https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z Realistic books from 1950-2020 en-us 2020-09-13 13:27:16 UTC 2025-10-19 10:10:01 UTC hello@padlet.com areaddy https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z/wish/741844781 a. This realistic picture book is about a young boy who goes looking for fireflies at night since he finds them magical. He traps several in a jar while outside with a group of friends. All of the children bring their jars filled with fireflies back home at the end of the night. Before he falls asleep, he watches his magical filled jar but soon realizes the lights are diminishing. He understands he must let the magic go otherwise they will die. He watches the fireflies leave the jar and fly out his window.
b. (Question #1) This text was published in 1985 and there are several examples of societal norms during that time period within this text. The main character is a young, white boy who lives in well kept home with a mother and father. This is the standard narrative for this time period in regard to the type of child you'd see as the main character. The main character lives in a nuclear family and his main focus is on a childhood activity. This child doesn't have to worry about where he lives, if he is loved, if there's food on the table or his safety. His parents also let him go out at night by himself with a group of other young, children in the neighborhood.  These children who are catching fireflies are not supervised by adults at all that night. They have the freedom to come and go from their houses. During this time period, adults were less hovering and more trusting of their children to arrive back home safely. 
(Question #2) The children take more of a role in this text than the text from the time period prior. The main character's point of view about catching fireflies is the main voice throughout the text. We read how he feels and thinks about catching fireflies. We explore how his feelings change from the beginning to the end of the story. The adults are the background voices in this text.
(Question #3) The relationship between the adults and children are very nuclear family like. Mom and dad are present for dinner. They remind the young boy to be safe before he leaves and they are at home when he arrives back safely. There is no tension or issues between the adults and the children
c. This realistic picture book focuses more on the male gender roles and loosely portrays a nuclear family dynamic. As we progress in time, it shows a more trusting environment of the 1980s. The children can leave the house at night without reporting to a parent via phone or being watched by several adults. We have evolved from this type of safe, but naive few on children playing without supervision. ]]> 2020-09-13 13:28:52 UTC https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z/wish/741844781 areaddy https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z/wish/741846954 a. This realistic picture book is about a young girl named Maya who is a flower girl at a wedding. This is the first wedding she has attended and tells the story from her perspective. She tells about the others in the wedding, the ceremony, the reception and her ride home from the wedding. This wedding is a Mexican American wedding, so she explains the cultural traditions that take place during the wedding.
b. (Question #1) Given this time period, I think the social expectations are represented in this text. This text shows a different culture and how they celebrate the wedding. They include Spanish words surrounding mostly English words. I think during this time period, the culture in the United States started to become more aware of those cultures with less of a voice.
(Question #2) This text shows a Mexican wedding through the eyes of a young girl who is the flower girl. She is the primary role and her voice is the one being used to tell the story. The text portrays the children, including the ring bearer, as silly and mischievous children. Both children follow the gender roles for young girls and young boys in a wedding. She is dressed in a white dress holding flowers and he is dressed in a tux holding a white pillow with the rings. The adults are only discussed in terms of the bride and groom's roles. They also discuss Maya dancing on her daddy's shoes. I believe the author and illustrator portrayed how children in the Mexican cultural behaved and dressed during a wedding in the 1990s to their best knowledge. Cultural, even within the same community, might look different to others, so I am unsure of the generalizations within this text.
(Question #3) The relationship between the adults and children seem to be stereotypical for any wedding or gathering. The children are looked at as adorable, sweet young souls who are dressed up like adults in their dresses and tuxes. The adults seem to fuss over them. The children run around the wedding after the ceremony and play while the adults drink and eat. There is not too much interactions between them after the initial fuss.
c. Since this text was published in the late 1990s, I think it shows more of a push for culturally diverse realistic picture books for children. I find the illustrations and the Spanish words included within the text shows an effort to be more aware. The author and illustrator shows how other cultures celebrate milestones like weddings. I am unsure if a text like this would have been published during the first time period of this historical analysis. I also wonder how different this text would be if it was published towards the end of this historical analysis. ]]> 2020-09-13 13:32:36 UTC https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z/wish/741846954 areaddy https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z/wish/741847510 a. This realistic picture book is about a young girl, Katy, who tells her class about a tradition she has with her mother for the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah. Katy explains how her and her mother go apple picking and make applesauce every year for the occasion. She also explains to her classmates that this year she will have a new baby cousin. Katy is excited to go picking apples for the applesauce with her mother after telling the whole community, but soon finds out her baby cousin is coming early so her mother has to be there to help her aunt. Katy is disappointed that she cannot make applesauce for the holiday, so her community gathers apples for her to make her applesauce. Katy and her dad work together to make the applesauce without her mother. On Rosh Hashanah, the applesauce is ready and Katy gets to bring her baby cousin a frozen baby jar full of the applesauce. 
b. (Question #1) The social expectations during this time period are to be much more aware of other cultures. I think this text does an adequate job at explaining a religion's holiday that a lot of students don't celebrate. I think the main focus of this story is the main characters growth and maturity, but the underlining theme is Rosh Hashanah.
(Question #2) The children in this text do take the primary voice throughout the story. Her struggles with disappointment and how she feels is validated by all of the adults in the story.
(Question #3) The relationships between the adults and children are pretty harmonious. They work together to help Katy gather apples and make the applesauce. Katy usually makes the applesauce with her mother, but her father steps in to help out. I think this shows the more evolved role of the father helping their children as much as the mothers. The parents offer wisdom and help, but Katy learns to handle her disappointment by modifying her expectations. It shows that even as a child, she was able to feel happy after plans change and disappointment occurs by making the best of it.
c. This was the last realistic picture book and it was published in 2014. It explains the struggles of a young girl being disappointed when her plans have to be changed. The story briefly discusses the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, but does not focus on the religion or the holiday entirely. I think this shows an awareness that you can incorporate other holidays within stories and not make it a reference text. I think the casual mention and explanation of the holiday normalizes other religions. This has been a noticeable change from the realistic picture books since the 1950s. ]]> 2020-09-13 13:33:33 UTC https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z/wish/741847510 areaddy https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z/wish/741864561 a. This realistic picture book is about 12 young girls who live in a catholic boarding school. The main character, Madeline, falls into a river while out with her fellow classmates and Miss Clavel, their nun, in Paris. A stray dog saves Madeline from drowning in the river. They bring the dog back to the boarding school after not being able to find it's owner. They name the dog Genevieve and take care of her. The landlord of the boarding school arrives later on that year and throws the dog out. Miss Clavel and the children go searching for Genevieve and successfully find her. They bring her back safely and she ends up having puppies.
b. 
(Question #1) The social expectations for this time period are that children spend time playing and don't have much to say. This text follows those social expectations because the little girls thoughts and opinions don't seem to matter about the dog. They only focus on them playing with each other or the dog.
(Question #2) The children in the book take the stereotypical young girl gender roles. They dress in dresses and show exceptional manners towards the adults in the story. They walk in straight lines and follow directions. I believe the author portrays the young girls in this manner as an example for how young girls should behave; dressed in girly dresses and being submissive to authority.  
(Question #3) The relationship between the adults and the children are very authoritative during this text. Even between the adults, the males have the final say. The young girls seem to obey the adults orders, but do start a small amount of trouble, fighting before bedtime, without the adults present.
c. I believe how the young girls were portrayed in this realistic picture book is representative of the time period between 1950-1969. The author shows very feminine girls who follow the directions given from authority, especially male authority. The author also shows an emotional and empathetic female caregiver to the girls, Miss Clavel. I think this is standard narrative of the time and we have evolved since then. ]]> 2020-09-13 14:00:45 UTC https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z/wish/741864561 areaddy https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z/wish/794248826 After pulling these four texts for my Historical Analysis, I realized that there are many changes with how children are viewed and how we have normalized different cultures. In "Madeline's Resuce," the first time period, the children are very submissive and their voices are not validated. As we move through the decades, the children's voices are the dominant point of view in the text, like in "Fireflies!" and "Snapshots from the Wedding." During the most recent time period, the text I chose, "Apple Days: A Rosh Hashanah Story," the main character is a little girl and her feeling are validated by the adults in the story. 
The first two texts, "Madeline's Resuce" and "Fireflies!" shows a very white and nuclear family like of cultures. As we move towards the end of the decades, "Snapshots from the Wedding" and "Apple Days: A Rosh Hashanah Story," explains two different cultures, Mexican and Jewish. I think this shows the gradual awareness of the other cultures in our country. ]]> 2020-10-01 12:10:02 UTC https://padlet.com/areaddy/i7fvhbo8ceoovp5z/wish/794248826