I read this week's Junior Great Books story with Chester yesterday. It seems to me the narrative style of this story in particular, The Dancing Princesses by Walter de la Mare, was overly ornate, for no apparent reason. I mean, sure you want to expose these kids to new vocabulary but "forsooth"? The point of JGB is critical thinking about literature, not vocabulary enrichment. The author interrupted himself with twenty-seven words of tangent between the subject and verb of a single sentence--hard to follow on a good day. I could see Chester's eyes glazing over--he likes his subjects and verbs as close together as possible--and as a writer, I don't the story warranted such showboating.
On the other hand, when vocabulary is the only point, that's another story all together. The Minikin Incarnadine Cowl-Titivated Gamine (aka Little Red Riding Hood) also includes "forsooth" but takes the whole thing to its ridiculous extreme. Hypertext links to the glossary for all the five-dollar words included. Impress your friends and talk rings around your enemies! Roget would be proud. LOL
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Yeah, as a kid I always hated books that were written in such a way to show that the author was way smarter than me and reveled in confusing the begeebers out of me. Uh, hello, your story is as boring as He!! and I don't care that your dictionary is bigger than mine...
Never understood the point. Oh, yeah, it was supposed to encourage my vocabulary. NOT! Instead, it bored me to tears, and sleep....
LOL
Post a Comment