Advanced Children's Literature: Week 1

Story Telling

This week we read many texts about stories and why they matter.  This week I read:

• “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” by Kelly Barnhill

• The Newberry Honor award speech by Kelly Barnhill

• “Story as World Making” by Kathy G. Short

• “Textual Lineage” from the book “Striving to Thriving” by Stephanie Harvey and Annie Ward

To start off with, we had a choice between two novels for this week, “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” by Kelly Barnhill or “Tale of Despereaux” by Kate DeCamillo.  I chose “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” because I was completely unfamiliar with it.  I typically will not choose to read books about magic and witchcraft (except for Harry Potter,” of course) but I had heard great things about this book.  After completing it, I am happy to say that I was happy with my choice.  It took me a few chapters to get into the book, but once I did I completely fell in love with the characters and the lessons that they taught about love and compassion for others.  However, I also felt infuriated with some of the characters for their selfishness and ignorance toward others.  While this book was highly fictional I was able to relate to the relationship between Luna and Xan.  My grandmother has always been the type of person that would give me anything she could, including all of her strength and energy if need be.  I have also watched her go from a cuddly, well shaped woman to a frail, boney, tired looking woman.  While her eyes still hold so much hope and love and life, I know that she is wearing down.  After the passing of my grandfather last year, we have kept her busy with so many new activities and trips and experiences.  This reminds me a lot of the end of the book when Xan leaves to go see the bog and experience the world one last time.

Throughout the book, the characters tell stories about the “witch who lives in the woods.” At first, I was confused by the sudden change from third person to the italicized “story telling” chapters, but I quickly learned that it was the author’s crafty way of giving her readers background knowledge that even many of the characters in the book did not have.  As the book goes on, the stories get more detailed and change a little bit.  Until I read Kelly Barnhill’s Newbery Honor speech, I honestly did not connect it to the way stories are often spread in our society.  The story starts out either being relatively true, or completely false, but either way, by the time it has been spread around, it has changed completely.  It reminds me a lot of the game we played as children, “telephone” in which you stand in a line and pass along a sentence from one end of the line to the other and then see if it is the same thing the first person heard.  Throughout the book, the author gives you bits of information that the characters do not know, and eventually the story all comes together so the readers and characters alike can find out the truth behind all the stories.   The article by Kathy Short (2012) also discussed the way that stories are used, but in a more positive sense.  There is a beauty to stories that help us learn to do so many things.  When I was growing up, I heard so many “When I was a child I…” stories from my mom as a way to teach me a lesson about respect, or bullying, or how to dress appropriately, etc.  Stories are also the way in which children (and adults) use their imagination and express their emotions.  As a teacher, I know that students come to school full of stories daily.  In the article by Short (2012), she discusses a teacher who noticed that many of the students from a certain African American community were telling stories about their everyday lives in a fancy way in order to get attention.  Unfortunately, these stories were being seen as “tall tales” by many of the students and staff in the school.  Stories are a way of expressing oneself, so it is important for teachers to listen to the stories of every student regardless of how “believable” they are.  Stories are used in a variety of ways in the school building: as a way to discuss a critical issue (bullying, racism, etc.), in writing instruction, in choosing books for students to read, etc.  However, stories are essential to a child’s education.  Short (2012) talks a lot about using multicultural books and stories to broaden students’ awareness of different cultures, as well as to teach that differences have always existed, have always been ridiculed, and that we need to start within the classroom to find solutions that minimize the racism and ridicule in our own society.

Within my classroom, I will use stories daily.  During my student teaching experience, I often had student come up to me in the mornings with amazing stories to tell about things that happened outside of school.  Often, if it seemed a story they were telling others, I would allow them to stand in front of the class and tell their story.  I am also the most excited about teaching literacy in my classroom.  The concept of reading amazing stories and taking those stories as mentors to write great stories just fills me with so much joy.  Last semester we talked a lot about using mentor texts to guide writing.  I quickly found that while I am a graduate student, I had never been taught this writing strategy, and it has completely changed the way I write and teach.  Students who struggle with writing often think they don’t have a story that is worth telling, but using mentors like the authors of their favorite books and stories can help them realize that every person’s story is worthy of writing down.  I am not sure which grade I will teach yet, but if I teach upper elementary, I would love to read “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” by Kelly Barnhill with them as a way of introducing not only the art of amazing story telling, but also the concept that stories can be true, made up, or somewhere in the middle.  The stories told in the book are partially true, but they keep the reader wanting to know more about who the witch is and even questioning if the witch they describe even exists.  This book has a strong writing style that shows students many different crafts from changing point of view, to writing thoughts in italics, to sharing information with the audience without sharing it with the characters.  It is a great book to help familiarize students with a variety of writing styles that they can borrow in their own writing.

In thinking about what I think makes a great children’s book, I go back to the concept of story telling.  Typically, when we think of telling stories, we think of highly interesting information that is said in a way that keep everyone wanting to know what happens next (like telling your best friend about the awful ride home on the bus or telling your mom the story of how you got a perfect score on your final exam).  In children’s books, I think the most important thing is that it tells a story that has rises and falls and that keeps the readers interested.  I also believe that the best children’s books are books that students can relate to in some way.  Now, don’t get me wrong, that is not always the case, take Dr. Seuss for example.  His books are all over the place and are in to way relatable to me in most cases, but he is a great children’s book author.  Therefore, while I am about to list the things I think make a great children’s book, know that there are exceptions. Some of the many qualities of a good children’s book include:

• Tells a story or many stories that keep readers wanting to know what happens next.

• Relatable to the readers in some way.

• Either teach new content information, or teach a new moral or character trait that can be activated in readers’ lives.

• Loved so much by children that they can’t put it down, and might even reread multiple times.

• Creates a mental picture in your head as you read.

• Has strong characters