Notes from a Small Island: Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse

By T. Gail Pritchard, Ph.D., University of Arizona

This week’s blog focuses on the 2013 Costa Children’s Book Award winner, Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse, written and illustrated by the U.K.’s Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell. The Costa Book Awards honor authors in the U.K. and Ireland in five categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry, and Children’s Book. One unique aspect of the Costa is that it “places children’s books alongside adult books.” The 2015 Children’s Book Award winner, The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (reviewed by Melissa in this month’s blog) was also the 2015 Costa Book of the Year. Continue reading →

Notes from a Small Island: The Lie Tree

by Melissa Wilson, Leeds Trinity University, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK

This is my last week blogging from a small and crowded island; the book I am discussing is called The Lie Tree, written by Frances Hardinge, who is a popular and well received author in the U.K. Like the other texts I have discussed, this one won an award, The Costa Book Award in 2015, and is in the fantasy genre. And like the other two novels, it is being marketed for young adults, although I question this designation. Though the protagonist is 14 years old, she is a chaste and sexless adolescent, and I subscribe to what Karen Coats has said about YA fiction: what makes it YA is the sex. Continue reading →

Notes from a Small Island: The Knife of Never Letting Go

By Melissa Wilson

This week’s text is a young adult novel by Patrick Ness called The Knife of Never Letting Go. While searching for book reviews I saw that its genre is called “speculative fiction,” a term with which I am unfamiliar. What I discovered with more searching is that it is a literary category that comprises science fiction and fantasy, but it is a bit more Continue reading →

Notes from a Small Island: Examining Recent Award-Winning Books from the United Kingdom

By Melissa Wilson

As the purpose of World of Words is to “to build bridges across global cultures through children’s and adolescent literature,” I would like to use this month’s WOW Currents to employ adolescent literature from the United Kingdom as a way to examine the similarities and differences of cultures from two different countries that share the same language (although the English may not agree about the “same language” assertion). Continue reading →

Community Outreach Literacy Practices After the March 2011 Earthquake

By Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico,
and Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District

Last week we explored a range of Japanese picture books describing natural disasters. The books became significantly meaningful to children in Japan when the earthquake of 2011 occurred. Allowing time for thinking and talking about the earthquake through picture books developed even more meaning outside of school. Social outreach programs thru mobile libraries were essential for young readers as they, in part, ameliorated the effects of the earthquake for children who lost their schools and access to books. We’d like to explore the traveling library as a type of Japanese cultural artifact that will continue to be important in its future. Continue reading →

Japanese National Trauma: Changing Trends in Japanese Picture Books Since the Tohoku Earthquake

by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM & Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District, Tucson AZ

“March 11th, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake takes place in Tohoku area including Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi, 231 miles northeast of Tokyo at a depth of 15.2 miles. The earthquake causes a tsunami with 30-foot waves that damage several nuclear reactors in Fukushima. It is the fourth-largest earthquake on record (since 1900) and the largest to hit Japan… The confirmed death toll is 15,893 as of October 9 2015” (CNN Library, 2015).

The Japan Tohoku earthquake resulted in global environmental concerns despite the fact that earthquake originally appeared to be a limited “Japanese” event. Continue reading →

Natural Disasters: What Should Children Learn?

by Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico & Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District

This month we will discuss social meanings inherent in children’s literature, specifically addressing some recent global and national natural disasters that resulted in the heavy loss of human life as well as the destruction of homes.

Continue reading →

Extending Read Alouds

by Megan McCaffrey & Katy Hisrich

Learning does not stop once a story is read. A story should be read multiple times in order to know the story well. Learning experiences can and should go beyond the pages of a book. Whatever concepts, ideas, language, illustrations and so on should be further explored in order to deepen understandings. There are many ways to extend learning. Continue reading →

Planning for a Read Aloud

by Megan McCaffrey & Katy Hisrich

Good Read Alouds do not just happen by chance, they are created through conscientious planning. Research shows there are specific qualities of a read aloud necessary in order to optimize the effectiveness of the activity. Continue reading →

Jacqueline: The Girl Who Found a Home in Words

by Melissa Summer Wells, Julia López-Robertson, and Gina Crosby-Quinatoa, University of South Carolina

Will the words end, I ask
whenever I remember to.
Nope, my sister says, all of five years old now,
and promising me/infinity. (p. 62-63)

Our next stop on our tour of young protagonists searching for their places in the world brings us to Jacqueline Woodson, protagonist Continue reading →

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