The Wonderful imagination of Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss is a genius with children’s books and I love reading them even now that I am older and read them to my son. The Cat in the Hat is a timeless book that kids love. I read it so much when I was younger that I probably had it memorized. Over time, I grew out of my Dr. Seuss phase but now my son is obsessed with The Cat in the hat so we read it at least every other night.

This book is about a little boy and girl (whose name is Sally) who have to stay indoors all day while it is raining and their mother is out. They are very bored because they have nothing to do so they are just staring out of the window until a visitor arrives. Their visitor is a large cat who has come to entertain them. The cat makes a huge mess in their house and he thinks he can do whatever he wants. The pet fish, who can talk, is the voice of reason in this story and he keeps asking the cat to leave because he is not welcome.

I think the reason kid’s love this story so much is because it so funny and impractical and the pictures are great. It makes no sense that a large cat would ever show up at your door with all sorts of gadgets to entertain you, especially two creatures by the name of thing one and thing two. Even though all children most likely realize the impracticability of this happening it is fun to imagine the “what if” factor.

The thing that also makes this book so intriguing to children is the element of rebellion and rule-breaking. I am sure that most kids have been told not to let strangers into their homes, especially if the parents are not home, and I am guessing that most everyone knows that you do not fly kites in the house. Even though these seem like obvious rules to follow, it is fun to watch someone else break them and not have to worry about getting into trouble yourself.

As the reader of this book you can see both sides of the situation. The Cat wants to have fun and do all sorts of things that are not allowed, and the fish knows that the cat should leave because he will only get them into trouble. Even though Sally and the little boy know that the fish is right, they are bored on this rainy day and want something to do.

I think there are very few books like this written today, this book plays on the reader’s notion of good sense vs. nonsense. The main books that I would compare to this are The Amelia Bedelia Books. She is always doing nonsensical things and it is always obvious to the reader. For instance in one Amelia Bedelia book, Mrs. Rogers (who is Amelia’s employer) tells her to dust the furniture and Amelia takes that to mean that she should put dusting powder all over the couch and other pieces.

This is the same with everything that Amelia encounters; she always interprets things wrong and makes a huge mess. Her mistakes are always hilarious, and children love to read about them, but I do not think her books compare to The Cat in the Hat. Whereas in The Cat in the Hat, there is the presence of sense in the form of the fish, there is not this presence in Amelia Bedelia, the only person who knows she is not doing what she is supposed to is the reader.

Dr. Seuss also wrote the didactic book The Lorax. If a book is considered didactic it is meant that it is instructional and aims to teach the reader something. This book is about a man called the Once-ler who makes a business out of chopping down Truffula Trees in order to make Thneeds. The Lorax is a creature who speaks for the trees and asks the Once-ler to stop cutting down the trees. The Lorax is also concerned with the pollution that the Once-ler’s factory is creating and the waste that he is dumping in the pond behind his business. This is a book that serves to teach children about the importance of protecting the environment. It is written very well in a way that is not boring at all to kids.

I can think of a whole series of didactic books that are popular among children today. The Magic School Bus is a series that includes many books that teach children about different things such as the human body, hurricanes, other countries, the solar system, the earth, animals and their habitats, etc. These books all start out the same way, with the teacher (Mrs. Frizzle) preparing her class to go on a field trip. They get on the school bus to leave for the field trip and they are magically transported to space, or inside the human body, or a beehive, etc. It is very informative and children love to read these books because they are exciting and offer great information that is not presented in a boring manner.

I love the rhyming that is in The Lorax and I wish Dr. Seuss had written other didactic books that teach children other lessons too because his writing is so unique. I am not a big fan of the message in The Lorax because I think this book paints a very negative view of big business, and I do not think humans are causing the environment to suffer, but I do love the pictures and the imagination that Dr. Seuss used to create the Truffula trees and the animals like the humming fish and bar-ba-loots.

Images courtesy of www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Cats/Cat-Hat-Book.jpg and www.scottsdalecc.edu/green/images/lorax_1_.jpg

A book by Yoshiko Uchida "The Bracelet"

The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida is a sentimental tale that tells the story of a Japanese-American girl by the name of Emi. In this story it is the year 1942 and all of the Japanese-Americans are being sent to internment camps because the U.S. and Japan are at war. Emi and her family are among those who are being sent away and Emi has lost everything but her family to the government.

Emi is very sad to leave her best friend Laurie, but Laurie gives her a gold bracelet with a heart shaped charm on it so that Emi will remember her. Emi is touched by Laurie’s gift and she tells her friend that she will never take it off.

When Emi’s family gets to their camp, which is an old racetrack, Emi realizes that her bracelet is gone. With the help of her mother and sister she looks for it everywhere, but it is not found. Emi is crushed when she realizes that it is gone forever, but then she begins to understand that she does not need the bracelet in order to remember Laurie by. She knows that she will be able to remember Laurie just fine with the memories she holds dear to her in her heart.

This is a touching story about loss and love. I could not help but feel incredibly sorry for what Emi and her family had to go through in the 40’s. Although I know it was a fact of life for the Japanese living in America, it was unjust and I hate to hear about it, even though I know Emi is a fictitious character. The bracelet that Laurie gave Emi symbolized hope and friendship to Emi, and even though she realized that she did not need it to remember her friend by, I can see why it would mean a lot to her to have that symbol around during the dark days of camp.

Yoshiko Uchida was born in 1921 and passed away in 1992. She was born in the United States after her parents immigrated here from Japan. All throughout her childhood, she never once realized how different she was from her friends until the bombing at Pearl Harbor happened. Sometime after this her family was sent to live in an internment camp, however Yoshiko was soon given the chance to leave and she went to graduate school and proceeded to begin her career as an author. She has written many books over the course of her life, they include "Journey Home", "Journey to Topaz", "A Jar of Dreams", "The Wise Old Woman", "The Terrible Leak", "The Birthday Visitor" and many more.

Images courtesy of http://images.bestwebbuys.com/muze/bookmed/09/9780698113909.jpg

"The Ugly Duckling" illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

The Ugly Duckling which is adapted and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney is a beautiful story. I have heard this story many times, but the pictures in this book make the book come to life and it is unlike any other time I have read it.

The Ugly Duckling is the tale of a mother duck that hatches six eggs. All of the ducklings are normal except for the last one which is deemed hideously ugly. He goes through life being constantly made fun of until one day he can take it no longer and he runs away.

It does not matter where he goes to, he is never wanted and he is a sad duck who wishes he were never born. The ugly duckling is moping over his existence one day when he views his reflection in the pond and receives quite a surprise. He has turned into a beautiful swan and he thinks that his whole life of pain and suffering has been worth it just to be a beautiful creature that is admired!

Jerry Pinkney is an amazing illustrator who really brings the pictures to life and I felt like I could never look at them enough to capture the true beauty. The pictures in this book are done in watercolors which makes them absolutely incredible to view. I spent a lot of time looking at each picture and I am sure that I could have spent longer taking it all in.

Jerry Pinkney has illustrated over 75 children's books and has won his share of awards for his great illustrations. Some of his books include The Patchwork Quilt, Mirandy and Brother Wind, The Talking Eggs, Half a Moon and One Whole Star, Pretend You're a Cat and many more. He has also collaborated with author Julius Lester to create some amazing literary works such as The Tales of Uncle Remus, Sam and the Tigers, and Black Cowboy, Wild Horses.

Images courtesy of http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Ugly-Duckling/Jerry-Pinkney/e/9780688159320

"Bridge to Terebithia" book vs. movie

Bridge to Terebithia is a fabulous story that I have loved since I was in the 4th grade. I love the fact that it is such a simple story, yet it is packed full of imagination. In order to fully appreciate Terebithia you have to be able to imagine the unthinkable just as Leslie and Jess do.

In this story, Jess really hopes to be the fastest kid in the fifth grade so he has been running all summer long, but when school starts he is beaten by the new girl, Leslie Burke. Leslie has just moved next door to Jess and his family yet it takes Jess a while to befriend the girl who ruined his chance of being the best.

Eventually they become friends and they create their own magical land called Terebithia. They can only get to Terebithia by crossing a stream on a swinging rope. They spend all of their spare time in Terebithia imagining that they are king and queen and fighting off giants, ogres and other beasts.

One day Jess goes to the museum with one of his teachers and he doesn’t invite Leslie because he wants to spend time with this teacher alone. While they are there Leslie decides to go to Terebithia but the rope breaks and she drowns in the water. Jess feels extremely guilty for not being there with Leslie and he thinks her death is his fault.

In the midst of his grief, Jess decides to build a bridge a bridge to Terebithia in honor of Leslie. Once he completes his bridge he allows his little sister to enter his and Leslie’s secret land. May Belle, the little sister, becomes the princess of Terebithia, and the book ends on a hopeful note.

There were many similarities between the book and the movie although the movie really brought Terebithia to life. I think that the director and producer of the movie stayed true to the book as much as possible and they did not change much. I really enjoyed watching the movie in order to see how Jess and Leslie really viewed Terebithia. It is hard to imagine a magical land when it is only written about and the children themselves are also imagining it, but when you actually see it come to life on the big screen it appears real and I felt like I was actually in a new land.

There were very few additions to the movie that I did not read in the book and for the most part they did not change the storyline at all. I got the impression as I watched the movie that Jess and Leslie may have been more than friends but that is never alluded to in the book. They were not actually boyfriend and girlfriend, but they may have had feelings for each other which is a step further than the mere friendship they shared in the book by Katherine Patterson.

Janice Avery, who is the school bully in the book was portrayed very well in the movie. There were several scenes in the movie that came straight out of the book such as the stealing of May Belle’s Twinkies, the note to Willard Hughes, and the crying episode in the bathroom. I do not remember her making the kids pay her a dollar to use the restroom in the book but it seems like something she would have done so the addition of this scene makes sense. I thought it was a nice touch that Janice gave the boy (I can’t remember his name) a bloody nose for telling Jess he would now be the fastest kid in the fifth grade. This scene was not in the book, but it was appropriate to add it in because the reader knew what a bully the boy could be and it was good to see Janice coming to Leslie’s defense.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and I would recommend it to anyone who likes the book. In fact, I would encourage students (most likely fourth and fifth graders) to read this book because it is such a good story and asks the reader to use his/her imagination. I would definitely tell the reader to read the book before seeing the movie because it is more fun to imagine Terebithia as you see it in your mind before you have been inundated with images of Terebithia from the movie.

Images courtesy of http://www.waldenfans.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/normal_book-cover.gif and www.impawards.com/.../bridge_to_terabithia.jpg

"Horton Hears a Who" book vs. movie

Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss is one of my all-time favorite children’s books. I think it is so fun to read with all of the rhyming and it always reminds me of my mother and father reading it to me when I was little.

The story of Horton Hears a Who is about an elephant named Horton who sees a dust speck float by him one day and he thinks he hears someone calling for help. He believes that there is a very small person living on the speck so he sets it on a clover and proceeds to carry it around with him everywhere he goes in order to protect it. When the others in the Jungle of Nool (where he lives) find out he is talking to a clover they think he is crazy and they are determined to destroy the dust speck and capture Horton. Even though they think he is crazy, there is a person on the dust speck, in fact it is a whole town called Who-ville and they are depending on Horton to save them.

The movie just came out about a month ago and I thought it was wonderful. For the most part it was true to the book with very small differences. I thought the actors who did the voices of Horton and all of the animals in the Jungle of Nool and Who-ville, were excellent and I think the producer did a great job selecting them.

I was especially impressed by the fact that the movie had a narrator who read certain parts of the book word for word so in these instances there was absolutely no difference. It has to be a challenge to create a short picture book into a movie that is over an hour so I was expecting a lot of additions to the book in order to draw the movie out.

All of the changes that were made to the book were very minor and I do not even think most people would catch these differences but as I said, I loved the book when I was little so I am very familiar with Horton and the sour kangaroo.

One of the biggest differences that I noticed between the two is the focus on Who-ville. In the book, almost the entire story is focused on Horton, but the movie focuses a lot on the actual Who’s who live in Who-ville. The mayor of Who-ville is mentioned in the book, but none of his family is and we never see him at work or at home. However, the movie shows us his family life; we get to know his wife and their 97 children (only one boy) and his work life. The mayor’s only son happens to be Jo-Jo who is the sole Who that save Who-ville from being thrown into Beezle-Nut oil, but there is no mention of any relationship between the two in the book.

In the movie, Horton the elephant has a small friend who is a mouse and he is present in most of the scenes, however he is not in the book at all. The presence of the mouse whose name is Morton does not alter the story line at all, he just adds a little comedy to the plot, which Jim Carrey takes care of anyways.

One of the other things in the movie that I noticed was not accurate from the book was Horton’s saying “I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an elephants faithful one hundred percent”. I am almost positive that this would go unnoticed by most people but my other favorite childhood book happened to be Horton Hatches the Egg which is where this saying comes from. Horton does not ever say this in the book Horton Hears a Who but he says it many times in Horton Hatches the Egg.

Overall, I thought the movie was wonderful and I was very impressed with the adaptation from the book. The characters that were in the book all had a role in the movie including The Wickersham Brothers, Vlad, the Sour Kangaroo and her son, Jo-Jo, and the mayor. There were many more characters added to the movie but it did not detract from the original storyline, it just made it more interesting.

Images courtesy of http://gillianmowry.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/horton_book.jpg and http://www.cyber-cinema.com/original/hortonorg.jpg

A book by Julius Lester "John Henry"

John Henry by Julius Lester is an exciting tale that is fun to read. I was not completely aware of who John Henry was, but I knew that he was a large man who built railroads. Until I read this book, I was under the impression that he was a real person who actually lived in the late 1800’s, however the foreword to this book tells the reader that no one is certain whether John Henry was an actual person or not.

This tale which has been retold for generations tells of a baby who was born, John Henry, who grew so tall that he burst through the roof, all when he was still a child. Pretty soon after this he decided that he needed to leave his parents and get out and see the world, so his father gave him two 20 pound sledgehammers that belonged to his grandfather. John Henry took these sledgehammers and put them to good use building roads and railroads.

In this story John Henry is helping build the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad but the workers have come to a stop because they have to tunnel through a huge mountain. The workers are waiting on a new machine, the steam drill, which will dig a hole through the mountain with no man power needed. John Henry knows he can hammer through the mountain so he makes a bet with the boss that he can beat the steam drill.

He bets that he can reach the middle of the mountain before the steam drill does and they set to work, him against the machine. It does not take him long to reach the middle and he passes right though to beat the steam drill. Even though he wins the bet, he works so hard hammering through the mountain that when he gets to the other side he dies.

This is a great story about believing in yourself and working hard. Even though the tale is completely fictional, it is a great story to read and I know that children will love hearing about the exceptional strength of John Henry.

Julius Lester has written many books which include Search for the New Land, Revolutionary Notes, Day of Tears, Black Folk Tales, Long Journey Home, The Tales of Uncle Remus, Sam and the Tigers, Black Cowboy, Wild Horses and many more. His first book was published in 1965 and he has written many since that time, both children’s books and adult. Most of Julius Lester’s books are about African Americans and a lot are about the slave experience.

Images courtesy of http://www.library.armstrong.edu/newchildrensbooks/images/john%20henry.jpg

Caldecott Award vs. Newbery Award

The Newbery Medal and the Caldecott medal are both awarded to children’s books annually. There are many similarities between the two but they ultimately serve two distinct purposes. According to the database Information Please, The Caldecott medal is awarded “to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published in English in the United States during the preceding year” and the Newbery medal is awarded “to the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in English in the United States during the preceding year.

Both awards are named after Englishmen, although they are from different time periods. The Caldecott Award is named after the nineteenth century illustrator Randolph Caldecott and the Newbery Award is named after John Newbery, an eighteenth century bookseller.

Both medals are also awarded by the same division of the American Library Association; the division is called the Association for Library Service to Children. Although these two awards appear to be very alike, they each focus on a completely different aspect of children’s literature and those aspects are the author and the illustrator.

Before I took this class I had a very vague idea of what each award was. I figured that the Caldecott award must be for pictures because it is seen predominantly on the cover of picture books and I knew from middle school that books like “The Giver” and “Bridge to Terebithia” are Newbery award books so I assumed it was an award for chapter books, but I honestly did not know any other information about the two.

I do not know whether I can say that one of these awards is better than the other because I enjoy both types of books. I love looking at the pictures in picture books, especially those that are clearly “distinguished” because the pictures are magnificent and I am always in awe of the artwork, but at the same time I really enjoy reading books that have been designated for older children because I can imagine my own picture for each part of the story.

All in all, both awards are great and speak volumes for the books that they accompany. I know that if I am given the choice of reading a Caldecott Award book or not, I will always choose the one that has been given this special award because I know that the book will stand out among others.

Information Please. (2007). Pearson Education. Retrieved on June 21, 2008 from http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/newbery-vs-caldecott.html

Images courtesy of: http://ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal.cfm
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberymedal.cfm

Coretta Scott King Award "Day of Tears"

The book Day of Tears by Julius Lester was awarded the Coretta Scott King award in 2006. According to the American Library Association (2006), this award is “given to African American authors and illustrators for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream. The award is designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.”

This is a wonderful book (even though slavery is despicable) about the slave experience in the 1850’s. It is a work of historical fiction although several of the characters and events are real. The story is told in dialogue, which means it reads more like a play script than a novel, by all of the main characters. The actual book is based on the great slave trade in 1859 by Pierce Butler. Around 430 slaves were sold on this day which was the largest slave auction to ever take place.

Pierce Butler was known to be a kind master to his slaves and many could not believe that he would actually sell them because they grew up together, but he got into gambling trouble and owed a lot of money. After the auction took place Pierce Butler made about $303,000, which was enough to pay off his debts.

This story is told from the point of view of several of Mr. Butler’s long-time slaves. It makes the reader feel how cruel slavery was and it seems almost unimaginable to this day. I have heard many times how people felt about African Americans during this time in history, but it is hard to read about no matter how often I have heard it and I think Julius Lester did a fabulous job of portraying the events that went on and the feelings that the African Americans had.

Images courtesy of http://www.ala.org/ala/emiert/corettascottkingbookaward/corettascott.cfm and http://www.nairobisknapsack.com/picdb/product_thumb_164.jpg
"Coretta Scott King Book Award," American Library Association, November 08, 2006.http://www.ala.org/ala/emiert/corettascottkingbookaward/corettascott.cfm (Accessed June 21, 2008)

Newbery Award "The Tale of Despereaux"

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo is a very enjoyable book to read. Although it is longer than many other chapter books I have read for this class, it only took 2 days to read it in its entirety because the story was intriguing.

This is the story of a mouse by the name of Despereaux who is by all accounts the runt of his family. He is looked down upon by all the other mice in the mouse community because of his stature and how odd he is. Even though he is frequently ridiculed by other mice Despereaux dreams of being a knight in shining armor and lives by his own standards (which happen to be very different from other mice).

This book is divided into four separate parts and the first book deals with the birth of Despereaux and his meeting with the princess who he falls in love with. The second book tells the story of a rat by the name of Chiaroscuro who lives in the dungeon which is where Despereaux is sent when the mouse community finds out that he has made himself visible to a human (Princess Pea). The third book tells the tale of a young servant girl by the name of Miggery Sow who will ultimately play a part in the kidnapping of the princess. And the last book ties all three previous books together so that the reader can see how Despereaux, Chiaroscuro and Miggery all come to be in the same story.

In the fourth book Despereaux is drawn by his love to return to the dungeons and save the Princess where she is being held captive. I think this is a delightful story reminiscent of a fairytale that begins with “Once Upon a Time” and ends with “Happily Ever After”. As I have said in some of my other book reviews that the books are completely unbelievable, so is this one, but it so far from the truth that it is enjoyable because I did not have to wonder whether the author actually intended the audience to believe her story. I know that rats and mice do not talk so I do not have to question the authenticity of this book, I can see it for what it truly is: a make-believe story.

One of the reasons that I liked this book so much has to with the fact that it was a very relaxing read. I finished up work for the summer yesterday which happened to be a very long, hard day and it was wonderful to come home and have nothing to do except read an imaginative children’s book. I have been so worn out with finishing up schoolwork for my job that I relished the idea of sitting on the sofa and reading for hours on end a made up story.

Images courtesy of http://www.vanillajoy.com/book-talk-the-tale-of-despereaux.html

A book by Laurence Yep "Dream Soul"

I chose to read the book Dream Soul by Laurence Yep for this book review. It is a chapter book but it is not that long so I thought I would have it read in a couple of days, however I did not. I keep putting this book down in order to do other things that were more interesting to me because I had trouble getting into the story. There really is not much substance to this book in my opinion. It is mainly about a Chinese family that lives in America and the children want to celebrate Christmas.

There are three children in this Chinese family and they all long to fit in with their American friends. They hope to do this by celebrating Christmas and being able to talk about it when winter break is over and they go back to school. For as long as they have lived in America, they have had to explain to their friends that they do not celebrate the Christmas holiday because it is not Chinese, but they are sick of being different.

The children make a deal with their father that they can have Christmas as long as they are good and do not get into trouble in the weeks coming up to Christmas. The kids all try very hard, but this is a very hard bet to keep.

The majority of the book is about the children trying their best to behave and please their parents so that they can have Christmas, but it just was not that interesting to me. It was not mentioned in the book at all that Christmas is a Christian celebration and that the Chinese do not observe this religion. Instead, Christmas was about the decorations and the presents, which I think is very superficial.

I do not have anything against people celebrating Christmas without observing the true meaning of December 25, but it was ignored in this book completely and I think that it might have played a significant role in this Chinese family’s decision to not want to celebrate such a holiday.

In the midst of this story, the Chinese father gets sick and the oldest daughter calls on one of the Chinese folktales to help him get better. The tale is about a person having 2 souls and one getting lost. She thinks that this is what happens to her father so she is determined to find his lost soul to help him recover. This tale seemed silly to me and I had trouble following her path as she tried to rescue his lost soul. I may be too westernized but this “story” was pure make-believe to me and it seemed very far-fetched. I know this is a work of fiction so I cannot say that I expected something different to occur, but I had trouble believing what was happening.

Overall I did not enjoy this book and I would have trouble recommending it to someone else. It has a reading level of 4.8, but I do not think it would interest a fifth grader. I might encourage someone from another culture to read this book in order to compare one’s own lifestyle with that of the Chinese and the Americans in Dream Soul , but I do not really think the book would be applicable to many readers because it is set in 1927 and times are very different now.

Laurence Yep has written many books both for children and young adults. Some of the books he has written are Dragonwings, Dragon's Gate, Sweetwater, The Magic Paintbrush and The Earth Dragon Awaits to name a few. Most of his books deal with some aspect of the Chinese culture because that is what he is familiar with. I personally have not read any of his other books so I am unable to compare and contrast his works, but many of them are award winners which makes me curious to read them.

Images courtesy of: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/y/laurence-yep/dream-soul.htm

Newbery Award "Crispin: The Cross of Lead"

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi is a spellbinding book that is fun to follow. This story takes place in fourteenth century England; it is the story of a young boy by the name of Crispin whose mother dies without ever telling him about his father or her life before he was born. He grows up in complete ignorance and never questions his mother. Once she dies he is forced to flee from the town because he has been accused of a crime he did not commit. In accusing him, the town steward (lord) has declared him a wolf’s head which means anyone who sees him may kill him upon sight.

It seems that wherever he goes he is being pursued by his townsmen who are in search of him to kill him. Crispin stumbles upon a juggler who claims him as his new servant and he is forced to go with this man on his journey. Crispin’s new master goes by the name of Bear and is a very kind man who protects Crispin wherever he is.

Crispin must learn about his past in order to save his life and get away from his old townsmen. This proves to be a difficult task since the only people who knew him well enough to know his story are dead. I really enjoyed reading this book and I was very interested in reading about life as it may have been in the 14th century. This book is actually fiction, but there are some truths in the way peasants may have lived during this time and I rather enjoyed reading about it.

We live in such different times from those long ago that it is sometimes hard to believe some of the things that happened in the olden days. It seems unfair to me that all peasants had masters and that any man could claim an unspoken for person to be his new servant such as Bear did. I think the author did a good job portraying life as it was in the 1300’s and he was able to tie in some historical accuracy throughout the novel.

John Ball is a historical figure who was a priest in the 1300’s who helped lead the peasant’s revolt; he also appears in the book Crispin. The revolt is not referred to by name in the book but John Ball the character is part of a brotherhood that wants peasants to overthrow their masters and become free. I love to read historical fiction where I know that some of the story is based upon true fact and that is why I enjoyed Crispin so much.

Images courtesy of http://images.google.com/.

Caldecott Award Winner "So You Want to be President?"

The 2001 Caldecott Award Winning book was So You Want to be President? by Judith St. George. This book is very informative and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and learning about past Presidents. Even though this is a picture book, I think it can be enjoyed by all ages because it does provide useful, accurate information.

I do not consider myself a history buff in the least so I found most of the information in this book to be new to me. While I did know that James is the most common name for a President, I did not know that there were 6 of them! Nor did I know that two Presidents were orphans or that the white house has a bowling alley.

If my teacher had read this to me when I was in grade school, I would have really enjoyed it and I would have learned a few things. Some of my third grade students really liked this book last year and I was extremely happy that they were so interested in the topic of U.S. Presidents because I know that this information will only be a building block to future knowledge that will be very useful.

The illustrations in this book are especially captivating. I spent a lot of time looking at each picture to capture all of the detail and I loved trying to figure out who was pictured in each illustration. I have a feeling that adults might enjoy the pictures more than children because we are able to identify different cartoon-like drawings of Presidents, but even if you did not know who was pictured they are still eye-catching and interesting.

Images courtesy of http://images.google.com/.

Caldecott Award Winner "My Friend Rabbit"

My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann is a wonderfully illustrated picture book. It is the 2003 Caldecott Award Winner for good reason and I personally love the pictures. This book has very few words because the pictures tell the story without a problem.

Mouse gets a new toy airplane as a gift and his best friend rabbit proceeds to get it stuck high up in a tree. Mouse thinks Rabbit means well, but he is always causing trouble. The fun part of this story is how Rabbit proposes to get the airplane out of the tree. Rabbit gets every animal he can find to stand on each other’s backs to create a VERY tall platform for mouse to be able to reach the plane. He gets an elephant, a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, an alligator, a bear and several others to participate.

The pictures of Rabbit getting these animals to help are hilarious. The animals must not want to help of their own accord so Rabbit is dragging each of them to the tree where the plane is. It is very comical, especially for kids, to see a small rabbit carrying or dragging these other large animals.

My students at school love this book and they think it is very funny. My two year old son enjoys looking at the pictures too! The book jacket tells the reader that the pictures are hand colored relief prints, which I am not entirely knowledgeable of, but they are amazing. Each picture is done in bright, bold colors and they seem to jump out of the page at you. I had to look through this many times just to be able to see all of the details that the pictures incorporate. I would definitely recommend this book to others, especially younger children in first and second grade, because I think they would enjoy it immensely.

Images courtesy of http://images.google.com.

Caldecott Award Winner "The Hello, Goodbye Window"

The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster is the 2006 Caldecott Award Winner. This is a precious picture book about the love shared between grandparents and grandchildren. I loved reading this book because it made me realize that the special relationship shared in this book is one I want my children to share with their grandparents.

This story is about a little girl who goes to stay at her grandparent’s house when her parents go to work. Their kitchen window is very special to this little girl and she calls it the hello, goodbye window. While it is only an ordinary window, it is much more than that to her. She always says her hellos and goodbyes to her grandparents through the window and she thinks this is where everything happens.

I love the simple story that is portrayed in this book. The little girl thinks that the window is in a room where wonderful things can happen. In the mind of an adult it is only the kitchen, but to a child we see that it is so much more exciting. That is where the big table is that you can color on, it is where you go in the morning to eat breakfast, it has lots of drawers full of stuff to play with, it even has a sink in it that used to be used to give her a bath! These are all simple elements of most kitchens, but to this little girl they are very special and wonderful.

I enjoyed reading some of the things that are special to the little girl about the window because they are similar to what my kids have at their grandparents. The hello, goodbye window looks out over the garden and there is a flower barrel beneath it on the outside. While my in-laws do not call their kitchen window “the hello-goodbye window” it is very similar and I think it would be sweet if my kids found as much excitement in one window as this girl does.

Not only are the words fun to read in this book, but the pictures are fun to look at. All of the illustrations look as if they were drawn by a small child. They are scribbled and colored out of the lines, which makes it fun to look at. When I read this book, I was able to see the kitchen and house, etc. as she did because the illustrations are done in a child’s fashion. My son really liked this book being read to him, I do not think he understood much of the story because he is young and loses interest quick, but he did like to look at the pictures.

This is Norton Juster’s first picture book so I have not had the opportunity to read any of his other works. One of his most well known books is The Phantom Tollbooth, a middle school chapter book that unfortunately I have never read it so I have nothing to compare this book to. After reading this book I am interested in reading others by him so that I can see if they all portray important messages and lessons about life and love.

Images courtesy of http://images.google.com

Caldecott Award Winner "The Invention of Hugo Cabret"

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a wonderful book about a young boy who lives in a Paris train station. Hugo Cabret is twelve years old when this story is told, yet he seems much older. His father died a while back and Hugo went to live with his uncle, the timekeeper, in a train station. When his uncle disappears, Hugo decides to keep the clocks running in the station himself so that no one will notice that his uncle is missing and send him to an orphanage.

While Hugo is roaming about the train station passageways fixing the clocks he begins to steal toys from the toy shop located in the station. He is eventually caught by the shopkeeper by the name of Georges Milies and his precious notebook is taken from him.
Hugo has kept this notebook with him since his father died in a fire at a museum. It contains sketches done by his father of an automaton, a mechanical man that he found at the museum. He was fascinated when he found this automaton although it did not work and it became his and Hugo’s passion to fix it. The automaton is a machine that is in the form of a man sitting at a desk holding a pen getting ready to write or draw something.

Ever since his father died, Hugo has become obsessed with getting the automaton to work and finding out what it will write. He began stealing the toys from the toyshop so that he could take them apart and use the small parts to fix it.

I was always intrigued by this book when I saw it in the library, but I never took the time to look through it. It is a chapter book that is geared towards middle school students, yet like me they might be wary of choosing to read it because it has so many pages. I consider myself a good reader and I LOVE long books, but I thought a kids book that is as long as this one, 526 pages, might be too long. I was very wrong about this. Brian Selznick , the author, has included many illustrations throughout the book that tell the story just as well as words. In fact, the book is primarily pictures with very few words and the pictures are wonderfully drawn. They are all sketched in black and white and they make the story very interesting.

I have never read any other books by Brian Selznick, but if his other books are similar to this one then I will definitely be picking them up. I read this book in two days and I did not ever want to put it down, I was always on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen to Hugo or the automaton.

Images courtesy of http://images.google.com

Caldecott Award winner "Flotsam"

Flotsam is an amazing picture book by David Wiesner. When I first checked it out from the public library I did not think I woulld like it because it has no words. I generally prefer to read a story that is written by someone else than to come up with my own because I am not that imaginative. However, once I opened the book I realized that I could not put it down and I had to know what happened on every page.

This is the story about a boy who goes to the beach to find and look at interesting flotsam (floating debris). A old underwater camera washes up on the shore and he discovers that there is film inside of it. He rushes to get the film developed so that he can see what he has found. The roll of film proves to be very intriguing and shows things that one could only imagine happening under the water. There are pictures of islands that are really giant starfish that can move wherever they please, an octopus that is reading a book in its home underwater (complete with a sofa, armchair, and lamp), a school of fish swimming by with a wind-up fish in their midst, and a seaturtle with a town made up of shells that lives on its back, etc.

The last picture is the one that the boy finds most interesting. It is a picture of a girl holding a photo of a boy holding a photo of a girl holding a photo, and on and on. The boy happens to have his magnifying glass and microscope with him at the beach so he is able to magnify the picture so that he can see all of the people holding the photo in the picture. He decides to take a picture of himself holding the original picture of the girl holding the photo so that the next person will be able to see him in the long line of people with the photo. After he takes his picture, he tosses the camera back into tyhe ocean where different sea creatures carry it to the bottom.

After it makes its way to the bottom, it once again surfaces and is carried by the waves, a seagull and dolphins to the shore. The book ends by showing the underwater camera being washed onto a beach where a little girl finds it. It is up to the reader to assume that she does what the previous finder does and develops the film and takes a picture of herself before throwing it back.

This is a fabulous story of imagination and creativity. I really enjoyed reading it and coming up with my own plot. I was hooked in the beginning by the beautiful pictures in this book and I just had to read more and see what the boy discovered on the beach. Not only is the tale captivating, but the pictures are too. The illustrations done by Devid Wiesner are all done in watercolors and they are spectacular. It is hard to imagine that someone could have the talent to create the art he has and it is beautiful.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. Picture books are typically thought of as "little kid" books, but this one is appealing to all ages. The cover may be deceiving to the reader as it was to me, but once the book is opened, the reader will find himself/herself entralled by what is found. My son loved looking at the pictures, and my husband really enjoyed the artwork and story that this book tells, so I assume that all ages will enjoy this book!

Images courtesy of http://images.google.com.