Module 4: Newbery Winners

Module 4/SLIS5420

Roller Skates

By Ruth Sawyer

Summary:

Roller Skates is about the life of Lucinda Wyman back in the 1890’s who goes to live in New York with the Peters’ while her parents went on vacation.  She takes the city at large as her own neighborhood skating around on roller-skates making new friends.  Through all this you learn a bit about New York back in the 1890’s and some Lucinda’s personal hardships when two of her own friends die.

Citation:

Sawyer, R., & Angelo, V. (1936). Roller skates. New York: Viking Press.

Beyond and Between:

Roller skates was a delightful read and a breath of fresh air. You come away from reading this journal like recounting of Lucinda’s time in New York as if seeing the young life of the old days of New York.  Meeting the different people, sensing a safe New York setting, and laughing along with Lucinda as she delights in all the things she is seeing/doing.  In all this the additional plot twist of the death of her friend’s leaves the real with a real taste of the life of Lucinda in her happy times and sad. 

Reviews:

Sarah Flowers

Gr 4-7-This recording of the 1937 Newbery Award-winning book by Ruth Sawyer (Penguin Putnam, pap. 1986) is read by television and stage actress Kate Forbes. The story takes place in New York City in the 1890s, during the year of 10-year-old Lucinda's "orphanage." That's Lucinda's term for her situation when her parents go to Italy and leave her in the care of Miss Peters and Miss Nettie. Lucinda, enjoying her freedom, explores the city on roller skates and makes friends wherever she goes. She reads Shakespeare with her uncle, puts on her own production of The Tempest, creates a magical Christmas for a little girl from an impoverished family, helps a family protect their fruit stand from attacks by rowdy boys, and has picnics in a vacant lot , among other adventures. Forbes does a good job with the reading, conveying Lucinda's enthusiasm but not becoming overly dramatic. However, the story suffers from age. Certain expressions and references are likely to elude most children (and even many adults). The obligatory tragedies (the death of Trinket, the unexplained murder of a woman Lucinda befriends) seem a little maudlin. There is also some ethnic stereotyping, typical of the time that is unacceptable today. However, in libraries where Newbery books are always in demand, this audio- book will help make an older book a little more accessible to young readers.-Sarah Flowers, Santa Clara County Library, Morgan Hill, CA (c)

Levy Mandell, P., & Flowers, S. (2002). Roller Skates (Sound recording). School Library Journal, 48(4), 86.

Kristi Beavin

Read by Kate Forbes.

Recorded Books 2001 4 cass. ISBN 0-7887-5032-1 38.00In this 1937 Newbery Award winner, Lucinda's parents leave on a trip to Italy, and she is shipped off to the suitably kind and satisfactorily inattentive Misses Peters. Free of parental oversight, Lucinda begins her adventures. Narrator Kate Forbes overcomes the somewhat leisurely construction of the plot by maintaining a lively, enthusiastic pace. Because this is so entirely Lucinda's story, Forbes distinguishes the minor characters by only the slightest of variations, and settles instead for gently underlining the vividly graceful images that are the hallmark of Sawyer's narrative style.

Beavin, K. (2001). Roller Skates. Horn Book Magazine, 77(6), 779.

Suggested Uses:

This book would be a delightful book to use along with a theme of “Discover your City”.  It could be used as a part of a suggested book list, a display, but what I really like is the idea of using this theme and book as a part of a summer reading program theme.  Incorporating other books where the main character is exploring new place.  This would help the patrons relate to the book, relate to their town in a new fun way, and encourage reading.

Module 4/SLIS5420

A Tale of Despereaux

By Kate DiCamillo

Summary:

A Tale of Despereaux is a story about a little mouse named Despereaux who has big dreams and is in love with a princess.  Told through three points of view, ending all the view points coming together you follow the story of little Despereaux, a rat named Chiaroscuro (Roscuro for short) and a servant named Mig.  Through the story the princess ends up being kidnaped by Roscuro and Mig and it is up to Despereaux with the help a friend and the cook to go into the dungeon, confront Roscuro, and hopefully save his princess.

Citation:

DiCamillo, K., & Ering, T. B. (2003). The tale of Despereaux: Being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread. Cambridge, Mass: Candlewick Press.

Beyond and Between:

This book is a wonderful read, Katie DiCamillo easily weaves the story of three different characters in such a way that the reader is carried from the beginning to the end in an enchanting and engaging way.  Each chapter is short and has very eye catching illustrations that capture the essence of each character in the book. Due to this, this book can easily read by ages as young as third grade and it would be a great book to read to beginning readers to catch their interest in reading.  The language is pretty simple, however the descriptions and French vocabulary, in the book wouldn’t make this an easy read, but a delightful slightly challenging book. 

Reviews:

Horn Book Guide

 DiCamillo, Kate The Tale of Despereaux 272 pp. Candlewick ISBN 0-7636-1722-9 17.99

(2) Illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering. Despereaux Tilling is not like the other mice in the castle. He's smaller than average, likes to read books, and is in love with a human being: Princess Pea. When a rat and a young servant kidnap the princess, Despereaux, armed with a needle and a spool of thread, makes a daring rescue. Framing the book with the conventions of a Victorian novel, DiCamillo tells an engaging tale. Review 9/03. PDS

Gershowitz, E., Sieruta, P. D., Shute, C., Meister, B. L., & al, e. (2004, Spring). INTERMEDIATE FICTION. The Horn Book Guide to Children's and Young Adult Books, 15, 87-105.

School Library Journal

Gr 3 Up-- A charming story of unlikely heroes whose destinies entwine to bring about a joyful resolution. Foremost is Despereaux, a diminutive mouse who, as depicted in Ering's pencil drawings, is one of the most endearing of his ilk ever to appear in children's books. His mother, who is French, declares him to be "such the disappointment" at his birth and the rest of his family seems to agree that he is very odd: his ears are too big and his eyes open far too soon and they all expect him to die quickly. Of course, he doesn't. Then there is the human Princess Pea, with whom Despereaux falls deeply (one might say desperately) in love. She appreciates him despite her father's prejudice against rodents. Next is Roscuro, a rat with an uncharacteristic love of light and soup. Both these predilections get him into trouble. And finally, there is Miggery Sow, a peasant girl so dim that she believes she can become a princess. With a masterful hand, DiCamillo weaves four story lines together in a witty, suspenseful narrative that begs to be read aloud. In her authorial asides, she hearkens back to literary traditions as old as those used by Henry Fielding. In her observations of the political machinations and follies of rodent and human societies, she reminds adult readers of George Orwell. But the unpredictable twists of plot, the fanciful characterizations, and the sweetness of tone are DiCamillo's own. This expanded fairy tale is entertaining, heartening, and, above all, great fun.

Jones, T. E., Toth, L., Charnizon, M., Grabarek, D., Larkins, J., & Budin, M. (2003). The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread (Book). School Library Journal, 49(8), 126.

Suggested Uses:

A Tale of Despereaux would be a fun book to use for a drama club, suggest to parents to read aloud for bed time stories, or incorporate a medieval themed program ending with a showing of this movie as fun family night occasion.