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Brief Summary: The Snowy Day follows Peter, a boy, who is exploring the first snowfall of the season. Throughout the story Peter discovers all the things that he can do when it snows.

Analysis:
The Snowy Day seems as though it is not the typical book you would find during this time period as it features a young black boy as the main character. Also, all the other children in this story except for one are young black boys. The only mention of family is at the end of the book when we see the child with his mom. The mom was taking on the traditional gender role for women of taking care of the children as she helped the boy take off his snow clothes. I noticed that the father was missing from the story, which led me to wonder if the parents divorced or was he at work. Since the parents are not really seen in this story, the children are expected to spend their time by themselves playing in the snow.

The children in this story take on the primary role because they are expected to keep themselves busy while their parents work. Each boy seen in the story is taking on the expected gender roles. For example, having a snowball fight, building snowmen and picking up sticks to help explore the snow.

The time period of this book has me thinking that children were expected to keep themselves busy while their parents worked. This may be why the adult/child relationship is not really explored throughout the book. It may also be to show that children have a lot of power and can learn by doing instead of being told what to do.

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Brief Summary: This story is about a young boy who lives next door to a home for old people and how he interacts with the elders. Throughout this story we see the elders teaching him things but by the end we see him using that knowledge to teach an elder.

Analysis:

This story follows the typical family structure of mom, dad and kid(s) that you would see during this time period. While there isn’t much mentioned about the role of the parents, I think that tells a lot because the child is on his own to discover things from the older people, who happen to live next door. During his time exploring and talking with the old people he is discovering the term memory for himself. Once he has an understanding of memory he takes it upon himself to help Miss Nancy Alison Delacrourt Cooper regain her memory.

The child takes on a primary role by taking it upon himself to interact with the elders in the house next door. However, there are times when the child is in the background because he is listening to what the elders have to say and taking it all in. This all shows that relationship between the child and the adult as one in which they can both learn from each other. Often we think of children learning from the elders all the time but this book has us seeing that both adults and children can have wisdom and use it to teach one another.

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Brief Summary: Something Beautiful follows a little girl who is saddened by what she sees in her neighborhood and is in search of ‘something beautiful’.

Analysis:

The main character in this story is a young black girl. While there is not much talk about the girl’s family we do see her talking to her mom at the end of the story when her mom gets home from work. This makes me wonder if the people in her neighborhood were asked to look after her. I also found it interesting that she was exploring by herself and not being watched closely by an adult except for the various members of the community she ran into on the street or at local businesses However, I think this book expands the definition of family because throughout the story you can tell the love this little girl feels from the members of the community as she works to discover ‘something beautiful’ in her neighborhood. As she interacts with these members you can tell that every person knows her.

The main character in this story takes on the primary role. This story follows her through her community as she works to find ‘something beautiful’ after being saddened by the not so great things she sees in her neighborhood (trash, graffiti, etc). I found it interesting that this child was walking the streets of her neighborhood alone especially for the time period that this book was written. However, I think it shows class very clearly. This child comes from a working class family who may not be able to afford child care, therefore the child needs to look after herself or be looked after by the members of her community.

In this story there is a strong relationship between the child and the community members. The main character was willing to ask questions and learn from the adults in the story. At the beginning of the story, the community members definitely held a lot of power as they were explaining what they find beautiful in their lives. Throughout the story I found the power transferring to the little girl as she began to discover ‘something beautiful’ for herself.

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Brief Summary: The Invisible Boy is about Brian, the invisible boy. Nobody seems to notice him or think to include him until a new student arrives in class.

Analysis:

This story centers around Brian who feels invisible because everyone else is just louder and needs more attention than he does. There are no family structures seen in this book as it takes place at school, which is a place where children spend a majority of their day. I find it interesting that Brian’s parents or teacher are not seen more in the book. During this time period parents can be seen taking a more active role in their child’s education and questioning when something is wrong.

This book has the most diverse characters that I have seen in any of my books. The children also do not take on typical gender roles. For example, at recess both the boys and girls are playing kickball. It is also evident that the characters in this story are being used to relate to many of the children we may have in our classrooms. Students who are shy can relate to Brian feeling invisible. While other students may relate to those students who have more of a voice in the classroom. However, all students can relate to Justin (the new kid) because each student is new to the classroom at the beginning of the year. Finally, all students are able to learn about a simple act of kindness and how it can impact people.

A lot of the power in this book is in the illustrations. At the beginning of the story, Brian is seen having no color because he feels invisible to those around him. As the story goes on and Brian is noticed, by the new kid Justin, he begins to get his color back.

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In reflecting on my analysis of each book it has been interesting to notice the roles of children over the years. In many of my books, I have noticed that children are very much left on their own to explore and learn about the world. However, in Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (1984) and Something Beautiful (1998) the characters are learning from those around them. In Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge the main character is seen spending time with is elders and learning from them. He then is able to use this knowledge to help an elder. About 14 years later, in Something Beautiful, we see the main character exploring on her on but also gaining knowledge from those around her. This character is able to use that knowledge to take action and make changes for the better in her community.

I know that I only looked at a small sample of books for this project but I found it interesting that all of the books had the children as primary roles. In Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge and Something Beautiful the adults were present but more as guide and resource for the children.

I was surprised but also not that surprised to see little to no diversity in books from the earlier time periods. I did find that 3 out of 4 books had diverse characters. However, the diversity was only one ethnicity or culture. The Invisible Boy definitely had the most diversity with many ethnicities being represented. Diversity in books has been growing but it is disheartening to see how little diversity was seen in the earlier time periods.