Literature Collection 1 - Cashman

Literature Collection 1

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Nicole Cashman 

Amazing Grace 

By: Mary Hoffman

Illustrated by: Caroline Binch

This story is about a little girl named Grace who loved to play and had an extensive imagination. When she would play she would be anything and everything from an explorer, doctor, Aladdin, and even Mogli in a jungle. One day she went to school and her teacher said they were doing a play called "Peter Pan". Grace knew that she wanted to lay the part of Peter Pan, so when the teacher asked who would like to be Peter Pan, Grace raised her hand. One of Grace's classmates said she could not be Peter Pan because she was a girl and Peter Pan is a boy. Another one of Grace's classmates told her she could not be Peter Pan because she was black. There were so many children who wanted to be Peter Pan, the teacher told the class that they would hold auditions. Grace went home upset because of the comments her classmates said. Her grandmother took her to a ballet of Romeo and Juliet where Juliet was played by a black woman. After the ballet Grace went home and practiced for the auditions. When Grace went back to school, auditions were held, and the whole class was surprised at how good of a Peter Pan Grace was, that he whole class nominated Grace for the part. This story moral was that no matter if you are a boy or girl, black or white, speak English or don't, you can be whatever you want to be.

This book would be considered Contemporary realistic fiction because the story is plausible with a well defined conflict and Grace had a strong characterizations. The illustrations in this books defintly enhanced the characterizations and the plot. The pictures really gave the reader a visual of Grace's feeling and emotions towards things she liked to do, comments made by other children, and success. 

A motivational activity that could go along with this book would be to have the class pick out 3 things that they think only girls can do (activity, job, game) and 3 things that they think only boys can do (activity, job, game). Girls might be - teacher, softball coach, Laura Croft Tomb Raider and boys might be - firefighter, football coach, Spiderman. Then the each child would have to pick one of the things on the other gender list that they think they could be the best at. This could help show students that just because people see that someone is a boy or girl doesn't mean that if they want to do something they can't because they are the other gender. Another motivational activity is to have a play audition in the classroom. The teacher can use the play Peter Pan from the book or choose a different play. The auditions should be boys trying out for a girls part and girls trying out for a boys part. After the auditions are done, the class could vote for the person who did the BEST job. 

Two reader response questions I would ask would be LAFS.2.RL.1.1 - What is the main message of the story? The second question I would ask is How did Grace feel when her classmates told her she couldn't be Peter Pan. How do you know? (LAFS.2.RL.1.3)

   

I thought that this book was good. I felt that it gave a good example of how children of minority feel sometimes in different settings or by remarks made by their peers. I think that this book is also a good resources tool for teachers in the classroom to teach their students that every person is the same no matter what they look like. 

References 

Lee Galda, B. E. (2010). Literature and the Child. 7th Ed. Belmont: Wadworth. Cenage.
Publishers Weekly.(September).Amazing Grace.Retrieved from : https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8037-1040-5