You Had One Job

I have a love-hate relationship with social media (don't worry this isn't going to be a post all about the evils of Facebook).  But one of the things I love about it is that sometimes people post really funny things.  For example, all of the pictures of mislabeled product at a store or misspelled signs with the caption, "You had one job." You think,  "come on, the arrow is pointing left and you labeled it right...really!!??"

I wonder if that is what Aslan was thinking as he watches Jill and Eustace try to carry out the task he assigned them in C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair.  At the very beginning of the journey Jill gets direct instructions from Aslan.  She has no idea how rare this is, but she does sense that it is important and she should try her best.

Aslan gives her four signs to use as guides along her quest.  When he finishes telling the signs Jill said, 'Thank you very much. I see."  Aslan is not quite convinced and makes Jill repeat the signs back to him.  "Jill tried, and didn't get them quite right.  So the Lion corrected her, and made her repeat them again and again until she could say them perfectly."

Now it would be quite a short book indeed, and not very interesting, if Jill followed the signs perfectly and completed the task.  So it isn't really a spoiler when I say that there were a few missteps along the way. As a reader, you know how important the signs are and, if you've read the other books, you know how rarely Aslan gives such detailed directions.  You want to yell at Jill and Eustace, "stop!  Don't do that!! Remember the signs."  They had one job...

Following the signs...that's kids stuff.  

Oh good, Dragons

Like any good fantasy lover I am always happy when the dragons show up.  They're just the epitome of everything fantasy and, lets be honest, they're really cool.

My husband and I read the first Game of Thrones book together.  Some background-I very clearly love fantasy, I've read a lot of it, my husband is more of a non-fiction kind of guy. Now throughout Game of Thrones there is, in my opinion, some pretty heavy handed foreshadowing cluing me in to the fact that soon there are going to be dragons (which is why I'm not really counting this as a spoiler).  However, the dragons don't actually make an appearance until the last chapter of the book leading me to make the comment, 'It's about time, I've been waiting for dragons since the very beginning."  My husband was shocked that I was able to guess there would be dragons.  Just goes to show you, he is unfamiliar with this whole fantasy realm.

That brings us to the next installment of the Chronicles of Narnia The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. What if someone, like my husband, who has read all the wrong kind of books (those are C.S.Lewis' words not mine-I can appreciate the value of non-fiction, though a big part of me agrees with Lewis) is all of the sudden magically transported....We'll  lets just stop there.

That person would not react well to being magically anything.  But lets take it a step farther and say  they are magically transported into Narnia-a place where animals talk and magic has always existed.  Well that's exactly what happened to Lucy and Edmund's cousin Eustace.  And, having read none of the right books, Eustace was woefully unprepared.  Naturally he got into quite a few scrapes, but don't worry, it's Narnia things always turn right in the end.

And, don't worry, there are dragons.

Becoming better...that's kids stuff

Why Won't You Believe Me?

One of the most gut-wrenching scenes in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is when Lucy first comes back from Narnia, but nobody believes her story.  It gets even worse when Edmund makes it in as well but then lies to the rest of the siblings and says Lucy is making it up.  It was really a very cruel scene.  But, as you know, eventually all four siblings make it to Narnia, they have fabulous adventures, and become kings and queens.

In Prince Caspian the four Pevensiesare called back to Narnia, much like a Jinn out of a lamp which as Edmund says, " And now we know what it feels like for the Jinn...Golly! It's a bit uncomfortable to know that we can be whistled for like that."

Lucy is again the first to make a discovery.  This time it is she who first sees Aslan.   And this time, in a heart-warming show of redemption, Edmund speaks up for Lucy, "When we first discovered Narnia a year ago...it was Lucy who discovered it first and none of us would believe her.  I was the worst of the lot, I know.  Yet she was right after all.  Wouldn't it be fair to believe her this time?"

Unfortunately Edmund doesn't fight hard enough and Lucy is overruled by the older siblings costing the party a great delay.  This shows me two things.  One, if someone has proven to be trustworthy, which Lucy unarguably has, then you should trust them regardless of their age.  Second, if you speak up for someone what good does that really do if it doesn't lead to any kind of change?

I"ll step off my preaching pedestal now and let you ponder those things for yourself.  Also, to be fair, these questions don't really relate to the main theme of Prince Caspian.  Since it's a book I've read often I decided to focus on a small detail for this post.  If you would like to know about the book as a whole then you will just have to read it yourself.

Speaking up...that's kids stuff.  

I Deserved That

I don't often give detentions in my classes; however, when a student really crosses the line I have no choice but to pull out one of the lunch detention slips and start filling it out.  Here's the positive about not giving detentions too often, when I do assign a lunch detention the student never asks "why?"  There is never any push back.  They simply accept the detention because they know that what they did was unacceptable and there are consequences for that kind of behavior.

This same kind of you get what you deserve attitude is found in C.S. Lewis' The Horse and His Boy.  Consider what Aslan says to Aravis, "The scratches on your back, tear for tear, throb for throb, blood for blood, were equal to the stripes laid on the back of your stepmother's slave because of the drugged sleep you cast upon her.  You needed to know what it felt like."

The prince of a neighboring land Rabadash is given "what he deserves" but I'm not gonna tell you what it is because that would really spoil the ending. And this, in my opinion, is one of the lesser known Chronicles of Narnia so there's a good chance you haven't read it yet.

Yet, in The Horse and His Boy things aren't always what they seem.  Horses can talk, nobles befriend slaves and  secret histories are revealed.  Because life isn't all punishment and sometimes, dare I even say often, consequences are positive.

Here's a quick synopsis.  A boy takes off on a quest to reach the Northern Countries (Narnia and Archland) after he finds out that the man who has been raising him is not actually his father.  Right away he is assisted by the talking war horse Bree, and it's not long before their party of two becomes a party of 4.  As you can imagine there are plenty of perils and interesting characters along the way. I find The Horse and His Boy to be just as engaging and thought provoking as the most famous Chronicle of Narnia-The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  

Taking responsibility...that's kids stuff.  

Not Tame

One of the great things about The Chronicles of Narnia is that though the books are all connected, they aren't dependent on one another.  In many series if you haven't read the first book the second won't make sense.  Not so with The Chronicles of Narnia.  Each book can stand as a story on its own.  If you have read the other books in the series, then you will obviously know some of the characters better but it won't have any serious impacts on your understanding of the text.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is often the first Narnia book people read.  It was the first book to be made into a movie and therefore is arguably the most famous.  Because the story is so well known I'm not going to summarize it for you here; instead, I would like to focus on one of my favorite lines.

"Well he's not a tame lion."

I'm not sure when we started believing that in order for things to be good they had to be safe.  Aslan is not just a lion he is the lion.  If you are reading this book allegorically Aslan is representing Jesus.  Aslan is the epitome of justice and power but also love and mercy.  He is unarguably good.  But...

"he's not a tame lion."

At the risk of sounding like a cheesy motivational speaker it makes me think, "what are you passing up because it's not tame?"  There is something good in wildness.  Go find it.

Not being tame...that's kids stuff.  

Look at That

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series that I have no memory of reading for the first time, it just seems like I've always known the stories.  For my home use I have a compete set of all the stories in one edition that was given to me as a gift.  Having all the stories together gives it a nice weight and it's perfect for a rainy day marathon reading session. 

But here at school I have all the books separately.  Many students are scared off by enormous volumes so having the books separately makes them seem more manageable.  These are an eclectic set, pieced together from my personal copies and books people have donated, varying in wear and edition.  To me this makes for a good bookshelf-it feels authentic, these books have had lives-they aren't just arranged for show.  

So when I decided to blog about The Chronicles of Narnia I just grabbed a copy of book one (chronologically, others choose to read the books in the order they were released) off my school shelf.  What a happy choice.  This copy of The Magician's Nephew was an illustrated edition. 

I don't care how old you are or how much of a reader you are or how cool you try to be, everyone loves when something has pictures.  It's especially good when the illustrations fit the mood of the book which these absolutely did.  

For those who don't know, The Magician's Nephew tells the story of how Narnia was created.  This book is one of my favorites for the same reason the first Harry Potter book will always be my favorite in that series, this is where it all started.  This is where we get the awe and the wonder.  Everything is new and amazing and just waiting to be explored.  You can just imagine the characters looking around with their mouths hanging open saying, "Would you look at that!!?"  

But that doesn't mean it's perfect.  Just like in the wizarding world or Middle Earth or The Capital, no world is perfect.  It's how you respond to the intrinsic evil that makes the story. 

Taking time to look at that...that's kids stuff.   

Typical?

Recently our youth group played a live version of clue.  The youth group advisers dressed up as the different characters and stationed ourselves in different rooms around the church. The kids had to then travel to each of us and try to figure out what we knew.  Since my maiden name is Plumadore it only made sense that I would play Professor Plum. I, of course, stationed myself in the library-typical.

As is typical with libraries, this one was stocked with books.  Since the youth weren't exactly master sleuths I took advantage of this time to browse the selection and pick a new book to read.  I settled on Gregory Maguire's Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.

If that name is familiar it is because Maguire also wrote Wicked (as in the book that is now a wildly popular Broadway musical).  Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is in the same vein.  It is a satisfyingly detailed look at a familiar story from an unfamiliar perspective.  By the end it makes you question all the things you thought you knew about the original fairy tale-and how you judged the characters.

I'll tell you that Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is based on a famous fairy tale.  I"ll also tell you that the title is an honest representation of the contents of the book.  Now it's up to you to use your detective skills to see if you can guess the rest!  Of course, you could also just read the book...I will give away that it's worth the read.

Figuring it out...that's kids stuff

P.S, Though I very much enjoyed this book (as I've stated before I am totally on board the fractured fairy tale train), it was rather dense.  I would say this book is best suited for advanced middle school readers or high school and above.  

April Fools

I hate April Fool's day.  I especially hate April Fool's day when it falls on a school day and I am surrounded by 7th graders who are just beginning to explore their joking prowess.   So while I will be on high alert all day I thought I would share another teachers April Fools pranks that I did find entertaining.


This teacher made new covers for some of her most popular classroom books.  Enjoy!!