All the Cinderellas

For our last little peek behind the pages of the fairy tales in our current exhibit, Once Upon a Time, we’d like to celebrate one of the best-known of them: Cinderella! The beauty with the special slipper has a very, very long lineage. Stories about her, or women very much like her, have been traced back hundreds of years, to China, Greece, and Egypt.

The Greek-Egyptian version of Cinderella is most likely the earliest, although it lacks many of the elements that are more familiar to us from the European-derived stories of the 1700s. In this tale, the heroine is named Rhodopis, and she was one of many servants of a Greek businessman and politician named Xanthes. He had taken a party to Egypt for business, and Rhodopis, bathing in a spring, had one of her slippers snatched up by an eagle, who then dropped it in the lap of the King of Egypt. The king took this as a sign from the heavens and searched everywhere for the slipper’s owner. Rhodopis, also known as Rhodope and as Doricha, was most likely a real woman, a courtesan (or “hetaera”) who lived about 2600 years ago, but the story about the shoe was probably a tall tale, and we can thank her contemporary, Aesop, for that.

More than a thousand years later, the popular tale had made its way to China. Tuan Ch’êng-shih wrote of a heroine named Yeh-Shen, and her story is closer to the version that we know. Yeh-Shen longs for happiness and marriage since her stepmother is so cruel, and she has some supernatural help from a magical fish who grants her wishes. Yeh-Shen attends a ball wearing a beautiful dress and slippers made of gold, and leaves one behind, in the hands of a charming king, when her allotted time expires.

Yeh-Shen and Rhodopis stories continued to be told, with different names, as the centuries passed, with dozens more iterations than we have room to discuss here. In 1697, Charles Perrault’s version, “Cendrillon,” was published, and it’s pretty much the final form that we know it today. Earlier European versions had replaced the magical benefactor with a kind godmother, but Perrault made her a fairy godmother for the first time. She transforms a pumpkin into a carriage, makes the slippers from glass, turns mice into horses, and so on. Basically all the elements of Cinderella that we all recognize are present in Perrault’s version, which has as strong a claim as any to being the most popular of all fairy tales.

Perrault’s was not the final version, of course, because as we’ve discussed, fairy tales are always changing and evolving. In recent years, Hollywood movies like Snow White and the Huntsman and Maleficent have given classic fairy tales a darker edge, but the Cinderella story was taking on heavier overtones quite early on. In 1812, the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, published their seminal collection of European tales, and the Cinderella version that they included, entitled “Aschenputtel,” is much darker than Perrault’s and all the variants that followed it.

What interests me about Cinderella, though, is that the bleak overtones that some writers and folklorists have added to the story don’t actually seem to stick. As we noted in the first of these features, about Jack and the Beanstalk, many fairy tales actually thrive with a little color and backstory and discussion of motivations, even if it’s sometimes darker. Cinderella, however, shrugs off anybody’s attempts to darken it. Perhaps because the core of the story is so bright and happy, and its tale of wish-fulfillment is so encouraging and promising, that darkness just doesn’t belong to it. Cinderella is arguably the most popular fairy tale in the world, and the happiest.

Further reading: Lit Reactor | readyed.com.au | popsugar.com

More Fairy Tales: Andersen and de Beaumont

Most of the fairy tales which Americans grew up reading are of European vintage, and a healthy majority of them were compiled by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, who popularized such classics as “The Little Mermaid,” “The Snow Queen,” “The Ugly Duckling,” “The Princess and the Pea,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and “The Steadfast Tin Soldier,” among many others. Our current feature exhibit, Once Upon a Time: Exploring the World of Fairy Tales could very easily have been an Andersen-only exhibit, but since the intent is to explore the whole world of fairy tales, from many sources, only one of Andersen’s made the cut, and that’s the wonderful and charming “Thumbelina.”

Thumbelina is an inch-high little girl who popped into this world from barleycorn, and who fends off marriage proposals from various members of the animal kingdom. In Andersen’s story, she is nearly wed to both a toad and then to a mole, but finally finds true love with one of her kind, another fairy who emerges from a flower. Her story is related to a human storyteller by way of a bluebird who had also fallen in love with her, and confides to the man about his broken heart.

Hans Christian Andersen wrote travelogues, novels, and memoirs, but it’s the fairy tales that he’s best known for today. Seven or eight of Andersen’s are probably iconic enough that they’ll be on anybody’s list of classics, but he either adapted or created more than two dozen!

About a hundred years earlier, in France, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont penned the best-known version of “Beauty and the Beast,” a folk tale that had been passed around for several decades. De Beaumont’s novel was first published in 1756, and either excised or simplified much of the Beast’s backstory. Interestingly, as later adaptations, films, and cartoons have been produced, based on the story, many writers have sought to bulk up the story behind the Beast’s hideous appearance. There is actually no need for them to go to all that trouble because Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, decades before de Beaumont, had already given the Beast a family and a lengthy origin that includes political scheming and fairy queens, material that de Beaumont later dropped from her novel.

“Beauty and the Beast” has a pretty good claim to be the most popular and well-known of all fairy tales, maybe sharing equal first billing with “Cinderella.” It’s been directly adapted for films almost a dozen times, with Disney’s 1991 animated feature arguably the definitive version, and has inspired heaven-knows-how-many storybooks for young readers, each of which has its own version of what the Beast looks like, and its own storyline. Singing teapots and candelabras are a fairly recent addition to the story!

In our Once Upon a Time exhibit, your children can crawl through a mole’s tunnel and have an elegant dinner at the Beast’s castle, but don’t forget to take the stories home with you after you have played! How will you create your own version of these stories for your children to remember and, many years from now, share with their own?

The Many Tales of Anansi

Children always surprise me when they play, and when they’re in our Once Upon a Time exhibit, they are always finding new things to do that I didn’t see coming. This past Saturday, my son, who is four, spent the better part of ten minutes hiding behind the big pretend “melon,” hollering “Hey, I’m a melon! Don’t you want to eat me?!” at anybody who passed. Other kids would grab the melon and make a thundering “Gobble, gobble!” or such before my son would jump out to say “I’m really a spider! I tricked you!” and the eater would run away in playful shrieks. Repeat, frequently. Not at all bad for a kid who first heard this story about thirty seconds before he ducked behind/inside that melon.

Anansi, the spider hiding inside that melon, features in dozens of folk tales. He’s typically traced back to western Africa, in the region that is now the nation of Ghana, and made his way to the Caribbean and the colonies that would later become the United States in the 1600s, during the days of the slave trade. Anansi lived in oral telling for hundreds of years before his exploits were printed. He is most often literally a spider, but in some variants from Jamaica, he’s a human with four arms and four legs.

The Anansi story that is spotlighted in the Once Upon a Time exhibit is one of his most popular outings and emphasizes how clever Anansi is to think his way out of a bad situation. Writer Eric Kimmel and artist Janet Stevens have recreated many of Anansi’s adventures in storybooks that are published by Scholastic. In this story, Anansi lets his greed get the better of him, and eats so much of a melon, tunneling his way into it as he munches, that he grows too fat to escape it! The only way out is to have someone shatter the melon, so, pretending to be a talking fruit, he starts mocking all the other animals of the jungle, hoping that one of them will take the mysterious melon to the hot-tempered Monkey King.

Learning about Anansi, I was most interested to learn that, between the Caribbean and many of the communities of the southeastern US, he transformed from a spider into a rabbit. Arguably the most famous of the “Uncle Remus” tales of Br’er Rabbit involve the bunny losing his temper with an inanimate statue, striking it, and getting stuck. Remarkably similar stories are also told about Anansi getting his head, arms, and legs stuck in tar traps.

There’s no consensus among folklorists about precisely why the spider of the 1600s was replaced by a rabbit in the 1800s, but both characters, and many other derivatives, are classic examples of a trickster. The character is sometimes portrayed as good, with a mischievous side, and sometimes amoral, and sometimes downright rotten and needing to learn a lesson, but in all the trickster’s forms, he is smart and clever and can think his way out of any situation, even the ones that resulted from his own poor choices.

First Lady of Atlanta Helps Kick Off Mayor’s Summer Reading Club

It’s summer, and one of the great things about summer in Atlanta is the Mayor’s Summer Reading Club. We’re happy to once again be a partner, and a host for their kickoff event. The fun starts at 10am this Saturday morning, and we’ll have readings and crafts all day long! Plus, a special reading by First Lady of Atlanta Sarah-Elizabeth L. Reed and other special guests.

At the Museum, our staff works hard to promote literacy, because the studies show that many children don’t read and exercise their mental muscles during the summer months as much as they do when school’s in session, meaning that they will start the next grade a few weeks or months behind, and often struggle to catch up. We hope that all parents will participate in combating summer reading loss, and keep kids engaged in books.

So, where does the Mayor’s Summer Reading Club come in? Well, from their site, “The program designates a city- wide book choice for infants, for children ages 2-4, and for children ages 5-8 to share with families at no cost to them. Throughout the summer, libraries, museums, farmers’ markets, and other institutions in Atlanta will hold “book club reads” to model research based methods of reading books with children and will host enrichment events based upon the stories. The books will come to life as children enjoy arts and crafts activities, drama exercises, and other hands on activities designed to make the language in the stories meaningful to children.”

“The Mayor’s Summer Reading Club has helped thousands of Atlanta’s children and family members improve their literacy skills and ignite their passion for reading,” said Mayor Kasim Reed. “Now in its third year, the program, supported by my administration, valuable partners and Atlanta-based organizations, is increasing its reach, and inspiring more young ones to fall in love with reading. Research shows that children who read during the summer months perform better on achievement testing and are better prepared for the school year. It is my hope that the program continues to grow, and further support one of my top priorities—investing in our city’s children.”

For the third year in a row, the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy at the Atlanta Speech School have written a new adventure starring Amari, our city’s favorite young heroine, for children aged 3-5. In the previous books, Amari has visited Zoo Atlanta and biked on the Atlanta BeltLine. In her newest story, Amari’s Shining Moment, she and her neighbor, Andres, visit the children’s village of the Dogwood Festival and see a performance of “The Shoemaker and the Elves,” inspiring them to recreate the stage and perform the play for their entire neighborhood. Amari uses the skills of problem solving and determination she learned through her first two adventures to help Andres get over his stage fright.

(Say, isn’t that something? “The Shoemaker and the Elves” is one of the fairy tales that are spotlighted in our current featured exhibit, Once Upon a Time!)

The First Lady of Atlanta, Sarah-Elizabeth L. Reed, will be here to share Amari’s adventures to our guests Saturday morning. She will be here to read the book at 11 am. The other books featured for the club this year are, for infants, The Pigeon Has Feelings Too by Mo Willems, and, for readers aged 5-8, Dad, Jackie and Me by Myron Uhlberg and Colin Bootman. Find out more about the books at the Mayor’s Summer Reading Club! All of our guests on Saturday will get to take home books for free! We look forward to seeing you here at the Museum on Saturday.

Schedule of events for Saturday, June 6

• 10 AM : Craft time
• 11 AM : First Lady of Atlanta, Sarah-Elizabeth L. Reed to read Amari’s Shining Moment
• 12 PM : Imaginators bring to life Dad, Jackie and Me by Myron Uhlberg
• 1 PM : Mr. Jason’s Music Party will perform live music to get kids up, movin’ and groovin’!
• 2 PM : New York Times-best-selling children’s author, Surishtha Sehgal reads ‘A Bucket of Blessings’
• 3 PM : Cold cooking demonstration
• 4 PM : Construction Aerobics

All events are included with the price of admission and, as always, members are free.

Fairy Tales Thrive in the Telling

Ask a dozen academics why fairy tales have such staying power and resonance and you’re sure to get a dozen different answers. Folk tales go back centuries, and the details shift and change in the telling. As books became available, and later, films were made to adapt the stories, they took on new details, additional characters, and often songs to pad out the running time. But even before the possibilities of print or animation, the tales that we know and love from our childhood had evolved and changed as the stories moved around different cultural groups.

We’re thinking about legends and folk tales a lot this week because we’re so happy to be welcoming back a really popular exhibit, last seen on the Museum floor in 2011, Once Upon a Time…Exploring the World of Fairy Tales. If you missed it the last time around, you’re in for a treat. From an African jungle to a giant’s castle, this unique and educational exhibit focuses on the power and significance of fairy tales throughout history and from around the world. Children will enter an enchanted storybook kingdom where they’ll learn the meaning and history of tales they’ve known all their lives, and others that may be new to them.

The featured tales are “Anansi and the Talking Melon,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Lon Po Po,” “The Shoemaker and the Elves,” and “Thumbelina.” Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the origins of all of these fairy tales, starting with “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

“Jack and the Beanstalk” is correctly called an English folk tale, dating to the early 1800s, but the metaphorical “beans” came from all over Europe before the version of the tale that you might find most familiar took “root.” The concept of climbing some kind of plant life to reach an otherwise impossible-to-access realm in the sky is centuries old. Norse mythology considered a gigantic tree called Yggdrasil whose branches were in heaven, as does Buddhist tradition, where it is described as a Bodhi tree. The Book of Genesis offered the tale of Jacob’s Ladder, which also reached heaven. The “Jack and the Beanstalk” section of the exhibit features a small “beanstalk” for children to climb, which is really quite fun. Don’t worry, parents, the beanstalk doesn’t stretch quite so high that your children will vanish into the clouds!

Germanic folklore is positively packed with giants and ogres, most of whom selfishly guard treasure and need to be outwitted or defeated. That makes them the perfect antagonist for a traditional, clever, and sharp-thinking hero. England in the 15th and 16th Century brought us just such a hero in a bright young commoner, typically called Jack, who appeared in dozens of folk tales. (There’s a “house that Jack built,” for example.) Mix in a little Shakespeare – the giant’s traditional warning cry of “Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman” comes almost directly from King Lear – and the basic form of the story is pretty typical of 18th Century folklore from the British Isles.

One of the great things about fairy tales is that despite the usual conclusions like “The end” or “And they all lived happily ever after,” they’re still evolving and adapting, with no end in sight. Jack himself has been replaced in dozens and dozens of adaptations over the last seventy years by everybody from Mickey Mouse to Ernie to Nintendo’s Mario to the casts of The Goodies and The Magic School Bus, and they all bring their own spins to the story, making anybody who remembers the version that they heard or saw then retell it differently to their own children. How many trips did Jack make up to the giant’s castle, anyway? Was it just the one, or did he pilfer all the giant’s treasure over the course of a week? Was the giant a lone miser, or did he have a wife who helped Jack bedevil her cruel husband?

And is it really fair to root for Jack, stealing the giant’s gold and ensuring his grisly end? Some adaptations, including a 1952 Abbott & Costello comedy, include some rather important details about Jack and his community’s poverty, blaming the giant for stealing all the area’s gold. On the other end of the spectrum, a 2001 TV miniseries directed by Brian Henson, shown in America on CBS, painted Jack as the villain of the piece, and sent his descendant back to the kingdom of the giants to return the stolen property and atone for the crime.

How will your child interpret the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk”? How will you retell it to him or her at bedtime? We’re sure you will add a detail or two, and your child will tell a slightly different version to his or her own kids down the line as the stories continue to evolve with each new generation.

Once Upon a Time… Exploring the World of Fairy Tales opens this Saturday, May 16, and runs through July 26. We hope that you’ll come and play with us!

For more information about Jack and the Beanstalk and its cultural origins, see:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/jackbeanstalk/history.html
https://suite.io/john-k-davis/1wj72tj
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk

Meet the Holidays: Purim

One of our favorite Museum programs is “Meet the Holidays,” in which we learn about and celebrate the traditions of cultures all around the world. “We live in a global community and Atlanta is an extremely multi-cultural city,” explains Pam Duncan, manager of public programming. “Meet the Holidays allows our youngest visitors to learn about cultures different than their own as well as re-affirm those cultures for folks who celebrate them. In the end they find out that their cultures have much more in common than they thought.” We really love the experience of people having a great time and also learning about the special days on their neighbors’ calendars!

This Sunday, we’re having some special events to commemorate Purim. This is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire, from a plot to annihilate them all in a single day. According to the Book of Esther, Haman, the royal vizier to King Ahasuerus, planned to kill all the Jews in the empire, but his plans were foiled by the prophet Mordecai, and his cousin and adopted daughter Esther. Purim is celebrated annually according to the Hebrew calendar on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar, which is the day following the victory of the Jews over their enemies.

It sounds like the setup for a pretty sober and serious commemoration, but based on the text of Esther 9:22, Purim is celebrated with joy and good spirits. The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, all of the observances are important, but they are equally “serious and silly.” The Book, or scroll, of Esther, is usually read aloud twice during the celebrations. The recitation is called the Megillah, and it comes with a raucous audience participation component, as the audience is armed with graggers, special noisemakers that you shake or whirl to drown out the evildoer’s name:

“It is crucial to hear every single word of the Megillah! At certain points in the reading where Haman’s name is mentioned, it is customary to twirl graggers and stamp one’s feet to “drown out” his evil name. Tell the children Purim is the only time when it’s a mitzvah to make noise!” The USCJ goes on to say that when Haman’s wife, Zeresh, gets mentioned in the Megillah, the crowd is to hiss at the sound of her name!

For our Meet the Holidays celebration on Sunday March 9th, you’ll be able to make your own gragger before listening to the Imaginators’ retelling of the Meglliah story. Every time Haman’s name is mentioned, shake your gragger and boo! Afterward, enjoy traditional hamantaschen cookies. Hamantaschen is a Yiddish word meaning “Haman’s pockets.” Jews eat hamantaschen on Purim as part of the celebration of the holiday. One explanation for the triangular shape of these pastries is that Haman wore a three-cornered hat. Another explanation is that the three corners represent Queen Esther’s strength and the founders of Judaism: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

We kick off the fun at three on Sunday, and look forward to seeing you there!

Happy Year of the Goat! …or possibly the Sheep!

The Spring Festival, Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year, is celebrated on the first day of the first month in the Chinese calendar. That’s the day of the second new moon after the Winter Solstice, ending fifteen days later. This year, Chinese New Year begins on Feb. 18 and ends on March 5. Annually, it is the longest public event in China, and it is observed and celebrated all over the world. It’s a time for families to have reunions, for lots of food to be cooked (fish and dumplings are traditional in many families), for epic games of mahjong to be played, and for gifts in red envelopes to be exchanged.

In the Chinese calendar, each year corresponds to one of twelve different animals or mythical creatures. This is the once-every-twelve-years instance when there’s a little good-natured confusion about exactly which animal gets the celebration named after it. According to The International Business Times, some people say that this is the year of the sheep, and some say it’s the year of the goat. “Both animals,” writes Zoe Mintz, “share the same Chinese character, the ‘yang,’ which refers to any member of the caprinae subfamily — goat or sheep. Researchers say the actual animal is beside the point, what remains important is the Chinese character and its meaning.”

Speaking of meanings, the firecrackers and noisemaking that come with the first night of Chinese New Year all commemorate a legendary event in which a village banded together to drive away a monster that ate most of their crops. The story is that a remote village was besieged by an indestructible creature called “Nian.” Swords and pikes could not wound the beast, and the villagers were helpless until an old nomadic monk – or, in some versions of the tale, a wandering god – told them that “Nian” was afraid of loud noises and the color red. The firecrackers that begin each year’s festivities are meant to start the year with good luck, leaving behind evil spirits and obstacles that you thought, wrongly, that you could not overcome.

It’s because “Nian” was so afraid of red that the color is seen in other Lunar New Year traditions. Each year, married couples will often give small gifts of money in red envelopes called “hóngbāo” to younger family members who haven’t yet wed. Also, the paper lanterns that are often made for evening parties or celebrations are typically made from red paper.

On Saturday, we celebrated Chinese New Year with a performance by students from Toomer Elementary and then celebrated with the Imaginators making a sheep puppet craft that the kids and their families waved in a Chinese Parade complete with our own fun take on “firecrackers.” We like to use bubble wrap for our noisemaking; there’s less of a mess, children love it, and it’s every bit as loud as necessary to frighten away last year’s evil spirits!

Image Source: Live Wan Illustration

The Wonderful World of the Wizard of Oz

“I’m melting! I’m melting!”
“We’re not in Kansas anymore.”
“Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!”
“I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”
And of course, “There’s no place like home.”

These quotes have become a part of American culture over the past 75 years since the world was introduced to the musical The Wizard of Oz. The most expensive production for MGM at the time, the movie is noted for its use of Technicolor, as well as its musical score, elaborate make up, and special effects. Surprising to most, the movie was not a box office success, leaving the studio with an initial loss. It was still nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two: Best Original Song and Best Original Score.

We did a little research and found that the production of the movie and its lasting legacy are almost as fun as watching the movie itself. For example, did you know that 20th Century Fox wanted to make the movie with Shirley Temple as Dorothy? The role was eventually taken by Judy Garland, who was only 16 at the time, made $500 per month, and had to attend school on set everyday.

One of the original proposals for the movie’s production was to have Toto played by a human actor when the story moved to Oz! Terry, the dog who (happily) ended up playing Toto, earned 2.5 times more money per week than each Munchkin.

The Tin Man’s oil was actually chocolate syrup, because it showed up on the Technicolor film better than actual oil! Similarly, gelatin powder was used to color the horses, which they enjoyed licking off. The snow in the poppy field was made from industrial grade asbestos. On the other hand, the cowardly lion’s costume was made from real lion skin, and wasn’t an imitation. We can’t imagine either of those last two production decisions being employed by a contemporary Hollywood film!

Some of the Wicked Witch of the West’s scenes were cut after the producers deemed them too scary for children. She’s actually in only twelve minutes of the movie! Margaret Hamilton reprised the role of the Wicked Witch in personal appearances and cameos for the rest of her career. Proving that the decades did nothing to blunt the Witch’s impact, her 1976 appearance on Sesame Street has only aired once, after parents complained to PBS and the producers that she’d frightened their children.

L. Frank Baum published seventeen sequels to his original novel. The movie suggests that Dorothy’s experiences were all a dream, but Baum created Oz as a real place that Dorothy and other characters would revisit in the sequels.

The most amazing thing that we learned, however, was that “Over the Rainbow” was very nearly cut from the film due to time constraints. Can you imagine a Wizard of Oz without this iconic song?

Are your children familiar with the movie? Gather your family, make some popcorn, and watch it together! Because your children will be obsessed afterwards, check out familycrafts.about.com for some super fun Wizard of Oz craft and activity ideas! Make your own character puppets, learn about the science behind tornadoes, and check out a map of Kansas to find Dorothy’s home. Hop over to www.care.com for some DIY costume instructions, because your little ones will love to act out the movie or just go everywhere dressed as their favorite character.

This Saturday, January 24 the Museum will be celebrating The Wizard of Oz with a full day of fun! Click here for more info!

Many thanks to Awesome Ariel Capellupo for all her help with research into the movie!

Sources: parade.com | www.moviemistakes.com | muppet.wikia.com

Staff Picks: Children’s Books

The cold weather is coming! Actually, this being Georgia, the cold weather already came, went away for a bit, rained some, got hot, got cold, and warmed up, but we’re pretty sure that it’s back. Anyway, we were looking ahead to some chilly evenings curled up on the couch under a big comfy blanket reading to our little ones, which is always incredibly fun, and wondered what great books our Museum staff would suggest for occasions like this. So we put out the call and got some terrific recommendations back. Why not visit your local library or bookstore – we adore Little Shop of Stories in Decatur – and check out some of these great books?

Where The Wild Things Are

Phantom Tollbooth

James and the Giant Peach

Corduroy

Alexandra Cleveland, our Party Lead, recommends:
My favorite children’s book is Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Not only are the illustrations beautiful and iconic, but it also has a great underlying message. On the surface, the book is a great adventure of an wild boy trying to escape for his frustrations with his mother. When looked into further, the book is actually a great message to children about recognizing and dealing with emotions. As the trees and the forest begin to grow in Max’s room, it shows his growing anger of being sent to his room without dinner. The “Wild Things” and their “gnashing” display his fury that reaches a peak when he is crowned King of the “Wild Things.” At this point, Max realizes that he needs to return to home, suggesting that his anger has separated him from the one who loves him best: his mother. Whether you are good or bad, your parents will love you regardless. Max realizes this when he returns to a surprise bowl of hot soup, knowing his mother wouldn’t let him go to sleep without dinner. She still loves him no matter what.

Monica Dorsey, our Outreach Communication Coordinator, recommends:
I loved Corduroy by Don Freeman because as a young black girl, it was the first book that I read where I could see myself. I also connected with the main character, Lisa, because I loved teddy bears big and little. The book was told from the point of view of the teddy bear, which was different. The story touched my heart because he was neglected and “broken,” but she still found the beauty in him, repaired him and kept him for her own.

Jane Turner, our Executive Director, recommends:
I actually did not read James and the Giant Peach, written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake, until I had children of my own. It was the first of all of the books by Roald Dahl that I read and we all (my children and me) loved the story. I loved that James was the lovable underdog who managed to escape the clutches of two nasty, self-centered aunts and in doing so encountered a fantastic and magical world within a giant peach and with giant insect characters as friends. I loved that he prevailed through impossible (but somehow believable) challenges. I think that this book should be on every child’s bookshelf because Roald Dahl makes the unbelievable believable and in his story the young and helpless child ends up finding his strength and prevailing. It is a modern version of an old-fashioned fairy tale!

Gregg Van Laningham, Professor Labcoat, recommends:
The book I chose, The Phantom Tollbooth, written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, is a chapter book for older kids (the suggested age range is 8-12), but I read it when I was 7-almost-8. I firmly believe it should be on every child’s bookshelf, patiently waiting for the day they decide to pick it up. The book is about the journey of a young boy, Milo, through a magical, allegorical land of wordplay, mathematics, and philosophy. It is Oh, The Places You’ll Go! on steroids. Milo’s adventures begin unexpectedly, and he often finds himself confused by what he encounters, but he perseveres and is rewarded for doing so. My experience as a 7-year-old reader closely mirrored his in these respects. There are not many books that I like to re-read, but I find myself revisiting this one every few years. I get a chance to see the world that I built in my mind over two decades ago, I understand the jokes that I missed the first few times through, and I feel closer to my third grade self. I realize now that, as a child, I unwittingly learned valuable lessons about myself, other people, and the world at large from this book. It’s a good read for anybody, and perfect for precocious kids who claim that they’re bored all the time.

We’ll see if we can’t get some more great book ideas from our staff to share with you again in a follow-up post soon. In the meantime, we would love to hear from you! What children’s books are your family’s favorites?

For more info on our literacy outreach program, Connected Learning, Connected Communities, click here.