Shakespeare and Star Wars? An encounter with Ian Doescher's book

Another Shakespeare for kids book—William Shakespeare’s Star Wars

So, I started this blog after being inspired by Ludwig’s How to Teach your Children Shakespeare. I was recently sent (I guess I should confess that I’m an editor of The ALAN Review and we get sent books to review) a Quirk’s book by Ian Doescher. It’s called William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. I’m not kidding (see above image). It’s an adaptation of the first film in the Star Wars trilogy (okay, I’m a purist—Have you ever heard the song “Why does dad get so mad about Star Wars” song by the Board of Education?—that’s me). Ba

My strategy with Emery (after many failed attempts at getting him to read some of these books I receive) is just to leave them in the back seat of my car. This strategy almost always works. Doescher’s book was a recent book to appear in my car—and Emery is on his second day of actually reading it.

And he likes it.

And so does Victor.

In fact as I write this, the two of them are exchanging lines about protocol droids and C-P30.

Here’s an recent exchange.

Me: No need have I of droids with protocol.

Victor: Is that Uncle Owen?

Okay, how in the heck does he know that? It’s so random.

Then, Emery who’s reading in bed comes out and asks us to listen to

Emery: --Me punna tydna ding. Beep squeak!

He’s impressed with how Doescher can make Jawa sound Shakespearian.

Now, do I think this was good timing? Absolutely. After a week’s worth of reading MABN I can only think that the rhythm of Shakepeare’s language has come through—maybe the recitations also had something to do with it. I’m curious to see if he will actually finish the book, but he’s almost at act ii—and Doescher plans for some sequels. (see this link for curriculum guides and additional information—Deoscher had middle schoolers in mind for his work, but as usual, it all depends on the kid).

In the meantime, do you blog or have some other type of account? I need to think of a way to merge my pathetic efforts on Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/14771390 with this blog? Is double-posting considered plagiarism?  

When your area of specialization results in questions you really can't answer

Books for boys between 8 and 10

First, my summer got busy and most of my creativity is now taken up with planning for classes. But, I’m going to complete an entry every weekend as a way to hold myself accountable, which is something we often have to do in my profession—create our own deadlines.  

So, as a professor, do you find that people come to you with questions that may or may not be related to your field of specialization? 

As someone who is in the field of young adult literature (not children's literature, by the way) and a mother of a son, I often get asked (even occasionally) for book suggestions for boys. Before I had a son, I would have not been able to answer that question well--and would have probably turned to research to answer it. 

That’s an easy question for me now and as he gets older, I feel myself becoming a children's lit expert. I recommend for boys younger than 8 (but getting out of picture books-I'll save that for another post)—anything by Mo Willems, Captain Underpants, Ricky Ricotta, and Jim Davis' Garfield. These are books Emery still goes to on his own for independent reading.

I think that most boys his age lean toward graphic novels and hybrid choices. Emery was a fan of manga titles for a while (Pokemon and Zelda, in particular), but he also likes a few that are lesser known.

Here’s a list of some of the ones he’s read on his own (I tried to put them in the order that he read them):

Stone Rabbit, the Lunch Lady Series, Loud Boy, Bone, The Bean World series, Big Nate, Stickman Odyssey, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Bad Island.

Recently, I was asked for books that boys would read that are not graphicy/ hybrid-type novels. I’ve always just relished the moments when Emery picks up a book on his own and reads it, no matter what the format, as we read books without images every night, but it’s a valid point. What texts can serve as bridges between the graphic and non-graphic?

Here are just a few Emery picked up (well, I gave them to him) and he finished:

How to train your dragon

Buckley’s Nerds series

Mark of Athena (anything by Riordan is a winner)

Harry Potter (of course) and Tales of Beetle the Bard

Herbert’s Wormhole

Beware of the Ninja Weenies (a little creepy, according to Emery, but he read it)

Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to not Reading

You might notice that these are all fiction titles. Before Emery, I was under the impression that boys mostly read non-fiction. I have not had good luck with non-fiction and Emery. I tried Bomb: The Race to make and steal the world’s most dangerous weapon—which I and most of my children’s book club thought was awesome, but he didn’t get past the first few chapters.

Any suggestions for non-fiction for boys? 

Shakespeare would get detention if he said that in school

Just finished Act III today. The last scene was rather longish, so we listened to it. However, the word “ass” appeared several times in this act, and we enjoyed talking about how that word has a double meaning in the play. When Emery couldn’t remember if Hermia or Helena was in love with Lysander, Victor pointed out that the interchangeability of their names if part of the point.

It’s been a busy week getting ready for my summer classes and with Emery in play rehearsals, it seems like all we have time for is to read the play. But, honestly, it seems like it’s enough to do just that. Ludwig’s family goes around using Shakespeare’s phrases in every day situations—I’m not sure if we’ll ever come to that, but it’s been rather harmless, if not delightful to read MND. Of course, a teenager would probably pick up the innuendos more so than a nine year old.