Children Literature---The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster

SUMMARY
Nanna and Poppy's house has a Hello, Goodbye window.  The little girl loves to do trick with the window outside before she goes into the house.  She can do lots of things in the kitchen and sometimes Poppy plays harmonica for her in different ways.  Sometimes, she stays over in the house, and the next day, they go back to the kitchen, and the window is waiting for them.  She helps Nanna and plays all afternoon.  If she gets tired, she takes a nap.  Sometimes, when she sit by the Hello, Goodbye window, some people would come to visit her.  When Mommy and Daddy finish their work, she has to go home and leaves Poppy and Nanna.  They blow kisses goodbye at the window.  She dreams someday she could have this special window too.

ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS
Protagonist---The Girl
Flat Character--- Nanna and Poppy

SETTING
Integral Setting---the story happens in grandparents' house when the little girl is still young

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
Omniscient Narrator

PLOT
Plot Type--- Parallel Plot
The little girl leads us to her story through the things happen next to the window.

CONFLICT
The protagonist against Self
---because when she has to leave grandparents' house and goes back to her own house, she feels happy and sad at the same time.

THEME
Experience the happiness in life

STYLE
Word Choice--- easy to understand for children
Sentence--- not too long, with child like way to say
Exposition--- Most of the sentences are exposition to describe her movements.
Dialogue--- less dialogue

TONE
Humorous,  warm, lovely

AWARD
2006 Caldecott Medal

REFLECTION
I have a deep attachment with this story because I used to stay at my grandparents' house during the summer time.  When I was a little girl, everything was so interesting and mysterious and saw everything with different idea to create whole new image.    My grandpa used to teach me how to do things and I used to love to stand by my grandma's side to watch her cooked.  That was the most carefree time of my life.

Not only the story is good, but also the paintings in the books are so lovely, like painting through child's hands because these pictures give a very warm feeling to all the readers.

I enjoy this story a lot, and you?

Children Literature---Milo and the Magical Stones by Marcus Pfister

SUMMARY

On a small island in the middle of the sea, on this island lived Milo and other cliff mice.  They love this island because this place provided them with food and shelter form rough storms and pounded waves against the cliffs.  After one storm came, Milo went out of his cave looking for food.  Then, he found something extraordinary, a strange glowing stone!!  He took the stone back to his cave.  The darker the cave was, the brighter the stone glowed.  This attracted other mice.  Everyone would like to have a glowing stone in their cave.  However, wise Balthazar told them, if they got anything from the island, they must give something in return.

In the end, there are two endings provided from the author---the happy ending and the sad ending.

ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS
Protagonist---Milo
Antagonist---(sad ending) other mice, the nature

SETTING
Backdrop Setting--- It was on a cliff in the middle of the sea

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
Omniscient Narrator

PLOT
Plot Type--- Dramatic Plot
-Setting: On a cliff lived many mice
-Conflict: They all wanted to have a glowing stone like Milo's.
-Rising action: They started to look for stones.
-Climax:

• (sad ending) Most mice were too greedy and gather too many stones.
• (happy ending) Other mice gathered stones, but they remembered to place a gift where they had found their glowing stone.

-Denouement:

• (sad ending) Their cliff collapsed, only Milo and Balthazar were survived.
• (happy ending) In the widny winter, they could stay in the cave and let the stone lighting up the cave for them.

(Happy Ending)

(Sad Ending)





















CONFLICT
The protagonist against Another/Nature

THEME
Learn to be gratitude to our surroundings

STYLE

Word Choice--- some words are difficult, but helps children to learn new vocabulary
Sentence--- long sentences were most
Exposition--- most of the time the narrator told everything
Dialogue--- less dialogue

TONE
warm, ironic

REFLECTION
I really love the idea of providing two endings in the end.  No matter you love the happy ending or sad ending, it really tells us that every thought you have will change your life completely.  If the other mice have thankful heart in their mind, they wouldn't go into the sad ending and ruined their home.  What the wise Balthazar mouse said was right, if yo take something from the island, you must give something in return.  It also indicates that our human beings are too greedy to get everything from our nature.  Will us cause the same tragedy like these greedy mice?