Reflection of the Semester

When I first started this class, I thought I knew a lot about Children’s Literature. After all, I was a child not to long ago and I loved to read. But during this class, I learned that literature is not always words. Books with only pictures are considered literature too. Posters, web pages, almost everything imaginable can be interpreted as children’s literature. This class has taught me so much about different ways to teach reading and a love of stories to my students. The poetry bulletin boards were fantastic. I had never done something like that before. This class has made me think “outside the box on many different occasions. I am not sure if Dr. Pohner meant for this to happen, but she also showed us that there are many different ways to “test” students to see if they have read the book that as assigned to them. This journal of the CRR’s is a great way to do it. This made sure that the students read the text book and then connected it to a children’s book. The book talks were another great way. The students thought creatively and spoke about the book in their own way. I love that kind of thing. It made the story more interesting to everyone.

I now know that Literature can be almost anything. I used to think that it was reserved for reading or English class, but I now realize that it can be incorporated into other subjects too. Historical fiction is a great way to get the students interested in the time period you are teaching about in social studies. For the younger kids that are just learning their addition problems, picture books that deal with addition and subtraction are a great way for the students to become interested. I will remember the things I learned in this class when I get a classroom of my own.

Tale of Despereaux

CRR: Tale of Despereaux

By:Kate Dicamillo

Summary

The Tale of Despereaux is about a mouse. But not just any mouse. This mouse was strange. He was very small for a mouse and he had huge ears. He was also born with his eyes open (which is weird for a mouse). And as he got older he realizes that he isn’t like the other mice in other ways too. He can read and he loves music. He doesn’t like to scurry either (which his brother thinks is strange). On the day that he realizes what he was hearing was music, was the same day that he fell in love with Princess Pea.

Another story that runs parallel in this book is that of Roscuro the rat. In this book, rats are the scum of the kingdom. They had been sentenced to death by the king (to find out why, you must read the book). All the rats in the kingdom had gone into hiding in the dungeon. This is where Roscuro lived. But he had a fascination with the light that came from above. Roscuro develops a grudge against Princess Pea and comes up with an evil plan to get revenge.

There is yet one more story that runs parallel to the other two. And this story is about a little girl named Miggery Sow. She was sold by her father, at the age of six, for a hen, a red table cloth and some cigarettes. After seeing the princess about a year later, she decides that she will one day be a princess. When the king outlaws soup (I know, its weird… but you have to read the book to find out why) one of the king’s men finds out that Miggery Sow is a slave. Miggery is then taken back to the castle to work as a servant girl.

Now all three characters are in the castle. All three characters end up in the dungeon with the Princess. Will Roscuro get his revenge? Or will Despereaux become a knight in shining armor and save the girl he loves? Just as the Author herself would say: “Reader, it is your destiny to find out.”

Critique

I would first like to say that this was a fantastic book. It kept me entertained the whole way through. The author would include vocabulary words and even talk to the reader. She would periodically take a break from the story and say something directly to the reader. As a teacher, I loved those parts. It gives the students something to discuss. As a reader of the book, I hated it. I wanted the story to continue. I didn’t care what she had to say, I wanted to keep reading the story! But overall, I enjoyed the book thoroughly.

I think that this would connect to the chapter in the connection across the curriculum section. I would consider this book to a historical fantasy book. It takes place in a day when there were kings and knights (I like to picture a castle like King Arthur’s). It is fantasy because the animals can talk to the humans. Even though there is not much fact in this book, the student can derive some relative truths about medieval times. Such as: there was no electricity, no motor vehicles, etc. They could also figure out that there was a class system: There were the nobles (the King, the Princess, etc) and there were the peasants (Miggery Sow, her father, etc.). Facts such as that could be pulled from this story.

So overall, this was an excellent book, and I would recommend it to just about everyone, teacher and student alike. It has a reading level of around 4^th grade, so anytime before that, it would have to be a read aloud story time.

Sleds on Boston Common

Sleds on Boston Common: A Story from the American Revolution

By: Louise Borden

In the beginning of the book, Henry Price is almost nine years old. It is month of December in the year 1774. Henry tells us all about his fathers shop and what we can buy there. Henry then tells us about what has been going in Boston over the last six months. The King of England, King George the III, closed the Boston Harbor to all but British ships on June 1, 1774. He then gives us some information on the new Royal Governor, General Thomas Gage. At one point over those six months, British occupancy of Boston grew to where there was one soldier for every five Bostonians. On Henry’s birthday, there was a lot of snow, and his father had made him a sled as his birthday present! On his lunch break from school, he and his siblings decided to go sledding on the best hill in the Boston Commons. When they got there, they remembered what their father had told them about being a good patriot. He remembered that when around the British troops listen with your eyes and your ears because everybody can help the sons of liberty in some way. So while trying to find the best spot to sled, they took inventory of whatever they saw. This included food, gun powder, officers, new sheds, tents, and horses. When they find their hill, they realize that the British soldiers have taken over it by camping at the bottom. Henry spots General Gage Thomas and gets up the courage to ask him to move the soldiers so they can sled ride. Amazingly, the general listens! The kids are able to sled all winter long without any interference from the soldiers. Henry then tells us that the War for Independence begins in the spring of 1775. The book ends with Henry standing at the harbor with his brothers and his sister watching the General Thomas Gage’s boat sail back to England.
This book talks about so much more than sled riding in the Boston Commons. It has a lot of historical facts too. It tells us about the King of England at the time of the Revolutionary War, the Royal Governor that he appointed, and all about life in Boston in the months before the War began. This book would be a great book to use as a reading book and a history book. It combines History and a good story. The thing that I liked the most was the author included a lot of truths. Some historical fiction books are just that: fiction with a little bit of history. This was History with a little bit of fiction.

CRR 4

Knuffle Bunny

By: Mo Willems

Knuffle Bunny is about this little girl named Trixie, her father, and her bunny. One Day, before Trixie could talk, she and her dad head out of the house to do some errands. They end up going to the Laundromat. Trixie then “helps” her dad put the laundry into the machine. But amidst all of the fun that she was having, her knuffle bunny was put into the washer. On their way home, Trixie realizes what happened to her bunny and tries to tell her dad it is back at the Laundromat! After a lot of babbling and crying and screaming, they make it home and neither Trixie nor her dad is happy. Her mother meets them at the door and immediately realized that knuffle bunny is missing! They run back to the Laundromat and pull knuffle bunny out of the washer. Then to everyone’s surprise, Trixie says her first words… “KNUFFLE BUNNY!”

The illustrations in this book were absolutely amazing. The expressions on the faces of Trixie and her father were wonderful. My favorite parts of the illustrations were the backgrounds. Willems put his drawings on top of black and white photographs. All of the black and white pictures were placed on top of a green background. The drawings of the characters occasionally were placed outside of the picture and on the green empty space. This gave the book a new feel and also made you stop and look at the picture more carefully. Willems does a great job with connecting the blank pages in the front of the book with the story. It is a picture of knuffle bunny in the washing machine, so it gives the reader a really good idea as to what is going to happen to the bunny. The copyright and title page gave us a bit of a back story on the parents. It has three pictures: One of the parents getting married, one of Trixie when she was born, and then one of them in front of their house. The dad’s facial gets longer in each of these pictures as well. The back cover of the book continues the story by showing the entire family walking back from the Laundromat. Willems really knows how to engage the reader on every turn of the page.

Pig Pig Gets a Job

By: David McPhail
Pig Pig Gets a Job is about a little that decides that he wants money so he can go to the store and buy something. So he runs home and asks his mom to give him some money. He is shocked when his mother asks him what he is going to do to get some money. She tells him that he has to earn it. So Pig Pig begins to get imaginative. He goes through a whole list of jobs that a child could never do. Every time that he says that he could do one of those big jobs, his mother says that he could do something similar around the house, hinting that he could do house chores to earn an allowance. Like when he says that he can become a mechanic and fix race cars, his mother says that he could wash the race cars too… and that he could wash their car because it was getting dirty. She did this on every page. In the end, Pig Pig gets the brilliant idea that his mother could give him a job and pay him to do things. His mother thinks about it and then asks him what he can do? Pig Pig says that he can wash the car, feed the pet, make lunch, clean his room, and build a birdhouse, everything that his mother had hinted at while he was using his imagination.
I believe that this book relates to the chapter because it is a good read aloud book. After a couple of pages of Pig Pig’s mother hinting at doing house chores, the students would most likely catch onto the pattern and be able to guess what she is going to suggest that Pig Pig do instead of what he is dreaming up. This would be a great book for the students to practice their predictions with. Every page in the book is used, even the title page. I did not realize that the picture on the title page was important to the story. Normally, it is an independent picture that does not follow the story line. This picture started out the story with Pig Pig staring into the store window. That is why Pig Pig wanted money.

My Friend Rabbit

My Friend Rabbit

By: Eric Rohmann

My Friend Rabbit is an amazing beginner reader book. It doesn’t have many words and the pictures are phenomenal. Rohmann has an amazing ability to tell the story with his pictures. Half of the book doesn’t even have words in it. He will begin a phrase with words and then let the reader finish it off in his head by looking at the pictures. This book talks about a friendship that can’t be ruined no matter what crazy things that someone does. This is a great message to send out to kids because they want to know that their friendships are things that are going to last.

The story has two main characters: Rabbit and Mouse. It begins with Rabbit helping Mouse fly in his airplane. But misfortune strikes and Rabbit gets the plane stuck in the tree. Mouse was warning the readers about such things happening when Rabbit is around. “My friend Rabbit means well. But whatever he does, wherever he goes, trouble follows.” Mouse says this right at the beginning of the book. It is something that the author wants the reader to think about as the book goes on. So when Mouse and Rabbit look at the plane in the tree, Rabbit gets a brilliant idea and begins to collect animals from all over the place. He brings an elephant, a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, an antelope, an alligator, a bear, some ducks, and a squirrel. Rabbit then proceeds to stack these animals on top of one another until the plane is almost in reach. Then just as mouse gets to the plane, the entire stack of animals falls over. Then Mouse saves his friend from the angry mob of animals and they fly away… at least until Rabbit covers Mouse’s eyes and they get stuck right back in the tree. And Rabbit gets another idea... But the author never reveals what it is.

I believe that this book connects to the chapter because it is a picture book. It may be the book that teachers would choose for their students to read, but the students that love to look at pictures would love this book. The student has to pick his own book to read if the teacher or parent wants him to become a literate reader. Not just someone who can read, but someone who likes to read. On page 49 of the book, the author talks about his son who wanted to learn about Thomas Jefferson. The father helped him find books and then encouraged him to continue reading by listening to what his son had learned. This is a good example of how I think My Friend Rabbit fits into the chapter. With the Thomas Jefferson case, the student picked a book that was out of his skill level, but because he wanted to read it, he did. With My Friend Rabbit, a student might pick it because of the pictures, but then fall in love with the story and then read other things by that same author. It is just about letting the student pick his own reading material.