The Giver

          The Giver by Louis Lowery takes place in a community that is devoid of suffering, hunger, poverty, and war.  Through Jonas we learn about how things are done in the community: the importance of precision of language, the selection of future careers at the age of twelve, the pills that are given to control emotions and urges, and the release that is given for members that deviate from the norm or have outlived their usefulness.  We are introduced to Jonas as he faces anxiety about his assignment for life at the Ceremony of Twelve.  

            Though Jonas appears to have a typical family (a concerned mother, a nurturing father, and an impatient sister) we find that families are awarded one boy and one girl upon application.  Children are born from birth mothers, women whose specific job it is to carry children, and then they are cared for until they are one at the Nuturing Center.  On their first birthday children are given their name and assigned to a family during the Ceremony of One.  Each birthday signifies an increase in independence from the community until at last they are ready to take their place in it as an apprentice at twelve.  

          Jonas' unexpected assignment as the new Receiver of Memory leaves him nervous and ambivalent.  As Jonas begins working with the Giver he finds that his new job is to receive the memories of the community going back before its present peacefulness.  As Jonas starts to receive memories that inspire awe, happiness, and suffering, he begins to see that his community is not quite the perfect place he thought it was.  After asking to watch the tape of a release his father was involved in as a nuturer, Jonas' world falls apart as he knows it.  Jonas and the Giver devise a plan to share their wisdom and experiences through memory with the community.  The plan takes an unexpected turn when Gabriel, a young child his father has been bringing home from the Nuturing Center in order to help, is assigned to release.

           Lowery's book is a strong warning against the dangers of taking away choice and differences in order to create a community free of conflict.  Jonas' community is full of rules for the protection of its citizens and those who do not follow the rules are removed by the community through death.  Individuals are parts of units, belong to careers, and are no longer recognized as significant for who they are.  In the end we realize that sometimes the compromise is not worth the reward.

If you are interested in reading this book, the following links may be helpful:

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A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

          The first story in the A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning starts, “If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other books. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.”  True to it's warning there are no tidy, happy endings for Violet, Claus, and Sunny Baudelaire.  The book begins with the children being informed of the untimely death of both of their parents.  Mr. Poe, who manages the children's fortune, does not mince words when he tells the children their parents both died in a fire.  He informs them that they will come stay with him until he figures out where their closest relative living in city lives.  Ultimately the children end up at the doorstep of Count Olaf, a distant relative who lives in an empty, foreboding house filled with images of eyes.

          The characters of The Bad Beginning are developed through shared information by the narrator, their dialogue, and striking descriptions.  Violet, the oldest at fourteen, is an inventor and has a love of taking things apart and putting them back together.  Claus, twelve, has a love of reading.  Sunny, the baby, has the typical and humorous love of biting.  Count Olaf is a peculiar and menacing character that leaves lists of impossible tasks for the children to complete during the day.  We see just how dangerous Olaf when his first violent act is toward Sunny, "With an inhuman roar he picked her up in one scraggly hand and raised her so she was staring at him in the eye."

          The main setting of the story is in Count Olaf's house.  It is a large, dilapidated house with blackened bricks and a worn door carved with an ominous eye.  Above the only two windows in the house rises a tower.  Inside the house is dimly lit and poorly furnished.  Pictures of the eye are found in several rooms.  The bizarre, dark setting creates a feeling of discomfort for the sweet children that are forced to share a mattress on a filthy floor.

          When the children botch a dinner party for Count Olaf, making pasta and puttanesca sauce instead of roast beef (which Count Olaf did not indicate he wanted) things start to go south for the youngsters.  The conniving, malicious man he is begins to show itself clearly.  After the children make a trip to talk to Mr. Poe about their guardian, Olaf wastes no time in putting his diabolical plan into motion.

     The grim, no nonsense narration of Lemony Snicket who tells the story from a first person standpoint that is privy to everything that goes on lends to the feeling that nothing will go right for these children.  True to his opening statement, one misfortune after another befalls the children until the reader is desperate to keep reading in the hopes that something will change.

The following links are provided if you are interested in reading this book:

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One Crazy Summer by Rita Garcia-Williams

          One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia is the story of three young girls who were abandoned by their mother, Cecile, at a young age being forced to spend a month with her in Oakland, California years later.  Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern know better than to expect a happy reunion with their mother but harbor young girls' hopes in their hearts.  Their life with their mother during that month is awkward and Delphine continues to do what she has always done, watch out for her sisters.  While Cecile writes poetry and works in the kitchen, denying the girls access, and pushing them out the door during the day, the girls begin to spend time at the People's Center joining their summer camp.
          The People's Center is run by the Black Panthers but the girls are just looking for a meal and a place to hang out.  Over time as they spend their days at the center, the girls learn more about the Black Panthers work and message.  When their mother is arrested after being coerced to do work for some members of the Black Panthers group, the girls are taken in by another member of the People's Center and looked after.  Delphine refuses to contact her father, wanting to wait to see how long her mother will be in jail.  In the meantime, the girls continue to work to help spread the message of the People's Center and finally agree to participate in a rally by reciting a poem of their mother's.
          The characters of One Crazy Summer are all distinct, vibrant personalities whose words and interactions bring the story to life.  Delphine, eleven going on twelve, is the care-taker and as a result assesses with a protective, responsible eye.  Vonetta, nine, is the scene-stealer and given to exaggeration.  Fern, seven, is the innocent and the baby, eccentric and forthright.  Their mother Cecile is unabashedly determined to ignore their presence and does not deny the inconvenience of having them there.  The dialogue has a unique dimension of its own and goes a long way to giving us insight to the characters.
          The story is set in Oakland during 1968.  The setting serves to highlight the differences in how African-Americans are treated.  Living in Brooklyn, the girls were not as aware of racial differences and through their experiences in California the work of the Black Panthers slowly comes to have meaning in their lives.  It is through this connection that the girls eventually come to make a connection with their mother.
          One Crazy Summer has been received numerous awards including being a finalist for a National Book Award, winning the Coretta Scott King award, the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and being a Newbery Medal Honor book.

The links below are provided for those who are interested in finding this book:

Worldcat link to find "One Crazy Summer" in a library near you.

Link to purchase on Amazon

Esperanza Rising

          Esperanza Rising is a historical fiction book by Pam Munoz Ryan set after the Mexican Revolution and during the Great Depression of the United States.  After Esperanza's father is way laid and killed by bandits, Esperanza and her mother lose everything when the untoward interest of her seedy Tio Luis turns to marriage shortly after.  Tio Luis' attempt to force Ramona's hand in marriage culminates in a fire that destroys their home and crops.  During the fire, Esperanza's grandmother is injured and forced to part ways with Ramona and Esperanza to recuperate with her sisters at a nunnery. In a desperate attempt to escape being forced to marry and loosing her daughter to boarding school, Ramona makes plans to secretly travel to the United States with her housekeeper, Hortensia, and her husband, Alfonso, who have plans to work as migrant farmers in California.  Esperanza struggles to deal with the loss of her father and the reversal of fortune she faces.  When the group, now including relatives of Alfonso's, reaches the San Joaquin Valley, they find bone-weary work awaiting them for pennies.  Just when Esperanza thought she had lost everything, her mother falls sick after a dust storm and struggles to recover.  In her determination to see her mother recover, Esperanza begins working in earnest.
          It is Ryan's expertly developed characters that elicit emotional investment from the reader.  From the start we feel the bond between Esperanza and her father, and the strength of love between Ramona and her husband.  We are heart-broken with his death.  Through her thirteen-year-old thoughts and words, we identify with Esperanza as a typical teen aged girl albeit one that has lead a sheltered life before her father's death.  Her mother, Ramona, carries her through the whirlwind of events with dignity and affection that continues even as she struggles to work in the sheds packing grapes.  Abuelita is a woman of strength and determination whose words and actions follow Esperanza in her thoughts that tell her, "Do not be afraid to start over."  Miguel, Esperanza's childhood friend and Alfonso and Hortensia's son, is filled with quiet strength and determination.  His conversations with Esperanza serve to guide her thinking about her actions and how her old attitudes no longer fit her new life.
          Set in the Joaquin Valley farms during the early 30's, the setting serves to frame the changes in the lives of the Ortega women.  Whereas they used to live on a ranch of a thousand acres, in a large house with a beautiful rose garden, their surroundings in California are barren despite the crops they harvest.  Miguel has saved seedlings from the rose garden that serve as the only connection that exists between their old life in Mexico and their new life.  Esperanza and her mother share a bed in housing that is packed with Alfonso, Hortensia, Juan, Josephina, and their three children.  Dust storms rise up and swallow the landscape, the fields, and the workers leaving them in a film of white.  The setting is as bleak as the possibilities for their futures working long hours with the difficulty of saving money.
          Ryan's plot provides the catalyst for changes in Esperanza that transform her from the privileged daughter of a ranch owner to a hard-working capable teen aged girl determined to be the provider in her mother's time of need.  After Ramona falls ill, they find that she is slow to recover and requires a stay in the hospital.  Determined that her mother will get better, Esperanza believes that bringing Abuelita to the United States is what is needed to turn Ramona's health around.  Though she is not old enough, Esperanza finds a way to become employed in the packing sheds and works her fingers raw to save her family.
          This is one of the most heart-wrenching stories I've read in a long time and has become one of my favorites.  Esperanza Rising is a highly regarded book and has received numerous awards including a Pura Belpre.

If you are interested in reading this book and finding it in a local library near you:

Link to "Esperanza Rising" in Worldcat

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Link to "Esperanza Rising" at Amazon

The Secret Garden

 
          The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson-Burnett is a well loved story that was first published in the early 1900's.  A young girl, Mary Lennox, becomes an orphan when her parents contract cholera and die.  Mary is sent to live with her uncle Achibald Craven on the moors of Misslethwaite Manor in the English countryside.  As Mary slowly learns independence and cultivates a love of the outdoors, not only her health but her manner changes.  When her maid, Martha tells her of a secret garden that has been closed off for ten years, Mary's interest awakes for something more than self-centered causes.  When Mary discovers her bed-ridden cousin, Collin, she shares her stories of the secret garden inspiring the same spark of interest.  While the children of Misslethwaite work to revive the garden and bring things back to life, their own lives are revived with purpose.
          The characters of The Secret Garden are well developed through their interactions with each other.  Mary's spoiled, inconsiderate manner when she first arrives at Misslethwaite is evident in her fits of temper, her inability in accomplishing the smallest tasks herself, and her belief that servants around her are meant to do her bidding.  Mary's cousin Collin suffers from a similar attitude, having grown up like Mary, neglected by his father with only the company of servants who feared a turn in his health.
          Every scene in The Secret Garden serves the purpose of contributing to the plot.  It is with some sense of mystery and the Gothic that Mary arrives at the large, fairly empty house in the middle of the night.  Her curiosity grows with her surroundings as she encounters secrets that must be solved: the garden and the soft crying that floats in the hallways.  As the secrets are solved, the darkness of the house gives way to the hope and light of spring.  It is through determination and hearty involvement in creating change that a transformation takes place not only in the garden but in the house and it's inhabitants as well.
         The story is told from an omniscient third-person point of view which becomes important as characters have vastly different personalities and others change drastically.  Burnett's writing has elements of Romanticism and the Gothic in it.  The lonely manor sitting in the midst of the moors filled with locked rooms in which you can occasionally catch the sound of soft sobbing in the empty hallways is a Gothic image.  The growing independence of the children and the emphasis on nature and it's healing powers are Romantic images.  By cultivating these images of light versus dark throughout the story, Burnett emphasizes the transformations taking place.
          Although The Secret Garden was well received when it was first released in print, it's popularity waned until the 60's when it experienced a resurgence of popularity.  The Secret Garden is a heart-warming story of personal growth and transformation that any child or adult could appreciate.

The following links are provided if you are interested in reading this book:

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Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

          Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis, is a realistic fiction book that addresses the cruelness that young children can dole out so easily.  Maya is a new girl that tries as hard as she can to become friends with Chloe, Kendra, and Sophie.  She shares smiles, starters for conversation, and invitations to games without success.  Instead Chloe and her friends make disparaging comments about the condition of Maya's clothes and the strangeness of her lunch contents.  When their teacher Ms. Albert does an activity on kindness and Chloe can't think of a single kind thing that she's done to share, Chloe begins to think of Maya and reflect on ways in which she can be kind to her.  Unfortunately for Chloe, Maya's family moves away and her opportunity to return a friendship is missed.
          The illustrations of Each Kindness by E. B. Lewis contribute to the alienation and cold-shoulder the close friends show towards Maya.  The majority of the realistic illustrations are full-bleed images that provide powerful pictures to the text.  In an aerial view the children stare at Maya judging her second-hand clothing while her hands are clasped behind her back in a gesture of shyness.  When Ms. Albert announces that Maya will not be returning to school, we get a two page spread of her empty desk.  While Chloe throws stones in the lake, one for each kindness she wishes she could have shown Maya, we see her small figure with head down in regret and reflection.  The use of point of view in the illustrations is another striking way in which E. B. Lewis emphasizes the feelings or actions of the children.  When Maya first arrives to school and we see her chin down as she stands in the doorway.  We are only privy to her face because the point of view of the picture is from the ground up and serves to highlight how reluctant or scared Maya is to be introduced to the class.
          The characters in the book are developed through their actions.  In Maya we see invitational smiles and good-natured offerings of friendship to Chloe, Kendra, and Sophie.  Each interaction between the girls and Maya causes our heart to sink a little with disappointment.  Though Maya is consistent in her friendliness, Chloe offers her silence and ridicule behind her back, and shares in name calling with her friends.  It is an eye-opening moment when Ms. Albert, Chloe's teacher, tells the children that kindness can ripple like stones in the water and gives them all a stone to place in a fish bowl after they have shared something some kindness they spread.  Maya cannot think of a single kindness, despite Ms. Albert's encouragement that, "Even small things count."
          The story is set at the children's school which invites us to remember all the mean things we suffered as young children and how deeply it hurt our feelings no matter how small.  Young children are vulnerable, and even more so than to their peers.  It is a self-conscious, magnified hurt we feel when we suffer rejection or eyes of others on us when we sit alone at lunch or play by ourselves at recess.  As someone who moved several times because my father was in the military, I remembered the desperate hope that I would make one friend easily who could make the transition smoother.
          This story received excellent reviews and was a Coretta Scott King Honor and a Jane Addams Peace Award recipient.  Librarians, teachers, and counselors love this story that can be used to discuss how we treat others.  Though the girls in the story don't bully Maya and their comments are usually made behind her back, we feel the effects of rejection and the sadness that comes when others withhold friendship despite Maya's admirable dignity throughout the whole story. Even if the concept of regret is one that young children will have a difficult time identifying with, every child understands what it feels like to want to play with someone and not have that feeling returned.

The following links are offered for people who are interested in finding out more information or tracking this book down because they have to read it!

If you are interested in reading a review of the book:
A New York Times review of "Each Kindness"
   
If you are interested in reading this story and check it out at a library near you:

Worldcat Link for "Each Kindness"

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Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night

        Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman is a collection of poems on creatures that rule the night.  This collection of poems contains not only nocturnal staple animals as topics but things that can occur with other natural subjects such as trees and mushrooms.  Each poem is accompanied by factual information afterward that expands the imagery of the poetry with an understanding of how this happens naturally with the subject.
        Sidman changes her style of writing with each poem sometimes rhyming and sometimes using free verse.  Every poem is heavy with imagery that creates feeling for the senses.  For example in  Oak after Dark, we learn that even the trees are busy in the night.  Sidman personifies the oak tree giving us the image of a mother almost who is finishing up her tasks while young ones move around her feet:

As nighttime rustles at my knee,

I stand in silent gravity

and quietly continue chores

of feeding leaves and sealing pores.

        The illustrations by Rick Allen were created using linoleum prints and gouache.  The use of heavy dark lines and color reflect vision in the darkened forest.  The images and colors lend to a magical darkness that corresponds with the fantastic sensory pictures being created by the poet.  The author creates a mystery and magic by sharing interactions of the animals with its environment.  This is an interesting dichotomy when paired with the factual information that follows to demystify creatures of the dark.

     Joyce Sidman's poems introduce to the hidden things that move at night we fear.  Her collection of poems works to engage the reader through the senses while illuminating the backgrounds of the animals that come out at night in the forest. It has the potential to serve as an interesting potential for science and creative writing combined.

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