THE
HOUSE BABA BUILT BY ED YOUNG
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Young, E.
(2011). The House Baba Built: An
Artist's Childhood in China (First ed.). New York, New York: Little,
Brown and Company.
ISBN
9780316076289
PLOT SUMMARY
In The
House that Baba Built, Ed Young invites readers into his personal story
with an autobiography exploring his childhood years in Shanghai. In 1931, Japan invaded China and left
countless families homeless. As the war
creeps closer to Young’s home, his father an engineer, makes a deal with the
landlord promising to build a big brick house with courtyards, garden, and a
swimming pool. The agreement allowed the
family to live in the house for 20 years and relinquish the rights once the
time came. Additionally, this plan allowed the Young family and several others
the opportunity to live in the safe embassy neighborhood of Shanghia. Baba’s house became a haven for families to
swim, dance, and come together, while a war was raging outside.
CRITICAL
ANALYSIS
Ed Young’s effortless words are cleverly
conveyed by using unique placements of texts.
The reader will notice that his text is not only horizontal but vertical
and angled, an interesting tool used to keep the reader’s attention.
His use of
complex art techniques consists of drawings, watercolor paintings, folded
pages, torn paper and photographs are amazingly lifelike and stunning. I had to touch the pages just to see if I could
feel the edges of the torn paper. Although,
I did like all the beautiful artwork, I did feel the story was a little long and
dull for a younger audience.
Of all the picture books I have reviewed for
this class this one by far has incorporated a great use of art by using different
mediums,
timelines, maps, house blueprints, photographs, and an outstanding text format to convey the story.
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
“Life,” Baba writes to his children, “is not rich, not real
unless you partake life with your fellow man”; Young set the course of his life
by his father’s words. It’s history at its most personal. All ages. (Publisher’s Weekly
August 2011)
Flashes of multi-media brilliance illuminate
this darkly colored, leisurely paced memoir of childhood in Shanghai. Sophisticated,
inventive art invites close viewings for patient readers in this unusual family
story. (Kirkus Review)
CONNECTIONS
The story could
easily be used by a middle grader for history, biography, or art study. It is
definitely a picture book that needs an older audience.
AWARDS
·
Booklist Top 10 Art Books for Youth, 2011
·
Booklist 2011 Editor’s Choice
·
Publisher’s Weekly Best Children’s Books 2011,
Nonfiction
·
SLJ Best Books of 2011Nonfiction
·
ALA Notable Children’s Book 2012
·
Booklist Top 10 Biography Books for Youth 2012
THE
RIGHT WORD; ROGET AND HIS THESAURUS BY JEN BRYANT AND ILLUSTRATED BY MELISSA
SWEET
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bryant,
J., & Sweet, M. (2014). The right word: Roget and his thesaurus.
Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans Pub Co.
ISBN 9780802853851
PLOT SUMMARY
This is an informational picture book of how Peter Roget came to the
idea of creating a thesaurus. After Peter’s
father passed away, his mother moved the family from Switzerland to
England. Peter was a shy, timid boy, who
didn’t make friends easily. So, instead
of friends, he surrounded himself with a multitude of books. He realized that as long as he had books, he would
never be alone and he didn’t have to leave them behind when he moved. He began writing his first book at the age of
eight and he called it Peter, Mark, Roget. His Book. The book consisted of a compilation of Latin
words which helped him remember his lessons.
As time progressed and his
interests changed Peter began adding more lists and subjects. The long neat rows made him feel like the
world was in order. Unknowingly, Peter’s
mother’s constant disapproval of his “scribbling” played an immense role in his
creation of new word lists. His
frustrations of never finding the right word to his mom’s questions left him
with a longing to get the perfect one. Peter became a doctor at the age of nineteen and
was advised by his uncle to do something else because at his age no one would
take him seriously. Instead, he became a
tutor for two young boys and traveled to distant places. Later he returned to medicine and owned his
own practice. In 1805, Peter finished his
first book of word lists a Collection of English
Synonyms Classified and Arranged. He joined many Science organizations, became a
respected doctor and an excellent speaker.
At the age of 45 he married Mary Hoson and they had two children. Peter continued to write. His dream of creating
a book for all to use became a reality n 1852 when he released Thesaurus, meaning “treasure house” in Greek.
CRITICAL
ANALYSIS
The author uses short paragraphs and formats several
lines of text into long lists. Great
visuals to help the reader imagine what Roget’s lists may have looked like. The book reminded me of an alphabet book
because of the large letters used in the text.
The illustrations are engaging and colorful. I think this book would be a great read aloud
for young children, but some children may become overwhelmed with the varying
text styles, patchy collages, and complexity of the images. Almost
every page contains examples of word lists that Roget compiled. Bryant includes a timeline of his life and a
picture of a page from Roget's original word book at the end.
A list of sources for further reading is given.
Readers may enjoy the rear endpapers which display a list of all 997
words that appeared in the first edition of Roget's thesaurus.
This informational picture book would be great for introducing students
to the joy of being curious about words, motivating students to be a collector
of words, and selecting just the right word to communicate ideas.
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Together with Bryant’s sympathetic account, Sweet’s gentle riot
of images and words humanizes the man behind this ubiquitous reference work and
demystifies the thesaurus itself. (Publishers Weekly ,2014)
CONNECTIONS
Use this book to introduce a lesson on
synonyms.
AWARDS
Caldecott
Medal 2015
Sibert
Award 2015
Golden
Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration 2015
THOSE REBELS, JOHN AND TOM BY BARBARA KERLEY
ILLUSTRATED
BY EDWIN FOTHERINGHAM
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kerley, B., &
Fotheringham, E. (2012). Those rebels, John and Tom. New York:
Scholastic Press.
ISBN
9780545222686
PLOT SUMMARY
This informational and child-friendly history book by Barbara Kerley, does
a first-rate job of introducing the human side of Tomas Jefferson and John
Adams. The book details the life of two
young boys growing in different circumstances and eventually becoming an integral
part of the Declaration of Independence. John
was a sturdy, stout loud, stubborn man, while Tom was described as a tall,
thin, well-mannered, well-dressed, educated, soft spoken man. Although, they exhibited different personalities
one common interest united them. They
both cared deeply about the American colonies and found King George to be a tyrant. Using their
unique differences, Tom’s skill with a pen and Jon’s powers of persuasion they unanimously
convinced Congress to declare independence from England.
CRITICAL
ANALYSIS
The text and format is visually appealing and age appropriate. The story is easy to understand and would be
a great history lesson to use to teach the Declaration of Independence. The
drawings are lively and should hold young readers attention well. Edwin Fotheringham did an amazing job of
using his illustrations to convey the physical and characteristic differences between
Tom and John. For example, we see Adams wearing mud-covered clothing, pushing a
wheelbarrow, working his own land, and Jefferson in contrast, rides on a horse,
wears nice clothes, while his slaves busily work building his estate.
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
“A witty and wise portrait of strength being born out of
difference”. (Publisher’s Weekly, 2011)
CONNECTIONS
This book could also be used in a history
lesson when learning about our countries freedom and the Declaration of
Independence.
Children could read this book before learning
about the men John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Students could pick one of the
two men and write a report on the very eventful lives that the men lead.
Students could compare and contrast the differences they find between the two
men during their research.
AWARDS
Booklist Lasting Connections of 2012, Social Studies
2013 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for
Children, Honor Book
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A
TAIL LIKE THIS? BY STEVE JENKINS
ILLUSTRATED BY ROBIN
PAGE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PLOT SUMMARY
Steve Jenkins' Caldecott Honor Book, What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? is an engaging, informative non-fiction
book that allows young readers to read and become involved in the story. The book
shows just a small portion of several animals (on one page you see tails, on
another you see noses, another ears, etc.) encouraging the reader to guess what
animal it is and how they use that body part. Once you turn the page the animals are
revealed with a brief description of how that animal uses a body part. This engaging book is filled with interesting
facts for children to learn, for example, crickets hear
with their knees, bats see with their ears, and horned lizards squirt blood
from their eyes, among other interesting facts. The usual animals are shown, including the jackrabbit
with the big ears, and the monkey with the long tail, but less common animals
such as the blue-footed booby and the archerfish make this book exceptionally informative.
CRITICAL
ANALYSIS
Steve Jenkins book is written for a young audience. His text is in large bold print and is easy
to read and understand. The format is engaging
and entertaining. Each page incorporates
texturally engaging mixed media visuals of each animal. The cut paper collage illustrations are created
to make animals look smooth, furry, bumpy, or spiky, depending on the animal. Additional
information about each animal is at the end of the book. For further information, you can turn to the back
and get a description with greater detail such as habitat, food, size, and
other facts.
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Elegantly designed,
the pages of this book have bright white backgrounds and fascinating, subtly
colored, textured paper collage illustrations. The book is a smorgasbord for
the eyes. (Common Sense Media, 2014)
Steve Jenkins contributes another artistically wrought,
imaginatively conceived look at the natural world. (Publisher’s Weekly,
2003)
CONNECTIONS
Explain to students how animals have adaptations that help
them survive in their environment. Students then can create their own mixed-up
animal and draw the appropriate environment this animal would have the
adaptations to survive in.
AWARDS
Caldecott
Honor book
Highly Commended, 2004 Charlotte Zolotow Award (Ages 3–6)
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