NEW SEMESTER

As the title states it is a new semester and I am now studying poetry. In my final semester at school I hope to include enticing reviews and captivating poetry breaks on my blog. Happy reading!

KING & KING

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
De Haan, Linda and Stern Nijland. 2002. KING & KING. Ill. by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland. Berkeley, CA: Tricycle Press. ISBN 1582460612

B. PLOT SUMMARY
The queen has decided it is time for the prince to marry. Many princesses are presented for the prince to choose but none of them interest him. Then the search for a bride takes an unexpected turn.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The authors use a familiar fairy tale to introduce young people to the idea that love exists in many forms. Without forceful text de Haan and Nijland are able to convey their story of a same-sex couple in a matter of fact way. The text is short, simple, and direct. Different size fonts are used to emphasize parts of the text. As with traditional fairy tales this story has a happy ending.

The full color illustrations in this book are vivid colorful collages done with textured paper, fabric, and paint. Careful examination of the illustrations will show that people come in many different shapes and sizes; an extension of the text. However, while the art does present a plethora of color, shape, and texture it is busy and distracting. The illustrations contain too much activity for a young audience to grasp. Focusing on the illustrations distracts from the text. There is an exception to the illustrations in this book. The last page shows the king and king on a blank white page kissing with a heart covering their lips. Does this not “illustrate” the text without any distractions?

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Booklist (July 2002 (Vol. 98, No. 21))
PreS-Gr. 2. Here's a winning Dutch import for parents looking for a original tale with a gay slant. The queen, tired of ruling, decides it's time for her son to marry and assume the throne. The prince reluctantly agrees, "I must say, though, I've never cared much for princesses."The queen arranges for a parade of princesses to meet her son, but the prince doesn't feel any sparks until the final candidate shows up with her brother. The two princes fall in love, marry, and rule the kingdom together. The text is brief and lighthearted, and it presents the gay relationship with matter-of-fact ease. But it's the illustrations that really shine. Whimsical, textured collages mix beautiful papers, fabrics, and bright paint in scenes that show the bossy queen, the wildly imagined town, the eclectic princesses, the wedding, and finally, a kiss between the two starry-eyed princes. Adults will know what's coming early in the story, but many kids won't. They'll simply like the fun artwork and the final twist on conventions. For another picture book with a gay theme, see Michael Cart's Focus on Harvey Fierstein's The Sissy Duckling [BKL Je 1 & 15 02].

Horn Book starred (Fall, 2002)
In this mischievous twist on a familiar motif, a bachelor prince finds something lacking with each princess his mother draws to his attention until the last candidate brings along her cute brother. Silly but affectionate collage illustrations match the text for whimsical irreverence. Missing the political point, the young audience will probably come to the conclusion that this prince likes boys better than girls, which, of course, he does.

Publishers Weekly (February 25, 2002)
When a grouchy queen tells her layabout son that it's time for him to marry, he sighs, "Very well, Mother.... I must say, though, I've never cared much for princesses." His young page winks. Several unsatisfactory bachelorettes visit the castle before "Princess Madeleine and her brother, Prince Lee" appear in the doorway. The hero is smitten at once. "What a wonderful prince!" he and Prince Lee both exclaim, as a shower of tiny Valentine hearts flutters between them. First-time co-authors and artists de Hann and Nijland matter-of-factly conclude with the royal wedding of "King and King," the page boy's blushing romance with the leftover princess and the assurance that "everyone lives happily ever after." Unfortunately, the multimedia collages are cluttered with clashing colors, amorphous paper shapes, scribbles of ink and bleary brushstrokes; the characters' features are indistinct and sometimes ugly. Despite its gleeful disruption of the boy-meets-girl formula, this alterna-tale is not the fairest of them all. For a visually appealing and more nuanced treatment of diversity in general, Kitty Crowther's recent Jack and Jim is a better choice. Ages 6-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

E. CONNECTIONS
Young readers or listeners could draw a picture of their favorite part of the book.

Another book by de Haan and Nijland:
KING & KING & FAMILY. ISBN 1582461139

HABIBI

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nye, Naomi Shihab. 1997. HABIBI. New York: Simon Pulse. ISBN 068980149

B. PLOT SUMMARY
Liyana and her family, brother Rafik and parents, move from St. Louis, Missouri to Jerusalem right before she starts high school. Along with dealing with all the usual difficulties of teen years Liyana and her family must deal with the strain between Jews and Palestinians.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Naomi Shihab Nye tells Liyana’s story with a backdrop of the unrest in Palestine. Liyana and her father, Poppy are the main characters. Her mother and brother Rafik provide different view points occasionally but are not strong characters. Liyana’s story is one of growth, acceptance, and hope. Through Liyana’s acceptance and gradual embrace of this move to Poppy’s home, her strength, intelligence, and determination become apparent. Liyana thinks and acts. She actively works for a better life.

Although the book has a meandering pace, constant potential for violence provides tension. Another tension Nye provides in this story is Poppy’s actions. He wanted to move home but has trouble with how Liyana should act. He wants her to act “appropriate”. What is appropriate in St. Louis is not always appropriate in Jerusalem. He doesn’t want her to wear short shorts but gets angry when he is asked for her hand in marriage. Short chapters are used to highlight daily life for Liyana, both the differences and similarities to her old life.

Cultural markers abound in this book. Language, culture identification, character names, foods, celebrations, religious practices, and clothing are all used to show life in Jerusalem. Liyana is learning Arabic, but that is not the only language she is exposed to on a daily basis. When Liyana meets Sitti, her grandmother, Sitti trills. Poppy explains it is her traditional cry. Poppy’s family is large and they get together often. Liyana and her brother are Arab American, her father and his family are Arab, and Omer is Jewish. The women wear long dresses in bold colors and stitched with fancy embroidery. They all wear gold bangle bracelets. The older women cover their heads with a long white scarf and they wear plastic shoes. Some of the foods mentioned in the book are olives, grape leaves, rice, grilled onions, hummus, flat breads, lebne, and baba ghanouj. Food is present at all the family gatherings. Another cultural marker in this story is the hope that they all have for peace.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Kirkus Reviews, 09/15/1997
Liyana Abboud, 14, and her family make a tremendous adjustment when they move to Jerusalem from St. Louis. All she and her younger brother, Rafik, know of their Palestinian father's culture come from his reminiscences of growing up and the fighting they see on television. In Jerusalem, she is the only ""outsider"" at an Armenian school; her easygoing father, Poppy, finds himself having to remind her--often against his own common sense--of rules for ""appropriate"" behavior; and snug shops replace supermarket shopping--the malls of her upbringing are unheard of. Worst of all, Poppy is jailed for getting in the middle of a dispute between Israeli soldiers and a teenage refugee. In her first novel, Nye (with Paul Janeczko, I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You, 1996, etc.) shows all of the charms and flaws of the old city through unique, short-story-like chapters and poetic language. The sights, sounds, and smells of Jerusalem drift through the pages and readers glean a sense of current Palestinian-Israeli relations and the region's troubled history. In the process, some of the passages become quite ponderous while the human story--Liyana's emotional adjustments in the later chapters and her American mother's reactions overall--fall away from the plot. However, Liyana's romance with an Israeli boy develops warmly, and readers are left with hope for change and peace as Liyana makes the city her very own. Copyright 2003, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Publishers Weekly, 09/08/1997
This soul-stirring novel about the Abbouds, an Arab American family, puts faces and names to the victims of violence and persecution in Jerusalem today. Believing the unstable situation in that conflict-ridden city has improved, 14-year-old Liyana's family moves from St. Louis, Mo., to her father's homeland. However, from the moment the Abbouds are stopped by Jewish customs agents at the airport, they face racial prejudice and discord. Initially, Nye (Never in a Hurry) focuses on the Abbouds' handling of conflicting cultural norms between American and Arab values as they settle into their new home (e.g., Liyana's father, Poppy, while forbidding her to wear "short" shorts, reacts in anger toward a relative who asks for Liyana's hand in marriage). Then Liyana tests her family's alleged unprejudiced beliefs when she befriends Omer, a Jewish boy. She wants to introduce him to her father (who taught her, "Does it make sense that any God would choose some people and leave the others out?... God's bigger than that!"), but finds she must first remind him of his own words. Nye expertly combines the Abbouds' gradual acceptance of Omer with a number of heart-wrenching episodes of persecution (by the different warring factions) against her friends and family to convey the extent to which the Arab-Israeli conflict infiltrates every aspect of their lives. Nye's climactic ending will leave readers pondering, long after the last page is turned, why Arabs, Jews, Greeks and Armenians can no longer live in harmony the way they once did. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)
School Library Journal, 09/01/1997
Gr 5-9?An important first novel from a distinguished anthologist and poet. When Liyana's doctor father, a native Palestinian, decides to move his contemporary Arab-American family back to Jerusalem from St. Louis, 14-year-old Liyana is unenthusiastic. Arriving in Jerusalem, the girl and her family are gathered in by their colorful, warmhearted Palestinian relatives and immersed in a culture where only tourists wear shorts and there is a prohibition against boy/girl relationships. When Liyana falls in love with Omer, a Jewish boy, she challenges family, culture, and tradition, but her homesickness fades. Constantly lurking in the background of the novel is violence between Palestinian and Jew. It builds from minor bureaucratic annoyances and humiliations, to the surprisingly shocking destruction of grandmother's bathroom by Israeli soldiers, to a bomb set off in a Jewish marketplace by Palestinians. It exacts a reprisal in which Liyana's friend is shot and her father jailed. Nye introduces readers to unforgettable characters. The setting is both sensory and tangible: from the grandmother's village to a Bedouin camp. Above all, there is Jerusalem itself, where ancient tensions seep out of cracks and Liyana explores the streets practicing her Arabic vocabulary. Though the story begins at a leisurely pace, readers will be engaged by the characters, the romance, and the foreshadowed danger. Poetically imaged and leavened with humor, the story renders layered and complex history understandable through character and incident. Habibi succeeds in making the hope for peace compellingly personal and concrete...as long as individual citizens like Liyana's grandmother Sitti can say, "I never lost my peace inside."?Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT

E. CONNECTIONS
Students should randomly draw countries from a selection and have to write about moving to a that country. What difficulties could occur? Would they think it an adventure and embrace it or be frightened?

Other books by Naomi Shihab Nye:
COME WITH ME: POEMS FOR A JOURNEY. ISBN 068815946X
19 VARIETIES OF GAZELLE: POEMS OF THE MIDDLE EAST. ISBN 0060097655
SITTI’S SECRETS. ISBN 0689817061
THE FLAG OF CHILDHOOD: POEMS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST. ISBN 0689851723

THINGS NOT SEEN

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Clements, Andrew. 2002. THINGS NOT SEEN. New York: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 0439456207

B. PLOT SUMMARY
Fifteen year old Bobby wakes up invisible one morning. Bobby’s dad, a physicist, sees a problem to solve and his mother hovers and smothers. Tension increases when Bobby’s parents are in an automobile accident and the school notifies the authorities about Bobby’s excessive absences. Bobby’s determination to have some control of his problem adds more tension. As Bobby and his parents try to solve this problem Bobby meets and becomes friends with a blind girl. The friendship helps Bobby cope with his disability, brainstorm and implement solutions to his problem, and improve communication with his parents.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Andrew Clements creates a book about physical disabilities with subtle clues to a social disability. Waking his main character, Bobby, up to sudden invisibility on the first page is an attention grabber. Clements begins exhibiting the strong character Bobby is when he realizes that he needs to tell his parents immediately about his invisibility. Bobby recognizes they are smart and smart will be helpful in this situation. The character is invisible but he is still a smart fifteen year old boy that resents his parents control at times, and feels he is socially invisible also. Clements uses these traits throughout the book to show Bobby growing, maturing, and dealing with his problem because it is his problem and he feels he should have some control.
All the characters in this book are interesting due to a common trait. They are all intelligent. This shows a different reality and allows readers to become involved with a fantasy disability. Both Bobby and Alicia, the blind girlfriend, have fathers that are scientists. Both mothers went to the same college and majored in literature. The ensuing “scientific” problem solving and solution are fiction but provide action and interesting reading.
The premise of this book is farfetched but Clements is able to make it work by keeping it action packed, tense, the growing friendship of Bobby and Alicia, and the fear factor.
Bobby’s invisibility is fantasy but it does create obstacles he must learn to overcome. During daylight and cold weather Bobby is able to completely cover himself to mingle among people. On warm days he simply goes without clothes. Elevators need to be avoided; although he is invisible he still takes up space. Some of these provide humor, such as when he goes to visit Alicia at home and her mother gives him a robe to wear, typical mother reaction and humorous. Alicia’s blindness is a real disability and is substantiated without being overdone. She uses a white cane, has a speaking device for her computer, and listens to audio books. The scene when the two of them go to the Sears building and the young man offers Alicia his arm is another disability marker. Alicia’s emotions are another realistic trait. The gravity of her blindness is obvious in many places but when Bobby tells her he is no longer invisible it slaps her in the face again.
Another problem Clements hints at is social invisibility. Sheila, also invisible, states that she has been disappearing for years. Many teens struggle with the feeling of invisibility. Very subtle clues throughout the book hint to Bobby’s awareness of this and how his physical disability sheds some insight to this problem.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Book Report (September/October 2002)
Fifteen-year-old Bobby has an unusual problem: his body has become invisible. His father (a physicist) and mother agree that no one outside the family can know about his situation. His father is sure that there is a scientific explanation for Bobby's condition but a search of databases produces no results. When he literally bumps into a blind girl whose father is an astronomer, the two scientists team up to search for a rational explanation, which becomes more urgent when Bobby's school alerts the State Department of Children and Family Services because nobody has seen Bobby for a month. This is a clever fantasy. Bobby is a smart boy who handles his unusual situation with humor and intelligence. The plot develops so logically that readers can accept that under the right set of circumstances, it might be possible to become invisible. A fascinating story about self-discovery. Highly Recommended. Charlotte Decker, Librarian, Children's Learning Center, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio

Horn Book (March/April, 2002)
For a slightly older audience than Frindle fans, Clements concocts a surprisingly fresh story from a familiar premise: what if you woke up one day to discover that you were invisible? This is exactly what happens to Bobby one February morning in Chicago's Hyde Park. His mom wants to call a doctor ("Yeah," thinks Bobby, "let's call one of those Invisible Teenager Specialists"); his dad, a physicist, is intrigued by the phenomenon; unfortunately (for them but not for the reader), both are soon injured in a car accident, leaving Bobby to handle his problem on his own. While the setup never becomes convincing, and the "scientific" solution to Bobby's invisibility is preposterous, Clements does a great job of placing readers in Bobby's dilemma. He makes us see just how complicated invisibility could be-like when you meet a girl and she doesn't know you're naked, first, because you're invisible, and second, because she's blind. If the blind character, Alicia, allows the book some easy virtue, it's well intentioned and easily digestible, and her friendship with Bobby is empathetically evoked-could it be love? The University of Chicago setting is equally authentically drawn; Bobby is a student at the Lab School, and what we have here is a well-done school-and-family story with a not-so-invisible wrinkle.

Kirkus Review starred (February 1, 2002)
Clements (The Jacket, above, etc.) looks beyond grade school for the first time with a multifaceted rumination on selfhood and various forms of invisibility. Fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up invisible one morning. His equally flummoxed parents, quickly grasping the personal and social dangers should the news get out, urge him to hole up at home. But boredom, worry, and the mutinous thought that he should have some say in the matter soon lead him into a string of adventurous outings, both wrapped up Invisible Man-style, and stark naked. Clements cranks up the stress with an ensuing traffic accident that puts both parents into the hospital, and, as weeks pass, the increasingly persistent attentions of the governmental child-welfare machine. He also provides a needed confidante for Bobby in Alicia, a teenager blinded by a head injury two years before and no stranger herself to that sense of being unseen. Both feeling angry, scared, and vulnerable, their relationship gets off to a wonderfully tumultuous start, but builds on a foundation of caring and loyalty into something solid enough to survive Bobby's final return to visibility. As always, Clements's genius for developing credible plot lines (even from oddball premises) makes suspension of disbelief no problem. His characters, each one fundamentally decent-there is never a chance that Bobby will go the way of the transparent voyeur in Cormier's Fade (1988), for instance-are easy to like. A readable, thought-provoking tour de force, alive with stimulating ideas, hard choices, and young people discovering bright possibilities ahead. (Fiction. 11-15)

E. CONNECTIONS
Students should decide if being invisible is positive or negative occurrence, and then write a persuasive paragraph supporting their position. After completing this activity students should decide if they could handle the changes that would happen in their lives.

Other books about disabilities:
Bingham, Kelly L. SHARK GIRL. ISBN 0763632074
Ferris, Jean. OF SOUND MIND. ISBN 0374455848
Paulsen, Gary. THE MONUMENT. ISBN 0440407826
Rattman S. L. HEAD ABOVE WATER. ISBN 1561452386

LON PO PO: A RED-RIDING HOOD STORY FROM CHINA

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Young, Ed. 1989. LON PO PO: A RED-RIDING HOOD STORY FROM CHINA. Ill. by Ed Young. New York: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0698113829

B. PLOT SUMMARY
This is a Chinese version of the fairy-tale, Little Red Riding Hood. Three sisters are left along and the wolf comes calling disguised as Po Po. The story shows how the sisters regain control after the wolf gets into the house.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Ed Young retells the Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood using dark, hazy illustrations to enhance the mood throughout the story. In this version, three sisters, Shang, Tao, and Paotze are left alone for the night while their mother visits their grandmother. That action allows the story to occur. The old wolf saw an opportunity and took it. The youngest two sisters are fooled by the wolf and that is how he gets into the house. The bed scene resembles the other version of this story, but in this story the quick-thinking oldest sister outsmarts the wolf. Resourceful Shang gets all of them out of the reach of the wolf by tempting him with gingko nuts. Young gives the girls childlike reactions along with problem solving skills. The dialogue is direct in this story.
The illustrations, also done by Young, enhance the text by creating a mood of darkness and fear. The illustrations are a combination of water color and pastels with smoky indistinct shapes. The focus is on the eyes of both the girls and the wolf. The vagueness of the illustrations adds to the allusion of fear.
Both the text and illustrations contain cultural markers. The illustrations are divided into panels of one to two per page. The names of the characters are another cultural marker. The gingko nut that is used to tempt the wolf is a food found in Asia.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Horn Book starred (February, 1990)
Young has given his fine retelling of this Red-Riding Hood variant the look of old Chinese decorative panels. The illustrations throb with the mystery and terror of the wolf and the round-eyed fright of the children. Review, p. 79.

Kirkus Review starred (1989)
This compelling tale, translated from a "collection of Chinese folktales," may be the finest book yet from this excellent illustrator--and is certainly among the most beautiful books this year. Three little girls are left alone while their mother, after warning them to keep the door well latched, goes to visit their grandmother (Po Po) for the night. Under cover of darkness, the wily wolf disguises himself as Po Po, prevails on the younger children to let him in, and blows out the candle. But when he doesn't feel like Po Po, the eldest, Shang, contrives to see his hairy face; then she devises a clever plan to trick the wolf and save them all. Another suspenseful version of this tale appeared in Yep's The Rainbow People (p. 774/C-138). Young's graceful translation is both mellower and nobler in tone, while the story is still satisfyingly frightening as the children contend in the dark with the invader. Young's dramatic illustrations, in watercolor and pastel, appear in vertical panels--one or two per page--with some double-spread vistas extending across two or three panels, a device he uses effectively in his wonderfully harmonious designs. The story's terror is both mitigated and enhanced by the artist's suggestive, soft-edged style: there's none of Hollywood's ghoulish precision, but plenty of the mists and shadows where creatures of the imagination thrive--highlighted by the sisters' expressive eyes. A symphony of lovely color progresses from page to page, always related yet fascinating in its variety and contrasts. Even Young's eloquent dedication--"To all the wolves, of the world for lending their good name as a tangible symbol for our darkness"--is perfect. Absolutely splendid.

School Library Journal (December 1989)
Gr 1-5-- A gripping variation on Red Riding Hood that involves three little sisters who outsmart the wolf ( lon or long in Cantonese) who has gained entry to their home under the false pretense of being their maternal grandmother ( Po Po ). The clever animal blows out the candle before the children can see him , and is actually in bed with them when they start asking the traditional ``Why, Grandma!'' questions. The eldest realizes the truth and tricks the wolf into letting them go outside to pick gingko nuts , and then lures him to his doom. The text possesses that matter-of-fact veracity that characterizes the best fairy tales. The watercolor and pastel pictures are remarkable: mystically beautiful in their depiction of the Chinese countryside, menacing in the exchanges with the wolf, and positively chilling in the scenes inside the house. Overall, this is an outstanding achievement that will be pored over again and again.--John Philbrook, San Francisco Pub . Lib .

School Library Journal (November 1998)
Gr 1-5-With forceful impressionistic paintings, Young artfully entices readers across the fairy-tale threshold into a story of three girls' fearless battle of wits with a famished wolf. (Dec. 1989)

E. CONNECTIONS
Children could compare different version of Little Red Riding Hood, choosing their favorite parts from each story and telling why they like it best.

Other versions of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD:
Ernst, Lisa Campbell. LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD: A NEWFANGLED PRAIRIE TALE. ISBN 0689821913
Hyman, Trina Schart. LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD. ISBN 0823404706
Pinkney, Jerry. LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD. ISBN 0316013552

GRANDFATHER'S JOURNEY

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Say, Allen. 1993. GRANDFATHER’S JOURNEY. Ill. by Allen Say. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0395570352

B. PLOT SUMMARY
This is the story of a man’s journey through life and between two countries, Japan, and America, as told by his grandson. The story tells of his live and travels and how he yearns for the other country when he is not there.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Allen Say creates a book not about a struggle with a conflict to solve but rather a telling of experiences that happened throughout this grandfather’s life. Using both text and illustrations Say creates a vision of life’s wonder and endless opportunity as well as harsh realities. He chronicles the life of a man by including major life events. The text is simple and direct without extra details. The book pares down his life to show the really important things. The book is a photo album with captions.
The illustrations are snapshots of his grandfather’s life and travels. They portray vivid images of his life’s travels.
Cultural markers exist throughout the book. At the beginning, Japan is named as his grandfather’s home. There is comparison of the rivers and mountains of both America and Japan. Songbirds remind him of Japan. There is reference to the bombs falling on Japan and how nothing was left.
The illustrations enhance the cultural impact of this book. Different modes of dress are represented as well as various hairstyles and body types. The changes in the dress and hairstyles reflect the passing of time. The man appears in Japanese clothes at the beginning and ending of this book making a visual statement of life’s circle.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Horn Book starred (March, 1994)
Say's grandfather travels throughout North America as a young man but, unable to forget his homeland, returns to Japan with his family, where the author is born. Say now lives in California and returns to his native land from time to time. "The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other. I think I know my grandfather now." The immigrant experience has rarely been so poignantly evoked as it is in this direct, lyrical narrative, accompanied by soft-toned watercolors.

Kirkus Review starred (1993)
"The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other," observes Say near the end of this poignant account of three generations of his family's moves between Japan and the US. Say's grandfather came here as a young man, married, and lived in San Francisco until his daughter was "nearly grown" before returning to Japan; his treasured plan to visit the US once again was delayed, forever as it turned out, by WW II. Say's American-born mother married in Japan (cf. Tree of Cranes, 1991), while he, born in Yokohama, came here at 16. In lucid, graceful language, he chronicles these passages, reflecting his love of both countries--plus the expatriate's ever-present longing for home--in both simple text and exquisitely composed watercolors: scenes of his grandfather discovering his new country and returning with new appreciation to the old, and pensive portraits recalling family photos, including two evoking the war and its aftermath. Lovely, quiet--with a tenderness and warmth new to this fine illustrator's work.

Publishers Weekly (August 16, 1993)
Say transcends the achievements of his Tree of Cranes and A River Dream with this breathtaking picture book, at once a very personal tribute to his grandfather and a distillation of universally shared emotions. Elegantly honed text accompanies large, formally composed paintings to convey Say's family history; the sepia tones and delicately faded colors of the art suggest a much-cherished and carefully preserved family album. A portrait of Say's grandfather opens the book, showing him in traditional Japanese dress, ``a young man when he left his home in Japan and went to see the world.'' Crossing the Pacific on a steamship, he arrives in North America and explores the land by train, by riverboat and on foot. One especially arresting, light-washed painting presents Grandfather in shirtsleeves, vest and tie, holding his suit jacket under his arm as he gazes over a prairie: ``The endless farm fields reminded him of the ocean he had crossed.'' Grandfather discovers that ``the more he traveled, the more he longed to see new places,'' but he nevertheless returns home to marry his childhood sweetheart. He brings her to California, where their daughter is born, but her youth reminds him inexorably of his own, and when she is nearly grown, he takes the family back to Japan. The restlessness endures: the daughter cannot be at home in a Japanese village; he himself cannot forget California. Although war shatters Grandfather's hopes to revisit his second land, years later Say repeats the journey: ``I came to love the land my grandfather had loved, and I stayed on and on until I had a daughter of my own.'' The internal struggle of his grandfather also continues within Say, who writes that he, too, misses the places of his childhood and periodically returns to them. The tranquility of the art and the powerfully controlled prose underscore the profundity of Say's themes, investing the final line with an abiding, aching pathos: ``The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other.'' Ages 4-8. (Oct.)

School Library Journal (September 1998)
Gr 3 Up-A personal history of three generations of the author's family that points out the emotions that are common to the immigrant experience. Splendid, photoreal watercolors have the look of formal family portraits or candid snapshots, all set against idyllic landscapes in Japan and in the U.S. (Sept., 1993)


E. CONNECTIONS
Young readers can draw and tell of a place they miss when they are not there.

Other books by Allen Say:
Say, Allen. THE BICYCLE MAN. ISBN 0395322543
Say, Allen. THE LOST LAKE. ISBN 0395630363
Say, Allen. A RIVER DREAM. ISBN 0295482941

THE STAR FISHER

A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Yep, Laurence. 1991. THE STARFISHER. New York: Scholastic, Inc. ISBN 0590462431

B. PLOT SUMMARY
In 1927 Joan and her family move from Ohio to West Virginia. As the first Chinese-Americans in a West Virginia town, fifteen year old Joan struggles with growing up, realizing and accepting her mother as a regular person, and the prejudice of the town’s people. Acceptance of the fact that her Chinese culture makes her different complicates these struggles.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Yep creates a book that is unique to the Chinese struggle for acceptance in America and universal in a daughter’s growth to maturity. Yep develops a cast of individually strong characters through which he tells his story. The story is told through fifteen year old Joan who is strong beyond her years. As the oldest child she cares for her two younger siblings as well helping her parents in the family laundry business. Often she is called upon to be the primary translator for her parents due to their very limited English speaking skills. This strength is exhibited the second day in West Virginia when she is sent to the store for bread with a very limited budget. The conversation with her mother before this excursion and the resulting interaction with an unfamiliar merchant show that although she really does not want to do this, she will obey her mother and she refuses to be intimidated by the merchant. Mrs. Lee stands alone and appears somewhat removed until the reader understands she is the backbone of the family. Her Chinese upbringing is a guiding force that creates great friction when raising children in America. Change is difficult for her, but for her children she tries.
Two themes weave through this story. One is the struggle between mother and daughter that occurs when the daughter is becoming independent. The other theme is the blending of the Chinese culture into American living. Both struggles create support and conflict with the other.
Many cultural markers are evident throughout this book. Early in the book Joan tells her little sister, Emily, a story to get her to go to sleep. It is a story about a starfisher, a traditional Chinese story. This story is referred to throughout the book as Joan draws comparisons to it. Another cultural marker is the respect and obedience the children show their parents in the book. This is realistically portrayed because they (the children) sometimes argue, they know which parent to ask permission to do things, and sometimes they find ways around strictly following parental directions. An example is Joan’s translations of English for her mother. The cultural marker of language was used in an interesting format. Readers are to note that words in italics are spoken in English while the remaining text is occurring is Chinese. This was a unique manner of including a language that many do not read. Traditional Chinese values are evident in the struggle Mrs. Lee has dealing with living in modern America. She has a hard time accepting the changes that have been thrust upon her in this new country that shows no respect for what she thinks is proper and right. Yep shows a realistic struggle between being Chinese and living in America using characters with both positive and negative traits.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Publishers Weekly, 05/10/1991

Fifteen-year-old Joan Lee tells of her family's hard-won acceptance as the first Chinese-Americans in a small West Virginia town. It is 1927, and few in Clarksburg have the breadth of experience or spirit to offer foreigners their friendship. The Lees are greeted instead by verbal jibes and threats painted on their fence, until their remarkable landlady becomes a catalyst for change. Beneath Joan's direct, deceptively simple narrative voice lies an emotionally complex tale. Drawing on his mother's immigrant experience as the basis for this moving story, Newbery Honor author Yep ( Drag on wings ; The Rainbow People ) skillfully avoids pat or reductive explanations. He gives his heroine, for example, the maturity to recognize the biases her own family holds as well as the courage to stand up to the more blatant and violent prejudices of her neighbors. A traditional Chinese myth about the starfisher--half-bird, half-human, confined to the earth but yearning for the stars--weaves through the story, a poetic but insistent metaphor for Joan's own hopes and dreams. Ages 8-up. (May)
School Library Journal, 05/01/1991
Gr 6-8-- On the first night in their new home in a small West Virginia town, 15-year-old Joan Lee lulls her little sister to sleep with the story of a magical kingfisher who is held captive in human form by her mortal husband, but who is later helped by her daughter. She soon joins her mother in the stars, but is sometimes seen, cometlike, attempting to bridge heaven and Earth. Joan, the oldest daughter of the only Chinese family in 1927 Clarksburg, at first sees only herself in the story's symbols: caught between two worlds. As she braves the curiosity and prejudice of the townspeople, helps bridge a friendship between her mother and an elderly neighbor, and gets acquainted with an enigmatic classmate, she realizes that she is not the only one struggling to find a niche. Joan's story will appeal to any reader who has ever felt excluded, but she and her family seem to hold many more stories begging to be shared. Based on tales Yep gleaned from his mother and her family, whose resilience and humor shine through, The Star Fisher offers tantalizing glimpses of interesting characters, but abruptly shifts focus from a family story with the younger sister as a strong character to a relationship between mother and daughter. Basically, there is too much depth and complexity here to be confined to one book. --Carla Kozak, San Francisco Public Library
Kirkus Reviews, 04/15/1991
The author of Dragonwings (Newbery Honor, 1976) draws on his mother's childhood to depict a Chinese family's experiences when they arrive from Ohio to open a West Virginia laundry in 1927. Eldest child Joan Lee is 15; unlike their parents, she and her siblings were born in the US and speak English. Their first two encounters set up the difficulties they will face and how they will be countered: when they step off the train in Clarksburg, ne'er-do-well bigots greet them with cruel taunts; but their landlady, a retired schoolmistress, warmly welcomes and befriends them. Still, ""The Star Fisher,"" a Chinese folk tale Joan shares with her little sister, symbolizes Joan's position even after she gains acceptance: like the child of the selkie-like bird-wife in the story, she sees through two sets of eyes. Yep has shaped his family's stories into a rather old-fashioned novel of small-town prejudice bowing to good will and some humorously applied ingenuity. Joan is provided with another spunky outcast as a friend; pungent family interaction and abundant period details help to complete a vivid picture. While learning to cook, Mrs. Lee bakes a series of inedible apple pies that strain credulity, but they do serve the plot well when she finally bakes a good one and makes a hit at a church social. A likable, thoughtful story about a young woman learning to value her own differences. Copyright 2003, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Publishers Weekly, 08/03/1992
Based on the author's own experiences, this Christopher Award winner movingly describes a Chinese American family's adjustment to their new home in West Virginia in 1927 and the prejudice they encounter there. Ages 10-14. (Aug.)

E. Connections
Have students brainstorm several important events in the story, and then have them write about why they think that event was important to the story.

Other books about Chinese immigration include these titles:
Engler, Mary. I. M. PEI. ISBN 1410910563
Thornton, Jeremy. THE GOLD RUSH: CHINESE IMMIGRANTS COME TO AMERICA (1848-1882) ISBN 0823968332
Yep, Laurence. THE DRAGON’S CHILD; A STORY OF ANGEL ISLAND ISBN 0060276924