The Sparrow

One of my all-time favorite books are The Sparrow and its sequel, Children of God, by Mary Doria Russel. They came to mind today because the author wanted to explore what it would be like to encounter a new culture: Is there the possibility of exploration and encounter without one civilization colonizing the other? Have we learned from the past?  Given current globalization, she set the story in the fairly near future and began with the idea that humanity "discovers" a new world and alien race.

I know that not everyone is into science fiction. For what it's worth, I once read this with an adult book club and even those who initially protested my choice of text for "my" month, ended up loving it.  

Gary Schmidt at Bright Ideas

A little while ago I posted information on the upcoming Bright Ideas Conference at MSU. The featured author this year is Gary Schmidt. This alone is enough to make it worth attending!

Schmidt has written several young adult novels that you might want to check out. Among my favorites:

• Trouble--a coming-of-age story in which a young man struggles to make sense of his brother's accident and the social context in which it occurred (I don't want to give too much away here...)
• Straw into Gold--a retelling and reimagining of the Rumpelstiltskin story
• Mara's Stories--a collection of Jewish folklore that is framed as a series of stories that the character of Mara tells children under her care in a concentration camp

I'll make sure to use at least one or two as read alouds in the upcoming weeks.

One of the comments I heard today in class was that some people valued the edginess of American Born Chinese. (I liked it too!) I think of Gary Schmidt's work as offering a completely different type of "edginess" that is about honesty and the potential for reconcilliation. I wonder if some who found Does My Head Look Big in This to be forced might find Trouble, for example, to be more "real".

Anyone else read his books?

(I win the "How many labels can you attach to a post" contest.)

The Golden Compass: Too young?

I received the first of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy novels, Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass as known in the U.S.), when I was around the age of seven when my mother decided I was “above my age’s reading level” (as many mothers believe of their children). I took one look at the then enormous novel and stashed it away on my bookshelf. A couple years later, I pulled it out once again only to read the first few pages. This practice continued until I was in the sixth grade and I actually found the motivation to read a bit further. By the third chapter I was hooked. I reread the novel, this time the entire series, when I was in high school and really came to understand the complexities of the story plot and what it represented. Since the Hollywood film came out, many of you may know the story plot or have read the novel itself (as usual, if you have only seen the movie, the novel is much more engaging and complex). In short, the main character Lyra ventures from home in search of her kidnapped friend Roger. She meets an Armored Bear along the way, as well as other friends and ultimately discovers that hundreds of kidnapped children are being used for ‘medical’ (for lack of a better word) experiments, ultimately conducted by her mother. She uses a ‘golden compass’ to navigate her way along her journey, as the instrument is able to mysteriously read the powers of the world. The book caused controversy as it has many hidden representations, mostly in regards to organized religion. I would recommend this series to anyone, especially adults who are more likely to grasp the hidden themes throughout the trilogy.

Here is a link to an article about the film sparking protest from the Catholic Church: http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1342

And another to a more engaging site about The Golden Compass as a movie versus a book: http://www.avclub.com/articles/book-vs-film-the-golden-compass,10156/

Image taken from: http://accordingtoheather.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/golden-compass.jpg