A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Shadows of Ghadames, Joelle Stolz, Delcorte Press, New York, 1999.
Originaly published in France in 1999 by Bayared Editions Jeunesse
ISBN: 0-385-73104-3
B. PLOT SUMMARY
Malika lives in a town in Libya in the late nineteenth century. Women stay in the houses and on the rooftops, while men are free to walk the streets. As her brother goes out and begins working, and her merchant father sets out on another long trading journey, Malika feels increasingly imprisoned by her circumscribed life, in which she is not even permitted to learn to read and write, but knows she will be married off soon.
When her father's second wife rescues a wounded man being chased by a mob, she puts the whole family in danger. Hiding him in the house where there are women is strictly forbidden. But Malika is glad, because he begins teaching her how to read.
C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
Stolz explores gender roles, courage, and gives a fascinating glimpse into Berber culture.
In this book it gives the reader an insight of the way that people dress in Libya. “His camel-hair burnoose is slung over his shoulders and his head is wrapped in a turban with the flaps floating around his neck.” Women in this culture must cover up completely and never allow anyone but the husband to see them with out their traditional clothing and veil. Women also are tattooed mostly on their hands and arms each tattoo has a significant meaning.
The father’s character is different from traditional Muslim men. He follows his Muslim beliefs by taking a second wife when his first wife (Malika’s mother) can not give him a child. He is reluctant to do so even though his family strongly suggests that he must find a wife that can produce a child for him. He takes his second wife and she gives birth to a son, shortly after Merium (Malika’s mother) also gets pregnant. He is a fair man and tries to give his daughter freedom that is frowned upon in their society. Malika is asking her father to let her go with him to the end of the city, her brother tells her that she can not go because “she is just a girl” the father responses “Since you are the two children God has given me,” my father declares “both of you will come.” The character of the father is used to put into the minds and mouths of the characters ideas from Western culture that doesn’t belong there: those women should have more freedom, that their lives are unfair, that their culture and religion are wrong.
The life of a women being confined to rooftops is interesting. They have their own way of adding excitement to their lives by painting gardens on the wall, having their own market and they have a strong bond between them. The author does a good job of portraying a vivid picture of the rooftop community. The rooftops of Ghadames are like a city above the city, an open, sunny town for women only, where they walk about, lead their own lives, visit one another, and never talk to men. Twenty feet below, the men walk in the cool shade of the alleyways, conduct business, and never talk to women. These two worlds, my mother often says, are as necessary and different as the sun and the moon. And the sun and the moon never meet, except at the beginning and end of the night."
One night a man is wounded, he is being chased out of the city because he has come to preach a new way of life. Bilkisu decides to bring the man into their house. She then tells her son that he is now a man and is no longer allowed on the rooftop with the women, to keep the man a secret. While nursing him back to good health he starts teaching Milika how to read. She is a fast learner and when her father comes back from his trip he arranges for her to continue learning even though it goes against their beliefs.
This book provides a lot of opportunities to discuss cultural expectations, and "doing the right thing."
D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
School Library Journal
This quiet story is notable for the intimate picture of the traditional Muslim world that it conveys; unfortunately, not until the author's note at the end is the time period made evident. The imprecise use of language may make it difficult for readers to visualize this distant world and to understand the characters' motivations. Still, this novel would be useful in schools studying this part of the world
BookList
*Starred Review*
Stolz invigorates her tale with elegant prose and a deft portrayal of a girl verging on adolescence. The vivid backdrop is intoxicating, but the story's universal concerns will touch readers most: sibling jealously, confusion about adult customs, and a growing interest in a world beyond family.
E. CONNECTIONS
QUESTIONS FOR GROUP DISCUSSION
1. Malika has been taught her place in the society in which she lives, but she does not seem satisfied with her lot in life. She longs to travel with her father and to have an education like her brother. What are her feelings toward her culture? How does she come to terms with her desires and the traditions of her people?
2. Abdelkarim tells Malika, “I learned several things while I was in hiding on your rooftop. For example, that the world of women is not as stupid as I thought” (p. 102) What did he observe and hear that led him to this conclusion?
3. Malika’s father is more open-minded than most men in his culture. What are some of the traditions he is willing to relinquish? Why?
INTERNET RESOURCES
Taking It Global
understanding.takingitglobal.org/diversity
Discusses cultural diversity in America.
Cultural Diversity–a CCSD research program
www.ccsd.ca/subsites/cd/docs/iy/lifestyl.htm
Lifestyle patterns of immigrant youth.
Muslim Culture
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/muslim-culture-and-traditions.html
http://www.islamiclearningmaterials.com/muslim-culture.html
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Chronicle of a Death Foretold
A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alfred A. Knopf, Random House, 1982. Translated from teh Spanish by Gregory Rabassa.
B. PLOT SUMMARY
The narrator dredges up the twenty-seven-year old murder of Santiago Nassar by speaking to the man's mother and several others familiar with the story. The story is told by five different points of views.
One morning Nassar wakes up groggy from the wedding festivities held the night before. Like his father Ibrihim, an Arab immigrant, Nassar has a fondness for young virginal girls. He is portrayed as a womanizer and is not well liked by the towns people. His behavior indicates that he thinks that because he is rich he is entitled to do as he pleases with the women that he encounters. A warning note, giving the details of his pending murder, is slipped under his door but goes undetected until afterward. Waiting with knives are Pedro and Pablo Vicario, the twin brothers of disgraced, beautiful, and newly wed Angela Vicario. When it was discovered by her groom that the young bride was not a virgin, she was returned to the house of her parents in humiliation. As retribution, Nassar was to be killed for their shame.
C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
This short novel details the actions of the Vicario brothers and Nasar in the hours leading up to Nasar's death. The novel is not really about either the killers or the victim, however, it's about the people of their small Caribbean village.
The variety of characters in this novel provides an insight into the diversity of different groups.
Bayardo San Roman The man who marries Angela Vicario. He comes from a wealthy and prestigious family. When he arrives in town, he is described as having a slim waist and golden eyes.
Santiago Nasar of Arab decent. He speaks with his father in his native language creating a special bond between them. His arrogance is evident in the way that he tries and succeeds in seducing the young girls in the village. His social status allows him to get away with his actions.
Placida Linero , Santiago's mother. She has a well-earned reputation as an interpreter of dreams. She never forgives herself for misinterpreting the dream about trees and birds that her son had the night before his death. The superstitions and religious beliefs are found throughout the novel.
The latino “machismo” which a part of their culture is evident when the two Vicario brothers tell everyone that they encounter that they are planning to kill Santiago no one does anything to stop the murder. It seems that the brothers do not want to commit the murder and want to be stopped. They are avenging the family honor by murdering the man that took their sister’s virginity. Several passages throughout the book mention the sister’s honor. “the brothers Vicario had proved their status as men, and the seduced sister was in passion of her honor once more.” (p. 84) The women also believed that the family honor should be protected. Prudencia Cotes Pablo Vicario's finance, says “she would not have married Pablo if he had not upheld the honor of his sister by killing the man who took her virginity.”
The novel suggests that women should be a virgin until they marry and that men can have sexual encounters without any consequences is part of the culture.
The novel portray women to be inferior to men they had to obey what their parents and then their husbands ordered. “imposed on her the obligation to marry a man whom she had barely seen.” (p. 34). Angela was not allowed to go see the house that her fiancé had purchased for her without being accompanied by her parents. “The girls had been reared to get married. They knew how to do screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone lace, wash and iron, make artificial flowers and fancy candy, and write engagement announcements.” (p. 31)
Angela does the unthinkable; she decides that she will not trick her groom into thinking that she is a virgin. She knows that she will be humiliated but decides to go ahead and tells the truth.
D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
The New York Times Book Review
“Exquisitely harrowing. . . . Very strange and brilliantly conceived. . . . A sort of metaphysical murder mystery. . . . The murder will stand among the innumerable murders of modern literature as one of the best and most powerfully rendered.”
E. CONNECTIONS
themes - Ritual, powerlessness of women, importance of cultural traditions like honor
motifs - Magic realism
symbols - Dreams; the weather
Investigate Latin American culture to gain an understanding of the idea of "male honor." What is the view of male image in Latin American culture today? How has this affected the treatment of women in Latin America?
Compose character sketches of the women in Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Describe their lives, their aspirations, the choices that are available to them, and their individual responses to the circumstances in which they find themselves.
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Koala Lou
A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Koala Lou / written by Mem Fox ; illustrated by Pamela Lofts. San Diego : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, [1989], c1988.
B. PLOT SUMMARY
Koala Lou mother is always telling her how much she loves her. After her mother has more koalas she gets very busy and does not tell Koala Lou that she loves her like she use to. Koala Lou is feeling rejected when new brothers and sisters arrive. She thinks she is not special anymore. Koala is trying to find a way to get her mother’s attention and she wants to hear that she loves her. She starts training for the Bush Olympics; she wants to win so that her mother will be proud of her and tell her that she loves her once more. Unfortunately Koala Lou comes in second, she runs away to hide up in a tree. Her mother is waiting for her and tells her “Koala Lou, I DO love you”.
C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
Koala Lou addresses the issue about sibling rivalry. Koala feels that she is not loved because her mother does not tell her all the time. It also teaches the reader that winning a competition is not the answer to her problem. In the end Koala understands that her mother does love her even though she does not always tell her.
Lofts's colored-pencil drawings portray the Australian flora and fauna beautifully, including a few of the more exotic species. The illustrator made all the animals look menacing, but not terrifying. The drawing of the emu really gives the reader the idea that this emu doesn't tend to like other animals.
D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
The Horn Book
“A first-rate choice for bedtime, story hour, or reading aloud.”--
Publishers Weekly
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.
Children's Literature Review:
The koala heroine enters the Bush Olympics and hopes to win the gum tree-climbing event so that her mother--overwhelmed by the birth of many, many koala babes--will tell her eldest daughter "Koala Lou, I DO love you." Even though Lou loses the event, she gains what she most wants: the knowledge that her mother loves her--and always will. My favorite illustration shows fluffy Lou racing in red sneakers and pumping weights. Reviewed by Mary Quattlebaum.
E. CONNECTIONS
Activating schema relating to Australian animals and the Olympics would be essential to comprehension of this story.
Koalas - what koalas look like, what koalas eat, where they live.
Zoom School Australia - This is a visually appealing web site geared toward young children. They can click on different pictures to learn many facts about Australia.
Australian Animals - This is a great interactive web site where children can click on animals to see and learn about them (location, habitat, and description).
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