Look at my authors in training
Holding their first books. Even if they are rough drafts, not finished or edited... still, yay them!
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January 26, 2007
January 15, 2007
Ds's nanowrimo cover page:
Isn't it smashing?
January 08, 2007
Literary Analysis: Move over Ebert & Roeper
The kids did some literary analysis today. Here is N's, with S's to follow:
N's books: Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye by Kaza Kingsley, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, Eragon by Christopher Paolini, and Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo
S's books*: The Witch's Buttons, by Ruth Chew, Night of the Ninjas (Magic Tree House #5) by Mary Pope Osborne, Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery, and Magic or Not? by Edward Eager.
* S read all of the books by herself except Anne and Magic or Not, which Daddy read, but she *can* read Magic or Not by herself without help. Anne has some tricky vocab, but hey, she's only six. :-D
Literary Analysis of Harry Potter, Erec Rex, Eragon, and Charlie Bone
by N
First Pages
A. First sentences
1. Erec Rex
“It was early, far too early to wake up in the summer, when Erec Ulysses Rex’s alarm clock went off.”
2. Harry Potter
“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”
3. Eragon
“Eragon knelt in a bed of trampled reed grass and scanned the tracks with a practiced eye”
4. Charlie Bone
“On Thursday afternoon, just after tea, Charlie Bone saw smoke.”
B. Engaging first page sentences
1. Erec Rex
p. 1 “Then it kicked a marble that hit Erec right in the cheek, just below his glass eye.”
* tells us: it’s a fantasy world, it seems normal at first glance but really isn’t. Also tells us Erec is unusual (glass eye) and impaired which makes us more sympathetic to him
2. Harry Potter
p. 1 “The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it.”
*tells us: Dursleys are “normal” and their world is our world. Tells us they fear discovery that they aren’t normal, and she writes in a compelling way that makes us eager to know what the secret is
3. Eragon
p. 1 “Strange tales and men often came from those mountains, usually boding ill.”
*tells us: language is poetic (more advanced vocabulary), that it’s not going to be a happy story (boding ill) tells us that this is not our world, a fantasy world
4. Charlie Bone
* p. 1 “He had no idea that in mysterious and unexpected ways he was connected to it and would soon be drawn to the place where it had begun.”
*tells us: Charlie doesn’t have a choice, fate will play a hand in this story. Possibly says this will be a magical world, but definitely a strange world with mystery... he won’t be able to help himself from being drawn to the place
Today’s conclusions (1/8/07): Eragon has the best writing, although Harry Potter is very skillful at characterization without boring description.
Literary Analysis of The Witch’s Buttons, Magic Tree House #5: Night of the Ninjas, Anne of Avonlea, and Magic or Not?
By S
First Pages
A. First Sentences
1. The Witch’s Buttons
“Oh, Sandy, don’t tell me you’ve already lost a button!”
2. Night of the Ninjas
“Let’s look again, Jack,” said Annie.
3. Anne of Avonlea
“A tall slim girl, half past sixteen with serious grey eyes and and hair which her friends called auburn, had sat down on the broad red sandstone doorstep of a Prince Edward Island farmhouse one ripe afternoon in August, firmly resolved to construe so many lines of Virgil.”
4. Magic or Not?
“Laura sat looking out of the window, watching houses and barns and woods wheel slowly by, as the tiny train chugged uphill.”
B. First Pages
1. The Witch’s Buttons
“Oh, Sandy, don’t tell me you’ve already lost a button!”
2. Night of the Ninjas
“Then you don’t have to come,” said Annie. “I’ll go look by myself.”
3. Anne of Avonlea
“The Virgil soon slipped un heeded to the ground, and Anne, her chin propped on her hands and her eyes on the splendid mass of fluffy clouds that were heaping up just over Mr. J.A. Harrison’s house like a great white mountain, was far away in a delicious world where a certain schoolteacher was doing a wonderful work, shaping the destinies of future statesmen, and inspiring youthful minds and hearts with high and lofty ambitions.
4. Magic or Not?
“If you had seen her sitting there with her square frame and her square forehead and her square-cut thick dark hair, you would have thought she looked like a solid, dependable girl, and you would have been right, but there was more to Laura than that.”
(conclusions on 1/8/07)
S likes Magic or Not the best. Anne of Avonlea is the hardest. Mom thinks Magic or Not has the most compelling line to make you turn the page, and S agrees. We also agree that we learn the most about Anne in these first pages.
January 07, 2007
What? We have to do school again?
(shhh, be vewy quiet, we've been studying all along)
We visited the Dead Sea Scrolls on Friday and I am pleased to report that not only did the kids learn much more than they thought they would (even with religion overload), but they were also better behaved than the senior citizens who shoved them aside at times. (Really!) Sadly they did not allow cameras so we have no photos.
In other news, Dd turned 6, and began 2nd grade math. Woot! I got fed up with the sabotage of the sensory gym, threatened to take it away, and gave her a book report to do on a book she'd just read, and then gave her a new workbook with 2nd grade math. Ds had a rough day the other day, so I handed him a book and he disappeared--and then stayed up way too late finishing it. Output is not his strong suit, unfortunately--but we'll work on it.
Both kids worked on some artwork for their lulu.com free nano book. Well, since I set dd's goal too high, we have to pay for hers, but oh well.
:=D