Waiting to Waltz: A Childhood

I decided to read Cynthia Rylant’s Waiting to Waltz: A Childhood right after reading her autobiography because I thought there might be some overlap between the two and maybe having read her autobiography would help me in reading this book. As you can tell because I have left the four poetry books until the very end, poetry is my least favorite genre. I’m not even sure why, but ever since I was a kid I decided that I can’t make any sense out of poetry and I’ve banished it to be the genre I read the least, even less than science fiction and fantasy.

My choice to read this book after Rylant’s autobiography was a good one. I recognized many of the characters and topics from the childhood that I had just read about. I had already read about her life growing up in Beaver, West Virginia before I read her poem about what it was like to move there from a more rural area. In her autobiography, Rylant mentions that she has issues accepting God and religion and mentions an incident where she was moved to go to the front of a church service and be saved; she describes how she later felt tricked into doing this. This memory was translated into one of her poems (“Saved”).

I’m really not sure how I feel about this book. I like that Rylant uses poetry to describe the ordinary events of her childhood, like going to church, seeing the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird”, her landlord, and buying a chili dog from the Kul-Kup. This is a lot like her short stories in The Van Gogh Café because both are written about everyday happenings. The tone of the book seems very dark, and the illustrations add to that. They seem to be done in pencil and are all dark and foreboding. Many of her poems deal with death or loss, which seem to be big issues in her life and other books.

One of my favorite poems was “Spelling Bee”. Like Rylant, I was in a spelling bee in the second grade where I had to compete against the third-graders. I was doing really well until I was given the word “between”, which was a third-grade word. I didn’t think I needed to study the third-grade words since I was only a second-grader, but I was wrong and needed to know how to spell all of the words. When I got this word, I remember panicking and spelling it “beetwen”; I knew I was wrong immediately and felt like I had let my teacher down. I could really relate to how Rylant felt in her spelling bee when she spells “woke” wrong. I also liked her last poem “The World”; I thought it was a really good way for her to end the book. It contributes closure as well as a hint of hope for the future because her dreams fill up Beaver Creek and will flow along with it out into the world.

Perhaps this book (and maybe all poetry?) is better for me as a read-aloud. I read the book silently, but then read certain poems aloud to my boyfriend when I was telling him about this book. When I was reading aloud and pausing at the appropriate parts, I appreciated the poetry more. I am going to try this technique when I read the other poetry books and see if I come to appreciate this genre more.

Joyful Noise

Joyful Noise, written by Paul Fleischman, is a book of poems about different insects, like grasshoppers, moths, cicadas, and crickets. The poems are laid out so that two readers can read them together, where one reader reads the left column and the other reader reads the right column; some lines are overlapping and are to be read by both readers.

These poems really benefited from being read aloud! When I wasn’t reading them aloud, I would sometimes get confused and lose my place on the page. It would be so fun to read the poems aloud in a classroom, with the teacher being one voice and the students all being the other voice, or some other variation of this. I can see this book being easily integrated into a science unit about insects. The poems really taught me a lot about insects; for example, mayflies only live one day, and digger wasps die before their young hatch.

The perspective was really interesting. I don’t usually think about life from the perspective of insects, but that is just what Fleischman had me do in this book. He gives all of the insects human characteristics so that the reader can relate to them. For example, I’m not sure that bugs fall in love, but the two book lice were got married and spent their honeymoon in a travel book. That poem (“Book Lice”) was one of my favorites. I also enjoyed the poem about mayflies because Fleischman was really able to demonstrate the frenzy of only being alive for one day. I also liked the poem about fireflies because I liked how he describes the fireflies as using their light to write in the darkness. I thought that was a really neat idea, and his words helped me to visualize it.

Beddows’ illustrations added an extra element to the book. His pictures complement the poems and represent the insects well; they are all unique and help me to visualize the insects as they are described in the poetry. For example, my favorite illustration goes along with the poem “Whirligig Beetles”. The poem talks about how whirligig beetles don’t walk in straight lines and that instead, they “spin and swerve as if they were on a merry-go-round” (32). The illustration for this poem is about 20 or so beetles weaving along the pages. They have been drawn to indicate that they are not walking in straight lines but in curved ones.

Paul Fleischman’s books often deal with nature, like in Weslandia and Seedfolks. In this book, Fleischman celebrates the insect world, much like he uses a garden as the main character in Seedfolks. Plants also play a big role in Weslandia because he uses things from nature, like the strange plants and flowers that begin growing there, to help construct his own land. This book would be a great addition to a unit on insects!

Long Night Moon

Long Night Moon, written by Cynthia Rylant, is the best book of poetry I have read so far! It may also be my favorite Cynthia Rylant picture book as well. I was really impressed by both its text and illustrations. The book chronicles one year of moons; one moon for each month. Rylant relates the moons to a Native American tradition of naming the moons of each month.

I loved the charcoal drawings and the beautiful words; they complement each other so well. Even though it is nighttime and the pictures are dark, the light of the moon illuminates the scene enough for the reader to be able to make out the animals and surrounding nature. Each moon has a personality, and the pictures depict the personalities of the moons and the months. The illustrations are done in a 360-degree panorama of the scenery throughout the year.

Rylant’s choice of font is interesting in this book. The font looks like cursive, which is warm and flowy. Maybe she did this in order to help in the transition from scene to scene, since it is flowy. Additionally, cursive, human-like font is more personal than the standard Times New Roman; this lends to the feeling that someone is telling this story about Native American traditions. Additionally, the font color complements the colors used in each scene. This reminds me of what Chris Van Allsburg did in Just a Dream, where he chose certain color families to be used in each illustration. In the picture accompanying the poem about May in this book, the illustrator uses lots of purples; the font is also a shade of purple. This lends to the continuity of the book.

This book seems like it would be a great read-aloud for younger students. It could also be used in a unit to talk about the seasons and how the landscape changes with the changing seasons. After reading this book, I really want to go out and buy it as the first addition to my future classroom library!

But I’ll be Back Again

I really enjoyed reading about Cynthia Rylant’s childhood in her autobiography But I’ll be Back Again. She talks about losing both of her parents at a young age; her mother left her father and then her mother went away to find work, leaving Cynthia to live with her grandparents. Her mother came back to live with her when she was a little older, and Rylant describes what growing up was like for her living in a small town in West Virginia.

After reading this book, I was inspired to look up more information on Rylant’s childhood and life. I wished she had written this book in a more traditional way; I would have liked for it to include when and where she was born and other facts one might expect to find in an autobiography. Instead, Rylant writes about specific events from her childhood—her first kiss, her boyfriends, the Beatles, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination. When I was reading a more factual account of her life, I discovered that she was born in Hopewell, Virginia, which is not far at all from where I was born. I feel a more personal connection to her and her writing now; it’s always fun to be from an area where a famous person was born or lived!

I loved how the book was set up. It includes photographs, much like a family photo album. The pictures didn’t have captions, and I wish that they had so I would know whose picture I was looking at. I also liked the inclusion of Beatles song lyrics before each chapter. The lyrics relate to what the chapter deals with in some way.

The chapter I enjoyed the most was the one about growing up. I felt like I could personally relate to everything she said about it. What young girl or woman can’t relate to feeling awkward and like they are the only one going through such changes? I especially enjoyed her description of how she got her mother to allow her to start shaving her legs and start wearing nylons. What a clever way to persuade her mother!

Reading her autobiography gave me a great insight into her life and writing. I’m glad that I read this after reading other books by her, instead of reading it before I had read anything written by her. I could really understand where all of her stories about Appalachia come from. It was interesting to read that her grandfather was a coal miner, just like the ones mentioned in her book Appalachia. I could also see aspects of her life in Missing May. Summer loses parents as well as her guardian May, just like Rylant lost her father and essentially her mother. Both girls are young and have to face loss. While she never actually came out and said it, I thought that maybe her uncles or cousins could be an inspiration for John Dante in I Had Seen Castles. I also noticed that she struggles with religion, which is a theme I saw in The Dreamer as well as some of her other books. She also mentions where she got ideas for other characters and themes that show up in her books; however, I hadn’t read any of the books she mentions.

The one qualm I have about this book is that I wonder if it is really appropriate for children. While I was reading it, I forgot that I was reading a juvenile biography; it felt more like an adult book. Do kids really relate to the Beatles and Robert Kennedy? Older readers would probably be more interested in this book than younger readers would.

The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems

The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems, edited by Donald Hall, is a collection of American poetry throughout the centuries. Both popular poems and more obscure ones are contained in this wonderful collection.

The Preface is extremely helpful because it provides a brief history of poetry in the United States, starting with Native American cradle songs and moving on to current poems. The poems are arranged in chronological order; this was helpful because the reader can see the evolution of poetry throughout time. Older poetry is really no different from newer poetry.

One of my favorite poems was “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, which is the poem version of what I know as “’Twas the Night before Christmas”. It brought back a lot of childhood memories to read this poem again, since I don’t actually know all of the words. I also especially like the picture accompanying this poem; it is an old-fashioned picture of Santa Claus, and he just looks so jolly and nice. Another poem that reminds me of my childhood is “The Three Little Kittens”, which is about the three kittens who lost their mittens. I used to have a book version of this poem and I always wanted my mom to read it to me before bed. Toward the end of the book, there are some poems that are written in languages other than English and then also reprinted in English. Including these poems is such a great idea as America becomes more and more diverse and children increasingly come to school speaking languages other than English.

Since this is a children’s book, I started out thinking that some of these poems might not be interesting to children, but I changed my mind. I thought that while I appreciate Emily Dickinson’s poem “I’m nobody, who are you?”, a child might not like it as much. The editor mentions that he hopes this collection of poetry will be read aloud to children by their parents, so perhaps a poem like Dickinson’s would be made more interesting if it were read aloud to a child instead of the child reading it him- or herself. There are also a lot of poems that I think children would really enjoy reading or hearing. For example, I remember really liking the poem “The Purple Cow” (“I never saw a Purple Cow/I never hope to see one/But I can tell you, anyhow,/I’d rather see than be one!) when I was in kindergarten or first grade, so I’m sure kids would still enjoy it now. The pictures also contribute to the kid-friendly feel of the book. Each poem had a picture to go with it, whether it was of an animal mentioned in the poem or a character or even a place mentioned.

Even though this is a collection of children’s poetry, adults would enjoy reading it to remember their own childhood and also to simply appreciate the poetry. This book could also be used in a unit on poetry in any grade level. Since the book includes poems of varying difficulty, the teacher could select some that are age-appropriate to study or to contribute to a lesson.

Morning Girl

Morning Girl, a historical fiction book written by Michael Dorris, is told from the perspective of a brother and sister. The girl’s name is Morning Girl and her brother is Star Boy. The characters take turns describing their days in 1492 in alternating chapters. The book ends when Morning Girl sees some of Christopher Columbus’ men landing on her island. She tries to greet them and then runs home to get her parents and other villagers to meet them. The book then ends with a letter written by Columbus, presumably to the King, telling him about the people he has met on the island. He says that the people will make good servants and be easily converted to Christianity. The book ends here, allowing the reader to come to his or her own conclusions, drawing from what they know about history.

Because of how it ties in with history, this would be a great book to have students read while they are learning about explorers. It offers a non-European point of view on the topic, which is necessary. I thought this different point of view was the most interesting part of the book. This came into play the most at the very end, when Morning Girl is describing the men she sees. She tries to be friendly and thinks that it will be a great day with lots of feasting and sharing of gifts. She is not afraid of them, instead, she thinks “What a backward, distant island they must have come from” (69). This is so interesting because that is exactly what we have learned in school that people other than us are: backward and distant. I loved reading her description of the men and how they had “wrapped every part of their bodies with colorful leaves and cotton. Some had decorated their faces with fur and wore shiny rocks on their heads” (69). It is easy to recognize that these men are wearing clothes and hats, and some had beards, but all of these ideas are foreign to Morning Girl.

I wish that the book had had more closure, but the point of it clearly is to allow the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. I would love to learn more about the Taino people living in the Bahamas before Columbus. Does their culture still survive, or were they relocated or wiped out by Columbus? What was, or is, their culture like?

Don’t Tell the Girls

Don’t Tell the Girls, a family memoir written by Patricia Reilly Giff, tells Giff’s story of how she struggled to find out more about her family. As immigrants from Ireland to the U.S., Giff’s paternal grandmother’s family relocated in Brooklyn. She starts by using stories from her maternal grandmother and other family members, and then goes to libraries in search of her family’s roots. According to family stories, her paternal grandmother’s father, Michael, left Ireland to find work in America and later sent his wife and their twelve children money for the trip to America. When his family arrived, Michael was not there waiting for them. Giff learns that her grandmother’s mother left Michael in Ireland because of his gambling problem; she took their twelve children with her. The story about Michael ‘disappearing’ and not being there when the family arrived was fabricated. After a lot time spent laboring to find out the truth about her family, Giff was finally able to come to some conclusion.

The author of this book has also written numerous other children’s books, but I have never read any of them. After reading it, I would love to read some of her other books to see how the events described in this book influence her writing.

I chose this book when I was in the library looking for a biography to read. I had picked it up once before but decided not to get it that time. When I saw it again this time, I decided I had to read it. The cover intrigued me; it has an old picture of a woman on it, and it looks like it could be a photo album or some other family keepsake. Adding to the feel of the book as being a photo album, there are pictures of the author or her family scattered throughout the book. The edges of the pages are also torn and uneven, much like the edges of The Tale of Despereaux. This lends to the feeling of the book as being old and part of the family’s history.

I made a really personal connection to this story because, like the author, my family has a bit of a family secret that my grandparents unearthed when they got really into genealogy. They found out that my grandmother’s mother had been born into an at least somewhat Native American family. That made my great-grandmother at least some part Native American, but she had never told anyone about it before. Her family had changed their name to a more “American” one and had moved to a new town to avoid persecution for being Native Americans. No one knew this until my grandmother found some records with their names listed among the members of the Monacan Indian tribe.

This was a great, quick read. I would recommend it to be read to complement other books by Patricia Reilly Giff in order to get a feel for how her experiences influenced her writing.