Te Ara Reo Maori Course - First night

I have just started a course through Te Wananga O Aotearoa called Te Ara Reo Maori. It is a 38 week course covering reo and tikanga and a whole lot of fun!

Notes from last night

Tena koe, tena korua, tena kotou.

Vowel practise - a, e, i, o, u. Short vowels on left (maui) hand (wahine side) and long vowels on right (matou)  side (tane).
Practised the vowels as individuals, then as pairs and how the sounds went together, then in 3's.
Game: Played a game with hands moving the vowel on in the circle. Again left hand - short vowel a, e, then next person in the circle changes the direction with i long sound in the next direction.

Game:  Kohatu (stone), ika, manu, kauri. Walk around with music. Find a buddy when music stops. Pepa, kutikuti, kohatu. Whoever wins graduates to next character. Kauri go to the side to sing.

He patai taku - I have a question
He patai - Any questions?

Hakina - Breathe in, Haputa - breathe out.

Lots of great kupu and phrases for the classroom!

Humour and Children's Literature - Final Assignment

 Here is my final assignment for the Open Polytechnic library course. This one was fun to write as I delved into research on humour, and the lack of promotion of funny girl characters and authors. For this assignment our task was to write a talk about a certain topic for a community group of fellow librarians and educators, but also the general public. 

Assignment Three - Humour and Children’s Literature

(N.B I will have a copy of each book I mention to showcase to the audience throughout the presentation. I will also have a projector set up linked to my computer to click on the visual links talked about in this talk.)

What do you get when you mix alcohol and literature? Tequila Mockingbird! Ok, ok, here’s another one….

Why does an elephant use her trunk as a bookmark? Then she nose where she stopped reading!

I know, I know, you want more fantastic jokes like that, well just you wait, they will be scattered throughout this talk.

I’ve chosen to talk about humour and its place in children’s literature today. I grew up in a funny family that loved to laugh, and I was encouraged to joke and I was laughed with. OK, maybe sometimes laughed at too! But that’s all part of figuring out what is funny, and what otherwise can meet with a tumble weed reaction. It’s important for children to be allowed to play around with humour. The 2015 Scholastic Book Report in Australia found that approximately 60% of the children, teenagers and adults surveyed wanted to read books that made them laugh, so as librarians, parents and teachers we need to know what books are funny so we can continue to recommend them, and to enjoy them ourselves!

Firstly, let’s look at the stages of development, and what makes students laugh, as not surprisingly it can be quite different from us as adults. Kerry Mallan in her book Laugh Lines (1993) describes how pre-schoolers’ humour is often based on incongruity where things are mixed up and not in their usual harmony e.g. Calling the dog “Kitty”, or when dressing putting the jumper’s sleeves on your legs. They are aware of humour and joke telling, but have not yet mastered the joke telling process. When they are practising you might be hearing a lot of jokes along the lines of “Why did the chicken cross the road?” “Yellow!” and then lots of laughter when they repeat the same joke ten times to everyone in the household and the neighbourhood! I read Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis to a two and four-year-old, and they found the made up language hilarious, whilst still being able to understand the main points in the story. Mac Barnett’s book Guess Again! is also a fine humorous example where things are not as they seem. Kyle Mewburn, one of Aotearoa’s most successful authors, was interviewed last year by the website The Sapling, and stated that “if the humour isn’t constantly moving, dodging and weaving on the edge of comprehension, and throwing up surprises, readers will get bored and drift away.” And you can find this in many junior fiction books, where sometimes the quirky, out there humour might not appeal to adults, but children love it (Mackenzie, 2005).

During the primary years incongruity is still a big part of humour (Moyles, 2012), but it has developed to more visual and conceptual ideas. In Mo Willems’ retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, children will be able to make links to the original fairy tale, but will enjoy the modern spin and humour that Willems gives to both Goldilocks, the 2 dinosaurs and their visiting friend from Norway! He does this very cleverly with both the words and illustrations. Mac Barnett also has a hilarious laugh out loud story called Chloe and the Lion, where the author and illustrator Adam Rex, become a part of the text as they fight amongst themselves about their creative differences as to the best way to tell the story.

Understanding puns and wordplay begin to develop more in the later primary years, and follow through into high school humour as jokes become subtler and more sophisticated, such as Paul Jennings titles including Spooner or Later (1992) and Freeze a Crowd (1996). Rachel Renee Russell’s Dork Diaries and Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid are funny for the tween years where the characters are easy to identify with in their awkward, funny misadventures in normal life.

Then there are books for Young Adults such as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and The Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin. Both these books tackle some tough issues such as alcoholism, poverty and racism, to gender fluidity in Symptoms, but the gentle use of humour in the characters’ personalities helps to give hope and healing to the audience.

One thing for us to consider as adults is to not let our own prejudices of what we find funny or not get in the way of our children’s and YA’s literature journeys. I know that I myself can be quite elitist when I don’t think a book is up to my moral, linguistic or educational standards, but who am I to argue with the 70 million copies of Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants books sold?! In an OOM Scholastic Podcast talking with Dav Pilkey about using humour to get kids to read, Editor-at-Large Suzanne McCabe exclaims after reading his latest book Dog Man that he must be the most subversive author around. Dav explains that he “doesn’t hear that from the kids”. He goes on to say that “Kids are completely in tune with this type of humour”, and as he invented his main characters as a child, we know that he is on their wavelength. We must be careful not to unwittingly censor our choices for children’s books, especially as another point that the 2016 Scholastic USA report noted was that 89% of children agreed that the books they found themselves were the ones that were their favourites.

Before we move on, here are some intermission jokes….

What do planets like to read? Comet books!

Why was the dinosaur afraid to go to the library? Because his books were 65 million years overdue!

Now I’m going to burn my bra a little with my thoughts on funny girls in children’s literature.

When you google top funny girl characters in books you will not find websites about funny girls. You will find websites about “strong female characters”. Don’t get me wrong - I’m a big supporter of strong females being represented in children’s stories, but strong is not a synonym for funny. There is a fantastic article in The Independent online titled Want to raise an empowered girl? Then let her be funny which discusses how using humour can make us successful in life. Being humorous conveys intelligence, competence and confidence. It also helps to relieve stresses and anxiety (Xeni, 2010). We need to be encouraging girls to be humorous, and one perfect way to do that is by modelling it through funny girl characters in books.

Some of my favourite funny female characters are Olivia (Ian Falconer) “who’s very good at wearing people out. She even wears herself out!”, Fancy Nancy (Jane O’Connor) and her splendiferous use of language, both in French and English, and Piggie from the Elephant and Piggie series (Mo Willems). Piggie and Gerald have a hilarious friendship that always sees them through any tough situations they face together, like the time they were invited to a mysterious party, and it did turn out to be a fancy dress costume pool party!

I believe as supporters of children we want to encourage our girls to be hilarious. I challenge us all to search out specific books that feature funny girls and funny women authors, and to continue to promote them alongside funny boy characters. One shining light in my google searches on this topic is the blog What We Do All Day, written by a mum of two boys. She covers all kinds of topics in her blog to ‘unplug kids’, and she has an awesome selection of book lists that you should all check out. Her book list titled 100 of the funniest chapter books for kids has the most gender balanced list including both female characters and female authors I could find in all my searching.

Finally, I want to recommend choosing funny books as read alouds. It’s a fantastic way to bond with a child, or to connect with a whole audience of children.

A perfect example of a fantastic read aloud session is BJ Novak’s reading of his new classic “The Book With No Pictures”. Let’s watch it now.

Any book that has an adult say the words Boo Boo Butt and Badongy Face is sure to get a huge laugh.

So to finish….

Just remember. Dinosaurs didn’t read. Now they’re extinct. You do the math….

Thank you.

References

Barnett, M. (2009). Guess Again! New York, USA: Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

Barnett, M. (2012). Chloe and the Lion. New York, USA: Hyperion Books.

Ellis. C. (2017). Du Iz Tak? London, UK: Walker Books Ltd.

Falconer, I. (2004). Olivia. New York, USA: Simon and Schuster.

Handy, B. (2017). Wild Things. The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult. New York, USA: Simon and Schuster.

Independent. October 30th, 2017. Want to raise an empowered girl? Then let her be funny. Retrieved from

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/women-girls-humour-funny-comedy-tina-fey-a8015031.html

Mallen, K. (2008). Laugh Lines: Exploring humour in children’s literature [Monograph]. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.govt

McKenzie, J. (2005). Bums, poos and wees. Carnivalesque spaces in the picture books of early childhood. Or, has literature gone to the dogs?. English Teaching: Practice and Critique (University of Waikato), 4(1), 81-94.

Moyles, Janet. A-Z Of Play In Early Childhood, McGraw-Hill Education, 2012. Proquest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/opt/detail.action?docID=1069447.

O’Connor, J. (2010). Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas. London, UK. Harper Collins.

Penguin Kids. (2014, Sept 30). The Book With No Pictures by B.J Novak. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cREyQJO9EPs

Scholastic (n.d). Australian Kids and Family Reading Report. Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com.au/schools/ReadingLeaders/KFRR/whatkidswant.asp

Scholastic Reads Podcasts (January 4, 2017). Dav Pilkey: Using Humour To Get Kids Reading. Retrieved from http://oomscholasticblog.com/podcast/dav-pilkey-using-humor-get-kids-reading

The Sapling. December 1st, 2017. Writing Funny Junior Fiction: Serious Business. Retrieved from https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2017/12/01/The-Serious-Business-of-Writing-Funny-Junior-Fiction

What We Do All Day. June 6, 2016. 100 of the Funniest Funny Chapter Books For Kids. Retrieved from https://www.whatdowedoallday.com/funny-chapter-books-for-kids/

Willems, M. (2012). Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs. New York, USA: Harper Collins.

Xeni. E., (2010, July). Meeting childhood needs: The need for humour in children’s literature. Paper presented at the 1st Global Conference of Childhood: A person’s Project, Oxford, United Kingdom. Retrieved from http://campus.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/proxy/proxy.php?url=http://lib2.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/Moodle_OLC/library/readings/72276/Xeni_MeetingChildhood.pdf%3f

Book talks

The second part of assignment two was to choose 2 books from my previous reviews for the panel, and expand on why our library really needed these two excellent books in our collection. 

Presentation of Booktalk: I will visually display the book as I am presenting my book talk, and I will have a projector set up to show the internet links I intend to talk about.

Tu Meke Tūī! Is a stand alone work of art, as well as a fantastic children’s picture book. Malcolm Clarke has teamed up with local Auckland artist Flox (Hayley King) to create this masterpiece of a book with it’s dynamic presentation. As many students are visual learners, this book will grip them automatically with its stunning illustrations created with spray paint, which are quite unlike any other illustrations in our library collection. Our native birds and fauna and foliage are represented in a fresh way visually. The layout and images cannot be separated from each other, as part of the nature of spray painting is the layering and stencils which Flox demonstrates perfectly. This book presents excellent teaching moments with strong links to the Visual Arts component of the NZ Curriculum (Visual Arts AO's) of motivation, creation, the use of different materials, and communicating a message. It also links perfectly to the science curriculum with a focus on the Living World (Science AO's), exploring native birds of New Zealand and their predators. I can see this book being used easily by teachers for the ignition process of an inquiry unit.

The text and tone are rhythmic and light-hearted, and make the ‘reading to’ experience a pleasant one. The Māori names of the bird and the phrase ‘Tu meke’ continue to normalise te reo in our everyday conversation, whilst also teaching us about our native birds and the correct pronunciation of their names with macrons.

There are a few digital connections for future learning that I would like to draw your attention to. First of all there is the main website for the book http://tumeketui.com/ which has a video showing the author, Malcolm Clarke, talking about the book and his collaboration with Flox. This would also link nicely to http://flox.co.nz to see Flox’s art, and how she is a real life artist, making her living from art. She also has a link to community projects that she has been a part of, often for free, visiting and donating her art to schools and charities such as Starship Hospital.

I would also personally show the class the Kickstarter page Tu Meke Tūī Kickstarter Project that enabled the book to be funded, and this shows children a new way that dreams can be achieved with the support of the community and on an international level.

As children are experiencing the world on a sensory level, we need to be showing them beautiful art images along the way. As Suzy Tutchell discusses in her book Young Children as Artists, (2014) children use their senses to piece together the world around them, and that they ‘develop an awareness of aesthetic appreciation’ through these senses. It is our job as educators and librarians to be providing them with beautiful art and texts so that they enjoy the world around them and experience wonder through the arts, and are maybe inspired to create their own beauty in their futures. I believe that Tu Meke Tūī! is a perfect example for this.

Samoan Heroes - In Don Long’s keynote address in Christchurch in 2003 he challenges that if one third of all children in NZ are Māori and Pacific Islands, then why does our kiwi literature not reflect that with representation? Enter author David Riley who is doing a fantastic job of filling that gap with showing cultural diversity. With other books in his series covering Pasifika heroes and sports stars I would like to continue to build up our collection of Riley’s book. Riley is also mindful of offering a fair representation of both male and female heroes, academics and famous people, and myth and reality.

Samoan Heroes, which won the Storylines Notable Book Award 2016 has a number of outstanding features. It has created a new genre of book with the perfect combination of ancient and new. This book feels holistic, from its beginning with the legend of Tagaloa, the creator of the world, to short biographies on real Samoans, who have changed their own lives, and sometimes history. Riley has interwoven the myths and legends of Samoa with the modern day seamlessly, providing an all-encompassing look at Samoan culture over time. Galway (2008) suggests that the connection between the past, present and the future for children is hugely significant in terms of identity, and Riley helps students make these connections to identity with each person’s village stated in their title, told alongside Samoan legends.

The text is easy to read and incorporates the mythical, historical and modern. In terms of accessibility to our readers, each person or story is only two to four pages long, so for our reluctant readers it is not too overwhelming. Students and teachers are free to pick and choose who is of interest to them, and can come back to the other stories later. As most of the people featured are still alive, this highlights the relevance of this book to our students. People from all walks of life are promoted, including national and international sporting stars, rappers, politicians, and actors alongside academics. It also gives a healthy dose of inspiration, as it delivers an honest look at the challenges that people have overcome for success. Also, due to NZ’s amazingly small world, most students have probably seen some of these people in action, especially the sports stars and actors. This means that they can easily identify with the heroes represented in this book.

The layout and design shows an interesting combination of illustrations and photographs, depending on the topic. The art is vibrant in the illustrations, and the photography displays both historical black and white photos alongside modern day ones.

An amazing thing about the NZ literary scene is how accessible our authors and illustrators are. I am hoping to have David Riley in this year to do some writing workshops with our students, and having his books in our collection will help to build anticipation for his visit.

As Jamie Naidoo and Sarah Park state in Diversity Programming for Digital Youth (2014), teachers and librarians need to be promoting making connections across medias, and this book creates the perfect opportunity for that, as each person featured is easily recognisable and researchable for more information.  

A fantastic non-fiction book will inspire and inform, and I believe that David Riley’s Samoan Heroes is the perfect example of this, to inspire all children at our school.

References

Galway, E. (2008). From nursery rhymes to nationhood: Children’s literature and the construction of Canadian identity. London, UK: Routledge.

Long, D. (2003). Pacific Voices. In J. McKenzie, D. Darnell & A. Smith (Eds.), Cinderella transformed: Multiple voices and diverse dialogues in children’s literature (pp. 59-68) Christchurch, New Zealand: Christchurch College of Education.

Naidoo, Jamie Campbell, and Sarah Park. Diversity Programming for Digital Youth: Promoting Cultural Competence in the Children's Library, Pearson Education, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/opt/detail.action?docID=1809531.

Tutchell, Suzy. Young Children as Artists : Art and Design in the Early Years and Key Stage 1, Taylor and Francis, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/opt/detail.action?docID=1682967.