Freedom

As a Penn State student I am deeply saddened by the events of this past week.  The whole campus is swallowed in an air of defeat and shame and the strong media presence has made it impossible to regain any sense of normalcy.  That being said, Penn State will rise above this and the students are doing all that they can to make things right.  We will keep calm and fight on.  We are still and always Penn State.

There are a lot of places to turn for comfort during times like these and one place I always go is to to books.  In books you can experience other worlds and just escape.  Or, as is the case in Elizabeth Yates Amos Fortune Free Man, you can be reminded that you are not the only one who has struggles and it is possible to rise above.

This book tells the story of Amos Fortune, born At-mun, who was born a tribal king in Africa only to be captured and made a slave in America.  Amos had the good fortune, if being bought can be called good fortune, to be bought by a kind Quaker family.  This family treated him kindly and taught him a trade and also how to read.  Once the father of that family died Amos worked and lived with a tanner and eventually earned his freedom.

"It does a man no good to be free until he learns how to live."  These wise words from Amos are the perfect way to describe his life.  Amos knew how to live, he spent his whole life helping others and his life brought freedom to 4 other people, a huge accomplishment for a man facing bitter racism even as a freeman.  This story is a beautiful example of hope perseverance and triumph.  In times like these we need to be reminded of people like Amos.  People who use their wealth and power to help others and not to deceive and destroy.

Keeping hope in spite of the trial...that's kids stuff. 

That's a True Story???

Mordicai Gerstein's  The Man Who Walked Between the Towers is the thrilling story of Philippe Petit who spent almost an hour walking on a wire between the World Trade Centers.  Somehow Gerstein's illustrations capture both the height and danger that comes with this task as well as the complete joy and freedom felt by Petit.  I was struck by the color.  It's not that the colors were unrealistic or strikingly vibrant, they were just rich and perfectly chosen.  Also two of the pages fold out into gorgeous three page spreads that perfectly mimic the height of the towers.

Eva was completely captivated by this story.  It had all of the glamour of New York City, the suspense of sneaking into buildings, and the thrill of walking on nothing but a thin wire.  Not to mention the fold out pages which are exciting for any age.  About halfway through Eva had a revelation.  "Wait," she said suspiciously, "is this a true story?"  I assured her that this was in fact a true story.  "well that's cheating," Eva declared. Why is this cheating you ask?  Well it's because when someone makes a story they should make up a story they can't just copy what someone else has already done. 

In the end Eva did admit that this was a good story even though it wasn't made up. I would have to agree.   

Finding the joy in true stories...that's kids stuff.

100!!

So Blogger tells me that this is my 100th post.  Wow, who woulda thunk it.  But the books just keep on comin and I thought I would celebrate this momentous occasion with a starteling confession: I was wrong.  I typically consider myself to be a pretty good judge of books, but even beyond that I feel like I am a pretty good judge of what books people will like. Well that was not true for David Wiesner's Flotsam.

This is another wordless book and it is a fascinating look at life in the beach by using pictures within pictures.  It tells the story of an underwater camera through the pictures developed from that camera.  And it's really neat.  Even though I really liked it, I didn't really think that the girls would.  Eva has said that, "it's not really a story unless it has words."

Well man was I wrong.  Both girls absolutely loved it! They were pointing out the details on each page saying, "look a seahorse," "Ooohh mermaids."  Eva said, "wait there's no words, ok." And she immediately put herself in the role of narrator creating a detailed story out of the illustrations (just another proof that illustrations aren't just pretty pictures they are dynamic communicative tools).  Eva and Leya noticed things about the pictures that I hadn't on my first "reading."  In fact everytime I tried to turn the page I was met with cries of "wait, wiat we're not done looking!"

Taking time to really look at the pictures...that's kids stuff

PS. In case you were wondering Flotsam means: something that floats. Here is how the jacket draws you into the book, "If it floats in the ocean, it may wash up on the beach, where someone may find it and be astonished, and share the discovery with someone else."