Module 15: Thirteen Reasons Why

a.       Where to begin? A girl named Hannah Baker has the worst luck or timing or something. Even the smallest things, like a Hot or Not list, has a huge effect on her life. Try as she might, she is unable to form true, lasting friendships and she feels rejected, betrayed and alone each time she tries. I should say that the story begins with Clay and he seems completely taken aback by receiving the package. The reader learns that several people have received and passed this package of thirteen tapes on. Clay is worried and confused as to why he is mentioned as one of the reasons why Hannah took her life. He pushes through each tape with mixed emotions at finding out all the details that led to her death. The reader discovers that he secretly cared for Hannah and he feels guilty that he didn’t do more to create a friendship between them. This book has it all. Alcohol, sneaking out, partying, rape, rejection and voyeurism. Hannah describes everything in detail, even if it is uncomfortable. This book connect seemingly unrelated events to show everyone their role in her downward spiral. No one person helped. After hearing everything, Clay is changed for the better. This glimpse in her life gives him the impulse to speak to a girl he normally avoids. Maybe her life will get better.

b.      Asher, J. (2007). Thirteen reasons why. New York: Razorbill.

c.       This book is so depressing. It totally weighed me down mentally once I finished it. I thought about all of my own experiences in high school and how nothing compared to the experiences described int his book. Even though, it is fiction, these things happen! We get trained on suicide as teachers and how to spot the signs but who really sees what is happening? I am definitely one of those nosy and strict teachers and can quickly spot bullying or tension. If I were in Mr. Porter’s place, could I spot a suicidal teen? I don’t know. It saddens me that Hannah felt so alone that she wanted to take her life. Where were her parents? Why isn’t more emphasis placed on her parents? It’s clear that they were not doing their best to understand their child. In the end, I guess it doesn’t really matter whose fault it is because everyone could have helped. At least thirteen people were directly tied to all the negative things in her life and not one picked up on it.

d.      Thirteen reasons why. (2007). Publishers weekly, 254(40), 55

This uncommonly polished debut opens on a riveting scenario: 13 teenagers in a small town have each been designated to listen, in secret, to a box of audiotapes recorded by their classmate Hannah and mailed on the very day she commits suicide. "I'm about to tell you the story of my life," she says. "More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why." Clay, the narrator, receives the tapes a few weeks after the suicide (each listener must send the box to the next, and Hannah has built in a plan to make sure her posthumous directions are followed), and his initial shock turns to horror as he hears the dead girl implicate his friends and acquaintances in various acts of callousness, cruelty or crime. Asher expertly paces the narrative, splicing Hannah's tale. with Clay's mounting anxiety and fear. Just what has he done? Readers won't be able to pull themselves away until that question gets answered--no matter that the premise is contrived and the plot details can be implausible. The author gets all the characters right, from the popular girl who wants to insure her status to the boy who rapes an unconscious girl at a party where the liquor flows too freely, and the veneer of authenticity suffices to hide the story's flaws. Asher knows how to entertain an audience; this book will leave readers eager to see what he does next. Ages 13-up. (Oct.)

e.       This book is definitely more for high school level students. It contains very serious subject matter that must be talked about, so I would like to hold a discussion online with Lefora. This way no one feels uncomfortable expressing their opinion of the book. 

Module 14: The Arrow Finds Its Mark

a.       This book is a collection of found poems from a variety of sources. The introduction is very important because it explains the reason this book came about.  Poem sources range from twitter, signs, advertisements, titles, captions, and more. The poems vary from acrostic to free verse to haiku. Each poem is unique and artfully illustrated.

b.      Heard, G. (2012). The arrow finds its mark: A book of found poems. New York: Roaring Book Press.  

c.       The idea behind this book is neat and unusual. I know poetry is everything the author wants it to be but I personally did not quite get most of the poems. I liked seeing where they were found, but I don’t think that all of them really scream poetry to me. Again, that is justs my limited exposure to poems. I thought it was interesting to find so much poetry in the most unlikely places, like twitter or bus signs.

d.      Keaise, S. M. (2012). The arrow finds its mark: A book of found poems. Library Media Connection, 30(6), 84.

Poetry, vision, and creativity are the key to the works selected and used in this innovative children's book. These insightful poets created poems from emails, blogs, twitter, face book, and dictionaries. By simply changing a line break or constructing special titles, poets used various forms of poetry from haiku to acrostic. The b&w illustrations bring life to the nontraditional poems. Each poem is accompanied by the person who found it and the source of where they found it. Poetry lovers will not be able to put this book down, just out of curiosity alone.

e.       I would use this book to make a book trailer. I would like to highlight it so that students can check it out. A follow up activity that would like to do is ask students to find poems throughout the campus and submit them to me to publish on our website. 

Module 13: The Adventures of Daniel Boom AKA Loud Boy

a.       Daniel Boom is a young boy who suffers from a loud voice. Daniel has to practice using a lower volume otherwise he shatters glass all around him. As they are going through their semi-normal lives, his mother gets a promotion that requires them to move to Stillville. The kids are not happy about it and get even more riled up when they get a weird warning from Uncle Stanley. His parents don’t believe Stanley and uproot the family to Stillville. The new town seems a bit odd and Daniel doesn’t seem to fit in and is assigned detention on his birthday on Saturday. The night before he tosses and turns while hearing voices. His little sister wakes up too and claims to hear them as well. The find the source of the voices in the basement of the house. Even though they alert their parents, they are quickly dismissed ad Daniel is sent to detention. While at detention, he meets other kids who seem to get in a lot of trouble. Together, they realize they have a lot in common and put pieces together and realize they need to warn their families. After several twists and turns, the kids are kidnapped by the evil Mastermind Old Fogey and have to find a way to escape him. His goal is to make the entire world silent and he manages to make that happen. As with all superkid stories, they manage to get away from him and he is captured by the police. Unfortunately, his evil friends still plan on making their plans a reality.

b.      Steinberg, D. J. (2008). The adventures of Daniel boom aka loud boy. New York: Penguin Group.

c.       I didn’t expect to like this book because I looked down on graphic novels as not real reading. I was wrong. This story is not just pictures with some thought bubbles. The story line is your typical kids vs. bad guys theme with the kid prevailing over all. The illustrations provide clues to the reader that evil henchmen are lurking about throughout the story. The ending entices the reader to pick up the next novel in the series. Overall, I was happy with what I read in this book. I would recommend it to students who enjoy graphic novels.

d.      SOUND OFF!: The Adventures of daniel boom aka loud boy, Book 1. (2008). Kirkus Reviews, 76(1), 49.

In this nearly all-dialogue series-opener, a quintet of young superheroes with unusually kidlike powers squares off against a noise-hating mad scientist. Despite continual efforts to keep it down, Daniel is cursed with such loud pipes that no window or water glass is safe in his presence. This earns him a quick detention in his new school, where he meets three fellow fifth-graders with their own exaggerated abilities to annoy: Rex Rodriguez instantly breaks anything he touches; Violet Fitz can produce world-class tantrums; and Sid Down raises hyperactivity to high art. As it turns out, all four were test subjects as newborns, exposed to a defective "Behavio-Ray" that was supposed to make them permanently docile but had the opposite effect. Now the ray's developer, Otis "Old Fogey" Fogelman, is back with an improved product, and plans to try it out on the entire planet--starting with his first batch of failures. Joined by Daniel's babbling little sister Jeannie S. (who lives up to her name), the young folk do brisk battle in brightly colored, easy-to-"read" cartoon frames, win a victory and by the end have not only cool new names like "Tantrum Girl" and "Destructo Kid," but even a clubhouse. Stay tuned for further world-saving. (Graphic fiction. 8-10)

e.       I would try to create a mini-graphic novel with students. I could divide the class into groups and give each group a stack of plain white note cards. They could create a story set in the library and glue their cards in the correct sequence on a poster board. I could display their mini-stories in the library along with a display of available graphic novels.

Module 12: Rosa

a.       This book walks a young reader through a historical time in history. The book begins with a little bit of background on Rosa Parks. Her day started off normally, with her time at work and how her mother was sick. Rosa was let go early and began her trip home. It was a busy day and many people were on the bus. Due to a full Black section, Rosa had to sit in the Neutral section. Pretty soon, the bus began to fill up. All of a sudden, Rosa notices the bus driver hollering over her saying he wanted them to vacate the seats. The black man next to her said he didn’t want trouble and moved. Rosa sat back down and refused. The bus driver threatened to call the police, along with shouts from other white riders. Rosa was not to be moved. The book continues on describing the effects of her action. Others rallied around to support her, although not without consequence. Rosa’s actions have a profound impact on society and lead to the ruling that no segregation can occur on busses.

b.      Giovanni, N. (2005). Rosa. New York: Henry Holt.

c.       I was surprised to learn something new about a Rosa Parks story. Apparently, Rosa Parks was seated in a Neutral area. I did not know that the busses had a Neutral area for both Blacks and Whites to sit on. My recollection of the story was that she chose to sit down in the white section because the Blacks area was full. I am glad I was able to get all of the information down correctly. This book is not only about Rosa’s experience. It also includes instances of injustice towards African Americans with examples of lynching and revenge by racist people in those days. The story also honors the efforts of so many people who supported Rosa during this difficult moment in history. The illustrations provided a vivid depiction of the dark moment that Rosa lived through. Giovanni’s book honors not only Rosa Parks, but all the individuals who were treated with injustice and disrespect.

d.       Rosa. (2012). Journal of education, 192(1), 54.

"A cooling breeze on a sweltering day; a sun-dried quilt in fall; the enchantment of snowflakes extending the horizon; the promise of renewal at spring" (Giovanni, 2005, p. 4). This is how the author, the first recipient of the Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award, describes the heroine of her book. Young readers will surely be inspired by the story of a remarkable woman whose act of civil disobedience precipitated the Montgomery bus boycott.

The story begins with the description of a rather routine day: Rosa's mother recovering from the flu; her husband, a barber, working at the Air Force base; and Rosa hurriedly leaving her job as a seamstress as she thinks about preparing a meatloaf for dinner. These ordinary events make her extraordinary act of courage in standing against injustice even more remarkable. The events on the bus are described in detail, and her quiet refusal to give in to the demand that she give up her seat to a White passenger is in sharp contrast with the behavior of the bus driver who yelled, "I said give me those seats!" (p. 14) and the passengers who demanded that she be arrested. The story closes as groups of people who share her mission, including the Women's Political Council and the NAACP, mobilize to organize a bus boycott. Ultimately, the courage of these heroes, named and unnamed, led to the Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation to be unconstitutional.

The rich watercolor and collage illustrations are captivating. The fold out pages that show those who walked, instead of riding the bus, and those who marched, capture how a number of people from all walks of life came together for the cause of Civil Rights. Many readers will notice how effectively Rosa is portrayed as the gentle hero of this story. In the illustrator's note, Bryan Collier writes, "to me, she is like a radiant chandelier, an elegant light that illuminates all our many pathways" (p. 4). In an interview about her book, Giovanni said, “I've always liked the hero … I always liked the people that stood up, and Mrs. Parks had a particular stand that said, "You can make a difference. What you do can make a difference." And you do it with no expectation. And she always said that. Again, in my book, I'm not overly stressing that, but she always said she didn't know who, if anyone, would stand with her. She just knew that it was time for her to stand.

Giovanni's statement reminds readers of the value of standing up for what is right even when we are unsure about the support we will receive from others. Rosa Park's dignified resolve continues to inspire and to set an example for future generations

e.       I would use this book as a role play for students. I would have them draw cards and see what role they play in reenacting the bus scene. 

Module 11: An Egg is Quiet

a. An Egg is Quiet is a picture book filled with all kinds of eggs. The illustrations are very detailed and well placed without crowding the text. Throughout the story, the author placed small labels for eggs, insects or the parts of an egg. The reader follows a story line that is written in large script. At the same time, there are other sections on each page that the reader can stop and think about, like an illustration of the timeline of growth for a hen, salmon or grasshopper. The story concluded with a nest of Black-necked Stilts that just hatched.
b. Aston, D. (2006). An egg is quiet. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
c. This book was very informative and exceeded my expectations. I did not expect to find so much information in this story. I enjoyed taking my time will looking at the illustrations. The illustrations are delicate and colorful. I noticed that all of the eggs in the front pages have “hatched” in the back pages of the book. It was interesting to see what eggs looked like as birds. The detail was very neat and connected throughout the story. I liked that the illustrator used twigs and branches to accent some of the empty spaces throughout the story.
d. Author Unknown. An Egg Is Quiet. (2006). Publishers Weekly, 253(10), 74-101.
Like the subject matter it describes, this book packages with understated elegance the substantive matter found within it. "An egg is quiet. It sits there, under its mother's feathers… on top of its father's feet… buried beneath the sand," Aston (When You Were Born) begins, as spot illustrations zero in on a hummingbird, emperor penguin and sea turtle, respectively. The narrative then launches into a kind of survey about the characteristics of egg, which follows a simple format. In most spreads, different adjectives (colorful, shapely, textured, etc.) complete the sentence, "An egg is.…" This repetitive rhythm contrasts with the visual variety of the illustrations. Long's (Sylvia Long's Mother Goose) skilled use of contrast and compositional balance prevent monotony. For example, a border that resembles a color test pattern runs down the outer edges of a spread of nearly 40 carefully placed "colorful" examples, set against a white background, which dazzle the eye. The main text appears in large, flowery cursive, while a smaller printed typeface serves as labels and brief factual captions. "An egg is clever," in fancy script, for instance, sits alongside examples of camouflage: "An egg might be speckled to resemble the rocks around it." The letters' dramatic curlicues mimic curvy grasses and vines dappled with tiny insect egg. Long introduces breathtaking color into the final spreads, as a concluding scene "hatches from" this peacefulness, reminding readers of an egg’s purpose. This attractive volume pleases on both an aesthetic and intellectual level. Ages 5-10. (Apr.)
e. I would use this story to create individual eggs using paper mache. Students could pick their favorite egg and try to recreate it. All eggs could be held on display in the library for a time.

Module 10: Pink and Say

Module 10

a.       This story begins with a young boy laying on a battlefield. He is wounded and left for dead. Along comes a black soldier wearing the same uniform. He quickly assesses his injuries and decides to help him get away. The black soldier is injured as well but carries the white soldier for a long time on foot. Finally, the white soldier wakes up in a home, with a black woman caring for him. She tells him how hard it was to travel so far and that the black soldier carried him for a good part of it. The white soldier is disoriented and thinks he is in heaven. He soon learns that the black woman is the mother of the Black soldier named Pinkus Aylee. Moe Moe Bay cares very well for them and is so happy to have them back. She tells them all that has happened since the war started. Pink secretly tells Say that they will leave as soon as they are healed up because they have not won the war yet.  While there, Pink and Say share information about each other. Pink tells Say how he was taught to read by his old master. Say tells Pink that he wishes he could read. Say also tells Pink that he once shook the hand of President Abraham Lincoln. Say does not want to go and reveals this secret to Moe Moe Bay when she discovers there plan. She is distressed upon hearing that they will leave again. She comforts Say when he tells her that he got hurt while running away. She tells him that it is normally to feel afraid. The next day Moe Moe Bay leaves the cabin to fetch something and warns them to hide in the cellar if anyone should come. The boys hear marauders and Pink is frightened for his mother. After a while, they hear a shot and the sound of horses galloping away. Pink and Say run out to find his mother on the ground dead from a gunshot. They are distraught but decide to rejoin the war with even more determination than before. As they make their way towards their camp, Pink and Say are captured by marauders. Pink is pulled away from Say and is never seen again. The reader later learns that Pinkus Aylee was killed that same day, while Say was kept imprisoned for several months until he was finally freed. He went on the live a long life, sharing this story with many generations. Pinkus Aylee had no family to remember him.  

b.      Polacco, P., (1994). Pink and say. New York: Philomel Books.

c.       I was taken aback by the frank and honest way that Polacco shared this story. Although it is a children’s book, she does not mince words or hide the ugly truth of the Civil War and how it tore apart many families. Her story reflects the language that was probably used in that time. The moment wear Moe Moe Bay is killed is so unexpected and tragic. This is the terrible result of war and slavery in the South. Polacco also captures perfectly the heartbroken realization that Pink has caused his mother’s death by being there. I thought it was very touching that the author finds a way to share her family’s history through her picture books. It makes for a very neat surprise for the reader.

d.      Fader, E., & Silvey, A. (1994). Pink and say. Horn Book Magazine, 70(6), 724.

e.       This book, the story of Polacco's great-great-grandfather, has been passed down from generation to generation in the author-artist's family. Fifteen-year-old soldier Sheldon Russell Curtis - Say to his family - has been left for dead on a Civil War battlefield somewhere in Georgia. A fellow Union soldier, Pinkus Aylee, who is African American - "I had never seen a man like him so close before. His skin was the color of polished mahogany" - discovers him and, with much effort, drags the feverish Say home, where his mother, a slave named Moe Moe Bay, nurses Say back to health. As the boys regain their strength, they become as close as real family and discuss things close to their hearts. Pink shares his special talent: Master Aylee, his owner, had taught him how to read. "'To be born a slave is a heap o' trouble, Say. But after Aylee taught me to read, even though he owned my person, I knew that nobody, ever, could really own me.'" Say receives special comfort from Moe Moe when he admits that he deserted his troop and is afraid to return to the war. On the morning the two boys plan to leave and search for their respective troops, marauding Confederate soldiers arrive and kill Moe Moe. Pink and Say are later captured and become prisoners of the Confederate Army, in Andersonville. Although Say lived to tell this story of friendship and brotherhood, Pink was hanged within hours of arriving at the dreaded prison. Told in Say's colorful, country-fresh voice, the text incorporates authentic-sounding dialect and expressions - such as darky - that would have been used at the time. Polacco's characteristic acrylic, ink, and pencil illustrations are suitably dramatic and focus on the intense physical and emotional joy and pain of the story's three main characters. The remarkable story, made even more extraordinary in its basis in actual events, raises questions about courage, war, family, and slavery. A not-to-be-missed tour de force.

f.        After reading Pink and Say, the librarian and students can create memorials for Pink using posters and markers and crayons. 

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