Book Review: Two Histories of England

The Two Histories of England by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens is probably not the hottest title on the shelves right now. I'm sure that this type of book has a very limited appeal, but for some reason, I found it interesting enough to purchase.

I read a review on a blog somewhere and decided that this book sounded like it would be a great resource to have in my classroom. I teach a ton of Shakespeare and an entire course on British Literature and am always looking for ways to liven up the material. While I don't see myself teaching this book to a whole class, there are a number of ways that I've thought to use it in the classroom.

First, there are tons of cool little stories included in this retelling of history. I don't know that any of them are true, but I love little the tidbits about Mary Queen of Scots's red wig coming off after she's beheaded and showing that she'd gone completely gray. A little gross, a lot morbid, but just what kids love to hear!

I also love the playfulness and passion that both authors show for the history of their countries. I've always thought Brits to be a pretty serious people, but Austen and Dickens both approach their recollections of English history with a bit of humor and a lot of gusto. They care about their monarchs and political figures. Like I support the New England Patriots, Jane Austen is unfailing in her support of Mary Queen of Scots. Actually, both authors point out some serious character flaws in Elizabeth I, which is interesting to me as an outsider looking in.

I wish that an American teen would write a book about our history or our current political cast of characters as they see it. It was so interesting to see history through the eyes of these famous authors, particularly Jane Austen. She was only 16 when she wrote her history of England. I would love for an American teen to write as funny and biased a critique of our recent history.

So, this read is probably not going to appeal to every reader. But, if you like to read about history, or are interested in seeing the history of England through Dickens and/or Austen's point of view, you might enjoy this.

The Old Retold

It's about 9 million degrees in my classroom this afternoon, so forgive my lack of intelligence if it appears in this post. I'm sure that it will because normal, every day tasks are becoming quite difficult. But, I do have something on my mind that I'd like to think about and get some of your opinions on.

Do you like to read old stories that are retold in modern adaptations? If so, what do you like? If not, what don't you like?

I ask this because I am currently reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. I'm having some mixed feelings about this story. I liked it at first, but now feel like I'm on a plot-finding mission where I'm just looking for connections to the original.

And then, I started to teach a fairy tales retold recovery unit to a student who needs to earn back his creative writing credit. His passion and interest in comparing the original Hans Christian Andersen "Thunbelina" tale to the short story "Tiny" by Francesca Lia Block has sparked a renewed interest in me.

So, what do you think? Recycle these old stories, or leave them alone?

Book To Book (3)

The purpose of this feature, Book to Book, is to pair a YA title with a classic text. Some of you might be teachers looking to form a solid bridge for your students, others may be readers looking for an interesting reading combination. Either way, I can't help but pair books as I'm reading. It's an English teacher disease.

Teaching Charles Dickens is pretty interesting in itself. I find that students come in to a course where Dickens is being taught with a working knowledge of Tiny Tim and Scrooge. Maybe they've heard of Oliver Twist, but they definitely do not associate David Copperfield with anything other than a few Vegas-style magic tricks. Beyond this, there's not too much to draw on.

Nor is there an understanding of the Victorian Era, which started in the 1830's and lasted until 1901. It is an extremely interesting period in history (can you tell I'm a superdork?), and the issues that most interest me are highlighted in both of the books I'm pairing in this post. Here's the pair I'm suggesting:

Marthe Jocelyn's new historical fiction called Folly is a modern look-back at the issues facing poor young women who found themselves in less-than-desirable positions in Victorian England. The main character, Mary, is basically kicked out of her home by an evil stepmother, only to find that she can barely survive as a servant in a wealthy London home. She has no training, other than what she's learned around the farm. More dangerous is the fact that she has no street smarts, and boy does she need them in inner-city London, where every chap seems bent on taking her innocence from her.

When Mary becomes pregnant, it is no surprise that she has no means with which to care for her child. What is shocking is the treatment that she receives as an unwed pregnant teenager. She and her child could die in the street, for all her former employers and coworkers would care. Luckily, there is an orphanage that takes in young children, as long as the mother meets a variety of qualifiers. Mary did and had to abandon her child to the care of the state.

Along with Mary's story, we hear one from a young orphan boy named James. He is a smart young boy, but is feeling the pains of life at the orphanage. The food is disgusting and there is a little too much discipline, but he has a roof over his head and clothes on his back. And, in this time period, he was a lot better off than most lower class children. There are shady characters abound in both novels, so there are a lot of discussions to be had there. There are also some sympathetic adult characters. Lots of connections.

This story has obvious parallels to Dicken's classic Oliver Twist. There is the whole orphan connection, the time period (which is about 50 years removed from Folly's), and the depictions of the social structure of Victorian England. But, what most helps me to recommend this pair is that the perspective of the mother in Oliver Twist is almost entirely left out of the narrative. Here, with Folly, the voice of the unwed mother in dire straights is born. With this pair, a more complete study of the politics, reforms, child welfare/ abuses, and the social expectations and realities for women could be explored.

This *almost* makes me wish that school were in session so that I could try this out.  Better to wait for September, I think. It's good to look forward to the start of school, even if it is only the first week of summer break!

Book To Book (2)

Lately, I've been reading a lot of dystopian novels. The pair of books that I am going to talk about in this post both fit this genre. Usually, when I'm reading a YA novel, I find plots and characters that make me think of classic texts that I've read. In the English teacher world, pairing a classic with a YA novel for students would be called "bridging". Using a YA text to help students move from a modern, often simpler text to a classic can be an effective method of teaching. I use this all the time in my classroom. The purpose of this feature is to highlight some pairs that I see as useful in the classroom setting.

This pair happened a little backwards for me. I had already read Scott Westerfield's The Uglies (first in a series of dystopic novels) and enjoyed it very much. Then, a mentee of mine took a job in a new school district. Being the nerd that I am, I agreed to read all of the books that she was going to teach at her new placement and help her (if I could) brainstorm teaching ideas. This is why I read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

I think that there are probably other books that could pair with either of these titles. This is the beauty of bridging; it is in the eye of the reader. In my mind, these two texts are connected in several ways. Here's a short list of the connections I see. In both texts:

-Children are separated from their parents before a bond can form
-Drugs are used in each to keep teens and adults sedated
-Sedation is used by the government to control
-There is a huge focus on material goods, creating a superficial want & need ideal
-Sexual promiscuity is encouraged
-Technology is advanced and is used to control the masses
-There exists an "otherworld" full of rebels and outcasts (the "savages" in Brave New World and the "rusties" in The Uglies)

I like there is a male lead in the classic and a female one in the YA novel. I think that there are a lot of additional choices made on the part of the author because of the differences in gender. There is a huge amount of room from both texts to talk and think about gender roles, hierarchies, government controls, censorship, and materialism in our modern society.

Lastly, I've already received one reader's suggestion for a future Book to Book feature. I am delighted! I do, though, have to confess that I have not read Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, which is the classic that this reader suggested I pair with Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl. I am super familiar with Stargirl, and from what I know about Jane Eyre, this sounds like a great connection. I plan to read Jane Eyre this summer and will hopefully profile it on this blog in the fall.

I welcome other suggestions for future Book to Book posts. Let me know what you think!

Book To Book (1)

I've been wanting to write a post for this new feature, Book 2 Book, for some time. I have all sorts of book pairs that I'd like to talk about, but just have not had the time to get started. Now that school is almost out for the year(!), my workload has lightened a little and I can finally get down to blogging business.

Book 2 Book is an idea that I had based on some conversations with fellow educators. Most English teachers that I've talked to do not participate in the YA blogging world (and I'm fairly new to it myself). Because they are not as interested or well-versed in this world as some of the bloggers I've met in my travels around the blogosphere, they might not know about the abundance of great YA available. And, so much YA can be used in the classroom.

In this feature, I am going to connect a YA book to a classic. English teacher who seek to pair YA lit with a classic often call this a "bridge". Recently, I've come across more and more YA titles that could serve a bridge. I'm calling this feature "Book 2 Book," as a play on "back to back". I don't know about this name, but I like my little button thing-y that I made. Here is my first pairing.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson and Frankenstein by Mary Percy Shelley

As anyone who has ever taught Frankenstein can tell you, it is not a super easy read. I'm not saying that it's not worth reading, but the language and the imagery are not for kiddies. I think that some students who are at first excited to read Frankenstein feel this way because they have seen so many pop culture recreations, adaptions, and allusions that they think it'll be an easy horror novel à la Stephen King. Not so much.

But, it is worth reading! The questions raised in this novel are timeless and the quality of writing is outstanding. The connection to The Adoration of Jenna Fox is not so much in exact plot correlations, but in the questions and themes that each book raises or deals with. Like:

What makes us human?

How much should science tamper with nature before scientists are "playing God"?

What is the responsibility of a creator/ inventor/ scientist for his or her creation?

Should laws restrict the science community when it comes to potential life-saving technologies?

Are we the sum of our parts?

And on and on. The more that I think about this connection, the more I want to teach this pair! They are not alike in reading level, so if you're interested in teaching this pair, you might want to think about using excerpts from one book or the other rather than teaching the entirety of each novel. (This may depend on the reading levels/ needs of your students.) And, I am sure that there are a ton of real-world connections to be made from this book pair, like issues in organ donation programs, cloning, and other attempts to meddle with mother nature.

Let me know what you think about this book pair and/or this feature!

The Bronte Sisters In Action

I first saw this video on the In Which A Girl Reads blog. I've seen it in other places since and thought I'd share it with anyone who has not yet had the pleasure of viewing this hilarious video.

Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland

This past Saturday, I finally went to see Alice in Wonderland. Luckily, I went about an hour early because the theater was completely sold out within a half hour or so. Phew.

And, it was worth the wait. Oh my. I absolutely LOVED it! I liked the 3D, sure, but the storyline and the acting was amazing. Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter--Brilliant. Helena Bonham Carter transcended evil in her performance as the Red Queen. Even Anne Hathaway, whom I sometimes have issues with, brought humor to her role as the White Queen.

I need to see this movie at least one more time to completely absorb all of the details of the story and the graphics. It was visually stunning and I thought that this adaptation enhanced the original storyline. Love that Alice becomes a bit of a feminist powerhouse by the end of the story and is fairly heroic throughout. I got much more of a Girls Rock! sort of theme running through this version than I did the original. But, much of the classic tale survives in this retelling.

Everyone should see this movie--More than once!

Book Review: Alice in Wonderland

I can vividly recall watching Disney's version of Alice in Wonderland as a child. I loved the cartoon movie and characters. When I heard that there was a new version of this classic coming out in theaters, I knew that I had to read the original.

I had often heard tales about the author, Lewis Carroll, being on drugs while writing this story. I am glad to have read the original if only to have realized that this was not true. The original story is far from "trippy". It reads like any children's adventure and is less bizarre than many other children's stories I've read or heard. In fact, it's a fun little story, but anyone looking for a huge revelation or deeper significance to a lot of the plot will have to make it up.

There are some great quotations, though. Here are a few of my personal favorites:
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." "How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

" Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin," thought Alice; " but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever say in my life!"

"Tut, tut, child!" said the Duchess. "Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it."

In addition to interesting quotations, there is some cool artwork in the original text. Here's a favorite of mine, the Mad Hatter:

I love these ink sketches even more than the Disney art. There's a a whole lot of raw imagination in these sketches. Not that the much-loved Disney cartoons are not amazing. They're just colorful and a bit extreme. I loved these spare, restrained drawings because they were so less complicated. The book is full of them, yet I wanted more.

Now that I've seen the old Disney version, read the original text, and studied a bit about Lewis Carroll, I think that I am ready to see the new 3-D movie. It looks like a spectacular adventure!

On My Wishlist: Alice's Adentures in Wonderland

I prefer to have read the print version of a story before I see the movie version. I've heard of others who are okay with seeing a movie or stage performance first, but I like to have a basic understanding of the original text before I try to grasp an adaptation. That's just my style.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is going against the grain for me because I watched the old movie version way before I could even read. I've seen it a few times over the years, and was always intrigued by the plot and characters and magic of it all. I don't know why I never actually read the book; maybe I thought I already knew it? Well, in preparation for 3-D movie event that is this new Alice in Wonderland, I thought it was high time that I read the darn book. I wanted to be privy to all of the inside jokes and see the changes that have (inevitably) been made to turn this short children's book into a souped-up blockbuster.

So, I headed to Barnes and Noble one fair afternoon (before we got three feet of snow) to purchase a copy of this book. Since it's a classic, I thought that I'd be able to get a copy fairly cheaply, and I was right. I purchased a low-maintenance, garden variety copy for about five dollars. But, what really made me drool was the new graphic version of this story. As much as I wanted to, I could not bring myself to drop almost twenty dollars on a graphic novel. But, I did have the presence of mind to put it on my amazon wishlist once I returned home.

I am happy to report that the amazon price is far less expensive than the Barnes and Noble. After I see the movie, I know that I won't be able to hold myself back much longer and I'll end up buying a copy on amazon. But, I will have saved a cool ten bucks or so in the meantime. I'm sure I'll come up with another title that I simply have to have to get rid of my savings!

On Stage: Zora Neale Hurston's Spunk

Last night, I was lucky enough to catch a last dress rehearsal viewing of the Penobscot Theatre Company's Spunk, which is a stage version of Zora Neale Hurston's classic short story collection of the same name. I had never been to this theater before and I had never seen Spunk on stage, so I didn't know what to expect.

It was amazing. Truly. The theater was gorgeous and the seats were comfy. The stage was inviting and warm and the set was simple but dynamic enough to allow for scenes set in Florida and New York. The acting and singing were brilliant. There were times during this performance that I was literally clapping and bouncing in my seat. It had that Sunday morning church service effect on me.

The subject matter of these stories, though, is anything but Sunday morning. There's lots of lovin' and pimpin' and flirtin' goin' on. Issues of domestic violence and extra-martial affairs are also spotlighted. Through it all, though, there is a sense that the problems and issues that are discussed are timeless but not hopeless. Women can grow to find their strength to stand up to abusive husbands. Husbands who have been cheated on can either forgive their wives or leave their wives. Marriages can fail or succeed but life will continue. It is profound and straightforward all at the same time.

If you have an opportunity to visit Bangor, Maine, go to see this play! It runs now through March 7th. Enjoy!

Masterpiece Theater: Jane Austen's Emma

I've read Jane Austen's classic Emma, and enjoyed it, but there is nothing like seeing the new Masterpiece Theater version of this tale. This movie was a mere four hours long, but I wanted it to go on and on. I was simply taken with this film. It was brilliant.

What made me love this version of Emma so well? The casting was amazing. The young woman who played Emma was stunning. She exuded the same sort of fresh naïveté as I imagined while reading the original text. She was beautiful, but did not seem full of herself. And Mr. Knightly. Oh my. I was fully in love with by the end of the first hour. I could have listened to him in his manly seriousness for many, many more hours than PBS had to offer! He was handsome and charming and Emma really, really upset me for not realizing what an absolute gem he was until the very end. Uggh! Just as frustrating as in the book.

If you're at all a fan of Jane Austen or even just like watching "period" films, you should definitely check this out. The landscaping and the architecture and costumes are so well made and filmed. I truly wanted to jump through my TV and take a stroll through the gardens or try on a dress or two. It was that beautiful. I promise that your four hours will not be wasted!

You, too, can watch Emma!