What I've read so far this summer...
Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter (1940). Picked off a pile of collected future classroom library books. (Hint - the local library's "Friends of the Library" sale shelf is a great source of inexpensive children's books. I've paid $.25 for most titles.) I commented to my mom that I actually found The Long Winter to be a real page turner. The hardships and deprivations experienced by a handful of families during a particularly harsh winter on the Dakota frontier were unbelievable. They were much tougher people than most of us are today. My only concern with using this book in a classroom is with a couple of passages dealing with Indians/Native Americans. An aged Indian steps into the town store to warn the pioneers that the coming winter will be especially harsh. "Heap big snow, big wind...You white men. I tell-um you...." Etc. The language strikes me as stereotyped. When Pa returns home to tell Ma about the Indian's warning, Wilder writes, " 'What Indian?' Ma asked him. She looked as if she were smelling the smell of an Indian whenever she said the word. Ma despised Indians. She was afraid of them, too." As a teacher, I would need to be ready to put this chapter ("Indian Warning") in the context of the time in which it was written.
J. Maarten Troost's Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation* (*Or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid) (2008). I plucked this Book on CD off the library's audiobook shelf. I am admittedly addicted to listening to books on tape/CD. A household chore or drive in the car is merely an excuse to continue the latest story. Before listening to this travelogue, I was unfamiliar with this work of Troost, but I will be seeking out his other titles. Troost is trying to convince his wife that they should move their family, which includes two small boys, to China, so he undertakes an extensive exploratory visit. This book is the result. Part travelogue, part social/political/environmental commentary, it is in many places laugh-out-loud hilarious. I probably appreciated the setting even more having taught an ancient China unit in my sixth grade placement this spring. This book, however, is most definitely not suitable for children!
William Wise's Christopher Mouse: The Tale of a Small Traveler (2004). I am a sucker for children's stories featuring rodents. Yes, I realize how peculiar that sounds, but it's true. Christopher Mouse is a children's novel (middle elementary interest level) about a young mouse who is schooled in the ways of the human world by his mother before being sold to a pet store. He first finds a home with a kind-hearted boy, who, alas, is tricked into surrendering Christopher to a devious classmate. Christopher must fend for himself, all the while hoping to be reunited with his sister Anna. A sweet story, Christopher Mouse would be enjoyed as a read-aloud in third grade, perhaps.
Jean-Dominique Bauby's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death (1997). Bauby was the editor of the French Elle magazine when he suffered a massive stroke that left him in a "locked in" state. In this state, a person is fully conscious, but essentially unable to move. With the help of an assistant, Bauby composed The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking his left eye to spell out words. Reading his reflections, I could not help but be amazed by Bauby's inner resources and resilience. He passes much of his time by creating whole worlds within his mind. He ends the short book with a hopeful note that the keys to his "diving bell" will yet be discovered somewhere within the cosmos.
Ruth Rendell's The Monster in the Box (2009). Another book on CD choice. The Monster in the Box typifies one of my favorite types of audio listening experiences. When I am listening, as opposed to reading, I tend to go for entertainment value. A good mystery fits the bill. For years I was certain I did not care for British mysteries; however, at some point, desperate for a new audio mystery, I gave one another try and decided they were all right after all. The Monster in the Box details Inspector Wexford's obsession over the years with a man he is convinced is a killer. Wexford is at the heart of many of Rendell's mysteries, and he, as much as any mystery story line, is a reason to read/listen to this series.
Brady Udall's The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint (2001). I loved this book when I listened to it on tape several years ago, so when I spotted a copy in my local used book store, I couldn't resist. "If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head. As formative events go, nothing else comes close; my careening, zigzag existence, my wounded brain and faith in God, my collisions with joy and affliction, all of it has come, in one way or another, out of that moment on a summer morning when the left rear tire of a United States postal jeep ground my tiny head into the hot gravel of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation." So begins The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint. I've never read anything else quite like this novel. It's funny, sad, uplifting and strange. Highly recommended.
Ann Tompert's Grandfather Tang's Story: A Tale Told with Tangrams (1990). Part of a small motherlode acquired through a cohort friend, this book is clearly targeted to the educational market. Grandfather Tang tells a simple, folktale-like story to his granddaughter, and, as he does, they envision the various creatures as depicted by tangrams. Robert Andrew Parker's pen and watercolor illustrations are appealing and well-suited to the story, and each page includes a small picture of the featured animal in tangram form. I can imagine reading this aloud to a class, and then having the kids work in small groups to create the tangram animals.
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