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Showing posts with label good. Show all posts

Harry Potter Literature Guide: Goblet of Fire Review

Harry Potter Literature Guide: Goblet of Fire
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I have actually read, well used, this book and others in this series. Since I am not a school teacher, my perspective is as a parent of a bright 7 year old who absolutely adores the Harry Potter books.
This series of guides is meant to serve as a resource for classroom teachers. The Harry Potter books are the basis for activties in a wide range of subject areas. Even though these are deisgned as teacher resource guides, they are wonderful for family use as well.
I bought this book on a whim during a midday stop on a long car trip. It looked like a way to keep my daughter occupied for hours, and I was right. The book is full of insightful questions about Goblet of Fire, its themes and the larger issues outside the book.
We treated it almost as a trivia game, for example we whiled away the better part of 200 miles by discusssing all the different kinds of wizard snacks we could remember from the various books, what kinds of souveneirs we might sell at the Quidditch World Cup, and more substantial questions about their behavior and attitudes of the characters. My 7 year old surprised me with the depth of her understanding of the behaviour and motivation of Malfoy. My wife and I had almost as much fun as the 7 year old.
There is much meat here. So much so, that one of these guides often goes with us on long car trips. We have bought extra copies to give as presents. I highly recommend this series to parents who want to wring even more educational value out of the Harry Potter books.
Even though I am not a teacher, I can see how these would be useful in the classroom. The suggested activities seem appropriate for a wide range of ages and subject areas. All in all, I highly recommend them. Just keep in mind, these guides are not meant for reading -- to get real value from them you will want to use them as the basis for your own games and discussions with your kids.
These guides will work best if used during or relatively shortly after reading the book. Kids who remember detail well will get the most out of the activities. For kids who don't retain detail well, it would probably be better to use these guides while reading the Harry Potter books.
I highly recommend this series of guide books to parents. Teachers shoild find real value here too.

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Repotting Harry Potter: A Professor's Book-by-Book Guide for the Serious Re-Reader Review

Repotting Harry Potter: A Professor's Book-by-Book Guide for the Serious Re-Reader
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This book is an interesting exploration of the Potter series. I loved Prof. Thomas' introduction, and his comparison of Rowling's writing to Lewis' and Tolkien's was one of my favorite parts.
I must urge anyone who gets this book to be finished with the series, and you may be thinking "doesn't the title imply that?" Well, yes, it does. Unfortunately, the inroduction implies that first-time readers could use the book, and I believe it would be too spoiler heavy to do so.
Thomas' focus doesn't seem to be on the larger themes of the Potter series (though at the end, I'm sure they will have come through); this is in comparison to, say, John Granger's work or Travis Prinzi's. His focus is more like Connie Neal's: where she focuses on Christian imagery in the series, he ABSOLUTELY focuses on punning, foreshadowing and other literary elements. He points out Rowling's amazing ability as a wordsmith.
The book is a little tedious, because again, you're going book... by... book... and that can be exhausting (as the Potter series itself is), but it's worth the wait. Like the Potter series, each chapter builds on the previous, and the book gets better as you go along.
I urge you to read this book if you want more Potter analysis and if you've completed reading the stories. It's a delight.

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A professor of literature for over thirty years, Dr. James W. Thomas takes us on a tour through the Potter books in order to enjoy them in different ways upon subsequent readings. Re-readers will be pleasantly surprised at what they may have missed in the books and at what secrets Rowling has hidden for us to uncover as we revisit these stories. The professor's informal and often lighthearted discussions focus on puns, humor, foreshadowing, literary allusions, narrative techniques, and other aspects of the Potter books that are hard-to-see on the hurried first or fifth reading. Dr. Thomas's brilliant but light touch proves that a "serious" reading of literature can be fun. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. [recommedation]-.- "What do you read after HARRY POTTER? Finally, there's a satisfying answer - you read REPOTTING HARRY POTTER for a whole new depth of appreciation and enjoyment. This book allows anyone intimidated by literature classes to sneak a seat in a class with one of those professors every student loves. You'll come away with a new depth of knowledge of Rowling's epic but also with a list of related literature you will want to read; great insights for aspiring writers too." ~ Connie Neal, author of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO HARRY POTTER

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