Once A Mouse . . . (1961)

 

        Once A Mouse: A Fable Cut in Wood by Marcia Brown, earned a Caldecott medal. Her stunning wood cut prints illustrate this story. She successfully captures the characters’ actions and emotions. The hermit’s face is thoughtful and compassionate. The animals transform from terrified prey to ferocious predators.

At the beginning of this Indian fable, we meet a hermit, who sits  “thinking about big and little”.  Suddenly, he hurries to save a mouse, and we admire his compassion.  When a cat approaches, the hermit magically changes the mouse into another cat. No longer little, the cat can defend itself. That night, a dog barks, and the hermit changes his cat into a dog. When the mouse becomes a handsome, royal tiger, it swells with pride. The hermit chides the tiger. “There is no need to give yourself such airs.” After the hermit defends himself against the ungrateful tiger,  we wonder what he thinks about big and little at the end of the story.

This story is read aloud on KidLitTV.

My Picture Book Talk for this story is here. 

This lesson is read aloud on my YouTube channel.

Elizabeti's Doll (1999)

 

     Elizabeti’s Doll by Stephani Stuve-Bodeen is the story of a young girl who mimics her mother’s the maternal care through symbolic play. There are no baby dolls in her village in rural Tanzania, so a rock fills in. Christy Hale’s illustrations have a rich warmth that reinforces the care expressed in this story. Elizabeti’s Doll won the 1999 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award.

    Elizabeti’s relationship to the rock develops over the course of the story.  As Elizabeti imitates her mother’s tender care for her baby brother, the rock-doll undergoes a transformation. First, Elizabeti hugs her rock-doll, kisses it, and names it Eva. Second, she copies basic caretaking: washing and feeding. Third, Eva becomes a constant companion. Elizabeti carries Eva on her back while doing chores and takes Eva to visit a friend. Fourth, Elizabeti ordains Eva with emotion by placing it with other rocks, so it won’t be lonely. Fifth, when Eva is lost, she can’t be replaced. Any other rock “is just a rock.”  Finally, at the end of the story, the rock thinks that Elizabeti will make a fine mother.  Elizabeti’s Doll is read aloud by  Janice Sneller. This lesson is read aloud on my YouTube channel.

Come On, Rain! (1999)

       The first half of Karen Hesse’s ComeOn, Rain!  (1999) has us wilting in the sun. Young Tessie is “sizzling like a hot potato”. There’s been no rain for three weeks. “Up and down the block, cats pant, heat wavers off tar patches in the broiling alleyway. . .” References to cool water sneak into the narrative in anticipation of a storm that finally drenches Tessie and her friends. Mammas and children dance in the rain.

     Karen Hess tells of a compassionate and clever child who cannot change the weather (or can she?) but can lead others to relief and joy. At the same time, Hesse’s intentional word choice honor assonance, simile, and vocabulary soaked in connotation. Jon J Muth’s subtle watercolor illustrations focus on the characters because this isn’t a picture book about the weather. It’s about the effect weather has on people. It’s a book for our time.

  

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Won't-Take-a-Bath Cure (1947)

    This 1999 Scholastic publication of of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Won't-Take-a-Bath Cure by Betty MacDonald is adapted from the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Books. The obvious silliness at the beginning of the story sets the stage for Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s won't-take-a-bath-cure. It’s a cartoonish absurdity that allows readers to laugh at the pranks Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s cat, Lightfoot, plays on her dog Wag. We need to imagine Wag surprised but unhurt so that we can imagine Patsy Brown surprised but unhurt by the prank adults play on her. And Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a friendly, local celebrity who would never hand out harmful advice. When she proposes the Radish Cure we can expect a humorous lesson awaits.

     Patsy Brown's anxious parents patiently wait for her to learn a lesson about filth. One morning she yells, “’ I won't ever take a bath! I hate baths! I HATE BATHS.’” And she doesn’t take a bath—for weeks. The dirt that collects on her face and in her hair has social consequences, but Patsy doesn’t seem to mind. Finally, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s prank sends Patsy running into the shower.

I used to have a Picture Book Talk for this story, but then I decided I didn't like how the lesson of the story seemed at the expense of the child. 

     

Song of the Swallows (1948)

     Leo Politi’s Song of the Swallows (1948) is for readers who value old books.  Old stories give readers a glimpse into history and encourage conversation about differences between then and now. This book includes two songs.

          The setting for this story is Capistrano, California, now called San Juan Capistrano. This story says Brothers of Saint Francis built many mission churches with “the help of the Indians”. This perspective will spark conversation from readers who view history differently.

        Politi captures a time when swallows were abundant at the mission. “There were hundreds of them nesting beneath the roof-beams above the arches and their twittering filled the gardens with the sweetest music.” Here the story invites research into bird migration, environmental change, and avian conservation.

       Young Juan bridges contrasts between past and present by demonstrating caring respect for the swallows. We need his role model now more than ever.

     My Picture Book Talk for this story is here. 

We're All Welcome Here (2018)

      All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold (2018) is a large and very colorful book written in rhyme. The setting is a classroom in which there are students representing a wide range of ethnicities. All the children are smiling all the time, so this is not a book about welcoming in one shy child who feels different. This is a book about a successful classroom in which children from diverse backgrounds share and learn. “We are part of a community. Our strength is our diversity. A shelter from adversity. All are welcome here.“

     I’m left wondering where this is. On the copyright page is a bit of an explanation. "This book is inspired by Suzanne‘s daughter’s school, Kimball Elementary, where diversity and community or not just protected, but celebrated." Suzanne Kaufman created a poster about the school, which spread throughout the US. When Alexandra Penfold, the author of this book, saw the poster, “it reminded her of the schools in her community in Brooklyn.”

     I happen to be listening to an NPR podcast called “Code Switch”, which is running a series about the schools in Queens, a borough of NYC. Apparently,  Queens is one of the most, if not the most, ethnically diverse cities in the country, and yet the schools were/are not equitable. Schools in the southern and predominantly Black neighborhoods fare more poorly than schools in the northern, more diverse neighborhoods. I mention this because the title page has a picture of a taxi transporting a young Black girl and Black gentleman, presumably her guardian. The end of the school day shows three children walking home, yet this young Black girl must take a taxi. This illustration leaves me wondering why the young Black girl would live such a distance that she would need to be driven to school. Was she coming from a Black neighborhood some distance away from where the rest of the children in the story live? Is Suzanne Kaufman acknowledging the separateness of Black neighborhoods?

Leonardo da Vinci: an introduction to the artist's life and work (1993)

      Leonardo da Vinci: an introduction to the artist's life and work by Anthony Mason (1993), is one of a series called “Famous Artists” (copyright Aladdin Books Limited). This slim paper back is dense with text and illustrations. There are twelve chapters about the artist’s life. The final few pages have a chronology of his life, a brief history of art, museums and galleries, glossary, index of text, and index of pictures. This is a glorious introduction to a world-famous artist. Leonardo da Vinci lived from 1452 to 1519 and “was famous even in his own lifetime as a man of great brilliance and one of Elise most gifted painters.“

      Each chapter includes a story of the artist's life, a painting, an enlargement of part of the painting, and a practical project to try. For example, in the first chapter, we learned that Leonardo was born in the small town of Vinci, and there is a small map of Italy to indicates the location of Vinci. I didn’t know that da Vinci was not Leonardo‘s last name! Leonardo was born to an unwed peasant girl. His father was a wealthy lawyer and landowner from Florence. From the age of five, Leonardo lived at his biological father’s house.  His father became aware of his son’s gift, and, when Leonardo was about 15 years old, he was sent to train as a painter and sculptor with one of the renowned artists of Florence. We see the “annunciation”, which Leonardo painted in his early twenties, and an enlargement of the angel Gabriel within this painting. By the early 15th century artists had discovered linear perspective, and so the project in this chapter is to try perspective drawing. Perspective drawing is when objects look smaller the farther away they are.

This book is a must have for the middle school student seriously interested in the history of art.