The Impact of Literature on My Life

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman

In this book, a little boy with a fascination for outer space is taken to a lecture given by an astronomer. He is taken by his parents to hear this speaker, he is intrigued by the diagrams and models, but when it comes time to listen to the speech, he becomes tired and bored. Upon completion of the speech, the little boy wanders off outside alone. As he walks along, he realizes that he is surrounded by the very thing he is fascinated by, the stars and outer space. This is an absolutely beautiful book. Loren Long did an exquisite job illustrating this book. The pictures are unbelievably detailed and realistic. I think that this is a great book for older children, however, for children at the lower grade levels, this would be a difficult book to share. The words in this book are minimal and not found on every page. Although the words in this book are powerful it is the pictures that really enhance the story. The illustrations are so detailed that students need to have time to actually study them and enjoy them. Little kids are not going to stay still and be patient enough to take in the beauty of the pictures. I don't believe that they will be able to grasp the words and what they mean either. The only way that it would really be possible to share this book with children would be to not read the words to them and allow them to make up the story themselves as if it were a wordless book. I would use this book in my classroom for older children and possibly tie it into an art lesson and project.

I Love Saturdays y domingos by Alma Flor Ada

I Love Saturdays y domingos by Alma Flor Ada is a book about a little girl that comes from a bi-racial family. Her father is White and her mother is Mexican-American. This story is about her weekends with her grandparents. Saturdays she spends with one set of grandparents and Sundays she spends with the other. The story addresses the multicultural aspects of daily life and traditions within families. I think that is a great book for kids to read and be exposed to because it shows how varying cultures celebrate certain traditions. My main reason for liking this particular book however, is that it shares common every day experiences that children have. Everyone has someone in their lives that tell stories, everyone has a birthday, etc. I think that even for children that do not come from multicultural backgrounds, they can learn from this book that these children are exactly like them. They have families, birthdays, feelings and they are not so different from them when they start looking deeper than just the surface. This book also teaches children introductory Spanish words. It is a great way to incorporate the learning of another language. Also, for the class that has children that may only speak Spanish, it is a wonderful way to help engage them in the lesson. They can help pronounce the words and give some of their own experiences without feeling left out because they do not speak English.

My Name is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada

Maria Isabel is a little girl that has just moved into a new neighborhood with her family. Life seems to be turned upside down for this little girl when she gets to school and finds that there are already two other little girls in her class with the name Maria. In order to simplify things, the teacher decides that Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez should be called Mary Lopez. Due to this name change, this little girl looses her sense of self. She does not know how to respond to the name Mary Lopez, because that is not her name. Her entire demeanor changes and she is unhappy. Throughout the book, Maria Isabel struggles with the change, but doesn't ever say anything to anyone about how much she dislikes being called Mary. She is proud of her name and wishes to be called by it but doesn't know how to approach the teacher. One day, however, the teacher assigns a writing project that is entitled "My Greatest Wish". Maria Isabel starts out with several wishes, but then decides that her greatest wish is to be called Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez instead of Mary Lopez. The teacher listens to what Maria Isabel has written and she corrects her mistake. I think that this is a fabulous book. I was able to relate very closely with this book. I am named after both my grandmothers and one name without the other is just not the same. I have battled my whole life trying to make people understand that my name is both names together, not just Mary. A person's name is something important to each person, it is something you need to always get right. In this book, the teacher was trying to simplify life for her, but she was forgetting the most important part, how it made the child feel. She never even asked. I think that as future educators we are responsible for not only thinking about our actions, but also in this type of situation, asking about how our action directly will affect the child. We do not want to put the children in our classroom into an environment that prevents learning all because we have decided something that simplifies our own lives. The children are the most important thing in our classroom and we should support them in any way possible. The first day of class when roll is called, we should make it a point to ask the children if there is something else that they would prefer to be called and respect their changes if there are any, as long as they are within reason of course. I think that this is a fabulous book. The book is obviously too advanced for kindergarten, however, it could possibly be used in a read aloud over several days, or read just a portion to convey a point about the importance of names and respecting the things that make us all unique.

The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi is a story of a little girl name Unhei that has just moved to the United States from Korea with her family. Unhei is starting school and decides that her name is too different from the other kids and wants an American name so that she can fit in. Joey, a little boy in her classroom, decides to help along with the rest of the kids in her class. They come up with something known as the name jar. Every day, the students place little slips of paper with names written on them into the jar. These are names that Unhei can look through and try out until she decides on a new name. Unhei misses her Grandmother terribly, but she has the name stamp that her grandmother had given her that helps her ease the pain. Her grandmother and mother went to a name master to get her name, which in Korean means "grace". As Unhei searches for a new name, there just doesn't ever seem to be one that fits. Through her search for a new name, there is constant reinforcement that the name she was given by her parents is the best name for her. Her new found friend, Joey, ends up being the biggest supporter of her Korean name and helps her to realize that she should keep it. I think that this is a fantastic story for kids to read. It is one of my favorite books. This book not only introduces the ideas of multiculturalism in the classrooms but also a common experience that most children at this age have- the desire to be called something else. I know from personal experience that I wanted to change my name when I was little. I did not like having the double name- I wanted to be called just Mary or then just Blake, but after a few days of that, I came home and told my mom that I wanted to be called Mary Blake again. It seems to be something that all kids go through for some reason. As I got older I realized the meaning that my name had and why I was given that name. I think that this book shows kids that there is more to choosing a name than just pulling it out of a jar. There are so many different opportunities to teach lessons from this book. In kindergarten, the kids are just learning to spell and write their names. What a wonderful idea to get them to go home and find out what the story is behind their name or if there is no story then to find out what their name actually means. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think it is a great read for whoever reads it and I will definitely be sharing it in my classroom.

Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marissa Montes

Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marissa Montes is a wonderful book that teaches children about the tradition of Halloween from the Hispanic perspective. The book is based around the celebration of the Day of the Dead. Yuyi Morales illustrated this book beautifully. The illustrations are absolutely exquisite. Even though I enjoyed this book, I do not believe that it would be a book that I would share with my children in my classroom. I think that the children would find some of the ideas scary and the pictures frightening. I plan to teach kindergarten and it would be very difficult to explain some of these concepts to children so young. The other potential issue with this book would be the parents of the children. There may be some parents that would be highly against their children being exposed to ideas of witches, skeletons, and "the living dead". This book addresses some highly sensitive issues that need to be taken into consideration. Despite the fact that I thought it was a good book for me, I do not think that it is a book to be shared with children so young. I plan to one day teach in Lubbock and I am not sure that the community would agree with this selection. I do think that for older kids that have been exposed to topics of this nature and the idea of death has been explained, this book is wonderful. There are so many great craft lessons that can be created from this book, many of them art related.