Becoming Naimi Leon

Title: Becoming Naomi Leon
Author: Pam Munoz Ryan
Publisher: Scholastic Inc, 2004
Genre: Multicultural, realistic fiction Novel
Age Range: 3-6
Awards: 2004 Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award

Summary:
Naomi and Owen don’t know who their parents are, they dropped her and
her brother off when they were younger. Throughout the book they are
trying to figure out who they are and who themselves are. The book is
written in part in Spanish and part in English, but the way its written
makes it very easy to understand. Naomi made list of every day worries
and such, which I found very cute! , Gram gets temporary guardianship
papers and sets off for Oaxaca City, Mexico with their neighbors; this
was done to preventSkyla, Naomi’s mother, from taking her to Las Vegas
to be a babysitter for her and her boyfriend. With her Gram’s during a
festival she carves a lion and meets her father. Naomi goes through the
court hearing and is brave and tells the court that her motherdoesn ’t
want them. At the end her Grams takes full custody of them and Naomi
has to become a strong independent women who is proud of her Mexican
culture.

Response: The cultural aspects are buried throughout
the book, they are very discrete, which is what I really like. Naomi
loves making lists; one of her best traits says her grams. This really
reminded me of Because of Winn Dixie, because little opal liked to make
lists as well. I love all of the Mexican cultural throughout the book;
it was very smooth within the text, almost unnoticed. All of the good
multicultural criteria were presented in this book. The cultural was
portrayed as multidimensional and naturally integrated. The collection
was balanced and authentic.

Teaching Ideas: I really liked
this book to discuss learning and physical disabilities. But I would
most likely use it in discussing Mexican based culture. It does a great
job showing Mexican cultural in general but it does a great job getting
you aware of their language as well. because although the language is
in the book itdoesn ’t really make it hard and obvious that its their.
I would probably have my students do a href="http://www.brentberryarts.com/repousse.htm">metalrepousse since that is a big part of Mexican cultural as well.

Mirror of Erised

My camera is broken, so until I can get a hold of someone else's I will just describe my picture. They are all photographs that I have taken and cut and pasted together pieces. One is me and my boyfriend and I am wearing a wedding vial. In the background are pictures of fields and open spaces, along with a horse and our barn. All the pictures in my "Mirror" already exist in my life today. So I guess that makes me pretty lucky! :D

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Title: Jarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Author:J.K Rowling
Publisher: Scholastic 1997
Grade level: 4th and up

Summary: When Harry’s parents die he goes to live with his aunt, uncle and cousin, who are a little strange. After figuring out that his family were wizards he get invited to the school of Hogwarts were he to can become a wizard. This is when he finds out his parents left him a lot of money. While traveling to Hogwarts he meets Ron, someone who he later becomes best friends with, Hermoine, and Draco, who turns out to be a horrible little boy. After arriving at school he does very well in it. He finds out he is especially good on a flying broom and gets accepted to play on the quidditch team, a sport at Hogwarts. A troll enters the school on Halloween. Hermoine gets trapped with the troll in the bathroom were Harry has to go save her. For Christmas Harry receives a cloak that makes him invisible, he uses it to sneak around the school. Harry finds the Mirror of Erised, this mirror shows you your deepest desires. When Harry gazes into the mirror he sees his parents. Strange things start happening to Harry and in friends around the school. While investigating, they find a three headed huge dog protecting something, turns out he is protecting the sorcerer’s stone. The sorcerer’s stone gives strength and eternal life to whomever posses it. Harry is the only one that was able to successfully complete all the trials to the stone. Were he finds that Professor Quirrill was the evil one trying to steal the stone. Harry defeats him but is badly injured, but he recovers. And now Harry is a hero among the school.

Responce: I have never read a Harry Potter book, and I tell you what; they are really neat! I thought it was going to be silly, all of the wizards and Trolls. But it keeps your attention so good; I see why everyone reads them. There is always something going on that makes you want to just keep reading. I love the whole idea of a little boy who lost his parents and then turns out that he can be a hero.

Teaching Ideas: This would be a great book for 5th grade literature to teach about fantasy. It would definitely keep the students attention and get them excited about reading this kind of literature. and honestly, just like for this class, I think having the students make their own Mirror of Erised, to show their deepest desires. This activity makes you think about what is really important in life.

Poetry

LOUDER THAN A CLAP OF THUNDER
By Jack Prelutsky
from THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

Louder than a clap of thunder,
louder than an eagle screams,
louder than a dragon blunders,
or a dozen football teams,
louder than a four-alarmer,
or a rushing waterfall,
louder than a knight in armor
jumping from a ten-foot wall.
Louder than an earthquake rumbles,
louder than a tidal wave,
louder than an ogre grumbles
as he stumbles through his cave,
louder than stampeding cattle,
louder than a cannon roars
louder than a giant’s rattle,
that’s how loud my father SNORES!

Response: hahah I love this poem, because this is MY dad!!! It reminds me of the onetime our school went on a camping trip and my dad chaperoned and slept in the boy’s cabin. That night everyone woke up to the sound of all the boys screaming, they thought someone had a chainsaw in their cabin!!!! (My dad's snoring!)
I love the sounds in this poem... grumble, rumble, and roar...this poem is formed in a limerick, with the rhythmic pattern being every other line.

Rosa

Prior to reading informational text: I don’t really remember reading a while lot of informational text. I think it is because I have my mind set that it is very boring and bland. I don’t ever feel wowed or excited when hearing I have to read such text, especially which has to do with history.

Title: Rosa
Written by Nikki Giovanni
Illustrator: Bryan Collier
Publisher: First Scholastic, 2005
Genre: Picture Book, Biography K-5
Awards: Caldecott Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Award

Summary: Rosa worked in the alternative department in Alabama in the year 1955. She is known as the greatest seamstress in the town. She got off early on day and went to go home on the bus. She paid just as everyone else did and noticing that the all black section was full she sat in the ‘neutral’ section where blacks and whites could sit. After the bus driver told her to get up once the bus became crowded, Rosa stood her ground. Even being threatened she did not move, she was soon arrested. A lady named Jo Ann Robinson who was a colored professor and the president of Woman’s Political Council rallied 25 women who worked hard making posters that said “No Riders Today, Support Mrs. Parks” “Stay Off the Bus.” Martin Luther King became their spokes person. People from all around started sending shoes so people in Montgomery Alabama could walk. After a year in November of 1956 the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was illegal.

Response: I have seen several books and heard many stories on the Rosa Parks sit down on the bus. But I really liked this one! I thought the pictures were great and I liked how the story told what needed to be said and no more. I think this will allow the young reader to stay interested and make the facts easier to see. I really like how the illustrator mentions that he used a yellowish hue throughout all the pictures because when he visited Alabama the first thing he noticed was the heat.

Teaching ideas: I might have a younger classroom (2-3) graders make posters like Jo Ann did, I would have them make up their own catchy slogan or sentence. This allows them to be creative while also, hopefully, creating a spark in them to show simple ways to voice ones opinion.

Comparison and research from Cinderella stories

The Rough-Face Girl:
Setting: An Algonquin tribal village on Lake Ontario, in Canada.
Characters: The Rough Face Girl, the invisible being, the cold hearted sisters, father, invisible being’s sister. These characters were a little more different than the traditional tale I was use to. Throughout the whole story she had a father and there was no step mother. This could be in the culture because the only thing I cold find on it is that the tribe is very close like a family; they might not get divorced and or remarried. Also like in most Cinderella stories the man that the Cinderella marries is more wealthy and has much more to offer, which is what the invisible spirit did, gave her fine things and restored her beauty.
Cultural markers: I loved all of the cultural markers in this story there were wigwams, nature pictures, moccasins, buckskin dresses, Jewlry, beaded clothing. I think that all of these things are a big part of who the Algonquin people are. There are roughly 8,000 Algonquin Indians left in Canada today. The French are the first to call this tribe Algonquin it is believed that they were trying to say elehgumoqik, which means “our allies.” The tribe is believes in the afterlife and are firm believers in witch craft. Their clothes and shelter all came from trees or animal skins. They were very one with nature. The present of spirits and nature is a huge theme in this story.

Smoky Mountain Rose an Appalachian Cinderella:
Setting: Smokey Mountains
Characters: Rose, the trapper, Seb, Liza, Gertie, Annie. This story had more of the traditional type characters with the cold hearted step mother and two step daughters with a rich man to marry.
Cultural Markers: language is the biggest cultural marker in this story. The dialect in the heart of the Appalachians is distantly different than mainstream American English. This story by Alan Schroeder does a great job depicting such dialect. The way it’s written and the phrases used are typical Appalachia dialect. Many of these backwood folks are thought to be uneducated; this is due to the extended time it took to get schools in some of these areas. The Appalachians are the second largest mountain system in North America, this accounts for the underdeveloped lifestyle that most think of when thinking of the Appalachians. Roads were nearly impossible to make easy. They had to follow gorges or river systems and valleys, making them much longer and generally more dangerous. Family values are extremely important in this area. It started form the 1700’s when Daniel Boone first traveled across the mountains searching for a path to the old west (Ohio, Kentucky…). Few people inhabited the mountains so families were few and far between, you had to obey and help your family because there was no one else around. I think this Cinderella story does a good hob of showing this especially at the end when rose doesn’t disregard her evil step sisters and loves them just the same. The outfits in this story are typical of the mountain regions; overalls and country dresses, lace up boots. They are all practical to work in.

Smokey Mountain Rose

Title: Smoky Mountain Rose an Appalachian Cinderella
Author: Alan Schroeder
Illustrator: Brad Sneed
Genre: Picture Book, Traditional literature, Folk Tale
Publisher: Puffin Books, 1997
Grade Level: k-5

Summary: Rose’s father, a trapper, gets married to a widow in town with two daughters. The two daughters of Gertie, the new mother, were mean and vain. Annie and Liza the two mean sisters made poor Rose do every chore. The father could see what was going on and it broke his heart but he figured it would start to much commotion if he tried to say anything, because talking to Gertie was like “kickin’ an agritated rattler.” After a while the father died, Rose was heartbroken. After Gertie lit into Rose about mopping around, she was about worked to death doing all the chores. There was a rich young man on the other side of the creek. “Made his fortune in snowbellies and grits” they say. Well his folks decided to have a “shindig” were they invite the entire town, to see if he could find him a wife. After the two snobby daughters leave with Gertie, Rose is cryin and one of the hogs tells her to get up real fast “like ye got a whompus cat bitin’ at yer britches” and her rags turned into a beautiful party dress. So with a watermelon and two field mice Rose had her a big wagon and two horses. And the final touch was a pair of glass slippers. As soon as she walked into the barn for the square dance seb, the rich young man, ran right up to her. at midnight she ran out the door and tried to hurry home, in the process she lost one of her slippers. Seb went around to all the twon trying to find who could fit in the glass slipper, and of course Rose’s foot fit perfect. After the two step sister figured Rose was marring into money they acted like real sisters treating her nice. And Rose was to sweet to do anything but be nice.

Response: This is absolutely my all time favorite Cinderella story. And honestly I think it is now my second favorite children’s book. I LOVED the way this story was written the dialect was priceless. I found myself laughing while I was reading it trying to say all the words out loud. You fall in love with sweet Rose right from the beginning. She is the most humbling character I have ever seen. I almost would have preferred illustrations that made the character more beautiful, for example with not such large hips and such. But I think it’s meant to portray the look of the Appalachian people so I definitely don’t mind it! I loved everything down to the fact that the pig was the fairy godmother. Everything about this tale made me smile!

Teaching Ideas: I would use this story in telling about literature and Cinderella stories for sure. I would also use this in social studies when discussing geography I would use this story with any grade looking at dialect. It is so unique and this story shows it perfectly. I would allow my students to research this culture especially, because it a culture that is alive in our own state that many people don’t know about. I would have them put together a creative venn diagram of similarities and differences with their own culture.