The Raven Cycle Series: Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Staring at the screen, the young author sighed in frustration, her fingers once again failing her as she was distracted by the din of the news on TV. Resigned, she shut it off and turned back to her blank document wishing for the ability to channel her emotions towards the high expectations placed before her, as well as the stigmas. She was growing tired of the starkness of the world around her.

Reading this book I was relating to Alex, whom is the main character. Feeling Trapped. In the first scene Alex was robbing a house, he then was caught and was framed for murder of his friend who was helping him rob this house. He was then sentenced to Furnace, a “jail” that was hopeless of escaping. Throughout this novel Alex feels trapped, with people who hate him and belligerently beat him up. These people belong to a gang who call themselves “The Skulls”. There is only one way in and one way out. Trapped. Helpless. I felt helpless when I had too much homework all do the next day. What no, Yes! Procrastination. ☺ I had a paper, 100 pages to read, and a couple packets in German to do. But wait there’s more, oh yeah; I also had Play Practice and a workout going until 7:30 that night. Ugh. But like Alex, I kept going I didn’t stop thinking and doing, I kept going; I stayed up until even the owl went to bed. Alex didn’t stop. He had grit! He planned escape after escape, plan after plan until one day he felt a great sensation near a door, it felt good on his skin and made him feel better. Fresh Air. After that feeling he never let go, planning how he could get through this door without being in jeopardy. Finally, the day had come; the black suits all went into their offices and he took his chance. Alex scrutinized the bolts holding the boards together, and then struck them hard. The board came lose and was able to sneak through. He explored the cave; it was massive! He kept going, turn after turn in this huge cavern, until he found what looked like heaven to him, a way out, a river. Roaring like a lion ☺, the river was his play. The only problem was this: “Our way out was no wider

Some might claim the YA genre has grown to be too dark for its target audience. Meghan Gurdon, a firm believer of this idea, explains why she believes this in her article, “Darkness Too Visible”. Gurdon describes the experience of a mother of three in a bookstore looking to purchase a YA novel for one of her children, when she found herself leaving the bookstore empty-handed due to the content of the teen books. While teen books decades ago contained less violent/corrupted material, times have changed along with the genre. She is concerned that these books could have an effect on these young readers’ brains as they are merely transferring from childhood to adulthood. Gurdon still has faith that YA books would sell just as well and connect with young readers today without all of the dark subject matters discussed in them these days.

In her speech, and the article, titled “The Case for Good Taste in Children’s Books,” Meghan Cox Gurdon addresses the controversy on Young Adult Literature. Throughout her speech at Hillsdale College she labels this current category of fiction as gaudy, inappropriate, and sacrilegious. Gurdon’s claim on the content of YA, for Young Adult, books obtains effectiveness through her ability to incorporate real world examples, the claim made by the opposing view, and a moral push.

In this activity, I have planned a lesson reviewing the infamous poem, "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe. The lesson itself is intended to follow the Alabama State Standards for Seventh Grade Language Arts. According to the state standards for literature, the form, theme, tone, and syntax of poems must be analyzed and understood, as stated in standards one through 6 (Alabama Learning Exchange, 2010). Thus the following activities are meant to be undertaken by students after reading the poem. The include a review of the poem's tone, symbols, status of the narrator, key terms, and final questions forcing individual interpretation of students.

She does not understand why the older and well-known authors are not being read in high school. Prose uses a personal experience from her son’s sophomore English class. He had to read a “weeper and former bestseller by Judith Guest” (424), about a dysfunctional family dealing with a teenage son’s suicide attempt. “No instructor has ever asked my sons to read Alice Munro, who writes so lucidly and beautifully about the hypersensitivity that makes adolescence a hell,”(424). She again mentions books she approves of that should be read in English classes.

You feel an intense, out-of-the-skin awareness of your living self—your truest self, the human being you want to be and then become by the force of wanting it. In the midst of evil you want to be a good man. You want decency. You want justice and courtesy and human concord, things you never knew you wanted. There is a kind of largeness to it, a kind of godliness. Though it’s odd, you’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead. You recognize what’s valuable. Freshly, as if for the first time, you love what’s best in yourself and in the world, all that might be lost. At the hour of dusk you sit at your foxhole and look out on a wide river turning pinkish red, and at the mountains beyond, and although in the morning you must cross the river and go into the mountains and do terrible things and maybe die, even so, you find yourself studying the fine colors on the river, you feel wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and you are filled with a hard, aching love for how the world could be and always should be, but now is

Written by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven” is a famous short poem known for the dark fantasy that it portrays. From the mindset of a first person narrative, one may experience the tale through the eyes of a haunted man who is in mourning for the death of his beloved Lenore. As this man sits in his chamber, within a dark and dreary December night, a “raven of the saintly days of yore” visits him. The raven is no ordinary bird, for it is like a ghost, silent, yet it answers every inquiry the man presents in it’s own personal way. This dark and tragic tale grabs one’s attention through the rhythmic, yet melancholy verses, through the classic references, and through the dark imagery that all play a critical role within this poem.

Plenty of teenagers read books every day for entertainment and for school. But they don’t just read for amusement or that they need it for their classwork, they read because it is what they go to when things turn rough. Like what people said, books are a powerful thing, it can be hopeful and scary. Sherman Alexie is a wonderful writer, poet, and has published plenty of novels and short stories. Sherman Alexie’s purpose of writing is to give teenagers hope that things would work out alright, although it might be rough from time to time, and he also uses humor to entertain his readers. He provides teenagers things that they can relate to, and he addresses many crucial issues in his works. He uses numerous amount of stylistic techniques in his

In the pages of this book, the readers are transformed from readers to listeners, listening to the troubles and concerns of a close friend. By sharing so candidly her personal beliefs, Williams is able to gain and keep the interest of her readers by allowing them to personally relate to her and the characters she describes.

Each and every literary element is necessary to have a novel worth of a nod. “The Raven Boy” had many different aspects to it that could have been of central focus but the setting needed more credit than what is easily noticeable. Cabeswater, Henrietta, and Monmouth were the settings that had diverse moods. The three also had remarkably different atmospheres that exclusively influenced each character’s thought processes and their reasoning for their behaviors. Any well-written novel should be able to be analyzed on any aspect of its work and “The Raven Boys” has not disappointed its supporters

“The Raven” creates a sinister setting for the readers using repetition, imagery, metaphors,

Over the course of the summer, I read two very engaging books by the titles To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, as well as Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. The books were similar in so many ways, but at the same time were so different. This could’ve been simply because one was from a teenaged girl’s perspective, the other from a teenaged boy. Maybe it was because of the different circumstances, perhaps because they had such different lives. On the other hand, they were so similar. Maybe not necessarily in scenarios or setting, but in how real they were. Both books were so raw, so legitimate. Nothing in either of the books were impractical. These things were both huge contributions when it came to whether or not the book fascinated

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is a story of a young adult who has lost the woman he was in love with and is struggling cope. The story-teller compulsorily builds self-destructive understanding of his mourning in a raven’s constant 'Nevermore ' reminder to him, until he eventually gives up about being reconnected with Lenore in the new world.

“The Raven” is a magnificent piece by a very well known poet from the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was well known for his dark and haunting poetry. Along with writing poetry, Poe was also recognized for his Gothic-style short stories. “The Raven” is one of Poe’s greatest accomplishments and was even turned into recitals and numerous television appearances. “The Raven” tells a story about an unnamed narrator whose beloved Lenore has left him. A raven comes at different points throughout the poem and tells the narrator that he and his lover are “Nevermore.” Poe presents the downfall of the narrator’s mind through the raven and many chilling events. By thorough review and studying of Edgar Allan Poe’s work, one can fully understand the