Monday, April 16, 2012
Teacher initiated blog #5: April 16th
Last week we discussed what makes YA literature valuable and why some novels stand the test of time over others. Use the Exeter Qualities to evaluate the novel you are currently reading. (Do not use The Hunger Games). Give specific examples to support your ideas. Be sure to put some thought into this reflection and double check your grammar!
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In the novel I am reading called "Save Me" a woman is forced to decide whether to save 2 young girls that are right next to her or go and save her daughter from the bathroom. The school bursts into flames and she has to choose between her child or 2 children that are bullying her child. I honestly don't know what I would do. Obviously I would save my daughter but I don't know if I could just leave the other 2 girls. It is an amazing book and I recommend everyone read it!
ReplyDeleteIn the book Longing by Karen Kingsbury there are many very good exeter qualities. The characters struggle with making descions about their future. Also, characters who have had rough lives such as alcoholic parents, drug related accidents, and deadly car accidents. Karen Kingsbury writes the book from four different perspectives. Each chapter that she writes leaves the reader hanging and wishing they were in the lives of another reader. However at the next chapter you are immediatly sucked into the life that you last left. If that makes sence. Bailey the main character is a dancer on Broadway for the show Hairspray and is dating America's heart throb Brandon Paul. There are many unique things in the book and more exeter qualities but these are some that really stuck out to me.
ReplyDeleteThe Hunger Games series is unlike any series that I have ever read. The plots are extremely creative and very well structured. The relationships between the lovers, capital, and districts create a alot of tension and surprises. I think that we can relate to these books because a lot of the events have to do with an average teenagers life. Readers can learn many lessons from these books. The characters' main goals are to protect their family. I feel like people today don't realize how important their families really are. The plot is comparable to many situations around the world. There are many countries that are run under a totalatarian dictator. The people live under harsh rules just as the people in the books. It's scary to think that real people actually live under those conditions.
ReplyDeleteI would say that this book does satisfy or even exceed the Exeter Qualities.
The book I am reading is called, "The Big Miss," by Hank Haney. Hank is writing a all tell book about his time teaching Tiger Woods. I don't believe this book will stand the test of time, because a lot of it's aura is in the mystery of how Tiger Woods will continue to play. When Tiger is retired, this book will lose a good majority of it's prestige, because we will already know what Hank wants to know, will Tiger pass Jack Nicklaus' 18 Major Championships record.
ReplyDeleteThe book I am reading is called, "Fallen Angels," by Walter Dean Myers. It is a story of a young black man from Harlem who decides to go off to Vietnam because he doesn't know what to do with his life. It offers an extremely realistic story of how life really was in Vietnam. The book shows how many of the soldiers developed nicknames, strong friends, or great enemies amongst themselves. It also touches on how it affected thier mentality with killing the VC and also when they accidently killed members of the army or of the Vietnamese Army that was helping their side. It has strong exeter qualities, but may not be suitable for all.
ReplyDeleteIn the book "Because of Winn Dixie" I feel like there are a lot of good exeter qualities. The little girl in the story, Opal, has lost her mother and is moved to a small town where she doesn't have any friends. She feels lonely and just wants to feel accepted. I feel like this is something that a lot of kids go through, not just being the new kid, but also losing your mom at a young age, and feeling insecure. I think that a lot of kids and adults could relate to this book. It deals with alcoholism. It doesn't dive deep into it, but in the book, a character has a "mistake tree" and she has all of her alchol bottles hung in the tree, but its a reminder to her to not drink anymore. It also deals with standing up for what you believe in. This man likes to play his music. He got sent to jail because the police wouldn't let him play his music. One important thing is about coming out of your shell and not holding everything in. I feel like this book has a lot of good exeter qualities and stands the test of time.
ReplyDeleteRight now I am in the process of reading the book Night Road. I feel that this book has many exeter qualities. I think the main part that represents exeter qualities would be the obstacles they face. The book makes it very easy to relate to. There are many challenges and decisions they have to make for example falling in love with your best friends brother. In general its very easy to relate to and the characters are very much like typical everyday people and you can tell their exact personalities. Its an amazing book and everyone should read it.
ReplyDeleteMy book a "Child Called It" there are several Exeter qualities. It has an exciting plot in that you never know what will happen to David next, or how he will react to it. This book pulls on your heat stings because the boy is so mistreated which brings in the emotional aspect to it. The theme is child abuse and overcoming obstacles. The langue makes the story come alive. David longs to be like is father and wants to spend as much time with him as possible this reflects real life issues because so many young boys desire to be like their father. This book isn’t as a very high reading level but I would definitely not recommend young students read it.
ReplyDeleteThe book I am curretly reading is "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan, which is part of the Percy Jackson series. The book deals with Greek mythology in modern times and has the potental to stick around for a long time, but since fads come and go so often it will be interesting to see if the book sticks around. If anything it will become a classic for middle school kids but some how I doubt that it will become a classic. Either way I still really enjoy this book and its series!
ReplyDeleteRecently I just finished reading the book Angels and Demons. It is clearly a well structured book and imaginative. The whole idea of the book is to stop a bomb from destroying Vatican City. The author definitely put in a lot of time researching the details of art and architexture in because it goes in to very thorough detail. The characters experience some very unique situations such as being in the archives of the Catholic Church and being in the tunnels beneath the city. The main theme is really about questioning the common thoughts of society so the book has received countless amounts of criticism about the author's core beliefs. It is a long book at about 700 pages but if you are someone who enjoys reading I think this would be a good book to spend some time on.
ReplyDeleteThe book I am currently reading is "The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. This book is about a young african american boy who is having a rough life and living out in the streets. One day a family sees him and brings him into their home. After awhile the boy starts to feel comfortable there and spends all his time with the family. The african american boy ends up being a football star and lives with the family who took him in. He cares so much about this family that he protects the mother who brought him in. This book is a great book and will be around for a long time.
ReplyDeleteIn the book Longing by Karen Kingsbury there are many very good exeter qualities. The characters struggle with making descions about their future. Also, characters who have had rough lives such as alcoholic parents, drug related accidents, and deadly car accidents. Karen Kingsbury writes the book from four different perspectives. Each chapter that she writes leaves the reader hanging and wishing they were in the lives of another reader. However at the next chapter you are immediatly sucked into the life that you last left. If that makes sence. Bailey the main character is a dancer on Broadway for the show Hairspray and is dating America's heart throb Brandon Paul. There are many unique things in the book and also very prevalent themes. Themes of love, sadness, friendship, trust, devastation, and leaving behind one you love. Connor one of the son's has a dream of becoming a famous singer on American Idol a dream that Im sure many teenagers can relate to. Bailey's friend Crissy dies due to severe anorexia and depression causing Bailey to look beyond her life and see the bigger picture. These are some of the Exeter qualities in my book.
ReplyDeleteYA literature is important because it can help kids grow as readers. In between Phonix and adult style readings, there has to be a next step. It can't be too difficult that young adults won't understand the context, but yet it has to have a detailed plot and storyline.
ReplyDeleteThere a few qualities that make some books better than others, but the most important is that it can be relatable to several different groups of people. Some of the best YA books can bring together people. Take "To Kill A Mockingbird" for example, this book has many different characters all with distinct personalities and characteristics. In TKAM, there are characters of all different races and from all different backgrounds. This allows everyone to find a little bit of themselves in the novel and this makes some novels stand the test of time
I read the book Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen. This book is about two girls who became best friends. Scarlett moved into town right next door to Halley. Scarlett was always the braver of the two who always had Halley's back while Halley was the quiet girl who kept to herself. While Halley is away at summer camp she receives a phone call from Scarlett telling her that one of their classmates died in a motorcycle accident. Halley went home to be with Scarlett and the rest of her class. Later Scarlett finds out that she is carrying the dead boy's baby. Halley now has to be the brave friend and return the favor for Scarlett. This book is told through Halley's eyes but you can really relate to Scarlett's role as well. In this book there are themes of friendship, love, death, and family. I thought that this book was really easy to relate to and an easy read. The character's all went through life experiences that we do go through today. I enjoyed this book and recommend it to all the girl readers.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading the book Perfect. This book is about teens struggling in their lives to be what they think is perfect. They push themselves, almost to hard, and it doesn't help with the things from their past, and their parents pushing them to be the ideal student. Its so true because a lot of teenagers do stupid things to be seen, known, and popular. Its a good example of High school and how students will strive to be their own "perfect" person
ReplyDeleteI read Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. This book is about a boy named Brian who survived a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness. In the book he struggles to survive and find food. Eventually he gets found and is brought back to the real world. Paulsen did a very good job explaining and using detail to write the story effectively. He writes it to make it seem very real life like. This book kind of reflects on Paulsen’s younger troubled life and how he had to survive. I recommend that everyone should read this book, mostly younger kids because of its readability. This book in my opinion satisfies the Exeter Qualities.
ReplyDeleteThere a few qualities that make some books better than others, but the most important is that it can be relatable to several different groups of people. For example Travel Team can bring together people. This book has many different characters all with distinct personalities and characteristics. There are characters of all different races and from all different backgrounds. This allows everyone to find a little bit of themselves in a different character and everyone can relate to the main character Danny, because we have all felt that we just do not measure up at one point or antoher.
ReplyDeleteIn the book Firefly Lane there where many times when the story would switch to a different perspective. You would get to hear both Tully and Kates side of the story. The book was very fast pace and there was always something interesting happening. There were times when their wasn't a lot of tension and there were times everything was going perfect. In the book you can see how the past of Tully has affected her furture. I feel like some of the experiences that Tully and Kate have gone through has happened to some teenagers. Firefly Lane was an amazing book and it makes a lot of connections between teenagers and their lives.
ReplyDeleteI recently read the novel This Lullaby. Any teenager or young girl could easily relate to this story. It is so realistic and shows the struggles that everyone goes through. Being able to connect to a story is important and it was so easy for me to connect to this. It shows divorce, heartbreak, frienship struggles, moving, and all different kind of things that happen to someone, somewhere on a daily basis. The text was very easy to understand. The language was very simple to relate to. The plot is exciting and keeps moving fairly quickly. The beginning was very boring but then it started to get better.I would recommend this book to any high school girl. I loved it!
ReplyDeleteI am reading the book "The shack" by William Paul Young. It is a book about a family who is on a trip to a sort of cabin they call the shack, and while there the main characters daughter and is kidnapped, and it is a story about how the father of the daughter really struggles with religion when his wife is very religious and tries to bring him back to God. I would say this book challenges the exeter qualities because it has to do with religion.
ReplyDeleteI just got done reading A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks. The book is about a Cop falling in love again with his son's second grade teacher after his wife was hit while running one evening. The books tells the story from the Cop's point of view, the second grade teacher's point of view and the person who was driving the car that killed the wife point of view. This story also jumps from flash backs to what is the present. Teen readers may not be able to realate as much to some of the events as some older readers but we can still comprehend everything that occurs throughout the book. This was a very good book and I would reccomend it to just about everybody high school age and older.
ReplyDeleteI have recently read the book The Help. It is about living in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960's. During that time period it is known for the segregation of Blacks and Whites. I would not be able to live in a place where everything you do or say will be judged due to their race or skin color. I reccomend this book it shows the struggles of not only black domestic workers but also of white women struggling to put a name to their selves.In this time period it was expected for a young woment to be married and be a house wife while the husband was off at work. This novel is set up in three different perspectives, Minnie a domestic worker who is known for her being uptight and arrogant. Skeeter, a young white women looking to become a writer and move to New York,and Aibileen a nice domestic worker,who as you can say has seen at all.
ReplyDeleteThe book I just finished reading is The Bell Jar. This book was written during the 1960's and has survived throughout time, despite the numerous challenges it has had. The reason it still used and taught in school to this day is because of the the valueable lessons it can teach to people. The main character is a girl that struggles with depression and attempts to kill herself multiple times. During the book you learn to understand what is going on inside her head, and how to handle someone with the same difficulties as she has.
ReplyDelete