The Un-Wedding by Babette Cole

Not knowing it, this is now my third book by Cole. This one however I liked unlike the other two. Cole once again uses her unique sense of humor to deal with children whose parents fight all the time and eventually get divorced or "un-wedded." It is a refreshing way to deal with the topic. Earllier I read another book on divorce which was rather sad. The colors were gloomy unlike this book. It is very colorful and the detailed images create something to laugh at even when talking about fighting. She makes the parents look like fighting 5 year old.

What I liked most about this book is how Cole made it known that it is NOT the children's fault and that everything can turn out ok. Rather than be upset with their parents not getting along they have an un-wedding. They all dress in black and get divorced. They have a party to celebrate a new chapter in their life and they show their parents going seperate ways. Cole mentions how life is better because everyone is happy and the best part is that living in two houses means two of everything! It even becomes special to the kids because they have their own secret passage way to each house.

I don't want to leave otu the fact that the book did deal with the topic and didn't sugar coat it. It did show that it created stress on everyone in the family. I just think it has a more positive outlook on how things will turn out after. It showed that some people are just not made to be together but that doesn't mean they are not still their parents.

This book truly has a more positive outlook on divorce than anything else I have seen. It shows the kids getting support at school from their other friends. It shows that they are not alone. It also shows how their parnets how different life style and the kids fit into both of those lives.

Arlene Sardine by Chris Raschka

Arlene Sardine is about a little fish who wants to be a sardine. It describes the fishes journey from birth to death then to the factory and her voyage through a factory into a can. I am having trouble finding the right words to day about this book. I can see why people have a problem with this book because it doesn't spare you any details about how a fish is caught and packed into a can but it doesn't do it in a graphic way. There is at least some level of sensativity used. I did like the pictures because they look like water colors. There is a lack of defined lines so I think that makes the pictures less graphic if you will. The pictures swirl with shades of orange, red, yellow and green.

If you look at the cover, you will see that it is a play on a sardine can. It says easy open and net wt. 12 oz. Then you open the book from the saide rather than the top or bottom just like you are pealing off the cover of a sardine can.

I think how animals become food is a hard topic to deal with. I personally don't remember how I learned about it but all children are going to learn about it someday. Children are smart and can't be protected forever. Now I am not saying this should be read to your 6 year old, but it might also be a tool to use to help children understand.

The other topic this book talks about is death. The beginning starts off with the author saying "I once knew a little fish once who wanted to be a sardine." The book talks about how the fish gently lays on a conver belt so there are images of death but in a sensitive way I think.

What the author does to make death and an animal as food is make it as part of the fish's desire. That is what it wants to be. Therefore when death is coming near, the fish is happy, not scared. All of her and her fishy friends are on the same path.

I know that I would not choose to share this book with my children but if they came across it on their own that would be a different story. I just am not a fan of the plot because it doens't interest me and is hard to think of a fish getting smoked in a factory. I think some people may see this as unsensitive but it is reality and it is a way for children to learn about death and death or an animal.

Uncle What-is-it is Coming to Visit
This book is about Tiffany andIgor who learn that their uncle is coming to visit them from Boston. They haven't seen them since they were babies and their mom informs that he is gay. She doesn't have time to explain what that is so they ask around the neighborhood. People tell them crazy sterotypes which they believe since they don't know any different. They don't want uncle Brett to come because they are scared of him. Finally they meet uncle Brett and find out that he is just like them. In fact he is better at a lot fo things like playing catch then their own dad!
I think that one thing that was great about this book is that is addressed some of the sterotypes that we encounter about gay people. For example they had that they like to dress as women or dress in leather and chains and that simply isn't the truth for everyone. I also like how they come to respect Uncle Bob because he is just like them. I think this sends a positive message to kids.
I can see why this book would be a contraversial topic to deal with. In fact in the book it mentions that the children are Baptist so I see how religion plays into the book but the issue of being gay really doesn't affect me. I think whatever your life style is you should choose to live it and have the option to do so. Just as people who are differnt colors and religions do. From what I understand (not having read the Bible at all) is that it states a man and woman are to be married. Since I know that us how people are taught, that is how they are going to think.

Hair in Funny Places by Babette Cole

This book deals with the topic of puberty. Now any book about this topic has to handle the issue in a very particular manner. Since this is the second book I read by Babette Cole, I realize that she uses an off beat humor to try and make the topic easier to the reader. She is frank, but doesn't take the topic too seriously. Cole does this by using simple sentences that are right to the point with images (sometimes graphic) to show the body changing.

That being said there are many images of naked boys and girl to refer to as they are growing up. I didn't find this as disturbing as the other Cole book because it wasn't giving children ideas about how to act. She is simply stating the facts.

The lines that I didn't like where about how when a males and females reaches a certian age and things happen to them when she says "it meant one day she could grow up to be your mommy." I didn't like this because of the suggestion about being a parents. Also, the changes don't happen to everyone so in a way I think it might be false hope. Families and how people create families today is so diverse that I think it makes it seem limiting.

Personally I thought that the images of "mr. and mrs. hormone" were rather gross and frightening. I don't think that kids should be scared of the changes that are going to happen to them or of what is going on in their body. It isn't a disease, just normal changes.

Mommy Laid an Egg by Babette Cole

This book is about how babies are made. At first when I started the book I didn't think it was very controversial. It starts out with the parents deciding to tell their kids how babies are made. They poke fun at some crazy ways babies are made like delivered by dinasours. Then all fo a sudden you turn the page and there are pretty graphic line drawings of the human body. The shall I say dirtiest page is a page that actually has images of how "mommy and daddy fit together" as in positions they may use during intercourse. A children's book SHOULD NOT give children suggests on how to have intercourse. That I believe is very very inappropiate for a children's book. I can understand a book that does deal with child birth because I think having a reference book to use is a way parents deal with the topic but to have pictures of positions to use is not ok. I would never read this book to a child.

Another thing I didn't like about the drawings of the ways mom and dad fit together is that they are juxtaposed children's toys. One has the parents floating with balloons. One has them on a space hopper ball and one has them on a skate board. I feel that this sends the message that you can do it anywhere. It also makes it less of a grown up act by having the toys on the pages.

The choice of pictures is interesting. The pictures of the characters is very detailed. The pictures that deal with the process of how a baby is made is supposed to be line drawings as if the parents are drawing them. They have a circle for the females parts and a squiggly line for the male parents that are as large as the whole page. You just can't miss them. But what makes it even worse is the fact that there is an arrow from the male to the female that says "this fits in here."

I am still in shock about the graphic detail of the book and the message that it sends to children. It gives children actual tips about how to have intercourse and plays down the fact that is a grown up thing to deal with by using images of toys with the parents.

The Giver byLois Lowry

I loved this book! The giver is about a boy named Jonas whose whole life is perfectly under control until he reaches the age where he is considered an adult. He is given a special job in his community where he is taught to experience things that he never knew such as color and emotions. With his new knowledge he begins to question his life as he knows it.

When I started reading this book I wasn't looking forward to it because I knew I had read it before in school and my general attitude towards books that are required isn't very good (even though I do like to read). But once I started I didn't put it down and I read it as fast as I could because I enjoyed it so much. First of all, I haven't read a book that isn't for school or a text book not for class in a long time so it was nice to be taken to a different place. The whole concept of Jonas's community is intriging and reminds me of things in my life that maybe I take for granted like choice. I can't imagine a world where you can't choose things everyday like I can and yet there are many places in the world that are just like that. There are also cultures that have every part of their life set up for them. It provided me with a new insight as to what exactly that might be like.

Also, I could NOT live without color after having known it. I am not talking about if I went blind, I am talking about if everything went black and white. Part of being an indivdual to me is as simple as waking up in the morning and putting on clothes that you want. You have your choice of patterns, fabrics, and style but none seem as important as color.

I am a person that has had to deal with a lot of emotions (as we all have) many of which are too personal for this classes blog. But the lack of feeling emotions was so interesting to me. I wouldn't trade what we feel for the world even though I wish we could do without some like sadness.

I also liked the idea of how Jonas felt our history and new experiences instead of just reading about it. I personally as a learner learn and interperate things better when I am doing them rather than just reading about them so I think it would be awesome if we got to do what Jonas did like when he experieced snow and the sleigh. I would like to do that but skydiving!

The concept of family was also one that got me thinking. Today, so many people are getting divorced and creating new families over again that as a society I think that we have redefined the word family. This is what was done in the book as well. It challenges what we know about family. In the book, there is the mom and dad and both are assigned 2 kids and 2 kids only. The mom and dad don't have a physically relationship because seeing eachothers "nakedness" is forbidden, so there wouldn't be any cheating on your spouse or broken homes. But the absence of grandparents was also weird. I knwo amny people grow up with only a few grandparents or none at all, but I was lucky enough to have nearly 20 years with 4 grandparents and even about 10 years with a great-grandma. I couldn't imagine not learning and benefiting from them. They are role model figures.

This book challenges so many ideas of society today. Often we wish things like we could feel no pain, but without pain I don't think that you would truly enjoy feeling good. I feel like I could go on and on analyzing this book and writing about it. using this book in school would be amazing because so much can come from it. You could structure almost any subject to fit the book.

Animals Should Definitely not act like People by Judty Barrett and Illustrated by Ron Barrett

This book is a sequal to Animals shoudl definitely not wear clothing. It is a book about why animals wouldn't like to do the things like people do. On each page, the letter that the animal starts with, a verb or adjective to describe why that animal wouldn't like doing people things is used. For example "a worm would be worn out." It makes for the writing to flow really well. The first time I read through it in fact I almost didn't pay any attention to the pictures. But then I realized that the humor in the book was because of the picks. In the line I mentioned above there is a picture of a worm lifting a weight as if it was at the gym. I thought this was realyl clever because the writing worked so well I almost didn't even focus on the pictures. But then when I read it again, I was smiling looking at all the pictures because it's a book with a lot of humor.

Something that stood out to me was that the format of the book. First, the title page was also the first page of the book and then the page after the title page started with because. Secondly, the writing is in huge black, bold letters that take up an entire page. Finally, the words and pictures fliop-flop sides. So on the book the page on the left might have the words on both sides and then the page on the left would have the picture on both sides. I don't know why they did it that way but it was something I noticed because it kept my eyes almost going in a circle.

I really enjoyed how this book uses strong adjectives to describe what would happen because that would fit in really well with a writing assignment. If you wanted to do a mini-lesson how showing and not telling with your words this would be a good book to use as an example. Also, I think it would be a good resource to give children ideas about what they could write about if they are stuck. Just flip through the pages and your imagination can run wild.