Tag: Tween Literature

Title: Yolen, Jane and Stemple, Heidi Elisabet Yolen. The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History.

The story of the Salem witch trials is nothing new to adults, but as children, this can often be a scary and difficult subject to approach, no matter how important the history or moral. Yolen and Stemple’s book, The Salem Witch Trials, seeks to relay the information in an age appropriate, non-threatening manner, by beginning with narration by a child exploring the tale for clues to be able to make her own decision about what really happened in 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts.

Laid out much like a field journal with notes, the story is told in text boxes with smaller boxes or bubbles bordering the page with explanations of subject appropriate terms and brief explanations of historical context, making the subject matter easier to understand. Given the extensive vocabulary needed, I do believe this to be best for 4-6^th graders, but what is most impressive about this book is the last 4-6 pages.

Yolen and Stemple tell the facts of circumstances behind the Salem witch trials, provide proposed, accepted and possible explanations and open ended questions, at the end of the tale, to not only encourage open discussion (which means it is perfect for curriculum and group reading) but to force the reader into examining their own opinions as to why things happened. This forces the development of 21^st century skills such as critical thinking, and if directed in a group environment, a collective consciousness, something that is sorely lacking in children’s literature today.

All in all, this is a good introduction to the Salem witch trials, critical thinking and unsolved mysteries, which might just foster another literary love, all on its own. Even I learned something new…the fact that many believe Tituba was not African but Indian! You learn something new, every day.

Title: Yolen, Jane.And Twelve Chinese Acrobats. Philomel Books. 1994. 50 pages. Out of Print. ISBN 978-0-399-22691-5

In Russia, there lived a comfortable Jewish family with eight children, one of whom, Lou, is a great story teller and, as his mama describes, a “good boy” but a “rascal.” When one of Lou’s tricks goes too far, his father sends him to a military school, which breaks Jewish tradition at every turn. Unable to adapt to his new environment, Lou is sent home after losing all his jacket buttons in an illegal card game, at which point he disappears for months, and the family assumes he is dead.

Much more is their surprise when he arrives at the beginning of Spring with twelve exotic looking men who can bend, tumble and jump like no other, with Lou as their leader. Lou explains to his parents, and his favorite little brother, “Wolf,” also the narrator,  how he could not come home in shame. Instead, he went to Moscow and found work in a circus, becoming the manager of a troop of Chinese acrobats who travelled home with him to find work and food. Their anger subsided by their joy at finding their son alive, the Yolen family welcomes the acrobats into their home, where they learn, work hard, observe the Sabbath and share their culture with their hosts, for as mama says, “Where there is love, there is room.”

In the end, the acrobats are fattened up and sent out laden with food and provisions as they are determined to continue looking for work, and Lou, the observer, the storyteller, is sent to America to find the Yolen family a place to settle where they can all grow and be themselves.

Based on the true story of how the author’s father (and subsequently written in his boyhood voice) and his family came to America from Russia, And Twelve Chinese Acrobats, while labeled as another –E- book, a designation saved for picture books, it is recommended for those in the tween age range and for good reason. This title is 50 pages long and in the compact format that most tween readers have come to understand as standard, though slightly oversized. The feature that really stands out is the black and white pencil illustrations by Jean Gralley, who studied with, and emulates a certain style element of, Maurice Sendak.

Written so beautifully, and obviously of great emotion value to the author, the work is more biographical in nature, than fiction, and could easily fit into the category of folktale someday, as a classic tale of Jewish life in Russia, the importance of family, and of finding your place in the world. As an author of many of my favorite children’s picture books (Owl Moon and the How Do Dinosaurs…series for example), it is no small wonder that Jane Yolen would find her way into our older reading as well, and less surprising, that we would absolutely love it.

Title: Olson, Arielle North. The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter. Mystic Seaport, Museum of America and the Sea. 2004. 32 pages. Tr. $15.95. ISBN 978-0-939510-92-4

Another in my series of “Picture books for tweens” reviews, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter is based on the true story of a family that moves to a very small, rocky, barren island in Maine when the father takes a job as the lighthouse keeper. The young girl, Miranda, wonders how this new place will ever become home when she can’t even plant a garden, as the wind and sea has washed away all the soil. Not to be deterred in finding something joyful about her new home, Miranda relishes spending time with her father, who teaches her how to tend to the lighthouse for the safety of all those at sea.

Determined to keep her promise to her father, and ensure his safe return, Miranda diligently scrapes ice from the outside lamp room windows and lights the oil lamps every night, cleaning the lenses to maximize the light, night after night, over the span of more than 3 weeks while the storms rage on. Desperately worried for her father, she and her mother try to pass the time, with their meager supplies, by finishing odd jobs around the rocky island, until the sea becomes deafening as it crashes against the lighthouse and seeps under the doors as Miranda becomes sick and weaker from exposure. Despite her illness, Miranda still rushes into the freezing sea to save her pet hens from a watery grave, while her mother must conquer her fear of heights to help Miranda tend the lighthouse while she is ill, the only thing they can do to help speed the lighthouse keeper’s return home.  But can he make it home it home through the fierce sea before the last of their food disappears or will the sea claim them for its own?

As a staple tale of the Maine coast, where living with the dangers and bounty of the cold and sea has been a way of life for hundreds of years, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter, provides just enough suspense to keep the reader turning the pages  with illustrations that are absolutely necessary to accurately describe just how bleak and barren this kind of life can be, but also, the importance of family, what kind of hope and a feeling of purpose it can bestow and how the spirit can triumph through the gravest of circumstance in an ange appropriate manner. Though it is only 32 pages, they are a long 32 pages, given the extended width of the book and the large volume of type on each page, making it easily seem more like a small chapter book, than a picture book.  This is why, in my opinion, and also why I agree with our local librarian’s decision to label it as such, this is a Juvenile/tween title, instead of  being a typically labelled -E- book.

I am beyond frustrated of the general opinion that picture books cannot be marketed, published, or of interest to tweens unless they are reading down. Often publishers, librarians and teachers, can fail to take into account the maturity of the reader needed to handle certain concepts, story lengths, plot lines, and advanced vocabulary. Too frequently is it simply labeled as an –E- book and shelved away with titles meant for preschool to first graders because a title has plenty of beautiful illustrations, which honestly makes me wonder if there was a similar fight when Hugo Cabret was released. Then again, perhaps because of its great length, it probably wasn’t even an issue. Still, while my first grader, as a more mature advanced reader, would find this book entertaining, there is no way it would have held her attention in previous years, if not for the length of the story than because of the sense of fear the uncertainty of survival would instill.

All in all, this is a great introduction to historical fiction, as well as a transitional book (get it out of your head right now that a tween book has to be devoid of illustrations!)  and will appeal to the younger 2 or 3 grades of the tween set. The beautiful water color illustrations accurately represent both the bleak starkness of the Maine coast, but also the colorful promise of hope and life. Do not discount it as a tween title because of the binding and the multitude of pictures! You would be doing yourself, and your children, a great disservice indeed. Teach them that their tenacity and boundless spirit can be channeled into causes great than themselves and that there is no greater motivation than the importance and safety of family.