Jody's LIS 721 Blogorama

 Historical fiction has never been my preferred genre. I generally find the concept of creating fictional stories around real events to be in poor taste. However, I admit that while this can be the case, it is not always. Historical fiction differs from contemporary realistic fiction by setting the events of the story in a real time period in the past, centered around the experiences of people who were around during that time. Many stories can be presented in a way that is respectful to the lived experiences of those from our past, but this requires a deft hand at writing and loads of research to make sure information is not being presented that is inaccurate. Many children end up reading historical fiction and learning about history through it. As such, it is important that the majority of the information being presented by the author is done in a way that is respectful and accurate. Rinaldi, Ann. My Heart is On the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl.  Scho...

I have always been a huge fan of graphic novels. I find the medium can tell stories in ways that many others cannot. The pairing of images and words in graphic novels helps to create a dynamism that is often missing from other types of reading. Much of the story is told in images. A facial expression can be difficult to describe effectively in words, but for example pairing a drawing of a frustrated face with text that emphasizes this frustration can get a meaningful moment across with just a few words of dialog. Much of the action takes place in illustration, allowing the character connections and dialogs to have a greater impact. Graphic novels are often seen as being either for children or being just for reluctant or struggling readers, but much like any other type of literature, there is a graphic novel out there for everyone. Instead of looking at graphic novels as a side-step, they should be given the respect of any other form of written media.  Below are four graphic novels ...

Beginner and transitional books are a major part of learning to read and to process written language. Typically, beginner readers have fewer words and less complex sentences. Imagery tells a major portion of the story or provide a large portion of the information for nonfiction materials. Transitional readers are as the name implies between a beginner reader and a traditional written piece. Transitional readers begin to include more complex sentence structure, and typically rely less on imagery to do the heavy lifting of providing context. For this week, I chose the following four books to focus on. Adler, David A.  Don't Throw it to Mo! . Illustrated by Sam Ricks. Penguin Random House. 32 pages. $5.99, ISBN 978-0-593-43234-1 A young boy who is much smaller than everyone else on his football team must use the skills he does have to help his team win the big game. Simple writing with a large font and images that help sell the story. A great beginner reader for those looking to sound...

 Informational books for kids can be amazing resources for entire families. Aside from introducing children to concepts that are new to them, they can also be a fantastic stepping stone toward a conversation between adults and children. A quality informational book for kids would be one that can be enjoyed by all ages, and can provide information to anyone no matter their age. Who knows, you might even learn some new things as an adult that you never would have realized before. I had such experiences with the below. All of these books do one thing very well: they work as conversation starters. Reynolds, Jason and Kenji, Ibram X, adapted by Cherry-Paul, Sonja.  Stamped (For Kids) . Illustrated by Rachelle Baker. Little, Brown & Co. 164 pages. Tr. $15.99, ISBN 978-0-316-16758-1 A fantastic adaptation of the Pulitzer winning Stamped From the Beginning  by Ibram X. Kenji, this remix of the source material for younger ages by Sonja Cherry-Paul is a fantastic primer on race...

  Poetry has always been difficult for me. I have always felt like I didn’t “get it” because the meanings I would find would never be the “right” meanings that my English teachers would  Paul, Miranda. Thanku: Poems of Gratitude . Illustrated by Marlena Myles. Millbrook Press, 2019. 40 pages. Tr. $19.99, ISBN 978-1-5415-2363-0 This collection of poems centered around the ideals of Thanksgiving provides great examples of many different types of poetry, written by many different authors. The general theme of each poem is about thankfulness, but goes beyond the stereotypical American Thanksgiving ideas. There are poems about family, about nature, about humanity, and about our connections to the universe. Each poem gets its own page and illustration, and each is labeled with the type of poem it is. The end of the book contains reference material for the different types of poems included, providing a paragraph explaining how the poem in question is generally formatted, and some que...