Final Blog Reflection

Looking back over all of the posts I have done in this blog throughout the semester, I feel a sense of accomplishment. I feel that I know a lot more about children's literature than I did before I took this class and read all of these books, and I think having to blog about what we read made me read the book differently and think more about how I felt about the book.
Being asked to consider whether or not I would use each book I read in my classroom and to critique each book in a blog entry made me a more careful and critical reader. Even though it was sometimes hard to adequately express why I thought a certain book was amazing (or just mediocre) I think it is valuable to always be thinking about what makes certain literature 'good' for children and what I think readers will be able to take away from a book.
Although I did not put as much effort as I would have liked to into every post I feel I was able to gain a better sense of what kind of teacher I want to be through thinking about and explaining which books I think are important enough for my classroom and why.
Because of this class I have become (re) hooked on children's literature. I am currently reading Karen Hesse's novel Stowaway for fun because I enjoyed Out of the Dust so much. After a few weeks of this semester I began to understand how I was able to read a novel nearly every day in elementary school... children's books are so good! Not only are many of them very easy to get into, they also teach readers a lot about pretty much whatever you want to know about... which in my case is anything as long as it's told in an interesting way.

The Fat Can Sat on the Mat by Nurit Karlin

This is an illustrated poem for younger elementary students. It tells the story of a conflict between a cat and a rat that happens while the master of the house, a witch, is away.
The main purpose of this book is to teach simple rhymes and plays on words through pictures and easy to read words. I think children would enjoy this book because of how it sounds when it is read aloud (all the rhyming words make it almost song-like). I would probably keep this book in the classroom but not bother reading aloud to the whole class because although it is somewhat entertaining I don't think it that's special.

I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words by Michael Frith

The text in this book is a long poem with illustrations. It is about a boy imagining what would happen if he taught his dog 100 words. As the dog learns more and more words his fame grows and so does his owners.

This is a good book for early elementary readers. The dog doing things dogs don't normally like painting or driving would probably delight young children while at the same time helping them learn about different actions and what they look like. The dog learns words about colors, times of day, different occupation, etc. This would be a good book to help broaden young children's vocabularies through a catchy poem.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

This is an amazing book about a young girl, Billie Jo, growing up in America during the Dust Bowl of the 1930's. Billie Jo experiences unbelievable hardship and trauma for any person to go through, let alone of a girl of her age. The main event in the book is probably when her mother dies and she must learn to forgive herself and everyone around her for the way hardship touches peoples lives and changes them. Both Billie Jo and her father eventually learn to live again and not give up.

This book is written through a series of poems Billie Jo writes in her diary about her day to day life. Hesse is a master of conveying a lot of emotion through few words. Billie Jo is characterized so well you feel as though you know her, her personality reflects the way people had to react to the dust storms after having their hopes repeatedly dashed. She is very matter of fact but you can feel her dissapointment when things go horrible wrong again and again.

I would definitely use this book in class to help teach about the Dust Bowl and it's impact on people affected by it.

The Lorax by Doctor Seuss

This, like all the books Doctor Seuss wrote for children, is an illustrated rhyme. This is one of Doctor Seuss's most famous books because how cleverly he incorporates themes of environmental degradation into a seemingly simple children's book. The book tells the story of a beautiful paradise, full of wonderful plants and animals. One day a man called the Onceler shows up and begins harvesting the lands key resource, the Truffala Trees. As a result of this the animals are forced to move away and the paradise is eventually destroyed through pollution caused by the Truffala tree factory that converts the trees into a useless thing called a Sneed.

Doctor Seuss is a master of saying a lot and invoking emotion through simple phrases. This book is packed with lessons about things like conservation, empathy, needs vs. wants, etc. I would definitely use this book in my classroom. This book would be great for introducing young readers to environmental issues because it is a easily understandable microcosm of current issues of things like resource management.

The Shut Eye Train by Eugene Fields

This is one of my favorite illustrated poetry books for children. This is because I grew up listening to my dad read me these poems. Most of the poems in this collection are about dreams. The content of the poems will greatly appeal to most children because they are written for children... the poems are about not just good dreams (sugar plum trees, mermaids, etc.) but also nightmares and overactive night time imaginations.

The book is also illustrated with beautiful, enticing colored pencil drawings. I remember getting the book out many times just to look at the pictures of the sugar plum tree and candy raining down on waiting children. I would recommend this book as a bedside read in order to get children excited about the dreams that await them...it certainly worked for me.

Song and Dance man by Karen Ackerman

This Cadecott Medal winner tells the story of a grandpa who used to be a vaudeville song and dance performer. Now instead of performing onstage he performs for his grandchildren in his attic while they wait for dinner. The story is told through the eyes of the three grandchildren. This story is touching because it conveys the splendor of the grandfather's years as a performer. His passion for performing as well as the delight he still brings his audience. The way the grandfather's performance is written about and drawn makes you feel as though you are actually watching him perform. This is a very well written and illustrated story and I would definitely keep it in my classroom.

If America Were a Village by David J. Smith

This is a great book for helping children (and adults) gain a better understanding of America and its people. The book is full of statistics about things like populations, energy use, income, housing, etc. The author symbolizes America's 304 million people by having 1 person represent 3 million people and framing statistics that way. For example instead of saying that there are 250 million Christians in America the book says that out of the village of 100 people 82 of them are Christian. Breaking down statistics in this way makes the information much more easy to process and remember. I would definitely keep this book in my classroom and use it for different units to help students gain a better understanding of what statistics represent.

The Magical Garden of Claude Monet by Laurence Anholt

This is a story about a little girl who spends an afternoon with Claude Monet in the garden where he made many of his famous impressionist paintings. The little girl is based on a real girl who was the daughter of one of Monet's painter friends.
This book would be good to keep in the classroom because it will teach learners about Monet's life and contains several of his paintings. The plot of the story is somewhat cheesy, especially when the flower the little girl loses in Monet's garden in the country shows up outside of her apartment in Paris. Overall I think young readers would enjoy this story and potentially gain an understanding of impressionism through reading it.

There Was an Old Monster by Rebecca, Adrian, and Ed Emberley

This is a short picture book written for early elementary readers. It is a spin on the classic There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly poem. The monster keeps swallowing progressively larger animals in order to catch the tick it swallows in the first place.

This book would probably be entertaining for most young children. The best part about it are the illustrations, which are made from collaging different brightly colored pieces of construction paper.

Blueberies for Sal by Robert McCloskey

This is a somewhat inconsequential picture book written for early/middle elementary readers. Written in 1948 it tells the story of a young boy, Sal, who goes with his mother to pick blueberries. During their blueberry picking Sal gets switched with a young bear cub. Sal follows the mother bear and the bear cub follows Sal's mother. The mothers discover the mistake and pretty soon each finds her own baby.
This story was kind of drab... there was very little excitement in the story and the plot was not very interesting. The only thing I liked about it was the old pictures and the vinagey style of writing. I would probably not bother reading this story to children.

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

The story in this book is told through a series of poems written by a young boy (mid-elementary school). The boy writes about his reactions to different famous poems and writes some poems himself. This book does a great job showing how people's reactions to poetry can change the more they are immersed in it and begin to understand it. It also shows how not all poetry will affect all people but that sometimes you find a poem that really touches you.

The little boy who writes the poems in the book starts out disliking poetry and not understanding the point but gradually begins finding things he likes in poems and writing better poetry himself as a result. The boy is eventually able to express the loss he feels from the death of his dog as well as the happiness his dog brought him through poems. This story of what poetry does for this boy is a microcosm of what poetry does for humanity. I think this would be a great book to use when beginning a unit on poetry with younger kids. Many students seem to have a knee-jerk reaction of disliking poetry but this book can help them on the road to more of an understanding for why people write and read poetry.

The Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi

This is an autobiography written for later elementary/junior high readers from the perspective of a child during and after World War Two. Sook Nyul Choi writes about her experiences as a Korean living in her country under Japanese occupation. It was interesting reading this story after reading So Far from the Bamboo Grove, which is written by a young Japanese girl. Both girls experienced unimaginable horrors and hardships yet were on opposite sides of a battle. Reading these two books together in a unit would help show that in war no side is completely innocent and everyone suffers.

It was interesting how my perspective shifted throughout the book... when I first started reading I was critical of how the author described the Japanese as harsh and was still more on the side of the Japanese. This changed the further I got into the story... both the Koreans and the Japanese were guilty of horrible atrocities and it seems the real war was between the victims who happened to be living in the wrong place and the governments and generals who were giving the orders.