The Song of Achilles

I am currently reading The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. This is a fairly accurate story exploring the documented relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. In looking for an adequate quote from the author to explain the accuracy, I accidentally spoiled the ending for myself. I'm going to share the partial quote so as to not spoil the ending for anyone else! Miller states, "I stole it from Plato! The idea that Patroclus and Achilles were lovers is quite old. Many Greco-Roman authors read their relationship as a romantic one—it was a common and accepted interpretation in the ancient world. We even have a fragment from a lost tragedy of Aeschylus, where Achilles speaks of his and Patroclus' 'frequent kisses.' There is a lot of support for their relationship in the text of the Iliad itself, though Homer never makes it explicit." You can find this quote on Miller's website: http://www.madelinemiller.com/q-a-the-song-of-achilles/

I have always been fascinated by mythology and appreciate many of the classic stories such as the Odyssey and the Iliad, but I have never had a mythological story pull me in so deeply. Patroclus, an exiled prince, was welcomed into the kingdom of Phthia by the king Peleus. Peleus was known for fostering boys and welcomed Patroclus into his kingdom. Peleus' son, Achilles, took a liking to Patroclus and invited him to be his sworn companion, though up until this point he had refused all of his father's suggested companions. The boys were eleven when their lived entwined. They grew together until, one day, Achilles' mother, the sea-nymph Thetis, saw Patroclus kiss Achilles and had Achilles sent to train with Chiron, a skilled centaur. Patroclus woke hours later and could not bare to be separated from Achilles. He ran to the mountains in hopes of catching up to Achilles before the palace guards discovered his absence. Achilles had been waiting for him in the forest and convinced Chiron to allow him to stay. So Achilles and Patroclus stayed and trained with Chiron for three years, until a palace herald was sent to escort the prince and companion back to the palace. It was then that the two young men, only fifteen, were told of the brewing war with Troy. This is, of course, the famous war of Troy, set into motion by the capturing of Helen. The king and his men wanted Achilles, the best of the Greeks, to lead his people in the war against Troy, but Achilles wanted no part of this. He was destined to be a great warrior, but believed there would be other wars. His mother, Thetis, did not want him to go to wr and stole him from his bed in the night, hiding him away in Scyros. Patroclus woke to find him gone and convinced the king to tell him where he had gone. Patroclus went after Achilles and they were reunited until Achilles' cover was blown and they were recruited for the war. They sailed back to Phthia to prepare.

This has been an amazing story to get lost in. I would definitely use this in an upper level classroom, where the mature content could be better accepted. It teaches Greek mythology in such a capturing way, and would enable a lesson surrounding homosexuality as the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is hard to write off. I think such a diverse story would be a welcome change to the stale teaching of mythology and I think students could appreciate the emotional pull it has on the reader. You're not only learning of the gods and the war, but you're invested into it emotionally, something the Iliad could never do. 

The Raven Boys

I recently finished reading my twentieth book The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater! When I started into the book I didn't know if I was going to like it, but I devoured every page of the book and finished it within hours of starting it. This is a four part series and I am happy to start the second book in the series!

This book is full of magic. It presented the psychic in a way I hadn't seen before and implemented historical aspects. Blue Sargent is the daughter of a psychic but has no Vision herself, but she does have an ability. She is like an amp for a guitar, she makes everything louder for her fellow psychics. One thing Blue has been told since she was a child, by every psychic she has come in contact with, is that she will kill her true love if she kisses him. Despite that being the premise of the story, it is not at all romance based and I love that. There is too much emphasis on love in young adult novels and it gives unrealistic dreams or desires to these impressionable youths. Blue becomes unlikely friends with a group of four boys from the boys' private school (for affluent boys) of Aglionby. The five of them go on an adventure looking for Glendower, a long dead king, and trying to awaken the Ley Line in their small town of Henrietta, Virginia. The adventure is the result of a near death experienced by Gansey, the leader of the group. Ronan, the "mean one" as Blue so lovingly dubbed him, found his father after he had been murdered and suffered mentally because of it. One of the boys, Adam, is not at all rich. He works three jobs to pay for Aglionby and lives in a trailer park with his abusive father. The fourth boy is Noah, who is actually dead. He is only able to be a part of this group because his bones are buried on the Ley Line enabling him to have a corporeal body.

I highly suggest this series to everyone, including students. I think it could help older students who have suffered through abusive parental relationships. It can also help those who are struggling emotionally or mentally because of parental loss or witnessing something they should not have. I feel as though this would be especially beneficial in lower income areas.

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I've heard a lot of hype about this book throughout the years, but I had never read it. When I opened the front cover to read this book I started a story that was completely unexpected! This has been an amazing, can't put down read for me, which is a nice change from the (hard to finish) Divergent series! This book, I discovered, is the first installment of a four part series and I hope I am able to finish it!

Arthur Dent got his life permanently changed by his very odd friend Ford (that he had no idea was an alien from a small planet near Betelgeuse). The Earth was gone and Arthur was suddenly hitching rides on multiple space ships meeting beings he had never heard of before. Ford is a hitchhiker writing entries into the very vast Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, that would need several small buildings to contain its physical contents so it is presented to Arthur on a small reading device of sorts. Arthur is subjected to many things during this fantastic journey, one of those such things being the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything (42)! Oh! And the job of the president is just to distract the people from what the government is actually doing! Doesn't that sound familiar!

This book reminds me so much of our society. Everyone is always wondering what their purpose in life is and why they were created. There's also constant debates and arguments about WHO created is or how we came to be. I found the job of the president particularly funny with Trump being our current elected official. I would definitely suggest this book to students and friends! We could go as far as to make this a class book and do writing assignments based on it, like how they think 42 could be the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Insurgent

I am currently reading the book, Insurgent, by Veronica Roth. This is the second installment in the Divergent series and follows the life of one character, Tris Prior. When I looked online for the target audience I found multiple sites that would recommend this series to ages 10 and up.  As a 22-year-old, I have enjoyed the story line the books follow, but I can see how the writing and story can be too mature for the target audience. There are many instances of violence, including suicide,  stabbing, and gun usage, as well as romantic relationships someone of that age should not strive for. I understand that, in the age of Call of Duty and other first person shooters, violence is not as big of a deal as it once was, but I still feel as though the amount of exposure to it should be limited at such a young age.

Looking at the writing from the perspective of a twenty-something, I find it to be unimaginative and it carries the basic vocabulary of a children's chapter book. The level of writing doesn't match the maturity of the content expressed, in my opinion; however, you see that a lot in books labeled young adult. Roth's writing isn't all bad, either. As I said previously, I do enjoy the books. I'm just not sure how I would feel about someone so young reading about the topics discussed.

One section of the text that I particularly view as too mature for the writing is in chapter 5, page 48. After fleeing the city to find safety in the Amity compound, Tris finds herself unable to sleep because she keeps reliving the moment she shot and killed one of her best friends, who was, at the time, under the control of the Erudite and trying to kill her. She walks down the hall to her boyfriend, Tobias' room. She realizes she is only wearing a long t-shirt, no pants, and he crawls into bed with him... "His fingers move slowly up my back, tracing my spine. My shirt creeps up my body, and I don't pull it down, even when I feel cool air on my stomach. He kisses my neck, and I grab his shoulder to steady myself, gathering his shirt into my fist. His hand reaches the top of my back and curls around my neck. My shirt is twisted around his arm, and our kisses become desperate..." To me, it seems like this passage is trying to hard to be sexual. I feel as though this level of physical contact is inappropriate for a book of this level.

Not all of her writing is bad, though. I believe she has some very interesting ideas integrated into the book. One such concept is mentioned in chapter 6, page 59. Tris is still in the Amity compound but has just violated one of their rules by getting into a fight with one of her Dauntless enemies. She is escorted away to a room by a couple Amity members. While in the room, she is stuck by a needle and injected with some sort of serum. The immense amounts of anger she was previously feeling are suddenly gone... "How do you feel?' the younger man says. "I feel..." Angry, I was about to say. Angry with Peter, angry with the Amity. But that's not true, is it? I smile. "I feel good. I feel a little like...like I'm floating. Or swaying. How do you feel?"'  Throughout the rest of the chapter Tris' experience change because of the effects of the serum. Her entire demeanor is different and her inner monolog has changed. I thought this chapter was extremely interesting and presented the idea in a pretty fantastic way.

There are good parts and bad in the writing of this series. I would recommend it to my friends, but I'm not sure I would recommend it to students. This is definitely not a book I would read in school because of the violence and romantic incidents.

The People of Sparks

I am about one hundred pages away from finishing The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau. This is the second book in the City of Ember series, written for the 10-12-year-old age range. So far, I love the series! It is exciting and keeps the reader engaged, there's no lull in the writing that would let you put the book down. I read the first one in only a few hours!

In the first book, you discover the City of Ember, a city that believes it is the only establishment inhabited by the only people and there is nothing other than it, but it is failing. The city exists in darkness only lit by electricity during the day hours, electricity that is malfunctioning with increasing frequency. The people of Ember are terrified of the darkness and are running out of supplies. They don't know that the Builders of the city only created it to last for 240 years and they were supposed to leave a little over 20 years ago. That is, until the two main characters, Lina and Doon, find the instructions left by the Builders and lead the people of the City of Ember out of their dying city to safety. On the way out, they find a journal written by one of the original members of their city and learn that it was created to save the human population from the coming Disaster and that the city was actually built underground in a massive cave system.

The People of Sparks begins with the Emberites, the people of Ember, discovering the world as we know it, lit by the sun and covered in nature. They go in search of civilization and stumble across the small village of Sparks, population 322. The village agrees to shelter the Emberites long enough to teach them the foreign ways of this new world, but there's no room within the actual village for the four hundred or so Emberites to sleep on beds and have other such luxuries. The people of Sparks allow the refugees to stay in an old, abandoned hotel near the town and are expected to work daily for the food the village is accommodating them with. The Emberites are not used to the sun or hard work so the constant labor wears them down, but also makes them stronger. The people of Sparks are getting angry with the Emberites because they think the smaller, paler people are lazy. The small village is not equipped to support the doubling of its population and the food rations become smaller and smaller, rising tension causes strain between the two groups. I have left off at this point in the story and can't wait to discover how the Emberites will resolve the conflict with Sparks and fair on their own in this foreign world!

So far, this series hasn't affected me in the way the previous books have and I can't connect it to my personal experiences. While I've not felt an emotional connection to the book like I did with Wonder, it still has great lessons to teach to our students. The book talks about war and how it happens. It could be made into an example for conflict resolution because the book tells the reader that sometimes, instead of retaliating when someone does something bad to you, you've got to do something good or nothing at all. If conflict continues it will never end and everyone will be unhappy. I think that's an important message to learn young. The story could also help explain poverty to young students. The people of Sparks and Ember experience food shortages and worry about how they will support the village, much like a lower income family could worry about feeding their family. If a child of a low income family reads the series, they could discover that their situation isn't forever and can change with hard work and perseverance.

Robot Revolution

I just finished reading the third book in the House of Robots series, Robot Revolution. This in another of the jimmy books that I mentioned in my previous post. In this final installment of the series, Sammy and his family attempt to tackle something noble and grand- giving Maddie a better life!

Sammy and his best friend, Trip, are trying to tackle a difficult Science Fair project that could potentially enable his sister, Maddie, to finally leave the house! Sammy's mom, Dr. Hayes, is also working on a Top Secret Maddie Project that continually distracts her from her normal mom duties. Unfortunately, one of her normal duties is taking care of the maintenance on all of the household robots. The robots start to feel neglected and, no matter how Sammy and E try to make up for the slack, they decide to go on strike! The robots aren't the only ones that feel neglected by mom, Sammy starts to get very frustrated when he feels like his mom doesn't have time for him. Dr. Hayes' project ends up failing and she decides to give up on it until Sammy says something while working on his Science Fair project that inspires her to start the project up again. In the end, Sammy and his mom combine their projects and create an amazing thing for Maddie.

This was a great book series that I will definitely recommend to students. Each of the three books hit on a different topic that could relate to different students. James Patterson is also an amazing and award winning author that I would recommend to anyone.

House of Robots

Right now I am reading House of Robots by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Juliana Neufeld. This is the first book in a trilogy about a four-member family living in South Bend, Indiana. I love that they're set in our home state! These books are part of something called Jimmy Books. This is an organization dedicated to getting kids to read. Any profits made from these books goes to scholarships for teachers, helping bookstores, supporting school libraries, extending the reach of a pro-reading website, and distributing books to kids who can't afford them. Here is the link for the website: http://jimmypatterson.org/

James Patterson is one of my favorite authors. I had no idea he wrote children's books! The book follows Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez,  an elementary school student who has a genius mother and a comic drawing dad. His mom invents robots and teaches at Notre Dame University while his dad illustrates very famous comic books about robots. Sammy also has a sister, Maddie, who is homeschooled by a robot because she suffers from Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, or SCID for short. They have robots for tutoring Maddie, robots for cleaning the house, robots for making breakfast, and so on and so forth. As you can see, robotics is very ingrained in their lifestyle! This story is specifically about the journey of Sammy and his new robot brother- E (short for Egghead, or Einstein, or Error). Sammy's mom invented E for a secret purpose and needs him to go to school with him. Taking E to school started out as a nightmare for Sammy, but slowly he learned to appreciate what E could teach him and do for him. He learned how to accept and love E for who he was. In the end, Sammy realizes how all of the robots in the house are a part of the family. I love this because not all people consider non-humans to be family. I have three cats and a dog that I consider very much my family!

While reading this book I felt as though it could relate to many different familial circumstances where new members are introduced such as families having another child, adopting children, hosting foster children, or two families becoming one and having step-children. I would recommend this book to all of my students, especially if they are struggling with any of the above circumstances. I love this book and hope that the next two in the series are just as great, if not better!