Culture 1 - International Culture

Fox, M. (1988). Koala Lou. Ill. By Pamela Lofts. Orlando, FL: Gulliver Books.

ISBN: 0152005021

Koala Lou is a little koala whose mother tells her every day how much she loves her by saying, “Koala Lou, I DO love you!” This makes Koala Lou feel special, but soon brothers and sisters join the family and Mom gets busy taking care of the little ones and Koala Lou misses her mom saying her special saying.  Koala Lou wants to hear her mom say it again and hatches a plan.  She is going to enter the Bush Olympics and climb a tree the fastest.  She practices and gets ready and competes with Koala Klaws, but Koala Lou is just not fast enough.  She is very upset and goes off by herself.  As she returns home, her mom meets her and she gets to hear her special phrase once more, “Koala Lou, I DO love you!”

After reading this book and analyzing it I noticed several cultural markers.  One obvious one is the different species of animals.  We see koalas, platypus, emu, kookaburra, and many more Australian native animals.  Alongside the animals we see lots of flora and fauna native to Australia.  Fox mentions several times the gum tree and it plays an important role in the book.  Mom also uses the phrase, “How’re ya goin’, blossom?”, which is a greeting and term of endearment in Australia.  At the Olympics we see the animals in all kinds of hats for a celebration feel.

I love this book!  It is such a relate-able story.  The illustrations follow the story line well and add to the story as we see Kolala Lou dragging her medal and a handkerchief at her nose show the disappointment she feels at losing the race.  

Reviews

“Fox's two new books join Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge as perfect examples of why the Australian writer has become one of today's top authors of children's books. … Lofts's colored-pencil drawings portray the Australian flora and fauna beautifully, including a few of the more exotic species. …Fox's books send out positive messages to children about the wonders of being human: Koala Lou celebrates the eternal love of a mother for her child without the sentimentality of Robert Munsch's Love You Forever.  Ages 3-6.” - From Publishers Weekly

Connections

Student’s response

https://www.schooltube.com/video/9c295c267aa141e89491/Koala%20Lou%20Book%20Trailer

Promethean Board lesson with different activities

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/Resources/Item/163020/koala-lou#.V1mfVpErI2x

Koala Lou lends itself beautifully to teach theme and characterization.

Morpurgo, M. (2011). An elephant in the garden. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

ISBN: 9780312593698

An Elephant in the Garden is inspired by a true story of an elephant from a zoo that was taken home in the evening and kept in the back garden for safety. We open with Lizzie in a nursing home being cared for by a woman who has a son Karl. Lizzie had a younger brother named Karli and Karl reminds her of him and so begins her story of when she was younger living in Dresden, Germany in the 1940’s during Hitler’s reign. Lizzie shares with the woman and boy her life surrounding the time her father went to war and her mother went to work at the zoo. In fear that the bombs would let the animals loose the zoo decided to kill all the large or dangerous animals if they were bombed. Lizzie’s mother gets permission to bring Marlene, the elephant, home with her each night for safekeeping. In doing so it helps the children through this time and also ends up saving their lives many times.

The book has flashbacks throughout, which the author notes by changing fonts and using line breaks. Some cultural markers in the book are the names of the characters. Lizzie’s full name is Elizabeth, but in her younger years she was known as Lisbeth. Her brother’s name was Karli, her mother was known as Mutti and her father as Papi. We also see their language when they refer to Hitler as the “Fuhrer” and Mutti calls him “ein Dummkopf”, which means a fool or fathead in English, and Karli gives a “Hitlergruss”, which is the stiff-arm Hitler salute. Later in the story they meet a Countess who is opening her house for refugees. This shows that their culture had rankings. They also refer to the Russian Army as “The Red Army” and German soldiers as “Stormtroopers”.

Morpurgo does a great job of alternating between the present and the past as Lizzie recalls her childhood and relates the story to Karl and his mom.  He also pulls in the true story and makes the reader believe that they are there as he describes in detail and uses sensory images.  

Reviews

The occasional interruptions to the story build suspense and add a layer of resonance to Morpurgo's poignant and thoughtful exploration of the terrible impact of war on both sides of the fighting. (Booklist)

Morpurgo crafts a thought-provoking and perilous encounter with an enemy combatant who joins their party and eventually forges a believable romance with Lizzie. (Publishers Weekly)

Connections –

War Horse is another book  by Michael Morpugo.

An Elephant in the Garden lends itself very well to character study and theme study.  Morpugo's use of a compass in the book as a recurring theme of direction is easily picked up on.  Students may also see themselves in how Lizzie interacts with her mother and brother. 

Book and author information

Teacher's Guide

Questions over book by chapters

Thor, A., & Schenck, L. (2011). The lily pond. New York: Delacorte Press.
ISBN: 9780385740395

Stephanie, known to most as Stephie, is heading to the city of Goteborg, Sweden from an island where her parents sent her and her sister from Nazi occupied Vienna. She will be boarding with the Soderburgs while she is attending school. Their son, Sven, is five years Stephanie’s elder, but she feels that she is in love with him. As she deals with first love, fear and concern over her parents and their well-being, and getting accustomed to her new school she learns many important lessons about life and friendship.

The book has been translated from Swedish by Linda Schenck and through such we see some cultural markers such as Stephanie’s homeroom teacher, Hedvig Bjork,  described as wearing culottes and has short dark hair. Stephanie describes most of her classmates as blond and blue eyed, so when she mentions that there is one there who “looks as little like the fair Swedish girls as Stephie does.” we get a picture of the culture there. Some of the names are Sven, Hedvig, Marta, Irja, May Karlsson, and Evert to name a few of the ones used in the book. Setting is also used as a description of the culture. Trams are used as transportation, a citadel with turrets is another description, and Sven visits a tavern. A seaside village is also described where Stephie’s foster parents live. They are Pentecostal and Stephie is taught that concerts, movies, and dancing are wrong, but her family is Jewish and she doesn’t agree with those views, but does try to abide by them.

Thor does a great job of helping this book be a stand alone even though it is part of a series.  She gives enough details from before to help the reader know what is going on without having read the first book.  The book is also very realistic from my point of view.  Everything Thor includes seems plausible for that time and culture.

Reviews
Booklist, December 1, 2011:
"A compelling look at World War II–era Sweden, this distinguished Holocaust story will resonate."

Horn Book, January/February 2012:
"Stephie’s story of adjustment to a new school and of a first crush is both specific and universal"

Connections –

A Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book, The Lily Pond is part of a series by Annika Thor. The first book in the series is A Faraway Island and the third book is Deep Sea, both are Batchelder Award winners.