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Author: Mark Greenwood (on JOMB)
Illustrator: Frané Lessac (on JOMB)
Published: 2008 Candlewick Press (on JOMB)
ISBN: 0763639133
Deceptively simple looking folk art illustrations, uncluttered narration and sparse, intimate utterings deliver some of the dark, disturbing details of war in this eye-opening, true tale of courage, carnage and camaraderie.
More war and peace on JOMB:
- A Poppy is To Remember
- Gleam and Glow
- Janusz Korczak’s Children
- What We Remember
- Lugalbanda: The Boy Who Got Caught Up In A War
HOTLINE VOICES: Bobby (a grade two teacher in Phoenix, AZ) describes a difference of opinion between he and his fiancée (a grade one teacher) and asks the question, what is the best way to read books to a group of children?
6 Comments on Of Horror and Heroism: The Donkey of Gallipoli (A True Story of Courage in World War I), last added: 10/11/2008
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Put the question out to Twitter. Here is a taste of the response:
@terriebittner: Children need to see the book in hand to help them love books. Anything else is just tv in disguise.
@kaymathews: The teacher-librarian I was says: book in hand. You’re creating a common experience, you want to pull the kids into your circle, create a sense of intimacy and close connection with the book/with you as story teller. It’s also part of storytelling — you can use the book to pace yourself, to create tension, in a way you can’t otherwise. But it’s still putting another layer between teacher/storyteller and students/listeners. I’m sure it has place…
[…] the help of a document camera and projector, but we did put the question out to Twitter and the few responses we received were highly in favour of book-in-hand group reading and the tactile pleasures of the […]
Is it okay for me to weigh in?
Technology becomes a “middle-man” and interrupts the flow and experience. I’d say to get down in the middle of all of the children, walk around with the book or pass it around. The reading activity is about the connection between the listener, the reader and the book, not about focusing on a televised version of the book.
I recently saw a class where every kid had a copy of the book (a small class of 15 kids, and they were paperback copies) but that was ideal - every kid got to follow along. Maybe the idea is that you read the same book a couple of ways to the same kids - they actually LIKE the repetition. So maybe read it first the old fashioned way, book in hand, casting that magic spell over reader and listener. Then, another time, read the book again, and do it on the big screen. Kids get to read along now, and see it HUGE. That might be worth a try…
Lee
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