Among the Hidden

I've read the book "Among the Hidden" by Margaret Peterson Haddix at least twice or so before I decided to read it again and write and blog on it for one of my last outside reading books. The book is about a young boy named Luke Garner who is the third child in his family, after his two older brothers Matthew and Mark. As a third child, poor Luke is forced to live in the attic, and is really never able to come out. The reason for Luke's confinement, or hiding is because of the population law. It states that no family should have more than 2 children in their household. As time goes by, I think Luke just considers living in the attic and hiding a way of life, and that many children in other households do it too. Luke indeed is right about other children having to hide. One day he discovers another child in the window of a house nearby. Letting his curiousity get the best of him, he sneaks over to the house next door and meets the child he saw in the window. To his surprise, the child is a young girl about his age named Jen Talbot who is also a third child. Jen seems a little more well off and confident compared to Luke. She even has a fake ID. With this fake ID, she is able to leave the house and go to the president's house to form a rally for all third children. Luke chickens out and doesn't go with her, and unfortunately finds out later that things did not work out in Jen's favor. Jen's father gives Luke a fake ID and sends him off to a private school in hope of more freedom.

I'm not completely sure, but I believe the whole third child/population law is based off of what has occured and what still does take place in certain places around the world. It's sad to think that parents have to risk their child's life in order to keep them alive. One thing that's kind of cool about this book is that all the Garner boys have biblical names. In fact, they're gospel names (the 1st three gospels) Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This idea makes me think that Haddix is trying to point out that these children, especially Luke, are children of God.... just a thought. This book is really good and I would recommend it to anyone. I'm pretty sure this book is part of a series dealing with shadow children. I haven't read any of the others, but might think about it. I'm sure they would be good too.

The Stinky Cheese Man

I don't really remember reading this book as a child, but I know I must have a least once. If not, I know I've at least heard of it. As the title of the book that this story is found in; "The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales," "The Stinky Cheese Man" is definately a stupid story. This story is really short, and to me doesn't really have much of a plot to it. A little old man and a little old lady make a man out of stinky cheese, with a piece of bacon for a mouth and two olives for eyes. Once he comes out of the oven he escapes. Everyone he encounters as he runs away can't stand his stinky odor, and he yells to each one of them "Run run run as fast as you can. You can't catch me. I'm the Stinky Cheese Man!" As this line kept appearing in the story I recognized it from another fairy tale I'm familiar with: The Gingerbread Man.

I'm really not sure how or what the illustrations contribute to the text/story. The illustrations are quite bazaar. One thing I noticed was that the Stinky Cheese Man appears extremely large on the first couple of pages; but as he encounters the cow, the little girl and the fox, he appears rather small (tinier than them). And then, on the last page when he falls into the river we can only see his eyes and mouth, which make him appear big again. I also noticed as I read this story that the size of the text changed as well. It started big, gradually got a little smaller, gets bigger again, and then is the largest on the very last page. I'm really not sure what the author is trying to convey with the change of the size of the text and with the Stinky Cheese Man, but I'm sure it must signify something.

Peter and Max

Today in class we discussed many similarities and connections between Peter Rabbit and Max, and the two books they are found in. First off, they are both wild little boys who like to get into trouble and end up disobeying their mothers. And just like Peter is a little rabbit as well as a young boy, Max is a "wild thing"/wolf as well as a young boy too. Both of these typical little boys appear to rebel against each one of their mother's civilized nature when they disobey them. However, in the end after they both return from their journeys, both Max and Peter are left with tea/dinner and put to bed. The fact that Peter's mother gives him tea to feel better and tucks him in bed, and the fact that Max's mom leaves him a warm dinner, shows that their mothers still do love and care for them and they aren't going to really scold their children for disobeying them. I guess the mothers figure that the boys have learned their lesson on their own, and will hopefully make better decisions in the future. The idea of parent/child conflict is evident in these two stories, but the authors don't let it get out of hand. They simply show that the mothers both have rules for their sons to follow and warn them about bad behavior, but they still love them in the end. And it seems as though Peter and Max realize this in the end because they both return home after their wild journeys and become more "civilized." Max sheds his wildness (the hood of his costume), just like Peter sheds his wildness/"little boy-ness" (by taking off his clothes and shoes) in the end. The two both shed their wild, uncivilized character and return to civilization... better known as home to mom. I didn't really think about these two books relating so much to eachother as well as their characters, but after discussing it it's clear to see!

Where the Wild Things Are

This is some crazy picture book. I remember reading it when I was younger, but I guess now I kind of have a different perspective on the book. I find the main character Max to be really amusing. Again, he seems like the typical little boy who is wild and likes to get into trouble just like we saw with Peter Rabbit. From the very start of the book he is dressed in a monster costume. It's comical how he truly believes he is a scary monster throughout basically the entire book, especially when he's around the wild things. The fact that he believes he is the King of the wild things is even more amusing because he is so much smaller than them, and is obviously not a real monster. But, with some thought, it's clear that this is what many young boys do as children: They imagine themselves in some other world as some type of king, monster, bad guy, etc. who conquers the world.

The illustrations add so much to the story, and it obviously wouldn't be the same without them. The fact that the little boy Max is dressed as a monster in most of the story, makes it seem more real, even though its obvious its not. However, when children read this book or have this book read to them, I'm sure they can see Max as more of a monster than we as young adults can. The illustrations seem to start off somewhat simple, but as Max travels to the place where the wild things are, the illustrations start to become busier and more complex. This kind of gets the reader, especially a child, more into the story and almost "trapped" in this wild world the author and illustrator have created. One last thing before I just go on and on; In the beginning and throughout most of the book, Max is seen in his monster costume and all we can see is his face, but then at the end when he returns to his room, (after wanting to be where someone loved him best of all) we see his head and hair as well. It seems as though he is starting to take his costume off a little, or it is falling off. Some can maybe interpret this to mean that Max is growing up and losing that sense of childhood and imagination.

The Cat in the Hat

"The Cat in the Hat" is an all time classic children's book by Dr. Seuss. Not only this Dr. Seuss book, but others such as "Green Eggs and Ham," "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish," and of course "How the Grinch stole Christmas" are popular books that many young children first learn to read from. Believe it or not, even though many children don't realize it, they're reading poetry when they read Dr. Seuss' books. "The Cat in the Hat" is a perfect example of poetry with the rhyming, rhthym, and play with words. The words that are used in this book are basic, primary words that children are first introduced to once they begin reading. The illustrations are somewhat basic too; well, at least the colors. The only colors that are used are red, blue, white, and black. The reason for this is probably in order to not get children confused and lost with the illustrations and colors as they begin to learn to read. And even though Dr. Seuss books contain a limited vocabulary, they become very popular among young children with their fun, outrageous characters and adventures. The crazy Cat in "The Cat in the Hat" and Thing 1 and Thing 2 appear to be the outrageous characters in this particular book who cause a lot of chaos and trouble. Surprisingly, the two young children don't really do anything about it. In fact, their fish is the only one who seems to have sanity and enough sense to know that their mother would not approve at all. The book ends with the mother not ever finding out about it, yet the children still and will probably never forget the nonsense that went on that rainy day when they didn't have anything to do.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

As I was reading this picture book, I made sure I paid close attention to each and every illustration. Before I started reading the book itself, I read the publisher's note that talked about how this particular edition contained "reorginated illustrations and such." Using the very first edition as a guide, the goal was to "follow faithfully Beatrix Potter's intentions while benefiting from advances in modern printing and design techniques." It also mentioned how this edition contains six extra illustrations, as well as the text being "reset in a period typeface of the right weight to harmonise witht the delicacy of the pictures." When reading each page I did notice that the text complimented the illustration on the page beside it, and vice versa. The shorter versions of text seemed to pair up with the simple pictures, while the longer texts seemed to pair up with the more significant and complex pictures. I enjoyed the illustrations a lot. They were very lifelike indeed and added much to the text. It's been awhile since I've read this book, but in the beginning before we know what kind of trouble Peter gets himself into, we can see in the second illustration that trouble is going to sturr up. We can see this becuase Peter is not paying attention to his mother who is telling him and his sisters to stay out of trouble and to not go into Mr. McGregor's garden. Then, in the rest of the book the reader can clearly see Peter has gotten himself into trouble because he is by himself getting into something, or running from the evil Mr.McGregor; not anywhere near his sisters who seem to be behaving themselves. He not only is a little bunny, but he is a typical little boy.

Picture Books

I want to first start off by saying how weird it is that two of the books we discussed in class today were two of the picture books I read for my outside reading list: "Goodnight Moon," and "Make way for Ducklings."

I never realized just how important illustrations really are in children's storybooks. As we were discussing several picture books in class today it opened my eyes to the fact that illustrations are very important. The several times I've read "Goodnight Moon," I never really noticed what was missing in the text. The text just seemed to describe the setting, while the illustrations added to the setting, giving the reader a more in depth look at the setting as well as the characters. For example, in this book the reader is never told that the main characters are bunnies or that the little bunny is a boy; we have to determine this by looking at the pictures. When I read "Make way for Ducklings" the first time, I never really noticed anything missing from the text because the illustrations were right there to fill in the missing pieces and continue the story along. It's amazing to think that pictures can add so much to a story. In fact, illustrations can often times be more important than the text itself. From now on I will most likely look at the illustrations in picture books more in depth, in order to fully grasp what happens in the story.