If you were a teacher, would you want to share this work with your students? Why or why not?
One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War.
And the next minute he was gone.
There.
Gone.
No "poof." No flash of light. No explosion.
I was immediately engaged in the story, but I confess that I am sucker for interesting premises. I think that's why I've always loved certain fantasy or science-fiction, futuristic dystopians, and "what if" scenarios. I love a story that centers around "what if" questions. In Grant's novel, the 14-year-old protagonists are on a quest to discover what has happened to make all of the above-fifteen-year-olds vanish from their sleepy, quiet, seaside town. I am 95 pages in and enjoying every bit. So far, the characters are interesting and well-written; most are round and nuanced, and the dialogue is witty and engaging. I like the way Grant uses the novel to also teach vocabulary; I just watched as one of the characters described herself as pedantic (and then explained what it meant) and then realized that I, too, can be pedantic. Awkward self-illumination, there.
I'd love to have Gone in my classroom library because it is easy to read without being badly written. The story is interesting to readers of any age, I think, and the front cover recommendation by Stephen King supports my initial impression of Gone. King says, "Exciting, high-tension stories. I love these books." BOOKS? As in, more than one? A series, perhaps?
Here's to all of us who experience spurts of joy from hearing that a good book might, indeed, be part of a good series.
Happy reading, ya'll!
I'm going off of personal feelings here, but seeing as how both you and Isee this plot as something legitimately interesting enough to push potential worries about cliches or bad writing aside in order to give it a try, is promising for young readers.
ReplyDeleteThe age element of the story--how all adults/people over the age of 15 are the ones that have vanished, makes me think that it would target those exact students. So for perfect reliability, 8th and 9th graders would devour this, but I assume that it's reach goes beyond the the targeted demographic. Like Dr. Sty and I were discussing on my blog, so often the real targets of YA are adults. Dystopian is SO hot right now.
I think YA gets a bad rep for being badly written--yes, there IS some crap out there, but the genre has evolved over the past decade and "gone" are most of the neat and tidy endings and overly sentimental story lines. This has a lot to do with the new market for YA--predominantly white women over the age of 30. But I digress. Glad you are enjoying the book-- love that you thought of ways and means to tackle vocabulary with the novel--word study embedded in authentic reading experiences--doesn't get much better than that!
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