Joe's Journal

  Part One: How to teach "The graveyard book" The idea of teaching this story around Halloween with a monster theme would be a great start for a unit including this book. In addition to that, I would try to find another scary story to read and then compare the elements of each story. This would be a way to break down the stories and have students look at what makes a story scary, or what should a good scary story include. Another alternate twist on that idea would be to find an age appropriate scary movie and have the students compare and contrast the book and the movie. Students could discuss questions such as how does the writer make a story scary without visuals? What strategies can an author use that a movie director can not use (and vice versa)? These two ideas would allow students to explore the elements of scary stories and what makes for a good scary story vs a bad scary story. Part Two: Monster Trivia Q: What piece of literature contains the first know reference to w...

 The setting of "The graveyard book" by Neil Gaiman is an interesting topic to reflect on. With all the different possible setting that Gaiman could have told the story in, one may wonder "Why a graveyard?" The main idea of the book, an orphaned boy learning lessons from a variety of characters, could have been told in a variety of settings. It could have been told in a school, the wilderness, a typical neighborhood, or a variety of other places. With any of these settings, Gaiman still would have gotten his idea and point across in the big picture. However, the graveyard gives Gaiman access to other elements of story telling that the other settings many not have allowed him to use. One is a historical context. Throughout the story there are brief mentions of historical context that teaches the reader about life at some different moments in time. Eliza Hempstock teaches the reader briefly about how people thought of people they believed to be witches, and how societ...

 If the main characters were of opposite sex, the story would need to take some different paths to reach where it ends up. Luna being a male would change the story, but I don't feel it would change that characters arc tremendously. There would definitely be some changes, possibly things like behavior or the relationship between Luna and Xan (would they be as close to start if they were of opposite sex?). However, I feel much of Luna's character could translate directly to a male version. A male version would still need to have their magic suppressed and could go through many of the same experiences that female Luna goes through. I feel the larger change in the story would come from Antain being a Female. The main change would be Antain likely couldn't have been a member of the council for the beginning part of the story. While I don't remember it explicitly stating the council only allowed men, it seemed as though the council was comprised exclusively of men. If a femal...

 The ideal of Novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon  by Kelly Barnhill being adapted to a visual style is very interesting to me. Personally, I feel that based on what I have read so far, the novel would make a much better movie than TV series. The characters have seemed to develop and progress fairly quickly, which fits the style of a movie better. With a TV series, I am not sure the story so far would be enough to sustain multiple seasons. The section on pages 7 & 8 when Luna is taken from her mother would make for a great opening scene of a movie. It would be a heart wrenching scene that would immediately draw the viewers in. If were making this movie I would make it in color as I feel it would enhance the setting of the story. The jungle is likely filled with many different colors that I feel would really stand out on the big screen. In my head, I see the movie as an animation similar to Disney's Onward. Onward features a variety of characters that are not all human, which...