Whoever You Are
Fox, M. (1997). Whoever you are. New York, NY: Harcourt Inc.Library Programming Promotion for SLIS 5340
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Module 15: Go Ask Alice
Book Summary
This book is based on a collection of diary entries written by an anonymous teen drug addict. It begins with "anonymous" attending a party and drinking a soda which is -unknown to her- laced with LSD. She quickly becomes an addict and her life spins out of control. She runs away from home at least twice, participates in risky behaviors, and even ends up in an institution.APA Reference
Go ask Alice. (1971). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.Impressions
Having never been in the presence of someone on drugs, there was a lot of new information and insight for me in this book. It is shocking that teens can be turned on to drugs so unintentionally. Although this book is reportedly based on true events taken from an individual's diary, much of it feels fictionalized to me. (The copyright material even includes the phrase "This book is a work of fiction"). Some of "anonymous's" thoughts seem very unintelligent, unrealistic, and immature for her age. For example, at one point she is sure she is in love with a guy and he is in love with her, yet he only wants to see her once a week and she doesn't suspect anything strange about this... I found myself asking "how stupid can you be?"The anonymous writer depicts her experiences with drugs as both wonderful and frighteningly horrible. With this in mind, hopefully impressionable young readers are more disgusted by the events in this book than intrigued or made to be curious by them. Although insightful, I did not enjoy this book at all. It is very sad and quite depressing. I would much rather read something fun and uplifting.
Professional Review
Alice is your typical teenaged girl. She worries that she is too fat. She wants a boyfriend: "I wish I were popular and beautiful and wealthy and talented." She frequently makes resolutions in her diary to do better in school, work toward a calmer relationship with her mother, and lose weight. Her life changes when she goes to a party and is given acid in her drink. She loves the feeling the drug gives her: "Closed my eyes and the music began to absorb me physically. I could smell it and touch it and feel it as well as hear it." She wants more and quickly becomes a part of the drug scene. For about a year and a half Alice goes on and off drugs and runs away from home twice. Each time she manages to find her way back to her parents. They take her in, get her help, and all seems to be rosy until Alice is once again given acid without her knowledge. This time, she has a bad trip, ends up in the hospital, and then a mental hospital. Her parents stick by her, but her life of drug abuse ultimately ends with a fatal overdose—whether it is intentional or accidental is not known. Go Ask Alice has become a classic story of warning against the use of drugs. For the teen scene of 2006, this story will appear as slightly dated. The issues of relationships both in and out of school have not changed much in the last thirty years, but there are subtle differences in the culture that may prove distracting for a young person reading this book today. The basic story remains a chilling cautionary tale. 2005 (orig. 1971), Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster, , and Ages 14 to 18.
Smith-D'Arezzo, W. (n.d.). [Review of the book Go ask Alice -Anonymous]. Children's Literature. Retrieved from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/go-ask-alice-anonymous/1100300729#product-commentary-editorial-review-1.
Library Use
Have students choose a character from the book who was impacted by the main character's actions (one of her parents, grandparents, or siblings). Write a one-page diary entry from that person's point of view.Book cover image from: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46799.Go_Ask_Alice.
Module 14: The Llama Who Had No Pajama
Book Summary
This is a collection of 100 poems covering an assortment of topics such as animals, insects, children, and seasons. Fun rhyming and word-play in an assortment of short and long poems.APA Reference
Hoberman, M. (1998). The llama who had no pajama. New York, NY: Browndeer Press, Harcourt Brace and Company.Impressions
I think this is a poetry book that most kids would enjoy. The topics of the poems are all things that seem to be of interest to kids (animals, bugs, rainbows/weather, seasons, growing, etc...). The majority of the poems using rhyming and a variety of short and long poems are included. The illustrations are bright and cheerful. Most of all, I think that children would enjoy the poems in this book because they are pretty straight forward and fun to read. It's an enjoyable collection to read without all the figurative language and "hidden meanings" that are often present in poetry.Professional Reviews
Mary Ann Hoberman has charmed us for years with her singable, readable, factual, fantastical poems. Now we have a collection of 100 of her favorite poems in The Llama Who Had No Pajama, stylishly illustrated by Betty Fraser. Whether writing about animals or insects, e.g. "O Mrs. Mosquito, quit biting me please! I'm happy my blood type with your type agrees..." or about the human condition as in "Changing"--I know what I feel like; / I'd like to be you/ And feel what you feel like/ And do what you do..." or chanting an ode to the letter O--"O is open/ O is round/ O's a circle/ O's a sound..." her musicality sparkles. What fun she has with the sound "bit" in "A rabbit/ bit/ A little bit/ An itty-bitty/ Little bit of beet. /Then bit/ By bit. / Because he liked the taste of it..." 1999, Browndeer Press/Harcourt, Ages 4 to 8, $20.00.Lieberman, J. (n.d.). [Review of the book The llama who had no pajama by Mary Ann Hoberman]. Children's Literature. Retrieved from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/llama-who-had-no-pajama-mary-ann-hoberman/1102303750#product-commentary-editorial-review-1.
K-Gr 4Hoberman's poems, accompanied by Fraser's illustrations, have been delighting children for 40 years. Now, many poems from their out-of-print books are available in this satisfying collection. The selections are mostly humorous, sometimes contemplative, and deal with animals, family, play, and plain silliness. Hoberman's rhythms are lively and agile, and her imagination and sense of humor are still in tune with young readers. Fraser's simple but detailed gouache and watercolor illustrations exhibit the same qualities. The layout is masterfully varied and never overwhelms the poems. There is a table of contents as well as an index of first lines. Good for beginning or experienced readers of poetry, this should indeed become a favorite.
Lindsay, N. (n.d.). [Review of the book The llama who had no pajama by Mary Ann Hoberman]. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/llama-who-had-no-pajama-mary-ann-hoberman/1102303750#product-commentary-editorial-review-1.
Library Use:
Design a bookmark with a short poem from this book on it. Make several different bookmark designs, each with a poem from a different poetry book. Print out the bookmarks on sturdy, bright colored paper and give them to students when they check out poetry books. Display this book during poetry week.Book cover image from: http://www.maryannhoberman.com/books/theLlamaWho.html.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Module 13: Wonderstruck
Book Summary
Ben, a deaf child, has recently lost his mother in an accident. He discovers clues to his past among his mother's belongings and runs away from home in search of his father (whom he's never met). Rose, also a deaf child, is lonely and unhappy at home so she runs away to see her mother who is a famous actress. Their two stories take place 50 years apart but unfold and connect through a series of coincidental events.APA Reference
Selznick, B. (2011). Wonderstruck. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.Impressions
This was a quick and easy read despite its size (most of the pages are illustrations). It's definitely an intriguing story to begin with. There are two separate stories unfolding -one through words and the other through pictures- and it's definitely engaging for the reader to try to figure out how they are connected. Although, about half way through I started to figure it out and it then became very predictable. I think many children would enjoy the book, it's presented in a unique way, the main characters are deaf (which may be interesting and different for some to read about), and it deals with running away (something many children think about at some point). Adults, as I previously stated, may find it predictable. The events seem to unfold a little too coincidentally, but it's still an enjoyable read. The illustrations are captivating and mysterious.Professional Review
Sequels and seconds-in-a-series are as often as not better than the starter volume, and yet it seems incumbent upon us all to doubt them anyway. “Through the Looking Glass” is an incomparably better book than its predecessor — its chess-problem structure more ingenious; its nonsense poems far more inspired — but we still say “Alice in Wonderland” and always shall when we refer to Carroll’s world. Freshness of vision is in all departments of life an aesthetic category not to be sneezed at.
All of which is a necessarily elaborate way of saying that Brian Selznick’s new book, “Wonderstruck” — engrossing, intelligent, beautifully engineered and expertly told both in word and image — cannot entirely escape the force field or expectations set up by his 2008 Caldecott winner, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.” “Hugo Cabret” was one of those rare books — Chris Van Allsburg’s tale “The Polar Express” is the last that comes to mind — that strike imaginations small and large with a force, like, well, thunder. Neither graphic novel nor illustrated book, its composite of storytelling forms seemed derived from the storyboards of some lost Czech genius of the silent film era rather than anything evident in other books. (Martin Scorsese has adapted it into a film to be released this fall.)
Though not a sequel of matter, “Wonderstruck” is very much a sequel of method, and a test of it. Can Selznick’s black-and-white chiaroscuro spell-making be transported or extended beyond the European fin de siècle setting that seemed essential in its first appearance?
The material for this new book is, it seems, very deliberately wrenched at once into an entirely new and more American landscape. Ben, an adolescent boy growing up in “Gunflint Lake,” Minn., in the 1970s has lost his loving mother in a car accident — his true father is unknown to him — and a second disaster (telephone, lightning) soon costs him his ability to hear. An obscure series of clues suggests that his father may live in New York, and Ben sets out in search of him. In the midst of the subdued narration of this sad story we are suddenly — with masterly abruptness, and a complete absence of explanation — thrown into a second tale, told entirely in black and white panels and far more melodramatically conveyed, of an unnamed deaf girl who in the 1920s runs away from her Hoboken home in search of a Broadway star. In a New York made more hallucinatory by its silence, she discovers the actress, and we are given a startling revelation about her identity. Then the two stories, Ben’s flight to the city and the as-yet-unnamed girl’s flight to safety 50 years earlier, slowly entangle and become one, and the mysteries of the two flights (his toward his father, hers toward him) resolve beautifully on the night of the New York City blackout in 1977 (which exists here, rather against the grain of history, as a peaceful, not to say pastoral, occasion). Throughout, Selznick’s eye for the details of New York’s enchanted places — the dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History, Times Square in the 1920s and the too easily forgotten marvel of the City Panorama at the Queens Museum of Art — are pitch, or rather picture, perfect.
There is so much to like and admire that the reader reluctantly confesses to what our children’s teachers call, delicately, “some problems” with the story. The hero, Ben, seems rather routinely imagined: one of those isolated Fine Boys with a Disability who are the default heroes of too many children’s books. The heroes and heroines of imaginative literature need not be tragically flawed, but they ought to be tarter, more capable of imperfection, than this. Even Ben’s deafness seems oddly un-disabling. He manages the flight to New York, and then secrets himself into the Museum of Natural History with suspiciously little difficulty. The practicalities of his circumstances in New York are hard to imagine credibly, even on the somewhat dreamlike terms in which they are offered. That a deaf boy would run all the way to New York is the necessary premise — but surely his sleeping and sanitary arrangements could be explained with more clarity than Selznick provides. Selznick’s style is so silent that it seems logical that it take in the mute world. But the concern with the deaf “issues” that fill the book, though in one way “appropriate” as those same teachers would say, feels at times too appropriate — uncomfortably pious, a medicinal outgrowth of the fable rather than essential to its magic.
Yet whenever such doubts arise they are overcome, overwhelmed even, by the purity of Selznick’s imagination. The moment, for instance, when the heroine is rescued by an at first enigmatic museum worker named Walter — yields an almost unbearable tenderness.
In a long, gracious afterword, Selznick cites “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” among his sources and models, and promises references to that earlier classic about children fleeing to a New York museum buried throughout his book. (We’re looking.) Though a lovely tribute, the juxtaposition of this book and that one is arresting, and instructive. Where that ’60s classic, like so many of its kind and time, was lightly satirical and assumed an easy passage between the material of children’s literature and that of grown-up affairs, books of equivalent ambition and point a half-century later are more purposefully enigmatic and drawn above all to sites of silent mystery like the Natural History museum, not only as it appears at night (as in the movies), but as it was in the past. Konigsburg’s children, hiding in the Met, were practical people with practical problems, and the mystery that entices them is resolved, even debunked a little, at the end. They were being educated in the realities of life.
For Selznick, as for Van Allsburg, or for that matter, Kate DiCamillo, the beauty of strangeness, more than its management, is the purpose of storytelling, and though some of their questions are answered, their mysteries remain intact. Selznick’s gift is for the uncanny and the haunting, and his subject is not only the strange poetry of ordinary things but the poetry of things from another time: train stations, frozen museum dioramas and old bookstores. Small bells ring at midnight, and mute protagonists embrace in darkness.
So, while the ostensible moral of “Wonderstruck” is the entanglement of people, its real lesson is about memory. Beyond its honorable message about the dignity of deafness, it teaches a respect for the past and for the power of memory to make minds. In an age when mass entertainment inclines children toward movement and energy, and screens accustom their eyes to the sparkle of pixilated light, one of the tasks books have taken on is to teach them, and us, to value stillness. Mere nostalgia, maybe? Well, what is nostalgia, save the vernacular of memory, and so the place where reading starts?
Library Uses
This book incorporates several ways of telling a story without the use of words; through illustration, sign language, and silent film. This would be fun to incorporate into a larger unit on storytelling. Students could work as groups to tell a story without using words/sound; they could act it out, tell a story through pictures or sign language, or even create a silent film.Book cover image from: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/reviews-wonderstruck.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Module 12: Fabulous! A Portrait of Andy Warhol
Summary
A biography introducing children to pop art icon Andy Warhol. The book tells of Andy growing up in Pittsburgh. He was often sick as a child and spent a lot of time reading comic books and drawing pictures. He studied art in college and then moved to New York where he got his first job illustrating for a magazine. He was an eccentric man who wore sloppy clothes and a white wig. Andy became famous when he started painting everyday objects, such as a Campbell's soup can. Includes a timeline of Warhol's life.APA Reference
Christensen, B. (2011). Fabulous! A portrait of Andy Warhol. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.Impressions
I think this is a nice introduction to Warhol; appropriately written for the intended age group. It explains Warhol's difficulties as a child; growing up poor, overcoming illness, being bullied, and losing his father at an early age. Children with similar adversities may identify with the story and be encouraged by Warhol's success despite his hardships. The author mentions Warhol's eccentricities as well as his fame. The book includes an end note from the author revealing little known facts about Warhol: he helped the homeless, went to church regularly, lives with his mother most of his life, and possible had dyslexia or Asperger's syndrome. I like the illustrations, but it would have been nice to have reproductions of Warhol's art in the book. The timeline at the end of the book includes the 1968 shooting of Warhol by a deranged women. I'm glad the author included this in the book without making it a focal point within the story. It's an important fact of Warhol's life, but details of the event are not necessary considering the intended age group.
Professional Review
The “fabulous” life of Andy Warhol is made accessible and understandable via this child-friendly look at the life and career of one of America’s most recognizable painters.
Shy, sickly Andy spent many lonely hours resting in bed. Warhol’s mother understood his uniqueness, and instead of forcing him to attend school, stand up to bullies or play sports, she unfailingly nurtured his talents and accepted and supported his interests. Andy attended art classes at the Carnegie Museum art school in Pittsburgh and was encouraged by teachers who also recognized his promise. Comics, movie magazines, glamorous superstars and luminous icons from his Eastern Orthodox parish church fueled his imagination. Christensen effectively re-imagines Warhol’s unmistakable style for 21st-century kids while offering a developmentally appropriate take on Warhol’s life. She focuses on his early graphic work and the exciting, transformative era of Pop Art. She conveys the explosive impact of his Campbell’s soup cans and Marilyn as she discretely limns the early activities of “The Factory.”
Though readers will need to consult the backmatter for the details of the more complex and tumultuous years from the mid-’60s to his death in 1987, they will find this a vital and exciting child-appropriate introduction to an American icon. (Picture book/biography. 6-9)
Shy, sickly Andy spent many lonely hours resting in bed. Warhol’s mother understood his uniqueness, and instead of forcing him to attend school, stand up to bullies or play sports, she unfailingly nurtured his talents and accepted and supported his interests. Andy attended art classes at the Carnegie Museum art school in Pittsburgh and was encouraged by teachers who also recognized his promise. Comics, movie magazines, glamorous superstars and luminous icons from his Eastern Orthodox parish church fueled his imagination. Christensen effectively re-imagines Warhol’s unmistakable style for 21st-century kids while offering a developmentally appropriate take on Warhol’s life. She focuses on his early graphic work and the exciting, transformative era of Pop Art. She conveys the explosive impact of his Campbell’s soup cans and Marilyn as she discretely limns the early activities of “The Factory.”
Though readers will need to consult the backmatter for the details of the more complex and tumultuous years from the mid-’60s to his death in 1987, they will find this a vital and exciting child-appropriate introduction to an American icon. (Picture book/biography. 6-9)
Library Use
Have students write down three facts they learned about Andy Warhol from this book, and then find 2 more facts through other sources. Through collaboration with the art teacher students can create paintings of everyday objects using the same pop-art style as Warhol. Display the art projects and research results together.Book cover image from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9921696-fabulous.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Module 11: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
Summary
A nonfiction picture book that describes the ways in which different animals use parts of their body (eyes, ears, noses, tails, feet, and mouths). The book has an engaging question and answer format and lots of new animal facts for children to discover. There is a supplemental information section at the end of the book that provides additional information about all the animals in the book such as their size, where they live, and what they eat. Includes beautiful Caldecott Honor illustrations.APA Reference
Jenkins, S. & Page, R. (2003). What do you do with a tail like this? New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.
Impressions
I think this is a fantastic nonfiction picture book for early grades! It has everything young children like in a book; animals, repetitive text, fun facts, engaging questions, and creative illustrations. I like that the book includes different animals than we're accustomed to seeing in children's books - you can only take so much of dogs and bears! The book includes different animals, but nothing so exotic that children are unable to pronounce the names. I also like the fact that the author did not limit himself to one animal kingdom, but included all kinds of creatures; mammals, insects, birds, fish, etc... The paper collages of creatures such as a mole, scorpion, eagle, humpback whale, and chimpanzee pop against the white background.Professional Review
Not only does Jenkins (Life on Earth, 2002, etc.) again display a genius for creating paper-collage wildlife portraits with astonishingly realistic skin, fur, and feathers, but here on alternate spreads he zooms in for equally lifelike close-ups of ears, eyes, noses, mouths, feet, and tails. Five examples of each organ thrusting in from beyond the pages' edges for each "What do you do" question precede spreads in which the point of view pulls back to show the whole animal, with a short accompanying caption. Visual surprises abound: a field cricket's ears are actually on its legs; a horned lizard can (and does, here) squirt blood from its eyes as a defense mechanism; in an ingenious use of page design, a five-lined skink's breakable tail enters and leaves the center gutter at different points. Capped by a systematic appendix furnishing more, and often arresting, details-"A humpback whale can be 50 feet long and weigh a ton per foot"-this array of wide eyes and open mouths will definitely have viewers responding with wide eyes and open mouths of their own. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-9)What do you do with a tail like this? by Steve Jenkins. [Review of the book What do you do with a tail like this? by Steve Jenkins]. (2003, January 15,). Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=749f3dc05fc82d6f62757c2167c2d5b6.
Library Uses
Create Venn Diagrams using animals from the book. Using a globe or map, locate the places on earth where each animal from the book lives.
Book cover image from: http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecotthonors/2004caldecottmedalhonors
Module 10: Boxes for Katje
Summary
WWII has just ended and Katje's family, like all their Dutch neighbors, must go without things such as soap and sugar. Rosie, a girl from America, puts together a shoebox full of things to send to a child in Holland. Katje receives the box from Rosie and sends a thank-you letter. Rosie continues to send bigger and bigger boxes and the two girls exchange several letters. Katje wants to return the kindness so she sends Rosie tulip bulbs from Holland.APA Reference
Fleming, C. (2003). Boxes for Katje. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Impressions
A delightful story of kindness! Fleming tells the story of shoebox gifts, facilitated by the Children's Aid Society in the 1940's, through the eyes of children. The story unfolds, in part, through letters between Katje and Rosie which adds interest and keeps the emphasis on a child's point of view. You get a sense of how much the Dutch people were missing basic necessities by their excitement over the boxes that keep arriving. The focus of the story is on the people and their needs, as well as the kindness of others. The illustrations are colorful and lively, and portray a feeling of happiness. My concern is that the book may be above level for some of the intended audience (K-3). Although kindergartners and 1st graders would enjoy the story, I think they would need a lot of additional information in order to fully understand and appreciate the story such as information about WWII and events leading up to the time the book takes place, as well as a description of the setting (time and place in the world).Professional Review
Katje and her family struggle to make due with substitutions for essentials like soap and sugar in Holland, post-WWII. One day, Postman Kleinhoonte unexpectedly delivers a small box from America addressed to Katje; it contains a bar of soap, a pair of wool socks, and some chocolate. A letter from Rosie is also in the box expressing her wish that “these gifts brighten your day.” A pen-pal exchange begins with Katje’s thank-you letter and gradually develops into an American small-town effort to donate basics to their European counterpart over the course of a year. Katje’s neighbors reciprocate with a box of tulip bulbs after conditions improve in the war-torn country. Fleming reveals Katje’s character of leadership, resolve, and gratitude through her written communiqués and Rosie’s initiative and inspiration through her active promotion of the charitable effort. Dressen-McQueen captures the flavor and essence of Fleming’s 1945 family experience through her detailed mixed-media paintings delineating fabric patterns, hairdos, emotions, and the general lifestyle of both communities. As heartwarming and uplifting as a bouquet of tulips. (Picture book. 4-7)
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