Blog Review: Amelia Olsen

This week, I decided to review Amelia Olsen’s terrific blog post about Mercy by Jodi Picoult. I thought Amelia did a really great job of giving enough (but not too much) background information in a way that made it easy for readers to understand, digging deeper into the author’s tactics of writing other books and comparing them to this one, and thinking about clever ways she could improve the book.

            I haven’t read this book, but I was still able to understand what Amelia was trying to say because of the background information she gave me. I could also understand what Amelia meant because I’m going through a similar experience with my book, which is written by the author of my favorite series, but isn’t as good as their other books and also “doesn’t fit together” as Amelia said about her book. Amelia was able to find the good aspects of the book as well as the “bad” aspects of it at the same time. She said that it didn’t compare to Jodi Picoult’s other books, but was still interesting. She also did a good job of thinking about the author’s purpose, like when she said, “I think that the author challenged herself when writing this one,”

            This post actually does make me want to read the book. Amelia’s description of the plot seems very interesting, and really different from most of the books I’ve been reading nowadays. I also haven’t read many Jodi Picoult books, so I probably wouldn’t be expecting so much from the book, not knowing her style of writing. I can understand, however, why Amelia would be disappointed with this book if it’s not up to par with the author’s previous books, just like I am with mine at the moment. When we have expectations from great writers, books that don’t amount to some of their better ones are more shocking than those from authors you don’t read much.

This post made me think about my post, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict Blog Post, when I described the repetitive-ness of the book, and the abundance of unnecessary details. I was disappointed with Trenton Lee Stewart’s book since I’d read his fantastic series, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict in comparison to The Mysterious Benedict Society isn’t nearly as good.

I really liked the way Amelia wrote this blog post. She was able to include background information about a very complicated plot while keeping it interesting and making it easy for the reader to understand. She thought about the author’s purpose, and was able to dig deeper and highlight the author’s tactics in her other books and compare them to this one. She was also able to pinpoint things she would have done to make the book better, like changing the title and giving lots of evidence to prove her point.

Great Job, Amelia!

Link to Amelia's Blog Post: http://allflyby.blogspot.com/2013/02/mercy.html

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict Blog Post 2

I’m still reading The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, and I’m not thrilled with it, but at least some new things are happening in the book. I chose to write about Nicholas’ relationship with John, one of his only friends at the orphanage. Nicholas is a really nice and friendly person, he’s sharp and witty, and he’s able to come up with smart and funny things on the spot. Despite all his qualities, Nicholas doesn’t seem to have many friends in the orphanage, other than John, and a few very young children, and he only knows them because they’ve been “forced” to interact with him. I’m going to dig deeper into why Nicholas doesn’t make friends easily in orphanages.

            Nicholas is very smart, and he’s able to use his intelligence to come up with witty remarks on the spot. This would give him an advantage in school-like environments, but in orphanages, where you’re not being “judged” on your intellect, this doesn’t really help him much. There hasn’t been any evidence of any educational classes yet in the book, so as far as we know the children don’t go to school. This might mean that they’re not particularly “book-smart”, rather smart in the ways of navigating the orphanage. Seeing Nicholas with an abundance of knowledge and him not being ashamed of it might set off the other orphanage children. They’re obviously not very happy with the situation they’re in, being in an orphanage and all, and they probably wish they had some sort of education like Nicholas does. When Nicholas tries to charm his companions with his knowledge, or just him being himself (a genius), the other orphanage children probably think he’s showing off, and don’t want to hang out with someone who makes them feel like less than they are.

            On the other hand, the children he’s “forced” to hang out with, like John who was told to look after Nicholas upon his arrival, and the young children he sat next to when the Spiders took away all the empty chairs away from the young kids, seem to like spending time with him. I think that if given the choice, like the other children, they probably wouldn’t have chosen to hang out with him, but since they have to, they’ve seen the side of Nicholas that’s enjoyable, and they seem to like him as a friend. After enough time with Nicholas, not just seeing his personality from afar, these kids are understanding that Nicholas is smart by nature, and not trying to show off, he’s just trying to be a nice person and make friends. They understand that this is the way he is, and when you see that, you see all the good aspects of his personality.

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict Blog Post

            I’ve been reading The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart. It’s the prequel to the Mysterious Benedict Society books, by Trenton Lee Stewart, one of my favorite series ever. However, this book isn’t half as good as the Mysterious Benedict Society was, and I’m finding myself dreading to even open this book. I think it’s something about the slow moving pace of the plot, and the abundance of details.

            This book is moving very slowly. There are plot twists, and there are many new events taking place, but nothing drastic is occurring that’s helping the plot move forward. The setting is always the same, which is understandable since he lives in an orphanage, but some kind of outing would really help move the story forward. New characters aren’t being introduced, and the same kinds of plot twists keep happening. Nicholas keeps beating the Spiders at their pranks, and he’s always a step ahead of them. After about 3 of the same plot twists, it’s getting a bit repetitive.

            This book also has an abundance of details. I actually like when there are a lot of details that benefit the story, but in this book Trenton Lee Stewart has added in very repetitive details about the same thing that just drag the book along- slowly. For example, when Nicholas was waiting in the hallway and going from his room to the bathroom, there were details upon details about the lighting and the feeling of the hallway. After a while, I couldn’t even follow what was going on because I kept hearing about the lighting of the hallway!

            I’m really disappointed in this book. I was looking forward to reading a book that was as good as on of the Mysterious Benedict Society ones! Hopefully it gets better in time!

February Non-Fiction Blog Post

February Non-Fiction Blog Post

                   This week, I read “Censorship and Book Banning in America” by Melissa Kelly. The main idea of the text was why some books were banned, and whether book banning was a good or bad thing. In the article is says, “More recent books that were challenged according to the American Library Association include the Twilight saga due to its ‘religious viewpoint and violence’ and ‘The Hunger Games’ because it was unsuited to the age group, sexually explicit and too violent.” There’s also a group, just for America, that reads the “questionable books” and decides on whether it’s educational enough to overshadow the reasons for its ban. An elementary school in Hillsborough County, Florida, isn’t buying two books from the Harry Potter series since the topic of “witchcraft” is relevant. The principle was convinced they would receive complaints about the books, so they simply did not purchase it. These details show how books are banned, as well as the individual reasons why.

                   The author wants readers to think that book banning has been taken to a whole new level, and that if this continues, in the future we might completely ban all old books because of the smallest details. They also want us to feel frightened that all the books that this generation and generations before it have grown up with may all be banned for the smallest, and most irrelevant details. The author says, “The question that faces us in the future is 'when do we stop?' Do we remove mythology and Arthurian legends because of its references to magic? Do we strip the shelves of medieval literature because it presupposes the existence of saints? Do we remove Macbeth because of the murders and witches? I think that most would say there is a point where we must stop. But who gets to pick the point?” This technique of ‘flash forwards’ and giving us a glimpse of what we might be in for in the future worked really well for me as a reader, because it helped me side with the author’s opinion. The author wasn’t very bias, but by including a possible negative future, they sway you towards their visions and opinions without you even knowing.

                   From this article, I will take away the “fear” of losing all the books I love because of them being banned. I now know how books are banned, and some of the reasons why certain books are banned. I still think book banning is good and bad. I definitely think certain books should not be read to a young audience, unless the children have been given permission by their parents to read the books. But after a certain age, I’d say middle school and high school, depending on the maturity of the students; books shouldn’t be banned for them. Teachers can thoroughly explain the use of “questionable” words or themes, and they can benefit the students’ understanding of the time period and perspective from which the book was written. I’d like to know if there have been any book bans on a specific grade, and if any students have protested against book bans.

http://712educators.about.com/cs/bannedbooks/a/bookbanning.htm