Week 2: Discovering the Text Set

This week my Advanced Children’s Literature class was assigned three books and two articles to read, without knowing anything about them. Our readings this week included:

• Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

• My Two Blankets by Irene Kobald and Freya Blackwood

• Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers; Art by Shawn Harris

• “Multicultural Literature: Story and Social Action” by Rudine Sims Bishop, Professor Emerita, and The Ohio State University

• “Nobody Spoke Like I Did”: Picture Books, Critical Literacy, and Global Contexts” by Jon Callow

First, I want to tell you about the FANTASTIC books we read this week. I typically have a hard time getting into informational texts, so I was not expecting to highly enjoy (for my benefit), Her Right Foot (Eggers, 2017). To my surprise, I found myself smiling, laughing, and learning so much that I had never been taught. I found myself picturing the Statue of Liberty speaking to New York as I read the part about Edison wanting to include a record player inside the statue. However, without giving it away, I was to express that the thoughts Eggers (2017) has at the end of the book at mind blowing! Most Americans have not thought of this concept, and it is a fantastic argument for the support if immigration.

My Two Blankets (2014) is so powerful. The young girl has a comfort (signified by a blanket) in her native language, but not in English (the language of her new home). Over time, she finds a peer to accept her and befriend and her perspective changes. While the little girl feels the need to conform to her new country, she does so with the help of a friend, and because she wanted to feel comfortable there. Beautiful story. When I view this book with a critical lense, I am able to get a whole new perspective. The story starts showing the happy, energetic personality of the main character, nicknamed “Cartwheel.” The little girl is shown close to the camera, with her low income community of huts behind her. However, her clothing is bright and happy. The words, however, foreshadow the sadness that is coming. In each picture of them traveling their new home, the colors are grey and light, except for Cartwheel and her Auntie’s clothing (still bright and orange). This is a way of pulling the attention of the reader to them, to how isolated and sad they appear. Cartwheel finds comfort and hope in her blanket of words/language, and that is shown through the matching bright colors. While reading the book, I did not notice until the end that the greys and blues are almost a symbol of the new life in what I believe is America. The realization of that happened when I realized that the new comfort blanket she created as she learned the new language, matched the blue and grey colors. On one page, it shows Cartwheel surrounded by her large orange, native language blanket, with the small new language blanket beginning to grow in the center. This contrast tells me that she is not giving up her native language and the comfort she finds there, she is just expanding that comfort to her new life and language in America.

Wishtree (2017) gave me the warm fuzzies! I was extremely curious about how this book would fit into the text set with My Two Blankets and Her Right Foot when I first began reading. I quickly found my answer when I read about the young girl, Samar, and her family. The cruelty that is shown to her, because she is Muslim, is expressed in the book in a relatively juvenile way that young students can understand, and gives them a feeling of empathy that might help them want to change their treatment of others. The book takes an interesting perspective, being written in the perspective on an old oak tree, but I grew to love it! Throughout the book, I found myself laughing at the tree’s cheesy jokes, falling in love with the characters, and feeling sorrow and pain at the way Samar and her family were treated. From the beginning, I imagined the tree being a sweet, old man who loved to sit and listen to the wishes and dreams of others, and it warmed my heart. As the story progressed, I struggled with my emotions as I looked at the powerful image of the carving in the tree (see picture)

and thought about the impact those types of actions leave on children. In my classroom, I embrace diversity. I celebrate the differences of the students as much as they are comfortable with, and I hope to have my future students teach about their culture and differences in a way that grows every students’ global awareness.

I would use these books, as well as others like them to teach global awareness and immigration acceptance. This exact text set would be perfect for a third or fourth grade classroom. Beginning with a read-aloud of My Two Blankets with discussion, and moving into reading Her Right Foot page by page with a critical lense. I would love to have my students all choose a different spread in the book and critically analyze it, with a small presentation to the class on each page. This would help students see all the small details the author and illustrator use to make their point powerful throughout the book. My example is below:

Analysis: Wow! This page is powerful. First, I look at the picture and my first thought is, prison! The many different skin colors and the physical labor also stands out to me. It appears that these people are imprisoned in a primitive camp in which they need to retrieve their own water, heat their own water and bathe outside, and live in tents. This image is obviously intended to give the reader a negative view of the way we treat our immigrants. It is almost as if we want them to either be trapped in their own countries, or to feel trapped and alienated when they arrive in America, also. The words add to this idea by saying that in order to get anywhere, you have to stand up and move to defend yourself. The author of this book is doing that, he is standing up to boldly defend immigrants through a very valid point.

To continue the unit, we would read Wishtree (with each student having their own copy if possible) in guided reading groups, independently, as well as out loud together as a class. This would help students gain reading skills in different ways, while also having the chance to dive into the book. After reading the book, we would pull all of the ideas from the books together in an activity similar to that from “The Reading Strategies Book,” lesson 12.13 (sample below)

This activity starts by finding the common factors of the books: a common theme, common topics covers, and common character features. Then, you find ways that they might be different. While I would go much more in depth with large chart paper, and use a three way venn diagram, this shows an example of the way I might color code and organize the connection of the text set.

Through these books, we see a few of the different ways multicultural books are written and used. Bishop and Emerita (2008) discuss scholars that do not always agree which books should be considered multicultural, but mention that they all agree they should focus on the experiences that minority groups, or as they call them, “parallel cultures” have in the United States. In the majority of the multicultural books that are used in U.S. classrooms, the setting the U.S. This is probably due to the ease of connection that comes from teaching American immigrants through books about characters who, also, immigrated to America. The authors of “Multicultural Literature…” also give an example of a first grade classroom in which the students are asked questions about the books they read throughout an entire year. Amazingly, the students remembered the multicultural aspects of the books they read, and remember the classroom mantra, “It’s OK to be different.” I only hope my future students are impacted that much by the books we read. Unfortunately, as Callow (2017) quotes, “we live in a culture where depictions of refugees and immigrants can sometimes be very politically charged, ignoring their humanity and perpetuating negative stereotypes (Berry, Garcia-Blanco, & Moore, 2015).” In children’s books like the ones in this text set, we are able to read about positive outcomes to treating immigrants with respect and helping them feel welcome. However, as teachers and adults, we are aware of all of the negative ways that immigrants can be treated when it is handled by politics rather than compassion and humanity.

Until next time, read lots multicultural texts! You can find the link to “We Need Diverse Books” on my resources tab. This link is highly beneficial in finding diverse books. Please, if you find one that you can’t put down and you cannot wait to share with your classroom, comment and let everyone else share in your discovery.

Resources:

Applegate, Katherine. (2017). Wishtree. New York, NY: Feiwel and Friends.

Bishop, Rudine S., Emerita. (2008). Multicultural Literature: Story and Social Action. National Council of Teachers of English. Vol. 13 No. 4.

Callow, Jon. (2017). “Nobody Spoke Like I Did”: Picture Books, Critical Literacy, and Global Contexts. The Reading Teacher, Vol. 71 No. 2, pp. 231-237

Eggers, Dave. (2017). Her Right Foot. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, LLC.

Kobald, Irene, Blackwood, Freya. (2014). My Two Blankets. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt