children reading and writing || literature for children

Literature for ChildrenSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 40, No. 2, Children Reading and Writing (Nov., 1986), pp.218-223Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20199349 .

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^Critically

zPT] Speaking f" qj y"^

Literature for children The Literature Review Coordinator is Sam Leaton Sebesta, University of Wash

ington, Seattle. This month he was assisted by Susanne Morris, a graduate stu dent in librarianship at the University of Washington.

Never begin a column with ho hum. It will put your readers to sleep before they get started. It's true that literature is littered with sleepers-ho-hummers such as

Pooh, Alice-in-Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, and Rip Van Winkle. But your readers should not be made sleepy.

To avoid ho hum when it threatens to overcome the column writer, find unpre dictable books. Turn away from the books with predictable problems and solu

tions, predictable covers, predictable bindings and spines. Writers, like mountain climbers, must occasionally take big risks. So should readers, includ

ing book column reviewers when they are sloping toward ho hum. This month the homework assignment is to read at least 6 unpredictable books

before breakfast.

Some things different In Philippa Pearce's short story "The Great Blackberry Pick" a family outing is

spoiled by a childish, petulant father. Val, the daughter, runs away for one brief

glimpse of Eden?a "scone-smelling, baby-smelling kitchen" where a happy family resides. When she returns, she protects that memory from her father's renewed tirade. In E.L. Konigsburg's "On Shark's Tooth Beach," which is set in

Florida, a boy whose mother came from Thailand is pursued by a bigoted re

tired college president who insists that the boy help him collect fossils. In the

end, the boy gives him more than he could have asked for?a "Nobel prize of

Materials reviewed or listed are in no way advocated or endorsed by RT or the

International Reading Association. Opinions expressed are those of the reviewers whose

names appear with their reviews.

218 The Reading Teacher November 1986



trophies," a one-of-its-kind fossilized shark jaw washed from some ancient un

dersea shrine onto the beach. The contrast between the senior and junior citi zens is indelible: greed against generosity, subverted intelligence against

wisdom.

Both stories appeared several years ago in collections of their respective au thors' works. Now they are reprinted in the middle of a new collection called Short Takes (ages 10 up), which includes 7 other stories by other authors. How rare the Pearce and Konigsburg stories are! They seem to tell themselves with out author intrusion. They are about problems that people have that can't be solved in a final page or chapter. Children's literature is richer because of them and would be richer still if there were more of them.

Drift (ages 10 up) by William Mayne is something different, too. In previous books, this English author has proved himself a master of English settings, past and present. Now he writes of the North American wilderness in an unidentified

pioneer time when Indians and settlers are in uncomfortable proximity. In the White village live Tawena, an Indian girl rejected by her tribe, and Rafe, the son

of immigrants. Stranded on an island of ice, they must survive together. When Rafe is rescued by 2 Indian women who plan to sell him into slavery to their

people, it is Tawena who must change their plan. The first half of the book is told from Rafe's viewpoint. Then the incidents are repeated and clarified from

Tawena's perspective. Rafe's openly displayed emotions do not impress Tawena: "The white people do not think... .Their faces are pale and their hearts do not

work. He is, moreover, dancing like a bear" (p. 107). But Tawena comes near to

sacrificing her life for Rafe, and the unexplored warmth between them is at the center of the story. Perhaps the author is suggesting that such warmth among unrecorded people is at the center of history, too.

From New Zealand comes Margaret Mahy's Aliens in the Family (ages 10

up). But the book actually begins on a distant planet, where a being named Bond is sent off to earth to collect data for some celestial inventory. It is the children in a New Zealand family who protect Bond when he is supposedly threatened by an alien enemy. And it is the outsider in the family, Jacqueline,

who recognizes Bond for what he is. The topic of being different is presented by Bond to Jacqueline in this way: "And what's an alien?.. .It's just a word for a

person out of their own environment. I'm out of my place here, but you are out of yours too. You're a stranger here, just like me" (p. 103). It's a thoughtful book and quite a complex one: Mahy makes it encompass a bit of Maori culture and Bond's sister S?lita is disguised as a transistor radio!

Different fantasies The leaf-shaped, mist-filled days of autumn are perfect for fireplaces, bags of

apples, and for answering the haunting calls of strange lands. Robin McKinley 's collection o? Imaginary Lands (ages 11 up) has 9 of them, each as unique and

intriguing as the next. The authors' names glisten in the table of contents: Patri cia A. McKillip, James Blaylock, Jane Yolen, P.C. Hodgell, whetting our ex

pectations of great fantasy. Blaylock's story lies somewhere between past and

future, decidedly existential, written in language that flows like poetry. "TamLin" by Joan de Vinge and McKillip's "The Old Woman and the Storm" are

written in the mode of myth. The majority of the other stories delight as only worlds of fantasy can: We have no desire to leave them, ever.

Jane Yolen, Martin Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh have edited a collec tion of fantasy and science fiction short stories entitled Dragons and Dreams

Critically Speaking 219



(ages 9-12), filled with monster fears, time travel, and all sorts of imaginings but all with a lighthearted tone. Except for the first story in the collection, which is a first rate ghost story, they are more whimsy than angst; they quite belie the fierce expression of the fire breathing dragon on the cover. A more

eerie selection is Sarah Sargent's Watermusic (ages 9-12) in which Laura faces her fears by recognizing that spiritual perception may transcend the intellect.

The following selections for younger children are whimsical, each with so

pleasing a predicament and solution that they will most certainly draw smiles. The Little Jewel Box (ages 6-9) by Marianna Mayer is an original fairy tale in the classic mode, complete with castles, talking animals, and a miniature jewel box with 3 little men inside. Isabel wishes to seek her fortune and win her

prince. She does so in the grand tradition, which of course includes a little help from her friends. The tale is so well told that it ranks with the best of its genre and need not be stamped "1980s" because the hero is so obviously female. Jona than Mouse (ages 3-6) is wonderfully painted by Agn?s Mathieu. It contains the

most expressive mouse face seen in years, along with a dog friend named Toby, who helps discover a means to break the spell of a bad fairy. Whinnie the Love sick Dragon (ages 4-8) is also engagingly illustrated. Whinnie suffers love unre

quited. Since the object of her love is a dragon hunting knight, you might say, "What else could she expect?" As it turns out, she could expect a great deal

more: The knight turns into a dragon.

"Toby fetched a bit of tomato, a bit of Swiss cheese, a cabbage leaf, a piece of chocolate and a plum." From Jonathan Mouse by Ingrid Ostheeren, illustrated by Agn?s Mathieu. Cop

yright? 1985. Published by North-South Books. Reprinted by permission.




Nonfiction with a difference The unpredictables are to be found on the "Nonfiction New Books" shelf, too.

There seems to be more experimentation with form?new ways to deliver the

content-than in the past. The alliance between illustrations and other graphics and text is often closer. The day of randomly placed fact or photograph is gone, and that's good reason for thanks-giving.

Look, for instance, at Gail Gibbons's Flying (ages 3-7). The colors are solid; the line drawings are simple, using labels when needed. The text begins with a

bit of history, then presents contrasting examples of modern flight, from a blimp carrying a TV camera over a football field to a helicopter rescue mission. There's precision and crisp language instead of over-generalizing.

When I examined Demi's Count the Animals 1?2?3 (ages 3-6) to see what makes it different from other counting books, I remembered a term from a vis

ual discrimination study: strength of closure. It has to do with keeping one's focus despite distraction, such as finding Uncle Otto's hunting hat in the midst of a herd of turkeys. Most counting books place the countable items up front so

everyone can find them, but this one, with its flowered elephants and overlap

ping dragons, invites a search party. Hence it respects and develops the young child's strength of closure! I'm glad-and I'm also glad to mention that the book ends with 20 pangolins and a chorus line of 100 creatures in all colors of the

peacock. For those who have passed the basic counting test, try this problem. You have

3 pigs and 5 houses. You plan to eat one. Which one?or does it matter? And which house should you invade? These are important questions to Socrates the

wolf, his wife Xanthippe, and a mathematician frog named Pythagoras. Thanks to Mitsumasa Anno's drawings and a detailed explanation of combinatorial anal

ysis at the back of the book, Socrates and the Three Little Pigs (all ages) suc

cessfully mixes originality, suspense, and learning. In this version, the huffing and puffing are left to the reader.

A sparrow brought up among canaries will learn the wrong "language." No

body knows where sea horses go in the wintertime. The ancient Romans used umbrellas. Over a thousand questions are posed and answered in considerable detail in the 4 volumes of the Tell Me Why (ages 7-10) series. There are, of

course, many books with the question-and-answer format, but this series seems

especially well arranged and exhaustive. Its entry level is a child's curiosity; thus it might light the way to the encyclopedia.

Invasion of privacy may be forgiven when the object is to acquaint readers with the natural world of animals. The color photos in The Secret World of Ani mals (ages 8-12) show the interiors of burrows and tree homes with clarity that one could not expect from an on site visit. The text explains that photographers sometimes removed part of the earth or tree surrounding an animal's home but "were careful not to harm the animals living there." The result is a book that

imparts wonder and respect for these fellow riders on the earth. What reader will not stop to examine the fingers on a star-nosed mole and the attentive per fectly circular eyes of an African bush baby? A very helpful teacher's guide accompanies the library edition of this National Geographic Society book, by the way. More specialized but with equally discerning photographs is Headgear (ages 8-12), with an opening text that describes a bull elk shedding its antlers.

We learn, too, why rams don't get their brains scrambled during combat: "An air-filled network of bone chambers in the skull shields the ram's brain" (p. 26).

A final chapter, "Myth and Magic," suggests that the greatest peril in bearing




From Flying by Gail Gibbons. (Copyright? 1986. Published by Holiday House. Reprinted by permission.

horns or antlers is that humans covet them.

Twenty-two centuries ago Ch'in Shih Huang Ti became the First Supreme Emperor of China. Then he set his empire to work to build The Great Wall of China (ages 9 up): "The Chinese worked day and night. Workers who com

plained or who ran away were caught and buried alive" (p. 26). In 10 years the wall was finished, and Ch'in Shih Huang Ti could shout, "I have stopped the

Mongols. We are saved at last. Forever" (p. 30). What author-artist Leonard Everett Fisher has done with this powerful, real story is to give it symbol and form. The telling is direct and forceful with no meandering of details. The men and horses in these charcoal drawings are all muscle, anger, and anguish. There's no moralizing, but Fisher provides an after-note pointing out that the Great Wall worked. It kept the Mongols out-not forever but for a thousand

years. And today, says Fisher, it creeps across northern China "like a wounded

dragon." Modern nonfiction picture books, especially this one, must be seen.

They illuminate our world with unpredictable force.

Bibliography Aliens in the Family. Margaret Mahy. Scholastic 1985. 174 pp. US$12.95. Demi's Count the Animals 1 ?2?3. Demi. Grosset and Dunlap 1986. Unpaged.

US$9.95.

Dragons and Dreams. Jane Yolen, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G.

Waugh, editors. Harper and Row 1986. 178 pp. US$11.95.

Drift. William Mayne. Delacorte 1985. 166 pp. US$14.95. (First published in




Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Ltd.)

Flying. Gail Gibbons. Holiday House 1986. Unpaged. US$12.95. The Great Wall of China. Leonard Everett Fisher. Macmillan 1986. 32 pp.

US$11.95.

Headgear. Ron Hirschi. Photographs by Galen Burrell. Dodd, Mead 1986. 63

pp. US$12.95

Imaginary Lands. Edited by Robin McKinley. Greenwillow 1986. 246 pp. US$11.75.

Jonathan Mouse. Ingrid Ostheeren. Illustrated by Agn?s Mathieu. Translated by Rosemary Lanning. North-South Books 1986. Unpaged. US$11.95. (First

published in Switzerland under the title Jonnathan, die freche Maus.) The Little Jewel Box. Marianna Mayer. Illustrated by Margot Tomes. Dial 1986.

Unpaged. US$10.95. The Secret World of Animals. National Geographic Society 1986. 104 pp.

US$8.50 (library edition), US$6.95 (regular edition). Short Takes. Selected by Elizabeth Segel. Illustrated by Jos. A. Smith. Lothrop,

Lee & Shepard 1986. 167 pp. US$11.75. Socrates and the Three Little Pigs. Mitsumasa Anno and Tuyosi Mori. Philomel

1986. 44 pp. US$13.95. (First published by Dowaya, Tokyo.) Tell Me Why. (Four volumes). Arkady Leokum. Grosset & Dunlap 1965, 1986.

208 pp. (each volume). US$9.95 (each volume). Watermusic. Sarah Sargent. Clarion 1986. 120 pp. US$11.95. Whinnie the Lovesick Dragon. Mercer Mayer. Illustrated by Diane Dawson

Hearn. Macmillan 1986. Unpaged. US$11.95.

New from IRA Teaching Main Idea Comprehension. James F. Baumann, Editor. 1986. Interna tional Reading Association (800 Barksdale Road, P.O. Box 8139, Newark,

Delaware 19714-8139). Softcover. 276 pp. Members US$9.99; others US$13.50.

This volume was prepared to provide educators with current information on theoretical and practical issues surrounding the complex task of understanding and teaching main idea comprehension. Of value to both researchers and practi tioners, the book gathers 11 articles by prominent scholars into a timely and

practical handbook. The opening chapter faces the difficult task of defining what is meant by main idea, offering operational definitions and rules for their use. The following chapters contain information on such topics as importance in

prose, designing instructional programs in main idea comprehension, main ideas in written prose, principles and practices of active teaching, adapting existing commercial materials to improve main idea instruction, comprehending important information in content textbook material, types of graphic organizers, and using a main idea instructional program for low performing children.




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