Peppe the Lamplighter - Elisa Bartone

Illustrated by Ted Lewin
Loithrop Lee & Shepard, 1993
For: gr. 1-4
My rating: Story: 2.5/ Illustrations: 4
Endpapers: Bright Yellow
Caldecott Honor

Ted Lewin's beautiful, full-page illustrations take on a dark tone in this story. Peppe lives with his seven sisters and sickly father in the tenements of New York's Little Italy. Peppe hunts everywhre to find a job to help support his family, and finally procures one lighting the lamps around his neighborhood with a flame on the end of a long pole.

However, his father is ashamed of him - he says this is not why he brought his son to America -- he wants much more for him. His father's silence and attitude eventually rub off on Peppe, who gets more and more depressed - until he doesn't light the lamps one night. And because of that, his little sister doesn't arrive home. (She is afraid of the dark and huddles under an unlit lamp.)

Distressed, the father begs Peppe to go out and light the lamps. He finds his sister and brings her home to a now-loving and accepting father.

Okay, the illustrations are gorgeous. But the story throws me off a bit - this father! What a jerk. He doesn't deserve so many caring, hard-working kids! I bet if I read this aloud to my students they'd decide that for themselves, too. Grrrrrr.

The Storytellers - Ted Lewin

Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1998
32 pages
For grades 1-4
My rating: 4
Endpapers: The city of Fez, surrounded by palms and mountains.
There's a glossary of Arab words and pronounciations.

Set in the city of Fez in Morocco, this story leaves us with a wonderful sense of what it might be like there - so very different from what American kids might be used to -- mules pulling wagons on the skinny streets of the marketplace, craftsmen performing their tasks for all to see --- we smell the smells (some unpleasant) and see the sights. Beautiful carpets. A walled city. Moroccon dress. And we wait to discover where Abdul and his grandfather are going.

Abdul's grandfather is a storyteller. They let their white pigeon fly free, and when it returns it "brings a story from the sky." The gathering crowds drop coins onto the carpet where the storyteller and his grandson sit and listen attentively to the stories.

This is based on something Ted Lewin witnessed when he and his wife were on a trip to Fez.

This is a superb look into the eveyday lives of another culture in our world.

Big Jimmy's Kum Kau Chinese Take Out - Ted Lewin

Harper Collins, 2002
32 pages
For: gr. 1-4
My rating: 4
Endpapers: Colorful Chinese take out menu...mmmmm...

Ted Lewin's masterful portraits cover these pages with black font on yellow or light blue, orange and yellow font on black. His are some of my favorites - they really capture place and mood.

It's Saturday and a young boy is going to "help" his parents run their Chinese take-out on a busy street corner in Brooklyn, New York. Ted Lewin has fashioned this after a real Chinese Take Out - named Kum Kau ("gum-kow"), in his own neighborhood. It describes the eight various cooks chopping, steaming, preparing fresh meats and vegetables for the onslaught that begins when the metal doors rise from the sidewalk for the 11 o'clock opening. It has a cute ending, a self portrait of the author eating his favorite - Buddha's Delight, - and an excellent explanation of how the the book's illustrations were created.

Yum. Chinese takout for dinner, anyone?

One Green Apple - Eve Bunting

Illustrator: Ted Lewin
For: Kids
Published: June, 2006
Rating: 5
Endpapers: Christmas green

The combination of Bunting and Lewin have created a wonderful book to make kids think about diversity and tolerance, and sets it right here in our own backyard. Although Farrah doesn't speak or understand a word of English and feels very different than the other children in her class, this book is the story of HER thoughts, HER point-of-view in this strange new world where no one else wears a dupatta and boys and girls are in class together. On this, her second day in an American school, the class goes to an apple orchard. Although all the other kids choose a red apple, she chooses a small green apple. As they are being tossed into the cider grinder, a few of the students try, too late, to protest her green apple - but they find that the cider is still delicious. So the book becomes an incredible METAPHOR! An especially cool way to teach metaphor to older students - just read this aloud and the imbedded message will be right there with the lesson. Love it, love it.

Ted Lewin has to be one of my very favorite realistic illustrators. His edge-of-page paintings capture expression and sunlight and sound so well - so when Farrah says her very first English word, APPLE, his full-page-head-shot captures the way she feels - tentataive, but proud and happy.