Module 12 – Home on the Range

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Hopkinson, D. (2009). Home on the range: John A Lomax and his cowboy songs. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Summary —

Deborah Hopkinson’s picture book traces the life of John Avery Lomax.  He was raised in a small Texas farm “nestled near a river on the old Chisholm Trail” and often sang while he worked on his chores.  He’d sing while planting corn or churning butter, singing old folk songs his parents and grandparents had taught him. At night’s he could sometimes hear the yodels of cowboys who sang around the campfire.  He decided to gather and write down every cowboy song he heard.  Later, when he went to college at the University of Texas, he shared his collection of cowboy songs with one of his professors, who haughtily pointed out “There’s nothing of value in these songs of plain, ordinary folk.”  Embarrassed, Lomax burned his collection.  He later continued to study and found himself in Harvard, where his knowledge of cowboy folk songs was more positively viewed by his advisor, Professor Barrett Wendell.  Lomax decided to write newspapers out West for the readers to mail him folk songs they had heard; he gathered cowboy songs, sea chanteys, lumberjack songs, and lullabies.  He later presented his findings to his class, and after a short silence, was soon greeted with a round of cheers.  He later decided to go back to Texas and gather first-hand accounts of as many cowboy songs as possible.  He also came equipped with an Ediphone, an early recording device.  Most of the cowboys he interviewed would not sing into the long horn of his recording equipment, but would at least let him write down their folk songs; he once met s cowboy who knew eighty-nine verses to “The Old Chisholm Trail.”  He also was able to record a cowboy cook’s rendition of “Home on the Range.”  By the end of the summer, Lomax had enough material to publish his first of many books on folk music.  He would later go on to record the music of Jelly Roll Morton, Woody Guthrie, and Huddie “Ledbelly” Ledbetter.  His son, Alan Lomax, would later join him on his song-hunting expeditions and became a famous folk musicologist in his own right.  The two would record thousands of songs for the Archive of Folk Music in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.  In addition to it’s wonderful illustraions (by S. D. Schindler),  the book thoughtfully includes snippets of famous folk songs that Lomax collected, such as “Git Along, Little Doggies,” “Sweet Betsy from Pike,” and “Home on the Range.”

Lucien’s thoughts —

The book provides an introduction to the life and early career of song-hunter and musicologist John A. Lomax.  The book gives a fictionalized account based heavily on Lomax’s autobiography, Adventure of a Ballad Hunter (1947).  This book is a fun way to learn about a figure in history who believed there was value in collecting the folk songs of regular people.  Lomax believed there was historical worth to the ditties and ballads that people used to make their lonesome work easier to do.  While the book mostly focuses on his early collection of cowboy songs, Lomax would also later go on to record famous folk singers like Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly.  His later expeditions with his son Alan, would record prison blues, the musical traditions of African-American sharecroppers, and hillbilly music from the Ozark mountains.  Lomax’s influence on folk music cannot be understood unless one realizes just how much a visionary he was in recording the songs of daily work life.

I especially found the book to be a fun read, since I had earlier written a college research paper on Nolan Porterfield’s biography, Last Cavalier: The Life and Times of John A. Lomax, which Hopkinson references in her afterword.  She lists several books that she used as references for her picture book.  I also enjoyed that she included some sample cowboy songs as part of the biography.  In her notes, Hopkinson alludes to the complex and controversial history of the song “Home on the Range,” which Lomax first believed to be a folk song of unknown origins.  It was later thought to have been written by an Arizona couple but was eventually established to have been penned by two Kansas men, Brewster Higley and Daniel E. Kelley, in 1873.

Librarian’s use —

This is a great book to use with music, as it contains the words to several cowboy songs.  It would be fairly easy to pair up the book with musical collections of cowboy songs; Roy Rogers and Gene Autry had several music collections that include some of the old folks songs that Lomax made famous, such as “Home on the Range,” “Git Along, Little Doggies,” and “Old Chisholm Trail.” There are also music collections specifically aimed at children that could also be used.  It might even be worthwhile to try and track down some CDs of Lomax’s recordings, which are available from the Library of Congress and have been republished in various music anthologies.

Other reviews —

Cutler, K. (2009). Home on the range: John A. Lomax and his cowboy songs. School library journal, 55(1), 92.

This lovely picture-book biography of the noted musicologist describes his youth in Texas where he enjoyed singing as he worked on the family ranch and he listened to cowboys singing as they traveled the old Chisholm Trail. Lomas taught for a few years, but his passionate interest in music won out and led him to become an extraordinary collector of folk songs. Beautiful ink and watercolor illustrations radiate warmth, charm, and humor, highlighting expressive features and striking individuality. The handsome artwork is full of energy and authenticity, and includes faithful and appealing renditions of animals and bucolic landscapes. Excerpts from some songs appear prominently. Addendum material includes additional details about Lomax, his family, and their legacy; information about the Library of Congress archival collection of songs; and a list of other sources.

Carter, B. (2009). Home on the range: John A. Lomax and his cowboy songs. Horn book magazine, 85 (1), 116.

Hopkinson’s fictionalized biography (defined as such in an informative author’s note) of musical folklorist John Lomax is pitch perfect in its scope for younger readers.  Concentrating on his passion for collecting folk songs from his native Texas, this story begins with Lomax’s early love of work songs and chronicles the fine-tuning of that interest into a respected profession.  The featured songs, such as “Sweet Betsy from Pike,” “Get Along, Little Doggies,” and the titular tune that Lomax resurrected (but one that the author notes ironically he mistakenly identified as a folk song), will be familiar to many young readers.  Illustrations humorously depict the mild-mannered professor traveling through the Texas plains, “clumsy, heavy” Ediphone in tow, searching for examples of our musical heritage.  When Lomax decides to share some of the songs with his classmates at Harvard, Schindler’s illustration transforms the small seminar into a gathering of cowpokes around a campfire peacefully attuned to the frontier setting.  Appended with an author’s note that discusses Lomax’s contributions and processes, a note on sources, and a bibliography.

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 3 – Tuesday

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Wiesner, D. (1991). Tuesday. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Summary –

In this nearly wordless Caldecott award-winning book, frogs take flight one Tuesday evening, floating over the swamp and into town.  Their flight startles the fish and turtles in their swamp, and the birds and dogs in town.  While the inhabitants of the town sleep, the flogs fly into houses to watch late-night TV and soar through the hanging sheets on the clotheslines.  As dawn approaches, the frogs return home, leaving the town police a weird set of clues to try to understand.  The following Tuesday, it’s the pigs’ turn to fly!

Lucien’s thoughts –

This is definitely a weird and wonderful little book. The powerful illustrations drive the whimsical story.  Without a single explanation as to why the frogs are flying, the book captures the excitement as the frogs take flight and explore the nocturnal environs of a small sub-urban town.  The story is humorous and the watercolors are drawn in a near-realistic style, which is a fun disjuncture from the fantastical story being told.  The images clearly capture all the small details: turtles on logs, the back of a television, the police and ambulance vehicles on the scene the following morning.  This books just invites rereading to view all the little details in the backgrounds of the images.

Librarian’s use –

This book’s lack of words invites the reader to fill in with their imagination.  A book like this can be great for pre-readers, since it doesn’t have words to trip them up.  Young audience members can be asked to try to provide a narration of the images in their own words. One activity that is perfect for wordless books like this one is to make photocopies of the pictures into a book that has space at the bottom. Readers can then be invited to write down their narrative to go along with the pictures.  Each audience maker thus becomes co-author of his or her own version of Tuesday.  Different co-authored books can then be compared one to another to see what details the “author” focused on and what details are different.

Other reviews –

Cassady, J. (1998). Wordless books: No-risk tools for inclusive middle-grade classrooms. Journal of adolescent and adult literacy, 41 (6), 428-432.

Wiesner commented in an interview (Caroff & Mole, 1992) that he has received numerous letters from students in drama classes, English as a Second Language classes, and creative writing classes who have used his wordless picture book, Tuesday. Wiesner identifies one of the most valuable characteristics of wordless books-the endless possibilities for creative interpretations… The use of wordless books can encourage reluctant and struggling readers in middle school and junior high to read, develop vocabulary, and make the connection between written and spoken language. Older readers seem to respond to wordless books because they are so visually appealing and because they often involve cleverly developed plots.

Silvey, A. (2002). David Wiesner. The horn book magazine, 78 (4), 401-405.

In an age obsessed with marketing, David allows his books to do the talking. Although he proves a charming guest at a conference, library, or bookstore, he travels infrequently to make public appearances. Because his energy, time, and talent go into creating books, each book becomes stronger, and readers react to its inherent qualities rather than the publicity about it. Although this course of action generally produces fewer initial sales, in the long run only the book and the way children respond to the book matter. David never forgets what truly matters.

Pinkney, J. (2012). My favorite Caldecott. The horn book magazine, 88 (4), 18.

David Weisner’s command of watercolor in Tuesday (1992) is masterful and his visual storytelling is flawless.

Dooley, P. (1991) Tuesday (Book). School library journal, 35 (5), 86.

Dominated by rich blues and greens, and fully exploiting its varied perspectives, this book treats its readers to the pleasures of airborne adventure. It may not be immortal, but kids will love its lighthearted, meticulously imagined, fun-without-amoral fantasy. Tuesday is bound to take off.

Module 3 – Grandfather’s Journey

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Say, A. (1993). Grandfather’s journey. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Summary –

The author recounts the story of his grandfather’s travels as a young man, when he left Japan in a steamship to visit North America.  His grandfather traveled all across America in a variety of transportation modes: train, boat, and by foot.  He loved seeing new places and longed to travel even more; he met people of all different backgrounds.  He finally returned to Japan to marry a wife, and the two of them moved to San Francisco, where they raised a daughter (the author’s mother). Once she was nearly grown, they returned to Japan, where she married and had a little boy (the author as a child). The author remembers his grandfather fondly recounting the beauty of California, land that he loved. Although his grandfather planned to cross the Pacific once more, war came, and scattered their lives like leaves in the wind.  Grandfather’s house in the city was destroyed, and he returned to the village where he grew up.  Although the grandfather never got a chance to return to his beloved California, the author honored his grandfather’s memory and visited California once he was a young man.  He stayed there and raised a daughter of his own, occasionally returning to the rivers and mountains of his youth.  He explains how he now understands his grandfather’s longings, always glad to be in one country but homesick for the other country.This is a lovely story about the feelings of an immigrant, in love with both countries he  calls home.

Lucien’s thoughts – 

This was my favorite book from this week’s readings.  I thought the language of the story was very simple and easy to enjoy, and it left plenty of room for the illustrations to show the beauty of the lands where the grandfather traveled.  The economy of words is well balance by the gorgeous paintings.  The beautiful landscapes and realistic portraits add so much richness to the little story of loving more than one country; I often felt as if the pages came out of his grandfather’s photo albums of the people and places he encountered.  The story is also very tender in the way the author remembers little details in his grandfather’s life. For example, he remembers that his grandfather surrounded himself with songbirds, but after the war, he no longer did.  The story is very delicate in how it touches on a grandfather’s love for his grandson, and how much the author misses his grandfather, now that he is gone. In general, I found it to be a touching story, without being overtly sugary. It felt simple and real.

Librarian’s use – 

One of the themes that is so strong is this book is the bonds of family.  The librarian can illustrate a family tree using his or her family, and include photographs, names and birthplaces of their family, then invite the audience to make their own family trees.  Children can share where their parents and grandparents were born, or places they have lived in.  The book can easily be a springboard into the topic of genealogy. 

Another possible avenue of exploration is to ask for volunteers in the community who are of Japanese decent to come and give a brief talk about their culture. Invite the audience to view kimonos, tea kettles, and other artifacts of traditional Japanese life. Invite the children to talk about how their grandparents may have had a different culture growing up than the one they are in (this could include the difference between countries, or perhaps the difference between small town life and city life, among others). 

Other reviews – 

Buchoff, R. (1995). Family stories. The reading teacher, 49 (3), 230.

In Grandfather's Journey (Say, 1993), a grandson reminisces about his grandfather's love for two different countries. These beautifully illustrated books help children discover that the memory of a deceased family member can often be kept alive through the creation of a story.

Leonard Lamme, L., Fu, D., McKoy Lowery, R. (2004). Immigrants as portrayed in children’s picture books: a journal for readers, students, and teachers of history. The social studies, 95 (3), 123-129.
 
Feeling lost and homesick is a common experience for many immigrants, whether old or young. Usually it is much harder for school-age children to leave what is familiar or to understand why they have to give up so much and start a new life in a new country. They may wonder, Why did we have to leave our home? ... In the Caldecott-winning book Grandfather's Journey, Allan Say (1993) chronicles the movement of three generations of his family to and from America and Japan. He writes, "The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other" (31).
 
Desai, C. (2004) Weaving words and pictures: Allen Say and the art of illustration. The lion and the unicorn, 28 (3), 408-428.

Alien Say was raised in Japan and immigrated to the US as a young man-thus retracing his grandfather's steps, as he describes in his Caldecott Award winning picture book, Grandfather's Journey (1993). As he encounters the wonder and discovery of the immigrant experience, the story's narrator appreciates his grandfather's complicated cultural identity and his sense of displacement in both worlds… His works show mastery of the cartoonist's command of line, action, and comedy; the Japanese artistic sense of harmony, simplicity, and suggestion; and the Western artist's sense of expansiveness, realism, and color. Say uses these talents to create moods and extend the meaning of the texts in ways appropriate to each work.

Module 2 – Madeline

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Bemelmans, L. (1939). Madeline. New York, NY: Puffin Books.

Summary –

“In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines
lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.”

Miss Clavel is the nun in a habit who lives in the old house in Paris. She’s in charge of twelve little girls, the smallest and bravest of which is young Madeline. She’s not afraid of mice in the kitchen or tigers in the zoo.  She loves to skate and frighten  Miss Clavel with acts of daring. One night, Madeline comes down with a horrible pain, and Miss Clavel phones the doctor. It’s Madeline’s appendix, and it must come out.  She spends the next ten days recovering at the hospital, where the other girls come to visit her, bringing flowers. Once she shows the girls her new scar, all eleven want to have their appendixes out, too.

Lucien’s thoughts –

This beautiful story told in rhyme is a treasure.  The couplets are great for reading out loud to pre-readers, who can enjoy the sing-song lilt of this delightful tale.  The language is lively, yet simple, and it tells the story of how the littlest girl can have the biggest heart, by not being afraid of the things that might frighten other girls.  I love the fact that Madeline is shown as having courage and spunk, and I can see why she’s part of a long literary tradition of brave girl heroines.

Bemelmans deftly illustrates his own book with landmarks from Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Opera House, using a loose and impressionistic drawing style.  The twelve little girls are drawn in bright yellow uniforms with broad-brimmed yellow hats.  The color pallet of the illustrations is spare, often times monochromatic with accents in yellows, reminiscent of children’s own art work. Nevertheless, Bemelmans artwork captures the architecture of Paris in with his fun sketches.

Librarian’s use –

I think one of the new concepts that librarians can explore with young readers is the need for unplanned visits to the doctor.  Starting with appendectomies and moving on to tonsillectomies and other childhood ailments, the librarian can ask the audience to contribute stories from their lives about visits to the doctor, both planned and unplanned.  Reader can discuss times when they were brave in the face of scary medical adventures (such as needles and vaccine shots or visits to the ER).  The librarian can then ask the audience to draw pictures of their medical adventure story.

Other Reviews –

Eastman, J. (1991) Aesthetic distancing in Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeline. Children’s Literature, 19, 75-89.

For a young reader, one of the most satisfying of these delights is a pervasive sense of controlled danger—a tantalizing tension between the anarchical naughtiness of a supremely vulnerable heroine on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the order and sense of aesthetic distance implicit in such elements as rhymed couplets and the recurring image of "twelve little girls in two straight lines." Madeline's central crisis is as compelling as that of many fairy tales; the climactic rush to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy embodies two of childhood's most painful and frightening possibilities—separation from loved ones and a brush with death… This opposition between symmetry and asymmetry, between order and anarchy, civilization and nature energizes all of Madeline, at the same time that the dominance of the forces of order affords us a sense of security. The mightily glowing sun—a powerful locus of yellow which our black-and-white reproduction cannot adequately depict—suggests the unharnessed force of nature. On the other hand, the massive buildings, the perfect double-line formation of children, and the placement of trees symmetrically suggest the restraints of civilization.

Munson-Benson, C. (2006) 15 picture-book classics for preschoolers. Book Links, 15 (6), 66-68.

This Caldecott Honor Book can barely contain the exuberance of the spunky main character, Madeline, whose exploits in Paris—where she resides with 11 other girls and their headmistress, Miss Clavel—fascinate preschoolers, who delight in the lilting rhyme and her derring-do in this first book…

Breen, K., Fader, E., Odean, K. & Sutherland, Z. (2000) One hundred books that shaped the century. School Library Journal 46 (1), 50.

This all-time favorite introduces one of the best-loved, best-known, and most enduring characters in children's books. Fearless and intrepid, Madeline will live on forever.

Module 1 - Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook

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Garland, M. (2003). Miss Smith’s incredible storybook. New York, NY: Puffin Books.

Summary –

Zach’s first grade teacher, Miss Smith is something different from what he’s come to expect in a teacher.  In her hands, story-telling time comes to life, with the characters leaping off the page and into the classroom.  Zach and his fellow students find themselves in the middle of the action. However, things go awry on the day Miss Smith is late for class. The principal, Mr. Rittenrotten, begins to read from Miss Smith’s magical storybook and is spooked when the characters from the story invade the classroom.  He leaves the classroom in a panic, looking for help.  Student after student all take turns reading snippets from different stories, and the characters from various stories all vie for attention and soon overrun the hallways of the school.  When Miss Smith finally arrives, she’s able to restore order to the mess, reading each story from beginning to end and returning each cast of characters back into the book.

Lucien’s thoughts –

I think the book uses very exciting language to show how a story can come to life in the hands of an able storyteller.  Zach can “feel the breeze in his hair and hear the waves pounding on the side of the ship.”  It uses vibrant language that engages the senses to show how a story can transport the readers into a world of imagination.  It also reinforces good reading skills in that the chaos created when everyone reads little bits of various stories is reversed when the teacher reads each story from beginning to end.

The illustrations are brightly colored and rich in detail.  For example, as the children are listening to a story about pirates, the classroom changes into a pirates ship, its deck full of student desks and its borders filled with peg-leg pirates, pirates with eye-patches, and a chest full of gold. Later, as the children cause confusion reading from different stories, the pages are filled with character from various well-know children’s tales: Little Red Riding Hood, Robin Hood, Dorothy, Tom Sawyer, Humpty Dumpty and others. Miss Smith is distinctive in her bright red glasses, wild red hair, and punk-rock leather jacket.

Librarian’s use –

One of the ways to discuss the book with young readers is to invite the audience in helping you identify some of the characters found in the stories illustrated in the various pages of Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook and see if the audience can tell you what story they come from.  This exercise connects this book about reading with other books that the children might want to explore.  It would be handy for the librarian to have picked out copies some of stories in question: the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, the story Robin Hood, the Wizard of Oz, the story of the three little pigs, Alice in Wonderland, etc.  You can then ask the audience to think about what would happen if the characters swapped places with characters from other books; would the story still be the same?  what would be different?  You can also invite the readers to think about their favorite book, and ask them to draw a picture of their favorite book character.

Other reviews—

Threadgill, C., Jones, T. E., Toth, L., Charnizon, M., Grabarek, D., & Larkins, J. (2003). Miss Smith's incredible storybook (Book). School Library Journal, 49(10), 125.

Zack's exciting new teacher has a magic storybook. When she opens it up and reads aloud, the characters pop out and bring the tales to life right before the students' eyes. But Miss Smith's book isn't for everybody, and when stuffy Principal Rittenrotten has to fill in for her one morning, the dragon, princess, and knight that materialize from the pages send him from the room in a panic. The only way to make them disappear is to finish their respective stories, but Zack's classmates keep beginning new ones instead, until the school is overrun with Goldilocks, the Mad Hatter, and other such characters, seen vividly cavorting across the full-page spreads. Fortunately, Miss Smith shows up just in time and returns them to the safety of the book's pages, leaving the principal confused and her students forever in her debt. The lively, bright illustrations have a glossy, computer-generated quality that young readers will appreciate. Miss Smith wears a black leather jacket and a lapel button advertising "The Clash," and has a punk-rock hairdo. A satisfactory addition to most collections.

Miss Smith’s incredible storybook. (Book). (2003). Kirkus Reviews, 71(11), 803.

Zack's new second-grade teacher confounds his expectations, not so much with her black leather jacket and flaming red brush-cut, as with the big, ornately tooled book she carries--which, when opened, disgorges real pirates, pigs, knights, dragons, and the like as she reads. When Miss Smith is late one day, the Principal, and then the children, get hold of her book, and because they can't manage to finish the stories they start, utter chaos ensues until she sweeps in to restore order. Using saturated hues and crisply drawn figures, Garland crowds the classroom with lively characters, many of them recognizable from classic stories and folktales. A brief but animated invitation to the pleasures of reading, as well as a tribute to unconventional teachers everywhere.