Michelle Bolden

Dr. Jane Lee

English 308
Field Study
10 April 2015
FIELD STUDY
Work Cited
Barrett, Mary Brigid. Sing to the Stars. Little, Brown and Company, 1994.
Ephram becomes friends with a blind man in his neighborhood and finds that Mr. Washington
was a famous pianist who hasn't touched a piano for a long time. Ephram works to get Mr. Washington
back on stage to perform again.

Base, Graeme. The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery. Puffin Books: The Penguin Group, 1997.
Horace, the elephant, holds a special feast to celebrate his eleventh birthday. He invites eleven
guests to play games and eat. When the food goes missing, the reader must guess the identity of the
theft.

Berenzy, Alix. A Frog Prince. Henry Holt and Company, 1989.

The Frog Prince admired a princess who lives near his swamp. He would watch her everyday
until one day he approached her with tears in her eyes. After being tricked into retrieving a golden ball
from the swamp by the spoiled princess, the Frog Prince set out on a journey to find his true soul mate.

Bolton, Michael. The Secret of the Lost Kingdom. Hyperion Books for Children, 1997.
While on a field trip to a grand castle, two classmates meet a mysterious old man who tells them
about the treachery and glory surrounding the castle's original inhabitants.

Kipling, Rudyard. How the Leopard Got His Spots. Walker and Company, 1972

The leopard and the Ethiopian used to hunt animals and blend in with their environment very
well and eventually the animals moved away. The leopard and the Ethiopian asked a Baboon where the
animals went and they eventually found some animals but noticed how different they all looked from
the old animals they used to hunt. The new animals were harder to get because they blended in with the
environment. Eventually the leopard and the Ethiopian changed their skin colors to hunt better in the
forest.
The five books that I have chosen can be identified by the form in which they were written and
as being educational towards children. In the first book Sing to the Stars, the genre for this book is
considered to a realistic fiction. The events that happens in the book can possibly happen in real life.
For example, Mr. Washington, a blind man, plays the piano for the first time years. This teaches
children a moral lesson that anything, no matter what obstacles is in their way, can happen as long as
you try.
The second book, The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery was written as a picture story book in
which the illustration complemented the story. This fictional story book was also written in rhyme. I
believe that this book was written has a folktale, because the animals in the story carries human like
characteristic. For example, animals attending a costume party dressed up as human figures, like the cat
dressed up as Egyptian Queen Cleopatra or Crocodile dressed as a Judge. Other human characteristic
such as, animals playing games like Snakes and Ladders, Cricket, and sack race. Even though this book
is a fun mystery for children to read, it also can teach children about problem solving.
The third book, A Frog Prince falls under the genre of a fairytale. The book consist of
princesses and castles, a witch, and various talking animals. Fairy tales often are portrayed as stories
targeting little girls. Fairy tales always end with a romantichappily ever after with the concept that
the good character always win and the bad character loses. In a fairytale story, the main character is
usually a damsel in distress who has been placed in dire predicaments by an evil characters. For
example, fairy tales like Cinderella were she is made a house servant by her stepmother and was

forbidden to participate in anything socially. Or like the story of Sleeping Beauty were she eats a
poisonous apple given to her by an evil witch and she is to be revived by the kiss of a prince. In each of
these stories, the young ladies marries their princes and lived happily ever after. But in the case of the
Frog Prince, is indeed that of the opposite of your typical fairytale. This story teaches a lesson to
children that a good deed never goes undone, when you have done nice to someone, you will be
rewarded.
The fourth book, The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, was written as another fairytale. This book
venture away from the traditional fairytale. The Secret of the Lost Kingdom isn't gender specific book
that only targets one specific gender. This book can appeal to both male and female child reader. Not
only does this story consists of romance with your traditional happily ever after, it also consists of
action and adventure.
An the final book, How the Leopard Got His Spots has a multiple genre of fables, folktale, and
myths. This book consists of animals speaking to one another in human-like form. And also animals
speaking to humans in the same language. The book teaches children cleverness and finding a solution
to their problems. For example, when the Leopard and the Ethiopian went looking for new animals to
hunt, they discovered that it was difficult to hunt their prey because the animals blend into the
environment. The leopard and the Ethiopian solved their problem by coming up with an idea of
blending into the environment by changing their skin color.
Reflecting back on the class reading material, some of the books that I have chosen for this field
study have similarities in story and in genre. For example, the concept of journey and adventure in The
Secret of the Lost Kingdom can tie into Robert Stevenson's Treasure Island. Though the stories are
different, both stories have the same sub-fiction genre. The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery and
Lewis Carroll's Alice Adventure and Wonderland both are can be compared with the genre of mystery
and suspense. Aesop's The Crow and the Pitcher, The Fox and the Hare, and The Fox and the Crow not
only have the same genre, but these stories have the same idea approach of cleverness and problem

solving. In the end, every author who writes children's iterature has their own unique purpose in
educating their young readers.