Parents Weekend!

This weekend was A&M's 90th Parents Weekend. I think it's an awesome tradition we have here because it gives the students and university the chance to thank all the wonderful Aggie parents for all that they're done (esp. paying for our tutition... haha). There were several activities and events for parents to do with their children, but my mom and I kind of did our own thing. She came in on Saturday morning and we went to my co-chair's house (for fish camp) to have hotdogs and hamburgers and visit with all the other families. The weather was so nice and made the a lot more enjoyable. Of course, after we ate we went shopping!! haha. She bought me some things from the mall and the tent sale, as well as a thing or two for her. I bought myself a thing or two as well because I felt bad that she paid for a lot of things. That night we went to the baseball game, which just so happened to be my first one ever as well as hers. It was really fun, but long and cold too. We left the game early to go tryout Texas Roadhouse, which was AMAZING!!! And then this morning we went to church together and of course made sure we stopped by Canes and Starbucks before she left. Some college kids probably aren't too fond of hanging out with their parents, but I enjoyed it a lot and wished my dad and my sister could have come too. I loved being able to kind of show my mom the life I lived here, including dorm life; yes, she stayed with me and my roommate in our tiny dorm. This weekend not only showed me how much I appreciate my mom (and dad even though he wasn't here), but also how much I enjoy spending time with her. I know this doesn't have really anything to do with children's literature, but since I really didn't have the proper amount of time to do my second paper for this class cause of Parents Weekend, I thought I would share my weekend and let everyone know how much I love and appreciate my parents. Every University should have a Parents Weekend if they don't have one already; it would be wrong if they didn't.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

The book "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" by Ann Brashares is a great book, especially for young girls. The 2005 movie Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is in fact made from this book. I actually saw the movie before I read the book and enjoyed both of them, even though there were a few things here and there that were different between the two. Basically, the two are about four young high school girls who discover a pair of jeans that just so happen to fit all of them. The fact that the pants fit each girl so well is odd considering they are all different in size. With these "magical" pants, the girls make a vow to share these pants over the summer when they are apart from eachother. Each girl has the pants for so long and is then supposed to send the pants, as well as a letter of her adventures, to the next. Throughout the book each girl experiences much growth and maturation through their journeys of friendship, love, misfortunes, and family issues. It's with these experiences and witht the pants that the girls grow closer together as friends, even though they are apart from one another most of the book. This book can relate to a few things we've read this semester. It deals with growth and maturation, journeys/adventures, challenges and heartaches, as well as a sense of magic too. Even though this book and the three others in the series are meant for young teens I still enjoyed it. I wouldn't even mind reading the others, and I can't wait for the sequel to the movie to come out either!

Utopia

Yesterday in class we started discussing "The Giver" and what kind of world and society existed in the book. We discussed the odd characteristics of this book's world, as well as what it lacked. After reviewing the characteristics we were really able to see that this book's world was indeed that of a "Utopia," or imaginary world. Just like Professor Robinson pointed out, the song "Imagine," written by John Lennon in about 1971, really portrays this sort of "Utopia": no death, no heaven, no hell, no religion, no hunger, etc. ... just peace and happiness.

"Imagine"

Imagine there's no Heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace...

You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world...

You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday

you'll join us

And the world will live as one

A Mother's Love

The famous line "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be" is from the all time classic "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. This book is my all time favorite and I'm sure many other people's favorite too. I can't even count how many times I read this book as a child; I'd lose count. As well being a narrative story, this book could probably be considered poetic in a way as well, with the repitition of the oh so unforgettable line. The book is also fairly basic, but somehow everyone seems to fall in love with it after he or she reads it. Maybe it's the enjoyable, detailed, realistic illustrations that help the reader better relate the book to his or her life. I hope this book is still around when I have children because I would love to share it with them.

The Giver: Structured society

Within just the first couple of chapters I could already see how crazy of a society Jonas and his family live in. There's no doubt that this society is extremely structured with its numerous rules. The different ceremonies; such as the ceremony when you turn a certain age; when you get a bike; and when a family receives a new child or an elder, add to the strangeness of the society. This book is quite different and unique compared to what we've read this semester, but interesting at the same time. I believe it's considered a type of fantasy or even a science fiction work. The aspect that makes sense in a way is the fact that the "Commitee of Elders" rule the community. In fact, in our society today those who are older than us (our parents) are the people who run the household and make the rules. The book's elders, however, seem to be fairly old like our grandparents, making it seem a little strange that adults so much older than the rest of society are responsible for basically everything that happens. Right now this book doesn't make much sense to me, but I'm interested to know what happens next.

The hero within

It's interesting that when reading literature there are so many "heroes" found. This so called hero can be a little girl who saves her grandmother, a miner boy, or even a hobbit. It was kind of odd to consider a strang little hobbit a hero, but after reading over the stages of the hero in the article about "The Hero with a thousand faces," it was clear to see. It's weird that as a child we look at a hero being someone like Superman and Wonderwoman, but as we grow up and read different types of literature, our perspective changes. As young adult/educated student, we consider a hero somebody who is basically introduced into a different world than his or her own, called to take some kind of adventure, encouraged to stick it out by some man or woman older and wiser, passes through the first threshold, encounters tests but helpers as well, reaches the intermost cave, endures the ultimate worst or "supreme ordeal," overcomes the enemy or obstacle, takes the road back, "resurrects" from this second world, and then finally returns to their own world with some type of treasure.

What odd creatures...

This book has been very hard for me to read and to get into. I am not into this kind of fantasy whatsoever. Goblins, trolls and hobbits are just kind of odd and "freaky" to me. For one thing, they don't seem like the most attractive, nice creatures at all and they are basically animals; well, at least I see them this way. It's interesting how many stories and movies from the past and the present include these odd creatures. I've always wondered what brought them about in all these children stories. I would think that many children would be afraid of these type of creatures(I mean, like I said earlier, they're freaky), yet I guess they're not too afraid of them considering many movies and books today are extrememly popular with young children.