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BLOG 10

Wing Walker by Rosemary Wells
Illustrated by Brian Selznick

Plot Summary: Set during the depression, Reuben and his family are trying to make ends meet. Unfortunately both of Reuben's parents lose their jobs shortly before Reuben is to start third grade at his Oklahoma school. One day Reuben's father sees an ad for a wing walker at a carnival in Minnesota. The family sells off everything they own so they can make the trek. Once they arrive, they find a travelling carnival awaits them. The carnival is full of eccentric characters who each have a lesson for the reticent Reuben. Reuben not only learns to except his move, his father's new job but gains the courage to join to join him as a wing walker.

My Impression: Not liking history or historical novels I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. My enjoyment of the book comes primarily from Ms. Wells's writing, not Mr. Selznick's painting. Ms. Wells writes with a clear understanding of the emotions that Reuben goes through. At a young age, when my father lost his job I be came acutely aware of the value of money. I watched as looked for a job and my mother stoically scaled everything back in the house. The fear that Reuben feels is quite potent and accurately described. However, it is not just the fear of not having money that causes Reuben's fear, but he is also uncertain of himself. As good as the writing is the illustrations simply did not match the writings quality. Mr. Selznick's pictures are fine, its just that the scenes he chose to illustrate are anticlimactic. I would have liked to have seen more of the carnival people. With all of the interesting things that did happen in the book choosing boarded up windows and city skylines seems cheap.

Review:
Living on a wing and a prayer
Review by Ron Kaplan
Rosemary Wells is famous for the comforting, cuddly characters Max and Ruby, two young rabbits who get in and out of all sorts of trouble. In Wingwalker, she covers more serious territory, telling a tale in which faith and an open mind weave magic, and things heretofore unimaginable are, in fact, possible.Reuben is a second-grader in Ambler, Oklahoma, in the less-frantic era of the 1920s. At a county fair, he wins a ride in a bi-plane every young boy's dream. But the experience is so terrifying, the youngster vows never to ride in a plane again.The air holds woe as well as wonder when the dust storms of the Depression rush through Reuben's hometown. Suddenly his father, a dance instructor, and mother, a cafŽ cook, are thrown out of work and, together with millions of other Americans, are forced adjust to their new circumstances. How the family manages through the tough times makes for an inspirational tale of friendship and courage. Reuben's father scours the want ads daily. When he can't find work close to home, he decides to expand the family's horizons and look elsewhere. An unusual advertisement beckons them to Minnesota, where the job of "wingwalker" with a traveling carnival awaits. Reuben and his mother both have doubts about dad's career choice, but they hope for the best as they sell off their possessions and load up the car. Part of the book's magic (not just in a figurative sense) comes from the carnival's characters: the fat man, the tattooed lady, the fire-eater and the human snake. All have lessons to teach Reuben as he struggles to overcome his worries and turn them around so that he, too, can join his father as a "wingwalker." Wells' easygoing, honest storytelling makes Wingwalker the type of book kids and their parents will enjoy reading together. Brian Selznick's illustrations are full of brown and golden hues, which remind one of the sepia tones of old family photographs. And Wingwalker warmly addresses a basic child's fantasy soaring high through the air, free as a bird. Ron Kaplan writes from Montclair, New Jersey.

Kaplan, Ron. [book review of Wingwalker ] retrieved from http://www.bookpage.com/books-9845-Wingwalker

Book Review
Wingwalker by Rosemary Wells, illustrated by Brian Selznick (Hyperion, 2002)
Ages 7 - 12
Wingwalker is a lovely piece of children's historical fiction set in the dust bowl drought of the 1930s. The story is told from the perspective of seven-year-old Reuben, who watches his families economic fortunes sink as the drought worsens. His family travels far from their home in Oklahoma when his father takes a job as a wingwalker in a traveling carnival.
The artwork is lovely, the scenes compelling, and the language rich and evocative.

http://www.biglearning.com/book-review-wingwalker.htm

Suggestions for Library Use: Although this book is primarily told through the eyes of Reuben, I would suggest reading this book to a group of first or second graders around father's day. this book really captures esteem children hold their parents. After the story the children could be asked to create a letter or card for their fathers.

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
by Gary D. Schmidt

Plot Summary: The story takes place in maine. Turner Buckminster III is new to Maine, after his father was called to be pastor of the Maine town. Turner is not happy and would rather have stayed in Boston. His first day in his new town Turner participates in a baseball game. this excites Turner because baseball is Turner's game. However, Willis Hurd, the deacon's son strikes him out in front of the whole town humiliating Turner. The next day while walking through town Turner throws a rock which hits Ms. Cobb's fence. Hitting her fence brings Ms. Cobb out of her house, who proceeds to chew Turner out. Because his behavior is a reflection on his father, his punishment for hitting the fence is that he has to go read to Ms. Cobb every day. On one of his free days he goes to the coast where he sees his first African American person, Lizzie Bright. Lizzie and Turner become friends. Lizzie helps Turner with his baseball game. Lizzie and her family lives on this island. The towns people want Lizzie and her family to move off the island so that a developer can develop the land. Obviously the towns people do not want Turner to be friends with Lizzie. Through a series of events Ms. Cobb leaves her house to Turner. Turner wants to give the house to Lizzie whose grandfather has taken ill. Turner's dad does not want him to, but Turner cajoles him otherwise. Eventually Lizzie and the rest of the African Americans are placed in an insane asylum. After Turner's father dies, Turner tries to get Lizzie out of they asylum, only to find out she has died. The developer leaves town making the town's people even more destitute. Turner and his mother move into Ms. Cobb's house and start a boarding house.

My Impression: This is a terrible book. The plot of this novel has more twists and turns and is more ham-fisted than any soap opera ever vomited onto the small screen. The only thing missing is a violin to tell you exactly when to cry. I get it we are supposed to treat everyone equally, racism is bad. Does everyone have to die and a town be brought to the brink of ruin for people to have to learn this lesson? There has to be subtler way for this message to be gotten across.

Reviews:
Taking a stand
REVIEW BY DEAN SCHNEIDER
Turner Buckminster has moved with his family from Boston to Phippsburg, Maine, where his father will be the new minister. Unfortunately for Turner, his first days start off poorly and go downhill from there. A star fast-pitch softball player, he's a washout here, where slow-pitch is the game. When he goes swimming, he's scared to jump into the ocean from the granite outcropping as the other kids do. And then he's accused of walking down the middle of the road half-naked, something not done in a God-fearing town such as Phippsburg.
Thirteen-year-old Lizzie Bright is aptly named, as she is the bright spot in Turner's early days in Maine. An African-American girl living on Malaga Island, a poor community founded by former slaves and just a short dory ride from Phippsburg, Lizzie meets Turner on the beach. Although Turner already feels like a misfit in his new community and wishes he could light out for the Territories like Huckleberry Finn, Lizzie loves her world on the island and wholeheartedly embraces it.
But the frock-coated, good God-fearing men of Phippsburg do not love Malaga Island. Their shipbuilding trade is dying out, and they want to remove the residents of the island and remake their community into a tourist haven. Racism and greed are a powerful and deadly combination, and Turner can do little to stop the adults from destroying Malaga Island.
Since the story is based on a true incident of an island's destruction in 1912, there will not be a happy ending here, but this is Turner Buckminster's tale as much as Malaga Island's, and in Turner we see a coming of age. He comes to realize that there are different ways to rebel, to stand your ground and seek a new world.
Though the story is tragic, Schmidt writes beautifully, with images of nature and scenes of humor that leaven the sadness of the tale. This is a great story that readers will long remember.

Scneider, Dean. [Review of the book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy ] retrieved from http://www.bookpage.com/0408bp/children/lizzie_bright.html


Book Review: Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
By Matt Berman
What Parents Should Know Based on true events, which readers may want to research, this tragic novels offers much for discussion: in addition to its depiction of New England racism, there are relationships of many kinds to explore, moral growth and change in several characters, majority vs. minority rights, and unintended consequences of one's actions. Its lyrical and metaphorical writing are terrific examples for writing classes.
Common Sense Media Review Based on the true story of the destruction of the Malaga island community (described in an Author's Note), this complex and powerful novel deserves its Newbery Honor. Its richness of language and metaphorical meaning, and its three-dimensional and evolving characters are well summed up in a line from the end of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species which the author quotes near the end of the book: "From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
The beautiful and wonderful forms that evolve here are the characters and their relationships and viewpoints, all complex, and all undergoing change. There's Turner, of course, struggling to live up to his father's teachings even when his father doesn't; Mrs. Cobb, a crusty old racist who learns to love a black girl and an ill-mannered boy; Willis, who seems to be a bully but has an ironclad sense of what's right; his father, Deacon Hurd, whose pride goeth before a fall; and many others, a Dickensian wealth of real characters. And evolution is not just individual -- the relationships and understandings between the characters change, and change again. This lovely, heartbreaking, and very real story doesn't always go where you think it will, but in the end it goes to a movingly spiritual place.
From the Book: And so Turner reached the whale's eye, and they looked at each other. They looked at each other a long time -- two souls rolling on the sea under the silvery moon, peering into each other's eyes. Turner wished with a desire greater than anything he had ever desired that he might understand what it was in the eye of the whale that shivered his soul.
He stretched his hand out across the side of the dory and reached over as far as he could without tipping the boat. But the whale kept a space of dark water between them, and they did not touch. Then slowly the whale sank, the water closing quietly along its black and white back.

Berman, Matt. [Book review of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy] retrieved from http://family.go.com/entertainment/article-csm-117814-book-review--lizzie-bright-and-the-buckminster-boy-t/

Suggestions for Library Use: Don't use this book. Firewood perhaps. This book could possibly be used during black history month or to teach right from wrong. However this book should only be a last resort. Roll of Thunder Here My Cry would be a better book for what is essentially the same moral.