Week 16 note

New glossary

1. Information book

Defining Information Books

• Informational and non-fiction literature’s primary purpose is to inform the reader by providing an in-depth explanation of factual material (Anderson).
• Informational books are literature and are considered trade books.
• Informational books are nonfiction, but they are not textbooks or reference books (Anderson).
• Informational books inform by attention to facts and capitalizing on children’s wonder at all that is available, all the topics out there.
• When nonfiction is most effective, it suggests a wealth of information, stimulating in the young reader a wish to know more.
• Major methods for creating informational books include moving from the simplest to most complex, from familiar to unfamiliar, or from early to later development.
• Style, which cannot be separated from meaning, is as important to nonfiction as it is to fiction.
• Illustration of the text may in some cases be central, and text merely clarifies what the reader sees.
• Depending on the subject or the level of intended audience, the text may be illustrated by graphs, tables, or charts.
• A tone of “Now you know it all!” is less effective than a more objective tone, but in either case, without supporting evidence the writer may be writing propaganda (Lukens).
• One should always check copyright dates; recent books are more likely to contain accurate, up to date information (Lukens).

Characteristics of Information Books

Include “how to” book

Contain many interesting details and lesser-known fact

Utilize expository language

Organized with a logical presentation of information

Include photographs to provide authenticity.

2. Expository

explaining or describing something:

1620s, from Medieval Latin expositorius, from exposit-, past participle stem of Latin exponere "set forth" (see expound). Earlier in English as a noun meaning "an expository treatise, commentary" (early 15c.). Related: Expositorial.

ex: expository writing

3. Propaganda 

information, ideas,opinions, or images, often only giving one part of an argument, that are broadcast,published, or in some other way spread with the intention of influencing people's opinions:

1718, "committee of cardinals in charge of Catholic missionary work," short for Congregatio de Propaganda Fide "congregation for propagating the faith," a committee of cardinals established 1622 by Gregory XV to supervise foreign missions. The word is properly the ablative fem. gerundive of Latin propagare (see propagation). Hence, "any movement to propagate some practice or ideology" (1790). Modern political sense dates from World War I, not originally pejorative. Meaning "material or information propagated to advance a cause, etc." is from 1929.

ex: political/wartime propaganda

At school we were fedcommunist/right-wing propaganda.

Authors’ introductions

1. Thomas Hardy 

Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.

2. Hudson Talbott

Hudson Talbott (born July 11, 1949) is an American author and cartoonist, known for his children's books. He has written and illustrated over a dozen books, including O'Sullivan Stew, Tales of King Arthur and Forging Freedom, based on the story of Jaap Penraat. His most famous work, We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story inspired the 1993 film of the same name.

3. Jim Murphy

Jim Murphy (born September 25, 1947) is an American author of more than 35 nonfiction and fiction books for children, young adults, and general audiences, including more than 30 about American history. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2010 for his contribution in writing for teens.


4. Karen Magnuson Beil

Karen Beil was born on February 15th in Boston, Massachusetts. Growing up in rural Connecticut, she spent much of her childhood outside, following streams through fields and woods and collecting shells on the Atlantic shore. In elementary school, she was one of a band of fifth graders who volunteered to give up recess to help in their school library. Her mother, the librarian, and her storytelling father were introduced by their sisters—both children’s book illustrators. After graduating from Syracuse University with degrees in magazine journalism and English literature, Karen worked as a news reporter for the legendary wire service, the City News Bureau, in Chicago, Illinois, and later as a writer and editor of scientific publications. Her first book, Grandma According to Me, was inspired by her mother and was published in 1992. While the pull of picture books remains strong (and possibly genetic), Karen returned to reporting and interviewing with a nonfiction book about wildfires and firefighters, Fire in Their Eyes. 5. Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie; 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870),^[1] also known as Alexandre Dumas, père, was a French writer. His works have been translated into nearly 100 languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors. Many of his historical novels of high adventure were originally published as serials, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. His novels have been adapted since the early twentieth century for nearly 200 films. Dumas' last novel, The Knight of Sainte-Hermine, unfinished at his death, was completed by a scholar and published in 2005, becoming a bestseller. It was published in English in 2008 as The Last Cavalier.

6. Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Additional works, including three novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

7. Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and A Child's Garden of Verses.

A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks as the 26th most translated author in the world. His works have been admired by many other writers, including Jorge Luis Borges, Bertolt Brecht, Marcel Proust, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Cesare Pavese, Emilio Salgari, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins".

Books introductions
1. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialized version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891 and in book form in 1892. Though now considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy's fictional masterpiece, Tess of the d'Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England.



2. Safari Journal: The Adventures in Africa of Carey Monroe by Hudson Talbott

Twelve-year-old Carey Monroe has no idea what he's in for when his wacky aunt Elaine drags him along on an African safari. Soon after arriving in Kenya, Carey meets a Maasai man and his son, who open Carey's eyes to the ways of their people and the beauty of the African landscape and wildlife. Their adventures turn suspenseful when they encounter an international poaching ring that trades illegally in rhino horns and elephant tusks. Explore the world of the Maasai people at Carey's side by reading his journal, filled with his vivid accounts, photographs, and illustrations. Hudson Talbott has created an exciting, informative safari story that will fascinate readers of all ages.

3. The Great Fire by Jim Murphy - historical 

The Great Fire of 1871 was one of most colossal disasters in American history. Overnight, the flourshing city of Chicago was transformed into a smoldering wasteland. The damage was so profound that few people believed the city could ever rise again.

By weaving personal accounts of actual survivors together with the carefully researched history of Chicago and the disaster, Jim Murphy constructs a riveting narrative that recreates the event with drama and immediacy. And finally, he reveals how, even in a time of deepest despair, the human spirit triumphed, as the people of Chicago found the courage and strength to build their city once again.

More Information about Great Chicago Fire

The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871. The fire killed up to 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles (9 km²) of Chicago, Illinois, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless.


4.  Fire in Their Eyes: Wildfires and the People Who Fight Them by Karen Magnuson Beil 

What drives some people to stand in the path of a wall of flame? Who are these brave, foolhardy, visionary firefighters? This intimate look at the elite groups that fight wildfires explores the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of these courageous few as they battle wilderness blazes from Alaska to Maine. From the grueling training of a smokejumper class in Montana, through harrowing fights with some up-close-and-personal wildfires, to a group of inspired conservationists who use fire as a tool for preservation, Karen Magnuson Beil takes readers where only a few have ventured--into the heart of one of nature’s most destructive and unpredictable forces: fire.

5. The Three Musketeers  by Alexandre Dumas
- Sword and Cloak 

The Three Musketeers (French: Les Trois Mousquetaires [le tʁwa muskətɛʁ]) is a historical novel by Alexandre Dumas.

Set in 1625–1628, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan (based on Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan) after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard. Although D'Artagnan is not able to join this elite corps immediately, he befriends the three most formidable musketeers of the age: Athos, Porthos and Aramis and gets involved in affairs of the state and court.

In genre, The Three Musketeers is primarily a historical and adventure novel. However, Dumas also frequently works into the plot various injustices, abuses and absurdities of the old regime, giving the novel an additional political aspect at a time when the debate in France between republicans and monarchists was still fierce. The story was first serialised from March to July 1844, during the July Monarchy, four years before the French Revolution of 1848 violently established the Second Republic. The author's father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, had been a well-known General in France's Republican army during the French Revolutionary Wars.

6. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel by American writer Herman Melville, published in 1851 during the period of the American Renaissance. Sailor Ishmael tells the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler the Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale that on the previous whaling voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. The novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, but during the 20th century, its reputation as a Great American Novel was established. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". "Call me Ishmael" is among world literature's most famous opening sentences.


7. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

 The Old Man and the Sea tells the story of a battle between an aging, experienced fisherman, Santiago, and a large marlin. The story opens with Santiago having gone 84 days without catching a fish, and now being seen as "salao", the worst form of unluckiness. He is so unlucky that his young apprentice, Manolin, has been forbidden by his parents to sail with him and has been told instead to fish with successful fishermen. The boy visits Santiago's shack each night, hauling his fishing gear, preparing food, talking about American baseball and his favorite player, Joe DiMaggio. Santiago tells Manolin that on the next day, he will venture far out into the Gulf Stream, north of Cuba in the Straits of Florida to fish, confident that his unlucky streak is near its end.

Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.


8. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". It was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881 through 1882 under the title Treasure Island, or the mutiny of the Hispaniola, credited to the pseudonym "Captain George North". It was first published as a book on 14 November 1883 by Cassell & Co.