Book: Hanukkah in Alaska
Author: Barbara Brown
Illustrator: Stacey Schuett
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Publication date: 2013
Supports Diverse Protagonist
Picture Book
Online Material
Lexile Score: Not Available
Target Audience: ages 4-8
Brief Summary
This is the story of a young girl who lives in Alaska. She begins the story by talking about all the moose that are there and how you have to be very careful around them because they are powerful. She says that they wander around town mostly on paths that are already made like the sideways and driveways. The little girl finds a moose in her backyard that just keeps eating parts of the tree that her swing is attached to. She loves her swing so much and she doesn't want to the moose to wreck it. She tries to get the moose to go away by feeding it apples but it just won't leave. One night, the girl and her dad go outside to see the Northern Lights. She is so distracted by the beauty of the sky that she doesn't notice the moose tangled in her swing. She gets and idea and runs inside. She comes back out with a latkes, a potato pancake, and lines them up down her driveway. The moose smells them and immediately leaves the swing to follow the delicious smell. The moose leaves and the girl can continue looking at the sky without having to worry about her swing.
Evaluation: 31/32
Illustration - 4
Storyline - 4
Appropriateness - 4
Problems/Resolutions - 4
Stereotyping - 4
Relatability -3
Readability/Cohesiveness -4
Critical Thinking - 4
I thought this was a wonderful book. The illustrations are beautiful and the author does a great job of describing what it is like in Alaska. Not many people get to experience what Alaska is like and this book does a wonderful job of explaining it to the reader. I would definitely use this book in a classroom around the time of the holidays to show different cultures along with using it to explain problem solving. The girl had a problem and she used her brain and resources to solve it. I really enjoyed this book.
Literary Elements
1.Repetition - The little keeps asking the dad when they are going to go outside and why she has to be so close to the moose. With every answer, the dad answers "Just wait. You'll see."
2. Comparison - The girl in the story compares herself and her friends playing in the snow to dreidals spinning like crazy.
3. Imagery - This book does a wonderful job of describing what the Northern Lights look like. So many different adjectives were used to express how beautiful the sky is when you can see the Northern Lights and these words allow the reader to really picture what it would look like. If I were to do a lesson on imagery, I would use this book and others to show students how writers use a lot of different adjectives to describe something and how those descriptions allow the readers to really see those images in their heads. The students could create a grand description of something and the other students in the class would have to try to guess what the place or object is.
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