Ava and the Real Lucille

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Title: Ava and the Real Lucille

Author: Cari Best

Illustrator: Madeline Valentine

Publisher and Year: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2012

Number of Pages: 30

Genre: Fiction

Analysis: Ava and the Real Lucille is about two sisters, Ava and Arlie who enter a contest to win a pet. The girls are hoping to win a dog when entering the poem contest. The end result is not what they thought, but the prize ended up being perfect.

This book can function as a mirror for young kids wanting a pet, which is common for most children. Not only will this book function as a mirror for children but can work as a mirror for parents as well. Children who want a pet are constantly talking about their pet and bugging their parents. Both children and parents can relate to this book because the real life experiences are understandable from the audiences perspective.

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Perceptually, the front cover of the book is colorful and appears to be about a little girl Ava and a pet dog named Lucille. The book looks to be a fun and entertaining book for children. The cover catches the reader’s attention, who is then interested in reading about Ava and her pet Lucille.

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Structurally, many pictures throughout the book have round frames, implying that the characters are content and secure. The illustrator could have created these round frames for the audience to think that the two little girls were content with the fact that they could win a poem contest and receive a pet dog. The round frames throw the reader off a bit, thinking that the girls will win a pet dog, when they actually win a pet bird. At the end of the book when Ava and Arlie love their pet bird, there are also round frames, showing the girls are content with having a pet bird named Lucille. The images both give more details as well as mirror the text throughout the book.

Ideologically, this book portrays a positive message but also conveys a negative message for children as well.   Positively, the book teaches children about the responsibility that is associated with having a pet. Children learn to love and care for the pet, regardless if it is a pet that they had wished for. The book teaches children that they must feed, love, help, and play with their pet. All of these actions are important lessons for children to read about prior to actually buying a pet. However, when first receiving the pet, Ava was ungrateful for the pet bird that they won, because she wanted a dog. She would yell and stomp so loud that her actions would upset Lucille the bird. Ungratefulness, disrespect and impatience are all lessons that teachers and adults do not want children reading about and learning to behave in such a way. After Ava’s poor actions, she came around and really cared for Lucille the bird, however, her prior actions were poor lessons for children to learn.

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The Deaf Musicians

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Title: The Deaf Musicians

Authors: Pete Seeger and Paul Dubois Jacobs

Illustrator: R. Gregory Christie

Publisher and Year: The Penguin Group, 2006

Number of Pages: 28

Analysis: The Deaf Musicians is about a man who loves music but is deaf. Initially, he is kicked out of his first band, but he meets other deaf musicians who create a quartet and they are successful musicians on the subway.

This book could function as a mirror for deaf people who love music. Deaf musicians are not typically seen throughout society, so having a book that is relatable to deaf musicians is important. A window could be another function for this book because other people may not think that people who are deaf can be musicians as well, but that is obviously not the case in this book. Deaf musicians are able to achieve and be successful in their own way.

Perceptually, the front cover had colorful and unique images, but the images were also diverse in skin color, characteristics, hairstyle and personality. The reader may also not be able to tell who the deaf characters are in the book, simply by looking at the front cover. That crucial aspect sends the message that not all disabilities change the outward appearance of the person. A person who is deaf can be just as successful as any other person.

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Structurally, the main character, Lee, was typically on the right side of the page or faced towards the right of the page until his quartet of deaf musicians were successful on the subway. Being on the right side of the page or facing towards the right is a way to portray that the character is less secure and stable. Lee’s security with himself could’ve been lost when being kicked out of his first band before finding the quartet of other deaf musicians. Bright colors in each image helps show freedom that Lee and the other musicians feel while creating their own music on the subway throughout the book.

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Ideologically, a crucial lesson that can be taken away from this book is that disabilities do not change the success a person can have. A disability may challenge the person, but having a disability does not mean that one cannot be successful. This book also teaches children that individuality and uniqueness is important and that all students should accept their differences because those characteristics are what make them special. Throughout the entire book Lee persevered and believed in his talents and abilities, which eventually lead to his success on the subway. Teachers strive to have all students accept and include any students with disabilities.

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Dancing in the Wings

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Dancing1 Title: Dancing in the Wings

Author: Debbie Allen

Illustrator: Kadir Nelson

Publisher and Year: The Penguin Group, 2000

Number of Pages: 29

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Analysis: Dancing in the Wings is about a young girl, Sassy, who loves ballet but is taller than all of her peers. Throughout the book, Sassy learns to embrace her difference leading to her success near the end of the book.

This book could function as a mirror for all young girls who love dancing but do not always feel that their appearance is the same as their classmates. Girls typically struggle more with self-image compared to boys, so this book helps young girls embrace their characteristics. I think that this book could also function as a mirror for African American girls. They could see themselves through Sassy and her family. Having a book that is applicable to African American girls can make these girls feel included and understood. A window is another function of this book because people can learn about some aspects of a different culture from this book.

Perceptually, this book portrays a musical, beautiful and elegant cover that makes one believe that the same types of images will continue throughout the book. However, that is not the case at all. Within the images, Sassy appears to have two different sides to her personality. One aspect of her personality portrays elegance through the dancing images. Another aspect of Sassy’s character that is portrayed in the images is her athletic and tomboy characteristics, as seen in the images below. However, all of the images are beautifully drawn throughout the entire book.

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Structurally, Sassy is taller and larger than her classmates, showing that she is stronger than her classmates as well. This is symbolic to the ending of the book, when Sassy outlasts all of her classmates in a tryout. The unframed images allow the audience to feel included in the story and allow the audience to connect with Sassy and her challenges that she faces throughout the book. Throughout most of the book, Sassy is facing left. This is a way for viewers to see that Sassy is less secure with herself. After Sassy wins the dance contest between other girls she still continues to face towards the left, which can be a sign of the lack of confidence that Sassy has with herself. For the longest time Sassy has been bullied about her height, so her struggle to believe in herself is something that she has learned over time from her peers and teachers.Dancing2

Ideologically, this book expresses the message that one should embrace his or her individuality because what makes him or her unique may be what leads to success. Sassy was successful and won the dance contest because of her height and long legs. What was once a deficit in her mind, became one of her biggest assets. Sassy always worked hard even when her peers would discourage or upset Sassy and in the end all of her hard work paid off. Throughout the book, there were a couple girls who were mean and would upset Sassy. This is a lesson that children should not be taught. Even though this lesson was an essential part of the story plot, children could learn this from the book.

Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat Ella Fitzgerald

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Title: Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat Ella Fitzgerald

Author: Roxane Orgill

Illustrator: Sean Qualls

Publisher and Year: Candlewick Press, 2010

Number of Pages: 38

Genre: Biography

Analysis: Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat Ella Fitzgerald is a biography about Ella Fitzgerald and her swing dancing and singing career. The book goes through a timeline of events throughout her life, some that were challenging, some that were joyful, but all ending with success.

This book could function as a window for many people who are not sure of who Ella Fitzgerald is. Throughout the book the audience can learn about Ella Fitzgerald as a person, her career, success, family and much more. Not only can this book function as a window, but it can also function as a mirror for African American young girls who love singing and dancing. After reading this book, young girls can feel encouraged to continue pursuing their passion like Ella did. Young girls may feel exhilarated or confident after reading about Ella’s success singing and dancing.

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Perceptually, this book has an entertaining and engaging front cover along with a fun title that children will enjoy reading because of the phonics. Initially, the audience is not able to tell that the book is also about dancing, one may simply think that this book is only about singing. While first seeing the front cover, the reader may think that this book is fiction and not a true story about Ella Fitzgerald. It isn’t until reading the first few pages that the true story begins to emerge.

Structurally, there are a lot of words per page resulting in the reading of each page being quite lengthy. However, the author is sharing a lot of information about Ella Fitzgerald. The images throughout the book are unframed, allowing the audience to feel included in the action and connected with Ella Fitzgerald as a book character. Throughout the book, the illustrator portrays a variety of facial expressions, which are understandable to all audiences. The audience can connect with Ella and her story while reading the book because of the true story and connections that can be made throughout the book.

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Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat Ella Fitzgerald ideologically portrays a positive message for young girls, however, there is also a negative lesson. First, the story of Ella Fitzgerald and all of her hard work and success can be inspirational for all girls. This book can teach girls to never give up on their dreams because with hard work they can be successful in whatever they do. A negative lesson seen in the book is that Ella disobeyed the law multiple times resulting in her being sent to a school for orphans. Reading this book, children can understand that even though Ella disobeyed the law she was still very successful.

Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin

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Author: Duncan Tonatiuh

Illustrator: Duncan Tonatiuh

Publisher and Year: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2010

Number of Pages: 29

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Analysis: Dear Primo is a book about two cousins who live in different countries, one in America and the other cousin in Mexico. These boys write letters back and forth comparing the cultural differences in their own country. Dear Primo is also a 2015 Monarch Award Nominee.

This book could function as a mirror for other families whom are separated by country borders. Many families experience separation from one another and have some cultural differences within their family members. For families who are experiencing the same dilemma as Charlie and Carlitos, this book could function as a door because it could encourage them to write letters or communicate more with their families in other countries. However, this book could also function as a window for those who have family living in the same town or even same state because they could learn more about different cultures amongst families after reading this book.

Perceptually, the unique depictions of the characters on the front-page make the audience wonder what the book is about and curious if all the images will have a similar style as the drawings of the boys on the front. Once seeing the cover, the reader may want to dive into the book and read more about the culture seen. From the front cover, people who have learned about Spanish will recognize the word “primo” which means cousin in Spanish. This hint allows Spanish-speaking readers to know that this book will include the Spanish culture.

Structurally, the unframed images allow the audience to feel part of the action, experiencing the moments with Charlie and Carlitos. While reading the book, a reader may relate more to one cousin than the other. Within the book there are a couple pages that have similar instances portrayed with minimal differences. For example on the last page, which Primo2is seen to the right, the boys are both in bed, but the differences of their shoes, lights, beds, shelves, tables and toys all vary based on the culture and country that the boys live in. The images throughout the book add to the words. Often times when Carlitos is writing he will include words in Spanish, so the images help the reader to understand the meaning of those few Spanish words.

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The book ideologically portrays some important lessons about family and culture. The value of family can be seen throughout this book by the letters that Charlie and Carlitos write to each other. The boys care for one another and value the differences within their culture. Even though the cultural differences exist, the boys still love and respect one another. The differences are what make the family special in their own way. This book teaches others about a new culture and some basic language that children may be able to use. The lessons throughout this book are beneficial, informational and intriguing.

The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses

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Title: The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses

Author: Paul Goble

Illustrator: Paul Goble

Publishers and Year: Harper Collins Publisher, 2010

Number of pages: 25

Genre: Fiction

The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses is a tale about a young Native American girl who ran away with a band of wild horses. Many years later, upon returning to her native village she desperately wishes she were back with her true family, the horses. In the end she is reincarnated as the mate of her favorite horse.

This book serves as a literary window because it gives us an insight into a culture that may not be familiar to all readers. Throughout the story the readers pick up little pieces of Native American culture. For example, through the main character the readers are able to witness the appreciation of animals that is help in Native American circles. Although her story is fictional, it carries very real elements of their culture that serve as windows for children learning to value cultures that are different than their own.

The illustrations also do a good job of capturing the folklore of a tale passed down from generation to generation. The power is evenly distributed between the horses and the humans. This is portrayed in the way our human characters are close in size to the horses. This speaks of the unity in spirit the girl believed to have had with the horses.

The illustrations in this book perfectly speak to the freedom of spirit displayed by the main character. The illustrator used a lot of vibrant colors, which give us the boldness. There is also a lack of framing which allows us to step into the story with the characters. Overall, this book is about finding passions and following them, even if they are non-traditional. The young girl knew where her heart was and what she was passionate about. When she allowed her family to talk her out of it she was miserable. So this story speaks to children about doing what they love and pursuing their passions, no matter what they might be.

Each Kindness

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Author: Jacqueline Woodson

Illustrator: E.B. Lewis

Publisher and Year: Nancy Paulson Books 2012

Number of pages: 28

Genre: Fiction

Analysis

Each Kindness is a Coretta Scott King Award winner and tells the story of an elementary school classroom that gets a new student named Maya. Maya often dresses in worn out clothes and is ignored and made fun of by the other children, especially the narrator Chloe. Chloe is one of Maya’s biggest bullies. Maya does not make friends with the class and eventually her family moves. After Maya’s departure, the teacher, Ms. Albert, speaks to the class about kindness and changes Chloe’s mind about being kind to others.

This story is told from the perspective of Maya’s classmate who she sits next to and attempts to interact with. Chloe is consistently rude, ignores Maya, and makes fun of her with her friends. In the end, after Ms. Albert conducts the lesson on kindness, Chloe reflects on her sadness that she mistreated Maya and would not have a chance to make it up to her. This book delves into the importance of economic differences and bullying in schools.

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While this book is a good tool to show how kindness can be spread, there are some flaws in the presentation of a classroom. While Maya struggles consistently for several months with the rest of the class, her teacher does not step in and attempt to make the rest of the class stop bullying Maya, until she is gone. At that point it makes a change in Chloe’s future action, but does not change her previous actions to Maya. This enforces the idea that in a classroom the teacher wouldn’t step in until it is too late to benefit the person being picked on. While the teacher’s lesson at the end of the book about ripples and chain reactions in relation to kindness is proven to be a successful lesson with the way it impacts Chloe, there is no impact on Maya. This is a problem because it reinforces the idea that the students can get away with this bullying behavior and only have repercussions later on.

One of the positive things about the book is that in the classroom the students are illustrated as all different races. Overall, this book would be a good tool to use in a classroom to teach about kindness and deal with bullying problems, but classroom ideologies should not be modeled after the teacher in the text and one should be more vigilant in looking out for these bullying behaviors.

My Friend Rabbit

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Title: My Friend Rabbit

Author: Eric Rohmann

Illustrator: Eric Rohmann

Publishers and Year: First Scholastic Printing, 2003

Number of pages: 30

Genre: Fiction

My Friend Rabbit tells the story of a rabbit’s attempt to help her friend mouse. The rabbit means well and tries incredibly hard to help her friend mouse. She enlists the help of many other animals (mostly against their will). However, no matter what rabbit does, trouble never seems to be far behind.

I view this book as a door because it models for children some of the core values of friendship. The story models what it looks like to walk through a mess with someone and love them through it. This concept provides an opportunity for children to take hold of this value for themselves and incorporate that into their own relationships, even if in small ways at first.

Power is distributed in this book in a number of ways. On the first few pages, rabbit looks huge when compared to mouse. This shows the increased power rabbit has over mouse. However, mouse is always higher than rabbit on the page, which shows us how highly he is esteemed. As the story goes on, rabbit struggles more and more to help his friend. As this happens, rabbit’s character appears smaller and smaller. The other animals appear very large and powerful, sometimes taking up more than one page.

The author also used very little text in the book creating space for the pictures to tell a story of their own. The pictures agree with and add to the story. The pictures show the hard work and movement of rabbit. Throughout the text, rabbit is continually moving towards the left of the page. In every page he makes more and more progress left which signals gaining security. Throughout the process he goes from ground level to standing on top of all of the animals in power and security. Eventually, however, trouble follows and rabbit is left at the bottom once again. The visual process of progression and power is very obvious, however, and seems very intentional.

The visual progression of rabbit in power and stature speaks volumes of his goal of helping a friend. The text plays a less important role in the story, since the majority of the story is told through the illustrations. Overall, children can learn much about friendship from this book. The story of rabbit and mouse teaches us what it looks like to go out of our way to serve a friend and to see someone else’s need as greater than our own. This is an excellent lesson for children and adults alike.

Owl Moon

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Author: Jane Yolen

Illustrator: John Schoenherr

Publisher and Year: Philomel Books 1987

Number of pages: 29

Genre: Poetry

Analysis:

Owl Moon is a Caldecott winner that tells the story of a girl who goes owling with her father. The book delves into her family’s tradition of owling and how this instance is the first time she gets to accompany her father. Late at night, they go into the forest in search of an owl and trek through the snow and through the trees. Her father intermittently does owl calls and eventually they encounter one.

This story serves as a window or a door into the world of owling, the world of nature, and the importance of family traditions. The illustrations are done in a watercolor style full of a balance of rich, dark colors and the stark white of the snow described by the narrator. Although the story takes place at night, the characters and their surroundings are illuminated in the moonlight to create a serene aesthetic. The text itself is written in a poetic style with flow akin to that of a child forming thoughts. The words are eloquently strung together to reinforce the importance of the event in the young girl’s mind. While the flow of the text is broken up into small lines and stanzas, the word choice shows a more adept writer who is writing in a more carefree manner.

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Culturally, this book touches on the importance of family traditions and familial relationships. This one, seemingly simple, event had enough of an impact on the little girl that she retells the story. Overall, this book does not have much cultural value to it. While Owl Moon has beautiful, award winning illustrations, it does not have multicultural significance. The two main characters of the book are both white and there are no other people in the book. The text may have nice flow and beautiful word choice, but the story itself holds little cultural importance in a classroom. There are several activities that could be created from this book, but in order to ensure that a class does not exclude anyone, the activities would need to change from the inherent ideologies presented in the book. Instead of reinforcing the idea of a typical family being parents as being the primary caretaker, instead stress the importance of every family type. This may still exclude children who live with foster families so when discussing this book, be sure to specifically include them as well. Although problems may arise from teaching a lesson only with this book, Owl Moon could be paired with other more multicultural texts to discuss many family types and family traditions.

This Is Not My Hat

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Title: This Is Not My Hat

Author: Jon Klassen

Illustrator: Jon Klassen

Publishers and Year: Candlewick, 2012

Number of pages: 32

Genre: Fiction

This Is Not My Hat tells the story of a fish’s attempt to steal another fish’s hat. The thief fish hides with the assumption that the victim fish will not be able to find him. However, in the end the victim fish finds the thief and takes back his hat.

This book is an excellent example of literature functioning as both a mirror and as a window. It is an example of a mirror because it gives the reader an opportunity to see their own thought process/perspectives in the thief fish. Any reader can relate to the thief fish because people, in general, are often naive in thinking that things done in secret will remain hidden. The text of this book takes us through that perspective and allows us to connect with that thought process. The illustrations, however, provide a window for the reader to look through. The illustrations reveal the thought process and perspective of the victim fish. This perspective completely contradicts the text and leaves us with pictures that tell an entirely different story. This contradiction provides the window that allows the reader to understand an outside perspective.

Another method used to depict this was the intentionality of the illustrations. Although one might think that the thief would carry more power, the readers see the opposite portrayed in the illustrations. Rather, the readers notice that the victim is drawn significantly larger than the thief. I believe this was intentionally done to show that the power actually lies in honesty. The small fish felt and acted powerful in his attempts. However, he was continually swimming towards confinement (the place where leaves are close together) where the truly powerful fish would find him before swimming back into the ocean. Overall, the author did a phenomenal job of using contradictory text and illustrations to speak into the turmoil children might experience when deciding between right and wrong. Allowing children to see their own emotions and thought process as well as the outside perspective connects them to the world around them in a new way. It helps to erase the naivety and smallness of thinking people can get into.

The contradicting text and illustrations speak loudly in this text. The author/illustrator did a phenomenal job balancing the two. Despite the two contradicting themes, the story follows the normal thought patterns well. The way the text is displayed and even the diction used directly influences our understanding of the story. Overall, the author conveys that the things that are hidden will always come to the light so people might as well be honest with them in the first place.