Sounder

Sounder is the story of a boy and his dog that doesn’t follow what most would consider the traditional storyline.  We don’t know any of the characters’ names.  All of the people are named in their connection to Sounder (ex. Sounder’s master, the master’s son, etc.).  Sounder belongs to a sharecropper who is struggling to support his family.  The eldest son is sometimes allowed to go hunting with his father and Sounder while the other siblings stay at home with the mother.  One day after a hearty meal, the father is arrested for theft, having stolen meat for his family.  Sounder tries to follow but is shot by the policeman and isn’t seen for weeks.  The boy looks for him everyday and tells his father that he’s hopeful that Sounder is alive when he visits him at Christmas.  That visit was an unpleasant one and he was told that it should not be attempted again, which would make for a gloomy Christmas if Sounder hadn’t been waiting for him when he got home.  Dog and boy are reunited again.  The father is placed on a chain gang in another county and the boy goes in search of him.  He finds a man willing to teach him to read for labor in return and the boy is excited.  The father stumbles into the yard one day, heavily injured.  He later dies while hunting, and Sounder is so distraught that he crawls under the porch without the will to live anymore.  All of these tragic events have a sense of peace surrounding them and the boy has achieved his dream of being able to read.

William H. Armstrong won the Newberry medal for this book.  It pulls at the heart strings and serves as an opportunity to discuss loss or absent parents with students.  Students can also relate to the desire to learn and how knowledge is something that cannot be lost.  I enjoyed this book but I know that I would have been extremely sad about the ending if I had read it when I was 10 years old.  Students can discuss themes like loss of innocence, loneliness, and identity with this book.  Teachers should be mindful of students’ backgrounds when choosing this book unless one of them has recently lost a parent or pet or friend.  This book can be appropriate when used with sensitive discussion questions.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear is a collection of 14 poems about teddy bears written by Christopher Award-winning author, Alice Schertle.  Schertle’s warm and inviting style invites any reader to explore the imagination or recall memories of past teddy bears.  Each page contains its own poem while the opposite page boasts of Linda Griffith’s teddy bear artwork.  In the poems, teddy bears play dress up, take naps, take baths, play with the other stuffed animals, eat snacks, and ride the bus.  The collection ends with a sleepy teddy, tucked in tightly and dreaming of far-off adventures.

Schertle’s work can be found in most public libraries as she has published more than 40 works.  I think she can be an inspiration to young and old to engage in poetry, for as she says, "there are things a poem can say that cannot be expressed as effectively in any other way. I love to find a poem that shows me something, creates an image, perhaps, that is so startling, so original, so unique only one particular poet could have thought of it. But at the same time, the image, the idea, is so true, so right, that I find myself saying, 'Yes! I knew that!'"

My personal favorite poem is entitled “Barely Bear,” in which the bear has lost his hat, hair, voice, clothes, and most of his nose.  All of these losses result from too much hugging, kissing, and traveling.  The final line reads, “Wrinkles, lumps, patches, creases – Barely Bear’s been loved to pieces.”  I know that I had one or two stuffed animals that resembled Barely Bear.  The associated artwork shows a little girl asleep with Barely Bear, who has many patches and bare spots.

Griffith’s attention to detail can be seen on every page.  Each piece of art appropriately represents its corresponding poem, thus helping young readers find context clues.  Although published in 2003, the artwork shows no ethnic diversity.  All of the children included in the art are white and live in a suburban setting.  With this recent of a publication, I expect more diversity in children’s literature.