Rainbow Bird

Rainbow Bird: An Aboriginal Folktale from Northern Australia by Eric Madden, Illus. by Adrienne Kennaway, 1993.

This pourquoi story tells of Rainbow Bird, who, during the Dreamtime, took fire from the selfish Crocodile Man and shared it with the people. Crocodile Man kept the all fire to himself, until watchful Bird Woman changed things and banned him from the land, telling him to make his home in the water. Then Bird Woman put some firesticks into her tail and became the beautiful Rainbow Bird.

Adrienne Kennaway has provided bright watercolor illustrations for the story. Orange is the predominant color, from the sand and rocks of Crocodile Man's original home to the flames he can shoot from his mouth to the fur of fleeing kangaroos. Humble grey Bird Woman transforms into tropical colored Rainbow Bird, flipping rainbow stripes from her tail as she flies. Crocodile Man is  large and toothy, making an impressive villain for brave Bird Woman/Rainbow Bird to defeat.

Moving on to Australian myths and folktales: Sun Mother Wakes the World

As you know, I am interested in learning about folktales and myths from all over the world, and for the purposes of this blog, especially illustrated ones for children. I am quite familiar with many English, French and German tales and have looked here at picture books about folktales from Russia, Africa and Japan. I would now like to look into the mythology and folk tales of Australia, particularly the Aboriginal stories of the Dreamtime. I am eagerly looking forward to reading up on them to assuage my ignorance.

Sun Mother Wakes the World: an Australian Creation Story adapted by Diane Wolkstein, Illus. by Bronwyn Bancroft, 2004.

From the information preceding this story, we learn that The Dreamtime is a continual process of  the creation of the world. Indigenous Australian people believe that each person's birthplace is sacred and their own Dreaming, and they go on walkabouts to look after their birthplaces and keep the earth alive.

Author Ramsay Smith attributed the original tale of the Sun Mother to a Karraru woman of the West Coast of South Australia. His collection, Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals, was published in the early 1930s. Diane Wolkstein considered this, and also visited Australia three times to research the story of Sun Mother while she was creating this book.

In this story, the Sun Mother is awakened by a quiet voice, and then she wakes the sleeping earth, bringing to life vegetation and animals. After time passes, the animals begin to quarrel, so Sun Mother allows them to choose the shape that they desire. She then births her children Moon and Morning Star, so that the creatures will be comforted by their light. Together, they birth the first woman and man. Sun Mother instructs them to always return to their birthplace to look after it, and to walk the land as she does, to keep it alive.

 Indigenous Australian artist Bronwyn Bancroft provides bold visual accompaniment suitable to this tale. She uses vivid colors that provide strong contrast on each page such as yellow and orange that pop against deep blue and purple. Her abstract Sun Mother variously suggests a fetus, golden  Madonna in a stained glass window, snake woman, tree woman and pregnant bellied, radiant sun.The bright goddess contrasts the black silhouetted animals and people around and inside her. The borders that Bancroft uses on some pages teem with fish, snakes, lizards and butterflies. The lively art matches this story of the creation of all life.

Touch a Truck Family Storytime

 

 

Truck Storytime Books:

• Dinotrux by Chris Gall
• Revenge of the Dinotrux by Chris Gall
• Hansel and Diesel by David Gordon
• I'm a Truck Driver by Johnathan London, Illus. by David Parkins
• I Stink! by Kate McMullen
• The Construction Crew by Lynn Meltzer, Illus. by Carrie Eko-Burgess
• Truck Stop by Anne Rockwell, Illus. by Melissa Iwai
• Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, Illus. by Jill McElmurry
• Little Blue Truck Leads the Way by Alice Schertle, Illus. by Jill McElmurry
• Jon Scieszka's Trucktown: The Great Truck Rescue (previously published as Melvin Might?) by David Shannon, Loren Long & David Gordon
• Jon Scieszka's Trucktown: Welcome to Trucktown (previously published as Smash!Crash!)by David Shannon, Loren Long & David Gordon
• Monkey Truck by Michael Slack
• Tonka: I'm a Great Big Tow Truck! by Michael Anthony Steele, Illus. by Tom La Padula Studio
• I Love Trucks! by Philemon Sturges, Illus. by Shari Halpern
• Roadwork by Sally Sutton, Illus. by Brian Lovelock

Old MacDonald Had a Truck:

Old MacDonald Had a Truck, E-I-E-I-O!
And on his truck there were some wheels, E-I-E-I-O!
With a spin, spin here and a spin, spin there,
Here a spin, there a spin,
Everywhere a spin, spin,
Old MacDonald Had a Truck, E-I-E-I-O!

Old MacDonald Had a Truck, E-I-E-I-O!
And on his truck there were some wipers, E-I-E-I-O!
With a swish, swish here and a swish, swish  there,
Here a swish, there a swish,
Everywhere a swish, swish
Old MacDonald Had a Truck, E-I-E-I-O!

Old MacDonald Had a Truck, E-I-E-I-O!
And on his truck there was a horn, E-I-E-I-O!
With a honk, honk here and a honk, honk there,
Here a honk, there a honk,
Everywhere a honk, honk
Old MacDonald Had a Truck, E-I-E-I-O!

Fingerplay: “Where Are Trucks?” (Thumbkin)

Where is pick-up truck? Where is pick-up truck?
Here I am. Here I am.
How are you today, sir? Very well, I thank you.
Drive away. Drive away.

(Tow truck, dump truck, ice cream truck, fire truck)

Five Big Trucks:

Five big trucks went out one day, over the road and far away.
The dispatcher said, "Come on back!"
But only four big trucks came rolling back.
....

No big trucks went out one day over the road and far away.
The dispatcher said, "Let's go to the races!"
And the trucks came back from so many places!"

August fifty.fiftyme Challenge

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge. This was not a super productive month. Reviews for this post forthcoming!

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales

Minoring in: Steinbeck

August Books Read:

• Twisted Fairy Tales: 20 Classic Stories with a Dark & Dangerous Heart by Maura McHugh, Illus. by Jane Laurie.
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia This is lively historical fiction set during my lifetime. It's 1968 and eleven year old Delphine and her two younger sisters Vonetta and Fern are leaving New York and headed to Oakland, CA to meet the mother who abandoned them after Fern was born. Although they have a frosty reception from Cecile, a poet and friend of  Black Panther activists who has no desire to raise children, they soon find themselves at home in the neighborhood. The girls learn about revolution at a Black Panther run day camp, and are soon saying "Right on!"  and "Power to the People!" as they go about their daily business. Delphine leads her sisters, cautiously gets to know her mother better and finds a sort of boyfriend in Hirohito, a mixed race boy with a Flying T go cart and a complicated home life. Vonetta gets to shine in performance and Fern finds her own poetic voice. This book was showered with awards, including the Coretta Scott King author award and a Newbery Honor recognition, and it's easy to see why. I will be checking out the sequel, P.S. Be Eleven!
• Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
• Same Sun Here by Silas House & Neela Vaswani, 2012. (Please see blog post)
• Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage, 2012. (Please see blog post)

August Films watched:

• 50 First Dates (2004) This was cute. I like Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler together and really enjoy The Wedding Singer. As per my prissy usual, I could have done without the more crass moments, but the romantic relationship was sweet.
• Valentine's Day (2010) Also pleasant, but fairly unmemorable. Many characters, not much character development. I did laught pretty hard at a scene where Jennifer Garner showed up at a restaurant to serve dinner to her lying boyfriend and his (newly-discovered by Jennifer) wife.

Books total: 84
Minus folktales: 49
Movies 25
Major 37-7
Minor 2/3

Just trying to catch up: Fifty.fiftyme July Challenge Stats

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge. Reviews for this post forthcoming!

 

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales

 

Minoring in: Steinbeck 

 

July Books Read:

• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
• The Caged Graves by Diane Salerni
• Just Behave Pablo Picasso! by Jonah Winter. Illus. by Kevin Hawkes. 2012.
• Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by Robert Byrd, 2012.
• "Who Could That Be at This Hour?" by Lemony Snicket, Art by Seth, 2012.
• Goblin Secrets by William Alexander, 2012.
• A Rock is Lively by Dianna Hutts Aston & Sylvia Long, 2012.
• Island: a Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin, 2012.
• Chuck Close Face Book by Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2012.

Folktale: A Tale of Two Tengu retold by Karen Kawamoto McCoy

July Films Watched:

Struck by Lightning
Mama
Hyde Park On Hudson

Books total: 79
Minus Folktales: 44
Movies: 24
Major 37/7
Minor 2/3

Pitifully behind: Fifty.fiftyme Challenge June Stats

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge. Most reviews for this post forthcoming!

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales

Minoring in: Steinbeck

June Books Read:

• Bookspeak! : Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas. (Please see blog post)
• Unspoken: a Story From the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole (Please see blog post)
• A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson. Illus. by John Hendrix (Please see blog post)
• Cameron & the Girls by Edward Averett, 2013. Cameron is a 14 year old boy with Schizoform disorder. It causes him to hallucinate, but this can be controlled by medication. Unfortunately, Cameron tries to experiment with going off his medicine, and begins to hear voices. One is familiar to him, the Professor, who helps remind him of the rules he should be following. Another is a nasty new voice who challenges him to take risks and is vaguely threatening. Most intriguing is "The Girl," who wants to be Cameron's girlfriend and speaks sweetly to him. While attending classes for special needs teens he meets and becomes friends with the new girl, who has a history of depression and also would like to be Cameron's girlfriend. This was not my favorite book, because as a reader, you can watch Cameron keep making bad decisions, and it's very frustrating. I had a hard time liking him.
• The Case of the Deadly Desperado
•  Teeth: I loved this one. It was odd but emotionally true. Boy and his family go to live on an island that has miracle fish to help rehabilitate their youngest son who is ill with, . Boy is the only teenager on the island, except for a girl with a mysterious mother, and a physically ugly merboy. The fish boy and boy bond.
• The Ice Queen
• On the Road to Mr. Mineo's by Barbara O'Connor (Please see blog post)
• The Last Little Blue Envelope  by Maureen Johnson
•  13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson. Shortly after Ginny's artistic and well traveled aunt dies, Ginny receives an unexpected package from her. It challenges the 17 year old to go to Europe and and follow the directions
•  Little White Duck (Please see blog post)
•  Giants Beware! (Please see blog post)
•  Doll Bones

Folktales: The Samurai's Daughter by Robert San Souci, Tanuki's Gift: a Japanese Tale by Tim Myers  (See my blog posts for extended summaries of these).

June Films watched:

• Stoker  (2013): This movie made me feel like I wanted to take a bath after I was done watching it and I wished I hadn't seen it. Ick. That said, it had everything to do with the plot and nothing to do with the quality of the film or its actors. India's (Mia Wasikowska) father dies on her 18th birthday, leaving her mother ( Nicole Kidman) a hot widow. On the day of the funeral, her mysterious uncle (Matthew Goode), who she never knew existed, shows up. Unsavory actitivities follow.
• Oz: the Great & Powerful: To be fair to this film, there is no way that it could compete with the wonder that I felt as a child  when I first saw The Wizard of Oz . There is also nothing as consistently menacing as those original flying monkeys. So, there was no competition. I generally enjoy Michelle Williams and James Franco. However, I disliked the wizard's character and his womanizing ways. I really didn't like the wizard kissing Glinda. Where is the pretty but powerful Glinda? She seemed passive  and I thought that that predictible kiss just rlegated her to the role of "the girl."Also, a certain witch's transformation seemed flimsily based. Is our terrifying Wicked Witch of the West really just the result of a spell and a romantic disappointment?  Well, what did I like? The China Girl. She really did seem magical. However, she wasn't enough to save this tedious movie for me.
•  The Great Gatsby (2013)
• Poirot: Taken at the Flood

Totals:

Books total: 69/50
Books minus folktale minor: 35/50
Movies: 21/50
Major: 36/7
Minor: 2/3