The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book. By Rudyard Kipling.  Illustrated by Kurt Wiese and William Henry Drake.  Everyman's Library, 1894.  216 pages.

Ask most people if they've read The Jungle Book, and you'll get the same answer: "No, but I've seen the movie."  Well if that's you, prepare yourself for something completely different: this is definitely not Disney!  Rudyard Kipling's classic tale is filled with darkness.  Death is a constant presence, lurking in the shadows waiting for a chance to pounce.  In Kipling's version, the jungle-dwellers know that any moment of weakness can bring about their own violent downfall, and even the strongest of them understand that the time will come when age and weakness will leave them vulnerable, perhaps even to their own pack.

 This is the world into which the young "Man-cub" Mowgli is thrust after his parents are forced to abandon him as they flee from the man-eating tiger, Shere Khan.  Mowgli is discovered by Mother and Father Wolf, who decide to to keep Mowgli and raise him as their own.  According to the Law of the Jungle, they must introduce the child to the wolf pack and ask approval to keep him.  While the wolves ultimately agree to let young Mowgli remain with them, Shere Khan insists that the boy is his by rights, and swears that he will one day kill him.  Mother Wolf, on the other hand, claims it is Mowgli's destiny to grow up and kill Shere Khan.

Illustration from The Jungle Book (1894)

Many things will come to pass before their fates will be decided.  Mowgli is put under the protection of the great black panther, Bagheera, a powerful hunter who fears no one in the jungle.  Baloo, the bear, becomes Mowgli's teacher, tutoring him in the Law of the Jungle.  In marked contrast to the movie versions, the giant python Kaa is not one of Mowgli's enemies, but rather comes to his aid when he is in danger (Although, you never can be too sure about snakes, can you?).

Mowgli and his adopted family know that one day he will have to return to the world of men, but before that time comes Mowgli will have many adventures and meet up with every type of animal, from the Bandar-log (monkey people) who know no law, to the conniving jackal Tabaqui.  Mowgli learns the ways of the jungle, and is able to communicate with all of the animals.  He gets into and out of danger, often calling on the creatures for help.  In the end, Mowgli has to decide which destiny to pursue: destroy Shere Khan, or take his place in the world of men.

Illustration from The Jungle Book (1894)

Interwoven into these tales are the equally enjoyable but unrelated stories of The White Seal and Rikk-Tikki-Tavi, the cobra-killing mongoose (among others).  Masterpieces of children's literature and triumphant feats of imagination, these stories have held the attention of young and old alike for more than a century.  Give them a try and you'll come to learn what good readers already know: the book is always better!

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Illustration from The Jungle Book (1894)

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. By Kimberly Willis Holt. Dell Yearling, 1999.  227 pages.  $6.38 (Paperback)

"Nothing much ever happens in Antler, Texas.  Nothing much at all.  Until this afternoon, when an old blue Thunderbird pulls a trailer decorated with Christmas lights in to the Dairy Maid parking lot.  The red words painted on the trailer cause quite a buzz around town, and before an hour is up, half of Antler is standing in line with two dollars clutched in hand to see the fattest boy in the world."

Toby and his best friend, Cal, are getting ready to head back to school near the end of another uneventful summer, when a new sensation arrives in town that will have an unexpected impact on both of their lives.  Zachary Beaver, billed as "the fattest boy in the world," weighs six hundred and forty-three pounds and travels the country in a trailer, charging curious spectators for a glimpse of his prodigious girth.  When Zachary is deserted by his caretaker, the boys find themselves thrust into an unwanted friendship with the enormous boy.  Zachary is often rude and surly, and seems to harbor many secrets, and Cal and Toby see him as a burden at first.  Little by little, however, Zachary lowers his guard and reveals himself to be much more complex than he first appears.

Meanwhile, Toby, the narrator of our tale, has other worries.  Like how to get Scarlett, the pretty blonde girl from his school, to think of him as more than a friend (while avoiding her menacing boyfriend, Juan).  Not only that, but Toby's mom has left the family in Texas to enter a singing contest in Nashville, and Toby notices some disturbing signs that seem to indicate that she may not be planning to return.

Set in the early seventies against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, this surprisingly complex book is often funny, and occasionally quite sad.  It is a story about the complexities of friendship and the difficulty of fitting in.  A winner of the National Book Award, this is a story anyone can relate to: it documents that awkward period between childhood and adulthood that can be one of the most difficult periods in anyone's life.  At the same time, it is a story about a (literally) larger than life character that is utterly unique in the world of fiction.

Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement

Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement. By Ann Bausum. National Geographic Society, 2006.  79 pages.  $18.95

"Captured in the pages of this book is a compelling moment in human history, the drama of the Freedom Rides, the most untold story of the civil rights movement.  This is a true account of courageous Americans who were prepared to dis for what they believed."  So says civil rights leader John Lewis in his forward to Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement, a Robert F. Sibert Honor book.  This fascinating book begins with an examination of the era preceding the civil rights movement from both the African American and white perspective by detailing the childhoods of the Lewis and Zwerg.  It goes on to show how these two men, one black and the other white, became leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's through their participation in the Freedom Rides, in which activists from different parts of the country rode buses into the Deep South to confront racial injustice.  Adhering firmly to their non-violent principles, they nevertheless faced great dangers as they attempted to bring the message of equality for all into the most segregated parts of the United States.

The passages about Lewis's childhood are especially moving.  Growing up in the heart of the Jim Crow era, Lewis was confronted daily with his "otherness": the sense that he was trapped in a society in which he could never be accepted.  He talks about his anger and his shame at having to attend segregated schools with no playgrounds, no indoor plumbing, and hand-me-down books.  These early experiences were the forge in which Lewis developed the strength to confront injustice; he became one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement as a very young man, and, as a congressman from the state of Georgia, he continues to fight for equal rights for all people to this very day.

Zwerg, by contrast, "might as well have been born into another world." He had very little interaction with other races growing up, but his parents taught him respect for all people, regardless of their differences.  In college, Zwerg was a natural leader, and when the Civil Rights Movement began to gain momentum his deep sense of right and wrong compelled him to act.

John Lewis and others confront police on Bloody Sunday

Retrieved from https://c1.staticflickr.com/2/1697/23854979734_8f8582ed45_b.jpg

The two men would go on to face all manner of prejudice side-by-side.  They were confronted by angry mobs armed with baseball and hammers; they heard the most hateful of racial epithets; and they mourned when some of their fellow protesters we're killed by bigots.  But they also witnessed and participated in some of the pivotal moments in this nation's history, and in the end, heroes like Lewis and Zwerg persevered and helped to bring about lasting change and a greater degree of equality for all Americans.  This book is a reminder that a few a determined individuals can make a difference in the face of great injustice.  It is also a reminder that we have a responsibility to do so.

Highly Recommended: Award-Winning Books

Click on the thumbnail below to view my presentation on award-winning children's and young adult books:

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book. By Neil Gaiman. Illustrated by Dave McKean. Harper Collins, 2008.  312 pages.  $11.99

Introduction to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book

"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.."  So begins the strange and thrilling tale of Nobody Owens, better known as Bod.  When his parents are murdered while he is still an infant, the remarkable Bod somehow manages to escape... to a graveyard.

There, young Bod comes under the protection of the graveyard's residents (some of whom have been dead for more than one thousand years!), who decide to adopt Bod and raise him as their own.  Bod's upbringing is overseen by the mysterious Silas, who arranges to for Bod to learn not only his ABCs, but the shadowy ways of the dead as well.

Bod meets many strange beings, from ghouls and witches to night-gaunts, Sleers, and Hounds of God.  Some of these creatures mean him well, while others mean him harm, but Bod always seems to escape from danger in the nick of time.  But there are things in Bod's background that even he does not know about, and dangers are lurking, waiting for their chance to pounce.

This action-packed book is enlivened by the stylized illustrations of Dave McKean.
Illustrations from The Graveyard Book (Gaiman, 2008)

Now that you've read my introduction, you can view my read-aloud from Chapter 1 here:

The Holocaust: Further Reading for Number the Stars

If you need help on your research project, or just want to learn more about this fascinating and horrifying period in history, come by the library and check out our display.

     

Number the Stars

Number the Stars. By Lois Lowry. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1989. 137 pages. $11.00

"'Halte!' the soldier ordered in a stern voice...'Why are you running?'"  Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend, Ellen, were just two young girls racing each other to the corner.  They did not realize that their lives were about to change forever.

Lois Lowry's Number the Stars is set in Copenhagen, Denmark, shortly after it was occupied by Hitler's Nazis during WWII.  Before the German invasion, Annemarie and her friends and family had known only peace and happiness, but now they were faced with daily specter of soldiers in the streets, with their shining black boots and their rifles slung over their shoulders.  Still, they do their best to carry on with a normal life.  But one day, they learn that the Nazis are rounding up all the Jews in Copenhagen for "relocation"... and Annemarie's best friend, Ellen, is Jewish.

Annemarie and her family make a commitment to help Denmark's Jews escape a terrible fate, but they do so only  at great danger to themselves.  As the Nazis close in on Ellen and her family, the Johansens involve themselves in a desperate plan to save them.  If they are caught, they could all be arrested.  Or worse.

Lowry's fast-paced story races along to a dramatic climax.  Will Ellen and her family escape to safety?  Will Annemarie and the Johansens be able to avoid detection?  This book will keep you in suspense right up to the end.  In the process, you will see examples of great courage and boundless compassion.  This book is ultimately a reminder that we are indeed each others' keepers, and that we have a duty to our fellow men and women, regardless of whether we share the same faith or the same ethnicity.  Although this is not a true story, it was inspired by the very real heroism of the Danish people, who were able to save most of their country's Jews from the horrible fate the befell the Jews of almost every other country in Europe.  This is a memorable and inspiring book that will appeal to a wide range of readers.

Maya's Children: The Story of La Llorona

Maya's Children: The Story of La Lloronoa. By Rudolfo Anaya. Hyperion Press, 1997. 32 pages. $25.95

View the link to my read-aloud here:

Read aloud of Rudolfo Anaya's "Maya's Children: The Story of La Llorona"

I Am a Taxi

I Am a Taxi.  By Deborah Ellis. Groundwood Books, 2006. 208 pages. $8.12

Sometimes, school can feel like jail, but imagine spending your childhood in a real prison!  That’s precisely what happens to twelve-year-old Diego in Deborah Ellis’ book, I Am a Taxi.  After both of his parents are wrongfully convicted of a crime they did not commit, Diego and his three-year-old sister Corina are sent to live in a Bolivian women’s prison with their mother.  Unlike the prisoners, however, children like to Diego are allowed to leave the prison during the day, only to return at night.  With this limited freedom, Diego becomes a “taxi”: he earns small amounts of money running errands for the other prisoners, sending messages, buying food and other goods, and so forth.  Diego is also allowed to go back and forth between the women’s and men’s prisons, which allows him some contact with his father. The money Diego earns helps his parents to pay for their own food and the rent the government makes them pay for their prison cells; without his contributions, the family would be forced to sleep on the ground and go without food.  In this strange new world, Diego is forced to grow up fast and learn to take care of himself.  While these events sound remarkable, they are based on actual conditions in the real-life prisons of Bolivia.

Smart and resourceful, Diego adapts amazingly well to his new life.  He makes good money and earns the trust of the adult prisoners.  But one day, Diego is lured into a trap that will separate him from his family and threaten his very life.  Drawn by the prospect of making serious money, money that could help his family, Diego and his best friend Mando are tricked into joining up with a group of “cocaleros”: cocaine producers and traffickers who live outside the law.  Diego and Mando soon find themselves deep in the heart of the Bolivian jungle, kept prisoner and forced to work like slaves in the production of the dangerous drug.  Diego and Mando endure hardships and tragedies together, wondering if they will ever see their families again.

Ellis’ fast-paced, action-packed book shows the difficulties faced by children from other societies, perhaps reminding us that we may have more to be thankful for than we sometimes realize.  Like Diego, children who experience such traumas miss out on many of the normal experiences of childhood; even the repetitive routine of school and homework would seem like a relief to them compared to what they must tolerate on a daily basis.  This is a story about a boy who must become a man before his time, whether he is ready or not.  As you read this book, you will grow to admire Diego for his strength and his smarts.  Ellis’ book, by turns harrowing and inspiring, is one that you won’t soon forget.

A Child's Anthology of Poetry

A Child's Anthology of Poetry. Edited by Elizabeth Hauge Sword. HarperCollins 1995. 323 pages. $19.37

Children’s poetry books usually fall into one of two categories: either they are filled with poems that so are juvenile and silly that they lack real meaning, or they contain poems that are so complex that young people are unable to appreciate them.  Editor Elizabeth Hauge Sword’s A Child’s Anthology of Poetry strikes the perfect balance between these two extremes. The beauty of this book is that it speaks to children, without talking down to them. Filled to the brim with the work of such “serious” poets as Maya Angelou, William Blake, Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, and Emily Dickinson, to name only a few, the poems are so well-chosen that readers of all ages will find much to enjoy here.  Of course, the book also includes the work of authors who write specifically for children, household names like Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky, among others. 

The poems in this collection range far and wide, from the humorous doggerel of Ogden Nash’s “Experiment Degustatory,” to the somber “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” of Dylan Thomas, to the nonsense verse of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky,” to Poe’s classic narrative of horror, “The Raven,” there truly is something here for everyone. 

The collection also includes a wide range of poetic forms and styles to inspire the young poet.  Here you will find the haiku of Basho, the narrative poetry of Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman” or Longfellow’s “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”, the experimental forms of E.E. Cummings, and the deceptive simplicity of William Carlos Williams.  In essence, this book exposes young readers and writers to the entire world of possibilities that exists within the genre of poetry, and it is a collection that they will never outgrow.

Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask

Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask; A Bilingual Cuento. By Xavier Garza. Cinco Punto Press, 2005. 40 pages. $14.29

Illustration from Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask (Garza, 2005)

View the link to my read-aloud here:

Read aloud of "Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask"

The One and Only Ivan

The One and Only Ivan. By Katherine Applegate. Illustrated by Patricia Castelao. Harper, 2012. 305 pages.  $20.25

Katherine Applegate's Newbury Award-winning novel The One and Only Ivan is the story of a silverback gorilla who spends his life in a glass cage in a shopping mall, where he is put on display for the customers who come to stare at him.  Ivan's best friends are an elephant named Stella and a stray dog named Bob, but he is still lonely because he has no contact with other gorillas.  Some of the humans who visit Ivan are nice; others, not so much, but Ivan is befriended by a girl named Julia, whose father is responsible for cleaning the animals' cages.  Julia is an artist, and with her help, Ivan becomes an artist as well. Using the paper, crayons, and paints that Julia gives him, Ivan creates artworks that are sold by his keeper, Mack, in the mall gift store.  Patricia Castelao's whimsical black and white illustrations help to bring these characters to life.

Even though Ivan has a home, food, and friends, he also has the feeling that something important is missing.  He can barely remember his life in the jungle, but he knows that wild animals belong outside, with real trees, real skies, and others of their kind.  One day, a new arrival comes to the mall: a baby elephant named Ruby, who is adopted by Stella.  As he observes Ruby adapt to her new environment, Ivan becomes even more convinced that animals belong in nature, and he makes a vow to help her find a better place to live.  Ivan uses his art to get his message out to those who can help her.

Based on the story of a real-life gorilla, The One and Only Ivan is a story about many things.  It is a story about friendship, and about loneliness as well.  It's about how we treat those who are different from us, and it is also about the power of art to change the way people think,   This book will appeal to anyone who has ever felt alone or different, and anyone who has ever been concerned about the way humans treat the other creatures with whom we share this planet.  Sometimes funny, and sometimes quite sad, this book is always entertaining, and always thought-provoking.  Come to the library and check it out!