Saturday, January 06, 2007
Weslandia - Picture Book Review
Thank you Paul Fleichman. I needed Weslandia. The illustrator, Kevin Hawks is equally commended. Wesley is a young boy who finds himself an outcast because he doesn’t like pizza and soda, won’t wear his hair like the other boys, and dreams of a life different from what is offered him. He wants more differences to housing than the choice of either having a garage on the right or on the left! Wesley is chased and tormented daily and finds his entertainment in devising various methods of escape.
Wesley enjoyed learning things in school and applied them to building his own society. He began by growing his own staple food crop. The crop was a free growing plant that produced a vibrant flower, a delightful fruit and productive leaves and stalks. To work in the garden, Wesley discarded his jeans and wove a hat and a loose fitting robe from the plant’s leaves that allowed him to move freely in his new paradise.
His former tormentors grew curious, and Wesley allowed them ten minutes apiece at the mortar that was used to extract the oil from the fruit, that Wesley later sold to them at $10 a bottle. The tormentors became Wesley’s servants who fanned him, worked for him. Wesley developed his own sports and allowed the former hostiles the opportunity to engage in the new strategies. Wesley had turned the social class on its head with his free navigating ideas. When Wesley returned to school he had no shortage of friends.
This book is fabulous. All children should be encouraged to think and embrace their own ideas, and like Wesley, develop their own language, their own alphabet, their own world, that weaves in and out this reality.
Wesley enjoyed learning things in school and applied them to building his own society. He began by growing his own staple food crop. The crop was a free growing plant that produced a vibrant flower, a delightful fruit and productive leaves and stalks. To work in the garden, Wesley discarded his jeans and wove a hat and a loose fitting robe from the plant’s leaves that allowed him to move freely in his new paradise.
His former tormentors grew curious, and Wesley allowed them ten minutes apiece at the mortar that was used to extract the oil from the fruit, that Wesley later sold to them at $10 a bottle. The tormentors became Wesley’s servants who fanned him, worked for him. Wesley developed his own sports and allowed the former hostiles the opportunity to engage in the new strategies. Wesley had turned the social class on its head with his free navigating ideas. When Wesley returned to school he had no shortage of friends.
This book is fabulous. All children should be encouraged to think and embrace their own ideas, and like Wesley, develop their own language, their own alphabet, their own world, that weaves in and out this reality.
# posted by Bite Me Kissimmee @ 12:53 PM 
