Advanced Children’s Literature
Candy Kee
Caldecott Award/Honor Books
Title: The Red Book
Author/Illustrator: Barbara Lehman
Publisher: 2004, Houghton Mifflin, New York
Question # 10. How might you include this book in social studies, math, or science curriculum?
The Red Book is a Caldecott Honor book and also a picture book. The illustrations within the book told the story well. The illustrations are of one small girl, a large and snowy city, her discovery of a little red book, a day at school, and her adventure as she travels through the book to discover a new friend.
The illustrations on each page are sequenced perfectly so that anyone that picks up this book can follow the story exactly. As the little girl begins looking in the book she found, she turns to a picture of a map targeting an island. Continuing page by page, the island grows bigger and she is able to see a young boy walking on the beach. This amazing journey through the book continues as the illustrations show the boy on the beach and his discovery of a little red book. His story starts the same with pictures of big buildings in a big and snowy city. As they both read the book, far away from one another, they turn a page simultaneously and see each other in the book. Yearning to visit this land far away and a new friend, she goes the next day to find a way to make the journey. Balloons, lots of balloons are her method of travel. As she floats away in the sky, the little boy’s book is showing illustrations of her flying away. He is sad. As she flies, she drops her little red book and it lands back on a street in the snowy city. She cannot stop her journey. The pages flip in the wind and picture the sadness of her book companion. Suddenly, as the pages turn more, the book shows her landing on the island to meet her new joyous friend. The little red book lies all alone on the big city street. But wait, on the last page, shoes and feet are seen of a new discoverer of the book and possibly a new adventure. This book caught my attention as I was yet again looking for a Caldecott book. Who can resist picking up a red book with the title, The Red Book? The illustrations captured my attention and the easiness in which the intended story was discovered. However, I can see any child in writing, center able to use the book to create their own story without fear of being wrong. This freedom of writing can nurture the imaginations of the children. I can also see the book as a means to study geography and culture. Where could the large and snowy city be located and where did she travel to reach the warm, tropical looking island? We can see as she floated away that she crossed an ocean. With the help of some research, each child could write about the location and name of the city and location and name of the island. . In this book critique my original intention was to discuss illustrations. I also found that language art lessons and geography and social studies lessons can be taught with this book.
Caldecott Honor/Award books
Title : The Stray Dog
Author/Illustrator: Marc Lamont
Publisher: 2002, Scholastic, New York
Question #11. What values were conveyed through this book and how were they conveyed to the reader?
I enjoyed the book The Stray Dog immensely. The plot in the book reminds me of the things my family and I do since we have adopted six stray dogs. We have a total of eight. In this book, a family of four go on a picnic and notice a playful little dog in the area. As the family picnics, the children become interested in the dog and begin to play with it and feed it. They even give him a name of Willy! Sadly, at the end of the picnic, the family goes home and leaves the dog their assuming he has an owner. The illustrations depicted the feelings of the family all week and the fact that they were worried about the dog. Their faces reflected worry and deep thought. They could not wait to return to the picnic area the next weekend to see if the dog was still there. He was! The whole family was overjoyed to see him. They played with him and fed him and loved him. Suddenly a dog catcher rounded the corner. “I have finally got you!” he yelled. “No! He is our dog,” yelled the family of four. They saved the dog from the dogcatcher. The book had a happy ending and showed the opportunity this family had to save the dog and make him a part of their family. I feel this story conveyed values throughout the book (Question 11). The book showed the importance and value of the family institution and how families need to spend time together. It also showed the feeling of caring, love, and moral goodness. The family did the right thing when they took Willy into their home. This book is based on a true story. This story reconfirms that there is still goodness in the world.
Caldecott Honor/Award Books
Title: Kitten’s First Full Moon
Author / Illustrator : Kevin Henkes
Publisher: 2004, Greenwillow Books, USA
Question # 3. Describe the artwork in terms of style and media. What elements of the illustrations appeal to you?
The book, Kittens First Full Moon, is full of beautiful black, gray and white illustrations. This kitten’s adventure to find milk takes place at night. Thus the color of the illustrations. The illustrations are beautifully painted in black, white and gray colors. The plot of the book can be easily understood due to the expression of dismay on the kitten’s face and the settings on each page. It is obvious that the kitten thinks the moon is a bowl of milk. She cannot understand why she never reaches her destination. In answer to question #3, the illustrator used colored pencils and gouache for the paintings. Gouache (opaque watercolors), is often used in illustrations where white paint is used. It is thicker than watercolor and is easily painted over and can be removed. It dries faster than ordinary watercolor. This book appealed to me because of the illustrations of the kitten tumbling, chasing, licking and climbing to chase the moon and the obvious look of wild wonder on her face as to why she could not catch it. One page of illustrations was reminiscent of an old movie frame. It also helped me recall a flip book that I made in an art class one time. Each page had the same illustration but slightly different to show movement when the pages were quickly flipped. The milk moon did look delicious. I just have one question, “Got cornbread?” Yum!!
Newbery Award/Honor Book
Title: The Tale of Despereaux
Author/Illustrator: Kate DiCamillo and Timothy Basil Ering Publisher: 2003, Candlewick Press, Somerville, Massachusetts, USA
Question # 2. Describe one of the main characters. How did the author make this character unique and believable?
Born in a castle, mouse Despereaux Tilling was a very special mouse. He was not a royal mouse at all but he did have special features. He had huge ears on a tiny body and his eyes were open upon birth. He was also the only sibling of the Tilling family that lived at birth. Even though he was very tiny in size, he became huge in courage during the story which is very unlike a mouse at all! He was a disappointment to his parents and really did not have the qualities of a mouse. Even with warnings from his family, beautiful music drew Despereaux into the presence of the King and Princess of the palace. There he found immediate and true love as he looked upon Princess Pea. Although it is a crazy thing for a real mouse to speak, fall in love with a princess or read, this mouse did all of these things and eventually found himself cast into a dungeon of rats for breaking mouse rules.
The author tempts the reader to continue the book by speaking directly to them at predictable places. For example when Despereaux is thrown in the dungeon she wrote, “Reader, if you don’t mind that is where we will leave our small mouse for now: in the dark of the dungeon, in the hands of the jailer, telling a story to himself.” While reading I felt like I was in the story and just had to know what would happen next. These tempting glimpses into the next scene were throughout the book. I found it very tempting to read until the whole book was finished! During the reading of the book, I completely forgot that Despereaux was a mouse. I felt I was really reading about a handsome prince after his true love. I found myself cheering him on in the face of darkness and danger to win over the princess and be happy forever!
Despereaux, the main character in the story, was truly a believable character, not as a mouse but as a man in love.
Coretta Scott King Award/Honor Books
Title: Beautiful Blackbird
Author/Illustrator: Ashley Bryan
Publisher, place, date: 2004, Simon and Schuster, New York
Question #11. What values were conveyed through the book and how were they conveyed to the reader?
The book, Beautiful Blackbird is filled with beautiful and bold colors. In searching for a Coretta Scott King Award, I found the book, Beautiful Blackbird. The title caught my attention as well as the beautiful colors and illustrations on the cover and within the book. The book is a tale taking place a long time ago in a big forest. The forest is filled with colorful birds and one beautiful blackbird. All the birds of the forest were so envious of blackbird because he was so beautiful. They begged him to share his colors with them so they could be colorful too. Blackbird tells them that beauty comes from the inside and not out but the birds continue to beg for some of his colors. He finally complies and begins to paint dots and patterns on the other birds in the forest and now they feel beautiful as well. I love the book based on the values it teaches (Question 11). The book teaches us that we are all different and need to just be ourselves. We should accept our heritage and nationality as well as physical appearance. We are not truly beautiful by appearance but by how we are on the inside. The kindness, sharing, caring of a person comes from within and makes the individual a beautiful person. We must celebrate our diversity on the outside and share our moral values, character and kindness from the inside. This would be an awesome book to read to young children so that they will be aware of the beauty of the heart.
Coretta Scott King Award/Honor Books
Title: Minty
Author/Illustrator: Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pickney
Publisher, place, date: 1996, Dial Books, New York
Question #11. What values were conveyed through the book and how were they conveyed to the reader?
The book, Minty is a story about Harriet Tubman (nickname Minty). In this story Minty is portrayed as a strong, stubborn problem for her master’s of the plantation. The timeline of the story centers around the year 1820. The work was hard for a young girl like Minty and the members of the Brodas family of the plantation were especially cruel to Minty. The only thing that kept Minty going from day to day was to get lost in her dream of freedom. Unbeknownst to her at the time, she would indeed one day see freedom and become a great American Hero. As time went on, Minty’s intentions became clear to her father. He supported her in her dream and taught her how to survive in the forest, find food and find her way using the North Star. Finally in 1844 at the age of 24, Minty married a free black man. Years later in 1849, Minty made her escape. She traveled by night using the Underground Railroad and eventually worked the Underground Railroad to help other African Americans achieve their dream of freedom. Harriet Tubman is known as saying, “ there are two things I had a right to. ,” she said, “liberty or death; if I could not have one I would have the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted.” Harriet Tubman made a mark in history and in the lives of many. She will be forever remembered as one of the bravest and most admired women in American History.
Surely this beautiful story can be used as a supplement in Social Studies in the study of slavery and the Underground Railroad. However, perseverance is a character trait that we try to teach to students in our schools. This book and the character, Minty, can be used as a testimonial of what true perseverance is. Although it took many years for Minty to realize her dream, she did indeed have a goal of freedom and she worked towards the goal diligently until it was accomplished. She did not stop there but kept on keeping on in her quest to help others even in the face of danger and death. The sheer will of her soul and her accomplishments should be enough to inspire any student or adult to persevere and never give up!
Robert F. Sibert Award/Honor
Title : Walt Whitman, words for America
Author/Illustrator: Barbara Kerley and Brian Selznick
Publisher: 2004, Scholastic Press, New York, NY
Question # 6. What factual information did you learn? Did anything surprise you? How do you know if this information is correct?
I learned about the life of Walt Whitman from the age of 12 years. His very first experience with print was working for a newspaper where he helped print and get the paper ready for distribution. Eventually Walt Whitman became interested in doing the writing himself. He became an American poet whose life works was to be the voice for the American people. Through Walt Whitman’s poetry, he wrote about the life of Americans. He wrote of the common man, race, democracy and the civil war where he worked as a nurse. His words had a song like quality as he described the lives of people within and around the nation and their trials and tribulations. He nursed soldiers from all races and walks of life during the civil war. This experience enlightened him in his writings and he began to realize that his purpose in life again would be to give all men a voice in his writings in order to capture the true spirit of America. Walt Whitman’s poetry can be an inspiration to adults and students alike.