Module 2: Little Women

Book Summary:
This book covers several years of the lives of the four March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Throughout the course of the book, the sisters show kindness and love to people around them, and try to overcome some of their problems.
In one of the more heart-wrenching scenes, Amy burns Jo’s book after being left behind when Jo chooses to go out without Amy. Shortly after, Amy falls through the ice when ice skating, and is barely rescued by Jo and Laurie. From this the sisters learn not to take each other for granted. There were many times when the March girls were snubbed, such as when Amy’s booth got moved to a dark corner, and they learned that it was okay if they still treated people with respect even if they had not had the same treatment. When
their sister Beth dies, they have to grieve while still understanding that Beth was finally no longer in pain. By the end of the story, the three remaining sisters have all found happiness with loving husbands and families.

APA reference:

Alcott, L. M. (1960). Little Women. New York: Scholastic Book Services.(Original work published 1868)

My Impressions:

This book was a joy to read. While the girls have some hard
times, they get through it all quite well, and grow stronger from it. The
book contains many examples of how the girls managed to handle bad situations
with grace. I think the book had many moral lessons in it that are still very
much applicable today. Things such as treating others as you would like to be
treated, being kind to those less fortunate, and forgiveness will never be
outdated. Alcott is a master of character development as well, and really
helps the reader to become attached to the characters and understand why they
do the things they do.
One of the things I particularly enjoyed about this book is
about the way it flows through time. It covers several years, and it seems to
move at just the right pace. One flaw that many books have is when time seems
to move very slowly at first, and then suddenly jumps into the future with
little or no explanation. That did not happen in this book; it seemed to flow
at the perfect pace. I also enjoyed
the strong emphasis on the value of family life and friendship; it showed
that with the strength of the family together it is possible to pull through
even the most difficult times.
Overall, this book is a timeless classic that was a delightful book to read.

Professional Review:

Little Women (or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy) is a novel by American
author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). Written and set in the Alcott family
home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two parts
in 1868 and 1869. The novel follows the lives of four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth,
and Amy March—and is loosely based on the author's childhood experiences with
her three sisters. The first part of the book was an immediate commercial and
critical success, prompting the composition of the book's second part titled
Good Wives, also a huge success. Both parts were first published as a single
volume in 1880. Alcott followed Little Women with two sequels reprising the
March sisters, Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Little Women has been
adapted to play, musical, opera, film, and animated feature.

[Review of the book Little Women by
L. M. Alcott]. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/LOUISA-MAY-ALCOTT-ORIGINAL-ebook/dp/B003IHW0GE/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329005979&sr=1-8

Alcott's original work explores the overcoming of character flaws. Many of
the chapter titles in this first part are allusions to the allegorical
concepts and places in Pilgrim's Progress. When young, the girls played
Pilgrim's Progress by taking an imaginary journey through their home. As
young women, they agree to continue the figurative journey, using the "guidebooks"
— copies of the New Testament, described as "that beautiful old story of
the best life ever lived" (chapter 1, see also chapter 19) — they
receive on Christmas morning. Each of the March girls must struggle to
overcome a major character flaw: Meg, vanity; Jo, a hot temper; Beth,
shyness; and Amy, selfishness. The girls must work out these flaws in order
to live up to their mother and father's high expectations as mothers, wives,
sisters, and citizens.

In the course of the novel, the girls become friends with their next-door
neighbor, the teenage boy Laurie (whose given name is "Theodore"),
who becomes a particular friend of Jo. In addition to the more serious themes
outlined above, the book describes the light hearted, often humorous activities
of the sisters and their friend, such as creating a newspaper and picnicking,
and the various scrapes that Jo and Laurie get into. The story represents
family relationships and explores family life thoroughly. It also reflects
issues of feminism, as Jo consistently struggles with the boundaries 19th
century society placed on females, including not being able to fight in a
war, not being able to attend college, and being pressured by her Aunt March
to find a suitable husband to take care of her.
(from Amazon.com)

Library Uses:

Since so many people have seen the movie based on this book,
perhaps the library could challenge adult readers to a “movie book”
challenge; to read the book and see what they think of how it compares to the
movie. Perhaps the library could create a display of books with their movies
and encourage readers to try them.


Another great use for this book would be to encourage parents to read it to their children. This book is an excellent family book, and even though it is older I think it still holds
the interest of young children. When emphasizing good books for the whole family, the library could include this book in the group.

Module 2: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Book Summary:

In this book, a young
boy’s grandfather tells him the story of a land where food fell from the sky.
Instead of rain and snow, it would rain orange juice and toast. People got all
of their meals outside from the sky. Eventually, though, the weather turned bad.
It rained pancakes that covered whole buildings, or rained so much food that
there was no way to get rid of it all. Soon there was no real way for people to
continue there, so they made rafts out of bread and sailed to another town,
where it rained and snowed like normal, and they had to cook all their own
meals.

My Impressions:

This book was a really interesting book. The illustrations were fantastic and suited
the story very well. The story was fun and imaginative. It was fun to think
about food falling from the sky, and the author made it look like it would be a
wonderful place to live (at least at first). Even the image of the giant
pancake covering the school was one that children could really appreciate. I
think this story is one that is especially appealing to children simply because
of some of the imagery.

APA Reference:

Barrett, J. (1978). Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

Professional Review:

A flying pancake at breakfast triggers Grandpa's bedtime story set in the far-off land
of Chewanswallow, where the food comes out of the sky and ""whatever
the weather served, that was what they ate."" Most of the book
consists of nothing more than elaborations on this conceit, with running menu
information decked out in weather report terminology, but Judi Barrett's
examples are nutty enough so that kids won't tire of the gag--even though Ron
Barrett's flippy pop cartoons are too literal to enlarge it. The plot thickens
with the maple syrup, and at last the portions grow so large that the people
are being bombarded and buried by food--and so they all sail off on
peanut-butter sandwiches to a land where food is purchased at the supermarket.
A dubious improvement perhaps, but Grandpa's imaginings are very close to a
little kid's funny bone--which everyone knows is located somewhere along the
intestinal tract.

(1997) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from http://www.kirkusreviews.com/

Possible library uses:

This book would be a good one to use to show children an
example of a book that inspired a movie—and why they should still read the book
even if they have seen the movie. While there is a movie with this title, it is
only loosely based on the book. The book has some charm that I feel the movie
lacks; children should know that there is value in both. Many children skip
reading some books because “I’ve seen the movie already!” Perhaps this book
could open that door again for some children. The library could have a “Movie
Books” challenge, and see what happens when children compare a book to a movie
they have seen.

Module 1: The Plot Chickens

Book Summary:

In this book, the main character is a chicken named Maxine. Maxine loves to read, and makes many trips to the library to get books. She reads to the other chickens, and they love to
have her read to them. She decides that she should try to write a book, and even checks out a book on how to write a story. Following the steps in the book (and with some input from the other chickens), Maxine writes her story and
sends it to a publisher. When it is rejected, she is sad but decides to publish it herself, and gives a copy to the library. The librarian suggests that she should have it reviewed, so she sends it in for review, and it gets a very bad review. Maxine is so embarrassed by the bad review that for a while she will not even go into the library. The other chickens miss her reading, so she gets brave and returns. When she returns, she finds that the children of the library have voted her book “best book of the year”, and the librarian asks her to read
it to them.

APA reference:

Auch, M.J., & Auch, H. (2009). The plot chickens. New York: Holiday House.

My impressions:

At first, I did not like this book, although I can’t exactly pinpoint why I didn’t like it. After
reading it a second and third time, however, I do really like the book. The
illustrations are wonderful, lively and colorful. The story is interesting,
with lots of interaction between characters. Even in a book this short, the
author manages to make the reader like the main character and want her to
succeed. I actually felt quite bad for Maxine (that may be why I initially
didn’t like the book!) when her book got rejected and she got the bad review,
and I was glad that in the end the children liked her book.
This book makes several
interesting points, which children may or may not care about, but parents will
love. For one thing: reading is fun. Maxine loved reading and the other
chickens enjoyed it when she read to them. Another point is of course, to try
again if you fail the first time. Giving up after one try was not something
Maxine wanted to do, and in the end she wanted to keep writing even though her
feelings had been hurt by the rejection. One more point that this story makes
(although I am not sure if this is what the author intended) is that the real
audience that matters for children’s books is the children—what adults think of
children’s books does not always match up to what kids will think. I very much
agree with this; adults do not always know what is in the mind of a child, and
they will not be interested in the same things, so it is reasonable to assume
they will not always enjoy the same books. I have found that when I re-read
books I adored as a child I just don’t see them the same way at all now, and
cannot always remember what it was about them that I liked.

Professional Review:

School Library Journal
( March 01, 2009; 9780823420872 )
K-Gr 2-Henrietta the chicken, star
of Souperchicken (Holiday House, 2003), is an avid library user and decides
that because reading is so much fun, "writing books must be
eggshilarating." She finds a manual of writing rules and creates her own
story-with the unsolicited help of the other fowl. When it is rejected by a
publisher, Henrietta decides to self-publish. She takes a copy to her
librarian, who tells her to send it to The Corn Book Magazine for review.
Henrietta gets another rejection: "odoriferous." Then she wanders
into the library at storytime and sees that her book was chosen best of the
year by the children. Henrietta is asked to read it aloud. "She read with
dramatic expression. Of course, all the children heard was BUK, BUK,
BUK.." The illustrations, a combination of oil paints and digital technology,
are bold and colorful. The pictures are busy, with Henrietta at her typewriter
while her friends cavort around her. There are imagined scenes in cloud shapes,
word balloons, and jokes aplenty. A droll chicken with a repeating line adds to
the humor. This offering works on two levels. It's a funny picture book that
could be used as a manual on writing.-Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library,
MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media
Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted

Bates, I. (2009, March 01). [Review of the book The plot chickens, by M.
J. & H. Auch]. School Library Journal 55(3), p. 105-106. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/

Library Uses:

This book could be used to encourage children to write their own stories ; perhaps an activity for story time could be to have children try to write their own story. It even has some very basic guidelines for what makes a good story. Another possible use would be to encourage children to read, maybe even in a group setting. The children could be encouraged to read to their friends like Maxine does.