Children Literature---Gorilla by Anthony Browne

SUMMARY
Hannah loves gorillas.  She reads, draws about gorillas but she has never seen a gorilla.  Her father is always busy at working.  The night before her birthday, she receives a gorilla toy at the foot of the bed.  But it is just a toy, Hannah throws the toy into the corner.  Something amazing happens, the gorilla gets bigger.  Hannah is frightened, but the gorilla talks to her with a nice smile and wants to take her to the zoo.  The gorilla wears her father's hat and coat and swings through the trees towards the zoo.  They creep into the zoo and see many gorillas.  She thinks the gorillas are beautiful, yet sad.  Then, the gorilla takes her to the movie and they have meal together.  They go home and Hannah falls asleep.  Next morning, Hannah wakes up and sees the toy gorilla.  She rushes downstairs to tell her father what had happened.  Later, her father takes her to the zoo.  And she is very happy.

ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS
Protagonist---Hannah
Antagonistic---Hannah's father
Foil Character---Gorilla

SETTING
Backdrop Setting--- with no specific starting point of time

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
Limited Narrator---through Hannah's eyes to see the story

PLOT
Plot Type---Dramatic Plot

Setting: Hannah wants to go to zoo, but her father is too busy to take her there.
Conflict: When she receives a toy gorilla, she throws it into the corner.
Rising action: The gorilla gets bigger.
Climax: The gorilla takes her to the zoo and they have a meal together.
Denouement: Her father takes her to the zoo.

CONFLICT
The protagonist against Another---she feels unhappy about her dad just gives her a toy gorilla instead of taking her to the zoo.

THEME
family

STYLE
Word Choice---easy to understand
Sentence---descriptive sentences
Exposition / Dialogue--- about half-half

TONE
Warm

AWARD

Kurt Maschler Award
Kate Greenaway Medal


REFLECTION


This is the third book reflection of Anthony Browne's.  I really enjoy reading his books.  So much imagination in his books and also, the gorillas.  It's an enjoyment to read his books.  I like the story a lot with the imaginary character, gorilla that the author created.  I can see gorilla's images every where on the wall or even  the statue of Liberty.  
This book talks about a little girl who can't really spend her time with her dad because her  dad is always so busy.  I think it's the reflection of the kids nowadays for their parents are always busy working and earning money.  Always, the parents forget the most important thing is to spend more time with their kids.  I'm glad that my parents accompanied me through my childhood time.

Journal---Alice in Wonderland

Whenever I read Alice in Wonderland, I feel like I am having an abnormal journey with her.  I am really fascinated by Lewis Carol’s imagination on creating this work, full of word games, riddles and mathematic problems.  Like Harry Potter, Lewis Carol created a brand new world of wonderland that no one has ever done before.

While I was reading Alice’s adventure, I can see her growing up and becoming like an adult.  The part that I really like Alice is that on her journey, she kept asking herself who she is, should she do so.  Sometimes, questioning about yourself can really help you develop your inner thoughts.  People all have to get through the stage of asking ourselves who we are.  When I was doing the story analysis, I found one explanation really interesting.  It said “Just as children on the verge of adulthood sometimes find themselves too small for adult privileges while being forced to talk on the no-fun world of adult responsibilities.”  I have a little brother, Oscar.  My mom always tells me to be a good model for him, which means I have to be mature and take care of him.  But I was not old enough to take care of him.  Still, I was forced to grow up.  I think no one really wants to be a grownup since the adult world is much more complicated and with more responsibilities.  It’s inevitable that we have to go through this stage and be a real adult in the future.

It is a book that I can read many times and have different interpretations each time.  Even after the class was over, I'll still find some times to have another adventure with Alice.

Children Literature---Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann

SUMMARY

Officer Buckle loved to write down safety tips and thumbtacked these on his board.  He shared his safety tips at schools, but nobody listened.  One day, the police department bought a dog, named Gloria.  Officer Buckle started to take Gloria to school when giving speeches.  Since that day, everyone loved his speech and more schools asked him to give a speech for them.  After every speech, Officer Buckle took Gloria out for ice cream.  Officer Buckle loved having a buddy.  One day, a television news team videoed Officer Buckle in the state college auditorium.  That night, Officer Buckle watched himself on the news, and found out the truth.  He felt sad and stopped giving speech.  Gloria went to school , but looked lonely on the stage.  Children wrote letters to Officer Buckle and hoped they could come back.  Later, Gloria and Officer Buckle were buddies again.


ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS
Protagonist/Round Character--- Officer Buckle
Foil Character---Gloria

SETTING
Backdrop Setting---With no specific time or place, but introducing the main character at the beginning

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
Limited Narrator---through Officer Buckle's eyes to see the world

PLOT
Plot Type--- Dramatic Plot

Setting: The dog, Gloria, arrived in the police station one day.
Conflict: They started to give speech together to different schools.
Rising action: TV show at the  Stale College auditorium
Climax: Officer Buckle found out the truth that everyone likes to watch Gloria's show, not him.
Denouement: They were buddy again!


CONFLICT
The protagonist against Self---He was depressed that everyone love Gloria, but not him.  Finally, he realized that only he and Gloria could make a wonderful team and good buddies.


THEME
The importance of friendship and being safe

STYLE
Word Choice--- Sometimes, use capitalized type of words can grab attention.
Sentence--- Use longer sentences to describe situations.
Exposition--- Most of the sentences provide the situation.
Dialogue--- Dialogue is most used by Officer Buckle.

TONE
Humor, warm

AWARD
1996 Caldecott Medal Winner

REFLECTION
It's a very interesting book to describe the friendship between a human and a dog.  There are some interesting ideas in this book like different tips at the beginning of the book.  When I read each safety tips, I laughed a lot!  Some tips are actually very useful.  What I like the most about this book is the friendship between Officer and Gloria.  People sometimes have strops with friends because of little things.  For me, friends are important and essential in my life.  This book let me know that I should cherish the friends around me.  We all need friends and so our life can full of joy and happiness with friends.

EXTERNAL LINK