G2 Review: Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Simonds, Nina, Leslie Swartz and The Children’s Museum, Boston. 2002. MOONBEAMS, DUMPLINGS & DRAGON BOATS. Ill by Meilo So. San Diego, CA: Gulliver Books (Harcourt, Inc.) ISBN: 0152019839

This book is designed to introduce five major Chinese festivals celebrated throughout the lunar year: Chinese New Year, the Lantern Festival, the Cold Foods Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Working chronologically through four lunar months, the authors and illustrator begin each section with a page-long explanation of cultural practices before and during the festival. Then, they include a simplified traditional folktale that narrates the origin of the festival. The remainder of each section is devoted to shorter explanations of games played, foods eaten, and crafts made, with instructions and recipes for creating them. A foreword explains the lunar calendar, and an appendix lists resources and a pronunciation guide used throughout the text.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
With its crisp, easy-to-read text and watercolor illustrations, this book is able to introduce Chinese festivals to a wide audience. Independent readers will readily comprehend both its expository and narrative pieces and could even work with younger emerging readers to cook the recipes, make the crafts or tell its stories. As it is structured, it could easily be used by entire families at home or to supplement classroom units on holidays or China. Although it may seem simplistic to readers above middle school, they could still find its background information or further resources helpful if they desired clear, ready explanations of Chinese culture.

Due to its logical organization, readers will have no difficulty in accessing this treasure of information. Just as the book begins with a concise overview of the lunar calendar, the sections on each of the five holidays begins with an explanatory piece on the origins and background on “small” cultural practices of individuals and families. Also, each of these is titled to reflect an important aspect of the holiday: “A Clean Slate,” “Lanterns, Lions and Dragons,” and “Moon Cakes and Moonbeams,” for example. Other features of these opening pages (and of all the pages in the book) include titles written in Chinese characters and representative illustrations. Each of these introductory pages sets the stage for the folktales that follow by alluding to the stories and discussing what people do and eat.

The traditional folktales are written in simpler language and complemented with watercolor paintings done in broad brushstrokes and bright, eye-catching colors. These stylized illustrations show aspects of the action in the folktales and, in their non-rectangular shape, use of white space, and strong dabs of color, seem to jump off the pages. With seemingly just a few brushstrokes, they thoroughly depict characters (well-fed gods, austere scholars and working commoners), setting (burning forests or a river), plot (a woman pulled toward the moon or a loyal servant going into self-exile), different kinds of food, crafts and riddle answers.

While the folktales offer an understanding of how Chinese holidays began, they also feature glimpses into Chinese values and beliefs. In “The Story of the Kitchen God” and “Dongfang and the Festival of Lanterns,” readers see how gods and people interact, how people can outwit gods with a little planning and ingenuity, and why satisfying gods with festival offerings is necessary. “The Tale of Jie Zitui” is a cautionary story reminding people not to abandon their true friends. The importance of poetry in daily life (as represented by the fisherman) arises in “The Tale of Qu Yuan,” and true, eternal love in the face of adversity characterizes “The Story of Chang E and Hou Yi.” Thrift, practicality, luck, forgiveness, steadfastness, and finding contentment are some of the major ideas underlying these stories.

The spirit world plays a major role in the magic and unreal aspects in four of the stories, with anthropomorphic gods and goddesses given to jealousy, anger and hasty, harmful decisions. Their workings cause rain to fall, fish to be caught, and fires to start. They have their own hierarchy and are inclined to attempt to deceive each other. The Kitchen God attempts to deceive the Jade Emperor (but still gets his just desserts!), the dragon is exaggeratedly huge and curiously constructed, and the Fire Goddess feels powerless. Only “The Tale of Je Zitui” stays focused on this world, and even there the duke goes too far in his efforts to find his loyal servant.

Apart from all of their messages, the stories are designed to communicate information about the holidays. After referring to offerings and holiday practices in the explanations and stories, the authors and illustrator then turn their attention to the practical, interactive and “fun” parts of the book: the recipes, crafts, games, and riddles associated with each festival and explained where necessary. Like the stories, each title is written in Chinese, and each page has representative illustrations. The recipes and crafts all list ingredients and materials, clear instructions for independent readers, and even a small black band showing the level of difficulty and time required to make them. If readers had ever wondered about making dumplings, moon cakes, paper lanterns, or shadow puppets, they have the answer in these pages. They can top it all off with a free personality check by referring to the zodiac section.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
-- MOONBEAMS is a useful, visually appealing addition to any holiday collection. (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, November 2002)
-- Step-by-step illustrations aid in food preparation or crafts such as New Year Prints or Good Luck Characters in this elegantly designed volume. (PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY, November 2002)
--Attractively designed, the pages include plenty of white space, creating a fine background for So's brilliantly colored, stylized paintings. The recipes, some of which require the use of food processors and hot woks, are often beyond the culinary skills of the average child, though interested adults can use them to broaden their children's experience of Chinese culture. (BOOKLIST, October 2002)
-- Gorgeous watercolors complement and brighten each sampling as well as attract readers with their simple beauty and elegance…No library should be without this well-designed, beautiful, and informative resource. (KIRKUS REVIEWS, September 2002)

CONNECTIONS
--This book would be an ideal companion to a social studies unit on China in elementary or middle school or even in a Chinese language class for anyone of any age. Examining its folktales more closely for typical literary features would be suitable for English class.
--Other books about Chinese holidays or devoted to Chinese folktales for younger readers:
Carpenter, Frances and Malthe Hasselris. 2001. TALES OF A CHINESE GRANDMOTHER: 30 TRADITIONAL TALES FROM CHINA. ISBN: 978-0804834094
Stepanchuk, Carol. 1992. MOONCAKES AND HUNGRY GHOSTS: FESTIVALS OF CHINA. ISBN: 978-0835124812
Stepanchuk, Carol. 1994. RED EGGS & DRAGON BOATS. ISBN: 978-1881896081
Yip, Mingmei. 2005. CHINESE CHILDREN’S FAVORITE STORIES. ISBN: 978-0804835893

G2 Review: Sootface: An Ojibwa Cinderella Story

BIBLIOGRAPHY
San Souci, Robert D. 1997. SOOTFACE: AN OJIBWA CINNDERELLA STORY. Ill by Daniel San Souci. New York: Dragonfly Books. ISBN: 044041363-X

This Native American version of Cinderella features neither an evil godmother nor a glass slipper left behind by a mysterious girl at a ball and found by a kind prince who vows to find and marry its rightful owner. Here, the father is an Ojibwa hunter who seems to spend a lot of time away from home, and the evil is embodied in the form of two “bad-tempered and lazy” older sisters who force their younger sister, Sootface, to do all of the work. While she dreams of a better life, the text introduces a mysterious, powerful but invisible warrior who lives with his sister in another part of the forest. One day, he announces to his sister that he will marry the one woman who can see him. The sisters, dishonest to the last, try their luck but fail to answer the question about the materials that make up his hunting bow. Sootface vows to try, but her sisters and neighbors deride her honest efforts to look beautiful. Determined, she eventually finds the warrior, sees the materials, and wins a husband. Sootface also gets a good scrubbing, a new wardrobe, and a new nickname: Dawn Light. Her sisters end up looking as forlorn and overworked as Sootface did in the beginning of the story.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This “Cinderella” is a clearly written and well-researched story whose illustrations could provide its audience with a rich cultural background on the Ojibwa. Independent younger readers (ages 7-10?) able to guess words from context or follow complex sentence structures would have little problem comprehending the text, especially if they had prior knowledge of the Cinderella story. Readers with developing skills requiring someone to read the story to them would have little problem understanding the action due to its richly realistic watercolor paintings that effectively capture Ojibwa life in the forest.

Where in “standard” versions of Cinderella (or those with which I am familiar) the mystery involves the prince wondering about the girl who left behind the slipper, in this version the prince has transformed into a warrior seen only by his sister. That he was a great hunter embellishes the cultural aspect of the story, since in the illustrations of the forest and how the Ojibwa survive in it, it is apparent that hunting is critical to their daily lives. His mystery is only deepened by two recurring narrative techniques: his white moccasins and the fact that his sister “speaks” for him each time someone from the village tries to win his hand in marriage. Until he appears to Sootface, readers see his white moccasins hanging outside his wigwam on the ground beneath his body painted in shadow. The cover also foreshadows his mystery and relationship to forest, depicting his head and upper body superimposed and colored the same as the leafy trees.

Thematically, Sootface embodies the notion of the rewards of honesty and decency. She does not complain about how her sisters treat her or react to her neighbors’ insults and laughter; she merely dreams of a better life and, when presented with the chance, goes out and finds it. To her sisters and others, she is the “ugly duckling,” but they are seeing her only on the surface. She is able to see things others cannot, another mysterious event in the story and one that could support the idea of natural mystery as an important cultural value. Sootface “sees” the hunter who is part of the forest and becomes worthy, as opposed to the others who see only their own vanity. Since the Ojibwa depend on the forest for their survival, they would value those who approach it in the right way, as Sootface does.

Other noteworthy aspects in the text are the use of “threes” and the magic contained in the answer to the marriage question. Sootface is one of three sisters. Three pages in the beginning show her horrible life, and three pages describe her resolve to find the hunter. She is also the third person to attempt to answer the marriage question, at least the third one discussed in the text. (Of course, as our course text suggests, it could be argued that the use of “four” is more Native American. She is the fourth person to attempt to answer the riddle if the other neighboring women are counted, and four pages are devoted to her transformation at the end.) It is also fitting and magical to the natural background of the story that the hunter’s bow ends up being made of a rainbow and strung “with white fire, like the Milky Way.” Each of these natural phenomena would presumably be part of the Ojibwa experience.

Even if the story is an excellent cultural version of Cinderella, it is the illustrations that carry the beauty this book. Detailed, realistic and “extensively researched” according to the authors, they provide a wealth of anthropological information about a far removed time. Painstakingly rendered, they show all facets of Ojibwa life. Early in the text, we see how they built their villages, and then, on most of the pages, the paintings show how they cook, travel, hunt, and use the resources offered by the forest for their daily lives. Their realism is such that readers could wonder if the paintings were copied from photographs. Without the illustrations, the story could stand as yet another Cinderella. With them, it becomes a cultural study.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
--The retelling is lively, flows well, and brings out the harshness of the heroine's situation, and yet it is not without humorous touches. The full-page watercolors dramatically convey the natural woodland setting, the jeers of Sootface's sisters and fellow villagers, and the serenity and kindness of the warrior and his sister. (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, November 1994)
--The San Souci version reads aloud well, and the watercolor artwork illustrates the story with quiet grace…a satisfying picture book for reading aloud or alone, and a good choice for classes studying Native Americans or comparative folklore… (BOOKLIST, October 1994)

CONNECTIONS
--As the BOOKLIST review noted, the pictures alone in this book would be an excellent, realistic introduction to the daily life of the Ojibwa.
--A noted elsewhere, an interesting classroom connection would be to compare this version of the Cinderella with others from other cultures. A quick search on Amazon.com showed Egyptian, Chinese, Persian, Jewish, Korean, Alaskan, Irish, Caribbean, and Smoky Mountain versions. (This is probably a smattering of possible versions.)

G2 Review: The Rabbit & The Dragon King

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sans Souci, Daniel. 2002. THE RABBIT AND THE DRAGON KING. Ill. by Eujin Kim Neilan. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill Press. ISBN: 1563978806.

In this retelling of a Korean folk tale, an imperious, dying king who happens to be a dragon and live under water, needs to prevent his kingdom from falling into ruin. His advisors, who happen to be sea creatures, hurry to his bedside, where, out of his earshot, his queen and his personal physician decide that the only way for him to survive is to eat a rabbit’s heart. A shark, an octopus, and a swordfish volunteer to go out and find the heart, but they lack the capability to move on land, so the job falls to the turtle. Armed with a magic powder to enable the rabbit to breathe under water, the turtle swims off to search for a rabbit, which he soon finds and brings back to the king. After a brief conversation, they return to the king’s bedside, where the king outlines the plan he has in store for the rabbit. Not unexpectedly, the rabbit balks but is able to convince the king that for her own reasons she has hidden her heart elsewhere. Once she returns to land to find it, she will bring it back to cure the king. What the king does not know is that the rabbit has substituted a persimmon for her heart, but that does not matter. He has the heart, the rabbit has a string of pearls as a reward, and the story ends happily.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In this straightforward, quickly moving story, a number of morals or concepts to guide one’s life arise to create an overall plot outline. The first is the power of belief, as stated by the queen early in the story. The Dragon King does not truly need a rabbit’s heart, and the rabbit agrees and gives him a substitute that placates the king. Another idea is the need to find happiness in what we have instead of chasing possibilities that may appear better on the surface. Upon first meeting the turtle, the rabbit complains about how boring and routine living on land has become and how she longs for a change. She gets her wish for adventure, but she almost loses her life.

A final one is the importance of individuals, shown when the king and rabbit are discussing why the king needs a new heart, and how the sacrifice of an “insignificant” rabbit will help the larger kingdom. While the advisors appear to accept this notion, the practical rabbit does not. These ideas may or may not be distinctly Korean, but they do frame the plot and allow for a basic conflict and resolution with a minimum of complications.

Talking fish and animals? A dragon? An underwater kingdom? One of the strengths of this combination beast and trickster tale is in its personification of its stock animal characters. The king believes in his strength, his wife is not unwilling to go behind his back, the fish in the kingdom supplicate to the king, the turtle is willing to “play both sides,” and the rabbit is a quick thinker who outwits even the mightiest of kings. Using humans instead of mythical and real animals as main characters would have made the same point, but the personifications provide a magical aspect to the story. Also, originally, it could have “masked” its main idea. For an imaginative young audience or for Korean society, the unreal characters would not be much of a stretch.

The underwater and land settings require a character who can bridge both worlds, in addition to a method of getting the rabbit to breathe under the water. This leads to two things: the rabbit-turtle interaction and the infusion of magic into the story. The turtle is a plodding servant, out to do the bidding of the king. When he finally finds the rabbit, their humorous conversation centers not only on the turtle’s responsibility but also on their shared history, an allusion to “The Tortoise and the Hare” story of Aesop. (This may or may not have been in the original Korean version, but it works well here for readers familiar with the story.) The magic enters with the potion, the means of getting the rabbit into the kingdom, not to mention the talking animals.

Its audience of independent young readers, or even those readers who would need the story read to them, will thoroughly enjoy the page layout and especially the illustrations. While some of the vocabulary and sentence structures San Souci uses may be a bit beyond the youngest of independent readers, his text is generally clear and easy to read.

Each page contains a minimum of text divided into a few short paragraphs supported and enhanced by Kim Neilan’s large and detailed illustrations that in nearly all cases occupy at least a full page. All of these paintings are richly colored, adding emotion and depth to what otherwise would be a rather uncomplicated tale. The Dragon King, with a moustache we in the West may consider to be almost typically Asian (Confucian Chinese?), is shown to be angry and desperate in darker blues and purples, with his eyes and mouth expressing his pain. On the other hand, the rabbit luxuriates in a verdant world of green and yellow during the day and purple at night. When she meets the Dragon King in his palace, he is dwarfed in size. In the four spreads where they interact, the rabbit is portrayed in his wonderment, disbelief, and humility after she convinces the king of her plan to return with her heart.

What my seven-year-old niece said: She liked the colors and how they showed when the characters were angry. She also picked up on the allusion to the first time the rabbit and the turtle’s ancestors had met and enjoyed that a lot. The big first letters on each page of text appealed to her, and as she read she liked the ending because it was a surprise. She really didn’t know what to expect.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
--Storytellers will find attractive material in the repartee, the scheme of events, and the three sturdy characters. Both author and illustrator add humorous innuendo and bits of drama. (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, November 2002)
-- Some of the subtleties of the tale will be lost on the youngest of readers but as a read-aloud, this will enchant primary-age readers and engage older readers who will delight in Rabbit's cleverness. (KIRKUS REVIEWS, September 2002)
-- The rabbit doesn't want to die, either, and his (sic) clever ploy not only saves his life, it makes the king believe he has cheated death. (PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY, October 2002)

CONNECTIONS
--With its rich paintings, this book could easily be used in art classes from middle school and above to show how a text can be enlivened through visual art.
--Another book by the same duo:
IN THE MOONLIGHT MIST: A KOREAN TALE. ISBN: 978-1563977541
--A smattering of the many folk tales/collections from Korea:
THE GREEN FROGS: A KOREAN FOLKTALE. Yumi Heo. ISBN: 978-0618432288
KOREAN FOLK-TALES. Oxford Myths and Legends (series). ISBN: 978-0195216738
THE STORY BAG: A COLLECTION OF KOREAN FOLKTALES. So-Un Kim, translated by Setsu Higashi. ISBN: 978-1596543737 (2009 reprint of a 1955 text)

G1 Review: Show & Tell: Exploring the Fine Art of Children's Book Illustration

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Evans, Dilys. 2008. SHOW & TELLL: EXPLORING THE FINE ART OF CHILDREN’S BOOK ILLUSTRATION. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN: 0670878553

In this well-designed, very readable book, Dilys Evans chronicles the backgrounds, inspirations, and artistic processes of 12 children’s book illustrators. Her Author’s Note sets the tone for her work by comparing prehistoric cave painting with children’s book illustration. Each reflects an artist’s need to “show and tell (a) story” (Evans, 1). From the desire to share a story, her introduction moves on to a definition of fine art and to a brief, clear discussion of how children’s book illustrations conform to that definition. She then sets her sights on her goal and motivation for this book: she wants to explore different artists from different backgrounds who use different styles to help children—and presumably adults—to “discover the power of their own imaginations” (Evans, 2).

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Evans chose 12 illustrators to discuss, and this is one of the strengths of her book. With the widespread talent available to her, she had the unenviable task of limiting her scope to those whose work she enjoys. This concept, outlined in her note at the beginning of the book, frees her from having to justify or contextualize her choices. She can focus on the illustrator and the person’s work without and how it affected her, resulting in a more personal and manageable undertaking. A huge “all star” book—or “best of” book, as she mentions in the introduction—would have been possible, as would an academic study. Each of these, however, would have compartmentalized the topic and raised different sorts of expectations among her audience.

Evans devotes a chapter of 10-12 pages to each of her 12 artists. Each chapter heading consists of a small framed picture of a blank two-page spread, with the artist’s name in a red sans serif font. Centered beneath each name is a short catchphrase (catchword?) that captures some aspect of the artist. Completing the simple yet memorable package, each heading also contains either a self-portrait or noteworthy character generated by the artist. These headings build schema for her audience and reflect the “power” of illustration alluded to in the introduction. Readers have a decent idea what to expect before beginning the chapter.

Each chapter features clear and concise writing readily understandable to an audience of middle school students and older people and generally begins with biographical or personal information related to the artists’ catchphrases. “Oh, No!” “What if?” and “Imagine That” are examples of this technique that binds the individual chapters. Her chapter openings are strong and connect to the subtitles, and, after relating details about the authors’ lives and art, she ends with a different take on the same theme. Overall, the text reads more like a magazine article accessible to those interested in the topic, with lively writing that does not get bogged down in excessive detail. Readers learn the important points and move on, better educated on the lives and the careers of the illustrators.

Her chapter layouts are cleverly done. Usually, the first open two-page spread is adorned with only the title image, affording her the opportunity to set her sights on the author’s background information. From the third page onward, she begins discussing the illustrator’s art, with smaller images (often book covers) in the margins and larger images dominating the spread. This practice enables her to stuff the pages with artwork and give readers a better understanding of the artists’ careers and styles. The text for the artwork usually begins on the same spread as the images, cutting down on a lot of unnecessary page turning and allowing the reader to concentrate on the marriage of text and image along the same lines as children’s books. That the text has ample white space between lines also contributes to the ease of reading.

With her narrow focus on illustrators who work is important to her, lucid language, and use of illustrative and beautiful artwork, Evans achieves her goal of using the work of these artists “to find a universal language to talk about art on the page…and use it to explore the many other wonderful books that are on our shelves” (Evans, 2). A book such as this only increases the interest and anticipation in the next 12 illustrators she chooses to explore.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
--"This attractive title will be a boon for librarians, teachers, students, and anyone else who wants to learn to look at and talk about the art in children’s books." (BOOKLIST, September 2008)
--"The strength of this book lies in the depth of the author's understanding regarding how decisions about formal qualities and design affect narrative and in her ability to articulate their effectiveness for the layperson." (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, May 2008)
--"Teenaged artists have much to learn from Evans's thoughtful analyses, and even the casual reader will experience these authors on a different level after reading. In addition to being a strong purchase for public and high school, it is a must-have for art school libraries." (VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES, June 2008)

CONNECTIONS
--This book would very effective for art teachers, or even English teachers, to use with students throughout middle and high school, if only for the sake of its clear, illustrative biographies and ideas on creating art.
--Other titles on creating and illustrating children’s books:
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: A READER’S HISTORY FROM AESOP TO HARRY POTTER, by Seth Lerer. ISBN: 978-0226473017
WRITING WITH PICTURES: HOW TO WRITE AND ILLUSTRATE CHILDREN’S BOOKS, by Uri Shulevitz. ISBN: 978-0823059355
ILLUSTRATING CHILDREN’S BOOKS: CREATING PICTURES FOR PUBLICATION, by Martin Salisbury. ISBN: 978-0764127175

G1 Review: Bebé Goes Shopping

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Elya, Susan Middleton. 2006. BEBÉ GOES SHOPPING. Ill by Steven Salerno. Orlando, FL: Harcourt. ISBN: 9780152054267

As its title suggests, this story centers on the exploits of “Bebé” during a shopping trip with his mother. At first, Bebé is agape and amazed by the size and variety of items in the supermarket. Strapped into his shopping cart, he soon sees familiar and brightly colored items and begins reaching for them. This is helpful to his mother the first time, and she rewards him with a gratifying kiss. However, she becomes more and more exasperated over the next few scenes as he continues grasping and grabbing mischievously, generally personifying the expression “terrible twos.” At the end of her tether, she finally finds a box of animal crackers to placate her son, who comically proceeds to chomp his way through the box while she finishes her shopping and happily exits the store.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This funny story is geared toward younger readers and, with its “troublemaking” but extremely cute baby, has something in it for anyone who has ever shopped with a toddler. Elya’s text is done in rhymed couplets and is interspersed with Spanish words in a bold typeface. With Salerno’s drawings, contextual explanations, and the use of cognates such as “muchos colores,” these new vocabulary words are easily comprehensible to readers without Spanish knowledge. For those curious to learn Spanish or to consolidate their understanding of the vocabulary in the text, there is a helpful glossary after the story.

Each two-page spread has a minimal number of words, usually in two to four lines consisting of 11 or 12 syllables. The general stress pattern seems to be iambic, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, but this is not consistent. (Readers will have to improvise at times when reading to someone else.) Overall, though, the use of rhymed lines creates a mellifluous ease to the text, allowing its reader a chance to emphasize certain important words or concepts and its listener to get caught up in an entertaining story.

One feature of the text worth noting is the use of pauses, in the form of dashes and both ending and internal punctuation. At the beginning of the book and after Bebé finally gets mollified with his animal crackers, Elya uses long dashes liberally, largely as a means of explaining a word or concept, as in “the supermercado—with groceries galore” and “Bebé finds a camel—a humpy sorpresa.”

Nearly all of the lines in the story have end punctuation, and only a handful lack internal punctuation, a period, comma or exclamation mark. These natural pauses and stops force the reader to take a breather and also highlight important parts of the action: “Just play with my llaves,” she says. “¡Por favor!”/He giggles and drops them. They clank on the floor.” At these points of the story, imagining comments from the audience on Bebé’s actions and Mamá’s responses to them would be very easy and perhaps make the reading more interactive.

The beautiful illustrations work in conjunction with the text to make this a winning story. Done in watercolor, colored pencil and ink, they begin with items in the supermarket drawn in bold bright strokes. In both the characters and backgrounds, Salerno rarely pays attention to staying within the lines when adding color, leading to watercolors leaking out of the colored ink borders and, in some cases, unexpected white space that almost serves as a shadow. The vegetables and dry goods in the first scene show this technique very well. Similar to the text, the illustrations have a certain focal point, with something always at the center drawn in enough detail to attract the viewer’s eye.

Interestingly, just as the lines provide points of emphasis, so do the illustrations. For the characters, drawn almost in caricature, Bebé and Mamá each have oblong heads and rosy cheeks. In Bebé’s case, his head is oversized with a tuft of curly hair on top, suggesting that he may be a “thinker” (or a conniver) even at a young age. The mother has a curvy figure and roseate cheeks, indicating that she may be new to child-rearing. Other characters in the book are drawn more angularly, but all of them have an almost comic book feeling about them: realistic but somehow not.

Salerno has made the eyes, eyebrows and mouths carry the characters’ emotions and, at each major emotional shift, uses a background color to support those feelings. A kiss between mother and child results in closed eyes for each and smiles all around on a soft blue background. Confusion appears on a white background with broad, wavy, vertical yellow lines, as Bebé opens his eyes wide and arches his pencil-line eyebrows toward the center of his forehead. Anger jumps with a kicking baby and finger-pointing mother, each with open eyes, snarling mouths and scowling eyebrows on a soft reddish pink background. The animals in the animal cracker box also show “Why me?” expressions after Bebé begins eating them.

The scenes move from a certain packed-in feeling at the beginning of the story, perhaps to suggest Bebé’s amazement at the possibilities the market holds for him, to a sparseness that better showcases his individual moments of mischief. Until the last scene at the checkout counter, Salerno uses an abundance of white space and wavy brushstrokes of soft colors to divide the characters’ actions into smaller, digestible bits, complementing the lines of text.

The story is, in a sense, a string of events with all eyes constantly on Bebé, who goes through a number of emotions. While he angers his mother, he is also indulged by her and others at the supermarket. Most notably, in what may be the “moral” of the story, or simply something for all parents to remember, a “nosy senora” imposes on the younger mother who’s at the end of her tether, reminding her about children, “It’s hard to be good when there’s nothing to do.” The mother then gives Bebé the animal crackers and is able to complete her shopping. At the end of the story, the mother seems relieved and even goes so far as to call her son “her wonderful helper.” All sins are forgiven…until the next shopping trip.


REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
--"English-only and bilingual readers will enjoy the bouncing rhythm and buoyant illustrations." (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, May 2006)
--"Salerno's cheerful, energetic swirls of color and line, ample white space and changing perspectives transform an everyday outing into a dramatic adventure that will leave readers smiling." (KIRKUS REVIEWS, March 2006)
--"This delightful tale turns an everyday chore into a lively adventure, brimming with entertainment and enjoyment for all." (PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY, February 2006)
--"Fantastico!" (BOOKLIST, February 2006)

CONNECTIONS
--This is an excellent way to introduce the family to an additional language, as are many other titles by Susan Middleton Elya and also the board books of Gladys Rosa-Mendoza.
--A book such as this could benefit older students learning rhythm and rhyme, to examine both its successes and areas for improvement.
--Big fans of Bebé would probably not want to miss BEBÉ GOES TO THE BEACH, by Susan Middleton Elya. ISBN: 9780152060008

G1 Review: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Taback, Simms. 1999. JOSEPH HAD A LITTLE OVERCOAT. New York: Viking (Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers). ISBN: 0670878553

This book centers on episodes in the life of Joseph, a Polish Jew alive in an unspecified time but likely in the early part of the 20th century. A farmer, Joseph lives frugally and participates enthusiastically in the vibrant social and religious life surrounding him. At the beginning of the story, Joseph works on his farm while wearing an ankle-length, striped brown overcoat with a number of hand-sewn patches at its hemline. As the story continues and the overcoat begins to fall apart, he transforms it into smaller and smaller articles of clothing: a jacket, a vest, a scarf, a necktie, a handkerchief, and, finally, a button. After he completes each new article of clothing, he wears it during some sort of personal or communal event. For example, he goes to the local fair wearing the jacket, visits his sister wearing the tie, and uses his handkerchief when drinking a cup of hot tea with lemon. At the climax of the story, when Joseph loses his button, the last remaining bit of his beloved overcoat, he maintains his practical spirit by not bemoaning his loss. Instead, he sits down at his desk with his art supplies and creates a book about the experience.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
From beginning to end, this seems to be a very “personal” book for its author, Simms Taback. In addition to hand-drawing the text, Taback inserts himself into the book on the title page with his parenthetical comment, “and there’s a moral, too!” after he provides an overview of the plot. At the end of the book in a note addressed to readers, he discusses both his creative process and the background of the story. What began as an adaptation of a Yiddish folk song from his youth (complete with music and lyrics) becomes a contextualized story. Through his own experience, readers receive a glimpse into the history and beliefs of rural Jewish life in Eastern Europe. To the author, this is a life worth recalling and remembering. In his note at the end, Taback further cements his connection with the simple sentence, “Some people noticed Joseph looked a lot like me.”

At each juncture of the story until its climax, Taback uses straightforward declarative sentences to depict Joseph’s reality. The first sentence always begins with “Joseph had” and consists of five words, while the second sentence is the blunt and realistic “It got old and worn.” Once Joseph understands his reality, he does something to improve it. These all begin with “So he…” and end with him wearing his whittled down piece of clothing for some occasion. This repetition of form focuses readers on how Joseph responds to the world around him through the various manifestations of his retooled overcoat. Younger readers listening to the story, and even older readers without perhaps a high level of proficiency in reading, are comforted and able to anticipate the movement of the plot.

When Joseph loses his button, the story takes an unfamiliar turn, but the language remains largely the same until Taback delivers the moral at the end of the story. Even the moral is broken up into two parts, the first a complete sentence, the second a fragment. The language stays simple throughout, and the reader is free to concentrate on the action.

Joseph is a poor Jewish farmer, residing in Poland during the early to middle part of the last century. None of these “facts” about the main character and setting are delivered to the reader through the text. Instead, they are relayed through the design and illustrations of the book. Taback uses a number of different media for his stunning artwork that enlivens the story, helpfully listing each in the beginning of the book. His settings and characters are rendered without perspective, almost in the manner of folk art, rather realistically but with rounded and slanting lines giving everything a homemade feeling. Likewise, he uses deep earthy colors in his backgrounds and minor characters and balances these with brighter colors, most often in Joseph’s yellow shirt, to provide a focal point, but also evident in some of his other characters and settings. Die cuts throughout the book follow the transformation of his overcoat.

In many of the scenes, Taback uses white or some lighter hue for a newspaper page, pithy saying, sheet music, book cover or some other cultural marker. Flipping through the book, readers’ eyes are drawn to these often humorous pieces. Through them more information about the author’s understanding of his own history through the lives of Joseph and his contemporaries emerges. “Better to have an ugly patch than a beautiful hole,” “When the coat is old, only the holes are new,” “If a pauper eats a chicken, one of them is sick,” and “What one has, one doesn’t want, and what one wants, one doesn’t have,” are examples of the homespun wisdom relating to the overall themes of thrift, making do and dreaming of life in another place. To support this notion, there are numerous letters and postcards addressed to Joseph from relatives and others who have emigrated, not to mention a drawing of and allusions to the musical “Fiddler on the Roof.” There’s a certain practicality about day-to-day life tinged with possibilities of a more lucrative future, away from the hardships of farming in Poland.

Taback also uses his background drawings to show the bounty of flowers, crops, animals and neighbors that Joseph has, especially before he loses his button. All are drawn with realistic touches. Flowers packed tightly represent spring, different types of cabbages the harvest season, and falling leaves the autumn. Similarly, in the interior of his house, details are literally stuffed into the two-page spreads. However, when Joseph loses the button, he appears in front of a stark black background, with the sentence “Now he had nothing” showing his momentary loss before he takes a positive action.

Another artistic feature is that the characters (people and animals alike) are always looking at Joseph, reminding readers that he is the center of this story. While his neighbors and relatives merely seem to be looking at him, those in close proximity to him, his animals, seem to be at times incredulous, skeptical or sympathetic toward his actions, injecting more humor into the story. Along this same line, Taback combines a number of period and modern photographs of people, especially to decorate the walls of Joseph’s house and to show apartment dwellers in the city scene. Many of the older photographs are of rabbis or historical personages, reflecting Taback’s Jewish heritage. Many of the more modern photographs seem to be of people he knows. These add to the personalized mixture of text and art represented in this straightforward, detailed story.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S) & AWARDS
--"A book bursting at the seams with ingenuity and creative spirit (whose) rhythm and repetition make it a perfect storytime read-aloud." (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, January 2000)
--"A true example of accomplished bookmaking… filled with homey clutter, interesting characters, and a million details to bring children back again and again." (BOOKLIST, January 2000)
--"With its effective repetition and an abundance of visual humor, this is tailor-made for reading aloud." (PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY, November 1999)
--Caldecott Medal Winner: 2000

CONNECTIONS
--A great way to teach children about thrift and not wasting resources, in addition to reminding them of the need to persevere and stay positive during rough times.
--Can easily be adapted to performance, with the overall flow of the story and the Yiddish folk song at the end.
--Other books by Simms Taback, especially to show how he reworks fairy tales or incorporates morals for children:
THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLLOWED A FLY, illustrated by Pam Adams. ISBN: 9781904550624
THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. ISBN: 978-0142402009

LS 5603: Summer 2010 Work

For my latest course at Texas Women's University, LS 5603, Literature for Children & Young Adults, I'll just add to my existing blog. By the time I'm done here, I hope to have written a lot of snappy, informative book reviews and read even more great literature. Hope you enjoy the book reviews! (The first one should be up in a couple of days, once I resolve my jet lag and internet connectivity issues.)