Table of Contents

Book Reviews

Books Alive:
Using Literature in the Classroom.
Susan Hill.
Review by MaryLeah Otto.
Elementary Teachers.

The Last Quest of Gilgamesh.
Retold and illustrated by Ludmila Zeman.
Review by Kenneth Field.
Grades 4 - 6 / Ages 9 - 11.

*How Monkeys Make Chocolate:
Foods and Medicines from the Rainforests.
Adrian Forsyth.
Review by Jennifer La Chapelle.
Grades 4 - 8 / Ages 8 - 13.

The People of Many Faces:
Masks, Myths and Ceremonies of the Iroquois.
Alex Mogelon.
Review by Adele Case.
Grades 10 - 13 / Ages 14 and Up.

Return to Glory:
The Leafs From Imlach to Fletcher.
Andrew Podnieks.
Review by Dave Jenkinson.
Grades 10 - Adult / Ages 15 and Up.

News

International Internet KIDFORUM Project
KIDFORUM is an opportunity for students to share and compare their work internationally. The latest topic is "Blue Print Earth."

CM
Editor
Duncan Thornton
e-mail: cmeditor@mts.net

CM
Executive Assistant
Peter Tittenberger
e-mail: cm@umanitoba.ca

Book Review

Books Alive:
Using Literature in the Classroom.

Susan Hill.
Winnipeg: Peguis Publishers, 1994. 144pp, paper, $18.00.
ISBN 1-895411-71-8.

Elementary Teachers.
Review by MaryLeah Otto.

excerpt:

The rationale for using this approach in the classroom is the importance of presenting children with the best quality literature or literature that has stood the test of time and still remains popular. Many people claim that particular books -- the classics -- have great cultural importance because they transmit the important values of a culture.

Quoting from many research studies on the relationship between the use of literature and a child's linguistic development, Susan Hill of the University of South Australia examines a wide range of children's literature and the ways it can be integrated into teaching language arts. She faults many basal reading schemes for their blandness and their lack of symbolism and the figurative language that evokes human emotion. She believes in a different approach, stressing that literature "helps the reader better understand worlds perhaps not yet experienced, extends the imagination and helps us deal better with life's problems. Literature also provides a base for developing all aspects of the language arts: talking, listening, reading and writing."

Hill's practical suggestions are intended for use from kindergarten through grade seven. She begins by outlining how "real books," as she calls them, enhance a child's developing awareness of what it means to be human; how they stimulate interest in the beauty and richness of the written and spoken word; and how they can sometimes provide biblio-therapy. She applies her theory in four ways.

First she stresses the importance of asking children the right questions about what they have heard or read in order to encourage the broadest oral or written response. The former can be achieved by using panel discussions, storytelling, advertisements, models, designs, and puppets. Written response can be created through journals, letters, testimonials, and revisions of existing stories. Responses may also be made using other media such as photos, videos, radio dramas, painting, songwriting, and so on.

The second way to teach literature focuses on the author. Here, Hill presents a photo and a brief biography of twenty-two well-known children's authors, with Canada well represented. Each entry concludes with a select bibliography and some suggestions for getting to know more about a favourite author.

The third approach deals with the more technical matters of form, genre, structure, style, and characterisation. Hill describes a wealth of appealing ways to present these more difficult elements of literature.

The fourth approach looks specifically at fables, folk and fairy tales, myth and legends, and the cultural classics of the last two centuries. Ways to use these stories are similar to those mentioned earlier.

A long chapter on literature-based reading programs offers detailed, illustrated examples that should be very helpful to teachers. Three appendices include a bibliography of "pattern" books; generic questions for writing about the different genres of books; and an invaluable list of international children's book award-winners since the inception of each prize. An index and reference bibliography complete the book (which, by the way, appeared first in Australia in 1986).

I do have a reservation about Hill's occasional bows to political correctness. For example, in her remarks on the tale of the Three Little Pigs, she admits to wondering why the pigs worked individually and "didn't collaborate to build a great house together -- and why we continue to stereotype wolves as villains." Come come, Ms. Hill!

Recommended.

Maryleah Otto is a former children's librarian with the Etobicoke (Toronto) and London, Ontario, Public Libraries, the author of four published books for children, and a member of CONSCRIPT. She has reviewed books regularly for the Ontario Library Negotiation and the Canadian Library Association. She resides in St. Thomas, Ontario where she continues to write for children and adults.

Book Review

The Last Quest of Gilgamesh.

Retold and illustrated by Ludmila Zeman.
Montreal: Tundra Books, 1995. 24pp, cloth, $19.95.
ISBN 0-88776-328-6.

Grades 4 - 6 / Ages 9 - 11.
Review by Kenneth Field.

excerpt:

At the mouth of a river at the end of the earth a man lies, near death. Could this be Gilgamesh, the all powerful King of Uruk, loved by his people, famous throughout the ancient world for the magnificent wall he had built around his city?
What has brought him to this desperate state in this lonely place?

It was the fear of Death. Death had taken his dearest friend, Enkidu. Earlier it had taken the beautiful Shamhat, whom they both loved. As Gilgamesh watched their spirits fly off as birds, he resolved to get rid of Death before it took him from his people. His last quest would be to find the secret of immortality.

So begins the last book of the trilogy that retells the ancient Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh. In the first two books, Gilgamesh the King and The Revenge of Ishtar, the hero Gilgamesh, who is half god and half man, learns of human love from his friends Enkidu and Shamhat, and of the tragic loss of not only his friends but his people through death. Thus we now find him close to death himself and yet still struggling against it. The spirit of his friend Shamhat comes to Gilgamesh to give him guidance in this final struggle. With her assistance, and renewed strength, Gilgamesh sets out on his final quest -- to overcome death.

Ludmila Zeman's retelling captures this last stage of Gilgamesh's development -- the realisation that even he will not be able to evade death attain immortality, but that his memory will live on nonetheless in the hearts and minds of his people. But for anyone unfamiliar with the epic, there may be some difficulty in piecing the events recounted in the trilogy together in a way which will give meaning to the whole story. This will be particularly true for children to whom the story is read.

The story, as retold by Zeman, flows well, and she incorporates all of the elements of the epic, such as the immortal survivors of the flood and the plant of life. But she does not convey the arbitrary nature of the gods' behaviour in bringing floods or bestowing immortality on humans. These seemingly unpredictable and irrational acts were accepted as beyond human understanding in the ancient world. In this day and age when scientific explanations for everyday events dominate our lives it is difficult to think of a time when acts of the gods were viewed as just that.

The illustrations are fashioned after eighteenth- and nineteenth-century religious engravings. They give the story a biblical tone which is quite appropriate given the mythic elements, such as the flood, which recur in the Old Testament. The colouring is beautiful and captures the changing tones of this last quest very well. (The Last Quest of Gilgamesh was the 1995 Governor General's Award-winner for English-language children's illustration.)

Together, the books in the trilogy are a reasonably accurate retelling of the Gilgamesh story, and as such are a good introduction to children to some of the mysteries of the ancient world. The explanatory notes at the end of the volume provide useful background for the reader, although a fuller discussion of the meaning of the epic would be useful, and a map or maps would help to allow the reader to physically locate the place in which the story originated.

Recommended.

Kenneth Field is a librarian for Traill College at Trent University in Peterborough, ON.

Book Review

How Monkeys Make Chocolate:
Foods and Medicines from the Rainforests.

Adrian Forsyth.
Toronto: Owl Books, 1995. 48pp, paper, $9.95.
ISBN 1-895688-32-9.

Grades 4 - 8 / Ages 8 - 13.
Review by Jennifer La Chapelle

excerpt:

We still know very little about thousands of kinds of rainforest plants and animals. We don't even have names for many of them. But what goes on between all the plants and animals is what makes the forest work -- flowers are pollinated. seeds are spread, animals are fed. Little by little, we are learning to see and to use these connections. Without the relationship between monkeys and cacao. we would not have chocolate And living forests are full of riches yet to be found.

The destruction of rainforests throughout the globe. and the resultant loss of potential medicines and foods is not lost on young adults. Circulation records at public and school libraries indicate that elementary and high school students' interest in the topic is not simply curriculum-driven. Adrian Forsyth's How Monkeys Make Chocolate successfully explores four instances of the interaction of plants, animals, and people in rainforests.

The title, cover, and visual layout of this work will draw the reader into the text, which reveals Forsyth's award-winning writing style. A biologist of international repute, Forsyth interjects his own experiences of rainforest plant/animal/human interaction, removing the book from the realm of formulaic textbook materials. The photography and layout are slick, as one would expect from an Owl Books publication.

Yet the visual appeal seems geared towards a younger audience than the text, which is best suited to grades six to eight. Many of the terms Forsyth uses, such as "chemical beacon" are not explained. While senior elementary students might be expected to grasp their meaning even when the terms have not been dealt with in class, junior- and middle-grade readers drawn in by the photography and layout may find the text frustrating. Had sidebars been used to break out some of this information, the book would have been suitable to a wider age group. A useful index is provided, but considering the topic and some of the scientific terms used, a bibliography would have been an attractive additional feature.

While How Monkeys Make Chocolate will be gobbled up by elementary students interested in this current topic, it misses an opportunity to attract a greater following through a more useful layout. It is also very selective in its coverage. and so will serve best as an appetiser, leaving the reader or buyer to search elsewhere for a main course on this subject.

Recommended with reservations.

Jennifer La Chapelle is the head of a multi-branch public library in Ontario. In addition to an M.L.S., she holds degrees in Political Science, English, and History.

Book Review

The People of Many Faces:
Masks, Myths and Ceremonies of the Iroquois.

Alex Mogelon.
Lakefield, ON: Waapoone Publishing, 1994. 61pp, paper, $15.95.
ISBN 0-9692185-7-5.

Grades 10 - 13 / Ages 14 and Up.
Review by Adele Case.

excerpt:

Broken Nose: This is the mask carved most frequently, depicting the Great Defender after the onrushing mountain had smashed his nose. Usually this mask is black, perhaps to represent the defeat that had been endured, or the fact that the mountain had been moved causing Elder Brother The Sun to cast a shadow. Both masks (Keel Nose and Broken Nose) were usually required in any ceremony or curing performance, since one is incomplete without the other.

The People of Many Faces contains a chronological history of the Iroquois Five Nations (made up originally of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca tribes from present day New York state). Theirs was a political and military union. Over a hundred years later, members of the Tuscarora tribe were allowed to join with the Iroquois, and a Six Nations group came into being. During the American revolution, the confederacy came to an end, as a couple of the tribes moved to Canada, while the remainder continued in their ancestral land.

This slim book, written economically -- at times almost tersely -- by Alex Mogelon, contains a lengthy bibliography, and a listing of museums and historical sites where there are collections of the masks of the False Face Medicine Society. The author has had a lifetime interest in, and association with members of the Iroquois tribe, and a number of the legends were told to him orally by a chief of the Six Nations.

The primary physical structure of the Six Nations was the wooden longhouse, which served not only to shelter individual clan families, but also as a gathering place for extended family groupings. Theirs was a matrilineal society, and clan identification came through a creature name (deer, hawk, turtle). The society was complex, and various festivals were celebrated throughout the calendar year. Without a written language, the festivals were crucial in passing on the tribal history, superstitions, and religious beliefs. The collective memory was invested in members of the False Face Medicine Society, and the masks were essential in giving the myths human-like form that aided members of the tribe to more fully understand their past, and to bind them into a cohesive group.

Masks were named, and the richness of their culture is evident in the multiplicity of names, from expressions (Crooked Mouth, Drooping Mouth, Smiling Mouth, Long Nose) to occupations (Clown, Happy Hunter), to animals (Bear, Buffalo, Wolf), to feared diseases (Small Pox and Measles), to masks that showed aspects of the Great Defender myth -- a complicated explanation that incorporated the creation of the world, and perhaps humanity's fall from grace. This sense of evil is shown in the mask called Broken Nose, and another mask (Whirlwind) further illustrates the damaging power of nature, the dawn and sunset, and the importance of good weather for crops to grow and mature.

Mogelon also shows the wooden masks which were created after a member of the tribe had a dream vision. The wood was taken piously from a growing basswood tree, and the tree had to survive the `donation' of the fabric of the mask in order for the mask to have ritual power. Other masks and dolls were made from husks of corn, one of the principal food sources of the tribes. These lacked the power of the wooden masks, but had their place in various rituals.

The author closes by repeating the legend of Deganawidah and Hiawatha. These mythic figures together devised the great peace, code of law, and other concepts which became the Great Law of the Iroquois confederacy. This small book contains a wealth of information and should be included in the library of anyone interested in the Iroquois people.

Recommended.

Adele Case is a high-school teacher who lives in West Vancouver.

Book Review

Return to Glory:
The Leafs From Imlach to Fletcher.

Andrew Podnieks.
Toronto: ECW Press, 1995. 301pp, paper, $19.95.
ISBN 1-55022-242-2. CIP.

Grades 10 - Adult / Ages 15 and Up.
Review by Dave Jenkinson.

In covering the period from May, 1967, to early 1995, Podnieks writes passionately as he describes first the decline of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club following their last Stanley Cup win of 1967, and then their rise to legitimate Cup contender in the 1990s. Return to Glory is structured in two parts, with each section principally revolving around the actions of a pair of individuals.

In the shorter "Part One," Podnieks largely ascribes the Leafs' on-ice downfall to the off-ice, egocentric, and eccentric actions of the book's villains, team owner Harold Ballard, and the Leafs' General Manager and sometime coach, Punch Imlach. In "Part Two," the white hats are worn by Cliff Fletcher, who became GM in June, 1991, following Ballard's death, and Fletcher's choice as coach, Pat Burns.

Podnieks does not just restrict his black-white value judgments to management, and readers may be surprised by some of his assessments of both Leaf players and their opponents. In addition to describing lots of game action, including detailed sections on the 1993 and 1994 playoffs, Podnieks also covers the post-Ballard back-room financial games as various individuals tried to gain control of Maple Leaf Gardens.

By ending the book shortly after the conclusion of the 1994 owners' lockout/players' strike, Podnieks leaves readers with a sense of incompleteness -- for the title's promise will only be realised by another Stanley Cup victory, not just by the Leafs twice making it to the semi-finals. While the book's cover is full-colour, the numerous photos scattered throughout the book are black and white. A thirty-page appendix of all-time Leaf team and individual achievements completes the work.

For the serious hockey fan, Return to Glory is a fine read, but its scope is likely too limited and its contents too detailed for the average high school collection. The book, however, should be purchased for the adult collections of public libraries where it will be available to adolescent readers.

Recommended with reservations.

Dave Jenkinson is a hockey fan who also teaches courses in children's and young adult literature at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba.

News

International Internet KIDFORUM Project

KIDFORUM is an opportunity for students to share and compare their work internationally. The latest topic is "Blue Print Earth." Read on for details!

The new KIDFORUM topic will start on January 1st and will last till February 29th 1996 and we hope that you will join it with your kids.

KIDFORUM BLUE PRINT EARTH

PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT

MODERATORS:

Indu Varma : ivarma@nbnet.nb.ca
Tor Arne Richvoldsen : richvold@grida.no

Grade Levels: K-12
Subject Areas: Science, Mathematics, Language Arts, Social Studies, & Art

INTRODUCTION

Objective:

The main objective of "Blue Print Earth" is to provide an exciting opportunity that would allow our students to enhance their creative talents and use their imagination to design gadgets, invent articles, and picture social or political scenarios which will make planet Earth a better place to live for our future generations.

Specific Objectives:

  1. Develop an awareness of the various problems that Earth inhabitants are faced with today, e.g. destruction of ozone layer, effects of chemical sprays, various environmental hazards, areas plagued by constant earth quakes or volcanic activity etc.

  2. Promote critical thinking and problem solving abilities among our students by involving them in generating some hypothetical answers to the perceived problems -- solutions that would make the Earth a better place to live.

  3. Enhance creativity and imagination of the students by involving them in designing and inventing gadgets or items to solve the problems observed.

  4. Develop communication, and inter-personal skills by marketing the designed products.

Format:

Those who have subscribed to Kidforum throughout the world will be able to participate in "Blue Print Earth."
  1. A dialogue among students about the most serious problems facing our planet will take place in the first three weeks. Students from each school will post their prioritized list of serious problems facing the Earth today on the Kidforum list.

    During the whole project groups of students are challenged to write an essay. The topic for the essay is closely linked to tha name of this project. Your heading is to be : GAIA... ( which means earth ) The essay can be published whenever it is finished -- during this project, but must be ready and sent to the Kidforum list before Feb. 20.

    We hope to be able to send a diploma to the group(s) of students writing the "best" essay(s)... So start writing...

  2. During the fourth week a discussion about some of the possible solutions will take place between the participating schools. This is intended to be a brain storming activity to generate a wide assortment of possibilities.

  3. Following the dialogue of the first four weeks resulting in a listing of the problems and brain storming for solutions, the students will require two weeks to engineer or develop some products that they believe will provide possible solutions to the problems.

    During the sixth week of the project the students will be back on-line to describe their creations, e.g. a new type of helmet which will absorb UV rays, a chewing gum that has fluoride in it, or a new type of inter-locking brick used in construction to make buildings earth quake safe etc..

    They may post drawings or digitized pictures of their creations on the network (uuencoded gifs) in order to start marketing their inventions.

  4. The seventh week will be an auction week, and the students will have the opportunity to buy and sell their creations. The schools will be able to spend their fictitious $10,000.00 to buy the gadgets that they believe would provide the most useful, workable, and practical solutions. They will also have the opportunity to market their own products using advertising, cartoons, brochures, or other strategies.

    The set up will be similar to an auction where bids are placed on objects, except the product will not be sold to the highest bidder. Instead the product accumulating the highest totals of all the bids will be declared the winner. In a way this is an evaluation done by peers where by the product attaining the highest total of bids will be the judged to be the best by the participants.

  5. We are scheduled for IRC : Jan. 24th and Febr. 21st
    We plan to have real time chats. Kids will be able to discuss the environmental problems, to exchange their views and to find positive solutions to environmental issues.
If you are not yet familiar with KIDLINK IRC, please read KIDLINK IRCWHAT file.

TIME LINE:

MODERATORS:

Moderators for the topic will be:

Indu Varma from Canada - email: ivarma@nbnet.nc.ca
Tor Arne Richvoldsen from Norway - email: richvold@grida.no

Please feel free to ask them questions regarding the topic.

PARTICIPATION:

If you intend to participate in the topic, than we advise you:

  1. To subscribe to KIDFORUM list to receive all messages. You do this by sending message:

    subscribe KIDFORUM "first name second name"

    to:

    LISTSERV@Vm1.NoDak.edu

  2. To subscribe to KIDFORUM-COORD list to be able to discuss the topic among moderator and participating teachers

  3. To send the below registration form to the topic moderators:

    Indu Varma
    Tor Arne Richvoldsen

REGISTRATION FORM FOR BLUEPRINT EARTH

Topic: BLUEPRINT EARTH -- from January 1st - February 29th, 1996

Name of school:_________________________________



Postal address:_________________________________



School phone number:____________________________



School fax number:______________________________



School WWW-homepage:  __________________________(if any)



City, Country:___________________________________



Contact teacher: ________________________________



E-mail address: _________________________________


Approx. number of participating students:________


Approx. age of students: ________________________


Date: ___________________________________________
Mail registration to:

Indu Varma
ivarma@nbnet.nb.ca
Marshview Middle School
P.O. Box 970
Sackville, N.B., E0A 3C0
Tel. (506) 364-4086 (work)
Fax. (506) 364-4096 / 4095

Tor Arne Richvoldsen
richvold@grida.no
Eydehavn school
P.O BOX 100
N4810 Eydehavn, Norway
Tel. +47 37030370
Fax. +47 37031744

WELCOME TO KIDFORUM'S NEW PROJECT, BLUE PRINT EARTH

Please note: In order to take part in any Kidlink activity students have to answer the four Kidlink questions :
  1. Who am I?
  2. What do I want to be when I grow up?
  3. How do I want the world to be better when I grow up?
  4. What can I do now to make this happen?

and send the answers ( RESPONSE ) to RESPONSE@Vm1.NoDak.edu

Questions about KIDFORUM activities should be send to:

KIDFORUM manager Alenka Makuc: makuc@public1.noprmd.mail.si
KIDFORUM assistant Marisa Lucena: mwlucena@ax.apc.org

Alenka Makuc
KIDLINK KIDFORUM manager
PTT High School, Celjska 16
61000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
makuc@public1.noprmd.mail.si
http://stenar.arnes.si/guest/scptt1/alenka.html

Copyright © 1995 the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

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