Kristen Cashore...Graceling oh boy! Let's take a deep breath on this one. Fantasy, mystery, romance? Action I mean lets be honest with our selves...this book has it all. But who likes anchovies on their pizza? I mean really? Did you get the reference cause...I kind of didn't. Let's put it this way...some of us like things simple, realistic and relatable...very few of us like Fantasies, it is a minority though that is still a large real number of people so it is good that they are written but...not for me. Pepperoni and cheese please?
Katsa, main character young girl who has a special talent...she is called a graceling because she is of the species that has special talents...her uncle a power tripping freak who exploits her talents. Can she get her life straight and please her uncle and find love and forgive herself for...? You would have to find out.
This book would be a dream for teachers to get a hold of for their students. It has so many different aspects that can be looked at from literary merit to imaginative thoughts and actions and pretty much everything a "fantasy" should have.
I got to thinking about this book and what lessons could be taught with it and how students reception to such a book would be. Actually I found out that I like the idea of fantasy alot more than I actually like fantasy. I have always felt, and as a future English teacher I hope to express how important the imagination is for humanity. Really, arguably everything is up to the imagination...some peoples imaginations just became more acceptable than others see. If you teach this book with the mentality of exploring the human mind and its capabilities of thought you will be amazed with this novel.
And really, among fantasies it is slightly realistic. The girl feels oppressed, (what teenage girl doesn't?) and she is being "put upon" by her family. Really this could be relatable to life of teenagers at a vastly different perspective..
Overall...check it out...have fun with it...use your imagination!
Monday, November 16, 2009
OMG..like I just like totally read about a teenage girl and...liked it? maybe
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart. Hmmm... well I will never forget one thing in life that this book brought up. The custodian at my house school told me when I was in the eigth grade and I quote this loosely.. it was sometime ago but I got the jist... "Boy, don't you never count none of these girls out...come high school you'll be begging for 'em." Well should have listened to that advice... but anyway that is besides the point.
F. L. Banks...may I for short? thanks! Pretty typical, middle schooler dorky, skinny and akward, by high school she shot up and " gained 20 lbs. in all of the right places." You can imagine what happens next...the boys notice her, a cute senior and her life goes haywire trying to deal and maintain a self identity. Well geez that's harder than it sounds.
F.L. Banks in the classroom...I would say that this book would be a good college level read in a class about adolescent behaviors, femininity or something of that nature because it doesn't have that much pertinence, ironically to a highschooler while they are in high school or even middle school for that matter. (Just look at me, I didn't think a second on what my custodian friend told me.) It is too difficult to be in the moment and be told how to deal with it.
Our class had some interesting discussions on how teachers could, or should handle a situation like this. I do not think it is a teachers business to step into students personal lives unless they appropriately invite them. This may be a questionable statement but I would say that Frankie is very typical as a teenage girl and is not acting in any extraordinarily bad manners that would ruin her future...people do these things every day.
I would say also that this book is too feminist perspectived, the men in this book look too dumb, and too heartless, for the most part. This book is realistic on the female perspective but it is impossible for a female author to write as a male and get it right all the time, not to blame the author because she certainly did a good job of trying.
Overall...A good book for parents to read perhaps to relate to their children but not a very effective teaching tool. Lacks literary merit
F. L. Banks...may I for short? thanks! Pretty typical, middle schooler dorky, skinny and akward, by high school she shot up and " gained 20 lbs. in all of the right places." You can imagine what happens next...the boys notice her, a cute senior and her life goes haywire trying to deal and maintain a self identity. Well geez that's harder than it sounds.
F.L. Banks in the classroom...I would say that this book would be a good college level read in a class about adolescent behaviors, femininity or something of that nature because it doesn't have that much pertinence, ironically to a highschooler while they are in high school or even middle school for that matter. (Just look at me, I didn't think a second on what my custodian friend told me.) It is too difficult to be in the moment and be told how to deal with it.
Our class had some interesting discussions on how teachers could, or should handle a situation like this. I do not think it is a teachers business to step into students personal lives unless they appropriately invite them. This may be a questionable statement but I would say that Frankie is very typical as a teenage girl and is not acting in any extraordinarily bad manners that would ruin her future...people do these things every day.
I would say also that this book is too feminist perspectived, the men in this book look too dumb, and too heartless, for the most part. This book is realistic on the female perspective but it is impossible for a female author to write as a male and get it right all the time, not to blame the author because she certainly did a good job of trying.
Overall...A good book for parents to read perhaps to relate to their children but not a very effective teaching tool. Lacks literary merit
Catching Fire, Blowing up, what has Katniss done now?
Catching Fire...the sequel to an intense beginning in the Hunger Games and far more enjoyable and organized with the same amount of anxiety. Don't you just love reading?
Well, Katniss and Pita just won the Hunger Games ( I hope you read the first one ) and all is good and great, there back home drama free and everyone loves them, its as if nothing ever happened...well not quite. ...Everything, and I mean everything is a mess... Gale and Katniss can hardly speak (you know those akward silences between you and your date that let you know that this is going no where?) well much worse. She finds out that Pita really does love her. Meanwhile the presidents pissed off cause they started a riot...how do we solve this...back to the Hunger games with new twists and turns you will just have to check it out yourself.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Hunger Games and even more so Catching Fire. As far as the literary merit is concerned...ahhh still not much but was that ever really the point? However, it seems to be a more chaotic time than even the hunger games but still somehow the author keeps it very well organized and makes some great references back to the hunger games as a way to kind of catch the reader up on what they may have forgotten. (For all those of you out there who read it in one night and had to wait months for the sequel.)
Classroom Classroom Classroom??? Well, to be honest, I am kind of stumped here. I would say that this book is not something that I would reccomend as a lesson plan in a classroom setting but it could do no harm in teaching it. Okay, well here is what I was thinking. In a history class when studying bad dictators ( and I am not talking bad dictators like Fidel Castro so we can put our american "democratic agenda" into lessons) like Hitler or Mousolinni this book could be used as a narrowly connected point for fun and a little more enjoyment than a typical history lesson.
However, this would take some high quality thought processing going on by both teachers and students, the ability to relate the two topics would have to be loosely graded. Kids shouldn't be expected to force a comparison so perhaps for an honors class or something like that.
Overall...fun book very exciting can't wait for number 3 three but... not ultra teacher friendly!
Tha..tha...that's all folks.!
Well, Katniss and Pita just won the Hunger Games ( I hope you read the first one ) and all is good and great, there back home drama free and everyone loves them, its as if nothing ever happened...well not quite. ...Everything, and I mean everything is a mess... Gale and Katniss can hardly speak (you know those akward silences between you and your date that let you know that this is going no where?) well much worse. She finds out that Pita really does love her. Meanwhile the presidents pissed off cause they started a riot...how do we solve this...back to the Hunger games with new twists and turns you will just have to check it out yourself.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Hunger Games and even more so Catching Fire. As far as the literary merit is concerned...ahhh still not much but was that ever really the point? However, it seems to be a more chaotic time than even the hunger games but still somehow the author keeps it very well organized and makes some great references back to the hunger games as a way to kind of catch the reader up on what they may have forgotten. (For all those of you out there who read it in one night and had to wait months for the sequel.)
Classroom Classroom Classroom??? Well, to be honest, I am kind of stumped here. I would say that this book is not something that I would reccomend as a lesson plan in a classroom setting but it could do no harm in teaching it. Okay, well here is what I was thinking. In a history class when studying bad dictators ( and I am not talking bad dictators like Fidel Castro so we can put our american "democratic agenda" into lessons) like Hitler or Mousolinni this book could be used as a narrowly connected point for fun and a little more enjoyment than a typical history lesson.
However, this would take some high quality thought processing going on by both teachers and students, the ability to relate the two topics would have to be loosely graded. Kids shouldn't be expected to force a comparison so perhaps for an honors class or something like that.
Overall...fun book very exciting can't wait for number 3 three but... not ultra teacher friendly!
Tha..tha...that's all folks.!
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