WRB—Children’s Literature Supplement, June 2024
“concoct a fabulous strawberry shortcake”
Maud Hart Lovelace’s quote, “It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside,” may seem overused, but at least in Sarah’s part of the world, it’s an apt description of the weather. School is out, and hopefully, dear CLS readers, you are off on lovely summer adventures. Even if you aren’t traveling, it’s always delightful to discover what’s in your own backyard. One such resource is the local library, which often hosts engaging summer reading programs and activities for families. Public libraries have their downsides, but their accessibility and amount of available materials is staggering. Don’t see a book you want? Try requesting that the library purchase it—often, librarians will have it ordered and on the shelf within days! Sarah has a few suggestions in this month’s CLS that, if your library doesn’t already own them, would be excellent additions to its shelves.
Flights of fancy
Sky High! by Jacek Ambrozewski (2022) captivated Sarah the moment she retrieved it from the library. This oversized (in the best sense of the term) tome was originally published in Polish and recently translated into English. It’s an engaging, informative, well-designed book covering aviation from its roots in plants to the desire for solar-powered flight. Each page is full of color, and while there is a massive amount of information enclosed here, it’s perfect for children (and adults) to dip into again and again. Sarah especially appreciated the shoutout given to Ohio and the Wright brothers, and has a feeling that the author read David McCullough’s The Wright Brothers (2015) in preparation for that section.
One aspect of flight not really covered in Sky High! was rockets and space exploration. That, however, is why you should pick up Sew Sister by Elise Matich (2023). There are many amazing aspects of the various space programs that have been chronicled over the years, but this one took the cake for Sarah. Why on earth would NASA need seamstresses to work on its rockets? Aren’t they all made of metal? Not so fast. Intricate as these rockets are, it’s not the interior but the exterior which becomes the focus here.
Shakespearian explorations
During a recent tutoring session with one of her students, Sarah was confronted with a fascinating essay question. To paraphrase, the assignment was to compare and contrast The Taming of the Shrew with Ephesians 5:22-33. While she knew the general plot of Taming of the Shrew, the ensuing discussion of this comparison piqued an interest in her to explore Shakespeare further. She’d not read many of his works, and, wanting to get some general plots down before anything else, began reading Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare (1807) on the recommendation of a colleague. This is a wonderful intro to many of the Bard’s most well-known plays, and would be an excellent read-aloud with children. (It’s also perfect for adults who want an introduction to or refresher on certain plot lines.)
Into the spider’s web
When was the last time you thought about E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1952)? Perhaps, like Alexander Riley over in First Things, it’s time to do so again.
But as beautiful a novel as it is, it would be still more aesthetically perfect and more spiritually fulfilling if White had given us more hope. How this reader wishes that there had been some company and some consolation, at the very least, for that brilliant and steadfast arachnid friend in her last moments. I remember still, all these years later, the anguish I felt as a boy thinking of poor Charlotte. I know it would have comforted me immensely to find in the story some evidence that this being I had come to love so dearly had escaped the dreadful fate I too—and all of us—so desire to escape.
Sarah isn’t convinced by Riley’s point here, but she’s open to exploring the theme further. This, indeed, is the great beauty of Charlotte’s Web: that it makes us ponder more than we thought possible on spiders, pigs, and rats, and treasure the lessons of love, loyalty, and hope they might teach us.
What the kids are reading
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