Monsters

__ The Witch of Blackbird Pond __ By [|Elizabeth George Speare] The novel starts with 16-year-old Kit Tyler moving out of the comfort of her home in [|Barbados] to go live with her aunt and uncle after the death of her grandfather. Right away Kat is singled out for being different. Kat impulsively jumps to retrieve a doll a little girl drooped out of the boat, this astonishes the other people on the boat and they start to suspect that Kat is a witch. When Kit finally starts to feel welcomed while teaching at the “ dame school” it gets shut down and Kit is distort. She flees for comfort and meets an elderly woman named Hannah who had gotten banished from the colony for being a Quaker. Kit’s uncle forbids her to be friends with the women but Kit continues to go see her. Kit is an intelligent individual that stand out from the crowd. She is accused of being a witch many times because she is not like the other young ladies that the town is used to. Hannah ends up leaving when her house gets burned down because she too was accused of being a witch. She offers Kit to come along with her but Kit refuses because she has fallen in love with a shipman named Nat. Kit ends up waiting for Nat to return from his journey at sea and he asks her to come aboard his ship that he named Witch after Kit. __ How it relates to the theme: __ This book goes along well with the theme of monsters because it shows how people can stereotype things they don’t know much about or are afraid of. When we think of monsters we categorize them as scary, strange, and different. Kit was not scary at all but she was different and that is a good thing. She was able to stay true to herself and stay strong to the very end until she found her comfort again. __ Activity: __ Have the room set up as a campfire and let the students retell the novel in their own words in form of a ghost story around the campfire. This will help the teacher know which students understand the importance of the novel. __ Challenged Book: __ This book was challenged because it contains the topic of witchcraft and also has violence in it. Although this book has been challenged I would still use it in my classroom because it portrays monsters (in this case a witch) as a positive symbol and show strong individualism, this is something our students can learn from. __ The Walking Dead __ By [|Robert Kirkman] This series is a graphic novel that not only shows how the world could be if there was a zombie apocalypse but it shows human survival in its raw nature. In the first panel of the novel we see Rick Grimes waking up in a hospital bed. He was a police officer before he got shot and put in a coma for 3 months. When he wakes up the hospital is empty and the only sounds are coming from a chained door that reads do not open. As he leaves the hospital he see hundreds of bodies outside the hospital dead. Thinking only about his family, he makes his way home facing a few zombies on the way. Shocked and confused he prepares himself to face what ever may come his way in order to find his family. After crossing a city full of zombies he gets rescued by a young computer junkie who brings him to a small group of survivors. At their campground Rick finds that his wife and only son have survived the apocalypse. __ How it relates to the theme: __ This is a good novel to teach in the classroom with the monster theme because it has more to it than just killer zombies attacking people. The story caries the message of human survival and conflicts that happen in the every day world that can relate with our students. It is also nice that it is a series because it can encourage students to continue reading. __ Activity: __ Zombie Survival Guide, have students make their own comic book explaining how they would try to survive if they were put in the situation that the characters in the graphic novel had to face.

__ Grendel __ By John Gardner This novel is the other side of the commonly known Beowulf epic. The reader gets to experience a completely different side of the hero story. In Beowulf we see Grendel as the villain but not in this novel. The reader is able to sympathize with Grendle because the novel tells us about his life before Beowulf. The reader gets to know Grendal when he was an innocent child the novel moves though his life as he grows up to adulthood. Once Grendal starts to explore his world he realizes that the world is much bigger across the lake. This is when he starts his quest in learning that the world is not the kindest place. We learn that Grendel in not a monster like the humans think. He is just another creature that seeks understanding. Grendal has a high intelligence but lets his emotions control him. He watches and studies the humans as he prepares for his battle that ends up in a violent resolution. __ How it relates to the theme: __ Grendel ties in well with the rest of the Monster novels because it too shows how we think of monsters as mean and scary. The humans in the novel where only scared of Grendal because they did not know anything about him. This is an interesting novel for students because they can relate to it in their regular lives. Students often treat new things and idea as the humans in the novel treated Grendal. In the Beowulf epic the reader usually sees Grendal as an evil monster, but if we take the time to look in a different lens while reading Grendal we find out that he is not a vicious monster, he is just looking for acceptance and understanding. __ Activity: __ Students will write a letter to Grendel to tell him how they felt about what was going on in his life. They can write how they would or would not be his friends and how they would treat him. __ The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening __ By L. J. Smith This is the first of seven books in the series. Elena Gilbert has just lost her parents in a car accident, summer is over and its time to face the world and put on a happy face at school. It has been only been a couple of months but all her teachers expect her to be ready to come back to class and pay attention to what has been happening in school. No one cut her some slack. Elena starts to get a smile back on her face when the new guy in school starts to talk to her. The story is told in Elena’s perspective and also in Stefen’s perspective. Although Stefen is new to the people in town, he is not a stranger to the area. Before becoming a vampire, Mystic Falls used to be his home. He has returned to set things right and break the curse of what keeps him coming back to Mystic Falls, Elena. __ How it relates to the theme: __ This is a good book to consider as letting students pick to read on their own. It has different themes and puzzling characters. It is close enough to a Twilight novel that it will keep young readers engaged but it has many things going on at once that it will keep the student thinking and on their feet while reading. They will have stop and think about what is going on as they read. __ Activity: __ This book can be used as a separate novel to read while teaching the monster theme in class. The students can show their comprehension about what they have read buy acting out an important scene in the book and they can tweak it by adding their own reactions if they encountered a vampire in their classroom. __ Blood and Chocolate __ By Annette Curtis Klause Most people think of werewolf’s as ferocious hunting dogs that have no control. But his novel really takes into perspective how judging and stereotyping can hurt someone. Vivian seems like a normal 16 year old that delivers chocolates on her bike around the town. Everything starts to change when she meets a foreigner studying Homo-Lupus or shape shifters. The novel mentions many beliefs that the French have in their legends about shape shifters and werewolf’s. Vivian takes us though her thoughts and ideas, she is not like the rest of her pack. Vivian falls in love with the graphic novel artist and he falls in love back. But when he finds out that she is a shape-shifter he quickly backs off and plans to leave the country. Vivian’s pack gets a hold of Aiden and plan to use him in their hunting ritual. Vivian cannot see her only love being killed by her own family and she does the impossible, even defies her own pack to save Aiden. Vivan’s aunt realizes that Vivian is truly in love with Aiden and lets her leave the pack to live the life she desires. __ How it relates to the theme: __ This is a good novel to use in the classroom because it goes along well with the monster theme because it shows how a mythological creature that is usually seen as harmful is portrayed as relatable to the reader. __ Activity __ : An activity that can be used when reading this book can be to have the students design a set in the book to use as a background of a movie. The book does well in describing the atmosphere of the area where the wolf pack lives and the area where Vivian liked to deliver chocolate and talk to Aiden. There are many sceneries in the book that the students can have fun creating that set the mood in the novel, cathedrals, the town, forest, the packs hunting grounds, ect. Additional Resources: - [|Frankenstein] the film - The Raven and other Poems by Edgar Allen Poe -Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe - Betrayed by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast -Fallen by Lauren Kate -The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey -Beauty and the Beast film -Mighty Joe Young film My Challenged Book Glog. http://www.glogster.com/cristybed/unfinished-glog-4/g-6ltu0ab76bladsq0f2bvda0