School-wide parallel reading

Teaching Pre K-8, May 1995 by Hurst, Carol Otis

Not too long ago, after I told the story of Richard Wilbur's Loudmouse (Harcourt Brace, 1991 ISBN 0-15-249494-4) to a large group of children and adults, a first grader said, "You know, that story's a lot like 'The Three Little Pigs.'" He proceeded to do a literary comparison between the two stories. He wasn't at all put off by the large number of strangers in the room; he was too intent on making his points, and he did so very well.

This incident and others like it remind me that readers like to compare and discuss what they've read, and they do so at every opportunity. Students of any age like the role of critic and expander of meaning.

A book jamboree. With this in mind, it makes sense to create a school-wide opportunity for readers of all ages to read books on a given topic over the summer and be ready in the f ready for a book-discussion jamboree. Let's call that school-wide discussion a Grand Colloquy.

Don't limit participation in the colloquy to students. Open it up to parents, teachers, staff and innocent bystanders. If you choose the right subject for your population, you can achieve your goal of keeping reading going during the summer and garner the bonus of lively discussions in the fall.

First, you'll need to prime the pump with booktalks in the library. Invite parents, grandparents and several ages of children. (You'll probably have to do a series of launches because booktalks work better with a fairly small audience instead of one big assembly program.)

I've outlined possible topics below and given book-starter suggestions for everyone from young readers to adults. Choose one that will spark everyone's interest. You may want to distribute booklists after you've made additions, of course, but be sure to let readers know that the list isn't required reading; rather, it gives possible starting points. Readers should be encouraged to make their own discoveries of books that relate to the theme, however tangentially.

THE 1940's. The controversy over the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute indicates the strong feelings many people have about the events of this era. You can use this controversy as a departure point if you think your community will approach it intellectually. But if you think this is only asking for trouble, aim discussion toward the Holocaust, or broaden it to include both theaters of war.

In the fall, be sure you invite anyone who was alive during the forties to come to school to share their memories. If you can get them to write about their experiences and bring in photographs, add that dimension to the discussions.

WORLD WAR II. You won't have any trouble locating wonderful books about World War II. We'll start with picture books, but be sure you show them to everyone; readers of any age can get a lot out of them.

James Stevenson's Don't You Know There's a War On? (Greenwillow, 1992 ISBN 0-688-11383-4) describes the home front almost perfectly. It's a funny and poignant scrapbook of memories.

Young readers might be interested in Ken Mochizuki's picture book Baseball Saved Us (Lee & Low, 1993 ISBN 1-880000-01-6), which shows how Japanese Americans interned at camps during the war used baseball as a diversion and morale booster. Suggest its new sequel, Heroes, too. (Lee & Low, 1995, ISBN 1-880000-16-4).

A closely related picture book is Yoshiko Uchida's The Bracelet (Philomel, 1993 ISBN 0-399-22503-X). This focuses on friendships torn apart as well as the inhumanity of the internment.

In Gloria Houston's But No Candy (Philomel, 1992 ISBN 0-399-22142-5), explore the desires of an American girl who resents the war because her uncle no longer brings her candy. The realization that her uncle is fighting a war and is in danger dawns slowly as Lee and her family collect scrap metal and deal with rationing.

For the upper elementary group and up, a picture book starting point is Let the Celebrations Begin by Margaret Wild with illustrations by Julie Vivas (Orchard, 1991 ISBN 0-531-08537-6). Told in first person by a survivor of the death camp at Bergen-Belsen, this picture book lets us in on the moment of liberation. It leads to any study of the Holocaust.

You'll also want to branch out to life in the U.S. during the war. The events in Autumn Street by Lois Lowry (Houghton Mifflin, 1980 ISBN 0395-27812-0) are occasioned by World War II, and it's very much in the background, but the war that's fought I in this unforgettable novel is a personal one.

For fourth grade up, try Theodore Taylor's narrative non-fiction work Air Raid, Pearl Harbor (Harper, 1971 ISBN 0-690-05373-8). It pitches you headfirst into battle.

For the middle school crowd, there's Alex, Who Won His War by Chester Aaron (Walker, 1991 ISBN 0-8027-8098-9). The novel becomes exciting as the 14-year-old hero discovers the body of a Nazi saboteur on the Connecticut coast. A war that has been distant suddenly becomes very near.

The war had a more immediate effect on the citizens of Europe. Emma Butterworth, a young dancer in Vienna at the beginning of the war, tells us of the city's tragedy in As the Waltz Was Ending (Scholastic, 1991 ISBN 0-590-44440-9). A parallel book is Bad Times, Good Friends by Ilse-Margret Vogel (Harcourt Brace, 1992 ISBN 0-15-205528-2). This memoir is written for high school readers up. It tells of a young German woman living in Berlin during the war who was in danger from the Nazis as well as from the bombing of the Allies.