Blog 31: Ideas for Further Research

I loved this class, and almost all of the books we read. I just wish we could have read some fairytales. They fit into the fantasy theme of the class and can be linked to and analyzed with many modern fantasy books. Fairytales are a huge influence in children's literature and storytelling. I understand that they may not have flowed well with the other books chosen, but I think it would make a great addition to the class discussions.

Blog 30: Coraline Analysis

  Overall, this book was very dark for the age 8 and up audience. The story was wonderful and very well thought out, but it did make me, a 22 year old, a bit scared of my closet at night. The most interesting thing in this book was the other mother's name, Beldam. Literally translated form french, it means beautiful woman. However, according to Dictionary.com, Beldam means ugly old hag. What I also found interesting was that while I was reading the book, I said Bedlam, not Beldam. When we discussed the book in class, I realized my error. But Bedlam also fits the other mother's character. 'Bedlam' is usually associated with the mental institution or a mad house. Very fitting to the other parent's house.
  Even thought I did enjoy the book and wanted to read to the end to make sure Coraline got home safe, I would not recommend this book to any 8, 9 or 10 year olds I know. My younger cousin, Johannah, is nine. But I think this book would keep her up at night. Even thought we know it is not possible for monsters to come out of closed doors, children have a hard time rationalizing the fear away when the house is dark and quiet.

Blog 29: Coraline Rhetorical Reflection & Notable Moment

- The writing in this book definitely conveys the Dark Fantasy theme. I also think that the illustrations add so much to the fear factor. They add to the story because they give the reader a push in the imagination department. The story is scary and dark on its own. But often, when reading a scary book, we imagine nicer images to make it less frightening. The illustrations in this book do not allow that.
- My notable moment is from early in the book when the other parents are trying to convince Coraline to stay with them.
  "If you want to stay," said the other father, "there's only one little thing we'll have to do, so you can stay here for ever and always"
  They went into the kitchen. On a china plate on the kitchen table was a spool of black cotton, and a long silver needle, and, beside them, two large black buttons.
  "I don't think so," said Coraline.
  "Oh, but we want you to," said the other mother. "We want you to stay. And it's just a little thing."
  "It won't hurt," said her other father.
  Coraline knew that when grown-ups told you something wouldn't hurt it almost always did. She shook her head. (Page 45)
It is often said that the eyes are the window to the soul. (Although the origin of this saying is very hard to pinpoint). The other mother, Beldam, tries to capture souls of the people she 'loves'. It is interesting that she would choose to cover the eyes, instead of maybe remove them. If you cover the window to the sould, wouldn't it be trapped inside? I just thought it was a very interesting concept to sew buttons onto the eyes of a person as a means of trapping them.

Blog 28: Lemony Snicket Analysis

I actually liked this "Dark Fantasy/Grotesque" book much more than James and the Giant Peach and Coraline. But I feel like it doesn't fit into the category. Even though the situation is bad, it is a real life situation that is not uncommon. (not necessarily the tricked-into-marriage bit) But everyday children become orphans and experience horrible and life altering situations.
I think that James and the Giant Peach fit very well with the "Grotesque" element. The squishing of the aunts gave me that 'Yuck!' reaction. And Coraline was definitely "Dark Fiction" - I had to close my closet door to fall asleep after reading it. But I do not feel like Bad Beginings fits well. It has some scary elements, but no more than the Harry Potter books.

Blog 27: Lemony Snicket Rhetorical Relfection and Notable Moment

Before I read the book, I read the section on the back where Snicket warns the reader about the book. I found the warning very humorous. I especially thought it amusing when itchy clothing and cold porridge were considered equally horrible as a disastrous fire, theft and the villain in the story. So now we are ready to read the book, but wait! Another warning. I thought the point of writing was get people to buy and read your book? This guy seems to be working against himself. But even with all the warnings, I did complete the book.
My notable moment is actually spread out throughout the whole book. This book could very easily double as a dictionary. Some of the defined words like ‘rickety’, ‘perished’, ‘blanched’, and ‘briskly’, and expressions like ‘fallen by the wayside’ are familiar to adults like us reading the book. However, to children, many of these words or phrases are probably not common in their everyday life. The book is recommended for ages 9 to 12 according to BarnesandNoble.com, and I think that the definitions would be very helpful to them. For me, they were a bit annoying. But since I was writing down every definition I saw until I gave up around page 50, that is not surprising.  

Blog 26: Analysis of James and the Giant Peach

After reading Mark West's article on Dahl's writing, I see that I am not alone in not appreciating the book. I do understand that children would find many of the situations in the book humorous, and they would not take them as literal advice on life. However, I am still hesitant to teach children to take justice into their own hands. The fact that James is being abused by his aunts is clearly understood. So James wanting them gone is natural. The arguement in class was that James did no wrong because he did not kill the aunts, the peach did. But when we argue the case in a hit-and-run car accident, we do not blame the car, we blame the person inside. Also, throughout the book James seems to turn himself into the victim when he is not. He and his friends taunt the cloud men, but then as why they are being mean. The whole book just confuses me. I can see that children might like it, but I don't think I will offer up any Dahl book to my kids unless it is required by their school.

Blog 25: Notable Moment from James and the Giant Peach

This book falls under the category of Grotesque/Dark Fantasy, but even knowing that I do not like the way death is discussed in the book. As I said in my Anticipating post, I did not like the way Dahl talked so casually about death in the begining of the novel. I understand that the Aunts were cruel to James, but that does not excuse killing them and feeling good about it.

   "But is it not very unlucky to kill a spider?" James inquired, looking around at the others.
   "Of course it's unlucky to kill a spider!" shouted the Centipede. "It's about the unluckiest thing anyone can do. Look what happened to Aunt Sponge after she's done that! Bump! We all felt it, didn't we, as the peach went over her? oh, what a lovely bump that must have been for you, Miss Spider!"
   "It was very satisfactory," Miss Spider answered. "Will you sing a song about it, please?"
   So the Centipede did.   page92

'A lovely bump' really did not seem appropriate to me. The group in/on the peach is rejoicing in the fact that the aunts were smushed and that they did it. What does this teach our children?? And at the end of the book, James supposedly writes the book we are reading and publishes it for everyone to read about his adventures. Does no one notice that this child they are treating like a celebrity killed someone?
I know you are thinking...He didn't do it on purpose. Its not like he pulled a weapon on her or anything... It's not if he intended to do it or not, but his actions and reactions to it happening. In today's violent society, where kids are brought up on video games that teach them to kill, giving them literature that says its ok to do it on top of all that does not seem very smart to me. I know I am probably taking this to literally, but I can't help thinking that somewhere out there, a troubled tween justified hurting his mom with fruit after reading this story.

Blog 24: Anticipating James and the Giant Peach

This was the first book off of our class list that I bought. I found it a Half Price Books and was excited by the $1 price. So naturally, not being able to buy a book and not read it right away, I went home and started it. I am sad to say this is the first book I have ever read that I could not finish. I could not get into it and did not like the way that Dahl talked about death. When the peach rolled over the aunts, I kept waiting for some feeling of remorse or at least a bit of guilt. But no, just an oh those bumps must be us smushing the aunts under a peach the size of a house, On with the journey! I only got as far as the sharks trying to eat the peach, then gave up. I am hoping that I can finish it this time around. Wish me luck!

Blog 23 Analysis of City of Ember

I really liked this book a lot. And I feel like it was so close to the movie (which I loved also). But I feel like there were so many unanswered questions. I understand that The Builders put the city together, but who were they? What was the disaster that sent everyone underground? Why was the population so uncontrolled when they knew of the limited food supply. I guess when you think of the fact that now I am completely drawn in and want to read the rest of the series to see what happens, the questions are good.
Out of the three dystopia novels we read this is my favorite. I feel like it is the closest to real life. Not the underground part, but the elements within the city. The interactions between people are more real than in The Giver, where everyone around Jonas is almost robot, and Among the Hidden, where the main characters in the book are ignored/scorned by society. I also liked the idea of corruption and selfishness. They added to the realness of the story in that these were issues readers could relate to. Especially when Lizzy confesses about stealing the rare foods. I think everyone can relate to that feeling of 'me first', and then see Lina's point of view as right once you realize how selfish the act of stealing was.

Blog 22: Notable Moment in City of Ember

The citizens of Ember do not know that they live underground, they just believe that the sky is black. I did not at first think anything of the colors Lina chose for her colored pencils, except to think she would have liked red to match her jacket. But when she and Poppy draw on the can labels, I had an 'ah ha!' moment.

"She put her pencil down for a moment and studies what she had done. It was time to fill in the sky. In the pictures she had done with regular pencils, the sky was its true color, black. But this time she made it blue, since she was using her blue pencil. Methodically, as Poppy scratched and scribbled beside her, Line colored in the space above the buildings, her pencil moving back and forth in short lines, until the entire sky was blue.
She sat back and looked at her picture. Wouldn't it be strange, she thought, to have a blue sky? But she liked the way it looked. It would be beautiful - a blue sky." page 136

I thought it was interesting how Lina chose blue as the sky and how she dreamed of bright cities with a light that was not floodlamps. It seems to be a forshadowing tool, but also makes the reader consider that maybe sees things in a dream or something along those lines. What would have made her draw another city with unknown brightness and to add a blue sky at that. Emberites have not been above ground in around 240 years, so where did her ideas come from?

Blog 21: Anticipating City of Ember

I am really excited about this book because I loved the movie. All of the reviews of the book are great and say that the book is a good read for all ages. I was not sure what to write, so I decided to read the first chapter in the book to get a first impression of the book. My first thought was that DuPrau was writing a story extremely similar to The Giver. The story opens with 12 year olds being assigned their jobs. The details are different, but the outline was the same. Im not sure this would have been as obvious if we had not just studied The Giver, but since we read them so close together it makes me think that DuPrau read The Giver then decided to write a book herself. Probably not true, but just what ran thru my mind.

Blog 20: Among the Hidden

Earlier in the semester we discussed the importance of book order in a series and how important each book is in understanding the overall story. I believe the Shadow Children series is one of those series where you have to read the whole thing. Among the Hidden was a great book, but once you read the rest of the series, this first book feels like just a chapter. I think maybe I ruined the book for myself by reading the rest of the series, but now I do not like Among the Hidden as much. It feels so incomplete. And on top of that, some very important things in this book end up being revealed as untrue in another book. I hope everyone reads the complete series, because it is so much better that just the first book alone.

Blog 19: The Giver

Anticipating

I do not think that I have ever read The Giver. The reason I am unsure is because the book description sounds so familiar, but I cannot recall actually reading the book. I, unfortunately, have the memory of a goldfish, so it’s not so surprising that I cannot remember. I read some reviews on Barnes&Noble.com and Amazon.com, they all say the same thing: The Giver is AMAZING, but skip the rest of the series. (I did not know it was part of a series, until reading this.) From the description, I feel like it may be similar to the movie Pleasantville. The description sounded similar to the movie in the sameness, and then discovering that everyone has differences. The issue came up in class when discussing the “Of Wands and Wizards” class post that there are relationship and boy/girl issues in this book also. I will be sure to keep an eye out for them so that we can discuss it J.

PS: I love love love Number the Stars, also by Lois Lowry. It is amazing and beautifully written, but keep a box of tissues handy. I am hoping that this book is just as good.

Notable Moment

At first, I thought that Jonas’s vision blurriness with the apple and everyone faces was going to be a cancer or a need for glasses. Something that would make him stand out to the community as ‘different’. I was way off. But what it actually was makes a lot of sense once The Giver explains it.

“Let me try one more thing. Look over there, to the bookcase. Do you see the very top row of books, the ones behind the table, on the top shelf?”

Jonas sought them with his eyes. He stared at them, and they changed. But the change was fleeting. It slipped away the next instant.

“It happened,” Jonas said. “It happened to the books, but it went away again.”

“I’m right then,” The Giver said. “You’re beginning to see the color red.”

“The what?”

The Giver sighed. “How to explain this? Once, back in the time of the memories, everything had a shape and size, the way things still do, but they also had a quality called color.”

I did not realize until this moment in the book that nothing had color! I guess my feeling about the book being similar to the Pleasantville movie were closer than I realized. The concept of sameness and rules is brought up a lot in the book prior to this quote, but how extreme it was it a bit scary. I cannot even imagine a world without color. Cars, TV and cleaning the kitchen I could definitely get used to, but no books or color just sounds like torture, not sameness.

Analysis

I must admit that I went thru quite a few tissues while reading this book. I loved it, but thought it was maybe a bit mature and serious for a 4^th grade audience. The concept behind the book was very interesting though. With all the fighting, wars, and other issues we have today, it is not surprising that the idea of a world without these issues should come up. I can’t figure out though how they got everyone to see everything in black and white, but then everyone had to take a pill for stirrings. Obviously there has been some genetic something going on. They could suppress the brain from seeing color and feeling love and pain, but could not suppress the feelings of wanting. It seemed to me like the idea was thrown into the story after. The stirrings never go beyond dreams for Jonas, and it does not contribute anything to the story that is incredibly significant. I think it is a great topic for discussion though. With all young children, the beginnings of feelings toward the opposite sex are an issue. I do not agree with the books message to suppress these feelings however. I get that maybe the author is saying to wait until you have the wisdom and understanding to better comprehend these feelings before acting on them, like when Jonas decided to stop taking the pills, but the overall message of hiding feelings is upsetting to me. That should not be something we teach children. They need to be taught to understand the feelings, then to control them on their own.

Blog 18: Mrs. Frisby Analysis

I think this book was cute, and maybe makes children not so afraid of big, bad rats. However, they may all want to hang out in rat labs and try to teach them to read with the hopes of creating a really awesome pet. I liked the characters in the book a lot. Mrs. Frisby was a very brave mother. I am sure that the thought of Timothy in the back of her mind gave her courage, but I was very proud of her for actually climbing on Jeremy's back to fly, then going into the Owl's hollow and approaching the rats. She seemed to have quite a bit of scary obstacles to overcome, but she did them with strength I did not expect from a tiny mouse.
I also thought Izzy was a great character in the book. The suggested age for this book is 8 to 12 years old according to Barnes&Noble.com, and that is the age when girls discover boys but the boys are still clueless. That is exactly Izzy and Justin. I had to smile when he walked into the library and Izzy dropped all of her reading papers, then tried to impress him with the reading level. So cute :).
The only thing that really frustrated me about this book was the ending. Who were the two rats who died!? Is this a series and I just don't know about it? If you have figured it out or know where I can find the answer please tell me! I guess this is what makes Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH a great book. When there are no more pages to turn and you want more, the book definitely qualifies as great.

Blog 17: Mrs. Frisby Notable Moment

The further into the book the reader gets, the more we can see the intelligence of the rats. We follow their progress thru the mazes and the picture tests at NIMH, then after they escape. But I feel that the greatest intelligence is shown when Nicodemus and the other rats begin to see that stealing is wrong.

" But why? Why move? We've got a better place to live right now. We've got all the food we want. We've got electricity, and lights, and running water. I can't understand why everybody talks about changing things."
"Because everything we have is stolen."
"That's silly. Is it stealing when farmers take milk from cows, or eggs from chickens? They're just smarter than the cows and the chickens, that's all. Well, people are our cows. If we're smart enough, why shouldn't we get food from them?"
"It's not the same. Farmers feed the cows and chickens and take care of them. We don't do anything for what we take. Besides, if we keep it up, we're sure to be found out."

I think this quote shows how much more Nicodemus has matured and grown above what he was taught at NIMH, while Jenner still thinks like a rat. Nicodemus took what he had been taught and applied it not only to escaping and times of crisis, but used it to overall improve his way of life. If he and his fellow NIMH rats continue to have the morals of basic, normal rats, then they have not evolved at all. What makes us intelligent is how we use the knowledge we gain, not necessarily how much information we can cram into our brains. I hope that children reading this book can see that message and understand how important it is to apply knowledge to bettering yourself and not just besting your neighbor.

Blog 16: Anticipating Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

More rats :( As we discussed in Blog 6, Jaimie is not fond of mice and rats. This is another book I have never read, however, the title did sound familiar. I again went to my childrens book buff/5th grade teacher friend Caitlin to get a review of the book. She told me that the rats of NIMH are rats that have been experimentd on and now have almost-human abilities. Shudder. I actually liked the Redwall mice. They were nice and not very mouselike at all. I read the Wikipedia for this book and it seems like the animals are being brought to the same level as humans, even more so than the characters in Redwall. This should be an interesting read. I am curious to see how these rats and mice compare to those in the Redwall book.

Extra: The Lightning Thief

I am a bit sad this book was taken off our list. It was my favorite of all the books selected for this class. I have always loved reading about mythology, and thought this book was a great way to introduce children to the topic. In the book, Percy is 12. But this is one of the few (and I mean very few) books that the main character is not emphasized as a child. When I was reading this book, I kept forgetting that Percy was so young until they would say something about his grade at school. I felt like I could relate to the character better because of this. I had not seen the movie before reading the book, I was waiting until after we discussed it in class. But when I found out it was taken off our list I went to Hastings right away! I just finished the movie (Ive been watching and blogging - Yay for multitasking) and loved it, but thought it was sooo different from the book. (Book is way better for those who have neither read nor seen the movie) I am now in the mood to pull out my high school mythology books and browse. Considering its 1:30 in the morning, I will probably wait until this weekend though. I think that if you have some spare time, and feel the need for a good book and a glass of wine this is a great pick! I definitely did not want to put it down, and have read the book twice since buying it in August. I love this series and cannot wait until I have some time to read the rest of it(in order, of course! ;) ).

Blog 15: Analysis of Nesbit, Lewis and Rowling

I know these three books are grouped together because they all have to do with Real vs Secondary World, but I think the main focus with these three was series order.
NESBIT
I was never exposed to E. Nesbit before this class, so I had no idea The Phoenix and the Carpet was part of a series until someone told me. I do remember being confused about which child was which and not knowing Cyril was a boy until chapter two. However, once I got all of the children straight in my mind the book was great. I think it stands alone from the series very easily. The first book maybe went into more detail about the children, but I honestly didn't love them enough to want to find out. Maybe if I had read book one first I would have felt closer to the children, but it was not necessary for me to enjoy the book.
LEWIS
I have read two books from the Narnia series (Lion, Witch and Wardrobe and Magician's Nephew) and was not in love with either. I saw the movie first then decided to read the series. My roommate had the box set, and Magician's Nephew was first. I was so confused when I read it the first time because I couldn't get into the characters after expecting the four from LWW. I set it aside and read LWW instead, then went back to MN. It was soooo much better that way. I really prefer the original order of the series to the rearranged version. Unless you had already read LWW, you couldnt make connections between the lamp post and Jadis in MN. The books may be able stand on their own, but I much prefer reading them in the order Lewis wrote them. Hopefully during winter break I will have time to read the whole series!
ROWLING
If you are reading a Harry Potter book just to read it or for AR credit, the books stand alone. However, if you plan on reading them all eventually, start at the begining. If you hop around in the Harry Potter series, you may be a bit confused and/or come across people who had already died. (which is confusing in itself) The books do not need each other, but they are so much more enjoyable when you grow up with the characters and read about them in chronological order.
Overall, I think the moral of the story is to always look at the series as a whole instead of just a single book. These three authors show us that order is not always important, but when it is, the reader misses out on some big details.

Blog 14: Harry Potter Notable Moment

I am having a bit of a love/hate relationship with the details in this book. I love the ones that are there: I enjoy the way Rowling writes and think it is very easy to visualize the scene from her details. However, thinking from the fact that I have not read the first three books in quite a few years and some people have never read them, I think this book severely lacks details about Hogwarts.
The Sorting Hat is introduced in Chapter 12 (pages 176 and 177 for its song). It is a bit long so I won't copy it all, but that is the focus of my notable moment. In the first book, Rowling describes the castle, its history, all of its little quirks like the missing stairs and the doors as paintings. In this book, all you have is the Sorting Hat song. It goes into very little detail about the four founders of Hogwarts, something I personally loved reading about (I'm a history major so no suprise there). And everything else is just assumed. We now have the movies to go off of for hints from past books, but when you ignore the movies you have no idea what the castle looks like, how its set up, the celing in the Great Hall, everything basically. The book would of course be an extra 200 pages if she added all this in again, but I think not having it takes away from the experience. I really want to go back and read book one again to reintroduce myself to the wizarding world and Hogwarts. The point: details matter. And so does reading the books in order.

Blog 13: Anticipating Harry Potter

I love the Harry Potter series. I read all the books as they came out and have seen all the movies so far. My favorite thing about reading the series as it was released was that it felt like I was growing up with the characters. We were discussing in class today about whether or not it would be the same if you read the books out of order, and I do not think it would be. I am sure that since I first read them in order I am biased, but the books do not reintroduce you to every character you already know from the previous books. Anyone who had not previously read about that character, might be wondering where they came from.

I love this book because it is a great read for everyone. I loved them, and i have read them out loud to most of my family. When we get together for holidays, the younger kids always get to pick a book and we all read it together after dinner. My senior year of high school, my youngest cousin Olivia decided she wanted to read Harry Potter. We read the first one out loud at Christmas, and by the time school started again she had had my Aunt Belinda read three more to her. These book have great memories for me, and I love to reread them again and again.