Monday, February 4, 2013
A Hope in the Unseen
I read a great deal of young adult literature, but unfortunately I have a tendency to read the same style of YA lit. so I am quite sheltered when it comes to different YA topics and novel styles. The book, A Hope in the Unseen, was something that I had to go out on a limb to read. I felt that the book was very slow moving and some times the choices Cedric made felt questionable. I feel that this book was a challenge for me to read because it was so distantly unrelatable. Although most stories I read are not at all like my life, they usually have an appealing factor about them. However, this book was something I just don't enjoy thinking about. It breaks my heart knowing that students have to go through such hardships. School should be a place of security, you should have friends to see and be excited to learn something. I know that having that attitude about school isn't always the case, but it definitely shouldn't be a place of fear because you are excelling. This book was also difficult for me to annotate. It's not that I couldn't find things to say or write about, but the fact that it was a slow read to begin with, it was even more challenging to read when I had to keep stopping and writing things down. The writing style felt unrealistic at times as well. For example on page 15 the author writes, "Oh yes, that's a good one, Cedric agree, and nods". I understand that this is a third person story, but the writing seemed a little cheesy here and there. I really don't know if I would use this book in a classroom though. I guess it would all depend on where I was teaching.
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I can completely agree with you. After reading the book, I had the same feeling. I felt like there was a connection piece missing for me. I feel like this is a story that is told over and over again and I was hoping it would have a new take or twist to it, but it never happened. I also had a hard time annotating this book as well. It was hard enough getting through the book and staying interested, and then having to write stuff down, really took me away from the book.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with both of you! I have never really read books outside of my favorite genres, I haven't had a great deal of diversity in my schooling life (until college), and I have never been through the same situations as Cedric. I had a connection problem as well. However, I did have to keep going because I have to give a mini lesson on this book tonight...yikes! Anyway, I am glad other people feel the same way I did while reading this book!
ReplyDeleteDo you think students would find this novel as unrelatable as you did? I do think it was a challenge to read because it was really dense. Would you at least consider giving a book talk on this, as some students may find interest in Cedric's story?
ReplyDeleteThe narrative style was really interesting and Suskind did a good job on letting us in to the lives of other characters. Did you enjoy the narrative style?
Even though I personally really enjoyed the novel and had a hard time putting it down, I do understand where everyone is coming from in regards to reading the novel. I struggled getting through end of it because it did tend to drag on a bit.
-Allison