Module 2: Classic Children's Picture Books and Module 2: Classic Chapter Book

Module 2: Classic Children’s Picture Books

Book: The Snowy Day

Author: Ezra Jack Keats

Plot

 In Ezra Jack Keats Caldecott Winner picture book The Snowy Day, Peter the young protagonist- wakes up to a world of snow. He eats breakfast, puts on his snowsuit, and goes on an adventure through the white wilderness. He experiments with his footprints on snow, realizes that a stick can be a tool for uncovering a tree from snow, learns that he is too young to play snowball with the big boys, makes snowmen and snow angels, and uses his imagination to become a mountain climber. Then, before he heads home, he packs a nice round snowball into his pocket for tomorrow and heads into his house. Peter recounts his adventures to his mother as she gets him ready for his bath then to bed. But, just before Peter heads of to dreamland, he checks his coat for the snowball only to find that it was no longer there. Peter felt sad and dreamt that the sun had come out and melted all his snow away. Fortunately, it was only a dream and, when Peter woke up, he discovered the snow was as thick as ever and starts on another snow filled adventure-this time- with a friend from across the hall.

Impression of the Book

The quiet tranquility of Ezra Jack Keats’ illustrated children’s books evoke feelings of nostalgia, melancholy, and depict a whimsy that only a children’s book could portray. The Snowy Day, in particular, has a popularity that defies time and continues to be enjoyed by readers of all ages. The appeal of The Snowy Day exists in the simple story of Peter and a snow day filled with adventures. Mimicking and enhancing the story are the illustrations that convey to the reader what a snow day looks like and supposed to be like. Peter’s innocent adventure is led by his toe “pointing in like this…and his toe pointing in like that” (Keats, E.).

A stick is found to hit a tree, a snow ball is saved for later, and a dream turns out to be untrue when, in the morning, the snow is still as white and deep as ever. All of this is depicted by Keats’ illustrations that were “Inspired by Asian art and haiku poetry, Keats used lush color in his paintings and collages and strove for simplicity in his texts. He was often more intent on capturing a mood than developing a plot. “Each drawing is considered not in itself, but in relationship to the rest of the book,” he explained, while keeping in mind “drama, continuity, contrast, and mood.” His preferred format was the horizontal double-page spread, which freed him to alternate close-up scenes with panoramic views. In his illustrations Keats makes dilapidated urban settings beautiful through his mastery of collage as well as his dramatic use of color…” (The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats). I enjoyed this book and loved reading it during the days when Dallas was covered with snow. I think it is timeless and will continue to be loved by children of all ages.

Usage in a Library Setting

This book is a wonderful quiet time book for children as young as three. It’s also a great teaching moment to explain the difference between snow, ice, and water. The part where Peter’s snowball melts in his jacket is a magical moment for kids and a teachable moment for educators. After reading the book, an activity that would be great to supplement the story is a science experiment with the element of water.

Review

“In 1962, when Keats's The Snowy Day landed on book shelves, it became an immediate favorite of children and adults alike, received accolades from critics and reviewers, and was awarded the 1963 Caldecott Medal. The first full-color picture book to feature an African-American protagonist, the title placed Peter in that heightened hierocracy of children's book characters (Madeline, Eloise, Max) whose images need no further introduction. Nahson has brought together an inviting, informative, and charming (in all the right ways) book to coordinate with the exhibition, "The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats," at the Jewish Museum in New York City. Accompanying Nahson's preface and essay, "Bringing the Background to the Foreground, or the Poetry of a Trash Can," is a piece by Maurice Berger, who traces Keats's background, civil-rights advocacy, and influence on the children's literature field. Thirty-one beautifully produced plates, which appear in the current exhibition, showcase Keats's innovative and exemplar)' illustrations. Throughout, this offering reflects a choice of high-quality paper and care in the printing process. Following the New York show, the exhibition will travel to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, and the Akron Art Museum in Ohio. Handsome and readable, this volume is a joy from endpaper to endpaper. Libraries will want to have copies available for art and classroom teachers, students of children's literature, parents, and youngsters themselves to browse through and explore.”

By Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA

APA CITATIONS:

Elleman, B. (2011). The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats. School Library Journal, 57(12), 144.

Keats, E. J. (1962). The Snowy Day (pp. 6-31). New York, NY: Viking Penguin Inc.

(n.d.). In The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats. Retrieved February 7, 2014, from http://www.thecjm.org/on-view/upcoming/124-the-snowy-day-and-the-art-of-ezra-jack-keats?gclid=CLehguDHurwCFXNp7Aod71EAkQ

Module 2: Classic Chapter Books

Book: Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone

Author: J.K. Rowling

Plot

            An orphaned boy named Harry Potter with a lightning shaped scar lives with the Dursleys- Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and Cousin Dudley-in number four Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. Until his eleventh birthday, Harry Potter lived under the stairs, maltreated, and made to feel second class. Peculiar things seemed to happen around him quite often that the Dursleys saw as an abomination with no need for explanations. On his eleventh birthday, however, Harry Potter learns that he is a Wizard. We meet Hagrid the half giant, get introduced to the Wizarding World that includes Diagon Alley, Platform 9 and ¾, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts School of Witch Craft and Wizardry. We learn about the Albus Dumbledore, the greatest Wizard of all time and Voldemort (He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named), the most evil Wizard of all time. We meet Harry’s best friends Ron and Hermione and delve into a World where magic is more than just bangs and whistles. In the World of Harry Potter, we learn of love, lust, sacrifice, and hate. This first book of the Harry Potter Series is a step closer to a magic that will live forever in the hearts and minds of its readers. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone,simply put, is perfect.

 

Impression of the Book

            This book changed my life. I remember being in the sixth grade, heading to the school library with my class, and then sitting down to watch book trailers on the new books that the Scholastic Book Fair had to offer. I watched a Boy Wizard with a lightning shaped scar zooming on broom stick chasing a-what I would learn later- snitch from one side of the t.v.  to another. I was hooked. I bought the book along with a bookmark and proceeded to read the book in two nights and then told anyone I could to read the book. I was twelve years old and I wished and hoped that I, too, would get my letter. I did but Hogwarts doesn’t accept FAFSA so I never got to go. This book was the beginning of everything that I am now. Harry Potter was my childhood, my adolescence, and my early 20’s. This book, is everything to whole lot of almost 30’s like me. I’ve met professors who snub this book and say that it won’t last but whenever I ask if they have read it, the answer is always no. I will never understand the snobbery that exists in the literary world but all I can say is that it is their absolute loss. The magic in the book is that everything is so original and detailed. You can see what Diagon Alley looks like, you know what Hagrid looks like, and Hogwarts feels like your home after the end of the book is over. The book makes you feel like the world of magic is real and you yourself are magic…or simply unlucky and are a muggle. Lets face it, I have no words to explain the awesomeness of these books. All I can say is…if you want to know, read this book. It is the beginning of a journey that will change your life and have you feeling-knowing- that magic is real.

Usage in Library Setting:

Cosplay and Movie night at the YA section of the library!!! Invite all Harry Potter Fans to come in costume as their favorite character, talk about the first book, play games like making potions and getting sorted, and then watching the first movie with a meal.

Review of Literature: Michael Winerip is a senior staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. This is his review.

“So many of the beloved heroes and heroines of children's literature -- from Cinderella and Snow White to Oliver Twist and the Little Princess to Matilda, Maniac Magee and the great Gilly Hopkins -- begin their lives being raised by monstrously wicked, clueless adults, too stupid to see what we the readers know practically from page 1: This is a terrific person we'd love to have for a best friend.

And so it is with Harry Potter, the star of ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,'' by J. K. Rowling, a wonderful first novel from England that won major literary awards and has been at the top of the adult best-seller lists there, and is having the same kind of success here too. Poor Harry Potter is orphaned as a baby and is sent to live with his odious aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, and their fat son, Dudley. While Fat Dudley Dursley has two bedrooms (one just for his surplus toys, like the television set he put his foot through when his favorite show was canceled), Harry is forced to sleep in a crawl space under the stairs, has never had a birthday party in his 11 years and must wear his cousin's way baggy hand-me-down clothes.

But Harry is destined for greatness, as we know from the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, and one day he mysteriously receives a notice in the mail announcing that he has been chosen to attend Hogwarts, the nation's elite school for training wizards and witches, the Harvard of sorcery. Before he is done, Harry Potter will meet a dragon, make friends with a melancholy centaur and do battle with a three-headed dog; he will learn how to fly a broom and how to use a cloak that makes him invisible. Though all this hocus-pocus is delightful, the magic in the book is not the real magic of the book. Much like Roald Dahl, J. K. Rowling has a gift for keeping the emotions, fears and triumphs of her characters on a human scale, even while the supernatural is popping out all over.

We feel Harry's fear when for the first time he is traveling to a faraway place, an 11-year-old boy arriving alone at the King's Cross train station with a trunk bigger than he is, and no idea how to find Platform 9. This is a world where some people know from birth that they are wizards, and are raised by their sorcerer parents to attend fair old Hogwarts, while others, like Harry -- raised in human or what Rowling calls ''Muggle'' families -- don't find out that they have special powers until they receive their acceptance letters. As Harry worries that first day about whether he can compete with the privileged children of Hogwarts alums, I found myself thinking back 30 years to my first days at Harvard, wondering how, coming from a blue-collar shipyard town and a public high school, I could ever compete with preppies from Exeter and Andover.

''I bet I'm the worst in the class,'' says Harry.

''You won't be,'' says a friend. ''There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough.''

The book is full of wonderful, sly humor. Exam period at Hogwarts means not just essay tests, but practical exams too. ''Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tap-dance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox -- points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers.''

Throughout most of the book, the characters are impressively three-dimensional (occasionally four-dimensional!) and move along seamlessly through the narrative. However, a few times in the last four chapters, the storytelling begins to sputter, and there are twists I found irritating and contrived. To serve the plot, characters begin behaving out of character. Most noticeably, Hagrid, the gentle giant of a groundskeeper who has selflessly protected Harry over and over, suddenly turns so selfish he is willing to let Harry be punished for something that is Hagrid's fault. That's not the Hagrid I'd come to know.

These are minor criticisms. On the whole, ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' is as funny, moving and impressive as the story behind its writing. J. K. Rowling, a teacher by training, was a 30-year-old single mother living on welfare in a cold one-bedroom flat in Edinburgh when she began writing it in longhand during her baby daughter's nap times. But like Harry Potter, she had wizardry inside, and has soared beyond her modest Muggle surroundings to achieve something quite special”(Winerip, M.).

Michael Winerip is a senior staff writer for The New York Times Magazine.

APA Citations

Rowling, J. K., & GrandPré, M. (1999). Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone. New York: Scholastic.

Winerip, M. (1999, February 14). Children's Books. In New York Times. Retrieved February 13, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/14/reviews/990214.14childrt.html