Week 11 note

New glossary

•  Style

Style refers to how an author say something as opposed to what he or she says. From an infinite number of words available, he writer chooses the best words and their best arrangement to create a particular story. Ex: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams- Garcia's 

• Connotation 

Connotation is the associative or emotional meaning of a word. Connotation adds significance and impact to a term's denotation, or dictionary meaning. Ex: Charlotte is "about the size of a gumdrop."
1530s, from Medieval Latin connotationem (nominative connotatio), from connotat-, past participle stem of connotare "signify in addition to the main meaning," a term in logic, literally "to mark along with," from Latin com "with, together" (see com-) + notare "to mark, note, make a note," from nota"mark, sign, means of recognition" (see note (n.)). 

A word denotes its primary meaning, its barest adequate definition -- father denotes "one that has begotten." A word connotes the attributes commonly associated with it -- father connotes "male sex, prior existence, greater experience, affection, guidance."

a feeling or idea that is suggested by a particular word although it need not be apart of the word's meaning, or something suggested by an object or situation

ex: The word "lady" has connotations of refinement and excessive femininity that some women find offensive.

connote (v.) 

1660s, from Medieval Latin connotare "to mark along with," (see connotation). A common word in medieval logic. Related: Connoted; connoting.

connotate (v.) 

1590s, from Medieval Latin connotatus, past participle of connotare "signify in addition to the main meaning," a term in logic (see connotation). Obsolete; replaced by connote.

• Imagery

Imagery is the appeal to any of the senses; it helps create setting, establish a mood, or show a character. Ex: White itemizes Wilbur's slops. 

mid-14c., "piece of sculpture, carved figures," from Old French imagerie "figure" (13c.), from image "likeness, figure, drawing, portrait" (see image (n.)). Rhetorical meaning "ornate description, exhibition of images to the mind" (in poetry, etc.) is from 1580s.

the use of words or pictures in books, films, paintings, etc. to describe ideas or situations

ex: The imagery in the poem mostly relates to death.

• Figurative Language

Figurative language is that the writer uses words in a nonliteral way, giving them an extra dimension of meaning beyond their usual, everyday definitions. Personification, simile, and metaphor are the most common kinds of figurative language in stories for children. Ex: "Paradise is great happiness, treasure great wealth, and army a vast number

• Hyperbole 

We are so accustomed to exaggeration as humor that we scarcely recognize it as a figure of speech; we often stretch a comparison to create hyperbole. Ex: The sheep speaks to Templeton in Charlotte's Web "If Wilbur is killed and his trough stands empty day after day, you'll grow so thin we can look right through your stomach and see objects on the other side." 

"obvious exaggeration in rhetoric," early 15c., from Latin hyperbole, from Greek hyperbole "exaggeration, extravagance," literally "a throwing beyond," from hyper- "beyond" (see hyper-) + bole "a throwing, a casting, the stroke of a missile, bolt, beam," from bol-, nominative stem of ballein "to throw" (see ballistics). Rhetorical sense is found in Aristotle and Isocrates. Greek had a verb, hyperballein, "to throw over or beyond."

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a way of speaking or writing that makes someone or something sound bigger,better, more, etc. than they are

ex:The blurb on the back of the book was full of the usual hyperbole - "enthralling", "fascinating", and so on.

hyperbola (n.) 

curve formed by the intersection of a plane with a double cone, 1660s, from Latinized form of Greek hyperbole "extravagance," literally "a throwing beyond (others);" see hyperbole, which in English is the same word in its Greek garb. Perhaps so called because the inclination of the plane to the base of the cone exceeds that of the side of the cone.

hyperbolic (adj.) 

1640s in rhetoric (iperbolical is from early 15c.), from Latin hyperbolic, from Greek hyperbolikos "extravagant," from hyperbole "extravagance," literally "a throwing beyond" (see hyperbole). Geometric sense is from 1670s, from hyperbola + -ic. Related: Hyperbolically.

hype (n.) 

"excessive or misleading publicity or advertising," 1967, American English (the verb is attested from 1937), probably in part a back-formation of hyperbole, but also from underworld slang verb hype "to swindle by overcharging or short-changing" (1926), itself a back-formation from hyper "short-change con man" (1914), from the prefix hyper- meaning "over, to excess."

Also possibly influenced by drug addicts' slang hype, shortening of hypodermic needle (1913). Related: Hyped; hyping. In early 18c., hyp "morbid depression of the spirits" was colloquial for hypochondria (usually as the hyp or the hyps).

• Understatement 

The reverse of exaggeration is understatement, or playing down. Ex: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

1799, from under + statement

a statement that describes something in a way that makes it seem less important,serious, bad, etc. than it really is, or the act of making such statements

ex: To say that her resignation was a shock would be an understatement - it caused panic.

• Tone

Tone is the writer's attitude toward the story and its readers, By the writer's choice of materials, the writer almost inevitably reveals something about his or her own personality. If the writer told the story orally, voice tone would reveal attitude and self; since the writer is telling the story in print, the choice of words must be the means of showing attitude. Ex: Tone in Charlotte's Web. This first pages of the book are filled with kindness and affection : Mr. Arable looks at Fern "with love" and speaks to her "gently."

• Allusion

Allusion is a reference to a past event or piece of literature. Ex: For someone who knows Paul Lawrence Dunbar's poem about the experience of being black in a white society, "We Wear the Mask," the fact that the McKissacks call one chapter of Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters "We Wear the Mask on New Year's Eve," is very moving. 

• Symbol

A symbol is a person, object, situation, or action that operates on two levels of meaning: the literal and the figurative or suggestive. Certain symbols are universal: the dove is the symbol for peace; a flag symbolizes a certain country. Ohter symbols are particular to a story. Ex: Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

• Onomatopoeia

An onomatopoeia (ⁱ/ˌɒnəˌmætəˈpiːə, -ˌmɑː-/, or chiefly NZ /-ˈpeɪə/; from the Greek ὀνοματοποιία; ὄνομα for "name" and ποιέω for "I make", adjectival form: "onomatopoeic" or "onomatopoetic") is a word that phonetically imitates, resembles or suggests the sound that it describes. As an uncountable noun, onomatopoeia refers to the property of such words. Common occurrences of onomatopoeias include animal noises such as "oink", "miaow" (or "meow"), "roar" or "chirp". Onomatopoeias are not the same across all languages; they conform to some extent to the broader linguistic system they are part of; hence the sound of a clock may be tick tock in English, dī dā in Mandarin, or katchin katchin in Japanese, or "tik-tik" (टिक-टिक) in Hindi. Ex: White describes Wilbur eating his slops in Charlotte's Web, he uses the onomatopoeic words "swishing and swooshing," which suggest Wilbur's happy gluttony. 

• Alliteration

Alliteration is a term that describes a literary stylistic device. Alliteration occurs when a series of words in a row (or close to a row) have the same first consonant sound. For example, “She sells sea-shells down by the sea-shore” or “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers” are both alliterative phrases. In the former, all the words start with the “s” sound, while in the later, the letter “p” takes precedence. Aside from tongue twisters, alliteration is also used in poems, song lyrics, and even store or brand names.

• Assonance

Many examples of assonance can be found in prose and poetry. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. It is used to reinforce the meanings of words or to set the mood.  Ex: When we hear the crickets' song in Charlotte's Web " a sad, monotonous song," the neutral a and the similarly sounded o's suggest the feeling of sorrow and sameness.

• Consonance

Consonance is a literary device in which a consonant sound is repeated in words that are in close proximity.The word consonance comes from the Latin word consonantem, which means “harmony” or “agreement.” In different contexts the word consonance has different meanings, but the definition of consonance as a literary term came into being in the mid-1500s. Ex: "empty tin cans and dirty rags and bits of metal and broken bottles" in Charlotte's Web

Authors’ introductions

• Rita Williams- Garcia's 

Rita Williams-Garcia (born 1957) is an American writer of young-adult novels. She won the 2011 Newbery Honor Award, Coretta Scott King Award, and Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for her book, One Crazy Summer. She won the PEN/Norma Klein Award. Her book, P.S. Be Eleven, won the Coretta Scott King Award in 2014. In 2016 her book, Gone Crazy in Alabama won the Coretta Scott King Award.

• Karen Hesse

Karen S. Hesse (born August 29, 1952) is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often withhistorical settings.

She won the Newbery Medal for Out of the Dust (Scholastic, 1997).

Karen was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She studied poetry at nearby Towson State College and married Randy Hesse in 1971 before completing her studies. She attended college at Towson University, University of Maryland and College Park. She earned a B.A. in English with double minors in psychology, and anthropology, during which she began writing poetry.

After graduating, she moved with her husband to Brattleboro, Vermont, had two children, Rachel and Kate, took jobs in publishing, and started writing children's books.

• Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War, Dunbar began to write stories and verse when still a child and was president of his high school's literary society. He published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper.

Much of Dunbar's more popular work in his lifetime was written in the Negro dialect associated with the antebellum South, though he wrote in several dialects, including German and the Midwestern regional dialect of James Whitcomb Riley. Dunbar's work was praised by William Dean Howells, a leading editor associated with the Harper's Weekly, and Dunbar was one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation. He wrote the lyrics for the musical comedy In Dahomey (1903), the first all-African-American musical produced on Broadway. The musical later also toured in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Dunbar also wrote in conventional English in other poetry and novels; since the late 20th century, scholars have become more interested in these other works. Suffering from tuberculosis, Dunbar died at the age of 33.

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies, 

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— 

This debt we pay to human guile; 

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, 

And mouth with myriad subtleties. 

Why should the world be over-wise, 

In counting all our tears and sighs? 

Nay, let them only see us, while 

       We wear the mask. 

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries 

To thee from tortured souls arise. 

We sing, but oh the clay is vile 

Beneath our feet, and long the mile; 

But let the world dream otherwise, 

       We wear the mask!

•  Patricia McKissack

Patricia L'Ann Carwell "Pat" McKissack (born August 9, 1944) is an American children's writer.^[1] She is the author of three Dear America books: A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North, and Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl. She has also written a novel for The Royal Diaries series: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba. Patricia currently lives in St. Louis. Her husband, Fredrick McKissack, with whom she co-won the Regina Medal in 1998, died in April 2013 at the age of 73; before marrying her and joining her in writing full-time, he had an accomplished career as a U.S. Marine, a civil engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and had owned a contracting business in the St. Louis area.^[2]

Patricia McKissack is also a board member of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, a national not-for-profit that actively advocates for literacy, literature, and libraries.^[3]

She is known also as L'Ann Carwell, Pat McKissack and Patricia C. McKissack.

• Jacqueline Woodson

Books introductions

•  One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams- Garcia's 

In this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them.

Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. When they arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with her, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.

This moving, funny novel won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award Finalist.

Readers who enjoy Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham and Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreamingwill find much to love in One Crazy Summer. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern's story continues in P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama. This novel was the first featured title for Marley D’s Reading Party, launched after the success of #1000BlackGirlBooks. Maria Russo, in a New York Times list of "great kids' books with diverse characters," called it "witty and original."

2. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

When Billie Jo is just fourteen she must endure heart wrenching ordeals that no child should have to face. The quiet strength she displays while dealing with unspeakable loss is as surprising as it is inspiring. This award winning story is set in the heart of the Great Depression. It chronicles Oklahoma's staggering dust storms, and the environmental and emotional turmoil they leave in their path. An unforgettable tribute to hope and inner strength. 

• Christmas In The Big House, Christmas In The Quarters by Patricia McKissack  

In a poignant, heartwarming book rich in historical detail and careful research, two Coretta Scott King Award-winning authors movingly describe Christmas on a pre-Civil War plantation from two starkly different points of view--the big house and the slave quarters. Magnificent full-color illustrations, along with recipes, poems, songs, journal excerpts, and more add depth and authenticity to this extraordinary book.

• Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

“Hope is the thing with feathers” starts the poem Frannie is reading in school. Frannie hasn’t thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more “holy.” There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he’s not white. Who is he?

During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light—her brother Sean’s deafness, her mother’s fear, the class bully’s anger, her best friend’s faith and her own desire for “the thing with feathers.”

Jacqueline Woodson once again takes readers on a journey into a young girl’s heart and reveals the pain and the joy of learning to look beneath the surface.