Hello All, I believe that a very good book along with powerful images, needs to have the cycle of life in it, bringing both birth and death. The worst case scenario in any conflict is death or loss. Death or loss is sad. Death is the catalyst for change in many books, teenage and adult. Middle schoolers are risk takers and most think they are bullet proof. The only way to get them to think past the here and now is to have conflict that ends in death. A Child Called It is a book in my room that never actually hits the shelves. It's very sad. I am thinking of The Giver, where death not only comes through the Giver's daughter, but also through Jonas' awakening from his vision of the Community. That is a sort of death of his innocence. In the Great GIlly Hopkins, Gilly believes she can't be touched by people. But when she loses Mr. Randolph, she realized she was wrong. At the end she realizes her fantasy about her mother is dead, too. But now she has to deal with that, and the cycle begins again. Death comes in all sorts of packages.
While I don't necessarily believe that ALL good literature needs to be sad, I believe the answer to your question is yes. There must be death and sadness in the story to drive the conflict. If that is sad, then I guess, it needs to be sad. Even a funny story has sad moments. The Watsons Go to Birmingham is the funniest stories I've ever read. More than once, I have laughed to tears as I was reading. However, its message is embedded in the humor. And there is sadness at the climax There's my two cents worth. You got more than you paid for. Kim. -- Kimberlee Hannan Department Chair Sequoia Middle School Fresno, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
