For some reason, the genie doesn't ring a bell. But the book covers with the giant eagles totally do. Oy. Thanks for the memories.

The poster defending the crazy author said that the reviewer was wrong for reading the wrong version of the book (despite his assertion he didn't) and that the sentences he quoted were just fine, and could be fixed by adding one word.

He is the first person not on Amazon.com say anything remotely nice about the author. IDGI.

That whole kerfuffle ended up on the Atlantic, as well.

I think the only real winner here is the blogger, who probably has a whole bunch of new subscribers.

Anybody want to help with some small details for my book? Any of our English teachers around?

Wren is in her junior year of high school, and in World Lit (no good reason why I chose that, but it's what's in the first book), and I already mentioned in the previous book that they were studying The Stranger. Any ideas about where the class would go from there? It's midterm time now, right before Christmas break, and I'm trying to figure out what might be on the exam.

Amy, my senior year was world lit, ap. And I remember what we were studyin right before winter break--the inferno. Because then the school was set on fire, we got a couple days off, and the teacher called us all to cancel the exam!

Junior year is almost always American Lit, fwiw. In a World Lit class (usually 10th or 12th grade) they often read a lot of British Lit unless they have a specific year devoted to that. If there isn't a Classical/Foundational Lit class, sometimes the classics get lumped in there too.

Classical Lit:
Odyssey/Iliad, Medea, Antigone, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Gilgamesh, Oedipus the King, Beowolf (I lump this in here since it's an early foundational text, despite being British)

Non-Brit World Lit:
Things Fall Apart, Don Quixote, Persepolis, One Hundred Years of Solitude, All Quiet on the Western Front, Cry, The Beloved Country, The Metamorphosis, The Good Earth, The God of Small Things, Candide, Wide Sargasso Sea, House of Spirits

Brit World Lit:
Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, Othello (or other tragedy), Pride and Prejudice, Heart of Darkness (often taught in counterpoint to Thing Fall Apart to show colonialism and racism) and many others--I just hit some of the most popular choices for sophomores.

Ooh, meara. You guys pissed off Dante, clearly.

Thank you, Pix! Yeah, I'm seeing that World Lit would have been better as a senior class, but since Cold Kiss is done and I have them as juniors taking it, I'm stuck.

I like The Metamorphosis as a follow-up to The Stranger, so that's a good thing. For theme reasons, maybe I could work in Frankenstein later, too, because both of them work as things I could use symbolically. Thank you again!

Any time!

Just on a side note--that level of reading (Camus/Kafka) is really tough for most 10th/11th graders. Is the character in an Honors or AP class?

Heh. I never read The Stranger, because the kids in higher level French had to read it in French, so they didn't put it in the English classes.

And as Pix said, we had British Lit sophomore year, American junior, and "World" (which included some British) senior year.

Ooh, meara. You guys pissed off Dante, clearly.

Well, it was the second time in four years (my freshman year and senior year) that someone tried to burn down the gym during the school day--I suspect I went to school with Buffy.

We did Kafka in 10th (Honors), and never Camus, although I taught Camus to 12th grade IB students. FWIW. I think a flow from Camus to Kafka would be plausible tho.

We did both in junior year AP but I think it went over most of the students' heads, actually.