In the Small by Michael Hague, a graphic novel book review

What you're going to read from me over the next few days are a few graphic novel reviews, I am currently going through a stack of some that were either recommended to me or sounded interesting.

Today I am going to review In the Small, by Michael Hague. In the Small is the debut for Hague and is likely the first in a story series. In the Small is a post apocalyptic story about a blue flash that envelops the earth, turning humans 1/12 their normal size. Of course, you can imagine the panic that sweeps the world, as life as humanity knows it ceases to exist. Animals once thought benign are now predators on the largest scale, and years of technological advancement are for nothing, because humans are no longer large enough to use any of it.

This is a great premise, an interesting take on the whole apocalyptic story, certainly a departure from the celestial event or nuclear bombing that is the hallmark of 90% of all books and/or movies in this genre.

The first thing I noticed about In the Small is that I didn't care much for the delivery of the story in Hague's artistry or word choice. The story was highly contrived, based around mysticism a little bit too much, and was one of those stories where basically one family does all the work on two separate fronts and everyone else just satisfies themselves with being background players.

The graphics were rather gory, which isn't a problem, and actually comes with the territory, many graphic novels that are classified as young adult appropriate have a fair amount of blood and death, but this one was sensationalized a little bit at times.

I felt that the story was weak, and if I wasn't trying to get through it in order to have the whole story to look at (or the fact that it only took about 20 minutes to read the whole thing and gather my thoughts on it), then I may not have finished it, it couldn't hold interest and was just odd.

If you are a teacher (or just a reader) and have a love for apocalyptic fiction, or your students enjoy it and want more, I guess this book can be tried. I don't know how well received it will be by students, because it's getting highly mixed reviews in the literary world. I can just say that I won't personally recommend it, because I didn't care for it.

This book should carry a high school reading level, I would say 9th grade and up for the language usage, but probably 11th and up for the content, but that's just my opinion on that.

Arrival, by Shaun Tan: The Tour de Force of Wordless Graphic Novels

I went down to the library this morning to pick up some graphic novels to keep me occupied during this last week of vacation. One of the books I picked up was The Arrival, by Shaun Tan. The Arrival is the ultimate graphic novel, it is quite literally all graphics, there is not a single word in the entire story. Also, this book doesn't necessarily qualify as a "picture book," something like a Dr. Seuss or another book you'd see in a primary classroom, it is much deeper and multi-dimensional.

From the top, the visuals of this story are unbelievable. It's a story of immigration, of a man leaving behind his wife and daughter and heading to a new, strange, industrialized world. Upon his arrival, the language is strange, the customs are strange, and the man is confused and lost. What is amazing is how well the images capture this, and how the reader becomes confused and lost as well. There were times when I was viewing this book that I felt confused and lost, that I found myself trying to understand the man and his thoughts, and that is the very essence of this wordless book.

How good is this book? I can put it best in two different ways. First of all, on goodreads.com (a book social site that I discuss frequently in this blog), there is one book that I've come across that carries an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars, and it is this book. Secondly, every teacher in the United States should have a copy of this book, and should go through it, in great depth with their classes.

Wordless books are great to use in the classroom, and yet, oddly, are something I do not have a lot of experience using. The book Zoom (Picture Puffin), by Istvan Banyai, is a wonderful wordless book in which you continue to zoom out of a picture, revealing more and more of the world as you do. It's a captivating story that students are easily drawn in to and want to experience time and again. The book Zoom has become a mainstay in literacy classrooms across the world, from kindergarten to high school classes, and I highly recommend it.

But wait, back to The Arrival and the classroom usage of the wordless book. There is a great many resources out there that discuss the merit of wordless books and the many different contexts in which they can be utilized. On EverythingESL.net, there is an article by Judie Haynes titled Wonderful World of Wordless Books in which ideas for the implementation of wordless books as literacy lessons are given (in the context of ESL students, but honestly, every child can benefit from ESL instruction, especially in the elementary setting). There is also a great wikispace that's all about reading wordless books, it is aptly titled How to Read a Wordless Book, and contains in depth examples of using The Arrival.

This is the first review of a wordless book that I have done on this blog, but now that I am thinking about it, I want to encounter more of these. Those of you who are more involved in this type of literature, please share some of the better ones you have read. Please, pick up The Arrival, by Shaun Tan, and "read" it. There are so many ways that this book could be utilized, and I'm just scratching the surface here in this posting.

The Diamond of Darkhold: The 4th Book of Ember

The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau, was a book that intrigued me when I first read it last summer (see my review of it HERE). I enjoyed the mystery that surrounded this dark city, and the post-apocalyptic nature of the book. Not to mention that it was wholly appropriate for elementary aged students (9-12 years old). Even the sequel, The People of Sparks(see my review HERE), was interesting. Although The People of Sparks was very similar in many ways to The City of Ember, it had something of socio-political intrigue, and continued the story of Lina, Doon, and the Emberites, which seemed to captivate many of my students (I read The City of Ember with my class, and four of them have gone on to read The People of Sparks).

I have still not had a chance to read the third book in this series, The Prophet of Yonwood, which is actually a prequel. So when I saw that The Diamond of Darkholdwas available at the library, I knew that I could read it without needing The Prophet of Yonwood as appropriate background material.

Right off the bat, I found myself captivated by the idea of this great mystery still hidden in the mountains, and wanted to read on to find it. I also found out, very quickly, that Jeanna DuPrau seemed to be unnaturally extending the story in The Diamond of Darkhold to make me want to keep reading, or to meet a minimum page requirement from her publisher. Whatever the case was, it felt very contrived. This book is by far the weakest of the series so far (out of the three that I have read). The protagonists, Doon and Lina, have been fully developed as literary characters since The City of Ember, and at this point, there's nothing left to be said about them other than that they single handedly save their people time and again, and seem to be the only people in the world who ever encounter adventure and peril.

It was nice to see familiar characters continuing a familiar story with (slightly) new twists in their familiar world. This is very important to remember when handing this book over to students who have read the other books. Sometimes a book like this is just what your students may be looking for. It doesn't require any great leaps of chance, not knowing what the book is about. For the timid reader who may have enjoyed the other books, this is a perfect choice for them.

But as far as this book being a great read all around, having great plot devices, nice character development, and value as a read aloud, it's slim, there's not much here. Pick up The Diamond of Darkhold and put it in your classroom, because it's part of the series, but that's about it. I wouldn't get too excited about this book, but it is a worthy addition to the series that will be enjoyed by many. Its reading level is right on par with the others (around a 5.5 or middle of fifth grade), but the fact that it doesn't require any new knowledge of setting, plot, characters, or anything else along those lines, for the student who has read the other books in the series, it could end up being maybe a 5 or so). Basically, if your students could read the other Ember books, they'll have no problem here.

Media Literacy (a.k.a. Star Wars Literacy)

My oldest son, who is a six-year-old first grader, has a major interest in Star Wars, he loves the whole world that George Lucas and his "people" created. Today we sat down and watched some of the Star Wars movies, and then my son decided it was time to do some reading. We got on the public library website and reserved a few of the Star Wars books they had on the shelf.

What this really got me to thinking about it how media influences literacy, which is a "DUH" statement to anybody in the field, but is something that people like to sweep under the rug as they continue to read Little House on the Prairie and use outdated textbooks.

Media literacy is no longer something that we can ignore in the classroom. Our students are out there watching movies, they're out there playing video games, listening to music and podcasts on their iPods, and watching video clips, reading pages of information, and chatting on the internet.

Digital literacy is something I've discussed in the pages of this blog on numerous occasions, but today, I wanted to remind myself and my readers about media literacy as a pathway to get your students to read.

I went to a Scholastic warehouse sale last year, and found piles and piles of Star Wars books, that have sat on my shelf for nearly a year and have been checked out and completed by numerous students. I had a trio of male students just before Christmas all go together to the store and pick up Star Wars: Clone Wars, and read it together during silent/individual reading time.

I'm a little more old school when it comes to books and movies, I think that the books are almost always better (if they were written first and the movie adapted afterwards). Of course, this doesn't take into account series like Star Wars, which have literally hundreds of novels, comics, cartoon series, and even fan zines out there continuing the story. So much of this goes on with Star Wars, in fact, that the Holocron was created, in order to separate "canon" from non-official stories. What started as a neat movie in the '70s has become the source of a near endless world of books and other literary works.

OK, this post jumped all over the place a little bit, but it's just another reason that teachers need to understand the multi-dimensional reality of today's child that we must account for in the classroom. It's just something to think about, and discuss more.

The Lost World of the Public Library

Here in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the city's public library, called the Branigan Library, sits basically in the center of town. The problem with Las Cruces is that there are no satellite branches, so there's one big library in the center of town.

I'll admit, this isn't a huge city, but for people like me who live on the edges of town, we may find ourselves as far as 10 to 15 miles away from the library. For the more economically disadvantaged in the area (most of whom live on the southern or eastern part of town), this means either a multi-stop, multi-change over bus ride just to get downtown. So for some of them, the public library simply isn't on their to-do-lists.

For me, I try to take my children (as in my sons, not my students) to the library at least twice per month, where we check out books by the dozens. The things I always notice about the library is that it's never very crowded, the majority of people that are in there are there for the public computers, the overwhelming majority of people in there are adults, and that the library is a safe haven for people that have no other place to go.

The problem with this all is that there are never very many children in the library, which is, in my opinion, the people the library should mainly be trying to serve. It's great that there are resources out there for adults, but kids are the ones who need to read, and for most of them, their school libraries are simply not adequate in terms of broad interests in books, and a trip to Barnes & Noble is simply out of the question, because it's so expensive.

After talking to a few of the librarians at the local public library about my concern, they had a few things to say as well. They said that first of all, the libraries are a by-day shelter basically for many homeless people who just want a roof over their heads. They said that as long as these people don't cause any trouble, they have as much right to be in there as anyone else. They confirmed that the majority of patrons enter the library to use the public internet computers, and that on any given day, there are probably ten books checked out to adults for every one to a child.

There are many different directions I can choose to continue on from here, because the issue of how to get kids in the public library, and why it seems that less are going is obviously one that has many influences. Let's just start from the angle of why I have defined public libraries as "the lost world." As a student at New Mexico State University for many years, I have lived near the main undergraduate library (the Zuhl), and have spent time in the graduate library (the Branson).

As an undergradute, I never had any massive need to enter the university libraries, and even now, as a doctoral student, the majority of research and texts that I need can be found online through the university article search features (which aren't cheap, but are included in the cost of tuition).

Applying this to public libraries, I'm beginning to think that people decide that if their kids can't find the books at school, then they can't find them. They decide to find those resources online (if the kid is interested in fantasy books, why take them to the public library to get The Lord of the Rings when they can read fantasy fiction online?) Of course, there's also a major problem of parents not knowing or caring what their kids are reading (if they're reading at all). But that's an entirely different discussion that could go on for days and weeks.

I have asked my own students about their perceptions of the public library, and can basically summarize their opinions in a few ways, which I'll try to do without offending anyone. In the state of New Mexico (I say this because I don't know how it works in other states), a school librarian does not have to be certified as a librarian, in fact, they don't have to be certified at all. They make about the same pay as an educational assistant, and are basically required to have the same amount of education (a high school diploma, some college preferred).

The problem then is that the person in the building who should be a resource to teachers and students alike has less knowledge and skill in the area of children and young adult literacy than probably anybody else in the school. The students see this, have to deal with it every time they walk in the door, and begin to associate the library with boredom and tedium.

This isn't true at the public library level, at least in most decent sized cities. There are many certified librarians who have that appropriate educational background, people who understand literacy issues, who children read and why, and who actually know the books and authors. The problem is, many kids get disillusioned at school, or have apathetic parents, and never make it to the library to begin with.

One of the great, eye opening experiences I've had while running this blog is that I've come across some professional librarians, and they are the people who should be running the libraries, not just at the public level, but in our schools as well. Librarians who read the children and young adult literature, who try very hard to stay at the forefront of new reads, and who know the ways to get those books on their shelves as soon as possible upon their release.

We need more of those people, as well as those who advocate the use of public libraries. We need to educate parents that these places are great resources to keep their children loving literature, a great place for children and adults alike to find not only books, but movies, documentaries, video games, cook books, magazines, etc. We also need to, as teachers and literary professionals, bring clarity to children about the joys of holding a book, and the satisfaction that comes with finishing one. We need to show children how much more fulfilling a book is than a web page or texting on a cell phone. If we can't get kids in the libraries, they surely will become lost, they're already practically empty.

The Dead & the Gone: A Book Review

As a 5th grade teacher in New Mexico, I am responsible for teaching United States history, from pre-Columbian times to the present day. One of the things I start each year with is a study of Mayan, Incan, and Aztec cultures, and their influences on early American culture. One of the things that always comes up is the Mayan calendar, and their belief that December 21, 2012 will be the end of their long count calendar (and, as some say, the end of the world). My students, each year I teach this, become enamored by this idea, and some continue to study it on their own or ask questions on and off for the rest of the school year. This is one small example of how apocalyptic tales and/or warnings intrigue even the youngest among us.

The Dead and the Gone, by Susan Beth Pfeffer, is a companion book to Life As We Knew It(see my review HERE). In the reality crafted by Pfeffer, an asteroid has hit the moon, jarring it out of its precarious orbit with the earth, moving it slightly closer. The consequences of this event, in which the moon has a stronger gravitational pull in relation to the earth, causes massive tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, and near nuclear winter conditions world wide. The apocalypse in this story seems as if it could happen anytime, from the telling of the story, there's nothing ridiculous about it on the surface.

In Life As We Knew It, the story is told from a small town in Pennsylvania, with the struggles for survival in an isolated area. The Dead and the Gone tells this same story from New York City, and as the story moves along, we see a world almost more isolated, more prison like, than the Pennsylvania story.

The Dead and the Gone, in my opinion, is a much more telling read than Life As We Knew It. It's more jarring, more true to the realities of post apocalyptic fiction, and lives up to its billing as a book for ages 12 and up. With its images of death, disease, and the decaying human condition, its a good story from beginning to end. I found that the characters of this story, Alex Morales and his sisters mainly, were easy enough to relate to, and would be for pre-adolescent/teen readers as well.

Post apocalypse has been a topic of interest for me recently, and I've tried to pick up and read books that approach this concept from different perspectives. Most recently, I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road (see my review HERE), and found slight parallels between it and this book, possibly a future topic of research, at least, it's an idea I'm throwing around. If you read both, you will see similar stories of survival, self-preservation, and the stark reality of the world after events that have put an end to life as we knew it.

So in any case, before I go on and on, I want to end this review by saying that I enjoyed The Dead and the Gone a lot, more than Life As We Knew It actually, but understand that its content is a bit more mature. This is a great book, one that I enjoyed from beginning to end.

Rich Schools vs. Poor Schools & Standardized Testing Accountability According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

**Since today is Christmas Eve, I figured it would be a perfect time to re-post something from my much older yet much less popular personal blog, a post that probably fits the content of this blog much better. This post was originally published on November 25th on my other blog, The Buss**

Since August, my world has been fairly upside down. It's not one of those major things that I should be complaining about, but all the changes, the changes in routine, the pace of life, and everything else, made it hard to sit back and find things to complain about (the basic purpose in having a personal blog such as this one).

This really put certain things in perspective for me, and is probably my most appropriate reaction to the test heavy school culture we now work under in the field of public education. I've heard it said that teacher bonuses should be tied in to test results, and on the surface that sounds like such a nice, wonderful idea, that is, until basic common sense takes over.

When I was an undergraduate student at NMSU, I continually had this thing called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs rammed into my brain. It's something that is common knowledge now, and that is this. Take a look at the pyramid here:
This pyramid shows the levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The bottom needs are the basic ones, and without those needs being met, major psychological setback occur, and the person not having those needs met will suffer. In education, this means that kids who aren't getting enough food, sleep, a consistent family life, consistent financial situation, a consistent place to live, and a safe and secure existence with routine, then they will not reach the upper levels.

Look at the top of the pyramid. Those are all the great things that we want our children to achieve. Teachers and parents dream of children who show those traits.

Now, with that in mind, who will show those traits? Will it be the homeless child looking for a place to sleep at night, wondering where their next meal will come from and where they'll be living in a week? Or will it be the kid who goes home to the same house every night, has a family that's always there, never has to worry about basic needs, and has a safe, secure existence? Of course, it's the latter.

Now, is this a rich vs. poor issue? Yes it is. Take this argument to the schools, and you'll see that if things like teacher pay raises and school accountability are tied to test results, who will achieve higher? It's quite obvious, on a number of different levels, that the more affluent, or even simply middle class schools will have a much better shot than "poor school."

The reality is right there, and it doesn't take a genius to figure it out. For me, personally, some of my needs weren't being met there for awhile, nothing major, just a few changes in my life. Those changes caused me to re-think my priorities and everything for awhile. If those smaller changes can affect an adult so much, imagine the extent that a child would be affected by not having those basic needs met. It's staggering. Somebody in the government needs to pay attention to common sense, abolish No Child Left Behind, and stop rewarding people for working in rich schools while punishing poor schools. It's classism, and it's wrong.

A Christmas Wish List: The School Aged Literature I'd Like To See

The time for Christmas is almost upon us. It's a time of rest for teachers all across the world, as schools close for the holidays. My last day of work was this past Friday, and I don't have to head back until January 5th, so this is always a nice time of rejuvenation, relaxation, time with family, and time to read as many books as I possibly can.

I think I've chosen some pretty good books to sit down with here, but as good as they are, I sometimes find myself wanting something else, something that might not even exist out there in the world of children, adolescent, and/or young adult literature. Here are a few topics I'd love to see written about, my personal wish list of literary awesomeness:

1. More books from Markus Zusak: I read The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger, and needless to say I loved them both. He has written three other books, which I will surely pick up at some point, but I want more amazing Zusak, The Book Thief is quite possibly the single greatest book I've ever read, young adult or otherwise, and I need more!

2. A graphic novel adaptation and/or sequel/prequel to Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion: This is a fantastic sci-fi book for the adolescent set, full of political intrigue, the possible alternate reality of the future, and border issues as well. I enjoyed it immensely, and want more, so much more. A graphic novel would make this story accessible to even struggling readers, while a sequel or prequel would give me more of this story to sit down with.

3. A first rate school aged book about the history of southern New Mexico: OK, this one could be put under my "least likely to ever happen" list unless I wrote it myself. Come to think of it, I have always wanted to write a book, I just lack one thing, the ability to write a book. Living here in the historical south west, I'd love to have the history of this area more easily accessible to children, because, as it stands, it's low history that is loved by adult history buffs mostly.

4. A book about the American occupation in Iraq: told from the perspective of an Iraqi child, that is both critical of the Americans, sympathetic towards everyone, free from self-pity, and is as honest and open as books like The Diary of Anne Frank, Sold (by Patricia McCormick), and Maus (by Art Spiegelman). I realize that it's a stretch to compare these books to my wish, especially given the historical aspect and reflective nature of them, but that's my vision, so give me this moment.

5. A textbook that isn't ridiculously horrible and inaccessible to the majority of students: I put this one out there as a challenge to textbook writers. Because, honestly, textbooks are horrible, pretty much all of the time, without fail. The newest version of such-and-such textbook comes out, school districts spend millions on them, everyone pats themselves on the back because the books are glossy, with many wonderful pictures and text layout that are "optimal to student learning," and with teacher guides that have been completely dummy proofed (independent thought proofed) in every conceivable way. The problem? Textbooks are HORRIBLE. If someone could make a textbook that didn't act like a textbook, I would become a fan of that person or group of people. Until then, textbooks remain the snake to my mongoose (or is it the mongoose to my snake, I can't remember which).

6. Zombie literature for kids: I mean it, zombie literature for kids, it would be the most amazing point in human history if this became a reality. And no, I'm not talking about comic books in this case, because I realize those are out there, I mean real, poignant, zombie literature, in book form, for school aged readers.

Alright, so there you have it. What are your wishes and dreams as they relate to children/ya lit? Maybe if enough of us ask, someone will listen and get to work. Or maybe on of us will write something. Anything is possible. Just remember, if it's you, thank me for giving you the idea.