Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone

It would be unlikely for anyone to not know J.K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter Books. They are well known throughout the world, with the books and movies very popular among wide age groups of readers. I have personally read all of the books, watched the movies; and mourned when the series ended. The great thing about these books in general is that I can read them with my eleven year old daughters; and we can all find ourselves captivated with the story.

The first installment called Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone brings the reader into a story of Harry Potter, a poor orphan boy forced to live with his aunt, uncle; and cousin, where they treat him horribly as a slave, making him take care of them and living in a cupboard under the stairs. That is until the owls start coming with letters from Hogwart's academy, a place for wizards and witches to gain schooling in magical arts. The story takes a turn when Hagrid, a giant whisks Harry away from his horrible family, taking him on an adventure that he never could have anticipated. During his stay, Harry faces many adventures with his new friends, Hermoine and Ron. Together the three of them decide to find out where the sorcerers stone is hidden and why it is so important to the enemy, an evil character named Voldimort. In the end, Harry learns about his parents, his talents; and becomes a hero when he thwarts Voldimort from getting the stone, concluding his first year at Hogwarts.

The genre of this book would fall into fantasy, as it is full of magical and mystical beings and locations, not to mention magic itself being used in nearly every page. The story has well defined characters, plots; and settings allowing the reader to become fully involved in a magical world that does not exist in reality, but also contains real-world settings like London, England. One key point of this work within the genre of fantasy is that it "...is detailed and believable within the context of the story" (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010, 209).

There are not really any illustrations in the book other than the occasional black ink sketch associated with beginning a new chapter, and are illustrated by Mary GrandPré (Rowling, 1997).

For response-centered project ideas, I believe that a once/now essay would be a great way for readers to see the transformation of Harry from the beginning of the story to the end after he has experienced a whole new world and realize that his parents were not killed in an accident, nor is he just a simple normal boy. It would be a great way for the students to utilize critical thinking skills in determining just how much he changed from the beginning of the story to the end. Secondly, I believe that a scrapbook would be a neat idea for readers to make because they could take the main characters, in this instance, I would say Hermoine, Harry; and Ron, and use their personal characteristics to create a neat scrapbook about each person in the story.

This book provides a magical story about transformation. Not just for Harry, but his entire world transforms, and it is applicable to the reader in a manner that they can relate to. Maybe they are going to a new school, maybe they have family members who are less than kind. The list could continue. I enjoyed it personally because I love using my imagination for adventure into different dimensions of fantasy. J.K. Rowling wrote the entire series of Harry Potter adventures as well as small volumes called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through The Ages (Rowling T. &., 2012).

References

Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2010). Literature and the Child. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cenage Learning.

Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone. New York: Scholastic.

Rowling, J.K. & TM (2012). Biography. Retrieved from jkrowling.com: http://www.jkrowling.com/en_GB/#/about-jk-rowling

My Side of the Mountain

For my second post, I chose Newberry Medal winner Jean Craighead George's My Side of the Mountain, as it is one of my favorite childhood stories. It is a classic story filled with adventure, growing up, and finding oneself being completely self-reliant. As a child, I often escaped to the woods way beyond my house and built lean-to's and would pretend to be like Sam, living off the wild. It was this book that assisted and influenced in my love for all wilderness and skills of living off the land.

The main character, Sam Gribley, finds himself unhappy with where he lives in the city of New York and decides to run away to the Catskill mountains, where he can live by himself. He leaves with only a very small amount of supplies and takes off towards his freedom. The story begins with Sam in his tree home explaining how he had found it and burned it out, making the beginnings of his home. He is alone with no one there to talk to, but begins to learn about the land, how to fish, hunt, and identifying plants that are edible. 
His only companion is Frightful, a falcon that he raised from a baby. Together they live in the mountains and learn about danger, courage, and independence from both the city and other humans.

The illustrations in this novel were done by Jean Craighead George and consist of black sketches depicting various assisting illustrations. Most of them have supporting cursive script which explain what each sketch is, most of which are sketches to show the reader survival skills. For example on page 16, there are two different shelters depicted, and the caption reads "a couple of good shelters - make sure your fire is on scraped earth- also be sure to put it out!" (Craighead George 2001). 

The genre of this book falls within the contemporary realistic fiction, as the characters, setting, and plot are all within the grasp of being realistic and could potentially happen in the real world. The realistic fiction genre focuses on wide arrays of human emotions including hunger, homelessness, growing up, etc. as well as experiences of today's world  (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010). Granted, the book was written in 1959, but the plot and characters could still occur in today's world. 

Two response-centered projects that I believe would work well with this novel would be a present for a character and a recipe project. Considering that Sam left home with only a few items, the children could decide to give him a present to help him along his journey, and they could write a short essay to explain what and why they decided this particular present would be helpful to Sam. Since Sam finds himself eating wild food, like rabbits, dandelions, berries, etc. the children could make a cookbook related to only wild gathered food items. Making three recipes from such items and writing an essay to explain how they relate to the ingredients Sam uses would make a great way of experiencing ideas for food that perhaps the children would even want to make.

This book will always be one of my favorites, and Jean Craighead George did write two other books related to My Side of the Mountain. It is the My Side of the Mountain Trilogy (jeancraigheadgeorge.com) and it continues Sam's adventures. I would highly recommend all children to read these books and develop their adventurous side for the outdoors.

Reference

Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2010). Literature and the Child. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cenage Learning.

Jean, C. G. (2001). My Side of the Mountain. New York: Puffin Books.

jeancraigheadgeorge.com. (2013, Jun 17). Works. Retrieved from Jean Craighead George.com: http://www.jeancraigheadgeorge.com/index.html

Elijah of Buxton

For my first entry, I chose Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis. This title has won a Newberry Honor as well as A Coretta Scott King award. Before I even began this class, I was at the bookstore with my daughters, and she saw the book on the shelf and asked me if I would buy it for her. I thought it was odd, as normally they enjoy fantasy books about talking animals and such, but I enjoy it when they choose to read diverse books and agreed to purchase it for her. She mentioned that they had it at the school library and it was a popular book. 

The story of Elijah is one of an eleven year old boy who was born in Buxton, Canada. He was the first child to be born into freedom, and the town of his birth was a runaway slave settlement slightly north of Detroit. The plot thickens when a former slave steal's money from Elijah's friend, leading him on an adventure to America, where Elijah witnesses the horrible life styles similar to what his parent's experienced as slaves. Elijah is lucky to know he will never experience such a life, but needs to get back home, and find the courage to get there. 

There are no accompanying illustrations in this novel, but upon analyzing it, the story certainly follows that of historical fiction by recreating life in the past by use of realistic fictional characters, historical settings; and events (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010). By using a historical fiction genre, Curtis has enabled the readers to experience events that could have actually occurred, allowing children to experience what it would be like for a young free boy stumbling upon the horrific slave life that his parents escaped. Further analysis reveals that in a typical manner of historical fiction "The stories are usually told through the perspective of a child or adolescent who is living life in a particular time and place" (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010, p.17), which Curtis effectively does in Elijah of Buxton.

Motivational activities surrounding reader response could include projects surrounding a family tree, where the readers create a family tree based upon the main character, drawing pictures of relatives and writing about their personalities, and importance to the character. A second project idea could be a newspaper taken from a day during the book that would include headlines, advertisements; and editorials relating to the characters and the stories outlined in the book itself. The book has many headline capabilities, and the readers could make ad's for the dry good store, and write editorials about freedom, slavery; and the effects of theft.

 Saint Leo's core value of respect, is defined as "Animated in the spirit of Jesus Christ, we value all individuals’ unique talents, respect their dignity, and strive to foster their commitment to excellence in our work. Our community’s strength depends on the unity and diversity of our people, on the free exchange of ideas, and on learning, living, and working harmoniously" (Saint Leo University, 2013). This core value fits in well with the story behind Elijah of Buxton because it encourages not only understanding and respect for those who were slaves, but as the diversity of such a story, which provides tools for readers to become united in understanding for what occurred during the time of Elijah and his family. The freeing of the slaves and their ability to live, learn; and work harmoniously with others provides key morals and ideals for readers.

References

Curtis, C. P. (2007). Elijah of Buxton. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2010). Literature and the Child. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cenage Learning.

Saint Leo University. (2013). Core Values at Saint Leo: The First Florida Catholic University. Retrieved Jul 14, 2013, from http://www.saintleo.edu/about/florida-catholic-university.aspx