Everything Below

Everything below this post... all the childish posts were for my English 360-571 from Spring 2008 at Texas A&M with Dr. Robinson. It was an awesome class. If you attend Texas A&M, I recommend it, but there is a bit of reading. I was a Freshman then, but now I'm a Junior. I am the Proudest Member of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2011! A-A-A Whoop!!

The Lion King - - - -the movie

The Lion King is a 1994 American animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, released in theaters on June 15, 1994 by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd film in the Disney animated feature canon and the highest grossing traditionally animated feature film in history. It is also now a Broadway Musical.

The story, influenced by the Shakespeare play Hamlet and Disney's 1942 classic Bambi, focuses on a young lion in Africa named Simba, who learns of his place in the great "circle of life" and overcomes many obstacles to claim his place as the rightful king.

A musical film, The Lion King garnered two Academy Awards for its achievement in music. Songs were written by composer Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice, with an original score by Hans Zimmer. Disney later produced two related movies: a sequel, The Lion King II: Simba's Pride; and a part prequel/part midquel, The Lion King 1½.

The Lion King takes place in the fictional Pride Lands of Africa, where a lion rules over the other animals as king. At the beginning of the film, Rafiki, a wise old shaman, anoints Simba, the newborn cub of King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi, and presents him to a massive gathering of animals at Pride Rock. Meanwhile, Mufasa's younger brother, Scar, realizes that he is no longer the heir to the throne and plots to kill both Simba and his father in order to regain it.

When Simba has grown into a young cub, Mufasa brings him on a tour of the Pride Lands, teaching him about the “Circle of Life”, the delicate balance affecting all living things, which the king must maintain. The tour is cut short when Mufasa's adviser, the hornbill Zazu, alerts him of hyena sightings in the Pride Lands, and Mufasa sends a disappointed Simba home while he deals with the threat. Back at Pride Rock, Scar piques Simba's curiosity about the elephant graveyard, a place beyond the northern borders of the Pride Lands, where Mufasa has forbidden Simba to go. Simba, trying to prove his courage, takes his best friend Nala to the elephant graveyard, fooling Zazu along the way. At the graveyard, the cubs are greeted by Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, Scar's hyena minions who attempt to kill the cubs. Fortunately, they are rescued by Mufasa at the nick of time.

Mufasa scolds Simba on the way home, and explains to Simba that being brave doesn't mean looking for trouble. When Simba asks if his father will always be with him, Mufasa tells his son that the great kings of the past watch from the stars, just as he will watch over Simba one day when the sun sets on his time. Meanwhile, Scar becomes furious, as he intended for the hyenas to kill the cubs. Plotting further, Scar gathers more hyenas and, in a scene resembling Nazi and Soviet military imagery, buys their loyalty by claiming that if he becomes king, they'll never go hungry again.

Some time later, Scar lures Simba into a gorge for a "surprise from his father," while the hyenas engineer a wildebeest stampede down into the gorge where Simba is. Alerted by an insincerely dramatic Scar, Mufasa races to rescue his son from the stampede. The lion king successfully saves his son, but struggles to bring himself to safety. As Mufasa helplessly clings on to a steep cliff, he asks Scar for help, but Scar flings his brother into the raging stampede below, after mocking him with the words "long live the king." Simba rushes down to his father's body, and tries to wake up the dead king to no avail. An approaching Scar convinces Simba that the young cub was responsible for his father's death, and recommends that he flee the Pride Lands, never to return. As Simba is running off, Scar sends his hyena henchmen to kill Simba again, but as Simba flees through a thornbush-covered embankment, the hyenas break off pursuit and let him escape. Hurling threats that he will be killed if ever seen again, the hyenas return to Scar and lie that they have murdered the cub. Informed that both Mufasa and Simba were killed, the pride regretfully allows Scar to assume the throne as the closest of kin. Still mourning, they are told the hyenas are now part of the pride.

Simba collapses in a distant desert, where he is found by Timon and Pumbaa, a comical meerkat-warthog duo who adopt and raise Simba under their carefree "Hakuna Matata" lifestyle. When Simba has grown into an adult, he is discovered by his childhood friend Nala, who relays that Scar's tyrannical reign has devastated the Pride Lands, turning it into a barren wasteland. She asks Simba to return and take his rightful place as king, but Simba refuses, still guilty about supposedly causing his father's death.

Simba then shows Nala around and they find themselves in love. But immediately afterwards, Nala tells Simba that she doesn't understand why he won't return to Pride Rock. The two become angry, confused, and end up in a quarrel. However, Rafiki shows up and indirectly persuades Simba to return home with a series of metaphors. Combined with an appearance of the ghost of Mufasa, Simba realizes his responsibility and heads back to Pride Rock, followed by Timon, Pumbaa and Nala.

Once back at Pride Rock, Simba confronts his uncle. Afraid of losing the throne, Scar announces to the pride that Simba was responsible for Mufasa's death. He then corners Simba at the edge of Pride Rock with his hyenas, resulting in a scene similar to Mufasa's death. At the same time, lightning strikes the dry brush, surrounding Pride Rock with flames. As Simba dangles over the edge of Pride Rock with flames below him, an over-confident Scar reveals the truth about Mufasa's death. Enraged, Simba leaps up and pins Scar to the ground, forcing him to admit his wrongdoings. A fierce battle between the lionesses and the hyenas ensues. Rafiki, Zazu, Timon, and Pumbaa join the fray as well.

Atop Pride Rock's peak, Simba finally corners Scar. Scar tries to surreptitiously blame everything on the hyenas, but Shenzi, Banzai and Ed overhear this betrayal. Simba demands that Scar “leave the Pride Lands and never return”, like Scar told Simba to do years earlier. Scar pretends to leave, but promptly attacks Simba, resulting in a violent final duel. Simba eventually triumphs over his uncle by kicking him over a low cliff. Scar manages to survive and staggers to his paws, but finds himself surrounded by the now resentful hyenas. The hyenas approach their fallen leader and devour him alive, just as everything is seemingly enveloped by the fire.

A downpour extinguishes the brushfire, however, and Simba subsequently reconciles with his family. Rafiki then directs Simba to Pride Rock's overlook with the words "it is time". As Simba reaches the top of the overlook, he see the stars shining down on him and hears the voice of his father booming, "Remember..." Emboldened, Simba roars to signify that he is now king of the Pride Lands. With Simba and Nala as the new king and queen, the Pride Lands become green with life again. The movie concludes with Rafiki lifting Simba and Nala's newborn cub high into the air for all the animals to see, thus continuing the circle of life.
Characters:

Simba, voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas as a cub and Matthew Broderick as an adult, is the protagonist of the movie and the prince of the Pride Lands. His singing voice is provided by Jason Weaver as a cub and Joseph Williams as an adult.

Scar, voiced by Jeremy Irons, is the film's antagonist and King Mufasa's scheming brother, who desires the throne.

Mufasa, voiced by James Earl Jones, is the King of the Pride Lands and Simba's father.

Timon and Pumba, voiced by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, are the comical meerkat and warthog duo who live under the philosophy of "Hakuna Matata" (no worries). They become Simba's provisional guardians during his exile.

Nala, voiced by Niketa Calame as a cub and Moira Kelly as an adult, is the childhood friend and intended mate of Simba.

Rafiki, voiced by Robert Guillaume, is a wise mandrill who presents the newborn prince of the lions.

Zazu, voiced by Rowan Atkinson, is a loyal hornbill who serves as Mufasa's majordomo.

Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin and Jim Cummings, are a trio of hyenas who assist Scar as his "second-in-commands".

Sarabi, voiced by Madge Sinclair, is Simba's mother, the Queen of King Mufasa and the leader of the lionesses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King

Maurice Sendak

Maurice Bernard Sendak was born June 10, 1928. Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature who is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963. An elementary school in North Hollywood, California is named in his honor.
Sendak was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, and decided to become an illustrator after viewing Walt Disney's film Fantasia at the age of twelve. His illustrations were first published in 1947 in a textbook titled Atomics for the Millions. He spent much of the 1950s working as an artist for children's books, before beginning to write his own stories.
Sendak gained international acclaim after writing and illustrating Where the Wild Things Are, though the book's depictions of fanged monsters concerned parents when it was first released, as his characters were somewhat grotesque in appearance. Sendak's seeming attraction to the forbidden or nightmarish aspects of children's fantasy have made him a subject of controversy.

Sendak’s book In the Night Kitchen, first published in 1970, has often been subjected to censorship for its drawings of a young boy prancing naked through the story. The book has been challenged, and in some instances banned, in several American states including Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Texas.

In the Night Kitchen regularly appears on the American Library Association's list of "frequently challenged and banned books." It was listed number 25 on the "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000."
Sendak was an early member of the National Board of Advisors for the Children's Television Workshop during the development stages of the television series Sesame Street. He also wrote and designed an animated sequence for the series, Bumble Ardy, based on his own book, and with Jim Henson as the voice of Bumble Ardy.

Sendak produced an animated television production based on his work entitled Really Rosie, featuring Carole King, which was broadcast in 1975 and is available on video (usually as part of video compilations of his work). An LP and later a CD of the songs were also produced. He contributed the opening segment to Simple Gifts, a Christmas collection of six animated shorts shown on PBS TV in 1977 and later issued on VHS in 1993. He adapted his book Where the Wild Things Are for the stage in 1979. Additionally, he has designed sets for many operas and ballets, including the award-winning, 1983, Pacific Northwest Ballet production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, Houston Grand Opera's productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute in 1981 and Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel in 1997, Los Angeles County Music Center's 1990 production of Mozart's Idomeneo, and New York City Opera's 1981 production of The Cunning Little Vixen.

In the 1990s, Sendak approached playwright Tony Kushner to write a new English version of the Czech composer Hans Krása's children's opera Brundibar. Kushner wrote the text for Sendak's illustrated book of the same name, published in 2003. The book was named one of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Illustrated Books of that year.

In 2003, Chicago Opera Theatre produced Sendak and Kushner's adaptation of Brundibar. In 2005 Berkeley Repertory Theatre, in collaboration with Yale Repertory Theater and Broadway's New Victory Theater, produced a substantially reworked version of the Sendak-Kushner adaptation.

He illustrated Else Holmelund Minarik's Little Bear series of books, which were also made into a successful television series.

He created the children's television program Seven Little Monsters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Sendak

Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a children's picture book originally published by Harper & Row. Although just ten sentences long, the book is generally regarded as a classic of American illustrated children's literature. Written in 1963, it was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1964. It also won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and was an ALA Notable Book.


The book tells the story of Max, who one evening plays around his home, "making mischief" in a wolf costume (chasing the dog with a fork, etc.). As punishment, his mother sends him to bed without supper. In his room, a mysterious, wild forest grows out of his imagination and Max journeys to the land of the Wild Things. They are fearsome-looking monsters, but Max conquers them with a scary look and he is made the King of all Wild Things. However, he soon finds himself lonely and homesick, and he returns home to his bedroom. He finds his supper waiting for him ... "And it was still hot."
The original concept for the book featured horses instead of monsters. Sendak said he switched when he discovered that he could not draw horses.
The Wild Things (except "Goat Boy", of course) were named after (and are presumably caricatures of) Maurice's aunts and uncles:
Aaron, Bernard, Emil, Moishe and Tzippy.


**A live-action movie version is currently in post-production, with Spike Jonze directing, due in 2009. Featuring Catherine Keener, Forest Whitaker and Australian actor Angus Sampson. Adapted by Dave Eggers and Jonze.

Teach Non-Fiction Writing...

contunuation from Teaching Non-Fiction Reading...
Non-Fiction Writing
After a good deal of experience with a topic your students will be ready to write about what they learned. You can provide some shared writing lessons (See How to Use Shared Writing to Teach Writing Skills) based on the shared reading and KWL chart you generated. It would be a good time to model how to write an "All About…." or a "Question and Answer" book.



In your shared writing lessons you want to demonstrate:

>how you decide what is important;
>how you organize your information;
>that you address one topic at a time;
>that you include illustrations, models, graphs, and charts to explain ideas;
>how you stretch out words or copy them accurately from the text or vocabulary charts on display;
>how you decide upon a format and maintain the format throughout the text.




Developing a rubric with your students will help them synthesize their learning about non-fiction. It will serve as both a guide to writing non-fiction and an assessment tool for the students and yourself.



+Help them to decide what's very important, somewhat important, and not so important to include in their book.

+Have them evaluate the use of illustrations: do they help the reader understand the information or topic?

+Have them choose information that may not be so important to include, but that they think is interesting or fun for the reader and themselves.

+Evaluate the organization of information.

+Evaluate the presentation of information.

+Evaluate their work: does it meet writing standards for mechanics and spelling.



As a culminating activity, you might want to have the children share their work with their parents or peers at an author's party. Such hard work deserves a celebration!

the character of Peter Rabbit

Peter Rabbit is the main character in a series of children's books by Beatrix Potter. He first appeared in The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902. Although he and the other rabbits are drawn from life, they wear human clothes; Peter wears a bright blue coat and clogs. The Peter Rabbit series has sold more than 151 million copies in 35 languages. The rights to the characters are owned by Frederick Warne & Co.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit
One day, Mrs. Rabbit goes to the bakery, leaving Peter and his sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail to play in the forest. Disobeying his mother's orders, Peter sneaks into Mr. McGregor's garden and eats as many vegetables as he can before Mr. McGregor spots him and chases him around. Eventually, Peter manages to escape, but not before losing his jacket and his shoes, which Mr. McGregor uses for his new scarecrow.

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny
His cousin Benjamin finds out that Mr. and Mrs. McGregor have left their home unattended, and drags Peter to the garden to feed him some great carrots, where Peter's clothes still are (and as a result of rain the previous night, have shrunk). After getting Peter's clothes back, Peter and Benjamin steal some onions to give to Peter's mother, but are then captured by Mr. McGregor's cat. Fortunately, Benjamin's father, Mr. Benjamin Bunny (later renamed Mr. Bouncer), having noticed their disappearance, shows up and rescues them, but later reprimands Peter and Benjamin for going into Mr. McGregor's garden by whipping them with a switch that he was carrying with him. Mr. Benjamin Bunny then took both of them home.

The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle
Peter, along with Benjamin, makes a cameo in this story where Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle mends, among other clothing articles, Peter's jacket.

The Tale of Ginger and Pickles
In this story of the titular swindlers, Peter and his family, along with characters from several of Potter's other previous stories, make cameo appearances in the artwork.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
In this story, Peter, is now an adult and married. He helps his cousin Benjamin and his sister, Flopsy, rescue their children from a Badger called Tommy Brock, who was going to have the baby rabbits for supper.

The Tale of Mr. Tod
Benjamin and Flopsy's children are kidnapped by notorious badger Tommy Brock. While Flopsy takes out her anger on Mr. Bouncer for letting Brock in, Benjamin and Peter chase after Brock, who hides out in the house of Mr. Tod (a fox modeled after a similar-looking character from The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck). When Mr. Tod finds Brock sleeping in his bed, he sets a trap so that a bucket of water will fall on Brock. But Brock wakes up before Mr. Tod springs his trap, and the two get into a big scuffle, during which Peter and Benjamin (who have been watching these events) rescue the children.

Else Holmelund Minarik.

Else Holmelund Minarik, who was born September 13, 1920, is the author of the Little Bear series of children's books, which were successful as books, and were also made into a successful children's TV series which ran from 1995-2000. The Little Bear books sold more than six million copies worldwide. It was also created as a box office hit children's movie in 2001 called The Little Bear Movie. It was about Little Bear and Father Bear's camping trip, with the voices of Kristin Fairlie as Little Bear and Dan Hennessey as Father Bear.
Else Minarik was also the author of another well-known book, No Fighting, No Biting! And my outside reading book, Father Bear Comes Home.
She was born in Denmark, and with her family immigrated to the United States at the age of four. After she graduated from Queens College, City University of New York she became a journalist for the Rome Daily Centennial newspaper and taught first-graders during WWII. Minarik lives in Nottingham, New Hampshire.

Teaching Non-Fiction Reading

Teaching Non-Fiction Reading:
Non-fiction reading has great appeal to young children who are curious about the world and are eager to learn about a variety of topics. However, non-fiction reading and writing require a set of skills and a foundation of knowledge that is different from reading fiction. The reader has different goals and must use different strategies. Thematic units in science, health, and social studies can incorporate a set of comprehension and information processing skills that we can begin to teach in early literacy.

Non-Fiction Reading:

A good way to start children on becoming non-fiction readers is to provide books on topics that interest them.

>Start a KWL chart with your students on the topic. What do I know about the topic? What do I want to know? What did I learn? This chart is developed with the children over the course of the unit.

>Develop a reading and writing vocabulary chart that contains words they will encounter in the texts. (For example, if your topic is butterflies, your vocabulary chart might include words such as chrysalis, pupa, and metamorphosis. Write the words on a separate chart and work them into your talk about the topic. This will facilitate decoding and encoding later on.)

>Teach visual literacy by spending a good deal of time discussing the illustrations, charts, and graphs that appear on the cover and in the book. These materials have been provided to teach readers about the topic and provide essential information as well as to stimulate interest.

-Model looking at the illustrations before reading the text.

- Ask students what the illustrations tell us about the topic. (Always keep your questions open-ended.)

>Keep the learning ongoing. At the end of each shared reading lesson have the children work with you by recording what they have learned about the topic on your KWL chart. Have them use their own words.

>Demonstrate that non-fiction reading is different than reading fiction.

-Point out that the important thing is the gathering of information and learning about new things.

-We have to stop and think about what we are reading.

-We might have to look in other books for more information or to understand what we are reading.

>Once you feel your students have had enough exposure to non-fiction, you should have them practice the skills on their own. You will need to assemble sufficient copies of leveled text for your guided reading groups and for independent reading. You will want to be sure that your students are studying the graphics and practicing visual literacy, discussing the information with their peers, and recording--in their own words--the important information they are gathering from their reading. They should also be encouraged to make their own illustrations to support their understandings.

----Next week: Teaching Non-Fiction Writing... ;)

Father Bear Comes Home

My final outside reading book is Father Bear Comes Home, a small chapter book. This particular book was written back in 1959 by Else Holmelund Minarik, who is also the writer of Little Bear. The story is about Little Bear wanting to grow up just like his father.


He, and Owl, pretend to be just like his dad who fishes on the ocean. Little Bear catches a good size fish for Momma, then he and Owl pretend to fish. Little Bear caught an octopus and Owl caught a small whale.


Later, Little Bear talked to Hen about his father fishing on the ocean and he wished that if his father met a mermaid that he would bring her home. I guess Hen thought he said he was bringing one home because Hen decided to come home with Little Bear to see her. They then meet a duck and a cat who decide to tag along, too. Father Bear is home, but with no mermaid. The others seem miffed as if Little Bear had lied, but he only said "maybe". Father Bear only brought back sea shells for them to see.


Later while they were all playing with the shells, Little Bear got the hiccups that he couldn't seem to get rid of. Water didn't helping. Neither did holding his breath. Or slapping him on the back. Father Bear then roared through the house and asked who was making all the noise. Everyone looked at Little Bear who said that he was only hiccupping. He started laughing because Little Bear was no long hiccupping. Getting scared stopped the hiccupping.


Shortly after, they all went for a picnic. While Little Bear played near the river with Owl, Cat, Hen and Duck, they start to wonder about mermaids again and if any of them were in the river. Cat said he had never seen one in the river, but Little Bear made the point that maybe she was shy. He wanted to go into the river right there and look for one. Father Bear then suggested that if he met one, he should invite her to the picnic.


Father Bear comes home is mostly about a young son wanting to be just like his father when grows up, but for right now all he can do is pretend and wish everything was real. He and his friends must have had a real big fascination with mermaids, though.

I scanned in pics from the cover and a page in the book.

The Giver

The Giver is a novel written by Lois Lowry and published on April 16, 1993. It is set in a future society which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian; therefore, it could be considered anti-utopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth year of his life. Jonas' society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness", a plan which has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of "Receiver of Memory," the person who stores all the memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. As Jonas receives the memories from his predecessor—the "Giver"—he discovers how shallow his community's life has become. (Soon to become a movie in 2011. Written by Lois Lowry and Directed by David Yates,; currently in production.)

Main characters:
~Jonas- The protagonist, an eleven year-old when the novel opens, is selected to become Receiver of Memory at his Ceremony of Twelve. He has 'pale' eyes and often sees a 'change in scenery'. His Assignment is the most honored and respected one, and Jonas has the intelligence, integrity and courage needed to become a Receiver. Besides The Giver, he is the only person to see a full, emotional, world. As he begins his training with The Giver and slowly understands the truth about the community, Jonas feels that things must change. Planning together with The Giver, Jonas decides to flee with Gabriel away from the community forever in order to unleash all the memories that have been kept from the citizens for so long.

~ The Giver – The incumbent Receiver of Memory, who stores human experiences from the time before Sameness. The Community's Elders rely upon his "wisdom" in the event of emergencies; because no one wants the pain that comes with keeping the necessary memories, this "honor" is restricted to one individual. He is frustrated at the Elders for only consulting him during emergencies instead of all of the time, and seems somewhat disgusted by the actions of the community's people, though he tells Jonas that they "know nothing" and therefore cannot be blamed. His real name is never given in the story.

~Jonas' Mother- An intelligent, practical, well rounded woman who serves her Community as a judge.

~ Jonas' Father – A caring man, something of the ideal father figure, who works as a Nurturer for children in their first year of life. Later, Jonas learns that his father is, sometimes, responsible for the Release of defective children.

~Lily- Jonas's talkative, curious, energetic, enthusiastic and outgoing younger sister who likes to take care of Gabriel. She is also very good at storytelling and could be picked as the next story teller for the community

~Asher- Jonas's best friend. Asher is a fun-loving, hasty boy who usually speaks too fast mixing up his words. He is assigned as an Assistant Director of Recreation.

~Fiona- Female friend of both Jonas and Asher. Her red hair represents a failure of genetic engineering, as the Giver notes: "We never completely mastered Sameness. The genetic scientists are still... trying to work the kinks out. Hair like Fiona's must drive them crazy." She works as a Caretaker for the Old. Despite her kind demeanor, she is learning to Release the elderly without emotion. Jonas's first 'Stirrings', or sexual feelings, were expressed in his dreams of her. Jonas was supposed to take a pill for the stirrings, but stopped taking the pill after a couple of weeks (the stirrings returned). One may wonder if Jonas is still interested in Fiona after he finds out the truth, but the relationship between Jonas and Fiona was never revisited.

~Gabriel– An infant from the Nurturing Center whom Jonas's father takes home for extra care. Slow in development and highly emotional, Gabriel is at risk of Release. Jonas takes him on his journey to Elsewhere. Gabriel is able to Receive memories from Jonas. He is also one of the only people other than Jonas, Katharine (a six who has pale eyes), The Giver, and Rosemary to have pale eyes. It is implied that the pale eyes are an indicator of the ability to receive memories.

Major Themes:

>Color represents diversity and a depth of feeling beyond that which the majority of society enjoys. In The Giver, however, objects do not "gain" color through intense emotional experiences on the part of their observers; rather, Jonas learns to see the colors which objects intrinsically possess. Apparently, the transition to Sameness involved removing color vision from the people, although the Giver implies that genetic engineers also attempted to remove the variability in the human population, but can't do it completely; even light eyes (which may or may not indicate that the person possessing such eyes is meant to be a Receiver; Jonas appears to think such) and red hair is a rarity.

>An image of nudity recurs in several places. During his volunteer hours, where children aged 8 - 11 explore their Community and try to see what they like are good at as a future "assignment" Jonas assists in the House of the Old, where the most aged members of the Community reside. Lowry describes how Jonas bathes an old woman, Larissa; he enjoys the trusting, carefree nature of the experience, which reminds him of his father caring for an infant. (Jonas muses about how his Community has strict rules against nakedness in almost all circumstances. He personally finds them a nuisance, such as the admonition to keep oneself entirely covered while changing for athletic games, and does not understand why the Community would institute such precautions.)

>Later, the tenderness of the bathing scene gains a sexual edge, when Jonas dreams about cajoling a female friend, the red-haired Fiona, to remove her clothes and climb into a tub so that he can bathe her. Jonas recounts this dream at his family's breakfast "dream-telling", and his parents recognize it as an early sign of what they call "The Stirrings" which in this book is the name given to sexual feelings. Special pills are taken to remove any such feelings, so a person is not upset with their choice of a spouse, which is chosen for them by The Elders.

>Music plays a role in The Giver, despite its presence being very subdued. It is also easy to miss the fact that the Community has no music. One of the few clues is when Larissa describes a Ceremony of Release for an old man who was leaving the Community. "We chanted the anthem," she says, a phrasing which implies an absence of melody. Later, when the Giver is instructing Jonas, it is learned that as a boy, the Giver had a faculty much like Jonas's ability to "See Beyond". In the Giver's case, it was Hearing Beyond: he began to hear "something truly remarkable, which is called music". This sense is more mystical than Jonas's, in that it can be understood how objects have color which people are unable to see, but it cannot identify a natural source of music, unless the Giver discovered he could hear musical patterns in everyday sound.

>Two important themes in The Giver is the selection of a citizens' career based on what they are most naturally suited for. This aspect of the novel could be inspired by the Platonic ideal espoused in The Republic. The other is that without pain and anguish we cannot truly feel love and joy. And that to live in a "perfect" world with no poverty, violence, hunger or heartbreak would be to live without love, beauty, joy or compassion.

Plot Summary:

The novel's setting seems to be a utopia, where all possible steps are taken to eliminate pain and anguish. The people are almost always compliant; families share their dreams and feelings on a daily basis to diffuse emotional buildup. This society remains harmonious by matching up husbands and wives based on compatibility of personality and if there is any sign of feelings the match is denied. There is also a subtle theme of technology having only a minimal role in society; throughout the book, it is taken for granted that Jonas's community is without such technologies as television, or radio, although computers are mentioned at one point. Transportation is mostly limited to bicycles; however, cars and airplanes exist in small numbers.

As time progresses in the novel, however, it becomes clear that the society has lost contact with the ideas of family and love, at least in the "more complete" sense at which Lowry hints. Children are born to designated "Birthmothers" and then family units can apply for children. If the family unit applies for the maximum allowed number of two, it will always be one boy and one girl. This is to keep the genders even. After family units have served the purpose of raising the children in a stable environment, they cease to exist, the parents going to a communal housing facility for childless adults, and the children becoming involved in their work and starting mono-generational families of their own, forgetting their foster parents who are growing old. The community maintains this process using pills which suppress emotions, mainly romantic love and sexuality, or “Stirrings”.

All the land near the Community and around the other, similar communities clustered about the nearby river has been flattened to aid agriculture and transportation. A vaguely described system of climate control is used so that the weather remains constant. It is implied that genetic engineering has been used extensively to manipulate human beings so that they physically conform to Sameness.

****Despite controversy and criticism that the book's subject material is inappropriate for young children, The Giver won the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold more than 5.3 million copies. In the United States and Canada it is a part of many middle school reading lists, but it is also on many banned book lists. The novel forms a loose trilogy with Gathering Blue (2000) and Messenger (2004), two other books set in the same future era.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver

Lois Lowry

Biography:

Lois Lowry (born Lois Ann Hammersburg on March 20, 1937) is an author of children's literature who has been awarded the Newbery Medal twice: first for Number the Stars in 1990, and again in 1994 for The Giver, a widely-known and controversial work.

Lowry was born the middle of three children. She had an older sister, Helen, and a younger brother Jon. Helen, three years older than Lois, died in 1962 at the age of 28. This experience informed Lowry's first book A Summer to Die which is about a young girl who tragically loses her older sister (which is also a subplot of Number the Stars). Lowry's brother, Jon, is six years younger than her and grew up to be a doctor. He and Lois continue to enjoy a close relationship.

Lowry's father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - whose work moved the family all over the United States and to many parts of the world. Lowry and her family moved from Hawaii to Brooklyn, New York, in 1939 when Lowry was two years old and later relocated to her mother's hometown, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1942 when Lowry's father was deployed to the Pacific during World War II. Lowry's father served on a hospital ship called the USS Hope and on the island of Tinian during the war.

Following World War II, Lowry and her family moved to Tokyo, Japan, where her father was stationed from 1948-1950. Lowry went through junior high school at the Tokyo American School at Meguro, a special school for the children of military families, and then returned to the United States to attend high school. Lowry and her family briefly lived in Carlisle again in 1950 before moving to Fort Jay at Governors Island, New York, where Lois attended Curtis High School on Staten Island. In 1952, Lois entered Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights, New York, where she finished high school. Lowry entered Brown University in 1954. She attended for two years until her marriage at age 19 to Donald Lowry, a U.S. Navy officer, in 1956. Together they had four children: daughters Alix and Kristin, and sons Grey and Benjamin.

The Lowrys moved quite frequently in their early years of marriage due to Donald's military career. They lived in California, Connecticut (where Alix was born), Florida (where Grey was born), South Carolina, and finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, (where Kristin and Benjamin were born) where they settled after Donald left the service to attend Harvard Law School. After Donald Lowry finished law school, the family moved to Portland, Maine.

As her children became older, Lowry found time to complete her degree in English literature from the University of Maine in Portland in 1972. After earning her B.A., she pursued graduate studies at her alma mater. It was during this coursework that she was introduced to photography, which became a life-long passion as well as a profession. Her specialty was child photography, but she also took pictures to accompany the articles she submitted as a freelance journalist. It was while working on a freelance journalism piece for Redbook magazine that Lowry got her first book opportunity, when the article she wrote caught the attention of an editor at Houghton Mifflin publishing. The story Lowry had written for the magazine was meant for adults but was written through the eyes of a child. The editor at Houghton Mifflin recognized an upcoming talent and suggested that Lowry write a children's book. She agreed and wrote A Summer to Die which was published in 1977. As Lowry nurtured her budding careers, she and Donald Lowry found they were no longer compatible; they divorced in 1977 when Lowry was 40 years old. Lowry said the following of these transitional years of her life: "My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks."

Writing about both funny things and serious issues has sustained Lois Lowry through her own hard times. Her son Grey was killed in the crash of his fighter plane in 1995. Lowry has acknowledged that this was the most difficult day of her life, but through her steady work as an author, she has persevered. Lowry said, "His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth."

Today, Lois Lowry remains active by not only continuing to write and speaking at appearances, but also enjoying time with her long-time companion Martin Small at her homes in Massachusetts and Maine. Lois takes pleasure in reading, knitting, gardening, and entertaining her four grandchildren.

Lowry has suggested that she is a Christian, but not so religious as "to have a favorite psalm."

Literary work:
In 1979, Lowry began her Anastasia series of books with Anastasia Krupnik, the story of a precocious and quirky 10-year-old girl (based, in part, upon Lowry's own daughters) who wants to be a writer. Lowry would go on to write seven sequels to this book including Anastasia Has the Answers in 1986 and Anastasia at This Address in 1991, and five further books about Anastasia's brother Sam.

In 1980, Lowry published her most autobiographical work, Autumn Street. The main character is a girl named Elizabeth, whose father is away at war. Elizabeth befriends her grandmother's African American cook Tatie and her grandson Charles. In the course of the story, Elizabeth encounters racism, her beloved grandfather's debilitating stroke, and the murder of Charles. In the end, with the love of her family, Elizabeth comes to terms with the fear and grief of the adult world. Elizabeth's story closely parallels Lowry's actual childhood in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. "Charles" was actually a girl named Gloria who was murdered during Lois's childhood. Gloria was the granddaughter of Fleta Jordan, who was a cook for Lois's grandfather, and Fleta was the real "Tatie." The real "Autumn Street" is actually named College Street and is in Carlisle.

Lowry would go on to write several more books, including Number the Stars in 1989 and The Giver in 1993. Many of Lowry's works deal with somber topics, but Lowry manages to mix the comic and the tragic skillfully in a way that makes them enticing to readers both young and old. Following her characters as they cope with hard times, often with humor, helps her readers face the same issues. Lowry said the following of her own writing: "My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. ... I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."

Some of Lowry's works have been controversial because they tackle difficult subject matter. In particular, her 1993 book, The Giver, has concerned some parent groups. This novel for young readers presents a dystopian view of a future society where history is hidden and where those who do not fit within the society's narrow definition of acceptability are "released." Many have deemed this material to be inappropriate for children, and as a result The Giver has been banned in some schools. Nevertheless, Lowry won a Newbery Medal for this book in 1994. She continues the controversial themes of The Giver in her books Gathering Blue and Messenger.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Lowry

Q & A

People often ask how it would be possible to teach a children's book to a classroom of adults, well here are some important questions and answers::::

Aren't picture books and young adult books meant for children?

--Yes, some of them, like Curious George, are meant to be read by children or by parents to children. But these are not the ones we recommend for use in adult literacy classrooms. Other books in the children's literature market are meant to be read and enjoyed by a wide diversity of ages.

--"I like writing picture books because that medium gives me a chance to capture in a brief space what I consider life's profound experiences...I write a picture book that speaks to any person, any age," said Cynthia Rylant, award-winning author. Oth er writers have said the same.

--Well-crafted picture books have intrinsic appeal for a wide-range of readers.

--Picture books often raise issues that demand maturity and life experience. Patricia MacLachlan's short chapter books, Journey, Baby, and Sarah, Plain and Tall, for example, have been marketed for middle-grade school children. But all three can be read on several levels, and adults are able to appreciate them with greater depth and maturity born from experience.

--As picture books have progressed from simple to complex in story telling and theme, from childish to sophisticated in subject matter and art, educators of all levels are gaining new respect for them. In fact, many of the current nonfiction picture books seem to be cousins of the old-fashioned coffeetable book, a genre clearly intended for adults.

Will the use of children's literature with my adult students offend them or make them feel as though I am treating them as children?

--A group at the Ohio Literacy Resource Center has been working to identify appropriate books and field testing them in a variety of adult literacy settings. It is observed that adults are not offended as long as you choose appropriate titles and present them carefully. Just as most people--of all ages--love to be read to, so too are adults pleased to be exposed to the colorful and engrossing world of literature.
What are the benefits of using children's literature during class session?

--First-rate children's literature offers the same benefits that any high quality literature or art offers.

--Because these books employ the double media of print and illustration, the possibilities for students' comprehension and enjoyment are expanded.

--Picture books are suitable for short periods of instruction, the time allotment typical of ABE or GED classes.

--Multicultural texts for a diversity of students can be used to build awareness of other perspectives.

--Even new readers will be able to find adult-appropriate picture books on their reading levels and will not be daunted by the length--which may be a great motivator.

--Children's literature is widely available in public libraries; therefore the cost to your program is practically nonexistent.

How can I use these books in the classroom?
--There are dozens of ways to introduce books into the curriculum.

--Some teachers begin every class by reading a poem or a picture book aloud, simply for the enjoyment of the literature.

--Some teachers project the book onto an overhead screen so the class can read the text together.

--Picture books and short novels make wonderful writing prompts and can provoke good journal writing.

--Level One ABE teachers may want to offer wordless books, such as Anno's Journey (1992) and ask students to create their own texts. They may share the photographs from Evans' and Rylant's book Something Permanent (1994) and ask students to write a paragraph on each photo.

--Picture book and young adult biographies often offer good writing models. Teachers may ask students to inverview each other, write short biographies of their classmates, and share them with the class.

--During class time or for homework, students can read books that make abstract concepts come to life. A reading of Hamanaka's The Journey, for example, will enrich a study of World War II. The study of Ohio history will be deepened by reading the short novel The Borning Room (Fleischman, 1991) or by the picture book Aurora Means Dawn (Sanders, 1989).

--Interdisciplinary thematic units can be broadened by use of children's literature. Somerset Maughm's classic story "Appointment in Samarra," for example, has been stunningly illustrated in the picture book Appointment and would well serve adults studying the theme of death. Certain tales, such as Through the Mickle Woods (Gregory, 1992), do the same.

--ESL teachers will find children's literature a rich resource for oral presentations, cultural presentations, vocabulary expansion, or class discussion on journeys and immigration.

--Classes that use a problem-posing model will find lively fictional examples for their work, for example, in Levine's Pearl Moscowitz' Last Stand.

http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Pubs/0200-12.htm

The Hobbit

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a story for children written by J. R. R. Tolkien in the tradition of the fairy tale. Tolkien wrote the story in the late 1920s initially to amuse his three sons. It was first published on September 21, 1937 to wide critical acclaim.

The Hobbit is set in a time "between the dawn of Faerie and the Dominion of Men", and follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins (the titular "Hobbit") to win his share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. His journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings and into darker, deeper territory, meeting various denizens of the Wilderland along the way. By accepting the disreputable, romantic, fey and adventurous side of his nature (the "Tookish" side) and utilizing both his wits and common sense during the quest, Bilbo develops a new level of maturity, competence and wisdom.


While The Hobbit stands in its own right as a complete, self-contained story, it is also the precursor to Tolkien's second, longer novel The Lord of the Rings. The publisher requested a sequel due to the success of The Hobbit', though The Lord of the Rings was not to be finished and published until 17 years after the original. The Hobbit has been republished and adapted many times since its first edition.
Characters:
-> Bilbo Baggins, the titular protagonist, a respectable, comfort-loving, middle-aged hobbit.

-> Gandalf, an itinerant wizard who introduces Bilbo to a company of thirteen dwarves, then disappears and reappears at key points in the story.

-> Thorin Oakenshield, bombastic head of the company of dwarves and heir to a dwarven kingdom under the Lonely Mountain.

-> Smaug, a dragon who long ago pillaged the dwarven kingdom of Thorin's grandfather.


The plot involves a host of other characters of varying importance, such as the twelve other dwarves of the company; elves; men (humans); trolls; goblins; giant spiders; eagles; Wargs (evil wolves); Elrond the sage; Gollum, a mysterious creature inhabiting an underground lake; Beorn, a man who can assume bear-form; and Bard the Bowman, a heroic archer of Lake-town.

Synopsis:

Gandalf tricks Bilbo into hosting a party for Thorin's band of dwarves, who sing of reclaiming the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasure from the Dragon Smaug. When the music ends Gandalf unveils a map showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expedition's "burglar". The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins despite himself.


The group travels into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell. There Elrond reveals more secrets from the map. Passing over the Misty Mountains, they are caught by goblins and driven deep underground. Though Gandalf rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblin tunnels. Groping along lost, he finds a ring and then encounters Gollum, who engages him in a game of riddles with deadly stakes. With the help of the ring (which confers invisibility), Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, raising his reputation. The goblins and Wargs give chase and the company is saved by eagles before resting in the house of the shape-shifter Beorn.
The company enters the black forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf. There Bilbo first saves the dwarves from Giant Spiders and then from the dungeons of the Wood-elves. Nearing the Lonely Mountain, the travelers are welcomed by the human inhabitants of Lake-town, who hope the dwarves will fulfill prophecies of Smaug's demise. The expedition travels to the Mountain and finds the secret door; Bilbo scouts the dragon's lair, stealing a great cup and learning of a weakness in Smaug's armour. The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town aided the intruder, sets out to destroy the town. A noble thrush who overheard Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability reports it to Bard the Bowman, who slays the Dragon.


When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds the prized Arkenstone gem and steals it. The Wood-elves and Lake-men besiege the Mountain and request compensation for their aid, reparations for Lake-town's destruction, and settlement of old claims on the treasure. Thorin refuses and, having summoned his kin from the north, reinforces his position. Bilbo tries to ransom the Arkenstone to head off a war, but Thorin is intransigent. He banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable


Gandalf reappears to warn all of an approaching army of goblins and Wargs. The dwarves, men, and elves band together, but only with the timely arrival of the eagles and Beorn do they win the Battle of Five Armies. Thorin, mortally wounded, lives long enough to part from Bilbo as a friend. The treasure is divided fairly, but, having no need or desire for it, Bilbo refuses most of his contracted share. Nevertheless, he returns home with enough to make himself a very wealthy hobbit.

Major themes:

The central character, Bilbo, is a modern anachronism exploring an essentially antique world. Bilbo is able to negotiate and interact within this antique world because language and tradition make connections between the two worlds. For example, Gollum's riddles are taken from old historical sources, whilst those of Bilbo come from modern nursery books. It is the form of the riddle-game, familiar to both, which allows Gollum and Bilbo to understand each other, rather than the content of the riddles themselves. This idea of a superficial contrast between characters' individual linguistic style, tone and sphere of interest, leading to an understanding of the deeper unity between the ancient and modern is a constant recurring theme throughout The Hobbit.

The Hobbit may be read as Tolkien's parable of the First World War, where the hero is plucked from his rural home, and thrown into a far off war where traditional types of heroism are shown to be futile and as such explores the theme of heroism. The theme of war portrayed in literature as an anti-pastoral is also seen in The Hobbit where the "Desolation of Smaug" both the area under the influence of Smaug before his demise and the setting for the "Battle of the Five Armies" after, is described as a barren, damaged landscape.


Greed plays a central role in the novel, with many of the episodes stemming from one or more of the characters simple desire for food (be it trolls eating dwarves, or dwarves eating Wood-elf fare) or a desire for beautiful objects, such as gold and jewels.

courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit

J.R.R. Tolkien

Born January 3, 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien lived as an English writer, poet, philologist and university professor, best known as the author of the high fantasy classic works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, until his death September 2, 1973.

Tolkien served in World War I and married Edith Mary Bratt March 22, 1916. The Tolkiens had four children: John Francis Reuel (17 November 1917 – 22 January 2003), Michael Hilary Reuel (22 October 1920 – 27 February 1984), Christopher John Reuel (born 21 November 1924) and Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel (born 18 June 1929). Tolkien was very devoted to his children and sent them illustrated letters from Father Christmas when they were young. There were more characters added each year, such as the Polar Bear, Father Christmas' helper, the Snow Man, the gardener, Ilbereth the elf, his secretary, and various other minor characters. The major characters would relate tales of Father Christmas' battles against goblins who rode on bats and the various pranks committed by the Polar Bear.
Tolkien's first civilian job after World War I was at the Oxford English Dictionary, where he worked mainly on the history and etymology of words of Germanic origin beginning with the letter W. In 1920 he took up a post as Reader in English language at the University of Leeds, and in 1924 was made a professor there. While at Leeds he produced A Middle English Vocabulary and, (with E. V. Gordon), a definitive edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, both becoming academic standard works for many decades. In 1925 he returned to Oxford as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, with a fellowship at Pembroke College.

During his time at Pembroke, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings, largely at 20 Northmoor Road in North Oxford, where a blue plaque was placed in 2002. He also published a philological essay in 1932 on the name 'Nodens', following Sir Mortimer Wheeler's unearthing of a Roman Asclepieion at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, in 1928.

Of Tolkien's academic publications, the 1936 lecture "Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics" had a lasting influence on Beowulf research. Lewis E. Nicholson said that the article Tolkien wrote about Beowulf is "widely recognized as a turning point in Beowulfian criticism", noting that Tolkien established the primacy of the poetic nature of the work as opposed to the purely linguistic elements. At the time, the consensus of scholarship deprecated Beowulf for dealing with childish battles with monsters rather than realistic tribal warfare; Tolkien argued that the author of Beowulf was addressing human destiny in general, not as limited by particular tribal politics, and therefore the monsters were essential to the poem. Where Beowulf does deal with specific tribal struggles, as at Finnsburg, Tolkien argued firmly against reading in fantastic elements. In the essay, Tolkien also revealed how highly he regarded Beowulf: "Beowulf is among my most valued sources," and this influence can be seen in The Lord of the Rings.
In 1945, Tolkien moved to Merton College, Oxford, becoming the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, in which post he remained until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien completed The Lord of the Rings in 1948, close to a decade after the first sketches.

C. S. Lewis, whom Tolkien first met at Oxford, was perhaps his closest friend and colleague, although their relationship cooled later in their lives. They had a shared affection for good talk, laughter and beer, and in May 1927 Tolkien enrolled Lewis in the Coalbiters club, which read Icelandic sagas, and, as Carpenter notes, 'a long and complex friendship had begun.' It was Tolkien (and Hugh Dyson) who helped C.S. Lewis return to Christianity, and Tolkien was accustomed to read aloud passages from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to Lewis' strong approval and encouragement at the Inklings—often meeting in Lewis' big Magdalen sitting-room—and in private.

During his life in retirement, from 1959 up to his death in 1973, Tolkien received steadily increasing public attention and literary fame. The sale of his books was so profitable that he regretted he had not chosen early retirement. While at first he wrote enthusiastic answers to reader inquiries, he became more and more suspicious of emerging Tolkien fandom, especially among the hippie movement in the United States. In a 1972 letter he deplores having become a cult-figure, but admits that

... even the nose of a very modest idol [...] cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense!

Fan attention became so intense that Tolkien had to take his phone number out of the public directory and eventually he and Edith moved to Bournemouth on the south coast.
Tolkien was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on 28 March 1972.

courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.R.R._Tolkien