I want to start by saying I'm really glad we're reading this book for class. The Wizard of Oz is my all-time favorite movie, and I've read most of the 13 Wizard of Oz books... Anyways, now that that's off my chest... I enjoy this book immensely every time I read it. The writing is simple and to the point and I think anyone over the age of 7 could read and understand it themselves. I also think this is a great book for parents to read to their children, as all the characters and the Land of Oz allow both children and adults to use their imagination. Even though the characters are not creatures we would come across in "real life", they still have human qualities even if they don't look human, like the Quadlings.
The pictures in the book are fun to look at and I like how the writing goes right through the pictures on some of the pages. I love how everyone in the Emerald City must wear green goggles, and I always wondered if the Emerald City was really that green, or if people just thought it was because of the goggles. Chapter 12 is one of my favorite chapters because I've always liked picturing the little china doll people and wondering what they must look like. Basically I just really like this book. What does everyone else think?
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
Blog 4 - "D"_Joanne
As far as my past fairytale history, it was way too long ago to remember much. I remember Aesop’s fables and Grimm’s fairytales. I remember all the Sleeping Beauty, Three Little Pigs, Cinderella and so forth from my childhood and to my daughter. As for the fairytales of a horror type, I do not remember. Now for novels, there were the Charlottes Web, Black Beauty, Mark Twain, Zane Grey and the like. I couldn’t get enough of the Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie books.
As far as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I remember it somewhat but now that I am reading it again, it seems so different. The entire book is as I remember and seems to be based on unrealistic adventures. The language of Alice and her acquaintances by the author is quite different, perhaps because of the English tone or just because it is from a story told in 1862. Some of the verbalization is unusual and I needed to look up its meaning. For instance the “the footman in livery (colors, uniform, or costume) came running…” I like to enhance my vocabulary, but not to the extent that it becomes bothersome. I think it is a great story for the enhancement of the child, adolescent, or adult in imaginative thinking. I like the conversations she has with “everyone,” it seems to give Alice a sense of self-awareness. The different animals are mostly so polite not to say anything bad except “away with you,” as an adult might say. For instance, the birds make excuses to leave, when Alice brings up her kitty Dinah who eats birds, and the mouse she offends with the story of a dog in her neighborhood that eats rats. The animals usually quarrel amongst themselves. Nice that is until she ventures on and talks to the Duchess who wants the cook to cut off her head. When they are rude to her, she dismisses it. Now I see where the Cheshire-Cat came from in my memory. I enjoy the illustrations as they capture the true feeling of the characters.
This is about half, so…
I would like to know if anyone thinks it is outdated or if it is a book they would read to, and give to their children.
As far as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I remember it somewhat but now that I am reading it again, it seems so different. The entire book is as I remember and seems to be based on unrealistic adventures. The language of Alice and her acquaintances by the author is quite different, perhaps because of the English tone or just because it is from a story told in 1862. Some of the verbalization is unusual and I needed to look up its meaning. For instance the “the footman in livery (colors, uniform, or costume) came running…” I like to enhance my vocabulary, but not to the extent that it becomes bothersome. I think it is a great story for the enhancement of the child, adolescent, or adult in imaginative thinking. I like the conversations she has with “everyone,” it seems to give Alice a sense of self-awareness. The different animals are mostly so polite not to say anything bad except “away with you,” as an adult might say. For instance, the birds make excuses to leave, when Alice brings up her kitty Dinah who eats birds, and the mouse she offends with the story of a dog in her neighborhood that eats rats. The animals usually quarrel amongst themselves. Nice that is until she ventures on and talks to the Duchess who wants the cook to cut off her head. When they are rude to her, she dismisses it. Now I see where the Cheshire-Cat came from in my memory. I enjoy the illustrations as they capture the true feeling of the characters.
This is about half, so…
I would like to know if anyone thinks it is outdated or if it is a book they would read to, and give to their children.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Blog 3
Blog 3 I Got IN!
Here's my post from last week.
I hope this goes through. I have tried all day to get in and it won't recognize me for some reason so I am going in under jolene.
I agree with both of you. My question and all through the book is "What is Briar Rose" I know they called Gemma Princess and Rose but where did the Briar Rose come from? Unless it was the Barbed Wire around the camp I can't guess, unless I missed that part. I enjoyed the book immensely and couldn't put it down. I never read a book quite like it in the past and present tense. At first it took me off guard about what was going on. It would seem that Becca was indeed Gemma's favorite, but she always seemed to be of no trouble, and it was always her sisters who fought and caused the problems. The book did get a little deep in the concentration camp life and the story of deaths by Josef Stashu. I enjoyed Magda and her quirkiness. And wasn't it ironic that Beccas name was Berlin? I found the statistics staggering. It is too bad that in today’s time there are people who look up to the Nazi beliefs. It makes me sick. The two girls I saw on 60 minutes are a popular singing pair dancing on a swastika on the kitchen floor and do tours with their parents promoting Nazi-isms. They disbelieve the fact that it did indeed happen.
As the author Jane Yolen wrote in the end, this is a book of fiction, Happy ever after is a fairy tale notion, not history. I know of no woman who escaped from Chelmno alive.
Here's my post from last week.
I hope this goes through. I have tried all day to get in and it won't recognize me for some reason so I am going in under jolene.
I agree with both of you. My question and all through the book is "What is Briar Rose" I know they called Gemma Princess and Rose but where did the Briar Rose come from? Unless it was the Barbed Wire around the camp I can't guess, unless I missed that part. I enjoyed the book immensely and couldn't put it down. I never read a book quite like it in the past and present tense. At first it took me off guard about what was going on. It would seem that Becca was indeed Gemma's favorite, but she always seemed to be of no trouble, and it was always her sisters who fought and caused the problems. The book did get a little deep in the concentration camp life and the story of deaths by Josef Stashu. I enjoyed Magda and her quirkiness. And wasn't it ironic that Beccas name was Berlin? I found the statistics staggering. It is too bad that in today’s time there are people who look up to the Nazi beliefs. It makes me sick. The two girls I saw on 60 minutes are a popular singing pair dancing on a swastika on the kitchen floor and do tours with their parents promoting Nazi-isms. They disbelieve the fact that it did indeed happen.
As the author Jane Yolen wrote in the end, this is a book of fiction, Happy ever after is a fairy tale notion, not history. I know of no woman who escaped from Chelmno alive.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
I thought that since we haven't had a chance to talk about the first 10 chapters of Briar Rose, I'd post about that. First of all, I love this book! I can't put it down, I think it's so intriguing that it's a modern-day sleeping beauty. The way that the chapters are split up every other chapter to be past and present really enables you to get so much more involved in the story.
I think that Becca being the youngest and the most like her grandmother allows her to relate the most to her, giving her more incent to find out what Gemma's life was really all about. In a way, I think she almost feels obligated because she doesn't want her grandma's life to be a mystery. Becca sees a lot of herself in her grandmother and in order to understand her own life, she must figure out Gemma's first.Even before Gemma passes away in chapter two, she makes Becca promise to find her "castle." She knows, and probably always has known that Becca is the only one to continue the stories and in a way to re-live Gemma's life. If Gemma had told the truth about her life from the get-go I don't think it would've went over too well. But by telling it as a fairy-tale, it's more accepted.
That's basically what I got so far from the book. I'm very excited to read the rest of it and see how the story unravels.
I think that Becca being the youngest and the most like her grandmother allows her to relate the most to her, giving her more incent to find out what Gemma's life was really all about. In a way, I think she almost feels obligated because she doesn't want her grandma's life to be a mystery. Becca sees a lot of herself in her grandmother and in order to understand her own life, she must figure out Gemma's first.Even before Gemma passes away in chapter two, she makes Becca promise to find her "castle." She knows, and probably always has known that Becca is the only one to continue the stories and in a way to re-live Gemma's life. If Gemma had told the truth about her life from the get-go I don't think it would've went over too well. But by telling it as a fairy-tale, it's more accepted.
That's basically what I got so far from the book. I'm very excited to read the rest of it and see how the story unravels.
Monday, February 5, 2007
about Zipes 81-96...
About Zipes 81-98…
Here I take it that Zipes makes a point that America needed fairytales to have happy endings because of what had been happening, WWI, and the Great Depression so people “were looking for some signs of hope (85).” Particularly the 1930’s. After Disney came out with the 1937 version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and made it into a musical, librarians and writers of child literature defended the original books. In the meantime, Wanda Gag, had rewritten the Grimm Fairy Tales into an American theme with sensitivity and compassion without any horror to them. Then she was asked to write Snow White to please the reading public. I take it, the real point of Zipes was all about kids whether reading, movies or stories will all get their own translation or thinking about them from their family life and culture that they are being raised in. Zipes says that no one can say what child literature should be written like. For myself, it would seem that all the older versions are of a macabre style, with gruesome disgusting “horrors” within. Then the fairytales of Grimm (I must have read Gag’s) were not so bad and gave moral behaviors to follow. But in the present time children are in a completely different world, that of the internet, T.V. violence, and real life horrors as well as war going on. Children were still hungry, parents had a hard time finding work, but everyone pretty muched helped out others if they could and no one locked their doors. I like Gag’s way of thinking and giving children mild sensitive material. Children have to grow up and face a sometimes cruel and unjust real life soon enough. I agree with her statement “You do not chop off a section of you imaginative substance and make a book for children for–if you are honest-you have, in fact, no idea where childhood ends and maturity begins. It is all endless and all one” I take it as keeping the childlike imagination of good things to come, magical thinking. I think that’s great!
Here I take it that Zipes makes a point that America needed fairytales to have happy endings because of what had been happening, WWI, and the Great Depression so people “were looking for some signs of hope (85).” Particularly the 1930’s. After Disney came out with the 1937 version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and made it into a musical, librarians and writers of child literature defended the original books. In the meantime, Wanda Gag, had rewritten the Grimm Fairy Tales into an American theme with sensitivity and compassion without any horror to them. Then she was asked to write Snow White to please the reading public. I take it, the real point of Zipes was all about kids whether reading, movies or stories will all get their own translation or thinking about them from their family life and culture that they are being raised in. Zipes says that no one can say what child literature should be written like. For myself, it would seem that all the older versions are of a macabre style, with gruesome disgusting “horrors” within. Then the fairytales of Grimm (I must have read Gag’s) were not so bad and gave moral behaviors to follow. But in the present time children are in a completely different world, that of the internet, T.V. violence, and real life horrors as well as war going on. Children were still hungry, parents had a hard time finding work, but everyone pretty muched helped out others if they could and no one locked their doors. I like Gag’s way of thinking and giving children mild sensitive material. Children have to grow up and face a sometimes cruel and unjust real life soon enough. I agree with her statement “You do not chop off a section of you imaginative substance and make a book for children for–if you are honest-you have, in fact, no idea where childhood ends and maturity begins. It is all endless and all one” I take it as keeping the childlike imagination of good things to come, magical thinking. I think that’s great!
joanne said...
In the Hansel and Gretel Fairytales, I remember the one from Grimm’s also. I believe the moral is that life is hard. At that time, when you had too many children to feed, you would also starve. As Professor Kittle said in the last lecture, people thought of their children as pets, therefore it would seem to be not as devastating to leave a pet to fend for them self. It also shows the ability of children to do just that. They are smart enough to make do when needed. The stories all had a bad mother or stepmother; therefore, the child or children not wanted was easier to be rid of. As with the other two, in the magic ones with the bird, it also shows how the children cared for each other. The one with Molly is similar in that she was smart and cunning to fool the giant, as the others fooled the witch. The overall moral I guess would be that bad things come to those who do harm.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Blog # 2 Hansel & Gretel Variants
After reading all four versions of Hansel and Gretel, I found that the only real connection between all four was the fact that all the children had at one time been abandoned for one reason or another. The only version that I feel familiar with was the original Hansel and Gretel by the brothers Grimm. The other tale, Molly Whuppie, was strange. It didnt seem to flow as well as hansel and gretel- it was scattered. The other two, The RoseTree and the Juniper Tree were quite similiar and were probably contaminated by the same cultural group of people. I am having a hard time connecting all four in a concrete way, and was hoping that someone could add their views on how all four are similar. Thanks : D
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