Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by Willaim Steig

 Bibliography

Steig, William. 1969. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. ISBN 0671662694

    Plot Summary

Sylvester, a young donkey residing with his mother and father, enjoys collecting pebbles as a hobby. One rainy morning, while on vacation, Sylvester finds what appears to be just a shiny red pebble. Sylvester grew frustrated of the rain as he was admiring the rock, and wishes for the rain to stop. Suddenly the rain stops. Sylvester attempts a few more wishes to ensure the rain didn’t stop by coincidence. To his surprise, his wishes were coming true. Sylvester takes the rock back on his journey home to show his parents his discovery. Sylvester stumbles upon a lion, and due to fear, he wishes he were a rock while holding the pebble.  Sylvester turns into a rock, and realizes he is in a predicament. Due to being a rock, and not having the ability to hold the pebble, Sylvester worries he may never be able to see his parents again. His parents mourn his departure as seasons come and go, and Sylvester is nowhere to be found. During this time, Sylvester finds himself depressed and disheartened. To create closure for themselves, Sylvester’s parents decide to go on a picnic. To his father’s surprise, he finds a beautiful pebble next to their picnic layout. Will Sylvester ever be found and restored back to being a donkey?

 Critical Analysis

William Steig creates a fable that allows children to distinguish the different emotions they may feel such as hopelessness, anxiety, and happiness. William utilized anthromorphism to give each animal a distinctive human-like appearance, behavior, and feelings. To enhance the story, Steig creates illustrations that develop the story line using watercolors. During moments of sadness and loneliness, the colors darken and create a mood for the reader. For instance, when Sylvester is displaying his loneliness, snow falls and gray hues are used in the illustrations that cover most of the page. On the contrary, Steig creates the emotion of happiness for readers using colors such as green and yellow.

With a dark black outline for each character, Steig creates distinct characters that display detailed emotions. The sorrowful parents have tears as well as an posture that indicates a dark, heavy feeling.  The fable can spark a discussion with young readers and provide a moral using animals to convey the message in a light-hearted manner.

  Review excerpts and Awards

Caldecott Medal in 1970

Nominated for the 1970 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

Top 100 picture books by School Library Journal

ALA Noteable Children’s book

From The Horn Book Publications:

“A remarkable atmosphere of childlike innocence pervades the book; beautiful pictures in full, natural color show daily and seasonal changes in the lush countryside and greatly extend the kindly humor and the warm, unselfconscious tenderness.”

 Connections 

Other books by William Steig:

Brave Irene ISBN 9780312564223

Amos & Boris ISBN 9780312535667

Ways to connect in the classroom:

Have students choose their own special pebble at the park. Students can paint their special pebble, and describe what wishes they would ask for. The writing prompt can begin with "If I had a magic pebble, I would wish for....."

Create sequence of events out of order, and have students rearrange the sequence of events to fit the story. 

Introduce character traits, and learn about different character traits Sylvester displays. Students can find text evidence of the character traits. 

My Friend is Sad by Mo Willems

Bibliography

Willems, Mo. 2007. My Friend Is Sad. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 1423102975

 Plot Summary

Gerald, an elephant, in the story My Friend Is Sad finds himself feeling sad as the story begins. Piggie, Gerald’s friend, finds numerous ways to cheer her friend up. Piggie takes it upon herself to dress up as different characters she believes Gerald will enjoy. From a cowboy to a clown, nothing seems to uplift Gerald’s spirits. As Piggie attempts to cheer up her sad friend, she becomes frustrated of Gerald feeling low-spirited. Piggie shows up with no costume and receives a delighted surprise she wasn’t expecting. This story consists of a heartwarming tale of a friendship of two best friends and the lengths Piggie goes to comfort her friend.

            Critical analysis

This book is primarily for emergent readers from the ages of 4-8. The story consists of less than 50 sight words in order for the story to be easily decoded by readers. The word choice in the story, along with Mo Willem’s other work, provides confidence in young readers in their ability to read a book consisting of many pages. Though his work falls under the category of picture books, his books are longer and range anywhere from 40-50 pages per book.

Mo Willems creates illustrations on white backgrounds which brings more focus to the characters Piggie and Elephant. The eye focuses on their emotions as well as postures throughout the story line. One may notice the sizes of the images play an important role in describing the characters. For instance, Elephant feels sad and the size of elephant is reduced in comparison to Piggie who is trying to cheer his friend up. The colors are distinctive to each of the characters throughout the entire story line along with his other work. Piggie remains pink with pink dialogue and Gerald having the gray with gray dialogue. This provides distinguishable dialogue between the two characters. 

Lastly, the book allows for readers to interpret the emotions and what it means to them. Though the story does not relay a moral at the end, a child may pick up on the different emotions and what friendship means to them. The story conveys many different emotions based on the illustrations of the characters. The emotions range from repetitive sadness from Gerald to surprise and happiness towards the end of the story.  Young readers may relate to the emotions being portrayed on the characters, and can even begin defining what a friendship looks like to them.  

         Review excerpts and Awards

2017 Theodore Seuss Geisel Award

#1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator

From The New Yorker: “In the past thirteen years, Willems has written and illustrated some fifty books, more than half of which have appeared on the Times best-seller list, often for months at a time.”

From The New York Times: "It’s a cute concept, and an impressively economical one, managing in the space of a joke to tap into children’s social anxieties, dress-up fetishes and love of parties — all with a simple, repeated vocabulary of about 50 words that makes it effective for beginning readers."

   Connections

Other books by Mo Willems:

Today I Will Fly ISBN 1423102959

Watch Me Throw the Ball! ISBN 9781423113485

Connection in the classroom:

Practice readers theaters assigning students to different stories of Elephant and Piggie. Students can perform their stories to enhance reading practice and performance.

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Peña

    
       Bibliography

De la Peña, Matt. 2015. Last Stop on Market Street. III. by Christian Robinson. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA). ISBN 9780545964524

   Plot Summary

This is the story of a young African-American boy, CJ,  who leaves church and takes a bus ride to the end of Market Street. During their ride, CJ starts to wonder and builds curiosity towards the world and people around him. CJ inquires about having to walk in the rain, why they don’t drive a car, and yearning for things he doesn’t have. CJ delves deeper into his surroundings from the music to the graffiti and creating his own understanding of his identity. Nana provides explanation to everything around him with love and grace. Where does the last stop on Market Street take them? Will CJ begin to make sense of his surroundings and his own happiness?

 Critical Analysis

In the beginning of the story, we see CJ’s curiosity and dissatisfaction develop and Nana provide answers in the shape of metaphors with trees drinking from straws, and their bus that breathes fire. The metaphors serve a purpose of allowing CJ to use his youthfulness to imagine and create images of what’s around him.   As they set on their bus journey, the diversity and multiculturalism comes alive with different types of people they encounter including: a tattooed man, a woman with a headscarf, different shades of skin color, a man in a wheelchair, and a blind musician.

The illustrations provide shapes that are block-like with simple colors for the eye to meet. From the buildings to the cars, the colors contrast each other. The dark gray skies illustrating the rainy day to the greens, yellows, and blues of the town and its citizens. CJ is seen wearing a bright yellow sweater, which is shown throughout the entire story line to. Towards the end of the story, there is a change in colors, as instead of a rainy sky, a rainbow appears indicating CJ’s understanding of finding what’s beautiful everywhere they go.

The story brings vivid imagery to the readers, by using figurative language, personifying the bus, saying it “sighed and sagged,” or stepping out of church into “outside air [that] smelled like freedom.”Along with that, we see the perspective change from CJ to Nana as CJ whines about his daily life. This enables the reader to understand the story through more than one set of eyes, which makes the meaning much deeper. In addition, the story promotes a great moral, by CJ being continually reminded that happiness is all around, and how one choose to look at life, can change one’s perspective, just like Nana did in the story. The story reminds readers that gratefulness, compassion, and kindness to humanity, will bring the simplest forms of joy.

Review excerpts and Awards

2016 Newbery Medal Winner

2016 Caldecott Honor Book

2016 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book

2015 Top 10 Latin books list by School Library Journal

#1 New York Times Bestseller

From Newbery Medal Committee Chair Ernie J. Cox: "Read it aloud to someone. The use of language to elicit questions, to spark imagination and to make us laugh is at its best when spoken."

From School Library Journal: "The urban setting is truly reflecting, showing people with different skin colors, body types, abilities, ages, and classes in a natural and authentic manner... A lovely title"

Connections

Last stop on Market street (Spanish Edition): Ultima parada de la calle Market ISBN 9788484705499

Other books by Matt De la Peña and illustrator Christian Robinson:

Carmela Full of Wishes ISBN  9780399549045

Other books by Matt De La Peña and illustrator Lorena Long:

Love ISBN 9781524740917