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V for Vendetta
Director: James McTeigue
Screenwriter: Andy Wachowski
Lana Wachowski
David Lloyd
Director of Photography: Adrian Biddle
Supervising Stunt Coordinator:Chad Stahelski
Location Manager: Nick Daubeny
Main Characters: (the link goes to the person’s IMDB profile)
V played by Hugo Weaving
Evey played by Natalie Portman
High Chancellor Adam Sutler played by John Hurt
Vice Chancellor Creedy played by Tim Pigott-Smith
Detective Finch played by Stephen Rea
Gordon Dietrich played by Stephen Fry
The General Gist: V for Vendetta is set in a dystopian London of the near future where the government is no longer the voice of the people but the voice to the people. V blows up the Old Bailey and publicly vows to blow up Parliament as a symbol to empower the English people. Evey becomes entangled in V’s plans after a stand-off in Jordan Tower, where she works.
Story Review: The dark lighting and quick pace through most of the movie give the audience a sense of soon-to-come doom. However the brief moments of levity either from bright lighting or dialogue give the movie a sense of fragile hope– which sometimes is heartbreakingly crushed before being allowed to grow again.
Immersion Activity Ideas:
Travel
Watch the Count of the Monte Cristo
Stage Fighting/Fencing
Training to shoot a gun (Markmanship training?)
Stand up for what you believe in
Learn to make eggies in a basket
Listen to jazz (link to featured songs?)
Link to B+N Title
Written by Link to Author’s Website
Published by Link to Publisher
The General Gist:
Story Review:
Immersion Activity Ideas:
Yay! Activities
More than one activity…
Link to B+N Title
Written by Link to Author’s Website
Published by Link to Publisher
The General Gist:
Story Review:
Immersion Activity Ideas:
Yay! Activities
More than one activity…
A Great And Terrible Beauty
Written by Libba Bray
The Gist: Gemma Doyle, a British girl growing up the end of the Industrial Revolution, questions where she fits in because where she is supposed to fit in she doesn’t and she’s too afraid to try out where she wants to fit in.
Story Review: Gemma is well written–sometimes she’s mature and sometimes she acts like a child, much like a normal teenager. However Gemma is never treated by Bray in a condescending or romanticized way, Gemma simply is herself for better and worse.
Most of the other characters are also multidimensional. Even the characters that are one dimensional don’t seem out of place for their role is minimal.
Immersion Activity Ideas:
Explore Bombay, India (see list below for places mentioned)
Explore London, England (see list below for places mentioned)
Learn more about Gypsies
Buried treasure hunts (Gemma goes on one accidentally after a hazing incident)
Read Lady of Shalott
Form your own secret society
Traditional/Folk dance lessons (Part of being a high society woman is knowing how to quadrille, waltz, etc.)
Visit a fortune-teller (This is a minor one, but it sounded like too much fun to exclude it)
Read David Copperfield
Play lawn tennis
Attend charm/finishing school type classes
Learn archery/hunting
Eat some (in season) berries (Preferably while reading the next book. I always want an extra stash when I’m reading these books.)
Play cricket
Locations mentioned in the book:
Bombay marketplace
Victoria Station
London’s East End
Whitechapel
Spence Academy
Visit the “Lady of Shalott” painting
Visit a gypsy camp
Grosvenor Sq.
Sunshine Cleaning
Directed by Christine Jeffs
Written by Megan Holley
The Gist: Rose inadvertently start a biohazard cleaning business with her sister Nora and both women learn on the job how to clean up the mess death leaves behind physically and along the way learn to deal wit the mess that life makes.
Story Review: The lightness of the shots dealing with life contrasting with darkness of the shots dealing with death are cool and helpful in showing where the characters’ minds are. For a movie that looks at death differently, it’s interesting to think of the amount of light in a shot being a metaphor (the light is life and the dark as death). The characters seem to brush past one another in some instances like Rose starting a business with Nora while her father yearns to be an entrepreneur and in other instances the characters are completely in tune with each other like when Nora helps Rose’s son Oscar feel more comfortable in his own skin, which is something she is working out for herself.
Immersion Activity Ideas:
Create a business plan
Travel to locations shown (Buffett’s Candies, Los Arcos, Heinkell’s)
Interview biohazard cleaners
Donate blood
Host/attend a candy necklace party
Invent better baby shower games (PLEASE!)
Mirandy and Brother Wind
Written by Patricia C. McKissack
Illustrated by Jerry Pinckney
The Gist: A little girl, Mirandy, is determined to capture Brother Wind so she can win a junior cake walk.
Story Review: The watercolors are gorgeous, but I’m biased because I love Jerry Pinckey’s artwork. The story makes use of all kids of life in a rural African American community. The people who help but also discourage Mirandy are: a conjure woman, her mother, and grandmother (who she calls Ma Dear). This story shows what can be done if you listen to and trust yourself. Mirandy will be distracted by no one whereas Ezel, Mirandy’s friend, seems to be distracted by everyone.
Immersion Activity Ideas:
Participate in a cakewalk
Make a patchwork quilt (Alright, Mirandy doesn’t make a quilt, but she does use one and they’re gorgeous. It’s one of those things that I like to put in whenever I have an excuse.)
Do something nice (and unexpected) for a friend
Mockingjay
Written by Suzanne Collins
The Gist: The dramatic conclusion to the dystopian young adult epic set in what used to be the United States where the Districts are waging war against the Capitol.
Story Summary: After the attack on District 12, all the survivors are taken in by District 13. President of District 13, Alma Coin, along with the other revloution leaders want Katniss to take on the role of Mockingjay–but they sound exactly like the Capitol. In the planned escape from the Arena, Peeta and Johanna were left behind and subsequently captured by the Capitol. Peeta is tortured, although Katniss doesn’t discover why until about halfway through the book.
Katniss experiences a completely different daily life where everything is uniform and strictly controlled, but where everyone is well fed and they have more opportunities in general.
Story Review: I love how no one is completely odious (even President Snow has a relatable moment) or a saint (although Peeta’s more egregious qualities aren’t his fault, some of his lesser unwanted qualities, blind devotion, are all his). Although lots of threads were left untied, the story isn’t going to unravel. The story ends true to its depiction of life–it’s messy and unfinished, nothing completely solved but hey, at least it keeps moving forward.
The way Katniss deals with conflicting ideas on so many levels is great. It’s small stuff like her relationship to Haymitch (when she catches herself caring about Haymitch she has to remind herself she doesn’t care anymore) to larger stuff like how the leaders of the Capitol and the leaders of District 13 both play out of the same handbook (why is Katniss advocating revolution when the person who takes over who is going to be like the last person who was in charge?).
I love the end where Katniss says there are worst games to play than a very repetitious game that reminds her of all the good in the world, where you can see Katniss has learned to accept both hope and base instinct to survive as needed in life. Katniss now values the good, which is much different than the girl who continually owed everyone for their kindness.
Immersion Activity Ideas:
Cook GOOD food
Learn to hunt
Learn archery
Marvel at the things we take for granted (running hot and cold water for example)
Play the repetitious game Katniss introduces in the epilogue
Catching Fire
Written by Suzanne Collins
The Gist: Continuation of the dystopian young adult epic set in what used to be the United States where annually each of the twelve districts (which are like city-states and where most of the citizens are impoverished) must send a male and female tribute to the lavish Capitol as punishment for the Hunger Games, a competition that has only one victor, because of a failed rebellion decades earlier.
Story Summary: The first major event in Catching Fire is President of Panem, Coriolanus Snow, making threats against Gale if Katniss doesn’t convince all of the districts and him that she truly loves Peeta. Collins also demonstrates how oppressed the rest of Panem is in stark contrast to how excessive the Capitol is and how controlling the Capitol can be. Every 25 years instead a normal Hunger Games with 24 tributes chosen at random there is a Quarter Quell. This is where the government imposes a new rule for that year only about how the Games will be run. For the 25th Hunger Games everyone had to vote on who went to the arena, for the 50th Hunger Games twice as many tributes (48) were sent to the arena. Since this year is the 75th Hunger Games there is a condition imposed on the Games. I won’t ruin it to say what it is, but shortly after that announcement the book stops feeling like we’re waiting for something to occur.
We do meet several characters who are integral parts to the larger story, namely the new Head Gamesmaker Plutarch Heavensbee (who toes the line between odious and tolerable), Finnick Odair from District 4 (who knows how the game is played), Johanna Mason from District 8 (who is brash and unnervingly honest), and Beetee from District 3 (who may be the smartest person in the entire series).
Story Review: Like most middle stories there is a sense that we’re waiting for some action. It picks up toward the end, especially once the conditions for the Quarter Quell are announced. There are also subtle differences between how Katniss describes Gale, who is now much more present since he’s not only in Katniss’s memories, (like Gale’s arms entrap her, they belong to one another) versus Peeta (his arms protect her, they have a partnership with one another not an ownership of one another). If we were to boil down Katniss and Peeta into one word symbols again they would be action for Katniss and words for Peeta. Once again balancing each other out.
Katniss uses a lot of distancing language and although she notices a lot Katniss is never an objective observer. I would love to see what this entire story is like through Peeta’s eyes. I would also love to know more about Cinna and periphery characters like the red-headed Avox girl, Portia, and Johanna. And Rue, even though she only exists in memory in this book, I would love to know more about Rue and her family.
As my brother says it’s great for not having either a beginning or an end.
Immersion Activity Ideas:
Cook GOOD food
Learn to hunt
Learn what edible plants grow in the wild in your community
Learn archery
Participate in the Hunger Games movie hype (It feels like its everywhere.)
Learn to bake bread
Teach yourself how to paint
Play a Hunger Games inspired paintball game (I’ve been working on creating something like that. Now all I need is the courage to ask my favorite paintball place here, Dosser Works, if there is a way we could play it.)
Visit the Coliseum
Learn to swim/go swimming
Learn to fish/go fishing
Dive for oysters
The Hunger Games
Written by Suzanne Collins
The Gist: Dystopian young adult fiction series set in what used to be the United States where annually each of the twelve districts (which are like city-states and where most of the citizens are impoverished) must send a male and female tribute to the lavish Capitol as punishment for a failed rebellion to participate in the Hunger Games, a competition to the death of all but one.
Story Summary: The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is a pragmatic sixteen year old girl who volunteers to save her twelve year old sister Primrose–something that is unheard of in the poverty-stricken District 12. The stage is set very early on for something even bigger than Katniss surviving the Games: paranoia over being watched/heard is normal, the government is trying to keep their citizens weak (dangerous jobs, crappy pay, no hunting or gathering food off the land, no leaving the “safety” of the fenced in district to hunt or gather more food, etc.). Peeta Mellark is the male tribute from District 12 and with his nationally televised declaration of love for Katniss he innocently sets off a chain reaction that leads to Katniss defying the Capitol on mandatory-to-watch national television.
Story Review: Most of the book is spent in the Capitol with flashbacks to District 12 as needed. What’s interesting is how Collins is able to create a love triangle when one of the members, Gale, exists only in Katniss’s memories. The characters are so distinct that the protagonist and the antagonist can be boiled down to ideals: Peeta is hope and Katniss is survival.
I loved this book. I go back to read sections of it over and over because of how smart the language is (when all we know about the District 5 female tribute is the nickname Katniss gives her, Foxface, we already think she’s clever because the connotation we have of the word fox) and how well the language is used to tell a story that works well on a personal character level and on a universal ideal level.
Immersion Activity Ideas:
Cook GOOD food (Food is easily one of Katniss’s major focuses.)
Learn to hunt
Learn what edible plants grow in the wild in your community and start gathering
Learn archery
Participate in the Hunger Games movie hype (It feels like its everywhere, but that website is definitely my favorite thus far.)
Marvel at the things we take for granted (running hot and cold water for example)
Play a Hunger Games inspired paintball game (I’ve been working on creating something like that. Now all I need is the courage to ask my favorite paintball place here, Dosser Works, if there is a way we could play it.)
Visit the Coliseum
House of Many Ways
Written by Diana Wynne Jones
The Gist: Charmain had led a very sheltered life and for the first time is allowed to do things as she wishes–whether they be respectable or not.
Story Review: Charmain isn’t allowed to do anything that according to her mother is not respectable– this means Charmain never learns to cook (although her father is the best cook in town), do dishes, or wash laundry and until Charmain meets Peter while housesitting she doesn’t realize that there are a great many useful things one cannot learn in a book. However because of this limited perspective she has courage to try things no one else would (like volunteering to help in the Royal Library) and she is resourceful enough to know where to find help (getting cookbooks from her father since Peter is also a little sheltered and neither of them know how to cook).
I like that as Charmain is around more people she begins to recognize things in herself–like trying to be nicer to and more patient with Peter. One of my favorite descriptions of Charmain paints her perfectly as an analytical overthinker stating “She knew there was earth under the plants and that the earth contained worms. She shuddered.” I also liked that Charmain has absolutely no interest in getting married, in fact at one point a spell comes up to give her a handsome prince and her first thought is along the lines of what would I want with one of those? Even though I know not every fictional female character is itching to get married (or in a love standoff… I mean, love triangle), lately it feel like that’s all I’ve been reading.
Overall the book is a fun romp for its age group (middle schoolers) and much like in Jones’ other Howl’s Moving Castle ‘sequel’ Castle in the Air Sophie and Howl (the main characters from Howl’s Moving Castle) are supporting characters in this book. It’s a fun way to give the story a broader backstory while also getting to explore new characters (that coincidentally are much closer to the age range of the intended audience).
Immersion Activity Ideas:
Be courageous for 30 seconds and something great will happen (alright I stole the wording from We Bought A Zoo, but it just so happens to work for the book as well)
Read a book
Discover and create an adventure outside of books
Cook for yourself (relatively from scratch, microwaving a Hot Pocket doesn’t count)
Wash dishes (not in a machine)
Wash laundry (not in a machine)
Create you own family tree (resplendent with interesting notes about the family members)
Adopt a dog (or let a dog adopt you)
Don’t let no knowledge stand in your way of trying
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