You Should Read Peter Sis

Okay, I am really, really trying to up my entries to one a week. I do have a lot of authors and book-related topics I would like to cover before the semester is over. I know you are thinking I could continue after the class. The end of term doesn't necessarily mean the end of this blog. Very True!

So today, I want to speak about Peter Sis. I like this author so much, I am collecting all of his books - his childrens' books - anyways. I love them. They are engaging, informative, mysterious. He has written books for the very small schildren, but the books I am most interested in appeal to readers who are around 8 years of age and continue to capture their interest through adulthood.

Peter Sis writes and illustrates most of his books. He also has illustrated for other authors. Perhaps the strongest voice emanting from his books is his passion for freedom. He reiterates his message that freedom should be cherished and protected through all his books and in every facet of his storytelling. Perhaps he is so keenly aware of the value of freedom, because of where he came from. Peter Sis was born in Czechoslovakia, in 1949. He was raised and educated under the communist regime, attending a school in Prague and also one in London. He began his career as a filmaker, as his dad was before him. In 1982, he was sent by his government to the United States to make a film about the 1984 Olympics. When he was ordered to return home, he instead chose to seek asylum.

The appeal of his books, The Thing that keeps me coming back to read them and visit the lands he tells about or the characters he creates, is that he tells his story in so many different ways and all in a relatively short picture book style. I'll use STARRY MESSENGER - the story of Galileo, as an example.

He uses a direct narrative, first, not inspired or elaborate, but a clear simple recounting to the reader. So now we know something about Galileo. Did you know he was the first to assert the earth was not the center of the universe? Probably so.

But we must look again, for his compliment to his narrative. This time, as we look through the book, we see he has included more facts abou this topic in the margins, or as headings to the pictures - in script usually and curved around corners in interesting ways. These extra messages are everywhere - telling us more and more about the person. Letting us get to know Galileo, even better. Did you know his book was translated into many languages, even Chinese? Neither did I.

And listen to this quote from Galileo that Peter Sis includes in his book, "Why should I believe blindly and stupidly what I wish to believe, and subject the freedom of my intellect to someone else who is just as liable to error as I am?"

Now look once more, and see that he tells the story in his strongest way, through his amazing pictures. His illustrations are incredibly detailed drawings and the most inspired part of his books. Many times he will include a double page with many beautiful small sketches. So you get a picture by picture account of a story he is telling, within his story. He has small illustrations in his margins and ghostly images in the background that echo his view or the folk lore of the culture he is expressing in his particular book. This adds to the mystique of his tales. In Galileo there is a map of Italy that clearly explains the politics of the day - just by the picture, and an especially haunting one of the doubt and fear Galileo must have felt as the church tried him for his beliefs.

Peter Sis chooses subjects for his books that embody his belief in freedom of choice, speech and thought. His books have helped me and my children grow - and I have shared many of them with teachers. Here is a list of his books that we have enjoyed.

• The Wall; Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
• The Three Golden Keys
• A Small Tall Tale from the Far Far North
• Tibet Through the Red Box
• Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei
• Follow the Dream: A Story of Christopher Columbus

If you want to learn more abou the author, visit, http://www.petersis.com/.

Myths, Fairy and Folk Tales

I have been thinking most recently of D'Aulaires' Greed Myths. Have you heard of this book? I spent hours as a child reading about the mishaps and adventures of the Greek gods and their heroes they championed. I loved the adventure, the monsters, the mystical power, the idea that there was this council of imperfect gods determining the fates of the characters in the story - sort of like a chess game. Apparently, I wasn't alone. Now there is a bestseller series and a movie coming out today, on what else? - Greek Myths in New York City!


But what are myths other than an oral tradition of stories passed down through generations and eventually recorded? Stories that instruct, entertain, help explain the natural world around us, and venture to explain the spiritual. They are folk tales.


About the same time I was reading Greek myths, I was also pretending to be a princess. Fairy tales are also about magic, monsters and adventure. They are apart of the folk tale tradition, as well. I love folk tales because they do more than instruct. They also reveal the rich culture and history from which they were born. Imagine, before there were so many books, sitting around the fire and listening to how Brer Rabbit outsmarted Fox and Bear. Or even further in the past, understanding your heritage and identity as your father recited lineage and the stories that were part of you. I just want to thank Aesop, the Grimm brothers, and Hans Christian for their part in recording these tales.


Sometimes I hear parent worry about the magic or violence in these stories. They are concerned their children will be harmed when they hear that a witch was fattening Hansel so she could eat him or a wolf was stalking a little girl in the forest and then ate her grandma. I like what C.S.Lewis has to say on the matter.

C.S. Lewis, On Stories and Other Essays

"Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless, in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can't bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first I
agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give
children the false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so education a generation which is born to the Ogpu [State Police in the USSR] and the atomic bomb. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let hem at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making
their destiny not brighter but darker. Nor do most of us find that violence and blood shed, in a story, produce any haunting dread in the minds of children. As far as that goes, I side impenitently with the human race against the modern reformer. Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles, and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly
killed at the end of the book. Nothing will persuade me that this courses and ordinary child any kind of degree of fear beyond what is wants, and needs to feel. For of course it wants to be a little frightened."

When my girls were small, we loved all the classic fold and fairy tales, Now that my girls are older, we love them eve more! Here are some of our favorites.

• Shelley Duvall's Fairie Tale Theatre - This is a DVD collection of classic fairy tales, made is the late 1980's - mid 1990's. When she produced these, she recruited some of the best talent of the time, including Robin Williams, Pam Dawber(remember her?), Jeff Goldblum, and directors like Tim Burton and Francis Ford Coppola. These are great fun to watch and see who you can recognize.


• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Stupid Tales and Squids Will Be Squids, both by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith --These are really funny picture books. One is a collection of twisted fold tales and the other is a collection of twisted fables.


• Lon Po Po, by Ed Young - A Red Riding Hood story from China


• Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, by John Steptoe - An African Folk Tale similar to Cinderella


• Goldilocks Has Chicken Pox, by Erin Dealey and Hanako Wakiyama - A good picture book with a rhyming story. It's got great rhythm.


• Henny Penny, by Jane Wattenburg - The FUNNIEST version of "The sky is falling". You have go to read this!

What are some of your favorites? Please let me know!

Keeper of Books

"Young man!" our librarian demanded, "Where is your book?" Restless murmurs and squirming on the library rug stopped as all heads, in our third grade class, swiveled to look at the culprit. We were waiting for the weekly story to begin. Most of us had been distracted by our own thoughts or by each other. We were focused now, and waited in hushed anticipation. What was going to happen?

The poor boy looked down at his empty, book-less lap, "Well I intended to bring it, but..." His voice trailed off.

"You intended to bring it?! INTENDED?!" our librarian queried, raising her voice a notch higher. "Young man the streets of HELL are paved with good intentions!" We breathed a collective gasp as our mouths dropped open in shock.

"Is she allowed to say that?" we wondered.

WOW! Mrs. Ferrari, my first librarian, was a short, round woman who seemed very old by the time I met her. She had permanently permed hair, permanently pursed lips, and a piercing gaze, surveying her domain over her spectacles. When she spotted a problem, she pounced. "Quiet in the library!" Most of us were a little scared of her. But she was a soldier for her books and a faithful guide for us. She was passionate about training children to love words as much as she did.

"Children, don't ever write in the books you borrow from the library. Don't ever bend them backwards." she would exhort over and over. "And don't ever turn down the corner of a page to mark your place, NEVER! You may use a bookmark."

Then, with anticipation, she would say, "Children, listen to this story I have for you today!" We would sit and listen in rapt attention to her strident voice that had softened to the joy of reading and we looked at the pictures and were carried away to different lands.

Here was Alexander, having a no good, very bad day. There was Mike Mulligan finding a new job for his steam shovel. Don't forget dear literal, scatterbrained Amelia Bedelia or Harold and his Purple Crayon. These words she gave to us -- these books she introduced us to -- We grew from them. And so do children today, each time they listen to a good book.

Technology has changed our librarians into media specialists and our libraries into media centers. Now you can download a book and listen to it in your car or IPOD, or read it on a Kindle. While I understand that these advances are good things, please, let it never be that we won't have the solid, comforting object that is a book! One that feels heavy in your hand, with colorful binding and pages of paper with printed words and sometimes beautiful pictures that describe more than the words themselves. May we always take time to sit down together with a good book.

This blog that I am starting was prompted by a class assignment, and I am glad of it. I want to use it as an opportunity to share information about great books and ideas on how to encourage reading and literacy, especially among our young readers. I have a vested interest. I am a mom. If we show our children how to love words, they can carry that lesson with them and grow forever.