Final Reflection

This has been a wonderful experience. When I first started this class I was new to the blogging and glogging world. Now, I feel a lot more comfortable with the process and found it to be quite fun and it really expanded my creative abilities with analyzing all sorts of picture books and novels. I was the most surprised at my instant love of graphic novels. Without this class, I can honestly say that this never would have happened. This class has really opened my eyes to a variety of children’s literature, new perspectives, opinions, cultures, backgrounds, and lifestyles. I have a new appreciation for this class and children’s literature. Having a child, myself, helped me pay attention to the controversial side of things. I have learned to be more aware in some ways and will try to be more accommodating in other ways. Overall, I loved this class and feel it will be an asset to my teaching career.

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

This is such a great novel that really dissects poetry and not only helps define it but helps identify it in a new way. Originally, the boy identifies poetry with a stigma attached to it. He thinks only girls write poetry and all of the words must fit perfectly in place. It is a creative story with beautiful poetry! This book really makes you think outside of the box.
Another great thing about this is a book is that it can suit all ages, child or adult! I love how everything fits so nicely together. Our classroom activity was very helpful in creating color and personality to this book! The chance to act it out changed my perspective on ways to make a poem come alive. I realized that it doesn’t just have to come from one reader. Sometimes it can be read by a group working together to craft animation from a variety of imaginations. I love that dog and I love this book!

I Saw Your Face by Tom Feelings

This has a wonderful sentimental meaning behind this poem picture book. The illustrator actually drew these portraits while he travelled around the world to find many beautiful faces with the commonality of having an African descent. I feel many of the pictures are a bit depressing because they have solemn, somber faces. Not one single person is smiling. Some of the people look like they are posing; others just look deep in thought. There are sketches of all ages and I am a bit shocked that no one is smiling, especially the children. I like how the images are set up on each page. There are very few things in the background. Additionally, there are only a few words on each page, mainly stating where each drawing came from and arranged words creating a rhyming scheme. I think all of this helps avoid distractions against the large sketches of the people. It is interesting that Tom Feelings did not include any action shots, unless, his intentions were to only go with one theme. I thought it was quite unique how none of the portraits are colored in. There are all outlined in blue, brown, or black with a background color of either beige or light blue. I found that pretty fascinating because his choice of these monotone dreary colors truly added to the feeling of loneliness and sadness of these people.

I think this book it trying to send a powerful message to its readers. Although they seem to show no emotion; I can immediately sense immense pain through their eyes. You can almost see the injustice they feel deep in their soul. It’s interesting how these sketches were drawn all throughout the world yet; it looks as though everyone in here is from the same community. It sends the message to me that they are all alike in some way no matter where they live in the world.

Homegrown House by Janet Wong

This is an interesting poetry book because there is no specific rhythm or rhyming scheme. I was amazing at the powerfulness it had to really put me in the little girl’s mind and perspective of moving all the time. She was desperately searching for some normalcy and routine and I could strongly feel that throughout the whole book. I can’t imagine having to move so much as a child. I, personally, moved a lot as an adult and found it pretty difficult in many ways to adjust. However, as a child you are still trying to find your identity and a sense of belonging.

The author could have just as easily made this a regular picture book but I am so glad she did it as a poetry book. It is more resonating this way. She is so good at what she does. Additionally, the choice of watercolors and the style she used them in captured a lot more emotion and scenery in my head than was actually there on the page. I was very curious as to whether this is a true story or not. I appeared that it was the author sharing truths from her childhood and reminiscing about the good times that she will forever cherish and take with her as she grows old. It also touches a lot on her hardships and how she gets through it all which I find very inspirational. As you can probably tell, I absolutely loved this book. I really learned to love this girl and appreciate her for all that she has been through and how she handles it all. I loved how Janet was able to truly get into the mind of the child and speak about the certain details that would be going through an eight year old’s mind. The simplicity of it all actually made it more complex and multifaceted. Great Book!

Buzz by Janet Wong

This book explores all of the every day noises that happen in our lives today. It’s interesting how there isn’t only one type of buzz noise but yet multifaceted buzz noises that represent the buzzes in our lives. This is a wonderful poetry book that accentuates the author’s personality. It emphasizes all the everyday things that make buzzing or brief loud noises.

The text was big and bold using syntax. The illustrations were very cartoonish and simplistic. I actually truly adore the simplicity of it. The young boy always seems so excited to learn and I love that he is so happy. The boy is just enjoying life and I think it is a fantastic children’s poetry book because it makes learning poetry blissfully fun and cheerful! This is a book I would read to my classroom as well as my kids at home. I am, personally, drawn to it because of the child’s truthful and natural curiosity of everyday things and, especially, noises.

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars by Douglas Florian

It’s neat how certain pages have a circle cutout so when you flip the page it is linked to the theme or object on the next page. It brings a feeling of wonder and surprise to the following page. I love how one of the poems is designed as a spiral. You have to continually turn the book in circles to read the words. I not only enjoyed the rhyming on each page as well as the beautiful bright watercolors, but I enjoyed learning about a lot of interesting facts about the universe. The page numbers are only located on the left-hand side of the left pages in the middle. It gives the effect of looking like small indents to an index. There are also glimpses of real photos within a few of the paintings. For example, when they painted the picture of the earth on different parts of the land or water they zoomed in and placed a picture of an animal that lived in that area to show there was life on that planet. There is also a galactic glossary in the back that adds some additional information to the galaxy and its planets. This is a wonderful book for children to have fun with while learning about space. The illustrations are really what completed this book. Each page has something new and exciting to look at and learn about. I like the wide range of shapes he used and labeled each shape on the galaxy page. It included shapes and titles such as barred, barred spiral, elliptical, egg shaped, spiral, flattened, ball shaped, and irregular. It’s great that they provide options for further reading so students who maybe want more information about space but not necessarily in poem format can use these resources available. I also noticed that the copyright information was in the back as well. I actual think it works great with the author deciding to do that because it looked really neat with how he jumped right into the book at the beginning making the first illustrations really stand out.

Dirt on My Shirt by Jeff Foxworthy

This is a fun-loving joyous book with all kinds of adventures that explore many themes that all revolve around the truths of life. I think it is a fantastic book because it really centers on happiness and how the small things in life can mean so much. It reminds me of my innocence as a child. For example, one page talks about fly away balloons and wondering where they go. I used to write my name and address on helium balloons to try to determine how far and where they travel to. There is so much curiosity as a child and this poem picture book plays a lot into a child’s nosiness nature. This is such a fun-loving book. It really touches on the perspective of the child and the joys they have doing every things such as taking a bubble bath or playing hide-and-seek. It is quite interesting to see Jeff Foxworthy write a poetry book because I when I think of him I think of a comedian about rednecks. This truly shows his multidimensionality. I think almost anyone can relate to some of these poems in this book. I love it reaches such a wide audience. I think this would suffice any grade level because we all experience these things at one time or another in our lives.