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Karen Casillas

Dr. Oesterheld

ENG 308-01

03 April 2017

Field Study Assignment

Location and Date of Visit: Burnett Neighborhood Library, Long Beach, California; March

24,2017

1) Armas, Teresa. Remembering Grandma. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2003.

In this bilingual picture book aimed for 5-8 year-olds, children who are coping with the

recent death of a beloved family can use this as a mirror upon themselves to overcome the grief.

The book’s soft yellow cover features the image of a little Lorena and her Grandma walking on

the shore of the beach laughing while her Grandpa is behind sitting down laughing staring at

Grandma. Lorena and her family are dealing with the recent passing of her Grandma. Lorena at

the beginning of the book is not looking forward to going to her Grandpa’s house that Saturday

morning, since she knows that her mom wants to clear out Grandma’s stuff. Lorena asks her

mother on their way to Grandpa’s house, where Grandma has departed to, her mother simply

answers “In heaven”. This response leaves Lorena very confused, since her mom always

described heaven as being this wonderful place then why would it be so far way?` Filled with

warm soft colors such as yellow, orange and red are seen more commonly throughout the picture

book and very detailed illustrations making the illustrations become more vivid to the audience

are some of the details Pauline Rodriguez Howard incorporated in the book. Lorena and her

Grandpa happen to come across a old carved chest, in which memories of Grandma were held.
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Lorena comes across an old necklace made from shells, and gardening flower hat that once

belonged to Grandma. These brought back delightful memories to both Lorena and her Grandpa,

then both walk to the garden built behind the house and find an inner peace and harmony within

themselves. Interacting with nature, just like Lorena did with both grandparents reminded her

that although her Grandma was no longer with her physically, she always had a piece of heaven

in her backyard meaning she had a piece of her grandma in the garden both grandparents and

granddaughter worked together on.

In Remembering Grandma the simple focus is on overcoming the grief and the difficulty

of dealing with a loss with people who encounter it. This experience can be connected to

Omakayas , the protagonist of the novel The Birchbark House. Omakayas falls into this

depression after her baby brother Neewo loses his battle against smallpox. After her remaining

brother Pinch gets burned with the scalding maple syrup, Omakayas discovers that just like her

grandma she has the ability to heal. That all changes when Old Tallow comes to visit Omakayas

and explains to her that she is the abandoned girl from the plague explaining her immunity to the

disease. Now knowing of her identity , Omakayas walking into the woods surrounded by nature

and animal friends knowing that the presence of baby brother will be always by her side just like

how in the children's book Remembering Grandma Lorena has that interaction with her

grandparent’s garden making her feel as if her grandma will always be by her side.

2) Ellis, Carson. Home. Somerville:Candlewick Press, 2015.

In this beautifully illustrated book aimed at 4-8 years-old, children are given the universal

concept the term “Home”. The book’s white cover page, features the realistic and fanciful

illustrations of various homes that can be called home. The illustrations are gouache paintings

with a splash of warm- low water colors. The simplicity of the text in a few words begins with
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home seen as a familiarized building structure we know of like “Home is a house in a country”

in which later extends to fanciful homes such as “ Atlantians make their home underwater.” The

presence of the dove presented on the title page of the book can be found throughout the majority

of the book representing the dove making its journey through various cultures and countries. At

the ending of the book, a little girl creating a painting within her room gives us various images

and details placed on her wall described to as being a home throughout the book.

This book Home approach towards the audience focuses on exploring the concept of

home seen as a variation among around the world. This concept can be connected to Sweeby

Jones, a local homeless man from the novel Darnell Rock Reporting. Darnell asks Sweeby Jones

a few general questions for his article on the newspaper and one of the questions that Darnell

asked Sweeby was “ Are you homeless?” Sweeby replies to Darnell with saying “ I am rather

hopeless than homeless.” Sweeby does not care to mind if he sleeps in a building on Jackson Ave

or if he were to sleep on the ground it is all the same to Sweeby. This connects to both the

children’s reading and the novel with the concept of a home not having an actual structure or a

actual definition. Home is about not only having a roof to sleep, eat and bath rather than a place

one is more familiarized and accepting with emotion attachment to it. Tha is what home consists

of.

3)Fox, Mem. Koala Lou. New York :HMH Books for Young Readers; 1 edition, 1994.

In this delightful book aimed aimed for children between 3-6 year olds, children reacting

to different ways to an addition of a new siblings in the house. The white book cover, features

Koala Lou and her mother filled with laughter, followed with warm colors such as purple, orange

and red on the title. The beautiful illustrations capture wildlife animals, along with sketched

detailed colored pencils are used for the animals. Kala Lou’s facial expressions pretty much
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telling the story, along with the few sentences placed here and there throughout the book. Koala

Lou receives much attention from her mother,constantly being told by her "Koala Lou, I DO love

you!.” That all changes when more siblings are born, taking away the attention Koala Lou once

had from her mother.

Koala Lou is upset upon the arrival of her siblings over the years, making her feel

unbeloved and detachment from her mother. This has a connection to the relationship that

protagonist Omakayas and her mischievous brother Pinch from novel The Birchbark House. Just

like Koala Lou, Omakayas felt as if she was not receiving the attention from her mother Yellow

Kettle as before. Pinch is a trickster, who has various tricks into getting what he pleases

whenever it is convenient for him. Omakayas throughout the novel wishes on multiple occasions

how she would prefer Pinch to vanish, as wishing he wasn’t ever born. Although Omakayas’

relationship with Pinch wasn’t the move loving, that took a drastic change after the passing of

their younger brother Neewo. Now united more than since the passing of their little brother

Neewo, Omakayas and Pinch realise that instead of trying to capture the most attention from

their mother, they should instead acknowledge that they still eachother. This connects to Koala

Lou, although she did not lose a sibling she did lose 1st place in the Bush Olympics. Koala Lou

was devastated not having won 1st place in the olympics, but her mother didn’t care in which

place Koala Lou finished the olympics, she even says “Koala Lou, I DO love you!.”

4) Myers, Dean Walter. Bad Boy:A Memoir. Waterville: Thorndike Press 2005.

In this time traveling memoir aimed for young adults, Walter Dean Myers travels back to

his roots during the racial and social struggles that were occurring while growing up. Myers was

physically strong and very quick tempered however, the only struggle he always had was
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growing up with a speech disorder. Classmates took this speech disorder as an advantage of

picking on Myers’ mimicking the mispronunciations of words Myers had difficulty with. This

resulted into consequences more for Myers ending up at the principal’s office or a punishment at

home as a result of Myers taking the situation under his control. Myers was always fascinated

with literature, but he did not want anyone to find out as his fear was to get teased once again as

had occurred with his speech disorder. The racial and social struggles surrounding Myers

negatively impacts his aspiration of becoming someone in life, resulting in Myers to question

himself and the values that were taught to him as growing up. No longer was he attending class

meetings, instead he was looking from comfort within books and the streets.

In Bad Boy: A Memoir, Myers is a boy struggling to overcome the struggles placed in his

path in order for a successful future. This overview of Myers’ struggle growing up connects to

the character Darnell from the novel Darnell Rock Reporting written by Myers as well. Darnell

is a middle school student always getting into trouble at school, who as like Myers was at the

point of being sent to another school due to their low academic performance. Both decide to

change their lives around with getting involved with literature and hobbies that kept them out of

the street. The resemblance of both Myers and Darnell having teacher figures as motivators

aspired both young teens to pursue their desire to succeed in life. For instance, Mr. Lasher placed

Myers in a rapid advancement class acknowledging that although there were some flaws within

Myers he had the knowledge, while for Darnell has the support of Mr. Derby who pushes Darnell

out of his comfort zone by convincing him that his articles are a great read to the audience of the

newspaper and to keep up the good work. Myers and Darnell rely on books and literature as the

only way as comfort from avoiding the street and shifting them onto the correct path.

5) Zelinsky, O. Paul. Rapunzel. New York:Dutton Books for Young Readers,1997.

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In this princess fairytale book aimed at 5-8 year olds, children Paul O. Zelinsky retells

one of the oldest yet recognizable princess fairytale, from a different perspective focusing how

Rapunzel lived in the tower where she was kept in hiding. Zelinsky gives a different perspective

of the version we have come to know about Rapunzel. We are taught to think that Rapunzel lived

in horrible conditions in the tower, which were all but the contrary she lived in a very luxurious

tower from inside to outside. The book’s cover, which feature young Rapunzel in her tower

staring directly at one in the eyes with this look of sadness upon her face. Zelinsky's Italian

Renaissance-styled illustrations are very toned to warm colors, making the setting of the story to

appeal to have great lighting of the illustration. The illustrations have the technique called

trompe-l'oeil, making the illustrations seem vivid and in third-dimension to the Italian

Renaissance era.

Rapunzel is not allowed to have any communication with no one, other than her “mother”

who is the witch. This experience can be connected to the version of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Cinderella. Rapunzel and Cinderella grow up with wicked female figures which we know are the

witch and the step mother. There are situations in where these two stories relate such as the

concept of blindness of the wicked step sisters done by the crow and the blinding that occurred to

the prince in Rapunzel after the witch pushed him off from the top of the tower nearly sending

him to his death. Another element shared is the ending of both stories, they both end with each

princess having the happily ever after. Rapunzel had two children with the prince and back to

live with to his kingdom, while Cinderella just married the prince.