Year: 2013

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Around the World: China

Dear Readers,
Lon_po_poAs installment 3 of our Around the World with Caldecott and Newbery, today we visit China!  For the purposes of brevity and conciseness, I’ve entitled this book tour through children’s award-winning literature as Around the World with Caldecott and Newbery, but I also include other notable awards such as the British Carnegie Medal, the Kate Greenway medal etc.  Occasionally I will throw in a book that just happens to be a personal favorite, and though it may not have won a particular honor, has won credibility by virtue of its timelessness and appeal to children.

For the youngest reader, Lon Po Po:  A Red-Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young, won the Caldecott Medal in 1990 and turns the tale of the sweet but gullible Red Riding Hood on its head.  In this Chinese version, the wolf is outwitted by three discriminating and resourceful children!  Ed Young grew up in China and studied art here in the US.  He brings a richness and drama to this tale through his use of ancient Chinese artistic techniques combined with watercolors and pastels.  Also by Ed Young, Ye259382-Mh, Shen: A Cinderella Story from China won the Horn Book Honor in 1983.

The well-loved children’s book author, Jean Fritz, writes the story of her childhood in China in Homesick, My Own Story–winner of the Newbery Honor in 1983.  Born in China, Jean’s childhood is rich with vivid memories of her Chinese amahs–her nursemaids, family picnics on the Great Wall, being spat at and called a “foreign devil”, glorious summer vacations on the beach at Peitaiho, and the unrest of impending revolution.  Fritz’s memoir draws these stories into a beautiful mix woven with the longing of a young girl for her American “home”–a home she’s never seen.  Margot Tomes enhances the text with her delightfully whimsical line drawings.

The House of Sixty Fathers has to be one of my all-time favorite children’s books!  First of all, I love Meindert DeJong for his tender depictions of his childhood protagonists.  DeJong seems to remember poignantly how he thought as a child, and incorporates that sensibility into his characters.  Young Tien Pao has escaped Japanese invading forces on  his family’s sampan with his mother, father, three ducklings, the family pig, and his baby sister, Beauty-of-the-Republic.  DeJong uses beautiful alliteration to establish the setting.

9780060214814_xlgRain raised the river.  Rain beat down on the sampan where it lay in a long row of sampans tied to the riverbank. Rain drummed down on the mats that were shaped in the form of an arched roof over the middle of the sampan. It clattered hard on the four long oars lying on the top of the roof of mats.  The rain found the bullethole in the roof of the mats.”

DeJong was stationed in China as a US Army sergeant during WWII, and the book is based upon his friendship with a young Chinese boy at the time. What follows is the tender, yet gripping story of a young boy, separated from his family during  war, and of his relentless and courageous pursuit of them through hostile enemy territory.  His remarkable adventures will bring a tear to your eye.  Maurice Sendak’s tender illustrations enhance the text.  The author won the Newbery Honor for this book in 1957.Young+Fu

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman won the Newbery Medal in 1933 and concerns thirteen-year-old Fu, who comes from the country to Chungking with his widowed mother, where the bustling city offers adventure and his apprenticeship to a coppersmith.  Set in the turbulent era of the 1920s, the author has drawn an authentic depiction based upon her own experiences as a missionary to China.

The Kite Rider by Geral9780066238753_p0_v1_s260x420dine McCaughrean won a Horn Book Fanfare award (2003) a American Library Association award as well as 2 British awards, for its intricately plotted tale of a 13th century Chinese boy who becomes a kite-rider.   Kite-riding was believed to predict the fortune or demise of a sea voyage and boys and men were sent up on large kites for this purpose.  After Haoyou’s father is killed kite-riding,  the boy takes up the profession in order to support his mother.  His world is beset by the treachery of the man responsible for his father’s death, and his wicked uncle who forces his mother to labor relentlessly to pay his gambling debts.  His adventures take him all over the empire, and even to the tents of the great Kublai Khan.

This is just a taste of the books that will be covered in my upcoming Back-to-School Literature Soirée, which you can register for here.  Hope to see you there!

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Continuing Around the World with Newbery and Caldecott!

imagesToday, we will visit Korea on our world  tour through literature! A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park can broaden a literature approach to Medieval studies by taking the reader to 12th century Korea as viewed through the life of an orphan boy by the name of Tree-ear.  The orphan motif is an oft repeated literary device that draws the reader into the story through pathos, and the author doesn’t fail in her use here. Tree-ear’s story is set firmly in the world of the highly skilled pottery artisans of Korea who first invented celadon pottery.  Tree-ear learns their delicate but highly painstaking craft under a master potter and then must deliver the master’s works for a royal commission.  The journey takes him through danger from both man and beast and teaches Tree-ear perseverance and loyalty.  Winner of the Newbery Medal in 2002, this book not only teaches what medieval life was like for the poor, but also teaches the value of friendship and compassion.

So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins won the American Library Association Award in002112 1987 and tells a story of Korea, but with a twist. The young protagonist Yoko and her family are part of Japanese occupation forces in Korea (Japan occupied Korea from 1910-1945), and must flee Korea when Japan begins to lose the war.  Their harrowing escape and their attempts to pass themselves off as Koreans makes for a gripping and moving work based on the author’s own experiences.  Though Japan was the aggressor–and often a cruel and tyrannical one–what Yoko’s tale shows is how women and children are victimized by war, and must summon almost superhuman courage and sacrifice to help those they love.

The last award-winning book on Korea is Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul images-1Choi and is the author’s own biography of her childhood growing up in Korea during the same period as the title above.  Sook’s family are involved in resistance movement, and her brothers have been sent to labor camps, while her heroic mother keeps the family factory running and does everything in her power to protect her young female factory workers from the Japanese forces.  When war separates Sook from her mother, she and her little brother must escape by themselves.  Their journey is heroic, touching and miraculous!

This is just another brief installment on our Around the World tour through award-winning children’s literature which I will be covering in my upcoming Back-to-School Literature Soiree!  If interested, go here.

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Around the World with Newbery and Caldecott!

Dear Readers,9780060215859-l
As many of you know, I’m hosting a Back-to-School Literature Soirée in two weeks.  In preparation for this, I’ve been reading some current medal winners as well as pulling lots of old Newbery and Caldecott Medal winners from my shelf and rereading them.  This is such a delight!  While I am learning new things, I am also taking a trip down memory lane, as rereading these treasures brings back reflections of how these books affected me when I first read them.  I have been struck by how reading these award-winning books can be a veritable trip “around the world”, as so many of them have to do with cultures, nations, and historic periods completely outside of our own familiar and comfortable world.

For the upcoming soirée I will present an “Around the World” with Newbery and Caldecott Medal winners.  We will take a trip through various nations, cultures, and historic periods through treasured classics.  Here’s an example of what our “trip” will look like:  We will travel to Holland through the wonderful works of Meindert DeJong, in The Wheel on the School and Journey From Peppermint Street. In the first book, we get90a a charming look at life in a fishing village in Holland when the school children place an old wagon wheel on their school so a mother stork will build her nest.  This tender and touching story won the Newbery Medal in 1954 and continues to have a place in the hearts of children today. In Journey from Peppermint Street, young Siebren goes on a long journey with his grandfather and in the process learns valuable lessons about the joys and mystery of life. Yonie Wondernose by Marguerite De Angeli won the Caldecott Honor in 1945 and concerns a Pennsylvania Dutch boy named Yonie who lets his curiosity get him into all kinds of scrapes.

Continuing our European tour a bit north to Denmark, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry is an inspiring story set in Copenhagen during the Nazi occupation of Denmark.  Lois Lowry, (who I was able to meet just recently in Boston!) has created her story based on the Danish people’s rescue of the Jews through the inspiring example and leadership of their King Christian X, and the profound courage of the Danish Resistance.  Ten year-old Annemarie Johansen risks her life to save her best friend Ellen Rosen and learns the meaning of courage and self-sacrifice.  If the plight of storks has peaked your interest, you can continue reading about these marvelous creatures through a lighthearted and whimsical tale, also set in Denmark (and London) about a family that saves an abducted stork! Mrs. Easter and the Storks by V.H.

Mrs. Easter and the Storks
Mrs. Easter and the Storks

Drummond will delight your youngest readers with its fun and adventure!

Another award-winning work on Denmark is Chase Me, Catch Nobody by Erik Christian Haugaard which won the Jane Adams Book Honor in 1981.  It involves a 14 year-old Danish boy on a school trip to Germany in 1937 who becomes involved in the activities of the anti-Nazi underground.  You may recognize this award-winning author from his more well-known work set in 16th century Japan, The Samurai’s Tale.

So, this is just a little preview of the upcoming journey we will take through treasures old and new during my upcoming Back-to-School Literature Soirée. Our journey will also take us to Japan, China, England, Korea, and even into the future!  There are still spots available, so if you are interested, visit my last post for info, or to register visit here.

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Rea’s Back-to-School Literature Soirée

IMG-20120911-00001Hello Dear Readers!

I am once again hosting a Back-to-School Literature Soirée later this month!  I am still settling in on the topics to be offered, but am definitely offering a session on Ancient History through literature.  This will cover literature for both young readers and middle school (if you have high school students studying this next year, let me know). You can still submit votes on an additional historical period, so let me know what you’d like to cover!  I have had some interest expressed for Modern US and World History for high school level, but would like to hear if there are others also interested in this period.  You can email me your suggestions at rea@bfbooks.com.

I plan to devote a session to Caldecott and Newbery Medal winners, some current and also looking back at some treasures long forgotten!  As usual, I can only accommodate 25 ladies, so if you’d like to attend, register soon!  So looking forward to seeing you!

51YQZYN1Y6L Here is everything you need to know in order to register:

Date: Saturday, August 24, 2013

Time: 9:30 am – 3:30 pm

Place: 1306 Mill Street, San Luis Obispo

Cost: $30.00 which includes lunch (please let me know of any special dietary restrictions)

Register here.

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Harriet Beecher Stowe and 80 Bartlet

Harriet Beecher Stowe's home from 1852-1863
Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s home in Andover  from 1852-1863

I have the fortune to have a dear friend who lives just a couple doors down from 80 Bartlet Street in Andover, Massachusetts.  While visiting there recently, I was delighted to learn that this address was the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe.  The author lived there just after the publication of her seminal novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  Indeed, she applied her first royalty check from the novel toward the renovation of the home for her large family.  Her husband, Calvin Stowe, taught Sacred Literature at Andover Theological Seminary, and it was this position that precipitated the move of the family there.

Born into a notable family devoted to faith and education, one of the ironies of Harriet’s childhood, is that when she was born, her father was disappointed that she was a girl!  A preacher himself, her father wanted sons who could follow in his footsteps, which a number did. While a few of the Beecher sons made names for themselves during their lifetimes, it was Harriet who had the most dramatic and lasting impact upon the fate of the natthe_annotated_uncle_toms_cabin.large_-1ion and upon the history of the world. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a runaway best-seller, selling 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week; 300,000 in the first year; and in Great Britain, 1.5 million copies in one year. It was subsequently translated into 60 languages and impacted other nations still under the bondage of serfdom and slavery.

Gazing at the place Harriet called home for eleven years, I enjoyed imagining the happy chaos that must have often filled the halls and chambers of this lovely stone dwelling. It is easy to romanticize the life of someone from the past, but I know better than to do so with her.  Harriet has always been an inspiration for me, because, not only was she the mother of seven children, but she often parented alone, as her husband was sickly and given to melancholy and depression.  Because of her husband’s frequent illnesses, financial matters were always a concern, which was another of Harriet’s motivations for writing, as she was often forced to supplement the family income.  But despite the tremendous pressure upon her as wife and mother, she found time to devote to her passionate desire for abolition, and became a driving force through the dramatic words that flowed from her pen.  So convincing was her characterization in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, that Americans all over the country were able to identify vicariously with the suffering slaves and their brave liberators.  This identification became a catalyst for change, and through the power of Harriet’s pen the nation grew ripe for emancipation.

When the AmeriHarriet-Beecher-Stowe-and-the-Beecher-Preachers-9780399226663can Civil War broke out in 1861 Stowe wrote “It was God’s will that this nation—the North as well as the South—should deeply and terribly suffer for the sin of consenting to and encouraging the great oppressions of the South”—(The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe).  It was to her a direct breach of the second great commandment as she noted, ” . . . the enslaving of the African race is a clear violation of the great law which commands us to love our neighbor as ourself”.

If you have never enjoyed the moving experience of reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, consider picking it up as a summer read-aloud.  Though the language can seem a bit archaic at first, a little diligence will be rewarded handsomely, as the dramatic plot will quickly pull readers in. Most importantly, the lessons of compassion, empathy, and justice will linger long in listener’s hearts and minds.

A wonderful companion to the study of Stowe’s novel is Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers by Jean Fritz. The stories of the rambunctious household that Harriet grew up in, and the tales of her own seven children, may have a familiar ring to contemporary families who have made home education a choice and a lifestyle.  In the often humdrum duties of daily life, it is easy to forget that sometimes, future greatness can be hidden in an unlikely package.  Though her father and her culture could not have imagined it, Harriet’s preaching turned her world upside down and helped bring justice to untold millions.