Thursday, February 28, 2008

Books

Last night I had an activity with the Activity Day Girls at church. To encourage the great pastime of reading, I had each girl tell us about her favorite book or a book she has recently read.

To start things off, I brought along four of my favorites. My books were The Secret Garden, Peter Pan, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Anne of Green Gables. The Anne book isn't high on my list of favorites, but it is a fun read and I thought the girls might really enjoy it. First of all, it was sad when I introduced each of my books and the girls would say, I've seen that movie! While I enjoy the movie versions of these books (I've never seen an Anne movie, although I know there is one) the movies are never as good as the books. One girl said she hated each movie.

Then, each girl took a turn to tell us about her book. One girl brought in a fantasy novel she had just finished. Another girl told us about one she was reading in school. Another girl said her book was called Spiderwick, but it wasn't the Chronicles book. The other girls didn't believe her. I felt bad. She could hardly tell us about the book because the others were saying there was no way that was a Spiderwick book.

Anyway, after it was over, I thought back to when I was in school and the books the teachers made me read. I didn't like most of them. It seems teachers are keeping this up. They like to pick depressing, thought-provocing novels based on true events and wars instead of great classic literature. I told the girls thank goodness for summers when you can choose your own good books to read. I was lucky enough to have a teacher in the 11th grade who told us to pick any book by an American author in the 20th century. What a huge choice! I picked a Star Wars novel. It was acceptable and I got an A on my paper. I loved that teacher for letting us do that. I'll never understand why some people choose to read depressing novels about people who always end up with a fatal disease and dying a sad death. To each his own, I guess.

This has been a rambling, random thought with no point brought to you by the letters B, G, and the number 4836.

1 comment:

SLC said...

That sounds like a great activity for the girls. I too am glad that I am no longer forced to read stuff like "The Scarlet Letter", "Red Badge of Courage" and "Wuthering Heights". NOT a fan.