Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story

Hahn, M. D. (1986 ). Wait till Helen comes: A ghost story. New York: Clarion Books.

 

If there are not enough problems with blending two families together, try mixing a ghost in too. This is the issue that the family has in this story. Wait till Helen comes is a modern fantasy story that falls under the supernatural events and mystery fantasy category. It contains magical realism which is defined as a blend of fantasy and realism by our text book. The family and characters are realistic, but the ghost is the fantasy. I choose this story, because it gave me the opportunity to read something I normally would not read (a ghost story). And surprisingly I enjoyed every minute of it. The story is told in first person narration by Molly, a young girl whose mother just recently gotten married and in an instant their family has grown from 3 to 5. Molly and her brother Michael felt like their family was just fine with them and their mother, but now they Dave their step father and his daughter Heather. Heather hates her new family, and longs for her own mother who passed away in a house fire. The family tries to make adjustments to the family dynamics, but the kids soon learn that they will be leaving their schools and friends in the city of Baltimore and moving to church way out in the country.  Upon their arrival to their new home the family discovers they have a graveyard on their property. Immediately Molly becomes afraid of the graveyard and thinks it maybe haunted by ghost, but nobody else believes her. In fact, Heather is excited and intrigued by the graveyard and she spends lots of time there. She eventually finds a grave of a  child who has her same initials and is the same age as her. She finds companionship in this young girl because she is sad and lonely.  Instantly Heather begins to talk about her new friend Helen, who is a ghost. In the mean time Heather tries everything to make everyone else's life miserable. She tells lies on Michael and Molly, and hates Jean her step mother. She constantly causes conflict between everyone in the family, and her father always takes her side because of her circumstances.Despite the fact that Molly dislikes Heather and her ways, when she figures out that she maybe in danger because of the ghost Helen she decides to put her own fears aside and protect her at any cost. This story had a chronological progressive plot:  it gave the background of the story and family, introduced us to the conflict, developed the conflict, had climax, then gave the resolution. Although I could not read this story to my students sense they are so young, I do believe the upper grades in elementary school would enjoy this story. If I were to teach older students I would have them make connections to the story: How many of you have a blended family? What is is like to have a step parent and step brothers and sisters? Have you ever experienced any of the conflicts that Molly and her family did? How do you and your family resolve your conflicts? Did Molly and her family teach us anything about resolving problems and being a family?

   

When Sophie Gets Angry

        Bang, M. (1999). When Sophie gets angry -- really, really angry... New York: Scholastic. This story is a Caldecott honor book, and I choose it because I have two students with anger issues. I think this book can not only help them, but can also help my entire class. The story is about a little girl name Sophie who gets upset when she has to share a toy with her sister. This begins a conflict (person-against-person) because even though Sophie's mom tells her its her sister's turn, her sister still snatches the toy away from her. After this occurs the real conflict occurs (person-against-self) because Sophie gets angry and does not know how to control her anger. After boiling over Sophie begins some cool down techniques to help her control her anger. The color and changes of color in this story set the mood. When Sophie is really angry and steaming the colors are bright red, oranges, and purples, and the illustrationss contain words with jagged edges around them to depict her anger. As Sophie becomes sad the colors change to browns and reds, and as she calms down the colors change to greens and blues giving a sense of being calm. I would use this book to teach calming techniques and to talk about feelings. We all experience different feeling at different times, and we must know what to do with our feelings. I would ask my students "What do you  do when you get angry?" "Tell me about a time you were angry" "How did you feel when you were angry" "How did you calm down?" Is there anything you could have done better?" Then I would introduce the story. I believe seeing a story about a little girl who learns to control her anger could help them learn better tecniques and know that everyone gets angry sometimes.

My friend Rabbit

Rohmann, E. (2002). My friend Rabbit. New York : Scholastic Inc. My Friend Rabbit is the 2003 Caldecott award winning book. It is a story of a friendship between a mouse and a rabbit. Rabbit always has bright ideas, but his ideas always cause him to get into trouble. Mouse allows Rabbit to play with his toy airplane and this makes for an adventure, especially with all the other animals. This story contains mostly illustrations and only six pages contained words. At first I thought this story was a wordless book, however the definition states thar a wordless books contain no words or is limited to one or two pages. In some of the illustrations there is lots of blank space and just a picture of Rabbit or Mouse, putting emphasis on the character. The lines in the story give the mood of chaos and movement. Some of the lines show the movement of the airplane, but because they whirl around and go all over the place it shows the chaos of Rabbit as well. There are also dark black lines around the characters, and around the edges of the pages that almost creates a frame around the pages. This story seems to be an animal fantasy, because animals can not really fly airplanes, and play like the animals in this story. This story could be used to compare and contrast real animals vs. make believe animals. It could also be used to spring board a science lesson about diffrent animals. The story also teaches us a lesson that no matter if your friend has a few bad ideas that you can still be friends and help each other; so this story could also be used for teaching friendship.

 

Keats, E. J. (1968). A letter to Amy. New York: Puffin Books. This story by Ezra Jack Keats has the same protagonist as a Whistle for Willie, Peter and we also get a glimpse of his dog Willie again. Peter is preparing for his birthday party, and he decides he wants to invite his friend Amy. Instead of asking or telling her by mouth he decides to hand write her an invitation and send it to her in the mail. After writing the invitation Peter goes on adventure in the rain to put the invitation in the mail. While on his adventure he runs into Amy and he hurts her feelings. After sending the invite Peter is worried that Amy will not even show up to his party; and he is also worried about what all his other friends will think about a girl being invited if she does show up. This story is realistic fiction, because the story could actually happen in real life. Peter's personalty is shown through the dialogue with his mother and the other characters in the story. As the story opens Peter shows that he is a good friend from expressing he wanted to send Amy a written invitation, because it would be special. The colors of the illustrations sets the mood of the story. When Peter is walking in the rain the colors are dark blacks and greys, which gives the gloomy feeling that you get when it rains and storms. In some of the illustrations the artistic media of collages were used, because it looked like pieces of newspapers and other papers were used to create the illustration. I really enjoyed this story and the author's writing style was the same in the other story. I would use this book to introduce writing a friendly letter or an invitation. With the rise of technology letters and invitations in the mail are decreasing, however I think it is important that students know how to create them. I also think they would be excited to receive a letter in the mail.  This story could also be used to teach and talk about weather in Science, because the story had rain, thunder, and lightning in it. 

Whistle for Willie

Keats, E. J. (1964). Whistle for Willie. New York: The Viking Press.

Do you know how to whistle? Do you think Peter the main character in the story will learn how to whistle? These questions would be ones I would ask to introduce this story by Ezra Jack Keats. I choose this story because I remember reading another story by the same author when I was in elementary school. I also choose this book, because it has an African American main character. I have a very diverse classroom that is mostly African American and I think it is important for them to identify with the characters in stories; as well as seeing books with African American characters. A Whistle for Willie is a story about a little boy named Peter who desperately wants to learn to whistle for his dog Willie. He obtains this desire even more after seeing another little boy whistling for his dog, and the boy's dog runs straight to him.  Peter tries, and tries but he just can't whistle, so he distracts his self by doing other things. Peter then gets an idea to dress up like his dad, because adults can whistle. Peter continues to try and practice, and he never gives up. The bright colors in the story helps the pages come alive. I believe that after reading this story to my class, we could talk about some things they would like to learn to do, and we could set goals. I would also create a class book with one page for each students, that they create about what they want to do.

A Sick Day for Amos McGhee

       

         Stead, P. C. (2010). A Sick Day for Amos McGee. New York: Roaring Book Press. This picture book was the 2011 Caldecott Award winning book. It is about Amos McGee an old man who works as a zookeeper. Although he has a job to do at the zoo he always makes time for his friends the elephant, the tortoise, the penguin, the rhino, and the owl. Amos does something different and special with each one of his friends. He takes the time to get to know them and spends time doing the things they like to do. One day Amos awakes and is sick, and is forced to take a sick day. His friends wait for him to come to work, but when they realize he is not coming they do something special for Amos McGee. This is an excellent story about true friendship., and I think it would be great for young children. I would use this story to even teach what it means to be a good friend. Often as a Kindergarten teacher I teach character education, because my students do not know how to share, or what it means to be a good friend. After reading this story I would ask my students, "What are some things you could do for a friend if they were sick?" We would also talk about the characteristics that the characters in the book had that made them a great friend, and then we would write about what it means to be a good friend.

Introduction

My name is Malia Gibson  and I am a Kindergarten teacher at Rangeland Elementary School in Jefferson County, KY. This is my fifth year of teaching, and my second year of doing Kindergarten which I LOVE! I am a wife and a mother of four, three boys and one girl. My two oldest sons keep me very busy at the baseball field, and my daughter just started dance classes. I just returned back to work about four weeks ago from maternity leave, from having my baby boy. Although I hated to leave him, I am glad to be back to work to prepare my students for first grade. My children and I enjoy reading lots of Dr.Seuss books. Being in graduate school and with teaching, I often do not get to read for pleasure. I usually read books to help me become a better teacher, or I read text books for school. When I do get the opportunity to read for pleasure I like to read lots of different books, they usually range from smut to inspirational books. I hope to graduate from UC in August with a Masters in Reading and Writing Specialist. My short term professional goal is to become a reading recovery teacher, and my long term goal is to become a guidance counselor.