The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles #1) by Rick Riordan

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Red Pyramid was Percy Jackson and the Olympians with Egyptian gods. The reference to the Percy Jackson series was amusing (the comment was something along the lines of Manhattan has its own set of gods). It's a typical young adult hero journey, where the kids end up fighting battles and figuring out puzzles without the aid of adults. I did like that I had a hard time keeping track of who was on the side of the protagonists, and who sided with Set, the initial main antagonist. As with series novels, there has to be a bigger antagonist lurking in the shadows, just waiting for his moment (Kronos, anyone?). In this case, Apophis the serpent (a Bible allusion as well? Because an apple is never just an apple.)

A major difference between this series and the previous series (which excludes the opening section) is that Riordan hopped on the the alternating perspectives bandwagon. The narration is split between the two sibling-protagonists, Carter and Sadie. This is an effective device, and Riordan wields it well; Sadie and Carter have very distinct voices. I think it helps that one child was raised in England and the other in the United States. The balance of responsibility/challenges is even; neither character dominates.

The second book in the Kane Chronicles is due out sometime in the Spring of 2011.

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Amulet, Book 2: The Stone Keeper's Curse

Today, I stumbled upon some code that will allow me to embed my Goodreads review in my blog. I thought to myself, "Self, this might not be a bad idea. Then you don't have to use space in Picassa with book covers, and you only have to write the review once." My self made sense, so here's my first short attempt just to see what it looks like.

Amulet, Book 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Another cliffhanger, this was a quick read with beautiful graphics. Reminds me a little of Lord of the Rings--The Amulet's attempt to gain power over Emily is similar to Frodo's struggle with the ring.

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Teen Read Awards

I saw someone on Twitter talking about the Teen Read Awards presented by Indigo (Canada--from what I can tell it's a bookstore, but the page won't load on my computer) and decided to check it out.

With categories like Best Villian, Best Hero, Best Hottie, Best Book-to-flick, and Best Lip-Lock, it's sure to draw teens in a way that some other Best-of awards don't. And with authors like Patrick Carman (Skeleton Creek), Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games), Marcus Zusak (The Book Thief), and James Dashner (The Maze Runner), it's sure to be an interesting contest.

What I Learned about Allusions

Ayn Grubb started us off with a picture. Looks like this:

from NM APSI 2010 handout p. 169

A complaint I've heard (and I admit, have given my students as a reason to study Greek mythology) is that students don't read, therefore lacking the background knowledge necessary to understand what purpose allusions have in a story.

There are some clues we can use to help our students recognize when there is an allusion: something that doesn't fit--something that's outside the story.

from NM APSI 2010 handout p. 170

So how do we go about scaffolding the instruction? Guiding students to think about why an author would choose to make an allusion rather than spelling everything out. In session, we read an excerpt of "Raymond's Run" by Toni Cade Bambara. Then we filled in a T-Chart with information on what we know about Dodge City (which I didn't know anything about until someone said "Wild West"), and what we knew about Squeaky walking down the street in Harlem. 

from p. 172...and my notes

The difference between this exercise and the T-Charts as I've seen them used at school is the question at the bottom: "What greater meaning is added to the story by this allusion?" We looked at what Bambara implied without really using all the words, and came up with a purpose for the allusion. For me, this was T-charts in a totally different light.

An Unwind Sequel?

I saw this tweet in my feed today and had to share. This was not a book I expected a sequel for, but I'm interested to see what Shusterman does with it. I'm definitely looking forward to the release of his novel Bruiser, on June 29th. My copy's already pre-ordered.

Freytag Revisited

When I was in school, plot diagrams (which I learned later were called Freytag's pyramids) looked something like this:

Image from Wikimedia.org at http://goo.gl/W0fN

There is argument that plot doesn't rise smoothly from the exposition to the climax, instead containing a number of smaller climaxes where an element of the conflict is settled--that is to say that the reader knows which way something will go for the character. 

I took a methods course on teaching Language Arts a few semesters ago, and my professors suggested a different take on the plot diagram. I didn't think too much of it, until last week when the facilitator for the NM APSI workshop made the same suggestion, then showed us how it worked. Freytag's Pyramid revised looks something like this: 

Example: A man dressed in black is running up to a roof with a black briefcase tucked under his arm. As he runs, he glances over his shoulder. When he reaches the far side of the roof, he crouches, opens the briefcase and presses a button. An orange timer appears showing 3:00. The timer begins to count down. 2:59... 2:58... The man looks over his shoulder one more time and runs off toward the fire escape on the other side of the roof.

2:55...

2:54...

He doesn't make it to the fire escape when another man runs onto the roof and catches him. They fight. The first man pulls out a knife. 

2:30...

2:29...

The good guy kicks the knife away and they exchange more blows. The good guy is knocked off his feet. But before the bad guy can get away, the good guy sweeps his legs.

1:45...

1:44...

The bad guy kicks the good guy in the face and the good guy blacks out, giving the bad guy the opportunity to get away. 

0:30...

0:29...

The good guy wakes up and sees the clock ticking at 30 seconds. He rushes toward the briefcase and looks around, realizing the bad guy got away. Then he pulls a pair of wire clippers out of his pocket and examines the wires.

0:10...

0:09...

Finally he snips the green wire and breathes a sigh of relief.

0:03.

Was there a climax in that story? What if I said that this scene occurred in the middle of a larger story where the rising action to the final climax was a car chase/huge battle scene?


Because our workshop had an emphasis on vertical teaming, we discussed introducing a simple plot diagram like the one pictured first, when we introduce plot in the sixth grade, then working with the students, building and extending on their prior knowledge and introducing the second plot diagram later on.


Ayn Grubb, our presenter, has a neat lesson using the first 15 minutes of Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark to talk about suspense, climaxes, characterization, and other elements of plot. It can be found on pages 26-33 of this handout (link to a PDF).

NM APSI Reading List

I think it's impossible to put a group of Language Arts teachers together and not end up creating some sort of reading list. I'm going to share here what a group mostly middle-grade English teachers came up with.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Grade: 8; Skill: Hero Journey, character archetype

The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Grade: 8; Skill: internal/external conflict, symbolism, literary elements

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Grade: 6; Skill: internal conflict

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Grade: 8/9; Skill: Figurative language, vocabulary, complex sentences, characterization, point of view

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikelson
Grade: 6; Skill: Figurative language, internal/external conflict

Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry
Grade: 6; Skill: Figurative language

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar
Grade: 8/9; Skill: Literary elements, internal/external conflict

The Ear, The Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer
Grade: 7/8; Skill: The archetype of the hero's journey

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Grade: 6; Skill: Figurative language, conflict

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Grade: 7; Skill: Conflict, characterization

The Giver by Lois Lowry
Grade: 8; Skill: internal conflict, allusion

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Grade: 8/9; Skill: Point of view, figurative language, mood, tone

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Grade: 10; Skill: literary & rhetorical elements

The Oustiders by S.E. Hinton
Grade: 7/8; Skill: Internal/external conflict, theme

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Grade: 6; Skill: Internal/external conflict, figurative language