The Girl with the Brown Crayon - Hardcover

Paley, Vivian Gussin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674354397 ISBN 13: 9780674354395

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Once again Vivian Paley takes us into the inquiring minds and the dramatic worlds of young children learning in the kindergarten classroom.

As she enters her final year of teaching, Paley tells in this book a story of farewell and a story of self-discovery--through the thoughts and blossoming spirit of Reeny, a little girl with a fondness for the color brown and an astonishing sense of herself. "This brown girl dancing is me," Reeny announces, as her crayoned figures flit across the classroom walls. Soon enough we are drawn into Reeny's remarkable dance of self-revelation and celebration, and into the literary turn it takes when Reeny discovers a kindred spirit in Leo Lionni--a writer of books and a teller of tales. Led by Reeny, Paley takes us on a tour through the landscape of characters created by Lionni. These characters come to dominate a whole year of discussion and debate, as the children argue the virtues and weaknesses of Lionni's creations and his themes of self-definition and an individual's place in the community.

The Girl with the Brown Crayon tells a simple personal story of a teacher and a child, interweaving the themes of race, identity, gender, and the essential human needs to create and to belong. With characteristic charm and wonder, Paley discovers how the unexplored territory unfolding before her and Reeny comes to mark the very essence of school, a common core of reference, something to ponder deeply and expand on extravagantly.

About this title

About the Author

Vivian Gussin Paley, a former kindergarten teacher, is the winner of a MacArthur Award and of the 1998 American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement given by the Before Columbus Foundation.

Reviews

Vivian Paley is a kindergarten teacher who won a MacArthur "genius" award for her work in her classroom at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and for the books she has written about how children play and think and imagine. Now she describes her final year of teaching when the preschoolers focused on the classic picture books of Leo Lionni and related his stories to their own lives. One creative child, Reeny, becomes a kind of mentor to her teacher, helping Paley discover her own uncertainties and connections in Lionni's elemental tales. There's no pedagogical jargon here; no stages of abstract thinking. Paley shows how far kids can go when their learning is connected, uninterrupted, and interactive--if the teacher is open, and the stories are great. Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674354397
• ISBN 13: 9780674354395
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112