2011 Pura Belpre Illustrator Award: Grandma's Gift

Grandma’s Gift
Written and Illustrated by Eric Velasquez Published by Walker Books a division of Bloomsbury ISBN 978-0-8027-2082-5

Review
It’s winter break and Eric and his grandmother have two special tasks to complete. Grandma is making her famous pasteles, a traditional Puerto Rican Christmas dish that she shares with friends and neighbors. Eric has a school assignment to view a special new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While making the dish is as familiar to grandma as are the streets of her beloved New York City neighborhood, El Barrio, visiting the museum takes her out of her comfort zone. There, Grandma is delighted to discover a familiar face in a portrait, that of Juan de Pareja, a slave and assistant to the famous 17th century painter Diego Vélaquez. In an author’s note, Eric Velasquez credits viewing the painting with inspiring his own development as an artist. Readers will not be surprised by this note because the book ends with Eric receiving a Christmas gift from his grandma – his first sketchbook and colored pencils. With its beribboned endpapers, this picture book memoir truly is a gift to the reader and a work of art, as the framed cover suggests. The first person text highlights the loving relationship between grandma and grandson and clearly conveys the themes of community, family, the joy of giving, and the power of art. Whether you read this book as part of your winter holiday celebrations, for its focus on art and museums, or as an example of memoir writing, your students will be prompted to think deeply about gifts, both tangible and intangible.

Teaching Invitations

Grades K - 8

• Visit “The Museum Mile.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of nine museums that comprise the “Museum Mile” in New York City on Fifth Avenue from 82^nd to 105^th Streets. Take a virtual tour of these museums using their websites. Divide your students into groups, making each group responsible for researching a museum. Ask the groups to prepare a presentation for their classmates providing an overview of the museum’s content, history, and cultural representations. Alternatively, invite your students to explore the art resources in your community, such as museums, studios, galleries, and performance venues. If possible, visit one of these venues. Ask students to take along sketchbooks, notepads, or iPads to document their experiences.

• Artistic Inspiration. In the author’s note at the conclusion of the book, Velasquez states that viewing de Pareja’s portrait “had a profound and lasting effect” on him, inspiring him to pursue his dream of becoming and artist. Invite several local artists to speak with your students. Before their visits, ask students to prepare interview questions for the artists. Develop questions that encourage the artists to talk about what inspired their interest in art and who their role models and mentors are. For older students, you may want to extend this experience by asking students to research arts-related careers.

• "How To" Writing: Family Foods. Velasquez includes a double page spread featuring sequential images of the steps for assembling pasteles. Invite your students to describe a food that has cultural or symbolic importance to their family. After describing the foods orally, your students can write and illustrate the steps for making this food, following the model of “how to” writing provided in this book, – Students should write an introduction to their piece, telling their readers why the food is important to them and to their family. Celebrate the completing of these writing pieces by having a feast; ask students to bring in the food described in their piece and invite families to attend.

• Memoir Writing: Grandparents / Caregivers. Grandma’s Gift is one of two memoirs that Eric Velasquez has written to honor time that he spent with his grandmother as he was growing up. In Grandma’s Records, the author remembers summers spent with his grandmother and the fun they had listening to songs in her record collection. Read these two titles and other picture book memoirs. Discuss the writing techniques the authors use to convey their experiences. How do they use sensory details to share events with their readers? Is dialogue included? What is the main focus of the memoir? How does the author set the context for the key events? Record students’ observations, making lists of different choices made by the authors in writing their memoirs. Invite your students to write their own memoirs focused on time spent with grandparents or other significant caregivers in their lives.

Grades 4-8

• Principles of Illustration. Grandma’s Gift was awarded the Pura Belpré award for excellence in illustration. What makes a picture work? After reading Molly Bang’s book Picture This (see below), explore some of the principles of illustration with your class. As a class, model the application of these principles by dissecting the illustrations in Grandma’s Gift. Ideally, you would examine the illustrations using a document camera to project images from the book. How did Velasquez create emotional impact through the use of color, line, page breaks, and perspective? . Particularly striking is Velasquez’s use of perspective. You will want to highlight the image of Eric and his Grandma standing at the steps of the Met. After studying Velasquez’s artistic techniques, break students up into four groups; have two groups apply Bang’s principles to the Caldecott winning A Sick Day for Amos McGee (http://classroombookshelf.blogspot.com/2011/02/2011-ala-coretta-scott-king-illustrator.html ) , and Dave the Potter (http://classroombookshelf.blogspot.com/2011/02/2011-ala-coretta-scott-king-illustrator.html ), a nonfiction picture book and Caldecott Honor book. How do the other illustrators also use some of Bang’s techniques, but to achieve illustrations with a very different mood and tone?

Critical Literacy

Grades 3-8

• Neighborhoods. Eric’s grandmother lives in El Barrio, a section of New York City that has a high concentration of Latino residents. Learn more about this area by visiting the website for El Museo Barrio New York (see link below). Your students will probably know that it is not uncommon to find cultural concentration in town and cities. Ask your students to consider why this might be? What factors might cause neighborhoods like El Barrio to form? What is gained when people of similar backgrounds settle in the same area? What is lost? What are some of the larger societal implications, such as the effects on schooling and politics?

• Multicultural Children’s Books. The author notes that when he was growing up, there were very few children’s books that included characters of African descent. Engage your class in a study of multicultural children’s literature. How much have things changed since the author was a child? Select a few authors and illustrators of diverse backgrounds. Conduct mini authors studies to learn how they came to write and illustrate children’s books. You may find Pat Cummings's series Talking with the Artists useful for this purpose (see below). If possible, view the video documentary Looking for a Face Like Mine http://www.wbgu.org/community/documentary/Looking4Face/LikeMine_index.html that addresses the importance of multicultural literature. Be sure to discuss the establishment of awards such as the Pura Belpré and Coretta Scott King awards that recognize multicultural titles.

Further Explorations

Online Resources
Pura Belpré Award
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal/index.cfm
Eric Velasquez’s Website
http://www.ericvelasquez.com/
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/
MET: Portrait of Juan de Pareja
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1971.86
The Museum Mile
http://www.museummilefestival.org/history/
El Museo del Barrio
http://www.elmuseo.org/ 
If you are using this book in the winter holiday season, see the blog entry for O Christmas Tree for additional online resources. http://classroombookshelf.blogspot.com/2010/12/o-christmas-tree.html

Books
_____ (2007). Artist to artist: 23 major illustrators talk to children about their art. New York: Philomel.

• In this title, published to support the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, twenty-three well known children's book illustrators discuss their artistic process.

Ajmera, M. (2010). Our grandparents: A global album. Cambridge, MA: Charlesbridge.

• This easy to read photo essay celebrates the roles of grandparents around the world.

Ancona, G. (1998). Barrio: José’s neighborhood. New York: Harcourt Brace.

• A photo-essay describing the life for an eight-year old boy in a San Francisco neighborhood. This title was also recognized with the Pura Belpré award for illustration.

Bang, M. (2000). Picture this: How pictures work. New York: Seastar Books.

• This seminal work provides a great introduction to visual literacy and the art of storytelling through illustrations.

Chocolate, D.N.M. (2009).El barrio. Illustrated by D. Diaz. New York: Henry Holt

• A young boy, whose sister is preparing for her quinceanara, describes the vibrant Latino culture in his neighborhood in this picture book.

Cressy, J. (2002). Can you find it? New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art / H.N. Abrams.

• Readers are challenged to find details in nineteen works of art at the Met.

Cummings, P. (1992). Talking with artists. New York: Bradury Press.

• The first title in a series of three books that present the lives and work of children's picture book artists.

Johnston, T. (2009). My Abuelita. Ill. by Y. Morales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin / Harcourt.

• This Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Award winner also features a young boy and his beloved grandmother.

Juster, N. (2005) The hello goodbye window. Ill. by C. Raschka. New York: Hyperion.

• This Caldecott winner suited for a preschool and primary grade audience is narrated by a young girl spending a weekend at her grandparents' house.

MacLachlan, P. & MacLachlan E. (2003). Painting the wind. Ill. by K. Schneider. New York: Joanna Cotler Books.

• A young boy explores the artistic process with the artists who come to his island to paint.

Sis, P. (2000). Madlenka. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.

• When she discovers a loose tooth, Madlenka takes a tour around her city block, showing it off to the international vendors in her neighborhood.

Velasquez, E. (2001). Grandma’s records. New York: Walker & Co.

• The author remembers summers spent with his grandmother listening to Puerto Rican music from her record collection.

Weitzman, J.P. (1998). You can’t take a balloon into the Metropolitan Museum. Ill. by R. Preiss. New York: Puffin.

• While a young girl and her grandmother view the works at the Met, the balloon that the girl has had to leave behind causes a series of mishaps around the city; the mishaps parallel the art being viewed.

If you are using this book in the winter holiday season, see the blog entry for O Christmas Tree for additional book resources. http://classroombookshelf.blogspot.com/2010/12/o-christmas-tree.html

2011 ALA Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award: Dave the Potter

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave

Written by Laban Carrick Hill; Illustrated by Bryan Collier

Little Brown, and Company, New York 2010

ISBN 978-0-316-10731-0

Book Review

Dave the Potter, sometimes known as David Drake, was taught to read in South Carolina in the early 19^th century, when it was against the law for an enslaved African to be literate. He used his pottery as a vehicle for his literacy, to send his message into the world on the bottom of a pot: sometimes his name, sometimes a few lines of verse. A celebration of the internal strength and dignity that skilled work cultivates and the physical strength required to master the art of making large pots by hand, this book begs to be touched, explored, examined; its beauty suggests it should be handled as gently as Dave’s hands directed the spinning clay on his wheel and yet its message is a solid and strong as Dave’s tremendous arms, adept at building pots that held forty pounds of wheat or dried meat when few other hands, black or white, were capable of such feats. One wants to hold the book close to the chest, like a treasure, to read the illustrations as closely as the words, and yet the book calls out to be read aloud, to be experienced in the companionship of others who will marvel at the pacing of Hill’s verse, the intricate layers of Collier’s multimedia collage illustrations, and the careful process by which Dave himself took handfuls of dirt and transformed them into masterfully- made clay pots.  With this nonfiction picture book, Hill and Collier have carefully carried Dave’s messages to a broader audience than those who once used his pots to hold their provisions and the art collectors in historic homes and museums who have long noted his work. In the process, they have transformed the very genre of the nonfiction picture book, making each page hum and sing in a fusion of words and images, much like Dave’s pots transformed the expectations of how much pots can hold, the likes of which few have seen.

 Teaching Invitations

Grades 2 -4

• Skilled Crafts. Dave the Potter was a master craftsman. Using some of the online sources below, share photos with your students of Dave’s pottery, and watch the video footage of Charles Smith working a potter’s wheel. Invite a local potter to come into the class to demonstrate his/her skills, and team up with the art teacher to have students create handmade pots. How much can their pots hold? Have them weigh grains of rice and see how much can fit in their pots. Next, have students try to lift 40 pounds of rice, and imagine how big Dave’s pots really were. 

• Hand Made Objects vs. Store Bought. Dave the Potter teaches us a great deal about the work required to transform dirt into functional works of art. Before the Industrial Revolution, people had to make everything they needed by hand: clothes, tools, pots, furniture, etc. Have students look around the classroom and locate objects that may have been made by hand. Have students follow the same process at home, asking parents and guardians if they have anything they know was made by hand. Is it a special object for the family? Why or why not? How are handmade objects, whether made by someone in the family, purchased, or given as gifts, treated differently, perhaps, than others? 

Grades 3-8

• Illustrator Study: Collage and Symbolism. Discuss the ways in which Bryan Collier embedded images of African-American history within his illustrations for Dave the Potter. Next, have students read a variety of fiction and nonfiction picture books illustrated by Collier. What are some of the media he uses in his collage-style illustrations? How has he used color, value, perspective, and line and shape to create complex layers of images, ripe for exploration and interpretation? Have students select a moment in your community's history to illustrate in Collier's style. Collier's webpage, listed in the Further Explorations section below, will also be useful to you.

Grades 5-8

• Functional to Symbolic Objects. Dave built pots that people needed. Now, his work is understood in a larger capacity. Not only was he a skilled craftsman, but he learned this trade at a time when few enslaved Africans did. His work is in museums not only because of his skills, but because of his unique legacy as a literate, skilled, enslaved African-American craftsman. What are some examples of other handmade objects in the African American community, such as quilts, or from the students' own cultural heritages, that originally served a functional purpose but now play an important role historically or have taken on a symbolic value in homes, houses of worship, universities, libraries, and museums?

• Skilled Work and Slavery. To what extent were enslaved Africans in colonial and antebellum periods of American history taught to do skilled work? To what extent have students been educated to understand the variety of roles that African-Americans played in the social and economic life of pre-Civil War America? Explore some of the books listed in the Further Explorations section below to find out more.

Critical Literacy

• Notions of Literacy. When Dave was alive, to be literate was to be able to sign your own name, and to have a working knowledge of sounds and letters to be able to read simple written works. How has our notion of literacy changed over time? What does it mean to be literate in the 21^st century? Use this book as an introduction to notions of literacy and have students define what they believe will be the necessary skills to be literate when they are working adults. 

• Forensic Anthropology and Enslaved Africans. Most enslaved Africans were, unlike Dave, illiterate, and they were not able to write down their stories. Some stories survive through oral histories, spirituals, and family tales; others were recorded through interviews. Modern technology and forensic science are now offering other ways of learning about people who did not leave a written record. Explore some of the online and book resources below that demonstrate how the skeletons and bones of enslaved Africans of the 17^th-19^th centuries are telling us more about their everyday lives than we previously knew. Ask your students to consider whether or not they are comfortable with this kind of research? Should bodies be left alone, to rest in peace? What should be done to commemorate bodies previously left to rest in unmarked graves? What do we owe these citizens of our past? 

Further Explorations

Online Resources

Author Laban Carrick Hill’s Website

http://www.labanhill.com/

Illustrator Bryan Collier’s Website

http://www.bryancollier.com/

Leonard Todd’s Website, Biographer of Dave the Potter

http://leonardtodd.com/daves-life_283.html

Dave the Potter Biography and Samples of Pottery

http://www.usca.edu/aasc/davepotter.htm

Dave the Potter Exhibit Information

http://www.folkpotterymuseum.com/pr/pr2.html

David Drake’s Pottery at Philadelphia Museum of Art with Great Audio Files

http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/91457.html

American Art Pottery Association: Links to US Museums with Pottery Collections

http://www.aapa.info/Links/MemberWebLinks/MuseumsandPreservationOrganizations/tabid/132/Default.aspx

National Humanities Center: Teacher Resources on Teaching About Slavery

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/africa.htm

Slavery and the Making of America: PBS Online Resources

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/

Museum of African American History, Boston

http://www.afroammuseum.org/

African American Burial Ground, New York City

http://www.africanburialground.gov/ABG_Main.htm

Fortune’s Story: Slavery in Connecticut

http://www.fortunestory.org/fortune/fortune.asp

Fortune’s Bones NPR Story

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1433035

Written in Bone: Forensic Anthropology, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/

Charles Smith: Alabama-Based Potter

http://www.smith-pots.com/index3.html

Charles Smith: You Tube Demonstration of Pottery Wheel

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pottery+wheels&aq=f

Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture, Charlotte, NC

http://www.ganttcenter.org/web/

Digital Schomburg: Online Exhibitions of the Schomburg Center of The New York Public Library

http://www.nypl.org/locations/tid/64/online_exhibitions

Books

Hansen, J. and McGowan, G. (1998). Breaking ground, breaking silence: The Story of New York’s African Burial Ground. New York:  Henry Holt and Company.

• Hansen and McGowan chronicle the discovery of a colonial-era African-American burial ground in lower Manhattan and its aftermath, including the activism required to transform a modern-day construction site into hallowed ground, a National Monument dedicated to enslaved and free blacks.

McGill, Alice. (2000).Miles’ song. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

• Like Dave, Miles, the protagonist of this historical novel set in 1851, is secretly taught to read, and uses his new understandings of language and literacy to navigate his various roles on a Carolina plantation and escape to freedom.

McKissack, P. and McKissack, F. (1999). Black hands, white sails: The story of African-American whalers. New York: Scholastic.

• Providing a history of the skilled free African-American seamen in New England, this text highlights in particular the success of the black whaling communities in New Bedford and Nantucket, Massachusetts.

McKissack, P. and McKissack, F. (1998). Let my people go: Bible stories told by a freeman of color to his daughter, Charlotte, in Charlestown, South Carolina, 1806-1816. Illus. by J. Ransome.  New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

• This work of collected short stories uses the frame of a fictional father retelling Bible stories to his daughter within the context of everyday life for enslaved Africans in South Carolina in the early 19^thcentury, when Dave was a young child.

Nelson, M. (2004). Fortune’s bones: The manumission requiem.  Asheville, NC:  Front Street.

• Through poetry, photographs, and illustrations, this picture book biography tells of Fortune, an 18^thcentury enslaved African in Connecticut . Owned even beyond his death, Fortune’s skeleton was used first by his doctor owner, to teach medical students, and next, by a local history museum. Forensic research has allowed for Fortune’s bones to continue informing the world about his life.

Rappaport, D. (2006). No more! Stories and songs of slave resistance. Illus. by S. Evans. Cambridge: Candlewick Press.

• This collective biography of enslaved Africans, like Dave the Potter, demonstrates how many defied convention and found ways to resist slavery both large and small.

Walker, S. (2010). Written in bone: Buried lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books.

• Rooted in research currently featured at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, this book demonstrates how research teams are examining colonial era bodies in the Chesapeake region of Maryland and Virginia, using their bones to learn more about life for enslaved and free Africans and African-Americans and free and indentured white colonists.

2011 ALA Newbery Winner: Moon Over Manifest

Moon Over Manifest 
Winner of the 2011 Newbery Medal
Written by Clare Vanderpool
Published by Delacorte Press, 2010
ISBN # 978-0385738835
Grades 4 and up

Book Review
In this debut novel by Clare Vanderpool, twelve-year old Abilene Tucker has been sent by her father to the seemingly sleepy town of Manifest, Kansas, to live with Pastor Shady Howard while her father finds work in Iowa during the 1930s. Abilene can’t understand why he sent her there, why the town of Manifest holds such meaning for him, and why nobody in town will talk much about the time he spent there. So begins Abilene’s investigations with a spy map, a hidden box of mysterious trinkets and letters from the past, a set of old local newspapers, and an elderly diviner who tells cryptic but compelling stories from a decade earlier about two boys from the town. Vanderpool smoothly combines a variety of genres—including historical fiction, journalism, letter writing, and song and rhyme—to tell this coming-of-age story. Moreover, she packs the novel with subtle but significant details that will encourage readers to go back and reread earlier chapters to piece together clues about Abilene’s father’s and the town’s past. When the novel pulls all the threads together at the end, the result is not only satisfying, but clever and heartwarming as well. 

Teaching Invitations 

• A Deeper Exploration of Setting. The setting of a story is much more than its time and place; it also involves the community norms, historical movements, and social atmosphere that ground character motivation and plot events. Engage students in a discussion and inquiry into these deeper qualities of setting, and have them identify them in Moon Over Manifest, which takes place during two distinct periods in American history. Support these discussions with multimedia resources such as radio programs, photographs, and writing from the various time periods (see the online resources and books in the Further Explorations section below). Have students collaborate with each other to piece these deeper details of setting into an artistic, written, spoken, or multimedia project of their own.
• The Art of Storytelling. Whether they are told by Miss Sadie, sung through train songs, or written and reported by Hattie Mae, stories are rife throughout the novel. Storytelling is not as easy as it seems, though, and skilled storytellers will explain how they study and practice it as a craft. Have students explore and practice the art of storytelling. They might tell a favorite fairy tale, family story, or a story they’ve written themselves. You might also refer to storytelling resources like Pete Seeger’s Storytelling Book, NPR’s Story Corps, or the National Storytelling Network (see Further Explorations section below).
• Literary Allusions. A number of authors, book titles, and famous quotations and characters are name-dropped throughout the novel as literary allusions. Why might an author include them? What should a reader know in order to understand them? Have students identify some of the allusions—or what they think are allusions—in Moon Over Manifest and brainstorm their meanings. Then have students investigate their actual meanings, perhaps by reading some excerpts from the primary sources, and then discuss how those allusions relate to what’s happening in Moon Over Manifest. For students who are brand new to the concept of allusions, you might want to first model these activities with a book like Previously (see Futher Explorations section below), which provides a variety of allusions to a series of fairy tales.
• Medicinal Herbs. Miss Sadie enlists Abilene’s help to gather medicinal herbs for her ailments. As Abilene searches for them among the local vegetation, she learns to identify them and their uses. Have students research indigenous plants that grow in their community and what possible medicinal uses they may have. You might also have them create an online database via a blog or wiki that describes their identifying characteristics and the conditions they may be helpful in addressing. 

Critical Literacy 

• The Idea of “Universals.” Abilene states that some things in life are “universals” and points out what they are as she encounters them. Can anyone really declare such things, though? Are there universals, absolute truths, or concrete, permanent, and “natural” realities in life? What are the benefits and dangers of such declarations? Engage students in discussions about the “universals” they observe and believe. Try to challenge their thinking to entertain the possibilities that others may believe different, but equally valid “universals.” Perhaps one of the best ways to do this without sounding too preachy or authoritarian is to develop an inquiry unit around the universals they identify. They might also take one “universal” to do an art, poetry, or other multimedia or multimodal project around that presents their findings.
• Inquiring into Immigration, Labor Issues, and Discrimination. Moon Over Manifest raises many overlapping issues about prejudice, discrimination, immigration, and unfair working conditions. How do each of these concerns influence one another? How might addressing or not addressing one of them impact the effects or power of the others? Have students read about one or all of these issues in a variety of genres—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, song, drama, etc.—and work in groups to create their own multi-genre project on the issue(s) to advocate for social justice. You may want to refer to Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s books as well as the work on multigenre research done by Tom Romano (see the Further Explorations section below).
  

Further Explorations 

Online Resources 

2011 American Library Association (ALA) John Newbery Medal 

http://www.ala.org/template.cfm?template=/CFApps/awards_info/award_detail_home.cfm&FilePublishTitle=Awards,%20Grants%20and%20Scholarships&uid=9975B44A8D61AEE9 

Clare Vanderpool’s website 
www.clarevanderpool.com 

Primary Source Documents (photos, writings, etc.) - American Memory Project of the Library of Congress 
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

Primary Source Documents (photos, writings, etc.)- American Memory Timeline of the Library of Congress 
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline 

NPR’s Story Corps 
http://www.npr.org/series/4516989/storycorps 

National Storytelling Network 
http://www.storynet.org

United Mine Workers of America 
http://www.umwa.org 

Almanac of Policy Issues - Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws 
http://www.policyalmanac.org/culture/archive/discrimination.shtml 

Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s website on social issues 
http://www.scbartoletti.com/?page_id=105 

Tom Romano’s website on multigenre research 
http://www.users.muohio.edu/romanots/index.html 

Books 

Ahlberg, A. (2007). Previously. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. 

• A delightful and clever picture book that weaves together well-known storybook characters to explain how present events are made up of interrelated histories.

Bartoletti, S. C. (1996). Growing up in coal country. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

• A compilation of archival documents, photography, and oral history about the working conditions and children’s experiences of coal mining families in northeastern Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century. 

Bartoletti, S. C. (2010). They called themselves the K.K.K.: The birth of an American terrorist group. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

• Another stunning compilation of records, from congressional testimonies to diary entries, that examine the history and evolution of the Ku Klux Klan and the social forces that give rise to hate groups. 

Curtis, C. P. (1999). Bud, not Buddy. New York: Yearling.

• In this Newbery Award winner set during the Great Depression, a ten-year old African American boy searches for the father he’s never met. 

Hesse, K. (1997). Out of the dust. New York: Scholastic. 

• Written in free verse, this Newbery Award winning novel chronicles Billie Jo’s efforts to deal with family tragedy set in the Oklahoma Dustbowl during the Depression. 

Hesse, K. (2001). Witness. New York: Scholastic. 

• A powerful free verse novel written from various perspectives about the Ku Klux Klan’s attempts to infiltrate the conscience of a small Vermont town during the Prohibition era. 

Larson, K. (2006). Hattie big sky. New York: Yearling. 

• This Newbery Honor book set in 1918 describes the story of Hattie Brooks, who leaves Iowa to begin a new life in Montana and deals with the changing events in her life and the first World War through article and letter writing. 

Peck, R. (1998). A long way from Chicago. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. 

• In this hilarious Newbery Honor book, Joey and Mary Alice make their annual summer visits from 1929 to 1935 to learn about and stay with their eccentric Grandma Dowdel in her sleepy Midwestern town. 

Peck, R. (2000). A year down yonder. New York: Puffin. 

• Fifteen-year old Mary Alice returns to her formidable Grandma Dowdel’s home for an entire year in this Newbery Award winner and sequel to A Long Way from Chicago. 

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

• The Pura Belpre Award winning novel about a young, rich Mexican girl who loses everything and her experience as a migrant farm worker in California during the Great Depression. 

Sandler, M. The Dust Bowl through the lens: How photography revealed and helped remedy a national disaster. New York: Walker Books for Young Readers. 

• A photo essay that chronicles the causes, devastation, history, and resolution of the Dust Bowl. 

Seeger, P. & Jacobs, P. D. (2001). Pete Seeger’s storytelling book. New York: Harcourt. 

• Folksy tales and storytelling tips by one of America’s most beloved singer/songwriters and storytellers.

2011 Robert F. Sibert Award for Nonfiction: Kakapo Rescue

Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot

Written by Sy Montgomery
with Photographs by Nic Bishop
Houghton Mifflin’s Scientists in the Field Series, ISBN # 978-061894170

Book Review

Imagine an eight-pound flightless parrot with an owl-like face and yellow, green, and brown honey-scented feathers nesting in the undergrowth of a fairy-tale forest, hidden among lush ferns, mosses and wizened trees. You are picturing the Kakapo, a critically endangered bird species found only on Codfish Island off the coast of New Zealand. In this title in the highly acclaimed Scientist in the Field series, nature writer Sy Montgomery and notable photographer Nic Bishop team up once again, visiting the island to document the efforts of scientists and volunteers to bring the species back from the brink of extinction. With her fluid conversational style, Montgomery transports the reader to this remote locale, while the vibrant images from the master photographer reinforce the reader’s immersion in this adventure and capture the heart and soul of this mission. During their ten-day stay Montgomery and Bishop watch nests through the use of hidden cameras; follow parrots outfitted with radio trackers using telemetry; sanitize, refill, and replace feeding stations; and are witness to dramatic new life and tragic death. The events of the visit reflect the grim struggle to save the Kakapo, yet a chance face-to-face encounter with a curious Kakapo ends the text on a hopeful note. This title offers a concrete opportunity for young readers to ponder the impact and responsibility of human interaction with the natural world.

Teaching Invitations

Grades 3-8

• Literature Circles. Use the three titles by Montgomery and Bishop listed below along with this book for nonfiction literature circles. Form four groups, each group responsible for reading and discussing one of the four books. Ask each group to prepare a brief presentation about their book (perhaps using Voice Thread or PowerPoint) for their classmates. After each group has a chance to present, discuss the similarities and differences across the books. What has led each animal to become an endangered or rare species? What tools and processes do the scientists and conservationists use to learn about and protect the species? What challenges do the conservationists and scientists face? What did the author and photographer experience during the expedition?
• Volunteers. Montgomery profiles several of the volunteers who work on Codfish Island. Invite your students to consider the many roles that volunteers serve in local communities. Who are the volunteers? What jobs do they do? What motivates them? You might want to have your students interview several different community volunteers or find opportunities for your students to do a day of volunteer work to experience first hand what it means to donate your time to others.
• Descriptive Language in Nonfiction. Montgomery has a special talent for vivid description that makes the reader feel present at the scene that she is describing. Select key passages, such as the following, to examine with your students: “Everything is green, alive, and fresh. Ferns are everywhere: tall ferns, short ferns, frilly ferns, leathery ferns, ferns that perch on treetops, ferns that climb high into the canopy, tree ferns. The ground is carpeted with lichen and soft green moss. One kind is called umbrella moss and each plant is small enough to make a parasol perfect for a fairy.” In this passage, you would want to note the author’s use of repetition for impact; her use of specific adjectives, such as frilly and leathery, the use of metaphor and comparison. Make a list of the writing techniques used by Montgomery in her best descriptive passages. Then invite students to try out these techniques in their own writing. A field trip to a beautiful outdoor location may be in order – make sure to bring along clipboards and your favorite writing tools (or maybe your iPads).
• Native Species. The Kakapo Parrot species has suffered greatly from the introduction of non-native animals to New Zealand. Contact your local conservation agency or do an internet search to learn more about the plants and animals native to your area. How have invasive species affected the natural plant and wildlife balance? Research local efforts to conserve native species and invite a local conservationist to speak to your class.
• Genre Study. Engage your students in a genre study of the photo essay. Gather a collection of photo essays and guide students to develop a definition for the photo essay. Use the book titles listed below as a starting point and seek out additional titles by these authors. Be sure to make a distinction between a book that is illustrated with photographs and a true photo essay in which the photographs play a major role in communicating the narrative or key concepts of the book. You will find Nic Bishop’s website useful in this process as he describes how he conducts research and obtains the photos for his photo essays. After thoroughly exploring the genre, invite your students to compose photo essays either individually or in groups.
• Authorwire.com Resources. Sy Montgomery shares a website with her husband and fellow author Howard Mansfield. Explore her website and use some of the excellent teaching suggestions included for Kakapo Rescue.

Critical Literacy

• Local Endangered Species. Use the website of the United States Fish and Wildlife Services (below) to identify endangered species in your area. How did these species come to be endangered? What efforts are being made to preserve the species? Ask students to consider what steps they might take to support the efforts.
• Photography as Social Action. The medium of photography can be a powerful advocacy tool for social change. Study the photographs in Kakapo Rescue with your students and ask them to describe the emotions that the photographs evoke in them. Provide other examples of collections of photographs that are a critique of society or a call for action, such as Dorothea Lange’s photographs of migrant families taken during the Great Depression or her documentation of the Japanese Internment Camps (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=ft3f59n5wt;query=dorothea%20lange;style=oac4;view=admin#hitNum9), Lewis Hine’s photographic protests against child labor (http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/), or Gary Braasch’s photgraphs of the BP oil spill for a current example. (http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/gulfoil/intro.html). Ask your student to identify a concern or problem in their local community and invite students to create a collection of photographs that raise awareness of the issue.

Further Explorations

Online Resources

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Home Page

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/sibertmedal/index.cfm

Authorwire: The Website of Howard Mansfield and Sy Montgomery

http://www.authorwire.com/

Nic Bishop

http://nicbishop.com/

Kakapo Recovery

http://www.kakaporecovery.org.nz/

Scott Mouat’s film: The Unnatural History of the Kakapo

http://www.elwin.co.nz/prjkakapo.html

World Wildlife Federation

http://www.worldwildlife.org/home-full.html

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Endangered Species Program

http://www.fws.gov/endangered/

Kids Planet

http://www.kidsplanet.org/

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Endangered Species Act

http://www.epa.gov/regulations/laws/esa.html

NOAA Fisheries: Office of Protected Resources

http://www.epa.gov/regulations/laws/esa.html

New Zealand: Natural Environment

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/natural-environment

New Zealand: History and Heritage

http://newzealand.govt.nz/browse/history-heritage/

New Zealand Department of Conservation: Kakapo

http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/land-birds/kakapo/

Books
Montgomery, S. (2009). Saving the ghost of the mountain: An expedition among the snow leopards in Mongolia. Photos by N. Bishop. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

• Montgomery and Bishop accompany conservationist Tom McCarthy on an expedition in Mongolia to track the elusive and rare snow leopard.

Montgomery, S. (2006). Quest for the tree kangaroo: An expedition to the cloud forest of Papua New Guinea. Photos by N. Bishop. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

• Montgomery and Bishop visit Papua New Guinea to document researchers’ efforts to track the rare Matschie’s tree kangaroo.

Montgomery, S. (2004). Search for the golden moon bear: Science and adventure in the Asian tropics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

• Montgomery travels to southeast Asia with a biologist to determine whether a golden bear found in this area might be an undocumented species.

Additional Photo Essays:

Bishop, N. (2009). Lizards. New York: Scholastic.

Bishop, N. (2009). Butterfiles and moths. New York: Scholastic.

Bishop, N. (2008). Frogs. New York: Scholastic.

• These titles feature information about the animal and Bishop’s extrodinary photographs.

Freedman, R. (2005). Children of the Great Depression. New York: Clarion.

• A moving collection of carefully chosen archival photographs expands this description of conditions faced by children during the Great Depression.

Sandler, M.W. (2011). Kennedy through the lens: How photography and television revealed and shaped an extraordinary leader. New York: Walker.

• This photo-essay explores the impact of images in photography and television in the campaign and presidency of John F. Kennedy.

Siy, A. (2009). Cars on Mars: Roving the red planet. Boston: Charlesbridge.

• A description of the Mars Exploration Rover program illustrated with spectacular photographs of the red planet.

Walker, S. (2009). Written in bone: Buried lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books.

• The author documents the work of forensic anthropologists uncovering human remains for the clues they provide about life in colonial times.