Owen and Mzee

Title: Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship

Author: Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Dr. Paula Kahumbu

Illustrator: Photographs taken by Peter Greste

Media: Photography

Genre: Informational Non-fiction

Theme: Regardless of a disaster like a tsunami, friendship can be found at the most unexpected place. “Friendship is stronger than the differences that pull us apart.”

Summary: This is a true story about a baby hippo named Owen, who was separated from his family by a tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004. Villagers in Kenya struggled and gave everything they had in order to save him since he was stranded. Owen was shipped to Haller Park, an animal sanctuary and that is where Owen meets a 130 –year- old tortoise named Mzee. From there, Owen and Mzee developed an unlikely but inseparable bond.

Literary Elements:

Setting- In this book, it explained the impact of the 2004 tsunami on the country Kenya within the small city, Malindi on the coast of the Indian Ocean. This is where many visitors savor in the beautiful beaches and coral reefs and those visitors took part in Owen’s rescue along with the fishermen who reside there. The animal sanctuary is outside of Mombasa, about fifty miles south of Malindi. One of the authors, Dr. Paula Kahumbu, is the director of the sanctuary, the current home of Owen and Mzee.

Characterization-

Within this book, the two animals are described with their actions and through the powerful photographs. This helps the reader transition into an understanding of the story itself, so the characters are well developed (round). The baby hippo was stranded alone without his family and could not reach shore on his own. Even though Owen was terrified, he never gave up on fighting for survival.

With Mzee, he was described as a very unfriendly animal, who only liked one worker in the park, Stephen. Mzee usually kept to himself but as soon as Owen arrived, Mzee began to accept his new friend after resistance at first.

Owen was not eating and the caretakers were fearful for his health until Mzee’s protective presence helped Owen become calm enough to eat. It was apparent this bond truly helped Owen recover from his traumatic experience. Even though Mzee was portrayed as a grumpy old turtle, his kindness was displayed through the photographs as both animals were inseparable.

Plot-

The sequence of events within this story is in chronological order and presents two conflicts, self versus other and self versus nature. Owen’s conflict with Mzee as he was not happy with the attention Owen was giving him at first. Also it presents Owen’s struggle with survival against nature, the tsunami.

Style- The authors decided to write this book as a retelling of Owen’s journey and the development of his bond with Mzee. With each page and photograph, the readers are left with a desire to read more to find out what happened next. The narrator is presented as a third person but yet it captures the emotions of two animals that developed into great friends.

Reflection/Evaluation-

This book is inspirational! Isabella, a 6 year old and her father were drawn to this story as it appeared in newspapers in January 2005. Their determination to find out more about Owen and Mzee brought them in contact with Dr. Paula Kahumbu and to the retelling of their story. Owen and Mzee’s resilence and friendship reminds the reader that even though one may face tragedy, one should never give up because you do not know what your life has in store for you! With actual photographs, it captures the precious moments within the bond and this makes the story even more inspirational.

Raven

Melanie Orr

Children’s Literature

Blog

“Raven”

Illustrated and Written by Gerald McDermott

Medium: The paintings in this book were done in gouache, colored pencil, and pastel on heavyweight cold-press watercolor paper. 

Summary: This book is about bringing light into the world from a folklore point of view.  The world is dark and a raven finds the ball of light and puts it in the sky for the world to receive light.

Content: The books genre is one of folklore.  This reflects the beliefs and culture of people in the Pacific Northwest.  In this folklore the bird is given supernatural strength of changing from one entity to another and bringing light to the world.  It has total elements of mythology that as the book states explains the origins of the Earth and the relation between humans.

Literary Elements:

Setting: The Pacific Northwest in various places, the sky, the hut/house.

Characterization:  The characters in the story are flat, they are not real pictures but images of a culture and group of people.  The images do represent people from the Pacific Norhtwest.

Plot: A bird Raven, is distraught and wanting to help the world, changes to a pine needle and lands in water that a woman drinks, and she births a child who is later discovered to be Raven.  Raven then finds the light hidden in the house and restores light to the world.  The central character is the Raven and that is who the story is revolved around and the plot is finally restoring light to the world.

Theme:  The theme of the story is that the world is dark and in need of someone or something to come save the world by supplying light.  The mystery is the light of the world, the sun, is hidden in several boxes, but the raven is the lucky person to find it and rescue the world from darkness.

Style:  This story is a folklore and tells a story is a very descriptive way.  The time-darkness, place where the story happens, and the characters all are relevant and important to the story. The pictures in the story are connected to the text, for example the raven turns into a pine needle and there is a large vivid picture of the pine needle.  The next text states that a woman drinks water from the well where the needle fell.  The picture is large and actually shows the pin needle in the bowl of water the woman drinks.  The word choice in the book such as Sky Chief is a reflection of the culture in the Pacific Northwest.  I believe this story is told through the omniscient narrator point of view because of the word choices in the story.  Ex. (He, she, when the girl)  The author isn’t telling the story from his point of view.

Reflection/Evaluation:  The book is a great book to spark imagination in a child.  The book is an easy read because the pictures match the text on each page.  The colors in the book are vivid and match the mood of the story.  When the Raven was flying through the darkness, the pages were dark.  When the raven found the ball of light, the pages were bright.  The colors in the book are bright and inviting for children.  Its culturally enriching and an easy read for children.  

Many Moons

Title: Many Moons

Author: David Shannon

Illustrator: Louis Slobokin

Medium: Water color & colored pencils

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Theme: Understanding the perspective of the child vs the perspective of the adult. Reading this as an adult, it's hard for me to remember the innocence of the kid's perspective of things.

Summary: A little princess was sick, and her father wanted her to be well. The king would do anything for his daughter. He consulted a High Lord Chamberlain who told King that moon was larger than the Princess' room and is 35,000 miles away. He sent the lord away and called wizard who said moon was 150,000 miles away and is twice as big as this palace and is also made out of green cheese. So he consulted mathematician who had answer that king didn't want to hear, and various few others. None of them had the answer for the King. The jester told King of his idea to ask Princess what she thinks of the moon was made out of and how to get it. So he asked princess how large do she think the moon was and what was it made of. She told him that she thinks it was big as her thumbnail and was made of gold. So Jester went to Royal Goldsmith and asked for gold round moon on a chain. The Goldsmith asked what this was for. Jester explained it was the moon. Goldsmith had his own ideas of what it was made of and how far it was. Jester told him that is what he thinks. It doesn't matter because Princess thinks differently. The Princess got well and wore the moon necklace. The King's worries didn't end there. He was worried about next night when moon would rise again. He consulted all those again. They all had answers king didn't want to hear. Jester simply asked the princess why do she think moon is outside. She simply replied, things always grow back. When she loses a tooth, new tooth grows back in its place. When unicorn loses its horn, unicorn always got new horn that grows back.


Setting: The setting took place far away in a kingdom by a sea.

Characterization: Princess Lenore is one of the main characters, she was ten year old going on eleven. She had her own ideas, and not everyone agreed with it. When Jester realized that she have different perspective of things, he finally could get things that she wanted. She was happy go lucky kind of child. She's kind of girl that have her own imagination and beat to her own drums.

Plot: In this story, there was conflict of child vs adult perspective. It was hilarious to see how different people's opinions are on what moon's size, distance, and what it is made out of. Only Princess Lenore's opinion counted, so King stressed out for nothing. When King worried about Lenore finding out moon was going to rise next night. He asked the people how to solve this problem. They told him fireworks, circus tent, or dark glasses for Princess Lenore so she can't see the moon rising. The King rejected all the ideas. Jester asked Princess why she thinks moon rises again. She said well, things always grow back. She had better perspective than anyone in this book did.

Style: I loved how James Thurber wrote this story. All people of all ages would enjoy this story because this offers so many different perspectives. This story had very heartwarming ending. However, this writing style can be difficult for younger kids to read. Third and Fourth grade could read this with a ease. Younger kids would love it when it is read orally.

Reflection/Evaluation: This book is one of my favorite books of all time now. I'm not exactly crazy about the illustration. Louis Slobodkin had won The Caldecott Medal for his illustration. If this book was revamped only by illustration, it'd be million of times better. It would attract kids today to read this story. It might be too long for younger kids, but older kids would enjoy it. Personally, I would read more of James Thurber's works.

It's Christmas, David!

Title: It’s Christmas, David!
Author/Illustrator: David Shannon
Medium: Watercolor and pencil
Genre: Realistic Fiction

Theme: Things not to do before Christmas. If you do them, you might have a nightmare that you are on the naughty list!

Summary: It’s Christmas, David! focuses on things a child should not do before Christmas but David does them anyway. He peeked at his presents, stole cookies, played with ornaments, ran outside naked, peed in the snow, broke a window and then he dreamed that he was on the naughty list and will not be receiving any gifts but then he woke up! He was thrilled to open his gifts.

Literary Elements:

Setting: The setting took place mainly in David’s home such as David’s bedroom, kitchen, outside of his house, and by the
Christmas tree. It also took place at the mall where David had no patience to wait for the Santa Clause. I would say that the setting wasn’t as important as the theme of this story but it did play a role because you can’t have Christmas at just any place, it would make sense if you had it at home.

Characterization: David was the main character of this book, of course. I knew the second I saw the title, and I loved his character. David is funny and such a troublemaker but he is someone that everyone will never get tired of. He seems to be about five years old, and he loves to do the opposite of he was told to. He hates to hear the word “No” so he tries to ignore that word. I love his appearance because he has a look that no other children book has, and it is really unique. He kept me entertained throughout the book.

Plot: In this story, there isn’t that much of a conflict or problem but it had series of events that led up to him dreaming that there wasn’t any Christmas for him. The action of story was about David doing things that he wasn’t supposed to do and it was exciting throughout the book. This book is from a child’s point of view.

Style: I loved David Shannon’s style of “writing”, I know there aren’t that many words in this book but I loved his choice of words. Words like “snitching” or “santa is going to bring you a lump of coal!” Those words might not seem different but I liked how he connected those kind of words throughout the book. I also loved the font of his writing because it is different and unique. I think that was one of the main things that attracted me to this book is because of the font, which is completely unique.

Reflection/Evaluation: Overall, I loved this book. I thought this book was completely different, witty, funny, and it can teach children lesson of what not to do before Christmas. I feel that this kind of book is perfect for kids at young age where they are starting to learn to read because during that time they are also learning about rules and things that you should not do. David’s expressions throughout kept me entertained so I can only imagine what it would do to children at that age. The author did a great job and I would love to read more of his books.

The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base

Title: The Eleventh Hour

Author/Illustrator: Graeme Base

Medium: Mixed Media, watercolor, colored pencil

Genre: Fiction

Theme: It is a mystery book but during the reading, it was cheerful, fun, playful, but in the end, the sudden shock occurred so in the end, is there a solution?

Summary: Horace, the elephant wanted to celebrate his eleventh birthday so he invited all of his animal friends such as zebra, cat, mouse, giraffe, pig, rhino, and crocodile to come to his house. Horace was known as greatest cook in the world and he cooked a feast for everyone. It had to wait until they finish playing games and after they are finished playing, all of the food Horace cooked was gone! Who did it?

Literary Elements:

Setting: The book setting is mostly at Horace, the elephant’s house. There are many different rooms inside and outside the house. All of the animals would play different games in different rooms such as entrance hallway, dining room, kitchen, front yard, back yard, and room with pool table. The house looks like renaissance, old-fashioned house. It was a backdrop because the setting doesn’t have big impact on the mystery.

Characterization: Horace, the Elephant was the main character because it was his birthday. He was really creative and greatest cook. He invited all of his friends; the party guests were The Pig, The Rhino, The Swan, Bengal Tiger, The Mouse, The Cat, Sam the Crocodile, and the twin Giraffes.

Plot: The plot was flat. However, it has use of suspense intentionally because it was a mystery book. Every page shows the animals playing games having fun. The climax was short in the end once the Horace gives his reaction to the climax.

Style: The style of writing is unique because it has codes, riddles, and rhymes in the writing. The rhymes give the readers clues to the answer to the mystery. The illustration was busy with drawing of animals, patterns, colorful, and 3-D pictures. It also has wavy lines that show how it was drawn. The mood was light, mystery, and adventure.

Evaluation: This book is for the readers of all ages. Anyone can read this and enjoy it. Because it is a mystery book, it will take time for the readers to figure out who did it. To me, it was hard to figure it out and it is really a clever book. I really like how it was written and drawn so it seems so simple, but yet complicated. I enjoy the book overall. It is one of popular mystery books.