Module Two - Caldecott Award and picture books - June 13-19, 2011

Caldecott Medal Winner 1999 - Snowflake Bentley

Summary
From the time he was a small boy, Wilson Bentley saw snowflakes as small miracles. And he determined that one day his camera would capture for others the wonder of the tiny crystal. Bentley's enthusiasm for photographing snowflakes was often misunderstood in his time, but his patience and determination revealed two important truths: no two snowflakes are alike; and each one is startlingly beautiful. His story is gracefully told and brought to life in lovely woodcuts, giving children insight into a soul who had not only a scientist's vision and perseverance but a clear passion for the wonders of nature.

Reviews -
 Gr 1-4-- The patient, thorough scientific observations of W. A. Bentley are celebrated in this picture-book biography. Determined to develop a method of recording his observations of snowflakes, Bentley ultimately succeeded in photographing the elusive ice crystals. Woodcut illustrations reveal the hard work and delight Bentley experienced in his lifelong love affair with wintry weather.
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Compiled by Kathy Piehl

A warm period look at a cold subject — snow — and one self-made scientist, Wilson A. Bentley, affectionately known as Snowflake. Bentley made an appearance in Johanna Hurwitz's recent novel Faraway Summer (rev. 7/98); Martin's book more completely gives a portrait of the man who discovered, among other things, the fact that no two snowflakes are alike (something that the book design sometimes contradicts). The book exhibits a beautiful blend of Azarian's splendid woodcuts, a lyrical text, and factual sidebars. Bentley's dedication to his research is clearly evident, and the ridicule to which he was sometimes subjected is appropriately down-played for a young audience. The illustrations, tinted with watercolors, depict the people, homes, meadows, and woods of turn-of-the-century Vermont countryside in accurate detail. Sources for the factual material are credited, and a final page features photographs of Bentley at work and three of his actual snowflake slides.

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By Elizabeth S. Watson

And so...

The bright, colorful pictures captures a  time and place that many suburban and urban children have never experienced. The language is simple enough for most beginning readers, and there are sidebars that bring the vocabulary to a higher level and give additional facts about W.A. Bentley not included in the story passages. This book is an excellent introduction to biographies for beginning readers, a jump off point for writing projects, and a discussion of how pictures enhance the story for Caldecott Award winners.

Uses for this book

This book could be used in the library to introduce Caldecott Awards to any age group of students, also could be used to introduce biography, or narrative nonfiction. I have used this book in the classroom during studies of weather (snowflakes), symmetry, and to do a compare contrast lesson where after reading students were given copies of the snowflakes to use as headings on a T-chart of Alike/Different phrases,  then use those phrases to write a narrative paragraph.

References
Martin, Jacaueline Briggs. Snowflake Bentley. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1998
Summary retrieved from Syndetic Solutions, Inc, Richardson Public Library Online Catalog, June 15, 2011.
Piehl, Kathy. School Library Journal, Aug2006, Vol. 52 Issue 8, p42-42, 1/9p
Watson, Elizabeth S.. Horn Book Magazine, Sep/Oct98, Vol. 74 Issue 5, p622-622, 1/2p
Photograph retrieved from http://hip.cor.gov/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=131B005O63M84.81261&profile=rpl&uri=full%3D3100001%7E%21210631%7E%210&ri=2&&aspect=subtab35&menu=search&ri=2&view=SUMMARY&aspect=subtab35&menu=search&source=~!horizon&enhancedcontentdata=true%0A%09%09#focus

Picture Books - A Bad Case of Stripes



Summary - Camilla Cream loves lima beans, but she never eats them. Why? Because the other kids in her school don''t like them. And Camilla Cream is very, very worried about what other people think of her. In fact, she''s so worried that she''s about to break out inÂ… a bad case of stripes!

Reviews-

Gr 1-5-- Worried that no one will like her if she doesn't wear the right clothes or admits her fondness for lima beans, Camilla breaks into Technicolor stripes on the first day of school, unable to deal with the stress of trying to please everyone. Her mysterious ailment worsens to the point that Camilla is no longer recognizable, and her plight is captured in delightfully over-the-top, rainbow-hued paintings. A gem of a book to share whenever students need a reminder that it's OK to be themselves.

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By Lisa G. Kropp

Ages 6-8. Camilla, who loves lima beans but won't eat them because it's not cool, finds that deferring to others isn't all it's cracked up to be. In fact, her desire to please and be popular causes her some spectacular problems: she suddenly breaks out in stripes, then stars, then turns "purple polka-dotty" at the behest of a delighted classmate. Her weird mutations, which stymie doctors and send the media into a frenzy, become more and more extreme until she finally blends into the walls of her room-her lips the red-blanketed mattress on her bed, her eyes the paintings on the wall. Will she never be herself again? Shannon's over-the-top art is sensational, an ingenious combination of the concrete and the fantastic that delivers more than enough punch to make up for the somewhat heavy hand behind the story, and as usual, his wonderfully stereotypic characters are unforgettable. The pictures are probably enough to attract young browsers (Camilla in brilliant stripped glory graces the jacket), and the book's irony and wealth of detail may even interest readers in higher grades. Try this for leading into a discussion on being different. -Stephanie Zvirin

And so...
 I love the pictures in this book. The words might be on a higher level than most kinder or 1st graders can handle, but the illustrations and setup will keep students interested even into the upper elementary grades. Lots of color, and the different mutations that Camilla goes through, the blending into her background, will be the start of lots of discussion when children read this book.

Uses for this book
  A Bad Case of Stripes could be used in the library for discussions about illustrators, in a author study for David Shannon, to compare and contrast illustraitons of his works. It could also be used as a read aloud about how all students are different, and we all read different things but if we share what we read, we learn even more.

References
Shannon, David. A Bad Case of Strips.  New York : Blue Sky Press, 1998.
Summary retrieved from Syndetic Solutions, Inc, Richardson Public Library Online Catalog, June 15, 2011.
Kropp, Lisa G.. School Library Journal, Jul2004, Vol. 50 Issue 7, p44-44, 1/9p
Zvirin, Stephanie. Booklist,  01/01/98 - 01/15/98 Combined Issue, Vol. 94 Issue 9/10, p825, 1/8p
Photo retrieved from http://hip.cor.gov/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1K13003UQ1140.80683&profile=rpl&uri=link=3100007~!62350~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab35&menu=search&ri=1&source=~!horizon&term=A+bad+case+of+stripes+%2F&index=PALLTI#focus

Module One - Classic Children's Literature and Authors

 Classic Chapter Book - All of a Kind Family

Summary
Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertie --five girls who make up and all of a kind family, live with their parents in New York City at the turn of the century. Together they share adventures that find them searching for hidden buttons while dusting Mama's front parlor and visiting with the peddlers in Papa's shop on rainy days. The girls enjoy doing everything together, especially when it involves holidays and surprises. But no one could have prepared them for the biggest surprise of all!

Reviews

Written in the early 1950s and set at the turn of-the century in New York City's Lower East Side, Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind books remain a staple with readers who enjoy building long, comfortable relationships with fictional families. Narrator Suzanne Toren's voice is every bit as comfortable and comforting as the stories themselves: from Mama's warm, lightly accented English to fretful Sarah, adventurous Henny, and responsible Ella. The events these five children encounter are definitely domestic in nature — a lost library book, a family-sized bout with Scarlet Fever — right up to the satisfying, if highly unlikely, reunion of two young lovers parted by misfortune. Toren's lively approach, however, invests each occurrence with all due drama. Somewhat frenetic music between each of the chapters seems an unnecessary distraction in an otherwise satisfying audio production.

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By Kristi Beavin

Independent audiobook outfit Listen & Live enters the children's audio arena with this crisp recording of a beloved novel. Taylor has woven her own childhood memories into an account of life in the Jewish tenements on New York City's Lower East Side in 1912. Despite their parents' financial struggles, five sisters--Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte and Gertie--manage to find joy in each day via family, faith and friends. Whether sneaking penny bags of candy and broken crackers under their bedcovers, making a weekly trip to the library or preparing for a holiday feast, these "all-of-a-kind" siblings inspire with their generally sunny attitude. Though Taylor's themes and sentiments are certainly timeless, her novel is likely to sound out-of-date rather than nostalgic to contemporary listeners. Ethnic stereotypes abound and the plot slows when it frequently digresses into passages that sound like a Judaica primer. Toren gamely serves as narrator as well as the full cast, successfully tackling the occasional accent and a number of Yiddish terms. Her soothing voice and measured performance are well suited to the story's predominantly cheerful tone. One small quibble: the musical interludes signaling each chapter break are a bit boisterous and sometimes distract. Ages 5-up.(Aug.) --  Publishers Weekly

And so...
My impression of this book was that it was wonderfully old-fashioned and today's young readers probably wouldn't even pick it up to look at it because the cover illustration is so out-dated. While I thouroughly enjoyed reading the book, there are so many parts that today's young people just would not be able to relate to that I don't believe many of them would enjoy reading it.  While the language used doesn't present a problem, characters who come home from school for lunch, little or no technology in the content, and doctor visits at home for quarantines will be quiet a stretch for young readers.

Uses for this book
A librarian could read individual chapters of this book, to help teach and discuss manners. There is an incident where one character loses a library book and has to pay the librarian over a period of time which could be a good library lesson for young students.

References

Taylor, Sydney. All-of-a-Kind-Family. New York: Dell Publishing, 1989, c1951.

Summary retrieved from Syndetic Solutions, Inc, Richardson Public Library Online Catalog, June 15, 2011

Beavin, Kristi. Horn Book Magazine, Jan/Feb 2001, Vol. uu Issue 1, p. 125, 1/2 p.

Publishers Weekly, 09/11/2000, Vol. 247, Issue 37, p. 37, 1/5 p.

Photo retrieved from http://hip.cor.gov/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1L1Y9695213X3.66850&profile=rpl&uri=link=3100007~!61936~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab35&menu=search&ri=1&source=~!horizon&term=All-of-a-kind+family+%2F&index=PALLTI#focus

Module One - Classic Children's Literature and Authors, June 6 - 12

Classic Picture Book - Bread and Jam for Francis
Summary - "Jam on toast," sings Frances about the food she likes most. Frances decides she is only going to eat bread and jam because she doesn't like the food that is offered to her. As the story progresses, her parents start providing more tempting choices, but give Frances only bread and jam until she decides she has had too much and will eat what is offered.

Reviews
K-Gr 2-- Frances refuses to eat anything but bread and jam. Eventually, with some help from her friends and her younger sister, she comes to see that variety truly is the spice of life. The pop of color in the pink jam on white bread contrasts strongly with the little badger's black-and-white fur, making it an effective focal point. -- Genevive Gallagher

Frances loves nothing better than jam and bread, and turns up her nose at other kinds of food. Then her mother starts giving Frances jam and bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. ``What I am/is sick of Jam,'' Frances sings to herself. That's the end of Frances's jam-only days, as she discovers, in her own winsome way, that variety really is the spice of mealtimes. (4-8) -- Elizabeth Devereaux

And so...
I thought the premise of this book was cute, but the illustrations seemed a little old fashioned. The original two color illustrations from 1964 were recolored in 1995 and it seems easy for even early readers to notice that the color was done later. The storyline will be familiar to young children who are always being told to eat whatever new food is placed in front of them. At the end of the book, Frances learns to try  new things so she won't tire of the old.

Uses for this book
Librarians could do a read aloud with this story and tie it in to having students pick a different type, or genre, of book than they usually read. There could be a social studies/science lesson tie in where pictures of the state tree, flower, bird, etc. are displayed and students go on a scavenger hunt through non fiction to find different species from the ones that are displayed.

References
Hoban, Russell. Bread and Jam for Francis. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008.

Summary retrieved from Syndetic Solutions, Inc, Richardson Public Library Online Catalog, June 15, 2011

Gallagher, Genevive. Bread and Jam for Francis. School Library Journal; Jul 2006, Vol. 52 Issue 7, p45-45, 1/9p.\

Devereaux, Elizabeth; Roback, Diane. Publishers Weekly, 2/19/96. Bol 243 Issue 8, p.217, 1/3p.  

Photograph retrieved from http://www.titlewave.ca/search?SID=f8ac10b16e8bae8115b56bbc7726681a