Cinderella, Cendrillon, and Pear Blossom

Folk Literature/ Multicultural and International Literature/ Caldecott Medalist

San Souci, R. (2002). Cendrillon: A caribbean cinderella. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks.

Climo, S. The korean cinderella. Harper Collins Publishers.

Brown, M. (1997). Cinderella . Aladdin Paperbacks.

The story of "Cinderella" is a very popular one.  Almost every culture has their own version of the magical fairy tale.  I pulled three different versions of the famous Cinderella story, first Caldecott Medalist, Cinderella translated by Marcia Brown, Cendrillon; A Caribbean Cinderella by Robert D. San Souci, and The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo.  All of these books follow the general story of the classic Cinderella Story with their own different international spins.

With the famous story of "Cinderella", it seems that almost every culture has it's own version of the classic tale.  Using either these three versions, or pulling more versions of the fairy tale, students could explore the similarities and differences between different countries and cultures.  Using the Wordle App, I created three Word Clouds.  I copied and pasted the whole story into the Wordle App, and it generates a Word Cloud.  Each time a word is repeated throughout the story, the word is represented in a larger font on the Word Cloud.  This is a really cool tool to use to show the commonalities between the stories.  For instance, the Cinderella Word Cloud and The Pear Blossom Word Cloud both contain large words for Prince/Magistrate, signifying that the idea of a prince with the Cinderella is a commonality between the two stories.  I think the more stories you would be able to generate a Word Cloud for, the more interesting it would be to connect the similarities and differences between the actual written stories.

The Year Comes Round, Haiku through the Seasons

Poetry: Haiku Poems

Farrar, S. (2012). The Year Comes Round;Haiku Through the Seasons. Chicago, IL: Albert Whitman & Company.

To kick off my book blog I'm starting with the poetry book, The Year Comes Round: Haiku though the Seasons, written by Sid Farrar and illustrated by the Caldecott Honor Winner Ilse Plume.  This book features Haiku poems that hi-light each of the 12 months of the year. Poems are paired with beautiful, full-page illustrations that enhance the mystic of the Haiku poems.  One of my favorite poems featured in this book is found in the "summer/fall months" section, perhaps describing the months of August or September.  The poem reads:

A mystery how

these endless rows of corn can

agree of their height

I love this poem because it brings a part of fall that we all can relate to, the equally-tall stalks of corn, and adds a playful touch to it. I also love poetry in the form of Haikus, mostly because I don't feel that the art of poetry speaks to me as much as other art forms.  However, I have an appreciation for Haiku poems as they follow a specific syllable pattern, making word choice, sentence structure, and theme crucial to the success of the poem.  Additionally, because Haiku poems are so short, I feel they are more approachable for elementary-aged children.  I can relate to students who feel overwhelmed when they are asked to evaluate or create long poems; there is a lot to think about when reading or creating a longer poem.  I think Haiku poems are the portal to poetry in the elementary world.  I do think that students, especially elementary students, should be exposed to longer, more complex poems, however, I think Haiku poems are a good place to start.

One of my favorite poetry projects that I did in elementary school was in third grade.  We did what was essentially an anthology of our favorite poems from different "genres" of poetry.  For example, we had to choose an "historical" poem, a "pet" poem, etc.  In addition to compiling all of these different poems, we had to create 3 Haiku poems.  If I were to do a similar project within my own classroom, I would use the creation and discussion on Haiku poems as a platform into poetry.  Due to Haiku poem's strict rules and short length, I believe it would be a less overwhelming entrance into the world of expression with words.