I am reading the Alex Rider series written by Anthony Horowitz and began with the first book, Stormbreaker.  The series begins with a fourteen-year-old boy, Alex Rider, who is trying to seek the truth behind his uncle’s death and begins to put together the pieces.  He encounters obstacles on the way and takes on the role of a spy and detective throughout the novels.  I like that it falls into the mystery/thriller genre because those are always fun to read.  It was a very easy read and it was hard at times to put the book down.  I know that it is intended for a younger audience but I thought the author could have made it a bit more thrilling.  For example, when something was about to go wrong, the problem was quickly solved and was hardly even a problem in the first place.  I also didn’t like that there wasn’t a whole lot of character development throughout the book.  You don’t get to actually know Alex Rider as you read, but get more of a sense of his daring personality.  There wasn’t too much you could connect to; however, I think it would be good for spiking student’s curiosity and for solving mysteries.

To use in a classroom, there are a few different activities I can think of that could be interactive and fun.  One of them is to have students change the plot of the series.  I would do this by finding a fundamental part of the novel and then having students come up with an alternate story line or even an alternate ending.  Once they do this, they could use their imagination to come up with other ideas of how the book could have gone in a different direction.  Another idea for an activity could be giving students clues and having them solve a mystery or go on a scavenger hunt.  They could do this individually or in pairs.  Alex Rider is pretty independent in the book, so it might be better to have them do it by themselves so they could see how difficult it can be to solve something by themselves, or even to prove to them that they can do something on their own and don’t always need someone to do it with.

I would recommend this series to mainly a male audience.  Because there isn’t a lot of character development, I think this would be a good series for males to read so they can enjoy the action and adventure the book entails!

What are your take-away ideas from the Miller text so far? What ideas are resonating? What seems challenging? What are you most excited about in terms of teaching reading? Most afraid of?

I have enjoyed reading the Miller text so far, even though it has only been a little bit.  I read the little excerpt about reading series books and I couldn’t agree more with what Miller has to say.  Reading always felt more forced for me while I was in elementary and middle school, but when some of the series like Judy Blume and Divergent were brought up, it made me reflect on the books I actually did enjoy reading during this time.  It makes me completely agree in that series are a good way to build a rapport with students and to enjoy reading in your free time.  In terms of teaching reading, I’m nervous that some students will come into my classroom with a negative association with reading and that it will be difficult to teach.  I know that for me Sustained Silent Reading was like pulling teeth and made reading lose its fun.  Teaching reading excites and scares me.  I am excited to help share great books and open up the imagination of young students, but I am scared they won’t be willing if they feel it is being forced upon them.  I believe reading should be promoted more as something to do in your leisure time to help students gain a love for reading.  I am looking forward to reading more of Reading in the Wild.  Books like this help me reflect on my own personal schooling and how I want to be as a future teacher!

My favorite story was “The Tale of the Voice”.  I enjoyed reading this one because it shows how far women will go to be with a certain someone.  It also demonstrates how foolish and quick some women can be to fall in love.  This is expressed when the woman says “the morning after I saw this man in the marketplace I woke up sick to my stomach and decided I was in love” (Donohue 187).  How could she really be in love with someone she had only observed from across the way and had never talked to?  This is puzzling but she was willing to go to great lengths to have this man.  By meeting with the witch in the cave and “losing” her voice, she was on her way to being with this mysterious man.  After spending some time with him and falling head over heels in love with him, the truth is revealed that he has been with other women and that she isn’t that important to him.  When reality sets in, it shows a good lesson to the girl and she is able to retrieve her voice once more.  I think this shows the lesson “be careful what you wish for” because in this instance, what she wished for was obviously not in her best interest.  The foolishness of this woman could have cost her a lot more time and suffering so it is lucky that she was able to see him for who he was and leave.  I think this also shows that women will go to great lengths to alter themselves to be liked or lusted after by men; what kind of lesson is this teaching younger kids?  It is important to realize what is necessary in life and to take a step back and be grateful for what you have been given.

I think there are a few reasons why Emma Donoghue titled the book Kissing the Witch.  The title is sort of contradictory in that you associate nice, love, and compassion with “kissing” but you associate wicked, bad, evil, and sneaky with “witch”.  A few of the different tales have controversial topics in them like women falling in love with women, leaving home selfish reasons, and literally kissing a witch.  This title gets Emma’s point across that things aren’t always “normal” but rather good coincides with evil.  The witch isn’t even portrayed as a bad character but someone that good people go to talk to.  Once they confide in the witch, they learn more of her side of the story and realize why she is the way she is.  As I was reading the last tale, “The Tale of the Kiss” I was almost expecting a “prince charming” ending, but rather it was a lesson for the witch and the girl alike.

 

I am going to start off with a disclaimer of which I don’t remember the exact details of Walt Disney’s “Snow White” since it has been so long since I have seen it.  However, there are some aspects that differentiate Walt’s version from the Brothers Grimm’s version.  I don’t remember seeing in Walt Disney’s that the queen had poked her finger with a needle and that the blood inspired her to want a daughter.  I also had never heard of the queen asking for a daughter that “was as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony wood”.  I remember the Huntsman being in Walt Disney’s version but I don’t recall the extent to which he carried out his duties.  The liver and lungs being cut out of Snow White’s body and the witch eating them came as a complete surprise to me!  I couldn’t imagine that being in a happy, Disney movie.  The part when Snow White arrives at the Dwarf’s cottage, I was taken back when it had a very similar scene to “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”.  The last main difference I found was when the prince took Snow White away and the apple was dislodged from her being dropped.  Along with other obvious differences, the dwarves weren’t focused on as much and there wasn’t music being played/sung.

The parts that completely surprised me were the disgustingness of the wicked witch, the reference to “Goldilocks”, and the way that Snow White was brought back to life.  The Brothers Grimm threw a curveball at me when the witch ate the lungs and liver; definitely not expecting that.  “Goldilocks” has always been one of my favorite tales and I liked how it was incorporated and the dwarves responses to Snow White’s intrusion.  In all Disney fairy tales, the princess is always woken up from a kiss from Prince Charming.  I thought it was funny that the way she was woken up was from a trip and the poisonous apple became dislodged.  I was expecting there to be some sort of reference to the seven dwarfs’ names or a part of their song “hi ho, hi ho, its back to work we go…”

The theme of this story is to not trust strangers or be so gullible.  There is no certainty in what people tell you and just one mistake can be deadly.  I think that this is a good lesson for children to learn at a young age since strangers will always be a concern.  Snow White’s gullibleness is what leads to her demise and if she had only listened to the dwarves, she wouldn’t have been fooled not only once, but three times by the same person!