Children's Literature Summer 2018

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Raven- VLOG Post

Peter Pan is a beloved classic, written by J.M. Barrie. The story follows the Darling children from London who are visited by a boy named Peter Pan. He whisks them away to Neverland, a land where mermaids, fairies, pirates, and Indians coexist. This tale falls into the Fantasy genre because the elements/characters in the story are wildly imaginative: flying ships, flying characters, children who never grow up, the land "second star to the right and straight on until morning" of Neverland, etcetera. This book covers a few of the social justice elements, but most notably Social Injustice. There are rifts between a few groups of people in the story, notable pirates versus everyone else. It's possible to teach students tolerance from this story. There are a handful of groups of people that all can exist peacefully if the pirates would leave them at peace. In my classroom, I would draw comparisons to other groups of people in the story who get along (Lost Boys and I...

The fiction book I selected falls under the subgenre of fantasy and is titled The Paper Bag Princess . This fantasy children’s book was written by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Michael Martchenko. The story begins by introducing a princess named Elizabeth who had expensive princess clothes and  was going to marry a prince named Ronald. However, a dragon came and burned all her clothes and took Prince Ronald. Elizabeth then puts on a paper bag and finds the dragon to save Prince Ronald. Elizabeth outwits the dragon, but when Prince Ronald sees her wearing a paper bag he tells her to come back once she is dressed like a “real princess.” Elizabeth then leaves Prince Ronald and they do not get married after all. As previously mentioned this book is considered a fantasy. For instance, the setting is believable for the reader and makes logical sense within the story (i.e. castles and the dragon cave). The plot of the story also makes logical sense; the dragon takes Prince Ron...

The Talking Eggs is a Creole American folklore tale which was "first collected by Alcée Fortier and was published in Memoirs of the American Folklore Society in 1895." (http://afropedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Talking_Eggs) This book is categorized as folklore as it's origin has been traced and has been passed down for centuries. The tale was made into a book by Robert D. San Souci and illustrated by Jerry Pinkey. This book is a classic tale of rags to riches, synonymous to the more familiar Cinderella . Two sisters live with their mother. One sister, Blanche, was cruel, like her mother, and the other, Rose, was sweet and kind. Rose meets an old woman in the woods and through a series of events ends up coming home with beautiful lavish things after showing kindness to the old woman. Blanche and mother seek to find good fortune of their own and leave Rose behind once they do. This tale follows the second element of social justice: Respect for Others. This book teache...

Mama Built a Little Nest is a non-fiction picture book written by Jennifer Ward and illustrated by Steve Jenkins. The story follows different types of birds and how they build a nest for their babies. On each page shows a differnt type of bird and how the mother or father bird construct a place for the babies to be safe. This book falls into non-fiction as it portrays real events, how birds make their nests. You see baby penguins are warmed on the daddy penguin's feet whereas baby flamingos use mud to make their babies comfortable. Each bird is illustrated and their nesting style is described, and at the very end a closing comparisson is drawn to a child's bed being "their nest." Looking at social justice, this book would fall into the "Self Love and Knowledge" category for its hidden message of equality. There are a dozen birds mentioned and all doe something differntin their nesting, but they all do so for the same reason: to take care of their baby...

Give Up, Gecko! is a folktale from Uganda retold by Margaret Read MacDonald and illustrated by Deborah Melmon. This illustrated folklore tells the story through animated animals of Uganda attempting to decide together how they will retrieve water in the drought. Through repetition and a wide range of different animals to represent diversity, the reader is in engaged in the tale and anticipating the end to figure out how the animals reach water. Ultimately, the smallest animal in all of the land that was doubted and told to “give up” reached the water and shared his victory with all the animals still. His determination, and the repetitive stomp and chant will have readers following along throughout. This folktale shared through Uganda, portrays an intended message to share across the land. Through fantasy, repetition, and images the tale is replicated to share a story of generations as well as a powerful message of determination and the value of equity. Using the folktale genre,...

For the Non-Fiction genre, I have selected The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind written by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, and pictures by Elizabeth Zunon. This book provides the audience insight to William Kamkwamba’s experience as a fourteen year old in a Malawi village suffering from a drought. While his family lacked money and goods, William defeated all odds and used literature to first learn English, ultimately, learning through literature how to bring electricity to his village. William is widely known today for his ability to build a windmill out of yard scraps that successfully gave hope to his village. This true story was brought to life in literature with its vivid pictures and lyrical style. Written by William Kamkwamba, this non-fiction book brings the realistic happenings of his experiences. The story advances from the drought to William’s heroic act, smoothly transitioning into the ultimate message of the story; no matter the circumstances, hard work and determina...

I chose the non-fiction book: Math for All Seasons, written by Greg Tang and illustrated by Harry Briggs. This book is a math book using the four seasons to create riddles within the illustrations for children to solve. For example, one page talks about fireworks during summer time and asks the children to count each spark of light in the picture. The book begins with the spring season and ends with winter. The parents are also given the answers and tips on how to calculate the solutions at the back of the book. This book received an rating of excellent and fits the genre of non-fiction as it teaches children about seasons and math. This book may not have been an informative or factual type of book but is an educational book that focuses on supporting learning math, therefore it is an non-fiction book. When discussing the six elements of social justice, this book does not directly address the six elements, however, this book may addresses the element of self-love and knowledge. ...

The non-fiction book I selected is titled Science Verse written by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith. The information in this book is all presented through poems addressing a variety of science topics. The book begins by a student sitting in class getting “zapped with a curse of Science Verse” from this point, the variety of poems follow on science topics such as evolution, the water cycle, the food chain, dinosaurs and much more! This book receives an excellent rating for accuracy, design, and style. The information in this book is very factual and current while the design is very attractive and reader-friendly. Also, the writing style being poems keeps the information very interesting for the reader. However, for the organization portion I rated the book as satisfactory. Due the nature of the book covering a variety topics back to back the transitions were not always smooth. While covering the topic of evolution, the author states, “‘Cause Grandpa was an ape” in ...

My non-fiction book was How do you Burp in Space?  by Susan E. Goodman and illustrated by Michael Slack. It is presented as a guide to your future vacation to space and includes information on how to prepare, what the trip there and back are like and what to do while you are there. It incorporates stories and pictures from actual astronauts based on their experiences in space while also making some predictions about what future travel to the moon and beyond would look like. This book gets an excellent rating in all four areas of evaluation for non-fiction. It has very accurate information and includes details about how and where the author got her information. Her research included interviews with astronauts, visits to NASA, and extensive reading. The book was also well organized, progressing well from preparation and departure to arrival and the return journey. It was easy to follow and read like one would expect a guidebook to with a lot of factual information about space w...

"Finding Winnie" is a Non-fiction picture book that is based on a true story. The book was written by Lindsay Mattick, who is the great-granddaughter of Harry Coleman, who adopted the bear Winnie. "Finding Winnie" is a true story of a bear that was adopted by a veterinarian who was traveling to aid in the first World War. The bear was raised by the veterinarian, and was later given to the London Zoo to take care of caring for Winnie after he became older. Later, one child came to the zoo and instantly bonded with the bear. This child later grew on to create the story of Winnie-the-Pooh. After reading this book, it very clearly fits in the non-fiction genre of children's literature. As this book was based on a true story, it also included the actual characters that were involved in the story including the veterinarian, the bear itself, and the boy who became the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh. In the back of the book, it shows actual ...