Tag: drama

Books #4 and #5 of the #20booksofsummerchallenge

~ erinhenkels ~ Leave a comment

4. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

I really enjoyed this play and I’m excited to teach it next year. I love commentary on Victorian society and thought this play was hilarious and witty. There are so many zingers and excellent one-liners. I think it will be very fun to have students read parts aloud in their most affected Judy Dench accent.

5. The Fault in our Stars by John Green

I might be the last YA lit reader on planet Earth to have read this, but I’m glad I finally did. There are so many beautiful, poignant and honest observations about life as these terminally ill teenagers try to make sense of it all. Of course it’s sad. Yes, it’s heartbreaking. But it is truly beautiful and stands out in ways that other simply sad books can’t touch. I’m a better person for having read it and what it’s given me. IMG_5450

20 Books of Summer begins with 2 of 10 (#1 and #2 in the #20booksofsummerchallenge)

~ erinhenkels ~ 1 Comment

And they are both dramas!

 A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry 

We are still in school here in Germany–even though grades and reports are submitted. So, we plow ahead with classes the last weeks of June. This month I read A Raisin in the Sun with my 9th grade IGCSE class. We had time to read and analyze, but not write anything on it. So that’s the plan for when we re-convene in August (IGCSE is a two year program, so I will continue with this group through 10th grade). I love this play. It’s a re-read for me as I both studied it as a high school student and have taught in the past. So, I’ve read it a lot. When I made my challenge list, I forgot that I was also in the middle of teaching. But, I’ve read it in June, so it counts!

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

I quite enjoyed this play, finding it very unlike most comedies I’m familiar with–all the magic and confusion and envisioning the storm at sea and this enchanted island…I mean, I guess there’s elements of Midsummer Night’s Dream and of Twelfth Night. But this was so different in the characters. I found the master-servant relationship theme interesting and multi-layered and also felt like this play, more than any other, dealt quite a lot with forgiveness and righting wrongs. And of course, Miranda says, “How beauteous mankind is. O, brave new world, that has such people in it!”–and being the teacher nerd I am, I also love teaching Brave New World. So there we have it. I’m glad to be able to move on to Hag-Seed now.

So I’m about two-thirds of the way through Sula at this point and am really getting into it. I imagine it will be #3. With grades complete, I think my next books will go much faster!!!

Happy summer reading!