Educated by Kindness

McCully, Emily Arnold.
Wonder Horse: The True Story of the World’s Smartest Horse. Holt, 2010.

A horse is a horse, but sometimes it takes a special person to recognize its real worth. Bill “Doc” Key was born a slave, but became a veterinarian and a successful entrepreneur in post-Civil War Tennessee. Doc decided to see how much he could teach Jim, his seemingly bright little foal. With kindness and patience, he taught the horse to count, to distinguish colors and letters of the alphabet, and to add and subtract.

Doc took his prodigy on the road, and for a while, the two met with applause and amazement at fairs, theaters, and arenas. Then a newspaper reporter asked, “How could a little old black man with no education teach a dumb animal to do those things?” Doc didn’t give up, though; he invited some professors at Harvard to examine Jim Key to determine if the horse was, in fact, educated. After they confirmed  it, the newspapers set the record straight: “JIM KEY EDUCATED BY KINDNESS.”

McCully, whose sprightly watercolors add charm to this fact-based story, continues to live up to the high standard she has set in her career of writing and illustrating beloved picture books. Those yearning for more details on this amazing man and his horse can find them in the author’s note and bibliography.

Recommended Read-alouds That Call for Kindness to Animals
Note: Please leave a comment with your favorites!

Elliot, David. In the Wild. Illus. by Holly Meade. Candlewick, 2010. Fresh language and stunning woodblock and watercolor illustrations distinguish this engaging collection of poems about wild animals, ranging from the lion to the polar bear.

Image via Wikipedia

Kimmel, Eric. Brother Wolf Sister Sparrow: Stories About Saints and Animals. Holiday House, 2003. See the masterfully retold Italian legend “St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio,” in which St. Francis approaches a wolf that’s been terrorizing the town.

Levitin, Sonia. All the Cats in the World. Harcourt, 1984. Powerful story of friendship and kindness. No one can care for all the cats in the world, but everyone can perform acts of kindness, as an elderly woman shows a lonely, bitter old lighthouse keeper.

Meddaugh, Susan. Martha Walks the Dog. Houghton, 1998. Clever Martha uses praise to tame a hostile dog.

Pericoli, Matteo. The True Story of Stellina. Knopf, 2006.   Pericoli and his wife, Holly, rescued and raised a finch, Stellina, that had fallen from her nest onto a busy street in New York City. They nurtured the bird in their Manhattan apartment, where she leaned to eat, fly, and sing.

Spencer, Ann. And Round Me Rings: Bell Tales and Folklore. Tundra, 2003. See “Bell of Justice Rings,” a retelling of an Italian folktale, in which a horse calls attention to its mistreatment.

Back to the Land of Picture Books

… Or Reality Flies the Coop in the NYT

If you’re still outraged by the supposedly dim outlook for picture books depicted in the much-criticized NYT article in October, take a deep breath. Thanks to Karen Springen’s recent Publishers Weekly’s article, we can put that distorted view to bed. Check the facts: Picture books represented 10.8 percent of the children’s book market, slightly up from 2005. Moreover, the NYT article ignored  library use. It’s up around the country, says Julie Corsaro, president of the American Library Association’s Association for Library Service to Children division. “And in many public libraries, picture books have the highest circulation.”

What do picture books do so well? Consider these features:

• 1.    Children read them over and over and over.
• 2.    Picture books encourage young ones to envision and to predict what might happen next (habits that help them become fluent readers).
• 3.    Picture books teach visual literacy – a skill needed today perhaps more than ever.
• 4.    Picture books can be used as models of narrative technique, point of view, skillful word choice, foreshadowing, symbolism, imagery, and plot development.
• 5.    Picture books can tap higher-level thinking skills. Examples:  the crackling humor in Kevin O’Malley’s folktale-based Animal Crackers Fly the Coop or the theme of finding one’s place in the world in  How I Learned Geography.

In my years as a PK-5^th grade librarian, I often found the vocabulary in picture books was more sophisticated, more memorable and more powerful than what typically occurs in chapter books for younger children. Additionally, the range of themes explored in picture books is astounding, as my reviews (Christmas in the Trenches, John’s Secret Dreams, etc.) on this blog indicate. Many are intended for and best appreciated by older readers.

I hope some special picture books tumble down the chimney for children across the universe. Those treats might inspire a whole new way of looking at the world. They could earn a treasured spot in someone’s personal library …  or nestle forever in a child’s memories.

A Time for Peace

McCutcheon, John Christmas in the Trenches. Illus. by Henri Sorensen. Peachtree, 2006.

If you’ve ever heard the song “Christmas in the Trenches” by folksinger John McCutcheon, you will remember it. It’s become part of my Christmas tradition after hearing it on a local college radio station in ’84. McCutcheon has adapted his touching song about the Christmas Truce of 1914 for this picture book and CD for older children. The story’s narrator is an elderly man named Francis, who tells his grandchildren of the unique Christmas he experienced as a young soldier in WWI.  The soldiers in the trenches were bored and homesick on Christmas Eve. Suddenly, they heard German voices singing Christmas carols. The English soldiers decided to join in on “Silent Night,” an act that inspired a German soldier to cross No Man’s Land with a white flag and a Christmas tree. The two sides called a temporary, informal truce. Sorensen’s atmospheric oil paintings highlight the unexpected night of peace with a double-page spread showing the soldiers and the battlefield. Included are an author’s note, music notation, and a CD with the title song and “Silent Night/Stille Nacht,” along with a reading of the story. This sensitive picture book won a 2007 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. For older children who want to learn more about the event, show them Jim Murphy’s Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting (Scholastic, 2009). Murphy gives an accessible overview of WWI and focuses on how peace was briefly restored when troops defied orders and met their enemies in the barren land between the trenches. Archival photographs, maps, and artwork help children understand the events.

More Beauties of the Season … and Share Your Favorites by Leaving a Comment!

Climo, Shirley. Cobweb Christmas: The Tradition of Tinsel. Illus. by Jane Manning. HarperCollins, 2001. Ages 6-9. Charming story of a kind old lady who gets to experience a little Christmas magic, thanks to some spiders. Manning’s bright illustrations provide interesting perspectives and a warm spirit.

Cunningham, Julia. The Stable Rat and Other Christmas Poems. Illus. by Anita Lobel. Greenwillow, 2001. Cunningham’s original poems explore the Nativity from the perspective of the animals that gathered there. Lobel’s lovely paintings capture the mystery of the season.

Daly, Niki. What’s Cooking, Jamala? Farrar, 2001. You can’t eat friends! That’s why Jamala decides to save her chicken from going into the pot for the Christmas meal. This delightful Yuletide tale features the same lively South African township characters that populate Daly’s previous Jamala stories.

dePaola, Tomie. The Legend of Old Befana. Voyager, 1989. Why do Italian families exchange gifts on January 6, Epiphany? You’ll know after reading this spirited story of a grandmotherly woman who must “sweep, sweep, sweep” and misses out on seeing the Christ child.

DiCamillo, Kate. Great Joy. Illus. by Bagram Ibatoulline.  Candlewick, 2007. “Where do they go at night?” Frances wonders. Every day she sees an organ grinder and his monkey perform across the street from her home. In the midst of her preparations for her role in her church’s Christmas pageant, Frances decides to stay up late one night so she can see where the man and his monkey go. That’s when she discovers they live on the street. Wanting to help, she invites him to come see the pageant. Anxious during the presentation, she has trouble getting out her lines … until she sees him enter the church. Then she cries out “I bring you tidings of Great Joy!” DiCamillo’s sensitive story, set in WWII, balances optimism and realism and is enlarged by Ibatoulline’s magnificent acrylic gouache paintings.

Medearis, Angela Shelf. Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story. Albert Whitman, 2004. Engaging, original tale of seven bickering brothers in Ghana. When their father dies, his will says they must spin seven spools of thread into gold in one day — with no arguing. When the brothers start to work together, they combine their different-colored spools of thread to create beautiful multicolored cloth, the first their village has seen. They sell the Kente cloth to the king for gold. Along the way, the story weaves in the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Minter’s linoleum block-print illustrations evoke the vitality of African village life.

Potter, Beatrix. The Tailor of Gloucester. Warne. “No more twist!” Meet the mice who save the day for a kind old tailor living in the “time of swords and periwigs.”

Rawlinson, Julia. Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas. Illus. by Tiphanie Beeke. Greenwillow, 2010. Here’s another lighthearted picture book by this talented duo, featuring the sweet fox Fletcher and his forest friends.

Rylant, Cynthia. Silver Packages: An Appalachian Christmas Story. Illus. by Chris K. Soenpiet. Scholastic, 2001. A special train rumbles through Appalachian coal-mine country, bringing gifts to the children. Will Frankie get the doctor’s kit he’s longing for?

Watson, Wendy. Holly’s Christmas Eve. HarperCollins, 2002. Children love this thrilling adventure featuring the lives of Christmas ornaments. The brave toys must find a way to rescue Holly’s arm after it is gobbled up by the monstrous vacuum cleaner.

Novels to Read Aloud

Don’t miss the wonderful Father Christmas scene in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or, for something hilarious, join the horrid Herdmans in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. For girls ages 8 and older, consider the classic Little Women, in which the March family celebrates a special Christmas.

The Gift of a Goat

McBrier, Page. Beatrice’s Goat. Illus. by Lori Lohstoeter. Aladdin, 2004. Ages 7-10.

One way to counteract the “gimme” culture is to share a story about generosity and gratitude. Set in Uganda, Beatrice’s Goat shows how Beatrice and her family must struggle to survive. The family cannot afford to send Beatrice to school. Instead, she must help her mother watch the younger children, tend the chickens, and grind the cassava flour.
Then news comes that a charitable organization has given them a goat. Beatrice will be responsible for taking care of Mugisa, an apt name meaning “lucky gift.” Before long, Beatrice is able to sell the goat’s milk and even to drink it herself. And then, to her surprise, her mother is finally able to afford to send Beatrice to school in her brand new uniform. After Mugisa gives birth to two kids, there’s even enough money to put a new metal roof on their house. Loestoeter’s  acrylic illustrations are warm and engaging, as is this special story based on the account of an actual family helped by the Heifer Project.

Other Books That Touch on Philanthropy

DiSalvo-Ryan, Dyanne. A Castle on Viola Street. HarperCollins, 2001. Ages 7-10.

Fleming, Candace. Boxes for Katje. Farrar, 2003. Ages 8-10.

Milway, Katie Smith. One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference. Kids Can, 2008. Ages 9+

Mortenson, Greg. Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea. Dial, 2009. Ages 8-12.

Nivola, Claire. Planting the Trees of Kenya. Farrar, 2008. Ages 7-10.

Rubel, David. If I Had a Hammer: Building Homes and Hope with Habitat for Humanity. Candlewick, 2009. Ages 10+

Shoveller, Herb. Ryan and Jimmy and the Well in Africa That Brought Them Together. Kids Can, 2006. Ages 8-10.

Weatherford, Carole Boston. Dear Mr. Rosenwald. Scholastic, 2006. Ages 7-10.