Blog Reflection

I think that by doing these Blog entires, I have really learned a lot about the different genres of children's literature. Even though I had read many different children's books I never realized how many different genres there were and how each one fit specifally into a certain genre. By doing these entries, I was allowed to really understand the specific aspects of each genre and apply them to the books I chose.

For most of the books I wrote about, I used them because I looked at the author's suggestions at the end of each chapter. I figured if they were suggestings those books I would be certain to get a book that fits exaclty with the genre that the chapter was about. This turned out to be a great source to find books I needed; I would always take it with me when I went to the library to search for books.

I feel that I now have read so many different books that deal with children's literacy and I will be able to be a much better teacher because of it. Before doing this assignment, my knowledge of children's literature and authors were very limited. Now that I have expanded my knowledge, I will be able to provide my students with a variety of different children's literature, genres and authors for them to read and enjoy.

I really enjoyed doing this assignment because I love children's literature and now I have much more to love! I have a new collection of books that I never have had before and I can't wait to share them with my students some day. I know that from now on I will continue to search for new and different children's books and authors so I can continue to grow my library of children's books for my students!

The Night Before Christmas - Engineered Book

For my engineered book I chose a pop-up version of the classic, A Night Before Christmas written by Clement C. Moore in 1822. This book is about what happens the night before Christmas and how Santa Clause goes to each house and delivers his presents. While the house is very quiet and everyone is asleep, the Father hears Santa and his Reindeer landing on top of their roof. He then hears Santa coming down the chimney and he goes watch him to his work. He describes how Santa looks and that he gets right to his work. When he finished leaving the presents he gives a nod and up the chimney he rose. As Santa gets in his sleigh to go to the next house, the father hears him exclaim, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good night!"

This classic Christmas favorite is a great poem by itself but creation of a pop-up book version makes it really come to life. The sleigh, Santa, Papa, Mama and the children dreaming of sugar plums all pop out and really engage the reader in the story.

The illustrations were done by Tom Patrick and he did a beautiful job. There is so much detail that went in to his work and it really looks exaclty how you would imagein each scene in the story. There are seven different pages that he created and there are also additional activites for the reader to do. You can twirl the sugar plums dancing in the children's head, you can move the sled around and when you close the book Santa magically goes up the chimney. Everything about the creation of this engineered book adds to the already favorite and memorable poem written by Clemet C. Moore.

Florence Nightingale - Biography

This book is a biography of Florence Nightingale, who is the founder of modern nursing. Florence helped start a nursing school in London so that nurses could have speical training to learn how to take care of patients. Florence made nursing a respected profession.

Florence believed that God wanted her to live a life of service. She liked to take care of people who were sick and realized that this was to be her service to God. During the Crimean War, in 1854, Florence traveled with 38 other nurses to take care of the wounded British soldiers. Florence did more than just treat the soldier's wounds, she helped the soldiers write letters and send money home. Florence was also known for walking the hospitals hallways with a lamp each night and offereing care to anyone who needed it. She was given the nick name "Lady with a Lamp" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in one of his poems. Because of her work during the Crimean War, Florence and the other nurses won the respect of the Britih soldiers during the war.

Another important concern to Florence was that hospitals were not sanitary. They were dirty, and full of germs. More soldiers died from infections due to germs than because of their battle wounds. Florence set out to make hospitals sanitary and British army hospitals became the more sanitary hospitals of any country in Europe. As a result of her schools to train nurses, her making hospitals sanitary, and helping start the British Red Cross, Florence Nightingale improved health care around the world.

I think this book is a great biography book because it is a photo-illustrated biography combining illustrations and actual photos of Florence Nightingale. Each written page has a corresponding photo page. I think this biography has a high interest level for children because of the photos incorporated in the book and how they are presented. Each written page is a different aspect of Florence's life and achivements. This set up, rather than the typical chapter book keeps the book interesting for the young readers which will make them retain the information better.

Davis, Lucile. Florence Nightingale: A Photo-Illustrated Biography. Mankato, Minnesota: Bridgestone Books, 1999

Meet Kristin - Historical Fiction

The book I chose for my Historical Fiction story is from the American Girl Collection, Meet Kristen: An American Girl. This book was written by Janet Shaw and illustrated by Renee Graef. This is the first book in a series of books about a Swedish family who comes to America in 1854. The story begins on the long, dangerous boat ride to America. The journey continues from New York to the Minnesota frontier where they will meet up with Kristen's relatives from Sweden. But first, Kristen gets lost in New York City and it becomes so crowded and she begins to feel dizzy and sick from the boat. The family finally gets tickets on a train for Chicago. Kristen meets up with her best friend from the boat Marta and their families continue the journey together on the Missippi riverboat. While on the boat, Marta dies from Cholera. Kristen feels that American will never feel like home until they finally reach Minnesota. Here, her relatives make Kristen's family feel very welcomed and loved. This story shows the hardships that immigrants endured to make a better life for their families in America.

This is a great example of Historical Fiction because it takes place in an historical setting that actually occured even though the characters and events from the book are fictional. By having this type of book, children are able to get a sense of what life back in those days were like and they are allowed to experience those same emotions through the characters in these historical fiction books. This book was for children in the third or fourth grade because it is in the form of a chapter book and ther are only a few illustrations every few pages. However, it is easy enough for a child of this age to read to themselves without too much assistance. At the very end of the book there are historical facts about the time period that this story takes place in and how real immigrants had to deal with similar hardships that Kristen and her family experienced on their journey to America.

Shaw, Janet. Meet Kristen: An American Girl. Middleton, Wisconsin: Pleasant Company Publications, 1986

Cinderella - Classic Folktale and Two Multicultural/International Variations of it

For my Classic Folk Tals associated with two Multicultural/International variation of it, I chose the story of Cinderella. The original Cinderlla story is about a young girl who's father re-marry's a lady who become a mean step-mother to his daughter. This woman always has at least one child who is equally mean to the daughter. They make her do impossible chores and dress in rags. They despise her and want to make her life as difficult and miserable as possible. After years of this horrible life, the young girl is greeted by something magical that helps her. There is always some kind of large gathering where there will a man of royalty who falls in love with the girl. The girl then loses her something and the man picks it up, demanding to find this girl because he wants to marry her. After searching, the man finally finds the girl and gives back the object she had lost. They get married and live happily ever after.

This is the basic plot that occured in every version of Cinderella that I read. The first book I read was the Walt Disney version of Cinderella. It was retold by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Mary Blair. This was the classic Cinderella story that most children know and love. It is exaclty how the Walt Disney portrays the Cinderella story. The second verious I read was a spanish version titled, Cenicienta. It was written by Loek Koopmans. This story followed the same plot as the Disney version with just a few minor changes (for example in the end, Cinderella and the prince ride into the sky on a horse) The final version of Cinderlla that I read was a Korean version titled, The Korean Cinderlla written by Shirley Climo and illustrated by Ruth Heller. In this story, the same basic plot still applied but it incorporated Korean traditions. The girl was not named Cinderella, she was named Pear Blossum. The step mother, Omoni only had one daughter named Peony. They made Pear Blossum's life miserable but she was kind to them throughout the whole story. Instead of having one fairy godmother to help her, Pear Blossom had various animls come help her with her chores. First it was a frog, the birds then an ox. Towards the end, there was a festival in town, not a ball, and Pear Blossum was not allowed to go until she finished an impossible chose that Omoni gave her. After the magical Ox helped her, Pear Blossum went to the festival and saw the young, handsom nobleman. She accidentally dropped her sandle in the stream and ran off thinking she had caused a disturbance. The nobleman ordered his bearers to fish out her sandle from the stream and take him back to the village so he could find her. Once Omoni and Peony got home, they were yelling at Pear Blossum for stealing food that the magical Ox had given her. Right then the nobleman showed up at her house and her stepmother and stepsister were sure that he was there to arrest her for stealing. To their surprise he pulled out Pear Blossum's other sandle and asked her to marry him. Of course, the stepmother tried to say that her daughter was much better for the nobleman but he did not want to hear it. Pear Blossum and the nobleman lived happily ever after.

Even though there are many different versions of the story, Cinderall they all essentially have the same basic plot of a young girl who is treated horribly but ends up prevailing in the end and marrying or getting together with the prince or desired man.

Climo, Shirley. The Korean Cinderella. China: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993

Koopmans, Loek. Cenicienta. New York: North-South Books Inc., 2002

Rylant, Cynthia. Cinderella. New York: Disney Press, 2007

Seven Blind Mice - Controversial

I chose the book, Seven Blind Mice, written by Ed Young as my controversial book. In this book, there are seven mice who see a new, foreign object by their pond. None of the mice can tell what the object is and each day of the week a differet mouse goes to try and figure out what the object is. Each time a different mouse went to look at the object, they interperated it differently so no one could figure out what the object was. We eventually find out the object is an Elephant but here is what the mice saw...On Monday, the red mouse thought the foot was a pillar, on Tuesday the green mouse thought the trunk was a snake, on Wednesay the yellow mouse thought the tooth was a fany or spear, on Thursday the purple mouse thought the head was a great cliff, on Friday the orange mouse thought the ear was a fan, on Saturday the blue mouse thought the tail was a rope and finally on Sunday the white mouse went to the pond to look at the object. The white mouse put all the clues together and discovered that the unknown object was an elephant. The elephant was sturdy as a piller, supple as a snake, wide as a clif, sharp as a spear, breezy as a fan and stingy as a rope. The end of the books has a quote saying, "Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdome comes from seeing the whole"

The reason that this book was controversial was because people believed that by having the white mouse be the one who finally figured out what the object was, it was implying that whites are superior to everyone else. People said it was promoting white supremcy becaues the white mouse was the smartest and the only one able to put all the puzzle piece together to figure out that the object was an elephant. I also think the book promoted dangeroug objects because each object the mice thought they saw were dangerous, disturbing things such as a rope, a spear, a cliff, a fang etc...

This book received a Caldecott Honor Book Award

Young, Ed. Seven Blind Mice. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1992

A Child's First Book of Poems - Large Anthology of Collected Poems

I chose the collection of poems titled, A Child's First Book of Poems, for my one large anthology of collected poems. In this collection there are short, children's poems written by various authors. The entire book was illustrated by Cyndy Szekeres. The marjority of her illustrations incorporate mice but the illustrations still relate the orignal poems. The authors featured in this collection are, Aileen Fisher, Vachel Lindsay, Anita E. Posey, Dixis Wilson, Alison Winn, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Emily Dickinson, Florence Page Jaques, A.A. Milne, Evaleen Stein, Elanor Farjeon, Marjorie Seymour Watts, Dorothy Aldis, Robert Louis Stevenson, Frank Dempster Sherman, Christina Rossetti, Rene Cloke, Oliver Herford, John Ciardi, Rose Fyleman, Maud Burnham, Herbert Asquith and Walter de la Mare. There are also many other poems incorporated from anonymous authors.

I think this is a great example of a large antholog of collected poems for children. All of the poems incorporated in this collection are appropriate for young children and are written on a leve that they can listen to and comprehend. I believe that children will enjoy this collection and it will inspire them to want to read more poetry when they get older.

There were no awards given to this book.

pictures by: Szekeres, Cyndy. A Child's First Book of Poems. New York: A Golden Book. Racine, Wisconsin: Western Publishing Company, Inc, 1981