The Gist: Gemma Doyle, a British girl growing up the end of the Industrial Revolution, questions where she fits in because where she is supposed to fit in she doesn’t and she’s too afraid to try out where she wants to fit in.

Story [...]]]>

A Great And Terrible Beauty
Written by Libba Bray

The Gist: Gemma Doyle, a British girl growing up the end of the Industrial Revolution, questions where she fits in because where she is supposed to fit in she doesn’t and she’s too afraid to try out where she wants to fit in.

Story Review: Gemma is well written–sometimes she’s mature and sometimes she acts like a child, much like a normal teenager. However Gemma is never treated by Bray in a condescending or romanticized way, Gemma simply is herself for better and worse.

Most of the other characters are also multidimensional. Even the characters that are one dimensional don’t seem out of place for their role is minimal.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Explore Bombay, India (see list below for places mentioned)
Explore London, England (see list below for places mentioned)
Learn more about Gypsies
Buried treasure hunts (Gemma goes on one accidentally after a hazing incident)
Read Lady of Shalott
Form your own secret society
Traditional/Folk dance lessons (Part of being a high society woman is knowing how to quadrille, waltz, etc.)
Visit a fortune-teller (This is a minor one, but it sounded like too much fun to exclude it)
Read David Copperfield
Play lawn tennis
Attend charm/finishing school type classes
Learn archery/hunting
Eat some (in season) berries (Preferably while reading the next book. I always want an extra stash when I’m reading these books.)
Play cricket

Locations mentioned in the book:
Bombay marketplace
Victoria Station
London’s East End
Whitechapel
Spence Academy
Visit the “Lady of Shalott” painting
Visit a gypsy camp
Grosvenor Sq.

The Gist: Rose inadvertently start a biohazard cleaning business with her sister Nora and both women learn on the job how to clean up the mess death leaves behind physically and along the way learn to deal wit the mess that life makes.

The Gist: A little girl, Mirandy, is determined to capture Brother Wind so she can win a junior cake walk.

Story Review: The watercolors are gorgeous, but I’m biased because I love Jerry Pinckey’s artwork. The story makes use of [...]]]>

Mirandy and Brother Wind
Written by Patricia C. McKissack
Illustrated by Jerry Pinckney

The Gist: A little girl, Mirandy, is determined to capture Brother Wind so she can win a junior cake walk.

Story Review: The watercolors are gorgeous, but I’m biased because I love Jerry Pinckey’s artwork. The story makes use of all kids of life in a rural African American community. The people who help but also discourage Mirandy are: a conjure woman, her mother, and grandmother (who she calls Ma Dear). This story shows what can be done if you listen to and trust yourself. Mirandy will be distracted by no one whereas Ezel, Mirandy’s friend, seems to be distracted by everyone.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Participate in a cakewalk
Make a patchwork quilt (Alright, Mirandy doesn’t make a quilt, but she does use one and they’re gorgeous. It’s one of those things that I like to put in whenever I have an excuse.)
Do something nice (and unexpected) for a friend

The Gist: The dramatic conclusion to the dystopian young adult epic set in what used to be the United States where the Districts are waging war against the Capitol.

Story Summary: After the attack on District 12, all the survivors are taken in by District 13. President of [...]]]>

Mockingjay
Written by Suzanne Collins

The Gist: The dramatic conclusion to the dystopian young adult epic set in what used to be the United States where the Districts are waging war against the Capitol.

Story Summary: After the attack on District 12, all the survivors are taken in by District 13. President of District 13, Alma Coin, along with the other revloution leaders want Katniss to take on the role of Mockingjay–but they sound exactly like the Capitol. In the planned escape from the Arena, Peeta and Johanna were left behind and subsequently captured by the Capitol. Peeta is tortured, although Katniss doesn’t discover why until about halfway through the book.

Katniss experiences a completely different daily life where everything is uniform and strictly controlled, but where everyone is well fed and they have more opportunities in general.

Story Review: I love how no one is completely odious (even President Snow has a relatable moment) or a saint (although Peeta’s more egregious qualities aren’t his fault, some of his lesser unwanted qualities, blind devotion, are all his). Although lots of threads were left untied, the story isn’t going to unravel. The story ends true to its depiction of life–it’s messy and unfinished, nothing completely solved but hey, at least it keeps moving forward.

The way Katniss deals with conflicting ideas on so many levels is great. It’s small stuff like her relationship to Haymitch (when she catches herself caring about Haymitch she has to remind herself she doesn’t care anymore) to larger stuff like how the leaders of the Capitol and the leaders of District 13 both play out of the same handbook (why is Katniss advocating revolution when the person who takes over who is going to be like the last person who was in charge?).

I love the end where Katniss says there are worst games to play than a very repetitious game that reminds her of all the good in the world, where you can see Katniss has learned to accept both hope and base instinct to survive as needed in life. Katniss now values the good, which is much different than the girl who continually owed everyone for their kindness.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Cook GOOD food
Learn to hunt
Learn archery
Marvel at the things we take for granted (running hot and cold water for example)
Play the repetitious game Katniss introduces in the epilogue

The Gist: Continuation of the dystopian young adult epic set in what used to be the United States where annually each of the twelve districts (which are like city-states and where most of the citizens are impoverished) must send a male and female tribute to the lavish [...]]]>

Catching Fire
Written by Suzanne Collins

The Gist: Continuation of the dystopian young adult epic set in what used to be the United States where annually each of the twelve districts (which are like city-states and where most of the citizens are impoverished) must send a male and female tribute to the lavish Capitol as punishment for the Hunger Games, a competition that has only one victor, because of a failed rebellion decades earlier.

Story Summary: The first major event in Catching Fire is President of Panem, Coriolanus Snow, making threats against Gale if Katniss doesn’t convince all of the districts and him that she truly loves Peeta. Collins also demonstrates how oppressed the rest of Panem is in stark contrast to how excessive the Capitol is and how controlling the Capitol can be. Every 25 years instead a normal Hunger Games with 24 tributes chosen at random there is a Quarter Quell. This is where the government imposes a new rule for that year only about how the Games will be run. For the 25th Hunger Games everyone had to vote on who went to the arena, for the 50th Hunger Games twice as many tributes (48) were sent to the arena. Since this year is the 75th Hunger Games there is a condition imposed on the Games. I won’t ruin it to say what it is, but shortly after that announcement the book stops feeling like we’re waiting for something to occur.

We do meet several characters who are integral parts to the larger story, namely the new Head Gamesmaker Plutarch Heavensbee (who toes the line between odious and tolerable), Finnick Odair from District 4 (who knows how the game is played), Johanna Mason from District 8 (who is brash and unnervingly honest), and Beetee from District 3 (who may be the smartest person in the entire series).

Story Review: Like most middle stories there is a sense that we’re waiting for some action. It picks up toward the end, especially once the conditions for the Quarter Quell are announced. There are also subtle differences between how Katniss describes Gale, who is now much more present since he’s not only in Katniss’s memories, (like Gale’s arms entrap her, they belong to one another) versus Peeta (his arms protect her, they have a partnership with one another not an ownership of one another). If we were to boil down Katniss and Peeta into one word symbols again they would be action for Katniss and words for Peeta. Once again balancing each other out.

Katniss uses a lot of distancing language and although she notices a lot Katniss is never an objective observer. I would love to see what this entire story is like through Peeta’s eyes. I would also love to know more about Cinna and periphery characters like the red-headed Avox girl, Portia, and Johanna. And Rue, even though she only exists in memory in this book, I would love to know more about Rue and her family.

As my brother says it’s great for not having either a beginning or an end.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Cook GOOD food
Learn to hunt
Learn what edible plants grow in the wild in your community
Learn archery
Participate in the Hunger Games movie hype (It feels like its everywhere.)
Learn to bake bread
Teach yourself how to paint
Play a Hunger Games inspired paintball game (I’ve been working on creating something like that. Now all I need is the courage to ask my favorite paintball place here, Dosser Works, if there is a way we could play it.)
Visit the Coliseum
Learn to swim/go swimming
Learn to fish/go fishing
Dive for oysters

The Gist: Dystopian young adult fiction series set in what used to be the United States where annually each of the twelve districts (which are like city-states and where most of the citizens are impoverished) must send a male and female tribute to the lavish Capitol [...]]]>

The Hunger Games
Written by Suzanne Collins

The Gist: Dystopian young adult fiction series set in what used to be the United States where annually each of the twelve districts (which are like city-states and where most of the citizens are impoverished) must send a male and female tribute to the lavish Capitol as punishment for a failed rebellion to participate in the Hunger Games, a competition to the death of all but one.

Story Summary: The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is a pragmatic sixteen year old girl who volunteers to save her twelve year old sister Primrose–something that is unheard of in the poverty-stricken District 12. The stage is set very early on for something even bigger than Katniss surviving the Games: paranoia over being watched/heard is normal, the government is trying to keep their citizens weak (dangerous jobs, crappy pay, no hunting or gathering food off the land, no leaving the “safety” of the fenced in district to hunt or gather more food, etc.). Peeta Mellark is the male tribute from District 12 and with his nationally televised declaration of love for Katniss he innocently sets off a chain reaction that leads to Katniss defying the Capitol on mandatory-to-watch national television.

Story Review: Most of the book is spent in the Capitol with flashbacks to District 12 as needed. What’s interesting is how Collins is able to create a love triangle when one of the members, Gale, exists only in Katniss’s memories. The characters are so distinct that the protagonist and the antagonist can be boiled down to ideals: Peeta is hope and Katniss is survival.

I loved this book. I go back to read sections of it over and over because of how smart the language is (when all we know about the District 5 female tribute is the nickname Katniss gives her, Foxface, we already think she’s clever because the connotation we have of the word fox) and how well the language is used to tell a story that works well on a personal character level and on a universal ideal level.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Cook GOOD food (Food is easily one of Katniss’s major focuses.)
Learn to hunt
Learn what edible plants grow in the wild in your community and start gathering
Learn archery
Participate in the Hunger Games movie hype (It feels like its everywhere, but that website is definitely my favorite thus far.)
Marvel at the things we take for granted (running hot and cold water for example)
Play a Hunger Games inspired paintball game (I’ve been working on creating something like that. Now all I need is the courage to ask my favorite paintball place here, Dosser Works, if there is a way we could play it.)
Visit the Coliseum

The Gist: Charmain had led a very sheltered life and for the first time is allowed to do things as she wishes–whether they be respectable or not.

Story Review: Charmain isn’t allowed to do anything that according to her mother is not respectable– this [...]]]>

House of Many Ways
Written by Diana Wynne Jones

The Gist: Charmain had led a very sheltered life and for the first time is allowed to do things as she wishes–whether they be respectable or not.

Story Review: Charmain isn’t allowed to do anything that according to her mother is not respectable– this means Charmain never learns to cook (although her father is the best cook in town), do dishes, or wash laundry and until Charmain meets Peter while housesitting she doesn’t realize that there are a great many useful things one cannot learn in a book. However because of this limited perspective she has courage to try things no one else would (like volunteering to help in the Royal Library) and she is resourceful enough to know where to find help (getting cookbooks from her father since Peter is also a little sheltered and neither of them know how to cook).

I like that as Charmain is around more people she begins to recognize things in herself–like trying to be nicer to and more patient with Peter. One of my favorite descriptions of Charmain paints her perfectly as an analytical overthinker stating “She knew there was earth under the plants and that the earth contained worms. She shuddered.” I also liked that Charmain has absolutely no interest in getting married, in fact at one point a spell comes up to give her a handsome prince and her first thought is along the lines of what would I want with one of those? Even though I know not every fictional female character is itching to get married (or in a love standoff… I mean, love triangle), lately it feel like that’s all I’ve been reading.

Overall the book is a fun romp for its age group (middle schoolers) and much like in Jones’ other Howl’s Moving Castle ‘sequel’ Castle in the Air Sophie and Howl (the main characters from Howl’s Moving Castle) are supporting characters in this book. It’s a fun way to give the story a broader backstory while also getting to explore new characters (that coincidentally are much closer to the age range of the intended audience).

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Be courageous for 30 seconds and something great will happen (alright I stole the wording from We Bought A Zoo, but it just so happens to work for the book as well)
Read a book
Discover and create an adventure outside of books
Cook for yourself (relatively from scratch, microwaving a Hot Pocket doesn’t count)
Wash dishes (not in a machine)
Wash laundry (not in a machine)
Create you own family tree (resplendent with interesting notes about the family members)
Adopt a dog (or let a dog adopt you)
Don’t let no knowledge stand in your way of trying

The Gist: In a land where prophecies must always come to pass, a young carpet seller defies all odds to meet, fall in love, and fight for the privilege to marry a princess.

Story Review: Abdullah, a young carpet seller, meets Flower-in-the-Night, a sheltered [...]]]>

Castle in the Air
Written by Diana Wynne Jones

The Gist: In a land where prophecies must always come to pass, a young carpet seller defies all odds to meet, fall in love, and fight for the privilege to marry a princess.

Story Review: Abdullah, a young carpet seller, meets Flower-in-the-Night, a sheltered but highly intelligent princess and in true storybook fashion the two immediately fall in love. After Flower-in-the-Night is abducted by a djinn, Abdullah is determined to get her back. In his quest Abdullah finds that everything is not always as black-and-white as a simple prophecy and while being flexible can gain good things, he must also trust himself to make the right decisions.

I liked the very different setting and perspective of this book, although it greatly reminded me of C.S. Lewis’s The Horse and His Boy in a Westerner’s take on Middle Eastern culture (specifically the judgement on how marriage is viewed). Overall though I liked that this book introduced me to a world of fantastical creatures that us Westerners don’t really see (although this past year I’ve been hearing lots about djinns). I also loved how Abdullah doesn’t seem to notice that the more he bends over backward to accommodate others, the crankier and often less helpful he is.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Go to a bazaar/open air market
Visit a large flower or botanical garden
Plant a flower garden (Bonus points if you use a lot of bluebells.)
Relax, take in a sunset and play the “What does this cloud look like?” game
Go camping
Travel to foreign countries (But unlike the book, do not be xenophobic.)

The Gist: In a world where magic is as normal as royalty, a young woman seeks to reverse the curses that plague her.

Story Review: Sophie is the oldest of three and fully believe the superstition that the eldest of three will be a failure. [...]]]>

Howl’s Moving Castle
Written by Diana Wynne Jones

The Gist: In a world where magic is as normal as royalty, a young woman seeks to reverse the curses that plague her.

Story Review: Sophie is the oldest of three and fully believe the superstition that the eldest of three will be a failure. Whenever things do go wrong, she automatically blames this superstition, but when things are going well Sophie forgets about the eldest curse. I love that once Sophie is aged (due to a curse from the truly bad Witch of the Waste) she becomes fearless– even though she still holds onto the superstitions she is no longer the meek and scared Sophie. This is the woman that leaves the comforts of home to find a way to break her curse, who enters into a deal with Calcifer (a fire demon), and who meddles in the wizard Howl’s affairs. Once she stops being so scared of trying, life starts opening up to her. However Sophie’s curses continue to haunt her because she doesn’t realize only she has the power to break them.

This book is a wonderful tryst into fantasy without all the tangles and difficulty that comes with high fantasy books. Perfect for middle schooler (I picked the book up in the children’s section of my library) with quite an extensive and awesome use of vocabulary (higgledy-piggledy, hale, heaves, etc.).

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Celebrate May Day
Make/mend your own clothes (I suggest ThreadBanger and BurdaStyle)
Make you your hats
Throughly clean your home
Plant a garden (My personal favorites are Turtle Tree seeds and the Seed Saver Exchange)
Plant a flower garden (See suggestions above)
Be vain. (Or at least treat yourself right: manicure, pedicure, facials, etc.)
Visit Wales

The General Gist: The other Oh, You Can book that tells you to think outside the box.

Story Review: Simplistic rhyme scheme with whimsical (although typical) Seuss drawings, language, and message. I like that made up [...]]]>

Oh, the THINKS You Can Think!
Written and Illustrated by Dr. Seuss (Warning: the site is noisy!)

The General Gist: The other Oh, You Can book that tells you to think outside the box.

Story Review: Simplistic rhyme scheme with whimsical (although typical) Seuss drawings, language, and message. I like that made up words are set apart by being in all caps the first time around and I love the message that you can think anything. The illustrations on the page aren’t only dreamy, they’re impossible ideas right in front of you eyes, and because there is no protagonist, the thinker is you the reader. Now if only there was a rubber meets road part to the part I would be completely over the moon.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Visit Seuss’s Sculpture garden in Springfield, MA
Visit Theodore Geisel’s childhood home (and to think it is on Mulberry St. in Springfield)
Encourage your (or your child’s) imagination. (Paint, sing, cook, dance, work on your big dream, and of course PLAY)

The General Gist: A Creole twist on the “being a good person will get you good things” fairytale.

Story Review: This is perhaps my favorite iteration of this tale of the mean mom and older sister/a kind younger sister and [...]]]>

The Talking Eggs
Written by Robert D. San Souci
Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

The General Gist: A Creole twist on the “being a good person will get you good things” fairytale.

Story Review: This is perhaps my favorite iteration of this tale of the mean mom and older sister/a kind younger sister and elderly woman who judges the other characters in this book. There are quite a few reasons why I love this version the most but I’ll start with the most obvious one: the characters all look they could belong to my family. This stems from the fact that this is the Creole version of the tale. San Souci’s story is great: folk dancing rabbits, braying cows, talking eggs but since this story is made for a predominantly illiterate/beginner reading group, it’s the artwork that gets most of the attention. Which is great because this book is filled with the most delicious art. I’m a huge fan of Jerry Pinkney’s artwork and his watercolors in this book are no exception. In a few pages on the book the writing is nest in the art and it made me wish for a font other than Times (I think, I’m not a font expert) that would blend and complement Pinkney’s artwork better.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Pay It Forward
Volunteer
Cook dinner for your family (or help your parents cook)
Start a garden (It might not the right time of year for that right now, but give it a couple of months. Planting season is right around the corner.)

The Gist: Chance, Shadow and Sassy are the pets of Jamie, Peter and Hope. After their mother is married, the human part of the family temporarily moves to San Francisco [...]]]>

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
Directed by Dwayne Dunham
Written by Sheila Burnford (the novel The Incredible Journey), Caroline Thompson, and Linda Woolverton

The Gist: Chance, Shadow and Sassy are the pets of Jamie, Peter and Hope. After their mother is married, the human part of the family temporarily moves to San Francisco while the animal part is moved to a family friend’s farm. The animals, Shadow in particular, don’t take too kindly to being abandoned and all three escape to go home. THough Shadow, Sassy and Chance start the journey as individuals, they quickly learn to rely on one another as a family in order to survive.

Story Review: Another children’s story that is good at any age who is a part of a family, bonus points if it’s dysfunctional. Nice parallels between Chance being the new dog needing to find his place in the family as Bob, the man marries into the family at the beginning of movie tries to find his place in the family.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Visit an animal shelter
Speak with an animal shelter worker/volunteer
Take a hike
Go camping
Learn about/go birdwatching

The premise: The protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is a hobbit–who as a race are sociable hermits. Hobbits are a reliable and predictable people–adventures are frowned upon by all respectable members of society. Though Baggins hadn’t meant to go on an adventure, that is what he did.

Story Review: [...]]]>

The Hobbit
Written by J.R.R. Tolkien

The premise: The protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is a hobbit–who as a race are sociable hermits. Hobbits are a reliable and predictable people–adventures are frowned upon by all respectable members of society. Though Baggins hadn’t meant to go on an adventure, that is what he did.

Story Review: A stand alone prelude to the Lord of the Rings series. Tolkien does a great job of providing in depth characterizations in single sentences. The only quibble I have with the book is that all the good guys seem to speak the same language until Tolkien mentions that the Wargs are speaking a different language.

While I’m not a big fan of poetry I did like a few of Tolkien’s poems–especially the one the woods-elves sing which appears to be directions he needs but is too panicked to listen to. I also enjoyed the roads goes ever ever on (mainly from a traveling perspective).

There is a lot of cultural information about each race the audience meets–which is generally one every chapter for approximately the first ten chapters.
Hobbits: social hermits who generally keep to themselves in their own land
Dwarves: good, calculating people–non-heroic and give great value to money. Decent enough people as long as too much isn’t expected. (Chapter 12)
Trolls: large, ill-mannered beings who plunder and must be underground by dawn, otherwise they “go back to the stuff of mountains they are made of and never move again.” (Chapter 2)
Elves: beautiful, general lighthearted beings who “…know what is going on among peoples of the land…” (Chapter 3)
Goblins: mean-spirited, plundering beings who hate everyone and everything. They like to take the easy route and work with machines to lighten their load. (Tolkien makes this sound like an awful thing. Chapter 4)
Wargs: first beings to have their own language mentioned, but they are animals and evil. In league with goblins.
Eagles: “…are not kindly birds. Some are cowardly and cruel. But the ancient race of the northern mountains were the greatest of all bird; there were proud and strong and noble-hearted.” (Chapter 6)
Giant Spiders: wicked beings who feast on other intelligent beings, often hunting to catch their prey unawares.
Wood-elves: did not go to Faerie and stayed in the Wide World, making them less wise than other types of elves. (Chapter 8)
Men: generally good, only race that gets to be both good and bad in nature. It does seem like how honorable a person is depends on where/who they originate from.

The narrator, who is not Baggins, goes less into detail about the places they visit, unless there are no people about to focus on.

Places Visited:
Green Dragon Inn, Bywater
Lonelands
Wilderlands
The Misty Mountains
The Last Homely House, Rivendell
Inside the Misty Mountains, in the Goblins’ Lair/tunnels
Eagles Eyrie
Beorn’s Home
Mirkwood, northern part (Giant Spiders, Elvenking’s underground city)
Lake-town
Lonely Mountain

Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Different proverbs for different cultures.

Immersion Activities:
Having an adventure with friends (or strangers, who preferably become friends)
Visit a museum exhibit about mythical creatures, like the ones that inhabit this book
Take a hike
Read other Tolkien books (or if you’re a more visual type, a few have been made into movies)
Visit the set (or at least view the location where) The Hobbit (which is being released as a Part One and Part Two dealie) is being filmed
Watch the older, animated version of The Hobbit

Got any suggestions I may have missed for immersion activities? Tell ‘em to me in the comments (or if you’re the more private type email them to me)

The Gist: A children’s story using anthropomorphic (personified) animals to teach the value of manners.

Story Review: Growing up I loved all of the Serendipity books my dad would bring home. Even though I knew they were teaching lessons like manners and kindness, [...]]]>

The Grumpling
Written by Stephen Cosgrove
Illustrated by Robin James

The Gist: A children’s story using anthropomorphic (personified) animals to teach the value of manners.

Story Review: Growing up I loved all of the Serendipity books my dad would bring home. Even though I knew they were teaching lessons like manners and kindness, I was so young it wasn’t as in-your-face as it is to an adult. While I don’t believe that manners have much to do with a person’s outward appearance, (Grumpling is disheveled and dirty, which makes him a bad person. That sends the signal to children that people who look like the homeless are bad) I do believe that teaching kids manners is important. I do love Buttermilk, a baking bunny that rivals Martha Stewart in domestic artistry. She’s the bunny that has the brilliant idea to invite Grumpling to tea and has the gumption to teach him the proper manners to live in the land of Amenity. The points lost in ridiculousness are definitely made up in the story’s authentic feel and the general message behind the story.

The penciled illustrations are gorgeous. The large eyes and color palette appeal to children and the child in every adult.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Tea Party (High Tea, Afternoon Tea, a themed party where tea is served, etc.)
Etiquette Classes
Bake the different goodies in the book (sugar crumb cookies, caramel crumpets, assorted cakes)
Use your manners, even when you don’t think it will be reciprocated

The Gist: Jack Skellington, King of Halloweentown, is tired of what he does best (scaring everyone during Halloween) and in an effort to escape stumbles upon Christmastown–which he eventually leads him to taking over Christmas.

Disclaimer: The book I read was actually a very old copy of Great Tales and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe that was in horrible condition but it looks like that might be out of print. Trivial fact: The copy [...]]]>

The Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe
Written by Edgar Allen Poe

Disclaimer: The book I read was actually a very old copy of Great Tales and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe that was in horrible condition but it looks like that might be out of print. Trivial fact: The copy I have originally sold for a whopping 45₵.

The Gist: A compilation of Poe’s famous and not-so famous poems and short stories.

Story Review: There is a reason Poe is the a forefather to modern horror. This time around I read most of his well known stories (“The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Black Cat”) and the poem, “The Raven”. Each story has a level of reserved for those demented in imagination. It’s clear from what Poe writes that he writes from experience–the foster father who shunned him, the foster mother who died before they could say goodbye to one another, the ex-fiancee who left him and the child bride who died after a decade of marriage. His imagination is out there, but after a while of reading his work themes seem to repeat (like burying someone in the house, someone in the house, alcohol, the perpetrator believing he’s gotten away with it).

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Visit one of Edgar Allen Poe’s home (He lived all over the East Coast: Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the Bronx)
Go to a Ravens football game (or watch one on TV)
Visit Poe’s, an eatery; there’s one in South Carolina and one in Florida

Written by Robert Kirkman

Illustrated by Tony Moore

Published by Image Comics

The Gist: While Officer Rick is in a coma from being shot in the chest, an undeadly virus sweeps through the nation, possibly the world. Rick wakes up to find everything changed and [...]]]>

The Walking Dead, Volume 1: Days Gone By

Written by Robert Kirkman

Illustrated by Tony Moore

Published by Image Comics

The Gist: While Officer Rick is in a coma from being shot in the chest, an undeadly virus sweeps through the nation, possibly the world. Rick wakes up to find everything changed and his family missing. An optimist, Rick travels to where he believes his family would go and by dumb luck manages to find his wife Lori and son Carl. What follows is what happens when the only thing to get in the way all the things important in life are zombies.

Story Review: The art is gorgeous. A specific instance that comes to mind is on the first page when Rick is shot, my first thought was, “This looks beautiful!” and my second thought was, “OOOOOWWWW!” I generally don’t talk about art because I don’t feel qualified so that should tell you how beautiful this art is. The story is eloquent. A panel depicting Rick laughing followed by a panel of Rick feeling guilty about laughing, Rick going from happy to sad in six panels and once Rick is brought to the encampment the idea that they need to rely and protect but not always agree is beautifully illustrated in two panels. The text and the art work so well together that they tell a powerful story succinctly. As Kirkman mentions in the foreword it’s not about zombies, it’s about the human experience when all humans have to rely on for everything is each other.

Two small continuity problems (and when I say small, I mean it): no hoof sounds on the road when Rick is riding the horse and there is a page with a disappearing-reappearing shirt stain.

Immersion Activities:
-interview a cop
-go on a road trip in search of long, lost family (It’s from Kentucky to Atlanta in the book, however it’s also post apocalyptic and partially done on horseback amidst zombies. I’m sure some liberties are acceptable.)
-ride a horse
-go to a shooting range and learn to shoot
-go to a paintball location and learn to be both predator and prey
-go camping
-learn how to hunt
-participate in a zombie apocalypse (for ATLiens I recommend the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse, it’s going on for the entire month of October!)

The Gist: King Derwin it tired of rain, snow, fog and sunshine, so he commissions his magicians to make something new fall out of the sky and things go incredibly awry.

Story Review: Life is a humdrum world until oobleck [...]]]>

Bartholomew and the Oobleck
Written by Dr. Seuss (Warning! The site is noisy.)

The Gist: King Derwin it tired of rain, snow, fog and sunshine, so he commissions his magicians to make something new fall out of the sky and things go incredibly awry.

Story Review: Life is a humdrum world until oobleck arrives. However in a classic be-careful-what-you-wish-for tale, the oobleck wreaks havoc because it’s “…gooey! It’s gummy! It’s like glue!” Farmers can’t farm, no one can dry their laundry, and because oobleck doesn’t run like water, it’s building to critical mass. The oobleck builds and builds until King Derwin accepts the blame for what has gone wrong and apologizes for his hubris.

Immersion Activity Ideas:
Make oobleck (not using the recipe in the book)
Explain what similes are and make a game of finding all the similes
Celebrate the “four perfect things that come down from the sky”
Make asparagus soup

I feel ridiculous for not updating in the past couple of weeks but I’ve moved (dramatic pause) again. This is the last time I will be moving for at least the next 16 months or so; which makes me do a happy dance because even though I move roughly every 9-12 months, [...]]]> Hey all,

I feel ridiculous for not updating in the past couple of weeks but I’ve moved (dramatic pause) again. This is the last time I will be moving for at least the next 16 months or so; which makes me do a happy dance because even though I move roughly every 9-12 months, it still takes me forever to move. The move has sucked up all of my normal fun time, which is when I get to write here. So hang on tight and I’ll be back soon, hopefully sometime next week.

Cheers,
Jacqui B.