Mary E. LyonsBesprekingen

Mary Lyons biography of "The Great Hunger" in Ireland during the mid-nineteenth century is a riveting collection of first-hand accounts from the Irish people who experienced this horrific time of disease and starvation. The author chooses to let the Irish people tell their story in their own words. I thought the organization was an interesting way to tell the story, but I felt the author should have included her voice to lend explanations to younger readers to help them understand the more abstract concepts like England's institutionalized racism, tenant farming (lack of land ownership), or England's lack of empathy for Ireland's plight.
The book includes a bibliography but the true sources of information are the original accounts of which the University College in Dublin Ireland granted her access.
Some of the accounts are truly traumatic, like mass graves, mother's carrying dead infants, and the lengths people would go to get a bite of food. The author shares these stories with the reader in the hopes of bringing attention to an underdocumented blight in European history. Over one million people died during the years 1846 to 1852 yet not one known photo exists. I am the granddaughter of Irish immigrants and I appreciate the author's passion for telling this story.

I really liked this book for many reasons. The big idea of this book is to inform young children about the harsh times Irish people had to face during the potato famine. Although this book is solely informational, it manages to still keep the reader engaged. For example, the author stated “Now over forty million Irish descendants live in the United States. You may be one of them.” By making this statement about Irish people in America personal to the reader, the author is is grabbing the reader’s attention. Children who are Irish will feel more connected to this book because they will realize that it is about their own personal history. This book describes in great detail how potatoes are made and how vital they were for the survival of Irish people in the 1800s. The images are eye-catching and capture the hard times Irish people faced during the famine. There is one sketch of a malnourished girl in Galway that is very powerful and emotional to look at. Since this is a non-fiction book about the grave topic of hunger, I would not recommend this book for younger elementary school students. Both the text and the illustrations depict too heavy of a message for small children. However, this book provides a great opportunity to students in 4th and 5th grade because it allows them to see history from a non-American perspective. Elementary school students usually do not get the chance to learn about Irish history, so this book pushes students to think about tough issues that people had to face in another part of the world. This book is well organized and has clearly labeled sections such as “Potatoes and the Blight”, “Searching for Food”, and “Soup Kitchens”. These categories make it easy for children to refer back to specific sections of the book without having to read it from beginning to end. There are also quotes from Irish people who lived through the famine that raise the emotional impact that this book has on the reader. I would recommend this book to a child who needs to write a non-fiction book report or research paper. This book is sad, but a very interesting read.

Maybe 3.5 stars. Good for read-aloud - it does swing along with interesting words & syntax. Good for a Tall Tales unit that wants to explore beyond John Henry, Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink....

"Roy Makes A Car" was among the most interesting books I have read so far, and I did enjoy it however I failed to find the message of the book. This book is written in third language with diction that might be a little hard for kids to understand. The book takes place in Eatonville, Florida which is rural town and in the book one of the characters say, "I got two bucks says it can't do diddly out on the road." The narrator of the story also talks in a rural southern manner, which could be hard for kids to follow which is why I would recommend this book to third graders and above. However with this being said, I like how the author uses vernacular language in this book, a lot of children's picture books do not include vernacular language, but it is sometimes important to, to describe the setting and characters of the story. The illustrations in this book were very fun and imaginative and I liked how on each page that just had words there was little illustration of one of Ray's mechanical tools. Another thing I noticed from this book is that it mentions God. Because not every child knows or understands what the concept of God is, this could raise a lot of questions and possible confusion as well.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked the illustrations, they added quite a bit of humor and character to the book. They were such loud strong colors and they always portrayed a happy mood. The illustrations gave the words a new life, and kept the book going at a nice pace. The main character Roy, was very easy to get along with. He was a little quirky but at the same time you couldn't help but smile at the things he was doing.Roy was very out going and not afraid of a challenge. He was given a challenge and he made a plan and stuck to it until he came up with a final product that helped him complete his challenge. He was always trying to make something better, and more impressive. The one aspect of this book that i didn't like was the very end. It was a great story up until the end. When it very abruptly brought up God. Which in a children's book i don't think is entirely appropriate. The story could have ended 3/4 of the way though and it still would have made sense. Religion is one of those topics that you have to be very careful about when writing children books, because with in one classroom their could be multiple different religions that students practice. Overall i think one message that this book demonstrates is to think outside the box and to use your imagination.

I really enjoyed the book Roy Makes a Car. I thought it was a great opportunity to show African-American culture in a fictional world involving historical events. This story is supposed to represent the time that cars were being invented and utilized in the United States. I enjoyed how the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) was displayed throughout the story. This gave the effect of a different culture representation and helped the reader become more involved with the different characters. I liked how the playfulness of the different inventions for the car added a sense of wit and brilliance to the main character, while also keeping the book childlike. This book is based on story collections by author Zora Neal Hurston. A brilliant author who depicts African American culture in her book "Their Eyes Were Watching God". I think that this book is a fun depiction of African American culture in the early 1900's.

This was a rather intense book. It had a somewhat slow start, but quickly picked up. The perspective is that of a young slave girl who ultimately finds her way to freedom. Based on the true story of Harriet Jacobs, this in an enthralling book.

This was an informative and colorful book written for children, probably in the upper elementary and Junior High schools. I was interested in the topic after reading the "Invention of Wings," by Sue Monk Kidd, in which one of the characters sews a story quilt.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked the book because the characters were developed, especially the main character Roy. The author went into detail about Roy by giving him a last name and explaining what he did and where he lived. The author states “Roy Tyle runs a garage down near Eatonville, Florida. Eatonville…now, that’s somewhere west of Christmas and north of Boogys Corner.” What I didn’t like about the book was the language. There was a lot of words and phrases that could be confusing for children. For example, “After and hour or so, he told the people he was ready to show his turbocharged, floating-ride, stabliated, lubricated, banjo-axled, wing-fendered, low-compression, noncollision car. The big idea from this story was that if you put your mind to anything you can achieve it even if others doubt you.

Based on a folk-tale that Zora Neale Hurston collected in her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, during her tenure at the Florida Federal Writers' Project, during the Great Depression, Roy Makes a Car is a Tall Tale in the best American tradition, with plenty of ingenuity, and a number of fantastic inventions making an appearance. A mechanic par excellence, Roy eventually become so fed up with the flaws of the automobiles he is forever fixing, that he decides to make one of his own. When he emerges from his garage triumphant, naysayers are not lacking, and he is soon challenged to a number of tests, to prove the worth of his vehicle, and demonstrate the truth of his claim that it is "accident proof."

I can't say that I was initially drawn to this title, or to the illustrations, so I owe my friend Gundula a special thank you (thanks, Gundula!) for reviewing and recommending it! As it turns out, I enjoyed it quite a bit, going along for the 'ride,' and happy to suspend my disbelief. Selling cars to God? Well, the Lord moves in mysterious ways, as they say. Lyons does a good job expanding on her source material, and her narrative is quite amusing - I loved the bit about folks in Georgia wondering "who the heck" Roy was, after finding his cap! The acrylic artwork from Terry Widener is colorful and appealing, and his characters' faces are often very droll, in their expressions. All in all, a solid folkloric retelling, one I would recommend to fans of Tall Tales in general, or African-American folklore specifically!

A witty, fun and gorgeously illustrated African-American folktale about Roy Tyle of Eatonville, Florida, the ultimate car mechanic (who built not only an accident-proof car, but then built another car which he actually sold to God), Roy Makes a Car is a wonderful tale to share with young folklore enthusiasts, but is especially suitable for sharing with boys (who are often rather reluctant to read or listen to the many traditional princess-type folk and fairy tales). Even though I am not much of a car fan, I was both charmed and amused by this often humorous folktale, based on a traditional story originally collected by Zora Neale Hurston.

Roy Makes a Car is a fun and engaging read, and the illustrations are a perfect match for the story, bright, colourful, with many humorous little touches. The detailed and informative author's note about Flora Neale Hurston is an added bonus, presenting not only interesting information concerning the original folktale of Roy Makes a Car and how Hurston collected the story, but also numerous details regarding Zora Neale Hurston's life and times, as well as her many contributions to the collecting and study of African-American folklore.

This story was an interesting story to read. First and for most, it's wording used a form of dialect to identify certain characters and the way they spoke. I think this is a story that you would read to your class if you're a K-3 teacher, because it has some longer sentences and paragraphs. Overall though it is a very fun and goofy story. The main character, Roy, is a mechanic and takes on the challenge to build a car that can make it around a notoriously dangerous turn in their town. It is a great story, with some imaginative characters, and some amazing illustrations, but a very fun read along for the class.

This book is about a woman named Minnie Evans. She was forty-three years old when she began to draw pictures based on her strange dreams and visions. She drew and painted giant birds, biblical figures, and many other weird and fascinating images. This is a book about Evans and how she over came the obstacles that she faced being an African American woman. The illustrations in this book are beautifully painted and amazing to look at. Some of them are abstract and the meanings of others are more clearly distinguished. It's an interesting story.

Feed the Children First is a collection of first and second-hand accounts of the Irish Potato Famine. Mary Lyons, a former librarian, has collected a remarkable selection of stories, letters, and photographs into possibly the most succinct book ever written on the Great Hunger. Within the first few pages, the reader is given a lesson on famine by the people who lived it and their descendants.

Every page has either an invaluable insight into the causes of the famine, a photograph worth a thousand words, an illustration colored with heartbreak, or a story that could move the dead. This book is a mere 43 pages and the author has done something incredibly difficult here- she has immersed the reader completely. Feed the Children First would make a perfect introduction to a topic that changed Europe and America forever.

Included in this fantastic book is a note to the reader, an extensive collection of acknowledgments and illustration credits, and a bibliography.

This book should be welcomed (and most certainly included) in any history classroom across the country. Recommended for ages 10 & Up.

"Letters from a Slave" girl made learning and reading about slavery interesting.

This book is a fictionalized version of the life of Harriet Jacobs, told in the form of letters that she might have written during her slavery in North Carolina and as she prepared for escape to the North in 1842. This story details her early life and her eventual escape to the free North. So desperate is Harriet Jacobs for freedom, she lives in a tiny attic space for years rather than return to her cruel owners. The most striking thing about this book is its narrative voice. The story is told from the perspective of Harriet Jacobs, in fictional letters she writes to important people in her life, both dead and alive.

Natasha has an incredible review at Maw Books. All I can say is "Wow!"

Harriot Jacobs is born into slavery in the antebellum South. This story details her early life and her eventual escape to the free North. So desperate is Harriet Jacobs for freedom, she lives in a tiny attic space for years rather than return to her cruel owners. The most striking thing about this book is its narrative voice. The story is told from the perspective of Harriet Jacobs, in fictional letters she writes to important people in her life, both dead and alive. The writing captures the unique cadence, word choice and sentence structure of a black slave in the South in a way that makes Harriet Jacobs seem all the more alive and real. An appendix with photos and documents of the historical Harriet Jacobs increases the realistic setting and characters.½

Lyons, M.E., & Branch, M. M. (2000). Ellen Rose: A Civil War scrapbook of two Union Spies.. New York: Scholastic, Inc.

Grade Level: grades 6-9
Category: historical fiction, journal
Read-Alouds: pp. 28-33 (Slave codes); pp. 40-46 (John Brown); pp. 67-75 (spying); pp. 98-105 (Ellen Bee); pp. 150-155 (Epilogue).

Summary: Elizabeth Van Lew was a wealthy southern woman who sympathized with abolitionists and freed her slaves. Miss Bet, as she was called, dearly loved one particular former slave, a child named Mary Elizabeth Bowser, and provided an education for the girl in Pennsylvania. During the Civil War, Miss Bet and Liza joined a Union spy ring and provided Union military leaders with information regarding Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the happenings in Richmond, VA. For their loyalty to the North, Liza and Miss Bet (called L and B or later, Ellen Bee), lost their wealth, social status, friends and family.
Themes: Themes surrounding this book are largely historical but also have modern implications. For example, Miss Bet’s patriotism is questioned when she helps the North instead of the South. This could bring up the historical and modern political implications of patriotism. In addition, family and friendships during adversity, history from the view of the “sacred” or “profane”, coming of age, wages of war, and slavery/freedom could be discussed.
Discussion Questions:
• How does this book help explain a new perspective on the death of James Brown? The Emancipation Proclamation? The life of Civil War soldiers for both the Union and Confederacy?
• In the Civil War South, what is patriotism? How does Miss Bet break the rules of patriotism and what is her punishment?
• Miss Bet and Liza lost a lot for their contribution to the Union military. List what was lost and discuss if the loss was worth it in the long run.

Reader Response: Civil War history fascinates me and I’d never heard of “Ellen Bee” so I was pretty excited about reading it. The layout is a great idea; the plan was to compile the book to look like Van Lew’s actual scrapbook. Although it was a good idea, I don’t think it came together well. Many letters are not signed and I can see students being confused by who is writing the letters and who they are written to. In addition, many of the illustrations seemed unnecessary. The book does provide good supplementary facts on the Civil War but it would be pretty easy to lose them in the layout. I’m glad I read Ellen Bee because I think the knowledge that two of the most useful Richmond spies were a former slave woman and white woman is fascinating. However, I’m not sure I would use this book in a classroom simply because it seemed a bit disorganized and the disorganization made the information a bit overwhelming and inaccessible.½

The slave of Charles Peale, artist and owner of one of the first American museum, recounts his experiences with the famous man.

Pretty good if you like scrapbooks, Civil War history, or spies. It's about two women in Richmond, VA who are Union spies. One's white and the other is her former slave.

A scrapbook kept by a young black girl details her experiences and those of the older white woman, "Miss Bet," who had freed her and her family. The girl is sent north from Richmond to get an education, and then works to bring an end to slavery. Based on the life of Elizabeth Van Lew.

jB

dust jacket, signed copy