LIS 721 Children's Lit to lite and ignite

  The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill is Fantasy fiction with witches and moon milk that replaces breast milk for a baby to drink. The moon milk was on accident injecting magic into the baby. And as the years go on, the magic becomes stronger.  This plot begins with imagination and ends with imagination. The only idea that is not magical is that a baby is born and is later named Luna. The universal truth is that the mystery of love reveals itself even when two loves have been separated for years. As far as understanding the symbolic significance of this universal truth, a mature 8+ year old child might possibly comprehend it, I still question it though. The setting is provided in the text that occurs between characters, their voices, their syntax, their tone. Not so much a “place” kind of setting. The writing style is beautiful. It just sounds beautiful, majestic, and untouchable. The description of Luna is the closest to identify with humanistic values and belief...

  One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia is a historical fiction about three sisters that had to spend a summer with their biological mother in Oakland, California, who repeatedly reminded the girls that “I didn’t want you girls here in the first place.” (p.49) So she decided to send the girls to Black Panther camp. At least they were provided meals, shelter, and somewhere to be out of Cecile’s way until sundown. The narrative descriptions of the setting take readers back to the 1960’s throughout the chapters. Readers get a sense of standing in the same room with Black panthers or only going as far as the living room in Cecile’s house, because the girls were told kitchen is off-limits. Theme is two-fold. There are mentions of Black Panther events, and they become known to the girls as “the black berets”. At one point, the author has the oldest sister, Delphine to equate Cecile and the Black Panthers as the “Establishment” where, the girls bring their demands and protests to the “...

  We Are Growing written by Authors and Illustrators Laurie Keller and Mo Willems, copyright Elephant and Piggie text and illustrations. Published by Hyperion Books for Children, copyright 2016. 64 pages. Tr $9.99, Hardcover.  ISBN 9781484726358 . We Are Growing is a delight to read and fits into Level 1 easy reading for beginning readers.  There is an average of 4 words per line, with one line having 5 words. Point type averages at 18, filling up to 1/4 - 1/2 of a page. Throughout the text the one syllable adjectives turn into multisyllabic adjectives with two to three syllables by adding -est at the end.  My not-a-big-fan-of-reading son, always requested this book to read at bedtime and his face lit up when he saw I pulled it out to do this assignment, maybe I'll upgrade his reading likeness to becoming-sort-of-a-fan reader, sometimes. Mo Willems, (copyright Elephant and Piggie text and illustrations), and Keller, Laurie.  We          ...

  Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Illustrator Eric-Shabazz Larkin.  Ages 8-10, AR Level 3.5, Lexile AD620L Author Jacqueline Briggs Martin has written multiple nonfiction works about harvesting farms to table foods from the ground up, literally. She herself grew up on a dairy farm and knows the work involved in farming. Hence the love of farming in odd places, like pots, buckets, small patches of ground and unlikely places like cities (author note, p. 35). The perfect amount of information for a 3 rd -4 th grade learner is presented in sequential format of Mr. Allen’s beginning trials and triumphs that he experienced with success that took around 20 years to come to fruition. The author notes her relation to farming and how she came to love it as an adult, and she encourages children through her many books about food to get involved with their parents, friends, and other family members to start growing anywhere and to see a vision as Mr...