Summary:
The book that I read for my literature
collection blog this week was Grandmama’s Joy, by Eloise
Greenfield. The book is about a little
girl, (her name is Rhondy), who lives with her Grandmama (her name is Melissa).
Melissa received some bad news (she cannot afford the rent for the home that
she has lived in for a very long time and now she and Rhondy must move) that
made her sad and not wanting to talk to anyone including her granddaughter. Rhondy
doesn’t like to see her Grandmama upset so she works very hard trying to help
her Grandmama remember what brings her Grandmama joy so she won’t continue
being sad.
Evaluation of Genre:
The picture book is beautifully
done. While reading this book I felt the
characters come to life! I could envision
Rhondy trying to make her Grandmama laugh when she put a quick show that would
have normally made her Grandmama laugh.
The illustration in the picture book displayed the sadness all over
Rhondy’s Grandmama’s face when she could not get her Grandmama to give her a
true smile. The artist carefully crafted
the Grandmama’s sadness through her drawings showing the reader how sad and
upset was by illustrating Grandmama crossing her arms with worry all over her
face and it also showed through her body language.
The picture book would fall under the
genre of contemporary realistic fiction.
The events, and characters that were portrayed in the picture book could
have been any Grandmother in this day and age taking care of their grandchild
for whatever reason, but in the case of this story Melissa was taking care of
Rhondy because her parents died in a car accident. This book falls under contemporary realistic
fiction because the writer took a real event (Grandmama losing her home that
she had been in for years) that could happen to anyone, and the author took a
real life situation and put the information in a children’s book so that
parents, teachers or grandparents could have a point of reference so children
can relate to (in this case not wanting to see their Grandmama upset).
Questions to Ask:
My
reader’s response questions would be:
1.
When
you have seen someone upset what have you done to try to cheer him or her up?
2. When you have played outside what pretty
objects did you find and bring home?
Activities:
This picture book deals with emotions. A
good motivational writing activity would be having the student write an essay. A
Once/Now essay could help the student interpret before and after in a different
way, and also it could teach the student other word usage by building their
vocabulary. An example would be: Once
Rhondy’s Grandmama was sad. “Her Grandma
was sad and Rhondy didn’t know why”. Rhondy thought of way to help her
Grandmama remember her joy and now she is happy: “Rondy did not have to lift
her head and look at Grandmamma’s face to know that she was smiling a real
smile and that the lines between her eyebrows had gone away”.
A cute art activity would be to have the
student create scrapbook for the two main characters. The students could find things outside in the
playground or create pictures in their classroom to put in the scrapbook to help
give Grandmama more joy. They could draw pictures of what they think
Grandmama’s house looked like when she first moved in and place a date. The students
could draw a picture of the new house she would be moving into and place a date
of when she moved into the new home. This could be an extension of the writing
essay Once/Now, but through art. They could
draw a picture of the stone that Rhondy gave to her Grandmother along with the
date that she gave it to her. They could
also draw a picture of how they think Rhondy looked when she performs for her
Grandmama. For Rhondy the students could
draw pictures of what they think her parents may have looked like so that she
could always remember. They could also
draw a picture of her Grandmama and Mrs. Bennet and Tippy. They could name the
scrapbooks A Scrap Book of Joy for Grandmama and A Scrap Book of Joy for
Rhondy. This could also help teach the
students that the best gifts are not bought from the store.
Another activity for students to do is
for them to write an essay on What Gives Me Joy and share it with the class and
their parents. This would teach the children that happiness is not always found
in materialistic objects. This activity
would also encourage the children to dig deep down and discover what matters to
them the most and why. By having the students write this essay this could help
them with their writing skills and word usage. The assignment can turn out to
be meaningful and the students and parents may be surprised at what brings them
joy. With little children it’s the
little things that mean a lot.
The activities that are mentioned above
would align with the Saint Leo Core Value of Respect. Because we all are
different and have different thoughts of what would bring us as individuals
joy, these activities would teach the students to not only respect their
essays, but also their art work. As
individuals we cannot all draw the same, nor are we going to think the same.
Sometimes our artwork interpretations and our writing interpretations do not
align with others, but that is what makes us unique and special.
About the Author:
Eloise Greenfield, the author of Grandmama’s
Joy, (1980) was born on May 17, 1929 in Parmele, North Carolina. She lives
in Washington She has received awards for her children’s book to include the Coretta
Scott King Award. She has written numerous books such as: She Come Bringing Me That Little Baby Girl (1974),
Africa Dream, (1977), My Doll, Keshia (1991), Sweet Baby Coming (1994), Kia
Tanisha (1996), How They Got Over: African Americans and the Call of the Sea
(2003). Mrs. Greenfield has also published poetry selections and
biographies. Mrs. Greefield tackles tough
topics such as poverty, racism, illness, death, disability, and loneliness. The
message that she tries to relay to her young reader is to learn from the
past. Realize that history is important
to know and learn from so that they will not make the same mistakes. The
information that she gives to her young readers is for them to have hope and to
never give up. “Although
her works touch on subjects such as death, illness, divorce, disability, and
racism as well as poverty and loneliness, Greenfield is consistently hopeful in
her message to the young: they can find hope and strength in knowledge of the
past, in the closeness of family ties, and within themselves” (Biographies
2004). Mrs. Greefield also writes poetry, biographies and older fiction. Mrs.
Greenfield lives in Washington D.C. (Balkin 2013).
My Thoughts:
My Thoughts:
I picked this book without having any
idea of what to expect, and I absolutely loved this book! This book put things in perspective in such
an elementary way. As an adult when we
get bad news or things don’t go the way we want them to, we feel that our whole
world has just been decimated, and we allow small things to become large
forgetting about the blessing that we have.
Rhondy’s Grandmama was losing her house
and they were going to have to move, and that is unfortunate, but it is just a
house, she can get another house.
Melissa’s sadness was impacting her grandchild making her feel that she
could not bring her Grandmama joy anymore like she did before.
Rhondy’s innocence put things in
perspective for her Grandmama when she asked her: “Will I still be your joy
when we move?” It was the wake up call
she needed. She had her joy. No house could bring her joy like her
grandchild could. As an adult I think we
sometimes forget to stop and smell the roses instead of looking at them and
saying, ”Those roses are pretty”. I know
my 7 year old had asked me if I would watch a movie with him just him and
I. I knew I had homework to do so I let
him put the movie on while I was at the table trying to get homework done. Every once in a while I would look up at the
screen, but I was trying to finish my work.
I think he knows I did not really watch the movie, so I am going to have
to make that up to him. It’s times like
these that are important. The things that don’t cost anything mean so much
more!
This book was also very good because
although it was a work of fiction this could have been a true story. There are
many children whose parents or grandparents that have lost their homes for
whatever reasons, and it made them sad or upset to be losing their homes that
that they worked hard to get. This story
had real life themes that we all can in some way relate and become empathetic
to the Grandmother’s dilemma.
References:
Balkin,
C. (2013). Retrieved from
Biographies. (2004) Eloise Greenfield. Retrieved from
Cullinan, B. & Galda L. & Sipe L.
(2010) Literature and the Child. 7th
Ed. Belmont, CA. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Google Books. (2013). Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/about/Grandmama_s_Joy.html?id=KtQiir1CcMwC
Greenfield, Eloise. (1980). Grandmama’s
Joy. New York, NY: The Putnam & Grosset Group.
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