Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears

Aardema, V. (1975). Why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears. New York, NY: Dial Books

            Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears is a West African Tale retold by Verna Aardema.  One morning a mosquito tries to talk to an iguana.  The iguana is not interested in hearing such nonsense, so he places two sticks in his ears and walks off.  While walking with sticks in his ears, iguana passes by a python.  The python is upset because the iguana will not say “good morning”.  He then thinks the iguana is plotting against him and hides in a rabbit hole.  Due to the lack of communication and jumping to conclusions a chain of events is set into motion that will cause other animals confusion and pain.  The events lead to an explanation as to why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears. 

            Aardema does an excellent job retelling this pourquoi folktale from West Africa. This story fits into the category pourquoi tale because of the explanation of a phenomenon of nature.  Like many traditional literature selections the plot for Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears is short and simple.  Mosquito tries to talk to iguana, but the iguana is not interested which unintentionally sets off a series of events that leads to an explanation as to why indeed mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears.. The reader does not get a lot of back information about the flat characters.  Mosquito’s character helps develop the plot but is not described fully and is seen as bad.  Most of traditional literature has an unimportant and vague setting and this book is no different.  The story begins with “One morning” and although it is not described thanks to the illustrations we can assume it is outside.  The theme is subtle and is not expressed in an obvious way. The theme, in my opinion, is to not jump to conclusions and get the full story.  The animals reacted to a previous animal’s action before finding out what was going on.  Since they jumped to conclusions and acted before finding out the facts a devastating thing happened to Owl and the other animals suffered because of it. 

             Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears is a 1976 Caldecott Award winning picture book illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.  This book made history because Leo Dillon was the first African-American illustrator to win this award.  The illustrations are of high quality and help tell the story.  Several different types of media, watercolors, pastels, ink and cut-outs, were used to create the illustrations. 

            The targeted audience is primary school aged students but I think all elementary school students would enjoy this story.  Young students always have “why” questions and want to know why things are the way they are.  Reading this book reminded me of a student I had in one of my first grade classes.  He wanted to know about EVERYTHING, from why dogs bark to why we had two legs and arms.  This book would be an excellent introduction to a great discussion and writing prompt.  The BIG questions to ask:

• Why did the other animals blame mosquito for the events that occurred in the story?
• Have you ever jumped to a conclusion like the animals in the story? What happened? 

Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom

Hamilton, V. (1992). Many thousand gone: African Americans from slavery to freedom.

New York, NY: Random House.

            Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom is a collection of stories about becoming a slave and how to escape it.   There are over thirty short stories, divided into three sections that describe the pain, suffering and survival of the slave era.  The first section Is Slavery in America, it tells about the beginning of slavery and how some of the laws were created.  The first story tells how a slave named Somersett escaped and made his way back to England, where a law was passed stating that a man’s freedom could not be taken away.  The second section, titled Running-Aways, includes stories of how slaves ran away from their masters and the start of the Underground Railroad.  One of the stories was about Gabriel Prosser, a slave who had planned an uprising but was captured because another slave turned him in.  This frightened whites so they passed slave codes, known as Black Codes that limited movement and rights of free blacks.  The third section, titled Exodus to Freedom, includes stories of how slaves came to be free.  One story talks about a slave, named Jackson, of vice-president William R. King.  When he becomes vice-president Jackson ran away.  He met a free Creole woman and married her.  To reach a Northern state so he could be free, Jackson dressed up as a woman and pretended to be a servant to his wife, who could pass for white. 

            The author, Virginia Hamilton, did an excellent job writing this multicultural nonfiction book about slavery.  The structure is organized by sequence, telling stories from the beginning of slavery to the Underground Railroad to the Emancipation Proclamation.  The details that Hamilton included were culturally accurate as she used several sources and bibliographies to create the stories of past events. Although not considered a picture book, there are several black and white framed illustrations that help enrich the meaning and mood of the text.  One of the short stories is about Henry Brown, who used a box to ship himself to freedom.  There is one illustration, four men helping Henry Brown out of his box once he made it to Pennsylvania. 

            Many thousand gone: African Americans from slavery to freedom would be an excellent book to use in upper-elementary and middle school classes.  I think when discussing the Civil War students do not get information from the perspective of the African American slaves.  Hamilton’s book will give students that perspective and help them develop an understanding and hopefully an appreciation for the history of the suffering and survival African Americans endured because of slavery.  This book will also provide young students with information that will help them realize the injustices that slaves underwent so many years ago.  The BIG questions to ask:

• Why was the Underground Railroad so important? What might have happened if the Underground Railroad did not exist?
• How did Emancipation Proclamation help turn things around for slaves? 

Coraline

Gaiman, N. (2002). Coraline. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

       Neil Gaiman’s novel, Coraline, is a must read for those who love suspense, mystery and the strange. Coraline has recently moved to a new flat that was part of a house.  She lives with her mother and father, who are both very busy with things other than Coraline.  Due to the lack of attention she likes to explore the place she calls home.  The other occupants of the house talk to Coraline but do not really listen to her.  One day she discovers a door in her flat that is locked.  Although her mother unlocked the door to show there was just a brick wall behind it Coraline is still intrigued.  One day she opens the door to find that the brick wall is gone and what she finds instead is a very interesting world.  In this new, other world, Coraline is in her other house, adored by her other parents, finds a talking cat and finds the world fascinating, at first.  Like most things, the world begins to change and things aren’t always what they seem. Coraline must fight to find her way back to her real parents and her world.

 

       Like many modern fantasy’s, the setting of Coraline first begins in an ordinary house, with human beings as characters but transitions into a fantasy world where animals talk and people have black buttons for eyes.  More specific, Coraline is a supernatural events and mystery fantasy.  This book fits into this genre because there is another world where Coraline visits and finds her “other house” and “other parents” where strange things happen and she must solve the mystery of the missing souls and parents.  The plot of Coraline is progressive because the first few chapters introduce the reader to Coraline and her world.  The rising action then begins once Coraline enters the other world and meets her other parents and the conflict begins. The conflict in this story is person-against-person.  Coraline, the protagonist, is in opposition with  her other mother, the antagonist, over getting home to her world.  Because of this conflict Coraline’s character changes how she feels towards her real parents and other situations in her life. 

       The targeted audience is middle school aged students, but I think some intermediate aged students would enjoy it as well.  There are several things that could be discussed during and after reading this reading book.  There are two themes that students can explore.  One theme found in this book is  “Have courage and do not give up”.  Coraline faced several terrifying obstacles and even though she was scared she continued with her journey and did not give up.  Another theme for this book is “Be happy with what you have”.  Coraline was given the opportunity to have everything that she wanted, or once thought she wanted, but learned that she was happy with the life she had and didn’t want everything given to her.  The BIG questions to ask:

• Why do you think Coraline told the “old man” she didn’t want everything just given to her and that it wouldn’t mean anything if it was given to her?
•  Have you ever been in a situation that required courage?  How did you react and overcome the obstacle?

       While reviewing the book list in chapter seven I saw this title and thought of the movie, Coraline.  I have not seen the movie but have wanted to watch it since it came out in 2009.  I like to read the books before watching the movies so I chose to read this book.  I am happy that I decided to read this title, I enjoyed it and found it hard to put it down.  There is also a graphic adaptation of this novel, I will be looking for it at my next library visit.   

Wemberly Worried

Henkes, K. (2001). Wemberly worried. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.

    Kevin Henkes’ Wemberly Worried is a wonderful picture storybook targeted towards primary school aged students.  Wemberly is a little girl who worried about everything.  She worried in the morning, throughout the day and at night.  Wemberly’s family worried about her because she worried too much.  Then the time came for Wemberly to go to school and she began to worry like she never had before.  She asked several “What if…” questions and worried all they way to school.  Wemberly was very nervous when she walked into the class and hid behind things while she looked around.  Mrs. Peachum, the teacher, tries to help her out so that she will not be so nervous.    Does her teacher succeed or does Wemberly worry the rest of the day?  Readers will enjoy finding out what happens to Wemberly at school. 

           
    In this picture storybook, Henkes used both illustrations and text to tell the story.  The style of the illustrations is cartoon art with watercolor paints and black pen as the media.   The illustrations are eye-catching due to the intense and bold colors that Henkes used.  The page layouts vary from page to page in this book.  Some of the illustrations are full pages, while others are framed and several pictures are placed on the page around the text.  The illustrations help contribute to this story by depicting some literary elements.  The illustrations show characters, which are not mentioned in the text, and help the reader get an idea how Wemberly felt in certain situations.  For example when she worried no one would come to her party, an illustration shows that several people did come and this then shows why she worried about the amount of cake they had.   The illustrations also help depict the plot as it shows examples of things Wemberly worries about and how it makes her feel.  For example Wemberly worries that she will lose Petal, her doll, and there is an illustration that shows how she would react if this would happen, which is cry. 

    I choose this book so that I could compare it to Kitten’s First Full Moon, described below.  Both books are authored and illustrated by Kevin Henkes but are very different.  Wemberly Worried is part of the Mouse book series that Henkes is well known for, where Kitten’s First Full Moon is just a picture book and not part of a series.  Both books are picture storybooks because Henkes uses both text and illustrations equally throughout the book.  As I mentioned in the previous post, I am familiar with Henkes’ Mouse books and the colorful, bold and eye-catching illustrations that he uses.  In Kitten’s First Full Moon the illustrations are as equally eye-catching but he uses only black and white to portray the character and setting. Also, the line is heavy and wide while the lines in Wemberly Worried are thin and light.   In both books the illustrations are presented in different ways such as framed, full page and just placed on pages around text, although majority of the illustrations in Kitten’s First Full Moon are framed.  The style of text is different in both books also due to the targeted audience.  In Kitten’s First Full Moon the text, 22-point Gill Sans Extra Bold, is larger so that readers aged three to five can read it better.  In Wemberly Worried there is more text and it is smaller in size, except when used to exaggerate Wemberly’s thoughts.  This is more appropriate for the targeted audience, which is five to eight year olds. 

     Wemberly Worried would be an excellent book to use in a primary classroom, especially kindergarten and first grade, at the beginning of the year.  Most children have worries that are hard for adults to understand and several children worry about going to school.  This would be an excellent book to read aloud to students the first day of school or sometime during the first week to show that it is okay to worry and that other kids may be worried just like they are. The BIG questions that could be asked are:

• Why do you think Wemberly was worried about going to school? 
• How did you feel about coming to school?
• What if you had a friend who has never been to school before and was worried about starting, what could you say to her to make her feel better?

Kitten's First Full Moon

Henkes, K. (2004). Kitten’s first full moon. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books 

     

    Kevin Henkes’ Kitten’s First Full Moon is an adorable and fun book for pre-school and kindergarten aged children.  The main character, Kitten, sees her first full moon and thinks it is a little bowl of milk in the sky.  Like most felines, Kitten loved milk and wanted the milk in the sky, so she licked it.  Kitten quickly realized this was a bad idea because instead of licking the bowl of milk, she got a lightening bug.  This begins a journey to reach the little bowl of milk in the sky.  Kitten reached for the bowl, chased it down the sidewalk, through the garden, in the field, to a pond and climbed a tree, but still no milk from the little bowl in the sky.  Then, in the pond, Kitten saw a much bigger bowl of milk.  What happens next will have readers laughing.  

    Henkes wrote Kitten’s First Full Moon in third-person point of view.  The narrator is telling Kitten’s story to the reader.  The organization of the story is appropriate for the targeted audience.  There is anywhere from one to four sentences on a page or every two pages.  This is a picture storybook because both the words and the pictures tell the story.  For example, the text said, “But Kitten only ended up with a bug on her tongue” and the illustration on that same page shows exactly that, a lightning bug on Kitten’s tongue. 

    In 2005, Henkes was awarded The Caldecott Medal for his beautiful illustrations in this book.  Cartoon art was the artistic style used with rounded figures and exaggerated action like when Kitten sprang from the top of the porch.  The artistic media Henkes used is painting, using gouache, which gave the illustrations a solid appearance.  Along with the gouache, he used pencils to create the black and white illustrations.  The visual element, line, is strongly used throughout the illustrations.  Henkes used thick dark lines to create the objects like Kitten, the moon, the tree and other background objects.  The illustrations help complement several elements of fiction.  The setting of the story is at night and depicted by the moon and the black and white colors used.  The pictures also show who the main character is by including Kitten on almost every page.  The reader can also see that the kitten is determined because of how hard she tried to get to the milk. 

    As mentioned above this story is targeted towards pre-school and kindergarten aged students. Kitten’s First Full Moon would be a wonderful read aloud for the classroom.  The BIG questions that could be asked are:

• Why didn’t Kitten get any milk from the pond?
• What if there is something you want, but you are unable to get it.  What could you do to get it?

    Through the years I have enjoyed reading Kevin Henkes’ books to my students, like Wemberly Worried, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, Shelia Rae, The Brave and my favorite Chrysanthemum just to name a few.  I will be honest, I only knew Henkes for his Mouse books, I was not aware of the other books he has written.  

Pink and Say

Polacco, P. (1994). Pink and Say.  New York, NY: Philomel Books.

     
    Pink and Say, by Patricia Polacco, is a very moving and heartwarming story about two young men who form a friendship during the Civil War.  One of the main characters, Sheldon Curtis or Say, is a fifteen-year-old white Union soldier who is hurt while running away from his unit.  Another main character, Pinkus Aylee or Pink, is also a Union soldier around the same age as Say but he is black.  Pink finds Say injured and takes him home to his mother, Moe Moe Bay, where she nurses him back to health.  During this time Pink and Say learn about each other and become great friends. While there they must be on the look out for marauders, a group of bandits, who are going around killing Union soldiers.   In order to keep his mother safe and to fight his fight, Pink wants to leave with Say to return to their units, but Say does not want this.  Before they have the chance to leave, the marauders come to the house.  Moe Moe Bay makes Pink and Say hide in the root-cellar while she deals with the intruders.  The marauders rummage through the house taking items and leave, but not before shooting Moe Moe Bay and killing her.  Both boys are deeply hurt by this and decide to go finish the fight as soon as they bury Moe Moe Bay.  During their journey to find the units Pink and Say encounter a situation that will change their lives forever.  

    Patricia Polacco wrote and illustrated a beautiful story that is sure to make any reader feel a great deal of emotion.  The story is told in a shifting point of view.  In the beginning, the story is told by Polacco, she is setting up the story for the reader and explaining how the story will be told.  The story quickly shifts to another characters, Say, point of view to tell majority of the story.  At the end it shifts back to Polacco’s point of view to conclude the story and tell how she came to hear the story.  Polacco never states the time period but thanks to the illustrations and context clues we can determine the time.  Knowing that the characters are fighting in a war for the Union tells us that it is during the Civil War.  In the beginning of the story it states that Sheldon was somewhere in Georgia.  This is evident by the strong southern dialect of Pink and Moe Moe Bay.  An example of the dialect is when Moe Moe Bay is talking with Say, “You ain’t nothin’ of the kind. You a child…a child”.

 

    The illustrations are  stunning and help to extend and enrich the story for the reader.  Polacco drew the pictures to go along with the story and used acetone markers to color them in.  The pictures help to depict the emotions the characters are feeling throughout the story.  When Pink tries to explain to Moe Moe Bay that him and Say will be leaving to join the war again the illustrations convey how each of the characters feel at that moment.  Moe Moe Bay is against the idea has her eyes closed and her hand up as to tell Pink to stop talking.  Pink holds in hands up in a way that leads the reader to think he is saying “why not?”  Say is leaning against a table with his eyes closed and arms folded against his body, he did not want to fight again.  This is just one example of how the illustrations compliment the text and help the reader better understand how they characters feel. 

    This story, because of the content, would be appropriate for upper elementary students.  There are several ways this book could be used in the classroom.   During a discussion of the Civil War this story would be an excellent way to show how children not much older than the students were involved in the war.  When introducing the story the teacher would need to talk with students about some of the language used.  Because of the time period and southern dialect there are several words and phrases that students may have a difficult time with.  Some examples are mustered, smote, dysentery and jump the broom.  The BIG questions that I would ask are:

• How would you feel if it were against the law for you to know how to read?
• How did Say change after Moe Moe Bay was shot?
• Why do you think Pink thought the War was “his fight”?

    When I taught fifth grade there was a copy of this book in the class library that was left from the previous teacher.  At that time I never thought about reading this story and I did not know what it was about.  When I saw this title on the list I thought I would give it a try, and I am happy that I did because it is not what I expected.  I would recommend this book to any fourth, fifth or sixth grade teacher that is teaching about the Civil War era.  I think it a great way to introduce students to the War and it has the potential to create great class discussions.

  

There Is a Bird on Your Head!

Willems, M. (2007). There is a bird on your head!  New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.

       
      There is a Bird on Your Head! is an Elephant and Piggie book by Mo Willems that will definitely have you laughing from beginning to end.  Elephant and Piggie, the main characters, are resting one day when a bird, minor character, decides to land on Elephants head.  Elephant startles Piggie awake and asks what is on his head.  When Piggie informs Elephant that a  bird is on his head he immediately begins to panic.  As the story progresses more things, another bird, a nest, eggs and chicks, appear on Elephants head leading to more panic and worry.  All along Piggie is composed and calmly talks Elephant through his troubling situation and helps him come to a solution. 

       Mo Willems is also the illustrator of There is a Bird on Your Head!  He uses simple line drawings to create the illustrations in this book.  Willems sets the mood by using vertical and diagonal lines to show emotion and depict motion.  Through this technique the reader can conclude that Elephant is upset without even reading the story based on his expressions.  At the same time the reader can see that birds are flying away with the use of dash lines following behind them.  There is also negative space in this book.  Each page is white with only the drawings of the characters and the speech bubbles occupying the space. 

        The style Willems writes in is first-person narrator.  Both Elephant and Piggie, the main characters, talk in first-person throughout the story.  The two characters are having a conversation with one another over the birds on Elephant’s head.  Willems organized the text in the book by placing it in speech bubbles. The  reader can tell who is talking not only by the direction of the speech bubble, but also by the color of the bubble.  Each character has a different color bubble that matches their skin color.   Elephant is gray, so his speech bubble is gray and Piggie is pink, so his speech bubble is pink. 

       This book is targeted towards primary aged students, but I think older elementary students would enjoy reading it as well.  In my opinion this book is more for enjoyment than anything else.  If I were to use it in the classroom I would read it aloud in a kindergarten or first grade class.  The BIG questions that I would ask would be as follows:

• How can you help a friend or family member that has a dilemma like Elephant?
• Elephant was very upset through most of the story.  Sometimes things happen to us that we don’t like or want.  How can we react to these situations?

       I have read Mo Willems’ Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and all the books in that series several times to my students and we all enjoy them.  Although I have seen some of the Elephant & Piggie books I had never had the chance to read one.  I wanted to take this opportunity to finally read one of the books and I am glad that I did.  I would definitely recommend this book to younger students because it is an enjoyable book to read.  I laughed several times while reading this story and enjoyed the simple illustrations.  Since checking it out I have read it to my 13-month old son two times and he likes it, too. 

About Me

Hi! Welcome to my first ever blog! I have always wanted to create a blog to share ideas with other teachers, as well as my students and parents. I am looking forward to learning how this blogging stuff works so that I can continue to use it after this class.

A little bit about me, I was a classroom teacher for seven years.  For the first four years I taught first grade.  I enjoyed first grade but jumped at the opportunity to move to kindergarten when one of the K teachers retired.  In October of my second year of teaching kindergarten my principal moved the fifth grade-reading teacher out of the classroom and asked me to move to fifth.  It was a hard move to make, teaching five year olds one week then teaching 10 year olds the next, but I made it work and ended up enjoying fifth grade as well.  For two years I had an hour commute to and from work so when a third grade reading teacher position opened up in the county next to where I live I took the job.  This year I am working as a homebound teacher for the county I live in. 

I am actually working on my second Masters Degree in Reading & Writing Specialist.  I earned my Bachelors and first Masters Degree from EKU.  After I finished my graduate degree I said that I would NOT go back to school, but here I am.  Through my years of teaching I have learned that I love to teach reading.  I want to be the best reading teacher I can be so that is why I decided to get a second Masters in this program.

I am married and we will celebrate our 3^rd anniversary this summer.  We have a son who just turned one in March.  Our lives have definitely changed since he entered it, but I LOVE it.  Thanks to my flexible homebound schedule, this past year has been amazing as I have had the opportunity to stay home with him and watch him grow.  Although I have loved being at home with my little man, I have missed teaching and I am looking forward to being back in the classroom.