Greetings! This blog will now be used for the new fall class, Advanced Literature for Young Adults!
Courtney K
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Inclusive Literature - "And Tango Makes Three" by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Bibliographic data
Justin, M.D./ Parnell, Peter/ Cole, and Henry (Ilt) Richardson. And Tango Makes Three. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Brief plot summary
This book is based on the true story of two male penguins who ended up raising a chick - from an egg that had been abandoned by the biological parents. Roy and Silo were two boy penguins that liked each other’s company. The penguins became adoptive parents to an orphaned egg. They kept it warm just like they saw the other penguin parents doing.
Critical analysis
This book is a sweet story about diversity and going against the grain. Every penguin coupled up with another penguin of the different sex. Silo and Roy were friends and liked being with each other.
First of all, this is just a sweet story. The author’s note in the back of the book tells readers that the events in the picture book are true. The happy family lives at the Central Park Zoo in New York.
The book constantly being one of the most challenged books is absolutely absurd. The controversy of it suggests that this is a horribly vulgar book, which is definitely not the case in this true, cute story. It doesn’t brainwash children into becoming homosexuals. It is a true story about two penguins that enjoys each other’s company and wanted to help raise a baby penguin together. That is all.
The illustrations are adorable throughout this book. The penguins are really brought to life with the details of the fuzzy feathers when Tango is first born and in the manner of the penguins.
Review excerpt
School Library Journal
Done in soft watercolors, the illustrations set the tone for this uplifting story, and readers will find it hard to resist the penguins' comical expressions. The well-designed pages perfectly marry words and pictures, allowing readers to savor each illustration. An author's note provides more information about Roy, Silo, Tango, and other chinstrap penguins. This joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any library
Booklist
Indeed, intrusions from the zookeeper, who remarks that the nuzzling males "must be in love," strike the narrative's only false note. Further facts about the episode conclude, but it's naive to expect this will be read only as a zoo anecdote. However, those who share this with children will find themselves returning to it again and again--not for the entree it might offer to matters of human sexuality, but for the two irresistible birds at its center and for the celebration of patient, loving fathers who "knew just what to do."
Connections
Read :“Heather Has Two Mommies”
Justin, M.D./ Parnell, Peter/ Cole, and Henry (Ilt) Richardson. And Tango Makes Three. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Brief plot summary
This book is based on the true story of two male penguins who ended up raising a chick - from an egg that had been abandoned by the biological parents. Roy and Silo were two boy penguins that liked each other’s company. The penguins became adoptive parents to an orphaned egg. They kept it warm just like they saw the other penguin parents doing.
Critical analysis
This book is a sweet story about diversity and going against the grain. Every penguin coupled up with another penguin of the different sex. Silo and Roy were friends and liked being with each other.
First of all, this is just a sweet story. The author’s note in the back of the book tells readers that the events in the picture book are true. The happy family lives at the Central Park Zoo in New York.
The book constantly being one of the most challenged books is absolutely absurd. The controversy of it suggests that this is a horribly vulgar book, which is definitely not the case in this true, cute story. It doesn’t brainwash children into becoming homosexuals. It is a true story about two penguins that enjoys each other’s company and wanted to help raise a baby penguin together. That is all.
The illustrations are adorable throughout this book. The penguins are really brought to life with the details of the fuzzy feathers when Tango is first born and in the manner of the penguins.
Review excerpt
School Library Journal
Done in soft watercolors, the illustrations set the tone for this uplifting story, and readers will find it hard to resist the penguins' comical expressions. The well-designed pages perfectly marry words and pictures, allowing readers to savor each illustration. An author's note provides more information about Roy, Silo, Tango, and other chinstrap penguins. This joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any library
Booklist
Indeed, intrusions from the zookeeper, who remarks that the nuzzling males "must be in love," strike the narrative's only false note. Further facts about the episode conclude, but it's naive to expect this will be read only as a zoo anecdote. However, those who share this with children will find themselves returning to it again and again--not for the entree it might offer to matters of human sexuality, but for the two irresistible birds at its center and for the celebration of patient, loving fathers who "knew just what to do."
Connections
Read :“Heather Has Two Mommies”
“It’s Okay to be Different”
Inclusive Literature - "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
Bibliographic data
Nye, Naomi Shihab. Habibi. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1999.
Brief plot summary
Liyana received her first real kiss and then found out that she and her family will be moving all the way to Palestine. Moving is traumatic for anyone, especially a teenager moving across the world to a place where she doesn’t even understand the language. Liyana knows very little about her father’s homeland and culture. Will Liyana learn to love this part of the world or will she continue to come across difficulties that make her yearn for St. Louis and the boy that kissed her?
Critical analysis
Nye is of Palestinian and American descent. Nye’s works of literature and poems are taken from personal experiences and knowledge. Habibi has won several awards including the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award (1998) and the American Library Association Notable Books for Children (1998). Nye has lived in America as well as around the Middle East, so her stories have great significance and authenticity.
Cultural differences are demonstrated early on in the novel. Right before leaving for Palestine, Liyana had her first kiss. This is normal for a fourteen year-old in the United States, but she soon finds out that this is basically banned in Palestine. She can’t walk around wearing her skirts or shorts, but instead she has almost a uniform-type look to make herself covered and to look like all the other women walking around.
One of the most important significant cultural differences within Habibi was the difference in the feelings of the Arabs, Jews, Palestinian, and other Middle Easterners. The differences in cultures are difficult to grasp, partly because they don’t make sense. There is too much hatred and violence going on.
Each short chapter begins with a phrase, usually something that brings some deep thinking to the mind, or good talking points. These would be great additions to discuss with students if one so chooses to use this book as a school assignment.
Review excerpts
School Library Journal
Nye introduces readers to unforgettable characters. The setting is both sensory and tangible: from the grandmother's village to a Bedouin camp. Above all, there is Jerusalem itself, where ancient tensions seep out of cracks and Liyana explores the streets practicing her Arabic vocabulary. Though the story begins at a leisurely pace, readers will be engaged by the characters, the romance, and the foreshadowed danger. Poetically imaged and leavened with humor, the story renders layered and complex history understandable through character and incident. Habibi succeeds in making the hope for peace compellingly personal and concrete...as long as individual citizens like Liyana's grandmother Sitti can say, "I never lost my peace inside.”
Kirkus Reviews
Nye shows all of the charms and flaws of the old city through unique, short-story-like chapters and poetic language. The sights, sounds, and smells of Jerusalem drift through the pages and readers glean a sense of current Palestinian-Israeli relations and the region's troubled history. In the process, some of the passages become quite ponderous while the human story- -Liyana's emotional adjustments in the later chapters and her American mother's reactions overall--fall away from the plot. However, Liyana's romance with an Israeli boy develops warmly, and readers are left with hope for change and peace as Liyana makes the city her very own.
Connections
Read other stories and poem selections by Nye
Nye, Naomi Shihab. Habibi. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1999.
Brief plot summary
Liyana received her first real kiss and then found out that she and her family will be moving all the way to Palestine. Moving is traumatic for anyone, especially a teenager moving across the world to a place where she doesn’t even understand the language. Liyana knows very little about her father’s homeland and culture. Will Liyana learn to love this part of the world or will she continue to come across difficulties that make her yearn for St. Louis and the boy that kissed her?
Critical analysis
Nye is of Palestinian and American descent. Nye’s works of literature and poems are taken from personal experiences and knowledge. Habibi has won several awards including the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award (1998) and the American Library Association Notable Books for Children (1998). Nye has lived in America as well as around the Middle East, so her stories have great significance and authenticity.
Cultural differences are demonstrated early on in the novel. Right before leaving for Palestine, Liyana had her first kiss. This is normal for a fourteen year-old in the United States, but she soon finds out that this is basically banned in Palestine. She can’t walk around wearing her skirts or shorts, but instead she has almost a uniform-type look to make herself covered and to look like all the other women walking around.
One of the most important significant cultural differences within Habibi was the difference in the feelings of the Arabs, Jews, Palestinian, and other Middle Easterners. The differences in cultures are difficult to grasp, partly because they don’t make sense. There is too much hatred and violence going on.
Each short chapter begins with a phrase, usually something that brings some deep thinking to the mind, or good talking points. These would be great additions to discuss with students if one so chooses to use this book as a school assignment.
Review excerpts
School Library Journal
Nye introduces readers to unforgettable characters. The setting is both sensory and tangible: from the grandmother's village to a Bedouin camp. Above all, there is Jerusalem itself, where ancient tensions seep out of cracks and Liyana explores the streets practicing her Arabic vocabulary. Though the story begins at a leisurely pace, readers will be engaged by the characters, the romance, and the foreshadowed danger. Poetically imaged and leavened with humor, the story renders layered and complex history understandable through character and incident. Habibi succeeds in making the hope for peace compellingly personal and concrete...as long as individual citizens like Liyana's grandmother Sitti can say, "I never lost my peace inside.”
Kirkus Reviews
Nye shows all of the charms and flaws of the old city through unique, short-story-like chapters and poetic language. The sights, sounds, and smells of Jerusalem drift through the pages and readers glean a sense of current Palestinian-Israeli relations and the region's troubled history. In the process, some of the passages become quite ponderous while the human story- -Liyana's emotional adjustments in the later chapters and her American mother's reactions overall--fall away from the plot. However, Liyana's romance with an Israeli boy develops warmly, and readers are left with hope for change and peace as Liyana makes the city her very own.
Connections
Read other stories and poem selections by Nye
Read “Sitti’s Secrets” by Nye
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Inclusive Literature - "Dad, Jackie, and Me" by Myron Uhlberg
Bibliographic data
Uhlberg, Myron. Dad, Jackie, and Me. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 2005.
Brief plot summary
Jackie Robinson is the first Negro player in major league baseball. A boy is surprised by his deaf father with tickets to watch the Dodgers. The boy is worried that Jackie Robinson wouldn’t know how to talk to his dad because Jackie probably does not know sign language. The boy’s dad didn’t understand baseball so well. He asked his son to help him learn more about the game. The story tells of a few details on how Jackie Robinson was discriminated against in baseball by other players.
Critical analysis
This book was inspired by the author’s own experiences as a boy. Myron Uhlberg has two deaf parents and takes his knowledge of living with parents with disabilities and uses it to write children’s stories. In doing so, it gives children in the same situations something to read and look up to because they feel that they are not alone in their situation.
This book tells of Jackie Robinson’s story as well as the boy and his deaf father’s story. Jackie Robinson, the great baseball player, was discriminated against because he was African American. This book tells of how other players abused him even during the game. The author details an example of this by explaining that other players would hurt him during the game.
The author tells readers more about his father towards the back of the book. He states that his deaf father went to a special school where sports were not encouraged so he was terrible at baseball, but still enjoyed it. He also sates that most people considered deaf children severely handicapped.
His father told him to watch out other players singled Robinson out for unfair treatment. Seeing Robinson get discriminated against but still excel at playing baseball made his dad realize that he too gets discriminated against because he’s deaf, but excels at life just like the average person does as well. This heartwarming story connects discrimination and disabilities. It allows readers to understand that they are similar and just the same as everyone else.
Review excerpt
Booklist
It takes the young Uhlberg, narrator of the story, a while to overcome his embarrassment at his father's attempts to cheer for Robinson ("AH-GEE, AH-GEE," the deaf man yells from the Ebbetts Fields grandstand, attempting to say Jackie), but eventually Dad's devotion wins the day in a moving finale.
School Library Journal
Surprisingly, the narrator's deaf father is interested too; he has recognized his own struggle for respect and acceptance mirrored in Robinson's triumph. The two begin attending games and keep a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the first baseman. Though baseball and Robinson are at the heart of this story, its strength lies in its depiction of the bond between father and son. It is evident that their relationship is characterized by respect and tenderness, though, at the ballpark, the boy is at first embarrassed when his father's awkward cheer causes other fans to stare.
Connections
Read more about Jackie Robinson.Discuss Satchell Paige as well.
Winner of the Scneider Family Book Award
Uhlberg, Myron. Dad, Jackie, and Me. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 2005.
Brief plot summary
Jackie Robinson is the first Negro player in major league baseball. A boy is surprised by his deaf father with tickets to watch the Dodgers. The boy is worried that Jackie Robinson wouldn’t know how to talk to his dad because Jackie probably does not know sign language. The boy’s dad didn’t understand baseball so well. He asked his son to help him learn more about the game. The story tells of a few details on how Jackie Robinson was discriminated against in baseball by other players.
Critical analysis
This book was inspired by the author’s own experiences as a boy. Myron Uhlberg has two deaf parents and takes his knowledge of living with parents with disabilities and uses it to write children’s stories. In doing so, it gives children in the same situations something to read and look up to because they feel that they are not alone in their situation.
This book tells of Jackie Robinson’s story as well as the boy and his deaf father’s story. Jackie Robinson, the great baseball player, was discriminated against because he was African American. This book tells of how other players abused him even during the game. The author details an example of this by explaining that other players would hurt him during the game.
The author tells readers more about his father towards the back of the book. He states that his deaf father went to a special school where sports were not encouraged so he was terrible at baseball, but still enjoyed it. He also sates that most people considered deaf children severely handicapped.
His father told him to watch out other players singled Robinson out for unfair treatment. Seeing Robinson get discriminated against but still excel at playing baseball made his dad realize that he too gets discriminated against because he’s deaf, but excels at life just like the average person does as well. This heartwarming story connects discrimination and disabilities. It allows readers to understand that they are similar and just the same as everyone else.
Review excerpt
Booklist
It takes the young Uhlberg, narrator of the story, a while to overcome his embarrassment at his father's attempts to cheer for Robinson ("AH-GEE, AH-GEE," the deaf man yells from the Ebbetts Fields grandstand, attempting to say Jackie), but eventually Dad's devotion wins the day in a moving finale.
School Library Journal
Surprisingly, the narrator's deaf father is interested too; he has recognized his own struggle for respect and acceptance mirrored in Robinson's triumph. The two begin attending games and keep a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the first baseman. Though baseball and Robinson are at the heart of this story, its strength lies in its depiction of the bond between father and son. It is evident that their relationship is characterized by respect and tenderness, though, at the ballpark, the boy is at first embarrassed when his father's awkward cheer causes other fans to stare.
Connections
Read more about Jackie Robinson.Discuss Satchell Paige as well.
Winner of the Scneider Family Book Award
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
