Roxaboxen

Roxaboxen

Written by Alice McLerran

Illustrated by Barbara Cooney

Published in 1991

Grade Level: 3rd-4th grade

Synopsis: "On a hill on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Eighth Street, in Yuma, Arizona, there is a place once known as Roxaboxen.  The events in this book really happened-to Alice McLerran's mother," Marian (Roxaboxen, 1992).  The story is told by a third person narrator who tells the story of Roxaboxen; how it came to be, the children who built it, and what they did there.  Roxaboxen is a place in the desert where a group of children build an imaginary village.  They build houses, set up roads, start businesses, and develop their own form of currency and government/rules.  The children use their imaginations to pretend they are driving cars or riding horses.  They built forts and fought wars; bandits versus girl scouts.  Eventually, the children grow up and leave Roxaboxen, but they never forget it.  They tell the stories of their adventures in Roxaboxen to their own children and their children's children.  

Theme/Skill: This book is a story about childhood and community.  The children in the story work well with one another.  There is no arguing or fighting.  All the children love Roxaboxen because they are able to be express themselves as individuals, while also working together to form their own special community.  Roxaboxen could be used as a way to teach students about community efforts, projects, and organization.  Students can be taught that each member of the community is important.

Pre-reading activity: Give the students a history of the word 'community.'  It is likely that all the students have hear the word before, but not in this way.  Break down the word to show the students the history and meaning of the word.  Roxaboxen is a community created by children.  Community comes from the French word for "to eat together."  Show students other words that have similar roots, such as company and companion.  (Idea borrowed from A lesson based on Roxaboxen).  Based on the level of the students, the teacher may include other vocabulary terms from the book such as ocotillo, amethyst, and whirling.  The following worksheet may be used: 

Post-reading activity: Before reading Roxaboxen aloud to students, be sure to make them aware of what similes and metaphors are.  The book is full of them and it is important for students to be able to identify and gather meaning from this type of figurative language.  Students can also work in groups after reading the book and develop index cards that cover the who, what, when, where, why of the characters and events.  Extra copies of the book will be needed. 

Assessment: McLerran's book lends itself nicely to lessons on history, science, and humanities.  Assessment will vary based on the focus of the teacher and the lessons. 

Reflection: Roxaboxen is, to this day, one of the best children's books that I have ever read.  Its story is enduring, creative, unique, yet relatable, and unforgettable.  It is a "celebration of the active imagination, of the ability of children to create, even with the most unpromising materials, a world of fantasy so real an dmultidimensional that it earns a lasting place in memory" (Roxaboxen, 1992).  As a child, I wanted to go to Roxaboxen.  I wanted to play like the kids in Roxaboxen did.  I wanted to build something like the kids in Roxaboxen.  I was not the only person who loved the story and images created by McLerran and Cooney.  This was also my parents' favorite book to read me.  Perhaps it brought them back to a simpler time, a time of joyous friendship, a time with no worries or responsibilities; childhood.  In fact, my father and I sat on the couch the night before I left for college and he read Roxaboxen to me.  As you can see, if you bought Roxaboxen it would not be a book that sat on the shelf collecting dust.  It would be a book that would be revisited again and again.