AUTHOR: Doug Fields and Todd Temple
AR Points:
Difficulty Level
Number of Pages: 165
ISBN: 0840795416
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986
1st Line
Personal Review
This is a really fun book! I bought it back in the 1980s when I was in high school. Ah! The girls I charmed. Woo-hoo! I'm the man!
Okay...all foolishness aside. I really like this book. I participated in a dating workshop at a Christian camp (Windermere) that allowed me to share many ideas that I adapted from this book. It also inspired me to be a better date, a better friend, and a better Christian.
Doug Fields and Todd Temple have written a fantastic book full of creative ideas, witty admirations, and several chapters that include how-tos on sending notes, buying gifts and saying "I love you." I know this book and the authors were very popular when I was growing up, but I'm not sure how today's teens and young adults would receive them.
Teachers Review
Each idea is rooted in several basic principles of a loving relationship. The ideas in this book are creative and fun, which love must always be. They are sincere and honest, definitely a requirement. Each idea is rooted in principles of equality and independence of the individuals involved. A successful relationship, as Pastor Harold Dinsmore once told me, is dependent on both members remaining independent individuals. These principles aren't the content of the book though! They are just the outcomes of some really great date ideas!
Amusing illustrations by Steve Bjorkman accompany varying date ideas. These witty little cartoons make light the subject of that awkward moment when two people come together for the first time. The authors also include details of "Worst Dates". These worst dates include quotes and detail the tragic events that occurred from real readers' experiences. (The authors are renowned youth group leaders and teen advisors.) The ideas in the book can be used by both boys and girls and they are definitely appropriate for married couples.
Some of the best ideas in this book are "Run for Your Money" on page 33 which suggests the mischievous couple spread "fifteen dimes, twenty nickles and forty-eight pennies" out on a sidewalk outside a movie theater "two minutes before the children's matinee lets out." (Genius!) On page 99 "Day Camp" is a fun idea that costs a little more than $2.98 but promises to be entertaining for a group.
Finally, I want to recommend everyone read this book. Unless for some reason you just can't stand communicating with other people, you will enjoy the ideas in this book. Don't save all these ideas for one date though! Have fun sharing these moments over time. I haven't been able to ever put this book down. It is definitely a keeper that will be with me for a very long time. This is definitely a good book to give as an engagement, wedding, or even anniversary gift.
Suggested Activities
Since dating is such a personal experience and inspires a lot of gossip, classroom activities will have to be limited. A freshman college class on human relationships might be a reasonable context for activities surrounding this book.
Dating Experiences Scrap Book
Create a scrapbook of each attempt at the ideas in this book. Include photos whenever possible. Have both partners submit comments. This "couples" scrapbook is a great bonding activity.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Sunday, June 19, 2011
The Grey King
Author Susan Cooper
AR Points 9.0
Difficulty Level 6.2
# Pages 165
ISBN 0-590-43317-2
Publisher Scholastic Inc. 1990
1st Line On the day of the dead, when the year too dies, must the youngest open the oldest hills, through the door of the birds where the breeze breaks.
Personal Review
What an amazing story. I absolutely loved the characters and how they are so familiar to me. At times I remember events in my own life as I read this book. It even resonates true with my own heritage as a member of my family is a noble cousin named Johnny Rowlands. I was impressed to find such a familiarity in this book. It makes me proud of my heritage, even if the character and my cousin are not the same.
It took me a while to read this, not because it was difficult, but because I only dedicated a half hour to reading each day for the past week or so. Once I hit the second part of the book though...I was compelled to continue up to an hour at a time. Excellent stuff.
Though the plot echoes familiarity in good vs evil plot lines, there is enough suspense and mystery that readers will not know what happens next. It really keeps your interest in an incredible grip and begs to be shared.
Teacher's Review
As an educator there is a lot of value in this book, and presumably the entire series. most notably is the Newbery Medal the book won in 1975. The National Counsel of Teachers of English also awarded it a Notable Childrens Book in Language Arts. It has also been recognized by the Carnegie as an excellent book.
Beyond that, the book is full of challenging and powerful vocabulary.
Cutlurally it ties well with Arthurian legend, and Welsh history.
The book teaches character such as respect, kindness, patience, love, honesty, and loyalty.
It teaches readers to pronounce Welsh language correctly.
Literary and poetic devices are sprinkled throughout including foreshadowing, imagery, simile, metaphor, irony, onomatopoeia, personificaton, alliteration, symbolism, and suspense.
The author does an amazing job of crafting great fiction. Characters, setting, world-building, plot, conflict, and theme are all well developed and provide excellent examples for young authors.
Suggested Activities
I would probably be inclined to guide the students in creating their own warestones. Purchasing decorative rounded quartz from a garden center, students can paint or decorate their warestones with shapes, symbols and ideas which represent them. Then the stones should be painted with a thin transluscent layer of white or glow in the dark paint. These then should be sealed and displayed in various places in the classroom until the book is finished. When finished, the students should take their warestones home.
I would also be inclined to find a harp similar to the one in the book and ask a performer to play something on it...this may be a really hard task since most public school band departments do not include stringed instruments.
I also believe images of Welsh country and the hills mentioned by Cooper should be shared...through bookmarks, photos, slide shows, and bulletin boards.
Students should also be able to add 25+ words to their word lists from this book. Examples of litarary devices should also be collected from this book as they are astounding samples.
A class timeline or sequence chain could be made as the book is read.
Summarize the book and explain the importance of one of the following symbols in your summary: the Welsh hills, the warestone, Bran's appearance, Cadvall's death, the light and dark, or Will's illness.
BookCrossing:
Completed June 19, 2011. Excellent book for Father's Day.
AR Points 9.0
Difficulty Level 6.2
# Pages 165
ISBN 0-590-43317-2
Publisher Scholastic Inc. 1990
1st Line On the day of the dead, when the year too dies, must the youngest open the oldest hills, through the door of the birds where the breeze breaks.
Personal Review
What an amazing story. I absolutely loved the characters and how they are so familiar to me. At times I remember events in my own life as I read this book. It even resonates true with my own heritage as a member of my family is a noble cousin named Johnny Rowlands. I was impressed to find such a familiarity in this book. It makes me proud of my heritage, even if the character and my cousin are not the same.
It took me a while to read this, not because it was difficult, but because I only dedicated a half hour to reading each day for the past week or so. Once I hit the second part of the book though...I was compelled to continue up to an hour at a time. Excellent stuff.
Though the plot echoes familiarity in good vs evil plot lines, there is enough suspense and mystery that readers will not know what happens next. It really keeps your interest in an incredible grip and begs to be shared.
Teacher's Review
As an educator there is a lot of value in this book, and presumably the entire series. most notably is the Newbery Medal the book won in 1975. The National Counsel of Teachers of English also awarded it a Notable Childrens Book in Language Arts. It has also been recognized by the Carnegie as an excellent book.
Beyond that, the book is full of challenging and powerful vocabulary.
Cutlurally it ties well with Arthurian legend, and Welsh history.
The book teaches character such as respect, kindness, patience, love, honesty, and loyalty.
It teaches readers to pronounce Welsh language correctly.
Literary and poetic devices are sprinkled throughout including foreshadowing, imagery, simile, metaphor, irony, onomatopoeia, personificaton, alliteration, symbolism, and suspense.
The author does an amazing job of crafting great fiction. Characters, setting, world-building, plot, conflict, and theme are all well developed and provide excellent examples for young authors.
Suggested Activities
I would probably be inclined to guide the students in creating their own warestones. Purchasing decorative rounded quartz from a garden center, students can paint or decorate their warestones with shapes, symbols and ideas which represent them. Then the stones should be painted with a thin transluscent layer of white or glow in the dark paint. These then should be sealed and displayed in various places in the classroom until the book is finished. When finished, the students should take their warestones home.
I would also be inclined to find a harp similar to the one in the book and ask a performer to play something on it...this may be a really hard task since most public school band departments do not include stringed instruments.
I also believe images of Welsh country and the hills mentioned by Cooper should be shared...through bookmarks, photos, slide shows, and bulletin boards.
Students should also be able to add 25+ words to their word lists from this book. Examples of litarary devices should also be collected from this book as they are astounding samples.
A class timeline or sequence chain could be made as the book is read.
Summarize the book and explain the importance of one of the following symbols in your summary: the Welsh hills, the warestone, Bran's appearance, Cadvall's death, the light and dark, or Will's illness.
BookCrossing:
Completed June 19, 2011. Excellent book for Father's Day.
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