Owen

Henkes, K. (1993). Owen. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.

I'm drawn to Kevin Henkes' cute little animal characters, especially the mice!  Chrysanthemum is my favorite but Lilly comes in close second.  I have had this picture book for a year or two in my classroom library; sometimes I purchase value sets from Scholastic book orders so I probably got this one along with a few other of Kevin Henkes' books but I just haven't gotten to it yet.  Most of his stories cover social issues that are very meaningful to my young students and the book, Owen is a story that many young kindergarteners especially can relate to.  This picture book won a Caldecott Honor in 1993.

Owen, a young little mouse is the protagonist, he's the main character and the audience feels for him against his battle of giving up his blanket.  The neighbor, Mrs. Tweezers tries to convince Owen's parents that he is too old to carry the blanket everywhere.  Owen's parents agree that since he is starting school soon that he can no longer keep "Fuzzy" with him, and he especially can't take it to school.  His parents try the blanket fairy idea by having Owen leave the blanket under his pillow to be replaced by a big boy toy but that doesn't work.  Mrs. Tweezers also suggests dipping the corner of the blanket in vinegar and then just saying "NO" but Owen just gets very upset.  You could possibly say that Mrs. Tweezers and his parents are antagonists but the true antagonist of the story is the idea of Owen growing up and no longer being able to carry around his blanket. Finally at the end of the story his parents resolve Owen's issue with letting go of the blanket by cutting the blanket into handkerchiefs that he can still take with him wherever he goes. 

Kevin Henkes is also the illustrator.  He uses cute drawing and bright color paintings on each page.  On several pages he has broken up and separated different pictures into boxes to show the different actions of Owen and his blanket.  The pictures of Owen and his blanket truly depict what children look like with their prized possessions or "comfort items". 

I would use this picture book in pre-school, kindergarten, or first grade. The beginning of the year in pre-school and kindergarten is especially hard on some students, especially some of mine who have special needs.  Owen, can serve as a great social learning experience for all young students, especially those having trouble moving on to school.  Every August and at times throughout the school year we are constantly battling the kindergarteners who bring their "comfort items" to school, but really they just become a distraction.  Usually we get stuffed animals and blankets but this year we had a first, one of my students brought his live kitten in his backpack!  Discussions following the reading of this book can help students understand why they can no longer do some of the things they did when they were younger, but promote all of the new exciting activities they can participate in as they grow up! Questions like, "Do you still have something from when you were a baby that you still have?", "Why is it special to you?", "How can you keep this item special to you while growing up at the same time?"

There is also a great resource online for teachers, librarians, and parents.  Kevin Henkes' own website:
http://www.kevinhenkes.com/ 

At his site you can learn about the author/illustrator, read FAQ from children, download activities for some of his books, find other books by Henkes, and my favorite, find recipes that correspond to some of his stories! From his site I found a few other of Henkes' books that I plan to check out from the library!

Introduction

Hello! My name is Courtney Lawson.  Cumberlands still has my name listed as Courtney Hertsenberg, so for class reasons I will go by that name. I just changed my name before classes started in August so hopefully by next bi-mester my name will be back to Lawson!  I did not get married so no congratulations necessary, I did just the opposite, and I have been congratulating myself on that accomplishment for the past year and a half! :). 

I teach kindergarten and first grade special education at JA Caywood Elementary in the Kenton County School District.  I love my Caywood kids! I love kindergarten and especially first grade!  This is my 4th school year at Caywood, I spend about half of my day collaborating in the first grade classrooms and the other half of the day I take small groups of kindergarten and first grade students to my classroom for extra practice on the skills they need in their classrooms.  I am also in charge of my school news team consisting of 4th and 5th grade students who air a live news program daily. 

I love sports! I am in my 7th year of coaching basketball.  I coached for 3 years at a middle school before I moved on to coaching freshman at one of the high schools in my district but since starting my masters program I decided to move back down to coaching at the middle school level which is a little less time consuming.  I just couldn't give it up entirely!

I am currently in my 3rd class toward earning a masters degree from the University of the Cumberlands focusing on reading and writing.  I spend most of my day teaching in the area of reading so when choosing my masters program I decided to focus on an area that will truly make me become a better teacher.

When I am not working, doing school work, or coaching basketball I like to spend time with my two dogs, work in the garden because colorful flowers make me happy, and cook tasty recipes for my sweetie, Ryan. 

Owl Moon

Yolen, J. (1988). Owl moon. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.

First, I will explain how I chose this book.  I decided that for some of my book selections in this course I would talk with my colleagues to see what some of their favorite books to use in their classrooms are.  I am a special education teacher so I went to one of the teachers I collaborate with who has been teaching kindergarten for 12 years and asked her for a few award winning picture books that happen to be some of her favorites but I told her not to tell me anything about them, I wanted to have my own feelings about the books.  She gave me a stack of some books she really enjoys, one of which was the picture book, Owl Moon, written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by John Schoenherr.  By the condition of the book I could tell it had been “loved” and gotten plenty of use over the years.  The book had the big gold Caldecott Medal on the front cover which it received in 1988.

The book is written in first person point of view.  The main character is the narrator, a young child, perhaps a young boy who goes on his first owling adventure with his father, Pa.  The boy and his father venture into the woods one late snowy night looking for owls.  The plot of the story follows chronological order where the boy takes the audience through his adventure with step by step details.  He clearly has been looking forward to this owling adventure and knows what to expect.  The boy talks about what he sees, hears, feels, and what he is thinking along his adventure.  He sees the moonlight, shadows, and trees.  He hears a train whistle, dogs barking, silence of the night, and owl calls.  He feels cold, warmth, happiness.  He mentions how the moonlight makes different things appear, like moonlight on his father’s face, moonlight in the clearing lighting up the snow, and the moonlight on the owl. During their journey his father makes owl calls in hopes of hearing one call back.  After a few attempts, they finally hear an owl, and then see the owl.  After they see the owl their mission is accomplished and they return home.  On the last page, the author’s words seem to tell the audience that the boy is proud and happy to have gone on his journey with his father.

I enjoyed reading this book, it gave me warm and fuzzy feelings! I spent some time reminiscing events in my life, particularly special moments I spent with my parents.  I had two younger brothers and when I was able to spend time with just one of my parents for some quality time I was in pure happiness.  I looked up to my mom and wanted to be just like her.  I remember always wanting to help her.  I even called her up to chat about some of my favorite memories we shared, like our annual gardening weekend every spring.

The illustrations are beautiful. Schoenherr painted full page illustrations of the snowy winter night on each page.  You see the boy and his father from different points of view in the woods on the owling journey.  The paintings are soft and peaceful, adding to the words in the text which also provided a calming effect for me.  From the illustrations I felt warm and happy, seeing the father and child together reminded me of moments in my childhood when I shared memorable moments with my parents.

This book could be used to make students recall a time in their life that was meaningful to them.  I would consider sharing this story with my students prior to personal writing activities giving examples of first person and the details and feelings provided by the narrator.  Some questions I would ask my students would be, “Think of an event in your life that is meaningful to you.”, “Why was this event meaningful to you? How did it make you feel?”, “Who was involved, where did the event take place?”

I would recommend this book to teachers in primary grades.  My first graders begin writing personal narratives next week.  I plan to share this book with them.