The Ghosts of Luckless Gulch

The Ghosts of Luckless Gulch

by Anne Isaacs, illustrated by Dan Santat. 2008. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Children. (97814146902010). 

Media: acrylic and ink on bristol paper, touched up in Photoshop

Author's Website: http://www.anneisaacs.com/content/

Illustrator's Website: http://www.dantat.com/

Awards and Honors: New York Public Library's 100 Best Books of 2008

Annotation: A tall tale set during the Gold Rush, The Ghosts of Luckless Gulch is the story of Estrella Rivera, a young girl with some extraordinary abilities.

Personal Reaction:

     The Ghosts of Luckless Gulch, a traditional style tall tale told by contemporary author Anne Isaac, is the story of Estrella Rivera, a young girl with some extraordinary abilities. She can heal animals and runs so fast she burns the air behind her. Estrella befriends some uncommon animals (a kickle snifter, a sidehill wowser and a ruberrado puppy) who she adopts as pets. When they go missing, it's up to Estrella to find them and bring them home. It's as a result of her journey that California gets its soaring mountains, earthquakes and redwood forests. The Ghosts of Luckless Gulch is set in the California of the Gold Rush days and is an original take on traditional tall tales. I appreciated that Isaac protagonist, Estrella Rivera, is a fearless and independent Mexican American girl, but ultimately the book didn't capture my imagination. Tall tales, with their far-fetched narratives, usually exhibit clever, tongue-in-cheek humor, but The Ghosts of Luckless Gulch was dull and witless. Nonetheless, it references enough history and geography that I could see it being used in elementary schools to supplement California's state history curriculum. Isaac also makes generous use of metaphors and similes ("It's odder than a skunk selling perfume.", "The tracks vanished as suddenly as an icicle in a blacksmith's forge."), which would lend it to being used in language arts lessons. 

Use of Simile:

"It's stranger than a square tomato!" (p. 9)

The Revolutionary John Adams

The Revolutionary John Adams 

written and illustrated by Cheryl Harness, Washington, D.C: National Geographic, 2003. (0-7922-6970-5).

Awards: Beacon of Freedom Award, Nominee, 2006.

Author Website: None

Media: Rich watercolors on paper.

Annotation:  Harness traces the life of President John Adams from his humble beginnings on a farm to the White House. This biography offers details of Adams’ work as a revolutionary, politician, lawyer, statesman and leader.

Personal Reaction:  This biography is steeped in facts, but it is also a very personal story of a man’s life.  The author traces John Adams’ life from his birth on a farm in New England to his death on a farm not far away.  In between, the reader learns about the role of Adams in revolting against England, building the government of new nation, working side by side with Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, serving as Vice-President and President, as well as working as a statesman abroad.  The numerous quotes from Adams, familial details and excerpts from personal letters to his beloved wife Abigail allow for an insight into Adams life that makes this biography more memorable than others.   Harness uses sweeping watercolor paintings of people and maps to bring Adams’ time to life.  In just 40 pages, Harness not only tells Adams’ story, but the history of our emerging and young nation.  The personal perspective and illustrations provide an accessible history lesson for students in grades five to seven.

Use of  Simile: (p.31) “news that plunked like a round black stone into the world of John and Abigail Adams.”

Use of Metaphor: (p.5) “stomach full of butterflies.” (p.26) “dug deep into his bag of political skills.”  (p.29) “Two old lions, France and England.”

Use of Alliteration:  (p.16) “soldiers froze and failed.” (p.24) “diamond-decked Marie Antoinette.”  (p.32) “stump-stubbled Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Use of Onomatopoeia:  (p.6) “John Adams fizzed with total and complete happiness.” (p.8) “People began to grumble.”  (p.11) “plunk . . .plunk . . .plunked boxes of tea into Boston Harbor.”

Use of Sophisticated Language:  (p. 26) “coaxed out of Holland official recognition and loans, lifeblood for his nation.”

Curricular Connection: California History / Social Science, Grade 5, California Standards: 5.6:   Students understand the course and consequences of the American Revolution.  5.7: Students describe the people and events associated with the development of the U.S. Constitution and analyze the Constitution’s significance as the foundation of the American republic.

Run Far, Run Fast

Run Far, Run Fast

written and illustrated by Timothy Decker, 2007, Asheville, North Carolina: Front Street. (1590784693)

Media: pen and ink

Awards and Honors:

Selected by White Ravens Catalogue – 250 Outstanding International Children’s Books of 2008.

English Language Section – International Youth Library – Schloss Blutenburg, Munich, GERMANY.

First Place Cover/Jacket – Adult Graphic Novel Series – 2009 New York Book Show.

Author Website: http://timothydecker.com/

Annotation: A young girl in plague ravaged fourteenth-century Europe flees her family and her town, wandering the villages and countryside alone in search of refuge until she meets a stranger who she hopes will be able to help.

Personal Reaction:
     A short and simple tale of one girl's experience is enriched with emotion and historical detail through stark black and white illustrations. Decker deftly employs crosshatched pen and ink drawings and graphic novel formatting in telling his story. Though the text is concise and dialogue is minimal, multiple wordless panels provide the reader with details about the characters, the setting and the devastating toll of the Black Death.
     Decker doesn't spare the reader the grim details of the plague; we see churchyards filled with freshly dug graves, shrouded bodies lying in village streets and the baseball sized swollen nodes of plague victims. He also includes historical details (such as a few panels featuring the rats which were vectors of the disease, a group a children playing "Ring-Around-the-Rosie", interiors of abandoned monasteries, and self-flagellating pilgrims) that lend this book to inclusion in lessons about the Black Death. 
     The tone of the story is bleak. The text is filled with lines like, "The pestilence swept away all the was. When it passed, when the fear and confusion ebbed, only sorrow remained". The characters all have similar featureless countenances with no mouths and sorrowful downturned eyes. Yet we see small reasons for hope when the girl meets a stranger who feeds her and shares with her what little understanding he has of the plague. On the last page of the book we see the girl and her younger brother sleeping in the stranger's house, while he reads quietly in a chair by the hearth. There is a pot on the fire and plants in the window box, yet even in this scene of relative domestic tranquility the stranger's bird-like plague mask hanging on the wall suggests that the characters are not completely secure. 

Use of simile: (p. 4) "Every year was the same until her tenth summer. The Pestilence entered the girl's world like a tide."

Use of repetition/ Use of personification: (p. 12) "A soldier told her the gates of the city were locked to keep the Pestilence out. But the Pestilence was already in the city."

(p. 18) "A soldier told her the city gates were locked to seal the Pestilence within the walls and thus protect others. But the Pestilence could not be caged."

Curricular Connection: Middle school world history: Black Death/bubonic plague