Just a CLASSic

There are several reasons that I am writing this post (and possibly the next few that I will be writing). So without further due, I will simply tell you. 1.  It is now fall break and why not do something that I really enjoy that is not really related to schoolwork? 2.  I went to my first literary conference yesterday.  For the entire day, I was surrounded by teachers learning about incorporating children's books into the curriculum. Ah.  What can be more inspirational to write about and read children's literature than receiving a wealth of knowledge about children's literature including words from two authors? (More about those authors at a later point, I am sure) 3.  Today, when I went to the library, I nearly walked out without having any books.  This felt wrong and utterly disappointing especially since the book that I so desperately wanted was not to be found. (Don't worry, the story gets better, just to reassure all my very concerned readers).  On my

Simply put,  The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson is a story about a lonely boy and his new friend, Leslie, who moves next door.  This realistic fiction is well written where the characters become the reader's own friends. SPOILER ALERT:  Because of the nature of this book, the rest of this post will be dealing with the main theme of this book. If you do not want to know what happens at the end (and have never seen the movie) but have always wanted to read this book, stop reading now. Base your decision on if you read the book on the back cover blurb rather than this post.  The rest of the post is dedicated specifically to concerned parents who have heard what happens in the book. As many, of you know, this book is about a child experiencing death; in fact, his close friend Leslie dies from a tragic accident. Several years ago, I saw the movie with my brother.  All of the previews that we saw emphasized that this was a movie about a fantasy world called Te

Growing up, I watched the musical movie version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang starring Dick Van Dyke.  Who can really resist such a charming story about a technological car told through high energy music and dance numbers?  I f you are one of those people scratching your head at this moment thinking "Huh?  Well I never saw this film,"  then click here and watch for yourself one of my personal favorite songs "Toot Sweet" complete with an entire factory of dancing candy makers.  From the very start this movie is fun and very family friendly, and the humor of Dick Van Dyke is truly irresistible. However, I am not here to tell you all about this great movie, but about the book of the same name. Having already shared my love for the movie, one can imagine the surprise and delight that I had realizing that there was a book.  Who knew? Well come to find out this book is by the same author who created James Bond.  Though the story takes some time to pick up, I can

Of all the books that I have so far reviewed, I would say that this book has been my favorite.   My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve is the most recent winner of the Batchelder Award, an award given to children's books that are originally written and published in another language and country. This particular book was written in Germany in 2007 and only recently, in 2012, translated into English by Tamni Reichel. This book follows Franziska Mangold from when she is ten to about when she is seventeen. She is a Protestant child with Jewish heritage living in Germany right before World War II after Adolf Hitler gained power.  Because of her Jewish ancestry, though she believes in Jesus, Ziska (her name in Germany) and her family experience the violence that Hitler instituted against the Jewish people. The very first chapter opens where Ziska and her friend Rebekka Liebich jump out of a tree to discover escape routes in case of an attack against them as Jews. Because

For one of my class assignments, I needed to create a multi-disciplinary unit (basically a unit for a certain grade that incorporates multiple subject areas). I chose to do mine on colonial communities.  I used four of the Young American series books ( Caesar's Story: 1759  is one of the books in the series put out by Colonial Williamsburg) as the basis to divide the class into four reading and research groups to discover the daily life of the colonies. This story is from the point of view of Caesar who is a slave in Carter Grove's plantation. When Caesar was young, his best friend, Nat, was the master's son.  However, at the age of seven, Caesar must take on the role of the slave, and Nat takes on the role of the master. Caesar must learn that he is no longer able to play with his best friend, no longer able to tell a funny story.  He goes from being a field hand to being a house slave where, though he is on the same plantation, he cannot see his family even for

"There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself--not just sometimes, but always," (Juster 9)  The Phantom Tollbooth , first written in 1961, begins quite pointedly. This surprising humor of the opening few lines continues on throughout the entire book.  This witty tale is about a boy named Milo who sat around thinking there was nothing to do. One day when he returns from school he finds a tollbooth that sends him to the Kingdom of Wisdom that has the City of Digitopolis (where they believe that numbers are the most important) and City of Dictionopolis (where as you might have guessed they believe words are the most important). After Milo has several encounters with very intriguing characters like the watchdog named Tock (he has a clock in the middle of him that goes tick, tick tick while his brother Tick has a clock that goes tock, tock, tock), he sets off on a difficult task to rescue the Princesses of Rhyme and Reason from banishment.

The book Remember  by Toni Morrison could serve as an excellent companion piece to The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 .  This is a non-fiction book that explores segregation and the ultimate integration of the school system in the South.  Throughout the entire book, the author imagines the thoughts and words of the people within the photographs depicting the struggles of black children. These pictures were beautifully put together to tell the story of school integration. Seeing these pictures was so very powerful.  Though these pictures did not show the violence that is often associated with the Civil Rights movement, they did show the innocent expressions of the children but the hate on some of the adults' faces; because of this, this book is very appropriate for upper elementary students or higher who have studied the period and understand it. At the very end, I teared up as I looked at the faces from the Church bombing in 1963 that Christopher Paul Curtis references in

Going to elementary school, I remember that many of my classmates obsessed over the Junie B. Jones series. For some odd reason, I never got on that bandwagon.  I always had such a long list of books to read (I still do) that it never managed to make it to the top of the list or even on the list. However, when I saw it at the library, I thought I might as well try it.  After all, it is so very popular. This book is the first in the series.  Junie B. Jones is just entering kindergarten. When she goes to visit before school starts, the teacher asks her if she will be riding the bus. Since Junie B. had no idea about the bus, her fear of the bus and a dislike for practically all the people on the bus quickly begins. The book goes through the first day of kindergarten, and then Junie B. faces the epitome of her fear of the school bus.  That is when her adventure truly begins. I can certainly see why children like this book.  Junie B. is a loud and vociferous young girl speaki

One of my assignments for my class was to choose a book to read to third graders dealing with the theme of healthy foods. After scavenging the library and finding only mediocre food books, I approached the librarian and told her my assignment.  She thought for a minute and then recommended Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, a Caldecott honor award winner.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the one I had so eagerly been looking for.   I was not at all disappointed.  This book from cover to cover is filled with everything a good book should be. "Jasper Rabbit had a passion for carrots" (Reynolds 1) as the first page states.  He eats them all the time, but one day these carrots begin to follow him.  Everywhere he turns, he sees carrots--creepy carrots.   The pictures beautifully convey the story and add so much more meaning to the text.  The only color, besides black and white, throughout the whole book is orange.  This color palette immediately sets the tone

This past weekend, my mom, sister and I visited the First Ladies Exhibit at the American History Smithsonian in D.C.  The exhibit is full of the gowns that the First Ladies wore to their husbands' inaugural balls; they are truly exquisite and intricate gowns. Throughout the exhibit, placards explain the many and varying contributions of each First Lady.  If you are in the D.C area and have never seen this exhibit, I highly recommend taking time to go see this exceptional museum display. Eleanor by Barbara Cooney goes into the younger life of Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the Presidents' wives with a dress in the above exhibit.  Throughout the story, nobody really likes Eleanor. In fact, the opening line sums up much of the book, "From the beginning the baby was a disappointment to her mother" (Cooney 1).  Her parents really do not have time for their little daughter. The mother calls her "Granny" because of her old-fashioned demeanor; however, Eleanor

For what I was expecting this book to be, it was not.   The front cover of this book gives the idea that this story will be about an African American family that decides to take a trip to visit their grandma during "The darkest moments in American history."   I immediately recognized the date as directly in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement; for this, I thought much of the book would take place in Alabama detailing the Civil Rights Movement.   However, the family does not actually travel to Alabama until roughly about the last fifty pages of the book, and even with that there is a small portion that is dedicated to the struggles of the Civil Rights movement.    There is no build up for what does happen.   I understand the power of surprise, which is how the event is presented, but there were only casual mentions of the history surrounding the South during the 1960s before this event.    If I did not have a strong rooting in American history, I beli

Abraham Lincoln is one of my favorite presidents; he did a lot for this country, not to mention that he was an ingenious politician for many reasons. Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln assumes that its readers already know about President Lincoln; instead of focusing on his presidency, the book takes a closer look at Lincoln's young childhood days. The reader learns Lincoln's hardships and struggles but also his inspirations from the people around him.  What is more is that there are notes and a bibliography!  Yes my historian self just came out and got really excited. Though at times the story was a bit disconnected (as is often the case with biographies because of historical gaps), the story added personality to these historical people it was portraying; the people  had emotions and desires that continued to develop throughout the entire story. I loved reading about this side of Abraham Lincoln; I have not as yet read about Lincoln's younger life (though this book made me

Normally, if I have the choice I will not choose to pick up a poetry book.  However, to have a variety of genres, I agreed to read Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night (it was actually one of the required reading for my class, but really it will be okay). Well quite surprised, I actually enjoyed this book because the poems were simple; they did not have complex symbolism that I had to work through in order to understand the deeper meaning. Each poem is about a different nocturnal animal.  What is specifically unique about this book is that as the poem introduces the animal, a blurb on the side explains in more informationally the habits of this particular animal. For me, as I zoomed through the poetry (either because the writing was that simple and understandable or because I really am not a huge fan of poetry), I spent time contemplating the nature blurb. I learned so much about ordinary animals like the cricket or the porcupine.  The pairing of these two literary dev

Who knew there was so much history about salt that could fill the pages of a children's picture book? Well I certainly did not know.  I had no idea the extent of the history of salt.   The Story of Salt goes through time from when people were still nomads to modern day salt uses. As I am learning about interdisciplinary units (connecting several subjects in school into one unit) in one of my other classes, I realized that this book truly is an interdisciplinary book. This book does not just contain history facts and information, but also combines it with scientific information. For example, at the start of the book, the author first explains the chemical compound of salt.  He then explores why we humans need salt in order to survive; he writes, "Sodium chloride is needed for breathing and for digestion, and without salt, the body could not transport nourishment, oxygen, or nerve impulses" (Kurlansky 7). The author also incorporates English (exploring the root

When I was younger, my parents took my brother and I to Kitty Hawk to visit the very location of the Wright brothers' first flight.  In the field where they flew, the museum has set up stone tablets in the ground to commemorate the distances and the duration, the longest being 59 seconds, of the first few flights.  I remember running down this historic runway by my brother with our arms outspread as if we were the very airplane that the Wright brothers first flew.  My brother and I shared a lot of laughs that day.  Whenever I hear about the Wright brothers, I now think of that happy memory with my family.  When I came across this book about the Wright brothers in the library,  I was very excited to read it and to learn more about these two incredibly smart men. However, the entire book was a disappointment.  I do admit that the facts in the book were fascinating; I did learn more about the Wright brothers than I had known before.  The author even included a bibliography and not

Fun fact about me:  I love to scrapbook.  Hmm...random? No actually it really does relate.   Pirateology by Dugald Steer is a very interactive informational guide about pirates. The entire premise is about one person who is commissioned to track down one specific pirate Arabella Drummod; as he tracks this female pirate, he includes information about the life of pirates including maps and flip books...see it's basically a pirate scrapbook. I really enjoyed the twist of being a book about pirates while it also incorporated a story of the search for this particular conniving pirate. It felt real with the typeface and the pictures that this really was a personal journal by a seafaring man.  A child could easily be convinced to educate themselves with this very interactive and engaging book.  I know I myself learned much about pirates. However, I could not discern what was fiction and what was true; for example, the additional information about the pirates that was supplemen

When it comes to stories, I love reading different perspectives. I love getting multiple perspectives as in   Wonder , and I love hearing the voices of the seemingly silent. So when on the very first page of The One and Only Ivan , I read that the narrator was a gorilla, my anticipation grew for the book. After the initial pleasantry, I was a little disheartened.  The language was so simple and seemingly monotonous (especially in the sentence structure). Oh boy, I thought, this could be hard. However, I pressed on and continued reading.  Soon, I found myself friends with Ivan (I feel like I befriend all the characters in books that I really like; it's just something about the magic of a book). I kept turning pages to know what would happen next.  Ivan, as I mentioned, is a gorilla. For the past twenty-seven years, he has spent his life with the humans.  When he was smaller, he became a pseudo-human but as he got older he had to leave that world.  Now as a silverback (

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, I am a first generation American which simply means that both of my parents were born in Greece and came over to America. Because of their experiences as immigrants, they instilled in us children the value of hard work and made us proud to be American and Greek. For this reason, Peppe the Lamplighter, a Caldecott Honor book ,  sparked an interest for me. It is about an Italian immigrant family in New York roughly around the early 1900s or more properly "A long time ago when there was no electricity" (Bartone 1). Peppe, the main character, needs to find a job in order to better support his struggling family.  After looking everywhere, the lamplighter comes and asks Peppe to continue lighting the lamps as he goes back to Italy. Though Peppe rejoices to have a job, his father looks down on the job as worthless.  Eventually, the father's pessimism wears down Peppe's enthusiasm to light the lamps resulting in Peppe one n

Wow.  Well I'm done.  I think that one word basically sums it all together.  [walks away] All right; all right. Apparently, the one word did not sum up the story as I thought it did.  I always knew people wanted more. Wonder  is a wonder.  It is phenomenal. The premise of the story revolves around a little boy who starts fifth grade at a private middle school and his adjustment to a new school after being home-schooled his entire life. However, though August views himself as an ordinary kid, others do not see that in him because he was born with an abnormal face that even after several surgeries throughout his childhood, people would still see his face and fear it. It is a book about how August overcomes these cruel and unthoughtful words, but it is also a book about how those around him deal with how August looks.  The author brilliantly incorporates eight different parts and most of which are told by a different character from their own perspective. With this, Aug

Let me preface this post by saying that it will probably contain parts that are biased. You see, my book had not arrived by the time of class. Normally, we are to have our posts up before class probably for the very reason to avoid biases from what we discuss in class. I was going to get this book from the library, but sadly other people (I suspect my fellow-classmates) checked out all the remaining copies before I had a chance to go to the library. And the school library did not have it at all.  So two libraries later, I figured I might as well buy it. Can you imagine the tragedy?   Actually having to buy some children's literature.  The absurdity! Just kidding.  I love getting children's books, and I'm sure this will be added to my classroom library. As from the previous blogs, I really enjoy Cinderella tales.   Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal  is a very unique adaptation of the Cinderella story because the author and illustrator draw from seventeen different c

Princess Furball was the second Cinderella story that I read. I was not really sure what to expect.  My anticipation grew, however, when I read the author's note in the very beginning that though a Cinderella story at the heart, she had rewritten the story to include other folk-tales. As you can imagine by this and the actual title, this was not really a typical Cinderella story. I wanted to mention from the very start that in my last post,  about another version of  Cinderella , I ranted about the body shapes of the step-sisters in comparison with Cinderella. In this story, I was pleasantly surprised that the princess was an average size (she looked bulkier than she actually was when wearing her fur coat) and even had big curly hair  (also a non-normality when depicting female protagonists, believe me curly/frizzy hair is not just for the conniving people of this world). This version is also very different than the typical Cinderella story because there is no fairy god

Ah Cinderella!  The joy of my childhood. If I could, I am sure I would have watched the Disney version of Cinderella on repeat if I was ever allowed. This little attachment to my early childhood made me very excited to have to read three  different Cinderella tales. I knew there had been other versions of Cinderella, but I don't think I quite realized the vast number of Cinderella stories from all over the world that exist. This particular picture book, Cinderella by Barbara McClintock, captures the fairy-tale essence from the very start. The cover shows Cinderella wearing a gorgeous ball gown and adorned with flowers in her hair doing a ballet leap down the stairs as she flees at the stroke of midnight (a feat that only those in a fairy tales could actually accomplish without injuring themselves). Even the title page that has a picture of the glass slipper conveys the art of an illuminated manuscript with the fancy lettering and winding embellishments that shows this s

Summer Party  by Cynthia Rylant is a mix between a chapter book and a picture book. It has pictures on every page but yet it is longer than the twenty page typical picture book and is even divided up into chapters.  This book would then be perfect for a little girl who has mastered enough of reading to move beyond simple sentences and to feel more accomplished by reading two-page long chapters. (I say this because the three main characters are girls planning a tea party.  I am by no means though saying only girls should read this book or that little boys would not enjoy it and learn something from it). Unlike in When I was Young in the Mountains , by the same author, Summer Party  has a plot, a driving problem that allows the characters to come together and to solve it. Two sisters and a cousin live with their Aunt Lucy because their parents are on tour as dancers. Immediately, the plot is set into motion when the reader learns that girls' parents are returning which natur

Being in the mountains is one of the most majestic and awe-inspiring places for me as it is filled with the vast expanse of bluish peaks surrounded by a bright blue sky. I love just looking over the vast expanse of land and just contemplating how great and creative my God is. For those reasons, I chose to read When I was Young in the Mountains  as one of the Cynthia Rylant books that I had to read. The book won a Caldecott Honor award, and true to the award the images are beautiful.  They all have muted tones that reflect the mountains of the girl's childhood; brown is a dominant color throughout that speaks to the natural beauty of the mountains. Also the pictures speak of the close relationship between the main character and her younger brother and her grandparents. On the cover, the girl is protectively holding her little brother as they gaze at the stars over their little cabin in the mountains. Throughout the story, little touches of domesticity, like the grandmoth

Fun fact about me:  I have never changed my favorite color. While other people shifted every few years from pink to green to purple and all the other colors in  between, mine has constantly remained red. Perhaps that is what drew me to the wordless book: The Red Book.   Honestly, I admit that at first I was a bit skeptical about the book.  Based on the title and knowing that it was a wordless book, I imagined that it would be one of those books that has shapes and objects that are different colors without any form of a story at all. However, when I first saw the book, I thought surely I would like it (not to mention that it has won a Caldecott Honor award). On the front cover, surrounded completely by a red background, a little girl is running toward the edge of the book.  Her direction and her stride lead the reader to open the book and discover why she is running. The entire book is filled with pictures of this little girl and other such playful animated characters.  Sinc