What to Do About Alice? How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!

http://www.barbarakerley.com/site/What_To_Do_About_Alice.html

Bibliography:

Kerley, B. (2008). WHAT TO DO ABOUT ALICE?  HOW ALICE ROOSEVELT BROKE THE RULES, CHARMED THE WORLD, AND DROVE HER FATHER TEDDY CRAZY!  Ill.  By Edwin Fotheringham.  New York, NY: Scholastic Press. ISBN 9780439922319

Summary:

Not to be overshadowed by her famous father, President Theodore Roosevelt, Alice Roosevelt lived an outrageous and eventful life.  Along the way her father worried about her madcap stunts, but eventually he became her “ardent champion.”  In a time when she was suppose to be a proper lady, Alice proved she could do anything a man could do, traveled to foreign places, drove a fast car, and in many ways boasted a large personality much like her father’s.

Critical Analysis:

Barbara Kerley has presented readers with an exceptional biography of Alice Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt’s oldest child.  One automatically gets a sense of her larger than life personality, which is much like her father, by Kerley’s use of large font saying, “RUNNING RIOT” and “eating up the world” in the beginning of Alice’s story.  Even though the biography is much like a story, following the growing up of Alice, readers feel they are getting factual information by the use of quotes throughout the text.  At the very back of the book, Kerley utilizes the space for Author’s Notes which contain additional information to gain more knowledge of Alice and her relationships with her father and Washington D.C.  This is where a reader will also find support for Kerley’s portrayal of Alice being a carefree spirit by reading the quote from Alice, when pondering her life, in which she says, “I just perform.  I give a good show--just one of the Roosevelt show-offs.”

In addition, to the entertaining narrative by Kerley, Edwin Fotheringham adds to Alice’s spectacular story with his brilliant digital media illustrations.  His artistic approach adds to the vibrancy of this biography, and makes it just as entertaining to look at the illustrations as it is to know the story.  Page after page offers full pictures and pictures within pictures of the happenings of Alice’s life.  It feels as though the reader is viewing her spontaneity by looking in on her through a window, or at times actually being in the room with her.  For example, it feels as though you are sitting on the other side of the table in her father’s library and are watching her zip around teaching herself astronomy, geology, and reading the classics.

Overall, both Kerley and Fotheringham offer readers of multiple ages a superbly entertaining biography of a woman who played by her own rules.  Young people can find Alice Roosevelt as a role model.  She was a lady who knew what she wanted, took life by the horns, and crossed gender barriers while doing so.  

Awards:

Sibert Honor Book

ALA Notable Book

Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book

Irma Black Award Honor Book

Parents Choice Award

Best Books of the Year -- Publishers Weekly

Best Books of the Year -- School Library Journal

Best Books of the Year -- Kirkus Reviews

Washington State Scandiuzzi Children’s Book Award

California Collections

Capitol Choices

New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing

Nominated for Young Reader Awards in Texas, Illinois, Utah, and Tennessee

Review Excerpts:

"Irrepressible Alice Roosevelt gets a treatment every bit as attractive and exuberant as she was....  Kerley's text has the same rambunctious spirit as its subject, grabbing readers from the first line....  The large format gives Fotheringham, in his debut, plenty of room for spectacular art." -Booklist

                                  

"Kerley's text gallops along with a vitality to match her subject's antics, as the girl greets White House visitors accompanied by her pet snake, refuses to let leg braces cramp  her style, dives fully clothed into a ship's swimming pool, and also earns her place in history as one of her father's trusted advisers.... Fascinating.” -School Library Review

"It's hard to imagine a picture book biography that could better suit its subject than this high-energy volume serves young Alice Roosevelt."  -Publishers Weekly

"What to do about Alice?  Enjoy!" -Horn Book

"Superb.” -Kirkus Reviews

Connections:

-Research President Theodore Roosevelt, and compare his boisterous actions to his daughter’s life.
-Write a narrative story based on an event from Alice Roosevelt's life

-Read other works by Barbara Kerley:

WITH A FRIEND BY YOUR SIDE

A HOME FOR MR. EMERSON

THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR YOU

THOSE REBELS, JOHN AND TOM

THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN (ACCORDING TO SUSY)

ONE WORLD, ONE DAY

GREETINGS FROM PLANET EARTH

A LITTLE PEACE

YOU AND ME TOGETHER: MOMS, DAD, AND KIDS AROUND THE WORLD

WALT WHITMAN: WORDS FOR AMERICA

A COOL DRINK OF WATER

THE DINOSAURS OF WATERHOUSE HAWKINS

SONGS OF PAPA’S ISLAND

Time for a Bath

http://www.stevejenkinsbooks.com/books/bath.html

Bibliography:

Jenkins, S. & Page, R. (2011). TIME FOR A BATH. New York: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. ISBN 9780547250373

Summary:

Whether it’s wallowing in the mud like a rhinoceros or allowing a pair of shrimp to groom you like a tomato grouper, creatures of all types have interesting and amazing ways that they take a bath.  

Critical Analysis:

Have you ever wanted to know how a pangolin or an emu takes a bath?  Steve Jenkins and Robin Page present an inviting concept book that explores the bathing habits of multiple creatures in Time for a Bath.  As a team, these two author, illustrators do a phenomenal job in offering readers of all ages a short, interesting, and factual  twist on the lives of animals.

Jenkins and Page use beautiful eye-catching collage illustrations of the creatures and their bathing habits.  These illustrations create a wondering of what unique way each animal uses to groom themselves.  A reader is easily able to learn the bathing habits each creature possesses by reading the clear and concise captions that accompany the wonderful illustrations.  Not only do they explain the habits of common animals like an elephant, rhinoceros, and deer, but also about other less common, yet still interesting, creatures.  Did you know that a gecko has no eyelids and has to lick them with its tongue to keep them clean?  Or, that a pangolin lifts its scales and lets ants eat the debris out from underneath the scales?  

In addition to the captivating illustrations and captions, Jenkins and Page offer their readers a chance to learn about less common creatures, such as, the jerboa, roseate spoonbill, and Japanese macaques.  Overall, a reader focuses their attention on bathing habits, but is informed of other factual information for each animal they read about, at the end of the book.  Thus, enhancing the amount of knowledge gained of common and not so common creatures.  Finally, the beauty of Time for a Bath is that it offers an entertaining and factual read for young and old alike.

Awards:

The Eureka! Nonfiction Children's Book Award 2011

Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 for 2012

Chicago Public Library's 2012 Best of the Best

Review Excerpts:

"These will be an effective way to introduce animal habits and to link them to human behavior, and they may elicit audience interest in further discussion and exploration." —Bulletin

“In Time for a Bath, readers are informed that animals bathe for different reasons: to clean themselves, to cool off, to warm up, and to dissuade parasites. A "vulture takes a sunbath. The sun's warmth feels good, and the sunlight helps kill bacteria." The gecko, lacking eyelids, keeps its eyeballs dirt-free by licking them with "its long, flexible tongue." Readers will be captivated.” — School Library Journal

Connections:

-Read other works by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page:

Time to Eat

Time to Sleep

-Compare and contrast the habits of creatures on a chart

-Research additional bathing habits of animals not mentioned in Time for a Bath

-Chart the mentioned creatures on a map

-Write a story using one of the animals from Time for a Bath, making sure to include a bath time part in the story

Hitler Youth: Growing Up In Hitler's Shadow

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516aSysevSL.jpg

Bibliography:

Bartoletti, S.C. (2005). HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER’S SHADOW. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 0439353793

Summary:

Bartoletti offers an award winning historical account of a generation of young people that were affected by their devotion, and sometimes non-devotion, to Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich’s policies and propaganda.

Critical Analysis:

What happens when you’re starving and work is hard to come by, and then someone steps in and has an ideal that offers jobs, food, and an overall better place to live?  For your children, this person and their organization offer overnight camping trips, parades, and a place to just belong.  However, would you want your child to recite an oath, just to belong, such as this, “In the presence of this Blood Banner, which represents our Fuhrer, I swear to devote all energies and my strength to the Savior of our country, Adolf Hitler.  I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God.”?  That is exactly what the children of Germany recited in the 1930’s as they became members of the Hitler Youth.  For their devotion, they got Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich, and the Hitler Youth organization.  How did this happen?  Hitler targeted the youth of a nation, “I begin with the young...my magnificent youngsters!”  By reading Bartoletti’s accurate and unbiased telling, a reader learns of the depredations committed by Hitler and his cronies towards a country and its people, and just how children became Hitler Youth members and carried out the Third Reich policies and promoted its propaganda.  

Susan Campbell Bartoletti writes in a style of ease using first-hand accounts of the youth that were in "Hitler's shadow." In addition, she softens the content with the comforting background color of yellow and uses gray captions under pictures to contrast to the horrific time period in history that she addresses.  Organizationally, this book is set up in chronological order of how the Hitler Youth came to be, the actions of its members and protesters over time, and finally the repercussions of this time in history.  Bartoletti includes pictures that aren’t horrific to look at, but still offer the reader a true portrayal of what they are reading about.  She starts the reader off with a clear idea of who they are reading about by including the key young people's photos and a brief description of each person to read about before one ever gets into the meat of the story.  Furthermore, she includes an epilogue, timeline, author’s note, and information about the photographs at end of the book to give the reader a bit of additional information. Overall, this factual read offered a wealth of new knowledge, however it can be nightmare worthy for some readers.  Bartoletti can’t address this time in history without talking about Hitler’s euthanasia and extermination policies, therefore readers need to take that into consideration when reading her award winning work.

Awards:

2006 Newbery Honor

2006 Sibert Honor

2006 Parents Choice Award

Review Excerpts:

“...offers a unique and riveting perspective on WWII by focusing on the young people who followed Hitler…” - Publishers Weekly

“In her first full-length nonfiction title since winning the Robert F. Sibert Award, Susan Campbell Bartoletti explores the riveting and often chilling story of Germany's powerful Hitler Youth groups.” -Goodreads

“Superb.” -Kirkus Reviews

Connections:

-Read other works by Susan Campbell Bartoletti such as:

A Christmas Promise

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine

Dancing with Dziadziu

Growing Up in Coal Country

Kids on Strike!

Nobody’s Diggier than a Dog

Nobody’s Nosier than a Cat

Silver at Night

The Boy Who Dared

The Flag Maker

They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group

-Create a Book in a Bag Report:  Students find ten objects that represent this book and include them, along with a brief description of what it is and how it connects to the book, in a bag to present to the class.

-Create a PowerPoint or video depicting Bartoletti’s book

-Compare and contrast this book to a historical fiction book that addresses children affected by Adolf Hitler, such as,  The Book Thief by, Markus Zusak