One Of Those Hideous Books Where The Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

 

One Of Those Hideous Books Where The Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

Bibliography:

Sones, Sonya. 2004. One of those hideous books where the mother dies. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

ISBN: 1442493836

 

Plot Summary: This Free Verse Novel is about a young girl named Ruby who's mother dies. She lives with her mother on the East Coast, and has never had contact with her father until she is forced to fly across the country to live with him when her mother dies. Her father is a famous movie star living in Los Angeles, and is seemingly happy to have her around. She however, is not thrilled because she is having to leave her best friend, Lizzie and her boyfriend Ray behind. As the story progresses, Ruby learns more about her father and starts to make friends at school, and even befriends her father's assistant Max. In  the process Ray and Lizzie find love in one another and Ruby's heart is broken. Through a series of events in the story, she learns more about her father and his past with her mother and realizes that he has always been there for her, and she is finally able to be at peace with the way her life has turned out.

 

Critical Analysis:  Sonya Sones paints a beautiful poetic tragedy about loss, love, and growing up in her free verse novel One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies.  In the beginning of the story we meet Ruby, a girl filled with teenage angst and sadness because her mother dies, and is forced to move across the country away from her boyfriend and best friend to live with her father that she has never met. Through a series of events in the story she finds acceptance and love and is able to appreciate her new life in California.

 

The free verse novel is set up with headings describing each section of the novel and is easy to read. it has short lines and mixed within the free verse poems, there are emails exchanged between characters which add to the overall appeal of the novel. There is a great use of imagery and sensory language which appeals to the readers senses and creates a vivid mental image of the story. For example, in the beginning of the text, Ruby is on the plane flying to Los Angeles  to meet her father. She describes the plane as "gigantic silver bullet with wings... [a] monstrous steel pterodactyl". This adds to the overall description of the plane and creates a mental picture in the readers mind that they are able to make connections with.  The author also describes the setting of California in great detail so the reader can imagine what Ruby is feeling and seeing throughout the book. The novel has many elements of fiction and reminds me of a story, but is written in free verse. This book would be appealing for many young adult readers.

 

Review Excerpts:

·         From School Library Journal  - Grade 7-10–In one- to two-page breezy poetic prose-style entries, 15-year-old Ruby Milliken describes her flight from Boston to California and her gradual adjustment to life with her estranged movie-star father following her mother's death. E-mails to her best friend, her boyfriend, and her mother ("in heaven") and outpourings of her innermost thoughts display her overwhelming unhappiness and feelings of isolation, loss, and grief ("…most days,/I wander around Lakewood feeling invisible./Like I'm just a speck of dust/floating in the air/that can only be seen/when a shaft of light hits it"). Ruby's affable personality is evident in her humorous quips and clever wordplays. Her depth of character is revealed through her honest admissions, poignant revelations, and sensitive insights. This is not just another one of those gimmicky novels written in poetry, it's solid and well written, and Sones has a lot to say about the importance of carefully assessing people and situations and about opening the door to one's own happiness. Despite several predictable particulars of plot, Ruby's story is gripping, enjoyable, and memorable.–Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

·         From Booklist - *Starred Review* Gr. 7-12. After the death of her mother, high-schooler Ruby is sent from Boston to L.A. to live with the father she has never met: "He's such a scumbag / that he divorced my mother / before I was even born." The "scumbag" is Whip Logan, a famous movie actor, but Ruby is too angry to be impressed; at the airport she wonders whether to "ask him for his autograph, / or kick him in the balls." Sones' latest free-verse novel follows Ruby through her first few months in her new home, a mansion where her every desire is granted--except what she longs for most: her best friend, her boyfriend, and of course, her mother. Sones' novel is an unusual combination of over-the-top Hollywood fairy tale and sharp, honest story about overcoming grief. Teens may predict the novel's surprises long before Ruby discovers them... and, as in every fairy tale, many things are too good to be true--especially Whip's eager devotion and celebrity. It's Ruby's first-person voice--acrimonious, raw, and very funny--that pulls everything together, whether she is writing e-mails to her deceased mother, attending Dream Analysis class at a private L.A. high school, or finally learning to accept her father and embrace a new life. A satisfying, moving novel that will be a winner for both eager and reluctant readers. Gillian Engberg

·         Booklist, starred review -  "A satisfying, moving novel." 

·         Publishers Weekly - "A winning portrayal of a teenage girl's loves and losses."

·         Bookpage - "Ruby's voice is pitch-perfect."

Connections/Activities:

·         Students can rewrite the ending of the free verse novel.

·         Students can try writing their own free verse poem.

·         Students can compare/contrast the characters of other Sonya Sones free verse novels.

·         Select other books by Sonya Sones

o   What My Mother Doesn't Know - 1442493852

o   What my Girlfriend Doesnt Know - 1442493844

o   To Be Perfectly Honest: A Novel Based on an Untrue Story - 068987605X

·         Related Texts

o   The Firefly Letters by Margarita Engle - 0805090827

o   Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill - 0061853283

Personal Connections: I have never read a free verse novel before, and I thought that this was a very interesting type of book. I feel that this type of text would be great to use in the middle grades and beyond. It is written very similarly to a chapter book, and is easy to read. I look forward to reading more free verse novels in the future.

Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape by J. Patrick Lewis

 

Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape by J. Patrick Lewis

 

Bibliography:

Lewis, J. Patrick, and Lisa Desimini. 1998. Doodle dandies: poems that take shape. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

ISBN: 0689848897

Plot Summary:

The book Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape is a collection of shape poems using various elements of the natural world and extracurricular activities. From the baseball poem entitled,  A Swing and a Miss that uses bases and a baseball to depict the different ways one can pitch the ball,  to the Synchronized Swim Team using sensory images and language to depict an underwater oasis, the poems within the book explore different aspects of the world and leave the reader wanting more. The poem exhibits vibrant images that seem to float off the pages and draw the reader in. Each poem creates the image on the page and vice versa. This book truly exemplifies shape poetry in both design and technique. It is a must have for any classroom or library.

Critical Analysis:

From the first poem entitled, First Burst of Spring to the last Halley's Comet, this collection of shape or concrete poetry exemplifies the design and technique of shape poetry and allows the reader to immerse themselves in a new and exciting type of poetry. There is rhythm and sound words used within the poems as well as a surprising use of figurative language. Within the poem entitled Giraffe, the poem describes the features of the giraffe and is arranged in a way that looks like a giraffe. It says "Tree tall giraffe up to his neck in brown and yellow patchwork quilts, turns and hobbles away on wooden stilts". Then, for each of the four legs, the word stilts is used to describe the giraffes long legs. This use of sensory language and imagery allows the reader to create a mental image of a giraffe. The visual images in the book are creative and unique to each topic that the author uses within the text. The illustrations are  very detailed and vivid and complete the poem. The organization of the text allows the reader to read multiple shape poems as they flip through the pages. Some pages use one page, and other fill up both pages within the book. This book is a great tool to use when examining the different types/forms of poetry in a poetry unit.

Review Excerpts:

·         From Publishers Weekly - In a starred review, PW said of this collection of short poems, "The interplay between words and pictures effectively conjures images from seasons, to sports, to the jungle. From endpaper to doodled endpaper, this mix of clever language and visual delights makes a dandy treat for all ages." Ages 3-8.

·         From School Library Journal - Grade 3-6 Lewis, who has long been a master of a variety of poetic forms, has created an inventive collection of concrete poems. In each selection, the essence of the subject is captured in the typeface used for the words, the shape in which the lines are arranged, and through Desimini's brilliant mixed-media collages. Lines about a skyscraper take the form of that structure ("I /am/ a/ nee/dle /of/steel/glass &/cement...") and are set against a background of a clouded sky, small silhouettes of pedestrians, and rows of taxis. In "Big Cat," the words "day delights/in jungle cries/night ignites/its tiger eyes" wrap around the eyes of a tiger that stare dramatically at readers from a double-page spread. Every page of this book is well designed, creating words and images that work together in harmony. From the lavender endpapers that feature a mix of childlike drawings and letters in different typefaces, and the magic-marker doodles surrounding the various shapes on the CIP page, to the final page, each spread is fresh and inviting. Doodle Dandies captures the joy that wordplay can bring. It deserves a place on every library shelf. Kathleen Whalin, Greenwich Country Day School, CT

·         From Booklist - Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. The history of poems shaped on the page goes back at least to the seventeenth-century poet George Herbert, and certainly Lewis Carroll used it well in Alice. Desimini and Lewis take that tradition to rowdy new heights. A poem called "Dachshund" casts a dog-shaped shadow; a wee widow weeping finds the lines of the poem about her making the trunk and limbs of a weeping willow tree. The "Skyscraper" shape is elegant if obvious, and the poem called "Winter" creates a verse of white letters drifting and falling on dark sky as evocatively as any Japanese scroll on silk. Some of the poems involve turning the book about to read all the words; some, like the one about oyster families ("a mother-of-pearl") or the one about baseball pitches ("the fastball that you hope to poke / is smoke"), are printed on the object of their attention. The very mixed media art is full of textures and dark, rich colors that repay close examination. A dandy way indeed to begin a journey to poetry. GraceAnne A. DeCandido

 

Connections/Activities:

·         This book can be used in a poetry book and contains many examples of shape poetry.

·         Students can create their own shape/concrete poem.

·         Students can compare/contrast shape poems.

·         Students can evaluate shape poems.

·         Select other book by J. Patrick Lewis

o   Poem-mobiles: Crazy Car Poems - 0375866906

o   When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders - 1452101191

o   Monumental Verses - 0792271351

·         Related Texts

o   Flicker Flash by Joan Bransfield Graham - 0618311025

o   Splish Splash by Joan Bransfield Graham - 0618111239

o   A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems by Paul B. Janeczko - 0763623768

 

Personal Connections: I have read poems by J. Patrick Lewis in the past and have loved using them in the classroom. I had never heard of this collection of shape poems and am really excited that I found this book! It will be a great resource to use when discussing the different forms of poetry with my third grade class.

The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems by Mary Ann Hoberman

 

The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems by Mary Ann Hoberman

 

Bibliography:

Hoberman, Mary Ann, and Betty Fraser. 1998. The llama who had no pajama: 100 favorite poems. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Co.

ISBN: 0152055711

Plot Summary: This is a collection of poems by Mary Ann Hoberman illustrated by Betty Fraser. Within the book, there are over 100 poems that range from Hello and Good-bye to Applesauce and Comparisons. These poems range in readability and leave the young reader wanting more. They tell the tales of timeless childhood experiences while encouraging readers to learn about new information in the form of a poem. There are poems about insects and animals that will appeal to all readers. Teachers are extended the opportunity to enhance lessons through the use of poetry with this collection of poems. The colorful illustrations that accompany each poem also enhance the collection of poems and draw the reader into the subject.

Critical Analysis: This collection of  poetry includes 100 favorite poems and is perfect for  readers of all ages. Hoberman uses a variety of topics to engage readers and each poem has its own rhythm and rhyme scheme and in many instances repetition of sounds. The text gives information about animals, food, and everyday situations that can apply to all children. For example, in the poem that is based off of the title of the collection, it talks about the llama that has no pajamas and conveys a sense of emotion in which the llama feels sad in the beginning of the poem because he has outgrown his pajamas. The poem states "In a voice that was deep with despair; O llamaly mama I need a pajama". However, throughout the poem, the llamas mood changes  because he realizes that he does not need to sleep in pajamas to have a good night's sleep and the poem resolves with the question of "Should llamas be wearing pajamas?". The other poems in the story are based off of animals and they use rich vocabulary in which the reader is introduced to scientific vocabulary. There are also poems about manners and comparisons. Through each poem Hoberman uses imagery to create a mental picture in the readers mind. For example in the poem, The Gazelle, there is a heavy use of alliteration, imagery, and repetition. The poem states:

 "O gaze on the graceful gazelle as it grazes. It grazes on green growing leaves and on grasses. On grasses it grazes, go gaze as it passes. It passes so gracefully, gently, O gaze!"

This creates a colorful mental picture in which the reader is able to visualize a gazelle grazing in a savannah.

This collection of poetry is arranged and organized in an easy to read format and allows children to read and learn about various topics through the use of poetry. The words and language are arranged in meaningful ways that allow the reader to make connections to their everyday lives. Each poem is also accompanied with a poem that enhances the readability and helps the reader to create background knowledge.

Review Excerpts:

·         From School Library Journal - "Hoberman's rhythms are lively and agile, and her imagination and sense of humor are still in tune with young readers. Fraser's simple but detailed gouache and watercolor illustrations exhibit the same qualities . . . Good for beginning or experienced readers of poetry, this should indeed become a favorite."

·         From The Horn Book - "This collection of some forty years of Hoberman verse is a charmer."

 

Connections/Activities:

 

·         This book can be used as a supplement when examining insects and animals within a science unit.

·         Students can create their own poem based off of an animal or insect featured within the text.

·         Students can dissect the poem using the elements/characteristics of poetry. For example, students can examine the repetition, rhyme scheme, sound, and uses of language within the poem.

·         Select other poems by Mary Ann Hoberman:

o   The Seven Silly Eaters - 0152024409

o   A House is a House for Me - 0142407739

o   Miss Mary Mack - 0316366420

·         Related Texts:

o   The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose: A Treasury of More Than 300 Classic Nursury Rhymes by Arnold Lobel - 0679887369

Personal Connection:

Before completing this book review, I had not heard of this author or book. After reading, I can think of numerous ways to adapt it into lessons in my third grade classroom. I think that students will fall in love with this book, and be able to make/create many connections within the text.

Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky

 

Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky

Bibliography:

Zelinsky, Paul O., Amy Beniker, and John Stevens. 1997. Rapunzel. New York: Dutton Children's Books.

ISBN: 0525456074

Plot Summary: A young woman dreams of having a child, but is unable to. She sits by her garden everyday and stares at a beautiful garden that belongs to a sorceress. No one ever dared to enter the garden; however, the woman wants the Rapunzel that grows in her garden. She develops cravings for the herb and tells her husband that she will die without it. So, he climbs into her garden and takes as much of the Rapunzel that he can, and his wife devours it. But, the next day, her cravings still persist and he goes to get more, but the sorceress stops him, and makes him promise to give her his first born child. The woman eventually gives birth to a daughter named Rapunzel and at the age of twelve, the sorceress takes her, and puts her in a tower. The only way in and out of the tower was by way of Rapunzel’s long silky hair. Rapunzel lives in the tower for years. Then one day, a prince hears her singing, and falls instantly in love. He finds a way into the tower and professes his love for her and they eventually marry. The sorceress finds out and cuts her hair, and she eventually gives birth to twins. The prince goes to find her but is met with opposition from the sorceress in a confrontation that left him blind. After sometime, the Prince and Rapunzel are reunited and the Prince’s vision is restored at the sight of his long lost love and children.

Critical Analysis: Paul O. Zelinsky retells the classic fairytale Rapunzel through exquisite oil paintings that give an accurate and realistic portrayal of the story through images that are reminiscent of the Renaissance. The characters are the archetypes of good and evil and have symbolic qualities. Rapunzel is the good natured songstress that lures in her Prince Charming with her voice. The sorceress on the other hand is the antagonist that takes Rapunzel away from her family, and locks her in a tower. The plot is simple and either takes place in the garden, castle, tower, or woods. The conflict in the story is centered around the plot of the storyline, and is dependent on the characters interactions. Within the setting of the story, time passes quickly. Rapunzel is born, then twelve years old, and, lastly, of child bearing age. The theme of good triumphing evil runs rampant throughout the text and is seen when Rapunzel and prince charming find one another in the end where they live happily ever after. The illustrations carry this classic fairytale and reflect the time period in which the tale was originally created.

Review Excerpts:

Caldecott Medal Winner 1998

1998 Carl Sandburg Award

 Texas Bluebonnet Award

·         From Publishers Weekly - In our Best Book citation, PW said, "A breathtaking interpretation gives the fairy tale new art-historical roots, with illustrations that daringly-and effectively-mimic the masters of Italian Renaissance painting." Ages 5-up. (Oct.)  Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

·         From School Library Journal - Kindergarten-Grade 3. An elegant and sophisticated retelling that draws on early French and Italian versions of the tale. Masterful oil paintings capture the Renaissance setting and flesh out the tragic figures.

·         From Kirkus Reviews - Exquisite paintings in late Italian Renaissance style illumine this hybrid version of a classic tale. As Zelinsky (The Wheels on the Bus, 1990, etc.) explains in a long source note, the story's Italian oral progenitor went through a series of literary revisions and translations before the Brothers Grimm published their own take; he draws on many of these to create a formal, spare text that is more about the undercurrents between characters than crime and punishment. Feeling ``her dress growing tight around her waist'' a woman conceives the desire for an herb from the neighboring garden--rendered in fine detail with low clipped hedges, elaborate statuary and even a wandering pangolin--that causes her to lose her child to a witch. Ensconced for years in a tower, young Rapunzel meets the prince, ``marries'' him immediately, is cast into the wilderness when her own dress begins to tighten, gives birth to twins, and cures her husband's blindness with her tears at their long-awaited reunion. Suffused with golden light, Zelinsky's landscapes and indoor scenes are grandly evocative, composed and executed with superb technical and emotional command. (Picture book/folklore. 8-10)

·         The Horn Book said, "Simply put, this is a gorgeous book; it demonstrates respect for the traditions of painting and the fairy tale while at the same time adhering to a singular, wholly original, artistic vision."

Connections/Activities:

·         This book can be used in a compare/contrast lesson over the different variations of Rapunzel.

·         Students can create a Venn Diagram

·         Students can use this book to discover the different story elements within a text.

·         Students can examine cause and effect relationships.

·         Students can write their own version of Rapunzel.

·         Students can perform a Reader's Theater that they create based off of the book.

·         Students can create a new version of Rapunzel set in a different part of the world.

·         Select other books by Paul O. Zelinsky

o   Rumplestiltskin – 0140558640

o   Hansel and Gretel by Rika Lesser and Paul O. Zelinsky - 0698114078

o   Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs and Paul O. Zelinsky - 978-0140559088

·         Related Texts

o   Little Red Riding Hood  by Trina Schart Hyman – 0823406539

o   Rapunzel: Based on the Original Story by the Brothers Grimm by Sarah Gibb- 978-0807568040

o   Rapunzel by Rachel Isadora - 978-0399247729

Personal Connections: I have loved reading this book since I was in elementary school and it is one of my favorite books to read aloud to my students. The illustrations are beautiful and they really draw the reader’s attention. I have used this book every year in my third grade classroom to teach story elements because students have some prior knowledge of the plot. In all, I think that it is a great book with beautiful illustrations.