Number the Stars

I chose this book for my historical fiction text because again, it is one I have heard much about but never got the chance to read in school. I like how the book is centered around the Nazi occupation of Denmark, yet it is told from the point of view of Annemarie Johansen who is not Jewish, but whose friend is. Still, their lives are terrorized by the Nazis. Personally, I enjoyed this book more than the Diary of Anne Frank. I felt many of the close calls with the Nazi officers were extremely intense, and the happiness of the ending absolutely gives me the chills.

Holes, part 2

Learning the history behind Green Lake in chapters 25 and 26 was interesting. The tragic story of Sam and Miss Katherine really brings the history of the whole story alive. As the book continues on, the connections between past and present become increasingly stronger. I was so excited to see that Stanley and Zero had found refuge in Sam's old boat, and even more that they had found Katherine's preserved peaches. By the end of the novel, it was satisfying to see how the author connected everything with such irony. Although it was the typical happy ending where everyone makes out perfectly, you can't help but enjoy it for what it is; a story about friendship and the influence of the past.

Holes

While searching around to find a good realistic fiction novel, I came across Holes. As much hype and popularity this book has recieved, I couldn't believe I had never read it. I have to say, I was pretty amused at how all the men in the family are named Stanley Yelnats. You have to appreciate the corny literaty use. Seeing the troubles Stanley suffers through the family "curse" makes the reader feel pity that so much misfortune could happen to the kid. Things only get worse at Camp Green Lake. The idea of digging so many holes seems like a strange task, but is beginning to make sense after all the flashbacks.

The Call of the Wild

At this point in the semester I was desperate for a good book to ease all of my stress. What better than my classic favorite? After all, the last time I had picked up this book was probably when I was ten. Honestly the book is like therapy for me. As I mentioned in an earlier post that I loved poems dealing with the wilderness like those written by Robert Frost, I feel the same way about Jack London. If I were a novelist, this is the type of book I would write.

The reader is so emotionally pulled into the book right from the get go. Seeing Buck stolen and beaten so badly is infuriating! I as the reader feel like i want to tear apart the men myself. As the story moves on, although he faces so many hardships it is enjoyable to watch him mature and adapt to the wild, actually surpassing all the others. Easily the most aggravaitng characters in the book are the team of Hal, Charles and Mercedes. London portrays them as the typical ignorant American gold rushers, who mistreat the dogs horribly. When their sled falls through the ice, I'm sorry to say that the dogs are the only things I feel any remorse for.

What I love the most about the novel is the bond that is formed between John Thornton and Buck. It is great to see Buck in such a perfect environment finally, and the love shared between the two. They remind me of me and my German Shephard, Lucy. Together we have a tight bond, since I have been the one to take care of her since she was a puppy. She is always by my side and even loves to wrestle, but just like Buck, has a strong primordial instinct, making her a great hunter.

More on Kajder

Another chapter that really interested me was chapter six, with its focus on writing and online collaboration. I liked how she simply asked students if they were writers and almost all of them said they were. That also showed that there are many different types of writing. You wouldn't expect all of those kids to be fluent essay writers, but some are good at writing stories, blogging, poetry, or just a personal journal. One of the literary tools I especially liked was the online "point of view" character journal. I thought it was excellent the way this was applied to students in order to dig deeper into novels, and use computers at the same time. Also the fact that the teacher evolved this into an assignment usuing Flickr or Photobucket showed me how it is good to be constantly assessing your own teaching methods.

Adolescence and Digital Literacies

Between both of our informational texts for this course, I have been enjoying Sara Kajder's more. For whatever reason, her writing seems to make more sense to me. Don't get me wrong, the Hicks text is well written and full of useful information, but it is in a very generic textbook form. One big problem I have is reading textbooks, because they simply don't hold my attention. I could read a passage three times and still not remember a thing it said. On the other hand, Kajder is writing in something like a first person informational narrative form, and that keeps me interested! I like how she includes personal classroom experiences as well. This all makes for an enjoyable and informative read. I spent alot of time in chapter two, because I chose to include it in my research for our digital conference presentation. I really like what it had to say about how students are constanly interacting with technology rather than just using it. That is one thing I plan on stressing as a teacher: that students should add their knowledge to technology, rather than accepting only what it gives them. The situation where Kajder tells about her student Molly was inspiring. The idea that a student was able to email a poet whom she was doing research on shows just how positive the internet could be in the classroom

The Giver: part 2

I could not even imagine what it would be like to experience life in the community let alone from Jonas's perspective. The fact that everyone's fate is determined by a council seems absurd, coming from the viewpoint of our society. I think it is so intereseting how Jonas recieves the memories from The Giver and is amazed by them, when for us it would be nothing out of the ordinary. The most powerful part of the novel for me was the scene where Jonas finally sees what "release" is. As the reader I could feel the anger building inside me as I saw how the baby was simply euthanized and disposed of simply for being a twin. In the end of the novel I was glad to see that Jonas took Gabe with him, and no matter how one interprets the ending, the baby's life was saved. Personally I did not see the ending as death, but that the two really did reach the town and safety. Overall I enjoyed the book, and am glad I decided to pick it up once again. However, I feel it would not have done the book justice had I read it all back in fifth grade. There are many situations where one would have to be more mature in order to fully interpret. Reading it as an adult definitely allowed me to have a greater understanding of the full text.

The Giver

This is a book I had originally started to read back in fifth grade. I had chose it at the end of the school year for pleasure reading, but classes ended before I could finish it and the book was forgotten. Picking it up again years later, the beginning is still familiar, so not much was ground breaking for me. Still, I enjoyed recalling my memories of it. Reading on was very interesting, because it was like suspense had built up from thinking about the book over all the years and I couldn't wait to find out what would actually happen. So far the book is really grabbing my attention.

Terrible Stories

Overall, I am glad to have made the choice to read this anthology. My love for poetry was stemmed by authors like Robert Frost, because I could get lost in the poems about nature and rural life, and family matters. That was literature I could relate to and feel comfortable in. Making the leap to an anthology written by an African-American woman about mostly feminine and racial issues opened me to a whole new way to experience poetry. There were few things I could relate to, and much of the time I found myself saying, "what the heck is she talking about?" Clifton makes many subtle historical references and leaves them unexplained, giving all the more power to those lines when read and understood. For me it made for a great learning experience, because I had to look up what all those references meant to understand the poems. Clifton taught me about slavery, segregation, womanhood, cancer, the Bible and her life. I couldn't see myself in the text, which I usually prefer, but I sure did see a world different from my own.

Terrible Stories: chapter three

This chapter is titled "A Term in Memphis" and has been my favorite so far. Each poem is a tribute to African heritage and the prejudices these people faced. The first poem begins with the speaker being at the Mississippi river in Memphis, Tennessee. From here she is encased in a dream taking her back to the ancient city of Memphis, Egypt. I thought that was an excellent connection because this city was located right at the great pyramids, where it is widely known that vicious slavery was used to construct them....

Terrible Stories; Chapter two

This one is titled "From the Cadaver" The poems are about breast cancer and a woman's mastectomy. Thankfully, No one in my family has ever been affected by any type of cancer. We have been blessed to not understand what that type of pain and suffering is like. This particular set of poems really touched me because now I am seeing the pain of these women, in the sense that they are losing their womanhood, their motherly attributes. However, Clifton is strong in her writings to signify that one small obstacle will not be the cause of all her pain, and she will be the same woman. This is how she feels every woman should treat their setbacks.

The Terrible Stories

The Terrible Stories is a compilation of poems by Lucille Clifton. The book is broken up into chapters, with each chapter composed of multiple poems about a specific topic or theme. For example, her first chapter is titled "A Dream of Foxes." The series of short poems are all about a fox that the speaker sees around her house. She is lonely, and almost feels a pity for the fox although she knows their sometime fierce nature. Still, the speaker does not acknowledge the company of the fox, for she desires that from a human, more or less, a man. There is an almost sexual tension of love and longing in the speaker's tone. Overall,this first chapter has struck my interest with its creativity and depth, and I look forward to the rest of the anthology.