|
Suggested Reading 
Here is a list of books and resources that could be used to support each of the plays in CTC's 2002-2003 Season. Please check for updates, as the list will be revised periodically! Many of these items can be purchased online through Amazon.com.
 |
 |
A Year with Frog and Toad
 Anything by Arnold Lobel, especially: Frog and Toad Are Friends, Frog and Toad Together, Frog and Toad All Year, and Days With Frog and Toad. Our play is a combination of scenes from all of these books.
Books about unlikely friendships ... especially in the animal kingdom. Charlotte's Web comes to mind, as well as the Disney movie The Fox and the Hound. |
| |
|
| |
 |
|
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Anything that will introduce magic realism and Latin American culture. Especially look for books which have been written in Spanish and then translated into English. If possible, read them in both Spanish and English, or learn some of the Spanish words. These are some specific ones:
Abuela, by Arthur Dorros: A little girl and her grandmother rid a bus in New York City while in her imagination the girl flies through the sky over the city.
Ella's Trip to the Museum, by Elaine Clayton: A young girl visits a museum with her class and shows them how to experience art in an entirely new and magical way.
In Rosa's Mexico, by Campbell Geeslin: In meetings with a wolf, a burro, and a rooster a young girl is able to magically make things better. Spanish words are used which are listed in a short Spanish-English dictionary.
Isla, by Arthur Dorros: In a journey of imagination, a girl and her grandmother visit family on the Caribbean island where her mother grew up.
How Nanita Learned to Make Flan, by Campbell Geeslin: The daughter of a cobbler makes her own shoes which take her away to a distant city where she works for a very rich man. Includes a recipe for flan. Yum.
The Story of Colors, La Historia de los Colores, by Subcomandante Marcos: Mexican folklore about the origins of colors. Text in both English and Spanish.
When the Pigs Took Over, by Arthur Dorros: A restaurant owner nearly ruins his village when he hatches a big plan to serve snails - lots of snails. |
| |
|
| |
 |
|
The Wizard of Oz
There are several books about Dorothy written by Frank Baum. It would be great to go back to the source of the story. Or you could watch the movie... and this show is much like the movie; we use the same music, for example. It would also be fun to read other stories about young people who travel to other worlds in their imaginations, or in a dream. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe comes to mind as another series of stories that take place in another reality...so does much of Peter Pan, for that matter. The important thing is that sometimes characters in stories learn a lot from a dream or a dreamlike reality. |
| |
|
| |
 |
|
Once Upon A Forest
The play is based on Grimm's fairy tales. Look for books that retell the old stories in modern ways - of which there are millions. For example, there are tons of nutty retellings of the Cinderella stories. The principle stories in our play are:
The Brave Little Tailor
Hans My Hedgehog
Snow White
Dumling
Elements of The Frog Prince |
| |
|
| |
 |
|
Korczak's Children
This play takes place in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. These books address holocaust experiences from a child's point of view:
Behind the Bedroom Wall, by Laura E. Williams: A German girl discovers her parents are hiding a Jewish family in home and wrestles with what she should do about it.
Child of the Warsaw Ghetto, by David A. Adler: The story of one of the boys who lived in Korczak's orphanage.
The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen: A modern Jewish girl, bored with her family's Seder traditions, is transported through time to a ghetto in 1940's Poland.
Elizabeth, by Clair A. Nivola: A picture book about a girl in Germany who leaves behind a doll when she flees the country, only to find it later in America.
Fireflies in the Dark the Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terrezin, by Susan Goldman Rubin: An art teacher's collection of work done by children living in the Terezin concentration camp.
I Am A Star - Child of the Holocaust, by Inge Auerbacker: The story of hiding from the Nazis.
My Secret Camera - Life in the Lodz Ghetto, by Frank Dabba Smith: Photographs taken secretly by Medel Grossman while he lived in the Lodz Ghetto.
Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry: A Danish family resist German orders and smuggle a 10 year-old Jewish girl out of the country.
Witnesses to War, Eight true-life stories of Nazi persecution, by Michael Leapman: Life stories of eight children living in Europe during WWII, seven of whom survived. The experience of the eighth, Anne Frank, was preserved in her diary.
There is a recently published biography of the man who inspired this play, Janusz Korczak, written for children to read which we will preview, and hopefully recommend, quite soon. |
| |
|
| |
 |
|
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
Anything by Dr. Seuss
Books about crazy rules and/or when rules go crazy... when people lose control through no fault of their own. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, for example. |
|
