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2013 Children's Book Award Winners
Check out the 2013 award winners for children's literature and illustration. |
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The first, and most well known of the book, is the Sneetches. It is a story of a society of haves and have-nots (imagine that!), in which access to the goodies of life are determined by whether or not you have a star on your belly. Read into it what you will. Whatever you make of it, it is certainly a commentary on racial, gender, or any number of other social categories! The story's strength is that it shows just how arbitrary and constructed these categories are. Features -- such as a star, but also skin color, gendered attributes, etc etc -- can be used to define people as dominant and powerful, or repressed and marginalized. What is at issue is not which characteristics are used to delineate people into specific social categories or identities, but how people marginalize others by playing up those definitions...
The Zax is a cute little story, which teaches us that compromise is quite important. Too many Daves is equally short and cute, although its meaning is less obvious. I see it as a cry for individualism. Could just be a cute story...
Finally, "What was I Scared Of?" is another really good story with a social meaning -- again read into it as you will. In this story, there is a pair of pale green pants which has no one inside of it. The main character is afraid of them, but only because he never bothered to find out about them... what they were about. In fact, the empty green pants are just as afraid of him as he is of them! When they both realize they are pretty much the same, once you stood face to face with the other.
Five Stars I do give it! Five Stars Upon Thars!
To help other parents apply this advice, as a parent of four I consulted an expert, our youngest child, and asked her to share with me her favorite books that were read to her as a young child. The Sneetches and Other Stories was one of her picks.
One of the reasons I liked to read Dr. Seuss stories to all of my children was that they contain up-lifting moral messages. In The Sneetches, the lesson is tolerance of those who are different from you. In The Zax, cooperation is encouraged. In Too Many Daves, individuality is espoused. What Was I Scared of? looks at the irrational bases of many of our fears.
The stories are also wonderful because they are humorous, have fun poems, and the drawings are very interesting and unusual.
The moral lesson in The Sneetches is put together in a very clever way. The story starts with two types of Sneetches, those with stars on their tummies and those without. The former are the higher status group. Then, Sylvester McMonkey McBean came to town with machines that could add stars. He quickly got rich making all the Sneetches look alike. The high-class Sneetches didn't like that, so they paid to have the stars taken off. And so on it went, until McBean had all of the money. Then, the Sneetches finally got smart and treated everyone alike, whether or not they had stars. As you can see, this makes anyone who holds onto small differences as being important look silly (whether based on something one is born with, or perhaps even based on something one can buy like athletic sneakers). Ah, a great story!
The Zax get so caught up on who is right that the world passes them by. In fact, a whole road and a city are built right over them as they stand firm against the other in the sand. Such a lovely counter-thought that is for stubborn children to learn!
Too Many Daves reminds me of a family I met where the father was named Bruce and had several sons named Bruce. It was most confusing when they were all around. We have a bit of the same problem in my family where there are four Dons in three generations. Everyone in my family lobbies against any more Dons!
What Was I Scared of! was my daughter's least favorite story in this book. I think that was because the scary parts last for many dark-looking pages. The resolution that the scary looking pants are just as frightened as you are takes a long time to develop. You may find that your child will like this story at an older age than the other stories in the book. It's the last one, so it's easy to stop just before it.
Now, having read (or reread) these stories, ask yourself what misconceptions you have about the way the importance of how things are. If you act the opposite of any of these stories, your child may find you a little hypocritical. Cure those little faults before you fall in your child's eyes!