“Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel” is a young adult novel by Jeff Kinney which follows the misadventures of middle-schooler Greg Heffley as he attempts to adjust to his Uncle Gary moving in, and finding a date for the Valentine’s Day Dance. Greg’s primary concern is dealing with his Uncle Gary moving in after Uncle Gary’s most recent failed business venture.
The book focuses on the lives of an eleven year old girl names India “Opal” Buloni, the protagonist, and her companionship dog names Winn-Dixie. Opal recalled her experience of the summer her life changed because of her adopted dog. In beginning of the first chapter, we are introduced to relationship of Opal and her father, whom she usually refers to as "the preacher." Her mother abandoned the family when Opal was three year old and is often unaccompanied in her trailer park as her father
This book took place in the present time. It was mostly in Madison in Andy's high school and Madison Community College.
In Chapter 2 of Children’s Books in Children’s Hands: A Brief Introduction to their Literature, the authors talk about the 12 main elements of a literary work: genre, plot, setting, characterization, theme, point of view, intersexuality, tone, mood, style, voice, and the stance of the implied reader (Temple, Martinez, and Yokota 24). All of these literary elements capture the reader’s imagination and creates a successful piece of literature. However, the authors stress the importance of genre in Chapter 2, so I will briefly go over the different types of genres there are in literature and how it affects the readers greatly.
In John Connolly’s novel, The Book of Lost Things, he writes, “for in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be”. Does one’s childhood truly have an effect on the person one someday becomes? In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle and Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, this question is tackled through the recounting of Jeannette and Amir’s childhoods from the perspectives of their older, more developed selves. In the novels, an emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the relationships Jeannette and Amir have with their fathers while growing up, and the effects that these relations have on the people they each become. The environment to which they are both exposed as children is also described, and proves to have an influence on the characteristics of Jeannette and Amir’s adult personalities. Finally, through the journeys of other people in Jeannette and Amir’s lives, it is demonstrated that the sustainment of traumatic experiences as a child also has a large influence on the development of one’s character while become an adult. Therefore, through the analysis of the effects of these factors on various characters’ development, it is proven that the experiences and realities that one endures as a child ultimately shape one’s identity in the future.
The book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, follows a horrific part of the life of a boy named Ponyboy Curtis. He is what you might call a Greaser, and has had a rough go at it in his life compared to others. It is difficult, but Ponyboy somehow manages to be himself and has the tenacity to stick through it all. He is in a gang with his friends and family and they are loyal to one another no matter what. A rival gang from the Socs crowd, a richer, more refined group, send him and his pals into a whirlwind of trouble and hurt. This book shows on multiple occasions that perseverance is necessary to get through life .
As a future educator, I have reflected on how my own personal experiences have formed me into the person that I am today, and how I can use my experiences to help my future students. I have also reflected on how I can information about family systems as well as risk and resiliency to better understand families that I will work with in the future, as well as how children with special needs impact a family’s structure. I believe all of these components are essential for teacher, student, and family collaboration and success.
The Characteristics of Ponyboy and How They Developed inThe Outsiders by S. E. Hinton The novel "The Outsiders", by S.E. Hinton was based on a character called Ponyboy. He has long light-brown, almost red hair and greenish-grey eyes. It was normal for him to have long hair because he was classified as a "greaser", a boy on the East Side. The only people he has for a family are his two older brothers and his neighbours, the other greasers. Throughout the book it shows you the development of him becoming more mature and how he handles life's challenges without his parents.
As people grow older their view of the world changes; the innocence that they once approached life with fades and reality sets in. “The Watcher” by Guy Vanderhaeghe tells the storey of Charlie a young boy who is removed from his sheltered home and must open his eyes to harsh world that surrounds him. Charlie suffered from frequent illness at home, giving him the freedom to watch adults function in their daily lives though never truly grasping the events being played out in front of him. When Charlie’s mother Mable becomes ill herself, Charlie is sent to Grandma Bradley’s farm for the summer. Shortly after Charlie settles in at the farm his aunt Evelyn arrives with her boyfriend Thompson hoping that Grandma Bradley will resolve her problems. Grandma Bradley cares for her daughter but not Thompson. She is willing to do whatever it takes to get him out of her house. By the end Grandma succeeds in removing Thompson from her home, with help from the Ogden brothers, liberating Evelyn and showing Charlie that life is not always as simple as it seems. Tracking the food imagery within the locations of the text highlights the intricacies involved in relationships as well as Charlie’s realization that the world is an unsympathetic place, as he struggles to find balance between childhood and adulthood.
Tom Sawyer, a mischievous, brave, and daring boy that goes through adventures in love, murder, and treasure. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is about a boy maturing from a whimsical troublemaker into a caring young man. In the "conclusion" Mark Twain writes, "It being strictly a history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go much farther without becoming a history of a man" Tom is now maturing throughout a span of adventures in love, treasure, and everyday life that make him more of an adult, then a boy.
Have you ever wondered what the wolf's side of The Three Little Pigs story was? Well, Jon Scieszka gives his readers the opportunity to see a different perspective dealing with this very circumstance. In many of his books, including The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by A. Wolf, Scieszka has used this style of writing that varies from the norm. Every turn of the page gives rise to new wonder and suspense as to what the reader will encounter as he or she moves through the pages of this intriguing book. Many of us grew up hearing fairy tales and nursery rhymes and most of us accepted them the way that they were. However, Jon Scieszka likes to take his readers on "adventures" through the "other side." He twists well-known stories around just enough to challenge the view that we have had for so long, yet not so much that we are unable to realize what story he is "imitating" or "mocking."
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney tells a story about how a boy named Greg is on a road trip. Greg and his family go on a road trip and they are supposed have a lot of fun. The trip starts off great and it seems like it will be a trip to remember but then things quickly take several wrong turns. But even the worst road trip can turn into an adventure and this is a trip Greg and his family will never forget.
Block’s novel narrates the story of Weetzie Bat and focusing on her best friend, Dirk, his object of affection Duck, and Weetzie’s significant other
Imagine waking up on a normal day, in your normal house, in your normal room. Imagine if you knew that that day, you would be taken away from your normal life, and forced to a life of death, sickness, and violence. Imagine seeing your parents taken away from you. Imagine watching your family walk into their certain death. Imagine being a survivor. Just think of the nightmares that linger in your mind. You are stuck with emotional pain gnawing at your sanity. These scenerios are just some of the horrific things that went on between 1933-1945, the time of the Holocaust. This tragic and terrifying event has been written about many times. However, this is about one particularly fascinating story called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.
In The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson recounts 1950s America as he, a young boy in suburban Iowa, experienced it. The book is less of a historical account and more of a comedic childhood memoir, but it still provides an excellent snapshot into American culture at the time. Bryson, between stories of childhood antics and familial eccentricities, provides factual accounts of the culture of post war America in its time of innovation and financial prosperity, and just how different the era was to society as it is today. At the same time, though, Bryson describes aspects of life such as the most simple childhood experiences or products new to the fifties (for instance, the humble TV
The writing of a memoir through the eyes of a child can produce a highly entertaining work, as proved by Wole Soyinka. Through the use of third person and the masterful use of the innocence and language of childhood, Soyinka has written a memoir that can make us remember what is was like to see the world through the eyes of a child.