Great Heights Week: Goliath....and David

While thinking of tall things for this week’s theme, “Great Heights,” the idea of doing a Goliath post came to me. I checked this David and Goliath out from the library because I just love the cover illustration! And on the inside too the illustrations are as big as life....really good. But when Shannon and I read it last night I didn’t enjoy the writing so much.  I mean “old rams skipped and danced in their grave fashion”? It was also annoying how lines were repeated and disturbing how the author included details of David cutting off Goliath’s head at the end. Yuck. Is there a plus side? Well, it is gratifying that the book reeks with the feel and look of life back then. And the fact that there was a conflict at the time of King Saul between the Israelites and the Philistines is certainly substantiated. But best of all, underscored is the lesson that you can conquer any problem if you think smart. 


Ages 6-9
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Activity: Here’s a David and Goliath coloring page.

Feeling a little guilty about not having a better David and Goliath offering, I looked around for some online sources and I may have struck gold for the older kids. During the 7th century a Byzantine artist created a series of plates telling the story of David. Today, most of those plates are on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the Online Books Page I found a link to a free learning-activity offered by the museum that encourages young people to look more closely at the Museum’s spectacular set of Byzantine silver objects, known as the David Plates. It provides an in-depth exploration of the plates, including their subject—the biblical story of David and Goliath—and essential background information about the culture in which they were made. Also included are maps, teaching strategies, and activities for students. Wouldn’t it be neat to do this activity before a visit to the museum?

Curious George vs Adolph Hitler

What do Henry Kissinger, Peter Max and Curious George have in common? They were all German Jews who escaped the Nazi's clutches by fleeing to the United States. Well, on second thought, I don't think Curious George was really affiliated with any religion, but his creator, H. A. Rey, was born into a Jewish family in Hamburg in 1906. And in The Journey That Saved Curious George : The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey you'll learn how the Reys and their unpublished manuscript got the heck out of Europe just as the Germans were rolling into Paris.

The book is in a scrapbook format with actual photos, notes, and Rey's drawings commingled with Allen Drummond's nice pen and ink illustrations. Personally, Shannon and I think that the author, Louise Borden, gives a little too much back story. She reports on the couples German childhoods, their years in Brazil with pet monkeys (which is important to know!), and then their life in Paris and other parts of France. All of this was a little excruciating for Shannon. Then comes where I think the book should have started (after just a blip about their background). In order to escape the advancing German army, the Reys, along with about five million other people, decided to flee Paris and head south. It was the largest motorized evacuation in history and there was no room for the Reys on anything motorized. So they went bicycle shopping. The only bike left for sale was tandem and Margret wasn't going for it. So Hans (H. A.) bought parts to make two bikes that he cobbled together himself. On these, the Reys, and the manuscript that would be Curious George, pedaled to Portugal where they caught a train for the coast where they caught a ship for the western hemisphere. The Reys wound up in New York City and Curious George, published in 1941, wound up selling over twenty-seven million copies.

And I can't help but wonder what creations did not escape.

Ages 9-12
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Activity: What was Hitler screaming into the phone in August of 1944? Solve this word puzzle to translate.

The Old Ball Game

Here are a couple of good book ideas for any baseball fan.

First I’ll discuss a book that is about the sport of baseball and men with the God-given talent to play it well, while dealing with the human-made obstacle of segregation. We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball is a beautiful book brimming with luscious paintings by Kadir Nelson. Most of the paintings are static portraits of Negro League greats like John Henry “Pop” Lloyd, Oscar Charleston, Wilber “Bullet” Rogan and Josh Gibson. What I especially love are the scenes Nelson captured with his brush: The Monarch’s dug out, The Chicago American Giants disembarking from the train, Jackie Robinson stealing home plate, some of the Newark Eagles singing five part harmony on the team bus, a double page spread of Josh Gibson watching Satchel Paige pitching to Buck Leonard.

The forward is written by none other than Hank Aaron. The text is written by the artist himself in the anonymous voice of a Negro League player and covers the history of the league from the 1920’s to 1947 in 10 chapters (labeled as nine innings with one extra inning). You get a feeling for the personality and special talents of the players and managers. It is somewhat rambling at times, but what really struck me (I haven’t followed baseball since the Cincinnati Reds’ “Big Red Machine” days in the 70’s) was the ominous presence of segregation. It seems so weird that a team bus would sometimes drive through town after town without finding a restaurant that would serve blacks. “No shirt, no shoes, no service” makes sense but to not serve someone who has money a pork tenderloin sandwich with fries because of their skin color seems as culturally odd to me as Chinese women binding their feet or polygamy or scalp collecting, or I don’t know, cannibalism or something. Just odd.

For the sake of history I’ll share a family tale as it relates to segregation. My mother was born in 1928 in a small southern Indiana town. She told me about the segregated schools. Her home on North Broadway was near the black only Broadway School but she went to school a couple of blocks in the other direction on South Broadway. Her family employed a black cook named Lucy. Sometimes Lucy would take my Mom to a picture show (most probably a Shirley Temple movie). In the segregated theatre they would have to sit in the balcony which my Mom thought was pretty neat, but I wonder how that felt to dear, sweet Lucy? By the way, many years later, when Mom and Dad would go out on a Saturday night, Lucy would watch us (and cook what seemed like a feast after my cooking-challenged mother’s meals). We LOVED Lucy. She had a deep, pleasant laugh. We played old maid and a multitude of other games. We serenaded her with her favorite songs. She read us The Golden Book of 365 Stories. I vividly remember one New Year’s Eve when she filled the family room with colorful balloons and we stomped on them at midnight. Once she took us to see Biscuit Eater at the same theatre she had taken my mother years before. And we all sat together on the main floor. That movie was a tearjerker.

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball winds down, as did the Negro League, with Jackie Robinson’s historic move to the majors. This book opened my eyes to the burden placed on Robinson. For anyone with an interest in baseball or segregation, this is an exceptional book.

Ages 9-12
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Activity: Click here for a coloring page of Jackie Robinson and here is a Negro League Baseball word search puzzle.



The other book, Moe Berg: The Spy Behind Home Plate was also interesting. I enjoyed getting to know Moe, someone I am ashamed to say, I had never heard of. He was the child of emigrant Ukrainian Jews who grew up pitching for his Newark, New Jersey school team while excelling in his classes. He was one of only a handful of Jews to attend Princeton at that time where his special talents were baseball and languages, his major. Upon graduation he signed on with the Brooklyn Robins (later called the Brooklyn Dodgers). He eventually attained a law degree and practiced law while playing ball in the Major Leagues in the spring and summer. How impressive is that!? When World War II was just heating up, Moe’s skill with languages (he could speak eight fluently) and his fame as a ballplayer made it handy for him to travel through baseball loving countries like Japan and those in Latin America and collect useful information for the U.S.A. Before all was said and done he was living a bit of a James Bond lifestyle, tracking down German scientists in a race to the atom bomb. This is definitely a life story worth reading!

Ages 9-12
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