But I'll Be Back Again: An Album

Written by Cynthia Rylant

I imagine it must be very difficult to write about your own life—especially knowing the amount of people who will read it.  You have to be strong in order to hang your dirty laundry up in order for all to see.  I believe that Cynthia Rylant is a very strong person who has given readers a glimpse into her life through most of the books she has written.  Her autobiography, But I’ll Be Back Again, helps to provide a further glimpse into Cynthia Rylant’s childhood and the possible reasoning behind the themes of her books.

When I first started teaching, I saw Cynthia Rylant in a very different light than I do now.  I did not realize how many books were in Rylant’s extensive collection.  I mostly knew her as the author of series such as Henry and Mudge and Mr. Putter and Tabby and a few choice read-alouds such as The Relatives Came, In November and The Great Gracie Chase.  I now realize she writes in a variety of different genres and for a variety of different audiences—whether other adults realize it or not.

Many of Rylant’s books have reoccurring adult themes such as the passing of time, death, loneliness, old age, or the loss of a loved one.  Her books also present certain social issues such as poverty and homelessness.  I had not realized this about Cynthia Rylant until I started to read more and more of her books.  I was surprised to find that many of her picture books are more for adults than they are for children.  For example, the story, Mr. Griggs’ Work at first seems like a story about a friendly old mailman who loves his job.  Reviewers of the book say that the story is great for teaching children about providing services in an Economics Unit.  Upon deeper analysis, however, one realizes that the character of Mr. Griggs is simply a lonely old man who puts all of his time and effort into his work.  There is no evidence through the illustrations that he ever married or had any children.  Everything he does relates to the mail.  Through this story, we see the theme of loneliness shine through.  Another book, An Angel for Solomon Singer is also about an old man who is lonely and leaves us with questions about the social system in place in our society. The Old Woman Who Named Things is about an old lady who had suffered the loss of all of her loved ones and was afraid of loving anything living ever again for fear that they’d be gone.  

As I started to wonder about why Rylant wrote using adult themes, I started to research her and her reasoning behind her books.  I realized that her childhood was not perfect.  She especially suffered from loneliness and loss.  The more I realized this about Cynthia Rylant’s childhood, the more the themes of her books made sense to me.  If I read Cynthia Rylant’s autobiography prior to making the connection of many of the adult themes in her books, I think I would have been very surprised to read about her childhood. 

The autobiography was published in 1989 and the name, But I’ll Be Back Again, seems to be inspired by the Beatles song, I’ll Be Back.  Throughout the book, Rylant includes quotes from various Beatles songs.  Due to all of the research I had already done on Rylant, I did not find that her autobiography provided me with any new information about her life.  Much of her information in her autobiography corresponded well with the poems she wrote in, Waiting to Waltz.  It almost seemed as though the autobiography provided a further description of each poem in her book. 

Author Lois Lowry emphasizes the fact that her ideas for fiction stem from memories that she has.  Cynthia Rylant seems to do the same—it is powerful to write about the things that you know and have lived.  Rylant states, “They say that to be a writer you must first have an unhappy childhood.  I don’t know if unhappiness is necessary, but I think maybe some children who have suffered a loss too great for words grow up into writers who are always trying to find those words, trying to find a meaning for the way they have lived…”

Rylant’s books are almost like therapy for her.  At the end of her autobiography, she mentions that she has been divorced twice before the age of thirty and that she is ashamed of her failures.  Through this, Rylant discovered that she did not expect much happiness from her life—she felt life was supposed to be hard for her.  It took her awhile to figure out how to find comfort in a life that did not hurt and she mentioned that today she is happy.  She has a son and hopes that his childhood will be easier than hers. 

It has been more than twenty years since Rylant’s autobiography has been published.  I wonder if she will ever write another one that emphasizes the events of her adult life and how they have provided new inspiration for her books.  Would she focus on the negative or the happiness and joy that being a mother has brought to her? 

Looking Back: A Book of Memories

Written by: Lois Lowry

Usually, I do not find myself researching the personal lives of the authors of the books that I read.  If I find a book that I like, I’ll read others by the same author, but do not go much farther than that.  Perhaps I had never realized the connection between the author’s life and the fiction that they had created.

Prior to reading, The Giver, I was already made aware of many of the challenges associated with the book.    In a discussion with a friend, I was urged to read Lois Lowry’s Newbery Acceptance Speech for The Giver.  After reading the speech, Lois Lowry became a real person to me.  The speech was beautifully crafted and confirmed that Lois Lowry was truly a storyteller.  Lowry’s autobiography, Looking Back: A Book of Memories, confirms the same—as she eloquently tells the stories of her life simply as memories of her past. 

Lowry provides an introduction for readers that introduces us to the concept of the book, “It has no plot.  It is about moments, memories, fragments, falsehoods, and fantasies.  It is about things that happened which caused other things to happen, so that eventually stories emerged.”  Lowry is often asked how she gets the ideas for her stories.  In her autobiography, she tries to answer a few of the questions she has gotten over the years and tries to help us understand that stories come from memories.

Lowry begins each chapter of her autobiography with a quote from one of her books.  The books included are The Giver, All About Sam, Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye, Anastasia (series), Autumn Street, Rabble Starkey, Stay! Keeper’s Story, The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline, A Summer to Die, Us and Uncle Fraud, and Number the Stars.  Sadly, of all the titles mentioned, I have only recently read The Giver.  Although I read Number the Stars and books from the Anastasia series in the past, I do not recall the details of them specifically enough to help me see where the ideas stemmed from that Lowry mentions.

This autobiography has prompted me to want to read more books written by Lois Lowry.  I am particularly interested in reading Autumn Street and A Summer to Die.  I would like to see how the autobiography would continue if it were to be updated to present time.  I know it would still be of memories, but I cannot help but wonder what new memories Lowry has.   

Even though Lowry’s autobiography was copyrighted in 1998, you can still access more current information on Lowry through her blog and her website.  Lowry has many speeches available for viewing on her website and they are all written in the same style as her Newbery Acceptance speech for The Giver and of her autobiography.  She continues to talk about memories and the spark that they have for her ideas.  I urge you to read her speeches and explore her blog in order to get more of an insider look into who Lowry is.

I now choose to find out more information on authors of the books that I read.  It has become so interesting to me to find out information about the personal life of the author and see how that has become intertwined with the stories created.

Lowry ends with a memory from the year 1995 in her chapter entitled, “Giving.”  Her granddaughter, at the age of two, is reading a book along with her grandfather.  She relates this to Jonas in, The Giver.  “Jonas looks at the books of the Giver, and realizes that one day they will be his.”  Finally she concludes, that we are all Givers because we hold the knowledge of centuries as we recall our memories and pass them along.  I had never thought of us all as Givers before, but now I realize that regardless of whether or not we are published storytellers—what are we without our memories?

September 11, 2001

Written by Dennis Brindell Fradin

It is interesting how I cannot remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday morning, but I can remember almost every miniscule detail of September 11, 2001—an event in history that happened ten years ago this September.  I was just starting my senior year of high school and was sitting in Calculus class completing my math warm-up.  I can still picture everything about the classroom that day—my outfit, where I was sitting, who I was sitting with, and the expressions on the faces of all of my peers and my teacher when the announcement came on and our principal let us know of the situation happening with the World Trade Center.

Since I lived through September 11^th, I never found that I chose to read any informational books about the events of that day.  When I started teaching in 2006, I realized my first grade students did not know anything about 9/11.  It occurred to me at that moment that I would never teach a student who was around during 9/11 and that they would likely be too young to really understand what happened.

I wondered what the appropriate age is for students to know about the details of 9/11.  Recently, I have read the story, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, by Mordecai Gerstein, to my third grade students in order to remember and open the room up for discussion about the horrific events of that day.  This is a story based on the true story of tightrope walker Philippe Petit who walked between the Twin Towers when they were first built.  This story simply tells readers about the terrific feat that Petit accomplished and ends with the fact that the Towers are no longer there.  It does not provide information as to how or why the Towers are gone.

Since then I have wondered how the attacks on September 11^th are presented to children.  The informational text, September 11, 2001, written by Dennis Brindell Fradin explains some details of the attacks on the United States in a simplified way.  The book includes information on what September 11^th is, background information on the conflicts going on in the world for centuries, the events leading up to 9/11, the actual hijackings and attacks, the brave people on the third hijacked plane, and information on the War on Terrorism.

Real photographs of the events of 9/11 accompany the text.  The photographs are difficult to look at but are necessary in order to help children to understand the significance of the event.  The photographs show the plane flying into one of the Towers and the accompanying explosion before the Towers collapsed.  There are no photographs of the debris once the Towers were down.  There are also photographs of the damaged Pentagon. 

I felt this book provided a good introduction to children about the events of 9/11.  It did not go into a lot of detail about any particular aspect, but provided enough information to keep readers engaged and wanting to know more.  There were not too many reviews of this book online, but I was able to find one through Amazon.  The book was only given one star and was not recommended because the reviewer felt the information in the story had been oversimplified—particularly in the area of the main causes for the events of 9/11 occurring.  He felt that the reasons for the attacks are still being debated and that it would have been better if the author talked about this in the book.

I do not feel as though children should necessarily be sheltered from learning about important events in history, but I do feel as though many of the events leading up to 9/11 may be entirely too complex for a child to developmentally understand.  Therefore, I feel as though Fradin’s book provided a solid basis of events and leaves the reader wondering and wanting to seek more information.

I always remember as a child asking my grandmother, “What was it like during the Civil Rights Movement? Or, what was it like during the Great Depression?”  No matter how many questions I asked, I never felt like I truly understood because I did not live it.  Now, with 9/11, it is the same thing—except now I am the one being asked, “What was it like?”

Dateline: Troy

Written by: Paul Fleischman

The last time I learned about Greek Mythology in-depth was about fifteen years ago when I was in the ninth grade.  It is no wonder that all I can recall are the names of a few of the more prominent Gods and Goddesses like Athena, Zeus, and Poseidon.  Although I do not remember many specifics about Troy, I do recall The Trojan Horse and how it was used as a decoy during the Trojan War.

Needless to say, at the start of reading Paul Fleischman’s, Dateline: Troy, I had relatively vague background knowledge.  As I began to read, I started to fill in some of the gaps I had about the Trojan War.  Fleischman gives us the less comprehensive version of Homer’s, The Iliad and includes some details of the events leading up to the Trojan War.  By doing so, Fleischman enables us to enjoy the story of this Greek Myth by making it easier to understand and follow.  The language is less complex and many details are left out. 

In addition to the story of Troy, Fleischman includes newspaper clippings from modern day times in order to show readers that although the Trojan War dates back to the Bronze Age, things in our world have sadly not changed all that much.   As Fleischman states, “The Trojan War is still being fought.  Simply open a newspaper…”

The headlines that parallel the events of the Trojan War range in date from World War I, which lasted from 1914-1918, through the Persian Gulf War, which occurred from 1990-1991.  In order for Fleischman to make his point, I feel his book should be a bit more current.  I had seen on sites like Amazon and Google Books that there is a new, revised edition of this story.  I was only able to view a few pages of the book online, but the summary of the newer edition still stated that the book still covered current events from 1914-1991.  I am wondering what changes were made in the new book.  It would be interesting to see if a newer book would include more current events. 

Fleischman’s love for history shines through in this book.  Countless hours must have been spent researching and finding the articles that were the perfect match that Fleischman was looking for.  As someone who was either not around or very young during the events recounted in this book, it was powerful to catch a glimpse into the headlines written during this time period.  Fleischman did cut off some of the articles so that you were unable to read each in full.  He left me wondering about the rest of the article. 

I think the most important thing that Fleischman achieved through this book was that he made me wonder about different events in history and he made me want to know more.  It is more interesting to read the headlines and the actual stories of the events in the past than it is to research it sometimes in a book that provides an overwhelming amount of information.  This book got me wondering what else happened and prompted me to search for more.

I was surprised to see on sites like Amazon that this book did get mixed reviews.  Interestingly, children wrote most of the negative reviews.  One critiqued Fleischman for not developing the characters and stated that it was confusing to follow from one page to the next.  Most of the children reviewed that this book would be great if you enjoyed reading mythology, but that if you did not then it would not be for you.   I think you certainly need background knowledge on both important events in American History as well as Greek Mythology prior to reading this book.  I believe this book is similar to Fleischman’s, Bull Run, in the sense that the reader does not get as much out of the book unless a lot of background knowledge is brought to the table.

I found the book to be intriguing and it did get me to think more about our modern day history and how it relates to the past.  It also sparked an interest in learning more about Greek Mythology.  I do think the book needs to be updated to include even more current events—perhaps if it did, the current high-school generation of readers would find the book more interesting and relevant to them.