Why Teach Literature

One of the duties of my day job is to write a blog.  Today I posted an entry entitled Why Teach Literature, a subject near and dear to me.  The new Common Core Standards of English call for public schools to increase nonfiction reading, so that by senior year 70% of reading material be nonfiction.  In effect literature is being driven from the high school curriculum.  Read Why Teach Literature for my reasons why this is unacceptable, and let me know what you think.

A Little History of the World

A Little History of the World
by E. H. Gombrich
translated by Caroline Mustill
Yale University Press (2008)
304 pages
ISBN:  030014332X
All Ages

When I want to learn something about a non-fiction field I have no knowledge of, I turn to juvenile books, as they tend to give me the information I want in an entertaining way.  Like E. H. Gomrich's A Little History of the World.  Gomrich wrote the book in 1935 when he was 26, and it was first published in Vienna.  But another seventy years would pass before this brilliant little book was translated into English, a task Gromrich undertook with his assistant Caroline Musthill, who completed the undertaking after Gomrich's death in 2001.  It quickly became a bestseller; the paperback and an illustrated version followed.

Through vivid imagery, engaging storytelling, and humor, Gromrich brings to life the history of our world from the Stone Age to the Atomic Age.  He uses mirrors to demonstrate the vastness of history:  "Have you ever tried standing between two mirrors?  You will see a great long line of shiny mirrors, each one smaller that the one before, stretching away into the distance, getting fainter and fainter, so that you never see the last.  But even when you can't see them any more, the mirrors still go on.  They are there, and you know it."  And so it is with grandparents.  Who had grandparents.  Who had grandparents.  And so on.  And you can never reach the beginning, because there's always another set of grandparents.

Among the topics Gomrich explores are the inventions by cavemen, in particular speech; life in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece; the Phoenicians' sound-based alphabet ,which we still use today; the growth of religion, beginning with Judaism, the first faith to worship one and only one God; the Middle Ages, which were not all dark but rather "like a starry night...showing them the way" and the Age of Chivalry; the discovery of the New World made possible by the invention of the compass; the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution; slavery in America and the secession of the southern states; and European Imperialism and the subsequent World Wars.  Gomrich spotlights some of history's most fascinating figures including Confucius, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Jesus Christ, Charlemagne, Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, and Columbus.  Believe me, you'll be glad you picked up this book, and in the reading you'll learn some history you never knew you wanted to know.



To purchase from Amazon, click on links:

A Little History of the World
A Little History of the World: Illustrated Edition
The Band
Greatest Hits(The Band)

Read a Banned Book

"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." - Oscar Wilde

September 30-October 6 is Banned Book Week.  Celebrate by reading one of these frequently banned  young adult and juvenile books:

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.  This one's got something for everyone who likes banning books:  homosexuality, suicide, profanity, drugs, teen sex.
2. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson.  This is the true story of two gay penguins who hatch an egg in New York's Central Park Zoo.  Enough said?
3. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  Banned for racism.  Ironic, given that it was one of the first books to raise the question of race inequity.
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.  Language, sexual content, violence, high school gangs.
5. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.  Among its sins is the promotion of witchcraft.
6. The House on Mango Street.  This one's a cornucopia for book banners: poverty, ethnicity, violence, and abuse.
7. Where's Wally? by Martin Handford.  A sunbather in one scene partially exposes her breast.
8. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.  Witchcraft, crystal balls, and anti-religious subtext landed this one in hot water.
9. Goosebumps by R. L. Stine.  Too scary for kids.
10. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein.  One of the poem's encourages children to be messy and disobedient.  Others deal with the supernatural, i.e. demons and ghosts. 

For more banned juvenile and young adult books, click here. 

  

To purchase these books at Amazon, click on links below:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
And Tango Makes Three
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Chocolate War Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)
Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-7)
The House on Mango Street
Where's Wally?
Where's Waldo? The Complete Collection
A Wrinkle in Time: 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition
Goosebumps HorrorLand Boxed Set #1-4
A Light in the Attic Special Edition

The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
Vintage (1991)
110 pages
ISBN:  0679734775
Middle-School and High-School Readers

Originally published in 1984, The House on Mango Street is a coming-of-age story set in the Hispanic section of Chicago.  This quick must-read is a series of vignettes, character sketches mostly.  With very few, but very exquisite, words Cisneros paints vivid pictures that breathe life into these characters.  Aunt Lupe, Rosa Vargas, Angel, Vargas, Marin...they step off the pages.  Life is hard for these people; they suffer from poverty, disease, spousal abuse, child abuse, desertion, loneliness, lack of education, but for the main character, Esperanza, whose very name means "hope," there is a chance she'll escape the fate of those around her.  For unlike the other women and girls of her neighborhood, she is free.  She has no men to feed; she is allowed to leave the house, and she is getting an education.  What's more, Esperanza is determined to have a better life, but she promises to come back for those she leaves behind.  You can't help but root for Esperanza to prevail.

To order from Amazon, click The House on Mango Street.

The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls

The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls
by Julie Schumacher
Delacorte Books for Young Readers (May 8, 2012)
240 pages
ISBN: 0385737734
Ages 12 and up 

Their mothers meet in a yoga class and start a mother-daughter book club, throwing together four teens who, were there anyone else still in town, would never dream of spending summer evenings together.  Julie Schumacher's The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls brings together Adrienne, a bookworm; CeeCee, one of the high school's royalty; Jill, whose main concern is her SAT scores; and Wallis, a brilliant outcast.  All four spend their summer hanging out at the pool and reading books for their upcoming AP English class and working on the class's required literary essay.

A friend of mine reviewed this book on Goodreads, and, though she gave it only two stars, I wanted to read it to find out what books the book club had chosen.  (Nothing I like better than a good book list.)  The unsinkable girls read the following:

1. The Awakening by Kate Chopin,
2. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros,
3. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
4. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, and
5. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Actually, I did kind of enjoy the book.  Schumacher uses literary devices to structure the book.  Each chapter begins with Adrienne's definition of a literary device, and then the chapter explores that device in terms of their story.  Chapter One's device is setting, and we find the girls in their setting:  the city pool.  The girls do more than read, getting up to some typical teenage behavior:  rebellious running around, drinking, and cliquish exclusion, with some atypical tragedy thrown in.


To buy from Amazon, click on titles below:
The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls
The Awakening
The House on Mango Street
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Left Hand of Darkness
Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus

Hippie Time Traveler

Schooled
by Gordon Korman
Hyperion Book CH; Reprint edition (August 26, 2008)
224 pages
ISBN:   1423105168
Grades 5-9

Capricorn "Cap" Anderson has spent his whole life--all thirteen years of it--on Garland Farm, a communal farm started by his grandmother Rain in the sixties.  Once home to 14 families, its only remaining residents are Cap and Rain.  When Rain falls out of a plum tree and breaks her hip, Cap must move in with Mrs. Donnelly, a guidance counselor and former resident of Garland Farm, and her crabby teenage daughter.  Says Mrs. Donnelly on meeting Cap, "I looked at Capricorn Anderson and...I saw--not a case, but a time traveler, about to step into a world that had forgotten the sixties except for J.F.K. and the Beatles."

Having been home schooled and knowing nothing of the outside world--he's never watched t.v., never eaten pizza, never played a video game--Cap is totally unprepared for Claverage Middle School, or C Average as the students call it, which he must attend while Rain is recovering from her broken hip.  Cap is an obvious target for the school bullies.  He has never cut his hair, wears hemp clothes and tie-dyed shirts, plays Beatles music on his guitar, is a vegetarian, and practices T'ai chi on the lawn.  No wonder the popular kids decide to elect Cap president of the student body, a dubious honor, as tradition dictates that the biggest nerd in school is always nominated--and always wins.

Cap doesn't see how he can be president, since he doesn't know any one's name.  As he astutely points out, "Life certainly gets complicated when you know more than one person."  Schooled is a thought-provoking read.  Rigid conformity is certainly not a good idea, but is it wise to live completely off the grid with no contact with the modern consumerist society?  Is it fair to raise a child to completely reject society in favor of a more isolated self-reliant lifestyle?  But are there not many useful lessons to be learned in that self-reliant way of living that our modern world has forgotten?  Is there a way to blend the ideals of the sixties with the realities of the new millennium?  Though I found the ending rather pat and could envision a more satisfying one, the book is pure fun and laugh-out loud funny.  Everyone will fall for Capricorn Anderson, one of the most charming hippies the 21st century has ever known.



To buy from Amazon, click Schooled.

John Grisham's Calico Joe

Calico Joe
by John Grisham
Doubleday (April 10, 2012)
208 pages
ISBN:   0385536070
For teens and adults

I hear people say that baseball is so boring, but they are so wrong.  Granted, baseball, played in a park, is a laid-back summer sport.  You hang out, drinking beer and eating dogs and Cracker Jack, just watching the game progress at its own pace.  (Baseball, unlike other major sports, is not played by the clock.)  All of a sudden something exciting will happen.  A home run.  Three strikeouts.  A double play.  An impossible catch in the outfield.  There's real drama in this sport.

I can't get enough of good baseball stories either.  Like Calico Joe.  Calico Joe, Grisham's first baseball novel, is my first Grisham novel ever--yes I'm coming late to the table--but it won't be my last.  Calico Joe is the story of one pitch that ends three baseball careers.  Paul Tracy, only twelve in 1973 when the story begins chronologically, is rooting for two players:  Warren Tracy, his dad cum Mets pitcher, and the Cub's wunderkind rookie, Calico Joe.  Thirty years later, Paul is on a healing mission to bring these two men together again to bring closure to their story.

Calico Joe is a novel of what could have been and takes its place beside W. P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe and Bernard Malamud's The Natural.  The best baseball stories involve the loss of baseball and an attempt at finding the way back to the most romantic of American sports.  Baseball's not just about today; unlike any other sport, baseball is about history and who we were.  In all of these novels of baseball the past and the present intersect to redeem the sport for the main characters.  Think Shoeless Joe's Ray Kinsella, The Natural's Roy Hobbs, and now Calico Joe's Paul Tracy.

Just as Shoeless Joe (you may know it by its movie name Field of Dreams) is populated with Black-Sox-era players like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Joe's cast includes baseball greats from the seventies.  In one scene Willie Mays, now in his last baseball season, converses memorably with Paul in the Mets' dugout.



Click here to buy Calico Joe from Amazon.

13 Little Blue Envelopes

13 Little Blue Envelopes
by Maureen Johnson
HarperTeen First Edition Edition (2006)
368 pages
ISBN: 0060541431
Grades 8-10
 
Guided by 13 letters from her free-spirited "runaway aunt" Peg, 17-year-old Ginny is on a once-in-a-lifetime trip through Europe.  The catch:  She can only open one letter at a time, and she must complete the task in said letter before opening the next letter.  Oh, and her aunt has been dead for three months.  Her first destination is London, specifically the home of handsome Richard, a Harrods employee whose job duties include selling underwear to the Queen.

Part epistolary novel, part quest, 13 Little Blue Envelopes is a veritable page turner.  I was quite delighted to travel vicariously through Ginny and couldn't wait to discover what adventures awaited her.  Her travels take her from London to Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Corfu.  There are a couple of failed missions ahead of her, both of which seemed completely realistic and both of which disappoint me as much as they do her.  But she meets some interesting people, sees some fabulous sights, and learns about the beloved aunt she barely knew.

To order from Amazon, click here: 13 Little Blue Envelopes.

Of VW Beetles and The Beatles' Abbey Road

Thinking Small:  The Long, Strange Trip of the Volkswagen Beetle
by Andrea Hiott
Ballantine Books (January 17, 2012)
512 pages
ISBN: 0345521420

From Hitler to the hippies, Hiott takes us on the weird trip that is the Volkswagen Beetle.  Though originally manufactured to bring cheap transportation to the masses, the Volkswagen (the people's car) has long since transcended its humble origins:  It's come to represent freedom, adventure, escape, and a certain joie de vive.

Having lived through the sixties and seventies, I remember when every other car was a VW beetle.  Watch television shows and movies of the time, and you'll see the little buggers everywhere in the background shots.  We used to count them on long car trips--though we didn't engage in punching each other in the arm and shouting "Punch buggy!"  My favorite joke of all time comes from the sixties and involves a VW bug.  How do you get six elephants in a Volkswagen?  Answer:  Three in the front and three in the back.

One of the most famous bugs is the white one featured on the cover of Abbey Road with the license plate number LMW 28IF.  The significance of this plate involves the rumor that Paul McCartney was dead and had been replaced with an uncanny duplicate who could have been Paul's identical twin.  The VW bug's license plate number was yet one more clue that Paul was gone, as he would have been "28 IF" he had lived.

I've been in love with Volkswagen Beetles my whole life, though it has been an unrequited love.  In the early seventies, my family owned a tan VW microbus, the VW bug's second cousin, but I've never managed to own the real thing--unless you count my little pink and green Volkswagen Christmas ornaments.  I was always talked out of purchasing one as it would be too impractical, too expensive to repair, and offer too little heat.  There are a couple of vintage bugs around town that call to me:  a baby blue one parked a few blocks down the street that I stalk like a teenage girl with a crush, and a red one with a black rag top that gets taken out for the occasional ride.  Who is free spirited enough to still be driving one of these loveable bugs?  With a twinge of nostalgia I crane my neck to watch the little red convertible drive down the road and out of sight.



To order from Amazon, click on Thinking Small: The Long, Strange Trip of the Volkswagen Beetle or Abbey Road.

Luscious Sticky Buns

I

I spent the weekend reading Jennifer Reese's awesome book, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter.  After making a list of foods I want to make at home, including croissants and danishes, I decided to make one of my old standbys, sticky buns.  With Cinnabon cinnamon rolls coming in at around $4 a roll, these are definitely worth the effort.  I'm not sure what the individual price for one of my homemade buns is, but I doubt the whole batch costs $4.  Plus, if you do any baking, you're bound to have all the ingredients on hand.

Sticky Buns

12 Tbsp. butter
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup milk
3-3 1/2 cups flour
3/4 + 1/3 cup light-brown sugar
1 Tbsp. corn syrup
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Melt 6 Tbsp. of butter in microwave and let cool.  Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar.  Stir in granulated sugar, salt, egg yolks, milk, 4 Tbsp. cooled butter and 2 1/2 cups of flour.

By hand--or if you're lucky with your Kitchen Aid mixer, knead dough until it is smooth and elastic, about five minutes, working in enough of the remaining flour so that the dough isn't sticky.

Put in a buttered bowl and cover with elastic wrap.  Let rise in warm spot until doubled, about 45 minutes.  To test, press dough with your fingertip.  If an imprint remains, the dough is ready.

Butter a 9" pan.  In a saucepan, combine 6 Tbsp. butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and corn syrup.  Stir over low heat until smooth.  Pour into prepared pan.

Combine the 1/3 cup brown sugar and cinnamon.

Punch dough down.  On a lightly floured surface, roll and shape dough into an 18" x 9" rectangle.  Brush with remaining melted butter.  Sprinkle with brown sugar/cinnamon mixture.  Roll up the dough starting with a long side.

Cut into 9 slices and put in the prepared pan.  Cover and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes.

Heat oven to 375°.  Bake until browned and bubbly, about half an hour.  Let cool in pan for five minutes.  Invert onto plate.  Let stand for 30 seconds before removing pan.  Cool slightly before serving.

Click here to order from Amazon:  Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods.

Jennifer Reese's website: the tipsy baker.

Private Peaceful Dreads Dawn

Private Peaceful
by Michael Morpurgo
Scholastic Press (2004)
208 pages
ISBN: 0439636485
For Grades 7-12

World War I has been completely overshadowed by World War II, but The Great War, as it was known then, with its trenches and gas and tanks ushered in modern warfare and killed more soldiers than any war before or since.  Recently, the last World War I veterans having died, a spate of books and movies, i.e. Stephen Spielberg's War Horse, have come out telling the stories of the men and women who should never be forgotten.

From Michael Morpurgo, the author of War Horse, comes Private Peaceful.  Morpurgo says, "I happened to interview three farm boy veterans, then well into their eighties, from my village of Iddesleigh, in Devon, England.  They spoke movingly, hauntingly of the terrors they had lived through, of the comrades they had lost.  There was no poetry in their stories, only horror and regret and great sadness for the loss of good friends.  So I came to write Private Peaceful."

Private Peaceful is the story of Tommo Peaceful, a fifteen-year-old English boy who, though too young to enlist, lies about his age and joins up with his older brother Charlie to prove to himself he isn't a coward.  The novel opens with Peaceful sitting up all night dreading the dawn when the truly horrific consequences of the war will come to bear on his life.  As he waits through the night, he remembers his life story, including his pastoral childhood with his brothers Charlie and Big Joe, his father's tragic death, his kind mother, and his sister-in-law Molly with whom he is in love.  With its graphic description of trench warfare and twist ending, Private Peaceful is a must read novel about the War to End All Wars.



To order from Amazon, click Private Peaceful.

Facebook Time Travel

The Future of Us
by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Razorbill (November 21, 2011)
356 pages
ISBN:  1595144919

The Future of Us is a page turner if ever there was one.  Emma and Josh, best friends since preschool, are two high school students in 1996, a time when fewer than half of all teenagers have ever used the Internet.  When Emma gets a new computer from her father, Josh helps her set it up and together they discover a site called Facebook, a full eight years before it is launched.  Facebook proves to be a cyber time machine that clues them into what their lives will be like in the year 2011.  They learn their occupations, their spouses, their children, and where they live.  Whereas Josh is delighted with what he learns of his future, Emma is deeply disappointed.

Emma and Josh begin trying to control their futures:  Josh to keep his as is, Emma to change hers.  Every day Facebook reveals changes in their destinies based on their actions in 1996, some deliberate, some random.  In fact, every time Emma hits "refresh," her future is different on Facebook.  She begins to worry:  "I don't want to create any ripples that could ruin either one of our futures."  The ripples aren't doing their present friendship any good, either.  Can they learn to live in the present and let the future take care of itself?



To order from Amazon, click on The Future of Us.

Robbing the Rich and Giving to the Poor

When I was in high school, I only received two As in gym class--yes, we were graded for our performance, not just for showing up to class in our gym clothes.  One of the As was for gymnastics, the other for archery.  Many years later--I won't say how many--my son took an after-school archery class.  On the last day of class, the instructor had the parents engage in a competition with their kids and each other.  We were to shoot an arrow right into the center of a pumpkin, the spot marked by the instructor.  We were given two chances.  My first arrow hit right into the pumpkin's bulls-eye to the approving nod of the instructor.  My second arrow didn't stick, as it landed right atop the first arrow.  As I seem to be a natural at the sport, I sometimes think I would have been right at home in Sherwood Forest.

And that, perhaps, is part of the reason I love the legend of Robin Hood.  (That and his socialist stealing from the rich to feed the poor.)  Of the Robin Hood movies, my favorite hands down is Robin Hood:  Prince of Thieves.  Sure, Errol Flynn brings a joie de vive to his Robin Hood, but the 1938 movie just isn't as exciting, nor as humorous, as the 1991 version.  And, yes, I know that Kevin Costner's English accent is nonexistent.  And I know that there was no Moor in the original stories, but, hey, it's Morgan Freeman.  Plus, I like the way the movie uses the Moor to build on the original legend, which is in keeping with the tradition of storytelling:  As the story gets retold, new elements are added on.  Whether or not you like Robin Hood:  Prince of Thieves, you might really get a kick out of Mel Brooks' 1993 spoof of it:  Robin Hood:  Men in Tights.  Also worth noting is the 1973 Disney animated version, which my daughter and I watched a couple of dozen times when she was two.  I still hear Phil Harris's voice when I read dialog by Little John.

The best and most accessible Robin Hood book is Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, an excellent retelling of the Sherwood Forest bandits for middle school students.  As in the movies, you'll find Robin Hood, Little John, Maid Marian, Will Scarlett, Friar Tuck, and the nefarious Sheriff of Nottingham.



To order the book and movies from Amazon, click on the following links:
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Robin Hood (Disney Gold Classic Collection) (1973)
Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (Two-Disc Special Extended Edition) (1991)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Extended Version) [Blu-ray] (1991)
Robin Hood - Men in Tights (1993)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights [Blu-ray] (1993)