I need a site like that specifically for kids books. I remember reading two books as a pre-teen that no one else seems to have heard of and I cannot remember their titles at all.
One was about a teen girl who entered a school essay contest just because she liked to write and ended up winning first prize of flying lessons. It followed her throughout the lessons until she flew solo the first time. I think it might have been written in the 60s or so because it was all "Ooooh, a girl won that prize! Ooooh, so radical!! Girls don't fly!!"
The second book I'm positive had been translated from either Norwegian or Swedish. The main characters were a brother and sister who stumble into some kind of dastardly plot to steal something. I don't remember the nefarious intentions offhand, but what stuck in my head was that they used Morse code to communicate when one of them was tied up to the pipes in a basement by the bad guy.
I'm sure if I re-read these books now, I'd be really disappointed in their quality, but I liked them very much as a kid.
It's also a stunning argument for editing Shakespeare down for performance.
I agree, but yet, I own it on DVD. (Or do we have the BluRay version? I can't remember.) Because there are parts of it that are good, and the costuming and scenery are gorgeous.
Someone recommended me the Percy Jackson series recently. It does look fun.
I remember rather liking Branagh's
Hamlet,
although, yes, it is a mighty ego-trip. But lots of things to like about it. Just....probably easier to cope with if it were a mini-series.
Meanwhile, on a related note, I've just read The Dead Fathers Club, which is narrated by an 11 year old boy whose father has just died, and whose uncle is cozying up to his mother, and who then sees the ghost of his father popping up clamouring for vengeance...
I enjoyed it a lot, in no small part for the prose - which, God help me, is wholly sans apostrophes or commas, but is, nevertheless, crammed with very sharp observations and original turns of phrase, and does a terrific job of evoking the world through the eyes of a kid.
I'm a little more iffy on the various
Hamlet
parallels. There were times when I just wasn't sure why he wasn't going the whole hog - but it's definitely worth a look, imho.
I really liked Branagh's Hamlet, but I had just taken two classes on Shakespeare. Still, I can see the need to cut things for a live performance. However, if you are studying it as literature, I don't think anything should be skipped.
The second book I'm positive had been translated from either Norwegian or Swedish. The main characters were a brother and sister who stumble into some kind of dastardly plot to steal something. I don't remember the nefarious intentions offhand, but what stuck in my head was that they used Morse code to communicate when one of them was tied up to the pipes in a basement by the bad guy.
Aghh! This is so familiar, I know that I read this book. I'm coming up completely blank on any details beyond your description. Frustrating!
The whole bible, for reals? I mean, I did read it, but it didn't lend itself to the sort of absorption I associate with a high school lit class. Massive chunks of it went in and then right out.
Don't know yet. I might assign chunks to various people and have them work together to present the stories.
The ish is that many of my kids miss allusions all the time and just a sort of general knowledge should help. Like one should know the difference between Noah and Jonah. Or who Lot was. Or even Job. Moreover, they should have a working knowledge of the Lazarus story, along with something about John the Baptist, at least for what we read.
My sophomore lit teacher in hs had us read Billy Budd, and she spent weeks going over every single allusion in it. If we knew the allusion ahead of time, all the better; otherwise, she was going to make sure we knew it afterward. Since it was a Catholic college-prep high school, we did know a lot of the Bible references beforehand.
I think that Branagh's Hamlet works a lot better on DVD. You can take a break between acts, which helps. I saw it in the theater, an (now closed) artsy theater with less than cushy seating. When I rented it I just made an afternoon of it, and it was pretty good. I still don't think I've seen anything I'd call the definitive performance of Hamlet,though. Branagh's Henry V (with bonus bits of IV) made me go, "There. That's the Henry V I wanted to see and didn't know it."
