Literature Collection Blog

Same, Same But Different
By: Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

In the book, Same, Same But Different, it helps explain to children how people are different but are all people. Students can see that they may look different but they don't always live the same life style, this book give small examples and illustrations of differences between different cultures. This book is fiction and it helps with giving the students a little light onto the different ways people live. Personally, I enjoy this book and would really like to use it in my future classroom. The book is short and keeps the students attention with the illustrations as well, but is also give them information. The author, Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw, does not typically write books herself but instead is an illustrator, which is a good hint as to why students like the pictures in the book, Same, Same But Different.

The Ugly Duckling
By: Hans Christian Andersen

In this book there is an "ugly" duckling that isn't loved by its family because it looks different from the rest. But just because of this the family learns that they should have loved the duckling all along instead of only once its beautiful. This book is a folktale. It falls under this category because of the message behind the book. The message is to not judge a book by its cover, basically. Some activities I would use in the classroom with this book include, working on none bullying acts throughout the school along with communication skills. I think that this book is a classic but also one that students should be exposed to. The book itself may be an older style of writing since it is a folk tale but it does give the students good information on how you shouldn't treat someone when you don't know them or their story.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears
By: Robert Southey

This classic story is about a girl who is lost in the forest and finds this home, she went into the home uninvited because no one was home. After she goes into the home, she tried everyones food but only enjoyed the baby bears, therefore she ate all of it, she sat in all their chairs and broke every single one and finally tried out everyones bed and really liked baby bear's where she fell asleep before the bears came home and found all the messes in their house and her fast asleep in baby bears bed. This book is a fairy tale book for a few reasons, this includes, bears don't live in real houses nor do they sleep in normal beds or sit in chairs. A book of this sort allows for the students to expand their knowledge on stories in this genre but also expands their imagination. One motivational activity that I would use when using this book in the classroom is for students to rewrite this story using the same outline but different outcomes. Another activity that I would use is for students to write their own fairy tale from scratch. This gives students that opportunity to expand their knowledge and provides them a low risk opportunity to do a different type of writing.

Rules
By: Cynthia Lord

This book is about a girl who wants a normal life but has a brother who has autism. This causes her life to be far from normal. The book is all about how she wants to teach her brother the "Rules" about how life works so that she has a chance at a normal life. This book is a contemporary realistic fiction book. The book is about a life that has the possibility of being real to someone but isn't likely to be the life of many people. There are some options of of activities to do with this book. The students could write stories about their life and compare it to the life of the girl in the book. This could connect to a compare and contrast lesson. Another activity that you could do using this book is to have the students write rules of life that are followed on a daily basis. This will not only connect to prior knowledge but also work on connecting things to the real world for them.


 A summary of the book (1-2 sentences)
 An evaluation by genre (the checklists found in your textbook) and by illustrations (if any)
 At least two suggestions of motivational activities including reader response questions (See ideas in Chapter 12 of your textbook)
 Two of the book choices should include a discussion of how the suggested activities would align with the Saint Leo Core Value of Respect
 Personal comments about the book or similar works by other authors, author background information, and other books by same author
  Bibliographic information and APA style (Students may refer to http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/08/ for help)
 Include all the requirements on the rubric at the end of this document

Romantic Period

Lexy Benjamin

Ms. Wilson

Brit Lit B

May 10, 2013

Romantic Period

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was on poet from the romantic period who was considered a “true poet”, but that was only for short spurts. Many people believed Coleridge to be a genius, without a question. He was home schooled foe the classical education then in 1792 he attended the Cambridge University. In 1794 he left without a degree, which he continued writing, got married and started a new friendship.

   

The friendship, with William Wordsworth started when they went to study in Germany. In 1798 Wordsworth and Coleridge published “Lyrical ballads, with other poems”. Coleridge wrote his best poems because of their friendship. It was helpful that Wordsworth was considered “the best poet of the age”. Coleridge cherished their friendship so much he followed Wordsworth back to his roots/family. While with Wordsworth, Coleridge started and tried new things.

 

Coleridge was a philosopher in his time. He gave speeches on Shakespeare and worked on his own philosophy along with criticism. During these great achievements, he had a time of pain. He began an addiction to opium which affected his magnificent mind. He put himself in the care of a doctor and during this time Coleridge was having dreams. One of them turned into the poem: “Kubla Khan”.

The poem “Kubla Khan” uses literary devices, such as alliteration, imagery and sound effects. “…sunless sea…” is an example of both alliteration and sound effects.  Another example of sound effects is “…thick pants were breathing…” this is also an example of personification. It is very interesting the word choice that Coleridge chooses in line 6 “So twice five miles of fertile ground…” Why doesn’t Coleridge just say 10 miles? Is this meant for the reader to think about what he is saying in the poem? When he says “…tumult to a lifeless ocean…” it’s believed to mean that there are no waves rolling over in the ocean.

Neoclassical Piece

Lexy Benjamin

Ms. Wilson

Brit Lit B

May 8, 2013

Neoclassical Piece

            Miguel de Cervantes wrote a fairy tale story about his hero. In his story the hero is the “knight in rusty armor”, this is because in real life he is poor, therefore he can’t buy new shinny armor or even pay off debts he has. Miguel de Cervantes is in debt because of his career in the army. When he was in the army he was captured by pirates and was held for 5 years and he was let free because his family had to pay a ransom.

In de Cervantes book, his hero portrays himself and his hero. The main character’s name in the book is Don Quixote. Don Quixote encounters battles throughout the book just like he encountered battles in the army. I read a short excerpt from “The Ingenious Gentleman of Don Quixote of La Mancha”, called “from Don Quixote Chapter 8” in this part of the story it is telling about one of knight’s battles he encountered. The battle that is described in the book Don Quixote is about to face giants, but they aren’t real giants. His side kick knows that they are really windmills that are in a field and tries to get his master to understand that. Miguel de Cervantes bases the side kick in his book off of one of his friends for real life.

   

Miguel de Cervantes was very interested in books, but fairy tales was his all-time favorite type of book. This is because they have a hero, a fair lady, a squire and battles. He was most interested in the hero part of the book especially if the hero has a strong military values along with Christian values. Once Cervantes returns home from being enslaved, he starts reading a ton of books. While reading these books, he ends up going mad/crazy. But when he writes his book, he uses impossible dreams for his readers to be able to compare themselves and relate to the main character in the book. He also uses parodies in his book the relate Don Quixote in his ridiculousness to something just a s ridiculous. In his writing he also uses irony, incongruity and a twisted imitation. He uses all of these to make a fun book out of a knight in a fairy tale with romance. Before the adventure begins to set the world’s wrong into rights, in both Cervantes real life and for Don Quixote’s life, their family and friends tricks them into going back home.

Even though Miguel de Cervantes writes this book to get money to pay his debt, it doesn’t work out that way. He becomes all famous and wrote a book for nothing but to give his audience a laugh and have a relationship to a main character. The book, “The Ingenious Gentleman of Don Quixote of La Mancha” was published in 1605. It wasn’t long after being published, there were fake copies of the book showing up. Not long after the fakes showed up, there were translated copies of the book in English and French. When Miguel de Cervantes died, just the day before Shakespeare, to his family he left them debts, but to readers and fellow writers, he was known as the father of the modern novel.

In a section of Chapter 8 he uses a unique word choose and literary devices. “… thirty or forty windmills which were standing on the plain there…” The word standing is personification, although the windmills are upright, people stand and windmills are places upright. There are many other examples of his unique word choice and literary devices. These make his book hard to understand but funny. Miguel did a very nice job sing both to his advantage at lease throughout the section of chapter 8.