Bright Path: Young Jim Thorpe by Don Brown
no awards that I know about
Jim Thorpe competed in the 5th Olympic Games in 1912. His score in the decathlon remained unbeaten for 20 years. His score in the pentathlon was never equaled.
But his "training" for these events consisted of running around on the Oklahoma plains, helping out on the farm, and running away from the Indian boarding schools that he was sent to! He hated these schools that were military strict and designed to "break" Indian children from their culture. Once Jim ran off moments after being dropped off at school by his father and arrived home BEFORE his dad reached home on horse back!
Pick up football games were the bright spot in the drudgery of boarding school, but his beginnings as a world class athelete happened entirely by accident when in 1907 he happened by the track team at Carlisle and noticed that none of the high jumpers could clear the bar. He asked if he could try--- and cleared it on the first try, dressed in overalls! He was asked to join the team and suddenly this young man who was unhappily struggling through school was a star athlete.
There are a few pages of authors notes and bibliographic information at the end of book. Here I learned that because of Jim's playing baseball in a minor minor league one summer when school was out at Carlisle, the Olympic Committee stripped him of his medals and his name was stricken from Olympic records. Since receiving the gold medal was "the proudest moment of my life" according to Jim himself, I can't imagine the emotional impact that must have had on this young man.
He played professional sports for a time after leaving school --- baseball, football and even basketball. When he retired from professional sports he worked at various odd jobs and died of a heart attack at age 64, in 1953. It wasn't until 1973 that the Olympic Committee restored Jim's amateur status and presented replica's of Jim's gold medals to his children.
The heartbreaking info in the end notes are NOT presented in the picture book, which is a story that celebrates this remarkable athlete.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Black and White
Black and White by David Macaulay
1991 Caldecott Medal
This is one of those rare books that actually redefines "book" for me. I would put The Invention of Hugo Cabret in this category, and this one.
It starts with a WARNING "This book appears to contain a number or stories that do not neccessarily occur at the same time. Then again, it may contain only one story. In any event, careful inspection of both words and pictures is recommended."
Then, each two page spread is devided into four sections. And in each section a story is told in pictures and a few words. The top left hand corner . . . the story is about a train and a boy riding on the train. The lower left hand corner is a story about a family--- two parents, two kids and a dog. The top right hand corner there are a bunch of people waiting at a train station. The lower right hand corner the story is about an escaped convict and some cows.
These four stories move forward each in their own frame with no particular need for one another. BUT. . . . like the warning says. . . invite CAREFUL inspection.
I read this to Makayla and we over spent our reading time by a good 30 minutes with out even being the slightest bit aware of it. The experience of this book is wonderfully absorbing and fun. We finished it and immediately tried to sell it to everyone else in the house!
1991 Caldecott Medal
This is one of those rare books that actually redefines "book" for me. I would put The Invention of Hugo Cabret in this category, and this one.
It starts with a WARNING "This book appears to contain a number or stories that do not neccessarily occur at the same time. Then again, it may contain only one story. In any event, careful inspection of both words and pictures is recommended."
Then, each two page spread is devided into four sections. And in each section a story is told in pictures and a few words. The top left hand corner . . . the story is about a train and a boy riding on the train. The lower left hand corner is a story about a family--- two parents, two kids and a dog. The top right hand corner there are a bunch of people waiting at a train station. The lower right hand corner the story is about an escaped convict and some cows.
These four stories move forward each in their own frame with no particular need for one another. BUT. . . . like the warning says. . . invite CAREFUL inspection.
I read this to Makayla and we over spent our reading time by a good 30 minutes with out even being the slightest bit aware of it. The experience of this book is wonderfully absorbing and fun. We finished it and immediately tried to sell it to everyone else in the house!
Duffy and the Devil
Duffy and the Devil retold by Harve Zemach, pictures by Margot Zemach
1974 Caldecott Medal
This is a folk tale in the rumpelstiltskin vein. Duffy makes a deal with the devil--- he'll do her spinning and knitting for her for three years, but at the end of three years, he gets to take her away. . . unless she can guess his name. Since Duffy doesn't in fact know HOW to knit or spin, and has hired herself out to do exactly those things, she ends up entering into the bargain!
I liked the story, it has colorful language, including some fun words that I'd never heard before, but just SOUND like what you supoze they meant. It all ends well, and with a hilarious twist that both my children (ages 10 and 7) had a huge laughing fit over!
1974 Caldecott Medal
This is a folk tale in the rumpelstiltskin vein. Duffy makes a deal with the devil--- he'll do her spinning and knitting for her for three years, but at the end of three years, he gets to take her away. . . unless she can guess his name. Since Duffy doesn't in fact know HOW to knit or spin, and has hired herself out to do exactly those things, she ends up entering into the bargain!
I liked the story, it has colorful language, including some fun words that I'd never heard before, but just SOUND like what you supoze they meant. It all ends well, and with a hilarious twist that both my children (ages 10 and 7) had a huge laughing fit over!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Shiloh Season
Shiloh Season by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
sequel to the 1992 Newbery Medal Winner Shiloh
Also won several Children's Choice awards in various states.
After reading Shiloh out loud to my son Jabu age 10, I looked up the other two books in the series and checked them out of the library.
In some ways I liked Shiloh Season even more than Shiloh. It wasn't quite as action packed, but had some great conversations between Marty (the 11 year old boy telling the story) and "Doc" the doctor that patched up his dog. The author is especially good at delving into moral ethical issues that don't fall neatly into black and white, right and wrong.
In this book Judd Travers is drinking hard and even scarier than he was in the first book.
Marty keeps reaching to build a bridge between his family and Judd despite everything that has happened. And in fact the whole mountain community comes forward to help Judd out in a time of need.
Doc has told Marty that "people have to learn kindness, just like you have to learn to tie your shoes." And Marty has quizzed a vet in town about whether dogs as mean as Judds could ever be nice dogs again; the vet thinks, yes, that it wouldn't be easy, but step by step they could learn to trust someone. Marty tries to put this into practice with Judd himself, hoping by showing him kindness he might learn a little bit of it.
Nice book. I'd recommend it. And we're keeping on with the last book in the series starting bed time tomorrow!
sequel to the 1992 Newbery Medal Winner Shiloh
Also won several Children's Choice awards in various states.
After reading Shiloh out loud to my son Jabu age 10, I looked up the other two books in the series and checked them out of the library.
In some ways I liked Shiloh Season even more than Shiloh. It wasn't quite as action packed, but had some great conversations between Marty (the 11 year old boy telling the story) and "Doc" the doctor that patched up his dog. The author is especially good at delving into moral ethical issues that don't fall neatly into black and white, right and wrong.
In this book Judd Travers is drinking hard and even scarier than he was in the first book.
Marty keeps reaching to build a bridge between his family and Judd despite everything that has happened. And in fact the whole mountain community comes forward to help Judd out in a time of need.
Doc has told Marty that "people have to learn kindness, just like you have to learn to tie your shoes." And Marty has quizzed a vet in town about whether dogs as mean as Judds could ever be nice dogs again; the vet thinks, yes, that it wouldn't be easy, but step by step they could learn to trust someone. Marty tries to put this into practice with Judd himself, hoping by showing him kindness he might learn a little bit of it.
Nice book. I'd recommend it. And we're keeping on with the last book in the series starting bed time tomorrow!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein
2004 Caldecott Medal
I love this book. First of all, I'm partial to street performers and circus arts and this story features Phillipe Petit, the french tight rope walker, and his famed high wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.
I think I had heard of this man on a tight rope between sky scrapers in NYC, but to hear the details of it was SO much better than this single image of a man walking a wire.
First of all the towers were 1/4 mile high. The tallest buildings in New York City.
Second of all he didn't just walk between the towers. He was out there for almost an hour, walking dancing, running, and even kneeling in a salute. He even lay down to rest.
Finally, it was completely against the law and when he came off the wire he held out his hands for handcuffs, but this was only after the police had been shouting at him for an hour!
The towers were not quite complete when he did this. He dressed up as a construction worker and some how got a 440 pound reel of cable to the top floor, carrying it up the last 180 stairs to the roof. Other friends were on the other tower. They tied a thin strong line to an arrow and shot it across to Philippe, 140 feet away. They worked all night to secure the cable.
The pictures include two fold out pages giving the feel of how NYC must look from 1/4 mile up--- for Phillipe, "happy and absolutely free"; and what Philippe must have looked like from the street--- "It was astonishing. It was terrifying and beautiful. A quarter mile up in the sky someone was dancing."
I love this part:
"Officers rushed to the roofs of the towers. 'You're under arrest!' they shouted through bullhorns. Phillipe turned and walked the other way. Who would come and get him?"
You'll be glad to know that when the case came to court he was sentenced to perform in the park for the children of the city!
OK, so this would be a GREAT story under any circumstances. But this book was written in 2004 after 9/11 and the towers he walked between are already gone. The poignancy of this gives the story a deeper context that makes it a very memorable story, and kicks it into my "favorites" category!
2004 Caldecott Medal
I love this book. First of all, I'm partial to street performers and circus arts and this story features Phillipe Petit, the french tight rope walker, and his famed high wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.
I think I had heard of this man on a tight rope between sky scrapers in NYC, but to hear the details of it was SO much better than this single image of a man walking a wire.
First of all the towers were 1/4 mile high. The tallest buildings in New York City.
Second of all he didn't just walk between the towers. He was out there for almost an hour, walking dancing, running, and even kneeling in a salute. He even lay down to rest.
Finally, it was completely against the law and when he came off the wire he held out his hands for handcuffs, but this was only after the police had been shouting at him for an hour!
The towers were not quite complete when he did this. He dressed up as a construction worker and some how got a 440 pound reel of cable to the top floor, carrying it up the last 180 stairs to the roof. Other friends were on the other tower. They tied a thin strong line to an arrow and shot it across to Philippe, 140 feet away. They worked all night to secure the cable.
The pictures include two fold out pages giving the feel of how NYC must look from 1/4 mile up--- for Phillipe, "happy and absolutely free"; and what Philippe must have looked like from the street--- "It was astonishing. It was terrifying and beautiful. A quarter mile up in the sky someone was dancing."
I love this part:
"Officers rushed to the roofs of the towers. 'You're under arrest!' they shouted through bullhorns. Phillipe turned and walked the other way. Who would come and get him?"
You'll be glad to know that when the case came to court he was sentenced to perform in the park for the children of the city!
OK, so this would be a GREAT story under any circumstances. But this book was written in 2004 after 9/11 and the towers he walked between are already gone. The poignancy of this gives the story a deeper context that makes it a very memorable story, and kicks it into my "favorites" category!
My People
My People by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Charles R. Smith Jr.
2010 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
This book features a poem by Langston Hughes illustrated with photographs of black people. The poem is short and simple--- only 33 words! But written in the 1920's when the words must have meant a lot, celebrating the beauty of the black people inside and out. The black and white photography that illustrates the poem are lovely, moving, silly, beautiful, young and old and you wanna like all the people in the book.
2010 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
This book features a poem by Langston Hughes illustrated with photographs of black people. The poem is short and simple--- only 33 words! But written in the 1920's when the words must have meant a lot, celebrating the beauty of the black people inside and out. The black and white photography that illustrates the poem are lovely, moving, silly, beautiful, young and old and you wanna like all the people in the book.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Grandaddy's Place
Grandaddy's Place by Helen V. Griffith, pictures by James Stevenson
no awards that I am aware of
I liked this book a lot. It is an illustrated chapter book. I read all four chapters in one sitting to my daughter this evening. It actually feels more like a picture book, but it does have four "epsisodes". It's a story about a girl visiting her grandaddy for the first time, along with her mom. The conversations between Janetta and her grandaddy are pretty perfect somehow. The author has those voices "down" and it completely charmed both Makayla (age 7) and I.
I actually tell the story this author tells in her book Georgia Music. And so it was fun to find this "prequel" to that. I love the connectedness depicted so well between grandaddy and Janetta. And we laughed pretty much on every page. But the kind of laughing that comes from just enjoying the people rather than from hearing a joke.
Here's an example:
After dark Momma and Grandaddy and Janetta sat out on the steps. The mean-looking cat wasn't anywhere around. Janetta hoped the wasps were asleep. She was beginning to feel sleepy herself. Then a terrible sound from the woods brought her wide awake.
"Was that the mule?" she asked.
"That was just an old hoot owl singing his song," said Grandaddy.
"It didn't sound like singing to me," said Janetta.
" If you were an owl, you'd be tapping your feet," said Grandaddy.
*****
Anyhow, I'd recommend this one! Enjoy!
no awards that I am aware of
I liked this book a lot. It is an illustrated chapter book. I read all four chapters in one sitting to my daughter this evening. It actually feels more like a picture book, but it does have four "epsisodes". It's a story about a girl visiting her grandaddy for the first time, along with her mom. The conversations between Janetta and her grandaddy are pretty perfect somehow. The author has those voices "down" and it completely charmed both Makayla (age 7) and I.
I actually tell the story this author tells in her book Georgia Music. And so it was fun to find this "prequel" to that. I love the connectedness depicted so well between grandaddy and Janetta. And we laughed pretty much on every page. But the kind of laughing that comes from just enjoying the people rather than from hearing a joke.
Here's an example:
After dark Momma and Grandaddy and Janetta sat out on the steps. The mean-looking cat wasn't anywhere around. Janetta hoped the wasps were asleep. She was beginning to feel sleepy herself. Then a terrible sound from the woods brought her wide awake.
"Was that the mule?" she asked.
"That was just an old hoot owl singing his song," said Grandaddy.
"It didn't sound like singing to me," said Janetta.
" If you were an owl, you'd be tapping your feet," said Grandaddy.
*****
Anyhow, I'd recommend this one! Enjoy!
Hondo and Fabian
Hondo and Fabian written and illustrated by Peter McCarty
2003 Caldecott Honor
Well, I have to admit, I was kind of disappointed in this one. It's a simple story about a dog (Hondo) and a cat (Fabian) and their day. The illustrations are soft colored pencil drawings, and they are pleasing, but not earth shatteringly wonderful or anything. I did appreciate the gentle humor in both the text and the illustrations; both my daughter and I liked the page with the cat having fun unrolling the toilet paper. Maybe if I had a younger person to read this to, it would have gotten better reviews. My youngest is 7 and she didn't object to the story, but didn't love it either. I think a pre-schooler might like it better, especially a pre-schooler with a dog and a cat in the house!
2003 Caldecott Honor
Well, I have to admit, I was kind of disappointed in this one. It's a simple story about a dog (Hondo) and a cat (Fabian) and their day. The illustrations are soft colored pencil drawings, and they are pleasing, but not earth shatteringly wonderful or anything. I did appreciate the gentle humor in both the text and the illustrations; both my daughter and I liked the page with the cat having fun unrolling the toilet paper. Maybe if I had a younger person to read this to, it would have gotten better reviews. My youngest is 7 and she didn't object to the story, but didn't love it either. I think a pre-schooler might like it better, especially a pre-schooler with a dog and a cat in the house!
Friday, February 3, 2012
Princess Grace
Princess Grace by Mary Hoffman, illustrations by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu
no awards that I'm aware of
I love this story because I live with a "princess" and I'm always trying to find ways of balancing her interest in princesses and princess stuff with other messages that add up to an empowered self concept!
This book has a great message about princesses actually being more than the disney version.
Grace is featured in other books by Mary Hoffman and is a spunky African American girl. Hmmmm, actually Mary Hoffman is from England, so "African British"????? I don't know the term!
Anyhow, I recommend the Grace books in general. And if you're in need of a "princess antidote" at your house, this is a good pick!
no awards that I'm aware of
I love this story because I live with a "princess" and I'm always trying to find ways of balancing her interest in princesses and princess stuff with other messages that add up to an empowered self concept!
This book has a great message about princesses actually being more than the disney version.
Grace is featured in other books by Mary Hoffman and is a spunky African American girl. Hmmmm, actually Mary Hoffman is from England, so "African British"????? I don't know the term!
Anyhow, I recommend the Grace books in general. And if you're in need of a "princess antidote" at your house, this is a good pick!
Golem
Golem story and pictures by David Wisneiwski
1997 Caldecott Medal
This is a haunting story about the persecution of the Jews in Prague in the laste 1500's. A time when violence against the Jews was common place. Jews were forced to live in walled in ghettos and forbidden the protection of the law.
This story tells about a rabbi who created a giant out of clay, the Golem, and brought him to life to protect the Jewish people.
The book also has a detailed "afterward" (directed at adults not children) telling more about the history of the time.
The detailed paper cut illustrations are absolutely beautiful.
It's not a light read and my 10 year old said he didn't like it. The story on the other hand is RICH in discussion topics. . . everything from religious persecution, to the power of humans to create things that are beyond our power which then "come alive" and cause destruction, to the history of the Jewish people, to the closing line "Perhaps, when the desperate need for justice is united with holy purpose, Golem will come to life once more."
1997 Caldecott Medal
This is a haunting story about the persecution of the Jews in Prague in the laste 1500's. A time when violence against the Jews was common place. Jews were forced to live in walled in ghettos and forbidden the protection of the law.
This story tells about a rabbi who created a giant out of clay, the Golem, and brought him to life to protect the Jewish people.
The book also has a detailed "afterward" (directed at adults not children) telling more about the history of the time.
The detailed paper cut illustrations are absolutely beautiful.
It's not a light read and my 10 year old said he didn't like it. The story on the other hand is RICH in discussion topics. . . everything from religious persecution, to the power of humans to create things that are beyond our power which then "come alive" and cause destruction, to the history of the Jewish people, to the closing line "Perhaps, when the desperate need for justice is united with holy purpose, Golem will come to life once more."
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