An Amish Year

An Amish Year, written by Richard Ammon and illustrated by Pamela Patrick, is a beautifully written and illustrated informational book. In the voice of a young Amish girl named Anna, the book covers a year in the life of an Amish family. It starts out in the spring, where Anna and her family celebrate Easter and do spring cleaning. In the summer, they make hay and then eat ice cream. In the fall, Anna talks about people getting married and the Thanksgiving feast. In winter, they celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts. I learned some interesting things over the course of Anna’s family’s year. For example, the Amish only go to church every other week. The weeks in between are spent reading quietly.

My family stopped in the region of Pennsylvania one year on the way home from a vacation somewhere in that area. I remember being so intrigued by the Amish farmhouses. When I first saw them, I couldn’t understand why some of the houses had clotheslines with clothes that were almost all the same color, while other houses did not. I didn’t realize for a little while longer that some of the houses were owned by Amish families while others were not. There were children outside doing chores, and the girls I saw remind me of the girl telling this story about her life.

The pictures on the pages opposite the text look like photographs; it’s almost as if Anna’s story goes with a photo album or scrapbook. The pictures illustrate snapshots of the scenes and activities Anna is describing. They are beautiful, yet simple pictures, which seems to echo the simple life of the Amish. The text is bordered with what looks like a quilt pattern. This gives the reader a sense of the Amish’s handiwork and brings a little more of the Amish culture into the story. It’s pretty too!

I like that the text included some words and phrases in the German dialect that the Amish speak along with English translations. For example, the girl is describing the horses and talks about the one who pulls their “Doch Waggle (buggy)”. I always enjoy reading things written in their true dialect or that include little bits of it in their dialogue.

The Author’s Note at the end of the book is extremely helpful. It tells the history of the Amish and how they came to live in Pennsylvania. It also points out why they have some of the traditions that they have, like men having long beards and not using zippers or buckles. It seems to give a rationale for why the Amish do things in the ways that they do them; for example, everyone addresses everyone else by their first names because they believe that everyone

The book seems to really point out the similarities and differences between the Amish and the “English”, as they call their non-Amish neighbors. This is a similar premise as the book I just read on love and marriage around the world, which encourages the reader to find similarities and differences between the different cultures as well. Anna talks about some things her family doesn’t do that “English” families generally do do; for example, her family doesn’t have a Christmas tree and Santa Claus doesn’t visit her house. However, she plays volleyball in the summer on her birthday with her family. I can remember playing outside when I was younger with my cousins whenever we would all gather for someone’s birthday, just like Anna’s family does in the book.

This is a really great book to use to teach kids about the Amish. It presents a year in the life of one family so that young readers can compare their lives to that of the Amish, and is an easy read. I definitely recommend this for teachers as well as for families to read with their children!

Love and Marriage Around the World

Love and Marriage Around the World, written by Carol Gelber, provides interesting information on customs dealing with love and marriage throughout the world. I found this informational book in the library and thought it sounded interesting. The book is divided into sections, some of which address how matches are made (running the continuum from the couple choosing for themselves to an arranged marriage), what the wedding ceremony is like, and who is present. It doesn’t seem like something that a teacher would be able to apply in a classroom, except maybe to tie the information to a study of different aspects of world cultures. Instead, it would be an interesting book for a student to read on his or her own.

This is not such a concrete topic as other informational books might concern themselves with, although it was presented extremely well. I really learned a lot about many different cultures and their ways of thinking about marriage and love. The pictures worked really well with the text to illustrate some of what the author was describing. It seemed that there was a picture of a bride or groom or marriage ceremony almost every few pages. This way, I could really visualize the people and activities better than if there weren’t any pictures.

It was so interesting to see all of the similarities and differences between the different cultures on the topics of love and marriage. The American culture event shares some similarities with other cultures that I never thought it would. For example, in Japan, the book states that young people look for “the three ‘highs’: high education, high income, and physical height” (28). This is what a lot of Americans are looking for as well! The book also mentions some other universal idea governing marriage, like that it developed as a union between a man and a woman to create and care for a family. How do universal tendencies develop? It’s so interesting to me.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

This historical fiction book, written by Christopher Paul Curtis, was a great! No wonder it received the Newberry Honor Award and the Coretta Scott King Award. It is told from the point of view of 10-year old Kenny Watson. His family consists of his mom, dad, little sister Joetta, and older brother Byron (who is thirteen and “officially a teenage juvenile delinquent”); Kenny describes their life in Flint, Michigan. His parents decide it is time to take the family to visit their grandmother in Alabama with the hopes of leaving Byron there for the summer so he can shape up. They make the trip, to the South, and the kids have some adventures. One morning Joetta goes to Sunday school at the church, and the family hears that a bomb has gone off there. Fearing her dead, they rush to the church. Kenny goes inside the church and thinks he sees her dead, so he runs home. At home, he finds that she is actually alive because she got hot during the service and went outside, somehow chasing Kenny home. The family goes back to Flint, where they all try to get over the horrible events in Alabama.

Despite its serious content, this book had some hilarious parts. Byron offered a lot of the comic material. For example, Byron gets his lips stuck to the car mirror because it is so cold outside, and his mother has to pry him off of the mirror. This part reminded me of the Christmas movie (I think it’s called “A Christmas Story”) where the little boy gets his tongue stuck to the flag pole. I have always wondered how his tongue was pried loose, and here I got to read about a similar situation. Byron seemed to be the epitome of adolescence in this book. I remember when I was 13 and thought everything my parents and younger sister did was uncool. Byron represents what a lot of kids are starting to go through when they read this book.

I felt like I really go to know the family in this book, which was vital to understanding how they must have felt at the end of the book when they believed Joetta was dead. Kenny seems so innocent sometimes, like when he was tricked to giving the mean kid part of the money he finds because the other kid told him he lost part of it. He seems so innocent and easily tricked, much like Cassie’s older brother in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; he was persuaded to give away his new coat and tricked, much like Kenny. In addition to great character development, Curtis encourages the readers to make personal connections to the characters so that they will feel more deeply the pain the family and community goes through at the end of the book. In his Epilogue, he talks about the loss the families of the girls who were killed in the church must have felt. He compares that feeling to how the reader felt when Joetta might have been dead and how they might feel about their siblings and families.

The one thing that bothers me about this book is that I’m not sure that younger readers will quite grasp what happens with the “Wool Pooh”, which is a story Byron makes up. The tries to scare the younger children by telling them that Winnie the Pooh’s cousin, Wool Pooh, lives in the lake and will snatch the children if they go there. Kenny goes anyway and is almost pulled to his death by the whirlpool, but Byron rescues him. He thinks he sees the Wool Pool, who he describes as having square toes both when he is fighting for his life in the water and when he goes into the church and thinks he sees Joetta dead. At that point, he runs back to his house to try to escape the Wool Pooh. Joetta says that she followed Kenny home after leaving the church, which is why she was not there when the bomb went off. Kenny thought he saw Joetta in the water with him when he was almost drowning. Clearly something is going on here, but I’m not even sure what it is. I might be underestimating kids’ cognitive abilities, but they could be a little bit confused here.

I Had Seen Castles

I Had Seen Castles, written by Cynthia Rylant, is a historical fiction novel telling one boy’s experiences during World War II. It is told from the point of view of the boy, John, now a man in his sixties. The book is written in the first person point of view, and it is told as a series of flashbacks of different related events leading up to, during, and after the war.

John is seventeen when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and spends the next year waiting until he is old enough to enlist in the military. He meets Ginny, and she tries to persuade him not to go to war. He doesn’t listen to her and is sent to Europe. He stops responding to her letters, and she stops writing to him. However, his memory of her helps him survive the fighting. He returns home, but nothing is the same. He never sees Ginny again but is thankful for her influence on him.

We have talked in class about how Rylant likes to play with words and use them in a different order, different from how people actually talk. For example, John narrates “His was a look I had no experience of” (6), when describing what his father looked like after learning that the Germans figured out how to split the uranium atom.

This was such a sad book. Rylant was really able to personalize the war, and it allowed me to imagine myself as each of the characters. What would it be like to be sent to fight in a foreign country at age 18? What would it be like it the person I loved was sent to fight? Or my son? I can’t even begin to imagine what this might be like, but Rylant really started me thinking about this. Her personalization of what is often dehumanized and not personal is what makes this story so powerful.

The Bone Collector's Son

I stumbled upon Paul Yee’s The Bone Collector’s Son while looking for another book, but I was intrigued by the title and decided to choose it instead. It tells the story of a young Chinese boy, Bing, whose father, Ba, collects bones and sends them back to their families in China. Bing is ashamed of his father and his profession at first, but by the end of the book both he and his father grow and change. After his father digs up a set of bones missing a head, strange things start to happen. Then Bing goes to work as a houseboy in a haunted household owned by the Bentley family. Bing is eventually able to appease the Bentley ghost with a Chinese offering. He also appeases the ghost of the bones Ba dug up by returning its skull.

It is hard to tell if this book is historical fiction of fantasy. It is set in the Vancouver Chinatown during the early twentieth century; however, the two ghosts and mention of other mystical happenings make me wonder if maybe it’s more of a fantasy story. Adding to the idea that this book is historical fiction is the historical afterword at the end of the book. It gives a true description of the anti-Asian parade and rioting that occurs at the end of the book. This is very helpful because it allows the reader to separate what is fact and what the author made up. Additionally, the author includes a map of Vancouver at the time the book takes place. It was helpful being able to visualize where the action occurs.

I read some reviews of the book online, and they were all mostly more positive than I felt about the book. I thought there were too many characters. Because I have little prior knowledge about the Chinese culture and Chinese names, it was difficult for me to separate all of the characters. Additionally, many characters had nicknames that I found difficult to follow. I was also not so impressed by the ending. The action of the parade and rioting was difficult to follow. It seemed odd to me that the rioters just stopped suddenly and it was over. Reading the historical afterword put the story into perspective, however, since it mentions that the rioters quickly left Chinatown for Japantown.

I did really enjoy the infusion of Chinese culture into the story. The Chinese characters on the book cover and each new chapter page were neat to look at. They’re so pretty, and I don’t often see the characters written on paper. Additionally, I enjoyed all of the mentions of mysticism, like when Bing visits the Fortuneteller seeking advice on how to get the bones’ ghost to leave his father alone.

Although many aspects of this book were confusing and difficult to follow, it was a good, scary, Chinese ghost story. The theme of self-conflict in growing up is applicable world-wide. Younger adolescent readers can see themselves in Bing’s struggle to not feat the ghosts. He also grows up in forgiving his father for his having gambled away all of the family’s money and for his job as a bone collector. Readers universally can relate to Bing’s struggle in some way or another.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

I recently read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, a Newberry Award-winning historical fiction novel written by Mildred D. Taylor. It is a story about the Logans, an African-American family living in the rural South during the 1930s. They face many prejudices and struggle to fight against them, while still protecting the family from harm.

The book starts out with an introduction by the author. Taylor talks about her father’s ability to tell wonderful stories, and I thought it was very touching. It seemed a great way to introduce the readers to the feeling of family that is developed throughout the story.

This was a great read. It read almost like an adult book, and I often forgot I was reading a children’s book. One reason for this is because of the difficult language and structure. The author often makes use of imagery in describing the setting. For example, “the narrow, sun-splotched road wound like a lazy red serpent dividing the high forest bank of quiet, old trees on the left from the cotton field, forested by giant green-and purple stalks, on the right” (6). I can just picture this beautiful scenery in my mind. She also uses beautiful words to tell the story. For example, she talks about how “Papa and Uncle Hammer and Big Ma and Mr. Morrison and Mama lent [the children] their memories” (147). I love the idea of stories being a lending of memories. It seems to fit so well.

One of my favorite characters was Little Man. His character is really well developed, and he offers great comic relief. Little Man reminds me a little bit of May Bell in Bridge to Terabithia for that reason. He has such a cute name, and every time he was mentioned, I could almost hear his voice and follow his actions. I loved how he was described as loving to be clean and not wanting to get his clothes dirty. What six-year old boy is like that?

I also liked Jeremy’s character. He was a white boy about the age of the main character, Cassie’s, older brother. Throughout the book he is about the only white person who treats the family fairly. I thought it was interesting that he and the Logan children were very awkward and uncomfortable around each other. This seemed to emphasize the sameness between the two races, which is a very important concept.

When the students at the all African-American school were given the second-hand books from the county, the author’s inclusion of the chart was extremely powerful. The books had been used by white students until they were in “very poor” condition, at which time the black students got them. The author could have just described this, but she went a step further in including a reproduction of the actual chart showing the date, the condition of the book, and the race of the student. That inclusion of a “real” chart really drove home the point of what was occurring.

The overarching theme of this book seemed to be hope. Whenever the family was faced with a difficult and dangerous situation, some family member made some comment about how it wasn’t time to worry yet, or to just have faith. Even though they were faced with losing their land or extremely dangerous situations like death, the family never gave up their fight for what they believed in. Independence seemed to be another huge theme. Because their family owns their own land and does not have to tenant farm other people’s land, they feel and are perceived as more independent than others since they do not depend on others for their livelihood.

Anastasia, Czarina or Fake?

This book, written by Leslie McGuire, is part of a series called the “Great Mysteries” series, which attempts to provide opposing points of view on controversial events and phenomena. It is a biography of Anastasia, Czarina of Russia. I chose this book because I have always been intrigued by the Russian royal families; I loved the movie “Anastasia”. The book tells the story of Anastasia and her family, chronicling what is known and what isn’t about their disappearance. It follows the story of a woman, Anna Manahan, who claimed that she was Anastasia. She was found in a canal in Germany, badly injured and without much of her memory. An already difficult journey to finding her identity was made even more difficult by the fact that she refused to cooperate with authorities and even members of her supposed family.

The book presents evidence that there may or may not have been a murder of the entire family, or just a few family members. Where did this murder occur? Did any of the family members escape, like Anastasia herself? Was the woman who presented herself as Anastasia really Anastasia? If not, who was she? These are just a few of the questions this book raises and provides evidence for.

The book had so many great photographs, but the one thing I wish was different about it was that I wish the pictures had been in color. I know that this isn’t always possible due to monetary issues, but it would have been nice had there been color. The photographs that I thought were the most helpful were the ones comparing known photographs of Anastasia to the woman claiming to be her. It was really interesting to compare the two women for myself and to see what the authorities were talking about when they were referencing photographs of the two women.

This book is great to use in a classroom when teaching about different perspectives and points of view. It encourages readers to take evidence and draw their own conclusions. There are quotes in the margins of many of the pages that present different points of view. For example, two quotes are “[Anastasia Tschaikovsky] is an absolute fraud” and “Well, it is Anastasia” (23). While the author never provides strong evidence for both sides, no conclusion is ever reached. This bothered me to some extent because I wish that the book had definite closure, but it’s good because it allows the reader to think for him or herself. Additionally, this book would be an excellent starting point for students who are just starting to research Russian history or royal families. It really piqued my interest in Russian history, and I would love to read more books about the period in time or about Anastasia and the other members of the royal family.

Nelson Mandela

I enjoyed reading Reggie Finlayson’s biography of Nelson Mandela, simply entitled Nelson Mandela. It told Mandela’s life story, from a boy in rural South Africa to a man dedicated to the South African fight for freedom and equal rights for everyone. It didn’t go through all of his life, instead highlighting important points and throwing in some interesting stories. I found the book to be entertaining, which was good since I started off with no previous knowledge of Nelson Mandela.

The book had some really great pictures! Some of them are really old, like one of the first ones, which depicts a nineteenth-century chief and his wives, while others are newer. The pictures are great because they allow students to visualize the people and country about which they are reading. Because I have very little prior knowledge about Africa or the African people, the pictures made the book more interesting. I wish there had been more pictures, or even maps. The author also included a great deal of first-hand sources, like excerpts from speeches and writing from leaders of the time. That was helpful because it really put everything they were fighting for into perspective.

One thing I didn’t like about this book was that the pronunciation guide was at the very end of the book. At first I thought there wasn’t one at all, and I didn’t realize there was one until I had finished the entire book. Maybe if I had been a better reader I would have discovered it, but I don’t think the average young reader would realize this either. There were so many African words and names, like Xhosa, Rolihlahla, and Mphakanyiswa, but I had no idea how to say them. This would have been especially problematic if I were reading the book to a group of students or otherwise using it for instructional purposes. The reader should be given some sort of clue that there is a pronunciation guide at the end of the book.

Additionally, I wish that the author had chosen to include background information about where he found his information on Nelson Mandela. I would love to know what his interest in South Africa and Nelson Mandela is. How did he find this information? Has he ever been to South Africa? In summary, this is a good book for kids to read on their own time to learn about Africa and an influential African man, but it might not be too useful to use in a classroom setting.

Seedfolks

Seedfolks, written by Paul Fleischman, was such a quick read! It tells the story of different people in a community planting a garden. The book is made up of short stories, each told from a different perspective. The different perspectives were the thing I enjoyed the most about this book. As I read, I recognized certain details mentioned in one story that I related back to another person’s story.

Another of my favorite aspects of the book is the pictures that relate to the text. At the beginning of each of the stories is a picture of the person whose perspective the story is coming from. Each person is different, just like the stories. Whenever I read, I like to visualize the person telling the story, so it was neat that I was provided with a picture of the person. There was also another picture on the first page of each story that related to the story. I didn’t notice this until near the end of the book, but the pictures are of vegetables the people grow, or something that they bring to the garden.

The first two stories go together really well. In the first one, a little girl is planting lima beans in the garden, and in the next story, an elderly lady sees her doing this and thinks she’s up to no good. This is a misunderstanding, just like what happens everyday between the different cultures and people in the community. This was a great metaphor to start the book out with.

One of the stories that I got the most meaning out of was Gonzalo’s story, which talks about the difficulties people have when they come to the U.S. and can’t speak English. I am doing an independent study on bilingualism and the problems facing students in the U.S. educational system who do not speak English, so I have been thinking a lot about the things Gonzalo talked about. I loved seeing his grandfather, who spoke only an Indian language, transition from a ‘baby’, when he wanders around aimlessly, to a man, when he plants his seeds in the garden.

Another story I liked was Sae Young’s. She is a Korean woman who uses the garden as a way to come back out into the community and be with people again after a bad experience. I thought it was really interesting that her story was written in short, choppy sentences, much like I can imagine a Korean immigrant who knows only a little English would speak. This one seems to be the only story written in quite this way. I wonder why?

Because it was a collection of short stories, I was reminded of Rylant’s Van Gogh Café. I thought this was a better book than the other because all of the stories are connected to each other. I was able to recognize other community members from other people’s stories, and I was able to recognize the same events from different perspectives. Although I enjoyed this book better, I wonder if maybe children would enjoy Rylant’s book more.

The Devil’s Arithmetic

Jane Yolen’s book, The Devil’s Arithmetic, is a time-warp fantasy story. It was mentioned in the last chapter on fantasy and science fiction books, and I thought it was something I might find interesting. I really enjoy historical fiction books, and this book seemed like a great way to read a book that was an overall fantasy (and get to check it off as a fantasy story on my grid!) but that appealed to my love of history. It was a great choice!

The book starts out in the present with thirteen year-old Hannah and her family celebrating the Passover Seder. Her family keeps telling her that all of the rituals are to remember, but she doesn’t understand what they mean by that and why it is so important. When she is chosen to open the door so that the prophet Elijah, instead of seeing the hall outside of the door, she has been transported to a house looking out into a field. She’s not sure where she is, but she is sure that it is some kind of cruel joke or dream. She comes to find out that she is a Jewish girl named Chaya living in a village in Poland. She and her new family, along with the rest of her village, are stopped by the Nazis on their way to a wedding, and packed into cars and sent to a concentration camp. There they are forced to work and some of the others die or are killed. Chaya is not chosen to die, but trades places with another girl who is. It is at this time that she is transported back to the present, where she learns that some of the people she met in the story are her family members.

Yolen provides an Epilogue with useful background for readers not familiar with the events of with Judaism. She talks about which details in the story are true, and which were made up. The Epilogue helps readers to tie everything together.

It was interesting to see this period of time from a different point of view. I remember reading a lot of books about World War Two and the Holocaust when I was younger (Molly was my favorite American Girl doll), and whenever I learned about the Holocaust, I always wondered why the Jews didn’t try to escape, why they didn’t try to do something. This book did a wonderful job of juxtaposing Hannah, who starts out with a lot of the same questions and suggestions as I have, with all of the other Jews. Hannah starts out trying to warn everyone about the ovens and the killing and six million Jews dead, but her aunt Gitl warns her not to scare people. In the cattle cars on the way to the camp, Hannah yells in exasperation, “we must do something. And quickly. I know where they’re taking us….I am…I am…from the future” (78). The Rabbi quickly disregards what she’s saying and tells everyone that all they can do is pray. There are multiple times in the book when Hannah suggests they run away or fight back, but other prisoners present reasons for why that is not feasible. Hannah seems to represent what people during the future think when they think back on the events. Her aunt Gitl often has to explain to her how the Jews felt during the events—why they complied and why they didn’t fight back. It’s always important to remember that hindsight is 20:20. As Hannah starts to lose her memories from the future and become more and more Chaya and less Hannah, she starts to think like the other people in the camp. “She thought what her knowledge of the ovens, of the brutal guards, of names like Auschwitz and Dachau could really do for them here, naked and weaponless, except to take away that moment by moment of hope” (91). It is here that she really begins to understand and think like the others. By the end of the book, the reader really begins to understood why the people in the camp did what they did. The girl Rivka, who helps Hannah and her friends in the camp, says that there must be some reason God is letting this tragedy happen. There was so much hope in her statement that I had never really thought about before. It was such a new way to think about the events, and it was interesting to see the ways in which they tried to comfort themselves.

Two main themes in this book are remembering and words. The whole reason Hannah is transported to 1942 is because she doesn’t understand what her grandfather and family are telling her when they tell her that the Seder is about remembering. She has to go through the events in order to remember. As she starts experiencing what others went through, she begins forgetting about her old life in America. Only at the end does she begin to remember her life as Hannah. Remembering keeps coming up again and again in the story. When her aunt Gitl tells Hannah that she is part of a plan to escape, Gitl says “Promise me, Chaya, you will remember” (144). She is promising that she will remember not to tell anyone about the plan, but this is also related to the bigger picture—she must remember what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust.

Words also play a huge role in the book. Euphemisms are used in the camp much like they are used in The Giver for dying. Materials are organized, instead of stolen; people are chosen for processing, instead of chosen to be killed. Yolen shows how words can be used for a variety of purposes. Words have power, like when Hannah is scolded for telling the villagers what the Nazis will do to the Jews (“How can you talk like that? Your words will fly up to Heaven and call down the Angel of Death, Lilith’s bridegroom, with his poisoned sword” [66]). Words can kill, like when one of the soldiers says that he will kill the next person who speaks (75). Words in the prayers are also a great comfort when they are in the camp; they pray when people die and when they are afraid.

Missing May

Cynthia Rylant’s realistic fiction novel Missing May was the recipient of the Newberry Medal in 1993. It tells the story of a girl, Summer, who was taken in by an older couple, May and Ob. May dies six years after Summer has been living with her and Ob. Following her death, Summer and Ob never truly grieved. One day Ob thinks that May’s spirit has visited him, and he, Summer, and their friend Cletus set out to communicate with her spirit. They try to talk to her themselves and then travel to a Spiritual Church to have someone mediate the communication. When this doesn’t work out, Summer is finally able to grieve and she and Ob are able to go on with their lives.

While I have liked most of the other Cynthia Rylant books I have read so far, I wasn’t able to get into this book right away. It seemed a little slow and confusing at first. I was confused as to who Ob and May were and what their relation to Summer was. It was not until the end of the book, when Ob, Summer, and Cletus go to the Spiritual Church to try to communicate with May that I really became interested in the characters and what was going on.

There were so many passages in this book that broke my heart. For example when Summer is describing all of the wonders she sees in May’s house, she thinks “Those little cardboard boxes of juice that I had always, just once, wanted to try….And, best of all, a carton of real chocolate milk that said Hershey’s.” (8) These are such simple things, and it struck me as sweet that this is what Summer wants. I loved the passage when Ob was describing the little things that May did, like “how she had rubbed down his ailing knee with Ben-Gay every single night, not missing a one, so he might be able to stand on that leg when he got out of bed the next morning” (35). While the book mentions larger things she did, I love that simple things like this are what Ob chose to tell Summer and Cletus about.

I was able to make some connections between this book and others that I have read. First of all, Summer says that during the ride to the Spiritual Church, the mood “was almost sadness, but it wasn’t. It was sweeter than sadness” (68). This quote reminds me of the candy in Because of Winn-Dixie that is like a mixture of sweetness and sadness too. On second thought, a lot about this book reminds me of Because of Winn-Dixie. Both books are about young girls who have lost people they love and how they come to terms with that loss. Through Winn-Dixie, Opal is able to make sense of her loss. Summer is able to do this through seeing Ob grieve and then being able to grieve herself. This book also reminded me of Rylant’s Appalachia. In both books, she talks about how that region is more than just coal mines and other broken-down things like that. In fact, there is a line in this book very similar to lines from Appalachia—“I felt in me an embarrassing sense of pride that she was ours. That we weren’t just shut-down old coal mines and people on welfare like the rest of the country wanted to believe we were” (70).

Ella Enchanted

Ella Enchanted, a Newberry Honor book written by Gail Carson Levine, is a wonderful adaptation of the traditional Cinderella story. At birth, a fairy named Lucinda bestows the gift of obedience on Ella. She must obey any command she is given. Ella meets Prince Charmont when she is about fifteen years old, at her mother’s funeral. Ella is then sent off to finishing school with Dame Olga’s two awful daughters, Hattie and Olive. She runs away when she hears that her father and the fairy Lucinda will both be at a giant’s wedding. She goes with the hope of having Lucinda break her curse, but she is unsuccessful. Her father tells her that he has lost all of his money, so he will marry Dame Olga for her money. He travels a lot, and Ella is left at home to serve Olga and her daughters. Ella writes to Char, and he confesses his love for her. Because of her curse, she is reluctant to marry him. What if someone was to find out that she has to obey all commands and used it against her and the prince…or even worse, against her country? She goes to a series of three balls thrown by the royal family so that Char can find a bride. She dances with him at all three, masked. When he comes to her house to find her, he sees her in her rags from being forced to work as a servant. When she saves the prince by disobeying a command from Hattie to marry him, her curse is broken. They live happily ever after, of course.

What a great twist on the Cinderella story! I have been reading a lot of different versions of it for this class, but this is the first version I’ve read that isn’t a picture book. First of all, the obedience curse was an interesting development. Lucinda meant it as a gift, but I don’t see how it could ever be thought of as a blessing. What would it be like if you were forced to do everything you were told to do? At the end of the book, when her curse is broken, Ella is so happy to be able to make decisions for herself and to be able to say yes or no to something. I also loved the variations on the traditional names. Instead of being called Prince Charming, he is named Prince Charmont. The variation of the name also makes the prince seem a little more exotic. Instead of being called Cinderella, the main character is Eleanor (Ella for short).

As soon as Dame Olga and her two daughters were introduced, I recognized them as the evil stepmother and stepsisters. There were even glass slippers! I was a little surprised to see that detail in the story. It was a really neat addition. This story had three balls instead of the traditional one. Ella has two fairy godmothers in this story—Lucinda and the cook, Mandy. It seems easier to believe in fairies in this story since it takes place in a mythical kingdom where it is common to trade with the elves and see fairies at weddings. Ella goes to the balls in a pumpkin coach drawn by mouse-horses, a detail not seen in other versions. This Cinderella story is the closest I’ve read to the traditional story I am used to, as depicted by Disney.

The author uses such wonderful words in this book! She paints beautiful pictures with her words. Before Ella leaves for finishing school, she goes to the royal menagerie, where there are parrots who speak all of the world’s languages, a dragon, centaurs, and ogres. I could almost see all of these mythical creatures as they were being described. Ella’s favorite part was the parrots who speak various languages, and I love that idea too! The parrots can speak all of the human languages as well as mythical languages, like Gnomic and Elfian. The description of how Ella feels when Hattie finds out that she will do anything she’s told to do made me really empathize with her. This is something kids need to learn how to do, so I think it’s great that this book teaches them how to do that.

Although I loved the descriptions of the mythical creatures, like elves, giants, ogres, and centaurs, I really wish there had been more description of the humans living in the kingdom. Who exactly do Char and his family rule over?

I found some connections from this book to other non-Cinderella stories. First of all, at the beginning of the book Ella looks at a rug made by fairies. Although I later learned differently, this reminded me of Jonas’ ability to “see beyond” in The Giver. Really, since the rug was made by fairies, it has the ability to tell stories. Secondly, whenever Char and his knights go near ogres, they put wax in their ears so the ogres’ words won’t overpower and persuade them. This is like when Odysseus and his sailors do this whenever they go near the islands in the Odyssey.

This was a wonderful adaptation of the Cinderella story! It shared a lot of the same elements as other versions I’ve read, although it differed some as well. In this version, Ella rescues both Prince Char and herself from her obedience curse instead of him rescuing her.

Baba Yaga and the Little Girl

I chose to read Katya Arnold’s Baba Yaga and the Little Girl because I remember reading other stories about Baba Yaga when I was little. In this Russian folk tale, a little girl’s mother dies and her father remarries a mean woman. The woman sends the little girl to her sister’s house to ask for a needle and thread. Instead of going to her step-aunt’s house, the girl goes to her own aunt’s house to ask for advice. Her aunt tells her how to outsmart her step-aunt. She follows her aunt’s directions and outsmarts the woman, who turns out to be Baba Yaga, by turning her animals and servants against her. The little girl goes home and finds her father waiting for her, where he throws his wife out and the father and daughter live happily ever after.

This story is a conglomeration of different familiar fairy tales, such as Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. Like Cinderella, the little girl’s mother dies and her father gets married to a mean woman who forces her to work. In this story, the girl’s own aunt is much like the fairy godmother. She gives the girl advice about how to outsmart her step-aunt and guides her. Also like in Cinderella, animals help her to outsmart Baba Yaga. Like in Hansel and Gretel, Baba Yaga plans cook and eat the little girl. It’s clear that Baba Yaga represents all of the evil characters in fairy and folk tales.

The one thing that really stands out about this book is its illustrations. They are all so scary! They lend a mood of danger to the story. Baba Yaga is depicted as larger-than-life as she looms over the little girl. The illustrations are all rough sketches, which makes me think of folk art. Perhaps this was done on purpose, to have the readers think about traditional Russian folk art while reading the story.

Parts of the book were a little difficult for me to follow, but perhaps that is because I am not very familiar with the character of Baba Yaga. I was initially confused about which aunt the little girl was going to visit, but I later realized that she was visiting her own mother or father’s sister instead of her step-mother’s sister. Additionally, I wish there had been some sort of author’s note explaining the background of the story. That would have allowed me to have a greater understanding of it.

The theme of this story seems to be similar to that of other folk and fairy tales—do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. For example, each of the people and animals and things that helped the little girl escape tells Baba Yaga that the little girl gave them something, and they all served Baba Yaga for years and got nothing in return.

Abadeha: The Philippine Cinderella

I found a lot of similarities between Abadeha: the Philippine Cinderella, adapted by Myrna J. de la Paz and illustrated by Youshan Tang, and other Cinderella stories I have read. It tells the story of a girl whose mother dies and her father remarries a mean widow with two daughters. Abadeha is forced to work for her step-mother and is miserable. A spirit appears to her and helps her with her tasks. Eventually, Abadeha meets the son of the island chieftain who finds her via a ring instead of a shoe. They marry and live happily ever after. In the Author’s note, she talks about where this story came from and why she decided to write this book. This is helpful information for the reader.

This book had such beautiful language! For example, it starts out “Once upon a time in the islands called the Philippines, where sea stars bloom in a shimmering emerald sea, there lived a fisherman named Abak, his wife Abadesa, and their beautiful daughter Abadeha.” Although I have never been to the Philippines, I can picture the ocean and the islands because of how de la Paz describes them. There also seems to be a good infusion of Philippine culture into the story. For example, the Spirit of the Forest gives Abadeha a sarimanok, which I assume is a type of native Philippine bird. The description of the scenery and setting also infuses more of the Philippines into the story.

One detail that I thought was different from other Cinderella stories is that the step-mother realizes that her daughters were “plain and mean-spirited…compared to Abadeha’s beauty and kindness.” While I think this is alluded to in the Disney version of Cinderella, I’m not sure I’ve seen it mentioned in any of the other versions I have read. This story also seemed to be more mystical than the other Cinderella stories. The Spirit of the Forest is assisted by other spirits, which does not happen in other versions.

This book shared a lot of details with other versions, such as Shirley Climo’s Korean Cinderella. For example, the girl in both stories is given a series of impossible tasks to complete, and they both get help from an unearthly being. In this story, Abadeha has to wash two handkerchiefs until the white one turns black and the black one turns white. This is impossible, but she cries to her mother, and the Spirit of the Forest comes to help her. Domitila, the Mexican Cinderella, also receives help and guidance from a spirit. Both of these spirits are kind of like the fairy godmother who comes to help in other versions of Cinderella. At one point, the Spirit of the Forest claps three times to summon other spirits, which is like when Granny taps her cane three times and has the house cleaned for Ashput.

There are also differences between this story and other Cinderella stories. For example, there is no ball. Instead, Abadeha has a tree with jewelry and gowns on it. The chieftain’s son sees it and picks a ring off of it, which is a substitute for Cinderella’s shoe. The ring gets stuck on his finger and makes it hurt. He can’t get it off and has a dream that a girl must help him take it off. Abadeha is the only person who can remove it.

While this has not been my favorite version of Cinderella so far, it is a good read!

Ashpet: An Appalachian Tale

Ashpet: An Appalachian Tale, retold by Joanne Compton and illustrated by Kenn Compton, is an Appalachian version of the classic Cinderella tale. Ashpet is a serving girl living with the Widow Hooper and her two daughters, named Ethel and Myrtle. She is forced to all of the cleaning, cooking, and sewing while the widow and her two daughters do nothing. There is to be a church meeting with the whole town, and Widow Hooper, Ethel, and Myrtle go, but Ashpet has to stay home and do the chores. Granny comes to the house once the three Hooper women have gone to the meeting and helps Ashpet get her chores done. She even provides a beautiful outfit for Ashpet to wear. Ashpet goes to the meeting and meets the doctor’s son. Since she has to be home by midnight, Ashpet throws one of her shoes into the bushes so the doctor’s son will try to find her. This part is hilarious because it’s almost like she knows the version of Cinderella and that she must lose her shoe so he will have to bring it back to her. She runs home, and he comes the next day to find the beautiful girl who lost her shoe the night before. Widow Hooper’s two daughters try to fit their feet into the shoe, but it doesn’t work. Ashpet tries it on last, it fits, and they get married and live happily ever after.

The author has provided an Author’s Note at the beginning of the story, which is extremely useful. It gives the origins of the Cinderella story as well as which changes the author has made from the traditional story. At the end of her note, she encourages readers to compare it to other versions of the Cinderella story, which is a wonderful idea for young readers. It made me think of compare this story to the other Appalachian Cinderella story I read—Smoky Rose. Both authors make use of the Appalachian dialect, which allows readers to really visualize the characters. I also found a lot of similarities in the illustrations. The illustrations in both books weren’t particularly beautiful, but the expressions on the character’s faces were hilarious. For example, in this book, the three Hooper women are often depicted with their noses up in the air, showing how snobby they are and that the reader is not supposed to like them. The pictures in this book really reminded me of a cartoon.

One thing I found interesting about this version was that it is the only version I have read so far where the other daughters are asked to do any work. Widow Hooper asks first Myrtle and then Ethel to go to Granny’s house to get some fire. Neither girl will brush Granny’s hair, so they are both sent home empty-handed, and Ashpet finally has to go. This reminds me of another (maybe African in origin?) fairy tale I read when I was little. I can’t remember the title of it, but it was a Cinderella-like story where a woman sends her two girls to an elderly woman’s house to borrow eggs and neither girl can do it, so finally the Cinderella character has to go. I think that this happens in the German version, Aschenputtel, as well; if it’s not in that story, then it’s in another German fairy tale I’ve read.

Many aspects of this version are different from other versions in order to make it seem more true to America and Appalachia. For example, instead of a fairy godmother, Ashpet has Granny, who comes to the house and cleans it up with three taps of her cane. Granny also provides Ashpet with a dress and shoes to wear to the church meeting, just like the fairy godmother. Instead of a ball, there is a church meeting. This is much more appropriate to the setting than a ball would be. Additionally, the author mentioned that she had a doctor’s son instead of a prince because that is more believable. There generally aren’t princes in America, so having a doctor’s son makes the story both more believable and relatable to the reader. Finally, the bird that takes Ashpet’s shoe is like the bird in Shirley Klimo’s Egyptian Cinderella.

Tuck Everlasting

Tuck Everlasting, written by Natalie Babbit, is a book that I always wished I had read when I was younger, but never did. When I was growing up, I never read fantasy or science fiction books--that genre belonged to my sister, and I was the one who always read historical fiction. I remember seeing previews for the movie and thinking that it really didn’t look like something I would enjoy, just because I knew it was a fantasy story.

When I started this book, I knew nothing about it. I read one of my classmate’s blog entries saying that she really didn’t enjoy this book, so I thought I would give it a chance. Winnie, a ten-year old girl living a sheltered life, comes upon Jesse Tuck drinking from a spring in woods owned by her parents one day. Jesse persuades her from drinking from the spring, and the Tuck family (Mae, Miles, and Jesse) kidnaps Winnie to tell her their story. They take her to their house where she meets Mae’s husband, Angus Tuck, who just goes by Tuck. The family tells her about how they drank from the spring in the woods 87 years ago and have not aged since that day. They tell her it is a terrible thing and that she must never tell anyone about the water. Mae ends up killing a bad man who bought the woods from Winnie’s parents when he comes to take Winnie back. Winnie has come to realize that she loves the Tucks and switches places with Mae in jail so she will not be hung, and thus found out that she will never die.

Throughout the story, Babbit’s beautiful description of the woods and all of the scenery automatically pulled me into the story. Her opening description of the August heat really set the stage so that I could visualize exactly what was happening and how the characters must be feeling. It reminded me a lot of August in Virginia. Every description Babbit made was beautiful; I wanted to write down the whole book in my Wonderful Words section. I especially enjoyed the verbs and adjectives she chose to use in the descriptions, for example when she describes the Tuck’s house—“an ancient green-plush sofa lolled alone in the center”, “an elderly rocker stood about aimlessly”, “a vast and tipsy brass bed took up most of the space” (51).

I thought Tuck’s description of how the spring might be left over “from some other plan for the way the world should be….Some plan that didn’t work out too good. And so everything was changed.” (41) From the beginning of the story it was clear that Babbit does not believe eternal life is a good thing. She addresses this idea when Mae tells Winnie that they “don’t deserve no blessings—if it is a blessing” (55), referring to their eternal life. If I had been asked whether or not I would have liked to never age and be 21 eternally, I might have answered yes before reading this book. However, reading this book really got me thinking about how it might be if I was like the Tucks and could never grow any older and would never really have any friends or a home that I could stay with for a long time. She provides a very interesting perspective on this idea.

It was really interesting to follow Winnie’s evolution throughout the book. She starts off saying she is going to run away from her safe, protected home, but when she is kidnapped, she becomes upset when Mae tells her she will bring her home tomorrow. Although Winnie had wanted to run away the day before, when it actually happened that she was taken from her home, she was initially terrified. When Winnie goes to the Tuck’s home, she is at first startled by how different it is from her own home and she is homesick. She eventually comes to love the family as the day goes on, particularly when each family member comes down to check on her when she is trying to fall asleep. Finally, at the end of the story, Winnie is brave enough to do something important, which is what she wanted to do all along. She trades places with Mae in jail so Mae can get out of town before she will be hanged for killing the man. This takes courage for a ten-year old girl to do.

In the Prologue, Babbit introduces three characters, Mae Tuck, Winnie Foster, and the stranger, saying “No connection, you would agree. But things can come together in strange ways.” (4) This interconnectedness of the characters and the author talking directly to the reader here reminded me a lot of DiCamillo’s Tale of Despereaux. Since I read that book recently, I was intrigued by this book and hoped that it might be similar.

The biggest theme throughout this book is the idea of life as a cycle. This is how Tuck describes it to Winnie. People are born, they grow up, have children of their own, and then die to make room for other people. Living and dying are both part of life, and death is not a bad thing.

I have a question about the man who bought the woods from Winnie’s parents so he could sell the water from the spring. There were multiple references to him being a puppet or a marionette. I am sure that this must be a symbol for something, but I can’t think of what he is a symbol for. Maybe he’s a puppet of greed?

The Van Gogh Cafe

The Van Gogh Café, written by Cynthia Rylant, is a fantasy story about a café. A young girl, Clara, and her father, Marc, run the Van Gogh café in Flowers, Kansas (what a pretty name for a town!). The book chronicles a series of magic events that take place—muffins multiply, sea gulls nest on the roof, and lightning strikes the café and food begins to cook itself.

I thought it was interesting that the magic in this book came from everyday things (lightning or muffins) instead of typically magic-related things. This encourages readers to look around and see common, everyday objects differently. For example, that cup could just be a cup, or it could somehow be a miracle waiting to happen.

I loved how Rylant connected all of the stories to the previous story. The book was divided up into chapters, but they all flowed into and out of one another. For example, “But the star will not be the last wanderer making his way home by way of the Van Gogh Café. There will be others. In fact, one is about to land on its roof. Magic is never wasted on a wayward gull….” In this way, the story about the lost seagull and the story about the man waiting for his love are brought together. Each of the stories has something in common with the others, whether both characters are wanderers or both have secrets.

Although I thought this was a good read, I was kind of unsure as to what the point of it was. In this book, Rylant seems to emphasize the idea that people ought to appreciate the beauty in the small, common things in life and be satisfied by that. People often miss the small, seemingly insignificant things that happen, and they need to take time to stop and look around themselves for beauty in strange places. What does everyone else think the point of this book is?

Henry and Beezus

Henry and Beezus, written by Beverly Cleary and illustrated by Louis Darling, is such a fun book! I don’t often read books about boys or that are tailored to a male audience, so I really enjoyed the different perspective this book offered. I was surprised to find out that it was really no different than a book with a female main character. This book stars Henry Huggins, who gets into all sorts of hilarious situations, like having to eat dog food and finding 49 boxes of bubble gum in a vacant lot.

Although it was published in 1952, this book seems to be fairly universal. I owned it when I was little, and I know that I have read it before, so it must still be appealing to children of today. Beverly Cleary is one of those authors whose books are timeless. I would enjoy reading one of her books now as much as I would have enjoyed reading it when it first came out. Most kids can relate to not liking kids of the other gender for a while. Henry often thinks about how things might be better if Beezus and her sister Ramona didn’t have to come along with him, but he usually ends up being glad that at least Beezus is there.

Some of the characters in the story really stress me out. For example, when Henry was trying to bid on a bike at the auction and Ramona said she was going to throw up in order to get her way, I really empathized with Henry. I understood how he felt about just wanting to get a bike and not wanting to have to deal with a little girl who wanted to go home. I also empathized with Henry when Scooter kept coming around and all Henry wanted to do was teach his dog Ribsy to stop fetching and chewing up the papers. He was just trying to not get in trouble. I think that the way kids are able to relate to the characters is one of the qualities that make this book so timeless.

In this book, Cleary seems to really emphasize not giving up. Henry could have easily given up on his dream to have his own bike after selling bubblegum didn’t work or after he bought a girl’s bike that didn’t really work, but he didn’t. Instead he didn’t get discouraged and ended up getting a roundabout reward for his hard work. Although he didn’t think of the $50 worth of coupons to a beauty parlor as a reward at first, it was through selling the coupons that he was able to buy his new bike.

The Big Lie

The Big Lie, written by Isabella Leitner and illustrated by Judy Pedersen, is an autobiography of the author’s life and experiences as a Jew living in Hungary during World War II. When I finished this story, I couldn’t help but reflect on how courageous the author and all of the Jews were in trying to survive and endure this horrible period of time.

What a fast read! It starts out describing the family who don’t think that anything will happen to them and that the war will not affect them. Then one day, everything changes. The Nazis have invaded Hungary, and the Jews are forced to obey certain rules, like wearing yellow stars and turning in their radios. Not long after, the author’s family is taken to Auschwitz with the other families in the town. The author and her three sisters manage to stay together, but their mother and other sister are killed. The author and her three sisters are then moved to a succession of concentration camps, and eventually the author and two sisters are able to escape. The other sister was caught and died at another concentration camp. The author, her two sisters, and her brother are reunited with their father in America at the end of the book. The Afterword provides useful historical information that describes the events in Europe and Germany leading up to and through the rise of the Nazis, the Holocaust, and World War Two.

While it is not a picture book, the few pictures included in the book are powerful. They are all done in black and white. The one picture I found the most terrifying was of one of the concentration camps where they were located. It is dark and ominous, thus lending to the mood of the story. I was glad that pictures were included in the book because they provide a context for the story. There is also a picture of a German soldier and a coat with the star on it. These pictures all allowed me to visualize a dark period of time that I never could have otherwise imagined. There is also a map included in the book that traces the Jews’ journey from their home in Kisvarda, Hungary to Auschwitz. I really don’t have a frame of reference for where Hungary and Poland are located, so the map is a good tool for me to use. It would certainly be helpful in a classroom as well.

Leitner included some German phrases like “Los!” and “Schnell!” This makes the story and dialogue seem more realistic. Although I speak German, I can imagine the inclusion of these phrases has the same effect on a reader who does not speak it as it did on the actual characters in the story. One line I found particularly powerful is “They looked like strange two-legged animals that I had never seen before” (43). This line appears when Isabella is looking at her sisters for the first time after they have been forced to cut off all of their hair. It really expresses the dehumanization that occurred in the concentration camps and elsewhere.

As I was reading this book, two other books came to mind—The Diary of Anne Frank and Number the Stars. Both books describe the experiences of young Jewish girls living in Europe, just as this book does, although they do so in different ways.

Caddie Woodlawn

Caddie Woodlawn, a Newberry Award-winner written by Carol Ryrie Brink, is a fast-paced story about a young girl living with her family in pioneer-day Wisconsin. It describes a year in the life of Caddie and her family. The book starts out describing the adventures she and her brother has. As the book goes on, it is clear that Caddie’s older sister and mother want her to be more of a “lady” instead of a tomboy. The reader sees Caddie’s evolution into a young woman by the end of the book.

In the Author’s Note she mentions that Caddie is based on her grandmother, Caddie Woodhouse. This adds another level to the book because it provides some historical background and relates the book to the real-world; it provides a sort-of context for the story. Teachers could bring this book into the classroom by researching some of the sources Brink mentions, such as the park and Caddie Woodlawn house.

On page 107, “Caddie wished more than ever that she had been a boy” when learning about Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. That is such an interesting sentiment because she goes on to say that if she had been a boy, she could be president. I wonder if this is what girls of that time actually ever thought, or if it was simply added because it seemed appropriate to the time period.

The part of the book that I enjoyed the most was when Caddie took the Hankinson boys to the store because she feels sorry for them. Their mother is a Native American married to a white man, and she goes with the other Native Americans, leaving the three sons and their father behind. After Caddie watches their mother come to school and say goodbye to them one last time, she wants to make them happy so she takes them to the store to help her spend her silver dollar. She buys them new handkerchiefs and candy and combs. It was so nice of her to do this; it seems like something an eleven-year old wouldn’t think of. This was just one of many steps in her progression to becoming a young woman.

This book really reminded me of the Little House on the Prairie books. Caddie is a lot like Laura; they are both tomboys, living in pioneer times, and they are both kind. Laura would always help another child if something was wrong, just as I imagine Caddie would do. The book also reminds me a little bit of Ox-Cart Man because both talk about tapping the sugar maple trees. I used to really look up to Laura Ingles when I was younger, and I’m sure I would have enjoyed this book then.