So You Want to Be President

St. George, Judith. 2000. So You Want to Be President. Ill. by David Small. New York: Philomel Books. ISBN 0399234071

Plot Summary:
So You Want to Be President is a collection of facts about our nation's presidents. Some of the facts are well-known - Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin; some are not - Andrew Johnson couldn't read until he was fourteen. The book also offers a glimpse into the duties of the president and shows the great variety and humanity in the men who have inhabited the White House.

Critical Analysis:
So You Want to Be President is chock full of the kind of fun facts that will interest young readers. Heights, weights, dancing ability, speeding tickets and duels are all covered. The facts are presented in a way that engages the reader and brings history to his level. (e.g. "Do you have pesky brothers and sisters? Every one of our Presidents did.")

The front and end papers are decorated with caricatures of the presidents, and much of the bibliographic information is located at the end of the book. This gives the reader the opportunity to enter directly into the fun, without paging through the copyright and publishing information.

The substantial text is in a smaller typeface which leaves plenty of room for busy illustrations, making use of positive space. The Presidents are drawn in caricature style, and are shown in both formal and embarrassing situations. Double-page spreads are used frequently to show a humorous situation or to depict many Presidents in the same setting. Readers will likely want to go through this book again and again, just to be sure that they haven't missed anything in these cartoon-style illustrations.

The only negative to this book, is that it may be passed over by older readers who will view the cover and assume that it's not meant for the independent reader. In truth, this book's engaging facts and illustrations should be able to satisfy readers as old as fifth or sixth grade.

Review Excerpts:
In the July/August 2000, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Kate McDowell wrote, "While accounts of particular presidents abound, rarely are they as entertaining as this collective biography of chief executives."

Connections:
This book makes a great introduction to Presidential biographies. Children's interest in lesser known presidents may be piqued by the little-known facts.

Follow up a reading of this book with a reader's theater performance of "The Field Trip to Remember," http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/reading/ReadersTheater/ReadersTheater016.shtml or "Ask the Presidents," http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/reading/ReadersTheater/ReadersTheater007.shtml

Visit the official White House site for kids, http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/

The Hello, Goodbye Window

Juster, Norton. 2005. The Hello, Goodbye Window. Ill. by Chris Raschka. New York: Hyperion Books. ISBN 0786809140

Plot Summary:
The plot in this Caldecott Medal winning book is simple. The story is an account of a child's day spent at her grandparent's home while her parents are working. She relates a typical day, focusing on the "hello goodbye" window, the window in the front of her grandparent's home through which she enjoys the view from both the inside and the outside throughout the day and early evening hours.

Critical Analysis:
This tale is told in the first person in a tone that should be quite believable to small children. The little girl says "I get tired I come in and take my nap and nothing happens until I get up." This is one of my favorite lines in the book because I remember my own daughter being absolutely shocked to find out that Mom and Dad ate ice cream while she was sleeping! Norton Juster clearly understands a child's perspective.

The "hello goodbye window" is an integral part of the setting, both in the text and illustrations. The window represents reality, fantasy, and imagination. She sees her grandparents through the window as her parents prepare to drop her off. She sees the Queen of England coming to visit for tea. Her grandfather amuses her by talking to her nighttime reflection in the window as if she is actually outside the window.

The illustrations are bright and cheery and busy and serve to set the book's mood. They are done in the impressionistic style. The blended colors and somewhat out of focus characters make this apparently mixed-race family relative to readers of any ethnicity. It's culturally inclusive in an understated manner. The lively colors and curly lines set the tone for an upbeat look at a mundane experience.

Review Excerpts:
Writing for School Library Journal, Angela Reynolds praised the artwork in this Caldecott award winning book,noting "The artwork is at once lively and energetic, without crowding the story or the words on the page; the simple lines and squiggles of color suggest a child's own drawings, but this is the art of a masterful hand."

Connections:
This book can be a great jumping-off point to entertain and interact with a child confined inside due to illness, injury, or bad weather. With a sign created in the likeness of the book's artwork, any window can be designated the "hello goodbye window" or the "rainy day window" or even the "chicken-pox window." From that point, with pencil and lined paper or crayons or paints the possibilities are endless - bird watching, people watching, or fantasizing and even creating the perfect view from the window.

An Innocent Soldier

Holub, Josef. 2005. An Innocent Soldier. New York: Arthur A. Levine. ISBN 0439627729.

PLOT SUMMARY

The year is 1812, and Napoleon is gathering his Grande Armée for an assault on Russia. When a privileged farmer’s son is sought as a new recruit, the farmer sends his unwitting farmhand, Adam, to serve in his stead. The poor servant boy is exposed to grueling conditions –depravity, deprivation, and the horrors of war as he struggles to survive the ordeal and make sense of it all.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

An Innocent Soldier is a historical fiction novel best suited for a YA audience due to its mature subject matter. The book is the 2006 winner of the Mildred Batchelder Award for an outstanding children's book first published in a foreign language. The story by Josef Holub and translated from German by Michael Hofmann, tells the story of Napoleon's grand march to Russia and subsequent retreat, through the eyes of an uneducated, though not unintelligent, teenaged farmboy, Adam. Betrayed by his master and forced to substitute for the master's son, Adam travels with the army through the Germanic Kingdoms, Prussia and Poland and finally to Moscow itself. French spellings (Armée and troupe) are scattered throughout the text to remind the reader that Adam has been thrust into a foreign army, while the names of the soldiers in his troop are indicative of Adam's home in Wurttemburg (Konrad Klara, Kleinknecht, Krauter). Adam tells the story in a kind of musing format, with sparse dialogue. "On the street lies an upset barrel. Thousands of kopek pieces have spilled onto the dirt. What riches! But no one is interested. If only it were bread. What would we do with metal coin?" This format suits his position and condition; an innocent farmhand assigned as a lieutenant's servant in a cold, miserable, and eventually pointless military campaign.

Although set amidst a tragic military campaign, the overriding theme of Soldier is one of friendship. Through shared hardships, Adam becomes the friend and confidant of the noble-born, Konrad Klara, and becomes respected in his own right. Ironically, Adam receives succor from an elderly Russian woman, and his greatest enemy is a sadistic member of his own regiment, underscoring the perplexities of war and the transforming power it has over human nature.

The story of An Innocent Soldier is timely despite its 1812 setting. The weapons, tactics, and adversaries may change, but the moral questions of war remain constant throughout the years. Young teens should relate to Adam as he grows in maturity and overcomes adversity. A period map and historical notes precede the book.

REVIEW EXCERPTS

"Arthur A, Levine Books has been awarded the 2006 Mildred L, Batchelder Award for its publication of An Innocent Soldier, The award is given for the most outstanding children's book originally published in a foreign language and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States, The book was written by Josef Holub, translated from the German version by Michael Hofmann."

2006. "Mildred L. Batchelder Award." Teacher Librarian 33, no. 4: 12-12. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed June 7, 2007).

"This is a well-wrought psychological tale that might have a difficult time finding an audience, but has a lot to offer to those seeking to build a deep historical fiction collection."

Stenson-Carey, Christina, Jones, Trevelyn E., Toth, Luann, Charnizon, Marlene, Grabarek, Daryl, and Dale Raben. 2005. "An Innocent Soldier." School Library Journal 51, no. 12: 148-148. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed June 7, 2007).

CONNECTIONS

This book is an obvious choice for an integrated curriculum based on this period in history. The rich historical details of daily wartime struggles can add life to the study of this era.

Though it may be a difficult sell because of its unappealing cover art (Adam appears too feminine and childlike to be a battle-weary soldier, and Konrad Klara appears more as an "add-on" than an integral part of the cover *), this book has great possibilities for a book discussion group. The themes of friendship, war, and morality are sure to engage older teens.
Read Thura's Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq (2004) by Thura al-Windawi for a view of the current war through the eyes of a teen.

* since I first reviewed this book, an alternative cover has been designed

My Father's Shop

I'm on vacation this week, so I'll post a few of my older reviews while I try to finish up the 2nd book in the Abarat series.

Ichikawa, Satomi. 2006. My Father's Shop. La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller. (originally published in Paris by l'ecole de loisirs) ISBN13 9781929132997.


PLOT SUMMARY

Young Mustafa's father owns a carpet shop in a busy Moroccan marketplace. When Mustafa requests a carpet with a hole in it to keep for himself, his father makes a deal. Mustafa must agree to learn the foreign languages necessary for working in the shop. When the foreign language lessons become boring, Mustafa dashes off into the bazaar wearing his brightly colored carpet, peering through its convenient hole. A similarly attired rooster follows him and Mustafa calls to the rooster in his native tongue, "Kho Kho Hou Houuu!!!" Tourists from France, England, Spain, and Japan offer their own rooster calls, "Co-co-ri-co!" "Qui-qui-ri-qi!" "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" and "Koke-ko-kooo!" Mustafa races back to the shop, carpet flying. Trailing behind him are his new-found feathered friend, and all of the foreign tourists. Not only has he brought many customers to his father's shop, he has learned to speak rooster in five languages as well!

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

My Father's Shop is a multicultural book in every sense of the word. Although its setting is Morocco, Mustafa interacts with tourists and shoppers from Spain, France, England, and Japan. The book simultaneously points out cultural differences and brings cultures together. Each group of tourists is dressed in the fashion of their country and calls the rooster in their own language; yet all of the rooster calls are similar, and all of the characters delight in Mustafa's garb - a brightly colored carpet over his head with a hole for his eyes.

Japanese born Satomi Ichikawa may seem an unlikely author and illustrator for a book about a Moroccan carpet shop, however, she has lived in Paris for over thirty years. Morocco has a strong French presence, being once a protectorate of France. I have been fortunate enough to have visited Morocco and shopped in the busy Casbah marketplace. Ichikawa's colorful double spread paintings evoke the essence of the bazaar in their bright colors and details. The abundant, richly colored and patterned carpets are warm, typical and inviting, as is the silver teapot for mint tea, a common offering in shops and restaurants. Only the teeming crowds are missing. The locals are depicted in the varying head coverings, robes, sandals and slippers typical for the hot desert climate.

My Father's Shop has an exotic setting, but it is a story of inclusion and humor. The antics of little boy and a rooster are enough to warm the hearts of people from any country. The liner notes on the artwork are sparse, noting only that Ichikawa never attended art school.

REVIEW EXCERPTS

"A joyous story that brings people from different cultures together."

2006. "MY FATHER'S SHOP." Kirkus Reviews 74, no. 6: 292-292. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed June 7, 2007).

"Besides a gentle cultural lesson in how animals sound in different countries, Ichikawa's glowing pictures, with their radiant colors...., present an engaging image of a Moroccan marketplace and of a boy who can find a dozen ways of playing with a rug with a small hole."

DeCandido, GraceAnne. 2006. "My Father's Shop." Booklist 102, no. 12: 102. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed June 7, 2007).

On the 2007 United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) Outstanding International Booklist

CONNECTIONS

My Father's Shop makes an excellent introduction to a study of Morocco, and can also serve as a segue to a lesson on map reading or globes - finding the location of Morocco and the home countries of the tourists.

The colorful carpets can serve as an inspiration for an art class, examining the woven rugs of different cultures.

Public librarians might follow a reading of this story with multicultural or multilingual children's music.

The Green Glass Sea

2007. Klages, Ellen. The green glass sea. New York: Puffin.

The source of the title for Ellen Klages' book, The Green Glass Sea, is a mystery to the end. So too, is everything about life on "The Hill," to the story's protagonist, 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan. Since her mother's disappearance, Dewey has been living with her Nana while her father works in Boston. When Nana suffers a stroke and has to enter a Home, an Army car comes to pick up Dewey. She is surprised, not only because her father has not come for her himself, but also because her destination is not Boston, but New Mexico. There, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, she finds that her father and many of the world's brightest scientists are at work on a top-secret "gadget" to help end the war. Officially, their neighborhood, called "The Hill," their town, and even they themselves, do not exist in this mysterious desert community. They are allowed no phones or regular communication with the outside world.

The four girls walked down the middle of the road, with Betty and Joyce a little behind, giggling to each other. They headed south, the pine-studded canyon far over on their right. The road didn't have a name, none of them did. Suze thought this made it really hard to give anyone directions, but the army didn't want people knowing much about the Hill. Even if you lived there.

Dewey, a bright and inquisitive inventor herself, loves this strange new life. She has her father all to herself and hours of time to spend on her inventions. The only thing she does not like is the treatment that she receives at the hands of the other scientists' children, who call her Screwy Dewey and mock her handicap - a leg, shortened by an injury. Another young girl, Suze, becomes an unlikely friend due to circumstances beyond either of their control.

Suze and Dewey's life, and life itself, are about to change as two cataclysmic events unfold - the successful test of the atomic bomb and Dewey's own personal tragedy.

The Green Glass Sea, winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction, is the story of what life was like for scientists and their families working on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico. In addition to the story of the young girls, Dewey and Suze, and their families, The Green Glass Sea poses the age-old questions of scientific ethics and "greater good, " as in this exchange between two of the scientists:

"Well, yes. We started for a good reason, and we've been working so hard. It was pleasure. It was excitement," he said. "But you stop thinking about - you know? You just stop. And now..."
" And now that we've seen what it can do. My god," Terry Gordon said, her voice raised, sounding angry. "They can't use it. Not on civilians. Not on anyone, for that matter. I mean, maybe as a demonstration, but -"

"That's not realistic, Terry, said Dr. Teller in his Hungarian accent. "It's no longer an experiment to be demonstrated. It's a weapon, to end this terrible war once and for all."

This is moving and slowly paced novel - giving the reader time to absorb the hot New Mexico summer, the single-mindedness of the pursuit, the dreary and secretive life on "the Hill," and the enormity of the "gadget's" importance. The book is told alternately from the viewpoints of Dewey and her new friend, Suze, and contains supplementary information from and an interview with the author, Ellen Klages. The book's only distraction was the author's peculiar choice to write one chapter in a present-tense voice. Highly recommended for ages 11 and up.