The book I did this week for my book talk is called, "The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks." This book is a cultural book that takes place in China. The main characters are the drake, the duck, Shozo, and Yasuko. From the illustrations in the book, the reader can tell that the drake is a vibrantly colored male duck and the duck is his mate. One morning when the drake is swimming on the pond, an evil Lord saw him and so loved his colors, demanded to capture him for his own. He asked his second in command, Shozo, to catch the beautiful bird but Shozo declined. The Lord was not happy with him but got other guards to do it instead. When he takes the drake home, he confines him to a very small cage and shows him off to all of his friends. A servant of the house, Yasuko, feels very bad for the drake and notices his health is declining. One night she steals him and takes the drake back home to his duck. Upon coming back she sees that the Lord blames Shozo for the drakes disappearance and strips him of his title, forcing him to clean waste and be a lowly servant for the rest of his days. Yasuko feels so bad she wants to fess up to the Lord but Shozo forbids it saying, "why should two suffer for one crime?" They quickly fall in love and get in trouble for doing so. When the Lord sentences them both to death, two mysterious people tell the lord that death is no longer a valid penalty and insists that they escort them to the kingdom where they will get a difference sentence. While on this journey, the two mystery people disappear, leaving Yasuko and Shozo in an abandoned old house. In the morning they find the drake and the duck and figure that a miracle has been done to save them. They spend the rest of their days in that little home where they have tons of kids and live happily ever after.
This book is an interesting one. I would recommend reading it to a third grade or above classroom because the words can get a bit difficult and there are a lot on each page. One aspect of the book that I like was that the story used cultural vocabulary, like drake, and that the illustrations made it easy for the reader to figure out on their own what the meanings are. Another aspect I liked is that the ending wasn't defined. What I mean is that they don't ever tell the reader if the drake and the duck magically turn into people and save Yasuko and Shozo. The reader must come to their own conclusions via the illustrations. This book really stresses the importancs of good illustrations. You can show this by reading the book to the class without showing the illustrations and see if they understand it. When they don't you can show them the pictures and stress the importance of this aspect.
The book I did this week for my book talk is called The Maiden and the Moor by Marilyn Singer. In this book the two characters the reader is introduced to first are two shepherd brothers, an older and a younger. The older brother is wealthy with riches and family but poor in kindness and caring for others. The younger is quite opposite, with a great willingness to help and care for others but very alone and poor. The story begins when the two shepherds are out finishing up on a very cold and wintery night. When they begin to turn back, one of the younger shepherds three dogs find a woman unconcious in the snow. The older brother is scared that witchcraft is involved and quickly hurries home. The younger brother picks the maiden up and carries her to his home. He lays her in his bed, covers her with blankets and falls asleep on the floor in front of the fire. The maiden sleeps for 7 days and the younger shepherd takes care of her the entire time. He confides in her that he is lonely and wishes she would wake up and be his companion. Finally, the maiden awakens when the shepherd is away. She puts a curse on the older brother that causes his home to be filled with ice that cannot be melted or chipped away. Lastly she begs one of the younger shepherds dogs to kill her. With much hesitation the dog fulfills her wish and after her death a snow swan is magically transformed. Later that night when the shepherd returns home he is distressed to see that the maiden is gone. He then hears a knock at the door and when he opens it, finds the most beautiful woman standing there. She quietly tells him that she will be his companion and they live happily ever after.
This book is an excellent book to introduce the genre of fantasy. It incorperates an old english folk tale chalk full of magic, mystery and hidden meanings. I would recommend it for an older classroom like fourth to sixth grade. It would be good to pair with an English poetry lesson and is a nice example of how a story can be created around a poem. An activity that can be done would be to pick another old English poem and have the students write their own stories around it. It would be neat to see the diversity among the classroom and a good teaching tool to show that we all have different ideas.
For my book talk this week, I have choosen the book "Are You My Mother?" by P. D. Eastman. It's a really cute book about two birds, a mother and her chick, that get seperated and the journey back to eachother. In the beginning, the mother leaves her unhatched egg, expecting that it will be hungry when it hatches, to go find food. While she's gone, the egg hatches and the baby bird is confused as to where his mother is. His decision to go find her brings him on a wild journey leaving him longing for home. He asks different animals and inanimate things if they are his mother (a kitten, a hen, a dog, a cow, an old car, a boat, an airplane, and a power shovel). When he comes to the power shovel, it makes a loud snort that causes him to think that it's name is "snort!" When it begins to move, he becomes frightened and wishes to go home. Little does he know, the power shovel picks him up and drops him back into his nest just before his real mother comes home with his first meal.
I would recommend "Are You My Mother? " for a kindergarten to first grade class. This book has a few aspects that caught my attention. The first is the repetition in book. There are plenty of words that are repeated and reinforced. "The egg jumped. It jumped and jumped and jumped." "But where? Where is she? Where could she be?" Another is the passage way to discuss onomatopeia when he names the power shovel a "snort!"Additionally this could go with a science lesson about animals and their babies.
I found the video below on Youtube that has someone reading the book aloud while the pictures are shown. I had an idea that I would want to try in my class. First I want to read the book aloud without showing the pictures of the book. After, I would ask my students to draw a picture of how they think the different characters in the book looks. After they finished, I would play this video and we can discuss if they think these are good illustrations of the book. Why or why not? Do their pictures match these? etc.
Overall I enjoyed this book and, like I said before, would recommend it in the classroom!
