From: rgawel at penton.com <rgawel>
Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 12:45:24 -0400

Hi Jude and list members,

This is my first post to the list, so please forgive any breaches of ettiquette!

It's interesting that your eighth graders are curious about reading The Stand. That's about the age when I first started reading Steven King. In fact, The Stand is one of my favorite books of all time. But as a former high school English teacher myself, I can't see how it would be possible to fit a 1600-page book into a formal lesson plan.

Instead, take a look at some of his short stories, particularly the Night Shift and Skeleton Crew anthologies. You can pick and choose stories based on whatever themes your curriculum is shooting for, and they're short enough to cover in a class period or two. In fact, I once used King's Strawberry Spring to introduce my sophomore English class to Edgar Allan Poe, focusing the idea that underneath all the supernatural bells and whistles, horror is about psychology. The kids loved it!

If you want to tackle a Steven King novel, try The Eyes of the Dragon. It's written as a traditional fairy tale kind of fantasy, with King's own particular twists. Carrie may or may not be a good choice, since it's about the turmoil of adolescence but may push the boundaries of acceptable content at your school. Similar books would include Christine and Firestarter. I also would encourage the kids to read It, but at 900 pages, it's another tough text to fit into a class.

I'm curious to find out how your lessons go!

Rich Gawel rgawel at penton.com Aspiring Children's Fantasy Novelist
Received on Wed 10 May 2006 11:45:24 AM CDT