PB Grandfather's Journey

Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey won the Caldecott Medal in 1994.  I love this book particularly because I identify with the grandfather who, by book's end, always feels homesick for somewhere.  When he is in the United States, he misses Japan.  When he is in Japan, he misses the United States.  I really get that.  After spending much of my adult life moving, I have found that sounds, smells and images can often make me "homesick" for somewhere else I have been.  When I'm in Rhode Island, I miss the mountains.  But, when I've lived in the mountains, I missed the ocean.  When I lived in England, I missed the United States, but watching the Olympic coverage makes me long for England.  Whispering pine trees and rainbows transport me to Germany, an extremely hot day makes me long for the cooling water of Barton Springs in Austin, and a perfectly ripe peach takes me to Georgia.  Yup, I "get" what grandfather is saying.  

I can see using this book as a way of beginning a discussion of immigration even though grandfather is not what we think of when we think of the typical immigrant to the United States.  In the first pages of the story, students would have to infer that grandfather is quite wealthy, and this is something that I would use as a topic of discussion.  He doesn't really come to the United States as the "tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be free" that we think of when we think of immigration at the turn of the twentieth century. He comes as a tourist who settles.  How would that change his perception of America?  How many first generation American immigrants would produce a book that is such a lovely tribute to the beauty of a bygone American era?  No tenement buildings here.    

PB David Wiesner

Caldecott Medal winner Flotsam by David Wiesner is a story told without words.  When a young boy finds an underwater camera washed up on the shore, the camera tells a fascinating story about curiosity and imagination.  Wiesner reminds me a bit of Peter Sis in that his pictures tell more than a thousand words.  I can think of all kinds of ways to use this book in the middle school classroom.  For example, teach a lesson on inferencing characterization by having the students assign traits to the boy and provide evidence for those traits.  Students could also predict the next story, since the story ends with a cycle about to begin again...

PB Jane Yolen

I have always loved everything by Jane Yolen, and whenever I see a book by her that I haven't read, I will definitely take the time to pick it up.  I always find something intriguing.  I read two this week:

Elsie's Bird by Yolen and David Small (2010) starts sadly when Elsie's mother passes away in 18th century Boston.  Elsie is a happy city girl, but as her father mourns her mother's death, he finds that he needs to leave the city to make a fresh start.  He decides to take Elsie to Nebraska.  Instead of the songs and noises of the city, she must get used to the quiet of the prairie.  It is only when she discovers the sounds of the quiet that she really begins to feel at home.  A sad story for very young readers but still worth reading.  This story might serve as a discussion starter about change or setting.

Yolen also examines change and setting in Where Have the Unicorns Gone?  The focus this time is on the environment and how man has impacted it through the ages, potentially marginalizing species that can't adapt.  The unicorn question is asked throughout the story, and each time, the unicorn seeks out some beautiful landscape that man hasn't yet impacted.  The illustrations are beautiful and majestic, fitting the unicorn theme well.  The language is mature as well...the average picture book does not tend to use "catacombed" or "cataphonetics," but Yolen wanted hard "c" words.  She didn't hesitate.

PB Mo Willems

Mo Willems has been a favorite since he first suggested that pigeons shouldn't drive buses.  (Who knew? ) He started publishing books for children when my daughter was 2, and she and I enjoyed many a giggle over the antics of that silly, silly pigeon!  The most recent book I have read by Willems is  Hooray for Amanda and her Alligator, six and a half stories about two surprising friends...and that's exactly what the story is about...two friends who are surprised by each other and their friendship on a regular basis.  Very cute...as usual!

A Lesson Plan from the Mind of Seven Year Old

Rhode Island's Office of Library and Information Service holds a mock Caldecott award every year, and I try to read through their list of nominees to find what is best of the year's books. I got two through ILL this week: Heat Wave by Eileen Spinelli and Mary and the Mouse, The Mouse and Mary by Beverly Donofrio & Barbara McClintock. I read them with my daughter last night. She liked them especially Mary and the Mouse... Mary is a young girl who discovers a mouse in her house who lives a parallel life. Heat Wave is self explanatory--it's about a town during a heat wave. We finished, and my daughter said, "Now I'm going to read them both together." I furrowed my brow a bit and wondered where this was going.

She started to put the two stories together, and with this particular pair, it worked! How would Mary and the mouse's story change if they lived in Lumberville, the town featured in Heat Wave? Where could you introduce this new element? I loved this idea...read two stories, give one story the other's setting, how do the two stories change? or exchange the main characters? Can children write a new story based on the changes? What ages would this work with? I think younger children would be able to make some simple exchanges, but YA's could take two picture books and make a fairly sophisticated story.