Children's Books discussion

Come join us to discuss the Medal Winner,
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman

and/or the Honor books:
In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World by Virginia Hamilton
Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers

Scorpions is an ebook from my larger library system.
I have requested Joyful Noise in print from my smaller library.
Creation Stories is avl. in print from my larger system but I will just read the archived scanned copy on openlibrary.org I think.

Joyful Noise is one of the books we most enjoyed with our boys when they were growing up, especially my (then) 4 y/o. We would read it over and over, always finding new details, rhythms, and subtle jokes. Reading aloud these poems still inspires me now years later. I think the Newberry medal was well deserved. It's a beautiful and timeless book.

Yay! I just picked it up yesterday and hope to start it today, so thank you for the encouragement!

Omg, why didn't I read Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices with my children when they were young enough to be willing to read with me? The duet effect would clearly be absolutely wonderful out loud, and now I know nobody who would read with me.

I'm only about 1/3 done but I already know I'm going to try to find the companion, published first, I Am Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices. Paul Fleischman absolutely deserves the accolade.

I would be delighted to read it with you ;) . In fact, I read it with a friend (I'm almost 50, she is in her 70s) and we had a blast. My kids are also grown-ups, but maybe I'll try that too. Thanks for recommending the book's companion. I will look for it!

I actually had an opportunity today. I met with the book club at my new library, and what we do is book talk one or two books that we've read the previous month. I talked up Joyful Noise, then asked if someone wanted to try to do it with me, and we read Cicadas together. With no rehearsal it wasn't terrifically effective, but it was fun and the other women were appreciative.

Trying to see if I can find a copy of Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices at my local independent bookstore (as sadly, Open Library does not seem to have a copy).

There is a copy of In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World available on OL but after checking out the table of contents, I want want want my own copy, as even the table of contents shows that Virginia Hamilton is providing a very nicely diverse and inclusive collection of "creation" stories (from the Bible, Norse and Greek mythology etc. etc.).

In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

With her 1989 Newbery Honour winning In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World, Patricia Hamilton presents to her intended audience (to readers and/or listeners from around the age of ten or so onwards) an in my humble opinion diverse and delightfully recounted collection of twenty-five creation of the world and the heavens stories from various countries, cultures and religions (with generally not much author judgment as to potential spiritual or cultural superiority attached either, although I do realise from a few of the online musings I have read that some reviewers do seem to think that Hamilton supposedly sets the creation stories found in the Holy Bible, in the Old Testament on a pedestal, but well, I personally certainly have not really noticed this, and that I also do very much appreciate how BOTH creation stories from the Old Testament book of Genesis are featured in In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World and that Patricia Hamilton clearly textually demonstrates how very much different they are from one another and that there are even different names for God in those two creation accounts).

And albeit there of course are creation myths included in In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World which are ancient but still mostly pretty much familiar and well-known to us today (the creation stories of Norse, Egyptian and Greek mythology as well the already mentioned Old Testament, such as for example the killing of Imir the Frost Giant and how the newly born Norse gods used Imir's body to create the world and humanity, how the Greek deity Kronos emasculated his father Ouranus and was then in turn defeated by his own son Zeus), thankfully, the majority of the featured tales for In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World have been chosen from considerably less familiar sources (Pacific island cultures, the Americas and Africa), and with Patricia Hamilton's compilation not only providing insight and understanding into both very ancient and also some more contemporary creation tales, but with Hamilton's texts, with her twenty-five stories also very clearly and wonderfully showing and demonstrating that there are both differences and also very many similarities encountered in global mythologies and religions and that this is often especially noticeable with regard to creation accounts (both written and oral).

A wonderful collection of tales, delightfully and engagingly retold by Patricia Hamilton and one that I have massively, totally enjoyed reading (and indeed with both my adult self and also my inner child being simultaneously delighted, I might add, and with Barry Moser's artwork providing a nice and not visually overwhelming decorative accompaniment). But indeed and especially for my adult self, what gives In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World that push from four to five stars are the basic but delightfully informative author notes about each of the included creation stories and that there also is a nicely detailed bibliography (however, with the caveat that since In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World was published in 1988, there will of course and naturally not be any post 1988 tomes featured in the bibliographical section).

Oh, I'm so glad that you enjoyed this. I hope to get the time to read it soon.

Cheryl wrote: "Oh, I'm so glad that you enjoyed this. I hope to get the time to read it soon."

I hope you enjoy it as well, I did find it really well done.

I dnf'd Scorpions at 34%.

Joyful Noise
I last read this in 1989. I re-read it today, and had not remembered that all the poems featured various insects. I enjoyed all the poems very much, but I loved the black and white realistic illustrations by Canadian Eric Beddows.

I agree; those are lovely illustrations!

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

I have most definitely and wonderfully been more than pleasantly surprised and totally enchanted with and by Paul Fleischmann's 1989 Newbery Award winning Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices (so much so in fact, that I also now want to read I Am Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices).

And indeed, and most definitely, both my inner child and my adult self, they are equally finding Fleischman's dual voiced insect based poems for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices delightfully lyrical, song-like, informative without being in any way pedantic and of course and like the book title says joyfully vibrant and noisy, just like two soloists waxing sweetly and poetically about various bugs and giving both children and also in my opinion adults a wonderful and never in any manner strange introduction to fourteen so-called but in my opinion wrongfully named creepy crawlies (and with my only mild regret being that I do not have someone to read Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices aloud with me, with the intended by Paul Fleischman dual voices, as yes, and as Fleischman points out in his introduction, these poems need to be performed orally and that like a play is meant to be watched, Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices is meant to be recited as a duet, with two very distinct individual voices).

Five stars for the poems Paul Fleischman presents in Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, with Eric Beddows' reasltic black and white artwork providing the prefect visual accompaniment, enough to provide a nicely appreciated decorative trim for the fourteen featured poems but not in any way overwhelming Fleischman's poetry, thus keeping the printed words, the spectacular and wonderfully "buggy" verses in the foreground and the pictures in the background to provide just enough of an aesthetic mirror. And although part of me kind of feels annoyed that Paul Fleischman has not included a bibliography with books about insects for further reading (about insects in general and the fourteen species of bugs in particular), well, I have enjoyed Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices so much that I have not even really all that much missed the non inclusion of a bibliography, and that is definitely saying a lot coming from me (as usually a lacking bibliography really annoys me, but not really with Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices as with Paul Fleischman's wonderful poems I can mostly forget about this).

Oh wow, so wonderful to hear that you enjoyed it so much!

I have to admit that I'm ok with there not being back matter or bibliography in this case. After all, the science certainly has developed since the 1980s, and anything he sourced then would be obsolete now.

Cheryl wrote: "Oh wow, so wonderful to hear that you enjoyed it so much!

I have to admit that I'm ok with there not being back matter or bibliography in this case. After all, the science certainly has developed ..."

I noticed the lack of a bibliography but the poems are so delightful that I really only took note of it and was not really bothered all that much.

Scorpions

I tried reading the 1989 Newbery Honour winning young adult novel Scorpions as it is available on Open Library (and we are reading the 1989 Newbery books in the Children's Literature Group on Goodreads this month, in February 2023). But yes, I must admit that I did not get all that far with my perusal of Scorpions (about 80 or so pages) before doing a did not finish (or rather a could not finish) for Scorpions, as there is just too much gang culture, guns, violence and urban poverty induced grittiness being textually presented by author Walter Dean Myers for my personal reading tastes (and this all coming at me rather rapidly and in fact often like the bullets of the described guns and which I do find textually freaky and unappealing, even if there also is a verbal brilliance here). And while I do believe that Myers writes really eloquently and powerfully in and with Scorpions and as such equally tells a compelling, important and also a necessarily realistically brutal and authentic own voices story (of Jamal, Tito and of their many struggles and tragedies), sorry, but in particular my inner child is just not at all able and willing handle the above mentioned gang culture and the unrelenting gun violence and poverty at this specific time (so that while I do appreciate Scorpions for what is does and what Walter Deane Myers is trying to basically achieve with his featured text and his storytelling, I actually and realistically simply had to quit reading Scorpionsin order to save myself from getting any more nightmares post reading).

However, while I would usually consider either a one or at best a two star ranking for a novel I am not able and willing to finish, with Scorpions my rating will actually and in fact be three stars. For while my inner child is refusing to continue reading and is unable to handle the thematics and the contents of Scorpions (and that she finds the level of violence too ever-present, too problematic, too beyond her personal reading comfort zone, even if realistic and totally authentic, and also not actually gratuitously violent but just too relentlessly gritty, depressing and in fact just too much urban horror stay realism and starkness), yes, my adult reading self, although I have listened to my inner child and have decided to not finish with reading Scorpions, I do appreciate the brutal realism and exceptional writing quality of Walter Dean Myers' text and that Scorpions is a novel of significance and also of importance (even if I at present just cannot in any way continue my perusal).

I also find it pretty cool that Sid and Paul Fleischman are I think the only father and son to have both won the Newbery Award, Sid Fleischman for The Whipping Boy and Paul Fleischman for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, and only two years apart as well (1987 and 1989).

Cheryl wrote: "I dnf'd Scorpions at 34%."

I could not finish Scorpions either, too depressing, too much violence, well written, but it was giving me nightmares, so I stopped reading.

I did not rate In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

The art is amazing. I won't call the pictures illustrations, though, as they don't serve that function very well. The tales, well, I'm not sure. The label "Eskimo" is used on a tale that is a compilation, for example. But overall, if you like that sort of thing, you'll at least be entertained by the book. I, personally, have never been fond of creation stories or 'just so' stories, so I don't know how to judge these. There is a three page bibliography, which lends scholarly gravitas to the collection... but again, I don't know how careful the research or the tellings were done.

Sourced on the archival site openlibrary.org.

Cheryl wrote: "I did not rate In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

The art is amazing. I won't call the pictures illustrations, though, as they don't serve that function very we..."

Well, in 1989, the word Eskimo was not yet considered all that problematic, so while in 2023 the term bothers me, for 1989, it was mostly still considered fine (and using the word Inuit is actually much more a Canadian than an American thing it seems but I do wish it were more widespread, since for example in Europe, Eskimo is still the appellation most commonly used). But yeah, one does need to enjoy creation stories (and the one thing I noticed is that the stories are much more fun and engaging if one does not attempt to read them all in one go either).

https://www.aclutx.org/sites/default/...

Of course, Scorpions has been both banned and challenged, and while I did not enjoy the novel and did a DNF with it, there in NO WAY Scorpions should be banned and not used in the classroom either, for just because I found the novel too depressing and too into violence for me (at this time) this does of course not mean that Scorpions should not be allowed in the classroom or in school libraries.

I pretty much agree with everything you've said in those two posts above.

Ah of course. Walter Dean Myers is a frequent "offender". He writes about real life. In the instance of Scorpions, of course it's not for a second grader but that doesn't mean it should be banned.

Definitely, Scorpions (and in my opinion ANY book) should not be banned, but unfortunately, I do kind of fear that the more someone like me posts a review that says finding a novel, a piece of writing too depressing (on a personal level), the more it might get on the radar of the book banners, like Moms for Liberty or Ron DeSantis.

QNPoohBear wrote: "Ah of course. Walter Dean Myers is a frequent "offender". He writes about real life. In the instance of Scorpions, of course it's not for a second grader but that doesn't mean it sho..."

It would be pretty unprofessional and problematic for a teacher to consider Scorpions for second grade classrooms. In my opinion, Scorpions is a novel that makes sense for readers older than at least twelve years of age.

Apparently a second grade child checked the book out of the library and um that got it banned from the Rockdale elementary school? It's in the document linked above.

“School District: Rockdale ISD
School(s) Involved: Rockdale Elementary School
Setting: Library
Reason Cited: Other
Result: Banned
Notes: Other = Gangs. “A second grade girl chose to check out a book that was not on her reading level and interest level. The book is on the Accelerated Reading Program. The author is well known."

QNPoohBear wrote: "Apparently a second grade child checked the book out of the library and um that got it banned from the Rockdale elementary school? It's in the document linked above.

“School District: Rockdale IS..."

So because ONE second grade girl checked Scorpions out it was banned for everyone?

Manybooks wrote: "

So because ONE second grade girl checked Scorpions out it was banned for everyone?"

That's all it says in the document. Google doesn't give me much else except for it being on the ALA's list of frequently challenged books with diverse content.