criterionforum.org

90s Kids, pay attention: Meryl Streep is probably joining Jeff Bridges in the adaptation of everyone's favorite childhood book, the Giver

God, is it bad that not only did I not read that as a child, I've never heard of it? I still wish that someone would take on a proper A Wrinkle in Time adaptation, so I certainly appreciate your excitement over a beloved childhood book hitting the big screen!

mfunk9786 wrote:God, is it bad that not only did I not read that as a child, I've never heard of it? I still wish that someone would take on a proper A Wrinkle in Time adaptation, so I certainly appreciate your excitement over a beloved childhood book hitting the big screen!

I've never read it either always fearing based on the cover that it was a Brave New World redeux.

Turn your Ring Pop and snap-bracelets in at the door, mfunk [-X

I haven't read it either. I think I'd seen the cover several times in libraries, etc.

It was required reading in middle school-- not being effusive, it was in our curriculum!

It was in mine too, but I decided to read The Pigman instead.

Never read it, either, but it was ubiquitous enough in elementary school that even now I can picture the paperback cover.

Apparently it's a series, as my girlfriend just told me she read all of them as a kid.

Never read it either, and every time it is mentioned I think its the one about a tree that keeps giving stuff to a kid (which I also never read).

knives wrote:It was in mine too, but I decided to read The Pigman instead.

I read The Giver and The Pigman. For once, I'm the best read guy in the room.

I remember reading The Giver a few years ago in school. I quite liked it then, so I'll definitely check out the film adaptation whenever it comes out.

I have no idea what the hell the Pigman even is! This reminds me of when I had to take my national teaching certification test a few years back. For English teachers, half the test is a randomly selected group of books frequently taught to high schoolers and you have to pick one and write about how you would teach it. The thing is, no one knows what books will appear on the list until you sit down for the test, so you have to be prepped to elucidate the teaching methods of dozens of books on the off-chance that one will be on the list. There is at least one certainty, as there's always at least one Shakespeare work listed-- but on my test it was, unbelievably, the Taming of the Shrew, which I have never heard of being part of any high school curriculum. The list I got was almost all recent "socially valuable" books for young adults I'd never even heard of (I looked up the ones I could remember later and they're all either about poor kids, disabled kids, or minority kids, sometimes all at the same time) with a few classics dispersed (Great Expectations and To Kill a Mockingbird are the only two I can recall though there was probably at least one more). Luckily one of the books I prepped heavily for, Lord of the Flies, was on the list and I easily gained my certification, but it really showed how even in the span of ~10 years, the perceived "normal" curriculum can really change out of nowhere. I'm only thirty and in my high school the most modern book we read was A Separate Peace!

domino harvey wrote:I have no idea what the hell the Pigman even is!

Maybe its a west coast thing because I think I'm only a year or two younger than you.

I think I read half this, and then gave up. And not out of difficulty. Am I the only person here who never cared for kid or young adult books as an adolescent? I blame the constant assigning of them in classes (as well as the whole Accelerated Reader culture) with me not becoming an avid reader until somewhere near High School's end.

Kinda? We were never taught young adult books past middle school when I was in school, so right about the time my reading was wandering over to forbidden pleasures like Stephen King or Dean Koontz the bottom dropped out anyways and we starting covering Dickens et al in class. Today the upper school curriculum is filled with the aforementioned young adult novels, and not the cool ones like John Green or whatever, but the ones that are Important and Multicultural (ie poison) as more challenging (ie older) works are pushed aside. I press all of my students on the importance of developing cultural literacy and how the majority of that is now on them since their school system's failed them thus far

I remember trying to read "forbidden pleasures" in 3rd grade... But not really having any foundation on how to go about it, even that didn't take.

Although my teacher (a sweet, but evangelical lady) was scandalized when she caught me reading The Man with the Golden Gun once in class. Which I shouldn't have been reading, but not due to content, but because it did mostly nothing for me: I had no guide to set me straight and recommend some more approachable intermediary. Or point me to Casino Royale first, at the very least.

I don't think I'd ever be allowed to tell them that truth, though I'm given enough autonomy that I probably shouldn't complain too much.

domino harvey wrote:Kinda? We were never taught young adult books past middle school when I was in school, so right about the time my reading was wandering over to forbidden pleasures like Stephen King or Dean Koontz the bottom dropped out anyways and we starting covering Dickens et al in class. Today the upper school curriculum is filled with the aforementioned young adult novels, and not the cool ones like John Green or whatever, but the ones that are Important and Multicultural (ie poison) as more challenging (ie older) works are pushed aside. I press all of my students on the importance of developing cultural literacy and how the majority of that is now on them since their school system's failed them thus far

I don't think stressing multicultural lit inherently means uninteresting lit- it's only a problem when combined with an idea that one should present things that aren't challenging or in any way beyond the student's depth, since I think something like Things Fall Apart or Invisible Man can stand with any of the high-school teachable masterworks of the 20th century.

Next time you're in a bookseller, have a glance at the "Back to School" section (there'll be one) and you'll see the kind of "multicultural" books I'm talking about-- not works of accepted merit like the two you mention, but newer, hilariously PC mush written several grade levels beneath its target audience

Cold Bishop wrote:I think I read half this, and then gave up. And not out of difficulty. Am I the only person here who never cared for kid or young adult books as an adolescent? I blame the constant assigning of them in classes (as well as the whole Accelerated Reader culture) with me not becoming an avid reader until somewhere near High School's end.

I was mostly the same. I was well into the forbidden pleasures of gruesome horror fiction and anything less seemed boring and, for lack of a better word, pansy. So I never read any kids of YA stuff because it I figured it couldn't be interesting. I was an odd kid.

I read all of my sister's assigned books (she's three years older) and virtually none of my own- there was something about being required to read things that tended to take all of the joy out of it, and I was always tremendously impressed with myself for contributing to classroom conversation about books I hadn't read, because I was a terribly annoying kid. I would guess that the majority of kids who fall in love with reading still don't fall in love with assigned reading, though.

knives wrote:

domino harvey wrote:I have no idea what the hell the Pigman even is!

Maybe its a west coast thing because I think I'm only a year or two younger than you.

Nah, because I had it assigned down in Louisiana. I don't think it was nearly as ubiquitous as The Giver though.

I remember reading this book and loving it and thinking it would make a great movie. Of course, this was years ago...

I seem to recall a major plot element in this dystopian setting was that color had been repressed--if they don't begin this movie in b&w and have it slowly progress into color the way the character does in the book, that will be a major missed opportunity. But with those casting notices I think I can already guess which way they're going with this one...