I do not like them Sam I Am

[orangerful]

I have to say it, and I'm sorry if I offend anyone but;

I HATED 'WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS'!!!!!!!

Someone today said if we were going to reccomend books to YA readers, we should give them good books. And she mentioned that one. HA! I hate that book. The boy has dogs, he abuses them to turn them into 'coon hunting dogs, and in the end, the dogs DIE! How is this book enjoyable!??? I had to read it in sixth grade and my teacher kept saying it was his favorite book...and it was just horrible!

ugh. I am sorry. If I kid came up to me and said he had to read that book I would attempt not to respond but if they prompted me I would tell them flat out that i did not like the book because it bothers me so much even to this day.

/rant

Comments

[toothlesshag.livejournal.com]

My class just finished "Stone Fox" because it was accessable to all of them.

Willy pushes the dog too hard so he can keep his farm, so the dog dies in the end. It's pretty tragic.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

not familiar with that one, but it sounds like a bummer. why do they pick books that are so depressing? especially for younger kids! yeesh.

[verdatum.livejournal.com]

Oh hell yeah. It's very nearly the same book. Some poor ass kick, who has to teach his dogamned horses how "not to eat" gets some mangey ass dogs by mail order. and has to go against this badass indian mofo named Stone Fox. In the end, if I recall correctly, not only do all the dogs die, but the kid dies, the kid's father dies, Stone Fox dies, and the pipeline explodes and everyone in ALASKA dies.

I can't believe you haven't read this one!

[jellibean.livejournal.com]

I remember reading that in 3rd grade... everyone had their own copy of the book and everything. And I vividly remember when the dog's heart explodes... it was sad, but somehow, I didn't hate the book--just kind of ambivalent about it. I guess I was too young to really think about it.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

the dog's heart explodes???? what a horrible book! why would anyone want to read a story that ends with a dog's heart exploding!

[dstntp1lgr1m.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've never been a fan of any of the stereo-typical, all-American, elementary-through-high school children books.

There were only a few that I ever cared for.

I really had problems with Walt Witman. Mostly just TOOOOOOOOO wordy for my liking. Yeah, he captures a time in American history, but the stories never appealed to me.

Please don't get me started on Lord of The Flies either. lol

I honestly feel that alot of american culture can be found in Action Hero Graphic Novels....

I didn't realize this until I took a class on it at UMBC.

It's really quite amazing, and well, my mother thought comic books were a great way to get us reading. She was right, and I think it would work for others as well.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

hm...never read any Whitman, was that when you were in Meade? 'Red Fern Grows' was just depressing and felt very outdated to the animal lover in me.

I can't remember 'lord of the flies' but I had an odd urge to read it again the other day. I think I might have enjoyed it at the time. I have no ill feelings towards it.

Good luck convincing educators to even look at Graphic Novels as more than trash. You should hear the tone in people's voices when they say "graphic novels" (just from my library training today).

[bittertwee.livejournal.com]

I was at a bookstore with a friend the other day, and they had shelved the Newbury award winners separately, I said, oh, there's all the books that kids hate. It was actually quite nice of the store to separate them out, so the kids could avoid them and move on to Artemis Fowl and the like. I mean, I know some of the Newburys are good, but seeing them all together, it just seemed like such a dreary/ so-PC-it-makes-you-ill lineup. They're like the high-fiber books; good for you, but not just now, thanks.

Thank goodness kids books are fun now. (not that there aren't some oldies but goodies, like Roald Dahl, CS Lewis, Susan Cooper, and why aren't more kids reading John Christopher? Hmm.. all British writers.. coincidence?)

Hey, that reminds me, have you read/seen Millions? You definitely should at least see the movie. It's done by the guy who did 28 Days Later. I love the book, but I'm not sure kids would like it all that much. I think you kind of have to be an adult to get it.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

yeah, there seems to be a bit of a consensus that the Newbury awards are not always the best books. (at least, that was the vibe I picked up at the 'great books' conference I went to, that they decided to start creating their own list because the "major awards" were not picking books that were actually readable).

I read 'Artemis Fowl' but I didn't really care much for it. I remember forcing myself thru the last few chapters. I just found most of the characters annoying and I didn't think the writing was that great. I know it's a kids book but still.

And I just went and ordered 'millions' since I hadn't heard of it, and after I read it I'll watch the movie. Because that's how I roll :)

[bittertwee.livejournal.com]

ok, out of curiosity I went and looked at the Newbery (spelled correctly now) list. They've been doing it since 1922, and of those books, I think I've read 11 and liked 8. I definitely recognize some titles as being books that were on my classroom bookshelves when I was a kid, and I had zero interest. I don't know about readability, but so many of the books seem like overly serious "guilt" books. Sure, tolerance is a good thing, but I think kids can learn so much more about tolerance from, oh, Harry Potter?, just to pick a random example.

I didn't like Artemis Fowl enough to continue with the series, and it was a little gadgety for my taste. But it had lots of action and a pooping dwarf, so I thought kids might like it?

Let me know what you think of Millions! I saw the movie first, and didn't know it was a book until later. The two are very similar, since the author was writing the screenplay as he was finishing the book. But I don't know if the book might seem a little unfocused- the movie is definitely tighter (and the kids are great!)

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I think schools are missing a *huge* opportunity with the Harry Potter books. I mean, think of how they could engage the kids if they taught using some popular fiction? I'm not saying teach HP all year, but imagine if you read "classics" all year and then read HP right before summer and then talked about what elements of the classics were still being used in HP. What the moral of the classic books were and what HP was teaching.

The thing is, the schools only want to teach "literary fiction" - books about arranging matches normal people doing normal things. Somehow 'the time machine' and 'animal farm' slipped into the list, but otherwise most of the books were all "deep thought" titles. Which is fine. But you can eat only so many meals cooked by a master chef before you just want to eat a cheeseburger. I think they overkill on that stuff in school and totally turn kids off of reading, where if they just mixed it up a bit with some more "genre fiction" (as they call it in the library) like a mystery, or science fiction, or fantasy, or a very light romance - you might help the kids who think books are boring find their niche.

and I grabbed a copy of 'Millions' today and I think I'm going to read it next, as it seems like a nice quick read considering it's Children's Fiction.

[maybemanda.livejournal.com]

hmm, i remember that i cried a lot at that book at the end, and the part where the one kid fell on the axe totally traumatized me. i'm still scared of axes. i don't remember him abusing the dogs though... i thought the dogs were pretty cool. anyway. :)

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

hm, maybe he didn't abuse the dogs...I thought I did, I thought however he "trained" them to hunt seemed abusive to me. But I actually have not read it since sixth grade. haha.

[jellibean.livejournal.com]

I don't know how I got out of reading that book, but I've never read it. It just didn't sound interesting to me, I guess.

Oh, to add insult to your Red Fern-hating injury, one of my friends said that when her dog had surgery or hurt itself or something that they played this movie for it and then they'd all cry because it was so sad and apparently they weren't familiar with the story.

And what do they mean by "good books?" As long as kids are reading SOMETHING, that's fine with me. You shouldn't just recommend "literature" because you think it's what they should be reading--you'd have more credibility if you recommend something you actually think they'd like, and then they might be more willing to read "good books" later on. I have no doubt that one of the reasons why people hate reading literature is because it's thrust upon them in school. Argh. Plus, you never know which of today's books will be considered literature 50 years from now. ;)

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

yeah, not the movie to watch if you're a pet lover, in my opinion. I think it's more for people who view animals solely as working creatures, at least, that's how I remember feeling - he never treated them like pets, they were just part of his job.

And I agree, it's the school's job to force them to read boring old "literature" books and then teach them why they are important. The library is here (at least the public library) to offer them pleasure reading! To offer books that don't qualify (yet) as classics, like Harry Potter, and get them to see how reading can be fun and more than just something you have to do.

And it's sad, because when we're little, learning to read it so important and mom & dad take you to storytimes and help get you to read....and then you get older and the schools take away the fun and make it torture, forcing books on you that are just not fun to read. And by the time the teens come into the library (if they even know where it is) it might be too late. I hope it's not, I hope they wander over and get some Micheal Crichton or even some chick lit! Just read!

*jumps off soap box*

[verdatum.livejournal.com]

If you check my parent's basement, you can still make out the heart mark where I wrote "Dann + Ann" after crying my eyes out reading that fucking book.

It's not so much that I hate the book, as much as I hate the fact that they made us read so god damn many depressing books in school. Yeah, it was a cute fad for quite awhile to admit that life isn't all sunshine and lollipops, but jesus christ AACPS, give it a fucking break! I blame my monthly Prozac bills on YOU!

I remember distinctly in the 7th grade saying allowed when handed our next book, "LEMME GUESS HE DIES AT THE END!" and being quite completely correct.

Yeah, fuck that slut bitch Anne Frank.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

see, I never had to read 'anne frank', but that one I probably would have enjoyed in the sense that it was history and that's a whole different thing haha. But why force us to read total crap like 'cold sassy tree'? (I think that only happened one year, my year, and then that book went away).

I didn't really enjoy any of the books i read in school until high school - I remember liking 'lord of the flies', 'the stranger', and 'great gatsby' and the non-turtle chapters of 'grapes of wrath'.

[verdatum.livejournal.com]

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE TURTLE!?!?

I loved grapes of wrath. Hated Gadsby, enjoyed the stranger quite a bit, and never got the chance to read lord of the flies...though I did see the Simpsons episode, and half of the low budget british movie, so prolly close enough.

They made us read a condenced version of Flowers for Algernon in middle school. I liked the full version of that, which I had read in the 5th grade. And I also enjoyed explaining to the class all the dirty parts that got left out. Otherwise, yeah, nothing was truely decent of a read until highschool.

It is a little known fact that I didn't read a single book in college.

And if I'm not mistaken, they booted Cold Sassy Tree to the lower levels of english. They also got to read Catch-22, which kinda bummed me out, as I wanted to read it. I downloaded a copy and got about half way through it. I should really get around to finishing it. Looked pretty ok. I think I got ADD-tracked after a couple chapters and remembered I wanted to read Naked Lunch which was quite bizzare.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I know I read 'Lord of the Flies' and I don't get that feeling of "UGH!" in my stomach when I talk about it...so I assume I enjoyed it even though I can't remember a gorram thing about it.

I remember watching the awful made-for-tv 'Flowers for Algernon' movie with Mathew Modine. Book was better (though I think I got the "condenced" version too).

little known fact? little known to who? haha.

'Cold Sassy Tree' was horrible. Just bad. My mom even read it and was like "why do you have to read this, it's horrible!". I feel bad for any kid still forced to read it. I still need to read 'Catch 22', I know I started it but I think I got distracted.