ZOOM!

ZOOM! By Diane Adams

This week I scanned the shelves of my public library in my hometown of St. Charles, IL to see what I could find. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, just browsing for anything that would catch my eye. It brought me back a little bit, looking in the kids section, since I haven't been down there in a while. I reminisced on the days where I used to sit in the circus wagon and get lost in different children's books while my parents explored the adult section upstairs. During today's excursion, I came across the book called ZOOM! by Diane Adams. The brightly colored cover caught my attention, and it just looked like a fun book to read. It is about a little boy and his dad who visit an amusement park. At first, the little boy's dad encourages his son to go on it even though the little boy is afraid, but by the end of the story, it's the little boy who drags his dad back on the coaster for one more go!

This book is short, however it teaches a few important literary techniques. It introduces rhyming and descriptive words. Words to describe the coaster ride were "zigging, zagging, click-click-clacking, zooming, lurching, rumbling, slipping, sliding, creaking, squeaking," and on one occasion, the author has the word "AAAAAAHHH!" spread across two pages, painted into the illustration. This is a great book to introduce these basic concepts, and I would greatly consider using it with younger children and having them come up with instances, memories, stories, etc where they would need to include descriptor words on their own.

Dear Jen...

So far, I really really like Children's Literature and what we are doing with it. I don't really know what I was exactly expecting out of it, but I think that if I had any thoughts before the semester began they have been matched with what/how we are learning. I was really excited to learn new things about children's literature and have a soothing Monday night just talking about it with others who are love to talk about it as well.

I think a big part of me loving this class so much and loving what I am getting a chance to read is the fact that I am in Practicum right now. Everything that we are learning I am applying back and forth to our class and to my Practicum students. For example, my students know how to identify different types of covers of children's books (wraparound was a big one; they are always looking to see if the covers are wraparound). As I watch them learn from the books myself or my CT read, I think about the things we discuss in class and what makes children in general so excited about having stories read to them, or even reading them on their own. Taking these classes together was one of the best decisions I have made yet while being in the College of Education.

As I get ready to graduate, I really am looking forward to taking everything I have learned in this class and using it, one way or another, in my classroom someday. I fully intend to recommend The Misfits and my students will DEFINITELY read Love that Dog. I guess that the one thing I have really recognized in this class is that children's literature doesn't have to be so one dimensional. When I was a student in elementary school, it seemed that the books we were directed to read were the same format. The books we have read as a class are making me think about the selections I am making individually. I want to select books that are out of my element, books that I normally might just ignore while browsing the shelves of the library. Because based on my prior experience, it seems that the books that I am nervous about reading are the ones that I enjoy the most.

I love this blogging thing. I feel like I can just write thoughts and ideas openly on here without being restricted to the dimensions of a paper of any kind. This definitely feels more open and free, and I love getting a thought from what I am reading and using the Internet right away to help my thoughts web out even further. I think something I am going to try to do is really look for a slue of different books before the semester ends. I had ideas about what I wanted to do, but those ideas continue to change with each passing class. I can't wait to see what else I can find when I go to the library, and hopefully it will shape me as a teacher more and more as I approach graduation and the end of this class.

Pinkerton, Behave!

Pinkerton, Behave! By Steven Kellogg

Pinkerton, Behave! is the story of a new puppy who needs to be trained. The illustrations are set up a little bit like a comic book, and there really is nothing too special about this book, in my eyes. The owners of Pinkerton need to train him to do important things that all dogs need to learn how to do, but they also decide to train him to attack a burglar in case he will ever need those skills someday...

One night, low and behold, a burglar breaks into the home of the family and -- here's where the controversy lies -- he holds a gun to the owner's head not once, but TWICE in the story. It is terrifying! The burglar not only has a mean, evil look to him but he is holding a gun at close range and ready to shoot at any given moment. Definitely too graphic and scary for kids to see, and certainly too violent. However, Pinkerton jumps in before the man gets to shoot, so he saves the day during this suspensefully inappropriate scene. Decent story, but I can definitely see why it's placement in school libraries is challenged.

Visiting Day

Visiting Day, by Jacqueline Woodson

This is the story of a young African American girl and her grandmother. As the story opens, we see the girl and her grandmother preparing to go and visit daddy in a place where, as the grandmother describes lightly to her granddaughter, he is "doing a little time." The illustrations in this story were beautiful, very realistic, and I was touched to see how happy both the father and his daughter were when she visited him. I picked this book out on my own, and I don't know if it could truly be challenged or deemed as controversial, but the one thing I picked a little bit up on was the fact that the family was African American, so it could almost be considered a slur to SES that the man is black and in prison. Also, while this book shows that all families are different, I felt as though it wasn't particularly right to show being in prison in a light manner, as if life is not as bad as it seems even if you commit a crime.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, by William Steig

I vaguely remember reading this story as a little girl. However, when I started reading it it all came back to me. Sylvester is a little donkey who collected pebbles of all shapes, sizes, and colors. On a particular day out, he comes across a unique red pebble. While holding it, he says, "I wish it would stop raining," and magically, the rain completely ceases. He soon realizes that the pebble he possesses is capable of granting him any wish he wants. When he strolls along the forest upon a hungry lion, he thinks a little too quickly and wishes to be a rock instead of home safe with his parents. Not his best thinking, since he cannot move and hold the pebble to change himself back.

As I read the book, I thought that maybe the only controversial thing was the fact that he was missing from his family for such a long time and his parents said that they wouldn't scold him anymore, representing an unrealistic approach to what kids should expect from their parents. However, with a little help from Amazon's compilation of "Controversial Children's Picture Books," I learned that the issue in this book was the fact that the police officers were depicted as, literally, pigs. I had to laugh a little, because I thought it was a pretty funny way to represent official acts, but I can see where this would be a challenged part of the book. However, it is a stretch indeed, and something readers would really have to pay attention to while reading it.

In the Night Kitchen

In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak

The next book on my list of "Curiously Controversial Children's Books" comes from Maurice Sendak, the author of the wonderful classic, Where the Wild Things Are. When I opened this book, I didn't really see why it could be seen as controversial. However, on the second page, we see the little boy, Mickey, falling "through the dark, out of his clothes." He literally, becomes, completely naked, exposing his genitals. On the next page, we see a larger picture that more clearly shows the same naked boy in case you missed it on the previous page. He sits in a bowl of something, and his adventure in the night kitchen begins.

Three oversized bakers, who look a little bit like Sendak's monsters in size and stature from Where the Wild Things Are, begin mixing Mickey into the batter that they are working on. As he escapes from the thick cakey-batter, he continues to find himself in a type of imaginary city where everything is created from food and items that you really would find around a kitchen. Mickey continues to somehow lose his "food clothes" throughout the story and is constantly in the buff.

Aside from the fact that the story is essentially told from a naked little boy with a wild imagination, this is a wonderful story. I loved how the illustrations looked, and how the author used his creativity to make the world of the night kitchen from bags of beans, cartons of cream, and loaves of bread. Having the little boy be naked, where the most controversial aspect of the story lies, is almost necessary as the bakers are trying to create a cake with him as one of the ingredients. However, I think that showing him completely nude could have been done in a much different way and still have made the story as good as it was.

Happy to Be Nappy

Happy to Be Nappy, by Bell Hooks

I had the most difficult time looking for critical children's literature, even with the help of two librarians. Eventually, we found this book, and it is immediately easy to see why it is controversial -- the title speaks for itself. At first I didn't really understand why "nappy" could have been seen as controversial, but after I looked on urbandictionary.com (probably not the best source but still gave me answers) I discovered that nappy meant: tightly coiled/curled unaltered hair. Coiled hair in its natural state. This book tells the story of all the neat things that "nappy" hair can do, what it feels like, how flowy it can be, etc. What I got from this story, was that it is specifically directed at African American girls, and told them to be happy the way they are. It is a very uplifting story, calming and relaxing for little girls to read about. Other children could learn a lot from reading this story, but I think it would benefit African American girls much more. However, again on the other hand, it would teach children to accept all of their peers and classmates and all of their differences. The only aspect of this story that I saw to be controversial was the title. But at the same time, it shows pride if the author decided to display it openly on the cover. The theme of pride is present throughout the entire story, and all of the illustrations show characters who are clearly happy with the way that they look, and open about showing the readers to be proud for the same reasons.