Book Review: AN AMERICAN PLAGUE
NOTE: This book review was created for a class at TWU
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Murphy, Jim. 2003. AN AMERICAN PLAGUE. New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 0395776082

2. PLOT SUMMARY:
AN AMERICAN PLAGUE tells the story of the Philadelphia Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793, from the very first days in August, before the citizens of the city of brotherly love realized that a dreaded disease was in their midst, to the late October days of the city's recovery. The story is told in narrative style through the eyes of the citizens who suffered, died, or survived. The final two chapters are devoted to the history of changes in the plague's aftermath, to the discovery of yellow fever's carrier, the mosquito in the early 1900s.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

For many students, just the thought of reading a non-fiction title about early American history can cause symptoms similar to those described in AN AMERICAN PLAGUE. Said pupil, when confronted by such a task may feel feverish, "depressed, confused, and delirious." Yet even the most non-fictionophobic reader would find his or her aversion to informational texts disappear by the end of the first paragraph of Jim Murphy's wonderful retelling of the events during the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793.

Although the book is highly accurate and meticulously researched and documented, AN AMERICAN PLAGUE reads like a historical mystery novel. Witness the following excerpts from the first page: "Saturday, August 3, 1793. The sun came up, as it had every day since the end of May, bright, hot, and unrelenting. The swamps and marshes south of Philadelphia had already lost a great deal of water...Dead fish and gooey vegetable matter exposed and rotted...Mosquitoes were everywhere, though their high pitched whirring was particularly loud near rain barrels, gutters, and open sewers." The book begins like a journal entry, and within a few short lines, the reader is immersed in the time period and setting. Murphy has even introduced the prime suspect in the mystery - the mosquito.

Once the reader has been drawn in to his tale, the author then supplies fascinating facts, explaining the 18th century sewer system that used open gutters and "sinks" to remove waste, and describing in vivid detail the symptoms of the yellow fever victim. Accompanying the text throughout the book are engravings, excerpts from newspapers, maps, advertisements, cartoons, and portraits.

Accuracy is not sacrificed for imagery, however, and Murphy uses precise language where needed. He describes the last stage of the yellow fever patient thusly, "The skin and eyeballs turned yellow, as red blood cells were destroyed, causing the bile pigment bilirubin to accumulate in the body; nose, gums, and intestines began bleeding; and the patient vomited stale, black blood." If the author had "dumbed-down" the description and left it at "The patient vomited black blood," it would not only be less informative, but less interesting as well.

Each chapter of AN AMERICAN PLAGUE begins with a similar journal-like entry, building upon a cast of characters, from Dr. Rush, whose early warnings were ignored, to Reverend Helmuth, who visited stricken patients throughout the city. Murphy's narrative is interspersed with quotes from such eyewitnesses, providing not only fascinating details, but also different perspectives on those terrible months in 1793.

Throughout the book, the questions of what caused the yellow fever, how it spread, and how another epidemic could be prevented, flow beneath the unfolding events. Like Philadelphia citizen Dr. Rush, the reader looks for clues in every eyewitness's story, until finally, at the end of the book, Murphy narrates how, in the early 1900s, doctors discovered that yellow fever was a mosquito borne virus. The mystery solved, it still took almost 40 years to come up with a vaccine, and many more years to make government changes to help prevent another epidemic. Indeed, AN AMERICAN PLAGUE brings us almost up to the present, connecting real world current health threats with the yellow fever threat of over 200 years ago.

AN AMERICAN PLAGUE has won numerous awards, including the Robert F. Sibert Award for outstanding non-fiction. Like all of Jim Murphy's books, it was born out of his curiosity and developed through research into a wonderful narrative about a terrible disaster. In his acceptance speech for the Horn Book Award, Murphy said that, "Writing about any disaster provides a natural story line with a beginning, middle, and end, but readers deserve more. Broader historical issues, odd and intriguing characters, and humor, to name a few." In AN AMERICAN PLAGUE Murphy provides everything the readers deserve, including the cure for non-fictionophobia.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
School Library Journal: "Black-and-white reproductions of period art, coupled with chapter headings that face full-page copies of newspaper articles of the time, help bring this dreadful episode to life. An afterword explains the yellow fever phenomenon, its causes, and contemporary outbreaks, and source notes are extensive and interesting. Pair this work with Laurie Halse Anderson's wonderful novel Fever 1793 (S & S, 2000) and you'll have students hooked on history."

Booklist: "History, science, politics, and public health come together in this dramatic account of the disastrous yellow fever epidemic that hit the nation's capital more than 200 years ago. Drawing on firsthand accounts, medical and non-medical, Murphy re-creates the fear and panic in the infected city, the social conditions that caused the disease to spread, and the arguments about causes and cures."

5. CONNECTIONS
*Science: After reading AN AMERICAN PLAGUE, students could tackle questions of world health and mosquito-borne diseases such as yellow fever, malaria, and the West Nile virus. Students could watch program four "Deadly Messengers" of PBS's award-winning series "Rx for Survival" and role play how disease spreads. Following the role play, students brainstorm ways to halt the spread of disease in a global economy. Use the lesson that accompanies the program for guidance: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/series/teachers/pdf/rx_guide_messengers.pdf

*Language Arts/US History: Use exerpts from AN AMERICAN PLAGUE along with selections from Laurie Halse Anderson's novel FEVER 1793 (ISBN 0689848919), parts of the recently published treatise on how yellow fever could be used as a biological weapon, entitled YELLOW FEVER: A DEADLY DISEASE POISED TO KILL AGAIN (ISBN 1591023998) by James Dickerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Evangeline," Phillip Freneau's short poem "Pestilence" written in 1793 (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/forrest/WW/feverlit.html), and "Ye Heroes of Ye Epidemic" a long narrative poem written about a Florida yellow fever epidemic in 1888 (http://fulltext10.fcla.edu/DLData/NF/NF00000039/file2.pdf), to learn more about America's early history, and about how one topic, yellow fever, can be described from different points of view and for different purposes. Students could then research another event in early American history, such as the Salem Witch Trials, and try their hand at writing a nonfiction chapter, a short story, poetry, or a modern day take on that event.
* Jim Murphy's acceptance speech for the Horn Book Award is hilarious and enlightening. It would be a wonderful way to begin a discussion of how to write nonfiction and/or what it means to be a writer. The transcript can be found at: http://www.hbook.com/publications/magazine/articles/jan05_murphy.asp

Book Review: LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY
*NOTE: This review has been created for a class at TWU.
Image courtesy of: http://www.amazon.com

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Freedman, Russell. 1987. LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY. New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 0899193803

2. PLOT SUMMARY:
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's biography is told in both pictures and words by Russell Freedman in LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY. In seven chapters, Freedman details Lincoln's life, beginning with a general introduction discussing how Lincoln's image was captured by both those who knew him and modern day historians, and how we are still fascinated by the president who is now "admired as a folk hero." Using photographs, drawings, primary documents, and text, Freedman describes Lincoln from childhood to his death. The end of LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY contains a section of quotes by the great man, a travel itinerary for those interested in following in his footsteps, a resource list of books about Lincoln, and a detailed index for easy reference.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
Accuracy is the most important criterion in judging a nonfiction title, and Russell Freedman's "photobiography" of Abraham Lincoln is both meticulously researched and highly accurate. Freedman has written over 50 books for young people, and LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY is a Newbery Medal winner. In researching Lincoln's life, Freedman traveled in Lincoln's footsteps, gathering information from experts on Lincoln's life and work from around the United States. As a bonus for readers, the author shares his sources in the Acknowledgements section at the back of the book, along with a list of books about Lincoln with reading suggestions. Freedman also includes a list of historic sites that "played an important part in Lincoln's life, career, and death." The list includes a description and contact information so that we, too, can "walk in Lincoln's footsteps."

Yet accuracy is just scratches the surface of what LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY has to offer. Apart from the first chapter, the book is organized in chronological order, beginning with Lincoln's birth and childhood, and ending with the President's untimely death. The first chapter, however, really grabs the reader's attention. Entitled "The Mysterious Mr. Lincoln," this chapter not only gives a short history of how Lincoln was viewed during his day up to the present noting the elusiveness of both man and myth, and clearly showing Freedman's passion for his subject matter. "Abraham Lincoln wasn't the sort of man who could lose himself in a crowd," writes the author, "After all, he stood six feet four inches tall, and to top it off, he wore a high silk hat."

Throughout the rest of the biography, Freedman uses a variety of techniques to engage the reader. In Chapter Two, lively comparisons evoke vivid images of Lincoln as a child. He is described as "a tall spider of a boy," growing fast and "shooting up like a sunflower." Later in the chapter, well-quotes from Lincoln's relatives further enhance the description, and the use of dialect puts the reader right into the time and place of Lincoln's childhood. The author quotes a cousin who describes Lincoln as "the gangliest awkwardest feller," who "would carry a book out to the field with him, so he could read at the end of each plow furrow, while the horse was getting its breath." Quotes are used again with great effect in the final chapter of Lincoln's life entitled, "Who is Dead in the White House?" Here, Freedman quotes Lincoln himself, saying, "I long ago made up my mind that if anyone wants to kill me, he will do it. If I wore a shirt of mail, and kept myself surrounded by a bodyguard, it would be all the same. There are a thousand ways of getting at a man if it is desired that he should be killed."

In other parts of LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY, the attractive design engages the reader. As the author mentions in the first chapter, Lincoln was the most photographed man of his time, but Freedman doesn't simply sprinkle his text with photographs. Instead, he puts them in thought-provoking compositions, as in Chapter Four, where, along the bottom of the two-page spread, four photos of Lincoln from late 1860 to early 1861 show his transformation by growing a beard. The progression is both intriguing and humanizing. Photographs are not, however, the only type of visual element used in the book. Text is accompanied by manuscripts, engravings, and political cartoons. In Chapter Five, a political cartoon ridiculing Lincoln's clandestine arrival in Washington illustrates the following anecdotal description: "Word of Lincoln's secret night ride spread fast...They taunted him Lincoln as a hick with a high-pitched voice and a Kentucky twang, an ugly gorilla and baboon."

Finally, Freedman fills his "photobiography" with fascinating facts so numerous, there isn't space to list them all here, but one that sticks in this reader's mind is the fact that Lincoln had a house full of pets, including a goat, which slept on his son Tad's bed. Taken in total, all these techniques, the use of quotes, a variety of visual elements, the inclusion of anecdotes, fascinating facts, and lively comparisons, combine to create a biography of a great man that is engaging, thought-provoking, and humanizing. LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY sets the bar high for juvenile biographies and works of non-fiction.



4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Booklist Editor's Choice: "A realistic, perceptive, and unromanticized photobiography of Lincoln, including a sampler of quotations from his writings and speeches."

School Library Journal: "Well-organized and well-written, this is an outstanding example of what (juvenile) biography can be. Like Lincoln himself, it stands head and shoulders above its competition."

5. CONNECTIONS
*Explore Lincoln's life and times further with the aid of the PBS series "The American Experience." Compare and contrast the video documentary "Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided" with Freedman's book. Lesson plans to go with the film can be found at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lincolns/tguide/index.html

*LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY is a great mentor text for students writing biographies of role models in their lives. Using it, along with other great biographies such as DARE TO DREAM: 25 EXTRAORDINARY LIVES (ISBN 1591022800) by Sandra McLeod Murphy, which offers engaging, short sketches easily accessible to reluctant readers and THE MAN WHO MADE TIME TRAVEL (ISBN 0374347883) written by Kathryn Lasky and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, which exemplifies how to create a picture book biography, students can gather information on someone in their lives whom they admire to create their own biographical sketches. A starting point might be the list of monthly character traits used in many schools. Students could brainstorm people they know who share each character trait. Then, in mini-lessons, the teacher could demonstrate the craft of "showing, not telling" in writing. Students could then narrow their topic down to one character trait and role model, choosing someone whom they could interview. After conducting interviews with the role model and those who know the role models, students create either a "photobiography," biographical sketch, or picture book biography. Once the biography projects are complete, students invite the role models to a reading and present the projects to the role model as a gift. At Taylor Middle School, we do this project every year in December with the 7th grade students, and it is motivating for the students and memorable for the role models.

Book Review: AUTUMN ACROSS AMERICA
*Note: This book review was created for a class at TWU.
Photograph courtesy of www.mooseyscountrygarden.com

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Simon, Seymour. 1993. AUTUMN ACROSS AMERICA. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 0152163956

2. PLOT SUMMARY:
Author Seymour Simon takes the reader on a photographic journey across America in autumn while describing the scientific reasons for the season, along with its effects on flora, fauna, and man in this informational trade picture book. Beginning with a description of autumn's beauty, continuing with information about why the seasons change, why leaves change colors and fall, why animals migrate, how the season affects insects, how plants distribute seeds during the autumn, and how the season differs in each region of America, the book ends as it began, with a description of autumn's beauty and meaning for the Earth.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
Although AUTUMN ACROSS AMERICA was written more than 10 years ago, it contains many of the qualities that have come to define engaging informational picture books in recent years. The book's design is very attractive, with a beautiful mix of text and photography that draws the reader from page to page, alternating breathtaking landscape shots of trees, country roads, and mountains, with close-ups of fallen leaves, unusual insects, and pumpkins. The most striking picture is that of the lowly milkweed, releasing its seeds like a miniature fireworks display. The text accompanying the milkweed picture intertwines in-depth factual information such as "Seeds...contain an embryo, or young plant, and a supply of food," with more lyrical descriptions of how the seeds are scattered. "When a pod splits open in October," writes Simon, "only a few seeds at a time are released. Their silken parachutes catch the faintest breeze, and they sail off to unknown destinations." Such compelling details, and little known facts, as in the section on the monarch butterfly, which flies "from ten to 15 miles per hour, traveling eighty miles or more a day," are enhanced with fascinating comparisons. Seeds are "travelers" "hitchhiking" and aspens are a "slash of golden light" amid the green of fir trees. While the colorful subject matter will appeal to younger readers, Simon does not "dumb down" the vocabulary, using scientific terms that will inform older readers as well. For this reader, who quickly tires of theories, facts, and figures, AUTUMN ACROSS AMERICA was a refreshing and eye-catching change, and a reminder that the seasons both inspire poetry and serve nature's purposes.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
School Library Journal: "Since there is no index and no table of contents, children looking for specific information will be frustrated. The book's main attraction is its design-beautiful photographs set in pages of glowing fall colors... Seasonal materials are always in demand; this one is a good choice for browsers."

Booklist: "Simon's first book in a series about the changing seasons introduces autumn as a 'season of memory and change.' By the book's end, readers will grasp the significance of that phrase. Throughout this tribute, each double-page spread contains at least one, sometimes two, four-color photographs of a typical fall scene opposite two or three paragraphs of Simon's information-packed text, all appearing on a brilliant background color. This makes each turn of the page a delightful shock, not unlike the astonishment of seeing the first orange tree of fall."

5. CONNECTIONS
*Use this book with others about how foliage changes such as Sylvia Johnson's HOW LEAVES CHANGE (ISBN 0822595133) and AUTUMN LEAVES (ISBN 0590298798) by Ken Robbins to support students in creating an observation notebook of changes in foliage in their own neighborhood. This could help to teach the scientific method, descriptive writing, or, in combination with students' photographs, become the basis of a photo essay. Other activities connecting to fall foliage and photosynthesis can be found on EducationWorld at: http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson024.shtml
* Using Simon's format as a model, older students in World Geography could write their own "Autumn Across _____________" children's book, choosing different countries, continents, or regions of the world. Students could then present the books and discuss similarities and differences in the season around the world.
*Read "Autumn Across America" and other nonfiction titles about the seasons in conjunction with selected poems from POETRY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE: SEASONS (ISBN 1402712545) to inspire seasonal poetry writing.

Book Review: WHAT IS GOODBYE?
*NOTE: This book review was created for a class at TWU.

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Grimes, Nikki. 2004. WHAT IS GOODBYE? Ill. by Raul Colon. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 0786807784

2. PLOT SUMMARY:
WHAT IS GOODBYE? is a book of narrative poems in the two voices of a brother and sister, Jerilyn and Jesse. In the space of a little more than a year, each works through shock, pain, sorrow, remembering, healing, and moving on after the death of their older brother Jaron. The poems illustrate the different ways the two cope with their brother's death and with the reaction their parents have to his death. Although the family appears to have been irreparably torn apart by the tragedy, time heals, and the book ends with the family unified again.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
Nikki Grimes and Raul Colon collaborate to handle tough issues surrounding dealing with the death of a close relative. Although the book is somber, the poems of Jerilyn and Jesse, written in distinctly different styles to reflect the children's different voices, detail the stages of grief beautifully. Beginning with hearing the news of Jaron's death, the brother and sister react similarly, but express their shock differently. Jesse's simple rhymed lines reflect his younger age and temperament: "My ears aren't working./My hearing's broke./Mom's lips are moving./Is this some joke?" In contrast, Jerilyn's unrhymed verse is filled with similes and metaphors such as "Daddy told me in a whisper/sharp as a switchblade," and "Mommy also hid/her eyes dull coins/peeking from the pockets/of her lids."

Recalling the death of my own grandfather when I was young, I could immediately identify with shock, numbness, and then anger in the days following his death. In particular, I remember being upset that I was supposed to play with all the relatives who had come over after the funeral, when all I wanted was for them to leave so I could walk through the house remembering all the little things he used to do. Just like Jerilyn, who reflects,

"I wander through this
silly crowd, wondering why
no one tells the truth.
Dead is dead.
Not "gone away."
Not "lost."
Not "passed" - as if
my brother's life
were some test
he got a good grade on,
and now he's gone.

I didn't understand all the euphemisms that were meant to ease the hollowness I felt inside. In many parts of the novella, Jerilyn and Jesse react differently, Jesse acting out, and Jerilyn turning inward, but their closeness as siblings is poignantly revealed in the poems entitled "First Fear" which are placed together on the page, intensifying the sense that they occur simultaneously. Jerilyn observing, "Look at him/head buried/in the black cushion/of Lucky's coat,/tears raw as rain," while Jesse worries, "Me and Lucky/two of a kind./Boy and dog whimpering./Does Jeri mind?" The poem ends with the two hugging, beautifully illustrated by Colon, whose details such as the eye pattern on the wallpaper visually illustrates the inner landscape of the children, who feel like everyone is watching them to see if they will crumble under the grief.

This inner landscape is revealed in Colon's lithographic illustration which accompanies Jerilyn's version of "Rush" In the poem, the girl wants her mother to hurry up and return to the way she was before Jaron died, and in particular, yearns for the closeness she felt with her mother when "...we were/holding hands/the way we used to." To illustrate this, Colon depicts mother and daughter, dressed identically, each sitting in an upper right hand corner of the picture, hands clasped on the lap. An inset between them shows the daughter's and mother's hands reaching to hold one another. In an exquisite detail, the pattern on the carpet at their feet has keyholes, symbolizing that holding hands is, in Jerilyn's mind, a key to regaining her relationship with her mother.

Both children grow as time passes, and Jesse's poems become more complex, incorporating more imagery, similes, and metaphors, as when he says, "Folks wind my sadness like a clock." The children mature, are able to simply enjoy a day, mend the relationships with their parents, and learn to love the memories of Jaron each both hold dear. Jerilyn comes to an understanding that this loss has made her appreciate her own life more, too. She writes,

Ordinary days
are golden,
like ancient coins
recovered from
a treasure hunt.
More of them is
what I want
now that I've learned
to spend
or save each one
as if
it matters.

In the end, both speak together in the poem for two voices "Photograph." The family is unified in taking a portrait, and the poetic form reflects that. WHAT IS GOODBYE? touchingly illustrates both how to approach a difficult topic, and how form can enhance and enrich function. I wish I had had this novella in verse to help me through my grief when my grandfather died.




4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Booklist: "In poems that alternate between voices, Jerilyn and Jesse describe their complicated, private thoughts as they grieve for their beloved brother."

School Library Journal: "Grade 3-8–Grimes's novella in verse is a prime example of how poetry and story can be combined to extend one another."

5. CONNECTIONS
*This book may help teachers and librarians broach a difficult subject such as death. Other books for children dealing with death can be found at: http://www.barrharris.org/barbooks.html#For
*Explore other books written in two voices, such as Paul Fleischman's classics JOYFUL NOISE (ISBN 0064460932), and Jim Harrison's FARMER'S GARDEN (ISBN 1590781775)
*Use the two voices in the story to discuss both voice and point of view, then try writing two-voice poetry using readwritethink.org's lesson plan at http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson391/two-voice.pdf

Book Review: BOW WOW MEOW MEOW

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Florian, Douglas. 2003. BOW WOW MEOW MEOW. Ill. by Douglas Florian. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc. ISBN 0152163956

2. PLOT SUMMARY:
In this beautifully illustrated picture book, Douglas Florian presents 21 poems, 11 about dogs of all breeds and sizes, and 10 about cats from domesticated to wild. The poems are thoughtful and humorous. Each selection is short and could be read aloud. The target audience for this book is age 4-8.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
I wonder if author Douglas Florian is playing favorites by writing 11 poems about dogs and only 10 about cats in his funny and insightful picture book entitled, BOW WOW MEOW MEOW. One thing is for sure, Florian doesn't play favorites with poetic form. The poems run the gamut from long strings of rhymed couplet as in "Cat Chat" to concrete poems of pure fun as in the curly poem-shapes in "The Poodles," to poems of haiku-like simplicity, as in "The Manx."

Who always yanks
The tail off the Manx?

Florian's play with poetic form is accompanied by plays on words, playful sounds, fanciful images, and surprising poetic turns. BOW WOW MEOW MEOW shows a definite penchant for puns, describing the bloodhound as "Scent-sational" and the jaguarundi as wearing "jaguarundi-wear." Playful sounds abound, too, with the Chihuahua barking "Chi-hua! hua! hua! hua! hua! hua! hua!" and the Persian cooing about its "purrrrsian" "pet-igree." Fanciful imagery is evoked by both poem and picture working together. My favorite example of imagery, being a dachshund owner, is "The Dachshund." This short poem, which begins, "Short up front/And short behind/But so long in-between," is accompanied by a naive watercolor dachshund snaking along the page below a curvy cityscape. Inside the dachshund's body, tiny figures can be seen, illustrating the poem's final lines, "The fleas all ride/Upon my side/In my s t r e t c h limousine." Finally, Florian uses the old Shakespearean technique of the poetic turn in a surprising and light-hearted fashion. In "The Bulldog," the bulldog is praised for its pride, wisdom, straight chin, strong nose, and great brow, only to find out that the praise is somewhat forced, since, "I'd say his face was full of charm/If he would let go of my arm." "The Pointers," too, offer surprises:

Some pointers point at foxes
Some pointers point at hares.
Some pointers point at pheasants.
Mine points at Frigidaires.

Each poem is delightfully illustrated with detailed, yet naive watercolors on paper, which the endnote explains, are brown paper bags. From the bulldog's four pointy teeth, to the ants' antennae, Florian uses an economy of brushstrokes to pull the very essence of each animal into the picture. This book is aimed at ages 4-8, but will be enjoyed by dog, cat, and art lovers of any age.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Starred Review in BOOKLIST: "...it's clear that Florian's latest poetry collection has all the exuberance of his previous works. Once again, he combines playful, animal-inspired verse and childlike watercolors."

Review in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: This is a delightful selection to read aloud to younger children, and it offers older students models of simple poems that really work. A definite contender for 'best in show.'"

5. CONNECTIONS
*Read other poetry books by Douglas Florian such as LIZARDS, FROG, AND POLLIWOGS (ISBN 015202591X) and INSECTLOPEDIA (ISBN 0152013067) and compare/contrast.
*Read other dog and cat poetry such as LITTLE DOG AND DUNCAN (ISBN 061811758X) or CATKU: WHAT IS THE SOUND OF ONE CAT NAPPING? (ISBN 0740741691)
*Use Florian's naive/primitive artistic style to springboard into a discussion of outsider art such as the art of Mose Tolliver, whose work will be showcased in the picture book, MOSE T: A TO Z by Anton Haardt, due out November 1.

Book Review: MAKE LEMONADE
*NOTE: This book review was created for a class at TWU.


1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wolff, Virginia Euwer. MAKE LEMONADE. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc. ISBN 059048141X.

2. PLOT SUMMARY: Virginia Euwer Wolff weaves an uplifting story of hope in the novel in verse, MAKE LEMONADE. It tells the story of 14-year-old inner-city African-American LaVaughn who takes a part-time job sitting for 17-year-old Jolly's two children, Jilly and Jeremy. LaVaughn comes to realize her love for the children at about the same time she realizes that Jolly isn't going to make it on her own. Although she is 3 years younger than Jolly, LaVaughn shows great maturity in helping the single mother "take hold" and get her life back. In doing so, LaVaughn is constantly battling to keep her own dreams of college alive. The ending is bittersweet, with Jolly's little family growing away from LaVaughn in their new-found independence.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Symbolism, startlingly vivid slice-of-life imagery, and rhythm propel the reader through a story of loss, struggle, hope, and finally, independence in MAKE LEMONADE. Wolff has taken the 19th century genre of "novel in verse" and made it fresh again by confronting real-life dangers such as sexual harassment and drug use in unrhymed free verse so packed with imagery and truthful expression that the reader senses the narrator's immediacy and feels like she is present, telling her story. This intimate sense of the present permeates the first lines of the novel, as the narrator says, "I am telling you this just the way it went...Other people would maybe tell it different/but I was there." Wolff's simple, not always grammatically correct, but always frankly observant lines capture 14-year-old LaVaughn's voice brilliantly.

Subtle symbolism runs throughout the narrative in the form of the lemon seeds LaVaughn plants in a pot for Jolly's son Jeremy. The seeds fail to grow, and LaVaughn brings in new seeds. The two young women argue briefly over whether to tell Jeremy that these are new seeds because his seeds didn't grow or just to plant the new seeds and pretend they're the old ones. At first glance, it seems like a simple argument, but tied up in it are Jolly's attempt to shelter her children from the great disappointment she's suffered in her short life, and LaVaughn's belief that the truth, even if it's dissapointing, is more important. Eventually, with a little fertilizer, the seeds sprout, Jolly starts to make it on her own, and she stops LaVaughn in the hall at school to say, "Hey, you wouldn't guess what come up out of that dirt...We got a little green thing, a little lemon thing comin' up."

For all the dark elements in the novel, the story balances dark with light, especially in the slice-of-life imagery interwoven with the dialogue and action. In Chapter 34, LaVaughn takes Jolly to high school with her, a place that for Jolly holds nothing but broken dreams and shameful memories. As the approach the building, Jolly begins to walk in a way that LaVaughn calls Underdrive, a shimmy full of unease and false bravado. The description is heavy and heartbreaking, until LaVaughn notices the way Jolly's son Jeremy is walking, like "there's a band inside him giving him rhythm," and that everyone has a shimmy, the whole crowded campus of students. The description ends with, "and if I squint my eyes it's a circus,/somebody ought to sell cotton candy,/and there should be confetti." In ten short lines, dark has turned light, and hopelessness has become hope.

Finally, MAKE LEMONADE reflects the ebb and flow of life and emotion through rhythm. This rhythm is created through several poetic devices, including repetition, line length, and the use of capitalization. All three devices work together in one scene where LaVaughn, who is babysitting for Jolly, confronts a potential catastrophe. First, repetition of the word "and" fast-forwards the action:

And in comes Jeremy. "Looky," he says, holding up his hand
and from her bed has already come
a scream that the world is ending.
In Jeremy's hand like the Statue of Liberty
is a bunch of hair, clean sheared,
I quick look around his head -
How did he get scissors at his age,
what has he cut,
and where's the blood,
and will I be calling 911, all these things I'm thinking at once.

Wolff immediately follows the short, choppy waves of emotion and action with two long lines, expressing LaVaughn's undercurrent of thought.

But underneath I think I knew the instant I saw his face
the same time with her screaming I absolutely think I knew.

The scene is masterfully crescendos when LaVaughn finally bursts out, "Jeremy, I canNOT beLIEVE what you've DONE/to your SISster," the capitalized syllables stamping out a rhythm as well as any stress marks in iambic tetrameter.

This analysis only touches upon a few of the masterful techniques Wolff employs to create a novel which is light and dark, sad and hopeful. My grandmother often says, "The devil's in the details." In MAKE LEMONADE, the truth is in the details, details of life which can be fleeting, but which can also contain the essence of truth. Readers both young and old are sure to relate to the disappointments, triumphs, and seeds of wisdom found in MAKE LEMONADE.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
School Library Journal Starred Review: "The poetic form emphasizes the flow of the teenager's language and thought. The form invites readers to drop some preconceptions about novels, and they will find the plot and characters riveting. MAKE LEMONADE is a triumphant, outstanding story."

Publishers Weekly: "Radiant with hope, this keenly observed and poignant novel is a stellar addition to YA literature. Ages 11-14."

5. CONNECTIONS
*For at-risk students, this book could be one of several read which deal with teen pregnancy, dropping out, struggling and succeeding such as Angela Johnson's THE FIRST PART LAST (ISBN 0689849230) and STEALING HENRY (ISBN 1596430451) by Carolyn McCullough.
*This novel could be part of a genre study on novels in verse. Others to consider would be Karen Hesse's OUT OF THE DUST (ISBN 0590360809) and SPLIT IMAGE (ISBN 0688162495) by Mel Glenn.