The Magic Gourd

Bibliography
Diakite, Baba Wague. 2003. The Magic Gourd. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN: 9780439439602.

Plot Summary
While a rabbit is searching for food in a draught struck countryside, he finds a chameleon stuck in thorny bushes. Since the rabbit is helpful by nature he helps the chameleon. As a gift the chameleon gives the rabbit a magic gourd. With the magic gourd the rabbit not only feeds his family but also his friends and neighbors. The greedy king hears about this magic gourd and takes it away from the rabbit. The rabbit then gets another gift from the chameleon that helps him teach the king a lesson and get his magic gourd back.

Critical Analysis
Diakite retells a traditional folktale of good wins over evil from his native of Mali. The story like most traditional folktales involves magic and animals that talk and act like people. The values of helping others, kindness, friendship, and generosity are stressed in this story. Through this story Diakite introduces the rich culture of the native Mali. The beautiful ceramic art illustrations are bordered with traditional mud cloth designs that is a unique textile technique used in Mali. The illustrations are embossed on bright colored backgrounds making the illustrations stand out to the readers. The illustrations are ethnically authentic and give the readers an idea of African culture.

At the end Diakite presents a song of praise which is considered to be important in Mali. The authors note presents a background of himself and his inspiration to tell these rabbit stories. Diakite also gives a detailed description of the mud clothe pattern used in his illustrations. The author includes a glossary of words and meanings used in national language of Mali, Bambara. The author gives as interesting note about similar stories and their origins.

This book is winner of 2004 Aesop Prize winner for its folklore content and illustrations that accurately reflect the culture.

Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs: A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents.

Bibliography
Conover, Sarah and Freda Crane. 2004. Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs: A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents. Illustrations by Valerie Wahl. Washington: Eastern Washington University Press.

Plot Summary
This book is a anthology of stories drawn from the Muslim culture from the various parts of world. Each story carries a message of either wit, generosity, or honesty, or love, or wisdom, or God’s message or words. There are many stories in this book that are inspiring like the stories of the famous Mullah Nasruddin Hodja, story of Islam’s important women like Khadija, the first wife of the Prophet, the story of Infant Jesus as is in the Quran, and the story of Hajar and Ismael from Hadith.

Critical Analysis
This book is a rare collection of stories that reflects the Islamic faith. The beginning of each story is adorned with sayings, words of wisdom, or the name of God. These words of wisdom can be truly touching and meaningful to the readers. Belief in the words, signs, and message of God is the central theme of the stories.

The authors have done an excellent work of gathering valuable stories and sayings from different sources like the Holy Scriptures, ancient texts, and imaginative tales. The authors have taken great effort to collect stories from other countries besides the Middle East. This allows the book to reach a diverse audience. This anthology not only serves as a great source of important stories for Muslim children and families, but also serves a unique way for students to learn about Islamic culture and religion. The book has also incorporated some stories that might be of interest to Christians.

The book is mostly didactic in nature and requires the ability to comprehend the deeper meaning in the stories. Therefore, this book is intended for older children. There are a few stories though that are humorous and easy to understand for the younger audience to enjoy. There are very few illustrations but since the stories are mostly intended for older children it is not intended to be a picture book. Illustrations are mostly in the form of decorations on plaques that display the words of wisdom at the beginning of each chapter. The fine artworks on these plaques closely resemble the Islamic art that are seen in Mosques. There are also many symbols written in Arabic language throughout the book and their meaning has been explained very well in the book.

The authors provide a very detailed Preface at the beginning of the book explaining the sources of the stories and the intentions of the authors in writing this book. The readers are also given a short background of the life of Prophet Muhammad who spread the word of One God, Allah. The authors have cited the sources of quotes at the end of book and have explained the sources very well.

This is must read book that will enlighten the readers day and hopefully their lives.

Dona Flor

Bibliography
Mora, Pat. 2005. Dona Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart. Illustrated by Raul Colon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 978375923373.

Plot Summary
Dona Flor’s mother used to sing to her as a baby. When Flor’s mother sang the plants and trees grew very tall and so did Flor. Dona Flor became so tall that she could reach the clouds. Although, children laughed at her for being different soon Flor’s friends and neighbors asked for her help. Flor was very helpful and she took care of her friends and neighbors. She would make biggest and the best tasting tortilla’s for her friends. When she stopped growing she made a house for herself and people, animals, and plants were all always welcome to come to her house. One day people in the village were frightened by the loud roar for a lion. Nobody wanted to step outside their house. Dona Flor had to help her neighbors! With the help of animal friends Dona Flor finally finds out who was making that loud noise.

Bibliography
Pat Mora has written a very enchanting tall tale of a larger than life woman. The story is very gripping and children will want to keep turning pages to find out who was making the loud noise that scared the people in the village. Raul Colon’s illustrations skillfully shows the largeness of the character who can play with clouds and touch the sun. If you have read Pat Mora’s Tomas and the Library Lady with Raul Colon’s illustration then the texture of the illustrations will be very familiar. Raul Colon uses the same illustrations techniques with lines and warm, sun burnt colors that gives the story unique movement and expressions. Pat Mora does not miss to add a scene where Dona Flor picks a book from the library and reads to her friends. Pat Mora has a distinguished style of conveying the message of the importance of reading.

Pat Mora uses a lot of Spanish words in the story and the transition between Spanish and English is very smooth. But it would have helped to have a list of Spanish words used in the story and their meanings for the English speaking readers.

Children will thoroughly enjoy this tall tale and is a great read aloud.

The Little Red Hen

Bibliography
Pinkney, Jerry. 2006. The Little Red Hen. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 9780803729353.

Plot Summary
The little red hen finds some wheat seeds and asks for her friends - the dog, goat, pig, and rat – to help her plant the seeds, thresh the wheat, take the grains to the miller, and bake the bread. But her friends are lazy and none of them want to help her. Do you think after all her hard work the little red hen should share the bread with her lazy friends?

Critical Analysis
The Little Red Hen is a very simple story with a very simple message. The story very implicitly teaches the value of helping each other and also the value of working hard. The little red hen is always busy and makes the bread from scratch all by herself. Her friends did not help her make the bread but wanted to eat the bread when it was baked. The little red hen gently refuses her friends as she was the only one who worked hard to make the bread. The outcome of little red hen’s hard work is clearly stated in the words “joy of joys” at the end.

The story is easy to understand as it has been written just as it would have been told. The phrase “Not I” has been repeated frequently allowing the children to chant the phrase as they are read aloud. The soft, yet detailed watercolor illustrations are a delight to watch. The words dog, rat, pig, and red hen are printed in the colors that describe the color of the animal. This will help children in word recognition and identification of the animals as they read the story.

PSSST!

Bibliography
Rex, Adam. 2007. Pssst! Harcourt, Inc. ISBN: 9780152058173.

Plot Summary
A girl visits the zoo one day and finds herself having conversations with the zoo animals. All the animals she meets want the girl to bring them something. The zoo animals tell the girl why they needs those things and even pay her money collected by the peacock from the water fountain to buy those things. At the end readers find out that the things were actually for a zoo mobile to help them escape from the zoo.

Critical Analysis
Adam Rex’s Pssst! is unusual and funny with a refreshing story line. Most of the story is very predictable to the children as they know the girl meets a zoo animal on every page with different requests. Adam Rex has been brilliant is providing sensible reasoning for the needs of each animal. For example, the sloth requests the girl to bring them bicycle helmets. When the girl wonders why sloths would need helmets the illustrations show that the sloths are hanging upside down on the tree and one them falls landing straight on his head. The sloths don’t have to explain but the girl knows what the helmets are for!

Illustrations are very lively and detailed. Conversation with each animal is shown on one page in six boxes providing a sequence to the story. The word PSSST! is illustrated creatively depending on the background of the scene. When the girl is talking to the bats, the word PSSST! is in black color with stars on it giving it a starry dark night look. When the girl meets the penguins the word PSSST! is illustrated in white looking like frozen ice.

As children read this book they will be curious to know what happens next. The ending is hilarious and brilliant. Children will want to read this book again and again.

Review Excerpts

School Library Journal - This is a clever title for visually sophisticated youngsters who will appreciate the off-the-wall humor (Martha Topol, 10/01/2007).

Publishers Weekly – A very funny excursion. (09/10/2007).

Tomas and the Library Lady

Bibliography
Mora, Pat. 1997. Tomas and the Library Lady. Illustrated by Raul Colon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 0679904018.

Plot Summary
Tomas never enjoyed their trip to Iowa from Texas that he made every year with his parents during summer. Tomas’ parents are farm workers and pick fruits and vegetables in farms of Iowa during in summer. This summer was special as Tomas finds a local public library and the librarian helps him find books and inspires him to read. Tomas would tell the stories his read to his family. This time when he went back to Texas he had a book presented by the Library Lady to read along his way back home.

Critical Analysis
This is inspiring story is a true story of Tomas Riveria who became a writer, a professor, a university administrator, and a national education leader. The end note gives a brief introduction to Tomas Riveria. The story shows how a librarian can inspire and motivate somebody to read. The library lady would give Tomas a drink of water on a hot day and guide him to find the books he might be interested in reading. This simple gesture was enough to motivate this little boy, Tomas, who was thirsty for both water and knowledge. The dark colors and lines in the illustrations give the story a dreamy look. The illustrations show Tomas right in the middle of the story he is reading showing that Tomas was engrossed in the stories he was reading. The illustrations brilliantly portray Tomas’ love for reading.

A great book to inspire children to read and to show the impact of librarian’s in motivating children to read.

Pancakes for Breakfast

Bibliography
DePaola, Tomie. 1978. Pancakes for Breakfast. Scholastic Inc. ISBN: 0590451367.

Plot Summary
A little woman desires to eat pancakes for breakfast but doesn’t have the required ingredients for making pancakes. She has to bring fresh eggs, milk her cow for the milk, make butter, bring maple syrup…but her cat and dog are impatient and ruin her ingredients. Now how can she eat pancakes?

Critical Analysis
Pancakes for Breakfast is very well illustrated wordless picture book. There are no words in this story except for the pancake recipe and the final motto at the end. The actions and expressions in the illustrations are enough to tell the story. The illustrations are either full pages or have multiple pictures in frames describing a sequence of events. The little imagination blurbs tell how the little woman feels as she tried to make pancakes.

Children’s imagination and creativity can be encouraged by asking them to tell the story in their own words as they see the pictures. Wordless picture books are an excellent way to motivate language development in children learning to read.

Zen Shorts

Bibliography
Muth, Jon J. 2005. Zen Shorts. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN:9780439339111

Plot Summary
Stillwater, who is giant panda, moves into Addy, Michael, and Karl’s neighborhood. Addy, Michael, and Karl each go to visit Panda and the wise Panda tells them stories that they love to hear.
Critical Analysis
Jon Muth, the author and illustrator of this book, has delivered a well written story with deep meaning. Panda is shown as a very lovable yet wise character that gently attempts to make children understand the deeper meaning in life. Panda tells Addy, Michael, and Karl stories that touch their different personalities. Panda tells Addy a story about giving even when you don’t have anything. Panda tells Michael a story that teaches that luck cannot be predicted or judged. And Panda tells Karl a story that tells him to not carry his anger from the past but enjoy the moments in the present.

At the end Jon Muth provides an author’s note that explains the meaning of Zen Shorts and provides a background about Zen method of meditation and learning the deeper meaning life. The story has a didactic tone, but at the same time is presented very gently. Any child would love a big, round cuddly Panda and enjoy hearing stories from Panda. The relationship between the siblings and the Panda has been explored very well in the book. The soft water color illustrations are pleasant to watch. Each story is painted in black and white brush stroke to introduce it differently from the main story. The illustrations are just calm and soothing as the messages in the story.

Although the book is suggested for Kindergarten to fourth grade readers younger readers might have a difficult time understanding the underlying meaning in the story. Inspite of this, children will still enjoy reading this story. Zen Shorts is also a 2006 Caldecott Honor Book.