Module 4: The Tale of Despereaux

SLIS 5420.002
Module 4
September 13 – 19


Summary:

When Despereaux is born, he is most unlike any of the other mice. He has very large ears which help him to hear better and he would rather read words in a book instead of eating them! Above all, he wants to be a knight and rescue his fair princess. In a story that reveals how difference choices tie all of these characters together, we learn how a rat became bad, how an innocent girl turns mean, and how a king learns to love soup again.


Citation:

DiCamillo K. (2003). The tale of Despereaux. Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick Press.


My Impressions:

I really enjoyed how DiCamillo tied all of the individual story lines together throughout the novel. I thought it was interesting to see how a series of different decisions affected each of the other characters. It's a great story that teaches children about the importance in believing in yourself and being kind to others. I think it really is a modern fairy tale.


Reviews:

From Booklist:
Gr. 3-6 Forgiveness, light, love, and soup. These essential ingredients combine into a tale that is as soul stirring as it is delicious. Despereaux, a tiny mouse with huge ears, is the bane of his family's existence. He has fallen in love with the young princess who lives in the castle where he resides and, having read of knights and their ladies, vows to 'honor her.' But his unmouselike behavior gets him banished to the dungeon, where a swarm of rats kill whoever falls into their clutches. Another story strand revolves around Miggery, traded into service by her father, who got a tablecloth in return. Mig's desire to be a princess, a rat's yen for soup (a food banished from the kingdom after a rat fell in a bowl and killed the queen), and Despereaux's quest to save his princess after she is kidnapped climax in a classic fairy tale, rich and satisfying. Part of the charm comes from DiCamillo's deceptively simple style and short chapters in which the author addresses the reader: 'Do you think rats do not have hearts? Wrong. All living things have a heart.' And as with the best stories, there are important messages tucked in here and there, so subtly that children who are carried away by the words won't realize they have been uplifted until much later. Ering's soft pencil illustrations reflect the story's charm. - Ilene Cooper; 272pg. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2003.

Cooper, I. (2003 July 1) [Review of The Tale of Despereaux]. Booklist. pp 1886


From School Library Journal:
Gr 3 Up A charming story of unlikely heroes whose destinies entwine to bring about a joyful resolution. Foremost is Despereaux, a diminutive mouse who, as depicted in Ering's pencil drawings, is one of the most endearing of his ilk ever to appear in children's books. His mother, who is French, declares him to be 'such the disappointment' at his birth and the rest of his family seems to agree that he is very odd: his ears are too big and his eyes open far too soon and they all expect him to die quickly. Of course, he doesn't. Then there is the human Princess Pea, with whom Despereaux falls deeply (one might say desperately) in love. She appreciates him despite her father's prejudice against rodents. Next is Roscuro, a rat with an uncharacteristic love of light and soup. Both these predilections get him into trouble. And finally, there is Miggery Sow, a peasant girl so dim that she believes she can become a princess. With a masterful hand, DiCamillo weaves four story lines together in a witty, suspenseful narrative that begs to be read aloud. In her authorial asides, she hearkens back to literary traditions as old as those used by Henry Fielding. In her observations of the political machinations and follies of rodent and human societies, she reminds adult readers of George Orwell. But the unpredictable twists of plot, the fanciful characterizations, and the sweetness of tone are DiCamillo's own. This expanded fairy tale is entertaining, heartening, and, above all, great fun.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY; 272pg. CAHNERS PUBLISHING, c2003.

Budin, M.L. (2003 August 1). [Review of The Tale of Despereaux]. School Library Journal. pp 126.


Library Setting Uses:

Since the movie came out recently, I think it would be a great holiday break program to show the movie and then have students who have also read the book discuss the differences. At the very least, it would be a fun movie to show for all children. But it is nice in a library setting to show movies based upon novels. Often I've noticed that children will get excited and interested in the story and will want to read the book on their own.

Module 4: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

SLIS 5420.002
Module 4
September 13 – 19


Summary:

After her grandfather dies, Kit Tyler moves from Barbados to Connecticut to live with her Puritan aunt, uncle, and cousins. Not used to their ways, Kit struggles to fit in. After making frowned upon friendships with the captain's son and the town's only Quaker resident, Kit's reputation begins to sour in the town members' eyes. After Hannah Tupper (the Quaker) is accused of being a witch, Kit must decide if she will stand by her friend or if she will conform to the community's ideas of what is proper behavior.


Citation:

Speare, E.G. (1958). The witch of Blackbird Pond. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers.


My Impression:

This is such a classic story. I could not put this book down while I was reading! The story is eye-opening about intolerance for differences. I liked how Speare wrote Kit's character with strong conviction in her beliefs and views. Although the story was published in 1958 I think the lessons of listening to others, sticking with your friends, and doing what you think is right are wonderful for students to learn about today. I have a feeling I will be rereading this story over and over again.


Reviews:

From Booklist:
Coming from Barbados to colonial Connecticut to live with her only remaining relatives, Kit Tyler finds it hard to conform to the bleak, uncompromising life of the ever-working, narrow-minded Puritans who disapprove of her clothes, her behavior, and her views. When she befriends a gentle Quaker woman believed to be a witch and rescues her from a witch hunt, Kit herself is brought to trial for witchcraft. Interwoven with Kit's stand against bigotry and superstition and her integration into the community is her romance with a young seaman. The author of Calico Captive has written another outstanding historical romance with a compelling theme and fully realized characters and background. ((Reviewed December 15, 1958))

[Review of Witch of Blackbird Pond]. (1958 December 15). Booklist. Retrieved from NoveList Plus database.


From Kirkus Reviews:
/* Starred Review */ When young Kit Tyler comes from her Barbados home to colonial Connecticut, she is unprepared for the austerity of her uncle's world. Kit, a staunch royalist, accustomed to the easy life of a slave-manned plantation, and her fanatic Puritan uncle are instinctive antagonists. But despite her tastes for finery, Kit is possessed with courage and conviction. Her spontaneous friendship with Hannah, an old woman whose Quaker affiliations have branded her as a witch, and her secret teaching of a young child who suddenly is stricken with a strange malady, seriously threaten her safety. For the townspeople are mistrustful of this strange girl who already has startled them with her "magic" ability to stay afloat in water. Kit's vindication, her gradual integration into the community, and the positive effect she has on those about her combine here in a well documented novel to rival the author's first work, Calico Captive, which received wide acclaim as a work of "superior historical fiction". Re-run from August 1, 1958 issue. (Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1959)

[Review of The Witch of Blackbird Pond]. (1959 June 15). Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from NoveList database.


Library Setting Uses:

Coordinating with local schools regarding curriculum and library programming is a great way to build relationships within the community. This is why I think a great library use for this book is to speak to teachers that might consider assigning it for class and then having the teens come to the library for extra credit meetings where they will do readings from the play version of the novel. This would allow teachers to discuss with the students the differences and similarities between the novel and the play script. At the library, students can even make their own costumes or change the play to modernize it and compare it to their lives today. Citation for book I found with play in it: Jennings, C.A. (Ed.). (1999). Eight Plays for Children: The New Generation Play Project. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Module 3: Flotsam

SLIS 5420.002
Module 3
September 6 – 12


Summary:

Told only through pictures, this story explores the possibility of what washes up on the beach. A young explorer is studying things he finds on the beach and examines each thing carefully. Then he discovers a camera with film still in it. After getting it developed, he discovers a whole new world under the ocean where anything goes!


Citation:

Wiesner, D. (2006). Flotsam. New York: Clarion.


My Impressions:

I like to read graphic novels for all ages. This picture book told solely through illustrations is a new favorite of mine. I have to admit, when I first opened the book to the beginning of the story I thought it would turn out that the main character discovered a camera from deep sea divers. I had no idea of the wonderful imaginative things that were in store! I think this story captures what every kid at the beach dream of: finding a treasure that's too good to be true.


Reviews:

From Booklist:
PreS-Gr. 2. As in his Caldecott Medal Book 'Tuesday' (1991), Wiesner offers another exceptional, wordless picture book that finds wild magic in quiet, everyday settings. At the seaside, a boy holds a magnifying glass up to a flailing hermit crab; binoculars and a microscope lay nearby. The array of lenses signals the shifting viewpoints to come, and in the following panels, the boy discovers an old-fashioned camera, film intact. A trip to the photo store produces astonishing pictures: an octopus in an armchair holding story hour in a deep-sea parlor; tiny, green alien tourists peering at sea horses. There are portraits of children around the world and through the ages, each child holding another child's photo. After snapping his own image, the boy returns the camera to the sea, where it's carried on a journey to another child. Children may initially puzzle, along with the boy, over the mechanics of the camera and the connections between the photographed portraits. When closely observed, however, the masterful watercolors and ingeniously layered perspectives create a clear narrative, and viewers will eagerly fill in the story's wordless spaces with their own imagined story lines. Like Chris Van Allsburg's books and Wiesner's previous works, this visual wonder invites us to rethink how and what we see, out in the world and in our mind's eye. (Reviewed August 2006). Gillian Engberg. 40pg. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2006.

Engberg, G. (2006 August 1). [Review of Flotsam]. Booklist, pp 76.


From School Library Journal:
K-Gr 4. A wave deposits an old-fashioned contraption at the feet of an inquisitive young beachcomber. It's a 'Melville underwater camera,' and the excited boy quickly develops the film he finds inside. The photos are amazing: a windup fish, with intricate gears and screwed-on panels, appears in a school with its living counterparts; a fully inflated puffer, outfitted as a hot-air balloon, sails above the water; miniature green aliens kowtow to dour-faced sea horses; and more. The last print depicts a girl, holding a photo of a boy, and so on. As the images become smaller, the protagonist views them through his magnifying glass and then his microscope. The chain of children continues back through time, ending with a sepia image of a turn-of- the-20th-century boy waving from a beach. After photographing himself holding the print, the youngster tosses the camera back into the ocean, where it makes its way to its next recipient. This wordless book's vivid watercolor paintings have a crisp realism that anchors the elements of fantasy. Shifting perspectives, from close-ups to landscape views, and a layout incorporating broad spreads and boxed sequences, add drama and motion to the storytelling and echo the photographic theme. Filled with inventive details and delightful twists, each snapshot is a tale waiting to be told. Pair this visual adventure with Wiesner's other works, Chris Van Allsburg's titles, or Barbara Lehman's The Red Book (Houghton, 2004) for a mind-bending journey of imagination.-Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal. Unpg. CAHNERS PUBLISHING, c2006.

Fleishhacker, J. (2006 September 1). [Review of Flotsam]. School Library Journal, pp 186.


Library Setting Uses:

I think a wonderful way of tying this book into a library program would be to recreate the photo at the end of the book of a child holding a picture of a child holding a picture of a child, etc. What would be a delightful twist is to either get a local photographer to show the students techniques for photography so they can put together their own hypothetical events. What would also be great would be to have the kids complete this activity at the beginning of the school year and then have them take another photo of themselves holding the original photo a month later and so on until the end of the school year.

Module 3: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

SLIS 5420.002
Module 3
September 6-12


Summary:

Young Hugo lives behind the walls of a train station in France. What's he doing back there? He keeps the clocks on the correct time. Hidden away from everyone, Hugo also has a tendency to steal things that catch his eye. However, when he's spotted by a toymaker and his daughter (Hugo's age), his life starts to change. Suddenly, Hugo finds out that his secrets are not unique to him, but a part of something much larger! Citation: Selznick, B. (2007). The invention of Hugo Cabret. New York: Scholastic Press.


Citation:

Selznick, B. (2007). The Invention of Hugo Cabret. New York: Scholastic Press.


My impressions:

I thought this was a wonderful book. The use of text and pictures was masterful by Selznick. At several moments while I was reading did I feel like I was almost watching a movie. The illustrations did a wonderful job of contributing detail to the story that words might not have been able to describe. I would like to check out the audio book of this story from my library because the audio/dvd combination intrigues me. It would be interesting to see how the creators of the audiobook brought the storyline across.


Reviews:

From Booklist:
Gr. 5-8 Selznick's 'novel in words and pictures,' an intriguing mystery set in 1930s Paris about an orphan, a salvaged clockwork invention, and a celebrated filmmaker, resuscitates an anemic genre-- the illustrated novel--and takes it to a whole new level. The result is somewhat similar to a graphic novel, but experiencing its mix of silvery pencil drawings and narrative interludes is ultimately more akin to watching a silent film. Indeed, movies and the wonder they inspire, 'like seeing dreams in the middle of the day,' are central to the story, and Selznick expresses an obvious passion for cinema in ways both visual (successive pictures, set against black frames as if projected on a darkened screen, mimic slow zooms and dramatic cuts) and thematic (the convoluted plot involves director Georges Melies, particularly his fanciful 1902 masterpiece, 'A Trip to the Moon'.) This hybrid creation, which also includes movie stills and archival photographs, is surprising and often lovely, but the orphan's story is overshadowed by the book's artistic and historical concerns (the heady extent of which are revealed in concluding notes about Selznick's inspirations, from the Lumiere brothers to Franceois Truffaut). Nonetheless, bookmaking this ambitious demands and deserves attention-- which it will surely receive from children attracted by a novel in which a complex narrative is equally advanced by things both read and seen. (Reviewed January 1 & 15, 2007). Jennifer Mattson. 531pg. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2007.

Matteson, J. (2007). [Book Review of The Invention of Hugo Cabret]. Booklist, 103(9/10), 97.

From School Library Journal:
Gr 4-9--With characteristic intelligence, exquisite images, and a breathtaking design, Selznick shatters conventions related to the art of bookmaking in this magical mystery set in 1930s Paris. He employs wordless sequential pictures and distinct pages of text to let the cinematic story unfold, and the artwork, rendered in pencil and bordered in black, contains elements of a flip book, a graphic novel, and film. It opens with a small square depicting a full moon centered on a black spread. As readers flip the pages, the image grows and the moon recedes. A boy on the run slips through a grate to take refuge inside the walls of a train station--home for this orphaned, apprentice clock keeper. As Hugo seeks to accomplish his mission, his life intersects with a cantankerous toyshop owner and a feisty girl who won't be ignored. Each character possesses secrets and something of great value to the other. With deft foreshadowing, sensitively wrought characters, and heart-pounding suspense, the author engineers the elements of his complex plot: speeding trains, clocks, footsteps, dreams, and movies--especially those by Georges Melies, the French pioneer of science-fiction cinema. Movie stills are cleverly interspersed. Selznick's art ranges from evocative, shadowy spreads of Parisian streets to penetrating character close-ups. Leaving much to ponder about loss, time, family, and the creative impulse, the book closes with a waning moon, a diminishing square, and informative credits. This is a masterful narrative that readers can literally manipulate.--Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library. 531pg. CAHNERS PUBLISHING, c2007.

Lukehart, W. (2007 March 1). The Book Review: Grades 5 & Up [Book review for The Invention of Hugo Cabret]. School Library Journal, 53(3), 218.


Library setting uses:

Since the illustrations are such an integral part of working with the plot of the story, it would be a fun idea to have a group of elementary students make a flip book that illustrates either a scene from the story or one they make up on their own. If the budget allows, it would be a great idea to use the book as a celebration of illustrators and Caldecott winners by getting an artist to donate their time to conduct the workshop.

Module 2: Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret

SLIS 5420.002
Module 2
August 30-September 5


Summary:

At the end of the summer before the start of her sixth grade year, Margaret and her family move from New York out to the suburbs of New Jersey. Although reluctant about the move at first, Margaret quickly makes friends of the local girls in her class and even joins their secret club. It is quickly apparant that Margaret is not like her new friends. She does not belong to a Christian church or to a Jewish synagogue. She has no official religion, but she does share a personal relationship with God where she often converses with him about things troubling her in life. Pulled back and forth between two religions until she can no longer take it, Margaret comes to her own conclusions concerning faith.

Citation:

Blume, J. (1970). Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

My impressions:

Growing up I had heard other girls talk about what a wonderful story this book creates. I never took the time to read a summary or even try to figure it out. But it intrigued me that almost every woman I've spoken to, who has grown up in the 80s and later, cites this book as a must-read and one of the best books they've ever read. Once I started it, let's just say, I finally got it. Impossible to put down, this book creates a wonderfully realistic character with Margaret and the struggle to identify herself in accordance with the demands of society and family. I have to admit, a part of me admires Margaret for sticking to her guns and for not choosing a religion simply based on pressure from others. I liked how she tried everything out herself and formed her own opinions. And as if all that wasn't enough, she's also a twelve-year-old who is becoming a woman and going through the beginning stages of adolescence!

Reviews:

From Kirkus Reviews:
The comical longings of little girls who want to be big girls -- exercising to the chant of "We must -- we must -- increase our bust!" -- and the wistful longing of Margaret, who talks comfortably to God, for a religion, come together as her anxiety to be normal, which is natural enough in sixth grade. And if that's what we want to tell kids, this is a fresh, unclinical case in point: Mrs. Blume (Iggie's House, 1969) has an easy way with words and some choice ones when the occasion arises. But there's danger in the preoccupation with the physical signs of puberty -- with growing into a Playboy centerfold, the goal here, though the one girl in the class who's on her way rues it; and with menstruating sooner rather than later -- calming Margaret, her mother says she was a late one, but the happy ending is the first drop of blood: the effect is to confirm common anxieties instead of allaying them. (And countertrends notwithstanding, much is made of that first bra, that first dab of lipstick.) More promising is Margaret's pursuit of religion: to decide for herself (earlier than her 'liberal' parents intended), she goes to temple with a grandmother, to church with a friend; but neither makes any sense to her -- "Twelve is very late to learn." Fortunately, after a disillusioning sectarian dispute, she resumes talking to God. . . to thank him for that telltale sign of womanhood. Which raises the last question: of a satirical stance in lieu of a perspective. (Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1970)

Reviews. (1970, October 1). In Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/fiction/judy-blume-10/are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret/

From School Library Journal:
Gr 4-7. Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret is Judy Blume's account of what it is like to be an almost 12-year-old girl whose greatest desire is just to be normal. The novel is honest and forthright. Margaret Simon worries that she doesn't have anything to fill her bra, that she will be the last girl in her group of friends to start menstruating, that she just won't fit in. And to compound things, she has no religion, so she can't join either the Jewish Community Center or the Protestant Youth Center in her new neighborhood. This recorded version of Margaret's conversations with God, her parents, friends and us, the audience, is even more authentic than the book. Laura Hamilton's reading captures Margaret's anxiety in her conversations with God, her indignation in some conversations with her parents, and her enthusiasm and vulnerability in conversations with her friends. She can emphasize the girls' fixation with the pronunciation of new words in their life, as well as Margaret's pain when she is forced to cancel her planned holiday visit to Florida to see her much loved grandmother. Listeners seem to be co-conspirators, sympathetic friends, and always important members of Margaret's entourage. This conversational story is well-served here. Edith Ching, St. Albans School, Washington, DC

Ching, E. (n.d.). “School Library Journal”. Retrieved from http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Are-You-There-God-Its-Me-Margaret/Judy-Blume/e/9780689841583/?itm=2&USRI=%22are+you+there+god%2c+it%27s+me+margaret%22

Library Setting Uses:

With a group of teens, perform the activity from Margaret’s first day at her new school: My name is. . .Please call me. . .I like. . .I hate. . .This year in school (at the library). . ..I think teachers (librarians) are. . . as an ice breaker at an after-school teen program. To add a twist to the activity, mix up some of the replies and have the students guess who wrote which reply in order to stimulate conversation and mingling.