(back to Primer booklist)
The Host, by Stephenie Meyer
I think the Twilight series is pretty ridiculous, but I also think my kindred are too hard on Meyer (especially those who give their opinions without ever bothering to read one of the books). Her only crime is releasing her inner 12-year-old fangirl out into the world. So it's silly, sparkly, and swoony. Most girls have gone through a stage when that stuff is at least a tiny bit appealing. Maybe she just never had a chance to let it out, so it built up until it exploded in sparkles.
The important thing, though, is that The Host is a completely different book. She may try a little too hard for a happy ending, and she might not be Shakespeare, but in The Host she creates a world worth paying attention to. A quiet alien invasion from an alien point of view, huge moral dilemmas, and a quest through the desert - good ingredients for a surprisingly intriguing story.
My first thought when I started reading this was of the Animorphs series by K. A. Applegate. Similar alien species with an extra pinch of evil (or a thousand extra pinches). I'm not sure if my childhood love of Animorphs would survive a rereading now, but someday I intend to find out.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Le Petit Prince
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Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The first time I remember reading this is 11th grade French class, but I have a feeling I also read it when I was much younger. It's a wonderful book for many reasons, but appropriate for the Primer because of both the sense of adventure and the emphasis on the importance of noticing small things that might ordinarily be overlooked. It's also about finding joy in the universe in any way you can.
I don't really have any books to connect to Le Petit Prince. For me, it captures one of those moments of enlightenment when you see the whole world just as it is, and it's glorious. In that way, it makes me think of the movie American Beauty, although American Beauty is darker and for a much older audience than Le Petit Prince.
Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The first time I remember reading this is 11th grade French class, but I have a feeling I also read it when I was much younger. It's a wonderful book for many reasons, but appropriate for the Primer because of both the sense of adventure and the emphasis on the importance of noticing small things that might ordinarily be overlooked. It's also about finding joy in the universe in any way you can.
I don't really have any books to connect to Le Petit Prince. For me, it captures one of those moments of enlightenment when you see the whole world just as it is, and it's glorious. In that way, it makes me think of the movie American Beauty, although American Beauty is darker and for a much older audience than Le Petit Prince.
Friday, April 2, 2010
The King's Equal
(back to Primer booklist)
The King's Equal, by Katherine Paterson
In some ways, it's a typical fairy tale. What I like about it, though, is that the princess does not fit the stereotypes on either end of the spectrum. (She's neither a damsel in distress nor a great warrior, just a person.) She does fit into the humble peasant girl category, and does go on to marry the king, but she had no interest in being rescued from poverty, and she definitely didn't have any interest in the king. She wouldn't marry him until he lived in a cabin in the woods for a year and learned to be a real human being, and while he was gone she took charge of the country to fix all of his mistakes. A pretty good role model for the Primer, I think.
If you like this, you might also like some of these (older audience, though):
-any book by Gail Carson Levine (the humorous side of fairly tales)
-books by Donna Jo Napoli (darker side of fairy tales) who is also a linguistics professor at Swarthmore
-The Rumpelstiltskin Problem, by Vivian Vande Velde
The King's Equal, by Katherine Paterson
In some ways, it's a typical fairy tale. What I like about it, though, is that the princess does not fit the stereotypes on either end of the spectrum. (She's neither a damsel in distress nor a great warrior, just a person.) She does fit into the humble peasant girl category, and does go on to marry the king, but she had no interest in being rescued from poverty, and she definitely didn't have any interest in the king. She wouldn't marry him until he lived in a cabin in the woods for a year and learned to be a real human being, and while he was gone she took charge of the country to fix all of his mistakes. A pretty good role model for the Primer, I think.
If you like this, you might also like some of these (older audience, though):
-any book by Gail Carson Levine (the humorous side of fairly tales)
-books by Donna Jo Napoli (darker side of fairy tales) who is also a linguistics professor at Swarthmore
-The Rumpelstiltskin Problem, by Vivian Vande Velde
The Lorax
(back to the Primer booklist)
The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss
An environmentalist-themed picture book from the 70's. The many Dr. Seuss books are the first books I remember reading (around age 4, maybe?). For a while it was hard work, and I just wanted my parents to read them for me, but eventually I learned to enjoy it. Dr. Seuss is wonderful in all his ridiculousness, but I picked this book for the Primer because it goes beyond fun rhymes to present something meaningful, which is somewhat unusual in the picture-book genre.
If you like The Lorax, you might also appreciate the rest of his books, as well as the books of Shel Silverstein and Roald Dahl.
The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss
An environmentalist-themed picture book from the 70's. The many Dr. Seuss books are the first books I remember reading (around age 4, maybe?). For a while it was hard work, and I just wanted my parents to read them for me, but eventually I learned to enjoy it. Dr. Seuss is wonderful in all his ridiculousness, but I picked this book for the Primer because it goes beyond fun rhymes to present something meaningful, which is somewhat unusual in the picture-book genre.
If you like The Lorax, you might also appreciate the rest of his books, as well as the books of Shel Silverstein and Roald Dahl.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Andrew Henry's Meadow
(back to the Primer booklist)
Andrew Henry's Meadow, by Doris Burns
This is my favorite book from early childhood. Andrew Henry is an extremely calm boy who just likes to build stuff. When his parents and siblings get fed up with him building big contraptions that do cool things but take up whole rooms, he calmly packs his bags and strolls through the woods and fields until he finds a nice deserted meadow where no adults can find him. I love Andrew Henry, but even more I love the house he builds for himself, which has a landing strip for dragonflies, and the houses he builds for the other kids who gradually join him in the meadow because they also have interesting hobbies that their families for some reason object to. My favorites include the tree house and the house built on a little bridge across a stream.
This book is important to the Primer for the themes of adventure, self-reliance, and doing-really-cool-things.
I don't remember that many of the books I read at this age (I know I liked books about the Ice Age), but here are a couple with similar themes for an older audience:
My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George
Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen
Andrew Henry's Meadow, by Doris Burns
This is my favorite book from early childhood. Andrew Henry is an extremely calm boy who just likes to build stuff. When his parents and siblings get fed up with him building big contraptions that do cool things but take up whole rooms, he calmly packs his bags and strolls through the woods and fields until he finds a nice deserted meadow where no adults can find him. I love Andrew Henry, but even more I love the house he builds for himself, which has a landing strip for dragonflies, and the houses he builds for the other kids who gradually join him in the meadow because they also have interesting hobbies that their families for some reason object to. My favorites include the tree house and the house built on a little bridge across a stream.
This book is important to the Primer for the themes of adventure, self-reliance, and doing-really-cool-things.
I don't remember that many of the books I read at this age (I know I liked books about the Ice Age), but here are a couple with similar themes for an older audience:
My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George
Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen
A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
Here's something I've been thinking about for a while. The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a cyberpunk (wikipedia says postcyberpunk) book by Neal Stephenson. It tells the story of, among other things, a very cool technologically advanced book with the same name as this post. The book is designed to, over the years, interact with and teach a young girl the things necessary for her to become an educated and refined (it's created by a gentleman in a Victorianesque society) young lady, but also an independent and downright badass girl with the skills to do anything she wants (which in Nell's case includes beating the crap out of a violent insurrectionist group and saving the world). The original idea for the Primer came from a man who wanted to make sure that his granddaughter didn't grow up to be just another educated but mindless Victorian lady.
So here's what I've been thinking: even though we don't have the technology for a real Primer, shouldn't there be some way of producing a similar effect from a combination of things that are available to us? You can't force exposure to all these things on a child, but you can encourage. Of course different people will place importance on different things, but for me, this is the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer:
A big part of it is about doing anything active, not spending every hour sitting in the house, watching TV, or even reading. The best activities are ones that teach a skill or information, although it's important to find things that one actually enjoys. Personally, I think the following things are important:
-exploration of the physical world, whether it's city streets or trees and streams
-some kind of self-defense - even if you think you will never need to use it, it can help with confidence and independence
-knowing how to make things and fix things that are important in daily life
-and, finally, partly due to my personal prejudices, but also realistic, I think: lots of reading
The real purpose of this post is to expand on that final suggestion about reading, because it is not enough to read just anything. There's a lot of crap out there. There's also a lot of stuff that isn't crap and definitely should be read, but doesn't contribute a lot towards the goal of the Primer. So, from my completely biased perspective, here are the books that do contribute towards that goal of opening the mind and/or helping a person to resist sheephood. If you have any to add, please let me know.
(Given in order according to approximate age-appropriateness.)
A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer:
Andrew Henry's Meadow, by Doris Burn
The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss
The King's Equal, by Katherine Paterson
Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell
Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Alanna: The First Adventure, by Tamora Pierce
Holes, by Louis Sacher
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
Abarat, by Clive Barker
The Host, by Stephenie Meyer
So here's what I've been thinking: even though we don't have the technology for a real Primer, shouldn't there be some way of producing a similar effect from a combination of things that are available to us? You can't force exposure to all these things on a child, but you can encourage. Of course different people will place importance on different things, but for me, this is the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer:
A big part of it is about doing anything active, not spending every hour sitting in the house, watching TV, or even reading. The best activities are ones that teach a skill or information, although it's important to find things that one actually enjoys. Personally, I think the following things are important:
-exploration of the physical world, whether it's city streets or trees and streams
-some kind of self-defense - even if you think you will never need to use it, it can help with confidence and independence
-knowing how to make things and fix things that are important in daily life
-and, finally, partly due to my personal prejudices, but also realistic, I think: lots of reading
The real purpose of this post is to expand on that final suggestion about reading, because it is not enough to read just anything. There's a lot of crap out there. There's also a lot of stuff that isn't crap and definitely should be read, but doesn't contribute a lot towards the goal of the Primer. So, from my completely biased perspective, here are the books that do contribute towards that goal of opening the mind and/or helping a person to resist sheephood. If you have any to add, please let me know.
(Given in order according to approximate age-appropriateness.)
A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer:
Andrew Henry's Meadow, by Doris Burn
The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss
The King's Equal, by Katherine Paterson
Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell
Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
The Wind Singer, by William Nicholson
Alanna: The First Adventure, by Tamora Pierce
Holes, by Louis Sacher
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
Abarat, by Clive Barker
The Host, by Stephenie Meyer
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, by Neal Stephenson
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, by Neal Stephenson
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