So You Want to Be President

Posted on May 22, 2017 by srudi

Title: “So You Want to Be President”

Author: Judith St. George

Illustrator: David Small

Publisher and Year: Philomel Books : 2000. 2004

Number of Pages: 52

Tags: Non-fiction, 4-5, 6-8, History, Stephanie Rudi

Genres: Non-fiction

Analysis: This book talks shows the lives of all of the former presidents and provides interesting and fun facts about each one. It describes their former job experience, hobbies, major accomplishments, and lifestyles that they led. They include little quirks and funny things associated with their presidency and is very light-hearted overall.

 

This story is somewhat of a window into the former president’s lives, and gives a small glimpse into each of them, but it is written in a more comedic light for children. Perceptually, we see that the illustrations are caricatures of the president’s and they are drawn in little story settings based on the text. The illustrations exaggerate the text by making the situations a little more ridiculous than they actually were. Structurally, the presidents are represented as being similar to each other, but shedding a negative light on a couple who did some questionable things in office without specifically identifying what it was.
In an ideological sense, the presidents are shown to all be people and not just politicians. It has funny information on all of them and makes them seem more like real people, regardless of their political alignment. I read this book growing up, and it made me think that all of the presidents were great, even though I now know that this isn’t necessarily true. This book has children believe that all presidents were pretty cool, since children don’t really understand or care about politics. The picture book codes show that the presidents are higher up on the page and generally positioned to the right and secure, except for one page where Clinton and Nixon are on the left which means they are less secure. The presidents are also shown to be larger than the other characters which shows that they are more important. There is no author’s note at the end, but they did include a list of all of the presidents, when they served their term, and some notable accomplishments.

 

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The Journey

Posted on May 21, 2017 by ecoppe

The Journey

Written and illustrated by Francesca Sanna

Flying Eye Books, 2016

40 pages, Realistic Fiction

The Journey is a story about a family who lives in a country plagued with war and the consequences of wars. The narrator, a small child, describes his or her family’s experience with living in a war-torn country. The family is composed of a father, a mother, a boy, and a girl, but the father dies during the war. The mother hears about a way to escape, and she and the children plan to escape to find a better way of life in a different country. As the family travels to safety, they lose many of their belongings, and they are initially turned away by guards at the border. After paying someone to sneak them across the wall, the mother and her children board a boat to take them across the sea. Once they reach land, they travel by train to another location, and the book ends before the children reach their new home.

This book can be a window for children who are not familiar with the refugee crisis or the harshness that refugees face when they try to leave their country to save their lives. Reading this book with students, young and old, can be a beneficial way to discuss current events and the horrors of war. For students who are refugees or students who have faced persecution in a different way, this book is a mirror for their lives and shows how other people have faced a similar situation. The ideological perspective of The Journey shows children that there are times when even grown-ups, like the mother in this story, do not have the power to provide for their families. Sanna also takes the position that helping refugees is a positive thing to do, as shown by the villainization of the border guards.

The illustrations of this book look like collage, and there is an emphasis on bold colors. For example, the war is depicted as a black, formless being with hands that spreads over the pages, symbolizing the darkness and far-reaching effect of the war’s horrors. The characters are usually depicted as very small, especially in comparison to the war and the guards; the focus is usually on the nature around them or the belongings that they have with them. For the most part, the illustrations add to the text, providing additional details about the plot and the setting, but there are some occasions where the illustrations conflict with the text, most notably when the child says that Mother is not scared. The child believes that Mother is fearless, but when the children are sleeping, the mother is drawn with tears streaming down her face. This illustration fills in the reader that the mother is making sacrifices and pretending to be fearless in a horrible situation.

Sanna, the author, includes an author’s note at the end of the book where she describes her inspiration from the story. She talked with some refugees in Italy, and she realized that she wanted to write a story that provided voices to these characters. There is also a link to more information about refugees, courtesy or Amnesty International.

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To Market, To Market

Posted on May 21, 2017 by ecoppe

To Market, To Market

Written and illustrated by Nikki McClure

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2011

40 pages, Realistic Fiction

In To Market, To Market, Nikki McClure describes her experiences visiting a farmer’s market to buy fresh food to celebrate Market Day. Based on the Olympia Farmer’s Market that McClure frequents, this story follows a family’s shopping trip, including an in-depth look at the foods the family purchases and how it is made. The unnamed narrator is a young boy who describes the seven different items that his family buys and who they buy it from, and the next page includes information about how the food is grown or created, what it looks like, and when it is harvested or finished. Each section ends with a thank you to the people who planted, harvested, or cultivated the food, and the book ends with a celebration with all of the products from Market Day.

To Market, To Market primarily serves as a window for children who have never been to a farmer’s market or who do not know about the process of buying local foods from local people. For some children, this book may be a mirror, especially if their families are involved with food production, which may be an underrepresented group in modern children’s literature. While the characters are all drawn in black and white, there may be diversity in the book, especially with Yukie the napkin maker, but there is not explicit diversity in the pictures. With the farmer’s market, the narrator speaks about the vendors as his friends and neighbors, which shows an equality of power; the vendors are not superior nor inferior to the purchasers. The relationship between the vendors and the purchasers shows children the ways that buying food can be more than going to a supermarket; farmer’s markets allow people to connect with their neighbors and their products in a familiar and unique way.

The illustrations are done with a cut-paper technique and minimal colors; the people are all drawn in black and white, and the backgrounds are different colors with the specific product brightly colored. This design makes the goods stand out as the focus of the page, which is especially beneficial for some terms and images that children may be unfamiliar with, especially kale. The first page in the set of each product features the boy and his mother buying the food from the vendor, while the second page shows the process of making or harvesting the product itself. This technique focuses more on the efferent properties of children’s books, but the illustrations are thoroughly done and intriguing, which adds to the aesthetic of the book.

McClure adds an author’s note at the end to discuss her personal experience at the Olympia Farmer’s Market, including a thank-you to her own vendors and a call to find and support local farmer’s market, which can be a door for older readers who are interested in the idea of buying locally. She also includes details about her cut-paper technique.

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Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Posted on May 19, 2017 by gdano

  1. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
  2. Author: Rudyard Kipling
  3. Illustrator: Lambert Davis
  4. Publisher and Year: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1992
  5. Number of pages: 37
  6. Genre: Picture Book/Adventure Story
  7. Analysis: In Rudyard Kipling’s book, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a young Indian mongoose named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is found by a British family in Colonial India and helps save them from the two vicious cobras, Nag and Nagaina, that are native to that part of India. The mongoose never runs out of stamina and fighting spirit as they take on a determined and ferocious enemy to protect their adopted family, but eventually, after keeping it up for a good while and outwitting their cunning at every turn, the enemy is defeated, proving that you can accomplish most anything if the conditions are right and you don’t give up on your goal.The most important element of the picturebook codes that I saw in this book was that of size. Towards the end, when Rikki-Tikki-Tavi meets and attacks Nag to destroy him once and for all, he is much smaller than the giant, nasty cobra, who he attacks by biting on the head with extreme prejudice, showing that Nag is the one in control of the situation when he is attacked by Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. When shown next to the humans (even counting the baby), Nag is much, much smaller as he is fatally shot by the father in the colonial family after Rikki-Tikki-Tavi points out the location to him. The snake itself is always bigger when it is by humans, showing its puny size in comparison to Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. The illustrations are quite beautiful, as they are both colorful yet simple. The illustrator chose a lovely strategy of using many shades of watercolors for the animals, and it is even more poignant when contrasted with the crisp khaki uniforms of the British officer and his family. Finally, when it comes to special features, the two that come to mind is the fact that there is a very summary of Kipling’s life immediately following the book jacket, and the pages themselves are pretty text-averse too. Additionally, the fact that this is adapted from a mere short story into a children’s book is quite fascinating, as Lambert Davis could make it palatable to a younger audience with his deluxe illustrations. The ideology of the book is that it wants everybody to do selfless things for those who do good by them, and in doing so will be able to “fight the cobra” that they were struggling with inside of them all along. However, there is another implication here that is glossed over-the idea that colonialism is a beneficial system of governance, and that the British colonial families are the most critical elements in the British Raj, much more so than the native Indians. In fact, they are not even shown in the illustrations whatsoever, perhaps an oversight by the author in 1992 and/or an embrace of Kipling’s nonchalance towards those who did the heavy lifting in that British colony.
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Extra Yarn

Posted on May 19, 2017 by gdano

  1. Title: Extra Yarn
  2. Author: Mac Barnett
  3. Illustrator: Jon Klassen
  4. Publisher and Year: HarperCollins, 2012
  5. Number of pages: 3
  6. Genre: Picture Book
  7. Analysis: In Jon Klassen’s book, Extra Yarn, a young girl named Annabelle finds a box of colorful yarn and knits sweaters for everyone in her town, then moves on to knit sweaters for everything there from trees and buildings to cars and trucks. She never runs out of yarn and keeps brightening up her otherwise dull and dreary burg. One day, an evil archduke offers to buy her box of colorful yarn for ten million dollars, but Annabelle refuses to sell it. At night, the archduke steals the box of yarn, but when he opens the box, he finds it empty, proving that you can own all the riches in the world, but you can still lack empathy and a care for the welfare of others.

However, despite the heartwarming plot and characters, so far as the picturebook codes in this story are concerned, there is not much to write home about. The most important element of the picturebook codes that I saw in this book was that of size. Towards the end, when Anabelle meets the Archduke as he sails into the town, she is much smaller than him, showing that he is the one in control of the situation when he attempts to purchase the box of yarn from her. However, when he resorts to stealing it from her, he is almost as small as the box itself as he throws it out of his castle window. The box itself is always bigger when Anabelle has it, showing her capacity for love and empathy through the box size itself as a metaphor. It and Anabelle are quite petite when her elementary school teacher demands she demonstrate her knitting prowess, but they both grow bigger as she knits more and more for the community as a whole. The illustrations are quite beautiful, as they are both black and white for the town, but colorful for Anabelle and her yarn creations. The illustrator chose a lovely strategy of using many shades of watercolors for the knitted materials, and it is all the more poignant when contrasted with the crisp white snow of the eternally cold-looking community. Finally, when it comes to special features, the only one that comes to mind is the fact that there are only very brief summaries on the book jacket, and the pages themselves are pretty text-averse too. The ideology of the book is that it want everybody to do selfless things for their community, and in doing so will be able to “find the yarn” that they were looking for inside of them all along.

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Pink and Say

Posted on May 18, 2017 by srudi

 

Title: Pink and Say

Author and Illustrator: Patricia Polacco

Publisher and Year: Babushka Inc. 1994

Number of Pages: 44

Tags: Non-fiction, 4-5, 6-8, Friendship, Stephanie Rudi

Genres: Non-fiction

Analysis:

A white Yankee soldier named Say, is found badly wounded in a field by a Yankee African American boy known as Pink. Pink takes say to his master’s old house to help him recover. Say learns that Pink and his family are all slaves, and his master left with everyone but his mother. During this time, Say teaches Pink how to read. Say empathizes with Pink, but doesn’t understand why he wants to go back to the war. Pink tells Say that the war is a fight for the freedom of his people, and he would do anything to help end slavery. In the end, confederate soldiers come and kill Pink’s mother, while capturing Pink and Say. The boys are split up at the camp, and Say survives, but Pink is killed almost immediately.

I think that this story is a door into the emotional time of Civil War and slavery. I feel that the openness of the illustrations and text invite the reader to be involved. Perceptually, we see two boys of different skin colors fighting in a war together and getting separated. They end up caring for each other and it is very sad when they are separated at the camp. Structurally, the characters are represented differently but also the same. They fight on the same side, but as different races fighting towards a common good. Pink and Say are united against the force of evil, which ultimately brings them together, but also separates them in the end.

In an ideological sense, we see that the Civil War divides the boys by race, because one is a slave who is killed immediately after being captured, while the other is white and gets to survive. The culture is one that treats African Americans as slaves and doesn’t even let them fight with guns like the white soldiers. Historically, the two boys should have never associated, but a near death experience brings them together to understand each other which is symbolic for how all humans live and die, and the belief that we shouldn’t let race divide us.

The picture book codes show us are interesting because of the time the African American boy is above the white boy which generally means he has more power over him, which he technically does since the white boy is injured. This plays on our expectations of the way this genre of nonfiction is represented, since usually a story about race in this time period would show the white boy as being more powerful. The illustrations are enjoyable to look at because they look authentic since they appear to be hand drawn and water painted. This media makes the story appear more realistically and creates a sort of relatability and rawness. The author’s note of this work is very interesting because she tells us that it is a story passed down from generation to generation and this makes it more believable and personal.

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Henry’s Freedom Box

Posted on May 17, 2017 by gsheley

Title: Henry’s Freedom Box

Author: Ellen Levine

Illustrator: Kadir Nelson

Publisher & Year: Scholastic Press, 2007

Number of pages: 36

Genre: Historical fiction

The story begins with a young Henry Brown, introduced as a slave living and working with his family. After his master’s death, Henry is sold to another owner who enforces violent punishment in the work room. Henry meets and marries another slave, Nancy, and has three children – but he lives in fear that they will soon be sold and separated from him. His worst fear comes true: his three children and wife are all sold to other owners and Henry immediately begins devising a plan to escape. With the help of a few friends, he ships himself in a wooden crate to Pennsylvania, where he may live as a free man. Upon his arrival, he is given the nickname Henry “Box” Brown.

The text offers a window into a realistic depiction of life in slavery: the pain of a family being divided, the fear of harsh working conditions and vicious enslavers, and the hope for a free life. The ideology behind the story is well-presented in its context. The author does not gloss over the horrific nature of slavery in America’s history and clearly establishes people of power (the slave masters) abusing those under their control (the slaves). Social identities throughout the novel are most transformed through the protagonist, who goes from living with a dream for freedom to achieving a life outside of slavery.

The illustrations ranging from the first page, a portrait of a young boy with no joy on his face, to last, adult Henry climbing out of the wooden box into a room of people welcoming him to freedom, depict this transformation of social identity. Henry goes from only identifying himself as enslaved to realizing that he has successfully escaped the tortures of his master; however, the last page also hints, by Henry’s subtle smile, that he still understands the difficulties and discrimination he will continue to face in a country plagued by slavery practices. In terms of picture book code, for the most part, Henry is depicted on the right page, a position of uncertainty or of movement. This is especially relevant as Henry continues to fight against slavery, escaping his master, and his eventual journey to assisting others to follow suit. The colors used in the illustrations are warm, mostly dark, and some are illuminated by a backlight from a natural source. These positions and lighting choices all help to place the reader within the story, as opposed to merely observing the actions from a distance.

The author’s note at the end of the book is especially important to read to students. It describes more detail about the Underground Railroad and Henry Brown’s assistance with the movement. It also provides factual details and statistics concerning the enslavement of humans in the United States in the mid-1800’s.

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Trombone Shorty

Posted on May 17, 2017 by gsheley

Title: Trombone Shorty

Author: Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews

Illustrator: Bryan Collier

Published by: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2015

Page number: 40 pgs.

Tags: Award Book, Culture, Diversity, Family, Fine Arts, Friendship, Nonfiction, Picture book, Grace Sheley

Genre: Autobiography, Nonfiction

Troy Andrews, also known as “Trombone Shorty,” describes his early childhood and discovering music in his home, New Orleans, Louisiana. He begins his narrative by explaining how music impacts his hometown, explaining his familial connection to music through his big brother and the celebration of Mardis Gras every year. Trombone Shorty recalls being heavily influenced by his brother’s band and desiring to be a part of the band so much that he imagines various instruments he would play. He eventually creates his own band with a few friends, but because of his family’s socioeconomic position, they cannot afford expensive instruments.

Luckily, young Troy Andrews discovers an old, beaten up trombone that someone discarded and treasures the instrument as though all his dreams had come true. Due to the brass instrument’s size and his young, small stature, his older brother deemed him “Trombone Shorty,” and thus providing the title of not only this picture book, but also the Trombone Shorty Foundation that Troy Andrews would later create to assist the musical community in New Orleans. The climax of the story occurs when young Troy Andrews attended the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where Bo Diddley stopped his performance to invite Trombone Shorty up to the stage to play with him.

After creating his own band with same-aged friends, joining his brother’s band, and later touring worldwide, Trombone Shorty makes sure to revisit and play at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival when he can. The text of the book is necessary to tell the story; however, the illustrations amplify the narration with warm, popping colors and an interesting modge-podge of both illustrations and photographs or textured clippings from magazines (similar to a scrapbook). On two facing pages, photographs of people are used to assist the text describing Mardis Gras, including what is assumedly a photograph of a young, smiling Troy Andrews in the middle of the left page. The author’s note on the last few pages describes the non-fictional elements of his story again, only more fleshed out and explicitly stating that these events did, in fact, really happen (such as playing with Bo Diddley). The last page includes a brief description of how the author actively supports the preservation of the music community and young musicians in New Orleans through his Trombone Shorty Foundation.

The author’s note on the last few pages describes the non-fictional elements of his story again, only more fleshed out and explicitly stating that these events did, in fact, really happen (such as playing with Bo Diddley). The last page includes a brief description of how the author actively supports the preservation of the music community and young musicians in New Orleans through his Trombone Shorty Foundation.

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