Blizzard!: The Storm that Changed America by Jim Murphy

Bibliography
Murphy, Jim. 2000. Blizzard! the storm that changed America. New York: Scholastic Press.  ISBN 9780590673099

Plot Summary

This book focuses on the massive snow storms that moved across the country in March of 1888 which completely shut down the northeast.  The book pays close attention to the events that happened in New York City giving the reader an inside look at what citizens went through as they battled the bitter cold storm that brought down power lines, trapped people in their homes without enough food or supplies, and brought many to their deaths.  Jim Murphy takes the reader through the events that led up to the storm, what happened during the storm, and the challenges of life after the storm in this exciting book.  

Critical Analysis

The accuracy of this books appears to be strong and is discussed in detail by the author in the notes section. The author discusses the many sources he used including letters written by the Society of Blizzard Men and Blizzard Ladies, the New-York Historical Society, and many, many books that were written on the topic of this snow storm.  The author also detailed newspapers he consulted that were published all the way back to 1888 on the days of the storm.  Photographs and illustrations used in the book also give specific citations indicating where they were taken from.  

The organization and design of this book are strong in that it shows clear sequence and the use of graphics nicely compliments the text.  The author breaks the story into a day by day account giving the reader a feel as if they are experiencing a look at the storm in the same way the people in the book did.  There is also a table of contents in the beginning book.  The design complements the subject matter in that the graphics are all sepia toned to lend to the old fashioned feel of the 1800s.  Some graphics are actual photographs of the storm while others are illustrations.  Both types help the reader to visualize what they are reading.  

The style of this book is particularly impressive.  Readers will feel a sense of excitement as they go through the book and see the destruction that the snow storm creates.  The author also takes opportunities to educate the young readers so that they are understanding the technicalities of what they are reading.  An example of this can be seen when he defines a blizzard as "any storm where snow is accompanied by temperatures of 20 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, plus winds of at least 35 miles per hour."   

The aspect of this story that is particularly interesting is how the citizens reacted to the storm and worked together to survive.  Many people extended their homes to strangers, provided shelter to homeless, and worked tirelessly to repair the damage caused by the storm.  The book shows how rich and poor alike survived or succumbed to the elements and this is what I found to be most interesting of all. 

Review Excerpts

• Chosen as an outstanding book by the Junior Library Guild
• School Library Journal-"Overall, a superb piece of writing and history."

Connections

*View a youtube video that features an eyewitness account from a man that experienced the blizzard.  http://youtu.be/YylGRE1HzrM

*The Great Fire-a similar title by Jim Murphy that chronicles The Great Fire of 1871 in Chicago.  ISBN 9780439203074

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Bibliography
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2005.  Hitler Youth: growing up in Hitler's shadow. New York: Scholastic Nonfiction. ISBN 978-0439353793

Plot Summary

This is an informational, or nonfiction, book about the young boys and girls who followed Hitler during his reign over Germany.  Young German children were drawn to Hitler's promises of a great Germany during a time when unemployment and poverty were prominent in the country.  This book shows the readers a day in the life of Hitler's youth army from their early days of outdoor adventures, to their slow take over of Germany, and finally to the devastating days of war and the eventual surrender of Germany to allied forces.  

Critical Analysis

Hitler Youth shows incredible accuracy throughout the entire book.  There is a well documented and thorough bibliography section and quote sources section in the back of the book as well as a note from the author explaining how she researched her book.  Especially impressive is the amount of personal interviews the author conducted with actual former members of the Hitler Youth which are all documented in the book as a bibliographic and quote source.  Photographs throughout the book are also well documented and taken from respectable sources such as the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  

The organization and design of Hitler Youth are also strong aspects of the book.  Each chapter focuses on a different subject of the war yet continues to go in sequential order so the story and facts run smoothly in the reader's mind.  Photographs throughout the book are also very powerful and match faces to names as we get a look at the real life people the book focuses on as well as what every day Germany looked like during this time.  

The style of this book challenges readers to learn new information without being overwhelming.  One way the author does this is by using German words throughout the text along with their accompanying English translations.  En example of this is the German translation of Hitler Youth which the author tells us is Hitlerjugend. The text keeps the reader interested without being too simplistic or condescending.  

Review Excerpts

• Newberry Honor Book
• The Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
• School Library Journal-"Bartoletti lets many of the subjects' words, emotions, and deeds speak for themselves, bringing them together clearly to tell this story unlike anyone else has."

Connections

*View the DVD titled The Hitler Youth ASIN: B000ARXFMS

*The end of this book asks young readers what they are willing to do as youth to prevent something like the Holocaust from happening today.  Use this as a writing exercise and ask students to comment on what they would do.  

Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls

Bibliography
Franco, Betsy, and Nina Nickles. 2001. Things I have to tell you: poems and writing by teenage girls. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.  ISBN 0763609056

Plot Summary

This is a collection of poems written by teenage girls from every different walk of life and about subjects such as love, life, drugs, sex, body image, race, and more.  Accompanying the poems are photographs of teen girls going about their day to day activities such as hanging out with friends or getting ready for school.  Both the text and pictures show the diversity of the poets and subject matter.

Critical Analysis

Because this is a collection of poems by different teenage girls, it was interesting to look at the book as a whole.  Betsy Franco wrote a preface to the poems saying that she chose to start the collection because she remembered feeling alone as a teenager and wanted to give a voice to girls everywhere.  Submissions appeal to around the ages of 12 and up and are most likely more appealing to female readers.  The pictures in the book help the reader imagine who these girls are and where they come from.

A major element of this collection that cannot be ignored is the raw emotion that practically screams at the reader.  This collection of poems was created to give teenage girls a safe outlet to say whatever is on their minds.  It is full of what most adult readers would describe as angst but it is done in a way that takes the reader into the mind of the poet and is very relatable.  These poems remind adult readers of what it is like to be a teenage girl and gives teens themselves proof that they are not so alone.

Rhythm varies throughout each poem.  Some poems use a staccato rhythm that speeds up the rhythm and builds tension while others use long couplets that slow down the pace of the poem.  Rhyme is used only a few times throughout the collection but used well when it does appear.  "My Ode to Crank" is a poem about meth addiction that uses rhyme.  The opening line says "Rolling smoke-foggy glass/Hit it slow--so you'll go fast".  The use of rhyme works well in this poem because it makes the heavy subject matter easier for the reader to digest.

Review Excerpts

• ALA Best Book For Young Adults 2001
• School Library Journal-"Franco has succeeded in compiling one of the brightest collections out there today"

Connections

**Read Franco's collection by teenage boys titled You Hear Me?: Poems and Writings by Teenage Boys ISBN 978-0763611590

**Choose a poem from the book and create a collage representing what is happening in the poet's life at the time of writing.  

Birmingham, 1963 by Carole Boston Weatherford

Bibliography
Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2007. Birmingham, 1963. Honesdale, Pa.: Wordsong. ISBN 1590784405

Plot Summary

This is a free verse fictional account of the events that happened in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.  Told through the eyes of a soon to be ten year old girl whose family was involved in the civil rights movement, we hear her version of the events that led up to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing.  Beginning with a student protest that led Birmingham police to unleash dogs and fire hoses on the children, to the march on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous speech and finally to the fateful day where her church was bombed and four young girls lost their lives.  Readers are brought back to a time in history where equality was just a dream.  

Critical Analysis

This free verse poem uses long couplets to create a somber and serious flow when reading silently or aloud.  There is no use of rhyme in this book because it would take away from the meaning and subject matter of the book.  Metaphors can be seen throughout the poem with specific examples being "Mama, Daddy, and I stood at Lincoln's feet/While King's dream woke the nation from a long night of wrongs." and "Someone tucked a bundle of dynamite/Under the church steps, then lit the fuse of hate.". This book also uses sensory words that help the reader to imagine what is happening as they are reading.  Examples of this are "snarling dogs", a "soft kiss", and "clammy palms".  

The author of this book did a great job capturing the emotion of such a tumultuous time in history.  Sorrow and hope are both seen in the same poem as the little girl talks about being sprayed with a fire hose on one page and hearing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on another page.  The narrator makes readers feel what she went through on the day of the bombing and ended the poem with a powerful statement about how she wished she was still nine years old and that that day had never happened.  

The pictures in the book pair perfectly with the poem.  Each picture is a real life still of the events that happened in Birmingham so that the reader has an actually picture of what the narrator is talking about.  The pictures are very powerful and include pictures of the church before and after the bombing as well as pictures of the four girls who died.  

Review Excerpts   

• Library Media Collection, starred review- "This is a book that should be in every library collection."
• Kirkus Reviews-"It's a gorgeous memorial to the four killed on that horrible day"

Connections

*The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis ISBN 9780440228004

*Depending on the age of the reader, view parts or all of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute interactive online gallery at http://rg.bcri.org/gallery/

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

Bibliography
Sones, Sonya. 2001. What my mother doesn't know. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN 9780689855535

Plot Summary 

This book is a series of poems narrated by high school student Sophie.  Sophie tells the story of falling for her first love and then falling out of that love.  We see her parent's marriage slowly crumble as her father is gone away from home more often on business trips and coming home late at night.  At a school Halloween dance, Sophie has a memorable dance with a boy in a mask who runs off as soon as the dance is over.  Time goes by and Sophie starts spending time with and eventually falling in love with the school laughing stock.  Eventually she finds out it was him behind the mask and chooses to be his girlfriend despite the ridicule she might face at school.  

Critical Analysis

The rhythm of this book varies from short staccato lines to longer couplets.  This is also true about the lengths of each poem.  They can be very short or longer.  This matches the thoughts of a lot of teenage girls who sometimes get straight to the point or tend to have drawn out thoughts that take more time to process. 

A major appeal of this book is how the language sounds so much like that of a teenage girl.  Sophie's thoughts are deep but expressed in a way that teen girls can relate to which is one of Sonya Sones most impressive abilities to me.  Some poems are silly confessions like the poem titled "Confessions" where Sophie admits to kissing her knee and pretending it is her boyfriend when he is not around.  Other poems are more serious like the one titled "Mom and Dad Used to be in Love" where Sophie talks about her parents terrible, screaming fights and how she just wishes she could escape.  All of these capture the up and down emotions of what it is like to be a teenage girl.  

Review Excerpts

• Publisher's Weekly- "Sophie's honest and earthy story feels destined to captivate a young female audience"
• School Library Journal- "Sones's book makes these often-difficult years a little more livable by making them real, normal, and OK"

Connections

*Read the follow up story to this book titled What my girlfriend doesn't know told from the point of view of Sophie's boyfriend, Robin.  ISBN 978-0689876028

*Explore the Boston Museum of Fine Arts website and see for yourself what Sophie and Robin were experiencing on their museum trips.  

Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky

Bibliography
Zelinsky, Paul O.  1997.  Rapunzel. New York: Dutton Children's Books. ISBN 0525456074

Plot Summary

   This is a retelling of the classic Rapunzel story.  It begins with a young, pregnant mother who experiences extreme cravings for her neighbor's rapunzel herb that belongs to a sorceress.  The mother's cravings were so intense that they feared she would die if she did not have it.  The husband decided to risk going into the garden for his wife's life and when there, he was caught by the sorceress.  The sorceress agreed to let him take some under the condition that she could have the child when she was born.  The husband agreed to do this so that his wife would live.  When the baby was born, she was named Rapunzel and the sorceress took the child and raised her herself.  She locked Rapunzel in a tower when she turned twelve and visited her by climbing the tower using Rapunzel's long, silky hair.  One day, a prince came along and was struck by Rapunzel's beautiful voice.  He watched the sorceress climb the tower and copying her style, climbed his way into the tower one day.  Rapunzel and the prince fell in love and soon, Rapunzel was expecting a child of her own.  When the sorceress found out, she was outraged and sent Rapunzel to a wild country to live.  When the prince came to visit her in the tower, he was greeted by the sorceress who pushed him off the tower and hurt him so badly he was blinded.  After searching and searching blindly through the forest for Rapunzel, he finally found her a year later and the tears from her eyes healed his own and the young family went off to live in his kingdom.  

Critical Analysis

   This is an accurate retelling of the classic fairy tale. The setting is extremely vague with the only written cue being that it was "Long ago".  After reading the author's note, he expresses that he modeled it after the Italian countryside but this is only applicable to adult readers who take the time to read that part of the book.  The overall theme in this book is classic of many fairy tales in that good and true love will triumph over evil.  No matter what the sorceress did, the prince and Rapunzel overcame and lived happily ever after.  The style of the book was true to earlier versions of the story.  The most famous line, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.", is a repeated element of the story. 

    The illustrations in the book helped expressed elements of the setting that the writing did not.  From the illustrations, the reader gets an idea of the country side where the characters lived and are true to what we would think of when picturing Italy.  The illustrations also use very detailed texture and coloring that are reminiscent of old 17th century paintings.  The good characters are drawn to have happy and soft features while the antagonist has a harsh, cruel look to her.  

Review Excerpts

• 1998 Caldecott Winner 
• Publisher's Weekly- "A breath taking interpretation...."

Connections 

*Alternate version of Rapunzel

     -- Rapunzel by Rachel Isadora ISBN  9780399247729

*Show the Disney film adaptation of Rapunzel called Tangled.

The Story of Lightning & Thunder by Ashley Bryan

Bibliography
Bryan, Ashley.  1993. The story of lightning & thunder. New York: Atheneum. ISBN 0689318367

Plot Summary

    This is the story of a mother sheep named Thunder and her son, a ram, named Lightning derived from an old Nigerian folktale.  Thunder and Lightning lived in an African village where they would spend their days chatting and being pet by the villagers.  Whenever the villagers needed rain, Thunder and Lightning would go to the mountains and call rain clouds to come and water the crops.  The villagers were so happy about this that they had a celebration for Thunder and Lightning.  At the celebration, Lightning was so determined to show off his horns to the king that he charged through the crowd knocking everyone over.  This upset the king so much that he banished Thunder and Lightning to the outskirts of the village to protect the villagers from Lightning's destruction.  Thunder then kept an eye on Lightning but that did not stop him from causing more trouble.  At the market, Lightning accidentally knocked down an entire stack of straw hats and got into an altercation with the straw maker which made the king decide to banish them even further into the forest.  In the forest, Lightning got into yet another fight, this time with an ox and when running away, the sparks from his coat caught the crops on fire.  Thunder and Lightning were able to call rain in time to put the fires out but the king was still furious and banished them to live forever in the sky where we know them to live today.  

Critical Analysis    

     This is a pour quoi tale that gives children an idea of what thunder and lightning does and why.  The setting of this tale is vague but gives the reader a good idea of where to begin when imagining it.  The setting is discussed on the first page of the story and is said to be in a village on the west coast of Africa.  The theme of this story is boastfulness.  Lightning would not get into so much trouble if he wasn't always concerned with showing off how strong and tough he is. 

      

     The style of this story makes it very interesting.  First, there are elements of super natural.  Thunder and her song Lightning have the ability to go high into the mountain and call their friend rain to come and water the crops.  There was also repeated elements in the story that captured the sound of spoken language in print.  An example of this is seen periodically throughout the story when the author would say something followed by an "uh-huh".  The spoken language is also evident on the very last page where the author says "I know somebody like that too, uh-huh, I do, but I'm not saying who.". 

     The illustrations in this story really capture the style of Africa.  The colors the illustrator used are bright and are similar to many images we see of Africa with straight lines and visuals of earth elements like fire, water, and the sky.  The illustrations also help the reader imagine the setting of the story.  We see pictures of the village, mountains, forests, and crops.  The images of the villagers are also extremely helpful in this book.  By seeing these images, the young readers can get an idea of African dress, instruments, and festival celebrations.  

Review Excerpts

• Publishers Weekly-"Joyful in both word and palette"
• Kirkus Review-"A delightful adaptation of a Nigerian folktale"

Connections

*More stories by Ashley Bryan

    --Beautiful Blackbird ISBN 9780689847318

    --The Night Has Ears:  African Proverbs ISBN 9780689824272

*Find clips on YouTube about life in Nigeria that include video of classrooms, music, and marketplaces to give the readers a glimpse into real life Africa.