We were a very small but enthusiastic group at our last meeting. We
started by remarking on the fact that both of our books were stories of
very strong young women who used their intelligence, initiative,
creativity, and 'pluck' to do the things they needed to do to solve
their problems and make life more bearable. We also liked the fact that
in both books the main characters solved their problems by themselves
without any adult help or intervention.
We all liked the picture book,
Paula Bunyan by Phyllis Root. We thought it was a good
'takeoff' on the traditional 'Paul Bunyan' story, imagining what his
sister might be like. We liked that it followed the parameters of a Tall
Tale, and that Paula's amazing powers helped her to accomplish some
'very tall' deeds -- a true example of the exaggeration present in tall
tales. We loved the illustrations -- both the full-page, full-color
scenes on the pages opposing the text and the black ink drawings at the
top of the text pages. We thought it would be great to expose children
to this 'made up' tall tale (as opposed to one from the oral tradition)
and to compare it with the Paul Bunyan stories.
We also had good feelings about our novel,
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell.
We had decided to read it to see if it stood up over time since it was
originally published in 1960. We decided that it did. We felt that it
was a great adventure story that both boys and girls would like, and
that the portrayal of Karana, a courageous young girl who figured out
what she had to do in order to survive living alone on the island could
be inspirational to young readers. We also liked the detailed
descriptions of the flora and fauna on the island and how Karana figured
out how to use everything at her disposal to make her life safe,
livable, and even comfortable. There was a question of whether the
portrayals of Karana's tribe and of the Aleuts was accurate, but we
agreed that given the pre-Internet time it was written the author had
probably done the best research possible at that time. We also agreed
that the writing was not the most magnificent prose ever created, but
that it was straightforward and very accessible to kids, and given that
Scott O'Dell had been a journalist prior to becoming a children's
author, it made sense that this would be his writing style. A couple of
our members said it belonged on their 'All-Time Best' lists.
