Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein and Ed Young

Mark Reibstein – author. Ed Young - illustrator. Wabi Sabi. New York: Little, Brown, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-316-118257

Author website: No author website found.

Ilustrator website: http://edyoungart.com/

Media: Mixed media collage.

Genres: Fictional picture book, haiku, bilingual, Japanese philosophy, Japanese poets, Zen, Taoist philosophy, identity, cultural identity

Annotation
 Japanese cat, Wabi Sabi, wanders across Japan in a search for what her name means. Through haiku, she finds real beauty in unexpected places and discovers the meaning of her name and philosophy.

My thoughts
This Zen Buddhism/Taoism philosophy is effectively broken down into its most simple elements and illustrated beautifully by award winning illustrator Ed Young. For a book, that intends to take this highly unexplainable Zen/ Taoist concept, a way of seeing beauty in life and simply see things, it does a nice job.

The cat’s journey starts by receiving an unsatisfactory answer from her owner. She asked her owner “what is the meaning of my name.” The owner replied, “That's hard to explain.” And that is all she says. She continues to question other animals until she is led to a wise old monkey who teaches her the meaning. This journey in addition to teaching the philosophy also teaches empirical research. This is the idea of questioning multiple people to find an answer and to gain a full understanding of an idea.

The reader also experiences a physical journey and can partly experience part of Japanese culture through this book. The book has the unusual way of turning the pages upward vertically and is read top to bottom similar to classical Chinese and Japanese traditional scroll paintings/ calligraphy/ texts. The haiku is also traditional.

I have had the opportunity to travel to Ginkakuji (the “Silver Temple”) and I loved reading the poetic descriptions and linking it to Wabi Sabi. “Yellow bamboo stalks bow by teahouse doors so low emperors must kneel. Dark building, floating, sit on white sand seas. A stream sweeps small stones, chanting.”

Literary Devices
Use of Personification: Wabi Sabi the cat represents Wabi Sabi the Zen Buddhism and Taoist philosophies.

Use of Simile: "He moved things as if they were gold, although they were wooden or clay."/ “As simple as a brown leaf. So ordinary!”/

Use of oxymoron: "She saw that everything was alive and dying too."

Reading level/ Interest Age
 K- grade 3. (Arguably, all ages). The simply complex philosophy and beautiful collages also can be used for older readers. This book can be used by teachers when introducing Japanese Zen or Taoist philosophies, or for learning about the haiku as a poetry structure, or for art teachers (the collages are really visually interesting and are good inspiration for class projects).

Reviews and Awards

ALA Notable Book (2008)

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book for 2008
Booklist starred review

Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol

 

Anya’s Ghost.

Vera Brosgol – author and illustrator. (2011). Publisher: First Second(:01): New York. Hardcover. ISBN: 978-1596437135.

Author website: http://verabee.com/index.html

Media: Watercolor, pen and ink.

Genre: Graphic novel, multicultural, horror

Annotation

A lonely teenage girl struggling with everyday problems encounters and befriends a ghost. Only there is a problem, what happens if this ghost is less Casper and more poltergeist?

Plot Summary

Anya, an angst ridden teenage girl who is an imigrant from Russia going to a Catholic school in suburban Massachusetts, wants to fit into mainstream teenage culture and wants to be popular. She tries to assimilate and blend in with her peers. For example, she went to speech therapy to lose her accent, dresses like the other girls, she eats American foods, and she rejects the Russian food (Cblphnkh) that her mother cooks because it is Russian and weight self-consciousness.

Anya is leaving high school one day when she trips and falls down a well in a park.  Terrified that she is doomed to perish in the well, Anya discovers that she is not alone. There is a ghost girl and skeleton from 1918 with her. When she is finally rescued, she discovers that the ghost had an ulterior motive. The ghost, Emily, has followed her home. At first, the ghost is helpful. The ghost assists with course work, gives her intel about a boy she has a crush on, boosts her confidence, provides style advice, and so on. The ghost seems like a supportive friend that teenagers often want.

But, as the story progresses, Anya starts to realize that the ghost’s story isn’t quite right. As the ghost becomes more co-dependent, demanding, erratic, and scheming Anya begins to suspect that the ghost is leaving out information and decides to investigate the said story. She discovers that there is more to the ghost and the story and that her family might be in danger.

My thoughts

This is a good young adult graphic novel for teens and is popular for many reasons. Social anxiety, body image, friendship, health, peer pressure, family difficulties, and assimilation are issues that are effectively addressed in this graphic novel. 

Anya, as a character, is so relatable for many teenage girls. She is a combination of social outcast rebellion and intelligent but insecure wallflower. The character progresses through the story and in the end she realizes that the popular kids have issues below the surface. Anya ultimately becomes more secure with her own being and confident that she doesn’t have to fit in with the popular kids.

The illustrations are monochromatic done in black and white with a touch of purple toned grey. The lines are thick and smoothly in a typical graphic style. Anya is drawn as a curvy girl with dark hair and freckles.

A couple of red flags: One personal concern that I have is that the character does smoke cigarettes (and cut classes) through the first part of the book. This characterization of the rebel smoker is cliché and perhaps causes teenage girls to smoke. The characterization adds to the problem even though the character confronts the habit in the final pages of the book. In addition, there is underage drinking at the party that changes her views about popularity. Overall, the spooky supernatural themes are mild and there is no overt violence.

Curricular connections

Popular for teenage girls.

Literary Devices:
Use of onomatopoeia: beep! Beeeep!, Clap!, pant pant, gasp, tweet tweet, briiiing, whip, duck, rrrring, sizzle, krak, thump, tug, and THUD.

Use of Simile: “You may look normal like everyone else, but you're not. Not on the inside.”

Reading level/ Interest Age

 Younger high school.

Reviews and Awards

Cybils awards 2011 in the Graphic Novel category

Booklist starred review

Kirkus starred review

School Library Journal starred review

“Anya’s Ghost is a masterpiece, of YA literature and of comics.”—Neil Gaiman

"Remarkable. . . . with an attitude and aptitude reminiscent of Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) who likewise conveyed the particulars of an immigrant adolescence, Brosgol has created a smart, funny and compassionate portrait of someone who, for all her sulking and sneering, is the kind of daughter many parents would like to have. And the kind of girl many of us maybe once were.” -- The New York Times

Cinderella Skeleton by Robert Souci and David Catrow

The Buffalo Are Back by Jean Craighead George and Wendell Minor

George, J. C., & Minor, W. (2010). The Buffalo Are Back. New York: Dutton Children's Books. ISBN: 978-1430109785.

Annotation

Jean Craighead George’s picture book that details the almost eradication of the buffalo and how that effected the plains Indians and the near destruction of the Great Plains environment.

My thoughts

"In the mid-1800s seventy five million buffalo roamed in North America. In little more than fifty years, there would be almost none." “What happened? The answer is a story of the American Indians, the buffalo, and the grass.”

In The Buffalo Are Back, Jean Craighead George (Julie of the Wolves and The Wolves Are Back) explains in detail the historical events that lead these majestic animals to the edge of extinction. In a very clear narration, the reader is taken back through an eco-history of the Great Plains. The journey begins in the 1800s with the birth of a single orange buffalo then tells the story of the Native Americans/Plains Indians, the white fur hunters, and westward expansion. In a mere fifty years, the Great Plains was an environmental disaster. 

This is a great book to use for discussing the environment and ecology. This is the story of not only the rescue of the buffalo and Great Plains but also the history of American Conservationism with a very important message.

Curricular connections

Subjects: History, Science/Ecology, Biology/Life Sciences, Science/ endangered species, History/environmental history, Biology/environmental issues.

Grade: 5-12

Literary devices

Use of Simile:

"A lark flew to the top of a six-foot blade of grass and sang as sweetly as a panpipe".

"The green-gold grasses of the plains rippled like waves from horizon to horizon.

Use of Repetition:

"A lark flew to the top of a six-foot blade of grass and sang as sweetly as a panpipe"(2). “A lark flew to a blade of grass and and as sweetly as a panpipe.” (17) "A lark flew to the top of a six-foot blade of grass and sang as sweetly as a panpipe." (27)

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grade 3 and up.

Reviews and Awards

Junior Library Guild Selection

Teacher’s Choice Award / Intermediate Readers, 2011

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 2011 (Books published in 2010) Life Science division

Author website: http://www.jeancraigheadgeorge.com/

Illustrator website: www.minorart.com/

Media: Watercolors (based on photographs taken by Charlie Craighead and Thomas D. Mangelsen).

Genre: Nonfiction

The Harmonica by Tony Johnston

Johnston, Tony. (2004). The Harmonica. Illustrated by Ron Mazellan. Charlesbridge, Watertown, MA.

Reader’s annotation: After the Nazis invade Poland, a boy is separated from his parents. Forced to play his harmonica for a concentration camp officer for survival, the boy unknowingly brings joy to fellow prisoners.

Evaluation: Based on a true story, this is a beautiful and heart-wrenching book that follows a Jewish boy as he is separated from his parents by the Nazis and taken to a concentration camp. Allowed to keep the harmonica that his father gave him, the boy is forced to play Schubert songs for a Nazi camp officer. Unknowingly, the boy also brings joy to his fellow prisoners as he plays the familiar, beautiful music. Aptly named, this story highlights the universal nature of music and its ability to give hope in even the most horrible of conditions.

This is the first children’s book Ron Mazellan illustrated. The strong use of color to convey tone and mood draw your eyes to the illustrations. Warm earth tones are used to capture the connection and happy times the boy and his parent share, which then changes to cold and sombre blue and grey tones, representing the Nazi’s arrival and the boy’s new existence in a concentration camp.

Ron Mazellan has recently illustrated Irena’s Jars of Secrets, also included in this bibliography.

Author website: No author website.
Illustrator website: http://ronmazellan.com/
Media: Mixed media on illustration board.
Curriculum connection: 5-7th grade History: Concentration camp and Holocaust survival.
Literary element: Use of simile - “who might hear the notes and be lifted, like flights of birds."
Awards:
2004 Notable Children's Book of Jewish Content
AJL Sydney Taylor Notable Books for Older Readers
Independent Book Award Finalist (Picture Book 7+)
IRA/CBC Children's Choices
Jewish Stars: Recommended Books w/Jewish Themes
National Jewish Book Award finalist
Storytelling World Award -- Honor Title.

Red Sings From Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski

Sidman, Joyce, Joyce Sidman, and Pamela Zagarenski. Red Sings From Treetops: A Year in Colors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2009. ISBN: 0547014945.

Annotation

A collection of poems describing different seasons with colors, sounds and smells.

My thoughts
This book is the winner of the 2010 Caldecott Award. This book is an interesting twist for a concept book. It combines a collection of poems with seasons and colors to produce a visual stunner.

The short  pieces of poetry are great attention getters and would be great for a class lesson on how to write poetry and would be good for a read aloud setting. It would also be good for children learning the seasons and colors.

Focus on Artwork

Pamela Zagarenski's illustrations really add to the text. They really show and explain the text very well and are painted in bright vibrant colors. The entire book is beautifully illustrated with complicated layers, textures, and intense color combinations with a color palette that is based in earth tones and subtly changes to convey each season. This book teaches children about color and really does a great job at that through using the varying hues and also by including the written word typed in the given color throughout the book. In addition, Zagarenski creatively uses type. The lettering is seen both vertical and horizontal.

Curricular connections

Grade 4- Middle School

Elementary School: color poems

English/Humanities: Creative Writing: students can write their own color poems

Art: colors and nature

Literary devices

Use of Rhyme

“Green trills from trees, clings to Pup’s knees, covers all with leaves, leave, leaves!”

Use of simile

 “…each note dropping like a cherry into my ear.”

Quotes

And White?/White/Whispers,/Floats,/Clumps,/Traces its wet finger/on branches and stumps./White dazzles day/and turns night/inside out.

Where is Green in winter?/Green darkens, shrinks,/stiffens into needles./Green waits in the hearts of trees,/feeling/the earth/turn.

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grades 1-4; Ages 6 – 9

Reviews and Awards

2010 Caldecott Honor Book

2010 winner of the Claudia Lewis Poetry Award

Booklist, 2009. Horn Book, 2009. School Library Journal, 2009.

Winner of the Cybils Award

A Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor Book

A School Library Journal Best Book

New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing

Author website: www.joycesidman.com

Illustrator website: www.atthegallery.com/artists/zagarenski.html

Media: Mixed media paintings on wood and computer illustration

Genre: Poetry, juvenile picture book

Mimi's Dada Catifesto by Shelley Jackson

Jackson, Shelley. Mimi's Dada Catifesto. New York: Clarion Books, 2009. Print. ISBN: 978-0547126814.

Annotation

This is a picture book about Mimi, an artistic poor alley cat, who has had enough of the street and decides to seek out an artistic human. While doing so, Mimi deconstructs Dadaism and the Dadaists.

The art is one of the things that attracted me to this book. One the cover is a cute orange cat with a moustache bearing a smile close to Mona Lisa’s. The title read Mimi’s Dada Manifest, only with the ‘man’ crossed out of manifesto and replaced with ‘cat’ifesto. The background looks like torn newspaper pieces collaged together and all of the titles letters look like they have been cut from different publications. On the bottom of the cover, two cockroaches dressed to the nines present the author’s name. This is an eye-catching cover.

Introducing the Dadaists to grade school children can be inspiring and fun. In the author’s note, Shelley Jackson writes, “The Dadaists thought it was time to make art just as silly as the real world. They performed nonsense poems. They wore funny costumes. They put ordinary things like neckties and toilets in museums as if they were pieces of art.” These were the artists that colored outside of the lines and really can stimulate young minds to find ways for creative self-expression. I think that many children can resonate with Dadaist art and there are so many art projects that can be done with this book as inspiration (like collage). Along with the author’s note is a list of recommended books and websites and audio CDs that is also useful.

My thoughts

Dadaism was an art movement that is difficult to explain; yet this picture book does a pretty good job of explaining the Dada art movement.

Quotes

“The world was full of silly things in 1915, just like now (umbrellas! bow ties! false teeth!), but most art ignored the silliness. To the Dadaists, that was the silliest thing of all.”

Inside cover “I am not writing this book to get famous/ but to give you some tips on living./ Listen, kiddo: sometimes you stare at a black dot for an hour/ and nothing happens./ But sometimes it gets up and walks across the floor./ I like bugs./ What I’m trying to say is-> Pay attention/ and expect the best.”

Curricular connections

Grades 1-4: Art

Lesson Plan

See 'Lesson Plan' page

Literary devices

Use of Sophisticated language: nuisance, industrial-strength, primitive, Dadaist.

Repetition: “That cat… is a stupendous nuisance. A primitive force of destruction! A steam-powered, industrial-strength…” (Repeated twice).

Simile: “Make like a pet.”

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grade 1-4/ Age 6 and up

Author website: ineradicablestain.com/

Media: Mixed media

Genre: Juvenile picture book