The Misfits

The Misfits By: James Howe

                Immediately upon reading the first page of this book, I knew I was going to enjoy it. The author of The Misfits, James Howe, has a way with words that makes you feel like you’re within the pages of his book. You can so clearly visualize every aspect of his characters that the pages play out like scenes from a movie; you can see what the character looks like, what they’re wearing, how they’re acting, and what their facial expressions are like. Being able to visualize in such a clear way adds so much to the total experience of reading a book like this, and allows you to connect to characters on a much deeper level. I also loved the different variety of personalities and characters Howe has throughout his novel; you have the goodie- two shoes, the rebel, the popular kids, and the shy ones in between.

                James Howe, I think, chose a great setting and story line for this novel. Being in middle school and trying to fit in is a subject that every person who has gone through school can relate to. I, myself, actually ran for sixth grade student council in elementary school, and reading this book really brought back memories of me campaigning and giving speeches in hopes of becoming treasurer of the elementary school student council. Like the characters of this book, I also lost and came in a close second to my competition, just like the characters of the novel, so I was really able to connect to the events of the story and put myself in the characters’ shoes as they went through the events of the story. This quality of writing allows the reader to really feel what the characters are feeling, and as a result become much more interested and invested in the story.

                The other piece of James Howe’s writing that I love so much is the type of language he uses throughout the book. This type of language is particularly evident when you read the chapters that take place while everyone is in forum and are talking to each other. It sounds like the way I used to talk when I was that age; I still do talk that way, actually. The language is funny, entertaining and smart, and is one of the reasons I as a reader kept flipping through the pages and reading the story; it is one thing to have relatable characters, a good story, and a good setting. If your story does not have relatable language, then the reader is not going to be as enthusiastic about reading through the story. However, if the language is snappy, quick, and funny, like in this instance, then you are going to have a story that keeps a reader’s interest and makes them want to learn more about the characters and the events that they are going though.

                Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I definitely think I am going to go to the library and find the sequel. The story kept me entertained and curious to find out what was in store for all of the characters. I would defiantly use this book within my classroom if I was teaching upper elementary. I think it is a book that students would really get a kick out of reading. More importantly, it shows that being different and not fitting in perfectly with the norm is not always a bad thing, which I think is a great lesson to see.

Official Publisher's page for James Howe

                

My Woodson Experience

             

   For my Jacqueline Woodson experience, I read her book, Miracle’s Boys. I thought that it was a great book that really showed a tight family bond throughout the midst of death, gangs, and other problems. Talking about Woodson’s other novels, as well as looking though some of her picture books really showed me the common themes that hold throughout her works. Her books center on African American families and their experiences while living in New York. These families in her stories face many hardships but still maintain their sense of family and love.

                In Miracle’s Boys, Woodson depicts a family of brothers who lost both their father and their mother. One brother spent a long time in jail, and was in jail when his mother passed away and blames his younger brother for not being able to save her. I know that personally I have never experienced such powerful emotions, but while reading these sections of Woodson’s novel, I found myself tearing up a few times. Woodson’s descriptions and interactions between her characters are so real that as the reader you cannot help but feel exactly what these characters are feeling as you turn every page. Authors who write like this make it very easy for the readers of their books; they create situations and characters that the readers can identify with and connect to, so when these characters are placed in these heart wrenching situations, the reader almost has no choice but to become personally involved in the story’s events and feel for the characters they are reading about. I’ve read a number of books in my time, and there are some out there that are so boring to read because it’s hard to relate to the characters and get into the sequence of events; there are very few books that make me feel different emotions while reading them, and Woodson’s novel Miracle’s Boys was one of the few books that has.

                On Woodson’s website, she says that as a child she was disciplined for lying at home. When she went to school, however, she realized that the one place it was okay to lie was on paper in her stories. She says that it was through writing stories that she became a fantastic liar. I could not agree more; her lies create realistic events and characters that keep her readers interested and wanting more. After reading a couple of Jacqueline Woodson’s books I know that I am going to be reading more of them in the future.

Two Children's Books

Click, Clack, Quackity- Quack- Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

Type: Children’s Picture Book-Watercolors

Intended for children ages 6-9

Rating: 4 Stars

                Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack is an alphabet story that follows around a duck on a farm while they discover all the different things going on. On every page there is a different letter of the alphabet that starts a sentence bout something that is happening on the farm.

                I thought this book was very cute and would work really well for early readers because of its format. Every sentence starts with a letter of the alphabet, and every proceeding sentence starts with the next corresponding letter of the alphabet. This structure ensures that the reader will have some idea of how to start the sentence, because they will know what letter the sentence is supposed to start with. The pictures in this book are also really helpful for the reader to look at, because they give direct clues as to what the sentence is saying. If the reader gets tripped up on a word like watermelon, for example, they would be able to use context clues within the pictures to determine just what that word is that starts with the W.

                For use within a classroom setting, I think that this book would be really useful. I am actually thinking about using it during a lesson with my current reading buddy, because she gets really tricked up right now with multi syllabic words, and I think this book would be really helpful for her because of all the little clues that she can look for within the pictures to help her out. This is a reading trick that she needs to begin to use when she is reading her picture books, and this would be the perfect gateway book for starting to get her to use that trick. This book I could see working well with either silent sustained reading, or as a read aloud book for the entire class to participate in together.  The repetition in it could be a fun thing for the class to participate in saying together as a group, and the repetition of language and use of picture context clues would make it a good book for a student to read on their own.

Click, Clack, Moo; Cows That Type – Doreen Cronin

Illustrations by  Betsy Lewin

Type: Children’s picture book- watercolor paintings

 intended for children ages 7-10

Rating: 4 Stars

                Click, Clack, Moo’ Cows That Type is a story about a group of cows on a farm who decide that they want better living conditions and amenities if they are going to be giving the farmer their milk. They leave the farmer little notes on the barn door to let him know that there will be no milk unless they get what they want.

                I thought this book was pretty cute. I enjoyed the water color pictures, as well as the connections that I could make between this book and Click, Clack, Quackity- Quack seeing as they were done by the same author and illustrator. This book, however, was not an alphabet story where each sentence starts with a specific letter of the alphabet. This book was a typical story book starring cows as the main characters. I thought that the story line was really cute and clever in the way that it gave human characteristics to the cows and showed the cows taking control of their living situation by asking the farmer for special amenities. It is a fun twist on the typical owner/pet structure that most kids are used to seeing at home where the owner is the one in control and the pet listens to the owner.

                Using this book in a classroom setting would work well, just like the other book by this author and illustrator. There is a certain amount of repetition within the book, which would help beginning readers out with word predictions; it also has different formats of writing within it, which I really liked. For example, you have the regular text of the story which can be found on either the top or the bottom of the pages, but then you also that the little notes that the cows keep leaving for the farmer which can be found in the middle of the page. These little notes look a lot like post it notes, and they are posted in the middle of the picture of the barn door. This would be really good for students to see, so that they see all the different types of things there are out there to read, aside from classically structured children’s books. Just as with the other book by this author, I can see it working well as a silent sustained read or as a group read on a circle rug. Students could participate in saying the repetition out together, and seeing the note form of writing is going to be good for them to see and discover together.

Multicultural Children's Books

 Celebrating Ramadan- Diane-Hoyt- Goldsmith

 Photographs by Lawrence Migdale

Type: Multicultural Children’s Book- photography- intended for children ages10-13

Rating: 4 Stars

                Celebrating Ramadan is a book that explains the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, and the traditions that are associated with it.

                I thought this book was actually very interesting to look it. It is more of an informational children’s book as opposed to a typical children’s story book, but it really gets into the details on what Ramadan and the Muslim faith is all about. It told more so from the genre of an informational book, and has an authoritative tone when discussing all the different elements of Ramadan. Instead of having hand illustrated works of art throughout the book, this book uses photographs to keep with the informational tone of the book. There are tons of pictures throughout this book showing lots of the different aspects of Ramadan, from and ordered set of pictures showing how prayer is done, to pictures showing how traditional foods are made.

                Because of the massive amounts of text per page and the tricky language that is used and shown phonetically, I think this book would be good for older elementary students; that are not to say that this book wouldn’t be useful for a read aloud in the classroom for younger aged students. This book would be really useful to read aloud in parts to show the different traditions and customs of the Muslim faith along with their corresponding pictures. For older students, this book could be used in a research project or a multicultural presentation. Either way, I can see this book serving many purposes in the classroom setting. Seeing as this book is giving an unbiased look at the Muslim faith and is used to inform, I would not foresee any problems arising from using it in the classroom; I can see myself using a book like this in the future as a window book for students to look through.

To Be a Kid- Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko

Type: Multicultural children’s book intended for ages 7-10

Rating: 5 Stars

                To Be a Kid shows the things that children from all over the glove have in common. It has images of children from all over the world doing the same activities, and shows that even though we may come from different parts of the world, we all have something in common.

                I read this book as a mirror book, because it showed activities that I think almost every child can relate to. Along with all of these different activities, the book shows photographs of different children from all over the world taking part in the activities. At the bottom of each picture, there is a label to denote just where every child is from. There is a really light and playful tone to this book, which I really liked because it helps get its point across that even though everyone is different does not mean that we do not have things in common. I also really enjoyed the photography used in the book and how it depicts children from different parts of the world and different cultures participating in the same activity. It was really interesting to be able to look at the different labels underneath the pictures and see just where all the different children were from.

                I really think this book would be useful to use in a classroom setting during a lesson about differences and similarities. I think in elementary school it is really important to teach your students that even though not everybody looks the same or has the same type of culture, it is still possible to have things in common with these people. The simplicity of this book would work well with students in lower grade levels, but the meaning of the book will stretch between children of older grade levels.

White Wash- Ntozake Shange

Ilustrations by Michael Sporn

Type:  Multicultural children’s picture book- pastel wash with a striking effect intended for children ages 7-10

Raing: 5 Stars

                White Wash is the story of two African American children, a brother and a sister, who are attacked by two white males on their way home from school. The brother gets pretty badly beaten, and his sister gets her face spray painted white. Afterwards, the little girl is afraid to leave her house but then realizes that she has a right to go outside just like everyone else in the world.

                I really enjoyed this story, even though it is slightly controversial. I thought that this story was really interesting, especially the part where the little sister believes that she is crying white all over her face, when in fact her face is being spray painted white by the two attackers.  Her crying white all over her face seemed pretty symbolic to me meaning that there is a lot of pressure in society to be a certain way; for her, this meant that she needed to be white to fit in. The theme of this book was also very good; in the end, after the little sister has hidden out in her house for a little while, she decides that she has the right to go outside, just like everyone else. In other words, no matter the color of your skin, you still have the right to go out there and do what you want to do or be what you want to be. The illustrations within the book added to the intensity of the book and were beautiful to look at. They looked as though the artist had taken pastel paint, mixed it all around, and then scratched likes into it using a fork before drawing the lines and the characters on the page. They are just so full of color and intensity that they become a beautiful element of the story.

                I would really like to use this book in a classroom someday; however because of the subject matter and the events that unfold throughout the story, I would have to be very careful about how I would approach this book. Just to be safe I would probably send home a permission slip for parents to sign allowing their child to be present during the lesson containing the book. I think that this book would work really well in a lesson about differences and rights; it shows that people tend to treat each other differently based on the type of power group they are in- the majority or the minority, but ends by saying that no matter what group you fall in, you still have the same rights as everyone else. This book would also be great to use for critical literacy. There are elements of it that can be interpreted differently, and elements that give way to conversations on deeper topics such as race and ethnicity, gangs, power struggles, etc.  So, even though this book appears to be slightly controversial, I personally think that there are a lot of elements to it that make it really good for using in a classroom as long as it is handled and taught in an appropriate manner.