Grandfather’s Journey

June 15th, 2019

Grandfather’s Journey

Written and Illustrated by:

Allen Say

Category:

Picture Book, Narrative Nonfiction

Awards:

Caldecott Medal Honor (1994)

Story Summary

This award winning story, written and illustrated by Allen Say, tells the story of his grandfather’s journey and experience as a Japanese immigrant traveling to America. This heartwarming story is accompanied by beautiful watercolor illustrations, telling the tale of travel, the immigrants experience, and family. Say clearly portrays a strong sense of respect for his grandfather throughout and feelings of pride are conveyed in learning that he is much like his grandfather, in their shared love for both California and their native homeland. This story does shift in point of view as it is told in both first and third person; however, it is done seamlessly, avoiding all potential confusion that could potentially arise with such a shift. When Say is sharing the story of his grandfather’s travels, he writes in third person, but shifts to 1st person when sharing his own personal tales of travel.

In short, the story begins with Say’s grandfather traveling to America. He explores and travels until finding California. Missing his native homeland he returns to Japan where he marries his childhood sweetheart and then plans to return to California with his new wife. Together they settle in San Francisco and have a daughter. Over the years he begins to long again for his homeland and eventually returns when his daughter is nearly grown. While back in Japan his daughter marries and has a son, Allen Say. Allen reminisces of his memories made at his grandfather’s home and the stories of grandfather’s travels. After Say’s grandfather passes he fulfills his grandfather’s dreams of returning to California once more. Say finds that he loves California and Japan just as much as his late grandfather had and continues his legacy of travel with many journey’s of his home between the two countries.

Author & Illustrator Overview

Allen Say

This Japanese-American writer and illustrator has a collection of more than 20 works tied to his name. Much of Say’s written work is based on his life experiences and has been quoted saying that, “every picture I paint comes from something I have seen or imagined; the same is true with writing. So everything I paint or write is essentially autobiographic” NCCIL, 2019).

Say discovered his artistic talent at a young age and even began an apprenticeship with a beloved cartoonist at the age of 12. Say has been known to paint the pictures before he even knows what the book will be about; therefore, I think that it is safe to say the he is an illustrator/artist first!

Visual Elements

Say’s incredible artistic talent vividly and beautifully supports his text in numerous ways. It is no surprise that he won an award for his work in this book as his use of realism and attention to detail depicted in his watercolor illustrations clearly establish and create the frequently changing setting, it conveys the emotions of the characters, and perfectly aligns to what the text has stated.

Supporting Active Learning and the Construction of Knowledge

I think this book provides wonderful opportunities to celebrate culture in the classroom! There are so many ways that students can engage in the learning process with the use of this resource, especially in a school like mine where 90% of the students are CLD learners. It can be a great way to get parents involved with a family tree project, or a parent/grandparent guest speaker. Family and community play such a critical role in the construction of knowledge and this story can be a great way to learn more about your student’s family and schema and build background knowledge for engaging learning about cultural experiences!

The Farmer and the Clown

June 15th, 2019

The Farmer and the Clown

Written and Illustrated by:

Marla Frazee

Category:

Wordless Picture Book, Fiction

Awards:

Boston Globe- Horn Book Honor & Golden Kite Award

Story Summary

This picture book is seemingly simple upon first glance, but is actually quite complex. The level of depth and emotion conveyed through the expressive illustrations are incredible as this story tells the tale of friendship, kindness, love, and loss all without words. It begins with a solitary farmer tending to his field when a circus train passes by and a baby clown is thrown from the train. The farmer ends up welcoming the unexpected visitor into his home where he feeds and cares for the baby clown. Recognizing the fear and sadness the clown is feeling he attempts to cheer him up and share his life on the farm with him. After a busy day of work together, the train returns and the clown is reunited with his family. The feelings of love and loss conveyed at the end of the story are almost palatable, further sharing the message that a chance meeting can change your life forever!

Author & Illustrator Overview

Marla Frazee

This California native and mother of three, Marla Frazee has been illustrating award winning books since she was in the 3rd grade! Her first book, The Friendship Circle, won an award at a state fair competition and since then she has won numerous prestigious awards including 2 Caldecott Medal Honors, the Boston Globe- Horn Book Award, and the Golden Kite Award. She has illustrated over 20 Children books, 8 of which she authored & illustrated herself. When asked what her books are about, she responded with, ” babies, birthday cake, boxer shorts, boys, roller coasters, Santa Claus. I tackle serious topics on a regular basis” (Frazee, 2019).

In regards to her creative process and role as an illustrator, Frazee states that, “our most important “tools and techniques” aren’t purchased at the art store. They arise out of the study and understanding of picture book form, and they allow us to tell our stories… with pictures” (2019).

Visual Elements

Considering that this is a wordless picture book, visual elements become paramount to telling this sweet tale of such an unlikely friendship. Frazee’s illustrations are so expressive. Her character’s body language and facial expressions are able to convey so much emotion and depth. Her use of line, color, and composition support in the establishment of the setting and function to sequence the story and keep in moving forward.

  • Here you can see an example of how she conveys such depth and emotion through facial expressions, body language, and composition.
  • This illustration is an example of how she depicts action/movement through her use of line and shadow. Additionally, she uses the character’s body language to convey the emotion of what has just happened in the story.
  • In the page on the left you can see how she uses composition of her illustrations to establish setting and keep the sequence of the story moving forward.
  • These pages show examples of how she uses lines to depict action, body language to express the emotion of the character, composition and color to establish the development of her characters.

Supporting Active Learning and the Construction of Knowledge

This book is an excellent resource for supporting active learning in the classroom as it is wordless and lends well to getting your students engaged in the process of interpreting the illustrations. One way that it could be used as a collaborative learning project would be to have your students work together in teams to write text to support the illustrations and then have each team/group share out their version of the story as they interpret it. This story also presents multiple themes and therefore students can play an active role in determining the many themes represented in the story.

Seven Blind Mice

June 15th, 2019

Seven Blind Mice

Written and Illustrated by:

Ed Young

Category:

Picture Book, Fable

Awards:

Boston Globe- Horn Book Honor (1992) & Caldecott Medal Award (1992)

Story Summary

In this colorful and beautifully illustrated version of the classic Indian tale commonly referred to as “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” Ed Young swaps men for mice to tell this powerful fable. This tale conveys the message that individual parts can be perceived as one thing, but truth is uncovered when the parts are seen as a whole. This tale begins with seven blind mice becoming aware of something strange in the distance. Each day of the week a different colored mouse goes off to investigate and comes back with a different theory as to what the object is based on the part that they encountered (i.e. a snake, a rope, a cliff, a fan, etc.). Until the white mouse, which just so happens to be the only female mouse in the group, goes to investigate and explores the entire object. She returns to confirm that they had all been wrong, as looking at the whole reveals a completely different perspective.

Author & Illustrator Overview

Ed Young

Young is Chinese-American author and illustrator that draws inspiration from Chinese painting. “A Chinese painting is often accompanied by words. They are complimentary. There are things that words can do that pictures never can and likewise, there are images that words can never describe.” (Young, 2006). He has illustrated more than eighty children’s books. Seventeen of these books he authored himself. Young’s award winning work is often folklore derived from Chinese, Native American, Indian, Persian, and other cultures. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the very prestigious Caldecott Medal Honor for 3 of his books and 4 Boston Globe- Horn Book Awards. Young began his career in commercial advertising, but needed more. He wanted to be inspired and to inspire others.

Visual Elements

Young’s award winning and acclaimed illustrations feature bright vivid colors and white text on a blacked out background with elements of watercolor and collage.

Young’s illustrations work to reinforce what the text has stated and uses color to connect each mouse to their perception of what they believed the object to be based on the part that they explored.

Connections to the Construction of Knowledge

The social construction of knowledge or social constructivism is rooted in collaboration.  It is not only the process of collaborative learning, but also how meaning is co-constructed through both the individual and society.  The role of culture, community, and personal experiences play a huge role in our ability to interpret and construct meaning and truth or reality. With The Seven Blind Mice, they were basing their conclusions on their limited perception of just a small piece of the larger whole.  It is very easy to see how they each came to their conclusion based on what part of the whole they were examining, but it wasn’t until one mouse examined each part together that they were really able to determine what the object really was. 

This could be a great exercise to do with kiddos in the classroom and could be done using so many different images! 

Type of Picture Book

I would definitely classify this picture book as a concept book. Yes it does have a counting sequence throughout the book correlating to the number of days in a week; however, this story focus on an important concept for children to learn. It helps readers think about life’s bigger concepts. Specifically, the message that perception is different when considering the whole rather than the individual parts that make up the whole.