MODULE 2 - TRADITIONAL LITERATURE

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kimmel, Eric A. 2004. Cactus soup. Ill. by Phil Huling. New York: Marshall

Cavendish. ISBN 0761451552.

2.PLOT SUMMARY
Eric Kimmel sets his rendition of “Stone Soup” during the Mexican revolution. Orchestrated by the town mayor, the citizens of St. Miguel feign poverty and hunger in order to discourage the traveling army from making camp and expecting food and hospitality. The wise army captain commiserates with the locals’ condition and promises to make enough “cactus soup” to feed his soldiers as well as all the townspeople. Asking only for firewood, a spoon, a kettle of water and a single cactus thorn, the captain goes to work. As with all other versions of this variant, the “soup” grows into a grand group effort with everyone contributing their part and in the end uniting the outsiders with the community. Celebration ensues as everyone is fed their fill and entertained into the night with song and dance. Kimmel provides an author’s note concerning the Mexican Revolution (1910-1922) and a glossary of Spanish terms.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The fast-moving text, the good versus the not-so-good, the uncomplicated characters and the happy ending all help place this work within the traditional literature genre. Without doubt this picture book is a fine blending of text and illustration. Kimmel’s dialogue and use of Spanish terms give the story an authentic Mexican feel. The captain’s repetitive question, “Why ask for what you don’t have?” invites audience participation. Phil Huling’s illustrations smoothly carry the plot along while nicely keeping pace with the text. Movement and energy are conveyed beautifully through color, body position, and facial expression and add immeasurable depth and enjoyment for the reader through the vibrant visual antics portrayed. The striking physical differences between townspeople and soldier, the soldiers are elongated with oddly bending limbs, the town folks, more proportional, help define the two opposing factions. However, by placing Cactus Soup during the Mexican Revolution in the town of San Miguel, Kimmel distances this story from the folktale norm, that of nonspecific place and time in the past. Also, Kimmel never provides any basis for the story’s having Mexican origins; in his author’s note he gives a somewhat polarized explanation for the revolution that appears totally removed from this story about pulling together and sharing for the good of all. All in all, Cactus Soup is a funny and exciting addition to the “Stone Soup” variant.

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS

HORN BOOK MAGAZINE – “The fast-moving narrative is rich in Spanish vocabulary and generous with opportunities for the audience to participate in the telling…The curved sombreros, the townspeople’s rounded figures, and the circular coking pot suggest a warm community that complements the soldiers, who are modeled after Picasso’s whimsical, lanky Don Quixote.”

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY – “Kimmel, ever the master storyteller, incorporates especially vivid cadences in the words of the wily, world-weary captain; but it’s Huling who makes the story sing. His comically exaggerated characters garner laughs without shedding their humanity, while his swooping, elongated lines and radiant colors recall the sun-drenched earthiness and high spirits of early 20th-century Mexican art.”


5. CONNECTIONS
This book is a great candidate for a reader’s theater production. Fourth and fifth graders could participate in writing the script if given the appropriate guidance. With more effort a simple production with basic props and costumes would make a nice multi-cultural project.


Other recently published “Stone Soup” tales:

Bonning, Tony. 2002. Fox tale soup. New York: Simon & Schuster Books

for Young Readers. ISBN 0689849001.

Gershator, David. 2005. Kallaloo!: A Carribean tale. New York: Marshall

Cavendish. ISBN 0761451102.

Muth, Jon J. 2003. Stone Soup. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN

043933909X.

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Schwartz, Alvin. 1992. And the green grass grew all around. Ill. by Sue

Truesdell. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0060227583.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
In And the Green Grass Grew all Around, Alan Schwartz defines folk poetry as anything made up and communicated person-to-person by word of mouth and unidentifiable to any one author. For the adult reader, this wonderfully silly book of poetry, rhymes, songs and pure nonsensical verse brings back many surprising memories of childhood and the realization that many of these ditties they already know. Know them, yes, and yet the versions presented in And the Green Grass Grew all Around seem to deviate ever so slightly from those remembered. That is the true nature of folklore! As the songs, stories, rhymes and verses spread from group to group the words change anywhere from drastically to ever so slightly. Beginning the text with a conversational introduction, Schwartz lays the groundwork for his juvenile anthology. The fifteen chapters of the book are divided into “folk poems” categorized by topic: from poems concerning people, food, and school to those that tease, make wishes and promise love, to those lamenting work, posing riddles and spouting utter nonsense. The length of each entry varies from several lines to several pages, many accompanied with cartoonish ink illustrations and/or simple musical notations. Detailed source notes will benefit the serious folklore enthusiast.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Schwartz presents his audience a large slice of linguistic Americana in this dynamic work of prose and poetry. True to the folklore genre, the action is fast-paced; the distinction between good and evil, blatant, no character develops any significant insights, and “happily ever after” is a forgone conclusion. The book’s whole purpose is to energize: to be read, sung, clapped, jumped, chanted, added-on-to or in any other way celebrated enthusiastically; to be thoroughly enjoyed on the most child-like level! Sue Truesdell’s illustrations pack a hilarious punch to this party as they frolic across the two-page spread. These black-and-white cartoons provide the necessary visual element, some extremely simple, others more complex, to heighten the reader’s comprehension and tickle-the-funny-bone enjoyment. And the Green Grass Grew all Around masquerades as tongue-in-cheek fun and games while effortlessly exposing young children to invaluable cultural and literary material that will only serve to widen their worldview and broaden their personal perspective.

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS

BOOKLIST – “The late Alvin Schwartz has left a joyful legacy in this collection of folk poetry for everyone to share. He put together 300 of his favorites-chants and teases, wishes, jokes and riddles, skip-rope rhymes and stories, fun and games.”

KIRKUS REVIEWS – “In b&w pen and watercolor, Truesdell’s marvelous characters dance across the generously broad pages, peering inquisitively at the hilarious goings-on or gleefully joining in the shenanigans.”



5. CONNECTIONS
Activity: Ages 6-9. Have the children divide into pairs or groups and chose one of the included poems, stories or chants to act out. After demonstrating have the rest of the class join in for another round!

Other folktale poem and chant collections:

Beaumont, Jeanne Marie and Claudia Carlson. ed. 2003. The poets’

Grimm: 20th century poems from Grimm fairy tales. Ashland, Oregon: Story Line Press. ISBN 1586540270.

Schwartz, Alan. 1989. I saw you in the bathtub, and other folk rhymes. New

York: Harper and Row. ISBN 0060252995.

Strauss, Gwenn. 1990. Trail of stones. New York: Knopf. ISBN

0679905820.

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jackson, Ellen. 1994. Cinder Edna. Ill. by Kevin O’Malley. New York:

Lothrop, Lee & Shepard. ISBN 0688123236.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Cinder Edna lives right next door to Cinderella. Living parallel lives, both young women suffer the indignities and abuses of a wicked stepmother and cruel stepsisters. But that is where the similarities end, Cinder Edna tried sitting in the fireplace ashes as Cinderella often did, but she found they only made her clothes dirty; instead she keeps warm by doing extra chores and odd jobs to earn money in her spare time. When invitations to the prince’s ball arrive, Cinderella is helpless without her fairy godmother, but Cinder Edna already has the perfect dress on layaway, dons comfortable loafers for serious dancing and hops the bus to the palace. Bored by the self-absorbed Prince Randolph, Edna is smitten by his klutzy, bespectacled, ecology-minded younger brother, Rupert. At the stroke of midnight Cinderella and Cinder Edna make hasty retreats as the fairy godmother’s magic evaporates and public transportation stops running. The only clues left for the confused princes are a delicate glass slipper and a penny loafer. Continuing in a practical vain, Rupert locates his love by knowing her name and using the phone book while his dashing brother takes the arduous, not to mention illogical, path of trying the slipper on every maiden in the land. The couples marry in a double ceremony and live “happily ever after,” but the reader is left in no doubt about which two have found true happiness.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
While many fairy tales take a somewhat more serious tone, Cinder Edna takes a tongue-in-cheek farcical stab at folklore. This feminist take on the traditional Cinderella story hilariously points out many illogical and impractical aspects of the popular tale, for example: Cinderella wearing fragile glass slippers to a dance, her total helplessness without her fairy godmother, her choosing to sit among the cinders to keep warm and what about the prince forgetting to even ask her name? Cinderella and Prince Randolph define one-dimensional characters while Edna and Rupert are quirky and multi-faceted, though all characters sail through the story unchanged. Ellen Jackson writes a fast-paced story nicely keeping the parallel plots coordinated and in sync. The “happily ever afters” are relative to each couple and children will have no problem seeing the fun and getting the author’s point. Kevin O’Malley’s lively illustrations work well with the text and do an interesting job of blending the long ago, far away elements of Cinderella’s world with the contemporary life of Edna (The palace scene with the bus parked behind the pumpkin coach is especially clever). Laughs every minute and animated illustrations on double page spreads make this picture book a favorite, laugh-out-loud, read aloud.

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS

HORN BOOK GUIDE –“A delight for go-getters everywhere.”

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY – “O’Malley’s nicely executed, cleverly detailed spreads contrast Cinderella’s fantasy glow with Edna’s clear-eyed, can-do attitude. This Cinderella send-up is full of kid-pleasing jokes and, besides, it’s never too early to discover the hazards of codependence.”

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “O’Malley’s full-page illustrations are exuberant and funny. Ella is suitably bubble-headed and self-absorbed while Edna is plain, practical, and bound to enjoy life. Kids will love this version of the familiar story for its humor and vibrant artwork.”

5. CONNECTIONS
Read aloud two significantly different Cinderella stories. On a chalkboard or overhead make a list as the kids decide aloud how the stories are similar and different. Discuss how these similarities and differences affected the plot. Which did they like better? Why? Depending on their ages, have the children try their hand at making up their own Cinderella story, either written or through pictures.

MODULE 1 - PICTURE BOOKS


1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marcus, Leonard S. 2001. Side by side: Five favorite picture-book teams

go to work. New York: Walker & Company. ISBN 0802787789.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Side by Side presents the collaborative histories of five successful picture book parings of illustrator and writer. Leonard Marcus, children’s book critic and historian, structured the chapters to deal individually with each team focusing, more or less, on one particular picture book. Brief career histories of each contributor is followed by the twists and turns, the successes and setbacks, and the life and longevity of the collaboration. The teams highlighted employ very diverse methods and styles. The books ranged from Louis the Fish to The Glorious Flight to The Stinky Cheese Man to Sam and the Tigers to The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses. Collaborators included are Yorinks and Egielski, Provensen and Provensen, Sciezka, Smith and Leach, Lester and Pinkney, and Cole and Degen.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Written for the late elementary school age, Marcus does an admirable job of writing credible juvenile nonfiction. First person accounts from the artists themselves, directional tools and instructional help in the guise of a table of contents, a detailed index, and glossary, and illustrative visual elements all work well together with the fast-paced text to tell the stories of these talented collaborators. Marcus possesses a talent for explanation, maintaining the literary flow while delivering clear and concise details. The question that nags the adult reader is, will the desired audience find the subject matter interesting enough to engage in reading the book. As reading for this literature class, especially this first module on picture books, the book is dead on, but as interest reading for an elementary or middle school child it may well miss the mark.

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS

BOOKLIST – “Teachers and librarians who want to promote collaboration in the classroom or just share their enthusiasm for the creative process and those who practice it will find plenty of good material in this well-written and beautifully designed book.”

KIRKUS REVIEWS – “Altogether engaging, this offering nevertheless is not exactly the sort of book children flock to of their own accord. It will, however, nicely complement guided explorations of children’s book creation, and the inclusion of two of the most popular teams with children will guarantee its appeal to the kids who do encounter it.”

5. CONNECTIONS
A programming idea for older elementary students in a summer library program: Introduce the children to the art that is the picture book. Have each child choose, depending on their own preference, whether to write or illustrate a picture book. Once the “writers” finish an initial short draft have them pair with an “illustrator” and work through the process of creating a finished work.

Books that further explore the making of picture books:

Kehoe, Michael. 1993. A book takes root: The making of a picture book.

Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books. ISBN 0876147562.

Marcus, Leonard S. 1998. A Caldecott celebration: Six artists and their

paths to the Caldecott Medal. New York: Walker & Company. ISBN 0802786561.

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Juster, Norton. 2005. The hello, goodbye window. Ill. by Chris Raschka.

New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 0786809140.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
A young preschool narrator takes the reader through the fun and excitement of an overnight visit to her grandparents’ house. Poppy plays the harmonica and cooks breakfast while Nanna works in the kitchen and putters in her garden. Upon arriving and departing, greetings and games are exchanged through the seemingly magical kitchen window. Looking in - the bight kitchen, where grandma and grandpa spend most of their time, welcomes our young visitor to the comfort of familiarity and routine; looking out – the garden beckons promising wild adventure – all within the warmth and security of her grandparents’ realm. As with every young child, their world is full of flights of fancy and down-to-earth adult-mandated rules and many of these are nicely incorporated into the text from a child’s perspective. Imagination beckons when: “It’s a very nice garden, but there’s a tiger who lives behind the big bush..” and “THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND (Nanna is English, you know, so the Queen likes to come to tea.)” while rules dictate necessary order: “I ride my bike too. ‘Not in the street, please.’ Or collect sticks and acorns. ‘Not in the house, please.’”


3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The 2006 Caldecott Medal recipient, The Hello, Goodbye Window, hits the literary mark on several levels. Through Norton Juster’s first person narrative the innocence, naiveté, and even the “voice” quality of a young child shines through. “When I get tired I come in and take a nap and nothing happens until I get up.” The ritual of the window provides predictability and security: looking in – the kitchen promises the safe haven of laughter and fun; looking out – the garden and sky embrace the wide world of new experiences while both sides fall under an umbrella of unconditional familial love. The story keeps a nice pace and through the combination of text and illustration personalities come into focus. Poppy is playful and teasing, Nanna is orderly and patient. Chris Raschka’s illustrations, done in a vibrant color mixture of watercolors and pastels, possess a child-like quality. To highlight and define the swirls, dabs and swaths of color, Raschka uses strategically placed black outlines throughout his work. Juster’s subtext of family love and devotion finds overt expression through Raschka’s twinkling eyes and doting expressions. Author and illustrator together have beautifully captured the purely child-centered world of the preschooler as well as the joy of grandparents allowed to bask in the everyday magic that is their grandchild making The Hello, Goodbye Window a very deserving Caldecott winner.


4. REVIEW EXCERPTS

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “ The artwork is at once lively and energetic, without crowding the story or the words on the page; the simple lines and squiggles of color suggest a child’s own drawings, but this is the art of a masterful hand.”

BOOKLIST – “The window imagery is less important than the title would make it seem. More intrinsic is Juster’s honest portrayal of a child’s perceptions and emotions.”


5. CONNECTIONS
Literary Extension: Have the children draw themselves and their grandparents/other family members occupied in a favorite activity and then verbally present it to the group.

Picture books that further explore grandparent connections:

Hutchins, Pat. 2006. Bumpety bump! New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN

0060560002.

Lum, Kate. 1999. What! cried Granny: An almost bedtime story. New York:

Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0803723822.

MacDonald, Margaret Read. 2006. Squeaky door. New York: HarperCollins

Publishers. ISBN 0060283742.

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Raschka, Chris. 2005. New York is English, Chattanooga is Creek.

New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0689846002.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Thirty-nine cities from across the United States are formally invited, by carrier pigeon no less, to a gala hosted by the Duke of York – New York City. A map and guest list, placed at the very beginning, locate and explain the names of the party’s invitees. Each city, personified via ethnic origins and etymologic symbols, morphs into a single representative bedecked in appropriate headdress and garb. Our host, New York City, worries about compatibility and social etiquette, but happily, after a rocky start, the evening turns into a social coup. The story ends where it began, enumerating the diverse etymology of our cities’ names; thus mimicking our population as a whole and giving explanation to what made this country great and what continues to define it today.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Raschka employs an offbeat, farcical approach to impart his American history lesson on diversity. The language proves uneven and troublesome; sentence fragments, random rhymes and, at one point, digressing asides might well cause the unpracticed reader to falter. At one point, when attempting to explain the origin of Minneapolis the author goes off on a tangent followed by the text actually reading “Never mind.” However, Raschka’s text beautifully brings everything home when it proclaims, “A thousand names, a hundred languages/ a million people name one nation.” The driving force of this work is Raschka’s ink and watercolor caricatures: exaggerated, impressionistic, vibrant and completely compelling. The child cannot help but be drawn into the fantastical story by the commonly shared style yet unmistakable individuality of each character. Each city boasts a disproportionately huge head adorned with a skyline replica atop an equally imposing headdress all supported by a somewhat diminutive torso clothed in ethnic splendor. The illustrations, done against a pure white background, share the space equitably and are necessary to carry the plot forward. This codependency between textual and visual elements gives this picture book the extra element that sets it apart from the ordinary.


4. REVIEW EXCERPTS

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “ At once carefully intentional and casually random, this is a fascinating exploration of the etymology and derivation of American city names and a characteristic Raschka farcical flight-of-fancy.”

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY – “ Raschka’s lilting approximate rhyme, and his piquant watercolors on clean white paper, make this book an aural and visual pleasure, a gateway to understanding the complicated histories in unusual words’ origins.”

5. CONNECTIONS
Literary Extension – Investigate the origins of the student’s own town/city. Have each student create their own caricature in the style of Raschka to personify their hometown based upon its name’s origin and local culture.

Books that further explore US states and their etymology:

Keller, Laurie. 1998. The scrambled states of America. New York: Henry

Holt. ISBN 0805058028.

Peter, Sis. 2004. The train of states. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN

0060578394.

(All pictures downloaded from the Plano Public Library)