Literature Engaged

 This book is and always will be one of my favorite books of all time. The main character of the story, Aza, deals with anxiety daily. She internalizes it until she cannot anymore, and this is something that I have always found related to me on a deep, indescribable level. Aza is afraid of germs, but it is much, much deeper than that. Though my big anxiety has less to do with germs, and will not be disclosed on this blog post, I still felt that a lot of her thoughts and actions in the book were something I could identify with. It also helped me to cope with my anxiety in a way. Aza ends up putting herself in the hospital trying to fight her fears and letting her anxiety control her, and in a way, seeing her torment herself helped me not to do it so severely to myself.  Aside from the completely personal connection I have to that large portion of the book, the book also has an incredibly interesting plot. The plot is not one everyone can experience, as it is a mystery that invo...

 "Feed" was mind-boggling and sometimes difficult to understand because of the slang used within the text. It was futuristic, somewhat scary, and most of the people in the story were very unbothered about the kind of control the government had in their literal brains. These are not complaints, though, these are the reasons I loved working with this text. I think students today could find a lot of enjoyment in reading this book, along with some apprehension and curiosity about what this says about our own society's future. I think that the students would actually enjoy trying to sipher the slang used within the text. In fact, one benefit of the text is that the students can learn to use context clues to translate the language used within the text. It would likely be comical to them, especially if the teacher told them that sometimes their slang is that difficult for us to understand. Furthermore, this book will have students seriously thinking about the reality of technolo...

 This book will always be one that is powerful, especially in the society that we live in today. Living in a world where there is civil unrest far more often than there should be, this book can help shed light on some of the issues that plague our country. In this book, Starr sees her friend get shot after they are pulled over. He does not have a weapon, and he does do what the officer asks reluctantly. Still, he is shot mercilessly and unjustly at the hands of a police officer. This book can really illuminate the fact that sometimes our society finds itself valuing human life less and less. There is not an excuse for the way that the scene is handled in the book, and in the rest of the story we see a community fighting for justice, and for the rights of their fellow people. Rights are not something that should be fought for, but something that is innately given to everyone. It is in our constitution, and yet there are people in our country fighting for their human rights every sin...

 One of the neatest things about the Utopians is that they are always happy and completely rational. They work because work is required, and they have plenty of time to do other things. I think that although we as the reader knows this society cannot logically ever exist, it still has a good message in the way things should be run. I think that students should know that their lives are not their jobs, and that there is more to them than what they do for a living. "Utopia" is undoubtedly a difficult work, but it may help students to understand that they can be happy in life regardless of the amount of money they make. We want students to do jobs that make decent money, but more than that we want students to choose jobs that align with their passions, and we want them to think bigger than just what job they want to have one day.       One thing that plagues some specific societies today is the “live to work” mindset. People find their identities in their careers. ...

 💥💥💥👎👎👎💥💥💥 This time, I will be looking at the parts of the story that does not have anything to do with the plot. One issue I had with this book was the flow. There were many times whenever the author seemed to pause the story to point out the diversity in a character. It was told, rather than incorporated into the plot, and I think this is a large mistake. This takes some of the value of the character’s diversity away from them because their identification is forced. We teach diverse literature, not because we want to check off a list, but because diverse literature has value and brings new viewpoints to the table. The same should be said about diverse characters. The story seemed to attempt to check off a diversity checklist for the characters in the story, but this actually negatively affected the flow and value of the story.  Another problem I found with this story that is related to the problem above is that the author tried to force the reader to relate. There ...

 💥💥💥👎👎👎💥💥💥  I chose this book as one for a diversity project. Ideally, it should have been great. It had a plus size girl who is a person of color, along with a variety of different sexual orientations within the story. This story had the opportunity to glimpse into many different cultures and express something positive about being different. For the most part, Charlie Vega is pretty normal. There’s nothing that makes her an outcast, except for the fact that she is plus size. She’s a beautiful girl, and we know that because of not only the description of her, but also the image of her on the front of the book. She definitely has self-esteem issues, though.  I totally understand having a negative self-esteem, and how that can affect the relationship one has with everyone around them. I actually had a few very personal connections with the story from time to time. When I got to experience these moments, it was good. I felt like I was reading something beneficial to...

  This is another relatively old work I had never heard of before. I originally chose to watch this after I began to miss Italy. I was hoping that a movie that took place in Paris would suffice, even though it’s definitely different and an Italian would not enjoy that I even thought that way. This movie was so much more enjoyable than I had expected. There were so many references to amazing authors from the 20’s, and the references were comical for sure. This is not the type of movie I’m used to seeing Owen Wilson in, but I definitely really enjoyed him in it.  The ideas that I found could be useful for my older students are that they were born at the right time. They were not too early or too late, and they have a purpose and the ability to make the best life for themselves in the time and places that they are in. Wilson also portrayed a screenwriter who really wanted to be a novelist, so it also influences the watchers to never settle and to do what will fulfill them.  ...

   This book has easily become one of my favorites of all time. I do tend to enjoy historical fiction, but this book really stood out to me. The narrator was death, and I think that allowed for a lot of insight that could never have happened with anyone else from the story as the narrator. The characters were so easy to get attached to, and when bad things happened it hurt me in the soul. This book, for me, is the epitome of a page turner.  This is perfect for my classroom whenever I do historical fiction. I think it’s one of the best genres for learning how to function as humans, because it gives us a glimpse into some of the most testing moments of humanity. I would love to pair this with The Crucible, and possibly something from another genre, such as science fiction or dystopian. I wrote a lesson plan for one class where the students compared this book, The Crucible, and The Giver after finishing this book. It seemed so logical to have them compare and contrast the t...