Module 2, part 2 - Winnie-the-Pooh

Bibliography

Milne, A. A. (1992). Winnie-the-Pooh. (E. H. Shepard, Illus.). New York:Puffin Books. (Original work published 1926)

Summary

This collection of stories told to Christopher Robin is about his own stuffed bear called Winnie-the-Pooh and Pooh’s friends Piglet, Owl, Rabbit, Eeyore, and Kanga and Roo.  Each chapter holds a memorable new adventure for the lovable characters.  Pooh is helpful (he looks for and finds Eeyore’s lost tail); Pooh is thoughtful (when he finds out it is Eeyore’s birthday, he makes sure Eeyore has presents to open); Pooh is heroic (he floats to Piglet’s house in an umbrella to save Piglet from the big flood); but most of all Pooh is a “silly old bear,” as he attempts to obtain honey from a hive of bees, gets stuck for a week in the front door of Rabbit’s hole after eating too much honey, tracks a “Woozle” with Piglet, or gets his head stuck in a honey jar.  After a party in honor of Pooh, the book ends with the real Christopher Robin going up the stairs with his bear in tow.

My Thoughts

What a wonderful book!  As a kid, I remember watching Winnie-the-Pooh, but there is something special about reading it.  Whether it is one of the more familiar stories such as Eeyore’s tail and getting stuck in Rabbit’s hole, or one of the not-so-familiar stories such as the plot to steal Roo away from Kanga and finding the North Pole, Milne’s written words pull you into the story. 

Book Reviews

“Strange to say, I never read A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh as a child. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, yes. But not Pooh. Yet if you mentioned it, I'd have immediately understood who and what you were talking about. I "knew" that greedy "Bear of Very Little Brain" with an overriding penchant for honey, and already pictured him bumbling into and out of adventures with help from his animal friends and Christopher Robin, the son of the storyteller/author. In fact, if you asked me and I had answered before carefully considering (just like the whimsical four-pawed one), I might even have claimed to have read Winnie-the-Pooh — the book seemed so familiar.
“What, then, explains the penetration of this story into the shared consciousness of our — real and imagined — childhoods? Why is there a thriving Pooh Country industry centered on Hartfield and the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, drawing pilgrims (yes, pilgrims) from around the world? For the Brits it can't simply be that we're soft about animals (we do love our pets) and so relate without complication to Pooh's world of anthropomorphized creatures. 
“Alan Alexander Milne, born 1882, was the son of a Scottish schoolmaster. He read mathematics at Cambridge, but his real inclination was toward writing. Aged 24, he was appointed assistant editor of Punch and, after serving as a signals officer in World War I, he achieved early success as a playwright.
“In 1924 Milne and his wife Daphne moved from London to 16th-century Cotchford Farm outside Hartfield on the edge of the Ashdown Forest. That November saw publication of the author's first book of children's poems, When We Were Very Young. The verses included one that had already appeared in Punch, relating how "A bear, however hard he tries/Grows tubby without exercise." He wasn't yet called Winnie-the-Pooh, but he was on his way — and in Ashdown Forest Milne had found the setting for his bear stories.
“Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), Now We Are Six (1927) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928) followed. By the time the latter appeared, sales of its predecessors had broken all records.
“When I belatedly read Winnie-the-Pooh, I wasn't disappointed; the qualities that have endeared it to several generations are many. The protagonists, based on Christopher Robin's toys, are simply drawn: Pooh is greedy, Eeyore the donkey is gloomily misanthropic, Piglet is timid and so on. But they are also individuals who occasionally transcend their natures — it was Pooh's brain wave that effected the rescue of Piglet from the flood, after all. Not bad for a Bear of Very Little Brain. Maybe Pooh's way of "muddling through" even owes something to the perceived British national character!
“There's also an underlying humor to some of the animals' conversations, perhaps more meaningful to adults than children. Self-important Owl resorts to officialese when confronted with the problem of finding Eeyore's lost tail (think of bureaucrats you have known, reaching for their handbooks of jargon): "The customary procedure in such cases is as follows.…" After Pooh queries this "Crustimoney Proseedcake," Owl admits he just means "the Thing to Do." Those capitals: still so tellingly self-important.
“Or maybe Milne's recurrent use of capitals simply reflects the exaggerated Importance of minor Incidents in a Child's World, the inflation of the mundane into an Adventure, the investment of Meaning in otherwise casual Happenings. The beauty of Pooh is that the various escapades are usually rooted in the ordinary: birthday presents and parties, feeling hungry and looking for food. Adventures spring from this safely circumscribed world — the weather turns unexpectedly bad, mysterious footprints appear. But even when danger threatens, you don't get the darkness of Alice or Willows. The mystery is solved and everyone (or at least Pooh) goes home for luncheon — honey, of course. The return to normality is just a few steps away, and the escapade has been contained in a morning or afternoon.
“Ironically, Milne came to resent his success in children's literature at the expense of his other, adult writing. But for generations of children and grown-ups, the stories of Pooh have attained iconic status that befits their inclusion in the top 10 list of most British books — and explains why I was so familiar with the characters before reading about them for real. These are simple, fun, innocent, reassuringly safe tales. And perhaps above all that's why they endure. While we still inhabit the imaginative world of Pooh by virtue of our tender age and inexperience, we relate directly to the Adventures that cuddly toy animals Brought to Life can have. When we have left that world, we look back with fondness to an innocence lost — and maybe welcome the chance to cocoon our own children in it.
“It's no surprise that adults as much as children enjoy visiting the Pooh Corner shop in Hartfield (www.pooh-country.co.uk), picking up a map and going on an "Expotition" to the real "Enchanted Places" like Poohsticks Bridge featured in Pooh and Pooh Corner. "That Accounts for a Good Deal," as Eeyore said during the saga of his missing tail. "It Explains Everything."”

Ellis, S. (2006). [Book review of the book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne].  Retrieved from www.historynet.com/winnie-the-pooh-book-review.htm

Ideas for Use

Doing a puppet show to act out the stories in this book would be a fantastic way to use this book.

Module 2, part 1 - Miss Rumphius

Bibliography

Cooney, B. (1982). Miss Rumphius. New York: The Viking Press.

Summary

In this book, the narrator introduces the reader to Miss Alice Rumphius, also known as the Lupine Lady.  When Alice is a child, she lives by the sea and hears stories about her grandfather’s many travels.  She decides that when she is older, she, too, will have travels of her own and then spend the rest of her days by the sea.  Alice’s grandfather makes her promise that she must also “do something to make the world more beautiful.”  When Alice grows up and becomes Miss Rumphius, she sets off on her travels to tropical islands, snow-capped mountains, jungles, and deserts.  Eventually, Miss Rumphius settles down in a house by the sea, and she remembers the promise to her grandfather to beautify the world.  Her idea comes to her when she is out for a walk and finds a patch of Lupines that had sprouted when seedlings from her own Lupine patch were carried away with the wind.  Ordering a large amount of Lupine seeds, Miss Rumphius scatters them wherever she goes.  Some people think her behavior strange, but when Spring comes again, Lupines are everywhere and she becomes known as the Lupine Lady.

My Thoughts

I loved this book.  It flowed really well and kept my interest throughout.  It reminded me that your dreams can take you anywhere you want to go.  I also liked the idea of making the world a more beautiful place.  Miss Rumphius’ grandfather made the world more beautiful through his art; Miss Rumphius made the world more beautiful through planting beautiful flowers; in turn, Miss Rumphius’ great niece will also make the world more beautiful in her own way. 

Reviews

“When she was a little girl at the turn of the century, Alice told her artist grandfather that she wanted, like him, to go to faraway places when she grew up and to live by the sea when she grew old.  He told her she must do one more thing as well: make the world more beautiful.  She travels and comes to live by the sea (after hurting her back while getting down from a camel).  As she nurses her back, she notices some lupines, her favorite flower; and she has the idea that will allow her to fulfill her promise to her grandfather.  Her great-niece, telling the story, concludes by promising her aunt to do the same three things.  This low-key tale of aspiration and idealism, of obligations to oneself and to the world at large, is perfectly accompanied by paintings that sound either a quaint-but-real old-fashioned, or a calm, unchanging pastoral, note.  Pictures of Miss Rumphius as a librarian (in a shirtwaist), in the South Pacific (with a parasol), or astride a camel show her to be cheerful, competent and composed.  She moves in settings that time or distance make exotic; but Cooney’s clear, detailed scenes are as neat and precise as an old woman’s memories.  And her lupines are lovely, even if one feels that the rugged shores of Maine really didn’t need to be made more beautiful.”

Dooley, P. (1987). [Review of the book Miss Rumphius by B. Cooney]. School Library Journal, 29 (1), 106.

Ideas for Use

This would be a great book to read before beginning an activity or service project in which the children plant their own flowers.

Module 1 - Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and i don't)

Bibliography

Bottner, B. (2010). Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I don’t) (M. Emberley, Illus.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Summary

One of the books I read for Module 1 was Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I don’t) by Barbara Bottner. It is about a little girl in the first grade who hates books. Her librarian, Miss Brooks loves all kinds of books and shows her enthusiasm by dressing up in costumes that represent the main character of the books that she reads to the children. When Miss Brooks announces “Book Week,” which entails each child picking out a favorite book and then wearing a costume as they share it with their classmates, the little first grade girl goes home dreading the assignment. During this week, the little girl does not like any of the books the other kids are sharing. Miss Brooks wants to find a book that the little girl will love and so she sends the little girl home every day with a bag full of books which she reads with her mother. Finally, the little girl thinks of something she would like to read about: warts. They read a book called “Shrek,” and the little girl loves it. She dresses up as an ogre and tells her classmates all about the book she loves.

My Thoughts

One of the things that I really like about this book is the message it portrays that there is a book for every child. As the second to last sentence in the book states, “[Even] ogres (like me) can find something funny and fantastic and appalling in the library,” every child can find a book to love. Because each and every child is so different and unique, it is especially important for libraries to have a wide range of books that cover all types and genres.

Another thing I really like about it is how Bottner and Michael Emberley depict the librarian – Bottner through words and Emberley through illustration – as a quirky but knowledgeable lover of books who is determined to share the love.

Reviews

“A first grader finds her school librarian’s passion for books “vexing,” to say the least. The free-spirited Miss Brooks communicates her love for books by dressing up in costumes ranging from a Wild Thing to Abe Lincoln, but while the rest of the class participates enthusiastically, the little girl remains unmoved. She also dismisses her classmates’ book choices: “Too flowery”; “Too clickety.” But when her mother brings out a book about an ogre with warts – William Steig’s Shrek! – she finally meets a book she can love. In Emberley’s ebullient pencil and watercolor pictures, Miss Brooks’s engaging personality shines through in her colorful clothes and her wild hair, while the little girl’s stubbornness is reflected in her wearing the same outfit day after day. This celebration of books and the need for kids to find the right book will make a great story to read during Children’s Book Week – and every week.”

Lempke, S. D. (2010). [Review of the book Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I don’t) by B. Bottner] Horn Book Magazine, 86 (3), 62-63.

Ideas for Use

I think this book would make an excellent choice for storytime, or to read it to students before giving them their own assignment to find their favorite book!