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 Exploring neighbors and neighborhood, using
I Know a Lady
In
this book, a group of children --- their names are not given --- tell their
collective view of the "Lady" who lives on their street. They notice
when she waves to them, they enjoy her Christmas cookies and Easter cupcakes,
they see her working in her garden and observe that she even knows their dogs'
names. (Left, the Lady, in James Stevenson's loose
illustration, pets the dog of one of her young neighbors.)
Questions
to explore with classes in second, third, and fourth might include: |
Who lives on
your block / in your apartment?
What
do you know about them? How do you know this?
Are
they aware of you? Are you aware of them? How do they, and you,
express this?
Do
you like them, or not? Why? Do you think they like you, or not?
Why?
What
makes a person a neighbor? Can you live on the same block as someone
and not feel they are "neighborly" ? Why? |
| Model a writing assignment on
I Know a Lady,
encouraging students to write lines about who they know, and what they see
in their neighborhoods, at different times of the year. |
 Inspiring imagination and expanded
self-concepts using Someday
Using Charlotte's book
Someday
as a starting point, one grade
school class explored what students imagine and wish will happen someday. Then
their computer teacher, Mrs. Eldi, put up a web site about it. Come visit by
going to
www.bestschools.org/seaman/classrooms/marcucci/someday.htm
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She knew a lady
To write I Know a Lady, Charlotte drew on her memories of Helen Kay,  an
elderly woman who lived around the corner from her and her family's home.
"Miss Kay," as she was known by the block, was a gentle but
feisty, child-loving individual, a retired teacher who loved to bake and
garden, and who become great good friends with Charlotte's daughter Crescent
(then Ellen). In fact, when Charlotte and her husband Maurice (you can see a
picture of him in Charlotte's Family Album, on the Charlotte, Wife & Mother
page) went off to Europe, Crescent stayed with Miss Kay for a month. (When
Charlotte returned, she told Crescent about her trip --- a story she later
retold in the book The Moon Was the Best ).
The Lady observed
 Charlotte's
"lady" lives alone, yet the life of the block where she lives flows
around her and she is part of it: working in her garden, waving to the children
in whose
voice the story is told as they walk to school (she is
pictured, left, waving), making candy apples, Christmas cookies, and
"little cakes with yellow frosting "(pictured right).
She feeds the bird, and a local stray cat, and knows the names of all the
children in the neighborhood as well as their dogs' and cats' names.
Charlotte, Crescent & the Lady
Charlotte was not yet 70 when, in 1984, she wrote the book about Miss  Kay
(The book won an award from Redbook magazine the year it was published).
She was a "young" and very active almost-70, and did not in the least
picture herself as the book's protagonist. But now, in her mid-80's,
Crescent thinks the children on Charlotte's block probably see her in a manner
very much like that in which the children of I Know a Lady see its main
character. Though Charlotte does not bake and is a little less outgoing than the
Lady, she waves, feeds the birds, knows the name of every child and pet on the
block, and gardened as long as her failing eyesight permitted it. (Left,
a bouquet of flowers from the Lady's garden).
I Know a Lady was illustrated in a loose, easy-going, warm style by
New Yorker
cartoonist James Stevenson. (Right, James Stevenson's Lady
pats Matilda, a dog belonging to one of the unnamed children narrating the
story). The book was edited by Susan Hirschman.
P.S. Miss Kay, Charlotte's real-life model for the Lady,
inspired in Crescent/Ellen a lifelong love of cooking and baking. When Crescent
wrote her third cookbook, The Bean Book, published in 1972, she dedicated
it to "Miss Kay, a lady who is very full of beans." Miss Kay lived
until age 100 --- and she lives on, in very different ways, in these books by
Charlotte and Crescent.
For ideas about how to use this book in a classroom, please
see Teachers' Resources.
Charlotte's Home Page
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