Review #6: The Great Ball Game: A Muskogee Story

Bibliography

Bruchac, Joseph.  1994.  THE GREAT BALL GAME:  A MUSKOGEE STORY.  Ill. by Susan L. Roth.  New York:  Dial.  ISBN 0803715404

Plot Summary

Long ago the Birds and the Animals chose to settle an argument with a game of stickball.  After being left out by both teams, Bat is finally accepted by the Animals and uses his unique abilities to win.  The defeated Birds were forced to leave the country for half of each year.

Analysis

This is a retelling of a Muskogee (or Creek) Indian Nation legend, which Bruchac heard from a Muskogee elder named Louis Littlecoon Oliver.  It is a “pour quoi” tale that explains why birds fly south for the winter and why bats fly at dusk.  The ball game is a southern variant of lacrosse.

Roth’s art is all done in colorful paper collages.  Dark paper silhouettes illustrate the latter part of the story, which takes place in the evening.  The artist used papers, some handmade, collected from a number of different countries.  The rich textures make the reader want to touch the pages.

The story is reminiscent of the fable of “The Bat, the Birds, and the Beasts” attributed to Aesop, but here the Bat actually joins one side and becomes a hero.

Review Excerpts

“Bruchac’s retelling is elegant and graceful.”  Horn Book

“The helter-skelter compositions distract readers from what is otherwise an entertaining tale.”  School Library Journal

Connections

Talk about bats—how even though they have wings like birds, they are really mammals like bears and dogs.

Other books based on Native American stories:

Bruchac, Joseph and Ross, Gayle.  THE STORY OF THE MILKY WAY:  A CHEROKEE TALE.  ISBN 0803717377

Davkovich, Lydia.  THE POLAR BEAR SON:  AN INUIT TALE.  0395975670

Review #5: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

Bibliography

Scieszka, Jon.  1989.  THE TRUE STORY OF THE 3 LITTLE PIGS BY A. WOLF.  Ill. by Lane Smith.  New York:  Viking Penguin.  ISBN 0670827592

Plot Summary

Alexander T. Wolf tells how an errand to borrow sugar from the neighboring pigs led to his accidentally destroying the houses of straw and sticks by sneezing at them.  In the process he accidentally (so he claims, at least) kills their porcine occupants and eats them so as not to let good wolf food go to waste.  He then has an altercation with the rude occupant of the house of bricks that leads to his being arrested and jailed by pig police and turned into a villain by sensationalistic news reporters.

Analysis

This is a witty variant on a traditional tale that many children even today have probably heard.  Certain familiar phrases from the traditional versions (“He huffed and he puffed”; “Chinny chin chin”) are recast in the wolf’s version of the story.  Unlike some bowdlerized versions, this one depicts the unfortunate pigs in the flimsy houses falling victim to the wolf—but then, as the wolf points out, animals such as pigs are the wolf’s equivalent of cheeseburgers.

Lane Smith’s painted art depicts what is happening clearly enough.  It is full of clever details, some (notably a capital letter made up of sausage links) a bit grotesque.  The art’s muddy colors and prickly, edgy character may strike some readers as rather unattractive.  

Overall this is a clever retelling.  Depending on how one chooses to view it, it may be seen either as a lesson in the difference one’s perspective makes or an example of a tale told by a narrator of questionable reliability.

Review Excerpt

“It’s the type of book that older kids (and adults) will find very funny.”  School Library Journal

Connections

Read a more traditional version of “The 3 Little Pigs”, followed by this story.  Talk about how a story can have more than one side to it.

Other versions of the story:

Seibert, Patricia.  THE THREE LITTLE PIGS.  ISBN 1577683676

Wiesner, David.  THE THREE PIGS.  ISBN 0618007016

Review #4: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

Bibliography

Taback, Simms.  1999  JOSEPH HAD A LITTLE OVERCOAT.  New York:  Viking Penguin Group.  ISBN 0670878553

Plot Summary

A man named Joseph who lives in a shtetl in Poland uses the material of his old, worn overcoat to make garments of decreasing size in turn, including a jacket, vest, scarf, necktie, handkerchief, and button.  When he loses the button he uses the experience as the basis of a story, proving that “you can always make something out of nothing.”

Analysis

The text has a repetitive structure.  As each garment grows “old and worn” Joseph makes it into something else and wears it for an event of some sort.  In a clever touch that children can enjoy observing, each time the reader turns a page as Joseph makes a new garment a cutout in the page, which forms part of the background in the previous two-page spread, is superimposed over the previous picture of Joseph’s garment to show what it has now become.

The very colorful art combines drawing and watercolor with collage using photographic images of people, books, and more.  The settings and events together depict a sort of idealized panorama of prewar Eastern European rural Jewish life.  There are many details of clothing, houses, and customs of the day.  The backgrounds contain several Yiddish proverbs and references to the famous “Fiddler on the Roof.”  At the end there is an English translation of the Yiddish folk song “I Had a Little Overcoat,” which inspired the story.

Although the tone of the story and art are quite cheerful, readers old enough to know about the fate of the communities it depicts will find a sense of tragedy in the story as well.

Review Excerpt

Caldecott Medal Book

“Striking gouache, watercolor, and collage illustrations are chock-full of witty details—letters to read, proverbs on the walls, even a fiddler on the roof.”  School Library Journal

Connections

Sing-along with the song “I Had a Little Overcoat” as part of the story time program.

Other books based on Yiddish folk tales:

Zemach, Margot IT COULD ALWAYS BE WORSE.  ISBN 0374436363

Review #3: DAVE THE POTTER: ARTIST, POET, SLAVE

Bibliography

Hill, Laban Carrick.  2010.  DAVE THE POTTER:  ARTIST, POET, SLAVE.  Ill. By Bryan Collier.  New York, NY:  Little, Brown.  ISBN 9780316107310

Plot Summary

Hill tells the story of a man known to history only as Dave.  A plantation slave born in the early 1800s, he was a skilled potter whose high-quality works are highly valued today.  He was also literate and wrote brief poems upon some of his works.  The main body of the story describes in some detail the process of creating a large pottery jar, from choosing the clay to glazing.  At the end are several pages of notes describing what little is known about Dave’s life.

Analysis

Hill describes the process of creating a clay pot in simple text.  Along the way he also says something about the purpose of the pots and the significance of work as an act of creativity.  The story provides an appreciation for the way that simple materials and tools can be used by a person in a very disadvantaged position in life to create something of lasting significance.    The notes at the end give important context for the story and several examples of Dave’s poetry.

Collier’s illustrations employ an interesting combination of watercolor and collage.  Some of the backgrounds to the pictures depicting Dave at work are of his ordinary surroundings.  Others show him working against a more symbolic backdrop of images showing the world of a 19^th-century plantation and the slaves who worked and lived on it.  A gatefold page spread in the middle of the book opens to show a polyptych image of Dave’s hands shaping a pot on the potter’s wheel.  The text that accompanies this illustration likens Dave’s shaping of the pot to “a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

This is very much a “read-to” book, which introduces young readers to the great complexities of American and African-American history, and to the ideas of creativity and art.

Review Excerpt

“An inspiring story, perfectly presented and sure to prompt classroom discussion and projects.  Outstanding in every way.”  SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

Connections

*Good starter for discussions about history, especially African American history.

*Good lead-in to the topic of crafts and making things.

Review #2: THE POKY LITTLE PUPPY

Bibliography

Lowrey, Janette Sebring.  1942.  The Poky Little Puppy.  Ill. by Gustaf Tenggren.  Racine, WI:  Golden Books Publishing.  ISBN 0307160262

Plot Summary

A litter of puppies repeatedly disregard their mother’s instructions to dig a hole under the fence and explore the world outside the yard.  One, slower than the others, keeps getting home later than the others and avoiding their punishment of missing out on dessert—until the end, when he is punished after the siblings try to do what their mother says.

Analysis

This is a very simply told story in which essentially the same sequence happens three times, with small variations each time and a major turnabout at the end.  The repetition provides an element of predictability that can appeal to children, but the book is not truly a “predictable”.  Though the misbehaving puppies all get their comeuppance, the story is not strongly didactic.

Tenggren’s illustrations are semi-realistic, combining closely-observed details with an element of cartooning.  The puppies encounter common creatures that most children will recognize, such as a frog and a grasshopper.  The text is separated in blocks above or below the illustrations.  The illustrations are all in full color, which was still somewhat unusual at the time the book was first published.

The story is very slight, but children should identify with the child-like animal characters and enjoy their little adventures.  Obviously they have, given the book’s continuing popularity over such a long time.

Review Excerpt

“The classic story of naughty puppies and their backyard adventures—complete with fuzzy caterpillars, musical flowers, crickets and frogs and all topped off with dessert—is sure to be a favorite yet again.”  KIRKUS REVIEWS (Review of 2011 e-book release).

Connections:

*Ask the children why the puppies’ mother didn’t want them leaving the yard.  Was she afraid they would get lost, get into trouble, etc.?  Why do parents make rules?

*The puppies wanted to see the world.  What makes going to see new places fun?

Review #1: NO SUCH THING

Bibliography

Koller, Jackie French.  1997.  NO SUCH THING.  Ill. by Betsy Lewin.  Honesdale, PA:  Caroline House Boyds Mills Press.  ISBN 1563974908

Plot Summary

A boy who has just moved into an unfamiliar house is afraid of monsters under his bed.  Beneath the bed, a young monster is afraid of boys above.  Their respective mothers tell them that the things they fear don’t exist.  They then meet each other and make friends when each realizes that the other is harmless.  At the end they prepare to give their mothers a little scare.

Analysis

Koller makes fun of a common childhood fear by drawing a contrast between fearful expectations and silly “reality” that any child can appreciate.  There is also an element of humorous parallel in the interactions between the monster and boy and their respective mothers, and their reactions to each other.  The reader can see the parallels building up to the climactic meeting between the boy and the monster.

Lewin’s art employs loose, scratchy brushstrokes that give the artwork an energetic quality and a sense of movement.  The human characters are broadly cartooned, while the monsters are appropriately ugly yet silly-looking.  It is clear from the way all characters are depicted that this is a humorous and not a dramatic story.  Colors are appropriately muted for a story set mainly in a darkened room at night.  On most pages the art fills the whole page, with text superimposed. 

The manner in which the book ends, with the “kids” preparing to play a joke on their mothers, feels a bit subversive.  It is clear that the broader purpose is to help children with vague fears about monsters in the dark to overcome these fears by learning to laugh at them.

Review Excerpt

“Any child who has been convinced of the presence of a monster at bedtime will feel vindicated by this satisfying story”  KIRKUS REVIEWS

Connections

*Talk to children about imaginary fears, such as monsters, ghosts, etc. and how they are only imaginary.

*Imagine you found an imaginary friend living in your house.  What would your imaginary friend be like?  What sorts of things could you do together?

Testing....

1...2...3?  How many people here are old enough to remember that one?