Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

• author & illustrator:  Marjane Satrapi  http://www.marjanesatrapi.com/
• medium:  ink
• year of publication: 2003
• city of publication: New York, NY
• publisher: Pantheon
• ISBN:  0-375-42230-7

Annotation: Follow Marjane Satrapi from ages six to fourteen growing up in Iran.  She witnesses the revolution and the nation transitions from a modern westernize state to a fundamentalist Islamic state. 

Personal Thoughts: Finally I've read the famed Persepolis.  It was complex, political, and intelligent, but it was also funny and cool.  When I read Marjane wears punk rock fashion during the eighties, I knew that not all people living under the fundamentalist Muslim Iran, chose life that way.  Many wanted to go back to a more free time, like before the fall of the Shah.  I really liked the historical and political aspects of this book and it really taught me a lot about growing up in Iran, but I worry that it may be too advanced for students below tenth grade.  I didn't even consider Iran when I was thirteen.  But Persepolis would be a good tool for seeing life under religious fundamentalism.

***Curriculum Connection - 10th grade Civic/World History, Iranian Revolution, Religious Fundamentalism, Fundamentalist Muslim Societies

Ubiquitious: Celebrating Nature's Survivors

Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors

• author:  Joyce Sidman  http://www.joycesidman.com/
• illustrator:  Becky Prange  http://www.beckieprange.com/
• medium: linocuts, hand-colored with watercolors

• year published:  2010
• city of publication:  Boston
• publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
• ISBN:  978-0-618-71719-4

Annotation:  Comibining poetry and science, readers learn about different species of plants and animals and the skills they have developed to survive throughout time. 

Pesonal Thoughts:  This book is a curious amalgam of gentle nature poetry and to the point factual science writing.  The artwork is very nice, presenting nature as small as protozoa to grander scenes of cities and planets.  A nice glossary is placed at the end that helps clear up some of the difficult scientific vocabulary.  The book is useful to older readers learning about life sciences.  Reading the book is sort of like watching a nature documentary where you learn new facts, while at the same time feel emotional about the world around you. 

***Curriculum Connection:  5^th and 6^th grade Life Sciences.  Flora and Fauna, Nature in Urban Environments, Social Colonies

***Lesson Plan – Walk your class to the school field and take turns reading the book in a circle.  Separate in groups and explore grass areas, trees and fields to try and find different animals and plants listed in the book.  Regroup and discuss what things the students found.

Wabi Sabi

Wabi Sabi

• author:  Mark Rebstein  "no author website"
• illustrator:  Ed Young  http://edyoungart.com/
• medium:  collages of time-worn human-made & natural materials
• year of publication:  2008
• city of publication:  New York
• publisher:  Little Brown and Company
• ISBN:  978-0-316-11825-5

Annotation:  Wabi Sabi, a cat living in the city of Kyoto, learns about the Japanese concept of beauty through simplicity as she asks various animals she meets about the meaning of her name.


Personal Thoughts:  Is Wabi Sabi a simple story about a cat seeking the meaning of its name?  No.  The story is an explanation on a concept of beauty in simple things.  The collage artwork made of natural materials like leaves and hair, as well as photographs of cars and buildings is captivating.  The story is accompanied by haiku, structured line poetry that helps to flesh out the meaning of Wabi Sabi's search.  This is indeed a contemplative and philosophical story.  I liked Wabi Sabi but I wonder if 5th graders would respond well to this story.  I would suggest Wabi Sabi to students in 10th through 12th grades.

***Curriculum Connection - 10th grade English composition - hiaku, poetry
12th grade World Philosophy - eastern meditation, eastern philosophy

***Lesson Plan - choose students to read one haiku each from Wabi Sabi.  Ask the students to write down how the poem relates to the part in the story where it appears.  Then ask the students to come up with 3 haiku themselves based on anything significant in their lives.

The Composer is Dead

The Composer is Dead

• author:  Lemony Snicket  http://www.lemonysnicket.com/
• illustrator:  Carson Ellis  http://www.carsonellis.com/
• medium: watercolor

• year of publication:  2009
• publication city:  New York
• publisher:  Harper Collins Publishers
• ISBN:  978-0-06-123627-3

Annotation:  The composer is dead and whodunnit?  Everyone has a motive, an alibi and nearly everyone is a musical instrument. Join the inspector as he interrogates the ususal suspects.

Personal Thoughts:  When I first read the story, I didn't bother playing the accompanying cd.  I thought the story was nice enough, using the musical characteristics of the instruments to describe their alibis at the time of the composer's death.  But I felt the story was missing something: music of course. 

I played the cd and the story came alive with the narration accompanied by the actual orchestral recordings.  It really helped and added a theatrical quality to the book.  I'd have to say the book is more fun with the audio component.  The whole package: book and cd, make the experience better.

***Curriculum Connection - 5th Grade musical appreciation/theory
***Lesson Plan - Read the story The Composer is Dead together as a class while playing the accompanying cd.  Remember to discuss the instruments as they play.  Then play samples of each instrument and ask students to write down what instruments they are listening to.  This lesson helps children distinguish separate instruments within orchestral music.

Hogwash

Hogwash

• author & illustrator:  Arthur Geisert  "no author website"
• year of publication:  2008
• city of publication:  Boston
• publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Company
• ISBN:  978-0-618-77332-9

Annotation:  Illustrations, and no workds, depict the enormous and complicated contraption that Mama Pig uses to get her little piglets clean. 

Personal Thoughts: 

Anthropomorphic pigs?  A desert setting and contraptions from the era of the Dust-bowl?  A weird etching illustration style reminiscent of an earlier time?  I’ll take it!!

Hogwash is wordless, but it has a lot to say, if the reader slows down and examines the pictures and the silent narrative.  See and learn how these clothes wearing pigs stay cool in mud  baths the size of Olympic swimming pools.  Then witness their bathing process to get them clean, and the strange machinations involved, including windmills, steam engines, copper tubes and magnets, among others.

Author Geisert has put onto page a  window to his imagination and Hogwash is fun to look at and wonder why things are presented as they are.  Why does this take place in the desert?  Why is the machinery all from the 19th and 20th century?  How could pigs have created this?  It's a fun and silly book with beautiful artwork. 

***Artwork - Geisert's artwork is amazing to look at for its antiquated style.  It's look is old-timey, with lots of tin shacks, wooden structures and outdated technology.  The shading is incredible and the pictures are all hand sketched.  If I could describe the style, I'd say it has a "hipster" edge where it's very innocent and childlike, but it is grounded in history and comes from an era where life was hard.  I would consider Geisert's illustrations as true "art" in the traditional form.  While many picturebooks today have a commercial and polished look to them, Hogwash has an underground quality that kids and adults will be interested in. 

***Curricular Connection- 6th grade Art, Mechanical Drawing
6th grade Science, Inventions, Complex Devices

***Lesson Plans - Have students create their own devices like those in the book Hogwash.  Use a prompt to get them started, such as, "Create a machine/device that will get your pigs clean", or "Create a machine/device that powers the city for the pigs", etc.  

Coolies

 

• Coolies
• author: Yin  http://www.soentpiet.com/yins_corner.html
• illustrator: Chris Soentpiet  http://www.soentpiet.com/
• medium: watercolor on watercolor paper
• year of publication: 2001
• publisher city: New York, NY
• publisher: Philomel Books
• ISBN: 0-39923227-3

Annotation:  Mid 1800's - Shek and his little brother Wang travel from a revolution scarred China to America and begin working on the western span of the Transcontinental Railroad. 

Personal Thoughts:  The story exposes the harsh working and living conditions of the Chinese railroad workers in America and touches on their perseverance and determination to make a better living, even in the face of social prejudice and injustice.  Soentpiet's art is wonderful, with exprssive faces on each page that offer a powerful humanity that jumps out of each picture, while large scale background action gives the reader a great understanding of the tasks accomplished from railroad work in scorching desserts to freezing mountain blizzards.  The book works as a tale of survival and of familial connection as well as a historical lesson on this important chapter of American history.
***curricular connection: 5th grade US History, Transcontinental Railroad, Chinese Immigration

***Lesson Plan - Have a discussion about the different peoples that came to the U.S. in the 1800's.  Discuss the European waves of immigrants, as well as those from Asia.  Discuss also the Native American peoples movements and relocation onto reservations.