read the poem, “My Teacher in the Market” to a class of fourth graders. They could relate to seeing their teachers at Walmart, Kohls, and Big Lots and feeling embarrassed. Some of the students admitted that they were playing in the store when they saw their classroom teacher. Two girls actually admitted hiding from their teacher when they saw her at the public library. They told me that they did not know what to say to her, so they just hide and watched her. The girls’ teacher eventually spotted them from across the room and waved.
Students may want to read more books written by Gary Soto. They could visit her author website: http://www.garysoto.com/.
I would challenge students to write their own poem about a common activity, person, or event in their daily lives. The teacher could work on a poem together with the class to model the writing process and build the students’ confidence in writing poetry. After the students publish their poems, then they should illustrate their poems.
Students may also enjoy reading another books of poetry such as CONFETTI: POEMS FOR CHILDREN by Pat Mora and illustrated by Enrique O. Sanchez.
Carlson, Lori M., ed. Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the United States. Introduction by Oscar Hijuelos. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1994. ISBN: o-805-03135-9.
Soto, Gary. A Fire in My Hands: A Book of Poems. Illustrated by James M. Cardillo. New York: Scholastic, 1990. ISBN: 0-590-45021-2.
Neighborhood Odes. Illustrated by David Diaz. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1992.ISBN: 0-15-256879-4.
TOMAS AND THE LIBRARY LADY
a. Bibliographic data
Colon, Raul. 1997. TOMAS AND THE LIBRARY LADY. by Pat Mora. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN: 0-679-90401-8.
b. Brief plot summary
Tomás comes from a family of migrant workers. His grandfather told Tomas and his brother stories for years. However, one day when Tomas finished the end of the story for his grandfather, his grandfather told him it was time for him to learn some new stories to share with the family. Tomas went to the cool, comfortable library where the librarian helped him select interesting books. Tomas spent the hot days in the library drinking cool water, reading fascinating books, and letting his imagination wander.
c. Critical analysis with specific consideration of cultural markers for each book.
The scratch board illustrations show the family has the same brown skin tone. The “library lady” has a light cream color of skin in a muted tone. The boys have the same straight, brown hair that is combed and parted on the side. The grandpa has white hair and a white mustache. The mother’s hair is tied back in a bun at the nape of her neck.
The family looks happy throughout the story. Only Tomás expressions are pensive and sad as he leaves Texas in the beginning of the story and once again as he says good-bye to his friend, the Library Lady, in preparation to leave Iowa. The family’s love of storytelling and Papa Grade’s urging convinced Tomás to explore the public library and fill his mind with new stories that he could share with the family.The brothers wear shirts with collars, pants, and dressy casual shoes even when playing soccer. The story was a traditional story that portrayed a common theme in Hispanic literature: migrant workers. However, this family was not downtrodden. Even though Tomás and his family sleep on cots, drive a “tired, old car,” and look for iron and books at the city dump, his family has dignity. Those elements of the story are simply facts.
Tomás’s family values storytelling and reading. They entertain each other with stories and make the best of their situation. Tomás’s mother sews her sons a soccer ball from an old teddy bear. The teddy bear soccer ball helps make the story authentic to me. Many Latino boys love soccer and will play with any material of soccer ball as long as it rolls. As a child, my Argentine husband used to play with soccer balls made of old T-shirts held together with duct tape or taped balls of paper.
The setting takes place in both an urban and rural contexts. The family lived and worked on the farmland and drove on both country dirt roads and city roads as they traveled between Texas and Iowa. Tomás also went to the plain library and to the city dump with his family to look for books. The family’s mode of transportation was a “rusty car.” After looking at some old cars on the Internet, the car in the story looked like it was from the 1940s.
Spanish is mixed into the text. Terms of kinship such as the names of characters: Papa, mama, papa grande add a Hispanic flavor to the text. Both of the boys have Hispanic names: Tomas and Enrique. Tomás taught the Library Lady words in Spanish: libro, pájaro, and adios, and he would teach her words in English.
I thought it was usual that the librarian did not have a name. Since Tomás spent so much time in the library, I am sure he would have learned her name. Perhaps, the author wanted to downplay the importance of the librarian in order to avoid the “Anglo-savior” stereotypical theme. The librarian was simply called the “library lady.” When it was time to say good-bye, Tomás gave the library lady a gift of pan dulce.
After looking at different cars from that decade. I would place this store around the 1940s. Therefore I thought it was strange that the children only brought water to their parents working in the field. In the 1940s, the children from farms or low socioeconomic positions usually helped their parents by working alongside them in the field.
I thought this story was culturally authentic. The Spanish words, food, and actions of the characters (teddy bear soccer ball) prevent an illustrator from simply changing the race of the characters. Even though the theme of migrant workers is a common one, this story portrayed a strong, happy family of humble, honorable migrant workers. I liked that the family valued literacy and made the best of their situation. They did not have much money, but being poor did not define this family.
d. Review excerpts
From School Library JournalGrade 2-4? Tomas Rivera, who at his death in 1984 was the Chancellor of the University of California at Riverside, grew up in a migrant family. Here, Mora tells the fictionalized story of one summer in his childhood during which his love of books and reading is fostered by a librarian in Iowa, who takes him under her wing while his family works the harvest. She introduces him to stories about dinosaurs, horses, and American Indians and allows him to take books home where he shares them with his parents, grandfather, and brother. When it is time for the family to return to Texas, she gives Tomas the greatest gift of all?a book of his own to keep. Colon's earthy, sun-warmed colors, textured with swirling lines, add life to this biographical fragment and help portray Tomas's reading adventures in appealing ways. Stack this up with Sarah Stewart and David Small's The Library (Farrar, 1995) and Suzanne Williams and Steven Kellogg's Library Lil (Dial, 1997) to demonstrate the impact librarians can have on youngsters.?Barbara Elleman, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WICopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
e. Connections
Both the classroom teachers and I have encouraged the third, fourth, and fifth graders to visual the story as the read. Consequently, some students in a third grade class were eager to point out that Tomas was visualizing the stories as he read them since the illustrations showed Tomas seeing tigers and Native Americans.
Students may want to read more books written by Pat Mora. They could visit her author website: http://www.patmora.com/.
Students can read about a young African American boy’s struggle to borrow books from the library at a time it was illegal for him to check out books.
RICHARD WRIGHT AND THE LIBRARY CARD
by William Miller.
If students want to read a humorous book about a town that would rather watch TV instead of check out library books, then students can read LIBRARY LIL by Suzanne Williams.
Students may want to read more books about migrant workers.
FIRST DAY IN GRAPES / by L. King Perez ; illustrated by Robert Casilla.
LIGHTS ON A RIVER / Jane Resh Thomas ; illustrated by Michael Dooling.
Durbin, William. THE JOURNAL OF C.J. JACKSON : A DUST BOWL MIGRANT
Holyfield, John. THE HARD TIMES JAR. by Ethel Footman Smothers
Diaz, David. GOING HOME. by Eve Bunting.
Altman, Linda Jacobs. MIGRANT FARM WORKERS:THE TEMPORARY PEOPLE / Linda Jacobs
Diaz, David. CESAR: SI, SE PUEDE! = YES, WE CAN! by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand.
Altman, Linda Jacobs. Amelia's Road. Illustrated by Enrique Sanchez. New York: Lee and Low Books, 1993. ISBN: 1-880000-04-0. 29 p. Grade K-2.
de Ruiz, Dana Catharine, and Richard Larios. La Causa: The Migrant Farmworkers' Story. Illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez. Stories of America, Alex Haley, general editor. Austin: Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 1993. ISBN: 0-8114-7231-0. 92 p. Grade 3-5.
Students can use the Britannica Online School Edition database to research Migrant Workers.
http://school.eb.com/elementary/article?articleId=353253&query=migrant%20workers&ct=
BEFORE WE WERE FREE
a. Bibliographic data
Alvarez, Julia. 2002. BEFORE WE WERE FREE. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN: 0375915443.
b. Brief plot summary
Anita’s extended family members leave the family compound in the Dominican Republic to move to the United States. Anita later learns that her relatives left for their own safety. The Trujillo's dictatorship suppresses the freedoms of her family until an American embassy employee and his family comes to live with Anita’s family at the compound. Anita and her mother are the last members of her family to leave their country after her father and uncle’s failed attempt to overthrow the dictatorship.
c. Critical analysis
The only illustrations are the black and white cover of the book and two maps at the front of the book. The photograph of the front cover shows a young girl with long, straight hair looking out the screen of an open window of a simple cement house. The young girl has a sad, frustrated expression on her face and is resting her head in one hand. The girl had light colored skin in contrast with the blackness inside the house, but it is impossible to know the color of her skin since the photograph was taken in black and white.
One map at the being of the story show Anita’s family compound with a description of which family members lived in each house. Another map shows the Mancinis’s house with a description of each room. The reader is able to see the closet Anita and her mom lived in and the bathroom window from which they used to spy on their friends.
Even though Anita’s family lives on a large family compound, they are not wealthy. Her parents do not have money to send her sister, Lucinda, to the doctor when she has a bad rash on her neck. Anita wears Lucinda’s clothes to her quinceañera. The family does use a car to drive around town.
From the beginning of the story Spanish kinship terms such as tia, tio, papi, and mami are used. Spanish words are mixed throughout the novel. The dictator is referred to as El Jefe and the SIM are the “policía secreta.” The native Dominicans have Spanish names while the American children in the school have American names. Anita’s first crush, Sam, and his family from the United States also have American names.
Anita shows her limited understanding of English, when she’s confused at Sam’s remark of “something fishy” is going on after they discovered someone living in Tio Toni’s casita. Even though, Sam explained that the meaning of the expression is that “something strange is going on” Anita explains that there are a lot of fish on the compound. English idioms and expressions are difficult for second language learners; therefore, this mistake adds authenticity to the story.
Some themes in the story are strong family bonds, food, celebrations, and immigration. During the quinceañera, the young children listen to rock-and-roll and the older adults listen to cha-cha. The family supports each other in the Dominican Republic during the attempt to overthrow the dictator. Tio Toni hides out on the compound while Anita’s family keeps it a secret from the Washburn family. When Anita and her mother move to the America, they have the choice of living with her grandparents or moving in with the Garcias.
Since I’ve read novels and nonfiction books on the dictatorships in Argentina and Chile, I enjoyed reading this book. However, I did not like when the book changed styles, and I had to read the story from her diary. I realize that the author wanted to convey the chaos and uncertainty in Anita’s life; therefore, Anita’s choppy diary entries help portray her and her mother’s dire situation. This story depicts how children are not immune to the harsh conditions and cannot escape the stresses of dictatorships.
d. Review excerpts
From Publishers Weekly
In her first YA novel, Alvarez (How the Garc¡a Girls Lost Their Accents) proves as gifted at writing for adolescents as she is for adults. Here she brings her warmth, sensitivity and eye for detail to a volatile setting the Dominican Republic of her childhood, during the 1960-1961 attempt to overthrow Trujillo's dictatorship. The story opens as 12-year-old narrator Anita watches her cousins, the Garc¡a girls, abruptly leave for the U.S. with their parents; Anita's own immediate family are now the only ones occupying the extended family's compound. Alvarez relays the terrors of the Trujillo regime in a muted but unmistakable tone; for a while, Anita's parents protect her (and, by extension, readers), both from the ruler's criminal and even murderous ways and also from knowledge of their involvement in the planned coup d'‚tat. The perspective remains securely Anita's, and Alvarez's pitch-perfect narration will immerse readers in Anita's world. Her crush on the American boy next door is at first as important as knowing that the maid is almost certainly working for the secret police and spying on them; later, as Anita understands the implications of the adult remarks she overhears, her voice becomes anxious and the tension mounts. When the revolution fails, Anita's father and uncle are immediately arrested, and she and her mother go underground, living in secret in their friends' bedroom closet a sequence the author renders with palpable suspense. Alvarez conveys the hopeful ending with as much passion as suffuses the tragedies that precede it. A stirring work of art. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2002 (Vol. 70, No. 12))
A 12-year-old girl bears witness to the Dominican Revolution of 1961 in a powerful first-person narrative. The story opens as Anita's cousins (the Garcia girls of Alvarez's 1991 adult debut, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents), hurriedly pack to leave the country. This signals the end of childhood innocence for Anita. In short succession, her family finds the secret police parked in their driveway; the American consul moves in next door; and her older sister Lucinda is packed off to join her cousins in New York after she attracts the unwelcome attention of El Jefe Trujillo, the country's dictator. Anita's family, it seems, is intimately involved with the political resistance to Trujillo, and she, perforce, is drawn into the emotional maelstrom. The present-tense narrative lends the story a gripping immediacy, as Anita moves from the healthy, self-absorbed naïveté of early adolescence to a prematurely aged understanding of the world's brutality. Her entree into puberty goes hand in hand with her entree into this adult world of terror: "I don't want to be a se-orita now that I know what El Jefe does to se-oritas." According to an author's note, Alvarez (How T'a Lola Came to Visit Stay, 2001, etc.) drew upon the experiences of family members who stayed behind in the Dominican Republic during this period of political upheaval, crafting a story that, in its matter-of-fact detailing of the increasingly surreal world surrounding Anita, feels almost realer than life. The power of the narrative is weakened somewhat by the insertion of Anita's diary entries as she and her mother take shelter in the Italian Embassy after her father's arrest. The first-person, present-tense construction of the diary entries are not different enough from the main narrative to make them come alive as such; instead, the artifice draws attention to itself, creating a distraction. This is a minor quibble with a story that imagines so clearly for American readers the travails of all-too-many Latin nations then and now. 2002, Knopf, $15.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 10 to 14. © 2002 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Hazel Rochman (Booklist, Aug. 1, 2002 (Vol. 98, No. 22))What is it like for a 12-year-old girl living under a ruthless dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960? Alvarez draws on her own cousins' and friends' experiences to tell the political story through the eyes of Anita, whose father is involved in a plot to assassinate the dictator and bring democracy to the island. This doesn't have the passionate lyricism of Alvarez's great adult novels. The pace, at least for the first half of the book, is very slow, perhaps because the first-person, present-tense narrative stays true to Anita's bewildered viewpoint and is weighed down with daily detail and explanation of the political issues ("I feel just awful that my father has to kill someone for us to be free"). Yet it is Anita's innocence, her focus on the ordinary, that young readers will recognize. She's busy with school, friends, getting her period, falling in love, even as the secrets and spies come closer and, finally, the terror destroys her home. Her father is arrested; she and her mother are in hiding. There's no sensationalism, but Anita knows the horrific facts of how prisoners are tortured and killed. Trying to block out the truth, she loses her voice, even forgets the words for things, until she starts to write in a secret diary. Readers interested in the history will grab this. Like Lyll Becerra de Jenkins' The Honorable Prison (1988), about a young girl whose father resists a Latin American dictatorship, and Beverley Naidoo's The Other Side of Truth (Booklist's 2001 Top of the List winner for youth fiction), Alvarez's story will also spark intense discussion about politics and family. Category: Books for Older Readers--Fiction. 2002, Knopf, $15.95, $17.99. Gr. 7-10.
e. Connections
Students may want to read more books written by Julia Alvarez. They could visit her author website: http://www.juliaalvarez.com/books/.
If students want to read another book about a young girl that must leave her country without her father due to tragic circumstances and assimilate to the American culture, then they could read ESPERANZA RISING by Pam Munoz Ryan.
Students in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD could use the CultureGrams (www.online.culturegrams.com) website to learn more about the history and people of the Dominican Republic and The Trujillo Dictatorship.
Students could be asked to discuss if Anita was old enough to understand the political situation of her country. Students could be asked how a dictator differs from a president and could this story have taken place in another country.
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