Module 9 – Something Rotten: A Horatio Wilkes Mystery

image from www.amazon.com

Gratz, A. (2007). Something rotten: A Horatio Wilkes mystery. New York, NY: Speak.

Summary —

Something stinks in the town of Denmark, Tennessee, and it’s not just the local paper mill’s gag-inducing fumes.  Horatio Wilkes promises his friend Hamilton Prince to unearth the real story of how his father, Rex Prince, CEO of Elsinore Paper Plant, died. In this modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, just about everyone in town is a murder suspect: Prince’s uncle/step-father Claude, his mother Trudy, ex-flame Olivia, his mother’s ex Ford N. Branff, and even the cowboy-outfit wearing help Candy. Each one of them may have motive and means, and Horatio is determined to help his friend figure out who poisoned his father.  Each character introduced is a modern-day equivalent of a character in the original play Hamlet, including the inept country-bumpkin duo of Gilbert and Roscoe (Guildenstern and Rosencrantz). In a knowing homage, Gratz’s version has the play in which we catch the conscience of the king be none other than the community theater’s production of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.  Hamilton accidentally shoots Olivia’s father, Paul Mendelsohn, mistaking him for his uncle, since he was wearing Claude’s hunter’s jacket.  Luckily it’s not fatal, but Paul ends up in the hospital with a shattered shoulder.  Not much later, Olivia ends up in the hospital, too, after she pulls off a media stunt where she drinks some of the water from the polluted Copenhagen River.  Gilbert and Roscoe attempt to take Hamilton out of town to a re-hab hospital, but Hamilton makes a few phone calls and discovers there’s no appointment for Hamilton at the re-hab center.  He manages to rescue Hamilton from Gilbert and Roscoe shortly before the duo’s car blows up, a result of Claude’s mechanic meddling. At last, Horatio is finally able to prove that Claude had been slipping dioxin in his brother’s liquor and slowly poisoning him. Unlike the source material, most of the characters live to see the end of the tale, and there is a happy finale as Hamilton and Olivia seem to reconcile.

Lucien’s thoughts —

I’m a sucker for a good Shakespeare-based story.  I loved Stoppard’s take on Hamlet and was poised to enjoy Grantz’s version.  I’m glad I was able to read it for this class, as it was a fun re-imagining of the Bard.  The ghost scene with Hamlet’s father is replaced with video tape of surveillance footage, and the final duel between Hamlet and Laertes is replaced with a press conference over the environmental impact of Elsinore Paper’s plant, where Hamilton and Larry spar with words instead of swords.  The idea of taking a well-known play and converting it into the literary trappings of a hard-boiled investigator’s tale works really well here.  Grantz follows the general plot outline of the original play, but is loose enough in his interpretation that the suspense of figuring out who did it works. I’ve already decided to add Something Wicked, the next novel in the Horatio Wilkes series based on Macbeth, on my reading list for when I am done with this class.

Librarian’s use —

I think that this book can easily be incorporated into a session on Shakespeare and adaptations of his various plays.  The librarian can introduce the original works for a high school audience, as well as introducing known derivative adaptations, like Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the Horatio Wilkes’ series, and movie adaptations like Ten Things I Hate About You, Strange Brew, Romeo + Juliet, West Side Story, and Shakespeare In Love.  There are also several graphic novel adaptations of Shakespeare, including the Neil Gaiman’s adaptation of The Tempest, to be found in The Sandman, vol. 10: The Wake.

Other reviews —

Stephenson, D. (2007). Something rotten: A Horatio Wilkes mystery (review). Bulletin of the center for children’s books, 61 (3), 140.

As the title and subtitle hint, this mystery story is a revisioned Hamlet, here set in Denmark, Tennessee, the home of Horatio's boarding-school friend Hamilton Prince. The sudden death of Hamilton's father, owner of the lucrative Elsinore Paper Plant, and the swift remarriage of Hamilton's mother to her former brother-in-law has Hamilton suspicious; it doesn't help that he's still hung up on townie Olivia, who's the daughter of the Prince family lawyer and who's convinced that Elsinore has been covering up its dangerous and illegal pollution of the Copenhagen River. The overlay of Raymond Chandler onto the contemporary Shakespeare plot adds unnecessary gimmickry, but it does make Horatio's narration teen-appealingly snarky, and the rest of the story capably accentuates the elements likely to intrigue the YA audience: adult dishonesty, youthful disaffection, troubled romance. There's a hint of Chinatown as well as Chandler in the industrial pollution plot, but Gratz deftly uses that story to energize his updated Hamlet, and his alterations (Hamilton wavers between feigned and real alcoholism rather than madness, while the final face-off is a public hearing rather than a duel) are adroit and effective. The snappy patter and friendship-centered drama make this readable in its own right, and it would serve multiple curricular purposes by giving readers a chance to discuss the reasons behind the variants (Gratz kindly provides his main characters with a more hopeful ending than Shakespeare) and to gain additional understanding from viewing the plot at a different angle. Readers will find this enjoyable as a pleasure read and surprisingly painless as a curricular entry, and if the subtitle suggests sequels rather than "The rest is silence," can you really regret the continued crime-fighting adventures of Horatio and Hamlet?

Something rotten: A Horatio Wilkes mystery (review). (2007). Kirkus review, 75 (17),  929.

Gratz is cornering the niche market of novels containing dissimilar topics. Here he combines Hamlet and hardboiled detective pulp. During a vacation from their academy, Horatio Wilkes accompanies his buddy Hamilton Prince to Denmark, Tenn. Just two months after his father passed away under suspicious circumstances, Hamilton's Uncle Claude has married Hamilton's mother. Claude now controls the Elsinore Paper Plant, a multibillion dollar company blatantly polluting the Copenhagen River. Horatio, with a knack for investigating, is determined to expose Claude's corruption while Hamilton, dismayed by what he believes is his mother's betrayal, drowns himself in alcohol. Ultimately, Horatio relies on environmentalist protester Olivia to reveal secrets about Elsinore. The many parallels to Hamlet are interesting, but Gratz wisely avoids producing a carbon copy of the tragedy. Horatio admirably plays the loyal friend but has a cocky voice that is too self-assured and as a teen rings unauthentic. However, this well-crafted mystery has appeal for readers familiar with both Raymond Chandler's novels and Shakespeare's masterpiece.

Module 8 – Little Brother

image from www.amazon.com

Doctorow, C. (2008) Little brother. New York: NY: Tor Teen.

Summary —

Marcus Yallow and three of his friends are skipping school one afternoon to play their favorite Alternative Reality Game (ARG) the day a terrorist attack happens on one of the commuter bridges of the San Francisco Bay area.  The four are detained by the Department of Homeland Security and treated as suspects for the attack.  Three of them are eventually released after several days, but a fourth, Darryl, is detained throughout the duration of the book. Marcus is determined that the tactics of DHS are subverting the liberties that are part of America's birthright, and he vows to bring the DHS's inhuman torture tactics public, although he’s at first unwilling to tell his parents what happened.  He lies and comes up with a cover story that he was on the wrong side of town during the attacks and had been unable to get home for several days.  Once he's back, he helps create the Xnet, a network of Xbox free game consoles hacked to run ParanoidLinux, a flavor of the real OS Linux invented for this novel.  He constantly find ways to subvert and undermine DHS's escalating surveillance and monitoring, hoping to show how their tactics don't make the populace safer, they simply make suspects of those who are not otherwise connected with terrorist extremists.  As part of his work with Xnet, he meets Ange Carvelli, who becomes his new love interest. Marcus and Ange stage a news conference within a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Play Game that Xnetters often play, but all his words are taken out of context or turned against him by a press that doesn’t understand why the kids aren’t all right. After things get really scary, Marcus decides to come clean to his parents about his original detainment. They contact the father of Darryl, who at this point had assumed his son was lost in the original terrorist attacks, and all of them decide to talk to Barbara Stratford, investigative journalist for The Bay Guardian.  She offers Marcus to look into the DHS secret prisons, but warns him that once she has a story, it’s no longer just his; there may be repercussion. Marcus is contacted by another teen working for DHS, Masha, and warned that they are on to him and are only a few days away from making another series of busts.  She’s planning to escape from DHS and offers Marcus a chance to get out of town with her if he can organize a distraction that DHS will have to respond to. Marcus stages a Vampire-themed ARG/demonstration as part of his plans to meet up with Masha, but he’s separated from Ange in the ensuing confusion. Marcus is eventually captured by DHS once more, but not before he’s able to get photos from Mashas’s phone to Startford for her expose. Once in DHS’s captivity, he’s waterboarded as part of his interrogation. He nearly gives up hope of living through this when Stratford and a the California State Troopers intervene, taking the first few steps to dismantling the secret prisons run by DHS.  Marcus is eventually released and thanks to the work of ACLU lawyers he’s charged with only minor misdemeanors in a court of law for stealing Masha’s phone.

Lucien’s thoughts —

I have to admit that this has been one of my favorite books I’ve read this semester.  Doctorow knows how to set up a fast-paced adventure while still managing to slip in interesting characterization and various screeds about public encryption systems, privacy rights, and identity hacking. The novel is a good exercise in exploring what liberties we are in danger of losing or have already lost as a result of the measures taken in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The novel includes secret prisons, waterboarding, and warrantless surveillance measures, but has them happen in our own back yard. While it's near future dystopian sci-fi, it borrows much from the present political climate and postulates what would happen if there were another successful terrorist attack on American soil. It's equal parts revenge narrative, love story, and civil liberties indoctrination.  I really enjoyed reading this book, but I have one very small complaint.  The villains in charge of DHS are very one-dimensional and I think Doctorow harms his otherwise cogent critiques by having such simple strawmen as the antagonists. It’s a minor flaw in an otherwise wonderful thriller. Doctorow is even willing to make this book, as all his others, available for free in a variety of different electronic formats. No excuses, now. Please read this book.

Librarian’s use —

I think that this book’s would be a great discussion starter for young readers about the things they can do to protect their privacy in an increasingly public digital world. We can first discuss how little of what occurs online is truly private: Facebook and ISPs often work with law enforcement to track down criminals, and what they publish thinking only their friends can see can come back to haunt them. The book can be an invitation to discuss what liberties we are in danger of losing or have already lost as a result of the measures taken in the Patriot Act, and what else we may lose if citizens are not active in their desire for transparency and accountability in our government.

Other reviews —

Spisak, A. (2008). Little brother (review). Bulletin of the center for children’s books, 62 (3), 113.

Marcus considers himself an average teen, if a bit on the tech-savvy geeky side, until a horrific terrorist attack in California (and an unfortunate misunderstanding about his role in the event) changes his life forever. After he and his friends are questioned for days without official charges, decent treatment, or even notification of their families, all but one are released and warned that they will now be under constant surveillance. The remainder of the volume is primarily a well-written and edgy radical technology how-to about all the ways teens (or adults) can resist governmental and police efforts to trample and abuse freedom. Marcus embarks on a quest to save his still detained friend, falls in love with an equally intelligent and progressive girl, and becomes the anonymous online leader of an underground movement to rein in the increasingly dictatorial powers that be, but his story is essentially background to the elaborate and clear descriptions of the individuals, technology, and methods that could all be researched and used by readers themselves. The hybrid of fiction and instructional guide could be an uncomfortable fit, but Doctorow makes it all so compelling, whether explaining how to hack an Xbox or waxing poetic on two otherwise brilliant teens negotiating the inevitably awkward but endearing pursuit of first love, that readers will be captivated by the whole complex mix. And if readers aren’t inspired to direct action by the book itself, then the intriguing and passionate afterwords by the original Xbox hacker, a security technologist, and Doctorow himself, who offers an informal annotated bibliography of important works, may nudge a few away from political apathy or measured, organized protests and into some radical acts of their own.

Hunt, J. (2008). Little brother. Horn book magazine, 84 (4), 441-442.

The encroachment on individual rights by national security is a primary theme of George Orwell's 1984, and, as his title suggests, Doctorow pays homage to that classic with an impassioned, polemical consideration of the War on Terror that dovetails with themes of teenage angst, rebellion, and paranoia. After a major present-day terrorist attack, Marcus Yallow, a.k.a. "w1n5t0n" (as in Winston), is arrested and interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security. Marcus is released, and before he is rearrested and ultimately tortured, he applies his formidable technological savvy to thwarting further efforts to restrict personal liberty, drawing him into a suspenseful cat-and-mouse game with the government, a game that is complicated by issues of friendship, romance, trust, loyalty, and betrayal. The San Francisco Bay Area is an inspired choice of setting, with its history of technological innovation and free-thinking counterculture. While the interesting digressions into history, politics, social commentary, and technology occasionally halt the novel's pacing, Little Brother should easily find favor with fans of M. T. Anderson's Feed, Janet Tashjian's The Gospel According to Larry, and Scott Westerfeld's So Yesterday.

Module 7 – Mockingbird

image from www.amazon.com

Erskine, K. (2011). Mockingbird. New York, NY: The Penguin Group.

Summary —

Caitlin Smith is a young girl who is coping with the recent death of her older brother, Devon, who was killed at a school shooting.  Things are especially difficult for Caitlin, because she has Asperger’s Syndrome. She has a hard time with emotionally charged concepts like closure, empathy, and friendship; her brother was the one person who best helped her make sense of a confusing world. Her father is a widower who now has to handle the grief of losing a child all by himself.  He seems hardly equipped to handle his own emotions, much less help Caitlin come to terms with her brother’s death.  Luckily for Caitlin, the school’s counselor, Mrs. Brooks, is able to reach out to her and help her navigate through her grief.  Caitlin comes across the word closure, and she tries to understand how to achieve it for herself and for her father.  Under Mrs. Brook’s guidance, she spends part of her recess with some of the younger children at her school, where she makes friends with Michael, a little boy whose mother was a teacher killed at the same school shooting as Devon. Devon had been planning to work on his Eagle project by teaching others how to make a mission chest; he and his father had just started working on it before he was killed. Now, the chest is hidden under a sheet, never to be completed.  Caitlin becomes convinced that if her father would teach her how to complete the chest, they could finish Devon’s project and perhaps find some closure.  At first, her dad is can’t bring himself to touch the project, but eventually the two work together and finish the chest.  They then decide to donate it to the school in memory of Devon.  While it doesn’t bring Caitlin back to how things were, working on Devon’s chest helps both her and her father heal. Caitlin starts to understand that Michael is also in need of some closure in his struggle to understand the loss of his mother. Caitlin then recognizes that the whole community was affect by the shooting and they are all looking to find some way to heal.

Lucien’s thoughts —

The whole novel is told from Caitlin’s perspective, and she is often times unaware of the emotional repercussions of her words and actions.  The audience is able to understand her father’s grief in a way that Caitlin can’t quite grasp and the book is that much more painful for it.  I constantly found myself near tears as Caitlin doesn’t quite understand why her father is behaving the way he is.  It’s a poignant account of how a whole community is affected by acts of violence. Caitlin’s disability is an interesting filter and narrative voice for a book that realistically examines how to get past the pain and loss in the face of a random act of violence.  I think this book is an important novel to help students view the world from the perspective of someone who is different in their mental processing.  Erskine obviously has lots of experience and understanding of a person with AS, and the voice of the main protagonist is that much richer for it.  I think this book has the ability to open up readers to look at people with AS as something other than “weird” or “freaky”. As is evident by her actions, Caitlin is intelligent and talented (especially in her art) but her way of understanding the chaos around her is very different than most girls.  In Erskine’s hands, we root for Caitlin to find some comfort and healing, which gladly, she does.

Librarian’s use —

I think that this book’s main topic is how to find ways to cope with grief and it’s something that many readers can relate to.  Many children have lost grandparents or other close relatives; some may have even lost siblings or parents, like in this book.  I think using the book as a way to discuss some of the ways people behave in the days after the loss of a loved one is a great idea. Readers can share about people they have lost, how they felt at first and what they have done since then to accept the grieving process.

Other reviews — Stevenson, D. (2010). Mockingbird (review). Bulletin of the center for children’s books, 63(9), 377.

While autistic-spectrum disorders are a fairly common topic in children's literature at the moment, Caitlin is a distinct personality, and the book allows her some genuinely offputting habits and mannerisms as well as making her sympathetic through her narration; underneath her protagonist's voice, Erskine has a smooth and accessible style that keeps the story flowing. The book is rather overpacked with message, symbolism, and hackneyed emotional journeys, however, straining credulity to get everybody to resolution and to do so in a way that allows readers in on the process, and Caitlin devolves from a character into a sentimental cliché, the innocent vessel through which wisdom is conveyed. For readers who appreciate an emotional family story, however, the book offers some gentle reading on a complicated subject.

Brautigam, F. (2010). Erskine, Kathryn. Mockingbird. School library journal, 56 (4). 154-156.

From inside Caitlin's head, readers see the very personal aftermath of a middle school shooting that took the life of the older brother she adored. Caitlin is a bright fifth grader and a gifted artist. She also has Asperger's syndrome, and her brother, Devon, was the one who helped her interpret the world. Now she has only her father, a widower who is grieving anew and whose ability to relate to his daughter is limited. A compassionate school counselor works with her, trying to teach her the social skills that are so difficult for her. Through her own efforts and her therapy sessions, she begins to come to terms with her loss and makes her first, tentative steps toward friendship. Caitlin's thought processes, including her own brand of logic, are made remarkably clear. The longer readers spend in the child's world, the more understandable her entirely literal and dispassionate interpretations are. Marred slightly by the portrayal of Devon as a perfect being, this is nonetheless a valuable book. After getting to know Caitlin, young people's tendencies to label those around them as either "normal" or "weird" will seem as simplistic and inadequate a system as it truly is.

Mockingbird. (2010). Kirkus reviews, 78 (5), 198.

This heartbreaking story is delivered in the straightforward, often funny voice of a fifth-grade girl with Asperger's syndrome, who is frustrated by her inability to put herself in someone else's shoes. Caitlin's counselor, Mrs. Brook, tries to teach her how to empathize, but Caitlin is used to depending on her big brother Devon for guidance on such matters. Tragically, Devon has been killed in a school shooting. Caitlin, her dad and her schoolmates try to cope, and it is the deep grief they all share that ultimately helps Caitlin get to empathy. As readers celebrate this milestone with Caitlin, they realize that they too have been developing empathy by walking a while in her shoes, experiencing the distinctive way that she sees and interacts with the world. Erskine draws directly and indirectly on To Kill a Mockingbird and riffs on its central theme: The destruction of an innocent is perhaps both the deepest kind of psychosocial wound a community can face and its greatest opportunity for psychological and spiritual growth.

Module 7 – The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl

image from www.amazon.com

Lyga, B. (2007). The astonishing adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl. Boston, MA: Graphia.

Summary —

Fanboy’s life is living hell when he gets targeted for bullying by Mitchell Frampton in gym class.  While the gym coaches are too busy to notice what’s going on, Mitchell punches Fanboy in the shoulder, repeatedly nailing him in the exact same spot.  But someone in the bleachers notices how Fanboy doesn’t even respond. He later receives a chat request from someone with the IM handle of Promethea387 and a strange new friendship sparks with Kyra, aka Goth Girl.  Fanboy doesn’t even tell Cal, his only other friend, about Goth Girl or the graphic novel he’s been working on, Schemata. In his mind, his graphic novel is his ticket out of his miserable life.  Something about Kyra makes him feel safe enough to share his work-in-progress. He’s hoping to have enough of it ready to show comics creator Brian Michael Bendis at the Comic-Con in the large city an hour’s drive from Brookdale. Kyra becomes his greatest supporter, and even though they have a horrible fight, Kyra still has suggestions for making the graphic novel better. To make things worse, Fanboy and Cal also have a fight when the lacrosse regional championship is scheduled for the same day as the Convention, and Cal cannot understand why it’s so important that they still go to the convention. Fanboy’s plans to go by himself may come to a crashing halt when his pregnant mother schedules a baby shower on the same day as the convention.  At the last minute, his step-father Tony offers to drive him into the city, but things with Bendis don’t go well.  Kyra manages to meet him at the convention, and she storms at Bendis when she hears that he wouldn’t look at Schemata, making a huge scene. As horrible as they day turns out, Cal and Fanboy patch things up, and Fanboy uncharacteristically accepts an invitation from Cal to go to a party with the rest of the lacrosse team.  At the party, he has an opportunity to talk to (and even kiss) the girl of his fantasies, Dina Jurgens. The next day at school Fanboy has plans to get even with his tormentor, Mitchell, and ends up in the principal’s office for his efforts. Fanboy eventually realizes Kyra has stolen his lucky totem, a bullet he carries around in his pocket.  Fearing that she may have plans to commit suicide with that bullet, Fanboy tracks down Kyra’s father’s work number and he shares his concern for his friend’s safety.  He finds Kyra, and instead of fixing everything, they end up in a fight once more.  When he gets home, there is an angry email from Kyra after she found out her father had been contacted.  Yet the book ends on an optimistic note, because although he doesn’t know what will happen with Kyra and with Schemata, Fanboy is confident that things will somehow work out for the best.

Lucien’s thoughts —

As an avid comic book reader, I really enjoyed having a novel that took place in the life of a comic book dork.  The discussions he has with Cal and with Kyra concerning comic books ring so very true, and it’s obvious Barry Lyga gets that sub-culture. I’m a huge Brian Micheal Bendis fan, so having him show up as a bit character was great.  However, you don’t have to be a comics fan to get the sharp and witty writing. The dialogue here is pitch perfect. The scenes with the bullies are typical fare for realistic non-fiction, even though Fanboy manages to get away with things no real person could without facing repercussions at school. His handling of his relationship with Kyra is clumsy and awkward, as you would expect of a teen his age.  It’s obvious they both care for each other, and Kyra is too damaged for things to go smoothly.  I thought they were both very wonderfully realized characters, even if some of the other characters in the novel are less dynamic than these two.

Librarian’s use —

I think one of the topics that is briefly mentioned in the book is cutting and suicide attempts.  The book can be used as an introduction to a very serious discussion on signs to look for in friends who may be considering suicide and how to best provide help.  The librarian can come armed with material on suicide prevention hotlines and other resources for teens who are having problems.  School counselors can be included in this frank discussion, as they are often better equipped to talk to students about the various options they have at their disposal. I think introducing such a serious topic in the context of a funny book can help lighten the mood and help open up students to the various ways they can help themselves and their friends.

Other reviews —

Engberg, G. (2006). Featured review: Lyga, Barry. The astonishing adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl. Booklist, 103 (1), 113.

Fifteen-year-old Fanboy is miserable at school, where he is bullied, and at home, with his pregnant mother and her husband, the “step-fascist.” His only relief is the late hours spent creating his own comic book. Then he receives an instant message from Kyra, an enighmatic Goth who seems to be the only witness to the violence he endures, and the two form a cagey, charged friendship…Lyga’s debut novel is a darkly comic, realistic, contemporary story of bullying an a teen’s private escape in artistic pursuits. Fanboy entertains plenty of violent thoughts. He carries a bullet, keeps a tally of his abusers (“The List”), and lashes out with sometimes-cruel remarks, which feel sharply authentic.  The insider comics details will slow some readers, and the pen-ended questions about Kyra’s personal story will frustrate others. Yet Fanboy’s whip-smart, often hilarious sarcastic voice skillfully captures a teenager’s growing self-awareness, and adds a fresh, urgent perspective to age-old questions about how young people cope with bullying and their own feelings of helplessness, rage, and being misunderstood as they try to discover themselves.

The astonishing adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl. (2006). Kirkus reviews, 74 (19), 1018.

Lyga has crafted credible protagonists in his first work of fiction about two misfit teens who forge a friendship. Donnie (aka Fanboy) is a comic-book aficionado, who lives with his newly remarried, pregnant mother and his "step-fascist." Rule-abiding and honest, Fanboy's goal in life is to meet writer and illustrator Brian Michael Bendis, to show him his own graphic novel. Unfortunately, Fanboy is tormented at school and has fantasies about school massacres; he finds comfort in his talisman, a single bullet. Enter Kyra (aka Goth Girl), who is confused and frustrated with Fanboy as she observes him refusing to stand up for himself. She reaches out to him, and the two quickly establish an uneasy albeit powerful relationship based on their mutual disdain for most of their peers and their love of comics. Although it seems likely that Goth Girl's recklessness and cynicism will have a detrimental effect on Fanboy, he begins to see her as vulnerable, and helping her gives him new purpose. Because it's authentic and well-written, teen readers will appreciate the complexities of these unique characters, and root for them to triumph.

Module 6 – Chester

image from www.amazon.com

Watt, M. (2007). Chester. Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press Ltd.

Summary —

This is a hilarious little picture book that pits the author/illustrator Melanie Watt against her pet cat Chester in telling the story. Melanie intends to write about a mouse living in the country, but Chester takes his red pen and edits the book so that it is all about him. Melanie tries to wrest the story from Chester and continue telling her original narrative of a mouse in the country, but Chester is insistent in making the book about a cat named Chester. Eventually, Melanie gives in and makes it all about him. But she has her fun with story, drawing Chester in pink tutu.

Lucien’s thoughts —

This was a one of the best picture books I’ve read so far. The give and take between the two dueling authors is wonderful, and clearly illustrated for the reader: Melanie’s story is in black text, while Chester’s edits are in red.The book’s story is incredibly funny as the two voices argue back and forth in trying to tell the tale in the way that each intends.There is a humorous escalation and tension between the two diverging story-lines and the pay-off at the end is really funny. My daughter laughed throughout the book as I read it to her, especially enjoying the illustrations of Chester getting wet in the rain and then wearing a pink tutu. The marginalia on the edges of the text is just the frosting on the cake, adding little flourishes to the rival stories. I will definitely be buying a copy of this book.

Librarian’s use —

I think this book would be a great springboard into a writing class on the topic of editing. The librarian can ask students to write a short story about their pet (or the pet they wish they had, if they don’t have one). Then, invite them to edit their story with a red pen to change some aspect of their original story. The revised story can be as outlandish and silly as their imagination will allow.

Other reviews —

Stevenson, D. (2007), Chester (review). Bulletin for the center for children’s books, 61 (3), 155.

Watt presents audiences with the story of a mouse—or she tries to, but her cat Chester has a red marker and his own idea about the subject of the story: himself. Cat owner and cat fight out the battle for narrative supremacy spread by spread, with Chester drawing cats over the mouse portraits in the illustrations, filling pages with songs of praise to himself, and scribbling satiric images of his mistress and the long-suffering fictional mouse. While the conclusion and some of the logic are a little weak, the notion is entertaining and its execution, which essentially characterizes Chester as a mischievous middle-grader, is frequently hilarious, hitting youngsters right on the funnybone of contention. Illustrations are wisely restrained, operating as a stage set for the front-of-house action (in fact, the mouse-story art and design are cunningly a little bit staid and sweetsy), and overstuffed Chester looms smugly across boundaries as he pleases. This entertains both as a cat story and as an entry-level metatextual narrative, suitable for youngsters not yet ready for Kevin O'Malley's Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude.

Ethington, J, (2012) The hungry bookworm reviews… Chester by Melanie Watt. Retrieved from http://arlingtonlibrary.org/kids-blog/hungry-bookworm-reviews-chester-melanie-watt

Author Melanie Watt is trying to write a story about a mouse, but her chubby calico cat Chester just won't stay away! On almost every page in the book Chester has taken his big, red marker and rewritten the story to make himself the star. Chester's interfering makes the mouse bring in a dog who, with the help of the big-red-marker, becomes a vegetarian who only eats carrots! Finally the mouse says "I can't work like this!", and author Melanie decides to write Chester his own story. But what the calico cat doesn't realize is that Melanie might just write something he DOESN'T like...and it may be pink!

The story of Chester is adorable and I love the illustrations. If your child has a tendency to doodle then this book will definitely be of interest to him or her, since Chester doodles everywhere! Chester is definitely an attention seeker (like many kitties), so reading this story may create a conversation starter for parents and kids about what it means to be like Chester.

Module 5 – Esperanza Rising

image from www.amazon.com

Ryan, P. M. (2000). Esperanza rising. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

Summary —

The Pura Belpré Award-winning novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan tells the tale of Esperanza Ortega, the only daughter of a wealthy Mexican land-owner who faces several challenges after her father is killed by bandits.  Their house catches on fire and Esperanza and her mother are forced to flee Mexico with almost nothing but the clothes on their back.  They rely on the assistance of Alfonso and Hortensia, who had been servants in her father’s ranch; Alfonso has family in California and now that the ranch is in ashes, their family plans to migrate North.  Esperanza’s mother is tries to make the best of a bad situation and encourages Esperanza to be grateful for what they still have: each other. At first, Esperanza takes care of the children while her mother works in the California farm fields. But after her mother gets sick, Esperanza has to shoulder the responsibility of her mother’s medical costs, so she joins as a farm hand. Alone and apart from her grandmother, Esperanza grows up a lot throughout the course of the book.  At the beginning of the book, she is a spoiled and sheltered rich girl who is afraid to let grubby little peasant children touch her favorite doll.  But by the end of the book, she has learned humility and the value of family, hard work, and generosity.  At one point in the novel, she gives her prized doll and last gift from her father to Isabel to distract her from the disappointment of not winning Queen of the May because she was a poor Mexican girl. She also gives away a piñata that she had planned to give to her mother to a group of poor children whose parents were planning to go on strike. She recognizes that as hard as she may have it, there are always those who have it worse. At the end of the novel, her mother and grandmother are reunited with Esperanza, her mother released from the hospital after a long stay and her grandmother escorted from Mexico by Miguel, Alfonso and Hortensia’s son.

Lucien’s thoughts —

This was a very pleasant book to read since the main character undergoes such a great amount of change as she faces more and more adult challenges in her life.  The story maintains a sense of hope through adversity, and Esperanza is able to hold on to hope that her grandmother will one day rejoin them. She works hard to achieve that goal and her struggle is rewarded at the conclusion of the book.  I also thought it was interesting that the titles of the chapters are named after the Spanish words for significant produce that are part of that chapter’s story.  It helps ground the narrative in way field workers tell time: by the agricultural product of the seasons rather than the names of the months. One thing that I did find a bit annoying was the repeated use of Spanish words followed by their English meanings.  I know Ryan was just trying to capture some of the cultural flavor of life of a Mexican immigrant, but I found the practice slightly off-putting.  That’s a minor quibble for an otherwise interesting book that highlights the difficult conditions that existed for Mexican farm workers in California during the time of the Great Depression.

Librarian’s use —

I think this novel would be a great springboard for a talk on the farm labor movement and the history of farm unions.  Perhaps the librarian could collect other books that are thematically linked to Cesar Chavez and the founding of the National Farm Workers Association.  While Chavez’s work comes from a later point in time, its roots can be traced to the strikes alluded to in Esperanza Rising.

Another possible idea is to gather together books about the Dust Bowl era and the migration of many people from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri to California. This book touches on the waves of the desperately poor who went out West to California in search of jobs in the 1930s; it wasn’t just Mexicans who looked for farm labor.

Other reviews —

Burke, L. (2000). Esperanza rising. Reading today, 18 (2), 32.

When her mother falls seriously ill and the economic reality of the Depression threatens her already tenuous ability to earn a living, Esperanza realizes that if she is ever going to thrive she must stop coveting her past and be willing to embrace the riches that lay within her grasp: love, respect, and the chance to create a future of her own design. Written with an uncommon understanding of the plight of Mexican farm workers, this passionate novel gives a human face to an issue that has historically been discussed in terms of the price of fruits and vegetables instead of the cost of human lives.

Freeman, J. (2000). Esperanza rising. Instructor, 110 (4), 20.

Born into a prosperous ranching family in Mexico, Esperanza lives a life of privilege and plenty until the eve of her 14th birthday in 1924, when her adored Papa is murdered by bandits… Mama accepts gratefully the help of two former servants to cross the border into California to work on a farm. They escape by wagon and train, proper Esperanza horrified as she observes the poor, dirty peasants with whom they are traveling. She is even more appalled at her new home, a company camp of cabins that remind her of horse stalls, and a new life spent picking crops in the San Joaquin Valley. Based on the life of the author's grandmother, this moving and involving novel deals with the overwhelming hardships faced by Mexican migrant workers-and the love and pride that helps them survive.

Stevenson, D. (2000). Esperanza rising. Bulletin of the center for children’s books, 54 (4), 160.

Though the piquant riches-to-rags element will draw readers, there's no authorial condescension towards Esperanza's campesino fellow workers, and Esperanza's gradual shedding of her own prejudices towards them is perceptively delineated. The discussion of the strike isn't one-sided, though the book does support Esperanza's decision to keep working, and there's some edifying information about the heterogeneousness of the Latino population in the workforce and their forced repatriation and even migration (some U.S. citizens were sent to Mexico as well). Wide-eyed but thoughtful Esperanza makes an attractive agent for these discussions, and her inevitable pairing with Miguel (who took her saved money in order to bring her beloved grandmother from Mexico to join the family) provides both a touch of romance and an illustration of what Esperanza has gained by coming north.

Assignment A -- Book Trailers

I started working on my book trailers by drafting each individual trailer script in Word. I then recorded my voiceovers in GarageBand, editing the script as I went along to modify its length. In general, I was aiming for roughly 2-minute-long scripts. Once the audio was in GarageBand, I exported it out to iTunes as an AAC audio file. Next, I assembled a list of images that I wanted to accompany the voice-over. Then, I used Google images to search for Creative Commons-licensed image files that matched my requirements. I also looked for Creative Commons-licensed audio tracks for the videos and found a site called 1001pianos.com that had a bunch of piano-based tracks that I could use.

Then, I started assembling the videos in iMovie, using my own transitions for the first video, and then using some of iMovie’s themes for the second two videos: I used the comic book theme for the video on American Born Chinese and the scrapbook theme for the video on One Crazy Summer. Once all the images were in place, I laid over the audio track with my voice-over and a second audio track for the music.  I found I needed to turn down the second music track to roughly 25% volume, so as to not drown out my voiceover.  It took me a little while to learn how to time the images in step with the audio track, but after a bit, I was content with the synch-work between the two.  I exported the video to medium quality .m4v files (640 x 360).  I set up a YouTube account and uploaded the videos as I completed them. I later had to delete the first two videos and re-upload them, since I had edited them for better sound mixing.

I first did the video for Holes, then worked on the video for American Born Chinese, and finally One Crazy Summer.  By the time I had done three videos, I was not happy with the quality of my first video, so I re-edited it, adding different transitions between the images and re-doing the audio voice-over track.  The new voice-over meant re-doing the timing of the images, but I was pleased with the final result.  I still think it’s the weakest of my three videos, but mostly it was how I learned to use the software; I have never used iMovie or GarageBand before this week. I also re-edited the American Born Chinese trailer to turn down the volume of the background music.

Book Trailer for Holes by Louis Sachar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbSBujSYOU4

Book Trailer for American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F7BWQdeu7o 

Book Trailer for One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsgEVaH7f5I