Grocery Store Book The Magic Journey

For the Grocery Store book, I have chosen The Magic Journey which is the book that was published to go along with the movie The Polar Express.  The very top cover has the words “The Polar Express” printed in big gold letters, and below that, in small white print, is printed "The Movie”.  There is nothing wrong with this book, but the problem is some people might mistakenly think that this book is the actual The Polar Express book written by Chris Van Allsburg.  It would be a shame to miss out on the original The Polar Express book and just read The Magic Journey.

The Magic Journey’s first page states that the book is adapted by Tracey West, and based on the motion picture screenplay by Robert Zemeckis, which was based on the book The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg.  This is the type of book you would find in a grocery store, and children would recognize it because the picture on the cover is the poster from the movie.  It is interesting to compare the language in the  grocery store book to the original book.  The first page of the grocery store book, The Magic Journey is:
 “Years ago, on a snowy Christmas Eve, a boy lay quietly in bed.  He was waiting-waiting for the jingle of Santa’s bells on the roof.  He wanted to believe that Santa was real, but deep down, he just wasn’t certain.  If he heard the sound of sleigh bells and saw Santa, then he would be sure.  Only then.” 
The story follows the original fairly closely, but the language is so different.  Here is an example of Chris Van Allsburg’s original:

“On Christmas Eve, many years ago, I lay quietly in my bed.  I did not rustle the sheets.  I breathed slowly and silently.  I was listening for a sound-a sound a friend had told me I’d never hear-the ringing bells of Santa’s sleigh.  ‘There is no Santa,’ my friend had insisted, but I knew he was wrong.  Late that night I did hear sounds, though not of ringing bells.  From outside came the sounds of hissing steam and squeaking metal.  I looked through my window and saw a train standing perfectly still in front of my house.”

The difference in the language is so obvious, the original is like poetry.  Children who might read The Magic Journey instead of The Polar Express miss this much richer text

Also, the original The Polar Express illustrations are like works of art, and show a very unique version of what the North Pole looks like - an industrial city full of hard working elves.  There is nothing wrong with the grocery store version of The Polar Express. The pictures are all just like the animation from the movie.  But they are just not up to the art of The Polar Express.  Parents and children who read The Magic Journey in place of The Polar Express miss out on the magic of the original. 

Title: The Magic Journey

Author:  Adapted by Tracey West from a screenplay by and based on the motion picture screenplay by Robert Zemeckis, which was based on the book The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg.

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Publication Date: 2004

ISBN: 0-618-47788-8

Decodable Book BOB Books

The decodable book I chose to describe is a set of BOB Books by Bobby Lynn Maslen.  I found these books in the public library.  They are a set of twelve small  books. The front page of the first book noted that this set was for advanced beginner readers.  The first title in the set is “Fun in The Sun”. Other titles are “Up, Pup” “Pig and Pog” “Bow-Wow”, “The Big Hat” “Sox the Fox” “OK, Kids” “Rub-a-Dub” “Go Bus” “The Red Hen” and “0-10”.  There is one sentence on each page, and there are four words per sentence.  Each book focuses on a different phonics sound and they all use very simple words.  The sentence structure is always the same: noun,  verb (which is often a site word) article, adjective and noun.  A typical sentence is “Pop had a top hat.”  There are very simple illustrations, basically line drawings.  All the books do have a simple story.  The back cover of each book has suggestions for parents and adults on how to discuss the story with a child.  The last page of each book indicates the number of words in the story, the vowel sounds, and the sight words.  The sight words are usually a, the, was, and had.  Each book in the series has about twelve pages per book, with one picture on each page representing the simple sentence.  The books do not get any more difficult in reading ability as you go from book one to book twelve;  they just use different phonic sounds.  But the next series of Bob Books advances to a higher level. 

The emphasis is on learning short vowel sound words that rhyme.  As the child went through this series, he or she would be able to sound out and decode and read these simple stories.  By the time the child got to the last book in the series, he or she could probably decode the story without much help because they would have been exposed to the phonics and the sight words in the previous books.  A child could read these little books independently.

The book are small for a child to easily hold.  These books do not tell a compelling story or have an important theme or message, as one would see in an authentic text.  These are great books to teach children how to decode and use phonics to read.  They are very useful books, but it is important for the teacher to augment with authentic literature. BOB Books are an important stepping stone to reading and I give them four out of four stars for that.

Title: BOB Books

Author: Bobby Lynn Maslen

Publisher: Scholastic

Publication Dae : 1999
ISBN: 0-439-14499-X

Wordless Book Dream Snow

My second wordless picture book is really an almost wordless picture book, called Dream Snow, by Eric Carle.  There are a few words on some of the pages, and some of the pages are wordless.  Based on what I learned from the reading and lectures, I would describe this as a simple predictable text type of book because it uses words and concepts young children can understand.  It uses repetition and the pages follow in a predictable way.

The story starts with a farmer on his farm, and the reader learns that his animals are named One, Two, Three, Four, and Five.  As the story goes on, the farmer falls asleep in his cozy chair, and as he sleeps, it snows.  The snow covers the farmer and all the animals in a white blanket.  This is where the book really becomes a work of art because there is a clear plastic page that covers each illustrated page.  The child can pull back the clear plastic to see what is hidden behind the snow blanket.  The first white blanket covers the farmer.  Next, a white blanket is uncovered to show the reader that One is a horse.  Then another white blanket covers Two, a cow, and another white blanket covers Three, a sheep, and Four,  a pig.  Finally a white blanket of snow covers Five, a rooster.  The farmer, who has a white beard,  puts on a  red coat and hat, and green mittens.  A big sack is slung over his shoulder, and surprise, he looks like Santa Clause.  There is one more surprise, a button on the last page.  A child can press this button and hear a beautiful sound, like bells.  My copy of this book is nineteen years old, and when I press he button, it still makes that beautiful sound.

The pages are illustrated in Eric Carle’s style with beautiful pictures in vibrant colors.  This is the book that a young child would love, and would want to read over and over, because the child can  turn the page with the white blanket of snow, to reveal the surprise underneath.  And the child can press the button over and over.  It is a Christmas Classic!  I give this book four out of four stars.


Title: Dream Snow

Author: Eric Carle

Publisher: Philomel Books

Publication Date: 2000

ISBN: 0-399-23579-5

Wordless Book The Snowman

The first wordless picture book I have chosen is The Snowman by Raymond Briggs.  This book is interesting because it does not have any words at all, it is completely wordless.  I would not call it an Easy Reader because the story is more complex than a typical board book.  This book is thirty pages long, and on many pages there are ten separate pictures.  It is a fairly long story and it is not a book for a young reader to pick up and look through like Jingle Babies, which I described in my previous blog.  This is a book that could be used by a parent guiding the child by asking to explain what messages the child thinks each picture conveys. 

The story starts with a little boy waking up, looking outside, and seeing a snowy day.  The boy gets dressed, runs out, and builds a snowman.  He gives his snowman a hat, scarf, and an orange for a nose.  The illustrations are beautiful, old fashioned and sort of British.

In the evening, after a hard day of playing, the boy goes in to his house for dinner.  He looks at the snowman from his window, then goes up to bed and falls asleep.  Perhaps the boy is dreaming, or perhaps it is real, but  the snowman has come to life.  The boy brings the snowman into his house.  The snowman does not like the fireplace.  But he does like the television and the lamp.  He does not like the stove, but really likes the refrigerator and the  ice cube tray.  The boy has so much fun with the snowman.  They play with a skateboard and balloons.

After the boy shows the snowman his home, the snowman takes the boy on a journey.  They fly through the wintry night to a place that looks like it might be Russia; or perhaps it is the North Pole.  It is really up to the reader to decide.  The snowman gets the boy home before daybreak.  The boy goes back into his house and in to bed.  When hee wakes up, he runs outside, to find his snowman has melted. 

This story is a bittersweet tale, the ending is sad, the snowman is gone. It is a beautiful message about how short is the time for childhood fantasies.  On the back cover there is a question, “Does this little boy’s snowman really come to life?”  The child and the parent can make up their own story to answer that question. This is an interesting book because, since it has no words, it does not teach a child how to read words, but it does teach a child how to follow a complex story. It also gives a young reader an opportunity to really engage in the tale.  It encourages the child to use imagination and go beyond the text.  I give this story four out of four stars.

Title: The Snowman

Author: Raymond Briggs
Publisher: Scholastic

Publication Date: 1978

ISBN: 0-590-96998-6

Introductory Post and Board Book: Jingle Babies

Hello, I am Beck Dolphin, a History Step major.  I have lots of happy memories reading favorite children’s books, many of which have been mentioned so far in this class.  I tried to make a little bit of a holiday theme for my first blog.  

The board book I have chosen is Jingle Babies by Tom Arma.  It is a small book a child could easily hold in his or her hands.  It is made of sturdy cardboard; safe if chewed or sucked on.  You guessed it, it is a book with babies.  Each page is an adorable photograph of a baby dressed in some holiday attire.  The cover photo is a baby dressed up as a Christmas tree.  There are a few words on each page, and it does have a rhyme. 

On the first page the words are “One jolly snowman, round and fat.”  The picture of the baby goes with those words, he is dressed as a snowman and he is round and fat.  Some of the other costumes include a candy cane, a gingerbread cookie, an angel, an elf, and Santa.  There are babies in Christmas stockings and a baby in a Christmas present box.  All the babies are smiling and waving.

Very young children would love looking at this book because young children enjoy looking at pictures of babies.  The simple rhyme of each page makes it a great read out loud.  This would be a book that would help very young children learn about books.  They would learn about how the pages of a book appear, and what the printed words look like.  This book would also give a young child a happy feeling and expose children to holiday themes.  I give it 4 out of 4 stars for the high quality photographs and simple yet creative text.

Title: Jingle Babies

Author: Tom Arma

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Publication Date: 1996

ISBN:0-448-41139-3