Saturday, November 7, 2009
Big Splash makes a big....well.... splash!
I wanted to blog this week about the book The Big Splash. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, but, like many of my classmates was left unsure about whether actual kids would enjoy the subtleties and the noir-esque vibe. Well, my uncertainties were soon thwarted! My fiancee, a fifth grade teacher, shared part of the book with his students. This week he had a bunch of their stories home for grading and I poked through them, always curious to see what sort of creative stuff these kids are coming up with. I was happy to see that many of them seemed to be inspired by The Big Splash. The stories were full of all-powerful bullies, mature and descriptive vocabularies and the noir-esque vibe. So cool! These kids not only enjoyed the book, but we able to recreate the tone and mood. What a useful teaching tool. And it's fun!
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Nina,
ReplyDeleteYup, this another title that has more appeal to tweens than to adults, I think because it seems so obvious to us. Again, this may be the first time many kids are exposed to the idea of Noir, which makes it feel fresh to them. In addition, they usually can make a connection between the book and a detective show they may be watching on TV, like CSI or Monk, which can make Splash feel comfortably familiar for some. I also think this is a book to read aloud, it sounds much better out loud in a Sam Spade voice than it does in your head. I just got to the Pixy-stixer section with the 7th graders, and they completely lost it when I dramatically paused and whispered "pixie stix" each time like it was a highly shameful, embarrassing habit. Good times:)
I'm glad you keep seeing the difference between reading for ourselves and reading for tweens. This is an important distinction to make, especially when evaluating books in professional reviews (which I hope you end up writing someday!)
Thanks for your thoughtful post, see you in class on Monday.