Book review #2 for Spenser Morris

The book I chose to review was a rather interesting book.  Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus is a picture book with seven chapters.  The front cover displays the words, "a tale partly about life and partly about revolution and lots about hope for adults and others (including caterpillars who can read)".  I think these are the perfect words to describe this book.

Chapter 1
In chapter one we get introduced to one of the main characters.  His name is Stripe because he is a stripped caterpillar.  He is curious about what is out in the world so he starts to explore.  As he is searching, he runs into a pillar that goes into the clouds of other caterpillars who are climbing caterpillars.

Right off the bat I started to like the message of this story.  I think it is important to explore the world around.  Just like Stripe, we too get sick of the surroundings and the environment we live in.  Being curious is not a bad thing and that is part of the message in the first chapter.  The only way for us to grow as a people is to explore what options we have.  This is a very important idea that I believe children showed be exposed to early in life.

Chapter 2
This chapter starts with Stripe starting his climb to the top of this pillar.  Not knowing why he is climbing, he continues to because that is what everyone is after.  Along the way he meets Yellow, a female caterpillar.  Yellow is also questioning the climb but goes with the flow. Stripe has to eventually step on her to get by and this makes both of them sad.  They both decided together to cling together to fall to the bottom of the pile.

This chapter is starting to present a sort of "ladder of importance".  Both Stripe and Yellow believe friendship and teamwork is a much better value instead of stepping over each other to get ahead.  The two characters begin to fall in love as well.  These ideas are important for kids to understand.  I think, from experience, that childhood is a big popularity contest.  We often get lost in the competition of it all that we loose site of what we are really fighting for.  We all can gain from taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture.  This is a huge concept to understand but I think by presenting it with caterpillars, children are able to grasp the idea a lot better.

Chapter 3-4

In these next two chapters the reader gets to see the story from Yellow’s point of view.  Stripes has left to climb the pillar because his curiosity is killing him inside.  Yellow is alone and sad throughout these chapters.  She sets off on her own adventure to try to find the meaning of life.  She learns about cocoons and decides to make one.

These chapters really bring out some of the gender roles within society or rather the stereotypes some may have.  Once the man goes off the woman is left with nothing and can’t go on without him. What I liked is that this caterpillar does go on without him.  I think the strong woman figure was not a popular character of books from 1972.  It’s important for children to see that their life shouldn’t be run or ruled by a man or strong figure.  We are our own people with our own views of the world.  We need to keep that in mind.

Chapter 5-6

Stripes is now climbing to the top of the pile.  He is stronger than last time because he has had some rest and now he is ready to venture.  We soon find out that we makes it to the top to find nothing.  There is nothing there. The caterpillars up there say they are there because that is where everyone else wants to be.  He is greeted at the top by a beautiful Yellow butterfly.  He doesn’t know what this means but he climbs back down to find out.  On his way down, he tells everyone he passes there is nothing there

This is the heart of the book.  I think it is a beautiful metaphor for the social ladder and how we can get lost in the climb; the climb we can’t define.  The part about this section that I don’t like is that fact that Stripes ventured out to find the truth in something he was curious about.  He is then punished in a way when he discovers there is nothing there.  I think that kids might get the wrong impression and maybe not what to go after their dreams after hearing this message.  Even though that is not the angle the author was going for, I think it is another valid way of looking at it.

Chapter 7

This is the last chapter where everything finds its ending.  Stripes finds out who the beautiful yellow butterfly is and he decides to make his our cocoon. He hatches into an even more beautiful butterfly and both butterflies learn to love each other again.  We are then left with a couple of pages of pictures where there are now tons of cocoons and then the last page with tons of butterflies and flowers.

This is the expected ending for this kind of story but I don’t think that is a bad thing.  I think it’s a good message for kids to see that no matter what happens in life, there are some things that will always be there for you.  Love is an important thing, at least I think so, and relationship within people (friends, dating, family, etc…) are vital in the social world.  Life is not always about fitting in with the “in crowd” but finding those people who you fit with.  This is a great message that cannot be stated enough to children.   Other than the message, I thought the pictures were beautiful.  They were simple with only using the colors black, white, yellow and green.  This made it easy to focus and enjoy the beauty of the book as a whole rather than just the pictures.  Overall, I loved this book!   

Bob Benden Reviews

Bob Benden

Second Five Picture Book Reviews

Iwamura, Kazuo. Hooray for Fall. New York: NorthSouth, 2009. Print.

                This is a story about three squirrels who are outside enjoying the fall weather and the colors of autumn. The illustrations in this book are brilliant, with mostly red, yellow and orange coloration. The story helps to inform children about the natural processes of the fall (birds flying south, bears preparing for hibernation etc) and would be a great book to use with particularly young students in the fall. A great read aloud book with a small class, and it would definitely need to be passed around so students could enjoy the beautiful artwork.

McElligott, Matt. Bean Thirteen. Putnam, 2007. Print.

                This book is a great math teaching book. It is about two bugs trying to share thirteen beans between them, and eventually a whole party of other bugs, and finding out they cannot. Coupled with a math lesson about division or even perhaps prime numbers, this book would be a great tool to entertain the students and have them realize a semi-practical application of the math. The illustrations are fairly basic, as is the language but this book definitely serves as a great lead-in to a math lesson.

Curtis, Jamie L. Big Words for Little People. HarperCollins, 2008. Print.

                This book is all about big words such as “inappropriate” and “understand” and helps kids to use them and understand what they actually mean. It shows kids that though certain words may be awfully long, they’re very useful and necessary. I think this book does a good job of showing kids words they’ve probably heard before, yet just didn’t know what they meant exactly or what they even looked like. The book ends with small words like “love” and “family” and teaches their importance and how they’ve even more important than the big words. A great book to enrich children’s vocabulary, all while teaching them a great lesson as well.

Deriso, Christine. Dreams To Grow on. New York: Illumination Arts, 2002. Print.

                This book is about a little girl and all her dreams she has of what she wants to be when she grows up. The illustrations I found to be very good and imaginative at the same time. I think this story is great for children when you’re trying to discuss goals and dreams of young children when it comes to growing up. Not only that, but it can also lead into a great discussion about goal setting and how to realize all the dreams one has for themselves. The rhyme in the story makes the book go with a great rhythm and is definitely an easy, fun read for students.

Gomi, Taro. My Friends/Mis Amigos. Chronicle Books, 2006. Print.           

                This book is written in both English and Spanish. It has simple sentences in it as the character goes out and meets many different animals and they teach her how to do things. The illustrations are done in primary colors and are fairly simple yet still nice. The book’s sentences help students learn a lot of useful Spanish, all the while making sure the reader is never overwhelmed with too much information. The same page English/Spanish format definitely helps kids learn but also allows them to practice seeing the Spanish and English next to one another therefore they are never intimidated. The story is pretty simple, but for its purposes the book is a great learning tool to create a bilingual classroom.

Monster Picture Book Review #2

I am once again writing about monster picture books because they are so utterly wonderful and I think it is interesting how monsters are used in literature for all kinds of different purposes; to understand something unknown, put the blame, or even see someone else's perspective. Monster books are really just fun for something that is perceived as so intense in our society I am a huge fan of how they try to make it more light hearted even if the monster is eating your classmates. 

Mike Thaler (1989) The Teacher from the Black Lagoon. New York: Scholastic Inc.

This book was a lot of fun and showed how scary the first day of school can be, to get a new home room, to be in a new school, and even get a new teacher that you aren't use to can be kind of terrifying for students. Especially if all they have ever heard are rumors that the teacher can be a real monster! In this story the the main character is going to a new class his teacher Mrs. Green is suppose to be a real monster, she ends up being green, having claws, breathing fire, and eating one of her students to teach fractions. Mrs. Green has all the kids worried they won't make it alive out of their first day.

Mike Thaler (1993) The Principal from the Black Lagoon. New York: Scholastic Inc. 

In this book the main character gets sent to the Principal's office for using his teacher's wig to sweep up the room. On his way there he tells stories and things he has heard of what the Principal has done to kids he knows that ended up in the office. Even the walk there is terrifying and he begins to talk about kids that go to her office and never return, kids that have gone there for chewing gum in class and all that is left of her now is a skull. When th main character gets there Mrs. Green (who again isn't a monster) gives him a fair punishment, he ends up leaving the office celebrating because the Principal didn't give him rabbit ears.

I found these books as a series of four and to not do all my book reviews on the same basic message (or at least I could pull out a reoccurring theme from the stories) so for the sake of not sounding redundant I will only type-up about the two I have given a brief summary of. I really found this theme of fear with the unknown and authority in these books, obviously when it came to school. It is a scary time for students when things change around them. Students also are afraid to be punished and of the people that have the ability to punish them, so for course they are going to make up stories and gossip of what happens when you get in trouble. I think that the author did a good job of capturing the essence of being in grade school and being afraid of the uncertain future, whether it being getting a new teacher or going to the principal's office because you did something wrong. 

I really enjoyed how the teacher and the principal in both stories were both focused around on the ongoing theme of being afraid of school. Especially how the author, in a way, reminded me of how I felt when I was going into a classroom for a first time or if I got in trouble and was sent to the principal’s office. Because the stories were so refreshing I do think that it would be good to use for parents to read to their children before a first day of school; just so they know that no matter what you think about your teachers they are there to help and when you think they are being really scary it’s most likely because they want you to do better.

Jack Kent (1975) There's No Such thing as a Dragon. New York: Random House, Inc.

This story is about a little boy that awakes and finds a dragon in his bedroom and when he tries to show his mother she doesn't believe him and just tells him, "that there is no such thing as dragons". As the little boy goes about on his normal day the dragon ends up eating things around him, like the boy's breakfast and as the dragon does this he grows bigger and bigger; until he is so big that he can make the house mobile and pretty much where the home as clothing. Once the dragon gets to be this size the mother finally admits he exists, then the dragon shrinks again back to the size of a small dog (which is the size he started as when the mother said he didn't exists). 

I think this story is trying to show that the little boy is trying to show his mother something and she refuses to see it, because dragons don’t exists. Because the mother doesn’t notice the dragon it grows to a crazy size so that his mother is forced to notice the giant dragon that now wears the house around his body as he runs after a bread truck. This story could be interpreted to show parents to pay attention to what children have to say before a problem could get out of control. It also could show that kids usually go unnoticed with problems they bring to their busy parents; the mother never noticed a smaller issue that her son was dealing with until it was staring her in the face and running around with her house on it’s back. The story is really more geared (in my opinion) towards parents, for them to take the time to realize what is going on in their kids life. The dragon (monster) in the story was just the issue the little boy wanted his mom to notice.

Tomie dePaola (1998) The Knight and the Dragon. New York: The Putman Berkley Group, Inc.

This story about a young knight and dragon that are both training to fight and kill one another. The two rivals had never met one another before, but just knew the other was bad; so they trained for the fight, make armor, practicing swinging a sword and a tail, until the big day. When the fight came both the knight and the dragon were so prepare that they kept missing each other and after they beat each other up, a young girl (who I think might be a princess) came by and gave the boys a book on how to barbeque. And then they became good friends and started (what looks like) a thriving business.

One of the messages I was able to get from the small text and many pictures in this book is that you should give everyone a chance, even those people that seem to be unlikely friends and with the help of those people you can even do amazing things with those people. Also another thought I drew from the text was how interesting that the author used a little girl to bring the dragon and the young knight together to be friends; it could seem that this young woman is a peacemaker. The boys worked hard on the battle day and the young girl comes to solve the boys’ issue by showing them they have something in common, and that seemed like a very motherly quality. It is a small moment in the book but it is still something I keep thinking about that she was the one; the two rivals didn’t come to the conclusion on their own but it took this young girl to show them the way.

Julia Donaldson (2004) The Gruffalo’s Child. Great Britain: Macmillan Children’s Books

This picture book is about a young Gruffalo that hears stories from her Dad about the Big Bad Mouse that her father has seen only once. The young Gruffalo decides she wants to go out to the woods and find the big bad mouse that guards the woods. Along the way she finds all kinds of animals that live in the woods; a snake, an owl, a fox and then she finally comes up to a mouse! She decides to eat the mouse because he doesn’t look that scary, when she goes over to eat the mouse the mouse asks her to wait because the Big Bad Mouse does exists and he would like to show her. The mouse climbs up into a tree and his shadow frightens the Gruffalo away, where she returns home a little less brave.

I thought it was interesting that in this story the Gruffalo is a little girl and you would never know it by her picture if it weren’t for the little trig doll that identifies the monster as a little girl. If the monster were a boy I wonder if the pictures would have had anything to show that it was a little boy, also would a little boy have gotten a scared of the mouse’s shadow. It is just something to think about because the text kept saying that the Gruffalo was a little girl and the picture showed it because of the little twig doll she carried around, and I think that it was wrong how they made it the little girl that wanted to prove how brave she was to go find the Big Bad Mouse and she also ended up just being afraid of a shadow. The picture of what the Gruffalo looked like could have been more neutral by not having the monster carry around a doll everywhere to constantly remind you she was a girl; I know that it is mentioned in the text but I feel like it was further stressed because of the pictures.

Second Picture Book Reviews - Katelyn Heath

For my picture book review I decided to use one book that is made up of a bunch of different fairy tales. I decided that I wanted to look at this book to see if there is some recurring themes or gender roles in the fairy tales we grew up with. The book has eighteen different fairy tales in it and I just decided to look at the first five. One thing that I noticed though about the book in general is that it is presented rather fancy. The edges of all the pages are gold colored, the cover is written in script, and all the pictures in the book are vibrant and colorful.


The first story in the book is Beauty and the Beast. Now the first thing that I realized after reading this version of Beauty and the Beast was that it was very different from the typical story. There was still a girl who loved a Beast who was under a curse but really most of the other details were different. I just felt it was odd that the story was so different yet under the same title. Also I know that it is common to rewrite fairy tales but it was strange to see a different version of the classic story in a book portraying that is a collection of what you think are classic fairy tales. As far as gender roles go in this story of Beauty and the Beast I felt like in general Beauty was not depicted badly. She found the beast to save her father and was portrayed as brave and not over powered by the beast or anything. However at the end the author chose to end it with something like the Beast took care of her forever and they lived happily ever after. I feel like the author could have just left that out and the story would not have reinforced the typical gender roles.

The second story in the book is Rapunzel. Now this story was also a bit different then the version that most people are used to. However, one thing that I noticed in this story was that even though the prince did rescue Rapunzel from her circumstances she still had a key in her own escape from the witch. It was not just the typical guy saves girl and girl gets everything she ever wanted story. The prince tried to save her but would have not succeeded if it was not for Rapunzel. I found that interesting that the author chose to give the women a little more helpfulness.

The third story in the book is Aladdin. Just like the other stories this Aladdin had the same backbone but very different details. I don’t exactly know how copyright and things work for fairy tales and things of that sort but it surprises me that the stories can go by the same name as other stories that are very different from one another. All these stories so far have even changed the name of the characters other then the main one. One thing that I did notice about gender portrayal in this story was that the princess was portrayed kind of dumb in this story. She gave away the magic lamp, was taken away, and cried a lot. The only contribution she had to help Aladdin find her was tying her hair ribbon around Aladdin’s mongoose, who came and found her. Also I feel like the author could have chose to have her tie a note to the mongoose or something that wouldn’t have made her seem so girlishly beautiful but not intelligent.

The fourth story that I read was Sleeping Beauty. One of the things that I noticed about this story was how the pictures portrayed the princess. She was very beautiful but in general seemed to have a kind of dumb look on her face. The story often referred to how beautiful she was and graceful and similar characteristics but not really to her intelligence. The story depicted her as the usual helpless princess. I just feel like since the author did take some time to rewrite Sleeping Beauty over they could have portrayed the character without the normal gender expectations.

The last story that I read was Cinderella. Like the others it was its own more unique version of the story. The story however did portray Cinderella as being rather intelligent. She used seemingly large words when she spoke and really portrayed an intelligent woman. Also the pictures really helped to create a somewhat majestic feel that often comes with the story of Cinderella.

I found that overall this book deviated sometimes from normal gender roles but not always. A lot of times it depicted women as unintelligent but then different times it gave them good distinguishable qualities. The pictures of the book seemed to add a little to the stories but not overall a whole lot. Then also I really found it interesting how far the author varied away from the general known fairy tale. I found it really different that they went under the same name but almost all the details in the stories were different.

Goldenberg, Dorothea, and Bette Killion. Treasury of Fairy Tales. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd., 1994. Print.

Second Picture Book Review ~ Ashley Parker

For this assignment I decide to 5 picture books that are seasonal books or that you can easily tell what season it is. I also decided that I wanted a book to cover each season. I decided to choose a book about Easter to represent Spring, two about Winter, one about Summer, and one about Thanksgiving a holiday that takes place in the Fall. I decided that since I really can't tell what season it has been lately that I would choose books that have something to do with that. So all my books are connected through the seasons.


The first book was:

Keller,Holly.Miranda's Beach Day.New York, New York:Greenwillow Books,2009.Print.


This books was about Miranda's first time or visit to the beach with her mother on a hot summers day. It goes through what she experienced that day from the hot sand, to the feeling of the water, to the crab she sees, and finally to the sandcastle her and her friends make. After all the excite of the day her and her mom go home together with the promise of coming back again. In this book all characters were female except for one, who was Miranda's male friend who helped build the castle. Also this book could be a good way to get children to talk about their first experiences with different events in their life.


The next book I read was: 


Rael,Elsa Okon.Rivka's First Thanksgiving.New York,New York:Simon & Schuster,2001,Print. 


This book is about a shared memory that the author and her cousins all shared about their first Thanksgiving. The main character Rivka comes from a family of Jewish immigrants who have come from Europe, and never heard of the holiday. So Rivka has to over come several obstacles to her family and others that Thanksgiving is for all Americans including Jewish-Americans. This book would be interesting to look at because it looks at a very American holiday from the viewpoint of immigrants that many people may not think about. I know I personally never thought about it in the way Rivka's mother and grandmother did so that was interesting to me.


My third selection was:


Harper,Lee.SNOW!SNOW!SNOW!.New York,New York.Simon & Schuster,2009.Print.


This was a cute story about 3 dogs, a father and 2 sons, enjoying a sleigh ride after it snowed a good deal the day before. They go down a large hill, get tossed into the sky, crash back on the ground, and the youngest dog wants to do it all over again. This book reminded me off being a kid again, and enjoying a snow day full of sleighing and snow ball fights. I loved the use of the dogs instead of humans to represent this past time that many have done or will do in their lives so that it was relatable to many audiences that unfortunately you may use by using people.


My fourth book was:


Hallensleben,Georg.What's Coming for Christmas?.New York,New York.Farrar, Straus, and Giroux,2009.Print.


This book was a different kind of Christmas story. It talks about how something is coming, and that you could feel i t in the air though nobody new what. The story went back and forth from inside the house to the animals outside. This story had nothing to do with gifts or Santa, but with life on Christmas. It made me think about what is important on Christmas, why do we celebrate, and how much I appreciate my family even more around that time of year.


My last book was:


The Easter Basket.New York,New York.Penguin Young Readers Group,2007.Print.


The author of this book was not given, which is why it was not in the bibliography. This was a cute pop-up book, though I didn't know that when I got it!, about a young bunny and several of her friends going to look the one who lost their basket so they can return it. In the end they find out it belongs to the young bunnies mother who is the Easter Bunny! I just really liked the book because it was a pop-up book. I think this book would be really cute for children in preschool and kindergarten to look and interact with since it's a pop-up book.