the man who walked between the towers.

Title: Harvesting Hope: The Man Who Walked Between The Towers

Author/Illustrator: Mordicai Gerstein

Awards: The Caldecott Award

Medium: pastel

Genre: Biography

Theme: A man who seeks/strives for something that is challenging him on a wire.

Summary: A man who walked between the towers in his early age.

Literary Elements: The book was about Philippe Petit who walked between the towers in 1974- the towers as known as the World Trade Center. He himself is from France. He danced on a wire between the steeples of Notre Dame Cathedral. He loves to walk on a wire from point A to point B. He moved to America. He saw something that would challenge him and made him a legend as no one has done this before, the World Trade Center building! He was told that he couldn't walk on a wire between the towers. Philippe has a sense of mischief and with his sense of mischief, he sneaked in and walked on a wire between the towers. The tone of the book is very lively to match the character, very light, and easy to read. the illustrations are great and very easy to read. As I have noticed that the face of Philippe does not show, only the back of his face and the side of his face. it is interesting to me. Philippe's characterization: courage, mischievous, very artistic with his skill of walking on a wire. He does not seek for any trouble just for his pleasure. In the end of the book, it shows that he performs in front of children as his punishment for walking on a wire between the towers. An interesting thing to me is that i noticed the face of judge, he seems pleased to punish him to do a community service by performing in front of children. the plot seems very flat because it doesn't show any excitement as it predicts what would happen next. for instance, when cops arrested philippe, i questioned myself, what are they arresting him for, on what charge, and etc. it was a good biography but not as great as i have read the other biography books- harvesting hope: the story of Cesar Chavez.

Evaluation: at first, i was reading a book, " My Brother Charlie" by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete. I thought it was a biography book as it was about authors' son/brother, respectively. It was about Charlie who has an autism. I was struggling with its book's genre. I asked Julie Mitchiner about the book. She said the book is more of a realistic book rather than a biography. I was fortunate that She let me borrow her book, " The Man Who Walked Between The Towers" by Mordical Gerstein. It was a quite interesting book. I was very skeptical about the book if it is true. I researched Philippe Petit, the man who walked between the towers. I was in awe with what he did. This book exists because of the towers doesn't exist. Biography normally talks about the death of a famous person or an incident that impact people. I probably won't allow the children to read the book because it can build their sense of mischief!

The Name Jar

The


Title: The Name Jar

Author/Illustrator: Yangsook Choi

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Medium: Chalk Pastel



Theme: Unhei is struggling with the idea of her own name in a different country but realized that her name is very unique

Summary: Unhei is a korean who moved to New York City, NY with her family from Korea. She struggles with herself and the society because she wanted to change her name and the society " wants" her to have a common name since other children could not say her name correctly.

Literacy Elements:

Setting: Korea, Airport, Kitchen, School, On the bus, and Market.

Style: The text is very easy to read. the author wants people with an unique name to be liked. the author is trying to tell the readers that has an unique name to embrace it because no one has it in the other places. first person.

Plot: The plot is a great because it shows a conflict in the beginning. The children make Unhei feels that she should get a new name because her name is not american name. She struggles throughout the story until she felt the necessary to teach her classmates about her.

Characterization: Unhei is a sweet girl and very smart because when her mother asked her if she understands English, she said yes. at a young age, the children tends to understand new language better than their parents. Unhei is mostly focused on. Joey, a friendly curly haired guy, is a wonderful friend and shows how much he cared for Unhei such as learning about Unhei's culture. Mr. Kim is an owner of his market. He shows his appreciation when Unhei told him about her name. He seems knowledgeable about Korean' names. He, himself, is a Korean.

Evaluation: The book should be read aloud to children because i do rememebr when i was young, all students were making fun of me. " you do not know how to spell your own name correctly" " it is Adrian, not Adrain" i was very frustrated. all of my name are very unique because Adrain no one has that name in the world, that i know of, JaCard- my grandmother went to Zimbabwe and saw Jacaranda, a purple flower. She fell in love with it, Cookneuchan from Europe. If i ever read the book when i was younger, i would be proud of my own name back then. it is not about the name it is also about the person who you are and each name has meaning.

Traction Man is herreee!

Title: Traction Man is Here
Author/Illustrator: Mini Grey
Medium: watercolor
Genre: Fantasy
Summary: It is about a boy who wanted a traction man for Christmas. He got what he wants! The traction man is here! The traction man is an action figure who has a different kind of adventures with scrubbing brush.
Theme: An action figure, the traction man who is ready to take bad people down with his sidekick, scrubbing brush!
Literary Elements:
Setting: in the first page of the book shows the boy sleeping in his bedroom. In the dining room/ kitchen, in the sink, outside, in the bath tub, in the car, and at the granny’s house. In the book indicates that the traction has an adventure in every setting.
Style: The author of this story has a kid at heart feeling. The point of view of the story is told in third person until the second last page, “well, I never.” The illustration was done in an excellent of drawing. The text is very easy to read. The fonts are pretty much the same from the first page to the last page.
Characterization: the book does not show any characterization of a young boy but shows a lot of the traction man. He aims to fight, protect, and have fun. He went in the sink to wash the dishes and meet his scrubbing brush; it is a “dog.” He fought the pillows, the washcloth, the shovel, a foot, and the broom. He is very humble. He is very helpful. For scrubbing brush , a “dog” because it shows its tail in the book. A great sidekick who saved the traction man’s life when he fought the washcloth in the sink. He is very loyal to the traction man because when he wears an ugly outfit that the granny made for him, the cupcake and the sock were laughing at him but the scrubbing brush didn’t.
Plot: the plot was great because it shows so much of adventure. The traction man and his sidekick, scrubbing brush fought all the way until at the end, they both relax but they are ready to fight evil household things.
Evaluation: I think this book is a wonderful book for young kids. Young children tend to have dolls and G.I. Joes. I, myself, had both of them. I visualized my G.I. Joe to be a real person. I would take it to everywhere I go to. I even purchased an action figure radio control car: it was a Volkswagen beetle. Good time I had back then. The book can develop the children’s creativity of what they want to do in the future. I remember my friends have G.I. Joes. My G.I. Joe was a cop. I wanted to be a policeman. My family told me that I could not be a cop because we are deaf. This book shows a great imagination of what we wanted to do with our figure action and toys.

The book has won a several of awards such as a new york time best illustrated children’s book of the year; an ALA notable children’s book; a kirkus reviews best book of the year and etc.

Love To Mama

Title: Love to Mama
Author: Paula Barragan
Editor: Pat Mora
Illustrator: Paula Barragan
Medium: Acrylic illustrations
Genre: realistic non-fiction poetry
Theme: to show an appreciation of women in the family for what they did to their children.
Summary: Pat edited and contributed to this beautiful and celebratory collection, in total of thirteen poets write with joy, humor, and love about the powerful bond between the women in the family and children. These poets represent a wide spectrum of Latino voices, from award-winning authors to a 15-year-old new talent. The authors write passionately about their cultures such as Puerto Rican, Cuban, Venezuelan, and Mexican American. The undeniable influence of their mothers and grandmothers, for instance
Literary Elements:
Setting: a various of settings: from outside to house( pictures of various related to the poem)
Characterization: the book focuses on the mother and the love that is unconditional. Whatever the children do, the mother will still love their children no matter what they have done from bad to good. When the children did something bad, the mother gets hurt because of that but still love their children regardless.
Plot: there is no plot in the book because it is about poetry. The poetry is about its poem it is more of relaxing feeling when you read the poem.
Style: Humorous. Each line rhymes with each other and is repeated throughout to show how each are connected to each other.
Evaluation: I remember when I was young; I read this book to my mom on the mother’s day. She was very inspired. It is an inspiration book. It is a tribute book to mothers. Despite being aimed at the younger reader, adults will enjoy this collection as they read it to their children because each poem will conjure up memories of the love, joy and comfort given by mothers and grandmothers. Love to Mamá is sure to be embraced and treasured by everyone who wants to recognize mothers as one of our universal role models.

The day we met you

Title: The day we met you

Author: Phoebe Koehler

Illustrator: Phoebe Koehler

Media: Pastel cravon

Genre: Realistic Non-fiction

Theme:

Adoptive parents narrate the loving preparations made for the day they took their child home
Summary: It is about the preparations made when the parents are going to be adoptive parents to a child. The book explains what they did and get for the adoptive child.


Literary Elements:

Setting-

The setting is in the house and on the sidewalk. The setting focuses inside the house such as parents are preparing to meet their first adoptive child.

Characterization-

The book has no main characters in it. It was very flat. There is no “I” or “ a person’s name” only “We” and “You.” This book could teach children that some book doesn’t need any characterization. Mostly books has main characters in it and to make sure their readers know who is important and whatnot. i

Plot-

The Plot is very dull and dry because it is talking about the common feelings of parents when they first met their children. It has no exposition, rising action climax, falling action, or Denouement. The plot could have been better if the parents explain how they decided on adopting a child because they couldn’t make any babies. For instance, the mother finds out that she couldn’t make a baby, that is considered a rising action to me.

Style-

The text is simple but speaks directly to the heart. The parents narrate all the concrete steps they took the day they receive the call to pick up their new baby. The crayon illustrations convey a beautiful sense of warmth and love. Both children and adults will find themselves drawn to the purity of expression in both writing and illustrations.

Reflection/Evaluation-

The Book is an inspiration to any adoptive people. I think it is a good book for people who got adopted. The book wants to let adoptive people know that they love you as much as they love each other. I personally would not recommend my students to read the book for their entertainment because the book has no point of view from each side. The book talks about general ideas of how the parents feel when they meet their first adoptive child/ren.

When this world was new

Title: When This World Was New
Author/Illustrator: D.H. Figueredo/ and Enrique O. Sanchez
Medium: acrylic

Genre: Realistic Fiction.

Theme: Show how to overcome the fear and acceptance of new place

Summary: It is a story about Danilito, a young boy who emigrated from his warm island home overcomes fears about living in New York. He and His parents moved from the Caribbean to New York City. He was very afraid of the concept of moving to a new country where he and his family does not speak English. He was introduced to snow, which he never has seen it before! His fear disappeared

Literary Elements:


Setting-The setting is in various places: From the Caribbean island to the city of New York.

Characterization- Danilito is a boy who portrays the children how they felt about moving to a different place. In the book, you could see the expression of Danilito’s face when he arrives at the airport. Danilito saw something that he never has seen before and got excited. The tendency of children when they see something new, they would get excited about it.
Plot- The story begins with Danilito moving from the Caribbean island to New York City. Danilito was not familiar with the America because no one speaks his native language. There is an explanation of how Danilito’s fear starts from high at the beginning to low at the end.

Theme-The theme of the story is descriptive and informative. Danilito expressed how he felt about moving.

Style- The author uses acrylic on paper. The pictures show different backgrounds: island, airport, and city, inside the car, meeting Danilito’s uncle Berto, and snowing. The dialogue is like a child is telling the story. The story is trying to teaching kids that it is okay to have a fear and eventually overcame it. The tone of the story is enlightening. D.H Figuereo uses “I” through out the book as if Danilito is telling the story. The point-of-view in the book is first person.

Reflection/Evaluation- When This World Was New is a great book for children who are not in a familiar place. For instance, when Freddy, a new student, moves from Tennessee School for the Deaf to California School for the Deaf, Fremont, of course, Freddy will face a lot of obstacles. That is where he gets fear; New environment, new people, and the speed of signing. Overall, I love this book, it is very adorable because Danilito is able to express how he felt.

Harry Potter Series