A. Montgomery, Sy. THE TARANTULA SCIENTIST. Photographs by Nic Bishop. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
B. SUMMARY: Montgomery chronicles the study and travel of scientist Sam Marshall and his love of the many types of tarantulas and their environs.
C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
80 Pages of WOW! TARANTUAL SCIENTIST is one of those kinds of books. The kind of book that you might find a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th grader fighting for the last copy on the shelf. And the fight would be over who could get their hands on the book first for a pleasure read. Though a great aid for a school report on spiders, tarantulas, French Guiana, rain forests, or modern scientists this book will circulate mainly for its extraordinary high definition colors and details in photo and in text. Nic Bishop has outdone himself with these photographs!
The format of the book is unique and is very well organized. My only complaint is that there is no table of contents in a book of many chapters. The book begins with a double page spread of Central America with a focus on locating French Guiana. From there we have intriguing writing in each cleverly named chapter: Queen of the Jungle, When is a Tarantula a Tarantula?, Science and Spiders, Secrets of the Burrow, Arachnids All Around, Expedition to Les Grottes, Got Silk?, Hairy Mats and Hissing Fits, Tarantula Frontiers, Elle Est Belle, le Monstre.
Many things work together to make this volume special. Sometimes little things really mean a lot and that is certainly the case here. So many little things go together to make a very good book an extraordinary one. Dark rust orange is used as the background for each titled section. White letters are used over the orange color. Each picture description uses the same dark rust orange lettering. It would have been so easy to use black but the book producers wanted the photo captions to stand out from the normal text.
The text is written in a fluid narrative. It teaches more than a textbook could and the language skills of the author prove that writing is truly an art form. Montgomery helps us understand things we may never see; taste, or touch, maybe even things we never knew existed such as the pet spider of Dr. Sam Marshall, Clarabelle. Montgomery’s luminous style is showcased will on page 42, “Meet Clarabelle. She’s a black haired beauty who looks as if she’s just had a French pedicure. At the ends of her long legs her toes are tipped in pink…………one of the very first tarantulas (pinktoes) described by Western scientists. The gentle pinktoes were originally tree dwelling forest tarantulas, but these days they’re happy to build their silky retreats in the eves of houses, in shrubs, and in the tube-like curves of pineapple leaves on plantations, too. Clarabelle lives in the curled leaves of a potted plant that sits on the veranda.”
An other worldly picture of Scientist Sam in the middle of the rain forest looking upwards in contemplation is truly worth a thousand words. Simply the act of teaching a student how much one man loves his job is worth everything, whatever the job. The caption Montgomery writes to the Sam in the rain forest picture, “The diversity of life in the rainforest gives Sam pause to wonder. A huge and ancient tree like the one he is resting on may harbor more types of ants, beetles, spiders, and other small creatures than the whole 260 acres of forest at the Barrow Field Station that Sam looks after in Ohio.”
The writing is certainly clear and lively and Montgomery never talks down to his audience but treats them with respect. From a page full of molted tarantula skins to the selenocosmia tarantula using silk to make a waterproof, tough case for her new eggs to the Avicularia. “When a tree-dwelling Avicularia tarantula molts, it fist opens a large silken hammock, suspended inside its retreat. Then it lies back in comfort to shed its old skin. The spider’s fangs are as white as walrus tusks after molting, but they soon darken like those on the old skin.”
It is easy to see why this title was a Robert F. Siebert honor book. I’m going to look up the winner!
D. REVIEW EXCERPTS:
School Library Journal suggests:
“Grade 5-10-Superb color photos abound in this spectacular series addition. Readers follow the career of Sam Marshall, tarantula scientist extraordinaire, from his "Spider Lab" at Hiram College in Ohio to the rain forests of French Guiana as he hunts for, finds, and studies the creatures he loves so well. The conversational text contains as much spider lore as scientific investigation and provides a cheerful look at a dedicated scientist. (The fact that he did not do well in school may encourage those late bloomers who have not yet found their passion in life or believe it to be far beyond their academic grasp.) Informative, yes, but even more important, this is a vivid look at an enthusiastic scientist energetically and happily at work, both in the field and in the lab, questioning, examining, testing, and making connections. A treat, even for arachnophobes.”
Booklist opines,
“Gr. 4-7. Montgomery and Bishop, who worked together on Snake Scientist (1999), team up once again to deliver another fascinating slice of the natural world. This time they venture to the French Guiana rain forest, where they follow arachnologist Sam Marshall on his quest for his favorite quarry: tarantulas. Enthusiasm for the subject and respect for both Marshall and his eight-legged subjects come through on every page of the clear, informative, and even occasionally humorous text. Bishop's full-color photos, which concentrate on detail, not scale, are amazing--Marshall coaxing an elusive tarantula into the open or bringing readers literally face-to-face with a hairy spider. The section on students' research seems tacked on, but it adds an interesting sidelight to the book, which is longer and richer in both text and illustrations than others in the Scientists in the Field series. Readers will come away armed with facts about spiders in general and tarantulas in particular, but even more important, they'll have a clear understanding of how the answers derived from research become the roots of new, intriguing questions.”
Reviews taken from:
http://www.amazon.com/TARANTULA-SCIENTIST-Scientists-Field/dp/061891577X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193460175&sr=1-1
E. CONNECTIONS:
The most obvious choice would be to read the next Montgomery and Bishop duet in the SCIENTIST IN THE FIELD SERIES entitled THE SNAKE SCIENTIST. Donna M. Jackson has written a similar book called THE BUG SCIENTIST.
Friday, October 26, 2007
LS 5603 LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
REVIEW OF CATS
A. Simon, Seymour. CATS. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.
B. SUMMARY: Simon gives us another high caliber Informational Picture Book. Included are 36 show stopping photographs one of which is Simon’s own house cat, Mittens, one of two feral cats he has adopted and lovingly spoiled. The volume is not a how to book for pet care but a story of cats. While the focus is on pet cats a short history of cats is included as well.
C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
As a lover of cats and cat picture books for as long as I can remember I have never seen one with more intriguing photographs or better text for elementary school children. Many middle school children would enjoy this as well.
Simon begins with the compare and contrast technique by talking about cats and feline behavior and contrasting that with the family dog. A bit of cat history from Egypt to Siam, to Europe in the Middle Ages and the introduction of cats in the New World by American colonists in the 1600s.
The writing style is crisp and approachable. The design of the book is eye catching and the pictures play an equal part to the text. A full spread page is devoted to cat jumping, climbing, landing on all fours, and flexibility. One side features a tuxedo cat who literally looks as if she is taking the plunge from a high dive at the pool. The opposite page with text has a clever vertical picture of the same cat in 5 different frames from the first jump, midair, flipping, and landing.
Simon debunks the myth that cats can see as well in the dark as the light and mentions curious facts that youngsters will enjoy such as the function of kitty whiskers, whether dogs or cats are the most finicky eaters. The pages describing the cat’s sensory powers and their uses is very well done.
A book like this can not be complete with out photos about Mama cats and baby cats, of nursing kittens and birth. Three oversized pictures will make this an especially favorite part of the book. The orange tabby nursing 5 kittens of which only one is orange and that orange baby has his arms around a black tabby as he tries to protect his place at the teat. This is a question I will write the author about. I have heard all my life that all orange tabbies are female and I’ve had several orange boys as well as following Garfield. This picture puts stands that myth on it’s head. The classic silver tabby on the following page nursing a brood of solid black kitties is charming. Another photo on that spread shows the Mama cat caring for one the individual kittens at the moment of birth. The text is just as well done as those photos and children will take note of the language, “A kitten is born in a cloudy white sac filled with fluid. The mother licks each newborn kitten, breaks the sac, and removes the fluid from its face. Licking makes the kitten start to breathe.” The story gets a bit more scientific which will delight many children…….”The mother also bites through the umbilicus (the cord that carried food to the fetus and took away its waste while it was inside the mother.) Even a first time mother cat seems to know exactly what to do. Right away, the newborn kittens suckle milk from their mother. She purrs and nuzzles them as they feed.”
This volume would be a good read aloud for storytime in the media center. I would sit children in a circle with teacher or media specialist also on the perimeter of the circle in a rocking chair. When showing pictures to kids to your left, then center then back around to the right be sure to go very slowly for there is much to see, interpret, and enjoy. The shared experience would lend itself to a discussion afterwards of which part of the book they enjoyed the best, what one new fact did they learn from the reading, which breed of cat had they heard of previously, etc.
The language of the book is age appropriate and the style of writing is smoothly flowing and engaging.
The facts in the book are accurate and can easily be checked in similar books in the 636 section of the library or media center. Mr. Simon does a good job of showing the similarities and differences of wild and pet cats.
The pet cat coverage is made more comprehensive as Simon discusses many different breeds such as: British Shorthair, Siamese, Persian, Angora, Balinese, mixed breeds and feral. He again uses the contrast and compare technique quite successfully with purebred and mixed breed cats and also longhaired and shorthaired cats.
D. Review Excerpts:
Booklist critique: “ Gr. 2-3, younger for reading aloud. There are other books about these popular pets, but most are for older children. Here, Simon writes crisply for a young audience, who will eagerly turn the pages to see the next endearing color photograph… Simon's always lucid prose is matched by sharp photos, most of which fill up the pages. An attractive way to introduce children to nonfiction. “
REVIEW TAKEN FROM:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0060289406/ref=dp_proddesc_0/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
E. CONNECTIONS:
Most children will enjoy other books in this Seymour Simon series such as DOGS, HORSES, and WILD BABIES. I also very much enjoyed the WILD BEARS book from the author’s See More Readers series.
A. Simon, Seymour. CATS. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.
B. SUMMARY: Simon gives us another high caliber Informational Picture Book. Included are 36 show stopping photographs one of which is Simon’s own house cat, Mittens, one of two feral cats he has adopted and lovingly spoiled. The volume is not a how to book for pet care but a story of cats. While the focus is on pet cats a short history of cats is included as well.
C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
As a lover of cats and cat picture books for as long as I can remember I have never seen one with more intriguing photographs or better text for elementary school children. Many middle school children would enjoy this as well.
Simon begins with the compare and contrast technique by talking about cats and feline behavior and contrasting that with the family dog. A bit of cat history from Egypt to Siam, to Europe in the Middle Ages and the introduction of cats in the New World by American colonists in the 1600s.
The writing style is crisp and approachable. The design of the book is eye catching and the pictures play an equal part to the text. A full spread page is devoted to cat jumping, climbing, landing on all fours, and flexibility. One side features a tuxedo cat who literally looks as if she is taking the plunge from a high dive at the pool. The opposite page with text has a clever vertical picture of the same cat in 5 different frames from the first jump, midair, flipping, and landing.
Simon debunks the myth that cats can see as well in the dark as the light and mentions curious facts that youngsters will enjoy such as the function of kitty whiskers, whether dogs or cats are the most finicky eaters. The pages describing the cat’s sensory powers and their uses is very well done.
A book like this can not be complete with out photos about Mama cats and baby cats, of nursing kittens and birth. Three oversized pictures will make this an especially favorite part of the book. The orange tabby nursing 5 kittens of which only one is orange and that orange baby has his arms around a black tabby as he tries to protect his place at the teat. This is a question I will write the author about. I have heard all my life that all orange tabbies are female and I’ve had several orange boys as well as following Garfield. This picture puts stands that myth on it’s head. The classic silver tabby on the following page nursing a brood of solid black kitties is charming. Another photo on that spread shows the Mama cat caring for one the individual kittens at the moment of birth. The text is just as well done as those photos and children will take note of the language, “A kitten is born in a cloudy white sac filled with fluid. The mother licks each newborn kitten, breaks the sac, and removes the fluid from its face. Licking makes the kitten start to breathe.” The story gets a bit more scientific which will delight many children…….”The mother also bites through the umbilicus (the cord that carried food to the fetus and took away its waste while it was inside the mother.) Even a first time mother cat seems to know exactly what to do. Right away, the newborn kittens suckle milk from their mother. She purrs and nuzzles them as they feed.”
This volume would be a good read aloud for storytime in the media center. I would sit children in a circle with teacher or media specialist also on the perimeter of the circle in a rocking chair. When showing pictures to kids to your left, then center then back around to the right be sure to go very slowly for there is much to see, interpret, and enjoy. The shared experience would lend itself to a discussion afterwards of which part of the book they enjoyed the best, what one new fact did they learn from the reading, which breed of cat had they heard of previously, etc.
The language of the book is age appropriate and the style of writing is smoothly flowing and engaging.
The facts in the book are accurate and can easily be checked in similar books in the 636 section of the library or media center. Mr. Simon does a good job of showing the similarities and differences of wild and pet cats.
The pet cat coverage is made more comprehensive as Simon discusses many different breeds such as: British Shorthair, Siamese, Persian, Angora, Balinese, mixed breeds and feral. He again uses the contrast and compare technique quite successfully with purebred and mixed breed cats and also longhaired and shorthaired cats.
D. Review Excerpts:
Booklist critique: “ Gr. 2-3, younger for reading aloud. There are other books about these popular pets, but most are for older children. Here, Simon writes crisply for a young audience, who will eagerly turn the pages to see the next endearing color photograph… Simon's always lucid prose is matched by sharp photos, most of which fill up the pages. An attractive way to introduce children to nonfiction. “
REVIEW TAKEN FROM:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0060289406/ref=dp_proddesc_0/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
E. CONNECTIONS:
Most children will enjoy other books in this Seymour Simon series such as DOGS, HORSES, and WILD BABIES. I also very much enjoyed the WILD BEARS book from the author’s See More Readers series.
LS 5603 LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
REVIEW OF HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER'S SHADOW
A. Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER'S SHADOW. New York: Scholastic, 2005.
B. PLOT SUMMARY: By intermingling the coming of age stories of twelve young people and ten families with the condition of Germany and the first rumblings of Adolf Hitler in 1926 through the take over by the National Socialist (Nazi) Party in 1933 and the years of the Third Reich through the Holocaust 1935 and liberation in 1945 Bartoletti writes a compelling story that no one from grade 3 to adult should be allowed to miss.
I mention the names of the twelve young people because they are worthy of merit and note and should not be forgotten no matter their role in the now infamous period of history:
Alfons Heck, Helmuth Hubener, Dagabert (Bert) Lewyn, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, Elisabeth Yetter, Rudolf (Rudi) Wobbe, Melita Maschmann, Henry Metelmann, Herbert Norkus, Inge, Hans, and Sophie Scholl.
C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND REVIEW: This oversized book could actually be called a photo essay. The pictures and text are inseparable. Informational books are chiefly used to teach and while this is an educational volume the mesmerizing style of writing is more compelling than most volumes of fiction. The subject matter is provocative and the details are highly developed to catch the reader’s interest. If the subject matter and photographs are not enough to catch the rare dullard’s interest the writing style, heavy with personal vignettes of young people will do the trick in a matter of a few pages.
The design is attractive and engaging. The photos of the 12 young people featured in the book are displayed in the front with photos that look the exact size of a school photo that would fill up a yearbook or a wallet. Little details such as these are a special draw to young people because the format is recognizable. As an adult the sense of design is equally compelling. The first photograph that I still find unfathomable is a page sized photo on page 41 of 5, 6, and 7 year old girls in white dresses bordered by their young female teachers in white dresses as they mouth the words “Heil, Hitler” and deliver the Nazi salute in an open cobblestone square. That pure evil could confuse and corrupt children this small, this tender and young is made more believable by the photo. The caption under this surreal photograph details that Hitler asked the youth to “use his name in their prayers.”
The front cover is certainly effective and compelling with a nose down photo of Adolf Hitler with his arm around what appears to be an early middle school student in full dress uniform. The back cover however draws me in more through words than pictures with the quote: “I begin with the young. We older ones are used up….But my magnificent youngsters! Look at these men and boys! What material! With them, I can create a new world.” And he almost did. This must certainly count as one of the most documented cases of exploitation in world history.
The compelling details continue page after page, chapter after chapter. One of the most poignant parts of the story tells of the bravery of the White Rose resistance movement. Started by teens Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst they are caught, tried, and condemned to die. That the guillotine was still used was an unknown fact to this adult reader. I associated the guillotine with an earlier and more primitive time in history picturing King Louie XVI and the French Revolution.
The personalized accounts add much to the book and the fascinating and rather macabre comparison of the typical German student to the three beheaded students was used most effectively.
The book’s dates and historical occurrences can be corroborated in other books about the same era in history, and from primary sources. The wealth of pictures used in the book were taken from credible sources such as The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The National Archives, the online photographic collection of The Library of Congress and Berlin’s Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz. The author is careful to give a photographer credit for each photograph that can be documented.
I see the book as a hybrid being at once a book of “Journals and Interviews”, “Traditional Chapter Book Format”, and “Informational Picture Books.” Such a superb book can only rarely fit into stereotypical pigeon holes.
The three young adults were beheaded by the guillotine as noted in the following text, “Immediately after the trial, Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst were led to the execution room in Stadelheim prison and beheaded. The prison warden reported that the three young people bore themselves with marvelous bravery. “They were led off, the girl first,” said the warden. “She want without the flicker of an eyelash. None of us understood how this could be possible. The executioner said he had never seen anyone meet his end as she did,” I immediately began to think of the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots ordered by Elizabeth the first. Surely Sophie was equally brave.
The text continues, “Just before Hans placed his head on the guillotine block, he shouted out, “Long live freedom!” The words rang throughout the huge prison.” Upon reading this I could only think of William Wallace as portrayed in the movie “Braveheart.” We hear as we finish reading the chapter that less than 2 hours after the “White Rose” beheadings that students from the University of Munich led a pro-Nazi demonstration condemning the students. Sophie had hoped and believed the students would be stirred to action against the Nazis.
Intriguing details appear throughout the text. A fact that was very eye opening to me and I imagine would very much intrigue a young boy is how the very young males were 9/10ths of the Nazi military force. A great example is how a cadre of 14 and 15 year old boys worked day and night to dig a type of ditch or trench around Berlin that was 18 feet wide and 15 feet deep. Their hard work and sleepless nights kept out all enemy tanks and machinery.
D. Review Excerpts:
School Library Journal notes, (Starred Review) Grade 5-8–Hitler's plans for the future of Germany relied significantly on its young people, and this excellent history shows how he attempted to carry out his mission with the establishment of the Hitler Youth, or Hitlerjugend, in 1926. With a focus on the years between 1933 and the end of the war in 1945, Bartoletti explains the roles that millions of boys and girls unwittingly played in the horrors of the Third Reich.
Booklist states,
*Starred Review* Gr. 7-10. “What was it like to be a teenager in Germany under Hitler? Bartoletti draws on oral histories, diaries, letters, and her own extensive interviews with Holocaust survivors, Hitler Youth, resisters, and bystanders to tell the history from the viewpoints of people who were there. Most of the accounts and photos bring close the experiences of those who followed Hitler and fought for the Nazis, revealing why they joined, how Hitler used them, what it was like…..the stirring photos tell more of the story. One particularly moving picture shows young Germans undergoing de-Nazification by watching images of people in the camps. The handsome book design, with black-and-white historical photos on every double-page spread, will draw in readers and help spark deep discussion, which will extend beyond the Holocaust curriculum. The extensive back matter is a part of the gripping narrative. “
Reviews from:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0439353793/ref=dp_proddesc_0/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
Connections:
A book about one of the teens mentioned in the above is SOPHIE SCHOLL AND THE WHITE ROSE RESISTANCE by Jud Newborn and Annette Dumbach.
Another book for young people about Hitler’s Germany is Eleanor Ayer’s PARALLEL JOURNEY.
For a student that likes informational history volumes in general I would heartily recommend the Newbery winner by the same author: BLACK POTATOES: THE STORY OF THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE, 1845-1850.
A. Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER'S SHADOW. New York: Scholastic, 2005.
B. PLOT SUMMARY: By intermingling the coming of age stories of twelve young people and ten families with the condition of Germany and the first rumblings of Adolf Hitler in 1926 through the take over by the National Socialist (Nazi) Party in 1933 and the years of the Third Reich through the Holocaust 1935 and liberation in 1945 Bartoletti writes a compelling story that no one from grade 3 to adult should be allowed to miss.
I mention the names of the twelve young people because they are worthy of merit and note and should not be forgotten no matter their role in the now infamous period of history:
Alfons Heck, Helmuth Hubener, Dagabert (Bert) Lewyn, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, Elisabeth Yetter, Rudolf (Rudi) Wobbe, Melita Maschmann, Henry Metelmann, Herbert Norkus, Inge, Hans, and Sophie Scholl.
C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND REVIEW: This oversized book could actually be called a photo essay. The pictures and text are inseparable. Informational books are chiefly used to teach and while this is an educational volume the mesmerizing style of writing is more compelling than most volumes of fiction. The subject matter is provocative and the details are highly developed to catch the reader’s interest. If the subject matter and photographs are not enough to catch the rare dullard’s interest the writing style, heavy with personal vignettes of young people will do the trick in a matter of a few pages.
The design is attractive and engaging. The photos of the 12 young people featured in the book are displayed in the front with photos that look the exact size of a school photo that would fill up a yearbook or a wallet. Little details such as these are a special draw to young people because the format is recognizable. As an adult the sense of design is equally compelling. The first photograph that I still find unfathomable is a page sized photo on page 41 of 5, 6, and 7 year old girls in white dresses bordered by their young female teachers in white dresses as they mouth the words “Heil, Hitler” and deliver the Nazi salute in an open cobblestone square. That pure evil could confuse and corrupt children this small, this tender and young is made more believable by the photo. The caption under this surreal photograph details that Hitler asked the youth to “use his name in their prayers.”
The front cover is certainly effective and compelling with a nose down photo of Adolf Hitler with his arm around what appears to be an early middle school student in full dress uniform. The back cover however draws me in more through words than pictures with the quote: “I begin with the young. We older ones are used up….But my magnificent youngsters! Look at these men and boys! What material! With them, I can create a new world.” And he almost did. This must certainly count as one of the most documented cases of exploitation in world history.
The compelling details continue page after page, chapter after chapter. One of the most poignant parts of the story tells of the bravery of the White Rose resistance movement. Started by teens Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst they are caught, tried, and condemned to die. That the guillotine was still used was an unknown fact to this adult reader. I associated the guillotine with an earlier and more primitive time in history picturing King Louie XVI and the French Revolution.
The personalized accounts add much to the book and the fascinating and rather macabre comparison of the typical German student to the three beheaded students was used most effectively.
The book’s dates and historical occurrences can be corroborated in other books about the same era in history, and from primary sources. The wealth of pictures used in the book were taken from credible sources such as The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The National Archives, the online photographic collection of The Library of Congress and Berlin’s Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz. The author is careful to give a photographer credit for each photograph that can be documented.
I see the book as a hybrid being at once a book of “Journals and Interviews”, “Traditional Chapter Book Format”, and “Informational Picture Books.” Such a superb book can only rarely fit into stereotypical pigeon holes.
The three young adults were beheaded by the guillotine as noted in the following text, “Immediately after the trial, Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst were led to the execution room in Stadelheim prison and beheaded. The prison warden reported that the three young people bore themselves with marvelous bravery. “They were led off, the girl first,” said the warden. “She want without the flicker of an eyelash. None of us understood how this could be possible. The executioner said he had never seen anyone meet his end as she did,” I immediately began to think of the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots ordered by Elizabeth the first. Surely Sophie was equally brave.
The text continues, “Just before Hans placed his head on the guillotine block, he shouted out, “Long live freedom!” The words rang throughout the huge prison.” Upon reading this I could only think of William Wallace as portrayed in the movie “Braveheart.” We hear as we finish reading the chapter that less than 2 hours after the “White Rose” beheadings that students from the University of Munich led a pro-Nazi demonstration condemning the students. Sophie had hoped and believed the students would be stirred to action against the Nazis.
Intriguing details appear throughout the text. A fact that was very eye opening to me and I imagine would very much intrigue a young boy is how the very young males were 9/10ths of the Nazi military force. A great example is how a cadre of 14 and 15 year old boys worked day and night to dig a type of ditch or trench around Berlin that was 18 feet wide and 15 feet deep. Their hard work and sleepless nights kept out all enemy tanks and machinery.
D. Review Excerpts:
School Library Journal notes, (Starred Review) Grade 5-8–Hitler's plans for the future of Germany relied significantly on its young people, and this excellent history shows how he attempted to carry out his mission with the establishment of the Hitler Youth, or Hitlerjugend, in 1926. With a focus on the years between 1933 and the end of the war in 1945, Bartoletti explains the roles that millions of boys and girls unwittingly played in the horrors of the Third Reich.
Booklist states,
*Starred Review* Gr. 7-10. “What was it like to be a teenager in Germany under Hitler? Bartoletti draws on oral histories, diaries, letters, and her own extensive interviews with Holocaust survivors, Hitler Youth, resisters, and bystanders to tell the history from the viewpoints of people who were there. Most of the accounts and photos bring close the experiences of those who followed Hitler and fought for the Nazis, revealing why they joined, how Hitler used them, what it was like…..the stirring photos tell more of the story. One particularly moving picture shows young Germans undergoing de-Nazification by watching images of people in the camps. The handsome book design, with black-and-white historical photos on every double-page spread, will draw in readers and help spark deep discussion, which will extend beyond the Holocaust curriculum. The extensive back matter is a part of the gripping narrative. “
Reviews from:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0439353793/ref=dp_proddesc_0/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
Connections:
A book about one of the teens mentioned in the above is SOPHIE SCHOLL AND THE WHITE ROSE RESISTANCE by Jud Newborn and Annette Dumbach.
Another book for young people about Hitler’s Germany is Eleanor Ayer’s PARALLEL JOURNEY.
For a student that likes informational history volumes in general I would heartily recommend the Newbery winner by the same author: BLACK POTATOES: THE STORY OF THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE, 1845-1850.
Friday, October 12, 2007
LS 5603 LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
Review of WITNESS:
A. Hesse, Karen. WITNESS. New York: Scholastic, 2001.
B. PLOT SUMMARY: Newbery Award winner Hesse explores small town life in a Vermont village in 1924. The tale is based on a true story and contains old black and white photos of all twelve characters. Hesse explores the day to day and the terrifying. She writes of the bond between an African American girl, Leanora Sutter age 12 and Esther Hirsch, a Jewish girl of 6 who have both lost their mothers early in life. From moonshine to the Ku Klux Klan Hesse does a notable job in bringing this painfully realistic story to life.
C. LITERARY MERIT AND CULTURAL MARKERS:
The story is related through a five act play written in verse. The typesetting is small, sparse and only printed in lower case letters. The poetry is a narrative told back and forth between members of the rural community. Poem pages have one to five verses on each page and resonate like natural speech. The book is the winner of a Christopher Award. The tale is both compelling and sickening but something that adults and children must investigate to help keep similar atrocities from happening again. Hesse’s stepbrother was a parent at my elementary media center so I know she is a Jewish American. She strives to tell the tale, however, in a dispassionate voice without sentimentality or judgement of the situation, leaving the reader to access and follow the situation in their own way. This adds much credibility to the story and illustrates the innate dignity that Hesse believes is everyone’s due in fiction and in real life. The book is a grand accomplishment on a multitude of levels. Many people today, even in the rural south and probably in rural Vermont too have had no first hand experience of burning crosses and the KKK. Told in a low key, droll manner it makes the text even more effective. Very unusual. Very moving. Very insightful peck into human nature with no characters portrayed as 100% good or 100% evil.
This is a book I will read more than once.
D. REVIEW EXCERPTS:
VOYA weighs in:
Using poetic form with no capitalization allows Hesse to crystallize the voices of her eleven characters. Each speaks from his or her personal experiences of fears and prejudices. This lyric work is another fine achievement from one of young adult literature's best authors. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P M J (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal
PUBLISHER WEEKLY suggests:
"Hesse weaves together 11 distinct narrative voices to create a moving account of the Ku Klux Klan's encroachment on a small Vermont town in 1924. Told completely in verse, her quietly powerful novel addresses the inevitable loss of innocence that accompanies the fight for social justice." Ages 9-12.
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL comments:
The presentation concludes with a fascinating interview between historian and critic Leonard Marcus and Karen Hesse in which she discusses her work and how she came to write her latest novel in verse
REVIEWS ACCESSED FROM:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780439272001&itm=2
CONNECTIONS:
There has never been a better Karen Hesse book to me than LETTER’S FROM RIVKA which also explorers the theme of being Jewish and becoming a Jewish American citizen. The book is also reminiscent of SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY. Elie Weisel’s historical fiction would be a very good follow up as well as a Mildred Taylor selection.
A. Hesse, Karen. WITNESS. New York: Scholastic, 2001.
B. PLOT SUMMARY: Newbery Award winner Hesse explores small town life in a Vermont village in 1924. The tale is based on a true story and contains old black and white photos of all twelve characters. Hesse explores the day to day and the terrifying. She writes of the bond between an African American girl, Leanora Sutter age 12 and Esther Hirsch, a Jewish girl of 6 who have both lost their mothers early in life. From moonshine to the Ku Klux Klan Hesse does a notable job in bringing this painfully realistic story to life.
C. LITERARY MERIT AND CULTURAL MARKERS:
The story is related through a five act play written in verse. The typesetting is small, sparse and only printed in lower case letters. The poetry is a narrative told back and forth between members of the rural community. Poem pages have one to five verses on each page and resonate like natural speech. The book is the winner of a Christopher Award. The tale is both compelling and sickening but something that adults and children must investigate to help keep similar atrocities from happening again. Hesse’s stepbrother was a parent at my elementary media center so I know she is a Jewish American. She strives to tell the tale, however, in a dispassionate voice without sentimentality or judgement of the situation, leaving the reader to access and follow the situation in their own way. This adds much credibility to the story and illustrates the innate dignity that Hesse believes is everyone’s due in fiction and in real life. The book is a grand accomplishment on a multitude of levels. Many people today, even in the rural south and probably in rural Vermont too have had no first hand experience of burning crosses and the KKK. Told in a low key, droll manner it makes the text even more effective. Very unusual. Very moving. Very insightful peck into human nature with no characters portrayed as 100% good or 100% evil.
This is a book I will read more than once.
D. REVIEW EXCERPTS:
VOYA weighs in:
Using poetic form with no capitalization allows Hesse to crystallize the voices of her eleven characters. Each speaks from his or her personal experiences of fears and prejudices. This lyric work is another fine achievement from one of young adult literature's best authors. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P M J (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal
PUBLISHER WEEKLY suggests:
"Hesse weaves together 11 distinct narrative voices to create a moving account of the Ku Klux Klan's encroachment on a small Vermont town in 1924. Told completely in verse, her quietly powerful novel addresses the inevitable loss of innocence that accompanies the fight for social justice." Ages 9-12.
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL comments:
The presentation concludes with a fascinating interview between historian and critic Leonard Marcus and Karen Hesse in which she discusses her work and how she came to write her latest novel in verse
REVIEWS ACCESSED FROM:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780439272001&itm=2
CONNECTIONS:
There has never been a better Karen Hesse book to me than LETTER’S FROM RIVKA which also explorers the theme of being Jewish and becoming a Jewish American citizen. The book is also reminiscent of SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY. Elie Weisel’s historical fiction would be a very good follow up as well as a Mildred Taylor selection.
LS 5603 LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
Review of WHAT IS GOODBYE?
A. Grimes, Nikki. WHAT IS GOODBYE? Illustrated by Raul Colon. New York: Hyperion, 2004.
B. Summary and Impressions. Plot is really not applicable to much poetry but it is the centerpiece of this novella in verse. Each page has one poem and they all have their own title but the volume is totally built around one truth. Jaron is dead and he has left a younger brother and sister and two wounded parents behind. The book takes the reader through the first year of family life without Jaron
C. Literary Merit:
This is a strong and powerful book about people who have become so weak their knees want to buckle. Grimes writes with such insight and detail that one is not surprised to find in her introduction and author’s note that she lost her own father at the tender age of fifteen.
Grimes has done a big service to children who have lost someone in their household at a very early age and also the parents, teachers, counselors and clergymen that aim to help these young and impressionable children to heal and move forward.
The artwork appears surreal and sepia colored. Colon chooses almost exclusively blues, greens, and golds. For a young person the pictures are very helpful and add much. Most of the illustrations show the facial expressions of Jesse and Jerilyn as they pass through many different stages of grief. The book would work as well for adults with or without the pictures in my view. The cover however is extreme in it’s beauty with blue teal and aged tomato red backgrounds and the troubled faces of a young boy and girl the size of three postage stamps in the top middle third of the book. In the right corner of the picture of the children is a black bird faced diagonally forward. Whether the bird is a crow or raven the symbolism of death will be familiar to many with previous exposure to myths, legends of many cultures.
The book can be seen as a poetic version of the groundbreaking ON DEATH AND DYING by Elisabeth Kubler Ross. The stages are laid out and as is common and very realistic the siblings move back and forth between the stages. They dream of Jaron. They don’t know how to make their Dad smile or their Mom stop crying and hold their hands. From disbelief, to anger, and acceptance this volume gives anyone much to think about but would certainly be a superior addition to bibliotherapy tools, especially for younger readers. Middle school and high school students would not protest about the simplicity of the book because it resonates deeply early on. There are both rhyming stanzas and free verse in this moving volume. Should be in every grade school library or media center collection as well as neighborhood public libraries.
One of the more poignant lines in the volume for me is this:
“What is goodbye?
Where is the good in it?
One leaves
and many hearts
are broken.
There must be
a better arithmetic
somewhere.”
The book is certainly worthy of a medal or high honor both for its quality and subject matter.
REVIEW EXCERPTS:
BOOKLIST opines: Grimes often chooses rhymed couplets for Jesse's voice, and the singsong sounds and tight rhythm create a young tone that's indicative of Jesse's age but, nonetheless, feels distractingly at odds with the somber subject and raw emotions--feelings that Grimes gets just right. Moving and wise, these are poems that beautifully capture a family's heartache as well as the bewildering questions that death brings, and they reinforce the message in Grimes' warm author's note: "There's no right or wrong way to feel when someone close to you dies." Recommended for Grades 4-8.
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL comments: Grade 3-8–Grimes's novella in verse is a prime example of how poetry and story can be combined to extend one another. When their brother dies, Jerilyn and Jesse cope with the anger, confusion, and the silence that grief brings to their family. Jesse's rhyming verse faces his older sister's free-verse comments on her experiences. When Jesse hits a home run in a league game soon after his brother's death, he glows, "I took off around the field,/legs pumping like lightning!/I slid into home plate clean./Man, I'm so cool,/I'm frightening!/...What am I supposed to do,/spend each minute crying?/I wish I could please you, Mom,/but I'm sick of trying." Jerilyn muses, "It's his right to smile,/isn't it?/To be delirious?/So what if I don't understand?/This ghost town,/draped in shadow,/is desperate for/a few more watts of light." Grimes handles these two voices fluently and lucidly, shaping her characters through her form. Colón's paintings in muted colors combine imagism with realism to create an emotional dreamscape on nearly every page. The clean design combined with the book's short, easy pace and small size give readers a comfortable place from which to listen to the characters as they make their way from "Getting the News" to "Anniversary," and finally to "Ordinary Days." The book closes with a poem in two voices, and Jesse and Jerilyn come together for a new family photograph. "Smile!"–and readers will. Fans of Vera B. Williams's Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart (Greenwillow, 2001) will appreciate this powerful title.–
REVIEWS ACCESSED FROM:
http://www.amazon.com/What-Goodbye-Nikki-Grimes/dp/0786807784/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192246866&sr=8-1
CONNECTIONS:
The book that immediately comes to mind is Charlotte Zolotow’s MY GRANDSON LEW. Not many books could ever top that one for any age as mother and child grieve for the loss of a father and grandfather.
A. Grimes, Nikki. WHAT IS GOODBYE? Illustrated by Raul Colon. New York: Hyperion, 2004.
B. Summary and Impressions. Plot is really not applicable to much poetry but it is the centerpiece of this novella in verse. Each page has one poem and they all have their own title but the volume is totally built around one truth. Jaron is dead and he has left a younger brother and sister and two wounded parents behind. The book takes the reader through the first year of family life without Jaron
C. Literary Merit:
This is a strong and powerful book about people who have become so weak their knees want to buckle. Grimes writes with such insight and detail that one is not surprised to find in her introduction and author’s note that she lost her own father at the tender age of fifteen.
Grimes has done a big service to children who have lost someone in their household at a very early age and also the parents, teachers, counselors and clergymen that aim to help these young and impressionable children to heal and move forward.
The artwork appears surreal and sepia colored. Colon chooses almost exclusively blues, greens, and golds. For a young person the pictures are very helpful and add much. Most of the illustrations show the facial expressions of Jesse and Jerilyn as they pass through many different stages of grief. The book would work as well for adults with or without the pictures in my view. The cover however is extreme in it’s beauty with blue teal and aged tomato red backgrounds and the troubled faces of a young boy and girl the size of three postage stamps in the top middle third of the book. In the right corner of the picture of the children is a black bird faced diagonally forward. Whether the bird is a crow or raven the symbolism of death will be familiar to many with previous exposure to myths, legends of many cultures.
The book can be seen as a poetic version of the groundbreaking ON DEATH AND DYING by Elisabeth Kubler Ross. The stages are laid out and as is common and very realistic the siblings move back and forth between the stages. They dream of Jaron. They don’t know how to make their Dad smile or their Mom stop crying and hold their hands. From disbelief, to anger, and acceptance this volume gives anyone much to think about but would certainly be a superior addition to bibliotherapy tools, especially for younger readers. Middle school and high school students would not protest about the simplicity of the book because it resonates deeply early on. There are both rhyming stanzas and free verse in this moving volume. Should be in every grade school library or media center collection as well as neighborhood public libraries.
One of the more poignant lines in the volume for me is this:
“What is goodbye?
Where is the good in it?
One leaves
and many hearts
are broken.
There must be
a better arithmetic
somewhere.”
The book is certainly worthy of a medal or high honor both for its quality and subject matter.
REVIEW EXCERPTS:
BOOKLIST opines: Grimes often chooses rhymed couplets for Jesse's voice, and the singsong sounds and tight rhythm create a young tone that's indicative of Jesse's age but, nonetheless, feels distractingly at odds with the somber subject and raw emotions--feelings that Grimes gets just right. Moving and wise, these are poems that beautifully capture a family's heartache as well as the bewildering questions that death brings, and they reinforce the message in Grimes' warm author's note: "There's no right or wrong way to feel when someone close to you dies." Recommended for Grades 4-8.
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL comments: Grade 3-8–Grimes's novella in verse is a prime example of how poetry and story can be combined to extend one another. When their brother dies, Jerilyn and Jesse cope with the anger, confusion, and the silence that grief brings to their family. Jesse's rhyming verse faces his older sister's free-verse comments on her experiences. When Jesse hits a home run in a league game soon after his brother's death, he glows, "I took off around the field,/legs pumping like lightning!/I slid into home plate clean./Man, I'm so cool,/I'm frightening!/...What am I supposed to do,/spend each minute crying?/I wish I could please you, Mom,/but I'm sick of trying." Jerilyn muses, "It's his right to smile,/isn't it?/To be delirious?/So what if I don't understand?/This ghost town,/draped in shadow,/is desperate for/a few more watts of light." Grimes handles these two voices fluently and lucidly, shaping her characters through her form. Colón's paintings in muted colors combine imagism with realism to create an emotional dreamscape on nearly every page. The clean design combined with the book's short, easy pace and small size give readers a comfortable place from which to listen to the characters as they make their way from "Getting the News" to "Anniversary," and finally to "Ordinary Days." The book closes with a poem in two voices, and Jesse and Jerilyn come together for a new family photograph. "Smile!"–and readers will. Fans of Vera B. Williams's Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart (Greenwillow, 2001) will appreciate this powerful title.–
REVIEWS ACCESSED FROM:
http://www.amazon.com/What-Goodbye-Nikki-Grimes/dp/0786807784/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192246866&sr=8-1
CONNECTIONS:
The book that immediately comes to mind is Charlotte Zolotow’s MY GRANDSON LEW. Not many books could ever top that one for any age as mother and child grieve for the loss of a father and grandfather.
LS 5603 LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
Review of AUTUMNBLINGS:
A. Florian, Douglas. AUTUMNBLINGS. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2003.
B. Summary and Impressions (Plot is really not applicable to poetry)
This wonderful and silly book of poetry for youngsters contains 29 individual poems. There is a table of contents and the poems, although not labeled as such, are in chronological order as the season opens and closes. Apple picking and leaves of changing color come before poems of pumpkins, thanksgiving, and the first frosty freeze of the season.. Florian is as gifted at illustrating as in writing poetry and the book is a balanced and harmonious blend of the two.
C. Literary Merit:
The book is immediately attractive and approachable. The illustrations look very much as if they were made by elementary school children. The artwork is vital to the text and only 1 or the 29 poems is on a blank white page and that is at the very end of the book. The look and feel of the volume is a small, almost square picture story book.
Most children will enjoy this book of poems for several reasons:
1. The meter and rhythm is very predictable.
2. Each poem contains rhyming words
3. Children will enjoy the made up words and the sometimes humorous and un-lifelike pictures.
Only four of the poems display sophisticated illustrations that would be difficult for a child younger than 4th grade to emulate. These 4 illustrations convey texture upon texture and stylized drawings. It is not at all that they do not go along with the rest of the illustrations. These four paintings could stand on their own and the other illustrations look more as if a child was coloring along while the teacher was reading a poem or story and asking them to illustration the story or the feelings the story gave them. I do not find a reason that these more complex drawings are found sequentially from page 18 through 23. The poems with the most depth of illustration are: UP AND DOWN, AUTUMN QUESTIONS, AWE-TUMN, and GEESE PIECE.
I do realize however that for an accomplished painter and illustrator it may be just as hard or harder to paint an apple that is a mixture of purple and maroon pigments, one huge apple on a yellow square with one messy bite taken out of it and one little brown stem. A picture that would be typical of the first graders I taught long ago.
Many of the poems are lined up in typical verse style but a few of them have shapes like the e.e.cummings poems I grew up with. I think the variety of fall topics and diversity of artwork from realistic, to simplistic, and just downright silly will appeal to a large variety of students. I very much liked the simple self portrait of Mr. Florian on the back book flap in the “something about the author” place.
REVIEW EXCERPTS:
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL recommends the volume for grades 2-5 and has this to say:
“The childlike style of the various-sized watercolor and colored-pencil paintings (in fall colors, of course) mirrors the creative style of the age group most inclined to read the poetry. A natural for use in classrooms and library programs, and accessible to newly independent readers, these poems will delight youngsters.”
BOOKLIST recommends the book for a different age group than SLJ. They see it best suited for preschool to grade 2 and make these comments:
“Florian presents a winsome series of poems about fall, with the punning theme of the title carried throughout. Using rhyme, meter, and those puns to good effect, as well as changes in fonts and type, he adds to the sense of movement and joy in the poetry. School, holidays, playtime, and observation all figure here.”
REVIEWS ACCESSED FROM:
http://www.amazon.com/Autumnblings-Douglas-Florian/dp/0060092785/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192244255&sr=1-1
CONNECTIONS:
Florian has done to other seasonal poetry books, WINTER EYES and SUMMERSAULTS. Fans of one book would be expected to enjoy all three.
A. Florian, Douglas. AUTUMNBLINGS. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2003.
B. Summary and Impressions (Plot is really not applicable to poetry)
This wonderful and silly book of poetry for youngsters contains 29 individual poems. There is a table of contents and the poems, although not labeled as such, are in chronological order as the season opens and closes. Apple picking and leaves of changing color come before poems of pumpkins, thanksgiving, and the first frosty freeze of the season.. Florian is as gifted at illustrating as in writing poetry and the book is a balanced and harmonious blend of the two.
C. Literary Merit:
The book is immediately attractive and approachable. The illustrations look very much as if they were made by elementary school children. The artwork is vital to the text and only 1 or the 29 poems is on a blank white page and that is at the very end of the book. The look and feel of the volume is a small, almost square picture story book.
Most children will enjoy this book of poems for several reasons:
1. The meter and rhythm is very predictable.
2. Each poem contains rhyming words
3. Children will enjoy the made up words and the sometimes humorous and un-lifelike pictures.
Only four of the poems display sophisticated illustrations that would be difficult for a child younger than 4th grade to emulate. These 4 illustrations convey texture upon texture and stylized drawings. It is not at all that they do not go along with the rest of the illustrations. These four paintings could stand on their own and the other illustrations look more as if a child was coloring along while the teacher was reading a poem or story and asking them to illustration the story or the feelings the story gave them. I do not find a reason that these more complex drawings are found sequentially from page 18 through 23. The poems with the most depth of illustration are: UP AND DOWN, AUTUMN QUESTIONS, AWE-TUMN, and GEESE PIECE.
I do realize however that for an accomplished painter and illustrator it may be just as hard or harder to paint an apple that is a mixture of purple and maroon pigments, one huge apple on a yellow square with one messy bite taken out of it and one little brown stem. A picture that would be typical of the first graders I taught long ago.
Many of the poems are lined up in typical verse style but a few of them have shapes like the e.e.cummings poems I grew up with. I think the variety of fall topics and diversity of artwork from realistic, to simplistic, and just downright silly will appeal to a large variety of students. I very much liked the simple self portrait of Mr. Florian on the back book flap in the “something about the author” place.
REVIEW EXCERPTS:
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL recommends the volume for grades 2-5 and has this to say:
“The childlike style of the various-sized watercolor and colored-pencil paintings (in fall colors, of course) mirrors the creative style of the age group most inclined to read the poetry. A natural for use in classrooms and library programs, and accessible to newly independent readers, these poems will delight youngsters.”
BOOKLIST recommends the book for a different age group than SLJ. They see it best suited for preschool to grade 2 and make these comments:
“Florian presents a winsome series of poems about fall, with the punning theme of the title carried throughout. Using rhyme, meter, and those puns to good effect, as well as changes in fonts and type, he adds to the sense of movement and joy in the poetry. School, holidays, playtime, and observation all figure here.”
REVIEWS ACCESSED FROM:
http://www.amazon.com/Autumnblings-Douglas-Florian/dp/0060092785/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192244255&sr=1-1
CONNECTIONS:
Florian has done to other seasonal poetry books, WINTER EYES and SUMMERSAULTS. Fans of one book would be expected to enjoy all three.
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