I’m a teacher who loves to read and one of my favorite places in the world is the public library, so that certainly ranks my liking of Ben Franklin pretty high! I decided to read this nonfiction book, Who Was Ben Franklin, after I purchased it in Phil., PA a little over a year ago. After learning just a little bit about this famous man, I wanted to go to the library that he actually constructed and the city that he made such an impact on. I picked this book up because it looked like a quick read with penciled sketches that were easy to understand and text that looked easy to read and enjoy, not laborious at all. I was right. This is one of those nonfiction books that is a biography of the person’s life and superbly done to capture young readers’, and teachers’ like me, attention and truly teach about the person. The author has created other “Who was…” books, one of which is about Thomas Jefferson that I have also read, and I plan on buying more. This is a great way for students to learn about famous people in history without having to be labored down with unlearned words and boring details that most past nonfiction text are constructed of. The author, Dennis Brindell Fradin, has done a wonderful thing with this idea for nonfiction and biographies!
Ben Franklin was a man who had knowledge far before his time. He understood the importance of experimenting with nature to discover the root cause of all his questions. Most know about his kite and key experiment, but by this experiment he was able to create the lightening rod to make storms and electricity less frightening and deadly for the common person. He was also knew a lot more about health and wellness than most people gave him credit for and bathed often. On a humorous note – no wonder he had no problem finding lady friends a plenty when he moved to France to act at the United States representative to convince France to help in the American Revolutionary War. Interesting that not to long after, France went into a Revolutionary War! Most would say that overtaxing its citizens and a weak monarchy caused this war. I wonder what Franklin’s views of the French monarchy were?
I think that one of the most influential things about Franklin is that he loved to read. As a teenager he became a vegetarian in order to save money and buy books with. He never stopped reading and learning and would certainly be considered an Academically Gifted Genius in today’s day and age. I wonder what he would have discovered if he were around now?
Monday, May 7, 2007
Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo - Realistic Fiction
It took me a while to jump upon the Because of Winn-Dixie band-wagon, mainly because everyone seemed to be telling me that I must read it. However, I have finally read the novel and was truly delighted in it! Yes, I was stubborn, but at least I can admit that fought. I think that part of me was also afraid that the dog, Winn-Dixie, was going to die (I don’t like even knowing about books that have dying pets in them because I love my own dogs so much) so I just put off reading it. Thankfully, no death occurred to our shaggy, smiling mutt, but that thunderstorm had me worried just as much as it had Opal and the Preacher worried. I felt like I was right out there with them in the rain, thunder, and lighting looking for a pathologically afraid dog!
I believe that an animal can make a difference in a life, just as Winn-Dixie did in Opal’s. She needed a companion, and just by a simple trip to a supermarket to buy some macaroni-and-cheese, a box of white rice, and two tomatoes (makes you wonder what the Preacher was concocting) a beautiful friendship was born. Now, I realize that this is fiction, but I do think that things like this happen in the real world, every day. I discovered my dog, Socks, when he was a puppy, walking along in the great outdoors one morning, and just like Opal, I don’t think that this was a mere coincidence! I think that we were meant to meet and form a bond! Now he is beside me, protecting me from all unseen things that only dogs seem to know about and need to “growl and bark” at.
DiCamillo seems to have her hand on the heart of many American children and adults. She writes about relationships and situations that are very real and easy to ignore in real life, but we are faced with dealing with these situations and people in her books. The reader will leave the book with a new understanding of people who seem different, even dangerous, and force a self-reflection. She forces a reader to reassess their sterotypes and criticisms. Otis is a prime example. He is a person who most think are dangerous because he was in jail and now seems to be more of a loner than a person ready to “turn his life around”. When the reader discovers that our pet-store worker was incarcerated, they are a bit skeptical about his character, just as Opal is. However, when we learn of the senselessness of his incarceration, we have to step back and reflect about our feelings on him, now. He was arrested for playing his guitar on the street! Wow! What a criminal (and I say that weth the utmost sarcasm in my voice)! I like how, now, he recognizes and respects the lives of the animals in the pet shop and decides to play for them to calm them down. He has a sweet and kind heart.
When the preacher tells Opal to apologize for calling Stevie a name, I am a bit outraged, just as much as Opal. Then the Preacher follows with, “Some people have a strange way of going about making friends” (pg. 124, DiCamillo, 2000). How very true that simple statement is. I know that the preacher has experienced a lot in his life to be able to say that statement, with so much simplicity, and make it mean something. Sure, Opal doesn’t bite onto that bait for a little while, but the Preacher is right, in the book and about people in general. I have often wondered how children learn to make friends. Sometimes we teachers model for them, throughout Kindergarten especially, how to treat friends, but how do we teach them to make friends? That is a very interesting question. I applaud the Preacher for living by his own advice, also, in letting Opal make many new friends, even some that seem not so favorable in the eyes of the public, and never detouring her.
Because of Winn-Dixie is heart-warming, but I left the book with so much more than a good reading book read. I left reflecting on my own relationships in life, analyzing people that I don’t always get along with, and trying to figure out what I can do to make a difference in someone else’s life, like Opal did. Honestly, I think that is what a good Realistic Fiction book should do anyway!
I believe that an animal can make a difference in a life, just as Winn-Dixie did in Opal’s. She needed a companion, and just by a simple trip to a supermarket to buy some macaroni-and-cheese, a box of white rice, and two tomatoes (makes you wonder what the Preacher was concocting) a beautiful friendship was born. Now, I realize that this is fiction, but I do think that things like this happen in the real world, every day. I discovered my dog, Socks, when he was a puppy, walking along in the great outdoors one morning, and just like Opal, I don’t think that this was a mere coincidence! I think that we were meant to meet and form a bond! Now he is beside me, protecting me from all unseen things that only dogs seem to know about and need to “growl and bark” at.
DiCamillo seems to have her hand on the heart of many American children and adults. She writes about relationships and situations that are very real and easy to ignore in real life, but we are faced with dealing with these situations and people in her books. The reader will leave the book with a new understanding of people who seem different, even dangerous, and force a self-reflection. She forces a reader to reassess their sterotypes and criticisms. Otis is a prime example. He is a person who most think are dangerous because he was in jail and now seems to be more of a loner than a person ready to “turn his life around”. When the reader discovers that our pet-store worker was incarcerated, they are a bit skeptical about his character, just as Opal is. However, when we learn of the senselessness of his incarceration, we have to step back and reflect about our feelings on him, now. He was arrested for playing his guitar on the street! Wow! What a criminal (and I say that weth the utmost sarcasm in my voice)! I like how, now, he recognizes and respects the lives of the animals in the pet shop and decides to play for them to calm them down. He has a sweet and kind heart.
When the preacher tells Opal to apologize for calling Stevie a name, I am a bit outraged, just as much as Opal. Then the Preacher follows with, “Some people have a strange way of going about making friends” (pg. 124, DiCamillo, 2000). How very true that simple statement is. I know that the preacher has experienced a lot in his life to be able to say that statement, with so much simplicity, and make it mean something. Sure, Opal doesn’t bite onto that bait for a little while, but the Preacher is right, in the book and about people in general. I have often wondered how children learn to make friends. Sometimes we teachers model for them, throughout Kindergarten especially, how to treat friends, but how do we teach them to make friends? That is a very interesting question. I applaud the Preacher for living by his own advice, also, in letting Opal make many new friends, even some that seem not so favorable in the eyes of the public, and never detouring her.
Because of Winn-Dixie is heart-warming, but I left the book with so much more than a good reading book read. I left reflecting on my own relationships in life, analyzing people that I don’t always get along with, and trying to figure out what I can do to make a difference in someone else’s life, like Opal did. Honestly, I think that is what a good Realistic Fiction book should do anyway!
Sunday, May 6, 2007
My Father's Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannet and Illustrations by Ruth Chrisman Gannet - Fantasy
I haven’t met a child yet that does not like to fantasize and travel to distant lands of magic and talking animals by vehicle of a book. Elmer Elevator is no different of a child, and together with him and his friend the cat, Elmer decides to run away from home for awhile (only long enough to make his parents miss him and appreciate him more) to help rescue a baby dragon that is being held prisoner on Wild Island, by the ill-tempered wild beasts that live there. Through a series of hilarious events that involve Elmer meeting and outsmarting the wild beasts, Elmer is able to save the dragon (who later in the series we learn is named Boris) and fly away from Wild Island forever.
I find Elmer a very interesting character who embodies the thought of many a little boy that I know. He takes with him on his journey to Wild Island apples and peanut butter sandwiches, along with gum, lollipops, rubber bands, ribbons, combs, and a backpack (all suggested as tools of necessity by the cat that Elmer has befriended and learns about the baby dragon from). Elmer has eaten the sandwiches and apples by the time he lands in Tangerina (another Island) and is forced throughout the rest of the book, and the one that follows, to eat only tangerines. Still, he is happy with this and seldom complains. I’m not sure that I would love to eat nothing buy tangerines for days on end!
Elmer and his cat friend must obviously think alike, as well, because he manages to use all the odd things that he brought with him on his journey, to save both himself and the baby dragon. Elmer is a very selfless character, always thinking of someone else’s needs before his own. Sure, he wants to ride on a dragon, but he really goes to Wild Island to rescue the dragon from the wild beasts. He is also a very brave little boy, traveling all that way on his own and braving the walk across the stony path (and sleeping whale) to get to the island that even the fishermen at Tangerina Island refuse to go to. He is a smart little boy, also, understanding each wild beast’s inner most weakness and desire and playing that to his benefit. In just a few pages, Elmer’s character has been developed so much so that you wonder if he is really a young boy or an experienced adventurer well acquainted with the wild beasts and set backs of this world. He seems to be able to solve all problems with ease and without getting worried. In fact he manages to stay calm throughout the entire book, even when threatened to be eaten time and time again by various different wild beasts.
I think that my favorite wild beasts were the tigers who loved to chew gum and the alligators who loved to suck on lollipops. The wild beasts were given human qualities and characteristics that the reader could even imagine in their minds certain people that they may know that would have some of their disdainful qualities. However, Elmer plunges forward, never being stopped, and proves that goodness can and will prevail and that friendship between a baby dragon and a boy is well worth fighting for.
I find Elmer a very interesting character who embodies the thought of many a little boy that I know. He takes with him on his journey to Wild Island apples and peanut butter sandwiches, along with gum, lollipops, rubber bands, ribbons, combs, and a backpack (all suggested as tools of necessity by the cat that Elmer has befriended and learns about the baby dragon from). Elmer has eaten the sandwiches and apples by the time he lands in Tangerina (another Island) and is forced throughout the rest of the book, and the one that follows, to eat only tangerines. Still, he is happy with this and seldom complains. I’m not sure that I would love to eat nothing buy tangerines for days on end!
Elmer and his cat friend must obviously think alike, as well, because he manages to use all the odd things that he brought with him on his journey, to save both himself and the baby dragon. Elmer is a very selfless character, always thinking of someone else’s needs before his own. Sure, he wants to ride on a dragon, but he really goes to Wild Island to rescue the dragon from the wild beasts. He is also a very brave little boy, traveling all that way on his own and braving the walk across the stony path (and sleeping whale) to get to the island that even the fishermen at Tangerina Island refuse to go to. He is a smart little boy, also, understanding each wild beast’s inner most weakness and desire and playing that to his benefit. In just a few pages, Elmer’s character has been developed so much so that you wonder if he is really a young boy or an experienced adventurer well acquainted with the wild beasts and set backs of this world. He seems to be able to solve all problems with ease and without getting worried. In fact he manages to stay calm throughout the entire book, even when threatened to be eaten time and time again by various different wild beasts.
I think that my favorite wild beasts were the tigers who loved to chew gum and the alligators who loved to suck on lollipops. The wild beasts were given human qualities and characteristics that the reader could even imagine in their minds certain people that they may know that would have some of their disdainful qualities. However, Elmer plunges forward, never being stopped, and proves that goodness can and will prevail and that friendship between a baby dragon and a boy is well worth fighting for.
The Dragons of Blueland, by Ruth Stiles Gannett and Illustrations by Ruth Chrisman Gannett - Fantasy
My school decided to read the “Dragon Series”, by Ruth Stiles Gannett, with the final one being The Dragons of Blueland. In this final book in the series, Boris the baby dragon that Elmer Elevator saved from the mean animals of Wild Island is now trying to save his own family from cruel dragon hunters who want to capture his family and sell them to zoos. Boris, having fallen from a cloud when he was a baby, was trapped by the animals of Wild Island and made to carry them across the river all the time, or they would treat him badly and twist his wings. Boris and Elmer are successful in their rescue of the dragon family by playing off of the men’s fear that dragons are very dangerous creatures (which, in this story, they are not) and scaring them away. Then, Boris takes Elmer home to his family (as normal) and goes back to live with his unique dragon family.
I like the series, but I must say that after you do one good book, sometimes the second and third books are a bit of a let down. My Father’s Dragon, the first in the series, was very humorous and fun to track, where as The Dragons of Blueland lacks in that humor and tracking ability. The story line is there, and the readers still love cute Boris and helpful Elmer, but they bore easily with the flying back and forth to and from Blueland and Elmer’s home.
Despite my own qualms about the story, my third graders loved the series. They are very much into the Eragon books and Harry Potter, so they naturally took to these with the mere mention of dragons. Maybe I am being desensitized with all the “magic” that the new books bring, and don’t even know it!
On a more positive note, this book has been around for a while, being published in 1951 and renewed in 1979. Fantasy, back in those days, was lacking a bit, so I am sure that this “Dragon” Series was met with applaud and appreciation of young children everywhere. The themes that ring throughout the book are very applicable for today’s readers, helping friends when they are in need and loving your family. Boris and Elmer, even though very different creatures, accept each other and constantly treat each other with respect and kindness. Boris always knows that Elmer will help him with whatever problem he has, without much question. I like the theme that different people (or in this case, different creatures) can be sound friends. I wonder if the author was trying to make this point again racism and for diverse friendships when she wrote this book, whose illustrations were done by her mother-in-law? Now isn’t that an interesting duo!
I like the series, but I must say that after you do one good book, sometimes the second and third books are a bit of a let down. My Father’s Dragon, the first in the series, was very humorous and fun to track, where as The Dragons of Blueland lacks in that humor and tracking ability. The story line is there, and the readers still love cute Boris and helpful Elmer, but they bore easily with the flying back and forth to and from Blueland and Elmer’s home.
Despite my own qualms about the story, my third graders loved the series. They are very much into the Eragon books and Harry Potter, so they naturally took to these with the mere mention of dragons. Maybe I am being desensitized with all the “magic” that the new books bring, and don’t even know it!
On a more positive note, this book has been around for a while, being published in 1951 and renewed in 1979. Fantasy, back in those days, was lacking a bit, so I am sure that this “Dragon” Series was met with applaud and appreciation of young children everywhere. The themes that ring throughout the book are very applicable for today’s readers, helping friends when they are in need and loving your family. Boris and Elmer, even though very different creatures, accept each other and constantly treat each other with respect and kindness. Boris always knows that Elmer will help him with whatever problem he has, without much question. I like the theme that different people (or in this case, different creatures) can be sound friends. I wonder if the author was trying to make this point again racism and for diverse friendships when she wrote this book, whose illustrations were done by her mother-in-law? Now isn’t that an interesting duo!
The Silent Boy, by Lois Lowry - Historical Fiction
I decided to read The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry because she fascinated me with her craft in The Giver and Number the Stars. She works so well with foreshadowing and character manipulation that before you know it, you are at the end of the book and are amazed at something that occurred that you really had no idea was coming. It is almost like watching a detective show and waiting until the very last minute of the show to realize who the bad guy really is. Well, Lois Lowry once again did not disappoint me with The Silent Boy.
The Silent Boy is set back in American history when cars were first being invented, but in small towns, doctors still move around in horse and wagons. The main character, Katy, is telling the story from a memory in her mind that deeply imprinted itself on her in her childhood. In the beginning she is now an older woman, having become a doctor, been married to a kind man, and raised many a child and grandchild. Now, at the end of her life, she wants to tell the story of Jacob, who is a mentally handicapped boy (I would guess he had autism, but it is never said) who sends his time trying to care for animals, never talking, and making funny little sounds to himself. Katy, the local doctor’s daughter, decides to befriend him as much as she can, and takes his side when tragedy strikes. Jacob’s two sisters, Nell and Peggy work in town as hired out girls, and Peggy stays and works with Katy’s family. At the end of the book the reader discovers that Nell and another well-to-do boy have had an affair and Nell is pregnant. Nell doesn’t want the baby and the boy is now having nothing to do with her, so Jacob tries to care for the baby the best way that he knows how, but taking it to another mother (Katy’s mother). However, along the way the baby dies and everyone thinks that Jacob maliciously drowned the baby. Only Katy knows the truth, but being only an eight-year-old child, no one listens to her. The boy is sent to the local Asylum and never heard from again. This story has haunted Katy, now an older woman, all of her life.
Lowry created this book from old pictures that she discovered along the way of her life; old pictures of strangers that she had never met, but desired to make a book about. I have not read a lot of books set in the early 1900s (1911 in this book), set right before the depression and World War II, but this one was very interesting to some extent. I was not drawn into it like I was in The Giver and Number the Stars, but I did want to get to the bottom line of what had happened at the beginning of the story that the main character was remembering back about. Lowry does tend to write stories that deal with the underprivileged and unfortunate citizens in our society. I think that she tries to, with her words, make the wrongs of this world obvious to us and to allow us, the readers, to change our own lives to make the unfortunate citizen’s lives better. With Jacob, he is a person who is trapped in his own mind of solidarity, but he loves animals and being kind to other people. I hate the fact that whenever anything goes wrong in the town (the mill burning down, as an example) that they blame Jacob. When he tries to care for a human baby that is his sisters’, who doesn’t want to take care of it, the baby ends up dying. The boy who loved animals and roaming around in the great outdoors was sentenced to the rest of his life in the Asylum, where people scream and yell, because they are out of their minds. I am saddened to think how scared Jacob must have been in this place and how unhappy he was, as well. This is so sad and so true of ways that mentally handicapped people were treated back in those days. Jacob didn’t belong in the Asylum, he belonged with a family who loved him and were patient with him. He belonged in a place where he could care for small and pitiful animals and bring them back to the living. Yes, mental institutions are meant for some people with illnesses, but it was not meant for Jacob, who most likely struggled from autism. So sad, and yet so much of a mirror image of our own society. Have we gotten better at treating and caring for people with mental disabilities? I hope so. This reflection of our own society is also another way that Lowry weaves her writer’s craft.
The Silent Boy is set back in American history when cars were first being invented, but in small towns, doctors still move around in horse and wagons. The main character, Katy, is telling the story from a memory in her mind that deeply imprinted itself on her in her childhood. In the beginning she is now an older woman, having become a doctor, been married to a kind man, and raised many a child and grandchild. Now, at the end of her life, she wants to tell the story of Jacob, who is a mentally handicapped boy (I would guess he had autism, but it is never said) who sends his time trying to care for animals, never talking, and making funny little sounds to himself. Katy, the local doctor’s daughter, decides to befriend him as much as she can, and takes his side when tragedy strikes. Jacob’s two sisters, Nell and Peggy work in town as hired out girls, and Peggy stays and works with Katy’s family. At the end of the book the reader discovers that Nell and another well-to-do boy have had an affair and Nell is pregnant. Nell doesn’t want the baby and the boy is now having nothing to do with her, so Jacob tries to care for the baby the best way that he knows how, but taking it to another mother (Katy’s mother). However, along the way the baby dies and everyone thinks that Jacob maliciously drowned the baby. Only Katy knows the truth, but being only an eight-year-old child, no one listens to her. The boy is sent to the local Asylum and never heard from again. This story has haunted Katy, now an older woman, all of her life.
Lowry created this book from old pictures that she discovered along the way of her life; old pictures of strangers that she had never met, but desired to make a book about. I have not read a lot of books set in the early 1900s (1911 in this book), set right before the depression and World War II, but this one was very interesting to some extent. I was not drawn into it like I was in The Giver and Number the Stars, but I did want to get to the bottom line of what had happened at the beginning of the story that the main character was remembering back about. Lowry does tend to write stories that deal with the underprivileged and unfortunate citizens in our society. I think that she tries to, with her words, make the wrongs of this world obvious to us and to allow us, the readers, to change our own lives to make the unfortunate citizen’s lives better. With Jacob, he is a person who is trapped in his own mind of solidarity, but he loves animals and being kind to other people. I hate the fact that whenever anything goes wrong in the town (the mill burning down, as an example) that they blame Jacob. When he tries to care for a human baby that is his sisters’, who doesn’t want to take care of it, the baby ends up dying. The boy who loved animals and roaming around in the great outdoors was sentenced to the rest of his life in the Asylum, where people scream and yell, because they are out of their minds. I am saddened to think how scared Jacob must have been in this place and how unhappy he was, as well. This is so sad and so true of ways that mentally handicapped people were treated back in those days. Jacob didn’t belong in the Asylum, he belonged with a family who loved him and were patient with him. He belonged in a place where he could care for small and pitiful animals and bring them back to the living. Yes, mental institutions are meant for some people with illnesses, but it was not meant for Jacob, who most likely struggled from autism. So sad, and yet so much of a mirror image of our own society. Have we gotten better at treating and caring for people with mental disabilities? I hope so. This reflection of our own society is also another way that Lowry weaves her writer’s craft.
National Geographic Desert Animals, Animals in their Habitats, by June Randolph - Information Text
I teach about the different habitats in the third grade, and this year my goal was to introduce the different habitats with a read aloud, each day. When I began talking about the desert habitat, I of course decided to read The Three Little Javalinas to my class, because it does a cute little fractured fairytale version of the desert animals, people, and plants. Unfortunately, at the time I was not as interested in nonfiction as I am now (thank you Dr. Johnson), so I had not acquired the book that I am about to write about. However, rest assured, I will be using this National Geographic Desert Animals nonfiction book as a read aloud from here on out (along with The Three Little Javalinas, because I just love that book!).
National Geographic Desert Animals is a fabulous nonfiction book that looks very similar to a National Geographic magazine, only with child readers in mind. The words are student friendly and it offers a lot of pictures and captions to show the desert (both cold and hot), it’s animals, and plants. The book is also useful for teaching text features (glossary, index, table of contexts, bold words, captions, etc.) because it has all of those. I would be able to use this with students who are reading below grade level in their third grade in a buddy reading or independent reading group. I have noticed so many times that my learning disabled and lower readers love to read nonfiction. I think one of the reasons is because it shows pictures (attracting their interest), has leading titles (keeping their interest), and breaks the information up into little segments and parts (allowing for scaffolding along the way). National Geographic doesn’t stop with just the desert, however, either. They have Forest Animals, Ocean Animals, and Rain Forest Animals. What a nice plethora for my use next year!
Science is fascinating to children and if they like the animal or habitat, they will most likely read the nonfiction book that teaches them more about that animal and habitat. Even I am pulled into the works of these books, learning right along with the children about animals and their interesting body parts that help them to adapt to their environment.
National Geographic Desert Animals is a fabulous nonfiction book that looks very similar to a National Geographic magazine, only with child readers in mind. The words are student friendly and it offers a lot of pictures and captions to show the desert (both cold and hot), it’s animals, and plants. The book is also useful for teaching text features (glossary, index, table of contexts, bold words, captions, etc.) because it has all of those. I would be able to use this with students who are reading below grade level in their third grade in a buddy reading or independent reading group. I have noticed so many times that my learning disabled and lower readers love to read nonfiction. I think one of the reasons is because it shows pictures (attracting their interest), has leading titles (keeping their interest), and breaks the information up into little segments and parts (allowing for scaffolding along the way). National Geographic doesn’t stop with just the desert, however, either. They have Forest Animals, Ocean Animals, and Rain Forest Animals. What a nice plethora for my use next year!
Science is fascinating to children and if they like the animal or habitat, they will most likely read the nonfiction book that teaches them more about that animal and habitat. Even I am pulled into the works of these books, learning right along with the children about animals and their interesting body parts that help them to adapt to their environment.
Goin' Someplace Special, by Patricia C. McKissack and Illustrations by Jerry Pinkney - Historical Fiction
What a delight to read! I was tearing up by the end of the book. Goin’ Someplace Special is a historical fiction picturebook that is set in the segregated past of Nashville, Tennessee. ‘Tricia Ann feels like she is old enough to go to a place that she affectionately calls “Someplace Special” by herself, today, without her Mama Frances with her. She so looks forward to this place and getting there, but along the way she is faced with the hatred and ignorance that some showed during the segregation time period. ‘Tricia Ann has to sit in the “Colored Only” section of the bus, she isn’t allowed to sit on a bench in a park for it is reserved for “white’s only”, and when she accidentally gets pushed into a hotel lobby, she is publicly humiliated by the hotel matron because black people are not allowed in the hotel unless they are workers. With all of the humiliation and disappointment disrupting her at one time joyful attitude, the reader is continuously left wondering what makes the “Someplace Special” so special. I wanted to comfort the poor girl and yell at the ignorant people along the way who dared to disrupt her happiness. Yet, the reader is not disappointed at the end to find that the “Someplace Special” that ‘Trisha Ann has been trying to get to is a library, where everyone can go and read.
My heart was breaking for little ‘Trisha Ann, who had gotten herself all beautified for this little outing. She was so excited about going to a special place on her own and met with so much injustice and unfairness along the way. The last picture of the book, with her looking up with so much expectation pulled at my heart. I know, through that look of her’s and the library sign that reads PUBLIC LIBRARY: ALL ARE WELCOME, that she will finally get the respect that she deserves. How very fitting that a house of knowledge, a library (one of my favorite places in the world) was one of the first places to desegregate in a peaceful manner and allow ALL people to enter in the late 1950s! I love it!
I learned something from this book that I must share with my students and with other friends, Nashville, Tennessee’s public library board of directors decided to integrate all of their facilities long before the rest of the city had. That just shows that not all white people were ignorant and filled with the stupidity of hatred that unfortunately the majority of the city must have been filled with! The author of this book actually wrote the story from her own perspective, remembering her own trips to the library, where she was welcome, despite what her skin color was. She wrote a quote in the Author’s Note that gives me goosebumps, “…reading is the doorway to freedom” (pg. 32, McKissack, 2001). How very true!
My heart was breaking for little ‘Trisha Ann, who had gotten herself all beautified for this little outing. She was so excited about going to a special place on her own and met with so much injustice and unfairness along the way. The last picture of the book, with her looking up with so much expectation pulled at my heart. I know, through that look of her’s and the library sign that reads PUBLIC LIBRARY: ALL ARE WELCOME, that she will finally get the respect that she deserves. How very fitting that a house of knowledge, a library (one of my favorite places in the world) was one of the first places to desegregate in a peaceful manner and allow ALL people to enter in the late 1950s! I love it!
I learned something from this book that I must share with my students and with other friends, Nashville, Tennessee’s public library board of directors decided to integrate all of their facilities long before the rest of the city had. That just shows that not all white people were ignorant and filled with the stupidity of hatred that unfortunately the majority of the city must have been filled with! The author of this book actually wrote the story from her own perspective, remembering her own trips to the library, where she was welcome, despite what her skin color was. She wrote a quote in the Author’s Note that gives me goosebumps, “…reading is the doorway to freedom” (pg. 32, McKissack, 2001). How very true!
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