Long Night Moon

By: Cynthia Rylant

Illustrated by: Mark Siegel

I enjoyed reading this book written in poem form. It was not my very favorite or my least favorite by Rylant. First, each page consists of beautiful, dark illustrations. Readers can get a feel of the mood of the story just by looking at the front cover. You know this is going to be about night, which sometimes seems to be a very eery and scary time of day. The front cover does not convey scary or eeriness to me. It conveys a type of peace and the book is not necessarily about scary night time things. Each page is a full-page bleed drawn with charcoal. This proves to be very effective. Readers are absorbed into the night which I think the author and illustrator wants us to be. When I think about the night, things are not always clear. You can make out images when it's nighttime outside, but not everything can be seen clearly. Using charcoal instead of paint makes me feel this way about the illustrations. You can make out animals and trees and plants, but readers really have to focus on them.

Another item I noticed is that the first page that starts with the January moon has a shadow of a woman and her little baby in her arms. The rest of the story, readers can observe animals and plants, but not the woman and her baby. These two are seen again on the December moon page. The story begins and ends with the pair, almost like a full cycle, like a full year. The text states on the December moon page, "This is the faithful moon." It's reliable, similar as to how a mother is reliable and depended upon by her child.

Lastly, the text is typed in cursive. Why was this printed in cursive? We talk in class about how authors and illustrators do things for a reason. I was just wondering what this reason could have been.

Casey at the Bat - A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888

Copiously & Faithfully Illustrated by: Christopher Bing

The first thing I noticed when I opened the front cover of this story was the illustrations! No wonder this book was a Caldecott Medal winner. Readers already know before they open the book that the setting is going to be in the past. Right in the title, the date states 1888. The illustrations are done using items found during this era. First, each double-page spread looks like a newspaper during the late 1800's. The text is written at the bottom of the "newspaper" almost like a heading. The poem is written in couplets-one couplet per page until readers reach the end of the story and the couplets are split with one line on each page.

In an editorial on the inside front cover, it states, "Bing seamlessly weaves real and trompe l'oeil reproductions of artifacts, period baseball cards, tickets, advertisements, and a host of other memorabilia into the narrative to present a rich and multi-faceted panorama of a bygone era." Each page consists of some form of artifact from the 1800's right on the page covering a part of the newspaper. This really gives readers a sense of the time period and meaning and I think this is highly effective. I remember reading Casey at the Bat when I was in 5th grade from a basal reader. I remember the pictures were very bright and cheery and they had nothing to do with the time period. Though I enjoyed the poem at this time in my life, I was unfamiliar with the world in the 1800's. This version shows readers bits and pieces from this era. Readers are not actually at the game. It had already taken place and being that each illustration is in the form of a newspaper, readers get a sense they are at the game because we're reading about it.

At first, I thought the illustrations were very jumbled and there was just too much to keep track of and too much to see on each page. On the other hand, when I think about the intended audience, this version is very appropriate.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

By: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Illustrated by: Jeffrey Thompson

Many people are familiar with this famous account of Paul Revere's ride through the thirteen colonies to alert the colonists that the British were coming, written in poem form. Jeffrey Thompson took the poem and beautifully illustrated it. The illustrations are very different. I would imagine the illustrations would be very old, rustic even, to depict the setting during this time period.

These illustrations are not what I had imagined. They are not "old." The pictures remind me of a comic book almost. The characters almost look like action heroes with the thick, black lines which outline the pictures. At the end of the story, there is a page which tells how the illustrations were made. They were made with scratch board, computer images, black and white imaging with some pictures having 80 layers. All pictures are framed with some being a full-page bleed in a frame. Every other picture is a full-page bleed and I'm not really sure why the illustrator did this. I was trying to see if there was a pattern evident.

There are rhyming words in the poem, with some being like-rhymes. (This meaning they are not EXACT rhymes, but very similar.) Also, the rhyme scheme doesn't follow a particular pattern. One stanza will be an AABB pattern and then on the next page, the rhyme scheme will be a ABAB rhyme pattern. When I first heard myself reading to a rhythm, this would be stopped and it would change.

What I find interesting about the book is at the end of the poem. There is a historical note which describes the "real" ride of Paul Revere. In one of the lines, it states, "It was two by the village clock/When he came to the bridge in Concord town." In the historical note, it is said that Revere never even made it to Concord so I thought that was interesting. Why did Longfellow write this? Did he think Revere was going to make it there, but didn't? Did Longfellow put this line in his poem to make it more meaningful? Unfortunately, I don't know and Longfellow is not around for me to ask him. :-)

Despite this fact, the poem of Paul Revere's ride could be an effective complement to the history books when studying this era in American History.

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

You may have noticed that there's not a picture included with this post. This is because the poem (in storybook format) I read does not appear in a Google search. I love giving readers the cover as a visual of what I'm blogging about, but in this case, I do not have the cover to provide.

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod is an old poem written by a man, Eugene W. Field in 1889. This is a famous poem, often times recited to children as they drift off to sleep. The poem is about three fisherman who go on a dream in a wooden shoe to catch stars in the night sky. When the dream is over, the three fisherman head back to reality to where a child is getting ready to go to sleep. The version I read is illustrated by David McPhail.

This poem is simple and easy. The front cover shows three rabbits (the fisherman) riding in a wooden shoe at night. The moon, with a face, takes up most of the front cover. By looking at the cover, readers can assume this could easily be read before bedtime. The illustrator uses different shades of blue on each page to show night and the position of the moon depends on how light or dark the blue hue is. There are many horizontal, wavy lines to show the fisherman sailing in shoe. The lines are not crazy and going all over the place. They are nice, smooth, almost rhythmic lines which gave me a sense of calmness as I was reading.

As stated, the poem is easy and light and the illustrations follow the same pattern. This poem does rhyme. The first page of text states, "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night/Sailed off in a wooden shoe--/Sailed on a river of crystal light/Into a sea of dew." There are two pages of 5-line stanzas and the rest of the poem ranges from three to four lines of text. The illustrations are not overly "busy" and, again, gives the readers a sense of an adventure, but not one that's thrill-seeking and extremely excitable.

This poem is very enjoyable and soothing. Readers get almost a relaxed feeling as the text is being read. I think this would make a great poem to read as a child is drifting off to dreamland.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Written & Illustrated by: William Steig

This is one of my favorite stories! Briefly, this story is about Sylvester, a donkey, who finds a magic red pebble and it grants Sylvester wishes. Sylvester accidentally wishes to become a big rock to escape the wrath of a lion and then realizes he doesn't have hands in order to hold the pebble and make a wish to return to himself. Readers view what happens as time passes on and Sylvester doesn't return home to his parents.

What I enjoy about this story is the human-like qualities of the animals. It is very evident in the illustrations the emotions the animals are feeling. I really like the illustrations because they seem "classic." The paper used is not glossy so it gives this story a different feel. None of the illustrations are in frames and the text is not in the pictures. The illustrations are simple, but very detailed. I don't know if this makes sense, but everything that's in the pictures should be there. Though a little long, this is a simple story and does not call for elaborate, glossy pictures with exaggerated characters.

Many students will enjoy this book and it is a good story to use when teaching students to make predictions. There are many times in the story when the teacher can stop and ask students to tell what they think is going to happen next. Even just for an enjoyable read aloud, this is an entertaining fantasy story with a happy ending!

Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story From China

Translated & Illustrated by: Ed Young

Lon Po Po is a Chinese version of the classic fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood. The story is very similar though it does have some slight differences, of course. Instead of Little Red Riding Hood venturing to Grandma's house, a wolf comes knocking at the home of three little girls while their mother is on her way to see the girls' grandmother. I don't want to give away too much, though I will say there is a happy ending.

The illustrations in this story are watercolors and pastels. Young uses light and dark colors which provides the reader with spectacular pictures of the wolf. Young uses a technique called panel art. Many of the illustrations are in long, skinny frames, often two panels on the same page. I first thought about it feeling like a movie where the reader only sees the important parts. Since there is framing, there is much "white" space not used on the page. I figured if an illustrator is not going to fill up the entire page with a picture, there must be a good reason. I think it gives the reader the idea that what is in the long, slender panel is what the illustrator wants to call our attention to. There are some pages with all one illustration in a frame-no paneling. I noticed that the full-framed illustrations happen around the height, or action, of the story. Readers get excited because they are seeing more on the page than in the rest of the story.

This version of Little Red Riding Hood is different from what I've read in the past. It's very dark and the pictures are not always very clear. That makes this version even more magical, majestic even.

Swimmy

Written & illustrated by: Leo Lionni

This is a cute story about a little black fish named Swimmy who narrowly escapes being eaten by a big tuna fish. He is then left all alone in the world because many of his friends did not escape. He made himself feel better by experiencing all the magnificent creatures in the sea until he comes upon a school of fish just like his own, but they are too afraid to do anything because of being eaten by a bigger fish. Swimmy comes up with a plan to outsmart the biggest fish in the sea.

The illustrations in this story look like watercolors and some sort of printing with paint. This story is colorful, but not big, bright, over-the-top colors which makes the reader feel like she's really in the ocean underwater. It also looks like there are different colors just layered and layered on top of each other on some pages. It is almost dream-like.

What I did notice was that Swimmy is a little, tiny black fish and no matter what other creature was on the page, no matter the size, Swimmy was always noticeable and could be found. This makes sense because he is the main character in the story so I can see the reason why the author painted Swimmy in a color so that he could be easily recognized. Also, Swimmy is always swimming to the right. It doesn't matter what page he's on, the left or the right, he's always swimming to the right and it made me want to turn the page and observe what Swimmy was going to come across next. Most all of the animals do swim towards the right. What I do find interesting is that not one animal's body is cut off from one page to the other. At the end, when Swimmy and his gang are chasing away the big fish, these fish are cut off. Readers can only see the back half of their bodies and their tails. I thought this was very interesting and it made me feel like Swimmy had succeeded in what he set out to do with the school of fish like him.