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Children's responses--and animals
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From: chichild at sfpl.lib.ca.us <chichild>
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 1995 17:19:31 -0700
No, I have not yet succeeded in teaching my cats to read (guess I should have bought that kit available at the ALA Store!), so this will not be about animals' responses to WTM--but I did want to make a few comments about animals mentioned in the book.
But first, children's responses. I'm embarrassed to say that the children at my branch library who have read WTM have told me that they loved it-but I didn't get details! (We couldn't discuss it during the Mock Newbery group I held last year because not enough of them had read it, due to the fact the I had a very difficult time finding a 2nd copy!). But one girl did offer a comment.
Some background: Alexandra comes to the library every Saturday afternoon. She reads voraciously, and always wants my recommendations. I'm beginning to run out of ideas because she reads so much. Seems like an ideal situation, yes? However...Alexandra always insists on telling me the plots of all of the books ("Yes, Alexandra, I know, I read it."), and she always overstates the obvious. Example: If I asked her, "Have you read ALICE IN WONDERLAND?" her response would probably be, "oh, yeah, that was the one about the blond girl and that rabbit."
I asked her about WTM. She said she really liked it, and then she commented,
"Isn't it weird that she didn't know her mother had died?"
I have to admit I was dumbfounded. No other children, or adults that I know of, have had this response. Yes, several of us missed the clues that Sal's mother had died--and I feel this is because, like Sal, we didn't want to ACCEPT that horrible reality. But I never thought Sal didn't KNOW.
As for animals: there are such subtle and lovely comments about them, especially appropriate to a country girl like Sal. There is of course the wide variety of birds--Partridges, Phoebes, Chickabiddies, birds singing in trees, and a couple of beloved chickens. And there was a wonderful passage, which I cannot find just now, about Sal watching a calf being born and realizing with astonishment that she feels happy--a feeling she had not had for a very long time.
Related to this is the discussion of the e. e. cummings poem about the foal's birth--and Sal's shock at the instant death of a baby rabbit (p.134). And dogs--the one on the Marriage bed, and the one Sal sits with when Gram goes to the hospital. And Birds of Sadness. And Fishes in the air. And a snakebite.
And now I have to close my branch! Good bye!
Carla Kozak chichild at sfpl.lib.ca.us
Received on Fri 21 Jul 1995 07:19:31 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 1995 17:19:31 -0700
No, I have not yet succeeded in teaching my cats to read (guess I should have bought that kit available at the ALA Store!), so this will not be about animals' responses to WTM--but I did want to make a few comments about animals mentioned in the book.
But first, children's responses. I'm embarrassed to say that the children at my branch library who have read WTM have told me that they loved it-but I didn't get details! (We couldn't discuss it during the Mock Newbery group I held last year because not enough of them had read it, due to the fact the I had a very difficult time finding a 2nd copy!). But one girl did offer a comment.
Some background: Alexandra comes to the library every Saturday afternoon. She reads voraciously, and always wants my recommendations. I'm beginning to run out of ideas because she reads so much. Seems like an ideal situation, yes? However...Alexandra always insists on telling me the plots of all of the books ("Yes, Alexandra, I know, I read it."), and she always overstates the obvious. Example: If I asked her, "Have you read ALICE IN WONDERLAND?" her response would probably be, "oh, yeah, that was the one about the blond girl and that rabbit."
I asked her about WTM. She said she really liked it, and then she commented,
"Isn't it weird that she didn't know her mother had died?"
I have to admit I was dumbfounded. No other children, or adults that I know of, have had this response. Yes, several of us missed the clues that Sal's mother had died--and I feel this is because, like Sal, we didn't want to ACCEPT that horrible reality. But I never thought Sal didn't KNOW.
As for animals: there are such subtle and lovely comments about them, especially appropriate to a country girl like Sal. There is of course the wide variety of birds--Partridges, Phoebes, Chickabiddies, birds singing in trees, and a couple of beloved chickens. And there was a wonderful passage, which I cannot find just now, about Sal watching a calf being born and realizing with astonishment that she feels happy--a feeling she had not had for a very long time.
Related to this is the discussion of the e. e. cummings poem about the foal's birth--and Sal's shock at the instant death of a baby rabbit (p.134). And dogs--the one on the Marriage bed, and the one Sal sits with when Gram goes to the hospital. And Birds of Sadness. And Fishes in the air. And a snakebite.
And now I have to close my branch! Good bye!
Carla Kozak chichild at sfpl.lib.ca.us
Received on Fri 21 Jul 1995 07:19:31 PM CDT
