Here on Sunday night I revive my Weekend Wonderings. (I meant to do this yesterday morning but I was away from my computer.)

Over at Tea Cozy, Liz B. provides this quote from Ken Tucker’s review of the Beowulf DVD:

“Zemeckis says in a making-of that this film has ’nothing to do with the Beowulf you were forced to read in junior high - it’s all about eating, drinking, killing, and fornicating.’ To which I can only respond, Oh, you poor, deluded baby boomer: Bob, do you think young people in 2008 have an Old English epic poem on the syllabus? American literacy is lucky if junior high schoolers get a stray Hemingway short story into their diet of crappy young-adult novels."

This led me to a couple questions, which I shall catalogue for you now.

1. Where do the uninitiated get their ideas about what kids are reading, in or out of school? It’s true that I haven’t been in middle school for about 14 years, but when I was, we read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I’m fairly certain the curriculum hasn’t changed much. We read Beowulf in high school - not in its entirety, but in excerpts in World Literature. I think students who had British Literature in 12th Grade (instead of AP Literature, which is what I had) might have read it more. I know that my current students are still reading classics - Hamlet in 12th Grade, and others. (The North Carolina English Language Arts Curriculum Resources suggest texts like Romeo and Juliet, The Canterbury Tales, and the Scottish play.)

2. What is the relationship between a child’s desire to read and the amount of freedom she has to choose her reading material? In my 7th Grade year, our Language Arts teacher allowed us to read anything we wanted, so long as we were reading and then writing about our reading. Thus, my 7th Grade literature consisted of Piers Anthony, Michael Crichton, and Tanith Lee. If students are fed a steady diet of books that, while classic and worth reading, are old and seem irrelevant to them, is it any wonder that they don’t want to read more? I think a more sensible approach would be to alternate required texts with choice - but still requiring students to provide responses to their reading. I am glad to have read Hard Times, but I wouldn’t want to read Dickens exclusively.

Answers, anyone?

 All other things (like price and storage space) being equal, given a choice in a perfect world, would you rather have paperbacks in your library? Or hardcovers? And why?

This is a tough question, as I love both.  Paperbacks are eminently portable, but hardcovers are so much sturdier.  Paperbacks sometimes have a greater sense of history, but hardcovers smell better.  In a perfect world, I’d have each for its appropriate purpose.  Fancy editions (Complete Classic-Author, for example) would be hardcover.  Longer books would be hardcover.  But quick reads would be paperback.  Guilty pleasures, also paperback.  Plays, paperback.  But I certainly wouldn’t want ALL my books to be paperback.

What about you?

LiveJournal is now blocked at work. While I wasn’t generally using it, it is my preferred feed aggregator and I would every once in a while check it at lunch, or on those days when I was working well past 3 but needed a break. But since it’s not working there anymore, I’ve been switching over to JacketFlap for at-work reading only. I’m also setting up post-by-email, just in case I find something awesome on JacketFlap and can’t wait until I get home to post about it. That’s what this post is testing.

Tomorrow: Booking Through Thursday.

Becker Drane has the best job in the world: he is a Fixer in The Seems, a behind-the-scenes society where all the things that happen in The World are orchestrated.  He jumps full-force into his first mission: fixing the glitch in sleep.  No one in The World can get any sleep, and it has kept several important things from happening.  If Becker can’t fix it, the Chain of Events will disassemble and life as we know it will be destroyed.

 The greatest strength of The Seems is the complex world its authors have created.  Everything in life is carefully orchestrated by the workers of The Seems, and Hulme and Wexler seem to have thought of everything.  If you were to find something they hadn’t, the world is so well-developed they could come up with an answer in a mere matter of seconds.  Becker is a relatable character, with ordinary problems in spite of his extraordinary job.  His supporting cast is charming or scary, as is appropriate.

I would recommend The Seems primarily to younger readers.  It is suggested for readers ages 10 and up, but I think readers as young as 6 or 7 would enjoy it.  Anyone who has the attention span to finish a novel is old enough to enjoy The Seems.  Older readers may find it a bit immature, but can still enjoy it as a quick, light read.

Book: The Seems: The Glitch in Sleep [affiliate link]
Author: John Hulme and Michael Wexler
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Original Publication Date: September 18, 2007
Pages: 288
Age Range: Middle Grade
Source of Book: Advance Reading Copy Requested From Publisher

1. I officially have the patience for novels again.  Yay!
2. I got to go to Kerry Madden's release party for Jessie's Mountain.  It was awesome to meet Kerry.  It was ironic that I had to go all the way to California to find a vanilla moonpie to bring back to North Carolina for my boyfriend.
3. I kind of want to do a general survey of sci fi, i. e., reading old classics and such.  Then I want to take notes on the women in these stories.
4. I've decided my goal for books read this year is 48.  Last year I read 35, almost 3 a month.  So 4 a month should be doable.
5. In that case, I need to finish 2 books in the next 2 weeks in order to catch up.
6. I've got The Lightning Thief waiting for me at the library.  Maybe I'll pick it up tomorrow.
7. I also am going to get cracking on my TBR pile full of ARCs/not A but just RCs.

1. Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, Karen Kingston
2. Craft, Inc., Meg Mateo Ilasco
3. Indigara, Tanith Lee
4. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
5. Jessie's Mountain, Kerry Madden
6. Finding Serenity, Jane Espenson and Glenn Yeffeth, ed.

 I’m coming to LA for a few days this weekend and officially have no plans.  Any kidlitters in the area want to get together?  I’m staying at the Orchid Suites, near Hollywood & Highland.  Let me know.

To Check Out:
Valiant, Holly Black
Ironside, Holly Black
The Ferryman, Christopher Golden
Sold, Patricia McCormick
The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak
How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff

Borrowed from Mom:
The Amulet of Samarkand, Jonathan Stroud

It's that time of the week again, when jules and eisha ask us to list "Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week — whether book-related or not — that happened to you."

Here are mine!

1.  I seem to have really used parental support to modify one student's behavior and improve another student's academic achievement.  Parents can be such helpful people.

2. I went to the library and picked up two fiction books there.  I haven't finished a novel in 2008 yet.

3. I had my first check up in a long, long time, and my Nurse Practicioner and I came up with some strategies to get rid of the perpetual fatigue I seem to experience.

4. Thanks to The Zone Diet (which is not so much a "diet" as a general method of eating), I have greatly simplified my eating habits, which I hope will result in me eating much better.

5. I attended a very productive rehearsal for my current show, Yeomen of the Guard.

6. I beat Guitar Hero 3 on Medium.

7. I was inspired by Tanith Lee's novel Indigara to start writing my own fiction again. 

What about you?  What Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things happened to you this week?

1. Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, Karen Kingston
2. Craft, Inc., Meg Mateo Ilasco