Module 3 – Tuesday

image from www.amazon.com

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

image from www.amazon.com

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.