This is a remake on the classic "Cinderella." It is a folktale. It begins with a Bigfoot Yettie creature who lives with her stepmother and wicked stepsisters who despise Rrrrrella, who loves to fish, smells bad, is hairy with big feet, and hates to interupt the forrest. This stepmother and step sisters are no ordinary bigfoot, they do not like to fish, they hate the wilderness, and pick flowers while disturbing the creatures in the wilderness. The prince of the Forrest is looking for a bride, and all the eligible bigfoots want to land him, and so there is a festival. The wicked stepmother and stepsisters tell Rrrrrella she can not attend the festival and must fish for their dinner. Rrrrrella does as she is told, and goes fishing instead of the festival. While Rrrrrella is fishing so sees a bear who has not caught any fish, so she shares hers with her so she is not hungry. In return the bear offers to grant Rrrrella a wish, as she is her beary godmother. Rrrella says she wishes to go to the festival, and the bear grants it, but before Rrrrella can go the bear gives her log rolling shoes, and tells her she must be back before dark rises. She tells Rrrrella the shoes will come in handy at the festival. Meanwhile at the festival the prince is getting exhausted because all the eligible bigfoots are wilderness haters, are not hairy, use flowers to smell pretty, and can not knock him off a log rolling contest. Rrrrella shows up smelling bad and fishy, is the hairiest Yettie he has seen, and easily knocks him off the log, but soon the sun is setting and Rrrrrella takes off back to her home in the wilderness, but leaves one of her big log rolling shoes behind in her wake. The prince must find Rrrrella, so he goes in search and has all the bigfoots in the forrest try on this huge shoe. None of the bigfoots he encounters can fill this shoe, until at the river he sees Rrrrella catching fish, he can smell her and has her try on the shoe, and it fits. He knows that he has found his wife, and they live happily ever after. The illustrations are very whimsical, and classically fun. There are bright colors and depictions of the Forrest, and fun bigfoot Yettie creatures. This is a fun tale to share.
genre: traditional level: k-3rd year: 1998 illustrator: Warhola * denotes this author was in the text or on the companion website
* The Harmonica by Tony Johnston
This is a very emotionally charged children's book. It is centered in Nazi Poland, where a young Jewish family are living. This family does not have a lot of money, but has each other. It begins with a mother, father and young Polish boy. The father gives the boy a gift of a harmonica, with the little money he could scrape together from his job as a coal miner. He tells his young son to learn to play soft and slow, and the young boy soon learns to repeat the songs on his harmonica that the family sing together. Soon the family is invaded by Nazi soldiers and taken to be slaves at a concentration camp. The boy and his family are split up, and in the boys room (designed more as a cell) the boy expresses his grief of being separated from his family through his harmonica. He soon has a heart wrenching feeling and suddenly has a feeling this he has forever lost his parents. He plays his harmonica louder and faster, and a Nazi guard hears the boy playing his beautiful music. The guard forces him to play his harmonica for him, and as a reward the guard tosses the starving boy scraps of bread. The young boy feels guilt for getting the bread, while the others are starving back in their cells. When the young boy returns to his cell after the guard has fallen asleep, another captive thanks the boy for his beautiful music, and the boys spirit is lifted. The illustrations in this book are gorgeous. The pages start out with a light, bright color while the boy is content with his family. As the Nazi's approach the pages begin to progress into darker and dim images, until the pages are extremely dark and forlorn, representing his life in slavery at the concentration camp. This story is intended for older children, grades 4 and higher, because of the content, which could be too emotionally charged for younger children, and the illustrations which could be traumatic.
genre: traditional level: 4th grade and above illustrator: Ron Mazellan year: 2004 * denotes author was found in the text, or on the companion website.
* The Hamburger and the Hot dog by Jim Aylesworth This is a folktale story that gives personification, or adds human qualities, to inadamant objects, or in this case, the food comes to life to tell their story of whom they are. The story is enhanced by the illustrations, or breathtaking works of art, and helps to develop each individual food as a character, which adds to the atmosphere of the story. It utilizes common, favorite foods in a fun and innovate manner, such as "Barb the brownie "who is nutty and weighed down with fudge. There are many different food characters that share their story, but there is no main plot, theme or setting. This book is phenomenal for the illustrations and has a great over all feel to the story. Jim Aylesworth has written many great children's literature, and his name was found on the text companion site.
genre: Traditional level: k-3 author: Jim Aylesworth illustrator: Stephen Gammell year: 2001
I am an avid reader. I have been since I can remember. I have numerous favorite books that I can remember with vivid details, and those are the books that I selected for our first assignment in ELE 3200. These books are not what I consider to be quality literature for elementary school, but they were entertaining when I was a child and these were what I would call "Nostologia." I chose "The Librarian from the Black Lagoon" and " The principal from the Black Lagoon" by Mike Thaler, "If you Give a Moose a Muffin" and "If you Give a Pig a Pancake" by Laura Joffe Numeroff and " The Magic Schoolbus inside the human body" by Joanna Cole. These all have beautiful illustrations, and as I re read them as an adult I realized that the Magic School bus has a lot of science content it covers as well as imagery that supports that. The "If you give.." books are creative and have fun illustrations that make children laugh and enjoy the story, but there is no necessary content or point to those stories besides good old enjoyment, which sometimes isn't such a bad thing. " The Black Lagoon" books are fun to read, and there is a hidden message that teaches the kids that although there are some misconceptions about the principal or the librarian, they are never as scary or as hideous as they are made out to be.
