A Simpler Time

Ox-Cart Man

by Donald Hall

Pictures by Barbara Cooney

Summary

Readers meet Donald Hall’s Ox-Cart Man as he loads up his wagon for his annual trip to Portsmouth Market, where he will sell the foods and handiwork his family has been producing during the last year on their New England farm. Potatoes, maple sugar, knitted mittens, goose feathers and linen are all loaded for the 10-day journey. Upon his arrival, Ox-Cart Man sells everything, even the cart he traveled to market in. After procuring some necessary supplies with his earnings, Ox-Cart Man returns for the winter and his family settles in for the winter and begins the annual process again. Planting, knitting, sewing and harvesting.

Worth staying up past bedtime?

If you have a reader who likes history, pioneer times, or even simply animals on a farm, Ox-Cart Man is a good book to stay up for. It is not dynamic or flashy, but I loved its steady rhythm and simple story line. With our increasingly busy and technology-filled lives growing louder every day, I think it is important to remind children of how people lived in years past. Barbara Cooney’s wood-painted illustrations are beautifully detailed, and they made me feel nostalgic for a simpler time, the way I imagine some people feel when looking at a Norman Rockwell painting. Ox-Cart Man is a breath of fresh air that I think many children can enjoy.

Reviews

"Like a pastoral symphony translated into picture book format, the stunning combination of text and illustrations recreates the mood of 19-century rural New England."

-The Horn Book

1980 Caldecott Medal Book

In the library

Read Ox-Cart Man for a group story time and set out a table with some of the items mentioned in the book for children to see afterward - feathers, wool, maple sugar, candles, knitting. Consider having the reader dress in period clothing.

SLIS 5420 / Module 3

Week of Sept. 13-19

Something That Floats

Flotsam

by David Wiesner

Summary

What would you do if you found a camera washed up on the beach? After an unsuccessful search for the owner, the young boy in David Wiesner’s Flotsam develops the film inside and is taken on a journey through the ocean that the underwater camera made before it washed up in a tangle of seaweed. There is no doubt a strange and exciting world beneath the water’s surface, from tiny seashell communities to giant starfish that tower above whales. And this isn’t the first time the camera has washed up on shore ...

Worth staying up past bedtime?

Flotsam: Something that floats. If it floats in the ocean, it may wash up on the beach, where someone may find it and be astonished, and share the discovery with someone else. (from the inside cover of Flotsam.)

Flotsam is a discovery that is definitely worth staying up for! Told entirely through illustrations, the story is a fantastic work of imagination, and I quickly found myself caught up in the underwater world Wiesner created. I loved the look of shock on the young boy’s face when he developed the photos and discovered that things are not necessarily as they seem below the water’s surface. A mechanical fish, an octopus family enjoying a book, and eventually, a photo that leads to the camera’s origins. I was just as surprised as the young boy when I discovered the journey the camera had made, and I have been telling friends about this book from the moment I put it down.

Reviews

Though wordless, this intriguing book is a storytelling marvel. With stunning, meticulously painted watercolors, award-winning Wiesner tells the fanciful tale of a young boy who discovers an old-fashioned camera washed up on the beach. The developed film reveals fantastical underwater shots, including octopi reading in armchairs and elaborate cities built of seashells. Children will savor the magic of this surreal underwater world and the book's mind-bending conclusion.

-Child Magazine

In the library

For older children, starting a chain letter between libraries or schools. As a group, write a short letter about the book and take a polaroid photo of them at the library. Then mail the letter to another library or school, asking them to pass it along with a letter and photo of their own once they’ve read the book.

For younger children, make ocean artwork. Use paper, markers, glitter and glue to make starfish, shells, fish, and of course, flotsam! Provide an “ocean” for their completed work to be displayed on and hang it up in the library.

SLIS 5420 / Module 3

Week of Sept. 13-19