R.I.P. Howard Zinn

1922 - 2010

Another sad passing. Howard Zinn died this week. My friend Sheila was one of his many students, she kept in touch with him, and quotes him a lot. His book, A People's History of the United States, is an HONEST history, illuminating facts that have either been ignored or glossed over, but now finally told. And recently, he wrote a two-volume children's edition, which is really wonderful and oh-so readable. Then again, 87 is nothing to sneeze at. I think he lived every minute to the fullest...apparently he was swimming when he had his fatal heart attack.

My daughter took U. S. History as a senior because she was in a special program that included a lengthy trip to Ecuador during her junior year. Being in a junior-year class as a senior wasn't too much fun, but because she was in that particular class, she got the opportunity to travel to Boston for a weekend and meet Howard Zinn. And since Sheila was the history teacher that planned the trip, I was asked to accompany the class as a chaperone. And oh, what a trip.

The five-hour-each-way bus ride wasn't a joy...but everything else was. We toured Harvard. We saw RENT. We rode the subway all over the city. And we met with Howard Zinn - just this small, intelligent class of high school kids and Mr. Zinn. I can still remember the conversation, the questions, how impressed he was in these knowledgeable young people. And he was charming. And funny. And quick. The kids were prepared. They'd read his book. It was an unforgettable experience - for all of us.

He is included in Robert Shetterly's 2005 book Americans Who Tell the Truth. I remember being terribly pleased about that. I hope that people, when they hear of his passing, go out and read or reread A People's History. They won't regret it.

Some good articles to read about Howard Zinn:

"A Radical Treasure" by New York Time Op Ed Columnist Bob Herbert

"Howard Zinn, America's Most Inspiring Teacher, Dies at 87" in San Francisco's "BeyondChron"

"Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87" from the Boston Globe, his hometown newspaper

MOVIE - Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges was amazing!
Limited release Dec. 16, 2009
R (1:51)
Jan. 30, 2010 at El Con with the Weinsteins
RT: 92% cag 96% (yup, one of my favorites)
Fandango: 83/100
Director: Scott Cooper
Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell

Bad Blake. Quite a name. Has-been country singer. Alcoholic. Playing tiny southwestern towns in bowling alleys for very little pay. Jeff Bridges sings. And acts. Oh, does he act. He was incredibly wonderful. He deserves an Oscar, hands-down. I had a crush on him many, many years ago (20??) when he starred in Starman. He was so GOOD. Well, he's even better in this. Believable. Genuine. To play a falling-down, constantly-regurgitating drunk for 7/8 of a long movie is no easy chore. We FEEL for him. We see what he's gone through. We want him to find help, but it seems pretty useless. It's just not going to happen...... Redemption? Fullfillment? Reconciliation about past deeds? Lots to ponder here.....

Maggie Gyllenhaal is gritty in her role as Jane, the youngish reporter in Santa Fe that falls for him. Colin Farrell is GREAT as his past-protege. Both Bridges and Farrell do their own singing - famously. I've got to get this soundtrack.

Well worth the price of a full-price ticket. I'm genuinly satisfied with this one.

10. Right Behind You - Gail Giles

For: YA
Little Brown, 2007
292 pgs.
Rating: 4.5

I read this all in one sitting, couldn't put it down. There are three parts, three settings. Alaska, Indiana, and the coast of Texas. When Kip was nine and hardly realizing what he was doing he set a seven-year-old on fire. From catatonic state to four years in a mental institution, Kip tries to learn to live again. The first third of the book tells of his life in the hospital in Alaska.

When his doctors deems him well enough to join the real world, his dad and stepmom move to Indiana and change their names, there have been hate crimes and death threats because he "walked away" from the crime. From inside Kip - now Wade's - head, we suffer with him as he tries to construct a life after over four years in almost-isolation. He's smart, friendly, athletic. He makes friends, studies, joins the swim team. But his guilt is his constant companion. He starts drinking, and one night tells his friends about his past. He is ostrasized, and they have to leave again.

They end up in a house on a beach in Texas, where Wade falls for the girl next door- who has her own demons. But he feels he must tell her about his past. So he writes the whole story into journals, which he gives her to read. That's what we've been reading.

Intriguing story. Tough topic. Masterful storytelling.

9. Burned - Ellen Hopkins

Audio read by Laura Flanagan, who gets high marks
For: YA, definitely older YA
published 2006
5 unabridged cd's
5 hrs. 15 min.
544 pages - told in free verse form
Rating: Ooooh...hard to say......some is 2...some is 4....so 3, I guess

After I heard the first minute or so I almost didn't continue. I should have realized that this beginning part was definitely foreshadowing. Pattyn Von Stratton, just ending her junior year in high school, is the oldest of seven sisters with pregnant mom finally about to have another sibling. However, this time it will...finally...be a boy.

Thre's so much to say about Pattyn and her family. They're Mormons who live in Carson City, Nevada. The father is an abusive drunk. The mother, although the main target of the abuse, sits on the couch and watches reality tv all day while the daughters cook and clean and vacuum and change diapers. The girls are raised to obey the father, be righteous, attend Sunday testimonies, and never...ever...think for themselves. They wear homemade clothing and have few friends.

When a male classmate becomes interested in Pattyn, she is torn in two directions - what her bishop and father have taught her, and what her own feelings..and all the reading she's done....are telling her. Then her father catches her in an uncompromising position and sends her for the summer to stay with his estranged sister in the middle of Nevada. This is where I had my second wonderings about the book. Aunt Jeannette was a wonderful, caring, thoughtful, liberal feminist who had nothing good at all to say or do with the father. Why would he ever send Pattyn there? And then Pattyn has a wonderful, love (and sex)-filled summer learning to drive, to ride, and to trust herself and her feelings.

But disaster after disaster happens once she has to go back home. One bad thing right after the next. The ending , after all these disasters, is what any thoughtful reader should have realized right from the first few lines was going to happen.

You hear the last words of the story and say, to yourself: "Okay." "What?" "Well...." and "Yuh, I guess so." I KNOW that if I had any inkling about what was going to take place in this book, I wouldn't have read it. I don't know if I'm glad I had no inkling and DID read it, or would have rather not read it at all.

MOVIE - New York, I Love You

Quite artsy -- and delightfully different
Limited release Oct. 16, 2009
R (1:52)
Jan. 26, 2010 at Crossroads with Sheila & Ronnie
RT: 41% cag:
Director: Perhaps ten or eleven, different directors for each of the "shorts"

Andy Garcia, Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, Ethan Hawke, Chris Cooper, Robin Wright Penn, James Caan, Bradley Cooper, Julie Christie, Eli Wallach, Cloris Leachman....

This was a very interesting movie. The setting...of course....New York City, mainly different parts of Manhattan. Eleven (???) vignetees/shorts/separate stories that occasionally intertwine and over lap. Most have a cute twist at the end. Some are better than others. And there's only one where you wrinkle your brow and say, whaaaaat??? That was also the one that seemed the longest and most tedious...a bit of fantasy in a world of reality, and it just didn't seem to fit for me (Julie Christie, a no-longer-singing-opera-singer who is about to commit suicide (I think) watches a crippled immigrant jump from her window instead...but it is apparently all in her head....)

These were my standouts, perhaps because I so enjoy the actors? Natalie Portman shines. Her vignettes were thoughtful and clever (two of them, linked by others). The James Caan pharmicist setting up a recently jilted young man with his attractive daughter, to go to his prom - and when the daughter appears, she's in a wheelchair. Every one of the four or five times that Bradley Cooper appeared (incredible eyes, no matter what he does). The scene where Ethan Hawke tries to pick up a woman after he lights her cigarette outside a bar. And Cloris Leachman and Eli Wallach, walking to the boardwalk at Coney Island on their 63rd wedding anniversary...although a bit drawn out, was wonderful.

It was good. I enjoyed it a lot. And the half price happy hour at Buddy's beforehand was yummy, cheap, and perfect....

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?

R.I.P. Robert B. Parker

1932 - 2010

I never met Robert B. Parker, although we lived in the same town for many years. I saw him a couple of times - once he was out washing his car in the driveway. He and his family lived in Lynnfield, Mass., the town in which I grew up. Years later my husband, Steve, discovered Spenser. We both read the mysteries...gulped them down, actually, going back to the very first one, The Godwulf Manuscripts. His Smithfield was my Lynnfield. I don't think he changed the names of many places in his books, we used to discuss why he might want to disguise Lynnfield. Then some of his settings made it to Maine, where we lived. One weekend we drove down to Belfast to see if we could discover where he was describing (we did). On at least two weekends, while visiting my family in the Lynnfield/Wakefield/Reading areas, we traced a couple of his jaunts in and around the suburbs of Boston - Middleton, Peabody, up Rte. 114, book description open on my lap while Steve drove.... We went to the Boston bars where Spenser went, giggling over our drinks.

I am extremely saddened to hear of Parker's death on Monday (January 18, 2010) at age 77. He felt like someone I knew. HE was Spenser. I feel horrible for his wife, Joan. It makes me ache, knowing that he was Steve's favorite author, and that Steve read every one of his books through 2000 (and that's a lot of books). It's Parker (and Spenser) that got my son, Brian reading. Other than Hatchet (Paulsen), Brian had never had any interest in reading. The outdoors was calling much too loudly. But he is now a voracious reader of murder mysteries - and it began, shortly after his dad's death - by reading all the Spenser novels, most of which he found on his dad's bookshelf.

Mr. Parker, thanks for the laughs (you must have had a wonderful sense of humor), for the wonderful mysteries, for the gentle tough-guy persona of Spenser....and also for instigating my own trips around Massachusetts and glimpses into other parts of the country, for being the spark that got my kid to read, and for sparking all the talks and sharing and audio-book listening on long car rides that were part of my own married life.

For some informative reading about Robert B. Parker, here are a few websites I checked out this morning:

This was the best - Parker and his son, Dan, singing Moon River. It's really wonderful!

Here's are comments from one of the funniest and clever young adult authors I know - David Lubar.

This site has a huge list of tributes and blogs about Parker.

Here's one of the Boston Globe obituaries, and here's one from the London Telegraph.

And lastly, here's a tribute from fellow Boston author, Dennis Lehane.

First Food Fight This Fall (and Other School Poems) - Marilyn Singer

Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa
Sterling, 2008
$14.95
40 pages
My rating: 4
Endpapers: "Snapshots" of each of the 12 kids who "write" these poems about their school life in Ms. Mundy's class

Subjects and people and the playground, the classroom and celebrations and poetry -- all are creatively presented. This is a perfect fun 3rd/4th grade collection of poems that tell a story.

The illustrations are bright, the text is on top of and part of the illustration. Picture and poems work together so well.

Field Trip

Look at this painting, that color, this line.
Look at that tiger, so different from ine.
Look at the walls, at the ceiling, the floor.
Art everywhere! In the next room there's more!
Boats in the harbor, a girls with a cup...
Will I be an artist when I grow up?
Will they hang my pictures where people can see 'em
When they take a trip to this super museum?

Spring Me!

Silly
bee bumping
the window, let's
trade places. You want to come
in and work. I want to go out
and play.

What woke me? It might
have been a robin. It might
have been a poem.

Because of You - B. G. Hennessy

Illustrated by Hiroe Nakata
Candlewick, 2005
24 pages
$15.99
Endpapers: Dark blue-aqua watercolors

One person CAN make a difference! This book should be read and shared at my school's next Passport to Peace event. It's simple:

"When you were born, there was a new person for your family to love and care for.

And because of you, there is one more person who can love and care for others."

Back and forth, this story tells how simple acts of kindness can be the beginning of peace in our world. Gentle. Simple.

The watercolors are an excellent model for kids that are beginning to use watercolors carefully and with detail.

Flotsam - David Wiesner

Clarion Books, 2006
$17.00
40 pages
My rating: 5
Endpapers: beige "sand"
2007 Caldecott Winner

Why have I never before looked at this Caldecott winner??? It's a gorgeous wordless story. Ultra-clever. SO creative, so much to say, a full-fledged story without words.

A boy is lazing at the beach with his family, examining bugs and crabs and the ocean in general, when a large wave brings in a strange old camera - a "Melville Underwater Camera." He develops the film inside and can't believe the pictures that appear. Underwater fantasies of all kinds - whole stories could be told in each underwater photo - so many lesson plan ideas - But that's not all the pictures that are on the camera. There's a photo of another child, standing on a beach, holding a photo. And when he looks closer, he sees that the photo being held is of another child standing on a beach holding another photo....and back and back and back....

Note to self: start hunting for copies!

The illustrations are definitely Caldecott worthy. What a story.

Katy and the Big Snow - Virginia Lee Burton

Houghton Mifflin, 1943/1971
Brand new paperback edition has sparkly cover and STICKERS!
$6.99 paper
40 pages
My rating: 5

Virginia Lee Burton's picture books - over sixty years old - are stiill being published! The Little House, Mike Mulligan, Katy - this is incredibly cool, huh? And after reading Katy and the Big Snow again (it's been an incredibly long time) I know why.

There's a wavy border on every page. There's a compass rose on any page that shows the city of Geopolis. There are maps. There's excitement. There's a hero (heroine!)....

When a blizzard covers the city of Geopolis, big, strong Katy the bulldozer-with-a-plough is called out to help (to the rescue!)

The illustrations are primarily in aqua with black, red, yellow, green. and white as the only other touches of color. They're "old fashioned" and incredibly wonderful.

Winter Trees - Carole Gerber

Illustrated by Leslie Evans
Charlesbridge, 2008 (paper 2009)
Paper $6.95
32 pages
My rating: 4

I've been looking for TREE books to accentuate my 4th grade Judaic partner's unit on TuBishvat. This book was a great find!

The illustrations are linoleum block prints, with water color and collage. Really lovely.

The rhyming text looks simple but has a sophisticated complexity:

"They stand distinct as skeletons.
We clearly see the form of each:
the egg shape of the maple tree;
the taller oval of the beech..."

We learn about trees by what they look like in winter - bare decidious shapes, fuller coniferous forms.

Trees discussed: maple, beech, birch, oak, yellow poplar, eastern hemlock, white spruce....these are MY trees, the New England trees that i grew up with, played in and under, knew well. I've been in southern Arizona for 7 1/2 years now, and I know the major cacti, but it's time to learn the native trees!

Reading Makes You Feel Good - Todd Parr

Megan Tingley/Little Brown, 2005
Paper $6.99
32 pgaes

With his usual simplicity, Todd Parr celebrates books and the joy of reading in words and pictures. Bright bright colors. Simple drawings - a thick black line colored in with solid colors, but the whole page is covered, without a speck of white.

This could be written up as a poem and kids could brainstorm their own additions - or create their own new poem in a similar vein, on this subject or another.

"Reading makes you feel good because...
You can imagine you are a brave princess or a scary dinosaur
You can learn about cool places and people
You can make a new friend
You can do it anywhere!
Reading makes you feel good because....."

You get the idea.
I'd like to put some of these double-page spreads on the walls of my classroom.