Mentor Text Introduction and Video Series 2-5

Thank you

Dear Reader,

Thank you for joining me on this reading review adventure. Our fun has ended as all of our different genre specifications have been addressed. 

This blog will be currently on hold, but may be updated in the future with children's literature as time progresses; however; there may not be updates for a while as my other studies will take precedence.

Please enjoy your New Year- and read with you soon.

Thank you.

Courtney

Cover Unavailable 

(2015). Dance and Sing in English [Online video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRP_viB3Xjk

Dance and sing in English is a bilingual Japanese/English children’s book. This book is primarily for Japanese reading children who need an outlet to learn to read English. The book is unique in that it goes through some basic English, however, it includes music words. The book talks about numbers, the English alphabet, and some random songs like thread is spinning- and rock, scissors, paper- what shall we make?.

This book just does not cut it for quality children's literature. The book is cute and has a lot of fun songs in it, but the purpose of it to learn English isn't very applicable to everyday English words. For example, children learning English probably won’t need to learn needle and thread and gravel as primary English words. Also, if the book's purpose is to learn a principle, there isn't any principles in the songs or stories. The book is more about a mix of two cultures. The book has very white illustrations in the book and does include any other racial identities.

Don’t get me wrong, this book is adorable, however, for the purpose of learning English or learning principles, it’s very difficult to access the quality from that point of view. It just really isn't there. Singing about soap bubbles and such. Also, stereotypes of English speakers are clearly listed as white cutie pies. What’s interesting about the book is that I found it through an online YouTube review of the book. The Japanese girl giving the book review seemed to like it, however, in the classroom it really isn’t an applicable source to use. I would say, this book may have more use as an English speaker trying to learn Japanese with the Japanese hiragana subtitles. 

Literary Elements:

Tone: Happy, Cheerful

Characters: Imaginary, Dreamy

Setting: Rainbows, grassy fields, and musical pleasures

Lexile: n/a

Ivan and His Little Horse

Cover unavailable because of online resource only 

(Will not allow to Copy from Source)

Ivan and His Little Horse. (2007). (J. Urangoo, Trans.). N.p.: Soyombo Printing Co. Retrieved from http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/BookPreview?bookid=uraivan_00900175&route=simple_0_0_0_English_11&lang=English&msg=&ilang=English

Ivan and His Little Horse is a Mongolian/English bilingual text about a story of a boy named Ivan and a horse that comes and eats out of his produce. The horse then apologizes for eating his produce and allows the boy to keep him as his master. One day, a king asked Ivan to be his horseman because his horses wouldn't behave. Ivan takes the job, but he continually gets tricked by another evil horseman. The horseman keeps telling the king things about Ivan, and Ivan is forced to continually get things for the King (in risk of his life). The last thing the king asks for is the Moon Princess, so Ivan travels seven seas to get her- the moon princess tells the King he must swim in boiling water, milk, and cold water and then she'll marry him. He tells Ivan to do it first- and Ivan turns into a pretty prince. The King then does it, and dies- so Ivan marries the Moon Princess instead.

Wow. So, this book was definitely a confusing shocker. I didn't realize that this book was a fairy tale until about half way through the story. The characters used in the book are all white, with mostly brown or white hair- except for the moon princess who of course has that stereotypical blonde hair. The character's in the book, however, are represented with Mongolian style clothing and art. This could definitely be used in a culture unit as part of a fairy-tale unit. You could discuss how fairy tales are different and similar in cultures, and the things that differentiate them from other cultures (for example, foods, backgrounds, clothing, people, etc;).

The book is suitable for children, but even with such, there are a few kind of harsher themes. For example, the King threatens the young boy of the death penalty if he does not bring back everything he wants. Also, the moral of the story is very unrealistic. Personally, I would not choose to read this book in the classroom except for the purpose of looking at the Mongolian style pictures- or during a fairy tale unit. I would use this for third grade and up.

Lexile: n/a

Literary Elements:
Setting- Fairytale land of Mongolia, blue skies, king's courts, hay stables
Character: Daring, exciting, tough, respectable, honest
Mood: Appealing, Questioning, Interesting, Unique

ANG ITIM NA KUTING- THE BLACK KITTEN

Vizcarra, N. (1996). Ang itim na kuting. N.p.: Adarna House, Inc.

The black kitten is a bilingual Tagalog/English book about a black kitten who is trying to find a home. No one wants the black kitten because they think he is like charcoal or bad luck. Finally, the black kitten runs into a girl that wants to accommodate the kitten. The kitten talks to the girl verbally and tells her of all the great things he can do and do for her. The girl in the story tells the kitten she has no mother or father. In the end, the kitten and the girl are friends, and the girl becomes the kitten's mother.

The black kitten is an odd yet fun read. The book teaches children that appearances don't make up the reality of who or what something or someone is. The illustrations are somewhat distorted looking but they do a good job at helping the reader understand the story. Unlike some books however, one definitely needs the words to be able to distinguish the entire story line. Without the words, the story would be somewhat confusing. Therefore, you could see that the story is not only a complex idea, but it is more abstract as the reader cannot just "see" the story, they need to also read the words.

The author doesn't include any other nationalities in the book besides Filipino, which makes sense since the book is written in Tagalog, however, the book could have been more aware of including other ethnic characters besides the main character along in the book.

Literary Elements:
Mood: Interesting, Questioning
Character: Rejected, wanderer, lonely, somewhat happy
Setting: Somewhere in the Philippines, small village setting

Lexile: n/a

Bird & Squirrel ON ICE

Burks, J. (2014). Bird & Squirrel ON ICE. New York City, NY: GRAPHIX.

Bird & Squirrel on ice is a graphic novel about a bird and a squirrel's adventure through an ice-centered journey. Along the way, they meet a great whale, their newest enemy, and they use their great wit to escape the whale.

The illustrations in this book doesn't contain any blunt stereotypes- it does not contain people related characters, but rather uses animals. The animals are not realistic to real life, except the whale. There are different genders in the book. The female is a strong female character in the book, and not scared of the situation.

The book does contain some voudou type spirit worship of fire. Obviously, if you don't agree with this type of thing, it would not be suitable for your children. The rest of the book follows a storyline- the storyline is not very strong- however the characters do use a bit of problem-solving to solve their problems. Overall, I would say that the book is a 4 out of 10 stars.

Literary Elements:
Setting: Ice climate, caves, some open water
Characters: Curious, slightly dumb, scaredy-cats, curious, adventurous
Tone: Excited, Fun, Happy, Thrill-seeking

Lexile Level: GN290L

Go, Shapes Go!

Fleming, D. (2014). Go Shapes Go. N.p.: Beach Lane Books.

Go Shapes Go is a book about shapes sliding, and bouncing, and jumping all around! The book builds a picture of a monkey with all the shapes at the end.

This book is an amazing shape book! It's a lot of fun too! You could use this as an interactive class in a classroom. For example, one of the pages says, "Slide, SQUARE, and start the show!" and then you can have all the student's slide across the room like the square. This is such an incredible text. The shapes are all listed on both sides of the pages (including the shapes that aren't the center of attention).

The way that the illustrations are made looks like they are out of real materials. So, the circle kind of looks like a corkboard, the rectangular legs of the monkey look like they are made out of paper, the circle of the bottom of the monkey's face looks like a type of marble. It's a real awesome thing when they are connecting the shapes with real-life materials because it allows the reader to see that shapes are useful as everyday objects.

The book is obviously free of stereotypes and provides a great learning space for everyone!

Literary Elements:
Tone: Excited, Wonder
Mood: Curious
Setting: Spaces of different colors and shapes

Lexile: not listed [new book]