The Westing Game is awesome, and not depressing at all.
You were very nearly devoured by a giant demon snake. The words 'let that be a lesson' are a tad redundant at this juncture.
Giles ,'Selfless'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Tom Scola - Jun 21, 2009 1:01:22 pm PDT #9266 of 28404
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
sumi - Jun 21, 2009 1:03:31 pm PDT #9267 of 28404
Art Crawl!!!
I love Black Beauty and at least he gets a happy ending.
I've read that, the Westing Game, and Julie of the Wolves (which may not have such a happy ending).
Barb - Jun 21, 2009 1:06:29 pm PDT #9268 of 28404
“Not dead yet!”
The Westing Game was the one book that sounded as if it could be interesting to him out of the lot. Of course, I have a knee-jerk reaction to Black Beauty, because it made me sob like a baby.
Main reason I said it was depressing, was that it just seems overall a very limited list when there are so very many books they could choose from.
Seems to me too that I read Black Beauty and Julie of the Wolves in fourth or fifth grade and this is a seventh grade list.
Hil R. - Jun 21, 2009 1:09:21 pm PDT #9269 of 28404
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
I read The Westing Game around fifth grade, I think.
I'm trying to remember what I read in seventh grade English. Only thing I can think of is Where the Red Fern Grows, which is also depressing.
sumi - Jun 21, 2009 1:13:38 pm PDT #9270 of 28404
Art Crawl!!!
So many tear-jerker animal stories for the young.
Sophia Brooks - Jun 21, 2009 1:15:40 pm PDT #9271 of 28404
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
We read The Red Pony and The Diary of Anne Frank in seventh grade.
Lots of tearjerkers.
Hil R. - Jun 21, 2009 1:17:06 pm PDT #9272 of 28404
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
We read The Red Pony in ninth grade and Diary of Anne Frank in eighth.
Steph L. - Jun 21, 2009 1:18:49 pm PDT #9273 of 28404
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
Barb, Chatty!Co-Worker's son has to read Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, and so Chatty is reading it first, and he said it's actually good, seems helpful and written appropriately for that age group, and is even funny. FWIW.
"You're just figuring out at age 16 that most of the world is phonies? Didn't the rest of us realize that somewhere around age 8?"
I didn't. Not that I posit myself as the norm, and I am fairly socially backward. But still. At age 8 I was pretty much "Jump rope, yay!", not "The world is full of people who are presenting themselves falsely in order to gain respect, money, sex, or drugs. Shame on them."
But, again -- socially backward.
One character who (I think) kids were supposed to like, but who I never EVER liked was Phineas from A Separate Peace. Talk about a phony. I never ever bought his cheerful enthusiasm, hail-fellow-well-met schtick.
But perhaps I have issues.
Barb - Jun 21, 2009 1:19:27 pm PDT #9274 of 28404
“Not dead yet!”
Jeez, maybe I was just ahead of the curve or something, but we read Anne Frank in sixth grade and Go Ask Alice in... ninth, I think. (Although I think we had to get permission slips for that one.)
Hil R. - Jun 21, 2009 1:24:57 pm PDT #9275 of 28404
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
Ugh. I HATED A Separate Peace. I don't remember it well enough to remember specific characters, but I do remember hating pretty much everything about it.