Author Archives: KRISTINE JIMENEZ

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Little Black Sambo

sambo

From the beginning of the book, black people are dehumanized. In the preface it states that “black children abound and tigers are every day affairs,” speaking about black children as if they are animals or something unhuman.  The story commences with the protagonist standing in his underwear, then moving onto an illustration of his barefoot mother and lastly his well dressed yet barefoot father. Eventually Sambo ends up with the clothing that his parents gave him, oddly enough he gets shoes from his barefoot father. Apparently, the outfit he was given made him feel very important and this appealed to the talking tigers. Four different tigers tried to intimidate Sambo but he convinced each of them to spare his life by offering to give them a piece of his beautiful ensemble. After acquiring their new item, each tiger believed that they were now the grandest tiger of in the jungle conveying the message that the outfit carried power. I am curious as to why Sambo would choose to go parading through a jungle with a new beautiful outfit if he knew that there were tigers who want to eat him. It seems like self-sabotage, either that or he was utterly foolish. This story reminds me a bit of Hans Christian Anderson’s story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” because both have protagonists who believe that their clothing make them important but end up exposed and vulnerable after giving their power away to wretched creatures. I think that Bannerman, treated Sambo like a mindless dress-up doll and played into the fact that children like to dress up dolls. This also allowed the reader to treat Sambo as inferior and a source of amusement just like the Coon Alphabet did.

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Tom sawyer

 

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer paints a picture of a young boy who is indeed adventurous. Despite his wild, reckless side he is also very calculating and manipulative. Another side that I found interesting is the very dramatic part of his persona. When his aunt Polly mistakenly  “belts” him for dropping the sugar bowl in Chapter 3, Tom takes great pleasure in the fact that his aunt is visibly remorseful. He starts to think about how it would be if he were “lying sick unto his death” and his aunt would be trying to seek forgiveness but he would turn his face away from her. Then he takes it a step further, envisioning himself dead and his aunt throwing herself on top of his lifeless body begging God for forgiveness for abusing him. I found this humorous because he has such an overactive imagination. I love this character because he is 100% authentic, there are no pretenses with Tom. He is everything that he wants to be without anything or anyone holding him back. It can be considered self-centered but it’s fun to read about since most people try to abide by rules. Tom is keenly perceptive and is a bit of a social scientist, conducting experiments on anyone he comes in contact with and trying to figure out how to get what he wants.

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Alice in Wonderland

alice in wonderland

For years I loved the idea of getting lost in a fantasy world. It seemed exciting to wander off and encounter unusual things. Alice in Wonderland is great because the protagonist does just that; nothing has to make sense in this place and it’s one long wondrous adventure.  However, the story does mostly consist of Alice facing challenging situations and various forms of discomfort. The mouse, rabbit and caterpillar have strong personalities. This demonstrates that there will always be others who will challenge you in some way. Also, she continues to experiment with her physical growth and trying to “fit in” and be accepted.  As much of a fantasy world this might be, Alice deals with issues that all people must face throughout their lifetime. When people speak about “growth” they’re usually not referring to physical growth issues that Alice is dealing with but this a great way to relay information about psychological and emotional development to children. The nonsensical language can be either confusing or humorous and charming but either way it does make the reader think.

alice rabbit house

I loved a few parts of the story because they really made me laugh and are quite relatable. When Alice is in White Rabbit’s house and physically outgrows the house after drinking from one of his bottles, she starts to think about how much pleasanter it was at home than everything she is currently dealing with and at one point she says to herself,”…That’ll be a comfort, one way-never to be an old woman-but then-always to have lessons to learn! Oh, I shouldn’t like that!” I interpreted this to mean that she figures she won’t grow old because she is literally as big as she can grow, therefore in one way she is now a “grownup” but because she is still young age wise, she will still have to continue learning, unlike adults who know everything they need to know. When I was a child I  used to believe that adults knew everything because they are the ones who governed children, so of course I wanted to hurry up and become an adult so that I could know everything too. I find this line humorous because Lewis Carroll found a way to communicate messages that not only children can relate to but adults as well, since after all, they were once children and will understand the naivety. My favorite character thus far is The Caterpillar, it appears to have a strong sense of self, which is intimidating to Alice but it’s ironic because it’s not even a butterfly yet so it actually has a lot more transformation and learning to experience. What comes across as a strong sense of self through condescending and contemptuous language is actually another form of ignorance/naivety, which contrasts Alice’s self-doubt and shyness. Both characters have things that they can learn from one another just as in real life.

caterpillar alice

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The tales of Peter Parley about America

When I first started to read to this book I thought it was going to be a great and fun story about this man’s many adventures. As I continued to read, I was a little disturbed and uneasy about the descriptive stories about brutality. It was written in a way that was very matter of fact or accepting way. The character was said to have enjoyed the hunting experience, despite the fawn falling over “violently” when it was struck in the heart. Parley went to spend time with Wampum but he was killed and somehow there was no true emotion attached to the loss of who I thought was going to be a very important character. Parley said that Wampum was his “old protector” and “friend” and would expand more on this happening later on but as I already mentioned the author writes in a factual way, I suppose because this was not only a memoir but a history lesson. I personally still felt attached and a sense of loss when this character died and lost interest afterward. I’m not sure if children would feel this way, i’m guessing it all depends on the child. I think that the author’s purpose in writing the book in a way that might be more entertaining than dishing out facts about history fell flat.

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How to Read Children’s Literature. In: The Pleasures of Children’s Literature

boy on cell phoneNostalgia

Adult readers who select the books for the children, usually connect with their selections. There’s some underlying root cause for their choice. It could be attractiveness or how the words make them feel or perhaps they think it’s on the child’s level; there are many reasons it could be. I’ve been working with preschool children for a few years and during this time period I’ve learned that though all children are at a particular stage of development, they’re definitely not all the same. Just because a child is 3 years old, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have the capacity or interest in learning about other cultures, for example. The place i’m currently working at is very different from the last preschool I worked at. Both treat children as “children,” in the sense that they’re younger than us and don’t have the experience or level of comprehension that we have, however, I believe the first place limited children. The place where i’m working at now, introduces many subject matters and allows the children to simply ask questions about vocabulary or whatever they don’t understand. In fact, it is encouraged. Many times the children know and understand a lot more than I anticipated they would. The children sometimes even teach the teachers and one another new things. The children are also allowed to use scissors and glue and many things that I didn’t think children should be allowed to handled independently at this age. They are also spoken to with respect and not as “children” who need to be ordered around. The first place I worked at, didn’t really teach the children anything beyond the basics. I think that many adults just assume that children are less intelligent, less capable and inferior to them because they,much like myself can’t really remember understanding sophisticated language or concepts at that age. I can understand the assumption that many children won’t be able to understand certain things because lack of experience but I think that this applies to adults too. Something i’m still puzzled by is how writers know how to write for specific audiences but I believe that’s a gift that can’t be taught and perhaps actually more simple than anyone would think, because it comes so naturally to them.