The Book Thief

I have to say that I really enjoyed this novel. However, I have always been interesting in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, so it wasn't surprising to me.
I think this novel has a lot of redeeming qualitites that would allow for it to have a place in a classroom. I think one of the major themes that could be focused on is adversity. When I was at Waynesboro this past week, one of the lessons that they focused on dealt with adversity and I really enjoyed it. It seemed lik the students did, too.
I think this novel would be interesting to compare with "The Diary of Anne Frank". It would give two different aspects of the time period and what things were going on.
When I read this novel, it reminded me of the movie that just recently came out "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas". This movie was great. It is about a young boy whose father is a very important soldier in the German Army. Because he was recently promoted, the family moves to a new house, which to close to a caoncentration camp. I don't want to give too much away, because I would recommend watching it, but the little boy befriends a young boy in the concentration camp. They become friends through the fence.
Although tells a different story compared to what we read in "The Book Thief", I think that it would be beneficial to show. Both the novel and the film show Nazi Germany through the affects that it has on children. That could even be a topic to focus on in a classroom.
Here is the URL if anyone is interested in watching the trailer :http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi751566873/

American Born Chinese

I really enjoyed this book. I had never really read a comic before (besides the ones in the paper), so I wasn't sure what an entire book based on that would be like to read. I thought it was very good and I think that it has many good aspects that can be used to teach with. I like the idea of dealing with stereotypes which goes right along with Monster, but I also like the idea of maybe teaching the students how to write their own comic. One of the things that we are discussing in my Methods class is that we shouldn't be to worried about what our students are writing about as long as they are writing. Of course there are boundaries to that, but I think that if writing comics is what gets students to write, then that's ok.
I thought that the article that we read was interesting, as well, although there were a few points that were a little questionable to me. When he discussed that " students won't explore their place in and influnce on society if they aren't confident writers in the first place" (8). I don't know if I completely agree with this, because I don't think that people have to be confident writers to be successful in society. I felt like he was saying that if you don't writer confidently, you won't be confident in your life. Writing may not be that important to many people, but that's doesn't mean that they aren't confident in their life now.
I also didn't the the part where he said that if there is a negative connotation spoken to a person (for example their race), they shouldn't be worried about it, because that shows more about the other person than them themselves. Although this may be true in a way, I still think that it will upset them. When someone is being called a name that makes fun of their race, they are going to take offense to it. I know from personal experience when I was in Chicago, we were in a prodominately black neighborhood, and went to a Burger King. There were 6 of us and we were the only white people there. Most of them stared at us, but we even heard someone say, look at the snow bunnies. It makes you feel awkward, and that's not even as bad as he N- word (in my opinion). I just had a hard time with this part.
However, I did like that he had examples of other teachers at the beginning of the article. I thought it was neat to read the different ways that they taught.

Monster

When I picked up Monster to start reading, I thought that if I could at least finish half at that time I would be good. I completed the whole novel in about two hours, and from how it sounds, I'm not the only one. I thought this novel was an extremely easy read (after I got into it). I have to admit that, at first, it was hard reading in the form of a screen play, but once I was use to it, I was fine.
I thought this novel brought up some interesting aspects of right and wrong and the fine line that goes with them. It deals with racial issues, involving young black males and a young mexican male. It's ironic to me that none of the men involved in the crime were white (if I am remembering correctly. I'm not sure). This could be a good topic brought up about this novel if this were the case, though.
As far as teaching this novel, I believe that it would be challenging because it does deal with racial issues. However, I believe that it could be taught as long as I, the teacher, let out my own personal opinion about the situations going on, much like Hade said in his article. We need to let students develop their own ideas about this.
I thought Hade brought up some good points about multiculturalism. It is something that is very important that should be taught to students. America is no longer made up of predominately white people. There are more cultures in our country now than ever and it is important for students to know this and understand this. Even though it was at a college level, I took a class on African Literature, and it was one of the most interesting classes I had. Reading novels written from another culture showed me a different side of literature that I hadn't thought of before.
Although we don't have to actually teach African written novels, I believe that there is an important place for all cultures and "races" in a classroom.

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.