Diana's Blog by Diana Dominguez https://padlet.com/guessdiana111/bbaeoofop6z5 Children's and Adolescent's Literature en-us 2018-09-10 18:05:48 UTC 2025-11-09 13:50:22 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Alarmclock.png The book I had was titled “The Family Book” by Todd Parr. The book is about how there are a lot of different families, and if someone comes from a different family than you that doesn’t make their family any less. He highlights the similarities between all families, like having love.My impressions of the book were good ones. It was really colorful and it had my attention because of that. I enjoyed it, it was easy to read because it is for younger kids. The first time I read the book I read it to my baby sister, and my mom was sitting next to us. She seemed to like the book till it said “Some families have two moms or two dads”. It caught me by surprise because he included this in his book pretty much in the middle. My mom on the other hand, she completely changed her mind about the book and said she didn’t like it because of families with parents of the same sex. This made me realize that I didn’t really care for this topic being brought up, but my mom thought it was really offensive because while she was growing up, she was religious, and people weren’t very open about this topic and she grew up being taught that it was wrong. The major themes in this book are there are all kinds of different families in the world, but putting these differences aside all these families have love and care for one another. The beliefs that the author portrayed in this book are that he supports the LGBTQ community, and he’s straightforward about it. The features of the text are that when the author is talking about some families, he uses black text with a good size font that would be considered big in bubble letters. But, when he talks about all families the sentence will take up an entire page which brings a lot of attention to what he is saying because the letters are also colorful and really stand out. The illustrations are very simple, and the families that he draws are like stick figures and the whole book is very colorful. Every page is a different vibrant color which leads to catching children’s attention with all the variety of colors. All the sentences are very short and easy to read for any child to understand at a young age. The illustrations enhance the message that all families are different and special in their own ways because he draws the families together and they’re smiling and he incorporates drawings of animals as well as if he’s trying to say that animals are like this too. I think that this book would have a good impact on children because they will be aware of the differences between some families, and that it’s okay if someone comes from a different family than yours. Their family still has the same amount of love and care for one another. I think this book would influence children’s thinking about themselves and the world by showing them to be open minded and accepting about all the differences that the world has. There are a lot of different families but even though they’re different from your own doesn’t make them any less of a family. All families are special in their own ways. guessdiana111 https://padlet.com/guessdiana111/bbaeoofop6z5/wish/285315446 2018-09-25 02:42:17 UTC https://padlet.com/guessdiana111/bbaeoofop6z5/wish/285315446 El Deafo is a book written by Cece Bell, an American author and Illustrator. This book is an autobiography about her own childhood experiences of becoming deaf and how she dealt with this during elementary school. It’s a partial autobiography because it just focuses on her childhood while being in elementary school. Her book is about her personal experiences in school and how being deaf impacted her everyday life. She highlights the difficulties of making true friends and what it’s really like being deaf. I enjoyed the book. I had never read a book focused on a disability and actual events that happened in their life. So this book allowed me to know what it’s like to be deaf and the situation that people deal with on a daily basis. It was a graphic novel so it was easy to read and it was a cute book. I liked how she used animals for all the characters. She made herself a bunny because their ears are above their heads. She did this to really emphasize what she thought she looked like while wearing her hearing aids when the cords were above her head. Some emotions it provoked were good ones because it’s bringing awareness to this topic that I had never read about before. It made me realize that there are people that deal with the hardships of being deaf. Even children as young as Cece was when this happened. The book helped me think about other disabilities that make school harder than it already is. The themes presented in the book were true friendships and acceptance. Some key messages that the author challenges readers to think about are true friendships. During the book, Cece was trying to find a true friend but she was really struggling with this because she was so insecure about what others thought about her hearing aids. She was known as the deaf girl and she wanted a friend that didn’t care about her disability. She had a handful of best friends till she found the perfect one. I think acceptance was a theme because she felt like she was super different compared to everyone else because no one else was deaf when she started school. So she needed to learn to accept herself so other could accept her as well. Also, she would imagine herself as a superhero, that’s what “El Deafo” means. It was her superhero name and that’s who she wanted to be. I think the author challenges readers to not think that just because someone has a disability that they aren’t capable of doing certain things. That’s why Cece would imagine herself as a superhero because superheros are seen as strong, unbeatable, and capable of anything because of a super power that they have. This book is written in a Graphic Novel format and I had positive reactions to it because I liked the pictures and how they told the story. I think this book would be a good book to give children that are starting to read longer books like chapter books. This book is long, but it’d be easier to read than an actual chapter book because it’s mostly pictures and there’s not a lot of words. So it’d be a good book to introduce children to longer chapter books. The illustrations were really simple and went with the story well, Cece was the only bunny throughout the whole book. I thought that the author choose a bunny because she liked them. She actually choose a bunny because they have their ears on the top of their heads so it made the cords to her hearing aids more noticable. She was the only bunny to signify that she was different and special. Most of the text in the book were in bubbles signifying that the character was talking. I think something that the author did that enhanced the message of the book was that when Cece couldn’t really hear or understand what others were saying, the text would turn into a light gray color and eventually fade away. The bubbles would be different depending on what Cece would hear, for example when it was her new teacher speaking through The Phonic Ear, the bubble would be outlined red with pointy ends instead of round soft ones. This would also occur when music would be playing. If children read this book, their view of the world would be impacted because they’d learn something new. When I was in elementary school I wasn’t aware that there are individuals with disabilities such as being deaf or blind. So this book would impact the way children see the world because they’d be aware of these things, and not make a someone feel uncomfortable with their curiosity. This book would be beneficial to students with a hearing disability because they’d be able to relate to it and not feel like they’re the only ones going through certain situations alone. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I would recommend for others to read it. guessdiana111 https://padlet.com/guessdiana111/bbaeoofop6z5/wish/291000541 2018-10-09 20:47:05 UTC https://padlet.com/guessdiana111/bbaeoofop6z5/wish/291000541 The book The One and Only Ivan by K. A. Applegate is a book about a Gorilla named Ivan who lives in a cage at a mall. Ivan is a very kind and loving Gorilla that enjoys painting. The book has a very touching story and it made me sad and made me realize that animal cruelty is a big problem especially with circus animals. The themes in this book are that everyone should be treated equally. This is a theme in the book because the author brings up the point that gorillas are very similar to humans. This shines light on why do humans mistreat them if they’re very similar? Throughout the story Ivan was experiencing feelings just like any person would regarding the abuse he was encountering. Another theme in the book I would say is friendship. The theme of friendship is shown throughout the story because of the friends Ivan makes, he’s friends with a girl named Julia, she really enjoys Ivans paintings. He is also friends with an older elephant that has an injury due to being mistreated in the circus. Her name is Stella, and he meets a new baby elephant named Ruby that he becomes friends with and protects her at all costs. And finally, Bob who is a dog. The bond between Julia, a 10 year old, and Ivan is very special because she treats him with respect unlike the owner of the circus, and she genuinely likes and cares for him as a friend. Julia’s dad works at the mall as a janitor and that is why she spends time with Ivan and sees him as more than just entertainment. Julia encourages and really enjoys Ivans art because she thinks that they have meaning and that he has potential. In the book, Stella says “A good zoo is how humans make amends”(P.64). What I think she means by this is in a circus, all the animals are mistreated and she knows this because she was treated poorly. So a good zoo is a luxury for any animal because they don’t get mistreated and can roam freely in their designated areas. Humans don’t just look at them and expect them to do tricks, instead humans go to zoos just to look at animals in their natural habitats or something closets to that. The story about Jambo is important because it demonstrates how gorillas really are. Stella believes that gorillas are good and they’re similar to humans because they show emotions just like humans. It brings up the point that humans aren’t mistreated so why are gorillas if they’re very alike. The impact of this story on children is that the author is trying to make a point that circuses and zoos aren’t that great because of the abuse that the animals experience. He’s trying to shine light on this issue that not many people are aware of. The book really changed my view on circuses and zoos and I think that it did that to many individuals that have read it. It brings awareness to the animals and the cruelty they go through. Children might connect this story to something powerful because Ivan painted something to call attention to him and Ruby so he could save them and have them be placed in a zoo. This shows children that they can make a difference and do good things for themselves and others. Overall this book should be shared with children so they become aware of the issues with things that they have probably been to such as a circus or zoo. guessdiana111 https://padlet.com/guessdiana111/bbaeoofop6z5/wish/294117196 2018-10-17 21:57:21 UTC https://padlet.com/guessdiana111/bbaeoofop6z5/wish/294117196 “The Long Walk To Water” by Linda Sue Park is about two different individuals and the obstacles and situations that they’ve encountered. One characters name is Salva he’s from Southern Sudan and his story starts in 1985. Whereas the other main character is Nya and her story starts in 2008. Salva was a young boy when the war arrived to his village so he had to run away and keep running and go on a very long journey to get to a refugee camp. Eventually, he reaches a refugee camp and then has to go to a different one in Kenya so he goes on another long Journey. When he gets to the camp in Kenya, there is news that they will be picking young and healthy individuals to go to The United States of America. Salva is one of the individuals to get chosen so he goes to New York where he stays with a family, he learns english and goes to school to get a degree. On the other hand Nya was a young girl that lived with her family in a small village in Southern Sudan, and she had to walk 4 hours to and from a lake to get water everyday. It was a very long walk just to get water but she would do it anyway. At the end of the book, the author puts together both of the stories because Salva goes back to where he was from which is Southern Sudan and builds a wheel in the village Nya is from so they have much easier access to clean water. Linda Sue Park is an American author that writes teen fiction. I think she is credible to write this story because she knows Salva and wrote the book based off of his true story. She had him as a reference to go to while she was writing the book. While reading this book, I learned that not everyone has the resources that we have here in America. There are actually places where it’s difficult to have clean water, and war is a real thing that rips families apart and not everyone is as fortunate as people in the US. I also came to realize that we take advantage of the resources we have like being able to walk into a hallway and fill up our water bottles with cold clean water whenever we want. Or being safe and with our families or being girls and going to school and being able to pursue an education. I think the author’s way of writing the book is why it’s considered a high-quality book because Park wrote two stories in one that eventually intertwined and were connected to each other in the end. Another reason why this book is high-quality is because it wasn’t very sugar coated in the difficulties that Salva and Nya faced but they weren’t very gruesome either so there was a good balance that allows teens to be exposed to negative things and the hardships that both characters went through. The author contributes to children’s thinking by introducing them to things like war, lacks of resources, and actual events that take place in places like Sudan. It allows for them to be aware that no everyone lives the way we live here in America. It helps them better understand themselves and shape their identity because they realize that they shouldn’t take what they have for granted because there are children their age somewhere else going through hardships trying to get what they have. All in all, this is a good book for children to be introduced to the difficulties that people face in other places around the world. guessdiana111 https://padlet.com/guessdiana111/bbaeoofop6z5/wish/303572436 2018-11-13 05:16:11 UTC https://padlet.com/guessdiana111/bbaeoofop6z5/wish/303572436