SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About Us
    • What We Believe
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Announcements
    • Upcoming Presentations
    • Contact The Classroom Bookshelf
  • Book Lists
    • Awards
    • Best of Lists
    • Summer Reading
  • Fiction
    • Novels
    • Fiction Picture Books
    • Fiction Chapter Books
    • Fantasy
    • Comics & Graphic Novels
    • Historical Fiction
    • Traditional Literature
  • Nonfiction
    • Biography & Memoirs
    • Nonfiction Picture Books
    • Nonfiction Chapter Books
    • Fictionalized Biography
  • Poetry
    • Poetry Picture Books
  • Picture Books
    • Fiction Picture Books
    • Nonfiction Picture Books
    • Poetry Picture Books
  • Classroom & Curricular Ideas

June 6, 2011 by Mary Ann Cappiello

Junonia

June 6, 2011 by Mary Ann Cappiello   Leave a Comment

 

Junonia
By Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow Books, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-196417-6
Grades 3-6
Book Review
When on their annual winter holiday on Sanibel Island, Alice Rice and her parents commemorate each special ritual, from the first heron to the first step in the ocean to Alice’s birthday. Alice’s “family was small, but in Florida, she pretended that her family was big.” Except this year, her Florida family has both grown and shrunk, as cherished friends skip the annual vacation because there is “[t]oo much schoolwork to be missed,” and new additions arrive, disrupting Alice’s cherished routines. As she eagerly awaits her 10th birthday, Alice is caught off guard by the changes. She sees the adults around her, parents and friends alike, with a different pair of eyes; getting older doesn’t look easy, as evidenced by the often grumpy ninety-something-year-old Mr. Barden. But being young is no picnic either, as Alice is reminded often by newcomer Mallory, Alice’s “Aunt” Kate’s boyfriend’s six-year-old daughter. Alice learns that sometimes people disappoint you, and sometimes, you disappoint yourself. In this quiet story, Henkes captures the ten year-old soul, and Alice raises many questions about life that she’s not ready to answer. And that’s okay. For while she never finds the rare junonia shell she longs for, she relishes the fact that “[i]t’s right now. I’m ten.”
Teaching Invitations
  • Tracing Connections. In March of this year, while speaking in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Kevin Henkes said that each book leads to the next. Have your students examine the picture books A Good Day, Old Bear, and My Garden. What connections do they make, in Henkes’s artwork, stories, or themes, to Junonia?
  • Making Predictions. Each chapter starts with a blue sketch, rendered by Henkes. Have children predict the role the sketched item might have in the chapter and why that specific item was chosen for the chapter sketch. The book trailer (see below) features Henkes talking about these illustrations.
  • Exploring Families in Henkes’s Work. Historically, many children’s novels feature child protagonists acting on their own; indeed, many older children’s novels have orphans at their center. Do parents always need to fade into the background? Should they? In Henkes’s novels, they usually don’t, and Junonia is no exception. While your students read Junonia, or when they are done, read aloud from two of Henkes’s previous novels, Sun and Spoon or The Birthday Room, in which the male protagonists are ten and twelve respectively. What role do parents play? In what ways are the main characters left on their own to work their worries, grief, or growing pains? In what ways do the parents serve as sounding boards, mentors, and companions?
  • Family Rituals. For much of the novel, Alice must adjust to unexpected changes to a cherished family tradition. What are some of your students’ family traditions? What makes them special? Who participates? Have they experienced unexpected changes, too? Have students write about these special rituals and compile the reflections in a class book.
  • Gift Giving. In Junonia, Alice receives many gifts that aren’t purchased, that she cherishes all the same:  gelato spoons collected during an Italian vacation, old coins, a seashell on a string necklace, and a sand heart constructed on the beach, decorated with shells and sea glass. Have students share stories about special gifts that they have given or received that didn’t involve buying something. What makes these gifts so special?
  • Rarity.  On page 163, Alice wonders “what made something rare.” Explore some of the online resources below to uncover why finding junonia shells on Sanibel Island is so rare that each person who does gets his/her picture in the local paper! Next, have students list what they consider “rare” in their lives, and ponder why those items are valued.

Critical Literacy

  • Finding Family. There are many Florida friends whom Alice considers family, although they are not actual family members, including her special “Aunt” Kate, and “[t]hey didn’t exactly look like they all belonged together the way some families did.” In today’s world, it is likely that families find themselves living apart from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. How do families keep in touch in the digital age? What friends serve as substitute extended family? Have your students create family trees that include both actual family members and friends that feel like family.
Further Extensions
Online Resources
Kevin Henkes’s Website
http://www.kevinhenkes.com/
Kevin Henkes on Junonia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph0dWCn6xp8
Sanibel and Captiva Chamber of Commerce: Guide to Shelling
http://www.sanibel-captiva.org/play/shelling_center.asp
Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, Sanibel Island
http://www.shellmuseum.org/
J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge
http://www.fws.gov/dingdarling/
“Ding” Darling Society
http://www.dingdarlingsociety.org/
You Tube Video – Guide to Searching for Shells on Sanibel, Courtesy of Ocean’s Reach Condomiums
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j97274duNfI
Books
Dance, S. P. (2002) Shells:  The photographic recognition guide to shells of the world. Ill. by M. Ward. New York: D.K. Publishing.
  • A field guide for identifying shells.
DeCamillo, K. (2001). The tiger rising. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.
  • Protagonist Rob discovers a caged tiger in the woods behind the Florida hotel in which he lives with his father. Rob, with help from his new friend Sistine, work to free the tiger and wind up rebuilding their lives in the process.
Defelice, C. (2005). The missing manatee. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.
  • Skeet discovers a dead manatee in a Florida river, and devotes his spring break to finding out who is responsible.
Fogelin, A. (2002). My brother’s hero. Atlanta: Peachtree.
  • Thirteen-year-old Ben, like Alice, makes new discoveries about himself and his family while on vacation in Florida.
Hiaasen, C. (2005). Flush. New York: Knopf.
  • Noah and Abby, brother and sister, secretly gather evidence that a floating casino is illegally polluting water in the Florida Keys.
—-(2002). Hoot. New York: Knopf.
  • Upon moving to Florida, Roy befriends with a brother and sister team determined to stop the construction of a pancake restaurant on the habit of burrowing owls.
Holm, J. (2010). Turtle in paradise. New York: Random House.
  • It’s 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression, and eleven-year-old Turtle must readjust to living in Key West, Florida, with relatives she’s never met.
Konigsburg, E. L. (1996). The view from Saturday. New York: Atheneum.
  • This novel of friendship and camaraderie also includes wonderful scenes of sea turtles set on Florida beaches.

Filed under: Novels

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
familiesfamily ritualsgift-givingprediction

About Mary Ann Cappiello

Mary Ann is a professor of language and literacy at Lesley University. A former public school language arts and humanities teacher, she is a passionate advocate for and commentator on children’s books. Mary Ann is the co-author of Teaching with Text Sets (2013) and Teaching to Complexity (2015) and Text Sets in Action: Pathways Through Content Area Literacy (Stenhouse, 2021). She has been a guest on public radio and a consultant to public television. From 2015-2018, Mary Ann was a member of the National Council of Teachers of English's Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction (K-8) Committee, serving two years as chair.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

February 2022

2022 Newbery and Pura Belpré Award winner: The Last Cuentista

by Mary Ann Cappiello

February 2021

Healing and Hope through Storytelling: The 2021 Newbery and APALA Award Winner When You Trap a Tiger

by Mary Ann Cappiello

November 2020

Navigating Family, Middle School, and the Universe in We Dream of Space

by Mary Ann Cappiello

September 2020

Confronting Anti-Black Racism with the Middle Grade Novel What Lane?

by Mary Ann Cappiello

February 2019

2019 Coretta Scott King Honor Book: The Parker Inheritance

by Mary Ann Cappiello

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Your 2023 Caldecott Comment Card

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Jump Into this Guest Post by Shadra Strickland About Her Latest Book: Jump In!

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

2023 ALA Youth Media Awards

by Esther Keller

Heavy Medal

FREEWATER wins the Newbery Medal, live reactions from Heavy Medal bloggers

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

A Conversation with Kendare Blake about BUFFY, THE NEXT GENERATION

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

A Book 25 Years in the Making: Marla Frazee Visits The Yarn

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Well Versed | NCTE’S 2019 Notable Poetry

Nikki Grimes Explains Why Mental Illness Is Not A Weakness

Poetry & Prose: Nature Studies for Young Readers

2022 Notable Books: NCTE's 21 Best Poetry and Verse Novels for Kids

In Verse: New Titles for Tweens and Teens

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023