I want to apologize for being so late with my posts. Life gets in the way and other obligations bigger than school, so it's been hard to stay on top of all my school responsabilities at the moment. I try to be proffesional and i've been failing lately.
-Cameron Martinez
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Children's and YA novels
I love young adult literature. It's usually so outlandish and wacky that it's entertaining, but it engages the creativity and abstract thinking needed in children. My favorite young adult novels are the goosebumps series. I am a fan of anything age appropriate that will get children to WANT to read.
From wikipedia "Many books feature a twist in the end, similar to the format of television shows like The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, such as Night of the Living Dummy, where the protagonists spent most of the narrative fighting a murderous dummy, only to be confronted with a second creature at the end. Another book in the series, The Girl Who Cried Monster, which was based on the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, also has a twist at the end; the main character's parents transform into monsters, then eat the villain. Welcome to Dead House ends with a sadistic real estate agent, thought to be dead, turning up on the last page, seen in the distance by the main character. A Shocker on Shock Street ends with the two main characters revealed to be robots, and in Attack of the Jack O'Lanterns it is revealed that two kids are aliens. One of the best-known twists is My Hairiest Adventure, in which the main characters turn out to be dogs (as the result of a failed science experiment). In some of the books there is a completely happy ending, as in Piano Lessons Can Be Murder and Why I'm Afraid Of Bees, in which the protagonist actually comes out better from his experiences (although in the latter he retains some traits from his transformation). In some books, the twist ending actually benefits the main character. An example of this is the twist ending of The Cuckoo Clock of Doom, in which the protagonist's bratty sister is never born due to his tampering with the space-time continuum."
This twist at the end of every book gets the kids thinking of what could have happened if the twist wasn't their? again the abstract thought is beginning to become more of a norm within the child.
Also, these books serve another great purpose. In Speak, we hear of a girl who is raped and can not "speak" out to the world her problems due to fear. The book is amazing, compelling and funny at times as a read. But, in the background, reading in between the lines, are other topics raised in the book and ideas that children don't realize they are learning from the book. one, they learn that keeping secrets can only hurt you more. and also, they learn that being yourself and expressing yourself is important. There are many underlying themes in this story.
These stories seem like only stories to kids, but, they also help children learn valuable lesson and also learn different ways of thinking.
From wikipedia "Many books feature a twist in the end, similar to the format of television shows like The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, such as Night of the Living Dummy, where the protagonists spent most of the narrative fighting a murderous dummy, only to be confronted with a second creature at the end. Another book in the series, The Girl Who Cried Monster, which was based on the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, also has a twist at the end; the main character's parents transform into monsters, then eat the villain. Welcome to Dead House ends with a sadistic real estate agent, thought to be dead, turning up on the last page, seen in the distance by the main character. A Shocker on Shock Street ends with the two main characters revealed to be robots, and in Attack of the Jack O'Lanterns it is revealed that two kids are aliens. One of the best-known twists is My Hairiest Adventure, in which the main characters turn out to be dogs (as the result of a failed science experiment). In some of the books there is a completely happy ending, as in Piano Lessons Can Be Murder and Why I'm Afraid Of Bees, in which the protagonist actually comes out better from his experiences (although in the latter he retains some traits from his transformation). In some books, the twist ending actually benefits the main character. An example of this is the twist ending of The Cuckoo Clock of Doom, in which the protagonist's bratty sister is never born due to his tampering with the space-time continuum."
This twist at the end of every book gets the kids thinking of what could have happened if the twist wasn't their? again the abstract thought is beginning to become more of a norm within the child.
Also, these books serve another great purpose. In Speak, we hear of a girl who is raped and can not "speak" out to the world her problems due to fear. The book is amazing, compelling and funny at times as a read. But, in the background, reading in between the lines, are other topics raised in the book and ideas that children don't realize they are learning from the book. one, they learn that keeping secrets can only hurt you more. and also, they learn that being yourself and expressing yourself is important. There are many underlying themes in this story.
These stories seem like only stories to kids, but, they also help children learn valuable lesson and also learn different ways of thinking.
Fairy Tale Unit
After reading through a lot of the fairy tales I used to know as a child, I think back to how I really never thought about the intentions of each long tale. In some way or manner, each story had an underlying common theme or some lesson to be learned at the end of it.
For fairy tales, normally there is some damsel in distress and there is some "knight in shining armor" to save them, or dirty rags, but either way it is always the male doing the saving. There is an idea of male chauvanism within each story and they try to make the women seem to have so many issues and problems. With as many problems as they seem to have, who WOULD want to marry them.
Well, if i were to have my students read through these "classic tales" i would make sure they first would right a short summary of what they think the story is about before they read it. Then, id let them read the story/ies and the next day come back and retell the story in a modern way. This would bring home the stories more to the children because they are trying to apply them in a modern day society and also it would implement an english activity/lesson.
For fairy tales, normally there is some damsel in distress and there is some "knight in shining armor" to save them, or dirty rags, but either way it is always the male doing the saving. There is an idea of male chauvanism within each story and they try to make the women seem to have so many issues and problems. With as many problems as they seem to have, who WOULD want to marry them.
Well, if i were to have my students read through these "classic tales" i would make sure they first would right a short summary of what they think the story is about before they read it. Then, id let them read the story/ies and the next day come back and retell the story in a modern way. This would bring home the stories more to the children because they are trying to apply them in a modern day society and also it would implement an english activity/lesson.
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