RIP Challenge Novel #4
Suzanne Collins' much-awaited sequel to The Hunger Games...Catching Fire...was a good read.
Katniss and friends must once again participate in the Hunger Games, a cruel and ultimate example of bullying. Throughout this novel, we witness Katniss's growth as a leader and increased compassion for others, while living a facade that both protects her people and increases the rebellion within the districts.
With that said, I do have a problem with all the death, although I know that this is part of Collins' message: that with oppression comes suppression, suppression through death. Or maybe the message is that survival's instinct remains to that very moment of death?
Is this a message that is appropriate for our young adults? While I know they are enamored with Collins' tale, I suppose the optimist in me wants to have to deal with less oppression, suppression, and depression. Maybe?
Let's see what one of these young adults have to say about Catching Fire. Here is Crist's review of this novel that he wrote for a book review for my class.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
#41: The Dante Club
RIP Challenge Novel #3
Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club takes his readers on a journey into the historical land of the poets and Dante Club members and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and publisher J. T. Fields, who all become criminal investigators as various murders begin to take place that mimic Dante's Inferno.
What I appreciate the most about this piece of historical fiction is that I really learned something! Really.
Stylistically, this novel is written on a more advanced level than the young adult fiction of current times. While definitely not impossible for my students to read, this novel does take time to absorb, but it is time-well spent.
Pearl is the author The Poe Shadow (this will be my next read by him) and The Last Dickens...maybe a read for Christmas?
Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club takes his readers on a journey into the historical land of the poets and Dante Club members and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and publisher J. T. Fields, who all become criminal investigators as various murders begin to take place that mimic Dante's Inferno.
What I appreciate the most about this piece of historical fiction is that I really learned something! Really.
Stylistically, this novel is written on a more advanced level than the young adult fiction of current times. While definitely not impossible for my students to read, this novel does take time to absorb, but it is time-well spent.
Pearl is the author The Poe Shadow (this will be my next read by him) and The Last Dickens...maybe a read for Christmas?
Monday, September 7, 2009
#40: Hunted (House of Night #5)
RIP Challenge Novel #2
This novel...well, I am still reading the series because my young adult students are reading them. While I really enjoyed the first two or three novels in The House of Night Series, I quickly began doubting the "validity" of such a fantasy...so much happens...it just cannot be real.
Oh, that's right! This is fantasy! But still...I wish the authors PC Cast and Kristen Cast would allow the characters to rest, to allow some time to pass between the major battles these young heroines and heroes are winning.
Zoey Redbird and her friends bite into (yes, that pun was intended) another adventure as the continue their year of schooling at the House of Night.
Please click here to read or listen to chapter one of this novel...enjoy!
This novel...well, I am still reading the series because my young adult students are reading them. While I really enjoyed the first two or three novels in The House of Night Series, I quickly began doubting the "validity" of such a fantasy...so much happens...it just cannot be real.
Oh, that's right! This is fantasy! But still...I wish the authors PC Cast and Kristen Cast would allow the characters to rest, to allow some time to pass between the major battles these young heroines and heroes are winning.
Zoey Redbird and her friends bite into (yes, that pun was intended) another adventure as the continue their year of schooling at the House of Night.
Please click here to read or listen to chapter one of this novel...enjoy!
#39: The Thirteenth Tale
RIP Challenge Novel #1
Twisted! I loved this novel! Diane Setterfield's debut novel The Thirteenth Tale was a great one to read to begin the RIP Challenge as it takes the reader on a journey over a span of time into the lives of Ms. Winter, who has commissioned Margaret Lea to write her life story.
I like to pride myself on determining a novel's end about midway through...but not this one. Needless, to say I was hooked!
Don't wait for the next RIP Challenge to read this...read it now! A great story!
Twisted! I loved this novel! Diane Setterfield's debut novel The Thirteenth Tale was a great one to read to begin the RIP Challenge as it takes the reader on a journey over a span of time into the lives of Ms. Winter, who has commissioned Margaret Lea to write her life story.
I like to pride myself on determining a novel's end about midway through...but not this one. Needless, to say I was hooked!
Don't wait for the next RIP Challenge to read this...read it now! A great story!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
#38: A Whole New Mind
Draft...in progress!
This book offered a new perspective, a scary perspective. Because of this book, I fear for my children's future careers. That is...unless they want to move to India. Every mother should fear the term outsourcing.
Daniel Pink writes a thought-provoking book, one that I read with peers as a part of our 21 CLC team this summer. This study concluded with a Skyped Q & A with Daniel Pink, himself, who, by the way, writes in a very normal-looking room within his house. (Funny how we think such people might just live in houses of gold and have an abundance of staff taking care of their every little need, including sharpening their pencils...wait, that example is pre-digital world!)
Back to the topic...
This book offered a new perspective, a scary perspective. Because of this book, I fear for my children's future careers. That is...unless they want to move to India. Every mother should fear the term outsourcing.
Daniel Pink writes a thought-provoking book, one that I read with peers as a part of our 21 CLC team this summer. This study concluded with a Skyped Q & A with Daniel Pink, himself, who, by the way, writes in a very normal-looking room within his house. (Funny how we think such people might just live in houses of gold and have an abundance of staff taking care of their every little need, including sharpening their pencils...wait, that example is pre-digital world!)
Back to the topic...
Saturday, August 15, 2009
#35-37: House of Night Books 2-4
The vampire saga continues...just wish I had number 5.
This week (between working on lesson plans, attending workshops, visiting with family, working at church, and, oh, yes, recuperating), I have read the next three books in this series (thanks to their arrival from half.com!)
Teenagers, especially females, will like this series, set in a high school scene. Full of action...well, actually, non-stop action, the reader is never bored as Zoey Redbird leads her team through many adventures as they either protect themselves or others in their first few months in the House of Night.
While some content may be a bit risque and some language could have been changed or even left out, I am not so prudish as to think our young adults are not exposed to such topics; just wish it were not so (okay, that was the mother in me that wrote those previous two lines!).
For a fun read, an interesting escape from the world of normalcy, spend some time with Zoey and her friends.
This week (between working on lesson plans, attending workshops, visiting with family, working at church, and, oh, yes, recuperating), I have read the next three books in this series (thanks to their arrival from half.com!)
Teenagers, especially females, will like this series, set in a high school scene. Full of action...well, actually, non-stop action, the reader is never bored as Zoey Redbird leads her team through many adventures as they either protect themselves or others in their first few months in the House of Night.
While some content may be a bit risque and some language could have been changed or even left out, I am not so prudish as to think our young adults are not exposed to such topics; just wish it were not so (okay, that was the mother in me that wrote those previous two lines!).
For a fun read, an interesting escape from the world of normalcy, spend some time with Zoey and her friends.
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