Jornal Entry 6

Shiloh

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

I stumbled upon Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor a few days ago and decided to read it, not really knowing what it was about. I obviously recognized the title, but surprisingly I had never read it in my childhood. When several friends noticed me reading it, they all reacted the same way - "aww, I love Shiloh. Such a good book". Most were also surprised that I had never read it before. I think that somewhere between switching schools I must have missed it. Another surprising thing I noticed was that they all seemed to have read it in different grades. As I got further into the book, I began to worry that Shiloh was a little mature for elementary aged children. Therefore I began asking friends what grade they were in when they had read it. Most of my friends did say grades 4-5 but I also had a friend tell me he had read it as a class in grade 8 and one who had read it in grade 7. I was beginning to get confused and still wondered if it was an appropriate book for young readers. It definitely wasn't the vocabulary itself that was bothering me - rather the mature content within. After some thought, here's what I personally believe about the matter:



I think that Shiloh is a magnificently written novel that children in elementary (ages 8-10) should definitely read. Maturity and developmental level are factors to consider when suggesting books for children to read. Some children may be ready to read Shiloh earlier than others, as it can be emotional. With regards to the storyline, it is sad in parts, but it is a realistic situation with a consistently hopeful tone. Children probably don't need to be as "protected" as we may think. Animal abuse is a real issue and children should be aware of real issues in the world (at at time when they are intellectually ready). Shiloh is written for children with a RL of 4.4, and has a happy ending, so while I was a little worried about the content at first, I think children deserve more credit for comprehension than we sometimes give them credit for. Part of what makes this book so great is that Naylor has presented a mature and controversial topic in an appropriate way so that children can read it without it being too harsh. I love that she appreciates children's intelligence and trusts them to be able to read it maturely.

The story takes place in West Virginia and I love the way the language represents the southern state. An important element of realistic fiction is ensuring the language and syntax properly represent the characters and situations within the book. I can safely say that the language in Shiloh remains constant throughout. I enjoyed how "mom" became "ma", how "get" became "git" and how most "ing" endings resulted in the "g" being left off. Example: "your dog come over here twice because you been mistreatin' it" (Pg. 110). Don't you just want to say it out loud? It was such a fun book to read, because even when reading it silently, you constantly "hear" the "twang" of the words and want to say them out loud. I think children would have fun reading this type of text, after all who doesn't like speaking in accents?

My favorite part of the book (and most memorale for me) was watching Marty struggle between what is right and wrong. Society values honestly and telling the truth, while lying is a big no-no.  I loved watching Marty mature and grow as a character. Marty began to realize that sometimes the line between right and wrong can be blurred and sometimes situations aren't as black and white as they are when we are little. Marty knew that lying about hiding Shiloh away was wrong, but returning Shiloh to be hurt again couldn't be right. He also knew that politeness was socially valuable in his town and the "right" thing to do was to "stay out of others' business" but how could that be "right" when animals were being hurt? Marty had to learn to follow his heart and to do what was best for him. It reminded me of one of Shel Silvertstein's poems that I have highlighted in an earlier journal entry. The poem is:

There is a voice inside of you

That whispers all day long,

"I feel this is right for me,

I know that this is wrong."

No teacher, preacher, parent, friend

Or wise man can decide

What's right for you--just listen to

The voice that speaks inside."

                                                 — Shel Silverstein

I connected with Marty because I can remember being a child and being told what was wrong and what was right. Adults made every situation seem either black or white. Cheating was wrong, lying was wrong, helping others was right, sharing was right.. and so on. But I can also recall times when those paths crossed and decisions weren't as easy as "right and wrong" anymore. I remember times when I've lied to protect someone's feelings, and times when I've questioned the law and society's values and what they believe to be "right". Shiloh helps us realize that sometimes the values of society can be wrong. Sometimes we have a "turn a blind eye" attitude where people would rather pretend they don't see things than risk standing out and making a fuss. How can that be right?

Of course, Shiloh isn't going to make every nine year old question "societal values" but it may get them thinking about right and wrong. I genuinely enjoyed reading Shiloh and can completely understand why some Jr. High teachers may choose to read it to their class. The themes run deep and whether older or younger, most children will take something meaningful away from reading it.

Journal Entry 5

Flotsam

by David Wiesner



After learning about picture books in class, I came across Flotsam with its multiple awards displayed on the cover and decided to check it out. I was actually rather surprised to find it was a wordless book. I had never really studied or "read" a wordless book before so I was immediately interested in analyzing it. The book is about a little boy who spends his days on a beach collecting flotsam - "something that floats", meaning he searches for things that wash up on the beach. One day he finds an underwater camera and when he develops the film he sees exactly what goes on in a world humans don't get to experience. He also discovers pictures of all the children who have previously found the camera, and taking a photo of himself, he sends the camera back into the ocean. The last page shows a picture of another kid finding the camera washed up across the world on a different beach.

As I flipped through the pages, seeing the story unfold before me, I felt excited. It was a feeling I had never really gotten reading any other type of book before. I can not remember ever having to understand a story without decoding text, so it was a completely new and foreign adventure for me. I felt like I was a child again, studying the pictures and having to use my imagination to create the text(story) myself. I felt in control - like it was my story to tell using only the visual clues to help me. It made me imagine what it would be like if I didn't know how to read - like most young children do not. Pictures can be powerful, they can ignite excitement and nurture and expand imaginations. I think that is why children are naturally such great storytellers. Before they know how to read text, they know how to use the pictures to help them tell a story. As adults, we often forget what using our imagination feels like - most of our creativity vanishes. We read books, study the text, and often never even question it. Children have a wonderful ability to be creative and I think wordless picture books like Flotsam allows them to do just that.

I first of all connected to the book on a personal level because it brought back memories of myself as a child. I grew up in Bonavista where you could literally walk right off the province's edge and I would never change that for anything. I spent my summer days with my parents on the beach across from my house splashing in the freezing ocean and making a mess in the sand. My dad would take my little brother and I to find "beach glass", glass that is smoothed from the rough action of the water and sand. My brother and I would have contests to see who could find more pieces and who found the prettiest colors. I still hold those memories close because my dad passed away a few years later. So for that reason, I connected with the little boy in the book who loved searching for objects that washed up on the beach.

I also believe the book can be enjoyed by children of varying ages. I wouldn't necessarily put an age limit on it because I thoroughly enjoyed "reading" it myself! I can imagine young children sitting down studying the pictures and making up their own story to accompany the text, letting their imaginations run wild. The pictures are such that they follow a sequentially organized plot and the subject is fascinating. Any child who has grown up around water should also have enough background knowledge to understand the pictures.

With regards to the actual illustrations, I believe David Wiesner has done an incredible job. Flotsam has won both The Caldecott Medal and "Best Illustrated Children's Book Award" from the New York Times. The illustrations were executed in watercolor and emphasizes amazing detail and texture (the fish scales, eye lashes, hair, etc).

I particularly love how most illustrations have borders around them, giving a formal and sequential feeling to the pictures:



Another aspect I absolutely love about the photos is that some are shown from multiple perspectives. This creative technique used by Wiesner gives us an "all knowing" view and enables us to see the same event in different ways, giving us perspective. For example, the following illustration shows us the same scene from 4 different perspectives - very neat!



Lastly, I love the fantasy within the book. The deep seas of the world are a mystery to most of us, and this book allows us to see "photos" of a deep water world full of fantastical people and elements. We believe through this book that octopus live in homes with furniture, there are mermaids, and villages with little underwater aliens, etc. I love how imaginitive the underwater world is portrayed and I can picture young readers imagining it in these ways too. Example:

I just want to conclude that Flotsam is a great wordless picture book that I felt the need to write about. It is an amazing book to get readers thinking creatively and pulls you into a story that you can be a part of creating. My first wordless book experience was great!

Journal Entry 4

Sarah, Plain and Tall

By Patricia MacLachlan

"An exquisite, sometimes painfully touching tale."

                                                                        -- The New York Times

As I began searching through the shelves at the CMC looking for a novel to read for this blog, I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for exactly. I didn't set out looking to choose a specific book, I wanted the book to choose me. As I was kneeling on the floor, Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan caught my eye. It wasn't the cover that got my attention - nothing much about it really seems to stand out. It was how the book looked old and worn, its pages yellowed, wrinkled, and torn and how it still stood on the shelf after all these years, never being considered too "outdated" or irrelevant for the CMC. The title too of course, slowly flooded back to my memory. I could vaguely remember having read it in elementary school (maybe grades 3 or 4?), but genuinely could not recall what it was about. I seemed to remember liking it enough, but nothing about the story seemed to stand out clearly in my mind. I know it was recommended we read books we haven't read before, but I really had the desire to reread Sarah, Plain and Tall. 

Sarah, Plain and Tall is timeless - such a classic. There's something to be said about a book published in 1985, introduced to the CMC in 1990, now with yellowed and torn pages, that STILL gets taken out on a regular basis.

Although the book is set somewhere in the late 19th to early 20th century, as I was reading it, I couldn't help but relate/compare the experiences of Anna to my own experiences when I was about her age. I felt such a personal connection to the book despite living in a very different time, proving the book's timelessness.  The reason I felt such a connection to Anna is because, I too, lost a parent when I was a child. I grew up in a lone parent family- just my mom, little brother and I. Like Anna, I also took on the role of "big sister", helping to take care of my little brother, and trying to protect him from as much as I could. As we learned in class, a sign of a great historical fiction book is one that makes us realize that all people, no matter what time period in history, share(d) the same needs, go through similar experiences, and need to depend on each other. 

Aside from my very personal connection to the book, there are of course other reasons why this piece of historical fiction literature is a great choice. For one, the book is like a mirror - reflecting the past back at us, allowing us to see the differences (but also similarities) between people living back then and our world today. Children today do not realize just how lucky they are and how much they are blessed with. Reading a book like this will allow them to take a quick glance at how they would be living if born 100 years ago. It is important they imagine the experiences of people who have lived in a different time and place. They get a glimpse of the chores, modes of transportation and communication, hobbies,  and careers they would likely have had if born at that place and time. The Witting family is also so very ordinary that it is easy to imagine the plot/events as real, to place themselves and their own families in their shoes and to understand as we also learned in class, that history happens to "ordinary people".

I think the fact that the word "plain" is mentioned so many times throughout the book, it makes us realize that ordinary people have exciting stories too. One doesn't need to have super powers, fame and fortune, or outstanding attributes or abilities to have a great story to tell.

All the elements in Sarah, Plain and Tall are very realistic and authentic in my opinion. The characters are realistic, their actions and speech are very believable for the setting of the book (traveling by horse and cart, sending letters as the only means of communication, manually plowing fields, etc.), and the events are believable for the time and place. All contributes to a great book, one that has even won a Newbery Medal.

I think many children, despite the setting of the book, can relate to the Witting family. Today, many children experience loss, divorce, lone parent and blended families. Because the Witting family seem so "plain" and the events that happen make them seem so ordinary, children can relate their own lives to them. The book helps teach children about loss and grief and different families, and because it is set in the past, children can begin to understand that things like these have been affecting families for years. We are all alike in some ways and we're never alone! Such an important message wrapped in an amazing history lesson that anyone should enjoy.