The White Stag
A.
The White Stag is a re-telling of the legend of
Attila the Hun and other famous mythological heroes from Hungary. Nimrod, the progenitor of this line of
heroes, has a vision that his children will lead their people to a promised
land after a great deal of strife and a few generations. The group is lead out
of Asia and into Europe by Hunor and Magyar though eventually a portion of the
latter brother’s people split off to avoid further war. The Huns, taking after Hunor, continue west,
following Bendeguz and later Atilla.
Through a number of sightings of the white stag that gives the novel its
title, the manage to crush a number of European armies and make their way to
what is now known as Hungary, the promised land as foretold by the prophecies
of Nimrod.
B.
Seredy,
K. (1937). The White Stag. New York:
Puffin Books.
C.
Overall,
I found this book to be a bit dense and largely flat. While based on myth, little time is spent to
develop the main characters and even less on side characters. Many of the deeds described within the novel
fit with the “larger than life” theme that pervades so many mythological books,
but it also makes the characters very difficult to relate to. Only a pair of characters manages to capture
emotional gravitas, and even then, only once they realize that they have made
mistakes. Admittedly, the only
recognizable figure is Attila, but that does not mean that the characters must
be two-dimensional. The illustrations
were well done however, and fit well with the ethereal style the author was
intending to capture. I would rate this
book fairly low but I do give it credit for presenting a tale not often told.
D.
“This
is one of the books that many adults think is beyond children, seven out of
eight liking it very much isn't bad.” –R. E. Cundiff
Cundiff, R. E. (1943). Some children and the newbery
medal books. Peabody Journal of
Education,
20(6), 330-335. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1489398
E.
The White Stag does lend itself well to ideas
concerning heroism and what it means to be in charge of an entire group of
people. A number of the heroes in this
myth make some less than benevolent decisions and I would ask the children to
write about what being a hero means. I
would also ask them if there can be heroes that have made mistakes and ask that
they write about or visually depict their favorite hero, whoever that would be.
The Mixed-Up
Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
A.
The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler details the
exploits of Claudia and Jamie Kincaid as they run away from home and find
shelter in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. While the pair are initially concerned with
evading museum security, keeping their stomachs full, and learning, they
ultimately become entangled in a mystery surrounding a recently acquired statue
at the museum. The statue known as
“Angel” quickly intrigues Claudia, and she enlists the help of her brother to
determine who made the sculpture, suspecting it may have been the famous
Michelangelo of the Italian Renaissance.
The story is told from the perspective of the titular Frankweiler who
becomes involved toward the end as the previous owner of this unusual item.
B.
Konigsburg,
E. L. (1998). From the mixed-up files of mrs. basil e. frankweiler. New
York, NY:
Aladdin Paperbacks.
C.
This
story retains a great deal of charm, despite a few outdated references and
older slang terms. The characters are
easily relatable and do a great job of conveying the author’s message of
cooperation and the discovery of self. The
personalities of the main duo contrast nicely and the irreverence with which
they treat some of the museum items is fairly amusing and endearing. The language is overall simple though for the
most part, adult characters are absent save from very brief roles until the
very end of the novel. Still, running
away from home and running into mystery is fairly likely still to resonate with
kids as a great many of them have at least contemplated the act at some point.
D.
“…the
children also discover that the young and the very old are alike in their need to
share experience and to have secrets, and in their creative ability to satisfy
these needs.” –C. Billman
Billman, C. (1983). Young and Old Alike: The Place
of Old Women in Two Recent
Novels for
Children. Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 8(1), 6.
doi:10.1353/chq.0.0233
“This tendency to view the unreal as merely an
extension of the real gives Konigsburg’s work a Dickensian flavor, reminiscent
of Great Expectations (1861) or Oliver Twist (1838), though her narratives,
complex as they may be, are much simpler and more straightforward. The point,
however, is that her fiction has a similar range.” –W. Condon
Condon, W. (1991). From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs.
Basil E. Frankweiler. Masterplots\ II:
Juvenile & Young Adult Fiction Series, 1-3.
E.
I
would challenge the kids to investigate the library and find an article, either
online, or in a newspaper or magazine, and come up with a small story
explaining those events. It does not
need to be elaborate, but they should look up something that interests them and
try to come up with some way to include them in the article to where they have
an effect on the outcome of the story.
This sort of reversal of cause and effect may help their creative drive
by coming up with some way to explain an event that has already transpired
without their input.
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