Module 5: Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

Book Summary: This book tells the story of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery in Maryland to freedom in Philadelphia. It describes the hardships she faces along the way and mostly gives an idea of her conversations with God during the journey that kept her going when things seemed too difficult. The book also contains a brief introduction to the concept of slavery in the United States and a biography of Tubman's life.

APA Reference of Book: Weatherford, C. B., & Nelson, K. (2006). Moses: when Harriet Tubman led her people to freedom. New York: Hyperion Books for Children.

Impressions: Reading this book is almost like looking at a collection of art. The illustrations are beautiful and the text is moving. The first thing I noticed was how the text varies in size and format. Rather than demarcating dialogue with quotation marks and paragraphs, size and font variation show a change in the type of text. For example, the messages from God are typically in a large, flowing type that often works its way through the images. The writing style is beautiful and poetic and gives a haunting feel to the heroic story. I very much enjoyed this book and thought it was very engaging.
 
Professional Review:
Weatherford's handsome picture book about Harriet Tubman focuses mostly on Tubman's religious inspiration, with echoes of spirituals ringing throughout the spare poetry about her struggle ("Lord, don't let nobody turn me 'round"). God cradles Tubman and talks with her; his words (printed in block capitals) both inspire her and tell her what to do ("SHED YOUR SHOES; WADE IN THE WATER TO TRICK THE DOGS"). Nelson's stirring, beautiful artwork makes clear the terror and exhaustion Tubman felt during her own escape and also during her brave rescue of others. There's no romanticism: the pictures are dark, dramatic, and deeply colored--whether showing the desperate young fugitive "crouched for days in a potato hole" or the tough middle-aged leader frowning at the band of runaways she's trying to help. The full-page portrait of a contemplative Tubman turning to God to help her guide her people is especially striking.
 Rochman, H. (2006). Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Booklist, 102(22), 81.

Library Uses: Since this is a fairly short book dealing with slavery, it could easily be used in a story time for older children during Black History Month or for any time that children might be learning about slavery.

Module 5: Los Gatos Black on Halloween

Book Summary: A bilingual Halloween story about black cats, mummies, monsters, witches, skeletons, and the dead who come out to party together but are scared away by the creepiest of all the Halloween creatures... trick or treaters!

APA Reference of Book: Montes, M., & Morales, Y. (2006). Los gatos black on Halloween. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Impressions: I absolutely love Halloween and black cats especially (I have one) so I was drawn to this book. I thought that the integration of Spanish vocabulary with the English writing was very interesting and easy to understand. The illustrations might be a bit too creepy for very young children, but once they hit around kindergarten age they would most likely enjoy this book.I particularly liked the ending of the book and that all of the monsters are frightened of the children who are out trick or treating. Whether you already know the Spanish words or not the poem-like book is very enjoyable to read.
 
Professional Review:

From Booklist (2006):

"Montes' evocative poem deserves exceptional artwork, and Morales obliges. Her soft-edged paintings glow with the luminosity of jewels, and her witches, werewolves, and corpses are frighteningly executed. Therein lies what may be a problem for preschoolers. These fiends aren't particularly kid-friendly; they are dead-eyed, Day of the Dead folk who scare. For slightly older children, however, this spookiness is what Halloween is all about. The Spanish is neatly integrated into the text, but for those who need clarification, a glossary is appended." — Ilene Cooper

[Review of Los Gatos Black on Halloween].  (2006). Booklist.  Retrieved from www.booklist.com


Library Uses: This would be perfect as part of a bilingual program for Halloween. children who are old enough to read could work with matching the Spanish vocabulary with pictures of the objects. or have a copy of the story with blanks for the words to fill in themselves.

Module 4: Out of the Dust

Book Summary: Billie Jo is the daughter of an Oklahoma farmer who is suffering during the dust bowl. In a freak accident, she loses her mother and burns her hands, preventing her from playing the piano that she loves.

APA Reference of Book: Hesse, K. (1997). Out of the dust. New York: Scholastic Press.

Impressions: This is a really beautiful, touching book. Billie Jo has a tough life and gives an interesting perspective on living during the depression in Oklahoma. I really liked how the sadness in Billie Jo's life is mirrored by the struggling earth around her. As her life becomes more hopeful, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the dust bowl farmers. My favorite poem was about the rain and how it had to start softly so as to not wash away all the dust and the build up to enough rain to save the fields.
 
Professional Review: Booklist starred (Vol. 94, No. 3 (October 1, 1997))
Gr. 6-9. "Daddy came in, / he sat across from Ma and blew his nose. / Mud streamed out. / He coughed and spit out / mud. / If he had cried, / his tears would have been mud too, / but he didn't cry. / And neither did Ma." This is life in the Oklahoma dust bowl in the mid-1930s. Billie Jo and her parents barely eke out a living from the land, as her father refuses to plant anything but wheat, and the winds and dust destroy the crop time after time. Playing the piano provides some solace, but there is no comfort to be had once Billie Jo's pregnant mother mistakes a bucket of kerosene for a bucket of water and dies, leaving a husband who withdraws even further and an adolescent daughter with terribly burned hands. The story is bleak, but Hesse's writing transcends the gloom and transforms it into a powerfully compelling tale of a girl with enormous strength, courage, and love. The entire novel is written in very readable blank verse, a superb choice for bringing out the exquisite agony and delight to be found in such a difficult period lived by such a vibrant character. It also spares the reader the trouble of wading through pages of distressing text, distilling all the experiences into brief, acutely observed phrases. This is an excellent book for discussion, and many of the poems stand alone sufficiently to be used as powerful supplements to a history lesson.

Lempke, S. (October 1, 1997).  [Review of the book Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse].  Booklist, 94, 3.  Retrieved from  http://www.booklistonline.com/Out-of-the-Dust-Karen-Hesse/pid=1022730

Library Uses: This book could be used either for a display showcasing children's literature about The Great Depression, Dust Bowl, and even World War Two or you could select certain pieces to read aloud to older elementary school children who are learning about the Dust Bowl.

Module 4: Holes

Book Summary: Accused of stealing a pair of shoes, Stanley Yelnats is sent to the Green Lake Camp detention center for boys. Every day, all day, the boys spend their time digging holes in the dried up desert that was once the largest lake in Texas. Stanley realizes that the boys are actually digging because the warden is looking for something. Stanley chases after his friend Zero and they find a field of onions and groundwater. While they are there, the boys decide to come back and locate the buried treasure. The warden apprehends them and they are almost attacked by a group of lizards but the onions they ate protect them. The treasure Stanley finds is a briefcase of valuables that once were meant for his ancestor of the same name.The book also tells the story of the history of Stanley's family and the curse that was placed on them that is causing his bad luck.

APA Reference of Book:  Sachar, L. (1998). Holes. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Impressions:  Such a fantastic book for children. It has a certain magical quality to it from the curse and somewhat surreal environment and is incredibly entertaining to read. The book is occasionally very funny and Stanley's adventure is so much fun to read. It keeps you turning the pages and you will not want to put it down. I just learned that there is a second book and I would love to read that as well.
 
Professional Review:

Louis Sachar has written an exceptionally funny, and heart-rending, shaggy dog story of his own. With its breadth and ambition, Holes may surprise a lot of Sachar fans, but it shouldn't. With his Wayside School stories and — this reviewer's favorite — the Marvin Redpost books, Sachar has shown himself a writer of humor and heart, with an instinctive aversion to the expected. Holes is filled with twists in the lane, moments when the action is happily going along only to turn toward somewhere else that you gradually, eventually, sometimes on the last page, realize was the truest destination all along.

The book begins, "There is no lake at Camp Green Lake," and we are immediately led into the mystery at the core of the story: "There once was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas." We soon learn that there is no camp here either, not really, only a boys' detention facility to which our hero, Stanley Yelnats, is headed. Stanley has been convicted of stealing a pair of shoes donated by baseball great Clyde Livingston to a celebrity auction. The fact that Stanley didn't steal the shoes, that indeed they fell from the sky onto his head, is disbelieved by the judge, and even deemed immaterial by Stanley, who blames the whole misadventure on his "no-good-dirtyrotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!" — a favorite family mantra. And as the book goes on to show, with great finesse anci a virtuoso's display of circularity in action, Stanley is right. His destiny is as palindromic as his name.

We soon learn about that pig-stealing great-greatgrandfather and the curse that has haunted Stanley's family, even though the hapless eider Yelnats, like Stanley, didn't steal anything, and the curse is more of an ordination, a casting of the die. Stanley's great-grandfather found his place in the pattern when he encountered Kissing Kate Barlow, nee Miss Katherine Barlow, who became a ruthless outlaw of the Wild West when her love for Sam, the Onion Man, became cause for small-town opprobrium — and murder. Miss Barlow's recipe for spiced peaches also plays a large part in the story.

Heck, it all plays a large part in the story. Those peaches show up more than a century after they were canned, and their efficacy remains unchallenged. Just like Sam's onions. Just like the lullaby, sung, with telling variations, by the Yelnats cian:

"If only, if only," the woodpecker sighs, "The bark
 on the tree was as soft as the skies." While the wolf
 waits below, hungry and lonely, Crying to the moo-oo-oon,
 "If only, if only."

As for the title: when Stanley gets to Camp Green Lake, he discovers that every day each boy, each inmate, must dig a hole five feet by five feet by five feet. (Why? Too bad you can't ask Kissing Kate Barlow.) Stanley makes a friend, Zero (nicknamed thus because this is exactly what the world finds him to be), with whom he eventually escapes the camp. These boys have a date with destiny and, trust me, it has everything to do with the pig, Kissing Kate, the lullaby, the peaches, the onions… even the sneakers, Sachar is masterful at bringing his realistic story and tall-tale motifs together, using a simple declarative style —

Stanley Yelnats was given a choice. The judge said, "You may go to jail, or you may go to Camp Green Lake."

Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before.

— that is all the more poignant, and funny, for its understatement, its willingness to stay out of the way.

We haven't seen a book with this much plot, so suspensefully and expertly deployed, in too long a time. And the ending will make you cheer — for the happiness the Yelnats family finally finds — and cry, for the knowledge of how they lost so much for so long, all in the words of a lullaby. Louis Sachar has long been a great and deserved favorite among children, despite the benign neglect of critics. But Holes is witness to its own theme: what goes around, comes around. Eventually.

Sutton, R. (1998, September/October). Holes [Review of the book Holes]. Horn Book Magazine, 74(5), 593-595. Retrieved from www.hbook.com

Library Uses: This could be a good one to use for either a book talk at a middle school for the 6th graders or as a book club choice. Some schools read this for their 6th grade curriculum so there is a potential for a tie in program with the schools where the students who read the book could also get to watch the movie.

Module 3: Three Pigs

Book Cover:

 Book Summary:  The story begins like any other telling of the Three Little Pigs; the wolf comes to the door, there's huffing and puffing. What seems like it will be another telling of the very familiar three pigs story, is taken to the next level through creative illustrations. The story jumps right off the page and into other nursery rhymes, creating a totally new take on the classic story.

APA Reference of Book: Wiesner, D. (2001). The three pigs. New York: Clarion Books.  

Impressions:  My first impression of this book was not positive, I admittedly judged a book by its cover and found the pig faces a bit creepy. I sat down and prepared to be bored by, yet another, retelling of the story I know so well. I was totally wrong.I actually laughed out loud when the pigs ripped through the page of the story and started traipsing through newspapers and nursery rhymes. I thought this was a fantastically creative take on the classic story that was visually stunning. I particularly liked that, although wild things were happening with the illustrations, the text remained fairly true to the original.

Professional Review: 

In this Caldecott Medal-winning version of the classic tale, the pigs are not just blown out of their houses but out of their story.  The pigs interact with characters from other books, wander around in the white space between pages, and manipulate the pages of their own book – such as folding one page into a paper airplane.  Besides being a successful meta-book, The Three Pigs is also a satisfying story with its own plot, and a visual treat as well

The three pigs (Book). (2004). Book Links, 13(5), 33.

Library Uses:Since this is such a visually-dependent book it would not be my first choice to use for a story time. However, you could make a very interesting display that showcases all of the available retellings of the Three Pigs and include this book.

Module 3: A Sick Day for Amos McGee

  Book Summary: Every day Amos McGee spends a little bit of time with each of his friends at the zoo, running races with the tortoise, keeping the shy penguin company, and even reading bedtime stories to the owl. But when Amos is too sick to make it to the zoo, his animal friends decide it’s time they returned the favor.

APA Reference of Book: Wiesner, D. (2001). The three pigs. New York: Clarion Books.  

Impressions:  Oh, how much I loved this book! The illustrations are artistic, interesting, and whimsical. I loved the idea of the zookeeper going around to each of the animals to spend time with them. I think when I was a young girl and wanted to be a zoologist I pictured it something like that or like maybe Jack Hannah, so I could take all the animals on TV shows. The way that the illustrations tell the story for you is so wonderful. This is a book I would highly recommend to anyone.

Professional Review: 

Amos McGee, an elderly zookeeper, enjoys a clockwork life (one teaspoonful of sugar for oatmeal, two for tea and the number five bus to work) until the sniffles force him to stay in bed and miss his daily visits with animal friends. Fragile, gangly Amos, in striped pajamas and ill-fitting zoo uniform, appears as crushingly vulnerable as a child. Children will immediately like and understand him, as they too take comfort in reassuring routines—and would certainly love playing chess with an elephant or running races with a tortoise! Muted greens, browns and blues dominate pages, while brighter yellows and reds leaven the palette’s mild melancholy. Erin E. Stead’s beautifully wrought woodblock prints and pencil work create almost painfully expressive characters. Wrinkles and crinkles describe the elephant’s sagging mass and the rhino’s girth, as well as their keen sensitivity. Owl’s furrowed brow communicates deep concern even as the group heads to Amos’s home to check on him. This gentle, ultimately warm story acknowledges the care and reciprocity behind all good friendships: Much like Amos’s watch, they must be wound regularly to remain true. (Picture book. 2-6)

[Review of A Sick Day for Amos McGee by P. Stead] (2010, April 15). Kirkus Reviews 78(8), pg. 377. Retrieved from http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Library Uses:After reading the story, children could make their own booklets about what it means to be a friend and include things friends do for each other, who their friends are, and a picture of some of their friends.

Module 2: McElligot's Pool

 Book Summary:  A small boy is fishing in the tiny, unpromising McElligot's Pool, a puddle that is nothing but a hole people throw trash in. But the boy imagines that there is more to the pool: what if the pool is deeper than anyone thinks? What if it connects to an underground stream that flows under the town to the sea? Might not all sorts of fish then swim up the stream and be caught here? Who knows what fantastic fish might swim in McElligot's Pool!

APA Reference of Book: Dr. Seuss. (1947). McElligot's pool. New York: Junior Literary Guild  

Impressions: This was not a Seuss book that I had previously ever seen, but I greatly enjoyed reading it. The story is a fantastic example of a young boy's creativity and patience. I like the message that you shouldn't let naysayers get you down because you might be right, there could be more to any situation than everyone else knows. I very much enjoyed the illustrations showing how the pool continues down and across the page into bigger and more wonderful things. It gave the drawings a sort of flow that was visually appealing.

Professional Review:  Utterly enchanting nonsense tale, which children and grown-ups will equally claim. Particularly fishermen, of any age. A small boy drops a fishing line in a farmer's pool and ignores the farmer's scornful comment on the kinds of things he will find in the pool. His imagination plays, instead, with the kinds of things the pool might provide -- and the pictures are wonderful,- superb drawing, beautiful color, lots of humor in double page spreads throughout.

(1947).  McElligot's pool  [Review of the book MsElligot's pool by Dr. Suess].  Kirkus Reviews 15(5), 62.  Retrieved from www.kirkusreviews.com

Library Uses: I like the idea of doing this story along with a craft. The children could make their own creative fish to show what they would like to catch in McElligot's pool. I think that this book could also be used to open a discussion with children about the virtues of patience.

Module 2: Millions of Cats

 Book Summary: When his wife sends him to pick out the perfect kitten to have as a pet, the man finds a hill with millions of cats. As he attempts to choose one, he decides that all of the kittens have merit and decides to take all of them home. Along the way, the cats devour all of the grass and water they come across. When he gets home, the wife tells him that there is no possible way they can keep all of the cats. The man decides to let the cats decide who is the one that will stay with the couple. After a scuffle, the couple goes outside to find only one cat left. He was ignored because the other cats did not think he was good enough to consider as competition so the left him alone. It turns out, even though he was not the cutest cat, he is the perfect cat for this family.  

APA Reference of Book: Gág, W. (1928). Millions of cats. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc..  

Impressions: The illustrations in this book are very simple and all in black and white. Because of this, I wasn't particularly blown away by the art. However, once I learned more about the history of the book and how it is considered the first modern picture book, I gained a better appreciation for it. Gag was the first children's illustrator to create images spanning two pages. This is something we take for granted now, but it is very remarkable that she wanted to treat her book like a true piece of art and thus expanded the realm of illustrating for children. The wide illustrations give the reader a feel for the overwhelming number of cats that have followed this man home since the line of cats continues across the binding and onto the next page. I did like the story a lot. I could definitely understand wanting to take home all the cats and Gag's way of writing has a beautiful, lyrical quality to it that encourages you to read the book aloud.

Professional Review:

Wanda Gág's Millions of Cat
Children's book review by Steve Barancik
Ages 4-8

A children's book about cats...millions of them!
Named by School Library Journal as one of the "One Hundred Books That Shaped the Century" (the previous century), Millions of Cats is a treasure. It is also one of the few picture books to win a Newbery Honor, and it is reckoned by some to be the oldest American picture book still in print!
It's a simple tale. The very old woman's husband sets out in search of the perfect cat for his wife. Then he comes across a hill "which was quite covered in cats."
Millions and billions and trillions of cats.

This poses a bit of a dilemma. The old man wants the prettiest cat for his wife, but the more he looks the harder it is to decide which is the prettiest.

So he invites them all to return home with him. Along the way they drain a pond and denude a hillside. Millions of cats can do a fair amount of ecological damage!

The very old woman is, naturally, a bit overwhelmed. She resolves to let the cats themselves decide which is the prettiest and therefore should stay with the old couple.

But it turns out that asking a bunch of cats which is the prettiest only leads to disagreement among the vain creatures. The old couple retreats into their house when quite the argument ensues.  When they re-emerge, not a single cat is in evidence. It seems they all ate each other!

But there, in the tall grass, they spot one scraggly, scrawny, frightened little kitten. When they ask him how he survived, he explains that he was the only one who didn't claim to be the prettiest...so all the other cats left him out of the fight!
And therein lies Wanda Gág's lesson for us all: vanity will get you nowhere...except ingested. Beauty is only skin-deep. The little kitten, of course, grows up to be the prettiest cat of all...though presumably if he knows that, he's learned to keep it to himself!

[Review of the book Millions of cats, by S. Barancik].  (2006).  Retrieved from http://www.best-childrens-books.com/millions-of-cats.html
Library Uses:This would be an excellent storytime book due to the chant-like phrase "Cats here, cats there, / Cats and kittens everywhere, / Hundreds of cats, / Thousands of cats, / Millions and billions and trillions of cats", that would be perfect for the children to repeat along with the reader.

Module 1: Bats at the Library

Book Summary:When the window is left open, the library becomes and all-night playground for the bats. They make copies of themselves, make shadow puppets, play in the fountains, and have a storytime.

APA Reference of Book: Lies, B. (2008). Bats at the library. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Impressions: This may be my new picture book. I loved how adorable and quirky the illustrations are. I particularly loved how the bat doing the storytime had the book upside down for the hanging bats and how the one little bat wears water wings the whole time. The prose is really fantastic and flows beautifully. This would be a great book to read aloud, plus bats are just plain cute.
 
Professional Review:"Pictures light-handedly capture the Cheshire Bat, Winnie the Bat and Little Red Riding Bat" (Kirkus Reviews, 2008, para 1) and if one looks closely, there are other little tidbits as well, like a small green Hobbit (or would that be Hob-bat?) door in a hill.  While Kirkus may deem the rhyme about returning items to be preachy, I for one found it rather cute.  (Perhaps as one who always manages to have library fines, I find the idea of instilling good library-item-returning morals in kids particularly hopeful of Lies.)
BATS AT THE LIBRARY. (2008). Kirkus Reviews, 76(16), 194. Retrieved from EBSCOhost

Library Uses: This would be nice as part of a whole bat themed storytime, maybe even at night, where you could do information about bats, Bat's at the Library (or any of Lies' books) with a bat craft. The kids could make shadow puppets like the bats. This is also a good time to promote library services and the books that the bats act out in the story.