Jacqueline's comments (member since Aug 29, 2008)

Jacqueline's comments from the Children's Literature Awards, LLED Fall 08 group.

Chrysanthemum After reading some enjoyable and great books, I was able to narrow the winner down to four books: both Helen Keller books, Southpaw, and Chrysanthemum. It took a while but I finally decided on a winner. All nominations were wonderful and well selected, but my heart went out to little Chrysanthemum in her struggle to accept her name when her classmates jeered her about it. Congratulations to Amanda for nominating Chrysanthemum and congratulations to Kevin Henkes for writing and illustrating such a moving and humorous book.

Probuditi!
This is a great book about trying to do your own magic, what can happen when you do, and how you should always to treat others.

The Cats in Krasinski Square
This is a great book about heroism, sacrifice, and how people helped each other during the Holocaust.

The Scaredy Cats
This is a good book about being afraid of everything and not being able to experience the good things in life, which really goes with this award well.

The Father Who Had 10 Children
This book is great for kindergarten with the accessible colors words. There are a few words that may be tricky for this age group that will challenge readers in a positive way. It has a cute plot too.

What's Wrong with Timmy?
This book is great at showing the feelings of everyone involved with Timmy, as well as the bigger picture. In the end, Kate's mom tells her that we should focus on what Timmy can do and to treat him like anyone else.

Little Bunny Foo Foo: Told And Sung By The Good Fairy
Little Bunny Foo Foo is told repeatedly that he will he must stop bopping the woodland animals on their heads by the Good Fairy. Yet each time, this silly bunny goes for bigger animals to bop on the head with bigger things. This is a fun story with a good moral at the end.

My Beastie Book of ABC
This book charmingly goes through the alphabet through rhyme. It can be used as an alphabet, animal, art, and poetry reference all at the same time. The pictures are good and there is some humor portrayed in the author's voice.

One Duck Stuck
A duck gets stuck in the muck. Animals try to help him, starting with one animal and leading to ten. In the end, all the animals realize they must work together to free the poor duck. This teamwork comes with fun rhyming phrases and onomatopoeias. It's a fun book to read.

Just The Two Of Us
This is an amazing book that looks at a father's love for his son. The mother has left, and the father is open about his insecurities as a single dad, but he lets his son know that he loves his soon very much. This is an amazing story to read no matter what family structure you live with.

Everyone feels out of place at times. Some children look to books to escape from the harsh realities of life, such as low self-esteem that comes from being “different”. If a teacher were able to see a child struggling with issue, he or she should try to help the child. One way to reach the child would be through literature. Chetwin in Battling Dragons that, “An ethical hero to me is one who dares fly in the face of some outworn cultural shibboleth according to some inner and overriding sense of right” (184). This award will go towards a book that shows the protagonist overcoming the low self-esteem due to the in-ability to do something as well as others. The protagonist should grow as a character to become a better, forgiving person who does not allow the opinions of others to bother them. This inability to do something should not affect a child’s confidence in himself/herself.
Nominations for this award are exclusive to picture books. As previously mentioned, the protagonist has to be dealing with a personal dilemma concerning the inability to perform a task. This inability may include a handicap but can be another inability that a child may deal with and be able to relate to. The protagonist is defined either by himself/herself or by other characters as being “different”. This award requires that the protagonist experiences character growth. It is recommended that other characters do as well but is not required. This should reflect Helen Keller’s quote, “I seldom think of my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.” All characters should come to a mutual acceptance to this inability of the protagonist’s and move beyond it through understanding and forgiveness.