LS 5603 Poetry - Swimming Upstream

Bibliographic Data:
George, Kristine O'Connell. 2002. Swimming Upstream Middle School Poems. Ill. by Debbie Tilley. New York: Clarion Books, a Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0618152504

Plot Summary:
Swimming Upstream Middle School Poems is a collection of poems influenced by and related to the middle school experience. The poems start at the beginning of the school year and take the reader through learning math, new friendships, and learning to play a musical instrument by the end of the year and conclusion of the book.

Critical Analysis:

The poems in Swimming Upstream Middle School Poems are short, well written, and representative of the middle school experience. Several forms of poetry are used to convey different emotions that most middle school students feel at some point.

I found "Is it Monday Again?" to be well suited for anyone that works five days a week and gets weekends off, not just for students. I also can not think of anyone that has tried to open a locker over and over again to no avail that would not relate to the Haiku "Locker."

Locker

I've got your numbers.
Twelve...eleven... twenty-one.
Why won't you open?

With topics ranging from first loves to band practice, Swimming Upstream Middle School Poems is a good book of introductory poems that could easily be used in a classroom.

Review Excerpts:
Booklist: "The unnamed female narrator sees the first "jigsaw year" as refitting and recombining old friends and new, old ideas and new."

School Library Journal: "Students will relate to this voice navigating "upstream," while they try to find their own place in the middle-school wilderness."

Reading Teacher: "Using a variety of verse styles the poems reveal a range of topics... This collection speaks of small moments (hall passes) and large moments (discovering other students' problems) and all the moments in between."

Connections:
Kristine O'Connell George's website has great resources for teachers, such as a companion guide and discussion guide for download. Poems written by students for an online contest are also displayed.

http://www.kristinegeorge.com/swimming_upstream.html

Teen Lit Fest '07 in Humble, Texas

Okay, I am jealous that I never had anything near a Lit Fest of any kind in high school; this was amazing. Yesterday I was on my way to Houston anyway (to pick up 2 new sugar gliders as friends for the one I already had), so hearing that Scott Westerfeld & Justine Larbalestier were speaking and signing at the Humble ISD Teen Lit Fest was a great surprise. Of course it meant leaving quite early and still barely making the signing at 1, but I got there.

Thankfully I got in Westerfeld's line first after buying a few books; by the time I left (at 1:45) his line was circling the cafeteria. It was insane. So I got Last Days signed making me a very happy girl this weekend. I also got Magic or Madness signed by Justine, Playing in Traffic by Gail Giles, and Elegies in Blue a poetry book by Benjamin Alire Saenez signed. Chris Crutcher & Chris Yambar were there as well, but unfortunately I didn't have the money for a book by everyone. So I had a lovely day of driving, a lot, then more, with a nice little hour break of meeting authors. Happy making and quite bubbly!

And Justine & Scott are coming back to Texas in April, I believe. So I'll probably be going down to Austin in a couple months since I didn't get to see them speak this time.

Speaking of banning books...

I encourage everyone to check out Scott Westerfeld's (Uglies series, Peeps, So Yesterday, etc.) blog about Susan Patron’s Newberry Award-winning book The Higher Power of Lucky. And take note of the masses of kids, librarians, and all others that commented on the supposed talk of banning this book due to the use of the word "scrotum." How sad people. There are worse things we should be protecting kids from than anatomical terms. But in all fairness he give such a great rant I could never come close.

Check it out here
http://www.scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

LS 5603 Poetry - Stop Pretending

Bibliographic Data:
Sones, Sonya. 1999. Stop Pretending What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0060283874

Plot Summary:
Stop Pretending What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy is an autobiographical story of when Sonya Sones older sister had a nervous breakdown. Sones was only thirteen at the time and her sister, in a mental hospital throughout the book, was nineteen. The book is written in verse, telling the story of disappointment and, briefly, of understanding a girl faces when her older sister "goes crazy."

Critical Analysis:
Sones beautifully tells the story of heartache and disappointment of a thirteen year old girl (herself) as the sister she has always looked up to changes into someone unrecognizable. The use of poetry allows the reader to be taken on a roller coaster of emotions that change as quickly as they do in real life. Telling this story in verse also makes it a quick read and especially suitable for reluctant readers that may have family and social problems of their own.

The reader is allowed to witness family struggles such as her mother watching soap operas all day long and hiding from reality. Sones also details personal struggles like her friends acting supportive, but ultimately ignoring her once they find out her sister is crazy. At times it is difficult to read, almost as if the reader is eavesdropping on the emotions of a stranger, but ultimately this is a story that needed to be told.

This is a story that can help young adults, as well as adults, understand what it is like to witness a loved one go through a mental breakdown. It is a thought provoking book that is poised for great discussions. And the Author's Note at the end of the book provides insight into why and how Sones, with her sister's encouragement, decided to write about such a personal part of her life.

Review Excerpts:
Booklist - "...Such small moments become large in the context of their promise of healing and the demonstration of life's power to continue. Based on Sones' own family experience, this novel-in-verse shows the capacity of poetry to record the personal and translate it into the universal."

School Library Journal - "An unpretentious, accessible book that could provide entry points for a discussion about mental illness - its stigma, its realities, and its effect on family members."

Kirkus - "Individually, the poems appear simple and unremarkable, snapshot portraits of two sisters, a family, unfaithful friends, and a sweet first love. Collected they take on life and movement, the individual frames of a movie that in the unspooling become animated, telling a compelling tale and presenting a painful passage through young adolescence."

Connections:
Other books in verse that I liked:
What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl by Tanya Lee Stone
Both of these are about teenage girls learning about guys, love and the lack of it. Approximately 14 & up

This book would be great to recommend to any teenager that feels alone going through a rough time. I also think it would be great for councilors to use since it is not preachy, but simply tells a story of what happened in one situation.

LS 5603 Traditional Literature - More Scary Stories

Bibliographic Data:
Schwartz. Alvin. More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. 1984. Ill. by Stephen Grammell. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers. ISBN 0397320817

Plot Summary:
This is a collection of short, some only a page long, folk stories for children ages nine and up. More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is the sequel to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The third book in the series is titled Scary Stories 3 More Tales to Chill Your Bones.

Critical Analysis:
According to the American Library Association website (www.ala.org), Alvin Swartz was the most challenged author from 1990 to 2004. This is probably due to the Scary Stories series being number one on the most challenged books list of 1990 to 2000. The books are in good company since Of Mice and Men, Harry Potter, and Bridge to Terabithia are also in the top ten.

When I saw this I found myself asking "Why?" Why is a series of books that I remember my entire fourth grade class adoring at the top of a list of challenged books? As I recall we loved to sing "O'Leary is dead, and O'Riley don't know it... and neither one knows that the other one's dead. BA-ROOOM! BA-ROOOM!" I guess there are a lot of adults that do not find it as amusing and entertaining as nine-year-olds do.

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a wonderful collection of one to four page scary folk stories collected, researched, and retold by Alvin Swartz. The vast majority of the stories are not horribly scary and as I recall most were not that scary when I was nine either. I actually find the illustrations much worse than the stories themselves. I barely glanced at the illustration to the story The Bride and hopefully will remember not to look at it again. (It reminds me of a scene in The Ring.) If anything, the Scary Stories books have truly creepy illustrations with mildly scary stories.

I found some of the stories, such as The Voice and The Church, to be too short and lacking in enough detail to make them interesting. It was a let down to complete a page and realize the story was already finished. Other stories like The Drum, Somebody Fell from Aloft, and One Sunday Morning were much more satisfying to read.

Some familiar and common tales that are used in television and movies are included in this collection. Wonderful Sausage, a story of a butcher using human meat, has been retold in many ways over the years. (I recall a Tales from the Crypt show using a similar story, as well as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.) And A Ghost in the Mirror was similar to a story used recently on the show Supernatural. (On a side note, I still freak out if I see a mirror in the dark from reading this story when I was young.)

I greatly enjoyed the Notes and Sources sections at the end of the book. Schwartz researched multiple versions of each story and compiled a good anthology that interests children, and the background behind certain stories even made them more interesting. For example, Rings on Her Fingers tells of a woman buried alive and awakened by a grave robber attempting to cut off her fingers to steal rings. In this story the grave robber falls on his knife in the grave, a sort of revenge for stealing, but the origins of the story are based in a reality prior to embalming.

Overall More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and the rest of the series are good entertainment for kids that are able to handle the stories and illustrations without having nightmares. And even if a few nightmares, or irrational fears of mirrors, occur the reading and understanding of these traditional folktales can be beneficial as a part of our culture.

Review Excerpts:
The Horn Book: "Brief, blood curdling tales of ghosts, murders, graveyards, and other horrors, greatly enhanced by the ghoulish illustrations."

School Library Journal: "Guaranteed to make your teeth chatter and your spine tingle."

Connections:

ALA's Banned Books Week Information Page
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/Default3879.htm

The Top 10 Challenged Authors 1990 to 2004 and Most Challenged Books Lists can be found through the above link. There are also activities to use in classrooms and in your own life involving banned and challenged books.

Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark, Scary Stories 3 More Tales to Chill Your Bones, and In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories are also by Alvin Schwartz.

LS 5603 Traditional Literature - Cendrillon

Bibliographic Data:
San Souci, Robert D. 1998. Cendrillon. Ill. by Brian Pinkney. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division. ISBN 068980668X

Plot Summary:
This version of the classic Cinderella is based on the French Creole tale Cendrillon. Son Souci retold the story from the point of view of the godmother, or Nannin', which gives the tale a unique twist. The usual plot elements are all intact though: the girl is made to do work by her stepmother, there is a grand ball, and of course Cendrillon is found after leaving her slipper behind.

Critical Analysis:
Cinderella must be one of the most well-known fairy tales existing, and because of this variations on the tale are plentiful. In reading Cendrillon by Robert D. San Souci, the traditional elements of Cinderella are expanded upon to create a wonderful picture book.

The illustrations by Brian Pinkney explode with color. The painted etching feel of the illustrations blends well with the story to create a whole picture of the Caribbean world that Cendrillon is living in.

The story begins with the narrator, later to be revealed as Cendrillon's godmother, telling the story of her childhood. The origin of a familiar element, the wand used to change ordinary items into the carriage, ballgown, etc. for the ball, is introduced. In this version of the fairy tale, the godmother receives the wand from her mother as a child before she is orphaned, but finds no use for it until she wishes to help Cendrillon attend the ball.

The story continues as Cendrillon's stepmother works her constantly, and finally the notice of the ball comes. Cendrillon's nannin', or godmother, has her pick a fruit a pain, or breadfruit, to turn into a coach with the wand. Native Caribbean words for fruits and animals are used to bring the culture of the story to life. There is a glossary at the end of the book I referenced several times. The native words helped the classic and familiar fairy tale become something special and unique.

After the ball, the young man that danced with Cendrillon searches for her using her lost slipper. As is standard, she is locked in a room as her stepmother attempts to squeeze the stepsister's foot into the tiny shoe. As the godmother continues to narrate from the doorway inside the house she says, "If you cut off those big toes it would be a fine fit." This was my favorite part of the story as it is a direct homage to the Brother's Grimm version of the story where the stepsisters actually do have their toes cut off to fit the slipper. As it is in Cendrillon, it adds a somewhat comic touch.

Review Excerpts:
Publisher Weekly: Pinkney's oil and scratchboard illustrations burst with vigorous movement as he captures the exotic palette and the lush textures of the "green-green island in the so-blue Mer des Antilles." The lyrical cadences of the text spattered with French and Creole words combine with the sensuous paintings to bring the tropics to life. However, the story's charm lies not in the well-matched Caribbean bride and groom or in the (rather predictable) happy ending, but in the authentic voice of the godmother.

Connections:
Of course there are many picture books that tell the Cinderella story, but here are a few that use other cultures as well.

San Souci, Robert D. Sootface: An Ojibwa Cinderella Story. Ill. Daniel San Souci. Random House Children's Books. ISBN 044041363X

Hickox, Rebecca. Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story. Ill. by Will Hillenbrand. Holiday House, Inc. ISBN 0823415139

Louie, Ai-Ling. Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China. Ill. by Ed Young. Penguin Young Readers Group. ISBN 0698113888

LS 5603 Traditional Literature - The Legend of the Bluebonnet

Bibliographic Data:
dePaola, Tomie. 1983. The Legend of the Bluebonnet: An Old Tale of Texas. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0399209379

Plot Summary:
This is a Comanche folktale of the origins of the buebonnet in Texas. In The Legend of the Bluebonnet: An Old Tale of Texas, Tomie dePaola tells the story of a young Comanche girl and her sacrifice to rescue her tribe from drought and famine.

Critical Analysis:
The Legend of the Bluebonnet: An Old Tale of Texas is a Pourquoi tale, or a story that tells why something in nature is the way it is.

In the Author's Note following The Legend of the Bluebonnet: An Old Tale of Texas, dePaola writes about how a friend suggested the folktale of the origin of the Texas state flower to him. Reasearch was done on the legends as well as on the Comanche tribe in Texas before dePaola began to retell the story in this brilliant children's book.

I remember reading and studing this book as a child and loving it, so the opportunity to revisit this particular book was of interest to me. Now as an adult, I still enjoy the story, but I feel that I understand more of how couragous and amazing the girl in the book really is.

The illustrations are in warm earth tones that reflect the Comanche tribal setting. The night time scenes are created with a deep blue backdrop in the sky that is traded for a wonderful carpet of bluebonnets when the sun rises. Anyone that has ever visited the Texas Hill Country will surely recognize the last illustration of bluebonnet covered hills.

The story is ultimately of sacrifice and redemption. It revolves around a young girl and her only possession, a doll her family had made her before they passed away due to the famine. The girl, named "She-Who-Is-Alone," sacrificed her doll to the Great Spirits in order to bring forgiveness to her tribe and an end to the drought and famine. At the conclusion of the story her tribe renames her "One-Who-Loved-Her-People," as she had saved the land and the tribe by sacrificing her doll.

Review Excerpts:
Children's Literature: review by Debra Briatico
Tomie dePaola provides a charming retelling of the Native American legend about the origin of Texas' state flower, the bluebonnet.

Connections:
Tomie dePaola also wrote a book on the Indian Paintbrush (The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, ISBN 0698113608). This is probably the second most recognized Texas Hill Country flower, and I loved them when I was young.

Anyone around my age (28) also may remember that The Legend of the Bluebonnet: An Old Tale of Texas was a Reading Rainbow book. There is a review done many years ago posted at this website: http://pbskids.org/readingrainbow/books/review021a.html.

LS 5603 Picture Books - Talking With Artists

Bibliographic Data
Cummings, Pat. 1995. Talking With Artists Volume Two. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0027242455

Plot Summary
Talking With Artists is a three volume series compiled and edited by Pat Cummings. The books have interviews and information on a variety of children's literature illustrators set up in an informal as well as educational manner.

Critical Analysis
Talking With Artists Volume Two is a great introduction to the lives and methods of several children's book illustrators. Each profile begins with a short autobiography by the artist followed by a brief interview. The artists write to the children that compose their audience by concentrating on the interesting and fun facts about how each of them became artists. One artist in the book sold his first painting at nine years old (to a family friend), and others spent years trying to get work.

Each artist profile is accompanied by a photograph of the artist as a child as well as a current photograph. In addition, a drawing, painting, or other art form from the artists' childhood accompanies the text along with an image from a published picture book. This visual representation of where each artist began their journey to becoming a professional illustrator is wonderful to see.

One unique section of Talking With Artists is the "Secret Techniques" area at the end of the book. Each artist describes simple ways to create some of the looks of their artwork as well as helpful hints to aspiring artists.

Each artist uses different media and methods to create their own unique illustrations. The text is interesting and keeps the readers attention, and the artwork shown is wonderful. It is too bad that more samples from books that the illustrators discussed are not represented; each illustrator only has one illustration sample shown. Despite this, the overall information and artwork are terrific.

Review Excerpts
BookList "Cummings' selection of artists is especially good this time, demonstrating a great diversity in artistic style and choice of media. Kevin Henkes, Floyd Cooper, Denise Fleming, and Vera B. Williams are among the 13 included. A special treat for budding artists and wonderful for teachers."

Connections
This is one of three in a series of Talking With Artists books by Pat Cummings.
Cummings, Pat. 1992. Talking With Artists. ISBN 0027242455
Cummings, Pat. 1999. Talking With Artists Volume Three. ISBN 0395891329

Other related books
Preller, James. 2001. The Big Book of Picture-Book Authors & Illustrators. ISBN 0439201543
Kovacs, Deborah & Preller, James. 1999. Meet the Authors and Illustrators:Volume 1. ISBN 0590490974
Cummins, Julie. Wings of an Artist. ISBN 0810945525