Book Review : Where the mountain meets the moon

Book : Where the Mountain meets the Moon | Author : Grace Lin | Genre : Fiction , fairy tale , adventure |. Age : 9 plus . 

 

Grace Lin helps the readers to bring back their childhood memories through  an adventurous fairytale . This story is based on Chinese folktales which she used to read from her childhood . 

Do you Remember , growing a money plant with a belief that it will bring lot of money , some people say it will bring wealth to the family , but irrespective of all the beliefs and sayings , it gives us a power , a power of hope , which is required for an healthy life .

Story : 

Minli lives with her parents in a village located in the corner ,where the fruitless mountain meets the jade river . The village always looked grey and the land  remained brown .The land on the village was tough for farming . People struggled day and night in the stubborn lands  to survive . 

Minli's father ( Ba) always fascinates her by his stories and her mother ( Ma) is a person who always sighs, thinking of their poor fortune . 

Fruitless mountain was just a brown land , without any trees and animals . On the other hand Jade river is full of dark water . Based on Ba's stories reason  for the same is the sad spirit of a dragon named Jade who lived long years ago . There is a possibility to make jade's spirit happy but it can be done only by the old man of the moon who lives in a never ending mountain . 

With a hope to change their fortune minli gets  a goldfish with one of the two copper coins in the house which is the only money that is left in the house  since minli was born  , when her mother gets disappointed minli leaves the fish in the jade river . Being relieved from the bowl , the goldfish shows its  gratitude to minli, by revealing her the way to find the old man of the moon . 

Minli starts her journey , the series of interlinked events and whether she was able to change their fortune by meeting old man of the moon is the rest of the story. 

Review : 

Apart from fantasy , adventure , fairy tale etc, this story also brings in lot of good qualities  that one should try to possess . Minli the protagonist in the story always follows her intuition, her power of hope , positivity and determination helps her to leave the house in search of something impossible . The characters that she meets on her way gives her the strength to overcome the obstacles that she faces on her journey .

Her fathers stories helps her to gain some nice traits such as helping others and compassion , which in turn helps us to realize the power of storytelling .

Friendly dragon, juicy peaches , the DA A FU kids , old man of the moon , all these characters emphasize the symbol or traditions of China . While the dragon is a symbol of power and good luck , old man of the moon is characterized based on yue Lao the Chinese god of marriages . 

The story mostly  revolves around Minli and the selfish magistrate , all other characters and events are purely interwoven which sometimes tests the knowledge and patience of the reader to understand . 

Thankfulness  is the only word that binds the entire story .  Throughout her journey minli learns some valuable lessons. There  is nothing in the name of good fortune , and everyone should be happy and gifted for whatever they have . Fortune doesn't mean having money and gold , it means the happiness one should have in life , and to be happy we should be thankful for whatever we have . 

The words of the king still echoes in ears even after completing the book . "You only lose what you cling to " -- Most of us think holding on makes us strong, no it's wrong ,sometimes letting go makes us even more stronger , so don't wait let go the past and welcome the bright future .

Book review - Alpha Oops( The day z went First) by Alethea Kontis

Book : Alpha Oops( The day Z went first )  |. Author : Alethea Kontis illustrator : Bob kolar

Age : 2 plus 

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Storyline : 

It's a regular day in the alphabet family and the daily routine starts , A starts the day by stating A is for App...., suddenly a big noise and there comes Z , shouting stop, Z doesn't like to be last always , he felt sick and irritating to be last on the line , so he wanted to start the day . 

Even Y supports him by saying "we need a change".A agrees and so Z starts Z is for Zebra , then comes Y, X, W and P ...oh no it's the turn of V but why did u came asks V to P.

Even if you go backwards we are stuck in middle, even we need a fair treatment says P.,then continues O and N , then H enters in between demanding his right, now it's a complete mess ..No order and everyone entered in between when they wanted ,some asking for another turn , some missing .

In between all the chaos how they finishes the days routine with the help of A and how they all accept that always A should start the day is the rest of the story.

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Review : 

An excellent book to teach alphabets and  phonetic awareness .Also it teaches kids to follow order, everyone in a line gets a chance whether they are in first , middle or last .Beautiful illustrations makes this book  a must have for all . 

Book Review : Dev and Ollie ( kite crazy) by Shweta Aggarwal

Festivals are celebration of life , which brings happiness amongst the people.  India is a country of unique festivals , and this book Dev and Ollie is  based on one such festival on kites called Uttarayan, celebrated in some parts of India , but its magnitude can be seen most in the state of Gujarat

 

Storyline 

Dev, a curious little boy, gets a kite as a birthday gift  . He wants to fly it immediately , but doesn't know how to , since it was time to bed , his grandpa says that he will teach to him tomorrow. 

Upset little dev goes falls asleep, suddenly his toy owl Ollie gets life and dev sits in its back and flies , Thud , they have finally landed , between a club of kites and that too in Gujarat's kite festival . 

Dev not only happens to enjoy the festival, he also gets a chance to show his kindness .What happens next? What experiences dev got from the festival ? Is the rest of the story .

Review : 

It is always great pleasure to read about Indian festivals. The story not only teaches about the festival but it also has some other valuable information relating to the state . Simple storyline mixed with celebration and adventure makes it an interesting read for the kids . Beautiful and expressive illustrations is a great backbone to the story.

Loved the way the story has been weaved ,it  covers everything  celebration , kindness , friendship . Book  is recommended for kids 3 plus as I think the illustrations and their expressions are enough for the kids to understand the story . With some useful information at the end this book definitely brings a Kai po Che moment for the author . 

Joan Miro - Magic with Lines Shapes and colours

This tutorial is again based on lines and Joan Miro is the artist we are going to focus

Joan Miro is a Spanish Artist who is famous for his appealing abstracts . 

Art is always an end users perspective , but the reason for introducing various artists is to analyse how the various elements are used differently by each artist .Art is same but the way the artists  use to convey their message is different . 

"Lines are always lines unless it gets a shape 

". This is the objective of this tutorial .

Joan miro's are always open ended drawings , they have a mix of lines , shapes and colours , whether they convey a story or a message is according to our perspective.

These are some of the abstracts by the artist. 

 

How to teach 

For kids who are not familiar with shapes ,  teach how a line is converted in to a shape , say how a curve is converted in to a semi circle by just adding a line .

For older kids ,ask them  try to express various things that we see in lines , from a simple glass to human figure . ( some of the artists  abstract are added above  ) 

Below is a drawing done by my students , where they have tried to create an abstract with lines , colours and shapes . 

Things needed :

A4 size sheet 

Poster colours

Brush ( bold and thin)

 

My little suggestion #2

First colour then finish : When a drawing is made with pencil , don't outline it with a sketch or marker , first finish  the colouring completely then start outlining with a black sketch or marker for a beautiful finish . Because most of the times colours go out of lines for kids .

Book Review : Nothing ever happens on 90th street

Name :  Nothing ever happens on 90th street 

Author : Roni Schotter |. Illustrator : Kyrsten brooker | Genre : picture book, writing | Age 7 plus .

  Basically written for budding young writers , this book also serves as enlightening read for us adults. Whenever most of us get a call over phone or if we get to meet someone on the road there will be a common question , "What's special?" and the reply is the same NOTHING, AS USUAL ,. And this book Nothing Ever Happens on 90th street , breaks such stereotypes of ours and changes our view from Nothing to Lots of things , of course lots of interesting things . 

 

Storyline:

Eva , sits on the front porch of her apartment on  the 90th street , with a notebook in hand , unwrapping her cinnamon danish she recollects what her teacher Mrs. DeMarco said , Write about what you know , this is the topic given for her writing project . Eva gives a glance at the street, crying sound of a kid , some horn sounds , Mr. Chang standing outside his seafood emporium , huh .. as usual and nothing else sighed Eva . 

Mr. Sims an actor came out of the apartment ,on seeing Eva he asks "writing??eva replies Trying , but nothing ever happens on 90 th street , Mr. Sims says , Eva don't say like that , the world is a stage and everyone has a part to play , so  always observe carefully and note the details . 

Likewise whoever crosses her , gives her a tip or advice on writing , One of the tip given by a dancer is to "imagine and ask ,what if ?yourself Eva " With all the tips and tricks how Eva crafts the story is the rest .

Review : 

An excellent resource for narrative writing . The story itself makes the kids to be seated at the edge of a chair with a curious mind waiting to know what will happen next .The content of the story teach all the qualities needed for writing , Developing a plot, Observation , Imagination, Dialogue, Suspense, poetry , romance . It has more text when compared to other picture book , but still an interesting read . Illustrations are interesting and are in the form of a collage. 

"There's always a new way with the old words ".. So all budding writers don't wait, find a new way and spice up your writing with the words .

Book review : Four feet two sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed

   A story about refugees, (people who leave their country due to war and other civil disturbances ) This story is based on an afghan refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan and which is also supposed to be the Afghanistan -Pakistan border .

 

Story line 

Lina and feroza , were two girls around ten years old and who live in an Afghan refugee camp ,where in a war feroza  lost her entire family except her grandmother and Lina who lost her father and sister in the war, is living with her mom and two younger brothers . 

One day a van with relief workers arrived at the camp , it was filled with used clothing , and people gathered at large to try their level best in grabbing cloths thrown by them . Lina managed to get herself a new sandal but only one in the pair .When she starts searching the other , she finds it on foot of feroza .

Feroza was kind enough to spare the other sandal to Lina , as she thought one sandal is of no use , but Lina draws a beautiful plan where both can share the sandals.

What is Lina's plan to share the sandals?How they get out of the camp but still manage to continue their friendship ? Is the rest of the story .

 

Review

A story on sharing , friendship and loss ,which makes us realize that how  refugees are made victims of terrorism . 

The sandals are the main protagonist in the story , and it carries a sign of friendship wherever they go . Alongside there is one event in the story where the two girls learn to write their names in sand  just by watching through the window of school , and rubs them so that no one should notice , which clears  that why women's literacy in Afghanistan is the lowest in the world 

Personally I like the way through which  author brings in positivity or positive message  to something which is negative .  Beautiful and sensitive illustrations in acrylic gives a life to the story . It brings the borders live in front of us . Refugees not only carry belongings to the other place , but lots of memories , unerasable memories of their mother land .

My Journey and the incidents that made me to change the view towards art ( drawing and painting)

I don't remember whether i had  the qualities to draw until I was in sixth standard or so , art is something which I have inherited from my father , lost him at the age of seven , "he used to draw beautifully" , this is what I heard from others and have hardly seen two or three of his drawings . Being a single mom busy with office and home , my mother was unable to identify a teacher to hone my skills. 

After completing my school  , the Holidays in between joining a college helped me to identify a teacher in my town. I went to him for enquiry and when he told me to draw whatever i knew , I drew a landscape with a house , well,mountain , river and a tree. When i looked through his class , all the students were seated in different places of the living room and they have been told to draw whatever they see ( observational drawing ) I didn't went to the class from next day because just for seeing and drawing( which I thought I can do myself in home )  I didnt wanted  to pay him the amount and waste my time travelling to and fro .

  After 12 years , a mom of two , after quitting my bank job , I wanted to pursue my passion , so enrolled myself In a fine art institute for a diploma course . First day in the class my tutor told me to draw whatever I know , again it was the same , I drew a landscape with a house , well,mountain , river and a tree.Nothing came to my mind other than this , but when I saw the other student ,a kid who was around 8 years old , for him it happened to be the first class too, he was drawing a temple scene with so many details , that moment gave me a jerk, helped me to realise what made the difference , I was just a copy cat when it comes to art , I used to draw from references from the net and other mediums . 

 

After completing my course , When I have decided to start teaching art to kids at my home, the first thing I did  is designing an art program based on observational drawing . 

It's been nearly 4 years after I have started teaching art to kids , more than fifty percent of the parents haven't either liked or supported my way of teaching . This statement may sound negative but it is true . 

Reason most of them have seen Art as one of the subjects in school which requires a teacher and a book designed based on some curriculum .

They wanted me to teach sun, moon, trees, houses , clouds , mountains etc as it is ,and their colours ,always we had a problem with apple , Parents need only red apples , but most of the kids will colour purple, orange and sometimes lot of mix and match . Every alternate day I see a parent complaining "you are not scolding them, see there colour of tree trunk is orange , always her/his colour goes out of lines or borders " and most importantly Every week there will be a drawing competition in some of the school

and parents come with a circular and a topic they decide by themselves and which children has to draw . Reason  for the selection of topic according to the parents were  because of tough competitions they face and for some , obviously the medal . 

 

No wonder I was also once a mom who was sailing in the same boat , striving for medals , struggling for competitions and calculating the value for money I pay , for every after school activities to be apt..

But my experience as a student changed my view towards art ( drawing and painting) ,and these are the reasons based on my personal experience (with my students in these four years ) why I think observational drawing is most important ..

Confidence : When the kids are allowed to observe and draw , it will be a fresh drawing not a replicated one , this gives them a sense of achievement . Instead in a copied one they always have the feeling that original one is more beautiful than their work , which lowers their confidence .

Mistakes : When they attempt to draw something they have explored for the first time , and even though if it's not perfect they won't mind , most of the kids will try to observe the thing again and again in various ways and try to correct their drawing , so they get a feeling that mistakes are common and everyone learns from their mistakes .

So if the lines are not perfect and the colours are messy let it be, kids will try themselves to make it perfect , Even after lot of practice if they are unable to make it , don't compare , may be Drawing and painting is not their cup of tea.

It's better try to understand them than changing them , which will make our journey as a parent easier. 

Art tutorial #1 : Elements of Art - Line

Tutorial#1

Start with teaching the Elements of art

First element will be LINE.

Make the kids learn different type of lines 

 

Help them in making simple line drawings with the different types of lines learnt 

 

Duplication exercises 

Always start the day with duplication exercises, they are considered as warm up activity before drawing , draw one time and ask the kids to repeat it for 3 more times 

 

If you have kids who already know the basics well or doesn't want to do simple line drawings, ask them to doodle or create a Zentangle of their own with the lines 

 

#Art tutorial 2

Tutorial #2

Line Drawings (based on artist Paul Klee.)

Paul Klee was a Swiss born artist who is famous for his  line drawings and abstract art . known as father of abstract art , most of his works have been made only out of lines and shapes. 

Before starting , we had gone through one of his best books that we like, The cat and the bird which was co authored by him and the illustrations are based on his paintings . 

 

Most of the pages has been illustrated mostly with lines and shapes , it will be a pure delight to go through this book , starting from houses to birds, trees to cats everything is formed with lines and shapes  ( or else after reading about the author we visualize so ) . 

In the below images my kids have tried  to bring out whatever they can imagine with lines ,from a castle to tree , sun , house .

 

Now for parents as How to teach 

Explore more about Paul Klee and his drawings with kids .ask the kids to visualize or else pick things from the house , that they think can be drawn using lines , (this activity helped us to learn that most of the things drawn have lines and why line is Called as one of the elements of art)

My little suggestion -#1 ( There will be some simple suggestions which I think is valuable at the end of each tutorial , hope this help all the parents to explore art with thier kids)

  Please don't draw anything and ask the kids to replicate , because as adults our detailing will be perfect to some extent and if kids are not able to replicate it as such, they will lose their confidence . SO ALWAYS ASK THE KIDS TO IMAGINE OR VISUALIZE IN THEIR MIND FIRST. Even it's not perfect let it be , Their sun or clouds will not be perfect at first , but later on they will try to make it perfect by seeing the sun and clouds themselves . We call it as observational drawing .