Sunday, June 12, 2011

Module 1 ~ June 6 - 12

Module 1 – Love You Forever



Munsch, R. (1987). Love you forever. Ontario: Firefly. Picture Book.




Summary
Love You Forever is a picture book about a mom that loves her son unconditionally. No matter how excellent or terrible each day is, she reminds her son each night as he sleeps just how much she loves and cares for him. Eventually, the son grows up and out of the house and the mother becomes too old to visit her son and sing him her song. The son surprises her by cradling her in his arms and singing the song to her. When he gets home, he sings the song again to his baby girl, “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.”

My Impression
This book holds a special place in my heart. I read it as a child and loved it for its animated pictures and because I knew no matter how “bad” I acted, I would still be loved. This envelops a fantastic meaning of understanding and unwavering love and devotion that parents have for their children. It is a wonderful way for parents to share with their children that no matter where they are or how old they are, that they will always love them, like them, and be there for them.

Library Setting
This is a great book to read to anyone of any age, but I would start off sharing it with my pre school students. When they are learning about right and wrong, this is a great way to show them that no matter what they do they will always be loved. I would also hope that as they as they learn and grow, they will learn from their mistakes and become caring and understanding individuals in an ever-changing, peer-pressured society.

Reviews
1. Robert Munsch, Canada’s best-selling children’s book author, writes stories that entertain readers and listeners everywhere. Love You Forever (Firefly Books, 1995) has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide, and continues to strike an emotional chord in both children and adults. Munsch’s enthusiastic performance of the opening lines of his book will amuse youngsters in an audio that’s perfect for elementary classrooms and library storytimes.

Glass, N. (2008, April 10). Best Sellers [Review of the book Love You Forever]. School
Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6546802.html

2. Maria Shriver wrote in O, The Oprah Magazine: "I have yet to read this book through without crying. It says so much about the circle of life, youth, parenting, and our responsibility for our parents as we grow older. The message is so simple yet so profound. Love You Forever is a great gift for anyone with a child, or even for your own parents.”

Shriver, M. (2011, May 16). Oprah Magazine - Love You Forever [Review of the book
Love You Forever]. Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_You_Forever


Module 1 - Swimmy




Lionni, L. (1963). Swimmy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Picture Book.




Summary
Swimmy is about a fish that knows he is different from all of the rest of the fish. He is black and they are red. One day when he was swimming along, all of his brothers and sisters around him were eaten but him. Lonely, he went in search to find more friends like him and discovered that if they swam together like one large fish, they would have a greater chance of survival. Everyone worked together and his plan was successful.

My Impression
I admire the strength and courage this one little fish had. He was not afraid to be different and he was not afraid to live! I loved not only the meaning of the story, but I love the feelings that were shown through the artwork. The easy flow gave a feeling of underwater scenery. I knew when he was sad because the pages were gray and I knew when he was happy because the colors were light and cheerful.

Library Setting
This would be great to use in art class when teaching about sea life. With his painted and sponged fish, lobsters, jelly fish, fish, schools of fish great and small, seaweed small and tall; he covers the pages full of it all! The colors that Leo Lionni chose to use and the medium, paint, in which he expresses throughout each page, really builds the feeling and story line within the story.

Reviews
1. Swimmy, the little black fish and lone survivor in a school of red ones, devises an ingenious scheme for protecting a new school of fish friends. Lionni has illustrated his clever story with a series of astonishingly beautiful seascapes full of undulating watery nuances of shape, pattern, and color. A Caldecott Honor Book.

TitleWave. (1991, September). Horn Book starred [Review of the book Swimmy].
TitleWave. Retrieved from
http://www.titlewave.com/search?SID=ea23e7a46af22f0911df34aa6dbaeecc

2. “gentle and true and lovely” – Michelle Knudsen
Sometimes known as the anti-Rainbow Fish, Swimmy is all things to all people. It is a story of diversity and embracing who you are. It’s about cooperation and using your special talents to solve problems. Author Leo Lionni, as it happens, encouraged a young Eric Carle in his artistic pursuits. That raises only one question to my mind. . . . where’s the Leo Lionni Museum in this country?
The story of Swimmy concerns a small black fish in a sea that seemingly contains only little red fish and big hungry predators. After finding a new school of red fish, Swimmy organizes the fish (pro-Union too, eh?) and they manage to look like a large red fish when they swim together as once. Swimmy himself becomes the eye, and everyone is happy. The book was yet another Caldecott Honor. We’ll hit an actual award one of these days. I promise.

Media Source, Inc. (2009, April 2) The Top 100 Picture Books [Review of the book
Swimmy]. School Library Journal. Retrieved from
http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2009/04/02/the-top-100-picture-books-100-91/

3. Swimmy, another of Leo Lionni's Caldecott Honor-winning books, beat Finding Nemo to the little-fish-alone-in-the-deep punch. The lone black fish in a school of red, Swimmy is faster than his siblings. When a hungry tuna fish gulps down all the little red fish, Swimmy's quickness saves him.
Though he is lonely and scared in the ocean depths, the marvels of the sea - illustrated in dreamy, wondrous watercolors - cheer him. Lionni chooses words as carefully as colors from his palette, drawing us into Swimmy's magnificent world:
a forest of seaweeds growing from sugar-candy rocks...an eel whose tail was almost too far away to remember...and sea anemones, who looked like pink palm trees swaying in the wind.
Then Swimmy discovers another school of little red fish, too frightened by bigger predators to leave their underwater cave. Swimmy concocts a perfect solution so that they all might swim freely in the watery wonderland: they swim together to create the illusion of one large fish and chase the other big fish away.
The achievements to be had through teamwork and the strength of difference are subtly shared, and the dreamlike otherworld Lionni has created sings a siren song that draws children again and again to its wonders and to its powerful lesson.

Sharon Schulz, E. (2005) Curled up with a good kid's book [Review of the book
Swimmy]. Personal blog site. Retrieved from
http://www.curledupkids.com/swimmyll.htm