Taylor Timmer ENG 302 Mentor Texts in a Writing Workshop Historical Fiction 4th grade Pink and Say

is a childrens picture book written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco. Pink and Say is a beautiful story of two young men during the Civil War and is based on true fact and real people who fought in the war. This book is a great example of a high quality multicultural book. Polacco does an excellent job telling this story without any racial or gender stereotypes and there is also a lot of background information given in the book to show the validity of the story and the information she is presenting. This book is also great because it doesnt shy away from the issues of war, violence, or death. There are many images that are graphic and give readers a true idea of what these young men may have been going through. This is great because it shows young readers stories of what may have happened to kids not much older than them during the Civil War. The illustrations in Pink and Say definitely add to the books high quality. The pictures look like they are mostly done in watercolor and colored pencil. There is some white space that goes along with the text and adds to the story in its own way. All of the characters have very vivid facial expressions and there are also some pages with no text and just illustration. These pictures tell a distinct story and it is great for readers to interpret the pictures and story in their own ways. The illustration of Pink and Says hands as

they reach for each other at the end of the story is truly beautiful and is an illustration that will benefit all young readers to see. Dad, Jackie, and Me is written by Myron Uhlberg and illustrated by Colin Bootman. I love this book! It is an example of a very high quality multicultural text. I particularly like this story because it represents two typically underrepresented cultures: the African American culture and the Deaf culture. The story is about a young boy and his deaf father who are big fans of Jackie Robinson. They do not stereotype against him for his race but support him and try to make every game! Dad, Jackie, and Me isnt shy in addressing the fact that many people did not like the fact that Jackie Robinson was playing in the major leagues. However, the story also stresses all of the support that he had and how successful he became. The author of this story, Myron Uhlberg, is a child to two deaf parents. Because of the authors experiences with his parents and the information given at the end of the book, the reader is led to believe that the information that is portrayed of the Deaf culture is accurate and based off of first-hand understanding. There are also some really great artistic aspects to this book. The front and back inside covers are covered with cool newspaper articles about Jackie Robinson. This would be very cool for young readers to see and really gives them a background of the story. There is also such brightness in the watercolor illustrations. When the father and son are at the baseball games, the illustrations are so colorful and fun! Another thing I love is the border that outlines the pictures on every page. The border helps to accurately separate the pictures from the text. Another aspect that adds to this books high quality is the voice that is present throughout the story. The young boy tells about

experiences with his father from his point of view and has such a distinct voice. This would really help young readers to become interested in and relate to the story that is being told. The Butterfly is another brilliant childrens book written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco. It is the story of Nazi invasion through a childrens eye, which is not something you see much in childrens literature. Like most of Polaccos work, this story is based off of true encounters that have been turned into stories and passed down through generations. The Butterfly is a great example of a high quality multicultural text. Once again, Polacco isnt afraid of describing in detail the brutality and seriousness of the Nazi part and their hatred for Jews. There is no stereotyping but instead honestly of real incidents that occurred and real people that experienced the horrors of the Nazi invasion. The illustrations in this book are extremely realistic and you can easily tell in the story who is a Jew and who is not. There is no tokenism and the main activist against the Nazi invasion in this story is a woman. The illustrations also show very strong facial expressions. The faces are extremely emotional and you can see a story in each characters expression. The watercolor images in this story add to the high quality of the book because they very much help to tell the story. When the mood is happy and playful, the colors are bright. When the mood is sad or frightful, the colors are dark and dreary. There is both white space and black space with text, depending on the mood of the particular part of the story. I Am the Mummy Heb-Nefert is written by Eve Bunting and is illustrated by David Christiana. This book is an example of a high quality multicultural text. I really

like this book because it actually dismisses many of the stereotypes that people have about mummies and shows young readers that mummies are historical artifacts and not scary Halloween costumes or creatures! There are also not any faces in the story so tokenism is not possible. The story tells of many distinct and vivid memories from Heb-Neferts life and gives a look into what many womens lives may have been like in Ancient Egypt. The illustrations add to the high quality of this book in a few different ways. Not only are the pictures bright and beautiful, but there are also many different patterns and prints in the illustrations that give good representation of the culture of Ancient Egypt. There are also many different types of illustrations. There is watercolor, printed fabrics, transparent-like drawing, and more. The variety of artistic strategies will help to keep young readers interested and engaged. Another thing that adds to the quality of the book is the abundant information that is presented throughout this story. For example, the end of the book goes over how a mummy is created and gives lots of specific detail. I also love how the author is using perspective by having the main character tell the story from outside of her own body and her own perspective. This would be a great craft for young writers to try! Sarah, Plain and Tall is a beginner chapter book and is written by Patricia MacLauchlan. Even though it is not a picture book, this book is a high quality book for fourth grade students. As students are getting older, they need to be moving on to chapter books and high levels of reading and writing. Easy chapter books like Sarah, Plain and Tall help students to progress in their reading and writing abilities while still interesting them in exceptional writing strategies and crafts. One example

in Sarah, Plain and Tall is all of the dialogue and voice. Dialogue between characters helps to break up the chapters and words on the page, but also helps young readers to picture and imagine the story that they are reading. Dialogue helps stir the imagination and helps readers to create their own illustrations in their mind. The story is told in the point of view of the young daughter, Anna. This is also important for engaging young readers and audiences. Because the story is told in the words of a child, students are more likely to relate to experiences that are described or thought that are had by the characters. It will make students feel like they are capable of understanding what is going on in the book and will give them a little more confidence in their reading and comprehension abilities. The Storm in the Barn is a phenomenal mentor text and I would recommend it for all young children. It is written and illustrated by Matt Phelan and it is an awesome graphic novel. The illustrations range anywhere from 2-10 pictures per page and are all aligned like some sort of comic strip. The Storm in the Barn is the story of a boy during the dust bowl. There are mostly pictures, but many of the picture boxes include text to further explain what is going on in the pictures. I love the idea of stories through graphics and this book does just that. The illustrations are made up of mostly brown and blue tones and there is pencil, watercolor, digital images, and more. This book is also very relatable for young children because it is a fictional account of what many children could have experienced during the dust bowl. This story shows individual stress, family stresses, and also broad influences of the drought on whole communities. There is also some dialogue text to go along with the pictures. The dialogues in this story is important because it shows different

relationships between people and how the dust bowl affected people in specific and unique ways. Christmas in the Trenches is a childrens picture book written by John McCutcheon and illustrated by Henri Sorensen and is an example of a high quality mentor text. The is a story of the Great War and how the holiday and spirit of Christmas brought enemies together, even if just for one night. In the book, a Grandfather tells the story of this night to his grandchildren. This craft is early on and is beneficial throughout the whole book. Young children reading this book will be able to use their imaginations to imagine that their own parent or grandparent is telling them this story and could even hear a certain voice in their head. It also may urge young readers to ask a parent or grandparent about any stories about their lives that may be of interest to that child. This book is full of artistic crafts as well. It seems as if there is not a lot of text in this story for a reason because the pictures are so beautifully detailed and explanatory of what the Grandfather is trying to get across to his Grandchildren. One example is the illustrations of when the soldiers are playing with the ball. There is so much joy and happiness in the faces of the men and I think the pictures do an outstanding job of portraying what text could not. Another really cool aspect of this part that adds to its high quality is the song in the back of the book. It is a song that was sung during that famous night and it given to readers in two languages. One great craft in this book is found in the very back of the book. The author writes how this story was created with inspiration of a song about the Christmas Truce of 1914. I was very intrigued that Christmas in the Trenches is a

story that was turned into a song and then turned back into a story. Something like this would be fun and beneficial for young writers to try! The Wall is written by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Ronald Himler. This book tells the story of a young boy and his father who travel to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. It is an excellent example of a high quality multicultural text. Not only does in teach readers a little about the Vietnam war, but it shows how many lives were lost and how those losses affected even more people. There are many interesting concepts that are shown throughout the story. The first example is shown when the young child in the story notices many things by looking through the mirror of the memorial wall. The young child sees many things about the wall but also about who is there and who they may me mourning. The author shows an interesting craft about writing about what you might see when you look in a mirror. Another idea shown in this story is that readers are shown how they can remember a person for what they did, even if they havent met them. This could be a really cool inspiration for childrens writing. The illustrations in this story are mostly dark and sad. They fit the tone of the book and very closely relate to what the text is saying on each page. This would be a great book to read with children on Memorial Day, Veterans Day, etc. The Night the Bells Rang is written by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock and illustrated by Leslie W. Bouman. This is another beginning level chapter book but there are some pictures as well. The illustrations in this book are black and white pencil drawings and there is a picture every 3-5 pages. The chapters are very short and the text is fairly large for a chapter book. This beginner chapter book is an example of a

high quality book. Because the chapters are short and at an appropriate reading level for most fourth graders, this book helps to build reading confidence in young readers. It is a big deal for most children to begin reading chapter books. Chapter books with semi-frequent pictures help transition young readers into more advanced levels of text. The pictures help the readers to enjoy the story and boost interest in the text. This book is also a high quality book because it teaches many lessons that are important to young children in the school setting. Some of these lessons include bullying, forgiveness, and friendship. This story is also told from the point of view of a young boy during World War I. This strategy helps young readers to connect with the voice of the story and to engage more with their imagination. Cheyenne Again is a childrens picture book written by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Irving Toddy. This story of a young boy taken from a reservation and is forced to go to school is a great example of a high quality multicultural text. Cheyenne Again represents the Native American culture accurately and shows young readers an example of one of the hardships that the people of their culture had to endure. There is also a section at the end of the book that describes some of the historical background of the story. The young boy in this story does not enjoy school and does not feel the need to become like the white man as the teachers at his school are telling him. He has deep pride in his culture and is not ashamed of who he is. The story that is told is brutally true, which is very important for young readers that want to learn about issues such as these. There is a unique repetition of words to repeat some of the phrases and most of the story is written in short, stanza-like phrases. It is a very interesting form of writing and it leaves readers wondering why

the author chose to write the story in that way. The illustrations in the book correlate extremely well with the text and the amount of texture in the pictures is incredible. Some of the images truly take my breath away and I cannot say enough great things about them! I also really liked the end of the book where the young boy reaches his home and culture by drawing pictures of his memories. This would be something that students could try after reading this story. My Name is York is a picture book written by Elizabeth VanSteenwyk and illustrated by Bill Farsworth. This book is very interesting and is a great example of a high quality multicultural text. The story of the slave named York is one that all students should hear. York was a part of the expedition of Lewis and Clark and this story tells the expedition from his point of view. The main theme in this story is the drive for freedom. York believed that if he helped a lot during the expedition and proved his worth, he would be set free when the expedition was over. Throughout this story, York refers back to his dream of freedom and reflects on how everything that has happened may affect that dream. The events and accounts that are explained by York throughout the story also show a beautiful integration between the cultures of blacks, whites, and Native Americans. This is one way in which this text is highly qualified as multicultural. The illustrations are also extremely well done. There are some pages with white space, which is good in this particular story. Some of the images are so bright and powerful that white space with text is a necessity so the reader is not overwhelmed. The illustrator uses colors brilliantly and knows exactly how to express the right feeling in a painting. Another great part of this book is the abundance of information that is included. There is a foreword in

the beginning to explain background information and there is an afterword that tells what happened in history after the expedition. Any additional information that can aid students in understanding the story even better is a bonus in my book! Talkin about Bessie is a phenomenal childrens picture book written by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by E.B. Lewis. This story of aviator Elizabeth Coleman is an outstanding example of a high quality multicultural mentor text. Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman pilot in the United States. This story represents the life and culture of Bessie in an extremely positive and accurate way, and has an interesting way of doing so. This story is made up of personal accounts and reflections of people that may have known or interacted with Bessie Coleman throughout her life. Each new page has a new memory or reflection by a different person. There are accounts from Bessies father, mother, sisters, brothers, a field hand, a schoolteacher, a laundry customer, and more. This is such a fun craft and I could definitely see students being able to do this in their own writing! After reading all of the accounts, the reader feels as if they know Bessie personally because each memory portrays a different part of her life or personality. There are also illustrations throughout the book that match each persons memories of Bessie. The illustrations are incredibly realistic and are beautifully done with watercolor. There is also a lot of bibliographical information on Bessie Coleman at the beginning of the text, as well as source materials and acknowledgements in the back. The lessons that I have created for five of the books listed above are for the use of teachers and students in a fourth grade classroom. These lessons will all be based off of looking at the genre of historical fiction. Students will first learn what

historical fiction as a genre entails and what makes a story or book a work of historical fiction. I believe that these lessons would be used towards the end of the year so that students have the whole year to fill their mind with memories and experiences from that year that they may want to write about in these lessons. These lessons will focus on ways to write about events that have happened in the past and how these events affected people. Because students are only in fourth grade and may not have experienced an intense historical event in their lifetime such as a civil war or holocaust, we will focus on events in their day to day life and we will work on these new writing crafts for experiences that have occurred in their own personal lives or the life of someone they know. The unit of study that these lessons fit into is the genre of historical fiction and writing from experiences. As each lesson is taught, students will have an opportunity to practice what they have learned and will also see it modeled for them. A new craft for writing from the past will be introduced in each lesson and we will look at a fourth grade level childrens book as a model for each different craft. After each lesson, we will add each craft to our classroom writers toolbox bulletin board. This will help to remind students which crafts we have covered and will also help to make these writing crafts easier to access and remember when they are doing daily journaling or writing, whether it be in their writers notebook or a formal writing assignment. For this project, I have chosen historical fiction books about many different events or time in history. Another idea is choosing historical fiction books from the same historical event or time period so you can link these writing lessons into a social studies lesson or unit as well!