Anthony Perez - Book Review #2 - Holes

CITATION

Sachar, L. (1998). Holes. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,.

            

INTRO

         When it comes to young adult books one book stands out from my childhood as a classic, that book is “Holes” By Lois Sachar. “Holes” is one of the books that I actually remember reading in my 6t^h grade reading class. I thought it was a very interesting story that kept me reading the book. I believe my 4^th grade year is when reading books started to get more of a chore, so I am happy that I actually had the chance to enjoy this book and not just write it off as an assignment. This is why I have chosen to share it as a review for my 2^nd book review this quarter!

SUMMARY
           The book “Holes” follows the story of a young boy name Stanley Yelnats IV, a young boy who’s family is cursed with bad luck, and his adventure at Camp Green Lake, a camp for boys who have committed a crime or are in trouble. Stanley is sent to the camp because he is wrongly accused of stealing a pair of very expensive shoes from a charity auction. At the camp he meets many of the other characters in the book and they are forced to dig holes as a way to build character, but secretly the warden has the boys digging to find a buried treasure!  In the end the boys do find the treasure and it turns out that it actually belonged to Stanley’s ancestor, so it rightfully belongs to his family, which is a huge help.

CRITICAL THINKING

            One of the best things about using this book in a classroom is that there is a movie adaptation. One of the things that I would do in my classroom is to have the students first read the book version of the story. Then I would show the movie in the classroom. I would ask the children to explain which version of the story that they enjoyed the most and why. I would also ask them to list noticeable differences between the movie and the book.  I believe this is a good book to movie adaptation but there were still differences and I would like my students to be able to notice the differences and express if they thought they helped or hurt the story.

            When I remember reading the book, way before the movie had actually came out and even as a reread it, my mind always created an image of what Camp Green Lake looks like in my mind. As a creative piece I would ask that my students create what their view of Camp Green Lake. If I were tying the book in with the movie, I would ask that the students complete this assignment before we actually watched the movie so their imaginations weren’t hindered.  I think that by letting the students use there imaginations and create there own version of Camp Green Lake they will be able to share how they connected with the descriptions in the book.

            Another thing that kept me reading the book as a child, and even today, was my connection to Stanley. I feel like I connected to him because I could actually put myself in his shoes and see myself in his position and it made me a little scared. It made me think about how anyone could be wrongly accused for a crime and be sent away for something they didn’t do. As a child I didn’t really know the reality of this, but now, as an adult I do know that people are wrongly accused and sent to prison. As a classroom adaptation to this I would have my students try to find a character in the book that they most identified with and write a journal entry as that person. The journal entry would be about a day at Camp Green Lake in the eyes of the character chosen. I believe this would be another way for students to express how they personally connected with the story. This is an assignment that I would probably assign AFTER watching the movie, because students might be able to better identify with a character after seeing them on the screen.

            At the end of the book the author leaves us with a pretty good picture of how everything went. I think that the reader is left with the ability to use their imagination at this point in the story as well. I think another great activity for students would be to use their inference skills to write about what might happen next in Stanley and Zero’s lives. Using what they learned from the story and mixing it with their imaginations giving a whole new start to a 2^nd installment of “Holes”.

            All in all I believe that “Holes” is a very good book and something that I will definitely share in my classroom one day! If you have read it as a young child and have seen the movie I definitely suggest that you read the book again. It is one of the few books from my middle school years that I actually enjoyed that I was forced to read. I think that it having a touch of “realistic fiction” really made me enjoy it more. It was different then the other books that we were forced to read in class. The spotted lizards, the buried treasures, and the crazy nicknames definitely made the story more interesting and it made me want to continue reading the book until I was finished! It is one of the few books that I actually “read ahead” on.

Ali Boone Midterm

Lesson Plans Alice Boone

Day 1-5: October 25- October 29th

Day #1 = October 25 (Monday)

Reading/Grammar/ Spelling  instruction 8:15-8:55  (40 minutes) Objectives:  Identifying and understanding capital and proper nouns Materials: New working with words list Procedure: Introduce new words for the week. Go over the rules for plural nouns. Practice. Spelling plural nouns on dry-erase boards. Give out baseball teams to each student so they can begin to research the teams to use in a paper topic.

Preview Station for 5 day lesson 8:55-9:05 or 1:25-1:35 (10 minutes)

Station 9:05-9:45 (40 minutes)

2:45-2:55 Clean up and pack up

2:55-3:00 Listen to Announcements

3:00 Dismissal 

Day #2 = October 26 (Tuesday)

Reading/Grammar/ Spelling  instruction 8:15-8:30 (15 minutes) Objectives: Use correct capitals and plural nouns Materials: DOL #15 Procedure: Students will do DOL in composition notebook. They will correct the sentence. They will raise their hand when finished to be checked. Afterwards, we will review the concepts plural nouns.

Writing Workshop 8:30-9:10 (40 minutes) Objective: The student will be able to select, create and use graphic organizers to interpret textual information. We will be choosing from baseball looking graphic organizers to go on with our novel Skinnybones Materials: graphic organizer Procedure: I will introduce graphic organizers. Students will then work on graphic organizer.

Station 9:10-9:45 or 1:40-2:15(35 minutes)

Lesson Plans 

Day 1-5: October 25-29, 2010

Day #3 = October 27 (Wednesday)

Reading/Grammar/ Spelling  instruction 8:15-8:30 (15 minutes) Objectives: Use correct capitals and plural nouns Materials: DOL #15 Procedure: Students will do DOL in  composition notebook. They will correct the sentence. They will raise their hand when finished to be checked. Afterwards, we will review the concepts plural nouns

Guided Reading 8:30-9:10 (40 minutes) Objective: Answer literal, inferential and evaluative questions to demonstrate comprehension of grade level appropriate print texts. Materials: Chapter 1 and 2 in Skinnybones Procedure: Introduce background history and vocab for Skinnybones. Then read aloud chapter one as a whole group Skinnybones. Ask comprehension questions as we read. HW: No HW

Station 9:10-9:45 (35 minutes)

Lesson Plans 

Day 1-5: October 25-29 2010

Day #4 = October 28 (Thursday)

Reading/Grammar/ Spelling  instruction 8:15-8:30 (15 minutes) Objectives: Identify and understand uses of words Materials: Spelling Review Procedure: We will play a review game over spelling words

Writing Workshop 8:30-9:10 (40 minutes) Objective: The student will be able to select, create and use graphic organizers to interpret textual information. The student will be able to organize writing, beginning with an introduction, body and a resolution of plot, followed by a closing statement or a summary of important ideas and details. Direct the graphic organizer around specific team that they were given at the beginning of the week, by tracing the locations of the places where the team has visited in the past month.  Materials: graphic organizer/ fact finder/notebook paper Procedure: Students will start writing their baseball themed paper, I will work with them if they need help.

Station 9:10-9:45 (35 minutes)

Lesson Plans 

Day 1-5: October 25-29, 2010

Day #5 = October 29 (Friday)

Reading/Grammar/ Spelling  instruction 8:15-8:30 (15 minutes) Objectives:  Use correct capitals and plural nouns Materials: DOL quiz Procedure: Students will take their DOL quiz.

Guided Reading 8:30-9:10 (40 minutes) Objective: Answer literal, inferential and evaluative questions to demonstrate comprehension of grade level appropriate print texts. Materials: Skinnbones, chapters 3 and 4 Procedure: Students will partner read aloud SkinnyBones and then do the 10 questions that are on the smartboard on notebook paper.

Station 9:10-9:45 (35 minutes)

Stations for the days of Day 1-5: October 25-29, 2010

Stations	Objectives	Materials	Procedures
Creative Writing	Use correct capitals and plural nouns The student will be able to organize writing, beginning with an introduction, body and a resolution of plot, followed by a closing statement or a summary of important ideas and details.	5 Burdich pages/notebook paper	Students will pick one Burdich picture and write a descriptive story about the story.
Word Wall	Identify and understand uses of words	List of  spelling words/notebook paper	Students will write riddles for each spelling word. Then exchange riddles and figure out partners riddle.
Computers	Use correct capitals and plural nouns	Hartcourt.school.com games noun duck	Students will get onto Edline and go to this game.
Grammar/Cursive	Write legibly in cursive, spacing letters correctly Use correct capitals and plural nouns	Noun/cursive packet	Students will work on cursive and plural noun packet.
Guided Reading	Answer literal, inferential and evaluative questions to demonstrate comprehension of grade level appropriate print texts.	Skinnybones/ questions/ answer sheet	Teacher and students will read story. Then students will answer questions over story with teacher assistants.
Listening/Pair Reading	Establish and adjust purpose for reading, including to find out, to understand, to interpret, to enjoy and to solve problems	CD/ Skinnybones/poster paper	Students will listen to chapters 1-4 of Skinnybones. Afterwards, they will take a piece of poster paper and draw and write about what they think will happen next.

Maggie Roby: Review of ENCHANTED GLASS by Diana Wynne Jones

When Andrew Hope’s grandfather passes away, leaving Andrew the master of Melstone House, an enchanted field-of-care, and several cranky servants, all Andrew wants is some peace, quiet, and a computer so that he can begin writing his book. What he gets instead are vast quantities of improbably large vegetables, a blunt and beautiful secretary who can predict the future based on the day’s racing results, and a twelve-year-old boy named Aidan Cain, whose late grandmother instructed him to seek out Andrew’s grandfather in times of danger. Times certainly have become dangerous as the insidious Mr. Brown begins to encroach upon Andrew’s field-of-care, bent on destroying Aidan, his heir and only rival to an ancient and mystical power. Together, Andrew and Aidan must explore the boundaries of their field-of-care, learn how to harness the magic within themselves, and discover the power of certain mysterious panes of colored glass if they are to have any hope of preserving the balance of magic in the world.


In this story, there are two protagonists: thirty-year-old Andrew and twelve-year-old Aidan. The first chapter focuses exclusively on Andrew, and I was initially taken aback to find myself reading about a middle-aged academic rather than the middle school student I had been expecting. While I found his University existence and desire for independence easy to relate to on a personal level, I questioned his prominence in what is clearly a piece of young adult literature. But as I continued reading, Aidan’s arrival in Chapter Two having restored my equilibrium, it became clear that the characters of Aidan and Andrew are meant to function together. That they are meant to be juxtaposed is evidenced by the fact that the two look remarkably similar, both use their glasses to do magic, and are later revealed to be relatives. But more importantly, it is through Aidan that Andrew is able to reclaim specific memories about his childhood that he “had made himself forget…because he had decided that magic was not an adult thing to know” (204). It is only when Aidan sneaks out of the house to meet Groil that Andrew remembers that he had done the exact same thing when he was a boy staying at his grandfather’s house. While these revelations are integral to the plot (Andrew must assemble the memories of his grandfather’s magic lessons piecemeal before he is able to harness the power of the enchanted glass), they have much larger thematic significance in that they refute the notion put forth by such works as Peter Pan and The Chronicles of Narnia that one must needs “grow out” of magic. Peter Pan himself so fears this eventuality that he refuses to grow up at all, and when C.S. Lewis’ characters reach a certain age, they lose the ability to travel to Narnia. Diana Wynne Jones rejects this idea, suggesting instead that it is only the demands of society that keep us from retaining the magic of our childhood. Just as Andrew is able to remember and harness his magic by finding himself in Aidan, one need only try to see themselves in the words or actions of a child to reclaim some of the magic of childhood. And that, I think, is a beautiful idea.

One of the most interesting concepts in this novel is that most of the characters have what are called counterparts. Counterparts are magical beings who are similar in appearance to humans who live in the village. Some counterparts are similar in terms of personality, as well. For example, Groil, a giant who eats all of the prohibitively large produce, is the counterpart of Shaun, a slow but sturdy young man with a flair for fixing things. Neither Shaun nor Groil is particularly bright, and they get along wonderfully. However, Tarquin, a loyal ally, has for a counterpart the Puck, who is undeniably a villain. I find this disparity intriguing. Counterparts are not simply reflections or foils, but vague distortions of character that reveal aspects of their personalities that may not be otherwise apparent. There is no dichotomy of good and evil—the line is blurred. What does it say about Stashe, who ends up marrying Andrew, that her counterpart attempts to seduce him? Though one is good and the other bad, both share the same attraction to Andrew and are therefore more similar than Stashe would like to admit. Shaun and Groil accentuate one another. Shaun seems gentle, but is it possible that he too, like Groil, is capable of (at least metaphorically) eating people? For an assignment, I would have the students create their own magical counterparts, drawing a picture and determining which of their hidden personality traits their counterparts reveal about them.

In the novel, the character Stashe (Andrew’s eventual love interest) uses the results of horse races printed in the newspaper to predict the future. Naturally, even the most ridiculous names prove relevant to the development of the plot. I liked trying to guess how names like “Dogdays” and “Heavy Queen” were going to fit into the story, and I feel that this creative, entertaining, and humorous device lends itself to a lesson on foreshadowing—how it can be used to pique the reader’s interest and heighten the tension of the piece. In addition, the concept of fortune-telling brings with it the issue of fate. Is it inner strength that renders Andrew powerful enough to drive out Mr. Brown, or is it fate? Is man master of his own destiny? Is the name “Heavy Queen” vague enough to refer to, say, a chess match rather than an overweight counterpart disguised as a social worker? Is fate but another one of man’s inventions, twisted to the whim of his interpretation? I think that we would have quite enough material for a rather rousing class discussion. Also, a fun in-class writing assignment would be to get a set of actual racing results from a newspaper and then have the students write stories guided by the names of the selected horses, allowing them to put their new knowledge of foreshadowing to practical use.

While Enchanted Glass does not displace Howl’s Moving Castle on my list of favorite Diana Wynne Jones novels, I found this book enjoyable in the extreme. It would not be my first choice for use in the classroom, but it is certainly worth the read, particularly for those who enjoy Jones’ other work: it has the same delightfully outlandish characters, magically ridiculous circumstance, and charming wit and humor. The ending (which I refuse to divulge), particularly the final grand reveal about Aidan’s parentage, takes much of the tension and significance out of the plot, and I felt a bit cheated because the resolution seemed so effortless. This book also features the world’s fastest and most random marriage proposal, which is so abrupt that I laughed aloud when reading it. Ultimately, I quite liked this book and would recommend it to anyone seeking magic, adventure, the power of family, and, above all, a happy ending.

Jones, Diana Wynne. Enchanted Glass. New York, NY: Greenwillow, 2010. Print.

Beth Montgomery First Book Review

Harper, C.M. (2006). Fashion Kitty. New York, NY: First Scholastic Printing.

  The Kittie Family is unusual in three different ways.  First they own a pet mouse and are vegetarians.  Second the two daughters in the family KiKi and Lana get to pick out all their own clothes.  And third they know the secret identity of 'Fashion Kitty.'  Throughout the story the identity of 'Fashion Kitty" is revealed as she goes through many adventures helping those challenged in their fashion.  In the end she helps a friend who was being bullied along with helping her fashion needs.

    I choose this book because it went along with our discussion of graphic novels, the pictures and first few pages intriqued me as I thought this was going to be a book about choosing your own fashion style, and being happy with your own unique self.  In the beginning couple of pages it leads you on to believe this as Lana the youngest daughter is talked about as having her own fashion style; wearing stockings on her neck, underpants on the outside of her jeans, two skirts, and running off saying " you're not the boss of my fashion"  In the end I did not like this book and how it potrayed fashion and the characters in it, I will discuss this book by certain pages that stood out to me and made me dislike the content.

   The first thing comes in how Fashion Kitty(who is actually kiki) is described, she has a brain that can mix and match hundreds of outfits in a second.  But in the beginning of the book its states that the Kittie family is one where the two girls can wear whatever they like, not having a mother who controlled what they wear.  Who is to say that what fashion kitty can mix and match is 'fashion'.  Also if they are aloud to wear whatever they like then why should KiKi be controlling or telling other people what to wear when she turns into fashion kitty?  This made me confused on the moral of this story.

  Another thing that turned me off to this story was how the family was described as having a mouse as a pet.  That this would be compared to 'a human having a chocolate cake as a pet' where they would have a urge to eat their pet, but in fact the Kittie family were vegetarians.  The story goes into great detail about how the mouse has a special smell-proof clubhouse in the closet of Kiki's room, and any time cats would come over the mouse would run into the room and lock the door.  It also talked about how Mother Kittie sprays blue-cheese air freshener all over the house to be safe when vistors come over.  This mouse seemed to be very special to them in all they did to protect it as a pet.  I was expecting this mouse to come up as an important part of the story, but it only had an appearance in the very beginning which confused me on the importance of that pet.  I just took the importance as that the family was different then all the others.

   One of the efforts of Fashion Kitty was to help Mary Jane who was going to wear polka-dotted shorts over her pants the next day at school because, 'Priscilla Persian, the most popular kitty in school', gave her a note to say that all her friends were doing it.  I liked that Fashion Kitty was helping someone who was being bullied and tricked as a joke, but as fashion kitty helps her to go through her wardrobe and change her style for what she was going to wear the next day in order to look 'just as good' in Fashion Kitty's eyes as the most popular girl in school.  If Fashion Kitty was going with her ways of wear whatever you wanna wear, her message would be to be yourself and wear whatever makes you comfortable, not what you think the most popular girl in school wants you to wear.

  Overall I disliked the book in that I felt it was choppy and didnt follow a story line that seemed to make sense.  I did like the easiness of the reading to get those to read that may not often pick up a book, along with the fact that it is a graphic novel.  There were a few good lessons in the book including how the family handled stress by thinking about how things werent that bad and could be worse.  There is a picture saying it could be worse if: KiKi had not woken up, Lana had hit her head, Father Kittie has fallen down.  This shows good stress management skills.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

If the message of S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel The Outsiders is that “nothing gold can stay” than someone must have forgotten to mention that to her.  Over 40 years after its release The Outsiders still carries with it a valuable lesson for adolescents today.  The classic struggle of youthful alienation and the inevitability of change is still at the forefront of the adolescent experience to this day, and Ponyboy’s captivating narrative paints a vivid picture of two group of friends from different sides of the tracks, each struggling to find their way. 

            As the story opens up, we are introduced to the type of bullying and violence that the poor “greasers” face throughout the story at the hands of rich “socs”.  Ponyboy is walking home from the theatre when he is jumped by a group of socs, luckily he is saved by his brothers and the rest of their gang.  There are many more similar conflicts throughout the book, culminating in an all out gang fight between the greasers and the socs.  The most important conflict happens when Ponyboy and his friend Johnny, who always carried a switchblade because of a beating he received by a group of socs, were confronted in a vacant lot by a group of drunken socs.  As one of the socs was drowning Ponyboy in a fountain, Johnny pulled out his switchblade and killed him as the other socs fled.  In one night everything would change for both sides. 

            Bullying and alienation have always been and most likely always will be an integral part of the adolescent experience, whether a student is on one side or the other.  The Outsiders provides a valuable chance for students to engage in conversations about the violence and bullying they read about in the book and translate it to their own experiences.  The kids that are often the target of such violence are likely to interpret it in a different way than the kids who are often the perpetrators of these acts.  However, I don’t believe that either interpretation is more or less valuable than the other when it comes to examining their own adolescent experience. 

            Kids that are bullied in their school and even kids who simply feel alienated can look at the story Ponyboy tells and realize that they are not alone in their unfortunate circumstances.  In fact, with such dramatic displays of violence in The Outsiders, these kids may be able to put their experiences into an even better perspective.  On the other hand, kids that are often bullying others are offered the chance to see life from the perspective of the bullied, and hopefully realize that they are not so different.  This theme of adolescent alienation provides a valuable opportunity to open up a discussion about bullying and alienation in their school in a non-threatening literary environment where real problems and concerns can be expressed.

            It is also important as a teacher to make sure the students aren’t taking the story completely literally as the dynamics of these universal struggles in this day and age are probably not the same as they were for the  “greasers” and “socs”.  However, no matter the dynamics of the school there will undoubtedly be individuals who feel like an outsider in their own right.  It’s difficult to imagine any school in this country being completely homogenized to the point that similar conflicts do not exist.  Reading The Outsiders in class and discussing these themes could be an extremely valuable experience if mediated correctly. 

            The Outsiders also touches on another important theme relating to the adolescent experience, the reality that everything changes.  “Nothing gold can stay,” as Ponyboy would say.  This poem by Robert Frost seems to be the overarching theme of the text, and is played out brilliantly in the lives of the “greasers”.  Dallas Winston is the toughest of the “greasers” and is kind of an allegory for youth lost.  He’s seemed to have grown up too fast and made a lot of bad choices along the way.  Ponyboy on the other hand is still 14 and holding on to his youthful innocence as much as possible.  The incident in the vacant lot would drastically change the lives of everyone involved. 

Johnny’s guilt allowed him the courage to run into a burning church to save the lives of a few younger children and was fatally wounded in the process.  Looked at by the other “greasers” as their little brother, when Johnny finally succumbed in the hospital, it was too much for Dallas to bare.  As the police gunned him down after pulling a gun on them, Dallas death signified the idea of youthfulness lost. 

            The inevitability of change can be a tough thing for adolescents to accept, and S.E. Hinton brilliantly portrays this struggle throughout the book.  This theme provides another opportunity for a class discussion.  Students can be asked to expand on this idea by writing a short sequel to The Outsiders and explain how they think the story played out after the ending.  This gives students the opportunity to really dig in to the characters of the book by analyzing their actions throughout and creatively explaining how each character is handling his/her lives after the end of the book.

            I unfortunately never read this book during school but reading it now really gave me a chance to look back at my adolescence and think about it in a different way.   I think this book is perfect for English classes from 6^th to 9^th grade levels.  The Outsiders is definitely a book I will consider reading as a class in my classroom.  The fact that S.E. Hinton was only 15 when she began writing The Outsiders is another great aspect of the book in a classroom environment.  Studentss can use her as an inspiration and set their goals accordingly.  Perhaps one of my students will one day write a book that stays this golden 40 plus years after it’s published!

Hinton, S.E.. The Outsiders. New York: Penguin Books, 1967. Print.

Posted by: Lance Buckley

Uglies

Westerfeld, S. (2005). Uglies. New York: Simon & Schuster.


Summary

Tally Youngblood has lived her whole life anticipating the day she would be surgically changed from her natural, ugly self, into a medically-transformed pretty. On the day of her surgery, however, she is told that she cannot be turned pretty until she betrays a friend by finding where a group of runaways, the Smokies, is living. After finding the town, she realizes the benefits of staying ugly, but accidentally notifies the city officials of the town’s location. The inhabitants of the town are then taken back to the dystopian city where Tally and her new friend David have to rescue them.

Critical Thinking

As a teacher, it is important to create opportunities for children to connect with and think critically about the books they read. The following are topics that I could use to create discussion or follow-up assignments in the classroom. They are ranked by amount on comprehension and maturity that I think would be required by the reader, starting with the simplest:

Honesty

Throughout this book, Tally has to make up an increasing number of lies to hide her true motivation and previous actions. Occasionally, others call her out on inconsistencies in her stories. Eventually, the result of the lying is far worse than if she had just told the truth from the beginning. I really like that, in the end, Tally is held accountable for her decisions, and personally assumes the responsibility for the situation she created. In the classroom, I could ask the students to think of a time when they told a lie, then had to face the negative consequences that resulted from it. Or, I could ask them to think about a time when they had been hurt by someone else’s dishonesty. To incorporate writing into reading, I could ask them to write an alternate scenario in which Tally promptly tells the Smokies the truth about her mission from the Specials.

Body Image

I didn’t love this book, but I know that my teenage sister did. She recommended it wholeheartedly to me and read the entire series. Because it is written about a teenage girl, I imagine this is the audience it appeals to the most. Girls that age face an immense amount of peer pressure to look good— to be pretty. While I didn’t love the book, I did like that it emphasized that fitting into the norm, becoming like everyone else, and giving up your individually actually has a lot of negative consequences. This book does a good job of breaking down the stereotypes of “desirable qualities” that our society has created. In the classroom, I could ask my students to think about their heroes. A few may describe orally what they admire in that person. Chances are good that the majority of these positive qualities would not be beauty. In the book, Uglies were trained to believe they were ugly by the government, teachers, and each other. The nicknames they gave themselves were one of the primary reinforcements to this negative thinking. For students focusing on this aspect of the book, I would challenge them to act out mock scenarios where they give compliments and practice graciously receiving them.

Living Green

I feel like Scott Westerfeld was attempting to make a statement with his descriptions of the Rusty Society. I hope my students would be able to make the connection between the Rusties in the book and our current society. The Rusties relied heavily on oil, which ultimately resulted in their downfall. They did not use renewable energy or attempt to preserve natural resources. In contrast, Tally’s city focused heavily on preserving the environment. Everything was recycled and Tally abhorred the idea of even cutting down one tree. Students could be taught what it means to reduce the size of your ecological footprint. They could read expository articles about climate change, habitat destruction, and renewable energy. I could ask my students to write a short story entitled “A Day Without Gas.” These stories could be humerous, but I would encourage them to consider how their everyday lives would be changed if no gas were available.

Bioethics

The surgery performed in the city to change people pretty also causes lesions on their brains that suppress their desire to repel and their ability to make quick decisions. By the end of the book, the surgery is considered a punishment to the Smokies. They don’t want the surgery to turn them pretty. Today in our society, there are many people who would rather not obtain certain medical interventions. For example, some religions object to blood transfusions, some parents don’t want vaccinations for their children, and some people would rather die than receive extensive treatment. Examples like these could be shared with more advanced children in a classroom. I could ask them to choose one topic within bioethics, and write a persuasive opinion paper as to what extent the government should be allowed to force citizens to receive treatment against their will.

While I think this book is primarily written for teenage girls, there are many subthemes in it that can be analyzed by different genders and maturity levels. Uglies attacks many of the pervasive stereotypes that exist in our society today. It is a great demonstration that you cannot accept everything that you are told from authority figures. I hope this book will encourage children to test the concepts they are taught, look for reason behind action, and question the norm.

by Kelli T

Anthony Perez's Book Review of "The Giver" By: Lois Lowry

Citation

Lowry, L. (1993). The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
     ISBN 0-553-57133-8
Intro

     For my first book review I chose to read the book “The Giver” by Lois Lowry. I chose this book because it is a childhood favorite that I still enjoy reading and examining. This was my 3rd time actually reading the book so it gave me an opportunity to take a deeper look into the reading.

Summary


     “The Giver” is the story of an 11, going on 12 year old, boy named Jonas who lives in what appears to be a very utopian society. The society Jonas lives in does not have much diversity; all families have 2 children, 1 boy and 1 girl, and all tasks are learned at the same age. People in the community also take pills to suppress feelings of love and sexual desires. When it comes to careers, one does not choose their career; it is assigned to them at the “Ceremony of Twelve”. This ceremony marks the change of 11 year olds to 12 year olds. The Ceremony of Twelve is where the books main focus is; it follows Jonas and his job assignment of “Receiver of Memories”. Jonas’ job is to take on the memories of pain, fear, love, and all other memories that have been forgotten by the community to ensure their utopian lifestyles. After awhile Jonas realizes that his community is no utopia at all, there is no true happiness and people are basically robots living a daily routine. This leads to him fleeing away to an ambiguous place at the end of the novel.

Critical Thinking

      After reading this novel a number of times I have been able to think more critically about things beyond the text. As a future educator I would love to find a place for this book in my classroom. When I think of themes in this book I think of a great spark of imagination, gender roles, the idea of a utopian society, the similarity to the book “1985” by Anthony Burgess, and the idea of no real choices.

     I believe this novel is a great book for early teens and young adults because of its ability to grab the reader’s attention and push to use imagination. As one begins reading the book, Lowry’s description of the society and their way of life is very intriguing and influences one to continue to read. I found myself making many assumptions as to where Jonas’ lived and wanted to learn more about the rules and traditions of his society. When it comes to a book like this I believe description is a very good trait. Since there are no pictures, description is the only thing that our minds can feed on to make an understanding of the environment we are reading about. I believe this book is a good book to teach students how to use imagination. For younger students you could ask them to make pictures of what they think the town might look like.

      Another thing that I found interesting about the book is the depiction of gender roles. When it comes to Jonas’ parents his mother works in the judicial field and his father is a caregiver. In my mind these gender roles go against the “traditional” gender roles of our society. Where the male would be the one working in the judicial field and the mother, being the “nurturer”, would work with the newborn young. This makes me wonder if the author did this on purpose to go against the social norms of our society. Although gender roles are switched back when it comes to the job of “birthmothers”, which is a career that is looked down upon in Jonas’ society. Although it would be a little controversial, I would ask my students to make up some lists of gender “stereotyped” careers and as a class see if everyone agrees. I feel like the females in a younger classroom would have a completely different list than the males.

      One topic from the book that could be open for a classroom discussion would be “Is Jonas’ society truly ‘Utopian’? “. Since there is no real sense of fear, death, or loneliness, people don’t need to worry about crime and other situations that occur in our lives every day. So in that sense the answer would be yes. On the other hand there is no freedom of choice, love, or sexual happiness. So the debate would be, which is truly utopian; to be happy and a little unsure of what is going to happen, or have no true happiness and be safe everyday. I would really enjoy hearing people’s thoughts on the idea of a utopia and what their particular “utopia” entails. I believe this would really engage students’ minds about utopian societies. With this I would have them make a list of what their own utopian would be like.

      Another idea that comes to mind when reading this book is the similarity it has to the book “1985” by Anthony Burgess. If I were teaching a high school course I would also want to have my students compare and contrast “The Giver” and “1985. I think the two are similar in many ways but “1985” takes a more rough approach. It would be nice to have the students thinking about if the two societies really were all that different. Although, portrayed in different light by the text, I believe the actual underlining of the two societies are very much alike.

      Lastly something I think about every time I read this book is the idea of no choice in careers. I believe this is one thing about the society Jonas lives in that really makes it not my idea of a utopia. I would use this idea of the “Ceremony of Twelve” as an activity in my classroom if I were to use this book. I would have all of my student write down a scrap piece of paper the career they dream to have one day and put them into a box. I would also add some low level jobs and labor jobs into the box as well. I would then have my students pick out of the box the career that they would have the rest of their time alive. I would then have the students research their randomly chosen career and give a small paper on their career and how they feel about what they were picked to do. I feel like this would be both a good window into the feeling that the people in Jonas’ society had when they went through the Ceremony of Twelve, and it would be a good educational piece on careers.

Final Thoughts

      I have always loved “The Giver” since the first time I read it in 8th grade. It has and will always be one of my favorite books. I can’t wait to share it with my class and use some of my ideas within the classroom to have students fall in love with the book, just as I have.

Amanda Racher's First Book Review

Pfister, Marcus. The Rainbow Fish. New York: North-South Books, 1992. Print.

This book was a beloved classic from my childhood, and is about a fish with extraordinary glimmering scales, much different from the dull scales of his peers. He is reluctant to give away his scales, but after some self-discovery, he learns how to share.

The Rainbow Fish draws children in with beautiful watercolor illustrations and metallic scales on the Rainbow Fish. The pictures are beautiful and captivate even older audiences. The story also reveals a very important moral, the importance of sharing. After a brief chat with a wise old octopus, the Rainbow Fish is willing to share some of his precious scales with his friends. The story tells that happiness is reached by giving, which is a very important moral parents value in teaching their children. Using beautiful colors, the book interests children, as well as pleases parents.

Tolhurstm Marilyn. Somebody and the Three Blairs. New York: Orchard Books, 1990. Print.

This story is a "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" spin-off where a family of three, the Blairs, leave the house and a bear comes into their home. The bear messes with the furniture in their apartment, much like Goldilocks, and at the end, the family falls in love with the bear.

I remember being read this book when I was small, and thinking that it was hilarious! It has a quick wit about it, and it is impossible not to fall in love with the little bear that travels into the Blair's home. The pictures are cute and pretty simple, and they get the point across. When I was young, I found the book to be so clever (for expample, the title, where "Blair" rhymes with "bear"), whereas now I feel like the jokes are a bit too cutesy. But it is the type of humor first graders would understand and appreciate, because I know I did.

Scieszka, Jon; Smith, Lane. Squids will be Squids. New York: Viking, 1998. Print.

"Squids will be Squids" is a spin-off of the classic "Aesop's Fables" in which it tells short stories with underlying morals. The stories told in this book, however, are a bit more zany than anything Aesop has written.

Again, this is another childhood favorite of mine simply because of the crazy characters and the situations they somehow get into. What interests me the most about this book is the morals. The morals are very vague, one simply being "squids will be squids". I feel that the authors of this book intended to make extremely vague morals at the end of the stories to encourage conversations between children and the adults reading the book to them. The fables have very clear messages to adults, but to children they may be a bit more difficult to see. This makes it a requirement for adults to give their own interpretations of the morals, making it so the children can understand them in Layman's terms, and therefore apply them.

Jackson, Ellen. Cinder Edna. New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books, 1994. Print.

Like some of the others I have reviewed, this book is a takeoff on a classic: Cinderella. It compares two women, Cinderella and Cinder Edna and both of their stories. Cinderella is the classic character, beautiful and waiting for her prince charming, while Edna is a savvy, practical girl who is in the same situation as Cinderella, working for her stepmother and stepsisters, but makes the most out of her situation.

This book reminded me a lot of "Somebody and the Three Blairs" because of its up-to-date references (for expample: Edna took the bus to her ball, and wore loafers because they were comfortable dancing shoes). It also had a quick humor about it that interests the reader quickly. It is a refreshing spinoff that highlights female empowerment. Cinderella does not have fun at the ball, and does not live happily ever after even though she has a handsome prince and a ton of money. Edna does live happily ever after, even though she lives a more modest life with a less-handsome prince of her own.

Numeroff, Laura. If You Take A Mouse To School. New York: Laura Geringer Books, 2002. Print.

This book is not a spin-off on an older classic, but is in the series "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie", so it is written in the same fashion. A boy takes his mouse to school and the mouse is very needy, always needing one school-themed item after the next.

I thought that this was a cute story, but I was familiar with the series and predicted correctly what the ending would be like. The cartoon-like illustrations are captivating and humorous. It is entertaining to watch a tiny mouse behave like a human: eating sandwiches, coloring, and shooting a basketball (or trying to, anyway). I am sure many children have fantasized of having a little furry friend specifically designated to make them laugh during long hours in a classroom, and this book fulfills that very wish.

Elise Pitz's Book Review on Families

Families are an important topic in the classroom because every child in a classroom has some sort of family whether it be friends, grandma, mom and dad, mom and mom or aunt and uncle. There were many books to choose from but I tried to find a variety of families so every child could feel included.

The Berenstain Bears Get In A Fight was a personal favorite from childhood. This book can bring up great discussion for the classroom, the most obvious being arguments between your siblings. Brother and Sister Bear get into a fight and in the end they realize, they don’t even know what they are fighting about. At that age, children usually do fight about something that doesn’t make sense. The children can find humor in this book when they see the Brother and Sister Bear don’t even know why they are fighting, are realize how silly fighting can be. The illustrations are all outlines in black, a very basic “old” illustration. The bears all wear the same outfits the whole time so the main pictures don’t change much.

The Worm Family is a great way to be proud of your family. The worms have to find a home that will accept them and not judge them for being worms until they finally realize they just need each other and they love to be worms. This could be used in a classroom so that children will know that everyone can be proud of a family-even if you are worms! Sometimes children are embarrassed when they aren’t a “normal” family and this will help them realize that anyone can be proud. It does thrown in some facts about worms such as no spine and no chin, so that will inform children as well. This has basic background, just a color usually. The worms all have the same facial expression the whole book except for their mouths, which make a face depending on the situation (smiling, frowning, “Oh” for an excited face). 

In Our Mothers’ House covers all the bases! This is a book about three children adopted by their lesbian mothers. Their whole neighborhood loves them but one neighbor does not agree with their sexuality. This book would be hard to describe to children because I don’t know how much they understand sexuality and why people wouldn’t accept it. I would probably make it more simple by just describing a house with two moms instead of a mom and a dad and not go too much into the conflict of the book. The book brings up other great topics such as biracial families since the three children are all from different countries. This book talks about the different cultures and what they stereotypically cook (Italians=pasta). Death is another difficult topic brought up in this book but it is a good way to realize that family tradition can always live on if you want it to. This book also talks about the set up of a house, where the family plays, where they read, where they meet for family meeting. This is what most of the illustrations are about, showing the different activities in different rooms. The illustrations are sketch-like and colors are dull but they are still very descriptive. This book is great because it covers SO many topics and you could create so many activities for children based on just this book. The first activity I would create would be to have the children draw their house and tell me where they play or eat or read.

My Mom is Trying to Ruin My Life is now one of my favorite children’s books! I found myself giggling out loud while reading it as a 21 year old. The little girl talks about all the reasons her mom and dad are ruining her life (not letting her eat snacks, making her do homework) and she wants them to go to jail, until she realizes she won’t have anyone to cook or tell her that her scary dreams aren’t true. This is a great way for children to realize how important their parents are to their life and how all the things they complain about are really just silly. I think this would be a great book to read before we create our crafts for mothers day. The pages have multiple illustrations of different scenes on a page. The pictures are very descriptive of the words and go along very well with the book. This book is also sketch-like using the same outfits throughout the entire book.

The Family Book is an easier read but it covers many topics. This could be the book that is a read alone because it still talks about the set up of a family, death, adoption and different living situations. The illustrations are very basic using only the primary colors and everything is made out of shapes stacked on top of each other. The great aspect of this book is that it talks about similarities of all families too, no matter how different they are. The similarities can make children realize that no matter how different the set up of their family is or how different their houses are every family can be strong together or celebrate together. 

                                                            Works Cited

Berenstain, Stan, and Jan Berenstain. The Berenstain Bears Get In A Fight. New York: Random House, 1982. Print.

Feiffer, Kate, and Diane Goode. My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life. New York: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2009. Print.

Johnston, Tony, and Stacy Innerst. The Worm Family. Orlando: Harcourt, 2004. Print.

Parr, Todd. The Family Book. New York: Little, Brown, 2003. Print.

Polacco, Patricia. In Our Mothers' House. New York: Philomel, 2009. Print.

Danny Frank Second Book Review

Howe, Deborah, James Howe, and Alan Daniel. Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery. New
York: Anthem, 1979. Print.

Similarly like my first book review, I decided to revisit one of my favorite books growing up as a child for Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery, was one of my favorite stories growing up as a child. In this story the Monroe family discovers a rabbit in a movie theater, while watching the film Dracula. After bringing the rabbit home, the families two pets, Chester a cat, and Harold a dog, become suspicious of this rabbit and believe the it has some vampire-like characteristics. This book is narrated from Harold’s point of view as he and the rest of the Monroe family soon observe some bizarre occurrences around the house like vegetables mysteriously turning all white throughout the night, which sends Chester into a frantic search to prove that Bunnicula is indeed a vegetable sucking vampire bunny.

Upon briefly mentioning this book in class last week, it sparked my interest in picking the book up once again. Although this would be my first time actually “reading” the story. Although, I am not the biggest audiobook fan, I did have a couple of books on tape that I would often listen to as I fell asleep growing up. Somewhere between the ages of ten and twelve I believe I listened to the book for the first time. Now re-reading the book I can vividly remember the voices of the characters in the book, and it’s interesting that in my mind while reading is exactly how I would imagine them if they were truly real, because of all the times listening to the story falling asleep. My audio book copy was narrated by Lou Jacobi, who I think does an excellent job in bringing the characters to life.

I also believe that due to my expose to these suspense and thrilling stories (like the Bunnicula series and Goosebumps) growing up, has led me to be very adventuresome and always seeking out new thrills. These type of books that constantly want you to turn the page have seemed to be some of the few books that can keep my interest. I feel that the reason this book has continued to stay popular throughout the years is not only because you want to continue reading, but also because it's easily relatable for kids and it introduces an interesting concept in the theme of vampires.

Although the book is obviously fantastical, and we have cats and dogs talking to each other and reading books, I feel that it is fun as a child to read stories from animal's point of view. Adding in the aspect of a rabbit, which has been referenced in being the most tame and shy mammal, having "vampiristic" powers adds to the comedic theme of the book. A couple other funny parts throughout the book is when Chester shouts, "Today vegetables! Tomorrow the world!" referencing to the fact that Bunnicula has the potential ability to take over the world. Another comical part is when Chester misunderstands that he should drive a stake through a vampire's heart and believes that he needs to use a steak to do so.


Overall the suspense combined with the good sense of humor and vampire elements that are not to scary for children make this an excellent book. This book is the first in the many series. Multiple sequels have been written and consist of "Howliday Inn" and "The Celery Stalks at Midnight" as the second and third books, respectively.