Book Fair Family Night at NHES

WOW!  What a wonderful turn-out for tonight's book fair family night!  Thanks to all the parents for supporting your child's development as a reader.  An extra big thanks to all the teachers and staff who volunteered your time and assistance.  NHES rocks!

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One for Books

One for Books has started!  In conjunction with the Book Fair, NHES will be collecting spare change and donations the next three weeks to buy new books for the library media center, for classroom libraries, and for students who can't afford books of their own.  Please send in whatever you can to help us encourage the joy of reading for all NHES students!

Here's to Heroes: Reading Saves the Day- NHES Book Fair

North Hancock Elementary Book Fair begins October 4th and ends October 7th.  Hours are 7:30 AM-3:30 PM each of these days. The Book Fair Family Night is October 5th from 5:00 PM-7:00 PM.  In keeping with our theme of honoring heroes, local heroes- police officers, firemen, and EMT's- will be on hand to teach safety tips while the fair is open.  Check out my Book Fair web page for details about volunteering or donating money to help the school purchase books for our students, teachers, and library media center.

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Laurence Yep Books

Image retrieved October 7, 2007, fromhttp://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsY/yep-laurence.html.

The Man Who Tricked a Ghost
Initially, I set out to read The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty and the Beast Tale with my daughter since she loves anything to do with princes and princesses. Despite the beautiful artwork, she did not even sit through the first three pages. We went back to our public library and found The Man Who Tricked a Ghost. I don't know if it had to do with the Halloween season or what, but she wanted me to read this one every night for a week.
Like my daughter, I too enjoyed this book more. For me, I love to read and teach trickster tales, so this was right up my alley. An avid fan of Halloween and all things eery, I also loved the scary illustrations that complemented the storyline. In fact some of the illustrations were so scary, that I was hesitant to show some of them to my four-year-old, but consider sharing this with my seventh graders for a Halloween treat. Never before had I seen such scary illustrations in a children's book.
Novels

1. Sweetwater. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.
2. Dragonwings. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
3. Child of the Owl. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
4. Sea Glass. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
5. Dragon of the Lost Sea. New York: Harper & Row, 1982.
6. Kind Hearts and Gentle Monsters. New York: Harper & Row, 1982.
7. The Mark Twain Murders. New York: Four Winds, 1982.
8. Liar, Liar. New York: Morrow, 1983.
9. The Serpent's Children. New York: Harper & Row, 1984.
10. The Tom Sawyer Fires. New York: Morrow, 1984.
11. Dragon Steel. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.
12. Mountain Light. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.
13. Shadow Lord: A Star Trek Novel No. 22. New York: Pocket Books, 1985.
14. Monster Makers, Inc. New York: Arbor House, 1986.
15. The Curse of the Squirrel. New York: Random House, 1987.
16. The Rainbow People. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
17. When the Bomb Dropped: The Story of Hiroshima. New York: Random House, 1990.
18. Dragon Cauldron. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
19. The Star Fisher. New York: Morrow, 1991.
20. Tongues of Jade. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
21. The Lost Garden. Englewood Cliffs: Messner, 1991.
22. Dragon War. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
23. Dragon's Gate. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.
24. The Butterfly Boy. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1993.
25. The Man Who Tricked a Ghost. Mahwah, NJ: Bridgewater, 1993.
26. The Shell Woman & the King: A Chinese Folktale. New York: Dial, 1993.
27. The Boy Who Swallowed Snakes. New York: Scholastic, 1994.
28. The Ghost Fox. New York: Scholastic, 1994.
29. The Junior Thunder Lord. Mahwah, NJ: Bridgewater, 1994.
30. Tiger Woman. Mahwah, NJ: Bridgewater, 1994.
31. The City of Dragons. New York: Scholastic, 1995.
32. Later, Gater. New York: Hyperion, 1995.
33. Thief of Hearts. New York: Harper, 1995.
34. Tree of Dreams: Ten Tales from the Garden of Night. Mahwah, NJ: Bridgewater, 1995.
35. Hiroshima. New York: Scholastic, 1995.
36. Ribbons. New York: Putnam, 1996.
37. The Mongolian Shepherd. New York: Scholastic, 1996.
38. The Case of the Goblin People. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

Adult Books

1. Seademons. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.

Plays

1. "Pay the Chinaman" in Between Worlds: Contemporary Asian-American Plays. Misha Berson, ed. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1990, pp.176-196.
2. Dragonwings. New York: Dramatist Play Service, 1993.

Short Stories

1. "Selchey Kids," in Wollheim, Donald A. and Terry Carr. eds. World's Best Science Fiction 1969. New York: Ace, 1969.
2. "My Friend, Klatu," in Signs and Wonders. Roger Elwood, comp. Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1972. also in Visions of Tomorrow. Roger Elwood, ed. New York: Ace, 1976.
3. "Looking-Glass Sea," in Strange Bedfellows: Sex and Science Fiction. Thomas N. Scortia, ed. New York: Random House, 1972, pp.165-177.

Edited Works

1. Yep, Laurence, ed. American Dragons: Twenty-Five Asian American Voices. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

Articles

1. "Writing Dragonwings." Reading Teacher. Vol. 30, No. 4 (January 1977): 359-363.
2. "Fantasy and Reality." Horn Book. Vol. 54 (April 1978): 136.
3. "Attack of the Giant Teenage Space Dogs: Notes of a Science Fiction Film Fan." Top of the News. Vol. 39, No.1 (Fall 1982): 92-94.
4. "The Green Cord." Horn Book. Vol 65 (May-June 1989): 318-22.
5. "A Cord to the Past." CMLEA. Vol. 15 (Fall 1991): 8-10.
6. "A Garden of Dragons." The ALAN Review. Vol. 19, No. 3 (Spring 1992): 6-8.

Other Media

1. Laurence Yep. Filmstrip/cassette. Westminster: Random House/Miller/Brody, 1981.
2. The Curse of the Squirrel. Sound recording. Music by Arthur Custer. New York: Random House, 1989.
3. The Rainbow People. 3 Cassettes. Prince Frederick: Recorded Books, 1993.
   AWARDS

Lists retrieved October 6, 2007, from http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/yep.html.

Yoshiko Uchida Books

Image retrieved October 6, 2007, from http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2005/03/images/uchida.jpg.

The Invinsible Thread

I chose this book because I used to teach Farewell to Manzanar, another true story about the Japanese internment camps set up in the U.S. shortly after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. Like Farewell to Manzanar, from the moment I started reading The Invisible Thread, I was hooked.
Uchida does a wonderful job capturing the trials and tribulations of her youth growing up in California during the 30's. She describes the embarassment and shame she feels because of her Japanese heritage. While she feels completely American, she knows that she will always be looked upon as a foreigner because of her slanted eyes, yellow complexion, and black hair. She is even embarassed by her parents for the Japanese customs (bowing, eating at a picnic with chopsticks, etc.) they practice in public.
However, Uchida does a wonderful job of capturing the essence of her parents' gentle and giving spirits, even in the most dire of situations -- being uprooted from their perfect lives in sunny California and being placed in internment camps, where they became prisoners. Initially, her father was sent away to one camp while the Uchida ladies were sent to another one. At this camp, the Uchida family was forced to live in a horse stall at a race track, a tough but bearable situation because eventually the family reunites there. Then, they were sent to live at a camp in a desert in Utah. Conditions were so physically unbearable that the Uchida parents begged their grown American-born daughters to look for jobs and leave them behind since they were born in Japan. Eventually the daughters do so. Although Uchida is angry at her country's betrayal and infringement upon their civil rights, Uchida uses the quiet strength learned from her parents to overcome the prejudice and hatred heaped on her by her own country.
As a minority who grew up in predominantly white rural town, I could relate to Uchida's self-hatred. I hated my dark skin and black hair. Even when I was told I looked "exotic," I wanted to be Barbie-blonde and white. After all, exotic to me meant different from the norm. Not until now have I read a children's book that captured the feelings of my youth. I would have loved to have read this when I was younger. However, at the same time, I wonder if it would have been impactful.

Jerry Pinkney Illustrated Books

John Henry written by Julius Lester

As mentioned in my Julius Lester posting, I love the stories of John Henry, and Julius Lester's John Henry is no exception. Although Julius Lester's story of John Henry did not hold my four-year-old's attention, Jerry Pickney's illustrations did. They helped her see what her limited knowledge of the time period could not. She understood from the first picture of John Henry lifting his cradle over his head that John Henry was no ordinary person. The pictures of John Henry and Ferret-Faced Freddy racing helped her understand that the story is set in a time before cars, computers, and other technological advances she has always known. The picture of the mountain helped her understand the task that John Henry accomplished in beating the steam drill and how it could kill him. The picture of John Henry's funeral train showed her what the memory of John Henry's spirit means to many.

Like most parents, I enjoy sharing bits and pieces of my childhood with my daughter. Although I could not remember all of the words to the John Henry spiritual I learned in school, I could share with her the memories of singing it. Without Pickney's illustrations, I might not have had that opportunity.

Other Pinkney Illustrated-books Written by Julius Lester

1. The Tales of Uncle Remus, Dial (New York, NY), 1987.
2. More Tales of Uncle Remus: Further Adventures of Brer Rabbit, His Friends, Enemies, and Others, Dial (New York, NY), 1988.
3. Further Tales of Uncle Remus: The Misadventures of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Wolf, the Doodang, and All the Other Creatures, Dial (New York, NY), 1990.
4. The Last Tales of Uncle Remus, Dial (New York, NY), 1994.
5. Sam and the Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo, Dial (New York, NY), 1996.
6. Black Cowboy, Wild Horses: A True Story, Dial (New York, NY), 1998.
7. Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales (contains The Tales of Uncle Remus, More Tales of Uncle Remus, Further Tales of Uncle Remus, and The Last Tales of Uncle Remus), Phyllis Fogelman Books (New York, NY), 1999.
8. Albidaro and the Mischievous Dream, Phyllis Fogelman Books (New York, NY), 2000.
9. The Old African, Dial (New York, NY), 2004.

Illustrator and Adaptor

1. Rudyard Kipling, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Morrow (New York, NY), 1997.
2. Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Match Girl, Phyllis Fogelman Books (New York, NY), 1999.
3. Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling, Morrow (New York, NY), 1999.
4. Aesop's Fables, SeaStar Books (New York, NY), 2000.
5. Hans Christian Andersen, The Nightingale, Phyllis Fogelman Books (New York, NY), 2002.
6. Noah's Ark, SeaStar Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Illustrator

1. Joyce Cooper Arkhurst, reteller, The Adventures of Spider: West African Folk Tales, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1964.
2. Adeline McCall, This Is Music, Allyn & Bacon (Boston, MA), 1965.
3. V. Mikhailovich Garshin, The Traveling Frog, McGraw (New York, NY), 1966.
4. Lila Green, compiler, Folktales and Fairytales of Africa, Silver Burdett (Morristown, NJ), 1967.
5. Ken Sobol, The Clock Museum, McGraw (New York, NY), 1967.
6. Harold J. Saleh, Even Tiny Ants Must Sleep, McGraw (New York, NY), 1967.
7. John W. Spellman, editor, The Beautiful Blue Jay, and Other Tales of India, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1967.
8. Ralph Dale, Shoes, Pennies, and Rockets, L. W. Singer (Syracuse, NY), 1968.
9. Traudl (pseudonym of Traudl Flaxman), Kostas the Rooster, Lothrop (New York, NY), 1968.
10. Cora Annett, Homerhenry, Addison-Wesley (Boston, MA), 1969.
11. Irv Phillips, The Twin Witches of Fingle Fu, L. W. Singer (Syracuse, NY), 1969.
12. Fern Powell, The Porcupine and the Tiger, Lothrop (New York, NY), 1969.
13. Ann Trofimuk, Babushka and the Pig, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1969.
14. Thelma Shaw, Juano and the Wonderful Fresh Fish, Addison-Wesley (Boston, MA), 1969.
15. Ken Sobol, Sizes and Shapes, McGraw (New York, NY), 1969.
16. Francine Jacobs, adapter, The King's Ditch: A Hawaiian Tale, Coward (New York, NY), 1971.
17. Joyce Cooper Arkhurst, More Adventures of Spider, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1972.
18. Adjai Robinson, Femi and Old Grandaddie, Coward (New York, NY), 1972.
19. Mari Evans, JD, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1973.
20. Adjai Robinson, Kasho and the Twin Flutes, Coward (New York, NY), 1973.
21. Berniece Freschet, Prince Littlefoot, Ginn (Lexington, MA), 1973.
22. Beth P. Wilson, The Great Minu, Follett (Chicago, IL), 1974.
23. Mildred D. Taylor, Song of the Trees, Dial (New York, NY), 1975.
24. Cruz Martel, Yagua Days, Dial (New York, NY), 1976.
25. Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Dial (New York, NY), 1976, reprinted as Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition, Penguin (New York, NY), 2000.
26. Phyllis Green, Mildred Murphy, How Does Your Garden Grow?, Addison-Wesley (Boston, MA), 1977.
27. Eloise Greenfield, Mary McLeod Bethune (biography), Crowell (New York, NY), 1977.
28. Verna Aardema, Ji-Nongo-Nongo Means Riddles, Four Winds Press (New York, NY), 1978.
29. Lila Green, reteller, Tales from Africa, Silver Burdett (Morristown, NJ), 1979.
30. Rosebud Yellow Robe, reteller, Tonweya and the Eagles, and Other Lakota Indian Tales, Dial (New York, NY), 1979.
31. Eloise Greenfield and Lessie Jones Little, Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir, Crowell (New York, NY), 1979.
32. Virginia Hamilton, Jahdu, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1980.
33. Claudia Zaslavsky, Count on Your Fingers African Style, Crowell (New York, NY), 1980.
34. William Wise, Monster Myths of Ancient Greece, Putnam (New York, NY), 1981.
35. Barbara Michels and Bettye White, editors, Apples on a Stick: The Folklore of Black Children, Coward (New York, NY), 1983.
36. Valerie Flournoy, The Patchwork Quilt, Dial (New York, NY), 1985.
37. Crescent Dragonwagon, Half a Moon and One Whole Star, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1986.
38. Barbara Gibson, Creatures of the Desert World and Strange Animals of the Sea, edited by Donald J. Crump, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 1987.
39. Nancy White Carlstrom, Wild, Wild Sunflower Child Anna, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1987.
40. Julia Fields, The Green Lion of Zion Street, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1988.
41. Pat McKissack, Mirandy and Brother Wind, Knopf (New York, NY), 1988.
42. Verna Aardema, Rabbit Makes a Monkey of Lion, Dial (New York, NY), 1989.
43. Robert D. San Souci, The Talking Eggs, Dial (New York, NY), 1989.
44. Marilyn Singer, Turtle in July, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1989.
45. Crescent Dragonwagon, Home Place, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1990.
46. Jean Marzollo, Pretend You're a Cat, Dial (New York, NY), 1990.
47. Sonia Levitin, The Man Who Kept His Heart in a Bucket, Dial (New York, NY), 1991.
48. Arnold Adoff, In for Winter, Out for Spring, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1991.
49. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 1991.
50. Virginia Hamilton, Drylongso, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1992.
51. Gloria Jean Pinkney, Back Home, Penguin (New York, NY), 1992.
52. Colin Eisler, selector, David's Songs: His Psalms and Their Story, Dial (New York, NY), 1992.
53. Thylias Moss, I Want to Be, Dial (New York, NY), 1993.
54. Johanna Hurwitz, New Shoes for Silvia, Morrow (New York, NY), 1993.
55. Nancy Willard, A Starlit Somersault Downhill, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1993.
56. Gloria Jean Pinkney, The Sunday Outing, Dial (New York, NY), 1994.
57. Valerie Flournoy, Tanya's Reunion, Dial (New York, NY), 1995.
58. Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories, Morrow (New York, NY), 1995.
59. Alan Schroeder, Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman, Dial (New York, NY), 1996.
60. Robert D. San Souci, reteller, The Hired Hand: An African-American Folktale, Dial (New York, NY), 1997.
61. Gary Paulsen, Sarny, A Life Remembered, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1997.
62. Barbara Diamond Goldin, reteller, Journeys with Elijah: Eight Tales of the Prophet, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1999.
63. Patricia C. McKissack, Goin' Someplace Special, Atheneum (New York, NY), 2000.
64. (With Brian and Myles C. Pinkney) Gloria Jean Pinkney, In the Forest of Your Remembrance: Thirty-Three Goodly News Tellings for the Whole Family, Penguin (New York, NY), 2001.
65. Arthur Herzog Jr. and Billie Holiday, God Bless the Child, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
66. (With Brian and Myles C. Pinkney) Gloria Jean Pinkney, compiler, Music from Our Lord's Holy Heaven, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.

Lists retrieved October 6, 2007, from, http://biography.jrank.org/pages/590/Pinkney-Jerry-1939.html.

Julius Lester Books

Image retrieved October 6, 2007, from http://members.authorsguild.net/juliuslester/index.htm.

John Henry

I chose this book because I remembered singing about John Henry in my elementary music classes. I loved that song because of the story of perseverence it told. While that has been over 25 years, I still enjoyed the story of John Henry as told by Julius Lester.

First, I love reading and teaching folktales. I like how they make the unbelievable seem believable (John Henry growing from an one-day-old infant into a manchild who busts through his parents' front porch roof). I enjoy how they rely upon the personification of nature to make the main character seem superhumanample (animals and the sun, moon, and stars serve as witnesses to the great feats of John Henry). However, what I like most about folktales is the spirit of humanity they capture. In John Henry, children learn to always do their best no matter what it may personally cost them. Even though John Henry dies with the hammer in his hand, he defeats the steam drill. In the end, people across the United States come out to celebrate what he accomplished in his short life. This proves to be a valuable lesson for all, not only children, to learn.

Click the link below to directly access a list of Lester's books from his web site:
http://members.authorsguild.net/juliuslester/works.htm.

Dr. Seuss Books

1. The Cat in the Hat
2. The Lorax