Crossover books

Well, I never heard of cross-over books, but a quick search on the internet learned me that this were childrens books that are also highly appreciated by adults.

Harry potter is a good example.

This week I read ‘the boy in the striped pyama’s” which I really loved.
Reading the story from Bruno’s point of view made his character  multi-dimensional and therefore more credible (Appleyard, 2013, pp. 106-108).

I couldn’t really imagine this book being written as a children’s story but while looking at it in class I came to realize that I wasn’t reading it like an adolescent. If I compare myself to an adolescent we are reading on different levels. Somewhat like layers. It is truly a nice story about a friendship between two boys on one level but an almost horrific sight on the truth as you realize that the story is qctually about two side that people have. I don’t mean good vs. Evil because there is no way schmul is luring bruno on purpose to the gas chamber but more about two sides of a personality that complement eachother. Innocent and experienced for example. Bruno is innocent having know idea whats going on but schmul defenitly knows more because he has more experience in life. It was a shock to realize they complement each other. I even can’t stop thinking about it while writing this.. 6 days later.

The other two books for this week were “The curious incident” and “his dark materials”. The curious incident is about an autistic boy trying to find his place in the world. His dark materials is about a search and rescue mission in which a girl named Lyra is discovering about herself along the way. I think all three books are about discovering yourself and discovering what the truth is. In all three books the main characters are not sure where they belong or what their task in this world is.

What I have learned

The last two months I have read books that I never would have picked for myself and I loved them. I learned not to judge a book by it’s cover but try to look for the story underneath. I gained more insight in the reading habits of adolescents and why we read. Reading is stimulating the brain but also relaxing. I would say it’s the ideal way to learn new stuff. With all the kids nowadays having dyslexia or just not wanting to read I’m not quite sure if there will be any books in 50 years from now. I think we always need stories but that doesn’t have to be in books.

I loved the course altough I have to admit it got tired about having to read every week.  The assignment is creative and makes you think again about books. Thank you for this course.

 

Bibliography

Appleyard, J.A. (2013) Adolescence: The reader as a thinker.

Fantastic fantasy?

I am very familiar with the fantasy genre. It is my favourite genre and a lot of book that I read are fantasy and I love playing fantasy based mmorpg games .  So I am quite familiar with this week’s theme but I have to admit that I really had a hard time reading “The Hobbit”.

Why do I like the Fantasy genre?

Well as stated in one of my earlier posts, I love to read a story and imagine that I’m one of the main characters. Fantasy lets me create an imaginary  world and characters. I can imagine everything I want because it is fantasy. It doesn’t have to be realistic.
But that is wrong… discussion in class shows that there has to be e certain amount of reality in a book for people to like it. So I started to read all the books on my bookshelf again and made lists of things that could be very real in the story. Offcourse I didn’t finish them all because it would take me months to read all those books again, but after reading about 5 or 6 of them I realised that there is actually a lot of reality in those books. The human feelings, thoughts and according actions to name one thing. Or what about the difficulties while on a quest? A river needs to be crossed by a bridge for example.. all things you actually know that they are real.

 

What was difficult reading “the Hobbit”?
Well for a start I found it difficult to read because I had to. Earlier we talked about the ideal reading conditions and I am starting to notice that I do not enjoy reading when it’s compulsory. So it took me some effort to finally get the book and start reading. First thing I noticed was the majority of words that i didn’t know. That can be a real pain in the ass while reading fantasy in a foreign language. Since everything can be made up you have to guess what the words mean. I can imagine 16-year old pupils having a lot of trouble there.
After a few hours I put the book away because of the two above reasons. I had to read and I didn’t understand everything…

I did already read Percy Jackson and The lion, witch and the wardrobe, so I was safe to contribute in class.

What didn’t like
I didn’t like the harsh reality that came suddenly upon me while discussing fantasy genre in class. We discussed that all the books have the same plot. first there is the call where the hero is introduced. Then there is the journey, often made with friends or other companions. Third there are obstacles that prevent the hero from reaching his goal. After removing the obstacles there is the final ordeal, where the hero decides what to do and then there is the goal that’s reached.

Not having thought of this before I have to say this takes away a lot of the fun i had reading fantasy. I can now almost see what is going to happen. There is always a wise old man, there are always attributes with special powers that reveal themselves to the hero and the hero can’t go home after the goal is reached. and basically that’s the story… well thanks a lot.

Why do youngsters like it?

Well I can imagine younger adults like this genre. There is adventure, love and friendship in it. Especially the “going on a quest with friends” part should be very easy to identify with. according to Van der Wal: “ this group supports the development, the strengthening and the maintaining of the confidence and the feeling of self-worth.” (Van der Wal & De Wilde p. 128) It  explains the success of many fantasy books because they have two elements that  teenagers like. It plays right into their identity wish of wanting to be special and at the same time it also gives them a feeling that they to belong to a group.

 

Bibliography

Wal, J. van der & Wilde, J. de. (2011). Identiteitsontwikkeling en leerlingbegeleiding: Een praktijkgericht boek (4e dr.). Bussum: Coutinho.

Search for Identity

 

Identity is all that the main characters in the books for this week are looking for.
I have read The wasp factory, a book where a 16 year old boy confesses to have killed 3 people, performs various religious rituals, gets attacked by killer rabbits and meanwhile turns out to be a girl. After discussing the other two books in class, Catcher in the rye and Tracy Beaker, and because of the discussion we found out that everything that’s in the book took place in the mind of the main characters. The book describes everything through a first person view which makes it unreliable by definition. Only after the discussion I found it hard to understand why I didn’t see why The wasp Factory was based on differences between man and women. From the main character running around with bombs and drinking a lot of beer (masculine stuff) to a sweet girl…

The books are not suitable for every age (shoving a bomb up a rabbits arse isn’t a good example for teenagers below 16) but the theme as looking for an identity must be very understandable for young people around the age of 16. Psychoanalyst Erikson tell us that the people around that age are getting physically mature and also start their sexual exploration. They need to find out who they are and what their role in society is.  Social relations play a big part in this. At this age we are all narcissists because we constantly look to ourselves and judge our self to see if we check up with others. Negative identities and False identities are not uncommon around this age.

 

After reading a lot of passages of “the wasp factory” again I could recognize the signs for Frank looking for an identity.

I have to admit I still recognize this fase from when I was 16 years old. Always trying to find boundaries and being very unsatisfied with who I was. Although I do not want to argue against Erikson I’m curious if there has been a shift in ages at which certain stages take place. Seeing more and more kids at the age of 12 starting to smoke, care for what other people say and trying to fit in with the world.

I enjoyed the book this week and I hope I will have as much fun with the book for next week

 

Bibliography

van der Wal, J., & de Wilde, J. (2011). Identiteitsontwikkeling en leerlingbegeleiding. bussum: Uitgeverij Coutinho.

 

 

 

the dystopian world

For week 3 i have read `the hunger games`

This novell takes place in the future were one city has conqured a lot of places which they now call districts. Each district has its own speciality such as growing crops or mining. The story is about katniss, a girl who lives in district twelve. She lives together with her mom and little sister primrose. At certain times the capital city picks two people between 12 and 18 from each district to fight each other to death.
When katniss’s sister prim is picked ,she volunteers to take her place in the tournament.

By coincidence a boy named peeta is also picked. It turns out he is in love with katniss since a very long time but she doesn’t know that.
They work together and put on a great show and force the gamemakers to change the rules of the tournament and become heroes.

Although i suspected i wouldn’t like the book due to the whole hype around it I actually loved reading it. It was a fantasy like story taking place in our future. It had a very descriptive writing style. Afterwards i was enthusiastic enough to watch the movie too. I wish i didn’t see it. That was a big disappointment. I think the books leave more to your own imagination and the movie doesn’t meet that.

All three books this week were about survival and and every teenager must know the feeling. The books are about the main character vs. “the world” but also giving the reader several dillemma to think about. Dillemma’s like: What would you do? Would you like to be living forever? Would you kill to survive? Would you take your sisters place and act like you’re in love just to win a game and survive?  These questions fit perfectly into the fifth stage of develoment as descibed by Erikson. This stage is about identity vs. confusion.  The readers of these books will be able to identify with the theme of survival they will also be able to think about themselves as hero and think about is they like it.

I wasn´t in class this week but from blogs of my fellow students i could learn that all the novelss this week are dystopian novels. This means they are about a nightmare society in our future and want to make clear that humans can´t make a idealistic society /which i think is true.

I also noticed that the class has talked about setting up a good environment  for reading. You should provide a wide variety of books to make people read. even graphic novells and comics can help with that. The environment is really important for reading because nowadays its often felt like an obligation instead a relaxation.

Creating the right environment can be very hard because not only you have to pay attention to the pupils needs but also have to work with colleagues who all have their own opinion on teaching!

 

Bibliography

Wal, J. van der & Wilde, J. de. (2011). Identiteitsontwikkeling en leerlingbegeleiding: Een praktijkgericht boek (4e dr.). Bussum: Coutinho.

Love stories

Cal is about catholic boy who lives in ulster. Cal is 19 years old and after school he gets a job offer in a slaughterhouse where his father shamie works. It doesn’t take long before he quits the job becqsue he doesn’t like it. He gets bored looking for jobs and joins the ira as a chauffeur.
One day he drives his friend crilly to a house where he kills a protestant policeman. Cal is shocked by this action and wants to quit the ira. He doesn’t dare to quit because he is affraid he is going to be killed too. One day he visits the library where he meets marcella. He like her very much. At one point in the story he is selling wood and gets another job offer to pick potatoes. He discovers that marcella lives at the same farm he works now but that she is also the widow of the policeman thats killed by his friend. Marcella and cal fall in love but cal never stops to feel guitly to her because he drove the man that killed her husband to their house.
Then crilly turns up again, planning to lay a bomb in the library. They are caught and finaly cal feelsl there is justice.

Speaking in class about this weeks booklist it turns out the cal is the one serious story this week. Twilight is about a creepy guy that follows a girl everywhere, altough we suspect that teenagers don’t see the story like this. They only see the love story in twilight.

The third book (forever) was about 2 young people who were having a relationship. It was kinda funny because there were two people who read this book. One of them thought it was about pure romance and the other one told us the main characters were just a horny couple. In this book there were some very explicit sex scenes.

 

In all the books the main characters were young adults who were not certain of their position in this world. This makes it easier for younsters to identify themselves with the main characters. Van der Wal describes in his book “lndentiteitsontwikkeling en leerlingbegeleiding” that according to erikson adolescents wrestle with themselves just as the characters in the books.

Of all the books of this week it was an eye-opener to me that twilight would appeal most to youngers adolescents. As said before cal is about an ira member and teenagers can’t even possible imagine how the situation was in those days.  Forever was written in the senventies and contains to much sex situations to be a book for teenagers.

 

 

 

You’re off to see the wizard…..

You’re off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
You’ll find he is a Whiz of a Wiz is ever a Wiz there was
If ever, oh ever, a Wiz there was the Wizard of Oz is one because
Because, because, because, because, because
Because of the wonderful things he does
You’re off to see the wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz!

This is the first text that pops up in my mind if when I decided to read “the wizard of Oz”
We have all seen the movie with Judy Garland in it playing Dorothy. The story, written by Frank L Baum, is about a girl named Dorothy.
Dorothy is living in boring Kansas when a cyclone picks her up and puts her in the land of Oz. In this land she meets a bond of friends which help her in her search for the wizard of Oz who is the only one who can send her back to Kansas again.

I did like the story as a whole. A young girl who travels from a boring grey Kansas to a magical world filled with colors, called Oz. She meets friends who seem to have their own reason to go see the powerful wizard of Oz. The Scarecrow without any brains, the Tin man without a heart and the lion with no courage. These are all characters who make a journey to discover themselves.
They have some adventures in which they have to defeat various foes to discover they already have the power they seek.

What i didn’t like was the continuously repeating their actions all over. It were always the same steps: someone gets into trouble, they same him and they are off again to see the wizard. They also continuously keep repeating their main goals, go see the wizard. About halfway of the book a was tired of hearing that and I have to admit that i thought “Come on.. go see that wizard already!!!”
After discussing it in class we were also not sure what happened to the wizard (who turned out to be a normal person without any powers).

I wouldn’t recommend this book to younger people. I think although the overall story is nice it is not modern enough to have a meaning for nowadays children.

The other stories this week were peter pan, the secret garden and alice in wonderland
All the main characters were women that were lost, and when succeeded in finding their way home and their return, they would appreciate it more.
According to Edwards (2013, p.22), “a great children’s novel leaves the reader stronger, wiser, and better able to cope with whatever real-world challenges he may face”.

young adults learn from this book that they all have specific talents and they learn to use them. They also learn there is no place like home.

Related articles

• The real meaning of the Wizard of Oz (libertariandad.wordpress.com)

 

Bibliography

Edwards, S. (2013). Complete reader 2013. 21-22. Utrecht: Hogeschool van Utrecht.

Do I like reading?

Reading is relaxation right?……

Not entirely!…Reading is one of the most important workouts that we can give our brain.
I always thought that reading was relaxing but last lesson I got more insight in reading and it turns out to be top sport. With reading you create a network in your brain.
In ‘what reading does for the mind ‘ written by Anne E. Cunningham she explains that heavy readers have more insight on how things work and who people were.

Ok… it is a brain-workout.. why do i read then?

There are many reasons to enjoy reading but after discussing it in class I have come to the conclusion that I love reading to escape reality. When I’m reading I see the pictures in my mind and try to imagine everything that is happening. This might also be the reason I like the fantasy genre the most. The escape out of reality makes me relaxed and I also believe it makes me more creative. Creativity is needed to solve all kinds of problems and think out of the box. It helps you also to prepare for a job as teacher. You are better prepared to deal with the unexpected situations in class. Furthermore the fantasy genre can be about anything. Sometimes I picture myself as the hero which gives me a good feeling!
Next to fantasy I also love the detective genre. I adore Sherlock Holmes and Kurt Wallander. Detectives make me pay attention to what i read and learns me to look at a problem from different angles. It might also give me more insight into the human mind. Off course i want to know who is the bad guy but i also want to know why.. How does someone come to a deed like this?

So.. Reading is important to you?

Yes. Very important. While i still find it relaxing it makes me happy too. And research tells me i get smarter by doing it.. i think every child deserves a library card and a chance to dream on and learn with the relaxation of reading.

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