Light in the Forest third post

In the acknowledgements at the beginning of the book, Conrad Richter says this:

“Already two hundred years ago . . . our ideals and restrained manner of existence repelled the Indian. I felt that if we understood how these First Americans felt toward us even then and toward our white way of life, we might better understand the adverse, if perverted, view of us by some African, European, and Asian peoples today.”

What is Richter trying to tell us, in this passage and in the rest of the book, about how people perceive one another? What is important about how we perceive one another? How does this problem affect the characters in the book?

Anne Frank Third Post

Now that you are finished with the book, I’m wondering what you thought about the experience of reading the book. While we were in the library today, I noticed that several of you were reading some background material about Anne Frank and looking at pictures of the Secret Annex. Several of you were surprised to find out that the names of most of the people she wrote about had been changed to protect their identities, and others of you were shocked at how small the Secret Annex was.

Think about this question: for you, what was the best part of this book? What was the worst part? I’m not asking about how you read the book (in other words, I don’t want you to write that the worst part was that it was hard to read and you didn’t have enough time to read it); I’m asking about the effect that the content had on you. For instance, you might say that the worst part was the descriptions of the air raids because they really scared you and you could imagine how scared Anne would be during the raids.

Additionally, let’s answer Kevin’s question: why do you think that this book has lasted when other diaries have not? What do you think was special about this book?

Light in the Forest Second Post

Most of you should be nearing the end of this book; your scheduled date for finishing the book is November 9. If you haven't finished reading the book yet, don't finish reading this post--it might give away the ending!

OK--here are your two questions for this post.

The climax of the book builds when True Son/Johnny goes back to his Indian people and then there is a conflict. Little Crane's family wants to avenge his death, and of course if True Son and Half Arrow go back among the white people, they will be held responsible for what happened to Uncle Wilse. If you had been Half Arrow and True Son, would you have joined the war party?

In the final part of the book, True Son is supposed to use his white skin to help the war party to ambush a boat. Knowing what you know now about how True Son's decision would affect his future, what do you think he should have done about the ambush? What would you have done?

These are both pretty hard questions, because either decision has some very negative consequences.

Anne Frank second post

Good job, girls and boys! I’m enjoying reading your posts and I hope that you are enjoying reading one another’s comments.

Now the schedules for the two books diverge, so this post is only for those reading Diary of a Young Girl, since you have another comment due soon. Those of you reading Light in the Forest will post in response to a different question later. Of course, you are all welcome to read your classmates’ responses, even if you are reading the other book.

Anne Frank had a small group of people living with her in the secret annex, so each of them is described pretty thoroughly in her diary. Pick one of those other characters about whom you had strong feelings—positive or negative—and tell why. Make sure to use some specific evidence from the book to support your answer.

Here’s the fun part—there can be no more than two comments on any one character. So if you already see two posts on Peter, you need to choose someone else (and remember, there may be someone ahead of you in the pipeline waiting to be approved—so you may get bumped to another character even if you don’t see two comments on the blog about your character). If I have several comments on a given character waiting in the pipeline which have been posted at more or less the same time, I’ll pick the BEST one and bump the others.

Better get going. . . .

Welcome to the blog

Greetings, seventh graders! Welcome to Book Talk 7, our reading class blog.

Do you like this picture of all of you reading so studiously? I think someone is peeking. . . .

I hope that you are becoming absorbed in your books and beginning to get a feel for the world of the book. Can you imagine how it must have felt to be Anne Frank hiding in the secret annex? Can you imagine how True Son felt when he was returned to his white family? Think of all the challenges those two faced.

For your first post, I want you to consider the challenges the main character in your book faced, and think about which of those challenges would have been the hardest for you. Write a paragraph or two responding to that question or to a classmate's response to that question.

Remember the blog rules:

1. Be nice. Don't say anything negative about a classmate or any other person.
2. Posts must be signed with first name only (Madisons should also include a last initial).