Module Two Major Poets and Awards

NCTE Award Poetry

Bibliography 

Cullinan, Bernice E., ed. 1996. A Jar of Tiny Stars: Poems by NCTE award-winning poets.  Illustrated by Andi MacLeod and Portraits by Marc Nadel. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong Boyd Mills Press, Inc. ISBN 1563970872.

Critical Analysis

A Jar of Tiny Stars: Poems by NCTE Award-Winning Poets is an anthology edited by Bernice E. Cullinan.  The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) gives this prestigious award every three years and considers only the poet’s full body of work. The fifty poems included in this collection were chosen by children throughout the country as their most beloved poems.  The ten poets spotlighted in this anthology are David McCord, Aileen Fisher, Karla Kuskin, Myra Chon Livingston, Eve Merriam, John Ciardi, Lilian Moore, Adoff, Valerie Worth and Barbra Esbensen. Each chapter begins with the poet's portrait, a short quote by the poet and the back of the anthology offers the reader a short biography of each poet.

The poetic styles range from limericks to free verse, humorous to serious in nature.   The portraits are achieved with black and white watercolor washes by Marc Nadel.  Many of the poems in the anthology are not illustrated. However, the poems that Andi MacLeod’s sketches compliments and assists to accentuate the wit and feelings communicated in the poems.

Follow-Up Activity

On a large sheet of white chart paper write the poem “Snowman” by David McCord.  Read the poem aloud to the students several times. Allow students to turn and talk about the poem and share their connections with their partners. 

For the culminating activity, students will need three nylon balloons, salt, felt, scraps of cloth, one large bowl, one medium bowl, one small bowl, and a large pan or plastic container. The teacher will fill the balloons with water. Tie the tops of the balloons and place each balloon in one of the bowls in the freezer for at least fourteen hours or until the balloons are frozen. Then, cut the balloons apart and place the ice balls one on top of the other by connecting each snowball with salt. A large amount of salt will help the snowball adhere to each frozen snowball. Students may put clothing and body parts on the snowman.  

Each day, as the students observe their class snowman, they will reread the “Snowman” poem and pair/share what they notice about their classroom snowman that is similar or different from the snowman in the poem.  Students will predict how many days it will take before the snowman melts. Students will draw a picture in their science journal each day illustrating the changes that occur with their classroom snowman.

Highlighted Poem

Snowman

By David McCord

My little snowman has a mouth,

So he is always smiling south.

My little snowman has a nose;

I couldn’t seem to give him toes,

I couldn’t seem to make his ears.

He shed a lot of frozen tears

Before I gave him any eyes–

But they are big ones for his size.

Florian Poetry

Bibliography

Florian, Doglas. 2009. Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings.  Simon & Schuster New York: Atheneum Books for
Young Readers. ISBN 978-1-4169-7978-4.

Critical Analysis

Douglas Florian book Dinothesaurus, provides the reader with amazing dinosaur poems infused with humor and interesting information. The "Glossarysaurus" offers specific information regarding each dinosaur, fossil web sites, an annotated list of dinosaur museums, bibliography for additional reading, and a section that contains a useful pronunciation and meaning guide.

Florian’s double page spreads features illustrations that are done with gonache, collage, colored pencils, stencils, dinosaur dust, and rubber stamps on primed brown paper bags. Each drawing will mesmerize any dinosaur enthusiast. Upon careful inspection, the reader will be captivated by Florian hidden artwork.

I read this book to my kindergarten students and they were fascinated by the clever language and colorful illustrations. Each poem in Florian’s poetry book deepens and broadens my kindergarteners understanding of dinosaurs.

Follow-Up Activity

I utilize this activity with my kindergarten students. For these two activities, each student will need a copy of Florian’s poem “Deinonychus,” clean chicken or turkey bones and Plaster of Paris.  

For the first activity, students will listen to the teacher read the poem from a chart several times, during the week. Students will be provided with a copy of the poem “Deinonychus” to place in their poetry notebook. Students may draw a picture of their favorite dinosaur from the book or create their own dinosaur giving it a name, it meaning and pronunciation. For their illustrations, students may use colored pencils, rubber stamps, and watercolors. Students will pair read this poem and share their work with the class.

 For the second activity, students will use clean chicken or turkey bones and Plaster of Paris. The teacher will help the students place each bone in wet, packed sand to make an imprint.  The students will remove their bone and the teacher will help the students pour Plaster of Paris into the imprint (or mold). When the mixture has hardened, remove it from the sand.  Help the students label and display their fossils in the discovery center. 

Highlighted Poem

Deinonychus

die-NON-i-kus (terrible claw)

Deinonychus had terrible claws.

Deinonychus had dangerous jaws.

Deinonychus was built to attack.

Deinonychus would hunt in a pack.

Deinonychus would leap on its prey.

Deinonychus could ruin your whole day!

Multicultural Poetry

Bibliography

Mora, Pat. 2010.  Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems About Love. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN  978-0-375-94565-6.

Critical Analysis

Dizzy in Your Eyes  is a collection of fifty poems relating the coming of age experiences of preteens and teens. The poetry is written in the voice of girls and boys, who make it feel incredibly authentic.  What I like most about this collection is the handy and instructive footnotes throughout the book that explains the various styles of poetic form used in each poem. Further, sprinkled throughout the collection is a brilliant use of imagery. Mora writes in free verse, as well as an array of classic poetic forms.  Many of the poems have Spanish words that provide the reader with a sense of culture and authenticity. Unfortunately, only one poem in this book was translated in Spanish after the English version.

Each poem in Mora’s collection evokes a familiar childhood experience. My teenage son enjoys reading this book of poems. He describes it as,” A mirror into his soul.” He voiced, “I can  relate  to the topics in this poetry book because I have lived many of these.”  His favorite poem is entitled “Dumped.” He said, “I like this poem because it brings back memories of my junior high and high school years.”

Follow-Up Activity

The poem “Dumped” can be an arena for teens to discuss their thoughts and feelings about being jilted by someone they care about. Through dialogue, students will observe that they share similar experiences with their peers and they are not alone. 

Highlighted Poem

Dumped

I can’t believe you dumped me.

                For months, I felt happy inside.

What a catastrophe!

                Now I feel ugly and just want to hide.

All those months, I felt so happy inside.

                Was everything you said untrue?

Now I just want to hide

                and try to forget I loved you. Still do.

Was everything you said untrue?

                “Let’s just be friends.” I hate the words.

I’m trying to forget I loved you and still do.

                I ache at the mean rumors I’ve heard.

“Let’s just be friends.” Haunting words.

                Me, a lump you dumped, casually.

How I ache at the rumors I’ve heard.

                My heart broke, my private catastrophe.

Module One: Introducing Poetry

Module 1- Introduction to Poetry: African American Poetry

Bibliographic Citation:

Poet: Langston Hughes

Photographer: Charles R. Smith, Jr.

Title: "My People"

Publisher: New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2009,

ISBN:  9781416935407  

Critical Analysis:

          “My People” is a thirty-three word poem written by Langston Hughes, during the Harlem Renaissance, in 1923. The Harlem Renaissance is a term coined by Alain LeRoy Locke in his compelling 1925 book The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance. According to Locke, editor, educator, sociologist, and the first African American Rhodes Scholar of 1907, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary and scholarly culmination that cultivated a new-found African American cultural distinctiveness in the 1920s and 1930s. Alain Locke describes it as a "spiritual coming of age" in which the African American community was able to capture upon its "first chances for group expression and self determination."  Langston Hughes wrote “My People” during this era, a time in history of unbridled racism, limited educational and economic opportunities for African American people. Through Hughes’ uplifting words, African Americans were given a positive and inspiring image of themselves as a people full of beauty, heart and soul.

Charles R. Smith, Jr. illustrations of Langston Hughes poem “My People” personifies the beauty, heart and essence of a people Langston Hughes words captures  in a poem written over eight-eight years ago.  For example the line, "the stars are beautiful," Smith photographs the gleaming hair clips in a little girl's dark hair. Further, for "Beautiful, also, the sun" is matched with two glowing faces, angled towards a midday sun.  Smith’s sepia-colored photographs offer the reader an up-close and vivid view of the unique shades of skin tones, beauty and spirits, of the African American people Langston Hughes loved and wanted to empower through his inspiring poetry.  

Through expert photography, Charles R. Smith, Jr. expresses his creative prowess of Hughes poem with style and eloquence. Smiths’ photographs offers the reader a glimpse of a people that are of varying ages, hues, sizes and statues. His book won the Coretta Scott King award in 2010 at the ALA Youth Media Awards. According to the end cover of Smith’s book:

I wanted to show skin color as bright as the sun and as dark as the night; I wanted to show the newness of a newborn smile and the wisdom of wrinkled skin.  But, more than anything, I simply wanted to show that like any other group of people, black people come in all shapes, sizes, shades, and ages, and that each of us is unique.

Highlighted Poem:

The night is beautiful,

So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,

So the eyes of my people

Beautiful, also, is the sun.

Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

Follow up Activity:

This picture book is an excellent read aloud for all children. However, for my kindergarten students, I would utilize this book  as a multicultural activity.  Before introducing the poem, I would share background information about Langston Hughes. Next, I would place the picture book on a document camera to allow the children to view the photographs and words, as I read the poem to them. At the conclusion of the poem, I would offer the e students an opportunity to pair/share their thoughts on the poem. Then, after reading the book for at least four times, throughout the week, I would bring several digital cameras to class and allow the students to take sepia-colored photographs of their classmates. Last, I would print the photographs and help my students create a class book with their photographs illustrating Langston Hughes poem “My People.”

Module 1- Introduction to Poetry: Hopkins Collection

Bibliographic Citation:

Compiler: Lee Bennett Hopkins

Illustrator:  David Diaz

Title: Sharing the Seasons: A Book of Poems

Publisher: New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2010                                   

ISBN:   978-1-4169-0210-2

Critical Analysis:

Sharing the Seasons: A Book of Poems  is a wonderful selections of poems by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by David Diaz. Hopkins collection provides the reader with a delightful source for children to learn about the four seasons.  Hopkins introduces each of the four collections with quotations from such renowned poets as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry James, William Cullen Bryant, and William Shakespeare.  One of Hopkins poems heads each of the season collection. Further, Hopkins offers forty-eight poems, twelve for each of the four seasons. In this anthology, Hopkins presents the reader with traditional poets such as Karla Kuskin, Joseph Bruhac, Carl Sandburg, and Richard Brautigan. Moreover, twenty-nine of the poems have contemporary poets such as J. Patrick Lewis, Marilyn Singer, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and Joan Bransfield Graham. The poems in Hopkins anthology are brief enough to capture the attention of the primary student and the upper grades will enjoy the sophistication in the imagery. Both young and older students will appreciate the humor.

David Diaz, presents the reader with a bold palette of l radiant mixed illustrations that brings excitement to each seasons. Diaz illustrates how much can be understood through the changing colors of the seasons. A brilliance of color around animals, people and inanimate objects connects the stunning tones in the illustrations to create intensity and importance to each poem without overpowering the words.

Highlighted Poem:

Moon, Have You Met My Mother?

Karla Kuskin

I am softer

and colder

and whiter than you.

And I can do something

that you cannot do.

I can make

anything

beautiful:

warehouses

train tracks

an old fence

cement.

I can make anything

everything

beautiful.

What I touch,

where I blow,

even a dump filled with garbage

looks lovely

after I’ve fallen there.

I am the snow.

Follow up Activity:

This activity is a great way for young students to begin to understand the difference in weather and seasons. Students will have a better understanding of what the weather is like during the Winter and they will be able to enjoy the poems in Sharing the Seasons: A Book of Poem. This activity can be used with primary students.  Show pictures of Winter scenes from the anthology. Let students pair/share what they observe. Allow students to discuss what they do during the Winter and share their favorite activities with their partners. Explain that they are going to read poems about Winter throughout the week.  Write the poem “Moon, Have You Met My Mother?” by Karla Kuskin on chart paper. Allow the students to listen to you read the poem at least four times, during the week. Finally, supply each child with a copy of the poem and let students follow along as you read “Moon, Have You Met My Mother?” Students may illustrate their copy of the poem and place it in their poetry notebook for further reading. Students may work in groups to read and share their illustrations and interpretations of the poem with the class.

Module One: Introduction to Poetry: School Poetry

Bibliographic Citation:

Poet: Ron Koertge

Title: The Brimstone Journals

Publisher: Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2001

ISBN:   0-7636-1302-9

Critical Analysis

The Brimstone Journals is a distinctive poetic novel in free-verse. The student of The Brimstone Journals recounts the events that lead up to an attack on the school premeditated by one of their classmates. The students in the journal are bully and victim. In the end, only one will do anything about the attack. Though the varied free-verse poems, Ron Koertge reveal the humdrum, daily worries of teens and the tragedy threatening their lives. The characters are not developed, however their voices and anxiety are often authentic and crude. From an excerpt taken from Random House, Ron Koertge writes:

The Brimstone Journals chose me. The characters woke me up at night.  The entire first draft took just three weeks. Then the voices were gone and it was time to be a 
writer again instead of merely taking dictation from god-knows-where.

Highlighted Poem:

Joseph

I’m fed up with Gandhi and Martin Luther

King. Sometimes you’ve got to get people’s

attention!

So I go over to Boyd’s house.

He’s pretty ragged. “Hey, man. You just

missed Sheila.” Then he opens up this old cedar

chest and shows me.

“I got a Ruger and I got a Smith & Wesson.”

Then he picks up this Glock, holds it. “First

time Mike gave me one of these, I almost

puked.”

When I ask him if he’s okay, he reaches

into his camouflage pants and shows me

a handful of pills. “Yeah, until I forget

which of these do what. “Then he hands

me the Ruger. “Try this one. See if it

feels good.”

No way. I’ve got my hands up like he’s

an ATM robber. “Look, you haven’t been

at school. I was worried.” He shrugs.

“Whatever.” Walks me to the door. Hugs me.

Says to miss first period on Tuesday.

Out in the car, I just sit there. Is he serious?

I mean. I’ve heard stuff, but I always hear stuff:

it’s high school, right? And anywhy, who would

I tell, the same cops who dragged me to jail

the time I handcuffed myself to that bulldozer?

And then I start thinking: So he’s got a couple

of guns. He used to have a lot of skin

magazines. That didn’t make him a rapist.

And last summer, who came and got me

in the rain when I blew a tire way in the hell

out on Maxwell Road in the middle

of the night?

Boyd, that’s who.

Follow Up Activity:

     This activity is for children fourteen and up. Ask students to pair /share the meaning of bullying with their group. The teacher is to act as a facilators for student groups. As facilitator, tell students that bullying can be verbal or non-verbal, physical or non-physical. As the teacher walk among the different groups, ask students in each group what they think the saying “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can really hurt me. Ask students to turn and talk with a students in their groups to reflect on their experiences with bullies. Give each student a cut out paper “stone.” Have students write a behavior that could hurt someone or make them feel badly. Have them wrinkle up the "stone" and then try to smooth it out. Explain that once someone has been hurt, it is never forgotten. You cannot remove the hurt. The wrinkles will always be there. Hang stones on wall to create a wall of intolerance or have students sit in a circle and pile the rocks up in the middle. Ask students to think about ways to prevent these things from happening. Create a class list of ideas.

Genre 6 Fiction, Fantasy, and Young Adults

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lowry, Lois. 1993. THE GIVER. New York, New York. Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0440237688

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Jonas is a young boy who lives in a community with advanced technology and numerous rules. Jonas has only observed an aircraft twice in his eleven years of life. Airplanes are not allowed to fly over his community. It is against the set of laws of the society.
Children of the same age are brought up together and each December they advance a grade. When children reach the age of twelve, they are selected for professional training. Jonas’ professional training will be the “Receiver of Memory.” A “Receiver of Memory” is selected every so many generations and only one keeper of memories is chosen in each township. Being the “Receiver of Memory,” “Jonas’ heart swelled with gratitude and pride. But at the same time he was filled with fear. He did not know what his selection meant. He did not know what he was to become. Or what would become of him.”
Jonas and his family unit is allowed to take in an infant named Gabriel. Gabriel is not maturing and developing quickly enough for his age. Because of Jonas’ father’s position as a Nurturer, he is given a years’ extension to help Gabriel blossom and to reach his developmental goals. When Gabriel does not meet his developmental goals for his age group, he is sentenced to be released. Because of Jonas’ love for Gabriel, he decides to take Gabriel with him when he runs away from his community. During Jonas and Gabriel’s winter flight, Jonas and Gabriel are cold and starving. Jonas realizes he and Gabriel will not survive unless he transfers his memories he has received from the Giver of warmth to Gabriel so they will continue to exist.
Before escaping his dystopia community, Jonas believes his life is perfect and that the elders are right in all decisions. Jonas realizes he lives in a world without choices. Jonas is given the power of knowledge thanks to the Giver. With this power, Jonas must decide upon a life of sameness or a life in which he can save a child and they can make their own choices and memories together.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Jonas lives in a perfect world in Lois Lowry novel THE GIVER. The family units in Jonas' world consist of a mother, father, and two children (a boy and a girl). There are rules that everyone follows and nobody deviates from these rules. As a member of this community, if a member breaks a rule, the rule breaker is given three chances. If a given rule is broken after the third time, the rule breaker is “released” from the community.
Everyone is happy being the same in this society. Soon it is time for Jonas to have his twelve's ceremony. All the children who will be twelve will be given their role for their adulthood professions. Jonas is nervous because he doesn't know exactly what job he will be given. When it comes time for him to be given the job of the next Receiver of Memory, he has no idea what this job demands. He meets the current Receiver of Memory, who is now called The Giver. The Giver walks Jonas through the unavoidable training. It is through these training that Jonas comprehends there is more out there than sameness. There are colors and feelings. Jonas understands there is a life within reach that he never experienced before. Jonas wants to experience this life of choices.
THE GIVER is a science fiction novel. In Jonas’ community, there is no such thing as choice. When a child is born, it is placed in the hands of a Nurturer. The child isn't given a name until the December Ceremony. Every December, there is a ceremony celebrating the year's in the life of a child. The new-child is assigned his or her family (one that is chosen for that child). Every family unit is allowed two children. One boy and one girl. As the years move forward, so do the ceremonies. At age eight, the child is allowed to start his volunteer hours. At the age of nine, the child is given his first bike. At the age of twelve, the child is given his “Assignment”. This assignment is the job the child will assume for the rest of his or her life. When Jonas starts his training, he meets "The Giver", the man he is replacing as a Receiver of Memories. The Giver must "give" memories to Jonas. And not just memories of the Community, but memories that have been passed from Receiver to Receiver. He is given memories of color, because there is no longer color in the world of Sameness. He is given beautiful memories of snow and love and family, all things that he has never experienced. When Jonas is shown the tape of what it really means to be released, he must find the courage within himself to try to change this way of life for Gabriel. Jonas doesn't want Gabriel to be released.
Lowry has created a world that is structured and filled with sameness. Jonas is a compassionate, loving and courageous character. Lois Lowry presents characters that become less complex as the story becomes more involved. The reader will discover that the characters in this novel are superficial. This discovery binds the reader closer to Jonas and his journey of awareness of the world around him.
Lois Lowry’s use of imagery allows the reader to become accustomed to the abnormal society she portrays. By giving logical and thorough descriptions for everything from “comfort objects” to “Release,” the reader never feels that such a life is missing something important until he or she is introduced to “The Receiver.”
The Receiver is the holder of all memory, pain and pleasure that has been set aside in order to attain and maintain peace and order in this community. When Jonas is chosen as the next Receiver, he begins the process of taking on all of those memories. Through his explicit experiences Jonas begins to realize how much the community has lost by being the same. Lois Lowry uses language brilliantly in her novel to portray a character that changes the reader’s thought process. As Jonas becomes more aware of emotions and his individual purpose, the language becomes increasingly heated and urgent. As the climax is set up, an awareness of drastic change is felt by Jonas and the reader.
THE GIVER is convincingly plotted and rich with contemplation. The reader is left wondering if Jonas and Gabriel will have a better and a brighter future.

4. REVIEW(S)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: “In the "ideal" world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's
adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are "released"--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also "released," but with no fanfare. Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world. With a story-line that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher's Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form--raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.”
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “In a complete departure from her other novels, Lowry has written an intriguing
story set in a society that is uniformly run by a Committee of Elders. Twelve-year-old Jonas's confidence in his comfortable "normal" existence as a member of this well-ordered community is shaken when he is assigned his life's work as the Receiver. The Giver, who passes on to Jonas the burden of being the holder for the community of all memory "back and back and back," teaches him the cost of living in an environment that is "without color, pain, or past." The tension leading up to the Ceremony, in which children are promoted not to another grade but to another stage in their life, and the drama and responsibility of the sessions with The Giver are gripping. The final flight for survival is as riveting as it is inevitable. The author makes real abstract concepts, such as the meaning of a life in which there are virtually no choices to be made and no experiences with deep feelings. This tightly plotted story and its believable characters will stay with readers for a long time.”
KIRKUS REVIEWS: “In a radical departure from her realistic fiction and comic chronicles of Anastasia, Lowry creates a chilling, tightly controlled future
society where all controversy, pain, and choice have been expunged, each childhood year has its privileges and responsibilities, and family members are selected for compatibility. As Jonas approaches the “Ceremony of Twelve,” he wonders what his adult “Assignment”' will be. Father, a “Nurturer” cares for “new-children”; Mother works in the “Department of Justice”; but Jonas's admitted talents suggest no particular calling. In the event, he is named “Receiver,” to replace an Elder with a unique function: holding the community's memories--painful, troubling, or prone to lead (like love) to disorder; the Elder (‘The Giver”) now begins to transfer these memories to Jonas. The process is deeply disturbing; for the first time, Jonas learns about ordinary things like color, the sun, snow, and mountains, as well as love, war, and death: the ceremony known as “release” is revealed to be murder. Horrified, Jonas plots escape to “Elsewhere,” a step he believes will return the memories to all the people, but his timing is upset by a decision to release a new-child he has come to love. Ill-equipped, Jonas sets out with the baby on a desperate journey whose enigmatic conclusion resonates with allegory: Jonas may be a Christ figure, but the contrasts here with Christian symbols are also intriguing. Wrought with admirable skill--the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly provocative novel.”

5. CONNECTIONS
*Many students are disappointed with the ending of THE GIVER. Allow students to write an alternate ending to THE GIVER in their journals.
*Create an invitation to Jonas' upcoming Ceremonies that invites Community members to attend. Explain what the ceremonies are about and what will occur. Include appropriate images and make the invitation attractive and motivational. The invitation should be designed in the shape of a card.
*The Giver passes the memories through his hands to Jonas. Draw around your hand on a piece of paper. On your hand shape, write about your favorite memory.
*In a journal, students are to write about their three most memorable scenes from the book.
*Other books by Lois Lowry:
Lowry, Lois. GATHERING BLUE. ISBN 0440229499
Lowry, Lois. MESSENGER. ISBN 0618404414
Lowry, Lois. NUMBER THE STARS. ISBN 0440227534
Lowry, Lois. LOOKING BACK: A BOOK OF MEMORIES. ISBN 0385326998
Lowry, Lois. AUTUMN STREET. ISBN 0395278120

Genre 6 Fiction, Fantasy, and Young Adults

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hiaasen, Carl. 2002. HOOT. New York, New York. Random House, Inc. ISBN 0440421705

2. PLOT SUMMARY
HOOT is a novel about Roy Eberhardt, the new kid in school. On Roy’s first day of school, he's pinned the names "Tex" and the nickname sticks likes glue and so does the harassment in school. Because Roy Eberhardt is the new kid on the block, his life is never meant to be simple. Roy’s main goal in life is to not be noticed and to be left alone. Throughout this novel, Roy Eberhardt encounters many interesting characters in Florida. Roy’s first encounter is with the school’s bully, Dana Matherson. Next, he sees running through the neighborhood, Mullet Fingers, a boy Roy’s own age that lives in the woods. Mullet Fingers lives in the woods to protect the burrowing owls. Then, Roy meets Beatrice Leep, Mullet Fingers stepsister and Mullet Finger’s protector. The reader will discover that Beatrice is Roy’s protector too.
Mullet Fingers is on an environmental mission in HOOT. He is trying to save burrowing owls from being destroyed by the Mother Paula’s Pancake House, which is supposed to be building a new restaurant where the owls live.
Mullet Fingers employs numerous tactics to stop Mother’s Paula’s Pancake House from building where the endangered burrowing owls dwell. First, Mullet Fingers place alligators in the port-a-potties on the building site. Next, Mullet Fingers positions snakes all over the job site to scare off the builders. This is only a few strategies Mullet Fingers uses in HOOT to halt the building of the Mother Paula’s Pancake House.
Roy tries to employ a different measure to help Mullet Fingers and Beatrice to save the burrowing owls. Roy checks out the Mother Paula's Permits to make sure they are in order. Roy gives a speech to his classmates to get them on board to save the burrowing owls. He enlist their help at the Mother Paula’s Pancake groundbreaking ceremony.
These few young teen try to save the endangered burrowing owls during this action-packed novel. Throughout this book, reader will wonder if Mullet Fingers, Roy and Beatrice will succeed with helping the burrowing owls escape their eminent doom.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In HOOT, the plot employs Roy Eberhardt, an intelligent, smart teen who has just moved to Florida from Montana. Roy misses the mountains and wilderness of Montana. As a young teen who has moved a lot, he's not surprised to be the victim of bully Dana Matherson. While being battered by Dana on the school bus, Roy sees a kid running along the sidewalk, a kid with no backpack and no shoes. Fascinated, he sets out to find him and gets involved with trying to save the endangered burrowing owls. In HOOT, the adults seem to be ignoring the burrows of tiny owls that will be buried by the bulldozing equipment. Roy's parents explain, "'Roy, they own the property. They can do pretty much whatever they please.' 'But-' 'They've probably got all the necessary paperwork and permits.' 'They got permits to bury owls?' Roy asked in disbelief. 'The owls will fly away. They'll find new dens somewhere else.' 'What if they've got babies? How will the baby birds fly away?' Roy shot back angrily. 'How, Dad?' 'I don't know,' his father admitted. 'How would you and Mom like it,' Roy pressed on, 'if a bunch of strangers showed up one day with a bulldozers to flatten this house? And all they had to say was 'Don't worry, Mr. and Mrs. Eberhardt, it's no big deal. Just pack up and move to another place.' How would you feel about that?' Roy's father stood up slowly, as if the weight of a hundred bricks were on his shoulders.'" Roy and his new friends are not about to take the destruction of the owls' burrows lightly. 
This novel carries the reader along with a pleasing suspense and steady pace. The author provides neat encapsulations of each character's motivations. Roy Eberhardt is an interesting character, one who may very well encourage young readers to question authority when necessary and act to protect the environment. HOOT is an example of superb contemporary realistic fiction for young adults. The young people in the story are believable and real.The adults tend to be more one-sided and stereotypical. For example, Mullet Finger's mother is evil and only cares about herself and looking good for the cameras. For example, "She was all dressed up like she'd been invited to a party, and she wasn't the least bit shy about sticking her nose in front of the cameras. Roy overheard her tell a reporter how proud she was of her boy, risking his freedom to save the poor helpless owls. 'He's my brave little champion!' Lonna crowed obnoxiously.' With a phony squeal of affection, she charged toward the wall of humanity that encircled her son.'"
Another interesting adult character is the idiot deputy Delinko, who wants to be promoted to detective and tries to look good for his captain and Roy's parents. He states, "'Speaking of jobs, 'Officer Delinko said, ' you remember the other night when I brought Roy home with his flat tire?' 'Of course.' 'In all that nasty weather.' 'Yes, I remember,' said Mr. Eberhardt impatiently. 'Did he happen to mention anything about you writing up a letter for me?' 'What kind of a letter?' 'To our police chief,' Officer Delinko said. 'No biggie- just a note for the permanent file, saying you folks appreciated me helping out your boy. Something along those lines.' 'And this 'note' should be sent to the chief?' 'Or to the captain. Even my sergeant would be okay. Roy didn't ask you?' 'Not that I recall,' said Mr. Eberhardt. 'Well, you know how kids are. He probably forgot.' 'what's your sergeant's name? I'll see what I can do.' Roy's father made no effort to conceal his lack of enthusiasm. He was running out of tolerance for the pushy young cop. 'Thanks a million,' Officer Delinko said, pumping Mr. Eberhardt's hand. 'Every little bit helps when you're trying to get ahead. And something like this, coming from a federal agent such as yourself-'"
The plot of the story is very contemporary and true to life. It concerns young people who are trying to protect the environment and are willing to go against adults and even large corporations to accomplish their goals.
This is a very realistic book. The conversation is natural, believable, and appropriate to the situation.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
PUBLISHERS WEKLY: “
With a Florida setting and proenvironment, antidevelopment message, Hiaasen (SICK PUPPY) returns to familiar turf for his first novel for young readers. Characteristically quirky characters and comic twists will surely gain the author new fans, though their attention may wander during his narrative's intermittently protracted focus on several adults, among them a policeman and the manager of a construction site for a new franchise of a pancake restaurant chain. Both men are on a quest to discover who is sabotaging the site at night, including such pranks as uprooting survey stakes, spray-painting the police cruiser's windows while the officer sleeps within and filling the portable potties with alligators. The story's most intriguing character is the boy behind the mischief, a runaway on a mission to protect the miniature owls that live in burrows underneath the site. Roy, who has recently moved to Florida from Montana, befriends the homeless boy (nicknamed Mullet Fingers) and takes up his cause, as does the runaway's stepsister. Though readers will have few doubts about the success of the kids' campaign, several suspenseful scenes build to the denouement involving the sitcom-like unraveling of a muckity-muck at the pancake house. These, along with dollops of humor, help make the novel quite a hoot indeed.”


 SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “Packed with quirky characters and improbable plot twists, Hiaasen's first novel for young readers is entertaining but ultimately not very memorable. Fans of the author's adult novels will find trademark elements-including environmental destruction, corrupt politicians, humorous situations, and a Florida setting-all viewed through the eyes of a middle-school student. Roy Eberhardt has just moved with his family to Coconut Cove. He immediately becomes the target of a particularly dense bully who tries to strangle him on the school bus. Roy seems more concerned, however, with discovering the identity of a running, barefoot boy he spots through the window of the bus. Meanwhile, plans to build a pancake house on a vacant lot are derailed when someone vandalizes the construction site. The two story lines come together when Roy discovers that the runaway boy is disrupting the construction to save a group of burrowing owls. Roy must help his new friend, nicknamed Mullet Fingers, as well as fend off the bully and adapt to life in Florida. The story is silly at times but rarely laugh-out-loud funny, and there are several highly unlikely scenes. Also, it wraps up a little too neatly-Roy's classmates join him to protest the construction project, his father finds the missing environmental impact report, and the owls are saved. While Roy is a sympathetic protagonist, few of the other characters are well developed. Students looking for humorous, offbeat characters and situations will probably prefer Louis Sachar's HOLES (Farrar, 1998) or books by Daniel Pinkwater.
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BOOKLIST: “It seems unlikely that the master of noir-tinged, surrealistic black humor would write a novel for young readers. And, yet, there has always been something delightfully juvenile about Hiaasen's imagination; beneath the bent cynicism lurks a distinctly 12-year-old cackle. In this thoroughly engaging tale of how middle-schooler Roy Eberhardt, new kid in Coconut Cove, learns to love South Florida, Hiaasen lets his inner kid run rampant, both the subversive side that loves to see grown-ups make fools of themselves and the righteously indignant side, appalled at the mess being made of our planet. When Roy teams up with some classic children's lit outsiders to save the home of some tiny burrowing owls, the stage is set for a confrontation between right-thinking kids and slow-witted, wrongheaded civic boosters. But Hiaasen never lets the formula get in his way; the story is full of offbeat humor, buffoonish yet charming supporting characters, and genuinely touching scenes of children enjoying the wildness of nature. He deserves a warm welcome into children's publishing.”

5. CONNECTIONS
*Other books for children in this genre:
DeFelice, Cynthia. LOSTMAN’S RIVER. ISBN 0380723964
Barron, T.A. TREE GIRL. ISBN 0441009948
Pfitsch, Patricia Curtis. RIDING THE FLUME. ISBN 0689866925
Hobbs, Valerie. STEFAN’S STORY. ISBN 0374372403
Sachar, Louis. HOLES. ISBN 0440419468
* Students are to research the Internet and read trade books about the species of burrowing owls. Students are to create a large, colorful poster about the burrowing owls. Students are to share with the class their
poster and facts they learned about burrowing owls.
* Students are to create a poster comparing and contrasting the family situations of the Eberhardts,
The Mathersons, and the Leeps. Students are to include
information on how the families interact and
act.