Speak

Since I will be presenting on Wednesday, I will be discussing Speak as a novel. It has been a little while since I have read it, so a few things are a little foggy, but I remember a lot of the main ideas. I enjoyed reading this book. Although it appears to be a downer, I thought that it was written very well. There are a lot of interesting themes in this novel, however I really do not want to share to much, because that is part of our lesson and I do not want to give anything away.
I thought the part dealing with the art teacher and the tree was very interesting. It brought out many important ideas in the novel.
As far as teaching this novel in my class, I think I would like to try it. I would probably send a permission slip home with students stating that the novel had the idea of rape in it, but that it did not over take the novel. The main point of the novel was about this girl not speaking, and how she overcame this idea at the end.

Boy Meets Boy

If I am being completely honest, at first I had a hard time reading this novel. However, once I was about half way through, I began thinking of it more as a love story than a love story about homosexuality. I though, overall, the book was not too bad. The story live seemed typical for something an adolescent would read. If my students had permission from their parents, I wouldn't mind letting them read it in their own time, but I do not think that I would teach this book in my classroom.
Homosexuality is another one of those touchy subjects that would cause many parents to be upset. I know that students are suppose to be exposed to all aspects of the world now, but I don't think I would feel comfortable enough yet to teach this. Someone could argue that if you focused on the pure relationship aspect and why the author wrote what they wrote, then you could teach it. That very well may be, however, the bottom line is, this novel is about homosexuality and I can see it causing an upset among parents.
I don't think students would take it very seriously, either. Again, it is much like the topic of sex in Forever. I don't know how a adolescent boy would feel reading this, but I can't imagine they would have a good impression about the novel.
As I said before, I thought the book was interesting, but I still don't think that I would like to teach it to my class.

Forever . . .

I read forever about a week ago, and I thought it was a very interesting novel. The ending was predictable, although I wanted to them to stay together, I knew it was coming.
While reading the novel, I was very surprised at the sexual explicitness that took place. When I think of novels that deal with sex in these terms, I would often think of a "steamy" romance novel, not an adolescent literature novel. This would definately be a controversial book to teach in an adolescent classroom. How does a teacher discuss something like this without certain parents getting upset. However, if the teacher knows how to handle it, this novel can be taught in a proper fashion. Basically what has to happen is that the teacher has to allow the students to take over. Let them be the ones who start discussion on topics like this. It could still be considered controversial, but I think that it could be done. I don't know that it is something that I would want to teach right away, but maybe after a few years I would consider it.
As I was reading through Trite, a quote stuck out to me "Sexual potency is a common metaphor for empowerment in adolescent lit, so the genre is replete with sex" (84). Because I have read ahead several novels, I can see that is is absolutely true.
Trite also discusses the fact that the novel is almost like a guide to having sex. It contains most, if not all, of the major concepts that go along with sex. This is something that would seem to intrigue students, because there are the age when they are like Micheal and Katherine, they are thinking about sex a lot. However, Trite makes sure to mention that Blume also lists the consequences of having sex. I think that this is a great point to be made.
Overall, I thought Trite made some excellent points about Forever. They were points that I had not thought of. She really seemed to bring more insight and understanding to the novel.

The Chocolate War

I just finished reading The Chocolate War and I have to say that the ending was not what I thought it would be. However, I do think that is suited the book. The Vigils to me seemed more like a cult than a "school group" but maybe that is what the author was going for. One of the major themes that I noticed in the novel was the focus on beauty. The word beautiful was used in almost every chapter, and there boys were always focusing on beautiful girls. To me it seems ironis, because of the lack of beauty that the novel contained. Again, maybe that was what the author intended. Anyone have ideas on what the focus of beauty was in the novel? Overall, I thought the book was interesting and a quick read.