Hope Was Here: Our Original Project Outline

This is the original outline we created that lists government, election, and political topics by chapter in Hope Was Here.  We included both the key terms and how they appear in context.  Additional resources are available at Joan Bauer’s website.  Since this is primarily a book review website, I’ll try to keep from giving away too much at the end.  (But to be honest, I’m not overly confident.)

Chapter 2

Banner "Reelect Our Mayor - Eli Millstone - The Only Man for Mulhoney"

Chapter 3

Campaign buttons reading "Vote for Eli Millstone" are worn by eight men at the restaurant.  Their request to hang a "Vote for Eli Millstone" poster is refused, Hope decides she doesn't like Eli Millstone because of the men’s behavior, even though she's never met him.

Chapter 4

An Eli Millstone float appears in the town parade.  People around the float wear Millstone t-shirts.  Later, G.T. announces he's running for mayor.  He says he doesn’t have an exploratory committee.  He gives his platform, or reasons why he's running.  Eli Millstone challenges him about taxes.  Millstone mentions the issues and says he is running on his record.

Chapter 5

The town charter says anyone who is a resident, age 30, and a U.S. citizen can run for mayor.  G.T. has a petition to be signed.  The Election Board says he needs 200 registered voters to sign the petition for him to officially be on the ballot.

Chapter 6

The Students for Political Freedom Coalition helps get signatures.  Rumors say that the Real Fresh Dairy funded Millstone's campaign. 

Chapter 7

Student Adam Pulver tells G.T. about his uncle.  He is a spin doctor and has helped two congressmen win seats in the last two elections.  "My uncle is a genius.  The last guy he worked for was behind thirty-five points in the polls.  Uncle Sid found the button of the district and his candidate won."  Later, Sid Vole says, "The whole messy game of politics is about trust."

Chapter 8

"To spin or not to spin.  That was the question."  Suddenly the tax assessor's office is closed, and the Election Board says that fifty-five names had wrong information on the petition.  G.T. is off the ballot.

Chapter 9

After an extension, more signatures get G.T. back on the ballot.  "We've got ourselves an official horse race now," says Eli Millstone.  He is asked "When will you be releasing the names of your campaign contributors?"

Chapter 10

G.T. gives speeches and is burning up the campaign trail.  Campaign slogans are suggested.  Students for Stoop is started with a website and newsletter.

Chapter 11

Students are encouraged to write letters to the Mulhoney Messenger.  Editorials about the tax assessor's office are published.  G.T. says "Give the mayor a message for me.  Tell him that lies and dirty tricks never win in the long run.  Tell him that fear is no way to govern people.  He can refuse to meet with me from now until Election Day, but I will not be silent!"  The Real Fresh Dairy cancels their advertising in the Mulhoney Messenger and Cranston Broom, dairy owner, announces his support of Eli Millstone.

Chapter 12

G.T. doesn't want to see the list of his campaign contributors.

Chapter 14

The Students for Stoop newsletter is called propaganda.  Attempts are made to create publicity.  In her speech Hope mentions being a citizen, the campaign, being part of the political process, being an honorable person, fighting for the truth, and playing games with people's trust.  She mentions being sold down the river, dishonesty behind closed doors, the public eye, and being trustworthy.

Chapter 17

School starts.  Hope is in a Political Science class.  Claims are made that the sheriff was paid off to turn his back.  Polls show one candidate is seven points ahead.  A person says, "If you hear a lie long enough it starts to sound like the truth."  Posters reading Stop Stoop appear.  It is Election Day.

Chapter 18

There are no signs of election tampering.  Eighty-five percent of registered voters in town voted.  (How does that compare to most elections?) The Election Board investigates the official books. Numerous voters listed claim they never even registered.  There is a protest outside Town Hall.  A resignation is requested.  The winner takes the oath of office.

Chapter 19

Numerous appointments occur, fines are levied, and investigations begin.  "Politics isn't about power, control, or manipulation."

Chapter 20

The current mayor’s term continues.

Chapter 21

An acting mayor holds office.

Tomorrow: A review of Hope Was Here.

Hope Was Here: Our Conversation with Joan Bauer

Having learned from a government official in Madison that mayoral elections in Wisconsin are always in the spring, and having read about the fall mayoral election in Hope Was Here, the students were eager to contact author Joan Bauer.  Our correspondence follows.  The emails have been slightly edited, and for privacy’s sake, specific names of students, teachers, and places have been eliminated.

From: Brian

To: Joan Bauer

Subject: The Election in Hope Was Here

Mrs. Bauer,

Our fourth and fifth grade class used Hope Was Here as the basis of our government project.  The reading teacher - me - would come in each day and read a chapter or two aloud.  The classroom teacher, Ms. B., would then follow up with lessons and research about campaigns, finances, taxes, issues, polls, or whatever election information was included in the book that day.

It was a wonderful unit, and as any great book will do, the discussions extended way beyond the intended subject matter.

To follow up we invited our local mayor to talk about her election experiences.  She told us that she was elected in the spring.  She was unsure, but she believed that mayoral elections throughout the state were held in the spring.

That got us to wondering, we did some digging, and here's what we learned.  Nonpartisan elections in the state of Wisconsin, including mayoral elections, are held in the spring.  A regularly scheduled election for mayor would never occur in the fall.  However, if there was a vacancy that occurred before June 1, the city's common council may order a special November election to fill the vacancy.

And now we have a bunch of questions.  Did you know that?  Did you choose to put the election in the fall anyway so it would better fit the plot?  Do you have any connection to Wisconsin?  If so, what?  And if not, why did you choose to send Hope and Addie to Wisconsin and not, say, Iowa?

Thank you for your time and for your wonderful book.  And please know we aren't trying to correct you or point out errors.  We are just genuinely curious.

Sincerely,

Brian Wilhorn and 23 interested 4th and 5th graders

Deep breath … wonder if everything is politely stated … another deep breath … and … click … SEND.  It took a week - and the longer it stretched, the more convinced I became that we’d just completely irritated a Newbery Honor winning author - but finally the response came.

From: Joan Bauer

To: Brian
Subject: RE: The Election in Hope Was Here

Dear Mr. Wilhorn --

Hello to you and your class.  I'm delighted to hear how you and your students have dug into HOPE WAS HERE.  What a great way for them to learn about government.  I'm impressed.  And, I must tell you, that I didn't know about the spring mayoral elections in Wisconsin.  I did a great deal of research about local politics, but I missed that one.  Thank you so much for letting me know.  Now, that brings me to the other part -- had I known, what would I have done?  I'm not sure because so much of the story takes place in the summer as Hope and Addie move to town.  I needed Hope not to be in school so I could show her full-out at the diner, and then there is the build-up of the election into the fall.  It would have been quite a challenge to change it to spring.  But all of this is fascinating to think about.

Thank you for digging down so deeply -- you are giving your kids a stupendous gift.  My best to you and your 23 interested 4th and 5th graders.

Here's to hope!

Joan Bauer

Do you know what an email like this can do to a room full of nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-olds?  Teachers, I’m sure you can imagine.  These students just learned that research can uncover information even an author missed.  They asked a question and successfully found the answer.  Maybe most significantly, they experienced the incredible feeling that comes when an important somebody takes the time to acknowledge and validate a child’s efforts.

From: Brian

To: Joan Bauer

Subject: RE: The Election in Hope Was Here

Dear Mrs. Bauer,

Our students loved learning that an author would respond so personally to their questions.  Thank you.

Would it be okay to share your response with others?  The mayor who spoke to our class was curious to know if we'd learn more after her visit, and the person I talked to at the Government Accountability Board, Elections Division in Madison was curious to know as well.

Finally, I hope our email didn't have a "Gotcha!" tone to it.  That was never the intention.

Thanks again for a wonderful book, the gracious response, and your willingness to share with students in a little Wisconsin town 1/10 the size of Mulhoney.

Brian

Our second response was quick in coming, and it was every bit as gracious and kind as the first.

From: Joan Bauer

To: Brian
Subject: RE: The Election in Hope Was Here

Dear Brian --

Please share this response -- I think it's wonderful that your mayor and other government officials are interested.  It just makes me realize how right it was for me to put Hope and Addie in Wisconsin.  And as for your concern about a "gotcha" -- I truly didn't feel that at all, so please don't worry.  I'm delighted by your enthusiasm and impressed by how you brought so many facets of the book to life.  One interesting thing that's happened with HOPE WAS HERE is that the State Department translated the story into Russian after I visited the country of Kazakhstan a few years ago.  And now it's being circulated in both Kazakhstan and Russian.  HOPE has been translated into many languages, but the Russian edition has special meaning for me.  In case your kids are interested, the Russian word for hope is (I'll spell this out phonetically) na*deer*ja.

Warmest wishes,

Joan

Tomorrow: The original outline of our government project.

Hope Was Here: Our Conversation with the State of Wisconsin

After reading about the November mayoral election in Hope Was Here and possibly learning about Wisconsin’s spring, nonpartisan elections in April, our fourth and fifth graders decided to contact state officials directly.  They wanted to know for sure if all mayoral elections in Wisconsin are held in the spring or if the November election in Hope Was Here could actually occur in Wisconsin.

Our first email was simply a question entered into an online form.  And of course, the students elected me to use my email address as the contact.  (That’s why only my name is included in the emails.)

From: Brian

Subject: Local Election Dates

Are all local elections in the state of Wisconsin held in the spring, or are there cities where a mayoral election would happen in the fall?

Not long after our query, we received the following response.  (The name of the government official has been changed.)

From: Mary, Wisconsin Government Accountability Board
To: Brian

Subject: RE: Local Election Dates

Mr. Wilhorn,

Spring elections are nonpartisan elections.  Elections held in the spring are:

State: State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Judicial (Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Circuit Court)

Multi-Jurisdictional Municipal Judge

County: County (Executive and Supervisor)

City: Mayor, Treasurer, Clerk, Alderperson

Village: President, Trustees, Clerk, Treasurer, Assessor, Constable, Municipal Judge

Town: Chairperson, Supervisors, Clerk, Treasurer, Assessor, Constable, Municipal Judge

School Board Members

The response clearly said that mayoral elections are held in the spring, but just to be sure, we responded with a little more information.  We also added a disclaimer in the P.S. so the state knew were only students doing research and not some local whistleblowers.

From: Brian
To: Mary, Wisconsin Government Accountability Board
Subject: RE: Local Election Dates

Thank you for your response.  So, just to clarify, is it against state law to have a mayoral election in the fall?  Could a city decide to hold a mayoral election in the fall on their own?

Thanks again,

Brian

P.S.  No, I'm not concerned with a local city's actions.  A class at my school is studying government, and in a fictional example set in Wisconsin, the mayoral election - without any extenuating circumstances - happens in the fall.  We wondered if that could be accurate. 

Again, it didn’t take long to get a response, and this one made the answer to our question even more clear.

From: Mary, Wisconsin Government Accountability Board
To: Brian

Subject: RE: Local Election Dates

Mr. Wilhorn,

A regularly-scheduled election for the office of Mayor would never occur in the fall.  However, in the case of a vacancy that occurs before June 1 in the year preceding expiration of the term of office, the common council may order a special election to fill a vacancy to be held in November.  S. 17.23(1)(a), Wis. Stats.

So, a special election for mayor could possibly occur in the fall.

We had our answer.  The election in Hope Was Here occurs in the fall.  Since it is a normally scheduled election and not a special election to fill a vacancy, it technically would be an illegal election. Technically.

Now what?  Did we find a [gulp!] mistake in Newbery Honor winning novel?  Was the election purposely placed in the fall to better fit the plot?  What should we do?

The kids thought the answer was simple:  Ask the author.

Tomorrow: Our email conversation with Joan Bauer.

Hope Was Here: A Story Introduction

Visitors to Help Readers Love Reading know that my professional school day is split between being a reading teacher and, for lack of a better title, the “project guy” in an elementary charter school.  And the best parts of any day are undoubtedly when the two jobs intersect - those times when books are used to introduce, support, and enhance content area learning.  Our fourth and fifth grade project using Hope Was Here, a Newbery Honor winning novel by Joan Bauer, to study local Wisconsin government is one of those projects when the end result far exceeds whatever expected student outcomes we educators create.

And sometimes you just want to share a story with people, know what I mean?  This week I'll be sharing what happened over the course of our Hope Was Here government project.

Hope Was Here is set in the fictional town of Mulhoney, Wisconsin.  A typical Wisconsin small town, Mulhoney is located halfway between Milwaukee and Madison, has five thousand residents, and is home to the Real Fresh Dairy.  Hope, the main character, and her aunt move to Mulhoney to work for G. T. Stoop in his restaurant, the Welcome Stairways.  Soon after their arrival, G. T. announces his candidacy for mayor.

My role with the project was to read Hope Was Here aloud to the fourth and fifth graders and lead a daily discussion about the various political information presented in each chapter.  The classroom teacher then led the students in additional research about local governments in Wisconsin to complete their projects.

After finishing the book we invited our local mayor to share her election experiences with the class.  The students were engaged and full of questions and the mayor's stories reinforced the lessons learned from Hope Was Here.

Well, all of the lessons except one, that is.  The mayor repeatedly referred to her election in April as part of Wisconsin’s spring elections.  She probably mentioned it three or four times, the fact that she was elected in the spring.  Whenever she mentioned it, several students would glance at one another or look at me.

The cause of their agitation was clear: The mayoral election in Hope Was Here occurs in the fall.

“In the book we read as part of our project, the election is in the fall,” we told her.  “Do all cities in Wisconsin have their elections in the spring, or is that just something they do here?”

“I’m not one hundred percent positive,” she replied, “but I’m pretty sure spring mayoral elections happen statewide.”  She went on to explain what she knew about nonpartisan elections in Wisconsin and encouraged us to do additional research.

So we did.  We went straight to Wisconsin’s State Statutes.  Unfortunately, they read exactly how you’d expect state statutes to read.  Now I didn’t check them with the Fry Readability Graph or anything, so let's just say they weren't a fourth grade reading level.  So we decided to contact the state of Wisconsin.

Tomorrow: Our email conversation with the state of Wisconsin

When Education, Technology, and Personal Blogs Cross

At the crossroads of education, technology, and personal websites, you sometimes find things like accidental blog posts.  So as I demonstrated how to use an iPod to publish a new blog post to an eager fifth grader, my itchy trigger finger apparently pushed the PUBLISH POST button rather than the Return to list of posts link. 

Whoops.

So if you received an email or feed update that said something about publishing blog posts with an iPod, ignore it.  It was nothing more than an instructional mini-lesson that ended with a fifth grader pointing and laughing at me.

And deservedly so.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Children's Books + NFL Football = Unequivocal Bliss

Check out Help Readers Too! to see what I'm talking about.

An Invitation

I'd like to invite visitors to Help Readers Love Reading! - new folks and the regulars alike - to visit my new site, simply called Help Readers Too!. It's an irregularly updated, miscellaneously contented, sister site. More details are available over there ... well, a few anyway ... but basically it's a place for additional thoughts and opinions that aren't necessarily book reviews.

I'd also like to invite readers, especially teachers and bloggers, to weigh in on a moral dilemma I recently posted involving a highly anticipated book and its release date.

If you feel like clicking on over today or another time, thanks. It's pretty sparse right now, and I plan on tidying up a bit in the future, but I wanted to post this story before it became irrelevant.

And thanks again for visiting Help Readers Love Reading!.

2009 Newbery No-Longer-Preview Time

No doubt you've already learned who the 2009 winners are, but here some of my initial thoughts on this morning's Newbery announcement. And why not throw in some Caldecomments and a bonus thought or three?

Newbery Medal
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - Why, why, why did I not read this one? It was eligible. It was ineligible. Eligible. Ineligible. Ugh! I loved Coraline. Perfect amounts of creepiness, mystery, intrigue, and humor. I've got The Graveyard Book on order and requested at the local library. Hopefully I get me a copy soon.

Newbery Honor Books
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt - Was this the closest thing to a sure thing in a long while? Thoughts here.
Savvy by Ingrid Law - I'd have liked it even better if there were more extended family members and their savvies included. The story was good, but man did I like the idea of getting a savvy on your thirteenth birthday. My daughter agrees. So does my class. Thoughts here.
After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson - I really liked this book, and I'm glad it was recognized. It's a thought provoker, that's for sure. Thoughts here.
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle - I haven't found much poetry that lights a fire under young readers, unless it involves sisters for sale or the end of a sidewalk, but I'll certainly read this one.

The Caldecott Medal
The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson - Before I was even able to look at the copy I snagged at the library, I got two opinions from two kids. The first grader said, "I didn't like it at all," while the fourth grader said, "Well, I liked it. It kind of goes forward, then backward or something. I don't know." Hmmm. More information (from me) soon.

Caldecott Honor Books
A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee - An Honor book in our school's student-selected mock Caldecott, so I'm glad the grown-ups agreed with the experts. Fourth graders especially like how the illustrations don't match the text. That, and Grandpa Bill's vocabulary lesson. Thoughts here.
How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz - Waiting for a copy. Did I read right, though? A family flees war and finds poverty?
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant - Waiting for a copy. Is it poetry or simply about a poet? Nevertheless, see comments on The Surrender Tree above.

Bonus Thought #1 - Sibert Honor Book
What to Do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! by Barbara Kerley - My wife is thrilled that this one was recognized, and I can't say I disagree.

Bonus Thought #2 - Kadir Nelson Gets Three
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson wins the Sibert Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Corrett Scott King Illustrator Honor - Sheesh, it takes more time to type out all the awards than my comments. But well deserved. His illustrations jump off the page, and I'm glad his writing was recognized in addition to his artistry.

Bonus Thought #3 - Theodor Seuss Geisel Award
Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems - Two words: 1. Woo. 2. Hoo. (And one punctuation mark: ! )

(Is it any wonder kids love these books? Click here for Mo's thoughts.)