First impression
This week’s
theme was fantasy and we had three books to choose from, the Hobbit, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the Lighting Thief. Many years ago I
started reading The Hobbit but I never finished it, I did not really like it,
but maybe I was too young and it was just too difficult (because I almost
always finish a book when I start reading it), however, this book did not
appeal to me now. The second book we could choose was one of the Narnia books.
I have once seen one of the movies which I liked, but it did seem a bit
childish to me, therefore I decided to read the book I knew nothing about yet,
the Lighting Thief. I borrowed my mom’s e-reader, downloaded the book and
finished the book in no time. At first I saw a bit too many similarities with
Harry Potter (being the weird kid, strange things happening, no parents,
special camp), but the main story eventually was quite different and I liked it
a lot. So after this test week I will download the other books about Percy
Jackson.
Age suitability-theory
In the
notes from class I see that the class would recommend this book 14-16 year olds
or even cross over, but I disagree. This book is written in a very uncomplicated
way. The language used is not difficult and the story is not either. Things
that happen are explained in quite some detail and very vividly. This all makes
it very accessible to kids. Besides that, it is written in the first person
point of view, therefore the reader can effortlessly identify with the main
character and his feelings. This can also lead to ‘experience-taking’, which
means that in the right situation it may temporarily
transform the way readers view the world, themselves and other social groups
(Christine Hsu, 2012). This can be very positive for kids that, just like Percy
are dyslexic, have ADHD and feel they fail in everything. Suddenly they see
this ‘loser boy’ becoming a hero and saving the world! Who knows, maybe they
will be a hero some day as well. Even when children do not know a lot about
mythology, they can still enjoy the adventures. Very sensitive twelve-year-olds
might want to wait a year or two to read this book as sometimes it can be a bit
scary with monsters attacking Percy or his mom dying, but that depends on the
child (focusonthefamily.com).
Class discussion/theory
As I could
not make it to class last week I received last week’s notes from my classmates.
I looked at the element of fiction and I felt stupid, how come I never
realized? The Call, The Journey, The Obstacles, A Final Ordeal and eventually Achieving
the Goal, it is the same formula in every book L. No wonder I recognized Harry
Potter in this book! Even when looking how a hero is formed, there are only
minor differences. The unusual circumstances of birth (Percy does not know for
a long time that his father is a Greek god), he leaves his family and goes to
live in a camp, there he gets his special quest with his magical pen-sword and the
help of his special friends, and so on. It kind of ruined the magic in fantasy books
for me for a moment. But looking back,
it is the same in action or love stories, but that is just not that detailed. Thinking
of Harry Potter, the formula is not that obvious, because those books are very
well written and it would be hard to write a fantasy book in a different way. I
do not believe every author has these ‘guidelines’ lying beside him when
writing a fantasy book, it just forms itself this way naturally. In the notes I
did not read anything about Percy Jackson, but comparing the outcome of The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with The Lighting Thief, the formula of the
story is the same again.
All fiction requires a balance between elements of the
strange and the familiar. If all the elements of fantasy are
fitted to their purposes and used to create a moving story set in a convincing
world, then the story has the potential to be a good story (Austen, 2002) .
The Lightning Thief combines these two elements; there are monsters, swords,
the gods and fights as the fictive elements and next to that we also have friends,
family, rivalry, smelly step dads, bus
rides and school to keep our two feet on the ground.
The theory of Gardner on
multiple intelligences was also discussed in class. I had not heard of this before so I looked it up. Gardner
states that people have a unique blend of intelligences and that the big
challenge facing the use of human resources is how to best take advantage of this
uniqueness confer (Smith, 2008). I am definitely going to look further into
these different intelligences because it makes so much sense and I am sure applying
this theory into my lessons will improve my way of teaching!
Interesting to know
There is a
huge difference in characteristics of the hero, depending whether the author is
male or female (Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 2010).
Sources
Alec
Austin. Retrieved 26th of October from http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020624/epic_fantasy.shtml
Christine Hsu,
Science-tech. Retrieved 26th
of October from http://www.medicaldaily.com/psychologists-discover-how-people-subconsciously-become-their-favorite-fictional-characters-240435
Focus on
the family. Retrieved 26th of October from http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/protecting_your_family/book-reviews/l/lightning-thief.aspx
Mark K. Smith. Retrieved
26th of October from http://infed.org/mobi/howard-gardner-multiple-intelligences-and-education/
Journal of
Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology. Retrieved 26th of
October from http://137.140.1.71/jsec/articles/volume4/issue4/IngallsVol4Iss4.pdf
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