Mama has a new job working in a big fancy church in New York City called Big John. She and others have been trained as stonecutters in conjunction with an apprentice program that the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine offered to the young unemployed residents of the community.
Begun in 1982, the apprentice program lasted some 25 years. One of those apprentices, Carol Hazel, a single mother to four, inspired Me and Mama and Big John. Hers is a quiet but powerful story of the pride and dignity felt by those who lovingly transformed gray stone to art – “Not for an art to look at. For an art to be.”
Reflecting back on her time working at the cathedral, Hazel says today, “Stonecutting is in my blood. The cathedral is a beautiful thing, and beautiful people helped build it.”
In a world in which many clamor for attention, this is a story of devotion. Mama’s stone wouldn’t garner any awards and would take its place beside many similar stones to form the cathedral tower. And yet her work was honorable and noble. A good reminder for all of us, children and adults.
For more about St. John and the artisan program, readers might enjoy this NY Times article from 1987, which also includes a short piece about Carol Hazel.
On January 31, 1848, against tremendous odds, young Homan Walsh flew his kite across the Niagara River, two and half miles north of Niagara Falls. The half-inch cord attached to Homan’s kite became the first line connecting the United States and Canada across the Niagara River, the first step to building the suspension bridge that joined two nations. It’s a fascinating story, beautifully and poetically told by author Alexis O’Neill. ReaderKidZ spoke with Alexis about The Kite That Bridged Two Nations, and the extensive research she undertook to tell Homan’s story.
ReaderKidZ: Your decision to write Homan Walsh’s story as historical fiction was based on some practical realities you encountered as you delved into the research. Can you talk about that decision?
AO’N: Homan Walsh and the kite-flying contest has been part of local lore in Niagara Falls since the 19th century, so his story is well-known. His feat is also listed on kite flying websites as he’s included among the most influential kite fliers in the world. But as I did the research, I realized that what was missing in the factual accounts was the emotion of this historic event. I wanted to shape the existing drama and help readers connect with the awesomeness of Niagara Falls, the joy of flying a kite and the thrill of beating the odds to win a contest that changed history. Historical fiction was the best vehicle for accomplishing this.
ReaderKidZ: What kinds of things do you feel kids ought to know about research, especially in this day of Wikipedia and the reality that not everything one finds on the Internet is true?
AO’N:There’s nothing wrong with getting an overview of an event through Wikipedia. I begin there myself! But it should be seen as a jumping-off point, never as the final authority on the subject. All researchers – kids as well as adults – need to question everything they read. They need to compare accounts and examine the discrepancies. They need to be aware that just because three sources tell the same “fact,” the authors of those sources might have all used the same book for that “fact” and are just passing along incorrect information. In my Kite book, I corrected three “facts” that were repeatedly reported incorrectly in other books and on websites: Homan’s age at the time of the contest, the amount of money he won as a prize, and who sheltered Homan when he was stranded in Canada for eight days. I spent forever verifying all of this!
ReaderKidZ: I love your Author’s Note at the back of the book and especially how you’ve included sections titled: “What We Know,” “What We Don’t Know,” and “The Rest of the Story.” How might this serve as a template for teachers in helping their students understand the genre of historical fiction?
AO’N:Thanks! I’m happy that you like the back matter! I included those sections because readers will often accept historical fiction as fact. I wanted to help readers separate fact from fiction in this story. The more they are aware of the difference, the more they will keep their antennae up when they read other works of historical fiction. I hope they might begin to ask, “How could this be verified? Is there proof that this person really said or did that? Is the source of that information reliable?”
Now here’s a bit of an embarrassment. My Kite book was recently reviewed in School Library Journal and placed in the Nonfiction section! But if a writer makes up even one teeny, tiny thing that can’t be verified (a piece of dialogue, a neighbor’s name, an emotional reaction), the piece becomes fiction. Nonfiction means that everything is verifiable. But librarians struggle with this, especially if the book has biographical information in it. They want to place the book where readers are most likely to search for it, so I understand why SLJ did this.
ReaderKidZ: You chose to tell this story in first person. How did you settle on that decision and what was your process in searching for Homan’s voice?
I tried many voices before settling on Homan’s point of view. I tried the story from the point of view of the kite. The falls. The ferry. And then I began thinking about Homan. He had a reputation of being the best kite flier in Niagara Falls. Kite fliers are an amazing breed of people – dedicated, curious, joyful, experimental, smart – and I wanted to express that. But the only recorded interview with Homan, done in 1898, was very flat. It was done a year before he died, so he was recalling an event that had happened 51 years prior. It was his only claim to fame, so his story had a rehearsed quality to it. I wanted to get to the emotion of kite flying, the emotion of seeming to lose all then finally succeeding, the emotion of what it feels like to be a solitary figure in a struggle with awesome wonders of nature, Niagara Falls and the Niagara River Gorge. That’s why I chose to do this story as historical fiction, so I could get to all of that and help a reader connect to what Homan might have felt during this historic contest.
ReaderKidZ: Anything else about the research process or writing historical fiction that you’d like to share with young readers?
AO’N:Document your sources as you find them – no matter how slight they are. Keep whatever you gather in an accessible location (I have dedicated folders on my computer and a project box that I keep in my office for materials and books I collect.) You never know what will be useful later as you shape your work.
One last thing. I recently discovered a pile of reports I had done in junior high and high school that my mom had saved. The subjects included the Alamo (POV of a male survivor), the Spanish Armada (POV of two Cockney sailors), scientist Sir William Thomson (POV his younger brother), and author Washington Irving (POV of a disapproving neighbor). I had written each as historical fiction, and my teachers loved them! So it looks like I’ve been doing this for a very long time.
Author Carol Brender’s debut novel Radio Girl, set in 1938, is the cat’s meow. In it, she has captured the lively spirit of Cece Maloney, a young woman destined to become a radio broadcast celebrity. Cece will have nothing of the boring, hum-drum life that her mother and older sister lead. Instead she’s determined to follow in her father’s footsteps and be a star! In her quest to hit the big time she discovers that, in show biz, things are not as they seem behind the microphone. Cece learns of her father’s thoughtless indiscretions, as well as other forms of deception practiced in the entertainment world, such as the historic War of the Worlds broadcast. Cece grows to understand the effects of lies, secrets, and deceit upon others, as well as developing a sense of integrity within herself.
Not only is this story compelling and entertaining, it is richly steeped in historical detail. Brendler did her world-building homework to the max, resulting in a novel that believably spins the reader back in time. Yowsah!
In a setting reminiscent of Dicken’s Oliver Twist, Deborah Hopkinson’sThe Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, The Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013) is a gripping tale about a community stricken with a horrid plague and the brilliant doctor who discovered the source of trouble. The story is told through the point of view of a boy named Eel, a mudlark who slogs through the rancid, muddy waters of the Thames River in search of trinkets to sell. An industrious lad, Eel holds several other jobs about town such as sweeping the tailor’s shop, helping out at the Lion’s Brewery, and cleaning the animal stalls for the great Dr. John Snow.
After cholera strikes the tailor’s home and the homes of others who live on Broad Street, putrid, foul-smelling, noxious death colors every aspect of Eel’s life. He witnesses the agony of those stricken by the disease, people he cares for and strives to save. Eel alerts Dr. Snow about the epidemic, who has his own theory regarding the cause of the “blue death.” “The miasma theory has been around for centuries,” Dr. Snow continues. “People, even educated men, have believed it for so long that most are afraid to think in a different way, or consider a new idea (107).” While it seemed logical that the cause of the plague was miasma, or toxic “bad air”, Dr. Snow had a different hypothesis, one that eventually saved lives.
The Great Trouble tells the tale of the development of Dr. John Snow’s water transmission theory of the cholera outbreak of 1845 in a most compelling and suspenseful way. A forward-thinking visionary, with great compassion for the suffering of others, Dr. John Snow was a pioneer in the development of anesthesia. In this story, the fictional Eel guides Dr. Snow through the streets of Soho, helping him piece together the facts he needed to prove how cholera was spread.
Part mystery, part survival, and part adventure novel, The Great Trouble is historical fiction at its best!
Great-grandfather asks his great-granddaughter to pick “what you like the most. Then I’ll tell you its story.”
What will she choose? An old jewelry box … a case of fine fountain pens … a mirror?
The young girl makes an unusual choice – an old cigar box full of empty matchboxes. Well, not exactly empty. Each matchbox holds a surprise. Her great-grandfathers explains that when he was a child he could not read or write but he wanted to keep a diary, a journal of memories of his travels from a home far away, across the ocean, to the strange land of America. Each matchbox contains one item that holds a special memory.
In The Matchbox Diary, Newbery Award winning author Paul Fleischman creates a story told entirely in dialogue that quickly captivates readers and listeners of all ages with poignant stories of cross-generational relationships and the deep connections that form among them.
“What’s in the little boxes?”
“My diary.”
“What’s a diary?”
“A way to remember what happens to you. Usually it’s a book people write in… but I couldn’t read or write. So I started this. Open the first one.”
“What is it?
“An olive pit. I put it in my palm, and I’m right back in Italy….”
With the opening of each matchbox, Great-grandfather and his great-granddaughter share a discovery of family and history. The journey is delightful.
Award-winning children’s book illustrator Bagram Ibatoulline provides key details in his illustrations. Ibatoulline, himself, has experienced the hard journey of immigration. Scenes of the present are painted with soft inviting colors; scenes from the past are created in the fading tones of sepia and framed so the reader, like the great-granddaughter, imagines old photographs carefully displayed in a family album.
Great-grandfather’s immigration story is shared with intimacy and warmth – a beautiful experience to share with a child.
If I were given the choice to choose one book, I would choose this one.
Halloween is the perfect time of year to shower young people with ghoushily fun books. Instead of cracking open a bag of candy, hit your local bookstore and discover all kinds of haunting treats to drop into young readers’ bags. In the theme of Halloween, we’re highlighting two books but there are scads of scary and sweet stories out there to choose from. Have a happy and safe Halloween!
Everyone loves Halloween, right? Dragon, not so much! And like Dragon, many young readers can relate to being scared of mummies and zombies and werewolves. But Dragon’s best pal is determined to change Dragon’s mind and find him the absolutely best costume to go trick-or-treating in. Or will Dragon even need to dress-up at all? Find out in this ripsnorting tale about two friends looking out for each other. In the follow-up to Me and My Dragon (Charlesbridge, 2012), Biedrzycki deserves two wings up! The text and art are a dazzling blend of storytelling for ages 4 and up. In true Biedrzycki fashion, he delivers even more story in the book’s end papers!
Check out the book trailer for Me and My Dragon: Scared of Halloween by clicking on the link below.
Influenced by historical fact, Celenza writes about one of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) most popular works Danse macabre, and she brings the composition to life for young readers, like skeletons at a ball, just in time for Halloween.
It’s 1872 and French composer Saint-Saëns visits the catacombs that lie far below the Paris streets. Surrounded by stone walls and more than six million bones, remains of heroes who fought in the french revolution, he finds the chilly inspiration he was searching for. He imagines skeltons dancing all around him. “CLACK, clicky, clicky, CLACK, clicky, clicky, CLACK.”He returns top-side and works for years on composing that image into the melody that we now know today as Dance Macabre.
As part of a music-appreciation series, Celenza’s and Kitchel’s seventh collaboration is ghoulishly entertaining and will have kids falling in love with classical music. Kitchel’s watercolor illustrations draw young people into the time period and the rhythm of the storytelling. “Long live the music! Long live the dance!” Author’s note and CD accompany the book. Music teachers will delight in having their students listen to the CD and pick out the cellos, violins, trombones, woodwinds, cymbals, xylophone, and solo oboe in the masterpiece. For ages 6 and up. For information on the other books in the music appreciation series visit the publisher’s website at www.charlesbridge.com.
Monica Edinger skillfully – and delightfully – tells an extraordinary story through the voice of a young girl who experiences an extraordinary journey. Illustrator Robert Byrd fills the pages with detailed images that expand the text to further engage and inform the reader.
Amistad is a slave ship, but it is not like any other slave ship. Margru is a nine-year old girl from Sierra Leon, Africa, who is not like any other girl sold into slavery. “For them, I was just something to buy and something to sell.”
Even during the darkest times Margru remembers her beloved home in West Africa,
“one of the greenest places on earth… Shiny green palm trees surrounded my village, so tall I was certain that they touched the sky. Every day my sisters and I walked along paths lined with green bamboo, past green rice fields, to bathe in a river full of green and pink water lilies. We ate tiny green bananas, juicy green pineapple, and the tart green mangoes my oldest brother brought us … And the creatures! There were green butterflies, green parrots, green ducks….”
So green, so warm and beautiful! That was Margru’s home, until she was nine when she was sold and put in chains and loaded onto the Amistad with other “slave cargo” in route to first Cuba and then the United States (1839)
Margru takes on each new challenge to survive with the unrelenting goal of somehow returning home. Her first challenge was the seven weeks of being “cargo.”
“Seven weeks in a dark and airless hold.
Seven weeks of heaving ocean.
Seven weeks of chains and shackles.
Seven weeks of sobs and cries.
Seven weeks of pain and suffering.”
Then, rebellion! Margru watched, expecting her own swift death, as the slaves united and fought hand to hand, sword against bloody sword, and defeated the crew. The ship was theirs! But how would they return home? They didn’t. They were tricked into landing at Long Island, New York.
Then a series of court battles began. The first trial was to determine if the slaves were guilty of mutiny and murder. Maybe they would all be hung. After years of legalities and arguments of many lawyers, including former-president John Quincy Adams, eventually all of the slaves were set free and given permission to return to their home in Africa…if they could get there.
More challenges faced Margru. First schooling to learn to read and write and then, eventually, a college education at Oberlin to become a teacher, and the reality of how to raise enough money to sail back across the Atlantic Ocean.
“Then, taking a deep breath, I turned my face east.
Toward Africa. Toward home.”
Such a story, and so well told by Monica Edinger, who began her career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone. In the spring of 2000 she attended the Amistad exhibit and began her own journey to research Margru’s story, one of the children who traveled as slave cargo on the Amistad and eventually returned home to Sierra Leone. Margru did in fact study at Oberlin College, earn her teaching degree, pen many letters about her life’s experiences, and return to Africa. In Sierra Leone, Margru created a school for children, a school beneath the green, green shade of mango and palm trees, “one of the greenest places on earth.”
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.
