The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books - Freedom Song: The Story of Henry “Box” Brown; illus. by Sean Qualls. Harper/HarperCollins, 2012 32p ISBN 978-0-06-058310-1 $17.99 R* 5-8yrs Ellen Levine and Kadir Nelson’s Henry’s Freedom Box (BCCB 4/07) sets the bar high for picture books about the Virginia slave who endured pummeling confinement in a crate as he had himself shipped to New York and freedom. Walker, inspired by the discovery that Henry Brown sang for many years in a church choir, takes a more poetic but equally successful tack, imagining that rhythm and song sustained Brown throughout his years of enslaved labor and inspired him to seek his freedom when his wife and children were sold away from Virginia. Walker infuses her text and Brown’s thoughts with patterned phrasing, from the “twist, snap, pick-a-pea” work songs he sang in the fields, to the “freedom-land, family, stay-together words” that comforted him as a child, to the “stay-still, don’t move, wait-to-be-sure words” that kept him silent as he waited for release from his shipping crate. Qualls’ mixed-media illustrations, far more dreamy and stylized than Nelson’s near-photorealistic renderings, are nonetheless an excellent match for Walker’s text. Even his signature aquas and pinks, embellished with free-floating bubbles, are tempered with more sober grays, browns, and deep blues, and weighted with heavily textured brushwork. An author’s note touches on Walker’s research and what little is known of Brown’s subsequent history; also appended is the fascinating text of a letter from Brown’s accomplice in 1849, detailing Brown’s escape and cautioning the recipient, “for Heaven’s sake don’t publish this affai or allow it to be published. It would . . . prevent all others from escaping in the same way.” EB
by optimal tweezers www.flickr.com
*Picture book for preschoolers through 2nd graders
*The Vowel Family (mom, dad, and kids) as main characters
*Rating: Children will get caught up in the Vowel Family’s problems and wonder how to fix them right along with Pm Smth and Sm Vwl!
Short, short summary: Pam Smith (Pm Smth) and Sam Vowel (Sm Vwl) get married, but obviously there’s a problem–just look at how their names are spelled. Pm and Sm have trouble communicating and understanding each other with no vowels, but luckily they have some children. First comes A and E–Allen and Ellen, and life gets a little easier, but there’s still a lot of words that have vowels other than A and E. So, they have some more children: Iris, Otto, and Ursula. Now their family is almost complete! But what about that tricky Y–sometimes Y is a vowel. Thankfully, Aunt Cyndy enters the picture, and now the vowel family can understand everything they say to each other!
So, what do I do with this book?
1. One of the easiest and most fun activities is for children to insert the vowels into the words without vowels throughout the book. Can they decipher what the Vowel Family is saying to each other in Sally Walker’s book? You can do this as a shared writing activity for younger students. For older students, you can challenge them to decipher words individually or in pairs.
2. Make vowel word lists to hang around your room. At the top of each list, put the Vowel family child who represents that letter. Then with your class, make a list of words that start with that letter. To make more of a challenge, you can think of words in certain subjects that you are currently studying. For example if you are studying plants in science, then students should think of words that start with vowels and are plants (fruits and vegetables can be included). Hang these lists in your room, near your word wall.
3. You can play a challenging word game with your students to familarize with them vowels. Ask students to think of as many words as they can that use only one vowel. For example, the students think of words that only use “a” and no other vowel. (and, hat, mat, had, as,) Depending on the age of your students, they can work in pairs or independently.
Students will learn the vowels better with fun activities than with just rote memorization.
I am so happy to announce that Donna Volkenannt won a prize from Tilbury House for leaving a comment on my blog about the elephant books last Thursday. She is going to receive an autographed copy of Just for Elephants from Tilbury House, and she can’t wait to share it with her grandchildren!
Tilbury House also announced. . .”We had so many great responses that we’ve decided to add a sort of bonus prize, an extra donation to the [Elephant] Sanctuary on behalf of everyone who participated in the [blog] tour. For the 100 or so people who posted comments, tweeted, or hosted a stop, we will be sponsoring 100 lbs of peanut butter, a favorite snack of “the girls” at the Sanctuary. :)” ~from Sarah at Tilbury House.
AWESOME! Remember you can help the elephants by buying elephant books from Tilbury House before December 31.
