The Literacy Cafe
This exciting blog is dedicated to reviewing children's and young adult literature for teachers, librarians, students, and parents! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” ― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Blizzard
Bibliography:
Murphy, Jim. Blizzard! the Storm That Changed America. New York: Scholastic, 2000. Print.
Plot Summary:
This nonfictional story written by Jim Murphy begins on March 12, 1888. This is a story about how many states from Virgina to Maine experienced the worst blizzard for three days and nights of harsh winds and snow.Thousands of people were trapped at home and work and many people died as they tried to survive the storm that changed America. There was more than 40 to 50 inches of snow. Winds broke powerlines, and blocked buildings. Transportation was shut down and many cities became ghost town. Many trains were derailed during this storm.This natural disaster was the worst storm of its time. The book shows how prices went up and it documents through newspaper articles, illustrations, and memoirs from business owners.
Critical Analysis:
This book is well written. The descriptions leading to the storm are very detailed. As you read the story you are drawn in instantly as you begin to anticipate what will occur to hundreds of people.The narrative is told through the eyes of the survivors and victims. Life was changed forever because of this storm. The National Weather Service was formed and weather forecasting was no longer the job for the Army. Weather forecasting became monitored for 24 hours and there were no days off which may have helped some of the people prepare for the storm. Power lines were now placed underground instead of up in the air and many cities now had to create an emergency plan. The book has many illustrations and captions about the events that took place.
Reviews:
Kirkus Review
In the same format as his Newberry Honor title "The Great Fire(1995), Murphy brings the blizzard of 1888 to life. He shows how military weather monitoring practices, housing and employment conditions and politics regarding waste management, transportation monopolies and utilities regulation, all contributed to- and were subsequently affected by-the disaster.
Connections:
1. Students can read the informatioon about one person's experience during the blizzard. Have the students write what the person was doing before the blizzard.
2. Students can create a timeline of events of the historic events.
3. Listen to the audio version and compare it to the written text.
4. Choose several illustrations from the story and retell it and write an expository poem.
Heart and Soul
Bibliography:
Nelson, Kadir, and Martha Rago. Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans. New York: Balzer + Bray, 2011. Print
Plot Summary:
This Coretta Scott King Honor and Winner Book is an incredible book of hope, courage, and determination of the human spirit.Nelson tells the struggle of African-Americans in America through a fictional narrator. This story details in chapters showing how African-Americans worked hard and endured discrimination, hardships , but managed in some instances to triumph in wicked and evil injustices that were in place only to keep them in an inferior position. Heart and Soul begins with a prologue in which the narrator admits she is ashamed of her past of being a slave. The narrator goes on to tell the story of slavery,abolition,reconstruction,westward expansion, the great migration and ends with an epilogue in which the narrator describes participating by walking her 100 yr old legs in an election in which Barack Obama, the first time an African -American, won the Democratic nomination for president of the yet to be United States of America.
Critical Analysis:
Heart and Soul is wonderfully written book and it looks like a picture book but this nonfiction book is so much more. It has wonderfully illustrated pictures that show the emotion on the faces of the men, women, and children who are depicted in the narrator's memoryThe illustrations are so detailed with the rich brown hues that it causes you to try to read their expression to self- reflect how you would feel if it were you living during this time period.I read the book with pride and came away feeling inspired about the accomplishments that were made in spite of all of the broken promises and vile behavior of so many people who felt that African-americans were nothing. This book will have you cheering with emotion and angered with feelings of pain for the victims who suffered at the hands of many selfish evil people. Slavery was ugly and so was the Jim Crow years that came after it and lasted for many years.
Review Excerpts:
Kirkus Review
In an undertaking even more ambitious than the multiple-award winning We are the Ship(2008), Nelson tells the story of African -Americans and their often central place in American history.
Connections:
1. This book can be used to discuss modern discrimination against other groups of people in the world today. Students can study other cultures such as the Chinese, Irish, and Latino or Afro-latino groups.
2. Students can study geography of the journey and the different countries in Africa who participated in the slave trade.
Lincoln Tells a joke: How Laughter saved the President(and the country)
Krull, Kathleen, Paul Brewer, and Stacy Innerst. Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country). Boston [Mass.: Harcourt Children's /Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. Print.
Plot Summary
The biography begins by telling all the reasons why Lincoln was sad growing up. He had a rough childhood and grew up very poor. However Lincoln loved to make fun of himself and read jokes to his family and friends. His story is told in sequence and details his life but it uses humor to describe how Lincoln coped with life's disappointments. The story shows how Lincoln used humor as a young boy every day. He even used humor as he did chores. The story shows how laughter and humor helped him make it through the loss of many of his loved ones like his mother, sister and two of his sons He always looked for the opportunity to write. The book used many one-liners and nonsense poems to paint a more humanistic portrait of a great president who tried to remain positive in spite of his circumstances. In the book Lincoln states " My father taught me how to work, but not love it, and he later said " I'd rather read,tell stories, crack jokes,talk,laugh".
Critical Analysis:
This is an easy read aloud for students. The words are easy to read and illustrations are funny and colorful.This book could show others how in the midst of overwhelming obstacles and problems one can still keep their sanity and work through it. The book shows the character of Abraham Lincoln in an engaging way that the reader can relate too. The author writes from Abraham Lincolns point of view which adds more to the way I view him. Most people have respected Abraham Lincoln for his contributions to the history of America but this book will make you laugh and like him even more.
Review Excerpts:
Kirkus Reviews
Not many biographies of the 16th U.S. president begin "Poor Abraham Lincoln." This one does and goes on to list the reasons why the man's life was "hardly fun," but then it gets right to the titular theme: "But Lincoln had his own way of dealing with life. Not many people remember it today. It was all about laughing." (In a lovely acrylic painting of the famous Lincoln log cabin, an escaping plume of "HaHaHaHas" mirrors the chimney smoke.) ....School Library Journal
The legends that endure about Lincoln are many: his log-cabin childhood, his honesty, his eloquence. What is less often discussed is how he used humor to diffuse tense political situations, disarm critics , and undo the stressess of running the country. His love of words in general and jokes and humor more specifically, helped him throughout his life when things were difficult, uncomfortable and down right dire....
Connections:
1.This book could be used for President's Day studies or the Civil War.
2. It could also be used in middle or high school as a quick read to build a discussion and brainstorm the culture of America at this time in history.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Messing Around on The Monkey Bars
Bibliography
Franco, Betsy, and Hartland Jessie. Messing Around on the Monkey Bars and Other School Poems for Two Voices. Somerville, Mass: Candlewick, 2009. Print
Language and Emotion
This collection of 18 poems are meant to
be read by two voices although it can be read by one person. I found myself
changing my voice to read the other verse.
The poems are really fun to read. I think my class would love to read these
poems and act some of them out. The subject matter is something they can relate to. Every kids loves
recess or have been to the park or have tried to make a new friend. Read aloud these
lighthearted poems for multiple voices as they try to capture the silliness of
the playground and other things like writing a report on an animal. Some
children are on a school bus, heading to the lost and found making a new friend
out on the playground, kids are skipping rope and making trades. In the
library, they’re whispering, and talking. In the classroom they come up with excuses why they didn’t have
their homework and have to stay
afterschool at the teachers request.
Analysis
The rhyme and humor the incorporation onomatopoeia and the personification
of objects make it really engaging. Did you ever think your class was alive? I
didn’t until I thought about the poem referring to the arms and legs on the
chair and the face on the clock and of course the spine on the book. The
children would able to find the humor in that and begin to find various traits
in other objects at home and at school. In the book the author encourages the teacher or reader to divide
the group in two. One group can read Voice1 and the other Voice 2 in unison.
This would be a great book to use at the beginning of school at an elementary
level. The illustrations are colorful and add to the adventures of children at school.
Reviews
A cheeky romp elementary school children’s academic and
social lives. – Kirkus Review
The clear and interactive presentation elevates the solid
content, and Hartlands whimsical paintings afdd to a playful tone- The Horn Book
Connections
1.Spend a week focusing on sounds with your class can create a
list of sound words with your students and post it in the classroom.
2. Ask kids to listen to the natural world and then write
about what they have heard.
3. Encourage your students too consciously add sound words to
stories and poems they write.
Then invite your class to write three-line “Sound poems.”
This is a form Betsy Franco made up; it’s similar to a haiku but focuses specifically
on sounds and doesn’t involve any syllable counting
4. Invite students to write acrostic poems about objects at
school.
5. Read the book Big talk” Poems for Four Voices by Paul
Fleishchman
Friday, October 12, 2012
I Am the Book
Bibliography:
Hopkins, Lee Bennett., and Yayo. I Am the Book: Poems. New York: Holiday House, 2011. Print.
Lee Bennett Hopkins collection of
thirteen poems from various authors commemorate
the love of reading books. The poems summarize
the excitement of engaging and escaping into a good book through the vision of poets.
The poems arrangement is perfect for reading orally.All of of the poems make you
think and reflect about why you love books and the beauty of the words painting
an image on the page. The poem “ I Am the Book” by Tom Robert Shields compares
a book to a best friend. All of the poems that were selected for this
compilation pays homage to books and those of us who love them. The poem “What
was That” by Rebecca Kai Dotlich is another example of that beautifully conveys
the images of words.
Critical Analysis
According to an online interview with
Hopkins he stated ” Poetry is magical, mystical. I maintain
that more can be said or felt in 8 or 10 or 12 lines than sometimes” http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=12232&displayType=interviewan
entire novel can convey”
“I Am the Book” has wonderful illustrations by Yayo to
enrich the anthology of poems selected by Hopkins . I think this is a good book
to read aloud to get your children or students to appreciate books from a
different perspective. This book will be appreciate by younger readers because the language is easy to understand and because of the rhyming words that the younger students will love.
Reviews
It closes with five landlocked tributes to
bookishness and shoehorns in between one off-topic contribution by Hopkins and
another by Jane Yolen. Eight of the 13 poems are new, and all (of the relevant
ones) share a sense of excitement- Kirkus ReviewConnections:
One can engage or brainstorm with students about what they love about their favorite books. They can tell what elements of the story they make personal connections and how it relates to them and to the world.
Students can use a wordless picture book and come up with their own story using the illustrations.
Students can compare several of the poems in the books and contrast how the authors convey their love of books.
The Surrender Tree
Bibliography
Engle,
Margarita. 2008 THE SURRENDER TREE: POEMS OF CUBA’S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM. New
York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC. ISBN: 9780805086744.
Plot Summary
This
is the story of a girl named Rosa and
her plight during the three wars that
Cuba fought to get their freedom Many of
Rosa’s people have been put in camps where there is not enough food and many
people are sick However, Rosa is a nurse who is called a witch because she uses
medicinal plants to heal. Rosa, her husband, Josa, and her others have to hide
in caves and hospitals that they find or build in the jungle. Some people want
to capture Rosa because she heals the rebels. A man that she knew as a boy and
calls Lieutenant Death is looking for her to capture her. Rosa is nice and will
use her medicines and skill for anyone that needs it, including her enemies.
Critical Analysis
In
this verse novel, Engle tells a wonderful story using little words but the
reader is still drawn into the character’s lives. Engle explains how the three
wars effect Rosa, her family and friends.)
This
book is very moving and It was written similarly to a chapter book and told
from the different perspective of the characters so as a reader one had a
personal connection with the reasons why every character behaved the way they
did whether you agreed with them or not.
At
the end of the book there is a chronology
of the early independence movement in Cuba with selected references, author
notes, and historical notes.
Review Excerpts
“An absolutely lovely book… that should be read by young and old, black
and white, Anglo and Latino.” –School Library Journal, starred review
“The
moving poetry and finely crafted story will draw readers in and leave them in
tears and awe” – The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred
review
“A
work of literary imagination. Engle’s skillful portrait will spark readers’
interest in Manzano’s poetry"
Awards
Jane
Addams Children’s Book Award, 2009
Americas
Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, 2009
American
Library Association Notable Books for Children, 2009
Pura
Blepre Award, 2009
Connections
1.Combine this book with Engle’s THE POET
SLAVE OF CUBA: A BIOGRAPHY OF JUAN FRANCISCO MANZANO and use it to discuss poetry,
slavery, medicinal plants and other topics.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
The Three Little Pigs
Bibliography:
Boddy, Joe. The Three Little Pigs. Ohio:McGraw,1995 .
Plot summary:
The three little pigs is a traditional tale of how three
pigs outsmart a hungry wolf. The Three Pigs
by Joe Boddy retells this classic tale however the pigs are sisters who
had been living in the same house and after years of living together the sisters agree to move out and live on
their own lives. The pigs in this tale are Amanda, Kate, and Cassy. Amanda
builds her house of straw. Kate builds her house of wood and clever Cassy
builds her house of rocks. The familiar tale continues with the resourceful wolf
knocking on the door and chimes the
classic chant of “no, no, no, not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chinas he
attempts to get the pig . She escaped to
her sister’s house Kate and the wolf came again and she huffed and puffed and
blew the house down. The sisters escaped to Cassy’s house and the wolf followed
but he couldn’t blow the house down. The story ends when the wolf lost her
balance and went sliding down the roof .Although the pigs were scared they
showed amazing compassion and took care
of the wolf .
The story show how you can show kindness and how kindness
can change your circumstances. The classic tale illustrates how the pigs
forgiveness of the wolf’s action allowed them to develop a friendship. There are
many variations of The Three Little Pigs. The author took this traditional
story of good versus bad and made it a positive lesson of how one can change. Just
as the characters set off on their own hoping to find their fortunes a major
problem occurs when they are no longer together and the major life changing
decision of simply choosing the wrong building material. Although in this
version the pigs are not eaten ,they learn that they are better off together
than apart in the end.
Connections:
Children can dramatize the story as you reread it.
Children taking the parts of the pigs can draw their houses on the chalkboard.
Children listening can join in on the repeated phrases
Students can come up with an alternate ending.
Students can compare different versions of the
three little pigs and compare the setting and how the overall plot changes or
the dimension of the characters in a literacy chart. Students can compare how
the illustrations help to enhance the story for the reader.Book Review:
I could not find any reviews for this book.
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