So let’s keep going with some books. At this point I fear that, without diving into the high school canon, I’ve covered all three recent books that everybody has read. I’m trying to stick to the kind of books that publishers are actually buying today, rather than the classics we’ve all read, but I’ll go back and do some of those, too. For now, let’s meet halfway and do Louis Sachar’s modern classic “Holes”. This is my favorite non-Rowling kids novel: very simple on the surface but deeply complex and meaningful underneath. Of course, most of that complexity hasn’t become evident yet in these pages, but we’ll look at the foreshadowing. You can click on the pages below or download the doc here.
3 comments:
Great! I just read this one and was knocked out by its intricate plot. Thanks!
I think your comments on these pages are fantastic - the tensions between the tall tale and reality (which, of course relate to the ways in which America has created tall tales to excuse our racist past), the absurdity and humor, the "boy book" element - all of these are crucial.
I was surprised you didn't comment on this line about Zero: "The last boy either didn’t have a real name or else he didn’t have a nickname" - even though the reader doesn't know he's black yet, talk about hitting the nail on the head!
Reminds me of this old post on Jungian shadows with no names and/or names that mean "nothing."
http://www.secretsofstory.com/2010/09/hero-project-13-in-shadowlands.html
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