EL ED Breadwinner book report

Joy Prior

Community Books: Breadwinner, by Deborah Ellis

Passages

“The people who are buried here. Do you think they’d mind us digging them up?”

Shauzia leaned on her board. “Depends on the type of people they were. If they were nasty, stingy people, they wouldn’t like it. If they were kind and generous people, they wouldn’t mind.”

“Would you mind?”

Shauzia looked at her, opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again and returned to her digging. Parvana didn’t ask her again.

Page 107

The Talib kept looking down at her. Then he put his hand inside his vest. Keeping his eyes on Parvana, he drew something out of his vest pocket…

He shook his head and held out his hand for the letter. Parvana folded it and gave it back to him. His hands trebled as he put the letter back in the envelope. She was a tear fall from his eye. It rolled down his cheek until it landed on his beard….

Parvana took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Up until then, she had seen Talibs only as men who beat women and arrested her father. Could they have feelings of sorrow, like other human beigns?

Page 77

Golden lines

Finally, she stuck her whole head under the tap, hoping the cold water would wash the images of what she had done all day out of her head.

Page 113

He was holding up a rope strung with four severed hands, like beads on a necklace.

Page 122

Questions

How likely is it that Parvana will see her family again? What would have happened to her family?

Will Parvana continue to be a boy? When will she start dressing/acting like a girl again?

EL ED picture book report

EL ED 340 Children’s Literature

Section 003

Terrell Alan Young

Joy Prior

Picture Book Project

I chose Mei Li written and illustrated by Thomas Handforth, the 1939 Caldecott winner, for the picture book project. This book implored the Caldecott requirement to provide a visual experience. The characters seem to dance across the folds and creases of the pages, as if they were alive, and the pictures were the ones telling the story- the words were simply attached for an adult’s convenience.

A picture book develops a story-line, concept, or theme. The illustrator in Mei Li uses remarkable details for the clothing and faces of particularly Mei Li and her family to emphasize the theme family relationships are enriched through community celebrations. This is particularly noticeable when Mei Li is at the celebrations. The backgrounds and crowds are composed of lines and smudges. In contrast the features on her brother’s clothing remain unbelievably realistic. The detailed facial expressions, clothing, and gestures allows the audience enjoys the same familiarity Mei Li has with her family.

Caldecott defines the audience for a picture book as a child, persons under the age of fifteen. The illustrations in Mei Li are children: girls in dress up, boys setting off fireworks, children playing with dancing toys, and children flying kites. Few things can captive children more than other children; even the adults in the pictures are holding and cuddling their children. One particular image seems misplaced, but supports the very theme of developing family relationships. It is of the orphan girl holding the gate open for Mei Li; the adults on this page are mostly blurred squiggles. Compared to the adults that surround Mei Li who are expressive these adults appear obtrusive. Her father, uncle, and even older brother look at Mei Li, hold her, and carry her. These images of Mei Li with her family create a sense that children are beloved members of a family. A theme intended for an audience of children.

The content of Thomas Handforth’s Mei Li is a little Chinese girl who dresses as her brother and explores the wonders at the New Year Fair in the nearby city. One of the major themes of the book is how traditions and celebrations bring families together. In my ink drawing I wanted to depict my own unforgettable memories of the Fourth of July. Trying to stay within the content of the Mei Li I drew my brother and me in matching barber quartet hats. Our mother bought them for us; we wore them until the Styrofoam broke.

The pictorial style of media Thomas Hadforth used lithographs (a method involving images scratched in wax and then inked onto a slab of stone so it can be transferred to a sheet of paper). This media creates a stamp like quality- thick lines flowing from curves into lines and shapes filled with blotches of sponged grey. To better suit my resources I used an ink brush pen to imitate the patterns and designs of Thomas Hadforth’s images.

Mei Li measures up to the Caldecott Criteria. Thomas Handforth most famous etcher and lithographer from his early 1900s collections is Mei Li because it is such an outstanding execution of lithography technique. The pictures depict the story so clearly that the words merely act as a frame; they enclose the characters. Particularly impressive is the detail of Mei Li and her family. Their faces and movements make them seem like characters filled with love and life- not simply images.

Lithography was an ideal style chose to support the theme of Mei Li. A single lithograph requires wax tablets, stone, paper, chizzes, and ink not to mention the multiple copies and recopies. Similarly, the family in Mei Li has siblings, uncles, and parents that interact together to produce a single memory. The highly invested process of the illustrations parallels to the theme of the picture book.

Because Thomas Handforth lived in China he was able to draw images from his own memory that enriched the illustrations. Without obscuring the innocence of the story the illustrations depicts the Chinese culture: the character’s hair to the slopping roof tops.

Mei Li is a presentation for children of children doing childish things: A picture of Mei Li talking to a bear, her being held upside down, flying a kite. They are all images a child sees at the fair- without the over crowded streets, the staggering drunks, and the glazed eyes of underfeed circus performers. The illustrations embody a child’s memories and ideals of a celebration.

Although, the illustrations in Mei Li are outstanding the text is a complementary component of the picture book. The plot is oddly romantic. A little girl dressed as a boy enjoys a celebration beyond any believable expectations. I believe that the characters are especially important: a loving uncle and playful older brother. The author and illustrator Thomas Handforth brings to life the daydreams and pleasures of a child celebrating culture and life with a loving family without depending on sound, film, or computer programs. I found it remarkably enjoyable to read the story, study the pictures, and immerse myself in my own childish memories.

I have included a table describing all the books that I chose to read for this project. These picture books impressed me with not only the artist talented but the consistency the artists use throughout the entire book. It was beyond my understanding when I realized that illustrators do not simply have to create ONE master piece but pages and pages of majestic art work that maintain the same themes, patterns, and designs.

EL ED Alternative book report Breadwinner

Alternative Book Report Project for Joy Prior number 25- three poems about the characters, place, or themes in the book.

They Burned His Blood

By: Joy Prior

Based on Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

Burned his blood into the blank sheets of my brain,

Screaming makes rocks jump and pebbles topple down stairs,

Drops of rubies charred in Hell-

Dangling,

Vanes dripping from my chin,

Pooling, even earth does not want to drink this blood,

Rotting oil and fish left, my eyes water,

Left to burn in the sun,

They burned his blood,

Free Silk

By: Joy Prior

Based on Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

The free silk is locked in the cupboard,

Tasting like honey, dancing sunbeams through the crakes in the closed shutters,

The free silk is locked in the cupboard,

Rippling like waves, bathing raindrops nursing the drought killed streets,

The free silk is locked in the cupboard,

Smelling like a breeze, rustling through the leaves on the hedges in the labyrinth of ideas,

The free silk is locked in the cupboard,

With my brother, father, sisters, mother, and me.

But I take it out, I put it on,

Am I free?

Hair

By: Joy Prior

Based on Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

It will swish against my shoulder blades when I walk- again,

It will shimmer like hot coffee, swirling browns and blacks- again,

It will smell like cream and cinnamon- again,

Papa will kiss my skin with his callused fingers- again,

Papa will push open the wood panel door- again,

Papa will smell like dusty street venders- again,

My hair will grow back,

Papa will come back,