Kit's Wilderness
Summary
Kit's family is back where their ancestors have been mining for years. He meets a boy named John who has a rough life. They play a game called Death and Kit sees ghosts of boys who died in the mines. John sees them too and this bonds them together. Kit is determined to save John from his alcoholic father. Kit also befriends a girl who tries to protect and warn him of danger. Kit's grandfather is dying as well but he still gives Kit some life lessons.
Bibliographic Citation
Almond, David. (1999). Kit's Wilderness. Delacorte Press: New York
Impression
This was an interesting book with alot of different plot lines in it. The mysterious ancestor ghost game is a little creepy but does keep you interested. John Askew is a pretty dark character but you can see why when you learn of his background. I thought that the bond between the two boys was done really well. I can not say this was one of my favorites but it did keep me involved enough to get though it. It was just a little too dark for me.
Review
Almond, David (2000) Booklist starred Vol. 96, No. 9/10 p860. Retrieved from Library & Information Science Source 17 Nov. 2013.
Gr. 6-9. Almond, whose Skellig is the Booklist 1999 Top of the List winner for youth fiction, creates a heartbreakingly real world fused with magic realism in this story, set in an English coal-mining town. Thirteen-year-old Kit Watson and his family have returned to Stonygate to care for Kit's recently widowed grandfather. Almost immediately, Kit is enticed by John Askew, also of an old mining family, into a game called Death. Like the other members of Askew's gang, Kit is left alone in an abandoned mine until he sees ghosts of ancestors who died there as boys. Kit's friend Allie tells him that the other kids pretend to see these apparitions, but Kit really does see--and Askew knows it. The boys share a bond. Both are artistic: Kit is a writer; Askew is an artist. And both are sensitive enough to perceive what may not be there. But Kit comes from a strong, loving family, and Askew is the child of an ineffectual mother and a father who's a vicious drunk. Slowly, as Kit hears stories from his grandfather and writes his own, he realizes he has a mission--to save John Askew, body and soul. Almond has set an enormous task for himself. He juggles several plot elements--grandfather's fading mental capacities, Allie's acting aspirations, one of Kit's stories--along with the boys' struggle for redemption. But he succeeds beautifully, knitting dark and light together and suffusing the multilayered plot with an otherworldly glow. This is a long book, and a complex one, but Almond's language is a pleasure to read; and, as with Skellig, the story's ruminations about death and the healing power of love will strike children in unsuspected ways.Uses
I think this would be a good book to base an activity on embracing the differences in people and not judging by looks or even always actions. You could make a list of attributes or characteristics and get impressions on them from the students then write about a stereotype they have seen or been subject to.
Module 5
American Born Chinese
Summary
This is a graphic novel with three stories that overlap each other. One is about the Monkey King that wants to be powerful and be a god but gets punished and becomes humbled, the second is about a Chinese-American student who is in an all white school and has a crush on a girl but gets picked on by his classmates, and the third is about a popular, athletic boy who dreads the visits from his very stereotype acting Chinese cousin. All of the stories are about the problems of racism and they are all brought together at the end to illustrate how this can easily happen.
Bibliographic Citation
Yang, G. L. (2006). American Born Chinese. New York: First Second.
Impression
This was a sad but inspirational book. You can really get a sense of what the lifestyle was like at that time for a sharecropper family. The sad parts of the book like Sounder getting shot or the father and Sounder dying toward the end of the book is offset some by the boy finding strength in the journey and learning to read. This book would be better for middle and high school.
Review
Glantz, Shelley (2007)Library Media Connection; Vol. 25 Issue 4, p65-65, 1/6p Retrived from Literary Reference Center, 17 Nov 2013.
In this graphic novel, three humorous and seemingly unrelated stories keep the reader’s attention until they come together atthe end. The first story concerns a Chinese-American boy trying to fit in. The second is a retelling of the Chinese fable of the monkey king. Those familiar with the anime/manga
Saiyki will immediately recognize the characters of the monk, water sprite, and boar in the Journey to the West. The third story involves a Chinese cousin who visits an American boy each year. The depiction of the cousin is so painfully stereotypical that you feel guilty laughing. In each story, the central character
is unsatisfied with who he is and goes to great lengths to be someone else—with humorous results. The reader might be puzzled as to how the three stories are connected until the conclusion. It’s a nice combination of a fable and contemporary stories to convey the wonderful lesson of accepting one’s culture and identity with pride. A quick read, this title has engaging art, and at times, funny dialogue. There are some mild sexual references. One of my students, an active graphic novel reader, pronouncedit, “Really funny with good characters.”
Recommended.
Uses
This would good to use with a graphic novel display. Examples of several types could be used.
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