M. Donlevy's Teacher Book Blog

Saturday, February 25, 2006

My Top Ten Books- Traditional Literature 1


During one of my first years teaching I decided to design a small research project on the American Revolution. Each student group had to sign up for one battle and one person from my list. My media specialists were not very happy with the list I generated. It happened to be Women’s History Month, and I didn’t include one woman on my list. To this day they still give me a hard time about it. This Top 10 Books selection is dedicated to my media specialists.

It can sometimes be a challenge to find strong female role models for young girls these days. Furthermore, it is difficult to get many girls to get interested in some typically male dominated genres like mythology. The Lady of Ten Thousand Names: Goddess Stories from Many Cultures (Barefoot Books, New York 2001) is a great selection that helps fill this void.

Writer Burleigh Muten has selected eight different stories that truly span the globe. While many compilations of mythology stay with the Greco-Roman realm, Muten introduces us to tales from China, Wale, and Scandinavia. Muten’s retellings are geared towards middle school readers and up. On of the greatest strengths is how Muten keeps the darker edge of some of these stories intact while at the same time making it readable for a younger audience. Helen Cann’s excellent illustrations help to further bring each story to life.

M Donlevy

Links of interest:

http://www.barefoot-books.com/us/site/pages/artists.php?aid=93

http://www.barefoot-books.com/us/site/pages/authors.php?aid=128

http://www.bookpage.com/0109bp/children/lady_10thous_names.html

posted by M. Donlevy @ 5:58 PM  

6 Comments:

  • At 10:12 AM, Blogger Gabriela said…

    Michael, what a great addition to your collection! You are right, it is very difficult to find strong female role models. I will certainly read this book. I enjoy mythology and folk tales, and this books seems to be a great quality one. Thanks for the suggestion!

     

  • At 9:05 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Michael,

    I agree with Gabriela about the difficulty in locating positive role models in the mythology genre. In the literature text I use, there are non.

    I appreciated this choice because of its multi-cultural stories. Too often my students think mythology automatically means "Greek." I would be interested in this book if only to educate myself about myths from different parts of the world.

    Thank you,
    Julie Horrocks

     

  • At 4:38 PM, Blogger Jim said…

    How about Molly Pitcher ?

     

  • At 4:40 PM, Blogger Jim said…

    Even Shakespeare,who created some absolutely rugged female characters called them "the weaker vessel."

     

  • At 8:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Michael-
    I enjoyed reading your post. Funny you should write about females in the American Revolution. On My Top Ten my book was Mary Hays otherwise known as Molly Pitcher. She helped the soldiers during the war. She even shot a cannon and was recognized by George Washington. Read Molly Pitcher to learn why she got that nickname. Barbara Miller

     

  • At 10:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Interesting that you chose this book - one of the books that I have chosen for my traditional literature is folktales with strong girl heroes -- Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls. It was great - now I have one more to read!
    - Courtney R. Unruh

     

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