Love You Forever - Picturebook

     Love You Forever is a children's picture book written by Robert Munsch and published in 1986. The book is based off of the relationship between a mother and her son, which soon reverses perspectives. Munsch wrote the book after he and his wife had two stillborn babies. This book is iconic for it's repetitive lines:

"I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

As long as I'm living, 

My baby you'll be."

    

     Picturebooks are notorious for their ability to tell a story with more than just words. These books cannot simply tell a story with words on a page, the pictures tell elements of the story that words can overlook. There are fiction, nonfiction and poetry or song genres of picturebooks. They often are used to teach students different things, despite their age. The illustrations add to the quality of the book as a whole. '

     The illustrations in Love You Forever are whole page, in beautiful color. The pictures are on the previous or following page of the page containing the text. The images appear almost pencil and paper sketched, with soft yet brilliant watercolors and a continuous base color of blue. 

       The style of this book is written in the style of third person. It focuses on the mother and son alone. The style of Love You Forever allows the reader to fully grasp what's happening in the story, accompanied by the large illustrations. The setting is in the home of the mother and son, which is depicted through words and the images. The author restates the scene many times as the mother crawls across her son's bedroom floor to cradle him as he sleeps.  The theme is the growing relationship between mother and son, and the unconditional love it endures forever. The plot is repeated many times, the mother sets her son to sleep and comes to hold him each night, singing her love for him even as he grows into adulthood. When the son becomes a father himself he sings the same lullaby to his child, and then again to his mother as she ages and he cradles her. Both characters are seen as loving and caring family members, and Munsch shows the fun side to the son as he ages, from messy kid to silly teenager. 

     This book could be used as a Mother's Day activity. Before reading to the whole class, the teachers could ask students to spend a little bit of time reflecting on the love they have for their mothers, fathers or caregivers, and ask them to share their favorite memory of that person with their shoulder partners. After reading, the teacher could pass out homemade books, (papers bond together, stapled or with holes and tied together with ribbon) and have students make a story with the same theme as Love You Forever directed to their own mother or caregiver, and with their own story elements unique to their own lives. Teachers can chose to have students use to repetitive lullaby or create ones of their own. This would help students to evaluate the story and its parts, and include higher level thinking when students begin to create their own, yet similar, story.

     Love You Forever also delves into the deeper concept of the circle of life. Often children reading this book wont catch onto the mother passing on at the end of the story, and students that do may not understand what that entails. This could make for a discussion topic with older aged elementary kids. Now, teachers are not advised to close the book after reading and say "Okay kids, did the boy's mom die?", but rather have students retell the main events of the story. Teachers could also incorporate a worksheet to identify the main points throughout the story.

The mother holds her new baby boy. 

The son holds his mother, and sings her the same lullaby.

The mother holds her son as he grows into a teenager.

The son holds his daughter, and sings the same song to her as his mother did.

Reader Response Questions:

1. Why did the mother love her son, even when he flushed her watch?
2. Why do you think the son sang the same song to his child?
3. What was the message of this book?

     Personally, I LOVE this book. I always have. It's touching for me, because I can understand the love of a mother and child, from the child's standpoint. My mother and I are best friends, and it is because of her that I grew up loving this book. I've seen the same sacrifices the mother in the story makes, as my mom did the same. All I've ever had was my mother, so I have a lot of appreciation for Munsch's ability to capture that, even after such a tragedy in his own life. 

Sources:

"Love You Forever." Love You Forever | Teaching Children Philosophy. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.

Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, (2010). Literature and the child. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Matilda - Fantasy

     Matilda by Road Dahl is about an extraordinarily smart young girl who comes from a greedy and selfish family. Throughout the book Matilda nourishes her love for reading, learning and pranks all the while discovering her powers of telekinesis.
     This book falls under the fantasy genre, because it is believable, consistent, set in a logical world with a clearly defined conflict and strong characterization (Galda, Cullinan & Sipe 2010). The book has illustrations by Road Dahl himself that appear to be sketched with a pencil, with hard lines and obvious shapes. For instance, the bodies of the characters are generally rectangular in shape with pointy triangle-like fingers and noses. Illustrations are mostly half a page, near the beginning of the chapters. They're usually colorless yet still full of life. They enhance the story by helping readers to grasp a better understanding of the elements of the story. Dahl is very descriptive in the text and his illustrations demonstrate that. Dahl makes good use of literary elements, with the majority of which being similes and metaphors. This helps to convey the high intellect of the story's main character.
     Educators could do a problem/solution lesson after reading a few chapters in Matilda seeing as Matilda often faces problems with her parents and plays tricks to "keep her sanity". Having students pair up, one being the "problem" and one the "solution", teachers could have students act out or represent the main problem per chapter, and the same with the solution. This would show how well students absorbed the reading and if they understand problems and solutions. For a fun and quick individual assessment the teacher could ask students to write out another solution to a problem Matilda's parents may cause. Allowing students to get creative while still instilling legal limitations could make for a fun and exciting activity.
     Teachers could also focus on chronological order and sequencing using Matilda. There are many big things that happen throughout the chapters, and after reading teachers could ask students to work in small groups on individual work sheets to identify the main points of various chapters. If there are ten chapters and five groups, each group could identify the main points/problems/events in two chapters, and then come together as a whole class to discuss and simultaneously review the book. This can be done after the book is finished toward the end of the unit and make for a fun wrap up lesson!
     Reader Response Questions:

1. What two events led to Matilda's decision to play the second prank?
2. What evidence do we have that suggests Matilda might be a child-genius?
3. What is Lavender's "brilliant plot?"

     I am head over heels for this book and I always have been! It's incredibly fun for older elementary students. It provides a plethora of opportunities for teachers to use it in many subjects, math (because Matilda is astonishing at it), science (as they learn about the skinks), reading and so much more! It also serves as a wonderful direct listening activity, as I've done it before myself and had a blast! This is a high quality book with a lot to offer to it's readers.

References:

Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, (2010). Literature and the child. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom - Poetry (multicultural)

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

by Margarita Engle

     The Surrender Tree is a five part book, mostly through the eyes of Rosa, a medicine woman. It follows slavery, war, love and fear as she works to heal people through Cuba's fight for freedom. 

     This book falls under poetry, because it is entirely composed of poems. The subcatagory would be narrative poetry. Narrative poetry sets a story with characters, plot and theme into a poetic framework (Literature and the Child, 20101 pg. 157). The book is through Rosa's world, in a time when slavery was a big part of Cuba's country.

     

     Activities that could be used to motivate students in reading could be to create a Venn diagram of slavery as it is in the book and slavery in the United States. This could be used during history before, during and/or after reading. Another activity could be to create a foldable after reading that follows the story. The project could have five parts, just as the book did, with a picture and 1-2 sentences summarizing what happened in that section. The goal of this should be for a student who has never read the book to be able to use the foldable to understand the primary elements of the story. This activity could also be used to check student understanding. 

    

     A few reader response questions for the book could be:

• Why would those on "the outside" (slave hunters, plantations owners) call Rosa a witch?
• Explain what Rosa means when she says that hatred must be a hard thing to learn.
• Decide if you would have healed Lt. Death like Rosa did. Why would you? Why not?
• What do you think it would be like to be Rosa? What would you see as the most difficult and the best parts of her life?

     Personally, I find this book intriguing. It's composed of poems, which isn't the traditional way of telling a story, yet it is still captivating. Normally, in a story of freedom and slavery, the point of view would be through a slave, slave owner or someone who physically fought in the war. Yet instead, it is written from the eyes of a medicine woman, who is seen as a witch and hated, who, despite that, heals all, both good and evil. Rosa grows with the story and meets new people along the way. It can be used in many areas of the classroom and can engage all students. 

Resources:

BookRags. BookRags, n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.

"The Surrender Tree.pdf." Laii.unm.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.