Module 6: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

Book Summary:  Lilly loves school and everything about school including her teacher.  Lilly brought her new purple purse full of special treasures to school and does not want to wait until sharing time to show everything in it.  Mr. Slinger takes up her purse and all that was in it that she was so proud of.  At first Lilly is very angry, but then she is very sorry and does her very best to make it up to her teacher.

 My Impressions:   Lilly is a character that many young students and their teachers can make connections to.  It has an ending that all will love.

Professional Review:  PreS-Gr. 2--[In Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse,] Lilly loves everything about school--even the squeaky chalk and the cafeteria food. But most of all, she loves her teacher, Mr. Slinger, who is a sharp dresser and greets his students with an uncharacteristic "Howdy." The little mouse will do anything for him--until he refuses to allow her to interrupt lessons to show the class her new movie-star sunglasses, three shiny quarters, and purple plastic purse. Seething with anger, she writes a mean story about him and places it in his book bag at the end of the day. But when she looks in her purse, she discovers that he has written her a kind note and even left her a bag of treats. Filled with remorse, Lilly sets out to make amends. Rich vocabulary and just the right amount of repetition fuse perfectly with the watercolor and black-pen illustrations. With a few deft strokes, Henkes changes Lilly's facial expressions and body language to reveal a full range of emotions. When she realizes how unfair she has been, Lilly shrinks smaller and smaller. When all ends well, she leaps for joy in her familiar red boots right out of the picture's frame. Clever dialogue and other funny details will keep readers looking and laughing. As the cover and end papers attest, Lilly emerges once again a star. 

Library Uses:  Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse can be used at the beginning of the school year in an elementary school or preschool library to teach expectations for story time.  Librarians would like for young children to focus on the story at hand and not be focused on the trinkets they so often like to bring with them. 

Henkes, K.  (1996).  Lilly’s purple plastic purse.  New York:

       Greenwillow Books.

Saccardi, Marianne.  (1996, August).  [Review of  “Lilly’s Purple

          Plastic Purse” by K. Henkes].  School Library Journal 42 (8),
        p. 122.

Module 5: Esperanza Rising

Book Summary:  Esperanza and her mother were forced to leave their home of riches and luxury in Mexico after her father died.  They went to work in migrant labor camps in California just before the great depression.  Her mother becomes very ill and Esperanza has to pull from her great inner strength.  She never regains all of her material riches, but she has many family and friends. 

My Impressions:   Esperanza Rising was a touching story about a young girl who went from being the daughter of a rich and powerful family in Mexico to a migrant worker in California. This book has won a variety of awards including the Pura Belpre award because once you start reading you get caught up in the story and it is difficult to put down. It is a very well written novel that shows how many hispanics lived on both sides of the Rio Grande River.

Professional Review:  At times Esperanza Rising, although it takes place in Depression-era Mexico and the United States instead of Victorian England, seems a dead ringer for Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess. Both are dramatic riches-to-rags stories about girls forced to trade fancy dolls and dresses for hard work and ill-fitting hand-me-downs after their beloved fathers die. Thirteen-year-old Esperanza even possesses a touch of Sara Crewe's romantic spirit. The daughter of an affluent Mexican rancher, she had been taught by her father to believe that the "land is alive," that she could lie down beneath the arbors in her family's vineyards, press her ear to the ground, and hear a heart beat. Yet can this still hold true for Esperanza when she no longer reigns as queen of the harvest but labors in the fields of a foreign country, picking grapes on someone else's land for pennies an hour? The transition does not come easily for her, and thus her story ultimately diverges from The Little Princess's fairytale script to become a poignant look at the realities of immigration. Political as well as personal history inform the sometimes florid narrative (loosely based, we are told in an afterword, on the experiences of the author's grandmother). Esperanza's struggles begin amidst class unrest in post-revolutionary Mexico and intersect with labor strikes in the United States, which serve to illustrate the time period's prevailing hostility toward people of Mexican descent. In one of the more glaring injustices she witnesses, striking workers, who were born American citizens and have never set foot on Mexican soil, are loaded onto buses for deportation. Through it all, Esperanza is transformed from a sheltered aristocrat into someone who can take care of herself and others. Although her material wealth is not restored in the end, the way it is for Sara Crewe, she is rich in family, friends, and esperanza--the Spanish word for hope. 

Library Uses:  This book allows many opportunities for curriculum support through the library.  The study of the Great Depression can be shared through the eyes of the Hispanic culture.  It would also be interesting to study what students learned about child labor in the migrant worker camps.  That could be extended through further research into many different writing methods.

Ryan Munoz, P.  (2000).  Esperanza rising. New York: Scholastic.

C.M.H. (2001, January). Book Review. [Review of the Book

Esperanza Rising, by P. Munoz Ryan].  The Horn Book Magazine 77 (1), p 96.

Module 5: Goin' Someplace Special

Book Summary:  Set in the segregated 1950s in Nashville, Tricia Ann, a very brave African American girl goes through a lot to get to the integrated public library.  The statement, “You are somebody, a human being – no better, no worse than anybody else in this world” went through her head throughout the story.

My Impressions: Goin' Someplace Special, with its vivid illustrations and vocabulary, made me feel as if I were in the 1950's in the midst of the segregation issues. I believe that the author's use of language as well as the watercolor illustrations taking us back in time helped it stand above the rest for the Coretta Scott King award.

Professional Review:  Young `Tricia Ann is off to Someplace Special--and about to "burst with excitement" because her grandmother is letting her go there alone for the very first time. The journey is not an easy one: she must face the indignities of life in the Jim Crow South. She has to sit behind the sign on the bus that says "COLORED SECTION." She is not allowed to sit in the park by the Peace Fountain her stonemason grandfather helped build. She visits her friend the doorman at the elegant Southland Hotel and is asked to leave. "What makes you think you can come inside? No colored people are allowed!" the manager says. Despite these humiliations, `Tricia Ann is strengthened at every turn by people who care about her and who bolster her with reminders to "Carry yo'self proud" and "Don't let those signs steal yo' happiness." Soon she reaches her beloved Someplace Special--the public library. The words carved in stone proclaim: "Public Library: All Are Welcome." Jerry Pinkney's illustrations place `Tricia Ann at the center of each page, willing to face the challenges the outside world throws at her. Whether `Tricia Ann is in her grandmother's kitchen (surrounded by bountiful fresh fruits and vegetables and the love they symbolize) or fearfully looking over her shoulder on the bus, Pinkney makes it clear that she will triumph. Though this story takes place in an unnamed Southern city, the helpful author's note states that McKissack was raised in Nashville, where, unlike many other Southern cities of the 1950s, the public libraries welcomed African Americans. The library pictured on the final pages, bathed in hopeful lemon sunshine, is the downtown library of 1950s Nashville. There are many books about a child's first trip alone, and many books about racism and the struggle for civil rights, but this book is about more than either: it is the story of a child facing a difficult time sustained by the support of the adults in her life. McKissack and Pinkney strike just the right balance in a picture book for young readers and listeners: informative without being preachy; hopeful without being sentimental.

Library Uses:  Goin’ Someplace Special can be used in a variety ways to support history curriculum through the library:

·       Black History Month

·       Civil Rights

·       Segregation History

·       Human Rights

All of those topics can be discussed and reinforced, but can be taken to a deeper level by asking the listeners to put themselves in the place of the main character in reference to the above topics.

McKissack, P. (2001). Goin’ someplace special. New York: Athenuem Books for Young Readers.

Smith, R. (2012, February 19).  Book Review. [Review of the Book Goin’ Someplace Special, by P. McKissack].  The Horn Book Magazine 77 (6), p736.

Module 4: Sarah, Plain and Tall

 
Book Summary:  Papa advertises for a wife and Caleb and Anna want to know all about the woman who is coming.  Sarah comes and wins their heart.  She learns a lot about the world of farming, but misses her family and the sea of Maine as well.  They become a family.

My Impressions: A touching story which keeps you wondering right up until the very end. 

Professional Review: 

Kirkus Review (1985)

A warming, delicately tuned story set in an unspecified rural American past, about a motherless farm family and the woman who comes from Maine for a trial visit after Papa advertises for a wife. Even before she arrives, Sarah wins Anna and Caleb with her brusque but touching letters. ("Tell them I sing," she writes to Papa in answer to their question. We already know that Papa hasn't sung since Mama died, when Caleb was born.) Sarah learns to plow and teaches the others, even Papa, to play. She also talks about the colors of the sea, which she had to leave when her fisherman brother married and his wife took over the house in Maine. Anna and Caleb know that Sarah misses the sea, and they hang on every hint that she might stay. She does, of course, to everyone's satisfaction. JLG.

Library Uses:  This book can be used to teach the geographic locations of the states in the book.  Another idea would be to bring art into the library.  Have students of all ages watercolor the seascape as Sarah does. 

MacLachlan, P. (1985). Sarah, plain and tall. New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books.

JLG.  (1985) Book Review. [Review of the Book Sarah, Plain and Tall, by P. MacLachlan].  Kirkus Review retrieved from http://www.titlewave.com/search?SID=60399cccbdb8b1bc104da07857c6c7f1

Module 4: Dear Mr. Henshaw

 Book Summary:  Leigh is a young man who begins writing to his favorite author, whom he has admired since he was a second grader.  Leigh shares his issues with being the new student at school and someone stealing from his lunch kit.  He also shares his sadness about his parents divorce and having to live with his mom and her not being home much.  He doesn’t see his dad much as his job of trucker keeps him away on the road.

My Impressions: This book brings to light issues that many of our students relate to today.  Although some may say that the book is outdated I think it can still be used for some students to make real connections to the things they are living with on a daily basis.

Professional Review: 

Cleary, Beverly, Dear Mr. Henshaw, New York: William Morrow, 1983, Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinski.

     For those of you and your students who haven’t read this 1983 Newberry Award Winner, this book should be one of the next ones on your list.  Through letters to his favorite author, Mr. Henshaw, and through diary entries, Leigh Botts shares his innermost feelings about his parents’ divorce; living with his mother; missing his father, a long distance truck driver; his scheme to catch the school lunchbag thief; and his aspiration to become a great writer.

          Beverly Cleary has told Leigh’s story with tremendous warmth, humor, and poignancy.  For example, after receiving a response from Mr. Henshaw, Leigh writes,

                   Dear Mr. Henshaw,

Mom is nagging me about your dumb old questions.  She says if I really want to be an author I should follow the tips in your letter.  I should read, look, listen, think and write.  She says the best way she knows for me to get started is to apply the seat of my pants to a chair and answer your questions and answer them fully.  So here goes.  (p. 14).

          This book should appeal especially to aspiring fifth-seventh grade writers.  The illustrations by Paul O. Zelinsky intensify the mood of this story and contribute to its universal appeal.

 Library Uses:  This book would be a great book to use for a new student book club or a book club for students who are new to your school.  Either of these groups could take the step and learn letter or journal writing to share their feelings.

Cleary, B. (1983).  Dr. Mr. Henshaw. New York: Harper Trophy.

Calmes, R. (1986, March) Book Review. [Review of the Book Dear Mr. Henshaw, by B. Cleary].  The Journal of Early Adolescence 6 (1), p103.

Module 3: The Three Pigs

Book Summary:  This version of the three little pigs begins like the others.  However, this time the wolf huffing and puffing blows the first pig right off of the page and into the world of imagination.  The wolf is folded up as a paper airplane.  The pigs run from the wolf in a creative, imaginative way until they reenter the story with those they encountered along the way, the cat and the fiddle and a dragon, in tow. 

My Impressions:  This book has great illustrations to draw in every reader.  The illustrations falling off of the page made me giggle.  The ever changing perspective keeps you guessing along with the wolf being folded into a paper airplane.  This book is a must have for a library.

Professional Review: 

School Library Journal (April, 2001)

K-Gr 6-In Tuesday (Clarion, 1991), Wiesner demonstrated that pigs could fly. Here, he shows what happens when they take control of their story. In an L. Leslie Brooke sort of style (the illustrations are created through a combination of watercolor, gouache, colored inks, and pencils), the wolf comes a-knocking on the straw house. When he puffs, the pig gets blown "right out of the story." (The double spread contains four panels on a white background; the first two follow the familiar story line, but the pig falls out of the third frame, so in the fourth, the wolf looks quite perplexed.) So it goes until the pigs bump the story panels aside, fold one with the wolf on it into a paper airplane, and take to the air. Children will delight in the changing perspectives, the effect of the wolf's folded-paper body, and the whole notion of the interrupted narrative. Wiesner's luxurious use of white space with the textured pigs zooming in and out of view is fresh and funny. They wander through other stories-their bodies changing to take on the new style of illustration as they enter the pages-emerging with a dragon and the cat with a fiddle. The cat draws their attention to a panel with a brick house, and they all sit down to soup, while one of the pigs reconstructs the text. Witty dialogue and physical comedy abound in this inspired retelling of a familiar favorite.-Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA

Library Uses:  This book, along with another version of the three pigs, could be used to compare and contrast two versions of the same story.

Another use would be to stop in before the end of the book and allow students to turn and share (or write) their own ending to the story before continuing and hearing the author’s version of the end of the story.

Wiesner, D. (2001). The three pigs. New York: Clarion Books.

Lukehart, W. (2011, April 1). [Review of the book The Three Pigs, by D. Weisner].  School Library Journal 47 (4) p 63.

Module 3: The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

 Book Summary:  Philippe Petit had a tight rope between the twin towers.  Many people watched and the police threatened to arrest him.  He knew as long as he stayed in the air and performed he could not be arrested.  Once he came down and was arrested he was sentenced to perform for children in the park.  There were boys there that pulled and his rope to make him fall. 

My Impressions: The illustrations and the story draw in readers to a very touching story.  The tribute to the twin towers in the clouds is also very beautiful.

Professional Review:  School Library Journal (November 1, 2003)

K-Gr 6-As this story opens, French funambulist Philippe Petit is dancing across a tightrope tied between two trees to the delight of the passersby in Lower Manhattan. Gerstein places him in the middle of a balancing act, framed by the two unfinished World Trade Center towers when the idea hits: "He looked not at the towers, but at the space between them and thought, what a wonderful place to stretch a rope-." On August 7, 1974, Petit and three friends, posing as construction workers, began their evening ascent from the elevators to the remaining stairs with a 440-pound cable and equipment, prepared to carry out their clever but dangerous scheme to secure the wire. The pacing of the narrative is as masterful as the placement and quality of the oil-and-ink paintings. The interplay of a single sentence or view with a sequence of thoughts or panels builds to a riveting climax. A small, framed close-up of Petit's foot on the wire yields to two three-page foldouts of the walk. One captures his progress from above, the other from the perspective of a pedestrian. The vertiginous views paint the New York skyline in twinkling starlight and at breathtaking sunrise. Gerstein captures his subject's incredible determination, profound skill, and sheer joy. The final scene depicts transparent, cloud-filled skyscrapers, a man in their midst. With its graceful majesty and mythic overtones, this unique and uplifting book is at once a portrait of a larger-than-life individual and a memorial to the towers and the lives associated with them.-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Uses:  This book could be used to introduce September 11 and/or the history of the World Trade Center.  Students could research when and how the towers were built, how they were used, and what happened on September 11, 2001.

Gerstein, M. (2003). The man who walked between the towers. Brookfield, Connecticut: Roaring Book Press.

Lukehart, W. (2003, November 10). Book Review. [Review of the Book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, by M. Gerstein]. School Library Journal 49 (12), p 46.